Exploring the origins and legends of the Jersey Devil

One dark and stormy night many, many years ago, Mother Leeds cried out in anger and pain. This birth, the 13th child she had bore, was the most painful she had to endure. As the infant tore at her in its quest to leave the body, she screamed out five fateful words, let it be the devil. Perhaps the Lord of Darkness heard her because the cursed baby sprouted bat wings and a forked tail as it exited the womb. The midwife cried in terror at the baby's face. It had the eyes and horns of a goat. Today, on Screen to Screen, we take a look at the Jersey Devil, a creature said to haunt the Pine Barrens in southern New Jersey. Twelve children roamed the village of Leeds Point in the early 1700s. The townsfolk smiled when any of the Leeds children passed by. They were happy, pleasant kids, always ready with a smile and a melodic hello. Everyone wondered how such good children could possibly be the offspring of Mother Leeds, the matriarch of the town, a bitter, resentful woman who was often seen berating her husband, a man more often drunk than not, and complaining about everyone in the village. It was believed that she spent the nights under each full moon with the devil himself. Perhaps she did, as her thirteenth child was born a monster and was terrorizing the area ever since. Reports of a winged creature standing on two hooved feet began almost immediately, as if the satanic offspring of the wicked Mother Leeds found a need to feed. Not able to suckle at the teat of his mother, the creature was bound to ravage the countryside. Livestock, pets, and small prey were found shredded and devoured. People grew fearful of the shadows, lest they grow wings and fly away, or even more terrifying, towards them. Was Mother Leeds a witch? Speculation of this spread throughout the village like an infected rat, poisoning many against her. Her fits of anger, her mysterious disappearances, and the strange disasters that seemed to haunt the town fit this theory. Giving birth to the Jersey Devil, a winged monster able to kill and destroy at will, made perfect sense. If she was a witch, then her child was likely the cursed son of the devil, and a devil himself. Cloven feet and a goat's head, large bat wings, a forked tail, and a blood-curdling scream could easily be the product of such an unholy union. Was Leeds Point cursed? Before Mother Leeds, the land belonged to Daniel Leeds, a surveyor for the British Crown. In 1687, Daniel published astrological symbols in his almanac, symbols called blasphemous by his fellow Quakers. The more his neighbors complained, the more the publishings filled with demonology and the occult. Did he meet with Satan? Is it possible he introduced a family member to witchcraft, maybe leading her to Satan? His son, Titan Leeds, continued publishing his father's strange writings and the Almanac became so popular it competed with another rival publisher, Ben Franklin. Franklin published a prediction of Titan's death, starting a war of words. He continued his battle claiming that Titan had indeed died and it was his ghost printing the Almanac. Perhaps a joke by one of America's founding fathers, or maybe Ben Franklin knew a dark truth about his competitor. Titan began to post his family crest on his almanac, a bat-winged, dragon-like creature standing on two legs. Commonly called a Wurven, the crest seemed almost identical to the Jersey Devil. Was there a history of monsters in the Leeds family, or was this image just a spark that grew into a legend? Did Ben Franklin help create a monster, or did he merely call it out in the open? After a different beast, a human monster named Napoleon Bonaparte, was defeated in his conquest of Europe, his brother Joseph Bonaparte fled France and purchased an estate in New Jersey. It was here, in 1820, that Joseph claimed to have seen the Jersey Devil while on a hunting trip. Twenty years later, local livestock was found ripped apart by some creature. A creature whose horrid screams could be heard miles away and who left nothing behind but corpses and odd tracks. On May 7, 1909, the local paper, The Press, wrote the story of Captain Doughty, an experienced fisherman who claimed to have fought the Jersey Devil while he fished off Rum Point near Atlantic City. Returning after a successful haul, his boat loaded with fish. The captain was attacked by the winged creature. Using his oar as a weapon, the terrified fisherman lashed out, swinging his oar back and forth, hitting the flying beast several times until it flew away with a screech. When he told his tale, he made sure to say that he almost didn't survive the battle. Was the Jersey Devil simply hungry for fish, and a boat filled with them made the creature bold enough to attack? Or was it really the sea captain the beast was after in the first place, hungry for the taste of human flesh? Whatever the answer, the captain had a torn coat and bruised arms as proof of the attack. But at least he still had his life. So many reports, but why? Why would such an unholy creature haunt New Jersey? Doesn't New Jersey