Dick Turpin (bap. 1705 – 1739) was an English highwayman whose exploits were romanticised following his execution in York for horse theft. Turpin may have followed his father's profession as a butcher early in life, but by the early 1730s he had joined a gang of deer thieves, and later became a poacher, burglar, horse thief, and murderer. He is best known for his fictional 200-mile (320 km) overnight ride from London to York on his steed Black Bess, a story that was made famous by the Victorian novelist William Harrison Ainsworth almost 100 years after Turpin's death. His involvement in the crime for which he is most closely associated—highway robbery—followed the arrest of the other members of his gang in 1735. He then disappeared from public view towards the end of that year, only to resurface in 1737 with two new accomplices. Later that year he moved to Yorkshire and assumed the alias of John Palmer. While he was staying at an inn local magistrates became suspicious of "Palmer", and made enquiries as to how he funded his lifestyle. Suspected of being a horse thief, "Palmer" was imprisoned in York Castle, to be tried at the next assizes. Turpin's true identity was revealed by a letter he wrote to his brother-in-law from his prison cell, which fell into the hands of the authorities. On 22 March 1739 he was found guilty on two charges of horse theft and sentenced to death; he was executed on 7 April 1739. He became the subject of legend after his execution, romanticised as dashing and heroic in English ballads popular theatre, film and television.
Read the rest of this article: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Turpin> _______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries: 1978: Jim Jones led more than 900 members of the Peoples Temple to mass murder/suicide in Jonestown, Guyana, hours after some of its members assassinated U.S. Congressman Leo Ryan . <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonestown> 1985: Calvin and Hobbes, a comic strip by Bill Watterson featuring six-year old Calvin and his stuffed tiger Hobbes, was first published. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_and_Hobbes> 1991: Croatian War of Independence: Yugoslav People's Army forces captured the Croatian city of Vukovar, ending an 87-day siege. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vukovar> 1999: Texas A&M University's Aggie Bonfire collapsed, killing 12 and injuring 27, and causing the university to officially declare a hiatus on the 90-year-old annual event. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aggie_Bonfire> _____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day: foreknow (v): To have foreknowledge of, to precognise <http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/foreknow> ___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day: A lot of being a poet consists of willed ignorance. If you woke up from your trance and realized the nature of the life-threatening and dignity-destroying precipice you were walking along, you would switch into actuarial sciences immediately. --Margaret Atwood <http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Margaret_Atwood> _______________________________________________ Wikipedia Daily Article mailing list. To unsubscribe, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/daily-article-l Questions or comments? Contact [email protected]
