- 21/06/2025
Documentary, Britain's Outlaws, Highwaymen, Pirates and Rogues, part 3, Rogues Gallery
Dr. Sam Willis narrates and presents this 3 part documentary series about Highwaymen, Pirates and Roques of a bygone era in Britain. We visit some actual sites along the way.
Dr. Sam Willis narrates and presents this 3 part documentary series about Highwaymen, Pirates and Roques of a bygone era in Britain. We visit some actual sites along the way.
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LearningTranscript
00:00Crime was endemic in the 18th century.
00:21On the open roads, robbers robbed with impunity.
00:25On the high seas, pirates roamed.
00:31And closer to home, rogues threatened the lives and livelihoods of ordinary citizens.
00:38Nowhere was safe, least of all towns and cities, where, from their own underworld, felons robbed, burgled and cheated.
00:48From the lowest to the highest, from the likeable rogue to the seemingly respectable gentleman,
00:53there was contempt for the rule of law.
00:57Men like Thomas Benson MP, a sheriff turned outlaw.
01:02Deacon Brodie, the original Jekyll and Hyde.
01:05And Jack Shepard, the most artful one of them all.
01:09For a time, they evaded the law.
01:12But the law was closing in.
01:15This was the last age of the outlaw.
01:18The most famous rogue of the age was an orphaned apprentice, Jack Shepard.
01:34And a very likeable rogue, he was too.
01:37Jack would go on to be the most written about and celebrated criminal of the last 300 years.
01:43The legend of Jack Shepard was forged one September day in 1724,
01:50when he escaped from the condemned cell in Newgate Prison, the most secure prison in the land.
01:57No prison, no matter how secure, seemed able to contain him.
02:02He was admired by men and adored by women.
02:07Jack Shepard was famous in his lifetime and for three centuries after.
02:11He inspired books, operas and films.
02:15He was the rock star of his age, a lovable rogue.
02:18He was Jack the Lad.
02:25Jack was brought up in poverty by his mother.
02:29But he was fortunate to get a carpenter's apprenticeship.
02:32It was an opening that would serve him well.
02:36Carpentry was a good, safe trade.
02:38Because London was growing all the time, there was never a shortage of customers.
02:44London was also the largest city in Europe.
02:46Through its port and merchant houses, a river of valuable commodities and money flowed.
02:52It was a good place to earn an honest living.
02:55But it was the perfect place for a life of crime.
02:59In London's dense network of thoroughfares,
03:02the very rich rub shoulders with the desperately poor.
03:06Contemporary accounts tell us that Jack never finished his apprenticeship.
03:13His father had been an honest man and Jack may well have followed suit
03:17if he'd not been fond, rather too fond, of a drop of ale and of the company of women.
03:22One fateful night he was drinking in the Black Lion in Drury Lane
03:26and we know that he then met Elizabeth Lyon, known to all as Edgeworth Bess.
03:35Bess was a prostitute and petty thief who frequented the taverns of the town.
03:41Later writers would suggest that Jack had been led astray by Bess.
03:45Jack Shepard's story follows a very common narrative thread in the 18th century
03:50where it's the woman that leads the slightly innocent man into sin.
03:56So he wants to buy her presents, he wants to impress her, he wants to take her out carousing
04:01and so she maybe introduces him to someone who'll fenced some goods that she suggests he might steal.
04:10Lovestruck, Jack was eager to please
04:12and as an apprentice carpenter he had every opportunity to pilfer from the houses of the well-to-do
04:18where no-one seemed to notice the quick and nimble Jack.
04:22Small items he brought home to curry favour with the ample Bess.
04:26Jack now embarked on a new career as a pickpocket and burglar
04:32with Bess as his ideal fence.
04:36Jack's elder brother Thomas had already been branded on the hand as a thief.
04:42Now Jack was following after.
04:45Because of his trade, Jack knew how window and door locks worked
04:49and he also knew how the window bars that were so common in London were fitted.
04:54So it was easy work for him to remove the bars, rob the house and then replace them.
05:00Very clever.
05:01Jack Shepard and his brother then set out on a short but disastrous crime spree.
05:07Cash from a public house, a large haul of linen from a draper's,
05:11then, fatefully, a house robbery in Drury Lane.
05:14And then things started to go wrong.
05:21Jack's brother was caught with the swag, I hesitate to say red-handed.
05:25But now fearing for his own skin and hoping to receive leniency,
05:29he blamed it all on Edgeworth Bess and Jack his own brother.
05:36Jack was soon arrested and taken to St Giles' Roundhouse near Charing Cross.
05:41St Giles' Roundhouse was just a local lock-up
05:45and clearly inadequate for keeping Jack in for long.
05:49He was to be detained just for one night and questioned in the morning.
05:53Jack had to act quickly.
05:56That night he broke through the timber ceiling onto the roof.
05:59The noise of his escape and the falling roof tiles attracted a small crowd.
06:06And then, displaying the typical coolness that later endeared him to all of London,
06:12he joined the crowd and distracted them,
06:14saying he could see the shadow of the prisoner escaping over the rooftops.
06:18And then he slipped away.
06:20Jack was agile in mind and body.
06:25His escape and his daring made him the perfect model as the 18th century anti-hero.
06:34It was April 1724.
06:37Jack was just 22 years old.
06:40And the chain of events that would make Jack famous, dead famous, had just begun.
06:47Within a few weeks, on the 19th of May,
06:51Shepard was arrested for a second time.
06:53He was caught picking a pocket in Leicester Fields,
06:56modern-day Leicester Square.
06:59Jack was put in St Anne's Roundhouse, where he was visited by Bess.
07:03And then she, too, was arrested as his accomplice and thrown in jail with him.
07:12Jack and Bess appeared before magistrates
07:15and were sent to new prison in Clerkenwell,
07:18manacled and held in cells with iron bars.
07:21Escaping from there would be a different proposition altogether.
07:25And yet, within days, both of them were free.
07:28Using a smuggled file, they cut through the manacles.
07:34Then Jack managed to work a bar loose in the cell window.
07:42With a rope of knotted bedclothes,
07:44he first lowered Bess and then escaped himself.
07:48This small, slight boy, really,
07:51carries his...
07:53Plump, I think, is the kind way to describe her.
07:55She was described as a blousey.
07:57Carrying her, somehow, over the wall,
08:00out the window, down the wall, through the yard, up and over again.
08:03And it's definitely part of his mystique
08:05that he does it with, you know, he does it with her.
08:10Their audacious escape hit the newspapers.
08:13Broadsides and ballads proclaimed Jack's name.
08:16Jack, daring and gallant, was the talk of the town.
08:19Plays about Jack Shepard would become one of the most popular entertainments
08:25of the next two centuries,
08:27and he would be immortalised as the artful Dodger
08:31in Dickens' Oliver Twist.
08:32No matter how popular Jack now was,
08:45he soon made an unfortunate enemy.
08:48It was known that most of London's criminal underworld
08:52was controlled by one man,
08:54Jonathan Wilde.
08:54Wilde was an apparently respectable man
08:59who moved in influential circles.
09:00He used his connections to lead a double life
09:05by running criminal gangs and bringing thieves to justice.
09:11Jonathan Wilde called himself a thief-daker general.
09:15It wasn't an official position,
09:17but he got a lot of official backing
09:19because he could produce the results.
