37. The Stalker and the Queen’s Panties
Thomas Flower’s stalking of Queen Victoria was creepy, but it paled in comparison to the stalking of Edward Jones, a teenager dubbed “Boy Jones” by palace staff. Around 5 AM on December 14th, 1838, a palace servant saw a gargoyle of a face in a window, that appeared to be smudged with soot, and belonging to an ugly youth who was impishly grinning at him. Investigation revealed that a palace room had been ransacked, so the alarm was sounded, and the hunt for the intruder was on.
A constable spotted a teenager outside the palace, gave chase, tackled, seized, and hauled him in. A closer look revealed that the arrestee was an unfortunately featured young man, whose face and clothes were covered in grease and soot. He was wearing two pairs of pants, and when the outer one was removed, several pairs of ladies’ drawers fell out – Queen Victoria’s panties.