The Jersey Devil - The History Behind New Jersey's Most Famous Cryptid

Today we take a look at the Jersey Devil, a cryptid that has been spotted all around New Jersey and Philadelphia.
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Music by Kevin MacLeod ~ Long note One

#JerseyDevil #NJ #Cryptids

[MythologyFictionExplained]

You heard it here, if you're the 13th child then you're the devil!

[IronDragon-]

Me: Wow, the Jersey Devil is a truly terrifying monster.

The Wendigo: Hold my meat.

[katelillo]

Dang... maybe he’s hanging around the farm animals because he looks like a goat and just wants to be accepted, the poor dude.

[AndYourLittleDog]

I’m from NJ and went to Stockton University, which is located off Jimmie Leeds Road. The cursed 13th child story was actually told to me during the open house day at the college. Locally, it’s known as having a goat head, and hooves, bat wings and red eyes. Many locals take the creature’s existence as gospel truth. Allegedly, it lives in the pine barrens from Tuckerton to Somer’s Point and is especially partial to the road colloquially referee to as the Poor Man’s Parkway (runs parallel to a toll road), This is strictly a South Jersey thing, Philadelphia has nothing to do with this legend.

[michaellefebvre]

Hey I just listened to this on spotify. I was born and raised in New Jersey and as kids we were all scared of the Jersey Devil. I used to be a boy scout and when we would go on camping trips we would all sit around the fire, close our eyes and hold hands while chanting "who's afraid of the jersey devil" over and over. When you opened your eyes you would see what looked like red eyes running through the forests. Obviously looking back now I know its because of the light of the fire and readjusting to the darkness, but I did hear a lot about it! Thanks for the interesting history on it, I never really knew much about it all.

[shemyaza]

I live right across the Delaware river and when I was younger we'd explore the barren with our ATVs. There are some severely creepy areas in those woods, swamp-like places that just seem darker than they should be. At night you hear very weird cries and you can easily freak yourself out wondering what they are, especially if you're used to animal sounds like foxes and mountain lion.

Wed stay at a friend's house when we went to the barrens, and one night we were driving to his house through a long stretch of thick woods, and there was the head of what looked like a goat protruding from the foliage. We all saw it, and it pulled itself back into the woods as we drove by which caused the girls to scream. That was not a fun night.

[shippoblast]

I live in central jersey and I remember when I was around 9 or 10 I saw this kangaroo looking thing on my backyard (which leads to the forest) I saw it and got my sister and she tapped in the glass and it hopped away and I never saw it again Idk what it was but I defently saw something that looked like a kangaroo

[ripsterhipster]

I saw the Jersey Devil with my own eyes! I was driving with a buddy and we turned around a bend and it was eating a deer corpse. The thing flew straight up. Like literally straight up. It was so disgusting looking and unsettling we were freaked out.

[Abejaved]

My college hiking/camping class went camping in the Pine Barrens during the Halloween weekend. I don't even think it was on purpose, but we passed the house where supposedly the Jersey Devil was born. I only just learned about it the week of the trip.
So naturally, I made the night a living hell for all my classmates during the night with scary noises.

[LinkSeasonMaster]

I actually have a strange story regarding the Jersey Devil. Back when I was in middle school, the topic had come up in conversation on the bus to and from school one day and a particular kid told the rest of us a variation of the legend that has stuck in my head to this day. In his version, rather than just curse the child and proclaim it to be the devil, Mother Leeds repeatedly pleaded for the child to be a devil as punishment to her husband for impregnating her thirteen times. And after it’s birth and subsequent transformation, the Jersey Devil, instead of just fighting back against attempts to restrain it, outright massacres the entire family and everyone else who was present before fleeing. However, two of Mother Leeds’ twelve other children managed to avoid detection by hiding under their beds, surviving the slaughter. And top it all off, the boy telling this tale claimed to be directly descended from one of the two survivors, effectively making him related to the Jersey Devil. Now was he being honest, was this a family legend that he took far too seriously, or was he just making it up as most of us on the bus believed him to be at the time? In retrospect, I would not be surprised either way if he actually believed every word and or if he was lying through his teeth. But regardless, it left quite the impression on me, and to this day, I remain convinced it has the potential to serve as the basis of a truly great horror story. And who knows? Maybe one day I’ll try penning it myself. Though if someone beats me to it? I only ask that you do this premise justice.

[finmorton]

Sherriff: If you are the devil, rattle your chainsJersey Devil: *Rattles Chains*Sherriff: well... then good... we'll be going now. sorry for bothering you

[windscar]

im from jersey. when i was a kid, we used to go four wheeling in the pine barrens. i also wrote a book report on him in grade school.

[greyworld]

I say the South Park snooki should have been the thumbnail but this is fine.

XD!

