Spring‑Heeled Jack: Fact, Fear and Victorian Urban Myth

This episode looks at the urban legend of Spring‑Heeled Jack in nineteenth‑century London, unpacking newspaper accounts, penny dreadfuls and early police records to separate sensational detail from probable hoaxes. It examines how rapid industrialisation, traffic hazards, and widespread social anxieties fed the story, and why later fiction kept re‑imagining a phantom figure long after the initial sightings faded. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices