Jack Sheppard became sort of a serial breakout artist in 18th-century England. He was a real person who became a folk hero, but many of the accounts of his life are suspect.

Research:

Buckley, Matthew. “Sensations of Celebrity: Jack Sheppard and the Mass Audience.” Victorian Studies. 3/1/2002.
Defoe, Daniel (attributed). “A narrative of all the robberies, escapes, &c. of John Sheppard : giving an exact description of the manner of his wonderful escape from the castle in Newgate.” London. 1724.
Defoe, Daniel (attributed). “The History of the Remarkable Life of John Sheppard, Containing a Particular Account of his Many Robberies and Escapes.” 1724.
E., Gentleman in Town. “Authentic memoirs of the life and surprising adventures of John Sheppard : who was executed at Tyburn, November the 16th, 1724 : by way of familiar letters from a gentleman in town, to his friend and correspondent in the country.” London, 1724.
Gillingham, Lauren. "Ainsworth's Jack Sheppard and the Crimes of History." SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900, vol. 49 no. 4, 2009, p. 879-906. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/sel.0.0081.
Harman, Claire. "Writing for the mob: Moral panic about a Victorian 'handbook of crime'." TLS. Times Literary Supplement, no. 6031, 2 Nov. 2018, p. 25. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A632755026/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=86b28327. Accessed 21 Apr. 2022.
Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 8.0, 22 April 2022), August 1724, trial of Joseph Sheppard (t17240812-52).
Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 8.0, 22 April 2022), Ordinary of Newgate's Account, November 1724 (OA17241111).
Ridgwell, Stephen. “Sheppard’s Warning: A thief who had been dead for more than a century caused a moral panic in the theatres of Victorian London.” History Today. Volume 71 Issue 4 April 2021. https://www.historytoday.com/archive/history-matters/sheppards-warning
Stearns, Elizabeth. “A ‘Darling of the Mob’: The Antidisciplinarity of the Jack Sheppard Texts.” Victorian Literature and Culture , 2013, Vol. 41, No. 3 (2013). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24575686
Sugden, P. Lyon, Elizabeth [nicknamed Edgware Bess] (fl. 1722–1726), prostitute and thief. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 21 Apr. 2022
Sugden, P. Sheppard, John [Jack] (1702–1724), thief and prison-breaker. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 21 Apr. 2022

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