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The thief-taker hangings : how Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Wild, and Jack Sheppard captivated London and created the celebrity criminal / Aaron Skirboll.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Guilford, Connecticut : Lyons Press, an imprint of Globe Pequot Press, [2020]Edition: Lyons Press paperback editionDescription: xvii, 302 pages : illustrations ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781493050000
  • 1493050001
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
Introduction: A brawling back-alley bunch -- Prologue: The triple tree -- The dissenter -- The streets of London -- Jonathan Wild comes to the city -- The Review -- The marshal and the buckle-maker -- Thief-catcher general of Great Britain and Ireland -- Jack Sheppard, apprentice -- The regulator -- Crusoe and Flanders -- The black lion -- Celebrity gangbuster -- Cleverest of all -- Wild versus Sheppard -- The trial of Jack Sheppard -- Mr. Applebee's man -- Blueskin's penknife -- The castle -- Forlorn at the triple tree -- The downfall of Jonathan Wild -- The trial of Jonathan Wild -- Hanging the thief-catcher -- "To deliver myself from this death of a life" -- Epilogue: Legends -- Appendix: Canting dictionary.
Summary: Chronicles the invention of scandal journalism by Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Wild, and Jack Sheppard.Summary: In the early 1700s, lawlessness ruled England. Highwaymen, thieves, and prostitutes thrived. Tawdry tales of fearless criminals proliferated, giving birth to a new medium: the newspaper. When notorious burglar Jack Sheppard finally met the hangman, street singers warbled ballads about the housebreaker whom no prison could hold. But before his execution, he told his life story to a writer who also had seen the inside of Newgate Prison. Daniel Defoe had done hard time for sedition and bankruptcy and saw how jail corrupted the poor. Most came out thieves, but he came out a journalist. Six months later, the author of Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders covered another death at the hanging tree. Jonathan Wild--his body covered in scars from dagger, sword, and gun, his fractured skull patched with silver plates--had all but invented organized crime and the double-cross. He cultivated thieves, took a cut of their loot, and eventually betrayed them for his reward and their deaths. But one man refused to play his game. Jack Sheppard hadn't taken orders from Wild, the self-proclaimed "thief-taker general," and the two-faced bounty hunter took it personally. But Wild's arrogance got the better of him, and his duplicity soon came to light. He quickly became the most despised man in London. On his way to swing, a raging mob hurled rocks at him, and whatever else they could find. Defoe once again got the scoop, and tabloid journalism as we know it began.--From publisher description.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 070.4493 S628 Available 33111009639507
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

In the early 1700s, lawlessness ruled England. Highwaymen, thieves, and prostitutes thrived. Tawdry tales of fearless criminals proliferated, giving birth to a new medium: the newspaper. Daniel Defoe, the author who would write Robinson Crusoe, had done hard time for sedition and witnessed how jail corrupted the poor. Most came out thieves, but he came out a journalist. Others who came out of prison returned to their lives of crime, including Jonathan Wild. He was a man covered in scars and had a fractured skull patched with silver plates. He had all but invented organized crime and the double cross. Jonathan Wild cultivated thieves, took a cut of their loot, and then eventually betrayed them-for his reward and their deaths. But one man refused to play his game. Notorious burglar Jack Sheppard hadn't taken orders from Wild, the self-proclaimed "thief-taker general," and the two-faced bounty hunter took it personally. Sheppard was known as the housebreaker whom no prison could hold. His final jailbreak took him through six successive locked rooms, after which he shimmied down a blanket from the prison roof to the street below. When he was finally caught and sentenced to hang, he told his life story to a writer who also had seen the inside of Newgate Prison. Daniel Defoe reported the treacherous intertwining stories of both Wild and Sheppard, and tabloid journalism as we know it began. Book jacket.

Chronicles the invention of scandal journalism by Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Wild, and Jack Sheppard.

In the early 1700s, lawlessness ruled England. Highwaymen, thieves, and prostitutes thrived. Tawdry tales of fearless criminals proliferated, giving birth to a new medium: the newspaper. When notorious burglar Jack Sheppard finally met the hangman, street singers warbled ballads about the housebreaker whom no prison could hold. But before his execution, he told his life story to a writer who also had seen the inside of Newgate Prison. Daniel Defoe had done hard time for sedition and bankruptcy and saw how jail corrupted the poor. Most came out thieves, but he came out a journalist. Six months later, the author of Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders covered another death at the hanging tree. Jonathan Wild--his body covered in scars from dagger, sword, and gun, his fractured skull patched with silver plates--had all but invented organized crime and the double-cross. He cultivated thieves, took a cut of their loot, and eventually betrayed them for his reward and their deaths. But one man refused to play his game. Jack Sheppard hadn't taken orders from Wild, the self-proclaimed "thief-taker general," and the two-faced bounty hunter took it personally. But Wild's arrogance got the better of him, and his duplicity soon came to light. He quickly became the most despised man in London. On his way to swing, a raging mob hurled rocks at him, and whatever else they could find. Defoe once again got the scoop, and tabloid journalism as we know it began.--From publisher description.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: A brawling back-alley bunch -- Prologue: The triple tree -- The dissenter -- The streets of London -- Jonathan Wild comes to the city -- The Review -- The marshal and the buckle-maker -- Thief-catcher general of Great Britain and Ireland -- Jack Sheppard, apprentice -- The regulator -- Crusoe and Flanders -- The black lion -- Celebrity gangbuster -- Cleverest of all -- Wild versus Sheppard -- The trial of Jack Sheppard -- Mr. Applebee's man -- Blueskin's penknife -- The castle -- Forlorn at the triple tree -- The downfall of Jonathan Wild -- The trial of Jonathan Wild -- Hanging the thief-catcher -- "To deliver myself from this death of a life" -- Epilogue: Legends -- Appendix: Canting dictionary.

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