Rogues Gallery Britain's Outlaws: Highwaymen, Pirates and Rogues


Rogues Gallery

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Crime was endemic in the 18th century.

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On the open roads, robbers robbed with impunity.

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On the high seas, pirates roamed.

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And closer to home, rogues threatened

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the lives and livelihoods of ordinary citizens.

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Nowhere was safe, least of all towns and cities,

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where, from their own underworld, felons robbed, burgled and cheated.

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From the lowest to the highest,

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from the likable rogue to the seemingly respectable gentleman,

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there was contempt for the rule of law.

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Men like Thomas Benson MP, a sheriff turned outlaw,

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"Deacon" Brodie, the original Jekyll and Hyde,

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and Jack Sheppard, the most artful one of them all.

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For a time, they evaded the law,

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but the law was closing in.

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This was the last age of the outlaw.

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The most famous rogue of the age

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was an orphaned apprentice - Jack Sheppard -

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and a very likable rogue he was, too.

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Jack would go on to be the most written-about

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and celebrated criminal of the last 300 years.

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The legend of Jack Sheppard was forged one September day in 1724,

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when he escaped from the condemned cell in Newgate Prison,

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the most secure prison in the land.

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No prison, no matter how secure, seemed able to contain him.

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He was admired by men and adored by women.

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Jack Sheppard was famous in his lifetime

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and for three centuries after, he inspired books, operas and films.

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He was the rock star of his age, a loveable rogue.

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He was Jack the Lad.

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Jack was brought up in poverty by his mother,

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but he was fortunate to get a carpenter's apprenticeship.

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It was an opening that would serve him well.

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Carpentry was a good, safe trade.

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Because London was growing all the time,

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there was never a shortage of customers.

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London was also the largest city in Europe -

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through its port and merchant houses,

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a river of valuable commodities and money flowed.

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It was a good place to earn an honest living,

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but it was the perfect place for a life of crime.

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In London's dense network of thoroughfares,

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the very rich rubbed shoulders with the desperately poor.

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Contemporary accounts tell us

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that Jack never finished his apprenticeship.

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His father had been an honest man

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and Jack may well have followed suit, if he'd not been fond -

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rather too fond - of a drop of ale and of the company of women.

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One fateful night, he was drinking in the Black Lion in Drury Lane

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and we know that he then met Elizabeth Lyon,

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known to all as "Edgworth Bess".

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Bess was a prostitute and petty thief,

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who frequented the taverns of the town.

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Later writers would suggest that Jack had been led astray by Bess.

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Jack Sheppard's story follows

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a very common narrative thread in the 18th century,

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where it's the woman that leads the slightly innocent man into sin.

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So, he wants to buy her presents, he wants to impress her,

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he wants to take her out carousing and so she maybe introduces him

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to someone who will fence some goods that she suggests he might steal.

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Lovestruck, Jack was eager to please

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and as an apprentice carpenter,

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he had every opportunity to pilfer from the houses of the well-to-do,

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where no-one seemed to notice the quick and nimble Jack.

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Small items he brought home to curry favour with the ample Bess.

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Jack now embarked on a new career as a pickpocket and burglar,

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with Bess as his ideal fence.

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Jack's elder brother Thomas

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had already been branded on the hand as a thief.

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Now, Jack was following after.

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Because of his trade, Jack knew how window and door locks worked,

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and he also knew how the window bars, that were so common in London, were fitted.

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So, it was easy work for him to remove the bars,

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rob the house and then replace them.

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Very clever.

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Jack Sheppard and his brother then set out

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on a short but disastrous crime spree.

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Cash from a public house,

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a large haul of linen from a drapers,

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then, fatefully, a house robbery in Drury Lane.

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And then, things started to go wrong.

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Jack's brother was caught with the swag -

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I hesitate to say red-handed -

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but now, fearing for his own skin and hoping to receive leniency,

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he blamed it all on Edgworth Bess and Jack, his own brother.

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Jack was soon arrested

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and taken to St Giles' Roundhouse, near Charing Cross.

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St Giles' Roundhouse was just a local lock-up

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and clearly inadequate for keeping Jack in for long.

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He was to be detained just for one night,

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and questioned in the morning.

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Jack had to act quickly.

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That night, he broke through the timber ceiling onto the roof.

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The noise of his escape and the falling roof tiles

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attracted a small crowd.

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And then, displaying the typical coolness

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that later endeared him to all of London,

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he joined the crowd and distracted them, saying

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he could see the shadow of the prisoner escaping over the rooftops.

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And then, he slipped away.

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Jack was agile in mind and body.

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His escape and his daring

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made him the perfect model as the 18th-century antihero.

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It was April 1724.

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Jack was just 22 years old,

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and the chain of events that would make Jack famous - dead famous -

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had just begun.

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Within a few weeks, on the 19th of May,

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Sheppard was arrested for a second time.

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He was caught picking a pocket in Leicester Fields -

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modern-day Leicester Square.

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Jack was put in St Anne's Roundhouse,

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where he was visited by Bess,

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and then, she too was arrested as his accomplice

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and thrown in jail with him.

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Jack and Bess appeared before magistrates

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and were sent to New Prison in Clerkenwell.

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Manacled and held in cells with iron bars,

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escaping from there would be a different proposition altogether.

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And yet, within days, both of them were free.

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Using a smuggled file, they cut through the manacles,

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then Jack managed to work a bar loose in the cell window.

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With a rope of knotted bedclothes, he first lowered Bess,

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and then escaped himself.

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This small, slight boy, really, carries his...

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Plump, I think is the kind way to describe her -

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she was described as a "blowsy".

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Carrying her somehow over the wall, out the window, down the wall,

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through the yard, up and over again.

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And it's definitely part of his mystique

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that he does it with... You know, he does it with her.

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Their audacious escape hit the newspapers.

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Broadsides and ballads proclaimed Jack's name.

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Jack, daring and gallant, was the talk of the town.

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Plays about Jack Sheppard would become

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one of the most popular entertainments of the next two centuries

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and he would be immortalised as the Artful Dodger

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in Dickens' Oliver Twist.

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No matter how popular Jack now was,

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he soon made an unfortunate enemy.

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It was known that most of London's criminal underworld

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was controlled by one man - Jonathan Wild.

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Wild was an apparently respectable man,

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who moved in influential circles.

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He used his connections to lead a double life,

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by running criminal gangs and bringing thieves to justice.

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Jonathan Wild called himself a thief-taker general.

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It wasn't an official position, but he got a lot of official backing

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because he could produce the results.

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I mean, Jonathan Wild was a complete rogue and a villain,

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he was the Moriarty of crime.

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In fact, Arthur Conan Doyle, in his Sherlock Holmes stories,

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refers to Moriarty and calls him Jonathan Wild.

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He ran gangs, he fenced stolen goods,

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he shopped rival gang members

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and, of course, I suppose, from the authority's point of view...

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OK, he'd destroyed one gang

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so, actually, that's got rid of all that lot.

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On the other hand, he'd increased his own power

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and probably increased his own manpower

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and had a larger share in the takings.

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The justice system relied on men like Wild.

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He even had an office in the Old Bailey...

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..as well as a house a few doors down, at number 68.

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Jonathan Wild seemed to be the puppet master

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for the courts of justice and the criminal underworld

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and everything was going his way -

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until he picked on a thief and burglar - young Jack Sheppard.

