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Spring-Heeled Jack, East-End Disappearances & Other Mysterious Characters

FOOM

I hereby nominate Cogg1961 and Zardozzz for the Fortean Order of Merit with the book leaf clusters.

I've been searching for Mike Dash's FORTEAN STUDIES article on Spring-Heeled Jack for the past nine years, and had pretty much given up ever finding it.

But Cogg linked directly to the Dash materials and Zardozz did so indirectly, through a link to the Wikipedia article on SHJ.

Profound thanks to both of you.

George Wagner in Cincinnati, Ohio
 
SHJ in Gainesville, Florida, Summer, 2004?

"Entity in the Road" in "Your True Tales" for December, 2005 ([email protected]) is purportedly a "shadow person" encounter but the event seems to have had strong resonances with Spring-Heeled Jack. (NB: The article itself does not mention SHJ at all.)

The percipient, "Joshua" drove "at the [eastern] edge of Gainesville, Florida....one night....during the summer of 2004." He saw what appeared to be a very tall shadow person at the side of the road.

"ts arms seemed disproportionately long," Joshua wrote, "and it appeared to be at least seven feet tall, lanky as anything I'd ever seen."

Here's the operative reference:

"n an instant it ran....I've never seen anything [else] more so fast, and it suddenly jumped straight up into the air....t leaped straight up as if it'd jumped and had been snatched right out of the air by some unseen force....But I never saw it land....It simply leaped and was gone." (Emphasis above added by me, OTR.)
 
Sightings of the Tall Man. (No, not Angus Scrimm). Or is it Bigfoot?

The first two sightings was called in as a tall (10 to 15 feet tall) [man] who appeared to be wearing a stovepipe hat and long coat. It was reported to be peeking into a apartment complex commons room where there was several witnesses.

...in the early 1980’s my brother was a police officer and responded to a call with another officer in the country ...when they arrived, the family was in the living room with their dogs and had turned their furniture into a fort in the living room and was armed with knives and whatever else they could find.

They advised that they had heard their dogs running into their front door and when they opened it the dogs ran in and was scared. The family reported seeing a large man (his hips was above the roof of their family car) wearing a stovepipe hat and had on a long coat.

source

In the comments section, one of the posters remarks that the hat-and-cape ensemble sounds more like SpringHeeled Jack than Bigfoot. I'm also reminded of theMonkey Man of New Dehli who also had a fondness for rooftops and seemed to be wearing some kind of headgear. There was something similar in Argentina a while ago too:

A silhouette of a man who walks on rooftops, drags heavy chains and makes strange noises turned into a disquieting "phantom" that has made residents of Monte Maiz restless.

Opinions on the "phantom" are diametrically opposed, since some claim having see "a figure standing over 2 meters tall, dressed in black and with spectacular agility" while others say its all imagination. The local residents call it "the phantom". Those who have seen it say that it is a young person, very tall and slim, with red eye. It dresses in white, sometimes black and others gray. Always wear a hat and covers its face with a mask or hood.

source
 
Dunno if this belongs here or not, but there was an interesting item in R4's Making History just now about the Halifax Slasher.

To sum up - after several people, mainly women, appeared to have been attacked in the street, variously with a razor or mallet, the police investigation concluded with an assertion that the 'victims' appeared to have inflicted the injuries on themselves, presumably for attention.
 
escargot1 said:
Dunno if this belongs here or not, but there was an interesting item in R4's Making History just now about the Halifax Slasher.

To sum up - after several people, mainly women, appeared to have been attacked in the street, variously with a razor or mallet, the police investigation concluded with an assertion that the 'victims' appeared to have inflicted the injuries on themselves, presumably for attention.

This happens a lot with slashing and pricking outbreaks (I know I am foolish to say that in a reply to the snail). There is for example piquerism (sometimes given as picarism although that might be a misunderstanding):

Piquerism is a psychosexual disorder in which one finds pleasure in penetrating one's body with sharp objects (pins, razors, knives, etc.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piquerism

Intriguingly it came up in a perjury cases:

www.apa.org/monitor/julaug03/jn.html

Although I have read passing mention of it also being a term used for attacks on oher people too.

-----------
Halifax Slasher:

ww.2ubh.com/Slasher

(Mod Edit: Former link is dead, here's a link via The WayBack Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20070625132043/http://www.2ubh.com/Slasher/)
 
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Mighty_Emperor said:
There is for example piquerism (sometimes given as picarism although that might be a misunderstanding):

Piquerism is a psychosexual disorder in which one finds pleasure in penetrating one's body with sharp objects (pins, razors, knives, etc.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piquerism

The Wikipedia article references Albert Fish, child molester and serial murderer/cannibal as a victim of the condition.

I've read, and in more than one place, that when Fish was electrocuted by the State of New York his body crackled, sparked, buzzed and "shorted out" due to all the needles and razor blades buried deeply in his flesh.

