Tom Cox (highwayman) Tom Cox (highwayman) Thomas Cox (c. 1665 – 12 September 1690), known as "The Handsome Highwayman", was an English highwayman, sentenced to death and hanged at Tyburn. He had a reputation for a spirited nature and it is reported that when asked if he wished to say a prayer before being hanged, he kicked the ordinary and the hangman out of the cart taking him there. Cox lived during the Restoration period. According to Alexander Smith's "A Complete History of the Lives and Robberies of the Most Notorious Highwaymen, Footpads, Shoplifts and Cheats of Both Sexes" (1719), Tom Cox was
John Austin (highwayman) neck, and as the cart was taken from under him the slackness in the rope prevented rapid asphyxiation. It was said it took 10 minutes for him to choke to death. As Austin was a murderer, his body was cut down and sent for formal dissection by The Company of Surgeons at the Surgeon's Hall in the Old Bailey. The gallows were dismantled after the execution. Future public hangings were now conducted on a scaffold named the "new drop" outside the Newgate. John Austin (highwayman) John Austin (died 7 November 1783) was an English footpad who became the last person