Jersey Devil — Cryptid Encyclopedia

In 1735, so the story goes, a woman named Jane Leeds — known locally as "Mother Leeds" — was about to give birth to her thirteenth child. Exhausted and desperate, she cursed the unborn infant: "Let this one be the Devil!" The child was born normal, but within minutes it transformed — sprouting leathery bat wings, cloven hooves, a forked tail, and the head of a goat. It shrieked, killed the midwife, and flew up the chimney into the Pine Barrens, where it has roamed ever since.

For nearly three centuries, residents of southern New Jersey have reported encounters with the Jersey Devil. It stands three to six feet tall, walks upright on two hooved legs, has a long serpentine body, bat-like wings spanning six feet, and a blood-curdling scream that echoes through the dense, fog-choked pine forests.

The most dramatic period came during the "Phenomenal Week" of January 16-23, 1909, when hundreds of people across thirty towns in New Jersey and Pennsylvania reported sightings. Schools closed. Workers refused to leave their homes. Armed posses patrolled the woods. Hoofprints appeared on rooftops, in the middle of fenced yards, and across snow-covered fields — starting and stopping abruptly, as if the creature had landed and taken flight again.

The Pine Barrens themselves add to the mystery — over a million acres of dense, dark forest in the most densely populated state in America. Something has been seen there for almost 300 years. Whatever Mother Leeds brought into this world, it never left.

"The creature swooped down and attacked the trolley car. Passengers screamed as it clawed at the roof before flying into the night." — Newspaper account from the 1909 Phenomenal Week.