1 00:00:01,280 --> 00:00:04,279 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:13,760 Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio, Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 3 00:00:13,800 --> 00:00:17,280 Speaker 1: I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. While I 4 00:00:17,320 --> 00:00:21,160 Speaker 1: was working on that six Impossible Episodes about prison breaks 5 00:00:21,200 --> 00:00:23,759 Speaker 1: that we had recently, I of course found a few 6 00:00:23,800 --> 00:00:26,360 Speaker 1: topics that seemed like they could stand on their own 7 00:00:27,080 --> 00:00:31,120 Speaker 1: as full episodes. One of them was John Shepherd, more 8 00:00:31,160 --> 00:00:34,280 Speaker 1: commonly known as Jack Shepherd, who became kind of a 9 00:00:34,479 --> 00:00:39,720 Speaker 1: serial breakout artist in eighteenth century England, and I have 10 00:00:39,800 --> 00:00:42,959 Speaker 1: a caveat with this episode. There are a bunch of 11 00:00:42,960 --> 00:00:46,040 Speaker 1: books about Shepherd's life. A lot of them were published 12 00:00:46,159 --> 00:00:48,960 Speaker 1: right around the time that he died. One of the 13 00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:51,960 Speaker 1: most well known of those is The History of the 14 00:00:52,040 --> 00:00:55,560 Speaker 1: Remarkable Life of John Shepherd, and it's often credited to 15 00:00:55,680 --> 00:00:59,480 Speaker 1: Daniel Dafoe. Another one is a narrative of All the 16 00:00:59,560 --> 00:01:03,400 Speaker 1: Robbery Escapes, et cetera of John Shepherd, giving an exact 17 00:01:03,480 --> 00:01:06,360 Speaker 1: description of the manner of his wonderful escape from the 18 00:01:06,400 --> 00:01:09,400 Speaker 1: castle in Newgate and of the methods he took afterward 19 00:01:09,480 --> 00:01:14,800 Speaker 1: for his security, written by himself. As that written by 20 00:01:14,920 --> 00:01:20,080 Speaker 1: himself suggests, it is purportedly Shepherd's own autobiography, written from 21 00:01:20,160 --> 00:01:24,720 Speaker 1: prison just days before his execution, and also responding to 22 00:01:24,760 --> 00:01:27,040 Speaker 1: some of the details that were in that first book 23 00:01:27,040 --> 00:01:30,480 Speaker 1: that I mentioned. The thing is this book is also 24 00:01:30,720 --> 00:01:35,640 Speaker 1: often credited to Daniel Dafoe. Another of the books is 25 00:01:35,800 --> 00:01:39,920 Speaker 1: Authentic Memoirs of the Life and Surprising Adventures of John Shepherd, 26 00:01:39,959 --> 00:01:44,119 Speaker 1: who was executed at Tyburn November the sixteenth, seventeen twenty four, 27 00:01:44,760 --> 00:01:48,560 Speaker 1: by way of familiar letters from a gentleman in town 28 00:01:48,760 --> 00:01:53,280 Speaker 1: to his friend and correspondent in the country. This is 29 00:01:53,320 --> 00:01:56,280 Speaker 1: published just under the initials G. E. G. E is 30 00:01:56,320 --> 00:01:59,680 Speaker 1: the gentleman in town writing these letters, and some of 31 00:01:59,680 --> 00:02:04,760 Speaker 1: the ors are purportedly also by Shepherd. If it's not clear, 32 00:02:04,800 --> 00:02:08,120 Speaker 1: there's question marks around all of this about like who 33 00:02:08,520 --> 00:02:12,399 Speaker 1: really wrote these and other works, and how accurate they are, 34 00:02:13,160 --> 00:02:15,600 Speaker 1: how much of those sources agree with each other because 35 00:02:15,639 --> 00:02:19,000 Speaker 1: they're correct, or whether it's more just because their various 36 00:02:19,040 --> 00:02:23,640 Speaker 1: authors were all lifting information from one another. Some of 37 00:02:23,880 --> 00:02:27,280 Speaker 1: Daniel Dafoe's purportedly historical work has come up on the 38 00:02:27,320 --> 00:02:30,880 Speaker 1: show before. We've talked about how some of it's definitely 39 00:02:31,080 --> 00:02:34,400 Speaker 1: exaggerated at best. What we do know, though, is Jack 40 00:02:34,400 --> 00:02:37,799 Speaker 1: Shephard was for sure a real person, and he had 41 00:02:37,840 --> 00:02:40,359 Speaker 1: two rounds of fame, the second one happening more than 42 00:02:40,360 --> 00:02:45,799 Speaker 1: a century after his death. Also heads up. Although Jack 43 00:02:45,840 --> 00:02:48,640 Speaker 1: Shepherd was mostly a thief and kind of a folk 44 00:02:48,720 --> 00:02:52,960 Speaker 1: hero or maybe an anti hero, there's also a lot 45 00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:58,160 Speaker 1: of execution and some murder in this episode. Jack Shepherd 46 00:02:58,240 --> 00:03:01,160 Speaker 1: was born March four, sevent you know too, in White 47 00:03:01,240 --> 00:03:05,119 Speaker 1: Rose spit of Fields, London. His father, Thomas, was a carpenter. 48 00:03:05,800 --> 00:03:08,760 Speaker 1: Thomas apparently came from a long line of carpenters, and 49 00:03:08,760 --> 00:03:11,680 Speaker 1: he had a reputation as a hard worker and being 50 00:03:11,720 --> 00:03:15,040 Speaker 1: good at his trade. But he died at a young age, 51 00:03:15,360 --> 00:03:18,799 Speaker 1: leaving his wife Mary to raise their three surviving children. 52 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:22,960 Speaker 1: That was Jack, his brother Thomas, and their sister Mary. 53 00:03:23,160 --> 00:03:26,800 Speaker 1: For a time, Jack and Thomas went to Mr Garrett's school, 54 00:03:26,880 --> 00:03:30,680 Speaker 1: which in some accounts was really a workhouse. Jack started 55 00:03:30,720 --> 00:03:33,200 Speaker 1: working as a servant when he was twelve years old 56 00:03:33,320 --> 00:03:36,800 Speaker 1: or so. He worked for a woolen draper named William 57 00:03:36,880 --> 00:03:40,640 Speaker 1: knee Bone, which is a great name. Knee Bone was 58 00:03:40,720 --> 00:03:45,040 Speaker 1: reportedly a kind man and helped Jack improve his reading, writing, 59 00:03:45,080 --> 00:03:49,640 Speaker 1: and arithmetic. On April twelfth, seventeen seventeen, when he was fifteen, 60 00:03:49,960 --> 00:03:53,480 Speaker 1: Jack started an apprenticeship with a carpenter named Owen Wood. 61 00:03:54,280 --> 00:03:56,760 Speaker 1: Of course he was a carpenter, his name was Owen Wood, 62 00:03:57,120 --> 00:04:00,240 Speaker 1: and he seems to have taken after his father. There. 63 00:04:00,280 --> 00:04:03,360 Speaker 1: For the first few years at least, Jack was described 64 00:04:03,360 --> 00:04:07,640 Speaker 1: as a very good apprentice. It's also possible that his brother, Thomas, 65 00:04:07,680 --> 00:04:11,240 Speaker 1: was one of Wood's apprentices, although some accounts described Thomas 66 00:04:11,720 --> 00:04:15,680 Speaker 1: as a fellow apprentice, but not as Jack's actual brother. 67 00:04:16,400 --> 00:04:20,080 Speaker 1: That's a little vague. And then about five years into 68 00:04:20,200 --> 00:04:24,680 Speaker 1: Jack's apprenticeship, things changed. Wood had a next door neighbor 69 00:04:24,760 --> 00:04:28,680 Speaker 1: named Joseph Hind or possibly Hayne, who had been a 70 00:04:28,720 --> 00:04:32,520 Speaker 1: button mulled maker, and Hind decided to give up his 71 00:04:32,640 --> 00:04:35,640 Speaker 1: trade and instead take over the running of the Black 72 00:04:35,760 --> 00:04:39,320 Speaker 1: Lion Ale House, which was not far away, and he 73 00:04:39,440 --> 00:04:42,880 Speaker 1: started encouraging all the local apprentices to come spend their 74 00:04:42,960 --> 00:04:46,640 Speaker 1: free time and days off there. This Ale house was 75 00:04:46,680 --> 00:04:49,680 Speaker 1: where twenty year old Jack was introduced to quote a 76 00:04:49,800 --> 00:04:53,560 Speaker 1: train of vices, as before I was altogether a stranger 77 00:04:53,560 --> 00:04:57,919 Speaker 1: to He was also introduced to a woman named Elizabeth Lyon, 78 00:04:58,200 --> 00:05:02,120 Speaker 1: also known as Edgeworth Best because she'd been born in Edgeworth. 