A ghost said to have a face of fire tormented parts of Wirral and even left some people bedbound with shock.
The ghoul is said to have terrorised residents with its supernatural appearances and smell of sulphur, with an appearance not unlike the modern comic book anti-hero Ghost Rider.
In a news report about the sightings just before Halloween on Saturday, October 29, 1887, the figure is described as having a face "smeared with phosphorus, which gives the appearance of a ball of fire".
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Extraordinary stories of the ghost's antics on the peninsula at the time were full of supernatural accounts that caused a great deal of alarm among the people of Wirral.
One woman was said to have been in such a deep state of shock after seeing the creature she was bed-bound.
The figure was spotted in Birkenhead in a long military coat and was said to have been wearing stilts that it could shorten at will.
Others said it wore a dress of rubber that was covered in grease so it could slip the grasp of anyone trying to take hold of him.
Some even said he had horns like the devil and had sprung up to the Town Hall clock face and changed the time before leaping over people with a "hollow, sepulchral laugh".
The ghost scare caused mass hysteria which took over Wirral, with many being scared to leave their homes after dark.
This self-imposed curfew was said to have been welcomed by some who said it helped their children in New Ferry "keep better hours".
But for others, according to an article in the Birkenhead News in October 1887, the ghost hunt "provided husbands who love to stay out at night with an excellent excuse for returning home in the early hours of the morning".
It said: "A couple of such cases we came across the other day.
"Two Grand Road shopkeepers returned home after 12 o'clock. Their better halves demanded explanations, which were immediately forthcoming to the effect that they had been chasing the 'ghost'."
In another fight to arrest the 'ghost' two "athletic" police officers were tipped off to a sighting on Vittoria Street.
They couldn't believe their eyes when they saw its famed horns - but they quickly realised it was actually a goat.
While some more mischievous people put sheets over their heads and went down the local pub shouting "I am Springheeled Jack" - a Victorian folk legend about a demon who attacked women in the night - the subsequent moral panic actually resulted in an assault.
On November 11, 1887, a man thought he saw the mysterious figure running at him and cracked it over the head with his cane only to find it was a girl who had thrown her grey shawl over her head and shoulders.
She spent days in bed recovering and the man sent an "ample apology" to the young girl.
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There was also a court case in December 1887 which saw Michael Charles of Hughton charged with being disorderly on the highway by frightening a woman named Margaret Appleton following the continued sightings of "Springheeled Jack". Due to no other criminal record, he was given a fine.
Pranksters trying to continue the hysteria soon lost interest in trying to emulate the ghost but many were genuinely unsure if it was a real supernatural sighting and if he would be back again to haunt Wirral.
