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The 10th in the series of Richmal Crompton's books about the eleven year old William Brown and his three compatriots, together known as the Outlaws. First published in 1929 the book is a collection of short stories featuring young William Brown and his unfailing belief in his own ingenuity and righteousness,
Heavily influenced by a series of mystery crime novellas, William and the Outlaws become convinced that a local resident has murdered his neighbor, Old Scraggy, as a prelude to theft and buried him by the rose bush in his front garden.
William impersonates the "deceased" Old Scraggy in an effort to disturb the murderer to the point where he confesses his crimes as in the "Myst'ry of the One Eyed-Man". The Outlaws break into Old Scraggy's house but are discovered by the returning occupant who has in fact only been away on holiday and are locked in an upstairs room. Such is the exaggeration of Old Scraggy's description of the burglars and would be assailants, that the local policeman is only amused to discover 4 local "nippers" who might have been involved in acts of trespass on a local farmers land. Old Scraggy is too embarrassed to pursue prosecution and the policeman even declines to "box their ears".
After William overhears his older brother and others discussing greyhound racing he, without much opposition, persuades the Outlaws to join him in organizing a greyhound race starring his own mongrel dog Jumble and another. After conceding that charging entry to the event will not work they decide that the way to easily profit from the enterprise is to run a book and to charge for refreshments. The only asset available to Outlaws is that of their own labour which they sell to obtain the funding for the comestibles which have to be purchased retail.
On the day of the race the boys steal a dog chained outside a neighbour's house and attempt to induce it to race Jumble in pursuit of a clockwork mouse. The event is something of a fiasco and the comestibles are stolen by a rival gang, the Hubert Laneites, while William and the Outlaws attempt to retrieve the now runaway dogs. The experience of trying to run a book is not a happy one for Douglas and he ends up taking to his heels pursued by angry punters.
In retribution William's father demands further unpaid labour, sawing logs, but William's ingenuity knows no bounds and he is able to score a psychological victory over Hubert Lane and his gang.
While the other Outlaws are away on holiday William occupies himself by trespassing in the gardens of a property called The Laburnams. Each day for a week William steals substantial quantities of fruit from The Laburnams' Orchard and a total of some 200 fish from the pond. After being caught in the act by Miss Murgatroyd, William fakes being his own better socially adapted brother, Algernon. For several days William's alter ego, Algernon, is able to dissuade Miss Murgatroid from reporting his felony to his father. When Miss Murgatroyd does finally visit his home to expose his crimes, such is the identity confusion that William's parents believe that she is deranged.
William's pleasure in his amoral activities and the successful theft of 200 fish is sufficient that he faces the unspecified denouement with complete insouciance.
When William is "kept in" at school by the headmaster, Old Markie, on the day of the local fair, the Outlaws steal a waxwork figure from one of the tents which is substituted for William. William, carried away by their success, then attempts to impersonate a waxwork at the fair. The attempt appears to go badly. Ultimately the stolen waxwork is returned undamaged and the waxwork proprietor puts profit before principle.
The headmaster's use of corporal punishment is accepted without question by William but the author demonstrates a finer love of natural justice by paying back Old Markie with "one of the worst attacks of arthritis in his right arm (that) he'd had for a long time".
William and the Outlaws decide to put on their own waxwork show. In the course of the preparations for the show, the Outlaws demonstrate the poverty of their education. The first show ends in a fight between the Outlaw's "waxworks" and a rival local gang, the Hubert Laneites. A second attempt leads William to break into the grounds of The Hall in order to steal flowers. Here he bumps into Rosemary Verney who is about to be interviewed, against her will, for a society magazine. The two switch places. The bogus waxwork show is a huge success but the interview is not. Rosemary is sent away to boarding school an outcome for which she is extremely grateful as she has no wish to continue to live with her self-obsessed mother.
William and the Outlaws demonstrate an admirable disdain for the accumulation of wealth but are completely subservient to the need for social status gained by charitable giving. In passing, the Outlaws demonstrate great prescience in advance of the contemporary attitude toward education, that is that it should be pursued solely for pecuniary advantage. While trying to raise charitable funds, with the objective of protecting their social status, the Outlaws turn once again to the retail opportunity afforded by a refreshment stall. The Outlaws efforts are in vain as they are they are misled by Hubert Lane and his gang who steal the Outlaws' stock.
