gangs – The criminal element of the gang mentality serves as a backbone modern crime and its early traces can be seen in narratives such as mountain and mount.  The structure of the gang is such that every member is supposed to look out for the best interest of the gang while openly warring with those of other factions.  The gang is the formation of an organized structure of crime in which people unite their common illegal goals and use one another’s resources for a common good of the group.  It defines who you are and how others percieve and interact with you.

pig – My personal favorite term of endearment for an officer of the law is prevalent within the modern criminal culture and exemplifies the disdain that the criminal generally harbors towards the authority figures who job it is to arrest them.  It draws a comparison between a person who has for the good of the whole community decided upon seeking to curb chaos to an animal that rolls around in a pit of mud and feces; quite possibly the filthiest animal there is.  This is interesting because it speaks volumes about the degree to which criminals place themselves in opposition to the powers that be.  Criminals do not seem to admit that stopping crime is justifiable instead they condemn the executor of the public’s general welfare by positing that they are the truly savage and beastly creations.

list – The evidence of the importance of lists in these early crime narratives can easily been throughout mount’s story. The entire thing is a list of where he has been and what crimes has was commiting while in these places. There is no rhythm to this just a bombardment of details which include mention he sole a large quantity of nutmeg at one point. This seems rather trivial but all these actions contribute to the habitual nature of sin and crime as viewed by society in these times.

pardon – At the end of the mount narrative the criminal has become a man afraid to die who now has a warning for all to hear. In this he includes his acknowledgment that he deserves his punishment and implores people not to let acts of theft go with a slap on the wrist. He believes this leniency is what hardened him into the career criminal that he became. He even says that thieves relay their “wonderful escapes of justice” while they get drunk after the fact. The pardoning will do nothing but lead to more criminal acts.

brutal creation – Frost felt absoluetly no remorse for the crimes he committed and it was said that “He appears to have been a being cast in a different mould from those of mankind in general.”  His acts were so savage and his lack of remorse forced this text to portray him as a beast not a man.  Due to the brutal nature of his crimes it is not hard to see why Frost conjures up a notion of “brutal creation”.

acquittal  – Frost begins the narrative by immediately relaying the fact that he murdered his father and was very surprised by the verdict, as was I at the time being. But at the end of this text we become aware of reasoning for the acquittal which was the fact that the jury had found him to be insane.  I knew it before they told me based on the head banging and brain talk but it is also important to note these inner workings of the justice who once found him insane and freed him, to then not caring whether he was insane because he murdered “again”.

systematic – The process of robbery in Mountain’s life becomes a systematic and simplistic form of crime.  He and his partners in crime would simply run upon someone on foot and take over a carriage.  The robbery would be accomplished by presenting the victim with a pistol and would say the words, “Deliver or death”.  This is a very cut and dry method of robbery which is perhaps why mountain was able to live “very freely” inhis chosen calling.

stage – Mountain uses this word to describe the destinations of his robberies implying that there is something fundamentally entertaining in his pursuits by linking it to a performance of some sort.   All of England seemed to be a stage upon which Mountain was capable of creating a thoroughly entertaining crime narrative that was tinged with a bit of sensationalism as is evident when Mountain begins to change the old message of robbery(“deliver or death”) into such new forms as “Deliver or I’ll cool your porridge.” The elements of a preformative act can also be seen when Mountain comments on a man’s watch then promptly saying that he knew his profession and it was time yet again to “deliver”.

awful sin –  This is the terminology used by Powers to refer to his sexual acts these lustful desires were the reason of his downfall.  He says that he disobeyed his master but it was the lust for flesh that began at when he and another woman were left at the house alone that resulted in his raping of a young woman and the death sentence.  He attempted rape twice and was successful once, sealing his fate.

jollity –  Powers writes that this happiness he sensed about his death and his secret hope of further escape kept the notion of his impending doom from troubling his mind.  This seems very odd the the countenances of his spectators would help ease his mind, as if knowing everyone else is happy he is dying makes him feel as if it isn’t so bad.  Very bizarre thought that doesn’t seem altogether very reliably written.

