Spring Heel Jack

[fruittrees]

... one that doesn't get much mention. He was a man whom has been confused with the Jersey Devil. I remember a tale in which during WWI (or maybe it was WWII) a woman was quoted as saying a man covered in a cloak. He approached her darkened home, and upon the lights being turned on, yelled for her to turn them off, where in upon opening the door she was assaulted and the creature scared away by nearby neighbors.

- paraphrased from Daniel Cohen's book "Monster's you never heard of"

[Bryan]

SHJ is one of those great mysteries that seems to have been lost in the shuffle. He's a cross of Jack the Ripper and the Jersey Devil: ellusive, brazen, able to fly, and most likely nothing more than mass hysteria.

But wait! Mass hysteria is for the masses. Would such notable figures as the Lord Mayor of London who witnessed Spring Heeled Jack and Stephen Decatur, the hero of the US Navy, who legendarily took a shot at the Jersey Devil, fall victim to mass hysteria. Well, they're both long dead so we'll never know what they thought they saw.

[cavscott]

Ah Spring Heeled Jack is a personal favourite of mine. Long overdue a new film I think. Surely a subject for Tim Burton what with all the cloven hoof-marks, blue-flamed breath and aristocratic conspiracies.

Cav

[james in erie pa]

This reminds me of the Green Eyed Monster of Flatwoods, WV. I was camping down there, and I asked one of the locals about it. Her story about how she didn't believe it or the alcoholics who told it were, in fact, more entertaining than the original monster story.

[cavscott]

I hadn't heard about the flatwoods monster before. What a cool tale. I'll have to look into it a bit more.

C

[MattfromLincolnshire]

I've always been interested in Spring Heeled Jack.

I'm originally from Sheffield, in South Yorkshire, England (home of Sheffield Steel) and Jack paid a visit there, as well as seemingly everywhere else in the country at the time!

http://www.mysterymag.com/hauntedbritai ... 7&artID=83

http://www.thecobrasnose.com/xxghost/shj.html

http://www.mikedash.com/investigations_jack_paper.htm