The Jersey Devil: A Mysterious Cryptid

I will sometimes come across fascinating mysterious creatures besides Bigfoot or aliens that I might want to know more about. I saw a special on this cryptid on the Travel Channel and found the story of where it came from and some of the witness stories interesting. The Jersey Devil is a legendary cryptid that is sometimes referred to as the Leeds Devil. This creature is found to dwell in the Pine Barrens of southern New Jersey. There are several descriptions of this cryptid with different deviations of its appearance. It has been described as a flying two-footed animal with hooves, having a horse like head with a tail, and glowing red eyes known to paralyze a man. It releases a high pitch squeal and varies in height anywhere from three feet to more than seven feet. The stories of this creature have made its way to modern times with New Jersey naming their hockey team after it.

Where might it have come from? There are so many stories even dating as far back to Native American folklore of the origin of the Jersey Devil. The story that many people tend to believe the most is the one about Mother Leeds. The story goes that Mother Leeds had twelve children and was about to give birth to her 13th child. She believed that a 13th child would be the devil and was afraid to give birth. In 1735, on a stormy night, Mother Leeds gave birth to a child that looked normal, but quickly changed to look like a creature with hooves, a horse’s head, bat wings and a forked tail. There were rumors that she was a witch and the father of this child was the devil himself. This story reminds me of the plot for “Rosemary’s Baby”. After the cryptid was born it let out a loud scream, killed the midwife, and then flew up the chimney and into the pines. Five years later a clergy performed an exorcism for the devil and for 100 years there were no reported sightings of the creature. It was told that a Japhet Leeds, whose wife was Deborah Leeds, named twelve children in his will which was written in 1736. This falls in line with the legendary story of Mother Leeds thirteenth child being the child of the devil, lending credence to the story.

Where would we be with the skeptic’s point of view? Many of them believe that the Jersey Devil in nothing more than the wild imagination of the English settlers told to many generations. The Pine Barrens was a place that many early settlers were afraid to go into because of its dark, uninhabitable, and deserted eeriness to it. It is easy to see how the stories may have gotten started from them seeing animals such as bears, the smell of the pines, the dark unknown of what is lurking in these barrens, could have fueled their imaginations.

The Jersey Devil stories are intensified by the eyewitnesses who have encountered this legendary cryptid. In 1840, many livestock was reported killed by the devil because of the unusual tracks found and reports of loud screaming could be heard afterwards. From this time on until the 1900’s there were reports of sightings anywhere from flying above them, killing animals and terrifying children. The more frequent activity of sightings were reported in January of 1909. The reports were made on a daily basis and were anywhere from seeing it flying overhead, it’s tracks in the snow and all over town, to spotting it sitting right outside their homes and attacking people. Then the sightings stopped until 1951 when a boy claimed to have seen a screaming creature. Then in 1957 a strange rotting corpse resembling the Jersey Devil was found and many felted that the cryptid was dead. Even though the creature was thought to be dead, many encounters of the Jersey Devil have been made after that date. The reports of sightings are still being made today.

Some movies were made based on the story like the 2008 low-budget horror flick “The 13th Child: Legend of the Jersey Devil”. Even an episode of The X-Files was titled “The Jersey Devil” where is compared to Bigfoot and were revealed to be wild humans. Real or not, the Jersey Devil does make for interesting folklore.

--Julie--