Oh, hey there, welcome to Welcome a blurry flota. I didn't see
that. I didn't either, gentle listener stuck up on us with that play
button. Hey, so my name's My name is David Flora, and I'm
Dave's eecco and uh yeah, you're listening to blurry photos and we've we've got
a pretty pretty fun little episode here for you. Yeah, I hope that
you are sitting down. I don't think that you could run or jog or
perform regular job duty. You got a good job, though. If you're
listening to this while you're doing it, that's pretty sweet. Yeah, that's
pretty sweet. But you're gonna lose it if you try to do your job
and listen to what we've got for you today. But try anyway, because
stuff like that's fun. So what's what's been going on this week? Stucco?
Well, I mean trying to sleep because the terror that lives deep within
me from all the scary stories, right, That's that's been difficult, but
I managed to overcome it with liquor. Did you whatever happened to that costume
you were going to make? We had made a big deal about that on
passing man. I was working on it up to an hour before, and
I am very sad to report that I was trying to make an entire suit
of armor at a PBR cans and it just didn't come together enough. I
mean it's ambitious, very ambitious. Yeah, and I don't feel bad.
I mean I really I shot for the stars and and then you know,
you hit a moon right exactly. You know it was. It was a
good attempt, but I had a back up costume ready because I kind of
had a feeling it might not work out. But it was good. It
was a good week and I felt good about it. How was How was
your hollowness? I ended up going as Walter White from Breaking Bad, which
was phenomenal by the Yeah you saw that, Uh, and uh my girlfriend
went as Jesse Pinkman. Um all we were outfitted exclusively from my closet.
Um. She just put on my heavy winter jacket and jeans and a T
shirt. She was set. Yeah, that was amazing. And then I
just I put on some slacks and a button up and got some some real
pervy glasses from from my glasses collection. I dug them out, and uh,
you have a glasses collection. That's awesome. Yeah, I got to
see that costume and I was really impressed by it. That was that was
That was an awesome costume. I'll post them on the website. Absolutely other
important news this week, big big fun news. It's always is always a
good day when there's a new big foot sighting. This one comes from us
from the normally sedate and button down lands of Utah. There there is a
video that I'm sure you can find with minimal effort on the internets of a
couple who was out hiking and they could see something moving through the trees.
They took a great video of it. It's very unclear what it is.
It's a big like a dark mass basically, yeah, which they thought to
be a bear. So they were just being very quiet and watching it and
tell it stands up and looks at them, and there's a brief and things
that I love about this video. I consider it to be completely legit because
they just said run, run, run, and then boom and it's all
blair which video. As soon as it stood up and turned towards them,
they took off. Yeah, and all you see his feet and blurry leaves.
Yeah, absolutely, which is what people do. I respect that.
Personally, I'm gonna go with bear on this one. Sure, I think
it's a bear. There's there're a cool moment where you know, there's arms
that are visible, but bears bears stand up sometimes, especially if they're trying
to see what's the that that those two whispering things over there. Yeah,
yeah, no, I I'm inclined to agree, although I don't know,
you know how how much this area of Provo is a bear country. Yeah,
but I'll tell you what, man, bears are crazy. My home
in Colorado Springs that I grew up at, we still get bears. I
mean like and not even rarely, no rare bears. We get we we
you get a bear maybe two three nights a week. Sure it could be
it could be a bear. It's not conclusive enough either way, really,
which is what makes it so much fun. But see, we win regardless
because it's it's you know, the front of Yahoo. It's a fast nating
thing and people like talking about it. And anytime people are talking about it,
I'm happy. And I know there's a lot of guys out there they're
like that ain't no squatch. Those guys need to shut up. That could
be squatch. Yeah. The fact of the matter is if you weren't one
of the two guys there, even the two guys that were there, don't
know what it is, right, and they're they're the closest ones that that
would know what it was. But one of my favorite things about the unexplained
and when people run across the unexplained, is that it's the unexplained. It's
got that name for a reason. Yeah, I mean, it is genuinely
mysterious. And they were there and they're not sure what happened. That's awesome.
Yeah, Well, let's let's have some more some more vague vagueness in
our lives that were so confident and sure. So in the interest of keeping
the vagueness in your life, of raising your blood level of insecurity or unsurety.
No, unsurety, Well insecurity makes it sound like we're like, you
know, you probably don't look as good as you think. You tried,
you break all the mirrors in your half try and then and then throw the
shards in a throwing stream at midnight exactly after seven hours. Um no.
Uh. I went a few months ago to beautiful New York City, which
is not had a good week. Oh, yeah, um, and so
I hope the best for it for everyone. That was our thoughts to everybody
on the sea coast there. That's it's not some not something you want to
go through around A nice hamis absolutely nice. What a what a nightmare for
those people. But it seems like it seems like they've they've already started rebuilding,
you know, they they've gotten the power, the power back absolutely,
you know, those things are getting taken care of. So I hope the
best for those people. I was there in better times, a simpler time.
