Is Spring-Heeled Jack just another name for Jack the Ripper?
– Best wishes,
Colleen F.
Dear Colleen –
In fact, the Spring-Heeled Jack myth predates the nickname for the British serial killer, though the Spring-Heeled Jack legend does derive from Great Britain, evidently starting in the early nineteenth century. He was known for making astonishing leaps, was reported to have claws or claw-like hands, and possibly breathed blue flame. Conflicting reports say he had a “devil-like” appearance or that he looked like a tall, thin gentleman. Spring-heeled Jack was known for attacking young women, especially serving girls, scratching them with his claws and leaving them having fits or passed out altogether. A man named Thomas Millibank was arrested for claiming to be Spring-heeled Jack, but because victim Jane Alsop insisted that her attacker had breathed fire and Millibank simply exhaled air, he was acquitted for lack of evidence. Spring-Heeled Jack subsequently put in more
reported appearances, with some attributing the whole matter to mass hysteria and others believing this to be the work of aristocrats playing cruel practical jokes. In any event, Spring-heeled Jack is not known to have been a sanguine killer.
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It’s In The Bag,
Sara Bellum, Editor-at-Large Buzzy Mag
