Spring-heeled Jack
Spring Heeled Jack was a creature said to have existed in England during the Victorian era. Sightings of Spring-Heeled Jack are recorded all over England, from London and Chichester up to Liverpool, but they were especially prevalent in suburban London (which earned it the nickname "The Terror of London"), and later in the Midlands, where they peeked in the 1880s.
Description
Spring Heeled Jack was described by one of his victims as having a "most hideous and frightful" appearance, with clawed hands and eyes like "red balls of fire." The same victim also reported that beneath a black cloak he wore a helmet and a tight fitting white garment like an "oilskin." Other descriptions also mention a "Devil like" appearance, wearing a helmet and a tight fitting oilskin outfit, as well as clawed fingers and pointed ears. All accounts indicate that Jack was capable of effecting great leaps, and several report that he was able to breathe blue and white fire from his mouth.
History
The first sighting may have occurred in September 1837 in London, England. A businessman was returning home from work late at night when a mysterious figure vaulted over the railings of a cemetery. The railings were at least 10 feet high but the creature effortlessly leaped over the wall and landed directly in the path of the man. He was described as having pointed ears, large glowing eyes, and a large pointed nose.
A little while later, Spring Heeled Jack was said to have attacked a group of people - three women and a man. All ran but Polly Adams, who was left behind. Spring Heeled Jack tore off the top of her blouse, grabbed her breasts, and began clawing at her stomach. The attack knocked Polly unconscious where she lay until being discovered by a policeman.
In October 1837, Mary Stevens, a servant, was returning to her employers home on Lavender Hill. While passing through Cut Throat Lane in Clapham Common, Spring Heeled Jack sprang from an alley, tightly wrapped his arms around her, kissed her on the face and began running his hands down her blouse. When Mary screamed, Spring Heeled Jack ran from the scene. Local men were alerted by the screams and quickly arrived on the scene. They searched for the assailant to no avail.
The next day, Spring Heeled Jack struck again at a location very near Mary Stevens home. He sprang in front of a passing carriage causing the carriage to careen out of control and crash, injuring the coachman. Witnesses at the scene claimed that Spring Heeled Jack escaped by springing effortlessly over a nine-foot wall. Gradually, the news of the strange creature spread, and the public soon gave him a name - Spring Heeled Jack.
Very shortly after the carriage incident. Spring Heeled Jack accosted a women near Clapham Church. In this particular incident he left physical evidence. Investigators discovered two footprints about three inches deep, obviously made by someone who had landed from a great height. On a closer inspection, there were strange imprints within the impressions which suggested that the attacker had been wearing some kind of apparatus on his shoes. There were no forensic investigators in those days, and instead of making plaster casts of the intriguing impressions, the police allowed the weather to erode the evidence.
A few months later, on January 9th 1838 the Lord Mayor of London, Sir John Cowan, revealed at a public session held in the Mansion House the contents of a letter he had received several days earlier. He had withheld it, he said, in the hope of obtaining further information. The correspondent, who signed the letter "a resident of Peckham", wrote that, as the result of a wager, a person of the highest rank had adopted several frightening guises and set out to scare thirty people to death. He had "already succeeded in depriving seven ladies of their senses", two of whom "were not likely to recover, but likely to become burdens to their families." The resident of Peckham continued:
"The affair has now been going on for some time, and, strange to say, the papers are still silent on the subject. The writer has reason to believe that they have the whole history at their finger-ends but, through interested motives, are induced to remain silent."
A posse of men were formed to search for the individual responsible for the attacks. It was during this time that the great Duke of Wellington, who was now seventy years old, joined in the search. Some sources indicate that the Duke may have had several close encounters with Spring Heeled Jack. Unfortunately, Spring Heeled Jack was never found and in fact, intensified his attacks during the following months.
On February 20th, 1838, Lucy Scales (18) and her sister Margaret Scales were returning home at around 8:30PM, from their brother's house in the Limehouse area. Reports indicate that Spring Heeled Jack jumped out in front of Lucy Scales and spat blue fire in her face. Written evidence indicate that Lucy was "blinded" - whether this blindness was temporary, permanent or simply a figure of speech is now known. After the attack, witnesses claim that Spring Heeled Jack jumped from the ground to the roof of a house and made his escape.
Two days later, on February 22nd, 1838, Jane Alsop (18) was in her home on Bearhind Lane in the district of Bow, when she heard a wrapping on the door. Answering the door, a black cloaked man exclaimed "I'm a policeman. For Gods sake, bring me a light, for we have caught Spring-heeled Jack in the lane" (a black cloak was traditional uniform attire for policemen of this era). Jane, who lived with her father and two sisters, went to fetch a light for the man. She returned with a candle and as she was handing the light to the man, it shone on his face and she noticed that it was Spring Heeled Jack. He immediately spat a blue and white "gas" into her face. She attempted to run back into the house but he held on tightly to the back of her hair. One of her sisters managed to pull her out of his grasps and drug her back into the house. Spring Heeled Jack continued banging on the door some time before hastily leaving. Witnesses claim that Spring Heeled Jack left quickly, dropping his coat in a field by Jane's home. Another person was seen scooping up the coat and leaving the area leading police to believe that Spring Heeled Jack may have an accomplice. The Lambeth police took Jane's statement:
"He wore a large helmet and a sort of tight-fitting costume that felt like oilskin. But the cape was just like the ones worn by the policemen. His hands were as cold as ice and like powerful claws. But the most frightening thing about him was his eyes. They shone like balls of fire."
