In 1838, a strange villain began stalking the London suburbs. For the next 70 years, Spring-Heeled Jack — a fire-breathing, metal-clawed monster — terrorized the city.
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This is an unofficial transcript meant for reference. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
You ve probably heard this one before faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful
a locomotive able to leap Tom
buildings in a single bout. Obviously, that's a line from Superman, but
also describes victorian era, villain known as spring healed Jack.
Today many people haven't heard of Jack, but his name was once on the lips of every person in London to them. Spread
he'll Jack was a lot of things. At best he was a public nuisance at
first, a genuine monster and whether you
believed he was real or not. Everyone agreed on one thing: if you ever met Jack,
Dark street you'd better run
This is supernatural. Apart cast original, I'm your host
silly flowers, every
Wednesday I'll, be taking a deep dive into a real unexplained occurrence to try and figure out the truth. You can find
all, episodes of supernatural and all other Spotify originals from par cast for free on Spotify and
like what your hearing region on Facebook and Instagram at park asked and twitter at PAR cast network this week, world
at spring healed Jack beginning in it
in thirty, eight, a mysterious figure attacked londoners only to escape capture by literally jumping over buildings. There are plenty of stories, and it's not clear. Just
how true all of them are butts.
I believe spring he'll Jack was not only real he's still alive today will dig into the mystery coming up. Stay with us
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evolves over time in some stories he's wearing a white body soon and a cape,
their times he's not even human and the earliest reports are probably the strangest, because that's when he's just getting started
These sightings happen in the fall of eighteen. Thirty, seven reports trickle
to London from near by towns about all sorts of ghostly creatures, attacking people at night burst its a white bull said
women from the Village of Barnes, claiming each run into this ball. It scares them half to death
for some reason they interpret it as not just a normal animal, but a supernatural entity
Then, as December turns into January, a new creature shows up inside the London suburbs a bear, or at least it looks like a bear. Some women.
His claim. It's a mysterious man wearing a bear skin like the bull. This,
bear mostly targets women, but it actually attacks them, shredding their clothes with its claws. Eventually, a third figure pops up this
time, it's a man wearing polished armor with these wild clause
coming out of his fingers, he's way
the victorian version of moon shoes like boots with coils
rings coming out of the heels and, according
The rumours he's able to jump incredibly high, like over tall bill.
Things in a single bound kind of high risk,
here. A fine night appears all over London suburbs, scaring people and each time he grows bolder until finally, he,
What is the line from disturbing to dangerous? He attacks a carpenter
on a street. That's ironically, named cut Throat Wayne is victim, the carpenter is
powerful man, not somebody, that's easy to mess with, but the knight literally clause his clothing into ribbons.
All these stories, the bear the bull the man in shiny armor, are trickling into London, and people are confused like is it just a couple
incidents that these weird things are happening or is there is some sort of shape shifter going around and as
whose of these assaults trickle in they notice a pattern of figure attacks, a person alone. At night. It uses its clause to hurt them.
Rip their clothes and then it leaps away down the street and over rooftops like a victorian Michael Jordan, justice
make any sense. And it's not
he'll January nine, that the pieces start to fall into place that,
winning the Lord mayor of London Prince an anonymous letter he received in a newspaper called the times. The
story writer, sounds upset about all the attacks and he basically speculates that. It's all the work of one
known assailant.
Person uses a variety of disguises to confuse and attack people, and the writer claims that he
was about seven different ladys who have had these encounters and fainted. Now the Lord
Here's response is basically to shrug he public
is the letter probably to make it seem like he's doing something, but in reality the shapes it hasn't step foot into London proper. He's too
operating in the suburbs. So, basically, is all
out of the mayor's jurisdiction and not his problem. But the letter
its everyone in London riled up suddenly people
are looking over their shoulders. They're talking about it in.
Jobs, and worrying about walking home late at night and in the
First of all of this, the newspapers give the attacker a new name spring healed Jack.
