Jonathan Wild: Conman and Cutpurse

John Van der Kiste

May 2009 · Amberley Publishing Limited

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Jonathan Wild (born c.1683), probably Britain's most well-known criminal of the 18th century, was known as the director of a 'corporation of thieves'. He learned his 'trade' while serving a sentence in a debtor's prison, and established a curious reputation as 'Thief Taker General of Great Britain and Ireland'. He directed a large band of thieves and felons who dealt in stolen goods, kept the stolen goods himself and waited until the crime and theft was announced in the papers, at which point he would claim that his agents had found them, and would return them to their rightful owners, demanding a fee. Any criminals who would not comply with his organisation were betrayed by Wild to the police. He informed on about 120 men during his career, and all went to the gallows. He himself was arrested on a minor felony charge, found guilty and hanged at Tyburn in May 1725.His gang included Jack Sheppard, housebreaker, Nathaniel Hawes, highwayman, William Burridge, horse stealer, and others, all executed in the 1720s.

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John Van der Kiste was born in Wendover, Buckinghamshire. He has published over thirty books, including royal and historical biography, local history, true crime, music and fiction. He has contributed to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and Guinness Rockopedia, articles and reviews to various national and local journals and websites and booklet notes for CDs. He was a consultant for the BBC TV documentary The King, the Kaiser and the Tsar, (first shown in 2003). He lives in Devon.