Fifty years before Jack the Ripper tore through London, another famous Jack terrorized young women and coach drivers in Victorian England.
The evil prankster was called Spring-Heeled Jack, a moniker that spawned from his ability to jump over tall fences and hedges during quick getaways. Eyewitnesses described him as having large, bulging eyes and metallic, claw-like hands. But the most startling characteristic: He paralyzed his victims by spewing blue and white flames.
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Eighteen-year-old Jane Alsop experienced the horror firsthand one quiet evening in 1938. She was at home with her father and sisters, when the family heard a loud pounding at the front door. Jane opened the door to a cloaked figure, who identified himself as a police officer. He told her to go fetch a candle and bring it out to the road because they had finally caught Spring-Heeled Jack! Jane was so excited to see the scoundrel in person, she rushed to get a light and brought it outside.
As soon as she held the candle out to the policeman, she knew she had made a huge mistake. The man spun around, threw off his cape, and showered Jane with a mouthful of flames. When he started tearing at her dress with his talons, Jane screamed, bringing one of the sisters out to see the commotion.
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Jack bounded away, but both girls had already gotten a good look. They said that besides his police uniform helmet, Jack wore a tight-fitted, white bodysuit and had red flames in his eyes.
That same night, a local man named Thomas Millbank publicly bragged that he was the legendary Spring-Heeled Jack. Since Jane had just been attacked, police took his proclamations seriously. When they arrested him at a bar, he was wearing white overalls, and they found his large, cape-like coat and a candle outside by the front door.
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During the trial, Thomas’s case hung on one simple fact: He could not breathe fire. Jane had been so adamant that her attacker had scorching breath, and Thomas couldn’t produce even a spark.
He was released, and Spring-Heeled Jack attacks and sightings continued into the early 1900s.
There were other suspects, but no one else was ever caught. Jack stayed just out of reach every time.
[via The Cobra’s Nose]
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
