Jersey Devil: The Demonic Creature Stalking American Wildlife | Boogeymen | Real History

in New Jersey there lurks a strange monster that terrorizes anyone who Ventures deep enough into the forests of the Pine Barrens I've driven through the Pines a few times but now at the top down no way anything can get you Beware of the Jersey Devil God Almighty did you is that was that running something just ran across the road hahaha [Music] foreign [Music] to most people New Jersey is Atlantic City casinos the beaches of Cape May Lush national parks and the backdrop for the legendary television series The Sopranos but this beautiful state and its Rich history hide a secret one that terrorizes some and amuses others the Jersey Devil Jerry plumeri is among those who fear the Jersey Devil it was like 1964. and everybody went down the shore everyone everybody went to Seaside and um we were on our way home from the shore going through the pines and we had a convertible with the top down and all of a sudden I heard this blood curdling scream this isn't normal this wasn't human I looked over in the trees and there was these lights like two red lights like this and it seemed to be something like swinging from tree to tree I guess it may be about two minutes later all of a sudden this thing flies in front of us it was like six feet in front of us and thank God because we would hit it if he came closer we would we would have ran right into him but he and he just stood there looking at us we just we sat like this he stared at us looking mean and I'm thinking he's gonna he's gonna kill us and we couldn't move we couldn't even back the car up we were too scared to do anything we just three of us just stared at each other it was weird it was really weird [Music] most people laugh or give me a look like you're right and three of my girlfriends I slept I told about it and they all just looked at me and one said oh I've heard about it but and I says no it's real she didn't believe me honestly I don't care if you don't believe me I believe my mother Leeds point in Galloway county is considered the birthplace of the Jersey Devil it's here that the legend of the monster is taken most seriously and the Mayor Don Purdy is particularly proud of their most famous resident now I a towing company with six tow trucks and I own a body shop and I own an auto repair center and then I am the mayor of the town I don't think that we've ever put a number on the amount of people that travel to Galloway Township or Leeds point to find the uh or search of the Jersey Devil but I'm sure there's a lot that we don't know you know from going around the state of New Jersey and different stories that you've heard but it all comes back to here you know it all this is it Galloway Township is the home of the Jersey Devil well Galloway's pretty unique Galloway Township is uh the largest municipality in the state of New Jersey depends on who's measuring it uh it's uh 114 square miles a lot of people measure some of the wetlands and so forth It's a large community it's really close to um Atlantic City kensui is one of our great historians of Galloway Township and Ken is a great guy and knowing the history of not only Galloway tangent but Lee's point because that's where Ken lives um and and I think that uh there's history there and I think as long as there's history it will live I believe that uh you are in the Galloway Township uh historical Society the library we collect anything and everything to do with primarily Galloway Township but we also have an Atlantic City room and anything in the area of historical value we assemble and record keep records on it and keep it for posterity [Music] small village of a few hundred Souls was named after its founder Daniel Leeds a name as famous as it is common among locals there is but one leads family that were established in South Jersey there was some other ones in New England but the Leeds founded established in New Jersey went ahead preceded the first mayor of Atlantic City was uh mayor of Galloway Township has been a leads at one point in time yeah Harry yeah Harry leads Harry Leach and I'm married to religion [Music] thank you but the most famous of the leads is gene or as she's known here mother leads this mother of 13 children influenced New Jersey for centuries beginning in 1735. it seems that Jane Reeves and her husband Daniel lived in a cabin at the edge of a Great Swamp along the Mullica River now folks in these parts say that it was a strange family an unusual family some people even said that Jane Leeds was a witch one night she learned that she was pregnant with her 13th child and in a moment of understandable weakness she said as she was saying her prayers Lord let this one not be a child let this one be a devil [Music] all right he was about eight feet tall and that like the head of a horse and he looked angry and he had horns and long his long arms had claws on the ends of it you know like it could really scratch you the body was like all decrepit sort of like body of a horse but but not beautiful and smooth like a horse would be and then like when you know when a horse is up on on two legs and they're they're going with their paws like this the legs in the back are all crooked well this is what he he