Spring Heeled Jack, Part 1 - Mythillogical Podcast

Note: Originally recorded October 25th 2020
On today's Halloween(-ish) episode, Charles and Crofty head out on the trail of the Terror of London, Spring Heeled Jack, and investigate how the industrial revolution may have lead to fears of a phantom prowling the streets of Victorian London.
38:52 Timepoint to skip the Hammersmith ghost origin section.
Link to the Mike Dash Article:
www.academia.e...
Join this channel to get access to perks:
/ @thehistocrat
Help support us elsewhere at:
/ thehistocrat
/ the_histocrat
bsky.app/profi...
#Mythology #Folklore #SpringHeeledJack
Mythillogical logo by Ettore Mazza. You can find more of Ettore's excellent artwork below:
/ ettore.mazza
/ ettoremazza
“Suonatore di Liuto” by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (creativecommon...)
Artist: incompetech.com/

[@TheHistocrat]

This podcast is now also available on Spotify, iTunes and Stitcher! You can find it at the links below: Spotify - open.spotify.com/episode/0E8JeUG5Q5mpl0bdWAOdf3 iTunes - podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/spring-heeled-jack-part-1/id1514656609?i=1000496710508 Stitcher - www.stitcher.com/show/mythillogical-podcast/episode/springheeled-jack-part-1-79011977

[@Hav3nMaina]

I finally found your podcast on my podcast app and I am so thrilled. Thank you

[@AtomicDoorknob]

if you guys do a modern myth i would like to see a video on mothman especially if you aren't familiar with that story

[@WhitneyDahlin]

Really miss this series I was waiting for the mermaid episode with baited breath!

[@121BigRed]

Don't worry about the length of the episodes, the deep dive into the topic is the reason I listen. Looking forward to learning more in the next episode.

[@killintime8431]

Oh gosh James

[@4chords184]

Do one on "The Beast of Gévaudan"

[@SaintClutch]

Legend has it his boots were used by an apprentice of the grey fox to steal an elder scroll during the oblivion crisis

[@jkwalzo]

Crossover, perfect boots for sneaking into Riftweald Manor at level one to snatch Chillrend, although I wouldn’t recommend due to lower base damage.

[@radagast7200]

Also, I'm pretty sure Nike stole them and used them as a prototype for their 'shocks'.

[@F.A.Jaramillo]

My friend is in Hospice, and we both listen in the night until she falls asleep. Love your work, much appreciated. 💫

[@elgoogkcuf]

bless your heart. you sound like a one in a million friend.

[@jackmace6531]

legend.

[@jkwalzo]

Bless you dude.

[@kelliv2995]

❤❤❤

[@TheHistocrat]

An additional credit that we forgot to include in the video, a number of the newspaper images used in this video were taken from the British Newspaper Archive.

[@patbonny1175]

Springheel Jack is featured in a short story - 'strawberry spring' from "Night Shift" by Stephen King, it was the first time I'd heard of him.

[@sophiehannan8469]

He’s also featured as a recurring character in the Skulduggery Pleasant series!

[@jackieblue9536]

Yes...

[@killintime8431]

And in an old ninja turtles cartoon episode

[@dasociety129113]

Your content is so well researched. You have an amazing ability to make deep content that has a great appeal to dummies like myself. Would love to hear your make a video on the codex gigas (devils bible) and aleister crowly. Love your work thankyou

[@gh0stdog89]

From memory, the first time I remember hearing of Springheeled Jack was in the Skulduggery Pleasant books

[@DukeDukeGo]

An episode on the wild hunt would be very interesting as well. Osp did an halloween episode on this and before that I didn't know much about it except that it had some connections to Odin, but turns out the topic has so many variations that a 1-2h podcast could easily be filled

[@Grinnar]

I hope you saw that they eventually did after this. 😊

[@edgewiseCL]

To think this suggestion inspired them...ahh ..the power of the comment section

[@ourdictatorship]

The difference between the Hamersmith Ghost attacks and the Springfield Jack attacks was the middle of the 1830's, during which Penny Dreadful stories (like the incredibly infamous Varney the Vampire) first hit it big. I bet the kitsch comic book element may have been drawn from these and circulating stories much like them, which brought nonlocal legends to the working class. That's just my unprofessional guess, but it is a notable coincidence.

