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Alan Sharp
Inspector
Username: Ash
Post Number: 231
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, December 06, 2003 - 11:25 am: | 
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I just spent much of the morning transcribing reports from the Irish Times (I will be sending the full text to Stephen for the press section as I get them done). I came across this paragraph in one of the reports:-
We hark back to the time a century ago when “the monster” prowled about London attacking women with a knife, and the theory is that some still more sanguinary scoundrel may now be gratifying a like mania. If so, it can only be hoped that he will speedily experience the punishment of his predecessor.
Does anybody have any information about this "The Monster" fella? |
Jeffrey Bloomfied
Inspector
Username: Mayerling
Post Number: 175
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, December 06, 2003 - 2:22 pm: |
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Hi Alan,
"The Monster" referred to was (I suspect) Rhenwick
Williams, who was arrested, tried, and convicted for a series of attacks on women in London in 1788 - 1790. He spent a number of years in prison
for the crime. He was referred to as "The Monster" in the newspapers of the time. This was not unusual. In March 1808 a man named Thomas
Simmons was hanged in Hertford for murder, and he
was nicknamed "The Man of Blood".
The story of the Williams case has been the subject of a recent study, Jan Bondeson's book,
THE LONDON MONSTER, A SANGUINARY TALE (Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press,
2001). The author maintains the evidence against
Rhenwick was very contradictory eye-witness evidence at best, and he probably would have won
acquittal today. If you can get the book, do so,
for she does compare it to the Whitechapel case.
Whoever "THE MONSTER" was, although he did cut and
stab several women, his antics resemble those of
the fetishist Thomas Cutbush, among Ripper suspects.
Best wishes,
Jeff |
Alan Sharp
Inspector
Username: Ash
Post Number: 234
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, December 06, 2003 - 3:38 pm: |
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Thanks Jeff. I will have to see if I can find that book.
Just a thought. Rhenwick? Where Bram Stoker got the name from by any chance? |
Jeffrey Bloomfied
Inspector
Username: Mayerling
Post Number: 178
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, December 06, 2003 - 7:24 pm: |
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Hi Alan,
Stoker may have heard of Rhenwick or Renwick, but the name was Renfield in the novel.
Jeff |
Alan Sharp
Inspector
Username: Ash
Post Number: 236
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, December 07, 2003 - 5:56 am: |
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Oops, my bad, long time since I read it! |
Chris Scott
Chief Inspector
Username: Chris
Post Number: 817
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Friday, January 02, 2004 - 5:52 pm: |
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the mention of Stoker above reminded me of an essay which I read and have managed to find again.
This asserts that the Whitechapel killings were a major inspiration for Stoker's "Dracula".
The paragraph in question reads:
Stoker, too, attempted to shut out the secret nightmares, but his was a more volatile nature. He was a far less committed Freemason than Irving7, and after the Ripper killings confined his activities to occasional visits to the Masonic literary society, The Golden Dawn. But the ritualistic horrors of the Whitechapel murders were later to erupt onto the pages of his most famous novel. For Dracula is a gothic fantasy whose imagery derives in large part from the gruesome particulars of ‘Jack’s’ reign. Indeed, in an introduction to a 1901 edition8, Stoker says as much. Dracula’s crimes, he says, ‘originated from the same source, and...at the same time created as much repugnance in people everywhere as the notorious murders of Jack the Ripper...’
The essay argues that both Stoker and the actor Henry Irving were Freemasons aware of the Masonic conspiracy behind the killing.
The essay is entitled THE RIPPER AND THE LYCEUM: The Significance of Irving’s Freemasonry
and can be found in full at
http://www.theirvingsociety.org.uk/ripper_and_the_lyceum.htm#8
Chris |
Andrew Spallek
Chief Inspector
Username: Aspallek
Post Number: 542
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 07, 2004 - 12:06 pm: |
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I think we need to consider the London Monster more carefully as it challenges our assumption that the authorities knew nothing about serial sexual assaults.
Rhynwick Williams was an inoffensive-looking little man. He was a loner, rather effeminate. An underachiever, he had the unusual occupation of artificial flower maker after he washed out as a ballet dancer. His diminutive size and long nose gave him a peculiar appearance, and possibly feelings of insecuarity/inferiority. These factors all seemed to play an important role in Williams' conviction. I don't think we can say that the authorities had no experience in serial sexual assaults before JtR. My guess is that they knew more about what sort of person to look for than we generally give them credit for. Check out the Bondeson book on the Monster. It is a most informative read, although I don't know that it is worth purchasing. My public library had a copy.
