[Music] Jonathon Wilde came from a poor family and was the oldest of his five siblings although some sources claim are the dates and places it's most likely that he was born in Wolverhampton in 1682 his father worked as a carpenter and his mother sewed herb some fruits in the local market in order to make ends meet after finishing basic education Wilde became an apprentice at the local buckle makers he had little success and moved to London he started working as a servant but was quickly dismissed by his master and was forced to go back to Wolverhampton four years later again looking for work he returned to London hoping this time things would be better Wilde moved to London didn't go as planned by March 1710 he was sent to wood street counter at dentist prison these prisons were extremely corrupt gala was demanded bribes so inmates could get anything of minor comfort however strangely enough it was in this environment that Wilde arrived he became popular among the galavis running various errands for him and ended up making a nice sum of money with his earnings he managed to repay his debts and the cost of being imprisoned while in prison he met Mary Melina a prostitute who showed him the life of London's criminal underclass and then brought him into her gang with the skills and contacts he had made in prison he was set up for his new criminal life in 1712 he was released from prison and began to live with Mary Melina acting as if they were husband and wife after some time Wilde became fully acquainted with the people of London's underworld as well as the methods they used to avoid justice looking to increase his standing in the criminal world Wilde began to set up his own network acting as a pimp to other prostitutes as well as offense to thieves offense is someone who buys stolen goods and looks after them to later sell them on wiles reputation was on the rise and soon he grew tired of Mary fed up of her attitude and believing she was holding him back he left her and cut off her ear marking her as a prostitute in London by this point crime was extremely high and dramatically rising thousands of people made a living from criminal activities in 1713 Wilde was approached by Charles Hitchin London's former under Marshal basically the city's top policeman hitch and was extremely corrupt and asked Wilde to aid him a thief taking thief taking as the name suggests is when you catch a felon or thief and for doing so the government paid you a 40 pound reward around 6000 pounds in today's money this was a good opportunity for Wilde so you accepted hoping would move his career in the right direction during this period the public were very worried about crime and the lack of effective policing in the city the most common offense was thievery but organized crime was also becoming a major problem in 1714 Hitchin was again walking as London's under Marshall despite this being beneficial to Wilde he decided to go his own way having devised a scheme to make thousands while staying on the side of the law to run his gang he opened an office in the Blue Boar Tavern in the little Bailey to look credible he called himself Hitchens deputy despite no longer working together and he carried around a sword to make himself feel like an upper-class man using his gang of thieves they stole Goods and kept them hidden away then after the crime was made public via newspapers he would use his fees to state that they had found the goods and returned them to the rightful owner Wilde always demanded a payment from the owners as reward so he could cover the costs of running his group despite it being his men taking all the risks he kept most the reward giving his gang members a relatively small cut he also aided the police in catching thieves who were part of other gangs or even his own men if they didn't cooperate with his schemes from 1700 to 1720 selling stolen goods became more and more dangerous the crime was heavily punished and police were always on the lookout to catch thieves for most thieves it was very easy to steal but it was much more difficult to successfully sell the goods however while it didn't face his problem as once his gang stole something usually by mugging people at night he would never sell the goods the group simply stated that they found the goods and then returned the items wild hood everything planned out he looked good from the outside as he publicly made known his hatred or thieves and had a complete control of his gang threatening that he could turn them in to the authorities for thievery at any time if they didn't do as he said with while becoming a key player and thief taking around London Hitchin was now his biggest threat his aim was to incarcerate as many of hitchens thieves as possible and eliminate his gang Hitchin retaliated and published articles which aimed to expose Wilde as the source behind all of the robberies in London however it wasn't successful a few believed in the details Wilde responded and revealed the Hitchin was a frequent client of Molly houses homosexual brothels his known corruption as well as a charge he now faced for being homosexual destroyed his reputation with hitching gone wild now dominated the criminal activities in London he had built an empire and various rumors began to spread for example it was supposed that he had a list of every thief in his service and once they were no longer useful he cold-heartedly disposed of them sending them to the gallows wilde acted as a hero in public calling himself thief-taker general of great britain and ireland he was proud that he found thieves and made them face justice by 1718 he had already caught over 60 thieves this skill made him very well known around London by 1720 wilde had become so known that the Privy Council a group of advisors to King George the first asked world for potential methods to help control crime wild knowing this could result in a huge personal gain recommended at the rewards for catching a thief should be raised within the year he had gone up from 40 pounds to a hundred and forty pounds this led to a huge pay increase for wild to make him popular with the people wild always made sure the public knew about his work and would frequently report to the newspapers about what he was doing one of his biggest