Have you ever had the strange feeling of being followed or watched? As much as you would like to believe that it is all in your head you can’t shake that feeling. You walk along the lighted streets, stay within eyesight of people that you can find, and eventually reach home. Once inside, the door locked, you breathe a sigh of relief.

As you begin to relax, you wonder if anyone was really following you at all. You didn’t hear any footsteps behind you, didn’t see anyone close enough to you to make you feel threatened. You end up convincing yourself that you had a long day at work, and it’s possible that your exhausted mind may have thought that someone was following you.

Perhaps no one was following you…at least no one human.

There are countless creatures in this world that rely on stealth to ambush and surprise their prey—you don’t know what monsters are hidden in the world waiting to make you their next target. One monster that is especially skilled in using stealth is the Spring-heeled Jack.

The Spring-heeled Jack was first reported in England sometime around the 1800s. While this monster has been spotted from London to Liverpool, it was most frequently reported in Black County. The early reports only mentioned brief contact with the monster, and no one had reason to fear it…at first. As reports of the monster became more frequent, however, it would soon gain notoriety as the vicious monster it is known as today.

Witnesses have described the Spring-heeled Jack as being human-like in appearance, wearing a black cape and a mask. There have been conflicting accounts of what the mask really looks like—some have argued it is plastic, others have said the mask is made of metal. However, they all agree that its eyes are red as rubies, and describe them as “intense looking.”

The first thing many have noted about this monster is its ability to quickly and quietly move around its environment. The Spring-heeled Jack is known to easily jump from the street to a rooftop in one single jump. It is also known for its large, sharp claws that have been described as dagger-like in appearance.

As years went by, and more and more people had encounters with the monster, reports of the Spring-heeled Jack’s propensity for violence became more frequent.

As the number of victims grew, so did new behavior and attack patterns. The most unusual is the blue fire that the monster breathes onto its victims’ faces. Victims attacked by the blue fire have said they become paralyzed and unable to defend themselves.

The first known attack on a human by the Spring-heeled Jack likely occurred in 1837. A woman, who was never named, was out walking by herself when she was attacked. When people found her, she was lying in the street with her clothes torn to shreds and covered in blood, but she was still alive. Witnesses described seeing a man escape the scene by leaping away. While the victim could not recall who or what attacked her, many people have come to believe that this was the first recorded attack of the Spring-heeled Jack.

The most publicized attack would come a year later, and it would create such mass hysteria that the Spring-heeled Jack would become infamous in England. A woman by the name of Jane Alsop was at home when her doorbell rang. Before she could open the door, she heard a man’s voice outside claiming that they captured the Spring-heeled Jack and needed some help. Jane brought a candle and followed the shadowy figure as it led her away from her home. As she got close to the man, it turned and breathed blue fire into her face before attacking her with its sharp daggers. Jane’s sister heard her screams and scared off the perpetrator as she ran toward her sister yelling for help.

Only after Jane’s report to the authorities did it become apparent that this was an attack by the Spring-heeled Jack. Jane described that her attacker had “eyes like fireballs” and was wearing a “helmet, and a tight-fitted white outfit.” She also said that his hands were “icy cold with sharp claws.” However, Jane was only one of many more of the Spring-heeled Jack’s victims.

In another such attack, the Spring-heeled Jack used its stealth to carefully stalk and attack its victim, Lucy Hale. This time the woman was not approached or tricked; instead, it managed to suddenly appear in front of her, catching her off guard before breathing a blue fire in her face and attacking her as she fell to the ground seizing.

The victim reports show two different attack behaviors that the Spring-heeled Jack seems to prefer.

The earlier attacks seemed to be bold and brazen. This first pattern of attack is to lure someone out of their home in the guise of a man in trouble or attack victims in public areas. In either scenario, the monster always has the upper hand, and it would attack its victims and escape from people with its quick leaping ability.

The second attack pattern, which seems to be the monster’s preferred method, is to stalk the victim until the time is right for an ambush. It is unknown how long the Spring-heeled Jack follows its victims. Some victims don’t even have the feeling of being followed. Some victims were more distracted than others. For those that were more observant, or felt like they were being followed or watched, they describe being unable to shake the feeling for several blocks. The victims would eventually be pushed to the ground from behind, and as they hit the ground they all report feeling claws penetrating and scratching their bodies.

The problem that some victims faced when telling their story to the local authorities was the fantastical reports of the creature’s abilities. While some authorities believe in the Spring-heeled Jack, others think it’s just a legend that spread like wildfire due to mass hysteria. Sure, they might believe in the mask and the cape. Sure, the authorities could assume that the victim was confused when they described the dagger-like claws. The problem of the story for the authorities that are assigned to these cases is the blue fire that paralyzes the victims, and its gravity-defying leaping ability. None of these abilities can be explained, and it is hard to believe unless someone witnesses it firsthand.

In fact, this may be the reason why reports started to drop in frequency. Perhaps authorities stopped taking reports. Perhaps the victims were afraid to report their encounters, or perhaps they were influenced by other victims who weren’t taken seriously. Whatever the reason, there is no doubt that these attacks are still occurring. Unfortunately, the drop in the number of reports could prevent any new knowledge of the monster. The Spring-heeled Jack seems to be a monster that is highly intelligent and is quick to change its pattern of attacks.

Right now, it may be stalking and injuring its victims; but, what if it begins to kill people?

These victim reports should be taken seriously, as it is a way to study the monster and see if it has a new attack method that it prefers. The reports could also pinpoint a territory of the monster. The territory could help in the capture or the killing of the Spring-heeled Jack.

There seem to be so many questions about this monster that will never be explained. The jumping ability of this monster was only reported in the earlier years by a few people. No one stopped and questioned how this could be. No one tried to understand how this monster works. Then there’s the blue fire mystery, which seems to be dismissed by the authorities because this is another thing that can’t easily be explained.

These unanswered questions are the reason why the Spring-heeled Jack is doing as well as it is doing.  Authorities are not taking this threat as seriously as they should, which means that the monster will be around for a long time with no human threat. As those victim reports die out, it will only be a matter of time when the Spring-heeled Jack escalates its predatory behavior and makes its first kill.