09:21I mean, Jonathan Wilde was a complete rogue and a villain.
09:24He was the Moriarty of crime.
09:26In fact, Arthur Conan Doyle in his Sherlock Holmes stories
09:29refers to Moriarty and calls him Jonathan Wilde.
09:33He ran gangs, he fenced stolen goods,
09:36he shopped rival gang members.
09:39And, of course, I suppose from the authorities' point of view,
09:42OK, he'd destroyed one gang,
09:44so actually, let's get rid of all that lot.
09:47On the other hand, he'd increased his own power,
09:50probably increased his own manpower,
09:51and had a larger share in the takings.
09:56The justice system relied on men like Wilde.
10:00He even had an office in the Old Bailey,
10:02as well as a house a few doors down at number 68.
10:09Jonathan Wilde seemed to be the puppet master
10:12for the courts of justice and the criminal underworld,
10:14and everything was going his way
10:17until he picked on a thief and burglar,
10:19young Jack Shepard.
10:22Jack Shepard held it as a point of pride
10:24that he had never dealt with Jonathan Wilde,
10:27and that was part of the reason he was popular
10:28on the streets of London,
10:30because he held himself apart
10:31from the kind of criminal fraternity
10:33that Wilde represented,
10:34even though Bess and Bluskin Blake
10:37and others of his kind of other accomplices
10:39were involved with Wilde,
10:40Jack always was proud not to have been.
10:43Jonathan Wilde was determined to catch Shepard,
10:48and, seeing Bess as the weak link,
10:51he plied her with drink,
10:53and she foolishly led Wilde to Jack.
10:57Successful as Jack was at escaping,
11:00unfortunately, he was equally as successful
11:02at getting caught.
11:05Jack never seemed to wander far
11:07from his usual haunts in this part of town.
11:10If he was not womanising, he was drinking.
11:13And most of the time,
11:15it was both at the same time.
11:17One day, he'd been burgling again,
11:19this time with his friend and fellow criminal,
11:21Joseph Blueskin Blake.
11:23Now, where did Wilde's men find Jack?
11:26Why, at Blueskin Blake's mother's brandy shop.
11:31Jack was sent to Newgate,
11:33a much more serious proposition being the most secure prison in London
11:37to be tried at the Old Bailey next door.
11:40The Old Bailey consisted of a single open-air courtroom.
11:44I mean, part of it under cover where the judge would sit and so on,
11:47but the majority of the space was just open, exposed and open-air.
11:52But the reason was twofold.
11:54One, it was thought that you were less likely to catch disease.
11:58And the other thing, of course, was open justice.
12:00And public justice in terms of people being able to see the procedures,
12:08see people being tried, found guilty or not guilty,
12:12but justice being done.
12:13But convictions, and false convictions, often carried rewards.
12:19It was a corruptible system,
12:21and no-one knew how to corrupt it better than the devious Jonathan Wilde.
12:27Wilde exerted a powerful hold on criminals across London.
12:31If they didn't cooperate, he simply had them arrested and claim the reward.
12:36And if he needed any witnesses to secure a conviction,
12:39well, he knew plenty of people who'd tell a convincing tale
12:42for a little bit of cash.
12:48A lot of people that Wilde shopped were guilty criminals anyway.
12:55So you didn't need to fabricate false evidence against them.
12:58They often came leading with it themselves.
13:01But it was certainly true that there was unease
13:05within the legal profession and the senior judiciary
13:08that, in fact, we might be getting a lot of miscarriages
13:12of justice as a result of our over-reliance
13:15on paid and well-paid informants.
13:19On the 12th of August 1724, Jack faced two charges of theft
13:26and one of burglary, a serious prospect,
13:30as even quite minor crimes against property were punishable by death.
13:36On the first two charges of theft, he was acquitted for lack of evidence,
13:40but the third, for burglary, was recorded as plainly proved.
13:45Jack was sentenced to hang.
13:47Jack Shepard and Jonathan Wilde were now inextricably linked.
13:55Each would lead to the downfall of the other.
14:00Jack was a condemned man.
14:02Wilde appeared to have had the upper hand.
14:05Jack was still allowed visitors,
14:07including his supposed wife Bess,
14:09the woman whose weakness for drink had landed him in this trouble.
14:12On the day that the official warrant arrived,
14:17naming Friday the 4th of September
14:18as the day that Shepard would be turned off, as the slang would have it,
14:23our Jack escaped again, and this time from Newgate itself.
14:27Over the intervening three weeks,
14:32Jack had managed to loosen a bar.
14:34And using Bess and her friend, Pole Maggot, to distract the guards,
14:40he changed into women's clothing
14:42and coolly walked out of the most secure prison in the land.
14:48Jack's freedom was short-lived, only nine days.
14:51Again, Wilde tracked him down, arrested him,
14:54and brought him back to Newgate,
14:55this time high up in the building to a cell called The Castle.
15:01It was considered escape-proof.
15:03Here he was bound hand and foot and shackled to the floor.
15:08Jack was now famous throughout London.
15:11His charm and daring escapes made him a hero.
15:15At Newgate, he was a one-man tourist trade,
15:18as many paid to see the living legend that was Jack Shepard.
15:22To his admiring fans and to the jailers,
15:26he would then display the tricks he used to escape his chains.
15:31To discover more about Jack's techniques,
15:34I've come to London's Guildhall Library to meet Peter Ross,
15:38a leading expert on Jack Shepard.
15:40We know from accounts of when people came into his cell,
15:44he was very willing to demonstrate how he got his cuffs off.
15:47He did it repeatedly.
15:48He was caught in his cell with his cuffs off.
15:49He would have got out of them by slipping his hand
15:52through the handcuff itself.
15:55So that's what he was doing,
15:56and he was willing to demonstrate that to anybody
15:58who would be willing to watch him do it.
16:00It sounds almost implausible that you could just slip off manacles.
16:04So he must have been...
16:05A real escapologist.
16:06He was... He was... Exactly, he was an escapologist.
16:08These chains are from the Metropolitan Police's Black Museum.
16:13By late Victorian times,
16:15many wanted to believe these were the genuine article.
16:19What's significant about these particular cuffs
16:22is they have a lock on them.
16:24And we think it's probable that Jack Shepard's cuffs
16:26did not have a lock on them
16:27and that he would have been fixed into them with a rivet
16:30by a blacksmith who would have been at Newgate Prison.
16:33So he did pick locks,
16:34because we know he picked the lock
16:35that fixed him to the floor of the cell.
16:38But in this case,
16:38he had no problem slipping his hands out.
16:40It's so clear that people just want to have artefacts
16:44relating to this person,
16:45particularly artefacts like handcuffs and manacles,
16:48because they represent the law.
16:49They want a hero who can escape authority.
16:53Yes.
16:53It's something about the 1720s,
16:56the fact that the government was very oppressive,
16:58the fact that people in London were fixed in their jobs,
17:03apprentices were controlled,
17:04the whole of society was controlled.
17:06So if you see somebody who's sort of not really anti-society,
17:09but is against the government in some way
17:11by escaping from the government,
17:13escaping from the authority,
17:14then he gradually becomes a popular hero.
17:18The next chapter in Jack's legend
17:20was down to a stroke of luck.