was and he was walking on them like that with hooves and I'm telling you I thought I was crazy I didn't think I really saw this and um no sooner did he just stare at us like that for about two minutes but two minutes is long when you're scared um he just sprouted his wings like this which were humongous they were really big and just took off into the forest thank you for not killing me seriously because I could have been dead people who claim to have seen the Jersey Devil describe it as having a dog or horse's head horns a body like a kangaroos broad Wings a reptile's tail hubs and razor-sharp claws someday in the late fall listen carefully when you hear the wind coming off the ocean through the Pines it almost seems like someone is trying to tell us something possibly someone's name oh motherly oh mother leads but how does a woman from America's colonial era give birth to the devil while we do note it was unusual family it was very large family and we had 12 children and Jane leads her problem was not really with her husband that Daniel he was a good Hunter an excellent fisherman a decent Gardener there was always food on the table that wasn't the problem the problem was that Daniel leads didn't take very much interest in the children and so Jane Leeds was left with the cleaning the cooking the laundry chopping wood picking things up putting things away to tell the truth she was at a Wit's End she was frustrated on that frightful night in February of 1735 when mother leaves 13th child was born it started out a perfectly healthy normal little baby boy with blonde hair and blue eyes but then something went terribly wrong my name is Rochelle Christopher I am an independent historian with Victorian vanities my organization teaches people about American history and one of the things we look at generally in the show that I do on weird New Jersey is the New Jersey Devil and I did see it once I'd been driving for a couple of hours I was between Cape May and Stone Harbor and it jumped out in the road and of course it then flew away [Music] mother leads gave birth the devil apparently was a beautiful baby boy soon after he was born he grew Talons and horns and wings unfurled from his back and very long legs he went into the next room where the midwives were and his father killed his father and mother killed other children cowering in the corner killed his mother and then flew up the chimney leaving all of this Rubble behind the Tranquility of Leeds Point residence is sometimes disturbed by curious Travelers looking for the very source of the Jersey Devil Legend the first stop on their Macabre pilgrimage a house built on the ruins of the legendary residence of Jane Leeds there were Cults who believe in the New Jersey Devil and some people believe this is the neighborhood this is the house they're going to threaten they're gonna they want what they want which is to burn down the house if they can't take pictures to do seances to conjure it up but they're looking for a connection to the devil which this lady who owns the house planes there is nearby a cemetery it's called Leeds Point Community cemetery and it has maybe about 40 or 50 Stones in it and there were kids from Stockton students from Stockton University and they did a seance up there hoping to conjure up something [Music] history and folklore mingle and the legendary stories of the Jersey Devil one of the most famous of them features none other than Napoleon's Brother Joseph Bonaparte there's a wonderful story about Joseph Bonaparte the um the older brother of Napoleon who lived in Philadelphia while he was waiting for his house to be built in Mount Holly and he had an encounter with the New Jersey Devil apparently he looked he looked with his gun and the New Jersey Devil looked at him and they both looked at each other and finally the devil flew away well Joseph Bonaparte swore that he was going to find the devil and bring it home as a trophy of course he never saw it again but it was in 1909 during the week of January 16th to 22nd that the Jersey Devil Made its most famous appearance throwing the entire country into Panic monster sightings occurred in Atlantic City Philadelphia and outside New York City the newspapers picked up the story and the Philadelphia Zoo even offered ten thousand dollars for his capture 1909 the week when everybody said they saw it that was the week when the New Jersey Devil was seen all over Southern New Jersey but it flew away it was seen in Bridgeton and it flew away it was seen by a group of people on a trolley car in Camden and it flew away and that seems to be the story they saw it and it flew away and everyone on the trolley car said they saw it it made an appearance on a rooftop adults in Philadelphia and Camden were afraid to send their children to school because they were afraid the New Jersey Devil was going to make its appearance Paul Evans Peterson Jr is one of those who believes in the legend of the Jersey Devil he devotes his free time to organizing monster hunts and writing songs about New Jersey and its history he even wrote a book The Legendary Pine Barons new Tales From old haunts [Music] hey my name is Paul Evans Pederson Jr I am a singer songwriter author and jewelry maker and I live here in the Pine Barrens of