Two days later, Jane's deposition was strengthened by the testament of a butcher from Limehouse. He was the brother of Lucy and Margaret Scales the victims of the Green Dragon Alley attack.
The following week another incident occurred on Turner Street near Commercial Road. Once again Spring Heeled Jack knocked on the resident's door. When a servant boy answered the door, Spring Heeled Jack asked to speak to the master of the house, Mr. Ashworth. The boy turned to call Mr. Ashworth when he noticed, out of the corner of his eye, that the visitor was none other than Spring Heeled Jack. With glowing orange eyes and clawed hands, Spring Heeled Jack waved his fist at the boy and leapt over the houses on Commercial Road. The lad was able to supply an additional piece of evidence - under his cloak, the lad noticed that Spring Heeled Jack had an embroidered letter 'W' on his shirt. Similar to a coat of arms, the gold 'W' seemed to indicate someone of royalty.
After these attacks Jack’s infamy grew. His exploits were reported in many newspapers and became the subject of at least no less than four "penny dreadfuls" and melodrama’s performed in the cheap theatres that abounded at the time. But, perhaps as a result of the publicity, Jack’s appearances became less frequent and appeared over a large area. I was not until 1843 that terror of Spring Heeled Jack again swept the country. Then he appeared in Northamptonshire, in Hampshire (where he was described as "the very image of the Devil himself, with horns and eyes of flame) and in East Anglia, where he took particular delight in frightening the drivers of mail coaches.
In 1845 reports came from Ealing and Hanwell, in west London, of a weird figure, leaping over hedges and walls and shrieking and groaning as it went. The perpetrator turned out to be a practical joker, a butcher from Brentford.
Later that year Jack was seen at Jacob’s Island, Bermondsey, a disease-ridden slum of decaying houses linked by wooden galleries across stinking ditches. This area had been immortalised by Charles Dickens seven years earlier as the lair of Fagin and his motley band in Oliver Twist. Jack cornered a 13-year-old prostitute named Maria Davis on a bridge over Folly Ditch. He breathed fire into her face and hurled her into the stinking, muddy ditch below. The girl screamed terribly as the muddy waters claimed her. Witnesses reported the affair to the police, who dragged the ditch and recovered the poor girl’s body. The verdict at the subsequent inquest was one of death by misadventure, but the inhabitants of the area branded Jack as a murderer.
During the 1850's and 1860's Spring-heeled Jack was seen all over England, particularly in the Midlands. In February 1855 the inhabitants of five south Devon towns awoke to find that there were mysterious footprints that had appeared overnight in the deep snow. The footsteps ran along the tops of walls, over rooftops, and across the countryside. The hoof like prints were attributed by some to have been made by the devil himself while others thought it was the work of Spring Heeled Jack. Then, in November 1872, the News Of The World reported that London was "in a state of commotion owing to what is known as the Peckham Ghost... a mysterious figure, quite alarming in appearance" as Spring Heeled Jack, "who terrified a past generation." In Caistor, there were several reports of Spring Heeled Jack traveling across the town by jumping from rooftop to rooftop.
In August 1877, Spring Heeled Jack appeared before a group of soldiers in Aldershot's North army camp. A Private John Regan was standing sentry at the camp when he heard the noise of someone dragging something metallic down the road. He went to investigate and finding nothing unusual turned to return to his post. When he did, Spring Heeled Jack leapt at him and spat blue flames from his mouth into the boy's face. Other sentries heard the commotion and hurriedly ran to his aid. Witnesses claim that Spring Heeled Jack jumped over the men, clearing them by ten feet or more. The sentry fired at the intruder and claimed that bullets did not affect him (note that some reports indicate that these sentry men were not allowed live ammunition but rather blank bullets only were used to warn off evil-doers). The sentry described the attacker as tall and thin wearing a helmet and oilskin suit.
One month later, in Lincolnshire, Spring Heeled Jack was seen hurdling over several houses. As in the Aldershot episode, residents fired at him with shotguns to no avail. These witnesses claimed that the shots did hit Spring Heeled Jack and sounded like they were hitting some sort of metallic object.
Another occurrence was reported in January 1879 where Spring Heeled Jack once again startled a carriage and horse team. The driver was crossing a bridge in Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Court, when Spring Heeled Jack, clothed in black and flashing menacing orange eyes, jumped onto one of the horses backs. The man tried to knock the oddity off the horse with his whip, but the creature managed to hold on to the frightened animal, which broke into a wild gallop. When the man got the cart back under control the creature darted into the air and disappeared into the trees.
By the end of the 19th century, the geographical pattern of sightings of Spring-heeled Jack indicated that he was moving in a westerly direction across England, towards Lancashire. In September 1904, south of Liverpool, Spring Heeled Jack appeared on the roof of a church. He was spotted hanging on the steeple of St. Francis Xaviers on Salisbury Street. Onlookers claimed he suddenly dropped from the steeple and fell to the ground. Thinking that he had committed suicide, they rushed to the point where he had landed (behind some houses) only to find a helmeted man, clothed in white, standing there waiting. He scuttled towards the crowd, raised his arms, and took to the air over William Henry Street.
External links
- Mystery Mag article—Spring Heeled Jack reappears in 1970s Sheffield?
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