ExecutedToday.com » 1725: Jonathan Wild, Thief-Taker General and Receiver of Stolen Goods 1725: Jonathan Wild, Thief-Taker General and Receiver of Stolen Goods May 24th, 2010 Anthony Vaver (Thanks to Anthony Vaver, author and publisher of EarlyAmericanCrime.com for the guest post. Vaver is the author of Bound With An Iron Chain: The Untold Story of How the British Transported 50,000 Convicts to Colonial America . -ed.) A buzz filled the air as people stood on their toes and filled every window in an attempt to get a glimpse of the great Jonathan Wild as he was paraded through the London streets on Monday, May 24, 1725. Despite the festive atmosphere surrounding the procession, Wild appeared to be unmoved by the shouts of the crowd, his attention focused instead on the Bible held open in his hands. After traveling about a third of the way to his destination, the procession stopped at the Griffin Tavern, so that Wild could drink a glass of wine.

Not long after leaving the Griffin Tavern, a rock thrown from a window hit Wild in the head, and blood began to pour down his face. The crowd roared with approval and people started to hurl insults at him, along with more stones and dirt. The cart stopped twice more before reaching its final destination: first at the White Lion, where Wild drank another glass of wine, and once again at the Oxford Arms, home of the bare-knuckle boxing champion James Figg , where Wild drank a tankard of beer and even more wine. His next and final stop was Tyburn Hill, where he was scheduled to be executed. Convicts often stopped for drinks at various taverns during their march from Newgate Prison to Tyburn to be executed, so the fact that Wild stopped at three along the way to his execution was not unusual. What was unusual, however, was the fact that he was able to hold down his liquor, given that the previous night at two in the morning he had tried to kill himself in his jail cell by drinking a large dose of laudanum, a concoction of opium dissolved in alcohol.

Wild was already in a half-stupefied state before his slow journey to the gallows and his wine drinking had even begun. Wild’s dramatic execution marked a precipitous fall for a man who was perhaps the most influential person in England’s criminal justice system, even though he never held an official government position. As the self proclaimed “Thief-Taker General of Great Britain and Ireland,” Wild was instrumental in capturing and bringing to justice scores of petty thieves that plagued the London streets. He consulted the government on the passage of laws intended to encourage the capture of criminals. He also oversaw a vast criminal empire, the likes of which has never been duplicated. Wild ran an Office for the Recovery of Lost and Stolen Property where people could apply to him for help in recovering their possessions for a fee that fell below what it would cost them to replace the objects. Wild would then use his connections in the criminal underworld to recover the goods and return them to the owner. His business proved to be extremely popular. In addition to recovering lost and stolen property, Wild was particularly adept at catching and prosecuting criminals, a public service that enhanced his general reputation and gained the approval of the authorities.

In the absence of a true police force, the government relied on rewards to encourage people to police the streets themselves. Anyone who could capture a thief and convict him or her with evidence received a reward of £40, far more than what most people in England could earn in a year. Wild benefited from this policy by collecting a fee every time he was able to prosecute a criminal. His office, then, essentially served as the de facto “Scotland Yard” of the day. Wild’s knack for catching criminals brought him great renown. He often appeared at trials to give evidence against the criminals he helped to capture. He got to know the bailiffs of the prisons and could be seen socializing in the local taverns with Justices of the Peace. He entertained government officials in his house. The public remained blissfully unaware that there was another, more sinister, side to Wild . In point of fact, the man supposedly responsible for clearing the streets of criminals was also the head of a vast criminal empire and a well-oiled criminal machine. Wild’s Lost Property Office turned out to be a clearinghouse for stolen goods that members of his own organized gang had themselves acquired.

The thieves he apprehended, supposedly for the good of the community, were fall guys; they either belonged to rival gangs, or were members of his own gang who tried to double-cross him, quit his business, or had ceased to be more valuable than the £40 reward given by the government for capturing and convicting a criminal. Wild sent many of these criminals to the gallows by appearing in court to give evidence — real or otherwise — against them. The unofficial head of crime prevention was in actuality the foremost perpetrator of crime and organizer of criminals in London and throughout Great Britain. Wild’s downfall began when he helped prosecute the thief and burglar Jack Sheppard , whose daring and dramatic escapes from the notorious Newgate Prison turned him into a folk hero. Public opinion soured on the “Thief-Taker General” and his involvement with Sheppard’s execution … and when details of Wild’s criminal operation emerged after his arrest for receiving stolen goods, the public was furious. When Wild finally reached the gallows at Tyburn, the noise from the crowd was so loud that the Ordinary of Newgate found it almost impossible to say his prayers with Wild and the three other criminals scheduled to die.

