"The press soon named the maniac The Monster. However, descriptions of the attacker varied greatly. When people realised that the Monster attacked mainly beautiful women, some women began to claim that they had been attacked to gain attention and sympathy. Some of them even faked wounds. Some men, in turn, were afraid to approach a lady in the dark lest they scare her. Some of the reports of the would-be-attacks were likely to be fabrications or results of a lady being afraid of an innocent man who had somehow attracted suspicion. Some men even founded a No Monster Club and began to wear club pins on their lapels to show that they were not the Monster."

EDIT: Let me expand a little then. Here is the link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Monster I thought I could include it in the OP title but apparently text overrides this. I thought several aspects of this story were interesting. 1) Once it had been established that the "Monster" attacked beautiful women, being victimized was a sort of badge of honor. This is relevant both to false rape accusations, but also to minor things. SRS-types on reddit love to talk about how they are harassed by the male gaze from the second they walk out of the front door till they come home. Badge of honor.

2)Men even back then were willing to grovel and humiliate themselves with meaningless gestures such as wearing the "No Monster Pin". Hell, if I were the monster I would sure as hell get one of those pins.