There's also evidence that Fish himself spent his last days looking forward to this "final thrill."

Brr....!
 
Kudos to Escargot and Emps for introducing me to the Halifax Slasher - or, indeed, the lack of same.

I'd always thought that the Halifax Slasher hailed from Nova Scotia!

Sincerely, the Ugly American. Well, at least the STUPID one.
 
Hi

Looks like I'm bringing back an old discussion here, but I was just wondering, are there any books around about Spring Heel Jack that are worth reading? Spring Heel Jack is a character/legend that has always interested me and so I was hoping to find some more reading material about him/it. So if you can recommend anything it is much appreciated.

Also, as to what I think it is, a realistic theory is that it's just peoples overhyped imagination during the time, and this got passed down the generations and the tale has been strectched over time. Basically, it could have been someone playing a practical joke, this got told to someone else, and someone else and so on and so on until it turned into this imaginative story about a fire-breathing man that can jump over buildings etc.

My more 'fantastical' theory is that he is a time travelling/realm travelling 'imp' type character that plays pratical jokes, and scaring people for the fun. I always liken him to the character of Mr. Mxyzptlk in the Superman universe, the imp from the fifth dimension that is a trickster character and likes to play jokes on people. They don't really have anything in common, I just imagine that thats what Spring Heel/Heeled Jack is, and there could be more than one of these types of characters, which is why there are still sightings even today of similar characters.
 
OldTimeRadio said:
I've read, and in more than one place, that when Fish was electrocuted by the State of New York his body crackled, sparked, buzzed and "shorted out" due to all the needles and razor blades buried deeply in his flesh.

I too had read this, and was one of the few things I "knew" about the case. However, I read "Deviant" (I think) by Harold Schecter, a sort of 'faction' book about the case, and he states categorically that this did not happen (the sparking etc that is - he definitely pushed needles into himself, mainly the scrotum and perineum. Which must make your eyes water a tad) - and that the story was just put about by the press to make the case even more sensational.
 
d3moliti0n said:
I was just wondering, are there any books around about Spring Heel Jack that are worth reading?
Mike Dash will have a book about about Jack some time this year, which will no doubt be definitive. See:

http://www.mikedash.com/
 
agentbuffy said:
OldTimeRadio said:
I've read, and in more than one place, that when Fish was electrocuted by the State of New York his body crackled, sparked, buzzed and "shorted out" due to all the needles and razor blades buried deeply in his flesh.

I too had read this, and was one of the few things I "knew" about the case. However, I read "Deviant" (I think) by Harold Schecter, a sort of 'faction' book about the case, and he states categorically that this did not happen (the sparking etc that is - he definitely pushed needles into himself, mainly the scrotum and perineum. Which must make your eyes water a tad) - and that the story was just put about by the press to make the case even more sensational.

Then the next question has to be why didn't those needles heat up and spark when several hundred volts coursed through Fish's body? You can heat needles red-hot with a simple 1.5 volt flashlight battery. (Though it very quickly drains the battery.)
 
That is a very good question - in my basic, secondary school physics I was led to believe that electricity would try and pass through the line of least resitance. By extension in a human body jam packed full of pins and needles, at least part of that journey would be through these pins and needles, as they are much better conductors of electricity than the average body.

I don't know - perhaps the fact that at no point would these needles allow the current to earth affected the sparking and heating effects? Are there any documented cases of executions by electric chair or lightning strikes on people with artificial joints? I would imagine these would present a similar case, and would warrant some study.
 
OldTimeRadio said:
Then the next question has to be why didn't those needles heat up and spark when several hundred volts coursed through Fish's body?
If the needles were inside his body, no one would know if they heated up or sparked.
 
Might there have been at least a slight sizzling, crackling or popping sound?
 
OldTimeRadio said:
Might there have been at least a slight sizzling, crackling or popping sound?
...and a smell of frying bacon! :D
 
bosskR said:
d3moliti0n said:
I was just wondering, are there any books around about Spring Heel Jack that are worth reading?
Mike Dash will have a book about about Jack some time this year, which will no doubt be definitive. See:

http://www.mikedash.com/

In the meantime, the best part of his paper from Fortean Studies 3 is available on his website. You may also download the whole think in PDF. I'll buy the book when it materialises, but this is good:

http://www.mikedash.com/original-invest ... hj-paper-1
 
I wonder how many children at the time were warned to be careful 'Or Spring Heeled Jack will get you!'?
Memories, passed down through the generations, childhood imaginations, pretending strange men were SJH,along with the documented sources.
Could there ever be an innocent generation? and what paranormal experiences would they report?
 
For those of you who have previously expressed an interest in tracking down original copies of SHJ fictional Penny Dreadfuls, it is worth pointing out that these are extremely scarce and rarely come up for auction. I suspect any that survived fell into collectors hands long ago; many of these individuals are loathe to share information about their prized possessions so the bulk of this material will be 'behind closed doors'. This is a far cry from the period after the first world war when Penny Dreadfuls became unfashionable and many were simply thrown away, sold cheaply in bulk or used as fire lighting material.

