ROGUES OF THE PAST

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20005, 23 November 1927, Page 14

ROGUES OF THE PAST

LONDON’S “HAUNTED SPOT’ FIFTY THOUSAND DEATHS. “Is there a ‘haunted’ spot in London If so, it must surely be a few square yards that lie a little west of Marble Arch, where, in the course of six centuries, more than 50,000 felons, traitors, and martyrs took a last farewell of the workf they were either too bad or too good to live in.” This is the introduction to a remarkable book, “Lives of the Most .Remarkable criminals” who were executed for murder, highway robbery, housebreaking, street robberies, coining, and other offences, recently published in London. It is edited by Mr Arthur L. Hayward, and most of the material is taken from the papers of the Newgate chaplains. Execution Day, or “Tyburn Fair,” as it was jocularly’ called/, was not only a holiday for the ragamuffins and idlers of London; people of all classes made their way to the Marble Arch of old to indulge their morbid desires of seeing a fellow being put to death. There were grandstands and scaffoldings from which to view the proceediings in comfort and every inch of window space and room on the neighbouring roofs was let at considerable profit to their owners. Mam Alive After Hanging It is almost impossible in these days of almost instanteous death for condemned criminals to realise, as Mr Hayward points out, that ‘ after a traitor had hung six minutes, he was cut down, and having life in him, the executioner gave him several blows on the breast which, not having the desired effect, he immediately cut his throat! ” This extraordinary book, with the exception of minor alterations in punctuation and spelling, is a complete reprint of three volumes printed and sold in Paternoster Row in 1735. One of the most entertaining desperadoes whose escapades are related is John Levee, highwayman and footpad. This early eighteenth century rogue, in order to avoid bringing disgrace upon his honourable family, called; himself “Junks.” His father was a French gentleman who came over with Charles IL, at the Restoration, and taught French to persons of distinction at Court. He kept a large boarding house in Pall Mall for the convenience of his scholars. Hp afterwards went to Holland and his son. John, wa's sent to sea, and eventually became a bookkeeper in the city. Very “Genteel” Highwayman “Junks” found keeping accounts to dull for his martial disposition, and in order to amuse himself he took to the broad highway, where for a long time he practised robbing “in a ve.ry genteel manner,” by placing his hat in the

coaches and, inviting the passengers to contribute as they thought proper. Once Levee and his companion, Blue skin, held up a coach in which were two ladies and a little girl- Levee ordered the coachman and footman to jump the ditch or he would shoot them and then proceeded to strip the ladies of their valuables.

Levee never used anybody cruelly in any of his adventures. Once he and his companions were returning from an expedition with a considerable sum, when they encountered a man on a horse.' They carried him behind a haystack, and when they found he had only two shillings, Levee’s companions were going to bind and beat him, when this genltcmanly highwayman intervened, and succeeded in getting the man liberated and set on his way with his two shillings. He was convicted soon after this exploit, and hanged at Tyburn. The book introduces the reader to such “stars” of the criminal stage of past days as Blueskin, Jack Sheppard, Kennedy the Pirate, an,d Katherine Hayes. Exploits of Jack Sheppard The life of Abraham Deval, a lottery ticket forger, which is included in this catalogue of crime, reveals the cunning of the criminal. Abraham, who had been employed in the Lottery Office, at last took it into his head to coin tickets for himself, and such was his skill that at one time he forged certificates for £52 12s. He repeated his successes, but was eventually trapped and sent to the gallows. The exploits of Jack Sheppard, the gaol-breaker, fill many chapters of the book. This is how Jack got out of the condemned cell, in quaint narrative of his chronicler:— “He prevailed upon one Fowls, who was also urud.'er sentence to lift him up to the iron spikes placed over the door which looks into the lodge. A woman of large make attending without, and two others standing behind her in riding hoods. Jack no sooner got his head and shoulders through between the iron spikes than by a sudden spring of his body followed with ease and the woman taking him d>own gently, he was without suspicion of the keepers—though some of them were drinking at the upper end of the lodge—conveyed safely out of the lodge door.”

•The book is illustrated with many original plates from the Newgate Calender.