Richard "
Dick"
Turpin (bapt. 1705 – 7 April 1739) was an English
highwayman whose exploits were romanticised following his execution in York for
horse theft. Turpin may have followed his father's trade as a butcher early in life, but, by the early 1730s, he had joined a gang of deer thieves and, later, became a
poacher,
burglar, horse thief and killer. He is also known for a fictional overnight ride from London to York on his horse Black Bess, a story that was made famous by the
Victorian novelist
William Harrison Ainsworth almost 100 years after Turpin's death.