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Edward Hyde in the work by Stevenson is not only the alter ego of Dr. Jekyll, but he was also the personification of the evil that lurks in every human. Hyde was not just a symbol he was based on a real-life figure, namely William Brodie. He was an infamous criminal and a clergyman and the young Robert Louis Stevenson was familiar with the story of his life and crimes. William Brodie, known as Deacon Brodie, was from one of the most eminent families in Edinburgh. His family was one of the wealthiest and esteemed in the Scottish capital and several Brodie’s had served in the City Council. Brodie was apprenticed to a cabinet maker and later established himself in business in the mid-eighteenth century. He made cabinets and also fitted locks for some of Edinburgh’s leading families.  However, Brodie led a secret life, and he . He was addicted to gambling and had a secret lover.<ref> Gibson, John Sibbald Deacon Brodie: Father to Jekyll and Hyde (Edinburg, Saltire Society, 1997), p. 12</ref>. In order to support his lifestyle, he used his locksmith skills to burglarize the homes of the wealthy. It is believed that Brodie robbed houses for 20 years until he was captured and publicly hanged. He successfully kept his double-life a secret for twenty years. Brodie was possibly a model for both Jekyll and Hyde. His double-life was similar to the one Jekyll led and his crimes such as burglary and theft are similar to those committed by Hyde in the novella. Stevenson was fascinated by Brodie, even though he had been hanged in the gallows many years before he was born .<ref>Gibson, p. 13</ref>. Apparently, there was a cabinet made by the burglar in his family home and he wrote a play based on the criminal while a teenager. This is considered by some to be an early draft of what would become the ‘Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’.