April 7th 1739 - Dick Turpin hung for horse stealing. Turpin was a famous outlaw in England, much like Jesse James in America or Ned Kelly in Australia. He started out as a butcher and became involved in crime when a gang brought cattle they had rustled to him. He graduated from that to being a highwayman and horse thief. He would have soon been forgotten after his execution except for being romanticized in a novel. After that, as so often happens, fiction trumped fact in regard to his life. He was a killer, a thief, and did not rob from the rich to give to the poor. Turpin was stealing horses under the pseudonym of John Palmer when he was arrested for shooting a chicken in the street and then threatening to shoot its owner as well.
This Day in History
This Day in History
This Day in History
April 7th 1739 - Dick Turpin hung for horse stealing. Turpin was a famous outlaw in England, much like Jesse James in America or Ned Kelly in Australia. He started out as a butcher and became involved in crime when a gang brought cattle they had rustled to him. He graduated from that to being a highwayman and horse thief. He would have soon been forgotten after his execution except for being romanticized in a novel. After that, as so often happens, fiction trumped fact in regard to his life. He was a killer, a thief, and did not rob from the rich to give to the poor. Turpin was stealing horses under the pseudonym of John Palmer when he was arrested for shooting a chicken in the street and then threatening to shoot its owner as well.