Criminalia

Thank you for joining us for the final episode of our season of stray heists AND the finale of Criminalia. This is goodbye, but it's also thank you – thank you for supporting us as we walked in and out of historical crime scenes, nefarious cocktails, and we are grateful you took this adventure with us. And always remember: There’s no such thing as cocktail jail. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The plan was to keep the 18-karat-gold toilet called 'America' on display indefinitely at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. But it did go out on loan, once, to Blenheim Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the birthplace of Winston Churchill, in 2019, as part of an exhibition of Maurizio Cattelan's works, titled 'Victory is Not an Option'. 'America', a participatory piece, was fully plumbed and installed in a restroom cubicle at the palace -- and on September 14, 2019, the one-of-a-kind toilet was stolen from the venue. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Beanie Babies hit the scene in 1993, the original line of stuffed toys featured nine characters -- but that number would grow to hundreds. The brainchild of Ty Warner, and made by his company, Ty Inc., they were one of the hottest toys of the 1990s -- but they also inspired an underground economy that dealt in fraud and many, many thefts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Just after lunch on July 14, 2013, a white van drove away from Toronto General Hospital. Its cargo? A stolen Boston Steinway baby grand piano, taken from the hospital's Peter Munk Cardiac Centre. Of the bold heist, Todd Milne, director of security operations for the hospital, told the media, quote, “I’ve been managing security since 1999, and have not experienced a theft as ballsy and as crazy as this one." He continued, quote, “The reason they were probably successful in removing the piano is that nobody would have thought a crime like this would ever take place.” See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tree nuts have become are a hot commodity on the black market, and thieves have been making off with shipments of California-grown nuts to cash in. Of the phenomenon, Mike Boudreaux, the sheriff of Tulare County in California’s Central Valley, stated, “It’s not your guy on the corner in the long jacket, selling knock-off Rolex watches.” Why steal nuts? Let's talk about why – and how – these California nut crimes have been happening. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the spring of 2008, 12-year-old Shamira Fingers was walking down a street near her home in South Philadelphia when she suddenly and surprisingly fell into an open sewer hole -- the manhole cover, missing. Once a rare crime, disappearing manhole covers has become an expensive and dangerous problem for cities around the world, with thieves swiping dozens to hundreds – sometimes thousands – of them at a time. Let's pry open the lid on manhole cover capers. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"You can't prove what tree the syrup came from," stated one of the accomplices in The Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist during his trial. Over the span of several months, thieves staged a multi-million dollar heist from Québec's Global Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve, making off with about 3,000 tonnes of the stuff. Totaling about $18 million worth of maple syrup, this heist is one of the largest agricultural thefts ever. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Stand and deliver! Welcome to the final episode of our season about highway robbery and the outlaws who preyed upon road travelers. There were plenty of flinklock pistols, plenty of executions by hanging -- and plenty of confusion over who pulled off what crime. Don't forget to join Holly and Maria as they share their top shows and drinks inspired by these brigands' crimes. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

French highwayman Nicolas-Jacques Pelletier rode and robbed the streets around 18th-century Paris, but didn't come to the attention of French authorities until October of 1791, after he was accused of a violent robbery. Among highwaymen, his crimes didn't really stand out; but what does stand out is that his execution was the first use of the guillotine, at the Place de Grève, on April 25, 1792. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tom Cox began his life as a gentleman with a small estate inherited from his father -- but he spent that small fortune in the blink of an eye with his, “riotous living.” Broke, Cox went to London to find work; and, he did find work, though it wasn't legal work. Tom fell in with a group of highway robbers, and quickly made a name for himself as bold, cunning, and … handsome. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

People thought Jonathan Wild was a fine, upstanding kind of a guy: he was a thief-taker who was very good at catching criminals. The Privy Council, advisers to the Crown, consulted with him on methods of controlling crime in London. Highway robbers, a scourge on the city, feared him. But what most people did not know was that Jonathan, himself, was actually a very bad guy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

England has Robin Hood. Australia has Ned Kelly. Japan; Goemon Ishikawa. There are many legendary heroic outlaws in many cultures. Juraj Jánošík has, over the centuries, become known as the Robin Hood of Slovakia – and a symbol of Slovak resistance. Unlike some of these Robin Hood figures, Jánošík was 100 percent a real person, a real bandit who became a folk hero – and legend after his death. This is the story of Juraj Jánošík, an ordinary 17th century highway robber who became an enduring national hero. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

William Davis led a double life. He was a successful highway robber by night, and a respectable farmer by day. Farming was honest work, but, it was also a clever way to distract others from noticing that he had another life, that he was one of the most notorious highwaymen of the 17th century. He kept that criminal career secret for four decades, even from his wife and family. Let's talk about William's adventures -- good or bad, fact or fiction -- and how he got the nickname, the Golden Farmer. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Never confused with the legend of Robin Hood or a 'gentleman robber' among highwaymen, there was really nothing to admire about Jerry Abershawe. He was a thief and he was a cold-blooded killer – several times over. Ruthless and intimidating, he was a "nightmare for travellers on those approach roads to London." There are stories boasting of Jerry's numerous and daring highway robbery acts – but, it's his behavior from capture to execution that gives us a chance to see who he was without his flintlock pistol. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jocelin Harwood was a highwayman who committed such “Barbarous Murders” – and he was just so ...wow – that his fellow criminal associates betrayed him and gave him up to the authorities after they couldn't stomach his depraved behavior the night of his final crime. Described as "a degenerate plant from a good tree," which seems like a pretty apt description, Jocelin's story has never been confused with the legend of Robin Hood. He was insolent; he was violent; and, this is his bloody story. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

William Spiggot was an 18th century English highwayman and the leader of a gang of at least eight men. While he may have started out as an apprentice cabinetmaker in London, he didn't end up following his family's legit path in life, instead deciding on a more... felonious one - as a robber, poacher, burglar, and murderer -- until he was sentenced to peine forte et dure. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

John Nevison was a very good highwayman, though you may not recognize his name. And that's largely because his crimes have, over the years, gotten attributed to the stories of other notorious highway robbers, notably Dick Turpin – who hadn't yet been born when Nevison was prowling the roads. Turpin's romanticized legend seems to be a magnet for many things he didn't do. Much about Nevison's life is a bit of a mystery, partly because of that confusion with his cohorts. Let's look at those conflicting tales. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Though dealing in counterfeit currency may have been David 'Davy' Lewis' first criminal efforts, he eventually added highway robbery as a lucrative gig – and that's when he gained the nickname, Robber Lewis -- and as a highwayman, he also came to be known as the “Robin Hood of Pennsylvania". Was he? Well, that may be a stretch – maybe a big stretch -- but that doesn't mean he doesn't have a good story, right? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Joan Phillips was a known beauty with an artful and cunning mind -- and both her looks and the famiy's money attracted the attention of many suitors – suitors that Joan wasn't interested in. But all that stuff about engagement, marriage, and relationships changed when Joan met Edward Bracey, the only suitor who caught her eye. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is the tale (and legend) of the Dunsdon brothers: Thomas, Richard, and Henry – yes, a real life Tom, Dick and Harry. Known as the Burford Highwaymen, they terrorized the locals between Glouster and Oxford. But the crime the brothers are best known for committing actually had nothing to do with highway robbery -- but it did include amputation. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.