successes was finding evidence against 20 members of the character Kang for this he was rewarded with 800 pounds around 123 thousand pounds in 2019 although in reality he was catching these criminals to destroy an opposing gang he made us seem as if he was doing the country of service in 1724 one of the most famous thieves of the century was caught by one of wild two men Shepard had previously worked with Wilde his lack of cooperation made him too much for a wild to handle Shepard was imprisoned on three separate occasions and each time he had managed to escape while saw Shepard as a threat believing he could cause his eventual downfall he tried to ruin Shepards reputation denouncing him in public and trying to get him imprisoned using whatever means necessary his relentlessness made him disliked among the working classes many believed he was extremely corrupt eventually Wilder successful and getting Shepard locked away he presented vital information regarding a robbery a shepherd an accomplice committed against William Kneebone Sheppard's former master wild believed the threat was now resolved as soon Shepard would be hung however on the 31st of August on the night our Shepards death warrant arrived he escaped prison yet again Shepherds amazing stunts of escape in prison had turned him into a working class hero his good looks and charm and nature made him loved by all he was now free and had managed to stay clear of wilds gang Sheppard's partner Joseph Blake who was known as blue-skinned was also caught by wilds men on the 15th of October blue-skinned was tried for the burglary of William Kneebone the same case that got Sheppard a death sentence Wilde and his men all gave evidence against blue-skinned just as they had done to Shepherd he was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging following the trial blues king was devastated and begged well to have his sentence reduced from hanging to transportation wild maintaining his public hatred to thieves refused blue-skinned was furious and decided to seek vengeance he grabbed the knife he had in his pocket and attempted to murder Wilde he got close enough and successfully slashed open his throats this caused an outlaw in the courtroom Wilde immediately collapsed and was quickly taken to hospital despite this gaining Wilde some public sympathy the people still despised him for the way in which he was pursuing Shepherd the papers reflected this and rumours about his corrupt nature began to spread a few days after blueskins trial Sheppard was caught by police officers after being found drunk outside a Tavern this time Sheppard has watched at all times and had no chance of escape on the 11th of November much to the delight of wild blue Singh was hanged only five days later his partner Sheppard was also hanged Wilde had been bed bound for weeks recovering from his injury he managed to make it back to full strength but more problems are when he learned that one of his best men was in prison he didn't hesitate to act and attempted a violent jailbreak which was a huge failure the authorities began searching for him and he had to go into hiding however much to his surprise on the 15th of February wild on one of his men quint Arnold were arrested for the attempt of helping in a jailbreak wilde was furious but stayed calm hoping it wouldn't completely destroy his reputation his business was on the decline and he couldn't effectively run it from his cell in Newgate Prison he was put on trial and strong evidence was presented against world proving that he participated in a violent jailbreak and also that he possessed stolen jewels the evidence was too great for a while to deny it was clear that wilde was going to be found guilty his gang members saw this and one by one they turned on him giving evidence of his elaborate scheme which took advantage of the law and how he bribed public officers the day of wilds final trial was set for the 1st of May at the Old Bailey he was tried on two separate charges of robbery he was acquitted of the first due to a lack of evidence but on the second charge he was found guilty and sentenced to death Wilde was in shock he wasn't ready to face the consequences of his actions terrified he asked the judge if his sentence could be delayed or changed but this was refused the weeks leading up to his execution date his health began to dramatically deteriorates he suffered from gout disease and was beginning to turn insane he found it difficult to eat or sleep and he even could have one piece at church on the day of his execution in the early hours of the morning he tried to take his own life by drinking a bottle of laudanum his attempt was unsuccessful and he immediately began to vomit not long after he fainted and fell into a deep coma Wylde was still in a coma when he was moved to gallows at Tyburn his hanging was a great event tickets of the best viewpoints were sold and thousands of people came to watch the people of London were cheering seeing Wells execution as a triumph against their corrupt oppresses Wilde was accompanied at Tyburn by Williams Barry Roberts Sanford and Robert Harbin all of them were condemned to die Wilde was still in his coma so they saved his execution to last the hangman rigid Arnie actually knew wild as he had been a guest at his wedding however he didn't let that affect his job he wrapped the rope around wilds neck and pulled the lever ending his life in the middle of the night wilds body was secretly moved and buried in the churchyard of st. Pancras old church it was a wish of wilds to be buried there alongside Elizabeth man his third wife however this burial only lasted a few decades as in the late 18th century autopsies were beginning to be performed on the most notorious criminals his body was dug up and went on to be sold to the Royal College of Surgeons for dissection nowadays in the Royal College of Surgeons Hunterian Museum in London wilds remains are on display thank you everyone for watching this episode of forgotten lives on jonathan wild if you haven't seen the episode on Jack Shephard I highly recommend it as the two stories are linked in a certain way I hope you guys enjoyed the video if you did please like and subscribe and I will see you in the next for God to life thank you [Music]