Dick Turpin and who was freed, died at Hackney in January 1738. The reason for his death is not recorded, but is assumed to be natural causes. With the Essex gang now smashed by the authorities, Turpin turned instead to the crime he became most noted for — highway robbery. Although he may have been involved in earlier highway robberies on 10 and 12 April, he was first identified as a suspect in one event on 10 July, as "Turpin the butcher", along with Thomas Rowden, "the pewterer". Several days later the two struck at Epping Forest, depriving a man from Southwark
Dick Turpin home of a Reverend Mr. Dyde. The clergyman was absent but the two cut his manservant around the face "in a barbarous manner". Another brutal attack occurred on 1 February 1735 at Loughton: The gang lived in or around London. For a time Turpin stayed at Whitechapel, before moving to Millbank. On 4 February 1735 he met John Fielder, Samuel Gregory, Joseph Rose, and John Wheeler, at an inn along The Broadway in London. They planned to rob the house of Joseph Lawrence, a farmer at Earlsbury Farm in Edgware. Late that afternoon, after stopping twice along the way for