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JONATHAN WILD |
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HENRY FIELDING -- A NOVELIST |
Henry Fielding, a novelist, was the
earliest expert of the underworld. He was an appointed magistrate at Bow
Street in 1749. He also founded the detective force the Bow Street Runners. He
published a pamphlet in which he wrote about the gangs of thieves and beggars
which plagued London in 1751. He wrote, and I quote, 'The Innocent are put in
Terror, affronted and alarmed with Threads and Execrations, endangered with
loaded Pistols, beat with Bludgeons and hacked with Cutlasses, of which the
Loss of Health, of Limbs, and often of Life, is the Consequence; and all
without any Respect of Age, Dignity, or Sex...'
Fielding knew about the activities of
'a great Gang of Rogues, whose Number falls little short of a Hundred, who are
incorporated in one Body, have Officers and a Treasury' and he was outraged
about it. That gang had organised Theft and Robbery into a regular system.
Gang members often avoid punishment
even if they were arrested. If they failed to rescue a prisoner (which doesn't happen
very often) they then bribed the Prosecution or organized false witnesses.
The greatest operator in the 18th
century was Jonathan Wild. Born in Wolverhampton in 1682 and since he was
trained as a buckle-maker he set up shop in Birmingham. He got bored and left
his wife and young family to run off to London. There he lived a life of luxury
and landed in prison because of his debts.
When he came out in 1714, he opened
an inn. However, this was a cover up. He knew that thieves had problems with
disposing goods they stole. He accepted the goods and sold them back to the
rightful owners. It was clever and daring but profitable. He then opened an
'Office for the Recovery of Lost and Stolen Property'. People could go there
and buy back their stolen property. Wild split the money with the thieves. The
criminal who didn't want to join and disagreed with his money, were dealt with.
He would betray him to the authorities.
He became a more than well known
figure as the 'Thief-taker General of Great Britain and Ireland'. He also
hunted his rivals down and turned them in for reward money. His luck ran out
when in 1725 he helped a highwayman to escape. All his other activities were
found out and he was tried and hanged. His last act was that he picked the
chaplain's pocket on the way to the gallows.
Wild was cunning and ruthless but his
notoriety captures the imagination of people. It inspired Henry Fielding to
write a novel 'Jonathan Wild'. The 'Beggar's Opera by John Gray's, a musical
satire was based on his exploits and the underworld. It was staged in 1728.
Many other criminals managed to get a
similar hold and fired the imagination of writers and film producers. Dick
Turpin the highwayman, the 19th century Australian bank robber Ned Kelly and
American outlaws Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
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