Andy S. |
Alex Chisholm
Detective Sergeant
Username: Alex
Post Number: 113
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 07, 2004 - 2:29 pm: |
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Hi Andy
The Star, 16 Nov. 1888 p. 4, had the following to say about Williams:
“The Monster.”
“Hayden’s Dictionary of Dates” gives the following account of a Jack the Ripper of a century ago, called “The Monster” : – “This was a wretch named Renwick Williams, who prowled nightly through the streets of London, secretly armed with a sharp instrument, a double-edged knife, with which he shockingly wounded numbers of females, whose more respectable appearance attracted his attention.
[Sketch of Williams]
Numbers of ladies were wounded by him in the most delicate parts, particularly in the breasts and thighs; but when he could assault them in lonely places they were dreadfully injured. He was tried and convicted on a variety of these charges, 8 June, 1790. Some have doubted the identity of Williams. More recently an offender or two of this description committed similar outrages, particularly in the west end of the town, but so secretly as to elude detection.”
Hope that is of interest.
Best Wishes
alex
This is the sketch from the report
 |
Dan Norder
Inspector
Username: Dannorder
Post Number: 159
Registered: 4-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 07, 2004 - 3:43 pm: |
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The London Monster saga is a good example of a case being bungled from beginning to end. If it hadn't been for a huge reward being offered and a victim identifying someone (who had insulted her in the past yet suspiciously hadn't been linked at the time of the attack) so that her fiance could turn him in and get the money, it's likely no arrest ever would have been made. And the trials were sheer lunacy.
If they ended up with the right person (and I'm far from convinced, though it's certainly plausible), it was by pure chance and not by any understanding of how the minds of sex criminals work.
I do recommend Bondeson's book on the topic. He does a pretty thorough job discussing the hysteria surrounding the case and covering lots of similar attacks through history. I disagree with some of his statements in the part about Jack the Ripper, but then I've yet to see any book talk about that case and come to conclusions that I agree with 100%.
(Message edited by dannorder on July 07, 2004)
Dan Norder, editor, Ripper Notes
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Andrew Spallek
Chief Inspector
Username: Aspallek
Post Number: 543
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 07, 2004 - 4:31 pm: |
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I think it is very likely that Williams committed at least some of the Monster attacks. I tend to disagree with the author's position on the lack of evidence.
The important point is that in dealing with Williams the authorities knew what a violent serial sexual attacker might be like. The notion I used to have -- that SY was naive enough to be seeking a raving monster in 1888 -- turns out to be incorrect. Relying on accounts of men such as Williams (and probably others) SY was very likely looking for a mild mannered, under achieving loner like Williams and like the majority of such offenders in recent times.
Andy S. |
Dan Norder
Inspector
Username: Dannorder
Post Number: 161
Registered: 4-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 07, 2004 - 5:20 pm: |
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I think it's likely that Williams was probably involved in an incident or two that got chalked up to being Monster attacks, but with all the hysteria going on it could have been something that got blown all out of proportion. Some of the reported "attacks" were of a man with an artificial flower that would cause damage in some way, like scratching wires that latch onto the arm from the bottom or a small knife that jumps out of the blossom (shades of comic book supervillians).
He at one point made artificial flowers, and admitting to bungling attempts to seduce women. He testified that one of the witnesses who identified him was a just a case of him trying to give her a bouquet and her accidentally getting a tiny scratch from a wire inside and then falling into hysterics thinking that the mysterious knife-wielding maniac was after her. That sounds a lot more reasonable than Jack Nicholson running around in clown makeup spraying acid from a flower on his lapel.
As far as the police during the Ripper case naively looking for a raving lunatic, we only have to look at some of their statements to show that that's exactly what at least some of them were after. Anderson seems pretty conspicuous in this regard.
Oh, but I'm getting ahead of myself here... hold that thought. I have a few finishing touches to put on the July issue so I can send it off to the printers.
