bang to rights

[tedttt]

what is the origin of the phrase ''bang to rights'

[Quizmonster]

Ir seems to have started as an americanism, the earliest recorded use of the phrase being in a publication called Life in Sing Sing. Sing Sing is, of course, the nickname of a famous American prison. The idea behind it there is that the person was caught in the act of some misdeed.
We find the same sense of 'bang' when we use phrases such as 'Bang in the middle' or 'It hit him bang on the nose.' There, too, there is a suggestion that it was exactly right, just as being caught in the act means you cannot possibly deny it.

[VS Prasad]

BANG TO RIGHTS! 'A fair cop'--a justifiable arest for an obvious crime; underworld, since before 1930. Hence, a police and London's East End catchphrase by 1935 at latest, and a fairly general slangy catchphrase since c. 1950. Note Frank Norman's engaging criminal reminiscences, "Bang to Rights," 1950. For the 'bang' part of the phrase cf. 'bang on!'; 'to rights' = rightfully.

http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/10/me ssages/907.html

[Quizmonster]

'Bang to rights', which is what the question is about, is definitely first recorded as an American idiom in the Sing Sing item I referred to earlier and that was published in 1904.
'A fair cop' was first recorded in Britain in the 1890s and it was in common use long before the 1930s.
Although the two phrases clearly have similar meanings, V S Prasad they're not the same thing. And I actually used the words 'bang on' as an illustration in my earlier answer, too!