Morbid: Episode 485: The Jersey Devil Ft Jodie Sweetin

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Hey, weirdos, I'm Ash, I'm Alina, and this is Morbid.

We have a special guest today, weirdos.

Woo!

It's Jodi Sweeten.

Hello!

You probably know Jodi as Stephanie Tanner, like, first and foremost, because iconic.

Iconic.

But Jodi, thank you so much for coming on.

This is, like, huge for us.

We're so excited about it.

Oh, my gosh.

This is huge for me.

I'm a big fan of the show, and when I first jumped on the Zoom, I was like, oh, my gosh,

like, I know these voices.

So, yeah, I'm also excited to be here.

I love Morbid.

I love all things spooky and weird and creepy, and you guys are hilarious.

So, yeah.

Oh, thank you.

Yes.

We feel the same way, too.

As soon as you came on the Zoom, I was like, oh, my gosh.

Old friend.

This is so weird.

Yeah, so old friend.

Just way back.

Yep, yep.

It's true.

We're living room.

Yeah.

You didn't even know it, but I was in your living room.

That's wild.

That's insane.

Not even when the TV was on.

Just there standing, watching.

You have no idea.

Just being weird.

Yep.

We're all just hanging out together.

Just vibes.

It was a little weird, but, you know, it's fine.

We've been through a lot together.

Yes.

Yeah.

In the last five minutes, I mean, we've been through solar flares and planets in retrograde.

Lifetimes.

We've lived together.

Lifetimes of things.

Yeah.

Planetary events.

We've lived together.

But the main reason that we're all here is the spooky of it all.

Hell yeah.

So, we have a couple spooky questions for you before we get into the actual, like, cryptid

of it all that Alayna's going to present, but is it cool if we ask you a couple questions

first?

Absolutely.

Go for it.

All right.

Cool.

So, we know that you're into true crime.

What would you say is the one case that interested you the most over the years?

Oh, man.

I know.

It's always a hard one.

There's so many.

I mean, God, I was like the weird kid at the library when I was like eight to like checking

out books on like the Amonville horror and like all kinds of weird stuff, right?

All the ghost stories and like weird stuff at the library.

Like, oh, that was you and the other aisle.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It was me.

Yeah.

I was hoarding all the weird creepy books.

Gosh.

One that's fascinating.

You know, and it depends because like there's like, I'm fascinated with like serial killers

simply because I find like abnormal psych or the sort of various shades of psychology

really interesting.

Yeah.

Because it's just humans are more terrifying than any monsters we can really make up.

So much so.

For me, I think also because I'm an LA girl, the Night Stalker has always been a fascinating

case to me because it also involves the Cecil Hotel, which is downtown LA, which I'm also

fascinated by.

And my friend and I, my friend lives around the corner there, so we've gone over there

many times trying to like figure out how we can be creepy and get in.

But the Night Stalker case in particular, because I think it was, what year was that?

It was like early mid-80s.

Oh, that was like, yeah.

I was going to say.

Yeah.

I think it was.

I was, I mean, I was little, but I vaguely remember it being sort of in the ether and

like being talked about.

But for me, it's just such a weird case because there's no rhyme or reason.

Yes.

The chaos of it all.

Usually it's like, it's one of the cases that you go, oh, wow, man, like some people

just it's just that doesn't there's no victim profile.

It was there was no map.

There was no plan.

There was no type of that was just that was fascinating to me that it was just across

the board chaos.

Yeah.

It was kids.

It was elderly.

Everything in between.

Yeah.

And I also, that one is interesting too, because you read so much about like his childhood

and brain trauma and not as an excuse, obviously, but it's an interesting, it's just sort of

an interesting thing because you can kind of see this whole thing like piece together.

Yes.

And as an alley girl, I'm always fascinated by those.

The the I mean, the Manson murders.

Yeah.

Obviously.

Also, my friend lives on that property.

No way.

Yeah.

So like it's just a I mean, obviously the house has since been torn down and he's built

a place and stuff.

But but yeah, it's I mean, it's the property nonetheless.

Yeah.

And that's kind of like a similar thing to like no rhyme, no reason, pure chaos.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And that one had like a weird Beach Boys connection.

And so yeah, like there's so yeah, there's I have several weird like connections to that

case in particular.

So yeah, it's pretty pretty fucked up.

Those are two.

Can I say that on this?

Yeah, I can say that.

Yeah.

Of course, all the time.

Got it.

I was like, yeah, I can.

OK, just checking.

Yeah, I can.

What are you going to say?

No, I was just those two are like it really is the chaos of it all that stresses me out,

especially about the Night Stalker case.

Yeah.

When you can go down to like kids and go all the way up to like 90 year olds and everything

in between.

Yeah, like it was no real rhyme or reason as to the way it was done method like not.

Yeah.

And that for me is again, from like the psychology aspect of it is really interesting because

it's the chaos of that mind that comes out in that way is is I think that's the thing

is I'm like, I so desperately want to understand, not understand, but like what it's so unrelatable

that type of horror to me.

And I think that's like a lot of true crime is like it's so beyond that I'm like, what

in the world could possibly make someone go there?

And anyway, it's just fascinating to me.

And yeah, and getting to go to like the Hotel Cecil, my friend and I like figured out how

to get into the alley behind the thing there where like you can go to the place where like

he's yeah.

Did anything happen while you were at the Cecil?

Like any kind of paranormal happening?

No, because I mean, we've got we've also gone during the day.

But I mean, I there's so many great historic creepy places in downtown LA.

But no, nothing ever happened while we were there.

But they have now since reopened it again.

Yeah, I saw that recently and turned it into they originally were going to take it and

turn it into like luxury condos.

Yeah.

Imagine that.

That's a choice.

They do that to everything in downtown LA.

And obviously, the housing market sucks and no one has money to buy two million dollar

condos downtown anymore.

So yeah, so they I think they have now reverted it back to like low income housing, which

was kind of what it was previously.

Yeah.

But there was also that weird documentary in that that was at the Hotel Cecil.

Oh, yeah.

I want to say he was Dutch or something.

I don't remember what there was that guy.

There was the girl that wound up in the water tank.

Yeah.

That's a lamb.

That's like a really sad case.

Really wild.

And just like bonkers.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

There's just all kinds of weird stuff, but they have now since turned it back into

I think it's low income housing again, which is much needed downtown.

But it'll be interesting.

You know, that place is just such a people say it's like a hotbed of really weird activity.

And so I definitely wanted to figure out how to go in there before they had turned it

into anything.

I was like, I want to go in here.

Well, it's empty.

Oh, yeah.

I feel like that would happen.

Oh, yeah.

So have you ever had any paranormal experience in general in your life that's been like,

holy shit?

Yes, I have.

Nice.

So, OK.

You're like, sit back for this one.

I'm like, so picture this Sicily 19.

No.

Um, so this was 10 years ago or a little more.

Um, I worked in drug and alcohol treatment.

I was a director of operations and we had several properties here in LA that we rented.

And one of which was this huge property up off of Wonderland here in the Hollywood Hills.

And it I think used it was owned or Jared Leto bought it after we had rented it out or

something iconic.

It's a it takes up three addresses.

It's a gigantic property and it was originally built as a military base.

They it has a soundstage attached to it.

They would shoot World War Two propaganda films here.

And it's also rumored that they held people there without because it was in the Hollywood

Hill.

It's way back there like way before there were houses or anything.

And it goes down about three or four stories into the side of the mountain.

And it's got 18 inch thick cement walls.

