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Spring Heeled Jack

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Myths


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   Spring Heeled Jack (Illustration circa 1890).
   Spring Heeled Jack (Illustration circa 1890).

   Spring Heeled Jack (also Springheel Jack, Spring-heel Jack, etc.) is a
   character from English folklore said to have existed during the
   Victorian era and able to jump extraordinarily high. The first recorded
   claimed sighting of Spring Heeled Jack occurred in 1837^1. Later
   alleged sightings were reported from all over England, from London up
   to Sheffield and Liverpool, but they were especially prevalent in
   suburban London and later in the Midlands and Scotland^2.

   Many theories have been proposed to ascertain his nature and identity,
   none of which have been capable of completely clarifying the subject.
   The phenomenon remains unexplained.

   The urban legend of Spring Heeled Jack gained immense popularity in its
   time due to the tales of his bizarre appearance and his capacity to
   perform extraordinary leaps, to the point that it became the topic of
   several works of fiction and much speculation about possible paranormal
   origins.

Description

   Spring Heeled Jack was described by alleged victims as having a
   terrifying and frightful appearance, with diabolical physiognomy that
   included clawed hands and eyes that "resembled red balls of fire". One
   of the reports claimed that, beneath a black cloak, he wore a helmet
   and a tight fitting white garment like an " oilskin". Many stories also
   mention a " Devil-like" aspect. Spring Heeled Jack was said to be tall
   and thin, with the appearance of a gentleman, and capable of making
   great leaps. Several reports mention that he could breathe blue and
   white flames from his mouth and that he wore sharp metallic claws at
   his fingertips. At least two individuals claimed that he was able to
   speak in comprehensible English.

History

Early reports

   Picture from a penny dreadful of Spring Heeled Jack jumping over a
   gate.
   Enlarge
   Picture from a penny dreadful of Spring Heeled Jack jumping over a
   gate.

   According to newspaper articles dating to December 1837, the first
   reports of Jack's activities were made in September of that year in
   London. A businessman returning home late one night from work told of
   being suddenly shocked as a mysterious figure jumped with ease over the
   considerably high railings of a cemetery, landing right in his path. No
   attack was reported, but the submitted description was disturbing: a
   muscular human male with devilish features including large and pointed
   ears and nose, and protruding, glowing eyes.

   Later, 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, according
   to her later statements, 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 of the assault. The commotion attracted
   several residents who launched an immediate search for the aggressor,
   but one could not be found.

   The next day, the leaping character allegedly chose a very different
   victim near Mary Stevens' home, inaugurating a modus operandi that
   would become typical of future reported: he jumped in the way of a
   passing carriage, causing the coachman to lose control and crash,
   injuring him seriously. Several witnesses claimed that he escaped by
   jumping over a nine foot-high wall while babbling with a high-pitched
   and ringing laughter.

   Gradually, the news of the strange character spread, and soon the press
   and the public gave him a name: Spring Heeled Jack^3.

Official recognition

   A public session at the Mansion House, London (c. 1840).
   Enlarge
   A public session at the Mansion House, London (c. 1840).

   A few months later, on January 9, 1838, the Lord Mayor of London, Sir
   John Cowan, revealed at a public session held in the Mansion House an
   anonymous complaint that he had received several days earlier, which he
   had withheld in the hope of obtaining further information. The
   correspondent, who signed the letter "a resident of Peckham", wrote:

          "It appears that some individuals (of, as the writer believes,
          the highest ranks of life) have laid a wager with a mischievous
          and foolhardy companion, that he durst not take upon himself the
          task of visiting many of the villages near London in three
          different disguises — a ghost, a bear, and a devil; and
          moreover, that he will not enter a gentleman's gardens for the
          purpose of alarming the inmates of the house. The wager has,
          however, been accepted, and the unmanly villain has succeeded in
          depriving seven ladies of their senses, two of whom are not
          likely to recover, but to become burdens to their families.

          At one house the man rang the bell, and on the servant coming to
          open door, this worse than brute stood in no less dreadful
          figure than a spectre clad most perfectly. The consequence was
          that the poor girl immediately swooned, and has never from that
          moment been in her senses.

