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00:00A blood-sucking vampire haunting a decaying cemetery, creepy clowns abducting children
00:10into the woods, and a video game so dangerous it could kill you.
00:18Have you ever been warned about conjuring an angry spirit by repeating the words
00:22Bloody Mary in front of a mirror?
00:25Or maybe you've considered the possibility of a giant beast named Bigfoot.
00:32These are just a few examples of modern mythology called urban legends.
00:39For centuries, humans have told extraordinary tales of mystical creatures and supernatural events.
00:46And today, we continue the tradition by sharing stories of things like creepy encounters
00:53and cursed objects in, inhuman entities.
01:00Where do these urban legends come from?
01:05And could they be true?
01:08Well, that is what we'll try and find out.
01:23It is said that aspects of what make us human are the capacity for abstract thought, moral reasoning, and creative expression,
01:35which may explain our habit of sharing outrageous stories that make us question the nature of reality itself.
01:42Might the legendary Bigfoot wander the Pacific Northwest?
01:49Could Area 51 be hiding extraterrestrial secrets?
01:54Or are there places where you can really stumble upon a portal to hell?
02:00These are but a few of the countless questions raised by the thrilling tales we call urban legends.
02:11An urban legend is a modern folktale, and we tell them for the reasons that people have always told folktales.
02:17They are there to entertain.
02:19They are there to horrify us.
02:21A good urban legend is based on being plausible, or nearly plausible, but also very unexpected and unusual.
02:30And the best ones tend to work because they're not something that can be easily verified.
02:34I think that's part of the appeal.
02:36We are attracted to the mystery.
02:39Urban legends come out of nowhere.
02:41It's spread very, very quickly.
02:42A lot of these legends are about scary things.
02:46Monsters, ghosts, horrible things that could go wrong.
02:49People are expressing their fears.
02:52So there could be somebody saying they saw something strange in a particular area.
02:57And then these stories become repeated, sometimes embellished, oftentimes kind of made more and more compelling as time goes on.
03:05The real heyday of urban legends was the 1970s and the 1980s.
03:10The legends circulating at that time were stories like The Vanishing Hitchhiker,
03:15which is about the motorist who drives past a young woman on the side of the road, and she asks for a ride.
03:23And when he gets to the destination, she's gone.
03:25Usually he finds out that a young woman died at that exact curve in the road some years before, and this happens regularly.
03:33When I think of urban legends, I definitely think about the story of the teenage couple making out in the car,
03:39and then, you know, being accosted by someone with a hook hand and murdering them.
03:44There will always be legends we can't fully explain.
03:47I think that part of human curiosity is that we want to believe in the unknown.
03:51While some urban legends seem too far-fetched to be true, there are, in fact, stories whose origins are shockingly real.
04:02Urban legends could be based on some sort of true event, and it got perhaps exaggerated, or the names and places were changed.
04:10One example is that there are urban legends about alligators that have gotten flushed down the toilet as babies and now live in the sewers and eat sewer workers.
04:22Alligators living in the sewers.
04:23Now, that urban legend caught fire because people really were bringing home baby alligators.
04:29So it evolves from there.
04:31You start to think, well, if that happens, then this can happen.
04:33So a baby alligator suddenly becomes a giant killer out in the sewers.
04:38The fun thing about urban legends is they often overlap with reality.
04:44Maybe worries about pollution or government testing could be expressed in contemporary legends about mutant creatures that have grown up around these testing sites.
04:53We know that radiation does cause mutations.
04:56We've seen this with Chernobyl.
04:58These are real concerns on real contemporary issues that people express very often in these narrative forms.
05:04Are urban legends just modern-day fairy tales meant to entertain the human psyche?
05:12Or could they be a kind of warning to protect us from the strange and unknown world around us?
05:17Perhaps the answer lies with one seemingly impossible tale about how a human being can suddenly erupt into flames.
05:29Spontaneous human combustion is the urban legend that through some chemical reaction, the human body will spontaneously burst into flames,
05:39leaving the person nothing more than a mound of ash, leaving the person nothing more than a mound of ash.
05:43The belief that you can spontaneously combust goes back hundreds of years.
05:49In the 1800s, some of our most popular writers talked about spontaneous human combustion.
05:56Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Irvin Melville, they all depicted spontaneous human combustion in their writings.
06:05We have to wonder, what is it about spontaneous human combustion that has made it such an enduring legend over these centuries?
06:14Galway, Ireland, December 22, 2010.
06:22Authorities rushed to the home of 76-year-old retiree Michael Faraday.
06:27Once inside, they're faced with a tragic scene.
06:31Please be advised, some images may be disturbing.
06:35Inside Mr. Faraday's home, it was said that his body was burned badly, as was the ceiling above him and the floor beneath him.
06:46Accelerants were searched for, thinking this might be a case of arson.
06:50Accelerants were not found, so that was ruled out.
06:53The medical examiner was Dr. McLaughlin.
06:57After nine months of investigating the case, he declared it to be, remarkably, death by spontaneous human combustion.
07:06What the first responders found in answering the call at the Faraday residence was a mystery then and remains a mystery to this day.
07:14The coroner decides that this spark has come from within the body.
07:20It couldn't be from anything else.
07:22It has to have come from within.
