All language subtitles for The.UnXplained.S07E12.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

WILLIAM SHATNER:
A bloodsucking vampire

haunting a decaying cemetery,

creepy clowns abducting
children into the woods,

and a video game so dangerous,
it could kill you.

Have you ever been warned
about conjuring an angry spirit

by repeating the words
"Bloody Mary"

in front of a mirror?

Or maybe you've considered
the possibility of a giant beast

named Bigfoot.

These are just a few examples
of modern mythology

called "urban legends."

For centuries, humans
have told extraordinary tales

of mystical creatures
and supernatural events.

And today
we continue the tradition

by sharing stories of things
like creepy encounters

and cursed objects

and inhuman entities.

Where do these
urban legends come from,

and could they be true?

Well, that is what
we'll try and find out.

♪ ♪

SHATNER:
It is said that aspects
of what make us human

are the capacity
for abstract thought,

moral reasoning,
and creative expression,

which may explain our habit
of sharing outrageous stories

that make us question
the nature of reality itself.

Might the legendary Bigfoot
wander the Pacific Northwest?

(creature growling)

Could Area 51 be hiding

extraterrestrial secrets?

Or are there places where
you can really stumble upon

a portal to hell?

These are but a few
of the countless questions

raised by the thrilling tales
we call urban legends.

An urban legend
is a modern folktale.

And we tell them for the reasons

that people have
always told folktales.

They are there to entertain.

They are there to horrify us.

A good urban legend
is based on being plausible--

or nearly plausible--

but also very unexpected
and-and unusual.

And the best ones tend to work

because they're not something
that can be easily verified.

I think that's part
of the appeal.

We are attracted to the mystery.

TOK THOMPSON:
Urban legends
come out of nowhere

and spread very, very quickly.

A lot of these legends
are about scary things.

Monsters, ghosts,

horrible things
that could go wrong.

People are expressing
their fears.

So there could be
somebody saying

they saw something strange
in a particular area,

and then these stories
become repeated,

sometimes embellished,

oftentimes kind of made
more and more compelling

-as time goes on.
-(girl screams)

The real heyday of urban legends
was the 1970s and the 1980s.

The legends circulating
at that time

were stories like
the vanishing hitchhiker,

which is about the motorist
who drives past a young woman

on the side of the road
and she asks for a ride.

And when he gets
to the destination, she's gone.

Usually, he finds out
that a young woman died

at that exact curve in the road
some years before

and this happens regularly.

EMILY ZARKA:
When I think of urban legends,
I definitely think about

the story of the teenage couple
making out in the car

and then, you know,
being accosted by someone

with a hook hand
and murdering them.

There will always be legends
we can't fully explain.

I think that part
of human curiosity

is that we want
to believe in the unknown.

SHATNER:
While some urban legends
seem too far-fetched to be true,

there are, in fact,
stories whose origins

are shockingly real.

JOSEPH LAYCOCK:
Urban legends could be

based on some sort
of true event,

and it got, perhaps,
exaggerated,

or the names and places
were changed.

One 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.

A.J. GENTILE:
Alligators living in the sewers.

Now, that urban legend
caught fire

because people really were
bringing home baby alligators.

So it evolves from there.

You start to think,
"Well, if that happens,

then this can happen."

So a baby alligator
suddenly becomes

a giant killer
out in the sewers.

THOMPSON:
The fun thing
about urban legends

is they often overlap
with reality.

Maybe worries about pollution
or government testing

could be expressed
in contemporary legends

about mutant creatures that have

grown up around
these testing sites.

We know that radiation
does cause mutations.

We've seen this with Chernobyl.

These are real concerns
on real contemporary issues

that people express very often
in these narrative forms.

SHATNER:
Are urban legends
just modern-day fairy tales

meant to entertain
the human psyche?

Or could they be
a kind of warning

to protect us from the strange
and unknown world around us?

Perhaps the answer lies with
one seemingly impossible tale

about how a human being
can suddenly erupt into flames.

CHAD LEWIS:
Spontaneous human combustion
is the urban legend

that through
some chemical reaction,

the human body will
spontaneously burst into flames,

leaving the person nothing more
than a mound of ash.

The belief that you can
spontaneously combust

goes back hundreds of years.

In the 1800s,
some of the most popular writers

talked about
spontaneous human combustion.

Charles Dickens, Mark Twain,
Herman Melville,

they all depicted
spontaneous human combustion

in their writings.

