In late 1837, an elderly lady was visiting the cemetery at Clapham in south-west London when she saw a figure in a dark cloak who made an ungodly jump over a high fence and disappeared into the darkness. Shortly after, a young girl called Mary Stevens was attacked by a similar figure, who jumped out of a dark alley and then escaped by leaping over a high wall.
When the Lord Major, Sir John Cowan, received an anonymous letter describing a demonic creature, who was able to leap from rooftop to rooftop, he thought it was nonsense10. However, similar accounts started pouring in and Cowan was forced to hold a public debate. The press got hold of the story and named the mysterious attacker Spring-Heeled Jack for his ability to jump great heights.
No culprit was ever identified, but for a while suspicion focused on Henry de La Poer Beresford, the 3rd Marquis of Waterford. A former boxer, the Marquis was young, athletic and known as the Mad Marquis for his drunken and outrageous behaviour. His presence in London also coincided with the first Spring-Heeled Jack assaults. When the Marquis of Waterford left London in 1842, there were no further reports of Spring-Heeled Jack in the city. However he was sighted in various other locations around the country for many years. The last report was in 1904 in Liverpool, when he was seen leaping from the road to the rooftops and back!