[@alecsmith3448]

This all sounds like a more violent version of Scooby-Doo

[@hollywoodpineapple8337]

​@@Archangelm127Closest we got was Zombie Island

[@VideoSaySo]

Spring Heeled Jack...the original Parkour Master! Lol!

[@reporebo]

Best coverage of this legend I’ve heard, really appreciate the depth and analysis you put into this! Can’t wait to listen to more episodes.

[@ohiogrows3668]

Bro, I get severe sinus infections once a year. Last year I had one so bad, after sleeping a few hours when I finally got up and tried to stand, the shift in fluids cause such intense pain in my head, I pissed my pants and passed out

[@Bassist-Beneath]

Goddamn I get em sometimes too but never that bad. I feel like I’m gonna pass out when I stand up with a bad one, but it’s never actually happened...

[@memomorph5375]

I had one and had to go on ceftin antibiotic

[@coyotemojo]

looking forward to the update on this year's.

[@notinspectorgadget]

Oh.....kay?

[@Cate7451]

Ohio Grows that sounds awful! Take care!

[@razielthered]

I remember them from Oblivion, well his boots xD

[@Choices2aa]

I wish they would do a movie about Spring Heeled Jack Christopher Walken would be great to play him and Tim Burton directing it also with Johnny Depp. Spring Heeled Jack is an urban legend in London, England. I have a comic book of him.

[@JB-hl1qx]

Do you recall the name of the comic book? Was is Marvel or DC ? I'm a comic book collector and would love to know so I can find one myself.

[@lilgreeneyesp637]

Theres also many stories of him being in liverpool..well documented, over time..

[@pentegarn1]

A Strigoi mort or ghost is "semi physical". How semi physical it is depends on the amount of energy it has sucked out of living beings. Also time of year matters. In the winter the dryer more electrically charged atmosphere helps them form semi physicals bodies. And all ghosts die the "Second Death" eventually...where they just fade away slowly. For whatever reason they tend to fade from the feet up first. Then they just become shadows....and the etheric body ,or "Ka" as the Egyptians called it , just vanishes. What's left is the "Ba" of the Egyptians...and and it flung into the astral plane where it has little no no interest in the physical universe anymore.

[@DrDrolly]

Just dicovered your channel, a real treasure chest!

[@DrDrolly]

And the best part of it is, i dont have to wait 14 days haha. Like Sub An 10$ to you sir!

[@MrBazzabee]

Great show lads. When I was a young boy in the mid-60,s--and I was jumping about in the street. My grandma would shout to me----You look like Spring-Heeled Jack.

[@MrKiingpin]

Just found this channel and WOW this podcast is better than most big budget history type documentaries

[@rojopantalones9791]

I'm incredibly thankful for this series, as I've been using it to better understand just how myths come into being. It's been helpful in the creative writing process to create a more believable and worldly environment for characters to explore. Something that starts out as maybe an obscure animal or strange individual, its story grows in a multi-generational game of telephone to the point where it becomes this completely fantastical being.

[@instinctivelychelsea2905]

I believe tangents and and details is what gave birth to the first podcast !

[@3fingerroll]

this is the most in depth and best researched study of this story i have ever found , New sub !!

[@wendychavez5348]

Before now, most of what I've heard of Springheeled Jack has been in relation to Jack the Ripper. Just pointing out that it's not necessarily a different audience.

[@angonsframes]

Yes you are right. I just loved this story of Spring heeled Jack.

[@dewayneweaver5782]

I wonder if this Spring Heeled Jack, wasn't a pioneer of the modern sport of parkour. Climbing shear walls and leaping from roof tops, sliding down hand rails would have seemed fantastic to a uneducated person who didn't have the benefit of KZbin.

[@NecromancyForKids]

I like that the backgrounds for the time and the legends are given.

[@SedDelMar]

Great! Thoroughly engrossing. I am completely contaminated by American pop culture, so, I was overwhelmed with the impression that ol’ jack would make an impressive super hero/villain. His escapades are Batmanesque. Save for the assaults and such. Mia culpa. I wish there was a fan fiction treatment of this fellow.

