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Jump to navigationJump to searchJonathan Wild: Conman and Cutpurse by John Van der Kiste (view source)
Revision as of 16:43, 5 November 2009
, 16:43, 5 November 2009no edit summary
His first mentor was Charles Hitchen who had purchased the office of Under-Marshal of the City. The city Marshals were obliged to keep the streets clear of prostitutes, vagrants and unlicensed traders and at the time London depended on this type of local policing. Such thief-takers were generally corrupt themselves and eventually Wild would establish a band of thieves who would report back to him and deliver the articles which they had stolen so that Wild could negotiate a fee for the return of the goods from the victim.
On the face of it he was a law-abiding man doing his best to keep the street streets free from crime. The reality was that his actions ''increased'' the crime rate and Wild was not above sending criminals who had offended him to the gallows – in the course of his career he was responsible for some hundred and twenty deaths in this manner. Of course it couldn't continue indefinitely and in 1718 Parliament passed a Transportation Act which made it a capital offence to accept a reward for returning stolen goods to their owner and a felony to receive stolen goods without attempting to prosecute the thief. But Wild even managed to find a way around this. The day of reckoning was not far away though.
As many of the men whom he had trained or mentored were sent to the gallows public opinion turned against Wild not least for his part in the deaths of some of the men. Eventually he himself was arrested and charged, moving in s relatively short time from being revered to becoming a symbol for corruption and hypocrisy. Looking back he can be seen as the first of the modern racketeers.