Spring healed because of the shoes and Jack, probably because
a common name like this guy could lie
really be anyone on February, twice
just five months since the bull citing jack appears inside the London
City limits its around eight forty five p m
he neural. Jane also is in her home on bare binder lane. When someone starts violently wringing her door about
means annoyed. So she goes to the door to ask them to stop
there's a man in a large dark cloak standing outside
he says, he's a policeman and demands Jane, bring him a light. Then he claims that he's got spring healed, Jack,
I'd up industry outside
Jane Russia's into the house to grab a lick candle, but as soon as she handed over, the stranger throws off his cloak. Underneath he's wearing a tight fitted white costume and a large helmet,
some sort of contraption strapped to his chest and according to Jane his eyes or glue
we read, then supposedly the guy opened his mouth and Reeves fire right
Genes face as far as I know, Jane, isn't burned, but sheet screams and runs back into the house. The guide
He saw her inside and catches her in the hallway. Then he starts tearing at her clothes and hair and Jean realises he's using sharp claws made of metal.
Thankfully her older sister Sarah hears were screaming. She runs
downstairs to find this guy's hauling Jane over the threshold Cyril,
reaches out grabs, Jane and heaves her inside the house and slammed the door, but the man won't go away
He keeps knocking on the door and calling to them it's
until Sarah yells for the police through a window that he finally fleas the sea Jane and her
family report. The incident to authorities and the London public goes nuts a man attack.
A woman inside London Proper- and he mentioned the name spring healed Jack police scour
our binder lane for clues and one detective office,
James Lee is made believe investigator
Lee Interviews, Jaynes neighbours, and he finds out that a man in a cloak and white costume has been loitering around for a month and then
somehow or another. He lands on a suspect. A local carpenter named Millbank
allegedly. On the night of genes attack a local named James Smith,
Leon into Millbank in the street Smith. Hers.
Green company also house and then saw Millbank walking away wearing a white coat and hat
later. That night Smith ran into Millbank again on bare binder lane,
clearly drunk Millbank lunged at Smith and yelled. What have
you to say to Spring Jack, which is pretty suspicious, but Detective Lee can't connect Millbank to Jaynes assault,
there's no physical evidence and when authorities try to question him, they find out that he was
so drunk on the night of February twenty it. He supposedly can't remember a thing
then there's James version of the story. She's
even sure her attacker was human. It appear
as a wild, eyed fire breathing monster, which it's definitely
hard to believe, but either way
Millbank is never arrested or brought to trial. Every
is freaking out about genes attack then just a
days later on February. Twenty eight spring he'll Jack strikes again this time in a completely different neighbourhood, its around eight thirty.
I am so almost the same time as Jaynes attack an eighteen year old
Lucy scales and her sister or walking home from their brothers house in the neighbourhood of limehouse, their cutting through a street named, grew
dragon alley when they spot someone standing in the shadows. He appeared
to be wearing a cloak and ass. They come closer. Lucy can make out some kind of hat or bonnet on his
suddenly. The stranger jumps towards her and breeds of fireball in her face Lucy is terrified to the point that you
falls to the ground and begins having a seizure mean
While her brother hears were screaming and Russia's out of his house, but by the time he reached
sisters the attacker
is nowhere to be found. Unfortunately, Lucy's case doesn't get the same press coverage as James it
for one Lucy is lower class, the sister of a butcher, the main
Cream press isn't as interested in her experience as genes, but authorities think the person who attacked Lucy Enjoy
it is probably the same guy because he's following a pattern.
Those after young women around age? Eighteen, he wears a cloak and in both cases there's the fire breathing thing
They put the same investigator officer, James Lee on Lucy's case now,
have to do, is figure out where Jack will strike next coming up spring healed Jack takes on the british army the end,
that what will we do without it so much information so little time, and yet, with all the answers available online, there still
I scores of deep dark spooky secrets.