fear of God – At the beginning of Wall’s story he begins as most of the narratives do, with a context of the family life and how the individual responded to their family.  It is safe to say that Wall is another whose path of disobedience began at the early stages writing that her parents “…taught the fear of God.” She not following her parents counsel decided upon living a life without the fear of God and this has accounted for her dire situation.

innocence – Wall’s narrative includes a short list of a few crimes that she had committed as well as her own admittance that there were far too many other crimes to be listed in such a short narrative.  However she is claiming to be innocent of the said burglary for which she is going to be sentenced to death.  It seems ridiculous that she would be so resigned to her fate, even thanking a litany of people, given the fact that she contends the charges to be false.  This leads me to believe that either she had absolutely no faith in the justice system and became so disheartened as to not care of her own death or that there is something contrived in this narrative.

friend – Her the notion of God as being your “friend” during your last days on this earth while in confinement is a fascinating notion of the preparation continually taken by criminals to ready themselves as best they could for the afterlife. Through his mercy God becomes “friend of sinners” and offers them his hand. They must embrace him for he is singly important at this stage in the game, knowing the fate has been determined in this world.

family – The notion of family in this narrative is quite interesting. There is the murder of one’s own children either by the father or the mother, we can’t be sure of Wilson’s testimony, coupled with the notion of illegimate children that cannot be part of a true family being born in sin. There is also the case of the brother who is said to have visited Elizabeth while she was incarcerated and even obtained a letter that was to delay her execution. He being delayed himself along the way back to her execution, arrived 23 minutes after she had been “turned off”. He even was said to have taken her home where he tried to revive her somehow and seeing that she was “irrecovably gone”, “she was decently enterred”.

drinking – The intoxicant is constantly referenced as making part of an evil character, it is a common act in the life of sin and lays the groundwork for future misdeeds.  The criminals in this narrative recall several days of drinking liquor which all helped to iron out the details of the murder.  The victim himself was said to go to the tavern on multiple instances as well as drinking with his murderers.  Abuse of alcohol is the backdrop of many of the criminal narratives, helping to show the progression of the criminal mind.

death – The criminal narratives we had read all end with the execution of the condemned persons except for this one.  In this narrative we are left with the new that they perpetrators had been sentenced to death after drinking and boisting of having Mr. Spooner’s watch.  We are not given any account of repentance while incarcerated nor are we privy the last dying words of these murderers.  instead we all left with the thought of the impending and inevitable doom of the sentence.

escape- In The Bloody Register the notion of escaping punishment by either running away becomes  commonplace.  The criminal stories relayed give much attention to the criminals ability to wiggle out of trouble somehow.  Their were frequent escapes from jail and numerous desertions of agreed upon lengths of serviceupon a ship or for military endeavors.  The criminals out the time much like todays seem to be willing to do anything and everything within their power to avoid what they are well aware will be the fate of their continued defiances of the law.

women- In relation of the pirate Alexander white’s tale we are exposed to sudden and dastardly change of his actions.  He proclaims his past to be one in which he served his full terms of apprenticeship and occupattions.  But after becoming a well   schooled mariner he set to the seas commanding his own ship and all was well and good until hedecided to marry.  This woman marks the change from a benevolent man to a man who heinously took the life of his brethren.  “…Love began to burn my poor and wounded heart; and being resolved to go through any difficulty that might impede us, I intended to take the life of my fellow-creature…” White also attributes his downfall to the fact that he had married a girl above his class which surely motivated his violent anamoly inlife.

disobedience – Ames details the beginnings of his criminality by discussing his family life where he claims that his mother did as best she could to counsel him and encourage him to steer away from his path of disregard for her advice. He claims that he made her to believe that he would straighten up but he quickly fled from her watch in order to continue his acts of disobedience to any and everyone. “…I am now made to feel the anger of God against me, for my disobedience to my parent. ”

habitual – Ames resembles the majority of the criminal minds we learned about because of the fact that his temptations toward lustful desires seems to win out against all else. This leads to a life fraught with repitious acts of illwill towards others, utterly disregarding all sense of living with a moral code of conduct. Even while being fully aware of their actions these criminals often times seem incapable of quelling their urges to sin. Becoming trapped in the only type of lifestyle to which they are accustomed.