          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." ^4

   Though the Lord Mayor seemed fairly sceptical, a member of the audience
   confirmed, "servant girls about Kensington, Hammersmith and Ealing,
   tell dreadful stories of this ghost or devil". The matter was reported
   in The Times and other national papers the next day, and the day after
   that ( January 11) the Lord Mayor showed a crowded gathering a pile of
   letters from various places in and around London complaining of similar
   "wicked pranks". The quantity of letters that poured into the Mansion
   House suggests that the activities of Spring Heeled Jack were common
   knowledge in suburban London by that time. One writer said he had
   ascertained that several young women in Hammersmith had been frightened
   into "dangerous fits", and some "severely wounded by a sort of claws
   the miscreant wore on his hands". Another correspondent affirmed that
   in Stockwell, Brixton, Camberwell and Vauxhall several people had died
   of fright, and others had had fits; meanwhile, another reported that
   the trickster had been repeatedly seen in Lewisham and Blackheath, but
   the police were too frightened of him to act.

   The Lord Mayor himself was in two minds about the affair: he thought
   "the greatest exaggerations" had been made, and that it was quite
   impossible "that the ghost performs the feats of a devil upon earth",
   but on the other hand someone he trusted had told him of a servant girl
   at Forest Hill who had been scared into fits by a figure in a bear's
   skin; he was confident the person or persons involved in this
   "pantomime display" would be caught and punished ^5. The police were
   instructed to search for the individual responsible for the attacks,
   and rewards were offered. Many individuals, including Admiral Edward
   Codrington decided to join the search, but to no avail: he was never
   caught. Furthermore, he seemed to have grown bolder, and his attacks
   multiplied.

The legend spreads

   The Times reported under the heading "Outrage at Old Ford" the alleged
   attack on Jane Alsop. This was followed up (see Palmer's index to The
   Times) with the account of the trial of one Thomas Millbank, who,
   immediately after the reported attack on Jane Alsop, had boasted in the
   Morgan's Arms that he was Spring Heeled Jack. He was arrested and tried
   at Lambeth Street court. The arresting officer was James Lea, who had
   earlier, as a PC, arrested William Corder, the Red Barn murderer.
   Millbank had been wearing white overalls and a greatcoat, which he
   dropped outside the house, and the candle he dropped was also found. He
   escaped conviction only because Jane Alsop insisted her attacker had
   breathed fire, and Millbank admitted he could do no such thing. Most of
   the other accounts were written long after the date. Contemporary
   newspapers do not mention them at all.
   Ad for a Spring Heeled Jack penny dreadful (1886).
   Enlarge
   Ad for a Spring Heeled Jack penny dreadful (1886).

   After these incidents, Spring Heeled Jack became one of the most
   popular characters of the moment. His alleged exploits were reported in
   the newspapers and became the subject of several penny dreadfuls and
   plays performed in the cheap theatres that abounded at the time. But,
   as his fame was growing, reports of his appearances became less
   frequent, while spreading over a large area. In 1843, however, a wave
   of sightings swept the country again. A report from Northamptonshire,
   in Hampshire, described him as "the very image of the Devil himself,
   with horns and eyes of flame", and in East Anglia, where reports of
   attacks to drivers of mail coaches became common.

The last reports

   In the beginning of the 1870s, Spring Heeled Jack was reported again in
   several places distant from each other. In November 1872, the News of
   the World reported that Peckham was "in a state of commotion owing to
   what is known as the "Peckham Ghost", a mysterious figure, quite
   alarming in appearance". The editorial pointed out that it was none
   other than "Spring Heeled Jack, who terrified a past generation".
   Similar stories were published in the Illustrated Police News. In April
   and May of 1873, there were numerous sightings of the "Park Ghost" in
   Sheffield, which locals came to identify as Spring Heeled Jack. These
   incidents culminated with thousands of people gathering each night to
   hunt the ghost.
   Aldershot Barracks – North Camp, Central Road as it looked in 1866.
   Enlarge
   Aldershot Barracks – North Camp, Central Road as it looked in 1866.

