Dastardly Dick
This is an article about Dick Turpin that I wrote remotely at the start of lockdown during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. It was a commission from John Good Ltd, where I was working at the time, and intended for use as a stock article for any Dick Turpin-based pantomime programmes. In the highwaymen hall of fame, one name stands (and delivers) above the rest – Dick Turpin. Legend cuts a figure dressed elegantly in a tricorn hat, frock coat and riding boots atop his loyal mare, Black Bess; a dashing and daring knight of the road, who held up swooning ladies' stagecoaches with gallantry and defied authority with derring-do. In reality, Dick Turpin was far from being fine and dandy. He was a ruthless and violent criminal, who robbed, killed and tortured innocent people unscrupulously – a stark contrast to the gentleman thief of legend. Richard Turpin was born in Hempstead in Essex in 1705, the fifth of six children born to John Turpin and Mary Elizabeth Parmenter. Little is known about h...