17:23While he was in prison,
17:25blueskin Blake had been double-crossed by Wilde
17:27and convicted of robbery on his evidence.
17:31In a fit of rage,
17:32Blake rushed at Wilde with a blade
17:34and slashed his throat.
17:36A riot ensued.
17:38High up in the castle,
17:39Jack took advantage of this mayhem.
17:42He slipped his handcuffs
17:44and, still in leg irons,
17:46attempted to wriggle up the chimney.
17:48He managed to burrow into the chimney
17:51with an iron bar he found there
17:53and climb up through the chimney
17:55and out through five or six bolted rooms
17:58onto a roof and eventually at the edge of the prison
18:04where he saw he could climb down.
18:06He realised he had nothing like a rope to climb down with.
18:09So he retraced his steps back to his cell,
18:12gathered up his blankets
18:13and then went back to the roof
18:14where he lowered himself onto the house
18:16of one William Byrd who was fast asleep.
18:19Jack was away and free.
18:23He bribed a shoemaker to break his chains
18:25and stole some fine clothes
18:27and dressed as a gentleman.
18:29For two weeks, he lived life to the full.
18:33You have to wonder,
18:34why doesn't he just leave?
18:35Why doesn't he do what one of his accomplices did
18:37and make a new life in the United States?
18:40Why doesn't he go and live in the country?
18:42Why doesn't he just escape London?
18:44He doesn't seem to have the idea of possibility
18:47of a different life.
18:49He's so grounded in that underworld
18:51of Covent Garden, of pickpockets,
18:52of sharps and flash women
18:54that he can't ever imagine living outside it.
19:01After a night's drinking,
19:03it's said that he even took two floozies
19:05in a cab past Newgate
19:06to show them where he'd escaped from.
19:09Now, he had a fine old night that night,
19:11but in the morning,
19:12he had far more than a hangover to contend with.
19:19Jack was found in a local tavern
19:21a few hours later,
19:23blind drunk and dressed in a handsome suit of black
19:26with a fine ring on his finger.
19:28Unfortunately for him,
19:30the people that found him
19:31were the officers of the law.
19:36Back in Newgate,
19:37the great and the good
19:39bribed their way in to meet him.
19:41And even the king sent Sir James Thornhill,
19:44his personal portrait painter,
19:46to capture Jack's image.
19:53Jack's last journey
19:54was along what is now Oxford Street,
19:57but then Oxford Road.
19:59200,000 people,
20:00that's a third of London,
20:02turned out to see him.
20:03He was their hero.
20:05People waved.
20:06Women called his name.
20:11On the day of Jack's execution,
20:13he's taken in a cart
20:15from Newgate to Tyburn,
20:17which is modern Marble Arch,
20:19along the Oxford Road.
20:21People drank his health
20:22as he passed them outside pubs.
20:24He drank some brandy.
20:25The roads would have been crowded
20:27with people coming out
20:29to see their hero die.
20:31At Marble Arch was the Tyburn Gallows,
20:34a triangle of wood
20:35known as the Tyburn Tree,
20:36and it was here
20:37where our Jack was hanged.
20:42It was a ghastly experience
20:43for the crowd
20:44because his slim, boyish frame,
20:46which had been such an asset
20:47for breaking and entering
20:49and escaping,
20:50now condemned him
20:51to a slow death
20:52by strangulation.
20:54For 15 minutes,
20:56his body writhed and kicked
20:57before he died.
21:02Although Jack's crimes
21:03look quite modest
21:04to modern eyes,
21:06the legal system of the time
21:07came down hard
21:08on all forms
21:09of robbery or burglary.
21:11In fact,
21:12any theft of over five shillings
21:14could be punishable by death.
21:16In order to deter people
21:20from property theft
21:22when detection was unlikely,
21:27when prevention
21:28was equally unlikely,
21:32deterrence was considered
21:34to be the be-all and end-all.
21:36And deterrence was not,
21:37it wasn't that you hanged people
21:39for the most serious offences,
21:40you hanged people
21:41for the offences
21:43that were easiest to commit.
21:46And what about
21:47Jonathan Wilde,
21:49Jack's nemesis?
21:52Legend and broadsheet
21:54had it that Wilde
21:55turned up to watch Jack die.
21:58But in truth,
21:59he'd been too weakened
22:00by Blue Skin Blake's attack
22:01to venture outdoors.
22:04As his health failed,
22:06Wilde's grip
22:06on his criminal empire
22:08began to weaken.
22:10Previously terrified witnesses
22:12came forward to accuse him,
22:14and it was only a matter
22:15of time before he too
22:17was in the dock.
22:19Of all his vile
22:20and devious crimes,
22:22it was finally
22:22the simple theft
22:23of some lace
22:24that had him convicted
22:26and sent to the gallows.
22:28As a loyal public servant,
22:30he pleaded for a reprieve,
22:32but reprieve there was none.
22:35On his journey to the gallows,
22:37he was pelted
22:38with rotten fruit.
22:39Such was the desire
22:41to see Wilde executed
22:43that tickets were actually sold
22:45for the best seats
22:46in his execution.
22:47This is a satirical copy
22:49sending up this macabre trade.
22:51Here at the top
22:52is an image of a very worried-looking
22:55Jonathan Wilde,
22:56and underneath it
22:57is the invitation
22:58to all the thieves,
23:00whores, pickpockets,
23:01family felons
23:02in Great Britain and Ireland.
23:05You are hereby desired
23:06to accompany
23:06your worthy friend,
23:08the pious
23:08Mr Jonathan Wilde,
23:10to ye triple tree,
23:12where he is to make
23:13his last exit.
23:16When it finally came to it,
23:17Wilde was strung up
23:18alongside three
23:20of his associates.
23:21Wilde was the last to die.
23:24Jonathan Wilde's body
23:25was cut down by his family
23:27and buried quietly
23:28in a nearby churchyard.
23:30But he would not rest in peace.
23:36This is the Hunterian,
23:38the museum of the College of Surgeons,
23:40or surgeons and barbers,
23:42as it would have been
23:42in the 18th century.
23:44It's full of strange
23:45and disturbing relics
23:47of the human condition.
23:49And, ladies and gentlemen,
23:51allow me to introduce you
23:53to Mr Jonathan Wilde,
23:55Thief-Taker General.
23:57And, yes, it is he.
23:59In an opportunistic theft
24:00of which he may
24:01or may not have approved,
24:03his body was exhumed
24:04and sold to the
24:05Royal College of Surgeons.
24:08And he has been
24:09their guest ever since,
24:10not that far from
24:11the old bailey
24:12where he plied
24:13his deadly trade.
24:15While all that remains
24:16of Wilde is his skeleton,
24:18the legend of Jack Shepard
24:20continued to live and grow
24:22in plays, operas and ballads
24:24for the next 300 years.
24:27Hogarth was said
24:28to have based
24:29his idle apprentice engravings
24:31on Jack Shepard.
24:32And a century after his death,
24:35a novel about Jack
24:36by Harriet Ainsworth
24:37was the publishing sensation
24:39of Victorian England,
24:41outselling books
24:42by a chap called Dickens.
24:43Yes, Ainsworth did romanticise it a bit,
24:48but Jack had been orphaned at four
24:50and life had been very difficult
24:52both for him and for his mother.
24:55And, yes, he lived life to the full.
