Speaker 1: Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership
Speaker 1: with iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: There's a handful of famous historical highway robbers whose names
Speaker 2: and stories are still recognizable today, but the stories of
Speaker 2: many highway robbers have become lost to history, or sometimes
Speaker 2: confused with other robbers, or they turn out to be fictional.
Speaker 2: Highway robbers primarily robbed carriages and often homes too, along
Speaker 2: their preferred roads. When caught, charges against them were often
Speaker 2: for robbery and horse theft, and during certain periods in history,
Speaker 2: rewards and sometimes large rewards, were offered to anyone who
Speaker 2: could capture a highwayman, and those convicted of highway robbery
Speaker 2: were executed by hanging for their crimes. Jocelyn Harwood in
Speaker 2: Our hot Seat this episode was a highway robber who
Speaker 2: took things way too far one night, adding four horrific
Speaker 2: and gruesome murders to his rap sheet. We are not
Speaker 2: going to go into detail on his various highway robbery
Speaker 2: adventures because frankly, a lot of them read kind of
Speaker 2: the same way. Pull out your pistol, yell your money
Speaker 2: or your life. His crimes escalate greatly, though, so instead
Speaker 2: we're going to talk about his first hold up and
Speaker 2: his last. He was insolent, he was violent, and this
Speaker 2: is his bloody story. Welcome to Criminalia. I'm Maria Tremarky.
Speaker 1: And I'm Holly Frye. Jocelyn Hardwood was a highwayman who
Speaker 1: committed such quote barbarous murders, and he was just so
Speaker 1: wow that his fellow criminal associates betrayed him and gave
Speaker 1: him up to the authorities, because even they could not
Speaker 1: stomach his depraved behavior. The night of his final crime,
Speaker 1: if any highwayman jumped the shark, as the saying goes,
Speaker 1: it may have been Joscelyn. Moralized stories of crime that
Speaker 1: may not be entirely factual appeared in the popular Newgate Calendar,
Speaker 1: and Joscelyn's story was one of them. In print, He's
Speaker 1: described as quote a degenerate plant from a good tree,
Speaker 1: and that actually seems like a pretty apt description. His
Speaker 1: father was, as far as anyone can tell, an honest person,
Speaker 1: and the family was well off and had a good reputation.
Speaker 1: Author Pascal Bonenfont writes that Joscelyn was the quote greatest
Speaker 1: misfortune of his father's life. Joscelyn was born in sixteen
Speaker 1: sixty nine at Wateringbury in Kent. Some accounts of his
Speaker 1: life report that he was educated, while a few others
Speaker 1: suggest that maybe he had just some schooling. But whatever
Speaker 1: his education level, none of that really mattered to Joscelyn.
Speaker 2: Around the age of seventeen, Joscelyn committed his first offense.
Speaker 2: He ran away from his family's home and took about
Speaker 2: sixty pounds with him. He fled to London, where he
Speaker 2: was looking for some excitement and to whet some of
Speaker 2: his appetites. He lavishly spent the money he stole from
Speaker 2: his father on all of the vices he could afford,
Speaker 2: and you know, making a rain like that caught the
Speaker 2: attention of the wrong crowd, and soon Jocelyn was working
Speaker 2: for the wrong crowd. In the first three years running
Speaker 2: with them, his jobs primarily included smaller crimes like pickpocketing
Speaker 2: and pilfering. But he wanted some power and wealth of
Speaker 2: his own and decided to dip his toe into highway robbery.
Speaker 2: This was a time in highway robbery where those actively
Speaker 2: working the gig could make quite a bit of money.
Speaker 2: Another plus, he could be his own boss.