It's a nuclear fallout shelter.

It's a whole thing.

So we had had it as a property and we there was we had it as a sober living and we had

there was like an art gallery attached.

I mean, it was gigantic, right?

So at the time I was looking for an apartment had to be out of my old apartment with my

kids going through divorce, whatever it was kind of crazy.

And so there was an apartment that was on one of the lower floors of the addresses had

its own separate entrance.

It was like 1200 square feet, but it was just kind of a big room with a little kitchen

attached.

And then this ridiculous, gigantic bathroom that I called the Scarface bathroom because

it was like black and white, tiled and all mirrored.

And I'm not kidding you when I live there for like the month and a half with my kids,

the bathtub was like a small swimming pool.

Like my kids just like paddle through it.

Yeah, it was crazy.

They're like, Mom, we love this place.

And it was but it was like weirdly old.

Like it was just it was a weird spot to be, but it was kind of cool to live there.

So anyway, I was there and when we had first acquired the property, the handyman that used

to go over there all the time, he would talk about how like creepy it was over there.

And we would all kind of laugh and be like, oh, yeah, whatever.

He's like, no, no, no, like it's real.

There's like a woman's voice that keeps talking.

And I'm like, anyway, whatever, like, and I, I mean, I didn't discount it because like

some stuff happens, but I was like, ah, it's probably fine.

There's so many, you know, whatever people coming and going, well, I move in and with

in maybe the first week or 10 days, I'm in the bathroom brushing my teeth and my my

younger daughter is B is standing there and kind of looking back into the room.

And she just starts going, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, and I was like, what?

What's happening?

What are you talking to?

And she was like, it's the lady in the corner again.

Again, I don't want to talk to her.

She's scaring me.

Oh, no. Oh, I hate.

I have goosebumps already.

I don't like that at all.

And I was like, OK.

You're like, I have to parent through this.

Like, shit.

Well, let's talk to her and let her know.

Let's communicate.

I'm always like, I don't know what I don't know.

It's like, let's reason with them, you know?

So I was like, whoever is here right now, we know that you're we're in your space.

Like, it's OK, but you're scaring my little one right now.

And so, you know, if you could leave, that would be great.

Like, I don't know what he would say.

You know, I feel like that's the perfect thing to say.

Yeah. And then she said, like, you know, a few minutes later,

like she didn't see her anymore.

But we definitely would hear knocks on the door in that hallway.

And there would be I mean, it would be late at night.

Nobody was there and nobody was in that section of the house.

And yeah, like a lot of creepy things like that happened.

But the creepiest part is that, well, not the creepiest part,

I'd say the lady in the corner was probably the creepiest part.

She takes the cake.

So I had to store all of my stuff in the old film vaults

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And in order to access the film vaults, you had to go downstairs

into like down into the thing.

And they it was like stepping back into like a 1950s like military.

It was all that weird green metal.

You know what I mean?

That you see from like 1950s and 60s offices and stuff and like big sliding

doors that were green metal and all like and and the lights were the kind

that were on sensors. Oh, it was obviously so big.

So you would walk through somewhere.

And then if you were still for a while, the lights would turn off.

Oh, my God, that's a terrible.

Yeah, no. So I would be down like carrying stuff down to the vaults

or like getting stuff out or whatever and putting it back.

And yeah, there were definitely quite a few times that I'd be in there

and it was just like kunk kunk like the lights start turning off.

And you're like and then you'd be like waving.

And if you're not right in front of the sensor, you're like, OK.

So you're like waving, running up and down a hallway.

Yeah, it was it was definitely a creepy, a creepy place to live,

but kind of cool.

And I'm always glad that I can say that I had that experience.

Yeah, that's wild. That's horrifying.

Those are a couple of.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Experiences.

Yeah, it reminded me of the story with your little ones.

Yeah, I've told this on the show before,

but my little ones, when they went into their first like big girl beds,

right, they freaked out the first night and we were like, oh, it's, you know,

it's a new little big girl bed.

Of course, the transition down like a toddler bed.

Right, right, right. Of course, it's yeah.

So we come running and we're like, what's the matter?

And they were like and they were right next to the door

and there was a little hallway right outside their door.

And one of them said there's people that keep coming in my room

and they're trying to cut my sheets with scissors.

And I was like, right, right. Oh, God.

I was like, there's not like what I don't know what to do here.

And it's like, you're like, OK, I can't freak out

because I can't freak them out more.

So I was like, right, right, right.

And then I was like, are they here now?

And they were like, no, they're right there.

And they pointed to the dark hallway right outside their room.

And I was like, OK.

And I was like, they're just standing there.

And they were like, yeah, they're just there.

And I was like, you're like, this was like an old house.

It was from like the 1800s.

So I was like, right, right, right.

And I just stepped into the hallway and I was like, hey, ever.

And I was like, they're around me right now.

And they're like, yeah. And I'm like, awesome.

OK. And then I'm like, OK, guys, awesome.

Right. Yeah.

You're just like, I don't know what's happening.

And I feel sort of ridiculous.

But this is fine.

So I'd like, you know, I'm going to say how you guys like,

I'm going to give this a try.

So I was like, hey, guys, like, you're freaking them out.

Like, can you just like, chill out?

Not try to cut their sheets tonight.

Like, we'll talk about it tomorrow, maybe.

And they were like, yeah, I was like, is everything good now?

And they were like, yeah, they never complained about it again.

Just like that one time.

Yeah, you got it.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

You got to like be like, excuse me, just take a little charge.

I know, I know whatever you're going through.

You've been trapped in this weird in-between

space for hundreds of years. I get that.

Could you not freak my kids out while we're trying to sleep?

That would be so much appreciated.

Yeah, thanks.

Like, I totally get you're going through it.

If you need someone to talk to, come to me.

It's fine, really.

But try to cut my sheets.

Not to get the shit out of the kids

because they're never going to go to sleep.

And then I'm going to be angry.

Like, I can deal with it.

They're going to be traumatized forever.

So like, just come in my room.

Like, I can handle it.

Right, right, right.

Yeah, look, if you need to cut sheets, whatever you're here,

take it, here's some old ones.

Yeah. Have at it.

But just like, get the long place.

Do a craft project.

Like, you're dead.

I can't imagine what that's like.

So. Yeah, yeah, I get it.

Ghost, look, go sleep.

Crafts, too.

I mean, it's going to get boring for a while, you know.

Yeah, you know. Yeah, that's wild.

They were trying to recreate the scene

from Beetle Deuce where they cut the holes out

in the eyes of the sheets and just float it in.

They were trying to get us out of those.

So that someone would notice them.

Right. But they, yeah, they were like, shit.

They just went about it in a weird way.

You know, they're like, oh, man,

guys, we're just trying to get our outfits.

Right.

Should have just gone to the linen closet.

It's true. We had some sheets in there

and they weren't Daniel Tiger.

So they would have been a little better, I think.

So incredible.

Yeah, I don't I don't miss the days of like everything being

like a cartoon.

Yeah. Something.

It's fun with my I have seven year old twins

and we're coming out of that a little bit with them.

But my three year old is like Paw Patrol.

And I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah, you're still now

you're still in it seven and three.

Yeah, I've got 15 and almost 13.

It's a it's it's a wild ride.

That's a different journey, right?

That must be such a different journey.

It is. It is quite a different journey.

I just remember who I was at 13 and 15.

I'm like, sorry, mom. Sorry. Sorry, everyone.

I've called my mom and apologize so many times.

