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BIOGRAPHIES

The Lives and Exploits of Banditti and Robbers

by Charles MacFarlane.

The Lives and Exploits of Banditti and Robbers in All Parts of the World, Vol.1.. “Neither the fullness of years nor maturity of experience and worldly wisdom can render us as insensible to tales of terror such as fascinated our childhood, nor preserve us from a ‘creeping of the flesh’ as we read or listen to the narrative containing the daring exploits of some robber-chief, his wonderful address, his narrow escapes, and his prolonged crimes…”

London: T. Tegg and Son, 1837. 360p.

Life and Adventures of Richard Turpin

By W.S. Fortey.

A Most Notorious Highwayman. “Richard Turpin was born at Hampstead, in Essex, where his father kept the sign of the Bell; and after being the usual time at school, he was bound to apprentice to a butcher in Whitechapel, but did not serve out his time, for his master discharged him for impropriety of conduct, which was not in the least diminished by his parents' indulgence in supplying him with money, which enabled him to cut a figure round the town, among the blades of the road and the turf, whose company he usually kept.”

London: W.S. Fortey, 1860. 12p.

A Brief Historical Account of the Lives of the Six Notorious Street-Robbers, Executed at Kingston.

By A. Moore.

A brief historical account of the lives of the six notorious street-robbers, executed at Kingston viz. William Blewet, Edward Bunworth, Emanuel Dickenson, Thomas Berry, John Higges, and John Legee.

London: Printed for A. Moore, (1726). 52p.

Lives and Exploits of English Highwaymen

By Capt. Charles Johnson.

Pirates and Robbers, drawn from the most authentic sources, with additions by C. Whitehead. “He alone is a truly brave man, who, being powerful, for brave in it disgraceful to insult the feeble : many who pass the estimation of the world, are yet cowardly enough to commit base and barbarous actions : what else can be said of those, who possessing strength of mind and vigour of body, employ their faculties to rob and oppress the weak and ignorant ? It is an easy matter to assume the semblance of fortitude and resolution; but few, very few, are the individuals who really possess those noble qualities : particularly such hardened villains whose lives and exploits are so faithfully recorded in the following work.”

London Booksellers (1883) 452 pages.

Narrative of the Life of James Allen, Alias George Walton

By James Allen.

Alias Jonas Pierce.. The front cover of the famous skin-bound copy has a label which reads "HIC LIBER WALTONIS CUTE COMPACTUS EST" ("This book is bound in the skin of Walton"); Walton was one of the author's aliases. Some claim that books were bound in the skin of criminals. The narrative is a combination of autobiography and confession, transcribed by the warden, as the author himself was unable to write. It details Allen's life, beginning from childhood and laying out his struggles to find honest work as a teenager.[5] Allen explains how he moved from breaking into shops to highway robbery, and how he attempted to escape imprisonment many times. The book ends with a note from the warden, regarding Allen's state of mind toward the end of his life — Wikipedia.

Boston: Harrington & Co., 1837. 32p.