The hangman, Richard Arnet, who years before had been a guest at Wild’s wedding, tried to give Wild as much time as he needed before preparing him for execution. The crowd, however, grew restless and threatened to tear Arnet to pieces if he did not proceed in carrying out his duties immediately. Reluctantly, Arnet placed a noose around Wild’s neck. A great shout went up from the crowd as the cart drove away leaving the convicts dangling from the ropes tied around their necks. After the drop, Wild desperately grabbed onto Robert Harpham , who was being executed for coining, in an attempt to lift himself up and slacken the rope connected to his neck. Arnet intervened and separated the two, and after a few minutes, the life of Jonathan Wild came to an end at the age of about 42. Almost as soon as Wild’s body was cut down, a rumor began to circulate that it was being carried off to the Surgeon’s Hall for dissection. The bodies of executed criminals were often used for such a medical purpose, but the practice usually led to a struggle between the surgeons, who were trying to take the body of the criminal away, and the disapproving crowd.

In this case, Jonathan’s wife, Mary Wild, had arranged to circulate the rumor that he had been turned over to the surgeons as a ruse, so that his body could be properly buried without interference. Her plan didn’t work. Three or four days after it was buried Wild’s body was dug up from the St. Pancras church yard by the surgeons. Today, Jonathan Wild’s skeleton can be seen on display at the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons in Lincoln’s Inn Fields. The skeleton of Jonathan Wild at the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons in Lincoln’s Inn Fields. On this day..

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The first underworld boss in London, Wild was a magistrate that caught criminals with ease. Perhaps a little too easily A Thief-Catcher and a Thief A Thief-Catcher and a Thief by RupertTaylor Jonathan Wild prowled the streets of London in the 18th century operating on both sides of the law In his day, Jonathan Wild was a man of great influence. In a city plagued with crime, Wild brought dozens of petty thieves and rogues to justice; a public service that brought him the gratitude of the general public and the authorities. The government of the day sought his advice on laws aimed at curbing the crime wave. He operated a business that found and returned stolen goods to their grateful owners for a fee. Behind the scenes, Jonathan Wild masterminded a vast criminal empire that involved robbery, extortion, blackmail, receiving stolen goods, prostitution, and any other means of earning a dishonest living he could think of. Jonathan Wild’s Chequered Career A graduate of the university of crime, otherwise known as prison Born in 1682, Jonathan Wild abandoned a wife and child in his mid-20s and headed for London. It didn’t take him long to end up in debtor’s prison where he mingled with members of the criminal class.

He put his four years in prison to good use learning the dark arts of the underworld, and cultivating relationships that he thought might be useful later. He became friends with Mary Milliner, a prostitute. When they got out of prison, Mary and Jonathan set up shop together in Covent Garden. While Mary was entertaining her clients in dark alleys, Jonathan would pounce out of the shadows and rob them. Men with their trousers round their ankles were unlikely to give hot pursuit. The scheme was so good that the pair soon had enough money to take over a pub, the King’s Head, which became a den for thieves and other ne’er-do-wells. Vic Reeves Rogues Gallery Receiver of Stolen Goods Wild expands his empire Jonathan Wild probably heard complaints from his regulars about the rotten deals they got when selling their stolen goods, so he dreamed up a scheme to help them. He opened an office and offered to retrieve stolen goods for clients for a fee. At the same time, he offered to take stolen items from his pub customers and give them a slice of the reward money. When victims came into his office asking for help in retrieving a valuable painting or a snuff box of sentimental value, Wild probably already had it or knew who did.

