Variations & Theories
The majority of the above report is from Strange Stories, Amazing Facts; both the claim that Spring-Heeled Jack jumped over a building in William Henry Street and the rumours of his continued appearances past 1904 are only mentioned in Strange & Unexplained Mysteries of the 20th Century.
Charles Berlitz, in his humbly titled Charles Berlitz's World of Strange Phenomena, says that Spring-Heeled Jack first turned up in Barnes Common in southwest London. He also gives Lucy Scales name as 'Sales', and says she was only temporarily blinded, not permanently. Berlitz gives Bearhind Lane as the street that Jane Alsop lived on, and describes Jack's helmet as 'horned.' He is also the only source for this: that on a night in 1877, he attacked three sentries in the Aldershot Barracks who fired their rifles at him to no effect.
No one knows who or what Spring-Heeled Jack was, but one theory, pointed a finger at Henry, Marquis of Waterford, who supposedly managed the amazing leaps attributed to Jack by means of carriage-springs strapped to his ankles. Though eccentric, however, he was never known to be vicious... and, even if the springs could have worked, he would have had to kept up the act until well into his sixties; no mean feat, that.
According to Jenny Randles in her book Strange & Unexplained Mysteries of the 20th Century, research by sceptic Paul Begg showed the whole story to be an exaggerated account of a religious zealot who leapt from rooftop to rooftop to avoid capture by the police; said zealot claimed the devil was chasing him. Since the only reference to Mr. Begg in her bibliography is for his book, Into Thin Air, I have to assume it's the book discussing his theory... and I'll try to find a copy.
Joyce Robins in her book, The World's Greatest Mysteries, sets Jack's first appearance vaguely "in the 1930's." She's also the only source for any detailed accounts of Jack previous to the 1838 attack on Jane Alsop (this includes the "letter to the Lord Mayor" story). Some other differences between the more common story and Ms. Robins' version: Jane Alsop was attacked as soon as the door was open with no deception about Jack being a police officer, and her father comes to her rescue as well as her sister. Lucy Scales and her sister were only temporarily blinded, not permantly, and she adds that Jack escaped by leaping over a brick wall when the ladies' brother arrived on the scene. Ms. Robins is also the only source for the name of the street on which Lucy Scales is attacked.
Her account goes on to say the "Panic spread rapidly, with newspapers labelling Jack as 'public enemy number one'"; that vigilante squads were formed and rewards offered because of the inability of the police to deal with the fantastic villain, and that the Duke of Wellington (then 70) rode out on horseback to hunt for Jack. Finally, Ms. Robins states that was last seen in 1904 in the Everton area of Liverpool, leaping off into the distance across the tops of terraced houses.
In The Encyclopedia of Monsters, Daniel Cohen tells a variation of the Jane Alsop story: on an unknown day in 1838, a man and his two daughters arrived at the Lambeth Street police station and told essentially the same story as above stated for Jane Alsop; but Cohen never gives the father and daughter's names, while adding that they lived on Bearbind Lane. Cohen also has a variation of the Lucy Scales attack: "a few months" after the Alsop attack, a butcher named Squires (not Scales) was said to appeared at the same police station and told of an attack on his sisters which is the same as the Lucy Scales attack as given... though in this version, Cohen doesn't give either of the sisters' names.
Daniel Cohen's book is the only source for the accounts of the leaping fiend being seen on a London church and the Tower of London. Cohen also tells of a police arrest of a young man in Warwickshire wearing a sheet and a mask trying to bounce on springs he had attached to his heels, but no date is given for the event. Also according to Cohen, in 1878 an army officer was said to have been arrested in the town of Aldershot on the charge of impersonating Spring-Heeled Jack, but was later let go.
Most importantly, however, Mr. Cohen also notes the popularity at the time of "penny dreadfuls", cheap and poorly written adventure stories that were comparable to modern comic books, and the fact that their were many penny dreadfuls based on the fictional adventures of "Spring-Heel'd Jack -- The Terror of London." In these sensational publications, Jack was transformed from monster to super-hero, always appearing at the right time to terrify the bad guys. Undoubtably, these stories have altered some of what is now known of Spring-Heeled Jack... but that doesn't stop many people from theorizing about the possibilities of Jack being a space alien or a visitor from another dimension.
Curiouser and curiouser. Check back; this story is under investigation, and updates will be posted as I know more!