24:57He enjoyed a good party
24:58and he died as he lived
25:00with wit, charm and panache,
25:03a real working-class hero.
25:08Jack Shepard was a legend
25:09in his own lifetime
25:10and long after.
25:12A popular ballad
25:13told his story
25:14in the slang
25:15of the criminal underworld.
25:18In a box
25:19and a stone jug
25:20I was born
25:21Of a hemp and widow
25:22They kit for lawn
25:24To make a way
25:25To make a way
25:26And my noble father
25:27As I'd say
25:28Was a famous
25:29Merchant of Cater's Play
25:31Next my dolly pals
25:32Make a way
25:33Next my dolly pals
25:34Make a way
25:35But I slipped my darby's
25:40One fine day
25:41And gave the dumpsmen
25:42A holy day
25:43Make a way
25:45Make a way
25:46And here I am
25:47I was merry and free
25:48A regular rollicking
25:50Romani
25:50Next my dolly pals
25:52Make a way
25:53Next my dolly pals
25:54Make a way
25:55Next my dolly pals
25:56Make a way
25:57Next my dolly pals
25:58Make a way
26:00Woo!
26:03So that was fantastic
26:05But the interesting thing
26:05For me is the language
26:06What's going on there?
26:08We take the first line
26:09It says
26:10In the box of a stone jug
26:11I was born
26:12And that means
26:13He's basically saying
26:15I was born in a prison cell
26:16Okay
26:17And was that true?
26:18Not at all
26:18But it sounds great
26:19So we've got
26:20These incredible stories
26:22Which are basically
26:23Made up
26:24But sung in this
26:25In this funny language
26:26As well
26:27But it's
26:28It's the
26:28The boisterousness
26:30Of it
26:30Which so appeals to me
26:32Because you want to sing it
26:33To someone else
26:34Exactly
26:34And I suppose
26:35That's how it spread
26:35That's what made the difference
26:37Between which song survived
26:39And which didn't
26:39And if it had a great tune
26:41Then that would definitely
26:42Help it to spread
26:44Across the country
26:44You can really imagine people
26:46Standing on street corners
26:47Singing that one
26:48Can't you?
26:48They certainly did
26:49What you get a sense of
26:50I think with these songs
26:51Is that
26:51A really exciting story
26:53Is much more important
26:54Than a true story
26:55And of course
26:56The most fantastical story
26:57Is that brilliant one
26:58About Mary Toft
26:59Yes
26:59The woman who gave birth
27:00To rabbits
27:01The woman who gave birth
27:02To rabbits
27:03And we believe it all
27:03It's got this brilliant line
27:05This song
27:05The weakest woman
27:06Sometimes may
27:07The wisest man deceive
27:08So I think it's one
27:09We should play out on
27:10Excellent
27:10Let's go for it
27:11Most true it is
27:17I dare to say
27:19Yes
27:19Since the days of Eve
27:21The weakest woman
27:22Sometimes may
27:23The wisest man deceive
27:25A godal ming hard
27:29By the ball
27:30A woman
27:31Long thought barren
27:32There's rabbits begun
27:34So plentiful
27:35You take her for a warren
27:37Believe it or not
27:41Alexander Pope
27:43The greatest poet of the age
27:45And translator of Homer
27:46Was the author of this
27:48Baudy ballad
27:49To the rabbit breeder
27:50Of Godalming
27:50In the annals of all roguery
27:55There's nothing to compare
27:56With this
27:57One of the greatest frauds
27:59Of all time
28:00If Jack Shepard
28:03Was the most widely loved
28:05Villain of the age
28:06Then Mary Toft
28:07The rabbit woman
28:08Was the most curious
28:10Criminal case of the century
28:11She was famous
28:13For being sent to prison
28:14For giving birth
28:15To rabbits
28:16Yes
28:17Rabbits
28:18And rather a lot of them
28:19It was a hoax
28:21That captivated the crowd
28:22As much as it mocked
28:24The king and his court
28:25In the language of the time
28:27It was known as
28:27The great whim-wham
28:28A swiftly made trifle
28:30A bit of fun
28:31Mary Toft
28:34Was an illiterate
28:35Pregnant 25-year-old
28:36From Surrey
28:37She seemed in every way
28:39Unremarkable
28:40But her story
28:41Would be the most
28:42Remarked-on of the age
28:43And it would
28:45Unfortunately
28:46Land her behind bars
28:48So how did this
28:50Bunnies in the oven
28:51Story begin?
28:53Well in the nature
28:54Of all good rabbit stories
28:55Let's begin
28:56At the beginning
28:57What's the matter?
28:58Doctor?
29:00Just sure
29:01Toft
29:01It would appear
29:03That your wife
29:03Has been delivered
29:05Of a rabbit
29:06Mary Toft's story
29:10Is that
29:11When she was pregnant
29:12She saw a rabbit
29:13In a field
29:14And it captivated her
29:15Suddenly
29:16All she could think
29:17About was rabbits
29:18And this somehow
29:21And this somehow
29:21Meant that the baby
29:23She was carrying
29:23Turned into a rabbit
29:25Or maybe it was
29:26Always a rabbit
29:26And who knows
29:27But there she is
29:29Giving birth to rabbits
29:31The doctor
29:32The doctor
29:32Drunk or not
29:33Who delivered the rabbit
29:34Was John Howard
29:35If you don't believe me
29:37Go look for yourself
29:39John Howard seemed to believe
29:41What he wanted to believe
29:42And he wanted to be in
29:44On the greatest medical sensation
29:46Of the age
29:47So when he should have paused
29:49He jumped right in
29:50And he immediately
29:51Penned a letter
29:52To the eminent medical men
29:54Including the Swiss German
29:56Nathaniel Sant'Andre
29:57The surgeon
29:58To the royal household
29:59Who believed him
30:01Now joining the ranks
30:03Of the credulous
30:03Was the king himself
30:05And his son
30:05The Prince of Wales
30:07Mary Toft
30:08Was now famous
30:09For being famous
30:11Like all the best
30:13Confidence tricks
30:14The rabbit births
30:15Played into a narrative
30:16That people were
30:17Strangely willing to believe
30:18And this was
30:20A pseudo-scientific theory
30:21Called maternal impressions
30:23It had long been
30:26A sort of idea
30:27Of folklore
30:28And common belief
30:29That if you saw
30:30Something
30:31That deeply impressed you
30:32When you were pregnant
30:34Your child would somehow
30:35Reflect that experience
30:37The elephant man
30:39Was the most famous
30:40Example of this
30:40It was said that
30:41The mother had seen
30:41An elephant
30:42While she was pregnant
30:43And that was what
30:44Had caused the baby
30:45To be born
30:46In that way
30:47It was said
30:47During the civil war
30:48That a woman had given birth
30:50To a baby with two heads
30:51Because that was
30:52The division reflected
30:53The division in society
30:54At the time
30:54So it's quite a common view
30:57I mean I suppose
30:58It's an extension
30:58Of the idea
30:59That if you have
31:00A terrible shock
31:00When you're pregnant
31:01It might affect your baby
31:02Mary was a national sensation
31:06These were the early days
31:08Of newspapers
31:08And if crime sold
31:10Well rabbits sold
31:11Even better
31:12Physicians in the land
31:14In Gentry