So many although now my kids are they're actually great.

But it really was.

I mean, pandemic did not do anyone any favors.

But my older one like started middle school right when it was.

She was like started sixth grade and then it hit

and then it was all seventh and then part of eight.

That like, yeah, it was not a great experience.

That's so horrific.

Anyway, and I'll be glad the word is not looking forward to that at all.

Talk about spooky. Just that's like just going to say that's horror right there.

They are horror fine.

Yeah, I would take someone cutting my sheets every single night

and and the lady in the corner over having to go to middle school again.

Oh, yeah, ten times over. I welcome it.

Let's go. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, I feel like all of that

is like the perfect transition into the Jersey Devil.

Yeah, we're going to talk about the Jersey Devil today

or the devil in the pine baron, the Jersey Devil.

Does he do Jim Tan Laundry or is this a totally different kind of Jersey?

You know, no, no, that's Polly D.

Honestly, he might, though, because there's there's a lot of different versions of him.

So who knows?

Maybe Jersey Shore is a version of maybe it is.

Is this like Chupacabra type?

A little bit. The New Jersey Devil, a little bit.

OK, yeah, it's like lore kind of stuff.

So I am all about it.

I love a good cryptid.

Oh, nothing like it. A good cryptid.

We got so many here because we're like around the Bridgewater Triangle,

where all that fun stuff is.

I know, I know.

I remember you guys talking about that one time on one of your episodes about.

And I was like, I'm going to go. Yeah, like I will take you on a tour any time.

We will. Oh, my God.

I I've done like ghost tours here.

I did a whole night at a theater in San Juan Capistrano.

And I did a supernatural show here as well

with a couple of other people that was really fun.

But I yeah, I I'm the one that like goes and finds weird old creepy

abandoned places and I'm like, you guys, we should go in.

Yes. And everyone else is like.

Hell, yes. No, thank you.

No, you're our people. No, we would go in with you.

We got to take you to the Lizzie Borden house.

Yeah, close by us.

I would. Oh, my God, I want to go there so bad.

We should do it there. Yeah, we did.

It was wild. You did.

Was it creepy? Yeah, it was horrifying.

We didn't sleep. I wouldn't let us.

Yeah, it has the harshest vibe in there.

Like it is really very hard to relax.

You can feel it. Yeah, it's tense.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Fascinating. OK. Yeah.

We'll make plans for that after. Yeah.

OK, yeah, yeah.

We'll make our we'll do our our our ghost tour plans after part two is ghost tour.

So can't wait.

So we're going to talk about the birth of the Jersey Devil first.

So the story of the Jersey Devil

is kind of unique to the United States, for sure.

It's the Pine Barons is where it came out of.

There's so many things that are so unique

to the United States that are horrifying.

It's really unique is such a nice way to put it.

It's a unique core to the United States.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we got. Yeah, you know.

So the Pine Barons in New Jersey is a very dense forested region

and it covers more than seventeen hundred square miles,

which is apparently one point one million acres.

Holy shit. That's a lot of acres.

That's all of the acres.

That's many acres.

And it's in southeastern New Jersey.

So what's really spooky about this place

is that although New Jersey is one of the more heavily populated states

in the country, according to author James McCloy, quote,

one can travel in the pines for many miles

and not encounter a single sign of modern civilization.

Love that. Thank God.

There's, you know, too many miles of human civilization.

Truly smoke in space.

Some somewhere you go, I forget about those assholes.

And then, yeah, exactly.

Just take me all the way off the grid into the Pine Barons

with the Jersey Devil.

Right. Just yeah, seriously.

Just please stick me in a tree.

Let's call it a day.

You guys are going together.

Yeah, I'm going to the Pine Barons.

I'm like, have fun guys.

I was just like, tell me about it later.

I'm like, I don't think they have Starbucks.

Bye.

So in addition to a large amount of timber harvested from the pines,

the area was also really important for being a source of iron ore.

And it kind of drove the iron industry and munitions production

during the 17th and 18th century.

So it was interesting.

Yeah, yeah, I was I was thinking like like World War Two.

But no, 17, like, yeah, yeah, I was way back.

Yeah, way back.

You know, bullets.

It's a, you know, bullets.

We always, you know, bullets.

We're always needing bullets again.

Right. A uniquely American horror.

I feel where we're going with this.

You drink to America.

No.

So it's a pretty critical part of the region's economy.

But when manufacturers began relying on cheaper

and more plentiful iron ore from the West in the mid 19th century,

what was once a dense population in and around the Pine Barons

started to kind of dwindle down.

Much like many industrial cities of the East.

Exactly. Sorry, I'm a big history nerd.

I'm going to just interject on every stupid little thing.

Honestly, I love that. Yeah, please do.

So who remained were this small number of really like

rugged individuals who were just living off the land kind of thing.

They were like, we're not leaving.

The hills have eyes.

The hills have eyes.

That's what I'm feeling.

Exactly.

And I think honestly, that's kind of they're like the kid

from the beginning of deliverance. Here we go.

There we go.

We're off.

And I think there are like the places around them

who are more into like modern conveniences

would derogatorily refer to them as the pine ease

because they were left in the Pine Barons.

And honestly, the pine ease were like, I don't give a shit.

Like, it's cool in here. It's quiet.

They're like, we don't like you.

Yeah, we don't like you anyway.

So this is kind of a perfect setting

for one of these cryptids or urban legends to come about where it's like

the people in the modern civilization with the people who refused

to leave the Pine Barons kind of thing.

I think and my Shyamalan did that movie.

Yes, the village, the village.

I love that movie.

That's it.

That's one of those movies you either love or you hated.

I love it so much.

I actually that's one I actually like that one.

I do, you know, again, hit or miss.

But sorry, not to derail the conversation.

That was one that just hit at the end.

I was like, all right.

And it took place not in the Pine Barons, but exactly close enough.

It's it's reminiscent for sure.

It's what I'm imagining. It's what I'm picturing.

They felt very Salem, you know, like Salem.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Love love.

We got to take you to Salem, too.

Add it to the list. Right.

It's right over there. Yes.

So according to McCloy, one of the earliest versions of the Jersey

Devil's origins are from a woman named Jane Leeds.

So Leeds lived in Estleville, New Jersey, which is about an hour away

from the Pine Barons.

And she was a mother of 12.

Whoa. Of 12. What?

Just 12 children at the time.

Well, actually, I said, yeah, 12 children, I will say.

I mean, my dad's much older in his family.

Each had like 17 and 16 kids on their his parent's side.

So yeah, I get it.

Oh, that's good. Wow.

That's a lot.

I mean, you're living out in the Pine Barons.

You've got to, you know, the kids disappear in the pines.

Sometimes you've got to keep just replacing them.

Cheaper by the dozen. There you go.

Great movie again.

And it's I wonder why, but she was actually

referred to as Mother Leeds.

And I'm like, huh, where'd you get that name?

Oh, who? Who could know?

The dozen, the children.

But and she's still referred to as that

when people talk about this story.

And I mean, I feel like it'd be grandmother at this point.

But she had great, great, great grandmother Leeds.

Just Nana Leeds. Old Lady Leeds.

Old Lady Leeds.

So she discovered, though, that she was pregnant with another child,

a 13th child, lucky number 13.

And she, weirdly enough, was not happy about this.

So she cursed the pregnancy and said, wait, though, wait,

where's the dad?

That's kind of what I'm wondering.

Yeah, right. He's the man.

Where's Father Leeds?

That's my question.

