John Matthews - The Mystery of Spring-Heeled Jack: From Victorian Legend to Steampunk Hero

THE MYSTERY OF
Spring-Heeled Jack

Probably no one in the world but John Matthews could have written this book. His scholarship is, as always, of the highest order yet joined to a deep love of stories. His unwillingness to make artificial separations between traditional folklore and popular culture allows Spring-Heeled Jack to come vigorously to life.

RACHEL POLLACK,
AUTHOR OF THE CHILD EATER AND
CO-CREATOR OF THE RAZIEL TAROT

John Matthews intrigues, disturbs, and delights us with his detailed account of the legendary Spring-Heeled Jack who, whether real or not, terrified victims amid the shadows of Victorian London and beyond. Leaping into the fears of the unwary, such figures persist in the modern imagination, and Matthews gives us much to chew on with regard to our fascination with untamed, semi-animal, evil in superhuman guise. Victorian supernaturalism, ghost stories, Jack the Ripper, the Green Man, demonic lore, and much else illuminate the shifting image of Jack in Matthewss crepuscular romp through the ginnels and repressions of fervid times, where unearthly clawing and ripping threatens to confront us with the archetypal fiend.

TOBIAS CHURTON, AUTHOR OF
ALEISTER CROWLEY: THE BEAST IN BERLIN

Thoroughly researched, John Matthewss writing is effortlessly accessible for both newcomers and those familiar with Londons original bogeyman. This book could and should become one of the definitive texts about Spring-Heeled Jack in the years to come.

JACK BOWMAN, COWRITER OF
THE SPRINGHEEL SAGA AUDIO DRAMAS

For a fascinating guide to the history and mystery of Englands most famous phantom attacker, look no further than John Matthewss remarkable book.

ROBERT VALENTINE, COWRITER OF
THE SPRINGHEEL SAGA AUDIO DRAMAS

Push me down again, Dear Childe,
Im safely hid away.
But Im not gone; it wont be long
Till Jack comes out to play.

ROBERT WINTHROP, JACK IN THE BOX, LONDONTOWN RHYMES FOR THE NURSERY, 1893

Acknowledgments

I have preferred to give the reports as far as possible in the words with which they were first described at the time rather than retelling them in my own. For this I am grateful to Mike Dashs astonishing collection of newspaper reports collected in the Fortean Times; to Stephen J. Ash of The Complete Spring Heeled Jack Page; to Anne Avery who generously took time out of her busy schedule to send me more cuttings; and to the staff of the Bodleian Library in Oxford for finding obscure book references. Thanks also, as ever, to Caitln Matthews for reading several drafts and for making some inspired suggestions, and to Jack Bowman and Robert Valentine for sending me copies of their amazing audio series on Spring-Heeled Jack. The wonderful decoration at the head of each chapter throughout is from Wireless Theatres The Springheel Saga, artwork by Jamie Egerton, used with gratitude and appreciation. Grateful thanks also to the amazing crew at Inner Traditions for making the journey from manuscript to book as easy as possible.

INTRODUCTION

The Unsolved Mystery

Stories of the wildest and most extravagant nature got into the newspapers and formed the staple of conversation.

NEWS OF THE WORLD, NOVEMBER 17, 1872

On October 4, 1888, police investigating the notorious Ripper murders in London received a letter. It was one of several purporting to be from the killer, but this one was different. It was signed Spring-Heeled JackThe Whitechapel Murderer.

By 1888 fifty years had elapsed since the reported sightings of Spring-Heeled Jack, and that Jack, for the most part, did very little serious harm to anyone, unlike the Ripper, who was a merciless and horrific killer. Still, the association would not have been lost on Inspector Frederic Abbeline, the lead detective in the Ripper case, and his men. The exploits of the character known as Spring-Heeled Jack were far from forgotten in the time of the Ripper murders, and assuming the letter was not a forgery (which most researchers think unlikely), it is significant that the killer of prostitutes should choose to identify himself with the older, well-established figure of Spring-Heeled Jack.

This Jack, the subject of this book, made his first appearance in January 1838, and the last reported sightingexcluding, for the moment, modern appearancesoccurred in 1904. He literally leapt to public attention, springing over hedges and walls, from dark lanes and dank graveyards to frighten and sometimes physically attack women.

Fig. I.1. The Whitechapel Murderer

He showed up first in the twilight world of Victorian London, only gradually moving farther out to towns such as Bradford and Sheffield. He moved through a world that, though well connected by roads and canals, was not yet fully served by the new railways; a world where the night was unillumined by gas or electricity and where messages took time to get from place to place.

The reports of the mysterious leaping man in both national and local newspapers fueled a hysterical response and lead to copycat attacks, ghostly tales, and extraordinary claims to his real identityramping up the paranoia and boosting Jacks appearance from a white bear to a fire-breathing man.

Spring-Heeled Jack has attracted writers as different as Philip Pullman, Mark Hodder, and Stephen King, as well as numerous references in popular culture from graphic novels to audio plays. Despite previous books and many articles and a catalog of appearances in fiction, TV, and film, Spring-Heeled Jack, though a familiar character from the archives of the strange and unexplained, is almost completely unknown.

People who claimed to have seen Spring-Heeled Jack described him as having a terrifying appearance, with bat-like wings, clawed hands, and eyes that resembled wheels of fire. Other reports claimed that, beneath his black cloak, he wore a huge helmet and a tight-fitting white garment apparently made of oilskin. Others said he was tall and thin, with the appearance of a gentleman. Several reports mentioned that he could breathe blue flames.

In more recent times various researchers have attempted to suggest who he might really have been, including an alien visitor from another planet, but none of these theories hold up to close scrutiny. Instead, we should look for the origins of Spring-Heeled Jack among much earlier mythical figures, conjured into being though hysterical newspaper reports and the Victorian obsession with strange phenomena and sinister figures.

A vast urban legend built itself around Spring-Heeled Jackinfluencing and influenced by many aspects of Victorian life for decadesespecially in London. His name became equated with the bogeyman, as a means of scaring children into behaving by telling them that if they were not good, Spring-Heeled Jack would leap up and peer in on them at night. Surprisingly, in our own times, new sightings have been reported, while the recent disturbing stories of the Slender Man can be seen to display notable similarities with those of the older Jack (see chapter 7 for more on the ).