We have to wonder, what is it

about spontaneous
human combustion

that has made it
such an enduring legend

-over these centuries?
-(woman screams)

SHATNER:
Authorities rush to the home

of 76-year-old retiree
Michael Faherty.

Once inside, they're faced
with a tragic scene.

Please be advised,
some images may be disturbing.

LARRY ARNOLD:
Inside Mr. Faherty's home,

it was said that his body
was burned badly,

as was the ceiling above him
and the floor beneath him.

Accelerants were searched for,

thinking this might be
a case of arson.

Accelerants were not found,
so that was ruled out.

The medical examiner
was Dr. McLoughlin.

After nine months
of investigating the case,

he declared it to be,
remarkably,

death by spontaneous
human combustion.

What the first responders found

in answering the call
at the Faherty residence

was a mystery then and remains
a mystery to this day.

ANDREA KITTA:
The coroner decides
that this spark

has come from within the body.

It couldn't be
from anything else.

It has to have come from within.

We'd like to think
that if there's a fire,

there's a way
for us to get away,

but the idea
that the fire is in us,

that is really kind of scary,
I think, to everyone.

SHATNER:
The thought that a human being

can mysteriously
burst into flames

is truly alarming.

But what could have led
this coroner

to deliver such
a bizarre diagnosis?

Well, as with
many urban legends,

this strange event seems
to have happened more than once.

One of the better-known cases
of spontaneous human combustion

occurred to Mary Hardy Reeser
in July 1951.

Photos show two firemen
shoveling up her ashen remains.

The entire pile of ash
weighed about eight pounds,

a remarkable
weight reduction overnight.

More remarkable was the lack
of fire and heat damage

to surrounding materials,
including daybed linen

only a few feet
from the fire scene.

This mystified the local
St. Petersburg police

and fire departments.

So mystifying
that the police department

kept this an open file
that is unsolved.

That's how extreme
this fire scene was

in trying to explain it.

SHATNER:
Remarkably,
over the last three centuries,

there have been
around 200 reports

of people allegedly
bursting into flames.

(man screaming)

SHATNER:
And until we can properly
understand this medical mystery,

spontaneous human combustion
will remain

an urban legend
that continues to smolder.

(garbled screaming)

The existence of the legend
I don't think

is a mystery at all.

Spontaneous human combustion
has been consistently reported

time and again
in different literary means,

reported by doctors,
reported by police officers.

These are
authoritative accounts.

And it really puts
spontaneous human combustion

into the category

of a weird thing
that keeps happening.

How many times do we need
to see a human body

disintegrate into ash to wonder
what's going on here?

SHATNER:
This sprawling
Victorian-era graveyard

is the final resting place
of around 170,000 people.

It was first consecrated in 1839

as part of a plan to create
seven new cemeteries in London.

Its age and unique design
create an otherworldly space

where the living
and the dead come to meet.

Highgate Cemetery
was first laid out

in the mid-19th century.

There's avenues
and there's circles

and there's winding paths,
and you can get very lost there.

It's a very creepy place

because the Victorians
were obsessed with death,

and they loved
creating necropolises,

and that was one of them.

So there's so many
kind of spooky, dark,

moss-covered columns and tombs.

You always do feel

that there's just something
lurking around the corner--

if not behind a headstone--
waiting to jump out at you.

SHATNER:
While Highgate's Victorian
monuments to the dead

create a spooky impression,

the cemetery is perhaps
most famous for being the home

of a monstrous urban legend.

It is said
that this old graveyard

is the haven
of a bloodthirsty creature

known as the Highgate Vampire.

TONY McMAHON:
In 1970,

there were rumors
that circulated

that a vampire
had been seen in the cemetery.

The Highgate Vampire story
happens at a time

when there's a lot of interest
in the occult, in horror.

You've got the Hammer
horror films in the cinemas,

there's the Dracula series
with Christopher Lee

playing the vampire.

And, really, that kind of feeds
into the public consciousness.

But I defy you
to go to Highgate Cemetery

and not feel a sense of fear.

If there's gonna be
a vampire anywhere,

it's gonna be
in Highgate Cemetery.

THOMPSON:
The vampire tradition,

it's a very old tradition
in Europe.

Now, the traditional vampire was
a loathsome, repelling creature,

someone who is so evil
and rotten in their soul

that when they die
and you bury them,

their soul is not
gonna leave that body.