The Hubert Lane plot leads to the Outlaws entering another neighbours house and being subjected to social snobbery and being mistaken for the recipients of charitable aid themselves.
Fortune ultimately favours the Outlaws when they receive a substantial reward which they unhesitatingly donate to the school fund in order to guarantee their social status.
William and the Outlaws reach new pinnacles of amorality as, faced with a parental ban on the purchase of fireworks, they dupe the sister of a retired Colonel Masters into assisting them in the theft of her brothers fireworks. Although the Outlaws do not get to benefit directly from the theft they find a transcendent reward in witnessing their parents brought low while hypocritically engaging in a spontaneous party with the fireworks, which they have in turn appropriated from the boys.
The Outlaws commit wilful trespass and William is mistaken for a visitor from space by a perhaps senile professor. William tries to avoid the trespass being exposed by conspiring with the professors illness. Concurrent with these events is the story of the boys' failure to carry through on a commitment to support the local church by collecting decorative holly.
A story of adult male greed and emotional exploitation of generous hearted women. William demonstrates an instinctive attachment to a code of honour to repay favours unstintingly given and a remarkable presence of mind in exposing a cynical Lothario. William's reward is nothing more than a return to the status quo and the consumption of a "cookie boy"
In part a tale of the exploitation of animals in which William and the Outlaws feed cinders and sawdust to an overweight pig that is confined and overfed in order to win prizes at shows. William successfully rides the beast and in so doing gives the pig its first experience of freedom and activity.
To avoid retribution by the farmer, the Outlaw's set out to expose him as a former criminal and break into his home to steal a teapot which, in fairness, they believe they are returning to its previous owner.
While carrying out a second burglary, William disturbs another, more serious burglar and locks him in an upstairs room (providing literary symmetry with the first tale in this collection).
William's emotionally detached father, who doesn't participate in his child's life, other than to exert erratic and ineffectual behavioural correction, feels obliged to honour what he regards as an ill judged promise to take William to a pantomime in town when he would far rather be playing golf. William has also learned to be emotionally detached from his family and welcomes the event only for the purpose of receiving 5/- shillings from an aunt that they will visit on the same day. It is important to note that William and the Outlaws have a communist philosophy and hold all pocket money in common.
Edward Kelly was an Australian bushranger, outlaw, gang leader and convicted police-murderer. One of the last bushrangers, he is known for wearing a suit of bulletproof armour during his final shootout with the police.
Richard Turpin was an English highwayman whose exploits were romanticised following his execution in York for horse theft. Turpin may have followed his father's trade as a butcher early in his life but, by the early 1730s, he had joined a gang of deer thieves and, later, became a poacher, burglar, horse thief and killer. He is also known for a fictional 200-mile (320 km) overnight ride from London to York on his horse Black Bess, a story that was made famous by the Victorian novelist William Harrison Ainsworth almost 100 years after Turpin's death.
Just William is the first book of children's short stories about the young school boy William Brown, written by Richmal Crompton, and published in 1922. The book was the first in the series of William Brown books which was the basis for numerous television series, films and radio adaptations. Just William is also sometimes used as a title for the series of books as a whole, and is also the name of various television, film and radio adaptations of the books. The William stories first appeared in Home magazine and Happy Mag.
Thomas Blood was an Anglo-Irish officer and self-styled colonel best known for his attempt to steal the Crown Jewels of England from the Tower of London in 1671. Described in an American source as a "noted bravo and desperado," he was also known for his attempt to kidnap and, later, to kill, his enemy James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormond.
The James–Younger Gang was a notable 19th-century gang of American outlaws that revolved around Jesse James and his brother Frank James. The gang was based in the state of Missouri, the home of most of the members.
William in Trouble is a book in the children's Just William series by Richmal Crompton. The book contains 10 short stories. It was first published in 1927.
An outlaw motorcycle club, known colloquially as a bikie gang, biker gang or motorcycle gang, is a motorcycle subculture generally centered on the use of cruiser motorcycles, particularly Harley-Davidsons and choppers, and a set of ideals that purport to celebrate freedom, nonconformity to mainstream culture, and loyalty to the biker group.
