Show notes
Season 2 Episode 5
JERSEY DEVIL: MYTH OR REALITY
On this episode of the I Want to Believe podcast we’re going to discuss the Jersey Devil, HEY-OH!!!
The story of the Jersey Devil goes back to almost 3 centuries. And since then, it has become a muddled heap of myth, legend, true stories, fake stories with believers and skeptics.
(Plug time!) As of RIGHT NOW, you can watch me and Bill Brock’s documentary, Abducted New England on Amazon Prime. And my book Otherworldly Encounters, is available wherever books are sold. Links are below!
Ok, how’s about we dive in, eh?
The legend goes that in the Pine Barren forests of New Jersey, a woman who went by the moniker, Mother Leeds had given birth to 12 children. In 1735, she found that she was pregnant with her 13th. The Leeds family was poor, her husband a drunk and when they found that she was pregnant again, she cursed the child and said, “Let this one be a devil!”
She went into labor a few months after that proclamation, on a reportedly, “dark & stormy night”, and all had forgotten about the curse. Mark Sceurman and Mark Moran, authors of From Weird, “Her children and husband huddled together in one room of their Leeds Point home while local midwives gathered to deliver the baby in another. By all accounts the birth went routinely, and the thirteenth Leeds child was a seemingly normal baby boy. Within minutes however, Mother Leeds’s unholy wish of months before began to come to fruition. The baby started to change and metamorphosed right before her very eyes. Within moments it transformed from a beautiful newborn baby into a hideous creature unlike anything the world had ever seen. The wailing infant began growing at an incredible rate. It sprouted horns from the top of its head and talon-like claws tore through the tips of its fingers. Leathery bat-like wings unfurled from its back, and hair and feathers sprouted all over the child’s body. Its eyes began glowing bright red as they grew larger in the monster’s gnarled and snarling face. The creature savagely attacked its own mother, killing her, then turned its attention to the rest of the horrified onlookers who witnessed its tempestuous transformation. It flew at them, clawing and biting, voicing unearthly shrieks the entire time. It tore the midwives limb from limb, maiming some and killing others.”
That story is what the majority of people know about the Jersey Devil. But when you do a bit of research, a whole lot more comes to the surface. The real story includes some political intrigue, Quaker in-fighting, almanacs, a cross-dressing royal governor, and a man named Benjamin Franklin. Listen to the episode for the full story.
Videos: Paranormal State Jersey Devil Episode | Destination Truth Jersey Devil Episode | Monster Quest Jersey Devil Episode
Seth Breedlove's Monsteropolis Podcast Jersey Devil Episode
Sources: CSICOP | Weird NJ
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