0:00:16 > 0:00:19Crime was endemic in the 18th century.
0:00:22 > 0:00:25On the open roads, robbers robbed with impunity.
0:00:27 > 0:00:29On the high seas, pirates roamed.
0:00:30 > 0:00:33And closer to home, rogues threatened
0:00:33 > 0:00:36the lives and livelihoods of ordinary citizens.
0:00:38 > 0:00:42Nowhere was safe, least of all towns and cities,
0:00:42 > 0:00:48where, from their own underworld, felons robbed, burgled and cheated.
0:00:48 > 0:00:49From the lowest to the highest,
0:00:49 > 0:00:54from the likable rogue to the seemingly respectable gentleman,
0:00:54 > 0:00:56there was contempt for the rule of law.
0:00:56 > 0:01:01Men like Thomas Benson MP, a sheriff turned outlaw,
0:01:01 > 0:01:05"Deacon" Brodie, the original Jekyll and Hyde,
0:01:05 > 0:01:08and Jack Sheppard, the most artful one of them all.
0:01:09 > 0:01:11For a time, they evaded the law,
0:01:11 > 0:01:13but the law was closing in.
0:01:15 > 0:01:18This was the last age of the outlaw.
0:01:28 > 0:01:30The most famous rogue of the age
0:01:30 > 0:01:33was an orphaned apprentice - Jack Sheppard -
0:01:33 > 0:01:37and a very likable rogue he was, too.
0:01:37 > 0:01:39Jack would go on to be the most written-about
0:01:39 > 0:01:43and celebrated criminal of the last 300 years.
0:01:45 > 0:01:50The legend of Jack Sheppard was forged one September day in 1724,
0:01:50 > 0:01:53when he escaped from the condemned cell in Newgate Prison,
0:01:53 > 0:01:56the most secure prison in the land.
0:01:57 > 0:02:02No prison, no matter how secure, seemed able to contain him.
0:02:02 > 0:02:05He was admired by men and adored by women.
0:02:07 > 0:02:09Jack Sheppard was famous in his lifetime
0:02:09 > 0:02:15and for three centuries after, he inspired books, operas and films.
0:02:15 > 0:02:17He was the rock star of his age, a loveable rogue.
0:02:17 > 0:02:19He was Jack the Lad.
0:02:25 > 0:02:28Jack was brought up in poverty by his mother,
0:02:28 > 0:02:32but he was fortunate to get a carpenter's apprenticeship.
0:02:32 > 0:02:35It was an opening that would serve him well.
0:02:36 > 0:02:39Carpentry was a good, safe trade.
0:02:39 > 0:02:41Because London was growing all the time,
0:02:41 > 0:02:43there was never a shortage of customers.
0:02:43 > 0:02:46London was also the largest city in Europe -
0:02:46 > 0:02:48through its port and merchant houses,
0:02:48 > 0:02:52a river of valuable commodities and money flowed.
0:02:52 > 0:02:55It was a good place to earn an honest living,
0:02:55 > 0:02:58but it was the perfect place for a life of crime.
0:02:59 > 0:03:02In London's dense network of thoroughfares,
0:03:02 > 0:03:06the very rich rubbed shoulders with the desperately poor.
0:03:09 > 0:03:11Contemporary accounts tell us
0:03:11 > 0:03:13that Jack never finished his apprenticeship.
0:03:13 > 0:03:15His father had been an honest man
0:03:15 > 0:03:18and Jack may well have followed suit, if he'd not been fond -
0:03:18 > 0:03:22rather too fond - of a drop of ale and of the company of women.
0:03:22 > 0:03:26One fateful night, he was drinking in the Black Lion in Drury Lane
0:03:26 > 0:03:29and we know that he then met Elizabeth Lyon,
0:03:29 > 0:03:31known to all as "Edgworth Bess".
0:03:35 > 0:03:38Bess was a prostitute and petty thief,
0:03:38 > 0:03:41who frequented the taverns of the town.
0:03:41 > 0:03:45Later writers would suggest that Jack had been led astray by Bess.
0:03:45 > 0:03:47Jack Sheppard's story follows
0:03:47 > 0:03:50a very common narrative thread in the 18th century,
0:03:50 > 0:03:56where it's the woman that leads the slightly innocent man into sin.
0:03:56 > 0:03:59So, he wants to buy her presents, he wants to impress her,
0:03:59 > 0:04:03he wants to take her out carousing and so she maybe introduces him
0:04:03 > 0:04:07to someone who will fence some goods that she suggests he might steal.
0:04:09 > 0:04:12Lovestruck, Jack was eager to please
0:04:12 > 0:04:14and as an apprentice carpenter,
0:04:14 > 0:04:18he had every opportunity to pilfer from the houses of the well-to-do,
0:04:18 > 0:04:22where no-one seemed to notice the quick and nimble Jack.
0:04:22 > 0:04:26Small items he brought home to curry favour with the ample Bess.
0:04:28 > 0:04:32Jack now embarked on a new career as a pickpocket and burglar,
0:04:32 > 0:04:35with Bess as his ideal fence.
0:04:36 > 0:04:38Jack's elder brother Thomas
0:04:38 > 0:04:41had already been branded on the hand as a thief.
0:04:41 > 0:04:44Now, Jack was following after.
0:04:45 > 0:04:49Because of his trade, Jack knew how window and door locks worked,
0:04:49 > 0:04:54and he also knew how the window bars, that were so common in London, were fitted.
0:04:54 > 0:04:57So, it was easy work for him to remove the bars,
0:04:57 > 0:04:59rob the house and then replace them.
0:04:59 > 0:05:01Very clever.
0:05:01 > 0:05:03Jack Sheppard and his brother then set out
0:05:03 > 0:05:06on a short but disastrous crime spree.
0:05:06 > 0:05:08Cash from a public house,
0:05:08 > 0:05:11a large haul of linen from a drapers,
0:05:11 > 0:05:14then, fatefully, a house robbery in Drury Lane.
0:05:18 > 0:05:21And then, things started to go wrong.
0:05:21 > 0:05:23Jack's brother was caught with the swag -
0:05:23 > 0:05:25I hesitate to say red-handed -
0:05:25 > 0:05:29but now, fearing for his own skin and hoping to receive leniency,
0:05:29 > 0:05:33he blamed it all on Edgworth Bess and Jack, his own brother.
0:05:36 > 0:05:38Jack was soon arrested
0:05:38 > 0:05:41and taken to St Giles' Roundhouse, near Charing Cross.
0:05:42 > 0:05:46St Giles' Roundhouse was just a local lock-up
0:05:46 > 0:05:48and clearly inadequate for keeping Jack in for long.
0:05:48 > 0:05:51He was to be detained just for one night,
0:05:51 > 0:05:53and questioned in the morning.
0:05:53 > 0:05:54Jack had to act quickly.
0:05:56 > 0:06:00That night, he broke through the timber ceiling onto the roof.
0:06:00 > 0:06:03The noise of his escape and the falling roof tiles
0:06:03 > 0:06:04attracted a small crowd.
0:06:07 > 0:06:09And then, displaying the typical coolness
0:06:09 > 0:06:11that later endeared him to all of London,
0:06:11 > 0:06:14he joined the crowd and distracted them, saying
0:06:14 > 0:06:18he could see the shadow of the prisoner escaping over the rooftops.
0:06:18 > 0:06:20And then, he slipped away.
0:06:21 > 0:06:24Jack was agile in mind and body.
0:06:24 > 0:06:26His escape and his daring
0:06:26 > 0:06:30made him the perfect model as the 18th-century antihero.
0:06:35 > 0:06:37It was April 1724.
0:06:37 > 0:06:40Jack was just 22 years old,
0:06:40 > 0:06:44and the chain of events that would make Jack famous - dead famous -
0:06:44 > 0:06:45had just begun.
0:06:47 > 0:06:50Within a few weeks, on the 19th of May,
0:06:50 > 0:06:53Sheppard was arrested for a second time.
0:06:53 > 0:06:56He was caught picking a pocket in Leicester Fields -
0:06:56 > 0:06:58modern-day Leicester Square.
0:06:59 > 0:07:01Jack was put in St Anne's Roundhouse,
0:07:01 > 0:07:03where he was visited by Bess,
0:07:03 > 0:07:06and then, she too was arrested as his accomplice
0:07:06 > 0:07:08and thrown in jail with him.
0:07:12 > 0:07:15Jack and Bess appeared before magistrates
0:07:15 > 0:07:18and were sent to New Prison in Clerkenwell.
0:07:18 > 0:07:21Manacled and held in cells with iron bars,
0:07:21 > 0:07:25escaping from there would be a different proposition altogether.
0:07:25 > 0:07:28And yet, within days, both of them were free.
0:07:30 > 0:07:34Using a smuggled file, they cut through the manacles,
0:07:34 > 0:07:39then Jack managed to work a bar loose in the cell window.
0:07:42 > 0:07:46With a rope of knotted bedclothes, he first lowered Bess,
0:07:46 > 0:07:47and then escaped himself.
0:07:48 > 0:07:53This small, slight boy, really, carries his...