Their soul is gonna
get up with that body

and then go terrorize
the local communities.

They drink people's blood.

A Highgate Vampire
is a-a combination of things

that emerged around
the late 1960s and, uh, 1970,

around Highgate Cemetery.

There are accounts
of an evil presence

that people have claimed
to have seen,

and you've got a real
sort of panic on your hands.

SHATNER:
Could a vampire really be
terrorizing Highgate Cemetery?

What would cause people
to even consider such a claim?

LAYCOCK:
In 1969, there had been
some pretty serious vandalism

and grave desecrations
going on in Highgate.

It was not uncommon
to find bodies that had been

dragged out of their coffins
and left lying in the path.

You have rumors of satanism.

David Farrant ran a group called

the British Psychic
and Occult Society.

So, he was interested in all
kinds of supernatural topics.

So, David Farrant decided
to do a sort of investigation.

He did an all-night vigil
in the cemetery.

And he said
that while he was doing this,

he saw a dark figure
moving across the cemetery.

It was about seven feet tall.

And when this sort of
shadowy figure looked at him,

he was hypnotized by its eyes.

He felt paralyzed.

So, after having this encounter,

he eventually wrote
the local newspaper.

He said, "I have seen
this mysterious specter

in Highgate Cemetery,
has anybody else seen this?"

And it turned out,
lots of people

had seen strange things
in the cemetery,

and all the rumors about
a vampire began to accumulate.

There are accounts of these
vampires being seven feet tall,

uh, that they have red eyes,

that people are seeing these
crypts that have been opened,

and they see these bodies
that don't look alive,

they don't look dead,
they look somewhere in between.

And so, clearly,
something's happening.

SHATNER:
Could the tales
of frightening encounters

with a red-eyed vampire
be the result

of an overactive imagination,

or was there something
truly sinister going on

at the century-old cemetery?

In 1970, another brave soul

believed he found the source
of the unholy activity

happening at Highgate.

Sean Manchester
presented himself

as a Christian occultist,

much in the style
of Dr. Van Helsing

from the Dracula movies.

So, Sean Manchester said,

"I know what's really going on
at Highgate."

He said it is a king vampire
from Wallachia.

Wallachia is a principality
in what today is Romania

that was once ruled
by Vlad Tepes,

better known as Dracula.

And he said this king vampire
was brought here

sometime in the 1700s,

and it's dormant
beneath the cemetery.

And he also claimed
that all of this vandalism

that's occurring
in the cemetery,

it's this satanic cult,
and it's performing

these powerful rituals
in the cemetery at night

for the purpose of resurrecting
this king vampire.

SHATNER:
A king vampire being resurrected
by a satanic cult?

It sounds more like
a frightening campfire tale

than the truth.

And yet, in March of 1970--

on Friday the 13th--

this story would become forever
engrained in modern folklore.

BELL:
The Highgate Vampire story

escalates once it gets
to the national media.

And they broadcast, um,
that there was gonna be

a sort of an exorcism
of this thing

in Highgate Cemetery.

On Friday the 13th, of course.

And once that's on the news,

two hours later,
a mob, essentially, forms up.

Highgate Cemetery is swamped
with amateur vampire hunters.

Apparently,
the police are there,

they can't hold them back.

They kind of swarm over
the gates of the cemetery

hunting for this vampire.

SHATNER:
It was reported that around
100 people went hunting

for the Highgate Vampire,

but the fabled creature
was never found.

And while skeptics
are quick to dismiss the idea

of a bloodthirsty demon
that roams the cemetery,

like many urban legends,

it seems that something strange
really was happening.

The question is, what was it?

LAYCOCK:
There were definitely
very strange things

going on in Highgate,

in addition to vandalism
with pseudo-satanic rituals.

One detail that's often ignored

is that there were
a lot of dead foxes

found at the cemetery,
supposedly drained of blood.

We still don't know
what killed these foxes.

So, this is often
how urban legends form,

at the intersection
of unexplainable phenomena

and then folklore
rushing in to build a story

about that mystery.

Was there really a vampire

prowling the grounds
of Highgate Cemetery?

Or was it a case
of mass hysteria?

Perhaps the answer
may be found by examining

another famous urban legend

about mysterious figures
that lurk in the shadows

known as the men in black.

SHATNER:
Since the 1940s,

both sightings
and strange encounters

with unidentified flying objects

have sparked
countless urban legends

of close encounters
with extraterrestrial beings,

civilian abductions
and testing on alien spacecraft

and livestock found mutilated

as the result
of otherworldly entities.