[@SedDelMar]

So... what would the British say about spring heal jack fan fic?

[@itsalondonthing9562]

The being that is spring heel jack and the perpetrator of the 1855 devil's hoof prints mystery in Devon are one and the Same

[@alexandersvideopicks8735]

Long time D&D and Pathfinder player and gamemaster here. Loved the Pathfinder reference. Spring-Heeled Jack is a fun monster to through at the players, especially in a crowded city. Not to be contrary here, in regards to your excellent research and the accounts and articles you unearthed, but many of those accounts and articles relate entirely different descriptions. What if these were all different creatures, active in those areas at those particular times? English and other European belief in the Fae was strong for ages and still exists to this day. What if all these "creatures" and "ghosts" and what have you, were actually Fae creatures, perhaps near a place where the walls are thin between our world and theirs? If, that is, we are assuming any of these "creatures" and "ghosts" are supernatural in origin, of course.

[@warboats]

I'm from Hounslow mate, spot on pronunciation, not bad for a northerner anyway 😉

[@ThatBernie]

Yay a new mythillogical video! That intro music gets me in a folksy mood every time :)

[@joannaoconnor9418]

Oh lord not only was I about to type the same thing word for word....we have the same name!!

[@RaGe.Ranger]

What is the name of it I can never remember

[@joannaoconnor9418]

@@RaGe.Ranger name of what? Synchronicity?

[@RaGe.Ranger]

@@joannaoconnor9418 the song

[@ThatBernie]

Joanna O'Connor Hello distant cousin!

[@lakrids-pibe]

It's surprising how many of these "ghost"-stories are actually women being afraid of their violent ex-boyfriend/husband. Surprising and depressing.

[@dcrog69]

In some ways it's kind of sad that the world has lost a lot of its mystery.

[@yvellebradley2502]

Agreed. Lack of nature wildness which created many fables, such as faeries.

[@skjaldulfr]

Yes! The earliest I recall hearing reference to this was also TES IV: Oblivion!

[@sezwho8561]

Spring heeled jack was seen in the Everton and Islington area of Liverpool in the 1800s. Actual police reports

[@harrywompa]

I first encountered Spirngheel Jack from the Jackie Chan Adventures animated series... that show is the shit

[@adriansandoval2331]

Awesome Podcast, Assassin's Creed Syndicate has a mission where you have to capture Springheeled Jack

[@scottdavis1549]

Bob Gymlin covers this. It’s kinda cool.

[@Ruby-ep8oc]

Impressive research . I've been very interested in the spring heeled black stories . It's bad enough with Jack the Ripper in 1888 terrorizing London without Spring heeled Jack adding to it.

[@jonathannelson103]

Spring heeled Jack sounds a lot like the New Jersey Devil. I wonder if there's a connection.

[@jettagriffin]

Wonder where the thriller or horror movies that could stem from this are? I mean seems easy to green light.

[@MrPEYTON121]

So happy I found your channel off some recommendations on a celtic paganism video. Long-form history audio is the best, and you don't seem to take a year to put something out like Dan Carlin (no disrespect, he's the goat)

[@itsalondonthing9562]

Hopefully spring heel jack will return to modern day London and single handedly drive out roadman culture?

[@BuckarooBoya]

My first hearing of spring heel jack was in a ghost story book when I was probably 12 or so

[@antoninanavarre9107]

Here is an idea for an episode: did people really use to die of fright in the past?

[@StephenRansom47]

Hey 👋 The Histocrat … rewatched Who Framed Roger Rabbit… Judge Doom becomes Spring-Heeled Jack in the final battle… I gasped … never noticed before BUT its him.

[@starboard9551]

"A Ghost Did It" Judge: "Case Dismissed"

[@killintime8431]

Maybe 🎅🏿

[@user-hm4yi7um9d]

You know what would have helped prevent this? An armed citizenry. 🤣

[@nickjurr4706]

I see no comments referencing jackie Chan adventures, ill am that guy pal.

[@isaacrushing8007]

I found you randomly, but I beg you to keep going. Subscribed. Please, Sirs, may we have another? Lol

[@chocolartsofia4038]

You guys have been very productive recently, i'm loving it! While you're at it, Charles, why not continue the history of Britain series?

