Jack Sheppard became sort of a serial breakout artist in 18th-century England. He was a real person who became a folk hero, but many of the accounts of his life are suspect.

Research:

• Buckley, Matthew. “Sensations of Celebrity: Jack Sheppard and the Mass Audience.” Victorian Studies. 3/1/2002.
• Defoe, Daniel (attributed). “A narrative of all the robberies, escapes, &c. of John Sheppard : giving an exact description of the manner of his wonderful escape from the castle in Newgate.” London. 1724.
• Defoe, Daniel (attributed). “The History of the Remarkable Life of John Sheppard, Containing a Particular Account of his Many Robberies and Escapes.” 1724.
• E., Gentleman in Town. “Authentic memoirs of the life and surprising adventures of John Sheppard : who was executed at Tyburn, November the 16th, 1724 : by way of familiar letters from a gentleman in town, to his friend and correspondent in the country.” London, 1724.
• Gillingham, Lauren. "Ainsworth's Jack Sheppard and the Crimes of History." SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900, vol. 49 no. 4, 2009, p. 879-906. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/sel.0.0081.
• Harman, Claire. "Writing for the mob: Moral panic about a Victorian 'handbook of crime'." TLS. Times Literary Supplement, no. 6031, 2 Nov. 2018, p. 25. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A632755026/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=86b28327. Accessed 21 Apr. 2022.
• Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 8.0, 22 April 2022), August 1724, trial of Joseph Sheppard (t17240812-52).
• Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 8.0, 22 April 2022), Ordinary of Newgate's Account, November 1724 (OA17241111).
• Ridgwell, Stephen. “Sheppard’s Warning: A thief who had been dead for more than a century caused a moral panic in the theatres of Victorian London.” History Today. Volume 71 Issue 4 April 2021. https://www.historytoday.com/archive/history-matters/sheppards-warning
• Stearns, Elizabeth. “A ‘Darling of the Mob’: The Antidisciplinarity of the Jack Sheppard Texts.” Victorian Literature and Culture , 2013, Vol. 41, No. 3 (2013). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24575686
• Sugden, P. Lyon, Elizabeth [nicknamed Edgware Bess] (fl. 1722–1726), prostitute and thief. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 21 Apr. 2022
• Sugden, P. Sheppard, John [Jack] (1702–1724), thief and prison-breaker. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 21 Apr. 2022