The first accounts of Spring Heeled Jack were made in London in 1837 and the last reported sighting is said in most of the secondary literature to have been made in Liverpool in 1904.

The first reports of Jack was from a businessman returning home late one night from work, who told of being suddenly shocked as a mysterious figure jumped with ease over the high railings of a cemetery, landing right in his path. No attack was reported, but the submitted description was disturbing: a muscular man 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. The commotion brought several residents who immediately launched a search for the aggressor, who 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 nine foot-high (2.7 m) 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.

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

A few months after these first sightings, 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.

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 on 9 January, and other national papers on 10 January, 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 stories were widespread in suburban London. One writer said 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 claimed 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.

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.[7] The police were instructed to search for the individual responsible, and rewards were offered.

The Scales and Alsop reports
Spring Heeled Jack as depicted on an early Penny Dreadful.
Spring Heeled Jack as depicted on an early Penny Dreadful.

Perhaps the best known alleged incidents involving Spring Heeled Jack were the alleged attacks on two teenage girls, Lucy Scales and Jane Alsop. The Alsop report was widely covered by the newspapers, while a single paper covered the Scales report, presumably because Alsop came from a comfortably well-off family and Scales from a family of tradesmen. This coverage by newspapers fuelled the collective hysteria surrounding the case.

It was reported that, on February 20, 18-year-old Jane Alsop opened the door of her father's house in the district of Bow to a man claiming to be a police officer, who asked her to bring a light because he and other policemen had "caught Spring Heeled Jack here in the lane", but this man then attacked her, tearing at her dress and hair until other members of her family ran to help her.[3] She told the Lambeth police investigators that "he was wearing a kind of helmet, and a tight fitting white costume like an oilskin. His face was hideous; his eyes were like balls of fire. His hands had claws of some metallic substance, and he vomited blue and white flames."[3] The Scales report is as follows: Eight days later February 28, 1838,[8] 18-year-old Lucy Scales and her sister were returning home after visiting their brother, a butcher who lived in a respectable part of Limehouse. Slightly ahead of her sister, Lucy was halfway along Green Dragon Alley when a character who had been waiting at an angle in the passage appeared and attacked her. The figure breathed fire into Lucy's face and then walked away as the girl fell to the ground, seized by violent spasms which lasted for several hours. A few days later, on March 6, Lucy and her sister made their deposition at Lambeth Street police court in the company of their brother, William.

The legend spreads

The Times reported the alleged attack on Jane Alsop under the heading "Outrage at Old Ford". This was followed 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 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.
Ad for a Spring Heeled Jack Penny Dreadful (1886)
Ad for a Spring Heeled Jack Penny Dreadful (1886)

After these incidents, Spring Heeled Jack became one of the most popular characters of the period. 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 if more widespread. In 1843, however, a wave of sightings swept the country again. A report from Northamptonshire described him as "the very image of the Devil himself, with horns and eyes of flame", and in East Anglia reports of attacks on drivers of mail coaches became common. He was linked with the so-called "Devil's Footprints" that appeared in Devon in February 1855.

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". [10] 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.
Aldershot Barracks – North Camp, Central Road as it looked in 1866.
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.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 disappeared into the surrounding darkness.

In the autumn of the same year, Spring Heeled Jack was reportedly seen at Newport Arch, in Lincolnshire, wearing a sheep skin. An angry mob supposedly chased him and cornered him, and just as in Aldershot a while before, residents fired at him to no effect. 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, a figure in part resembling some descriptions of 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".

In South Herefordshire, not far from the Welsh border, a travelling salesman named Marshall claimed at some unspecified time until as late as 1997 to have had an encounter with a Spring Heeled Jack–like entity in 1986. The man leaped in enormous, inhuman bounds, passed Marshall on the road, and slapped his cheek. He wore what the salesman described as a black ski-suit, and Marshall noted that he had an elongated chin.

that's a cool story
i always think SHJ is regular man with special "ability"

SHJ was most likely a physcotic human, nothing mysterious really.

I disagree. He was reported to make some entirely inhuman jumping feats. He's an enigmatic figure, to be sure. I hope he turns up again, sometime.

Spring Heeled Jack is the reason I joined UM in the first place... I found the story on a waaaaay random google search and I found the story so interesting on here that joined up with UM right away. Been an addict since

Spring Heeled Jack would also be a KILLER name for a rock band.

