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Authors: Daniel Cohen
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January, 1909, sightings of the Jersey Devil dropped off sharply. But people still reported seeing the strange creature, from time to time. There was a regular Jersey Devil panic in Gibbstown, New Jersey, in 1951. Some children saw the "thing" from the window of their clubhouse at the edge of town. A group of teenagers went out in the woods to hunt for it. One said that the thing nearly caught him. Many people reported hearing "shrill, unearthly screams" in the woods.
The chief of police searched the area but found nothing. The children at the Gibbstown schools were so excited that the principal called the chief of police for help. The chief was also getting a lot of calls from frightened residents and from curious outsiders. Finally, he got fed up. He posted signs all around town which read: THE JERSEY DEVIL IS A HOAX.
Still, people report seeing it and hearing it. When chickens are killed or dogs disappear, there are always those who say, "The Jersey Devil did it."
What was, or is, the Jersey Devil?
Of course, no one really knows, but there are plenty of theories. The most probable one is that the whole thing is a case of mass hysteria.
Others think that the legend has some beginning in reality. Perhaps there really was a "Mother Leeds" or someone like that. She may have had a deformed child. At one time such children were kept hidden away. Perhaps this unfortunate child ran away and lived in the dense woods of the Pine Barrens. He may never have been seen clearly. He may have lived by raiding farms and isolated houses. Wild stories would have grown up around such a person.
Another theory is that the legend started when people encountered a large and unfamiliar bird. There is something rather birdlike about many of the descriptions of the Jersey Devil. The bird might have been a sandhill crane, which was once common in New Jersey.
Local officials try to put down a Jersey Devil scare in Gibbstown in 1951.
The sandhill crane stands about four feet tall.
It has a violent temper when cornered, and can chase away a man. There are rumors that people have actually been killed by the bird's long bill driven through the eye into the brain.
There is no shortage of theories to explain the Jersey Devil. None can be proved, or disproved.
In recent years there have not been too many sightings of the Jersey Devil. Perhaps the whole legend of the Jersey Devil will just fade away. But I will not predict that it will. Less than one hundred years ago someone else made that prediction and he was dead wrong.
CHAPTER 3
SPRING-HEELED JACK
In 1888, London was terrified by a series of mysterious murders. The killer was never caught. This unknown murderer was given the name Jack the Ripper.
A half century earlier an even more mysterious Jack was terrorizing London. This creature no one seemed quite sure what it was-was given the name Spring-Heeled Jack.
Rumors about the creature began late in 1837. There were many different descriptions, each one wilder than the one before. The thing was said to look vaguely like a powerfully built man. Some said it had wings, or horns, or that it breathed flames. But one thing that everybody said about the creature was that it jumped. It would jump out at women, usually at night. It was never reported to have killed anyone, but it did terrify its victims. Then it would jump away. It could make tremendous leaps, clearing fences and trees in a single bound. That is how it got the name Spring-Heeled Jack.
The police heard about some of these attacks, but they did not take them seriously. One day, early in 1838, the official attitude changed. A very respectable-looking gentleman, accompanied by a young woman, came to the police station in Lambeth Street. The man said that he and his two daughters lived in Bearbind Lane, at that time an isolated spot on the outskirts of London.
He said that on the previous night one of his daughters went to answer a ring at the gate. Outside the gate stood a tall
The chief of police searched the area but found nothing. The children at the Gibbstown schools were so excited that the principal called the chief of police for help. The chief was also getting a lot of calls from frightened residents and from curious outsiders. Finally, he got fed up. He posted signs all around town which read: THE JERSEY DEVIL IS A HOAX.
Still, people report seeing it and hearing it. When chickens are killed or dogs disappear, there are always those who say, "The Jersey Devil did it."
What was, or is, the Jersey Devil?
Of course, no one really knows, but there are plenty of theories. The most probable one is that the whole thing is a case of mass hysteria.
Others think that the legend has some beginning in reality. Perhaps there really was a "Mother Leeds" or someone like that. She may have had a deformed child. At one time such children were kept hidden away. Perhaps this unfortunate child ran away and lived in the dense woods of the Pine Barrens. He may never have been seen clearly. He may have lived by raiding farms and isolated houses. Wild stories would have grown up around such a person.
Another theory is that the legend started when people encountered a large and unfamiliar bird. There is something rather birdlike about many of the descriptions of the Jersey Devil. The bird might have been a sandhill crane, which was once common in New Jersey.
Local officials try to put down a Jersey Devil scare in Gibbstown in 1951.
The sandhill crane stands about four feet tall.
It has a violent temper when cornered, and can chase away a man. There are rumors that people have actually been killed by the bird's long bill driven through the eye into the brain.
There is no shortage of theories to explain the Jersey Devil. None can be proved, or disproved.
In recent years there have not been too many sightings of the Jersey Devil. Perhaps the whole legend of the Jersey Devil will just fade away. But I will not predict that it will. Less than one hundred years ago someone else made that prediction and he was dead wrong.
CHAPTER 3
SPRING-HEELED JACK
In 1888, London was terrified by a series of mysterious murders. The killer was never caught. This unknown murderer was given the name Jack the Ripper.
A half century earlier an even more mysterious Jack was terrorizing London. This creature no one seemed quite sure what it was-was given the name Spring-Heeled Jack.
Rumors about the creature began late in 1837. There were many different descriptions, each one wilder than the one before. The thing was said to look vaguely like a powerfully built man. Some said it had wings, or horns, or that it breathed flames. But one thing that everybody said about the creature was that it jumped. It would jump out at women, usually at night. It was never reported to have killed anyone, but it did terrify its victims. Then it would jump away. It could make tremendous leaps, clearing fences and trees in a single bound. That is how it got the name Spring-Heeled Jack.
The police heard about some of these attacks, but they did not take them seriously. One day, early in 1838, the official attitude changed. A very respectable-looking gentleman, accompanied by a young woman, came to the police station in Lambeth Street. The man said that he and his two daughters lived in Bearbind Lane, at that time an isolated spot on the outskirts of London.
He said that on the previous night one of his daughters went to answer a ring at the gate. Outside the gate stood a tall
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