1820: The Cato Street Conspirators

ExecutedToday.com ^ | May 1, 2009 | Headsman

[CheshireTheCat]

On this date in 1820 — which was not yet a red-letter day on the leftist calendar — five radicals were hanged at Newgate Prison for a plot to overthrow the government.

A British government that had tilted from reactionary after the French Revolution to furiously repressive after defeating Napoleon was energetically at work stamping out the wide-ranging upheaval convulsing the isles.

This day’s conspirators plotted to overturn the authoritarian rule of Lord Liverpool by murdering his ministers at a dinner party. Next steps:

????

Revolution!

This excellent plot was hatched by none other than a government informant, who planted the idea among the circle and arranged their arrest when they took the bait. Already-notorious subversive Arthur Thistlewood was the jewel in the crown’s crown, particularly after having slain an arresting officer in the fray when the trap was sprung.

Ten were condemned to death, five of those sentences commuted to transportation — leaving Thistlewood to hang* along with John Brunt, James Ings, Richard Tidd and the Afro-Caribbean tradesman William Davidson. The crowd was reportedly vocally supportive of the condemned.....

[Carriage Hill]

“...five radicals were hanged...”

Should be SOP for all rioters, looters, arsonists, commies, socialists, Marxists, anarchists, radicals, leftists etc.

[x]

Some suspect there was provocation by the government spy. But most historians believe that the conspirators really did want to kill government ministers.

I had never heard of this until today, but Wikipedia says that it was the subject of a play by Robert Shaw (from Jaws) featuring Vanessa Redgrave and young Bob Hoskins.

[buckalfa]

One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.