Spring-Heeled Jack: Phantom or Prankster?
SEASON 3 : EPISODE 42
SEPTEMBER 4, 2024
So far as I’m concerned, spooky season starts in September. Tonight’s story is one that caused Victorians to lose sleep for over 65 years - and is still a mystery to this day.
This is the story of Spring-Heeled Jack.
Follow along on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube @agoodnightforamurder and subscribe where ever you listen to Podcasts.
Listen via Apple, Spotify, Google, Amazon, or where ever you listen podcasts.
The bonus content on Patreon for this episode is about a phenomenon that was linked to Spring Heeled Jack called the Devil’s footprints of Devon. This was a mystery where the night after a heavy snow in 1855, a trail of cloven hoof footprints appeared spanning 40 - 100 miles of terrain
This is the story of the Devil’s Footprints of Devon.
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ARTICLES
Henry Beresford, 3rd Marquess of Waterford
Spring-heeled Jack – Did a Fire-breathing Phantom Haunt Victorian London?
Meet Spring-Heeled Jack, the Leaping Devil That Terrorized Victorian England
VICTORIAN SOCIETY TIPMrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management/Chapter LXV
Halloween in Victorian America
What Are the Quarter Days and What Do They Mean?
Brief History of Rugby Football in the 19th Century
How Victorians Celebrated Halloween
Victorian Halloween Traditions – Now That’s Scary!
Victorian Hallowe’en: Love, Poetry, and Stingy Jack
Five Odd Halloween Traditions from the Victorian Era
Halloween in Victorian America
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INTRO
Hello everyone, welcome to A Good Night for a Murder, a Victorian true crime podcast.
My name is Kim, and so far as I’m concerned, spooky season starts in September. Tonight’s story is one that caused Victorians to lose sleep for over 65 years - and is still a mystery to this day.
This is the story of Spring-heeled Jack.
But first, a Victorian society tip.
TIP
There is no doubt that once September hits, the fall season has officially arrived
Today I thought we’d explore some of our favorite modern fall traditions and learn about if Victorians participated in them too
First, did Victorians decorate their homes for fall?
Well, first thing’s first - before decor could be sorted, a thorough fall cleaning was in order
For Victorians, the state of their home was a direct reflection of their own morals and values
A fresh, well kept home meant a respectable, well-off family resided within
On the topic of fall cleaning from an article titled Motherly talks with young housekeepers from 1873, they advised:
While repairs are going on, bring down all the woolen garments, blankets, furs, or pieces of carpeting that have been stored away for the summer. Take them out on the grassplat under your clothesline… If it is a windy day, hang all on the clothes-line for a good snapping before you attempt to brush them… After an hour or two in sun and wind, brush them well with a nice whisk-broom, and, when done, the garments and blankets may be put in their proper places…
So some amount of decorating happened simply by swapping out spring and summer linens and bedding and such for heavier fall and winter pieces
Like us Victorians did indeed accentuate their home with seasonal decor items
One source reported:
Yellow chrysanthemums were suggested for table decor in the advice columns of early 20th-century magazines, and use of these flowers was reported in the society pages of the same. Autumn leaves, cornstalks and berries adorned party rooms, and open doorways were accented with dangling apples and horseshoes.
But what if you’re the type to decorate your house more haunted, and less harvest?
Well Victorians were in to that too
Halloween parties were an excuse to go all out
Hostesses often tried to out-do one another by creating otherworldly experiences in their own homes
If you were invited to a party in someone’s home on Halloween, you could expect to be met with festive corn husks and foliage decorating outside
As you approached the entrance, you would find the house in complete darkness, lit only by candles, fireplaces and jack-o-lanterns
A popular trick was to make snakes out of tin that would be hung above the candle light
The rising heat and flickering light would cause the tin to expand and contract, making it look like the snake was slithering and writhing
Another fall activity we love today is having bonfires - and Victorians loved them too!
