being produced. Both criminals and thieftakers began to take on the role of
media heroes. By 1714, the end of the War of Spanish Succession resulted in
unemployed soldiers being turned out onto the streets, and a new crime wave.
Despite lacking any official sanction, although Hitchen had recovered his
position in that year, Wild opened an office in the Blue Boar tavern, and set
himself up as a leading thieftaker.
From his office Wild, London’s first organised crime boss, ran a gang of
thieves. When their thefts appeared in the newspapers, he would announce
that his‘thief taking agents’had recovered the goods, and claimed a reward
for their return, some of which went back to the original thieves as their share.
His men would‘assist’the authorities in arresting criminals–members of
rival gangs or disobedient members of his own crew–claiming the bounty. In
this way, Wild avoided the dangers of trying to fence the stolen goods, and
could maintain a facade of apparent righteousness. A new law had made the
receiving of stolen goods a crime punishable by transportation, making it
harder for thieves to dispose of their loot and handing the thieves neatly into
Wild’s clutches. Wild also took over Hitchen’s extortion business, firstly on
the disgraced officer’s behalf, but later as a rival.
In 1718 Hitchen published a report naming Wild as a criminal boss–Wild
retaliated by publishing an account of Hitchen’s homosexuality. This was
enough to eliminate Hitchen and destroy his reputation permanently. To the
public, Wild appeared to be a hero; he encouraged the press to print rousing
stories about his battles with thieves, and people began to flock to his office to
seek his assistance in recovering their property, despite Wild’s introduction of
a charge for his‘advice’in addition to any reward payable. He was even
consulted by the Privy Council in 1720 to help to find ways to control crime.
They adopted his suggestion that the fee for arresting a criminal should be
increased from £40 to £140 a head!
Wild eliminated a great deal of the criminal competition in London in this
way. To his extortion of public money, he added private extortion, using
information gained during thefts to blackmail owners, such as evidence of
homosexuality, debauchery or debt. He consorted with smugglers and
employed convicts who had returned illegally from sentences of
transportation.
His downfall began with the arrest of a housebreaker called Jack Sheppard,
who had previously been one of Wild’s gang. After a number of escapes,
Sheppard was convicted of burglary and sentenced to hang. Somehow, he
managed to escape from Newgate Prison’s death cell but was rearrested nine
days later. The next month, Wild and his men arrested Sheppard’s partner, who
CRIME IN THE AGE OF INDUSTRY AND EMPIRE