79 00:05:02,920 --> 00:05:06,240 Speaker 1: Elizabeth was a sex worker, and in seventy one she 80 00:05:06,279 --> 00:05:09,279 Speaker 1: had been convicted of stealing a piece of silk and 81 00:05:09,440 --> 00:05:13,000 Speaker 1: five yards of cambrick, and her hand had been branded 82 00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:18,839 Speaker 1: as a punishment. Numerous accounts describe Elizabeth as seducing Jack 83 00:05:18,880 --> 00:05:22,640 Speaker 1: into a life of crime. Although lots of accounts try 84 00:05:22,680 --> 00:05:26,960 Speaker 1: to make Elizabeth responsible for Jack's decisions in works purportedly 85 00:05:27,120 --> 00:05:30,320 Speaker 1: by him, he also places the blame on various other 86 00:05:30,400 --> 00:05:33,440 Speaker 1: people in his life, yet none of them really suggests 87 00:05:33,520 --> 00:05:36,599 Speaker 1: very strongly that he was a grown man and should 88 00:05:36,600 --> 00:05:40,200 Speaker 1: be responsible for his own actions. There's also a little 89 00:05:40,240 --> 00:05:44,040 Speaker 1: bit of contradiction and how different Jack's behavior really was 90 00:05:44,240 --> 00:05:48,280 Speaker 1: after he started frequenting the Black Line alehouse. He either 91 00:05:48,400 --> 00:05:52,400 Speaker 1: had been a totally upstanding apprentice, skilled in his work, 92 00:05:52,480 --> 00:05:54,880 Speaker 1: and well on his way to becoming a carpenter with 93 00:05:55,000 --> 00:05:57,920 Speaker 1: his own shop, at least before he fell into ruin, 94 00:05:58,160 --> 00:06:02,599 Speaker 1: or he had always had quote evil inclinations and when 95 00:06:02,600 --> 00:06:05,279 Speaker 1: the Wood family was at church on Sundays, he stayed 96 00:06:05,320 --> 00:06:07,760 Speaker 1: behind and just got up to whatever he felt like doing. 97 00:06:08,440 --> 00:06:12,400 Speaker 1: It seems like his actual crimes started in seventeen twenty three, 98 00:06:12,400 --> 00:06:16,680 Speaker 1: when he was twenty one, Elizabeth stole someone's ring, and 99 00:06:16,839 --> 00:06:19,919 Speaker 1: Jack broke her out of the local roundhouse. This was 100 00:06:20,000 --> 00:06:23,120 Speaker 1: basically a small single room jail off and round as 101 00:06:23,160 --> 00:06:27,560 Speaker 1: the name suggests, sometimes freestanding and sometimes built into a wall. 102 00:06:28,360 --> 00:06:32,000 Speaker 1: In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, smaller communities often 103 00:06:32,120 --> 00:06:35,719 Speaker 1: used roundhouses as an overnight holding cell for people who 104 00:06:35,720 --> 00:06:38,560 Speaker 1: were caught doing some kind of mischief or crimes, so 105 00:06:38,600 --> 00:06:41,760 Speaker 1: they could be taken to town in the morning. Shepherd 106 00:06:41,800 --> 00:06:44,520 Speaker 1: also started stealing from the jobs that Owen Wood had 107 00:06:44,560 --> 00:06:48,400 Speaker 1: sent him on, starting with stealing two silver spoons from 108 00:06:48,400 --> 00:06:51,920 Speaker 1: the Rummer tavern. For a while, he was keeping up 109 00:06:51,960 --> 00:06:56,000 Speaker 1: his apprenticeship while also pilfering money or small items from 110 00:06:56,000 --> 00:06:59,080 Speaker 1: his job sites, and he justified it by saying that 111 00:06:59,160 --> 00:07:02,880 Speaker 1: Would wasn't paying him enough money to survive, and generally 112 00:07:02,920 --> 00:07:05,360 Speaker 1: he seems to have been pretty critical of how Wood 113 00:07:05,440 --> 00:07:08,840 Speaker 1: was running his business. Would was mostly doing lots of 114 00:07:08,880 --> 00:07:13,000 Speaker 1: small repairs and projects at people's existing homes and businesses, 115 00:07:13,040 --> 00:07:15,200 Speaker 1: and Shepherd thought he would be making a lot more 116 00:07:15,240 --> 00:07:18,680 Speaker 1: money if he moved into doing new construction. Then, with 117 00:07:18,800 --> 00:07:21,760 Speaker 1: less than a year ago on his apprenticeship, Shepherd left, 118 00:07:21,960 --> 00:07:26,040 Speaker 1: turning his attention to thieving full time. By February of 119 00:07:26,080 --> 00:07:29,560 Speaker 1: seventeen twenty four, he had established a small criminal operation 120 00:07:29,760 --> 00:07:34,080 Speaker 1: involving himself, his brother, Thomas, and Elizabeth Lyon, with Jack 121 00:07:34,160 --> 00:07:37,680 Speaker 1: and Elizabeth living together as husband and wife, even though 122 00:07:37,720 --> 00:07:42,000 Speaker 1: she was reportedly already married to someone else. Jack also 123 00:07:42,040 --> 00:07:44,440 Speaker 1: got into a little bit of fraud by claiming that 124 00:07:44,520 --> 00:07:47,760 Speaker 1: he had already finished that apprenticeship to owen Wood, and 125 00:07:47,800 --> 00:07:49,400 Speaker 1: he did that so he could get a job as 126 00:07:49,400 --> 00:07:53,080 Speaker 1: a journeyman to a master carpenter. He used that job 127 00:07:53,160 --> 00:07:55,560 Speaker 1: as a way to case houses so that he could 128 00:07:55,640 --> 00:08:00,000 Speaker 1: rob the homes where he worked. According to Shepherd's purported autobiograph, 129 00:08:00,120 --> 00:08:03,440 Speaker 1: fee he spent the night in every round house in 130 00:08:03,520 --> 00:08:07,400 Speaker 1: the city and Liberty of Westminster, and Elizabeth Lyons spent 131 00:08:07,440 --> 00:08:10,520 Speaker 1: a night, and most of them too. He had mostly 132 00:08:10,560 --> 00:08:13,400 Speaker 1: managed to escape or to talk them both out of trouble, 133 00:08:13,440 --> 00:08:18,440 Speaker 1: but eventually Thomas got caught, and when questioned, Thomas implicated 134 00:08:18,520 --> 00:08:22,400 Speaker 1: Jack in a string of thefts. After this, Shepherd was 135 00:08:22,480 --> 00:08:26,240 Speaker 1: captured and held in St Giles's Roundhouse in central London. 136 00:08:26,960 --> 00:08:30,360 Speaker 1: This led to the first escape that most accounts describe 137 00:08:30,360 --> 00:08:34,840 Speaker 1: in detail. Shepherd hadn't been searched very well before being 138 00:08:34,920 --> 00:08:38,680 Speaker 1: locked in, and he had an old razor. He used 139 00:08:38,679 --> 00:08:40,760 Speaker 1: the razor to cut one of the supports from a 140 00:08:40,880 --> 00:08:43,839 Speaker 1: chair and then used that support to work a hole 141 00:08:43,920 --> 00:08:47,559 Speaker 1: through the roof. He put the roundhouse's feather bed under 142 00:08:47,559 --> 00:08:49,920 Speaker 1: the spot where he was working to muffle the sound 143 00:08:49,920 --> 00:08:53,720 Speaker 1: of debris as it fell. That worked until he started 144 00:08:53,720 --> 00:08:56,400 Speaker 1: to break through to the outside and a roof tile 145 00:08:56,559 --> 00:08:59,240 Speaker 1: slid down the outside of the building and hit a 146 00:08:59,320 --> 00:09:04,120 Speaker 1: passer by. Shepherd forced his way through the hole and ran. Yeah. 147 00:09:04,160 --> 00:09:05,920 Speaker 1: He was like enough of this, trying to be somewhat 148 00:09:05,920 --> 00:09:08,120 Speaker 1: discreet and I'm just going to force my way out 149 00:09:08,160 --> 00:09:11,120 Speaker 1: through the rest of this. Not long after that, Jack 