^agrees wit the rock band part

Does anyone have any good links for this? I haven't read about this story in at least a year now. So interesting; I remember getting a book at the library about this like ten or eleven years ago; it had awesome pictures of what looked like a tall man with a glass helmet and cape leaping from roof tops in the night...very interesting.

The original source documentation for Spring-Heeled Jack is simply not very good.

Take witness Lucy "Scales," for just one example. Her surname was either Scales OR Squires. She lived on one of three different streets and saw SHJ on one of another three different streets. The Mr. Scales (or Mr. Squires) she lived with was either her father, her brother or her husband.

With "information" like that it's hard to prove anything.

While I'm by no means certain the Jack was psychotic I think it's most likely that he was a very nasty but also very human prankster.

Sounds a bit like some of the Chupacabra sightings near Canovanas in Puerto Rico.....

But my dear friend, you have made no room for exaggeration! The original reports are now so distorted that its hard to tell fact from fiction. Some reports say he breathed fire, but others say he had an instrument which allowed him to do so, others say he didn't even use fire. Most, if not all, of the reports have definately been exagerated for effect, to varying levels. The heights he jumped could probably be acheived by a fit man, but with our good friend exageration, along with the police conveniently using it as an excuse for not being able to capture him, they became enormous leaps. He was never described as having any inhuman features appearence wide, and popular Penny Dreadfuls from the time clearly depict him as a human.

As for your last little hope there, the only sighting in recent times was in London, 1993, when a woman saw a menacing Jack-like figure in a tree, which leapt away as soon as she moved towards it. Afterwards, supposedly, a rocket-like object was seen zooming through the clouds. As far as I know that is the only recent sighting.

My all-time favorite improbable sentence is from the Encyclopedia Britannica: "The family 'wombat' is divided into two genera, the naked-nosed and the hairy-nosed wombats." But the sentence above runs it a close second.

Edit for misremembered quote.

LOL!

ill say NINJA!

what it couldve been.
or maybe mothman?

ill say NINJA!

what it couldve been.
or maybe mothman?

I agree about the exaggeration part. These stories are so old now, people could have twisted the truth into tales to scare children into eating their vegetables.

Maybe a Ninja from the Bakumatsu era sent to England to assassinate some important man. Preferably one that dressed like Orochimaru or Marilyn Manson.

Spring-Heeled Jack is Shinomori Aoshi?

^No, it's his guardian, one of the four Oniwabanshu, Hannya.

I was gonna say that, but then, I wasn't sure if Hannya had jumping ability.

Spring Heeled Jack is one of my favorites... exaggerations or no.

What do you mean? He's an Oniwabanshu, a spy, a recon and a fearsome silent attacker. He fits the Spring Heeled Jack best. He even wore a heeled shoe. Anyway, back to topic, SHJ was might be a story to warn people not to go at night because of the danger, or maybe even to scare children.

But 1838 was well into the age of the modern newspaper, so the original printed news accounts still exist.

I can agree with that, but I'm sure legends were still told relatively soon.

"he was wearing a kind of helmet, and a tight fitting white costume like an oilskin. His face was hideous; his eyes were like balls of fire. His hands had claws of some metallic substance, and he vomited blue and white flames.

good grief ~ whatever spring-heeled Jack was, wouldn't want to meet up with. The mothman comes to mind in this description. (no mention of wings ~ was certain I remember wings mentioned in an article I read a few years back)

Some accounts mention wings, others don't. Doesn't really help out the believers, that little detail.

Some of the illustrations make him out to be some devil-like bat creature.

when first discovering this topic i was working on a suit with certain properties[theories]. maybe i'll succeed and its me.

what why not terrorize primitive humans muhwawa

seriously it looked like SHJ.

What was the most recent SHJ incident? Was it the one with the fig tree? That is, if it wasn't just some dude tripping and wearing spandex lol.

If I dress up as Spring-Heeled Jack and then run about the streets firing a laser pistol at people and tossing lit balls of flash paper (available in any magic supplies shop) at them, and then manage to elude the police, are my antics going to get recorded by Forteans and Paranormalists as "Spring-Heeled Jack's Back! - This Time in Cincinnati, Ohio, 2008"?

