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Historic Sickos that Could Have their Own Terrifying Netflix Series

Khalid Elhassan September 30, 2022 37 min

A Persistent Stalker

Stalker - A contemporary cartoon's depiction of the return of Boy Jones to Buckingham Palace — A contemporary cartoon’s depiction of the return of Boy Jones to Buckingham Palace. British Museum

After his acquittal, Boy Jones thanked the police for their well wishes, and left the courtroom, free as a bird. Less than two years later, on December 3^rd, 1840, two weeks after Queen Victoria had given birth to her first child, Edward Jones was found beneath a sofa in a room next to Her Majesty’s boudoir. Whatever the public’s perception of Boy Jones as a lovable tramp, Her Majesty was not amused. As she put it in her journal: “Supposing he had come into the Bedroom, how frightened I should have been!“

He was rearrested, retried, and got three months’ probation. Soon thereafter, he was arrested again as he tried to break into the palace. This time, he got three months of hard labor. The authorities were stumped. Jones’ crimes were not felonies, so a lengthy stint behind bars was not an option. After he was arrested for a fourth, and then a fifth time as he loitered near the palace, they finally shipped the youthful stalker to Brazil. There, he was kept in an offshore prison ship for six years. He returned to Britain, and was deported to Australia, but snuck back to London. He finally returned to Australia, where he became Perth’s town crier. He died in 1893, after he fell off a bridge while drunk.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.