Ep. 847 - The Jersey Devil - An American Folktale
Today is my daughter's 10th birthday (and second Covid birthday) so she's commandeered the podcast to tell you a story about a local creature that she's fascinated by. Note: This episode is ironically not suitable for small children. Additional Note: She chose this story all by herself and seeing that it's her birthday we rolled with it.
Legend has it that in 1735, a New Jersey resident known as Mother Leeds found herself pregnant for the thirteenth time. Mother Leeds was not wealthy by any means. Her husband was a drunk who made few efforts to provide for his wife and the twelve children they already had. Upon learning that she was pregnant with her thirteenth child, Mother Leeds raised her hands to Heaven and yelled “Let this one be a devil!”
Mother Leeds went into labor a few months later, on a stormy night, no longer mindful of the curse she had uttered regarding her unborn child. Her children and husband huddled together in one room of their home while local midwives gathered to deliver the baby in another. By all accounts the birth went routinely, and the thirteenth Leeds child was a seemingly normal baby boy.
Within minutes however, Mother Leeds’s unholy wish began to come true. The baby started to change right before her very eyes. Within moments it transformed from a beautiful baby boy into a hideous creature unlike anything this world had ever seen. The wailing infant began growing at an incredible rate. It sprouted horns from the top of its head and talon-like claws tore through the tips of its fingers. Leathery bat-like wings unfurled from its back, and hair and feathers sprouted all over its body. Its eyes began glowing bright red as they grew larger in the monster’s snarling face. The creature savagely attacked its own mother and killed her, then turned its attention to the rest of the horrified onlookers. It flew at them, clawing and biting, voicing unearthly shrieks the entire time. It tore the midwives limb from limb, maiming some and killing others.
The monster then knocked down the door to the next room where its own father and siblings cowered in fear and attacked them all, killing as many as it could. Those who survived to tell the tale then watched in horror as the beast sprinted to the chimney and flew up it, destroying it on the way, leaving a pile of rubble in its wake. The creature then escaped into the Pine Barrens, where it has lived ever since. To this day the creature, known as the Leeds Devil and the Jersey Devil, claims the Pines as its own, and terrorizes any who are unfortunate enough to encounter it.
