In blatant disregard for Jack’s reported supernatural abilities, it was thought for a time that the “Mad” Marquis of Waterford, a young Irish nobleman of eccentric behavior and cruel humor, was the secret identity of Spring-heeled Jack. The suspicion sprang from an event which took place a week after the Jane Alsop incident when Spring-heeled Jack appeared at a house on Turner Street, just off Commercial Road. A servant boy had answered a knock on the front door of the residence to find a person standing in the shadows at the entrance mysteriously hiding his face with his dark cloak.
The figure asked to see the master of the house and, as the boy turned to go and fetch him, stepped into the light affording the boy a better view of the odd visitor. The boy yelled with horror at the sight. The ‘man’ had glowing orange eyes, an evil-looking, sneering face and clawed fingers. Under the cloak he espied an intricately-embroidered design that resembled a coat of arms with the letter ‘W’ stitched into the emblem in gold. The sound of the young servant’s shouts alerted several people in the neighborhood who came running. Furious, Jack left the scene, leaping over the houses on Commercial Road and out of sight.
The letter ‘W,’ many pointed out, was not even a part of the Waterford family crest, and sightings continued even after the ‘Mad Marquis’ (shown below died in 1859, effectively putting that theory ‘to rest.’
In fact, during the 1850s and early ‘60s Jack was seen all over Victorian England, especially in the mid-lands. He returned again in 1872, this time appearing in the Peckham area of southeast London.
Two teenaged daughters of the headmaster of Dulwich College and their governess had seen a figure “enveloped in white and with arms extended” walking toward them from across the road. Their screams had apparently frightened it away. In 1877, Army authorities set traps for Jack after frightened sentries reportedly encountered a man who would “jump out of the darkness” and slap their faces with an icy hand, or spring onto the roofs of their sentry-boxes. The sinister figure had appeared to startled soldiers at Aldershot’s north camp clad in an oilskin suit and wearing a “shining helmet.” And this time he, apparently, brought a friend along.
On April 28, 1877, the Illustrated Police News stated; “A curious story comes from Aldershot. For some time past, the sentries on two outlying posts have been frightened by the appearance at night of two spectral figures. The figures, glowing with phosphorous, are in the habit of suddenly manifesting themselves, making tremendous springs of 10 to 12 yards at a time and upsetting the sentry before he had been able to collect himself sufficiently to oppose earthly arms to his ghostly visitants. The latter do him no bodily injury, contenting themselves with upsetting the poor man, after which they mysteriously disappear. So great has been the alarm that it has been found necessary to post double sentries.”
A short time later Jack returned and two sentries managed to fire on the being, they claimed, but their bullets “passed right through him” without apparent affect. Private John Reagan was guarding the powder magazine of the North Camp when he reportedly heard the sound of something “...shrill and metallic being scraped.” With rifle at the ready, Reagan had a look around but saw nothing. Upon returning to his sentry box he felt a cold hand on his cheek, which nearly scared him to death, he later admitted. He cried out, alerting another sentry and the two witnesses both claimed to see Spring-heeled Jack, his helmet shining in the moonlight. He leaped into the air and landed behind the two men, laughing and glaring at them evilly.
When Reagan raised his fire-arm and shouted, “Who goes there?” the demonic figure charged the sentries, who both fired on the fiend. The bullets didn’t stop him, however, but only seemed to anger him. He continued on, blue flames spewing from his mouth, and the sentries abandoned their post in fear for their lives. The incident prompted the local press to declare that Jack was no ordinary mortal, if mortal he was at all and, at last, the people of England finally began to ‘get the picture,’ so to speak.
A similar caped figure was seen a month later in Lincolnshire as it leaped over cottages in a rural village. Locals emerged from their homes carrying shotguns and fired at the figure. They later reported that it sounded as if their bullets had struck “something metallic.”
