First Willie wrestled a horse, then things got worse

Days of inaction weighed heavily on the hands of Willie Stupart. He had experienced the adventure of fighting with the Gordon Highlanders in South Africa but missed the adrenaline buzz when he returned to civilian life. Willie got a job as a millworker in Dundee in early 1903. It was monotonous work for a man fresh from combat and one Monday afternoon in March Willie, who was described as well-set fellow, snapped.

He went on a drinking bout and then set his heart on causing mischief.

Willie started by interfering with a horse yoked to a van in Rosebank Road.

He grabbed the horse’s head in a bear hug and when van boy Robert Dick remonstrated with him, Willie thumped him in the mouth.

The lad made off down the street but Willie, despite his girth, gave chase. Robert Dick eventually turned back on himself, jumped into his vehicle and drove away.

The ex-soldier tore after the van and delivered a vicious kicking to the horse.

Dick’s escape sent Stupart into an even darker rage and he took his fury out on anyone he encountered.

He raced into a crowd of women, fists flying, and thumped one of them on the chest.

The injured woman hid behind millworker James Thomson who Stupart knocked to the ground and kicked.

In court next day, Stupart’s mother said he had come home calm and well behaved from his rampage and she promised he would conduct himself better in future.

That same year The Courier reported a new trend in Dundee – a wave of unprovoked copycat attacks in parks.

Assailants would hide in bushes or grass and pounce on young couples out walking.

One outrage was perpetrated by jute worker William Milne. He was crouched in the grass at Dudhope Park when George Duncan and his sweetheart Mary Burns went walking by at 10pm.

Milne sprang from his lair and kicked Mary severely. He fled as her boyfriend fought back but was caught by a group of men near the castle.

Bailie Melville fined him 30 shillings.

“He raced into a crowd of women, fists flying, and thumped one of them...