1 00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:06,360 Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, the production of I Heart Radio. Hey 2 00:00:06,440 --> 00:00:12,240 Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren bobebam Here in the National Hockey League 3 00:00:12,320 --> 00:00:16,320 Speaker 1: landed in New Jersey. A Denver based team, the hopless 4 00:00:16,360 --> 00:00:20,360 Speaker 1: Colorado Rockies, had been purchased by new ownership and relocated 5 00:00:20,400 --> 00:00:22,680 Speaker 1: to the Garden State at a cost of roughly thirty 6 00:00:22,720 --> 00:00:25,400 Speaker 1: two million dollars, which is more than ninety six million 7 00:00:25,440 --> 00:00:29,040 Speaker 1: in today's money. The Rockies were named after the Rocky 8 00:00:29,040 --> 00:00:32,840 Speaker 1: Mountains Range, which lies more than one eight hundred miles 9 00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:37,320 Speaker 1: some three thousand kilometers west of New Jersey. Obviously, a 10 00:00:37,440 --> 00:00:41,720 Speaker 1: rename was in order. A statewide named the team contest 11 00:00:41,880 --> 00:00:44,519 Speaker 1: drew more than ten thousand votes. Some of the more 12 00:00:44,560 --> 00:00:47,519 Speaker 1: popular names included the New Jersey Goals and the New 13 00:00:47,600 --> 00:00:52,120 Speaker 1: Jersey meadow Landers, But in the end, fans chose a 14 00:00:52,240 --> 00:00:56,040 Speaker 1: name that sounds way more sinister, at least to the uninitiated. 15 00:00:56,440 --> 00:01:01,120 Speaker 1: The New Jersey Devil's Hockey Buffs didn't pick this at random. 16 00:01:01,520 --> 00:01:04,600 Speaker 1: Unlike the Colorado Rockies, the new name had a distinctly 17 00:01:04,680 --> 00:01:10,040 Speaker 1: local flavor. It pays tribute to regional folklore. With more 18 00:01:10,080 --> 00:01:14,520 Speaker 1: than one thousand, one nine residents per square mile, New 19 00:01:14,600 --> 00:01:18,200 Speaker 1: Jersey is the most densely populated state in the United States, 20 00:01:18,920 --> 00:01:23,160 Speaker 1: and yet of its total land area, representing a huge 21 00:01:23,240 --> 00:01:26,160 Speaker 1: chunk of South Jersey, is covered by an expanse of 22 00:01:26,200 --> 00:01:31,520 Speaker 1: sandy swampy forests known as the Pine Barrens. This place 23 00:01:31,600 --> 00:01:35,600 Speaker 1: is an outdoorsman's paradise with winding trails, campgrounds of plenty, 24 00:01:35,840 --> 00:01:41,400 Speaker 1: rustic blueberry farms, and its own answer to Bigfoot. Legend 25 00:01:41,440 --> 00:01:44,120 Speaker 1: says that there's a winged creature that stalks the Barons 26 00:01:44,160 --> 00:01:48,240 Speaker 1: by night. The Hellish Beast is an all American cryptid, though, 27 00:01:48,280 --> 00:01:50,280 Speaker 1: which is a word for an animal the existence of 28 00:01:50,320 --> 00:01:53,680 Speaker 1: which remains unproven by science. I think sasquatch or the 29 00:01:53,680 --> 00:01:58,760 Speaker 1: locknest monster. Believers call this one the Jersey Devil. Skeptics 30 00:01:58,920 --> 00:02:03,360 Speaker 1: call it a snare campaign. More precisely, some scholars see 31 00:02:03,400 --> 00:02:06,360 Speaker 1: the Jersey Devil as a folkloric offspring of an old 32 00:02:06,480 --> 00:02:12,200 Speaker 1: political feud, one that involved Benjamin Franklin of all people. Today, 33 00:02:12,240 --> 00:02:16,960 Speaker 1: there's a friendly North South rivalry inside New Jersey's borders, see, 34 00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:21,200 Speaker 1: for example, the Great Taylor Ham Park Roll debate. But 35 00:02:21,600 --> 00:02:25,600 Speaker 1: during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries things were different. 