[@TheHistocrat]

Mostly because I was bored after doing 4 episodes. I will do some again in 2021.

[@chocolartsofia4038]

@@TheHistocrat Thanks! Just so you know I wasn't bored, on the contrary I've watched them a few times and recomended them to a few friends. Keep up the good work, I'm thankfull for any content you put up!

[@philipwebb960]

@@TheHistocrat We weren't bored.

[@qeter129]

It has British people in it.

[@NettiGaming]

I love your history of Britain series Charles

[@mattias969]

Leather apron sounds way more horrible and scary than jack the ripper

[@personone1686]

I would love to hear a Wild Hunt podcast

[@killintime8431]

Ya like slockin hog or something

[@nowhereman6019]

The real horror of Spring-Heel Jack is capitalism and classism.

[@PierroCh5]

Sinusitis is the WORST, I hope you get better soon !

[@LTPottenger]

Sounds like a fun way to spend a night out with the lads.

[@killintime8431]

Drunks your saying

[@instinctivelychelsea2905]

Was so excited for another mythillogical!!!

[@fauxshowyo]

so the rich Londoners of the time sounded basically like the modern rich chinese.

[@Arkantos117]

It's what happens when rich people don't get themselves a proper hobby like forestry or gaming.

[@LTPottenger]

It's what happens when you are not used to being rich and ddn't earn it yourself, many people were suddenly rich and many more suddenly poor at this time.

[@CarburetorThompson]

@@LTPottenger are you talking about communism or the industrial revolution I can’t even tell

[@roan2288]

Feels like modernday rich londoners as well tbh.

[@bigdaddydons6241]

1800's Ghostbusters sounds like s great time

[@davemckinney6555]

Forgive you? The details and tangents are often as informative and entertaining as the intended tale.

[@TheDeadmanTT]

Oh there it is! I was listening on itunes and was wondering when you were gonna upload it here

[@wonderoushistoryofclassicf9193]

This is absolutely fantastic

[@Schutti73]

Please enable Subtitles for this Video

[@discflame]

Letterwriter: "This man is assaulting women and leaving them traumatized" Lord Mayor: "Big if true"

[@onefeather2]

Love the art work and the in depth that you go into on subjects.❤️

[@jfalk6500]

alternative words for gelatinize in this context: in denmark we say "slå rødder" og "lay/laying roots" for staying around, which would also be a neat choice here

[@rachelhannan5949]

Anyone know him from Morrissey?

[@graywolfpatriot8589]

I read a book back in the late 60s I believe it was. The book was The Road to Magonia, It had 1 long chapter on Spring Heeled Jack. It just came to mind today and I put it in KZbin search and here you are. Glad I found your podcast.. Texas, USA...

[@Bassist-Beneath]

As a Kentuckian, I sleep well knowing all you sophisticated fancy Euro-types can’t pronounce some English words that I can 😌

[@aj383]

I'm going to assume you're talking about his pronunciation of bugaboo..?

[@markjones336]

Spring Heeled Jack was a alien.

[@daves.8869]

Thank you for expanding my mythological knowledge.

[@SoaringShade]

I made a bit of local folklore in my town while I was doing parkour at night. I was on a rooftop and some guy yelled at me to get down. I thought nothing of it. The next day my towns local paper had a story about "a figure clad in black. Was it a bungling burglar, spring heeled jack, batman. One of the most memorable moments in my life. I'm honored to be possibly considered spring heeled Jack or batman 😂

[@adrianaslund8605]

I actually knew about him before Oblivion. Reading an old book about various mysteries. I also learned about spontaneous combustion there. He was also featured in a collectible monster subscription thing my friend had. That's also where I learned about wendigos. Which are scary if you live in the woods.

