No one knows the identity of Captain Charles Johnson, but his 1724 book A General History of the Pirates made him a legend in his own right. Afterward, he delved deeper into the adventures of Britain's crooks, villains, and rascals, celebrating their exploits in these illustrated compendiums.

Looking back on a rather colorful era, Charles Johnson provides over 50 accounts of the most notorious British highway robbers of the 17th and 18th centuries. First published in 1734, these accounts are closer to modern "true crime" stories than mere mythmaking, and influenced such early novels as Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders and Henry Fielding's Jonathan Wild.