36 00:02:26,280 --> 00:02:29,120 Speaker 1: The British held colony that became the modern state of 37 00:02:29,120 --> 00:02:33,000 Speaker 1: New Jersey was split somewhat vertically into East Jersey and 38 00:02:33,240 --> 00:02:38,080 Speaker 1: West Jersey. West Jersey was the adopted home of Daniel Leeds. 39 00:02:38,720 --> 00:02:41,400 Speaker 1: Born in England in sixteen fifty one. He was a 40 00:02:41,480 --> 00:02:44,280 Speaker 1: Quaker and a pamphlet writer who emigrated to the town 41 00:02:44,320 --> 00:02:49,440 Speaker 1: of Burlington in what's now southwestern New Jersey. In seven 42 00:02:49,680 --> 00:02:52,880 Speaker 1: Leeds published the first edition of his very own Almanac, 43 00:02:53,480 --> 00:02:57,040 Speaker 1: and this became a lightning rod for controversy. Many Quakers 44 00:02:57,040 --> 00:03:00,640 Speaker 1: who read the text objected to its use of astrology Heathen, 45 00:03:00,800 --> 00:03:05,920 Speaker 1: Greco Roman planet names. When Quaker leadership turned against Leeds, 46 00:03:05,960 --> 00:03:10,240 Speaker 1: he went on the offensive. The pamphleteer befriended Antiquaker politicians 47 00:03:10,560 --> 00:03:16,119 Speaker 1: and wrote sixte manifesto denouncing Quaker theology, titled A Trumpet 48 00:03:16,240 --> 00:03:20,760 Speaker 1: Sounded out of the Wilderness of America. Bridges were burned. 49 00:03:21,440 --> 00:03:24,520 Speaker 1: One prominent Quaker took aim at Leads by writing a 50 00:03:24,520 --> 00:03:28,760 Speaker 1: pamphlet that called him Satan's Harbinger. It wouldn't be the 51 00:03:28,840 --> 00:03:32,440 Speaker 1: last time someone associated Leads or his family with the devil. 52 00:03:34,360 --> 00:03:38,800 Speaker 1: Daniel Leeds died in seventeen twenty, but despite all the notoriety, 53 00:03:39,120 --> 00:03:43,320 Speaker 1: his almanac lived on later editions were overseen by his son, 54 00:03:43,560 --> 00:03:48,000 Speaker 1: Titan Leads, and this is where Benjamin Franklin comes in. 55 00:03:48,960 --> 00:03:54,119 Speaker 1: He owned a rival publication, Poor Richard's Almanac, which jokingly predicted, 56 00:03:54,200 --> 00:03:57,200 Speaker 1: by way of astrology, that Titan Leads would die on 57 00:03:57,280 --> 00:04:02,800 Speaker 1: October seventeenth of seventeen thirty three. He didn't. Leads punched 58 00:04:02,840 --> 00:04:06,520 Speaker 1: back by calling Franklin a fool and a liar in print. 59 00:04:07,480 --> 00:04:11,320 Speaker 1: Then tongue planted firmly in cheek, Franklin suggested the Titan 60 00:04:11,440 --> 00:04:14,240 Speaker 1: Leads must surely be dead, and that his ghost was 61 00:04:14,280 --> 00:04:17,000 Speaker 1: writing nasty things about him from beyond the grave. The 62 00:04:17,080 --> 00:04:21,680 Speaker 1: eighteenth century trolling at its finest. Details of the feud 63 00:04:21,680 --> 00:04:26,080 Speaker 1: are explored in Brian Regal and Frank j Esposito's book 64 00:04:26,440 --> 00:04:29,840 Speaker 1: Secret History of the Jersey Devil, How Quakers, Hucksters and 65 00:04:29,920 --> 00:04:34,400 Speaker 1: Benjamin Franklin created a Monster. In it, the authors wrote 66 00:04:34,760 --> 00:04:38,640 Speaker 1: Franklin's clever statements about Leeds were in reality an attempt 67 00:04:38,680 --> 00:04:41,960 Speaker 1: to discredit his almanac competitor by blinking him to Satan. 