Ceylon social bandit Utuwankande Sura Saradiel (or Sardiel) was hanged by the British on this date in 1864.

Saradiel fled a barracks servant’s life to take the road as a bandit. He’s alleged to have gallantly shared his proceeds with the poor; what he unquestionably did was tweak the tail of the powerful (and in this case, colonial) overlords. As is often the case with social bandits, it is difficult to know for certain whether it is for reason the latter that he enjoys the reputation of the former.

The indefatigable brigand was captured multiple times and made at least two escapes — inherently a winning public relations move — eventually maintaining himself from a picturesque mountain cavern and authoring throwback knight-of-the-road exploits to earn the nickname “Robin Hood of Ceylon”.*

Naturally, there is always a Sheriff of Nottingham.

Reward notice for the capture of our man, from the Ceylon Gazette of January 13, 1864.

Saradiel cinched his fate by shooting dead a constable in the course of his arrest. Considering that circumstance, we here at Executed Today are officially skeptical of the legend that a misplaced comma — “kill him, not let him go” when “kill him not, let him go” was intended — decided the man’s fate.

* The best one is that, having robbed from a father what he later learned to be the dowry for a bride-to-be, the robber found his victim again to return the sum, compounded by gambling winnings. Heart of gold, this guy!

On this day..

• 1720: James Cotter the Younger
• 1949: Li Bai, PLA spy
• 1900: James Nettles
• 2004: Nick Berg, by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
• 1829: Richard Johnson and Catharine Cashiere, the last public hangings in New York City
• 1909: Fred Seward
• 1946: Anton Mussert, Dutch collaborator
• 1318: Four Fraticelli friars
• 1323: Jourdain de l'Isle-Jourdain, Gascon rascal
• 1896: H. H. Holmes, America's first serial killer
• 1795: Antoine Quentin Fouquier-Tinville, Robespierre's prosecutor
• 2002: Ahmed Sultan and Mohammad Humayun, who murdered Meena