New Jersey's Devil Roams

Originally Published on February 28, 2017

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Ever wonder in the night by yourself just simply walking home? It is a quiet night… a little bit too quiet for your taste. You pick up the pace, but you’re not running. The wind starts to pick up and a terrible chill runs down your back and suddenly you hear a noise. You are frozen in place and dare not to move and you happen to look into the air and see a figure zip across the sky and disappear. You start to sweat and just begin to run home. Breathing heavily with each heartbeat that pounds--you run faster. Looking in front of you, you see red glowing eyes and bright white teeth; you begin to SCREAM!!!

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Ladies and Gentlemen my name is the Legend Seeker and I am on a quest of finding about the origin and truth about the bloodthirsty New Jersey Devil. In New Jersey folklore, the Jersey Devil is a legendary creature said to inhabit the Pine Barrens of southern New Jersey, United States. The creature is often described as a flying biped with hooves, but there are many variations. For close to three hundred years now, Jerseyans have told tales of this mythical beast that stalks the Pine Barrens and terrorizes local residents. The recurring nature of this story begs a few questions: Why have New Jerseyans embraced this legend so steadfastly, and above all others? Is there actually some sort of creature roaming the Pine Barrens of Southern NJ, and if so, what in God’s name is it?

 

The first question you can be thinking at this moment is how did this all began in the first place. Well, According to the Weird New Jersey website, I have come across a very straight forward statement by claiming a woman named Mother Leeds can explain all of this.Leeds is the name of one of New Jersey’s earliest settlers, and many descendants of the Leeds family can still be found throughout state to this day. She was pregnant with her 13th baby and her life wasn’t the greatest. Leeds was a very poor woman whose husband was a drunkard and didn’t help at all with the kids so when she figure out that she was going to have another baby she rose her hands up to the Heavens and said,  “Let this one be a devil!”  

 

Now we all can agree that she definitely didn’t win the Best Mom of the Year, but something very interesting happen as I read along the story plot line. Within minutes Mother Leeds’s unholy wish of months before began to come to fruition. The baby started to change, and metamorphosed right before her very eyes. Within moments it transformed from a beautiful newborn baby into a hideous creature unlike anything the world had ever seen. The wailing infant began growing at an incredible rate. It sprouted horns from the top of its head and talon-like claws tore through the tips of its fingers. Leathery bat-like wings unfurled from its back, and hair and feathers sprouted all over the child’s body. Its eyes began glowing bright red as they grew larger in the monster’s gnarled and snarling face. The creature savagely attacked its own mother, killing her, then turned its attention to the rest of the horrified onlookers who witnessed its tempestuous transformation. It flew at them, clawing and biting, voicing unearthly shrieks the entire time. It tore the midwives limb from limb, maiming some and killing others. So the creature wasn’t from Hell itself, but actually was born into this world, in a different time and era.

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Image 1: The Jersey Devil stalks its next victim

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There are countless sighting from late-1700s until now and the witness keeps getting better with each description. The second sighting was in 1816 when Joseph Bonaparte, the former king of Spain and the brother of Napoleon, leased a country house near Bordertown from 1816 to 1839. He reported seeing the Jersey Devil while hunting game one day in the Pine Barrens. Also, Prairies Ghost website explain that In 1840, as the minister warned, the Devil returned and brought terror to the region once again. It snatched sheep from their pens and preyed on children who lingered outside after sunset. People all across South Jersey locked their doors and hung a lantern on the doorstep, hoping to keep the creature away. The stories continued to be told and the lore of the Devil was recalled throughout the 1800’s, although actual sightings of the creature were few. Then, in 1909, the Jersey Devil returned again and literally thousands of people spotted the monster or saw his footprints. It became so bad that schools closed and people refused to go outside.

The sightings have strongly been in  Pine Barrens and nowhere else. Other stories claim that there were a sighting in Galloway in 2015. But, countless people already debunked to the story of being fake and that the sight as well. The Jersey Devil due in fact exists but only in Pine Barrens, and the only way to get the best sighting is most likely during midnights in the summer time. Logically, the Jersey Devil feeds at night when bigger animals are out.Before I disappear into the night of hunting for the truth I want to ask my fellow readers a skin crawling question… Do you believe in the New Jersey Devil? This has been Legend Seeker and if you live to tell the story, be sure to share it with me.

 

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