0:07:53 > 0:07:55Plump, I think is the kind way to describe her -
0:07:55 > 0:07:57she was described as a "blowsy".
0:07:57 > 0:08:01Carrying her somehow over the wall, out the window, down the wall,
0:08:01 > 0:08:03through the yard, up and over again.
0:08:03 > 0:08:05And it's definitely part of his mystique
0:08:05 > 0:08:08that he does it with... You know, he does it with her.
0:08:11 > 0:08:13Their audacious escape hit the newspapers.
0:08:13 > 0:08:16Broadsides and ballads proclaimed Jack's name.
0:08:16 > 0:08:19Jack, daring and gallant, was the talk of the town.
0:08:21 > 0:08:23Plays about Jack Sheppard would become
0:08:23 > 0:08:27one of the most popular entertainments of the next two centuries
0:08:27 > 0:08:30and he would be immortalised as the Artful Dodger
0:08:30 > 0:08:32in Dickens' Oliver Twist.
0:08:42 > 0:08:45No matter how popular Jack now was,
0:08:45 > 0:08:47he soon made an unfortunate enemy.
0:08:48 > 0:08:52It was known that most of London's criminal underworld
0:08:52 > 0:08:55was controlled by one man - Jonathan Wild.
0:08:56 > 0:08:59Wild was an apparently respectable man,
0:08:59 > 0:09:01who moved in influential circles.
0:09:02 > 0:09:05He used his connections to lead a double life,
0:09:05 > 0:09:10by running criminal gangs and bringing thieves to justice.
0:09:11 > 0:09:15Jonathan Wild called himself a thief-taker general.
0:09:15 > 0:09:19It wasn't an official position, but he got a lot of official backing
0:09:19 > 0:09:21because he could produce the results.
0:09:21 > 0:09:24I mean, Jonathan Wild was a complete rogue and a villain,
0:09:24 > 0:09:26he was the Moriarty of crime.
0:09:26 > 0:09:29In fact, Arthur Conan Doyle, in his Sherlock Holmes stories,
0:09:29 > 0:09:33refers to Moriarty and calls him Jonathan Wild.
0:09:33 > 0:09:36He ran gangs, he fenced stolen goods,
0:09:36 > 0:09:39he shopped rival gang members
0:09:39 > 0:09:42and, of course, I suppose, from the authority's point of view...
0:09:42 > 0:09:44OK, he'd destroyed one gang
0:09:44 > 0:09:46so, actually, that's got rid of all that lot.
0:09:46 > 0:09:49On the other hand, he'd increased his own power
0:09:49 > 0:09:52and probably increased his own manpower
0:09:52 > 0:09:54and had a larger share in the takings.
0:09:56 > 0:10:00The justice system relied on men like Wild.
0:10:00 > 0:10:02He even had an office in the Old Bailey...
0:10:03 > 0:10:07..as well as a house a few doors down, at number 68.
0:10:09 > 0:10:12Jonathan Wild seemed to be the puppet master
0:10:12 > 0:10:14for the courts of justice and the criminal underworld
0:10:14 > 0:10:17and everything was going his way -
0:10:17 > 0:10:20until he picked on a thief and burglar - young Jack Sheppard.
0:10:21 > 0:10:24Jack Sheppard held it as a point of pride
0:10:24 > 0:10:26that he had never dealt with Jonathan Wild,
0:10:26 > 0:10:29and that was part of the reason he was popular on the streets of London,
0:10:29 > 0:10:31because he held himself apart
0:10:31 > 0:10:34from the kind of criminal fraternity that Wild represented.
0:10:34 > 0:10:37Even though Bess and "Blueskin" Blake
0:10:37 > 0:10:40and his other accomplices were involved with Wild,
0:10:40 > 0:10:43Jack always was proud not to have been.
0:10:45 > 0:10:48Jonathan Wild was determined to catch Sheppard
0:10:48 > 0:10:52and, seeing Bess as the weak link, he plied her with drink
0:10:52 > 0:10:55and she foolishly led Wild to Jack.
0:10:57 > 0:10:59Successful as Jack was at escaping,
0:10:59 > 0:11:03unfortunately, he was equally as successful at getting caught.
0:11:05 > 0:11:06Jack never seemed to wander far
0:11:06 > 0:11:10from his usual haunts in this part of town.
0:11:10 > 0:11:12If he was not womanising, he was drinking.
0:11:13 > 0:11:17And most of the time, it was both at the same time.
0:11:17 > 0:11:19One day, he'd been burgling again,
0:11:19 > 0:11:23this time with his friend and fellow criminal Joseph "Blueskin" Blake.
0:11:23 > 0:11:26Now, where did Wild's men find Jack?
0:11:26 > 0:11:29Why, at "Blueskin" Blake's mother's brandy shop!
0:11:31 > 0:11:35Jack was sent to Newgate - a much more serious proposition,
0:11:35 > 0:11:37being the most secure prison in London -
0:11:37 > 0:11:40to be tried at the Old Bailey next door.
0:11:40 > 0:11:44The Old Bailey consisted of a single, open-air court room.
0:11:44 > 0:11:48I mean, part of it undercover, where the judge would sit and so on,
0:11:48 > 0:11:52but the majority of the space was just open, exposed and open-air.
0:11:52 > 0:11:54But the reason was twofold.
0:11:54 > 0:11:58One, it was thought that you were less likely to catch disease,
0:11:58 > 0:12:00and the other thing, of course, was open justice.
0:12:03 > 0:12:07Public justice, in terms of people being able to see the procedures,
0:12:07 > 0:12:10see people being tried,
0:12:10 > 0:12:14found guilty or not guilty, but justice being done.
0:12:14 > 0:12:19But convictions - and false convictions - often carried rewards.
0:12:19 > 0:12:24It was a corruptible system and no-one knew how to corrupt it better
0:12:24 > 0:12:26than the devious Jonathan Wild.
0:12:27 > 0:12:31Wild exerted a powerful hold on criminals across London.
0:12:31 > 0:12:34If they didn't co-operate, he simply had them arrested
0:12:34 > 0:12:36and claimed the reward.
0:12:36 > 0:12:39And if he needed any witnesses to secure a conviction -
0:12:39 > 0:12:42well, he knew plenty of people who'd tell a convincing tale
0:12:42 > 0:12:43for a little bit of cash.
0:12:48 > 0:12:54A lot of people that Wild shopped were guilty criminals, anyway.
0:12:54 > 0:12:58So, you didn't need to fabricate false evidence against them,
0:12:58 > 0:13:01they often came laden with it themselves.
0:13:01 > 0:13:05But it was certainly true that there was unease
0:13:05 > 0:13:08within the legal profession and the senior judiciary
0:13:08 > 0:13:13that, in fact, we might be getting a lot of miscarriages of justice
0:13:13 > 0:13:19as a result of our over-reliance on paid - and well-paid - informants.
0:13:20 > 0:13:23On the 12th of August 1724,
0:13:23 > 0:13:28Jack faced two charges of theft and one of burglary.
0:13:28 > 0:13:33A serious prospect, as even quite minor crimes against property
0:13:33 > 0:13:36were punishable by death.
0:13:36 > 0:13:37On the first two charges of theft,
0:13:37 > 0:13:40he was acquitted for lack of evidence,
0:13:40 > 0:13:45but the third - for burglary - was recorded as "plainly proved".
0:13:45 > 0:13:47Jack was sentenced to hang.
0:13:50 > 0:13:55Jack Sheppard and Jonathan Wild were now inextricably linked.
0:13:55 > 0:13:58Each would lead to the downfall of the other.
0:13:59 > 0:14:02Jack was a condemned man.
0:14:02 > 0:14:05Wild appeared to have had the upper hand.
0:14:05 > 0:14:09Jack was still allowed visitors, including his supposed wife Bess,
0:14:09 > 0:14:12the woman whose weakness for drink had landed him in this trouble.
0:14:14 > 0:14:16On the day that the official warrant arrived,
0:14:16 > 0:14:18naming Friday the 4th of September
0:14:18 > 0:14:21as the day that Sheppard would be "turned off",
0:14:21 > 0:14:25as the slang would have it, our Jack escaped again -
0:14:25 > 0:14:27and this time, from Newgate itself.
0:14:30 > 0:14:32Over the intervening three weeks,
0:14:32 > 0:14:34Jack had managed to loosen a bar.
0:14:36 > 0:14:40And using Bess and her friend Poll Maggot to distract the guards,
0:14:40 > 0:14:42he changed into women's clothing
0:14:42 > 0:14:46and coolly walked out of the most secure prison in the land.
0:14:47 > 0:14:51Jack's freedom was short-lived, only nine days.
0:14:51 > 0:14:54Again, Wild tracked him down, arrested him
0:14:54 > 0:14:56and brought him back to Newgate -
0:14:56 > 0:15:00this time high up in the building, to a cell called "the castle".
0:15:00 > 0:15:03It was considered escape-proof.
0:15:03 > 0:15:07Here, he was bound hand and foot and shackled to the floor.
0:15:08 > 0:15:11Jack was now famous throughout London.
0:15:11 > 0:15:15His charm and daring escapes made him a hero.