Reminds me of that one time, in The Simpsons...

"You can run, but you can't GLIDE!"

there's something odd about this.. in that the attacks all seem to be on ladies.. there's also been suggestions that SHJ and Jack the Ripper were connected (some sicko out for kicks?)

The Ripper displays medical skills in his kills.. and this SHJ has previously been suggested as 'some dude in a special suit' ??

idk, just addin' to the spam

hmm
he did enjoy testing citizen patience.
and his story [1838-1904] did encompass the ripper's [1988]
this connection only holds true if deaths occured in other areas as well.

if the ripper's career was started earlier then 1888 he may have self taught. the claws might be his hidden tools. and his mobility might be key to his eluding police.

This is only IF the two are Connected.

Very true, but there are more modern reports in the United States that are also interesting. Many of these witnesses are still alive and therefore offer primary evidence.

Loren Coleman collected many incident reports about a creature called the Mad Gasser of Mattoon who terrorised the town of Mattoon, Illinois in 1944.



Of course this doesn't help us identify who or what it was, but the modern witnesses giving primary evidence help give credence to the original reports.

Springheel Jack in Argentina?

Spring-Heeled Jack Black

This is w1n.

a...SPJ....
an interesting specimen to be exact. he sounds much too human to be a cryptid. I think he was an ordinary man with an "ability". I guess he decided to make use of it...and he was psychotic. I have met with people similar (obviously not psychotic), so it would not surprise me. His longetivity could also be atributed to his "ability".

I thought I knew all the major cryptids, but honestly I never heard of Spring-Heeled Jack until around 2006. He is probably more well known in England.

Roberd Goddard started working with rockets in the early 20th century. This happened well after SHJ, who could have used springs instead of rockets to launch himself.
But I think springs would be too bulky to fit in his shoes/boots. He would also have to have some kind of blowtorch or flamethrower in his mouth.
If he was a human evil genius, he was HIGHLY advanced for his time. A scientist with a twisted sense of humor and a perverse streak.

Blowing fire from the mouth is an old magic trick that has been known for centuries.

It involves hollowing out as nut shell, through holes at both ends, and then filling the shell with punk.

Once the magician sets the punk smoldering the shell can be carried in the mouth for hours. When he (she) wants to "blow fire" he merely uses his tongue to move the shell to his lips and gives a little puff of air. He can light a cigarette this way or a candle.

and the claw like hands? eyes resembling fire? breathing blue/white fire? looking devil-like?
i could see the 'jumps' exaggerated maybe

could this man or something more sinister be the count of Germaine? gone bad

I've always been fascinated by Spring-Heeled Jack, since first encountering the story in a book of unsolved mysteries some years ago. If I recall correctly, the book connected the story of Jack to an equally puzzling and rather spooky mystery from the same era - the Devil's Footprints of Devonshire.

The Devil's Footprints

In 1855, the populace of Devonshire awoke one snowy morning to find mysterious, bipedal, hoof-shaped footprints stretching for many miles across the county without apparent break - seemingly scaling rooftops and fences, and reaching rivers only to continue perfectly on the opposite banks. Myriad explanations were proposed, but none could adequately account for the length and shape of the prints, leading many to believe that the Devil had stalked the country that night. High ranking officials and soldiers elected to hunt the creature who left the prints, trailing them for miles, but nothing was ever found to explain where it had gone or what it had really been.

This story, to me, seems tenuously linked to the mystery of Spring-Heeled Jack, most notably in its 'Devilish' connotations and the flying leaps evident from the prints.

Nope, it was actually Batman!

While I've never before heard of the 1855 "Devil's Footprints" being considered in connection with Spring-Heeled Jack the footprints are fascinating in and of themselves.

It's interesting that the Skeptics keep coming up with NEW "explanations" because all the old ones never seem to completely satisfy.

So we've had wood mice, rabbits, badgers, all sort of birds, the trailing rope from a hydrogen balloon and even a good-natured joke played by nomadic British Gypsies (Tinkers) on the house-dwelling locals.

The latter strikes me as the least reasonable of all. Why carry out an elaborate prank involving dozens of people when there's no good evidence (in advance) that your great work is even going to be noticed?

ITS THE FIRST GUY TO PRACTISE PARKOUR

definitly ninja