Rewards were thankfully handed over and everybody was happy. The business boomed and soon Wild was operating gangs that were stealing to order. He ran prostitution rings and protection rackets. He became the king of London’s criminal underworld, while his public persona was that of an implacable crime fighter. Thief-Taker General Many learned it was a bad idea to cross Jonathan Wild Before an organized police force was established in Britain the authorities relied on the work of thief-takers to bring miscreants to justice. The people who engaged in this dubious craft were a rough sort with connections in criminal circles who were quite open to committing skulduggery themselves. They operated as a kind of neighbourhood watch with fangs. They made good money too; the reward for catching a highwayman was £40, with an additional £100 if the blackguard had committed robbery close to central London. It could take an ordinary workman several years to earn that kind of money. As an added bonus, the thief-taker would get a pardon for any crimes he might have committed; tacit acknowledgement by the justice system that the trade was likely to attract an unsavoury type of character. Few were more unsavoury than Jonathan Wild.

Wild was merciless with those who had done him wrong. Doing wrong to Wild usually involved being a member of a rival gang or refusing to submit to his authoritarian rule. When Wild’s wrath was stirred the gangster turned gangster-catcher, an activity that earned him the unofficial title of “Thief-taker General of Great Britain and Ireland.” He is said to have sent 120 people to the gallows and to have personally attended many of the hangings. Jonathan Wild is Undone Crime spree comes to an end Jonathan Wild had enjoyed a prosecution-free run of seven years, living in grand style with a higher-class of mistress than Mary Milliner. But, by the winter of 1724/25, the authorities were getting suspicious and public opinion towards him had turned sour. One of his catches, Jack Sheppard, had become a bit of a folk hero through his daring escapes from custody. Wild’s role in Sheppard’s execution did not sit well with the public. Whispers from foes led the authorities to a warehouse stuffed with stolen goods. Wild tried to pin the ownership of all the booty on one of his cohorts but that didn't work. He was found guilty of theft and sentenced to death.

Jonathan Wild’s Final Journey A failed suicide attempt followed by a successful hanging With hours to go before the trip to his execution at Tyburn, Jonathan Wild swallowed a large dose of opium mixed with alcohol. It wasn’t enough to kill but sufficient to make him groggy and delirious. However, nothing could upset the grim timetable for his death and that of three others on May 24, 1725. The open cart rumbled out of Newgate to start its two-mile journey to Tyburn Tree. The trip would take about three hours past crowds, giving citizens the opportunity to express their feelings towards the condemned. Flamboyant and daring scoundrels often were cheered; there was no such sympathy for Jonathan Wild. He was pelted with feces, dead animals, rotten fruit, and anything else obnoxious that came to hand. The cart, as was customary, made three stops at pubs on the way so the condemned could fortify themselves to face the ordeal ahead. At Tyburn, one of the largest crowds ever waited to watch the downfall of a man once revered and now hated. Probably because of the wine, beer, and opium swilling around inside him Wild did not give the usual final speech.

When the cart pulled away and the four convicts were dangling on the end of their ropes, Wild tried to save himself by grabbing onto the man next to him, one Robert Harpham. The executioner, Richard Arnet, separated the two and soon enough Jonathan Wild stopped kicking and was dead at the age of 42. Sources h2g2 - Jonathan Wild - London's First Organised Crime Lord - Edited Entry 4 Conversations 'Thief-takers' were the men and women who operated in England in the days before there was an established police force and a public prosecutor 1 . Effectively created by the laws of the time - specifically the 1697 Act of Parliament, which offered rewards for the capture and successful prosecution of highwaymen - they captured those who had committed crimes, and either handed them over to the authorities, or prosecuted them themselves. There have been women thief-takers, but the majority were men, and they worked for the cash rewards offered, as a very good living could be made this way.

Highwaymen, coiners and burglars were worth £40 each (plus any equipment the criminal may have been using), with an additional £100 if robbery was committed within five miles of Charing Cross . This kind of sum would normally take three to four years to earn for the ordinary man. The reward also carried a free pardon for any offences the thief-taker may have committed. If the thief-taker died, any reward would be passed on to his descendents. Although offering a reward was one of the few ways to encourage the catching of criminals and the breaking up of gangs without an organised police force, it paradoxically also encouraged corruption, blackmail and perjury. Rather than being an early form of 'Neighbourhood Watch', it caused criminals to turn on each other, creating suspicion and violence, and encouraged them to work both sides of the law. Thief-takers were very unpopular. 'Thief-taker General' Jonathan Wild was the most famous thief-taker of the time. In the early 18th Century he captured and brought to justice many London criminals. What was slow to come to the attention of the law was that he was at the same time involved in many criminal activities of his own.

