Jacob Torrance

Jacob Torrance (c. 1860 - April 1889) was an American monstrumologist. He was legendary for his strength, and called "John Henry" Torrance by some, after the mythical American steel-driver.

Early life
Torrance's father was abusive and unfaithful towards his wife, and perhaps even young Torrance himself. When Torrance was fifteen, he returned home from a night with one of his mistresses and began beating his wide. Torrance shot and killed him with a musket.

Torrance became a monstrumologist after he killed his father, and became legendary for his strength. According to one story, he once killed a charging Clunis foetidus with a single punch.

Hunt for the John Chanler
In the late Spring of 1888, Torrance was one of several monstrumologists selected by Abram von Helrung to track down John Chanler. The other monstrumologists present were Damien Gravois, Caleb Pelt, Dobrogeanu, Pellinore Warthrop, his assistant Will Henry, and Jacob Riis.

At the meeting between the hunters, Torrance repeatedly angered Warthrop with his eagerness to kill Chanler. During the hunt, Torrance was partnered with the older Caleb Pelt, who Warthrop asked to keep Torrance on a tight lead.

The hunt was a success (although Gravois was killed by Chanler), and it was Will Henry who ended up killing Chanler, stabbing him in the heart with a silver knife. The members of the hunting party, including Torrance, attended Chanler's funeral shortly afterwards.

The magnificum
In April 1889, Will Henry chose Torrance to help he and von Helrun find Warthrop, who Thomas Arkwright claimed was dead. The group suspected Arkwright of killing or trapping him.

When Arkwright returned to New York alone, von Helrung drugged him. Torrance and Will Henry took him to the Locked Room of the Monstrumariam, where the two nidus were being held. Torrance forced some information out of him, such as Warthrop's location - Hanwell Lunatic Asylum, London - before infecting him with the nidus. Knowing what the nidus would do to him, Arkwright shot himself with Sylvia.

The next day, Torrance, von Helrung and Will Henry travelled to London by boat. Will Henry was bedridden for most of the trip, and Torrance spent his time drinking, womanising, and arguing with von Helrung. Torrance believed that Arkwright was a British spy, and that Kearns was working with either the British or the Russian Secret Police to find the Typhoeus magnificum. Torrance was half right; all three parties were involved, but none of them were allied, and Kearns was the only one who actually knew the location of the magnificum.

In London, the group met Hiram Walker, whom Torrance immediately antagonised. The group composed a plan to break Warthrop out of the asylum with the help of Arthur Conan Doyle. Because of his aggressive nature, von Helrung had Torrance stay at the hotel.

Death
Whilst the others were breaking Warthrop out of the asylum, Torrance was attacked by two assassins for the Russian Secret Police, Rurick and Pleŝec. They attacked him in his hotel room with a knife or hatchet, almost decapitating him. After Warthrop was released from the asylum, the group found and examined his body; with no way to transport it, it was left in the hotel room for the police to discover.

List of appearances

 * Curse of the Wendigo (first appearance)
 * The Isle of Blood