Claude Duval legend, including claims of alchemy, gambling, and much womanising. He is reported to haunt the Holt Hotel along the A4260 (Oxford Road) in Oxfordshire, a hotel where he spent many nights when it was a small coaching inn. Recent historians have reappraised the legacy of Duval. James Sharpe in "Dick Turpin" regarded Duval as the most significant figure in the shaping of the highwayman myth. John and Philip Sugden's "The Thief of Hearts" reconstructs what is known of the historical Duval, using much fresh evidence, and shows that the traditions about the Frenchman were used by such literary luminaries as
John Henry Turpin War II, Turpin tried to return to active service but was denied on account of his age. He volunteered to tour Navy training facilities and defense plants to make "inspirational visits" to African-American sailors. Turpin died in Bremerton, Washington on 10 March 1962. He was survived by his wife Faye Alice. At his funeral, his pall bearers were six Navy chief stewards. John Henry Turpin John Henry "Dick" Turpin (20 August 1876 – 10 March 1962) was a sailor in the United States Navy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Turpin was one of the first African American