In 1938, the town of Halifax in Yorkshire, England, was terrorized by a madman who went around slashing women with straight razor and then escaping into the night. His were perfect crimes, with no physical evidence left behind and no apparent motive; even eyewitness descriptions were contradictory. For nine days the man, whom the papers dubbed The Halifax Slasher, was unstoppable.
This was (it turned out) because he did not exist. All the wounds were self-inflicted. Mass hysteria and media hype had created a monster ab nihilo. The only person actually wounded during the Slasher’s reign of terror was a young man beaten by a mob for “suspicion.” Everyone was really embarrassed.
This has nothing to do with me, man. I just sing songs.
This information comes from Michael Goss, Halifax Slasher: An Urban Terror in the North of England (1987), depicted above.
The Legend of the Halifax Slasher