Dan Norder, editor, Ripper Notes
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Jeffrey Bloomfied
Inspector
Username: Mayerling
Post Number: 412
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 07, 2004 - 8:46 pm: |
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There is another picture of Renwick (what a name)Williams in William Roughead's essay collection BAD COMPANIONS (New York: Duffield & Green, 1931), with an introduction by the novelist Hugh
Walpole. The essay originally appeared in the JURIDICAL REVIEW. The picture (which I regret I can't put on my computer) is the frontispiece, and is labeled "Rynwick Williams, Commonly called THE MONSTER (from a drawing by Gillray.)". If the picture is truthful, Williams had a longish narrow nose and dressed a bit like a dandy. The essay (the first in the book, pages 3 - 32) is entitled "THE MONSTER; or, Punctures in Picadilly". Roughead is always a pleasure to read, and he always makes a logical point. Here (on page 4)he writes, "In the year 1789 the West End of London suffered a reign of terror less diabolic than, but in some respects akin to the appalling outrages in Whitechapel which well-nigh a century later horrified humanity." The similarity was always apparent.
By the way, this collection of essays by Roughead had an impressive effect on American theatrical history. Another essay in the book is "CLOSED DOORS; or, The Great Drumsheugh Case" (p. 111 - 146). It is a story of a scandal in a girl's school in Edinburgh in 1811, wherein a vicious little girl spread a rumor that the two young lady teachers who ran the school were lovers. This, of course, was seen by Lillian Hellman, who turned it into her famous play, THE CHILDREN'S HOUR.
Jeff |
Christopher T George
Chief Inspector
Username: Chrisg
Post Number: 792
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, July 08, 2004 - 1:22 pm: |
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Hi, all--
Jeff noted "There is another picture of Renwick (what a name). . ."
Actually the name "Renwick" reminds me of the mad, fly-eating character Renfield in Bram Stoker's Dracula.
I wonder if Stoker's possible knowledge of Renwick Williams could have been any influence on the writer in choosing to name the character in his novel Renfield?
Of course, on the other hand, we have to recognize that back in the 18th and 19th centuries many people sported more exotic names than today. Therefore, any supposed similarity between the names Renwick and Renfield might be illusory in that light.
Best regards
Chris
Christopher T. George
North American Editor
Ripperologist
http://www.ripperologist.info
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Kelly Robinson
Detective Sergeant
Username: Kelly
Post Number: 52
Registered: 2-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, July 10, 2004 - 3:49 pm: |
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I'm trying to remember if Renwick Williams was the guy who caused some people to put frying pans in their pants for protection? Where'd I get that?
Kelly
"The past isn't over. It isn't even past."
William Faulkner
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Andrew Spallek
Chief Inspector
Username: Aspallek
Post Number: 545
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, July 10, 2004 - 5:18 pm: |
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Yes, He's the guy.
Andy S.
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BJBruther
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Thursday, July 08, 2004 - 4:43 am: |
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Two articles everyone might find of interest:
Amerian Historical Review
Julia Rodriguez, South Atlantic Crossings: Fingerprints, Science and the State in Turn of the Century Argentina, 387-417 April, 2004;
Louis S. Warren, Buffalo Bill meets Dracula: William F. Cody, Bram Stoker and the Frontiers of Racial Decay, 1124-1157 October, 2002
Really fun articles, BJ |
bjbruther
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 13, 2004 - 4:15 am: |
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Can't belief that I left the c out of American in the title of the American Historical Review, the rest of the info is correct. Thanks BJ |
BJBruther
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Thursday, July 15, 2004 - 4:47 am: |
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Eek! must watch the old fingers--believe is the correct term, ah well, just read Robert Keppel and William J. Birnes book on Serial Murder Investigations, I recommend it. It covers the Yorkshire Ripper to the DC Beltway sniper cases--it contains fascinating information on the course of serial murder investigations,. . . Take care, BJ |
Amy
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 20, 2004 - 9:21 am: |
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I just read Bondeson's book about The Monster. It was hilarious. I laughed all the way through, what with all the hysterical swooning and trembling and what not. The copper in the pants and the silly attempts at courting in the language of the day was truly amusing. Only when I reached the end and the author made use of contextual comparisons did the crimes seem truly horrific. Although I guess a stab here and a stab there doesn't seem so bad compared to terrorism or any of the myriad of pitfalls we suffer in the 21st century.
By the way, Jan Bondeson is a man.
Amy |
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