Speaker 1: Joscelyn stole a horse, which he named Blackheath. He also
Speaker 1: stole a bridle, a saddle, holsters, and flintlock pistols, and
Speaker 1: he got out of town. Well really, he just went
Speaker 1: to the roads near town, ready and excited for his
Speaker 1: first highway robbery. He soon came upon two men traveling
Speaker 1: together in a carriage, approaching them on horseback. He pulled
Speaker 1: out his pistol and yelled out the highway greeting your
Speaker 1: money or your life. But things definitely took a turn
Speaker 1: from what he may have imagined and hoped for from
Speaker 1: this robbery, and it was definitely for the worse, at
Speaker 1: least for him. One of the men drew a gun
Speaker 1: and shot the horse, Black Heath, causing Joscelyn to fall
Speaker 1: to the ground. Still alive, he walked away with non
Speaker 1: fatal wounds, but he was without his horse because Blackheath's
Speaker 1: injuries were too great.
Speaker 2: But Joscelyn couldn't help but notice something about that failed
Speaker 2: robbery attempt. As he shuffled away from the scene. The
Speaker 2: men who should have been his victims and should have
Speaker 2: been frightened of him, weren't. Instead, they'd been brave enough
Speaker 2: to attack him, and he had not expected or even
Speaker 2: considered that victims would do that. There were indeed some
Speaker 2: passengers who did travel with armed escorts or they themselves
Speaker 2: carried pistols for protection. In spite of this failure, Joscelyn
Speaker 2: didn't quit life as a highway robber, and for about
Speaker 2: two or three years he continued to target carriages and
Speaker 2: homes on the highways around London. He got better at
Speaker 2: it and it became a lucrative time for him. However,
Speaker 2: much like when he stole money from his father only
Speaker 2: to play it away, Joscelyn spent most of his highway
Speaker 2: robbery loot in excess on his vices.
Speaker 1: We're going to take a break here for a word
Speaker 1: from our sponsors, and when we're back we will tell
Speaker 1: the story of how Joscelyn the highway Robber became Joscelyn
Speaker 1: the murderer.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about the final crime
Speaker 2: Jocelyn committed and how it cost him and four other
Speaker 2: people their lives.
Speaker 1: The abbe LeBlanc, who we've named dropped in previous episodes
Speaker 1: this season, wrote in the mid seventeen hundreds about highwaymen.
Speaker 1: His writing about the attitudes of the English toured highwaymen
Speaker 1: has an interesting and kind of opposite flavor from what
Speaker 1: most highwaymen were actually like. He states, quote tales of
Speaker 1: their cunning and generosity were in the mouths of everybody,
Speaker 1: and he continued quote a noted thief was a kind
Speaker 1: of hero that, though sounds very little like the reality
Speaker 1: of most highwaymen. Joscelyn's story has never been confused with
Speaker 1: the heroic legend of robin Hood, as is the case
Speaker 1: with some of his peer highway robbers. He's also never
Speaker 1: been considered a romantic figure or a gentleman robber. But
Speaker 1: even though there are a lot of stories like that,
Speaker 1: not many highwaymen actually were.
Speaker 2: The night Blackheath was killed by Joscelyn's intended victims is
Speaker 2: his first crime as a highway robber, And as we
Speaker 2: noted earlier in the episode, instead of repeating the stories
Speaker 2: of all the carriages he robbed and how many homes
Speaker 2: he looted over the years, we're going to jump to
Speaker 2: his last crime, and this is when a highway robber
Speaker 2: turned into a ruderous burglar.
Speaker 1: There were highway robbers who robbed but also kidnapped and murdered.
Speaker 1: Many of them were actually violent there's one anecdote about
Speaker 1: a highwayman who cut out the tongues of his victims,
Speaker 1: ensuring that they could not describe him to authorities, but
Speaker 1: that certainly was not a requirement for the job. Joscelyn
Speaker 1: committed his most barbaric crime when he was only twenty
Speaker 1: three years old, and that crime was not highway robbery,
Speaker 1: but it was robbery at least it started out that way.
