OCR Text |
Show PICKPOCKET SCHOOL Crook Acts In Duo! Ro!e LONDON, ENGLAND. Jonathan Jona-than Wild was a man who worked both sides of the street. As dictator of London's underworld, under-world, he ran a stolen goods business busi-ness so big that he had to open a branch office. In the criminal courts, he was an ardent champion of justice, with a semiofficial position and a record of capturing more thieves than any London policeman. Quite a character, this Wild. His wife was attended by a liveried liv-eried footman. He swaggered in a sword and ruffles. Honest people gave him a check on the "take" of his underling crooks. Honest magistrates mag-istrates hanged his rivals. He may have been the first person in history his-tory to endow a school of etiquette for pickpockets. Quite a lad. Until they hanged him. Creature of Underworld Wild was a creature of the roistering rois-tering London underworld of the early 18th century, a fetid, gin sodden sod-den sewer, teeming with the lost, the desperate and the vicious. He himself was born in the provinces prov-inces and was a journeyman buckle buc-kle maker until he deserted his wife and child to go to the big city. His arrival there was inauspicious and he might have lived his life out in anonymity, poor but dishonest, dishon-est, except for two happenings. The first was: He was tossed into jail for debt. In the scabious prisons pris-ons of that day, debtors more or less innocent mingled with criminals crimi-nals of the most hardened character. charac-ter. Wild stayed in prison four years. There he got an education, a career ca-reer and a wife, the last a lady of the stews named Mary Milliner. She shared Wild's name and growing grow-ing prosperity for several years until, one day, he felt constrained to lop off one of her ears with a sword and kick her out. On leaving pokey, Mr. and Mrs. Wild went into business, operating an alehouse of a dubious sort. They attracted a fairly good spending clientele of crooks. There are legends leg-ends that Wild padded out his income in-come by a bit of judicious burglar-ing, burglar-ing, but this was never proved. It was while he was an innkeeper that Wild ran into the second experience ex-perience that changed his life. Chosen as Partner Charles Hichin "had been city marshal (chief of police) of London Lon-don and had abused the position thoroughly. Caught in some rough work, he was demoted to constable. consta-ble. He had ideas: Principal among them the thought that he could live mighty comfortably if he could terrorize the criminals Into sharing their loot with him. Hichin needed a partner and he chose Wild. From every viewpoint except one, the choice was superb. The exception was Hichin's own welfare. Together, the pair blackmailed the underworld, levyiny tribute from the illegal house, forcing burglars and cutpurses under threats of arrest to disgorge part of their loot. It was Wild's task to collect this booty and take it to Hichin, who would sell it. But Hichin had the mind of a strong arm gorilla; Wild had the brain of an organizer. Inevitably, the subordinate began double crossing his boss and edging him out of top position. Hichin flailed back grotesquely In the public print and soon London was treated to the odd spectacle of two supercrooks bludgeoning each other in pamphlets and advertisements. advertise-ments. The end was foreordained. Hichin Hich-in sank back to the level of a petty crook. Wild became master of the racket. |