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The legend and bizarre crimes of Spring Heeled Jack

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Peter Haining's 'Legend and Bizarre Crimes...' has been cited for more than a quarter of a century as the leading authority for the strange doings of Spring-heeled Jack. This is a shame, for unfortunately the book - long the only one to deal in detail with this most remarkable of Victorian bogeymen - appears to have been assembled from whatever materials the author had on hand, spiced up with tales that appear to be pure inventions. It is more or less useless as a reliable study.
To take only a couple of examples, Haining reports Jack's most famous assault - on Jane Alsop, in Old Ford, in February 1838 - solely from a single well known report published by The Times two days after the attack. He was evidently unaware that two more, much longer and more detailed, follow up reports appeared in the same newspaper on 2 and 3 March. These later accounts not only detail the results of the police and local magistrates' investigations into the Alsop case, but give the names and evidence of suspects who were brought to court for questioning. Similarly Haining says nothing to indicate he had any knowledge of the earliest newspaper coverage of Jack's doings, which began appearing late in December 1837 (see, for instance, the West Kent Guardian of 28 December of that year), or was aware that his sketchy coverage of his subject's appearances at the army camp at Aldershot in 1877 could have been supplemented by extracts from military memoirs or with reference to the numerous accounts published at the time by 'Sheldrake's Aldershot and Sandhurst Military Gazette'.
Instead, the author spices up what would otherwise be a very short book with detailed accounts of Jack's alleged assaults on 'Polly Adams' (1837) and 'Maria Davis' (1845) - attacks that cannot be traced to any contemporary sources and which appear to have been simply made up.
Nor, evidently, was Haining aware of a whole swathe of less well publicised Spring-heeled Jack 'flaps' in the years 1837-1937. You will find nothing in his book about Jack's appearances at Teignmouth (1847), Sheffield (1873), Manchester (1885-6), Birmingham (1879 on), Edinburgh (1880s), Mitcham (1870s), the Gower peninsula (1880s), Glasgow (1935) or Aberdeen (1860s). Nor does the book contain anything relating to the numerous intriguing comparable cases that have occurred - for example in Prague during the German occupation, in Newfoundland in 1928, or in Provincetown during the latter stages of World War II.
In sum, this is a book which should be read with caution, and preferably along with one of the scant handful of more reliable sources of information on this most fascinating of mysteries.

"The Legend and Bizarre Crimes of Spring Heeled Jack" is a major classic of weird Victoriana. The fruit of historical research by pop-culture afficiado Peter Haining in 1976, this book uncovers the roots of the story from eye-witness accounts, newspaper clippings and contempory photographs. Instead of the brief and confusing anecdotes in other books, Haining's attention to factual detail and considerable story-telling prowess makes for a gripping read.

Haining also covers the other weird events linked to SHJ, and debunks more farcical theories in favour of a reasoned approach. His conclusion that the Maquis of Waterford WAS Spring Heeled Jack is hard to dismiss.

This book would be of interest to anyone studying subjects like 19th century crime, Fortean events, or even Jack the Ripper. Alas, few authors have yet to realise the comparisons between the latter and SHJ, albeit that Haining's book deals with events some 60 years earlier than SHJ's similarly-monicered serial killer...

...and no, my copy is not for sale !