Max Gromann's List: Jersey Devil

• Legend has it that in 1735, a Pines resident known as Mother Leeds found herself pregnant for the thirteenth time.

• Reaching the point of absolute exasperation upon learning of her thirteenth child, she raised her hands to the heavens and proclaimed “Let this one be a devil!”

   
• Within moments it transformed from a beautiful newborn baby into a hideous creature unlike anything the world had ever seen
• attacked them all, killing as many as it could
• The most infamous of these incidents occurred during the week of January 16 through 23, 1909.
• The figure stood taller than a man by far, and had thick haunches (similar to a goat’s) supporting its nearly human looking torso and huge wooly head. It moved heavily and didn’t seem at all disturbed by my being there.

4 more annotations...

• The Jersey Devil was last seen in 1993, when forest ranger John Irwan was driving along the Mullica River in southern New Jersey, and was startled to find the road ahead being blocked by the Jersey Devil, according to prarieghost.com. He is reported having stared at the creature for several minutes before it fled into the woods.

• he Leeds family lived in the area of the NJ Pine Barrens (Leeds Point, Galloway Township, Atlantic County). Mrs. Leeds  had given birth to 12 children and was about to give birth to her 13th. The story goes that Mrs. Leeds invoked the devil during a  very difficult and painful labor and that when the baby was born, it either immediately, or very soon afterwards, (depending on the  version of the story), grew into a full-grown devil and escaped from the house.
• Another version of the story says it was when Mrs. Leeds found out she was pregnant with her 13th, that she said that if she were to have  one more child, "may it be a devil".
• Another version is that the child/devil was the result of a family curse.
• Another version is that Mrs. Leeds, who was a Quaker, had refused to be converted from the Quaker faith and that the clergyman who had  been trying to convert her was so angry that he told her that her next child would be an offspring of Satan.
• Another version is that the child was born a monster and that Mrs. Leeds cared for the child until her death. In this version the  child/devil "flew off" into the swamps after Mrs. Leeds' death.
• The best known sightings however were in January 1909 when Councilman E.P. Weeden of Trenton claimed to have been awoken by flapping wings  outside his bedroom window. The Councilman said he found cloven footprints in the snow and several other instances of similar  footprints were reported in Trenton at the time.
• In 1978 two teenage boys were ice-skating near Chatsworth in the Barrens and smelled an odor like "dead fish" and saw two red  eyes staring at them. They didn't stay around to investigate, but claimed they had encountered the Jersey Devil.

5 more annotations...

• A hiker hears a strange scream in the air above and witnesses a large flying creature in Mays Landing on January 15th.
• A man is chased by a creature in his backyard in the Pine Barrens on February 23rd. The next day, strange footprints were found on his rooftop with 4 foot spans between each print.

•   Date: April 30th, 2008
• Windsor Woods, Toms River, NJ

• Location: Califon, NJ  Date: May 12th, 2007

• 1840  The Jersey Devil went on a rampage this year, and the state suffered a heavy loss of chickens and sheep. Note that this was the 100th anniversary of its exorcism.
• 1899  This was a big year in JD history. In this time, the Jersey Devil was accused of raiding Vincentown and Burrsville, then heading up to New York. In New York, a man claimed to have heard ungodly screams, and found he was missing sheep when he awoke the next morning. There were also reports of sightings of an unusual creature at Hyenga Lake, NY. The Jersey Devil then returned to New Jersey, where he would do his worst batch of terrorism yet!

• This was a week in New Jersey history when the Jersey Devil was sighted daily throughout the state... people gave detailed descriptions of sightings, footprints were found constantly, and the entire state of New Jersey was in a panic. The sightings weren't confined to New Jersey, either - New York and Pennsylvania got a view of the Leeds Devil as well. Here are several tales from the week of terror.

• History of the Jersey Devil
• There are several variations, but a common story holds that a woman named Mother Leeds (who was believed to have been the wife of a Daniel Leeds) gave birth to her 13th child on a dark and stormy night. Rumors claimed that she was a witch, and bore the Devil’s child. Shortly after birth, it changed form, growing wings, hooves and an equine head. It flew into the air with a bloodcurdling shriek, killing a midwife in the process, and headed toward the woods.