0:15:15 > 0:15:18At Newgate, he was a one-man tourist trade,
0:15:18 > 0:15:23as many paid to see the living legend that was Jack Sheppard.
0:15:23 > 0:15:26To his admiring fans and to the gaolers,
0:15:26 > 0:15:30he would then display the tricks he used to escape his chains.
0:15:32 > 0:15:34To discover more about Jack's techniques,
0:15:34 > 0:15:38I've come to London's Guildhall Library to meet Peter Ross,
0:15:38 > 0:15:40a leading expert on Jack Sheppard.
0:15:40 > 0:15:44We know, from accounts of when people came into his cell,
0:15:44 > 0:15:47he was very willing to demonstrate how he got his cuffs off.
0:15:47 > 0:15:50He did it repeatedly. He was caught in his cell with his cuffs off.
0:15:50 > 0:15:52He would have got out of them by slipping his hand
0:15:52 > 0:15:55through the handcuff itself.
0:15:55 > 0:15:58So that's what he was doing and he was willing to demonstrate that
0:15:58 > 0:16:00to anybody who would be willing to watch him do it.
0:16:00 > 0:16:04It sounds almost implausible that you could just slip off manacles,
0:16:04 > 0:16:06so he must have been a real escapologist.
0:16:06 > 0:16:08Exactly, he was an escapologist.
0:16:08 > 0:16:12'These chains are from the Metropolitan Police's Black Museum.
0:16:13 > 0:16:15'By late Victorian times,
0:16:15 > 0:16:18'many wanted to believe these were the genuine article.'
0:16:19 > 0:16:22What's significant about these particular cuffs is
0:16:22 > 0:16:24they have a lock on them,
0:16:24 > 0:16:26and we think it's probable that Jack Sheppard's cuffs
0:16:26 > 0:16:27did not have a lock on them
0:16:27 > 0:16:30and that he would have been fixed into them with a rivet
0:16:30 > 0:16:33by a blacksmith, who would have been at Newgate Prison.
0:16:33 > 0:16:35So, he did pick locks, because we know he picked the lock
0:16:35 > 0:16:37that fixed him to the floor of the cell,
0:16:37 > 0:16:40but in this case, he had no problem slipping his hands out.
0:16:40 > 0:16:43It's so clear that people just want to have artefacts
0:16:43 > 0:16:45relating to this person -
0:16:45 > 0:16:48particularly artefacts like handcuffs and manacles,
0:16:48 > 0:16:50because they represent the law.
0:16:50 > 0:16:53- They want a hero who can escape authority.- Yes.
0:16:53 > 0:16:55It's something about the 1720s,
0:16:55 > 0:16:58the fact that the Government was very oppressive,
0:16:58 > 0:17:02the fact that people in London were fixed in their jobs.
0:17:02 > 0:17:06Apprentices were controlled, the whole of society was controlled.
0:17:06 > 0:17:09So if you see somebody who's sort of not only anti-society,
0:17:09 > 0:17:13but is against the Government in some way by escaping from the Government,
0:17:13 > 0:17:17escaping from authority, then he gradually becomes a popular hero.
0:17:18 > 0:17:22The next chapter in Jack's legend was down to a stroke of luck.
0:17:23 > 0:17:25While he was in prison,
0:17:25 > 0:17:27"Blueskin" Blake had been double-crossed by Wild
0:17:27 > 0:17:31and convicted of robbery on his evidence.
0:17:31 > 0:17:33"In a fit of rage, Blake rushed at Wild with a blade
0:17:33 > 0:17:36"and slashed his throat."
0:17:36 > 0:17:38A riot ensued.
0:17:38 > 0:17:41High up in the castle, Jack took advantage of this mayhem.
0:17:42 > 0:17:45He slipped his handcuffs and, still in leg irons,
0:17:45 > 0:17:47attempted to wriggle up the chimney.
0:17:49 > 0:17:53He managed to burrow into the chimney with an iron bar he found there
0:17:53 > 0:17:55and climb up through the chimney
0:17:55 > 0:17:58and out through five or six bolted rooms...
0:18:01 > 0:18:04..onto a roof, eventually at the edge of the prison,
0:18:04 > 0:18:06where he saw he could climb down.
0:18:06 > 0:18:09He realised he had nothing like a rope to climb down with.
0:18:09 > 0:18:13So he retraced his steps back to his cell, gathered up his blankets
0:18:13 > 0:18:14and then went back to the roof,
0:18:14 > 0:18:18where he lowered himself onto the house of one William Bird,
0:18:18 > 0:18:19who was fast asleep.
0:18:21 > 0:18:23Jack was away and free.
0:18:23 > 0:18:25He bribed a shoemaker to break his chains,
0:18:25 > 0:18:29stole some fine clothes and dressed as a gentleman.
0:18:29 > 0:18:33For two weeks, he lived life to the full.
0:18:33 > 0:18:35You have to wonder, why doesn't he just leave?
0:18:35 > 0:18:37Why doesn't he do what one of his accomplices did
0:18:37 > 0:18:39and make a new life in the United States?
0:18:39 > 0:18:42Why doesn't he go and live in the country?
0:18:42 > 0:18:44Why doesn't he just escape London?
0:18:44 > 0:18:48He doesn't seem to have the idea of possibility of a different life.
0:18:48 > 0:18:51He's so grounded in that underworld of Covent Garden,
0:18:51 > 0:18:54of pickpockets, of sharps and flash women,
0:18:54 > 0:18:57that he can't ever imagine living outside it.
0:19:01 > 0:19:02After a night's drinking,
0:19:02 > 0:19:06it's said that he even took two floozies in a cab past Newgate,
0:19:06 > 0:19:09to show them where he'd escaped from.
0:19:09 > 0:19:11Now, he had a fine old night that night,
0:19:11 > 0:19:15but in the morning, he had far more than a hangover to contend with.
0:19:19 > 0:19:22Jack was found in a local tavern a few hours later,
0:19:22 > 0:19:26blind drunk and dressed in a handsome suit of black
0:19:26 > 0:19:28with a fine ring on his finger.
0:19:28 > 0:19:30Unfortunately for him,
0:19:30 > 0:19:33the people that found him were the officers of the law.
0:19:36 > 0:19:38Back in Newgate,
0:19:38 > 0:19:41the great and the good bribed their way in to meet him
0:19:41 > 0:19:44and even the King sent Sir James Thornhill -
0:19:44 > 0:19:48his personal portrait painter - to capture Jack's image.
0:19:53 > 0:19:56Jack's last journey was along what is now Oxford Street,
0:19:56 > 0:19:59but then Oxford Road.
0:19:59 > 0:20:02200,000 people - that's a third of London -
0:20:02 > 0:20:04turned out to see him.
0:20:04 > 0:20:07He was their hero. People waved, women called his name.
0:20:11 > 0:20:13On the day of Jack's execution,
0:20:13 > 0:20:16he's taken in a cart from Newgate to Tyburn,
0:20:16 > 0:20:21which is modern Marble Arch, along the Oxford Road.
0:20:21 > 0:20:24People drank his health as he passed them outside pubs,
0:20:24 > 0:20:25he drank some brandy.
0:20:25 > 0:20:28The roads would have been crowded with people
0:20:28 > 0:20:30coming out to see their hero die.
0:20:30 > 0:20:33At Marble Arch was the Tyburn Gallows,
0:20:33 > 0:20:36a triangle of wood known as the "Tyburn tree",
0:20:36 > 0:20:39and it was here where our Jack was hanged.
0:20:42 > 0:20:44It was a ghastly experience for the crowd,
0:20:44 > 0:20:46because his slim, boyish frame -
0:20:46 > 0:20:50which had been such an asset for breaking and entering and escaping -
0:20:50 > 0:20:54now condemned him to a slow death by strangulation.
0:20:54 > 0:20:58For 15 minutes, his body writhed and kicked, before he died.
0:21:02 > 0:21:05Although Jack's crimes look quite modest to modern eyes,
0:21:05 > 0:21:07the legal system of the time
0:21:07 > 0:21:11came down hard on all forms of robbery or burglary.
0:21:11 > 0:21:14In fact, any theft of over five shillings
0:21:14 > 0:21:17could be punishable by death.
0:21:17 > 0:21:22In order to deter people from property theft,
0:21:22 > 0:21:26when detection was unlikely,
0:21:26 > 0:21:30when prevention was equally unlikely...
0:21:32 > 0:21:35..deterrence was considered to be the be-all and end-all.
0:21:35 > 0:21:37And deterrence was not...
0:21:37 > 0:21:41It wasn't that you hanged people for the most serious offences,
0:21:41 > 0:21:45you hanged people for the offences that were easiest to commit.
0:21:46 > 0:21:50And what about Jonathan Wild, Jack's nemesis?
0:21:52 > 0:21:57Legend and broadsheet had it that Wild turned up to watch Jack die.
0:21:57 > 0:22:01But in truth, he'd been too weakened by "Blueskin" Blake's attack
0:22:01 > 0:22:04to venture outdoors.
0:22:04 > 0:22:09As his health failed, Wild's grip on his criminal empire began to weaken.
0:22:10 > 0:22:14Previously terrified witnesses came forward to accuse him
0:22:14 > 0:22:19and it was only a matter of time before he, too, was in the dock.
