Credit: Dangerous Minds / Public Domain

If I had a nickel for every time my home city of London was terrorised by men sneaking around after dark and spanking unsuspecting women, I’d have two nickels. If you’ve spent any time on the internet, you’ll know how that statement ends, and how true it is.

As if this whole phenomenon wasn’t bizarre enough already (and the fact that this is a “phenomenon” and not a one-off is pretty bizarre in the first place), they weren’t copycats of each other. Or if they were, it was from someone with a profound interest in the history of their borough, because the first recorded occurrence of what was called ‘Whipping Toms’ came from 1681. The second was from 1712. This might not sound like much today, but considering that people generally lived to around 45 back then, it was unlikely that any of the people responsible for one instance were around for the other one.

The original instance caused enough of a stir that the failure of the watchmen of London to catch him caused genuine civil unrest, with gangs of vigilantes taking to the courtyards of Fleet Street, The Strand, Fetter Lane and Holborn. Some men even dressed up as women with the intention of luring the Spanker into a trap, but unfortunately, this didn’t work. This is actually pretty surprising, as the kind of people who would be his targets, women, out on their own after dark, were often thought to be of low moral character. Barely more than sex workers in the eyes of the puritanical times.

Yet, the mental and physical pain this person was causing, plus the scandalous nature of the crimes, caused such a stir that all but a scant few commentators sided with the women. That didn’t stop a few losers from talking up this pervert as a moral crusader bringing social justice to the dissolute women of London, but they were few and far between. Within months of the spankings being reported, two men were arrested, including one who was a haberdasher from Holborn, one of the culprit’s stomping grounds (spanking grounds? I’ll stop).

Whether or not they were the culprit, the spankings did stop afterwards. At least until about 30 years later.

Who was the second Whipping Tom of London?

Ah, home sweet home. I grew up in the London borough of Hackney, and there has always been something quite alternative about the place, even before all the hipsters moved in and opened up vegan bakeries that double as life drawing studios.

This has been for some good but mainly for ill, and there’s something grimly fitting about how that’s nothing new. Especially because, in another example of just how much had changed from one Whipping Tom to the next, we know a whole lot more about this one than the other.

Not just because we know for a fact that this Whipping Tom was caught because when he was taken in for questioning, Thomas Wallis confessed to the whole thing with a song in his heart. It would make sense if Wallis had been around the last time this happened because he sounded unnervingly like the commentators cheering on Whipping Tom the last time around.

According to a paper of the time written about his arrest, Wallis was a disturbingly committed misogynist, who pleaded not guilty to his charges on account that the victims deserved them.

However, he did at least get what was coming to him. Wallis was sentenced to a year in prison, during which time he would be birched twice a week by two maids “till the blood on his back comes in six places”. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy, but the cherry on top of it all was the way he was released. Upon release, he was made to run a gauntlet of 200 wives and widows in Cheapside, all taking their revenge upon him for all the hurt he’d done.

There hasn’t been a Whipping Tom since.