31:14Competed to meet her
31:16Feel her stomach
31:17And await
31:18The next rabbit
31:19No one might enter
31:21The bedchamber
31:22Except on payment
31:23Of a guinea
31:23Well doctors and Andre
31:24Will let me in
31:25I'm his most intimate friend
31:27A guinea madam
31:28Oh very well
31:29Before long
31:31Lords and ladies
31:32Thronged to Godalming
31:33To meet the wonder
31:34Of the age
31:35No amount of thieving
31:36Could have brought
31:37Mary greater success
31:38Oh the sweet
31:39Harmless little creatures
31:41May I have one
31:42And take it back to London
31:43I'm sure Mr Toft
31:45Would be delighted
31:45To sell you one
31:46There is no question
31:48Of it madam
31:48These animals belong
31:49To science
31:50Toft
31:50Have your strong basket
31:51Of course anyone
31:52Looking at it rationally
31:53Would say
31:54You know women
31:54Can't give birth to rabbits
31:56But we're just moving
31:57From a period in which
31:58You know from an age
31:59Of wonders
32:00To an age of science
32:01And there are all sorts
32:02Of grey areas in between
32:03Where the perpetuation
32:05Of popular culture
32:06Popular ideas
32:07Superstitions
32:08Still seems to sort of
32:09Have a sort of
32:10A draw to it
32:11You know well we know
32:12That can't be right
32:13But hang on
32:14How is she doing it then
32:15How is it that doctors
32:16Have been to see her
32:17And apparently come out
32:18Shrugging their shoulders
32:19And say she seems
32:20To be doing it
32:21Of course some people
32:23Thought that this was
32:24All complete tosh
32:25But then again
32:26If the king
32:28His heir the prince of Wales
32:29And the most eminent
32:31Surgeon in the land
32:32Believed it
32:32This was all going to
32:34End unhappily for someone
32:36The king's surgeon
32:38Nathaniel Sant'Andre
32:40Examined a rabbit
32:41And then with all
32:44Medical propriety
32:45The intimate regions
32:46Of Mary Toft
32:48He was satisfied
32:49With what he saw
32:50He rushed to publish
32:53The learned thesis
32:54That he hoped would
32:54Cement his place
32:55In history
32:56It would
32:57But not in the way
32:59He imagined
33:00The final act
33:02Was exquisite
33:03In its timing
33:04While Nathaniel Sant'Andre's
33:06Book was at the printers
33:07Rumours spread
33:09That Mary Toft's
33:10Husband had been
33:11Caught smuggling rabbits
33:13Into the household
33:14He claimed
33:15They were for a meal
33:16A rather unsettling
33:17Observation
33:18For a man
33:19Whose wife
33:19Was giving birth
33:20To rabbits
33:21On a fairly regular basis
33:22Then another obstetrician
33:25Thomas Manningham
33:25Decided to confront Mary
33:27And say that he felt
33:29Obliged to conduct
33:30An investigatory operation
33:32To see if she was
33:33Formed differently
33:34From other women
33:35Mary was terrified
33:38She quickly broke down
33:40And confessed
33:41The immediate public aftermath
33:45Was glee
33:47The most eminent
33:48Satirical engraver
33:49Of his day
33:50William Hogarth
33:51Etched his famous
33:53Caniculare
33:54Or the wise men
33:55Of godlymen
33:56In which he lampooned
33:58The main players
33:59It delighted the public
34:00To hold their bettors
34:01Up to ridicule
34:02Especially the king
34:03And his German cronies
34:05A whim-wham
34:06It most certainly was
34:08Of course
34:09Once the gaffes
34:11Is blown
34:11Then everybody
34:12Slaps themselves
34:13On the back
34:13And says
34:13Yes of course
34:14Yes of course
34:15But then the whole thing
34:17Gets used by
34:18Critics of the English
34:19Particularly
34:21I'm thinking of
34:22Voltaire
34:22Even writes about
34:23Mary Toft
34:24Mainly so that
34:24He can just point out
34:25How superstitious
34:26The English are
34:26The French of course
34:27Far more sophisticated
34:28Wouldn't dream
34:29Of doing anything so silly
34:30Of course there were casualties
34:32Sant'Andre was the first
34:34He was publicly humiliated
34:36At court
34:37And it was said
34:37That he never
34:38Ate rabbit again
34:40Mary was sent
34:41To Bridewell prison
34:42For being a vile
34:43Imposter
34:44And a cheat
34:45She was satirised
34:46As the Surrey
34:47Rabbit breeder
34:48And she never
34:49Escaped the sexual
34:50Innuendo
34:51Of her condition
34:52After all
34:53The 18th century
34:54Word for a rabbit
34:55Track
34:55Was a prig
34:56Mary was held
35:00In Tothill Fields prison
35:02But she could not
35:03Be held indefinitely
35:04Without a trial
35:05And who would lose
35:07Most by her conviction
35:08After all
35:09She hadn't done much
35:10Except hoodwink
35:11The establishment
35:12So she was quietly released
35:16In her time
35:19Mary Toft
35:20Had achieved
35:21Something remarkable
35:22She had outwitted
35:23A society
35:24That seldom expected
35:26Or allowed
35:27Any social progress
35:28Especially for women
35:30When Mary Toft died
35:33Her name was in the newspaper
35:34It was listed
35:35Alongside the great
35:36And the good
35:37There's no way
35:37In her ordinary existence
35:39Her name would have been
35:40Listed in the newspapers
35:41When she died
35:42So in some ways
35:43I suppose
35:44You could say
35:44That it had been
35:46A successful
35:48Fraud
35:48Fraud
35:49Fraud was a growing problem
35:51In the 18th century
35:53It was the white collar
35:54Well, the white ruffle
35:55Crime of the day
35:56And no one
35:58Was more roguish
35:59Villainous
36:00Or devious
36:00Than one particular member
36:02Of the Georgian elite
36:04The rich, it appeared
36:09Were often above the law
36:10One well-connected
36:12Devon merchant
36:13Thomas Benson
36:14Cheated the taxman
36:15Out of close to
36:16A million pounds
36:17In today's money
36:18Was a human trafficker
36:20And committed
36:21One of the largest
36:22Insurance frauds
36:23Of the century
36:24Benson's crimes
36:33Were perpetrated
36:34Far away
36:35From crowded London
36:36They centred
36:37On the picturesque
36:38And peaceful
36:39North Devon town
36:40Of Appledore
36:42In 1747
36:48At the age of 39
36:49The world seemed
36:50To lie at Benson's feet
36:51He was married
36:52With children
36:53And had inherited
36:54Wealth and merchantships
36:55From his successful father
36:57What's more
36:58The king
36:59Had just made him
36:59Sheriff of Devon
37:01So Benson
37:01Was law and order
37:03In the county
37:04The man
37:04To bring justice
37:05To its people
37:06What could possibly
37:07Go wrong?
37:09Benson lived
37:10At a time
37:11And in a place
37:12Where there were
37:12Immense rewards
37:14To be had
37:14The North Devon coast
37:16In the mid-18th century
37:17Was benefiting enormously
37:19From the trade
37:20In and out of Bristol
37:21And to the Americas
37:22So how did Benson
37:28Begin his climb
37:29Up the greasy pole
37:31And how did he
37:32Acquire the veneer
37:33Of respectability?
