Day 23: Spring Heeled Jack
Spring Heeled Jack was an entity that held the nation in a grip of terror for over 60 years. From 1837 onwards he terrorized the city of London and was never caught. While he is described as a character of folklore and an urban legend, he was sighted many times and even physically attacked people. Many people believed him to either be a demon from hell or the Devil himself.
While descriptions of Spring Heeled Jack varied, most described him as wearing a helmet and tight fitting white garment like an oilskin. He had eyes like fire and horribly clawed hands. Some say that he could change his appearance to deceive people and lure them to him, hence the slightly differing descriptions.
In October 1837 a girl by the name of Mary Stevens was walking to Lavender Hill, where she was working as a servant, after visiting her parents in Battersea. On her way through Clapham Common, a strange figure leapt at her from a dark alley. After immobilising her with a tight grip of his arms, he began to kiss her face, while ripping her clothes and touching her flesh with his claws, which were, according to her deposition, "cold and clammy as those of a corpse". In panic, the girl screamed, making the attacker quickly flee from the scene. The commotion brought several residents who immediately launched a search for the aggressor, but he could not be found.
The next day, the leaping character is said to have chosen a very different victim near Mary Stevens' home, inaugurating a method that would reappear in later reports: he jumped in the way of a passing carriage, causing the coachman to lose control, crash, and severely injure himself. Several witnesses claimed that he escaped by jumping over a 9 ft (2.7 m) high wall while cackling with a high-pitched, ringing laughter. News quickly spread of this seemingly demonic figure and his ability to leap over high walls led to the press and public dubbing him "Spring Heeled Jack".
Over time many people, mostly servant girls who were often obliged to walk home at night, complained of attacks from Spring Heeled Jack. Victims were reportedly terrified and often injured by his claws. There was a public outcry for something to be done but all hunts for Jack proved fruitless. It was reported that when encountered he would escape either by leaping over high walls or simply laughing and melting away. He was even sighted in Sussex, chasing and terrifying a gardener, he left over the high garden wall.
Some were sceptical but with so many reports and physical injuries occurring even skeptics started to wonder if perhaps this terrifying apparently superhuman being existed. One skeptical girl who thought the stories false became a victim herself.
Jane Alsop knew better than to listen to the stories but on the night of 19 February 1838, she answered the door of her father's house to a man claiming to be a police officer, who told her to bring a light, claiming "we have caught Spring-Heeled Jack here in the lane". Thinking perhaps she had been wrong and the stories were true, she brought the person a candle, and noticed that he wore a large cloak. The moment she had handed him the candle, however, he threw off the cloak and "presented a most hideous and frightful appearance", vomiting blue and white flame from his mouth while his eyes resembled "red balls of fire". Miss Alsop reported that he wore a large helmet and that his clothing, which appeared to be very tight-fitting, resembled white oilskin. Without saying a word he caught hold of her and began tearing her gown with his claws which she was certain were "of some metallic substance". She screamed for help, and managed to get away from him and ran towards the house. He caught her on the steps and tore her neck and arms with his claws. She was rescued by one of her sisters, after which her assailant fled.
Nine days after the attack on Miss Alsop, on 28 February 1838, 18-year-old Lucy Scales and her sister were returning home after visiting their brother. Lucy stated in her deposition to the police that as she and her sister were passing along Green Dragon Alley, they observed a person standing in an angle of the passage. She was walking in front of her sister at the time, and just as she came up to the person, who was wearing a large cloak, he spurted "a quantity of blue flame" in her face, which deprived her of her sight, and so alarmed her, that she instantly dropped to the ground, and was seized with violent fits which continued for several hours. Her brother added that on the evening in question, he had heard the loud screams of one of his sisters moments after they had left his house and on running up Green Dragon Alley he found his sister Lucy on the ground in a fit, with her sister attempting to hold and support her. She was taken home, and he then learned from his other sister what had happened. She described Lucy's assailant as being of tall, thin, and gentlemanly appearance, covered in a large cloak, and carrying a small lamp or bull's eye lantern similar to those used by the police. The individual did not speak nor did he try to lay hands on them, but instead walked quickly away. Every effort was made by the police to discover the author of these and similar outrages, and several persons were questioned, but were set free.
Spring Heeled Jack's popularity as a figure of folklore increased while sightings waned. He became the subject of Penny Dreadfuls, plays and even a character in Punch and Judy shows. People began to feel a little safer as reported sightings continued to fall. Then in 1843, a wave of sightings swept the country.
Northamptonshire reported "the Devil himself, with horns and eyes of flame". East Anglia reported that attacks on mail coach drivers became common. A man in Devon was arrested after donning a costume to resemble Spring Heeled Jack to attack women. In 1855, footprints of the Devil appeared in Devon. (See next post). In the 1870s, sightings of Jack were reported in several different places including Peckham and Sheffield. Many reports followed then in August 1877, quite a notable one happened.
A group of soldiers in Aldershot's barracks reported a sentry on duty at the North Camp peered into the darkness, his attention attracted by a peculiar figure "advancing towards him." The soldier issued a challenge, which went unheeded, and the figure came up beside him and delivered several slaps to his face. A guard shot at him, with no visible effect; some sources claim that the soldier may have fired blanks at him, others that he missed or fired warning shots. The strange figure then disappeared into the surrounding darkness "with astonishing bounds." While some believe this was a prank, no-one was charged with an offense and all the soldiers believed it couldn't have been a normal person.
In Autumn 1877 Spring Heeled Jack was sighted and cornered in Lincolnshire but simply leapt away. In 1888 in Liverpool, he was sighted on rooftops and, in 1904, sighted again. On his final reported sighting he was again cornered but did not leap away. Instead, he laughed and melted away into the darkness. This time for good?
Spring Heeled Jack seamlessly fell into folklore, urban legend and fiction. Used as a bogey man for naughty children and a character in many works of fiction, the character eventually morphed into a benevolent character that acted as a precursor for pulp fiction and comic book superheroes. No-one was ever accused of being Spring Heeled Jack or claimed to be him. Many sceptics who saw him demonstrate his superhuman jumping abilities became convinced he was something paranormal.
There are some sceptical people who believe the urban legend of Spring Heeled Jack was exaggerated and altered through mass hysteria. There may have been a person or persons who played elaborate pranks which seemed more supernatural or terrifying than they actually were and, when the reports became widespread and well-know, mass hysteria kicked in. If it was mass hysteria, it managed to last for a whole generation and reach from London to the North of England.
There are many paranormal theories about what Spring Heeled Jack actually was. From what was reported he certainly wasn't human. One theory is that he was an extra-terrestrial entity with a non-human appearance with superhuman agility deriving from life on a high gravity world. Many think he was a demon either summoned by practises of the occult or just coming of his own will, possibly to incite spiritual unrest.
Many people say Spring Heeled Jack is just an urban legend, one of many supernatural entities found in folklore around the world. Others say there is far too much evidence that he was real and it is quite an achievement for an urban legend to terrify a whole country for 60 years. Whomever or whatever Spring Heeled Jack was, he seems to gave gone, at least for now. The mystery of Spring Heeled Jack may never be solved but one thing is for sure, we cannot be sure he is really gone for good and it may lead to some people being forced to eat their words if he ever returns.
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