Born in about 1682, he started his career in Wolverhampton as a buckle-maker. He moved to London when he was in his mid-twenties (leaving behind a wife and child), and soon found himself in a debtor's prison. Mingling with criminals for the two to four years he was incarcerated, Wild made sure that he not only learnt much from the others, but also courted the acquaintance of those he felt would be useful in the future. In his last few months inside, he met Mary Milliner, a prostitute with plenty of underworld contacts. She became his mistress, and when they left prison they set up home in Covent Garden. At first Wild returned to buckle-making, but the temptation of easy money soon became too much to resist, and while Mary was busy entertaining 'clients' in dark alleys, Wild would rob them. This led to them having enough money to take over a drinking house which was used by many other criminals - the King's Head. He began buying their stolen goods, and this was the start of his double life. Wild set up an office in Newtoner's Lane and invited victims of crime to come to him with details of any stolen goods, and promised them that he would recover them.

His popularity as a receiver of stolen goods meant that he often either had the goods in his possession already, or knew who had stolen them. One of his scams was to order the theft of specific goods so that he could return them to their grateful owners. He managed to please the thieves by paying for their goods, and please the victims, by reuniting them with their property (at a fee, of course). The thieves were also happy because it was a lot easier to steal small goods of sentimental value for which a good reward would be offered, than have to try to steal more valuable property that could be heavily protected. London's First Criminal Underworld Boss Wild began to expand his empire - he divided London into districts, and set up gangs in each district, screening them from justice. He arranged for 'specialist' gangs, that robbed churches, or followed the various country fairs, gangs of conmen, gangs who ruled the prostitutes, gangs who collected protection money to name but a few. He did not lead any gangs - he merely organised and advised them. Anyone who didn't do his bidding, or crossed him, risked being reported to the authorities. They were framed with the assistance of witnesses who belonged to Wild.

Once convicted, they could not testify against Wild himself in any subsequent court case. The same happened to those who operated outside of his empire. The rewards he gained from bringing criminals to justice helped him to rise in power among the criminal underworld. Favours done for him were never forgotten, and his loyalty to those who earned his respect never wavered. Treachery was likewise never forgotten, and he was merciless in doling out revenge. He also turned in some of those depending on him to protect them from the law when he became tired of them, sometimes arresting them himself. He often joined the crowds at Tyburn when one of 'his' criminals was being executed, and he enjoyed passing on the tales of the men and women who were there due to his relentless pursuit of the criminal classes. He avoided handling stolen goods himself, but had artists and craftsmen to alter and reset jewellery and objects of art. He owned warehouses to store large amounts of goods, and he kept a sloop for carrying stolen items into Flanders and Holland; smuggling brandy, linen and lace to London on its return. He passed on information about wealthy travellers to highwaymen.

His empire was so successful, that no highwaymen were allowed to operate without his protection, and none were executed between 1723 and 1725. He moved out of the King's Head, took better premises in Old Bailey in 1719, and took a higher class mistress. His house was staffed by felons who had illegally returned from transportation 2 . Knowing that they would be turned in if they displeased him made them very hard-working. Wild wasn't entirely unnoticed by the authorities, although they hadn't been able to catch him getting up to anything. In 1717, the Solicitor-General Sir William Thompson was instrumental in securing an Act of Parliament which made it a capital offence to take a reward under the pretence of helping the owner to recover stolen goods, without prosecuting the thief. This Act became known as 'Jonathan Wild's Act' because it had been designed specifically with him in mind. Initially he was able to find ways around the new legislation. He had to close his office, although work carried on in the coffeehouses and on the streets, and sometimes adverts appeared in newspapers offering rewards with no questions asked.

He brazenly put himself under their noses when he petitioned the Lord Mayor for the Freedom of the City. He claimed that his efforts had resulted in more than 60 criminals being led to the gallows. He also claimed that he had spent five years apprehending and convicting felons who had returned from transportation before their time - all for no reward. He had certainly made the streets safer, as he cleared away many notorious gangs. Many of the wealthy London classes were impressed with him. He had consistently returned their stolen goods and accounts of criminals he had rounded up appeared in the papers every week. They saw him as their only defence against the crimewave of the time. His petition does not appear to have been rejected, but adjourned. We have no record of whether it was awarded, but he was paid a handsome sum by way of gratuity. In the spring of 1724 Wild had succeeded in apprehending a gang of around 100 street robbers in Southwark - most of them ended up in prison. It was clear evidence that not joining his empire meant certain prison for criminals.

