Introduction
In January 1838, a young woman named Polly Adams was assaulted by a mysterious creature in London. Soon similar reports came in all over London of women being attacked by some type of strange entity. While the reports were surely bizarre, perhaps what was most unusual was the superhuman abilities the culprit seemed to possess. As more assaults happened, the press picked up on the story and soon widespread panic ensued around London. In this article we will examine perhaps London’s most famous urban legend, the legend of Spring Heeled Jack.
Description
Spring Heeled Jack is said to be a devil like man who wore tight fitted clothing and a cape. The being is said to possess extraordinary leaping ability, and it uses this ability to escape quickly jumping from building tops. The creature is said to have red flaming eyes, sharp claws protruding from its hands and is capable of vomiting blue flames.
While many quicky dismiss the Legend of Spring Heeled Jack as folklore there were a large number of witnesses that encountered the creature on multiple occasions.
Sightings of Spring Heeled Jack
While rumors swirled of the creature for some time in the early 19th century, in 1837 the first documented case was recorded.
Mary Stevens, a servant was on her way to work in Lavender Hill. While walking, a strange figure jumped in front of her from a dark alley. He grabbed her and began trying to kiss her while ripping her clothes. Stevens told the police his hands were cold like from a corpse. Stevens was able to pull away and scream and the being fled from the scene quickly. A search party was formed but no one was ever found.
The next day another sighting occurred. A mysterious man jumped in front of a carriage causing it to crash and severely hurting the driver. Multiple witnesses saw the being jump over a 9-foot wall and let out a high-pitched scream.
After Polly Adam’s attack in 1838, reports would pour in all over London.
However, the two most famous were the Scales and Alsop incidents.
The Alsop Incident
Jane Alsop, a teenage girl, stated that on the night of February 19th, 1838, she heard a knock on her father’s home. She answered the door, and it was a man claiming to be a police officer standing in the street. It was dark and she couldn’t see the man clearly. The being asked her to bring a light as they had caught Spring heeled jack.
She went and grabbed a candle and when she returned to the street and was closer, she noticed the man was wearing a cloak. As she handed him the candle, he threw off his cloak and his hideous appearance was revealed.
Alsop claims he was vomiting blue and white flames from his mouth and had red burning eye. His clothing under the cloak was tight fitting.
Before she could get away, he grabbed her and began tearing off her clothing. She managed to get away from him and back closer to the house. However, he caught up and tore on her arms and legs with her claws. Her sister heard the screaming and came out, which finally got the being to leave.
The Scales Incident
Nine days later, on Feb 28th,18-year-old Lucy Scales and her sister were coming home after visiting their brother. After passing the Green Dragon Alley, a person jumped out in front of Lucy blowing some type of blue flame in her face.
It temporarily blinded her, and she fell to the ground. Her sister screamed, and Spring Heeled Jack walked away quickly. Lucy Scales stated in her deposition she had violent fits for hours after the incident. Lucy would describe the attacker as tall and thin, with a gentlemanlike appearance. He was wearing a cloak and carrying a lantern. Efforts were made to find the man, but no one was ever found.
August 1877- The Aldershot Report
in August 1877 one of the most credible reports about Spring-heeled Jack came from a group of soldiers in the Aldershot Garrison. A Soldier standing guard looked into the darkness, when he saw a strange figure coming toward him. The soldier warned him to stop, but it didn’t comply. The soldier then fired but didn’t injure the figure. Soon other soldiers came, and they witnessed a dark figure leaping off into the night.
There were several more sightings after this, but they would die off in the early twentieth century.
Theories on Spring Heeled Jack
Over the years, there’s been several theories as to what or who Spring heeled Jack was.
Mass Hysteria
The first is that Spring heeled Jack was the result of mass hysteria and rumors. After the initial incidents, many feel that panic ensued. and people began looking for something that wasn’t there. As more reports came in, more panic arose, and common crimes were blamed on Spring Heeled Jack. It’s documented that many copycats would arise and be caught as well.
Phantom Attacker (old hag)
One interesting theory concerns that Spring Heeled jack was a Phantom Attacker. Phantom attackers are mysterious and enigmatic individuals or creatures who seemingly come out of nowhere one day to cause chaos and destruction for unknown reasons before disappearing quickly. There are several well-known examples of this, such as the Mothman and Jersey Devil.
Read about the Mothman at Chernobyl here
One controversial one is known as the Old Hag Phenomenon. For millennia, people have stated that something, usually an old creepy woman comes and sits on one’s chest during sleep. Many people report not being able to breath and terrifying feelings of dread. Despite this, science assures us that these individuals are experiencing sleep paralysis, and sometimes individuals are still in a dream state, but their bodies wake up. Unable to move and scared, their mind creates an image of someone attacking them.
While this is controversial to many, especially those who claim to encounter the dreaded Shadow people, could it be the case that individuals attacked by Spring Heeled Jack were scared into believing a regular human had superhuman abilities?
It seems like a reasonable assumption.
Criminal
One theory states that Spring Heeled jack was simply a person with a sick sense of humor, or a criminal. Combined with the media hype, it set off a wave of panic around the city.
Paranormal or Extraterrestrial
One final theory is that Spring heeled jack was paranormal or possibly extraterrestrial. This is one option that can’t quickly be ruled out as Spring Heeled Jack was seen by many and also many witnessed him leaping in ways a human simply couldn’t do.
The Gateshead Grey-London Alien Encounter
Conclusion
While we probably will never know the true identity of Spring Heeled Jack or if it was human or not, the legend lives on today and has inspired many tv shows and films. Nost notably, it inspired one of the most popular superheroes ever, Batman.
