Policing London - The Fall of Jonathan Wild - Extra History - #2

17:24 st. Giles Roadhouse Jack Shepherd is 21 and a thief a thief who's refused to bow to thief-taker general Jonathan Wilde captured by one of wilds agents and turned over to the constable for a 40 pound reward he sits in a holding prison in london's worst slum but jack is not one to accept fate he levers himself up to the ceiling finds a loose board breaks through and climbs onto the roof then he lowers himself to the street with a blanket and seeing a crowd gathering at the noise of his breakout quickly points to a shadow on the roof there he goes he cries and as the crowd surges to get a look he disappears into the press of bodies manacles still on his ankles for years Jonathan wild had been running one of the greatest cons in history publicly he's the thief taker general a dogged crime fighter who pursues and arrests criminals across London and in a city that relies on ineffective parish watchmen and the initiative of everyday citizens to police crime Wilde is seen as the closest thing to a guardian of law and order in fact in 1720 the Privy Council had consulted Wilde about what they should do to curb crime his suggestion raised the bounty for thief-takers from 40 pounds to a hundred and forty pounds they agreed giving Wilde a significant race privately however there was another side to the man the wild who controlled criminal gangs that stole the property he was paid to return the wild whose lieutenants forced thieves to fence goods through them or get turned in for a bounty the wild who used the fine sword he carried to cut off his girlfriend Mary milliner's ear when they had an argument but by 1720 junha --then wild had clawed his way to the height of his power the Whigs in Parliament ignored his activities and Tory attempts to curb his operation with new stolen property laws only granted him more leverage over thieves but the political winds were shifting also in 1720 the South Sea Bubble burst giving rise to a nasty anti-authority vibe among the public and an appetite for seizing those on high and casting them down and wild did not like that he needed to consolidate control get good headlines for battling crime and in doing so do destroy his competition he needed to wage gang war under the color of law he targeted the most lucrative public and violent racket around the gangs of highwayman that preyed on the carriages and sedan chairs of London's elite holding them up at gunpoint gangs that had caused the panic during the South Sea crisis and gangs that often preferred to fence their goods overseas rather than through Wilde in 1721 Wilde went to war he systematically dismantled the five largest gangs of highwayman in London sweeping up their leaders and crashing their hideouts sometimes he bribed lower members to give evidence on their associates and these gangs were the most dangerous in the city known for killing those they robbed one of which the Hawkins gang had perpetrated 50 robberies across London and held up seven inner-city coaches in three nights James Hawkins himself eluded Wilde for years bouncing from gang to gang before wild caught him and had him hanged at Tyburn his body hung in Shayne's at the sight of his last robbery and the last outfit the Irish immigrant Carrick he utterly destroyed 21 arrests in two months by 1724 it was over Wilde had cleaned out all the highwayman in London except you know the ones that worked for him he was now the undisputed master of the underworld then came Jack Shepard Jack was a thief slight but strong he'd started out as a carpenter's apprentice giving him excellent skills as a housebreaker enticed away from his apprenticeship by Elizabeth Lyon a girlfriend who initiated him into the world of crime Jack became minorly famous when he broke Lian out of prison by knocking out a guard most of all though jack was known for having a mouth that got him into trouble but a smile that more often than not got him out of it Jack had been pulling robberies for a year when he crossed paths with Wilde but he refused to pledge fealty to the thief-taker general but you know what that was all right Wilde simply got a lieutenant to track Jack down to a tavern and give him up to the authorities not a big deal and a payday for a while but Jack was smart with a background in woodworking three hours later he broke through the ceiling of st. Giles Roadhouse and escaped but if Jack had one fault it was that he couldn't keep his head down so less than a month later he was caught picking a pocket and imprisoned in a more secure facility own building with a wall around it and lion came to join him claiming to be his wife six days after capture they filed through their manacles removed a bar from the window lowered themselves down to the yard on a bed sheet rope and scaled the 22-foot wall to freedom Jack even climbed with lion hanging off his back wild found himself impressed with the young man's abilities a boy of such resourcefulness was worth more than any bounty so he offered Shepherd a truce and a good cut if he simply brought his stolen goods to wild shepherd though disliked Authority he was one of the South Sea Bubble Generation distrustful of those above independent and questioning he was also deeply naive instead of taking his next score too wild he took it to an outside fence a