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Jack Sheppard held it as a point of pride

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that he had never dealt with Jonathan Wild,

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and that was part of the reason he was popular on the streets of London,

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because he held himself apart

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from the kind of criminal fraternity that Wild represented.

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Even though Bess and "Blueskin" Blake

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and his other accomplices were involved with Wild,

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Jack always was proud not to have been.

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Jonathan Wild was determined to catch Sheppard

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and, seeing Bess as the weak link, he plied her with drink

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and she foolishly led Wild to Jack.

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Successful as Jack was at escaping,

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unfortunately, he was equally as successful at getting caught.

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Jack never seemed to wander far

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from his usual haunts in this part of town.

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If he was not womanising, he was drinking.

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And most of the time, it was both at the same time.

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One day, he'd been burgling again,

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this time with his friend and fellow criminal Joseph "Blueskin" Blake.

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Now, where did Wild's men find Jack?

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Why, at "Blueskin" Blake's mother's brandy shop!

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Jack was sent to Newgate - a much more serious proposition,

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being the most secure prison in London -

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to be tried at the Old Bailey next door.

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The Old Bailey consisted of a single, open-air court room.

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I mean, part of it undercover, where the judge would sit and so on,

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but the majority of the space was just open, exposed and open-air.

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But the reason was twofold.

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One, it was thought that you were less likely to catch disease,

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and the other thing, of course, was open justice.

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Public justice, in terms of people being able to see the procedures,

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see people being tried,

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found guilty or not guilty, but justice being done.

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But convictions - and false convictions - often carried rewards.

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It was a corruptible system and no-one knew how to corrupt it better

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than the devious Jonathan Wild.

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Wild exerted a powerful hold on criminals across London.

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If they didn't co-operate, he simply had them arrested

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and claimed the reward.

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And if he needed any witnesses to secure a conviction -

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well, he knew plenty of people who'd tell a convincing tale

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for a little bit of cash.

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A lot of people that Wild shopped were guilty criminals, anyway.

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So, you didn't need to fabricate false evidence against them,

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they often came laden with it themselves.

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But it was certainly true that there was unease

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within the legal profession and the senior judiciary

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that, in fact, we might be getting a lot of miscarriages of justice

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as a result of our over-reliance on paid - and well-paid - informants.

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On the 12th of August 1724,

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Jack faced two charges of theft and one of burglary.

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A serious prospect, as even quite minor crimes against property

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were punishable by death.

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On the first two charges of theft,

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he was acquitted for lack of evidence,

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but the third - for burglary - was recorded as "plainly proved".

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Jack was sentenced to hang.

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Jack Sheppard and Jonathan Wild were now inextricably linked.

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Each would lead to the downfall of the other.

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Jack was a condemned man.

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Wild appeared to have had the upper hand.

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Jack was still allowed visitors, including his supposed wife Bess,

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the woman whose weakness for drink had landed him in this trouble.

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On the day that the official warrant arrived,

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naming Friday the 4th of September

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as the day that Sheppard would be "turned off",

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as the slang would have it, our Jack escaped again -

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and this time, from Newgate itself.

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Over the intervening three weeks,

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Jack had managed to loosen a bar.

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And using Bess and her friend Poll Maggot to distract the guards,

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he changed into women's clothing

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and coolly walked out of the most secure prison in the land.

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Jack's freedom was short-lived, only nine days.

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Again, Wild tracked him down, arrested him

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and brought him back to Newgate -

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this time high up in the building, to a cell called "the castle".

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It was considered escape-proof.

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Here, he was bound hand and foot and shackled to the floor.

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Jack was now famous throughout London.

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His charm and daring escapes made him a hero.

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At Newgate, he was a one-man tourist trade,

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as many paid to see the living legend that was Jack Sheppard.

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To his admiring fans and to the gaolers,

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he would then display the tricks he used to escape his chains.

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To discover more about Jack's techniques,

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I've come to London's Guildhall Library to meet Peter Ross,

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a leading expert on Jack Sheppard.

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We know, from accounts of when people came into his cell,

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he was very willing to demonstrate how he got his cuffs off.

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He did it repeatedly. He was caught in his cell with his cuffs off.

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He would have got out of them by slipping his hand

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through the handcuff itself.

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So that's what he was doing and he was willing to demonstrate that

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to anybody who would be willing to watch him do it.

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It sounds almost implausible that you could just slip off manacles,

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so he must have been a real escapologist.

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Exactly, he was an escapologist.

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'These chains are from the Metropolitan Police's Black Museum.

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'By late Victorian times,

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'many wanted to believe these were the genuine article.'

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What's significant about these particular cuffs is

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they have a lock on them,

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and we think it's probable that Jack Sheppard's cuffs

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did not have a lock on them

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and that he would have been fixed into them with a rivet

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by a blacksmith, who would have been at Newgate Prison.

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So, he did pick locks, because we know he picked the lock

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that fixed him to the floor of the cell,

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but in this case, he had no problem slipping his hands out.

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It's so clear that people just want to have artefacts

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relating to this person -

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particularly artefacts like handcuffs and manacles,

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because they represent the law.

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-They want a hero who can escape authority.

-Yes.

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It's something about the 1720s,

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the fact that the Government was very oppressive,

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the fact that people in London were fixed in their jobs.

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Apprentices were controlled, the whole of society was controlled.

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So if you see somebody who's sort of not only anti-society,

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but is against the Government in some way by escaping from the Government,

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escaping from authority, then he gradually becomes a popular hero.

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The next chapter in Jack's legend was down to a stroke of luck.

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While he was in prison,

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"Blueskin" Blake had been double-crossed by Wild

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and convicted of robbery on his evidence.

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"In a fit of rage, Blake rushed at Wild with a blade

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"and slashed his throat."

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A riot ensued.

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High up in the castle, Jack took advantage of this mayhem.

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He slipped his handcuffs and, still in leg irons,

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attempted to wriggle up the chimney.

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He managed to burrow into the chimney with an iron bar he found there

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and climb up through the chimney

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and out through five or six bolted rooms...

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..onto a roof, eventually at the edge of the prison,

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where he saw he could climb down.

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He realised he had nothing like a rope to climb down with.

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So he retraced his steps back to his cell, gathered up his blankets

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and then went back to the roof,

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where he lowered himself onto the house of one William Bird,

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who was fast asleep.

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Jack was away and free.

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He bribed a shoemaker to break his chains,

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stole some fine clothes and dressed as a gentleman.

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For two weeks, he lived life to the full.

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You have to wonder, why doesn't he just leave?

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Why doesn't he do what one of his accomplices did

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and make a new life in the United States?

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Why doesn't he go and live in the country?

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Why doesn't he just escape London?

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He doesn't seem to have the idea of possibility of a different life.

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He's so grounded in that underworld of Covent Garden,

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of pickpockets, of sharps and flash women,

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that he can't ever imagine living outside it.

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After a night's drinking,

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it's said that he even took two floozies in a cab past Newgate,

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to show them where he'd escaped from.

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Now, he had a fine old night that night,

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but in the morning, he had far more than a hangover to contend with.

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Jack was found in a local tavern a few hours later,

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blind drunk and dressed in a handsome suit of black

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with a fine ring on his finger.

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Unfortunately for him,

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the people that found him were the officers of the law.