During the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, celebrated on October 31st, villagers would put out their hearth fires in their homes, and gather at bonfires lit on hill tops to celebrate what for them was the new year
After celebrating each household would each carry a torch from the bonfire back to their homes to relight their hearth fires to symbolize a fresh start
They also believed that the changing of the seasons were when the veil between the spirit world and the living world was the thinnest
Bonfires were also helpful in warding off any unfriendly spooks, fairies or other beings that might cause harm or mischief in the human world
Besides, the Victorians would use any excuse for a matchmaking opportunity, and Halloween was no different
Bonfires were popular at Victorian Halloween parties as they offered would-be couples the opportunity to gather round the fire and get to know one another
It was often remarked how pretty the girls looked in the firelight
In the UK, Bonfire Night is observed every November 5th by lighting bonfires and shooting off fireworks
The holiday marks the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605
Also called Guy Fawkes Day, it commemorates the day a man named Guy Fawkes, a participant of the Gunpowder Plot, was arrested while guarding explosives the plotters had placed beneath the House of Lords.
The Catholic plotters had intended to assassinate Protestant king James I and his parliament.
The annual celebration is to honor that the king had survived
Once settlers came to North America, they brought Bonfire Night with them,
Though its religious roots have since fallen by the wayside, bonfires are still a standard part of many fall celebrations in the UK and US alike
Another favorite contemporary fall tradition is to go “leaf peeping”
If you’re not from the northeastern US you may not know what this is, but basically is just means traveling to see the fall foliage at the peak of it’s color change during fall
Did Victorians take special trips to engage in this practice though?
So far as I can tell, no, they did not - they were too busy cleaning and harvesting, BUT…
Again, from the 1873 article Motherly talks with young housekeepers, while discussing the proper time to turn over the house for the fall and winter season, the author takes care to note that:
Nothing but real necessity should tempt any to leave the countryside before they have fully enjoyed the most perfect month of the whole year, — October.
Which I take to mean, don’t rush back before the fall colors change
Next up, did Victorians go pumpkin and apple picking?
The answer is Yes!
Victorians loved pumpkins and apples in the fall as much as we do today, but they incorporated them in to the season a bit differently than we do now
Today, it’s common to load up the family in the car and drive out to the apple orchard or pumpkin patch for a day on the u-pick farm
Back in the Victorian era, not only were apples widely grown on farms, but many wealthy estate owners would grow their own orchards right there on their own property
Orchard management was something undertaken with great pride
Seeing as the fruiting season for apples is in fall, apple picking and other chores were a prominent part of the season
Victorians loved pumpkins too!
Another fall crop, they were easy to grow and store
You may have also heard that the tradition of carving faces in pumpkins is a uniquely American tradition
In the UK, they carved turnips - and this stems from the legend of Stingy Jack, who tricked the Devil and was then forced to wander the earth with a turnip as a lantern
Europeans brought this tradition over to North America with them where it evolved in to pumpkin carving, simply because pumpkins were easy to grow and we had a lot of them
Eventually pumpkin carving made its way back across the pond where the choice of vegetable to carve on Halloween is now a pumpkin for the UK as well
What about the favorite fall pastime of football? Did Victorians play football?
In short, yes, Victorians in the US and UK loved the sports of football, soccer and rugby
Some version of the games as we know them today have been played for centuries but it was really only around the mid to late 1800s that the 3 spots started to peel away from one another
Up until then games resembled a sort of soccer/rugby hybrid
In the Victorian era in the UK, the games were mostly played at public schools - one being the Rugby School,
Many of you may know, but I did not, that Rugby is a town in Warwickshire, England
The school there was the first to codify a set of rules in 1845
Thereafter, if others wanted to follow their rules, they called it the Rugby game
The rules would continue to evolve for the next 40 years though
The sport that we today call “soccer” was undergoing a similar process
Meanwhile, in America, we were playing rugby too, which eventually evolved in to gridiron or American football
From History.com - The man most responsible for the transition from this rugby-like game to the sport of football we know today was Walter Camp, known as the “Father of American Football.” As a Yale undergraduate and medical student from 1876 to 1881, Camp played halfback and served as team captain, equivalent to head coach at the time. Even more importantly, he was the guiding force on the rules board of the newly formed Intercollegiate Football Association
I couldn’t find out if fall was the dedicated season for football in the Victorian era as we think of it today, but they, for sure, enjoyed the sport
And finally, did Victorians celebrate Halloween?
