Cryptid Month: Jersey Devil



Wikipedia:

Most accounts of the Jersey Devil legend attribute the creature to a "Mother Leeds", a supposed witch, although the tale has many variations. According to one version, she invoked the devil by saying "let it be the devil" while giving birth to her 13th child, and when the baby was born it was named Lucas, it either immediately or soon afterward transformed into a devil-like creature and flew off into the surrounding pines.

The Jersey Devil remained an obscure regional legend through most of the 18th and 19th centuries until a series of purported sightings in 1909 gained it press coverage and wider notability. Today, the Jersey Devil is considered to be more in the realm of popular culture than folklore.

During the week of January 16 through 23, 1909, hundreds of people reported encounters with the Jersey Devil. Newspapers of the time named it "Phenomenal Week" and the public reaction has been called the Devil's "most infamous spree." Reports initially concerned unidentified footprints in the snow, but soon sightings of creatures resembling the Jersey Devil were being reported throughout South Jersey and as far away as Philadelphia and Delaware.[13] The widespread newspaper coverage led to a panic throughout the Delaware Valley prompting a number of schools to close and workers to stay home. Among alleged encounters publicized that week were an attack on a trolley-car full of passengers in Haddon Heights and an attack on a social club in Camden. Police in Camden and Bristol, Pennsylvania supposedly fired on the creature to no effect


So far as the Jersey Devil is concerned, of all the cryptids, there are a handful I wish were real. This is one of them. The urban legend is dark, spooky, and the Pine Barrens are one freaky-feeling place.



("The 13th Child")



So, what's your vote on the Devil--does it exist?

Comments

  1. Kind of hard to overlook hundreds of years or reports. Not sure if it is a witch though.

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  2. I thought they proved the Jersey Devil wasn't real... or was the whatever the Mothman Prophecies was based off of...
    I get confused sometimes.

    (I'm glad you liked the turtle pic)

    I think we always have to be on our toes that these things DO infact exist... and if they do... it means they are procreating... Sooner or later... maybe a baby boom in these areas....

    Just a thought.

    A CREEPY THOUGHT.
    but a thougth.

    www.katerivonstealsnewlife.blogspot.com

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  3. Oh man that thing is freaky looking!

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  4. I am gonna go ahead and think you did this for me since I mentioned the other day that it was my favorite. It makes me feel special. As for whether or not it exists? I don't know...from what I have seen and read, there's some evidence there...

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  5. I'm a former Jersey girl and as far as The Jersey Devil being real, I don't know it's just considered an urban legend to us. I personally would not go to the Pine Barrens alone and at night.

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  6. you mite not belieave this but i me my mom and dad just saw one it was like 5 feet or so we where driveing home from the mall it was like 7:45 pm or so and it past really fast but we saw it had 2 hands and we did not see the legs but we saw wings and the hands we could not belieave this but everything points to it b.c no other this has hands claws and wings we live in wisconsion saw it between sparta and lacrosse

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