0:22:19 > 0:22:21Of all his vile and devious crimes,
0:22:21 > 0:22:24it was finally the simple theft of some lace
0:22:24 > 0:22:28that had him convicted and sent to the gallows.
0:22:28 > 0:22:32As a loyal public servant, he pleaded for a reprieve,
0:22:32 > 0:22:33but reprieve there was none.
0:22:35 > 0:22:40On his journey to the gallows, he was pelted with rotten fruit.
0:22:40 > 0:22:43Such was the desire to see Wild executed
0:22:43 > 0:22:47that tickets were actually sold for the best seats at his execution.
0:22:47 > 0:22:52This is a satirical copy, sending up this macabre trade.
0:22:52 > 0:22:56Here at the top is an image of a very worried-looking Jonathan Wild
0:22:56 > 0:22:58and underneath it is the invitation.
0:22:58 > 0:23:01"To all the thieves, whores, pickpockets,
0:23:01 > 0:23:04"family felons in Great Britain and Ireland,
0:23:04 > 0:23:08"you are hereby desired to accompany your worthy friend,
0:23:08 > 0:23:10"the pious Mr Jonathan Wild,
0:23:10 > 0:23:15"to ye triple tree, where he is to make his last exit."
0:23:15 > 0:23:17When it finally came to it,
0:23:17 > 0:23:21Wild was strung up alongside three of his associates.
0:23:21 > 0:23:23Wild was the last to die.
0:23:24 > 0:23:27Jonathan Wild's body was cut down by his family
0:23:27 > 0:23:30and buried quietly in a nearby churchyard.
0:23:30 > 0:23:32But he would not rest in peace.
0:23:36 > 0:23:40This is the Hunterian, the Museum of the College of Surgeons,
0:23:40 > 0:23:44or "surgeons and barbers", as it would have been in the 18th century.
0:23:44 > 0:23:48It's full of strange and disturbing relics of the human condition.
0:23:49 > 0:23:53And, ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce you
0:23:53 > 0:23:57to Mr Jonathan Wild, thief-taker general.
0:23:57 > 0:23:59And, yes, it is he.
0:23:59 > 0:24:02In an opportunistic theft, of which he may or may not have approved,
0:24:02 > 0:24:06his body was exhumed and sold to the Royal College of Surgeons.
0:24:08 > 0:24:10And he has been their guest ever since,
0:24:10 > 0:24:14not that far from the Old Bailey, where he plied his deadly trade.
0:24:14 > 0:24:18While all that remains of Wild is his skeleton,
0:24:18 > 0:24:22the legend of Jack Sheppard continued to live and grow
0:24:22 > 0:24:27in plays, operas and ballads for the next 300 years.
0:24:27 > 0:24:29Hogarth was said to have based
0:24:29 > 0:24:32his Idle Apprentice engravings on Jack Sheppard.
0:24:32 > 0:24:34And a century after his death,
0:24:34 > 0:24:37a novel about Jack by Harriet Ainsworth
0:24:37 > 0:24:40was the publishing sensation of Victorian England,
0:24:40 > 0:24:43outselling books by a chap called Dickens.
0:24:45 > 0:24:48Yes, Ainsworth did romanticize it a bit,
0:24:48 > 0:24:50but Jack had been orphaned at four
0:24:50 > 0:24:55and life had been very difficult, both for him and for his mother.
0:24:55 > 0:24:58And yet, he lived life to the full, he enjoyed a good party
0:24:58 > 0:25:01and he died as he lived -
0:25:01 > 0:25:03with wit, charm and panache -
0:25:03 > 0:25:05a real working-class hero.
0:25:08 > 0:25:12Jack Sheppard was a legend in his own lifetime and long after.
0:25:12 > 0:25:14A popular ballad told his story
0:25:14 > 0:25:17in the slang of the criminal underworld.
0:25:18 > 0:25:21# In a box of a stone jug I was born
0:25:21 > 0:25:24# Of a hempen widow the kid forlorn
0:25:24 > 0:25:26- # Fake away - # Fake away
0:25:26 > 0:25:28# And my noble father As I've heard say
0:25:28 > 0:25:31# Was a famous merchant of capers gay
0:25:31 > 0:25:35# Nix my dolly, pals, fake away Nix my dolly, pals, fake away
0:25:38 > 0:25:41# But I slipped my darbies one fine day
0:25:41 > 0:25:43# And gave the dubsman a holy day
0:25:43 > 0:25:45- # Fake away - # Fake away
0:25:45 > 0:25:48# And here I am, pals Merry and free
0:25:48 > 0:25:50# A regular rollicking Romany
0:25:50 > 0:25:55# Nix my dolly, pals, fake away Nix my dolly, pals, fake away
0:25:55 > 0:26:01# Nix my dolly, pals, fake away Nix my dolly, pals, fake away. #
0:26:01 > 0:26:03Woo!
0:26:03 > 0:26:04So, that was fantastic.
0:26:04 > 0:26:07But the interesting thing for me is the language.
0:26:07 > 0:26:09- What's...what's going on there? - I mean, take the first line.
0:26:09 > 0:26:14It says, "In the box of a stone jug I was born," and that means...
0:26:14 > 0:26:16He's basically saying, "I was born in a prison cell."
0:26:16 > 0:26:18OK. And was that true?
0:26:18 > 0:26:20- Not at all. But it sounds great. - LAUGHTER
0:26:20 > 0:26:24So, we've got these incredible stories which are basically made-up,
0:26:24 > 0:26:27but sung in this funny language as well.
0:26:27 > 0:26:32But it's the boisterousness of it which so appeals to me,
0:26:32 > 0:26:34because you want to sing it to someone else.
0:26:34 > 0:26:36- Exactly.- And I suppose that's how it spread?
0:26:36 > 0:26:38That's what made the difference between which songs survived
0:26:38 > 0:26:41and which didn't, and if it had a great tune,
0:26:41 > 0:26:44then that would definitely help it to spread across the country.
0:26:44 > 0:26:47You could really imagine people standing on street corners
0:26:47 > 0:26:49- singing that one, can't you? - They certainly did.
0:26:49 > 0:26:51What you get a sense of, I think, with these songs
0:26:51 > 0:26:53is that a really exciting story
0:26:53 > 0:26:55is much more important than a true story.
0:26:55 > 0:26:57And of course, the most fantastical story
0:26:57 > 0:26:59- is that brilliant one about Mary Toft.- Yes.
0:26:59 > 0:27:01The woman who gave birth to rabbits.
0:27:01 > 0:27:03The woman who gave birth to rabbits, and we believe it all.
0:27:03 > 0:27:05It's got this brilliant line, this song...
0:27:05 > 0:27:08"The weakest woman sometimes may the wisest man deceive."
0:27:08 > 0:27:10So, I think it's one we should play out on.
0:27:10 > 0:27:11- Excellent.- Let's go for it.
0:27:16 > 0:27:21# Most true it is, I dare to say That since the days of Eve
0:27:21 > 0:27:25# The weakest woman sometimes may The wisest man deceive
0:27:28 > 0:27:32# At Godalming, hard by the bull A woman long thought barren,
0:27:32 > 0:27:35# Bears rabbits, be gad! So plentiful
0:27:35 > 0:27:37# You'd take her for a warren. #
0:27:40 > 0:27:43Believe it or not, Alexander Pope,
0:27:43 > 0:27:46the greatest poet of the age and translator of Homer,
0:27:46 > 0:27:50was the author of this bawdy ballad to the rabbit-breeder of Godalming.
0:27:53 > 0:27:54In the annals of all roguery,
0:27:54 > 0:27:57there's nothing to compare with this -
0:27:57 > 0:28:00one of the greatest frauds of all time.
0:28:02 > 0:28:06If Jack Sheppard was the most widely loved villain of the age,
0:28:06 > 0:28:08then Mary Toft - the rabbit woman -
0:28:08 > 0:28:12was the most curious criminal case of the century.
0:28:12 > 0:28:16She was famous for being sent to prison for giving birth to rabbits.
0:28:16 > 0:28:20Yes, rabbits - and rather a lot of them.
0:28:20 > 0:28:22It was a hoax that captivated the crowd
0:28:22 > 0:28:25as much as it mocked the King and his court.
0:28:25 > 0:28:29In the language of the time, it was known as the great "Whim-Wham" -
0:28:29 > 0:28:31a swiftly-made trifle, a bit of fun.
0:28:33 > 0:28:37Mary Toft was an illiterate pregnant 25-year-old from Surrey.
0:28:37 > 0:28:40She seemed in every way unremarkable.
0:28:40 > 0:28:44But her story would be the most remarked-on of the age,
0:28:44 > 0:28:48and it would, unfortunately, land her behind bars.
0:28:49 > 0:28:53So, how did this bunnies-in-the-oven story begin?
0:28:53 > 0:28:55Well, in the nature of all good rabbit stories,
0:28:55 > 0:28:57let's begin at the beginning.
0:28:57 > 0:28:59What's the matter, Doctor?
0:28:59 > 0:29:01Joshua Toft,
0:29:01 > 0:29:06it would appear that your wife has been delivered of a rabbit.