Obviously I’ve alluded to a few Victorian era Halloween traditions already, so yes, 100%, Victorians loved Halloween
Earlier we discussed the role of bonfires during the Celtic harvest festival called Samhain, but this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Victorian’s inspiration for Halloween
How Victorians celebrated - and largely how we celebrate today - is influenced by a number of traditions that have blended together over time including:
The Celtic festival of Samhain which marked the end of summer and the harvest, and the beginning of the dark, cold winter - a time of year that was often associated with death
Also the Roman holiday of Feralia intended to honor the passing of the dead
And the Roman festival honoring Pomona - the Goddess of fruit and trees
These holidays were all pretty similar and as people from different ethnicities mixed, so did their traditions
Eventually, the Catholic church came along and rebranded these harvest season customs as All Saints Day or All Souls Day - a church-sanctioned holiday mean to honor the dead
As Europeans came to North America their beliefs blended with that of the Native American people, and a distinctly American brand of Halloween began to emerge
In the second half of the 19th century immigrants flooded in to America enmasse,
Particularly the Irish, who were fleeing the Potato famine
They had held on to many of the beliefs and practices associated with Samhain, which further shaped Halloween in to the holiday we all know and love today
By the 1870s, Halloween was a thing in America as well as the UK, though, unlike today, it was mostly considered a holiday for grown ups
Victorians celebrated on October 31st by throwing Halloween parties and playing fortune telling games, most of which were centered around matchmaking
They also played spooky pranks meant to startle or scare, wore masks or costumes, told scary stories, carved pumpkins, bobbed for apples, and lit bonfires
Trick or treating was more of a 1930s - 1950s addition introduced to curb Halloween pranksters that had become a nuisance
Now, you should be all set to celebrate your fall season like a Victorian!
ANNOUNCEMENTS
None
CONTENT WARNING
A Good Night for a Murder is a true crime podcast that does cover stories including death, violence, sexual assault, and other adult themes.
Please take care while listening.
EPISODE
In September of 1837, a business man was returning home late at night in London
As he passed by the cemetery, a man sprung out of the darkness, over the high cemetery fence, and landed directly in front of him
The height of this fence was such that it seemed impossible that any human could jump over it unassisted with ease
The man ran off leaving the business man unharmed but startled
He would later describe the person as a - quote - muscular man of devilish features”
He further described the man as having large, pointed ears and a nose and protruding, glowing eyes.
Shortly thereafter, another report came in with an equally bizarre description,
Only this time, the man actually laid hands on the unsuspecting victims
In this case, a girl named Polly Adams and two of her friends were walking after dark when a man similar in description to the one in the first story surprised them
Polly’s friends both ran in one direction, but Polly ran in another
The man caught up to her and ripped at her dress with - quote - “iron clad fingers” - leaving scratches on her stomach.
A month later the first incidents that would be reported on in the press occurred
A girl by the name of Mary Stevens was walking from Battersea to Lavender Hill after visiting with her parents.
On her way through Clapham Common, a man leapt at her from a dark alley.
He grabbed her, pinning her arms, and began to kiss her face, while ripping her clothes and scraping her exposed skin with claws,
She later described his touch as "cold and clammy as those of a corpse".
Mary screamed her head off and the attacker fled in to the night
Nearby residents heard the commotion and came running
The area was searched but who ever it was had gotten away
The next day a carriage was passing through the same area when a figure leaped out in to the lane in front of it, startling the driver
The driver lost control of the carriage and crashed and was severely injured
Witnesses claimed to have seen the figure escape by jumping over a 9 foot wall and disappearing
They reported a high-pitched, ringing laugh as he fled in to the night
These incidents were reported on by the press and the name “Spring-heeled Jack” was coined, due to his extreme jumping capabilities
After this initial coverage, the story seemed to fall off the map, but heated up again on January 9, 1838
On this date, during a public session - what I can only imagine was like a town hall or town committee meeting of sorts - Lord Mayor of London, Sir John Cowan revealed he’d received several complaints of late that he’d so far kept close to his vest hoping more information would be forthcoming
But, this had not been the case and the matter had reached that point where he felt he needed to speak publicly about it
An anonymous “resident of Peckham” had sent the following complaint:
It appears that some individuals (of, as the writer believes, the highest ranks of life) have laid a wager with a mischievous and foolhardy companion, that he durst not take upon himself the task of visiting many of the villages near London in three different disguises—a ghost, a bear, and a devil; and moreover, that he will not enter a gentleman's gardens for the purpose of alarming the inmates of the house.
The wager has, however, been accepted, and the unmanly villain has succeeded in depriving seven ladies of their senses, two of whom are not likely to recover, but to become burdens to their families.