South Jersey and I've seen the Jersey Devil when Jerry plumeri saw an ad in the local newspaper announcing a conference hosted by Paul Evans Peterson she jumped at the opportunity to share her terrifying encounter in the summer of 64. I kind of like put it in in the back of my mind because everybody thought I was nuts so I ignored it now mind you years and years have gone by this was 1964. when I saw in the newspaper uh they're having this this talk at the at the library Paul Peterson is going to um he writes books about the Jersey Devil and I said you know what I gotta go see this I really there's something telling me to go and I sat there in the second row because I knew I was going to talk to him and I'm in a second row and he's talking I was mesmerized by his talking because he was he saw the Jersey Devil five times and he said has anybody seen the Jersey Devil so I got I went like this real Meek because I'm thinking these people are going to think I'm nuts but they you could hear a pin drop in the room you made this your life thing basically yeah yeah I never saw his face I saw it happen away from me and I've heard it coming up myself or steps and banging on the door we never came face it never came face to face with it nope I'll write a book called I shook hands with the Jersey Devil that'd be great I'd love that me too I shook claws with a Jersey Devil if the Jersey Devil was born in Leeds point he hides in the forest of Pine Barrens today Jerry plumeri and Paul Evans Peterson meet at the visitor center of the Pine Barrens preservation Alliance on the edge of the forest where the monster last appeared doesn't he no do you want to tell the truth he doesn't look anything like what I saw what I saw was about this tall but these are like real hands he didn't have real hands even claws and the legs didn't know nothing like this it was like a horse when it was standing up on on on its behind legs where the back legs are bent and he had Hooves which he had suits and a long tail but um a head of a horse but this this looks too gentle he didn't look gentle he had red lights for his eyes and horns so a lot of people down through the years have seen it and and have shot at it I have a friend of mine that shot at it three times so you don't you don't hear about it for a long long time right well they say that anytime you see a lot of a lot of sightings of the Jersey Devil it means a war is coming [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] one of the best ways to protect yourself from the Jersey Devil is you got to find these tracks and this is a story that goes back to me and my grandkids or my kids when my kids were little and I would tell them you got to get a little shovel and dig the track real carefully and put it into a glass jar and screw the lid on it and keep that jar under your bed as long as you keep that track in a jar under your bed the Jersey Devil will never hurt you wow [Music] wow yeah no seriously they did between a jersey devil and all the people in the malls we are crazy right really when you come down to it the Jersey Devil now where do you hear that any any other state yeah all the stories that have ever been told by the Jersey Devil are born right there that's it that's where it all comes from [Music] foreign Barrens is 4 500 square kilometers or 1700 square miles of dense forest bordering the Atlantic coast south of the state of New Jersey in 1978 it became the first Nature Reserve protected by the U.S government people come here to get lost in nature some come to chase monsters it is said that come Nightfall campers often find themselves more than a little unnerved all right what we're going to do right now is we're going to go through the uh like the heart of the pine bearings and we're going to be looking for the Jersey Devil tracks and uh if we can you know you never know we might see something uh the correct behavior is just to pay a close attention to what's going on in the woods and not disturbing anything because there's like 30 different kinds of plants that grow there and nowhere else that are on the endangered species lists there's a lot of animals on the same list and dangerous species and we're just going to wash the woods and see what comes out of it and if we see the Jersey Devil this has a really good reverse gear and we'll be putting it in reverse and getting away from it welcome to New Jersey [Music] when I go hunting for the Jersey Devil I like to go either right in this area back along the Mullica River or down in Cumberland County which is closer to the Delaware Bay than it is to the Atlantic Ocean that's number one that's why I keep a compass in the car but as long as I know where the sun is I'm usually pretty good about not getting lost but I've been back here before and it gets very frustrating if you don't know where you are and you can get yourself really lost back here and I mean for a whole day maybe and if it gets dark forget about it if you don't know what the hell phase the moon's in you're going to stay out there I love it out here places my heart man it really is [Music] and ever since ever since I've been a little kid I just keep coming back out here and I've you know tried to learn everything I can about all the different species of plants