Dick Turpin

Richard (Dick) Turpin (bap. 1705 7 April 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, going on to become a poacher, burglar, horse thief, and murderer. He is best known today for his fictional overnight ride from London to York on his steed Black Bess, a story that was invented by the Victorian novelist William Harrison Ainsworth almost 100 years after Turpin's death. Turpin became involved in the crime for which he is most remembered highway robbery following the arrest of the other members of his gang in 1735. He then disappeared from public life towards the end of that year, only to resurface in 1737 with two new accomplices, one of whom he may have accidentally shot and killed during a skirmish with those trying to arrest him.