Richard (Dick) Turpin was born in Hempstead, Essex, in September 1705. He may have followed his father's trade as a butcher early in his life. By the early 1730s, he had joined a gang of deer thieves and, later, became a poacher, burglar, horse thief and killer. Turpin's involvement in the crime with which he is most closely associated—highway robbery—followed the arrest of the other members of his gang in 1735. He then disappeared from public view towards the end of that year, only to resurface in 1737 with two new accomplices, one of whom Turpin may have accidentally shot and killed. He was found guilty on two charges of