At one house the man rang the bell, and on the servant coming to open door, this worse than brute stood in no less dreadful figure than a spectre clad most perfectly.
The consequence was that the poor girl immediately swooned, and has never from that moment been in her senses.
The affair has now been going on for some time, and, strange to say, the papers are still silent on the subject.
The writer has reason to believe that they have the whole history at their finger-ends but, through interested motives, are induced to remain silent.
Let’s decode this for the 21st century real quick
What the writer is suggesting is that some bored rich people have dared one another to dress up as scary things, like a ghost, bear, or devil, and knock on random doors and scare people
There may even be money involved, like they’re keeping score and who ever has the least scares has to pay those with the most
Either way, this prank is causing actual harm to the people of the greater London area
In fact two women have been nearly scared to death in their own homes
It sounds like they further suspect that that matter hasn’t been reported on by the papers because they have some sort of skin in the game where it would benefit them to remain silent
The Mayor suspects this whole letter was a hoax or false complaint of sorts, but others in the audience that evening confirm that they too have heard of similar incidents occurring in the immediate area
Now because the press had been called out, or possibly because the incidents had now been publicly acknowledged, the matter was reported on in the newspapers the next day, and the following day
This coverage caused a deluge of letters with similar stories and complaints to flood in to the Mayor’s office
One writer said several young women in Hammersmith had been frightened into "dangerous fits" and some - quote - "severely wounded by a sort of claws the miscreant wore on his hands".
Another correspondent claimed that in Stockwell, Brixton, Camberwell and Vauxhall several people had died of fright and others had had fits;
meanwhile, another reported that the trickster had been repeatedly seen in Lewisham and Blackheath.
In one report, a servant girl at Forest Hill had been scared into fits by a figure in a bear's skin;
In another curious incident a gardener was started by a creature - quote - "in the shape of a bear or some other four-footed animal".
He said the creature growled at him, then ran towards him along the top of the garden wall and chased him about the garden before scaling the wall and running off.
It quickly became apparent that whatever was happening, it was happening all over suburban London
They two most notable cases though are those of Jane Alsop and Lucy Scales
The incident with Jane Alsop happened on February 19 1838
That evening, Jane was at home with her parents and siblings when someone rang the front bell
Jane answered the door to find a police officer on their steps
He asked her to quickly please bring a light because they had caught Spring-heeled Jack out in the lane in front of their property
She left the door and returned with a lit candle and began to carry it to the officer who was now standing in their walkway
That was when she noticed the officer wasn’t necessarily dressed like an officer…
In fact they were wearing a large cloak that really concealed anything that would otherwise actually identify them as a police officer…
At the same moment she was registering this, the man in her walkway threw off the cloak and - quote - “presented a most hideous and frightful appearance.”
She said that blue and white flames flew out of the things mouth and they had lifted their head to revel glowing red balls of fire as eyes
Miss Alsop reported that he wore a large helmet and that his clothing, which appeared to be very tight-fitting, resembled white oilskin.
She said he grabbed hold of her and starting ripping at her dress with some sort of metal claws
Jane screamed at the top of her lungs and managed to break free and make a run for the house, but the thing caught up with her and attacked her again, leaving claw marks on her neck
When one of Jane’s sisters ran out in to the walkway, the assailant fled
A great coat, white overalls, and the candle that Jane had brought down were found in the road outside the house
After word of the attack on Jane got around, a man named Thomas Millbank was heard boasting in a pub that he was in fact Spring Heeled Jack
Millbank was arrested and tried, but he escaped conviction only because Jane had insisted that she’d seen her assailant breathe blue fire
And Millbank could not do that… so it could not be him…
Only 9 days later, a similar attack happened when 18 year old Lucy Scales and her sister were walking home after visiting their brother
They were walking along Green Dragon Alley where ahead they could see another person standing in the lane
It was a man - tall, thin, and “gentlemanly” appearance,
He wore a large cloak, and was carrying a small lamp or bull's eye lantern similar to those used by the police.
Lucy was walking in front of her sister and as they were about to pass the gentleman, he suddenly spurted - quote - a quantity of blue flame - right in her face that was so sudden and so bright, it blinded her, and she fell to the ground, where she was “seized with violent fits which continued for several hours.”
The terrifying man did not speak but immediately turned and quickly walked away
Thankfully, the pair were still within shouting distance of their brother’s home,
He had heard he girls screaming and came running.