However, as with all British printed material, it is worth checking the British Library who have a full run of 48 issues of Spring-Heeled Jack the Terror of London (published by Charles Fox, 1889/90) as well an unconnected earlier series under the same name from 1867. Check their website for full collection/shelfmark reference numbers.

Items do turn up for sale occasionally, however, and this single issue of SHJTTOL from the late 1800s has been available for sale for some time now. It comes at a price however:

http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookD ... led%2Bjack

The same seller also has a copy of this later 'dreadful' published by the prolific Aldine Company. Again, a very high price tag and has not sold despite being available online for some time:

http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookD ... led%2Bjack
 
It seems Jack has a Scottish relative. I've lived in this area all my life and never heard this story before.
Legend of the ‘highly fantastic and unnatural’ Spring Legs who stalked the streets of Broughty Ferry 150 years ago
By MARK MACKAY, 4 February 2015 8.45am.


  • image.jpg
    Contemporary newspaper illustrations of the ghoulish figures.Getty Images
Almost 150 years ago, a ghastly figure caused panic in Dundee. After a dip into the annals of Courier history, we can bring you the sinister tale of Spring Legs.



Night after night the apparition known as Spring Legs stalked the streets of Broughty Ferry. Of terrifying appearance, his gyrations and leaping gait were described as “highly fantastic and unnatural” by those who witnessed his passing.

So frightened were some residents that they urged any of their fellows who had cause to be out late to carry a pistol.

Now, almost 150 years later, his legend has been unearthed by local historian Kerrin Evans, who discovered a series of bizarre newspaper articles.

Full story here http://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/lo...eets-of-broughty-ferry-150-years-ago-1.823404
 
Wow! Thanks for that. I'm tempted to think that an enterprising journalist merely adapted SHJ tales to suit a new locale but we would need to put these Courier & Argus stories into the timeline to see which details are new or unique to the Scots case. :)
 
SHJ in Gainesville, Florida, Summer, 2004?

"Entity in the Road" in "Your True Tales" for December, 2005 ([email protected]) is purportedly a "shadow person" encounter but the event seems to have had strong resonances with Spring-Heeled Jack. (NB: The article itself does not mention SHJ at all.)

The percipient, "Joshua" drove "at the [eastern] edge of Gainesville, Florida....one night....during the summer of 2004." He saw what appeared to be a very tall shadow person at the side of the road.

"ts arms seemed disproportionately long," Joshua wrote, "and it appeared to be at least seven feet tall, lanky as anything I'd ever seen."

Here's the operative reference:

"n an instant it ran....I've never seen anything [else] more so fast, and it suddenly jumped straight up into the air....t leaped straight up as if it'd jumped and had been snatched right out of the air by some unseen force....But I never saw it land....It simply leaped and was gone." (Emphasis above added by me, OTR.)

Tall, dark, disproportionately long arms? Never mind SHJ, that sounds like Slenderman (and note the date... )
 
Wow! Thanks for that. I'm tempted to think that an enterprising journalist merely adapted SHJ tales to suit a new locale but we would need to put these Courier & Argus stories into the timeline to see which details are new or unique to the Scots case. :)

The thing that stands out for me is this bit:
Spring Legs was said to have chased him through the streets, only to be laid low by a plant pot flung accurately at his head by his would-be victim.

His ghastly apparel was found to be a mask and its wearer “a young man of goodly proportions whose nose was bleeding profusely”.

The unmasking did not bring the matter to an end, however, as over the next 10 days there were several more sightings.

It seems he was unmasked. Maybe the authorities down south should have equipped people with plant-pots :) The story seems to be basically some local lads having a bit of fun. Hopefully more will emerge.
 
I have noticed that there is a new book out on Spring-heeled Jack and these other ghosts called Spirits of an Industrial Age. Has anyone read it? Is it any good?
 
I spend a great deal of time reading books and manuals on Mentalism. One of the things that strikes me is that any early material (1890 - 1930) is constantly talking about the use of chemicals in performance. There are numerous recipes and instructions for mixing all sorts of concoctions. They suggest popping down to the local chemist with a shopping list.

I have often wondered if SHJ's blue flames and red glowing eyes were a result of some home chemistry? I read an older book just the other day that suggested ways to make red, green and blue smoke whilst producing flames of various colour.
 
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I was just musing on SHJ and his attributes and then wondered if there's a connection to the activity now known as Parkour (free running).

If someone was doing this 200+ years ago then there could be a connection?

It requires no special equipment, just a fully-functioning body, an athletic and adventurous nature and a pair of shoes. Thinking about it further, it would be perhaps surprising if some people hadn't been doing this for millennia.

 
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