The Jersey Devil

- In 1735, a woman named Leeds, who had already had 12 children, gave birth to a 13th. During labor she proclaimed, �May the Devil take this one!�. The baby, upon being born, turned into a monster with the head of a collie, the wings of a bat and cloven feet. It promptly flew out the window and has been haunting the Pine Barrens ever since, mutilating animals, scaring the locals and bringing bad luck.

- A woman gave birth to a jauntus baby (skin is slightly neon yellow colored) and they thought it a demon. they cast it iout of their home when it was old enough to find food for itself and the like. It stayed alive for some time because of it's diet of swamp slime and minsects of the jersey's swamps. Eventualy he got electrouted and he went from jauntus to a flourescent green and has been there after the Jersy Devil.

- �There lived, in the year 1735, in the Township of Burlington, a woman. Her name was Leeds, and she was shrewdly suspected of a little amateur witchcraft. Be that as it may, it is well established, that, one stormy gusty night, when the wind was howling in turret and tree, Mother Leeds gave birth to a son, whose father could have been no other than the Prince of Darkness. No sooner did he see the light than he assumed the form of a fiend, with horse�s head, wings of a bat, and a serpent�s tail.

- This is the great Jersey Devil hoax of 1909. Jacob F. Hope and Norman Jeffries took advantage of public hysteria about the Jersey Devil. They offered a $500 reward for the capture of the monster, claiming it was a rare Australian vampire. After �capturing� the Jersey Devil, they dressed up a kangaroo in green paint, feathers and antlers and put it on display in Philadelphia for any sucker that would pay.

More on this website:

Jersey Devil theories

I think it's not much more than an urban legend, but I enjoy reading about it and the sightings.

QUOTE:

- This is the great Jersey Devil hoax of 1909. Jacob F. Hope and Norman Jeffries took advantage of public hysteria about the Jersey Devil. They offered a $500 reward for the capture of the monster, claiming it was a rare Australian vampire. After �capturing� the Jersey Devil, they dressed up a kangaroo in green paint, feathers and antlers and put it on display in Philadelphia for any sucker that would pay.




www.judyblume.com...

www.weirdnj.com...

[Edited on 8-9-2003 by quaneeri]

Has anyone hear ever seen any traces or heard of a first had account of the jersey devil?

Originally posted by zed

Originally posted by ID
I recall a TV special on it a while back in which a team went to investigate these happenings. While on a path in the woods one of the female investigators was walking a little faster then the rest of the crew. Suddenly she screamed and when the rest of the team caught up to her she was frozen with fear. To this day she refuses to discuss what she saw that night. Like I said I heard about this a long time ago so I do not know all the details.

I think I saw the same programe and I thought it looked a bunch of kids with over active imaginations. The camera angles killed any sense of authenticity.
[/quote
Scariest places on earth, i think it was called. They kids ibn the show were the devil hunters, and if you go to their site, it explains how the show's director spliced the film together to make it look like she saw something.

Well, it COULD be a large African bat, that somehow got to be in the area way back when�

The Jersey Devil, as commonly depicted�.



The H. Monstrous Bat�

The single species, H. monstrosus, is found from Gambia to southwestern Ethiopia and south to northeastern Angola and Zambia (Hayman and Hill, in Meester and Setzer 1977; Koopman 1975; Largen, Kock, and Yalden 1974).
Head and body length is about 193-304 mm, there is no tail, and forearm length is 118-37 mm. The wingspan in males is as much as 907 mm. This genus has the greatest sexual dimorphism in the Chiroptera; Bradbury (1977) found that males, which averaged 420 grams, were nearly twice as heavy as females, which averaged 234 grams. The coloration is grayish brown or slaty brown. The breast is paler, and the lighter color extends up around the neck, forming a sort of collar. A white patch is present at the base of the ear. Shoulder pouches and epauletlike hair tufts are lacking in both sexes.
Male Hypsignathus may be recognized in flight by the large, square, truncate head. The muzzle is thick and hammer-shaped, hence the common name. Other distinctive features are enormous and pendulous lips, ruffles around the nose, a warty snout, a hairless, split chin, and highly developed voice organs in adult males. Females have a foxlike muzzle similar to that of Epomophorus.
In referring to this genus, Lang and Chapin (1917) commented: "In no other mammal is everything so entirely subordinated to the organs of voice." The adult male has a pair of air sacs that open into the sides of the nasopharynx and can be inflated at will, as well as a great enlargement of the voice box (larynx) and vocal cords. The larynx "is nearly equal in length to one half of the vertebral column," actually filling most of the chest cavity, pushing the heart and lungs backward and sideward. The voice thus produced, a continuous croaking or quacking, is quite remarkable and probably attracts the females. The gregarious chorus reminded Lang and Chapin of "a pondful of noisy American wood-frogs, greatly magnified and transported to the treetops."
The hammer-headed bat inhabits forests, being most common in swamps, mangroves, and palms along rivers. It usually roosts in foliage but has been found in a cave. Bradbury (1977) stated that Hypsignathus roosted at a height of 20-30 meters during the day and would forage up to 10 km from the roost at night. With the ripening of certain fruits, this bat often seeks the high forest or native clearings to feed. It may take the juices of mangoes, soursops, and bananas. Van Deusen (1968) reported that Hypsignathus killed and ate tethered chickens.

