In the 1720's, London suffered the worst crime wave in its history, and civic corruption occurred on a massive scale. The government's response was to pay a bounty for the capture of robbers, thus creating a class of professional informers. Jonathan Wild's own posse of thief catchers was basically a front behind which he was able to control the underground world through a complex system of blackmail, perjury, and terror. Although the book at one level is a biography of Jonathan Wild as the world's first supercriminal, the author also provides insights into the structure of criminal gangs. 86 references, 18 illustrations.