# Identify this crime/Jack London story **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 21, 2004, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-crime-jack-london-story/246304 "2004-05-21T03:14:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-crime-jack-london-story/246304/1 "2004-05-21T03:14:09Z")
I was in a bookstore many years ago, and one of the books that caught my eye was a book about noteworthy (if you can call it that) murderes in the US. I don’t remember the title. Anyway, one of the bad guys profiled in the book was a really crooked, bad-ass cop. Supposedly he beat a prostitute to death, an act that possibly London himself witnessed. It affected him enough that he included that act in one of his stories (so I remember). However, I don’t remember the story, either. So. . . Any ideas on the story that included this scene, or the real life people who “inspired” it??? ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-crime-jack-london-story/246304/2 "2012-08-27T18:09:01Z")
I’m bumping this one too. I plan to do it every eight years. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-crime-jack-london-story/246304/4 "2012-08-29T19:04:25Z")
> [@dasia](#): > > your mail is usually broadly considered to happen to be any joke, and might have been authored by any writer in the planned make an effort to help increase fascination with your story. Various other nicknames useful for your mindblowing at that time have been your whitechapel assassin and leather-based apron. w. T. F. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-crime-jack-london-story/246304/5 "2012-08-29T19:09:44Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > w. > T. > F. I suspect a spammer looking to get around a post limit before being allowed to post links. 5 posts in quick succession, all very WTFish in nature. Reported. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2020, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-crime-jack-london-story/246304/6 "2020-01-03T15:09:31Z")
OK, I’m a few months early, but it will be eight years soon. C’mon! ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2020, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-crime-jack-london-story/246304/7 "2020-01-04T03:50:50Z")
I am currently reading London’s memoir **The Road,** detailing his experiences hoboing around the country in the 1890s. Only fifty pages in, but there certainly are a lot of evil bastard cops in it. If one of them gets around to bludgeoning a sex worker to death, I’ll be sure to alert you.