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Back in Newgate,

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the great and the good bribed their way in to meet him

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and even the King sent Sir James Thornhill -

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his personal portrait painter - to capture Jack's image.

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Jack's last journey was along what is now Oxford Street,

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but then Oxford Road.

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200,000 people - that's a third of London -

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turned out to see him.

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He was their hero. People waved, women called his name.

0:20:040:20:07

On the day of Jack's execution,

0:20:110:20:13

he's taken in a cart from Newgate to Tyburn,

0:20:130:20:16

which is modern Marble Arch, along the Oxford Road.

0:20:160:20:21

People drank his health as he passed them outside pubs,

0:20:210:20:24

he drank some brandy.

0:20:240:20:25

The roads would have been crowded with people

0:20:250:20:28

coming out to see their hero die.

0:20:280:20:30

At Marble Arch was the Tyburn Gallows,

0:20:300:20:33

a triangle of wood known as the "Tyburn tree",

0:20:330:20:36

and it was here where our Jack was hanged.

0:20:360:20:39

It was a ghastly experience for the crowd,

0:20:420:20:44

because his slim, boyish frame -

0:20:440:20:46

which had been such an asset for breaking and entering and escaping -

0:20:460:20:50

now condemned him to a slow death by strangulation.

0:20:500:20:54

For 15 minutes, his body writhed and kicked, before he died.

0:20:540:20:58

Although Jack's crimes look quite modest to modern eyes,

0:21:020:21:05

the legal system of the time

0:21:050:21:07

came down hard on all forms of robbery or burglary.

0:21:070:21:11

In fact, any theft of over five shillings

0:21:110:21:14

could be punishable by death.

0:21:140:21:17

In order to deter people from property theft,

0:21:170:21:22

when detection was unlikely,

0:21:220:21:26

when prevention was equally unlikely...

0:21:260:21:30

..deterrence was considered to be the be-all and end-all.

0:21:320:21:35

And deterrence was not...

0:21:350:21:37

It wasn't that you hanged people for the most serious offences,

0:21:370:21:41

you hanged people for the offences that were easiest to commit.

0:21:410:21:45

And what about Jonathan Wild, Jack's nemesis?

0:21:460:21:50

Legend and broadsheet had it that Wild turned up to watch Jack die.

0:21:520:21:57

But in truth, he'd been too weakened by "Blueskin" Blake's attack

0:21:570:22:01

to venture outdoors.

0:22:010:22:04

As his health failed, Wild's grip on his criminal empire began to weaken.

0:22:040:22:09

Previously terrified witnesses came forward to accuse him

0:22:100:22:14

and it was only a matter of time before he, too, was in the dock.

0:22:140:22:19

Of all his vile and devious crimes,

0:22:190:22:21

it was finally the simple theft of some lace

0:22:210:22:24

that had him convicted and sent to the gallows.

0:22:240:22:28

As a loyal public servant, he pleaded for a reprieve,

0:22:280:22:32

but reprieve there was none.

0:22:320:22:33

On his journey to the gallows, he was pelted with rotten fruit.

0:22:350:22:40

Such was the desire to see Wild executed

0:22:400:22:43

that tickets were actually sold for the best seats at his execution.

0:22:430:22:47

This is a satirical copy, sending up this macabre trade.

0:22:470:22:52

Here at the top is an image of a very worried-looking Jonathan Wild

0:22:520:22:56

and underneath it is the invitation.

0:22:560:22:58

"To all the thieves, whores, pickpockets,

0:22:580:23:01

"family felons in Great Britain and Ireland,

0:23:010:23:04

"you are hereby desired to accompany your worthy friend,

0:23:040:23:08

"the pious Mr Jonathan Wild,

0:23:080:23:10

"to ye triple tree, where he is to make his last exit."

0:23:100:23:15

When it finally came to it,

0:23:150:23:17

Wild was strung up alongside three of his associates.

0:23:170:23:21

Wild was the last to die.

0:23:210:23:23

Jonathan Wild's body was cut down by his family

0:23:240:23:27

and buried quietly in a nearby churchyard.

0:23:270:23:30

But he would not rest in peace.

0:23:300:23:32

This is the Hunterian, the Museum of the College of Surgeons,

0:23:360:23:40

or "surgeons and barbers", as it would have been in the 18th century.

0:23:400:23:44

It's full of strange and disturbing relics of the human condition.

0:23:440:23:48

And, ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce you

0:23:490:23:53

to Mr Jonathan Wild, thief-taker general.

0:23:530:23:57

And, yes, it is he.

0:23:570:23:59

In an opportunistic theft, of which he may or may not have approved,

0:23:590:24:02

his body was exhumed and sold to the Royal College of Surgeons.

0:24:020:24:06

And he has been their guest ever since,

0:24:080:24:10

not that far from the Old Bailey, where he plied his deadly trade.

0:24:100:24:14

While all that remains of Wild is his skeleton,

0:24:140:24:18

the legend of Jack Sheppard continued to live and grow

0:24:180:24:22

in plays, operas and ballads for the next 300 years.

0:24:220:24:27

Hogarth was said to have based

0:24:270:24:29

his Idle Apprentice engravings on Jack Sheppard.

0:24:290:24:32

And a century after his death,

0:24:320:24:34

a novel about Jack by Harriet Ainsworth

0:24:340:24:37

was the publishing sensation of Victorian England,

0:24:370:24:40

outselling books by a chap called Dickens.

0:24:400:24:43

Yes, Ainsworth did romanticize it a bit,

0:24:450:24:48

but Jack had been orphaned at four

0:24:480:24:50

and life had been very difficult, both for him and for his mother.

0:24:500:24:55

And yet, he lived life to the full, he enjoyed a good party

0:24:550:24:58

and he died as he lived -

0:24:580:25:01

with wit, charm and panache -

0:25:010:25:03

a real working-class hero.

0:25:030:25:05

Jack Sheppard was a legend in his own lifetime and long after.

0:25:080:25:12

A popular ballad told his story

0:25:120:25:14

in the slang of the criminal underworld.

0:25:140:25:17

# In a box of a stone jug I was born

0:25:180:25:21

# Of a hempen widow the kid forlorn

0:25:210:25:24

-# Fake away

-# Fake away

0:25:240:25:26

# And my noble father As I've heard say

0:25:260:25:28

# Was a famous merchant of capers gay

0:25:280:25:31

# Nix my dolly, pals, fake away Nix my dolly, pals, fake away

0:25:310:25:35

# But I slipped my darbies one fine day

0:25:380:25:41

# And gave the dubsman a holy day

0:25:410:25:43

-# Fake away

-# Fake away

0:25:430:25:45

# And here I am, pals Merry and free

0:25:450:25:48

# A regular rollicking Romany

0:25:480:25:50

# Nix my dolly, pals, fake away Nix my dolly, pals, fake away

0:25:500:25:55

# Nix my dolly, pals, fake away Nix my dolly, pals, fake away. #

0:25:550:26:01

Woo!

0:26:010:26:03

So, that was fantastic.

0:26:030:26:04

But the interesting thing for me is the language.

0:26:040:26:07

-What's...what's going on there?

-I mean, take the first line.

0:26:070:26:09

It says, "In the box of a stone jug I was born," and that means...

0:26:090:26:14

He's basically saying, "I was born in a prison cell."

