Springheel Jack
HIS TRUE NAME will never be known, but during his 67-year reign
of terror, the superstitious people of Victorian
England called him Springheel Jack, because of his amazing super-human ability
to leap over rooftops Sack made his frightening debut one September
evening in 1837 on Barnes Common, a secluded tract of land in London
A businessman who was taking a short cut across the common was shocked when
a sir-foot figure wearing a tight-fitting white suit and helmet jumped over
the eight-foot-high railings of a nearby cemetery, shrieking with
laughter. Understandably, the man turned on his heels and fled,
convinced he had encountered a demon. On the following night,
the leaping terror attacked three girls who were making their way home via
the common. Two of the girls escaped,
but the remaining one became so weak with fright, she collapsed,
and found herself at the mercy of the unearthly assailant. As he leaned
over her, the girl saw that her attacker resembled Satan himself.
He had bright red eyes, a long prominent nose, and strange pointed
ears, As the monster ripped the girl's clothes off with his claw-like
hands, she passed out. A policemen
later discovered the unconscious gir and revived
her. When she started babbling about
the devilish attacker, the policeman thought
the girl had been drinking But more and
more assaults were reported as the weeks went by, and when The Times
started to publicise the supernatural prowler's
attacks, many Londoners refused to go out at night and barricaded
themselves indoors When the old Duke
of Wellington read of the leaping man's cowardly attacks, he patrolled the
city each night on horseback with two loaded pistols, but
Springheel Jack was skilful at evading capture,
wherever the police approached. he would simply bound off into the
night.
Jack eventually tired of frightening the denizens of the capital,
and began a trek of terror in a northerly direction across the country.
By the turn of the century, Springheel Jack had turned
up in the south of Liverpool, where he was first
seen making a 4O foot leap over the reservoir building in High Park
Street, Toxteth A week later, Jack performed
his Grand Finale when he turned up early
one Sunday evening at Salisbury Street, Everton,
where be ran screaming along the roof tops. It is said
that the members of a Bible study class at St Francis Xavier's school became
hysterical, thinking that Jack was the
devil The teacher told her pupils not to Look out the window
at the leaping figure, but to close their eyes so that they could pray for
the Lord to intervene. |
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Meanwhile, outside, a mob of Evertonians arrived with bottles
and sticks who had no intention of Letting
Jack molest their women gave chase,
and the leaping man bounded up onto the steeple of St
Francis Xavier's. The awe-struck crowd locked on in disbelief as Jack jumped
from the steeple down onto the roofs of Haigh Street, before he bounded
away in the direction of William Henry Street. After
that eventful night, the strangest figure in occult folklore
was never seen again.
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