Whatever led Sheppard down that path, he was far from being alone. Britain’s unregulated commercial and colonial expansion was pushing many working-class people to the margins of society. Thieving and banditry were thriving. Figures like the highwayman Dick Turpin gained notoriety for galloping across the countryside to rob carriages on remote roads. Meanwhile, in London, gangster Jonathan Wild amassed an enormous fortune through organized crime—while operating as a thieftaker by betraying to the authorities fellow criminals who ignored or resisted his own criminal organization.