That same year nearly all of the citizens of Caistor, Norfolk watched Jack bound from rooftop to rooftop. A few of them, reportedly, were able to get off a shot or two at him; with no results. Had they all missed? They described him as having huge, pointed ears and dressed in what looked like sheep-skin. The Illustrated Police News for November 3rd stated;
“For some time, Newport, near Lincoln, has been disturbed by a man dressed in sheepskin or something of the kind. The man has springs on his boots and can jump a height of 15 feet. The other night he jumped on a college, got into a window by the roof and so frightened the ladies that one has not yet recovered.”
At about 10 p.m. one evening in January, 1879 a man in a cart was crossing a bridge on the Birmingham and Liverpool Junction canal when he was confronted by a darkly dressed, evil-looking figure that sprang from the undergrowth and landed on his horse’s back. The man reportedly tried to whip the thing with his horsewhip, and it eventually sprang away and disappeared into the brush, leaving both the witness and his horse shaking with alarm.
Sixty-six years after his first appearance, Jack’s hellish, glowing eyes were seen, for the last time, in Liverpool. He created a public panic there one night in September, 1904, when he was observed bounding up and down the streets, making leaps of twenty to thirty feet from the cobblestones to the rooftops and back again. When cornered by some very brave individuals Spring-heeled Jack simply vanished right before their eyes, into the darkness, never to return.
During the years between 1877 and his final appearance in 1904, Spring-heeled Jack was not reported in England. But, unlike many of his diabolically bizarre kinfolk who appear once or twice and are never seen again, Jack didn’t fade from sight and into legend when he left the Home Country. It may be argued that he merely embarked on a lengthy tour of the rest of the world. If witness testimony is correct, sightings of Jack, or others like him, have been happening right on down until recent times.
Jack on the Run:
In 1863, while the Spring-heeled Jack flap was in full swing across the Atlantic, a similar being was seen on the battlefield in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania during the Civil War ‘flittering’ about the corpses of the slain as if looking for something. It was said to be tall, with glowing green eyes and wore a dark cape. This sounds like Jack, but whatever could he have been looking for on a battlefield amid so much pain, suffering, fear and death? Perhaps he wasn’t searching at all. Perhaps he had found it.
In 1880, Jack terrorized the females of Louisville, Kentucky, just as he did the dames of England. In July of that year came several reports of attacks upon the women of Louisville. The attacker would spring from the darkness, accost the women, then proceed to tear at their clothing. He was described as tall and thin, with a long nose, pointed ears, and long fingers. He wore a shiny uniform, witnesses claimed, with a helmet and a dark cape or cloak. This time the entity also wore a bright light strapped to his chest which spouted the familiar blue flames at his victims.
When cornered, the American version, just as his European counterpart, made his escapes by leaping effortlessly over obstacles such as haystacks and wagons in a single bound. It is interesting to note that on July 28th, the day Jack allegedly began his American reign of terror, another inhumanoid was seen by numerous witnesses in Louisville. This one was an unknown aerialist surrounded by machinery which he worked with his hands and feet. He apparently made the return trip nine days later, flying through the skies of the city going in the other direction.
In Dourdan Woods, France, in 1936, a lone witness reportedly observed a strange-looking, nine-foot tall humanoid dressed in dark, tight-fitting clothing and wearing a black cape. Unnerved by the sight of the entity, the witness made a hasty retreat from the area.
Another Sp
ring-heeled Jack type entity was seen in O’Donnell Heights, Maryland in 1938. The ‘Maryland Marauder’ was described as spindly, or skinny, dressed in black garments with a horrible face, pointed ears and the ability to leap great distances.
Later that same year, in the Fall of 1938, Massachusetts was the scene of another appearance of a Spring-heeled Jack type inhumanoid. Citizens of Cape Cod, on several occasions, had seen a tall, dark figure with evil-looking eyes prowling about the streets of that city. Some claimed that the being spouted blue flames from his mouth as he easily evaded pursuers by leaping effortlessly impossible distances away from them. He often mocked those who sought to pursue him before escaping via a series of ‘great leaps.’