0:26:140:26:16

OK. And was that true?

0:26:160:26:18

-Not at all. But it sounds great.

-LAUGHTER

0:26:180:26:20

So, we've got these incredible stories which are basically made-up,

0:26:200:26:24

but sung in this funny language as well.

0:26:240:26:27

But it's the boisterousness of it which so appeals to me,

0:26:270:26:32

because you want to sing it to someone else.

0:26:320:26:34

-Exactly.

-And I suppose that's how it spread?

0:26:340:26:36

That's what made the difference between which songs survived

0:26:360:26:38

and which didn't, and if it had a great tune,

0:26:380:26:41

then that would definitely help it to spread across the country.

0:26:410:26:44

You could really imagine people standing on street corners

0:26:440:26:47

-singing that one, can't you?

-They certainly did.

0:26:470:26:49

What you get a sense of, I think, with these songs

0:26:490:26:51

is that a really exciting story

0:26:510:26:53

is much more important than a true story.

0:26:530:26:55

And of course, the most fantastical story

0:26:550:26:57

-is that brilliant one about Mary Toft.

-Yes.

0:26:570:26:59

The woman who gave birth to rabbits.

0:26:590:27:01

The woman who gave birth to rabbits, and we believe it all.

0:27:010:27:03

It's got this brilliant line, this song...

0:27:030:27:05

"The weakest woman sometimes may the wisest man deceive."

0:27:050:27:08

So, I think it's one we should play out on.

0:27:080:27:10

-Excellent.

-Let's go for it.

0:27:100:27:11

# Most true it is, I dare to say That since the days of Eve

0:27:160:27:21

# The weakest woman sometimes may The wisest man deceive

0:27:210:27:25

# At Godalming, hard by the bull A woman long thought barren,

0:27:280:27:32

# Bears rabbits, be gad! So plentiful

0:27:320:27:35

# You'd take her for a warren. #

0:27:350:27:37

Believe it or not, Alexander Pope,

0:27:400:27:43

the greatest poet of the age and translator of Homer,

0:27:430:27:46

was the author of this bawdy ballad to the rabbit-breeder of Godalming.

0:27:460:27:50

In the annals of all roguery,

0:27:530:27:54

there's nothing to compare with this -

0:27:540:27:57

one of the greatest frauds of all time.

0:27:570:28:00

If Jack Sheppard was the most widely loved villain of the age,

0:28:020:28:06

then Mary Toft - the rabbit woman -

0:28:060:28:08

was the most curious criminal case of the century.

0:28:080:28:12

She was famous for being sent to prison for giving birth to rabbits.

0:28:120:28:16

Yes, rabbits - and rather a lot of them.

0:28:160:28:20

It was a hoax that captivated the crowd

0:28:200:28:22

as much as it mocked the King and his court.

0:28:220:28:25

In the language of the time, it was known as the great "Whim-Wham" -

0:28:250:28:29

a swiftly-made trifle, a bit of fun.

0:28:290:28:31

Mary Toft was an illiterate pregnant 25-year-old from Surrey.

0:28:330:28:37

She seemed in every way unremarkable.

0:28:370:28:40

But her story would be the most remarked-on of the age,

0:28:400:28:44

and it would, unfortunately, land her behind bars.

0:28:440:28:48

So, how did this bunnies-in-the-oven story begin?

0:28:490:28:53

Well, in the nature of all good rabbit stories,

0:28:530:28:55

let's begin at the beginning.

0:28:550:28:57

What's the matter, Doctor?

0:28:570:28:59

Joshua Toft,

0:28:590:29:01

it would appear that your wife has been delivered of a rabbit.

0:29:010:29:06

JOSHUA GROANS

0:29:070:29:09

Mary Toft's story is that, when she was pregnant,

0:29:090:29:12

she saw a rabbit in a field and it captivated her.

0:29:120:29:15

Suddenly, all she could think about was rabbits,

0:29:150:29:19

and this somehow meant

0:29:190:29:22

that the baby she was carrying turned into a rabbit.

0:29:220:29:25

Or maybe it was always a rabbit and... Who knows?

0:29:250:29:28

But there she is, giving birth to rabbits.

0:29:280:29:31

'The doctor - drunk or not -

0:29:310:29:33

'who delivered the rabbit was John Howard.'

0:29:330:29:36

If you don't believe me, go look for yourself.

0:29:360:29:39

John Howard seemed to believe what he wanted to believe

0:29:390:29:42

and he wanted to be in on

0:29:420:29:44

the greatest medical sensation of the age.

0:29:440:29:47

So, when he should have paused,

0:29:470:29:49

he jumped right in and he immediately penned a letter

0:29:490:29:52

to the eminent medical men,

0:29:520:29:54

including the Swiss-German Nathaniel St Andre,

0:29:540:29:57

the surgeon to the royal household, who believed him.

0:29:570:30:01

Now joining the ranks of the credulous was the King himself

0:30:010:30:04

and his son, the Prince of Wales.

0:30:040:30:07

Mary Toft was now famous for being famous.

0:30:070:30:11

Like all the best confidence tricks,

0:30:110:30:13

the rabbit births played into a narrative

0:30:130:30:16

that people were strangely willing to believe.

0:30:160:30:19

And this was a pseudo-scientific theory

0:30:190:30:22

called "maternal impressions".

0:30:220:30:24

It had long been a sort of idea of folklore and common belief

0:30:250:30:29

that, if you saw something that deeply impressed you

0:30:290:30:32

when you were pregnant,

0:30:320:30:34

your child would somehow reflect that experience.

0:30:340:30:37

The Elephant Man was the most famous example of this.

0:30:370:30:40

It was said that the mother had seen an elephant while she was pregnant

0:30:400:30:43

and that was what had caused the baby to be born in that way.

0:30:430:30:46

It was said, during the Civil War,

0:30:460:30:48

that a woman had given birth to a baby with two heads,

0:30:480:30:51

because that reflected the division in society at the time.

0:30:510:30:54

So, it's quite a common view.

0:30:540:30:57

I mean, I suppose it's an extension of the idea

0:30:570:30:59

that, if you have a terrible shock when you're pregnant,

0:30:590:31:01

it might affect your baby.

0:31:010:31:03

Mary was a national sensation.

0:31:040:31:06

These were the early days of newspapers

0:31:060:31:09

and if crime sold, well, rabbits sold even better.

0:31:090:31:13

Physicians and the landed gentry competed to meet her,

0:31:130:31:16

feel her stomach and await the next rabbit.

0:31:160:31:19

No-one may enter the bed chamber, except on payment of a guinea!

0:31:190:31:23

Well, Dr St Andre will let me in, I'm his most intimate friend.

0:31:230:31:26

A guinea, madam.

0:31:260:31:27

-Oh! Very well.

-There we are.

0:31:270:31:30

'Before long, lords and ladies thronged to Godalming

0:31:300:31:33

'to meet the wonder of the age.

0:31:330:31:35

'No amount of thieving could have brought Mary greater success.'

0:31:350:31:38

Oh, the sweet, harmless little creatures.

0:31:380:31:41

May I have one and take it back to London?

0:31:410:31:44

I'm sure Mr Toft would be delighted to sell you one.

0:31:440:31:46

There's no question of it, madam. These animals belong to science.

0:31:460:31:50

Toft, have you a strong basket?