This next week, I'm going on a trip myself in our next episode
will revolve around around that idea, which I'm not going to tell you listeners,
because I wanted to be fun, fun little secrets. It's gonna be
great. I might, I might, I might drop a hint towards the
end of the show, but we'll leave that for then. But speaking of
that, we're going to fashion today's episode all around your your trip to the
Eastern seaboard there absolutely Like I said, you know, there's so many great
things in New York City to investigate, and I was too busy drinking to
do that. Um. However, a classic American homegrown corn fed presumably lobster
lobster fed American cryptid. The Jersey Devil Jersey devil, Oh man, Yeah,
we're gonna gonna bring you some some good, rich old facts and hearsay
about about this creature. Absolutely, you know what I mean. I understand
David that your your dedication to the science of this is important. But man,
I'm just here for the hearsay. I just want I just want rampant
speculation. That's fine with me because a lot of times and you'll see this
today, you'll hear this today. Rather, that's all we have to go
on. Yes, rampant speculation. Why don't you Why don't you kick it
off for us? Tell us, tell us what the old Jersey Devil is.
Jersey Devil has been something that has been around for over one hundred years
at I mean, I mean under the barest of circumstances. Two. Yeah,
I mean it's it started out being called the Leads Devil. And why
is that it was? The legend has it that there is a woman named
Mother Leeds who had twelve kids. This was in seventeen thirty five, Yes,
and uh, and she was was considered to be a witch. Interest
in the in the neighborhood, and she declared that should that she was,
she would only have twelve normal kids, and that if she had a thirteen
child, it would be the devil. And remember thirteen. Around this time,
people are big into superstition. Thirteen is a very unlucky number. Yeah,
and yeah, this thirteen kid would apparently be be the devil or and
there's well, we'll get into this a little bit later, but there's some
hearsay that the father itself was the devil, right, but anyway, continue.
I would also like to point out that once you get into the double
digits and kids, they're all the devil. It's true. Sometimes you don't
even need that. So she had a kid, and it was horribly malformed,
and it was I mean, you're here conflicting accounts. By some accounts,
it grew very quickly and it took off off into the countryside, whereupon
it would terrify people, but not in the most direct manner. Is not
as as cryptids go. I mean, even even Teddy Roosevelt swore a bigfoot
tried to kill him once. Yeah, this guy, he seems more interested
in just spooking people and being more staying out of yeah idea, right,
Yeah, he seems to want no part of anyone. Like most of the
information you get is of oh I heard, you know, it's a brief
people see it so briefly. It's it's speed is one of its its main
attributes, something people often remark upon. Yeah, so so this this Jersey
devil descripted it's said to live in the pine barrens of southern New Jersey.
Yep. There there's a ton of different descriptions that people have of it because
of there's been so many sightings and everything is unconfirmed. Nobody has any real
proof for evidence, So you're gonna get this hodgepodge of you know, what
this thing is is gonna look like. But the classic interpretation or view of
the most popular version is that it's it's a creature that has a dog head
but a horse's face. It's got horns, it's got batlike wings on it,
small arms with hands that have claws on them. It's got a forked
devil tale and cloven hoofs. So it's it's a it's a real hodgepodge of
all kinds of stuff and the thing, the thing's supposed to stand, well,
that those are reports conflict as well, because right, some say it's
about seven feet tall, others say it could be you know, anywhere from
three to five feet tall. And again, because people see it so very
briefly, this is not something that you know unlike you know, we get
things like the Mothman, where it seeks some sort of not conflict, but
some exchanger or another. This hasn't wants nothing to do with anyone, right
instantly flees and uh and it's it's interesting. The history of the area of
the Pine Barons area of New Jersey, there is some precedent that maybe this
the Mother Leads version of the story. Notwithstanding, there could be a crypto
that has always inhabited that area. The local Native American tribe, the I
think that was the what is it, the Lenani Lenape, Yeah, the
Lenni Lenape tribe, the name that they had for the Pine Baron's region.