[@joshuamartins1863]

Ello, ello… ello! Well, I’m actually from the states in particular the state of Rhode Island, I was born and raised in Providence and I’m a world history teacher with a secondary education degree focused in social studies content which means you also take sociology anthropology economics and geography. As well as have a minor in philosophy but prior to that I had pursued a degree in education focused towards that of criminal psychology and criminal profiling. However, I got to say I do enjoy many of your approaches es because you from it it was a blank slate show and we do a existing and and to the visions of he history to I am of and references that you are often the initial encounter with your opportunities in these mythos and mythical creatures? My question I guess, because I am blind actually 100% blind just going on about 23 years now? What’s my sight in 99 due to complications from type 12 and diabetes a couple of comas along the way you know to double organ transplant so I’m kind of a modern day myth in and of myself. Quick question, how old are you guys? Me myself I’m 45 and will be 46 later this year? And I’m just wondering why it is that you guys have more of these in the video game and mentioned like Wikipedia is your first experiential knowledge is? Because, I guess maybe growing up where and when I did most of these came up for me in studying actual philosophies history and creation mythos from around the world going back to my childhood I guess visiting the library and starting with the Greeks and Alexander… Be enough I want up with the same personality type as the great leader of Macedon… In the Myers-Briggs type indicator assessment, it’s known as the ENTP… Give that a research to find some great historical features with that personality type to? 🙂💭😯😁😉

[@dark_fire_ice]

by all that is good, stop making me feel ancient; Wikipedia was fairly brand new when I was leaving high school (for those outside the USA, those are the mandatory schooling years, approximately, between the ages of 14 to 18, so by my 3rd year teachers were saying "No Wikipedia on projects.")

[@barn_ninny]

Were sprung shoes a feature of 19th-century London? It seems like many reports attribute his leaping to sprung shoes, and I'm wondering where "witnesses" would have gotten the notion of such a thing. Did they just mean something along the lines of, "He leapt as though he had springs in his shoes"?

[@Leroyy536]

He came too Liverpool and we kicked his arse,like the beastie boys.

[@robertalpy]

In the 1930s in provincetown Massachusetts there was a character named the black flash scaring people in eaxctly the same way.

[@randalfandroll]

ha, my introduction was Oblivion as well

[@ninadiamant8937]

Thank you for doing this!

[@killintime8431]

Well you are very welcome sir 🎅🏿

[@ninadiamant8937]

@@killintime8431 Though I'm a lady, I appreciate your kind words. 👍

[@josephmiller9424]

Could it had been a group of actors making up a legand walked on stilts and may have worked the circus and costume reminds me what you might see on stage at the theater , and they legend got famous

[@grey2619]

He or it was probably trying to leap from building to building to escape the shit and stench, just a thought.

[@newyardleysinclair9960]

Spring heeled jack is such an interesting topic. The beast of gevaudan is another good one

[@MomDoer-qc7iw]

late comment but i would love to hear you guys playing d&d if you ever start a new campaign

[@tomiantenna7279]

Great except one of the guys seems to have had a stroke and can't speak without pausing five times in every sentence. It's jarring to listen to.

[@grey2619]

I think spring heeled jack is just an urban myth blown up over the years, its possible or even likely that "he" may have existed but doubt it very much if he leaped from roof top to roof top, fascinating story though.

[@mattias969]

Well blue fire has an occult symbolic meaning and it has to do with the more infernal spirits and spooks

[@OliveTreeistheTreeofLife]

Olive Leaf for your sinusitis! Olive Leaf is the Tree of Life! Olive Leaf in every medicine bag!!!

[@Shepherd1OFH]

Dudes! Haven't you heard of Jack the Ripper before? He was a real person you know.

[@ludicrousfunone5705]

1:03:02. Haha the north isn't the only place or people who do t like London and non working class Londoners!!!!

[@aaronemerson4431]

My first exposure to spring heeled jack was from the 1990s toy series "monster in my pocket"

[@junkequation]

Same here, and I don't think I'd heard of him since

[@master-kq3nw]

Maybe some prankster 7 attacks but other was copycats but how he create blue flame from mouth

[@sagebias2251]

Thank you for all of your hard work.

[@killintime8431]

You are very welcome glad you in joyed 🎅🏿

[@soulfuzz368]

I remember him from the monster in my pocket card set I had as a kid. I still have them somewhere...

[@killintime8431]

And an old ninja turtles episode

[@getsaucedon9313]

such a good podcast

[@martianmanfrommars8428]

This gave me an idea. You should do an episode on Vampires.

[@jackieblue9536]

Stephen King did a decent short story based on him, several years ago.

[@darkshadows6328]

I first heard of Jack from playing assassins creed syndicate