Speaker 2: Joscelyn learned, you know that kind of wink wink, nudge nudge,
Speaker 2: learned of a man named Sir Neiamiah Burrows. But note
Speaker 2: though his given name sometimes differs depending on who's telling
Speaker 2: the story, and he was at least rumored to be
Speaker 2: a very wealthy man. Those in the robbery business assumed
Speaker 2: he had a fortune just waiting to be taken. That
Speaker 2: fortune was thought to contain money and plate he kept
Speaker 2: in his house. In this instance, plate could refer to
Speaker 2: plate money, which is usually made of cheap metal like copper,
Speaker 2: and stamped to indicate their value, which is usually quite low.
Speaker 2: But that's really doubtful. It's much more likely to be
Speaker 2: referring to Burrow's tangible wealth, such as his silver goblets
Speaker 2: and his ornate serving plates and precious stones and jewels,
Speaker 2: you know, the things that showed off just how wealthy
Speaker 2: he was.
Speaker 1: As you may expect, Joscelyn immediately wanted that fortune, and
Speaker 1: with two accomplices, he committed what might be his first burglary.
Speaker 1: When the men broke into the house, they first tied
Speaker 1: up the domestic help. Then they tied up Burrows and
Speaker 1: his wife. Next, scouting the house, Joscelyn found the bedroom
Speaker 1: that the Burrough's daughter shared. As he was tying up
Speaker 1: the girls, one of them asked him to be gentle,
Speaker 1: and in return, she said she would not identify him
Speaker 1: in this crime. According to the popular papers of the day,
Speaker 1: she pled quote pray, sir, use us civilly, which if
Speaker 1: you do, we will use you in the same manner
Speaker 1: in case you and your companions should be taken for
Speaker 1: I am sure we shall know you again, Joscelyn replied
Speaker 1: to her, but not with any kind of romanticized highway
Speaker 1: gallantry or even just silence. Rather, he said, quote shall
Speaker 1: you so? I'll take care then to prevent your doing
Speaker 1: any mischief.
Speaker 2: And then Jocelyn's first burglary took a very big turn
Speaker 2: into a murderous bloody night. He was not gentle, and
Speaker 2: they wouldn't be able to identify him because after tying
Speaker 2: them up, he proceeded to quote cut the girls in
Speaker 2: pieces with his hangar sword, which is a sword designed
Speaker 2: as a side arm for close quarter fighting. Next, he
Speaker 2: murdered Burrows and his wife, and then he walked away,
Speaker 2: pleased and looking like he'd been awarded a new Merit badge.
Speaker 1: According to the Newgate Calendar, Joscelyn's a acomplices were both
Speaker 1: astonished by his violence and his viciousness. This was not
Speaker 1: what they had planned or expected, and so they decided
Speaker 1: to expose him his crimes and his inhumanity. They gave
Speaker 1: him up to authorities.
Speaker 2: We're going to take a break for a word from
Speaker 2: our sponsors, and when we're back, we'll talk about Jocelyn's
Speaker 2: capture and his death.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Criminalia. Of course, there is more than
Speaker 1: one version of how Joscelyn Harwood was captured. The first
Speaker 1: is actually pretty short. His horrified accomplices were able to
Speaker 1: overpower him, then tie him up, and then they left
Speaker 1: him in the house with an incriminating piece of evidence
Speaker 1: for authorities to find. What they left behind is lost
Speaker 1: in this version, but I'm thinking all of those bodies
Speaker 1: probably were enough. They wanted actually to bring Joscelyn to justice,
Speaker 1: and while they left the scene without him, they did
Speaker 1: still take the loot.
Speaker 2: And the second version, the one most often told, goes
Speaker 2: like this. His accomplices agreed they'd capture him, but it
Speaker 2: wasn't in the Burroughs home. It was on horseback. Unclear
Speaker 2: if this was the same night as the murder or
Speaker 2: if it was just shortly thereafter. Their first move was
Speaker 2: to shoot his horse out from under him. After he'd
Speaker 2: fallen to the ground, they tied him up both hands
Speaker 2: and feet and left him there on the ground. With him,
Speaker 2: they also left an incriminating piece of evidence by his side,
Speaker 2: Burrow's plate, which would have been traced back to its owner.