have enough tragedy without supernatural ones adding to them? It may be that the land holds a power beyond that of mortal imagination. New Jersey played host to pirates, Captain Kidd, whose ghost haunts the land, searching for a treasure buried in pine barrens. Warren County has a road called Shades of Death Road, where people have seen the dead walking in the frequent mists. And a sea serpent was first spotted in Lake Hopatcong in 1894. A black dog with glowing eyes haunts the land. Thought to be the pet of the devil, black dog legends in Europe tell that to see the hound means death is coming. But the New Jersey black dog seems peaceful, maybe curious, at least so far. Ghosts and demons seem to choose this land, and tragedy haunts the original colony of the United States. The Nixon-Nitration Works explosion of 1924 that entirely destroyed the town of Nixon, the Hoboken Docks fire of 1900 that killed more than 300 people and, of course, the famous Hindenburg disaster of 1937. Is the land cursed, inviting bad luck and bad spirits? Is the Jersey Devil a natural product of a land filled with darkness? New Jersey was the home of a large population of Native Americans before they were decimated by the disease brought on by early Europeans. Those remaining often found themselves competing for land and resources with their foreign guests, often with bloody results. It is possible the land holds the ghosts of tragedy, that a spiritual force binds good and bad spirits to the barons of New Jersey. Perhaps the devil himself walks the land, feeling the power of darkness as if it were home. Humans are fascinated by stories of darkness or urban legends that keep us up at night. The shadows beyond our vision holds our imagination. The more dangerous, mysterious, and evil something may be, the more we desire to see it, to be terrified by it, to want to capture it. Maybe we simply want to control our own fate. So it should come as no surprise that the Jersey Devil has wormed its wicked way into our heart and our culture. When the Colorado Rockies, a National League hockey team, left the safe confines of Colorado and moved to New Jersey, it was inevitable that they would be renamed the New Jersey Devils, a name chosen by a poll of the residents. On June 13, 2021, the Jersey Devil coaster opened at Six Flags in Jackson Township, New Jersey. A 130-foot drop offers the horrific thrill you might experience as if you fled the embrace of the Jersey Devil himself. The great Bruce Springsteen, a New Jersey native, eulogized the monster with his song, A Night with the Jersey Devil. Ram's head, forked tail, clove hoof, loves my trail. I sup on your body, sip on your blood like wine. Springsteen's image is horrible, but it also smacks of a dark Jesus image, an antichrist-like creature who feeds on your body and your blood, as if at a blasphemous Last Supper. Clearly, the tales had an impact on this songwriter. In 1993, 6.2 million viewers tuned in to see the Jersey Devil on the X-Files. The creature was actually two devils, a male and a female. In the end of the episode, both are killed with human bones found in their digestive system. It was the offspring that still lurked in the woods. Did the TV show offer an explanation for the longevity of the monster? Is the current Jersey Devil the descendant of the original? An American horror film, The Barrens, took the story of the Jersey Devil to darker depths. Released in 2012, it tells the story of a man named Richard Vineyard who takes his family on a camping trip to Pine Barrens, New Jersey. Two details remain relevant. Richard dreams of a terrifying experience in his childhood, a dream of being chased by an unseen beast. When he awakens, he is baffled to discover he is actually running away from his tent. The second detail involves a rabid dog and pain medication. Richard has been taking the medication for a bite he received just before the trip, a bite from a dog that we later learn was rabid. Throughout the movie, death seems to stalk the family, first in the form of a mutilated deer and a dog, then later a disemboweled missing camper. Another camper, Ryan, has been calling Richard's wife's cell phone, extremely jealous. It is unsettling when Richard again starts to sleepwalk, this time just before the remains of Ryan are found. Richard's own knife lying beside his wife's now dead friend. Richard, overly medicated on pain pills, suffering from the effects of rabies, and in rage over his spouse's potential infidelity, is finally tied up by his wife, afraid that her husband is on a killing spree. But there is something else at work, something old that has haunted the woods of Pine Barrens, something that may mean Richard is innocent of murder. The Jersey Devil makes his presence known, and we must struggle between a madman and a devil as to who killer is from children's cartoons like Johnny Quest and Gravity Falls to video games like the PlayStation Jersey Devil the unholy child of Mother Leeds has made his presence known perhaps the devil lays in wait and a simple trip to the Garden State may be a fatal mistake