37:35Well
37:35One particular object
37:36In the guild hall
37:37In Barnstable
37:38I think
37:39Gives the game away
37:40And this is it
37:42It's a seriously
37:43Impressive
37:43Solid silver
37:45Very large
37:46Punch bowl
37:46Just here
37:48We can see
37:48Benson's coat of arms
37:50Now next to it
37:51There's an inscription
37:52The gift of
37:53Thomas Benson Esquire
37:54To the corporation
37:55Of Barnstable
37:56And the key thing
37:58In understanding that
37:59Is that we know
38:00He gave it to them
38:01Just before
38:02He decided to run
38:03As member of parliament
38:05For Barnstable
38:05And that that year
38:07He was elected
38:09Unopposed
38:10Now
38:11I shouldn't really say it here
38:13But I think it might have
38:14Been a bribe
38:15The Thomas Benson case
38:18Illustrates I think
38:19Just how
38:20Above a certain level
38:22Corruption
38:23Was rife
38:25Everybody knew
38:26That corruption
38:28Lay at the heart
38:29Of the English electoral system
38:30You know
38:31I mean the idea
38:31That there were
38:32You know
38:33Perks
38:34And preferences
38:35And cronyist
38:37Kind of activities
38:38Going on
38:38At all levels
38:39Of society
38:39Was common
38:40People understood
38:42That the higher up
38:44The social scale
38:45You went
38:45And the less likely
38:46You were to get caught
38:47The less likely
38:49You were to be put
38:49Through the courts
38:50It was the poor
38:51Who always gets the blame
38:52Benson now started
38:54To play the system
38:55For all it was worth
38:57By escalating
38:58His occasional dodgy dealing
39:00Into full scale fraud
39:02Benson lived
39:05On that hill
39:06Up there
39:07And from there
39:07He could watch
39:08As his ship
39:09Set sail
39:09For France
39:10Portugal
39:11And the Americas
39:12Now behind me
39:13Is the sheltered estuary
39:15But beyond it
39:16Is the open sea
39:17And that's where
39:18We'll discover
39:19That this man
39:20Who was the law
39:21Sought to live
39:22Outside of the law
39:23To get to the bottom
39:28Of Benson's roguery
39:30I'm taking a boat trip
39:31To the island of Lundy
39:32In the Bristol Channel
39:34Hiya
39:37Hello
39:37How are you doing?
39:38Sam isn't it?
39:39It is
39:39Nice to meet you
39:40Thank you very much
39:41Over a period of six years
39:49From 1747 to 1753
39:52An extraordinary tale unfolded
39:55One that would shock
39:56Benson's constituents
39:57Dishonour his office
39:59And leave a catalogue
40:00Of smuggling
40:01And deception
40:02On a quite breathtaking scale
40:04Lundy would play
40:09An important part
40:10In Benson's tale
40:11Shortly after he became MP
40:14And sheriff for Devon
40:15Thomas Benson took the lease
40:17Of the island
40:18An island that was
40:20Apparently uninhabited
40:21Neglected
40:22And derelict
40:23On a good day
40:25On a good day
40:25On a good day
40:25Benson could see this island
40:27From his house
40:28But he wasn't interested
40:29In romantic ruins
40:30And he decided to make Lundy
40:32The key to his nefarious deeds
40:34He would make this island
40:36His own private kingdom
40:38Lundy lies at the gateway
40:43To the Bristol Channel
40:44Just three miles long
40:46It is now the peaceful haunt
40:48Of holiday makers
40:49And bird watchers
40:51In the 18th century
40:53It was a dangerous place
40:54A place of smugglers
40:56And mysterious comings
40:58And goings
40:59It was not a place
41:00That welcomed prying eyes
41:02Or probing questions
41:04Thomas Benson MP
41:06Used his position
41:08To secure lucrative
41:09Tobacco contracts
41:10But strangely
41:11The amount of tobacco
41:13Loaded on his ships
41:14In America
41:14Was always more
41:16Than that which was
41:16Unloaded in England
41:18I think you can guess
41:20Where the rest went
41:21To evade customs attacks
41:25Benson secretly
41:26Unloaded tobacco
41:27On Lundy
41:28Then when he felt
41:31It was safe
41:31He would smuggle
41:32The rest ashore
41:33Under the noses
41:34Of the revenue men
41:35A very profitable scam
41:38But Benson
41:42Had another secret
41:43To conceal
41:44As well as smuggled tobacco
41:46He also had
41:48An illicit trade
41:49In convicts
41:50Benson was able
41:53To get a contract
41:55To transport convicts
41:57To the Americas
41:58Not very many of them
42:00At a time
42:00But a few of them
42:01And what he did
42:03Was take them
42:04To Lundy Island
42:05Which was not
42:06In his view
42:06Part of England
42:08In the making
42:13Of this programme
42:14We uncovered
42:1514 separate contracts
42:17In the Devon Heritage Centre
42:19These documents
42:22These documents reveal
42:22The true scale
42:23Of Benson's corrupt empire
42:25Evidence
42:27That the real rogues
42:28Of the age
42:29Were not the poor
42:29Pickpocket or thief
42:31But men
42:32Like Thomas Benson
42:33This is the real rogues
42:34And it's the real rogues
42:35And it's the real rogues
42:36This is one of the original contracts
42:38That Benson signed
42:39To take convicts to America
42:41And it's a remarkable document
42:43That puts everything
42:44That he did into context
42:46First of all we have the date
42:47Just under his signature
42:49And his seal at the bottom
42:50Then there is a list
42:52Of these poor people
42:52Who are going to be transported
42:54We see Elizabeth Penny
42:56William Frost
42:57John Lake
42:58And others
42:59There are 12 people here
43:00It says very clearly
43:02That they have been
43:03Adjudged to be transported
43:05To some of his majesty's
43:06Colonies and plantations
43:08In America
43:09Now I think most interesting
43:12Of all is that
43:13Right down at the bottom here
43:15It says
43:16The only reason
43:18That he is
43:19Not to fulfil this duty
43:20Is if these conflicts
43:22Suffer from death
43:24Casualties of the seas
43:25Or having been taken
43:27By enemy
43:28Only those
43:29Are the exceptions
43:30By which he doesn't
43:32Have to fulfil this contract
43:33Despite what seemed
43:36Watertight contracts
43:37Some of these men and women
43:39Never reached America
43:41They ended up in Lundy
43:43Barely 12 miles off the coast
43:45It was said
43:46That the convicts
43:47Were housed in the ruins
43:48Of the castle
43:49And sometimes
43:52In a cave below
43:53The graffiti on the cave walls
43:57Some believe
43:58Belongs to the poor
43:59Unfortunate convicts
44:01Men and women
44:02Who were exploited
44:03Without mercy
44:04Trapped
44:05Because the penalty
44:06For escaping
44:07Transportation
44:08Was death
44:09He's so brazen
44:12He's so brazen about this
44:12That he invites
44:13Various other local grandees
44:15To go and visit Lundy
44:17They stay the night there
44:18They see the people
44:19Working there
44:20Benson makes jokes
44:21About how it's not
44:22As long as he's taken them
44:23Out of England
44:24They've been transported
44:26It doesn't matter
