"The Sins of Jack Saul"

 - by Jack Chandler
   Entertainment Writer

Today’s headlines scream about Jeffrey Epstein and his pampered, pedo buddies who evade responsibility. It’s depressing and déjà vu in a Bill Murray, Groundhog Day way.

But let me tell you about Jack Saul, a gay hero who stood up to the powerful sexual predator of his day. If you haven’t heard of this guy, you don’t know Jack!

Jack Saul was Victorian England’s most notorious rent boy. A contemporary wrote this description of him:

“Dressed in tight-fitting clothes, which set off his Adonis-like figure to the best advantage, especially about what snobs call the fork of his trousers, where evidently he was favoured by nature by a very extraordinary development of the male appendages; he had small and elegant feet, set off by pretty patent leather boots, a fresh looking beardless face, with almost feminine features, auburn hair, and sparkling blue eyes.”

An Irish-born rent boy working Piccadilly Circus. Big deal, right?

Wrong.

Before we even get to the scandal, this guy wrote the earliest known gay erotic novel, The Sins of the Cities of the Plain. Only one copy survives, which, incidentally, belonged to Oscar Wilde.

Saul’s extraordinary life is captured in Glenn Chandler’s (no relation to me, sadly) The Sins of Jack Saul. Yes, it’s non-fiction. No, it’s not boring. Trust me—you’ll be glued to this story.

Now for the scandal. You only need to know two things. First, in 1889, even consensual gay sex was a felony that carried stiff penalties. Second, at 19 Cleveland Street stood a respectable townhouse that just happened to be a male brothel catering to the titled and rich. One of its clients was rumored to be Prince Eddy, heir to the throne. Two others were Lord Arthur Somerset and the Earl of Euston.

Jack Saul, in his early thirties at this point, worked there—as did several underage teens. One of those teens was arrested and spilled the beans on the whole enterprise.

This story was front-page news. Lord Somerset fled the country and never returned. The royal family sent Prince Eddy on an extended tour of India. Scotland Yard got involved, as did the Home Secretary and the Prime Minister.

Earl Euston sued a publisher for having dared to name him as a client. A trial ensued. Witnesses disappeared. No one dared testify against Euston—no one but Jack Saul.

Jack Saul testified under oath that he was a male prostitute. He risked imprisonment and hard labor just by admitting that. He stated that Earl Euston had been his client, and he had the Earl’s calling card as evidence.

I’ve told you enough. Sure, you can Google the story and learn the ending. You’d be ahead to read Chandler’s book. He spent years researching it, trying to pick up the threads of Jack’s life after the trial.

I cried when I finished this book. I fell in love with Jack Saul and Chandler’s writing, so much so that I contacted him and asked for an autographed copy of the book. It’s one of my most treasured possessions.

The Gayly online. 4/11/26 @ 11:54 a.m. CST.