1770: William Linsey, resolutely bent upon working wickedness
October 25th, 2016 Headsman
On this date in 1770, inveterate burglar William Linsey was hanged in Worcester, Mass.
Linsey never killed anyone but just couldn’t lay off the thieving — as he owned himself in a gallows broadsheet: “Having so often escaped with impunity, for my wretched crimes, I was under no awe or restraint, neither learning God nor regarding man, resolutely bent upon working wickedness.” That didn’t mean he didn’t get caught: he frequently did, and once was pilloried, flogged, and branded all in the same day as punishment for fraud.
The quote is courtesy of a Linsey profile by friend of the blog and occasional guest poster Anthony Vaver, on his site Early American Crime — which notes that Linsey ultimately fell foul of a sort of colonial three-strikes law escalating penalties for mere property crimes all the way to the gallows in the case of repeat offenders.
On this day..
- 1944: Zainal Mustafa, resister - 2020
- 1974: Walkiria Afonso da Costa, the last Araguaia guerrilla - 2019
- 2009: Two Somali spies - 2018
- 1704: "French Peter" - 2017
- 1781: Gaspard de Besse, social bandit - 2015
- 2014: Reyhaneh Jabbari - 2014
- Feast Day of Saints Crispin and Crispinian - 2013
- 2006: Danny Rolling, the Gainesville Ripper - 2012
- 330 B.C.E.: Philotas, Alexander the Great Companion - 2011
- 1769: Nicolas de Lafreniere and four others for the Louisiana Rebellion - 2010
- 1415: French prisoners at the Battle of Agincourt - 2009
- 2007: Five young men - 2008
Entry Filed under: 18th Century,Capital Punishment,Common Criminals,Crime,Death Penalty,England,Execution,Hanged,Massachusetts,Pelf,Public Executions,Theft,USA
Tags: 1770, 1770s, october 25, william linsey, worcester