07:24We'd like to think that if there's a fire, there's a way for us to get away.
07:27But the idea that the fire is in us, that is really kind of scary, I think, to everyone.
07:33The thought that a human being can mysteriously burst into flames is truly alarming.
07:38But what could have led this coroner to deliver such a bizarre diagnosis?
07:45Well, as with many urban legends, this strange event seems to have happened more than once.
07:53One of the better-known cases of spontaneous human combustion occurred to Mary Hardy Reeser in July 1951.
08:02Photos showed two firemen shoveling up her ash and remains.
08:05The entire pile of ash weighed about eight pounds, a remarkable weight reduction overnight.
08:13More remarkable was the lack of fire and heat damage to surrounding materials, including daybed linen only a few feet from the fire scene.
08:22This mystified the local St. Petersburg police and fire departments.
08:26So mystifying that the police department kept us an open file that is unsolved.
08:32That's how extreme this fire scene was in trying to explain it.
08:37Remarkably, over the last three centuries, there have been around 200 reports of people allegedly bursting into flames.
08:46And until we can properly understand this medical mystery, spontaneous human combustion will remain.
08:53An urban legend that continues to smolder.
08:57The existence of the legend, I don't think, is a mystery at all.
09:03Spontaneous human combustion has been consistently reported time and again in different literary means,
09:10reported by doctors, reported by police officers.
09:13These are authoritative accounts.
09:16And it really puts spontaneous human combustion into the category of a weird thing that keeps happening.
09:26How many times do we need to see a human body disintegrate into ash to wonder what's going on here?
09:33Highgate Cemetery, London, England.
09:41This sprawling Victorian-era graveyard is the final resting place of around 170,000 people.
09:50It was first consecrated in 1839 as part of the plan to create seven new cemeteries in London.
09:57Its age and unique design create an otherworldly space where the living and the dead come to meet.
10:08Highgate Cemetery was first laid out in the mid-19th century.
10:13There's avenues and there's circles and there's winding paths and you can get very lost there.
10:22It's a very creepy place because the Victorians were obsessed with death and they loved creating necropolises and that was one of them.
10:34There's so many kind of spooky, dark, moth-covered columns and tombs.
10:40You always do feel that there's just something lurking around the corner, if not behind a headstone, waiting to jump out at you.
10:49While Highgate's Victorian monuments to the dead create a spooky impression,
10:56the cemetery is perhaps most famous for being the home of a monstrous urban legend.
11:02It is said that this old graveyard is the haven of a bloodthirsty creature known as the Highgate Vampire.
11:11In 1970, there were rumours that circulated that a vampire had been seen in the cemetery.
11:20The Highgate Vampire story happens at a time when there's a lot of interest in the occult, in horror.
11:28You've got the Hammer horror films in the cinemas.
11:31There's the Dracula series with Christopher Lee playing the vampire and really that kind of feeds into the public consciousness.
11:40But I defy you to go to Highgate Cemetery and not feel a sense of fear.
11:46If there's going to be a vampire anywhere, it's going to be in Highgate Cemetery.
11:52The vampire tradition, it's a very old tradition in Europe.
11:56Now, the traditional vampire is a loathsome, repelling creature.
12:00Someone who is so evil and rotten in their soul that when they die and you bury them, their soul is not going to leave that body.
12:07Their soul is going to get up with that body and then go terrorize the local communities and drink people's blood.
12:13The Highgate Vampire is a combination of things that emerged around the late 1960s and 1970s, around Highgate Cemetery.
12:23There are accounts of an evil presence that people claim to have seen.
12:28And you've got a real sort of panic on your hands.
12:31Could a vampire really be terrorizing Highgate Cemetery?
12:36What would cause people to even consider such a claim?
12:39In 1969, there had been some pretty serious vandalism and grave desecrations going on in Highgate.
12:47It was not uncommon to find bodies that had been dragged out of their coffins and left lying in the path.
12:53You have rumors of Satanism.
12:56David Ferrant ran a group called the British Psychic and Occult Society.
13:01So he was interested in all kinds of supernatural topics.
13:04So David Ferrant decided to do a sort of investigation.
13:09He did an all-night vigil in the cemetery.
13:12And he said that while he was doing this, he saw a dark figure moving across the cemetery.
13:18It was about seven feet tall.
13:20And when this sort of shadowy figure looked at him, he was hypnotized by its eyes.
13:26He felt paralyzed.
13:26So after having this encounter, he eventually wrote the local newspaper and said,
13:32I have seen this mysterious specter in Highgate Cemetery.
13:36Has anybody else seen this?
13:39And it turned out lots of people had seen strange things in the cemetery.
13:43And all the rumors about a vampire began to accumulate.
13:47There are accounts of these vampires being seven feet tall, that they have red eyes,
13:52that people are seeing these crypts that have been opened,
13:56and they see these bodies that don't look alive, they don't look dead,
13:59they look somewhere in between.
14:01And so clearly something's happening.
14:03Could the tales of frightening encounters with a red-eyed vampire
14:10be the result of an overactive imagination?
14:14Or was there something truly sinister going on at the century-old cemetery?
14:21In 1970, another brave soul believed he found the source of the unholy activity
14:28happening at Highgate.