0:31:500:31:52

Of course, anyone looking at it rationally would say

0:31:520:31:54

a woman can't give birth to rabbits,

0:31:540:31:56

but we're just moving from a period in which...

0:31:560:31:58

You know, from an age of wonders to an age of science -

0:31:580:32:01

and there are all sorts of grey areas in between,

0:32:010:32:03

where the perpetuation of popular culture -

0:32:030:32:06

popular ideas, superstitions -

0:32:060:32:08

still seems to have a sort of a draw to it, you know?

0:32:080:32:11

Well, we know that can't be right,

0:32:110:32:13

but hang on, how is she doing it, then?

0:32:130:32:15

How is it that doctors have been to see her and apparently come out

0:32:150:32:18

shrugging their shoulders and saying, "She seems to be doing it"?

0:32:180:32:22

Of course, some people thought that this was all complete tosh.

0:32:220:32:26

But then again, if the King, his heir the Prince of Wales

0:32:260:32:29

and the most eminent surgeon in the land believed it...

0:32:290:32:33

Well, this was all going to end unhappily for someone.

0:32:330:32:37

The King's surgeon, Nathaniel St Andre, examined a rabbit.

0:32:370:32:41

And then, with all medical propriety,

0:32:430:32:45

the intimate regions of Mary Toft.

0:32:450:32:48

He was satisfied with what he saw.

0:32:480:32:50

He rushed to publish the learned thesis

0:32:510:32:54

that he hoped would cement his place in history.

0:32:540:32:57

It would - but not in the way he imagined.

0:32:570:33:00

The final act was exquisite in its timing.

0:33:010:33:04

While Nathaniel St Andre's book was at the printers,

0:33:040:33:08

rumours spread that Mary Toft's husband had been caught

0:33:080:33:11

smuggling rabbits into the household.

0:33:110:33:14

He claimed they were for a meal -

0:33:140:33:16

a rather unsettling observation for a man

0:33:160:33:19

whose wife was giving birth to rabbits on a fairly regular basis.

0:33:190:33:23

Then, another obstetrician, Thomas Manningham,

0:33:230:33:25

decided to confront Mary and say

0:33:250:33:28

that he felt obliged to conduct an investigatory operation

0:33:280:33:32

to see if she was formed differently from other women.

0:33:320:33:35

Mary was terrified.

0:33:370:33:38

She quickly broke down and confessed.

0:33:380:33:41

The immediate public aftermath was glee.

0:33:430:33:47

The most eminent satirical engraver of his day, William Hogarth,

0:33:470:33:52

etched his famous Cunicularii, Or The Wise Men Of Godliman,

0:33:520:33:56

in which he lampooned the main players.

0:33:560:33:59

It delighted the public to hold their betters up to ridicule,

0:33:590:34:02

especially the King and his German cronies.

0:34:020:34:05

A "Whim-Wham", it most certainly was.

0:34:050:34:08

Of course, once the gaffe is blown,

0:34:090:34:11

then everybody slaps themselves on the back and says, "Yes, of course!"

0:34:110:34:15

But then, the whole thing gets used by critics of the English.

0:34:150:34:20

I mean, Voltaire even writes about Mary Toft,

0:34:200:34:23

mainly so that he can just point out how superstitious the English are.

0:34:230:34:26

You know, the French, of course, are far more sophisticated

0:34:260:34:28

and wouldn't dream of doing anything so silly(!)

0:34:280:34:30

Of course, there were casualties.

0:34:300:34:32

St Andre was the first.

0:34:320:34:34

He was publicly humiliated at court

0:34:340:34:37

and it was said that he never ate rabbit again.

0:34:370:34:40

Mary was sent to Bridewell Prison

0:34:400:34:42

for being a vile impostor and a cheat.

0:34:420:34:45

She was satirised as the "Surrey rabbit breeder",

0:34:450:34:48

and she never escaped the sexual innuendo of her condition.

0:34:480:34:52

After all, the 18th century word for a "rabbit track" was a "prick".

0:34:520:34:56

Mary was held in Tothill Fields Prison,

0:34:590:35:02

but she could not be held indefinitely without a trial.

0:35:020:35:06

And who would lose most by her conviction?

0:35:060:35:08

After all, she hadn't done much, except hoodwink the establishment.

0:35:080:35:12

So, she was quietly released.

0:35:140:35:16

In her time, Mary Toft had achieved something remarkable.

0:35:180:35:22

She had outwitted a society that seldom expected,

0:35:220:35:26

or allowed, any social progress,

0:35:260:35:28

especially for women.

0:35:280:35:30

When Mary Toft died, her name was in the newspaper.

0:35:320:35:34

It was listed alongside the great and the good.

0:35:340:35:37

There's no way, in her ordinary existence,

0:35:370:35:39

her name would have been listed in the newspapers when she died.

0:35:390:35:42

So, in some ways, I suppose you could say

0:35:420:35:44

that it had been a successful fraud.

0:35:440:35:50

Fraud was a growing problem in the 18th century.

0:35:500:35:53

It was the white-collar - well, the white-ruffle - crime of the day.

0:35:530:35:57

And no-one was more roguish, villainous or devious

0:35:570:36:01

than one particular member of the Georgian elite.

0:36:010:36:04

The rich, it appeared, were often above the law.

0:36:070:36:11

One well-connected Devon merchant, Thomas Benson,

0:36:110:36:14

cheated the taxman out of close to £1,000,000 in today's money,

0:36:140:36:18

was a human trafficker

0:36:180:36:20

and committed one of the largest insurance frauds of the century.

0:36:200:36:24

Benson's crimes were perpetrated far away from crowded London.

0:36:320:36:36

They centred on the picturesque and peaceful

0:36:360:36:39

North Devon town of Appledore.

0:36:390:36:41

In 1747, at the age of 39,

0:36:460:36:49

the world seemed to lie at Benson's feet.

0:36:490:36:52

He was married with children and had inherited wealth

0:36:520:36:54

and merchant ships from his successful father.

0:36:540:36:57

What's more, the King had just made him Sherriff of Devon,

0:36:570:37:01

so Benson was law and order in the county -

0:37:010:37:04

the man to bring justice to its people.

0:37:040:37:06

What could possibly go wrong?

0:37:060:37:08

Benson lived at a time and in a place

0:37:090:37:11

where there were immense rewards to be had.

0:37:110:37:15

The North Devon coast in the mid-18th century

0:37:150:37:17

was benefiting enormously from the trade

0:37:170:37:19

in and out of Bristol and to the Americas.

0:37:190:37:22

So, how did Benson begin his climb up the greasy pole?

0:37:270:37:30

And how did he acquire the veneer of respectability?

0:37:300:37:35

Well, one particular object in the Guildhall in Barnstaple,

0:37:350:37:38

I think, gives the game away.

0:37:380:37:40

And this is it.

0:37:410:37:42

It's a seriously impressive, solid silver, very large punch bowl.

0:37:420:37:47

Just here, we can see Benson's coat of arms.

0:37:470:37:50

Now, next to it, there's an inscription.

0:37:500:37:52

"The gift of Thomas Benson Esquire to the Corporation of Barnstaple."

0:37:520:37:56

And the key thing in understanding that

0:37:560:37:59

is that we know he gave it to them

0:37:590:38:01

just before he decided to run as Member of Parliament for Barnstaple

0:38:010:38:06

and that, that year, he was elected unopposed.