Mystery is yet to be solved. Until now, this isn't click bait,
This is our exclusive new podcast internet urban legends, I'm lonely
evidence, expert and
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The video shore to make you lose your appetite blank room soup or every
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of internet urban legends is chock full of disturbing details which are either truly demented or right for debunking and no matter. Our conclusion were sure to be left scared, half to death so
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on March. Second, eighteen, thirty, eight two days
her Lucy's attack there's a fresh attack this
I'm inside a pub a man with a club walks in tells the owner that he's jack. Then he tries
Clobber her but he's thrown out onto the street and later them
and police arrest. Another man from the neighborhood of Kentish town he had put on a bright bloom
ass. It was going around scaring women and children. Then, on March thirty, first, a third person
a teenager, James Painter, is arrested for attacking a woman well dressed in all white. Apparently painters victim had recognized his voice. So all of this brings up a great point, which is that spring he'll Jack could be, though,
work of multiple people, the real jack plus a load of copycats.
To mention. Newspapers are cashing in on the Jack panic, their quick to label any
things strange or dangerous. As the work of spring he'll jack
Assuming that in most cases, Jack is one person he seems to be targeting the mid to lower class. He attacks
rural servants, including a woman named Polly atoms in eighteen, thirty, seven and a young boy in London's east end in eighteen, thirty, eight and by this point theirs.
In story floating around London and it suburbs. It goes like this and and
local woman is walking alone at night when Spring healed Jack attacks her he scares her half to death, leaving her with seizure.
So basically the Lucy scales attack over and over again, but beyond,
one clothes and seizures Jack's victims usually are injured. He just likes to scare them in any case. Over the next few years, it seems like everything is blamed on Jack
from robberies to attempted sexual assaults, then in
in forty five, a story circulates about away worse incident. That happened in a neighborhood known as Jacobs, Island Jacobs Island is
basically a run down district that sits above open sewers, with bridges connecting the apartment buildings kind of like the Venice canal if they were full of human waste.
Now a young sex workers named Maria Davis, is standing on a bridge one night when without warning Jack appears, he grabs her with his claws and breathes fire into her face. Then he picks Maria up lifts. Her over his head
and hurled hurt in to the sewer where she drowns so now spring he'll Jack is a murderer or
he unlike Lucy Scales and Jane all Sap Maria story never appears in the new. So it's probably
nothing more than a rumor.
But similar stories compound for decades throughout the mid too late, eighteen, hundreds until eventually spring he'll Jack becomes a pop culture icon. This is mainly thanks to penny dreadful
fiction, books about murders, demons and mayhem around Victorian England, Briggs
we'll Sweeney Todd? The murderous Barbara Fleet Street gets his start in a penny dreadful, but most of the time they take inspiration from real headlines, which is the case with spring healed Jack, his character, also, pops up in theatre, audiences love him and multiple plays feature
as their jumping fire breathing villain, that's not to say, Jack, isn't still operating out on the streets. In fact, one of his
most significant attacks, or in this case a series of attacks? Does
happen until eighteen. Seventy seven, almost forty years since.
He first showed up in London only this time he takes on the british army.
Its spring and there's a rumours circulating through the Alder shot army camp just southwest of London, apparently in the dead.
Night, a soldier is standing guard in a remote part of the camp. He's mining is
When suddenly something jumps on his back, the soldier can feel it's cold clammy hands clawing at his arms,
and he realizes it's trying to steal his weapon. But before you
it is bearings his attacker poof just disappears
other soldiers report even weirder encounters
they claim a strange figure, leaped impossibly high over them and whack them in the face. With his cold corpse like hands.
Which, if you think about it, is kind of like a weird flax and it doesn't
We match the whole metal claw thing that spring he'll Jack had going still. It is pretty scary,
and supposedly when the soldiers fire at this guy, the bullets do nothing
So you see the wearing some sort of Burma.
