“Thirst for the blood of the female sex of Williamsburg has become epidemic”

June 10, 2009 – 1:51 pm
Posted in Madness, Misogyny, Vampirism, Violence

billyburgAAA Chicago Tribune, February 9, 1871. When and why did Williamsburgh lose its terminal “h”? Shouldn’t some hipster conservationists be battling for its restoration? Anyway, it’s awesome to contemplate all of those Gilded Age harness bulls dragging up to catch a vampire.
billyburg2A “With a long stiletto gleaming in the moonlight”–tight!
billyburg3A
This is a commonplace in late 19th-century journalism, and indeed we have seen it before: If a guy goes bat-shit violent against women, it’s only because some trifling bint had done him wrong.
I’m not sure what to make of that postscript. Was any of this legit, or was it a crazy-ass hysteria like our gloved French hypodermic child molesters?

6 Comments

- Jackie
- Posted June 10, 2009 at 3:57 pm
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The question that immediately comes to mind is: where did they find enough surplus women’s clothes in the right sizes for the officers?
- - mrparallel
  - Posted June 10, 2009 at 7:00 pm
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  Gives new meaning to the term “travesty of justice.”
- ptb
- Posted June 10, 2009 at 5:12 pm
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Williamsburgh got its terminal H amputated circa WWI, as part of the general antipathy towards all things Deutsch. Pittsburgh PA is a notable holdout.
- - mrparallel
  - Posted June 10, 2009 at 6:59 pm
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  Okay then. So long as there was a reason. Thanks.
- Quincy
- Posted June 16, 2009 at 3:30 am
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So a victim lives at North Sixth street , between Second and Third streets?That sounds rather odd from an urban planning perspective.
- - mrparallel
  - Posted June 16, 2009 at 10:39 am
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  Just the sort of thing that makes Billyburg so darned hip.

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