Transcript
Lindsey Graham (0:08)
It's April 7, 1739 in the north of England on a chilly spring morning. Beneath skies of wintry gray, a horse drawn cart rattles through the streets of York. Sitting in the back is a condemned prisoner, the notorious highwayman Dick Turfin. Dick glances up at a large crowd that's lined the streets to witness his execution. Following behind the cart is a group of professional mourners Dick has hired for the occasion. They weep and clutch their hats. Dick closes his eyes and listens to the sound of their tears. Eventually, the cart reaches the scaffold at Knavesmeyer on the outskirts of York. The crowd falls silent as Dick steps onto the gallows, his head held high. Dick looks dapper in his new frock coat and shoes purchased specifically for this occasion. The hangman places a noose around Dick's neck as he takes a deep breath and looks out over the crowd. Pride swells in his chest that so many people have come to see him off. A smile flashes across his lips and then he steps off the scaffold. Dick Turpin is the most famous highwayman in history. In modern times, his name conjures up images of a heroic masked bandit who performed daring and dashing feats atop his trusty steed Black Bess. But the legend of Dick Turpin is a wildly romanticized falsehood, the result of writers and artists weaving fact with fiction and creating a hero out of the life of a villain. In reality, Dick Turpin was a brutish, hard hearted criminal, a violent thief who terrorized the lonely roads of England during his short but eventful life, which came to an end when Dick met the hangman's Noose on April 7, 1739. You're listening ad free on Wondery Plus.
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Lindsey Graham (2:35)
From Noiser and Airship I'm Lindsey Graham and this is History. Daily history is made every day on this podcast. Every day we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world. Today is April 7th, 1739. The execution of Dick Turpin. It's 1733, six years before Dick Turpin meets his end. In the village of Buckhurst Hill in Essex, A young butcher sharpens his cleaver. Blood splatters his apron and face as he hacks away at the carcass of a pig. But the butcher doesn't flinch. He's grown accustomed to the sight of blood. The butcher, Richard Dick Turpin, is just 27 years old, but he feels much older. Dick's been married for eight years and his marriage, like his work, has started to bore him. He makes ends meet here in Buckhurst Hill. But for an ambitious man like Dick, making ends meet just isn't enough. Dick hacks furiously at the carcass, his cleaver smashing through bone and sinew. He always has been a hard working, long law abiding man, but he has little to show for it and today he's had enough. He tosses down his cleaver in anger and a shadow falls across his chopping block. Dick looks up to see a group of strangers entering his shop. They're well dressed in frock coats and tricorn hats, but Dick knows these aren't respectable gentlemen. He recognizes one of them, a tall, dark haired criminal named Samuel Gregory. The leader of a notorious group of deer poachers known as the Ethics Gang. Gregory has come to Dick's shop with a business proposition. Gregory needs help chopping up and selling off his stolen goods and he wants Dick to do the dirty work. Hearing how much money Gregory is offering, Dick doesn't think twice. He says goodbye to his mundane law abiding existence and hello to a new life of crime. The Essex gang gets back to terrorizing local landowners and and Dick gets to work butchering and selling the stolen venison. Soon enough, the profits start rolling in. But it doesn't take long for the authorities in Buckhurst Hill to grow suspicious of the seemingly endless supply of meat in Dick's shop. Whispers begin to circulate that Dick is in league with the Essex gang. Fearing these rumors will reach the local constable, Dick decides to skip town. He abandons his wife and becomes a full time member of the Essex gang. By now, Samuel Gregory and his band of rogues have given up deer poaching and turned to the more lucrative business of armed robbery. So throughout the winter of 1734, Dick Gregory and the gang launch violent raids in the villages of Woodford, Croydon and Barking. Wielding pistols and wearing black masks over their eyes, they ransack homes and Rob the occupants. With their purses full, the robbers ride off to their hideout in nearby Epping Forest. In his new criminal occupation, Dick excels. He's ditched the butcher's apron and replaced it with a frock coat with shiny brass buttons and a black tricorn hat. People used to ignore Dick Turpin, but now they fear him. Later that winter, on February 1, in the village of Loughton in Essex, Dick and five other members of the Essex gang break into the home of an elderly widow. When she refuses to tell them where her money is, Dick grabs the old lady and holds her over the fireplace, threatening to burn her alive if she doesn't cough up the cash. There's a crazed look in Dick's eye, a wild exuberance that makes the other robbers howl with menacing laughter. Terrified, the widow gives up her money and the thieves gallop away. Three days later, on February 4th, Dick, Samuel Gregory and other gang members break into the farmhouse of a 70 year old man named Joseph Lawrence. Once again, Dick demonstrates an aptitude for sadistic violence. He pulls Lawrence's pants down around his ankles, then pours boiling water over the old man's head before making off with his money. Before long, the Essex gang has accumulated a sizable fortune. But their violent crime spree is about to come to an end. On February 11, two members of the Essex gang are drinking in a public house in London when one of the customers recognizes them from the robbery at Joseph Lawrence's farmhouse. Both men are arrested and one of them starts naming the names of their fellow gang members. The next day, Dick Turpin's name and description appears in the London Gazette alongside a warrant for his arrest. When Dick sees it, he immediately flees London, warning the other members of the Essex gang to do the same. But while Dick will escape the authorities, the others will not be so lucky. Soon, Samuel Gregory and nearly all of the rest of the gang will be rounded up, tried and hanged, their bodies left to rot in iron hooped gibbets. Dick, now a wanted man, will return to the gang's former hideout in Epping Forest. There, Dick will take up a new racket, a crime for which he will become infamous highway robbery.