44:26If they don't actually
44:27Get to America
44:28Benson's arrogance
44:30Was nearly his undoing
44:32He was prosecuted
44:34For failing to honour
44:35His contracts
44:35To take the convicts
44:36To the Americas
44:37Amazingly
44:39He got off
44:39But in the process
44:41Had drawn attention
44:42To his smuggling
44:43He already owed
44:45Over 8,000 pounds
44:47In unpaid taxes
44:48A considerable sum
44:50In the 1750s
44:51And the revenue men
44:52Were closing in
44:53He then came up
44:55With another good wheeze
44:56One that would solve
44:57The problem of Lundy
44:58And make him a tidy sum
45:00The plan involved
45:05A rather broken down
45:06Ageing ship
45:07The Nightingale
45:08A previously upright captain
45:10A full cargo of pewter
45:11Linen and salt
45:13All insured to the hilt
45:15Of course
45:16Oh, and some convicts
45:18Bound for Maryland
45:19Twelve chained men
45:20And three manacled women
45:22These convicts were
45:24Nearly a masterstroke
45:26And then
45:27Just before the ship
45:29Finally sailed from Lundy
45:30She was unloaded
45:31Of all her goods
45:32Because Benson
45:34Wanted a maximum return
45:35And so the Nightingale
45:37Left Lundy
45:38And when she was close
45:39To another ship
45:40The charming Nancy
45:41Of Philadelphia
45:42The Nightingale
45:43Was scuttled
45:44And a fire was lit
45:46The ensuing blaze
45:47Of course
45:47Was blamed upon
45:48The convicts
45:49The captain
45:50The crew
45:50And the chained convicts
45:51Then took to the boats
45:52And the Nightingale
45:54Slowly sank
45:55It seemed the perfect crime
45:57And it almost was
45:59But a drunken member
46:00Of the crew
46:01With too loose a tongue
46:02Let the whole tale unravel
46:04Even Benson
46:06Couldn't stop
46:06The arrest
46:07Trial
46:08And sentence to death
46:09Of his captain
46:10Lancey
46:10And with the noose
46:12Tightening around him
46:13Benson fled to Portugal
46:15His brief rule
46:17Over the kingdom of Lundy
46:18Was at an end
46:19Benson's crime spree
46:23Had ended in utter disgrace
46:24Once a sheriff
46:26He was now
46:27An outlaw
46:28This wonderful room
46:30Is the main chamber
46:31Of the Barnstable Guild Hall
46:33And it used to be
46:34The town's courtroom
46:35It's a wonderful place
46:37There are galleries
46:37For witnesses
46:38And tiered seating
46:39You get a real sense
46:40That this was once
46:41The beating heart
46:42Of law and order
46:43In the town
46:44Now also
46:45All around the walls
46:47Are portraits
46:48Of mayors
46:49Local dignitaries
46:50People who donated money
46:51To the town
46:52And there's one
46:54Very important one missing
46:55Thomas Benson
46:56Benson was never seen again
47:04Rumour circulated
47:06That he had secretly returned
47:07Using his influential contacts
47:09But in truth
47:10He lived out his days
47:12In a porto
47:12And is buried
47:13In an unmarked grave
47:15By the river there
47:15Thomas Benson
47:17A man outwardly respectable
47:19But appearances
47:20Can be deceptive
47:21Benson had been able
47:25To hide in plain sight
47:27Because public life
47:28Was so corrupted
47:29In Georgian Britain
47:30Take the sinister case
47:35Of Edinburgh town councillor
47:37William Deacon Brodie
47:38Scotland's
47:40Most wanted outlaw
47:41A man who was
47:43An upright member
47:44Of Edinburgh society
47:45During the day
47:46And an unscrupulous
47:48Ruthless
47:49And immoral
47:50Felon at night
47:51It seemed as if
47:52Every door in the town
47:53Was open to him
47:54Especially after dark
47:57The title deacon
48:04Didn't come from the church
48:05But because he was
48:06A master craftsman
48:07A cabinet maker
48:08And he was head
48:09Of the woodworkers
48:10And carpenters guild
48:12He appeared
48:13To be a sober
48:14And industrious man
48:16On the Royal Mile
48:22In Edinburgh
48:23Is a pub
48:24Commemorating
48:25William Brodie
48:26As one of the city's
48:27Least favourite sons
48:28On the front of the sign
48:30Is Brodie
48:31Elegant and respectable
48:33On the reverse
48:34Is the dark side
48:36Of the man
48:37A thief
48:37And a burglar
48:38And a very cunning
48:39One at that
48:40This is William Brodie
48:45And here
48:46Through this wonderful
48:47Old Edinburgh arch
48:48Used to be his workshop
48:50Where under Brodie's
48:51Supervision
48:51The finest furniture
48:53For the finest houses
48:54In Edinburgh
48:55Would be made
48:56Brodie's house
48:58Just across the street
48:59From the pub
49:00No longer exists
49:01But his workshop
49:03Does
49:03Brodie's workshop
49:07Is now
49:07A rather nice cafe
49:09But it's here
49:10That he would have
49:10Made his furniture
49:11Work which included
49:13The fitting
49:14And repair
49:15Of locks
49:16So
49:16Like Jack Shepard
49:18His trade gave him
49:18The necessary skills
49:20To get into
49:20And out of
49:21Any property
49:22He chose
49:23But unlike Jack
49:25Brodie was supposed
49:26To be a respectable man
49:28William Brodie
49:31Came from an
49:32Upstanding local family
49:34It's strange
49:35That a man
49:35With apparently
49:36So much to lose
49:38Should risk it all
49:39On a life of robbery
49:40But away from
49:42Refined society
49:43Brodie kept
49:44Two mistresses
49:45With children
49:46Both were unknown
49:47To his friends
49:48And his parents
49:49And both
49:50Were unknown
49:50To each other
49:51He liked to gamble
49:53He was particularly
49:54Fond of cockfighting
49:55And he also
49:56Liked to drink
49:57This was a man
49:59Who was addicted
50:00To living beyond
50:01His means
50:02By 1786
50:05Brodie was facing
50:06A deepening
50:07Cash crisis
50:08His appetite
50:09For women
50:10Drink
50:10And the gaming
50:11Tables
50:12Was driving him
50:13To bankruptcy
50:13He needed
50:15Another trade
50:16And his access
50:17To clients
50:18Keys
50:19Gave him the means
50:19To embark
50:20On a nightlife
50:21Of thieving
50:22As Brodie
50:26Himself said
50:27Why break in
50:28When you can walk in
50:30A one man crime wave
50:35Gripped the old town
50:36Brodie was twice blessed
50:39He had the stolen property
50:40And gained extra work
50:42Providing new locks
50:44And stronger windows
50:45For the victims
50:46Of his crimes
50:47The two sides
50:52Of Brodie's personality
50:53Are captured
50:54In the story
50:54Of an exquisite cabinet
50:56That survives
50:57In the writer's museum
50:58In Edinburgh
50:59A piece of craftsmanship
51:01That would link him
51:02To one of the most
51:03Famous literary works
51:05Of the next century
51:06This fine cabinet
51:07This fine cabinet
51:07Was in the childhood
51:08Bedroom
51:09Of writer
51:10Robert Louis Stevenson
51:11And it was made
51:12By our very own
51:13William Deacon Brodie
51:15Stevenson as a child
51:21Became fascinated
51:22With Brodie's story
51:23Particularly
51:23With his dual personality
51:25And it's said