Wild's Downfall After ruling London for seven years, Wild's empire began to crumble in the winter of 1724/5. The captain of his sloop, Roger Johnson, stopped the value of some missing lace from the mate's pay. The mate informed against the captain, and the sloop was exchequered 3 . The captain returned to his old life as a thief, and soon had a run-in with a man who kept a house of resort for thieves, Thomas Edwards. They turned each other in. Wild bailed his captain out, but as soon as the other man was released, he informed on Wild. Wild's warehouses were searched, and the goods confiscated. Pretending that the goods belonged to his captain, Wild arrested Edwards who was taken to the Marshalsea 4 . Wild was eventually convicted under the terms of the new act for procuring the return of some stolen lace. For the sake of £40, he lost everything. He had sent a couple who had been drinking in his pub into a lace shop in Seven Dials, and paid them for what they stole when they returned. While this was going on, Edwards had left the Marshalsea.

He found Johnson, who he immediately informed on. Johnson sent for Wild, who arrived and prompted a riot so that Johnson could escape. Wild then absconded as his part in the riot became known. On returning to his house three weeks later, he was arrested and taken to Newgate prison . In court he was accused of stealing the lace, and then returning it to the shop owner for the reward. As his past deeds were unravelled, the public turned against him and called for his blood. Nobody likes to be thought of as a fool. Despite defending himself vigorously, he was found guilty and sentenced to death. In the early hours before his execution, he tried to commit suicide with an overdose of laudanum. It didn't work, and on the morning of 24 May, 1725 he was taken to Tyburn , stupefied and delirious. On the journey, he was booed, pelted with a variety of missiles (including faeces and decomposing cat and dog corpses) and verbally abused. His execution attracted one of the largest ever crowds to Tyburn, and they rejoiced in his downfall and humiliation.

Perhaps because of the confusion caused by the drugs, Wild did not give the customary last speech before he was hanged. His body was cut down quickly before the surgeons' men could seize it and was buried in St Pancras Churchyard. A few days later the coffin was dug up, and found later in Kentish Town. His body had disappeared. An unidentified body washed up on the bank of the Thames near Whitehall within days,and the extremely hairy chest led some to believe that it was Wild. Fascinating Facts Wild's skeleton is on display at the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in Lincoln's Inn Fields, London(Catalogue number RCSHM/Osteo. 336) 5 . Whether this hairy-chested body was proven to be Wild, or whether the body was delivered to the surgeons the first time it disappeared, is unknown. The people of the time were notoriously afraid of allowing surgeons access to their bodies, or those of their loved ones, that they operated under a veil of secrecy. The Old Bailey Proceedings Online Project is now complete, and can be searched. Jonathan Wild appears in over 50 cases.

Further Reading The name of Jonathan Wild has been immortalised in a book written 20 years after his death. The History of the Life of the Late Mr Jonathan Wild the Great by Henry Fielding is still available to buy. It can be downloaded from Project Gutenberg 6 , as it is not covered by copyright. Mainly read by English Literature students, it should not be read as a biography, but as a political satire. 1 At the time, England was the only country in western Europe to have neither of these. 2 Transportation as a punishment involved sending convicts to North America (and later to Australia) for a set period of time (often seven or 14 years). It was not unknown for criminals to find a way to return. 3 A procedure which meant there would be an indefinite delay in obtaining the release of the ship, even if the case failed. The defendants would have no right or claim for damages or costs. 4 Originally used for persons guilty of offences on the high seas, and later a debtors prison. It is graphically described in Little Dorrit as Dickens's father had been imprisoned there and he visited frequently.

5 The Hunterian Museum is closed for refurbishment at the tine of writing but the skeleton will be redisplayed when the museum reopens in February 2005. 6 Project Gutenberg is the first and largest single collection of free electronic books (eBooks).

Question: Who was the 18th century underworld figure known as the Thief-taker general who was executed at Tyburn in 1725?
Answer: Jonathan Wild