Several local citizens reportedly fired on the entity; to no effect whatever of course; and it was thought of by those who saw its face to be a creature of pure evil, perhaps even demonic, and even blamed for several attacks on the female citizenry of Cape Cod. On one occasion, the darkly-dressed demon was even cornered by four policemen, but escaped by leaping over a ten-foot-tall fence.
A similar entity, which the locals dubbed, ‘The Phantom,’ terrorized Nova Scotia, Canada during the 1960s. Incredibly, this time the weird entity reportedly stood fifteen feet-tall! It was often seen ‘leaping and bounding’ about the countryside, over buildings and down country roads and generally striking terror into the hearts of eyewitnesses who were, understandably, at a complete loss to explain just what it was they saw.
In October 1967, three men, while driving along Route 2 in West Virginia, saw a large, caped figure walking alongside the deserted road. They passed the walker, then stopped, intending to offer him a ride, but the man was nowhere to be seen, even though there were open fields on both sides of the road. The man had simply vanished.
Jack was again seen and described by witnesses on the Yakima Indian Reservation in 1975, and a ten foot tall humanoid with ‘pointy ears’ was seen by twelve witnesses as it leaped and cavorted around a football field in Plano Texas one evening in 1978. Incredibly, the witnesses all agreed that the entity appeared to move in slow motion. It disappeared after it sprang into some nearby woods.
The enigmatic trickster next appeared during the winter of that year, this time in Mendoza, Argentina where, after a spate of livestock attacks in the area were blamed on a shaggy-haired mystery animal, witnesses reported observing a tall, thin, caped figure with glowing eyes. According to the account, witnesses also said the spindly specter was wearing dark-colored clothing and, always the epitome of inhumanoid high society it seems, was holding a silvery cane in one hand.
Our friend, Jack; or one of his cousins, was observed and even chased through a graveyard by a police officer in Wisconsin in 1981. Officer Jon Pepper, while driving past the Graceland Cemetery in Mineral Point one evening, spotted a lone, dark figure with his spotlight wandering among the ivy-strewn tombstones. He stopped the car, called for back-up and got out, shining his flashlight at the area where the mystery figure had stood. As he approached the area the officer observed the figure again, this time fleeing the scene despite the policeman’s commands for him to stop.
Pepper pursued the inhumanoid at full speed through the graveyard, but stumbled and fell just as the being easily leaped over a four-foot high barbed wire fence and disappeared into the darkness of the night. Pepper later described the entity as man-sized with a pale complexion and wearing a cape. What the creature may have been doing there in the first place at such an hour no one could venture a guess. The Mineral Point area is said to have a long history of unexplained activity and the “Mineral Point Vampire,” as it was dubbed by the local press, was said to have been seen on the same day President Ronald Reagan was shot.
Monte Maiz, Argentina played host to Jack during a five day period in April of 2004. As usual he went about his business of bounding across roads, haunting area rooftops and terrifying the local women. He appeared to numerous witnesses and was described as a tall, slim specter dressed in dark garments with a black hat, black cape and glowing red eyes. One of the sightings was accompanied by peculiar sounds “like heavy chains dragging.” Some witnesses described a phantom-like figure wearing a mask, gloves and cloak. He howled, peered in windows and could climb trees with amazing ease.
Other seemingly unrelated strangeness was going on as well at the time, it seems. Other excited witnesses claimed to see a dark-colored animal that jumped about on all fours. Citizens, were soon in an uproar, believing that a dangerous psychopath or wild animal was on the loose. Later that month, shocked residents also reported impish diminutive figures cavorting about the rooftops. Others saw tall, spindly figures in white gliding through the air from roof to roof. Later that month Scott Corrales, well known Fortean investigator from the institute of Hispanic Ufology wrote:
“...the peace of the 9000-inhabitant locality in the department of Union was interrupted in the past three weeks by a strange creature who wanders the night to terrify residents. The residents call it “the phantom,” those who have seen it say that it is a young person, very tall and slim, with red eyes. It dresses in white, sometimes black, and others gray. Always wears a hat and covers its face with a mask or hood.”