   This news was followed by more reported sightings, until in August
   1877; one of the most notable reports about Spring Heeled Jack came
   from a group of soldiers in Aldershot's barracks. This story went as
   follows: A sentry on duty at the North Camp peered into the darkness,
   his attention attracted by a peculiar figure bounding across the road
   towards him, making a metallic noise. The soldier issued a challenge,
   which went unheeded, and the figure vanished from sight for a few
   moments. As the soldier turned back to his post, the figure reappeared
   beside him and delivered several slaps to his face with "a hand as cold
   as that of a corpse". Attracted by the ensuing noise, several men
   rushed to the place, but they claimed that the character leapt several
   feet over their heads and landed behind them. According to their
   testimony, Spring Heeled Jack simply stood there, watching them and
   grinning, apparently waiting for their reaction with glee. One of the
   guards shot at him, with no visible effect other than to enrage his
   target; some sources claim that the soldier may have fired blanks at
   him, merely used to make warning shots. The strange figure then charged
   towards them and spat blue flames at them from his mouth, making the
   guards desert their posts in panic, and then disappeared into the
   surrounding darkness.

   There were several more alleged attacks of Spring Heeled Jack on guards
   at Aldershot. All these sightings concurred in the description: tall,
   muscular complexion, wearing a helmet and a white tight fitting oilskin
   suit.

   After these reports, a massive spree of Spring Heeled Jack's sightings
   poured in from all over England. In Lincolnshire, he was allegedly seen
   leaping over several houses, wearing a sheep skin. An angry mob
   supposedly chased him and cornered him, and just like in Aldershot a
   while before, residents uselessly fired at him. Many witnesses claimed
   that the shots did hit him, sounding as though they were hitting a
   hollow metallic object, like an "empty bucket". As usual, he was said
   to have made use of his leaping abilities to lose the crowd and
   disappear once again.

   By the end of the 19th century, the reported sightings of Spring Heeled
   Jack were moving towards western England. In September 1904, in
   Everton, in north Liverpool, Spring Heeled Jack allegedly appeared on
   the rooftop of Saint Francis Xavier's Church, in Salisbury Street.
   Witnesses reported that he suddenly jumped and fell to the ground,
   landing behind a nearby house. When they rushed to the point, so the
   story goes, they faced there a tall and muscular man, fully dressed in
   white and wearing an "egg shaped" helmet, standing there waiting. He
   laughed hysterically at the crowd and rushed towards them, making
   several women gasp in dismay. Clearing them all with a gigantic leap,
   he disappeared behind the neighbouring houses.

   On June 18, 1953, Spring Heeled Jack was sighted in a pecan tree in the
   yard of an apartment building in Houston, Texas. Mrs. Hilda Walker,
   Judy Meyers, and Howard Phillips described a man in a "black cape,
   skin-tight pants, and quarter-length boots, and "grey or black
   tight-fitting clothes." They thought that he might have had wings, but
   acknowledged this may have been an optical illusion caused by the cape.
   This case is sometimes described as the Houston Bat Man, but usually as
   Spring Heeled Jack. In South Herefordshire, not too far from the Welsh
   border, a traveling salesman named Marshall had an encounter with
   Spring Heeled Jack in 1986. The man leaped in enormous, inhuman bounds
   , passed him on the road, and slapped his cheek. He wore what Marshall
   described as a black ski-suit, and Marshall noted that he had an
   elongated chin.

Theories

   The fact that no one was ever caught and identified as Spring Heeled
   Jack combined with the extraordinary abilities attributed to him and
   the very long period of time he was reportedly at large have led to all
   sorts of theories to determine both his nature and identity. While
   several researchers seek a rational explanation to the events, other
   authors echo themselves in the more fantastic details of the story to
   propose different kinds of paranormal speculations.

Sceptical positions

   Henry de La Poer Beresford, 3rd Marquess of Waterford (1840).
   Enlarge
   Henry de La Poer Beresford, 3rd Marquess of Waterford (1840).

   Sceptical investigators have dismissed the stories of Spring Heeled
   Jack.