Speaker 2: The next day, after some questioning and investigation, Jocelyn was
Speaker 2: found in the same place and same condition as when
Speaker 2: his accomplices had left him.
Speaker 1: Apprehended, Joscelyn was sent under the eye of heavy security
Speaker 1: to Shrewsbury Jail. An account suggests that once he got
Speaker 1: there he quote behaved very audaciously. He could have gone
Speaker 1: on trial for a variety of crimes, but it was
Speaker 1: the murder and robbery that he committed at the borough's
Speaker 1: home that he stood for. Joscelyn's trial was reportedly quite
Speaker 1: a thing, and mainly because of his behavior during it.
Speaker 1: There is little to read about the details of the
Speaker 1: court proceedings, although there are some that give us descriptions
Speaker 1: that say he spit in the faces of the judge
Speaker 1: and jury, and almost all records agree that he used
Speaker 1: vulgar and indecent language in the courtroom, and he did
Speaker 1: so loudly.
Speaker 2: He was sentenced to death by hanging, to be followed
Speaker 2: with his body being gibbeted to warn other highway robbers
Speaker 2: or other criminals not to follow his brutal path. But
Speaker 2: one notable thing about his behavior in the courtroom wasn't
Speaker 2: necessarily the profanity when the judge handed down his sentence.
Speaker 2: It didn't seem to bother Joscelyn or make any impression
Speaker 2: on him at all. He just continued his disrespectful and
Speaker 2: rude behavior through the entire trial as if he hadn't
Speaker 2: heard he was just given a death sentence.
Speaker 1: Specifics of the day of his execution vary, but only
Speaker 1: by a little. Some accounts indicate that he arrived at
Speaker 1: Tyburn quote insolently drunk. His intoxication is really the only
Speaker 1: maybe part. Tyburn Tree was a wooden gallows where criminals were,
Speaker 1: for more than six hundred and fifty years hanged to death.
Speaker 1: Most accounts report Jocelyn continued that same defiant and contemptuous
Speaker 1: behavior that he had in the courtroom as he approached
Speaker 1: the gallows. He was executed in sixteen ninety two, shouting
Speaker 1: from the gallows that quote, he would act the same
Speaker 1: murder again in the same case.
Speaker 2: Jocelyn's crimes and his execution for them came at the
Speaker 2: beginning of what's called the Golden Age of highway robbery,
Speaker 2: which is largely considered to have been between sixteen sixty
Speaker 2: and seventeen fourteen, though the crime was certain not confined
Speaker 2: to those years. At that time, horses were cheap to buy,
Speaker 2: guns were easy to buy. Taverns meant for on the
Speaker 2: go passengers to have a bite to eat and maybe
Speaker 2: rent a room, were also easy hideouts for robbers to
Speaker 2: plan and to distribute loot amongst themselves. Plus, with new
Speaker 2: turnpike roads to improve transportation, it all led to new
Speaker 2: criminal opportunities which led to highway robbery.
Speaker 1: The idea of robbing people on the road dates back
Speaker 1: to the Middle Ages at least, and maybe men probably earlier.
Speaker 1: But during the Golden Age, give or take a decade,
Speaker 1: it's said that highway robbers in England were quote as
Speaker 1: common as crows. The end of the highwaymen came about
Speaker 1: a century after Joscelyn robbed the roads. The downfall began
Speaker 1: at the end of the eighteenth century, and in eighteen
Speaker 1: oh five mounted police started to patrol the roads around
Speaker 1: London day and night. The officers that took part in
Speaker 1: this patrol were nicknamed Robin Redbreasts because of their red uniforms.
