The Jersey Devil

It was cold... colder than usual. I'm usually one to shake off the chills and wintry weather like a bibliophile dusting off an old book. It doesn't bother me much. How could it bother one, who as a child would run out on the snow covered ground to check the mail with nothing but a pair of shorts on - no shoes, no shirt.

This cold was different though. This cold chilled the bones right to their core, and I was left wondering whether this was a psychosomatic side-effect of my current research, or if, maybe, there was something else that was the cause.

The Pine Barrens was my territory. I've lived in South Jersey all my life, and knew all about the folktales and stories seeping into midnight campfires to bring a startle to a young mind.

But what was the truth to it all? Does the devil really have a human form? What would it look like? Would it be in the traditional image of Baphomet, a horned goat-headed figure? Or would it have an all too human form?

Would the devil have any children? And if so, what would they look like?

These questions may never be answered; at least not to our liking, but the human race almost came upon an answer in the very woods that I was now treading. It was here that a creature was born into legend; a creature that would baffle even the best investigators; a creature named the Jersey Devil.

The only thing harder than actually pinpointing the appearance of the devil, would be to uncover the actual origin of this strange and enticing creature. I've heard several different versions in my time - each one changing with further tellings and exaggerations. And since I live in New Jersey, I've heard all the gossip as well.

The origin of the devil is most commonly placed in the womb of a woman known only as Mother Leeds. With twelve children already among her lot, she became distressed at the prospect of thirteenth child, and cried out her dissatisfaction proclaiming "Let it be a devil."

Leeds, though of Quaker origin, was said to have dabbled in witchcraft, and though the child was born normal, he soon began to morph into a creature of demonic features: the Jersey Devil. Most stories give a grotesque appearance to the beast, which is said to possess a bat's wings, a horse's head, cloven hooves, and a tail.

The devil would periodically return to Leeds Point and sit on the fence in his mother's backyard until he finally got the hint, and flew off one day... never to return to his mother or birth home.

The first sighting of the Jersey Devil came on January 17th 1909 when postmaster E.W. Minister saw a monster flying over the Delaware River. Two other men also saw the creature, one of which was a policeman.

Then, on the 18th of January, a policeman in Burlington, New Jersey saw the creature flying in the air as well. Residents of neighboring towns soon discovered mysterious tracks in the snow. The very next day, it was spotted again, in Burlington, prowling through an alley, by Mrs. Michael Ryan. A day or two later, it was spotted by a Mrs. Davis A. White. Her screams alerted her husband who chased the Jersey Devil down Sixteenth Street. Later that evening, in Salem, New Jersey, another police officer spotted the Jersey Devil and described it as close to eleven feet long.

A fisherman in Moorestown encounter it the next evening, while later, a Burlington motorman spotted it and described it as looking like a winged kangaroo.

The sightings increased until finally businesses and schools closed because of the mass hysteria. After that, the sightings soon fell off with sporatic appearances throughout time.

Even in today's society, I come across stories about people camping in the pines and their experiences with the Jersey Devil. Of course, most of these stories come from people who were drunk at the time and lend no credibility to the legend of the pines.

And that's why I was standing there in the cold Pinelands at night. I was searching for a myth that refused to die, but refused even more to be indentified. I was searching as I do every so often when the Pine Barrens call my name. And I go home empty handed.

Whether the Jersey Devil is still alive or not, we may never know. We may not even know whether he existed at all. Ultimately, the Jersey Devil is left to linger in the shadows of folklore as a haunting creature from a mythical existence.