Lately, Nashville has been plagued with an increase in violent crimes that makes it easy to forget that back in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, things were much, much simpler here. Back then, we were more worried about the "Footstomper". Yep...George Mitchell, also known as the Nashville Footstomper, harassed Music City for over 15 years!
Mitchell, who grew up in Nashville, began his career of crime with shoplifting and petty larcenies. I guess that's whatever...maybe just something kids get into? IDK. But then he moved onto stealing women's purses. And then he realized that stealing purses would be so much easier if he injured the victim first...so he stomped on their feet. Because of course!
So here's where things get weird. Eventually he realized that stomping on women's feet was more exciting than the actual theft...so he skipped stealing purses and just smashed their feet instead. He'd wear hard-soled shoes and just step on them as hard as he could all across the city!
Yes, a bunch of women got seriously hurt. I mean, can you imagine someone crushing your bare foot with their entire body weight? No thanks. So yes, people got hurt, but COME ON...this is the funniest thing! What could he possibly get out of stepping on women's feet? (nevermind...don't answer that)
I wish I could find some old news footage of anchors trying to tell this story cause I'm sure there were a ton of bad jokes and laughter.
Over his 15 year reign of terror, ranging from 1970 to 1985, Mitchell only spent 11 of those months out of jail. He'd been arrested over 40 times for the crimes! The last of his foot-stomping occurred in 1985 and he disappeared shortly after.
So what's he up to now? Honestly, I'm not sure, but back in 2002, one of Nashville's favorite news reporters, Demetria Kalodimos, tracked him down, interviewed him, and released a documentary titled "Injurious George".
Throughout the documentary, we learn about Mitchell's childhood and what he did to overcome his love of stepping on women's feet. Turns out he's a dad and grandfather now! The one thing he didn't want to talk about was where he was living, for reasons we can all understand.
Oh! and fun fact - while Demetria interviewed him, she made sure to wear hiking boots! Just in case!
Again, I know a bunch of women got hurt, but I'd take this kind of crime over the things we've been experiencing any day!