Martin Meenagh blog

The Battersea Strangler

Times of economic dislocation and tension tend to give rise to iconic crimes. This is not to deny their reality, nor the very real impact upon the victims. It is rather that moral panics develop around touched nerves. The Jack the Ripper case followed on the disruptions of relative decline and immigration in the east end , for instance; spring-heeled jack, the zodiac killer, and the son of Sam have been similarly placed in a particular context.

I hope that the police catch the individuals or person responsible for these particularly nasty attacks, whom the Metro newspaper dubbed 'the Battersea strangler' yesterday. Reports are confusing, and it seems to me that we may be seeing the development of a way of robbing as of an individual attacker. In that case, unless this is stopped, my mind turns to the garroter panic of the 1860s.

The Battersea story has the potential in these times to touch on a real wave of panic which is becoming ambient, and if not squashed it won't be pretty....

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