Dick Turpin in York in 2009. Turpin is best known for his exploits as a highwayman, but before his execution the only contemporary report of him as such was in June 1737, when a broadsheet entitled "News news: great and wonderful news from London in an uproar or a hue and cry after the Great Turpin, with his escape into Ireland" was published. Although some of his contemporaries became the subject of chapbooks, names such as James Hind, Claude Duval and William Nevison, are not nearly as well-known today as the legend of Dick Turpin, whose fictionalised exploits first began to appear
Dick Turpin to Jack Ketch as a small legacy." Stories about Turpin continued to be published well into the 20th century, and the legend was also transferred to the stage. In 1845 the playwright George Dibdin-Pitt recreated the most notable "facts" of Turpin's life, and in 1846 Marie Tussaud added a wax sculpture of Turpin to her collection at Madame Tussauds. In 1906 actor Fred Ginnett wrote and starred in the film "Dick Turpin's Last Ride to York". Other silent versions appeared for the silver screen, and some adaptations even moulded Turpin into a figure styled on Robin Hood. Sid James appeared