A fact from London garrotting panics appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 20 September 2020 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
Did you know... that during the Victorian-era London garotting panics, some citizens wore studded leather collars to protect themselves from attack?
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Latest comment: 3 years ago3 comments3 people in discussion
The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.
... that during the Victorian-era London garotting panics some citizens wore studded leather collars to protect themselves from attack (satirical cartoon pictured)? "Perhaps the most familiar, everyday anti-garrotting measures were leather collars ‘warranted to withstand the grip of the most muscular ruffian’ (Punch, September 27th, 1856). Some collars were thick and cumbersome, covered in spikes, and were much satirised in the Punch, which published spoof adverts of anti-garrotting methods." from: Green, Victoria (24 August 2017). "Spotlight On … Anti-garrotte collars". National Leather Collection. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
Latest comment: 3 years ago3 comments2 people in discussion
Hi Dumelow, thanks for this interesting article - it's like the press has always had misleading click bait! There is a mixture of spellings of garot- and garrot- which I don't think is intentional. (I can see the refs have both.) I thought about changing them to the double -R spelling (per Turner et al p96 which talks of the "Garrotters Act") but that would mean moving the article and changing the hook, so I'm leaving it with you:) PS I hope the capstan dab guess is correct. Thanks, JennyOz (talk) 07:48, 20 September 2020 (UTC)Reply
Hi JennyOz, thanks for your work on this article (I think your link for capstan was the best choice). Looking at Google Ngrams "garotting" was the most popular form from the panic until the 1880s when "garrotting" became preferred. I think I'll switch it to the more modern useage now it's off the main page. Cheers - Dumelow (talk) 06:23, 21 September 2020 (UTC)Reply