14:30Sean Manchester presented himself as a Christian occultist,
14:35much in the style of Dr. Van Helsing from the Dracula movies.
14:40So Sean Manchester said, I know what's really going on at Highgate.
14:43He said it is a king vampire from Wallachia.
14:47Wallachia is a principality in what today is Romania
14:50that was once ruled by Vlad Tepes, better known as Dracula.
14:54And he said this king vampire was brought here sometime in the 1700s,
15:00and it's dormant beneath the cemetery.
15:03And he also claimed that all of this vandalism that's occurring in the cemetery,
15:07it's the satanic cult, and it's performing these powerful rituals in the cemetery at night
15:12for the purpose of resurrecting this king vampire.
15:16A king vampire being resurrected by a satanic cult?
15:22Sounds more like a frightening campfire tale than the truth.
15:25And yet, in March of 1970, on Friday the 13th,
15:32this story would become forever ingrained in modern folklore.
15:38The Highgate vampire story escalates once it gets to the national media,
15:44and they broadcast that there was going to be a sort of an exorcism of this thing in Highgate cemetery.
15:49On Friday the 13th, of course.
15:53And once that's on the news, two hours later, a mob essentially forms up.
15:58Highgate cemetery is swamped with amateur vampire hunters.
16:01Apparently the police are there, they can't hold them back,
16:03they kind of swarm over the gates of the cemetery, hunting for this vampire.
16:09It was reported that around 100 people went hunting for the Highgate vampire.
16:14But the fabled creature was never found.
16:17And while skeptics are quick to dismiss the idea of a bloodthirsty demon that roams the cemetery,
16:24like many urban legends, it seems that something strange really was happening.
16:32The question is, what was it?
16:35There were definitely very strange things going on in Highgate.
16:38In addition to vandalism with pseudo-satanic rituals,
16:43one detail that's often ignored is that there were a lot of dead foxes found at the cemetery,
16:49supposedly drained of blood.
16:51We still don't know what killed these foxes.
16:54So this is often how urban legends form,
16:57at the intersection of unexplainable phenomena,
17:01and then folklore rushing in to build a story about that mystery.
17:06Was there really a vampire prowling the grounds of the Highgate Cemetery?
17:12Or was it a case of mass hysteria?
17:16Perhaps the answer may be found by examining another famous urban legend
17:21about mysterious figures that lurk in the shadows,
17:26known as the Men in Black.
17:29Since the 1940s,
17:35both sightings and strange encounters with unidentified flying objects
17:40have sparked countless urban legends
17:44of close encounters with extraterrestrial beings,
17:49civilian abductions and testing on alien space crabs,
17:53and livestock found mutilated as the result of otherworldly entities.
18:00But one of the most fascinating legends
18:03surrounds the mysterious Men in Black.
18:08The legend of the Men in Black is that
18:11ever since the dawn of the UFO age in the late 1940s,
18:15UFO witnesses have been silenced,
18:18have been threatened,
18:20and have even possibly been physically harmed.
18:23by the Men in Black in their pursuit of
18:26the truth behind what UFOs might be.
18:30These figures are usually considered to be
18:33agents of any number of government agencies.
18:37But there are others who believe
18:39that the Men in Black might be agents
18:41of an organization that is so deeply hidden within our government
18:45that we don't even know its name.
18:48The Men in Black usually show up
18:50after someone's seen a UFO
18:52or seen some sort of strange light in the sky.
18:54They try to dissuade them from talking about the UFO.
18:58Sometimes they take any evidence that people have of the UFOs,
19:02including pieces of it or photographs,
19:06and they strongly encourage them not to talk about them.
19:09Is there really a top-secret government agency
19:15that employs mysterious agents to suppress extraterrestrial secrets?
19:20Perhaps the answer can be found by examining the origin of this long-standing urban legend
19:26and the tale of a prominent ufologist from the 1950s named Albert K. Bender.
19:33Albert K. Bender is really the origin of the Men in Black legend.
19:40He worked for the Air Force during World War II,
19:42but by the 1950s, he started something called the International Flying Saucer Bureau,
19:48and it published a newsletter called the Space Review.
19:51In 1953, in the Space Review, he wrote,
19:57I've discovered the secret of the flying saucers.
19:59I know what the flying saucers really are,
20:02and I'm going to tell the public.
20:04But he never did tell the public.
20:06Instead, he shuttered the International Flying Saucer Bureau
20:10and stopped investigating UFOs.
20:12What would compel Albert Bender to suddenly go silent?
20:18Well, nearly a decade after his strange change of heart in 1962,
20:23Bender shared an unsettling explanation in his book titled
20:27Flying Saucers and the Three Men.
20:31What Bender eventually said was,
20:34these three men in black came to my house,
20:36and they said, we know what you've been doing.
20:38You're getting too close to the truth.
20:40You need to stop talking about this right now,
20:41or there's going to be serious consequences.
20:44They acted as if they were from the government,
20:47that they were very frightening.
20:48When the men in black initially contacted him,
20:53Bender claimed he felt the temperature in the room drop,
20:57he got an excruciating headache,
21:00and heard a voice telling him to not delve any more deeply
21:05into the flying saucer mystery.
