Bandits and Outlaws

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An outlaw or bandit is a person living the lifestyle of outlawry; the word literally means "outside the law".

In the common law of England, a "Writ of Outlawry" made the pronouncement Caput gerat lupinum ("Let his be a wolf's head," literally "May he bear a wolfish head") with respect to its subject, using "head" to refer to the entire person (cf. "per capita") and equating that person with a wolf in the eyes of the law: Not only was the subject deprived of all legal rights because the law no longer deemed him human, but others were permitted to kill him on sight as if he was a wolf or other wild animal. Outlawry was thus one of the harshest penalties in the legal system, since the outlaw could not use the law to protect himself, whether from mob or vigilante justice for his alleged crime or from unrelated victimization such as robbery or murder.

Though the judgment of outlawry is now obsolete (even though it inspired the pro forma Outlawries Bill which is still to this day introduced in the British House of Commons during the State Opening of Parliament), romanticised outlaws became stock characters in several fictional settings. This was particularly so in the United States, where outlaws were popular subjects of newspaper coverage and stories in the 19th century, and 20th century fiction and Western movies. Thus, "outlaw" is still commonly used to mean those violating the law or, by extension, those living that lifestyle, whether actual criminals evading the law or those merely opposed to "law-and-order" notions of conformity and authority (such as the "outlaw country" music movement in the 1970s)

Famous British Outlaws

• Hereward the Wake - Saxon outlaw during the Norman conquest of England


• John Nevison - 17th century highwayman


• Dick Turpin - 18th century highwayman


• James MacLaine - Scottish highwayman


• William Plunkett - English highwayman


• Tom King - fictional English highwayman


• Sawney Beane - Scottish outlaw


• Edgar the Outlaw - English king


• Robin Hood - Legendary Medieval English outlaw


• Eustace Folville - English outlaw and soldier


• Adam the Leper - Fourteenth-century English gang-leader


• Rob Roy - Scottish Chieftain.


• Twm Siôn Cati - Welsh Outlaw from Tregaron in Tudor times, ended up mayor of Brecon


• James Hind - 17th century highwayman


• John Clavell - English highwayman, author, and lawyer


• Claude Duval - French-born highwayman in England


• John Wilkes - 18th century English politician


• David Kazamias - The Bandit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outlaw#British