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Tag Archives: Theft

Crime Poems: The Three Counterfeiters

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

In September 1766, Richard Hodges and John Newingham Clark were convicted by the Superior Court in Boston of breaking into a shop and stealing fifty pounds worth of goods. As punishment, they were each fined twenty pounds, ordered to pay triple damages, imprisoned for six months, and bound for good behavior for twelve months. After […]

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Early American Crimes: Lush Workers

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

The lush worker is headed to the annals of early American crime. The New York Times recently reported that, according to the New York Police Department, a specific breed of pickpocket, the lush worker, will soon be extinct. The lush worker rides the New York City subways late at night looking for a drunken reveler […]

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Early American Criminals: The Curse on Joseph Lightly

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Joseph Lightly relates in his Last Words and Dying Speech that when his mother learned he had enlisted in the British army, “she told me she hoped she should hear of my being hanged, for my Cruelty of going to leave her against her Will.” Lightly’s mother may simply have been reacting to the moment, […]

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The American Malefactor’s Dictionary: bone

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

bone – 1. to take, steal, as in the way a dog runs off with a bone; 2. to be arrested, carried off, taken into custody; 3. to beg, to ask for. Sources London Antiquary, A [Hotten, John Camden]. A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words. 2nd ed. London: John Camden Hotten, 1860. […]

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The American Malefactor’s Dictionary: bludgeoner

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

bludgeoner – a bully, pimp, ponce. “A fellow who passes off some well-dressed woman as his wife. She goes out in search of a gallant, and entices her victim into some unfrequented place. The bludgeoner waits outside until she gives him a signal that the man is robbed, when he rushes in with a knife, […]

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