Bill Sikes (died 1837) was a British robber and murderer who ran with Bob Fagin's gang in Bermondsey, London during the 1830s.
Biography[]
Bill Sikes was born to a working-class family in Bethnal Green, London, England. He was taken in by the master thief Bob Fagin at a young age and cultivated into a pickpocket; as he grew older, he came to be a housebreaker. Sikes frequently stole silverware and golden items from wealthy Londoners' homes before selling them to Fagin, who then fenced them. Sikes took Nancy Wallis as his lover, but he showed her little warmth and intimidated her with his violent behavior.
Sikes' body
By 1837, Sikes moved to the squalid rookery (crime-ridden slum) of Jacob's Island in Bermondsey. It was there that he first met the young boy Oliver Twist, a recent addition to Fagin's gang. After Twist was arrested after being accused of theft (an act actually committed by the Artful Dodger), Sikes arranged for the boy to be kidnapped to prevent him from informing on the gang. He later forced Twist to accompany him on a house robbery, only for Twist to inadvertently foil it by dropping a silver plate. Enraged, Sikes had Oliver kept under the watch of his dog Bullseye back at Jacob's Island. Nancy, fearing for Oliver's safety, helped Oliver escape and arranged to return him to his grand-uncle Joseph Brownlow at London Bridge, but Bullseye alerted Sikes to their escape, and Sikes pursued them. He was able to ambush them before Brownlow could meet with them, beating Nancy to death with his cane before kidnapping Oliver. A group of sympathetic laborers noticed Bullseye running back to the crime scene and suggested that Brownlow join them in following the dog to sikes. Soon, a large mob had formed, tracking Sikes down towards Jacob's Island. Fagin forced Sikes to flee, fearing that the mob would discover his hideout, and Sikes attempted to flee to an adjacent roof while using Oliver as a hostage. Sikes attempted to swing across to the other roof on a rope, but, shortly after he landed on the opposite roof, he was shot by a policeman, causing his body to fall from the roof and swing while suspended from a beam.