0:29:07 > 0:29:09JOSHUA GROANS
0:29:09 > 0:29:12Mary Toft's story is that, when she was pregnant,
0:29:12 > 0:29:15she saw a rabbit in a field and it captivated her.
0:29:15 > 0:29:19Suddenly, all she could think about was rabbits,
0:29:19 > 0:29:22and this somehow meant
0:29:22 > 0:29:25that the baby she was carrying turned into a rabbit.
0:29:25 > 0:29:28Or maybe it was always a rabbit and... Who knows?
0:29:28 > 0:29:31But there she is, giving birth to rabbits.
0:29:31 > 0:29:33'The doctor - drunk or not -
0:29:33 > 0:29:36'who delivered the rabbit was John Howard.'
0:29:36 > 0:29:39If you don't believe me, go look for yourself.
0:29:39 > 0:29:42John Howard seemed to believe what he wanted to believe
0:29:42 > 0:29:44and he wanted to be in on
0:29:44 > 0:29:47the greatest medical sensation of the age.
0:29:47 > 0:29:49So, when he should have paused,
0:29:49 > 0:29:52he jumped right in and he immediately penned a letter
0:29:52 > 0:29:54to the eminent medical men,
0:29:54 > 0:29:57including the Swiss-German Nathaniel St Andre,
0:29:57 > 0:30:01the surgeon to the royal household, who believed him.
0:30:01 > 0:30:04Now joining the ranks of the credulous was the King himself
0:30:04 > 0:30:07and his son, the Prince of Wales.
0:30:07 > 0:30:11Mary Toft was now famous for being famous.
0:30:11 > 0:30:13Like all the best confidence tricks,
0:30:13 > 0:30:16the rabbit births played into a narrative
0:30:16 > 0:30:19that people were strangely willing to believe.
0:30:19 > 0:30:22And this was a pseudo-scientific theory
0:30:22 > 0:30:24called "maternal impressions".
0:30:25 > 0:30:29It had long been a sort of idea of folklore and common belief
0:30:29 > 0:30:32that, if you saw something that deeply impressed you
0:30:32 > 0:30:34when you were pregnant,
0:30:34 > 0:30:37your child would somehow reflect that experience.
0:30:37 > 0:30:40The Elephant Man was the most famous example of this.
0:30:40 > 0:30:43It was said that the mother had seen an elephant while she was pregnant
0:30:43 > 0:30:46and that was what had caused the baby to be born in that way.
0:30:46 > 0:30:48It was said, during the Civil War,
0:30:48 > 0:30:51that a woman had given birth to a baby with two heads,
0:30:51 > 0:30:54because that reflected the division in society at the time.
0:30:54 > 0:30:57So, it's quite a common view.
0:30:57 > 0:30:59I mean, I suppose it's an extension of the idea
0:30:59 > 0:31:01that, if you have a terrible shock when you're pregnant,
0:31:01 > 0:31:03it might affect your baby.
0:31:04 > 0:31:06Mary was a national sensation.
0:31:06 > 0:31:09These were the early days of newspapers
0:31:09 > 0:31:13and if crime sold, well, rabbits sold even better.
0:31:13 > 0:31:16Physicians and the landed gentry competed to meet her,
0:31:16 > 0:31:19feel her stomach and await the next rabbit.
0:31:19 > 0:31:23No-one may enter the bed chamber, except on payment of a guinea!
0:31:23 > 0:31:26Well, Dr St Andre will let me in, I'm his most intimate friend.
0:31:26 > 0:31:27A guinea, madam.
0:31:27 > 0:31:30- Oh! Very well.- There we are.
0:31:30 > 0:31:33'Before long, lords and ladies thronged to Godalming
0:31:33 > 0:31:35'to meet the wonder of the age.
0:31:35 > 0:31:38'No amount of thieving could have brought Mary greater success.'
0:31:38 > 0:31:41Oh, the sweet, harmless little creatures.
0:31:41 > 0:31:44May I have one and take it back to London?
0:31:44 > 0:31:46I'm sure Mr Toft would be delighted to sell you one.
0:31:46 > 0:31:50There's no question of it, madam. These animals belong to science.
0:31:50 > 0:31:52Toft, have you a strong basket?
0:31:52 > 0:31:54Of course, anyone looking at it rationally would say
0:31:54 > 0:31:56a woman can't give birth to rabbits,
0:31:56 > 0:31:58but we're just moving from a period in which...
0:31:58 > 0:32:01You know, from an age of wonders to an age of science -
0:32:01 > 0:32:03and there are all sorts of grey areas in between,
0:32:03 > 0:32:06where the perpetuation of popular culture -
0:32:06 > 0:32:08popular ideas, superstitions -
0:32:08 > 0:32:11still seems to have a sort of a draw to it, you know?
0:32:11 > 0:32:13Well, we know that can't be right,
0:32:13 > 0:32:15but hang on, how is she doing it, then?
0:32:15 > 0:32:18How is it that doctors have been to see her and apparently come out
0:32:18 > 0:32:22shrugging their shoulders and saying, "She seems to be doing it"?
0:32:22 > 0:32:26Of course, some people thought that this was all complete tosh.
0:32:26 > 0:32:29But then again, if the King, his heir the Prince of Wales
0:32:29 > 0:32:33and the most eminent surgeon in the land believed it...
0:32:33 > 0:32:37Well, this was all going to end unhappily for someone.
0:32:37 > 0:32:41The King's surgeon, Nathaniel St Andre, examined a rabbit.
0:32:43 > 0:32:45And then, with all medical propriety,
0:32:45 > 0:32:48the intimate regions of Mary Toft.
0:32:48 > 0:32:50He was satisfied with what he saw.
0:32:51 > 0:32:54He rushed to publish the learned thesis
0:32:54 > 0:32:57that he hoped would cement his place in history.
0:32:57 > 0:33:00It would - but not in the way he imagined.
0:33:01 > 0:33:04The final act was exquisite in its timing.
0:33:04 > 0:33:08While Nathaniel St Andre's book was at the printers,
0:33:08 > 0:33:11rumours spread that Mary Toft's husband had been caught
0:33:11 > 0:33:14smuggling rabbits into the household.
0:33:14 > 0:33:16He claimed they were for a meal -
0:33:16 > 0:33:19a rather unsettling observation for a man
0:33:19 > 0:33:23whose wife was giving birth to rabbits on a fairly regular basis.
0:33:23 > 0:33:25Then, another obstetrician, Thomas Manningham,
0:33:25 > 0:33:28decided to confront Mary and say
0:33:28 > 0:33:32that he felt obliged to conduct an investigatory operation
0:33:32 > 0:33:35to see if she was formed differently from other women.
0:33:37 > 0:33:38Mary was terrified.
0:33:38 > 0:33:41She quickly broke down and confessed.
0:33:43 > 0:33:47The immediate public aftermath was glee.
0:33:47 > 0:33:52The most eminent satirical engraver of his day, William Hogarth,
0:33:52 > 0:33:56etched his famous Cunicularii, Or The Wise Men Of Godliman,
0:33:56 > 0:33:59in which he lampooned the main players.
0:33:59 > 0:34:02It delighted the public to hold their betters up to ridicule,
0:34:02 > 0:34:05especially the King and his German cronies.
0:34:05 > 0:34:08A "Whim-Wham", it most certainly was.
0:34:09 > 0:34:11Of course, once the gaffe is blown,
0:34:11 > 0:34:15then everybody slaps themselves on the back and says, "Yes, of course!"
0:34:15 > 0:34:20But then, the whole thing gets used by critics of the English.
0:34:20 > 0:34:23I mean, Voltaire even writes about Mary Toft,
0:34:23 > 0:34:26mainly so that he can just point out how superstitious the English are.
0:34:26 > 0:34:28You know, the French, of course, are far more sophisticated
0:34:28 > 0:34:30and wouldn't dream of doing anything so silly(!)
0:34:30 > 0:34:32Of course, there were casualties.
0:34:32 > 0:34:34St Andre was the first.
0:34:34 > 0:34:37He was publicly humiliated at court
0:34:37 > 0:34:40and it was said that he never ate rabbit again.
0:34:40 > 0:34:42Mary was sent to Bridewell Prison
0:34:42 > 0:34:45for being a vile impostor and a cheat.
0:34:45 > 0:34:48She was satirised as the "Surrey rabbit breeder",
0:34:48 > 0:34:52and she never escaped the sexual innuendo of her condition.
0:34:52 > 0:34:56After all, the 18th century word for a "rabbit track" was a "prick".
0:34:59 > 0:35:02Mary was held in Tothill Fields Prison,
0:35:02 > 0:35:06but she could not be held indefinitely without a trial.
0:35:06 > 0:35:08And who would lose most by her conviction?
0:35:08 > 0:35:12After all, she hadn't done much, except hoodwink the establishment.
0:35:14 > 0:35:16So, she was quietly released.
0:35:18 > 0:35:22In her time, Mary Toft had achieved something remarkable.
0:35:22 > 0:35:26She had outwitted a society that seldom expected,
0:35:26 > 0:35:28or allowed, any social progress,
0:35:28 > 0:35:30especially for women.
