In 1700 Scotland, a man was hanged not for murder or theft - but simply for existing as a Gypsy. Discover the untold story of James Macpherson, the fiddler who defied a genocidal law and became a folk legend immortalized by Robert Burns.

On November 16, 1700, James Macpherson climbed the scaffold at Banff mercat cross. Born to a Highland laird and a Romani woman, Macpherson faced the gallows under Scotland's infamous 1609 Act Regarding the Egyptians - a law that made being a Gypsy or Traveller a capital offense requiring no proof of any actual crime.

In this episode, we investigate the historical record: Was Macpherson truly a "Scottish Robin Hood" robbing the rich, or is that myth a later romanticization? What do trial transcripts, parliamentary acts, and parish registers actually reveal about his life and death? And ...