Illegalism is a tendency of anarchism that developed primarily in France, Italy, Belgium and Switzerland during the late 1890s and early 1900s as an outgrowth of individualist anarchism. Illegalists embrace criminality either openly or secretly as a lifestyle. Illegalism does not specify the type of crime, though it is associated with theft and shoplifting.
Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter is a low-budget horror Western film released in 1966, in which a fictionalized version of the real-life western outlaw Jesse James encounters the fictional granddaughter of the famous Dr. Frankenstein. The film was originally released as part of a double feature along with Billy the Kid Versus Dracula in 1966. Both films were shot in eight days at Corriganville Movie Ranch and at Paramount Studios in mid-1965; both were the final feature films of director William Beaudine. The films were produced by television producer Carroll Case for Joseph E. Levine.
Edward James Adams was a notorious American criminal and spree killer in the Midwest. He murdered seven people–including three policemen—over a period of around 14 months, and wounded at least a dozen others. At age 34, Adams was surrounded and then killed by police in Wichita, Kansas.
The Lowry War or Lowrie War was a conflict that took place in and around Robeson County, North Carolina, United States from 1864 to 1874 between a group of mostly Native American outlaws and civil local, state, and federal authorities. The conflict is named for Henry Berry Lowry, a Lumbee who led a gang of Native American, white and black men which robbed area farms and killed public officials who pursued them.
Samuel Ross Mason, also spelled Meason, was a Virginia militia captain, on the American western frontier, during the American Revolutionary War. After the war, he became the leader of the Mason Gang, a criminal gang of river pirates and highwaymen on the lower Ohio River and the Mississippi River in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He was associated with outlaws around Red Banks, Cave-in-Rock, Stack Island, and the Natchez Trace.
In English legal history, a thief-taker was a private individual hired to capture criminals. The widespread establishment of professional police in England did not occur until the 19th century. With the rising crime rate and newspapers to bring this to the attention of the public, thief-takers arose to partially fill the void in bringing criminals to justice. These were private individuals much like bounty hunters. However, thief-takers were usually hired by crime victims, while bounty hunters were paid by bail bondsmen to catch fugitives who skipped their court appearances and hence forfeited their bail. Both types also collected bounties offered by the authorities.
The Just William series is a sequence of thirty-eight books written by English author Richmal Crompton. The books chronicle the adventures of the unruly schoolboy William Brown.
William — The Dictator is the 20th book of children's short stories in the Just William series by Richmal Crompton.
William the Conqueror is the sixth book in the Just William series by Richmal Crompton. It was first published in 1926. It is a book of short stories, and its name is a pun on William the Conqueror, a famous king of England.
The Finks are an Australian outlaw motorcycle club that was formed in Adelaide, Australia, in 1969 and now also has chapters in other states. The name comes from The Wizard of Id cartoon where the peasants, to his dismay, often proclaim, "The King is a fink!". The logo used by the Finks is of Bung, the king's jester. The pants worn by the jester used to differ in colour depending on the state the chapter resides in.
Jesse Woodson James was an American outlaw, bank and train robber, guerrilla and leader of the James–Younger Gang. Raised in the "Little Dixie" area of Missouri, James and his family maintained strong Southern sympathies. He and his brother Frank James joined pro-Confederate guerrillas known as "bushwhackers" operating in Missouri and Kansas during the American Civil War. As followers of William Quantrill and "Bloody Bill" Anderson, they were accused of committing atrocities against Union soldiers and civilian abolitionists, including the Centralia Massacre in 1864.
Fuzzy Settles Down is a 1944 American Western film directed by Sam Newfield.
Augustine Chacon, nicknamed El Peludo, was a Mexican outlaw and folk hero active in the Arizona Territory and along the U.S.–Mexico border at the end of the 19th century and the early 20th century. Although a self-proclaimed badman, he was well-liked by many settlers, who treated him as a Robin Hood-like character rather than a typical criminal. According to Old West historian Marshall Trimble, Chacon was "one of the last of the hard-riding desperados who rode the hoot-owl trail in Arizona around the turn of the century." He was considered extremely dangerous, having killed about thirty people before being captured by Burton C. Mossman and hanged in 1902.