0:38:060:38:10

Now, I shouldn't really say it here,

0:38:100:38:12

but I think it might have been a bribe.

0:38:120:38:15

The Thomas Benson case illustrates, I think, just how...

0:38:160:38:21

above a certain level, corruption was rife.

0:38:210:38:25

Everybody knew that corruption

0:38:250:38:28

lay at the heart of the English electoral system.

0:38:280:38:30

You know, I mean the idea that there were perks and preferences

0:38:300:38:35

and crony-ish kind of activities going on

0:38:350:38:38

at all levels of society was common.

0:38:380:38:41

People understood that the higher up the social scale you went,

0:38:410:38:45

the less likely you were to get caught,

0:38:450:38:48

the less likely you were to be put through the courts.

0:38:480:38:50

It was the poor that always gets the blame.

0:38:500:38:53

Benson now started to play the system for all it was worth

0:38:530:38:57

by escalating his occasional dodgy dealing into full-scale fraud.

0:38:570:39:02

Benson lived on that hill up there

0:39:040:39:07

and from there, he could watch as his ships set sail

0:39:070:39:09

for France, Portugal and the Americas.

0:39:090:39:12

Now, behind me is the sheltered estuary.

0:39:120:39:15

But beyond it is the open sea,

0:39:150:39:17

and that's where we'll discover that this man, who was the law,

0:39:170:39:21

sought to live outside of the law.

0:39:210:39:23

To get to the bottom of Benson's roguery,

0:39:270:39:30

I'm taking a boat trip to the island of Lundy in the Bristol Channel.

0:39:300:39:34

-Hiya.

-Hello. How are you doing?

0:39:360:39:38

-Sam, isn't it?

-It is. Nice to meet you.

0:39:380:39:40

-Come aboard.

-Thank you very much.

0:39:400:39:42

Over a period of six years, from 1747 to 1753,

0:39:470:39:52

an extraordinary tale unfolded -

0:39:520:39:55

one that would shock Benson's constituents,

0:39:550:39:58

dishonour his office, and leave a catalogue of smuggling

0:39:580:40:01

and deception on a quite breathtaking scale.

0:40:010:40:04

Lundy would play an important part in Benson's tale.

0:40:080:40:11

Shortly after he became MP and Sheriff for Devon,

0:40:120:40:15

Thomas Benson took the lease of the island.

0:40:150:40:18

An island that was apparently uninhabited, neglected and derelict.

0:40:180:40:23

On a good day, Benson could see this island from his house.

0:40:240:40:28

But he wasn't interested in romantic ruins

0:40:280:40:30

and he decided to make Lundy the key to his nefarious deeds.

0:40:300:40:35

He would make this island his own private kingdom.

0:40:350:40:38

Lundy lies at the gateway to the Bristol Channel.

0:40:410:40:44

Just three miles long,

0:40:450:40:47

it is now the peaceful haunt of holiday-makers and bird-watchers.

0:40:470:40:51

In the 18th century, it was a dangerous place -

0:40:510:40:54

a place of smugglers and mysterious comings and goings.

0:40:540:40:59

It was not a place that welcomed prying eyes or probing questions.

0:40:590:41:03

Thomas Benson MP used his position

0:41:050:41:07

to secure lucrative tobacco contracts,

0:41:070:41:10

but strangely, the amount of tobacco loaded on his ships in America

0:41:100:41:14

was always more than that which was unloaded in England.

0:41:140:41:19

I think you can guess where the rest went.

0:41:190:41:21

To evade customs tax, Benson secretly unloaded tobacco on Lundy.

0:41:230:41:28

Then, when he felt it was safe,

0:41:300:41:32

he would smuggle the rest ashore under the noses of the revenue men.

0:41:320:41:36

A very profitable scam.

0:41:360:41:38

But Benson had another secret to conceal.

0:41:410:41:45

As well as smuggle tobacco,

0:41:450:41:46

he also had an illicit trade in convicts.

0:41:460:41:50

Benson was able to get a contract to transport convicts to the Americas.

0:41:520:41:58

Not very many of them at a time, but a few of them.

0:41:580:42:01

And what he did was take them to Lundy Island,

0:42:010:42:05

which was not, in his view, part of England.

0:42:050:42:08

In the making of this programme,

0:42:120:42:14

we uncovered 14 separate contracts in the Devon Heritage Centre.

0:42:140:42:19

These documents revealed the true scale of Benson's corrupt empire.

0:42:210:42:25

Evidence that the real rogues of the age

0:42:260:42:28

were not the poor pickpocket or thief,

0:42:280:42:31

but men like Thomas Benson.

0:42:310:42:33

This is one of the original contracts that Benson signed

0:42:360:42:39

to take convicts to America,

0:42:390:42:41

and it's a remarkable document

0:42:410:42:43

that puts everything that he did into context.

0:42:430:42:46

First of all, we have the date, just under his signature

0:42:460:42:49

and his seal at the bottom.

0:42:490:42:51

Then, there is a list of these poor people

0:42:510:42:53

who are going to be transported.

0:42:530:42:54

We see Elizabeth Penny, William Frost, John Lake and others.

0:42:540:42:58

There are 12 people here.

0:42:580:43:00

It says very clearly that they have been adjudged to be transported

0:43:000:43:05

to some of His Majesty's colonies and plantations in America.

0:43:050:43:09

Now, I think most interesting of all

0:43:110:43:13

is that right down at the bottom here, it says

0:43:130:43:16

the only reason that he is not to fulfil this duty

0:43:160:43:20

is if these convicts "suffer from death,

0:43:200:43:24

"casualties of the seas,

0:43:240:43:25

"or having been taken by enemy."

0:43:250:43:28

Only those were the exceptions

0:43:280:43:30

by which he doesn't have to fulfil this contract.

0:43:300:43:33

Despite what seemed watertight contracts,

0:43:350:43:37

some of these men and women never reached America.

0:43:370:43:41

They ended up in Lundy, barely 12 miles off the coast.

0:43:410:43:46

It was said that the convicts were housed in the ruins of the castle -

0:43:460:43:51

and sometimes, in a cave below.

0:43:510:43:53

The graffiti on the cave walls some believe belongs to

0:43:550:43:58

the poor, unfortunate convicts -

0:43:580:44:01

men and women who were exploited without mercy.

0:44:010:44:04

Trapped, because the penalty for escaping transportation was death.

0:44:050:44:09

He's so brazen about this

0:44:110:44:12

that he invites various other local grandees to go and visit Lundy.

0:44:120:44:16

They stay the night there, they see the people working there.

0:44:160:44:20

Benson makes jokes about how it's not...

0:44:200:44:22

You know, as long as he's taken them out of England,

0:44:220:44:24

they've been transported.

0:44:240:44:26

It doesn't matter if they don't actually get to America.

0:44:260:44:29

Benson's arrogance was nearly his undoing.

0:44:290:44:32

He was prosecuted for failing to honour his contracts

0:44:320:44:35

to take the convicts to the Americas.

0:44:350:44:38

Amazingly, he got off,

0:44:380:44:39

but in the process, had drawn attention to his smuggling.

0:44:390:44:43

He already owed over £8,000 in unpaid taxes -

0:44:440:44:48

a considerable sum in the 1750s -

0:44:480:44:51

and the revenue men were closing in.

