Jane Alsop

The night of 19 February 1838. Jane Alsop, 18, answered a violent ringing at the gate of her father's house in Bear-bind Lane, between Bow and Old Ford. A cloaked man claimed to be a policeman and asked for a light. Then he threw off the cloak, breathed blue and white flames, and tore at her gown and neck with metal claws until her sister arrived. Her report at the Lambeth Street Police Office became a founding moment of the Spring-heeled Jack legend. A suspect, Thomas Millbank, was arrested but not convicted, since he could not breathe fire.

Stories4

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Spring-heeled Jack and the "Suburban Ghost" scare, London, 1837 to 1838

October 1837 · London suburbs: Clapham Common, Peckham, Old Ford (Bow) and Limehouse

United Kingdom

Paranormal · Being / humanoid · 23 sources

26Thinly documented

Witness and victim, attacked at her father's house in Old Ford, aged 18

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Jane Alsop and Spring-heeled Jack: the Bear-bind Lane attack

February 19, 1838 · Bear-bind Lane, between Bow and Old Ford, East London

United Kingdom

Cryptid · Creature · 25 sources

20Thinly documented

Victim and principal witness, aged 18

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Lucy Scales and Spring-heeled Jack, Green Dragon Alley, Limehouse

February 28, 1838 · Green Dragon Alley, off Narrow Street, Limehouse, East London

United Kingdom

Cryptid · Creature · 23 sources

27Thinly documented

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Spring-heeled Jack shot at by a mob at Newport Arch, Lincoln (1877)

c. 1877 · Newport Arch, Lincoln, Lincolnshire

United Kingdom

Paranormal · Being / humanoid · 20 sources

16Thinly documented