Between 1788 and 1790 - foreshadowing Jack the Ripper by a full century, London's women were terrorised by a series of street assaults, perpetrated by a mysterious person whom the press quickly dubbed "The Monster". His modus operandi was to sidle up to a woman, address her with "indecent" language and then with a sharp instrument, slit her clothing and her person, invariably her buttocks. Soon the fear of attack became such, that fashionable women did not dare walk outdoors without wearing copper petticoats to protect them from attack.

By 1790 Londoners had begun to despair about the ability of the regular police - the Bow Street runners - to catch this elusive monster. At this point, John Julius Angertstein, a wealthy Lloyds insurance broker, set a reward of £50 for anyone who apprehended the "Inhuman Monster". The combination of the then princely reward and the intense fear the monster aroused, led to great numbers of false accusations and vigilante attacks - merely calling or pointing out some person as The Monster was sufficient to endanger his life. In June 1790 when the total number of victims exceeded 50, a young Welshman namd Rynwick Williams, was arrested after one of the wounded women had pointed him out to a vigilante. Although he appeared an unlikely Monster, and had a strong alibi for one of the worst outrages, he was nevertheless convicted after two ludicrous trials.

This remarkable case has been exhaustively researched by the author who has used a  wealth of sources to retell the story of the London Monster and his strange crimes in vivid detail, and in so doing, re-assessing the evidence for the guilt of Rhynwick Williams. The book presents a fascinating picture of London life in 1790, and utilises modern research on mass hysterias and moral panics to reinterpret the Monster-mania, comparing it with modern instances of similar phenomena.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jan Bondeson is an independent scholar. He has previously published "Cabinet of Medical Curiosities" (1997, I. B. Tauris), and "Feejee Mermaid" (1999, Cornell University Press).