0:44:510:44:54

He then came up with another good wheeze,

0:44:540:44:56

one that would solve the problem of Lundy and make him a tidy sum.

0:44:560:45:00

The plan involved a rather broken-down, ageing ship -

0:45:030:45:06

the Nightingale -

0:45:060:45:08

a previously upright captain,

0:45:080:45:10

a full cargo of pewter, linen and salt.

0:45:100:45:13

All insured to the hilt, of course.

0:45:130:45:17

Oh, and some convicts bound for Maryland -

0:45:170:45:19

12 chained men and three manacled women.

0:45:190:45:23

These convicts were - nearly - a masterstroke.

0:45:230:45:26

And then, just before the ship finally sailed from Lundy,

0:45:260:45:30

she was unloaded of all her goods,

0:45:300:45:33

because Benson wanted a maximum return.

0:45:330:45:36

And so the Nightingale left Lundy,

0:45:360:45:38

and when she was close to another ship -

0:45:380:45:40

The Charming Nancy of Philadelphia -

0:45:400:45:42

the Nightingale was scuttled and a fire was lit.

0:45:420:45:46

The ensuing blaze, of course, was blamed upon the convicts.

0:45:460:45:49

The captain, the crew and the chained convicts

0:45:490:45:51

then took to the boats, and the Nightingale slowly sank.

0:45:510:45:55

It seemed the perfect crime - and it almost was.

0:45:550:45:59

But a drunken member of the crew with too loose a tongue

0:45:590:46:02

let the whole tale unravel.

0:46:020:46:05

Even Benson couldn't stop the arrest, trial

0:46:050:46:08

and sentence to death of his captain, Lancey.

0:46:080:46:11

And with the noose tightening around him,

0:46:110:46:13

Benson fled to Portugal.

0:46:130:46:16

His brief rule over the Kingdom of Lundy was at an end.

0:46:160:46:19

Benson's crime spree had ended in utter disgrace.

0:46:210:46:25

Once a sheriff, he was now an outlaw.

0:46:250:46:28

This wonderful room is the main chamber of the Barnstaple Guildhall

0:46:280:46:33

and it used to be the town's courtroom.

0:46:330:46:35

It's a wonderful place.

0:46:350:46:37

There are galleries for witnesses and tiered seating.

0:46:370:46:39

You get a real sense that this was once

0:46:390:46:42

the beating heart of law and order in the town.

0:46:420:46:45

Now, also, all around the walls, are portraits of mayors,

0:46:450:46:48

local dignitaries, people who donated money to the town.

0:46:480:46:53

And there's one very important one missing - Thomas Benson.

0:46:530:46:56

Benson was never seen again.

0:47:020:47:04

Rumours circulated that he had secretly returned

0:47:040:47:07

using his influential contacts.

0:47:070:47:09

But in truth, he lived out his days in Oporto

0:47:090:47:12

and is buried in an unmarked grave by the river there.

0:47:120:47:16

Thomas Benson, a man outwardly respectable,

0:47:160:47:19

but appearances can be deceptive.

0:47:190:47:21

Benson had been able to hide in plain sight,

0:47:240:47:27

because public life was so corrupted in Georgian Britain.

0:47:270:47:30

Take the sinister case of Edinburgh town councillor

0:47:330:47:37

William "Deacon" Brodie, Scotland's most wanted outlaw.

0:47:370:47:41

A man who was an upright member of Edinburgh society during the day

0:47:420:47:46

and an unscrupulous, ruthless and immoral felon at night.

0:47:460:47:51

It seemed as if every door in the town was open to him,

0:47:510:47:55

especially after dark.

0:47:550:47:57

The title "Deacon" didn't come from the church,

0:48:020:48:05

but because he was a master craftsman - a cabinet-maker -

0:48:050:48:09

and he was head of the Woodworkers' and Carpenters' Guild.

0:48:090:48:12

He appeared to be a sober and industrious man.

0:48:120:48:16

On the Royal Mile in Edinburgh is a pub commemorating William Brodie

0:48:210:48:26

as one of the city's least-favourite sons.

0:48:260:48:29

On the front of the sign is Brodie, elegant and respectable.

0:48:290:48:34

On the reverse is the dark side of the man -

0:48:340:48:36

a thief and a burglar, and a very cunning one at that.

0:48:360:48:40

This is William Brodie

0:48:430:48:45

and here, through this wonderful old Edinburgh arch,

0:48:450:48:48

used to be his workshop, where, under Brodie's supervision,

0:48:480:48:51

the finest furniture for the finest houses in Edinburgh would be made.

0:48:510:48:55

Brodie's house just across the street from the pub

0:48:570:49:00

no longer exists, but his workshop does.

0:49:000:49:03

Brodie's workshop is now a rather nice cafe,

0:49:060:49:09

but it's here that he would have made his furniture,

0:49:090:49:12

work which included the fitting and repair of locks.

0:49:120:49:16

So, like Jack Sheppard, his trade gave him the necessary skills

0:49:160:49:19

to get into and out of any property he chose.

0:49:190:49:23

But unlike Jack, Brodie was supposed to be a respectable man.

0:49:230:49:27

William Brodie came from an upstanding local family.

0:49:300:49:34

It's strange that a man with apparently so much to lose

0:49:340:49:38

should risk it all on a life of robbery.

0:49:380:49:41

But away from refined society,

0:49:410:49:43

Brodie kept two mistresses with children.

0:49:430:49:46

Both were unknown to his friends and his parents,

0:49:460:49:49

and both were unknown to each other.

0:49:490:49:52

He liked to gamble, he was particularly fond of cockfighting

0:49:520:49:56

and he also liked to drink.

0:49:560:49:58

This was a man who was addicted to living beyond his means.

0:49:580:50:02

By 1786, Brodie was facing a deepening cash crisis.

0:50:030:50:09

His appetite for women, drink and the gaming tables

0:50:090:50:12

was driving him to bankruptcy.

0:50:120:50:14

He needed another trade and his access to clients' keys

0:50:140:50:19

gave him the means to embark on a nightlife of thieving.

0:50:190:50:22

As Brodie himself said,

0:50:250:50:27

"Why break in, when you can walk in?"

0:50:270:50:30

A one-man crimewave gripped the Old Town.

0:50:330:50:37

Brodie was twice blessed - he had the stolen property,

0:50:370:50:41

and gained extra work providing new locks

0:50:410:50:43

and stronger windows for the victims of his crimes.

0:50:430:50:47

The two sides of Brodie's personality

0:50:500:50:53

are captured in the story of an exquisite cabinet

0:50:530:50:56

that survives in the Writers' Museum in Edinburgh.

0:50:560:50:59

A piece of craftsmanship that would link him

0:50:590:51:02

to one of the most famous literary works of the next century.

0:51:020:51:06

This fine cabinet was in the childhood bedroom of writer

0:51:060:51:09

Robert Louis Stevenson

0:51:090:51:11

and it was made by our very own William "Deacon" Brodie.

0:51:110:51:15

Stevenson, as a child, became fascinated with Brodie's story,

0:51:190:51:23

particularly with his dual personality -

0:51:230:51:26

and it's said that it inspired him

0:51:260:51:28

to write the story of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde -

0:51:280:51:31

a man who embodied both good and evil.

