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Thief-Taker General
The historical literature of political deviance is sparse. This unusual work, chronicling the history of Jonathan Wild, represents an effort to come to terms with one of the more amazing characters of English social history. Wild was both part of the policy system in eighteenth-century England, and also one of the most adroit criminals of the age. In the 1720s, London suffered the worst crime waves in its history. Civic corruption took place on a staggering scale. The government's answer was to pay a bounty for the capture of robbers, thus creating a class of professional informers. Wild was applauded as the most efficient thief hunter and gang breaker in British society; but his own posse o...
Jonathan Wild
Jonathan Wild (1682 or 1683 - 1725) was a London underworld figure notable for operating on both sides of the law, posing as a public-spirited crimefighter entitled the "Thief-Taker General." He exploited a strong public demand for action during a major London crime wave in the absence of any effective police force. As a powerful gang-leader himself, he became a master manipulator of legal systems, collecting rewards offered for valuables which he had stolen himself, bribing prison-guards to release his colleagues, and blackmailing any who crossed him. He was hanged at Tyburn before a massive crowd. Wild was featured in novels, poems, and plays, some of them noting parallels between Wild and the contemporaneous Prime Minister Walpole (who was known as "The Great Corrupter"). Among the most famous recountings of his life is the one by Henry Fielding, which is notable as a classic satire and ranked among Fielding's best works. This edition includes an introduction by Dr. G. H. Maynadier, Ph.D., of Harvard University.
The Thieves' Opera
The mesmerizing story of two notorious criminals in 18th-century London--Jonathan Wild and Jack Sheppard--"The Thieves' Opera" is an eminently readable work of popular history that blends meticulous scholarship with the best of the storyteller's art. Engravings.
JONATHAN WILD
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