As some may have guessed by now, I am often drawn to and fascinated by mysteries.
Anyways, one mystery that few people ever talk about anymore is “Spring-Heeled Jack”. He terrorized the section of England called the “Midlands” in the early part of the 19th century.
Descriptions of this phantom-like creature vary. But several things are usually agreed upon. He was very tall. He wore a strange black, shiny suit. His eyes glowed red. He spit blue and white flames from his mouth, aparently at will. And most importantly: he could jump amazing heights, almost as if he had springs on his shoes.
His favorite modus operandi was frightening young women, tearing off their clothing and spitting fire at them. He would scare other people too. And then he would simply bounce away. Usually he would not hurt anyone to any great degree. Although a young female prostitute was thrown into a sewage ditch by him and died. She was his only known fatality.
This link will tell the story in more detail. Also, Spring-Heeled Jack may have visited the US too! Use this link to find more about that.
Please remember–this so-called “being” was supposed to be able to leap 15 feet into the air, with visible springs attached to his shoes. Such rigs have been built, & cannot raise a man more than 4 feet in the air.
This could not work.
Conclusion:
Spring Heeled Jack was a product of ignorance, rumor & early newspaper hoaxing. He was also an outgrowth of the mixture of the Industrial Revolution meeting the folk traditions of “goblins” as found in the British Isles.
That’s probably as good a short answer as tou could make Bosda, though I’d probably throw in a dash of mass hysteria. This is almost always present in a case such as Spring heeled Jack, just think of the Indian monkeyman for a contemporary version, though the Mad Gasser was always my favourite.
There was a documentary on SHJ just the other night, on BBC TV. Suffice it to say that SHJ is a product of all the usual processes by which a small amount of fact becomes an oft-recycled myth. Exaggeration, journalistic sensationalism, popular fears and anxieties mutated into warning tales, folk mythology, reflection of popular neuroses, possible assistance from hoaxers and practical jokes, sloppy gathering and application of slender evidence etc. etc.
The same processes that lead to things like The Loch Ness Monster, the Bermuda Triangle, or the Warren Report.
It seems conceivable to me that there could be a grain of truth to the legend. Maybe the group was attacked by some guy who could jump pretty high, but of course within normal human range. Eye witness accounts being what they are (grossly inaccurate) it could have easily been exaggerated.
In Joseph A. Citro’s book ** Passing Strange: True Tales of New England Hauntings and Terrors** he devotes a chapter to sightings here of similar beings- which aren’t supposed to be Spring-heeled Jack, btw, just similar ; which of course need to be taken with a grain of salt, but it’s a fun read.
Once upon a time, it was reports of mass hysteria that inspired a small ratty to pursue a career in behavioral science. (Of course, I’ve always been more interested in animals than humans, so ethology was the next logical step. But enough about me.) Anyway, yeah, I’ll admit it, I love a good dose of weirdness every now and again. I’ll pick up a copy of Fortean Times if the cover looks interesting. But let’s face it, kids, there’s a way the world is, and that way does not include flame-throwing prostitute-pitchers.
Being a naturalist, I’m fascinated by reports of out-of-place animals like the kangaroos in middle America, and the baboons caught in New Jersey. But were they teleported there? Do they constitute somehow-overlooked native populations? No. As it turns out, Occam’s Razor really does hold true in the vast majority of situations.
Spring-Heeled Jack, if you really want my opinion, (and I’m not sure that you do) could very well have been one of the following:
Some random miscreant bent on disturbing the peace.
-I guess he could have thrown flaming objects, such as lanterns at innocent passers-by; such behavior wasn’t unknown for ruffians in previous centuries. (Or today, I suppose.)
-Molesting women in the street and harassing other persons about town was a time-honored custom of young city-dwellers full of liquor with nothing to do on a Saturday night. (Hmmm…liquor burns blue…maybe spiting liquor through a lit match? I’ve seen it down with binaca. Why not?)
Hoax generated to either:
a) sell more newspapers
b) draw attention to the purported victims
A combination of 1 & 2 seems most likely to me, coupled with exaggerations by victims and witnesses. I suppose there’s no reason some drunken lout could not have accosted some women and thrown some burning object at them, then escaped by hopping over one of the many small walls found in large British cities. Add to this newspapers eager to outsell the competition, reliably poor eye-witness accounts, and the natural ‘me, too!’ inclinations of most humans, and you’ve got a panic on your hands. Naturally, minds filled with sordid tales of Jack’s nocturnal depredations, and every run-of-the-mill hooligan becomes SHJ. Sightings multiply. Panic increases. Vigilante groups form. False arrests are made. Eventually, with a collective sense of embarassment, the whole incident dies down and is largely forgotten, until some intrepid researcher brings the whole thing up again in some misguided attempt at ‘journalism’. “Are flame-spitting fiends roaming our streets?!?”
But no. Chalk this up to another case of humans being humans. Amusing, informative, but hardly the sort of thing to make you question the nature of reality.
AAAgh, retyping after first attempt eaten by server.
Given lighting conditions, element of surprise, and some exaggeration, SHJ could have been an accomplished trickster.
A good stage magician would know how to make fire appear to come from his mouth, how to appear out of nowhere and vanish, and how to make a suit that seemed unearthly.
BTW-Gotta find name of company and product, a few months ago saw ad in Previews for PVC figurines of ‘museum mysteries’-Mothman, Crystal Skull, Sasquatch, etc. Wanted to order set, but they were sold in case lots.
Also-Back in 80’s Matchbox made Monster In My Pocket. These little monster figures turn up at flea markets often. Among many others figures were made of-SHJ, Jersey Devil, Mad Gasser Of Mattoon, Nuckleavee The Skinless…
When I was a kid growing up in Central Illinois a few members of my Boy Scout troop waited until midnight and took a hike out to an old, abandoned cemetery that some of the older boys knew about. We had to walk on a trail between two cornfields and into a little wooded area to get to the cemetery. On the way out a friend noticed a large object resting on the trail up ahead. He ran up and kicked it. It rolled over and then stood up! It was a guy wearing a green garbage bag and an old man mask with orange marble eyes. We all freaked out and ran past the guy and he grabbed at us as we went by him. We nicknamed him The Green Grabber.
I should point out that everyone present on that occasion knew that The Green Grabber was a guy wearing a green garbage bag and an old man mask with orange marble eyes and as far as I know, no one ever told anyone else anything different. In fact, as I remember, we all agreed that it was probably some local teenagers that saw us hiking out there and decided to give us a spook.
I was at a wedding just a month ago and ran into a guy that was one of the kids that I went out to the cemetery with that night. He still lived in the same small town where we both grew up and I mentioned The Green Grabber. He said I wouldn’t believe what has gone on with The Green Grabber. He has become the local boogey man and there was even an article in the local paper about him. He said that people still report seeing him. That he’s heard stories that he takes his eyes out, that his skin is gray and rotten, that he smells terrible, that he grabs people out of parked cars, that he steals dogs. They even have a theory of who he may have once been. This guy told me that he even tells people the true story but they still prefer the other stuff.
Bottom line - - stories get blown out of proportion and folks believe exactly what they want to believe even when faced with the truth. Same with SJH. Oh well. No harm done and the stories are actually really fun.
Spring-Heeled Jack was a disembodied energy being that thrived on the fear and strong emotions of the people it encountered. It is known in other cultures as Springhiljac, and can be defeated by forcing it to compute pi to the very last digit.