68 00:04:42,640 --> 00:04:44,880 Speaker 1: In that age, it was not unusual to paint one's 69 00:04:44,960 --> 00:04:48,400 Speaker 1: enemies as stargazing agents of the devil. The fact that 70 00:04:48,480 --> 00:04:51,680 Speaker 1: Leads promoted a belief in astrology in his popular almanac, 71 00:04:52,040 --> 00:04:56,760 Speaker 1: made perfect fodder for the clever Franklin. By clashing with 72 00:04:56,760 --> 00:05:00,640 Speaker 1: Franklin Titan, Leeds, who died for real in sevent thirty eight, 73 00:05:01,080 --> 00:05:05,480 Speaker 1: hurt his family's public reputation. That Daniel Leeds had been 74 00:05:05,480 --> 00:05:08,120 Speaker 1: a counselor of an unpopular governor of New York and 75 00:05:08,120 --> 00:05:11,719 Speaker 1: New Jersey worsened the family's public relations troubles during the 76 00:05:11,760 --> 00:05:17,039 Speaker 1: American Revolution. Over the years, insinuations the Leads were somehow 77 00:05:17,080 --> 00:05:21,440 Speaker 1: linked with Satan morphed into an East Coast horror story. 78 00:05:21,760 --> 00:05:25,200 Speaker 1: An eighteen fifty nine Atlantic Monthly article contains the first 79 00:05:25,279 --> 00:05:28,360 Speaker 1: unambiguous written reference to the character that we now call 80 00:05:28,480 --> 00:05:32,719 Speaker 1: the Jersey Devil. It's author, W. F. Mayor, had been 81 00:05:32,800 --> 00:05:35,920 Speaker 1: exploring the Pine barrens where he met a resident who 82 00:05:35,960 --> 00:05:38,559 Speaker 1: told him that she had once seen the Leads Devil. 83 00:05:39,600 --> 00:05:41,960 Speaker 1: Mayor's guide informed him that this was part of an 84 00:05:41,960 --> 00:05:46,200 Speaker 1: old superstition. Supposedly, a woman known as Mother Leeds had 85 00:05:46,240 --> 00:05:49,480 Speaker 1: long ago given birth to a deformed monster still at 86 00:05:49,560 --> 00:05:54,200 Speaker 1: large in the barons. After Mayor's peace ran in Atlantic Monthly, 87 00:05:54,600 --> 00:05:57,680 Speaker 1: more retellings were published, when some of them added gory 88 00:05:57,720 --> 00:06:02,440 Speaker 1: details in content. Emporary versions of the narrative. Mother Leads 89 00:06:02,520 --> 00:06:05,480 Speaker 1: is usually cited as an eighteenth century which who gave 90 00:06:05,520 --> 00:06:09,240 Speaker 1: birth to a dozen perfectly normal children, but her thirteenth 91 00:06:09,279 --> 00:06:14,159 Speaker 1: pregnancy ended in disaster, writhing in agony. During the painful childbirth, 92 00:06:14,400 --> 00:06:18,280 Speaker 1: poor Leads hollered, Oh, make it a devil or something 93 00:06:18,440 --> 00:06:22,120 Speaker 1: like that. The rumor was that Mother Leads bore a 94 00:06:22,200 --> 00:06:25,520 Speaker 1: hideous beast who stood upright like a man. But this 95 00:06:25,600 --> 00:06:28,960 Speaker 1: was no man. Her offspring had a goat's