He found the pair of them, there on the ground in Green Dragon Alley, Lucy still wracked with convulsions and her sister doing her best to support her.
Police searched for the assailant and though they questioned several individuals, they never did find the person who was responsible
At this point many had begun to question: Was Spring Heeled Jack really even a person as all!?
After this, a sort of Spring Heeled Jack mania swept the through London and the outlying villages
He was frequently reported on in the press, and became the subject of many penny dreadfuls and plays.
Despite this, sightings began to die down
5 years later though, there was a resurgence!
A report from Northamptonshire described him as "the very image of the Devil himself, with horns and eyes of flame"
From another area, reports of attacks on drivers of mail coaches were attributed to Spring Heeled Jack
And though the reports didn’t quite reach the pitch they did in the 1838, stories continued to roll in
In July 1847, an alleged Spring Heeled Jack imposter, one Captain Finch of Teignmouth, Devon, was convicted of two charges of assault against women during which he is said to have been - quote - "disguised in a skin coat, which had the appearance of bullock's hide, skullcap, horns and mask".
In February of 1855, a mysterious set of cloven footprints appeared that were linked to Spring Heeled Jack - more on this phenomenon later
In the early 1870s more reports in various locations cropped up including:
November of 1872, when the News of the World reported that Peckham was - quote - "in a state of commotion owing to what is known as the "Peckham Ghost", a mysterious figure, quite alarming in appearance".
The piece concluded that the Peckham ghost and Spring Heeled Jack were actually one in the same
In April and May 1873, there were numerous sightings in Sheffield of what some locals named the "Park Ghost,"
But many attributed these sightings to Spring-heeled Jack as well
Later on, in August 1877, a group of soldiers in Aldershot Garrison had an encounter with Spring Heeled Jack
This story is particularly compelling to some as a handful of civilians could easily be mistaken in what they saw or heard, but a group of military men?
They were trained to keep a level head
The description of what happened at Aldershot is fairly obtuse, so as not to add any details that would skew the facts of the story, I’ll just read you the account as it appears on Wikipedia:
A sentry on duty at the North Camp peered into the darkness, his attention attracted by a peculiar figure "advancing towards him." The soldier issued a challenge, which went unheeded, and the figure came up beside him and delivered several slaps to his face. A guard shot at him, with no visible effect; some sources claim that the soldier may have fired blanks at him, others that he missed or fired warning shots. The strange figure then disappeared into the surrounding darkness "with astonishing bounds.
The next month a sighting occurred at Newport Arch, in Lincoln, Lincolnshire,
In this case, Spring Heeled Jack was reported wearing a sheep skin.
An angry mob supposedly chased and cornered him, and, just as in Aldershot,, residents fired at him to no effect.
It was at this point he pulled his signature move of leaping over tall walls ane roof tops to disappear
Fast forward to around 1888, in Everton, north Liverpool, when Spring Heeled Jack allegedly appeared on the rooftop of Saint Francis Xavier's Church in Salisbury Street.
Then, in 1904 - over 65 years after the first alleged sighting - there were reports of appearances in nearby William Henry Street
So… who, or what, is Spring Heeled Jack?
Well, if we go back to the earliest mentions of him, they believed he was a real person!
Or a couple of persons
A couple of rude, bored, rich guys, to be more precise…
Specifically, many suspected the Marquess of Waterford
What does that even mean? The Marquess of Waterford?
Well, Waterford is a city in Ireland, famous for the manufacture of Waterford Crystal from 1783 to 2009
And a Marquess is a British rank that was kind of jammed in there between Duke and Earl
Historically, a Marquess lived on and was in charge of guarding the area of a country called the march, M-A-R-C-H, or the border lands of the country
But by the time the Marquess of Waterford was galavanting around the UK, no marquesses had actually lived on marches for some time
However, the title stuck around because if they didn’t really want to make someone the higher rank of Duke for some reason, they would made them a Marquess
Honestly it sounds like kind of a meaningless, self-important title which is pretty fitting for what I learned about the Marquess of Waterford
Wikipedia states, “Waterford 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 moniker "the Mad Marquess."
