This Day in History – 26 March 1735

In 1735, George Ward led a violent armed robbery in a Clerkenwell bakehouse, shooting and robbing Thomas Gibson. This Old Bailey case reveals a brutal insider-led burglary, a chilling confession, and the unrepentant final days of a condemned man in Georgian London’s criminal underworld.

This Day in History: 21 February 1787 — Charles Shaw and the Robbery at St Paul’s

On 21 February 1787, Charles Shaw was tried at the Old Bailey for robbing John Hughes near St Paul’s Churchyard. Accused of tripping him and stealing a silver watch worth forty shillings, Shaw was found guilty of highway robbery and executed at Newgate Prison on 26 April 1787.