The armor or the shots are passing through him. These reports continue off and on through eighteen. Seventy six
and an seventy eight. Eventually, the army higher ups, get angry like how are they expect
defend the country if they can't defend their own base from an intruder, so they give in order to double the
night watch telling their men to stop Jack by any means necessary so into some.
Eighteen. Seventy eight a guard is on duty at the edge of older shot army camp when Jack attacks him
this time. The soldier stabs spring he'll jack in the leg with bayonets and Jack, goes down hard.
In a scene straight from Scooby. Do the soldier pulls off Jack's disguise to reveal a junior
officer from the base. The
tire year and a half of spring healed Jack tormenting the army was a hoax, so
to me. This is more proof that spring he'll Jack could have been a string of pranks still Jack keeps operating off and on Burundi
aids until finally in the fall of nineteen o four he vanishes, but not without making his boldest appearance yet
This point Jack's been running around England for an impressive sixty seven years,
residents of William Henry Streton Liverpool report a spring healed man leaping across the rooftops at night, sometimes
he even descends to the street to scare whatever Ladys are walking by then,
very end of September Jack appears in broad daylight, wearing a mask and black cloak. He bounds
and down William Henry Street jumping higher and farther than humanly possible. This goes on
ten minutes in front of dozens of people until finally, Jack leaps, a full twenty five eat shit,
up from the street and lands on a near by house. He gives
sterling laugh and runs off across the rooftops of Liverpool, never to be seen again so who was spring healed
Jack. Let's go back for a minute. The main investigation because Remember detective James Lee was put on both the Jane Am Lucy.
Since we noticed a similarity in both their testimonies spring he'll J
had been wearing some sort of headgear or bonnet as Lucy called it
we wondered if this had something to do with Jack's fire breathing.
Eighteen, thirty, eight the same year is the attacks he went to the London Hospital for help. There huh
little technicians, actually duplicated Jack's fire breathing using a technique similar to what a circus fire eater uses. They filled a too
with wine and sulphur and had a test subject blow air through it. Some one else held up.
Aim and Presto the person's breath caught fire all to say this?
could be why Jack asked for a candle at Jaynes House. He needed
some type of ignition to light his helmet
once he had it. He breathed fire in her face
When detective Lee discovered this, he was convinced jack. Wasn't some type of monster like Jane, had implied just a dangerous.
On or potentially group of men, and actually,
back in January, eighteen, thirty, eight! Just a month before the Jane and Lucy attacks, a rapporteur for the morning chronicle,
so speculated that this could be a group of men only. He thought that a group of board aristocrats were responsible. Supposedly this group had me
a bat like whoever frightened the most people, one money, which could
explain why Jack showed up all across London in all sorts of disguise its even
Lord Mayor thought. Jack was one or more persons, rather than some kind of beast or supernatural creature. Not long after you,
publish the anonymous letter in eighteen, thirty, eight. He decided to actually do something he began
collecting money from wealthy londoners to fund a prosecution of this gang and he even posted a reward of ten pounds for anyone who caught spring he'll Jack, but for years the public felt divided over who or what spring he'll jack. Really
What's the working class seemed more willing to believe Jack was a supernatural being, but the upper class who read about spring he'll jack in the news agreed. He was part of some prank
in fact many of them believe that they knew exactly who spring he'll Jack was coming up, willing cover, Jack's, possible identity, pill patch
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at the height of Jack's popularity. Many londoners familiar with his reputation speculated that spring he'll Jack was actually the creation of an aristocrat
a man named Henry De Della poor Beresford, the Marquis of Waterford
Henry was not originally supposed to be the Marquis of Waterford. He was
second son in a noble irish family. When Henry was thirty
in his brother, died leaving him to become the family. Air young Henry
found himself at the intersection of unbelievable wealth and incredible boredom, so he used his mouth
to amuse himself and raise a little hell, for example,
we once sailed his yacht to America with his drinking bodies where he was arrested for beating up people on the street. When he came
to England, he tried to start a victorian fight club literally offering
to pay men to fight him. There's a report
that one night he attacked a group of singers while entirely naked and according to Legend, he's the
I, behind the phrase painting the town red
as the story goes in eighteen, thirty, seven Henry wrought havoc on the town of Milton Mowbray. He and his rich friends beat an english police officer and splashed red paint all over the build
They even broke a man out of the local jail people at the time called Henry the mad Marquis. He was known for pranks and vandalism, so scaring
people with a spring he'll Jack get up sounds right up his alley. The only hitch is the timeline
you see Henry lived in England in eighteen, thirty, seven and eighteen thirty, eight. The years when spring he'll Jack first came to prominence, but by eighteen, forty
Two three years before Jack drowned Maria Davis. He moved back to Ireland
in eighteen, fifty nine he died falling off a horse, so Henry
and his friends might have been responsible for the first attacks, but he couldn't have been this
Uncle Jack, who haunted the London suburbs and countryside through the MID one thousand eight hundred- and he definitely wasn't the person across Liverpool rooftops in one thousand nine hundred and four.