0:35:32 > 0:35:34When Mary Toft died, her name was in the newspaper.
0:35:34 > 0:35:37It was listed alongside the great and the good.
0:35:37 > 0:35:39There's no way, in her ordinary existence,
0:35:39 > 0:35:42her name would have been listed in the newspapers when she died.
0:35:42 > 0:35:44So, in some ways, I suppose you could say
0:35:44 > 0:35:50that it had been a successful fraud.
0:35:50 > 0:35:53Fraud was a growing problem in the 18th century.
0:35:53 > 0:35:57It was the white-collar - well, the white-ruffle - crime of the day.
0:35:57 > 0:36:01And no-one was more roguish, villainous or devious
0:36:01 > 0:36:04than one particular member of the Georgian elite.
0:36:07 > 0:36:11The rich, it appeared, were often above the law.
0:36:11 > 0:36:14One well-connected Devon merchant, Thomas Benson,
0:36:14 > 0:36:18cheated the taxman out of close to £1,000,000 in today's money,
0:36:18 > 0:36:20was a human trafficker
0:36:20 > 0:36:24and committed one of the largest insurance frauds of the century.
0:36:32 > 0:36:36Benson's crimes were perpetrated far away from crowded London.
0:36:36 > 0:36:39They centred on the picturesque and peaceful
0:36:39 > 0:36:41North Devon town of Appledore.
0:36:46 > 0:36:49In 1747, at the age of 39,
0:36:49 > 0:36:52the world seemed to lie at Benson's feet.
0:36:52 > 0:36:54He was married with children and had inherited wealth
0:36:54 > 0:36:57and merchant ships from his successful father.
0:36:57 > 0:37:01What's more, the King had just made him Sherriff of Devon,
0:37:01 > 0:37:04so Benson was law and order in the county -
0:37:04 > 0:37:06the man to bring justice to its people.
0:37:06 > 0:37:08What could possibly go wrong?
0:37:09 > 0:37:11Benson lived at a time and in a place
0:37:11 > 0:37:15where there were immense rewards to be had.
0:37:15 > 0:37:17The North Devon coast in the mid-18th century
0:37:17 > 0:37:19was benefiting enormously from the trade
0:37:19 > 0:37:22in and out of Bristol and to the Americas.
0:37:27 > 0:37:30So, how did Benson begin his climb up the greasy pole?
0:37:30 > 0:37:35And how did he acquire the veneer of respectability?
0:37:35 > 0:37:38Well, one particular object in the Guildhall in Barnstaple,
0:37:38 > 0:37:40I think, gives the game away.
0:37:41 > 0:37:42And this is it.
0:37:42 > 0:37:47It's a seriously impressive, solid silver, very large punch bowl.
0:37:47 > 0:37:50Just here, we can see Benson's coat of arms.
0:37:50 > 0:37:52Now, next to it, there's an inscription.
0:37:52 > 0:37:56"The gift of Thomas Benson Esquire to the Corporation of Barnstaple."
0:37:56 > 0:37:59And the key thing in understanding that
0:37:59 > 0:38:01is that we know he gave it to them
0:38:01 > 0:38:06just before he decided to run as Member of Parliament for Barnstaple
0:38:06 > 0:38:10and that, that year, he was elected unopposed.
0:38:10 > 0:38:12Now, I shouldn't really say it here,
0:38:12 > 0:38:15but I think it might have been a bribe.
0:38:16 > 0:38:21The Thomas Benson case illustrates, I think, just how...
0:38:21 > 0:38:25above a certain level, corruption was rife.
0:38:25 > 0:38:28Everybody knew that corruption
0:38:28 > 0:38:30lay at the heart of the English electoral system.
0:38:30 > 0:38:35You know, I mean the idea that there were perks and preferences
0:38:35 > 0:38:38and crony-ish kind of activities going on
0:38:38 > 0:38:41at all levels of society was common.
0:38:41 > 0:38:45People understood that the higher up the social scale you went,
0:38:45 > 0:38:48the less likely you were to get caught,
0:38:48 > 0:38:50the less likely you were to be put through the courts.
0:38:50 > 0:38:53It was the poor that always gets the blame.
0:38:53 > 0:38:57Benson now started to play the system for all it was worth
0:38:57 > 0:39:02by escalating his occasional dodgy dealing into full-scale fraud.
0:39:04 > 0:39:07Benson lived on that hill up there
0:39:07 > 0:39:09and from there, he could watch as his ships set sail
0:39:09 > 0:39:12for France, Portugal and the Americas.
0:39:12 > 0:39:15Now, behind me is the sheltered estuary.
0:39:15 > 0:39:17But beyond it is the open sea,
0:39:17 > 0:39:21and that's where we'll discover that this man, who was the law,
0:39:21 > 0:39:23sought to live outside of the law.
0:39:27 > 0:39:30To get to the bottom of Benson's roguery,
0:39:30 > 0:39:34I'm taking a boat trip to the island of Lundy in the Bristol Channel.
0:39:36 > 0:39:38- Hiya.- Hello. How are you doing?
0:39:38 > 0:39:40- Sam, isn't it?- It is. Nice to meet you.
0:39:40 > 0:39:42- Come aboard.- Thank you very much.
0:39:47 > 0:39:52Over a period of six years, from 1747 to 1753,
0:39:52 > 0:39:55an extraordinary tale unfolded -
0:39:55 > 0:39:58one that would shock Benson's constituents,
0:39:58 > 0:40:01dishonour his office, and leave a catalogue of smuggling
0:40:01 > 0:40:04and deception on a quite breathtaking scale.
0:40:08 > 0:40:11Lundy would play an important part in Benson's tale.
0:40:12 > 0:40:15Shortly after he became MP and Sheriff for Devon,
0:40:15 > 0:40:18Thomas Benson took the lease of the island.
0:40:18 > 0:40:23An island that was apparently uninhabited, neglected and derelict.
0:40:24 > 0:40:28On a good day, Benson could see this island from his house.
0:40:28 > 0:40:30But he wasn't interested in romantic ruins
0:40:30 > 0:40:35and he decided to make Lundy the key to his nefarious deeds.
0:40:35 > 0:40:38He would make this island his own private kingdom.
0:40:41 > 0:40:44Lundy lies at the gateway to the Bristol Channel.
0:40:45 > 0:40:47Just three miles long,
0:40:47 > 0:40:51it is now the peaceful haunt of holiday-makers and bird-watchers.
0:40:51 > 0:40:54In the 18th century, it was a dangerous place -
0:40:54 > 0:40:59a place of smugglers and mysterious comings and goings.
0:40:59 > 0:41:03It was not a place that welcomed prying eyes or probing questions.
0:41:05 > 0:41:07Thomas Benson MP used his position
0:41:07 > 0:41:10to secure lucrative tobacco contracts,
0:41:10 > 0:41:14but strangely, the amount of tobacco loaded on his ships in America
0:41:14 > 0:41:19was always more than that which was unloaded in England.
0:41:19 > 0:41:21I think you can guess where the rest went.
0:41:23 > 0:41:28To evade customs tax, Benson secretly unloaded tobacco on Lundy.
0:41:30 > 0:41:32Then, when he felt it was safe,
0:41:32 > 0:41:36he would smuggle the rest ashore under the noses of the revenue men.
0:41:36 > 0:41:38A very profitable scam.
0:41:41 > 0:41:45But Benson had another secret to conceal.
0:41:45 > 0:41:46As well as smuggle tobacco,
0:41:46 > 0:41:50he also had an illicit trade in convicts.
0:41:52 > 0:41:58Benson was able to get a contract to transport convicts to the Americas.
0:41:58 > 0:42:01Not very many of them at a time, but a few of them.
0:42:01 > 0:42:05And what he did was take them to Lundy Island,
0:42:05 > 0:42:08which was not, in his view, part of England.
0:42:12 > 0:42:14In the making of this programme,
0:42:14 > 0:42:19we uncovered 14 separate contracts in the Devon Heritage Centre.
0:42:21 > 0:42:25These documents revealed the true scale of Benson's corrupt empire.
0:42:26 > 0:42:28Evidence that the real rogues of the age
0:42:28 > 0:42:31were not the poor pickpocket or thief,
0:42:31 > 0:42:33but men like Thomas Benson.
0:42:36 > 0:42:39This is one of the original contracts that Benson signed
0:42:39 > 0:42:41to take convicts to America,
0:42:41 > 0:42:43and it's a remarkable document
0:42:43 > 0:42:46that puts everything that he did into context.
0:42:46 > 0:42:49First of all, we have the date, just under his signature
0:42:49 > 0:42:51and his seal at the bottom.
0:42:51 > 0:42:53Then, there is a list of these poor people
0:42:53 > 0:42:54who are going to be transported.
0:42:54 > 0:42:58We see Elizabeth Penny, William Frost, John Lake and others.
0:42:58 > 0:43:00There are 12 people here.
0:43:00 > 0:43:05It says very clearly that they have been adjudged to be transported
0:43:05 > 0:43:09to some of His Majesty's colonies and plantations in America.