21:07And it terrified Bender so much
21:10that he was completely happy
21:12to shut down his flying saucer organization
21:15and to refuse to talk about the topic
21:19even to his closest friends.
21:21Did men in black with strange powers really scare
21:25Albert Bender into silence?
21:28While skeptics dismiss the claims as pure urban legend,
21:31many have wondered,
21:32Why do stories of men in black still persist?
21:39In the summer of 2008,
21:42residents outside of Needles, California
21:44saw something shooting through their sky.
21:47It looked like a long cylinder.
21:49It was covered in a turquoise blue flame,
21:53and it crashed on the side of the Colorado River.
21:57And a matter of moments later,
22:01big sky copters came with a crane,
22:05removing whatever debris had crashed there.
22:09The next day,
22:11townsfolk noticed strange men in black
22:14looking government officials in town.
22:17They were intimidating witnesses
22:19that it would be to their best interest
22:22if they did not speak
22:23about what they had seen.
22:25The Needles crash in 2008
22:27contains many of modern day tropes
22:29of what we think of men in black.
22:32Who were the strange men
22:34allegedly intimidating residents
22:36of Needles, California?
22:38Well, according to urban legend,
22:40these mysterious beings
22:41might not even be men at all.
22:44There are several things
22:47that witnesses have experienced
22:50that have led people to believe
22:51that the men in black
22:52could be extraterrestrial in origin.
22:55They act like creatures
22:57who maybe have learned
22:59how to behave like humans
23:00from monitoring our mass media.
23:04Are these government officials?
23:07Are they extradimensional creatures?
23:10Are they some combination of the above?
23:13We don't know that.
23:14But there's a kernel of truth
23:16at the heart of the men in black legend.
23:19Ever since the beginning
23:21of the flying saucer age
23:22in the late 1940s,
23:24there have been persistent reports
23:27of men dressed in black
23:29threatening, intimidating,
23:31or otherwise silencing UFO witnesses.
23:37This is a real story.
23:40Are the rumored men in black
23:42covering up the existence
23:43of UFOs?
23:45And who are they, really?
23:49When it comes to urban legends,
23:50the fact is that you can't always trust
23:53your eyes and ears.
23:55Like, in the case of a rash
23:57of creepy clown sightings
24:00that swept the United States in 2016
24:03before spreading across the entire world.
24:11Green Bay, Wisconsin, August 2016.
24:16Authorities are inundated with calls
24:18as freaked-out residents report
24:20a strange figure prowling the streets.
24:22And what they describe seeing
24:25is a disturbing presence
24:28of a very unusual kind.
24:32On August 1st, 2016,
24:34people in the Green Bay area
24:36start seeing this mysterious clown
24:39that's haunting the streets.
24:40Seems to be lurking.
24:41And that clown is absolutely terrifying.
24:44It is a white-faced clown,
24:46but then you've got smudged,
24:48creepy accents around the eyes
24:49and the mouth.
24:50He's holding this bouquet
24:52of black balloons.
24:54Suddenly, everyone is talking
24:55about this clown
24:56that seems to be haunting
24:57the streets of Green Bay, Wisconsin.
24:59This menacing clown
25:02was later revealed
25:03to be part of a marketing stunt
25:04for a new horror film.
25:06But it seemed to have sparked
25:08something very strange to happen
25:10when similar reports
25:12of creepy clowns
25:14started popping up everywhere.
25:17Later that month,
25:18we were getting reports
25:19from other places.
25:21Greenville, South Carolina,
25:22children were reporting clowns
25:24at the edge of the woods,
25:26offering them money
25:27to follow them into the forest.
25:29And that fear,
25:30that anxiety catches on.
25:33And thanks to the internet,
25:34it spreads around the world
25:36in a matter of days
25:37or even hours.
25:40Now we get images, videos.
25:43Parents are freaking out.
25:45Police stations
25:45are getting phone calls.
25:46They're hearing about predators
25:47in the environment
25:48dressed as clowns.
25:50Oh, my God.
25:51And people tried to figure out
25:53whether that's a real,
25:54genuine threat
25:55or whether that's someone
25:57setting up an elaborate hoax.
26:00The creepy clown craze of 2016
26:02was this remarkable moment
26:04in pop culture history.
26:06At last count,
26:0719 different countries
26:08had their own clown sightings
26:10within that period.
26:11It bears all those earmarks
26:13of really good folklore,
26:15really good urban legend,
26:16because this taps into
26:18that same existing fear
26:19about traveling into the woods
26:20by yourself
26:20and protecting children.
26:22But now it's got this extra
26:24level of absurdity,
26:26level of creepiness,
26:27with a clown being the threat
26:29that's emerging from the woods
26:30for the kids.
26:32Is there any truth
26:33to the urban legend
26:34that there are dangerous madmen
26:36in clown costumes
26:38seeking to harm our children?
26:40What it sounds like
26:41the stuff of nightmares,
26:43reports of sightings
26:44of creepy clowns
26:46evoke a mass hysteria.
26:48Oh, my God.
26:49What's even more bizarre
26:50about this whole thing
26:51is that it's not even
26:52the first scary clown craze
26:54to happen.
