The Victorians built some magnificent structures – Gothic Revival, Italianate, Queen Anne, and Greek Revival….
They also made toilets that flush into sewer systems instead of into our drinking water. Bye Bye, Cholera!
They also gave us:
- Cars
- Sewing Machines
- Typewriters
- Serial Killers
- Grave Robbers
And amazing Ghost Stories that have withstood the test time.
While the Spiritualists were holding seances and doing automatic writing with the help of spirits, writers were conjuring up their own ghost stories, and the common folks were devouring them…By way of Penny Dreadfuls.
Penny Dreadfuls were being published to satiate the appetites of those who loved the macabre. One of the characters who seemed to step right out of a Penny Dreadful and into the reality of Londoners was Spring-Heeled Jack.
Spring-Heeled Jack made his first appearance in 1837 and apparently stopped hopping around in 1904.
The Man, The Mystery, The Legend
The Man, The Mystery, The LegendLegend says that Spring-Heeled Jack was London’s version of the Boogey Man. He was brought to life with the sole intention of frightening children into good behaviour. But, after about a year of parents telling their kids stories about this monster and emotionally scarring their children, the real Jack appeared.
It was a cold and wet night in January of 1838. Polly Adams, a hardworking barmaid in South London, was walking home after the pub had closed when she was attacked by something strange.
What seemed like minutes later and just blocks away, young Mary Stevens, a servant girl, was walking through Clapham Common alone, late at night.
When suddenly, a man jumped out from a dark alley and grabbed her with a claw-like grip.
He then kissed her and quickly ripped off all of her clothes. She struggled and squirmed and made a swift escape. As folks came to her rescue, many went into the darkness, looking for her attacker – but he was nowhere to be found.
Less than 24 hours later, the man Mary described was seen near her house. A carriage driver told authorities that a man-like creature jumped in front of his carriage, running him off the road. The driver was severely hurt, and the creature jumped a 9-foot wall, escaping the accident.
A few weeks later, a woman named Jane Alsop heard a knock on her front door. A man claiming to be a police officer asked her for a candle. She went to fetch one for him when he barged into her home, threw off his cloak, and revealed his hideous body of oilskin.
He then ripped off her clothes with his claws and began tearing into her neck and arms. Her sister heard the screams and came to Jane’s rescue. The mysterious pervert ran out of their home and into the night.
Cockney Jane described him:
He was wearing a kind of helmet and a tight-fitting white costume like an oilskin, and he vomited blue and white flames!
On February 28th, 1838, 18-year-old Lucy Scales, the daughter of a butcher, was walking through the old Green Dragon Alley in London when she saw a figure standing in the passageway. The shadow figure was carrying a bull’s eye lantern – just like what the bobbies carried on the dark London streets.
As Lucy got closer to the figure, she caught his gaze – his red eyes held her in shock as he began to spit blue flames into her face. Lucy began convulsing, and she flew into violent fits of hysteria that lasted for hours.
Lucy described him as a devil-like figure.
Rambling Jack
Spring-Heeled Jack was making his rounds – The Lord Mayor of London, Sir John Cowan, received complaints from several parts of London describing a demonic creature with eyes like balls of fire and hands like icy claws, able to bounce from rooftop to rooftop with ease.
The newspapers reported the attacks, and the police upped their patrols. Men organized groups armed on horseback; they scoured the night hunting for the creature.
But Jack wasn’t just lurking and clawing at the ladies of London. By the 1850s, he had moved onto the Midlands and broadened his victim profile.
In 1870, the Army began setting traps to catch him after soldiers reported being terrified by a ghostly man who sprang onto the roof of their sentry box. Later, a sentry saw a strange figure in the darkness who sprang toward him and slapped him in the face.
When the soldier pulled his gun and fired, he was certain his bullet had penetrated the spectre, but there was no blood, and the figure disappeared into the darkness with long leaps.
Angry townsfolk in Lincoln reported shooting at a tall shadowy figure, who simply looked at them and laughed as he bounced away, leaping over fences and small buildings.
60 years of reported sightings and assaults all over London and the Midlands, but Spring-Heeled Jack was never caught. 
Where did this leaping, fire-breathing pervert disappear to?
For a while, suspicion rested on the eccentric young Marquis of Waterford. He had a reputation of being ‘wild’ by Victorian standards and had been branded as the ‘Mad Marquis.’
The Marquis was a bit of a menace… he was once arrested for beating up 3 singers in the street naked. He was naked, not the singers.
The term “paint the town red” can also be attributed to the Mad Marquis. After a drunken night at the Old White Swan pub, he decided to return with a pail of red paint. The Marquis’ buddy hoisted him onto his shoulders, and the Marquis painted the swan on the sign red. That red paint was then spread all over signs throughout the village that night.
But, back to Jack…
Spring-heeled Jack was last seen in 1904 at Everton in Liverpool, bouncing up and down the streets, leaping from cobbles to rooftops!
He vanished into the darkness when a group of men tried to corner him – he’s not been seen since.