Where's Old Man Leeds over here?

Where is he in this picture?

I need to talk to him.

That's who I want to know.

I'm like, what do you mean?

Keep it in your pants.

You got 12 kids, my guy.

This woman is losing her mind.

She's outgrilling.

She was she's just always outgrilling.

He's like, I'm not here. Sorry.

He's just like, I've got to go to the lawnmower.

Although this was probably in the days for any lawnmowers.

But anyway, he's chopping down wood.

Yeah, what time period are we talking about, by the way,

just so I can picture what clothes to put these people in in my mind?

This was like 1700s, I want to say.

Yeah. So he's chopping wood.

Oh, OK. Got it. Got it.

So this is got potato sacks.

These are just children coming out everywhere.

We are out in the wilderness.

It is the 1700s.

Yeah, it is.

Things are not awesome.

Why we came here. We don't know everyone's questioning it.

Everyone's like, why are we here?

Yeah, but apparently no one decided to leave.

No. And she's like, I'm just going to have all these kids here.

They really settled.

Truly, they settled.

Put down roots. Yeah.

Really settled in.

That's for fucking sure.

They created a civilization of their own.

But that it was that 13th child that she was not psyched about.

It's always the it's the 13th kid that really puts you over.

Yeah, I mean, number 13.

That's the one you when you feel truly outnumbered.

It's number 13. You're like, you know, it's number 13.

Right. Yeah.

I felt like I could handle this.

But up until then, me and all my personalities are doing pretty well.

But 13th man, it's just really a bit.

I don't have that 13th.

I can't do it.

And she said, she said, I am tired of children.

Let it be the devil.

Let this baby be the devil, she said, which I have a couple of questions.

Like the baby in you.

Yeah, like what? Why?

Why the devil and to a child would be easier to deal with.

If she's all I'm saying is if she's hoping that the baby is the devil.

What is wrong with these kids?

They must be pretty bad.

They must. If she's like, look, I'll take a devil baby over.

He's full assholes.

You know what I mean?

Like, honestly, these children must be wild and out.

What are your kids doing?

Lighting shit on fire in the pine barrens, you know, killing small animals.

They destroyed half the pine barrens.

It must be just poor mother leads is like, I'd rather have a devil baby.

They're running a luck.

Well, you know what? She got one.

Maybe she's like, you know what?

If I have one devil baby, maybe I'll be about 10 kids later.

There you go.

And she got it because apparently this beastly child came into the world

on the evening of a violent storm that actually came from the direction

of the pine barrens in 1735.

Yeah. So people also claimed that mother leads

probably indulged in sorcery as well, which easily explained, of course,

because she's a woman in the 1700s who had a complaint about having 13 babies.

So therefore she must be a witch.

Get her. She's going to have a devil baby.

Hurry. She's saying, oh, she's not a witch.

Yeah.

Whoops. That's too late.

Whoops. We'll get it right next time.

Again, one less mouthy woman to deal with.

So obviously this is easily what explains what happened because the legend goes

that mother leads gave birth to a healthy, very normal average child.

But within minutes of being placed in her arms,

the baby began to change into a terribly unholy thing.

Now, according to McCloy, this is a quote, human features disappeared.

The body elongated tremendously, forming into a long serpentine shape.

Hooves replaced the feet.

Its pink, chubby baby face

coarsened into a long bony structure of a horse's head.

Bat wings sprung from its shoulder blades.

Finally, it arose from the bed, larger and more powerful than a fully grown man.

Then the silence was broken by the monsters,

rasping snarls as he curled his forked thick tail and proceeded.

No, no. This is always funny.

He proceeded to beat everyone in the room

with it, including mother leads with the tail with the tail.

Well, I mean, if he's I look, how big is this room?

You know what I mean?

He might not have meant to like this baby is just born.

It's trying to get a hold of itself.

It's probably turning around like, oh, he's got a tail

and just whacking people with this giant tail.

Like, I'm so sorry.

I'm all God. And it's just knocking things over.

Maybe double baby didn't mean to.

I don't know. He's got a lot going on.

He's got a lot of appendages to deal with.

Double baby was not to blame here.

Oh, you know, look, we've all we've seen the Seinfeld episode.

We've all seen some ugly babies.

Exactly. This is just a really exceptionally

unfortunately stretched out child.

They're not cute right when they're after they're born.

They look weird.

I mean, I bumped into a couple of things this morning.

You know, I walked in and I bumped into my coffee.

It could have been the same thing.

Was it your tail?

He's got a whole ass tail to contend with.

He might not have meant to beat everybody with it.

He was just stressed.

No spatial awareness.

You know what I mean?

It's just like, I've got a tail. Oh, my God.

Yeah, it's hard. It's hard.

I mean, we've all we've all seen babies.

Babies don't have any spatial like a toddler

doesn't have spatial awareness.

It bangs and everything.

And now all of a sudden this baby is growing from

like just fresh out of the oven, baby,

into the full grown fucking bat wolf.

Maybe. Yeah.

Also, I think I read this article in the New York Daily News

at the supermarket about three years ago.

It was that baby.

That's what I'm getting.

Oh, my God.

That boy. Yeah.

He used to be on the front of every tabloid of everything.

That very and the weird head and eyes.

Like, oh, man, that and that was like the days before good AI.

Like someone really fucking photoshop that thing.

That was those images to go into town.

Hell, yeah.

Just sharpened teeth and weird blood

and they like a dark blue under the eyes look really tired.

Yeah, it was wild.

Poor thing. Yeah.

And here he was.

This is his beginning right here.

This is his beginning.

He was also loud because he had an ear piercing bellow.

And then he flapped his huge wings

and shot right up the chimney and out into the night.

Damn. He just went right for it.

He just beat the shit out of everybody in the room and then left.

Wow, that's that's a giraffe right after birth.

They just get up and go around and then I'm impressed.

I am impressed.

He didn't even need to try.

And he knew that the chimney went out, which is impressive.

A smart right out the oven.

He was like, I bet that leads out.

I'm going to go out there.

He's like, you know where that goes up the air.

I think that's what that is.

And you know what?

You know what I can fit through as a full grown bat human being?

A chimney, a chimney.

I think so. Yeah, yeah.

That'll be fun.

So according to this account, this very believable account,

McCloy notes several sleeping children with a Jersey Devil's

first worldly meal, which is rude.

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Other versions say that his first meal was just the entire Leeds family.

So well, there was a lot of them to, you know, he ate his entire family,

all 12 children, mama Leeds.

And if there was a daddy Leeds, he was gone too.

Or he just went out into the night and ate a bunch of sleeping kids.

I mean, I would I feel like going with the sleeping kids

would probably be an easier get at first, you know what I mean?

While you're kind of still learning how to function in this weird devil body.

I think so. You want to you don't want to work for it.

I mean, my kids' first meal was mashed up avocado,

but like sleeping babies are, I guess, a great first meal for babies.

Mashed avocado, whatever.

Whatever works, whatever you have on hand.

Choices, all I know is I were all canceled.

No, this is the end of this.

That's it. This is the end.

I hope this was really fun. This is so fun.

What? What a farewell.

A farewell episode.

What a farewell.

The yep, the the the Leeds bad boy has come to take us all.

There's another version of this story, too, in case that wasn't good enough.

So this version takes poor mother Leeds totally out of the equation entirely.

This baby's creator.

Oh, yeah, because now there's a totally different young woman who is also lonely.

It's we got to make sure that we know she's lonely.

And she's from Leeds Point.