and animals and about the people it's just it's just a really special place the earth and the Pine Barrens is Sandy which caused many European settlers to leave the area in search of more fertile land since then this vast territory which occupies nearly a quarter of the state of New Jersey has been considered an inhospitable land but this is a mistake according to historian Kenneth sui this would have been a paradise for people that were establishing housing first coming down I have fuel I have fire I have water I have fish in the water I have too like have cranberries that can grow here they they had the necessities of life I don't consider us Barren at all just look around you see anything bearing about about where we're at I mean what are those uh Holly Magnolias we have it all yeah we're only going to go a little further it is here that the Jersey Devil has made us home the monster has been known to take long drinks from the deserted swamps of the Pine Barrens another favorite haunt of the Jersey Devil the ghost town of batsto this uninhabited Village dates from 1766 almost 30 years after the birth of the monster Jersey devil has been seen here through the years this Village was started in the 1700s and it was started as a Iron Works and they made a stuffed Iron stuff for the colonists and during the Revolutionary War they made Munitions and stuff for the uh for the Revolutionary War Fighters and after that in the 1800s it was turned into a glass works and they made window glass what they call Window light and uh the state of New Jersey has preserved it and it looks pretty much like it did uh back in that time [Music] over the years the Jersey Devil's been seen here several times a reported scene here several times by you know residents workers and this is the area where the sightings are very prevalent it's right around here because we're not that far from the back Bays The Bachelor Rivers right through here uh basto lake is right over there and it seems that the Jersey Devil prefers areas where there's water so in areas like this this is you know where you're going to see it yeah he's quiet until he starts screaming at people and that's that's mainly what you hear about is people hear it they hear this ungodly scream that they can't you know put their finger on what kind of animal they've ever heard in their life made that scream and a lot of your quote unquote sightings are actually hearings you know people that have heard whatever this thing is and uh now we're going to go back into Bulltown Road which is another kind of like a village back here where it's been seen a lot so if you fish where there ain't no fish you ain't going to catch them if you go looking for the Jersey Devil where he ain't gonna be that day you ain't gonna see it [Laughter] [Music] how did the pine Barons become synonymous with fear and danger in the minds of the residents of New Jersey over the centuries some people have had a personal interest in cultivating The Mystery of the forest the Pine Barrens because it's so uh sparsely populated is a good place if you want to carry on illegal activities because who's going to see you so for example in the early days of the Republic Alexander Hamilton had the idea to collect duties at the ports so Ships coming from Europe might go to New York or Philadelphia and when they pull in the tax collector was there to collect the customs duty but let's say you don't want to pay the taxes well maybe you could take your ship to Barnegat Bay or to Tuckerton and come ashore with the goods loaded onto Conestoga wagons which could take the goods to New York and Philadelphia it would increase your profits because you didn't have to pay the taxes now naturally you don't want Revenue officers coming around and so you tell people the story of the Jersey Devil you know when Outsiders come around into the woods they often don't come out and it was a it was a mode of intimidation a small Sandy roads crisscrossed the Pine Barrens in New Jersey they are called Sugar Sand roads and of course to venture on them increases your chance of coming face to face with the Jersey Devil oh foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] God Almighty did you is that was that running oh man something just ran across the road this is this is where if you're going to see something this is where you're going to see it the Jersey Devil has been seen or reported reportedly seen and this is one of the main roads that they have the Jersey Devil Hunts on because this is pretty much in the middle of the Pine Barrens right here this is smack dab in the middle of it [Applause] [Music] I've driven through the Pines a few times but now with the top down no way no anything can get you anything can drop out from the trees even today many people seen trustworthy people say they believe in the existence of the Jersey Devil there have been over 2 000 reported sightings but what did these people really see a lot of people have said they've seen it could be anything could be drunk could be tired could be they want attention could be they saw something I can tell you that I don't believe in it but when I drive through the Pine Barrens at night there is something it is creepy and I don't know what it is there are um explanations