0:43:11 > 0:43:13Now, I think most interesting of all
0:43:13 > 0:43:16is that right down at the bottom here, it says
0:43:16 > 0:43:20the only reason that he is not to fulfil this duty
0:43:20 > 0:43:24is if these convicts "suffer from death,
0:43:24 > 0:43:25"casualties of the seas,
0:43:25 > 0:43:28"or having been taken by enemy."
0:43:28 > 0:43:30Only those were the exceptions
0:43:30 > 0:43:33by which he doesn't have to fulfil this contract.
0:43:35 > 0:43:37Despite what seemed watertight contracts,
0:43:37 > 0:43:41some of these men and women never reached America.
0:43:41 > 0:43:46They ended up in Lundy, barely 12 miles off the coast.
0:43:46 > 0:43:51It was said that the convicts were housed in the ruins of the castle -
0:43:51 > 0:43:53and sometimes, in a cave below.
0:43:55 > 0:43:58The graffiti on the cave walls some believe belongs to
0:43:58 > 0:44:01the poor, unfortunate convicts -
0:44:01 > 0:44:04men and women who were exploited without mercy.
0:44:05 > 0:44:09Trapped, because the penalty for escaping transportation was death.
0:44:11 > 0:44:12He's so brazen about this
0:44:12 > 0:44:16that he invites various other local grandees to go and visit Lundy.
0:44:16 > 0:44:20They stay the night there, they see the people working there.
0:44:20 > 0:44:22Benson makes jokes about how it's not...
0:44:22 > 0:44:24You know, as long as he's taken them out of England,
0:44:24 > 0:44:26they've been transported.
0:44:26 > 0:44:29It doesn't matter if they don't actually get to America.
0:44:29 > 0:44:32Benson's arrogance was nearly his undoing.
0:44:32 > 0:44:35He was prosecuted for failing to honour his contracts
0:44:35 > 0:44:38to take the convicts to the Americas.
0:44:38 > 0:44:39Amazingly, he got off,
0:44:39 > 0:44:43but in the process, had drawn attention to his smuggling.
0:44:44 > 0:44:48He already owed over £8,000 in unpaid taxes -
0:44:48 > 0:44:51a considerable sum in the 1750s -
0:44:51 > 0:44:54and the revenue men were closing in.
0:44:54 > 0:44:56He then came up with another good wheeze,
0:44:56 > 0:45:00one that would solve the problem of Lundy and make him a tidy sum.
0:45:03 > 0:45:06The plan involved a rather broken-down, ageing ship -
0:45:06 > 0:45:08the Nightingale -
0:45:08 > 0:45:10a previously upright captain,
0:45:10 > 0:45:13a full cargo of pewter, linen and salt.
0:45:13 > 0:45:17All insured to the hilt, of course.
0:45:17 > 0:45:19Oh, and some convicts bound for Maryland -
0:45:19 > 0:45:2312 chained men and three manacled women.
0:45:23 > 0:45:26These convicts were - nearly - a masterstroke.
0:45:26 > 0:45:30And then, just before the ship finally sailed from Lundy,
0:45:30 > 0:45:33she was unloaded of all her goods,
0:45:33 > 0:45:36because Benson wanted a maximum return.
0:45:36 > 0:45:38And so the Nightingale left Lundy,
0:45:38 > 0:45:40and when she was close to another ship -
0:45:40 > 0:45:42The Charming Nancy of Philadelphia -
0:45:42 > 0:45:46the Nightingale was scuttled and a fire was lit.
0:45:46 > 0:45:49The ensuing blaze, of course, was blamed upon the convicts.
0:45:49 > 0:45:51The captain, the crew and the chained convicts
0:45:51 > 0:45:55then took to the boats, and the Nightingale slowly sank.
0:45:55 > 0:45:59It seemed the perfect crime - and it almost was.
0:45:59 > 0:46:02But a drunken member of the crew with too loose a tongue
0:46:02 > 0:46:05let the whole tale unravel.
0:46:05 > 0:46:08Even Benson couldn't stop the arrest, trial
0:46:08 > 0:46:11and sentence to death of his captain, Lancey.
0:46:11 > 0:46:13And with the noose tightening around him,
0:46:13 > 0:46:16Benson fled to Portugal.
0:46:16 > 0:46:19His brief rule over the Kingdom of Lundy was at an end.
0:46:21 > 0:46:25Benson's crime spree had ended in utter disgrace.
0:46:25 > 0:46:28Once a sheriff, he was now an outlaw.
0:46:28 > 0:46:33This wonderful room is the main chamber of the Barnstaple Guildhall
0:46:33 > 0:46:35and it used to be the town's courtroom.
0:46:35 > 0:46:37It's a wonderful place.
0:46:37 > 0:46:39There are galleries for witnesses and tiered seating.
0:46:39 > 0:46:42You get a real sense that this was once
0:46:42 > 0:46:45the beating heart of law and order in the town.
0:46:45 > 0:46:48Now, also, all around the walls, are portraits of mayors,
0:46:48 > 0:46:53local dignitaries, people who donated money to the town.
0:46:53 > 0:46:56And there's one very important one missing - Thomas Benson.
0:47:02 > 0:47:04Benson was never seen again.
0:47:04 > 0:47:07Rumours circulated that he had secretly returned
0:47:07 > 0:47:09using his influential contacts.
0:47:09 > 0:47:12But in truth, he lived out his days in Oporto
0:47:12 > 0:47:16and is buried in an unmarked grave by the river there.
0:47:16 > 0:47:19Thomas Benson, a man outwardly respectable,
0:47:19 > 0:47:21but appearances can be deceptive.
0:47:24 > 0:47:27Benson had been able to hide in plain sight,
0:47:27 > 0:47:30because public life was so corrupted in Georgian Britain.
0:47:33 > 0:47:37Take the sinister case of Edinburgh town councillor
0:47:37 > 0:47:41William "Deacon" Brodie, Scotland's most wanted outlaw.
0:47:42 > 0:47:46A man who was an upright member of Edinburgh society during the day
0:47:46 > 0:47:51and an unscrupulous, ruthless and immoral felon at night.
0:47:51 > 0:47:55It seemed as if every door in the town was open to him,
0:47:55 > 0:47:57especially after dark.
0:48:02 > 0:48:05The title "Deacon" didn't come from the church,
0:48:05 > 0:48:09but because he was a master craftsman - a cabinet-maker -
0:48:09 > 0:48:12and he was head of the Woodworkers' and Carpenters' Guild.
0:48:12 > 0:48:16He appeared to be a sober and industrious man.
0:48:21 > 0:48:26On the Royal Mile in Edinburgh is a pub commemorating William Brodie
0:48:26 > 0:48:29as one of the city's least-favourite sons.
0:48:29 > 0:48:34On the front of the sign is Brodie, elegant and respectable.
0:48:34 > 0:48:36On the reverse is the dark side of the man -
0:48:36 > 0:48:40a thief and a burglar, and a very cunning one at that.
0:48:43 > 0:48:45This is William Brodie
0:48:45 > 0:48:48and here, through this wonderful old Edinburgh arch,
0:48:48 > 0:48:51used to be his workshop, where, under Brodie's supervision,
0:48:51 > 0:48:55the finest furniture for the finest houses in Edinburgh would be made.
0:48:57 > 0:49:00Brodie's house just across the street from the pub
0:49:00 > 0:49:03no longer exists, but his workshop does.
0:49:06 > 0:49:09Brodie's workshop is now a rather nice cafe,
0:49:09 > 0:49:12but it's here that he would have made his furniture,
0:49:12 > 0:49:16work which included the fitting and repair of locks.
0:49:16 > 0:49:19So, like Jack Sheppard, his trade gave him the necessary skills
0:49:19 > 0:49:23to get into and out of any property he chose.
0:49:23 > 0:49:27But unlike Jack, Brodie was supposed to be a respectable man.
0:49:30 > 0:49:34William Brodie came from an upstanding local family.
0:49:34 > 0:49:38It's strange that a man with apparently so much to lose
0:49:38 > 0:49:41should risk it all on a life of robbery.
0:49:41 > 0:49:43But away from refined society,
0:49:43 > 0:49:46Brodie kept two mistresses with children.
0:49:46 > 0:49:49Both were unknown to his friends and his parents,
0:49:49 > 0:49:52and both were unknown to each other.
0:49:52 > 0:49:56He liked to gamble, he was particularly fond of cockfighting
0:49:56 > 0:49:58and he also liked to drink.
0:49:58 > 0:50:02This was a man who was addicted to living beyond his means.
0:50:03 > 0:50:09By 1786, Brodie was facing a deepening cash crisis.
0:50:09 > 0:50:12His appetite for women, drink and the gaming tables
0:50:12 > 0:50:14was driving him to bankruptcy.
0:50:14 > 0:50:19He needed another trade and his access to clients' keys
0:50:19 > 0:50:22gave him the means to embark on a nightlife of thieving.
0:50:25 > 0:50:27As Brodie himself said,
0:50:27 > 0:50:30"Why break in, when you can walk in?"
0:50:33 > 0:50:37A one-man crimewave gripped the Old Town.
0:50:37 > 0:50:41Brodie was twice blessed - he had the stolen property,
0:50:41 > 0:50:43and gained extra work providing new locks
0:50:43 > 0:50:47and stronger windows for the victims of his crimes.