It's a seventeen hundreds for women.

I'm sure she is. Everybody's not like she's like, hey, let's talk about our feelings, honey.

He's like, I'm going to go cut things in the field and and have another woman.

You're a witch.

So it's like, yeah, I think they're all lonely.

It's pretty much it.

But apparently this poor woman fell in love with a British soldier

during the American Revolution.

That's and so the obvious punishment for that is getting a devil baby

because she betrayed the American cause.

Obviously, that's what I always say.

Yeah, I mean, I feel like that's also a story that I've heard recently.

People are like, you know what happens?

A devil baby.

That's definitely you're like, you know, this is familiar.

So there are besides this one.

So that's that's the second way that he came about was just like, oops,

you married a British soldier.

Oh, wait, sorry, quick, tangential question.

Is the New Jersey Devils the name of their hockey team?

Sure is, because now they're now we're proud of it.

Now we're like, OK, it was a thing where everybody was scared of it.

And then at the end, they were like, let's name a hockey team after it.

They were like, this thing is pretty rad.

This thing that eats children sleeping in bed.

We're going to name a hockey team after it.

So there are other less common versions of the story

that kind of incorporate like one or more of the elements of those two

kind of like mixed and match. Right, right, right.

But in any case, they all just result in some hideous creature being born

and either fleeing or being forcibly cast out into the pine barons.

And that's where it would adapt and live to this very day.

So like any legend, the Jersey Devil exists mostly or in large part,

I would say, to kind of explain a variety of unfortunate

or difficult events and phenomena in the region.

I blame it for everything.

I'm everything that's happening right now.

Fucking Jersey Devil.

The echo in the zoom, it's his fault.

The planet's going backwards.

All they would blame like droughts and crops on the Jersey Devil.

Cows underproducing milk, the Jersey Devil, the absence of fish

in a local stream, the Jersey Devil, it's all his fault.

And in one instance, American naval hero, Commodore Stephen.

How do you say it, Dave? Decatur.

I was like, Dave will know. Decatur. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

D E C A T E U R or whatever.

There you go. Commodore Stephen Decatur.

I like it.

He visited the Hanover Ironworks in Burlington, New Jersey,

just to like oversee the production of cannonballs because

he wanted to make sure they met his standards and would actually work.

You know, imagine if that was your job, the oversight of cannonballs.

Truly, I just got to make sure they're cannonballs.

I just got to make sure that the balls are looking good.

I just needed to be a sphere here to measure the balls.

But that afternoon, while he was readying the cannons for test firing,

he observed a bizarre creature flapping its wings across the range.

And everyone present on the range that day backed up his that his aim was perfect

when he fired the cannon directly through the Jersey Devil.

And apparently, literally ripped a hole straight through the Jersey Devil.

But the Jersey Devil just was like, eh, and he just kept going,

like merely a flesh wound and just flew off.

Like it was not at all worried about this.

But everyone there was like, saw it.

He shot a cannonball at the Jersey Devil.

That's wild.

I just picture him like, no, no, no, no, he's just like flying away.

Right. Yeah. Yeah.

Way to test fire.

I've fought in your general direction.

Yeah, like they'd reenact the entire scene for money by them.

Yeah, he was the original.

Now, across Southern New Jersey, the Devil was definitely a common scapegoat.

He was blamed throughout this 19th century, again, for like loss of livestock on farms.

He became the source of howling and shrieking that would be heard by farmers,

which I'm also like, maybe what was it if it wasn't that maybe we should investigate.

Yeah, I was going to say it was someone being murdered

and buried on someone's property is what that was.

But we're just blaming a cryptid.

But every now and then, apparently, the devil would make his way out of the pines

and would be spotted on battlefields and more heavily populated areas like Atlantic City.

So there were sightings.

He's a tourist.

You know, he just wants to see the sights.

That feels also very on brand for the Jersey Devil.

Like, hey, I'm going to go to some battlefields and Atlantic City.

You know what I mean?

Like, I'm going to go blow some shit up with those cannonballs and gamble.

Exactly. It really makes sense.

Has anyone ever seen the Jersey Devil and a certain former president?

Just saying. I've been thinking that.

Do we know your time?

Do we know it's are there a saying?

I never are there. Right.

I can say I haven't.

But who am I to say that's all she wrote.

Has it been on a Simpsons episode?

Because if it has, if it has, then we know it is true.

Then we know.

Yeah, OK. I like it.

But it wasn't really until the very end of the 19th century

that he began to begin to appear in news reports.

That's when we started reporting on him.

Got it. Got it.

He started giving interviews there.

That's when he was like, his manager was like, you really need to give a quote.

Yeah, he got out.

He was like, look, you've got to get out and fight this story.

I know it's you.

You've got to let people know what's going on.

Exactly. You've got to give your reasons, you know, people are going to misunderstand me.

No one's going to listen.

They're going to take it out of context and I'm just eating babies.

You know, that's it's hard. It's hard.

There's that whole story where I beat everyone in the room upon birth

with my right and he's like, I just was.

It was my tail. No, no one's going to believe that.

Right. So I get it.

He's in a difficult position and we believe you.

I'm so sorry.

I've come on as a guest to your show and completely taken it off the rails.

Oh, no. Oh, no. We love that.

This is what we need. There are no rails off the rails is where we live.

We rarely live on the rest of the day.

Our show has never, ever been on the rails.

It shouldn't be. OK, good.

I only like to do off the rails shows because that's how my brain works.

It's our brains as well.

So on July 29th, 1899, issues of the New Jersey City News reported

that the beast had, quote, reappeared in New Jersey for the first time

since it warned the pioneers of the approach of the Civil War,

which I was like, wow, I love that he just is like, hey, guys.

This thing is like Nostradamus, too.

It's also it's all. Yeah.

Wait, wait, who did it warn about the Civil War?

Did it go up to someone and be like, hey, guys, pass it on war.

It's going to be really fucked up.

Just let you know.

But we're going to call it civil.

We're going to call it civil.

Did he tell that?

Did he tell Mr.

Cannonball Corporal Decatur? I'm saying he whispered into that.

I need to know because someone knew that the Civil War was coming

from the Jersey Devil and didn't say shit and I pass it on.

Yeah, because you know, the Jersey Devil was like, pass it on.

And that guy was like, I'm not going to pass it on.

Yeah, he was like, just tell people.

Right. And then now he's like, I'm getting a bad name.

Meanwhile, I tried to warn people.

He's like, if I say pass it on, you pass it on.

You know, at the end of this, I think that we're going to come out

that the Jersey Devil is has just been misaligned this.

Yeah. Hundreds of years.

Yeah. Misunderstood.

He needs to do it.

Tell all memoirs is what he needs to do.

Oh, my God. I'll do it.

Let's keep our eyes out for that.

It's going to happen.

I wouldn't doubt anything these days, truly.

I wouldn't either.

We're manifesting it.

It's going to hit number four on the like New York Times bestseller.

Oh, OK. Yeah.

Good for him. I called that.

Like, oh, yeah, I got the audiobook.

So the article described the beast as, quote,

a strange combination of serpentine body, horse head,

cloven hooves and forked tail, which is pretty much the origin description.

Oh, which OK, we're sticking with the original original body shape.

Yeah, we're going with that.

I hope he's gotten to use the tail a little better at this point, though.

I think he's gotten used to it at this point.

But he was believed to have been banished from the area many years

after bringing considerable misfortune to the residents of Jersey, of South Jersey.

