In October 1888, A Pittenweem boy aged 13 wrote menacing letters pretending to be Jack the Ripper (or his brother, “Rab the Beginner”) to local people saying they’d be murdered. Some took the threats seriously. The papers published the letters. He was fined £5.
Fife News, 22nd December 1888, pg. 6.
Fife Herald, 19th December 1888, pg. 4.
Dundee Evening Telegraph, 15th December 1888, pg. 3.
In Jan 1881 after mistaking a satirical article for news, a Free Church minister on Skye warned that Britain was at war with Russia and that Gladstone had been arrested as a spy. Fishermen kept off the sea for fear of Russian warships. The rest of Skye laughed.
Though their name was kept out the papers, enough hints were dropped that I think the minister was Joseph Lamont, whose congregation was at Snizort.
In November 1863, PC Duncan McGillvray let the North British Daily Mail know that Mrs McCulloch of Kilchoan, Ardnamurchan had had triplet girls. When congratulations started flooding in, her husband sued PC McGillvray for £1 in damages She hadn’t given birth.
