John Austin (highwayman) John Austin (highwayman) John Austin (died 7 November 1783) was an English footpad who became the last person to be hanged at the Tyburn gallows outside London. He was sentenced to death for the murder of a labourer called John Spicer from Kent. The Recorder of London, James Adair, described it as a "robbery with violence" that involved "cutting and wounding [...] in a cruel manner." This hanging would mark the end of Tyburn, a village then in the county of Middlesex, being a place of executions for almost 600 years. Austin was brought from Newgate prison in the City
The Highwayman (TV series) takes place a couple of years after that in which it was made. A coin in the episode "Summer of 45" is said to be dated 1992. It is not until "Warzone" that the date is given on-screen as 1992 (October for that episode). The firearms carried by the Highwayman and Jetto are larger and more imposing than traditional police sidearms. That carried by the Highwayman appears to be similar to a stockless 12-gauge semi-automatic shotgun with a sawn-off barrel, as used by SWAT teams and some military agencies. In the pilot movie, two sheriff's deputies debate the properties of