   The simplest of explanations offered is that the reports were nothing
   but mass hysteria that developed around various legends of a boogeyman
   or devil that had been around for centuries. Some sceptics maintain
   that it is nothing but an exaggeration of the tale of a certain
   mentally ill zealot who danced and leapt over rooftops claiming that
   the Devil was chasing him ^9.

   Other researchers believe that some individual(s) may have been behind
   its origins, being followed by imitators later on ^10. It is worthy of
   note that, following his reported appearance and for the years that
   followed, the press, the authorities, and most of the general public
   considered Spring Heeled Jack to be not a supernatural creature but
   rather an individual (or perhaps more than one person) with a macabre
   sense of humour who delighted in scaring and molesting women. This idea
   matches the contents of the letter to the Lord Mayor, which accused a
   group of young aristocrats as the culprits, after an irresponsible
   wager. A popular rumour that was in circulation as early as 1840
   pointed at an Irish nobleman, the Marquess of Waterford, as the main
   suspect of being behind the events. The responsibility of the Marquess
   has been accepted by several modern authors, who suggest that a
   humiliating experience with a woman and a police officer could have
   given him the idea of creating the character as a way of "getting even"
   with police and women in general ^11. Said authors speculate that he
   could have designed (with the help of friends who were experts in
   applied mechanics) some sort of apparatus for special spring-heeled
   boots, and that he may have practised fire-spitting techniques in order
   to increase the unnatural appearance of his character.

   Indeed, the Marquess was frequently in the news in the late 1830s for
   drunken brawling, brutal jokes and vandalism, and was said to do
   anything for a bet; his irregular behaviour and his contempt for women
   earned him the moniker "the Mad Marquis'', and it is also known that he
   was present in the London area by the time the first incidents took
   place. Unfortunately, The Waterford Chronicle was able to report his
   presence at the St Valentine's Day Ball at Waterford Castle, which
   means that he has a cast-iron alibi for the attacks on Jane Allsop and
   Lucy Scales, which are at the centre of Jack's authenticated history.
   But he was, nevertheless, pointed as the perpetrator by the Rev. E. C.
   Brewer in 1880, who attested that the Marquess "used to amuse himself
   by springing on travellers unawares, to frighten them, and from time to
   time others have followed his silly example" ^12. In 1842, the Marquess
   of Waterford married and settled in Curraghmore House, Ireland, and
   reportedly led an exemplary life, until he died in a horse riding
   accident in 1859. Meanwhile, Spring Heeled Jack remained active for
   decades after, which leads the aforementioned modern researchers to the
   same conclusion as Brewer's: the Marquess may well have been
   responsible for the first attacks, while it was up to other pranksters
   who occasionally imitated him to continue the task.

   Sceptical investigators are unanimous in asserting that the story of
   Spring Heeled Jack was exaggerated and altered through mass hysteria, a
   process in which many sociological issues may have contributed. These
   include unsupported rumours, superstition, oral tradition,
   sensationalistic publications, and a folklore rich in tales of fairies
   and strange roguish creatures. Gossip of alleged leaping and
   fire-spitting powers, his alleged extraordinary features and his
   reputed skill in avoiding all attempts of apprehension captured the
   mind of the superstitious public. This became especially true with the
   passing of time, which gave the impression that Spring Heeled Jack had
   suffered no effects from aging. As a result, a whole urban legend had
   been built around the character, being reflected by contemporary
   publications, which in turn fuelled this popular perception in a
   vicious circle ^13.

Paranormal conjectures

   A wide variety of explanations have been proposed by authors who
   support the paranormal origin of Spring Heeled Jack. Due to the
   inherent nature of the phenomenon, such theories are speculative and
   bereft of any proof. The following are just a few:
     * A common hypothesis proposes Spring Heeled Jack as an
       extraterrestrial entity, somehow stranded on Earth. Supporters of
       this theory believe this would explain his non-human appearance and
       features, (e.g., retro-reflective red eyes, or phosphorous breath),
       his jumping ability (by suggesting that he may have been native of
       a planet with greater gravitational pull, like astronauts
       experienced on the Moon), strange behaviour (which could have been
       altered through Solipsism Syndrome or as a result of breathing the
       gases present at the Earth's atmosphere), and his longevity.^14

