The Chronicles of Crime or The New Newgate Calendar. v. 1/2: being a series of memoirs and anecdotes of notorious characters who have outraged the laws of Great Britain from the earliest period to 1841.Pelham, Camden
History
The Chronicles of Crime or The New Newgate Calendar. v. 1/2: being a series of memoirs and anecdotes of notorious characters who have outraged the laws of Great Britain from the earliest period to 1841.
Pelham, Camden
Crime -- Great Britain; Criminals -- Great Britain; Newgate (Prison : London, England)
On the morning of his death he was put into a cart, and being followed
by his mourners, he was drawn to the place of execution; in his way to
which he bowed to the spectators with an air of the most astonishing
indifference and intrepidity.
When he came to the fatal tree he ascended the ladder; and, on his right
leg trembling, he stamped it down with an air of assumed courage, as if
he was ashamed to be observed to discover any signs of fear. Having
conversed with the executioner about half an hour, he threw himself off
the ladder, and expired in a few minutes. Turpin suffered at York, April
10, 1739.
The spectators of the execution seemed to be much affected at the fate
of this man, who was distinguished by the comeliness of his appearance.
The corpse was brought to the Blue Boar, in Castle-gate, York, where it
remained till the next morning, when it was interred in the church-yard
of St. George's parish, with an inscription on the coffin bearing the
initials of his name, and his age. The grave was made remarkably deep,
and the people who acted as mourners took such measures as they thought
would secure the body; but about three o'clock on the following morning
some persons were observed in the church-yard, who carried it off; and
the populace, having an intimation whither it was conveyed, found it in
a garden belonging to one of the surgeons of the city.
Hereupon they took the body, laid it on a board, and, having carried it
through the streets in a kind of triumphal manner, and then filled the
coffin with unslacked lime, buried it in the grave where it had been
before deposited.--It is difficult to conceive the reason of all this
concern and sympathy among the people; for a more depraved, heartless
villain never suffered the penalty of the law. The fashion, however,
which was then set appears to have continued in existence up to the
present day; and fancy has done more to secure the reputation of Turpin
as a hero, and a man of courage and generosity, than any pains he ever
took to obtain for himself a good name as an honest man. It is needless
to add, that the story of the ride to York, and of the wondrous deeds of
the highwayman's steed, "Black Bess," are, like many other tales of this
fellow, the fabrications of some poetical brain.
MARY YOUNG. ALIAS JENNY DIVER.
EXECUTED FOR A STREET ROBBERY.
The name of this woman will long be celebrated in the annals of crime,
as being that of a person who was the most ingenious of her class.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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