The phrase “paint the town red” by and large originated from the Marquess of Waterford
In April of 1837, Waterford and his cronies were drunkenly making their way back from a night at the races when they were asked to pay the toll at the gate to the town of Melton Mowbray
They refused, but the toll keeper stood his ground
The situation escalated until Waterford and is friends decided to force their way through
As they did so, they found some red paint and paint brushes nearby from ongoing repairs to the toll, which they used to assault the toll keeper and a constable by holding them down and painting them red
Then they rampaged through the town, vandalizing front doors and business signs by painting them red - sometimes tearing them down all together - and knocking over planters and carriages
Officers on patrol tried to gain control over the mob of unruly young men but being outnumbered, they were held down and painted red too
More police eventually arrived and were able to break up the mob, including throwing one of them in jail
But, Waterford and his buddies quickly reconvened, and forced their way in to the jail to free their friend, threatening to murder the guard if he did not produce the key to the cell
The next morning, Waterford, now sober, paid for all the damages he and his friends had caused to people and property
But, rightfully so I think, the group still faced charges a few months later
Unfortunately, they were found not guilty of rioting, they were each fined 100 pounds for common assault, which was a hefty fine in that day and age
Today it would be a little over 9,000 pounds which is nearly 12,000 US dollars
An interesting detail is that during their day in court, the Marquess showed up clad in bear furs…
Which some described seeing during appearances of Spring Heeled Jack - a person dressed as a bear
In another instance, he was cracked in the head by a nightwatchman for trying to sexually assault a woman
In fact, some say the invention of Spring Heeled Jack was in direct response to an embarrassing encounter Waterford had with a woman, and a police officer
Nothing I found specifies exactly what this incident was, but he definitely sounds like that type to act out when he’s had his little feelings hurt
So far as the supernatural claims of spitting blue fire, leaping over walls and the like…
I think all of these can be explained with man-made tricks or chemistry…
I mean we’ve all been to magic shows or the circus…
We’ve seen fire eaters or fire breathing performers, and we know about the sport of parkour…
Those things would seem awfully shocking to someone in the Victorian era, but it doesn't mean they were impossible…
Now, in 1842, the Marquess of Waterford got married, and he reportedly settled down after this
He died in 1859 in a riding accident
Because Spring Heeled Jack incidents continued for nearly 45 year after Waterford’s death, they clearly couldn’t all have been him
But it’s not unlikely the events spawned copycats, or, that the initial attacks caused a bit of mass hysteria to take hold
…Or, as I always say, we need to be open to all possibilities…
A number of paranormal theories on Spring Heeled Jack have been put forward as well
Some claim he’s an alien
Others, a demon
Some classify him as a “phantom attacker,” which often appear to be human, but possess superhuman abilities - like leaping over walls for instance…
The “old hag” or “hat man” we talk about in paranormal circles today could be kept in the same company as Spring Heeled Jack
However, police and residents in Victorian London did widely believe they were hunting a real person
Even so, Spring Heeled Jack would morph in to a sort of bogeyman parents would tell their children of to get them to bed on time
In fictional publications he started out as a villain, but gradually evolved to a sort of vigilante hero
I think ultimately, Spring Heeled Jack was whatever we needed him to be for us, at that particular moment in history
I’m curious to know what you think though!
Was Spring Heeled Jack a real person, ghost, cryptid, or something else?
If you head on over to Instagram, TikTok or YouTube @agoodnightforamurder, you can let me know there.
I’ve also posted some illustrations of Spring Heeled Jack from newspapers and penny dreadfuls, as well as a painting of the Marquess of Waterford…
You can take a look at him and let me know if you think anything about him could be a fit for Spring Heeled Jack.
You can also see the photos and source links for this episode on the episode blog on my website at agoodnightforamurder.com
While you’re on the website, you can sign up for the Good Night For a Murder newsletter.
Each month I send an episode round up, reveal of next month’s episodes and other goodies like extra Victorian society tips, book recommendations, and more
The bonus content for Housekeeper and Butler tier Patrons for this episode is about a phenomenon that was linked to Spring Heeled Jack called the Devil’s footprints of Devon
This was a mystery where the night after a heavy snow in 1855, a trail of cloven hoof footprints appeared spanning 40 - 100 miles of terrain
If you’re wanting to get in to the mood for spooky season with an unsettling Victorian era ghost story, this is it
What’s more, there’s been an update to the story as recently as April of this year!
Listen through the outro music to hear a short preview of this Patreon bonus content
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And I will talk to you again soon