Birth Of Jersey Devil Traced To 1735[Original headline: Scary legend has roots in wilderness of Jersey]
What or who is the Jersey Devil?
It's the famous demon who lurks in the Pine Barrens of southeastern New Jersey, a rural pine-covered swatch spanning 1 million acres, miles from the state's cities, industrial parks and refineries.
The folk legend of the Jersey Devil has been told by residents for hundreds of years, presumably since 1735, when the beast was said to have been born.
The legend says that when the matriarch of the prominent South Jersey Leeds family learned she was pregnant with her 13th child, she cursed it, angry with her husband's desire to have so many heirs.
Mother Leeds was said to have cried out:
"I'd like to bear the Devil's child,
All claw and fang, all fierce and wild.
Such sweet revenge to see Leeds' face,
When he finds a beast in the baby's place."
What happened after the baby's birth is a matter of some conjecture.
The scariest version of the story goes this way: The aggrieved woman got her wish - a beast was born, it ate the 12 Leeds children, escaped out the chimney and has wreaked havoc all over the region since.
What the Jersey Devil actually looks like has also been open to conjecture.
South Jersey locals describe it as cloven-hoofed, long-tailed and white, with the head of a collie dog, the face of a horse, the body of a kangaroo and the wings of a bat.
It's also said the Devil is a harbinger of war and was spotted shortly before the start of the Civil War, the Spanish-American War and World War I.
The most famous sightings took place in January 1909, when hundreds of people reported seeing or hearing the beast. Many people refused to leave their homes, forcing local mills to shut down and sending reporters from around the region to the area. The Philadelphia Zoo offered $10,000 for the creature's capture.
• Story originally published by •
Denver Post / CO | Trent Seibert - June 2 2001
