LISTEN: Spring-Heeled Jack — A Victorian Supervillain

Futility Closet 3:07 pm Mon Nov 17, 2014

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Between 1837 and 1904, rumors spread of a strange bounding devil who haunted southern England, breathing blue flames and menacing his victims with steel talons. In the latest Futility Closet podcast we'll review the career of Spring-Heeled Jack and speculate about his origins.

We'll also recount Alexander Graham Bell's efforts to help the wounded James Garfield before his doctors' treatments could kill him and puzzle over why a police manual gives instructions in a language that none of the officers speak.

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