Before Jack The Ripper, A Weirder ‘Monster’ Once Terrorized London
Towards the end of the 19th century, the brutal attacks attributed to Jack the Ripper cast a shadow over the streets of London. But exactly 100 years earlier, a different kind of criminal stalked the capital. Like his later counterpart, he had a predilection for defenseless women — and a violent appetite that usually led to a bloody conclusion. But the fiend dubbed “the Monster” by the press took a much more unusual approach, and historians still puzzle over his reign of terror today.
London in turmoil
During this strange chapter in London’s history, the capital was a city in turmoil. The 1780s had begun with the infamous Gordon Riots, a chaotic few days which saw violent anti-Catholic protests break out in the streets. Meanwhile, the jails were full to the rafters with prisoners who could no longer be deported to America since the Revolutionary War.
The rich and poor divide
Against this unlikely and tumultuous backdrop, though, London was thriving. Home to around 750,000 people in 1780, the city’s population continued to soar, almost doubling over the course of three decades. And as the capital continued to expand, the divide between the city’s richest and poorest inhabitants grew even greater.
Whitechapel and Mayfair
Perhaps understandably, it was the grimy streets of Whitechapel, with their brothels and lodging houses, that became Jack the Ripper’s hunting ground. But the man who would come to be known as the London Monster clearly had very different tastes. For him, it was the fashionable young ladies of well-heeled neighborhoods such as Mayfair that proved too tempting a target to resist.
The London Monster
The nightmare began in 1788 when the first reports of an attacker stalking young women in the capital began to filter in. Apparently, the assailant took a rather unusual approach: after approaching his intended victims from behind, he would use foul language to harangue them. Then, as a final insult, he would stab them in the rear end.