But one of the most
fascinating legends

surrounds the mysterious
men in black.

AARON GULYAS:
The legend of the men in black

is that ever since
the dawn of the UFO age

in the late 1940s,

UFO witnesses
have been silenced,

have been threatened

and have even possibly
been physically harmed

by the men in black
in their pursuit of the truth

behind what UFOs might be.

These figures are usually
considered to be agents

of any number
of government agencies,

but there are others who believe
that the men in black

might be agents
of an organization

that is so deeply hidden
within our government

that we don't
even know its name.

KITTA:
The men in black usually show up
after someone's seen a UFO

or seen some sort of
strange light in the sky.

They try to dissuade them
from talking about the UFO.

Uh, sometimes
they take any evidence

that people have of the UFOs,

including pieces of it
or photographs,

and they strongly encourage them
not to talk about them.

SHATNER:
Is there really
a top secret government agency

that employs mysterious agents

to suppress
extraterrestrial secrets?

Perhaps the answer can be found
by examining the origin

of this long-standing
urban legend,

and the tale
of a prominent ufologist

from the 1950s
named Albert K. Bender.

Albert K. Bender
is really the origin

of the men in black legend.

He worked for the Air Force
during World War II.

But by the 1950s,
he started something

called the International
Flying Saucer Bureau,

and it published a newsletter
called the Space Review.

In 1953, in the Space Review,

he wrote,
"I've discovered the secret

"of the flying saucers.

"I know what
the flying saucers really are,

and I'm going
to tell the public."

But he never did
tell the public.

Instead, he shuttered

the International
Flying Saucer Bureau

and stopped investigating UFOs.

SHATNER:
What would compel Albert Bender

to suddenly go silent?

Well, nearly a decade

after his strange
change of heart, in 1962,

Bender shared an unsettling
explanation in his book

titled Flying Saucers
and the Three Men.

LAYCOCK:
What Bender eventually said was,

"These three men in black
came to my house,

"and they said,
'We know what you've been doing.

"'You're getting too close
to the truth.

"'You need to stop talking
about this right now,

or there's going
to be serious consequences.'"

They acted as if they were
from the government.

That they were very frightening.

GULYAS:
When the men in black
initially contacted him,

Bender claimed he felt the
temperature in the room drop,

he got an excruciating headache

and heard a voice telling him

to not delve any more deeply
into the flying saucer mystery.

And it terrified Bender so much
that he was completely happy

to shut down
his flying saucer organization,

and to refuse to talk
about the topic,

even to his closest friends.

SHATNER:
Did men in black
with strange powers

really scare Albert Bender
into silence?

While skeptics dismiss
the claims as pure urban legend,

many have wondered,

"Why do stories
of men in black still persist?"

LEWIS:
In the summer of 2008,

residents outside
of Needles, California

saw something
shooting through their sky.

It looked like a long cylinder.

It was covered
in a turquoise blue flame,

and it crashed on the side
of the Colorado River.

And in a matter
of moments later,

big sky copters came
with a crane,

removing whatever debris
had crashed there.

The next day, townsfolk noticed

strange, men-in-black-looking
government officials in town.

They were intimidating witnesses
that it would be

to their best interest
if they did not speak

about what they had seen.

The Needles crash
in 2008 contains many

of modern-day tropes of
what we think of men in black.

SHATNER:
Who were the strange men

allegedly intimidating residents
of Needles, California?

Well, according to urban legend,

these mysterious beings
might not even be men at all.

GULYAS: There are several things
that witnesses have experienced

that have led people
to believe that

the men in black could be
extraterrestrial in origin.

They act like creatures

who maybe have learned
how to behave like humans

from monitoring our mass media.

Are these government officials?

Are they extra-dimensional
creatures?

Are they some combination
of the above?

We don't know that.

But there's a kernel of truth

at the heart
of the men in black legend.

Ever since the beginning

of the flying saucer age
in the late 1940s,

there have been
persistent reports

of men dressed in black
threatening, intimidating,

or otherwise silencing
UFO witnesses.

This is a real story.

Are the rumored men in black

covering up
the existence of UFOs?

And who are they, really?

When it comes to urban legends,
the fact is

that you can't always
trust your eyes and ears.

Like in the case of a rash
of creepy clown sightings

that swept the United States
in 2016,

before spreading
across the entire world.

