The Black Vault

[WarAngel]

I'm shocked there isn't a thread for this yet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_Devil

I've seen the Monster Quest episode on this. Was kind of an eye opener when they mentioned WHERE the Pine Barrens were since I used to live in Washington Township New Jersey. And even after I moved to PA would be riding back from the Jersey Shore at night. For good or bad nothing came of it.

So what are anyone's theories on what exactly the Jersey Devil is? Unknown creature, extraterrestrial, the new theory of Ultraterrestrials, or missidenitification?

If it's the last one that would mean it's from another plane of existance. If the legend is literal fact then it could be this. Mother Leeds is reported to have said something like "If this child be born let the Devil take it" or as Wikipedia quotes "let it be the devil."

I don't see any normal explanation for why this creature exists (putting aside missidentification.) For it to be naturally evolving on Earth there would have to be a population and we would have found it by now. I've only heard of one being seen at a time. Also if it's the same one it would be over 190 years old. Nothing we know of lives that long.

[sandra]

Very Interesting, WarAngel, I'll have to look up some more information
and history. The picutre and description is like nothing I've read or
known of...hooves and yet winged with such a face structure.
Wonder how many sightings are out there.

[BloodStone]

Being that I'm originally from Jersey,
I have to say that its is big myth in this state. You dont hear as much about it these days. But back in the 70's it was a very real creature that people includung myself swore they saw. My sighting was in Stokes State forest back in the late 70's. I was about 10 or 11.

We where on a camping trip with other latchkey kids. it was around 9 at night we where all getting ready to go to sleep in our tents, when we heard a very strange noise coming from the woodline. Hard to describe, it was kinda like a scream , but animal like, not human. Then we saw him, the Jersey Devil, and it looked exactly like the picture on ur post.

We even had 4 camp counslers who witnessed this creature, and went to the rangers to tell them that all of us kids were terrified. The ranger came down and gave a foot chase thru the woods to see if he could see it. They were unable to find out where it went, but they heard it going thru the woods, they followed the tracks till they dissappeared. They seemed to think it took flight at that point.

We all packed up and left. We didnt spend the night cause the camp counslers saw it and feared for our safety. I have gone back to Stokes State forest many times since being a child, and have never seen it again. Although there is always something strange going on in those woods.


BloodStone...

[shadowcass]

Regarding Old Mother Leeds' 13th child.

The question is "What is it?" Cryptozoological creature? Which would imply a RACE of these particular creatures since the thing has been seen since 1735. In 1749 a Priest (identity unknown) supposedly exorcised it for one hundred years.
An exorcism that apparently didn't take since the next (and more reliable) incident concerns Stephen Decatur reportedly shot AT it with a cannon (but missed) in 1804.That would be 55 years later not the one hundred the Priest called for.

But get yourself a copy of MONSTERS OF NEW JERSEY by Loren Coleman and Bruce Hallenbeck for more on this curious beastie.

re: MonsterQuest: One wonders why they never bothered to check around its reputed home----the BLUE HOLE cf
http://www.weirdnj.com/index.php?option ... &Itemid=28

[bionic]

So much weird stuff went down in the seventies and eighties, all at once, it seems.
You ever notice that?

[WarAngel]

So much weird stuff went down in the seventies and eighties, all at once, it seems.
You ever notice that?

Acid's a helluva drug.

[bionic]

that's true
but there's more to it than that

[shadowcass]

Of course, if you read the San Juan Islander for July 4, 1911 you'd know a man named Louis Hirsch had already captured the devil and kept it in his aquarium where scientists would come and look at it and go away flummoxed...

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/ ... d-1/seq-6/

Click on the newspaper page to zoom in,,,the article is in the center of the page

[cormac]

having watched about 5 minutes of some jersey-based reality show i'd say there are plenty of legitimate candidates right there ... i don't watch much tv and went years without owning one (i've heard all of the 'weirdo' slams thank you) and watching those foaming-at-the-mouth bipeds go at one another with only the fact that they are being filmed keeping them from outright murder, take your pick ... people like that would eat their own young ... and probably wander the woods for fresh 'game' ... i assume this 'species' has been around jersey for years and only now are we seeing film of them in their natural habitat due to tv discovering how cheap it is to simply film wildlife ... maybe they 'bait' them some like the old 'mutual of omaha's wild kingdom' did but still, these are vicious animals when riled and they certainly match all the common denominators of the jersey devil that witnesses have listed through the years

that's my theory anyway

[bionic]

having watched about 5 minutes of some jersey-based reality show i'd say there are plenty of legitimate candidates right there ... i don't watch much tv and went years without owning one (i've heard all of the 'weirdo' slams thank you) and watching those foaming-at-the-mouth bipeds go at one another with only the fact that they are being filmed keeping them from outright murder, take your pick ... people like that would eat their own young ... and probably wander the woods for fresh 'game' ... i assume this 'species' has been around jersey for years and only now are we seeing film of them in their natural habitat due to tv discovering how cheap it is to simply film wildlife ... maybe they 'bait' them some like the old 'mutual of omaha's wild kingdom' did but still, these are vicious animals when riled and they certainly match all the common denominators of the jersey devil that witnesses have listed through the years

that's my theory anyway

That's a good theory