26:55Going all the way back
26:57to 1981,
26:58in the Boston area,
26:59this is the first time
27:00we really see
27:01a widespread clown
27:02sighting children,
27:04saying that they saw
27:05a clown approach them
27:06in a van
27:06and then immediately disappear
27:08before any kind of police
27:09could make it
27:10to the scene on time.
27:11And it's important to note
27:12that no clown
27:13ever was found
27:14at this particular clown hunt.
27:20In 1981,
27:22reports of creepy clowns
27:23also appeared in Omaha,
27:25Kansas City,
27:25Denver, Providence,
27:26and Pittsburgh.
27:27But thankfully,
27:29there was no real evidence
27:30that clowns
27:31were abducting children.
27:33But based on the sheer terror
27:36that these reports inspired,
27:38it begs the question,
27:39how have we become
27:42so afraid of clowns?
27:46Nothing in modern pop culture
27:49has changed more than clowns.
27:52In the 1800s,
27:54with the height of the circus,
27:55the clowns were
27:56the most popular performers.
27:58They were the A-list celebrities.
28:01They were the ones
28:02that everyone went
28:03to the circus to see.
28:04They entertained us,
28:06made us laugh.
28:10But today,
28:11pop culture
28:12has portrayed clowns
28:15as evil beings.
28:16From Pennywise
28:18and Stephen King's
28:19It to
28:20killer clowns
28:21from outer space
28:22to
28:22Batman's nemesis,
28:25the Joker.
28:26They have painted them
28:27as things that are sinister,
28:29creepy,
28:30and possibly deadly.
28:32While evil clowns
28:34have certainly become
28:35part of the popular culture,
28:37tragically,
28:38the urban legend
28:39became all too real
28:40in the 1970s
28:41with a serial killer
28:43named
28:44John Wayne Gacy.
28:47John Wayne Gacy
28:48is one of the most infamous
28:50serial killers
28:51in American history.
28:52He murdered many teen
28:54or very young boys,
28:56would lure them back
28:57to his home
28:58and then murder them
28:59and bury them
29:00under his house.
29:02And when he's arrested,
29:03it kind of comes to light
29:04that he also happened
29:05to moonlight
29:06as a clown
29:07for local hospitals.
29:09John Wayne Gacy
29:10was a serial killer
29:12who had a persona
29:13called Pogo the Clown.
29:15So this really cemented
29:17into the American consciousness
29:18that there really is
29:20such a thing
29:21as a killer clown
29:22and that people
29:23who dress as clowns,
29:25they may only be
29:26performing as a clown
29:27so that they can have
29:28access to children.
29:31John Wayne Gacy's
29:32alter ego,
29:34Pogo the Clown,
29:35is a grim reminder
29:36that a dangerous madman
29:38could be hiding
29:39under a layer
29:40of grease paint.
29:41One of the things
29:43that always lingers
29:45for me
29:45with the creepy clown craze
29:48was
29:48who were
29:50the actual clowns?
29:53The people standing
29:54outside elementary schools,
29:56standing under streetlights
29:58at night,
29:59we never got
29:59the follow-up stories.
30:01And that tells us something
30:02about the creepy clown craze.
30:05We weren't looking
30:06for answers.
30:07We were looking
30:07to be scared.
30:11Is it possible
30:12that we're in
30:13for another wave
30:14of creepy clown sightings
30:16in the future?
30:18Or is the phenomenon
30:19just an elaborate hoax?
30:22Perhaps I can tell.
30:24However,
30:24there is another
30:26urban legend
30:27that's been a mystery
30:28for more than
30:28185 years.
30:31It's the story
30:32of a demonic entity
30:33that terrorized London
30:35known as
30:37Spring-Heeled Jack.
30:41London, England.
30:45February 19th, 1838.
30:49Around 9 p.m.,
30:51an 18-year-old
30:52Jane Alsop,
30:53a young woman
30:54born into
30:55Victorian high society,
30:57hears a rattle
30:58outside her front door.
31:01She looks outside
31:02and sees
31:03a mysterious figure
31:04who identifies himself
31:06as a policeman
31:07and asks her
31:09for assistance.
31:11Believing him,
31:12she opens her door
31:13and very soon,
31:15she'll wish
31:16she hadn't.
31:19He's kind of
31:20wrapped in this cloak
31:21and he says
31:22he's a policeman
31:23and he throws off
31:25his cloak
31:25and then she
31:27kind of suddenly
31:28sees he's got
31:28this strange face
31:29with these big
31:30red eyes.
31:32He looks very
31:32sort of inhuman
31:33and then she
31:35realizes he's
31:35also got claws
31:36and he blows
31:38a sort of
31:39ball of flame
31:39in her face,
31:40kind of describes
31:41blue-white flame
31:42and then he
31:43lurches at her
31:44and he starts
31:44to attack her.
31:47This man began
31:48to claw at her
31:49face, her neck,
31:50her arms
31:51and her dress.
31:52She was screaming
31:53and struggling
31:54and luckily
31:54her sister
31:55hurt her.
31:56Jane was actually
31:57being dragged
31:58out of the home.
32:00Her sister
32:00fortunately was able
32:01to get her back
32:02inside but not
32:04before Jane's
32:04dress was almost
32:05completely torn off.
32:08Who or what
32:10attacked Jane
32:11Alsop?
32:13Her attack
32:13made headlines
32:14all over London
32:14and a wave of terror
32:16flooded the city
32:17because this was
32:19not the first woman
32:19said to have been
32:20attacked by a
32:21shadowy figure
32:22that is known
32:24in urban legend
32:25as Spring-Heeled
32:27Jack.
32:29In the 1830s
32:30this curious story
32:32emerges in the
32:34newspapers
32:34that there is
32:36an attacker
32:37on the dark
32:39foggy streets
32:40of London
32:40called Spring-Heeled
32:42Jack
32:43who has eyes
32:45that are like
32:45balls of fire
32:47who has claw-like
32:48hands
32:49who wears
32:51a skin-tight
32:52black costume
32:53and who can
32:55jump
32:56enormous heights.
32:59So Spring-Heeled
33:00Jack
33:00is a type
33:01of urban legend
33:02that's sometimes
33:02called a phantom
33:03attacker.
33:04So in phantom
33:05attacker stories
33:06there is
33:07someone who is
33:08attacking people
33:09but it's not
33:10killing someone.
33:12About 50 years
33:13after Spring-Heeled
33:14Jack
33:14we have
33:15the Jack the Ripper
33:16murders.
33:18Jack the Ripper
33:19is not a phantom
33:19attacker
33:20he's an
33:21unidentified
33:22serial killer.
33:23But there are
33:25similarities
33:26with the panic
33:27over Spring-Heeled
33:28Jack
33:28in that we have
33:29someone who is
33:30stalking the streets
33:31at night
33:32attacking women
33:33who nobody
33:34seems able
33:35to identify
33:36or catch.
33:38While Jack the Ripper
33:39was a very real
33:40killer in 1888
33:42the urban legend
33:43of a phantom
33:44attacker
33:44with superhuman
33:45abilities
33:46does sound
33:47a bit hard
33:48to believe.
33:50But incredibly
33:51after reports
33:53of Spring-Heeled
33:54Jack started
33:55appearing
33:55in the 1830s
33:56they continued
33:59for decades.
34:02Spring-Heeled
34:03Jack's sightings
34:04lasted a very
34:04long time.
34:05They dip
34:06in the late
34:0750s
34:08into the early
34:081860s
34:09he then gets
34:10reimagined
34:11as this Penny
34:12Dreadful character.
34:14Penny Dreadfuls
34:14were cheap
34:15publications
34:16in serialized form
34:18and this seems
34:20to reignite
34:20a lot of the
34:21folkloric tales
34:21again.
34:23And then he's
34:24seen in Wales
34:25he's seen up
34:25in Scotland
34:26there's a sighting
34:28in Liverpool
34:28in 1904
34:30in Sheffield
34:31he was known
34:33to be around
34:33the region
34:34until the
34:34First World War
34:35so you've got
34:36a character
34:36that if it is
34:37the same individual
34:38is coming up
34:39for at least
34:40100 years
34:41since he first
34:41appears.
34:42Was there really
34:43a fire-breathing
34:44superhuman
34:45with claws
34:46preying on
34:47women for
34:48100 years?
34:49Well some
34:50experts believe
34:50that details
34:51of this mysterious
34:52attacker
34:53were embellished
34:54like many
34:54good urban
34:55legends
34:56and some
34:59suggest
35:00this monster
35:01served as
35:02a cautionary
35:02tale
35:03for Victorian
35:04women
35:05living in
35:0619th century
35:07London.
35:09The time
35:11period in which
35:11Spring-Heeled
35:12Jack
35:13emerged
35:14was the
35:151830s
35:16so we're
35:16pretty much
35:17smack in the
35:18middle of the
35:19Industrial Revolution
35:20at this point.
35:22Industrialization
35:22changed a lot
35:23it moved people
35:24out from
35:25pastoral spaces
35:26into urban
35:26spaces
35:27it created
35:28a lot of
35:29congestion
35:29people living
35:30on top of
35:31each other
35:31in sometimes
35:32rough conditions
35:33and the story
35:34that we see
35:35is of this
35:36bizarre
35:37criminal
35:38targeting
35:39women
35:40specifically
35:40in this
35:41urban setting
35:42and in so
35:43many ways
35:44this is just
35:45really
35:46quintessentially
35:47the fear
35:49of the
35:49unknown
35:49stranger
35:50so this
35:52is clearly
35:53a concept
35:54that women
35:55are often
35:55in danger
35:56of predatory
35:57creatures
35:57whether they
35:58be human
35:59beings
35:59or not
36:00spring
36:01spring hill jack
36:02does speak
36:02to some
36:02of that
36:03violence
36:03towards
36:04women
36:04in the
36:04Victorian
36:05period
36:05it's almost
36:06kind of
36:06reinforcing
36:07the notion
36:07that women
36:09should just
36:09be sitting
36:10at home
36:10and the
36:11public
36:11sphere
36:11is kind