Although that last citing might have never happened in nineteen
Fifty seven, a woman who lived in Liverpool during nineteen o four wrote into a newspaper hoping to set the record straight. She claimed the faint
Jack citing was actually a common incident apparel.
There was a local man with a mental disability who tended to fix, save on religion more than
on the man had climbed onto his roof, to yell, about the devil and when people called the authorities he would run away across rooftops
over time. This story, morphed into the last confirmed, citing of spree he'll jack.
Whether or not that's true people, especially working class women had a lot to be done.
You have in victorian era. London crime was rampant.
The neighborhoods in London's east and were dangerous and theft happened everywhere. People didn't feel like they had any
taxation and many of them distrusted the metropolitan police
organisation had been founded not even a decade before Jack appeared and
boarding to record a lot of cops were drunk on the job. The reason jack permeated every aspect of society from word of mouth to stage plays is probably because there was a culture of fear
So, in a weird way, believing in a supervillain or a shape, shifting monster could be comforting
It makes sense of the constant danger and in retrospect, Jack probably dropped off people's radar because something else
his place, some one, even more famous than spring he'll jack between August
first and November nine eighteen, eighty eight, an unknown assailant stalked in killed five women in London's neighbourhood of White chapel. He mused
did their bodies slit their throats and cut their organs out with a knife.
Then the murderer allegedly sent letters to the press and the metropolitan police dubbing himself Jack. The ripper Jack, the ripper killing spree only lasted a few months, but it was tat
A fine, a total of eleven murders happen in close proximity around the same time, meaning there could
been even more victims. No one knew about the man
and became a national sensation. Even
day. There are jack, the ripper tours around White chapel, and no one's ever solved. Who the killer was.
A bogeyman like spring he'll jack pails in comparison
but even though Jack the Ripper became way more popular. The original jack
didn't just fade away. He may
have found a new home in the fall of nineteen thirty, eight
literally one hundred years after Jack. First came into existence astray,
figure appears in the Cape COD Village, a province town Massachusetts. One witness says he encountered this mysterious person and they spat blue flames into his face. Newspapers, dub him
black flash and a year later, in nineteen thirty, nine, a reporter from the province town advocate claims that flash can jump over ten foot hedges their explanation while his springs on his feet
from nineteen. Thirty eight nineteen, forty five, the black flash, frightens people around province, town, it's always in the fire.
All in winter. So not during tourist season and flash now
seriously hurt anyone like spring he'll jack. He could be a lot of things: a prank Merv, a monster
Then a figment of the towns imagination because fear can do anything
it can make a shadow loom as large as a house or turn a night breeze into
ghostly whisper, it can even make us
healed man, breathe fire being
were listening. I'll be back next week with another episode you can find all episodes of supernatural and all other Parkhurst originals for free on Spotify Spotify has all
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episode of supernatural was written by Molly Quinlan with writing assistance by alley. Wicker fact checking by on you barely and research by making Taylor
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Transcript generated on 2021-05-20.