0:50:50 > 0:50:53The two sides of Brodie's personality
0:50:53 > 0:50:56are captured in the story of an exquisite cabinet
0:50:56 > 0:50:59that survives in the Writers' Museum in Edinburgh.
0:50:59 > 0:51:02A piece of craftsmanship that would link him
0:51:02 > 0:51:06to one of the most famous literary works of the next century.
0:51:06 > 0:51:09This fine cabinet was in the childhood bedroom of writer
0:51:09 > 0:51:11Robert Louis Stevenson
0:51:11 > 0:51:15and it was made by our very own William "Deacon" Brodie.
0:51:19 > 0:51:23Stevenson, as a child, became fascinated with Brodie's story,
0:51:23 > 0:51:26particularly with his dual personality -
0:51:26 > 0:51:28and it's said that it inspired him
0:51:28 > 0:51:31to write the story of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde -
0:51:31 > 0:51:33a man who embodied both good and evil.
0:51:38 > 0:51:41It's a macabre object for a small boy's bedroom.
0:51:47 > 0:51:49Brodie was a risk-taker.
0:51:49 > 0:51:53Having tasted the life of crime, he overreached himself.
0:51:55 > 0:51:58Everybody knew that, when somebody got caught,
0:51:58 > 0:52:03the best way to avoid prosecution was to shop your comrades,
0:52:03 > 0:52:04your erstwhile associates.
0:52:04 > 0:52:06Like many criminals of his time,
0:52:06 > 0:52:09Brodie's mistake, I suppose,
0:52:09 > 0:52:12is becoming somewhat overconfident
0:52:12 > 0:52:17and not being too careful about who he chooses to work with.
0:52:19 > 0:52:23Brodie assembled a small gang to effect his robberies -
0:52:23 > 0:52:27Andrew Ainslie, George Smith and John Brown,
0:52:27 > 0:52:30a convicted thief already on the run from transportation.
0:52:31 > 0:52:34Their ambition was soon to outgrow their ability.
0:52:36 > 0:52:39The Edinburgh Excise office - the tax office - was in this court,
0:52:39 > 0:52:42and on the night of 5th of March 1788,
0:52:42 > 0:52:45it was to be the location of Brodie's most daring raid -
0:52:45 > 0:52:47and his undoing.
0:52:47 > 0:52:50The Excise office was known to store large sums of money,
0:52:50 > 0:52:54and that night, £600 in cash was to be kept on site.
0:52:57 > 0:52:59Brodie planned it well.
0:52:59 > 0:53:03He had cased the joint and made a copy of the main door key.
0:53:07 > 0:53:10Brodie and his three accomplices,
0:53:10 > 0:53:13cloaked and masked and with dimmed lanterns,
0:53:13 > 0:53:15made their way down the alley.
0:53:15 > 0:53:19Brodie had been drinking heavily, which was his first mistake.
0:53:19 > 0:53:23He only had a key to the outer door, so they had to force the inner door.
0:53:23 > 0:53:25They were then disturbed
0:53:25 > 0:53:27by the unexpected arrival of Mr James Bonar,
0:53:27 > 0:53:30a bank official who had forgotten some papers.
0:53:30 > 0:53:34In a panic, they knocked Bonar aside and they fled.
0:53:35 > 0:53:38To save his own skin, Brodie then split from the others,
0:53:38 > 0:53:43so he could establish an alibi, but that was his main mistake.
0:53:43 > 0:53:45In showing no loyalty to his accomplices,
0:53:45 > 0:53:48they would then show no loyalty to him,
0:53:48 > 0:53:51particularly when there was a large reward on offer.
0:53:53 > 0:53:55The weak link was Brown.
0:53:56 > 0:54:01John Brown was already on the run, having escaped from transportation.
0:54:01 > 0:54:06Turning king's evidence against Brodie might lead to a pardon -
0:54:06 > 0:54:08a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
0:54:09 > 0:54:12Brown chanced it and Brodie fled.
0:54:13 > 0:54:17First to York, then London and on to Amsterdam.
0:54:17 > 0:54:19All with George Williamson,
0:54:19 > 0:54:23one of Scotland's chief law officers, hot on his trail.
0:54:26 > 0:54:30The remarkable thing was that he ran, but didn't get away.
0:54:30 > 0:54:31Although he escaped Edinburgh,
0:54:31 > 0:54:35the Scottish constables had new allies in the South.
0:54:35 > 0:54:38Once he's absconded to Amsterdam,
0:54:38 > 0:54:42the Bow Street office in London tries to engineer getting him back.
0:54:42 > 0:54:44Now, this is in a period
0:54:44 > 0:54:47before we have formal extradition orders with anyone,
0:54:47 > 0:54:50but the Bow Street office takes initiatives.
0:54:50 > 0:54:53So they intercept his correspondence,
0:54:53 > 0:54:56in which he gives away that he's in Ostend, on his way to Amsterdam.
0:54:56 > 0:54:59They think, "Well, we'll correspond with the magistrates of Amsterdam
0:54:59 > 0:55:02"and see if we can get him picked up and held,
0:55:02 > 0:55:03"while we come over and collect him."
0:55:03 > 0:55:06It sounds like formal extradition - it wasn't formal at all -
0:55:06 > 0:55:08it was a one-off, actually.
0:55:12 > 0:55:17Brought back to Edinburgh on an overcast August morning in 1788,
0:55:17 > 0:55:21Brodie and his co-accused, Smith, faced a packed court.
0:55:26 > 0:55:30Brodie was described as "a sometime wright and a cabinet-maker".
0:55:31 > 0:55:35The first witness for the King was John Brown.
0:55:35 > 0:55:38His evidence would prove fatal for both men.
0:55:39 > 0:55:42They had robbed together and would hang together.
0:55:48 > 0:55:51"Deacon" Brodie was destined to die on a scaffold
0:55:51 > 0:55:53that he had helped build himself.
0:55:53 > 0:55:56After all, it was his civic duty, as an upstanding member of the city,
0:55:56 > 0:56:00to make sure that habitual criminals got their just desserts.
0:56:00 > 0:56:0340,000 people came to watch here,
0:56:03 > 0:56:05just yards from his workshop and home.
0:56:05 > 0:56:08As he climbed the scaffold, Deacon seemed relaxed.
0:56:08 > 0:56:10He had an easy manner about him.
0:56:10 > 0:56:14Even at this late hour, had he one last trick up his sleeve?
0:56:14 > 0:56:16Well, his collar?
0:56:17 > 0:56:21Rumours circulated that Brodie had one final devious plan
0:56:21 > 0:56:24to cheat the inevitable.
0:56:24 > 0:56:26There were stories of a secret steel collar,
0:56:26 > 0:56:29stories of a special deal with the hangman,
0:56:29 > 0:56:32stories he had cheated death.
0:56:32 > 0:56:33All fanciful.
0:56:38 > 0:56:40His body was cut down by his friends
0:56:40 > 0:56:43and rushed back through this alley to his workshop,
0:56:43 > 0:56:45where there were desperate attempts to revive him.
0:56:45 > 0:56:48But the hangman had done his job well
0:56:48 > 0:56:50and William "Deacon" Brodie was no more.
0:56:58 > 0:57:02One of the saddest mementos of Brodie's life is this,
0:57:02 > 0:57:04the Brodie family Bible.
0:57:04 > 0:57:06It's rather fragile, but beautifully preserved
0:57:06 > 0:57:10and one of the prize artefacts here in the Museum of Edinburgh.
0:57:10 > 0:57:14Now, towards the back are the details of the Brodie family tree.
0:57:14 > 0:57:16Francis Brodie, William's father,
0:57:16 > 0:57:20has faithfully recorded the details of his marriage to Cicel Grant,
0:57:20 > 0:57:23but also the birth of his sons.
0:57:23 > 0:57:25Well, one son, actually -
0:57:25 > 0:57:28because the details of his first son William,
0:57:28 > 0:57:30presumably the apple of their eye,
0:57:30 > 0:57:33have been erased from their memory.
0:57:33 > 0:57:35But not from history.
0:57:39 > 0:57:41By the end of the 18th century,
0:57:41 > 0:57:44it was no longer possible to live outside the law.
0:57:45 > 0:57:48The age of the dashing highwayman...
0:57:50 > 0:57:53..and that of the swashbuckling pirate had passed.
0:57:56 > 0:58:00Urban crime and fraud would, of course, continue,
0:58:00 > 0:58:02but policing and police detection meant that,
0:58:02 > 0:58:05although the rogue could still break the law,
0:58:05 > 0:58:08he could no longer live outside the law.
0:58:10 > 0:58:12The modern world brought to an end
0:58:12 > 0:58:16the criminal as some sort of good guy or pantomime villain.
0:58:16 > 0:58:20But our more traditional rogues gave us ripping yarns,
0:58:20 > 0:58:22dark morality tales
0:58:22 > 0:58:24and the unlikeliest of escapades.
0:58:24 > 0:58:27And you know, that's good enough for me.
0:58:30 > 0:58:33MUSIC: I Fought The Law by The Clash