Editing Spring-heeled Jack (section)

==Theories==
No one was ever caught and identified as Spring-heeled Jack; combined with the extraordinary abilities attributed to him and the very long period during which he was reportedly at large, this has led to numerous and varied theories of his nature and identity. While several researchers seek a normal explanation for the events, other authors explore the more fantastic details of the story to propose different kinds of [[paranormal]] speculation.

===Sceptical positions===
Sceptical investigators have dismissed the stories of Spring-heeled Jack as [[mass hysteria]] which developed around various stories of a [[bogeyman]] or devil which have been around for centuries, or from exaggerated urban myths about a man who clambered over rooftops claiming that the Devil was chasing him.<ref>Randles, ''Strange and Unexplained Mysteries of the 20th Century''</ref>

[[File:Marquess of Waterford.jpg|thumb|[[Henry Beresford, 3rd Marquess of Waterford|Henry de La Poer Beresford]], 3rd Marquess of Waterford (1840)]]
Other researchers believe that some individual(s) may have been behind its origins, being followed by imitators later on.<ref name="ReferenceA">Dash, "Spring Heeled Jack", in ''Fortean Studies'', ed. Steve Moore.</ref> Spring-heeled Jack was widely considered not to be a supernatural creature, but rather one or more persons with a macabre sense of humour.<ref name=scotsman1/> This idea matches the contents of the letter to the Lord Mayor, which accused a group of young aristocrats as the culprits, after an irresponsible wager.<ref name=scotsman1/> A popular rumour circulating as early as 1840 pointed to an [[Peerage of Ireland|Irish nobleman]], [[Henry Beresford, 3rd Marquess of Waterford|the Marquess of Waterford]], as the main suspect.<ref name=scotsman1/> [[Peter Haining (author)|Haining]] suggested this may have been due to his having had bad experiences with women and police officers.<ref>Haining, ''The Legend and Bizarre Crimes of Spring Heeled Jack''.</ref>

The Marquess was frequently in the news in the late 1830s for drunken brawling, brutal jokes and vandalism, and was said to do anything for a bet; his irregular behaviour and his contempt for women earned him the title "the Mad Marquis", and it is also known that he was in the London area by the time the first incidents took place. In 1880 he was named as the perpetrator by [[E. Cobham Brewer]], who said that the Marquess "used to amuse himself by springing on travellers unawares, to frighten them, and from time to time others have followed his silly example."<ref>Jacqueline Simpson, ''Spring-Heeled Jack''.</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Brewer |first=Ebenezer Cobham|editor=Marion Harland|title=The reader's companion: Character sketches of romance, fiction and the drama|chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/charactersketche07brewuoft#page/82/mode/1up|edition=Revised American |volume=VII: Skeggs-Trovatore|year=1896|publisher=Selmar Hess|location=New York|page=30|chapter=Spring-Heeled Jack}}</ref> In 1842, the Marquess married and settled in Curraghmore House, [[County Waterford]], and reportedly led an exemplary life until he died in a riding accident in 1859.{{citation needed|date=June 2017}}

Sceptical investigators have asserted that the story of Spring-heeled Jack was exaggerated and altered through mass hysteria, a process in which many sociological issues may have contributed. These include unsupported rumours, superstition, [[oral tradition]], [[sensationalism|sensationalist]] publications, and a folklore rich in tales of [[fairy|fairies]] and strange roguish creatures. Gossip of alleged leaping and fire-spitting powers, his alleged extraordinary features and his reputed skill in evading apprehension captured the mind of the superstitious public—increasingly so with the passing of time, which gave the impression that Spring-heeled Jack had suffered no ill effects from age. As a result, a whole urban legend was built around the character, being reflected by contemporary publications, which in turn fuelled this popular perception.<ref>Massimo Polidoro, "[http://www.csicop.org/si/show/return_of_spring-heeled_jack/ Notes on a Strange World: Return of Spring-Heeled Jack]", ''[[Sceptical Inquirer]]'', July. Accessed on 24 March 2005.</ref>

===Paranormal conjectures===
[[File:jack2.jpg|thumb|Spring-heeled Jack illustrated on the cover of the 1904 serial ''Spring-heeled Jack'']]A variety of speculative paranormal explanations have been proposed to explain the origin of Spring-heeled Jack, including that he was an [[extraterrestrial life|extraterrestrial]] entity with a non-human appearance and features (e.g., [[retroreflector|retro-reflective]] red eyes, or [[phosphorus]] breath) and a [[superhuman]] agility deriving from life on a high-gravity world, with his jumping ability and strange behaviour,<ref>''[[Charles Berlitz]]'s World of Strange Phenomena''.</ref> and that he was a [[demon]], accidentally or purposefully summoned into this world by practitioners of the [[occult]], or who made himself manifest simply to create spiritual turmoil.<ref>Supporters of this theory include [[John Keel]], author of ''[[The Mothman Prophecies]]'', and [[Jacques Vallée]].</ref>

[[Charles Fort|Fortean]] authors, particularly [[Loren Coleman]]<ref>Mysterious America</ref> and [[Jerome Clark]],<ref>Unexplained!</ref> list "Spring-heeled Jack" in a category named "phantom attackers", with another well-known example being the "[[Mad Gasser of Mattoon]]". Typical "phantom attackers" appear to be human, and may be perceived as prosaic criminals, but may display extraordinary abilities (as in Spring-heeled Jack's jumps, which, it is widely noted, would break the ankles of a human who replicated them) and/or cannot be caught by authorities. Victims commonly experience the "attack" in their bedrooms, homes or other seemingly secure enclosures. They may report being pinned or paralysed, or on the other hand describe a "siege" in which they fought off a persistent intruder or intruders. Many reports can readily be explained psychologically, most notably as the [[night_hag|"Old Hag" phenomenon]], recorded in folklore and recognised by psychologists as a form of hallucination. In the most problematic cases, an "attack" is witnessed by several people and substantiated by some physical evidence, but the attacker cannot be verified to exist.{{citation needed|date=June 2017}}