head or 96 00:06:29,000 --> 00:06:33,200 Speaker 1: a horse's snakelike tail, hoofed legs, and the wings of 97 00:06:33,240 --> 00:06:37,279 Speaker 1: a great bat. And there's a high body count. In 98 00:06:37,320 --> 00:06:40,560 Speaker 1: some iterations of the tail. The newborn creature may or 99 00:06:40,600 --> 00:06:43,360 Speaker 1: may not have killed Mother Leads, her midwife, and or 100 00:06:43,400 --> 00:06:46,480 Speaker 1: its own siblings before flying up the chimney and escaping 101 00:06:46,560 --> 00:06:51,839 Speaker 1: into the wilderness. Reported Jersey devil sightings made great headline 102 00:06:51,880 --> 00:06:55,040 Speaker 1: fodder in the first decade of the twentieth century. Several 103 00:06:55,040 --> 00:07:00,000 Speaker 1: Philadelphia newspapers ran stories about curious hoofprints dotting snowy corners 104 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:02,480 Speaker 1: of the pine barrens. A few of these prints had 105 00:07:02,480 --> 00:07:07,440 Speaker 1: supposedly turned up on rooftops. Other accounts sounded more harrowing. 106 00:07:08,240 --> 00:07:12,600 Speaker 1: One taxi driver in Salem City, New Jersey, said the 107 00:07:12,680 --> 00:07:18,440 Speaker 1: Devil attacked his vehicle across state lines. Publicity hound Norman 108 00:07:18,520 --> 00:07:21,480 Speaker 1: Jeffreys caused quite a stir in nineteen o nine when 109 00:07:21,480 --> 00:07:24,040 Speaker 1: he announced that the Leads Devil had been captured alive 110 00:07:24,160 --> 00:07:26,800 Speaker 1: after a terrific struggle and would be displayed at a 111 00:07:26,800 --> 00:07:31,120 Speaker 1: Philadelphia museum. The Jeffreys monster turned out to be a 112 00:07:31,160 --> 00:07:34,840 Speaker 1: live kangaroo wearing painted stripes and a set of artificial wings. 113 00:07:37,520 --> 00:07:41,000 Speaker 1: When it comes to dramatizing the Jersey Devil, nobody can 114 00:07:41,040 --> 00:07:44,560 Speaker 1: talk the Garden States one and only Bruce Springsteen. As 115 00:07:44,560 --> 00:07:47,320 Speaker 1: a tribute to the state's favorite cryptid, the rock star 116 00:07:47,400 --> 00:07:50,200 Speaker 1: penned of bluesy ballad called a Night with the Jersey 117 00:07:50,240 --> 00:07:53,600 Speaker 1: Devil back in two thousand seven. He wrote at the time, 118 00:07:54,120 --> 00:07:56,880 Speaker 1: Dear friends and fans, if you grew up in Central 119 00:07:56,960 --> 00:08:00,280 Speaker 1: or South Jersey, you grew up the Jersey Devil. Here's 120 00:08:00,280 --> 00:08:09,160 Speaker 1: a little musical Halloween treat. Have fun. Today's episode is 121 00:08:09,200 --> 00:08:11,840 Speaker 1: based on the article how Bed and Franklin helped ignite 122 00:08:11,840 --> 00:08:14,320 Speaker 1: the Jersey Devil Hysteria on how Stuff Works dot com, 123 00:08:14,320 --> 00:08:17,080 Speaker 1: written by Mark Mancini and Brain Stuff is production by 124 00:08:17,080 --> 00:08:19,280 Speaker 1: Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff Works. Dot Com 125 00:08:19,520 --> 00:08:22,480 Speaker 1: is produced by Tyler Clang. The four more podcasts from 126 00:08:22,480 --> 00:08:25,480 Speaker 1: my heart Radio visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 127 00:08:25,560 --> 00:08:27,320 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.