SHATNER: Authorities
are inundated with calls

as freaked-out residents

report a strange figure
prowling the streets.

And what they describe seeing

is a disturbing presence

of a very unusual kind.

MAY:
On August 1, 2016,

people in the Green Bay area

start seeing
this mysterious clown

that's haunting the street,
seems to be lurking.

And that clown is
absolutely terrifying.

It is a white-face clown,

but then you've got
smudged, creepy accents

around the eyes and the mouth.

He's holding this bouquet
of black balloons.

Suddenly, everyone is talking
about this clown

that seems to be haunting the
streets of Green Bay, Wisconsin.

SHATNER:
This menacing clown
was later revealed to be part

of a marketing stunt
for a new horror film.

But it seemed to have sparked

something very strange
to happen,

when similar reports
of creepy clowns

started popping up everywhere.

McNEILL:
Later that month,
we were getting reports

from other places.

Greenville, South Carolina,
children were reporting clowns

at the edge of the woods
offering them money

to follow them into the forest.

And that fear,
that anxiety catches on,

and thanks to the Internet,
it spreads around the world

in a matter
of days or even hours.

Now we get images, videos.

Parents are freaking out.

Police stations
are getting phone calls.

They're hearing about predators

in the environment
dressed as clowns.

MAN:
Oh, my God.

McNEILL:
And people tried to figure out

whether that's a real,
genuine threat,

or whether that's someone
setting up an elaborate hoax.

MAY:
The creepy clown craze

of 2016 was
this remarkable moment

in pop culture history.

At last count,

19 different countries
had their own clown sightings

within that period.

It bears all those earmarks
of really good folklore,

really good urban legend,
because this taps

into that same existing fear
about traveling

into the woods by yourself,
and protecting children.

But now it's got
this extra level of absurdity,

level of creepiness,
with a clown being the threat

that's emerging
from the woods for the kids.

SHATNER:
Is there any truth
to the urban legend

that there are dangerous madmen

in clown costumes
seeking to harm our children?

While it sounds like
the stuff of nightmares,

reports of sightings of creepy
clowns awoke a mass hysteria.

MAN (panting):
Oh, my God.

What's even more bizarre
about this whole thing is

that it's not even the first
scary clown craze to happen.

Going all the way back to 1981,
in the Boston area--

this is the first time we really
see a widespread clown sighting.

Children are saying
that they saw a clown

approach them in a van,
and then immediately disappear

before any kind of police could
make it to the scene on time.

And it's important to note
that no clown ever was found

at this particular clown hunt.

SHATNER:
In 1981, reports
of creepy clowns also appeared

in Omaha, Kansas City, Denver,
Providence and Pittsburgh,

but thankfully,
there was no real evidence

that clowns were
abducting children.

But based on the sheer terror
that these reports inspired,

it begs the question,

"How have we become
so afraid of clowns?"

Nothing in modern pop culture
has changed more than clowns.

In the 1800s,
with the height of the circus,

the clowns were
the most popular performers.

They were
the A-list celebrities.

They were the ones that everyone
went to the circus to see.

They entertained us,
made us laugh.

(laughter)

But today, pop culture
has portrayed clowns

as evil beings,

from Pennywise
in Stephen King's It,

to Killer Klowns
from Outer Space,

to Batman's nemesis, the Joker.

They have painted them
as things that are sinister,

creepy, and possibly deadly.

(eerie cackling)

SHATNER: While evil clowns
have certainly become part

of the popular culture,
tragically,

the urban legend became
all too real in the 1970s,

with a serial killer named
John Wayne Gacy.

MAY:
John Wayne Gacy is one
of the most infamous

serial killers
in American history.

He murdered many teen
or very young boys.

Would lure them back
to his home and then murder them

and bury them under his house.

And when he's arrested,
it kind of comes to light

that he also happened
to moonlight as a clown

for local hospitals.

LAYCOCK:
John Wayne Gacy was
a serial killer

who had a persona
called "Pogo the Clown."

So, this really cemented
into the American consciousness

that there really is
such a thing as a killer clown,

and that people
who dress as clowns--

they may only be performing
as a clown

so that they can have access
to children.

SHATNER:
John Wayne Gacy's alter ego--
Pogo the Clown--

is a grim reminder

that a dangerous madman
could be hiding

under a layer of grease paint.

One of the things
that always lingers for me

with the creepy clown craze was,

who were the actual clowns?

