On this date in 1776, footpad James Langar was hanged at Tyburn for robbing a Hyde Park gentleman of his watch and coat.
Actually, and despite a reputation for honesty attested by his fellow militiamen, Langar was implicated in several highway robberies on shaky witness testimony, prompting him to remark in disgust, “I see they are determined to swear my life away, I leave myself to the mercy of the Court.”
He didn’t get it.
A vanishing obscurity even in his own time, Langar has been making 21st century headlines based on a pair of researchers’ identifying him with a ghoulish ecorche sculpture known as “Smugglerius”.
That astonishing object, and its controversial identification with James Langar, are discussed in this previous Executed Today post.
On this day..
- 1557: Thomas Losebie, Henrie Ramsey, Thomas Thirtell, Margaret Hide and Agnes Stanley
- 1726: Edward Burnworth and his gang, London Lives
- 1715: Jeremiah Meacham, "mightily distressed"
- 1635: Sawney Cunningham, an abandoned Villain
- 1895: Richard Burleson, Crab Shack controversy
- 1969: Alexandre Banza, Central African Republic politician
- 1749: Richard Coleman, solemnly declaring
- 1652: Joan Peterson, the Witch of Wapping
- 1967: Aaron Mitchell, Ronald Reagan's first and only execution
- 1782: Captain Joshua Huddy
- 1814: Six slaves in Guyana
- 1966: Christiaan Soumokil, South Moluccan President