"It was said that Mother Leeds had 13 children and, after giving birth to her
13th child, stated that if she had another, it would be the Devil. In 1735, Mother Leeds was in labor on a stormy night. Gathered around her were her friends. Mother Leeds was supposedly a witch and the child's father was the Devil himself. The child was born normal, but then changed form. It changed from a normal baby to a creature with hooves, a horse's head, bat wings and a forked tail. It growled and screamed, then killed the midwife before flying up the chimney. It circled the villages and headed toward the pines. In 1740 a clergy exorcised the demon for 100 years and it wasn't seen again until 1890."
....Or so the legend goes. It is believed that Mother Leeds is Deborah Leeds and she and her husband Japhet, lived in the Leeds point section of what is now Atlantic City.
Alrighty then. So there is this really icky nobody-knows-what thing flying around the woods of Jersey. Cool. Joseph Bonaparte, the eldest brother of Napoleon Dynamite, said to have witnessed the devil while hunting on his estate in 1820. I guess it decided to come back early or the clergy's exorcism just plain didn't work. In 1840, it was blamed for killing livestock. 1909 saw a record number of reports. The newspapers published hundreds of claimed encounters. Some from as far away as Delaware. Sightings continued on and off from 1925 to 1960. An unknown animal with red eyes, a 'monster' matching the devils description, tracks were seen and noises heard....all believed to be this Jersey Devil. So what is it really? Nobody knows. I bet it's just one of those rodents of unusual size that escaped from the fire swamp and decided New Jersey looked like a fine place to settle down. Call Wesley- he'll take care of it.
Well, I don't care what it is and more importantly, I don't WANT to know. I'm staying away. With my luck, it would be something that would try and eat my face off. No thanks.
*footnote*
Cryptozoologists think it's a species of Pterosaur such as a Dimorphodon. Oh sure. That's much more believable. A dinosaur. My theory of an over sized rodent doesn't sound so strange anymore, does it?
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