Word: thief
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...THIEF-TAKER GENERAL, THE RISE AND FALL OF JONATHAN WILD by Gerald Howson. 338 pages. St. Martin's Press...
...nation in jail or out. Wild perfected England's first coherent system for detecting and arresting criminals. Yet his success at organizing crime detection was due to the fact that he took great care to organize the crime in the first place. He not only became the "Thief-Taker General of Great Britain and Ireland," as he took to calling himself; he was also the realm's principal thief...
Trade in Children. The thief-taking racket had limitless possibilities; the constabulary of the time was weak, criminals were many, and Parliament had authorized payment of 40 ? for evidence in a capital case. This system of rewards was intended to break up London's big gangs by making betrayal profitable. The trouble was that although there were some 350 capital offenses on the books, it was not always easy or politic to lay hands on those who had actually committed them. This led naturally to frame-ups, and also to a brisk trade in children and other innocents...
Wild was not the first thief-taker to turn a profit in this trade; he was merely the most gifted. A proof of his talent was one of his creations known as the "Lost Property Office." Wild would approach a citizen from whom money or documents had been stolen (generally in a theft organized by Wild), and represent himself as a man whose crime-fighting had given him some knowledge of the underworld. Perhaps he could be of help. In a day or two-sometimes only a few hours-he would return with the suggestion that the citizen appear...
Beggar's Opera. Achievement such as Wild's does not go unnoticed, and one day in front of Old Bailey a betrayed colleague named Blueskin Blake tried to cut the Thief-Taker General's head off with a dull knife. He failed. In 1725, though, Wild was sentenced to be hanged by a corrupt judge (appropriately, on false evidence that he had received a bit of stolen lace). Wild died wealthy, though. During his career the reward for giving evidence rose from ?40 to ? 140, or from $2,000 to $7,000 in modern money, as Author...