150 00:09:11,160 --> 00:09:14,120 Speaker 1: and Elizabeth were both arrested, and this time they were 151 00:09:14,160 --> 00:09:17,959 Speaker 1: taken to new prison in Clerkenwell, also in central London, 152 00:09:18,040 --> 00:09:20,640 Speaker 1: and they were placed in what was supposed to be 153 00:09:20,679 --> 00:09:24,240 Speaker 1: the strongest ward in the prison. They were in a 154 00:09:24,400 --> 00:09:27,640 Speaker 1: cell together because they were believed to be husband and wife. 155 00:09:28,320 --> 00:09:31,520 Speaker 1: But Shepherd had suggested to authorities that he was going 156 00:09:31,559 --> 00:09:35,040 Speaker 1: to implicate some of his various accomplices, so he was 157 00:09:35,120 --> 00:09:39,560 Speaker 1: being treated fairly leniently in this supposedly secure ward, and 158 00:09:39,600 --> 00:09:43,400 Speaker 1: he was allowed to have visitors. One of these visitors 159 00:09:43,400 --> 00:09:47,280 Speaker 1: smuggled in a saw, and Shepherd used it to saw 160 00:09:47,440 --> 00:09:51,400 Speaker 1: through his restraints and to dismantle a barred window. He 161 00:09:51,520 --> 00:09:54,559 Speaker 1: and Elizabeth then escaped by climbing down a rope they 162 00:09:54,559 --> 00:09:58,280 Speaker 1: had made from bedsheets and Elizabeth's dress. We're going to 163 00:09:58,360 --> 00:10:01,080 Speaker 1: talk some more about Jack and elizabe after we paused 164 00:10:01,120 --> 00:10:13,320 Speaker 1: for a sponsor break. After Jack Shepherd and Elizabeth Lyon 165 00:10:13,480 --> 00:10:16,319 Speaker 1: escaped from new prison, they went back to thieving. They 166 00:10:16,360 --> 00:10:19,640 Speaker 1: broke into houses, they held up coaches on the highway. 167 00:10:20,280 --> 00:10:23,960 Speaker 1: Shepherd also found another accomplice, a man named Joseph Blake, 168 00:10:24,120 --> 00:10:28,480 Speaker 1: also known as Blueskin, and in mid June of seventy four, 169 00:10:28,520 --> 00:10:32,839 Speaker 1: Shepherd and Blake robbed the home of Shepherd's former employer, 170 00:10:32,920 --> 00:10:36,480 Speaker 1: William nee Bone. They stole a hundred and eight yards 171 00:10:36,559 --> 00:10:40,000 Speaker 1: of woolen cloth and some other items. By this point, 172 00:10:40,160 --> 00:10:43,360 Speaker 1: Shepherd had caught the attention of a man named Jonathan Wild. 173 00:10:44,040 --> 00:10:48,360 Speaker 1: Wild maintained a whole network of thieves, burglars, and others 174 00:10:48,400 --> 00:10:51,520 Speaker 1: who made their living through crime, and he also worked 175 00:10:51,559 --> 00:10:55,120 Speaker 1: as a thief taker, apprehending suspects and handing them over 176 00:10:55,160 --> 00:10:59,200 Speaker 1: to authorities. He used this thief taking to keep his 177 00:10:59,240 --> 00:11:02,760 Speaker 1: criminal network in line. For example, he would demand that 178 00:11:02,800 --> 00:11:05,680 Speaker 1: he get a cut of someone's hall and if they refused, 179 00:11:06,080 --> 00:11:08,680 Speaker 1: Wild would just turn them in. Yeah, working for a 180 00:11:08,720 --> 00:11:11,080 Speaker 1: crime boss who's threatening to hand you over to the 181 00:11:11,080 --> 00:11:15,920 Speaker 1: police is the whole thing. Wild apparently wanted Shepherd to 182 00:11:15,960 --> 00:11:19,600 Speaker 1: become part of this network, or possibly Shepherd had been 183 00:11:19,720 --> 00:11:22,120 Speaker 1: part of it and had decided to strike out on 184 00:11:22,280 --> 00:11:26,960 Speaker 1: his own. Whatever the background on that, Shepherd refused to 185 00:11:27,000 --> 00:11:30,920 Speaker 1: cooperate with Wild, and Wild had him arrested, and some 186 00:11:30,960 --> 00:11:35,280 Speaker 1: accounts Lion betrayed Shepherd to Wild in the lead up 187 00:11:35,280 --> 00:11:39,560 Speaker 1: to this arrest, which was on July. This time, Shepherd 188 00:11:39,600 --> 00:11:42,520 Speaker 1: was jailed in Newgate Prison in London and he stood 189 00:11:42,559 --> 00:11:46,800 Speaker 1: trial at the Central Criminal Court also called the Old Bailey, 190 00:11:46,840 --> 00:11:51,000 Speaker 1: on August twelfth, seventeen twenty four. Shepherd was tried for 191 00:11:51,160 --> 00:11:55,480 Speaker 1: three crimes. Two of them involved stealing diverse goods from 192 00:11:55,480 --> 00:11:58,480 Speaker 1: the homes of William Phillips and Mary Cook in two 193 00:11:58,520 --> 00:12:03,120 Speaker 1: separate incidents from there vias February. There wasn't enough evidence 194 00:12:03,160 --> 00:12:05,520 Speaker 1: against him for either of those two crimes and he 195 00:12:05,600 --> 00:12:09,160 Speaker 1: was acquitted, but the third was for breaking into the 196 00:12:09,200 --> 00:12:12,200 Speaker 1: home of William Nebone and stealing that hundred and eight 197 00:12:12,320 --> 00:12:16,520 Speaker 1: yards of woolen cloth. This time, Shepherd was convicted and 198 00:12:16,600 --> 00:12:20,240 Speaker 1: he was sentenced to death. As a note, the old 199 00:12:20,320 --> 00:12:25,440 Speaker 1: Bailey records of this list Shepherd's first name as Joseph, 200 00:12:25,600 --> 00:12:28,880 Speaker 1: but later on, when Joseph Blake stood trial for his 201 00:12:29,000 --> 00:12:33,200 Speaker 1: participation in that same crime, the records list Shepherd's first 202 00:12:33,240 --> 00:12:36,840 Speaker 1: name as John. Shepherd was returned to Newgate Prison and 203 00:12:36,880 --> 00:12:40,680 Speaker 1: placed in the hold for condemned prisoners, and on August 204 00:12:40,679 --> 00:12:43,800 Speaker 1: thirty one, four days before his execution was supposed to 205 00:12:43,800 --> 00:12:47,000 Speaker 1: take place, he sawed through one of the iron spikes 206 00:12:47,040 --> 00:12:50,360 Speaker 1: in the space above a door, squeezing between the remaining 207 00:12:50,400 --> 00:12:54,600 Speaker 1: spikes to make his way out. That saw apparently came 208 00:12:54,640 --> 00:12:59,079 Speaker 1: from someone named Mr Davis. Shepherd sneaked to the prison's 209 00:12:59,120 --> 00:13:02,320 Speaker 1: reception area where he was meant by Elizabeth Lyon and 210 00:13:02,440 --> 00:13:05,800 Speaker 1: another woman and they disguised him in a nightgown and 211 00:13:05,840 --> 00:13:08,480 Speaker 1: they led him out of the prison and what was 212 00:13:08,559 --> 00:13:12,280 Speaker 1: really not the smartest move, Shepherd then spent a stretch 213 00:13:12,320 --> 00:13:15,440 Speaker 1: of time in London's Clare Market, less than a mile 214 00:13:15,559 --> 00:13:19,360 Speaker 1: away from the prison, disguised as a butcher. As Shepherd 215 00:13:19,400 --> 00:13:25,240 Speaker 1: was hiding out in the market, Jonathan Wild arrested Elizabeth Lyon. Eventually, 216 00:13:25,280 --> 00:13:29,959 Speaker 1: with lions still in custody, Shepherd left London, but then 217 00:13:30,000 --> 00:13:33,280 Speaker 1: he came back. He was captured again on September tenth 218 00:13:33,360 --> 00:13:35,400 Speaker 1: as he was getting out of the coach that had 219 00:13:35,440 --> 00:13:38,440 Speaker 1: brought him back to the city. By this point, news 220 00:13:38,480 --> 00:13:42,000 Speaker 1: of Shepherd's crimes and arrests and escapes had spread, and 221 00:13:42,040 --> 00:13:44,880 Speaker 1: he had become kind of a folk hero. In the 222 00:13:44,920 --> 00:13:48,280 Speaker 1: words of the history of the Remarkable Life of John Shepherd, 223 00:13:48,360 --> 00:13:52,199 Speaker 1: attributed to Daniel Dafoe quote, his escape and his being 224 00:13:52,280 --> 00:13:55,360 Speaker 1: so