The Tale of Sweeney Todd that spurs him to confront Mrs. Lovett, who tries to kill him but is knocked out and left to hang on a meat rack. Shortly after, she is arrested. Carlyle then makes over to the barber shop to confront Todd, who overpowers and binds him. As he prepares his instruments to torture Carlyle to death, he explains what led him to a life of murder and cannibalism. Charlie, who has managed to free himself from his shackles, stabs Todd in the back, killing him. He then frees Carlyle, who sets the building on fire before escaping with the boy. The
Sweeney Todd made it, and is quite sure it ain't kitten." Dickens then developed this in "Martin Chuzzlewit" (1843–44), published two years before the appearance of Sweeney Todd in "The String of Pearls" (1846–47), with a character called Tom Pinch who is grateful that his own "evil genius did not lead him into the dens of any of those preparers of cannibalic pastry, who are represented in many country legends as doing a lively retail business in the metropolis". Claims that Sweeney Todd was a real person were first made in the introduction to the 1850 (expanded) edition of "The String of