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London Monster
Eighteenth-century criminal
- The London Monster was the name given to an attacker of women in London between 1788 and 1790.
- Renwick Williams, a Welsh maker of artificial flowers, was arrested for the attacks in June 1790, given two trials and sent to Newgate Prison for six years.
- The Monster's modus operandi was to verbally abuse women with lewd and suggestive comments and then attack them with a knife, cutting the clothing and slicing into buttocks, thighs or chest.
- Other forms of attack included having knives attached to his knees, possibly attached as a claw-like device to his hands or having a sharp implement hidden in a nosegay—a small flower bouquet.
- Over fifty women reported attacks, sometimes several on the same day, including up to six reported attacks in one night.
- Such was the number of attacks, variety of methods and discrepancies in the descriptions of the attackers, that historians are unsure if the Monster was one man or several.