     * A visitor from another dimension, who could have entered into this
       plane through a wormhole or dimensional gate.^15

     * A demon, accidentally or purposefully summoned into this world by
       practitioners of the occult (a theory that has been incorporated
       into the RPG Feng Shui) ^16, or who made himself manifest simply to
       create spiritual turmoil.^17

   The supporters of the paranormal explanations usually refer as proof of
   their claims that no human could have ever used a gadget to leap the
   way Spring Heeled Jack was said to, by pointing out that in the 20th
   century, the German Army experimented on the subject with disastrous
   effects. Allegedly, such experiments gave an estimated 85% rate of
   failure, with broken legs and ankles on the testers. They conclude that
   there was no possibility for an individual to succeed where an official
   warfare project failed, especially considering that the former had
   preceded it by many decades.^18 It might be worth noting that there
   currently is a comparable device being marketed ^19, but this gadget
   requires modern, state-of-the-art carbon fibre springs.

Spring Heeled Jack in popular culture

   Spring Heeled Jack on a penny dreadful cover page (c. 1904).
   Enlarge
   Spring Heeled Jack on a penny dreadful cover page (c. 1904).

   The vast urban legend built around Spring Heeled Jack influenced many
   aspects of Victorian life, especially in contemporary popular culture.
   The Oxford English Dictionary recounts that, in late Victorian times,
   his name had become a general term for a street criminal who leapt upon
   people to rob or frighten them, and then relied on his speed in running
   to make his escape. It cites a Cheshire source from 1887 as an example,
   where maids who had just been paid their yearly wage were said to be
   afraid to go out carrying much money, since "there are so many of these
   spring-heeled Jacks about" ^20 . For decades, especially in London, his
   name was equated with bogeymen, as a means of scaring children into
   behaving by telling them that if they were not good, Spring Heeled Jack
   would leap up and peer in at them through their bedroom windows, by
   night.

   However, it was in the field of fictional entertainment where the
   legend of Spring Heeled Jack exerted the most extensive influence, due
   to his allegedly extraordinary nature. Almost from the moment the first
   incidents gained public knowledge, he turned into a successful
   fictional character, becoming the protagonist of many penny dreadfuls
   from 1840 to 1904. Several plays where he assumed the main role were
   staged as well.

   The most notable fictional Spring Heeled Jacks of the 19th and early
   20th centuries were:
     * A play by John Thomas Haines, in 1840, Spring-Heeled Jack, the
       Terror of London, which shows him as a brigand who attacks women
       because his own sweetheart betrayed him.
     * Later that decade, Spring Heeled Jack's first penny dreadful
       appearance came in the anonymously written Spring-Heeled Jack, The
       Terror of London, which appeared in weekly episodes.
     * W. G. Willis' 1849 play, The Curse of the Wraydons, where Spring
       Heeled Jack is a traitor who spies for Napoleon Bonaparte, and
       stages murderous stunts as a cover.
     * A 1863 play, Spring-Heel'd Jack: or, The Felon's Wrongs, written by
       Frederick Hazleton.
     * Spring-heel'd Jack: The Terror of London, a penny dreadful
       published by the Newsagents’ Publishing Company c. 1864-1867.
     * Spring-heel'd Jack: The Terror of London, a 48-part penny weekly
       serial published c. 1878-1879 in The Boys' Standard, written either
       by veteran dreadful author George Sala or by Alfred Burrage in his
       pseudonym of Charlton Lea.
     * Spring-Heel Jack; or, The Masked Mystery of the Tower, appearing in
       Beadle's New York Dime Library #332, 4 March 1885, and written by
       Col. Thomas Monstery.
     * a 1889-1890 48-part serial published by Charles Fox and written by
       Alfred Burrage in his pseudonym of Charlton Lea.
     * a 1904 version by Alfred Burrage. ^21
     * a remake of The Curse of the Wraydons, written in 1928 by
       surrealist Swiss author Maurice Sandoz, which served as base for a
       movie of the same name in 1946 starring Tod Slaughter in the lead
       role. ^22

   The early works invariably presented Spring Heeled Jack as an
   arch-villain, but his figure experienced a metamorphosis throughout the
   years, and he became a hero. The first penny dreadful to introduce such
   a change was the 1860s edition, and this variation was adopted by all
   the publications that followed, reaching its highest development in
   Burrage's 1904 version.