Speaker 1: But things got even worse for highway robbers when the
Speaker 1: official Metropolitan Police were established in eighteen twenty nine. After
Speaker 1: the last highway robber gang, the Hannam and Cockroad Gang,
Speaker 1: were apprehended by police in eighteen fifty, there remained only
Speaker 1: some small, remote clusters or even fairly isolated men and
Speaker 1: women still trying to get your money or your life.
Speaker 2: What you got in that hip flask?
Speaker 1: Who ready? Man?
Speaker 2: Um?
Speaker 1: Yeah, this one's scary, just because, as Maria and I
Speaker 1: were discussing before we started recording, this person is clearly
Speaker 1: a sociopath and it's very frightening. Yeah, just the complete
Speaker 1: disregard for anything is very very scary.
Speaker 2: There's something going on and it's not it's scary.
Speaker 1: He's a scary person in me. I, in thinking about
Speaker 1: a drink for this, did not want to do any
Speaker 1: of the gruesome things. But the detail that kind of
Speaker 1: caught my attention than that, I found myself thinking about
Speaker 1: a lot this round is actually the Tyburn Tree, which
Speaker 1: I looked up and started reading about because it is
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a spot that is still marked today
Speaker 1: and it is very interesting. So I wanted to do
Speaker 1: a drink that had a plant note to it. This
Speaker 1: actually has a couple and I wanted to do something
Speaker 1: that was a little hard hitting without being too crazy.
Speaker 1: It's just a nice, simple cocktail. But I will say
Speaker 1: I loved it. And this is one of those ones where,
Speaker 1: unlike normally when I'm preparing for the show and I
Speaker 1: am making drinks and testing them, I have a couple
Speaker 1: SIPs and the rest kind of goes in the sink.
Speaker 1: Not this one. I didn't mean. It's another one of those.
Speaker 1: I didn't mean to drink the whole thing, but it
Speaker 1: was like the first one, I was like, is this
Speaker 1: too tart? And then the second sip I was like, no,
Speaker 1: this is actually pretty smooth, it's just not super sweet.
Speaker 1: And then the third sip I was like, I really
Speaker 1: like this one, and then it was you know, weird
Speaker 1: trouble after that. So this one, you're gonna prepare by
Speaker 1: doing a trick we've done before, which is infusing some
Speaker 1: gin with green tea. So you're just gonna take four
Speaker 1: ounces of gin and throw a tea bag or equivalent
Speaker 1: loose tea into it. You'll have extra, you'll have enough
Speaker 1: to make two drinks because you need two ounces, but
Speaker 1: doing two ounces of a tea bag seems wasteful. You
Speaker 1: can get more flavor out of it than that, so
Speaker 1: let that sit. Doesn't take long twenty thirty minutes, and
Speaker 1: it's very green tea, so you are going too in
Speaker 1: your shaking tin. Also make sure you have a cocktail
Speaker 1: glass chilling. You're gonna put one ounce of lime juice,
Speaker 1: just a half ounce of simple syrup, and then we
Speaker 1: need an ounce of pear juice. And we're gonna take
Speaker 1: this from like one of those little snack pack cups
Speaker 1: of dice pears, or you can do canned pears, but
Speaker 1: I will tell you this. We need an ounce, and
Speaker 1: in my testing, a snack pack cup yields exactly one
Speaker 1: ounce of pear juice after you have taken the fruit
Speaker 1: out of it.
Speaker 2: Let me ask you a question about pear juice. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I am a big fan of but I believe it
Speaker 2: is pear nectar that I get, which is a little
Speaker 2: bit thicker.
Speaker 1: It is it's sweeter. So if you do that, I
Speaker 1: would only do a half ounce, and I would I
Speaker 1: would thin it a little bit with water, or you
Speaker 1: can add a little extra lime juice, but it will
Speaker 1: be more part so to this. So at this point
Speaker 1: we have an ounce of pear juice, an ounce of
Speaker 1: lime juice, a half ounce of simple syrup, and then
Speaker 1: you're gonna add two ounces of your green tea infused
Speaker 1: gin and just give it a really good hard shake.
