Dick Turpin (bap. 1705 – 1739) was an English highwayman whose exploits
were romanticised following his execution in York for horse theft.
Turpin may have followed his father's profession as a butcher early in
life, but by the early 1730s he had joined a gang of deer thieves, and
later became a poacher, burglar, horse thief, and murderer. He is best
known for his fictional 200-mile (320 km) overnight ride from London to
York on his steed Black Bess, a story that was made famous by the
Victorian novelist William Harrison Ainsworth almost 100 years after
Turpin's death. His involvement in the crime for which he is most
closely associated—highway robbery—followed the arrest of the other
members of his gang in 1735. He then disappeared from public view
towards the end of that year, only to resurface in 1737 with two new
accomplices. Later that year he moved to Yorkshire and assumed the
alias of John Palmer. While he was staying at an inn local magistrates
became suspicious of "Palmer", and made enquiries as to how he funded
his lifestyle. Suspected of being a horse thief, "Palmer" was
imprisoned in York Castle, to be tried at the next assizes. Turpin's
true identity was revealed by a letter he wrote to his brother-in-law
from his prison cell, which fell into the hands of the authorities. On
22 March 1739 he was found guilty on two charges of horse theft and
sentenced to death; he was executed on 7 April 1739. He became the
subject of legend after his execution, romanticised as dashing and
heroic in English ballads popular theatre, film and television.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Turpin>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1978:
Jim Jones led more than 900 members of the Peoples Temple to mass
murder/suicide in Jonestown, Guyana, hours after some of its members
assassinated U.S. Congressman Leo Ryan .
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonestown>
1985:
Calvin and Hobbes, a comic strip by Bill Watterson featuring six-year
old Calvin and his stuffed tiger Hobbes, was first published.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_and_Hobbes>
1991:
Croatian War of Independence: Yugoslav People's Army forces captured
the Croatian city of Vukovar, ending an 87-day siege.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vukovar>
1999:
Texas A&M University's Aggie Bonfire collapsed, killing 12 and injuring
27, and causing the university to officially declare a hiatus on the
90-year-old annual event.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aggie_Bonfire>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
foreknow (v):
To have foreknowledge of, to precognise
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/foreknow>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
A lot of being a poet consists of willed ignorance. If you woke up from
your trance and realized the nature of the life-threatening and
dignity-destroying precipice you were walking along, you would switch
into actuarial sciences immediately.
--Margaret Atwood
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Margaret_Atwood>
Show replies by date