JACK SPRINGS UP IN WARRINGTON

In my review of Karl Bell’s Spring Heeled Jack book I noted that the main thread of SHJ reports seem to have died out at the beginning of the twentieth century, and the Everton, Liverpool stories of 1905 were generally viewed as more or less signalling the end of the era. But as Karl Bell, Mike Dash and David Clarke have recorded, the story has reappeared in different forms on many occasions and in many places since then. 🔻 

Peter Rogerson in his archive research into ghosts and fortean events in local newspapers has come across a story about Spring Heeled Jack – in substance if not in name – from Warrington in the nineteen-twenties. This account is taken from a Scottish newspaper, but Peter is continuing his research, and hopes to be able to report more details from a more local source in due course.

The account below is from the Angus Evening Telegraph, 21 September 1927, page 4 .

CROWD'S CHASE AFTER "GHOST."

Escape Over Ten- Foot Wall

Police Scepticism About Apparition

“We think it is all bunkum," said the superintendent of the Warrington Police Force when asked what was the police opinion regarding the Warrington ghost. “We think it is somebody playing pranks, and more than anything else that women who have 'got the wind' and have imagined the thing which is reported.” The peculiar thing is that latterly it not women who have seen the ghost, but mostly men. The 'ghost' shouted a message to some young men who chased him, which was, "I won't be sorry my time's up on Thursday." Far from curtailing his activities next night, the ghost was more active than he has been during the week, and at Margaret Street hundreds of men, women, and even children, armed with pokers, fire tongs, bottles, truncheons, and other instruments, sought vengeance on the disturber their peace.

Chased by Crowd

"There he is," was the shout, and away went the crowd. Down Margaret Street, which is blocked one end by railings separating the street from the railway, the ghost" went, and shot over the rails " like greased lightning." The crowd uprooted the rails to get on the embankment, there to meet the "ghost" in his robe and with folded arms staring them. After flashing his powerful torch on a wall of corrugated iron, which on the top and is about 10 feet high, over he went, making the peculiar howling noise which generally announces his coming. The search went on until about two o'clock, but although the people saw a light being flashed in various places nothing came of their vigil.

Earlier in the evening Mr Frangleton, Margaret Street, was in his yard, which adjoins the railway, when he saw the "ghost dressed in white standing in the middle of the yards with arms crossed and staring at him. According to Mr Frangleton's daughter, her father called for his slippers, but the "ghost" disappeared from the yard as if magic. He had an extremely ugly face, and the eyes appeared to be green and illuminated. On his chest was something which resembles an electric light switch. Mrs Denmade and Miss Frangleton afterward saw him again in a wooden building on the railway, but he could not be caught. People of the neighbourhood hope to have another chance of getting the ghost. Children are afraid to go to bed, and mothers have to put the clocks on to get them bed earlier.



.................................................................................................................................................................................................