A terrifying creature with the head of a horse, the wings of a bat, and the body of a dragon, the Jersey Devil has allegedly been lurking in the Pine Barrens of South Jersey for centuries.
Deep within the forests of South Jersey’s Pine Barrens, there are legends of a horrifying creature known as the Jersey Devil. Often described as a dragon-like beast with the head of a goat, the wings of a bat, and cloven hooves, the Jersey Devil is one of the most iconic cryptids in American folklore – and one that’s left locals terrified for decades.
As the legend goes, the creature known as the Jersey Devil has bizarrely human origins. Born to a woman named Jane Leeds – or more commonly referred to as Mother Leeds – in 1735, it is said that when she discovered she was pregnant with her 13th child, she cursed it in frustration, declaring that it would be “the Devil.”
Although the child was born seemingly normal, it eventually transformed into a horrifying creature with hooves, a goat’s head, bat’s wings, and a forked tail. The creature attacked the rest of its family before escaping the home and fleeing into the Pine Barrens, where some say it still resides to this day.
Like any piece of folklore, there are some other variations on the story. Some claim that Mother Leeds was actually a witch and that the Jersey Devil was sired by Satan himself. In any event, the story proliferated throughout the region, and by 1909 the story was so widespread that newspapers were regularly writing about alleged encounters with the Jersey Devil.
Public DomainA 1909 newspaper sketch of the Jersey Devil.
In fact, for about a week in January of that year, newspapers reported on hundreds of alleged encounters with the Jersey Devil between South Jersey and Philadelphia, with further sightings soon being reported in Delaware and Maryland.
Groups of vigilante hunters assembled to search for the Jersey Devil in the Pine Barrens, and it was even rumored that the Philadelphia Zoo would pay $10,000 to anyone who could capture the beast.
Naturally, no one has ever succeeded in capturing the Jersey Devil, but that hasn’t stopped people from claiming to have seen it. In 1925, a farmer claimed to have shot and killed a beast matching the Jersey Devil’s description, which he then photographed and said that none of the 100 people he showed it to could identify it.
Thirty years later, circa 1957, other locals claimed to have seen an animal corpse also seemingly matching the beast’s description. Then, throughout the 1960s, mysterious tracks and noises heard near the town of Mays Landing sparked further rumors about the Jersey Devil – and once again, a $10,000 bounty was put out on the beast’s head.
The potential rewards also led to a number of hoaxes over the years – some rather embarrassing ones, too, given that a fake Jersey Devil was once on display at a museum.
Still, it’s hard to deny just how vital and unsettling the story of the Jersey Devil remains more than a century after this tale first began to spread – hoax or not.
Learn more about the music used in our podcast. History Uncovered is part of the Airwave Media network. Learn more about your ad choices by visiting megaphone.fm/adchoices.
