Dimensions: A Casebook of Alien Contact - Above Top Secret

and rode out after dark in search of Springheel Jack."On February 20, 1838, a woman of eighteen, Jane Alsop of Old Ford, London, heard a violentringing of the front door bell. Going out, she faced the "most hideous appearance" of SpringheelJack. He wore shining garments and a flashing lamp on his chest. His eyes resembled glowing ballsof fire. When Miss Alsop uttered a cry, the intruder grabbed her arm in claw-like fingers, but hersister rushed to her rescue. The visitor spurted a fiery gas in Jane's face, and she droppedunconscious. Then Jack fled, dropping his cloak, which was picked up at once by another shadowwho ran after him.Two days earlier, though not revealed until after the Old Ford incident had made headlines, aMiss Scales, of Limehouse, was walking through Green Dragon Alley. The alley was a dimlitpassage beside a public house, and when she saw a tall figure lurking in the shadows MissScales hesitated, waiting for her sister who had fallen behind.The sister, who described the loiterer as "tall, thin and (save the mark) gentlemanly," cameup in time to see his long cloak thrown aside, and a lantern flashing on the startled girl.There was no time to scream; Jack's weird blue flame spurted into his victim's face and shedropped to the ground in a deep swoon. Whereupon, Jack walked away calmly.Vyner suggests that Jack had a rendezvous in Green Dragon Alley and wanted to get rid ofwitnesses. A week after the Old Ford incident, he knocked on the door of Mr. Ashworth's house inTurner Street and inquired for him. The servant who opened the door screamed. Jack fled. He wasnever seen again, in the London neighborhood at least. Had a contact been made? It is strangeindeed, as Vyner remarks, that Springheel Jack should have paid two visits within two days tohouses less than a mile apart, whose owners were named Alsop and Ashworth, respectively. Two ofthe main witnesses, as in West Virginia, were young women. With them, in the two cases, were theirsisters. There seems to be a pattern here. But, rather typically, it is once again an absurd one.In 1877, wearing tight garments and shining helmet, Jack was seen again at Aldershot, Hampshire,England. On that occasion he flew above two sentries, who fired at him. He answered with a burstof blue fire, which left them stunned, and vanished. Vyner believes that Jack was again to blame forthe scare in late August 1944, in Mattoon, Illinois. He was seen at night peering through windows"as in search for someone known to him by sight." Most of the witnesses were women; some ofthem reported falling unconscious after a device was pointed at them by the visitor, who left astrange cloying smell.In the spring of 1960, Italian jeweler Salvatore Cianci was driving in Sicily, near Syracuse, when asmall being in shining clothes wearing a diving helmet appeared in the beam of the headlights. Ithad no arms but two "little wings." Mr. Cianci suffered a nervous shock.On Saturday, November 16, 1963, four teenagers were walking near Sandling Park, near Hythe,Kent, England. One of the four, seventeen-year-old John Flaxton, describes how they werefrightened by an object they first had taken to be a star:It was uncanny. The reddish yellow light was coming out of the sky at an angle of sixtydegrees. As it came towards the ground it seemed to hover more slowly.A bright golden light suddenly appeared in the field near them, after the first object had been hiddenby some trees:It was about eighty yards away, floating about ten feet above the ground. It seemed to movealong with us, stopping when we stopped as if it was observing us. The light was oval, aboutfifteen to twenty feet across with a bright, solid core.It disappeared behind trees and a few seconds later a dark figure shambled out. It was allblack, about the size of a human but without a head. It seemed to have wings like a bat oneither side and came stumbling towards us. We didn't wait to investigate.