Joseph Silver

Joseph Silver (1868-1918) also known as the "King of Pimps", was a man who terrorized women in Johannesburg, South Africa during the late 19th century and early 20th century.

His original Polish name "Lis" means "Fox". His alias "Silver", was a reference to his mother, whose maiden name was Kweksylber, which means Quicksilver. He was also known as Joe Liss, Joe Eligmann, James Smith, Joseph Schmidt, Charlie Silver, Charles Greenbaum, Abraham Ramer and Ludwig.

He was born in 1868 in Kielce, Poland into a Jewish family, as one of nine children of tailor and petty criminal, Ansel Lis. At the time of Joseph's birth, Kielce was located in Russian Poland.

According to the book giving an account of his crimes, The Fox and the Flies, Silver began his criminal career in London in the 1880s. He served a sentence for burglary at Sing Sing prison in New York before appearing in South Africa in 1898. In Johannesburg he operated a network of cafes, cigar shops and police-protected brothels. During his time in South Africa Silver frequently engaged in litigation and wrote vehement letters to newspapers. The majority of his aliases appear to date from his period in South Africa.

From Johannesburg he is alleged to have gone to South America and thence to Europe, where his mugshot was taken by Paris police in 1909. During World War I Silver turned up in Austria-Hungary. He was executed in Austrian Poland for espionage in 1918.

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