Hold your hands up high Jack

Once some captors took some passengers in a vehicle hostage. Now as we all know, Jack is a very common name in the English language. The captors shouted: "Hold your hands up high Jack" (using Jack as a placeholder for a man's name). A newspaper reporting this incident referred to them as "The highJackers". The name stuck, and was later shortened from 'highjacker' to 'hijacker', and the act itself became known as 'hijack'.

When I was in school, a friend (who now conducts quizzes at the national level) told me this convincing piece of logic.

Gullible as I was, and as specious the explanation was, I took it to be true. Until about 2 minutes ago, when I decided to verify the veracity of the fact on the internet. Apparently this is wrong.

The correct order of evolution is:

Jack -> Jacker -> Highway Jacker -> High jacker -> Hijack.

Jack = device for holding a vehicle up for repair.

Jacker = holdup man who uses a jack to hold a vehicle up (for repair or otherwise)

Highway Jacker (= = A bootelgger who holds a vehicle in transit on the highway