uh and many times um my colleagues fellow Scholars have come up with hypotheses to explain away what people uh saw but they think they saw the Jersey Devil but it's really something else one is um like the fruit bat because fat like wings okay we're halfway there and it's night and it's in the woods and you're not familiar with wildlife and you're scared and you know the story already well the Jersey Devil pops into your mind as an explanation for what you saw so bat would be one possibility far more plausible is the great horned owl the great horned owl has quite a wingspan and makes clicking noises and coming at you at night in the woods could be frightening enough and again if you already know the story of the Jersey Devil you might mistake the great horned owl for the Jersey Devil I had a fished chopped and hunted for most of my life I've been out in the bays in the woods and the swamps at every hour of the day and night I've heard some really strange noises which I have to attribute to being animal noises of one type or another uh but I do not believe that there's a Jersey Devil I believe it is a legend kind of a lousy feeling when you're trying to tell somebody something and they're laughing at you Supernatural and people a lot of people are interested in that I know I am I mean I watch some crazy shows you know Thriller and all that I watch some crazy shows but this wasn't this wasn't a show this was true so I don't see how they can't believe when there's people like me and I know there's other people that seen them and I'm telling you word for word I never changed my story when I told it to Paul I've never swayed from the story it's the truth I'm not making it up but like like I said a couple of my friends think I'm off off my rocker they think I'm making it up for attention no way [Music] the last stop on the trail of the Jersey Devil the Washington Tavern the only remnant of a village long gone this is as far as we'll go the ruins are right over there this is the site of the Washington Tavern and this is one of the best places if you listen real close you will see how absolutely dead quietness [Music] you can see how old this this growth in here is it's been here a long long time and it's amazing any time of year you come here it's always this quiet it's like everything else is afraid to live around here and that's that's part of the legend that uh at the birthplace of the Jersey Devil no animal Birds anything it's very strange very strange gives you a chill every time you come down here and I've been coming down here for a long while there's basically a clearing over here [Music] the Jersey Devil has been cited a lot here and it was one of the Hangouts of Joe mulliner one of the pine robbers and like I said this is all that's left but this was a Tavern uh built out here in the middle of nowheres now but back in the day this was quite the place to be and now it's just a ghost town in the time when these ruins were a village legends about monsters had significant resonance in the community ever since the 20th century um there have been forces working against these traditional stories I mean in in my romantic imagination I can see say in the 19th century uh the village Storyteller uh sitting around the pot belly stove and the General Store regaling people with stories and people with fiddles and banjos having a Saturday night dance in the old days people made their own entertainment they made their own music they told their own stories our culture doesn't really support leisurely storytelling anymore [Music] and that's kind of like the foundation and the floor of what it went across and that was this that was the basement of it this all used to be briggy and it's appearance see even just you've been just standing here [Music] you got to wonder it really feels like you're being watched [Music] [Music] the story of the Jersey Devil has been passed down for three centuries and along the way it has undergone some changes the commercialization of the Jersey Devil was inevitable but it had some positive and some negative consequences according to folklorist Angus gilsby the traditional stories of the Jersey Devil and I think this is something that's very hard for contemporary audiences to understand in the original versions in the among the old families of South Jersey this is an awesome fearsome nasty dangerous creature who's said to have slit the throats of babies in their cribs this is a creature that's monstrous and evil since we have for the last several years this hockey team called the New Jersey Devils there's a lot of name recognition I mean people almost worldwide uh certainly in North America recognize the name but they don't really know the story uh and the other problem is over time and particularly in places like Smithville which is very close to Leeds point you have like souvenir shops selling uh t-shirts shot glasses pennants uh postcards and and the usual representation is of the Jersey Devil is a kind of a cartoon character who's kind of cute and um from my point of view I mean that's it's all wrong I mean this is not clever or cute or cartoon-like this is awesome and scary and frightful [Music] once feared today the Jersey Devil is celebrated even New Jersey native Bruce Springsteen