But wait, does that mean then he's there hanging out and being welcomed in

and people are like, buddy, that's what I wonder.

Like, are you hanging out with him?

And then you have a drink and then all of a sudden they were like, whoa, whoa.

Well, that was one too many fucking cows.

OK, buddy, you've got to go.

You crossed a line.

Well, several years later in the spring of 1905,

the devil started making headlines again

and this time with a slightly different story attached to him now.

So in the article, oh, exactly.

It changes 100,000 times changing up.

Right. It's always changing.

He's always evolving with the times.

The old story wasn't working, not getting as much traction.

Exactly. Change it up a little bit.

OK, change it up.

So the article was titled Story of the Leeds Devil and a reporter

for Camden's Morning Post newspaper alleged that the devil had been born

many years ago in Borden Town, New Jersey and was the product of a relationship

between an American sea captain and his wife.

Oh, well, now it does.

It does involve because they called him or they called the woman a Tarleton

before she married the captain, which when I first heard that,

I was like, is that like a mixture of a harlot?

Like a harlot and a charlatan?

Yeah, like that is a lying.

That's what I thought it would be. This woman.

But apparently a Tarleton is a village in England.

So I think they were just going back to that whole like,

it's not an American, so that's what happened.

But like the mother Leeds origin story,

the captain's wife wished not to have a second child

and was not psyched about the baby even before it was born.

So she gave birth to a child bearing a close resemblance to the Orthodox devil.

Oh, so now we're getting the real devil into it.

And exactly. And now the this.

Oh, the bass, bass, the one with the horns and the bass of the whole.

He's literally right there.

He is. He's hanging out.

Yes, I love him.

He's so cool looking, you know, right?

He's great.

He's doing the whole like as above, but so below thing.

Yeah, the whoop, peace.

So that's this is what that baby did.

It was like, hey, and they were like, that's not OK.

So they're like, no, thank you.

So judgmental.

Really, you know, just trying to get you into like for your thinking.

That's all. Listen to what he has to say, ma'am.

But apparently he became known in the known in the neighborhood as the Leeds devil.

And I love because when this came out, it was like walking to school with his backpack.

Like, there's a Leeds devil.

He's like, you know, I'm just trying to get to chemistry.

But yeah, I love it.

Second period, man, because it said like it was a surprise to no one

that she gave birth to the devil.

And it's like to no one like no one was.

I don't know.

I feel like I would be surprised if I was there.

Or like that.

Tarlatan. Exactly.

I'm just going to I'm going to invent Tarlatan,

though, as the word that we describe and just start using it.

It feels right.

Like I think it's a little word for Tarlatan.

It's got a good Tarlatan to it.

You Tarlatan.

And you can say it to people and they know they won't know what you mean at all.

But they'll know it's an insult.

That's for sure.

Because it's got all those formal one.

One of those great words that you don't quite know what it means,

but you know, it's supposed to slap you.

Hell, yeah, I love those Tarlatan.

So despite being described as looking like the Orthodox devil

and being described as a demon human hybrid,

the Morning Post said that the beast is not just something of legend,

but was actually a real creature that terrorized the town

until it crawled into the fireplace and up the chimney and into the pine barrens.

So it's always going up a chimney.

But once he had left to go in the pines,

he would be seen by townsfolk in and around the pines

and in the woodlands and desolate tracks in the southern section of the state.

So that was going on.

And then for much of the 19th century,

the story, it appeared in newspapers from time to time,

but it kind of was just like a oral storytelling thing.

And by the beginning of the 20th century,

all of a sudden there was a rash of sitings in more than 30 different towns.

And it elevated this story to be like a full blown, like national thing

that every hockey team.

OK, there you go.

And during the week of January 16th, 1909,

thousands of people from southern New Jersey to Trenton

reported seeing the Jersey Devil or at least seeing the tracks left behind.

So in Trenton, the devil's hoof prints were discovered in Whitehorse Park

and in some backyards of a bunch of residence houses.

My God, imagine if that was your house.

I'm saying I would think that was pretty cool to be honest.

I would think that was awesome.

I'd be excited. Yeah.

Like I want a big foot to just walk through my backyard.

Oh, I didn't say that.

I did. Yeah.

I want that to happen.

That's your manifestation.

Hey, and just have him walk right through.

I would say, yeah, just, hey, hey, so cool to see you.

Yeah, I want I get it.

Yeah, you don't want to be you want to be left alone out here,

minding your business, having your lunch, you know, I get it.

I'm not going to blow up your spot. I just want to say hi. Yeah.

I see your hat that says no pictures.

It's OK. Like I expect you.

That's fine. You're dressed in disguise.

Your security people are with you. I get it. Carry on.

Carry on, my friend.

Thanks for the visit. Yeah.

But one of the residents told the local local reporter,

I recognize the tracks from those reproduced in the newspapers.

They looked to me as if it was the hoof of was that of a young colt,

not a cloven hoof, as I've heard of it being described.

So if it was a young person,

probably then got murdered by the rest of the town's people that were like,

oh, you're not used to devil.

I mean, he's like, you guys, I'm pretty sure it's just like a small horse on the loose.

They're like, oh, it's the level now.

I think it's just an animal, though.

They're like, you're a witch. Yeah.

And apparently after these reports came out in Trenton,

letters from residents in nearby towns started reporting sightings

of what they described as a one legged, one footed bird

that had been lurking about the city and attacking small animals.

I had one legged bird once.

You had a one legged bird?

I had a one legged bird.

I had a canary.

Anyway, that's my one legged canary story. Please go.

You had like a one third Jersey devil.

It's a good two. Just edit it out.

Just edit all of it out.

Just just the intro.

Hi, welcome, Jody, Sweden, and then edit everything else I said out.

And we're like, let's get to the fucking point.

That was fun. I thought she was there.

She was really here like too much.

Never, never.

So the attacks caused a small panic

but to along southern and northern New Jersey.

So much so.

And I would say this is more than a small panic.

They actually closed schools and factories down at one point

because they were so panicked and residents were locking their doors

and windows like scared this thing was going to come into their house.

Yeah, Jersey devil is amazing.

No day. It is like people are like, it's coming for you.

And they're like, close the schools, close the, close the factories.

Don't do anything. No more cannonball building.

Like no more cannonball building, no more cannonball measuring.

That's it. No iron.

No, that was his thing.

He was like, I don't want to be shot by a cannonball again.

I'm going to shut all this shit down.

And I don't want these kids getting smart enough to go work in a factory.

So one man in Bristol was actually

awakened one night to his young daughter's screams in the night.

And when he ran into her room, he saw through the window

a large beast standing just outside along the banks of the river.

And he described the noises it was making as, quote,

like the scratching of a phonograph before the music begins.

And yet it also had something of a whistle to it.

You know how the factory whistle sounds?

Well, it was something like that.

And I said, no, sir, I don't know what the factory whistle sounds like,

but I can imagine.

Wait, was that a quote?

That would know that was me.

That was me at the end.

Oh, that was just you.

Got it.

Wouldn't that be amazing if the reporter was like,

I don't know what that sounds like, but thank you.

But it sounds like a phonograph.

Like rare, rare, rare.

And then it also sounds like I would imagine.

You know what?

Don't have you ever heard?

Have you ever heard cats fighting on your roof at two in the morning?

I can't say.

I'm just saying that shit sounds like the devil.

It's the devil.

I'm not a huge fan of cats, but that.

Yeah, I just I can't imagine what like mouth

shape this thing was making to make those kinds of sounds

like the like scratch sounds.

