Jersey Devil
Jersey Devil
| (Leeds Devil) |
The Jersey Devil,
Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, January 1909. |
| Data |
| First reported |
1735 |
| Country |
United States |
| Region |
Pine Barrens (New Jersey)  |
The Jersey Devil, sometimes called the Leeds Devil, is a legendary creature or cryptid said to inhabit Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ. The creature is often described as a flying biped with hooves, but there are many variations.[1] The Jersey Devil has worked its way into the pop culture of the area, even lending its name to New Jersey's team in the National Hockey League.
Legends and reported encounters
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 while giving birth to her 13th child, and when the baby was born, it either immediately or soon afterwards transformed into a devil like creature and flew off into the surrounding pines.[2][3]
According to legend, while visiting the Hanover Mill Works to inspect his cannonballs being forged, Commodore Stephen Decatur sighted a flying creature flapping its wings and fired a cannonball directly upon it to no effect. Joseph Bonaparte, eldest brother of Emperor Napoleon, is also said to have witnessed the Jersey Devil while hunting on his Bordentown, New Jersey estate around 1820.[4] Throughout the 1800s, the Jersey Devil was blamed for livestock killings, strange tracks, and reported sounds. In the early 1900s, a number of people in New Jersey and neighboring states claimed to witness the Jersey Devil or see its tracks. Claims of a corpse matching the Jersey Devil's description arose in 1957.[5] In 1960, the merchants around Camden offered a $10,000 reward for the capture of the Jersey Devil, even offering to build a private zoo to house the creature if captured.[3]
In entertainment
Film and television
- "The Jersey Devil" is a season 1 episode of X-Files which revealed the creature as feral people living in the forest.
- The Jersey Devil appears in the Animal Planet cryptozoological series Lost Tapes.
- A 2002 episode of Scariest Places on Earth deals with the Jersey Devil.
- The film The Last Broadcast has a four-men group going into the Pine Barrens in search of the Jersey Devil.
- the Jersey Devil is featured in the Extreme Ghostbusters episode, "The Jersey Devil Made Me Do It".
- The 2002 film 13th Child (13th Child: Legend of the Jersey Devil) was a direct-to-video horror film starring Cliff Robinson. The film was shot at Wharton State Forest, Batsto Village, and Hammonton in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey.
- The 2009 film Carny features the Jersey Devil wreaking havoc on a small town.[6]
- In 2008, the History Channel cryptozoological series MonsterQuest featured the Jersey Devil and suggested that the creature may be mistaken sightings of a great horned owl, or other known predatory bird.
- A 4th season episode of Paranormal State features an investigation for the Jersey Devil. Thermal camera footage supposedly captured a few seconds of a deer-like animal that appeared to have wings on its back.[7]
- The SyFy channel show Destination Truth investigated the Jersey Devil in a 2010 episode. A night-vision camera captured an unidentified airborne creature, and the team dismissed many ground sightings of the Devil to be fleeting glimpses of deer.
Literature
- In the novel All the Rage by F. Paul Wilson, the fourth of his Repairman Jack novels, a rogue rakosh – a bipedal shark-demon, first introduced in Wilson's novel The Tomb – disappears into the New Jersey Pine Barrens and assumes the identity of the Jersey Devil.
- In Cryptids and Other Unexplainable Creatures, the Jersey Devil portrayed as a monster with the hind legs and body of a goat, the wings of a bat, the head of a horse, and the fangs of a vampire.
- In the Stephanie Plum novel Plum Spooky (written by Janet Evanovich) the Jersey Devil is mentioned but not negatively. He lives in the Pine Barrens with the Easter Bunny, Elmer the Fire Farter, and other Unmentionables.
- The Pines by Robert Dunbar
Music
- On October 31, 2008 Bruce Springsteen released a music video and free audio download single titled, "A Night with the Jersey Devil" on the official Springsteen website.
- The band Coheed & Cambria released a song called "The Devil in Jersey City" about a gang called the Jersey Devils.
- The solo artist Darren Deicide release a song called "The Jersey Devil is Here" on his album of the same name.
Other
- American professional wrestler Jason Danvers portrays a character called "The Jersey Devil", a psychopathic member of a stable called "The Asylum".
- Sony published a video game called Jersey Devil for the PlayStation in 1998. You play as the Jersey Devil which looks like a horned and winged cartoon-like person wearing a purple outfit.
- The Jersey Devil appears as a creature in the Nintendo DS game Scribblenauts.
- The Jersey Devil is an enemy in the Nintendo DS game Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
- The "Jersey DevilRATS" is the name of a Triumph Motorcycle Club in Vincentown, New Jersey
- The NHL franchise in New Jersey is named the Devils'
- In the album The Second Stage Turbine Blade by the band Coheed and Cambria there is a song titled, Devil in Jersey City, which would make it the Jersey Devil
See also
References
External links
Further reading
- Weird NJ: Your Travel Guide to New Jersey's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets by Mark Sceurman and Mark Moran, Barnes & Noble ISBN 0-7607397-9-X
- The Jersey Devil, by James F. McCloy and Ray Miller, Jr., Middle Atlantic Press. ISBN 0-912608-11-0
- Tales of the Jersey Devil, by Geoffrey Girard., Middle Atlantic Press. ISBN 0-9754419-2-2
- A Natural History of Trees of Eastern and Central North America, by Donald Culross Peattie, pp. 20–23.
- The Tracker, by Tom Brown, Jr.
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