Charles Peace (14 May 1832 – 25 February 1879) was an English burglar and murderer, who embarked on a life of crime after being injured in an industrial accident in a steelworks when he was 14 years old, when a hot steel rod entered his leg. He had a lifelong limp after the accident.

After killing a policeman in Manchester, he fled to his native Sheffield, where he became obsessed with his neighbour's wife, eventually fatally shooting her husband. Settling in London, he carried out multiple burglaries before being caught in the prosperous suburb of Blackheath, wounding the policeman who arrested him. He was linked to the Sheffield murder, and tried at Leeds Assizes. Found guilty, he was hanged at Armley Gaol. His story has inspired many authors and film makers.

Charles Peace was born on 14 May 1832, in Darnall, Sheffield. He was the youngest son of shoemaker John Peace and his wife Jane, a naval surgeon's daughter. Peace attended schools in Pitsmoor, Dinnington and Paradise Square, before becoming an apprentice at Millsands in Sheffield. At age fourteen, Charles was permanently crippled in an accident at a steel-rolling mill.

In 1854, he was found guilty of multiple burglaries and sentenced to four years' penal servitude. In 1859 he married a widow named Hannah Ward. Soon afterwards he committed a major burglary in Manchester, nearly killing a police officer who came to arrest him, and was sentenced to six years' penal servitude.

For a while after this, Peace seems to have concentrated on his picture-framing business. He then began working on the North Eastern Railway, from which he was sacked for absenteeism. After moving back to the Sheffield suburb of Darnall, Peace made the acquaintance of a civil engineer named Arthur Dyson.

At Whalley Range, Manchester, Peace was seen by two policemen entering the grounds of a house on 1 August 1876, about midnight. One, PC Nicholas Cock, intercepted him as he was trying to escape. Peace took out his revolver and warned Cock to stand back. The policeman came on. Peace fired, but deliberately wide of him. Cock drew his truncheon, and Peace fired again, this time seriously wounding Cock, who died on 2 August.

In the dark, Peace escaped; two brothers living nearby, John and William Habron, were arrested and charged with the killing of Constable Cock. At Manchester Assizes, John Habron was acquitted for lack of evidence, but William Habron was sentenced to death, later commuted to penal servitude for life. Peace made a point of attending the trial to confirm that he was not a suspect before returning to Darnall.

In the meantime, Peace had developed an obsessive interest in Dyson's wife Katherine, though it was never established how far she may have returned his feelings. In June 1876, Dyson threw a card into the garden of Peace's house, reading: "Charles Peace is requested not to interfere with my family."