suddenly retaken, made such a noise in the town 225 00:13:55,760 --> 00:13:57,839 Speaker 1: that it was thought all the common people would have 226 00:13:57,880 --> 00:14:01,040 Speaker 1: gone mad about him, there being not a porter to 227 00:14:01,120 --> 00:14:03,960 Speaker 1: be had for love, nor money, nor getting into an 228 00:14:04,000 --> 00:14:08,440 Speaker 1: ale house for Butcher's. Shoemakers and barbers all engaged in 229 00:14:08,559 --> 00:14:13,920 Speaker 1: controversies and wagers about Shepherd. Newgate night and day, surrounded 230 00:14:13,920 --> 00:14:17,480 Speaker 1: with the curious from St. Giles's, and Ragfair and Tyburn 231 00:14:17,559 --> 00:14:20,800 Speaker 1: Road daily lined with women and children, and the gallows 232 00:14:20,920 --> 00:14:24,320 Speaker 1: is carefully watched by night lest he should be hanged 233 00:14:24,400 --> 00:14:28,640 Speaker 1: in cog Shepherd made another appearance at the Old Bailey, 234 00:14:28,640 --> 00:14:31,120 Speaker 1: this time to prove that the man who had been 235 00:14:31,200 --> 00:14:35,440 Speaker 1: captured was indeed the same Jack Shepherd who had previously escaped. 236 00:14:36,240 --> 00:14:38,680 Speaker 1: Once that was taken care of, he was returned to 237 00:14:38,760 --> 00:14:43,840 Speaker 1: the Condemned Hold in Newgate Prison. Unsurprisingly, he started planning 238 00:14:43,880 --> 00:14:47,760 Speaker 1: to escape again. On September six, guards found a tool 239 00:14:47,880 --> 00:14:50,640 Speaker 1: set hidden in a chair in the condemned Hold and 240 00:14:50,680 --> 00:14:54,640 Speaker 1: a watchmaker's file concealed in a bible. Shepherd was moved 241 00:14:54,680 --> 00:14:57,320 Speaker 1: from the Condemned Hold to a more secure apartment known 242 00:14:57,320 --> 00:14:59,920 Speaker 1: as the Castle that was on the prison's fourth floor. 243 00:15:00,560 --> 00:15:03,520 Speaker 1: He was kept underguard with his legs and shackles that 244 00:15:03,560 --> 00:15:06,240 Speaker 1: were attached to a staple in the floor with an 245 00:15:06,360 --> 00:15:09,560 Speaker 1: enormous padlock. I mean, there's illustrations of this, and of 246 00:15:09,560 --> 00:15:11,840 Speaker 1: course they are for books that people were supposed to buy, 247 00:15:11,880 --> 00:15:13,600 Speaker 1: so there's an element of them that is meant to 248 00:15:13,640 --> 00:15:16,320 Speaker 1: be entertaining. But this padlock is illustrated as like as 249 00:15:16,320 --> 00:15:19,840 Speaker 1: big as his head. It's huge. And then one day 250 00:15:19,880 --> 00:15:22,360 Speaker 1: Shepherd found a nail on the floor. He used it 251 00:15:22,400 --> 00:15:24,640 Speaker 1: to pick the padlock, and this left him free to 252 00:15:24,760 --> 00:15:27,600 Speaker 1: move around the room. He tried to escape by going 253 00:15:27,680 --> 00:15:29,800 Speaker 1: up the chimney, but he found that there was an 254 00:15:29,840 --> 00:15:34,040 Speaker 1: iron bar across the opening there to prevent somebody from 255 00:15:34,120 --> 00:15:37,920 Speaker 1: doing that exact thing. A guard surprised him before he 256 00:15:37,960 --> 00:15:40,080 Speaker 1: had a chance to get back to where he was 257 00:15:40,160 --> 00:15:42,360 Speaker 1: and put the padlock back the way it had been, 258 00:15:42,440 --> 00:15:46,520 Speaker 1: and boy, that guard was chagrined when Shepherd showed him 259 00:15:46,520 --> 00:15:48,520 Speaker 1: how easy it was for him to pick that lock. 260 00:15:49,200 --> 00:15:52,840 Speaker 1: The guards then added handcuffs to Shepherd's restraints, and they 261 00:15:52,840 --> 00:15:56,000 Speaker 1: took the nail away. As all of that was going on, 262 00:15:56,200 --> 00:15:59,640 Speaker 1: Joseph Blake, a k A. Blueskin was captured and tried, 263 00:16:00,040 --> 00:16:03,720 Speaker 1: and he also attempted to murder Jonathan Wild by slitting 264 00:16:03,800 --> 00:16:06,240 Speaker 1: his throat after he had asked Wild to put in 265 00:16:06,240 --> 00:16:10,520 Speaker 1: a good word for him, and Wild refused. Wild survived 266 00:16:10,600 --> 00:16:13,600 Speaker 1: this assault thanks to having some muslin braided around his 267 00:16:13,680 --> 00:16:17,640 Speaker 1: neck and the prompt attention of nearby surgeons. Blake was 268 00:16:17,680 --> 00:16:20,880 Speaker 1: sentenced to death for the crime. Back in the castle 269 00:16:21,040 --> 00:16:25,000 Speaker 1: on the prison's fourth floor, Shepherd escaped again on October 270 00:16:25,120 --> 00:16:29,080 Speaker 1: fift The guards brought his evening meal. Everything seemed normal 271 00:16:29,120 --> 00:16:31,440 Speaker 1: to them, but then in the morning they found the 272 00:16:31,520 --> 00:16:35,160 Speaker 1: door blocked from the inside by a pile of random bricks, 273 00:16:35,200 --> 00:16:38,840 Speaker 1: and once they shoved past them, they found that Shepherd 274 00:16:38,960 --> 00:16:42,360 Speaker 1: was gone again. In the words of the history of 275 00:16:42,360 --> 00:16:46,120 Speaker 1: the remarkable life of John Shepherd quote. The whole posse 276 00:16:46,280 --> 00:16:48,960 Speaker 1: of the prison ran up and stood like men deprived 277 00:16:48,960 --> 00:16:52,000 Speaker 1: of their senses. Their surprise being over, they were in 278 00:16:52,080 --> 00:16:55,600 Speaker 1: hopes that he might not have yet entirely made his escape, 279 00:16:55,840 --> 00:16:58,400 Speaker 1: and got their keys to open all the strong rooms 280 00:16:58,400 --> 00:17:01,840 Speaker 1: adjacent to the castle in order to trace him. When, 281 00:17:01,880 --> 00:17:04,680 Speaker 1: to their further amazement, they found the door ready open 282 00:17:04,760 --> 00:17:08,560 Speaker 1: to their hands, and the strong locks, screws and bolts 283 00:17:08,680 --> 00:17:13,560 Speaker 1: broken in pieces and scattered about the jail. Six great doors, 284 00:17:13,880 --> 00:17:16,920 Speaker 1: one whereof having not been opened for several years past, 285 00:17:17,080 --> 00:17:20,280 Speaker 1: were forced, and it appeared that he had descended from 286 00:17:20,320 --> 00:17:23,200 Speaker 1: the leads of Newgate by a blanket which he had 287 00:17:23,240 --> 00:17:25,640 Speaker 1: fastened to the wall by an iron spike he had 288 00:17:25,640 --> 00:17:28,240 Speaker 1: taken from the hatch of the chapel on the house 289 00:17:28,280 --> 00:17:31,040 Speaker 1: of Mr Bird, and the door on the leads having 290 00:17:31,040 --> 00:17:34,560 Speaker 1: been left open, it is very reasonable to conclude he 291 00:17:34,680 --> 00:17:38,520 Speaker 1: passed directly to the street door down the stairs. Mr 292 00:17:38,560 --> 00:17:40,800 Speaker 1: Bird and his wife hearing an odd sort of a 293 00:17:40,840 --> 00:17:42,800 Speaker 1: noise on the stairs as they lay in their bed 294 00:17:43,200 --> 00:17:47,000 Speaker 1: a short time before the watchman alarmed the family. So 295 00:17:47,080 --> 00:17:50,840 Speaker 1: apparently Shepherd had managed to twist apart the chain connecting 296 00:17:50,920 --> 00:17:53,960 Speaker 1: his handcuffs, and then somehow he had gotten his hands 297 00:17:54,000 --> 00:17:56,760 Speaker 1: on another nail and picked the lock holding his leg 298 00:17:56,800 --> 00:18:00,320 Speaker 1: shackles to the floor, pulled out that iron bar that 299 00:18:00,359 --> 00:18:03,080 Speaker 1: had previously kept him from climbing up the chimney, and 300 00:18:03,119 --> 00:18:05,359 Speaker 1: took it with him so that he could force open 301 00:18:05,400 --> 