   In these stories (which take place in 1805, after Napoleon Bonaparte
   has conquered Europe), Spring Heeled Jack is Bertram Wraydon, a young
   and handsome lieutenant of the British Army, heir to £10,000 a year,
   who is unfairly framed for treason by his evil half brother Hubert
   Sedgefield. After escaping from his prison, Wraydon returns seeking
   revenge on the villains, assuming a secret identity and an odd-looking
   costume with mane and talons, fighting against evil and helping the
   innocent. He has a secret lair, where he has hidden what he managed to
   save of his inheritance, selflessly using it to fund his heroic
   activities. These include the design of a spring mechanism that allows
   him to leap over thirty feet, and a device to breathe flames at
   evildoers. He even has a trademark which he leaves at the scene of his
   actions; a letter "S" that he carves with his rapier after his mission
   is accomplished.

   Although lacking durable literary value, the Spring Heeled Jack series
   exerted an important influence as a predecessor of modern day pulp
   magazine and comic superheroes, taking into consideration that they
   were written twenty years before the first Zorro adventure and more
   than half a century before other fictional characters like Batman or
   the Lone Ranger were created. Such lasting influence and its consequent
   cultural importance were, for most part of the 20th century,
   practically forgotten.

   However, a renewed interest in the legend of Spring Heeled Jack has
   sparked in the last years. Several English comic characters were based
   directly on him since the early 1970s, like Jumping Jack, the Leaping
   Phantom, Spring-Heeled Jock and Spring-Heeled Jackson ^23.

   Even to the present day, the tale continues to attract the imagination
   of writers, like Philip Pullman (author of the best-selling trilogy His
   Dark Materials), who published his novel Spring Heeled Jack – A Story
   of Bravery and Evil in 1989 ( ISBN 0-440-86229-9). Best-selling author
   Stephen King also wrote about a modern-day Spring Heeled Jack in his
   short story Strawberry Spring.

   Recently, several comic authors like Ver Curtiss ^24, Kevin Olson and
   David Hitchcock ^25, have made Spring Heeled Jack the protagonist of
   different comic adventures. These series, which are set in a shady and
   postmodern environment, once again give him the role of a superhero. He
   appeared as a major villain in in Monster in My Pocket comic book by
   Dwayne McDuffie, Ernie Colon, and Gil Kane. He also had two comic book
   mini-series published in which he was depicted as an 'anti-hero', by
   American Independent Comic Book Publisher Rebel Studios, entitled
   Spring-Heel Jack and Spring-Heel Jack: Revenge of the Ripper

   Spring Heeled Jack is Monster in My Pocket #46 and appears among the
   villains in the comic book series. The fourth issue declared that he
   had the power to make himself look like what someone most feared, often
   brigning about the person's death, though in the issue's case, a little
   girl saw her father, which wasn't enough to do lasting harm.

   The story has also provided inspiration for music artists. Singer
   Morrissey's song titled "Spring-Heeled Jim" was released on his 1994
   album Vauxhall and I and reappeared the next year on the World of
   Morrissey album.^26. Other musicians have named their bands after the
   legendary character, including the English dance music duo Spring Heel
   Jack and the American ska group Spring Heeled Jack USA.

   Spring Heeled Jack was a featured villain in an episode of the animated
   television series Jackie Chan Adventures^27.

   Jack's legacy has even made its way into video games. The Monster in My
   Pocket NES game from 1991 includes an appearance of Spring Heeled Jack.
   The most recent example is in a thieves guild quest in the 2006 video
   game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, in which the main character is
   sent to collect the "Boots of Springheel Jak," which greatly increase
   the character's jumping ability and speed. In the game, Spring Heeled
   "Jak" is a thief who was turned into a vampire.

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   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
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