And then they're like, it was like, you know, it's sort of like beatboxing.

You know, you watch, I don't know how you're making that noise with your mouth,

but it's like coming out.

Yeah, I mean, they're like doing it all at once.

That's actually not like I just did because that was terrible.

That was really good.

I liked it.

It was also like kind of like ventriloquism.

You know, maybe he had like a mini Jersey devil.

Maybe he was like, watch what it's about.

They just do the side thing.

Well, look at this.

Like it's I like that.

Scratch, scratch, whoa.

I'm like, holy shit.

Now, everyone from children to police officers

reported seeing seeing the Jersey devil.

And in one case, patrolman James Sackville.

Woof.

Paws.

Yeah, just putting that out there.

Of the Bristol police reported going to investigate reports

of dogs howling and barking in a residence yard.

And when he turned to leave the area,

he ended up finding himself standing right in front of the Jersey devil.

Oh, also this guy, patrolman James Sackville,

he went on to serve as the city's chief of police.

Oh, damn.

And he described the devil as winged and hopping like a bird,

but also had the features of some peculiar animal.

And he claimed, which this is my favorite claim,

because I'm like, no, he didn't.

He claims that he ran towards the beast.

And I was like, James, did you?

Who would ever?

I don't know.

I don't know about that.

Untrue.

If this thing is standing there, looking the way it looks,

and it goes ricka, ricka.

Woo.

He had a reputation to a post yourself.

And then you ran away and changed.

And then you were like, I ran after it and you did not serve.

Yeah, no way.

And he and he also said this thing ran away from him.

This thing retreated down the path.

Chief Sackville.

He also said that it emitted a frightening cry

or its frightening cry until it flew out of sight.

So it went ricka, ricka, and then ran out of.

He was like, remix.

I'm going to leave.

Remix. Woo.

Now, while most who claim to have seen the beast

described it as birdlike, at least with the wings and all that

and that like screechy sound.

Well, some used completely unique descriptions.

E.W. Minister, Bristol's postmaster at the time,

described the devil as having a head resembling that of a ram

with curled horns.

And he said his neck was thrust forward in flight.

So he was just living.

Yeah, he's just living.

But he ended up making his way south from Trenton

and he began causing some more havoc.

Now, in the early morning hours of January 19th,

Mr. and Mrs. Nelson Evans.

That's my birthday. No way.

Well, a couple on your birthday,

they were woken up by strange noises

and looked out their window to find the devil, quote,

cavorting before their eyes on the roof of their shed,

which I just picture him being like like sassy on the roof

of their shed, just like a little bit.

Voting to me just seems like it was like,

what's happening out there?

Cavorting to me feels like was there was there a late BG devil?

You know what I mean?

Was it were things happening on the roof of their house?

That's what I thought.

Or was he right?

Or was he just by himself?

Which is weird, bro. Come on. Don't do that.

Nobody needs that in the middle of the night.

And not on my roof.

Don't do it on a shed.

I beat you. Cavorting on the roof of my house.

Come on, go, go to the woods.

You've got a whole fucking forest.

Go find some privacy.

You've got an entire pine barons to do that in with like a lack of civilization.

This feels inappropriate, sir.

It really does.

But in their report to the newspapers,

Mr. Evans said the devil was about three feet and a three feet and a half high

with a head like a collie dog and a face like a horse.

What? How do you have a head like one thing and a face like another?

That's what I was just thinking.

Well, he did have a long neck, wings about two feet long.

This is what's weird, though.

He said his back legs were like those of a crane and it had horses hooves.

What, sir? I'm sorry.

What are you talking about?

This man that had some chocolate before bed.

How did how to train legs hold this whole thing?

But then the feet are horses hooves.

Like I just also love that nobody can agree what the fuck this looks like.

Nobody can. Nobody can.

He also he also said he watched this thing for about 10 minutes.

In the backyard, and then he opened the window.

This is my favorite part.

He said he opened the window and he went shoo

and the devil turned around, barked at him and then flew away.

I love that it took him 10 whole minutes to go.

What should I say to this?

Shoo, shoo.

And he went rough.

And then if the devil leaves when I say shoo, I'm not scared.

Well, he wasn't done because by the end of the week,

the devil had made its way down to Philadelphia.

Oh, wow.

A reporter for the morning call wrote,

scientists are puzzled to give a name to the beast,

which is a combination of bat, kangaroo and pony.

What? Now he's a kangaroo.

Like now that we're adding in kangaroo to the mix,

I'm like, oh, I get locking your doors now.

I don't want that. Yes, I want to know.

You can't just come and kick your door down.

You know what I mean? Yeah.

And what part of it is kangaroo?

Is it I heard crayon legs in the same

the same article from this reporter for the morning call.

He said, if something rather weird is not flying around,

the condition of mind of South Jersey and South Philadelphia

would provide a feast for students of mob hallucination.

So I think this reporter is like, I think you're all hallucinating.

Yeah. But in an editorial in the Atlantic City Daily Press,

one person wrote, when one stops to think about how absurd is

the latest Jersey sensation about the Leeds Devil,

which has been given much space in the newspapers of the entire country.

One must feel ashamed of himself to think that he stopped long enough

to read the headlines, less the entire article.

Rude, which I was like, all right, that's rude.

That was directly at officer.

Shots fired.

Officer Valsak or whatever his name was.

That was like, yeah, bro.

That's true. Yeah.

But I'm like, you know, like live a little.

It's also like, let's believe in this little devil.

Well, and like, are you not writing an article?

But can you imagine if you're like living somewhere and just every story is

like a pony kangaroo colleague showed up at the door.

You're like, shut up.

And your editor is like, you have to write an article about this.

A week later or so, sightings of the Jersey Devil after this little article,

the sightings just kind of ended and everyone was apparently shamed out of

saying everyone was ashamed of themselves.

Everyone was ashamed.

But then the Jersey Devil, the Jersey Devil was like, you guys know,

like I'm not letting you be ashamed because he made just one more

appearance in a village just outside Salem that February before returning

to the Pine Barrens.

So in the months and years that followed, people all over Southern

New Jersey and Northern Pennsylvania started to theorize as to what could

have caused the sightings and they were blaming it on everything

from a complete hoax and misidentified creatures to genuine sightings

of the actual Jersey Devil.

The Brooklyn Meteor Research Society suggested it was quote, a type of

marsupial carnivore, which a kangaroo is a marsupial, correct?

That's what I was just going to say.

Or fishaped, both previously thought to be extinct.

So we're thinking it's like an extinct creature that we are like, oh, shit,

we're wrong. What is a fishaped?

It's just when you have toes separated to the base.

So it's it just means cloven footed.

Oh, OK. That makes sense.

So they thought that was extinct and they were like, maybe it's not.

And the Academy of Natural Science, on the other hand, told reporters,

there is no bird which could make such tracks in the snow and there is no

scientific record of such animals or as have been described in the newspapers.

So they're like, shut up, shut up.

If the Academy of Natural Sciences was unable to find evidence of any animal

that would resemble anything described in the papers,

it's probably because despite some of the overlap in those descriptions,

like, you know, the wings and the horse feet and the cloven hooves and all that

stuff, they they also varied so wildly from one description to the next that

it's like, of course, you're not going to find something that makes sense.

Yeah, no. And also, you know, at night,

cavorting on a roof, there's no street lights.

There's no outdoor lights.

Not like you can flip on the garage sensor light.

You know, I mean, it is. You are just going by what you see dancing in the dark.