fence who of course worked for wild the court sentenced Shepherd to death and he was thrown in the condemned cell at Newgate Prison a place so wretched that the novelist Henry Fielding once called it a prototype of hell it was the most secure facility in England but also nothing to Jack four days before his scheduled execution lion smuggled him in a disguise while she and a friend distracted the guards Jack dressed in women's clothes levered a bar out his cell window and escaped within hours he was out of London at this point he talked about going to America making a run for it living in hiding but also by this point he was pretty famous a rallying point for people who preferred the charming nonviolent Jack you know an honest thief to the big thieves in government who'd built the public with the South Sea catastrophe so he returned by now Wilde was increasingly obsessed with killing Shepherd because this boy walking around free was a dangerous symbol a challenge to his authority so he had his agents run Jack to the ground and they took him in again this time though they threw him in a secure cell and Newgate known as the castle solitary confinement in a tower they clamped Jack and manacles and handcuffs running the chains through a staple in the floor while there he bantered with journalists and social visitors next door Wilde was giving evidence at the trial of Sheppard's partner blue-skinned Blake because everyone who is associated with Sheppard while decided would suffer during a break blue skin called wild over he begged wilde to try him as an accomplice so he could be transported rather than hanged Wilde said no loose skin drew a pocket knife and slashed Wilde's throat news raced around Newgate and the prison went into a riot through the night prisoners working for wild brawled with those who hated him and in this confusion Jack made his move he put a nail between his teeth and used it to pick his handcuff locks then he broke his chain links freeing him from the staple in the floor next climbing up the roofs chimney he encountered an iron bar blocking his way not to be stopped he dug it loose with the scraps of his chain and then used that bar to break through the wall of the chimney into the room above continuing his miraculous feats he broke through six locked doors and then found his way into the prison chapel through a window and onto the outside wall who too big of a drop to the next house so he retraced his steps back to his cell retrieved his blanket came back and used it as a rope London caught fire everyone loved the daring young criminal and Jack devoured every broadsheet about him and watched place about his life performed in the street the great escape artist Jack Shepard but then they caught him two weeks later lime drunk in a tavern wearing a stolen set of gentleman's clothes they loaded him with 300 pounds of chains and put him in a cell with a 24-hour guard the most prominent citizens of London paid to visit him a portraitist immortalized his face and Daniel Defoe interviewed him for a biography he was brought to the gallows two weeks later faded as a hero London's own son people bought him drinks and waved broad sheets about him and instead of begging for forgiveness before he was hanged his last speech was to plug his official biography meanwhile Wilde languished recovering from his neck wound his empire crumbling previously a hero he was now the man who'd murdered Jack Shepherd after his recovery Wilde tried to reassert control but he pushed too far caught using violence to free one of his lieutenants from a parish constable he was captured and then sent to Newgate wilds long con had come to an end his former associates turned up in court to give evidence testimony stretched the extent of wilds criminal network finally spilt into public view theft portion bribery and the calculated extermination of rival gangs the judge put on his black cap Wilde would hang by the neck until dead the thief-taker general had a breakdown in prison refusing to eat or attend church instead he obsessed over a Bible passage reading cursed is he who hangs from the tree the night before he was to be hanged he tried to overdose on laudanum and slipped into a coma but they still hanged him still unconscious - cheers and applause the largest crowd ever to attend a Tyburn hanging and among them was a young boy who is obsessed with this villain a man who had embodied everything wrong with London's legal system this boy who would later write a novel about Wilde and become a magistrate his name was Henry Fielding and he would go on to form London's first real police force the Bow Street Runners special thanks to our educational tier patrons Ahmed zo Turk Josef Blaine and Dominic Valencia [Music]

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Views: 792,292

Rating: 4.9666772 out of 5

Keywords: documentary, extra credits, extra credits history, extra history, history, history lesson, learn history, matt krol, pop history, rob rath, study history, world history, policing london, the force, jonathan wild thief taker, jonathan wild, police force, theft crime patrol, jack shepherd, jack shepherd thief, thief, escape artist, jack sheppard, jack sheppard documentary, crime and punishment

Id: h9siL4CWTe4

Length: 10min 6sec (606 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 07 2019