The people standing outside
elementary schools,

standing under streetlights
at night.

We never got
the follow-up stories.

And that tells us something
about the creepy clown craze.

We weren't looking for answers.

We were looking to be scared.

Is it possible
that we're in for another wave

of creepy clown sightings
in the future?

Or is the phenomenon
just an elaborate hoax?

Perhaps time will tell.

However,
there is another urban legend

that's been a mystery
for more than 185 years.

It's the story
of a demonic entity

that terrorized London
known as...

Spring-heeled Jack.

SHATNER:
Around 9:00 p.m.,

an 18-year-old Jane Alsop,

a young woman born
into Victorian high society,

hears a rattle
outside her front door.

She looks outside
and sees a mysterious figure

who identifies himself
as a policeman

and asks her for assistance.

Believing him,
she opens her door.

And very soon,
she'll wish she hadn't.

He's kind of wrapped
in this cloak,

and he says he's a policeman.

And he throws off his cloak.

And then, she kind of suddenly
sees he's got this strange face,

with these big, red eyes.

He looks very sort of inhuman.

And then, she realizes
he's also got claws.

And he blows this sort of
a ball of flame in her face.

Kind of describes it
as a blue-white flame.

And then, he lurches at her,
he starts to attack her.

This man began to claw
at her face, her neck,

her arms and her dress.

She was screaming
and struggling,

and luckily,
her sister heard her.

Jane was actually
being dragged out of the home.

-(Jane screaming)
-Her sister, fortunately,

was able to get her back inside,

but not before Jane's dress
was almost completely torn off.

SHATNER:
Who or what
attacked Jane Alsop?

Her attack made headlines
all over London,

and a wave of terror
flooded the city.

Because this was not
the first woman

said to have been attacked
by a shadowy figure

that is known in urban legend

as Spring-heeled Jack.

McMAHON:
In the 1830s,

this curious story emerges
in the newspapers

that there is an attacker

on the dark,
foggy streets of London,

called "Spring-heeled Jack,"

who has eyes
that are like balls of fire,

who has claw-like hands,

who wears
this skintight black costume,

and who can jump
enormous heights.

LAYCOCK:
So Spring-heeled Jack

is a type of urban legend

that's sometimes called
"a phantom attacker."

So, in phantom attacker stories,

there is someone
who is attacking people,

but it's not killing someone.

About 50 years
after Spring-heeled Jack,

we have
the Jack the Ripper murders.

Jack the Ripper is not
a phantom attacker.

He's an unidentified
serial killer.

-(woman screaming)
-But there are similarities
with the panic

over Spring-heeled Jack in
that we have someone who is

stalking the streets at night,
attacking women,

who nobody seems able
to identify or catch.

SHATNER:
While Jack the Ripper was
a very real killer in 1888,

the urban legend
of a phantom attacker

with superhuman abilities does
sound a bit hard to believe.

But incredibly,

after reports
of Spring-heeled Jack

started appearing in the 1830s,

they continued...

for decades.

BELL:
Spring-heeled Jack
sightings lasted

a very long time.

They dip in the sort of
late '50s

into the early 1860s.

He then gets reimagined as
this penny dreadful character.

Penny dreadfuls were cheap
publications in serialized form.

And this seems
to sort of reignite a lot

of the folkloric tales again.

And then, he's seen in Wales.

He's seen up in Scotland.

There's a sighting
in Liverpool in 1904.

In Sheffield, he was known
to be around the region

until the First World War.

So, you've got a character

that if it is
the same individual,

is coming up for at least 100
years since he first appeared.

SHATNER:
Was there really
a fire-breathing superhuman

with claws,

preying on women for 100 years?

Well, some experts believe
that details

of this mysterious attacker
were embellished,

like many good urban legends.

And some suggest

this monster served
as a cautionary tale

for Victorian women
living in 19th-century London.

McNEILL:
The time period in which

Spring-heeled Jack emerged
was the 1830s.

So, we're pretty much
smack in the middle

of the Industrial Revolution
at this point.

Industrialization changed a lot.

It moved people out

from pastoral spaces
into urban spaces.

It created a lot of congestion,

people living
on top of each other

in sometimes rough conditions.

And the story that we see is
of this bizarre criminal,

targeting women specifically
in this urban setting,

and in so many ways,

this is just
really quintessentially

the fear
of the unknown stranger.