0:51:310:51:33

It's a macabre object for a small boy's bedroom.

0:51:380:51:41

Brodie was a risk-taker.

0:51:470:51:49

Having tasted the life of crime, he overreached himself.

0:51:490:51:53

Everybody knew that, when somebody got caught,

0:51:550:51:58

the best way to avoid prosecution was to shop your comrades,

0:51:580:52:03

your erstwhile associates.

0:52:030:52:04

Like many criminals of his time,

0:52:040:52:06

Brodie's mistake, I suppose,

0:52:060:52:09

is becoming somewhat overconfident

0:52:090:52:12

and not being too careful about who he chooses to work with.

0:52:120:52:17

Brodie assembled a small gang to effect his robberies -

0:52:190:52:23

Andrew Ainslie, George Smith and John Brown,

0:52:230:52:27

a convicted thief already on the run from transportation.

0:52:270:52:30

Their ambition was soon to outgrow their ability.

0:52:310:52:34

The Edinburgh Excise office - the tax office - was in this court,

0:52:360:52:39

and on the night of 5th of March 1788,

0:52:390:52:42

it was to be the location of Brodie's most daring raid -

0:52:420:52:45

and his undoing.

0:52:450:52:47

The Excise office was known to store large sums of money,

0:52:470:52:50

and that night, £600 in cash was to be kept on site.

0:52:500:52:54

Brodie planned it well.

0:52:570:52:59

He had cased the joint and made a copy of the main door key.

0:52:590:53:03

Brodie and his three accomplices,

0:53:070:53:10

cloaked and masked and with dimmed lanterns,

0:53:100:53:13

made their way down the alley.

0:53:130:53:15

Brodie had been drinking heavily, which was his first mistake.

0:53:150:53:19

He only had a key to the outer door, so they had to force the inner door.

0:53:190:53:23

They were then disturbed

0:53:230:53:25

by the unexpected arrival of Mr James Bonar,

0:53:250:53:27

a bank official who had forgotten some papers.

0:53:270:53:30

In a panic, they knocked Bonar aside and they fled.

0:53:300:53:34

To save his own skin, Brodie then split from the others,

0:53:350:53:38

so he could establish an alibi, but that was his main mistake.

0:53:380:53:43

In showing no loyalty to his accomplices,

0:53:430:53:45

they would then show no loyalty to him,

0:53:450:53:48

particularly when there was a large reward on offer.

0:53:480:53:51

The weak link was Brown.

0:53:530:53:55

John Brown was already on the run, having escaped from transportation.

0:53:560:54:01

Turning king's evidence against Brodie might lead to a pardon -

0:54:010:54:06

a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

0:54:060:54:08

Brown chanced it and Brodie fled.

0:54:090:54:12

First to York, then London and on to Amsterdam.

0:54:130:54:17

All with George Williamson,

0:54:170:54:19

one of Scotland's chief law officers, hot on his trail.

0:54:190:54:23

The remarkable thing was that he ran, but didn't get away.

0:54:260:54:30

Although he escaped Edinburgh,

0:54:300:54:31

the Scottish constables had new allies in the South.

0:54:310:54:35

Once he's absconded to Amsterdam,

0:54:350:54:38

the Bow Street office in London tries to engineer getting him back.

0:54:380:54:42

Now, this is in a period

0:54:420:54:44

before we have formal extradition orders with anyone,

0:54:440:54:47

but the Bow Street office takes initiatives.

0:54:470:54:50

So they intercept his correspondence,

0:54:500:54:53

in which he gives away that he's in Ostend, on his way to Amsterdam.

0:54:530:54:56

They think, "Well, we'll correspond with the magistrates of Amsterdam

0:54:560:54:59

"and see if we can get him picked up and held,

0:54:590:55:02

"while we come over and collect him."

0:55:020:55:03

It sounds like formal extradition - it wasn't formal at all -

0:55:030:55:06

it was a one-off, actually.

0:55:060:55:08

Brought back to Edinburgh on an overcast August morning in 1788,

0:55:120:55:17

Brodie and his co-accused, Smith, faced a packed court.

0:55:170:55:21

Brodie was described as "a sometime wright and a cabinet-maker".

0:55:260:55:30

The first witness for the King was John Brown.

0:55:310:55:35

His evidence would prove fatal for both men.

0:55:350:55:38

They had robbed together and would hang together.

0:55:390:55:42

"Deacon" Brodie was destined to die on a scaffold

0:55:480:55:51

that he had helped build himself.

0:55:510:55:53

After all, it was his civic duty, as an upstanding member of the city,

0:55:530:55:56

to make sure that habitual criminals got their just desserts.

0:55:560:56:00

40,000 people came to watch here,

0:56:000:56:03

just yards from his workshop and home.

0:56:030:56:05

As he climbed the scaffold, Deacon seemed relaxed.

0:56:050:56:08

He had an easy manner about him.

0:56:080:56:10

Even at this late hour, had he one last trick up his sleeve?

0:56:100:56:14

Well, his collar?

0:56:140:56:16

Rumours circulated that Brodie had one final devious plan

0:56:170:56:21

to cheat the inevitable.

0:56:210:56:24

There were stories of a secret steel collar,

0:56:240:56:26

stories of a special deal with the hangman,

0:56:260:56:29

stories he had cheated death.

0:56:290:56:32

All fanciful.

0:56:320:56:33

His body was cut down by his friends

0:56:380:56:40

and rushed back through this alley to his workshop,

0:56:400:56:43

where there were desperate attempts to revive him.

0:56:430:56:45

But the hangman had done his job well

0:56:450:56:48

and William "Deacon" Brodie was no more.

0:56:480:56:50

One of the saddest mementos of Brodie's life is this,

0:56:580:57:02

the Brodie family Bible.

0:57:020:57:04

It's rather fragile, but beautifully preserved

0:57:040:57:06

and one of the prize artefacts here in the Museum of Edinburgh.

0:57:060:57:10

Now, towards the back are the details of the Brodie family tree.

0:57:100:57:14

Francis Brodie, William's father,

0:57:140:57:16

has faithfully recorded the details of his marriage to Cicel Grant,

0:57:160:57:20

but also the birth of his sons.

0:57:200:57:23

Well, one son, actually -

0:57:230:57:25

because the details of his first son William,

0:57:250:57:28

presumably the apple of their eye,

0:57:280:57:30

have been erased from their memory.

0:57:300:57:33

But not from history.

0:57:330:57:35

By the end of the 18th century,

0:57:390:57:41

it was no longer possible to live outside the law.

0:57:410:57:44

The age of the dashing highwayman...

0:57:450:57:48

..and that of the swashbuckling pirate had passed.

0:57:500:57:53

Urban crime and fraud would, of course, continue,

0:57:560:58:00

but policing and police detection meant that,

0:58:000:58:02

although the rogue could still break the law,

0:58:020:58:05

he could no longer live outside the law.

0:58:050:58:08

The modern world brought to an end

0:58:100:58:12

the criminal as some sort of good guy or pantomime villain.

0:58:120:58:16

But our more traditional rogues gave us ripping yarns,

0:58:160:58:20

dark morality tales

0:58:200:58:22

and the unlikeliest of escapades.

0:58:220:58:24

And you know, that's good enough for me.

0:58:240:58:27

MUSIC: I Fought The Law by The Clash

0:58:300:58:33

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