Springheel Jack is Back

It began in 1837 London, England. Out of the mist of night dashed a dark, cloaked figure with glowing red eyes and a spring in his heel. Enough of a spring to enable him to leap walls 18 feet high. Enough of a spring to leap over houses. Enough of a spring to avoid being caught for close to 200 years.

One dark night, after the terror had begun, young Jane Alsop opened the door of her home to a figure standing in the shadows, claiming to be a policeman and demanding she fetch a light to help him with the capture of Spring-heel Jack - but the policeman was Jack himself and once he had her away from the house he attacked.

Later Jane described her assailant. "He was wearing a kind of a helmet and a tight-fitting white costume like an oilskin, his face was hideous. His eyes were like balls of fire. His hands had great claws, and he vomited blue and white flames." It was a description to be repeated over and over again; the leaps, the flames, the eyes of hell.

It was commonly assumed that Jack's jumping skill was due to special shoes he wore that had been fitted with powerful springs. The German army tried to emulate this in WWII but the most common result was soldiers with broken ankles.

Spring-heel Jack's rampage continued. He was never identified. And he has never stopped being seen and reported, though intervals between reports vary widely. The latest possible sighting comes from February 2012. Read about it here.