00:18:08,720 Speaker 1: all the locks between him and the outside. He came 302 00:18:08,760 --> 00:18:11,280 Speaker 1: out through the Red Room, which was a cell where 303 00:18:11,320 --> 00:18:15,080 Speaker 1: aristocrats were held, and that was empty at the time. Quote, 304 00:18:15,119 --> 00:18:19,160 Speaker 1: he undoubtedly performed most of these wonders and the darkest 305 00:18:19,200 --> 00:18:21,639 Speaker 1: part of the night, and without the least glimpse of 306 00:18:21,640 --> 00:18:24,600 Speaker 1: a candle a word. He has actually done with his 307 00:18:24,640 --> 00:18:27,439 Speaker 1: own hands in a few hours what several of the 308 00:18:27,480 --> 00:18:30,920 Speaker 1: most skillful artists allow could not have been acted by 309 00:18:30,960 --> 00:18:35,120 Speaker 1: a number of persons furnished with proper implements and all 310 00:18:35,200 --> 00:18:39,719 Speaker 1: other advantages in a full day. So once Shephard got 311 00:18:39,760 --> 00:18:41,960 Speaker 1: to the prison roof, he realized he didn't have a 312 00:18:41,960 --> 00:18:44,199 Speaker 1: way to get down, so he went back to the 313 00:18:44,240 --> 00:18:47,159 Speaker 1: castle to get a blanket, and once he'd made his 314 00:18:47,160 --> 00:18:49,520 Speaker 1: way through the home of Mr Bird, he went to 315 00:18:49,560 --> 00:18:52,199 Speaker 1: the home of Catherine Cook, which is where he managed 316 00:18:52,240 --> 00:18:54,639 Speaker 1: to get himself the rest of the way out of 317 00:18:54,720 --> 00:18:57,840 Speaker 1: his restraints. It's like that scene in The Highest movie 318 00:18:57,840 --> 00:19:00,280 Speaker 1: where you go find your friend that owns boltcutter person 319 00:19:01,720 --> 00:19:07,080 Speaker 1: to knock your shackles off. Sometime after that, Shepherd robbed 320 00:19:07,119 --> 00:19:10,320 Speaker 1: a pawn shop of some very fine clothes, and once 321 00:19:10,359 --> 00:19:14,680 Speaker 1: he was dressed in them, he went out drinking again, 322 00:19:15,560 --> 00:19:18,040 Speaker 1: not the smartest move. He was arrested at a Jury 323 00:19:18,119 --> 00:19:23,280 Speaker 1: Lane brandy shop, very inebriated. On October one, Shepherd was 324 00:19:23,440 --> 00:19:26,200 Speaker 1: once again returned to the prison, and at this point 325 00:19:26,240 --> 00:19:29,639 Speaker 1: he was really famous. People lined up at the prison 326 00:19:29,680 --> 00:19:31,720 Speaker 1: to try to get a glimpse of him, and the 327 00:19:31,800 --> 00:19:35,879 Speaker 1: guards actually charged fees for visitors, reportedly earning two hundred 328 00:19:35,920 --> 00:19:39,720 Speaker 1: pounds by doing so. Some of his reported visitors were 329 00:19:39,760 --> 00:19:44,479 Speaker 1: also famous, like past podcast subject William Hogarth, whose idol 330 00:19:44,720 --> 00:19:49,359 Speaker 1: Prentice from his series Industry and Idleness is supposedly inspired 331 00:19:49,400 --> 00:19:53,439 Speaker 1: by Shepherd. Shepherd's fame continued all the way up and 332 00:19:53,640 --> 00:19:57,280 Speaker 1: then after his execution, which was on November sixteen, seventeen 333 00:19:57,320 --> 00:20:00,760 Speaker 1: twenty four, at the age of twenty two, but execution 334 00:20:00,800 --> 00:20:04,480 Speaker 1: took place before an enormous crowd. Estimates range all the 335 00:20:04,520 --> 00:20:08,680 Speaker 1: way from thirty thousand to two hundred thousand people. There 336 00:20:08,680 --> 00:20:12,399 Speaker 1: are some really sensational accounts of his hanging. Shepherd is 337 00:20:12,480 --> 00:20:15,919 Speaker 1: pretty consistently described as being a very small man, and 338 00:20:15,960 --> 00:20:18,600 Speaker 1: that was something that helped him squeeze his way out 339 00:20:18,760 --> 00:20:22,960 Speaker 1: during various escape attempts. In one account of the execution, 340 00:20:23,119 --> 00:20:26,199 Speaker 1: people were hoping that his small frame would help him 341 00:20:26,240 --> 00:20:29,280 Speaker 1: survive the hanging, and once he had been cut down 342 00:20:29,400 --> 00:20:32,920 Speaker 1: after hanging for the required fifteen minutes, maybe he could 343 00:20:32,920 --> 00:20:37,800 Speaker 1: be resuscitated. But the crowd, unaware of this plan, to 344 00:20:37,880 --> 00:20:40,960 Speaker 1: try to get his body and resuscitate him, rushed the 345 00:20:41,000 --> 00:20:43,080 Speaker 1: gallows and pulled at his feet to try to make 346 00:20:43,119 --> 00:20:46,679 Speaker 1: sure he died quickly and didn't suffer. His body was 347 00:20:46,720 --> 00:20:49,000 Speaker 1: buried at the churchyard at St. Martin in the Fields. 348 00:20:49,560 --> 00:20:53,320 Speaker 1: Elizabeth Lyon was kept in custody until after the execution. 349 00:20:54,040 --> 00:20:56,800 Speaker 1: Once she was freed, she had a series of relationships 350 00:20:56,840 --> 00:20:59,880 Speaker 1: with other young men that echoed her relationship with Shepherd. 351 00:21:00,440 --> 00:21:04,960 Speaker 1: They were part romantic, part criminal. Accounts again describe her 352 00:21:05,040 --> 00:21:09,400 Speaker 1: as quotes seducing the men into stealing and hurrying them 353 00:21:09,440 --> 00:21:13,520 Speaker 1: to their own destruction. Again, she was not responsible for 354 00:21:13,560 --> 00:21:16,919 Speaker 1: these men's decisions. No, it's the whole kind of trope 355 00:21:16,920 --> 00:21:20,200 Speaker 1: of her being the evil seductress who lured innocent young 356 00:21:20,240 --> 00:21:25,200 Speaker 1: men to their mortal doom. Lyon was eventually sentenced to 357 00:21:25,320 --> 00:21:30,320 Speaker 1: seven years transportation to Maryland in seventeen. We don't really 358 00:21:30,359 --> 00:21:33,800 Speaker 1: know what happened to her after that. Jack's brother Thomas 359 00:21:33,880 --> 00:21:36,639 Speaker 1: was transported to Maryland as well, although there are some 360 00:21:36,680 --> 00:21:40,119 Speaker 1: contradictions about exactly when, and some accounts it was in 361 00:21:40,240 --> 00:21:43,800 Speaker 1: seventeen twenty five, so after his brother's death, and in 362 00:21:43,880 --> 00:21:47,480 Speaker 1: others that was before Jack's execution, and he begged for 363 00:21:47,520 --> 00:21:50,520 Speaker 1: a chance to tell his brother goodbye, in the end 364 00:21:50,640 --> 00:21:53,159 Speaker 1: being allowed to see him only from a distance so 365 00:21:53,280 --> 00:21:55,840 Speaker 1: that there was not any chance he would smuggle his 366 00:21:56,000 --> 00:21:58,840 Speaker 1: brother or something he might use to escape, like the 367 00:21:58,920 --> 00:22:05,360 Speaker 1: saws that people bringing to him. Circling back to Jonathan Wilde, 368 00:22:05,840 --> 00:22:10,879 Speaker 1: he was executed on seventy five, his work bringing in 369 00:22:10,960 --> 00:22:13,800 Speaker 1: thieves not really canceling out all the crimes that he 370 00:22:13,840 --> 00:22:18,200 Speaker 1: was committing himself. People started writing plays and stories about 371 00:22:18,280 --> 00:22:21,919 Speaker 1: Jack Shepard even before his execution. As we noted at 372 00:22:21,920 --> 00:22:23,439 Speaker 1: the top of the show, there were a bunch of 373 00:22:23,440 --> 00:22:26,080 Speaker 1: books about him that were published in seventeen twenty four 374 00:22:26,119 --> 00:22:30,320 Speaker 1: and seventeen. Some of them purportedly factual, some of them 375 00:22:30,320 --> 00:22:35,240 Speaker 1: definitely fictional. In seventeen twenty eight, the Beggar's Opera opened 376 00:22:35,240 --> 00:22:38,679 Speaker 1: at Lincoln inn Fields Theater in London, with characters that 377 00:22:38,760 --> 00:22:42,400 Speaker 1: had been inspired by people like Jack Shepherd and Jonathan Wild. 378 00:22:42,760 --> 00:22:46,320 Speaker 1: Another play was called The Prison Breaker, and there were 379 00:22:46,359 --> 00:22:49,119 Speaker 1: a lot of other stories and plays and songs and 380 00:22:49,680 --> 00:22:53,800 Speaker 1: works of art, poems, anything you can think of to 381 00:22:53,960 --> 00:22:59,119 Speaker 1: depict this famous thief and shailbreaker. There was one. But 382 00:22:59,240 --> 00:23:02,600 Speaker 1: then Shepherd had a whole second wave of fame that 383 00:23:02,680 --> 00:23:04,879 Speaker 1: came more than one d years later, and we're going 384 00:23:04,920 --> 00:23:07,119 Speaker 1: to talk about that after we first paused for a 385 00:23:07,119 --> 00:23:19,840 Speaker 1: sponsor break. When Jack Shepherd was alive in the seventeen twenties, 386 00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:23,640 Speaker 1: crime and the fear of crime were widespread in England. 