Speaker 1: You want it ice cold. This is one where when
Speaker 1: I strained it into my glass, I used a mesh
Speaker 1: strainer instead of a hawthorn strainer because it have a
Speaker 1: little bit more of a foamy finish on top. And
Speaker 1: it just looks pretty and smooth and it's delicious and
Speaker 1: it smells really good. That foam tends to like retain
Speaker 1: the depending on what gin you select, you know, it
Speaker 1: always is going to have its own flavors and profile
Speaker 1: that have different herbal notes to it. So you get that,
Speaker 1: you get the pear smell and that little bit of lime.
Speaker 1: That's it. It's an easy drink, so delicious. It's not
Speaker 1: super sweet even with that little bit of simple in it.
Speaker 1: Without the simple, it was too tart. I did a
Speaker 1: version with no simple, and I was like, this is
Speaker 1: actually not balanced, So you do want to put just
Speaker 1: a splash in there. So yummy, foolishly yummy. So this
Speaker 1: one is really easy to do. Your mocktail version, you
Speaker 1: were just either you can just make straight up green
Speaker 1: tea if you want, but if you want it to
Speaker 1: have that little bite so it kind of mimics a
Speaker 1: cocktail a little bit more, you'll do the trick we've
Speaker 1: done in the past where you let some tonic water
Speaker 1: go flat and then infuse that with green tea. And
Speaker 1: that's a perfect sub in my opinion. It doesn't taste
Speaker 1: exactly the same, but it has a very similar feel
Speaker 1: when you take a sip. So that is the Tyburn tree.
Speaker 1: This is one where I wanted to use pear because
Speaker 1: pair gets used all the time in autumn recipes, and
Speaker 1: I love it in autumn recipes, don't get me wrong.
Speaker 1: And part of that is the seasonality of pairs. But
Speaker 1: we can have pairs whenever we want, thanks to you know,
Speaker 1: modern agriculture and storage, and so I'm like, why not
Speaker 1: put it in more spring and summer drinks because it's
Speaker 1: so yummy. I love pear everything, and so this just
Speaker 1: seemed exactly correct to me. So if you make the
Speaker 1: Tyburn Tree, I hope you love it. I know I
Speaker 1: am probably gonna go make another after we're done recording,
Speaker 1: because I got two more ounces of gender use up where.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm really glad that you that you focused
Speaker 2: in on the on the tree because we mentioned Tyburn
Speaker 2: all the time, but we never talk about Yeah, the
Speaker 2: tree and the gallows and you know, just people go
Speaker 2: there and they're hung is as basically as much as
Speaker 2: we've ever talked about. So it was kind of a
Speaker 2: nice detail to add, and I'm so glad that you
Speaker 2: focused on it.
Speaker 1: Well, the other options were not great in this one.
Speaker 1: I don't want to I don't want to make a
Speaker 1: drink inspired by someone being chopped pieces that's that would be.
Speaker 2: Terrible if you if you had come out with like,
Speaker 2: here's my red drink, and I'm like, I'm out, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: I'm sorry. I'm laughing after this horrible episode. But we
Speaker 2: need if I don't.
Speaker 1: Oh man, yeah, you need a tyburn tree is what
Speaker 1: you need. That'll just smooth it right out. I hope
Speaker 1: if you make this drink that you love it as
Speaker 1: much as I do. I was kind of surprised by
Speaker 1: how much I love it, because I do tend to
Speaker 1: like things a little sweeter than this. But I don't
Speaker 1: know something about it works. We will be right back
Speaker 1: here next week with another tale of highway robbery and
Speaker 1: drinks to go with it. Criminalia is a production of
Speaker 1: Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from
Speaker 1: Shondaland Audio, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows,