extraordinary%20encounters

236 Sprinkle, Ronald Leo
executing high leaps, on one occasion allegedly
springing from the ground to a
rooftop twenty-five feet high.
Though Springheel Jack legends are not a
part of American folklore, figures very much
like him appear in a few curious episodes. In
1938, a century after the London reports,
people in and around Provincetown, Massachusetts,
claimed encounters with a leaping
man with fierce-looking eyes and pointed
ears. They said he stunned his victims with a
blue flame emanating from his mouth. Comparable
stories were told in Baltimore in the
summer of 1951. On June 18, 1953, three
witnesses in a Houston neighborhood allegedly
sighted a leaping, black-clad figure in
a cloak and saw a rocket-shaped UFO zoom
away moments after the being’s disappearance.
At least two other cases link leaping,
Jacklike figures to UFOs, one in Gallipolis,
Ohio, in the early 1960s, another at Washington’s
Yakima Indian Reservation in December
1975.
The first suggestion that Jack may have
been an extraterrestrial appeared in the
Ma rch 6, 1954, issue of the British magazine
Eve ry b o d y’s . The next ye a r, in a book on Live rpool
history and lore, Richard W h i t t i n g t o n -
Egan re m a rked that such a theory “would account
for his astounding leaping pro c l i v i t i e s
because he would be adapted to the re q u i rements
of life on a greater-gravity planet. Likewise,
differences in physical constitution
would probably enable him to live longer on
e a rth and might well explain the fla m e - l i k e
emanations from his mouth” (W h i t t i n g t o n -
Egan, 1955).
On the other hand, in an extended survey
of all available literature on the legend, British
writer Mike Dash rejected any notion that the
various reports over a century and a half were
connected except as folklore. In Dash’s view,
“Springheel Jack” is a catchall name denoting
unrelated pranksters, hoaxers, and criminals.
Still, it is hard to deny that intriguing questions
remain, and Springheel Jack—whatever
he or it may or may not be—constitutes an
appealingly romantic mystery.
Further Reading
“Credulity—The Ghost Story,” 1838. London Times
(January 10).
Dash, Mike, 1996. “Spring-Heeled Jack: To Victorian
Bugaboo from Suburban Ghost.” In Steve
Moore, ed. Fortean Studies, Volume 3, 7–125.
London: John Brown Publishing.
Haining, Peter, 1977. The Legend and Bizarre Crimes
of Spring Heeled Jack. London: Frederick Muller.
Whittington-Egan, Richard, 1955. Liverpool Colon -
nade. Liverpool, England: Son and Nephew.
Sprinkle, Ronald Leo (1930– )
R. Leo Sprinkle is a psychologist in priva t e
practice in Laramie, Wyoming. Prior to that,
as a member of the counseling department of
the Un i versity of Wyoming, he became
k n own as one of a handful of mental-health
p rofessionals with a sympathetic interest in
the UFO phenomenon. He was the first to
study the psychological make-up of abductees
and contactees. In 1968, as a psyc h o l o g i c a l
consultant for the U.S. Air Fo rc e – s p o n s o re d
Un i versity of Colorado UFO Project, he hypn
o t i zed a Nebraska police officer who rep
o rted a puzzling period of missing time during
a close encounter. Sp r i n k l e’s principal
i n t e rest, howe ve r, was in persons who bel
i e ved themselves to be in psychic and other
contact with friendly space people, whom
Sprinkle called “UFOlk.” In 1980, he and the
Institute for UFO Contactee Studies held the
first Rocky Mountain Conference on UFO
In vestigation. From then until 1996 he
would direct the meetings, which bro u g h t
together contactees, their followers, and int
e rested observe r s .
Sprinkle’s interest was, and is, more than
academic. He believes himself to be a contactee
and maintains an active interest in reincarnation
and other metaphysical questions.
UFOs and their occupants are here, he believes,
“so that human development moves
from Planetary Persons to Cosmic Citizens”
(Sprinkle, 1995).
See Also: Abductions by UFOs; Contactees
Further Reading
Parnell, June O., and R. Leo Sprinkle, 1990. “Personality
Characteristics of Persons Who Claim