387 00:23:24,160 --> 00:23:27,640 Speaker 1: Some of our recent podcast subjects were connected to all 388 00:23:27,720 --> 00:23:31,440 Speaker 1: of this. The South Sea Bubble collapsed just a couple 389 00:23:31,480 --> 00:23:35,600 Speaker 1: of years before Shepherd committed his first theft, The Gin 390 00:23:35,840 --> 00:23:39,640 Speaker 1: craze and the moral panic surrounding alcohol in its connection 391 00:23:39,720 --> 00:23:44,240 Speaker 1: to crime that was starting to grow. Increasing urbanization and 392 00:23:44,359 --> 00:23:50,280 Speaker 1: overcrowding were exacerbating existing social and economic issues, and as 393 00:23:50,400 --> 00:23:53,880 Speaker 1: is obvious based on how many people were hanged for 394 00:23:53,960 --> 00:23:57,480 Speaker 1: theft or transported to the colonies. Earlier in this episode, 395 00:23:57,960 --> 00:24:02,600 Speaker 1: the government was using really stream public punishments to try 396 00:24:02,600 --> 00:24:06,200 Speaker 1: to deter petty crimes. This is a system that later 397 00:24:06,240 --> 00:24:10,440 Speaker 1: became known as the Bloody Code. At the same time, though, 398 00:24:10,520 --> 00:24:13,240 Speaker 1: a lot of people were really fascinated with things like 399 00:24:13,400 --> 00:24:17,960 Speaker 1: robberies and jail breaks and highwaymen and gangs of thieves, 400 00:24:18,160 --> 00:24:22,480 Speaker 1: and the news reporting of the actual crimes and fiction 401 00:24:22,600 --> 00:24:25,560 Speaker 1: about all of this, like, all of that was incredibly popular. 402 00:24:26,080 --> 00:24:29,480 Speaker 1: A hundred years later, some of this was starting to shift. 403 00:24:30,080 --> 00:24:33,600 Speaker 1: In seven the death penalty was abolished for all but 404 00:24:33,680 --> 00:24:37,120 Speaker 1: the most serious crimes, so nobody was going to get 405 00:24:37,119 --> 00:24:40,800 Speaker 1: hanged over stealing bolts of cloth anymore. But two years 406 00:24:40,840 --> 00:24:43,639 Speaker 1: after that, the criminal code started to expand in a 407 00:24:43,680 --> 00:24:48,600 Speaker 1: way that increasingly criminalized poor people's lives. Things like selling 408 00:24:48,640 --> 00:24:52,040 Speaker 1: animals on the streets, selling goods door to door, just 409 00:24:52,119 --> 00:24:57,159 Speaker 1: being noisy, being drunk in public, announcing entertainments on the street, 410 00:24:57,560 --> 00:25:02,000 Speaker 1: and playing games on public roads. We're all outlawed. These 411 00:25:02,080 --> 00:25:06,159 Speaker 1: kinds of laws disproportionately affected poor people, whose homes tended 412 00:25:06,160 --> 00:25:08,800 Speaker 1: to be too small and cramped to really do any 413 00:25:08,880 --> 00:25:14,240 Speaker 1: socializing indoors. Poor people were doing most of their socializing outside, 414 00:25:14,359 --> 00:25:18,880 Speaker 1: and increasingly the things that they did outside were also outlawed. 415 00:25:19,520 --> 00:25:22,520 Speaker 1: To add to all of that, the Metropolitan Police was 416 00:25:22,640 --> 00:25:25,520 Speaker 1: established in eighteen thirty nine and absorbed all the other 417 00:25:25,640 --> 00:25:29,720 Speaker 1: organizations and jobs that had previously handled things like apprehending 418 00:25:29,720 --> 00:25:33,280 Speaker 1: people accused of crime. The shifts in the legal code 419 00:25:33,359 --> 00:25:37,360 Speaker 1: also really empowered the Metropolitan Police to carry out surveillance. 420 00:25:37,440 --> 00:25:41,840 Speaker 1: There was a lot of language about their proactively noticing 421 00:25:41,880 --> 00:25:46,240 Speaker 1: and taking action to prevent crimes. So understandably, poor people, 422 00:25:46,480 --> 00:25:49,800 Speaker 1: especially poor people living in cities, thought they were being 423 00:25:50,040 --> 00:25:55,159 Speaker 1: unfairly harassed and targeted by police for just living their lives. 424 00:25:56,240 --> 00:25:58,840 Speaker 1: Many of the social and political issues that had been 425 00:25:58,880 --> 00:26:01,560 Speaker 1: at work in the seventeen dirties were still ongoing a 426 00:26:01,600 --> 00:26:05,000 Speaker 1: hundred years later, and that fed into the Chartist movement 427 00:26:05,160 --> 00:26:08,960 Speaker 1: Beginning in eighteen thirty six. The Chartists were trying to 428 00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:12,199 Speaker 1: secure more political power and better conditions for people in 429 00:26:12,200 --> 00:26:17,840 Speaker 1: the working class. Authorities mostly ignored or suppressed the Chartist activity, 430 00:26:17,920 --> 00:26:21,840 Speaker 1: which led to unrest, which was also quickly and sometimes 431 00:26:21,920 --> 00:26:26,000 Speaker 1: violently suppressed. So then, with all of that going on 432 00:26:26,160 --> 00:26:31,440 Speaker 1: in eighteen thirty nine, William Harrison Ainsworth started serially publishing 433 00:26:31,520 --> 00:26:35,160 Speaker 1: a romance called Jack Shepherd. This is in a publication 434 00:26:35,240 --> 00:26:41,000 Speaker 1: called Bentley's Miscellany that had woodcut illustrations by George Crookshank, 435 00:26:41,080 --> 00:26:44,960 Speaker 1: and it quickly became a bestseller, even out selling Charles 436 00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:49,760 Speaker 1: Dickinson's Oliver Twist. Jack Shephard and Oliver Twist were both 437 00:26:49,880 --> 00:26:53,439 Speaker 1: part of a newly flourishing genre that came to be 438 00:26:53,520 --> 00:26:56,840 Speaker 1: known as Newgate novels. These were books that were seen 439 00:26:56,880 --> 00:27:01,560 Speaker 1: as glorifying criminals and a criminal underworld world. At first, 440 00:27:01,600 --> 00:27:05,560 Speaker 1: this wasn't really seen as a huge problem. Bentley's miscellani 441 00:27:05,640 --> 00:27:08,600 Speaker 1: had a middle class readership, and it was too expensive 442 00:27:09,040 --> 00:27:13,480 Speaker 1: for poorer people to afford. Even when Jack Shephard was 443 00:27:13,520 --> 00:27:16,240 Speaker 1: printed as a book in three volumes, it was still 444 00:27:16,320 --> 00:27:20,000 Speaker 1: priced for the middle class. Each volume cost a pound 445 00:27:20,080 --> 00:27:23,080 Speaker 1: five shillings. That was just too much for poorer readers. 