Who was ‘Spring-heeled Jack’ who scared the women of Scotland?

Spring-heeled Jack was said to lurk around The Chanonry in Aberdeen. PIC: www.geograph.org.uk.

Even the thought of ‘Spring-heeled Jack’ was enough to spread fear across the country.

Reports of this predatory figure first came out of London in 1838 when a man disguised as anything from a white bull to a baboon - or perhaps wearing a suit of armour complete with claws - accosted women in the street.

He would not rob his victims but simply ‘paralyse them with fear’ before suddenly disappearing, often leaping over a wall to get away. Some accounts suggest he ripped the woman’s clothes with his claw.

Although the accounts of Spring-heeled Jack were hard to verify, they were enough to make women feel afraid to go out at night - and newspapers loved the sensation of it all.

A trend began as copycats lapped up the attention and Scotland soon had many of its own Spring-heeled Jacks. Usually, they took on a ghostly appearance, according to accounts.

They included an incident at Galashiels the Borders in August 1891 when a mob gathered to attack a suspected Spring-Heeled Jack. On this occasion, it was a woman who was targeted.

A report in the Dundee Courier said: “For some time tales have been going about a ghost or “Spring-Heeled Jack” making nocturnal perambulations in Gala Park district, and performing ghostly antics; and more or less accurate descriptions of the “spirit” have been circulated.”

“On Tuesday night a large crowd was in the Market Square listening to the town band, when peculiarly-dressed female came the scene.

“It was suggested that this was “Spring-Heeled Jack,” and the poor woman was set upon by the excited crowd, and had to taken for safety the Police Office.”