In 1660 Claude Duval moved to England from France at the Restoration as a footman in the service of the Duke of Richmond. Taking soon to the road, he pursued a successful career as a robber, gaining a popular reputation, especially for his daring and gallantry towards the women he robbed.
Duval was captured drunk, and hanged at Tyburn, London on January 21, 1670. Samuel Butler satirically commemorated his death in a Pindaric ode.
Jack Sheppard (March 4, 1702 – November 16, 1724) was a notorious English burglar, robber and thief of early 18th-century London. Sheppard was as renowned for his attempts to escape imprisonment as he was for his crimes. Ultimately, he was caught, convicted, and hanged at Tyburn, ending his brief criminal career after less than two years.
The character of Macheath in John Gay's The Beggar's Opera (1728) was based on Sheppard, keeping him in the limelight for over 100 years.
Sheppard returned to the public consciousness around 1840, when William Harrison Ainsworth wrote a novel entitled Jack Sheppard. The popularity of his tale, and the fear that others would be drawn to emulate his behaviour, led the authorities to refuse to license any plays in London with "Jack Sheppard" in the title for forty years.
The notorious English-born stagecoach robber Black Bart (b. 1829; d. after February 28, 1888), never cursed, never fired his weapon, didn't ride a horse, and left poems after his crimes.
Although there was a $5,000 reward for his capture, Charles 'Pretty Boy' Floyd was considered a hero in his area of Oklahoma. One reason for this was that he was renowned for destroying mortgage documents during robberies, freeing many from property debt. Also, whenever he returned there he would use some of the loot from his previous robberies to buy clothes and food for many of the poverty-stricken residents of the Cookson Hills, where he grew up.
Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd died aged 30 in an Ohio cornfield on October 22, 1934 after being shot eight times by FBI agents.
A woman aged 71 pleaded not guilty to armed robbery in Los Angeles in 1971, saying she had been driven mad by the Internal Revenue Service.
In Canada in 1997, a robber was charged for threatening to kill a raccoon if people didn't hand over their money.
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| Claude Duval painting by William Powell Frith |
Duval was captured drunk, and hanged at Tyburn, London on January 21, 1670. Samuel Butler satirically commemorated his death in a Pindaric ode.
The character of Macheath in John Gay's The Beggar's Opera (1728) was based on Sheppard, keeping him in the limelight for over 100 years.
Sheppard returned to the public consciousness around 1840, when William Harrison Ainsworth wrote a novel entitled Jack Sheppard. The popularity of his tale, and the fear that others would be drawn to emulate his behaviour, led the authorities to refuse to license any plays in London with "Jack Sheppard" in the title for forty years.
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| Sketch of 18th-century thief Jack Sheppard shortly before his execution in 1724. |
The notorious English-born stagecoach robber Black Bart (b. 1829; d. after February 28, 1888), never cursed, never fired his weapon, didn't ride a horse, and left poems after his crimes.
Although there was a $5,000 reward for his capture, Charles 'Pretty Boy' Floyd was considered a hero in his area of Oklahoma. One reason for this was that he was renowned for destroying mortgage documents during robberies, freeing many from property debt. Also, whenever he returned there he would use some of the loot from his previous robberies to buy clothes and food for many of the poverty-stricken residents of the Cookson Hills, where he grew up.
Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd died aged 30 in an Ohio cornfield on October 22, 1934 after being shot eight times by FBI agents.
Bank robber John Dillinger played professional baseball.
A woman aged 71 pleaded not guilty to armed robbery in Los Angeles in 1971, saying she had been driven mad by the Internal Revenue Service.
In Canada in 1997, a robber was charged for threatening to kill a raccoon if people didn't hand over their money.
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