The streets of London were a place of fear in 1790.

There had been dozens of attacks all reported by women.

A man, it seems, had been stepping out of the shadows or from around corners and pricking

them with a pin.

Sometimes he was covert about it.

There are reports that he fitted a bouquet of flowers with a sharp object and would ask

women if they'd like to smell them.

And who could resist?

Others say he attached small blades to his knees and then used them to stab women in

the backs of the legs.

And as the story spread, so too did the panic.

They called him the London monster.

And within weeks, the entire city was on alert.

In the autumn of 1803, the people of London were obsessed with a new story.

It seemed that a ghost had been seen in the Hammersmith area of the city.

There were whispers that he was the victim of a suicide, doomed to haunt our world forever.

And many people claimed to have seen him.

After months of hysteria and rumor, a police officer actually witnessed the ghost while

on patrol.

Francis Smith pulled his gun, called for the fiend to stop, and then fired upon it.

The shot was true, and the ghost fell limp to the ground.

It fell because it was, after all, just a man.

...