36:12of the
36:12masculine
36:12sphere
36:12but it's
36:13something
36:13that was
36:14often spoken
36:14about
36:14in this
36:15time
36:15period
36:16and so
36:17there is
36:17a sort
36:17of a
36:18controlling
36:18element
36:19to this
36:19was
36:20spring hill
36:21jack
36:21invented
36:22to keep
36:2219th century
36:23women
36:23at home
36:24is certainly
36:25possible
36:26but if
36:27that's
36:27true
36:27then
36:27why
36:28is
36:28this
36:28story
36:29reemerged
36:30in the
36:31modern
36:31age
36:32Epson
36:34England
36:35February
36:3614th
36:372012
36:37a family
36:39is taking
36:40a taxi
36:40ride
36:41through
36:41town
36:41and
36:42suddenly
36:42they
36:43witness
36:44something
36:44that's
36:44impossible
36:45to
36:45explain
36:46they
36:48see a
36:49figure
36:49jump
36:49over
36:50a
36:50highway
36:50divider
36:51run
36:52across
36:52two
36:52lanes
36:53of
36:53traffic
36:53and
36:54then
36:55somehow
36:55leap
36:55up
36:56a
36:5615
36:56foot
36:56embankment
36:57all
36:58within
36:58the span
36:59of
36:59about
36:59two
37:00seconds
37:00on top
37:02of this
37:02they said
37:03whoever
37:03this was
37:04had no
37:05facial
37:05features
37:06so this
37:07is a
37:07really
37:07strange
37:08encounter
37:08and it
37:09sounds
37:09a lot
37:09like
37:10the
37:10original
37:10spring
37:10hill
37:10jack
37:11sightings
37:11from
37:12the
37:121800s
37:13has
37:14spring
37:14hill
37:14jack
37:15returned
37:15to
37:15begin
37:16a new
37:16reign
37:16of
37:16terror
37:17only
37:19time
37:19will
37:19tell
37:19but
37:21there's
37:22another
37:22urban
37:22legend
37:23of a
37:23different
37:23kind
37:24that
37:25started
37:25in
37:25American
37:26arcades
37:27about a
37:28game
37:28said to
37:29possess
37:30mind
37:31altering
37:32powers
37:33portland
37:39oregon
37:391991
37:40the
37:42video game
37:43revolution
37:43takes
37:43over
37:44america
37:44and
37:44gamers
37:45flock
37:45to
37:45arcades
37:46throughout
37:46the
37:47city
37:47and
37:48it's
37:48said
37:48that
37:49there
37:49is
37:49one
37:49legendary
37:50game
37:50that
37:51people
37:51are
37:51lining
37:51up
37:52to
37:52play
37:52the
37:53only
37:53problem
37:53is
37:54it
37:55might
37:55cost
37:55you
37:55your
37:55life
37:56it's
37:57called
37:57polybius
38:00so the
38:01polybius
38:01urban
38:02legend
38:02is that
38:03there
38:03was
38:03this
38:03game
38:04console
38:04that
38:05was
38:05placed
38:06in
38:06certain
38:06arcades
38:07people
38:08would
38:08play
38:08it
38:09and
38:09it
38:10was
38:10supposedly
38:10either
38:11controlling
38:11their
38:12mind
38:12or
38:13in
38:13some
38:13cases
38:13we
38:14also
38:14hear
38:14that
38:14people
38:15were
38:15having
38:15headaches
38:15or
38:16seizures
38:16it
38:17was
38:17causing
38:18them
38:18to
38:18have
38:19some
38:19sort
38:19of
38:19medical
38:20condition
38:20because
38:21of
38:21the
38:21game
38:22itself
38:22kids
38:23are
38:23getting
38:23into
38:24fights
38:24and
38:24becoming
38:24aggressive
38:25some
38:26of
38:26them
38:26are
38:26dying
38:27and
38:27where
38:28these
38:28games
38:28were
38:28installed
38:29men
38:29in
38:30black
38:30suits
38:30would
38:30come
38:31and
38:31tinker
38:32with
38:32these
38:32games
38:33and
38:33it's
38:33believed
38:33that
38:33these
38:34were
38:34some
38:34type
38:34of
38:35government
38:35agents
38:36that
38:36were
38:36altering
38:37the
38:37equipment
38:37in
38:38order
38:38to
38:38see
38:38what
38:38effects
38:38that
38:39Polybius
38:39would
38:39have
38:39on
38:40the
38:40people
38:40playing
38:40it
38:40but
38:41the
38:41thing
38:41is
38:41there's
38:42no
38:42actual
38:42evidence
38:43that
38:43it
38:43existed
38:44if
38:45there's
38:46no
38:46proof
38:46of
38:46Polybius
38:47then
38:47where
38:48did
38:48this
38:48urban
38:48legend
38:49come
38:49from
38:49the
38:51only
38:51known
38:51evidence
38:52of
38:52its
38:52existence
38:53can
38:53be
38:53found
38:53where
38:53many
38:54modern
38:54urban
38:54legends
38:55are
38:55born
38:56the
38:57internet
38:58Polybius
39:00really
39:00comes
39:00down
39:01to
39:01a
39:01single
39:02website
39:02in
39:06that
39:06discussed
39:07different
39:08arcade
39:08games
39:08from
39:09the
39:091980s
39:10that
39:10has
39:11an
39:11entry
39:12for
39:12this
39:12game
39:13Polybius
39:14so