So, this is clearly a concept

that women are often in danger
of predatory creatures,

whether they be human beings
or not.

BELL:
Spring-heeled Jack does speak
to some of that violence

towards women
in the Victorian period.

It's almost kind of
reinforcing the notion

that women should
just be sitting at home,

and the public sphere is
kind of the masculine sphere.

But it was something
that was often spoken about

in this time period.

And so, there is a sort of
a controlling element to this.

SHATNER:
Was Spring-heeled Jack invented

to keep 19th-century women
at home?

It's certainly possible.

But if that's true,

then why has this story
reemerged in the modern age?

SHATNER:
A family is taking
a taxi ride through town,

and suddenly,
they witness something

that's impossible to explain.

They see a figure
jump over a highway divider,

run across two lanes of traffic,

and then somehow leap up
a 15-foot embankment,

all within the span
of about two seconds.

On top of this, they said,

whoever this was
had no facial features.

So, this is
a really strange encounter,

and it sounds a lot like

the original Spring-heeled Jack
sightings from the 1800s.

SHATNER:
Has Spring-heeled Jack returned

to begin a new reign of terror?

Only time will tell.

But there is another
urban legend of a different kind

that started
in American arcades,

about a game said to possess

mind-altering powers.

SHATNER: The video game
revolution takes over America,

and gamers flock to arcades
throughout the city.

And it's said that there is one

legendary game that people
are lining up to play.

The only problem is,
it might cost you your life.

It's called...

Polybius.

KITTA: So, the Polybius
urban legend is

that there was
this game console that was

placed in certain arcades.

People would play it,
and it was supposedly

either controlling their mind,

or in some cases, we also hear

that people were
having headaches or seizures.

It was causing them
to have some sort

of medical condition
because of the game itself.

GENTILE:
Kids are getting into fights.

They're becoming aggressive.

Some of them are dying.

And where these games
were installed,

men in black suits would come
and tinker with these games.

And it's believed
that these were some type

of government agents
that were altering the equipment

in order to see what effects
that Polybius would have

on the people playing it.

But the thing is, there's no
actual evidence that it existed.

SHATNER: If there's
no proof of Polybius,

then where did
this urban legend come from?

The only known evidence
of its existence can be found

where many modern urban legends
are born--

the Internet.

McNEILL:
Polybius

really comes down
to a single website in 1998--

the Coinop website

that discussed
different arcade games

from the 1980s

that has an entry
for this game, Polybius.

So, whether
that website grew out

of people's memories
of the game, or whether

that website created
people's memories of the game,

that was really the linchpin

that leads to the entire legend
catching on as it did.

SHATNER:
Is the story of Polybius
a complete fabrication,

or could there be some truth
to a dangerous video game?

Well, perhaps the newfound form
of entertainment in the 1980s

really did warrant some caution

and even fear.

The arcade phenomenon
was a new one.

And in the early '80s,
that's what kids did.

There was one kid
who played 28 straight hours,

ended up making himself sick
over it.

Kids were playing
this Tempest game,

and they were having seizures.

Another game, called Berzerk,

a kid has a heart attack, and
then a couple of weeks later,

another kid has a heart attack
on the same machine.

This was a lot of concern
for parents

who didn't really understand
what video games were.

SHATNER:
Did fears of video games
warping the minds

of America's youth create
the urban legend of Polybius?

Perhaps.

But the bigger question is not
how urban legends begin,

but why they continue to endure
from one generation to the next.

LAYCOCK:
It's often hard to find
the origin of an urban legend.

But it spreads
because it's a good story.

Something about it appeals
to people's experience.

And that's why they tell it.

There's something about it

that's articulating
something important.

McNEILL:
There's a well-known saying

about urban legends
among folklorists,

which is that legends
might not always be true,

but they're always
getting something right.

The world is full
of experiences, real things

that people see, witness,

experience for themselves,

that they can't explain.

And those are the things
where we fill in those answers

with urban legends.

(beeping)

So, what's the verdict?

Can people
spontaneously combust?

Are mysterious men in black
hiding among us,

concealing the truth about UFOs?

And what about
Spring-heeled Jack?

Was he real?

You know, it's easy to be
skeptical, but the truth is,

not a single one
of these modern myths

have been definitively debunked.

So, if you happen to catch
a glimpse of some creepy clowns

prowling around
your neighborhood,

perhaps it's better
to close the blinds,

lock the door,

and let them

and all other
urban legends remain...

unexplained.

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