Philadelphia Weirdness

The Phantom Attacker!

Throughout folklore there have been tales pertaining to spectral assailants attacking helpless citizens, usually women, whether as knife-wielding maniacs who disappear into the night or ghostly leapers who accost their victims and elude police. During the Victorian era in London a caped marauder was attacking women in London. He became known as Spring-Heeled Jack, and his spate of attacks remains unsolved to this day. This sinister apparition, adorned often in dark garments, would leap out on women, tear their clothes from them with iron claws, usually their corsets to expose their breasts, leer at them with burning eyes, and through blue flames spewed from his mouth he would mock his helpless victims before bounding away, often over high walls and allegedly houses.

In 1905, a similar phantom of the night appeared in Philadelphia. In May at the Old Second National Bank, which was then used as the customs house, a cleaner named Julia McGlone was leaving one evening via the west side of the building when a mysterious humanoid emerged from the shadows and scratched her with clawed fingers. A policeman nearby heard a struggle and attempted to apprehend the darkly adorned apparition, but with ease the mysterious attacker threw the policeman into the air. The policeman reached for his pistol, but as he was about to fire, the grinning assailant blew blue flames from its mouth, enabling it to escape into the blackness of the night.

The encounter made the newspaper at the time. In the article, Miss McGlone described the beast as wearing a helmet and a tight-fitting black outfit, and having eyes like burning coals.

Had Spring-Heeled Jack moved on to pastures new? Or was a copycat spook on the prowl in Philly, never to repeat the horror of the London spate, but still managing to carve an obscure legend and fade into the shadows?

Image Credit: Flickr user eschipul