446 00:27:23,840 --> 00:27:26,360 Speaker 1: Within the middle class, this whole story was seen as 447 00:27:26,400 --> 00:27:30,159 Speaker 1: mostly harmless, although possibly a little bit trashy, as a 448 00:27:30,160 --> 00:27:34,439 Speaker 1: pleasure read. But then there were the plagiarized versions and 449 00:27:34,480 --> 00:27:37,840 Speaker 1: the alternate versions, and the plays, many of which were 450 00:27:37,960 --> 00:27:41,440 Speaker 1: much cheaper and some of which were specifically aimed at 451 00:27:41,520 --> 00:27:45,040 Speaker 1: poor and working class people. At one point there were 452 00:27:45,080 --> 00:27:49,600 Speaker 1: at least seven different versions of Jack Shepherd's story running 453 00:27:49,600 --> 00:27:53,520 Speaker 1: at London's playhouses and penny gaffs, which were basically small 454 00:27:53,640 --> 00:27:58,480 Speaker 1: theaters specifically for poor people. Suddenly, poor people could afford 455 00:27:58,520 --> 00:28:01,920 Speaker 1: to buy and read an knockoff version of the Jack 456 00:28:01,960 --> 00:28:05,359 Speaker 1: Shepherd story when poor people who couldn't read could just 457 00:28:05,480 --> 00:28:09,000 Speaker 1: take it in at a penny gaff, particularly in London, 458 00:28:09,080 --> 00:28:14,000 Speaker 1: the more affluent class started completely freaking out, thinking that 459 00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:17,000 Speaker 1: the popularity of Jack Shepherd was going to spark an 460 00:28:17,119 --> 00:28:20,800 Speaker 1: enormous crime wave. There is a bit of irony here, 461 00:28:20,920 --> 00:28:24,400 Speaker 1: right that this happened as various reformers were championing this 462 00:28:24,480 --> 00:28:27,760 Speaker 1: idea of literacy for the poor, so it quickly became 463 00:28:27,800 --> 00:28:30,680 Speaker 1: like poor people should be reading to expand their knowledge. No, 464 00:28:30,840 --> 00:28:37,359 Speaker 1: don't read that for having sakes. There were a lot 465 00:28:37,440 --> 00:28:41,520 Speaker 1: of newspaper articles about the supposed threat of Jack Shepherd. 466 00:28:42,120 --> 00:28:46,040 Speaker 1: Chambers Edinburgh Journal wrote quote, it is scarcely possible for 467 00:28:46,080 --> 00:28:48,760 Speaker 1: the Life of Jack Shepherd to be read all at 468 00:28:48,840 --> 00:28:52,600 Speaker 1: once by thousands, and acted night after night at once 469 00:28:52,680 --> 00:28:57,640 Speaker 1: in five London theaters without causing the idea of burglary 470 00:28:57,680 --> 00:29:01,600 Speaker 1: to be dwelt upon for the time with degree of fervor. 471 00:29:02,040 --> 00:29:06,240 Speaker 1: At one point, somebody stole a snuffbox from actor Paul Bedford, 472 00:29:06,520 --> 00:29:09,640 Speaker 1: who had been playing Shepherd's sidekick Blueskin in a play 473 00:29:09,680 --> 00:29:13,600 Speaker 1: at the Adelphi Theater. An article in the Morning Chronicle 474 00:29:13,640 --> 00:29:16,360 Speaker 1: about this did some victim blaming, saying that the actor 475 00:29:16,480 --> 00:29:20,280 Speaker 1: quote might to some extent thank himself for what had happened. 476 00:29:20,560 --> 00:29:23,640 Speaker 1: The very able manner in which he personated a thief 477 00:29:23,720 --> 00:29:26,760 Speaker 1: on the stage had induced many a poor wretch who 478 00:29:26,760 --> 00:29:30,080 Speaker 1: witnessed his performance from the gallery to try his hand 479 00:29:30,120 --> 00:29:34,440 Speaker 1: at something of the kind. In real life, papers reported 480 00:29:34,480 --> 00:29:39,040 Speaker 1: on petty crimes with headlines like another Jack Shepherd and 481 00:29:39,240 --> 00:29:43,520 Speaker 1: another Young Jack Shepherd. There were books with these names too. 482 00:29:43,760 --> 00:29:47,400 Speaker 1: Sometimes when people were arrested for various crimes, they gave 483 00:29:47,440 --> 00:29:50,480 Speaker 1: their name as Jack Shepherd or so many Jack Shepherds 484 00:29:51,040 --> 00:29:54,880 Speaker 1: and h have we mentioned. One of my favorite things 485 00:29:54,920 --> 00:29:58,040 Speaker 1: there was merch. Oh I want to make some of 486 00:29:58,080 --> 00:30:01,520 Speaker 1: this merch. People could buy Shepherd bags which contained lock 487 00:30:01,640 --> 00:30:05,000 Speaker 1: picks and files and perhaps even a crowbar, basically your 488 00:30:05,040 --> 00:30:10,160 Speaker 1: starter kit for becoming a Jack Shepherd. This moral panic 489 00:30:10,200 --> 00:30:14,000 Speaker 1: about Jack Shepherd was already under way when a Swiss 490 00:30:14,120 --> 00:30:19,280 Speaker 1: valet named Francois Corvassier slit the throat of his employer, 491 00:30:19,600 --> 00:30:24,400 Speaker 1: Lord William Russell, on May five, eighteen forty. At the time, 492 00:30:24,480 --> 00:30:27,520 Speaker 1: Russell was seventy one and asleep in his bed, so 493 00:30:27,640 --> 00:30:31,480 Speaker 1: obviously this was a horrifying crime on its own. And 494 00:30:31,520 --> 00:30:34,080 Speaker 1: then he was also from a really prominent family. He 495 00:30:34,240 --> 00:30:36,800 Speaker 1: was a politician and had been a member of Parliament, 496 00:30:37,200 --> 00:30:41,800 Speaker 1: and his nephew, Lord John Russell, would later become Prime Minister. 497 00:30:42,520 --> 00:30:46,120 Speaker 1: Courvoisier's behavior seemed erratic, and he made a series of 498 00:30:46,160 --> 00:30:50,560 Speaker 1: sometimes contradictory confessions to this crime. At one point he 499 00:30:50,600 --> 00:30:53,480 Speaker 1: said that quote the idea was first suggested to him 500 00:30:53,520 --> 00:30:57,000 Speaker 1: by reading and seeing the performance of Jack Shepherd. Sub 501 00:30:57,080 --> 00:30:59,960 Speaker 1: quotes him by saying, I admired his cunning instead of 502 00:31:00,080 --> 00:31:03,719 Speaker 1: being horrified at it, and now I reaped, but too well, 503 00:31:03,760 --> 00:31:07,200 Speaker 1: the fruit of those papers and books. After he made 504 00:31:07,200 --> 00:31:11,120 Speaker 1: this confession, newspapers that had previously predicted that all this 505 00:31:11,320 --> 00:31:14,520 Speaker 1: Shepherd hype was going to cause problems printed articles that 506 00:31:14,600 --> 00:31:19,240 Speaker 1: basically said I told you so. Answorth faced a huge backlash. 507 00:31:19,400 --> 00:31:23,040 Speaker 1: His publisher dropped him, his club kicked him out, the 508 00:31:23,120 --> 00:31:28,320 Speaker 1: press excoriated him, and random people accosted him about having 509 00:31:28,400 --> 00:31:32,280 Speaker 1: written this Jack Shepherd book on the street. After Courvoisier 510 00:31:32,480 --> 00:31:35,160 Speaker 1: was executed for the murder of Lord William Russell, the 511 00:31:35,200 --> 00:31:40,480 Speaker 1: Lord Chamberlain Band all performances of all plays called Jack Shepherd, 512 00:31:40,800 --> 00:31:44,480 Speaker 1: a band that was in place for forty years. It 513 00:31:44,560 --> 00:31:47,160 Speaker 1: was most strictly observed in London, but it was also 514 00:31:47,240 --> 00:31:50,520 Speaker 1: observed to at least some extent elsewhere in Britain as well. 515 00:31:51,160 --> 00:31:54,880 Speaker 1: Some companies tried to get around this man by telling 516 00:31:55,000 --> 00:31:58,160 Speaker 1: the story but naming their shows things like the Idol 517 00:31:58,200 --> 00:32:01,400 Speaker 1: a Prentice. In eighteen eighty six, after the band had 518 00:32:01,400 --> 00:32:05,160 Speaker 1: been lifted, Nellie Farren started as Jack in a burlesque 519 00:32:05,240 --> 00:32:08,840 Speaker 1: called Little Jack Shepherd. Farren wasn't the only woman to 520 