[edit on 10-12-2004 by Gazrok]

I did some reserching on the Jesey Devil myself for a while. Even though I don't think its real , I still want to go wandering in the pine barrens at night for a good scare.

Looks like I'm way too late for this topic as well. I have gone searching for the Jersey Devil on a few occasions and have even looked for the remains of the supposed birthplace. The Pine Barrens are a big place that could hide creatures with ease......

i remember a bit in a tom brown book where he got mistaken for the jersey devil or some evil beast,

dont remember much else about it though but perhaps the same is true for all the sightings

From what I understand, the myth came around because the pine barrens, are kinda creepy. And people would get lost. Considering they do look like the same texture repeated over, I can see how easy it would be to get lost in them and never be seen again.

My uncle was actually in an indy film that was about searching for the jersey devil, and someone got killed. Iknow that it is still a fascinating subject among the locals.

It is funny how many people don't know that this is what the Hockey team is actually called after.



[edit on 7-9-2009 by nixie_nox]

I know this is KINDA offtopic, but has anyone seen "The Last Broadcast"? It's a Blair Witch Project style movie about the Jersey Devil. It was made before Blair Witch Project though, so it's not a ripoff(:

Monster Quest did an interesting episode on the subject. They did come up with a sculpture of what two eyewitnesses reported. I think it may be some type of unknown large bat that can live in the New Jersey wilderness. Whatever it is, I would not want to come face to face with it.

reply to post by ZikhaN


That is the movie I was talking about that my uncle is in.
Not a bad indy flick.

I love the surpise ending.

[edit on 9-9-2009 by nixie_nox]

Double post, sorry!

[edit on 9-9-2009 by nixie_nox]

reply to post by nixie_nox


Actually the ending was one of the worst endings I've ever seen in any movie, and I watch a lot of movies. The ride along was great though.

I've lived in New Jersey for all 28 years of my life, and less than an hour's drive to the Pine Barrens. I've only spent the night in the Pine Barrens, in a hunting lodge, one time and didn't have any strange occurrences (we were partying so there were plenty of strange occurrences, just none of the paranormal kind!).

I am willing to accept that there is some kind of creature(s) out there that is known as The Jersey Devil. I don't know what it is or if it's even around anymore, but I am open to the idea that it does or did exist. However, I do not believe the whole "Mrs. Leeds- 13th child" story. My guess is that it was just a story made up to explain the origin of the Jersey Devil. Because it sounds like a cool story, it stuck and is still being told to this day. I think the JD has a better chance of being an extraterrestrial's pet that got loose during an ET's vacation to New Jersey than it does of being the offspring of a human being!

Anyways... I see that at least a couple of you live in New Jersey, or at least the immediate area. I would LOVE to get together with some like-minded people and do a little Jersey Devil investigation. Is anyone here interested in perhaps forming a group and maybe meeting up at some point and doing a search??

i remember reading a book about the devil and in it was pictures of teh devils dead body caught on a power line. Can anyone fnd this photo? It looks like a dead goat carcass way up in the powerlines and I think the there was some truth to that photo. can anyone find it?

"A bizarre rotting corpse vaguely matching the Jersey Devil description was discovered in 1957, leaving some to believe the creature was dead."

en.wikipedia.org...

You guys are pretty lame! I would have thought that at least a few of you Jersey folks would have jumped at the chance to go Jersey Devil hunting!!!

Would Bigfoot hunting be more appealing? I have heard of a few Bigfoot sightings in NJ, even here on ATS.

It's Mr. Chupa himself, before heading down to Central America

( the picture sure looks a lot like him..... )

Originally posted by ID
I recall a TV special on it a while back in which a team went to investigate these happenings. While on a path in the woods one of the female investigators was walking a little faster then the rest of the crew. Suddenly she screamed and when the rest of the team caught up to her she was frozen with fear. To this day she refuses to discuss what she saw that night. Like I said I heard about this a long time ago so I do not know all the details.

That was a Fox special called "Scariest places on earth", and it featured the investigative team from NJDevilhunters.com.
The NJDevilhunters are a genuine group of people who perform regular "hunts" in the Pine Barren area, and their website details all of their official hunts.

The Fox TV special tried to "direct" the devil hunters, and set up a few situations, including the female investigator (Laura K Leuter) walking ahead of the team... and running at one point, towards them. The scream was added by fox, to make it seem more exciting. As were growls etc from the woods.
The whole thing took place over two days of filming, and nothing devil-related of note happened at all, on those two days, so fox apparently had to create "something" to justify the money spent on two days of wasted filming.
It is all detailed on the NJDevilhunters own website under Hunt#10.

Link to Devil Hunters Own website

Apparently some very strange things did happen on several of their other hunts, which are all detailed on their website.

peace

G