has sung about the devil everyone Embraces the maiden New Jersey Legend and everyone has their story to tell if you're a King's Highway something come out of the woods made a noise my dogs like Chase it through the woods they were barking and all this stuff I don't know I thought I don't know what it was today but I caught it all around here all my life I used to hear all the jerseys devil stories and then I'd be in a Woods you'd hear some Screaming people said that's just a fox but I don't know what it was I'm 49 and I've been told to stuff all my shits I was little who knows if it's true I mean I I sort of believe it it's like Bigfoot I believe in Bigfoot as a kid I saw it as real as a kid I certainly saw it as real especially going you go to the local library and they have all the uh the old Jersey Devil documentaries like you know how we saw something wrestling in the woods you know it's yeah I loved it I loved it you know just having that that bit of imagination to what might be lurking in the woods and there's there's plenty of woods for it to lurk in too I talk about it all the time I talk about anybody that'll listen pretty much so well I have plenty of relatives that that have claimed that they've heard mostly heard the Jersey Devil something rustling in the bushes I think it's usually probably just a deer screaming but I like to believe them when they say they heard it but even those who believe in the monster don't necessarily think it's dangerous or means to harm anyone I just think he's scared and I think he's lost and doesn't know where he belongs and maybe he's he just wants to reach out but everybody's so scared of him because he looks like what people would call a freak not to be mean but he he doesn't look normal and people get scared of that and he's become the devil he was the devil he would have killed people yeah he would have attacked people so he's I wouldn't I think Devil's the wrong word for him I think he's just one of our many wonderful people to add to Jersey I asked Paul how in the world this thing is still alive if he was born in the 1700s because because let's face it come on that's a long time ago and he says it reinvents itself the first thing I said well who does he mate with I mean there's no other monsters who does he mate with but the thing is it's there it's really there but he doesn't hurt anybody that's that's the main thing I think that that's pretty cool he's he's sort of like in limbo he's roaming around and have some place to go as a professional folklorist it's my job to be a professional agnostic I don't want to be too skeptical and I don't want to be too gullible besides when I'm interviewing people I have to show respect and um if somebody believes in the Jersey Devil I'm not going to disabuse them of that I want to draw them out and I think um it's easy enough to find Skeptics it's harder to find True Believers and it's harder yet to find a True Believer who will go public with her story [Music] foreign [Music] we didn't see him and it's it's you know there's been a lot of people down through the years ago on Jersey Devil hunts and with all kinds of equipment with all kinds of detectors and electronic stuff and this that and the other thing and that's not usually when it happens you know hopefully we could have had it happen but uh it didn't of course the day's not over yet you never know it's a long ride back to Hamilton but um usually it's it's somebody down here fishing or hunting or just going for a walk and the thing will come out and stand in front of them or or you know jump in front of its car and that's that's when you that's when it's seen it's a it's a strangest times or the most unexpected times and and anytime you come to this part of South Jersey could be the time you see it and every time I come down here fishing or just taking a ride with a wife and taking some pictures that could be the time that you look right into its eyes and it's Jersey Devil in the back water marshy where the cranberries grow the water takes on the color of wine as it flows and every evening the sun's fire drowns in the bay and all the creatures that live here they have their own special way and I swear it's true Beast Pine bearing blue the folks that live in the baron they have a story they tell they say the old leads woman he bore a child from hell the night is born he took Wings on it flew out into the night they say you're still hear him scream man one that conditions are right and I swear it's true find bear in blue every time I go down there I might not say anything to anybody else but in my head I'm thinking you're looking in the trees looking in the trees I'm you know even when I'm driving I'm looking just to make sure because you just never know you don't know I think it has to do with the weirdness that is New Jersey if you're at all interested in the weird New Jersey is probably the home of the weird the next time you go into the woods late at night take care and when you hear the sudden crack of a twig behind you beware Beware of the Jersey Devil

Channel: Real History

Views: 36,180

Keywords: World History, US History, History Lessons, Real History

Id: 7hq5lay5ykQ

Length: 44min 53sec (2693 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 28 2022