Thoughts On the Jersey Devil

[Bill]

Last night, April 13th, author Robert Dunbar was JC Johnson's and
Raven Meindel's guest on
Untamed Dimensions/4-Corners Crypto's weekly webcast, with Nick
Redfern "in the house" for an extra treat. The program was
entertaining and informative, covering ground on writing horror
fiction (like Dunbar's "The Pines"), favorite horror movies of days
gone by, fiction writing in general and the creative processes
involved. AND, of course, there was some discussion of the infamous
Jersey Devil.

Dunbar proved a personable, animated, humorous, engaging and likable
guest and no doubt his appearance on the show will assure some crypto
book sales. And deservedly so. "The Pines" is a great scary read.

One thing this writer found interesting, though, was Dunbar's
politician-like evasiveness with regard to the question of what he,
personally, thought was the true nature or identity of the "Devil of
the Barrens". JC tried to elicit some speculation on this several
times, with no luck. Mr. Dunbar repeatedly fell back on comments about
evolving folklore and about "psychological needs" to have "monsters"
present in the human psyche. This is actually simply part of the
"shtick" of "Materialist Rational Reality 101", which suggests that
Mr. Dunbar doesn't really believe that there's anything tangible
actually there, but that the folklore fires the imaginations
of people who then "see" such a booger because they have a "need" to
see such.

But, regardless of the "reality" (or lack thereof) of the Leeds
Devil , the legend provides a fertile field for creative fictioners,
and Mr. Dunbar appreciates it as such. And the Barrens themselves add
plenty of "atmosphere" as a spooky backdrop to any yarns spun about
this booger.

I would submit, though, that there enough snippets of information
available that can be pieced together to make at least a hypothesis
about the "true" (?) identity of the Leeds Devil. I would posit the
following:

That the "Jersey Devil" legend---Mother Leeds & the 13th Child---is
just that, LEGEND; and may well be a fictive story to account for some
observed strangeness and, perhaps, to make some perceived sinners of
the period "tow the line" more spiritually.

And what would be such "observed strangeness"? How about the Indians'
famed Thunderbird?
There is plenty of evidence from the northeast that the T-Bird was
flying around up there since before colonial times and the Barrens
would seem to be a very desirable spot for a T-Bird enclave.
And Dunbar himself relates an account told to him about a returned
middle-east war vet who said he was hiking the Barrens and looked up
to see what looked like a huge bird fly over---gripping a deer in its
talons. Now THAT could well convert to a "Devil" sighting if the
mindset was right.
Yet it sounds more like a Thunderbird sighting if you know your crypto
critters.

The legendary Piasa---the logo of NAFS---is a conglomerate creature as
well. If such a thing ever really existed (or anything similar) it
could EASILY mesh in description with some Leeds Devil folklore.
Still, the Thunderbird seems the most likely suspect (though some
people, Kentucky writer Barton Nunnelly among them,have reported
seeing what looked like Pterodactyls or Pteranodons in flight overhead
in places-----and, minus the crest----a pteranodon would have a
"horsey" enough head to fit some JD descriptions).And we can't rule
out a man-bat either.

But what of stories of hairy,wingless, manlike versions of the Devil?
Well, don't look now, but those sound like bigfoot descriptions.

Seems to me that, rather than look at the NJ Pine Barrens as the home
ground of a SINGLE THING, the "Jersey Devil", one should perhaps look
at the Barrens as a Keelian portal or "Window" area where various
cryptid manifestations occur----rather like Nick Redfern's own Cannock
Chase in Britain. Maybe an assortment of "things" come into our
world---like Redfern's "Cormons"---from "Otherwhere"----via these Pine
Barrens, but, because of a cultural peculiarity of the area, this
menagerie all gets re-imagined into a single catch-all entity----- the
"Jersey Devil".

Maybe Jersey DEVILS---with an S----would be closer to the mark.

Just a thought.

Bill

[Destinys...@aol.com]

I also believe that this area may be a window of some sorts..He was a
great guest on the show though. I liked his humour. I think that Raven
and Nick and DaveO as well did a great job with that show..Still..I
missed Jc and his funny little laugh!
Esther