Spring heeled jack

[dusty]

I wasn't altogether sure where to post this, but as it reminds me of
the "Mothman", it seems like the right place.

On this weeks show with Siani, and her description of what seemed to be her friend calling late one night. And what with this entities strange gesticulations and the boots it was wearing, and in particular the way it abruptly left the scene. I was put in mind of the legend of "Spring heeled Jack".

I was first made aware of this story by a tutor at the London college of furniture back in 1982. The main building was in Commercial Road in Whitechapel in the heart of Jack the Ripper territory.
I used to have to walk past many of the sites the Ripper had attacked those poor women on my way to college, and got to know the area well.

One of the most interesting stories to me, was of the predecessor to the more famous Jack. Namely "Spring heeled Jack".

I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere else here, so here is a link on Wikipedia all about this strange character.

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

I can easily see how, if this were occuring today. We could easily put this in the "Alien being" category, and maybe it should be, or perhaps was.

Peace,

Mark

 

[Siani]

Apparently, some people did consider Jack to be a visitor from another planet, due to his apparent ability to fly, and his tendency to spit out blue flames. I did a little research into the Spring-heeled Jack phenomenon for a local history article I wrote:

A History of Swansea and Gower: Spring-heeled Jack on Gower

The same or similar phenomenon surfaced in New York, too, after Jack's rampage in the UK. Many researchers suspect Spring-heeled Jack was a prankster who was inspired by the nineteenth century pulp fiction books and magazines known as Penny Dreadfuls, which reported and exaggerated all his antics.