00:32:08,880 --> 00:32:11,680 Speaker 1: play Jack. Because he was described as such a physically 521 00:32:11,760 --> 00:32:15,960 Speaker 1: slight man, he was often played by women, and an 522 00:32:16,000 --> 00:32:20,040 Speaker 1: era when child labor laws kept children from working as actors, 523 00:32:20,040 --> 00:32:22,400 Speaker 1: it was pretty common for women to hold the role 524 00:32:22,440 --> 00:32:26,800 Speaker 1: of principal boy. A lot of times, the principal boy 525 00:32:26,920 --> 00:32:29,400 Speaker 1: would then be the person who played Jack Shepherd, even 526 00:32:29,400 --> 00:32:32,360 Speaker 1: though that was an adult role. Another woman to play 527 00:32:32,440 --> 00:32:36,680 Speaker 1: Jack Shepherd was Marianne Keeley, who learned some escape artistry 528 00:32:36,760 --> 00:32:41,840 Speaker 1: for the role method acting. Jack Shepherd's popularity started to 529 00:32:41,880 --> 00:32:44,160 Speaker 1: wane at the very end of the nineteenth century, but 530 00:32:44,240 --> 00:32:47,120 Speaker 1: he still shows up from time to time. Bear told 531 00:32:47,160 --> 00:32:51,880 Speaker 1: Bret Threepenny Opera was adapted from The Beggar's Opera, which, 532 00:32:51,880 --> 00:32:54,720 Speaker 1: as we noted, was inspired by Shepherd and his circle, 533 00:32:55,400 --> 00:32:57,880 Speaker 1: and there are more recent works as well. In the 534 00:32:58,680 --> 00:33:02,520 Speaker 1: novel Confessions of the Fox by Jordie Rosenberg, Jack is 535 00:33:02,560 --> 00:33:05,880 Speaker 1: reimagined as a transgender man. This is told within a 536 00:33:05,920 --> 00:33:10,400 Speaker 1: frame story of a professor discovering a previously unknown manuscript 537 00:33:10,800 --> 00:33:14,520 Speaker 1: that contains Jack's memoirs, and the professor's own story is 538 00:33:14,560 --> 00:33:17,360 Speaker 1: told through the footnotes. Yeah, I have not read this 539 00:33:17,400 --> 00:33:19,440 Speaker 1: whole book, but I checked it out from the library 540 00:33:19,480 --> 00:33:23,320 Speaker 1: and I have read just the beginning few chapters of it. 541 00:33:23,720 --> 00:33:25,920 Speaker 1: And I will say, if you want to check this out, 542 00:33:26,200 --> 00:33:30,160 Speaker 1: it is a very sexual book. Beyond having like sex 543 00:33:30,240 --> 00:33:36,080 Speaker 1: scenes that are confined as scenes, there's just a sexuality 544 00:33:36,160 --> 00:33:40,160 Speaker 1: that is infused with the whole thing. It reminds me everything. 545 00:33:41,720 --> 00:33:45,600 Speaker 1: It reminds me of, uh, like Tipping the Velvet by 546 00:33:45,640 --> 00:33:48,239 Speaker 1: Sarah Waters in terms of like the level of um, 547 00:33:48,840 --> 00:33:51,600 Speaker 1: just I'm not saying that to discourage people, but I 548 00:33:51,680 --> 00:33:53,880 Speaker 1: like for me personally that there's a mindset I need 549 00:33:53,920 --> 00:33:55,560 Speaker 1: to be in if that's what I'm going to be reading, 550 00:33:55,920 --> 00:34:01,560 Speaker 1: I love a heads up that that's what. Yeah. Yeah, um. 551 00:34:01,640 --> 00:34:04,959 Speaker 1: It's just just so folks know. And I've it's gotten like. 552 00:34:05,000 --> 00:34:07,600 Speaker 1: It was really well reviewed and award winning when it 553 00:34:07,600 --> 00:34:10,040 Speaker 1: came out, So at some point I'm sure I will 554 00:34:10,040 --> 00:34:13,799 Speaker 1: finish reading it. I have some listener mails take us out, 555 00:34:14,000 --> 00:34:17,399 Speaker 1: And this is from listener Matt, who wrote a note 556 00:34:17,400 --> 00:34:20,560 Speaker 1: that said, good afternoon. I've recently started a history podcast. 557 00:34:20,600 --> 00:34:23,120 Speaker 1: I just released my second episode. However, I'm not exactly 558 00:34:23,120 --> 00:34:26,440 Speaker 1: happy with the end product thus far. Do you have 559 00:34:26,480 --> 00:34:30,120 Speaker 1: any tips or tricks for someone new to podcasting, Matt. 560 00:34:30,560 --> 00:34:33,080 Speaker 1: Back when we used to have our own, like standalone 561 00:34:33,120 --> 00:34:37,920 Speaker 1: website that we had stuff on besides like a way 562 00:34:37,960 --> 00:34:41,200 Speaker 1: to play episodes, we had a cool like tips for 563 00:34:41,280 --> 00:34:46,040 Speaker 1: new podcasters thing, And since we don't have that website anymore, 564 00:34:46,719 --> 00:34:51,359 Speaker 1: I thought I would say what the tips were, uh, which, 565 00:34:51,440 --> 00:34:53,680 Speaker 1: these are the things that I usually tell folks when 566 00:34:53,680 --> 00:34:57,080 Speaker 1: they ask for some kind of advice. Number One, NPR 567 00:34:57,239 --> 00:35:01,320 Speaker 1: has a whole training section in it is that training 568 00:35:01,480 --> 00:35:05,560 Speaker 1: dot NPR dot org. Some of it is focused on 569 00:35:05,680 --> 00:35:10,080 Speaker 1: specifically radio, but a lot of that is clearly applicable 570 00:35:10,200 --> 00:35:15,960 Speaker 1: to podcasts. Also, Transom is that Transom dot org and 571 00:35:16,000 --> 00:35:21,160 Speaker 1: they have a ton of information about storytelling for audio 572 00:35:21,320 --> 00:35:25,560 Speaker 1: and audio production, all kinds of stuff like that. They 573 00:35:25,560 --> 00:35:29,120 Speaker 1: produced the House Sound podcast, which is a podcast about 574 00:35:29,160 --> 00:35:33,480 Speaker 1: audio storytelling, and they have a tools section if people 575 00:35:33,480 --> 00:35:35,920 Speaker 1: have questions about like what kind of equipment should I 576 00:35:35,960 --> 00:35:40,840 Speaker 1: have for doing a podcast. Pr X also has training 577 00:35:40,920 --> 00:35:45,440 Speaker 1: dot pr x dot org that more has classes and 578 00:35:45,560 --> 00:35:48,759 Speaker 1: things that a person could sign up for more than 579 00:35:48,800 --> 00:35:51,480 Speaker 1: like things that you could read online and and self 580 00:35:51,680 --> 00:35:55,799 Speaker 1: educate yourself. As for the audio editing of the podcast, boy, 581 00:35:55,920 --> 00:35:58,239 Speaker 1: I do not know, because that's not something that I 582 00:35:58,320 --> 00:36:01,720 Speaker 1: personally handle. Our producer or Casey Pegram, does the audio 583 00:36:01,880 --> 00:36:06,080 Speaker 1: edit on the show. This particular episode was edited by 584 00:36:06,360 --> 00:36:10,520 Speaker 1: our colleague producer Max Williams. So that is what I 585 00:36:10,520 --> 00:36:14,120 Speaker 1: would suggest for folks who are interested in learning about 586 00:36:14,160 --> 00:36:18,920 Speaker 1: audio storytelling more generally and and podcasts and radio production 587 00:36:18,960 --> 00:36:23,239 Speaker 1: more specifically. If you would like to get in touch 588 00:36:23,280 --> 00:36:26,720 Speaker 1: with us, we're history podcasts that I heart radio dot com. 589 00:36:26,760 --> 00:36:29,319 Speaker 1: We're all over social media Missed in History That's Real. 590 00:36:29,360 --> 00:36:32,480 Speaker 1: Find our Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram, and you can 591 00:36:32,520 --> 00:36:36,160 Speaker 1: subscribe to our show on the iHeart Radio app or 592 00:36:36,200 --> 00:36:44,320 Speaker 1: wherever else you get your podcasts. Stuff you Missed in 593 00:36:44,400 --> 00:36:47,160 Speaker 1: History Class is a production of I heart Radio. For 594 00:36:47,239 --> 00:36:50,520 Speaker 1: more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, 595 00:36:50,600 --> 00:36:53,800 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.