A darkly-clothed inhumanoid wearing a black cape was seen by a resident of San Nocolas de los Garza, Monterrey, Mexico during the early morning hours of a November night in 2006. The witness had awoken to strange noises coming from outside his home. When he went to investigate he saw the tall, caped figure as it hovered in the air near a tree.
Stunned, he ran back inside to get his wife but, on returning, found the entity was nowhere to be seen. Imagine the look his wife must have given him! The entire region was at this time engulfed in UFI (Unidentified Flying inhumanoids) and UFO sightings. Only two years earlier in Monterrey a “flying witch” had viciously attacked a police officer, clawing at his windshield until he crashed the car and passed out from shock/fright.
Astute readers may have already noticed that several of Spring-heeled Jack’s prominent characteristics are strongly reminiscent of features described in other, seemingly unrelated, encounters with paranormal entities. The glowing eyes, evil looking face, ability to leap great distances and spit blue fire from his mouth, the bright light on his chest; all these things have been reported in other phantom inhumanoid encounters throughout the world.
A ball of light with human features appeared to two very startled young fishermen in Hardin, Illinois around midnight one evening in 1885. The witnesses described the air-born anomaly as “a fire-ball with a human face” which flew through the darkened trees and shot up into the air where it hung motionless over Diamond Island. The story was dismissed, as stories of this nature often are, until a number of prominent townfolk also came forward claiming to have witnessed a strange light in the sky.
One well respected businessman described it as a “barrel-like orb with definite human features.” He claimed he could see a fuzzy shape inside the fiery light. The stories went on until finally, in 1888 a group of local skeptics went to the island to catch the culprit and put an end to the ongoing hoaxes.
As they hid in the underbrush, heavily armed, and lay quietly in wait for the responsible party, suddenly, a barrel-sized ball of flame shot up into the air bathing the cunning hunters in red-orange light. It zipped through the trees, coming to a stop above their startled heads. The group immediately opened fire amid shouts of surprise and astonishment; to no effect. As the fire-ball moved closer one of the men shouted “Run!” and the entire party ran for their boats which were hidden along the riverbank.
What happened next was even more astonishing; and terrifying. The bizarre orb arced through the air and landed in the nearest boat, which shot out backwards into the river and away from the island. The hunting party stood slack-jawed, watching in terror as the light faded, then transformed into the figure of a small old man wearing denim overalls! The man stood in the drifting boat, watching the group for a few moments. He seemed to catch fire once again, su
ddenly transforming into a ball of light which soared up into the air and disappeared beyond the trees.
The witnesses who weren’t busy praying began to scream. The cries of alarm were heard by a local farmer on the other side of the river who had to rescue the party; even though one boat was still tied to the island. The men were too frightened to move, he claimed, and one of them had to be physically carried to safety. The fiery phantom of Hardin was reportedly seen, off and on, for several more months before inexplicably returning to whatever world the geriatric human torch hailed from, never to return.
An Oxford student told the following story to his professor, folklorist W. Y. Evans-Wentz:
“Some few weeks before Christmas, 1910, at midnight on a very dark night, I and another young man (who, like myself, was then about twenty-three years of age) were on horseback on our way home from Limerick. When near Listowel, we noticed a light about half a mile ahead. At first it seemed to be no more than a light in some house; but as we came nearer to it and it was passing out of our direct line of vision we saw that it was moving up and down, to and fro, diminishing to a spark, then expanding into a yellow luminous flame. Before we came to Listowel we noticed two lights, about one hundred yards to our right, resembling the light seen first.
Suddenly each of these lights expanded into the same sort of yellow luminous flame, about six feet high by four feet broad. In the midst of each flame, we saw a radiant being having human form. Presently the lights moved toward one another and made contact, whereupon the two beings in them were seen to be walking side by side.
The Inhumanoids Page 22