39:14whether
39:15that
39:15website
39:16grew
39:16out
39:17of
39:17people's
39:17memories
39:18of
39:18the
39:18game
39:18or
39:18whether
39:19that
39:19website
39:20created
39:20people's
39:21memories
39:21of
39:22the
39:22game
39:23that
39:23was
39:24really
39:24the
39:25linchpin
39:26that
39:26leads
39:26to
39:27the
39:27entire
39:28legend
39:28catching
39:29on
39:29as
39:29it
39:29did
39:30is
39:31the
39:31story
39:32of
39:32Polybius
39:32a
39:33complete
39:33fabrication
39:34or
39:34could
39:35there
39:35be
39:35some
39:35truth
39:36to
39:36a
39:36dangerous
39:37video
39:37game
39:37well
39:38perhaps
39:39the
39:39newfound
39:40form
39:40of
39:40entertainment
39:41in
39:41the
39:411980s
39:42really
39:43did
39:43warrant
39:44some
39:44caution
39:45and
39:45even
39:46fear
39:47the
39:49arcade
39:49phenomenon
39:50was
39:50a new
39:51one
39:51and in
39:51the
39:51early
39:5280s
39:52that's
39:52what
39:53kids
39:53did
39:54there
39:54was
39:54one
39:55kid
39:55who
39:55played
39:5528
39:56straight
39:56hours
39:57ended up
39:57making
39:58himself
39:58sick
39:58over
39:58it
39:59kids
39:59were
39:59playing
39:59this
40:00tempest
40:00game
40:00and
40:01they
40:01were
40:01having
40:01seizures
40:02another
40:03game
40:03called
40:04berserk
40:04a kid
40:05has a
40:05heart
40:05attack
40:05and
40:06then
40:06a
40:06couple
40:06of
40:06weeks
40:06later
40:07another
40:07kid
40:07has
40:07a
40:08heart
40:08attack
40:08on
40:08the
40:08same
40:09machine
40:09this
40:10was
40:10a
40:10lot
40:10of
40:10concern
40:11for
40:11parents
40:11who
40:11didn't
40:12really
40:12understand
40:13what
40:13video
40:13games
40:13were
40:14did
40:15fears
40:16of
40:16video
40:16games
40:17warping
40:17the
40:17minds
40:18of
40:18America's
40:18youth
40:19create
40:19the
40:20urban
40:20legend
40:20of
40:21Polybius
40:21perhaps
40:23but the
40:25bigger
40:25question
40:25is not
40:26how
40:26urban
40:26legends
40:27begin
40:27but
40:27why
40:28they
40:29continue
40:30to
40:30endure
40:30from
40:31one
40:31generation
40:32to
40:32the
40:32next
40:32it's
40:36often
40:36hard
40:37to
40:37find
40:37the
40:37origin
40:38of
40:38an
40:38urban
40:38legend
40:39but
40:39it
40:40spreads
40:40because
40:41it's
40:41a
40:41good
40:41story
40:42something
40:42about
40:43it
40:43appeals
40:43to
40:44people's
40:44experience
40:45and
40:45that's
40:45why
40:45they
40:46tell
40:46it
40:46there's
40:47something
40:47about
40:47it
40:47that's
40:48articulating
40:48something
40:48important
40:49there's
40:51a
40:51well-known
40:52saying
40:52about
40:52urban
40:53legends
40:53among
40:53folklorists
40:54which is
40:54that
40:55legends
40:55might not
40:56always
40:56be
40:56true
40:57but
40:58they're
40:58always
40:58getting
40:59something
40:59right
41:00the world
41:01is full
41:02of
41:02experiences
41:03real
41:04things
41:04that
41:05people
41:06see
41:06witness
41:07experience
41:08for themselves
41:09that
41:09they
41:10can't
41:10explain
41:11and
41:11those
41:11are
41:11the
41:11things
41:12where
41:12we
41:12fill
41:13in
41:13those
41:13answers
41:14with
41:15urban
41:15legends
41:15so
41:18what's
41:19the
41:19verdict
41:20can
41:20people
41:21spontaneously
41:22combust
41:22are
41:24mysterious
41:24men
41:25in
41:25black
41:25hiding
41:25among
41:26us
41:26concealing
41:26the
41:27truth
41:27about
41:27UFOs
41:28and
41:29what
41:29about
41:30spring-heeled
41:31jack
41:31was he
41:32real
41:33you know
41:34it's easy
41:34to be
41:35skeptical
41:35but
41:36the
41:36truth
41:36is
41:36not
41:37a
41:37single
41:37one
41:37of
41:37these
41:37modern
41:38myths
41:38have
41:38been
41:39definitively
41:40debunked
41:41so
41:42if
41:42you
41:42happen
41:42to
41:42catch
41:43a
41:43glimpse
41:43of
41:43some
41:44creepy
41:44clowns
41:45prowling
41:47around
41:47your
41:47neighborhood
41:47perhaps
41:49it's
41:49better
41:50to
41:50close
41:51the
41:52blinds
41:52lock
41:52the
41:52door
41:53and
41:54let
41:54them
41:55and
41:55all
41:56other
41:56urban
41:57legends
41:58remain
41:59unexplained
42:01we
42:02we
42:03heard
42:04we
42:05can
42:05do
42:06we
42:06have
42:07this
42:07time
42:08we
42:09can
42:09tell
42:09you
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58:12
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