[thenerdbeast]

"New Jersey's most famous cryptid" I can't imagine that is a long list.

[EspeonMistress]

❤Oh, you are finally back!!!❤ I hope your hearing is getting better or you are better at managing it.
If it comes to the point that you will have to stop making these videos, *it* *is* *okay!*

Yes, we will miss your sarcasm.
Yes, we will miss your interesting take on some of these myths.
But PLEASE don't strain yourself. Your health is more important!

[s.m.mannix]

The Pine Barrens are some of the most eerie wilderness I've ever explored, even in daylight. I don't believe the folktale about "Mother Leeds" although it is possible the Leeds family had a 13th born child who suffered some tragic fate that inspired this myth. But, the flying monster described by Joseph Bonaparte and other eye witnesses sounds very similar to the Cumberland Dragon sighted around western Maryland in 1794. So, perhaps there was a rare unknown creature flapping around this part of the U.S. 200 years ago?

[SeanMWolff]

I go to college about 10 minutes away from the supposed birth place of the Jersey Devil. My father, uncle, and some others I know have told me they’ve seen it. Personally, I never have. But the story has always fascinated me. Awesome video!

[Noodieify]

I live in New Jersey, and I don’t know anyone who ever claimed to see the devil, but it’s home, the Pine Barrens, is like no Forest I’ve ever seen before. It’s incredibly big and creepy. It seems like it never ends, and it just doesn’t look like a regular Forest. There are so many trees, and the place is just perfect for an urban legend.

[samaelcain]

I was eleven years old when I got to go camping for the first time. My dad, uncle and I traveled to New Jersey where we met up with my cousins for our camping trip. We camped in a small clearing only about a hundred yards away from the main road. We had fun throughout the entire day. My cousins and I climbed trees, my uncle taught us how to make snares to catch rabbits, and finally we ended the night with some ghost stories. My dad told one I had written when I was younger, about a plane crash in the Sierra Mountains and a headless corpse that slaughtered the two remaining passengers. I told the story of Pumpkinhead (one of my favorite movies at the time). And I already knew the story of the Jersey Devil, so it wasn't much of a surprise when my oldest cousin told of it's origins and how their neighbor disappeared two winters ago when he went out searching for the animal that tore his dog apart.
We all laughed, went into our Tent (we had a homemade Tipi that was about 15 feet around and 25 feet high) and we fell asleep pretty quickly. We were there for two days out of the whole week we stayed, and that was because what happened on the second night.
In the afternoon we swore we kept hearing someone walk behind us. And sometimes we would feel a cold breeze, but none of the branches of the trees were moving except for a small group of branches above or behind us. And that night we hadn't told any ghost stories, we just talked about how everyone's been the last few years, what was new, etc. And we all decided to go to bed.
That night we woke up to the most bloodcurdling sound ever. When I heard it the second time I got a lump in my throat, and I could feel my heart beating even faster than before. We all looked around and counted, and we were all inside the Tipi (my dad, my uncle, me, and my five cousins). My dad, uncle, and oldest cousin slowly got up and grabbed their guns. They walked carefully over to the opening flap of the Tipi and before they could do anything we heard flapping, and the Tipi started rocking back and forth. We heard the noise again, but it was so loud and I could feel it in my chest. It was like a woman screaming, a dog howling, and a bear roaring, all at the same time! We heard the flapping again, and soon everything calmed down. My dad, uncle, and cousin want to opposite sides of the Tipi, with my uncle staying near the opening flap.
We waited an hour or so, all of us completely quiet. My uncle motioned towards me to get my dad, and I cralwed over and tapped his shoe then pointed to my uncle. My dad crept over to him and as my dad got there we all heard a low growling noise. My dad and uncle slowly backed away from the opening flap but turned around when one of my cousins started screaming and pointing at the top of the Tipi. There was a large tree by where we were and when we turned the flashlight on and aimed it through the hole of the Tipi, we saw what looked like a horse head with ram horns and yellow glowing eyes peering through at us. Me and a couple more cousins started screaming and the thing opened its mouth and that same terrifying noise came out. My uncle aimed his shotgun at it and before he could think about pulling the trigger the head pulled out of the opening, we heard the flapping again, and the same noise faded off into the distance. We dug the stakes out of the ground, wrapped everything up, got in the trucks and left for my cousin's house.

[lividtaffy]

I live in central jersey, as a kid my family would drive through the pine barrens once a year to spend a week at the beach. One year, I was around 12 years old, I could swear I saw a bright red animal, about the size of a goat, keeping pace with traffic through the trees about 150 yards into the woods. My brother caught a glimpse of it, but neither of us could find any discernible characteristics on account of it being so far away and through the trees. I hadn't heard of the Jersey Devil at the time, but a few years later my mom picked up a book titled " Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Plunges into New Jersey" which contained a chapter about the Jersey Devil.