My father once told me this story.
Some times his stories were just , well stories, but in that case there was usually a little joke at the end even if we could not see it at the time.
But the story I am about to relate does not strike me as one of his tall stories.
His father’s father, one William Frederick Knott was an Hansom Cab driver in Victorian London.
Now as you know from the celebrated Jack the Ripper films, London was a murky, foggy, place on a dark night.
Now it seems that, in those days, thieves or muggers had a nasty habit of attacking cab drivers for their takings by clambering up and over the rear of the cab and strangling the driver. ‘Garotting’ my father colourfully described it.
This nearly happened to his grandfather, so the story goes, but with him being a big and strong man and with, I suspect, the same sense of justice and retribution as my own father, he reached behind, grasped his attacker and threw the villain over his head and under the wheels of his cab.
"What happened then ? Dad" I said.
"I don’t know son" he said "its time for bed."
All stories published on this Web Site are the property of the editor and publisher Len Knott, and are subject to the strict application of the law of copyright. No permission is granted given or implied hereby for republishing any of this material in its original or altered form in any media whatsoever for private or charitable or commercial purposes.
Copyright © 1997 Len Knott
Most recent revision 1st January 1998