Queen Victoria's Stalker: The Strange Case of the Boy Jones

True Crime History

by Jan Bondeson

The unusual tale of one of history’s earliest celebrity stalkers   Following her coronation in 1838, Britain’s Queen Victoria was a very frightened young woman. She was being relentlessly pursued by a strange teenager, Edward “the Boy” Jones, who had an uncanny ability to sneak into Buckingham Palace without being detected. Once, he entered her bedroom and stole her underwear, and twice he sat on the throne. “If he had come into my bedroom, how frightened I would have been,” the Queen wrote in her journal after the Boy Jones had been hauled out from underneath a sofa in her dressing room. As a result of his multiple intrusions into Buckingham Palace, the Boy Jones became a media celebrity. His exploits were the subject of popular verse, songs, and prints and lewd newspaper speculation about what he had really seen in the young Queen’s dressing room. Fearful that he might injure or even assassinate the Queen, or kidnap the Princess Royal, the government of Prime Minister Lord Melbourne wanted to get rid of the Boy Jones at all costs. But “simple trespass,” even into Buckingham Palace itself, was not a criminal offense. However, the government was so fearful of what tales the Boy Jones might tell about the various intimate details he had seen when spying in the Queen’s private rooms that Jones was twice tried in camera and sentenced to three months in prison by the Privy Council. He remains the last person to have been given this dubious honor. Since the Boy Jones kept stalking the Queen, Lord Melbourne’s government took the extreme step of kidnapping him on board a ship bound for Brazil. When he returned, he was again kidnapped by government agents and forced to serve as a sailor in the Royal Navy for more than five years without charge or trial. Queen Victoria’s Stalker is the first full-length account of the Boy Jones’s persistent stalking of Queen Victoria and the journalism and literature inspired by his intrusions. By comparing this case to other instances of celebrity stalking and discussing various theories of stalking mentality, Jan Bondeson offers a fresh analysis of this unique and unclassifiable case. “An enlightening study of the phenomenon of celebrity stalking.” ―Albert Borowitz, author of Musical From Mozart to John Lennon and Blood and An International Guide to Fact-Based Crime Literature

Genres: History, Nonfiction, True Crime

200 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2010

About the author

Outside of his career in medicine, he has written several nonfiction books on a variety of topics, such as medical anomalies and unsolved murder mysteries.

Bondeson is the biographer of a predecessor of Jack the Ripper, the London Monster, who stabbed fifty women in the buttocks, of Edward 'the Boy' Jones, who stalked Queen Victoria and stole her underwear, and Greyfriars Bobby, a Scottish terrier who supposedly spent 14 years guarding his master's grave.

He is currently working as a senior lecturer and consultant rheumatologist at the Cardiff University School of Medicine.


(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Kyrie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Everything you ever wanted to know about Edward Jones, stories based on his life, rumours about his life, other stalkers who have absolutely nothing to do with Edward Jones or Queen Victories, and more!

It would have made an interesting magazine article.

[Anastasia · Rating 1 out of 5]

This has some good information in it, and, the story of The Boy Jones, could, theoretically, be compelling, but the structure of the work is bizarre: it could do with some major editing. Parts of Jones' story are repetitive, we're missing pieces of biographical information that show up two chapters later. There are two chapters that don't seem to have much to do with Jones at all, but instead bulk up the length of the book, cutting Jones' story in half.

I'd skip this, and listen to the Hysterical History podcast about The Boy Jones instead.

[Gretchen · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5...This was not very well written due to the chronology being difficult to follow at the beginning. Furthermore, the title of the book is not apt because the author diverges in depth about stalkers other than the Boy Jones.

[Leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lighthearted history with a side of modern relevance, with a cast seemingly out of a Dickens novel. Only real!

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great subject matter, however I wanted more research on what happened to him after prison.

[Penny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story but the author is trying to make a lot out of not much information - lots of repetition.

[dejah_thoris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the best Bondeson book because it's so short and tries to extend itself slightly beyond its subject matter. An interesting bit of history though.

[emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Where was this in ‘Victoria’? Ahaha, this guy was so confident and calm about all of his law-breaking. His philosophy was obviously well though out and seemed to believe he was “allowed” to walk in and out of the palace. I suppose it isn’t good that there are books written about stalkers (doesn’t bode well for the future, does it?), but as mentioned, the Boy Jones /is/ a part of England’s history.