Precedents In the early 19th century, there were reports of
ghosts that stalked the streets of London. These human-like figures were described as pale; it was believed that they stalked and preyed on lone pedestrians. The stories told of these figures formed part of a distinct ghost tradition in London which, some writers have argued, formed the foundation of the later legend of Spring-heeled Jack. The most important of these early entities was the
Hammersmith Ghost, which in 1803 and 1804 was reported in
Hammersmith on the western fringes of London; it would later reappear in 1824. Another apparition, the Southampton ghost, was also reported as assaulting individuals in the night. This particular spirit bore many of the characteristics of Spring-heeled Jack, and was reported as jumping over houses and being over tall. According to much later accounts, in October 1837 a girl named 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 accosted another 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 high wall while cackling with a high-pitched, ringing laughter.
Official recognition A few months after these first sightings, on 9 January 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: Though the Lord Mayor seemed fairly sceptical, a member of the audience confirmed that "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, other national papers on 10 January and, on the day after that, 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. The police were instructed to search for the individual responsible, and rewards were offered. A peculiar report from
The Brighton Gazette, which appeared in the 14 April 1838 edition of
The Times, related how a gardener in Rosehill, Sussex, had been terrified by a creature of unknown nature.
The Times wrote that "Spring-heeled Jack has, it seems, found his way to the Sussex coast", even though the report bore little resemblance to other accounts of Jack. The incident occurred on 13 April, when it appeared to a gardener "in the shape of a bear or some other four-footed animal". Having attracted the gardener's attention by a growl, it then climbed the garden wall and ran along it on all fours, before jumping down and chasing the gardener for some time. After terrifying the gardener, the apparition scaled the wall and made its exit.
Scales and Alsop reports Perhaps the best known of the alleged incidents involving Spring-heeled Jack were the attacks on two teenage girls, Lucy Scales and Jane Alsop. The Alsop report was widely covered by the newspapers, including a piece in
The Times, while fewer reports appeared in relation to the attack on Scales. The press coverage of these two attacks helped to raise the profile of Spring-heeled Jack.
Alsop case Jane Alsop reported that 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". 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.
Scales case On 28 February 1838, nine days after the attack on Miss Alsop, 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. Miss Scales 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. The legend was linked with the phenomenon of the "
Devil's Footprints" which appeared in
Devon in February 1855.
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 1873, it reported there were numerous sightings in
Sheffield of the "Park Ghost", which locals also came to identify as Spring-heeled Jack.
Aldershot 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 Garrison. This story went as follows: 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."
Lord Ernest Hamilton's 1922 memoir
Forty Years On mentions the Aldershot appearances of Spring-heeled Jack; however, he (apparently erroneously) says that they occurred in the winter of 1879 after his regiment, the
60th Rifles, had moved to Aldershot, and that similar appearances had occurred when the regiment was barracked at
Colchester in the winter of 1878. He adds that the panic became so great at Aldershot that sentries were issued ammunition and ordered to shoot "the night terror" on sight, following which the appearances ceased. Hamilton thought that the appearances were actually pranks, carried out by one of his fellow officers, a Lieutenant Alfrey. However, there is no record of Alfrey ever being court-martialled for the offence.
Lincolnshire In the autumn of 1877, Spring-heeled Jack was reportedly seen at
Newport Arch, in
Lincoln,
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.
Liverpool By the end of the 19th century the reported sightings of Spring-heeled Jack were moving towards the north west of England. Around 1888, in
Everton, north Liverpool, he allegedly appeared on the rooftop of
Saint Francis Xavier's Church in Salisbury Street. In 1904 there were reports of appearances in nearby William Henry Street.
Aftermath and impact upon Victorian popular culture The vast urban legend built around Spring-heeled Jack influenced many aspects of Victorian life, especially in contemporary
popular culture. For decades, especially in London, his name was equated with the
bogeyman, as a means of scaring children into behaving by telling them 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 fictional entertainment where the legend of Spring-heeled Jack exerted the most extensive influence, owing to his allegedly extraordinary nature. Three pamphlet publications, purportedly based on the real events, appeared almost immediately, during January and February, 1838. They were not advertised as fiction, though they likely were at least partly so. The only known copies were reported to have perished when the
British Library was hit during
The Blitz, but their catalogue still lists the first one. The character was written into a number of
penny dreadful stories during the latter half of the 19th century, initially as a villain and then in increasingly heroic roles. By the early 1900s he was being represented as a costumed, altruistic avenger of wrongs and protector of the innocent, effectively becoming a precursor to
pulp fiction and then
comic book superheroes. ==Theories==