Today in History: Blueskin Was Executed

On this day (November 11) in 1724 Joseph Blake, the notorious highway man known as “Blueskin” was hung for his crimes. Blueskin’s career gives an interesting glimpse into the London underworld in the eighteenth century. He left school to become a professional thief, taking up with Jonathan Wild, a crime lord known as the “Thief-Taker General”. Blake’s run of a good luck ended and he was arrested, but avoided the gallows because he gave evidence against his colleagues that got them hung. (I guess there really is no honor among thieves.) Blake thought he was going to be released and given a reward for his testimony but instead the government held him intending to deport him. He eventually gave sureties for his good behavior and immediately returned to crime, this time leaving Wild’s “employ” and working for a thief named Shepherd. Angry at this “betrayal” Wild used his connections with the constabulary (yes, the master thief apparently had policemen on his payroll) to get Shepherd arrested and then gave testimony against him to get him hung. He then got Blake arrested for the same crime. Blake grew angry before court when Wild refused to “put in a good word” for him and slashed his throat with a pocket knife. (Again, no idea how an arrested criminal gets a pocket knife.) Wild nearly died, spent weeks recovering, lost control of his criminal enterprises, and eventually was hung himself roughly a year after Blake was executed. While there doesn’t seem to be any doubt that Blake was guilty of many notorious acts, the actual testimony that convicted him contradicted the evidence given at Shepherd’s trial suggesting that there were serious problems with the courtroom procedures.