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The Jersey Devil, sometimes called the Leeds Devil, is a legendary creature or cryptid said to inhabit the Pine
Barrens in southern New
Jersey. The creature is often described as a flying biped with hooves, but there are many variationsMost accounts of the Jersey Devil legend attribute the creature to a "Mother
Leeds", a supposed witch, although the tale has many variations. According
to one version, she invoked the devil while giving birth to her 13th child, and
when the baby was born, it either immediately or soon afterwards transformed
into a devil like creature and flew off into the surrounding pines.
According to legend, while visiting the Hanover Mill Works to inspect his
cannonballs being forged, Commodore Stephen Decatur sighted a flying creature
flapping its wings and fired a cannonball directly upon it to no effect. Joseph Bonaparte,
eldest brother of Emperor Napoleon, is also said to have
witnessed the Jersey Devil while hunting on his Bordentown,
New Jersey estate around 1820. Throughout the
1800s, the Jersey Devil was blamed for livestock killings, strange tracks, and
reported sounds. In the early 1900s, a number of people in New Jersey and
neighboring states claimed to witness the Jersey Devil or see its tracks. Claims
of a corpse matching the Jersey Devil's description arose in 1957. In 1960, the
merchants around Camden offered a $10,000 reward for the
capture of the Jersey Devil, even offering to build a private zoo to house the
creature if captured
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