Peter Haining

An author whose books sit behind many retellings of the Spring-heeled Jack legend. His 1977 book, The Legend and Bizarre Crimes of Spring Heeled Jack, became a source for popular accounts of cases such as Everton in 1904. Researcher Mike Dash, writing in Fortean Studies in 1996, found episodes in it with no earlier source. The Polly Adams attack was one. Dash concluded they were invented, and suspected embellishment around the Lincoln case of 1877. Haining also wrote Ghosts in 1974. There he claimed the Admiralty in London preserved the log of the Flying Dutchman sighting by Prince George.

Stories6

Pro early

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

Pro early

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

Author of The Legend and Bizarre Crimes of Spring-Heeled Jack (1977)

Pro early

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

Author of The Legend and Bizarre Crimes of Spring Heeled Jack (1977), suspected by Dash of embellishing some incidents

Pro early

The Flying Dutchman Seen by Prince George, Later George V (1881)

July 11, 1881 · At sea between Melbourne and Sydney, usually placed in Bass Strait

Australia

Paranormal · Other · 21 sources

23Thinly documented

Author of Ghosts (1974), claimed the Admiralty preserved the log

Pro early

Spring-heeled Jack in William Henry Street, Everton, Liverpool (1904)

September 1904 · William Henry Street, Everton, Liverpool

United Kingdom

Cryptid · Creature · 21 sources

15Thinly documented

Author of The Legend and Bizarre Crimes of Spring-heeled Jack (1977)

Pro early

The Everton Spring-heeled Jack scare in William Henry Street, Liverpool (1904)

September 20, 1904 · William Henry Street, Everton, Liverpool

United Kingdom

Paranormal · Being / humanoid · 18 sources

14Thinly documented

Author of The Legend and Bizarre Crimes of Spring Heeled Jack (1977)