51:26That it inspired him
51:28To write the story
51:28Of Dr Jekyll
51:29And Mr Hyde
51:31A man who embodied
51:32Both good and evil
51:34It's a macabre object
51:40For a small boy's bedroom
51:41Brodie was a risk taker
51:49Having tasted a life of crime
51:51He overreached himself
51:53Everybody knew
51:56That when somebody
51:57Got caught
51:58The best way
51:59To avoid prosecution
52:00Was to shop
52:02Your comrades
52:03Your erstwhile associates
52:04Like many criminals
52:05Of his time
52:06Brodie's mistake
52:08I suppose
52:08Is yes
52:09Becoming
52:10Somewhat overconfident
52:12And not being too careful
52:15About who he chooses
52:16To work with
52:17Brodie assembled
52:20A small gang
52:21To effect his robberies
52:23Andrew Ainslie
52:24George Smith
52:25And John Brown
52:27A convicted thief
52:28Already on the run
52:29From transportation
52:30Their ambition
52:32Was soon to outgrow
52:34Their ability
52:35The Edinburgh
52:37Excise office
52:37The tax office
52:38Was in this court
52:39And on the night
52:40Of 5th of March
52:411788
52:42It was to be
52:42The location
52:43Of Brodie's
52:44Most daring raid
52:45And his undoing
52:47The excise office
52:48Was known to store
52:49Large sums of money
52:50And that night
52:51600 pounds in cash
52:53Was to be kept on site
52:54Brodie planned it well
52:59He had cased the joint
53:00And made a copy
53:01Of the main door key
53:03Brodie and his three
53:09Accomplices
53:10Cloaked and masked
53:11And with dimmed lanterns
53:13Made their way
53:14Down the alley
53:14Brodie had been
53:16Drinking heavily
53:17Which was his first mistake
53:19He only had a key
53:20To the outer door
53:21So they had to force
53:22The inner door
53:23They were then disturbed
53:25By the unexpected arrival
53:26Of Mr James Boner
53:27A bank official
53:28Who had forgotten
53:29Some papers
53:30In a panic
53:31They knocked Boner aside
53:32And they fled
53:34To save his own skin
53:36Brodie then split
53:37From the others
53:38So he could establish
53:39An alibi
53:40But that was his main mistake
53:42In showing no loyalty
53:44To his accomplices
53:45They would then show
53:46No loyalty to him
53:48Particularly when there
53:49Was a large reward
53:50On offer
53:51The weak link
53:54Was Brown
53:55John Brown
53:57Was already on the run
53:58Having escaped
53:59From transportation
54:01Turning King's evidence
54:03Against Brodie
54:04Might lead to a pardon
54:05A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity
54:08Brown chanced it
54:11And Brodie fled
54:12First to York
54:14Then London
54:15And on to Amsterdam
54:16All with George Williamson
54:19One of Scotland's
54:20Chief law officers
54:21Hot on his trail
54:23The remarkable thing
54:27Was that he ran
54:28But didn't get away
54:29Although he escaped Edinburgh
54:31The Scottish constables
54:33Had new allies
54:34In the south
54:35Once he's absconded
54:37To Amsterdam
54:37The Bow Street office
54:39In London
54:40Tries to engineer
54:41Getting him back
54:43Now this is in a period
54:44Before we have
54:45Formal extradition orders
54:46With anyone
54:47But the Bow Street office
54:48Takes initiatives
54:49So they intercept
54:51His correspondence
54:53In which he gives away
54:54That he's in Ostend
54:55On his way to Amsterdam
54:56And they think
54:57Well we'll correspond
54:58With the magistrates
54:59Of Amsterdam
55:00And see if we can get him
55:00Picked up and held
55:02While we come over
55:03And collect him
55:03Sounds like formal extradition
55:05It wasn't formal at all
55:06It was a one-off actually
55:08Brought back to Edinburgh
55:13On an overcast August morning
55:15In 1788
55:17Brody and his co-accused
55:19Smith
55:19Faced a packed court
55:21Brody was described
55:27As a sometime
55:29Right and cabinetmaker
55:30The first witness
55:33For the king
55:33Was John Brown
55:35His evidence
55:36Would prove fatal
55:37For both men
55:38They had robbed together
55:41And would hang together
55:42Deacon Brody
55:48Deacon Brody
55:49Was destined to die
55:50On a scaffold
55:51That he had helped
55:51Build himself
55:52After all
55:53It was his civic duty
55:54As an upstanding member
55:56Of the city
55:56To make sure
55:57That habitual criminals
55:58Got their just desserts
55:5940,000 people
56:01Came to watch
56:02Here
56:03Just yards
56:03From his workshop
56:04And home
56:05As he climbed the scaffold
56:07Deacon seemed relaxed
56:08He had an easy manner
56:10About him
56:10Even at this late hour
56:12Had he one last trick
56:13Up his sleeve
56:14Well his collar
56:15Rumours circulated
56:19That Brody
56:19Had one final
56:20Devious plan
56:21To cheat the inevitable
56:23There were stories
56:25Of a secret steel collar
56:26Stories of a special deal
56:29With the hangman
56:29Stories he had cheated death
56:31All fanciful
56:33His body was cut down
56:39By his friends
56:40And rushed back
56:41Through this alley
56:42To his workshop
56:43Where there were
56:44Desperate attempts
56:44To revive him
56:45But the hangman
56:46Had done his job well
56:47And William Deacon Brody
56:49Was no more
56:50One of the saddest
56:59Mementos of Brody's life
57:01Is this
57:02The Brody Family Bible
57:03It's rather fragile
57:05But beautifully preserved
57:06And one of the prize artefacts
57:07Here in the Museum of Edinburgh
57:09Now towards the back
57:11Are the details
57:12Of the Brody Family Tree
57:14Francis Brody
57:15William's father
57:16Has faithfully recorded
57:17The details
57:18Of his marriage
57:19To Cecil Grant
57:20And also
57:21The birth of his sons
57:22Well one son
57:24Well one son actually
57:25Because the details
57:26Of his first son William
57:28Presumably the apple
57:29Of their eye
57:30Have been erased
57:32From their memory
57:33But not from history
57:35By the end of the 18th century
57:41It was no longer possible
57:42To live outside the law
57:44The age of the dashing highwayman
57:48And that of the swashbuckling pirate
57:52Had passed
57:54Urban crime
57:57And fraud
57:58Would of course continue
57:59But policing
58:01And police detection
58:02Meant that
58:03Although the rogue
58:04Could still break the law
58:05He could no longer live
58:07Outside the law
58:08The modern world
58:11Brought to an end
58:12The criminal
58:12As some sort of
58:14Good guy
58:14Or pantomime villain
58:16But our more traditional rogues
58:18Gave us ripping yarns
58:20Dark morality tales
58:21And the unlikeliest of escapades
58:24And you know
58:25That's good enough for me
58:38Breaking rocks
58:40And a hot ton
58:42I fought the law
58:43And a
58:44The law won
58:45I fought the law
58:46And a
58:47The law won
58:48I needed money
58:49Cause
58:50I had none
58:51I fought the law
58:53And a
58:53The law won
58:54I fought the law
58:56And a
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