The Thief-Taker Hangings: How Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Wild, and Jack Sheppard Captivated London and Created the Celebrity Criminal

by Aaron Skirboll

In the early 1700s, lawlessness ruled England, and highwaymen, thieves, and prostitutes thrived. When notorious burglar Jack Sheppard finally met the hangman, street singers warbled ballads about the housebreaker whom no prison could hold. Before his execution, he told his story to a writer in the crowd. Daniel Defoe had done hard time himself for sedition and bankruptcy and saw how prison corrupted the poor. They came out thieves, but he came out a journalist. Six months later, Defoe covered another death at the hanging tree. Jonathan Wild had all but invented the double-cross. He cultivated thieves and then betrayed them for his reward and their executions. Jack Sheppard hadn’t taken orders from this self-proclaimed “thief-taker general,” and the two-faced bounty hunter took it personally, helping to bring the burglar’s life to an end. But Wild’s duplicity soon came to light, and he became the most despised man in the land. When he swung, a mob hurled rocks, rotten food, and even dead animals at him. Defoe once again got the scoop, and tabloid journalism had begun.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, True Crime, 18th Century, Crime, British Literature, London

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

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Reviews

[Martine Bailey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a sort of compendium of various historical snippets about Defoe and his invention of ‘new journalism’ when writing about criminal rivals Jonathan Wild and Jack Sheppard. There is a good vignette of the ageing Defoe, a former prison inmate himself, and his pursuit of the terrific story of the manhunt for super-escapee Wild. What I didn’t like was the rather slangy authorial style, although the book is well referenced. However for me, the book only really worked when it gave direct quotes from Defoe’s verbatim interviews with Georgian gangland leaders. The language of the day is spectacular, but in the end this book is really just a signpost to better original books of the day.

[Kimberley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is essentially the history of two people as told by a third. Daniel Defoe is now best known for Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders>, but in his day he was better known for his (mostly uncredited) work as a journalist. He wrote the "autobiographies" of two of London's most famous thieves: Jonathan Wild and Jack Sheppard, and in so doing created the genre of true crime centuries before Truman Capote ever heard of Perry Smith.

Jonathan Wild became famous when he began styling himself "Thief-Taker General of Great Britain and Ireland." He proposed to find and return stolen property-- for a nominal fee--during a time when theft was rampant. However, Wild was actually the head of a massive ring of thieves and was often in receipt of the stolen property himself before a victim might even know it was missing. He had a series of ruses designed to part his customers from their money in order to either regain their items or avoid blackmail. Several times a year, Wild would send thieves that had outworn their usefulness to the gallows (theft at the time being a capital offense) in order to show his worth to society as a thief catcher as well as restorer of lost property.

Jack Sheppard just couldn't resist easy money and loose women. His crime of choice was burglary. A skilled carpenter and locksmith, his biggest mistakes were trusting too easily and never working alone. However, the talent that really got him noticed was jailbreaking. He was an 18th century John Dillinger, escaping from three different prisons four times between May and October 1724. But he was recaptured every time, because he would never leave London. 22 years old when he was finally hanged after his fourth escape, he always found somebody else to blame for his crimes other than himself.

Both Wild and Sheppard were hanged for theft. Sheppard died a working class hero--his crimes were non-violent, he was young, handsome, and seemed to thumb his nose at authority. Wild died a pariah, after his huge criminal syndicate fell apart because he began to believe his own lies about himself. To the end, he maintained that he had done more good for society than evil. Defoe wrote about both men and may have helped to make them more famous than they might have otherwise been.

This book is very similar to an earlier work, The Thieves' Opera by Lucy Moore. That one can be had for next to nothing on Amazon in hardback, and I quite liked it. The only real difference between that book and this is the addition of Defoe's part in the tales, which to my mind wasn't particularly integral. I would say fans of Defoe obviously might prefer this book, but if you're just interested in criminals of that age or Wild and Sheppard in particular, Moore's book is just as good and offers a larger breadth of material on the era as a whole.

The book itself was a pretty easy read, but didn't offer much in the way of new information on Wild or Sheppard since I'd already read Moore's book, and nothing really revelatory on Defoe either. It's a good enough introduction to the subject, but I prefer Moore's book myself.