Dancing in the moonlight.

And you just woke up too.

So you're groggy.

Then many years after the Jersey Devil Panic of 1909 had kind of ended,

people in and around South Jersey started reporting,

reportedly started attempting to create additional action by making

their own Jersey Devil footprints and reporting them to authorities in the press.

They wanted to start it up again.

Right, right, right, right.

Because I'm sure that hadn't happened before.

Yeah, of course not.

All those other ones, all those other ones.

So yeah, and in one case, a Philadelphia animal trainer

was hoping to bolster attendance to his performances.

So he kind of contributed to the press with the whole thing.

He told reporters his vampire bat had escaped and was on the loose

and attributed that to the increase in devil sightings.

It's like, oh, sorry.

And actually, then this leads right into one of the biggest hoaxes was

from that was probably the one that Norman Jeffries of New York did.

He was an entrepreneur with a real penchant for very bizarre promotional events.

He wanted to capitalize on the whole hysteria surrounding the devil.

So he bought a small kangaroo from a friend in upstate New York

and planned to pass it off as the Jersey Devil.

So there were small kangaroos in upstate New York.

There were, and it's not an issue.

Thank you. Why is there a kangaroo in upstate New York?

Your guess is as good as mine.

And it gets worse because he painted green stripes on the kangaroo.

But the kangaroo licked the paint off before it dried.

Oh, now the kangaroos got lead poisoning.

So then he attempted to attach a set of wings.

And apparently the kangaroo just demolished the wings that he made

because it's a kangaroo.

And it's like, what the fuck are you putting wings on?

It was like, I'm already cool enough on my own.

Yeah, he's like, I'm a fucking kangaroo. What are you doing?

I'm yoked. I am yoked.

Don't mess with me.

So he made a second set of wings out of bronze and rabbit fur.

And that worked.

He put the wings on his Jersey Devil and then he draped the kangaroo in nets

and paid about 10 like local heathens to act as farmers with pitchforks

to surrounding the animal in a cage.

Oh, that makes me really sad.

Me too. That's so horrible.

Like, fuck you, man.

This animal is like, what is wrong with you?

I'm just a small.

Give me back to that guy in New York and I.

Yeah, that's all.

That's all.

He's like, I belong in Australia.

Get me the fuck out of here.

And this whole thing happened in the basement of the Dime Museum

and spectators were led in one by one to look at the Jersey Devil,

but they could only look at it for a second or two when the curtain would be lifted

and then it would be dropped immediately.

But throughout the 19th century, residents of Southern New Jersey

feared the Jersey Devil and they panicked at the mere mention of a sighting.

It was a big deal.

And stories of his presence would circulate from town to town.

And sometimes posses were formed to capture it and bounties were placed

for on its head, some ranging from a hundred to a hundred thousand dollars.

Damn. And by the 1930s, societal attitudes

toward the devil kind of changed because all of a sudden,

instead of forming posses to go, you know, to put a bounty on his head,

they were like, we kind of love him.

Like he's kind of our guy and he became like a hundred and thirty years of pride.

And in 1938, the Jersey Devil was officially designated

as the state demon of New Jersey,

making it the first only state demon in the country. Wow.

I was going to say, wait, wait, wait, that that feels like it implies

that there's other state demons and I would like to know that.

I was so hoping there was more.

Can we make more? I would love to make.

Oh, it sounds like you could.

You know that there's some states in this country that definitely I'm like,

I could think of a few. I could think of some demons that we could name.

And while sightings of the creature definitely became less common

than they once were, like we talked about earlier,

it the name became popular and even became the name of an NHL

talky team called the New Jersey. Wow. Look at that foreshadow.

There you go. Look at I I can't believe I first of all,

I can't believe I knew the name of the NHL hockey team for New Jersey.

That is a random piece of information.

But secondly, wow, way to just it would be like

if we had just the bad boy NHL team, the bad boys.

That would be a good baseball team.

Oh, yeah, boys.

Although I don't think anybody would be very like intimidated by them.

I don't think so, either.

I'd be like, here, hold my back.

Here, hold my back.

Tall as far as we know.

Yeah, it's not very intimidating.

Well, what goes away when you say shoe? No. Come on.

That's that's right.

So you know what that boys it is.

That boys. There you go. That boys.

But the Jersey Devil never went away.

He still he appears in books and television shows.

He's in video games.

He's in movies.

He's like a labor talk show, you know.

He he is at the forefront of licensing out his imaging to AI

is what he's doing.

Yeah, he's yeah. Yeah.

He's going to be on the next one of like the hot wing show.

I've been trying to start my DJ career.

All of a sudden now he's like, I'm a SoundCloud rapper.

I've got, you know, I've got I've got a podcast.

I've got an NHL team.

Really, his branding and marketing is genius.

Top notch.

So congratulations.

It all started in the beginning.

She was like, give a quote.

Find him on TikTok, guys.

Yeah. At the Jersey Devil.

Doing trending dances.

That's him. I would love that.

So that that's the story of the Jersey Devil.

That was so much fun.

I really like that. The Jersey Devil is fun.

Yeah, I kind of love it.

Rarely does it wind up in the naming of an NHL hockey team, you know.

Truly. So go New Jersey.

How many cryptids can claim that?

Yeah. Yeah. Right.

Poor one out.

You know, they got to keep something going.

And that's good for them.

Good for them. It's true.

Oh, you guys, this was so much fun.

This was so much fun.

Thank you so much for coming on.

Yes, seriously. You are literally welcome back.

You are so. Any time.

Any time. I will.

What I'm going to start doing now is listening to the podcast

when I'm driving around my car and just interjecting my own thoughts

that you will neither be able to hear nor will anyone else.

But I'll feel like I'm a part of the podcast.

Voice note them to us.

I was just going to say, well, exchange numbers and you can voice note it.

No, seriously, this has been so much fun.

I'm such a huge fan of you guys.

I love I love your energy.

I love like the vibe, everything.

It's great for somebody who also obviously tells stories with 1500 side stories.

It's really great to listen to.

Thank you so much.

And we're huge fans.

So this was a big deal.

I think. What was it that Drew said?

Drew goes, this is my fiance.

He goes, this is your biggest get.

Like I was like, I agree.

Yeah. I was like, yes.

And our researcher, Dave, who did like all of the research

for the Jersey Devil stuff, great work, a huge fan, huge hallmark.

He's in the room.

I did. We got a great job.

You did great.

I know you're always doing a lot of research

and you do a really great job with it.

Hell, yeah.

Really great research.

Yeah, yeah, because I know how it is having a podcast.

If I were left to do all of my own work, it would be a shit show.

So, yeah, we did for a while.

And then we were like, well, then it was like chaotic.

We were like, help, help, Dave.

Yeah, and Dave swooped in like the Jersey Devil

and said, I've got you.

He beat us with his tail.

We pulled it out of his little pouch

because he's smoking grew.

Went and just yeah, he blew in the room.

And it was great.

He was just storing it.

Well, this has been amazing.

Well, thank you guys so much for listening.

Thank you, Jody, for joining us.

We hope you guys keep listening and we hope you keep it.

But not so we're that you actually want to like stitching on

like hooves on to a small kangaroo

and putting it on your roof to cavort

and then trying to sell it to stores

and make a big thing about it and naming it an HL hockey team.

Like, don't keep it that weird, but almost.

Yeah, perfect.

That was fantastic.

Because all of a sudden I was like, fuck, I'm blanking.

But yes, it's happening.

Yeah.

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Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.