Whipping Tom, The Criminal Who Terrorized Old England With Bare-Bottom Spanking Assaults
Over the course of 30 years, a litany of women were attacked by a mysterious figure with an obsession for spanking
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Criminals and deviants take many forms, scaring and harming society with their actions. Some crimes are more run of the mill and then there are the likes of “Whipping Tom,” an assailant who terrorized parts of England on two separate occasions during the 17th and 18th centuries with an onslaught of assaults where dozens of women were forcefully bare-bottomed spanked in public.
“Whipping Tom” was very noticeably active at two very distinct times (1681 and 1712). In both instances, a male assailant would come up behind women on the street, lift up their dresses and spank them hard on their bare buttocks. On a number of occasions, the attacker took the women and laid them across his knee, much like the old-fashioned form of spanking a petulant child might receive.
The first noted wide-spread appearance of “Whipping Tom” came in 1681 in London. A man (never proven whether it was the same person for all attacks) secreted themselves in alleys and courtyards with little to no lighting. As lone women approached, they would grab them, lifted up their skirts and slapped their bare bottom with their hand multiple times with great vigor. Sometimes, they would loudly exclaim “Spanko” after administering the final slap.
On some occasions, a stick would be used to administer the spanking instead of a hand. Unfortunately, some women suffered serious injury as a result of these assaults.
This “Whipping Tom” disappeared after each attack as quickly as he had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Some wondered if a more sinister other-worldly force was at work. Given the less than efficient and incompetent nature of law enforcement at the time, he was able to operate with relative impunity. So frequent were these spankings that women began carrying small knives and other sharp objects as a way to hopefully protect themselves at night. Some men even went out attired in dresses in the hopes they could entice the criminal to reveal himself to them and then administer vigilante justice.
