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Pickpockets have always been a daring bunch. Centuries ago, when pickpocketing was punishable by death, pickpocket gangs systematically targeted the tightly packed crowds who gathered at public hangings, considering them easy targets.

Today, crime has grown ever more sophisticated but pickpocketing shows no sign of dying out. London has its fair share of pickpockets with tourist hotspots like Oxford Street and large London hotels being a known target for gangs – but London gets off lightly compared to much of mainland Europe.

In fact, many major European cities, including Barcelona and Rome, are served by special undercover anti-pickpocket units as the oldest of all street crimes continues to yield huge gains for its perpetrators, especially from holidaymakers – it’s a tax free wage, though the career prospects are perilous.

The image of the pickpocket as a dubiously skilled street magician is a familiar one but as we look at some well-known – and some not so well-known – pickpockets through the centuries, both real and imagined, we see that for every romanticised tale of light-fingered street crime there are darker stories to tell too.

The Unknown Rome Pickpocket Who Outran Ben Johnson

July 13 2000. An unlucky day for shamed sprinter Ben Johnson as a Rome pickpocket separated him from his wallet outside a currency exchange– the fact his wallet contained $7000 made it doubly unlucky.

He had been hoodwinked by a 10-year-old gypsy girl who acted as a decoy and an older woman who took the wallet from his pocket. By the time Johnson realised what had happened the women was too far ahead of him and escaped, though he did manage to catch up with the 10-year-old. The woman was never caught. The moral of the tale? Don’t cheat at sport, you’ll get bad karma… and always carry travellers checks.

David Avadon – The Magician Pickpocket

The American magician David Avadon was one of the most skilled pickpockets ever to have lived. His staple act was to invite audience members up to the stage and, under the pretence of them helping him with another trick, relieve them of phones, wallets and keys.

Incredibly Avedon was even able to remove belts and ties without his mock-victim suspecting a thing (a man you perhaps wouldn’t want to go on a first date to the cinema with).

In developing his stage act, Avadon became a leading global authority on pickpockets and pickpocketing. Such was Avadon’s appetite for pickpocketing that he consulted for movie producers requiring pickpocketing scenes and advised police forces on techniques for spotting pickpockets and catching them in the act.

The Artful Dodger – Dickens’ Child Pickpocket

Perhaps the most famous of all pickpockets, the Artful Dodger was immortalized in 1838 in Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist, the tale of an orphaned boy who escapes from the poorhouse only to end up in the clutches of a ruthless gang of child pickpockets in London’s east end led by the grotesque master-criminal Fagin.

A devious, charming and highly skilled thief, the Artful Dodger leads the child pickpocket gang under the tutorage of the elderly yet vicious Fagin. His dexterity doesn’t pay in the end though as he’s caught red-handed with a stolen silver snuff box and sent to a penal colony in Australia – presumably to break up boulders with a rock-hammer. Oliver lived happily ever after of course.

George Barrington – Prince Of The Pickpockets

Dubbed the Prince of Pickpockets, George Walden was born in Dublin and went to grammar school. After he stabbed a classmate in a fight he fled to London, arriving in 1773 and changing his name to Barrington.

A much better charmer than he was a pickpocket, Barrington was once caught red-handed by a Russian Prince trying to steal his diamond snuff box outside a hotel in Covent Garden. On this occasion, like many others, Barrington’s courtroom charisma kept him out of jail.

Barrington was arrested a total of 14 times without serious punishment, becoming a darling of the press along the way. But the rogue’s luck ran out in 1790 when he was shipped to Australia for lifting a gold watch at the races.

The story doesn’t end there – on the boat to New South Wales Barrington converted to Christianity and soon assumed the title of Superintendent of Convicts. In a further twist, he then became a best-selling author.

Barrington’s account of life in a penal colony entranced readers back in London and his book proved so popular that it was translated into four languages. Long after his death the discovery was made that Barrington had plagiarised every word – he had, in fact, been a thief to the end.

Chicago May – Pickpocket, Prostitute, International Criminal

Born in County Longford, Ireland, at the end of the 19th century, May Duignan grew into a strikingly beautiful blue-eyed redhead who stole her family’s life savings and set off for America.

Far from embarking on the glamorous life she craved though, Chicago May – as she would become known – scraped the depths. She started by selling her body in Chicago’s red light district before getting herself involved in a an incredible scope of crime including pickpocketing, blackmail and attempted murder.

Chicago May left a trail of deception wherever she went and by the time of her death in 1929, aged 59, she was reckoned to have had dozens of aliases and was known to police in nine countries across four continents. It’s no wonder then that the pretty young redhead from the poor Irish farming family has gone down as one of the most notorious women in history – certainly the kind of girl you’d want to avoid bumping into on a night out with the boys.