[Jon Mackley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting book with lots of details of the pre-romanticised notion of highway men. Jack Sheppard, the prison breaker, Jonathan Wild, the thief taker, and Daniel Defoe, an aged journalist looking for the story. There's no doubt that this is well researched, there's pages of references at the end. But it can't really decide what kind of book it wants to be. Lots of the sections have a fictitious edges the author adds flavour to the scene which makes the story more entertaining but less reliable as an historical text (It's not one you an academic can easily quote from, but it does give information to follow the sources). And it's not consistent either. And while the focus of the story is based around three major players, Defoe, Wild and Jack Sheppard, but others - Joseph Blake, for example, could have been explored in more detail.

An interesting read with a lot of useful information for readers starting to explore the lives of Wild and Sheppard.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Daniel Defoe was a journalist long before he became an author. He also had the first hand experience of being confined to London's horrible Newgate prison, from which he gained an insight into the viewpoint of criminals. This later formed the basis for Moll Flanders.

Two of England's most notorious criminals of the day, Jonathon Wild and Jack Sheppard, were very famous with a following and popularity that foreshadowed Jesse James, John Dillinger, Al Capone and Bonnie & Clyde. Writing about these kind of people can be profitable, or at least so it was when newspapers were the only means of mass communication. Daniel Defoe cashed in on this bigtime, and the news media has followed his lead ever since.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unevenly paced, and in many (most) places the narrative drags. I learned some things and parts of the story are fascinating, but many chapters are so dull that finishing the book was quite a slog. And for all that, I'm not convinced Skirboll actually supports the thesis he mentions right off in the title: that Defoe was the "Creator" of the celebrity criminal (the other two gentlemen would be the celebrity criminals in question). He insists upon it often, but I'm unconvinced that he made his case.

If you're really into the history of journalism--especially the more salacious, true-crime variety--then it may be worth it to you to give this book a try. Otherwise, pass.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't know anything about this topic, so that's always fun for me.

[Rhonda · Rating 4 out of 5]

The organized crime scene in London in the early 1700s, the organization largely set up by Jonathan Wild and reported by Daniel Defoe (yes, that Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe), was fascinating to read. What a complication of deceit and trickery (and violence, often ending at the gallows). There are many characters followed in the narrative, but it's not hard to keep track because the overall narrative is about three people: Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Wild, and the local criminal celebrity Jack Sheppard. The focus of each chapter is clear, which makes the complicated situation easy to follow. The author includes cant - the language of the thieves - along with explanation of the meaning of the cant words, which is a fun addition. Good crime read as well as a good history read too.

[Lisa Montgomery · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jack Shepherd was a house breaker/thief in the early 1700s England. He gave an account of his life, ironically to a writer, named Daniel Defoe, who himself had seen time in prison. Defoe created the tabloid sensationalism we know today with stories of the hanging of various thieves.

[Kerry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story and useful for my research

[Temple Penaluna]

Our name is legion, and we are many - Defoe

[Judith · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertaining account of how the novelist/newspaper man/essayist Daniel Defoe (Robinson Crusoe) capitalized on two very clever thieves' careers to make money (which he seems always to have been in need of). Skirboll illustrates the book with prints from the period, including depictions of Wild's crimes and Sheppard's inhabitation of prison. I am surprised that Wild, though a criminal--and this was publicly known--managed for several decades to pursue his criminality under the guise of being a thief taker. He was the first "Godfather" so to speak in modern European history (to my knowledge). Sheppard was an ingenious escape artist, who could have taught Houdini something. I was rooting for his final escape, but alas he got legless drunk and was hung at age 22. His sometime ally, sometime foe Wild followed soon after. I think there is the making of a good costume drama in this account.

[Rosie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goodreads winner. Aaron Skirboll has expertly researched and told the tale of two criminals that lived in the early eighteenth-century in London. Daniel Defoe , author of Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders ,creates true crime journalism by covering the trials and hangings of these two infamous men. Jonathan Wild basically a bounty hunter who also was a double-crosser and led a life filled with nefarious activities was one of these criminals and is hated by all. The other celebrated criminal was Jack Sheppard a burglar and thief and an expert prison escape artist.

[Wanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am thankful to have received this book through goodreads. Overall, I really liked this book very much. It was a little slow getting started...but, that might be just me. I thought the book was a very interesting read. It is an important part of history that should not be forgotten.

[Linda]

PW

[Peter Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Amazon review -

http://www.amazon.com/review/R3FU7U7V...

[Paul T · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe my favorite book this year. Well written, well edited, and even no typos.

[False · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything you wanted to know about Daniel Defoe and the birth of the celebrity criminal in 18th-century London. I read this book straight through, I enjoyed it so much.