She translates to the place of the dragon. Yeah weird, right, which
which is pretty pretty interesting. And even the early Norse, the Norse explorers,
the Swedish explorers also called it a drake kill, which is a means
a dragon, dragon water dragon river. Yeah, yeah, real, real,
interesting stuff. I mean, I think it's I think it's really the
most interesting thing is that both the Swedes and the Native Americans refer to a
dragon being there or some type of dragon thing, and then we get,
you know, something later that that is described having bat like wings, in
a fordtail, you know, things and things like that. The rest of
the stuff isn't really dragon like, maybe horns, but you don't usually hear
you know, your your dragons having horse faces or um cloven hooves. But
you know, that's something that didn't actually occur to me until just you know,
while you were reading the description of this or the popular a phenotype for
it. You know, while we read this, you know, we have
pictures and we've seen these things that almost kind of cloud our minds, like
we have this, oh well that was the picture of it. Now you
describe it. But just listening to you describe it, it sounds a lot
more like the body type of say a raptor like interest Jurassic Park style,
large dog, elongated head, very small forearms, yeah, you know,
long long legs, tail, Yeah, you know these you know, I
mean, obviously people see it briefly, but at just an auditory description kind
of fits in that area, and that would certainly be considered a dragon by
that's true. That is true. And and you know we already have our
friend nessa over in lock ness who's supposed to be that's still alive today,
which which they haven't they have improved or disproved, right, Um, so
who's to say it, you know, we only have raptors in the Pine
Barons running around? Yeah, I mean the Pine Barons is huge place,
right, It's it's actually just an immense amount of forests in southern New Jersey,
which a lot of people don't know about because you know, you think
of Jersey, you kind of think of the armpit of New York or or
you know, something something to where it's real grimy and urban. But New
Jersey is actually a really beautiful place. It's actually called the Garden State.
It's called the Garden State everyone willfully but yeah, the Pine Bearn's apparently a
nice place to go camping, and to my knowledge, a lot of it
is unexplored. Still. You know, there's a lot of places that people
just haven't haven't been to, and they're just because it's so immense. Yeah,
look it up. Look it up for yourselves and see some pictures of
it. It's it's a pretty looking place. But yeah, back to back
to some of the legends. There are almost as many legends as there are
descriptions of the devil itself, and a lot of them, you know,
Like you said, the mother lead story is the most widely accepted of them.
Even that story has, you know, multiple tellings of it, because
I heard a couple that one one of which she wasn't a witch. She
just was so I guess angry that she was going to have another kid,
dang it that uh, she she actually said the devil can take it.
And and then that's that's when, you know, that's when it happened.
Ye fire, Um, that was just the town preacher. That wasn't the
great would it be if you could summon the devil like that? And then
the night that she gave birth, it was a stormy night, you know,
and all this nice like ghost story type setting and stuff, and and
then the child was born normal and then quickly just changed form. It morphed
into this this horribly disfigured either humanoid or this this creature that we described,
and then it either there's some some stories say it it killed the midwife and
they flew up the chimney. And there's some stories that say it it killed
everybody and ate everybody and then flew up the chimney. It's just it,
you know, there's it sounds like a story you tell your kids so they
don't go wandering off in the woods. Yeah, the chimney seems unnecessary,
but everybody had a chimney, so yeah, and walt, better way for
a creature from hail to get out than the place where the fire is.
You're not gonna go out the winder m he's just Chip's trying to go home.
He's as scared as you want. Well, it's just born. It
doesn't know how to use a door knob yet, although if it was a
raptor, it would have used the door. That's true. So man,
there's there's there's clever girl stuff for its close stuff again it um there's actually
a pack of Jersey devils. They go out hunting and one of them just
stares at you. Yeah you, oh, absolutely, that's why you don't
mess with the journeys devil. Now people have messed with the Jersey devil.
Devil It's like I saw him in the meadow Land. That was a kick
ass show. Oh late at night when the wind house you can hear that's
right, it's mournful cry. All right. Sorry, So what we're saying
people have have messed with the Jersey Devil. I mean people have had fairly
confrontational interactions with it. As a matter of fact, there is a legend
that commodore Stephen Decatur saw this bad boy on the wing flying around and was
like, hey, hand me that cannon. Nailed it. He claims to
not only have hit it with a cannon, but that it showed no effect.
Nothing happened. I think Stephen Decatur saw the Jersey Devil and is not
a very good shot with a cannon. Yeah, you give him, you
give him that much credit. See. I think he may have just been
like a little a little unhappy about what was going on in the war,
and uh, you know it was it was drinking, drinking what he found
in mother Leed's medicine cabinet there. Oh, I see where you're going there
now. The other part of the story that doesn't terribly add up is that
it seemed that the commodore was visiting the Hanover Mill works to oversee the production
of cannon balls. I mean, but they have a cannon there, they're
just making cannonballs. Well, I mean they may, they may, yeah,
And I mean unless there's a whole other that's a whole other place.
And this this, this also gets into a kind of a historical quandary.
I mean, since there were no flying machines at the time, it's not
like there's a lot of reason to say, well, how good we're cannons
it shooting down aircraft. I imagine a cannon to be maybe the next worst
thing to a super soaker for trying to shoot a flying creature, and the
super solker at least you get a steady stream so you can adjust, right.
You just mean, yeah, how are you getting That's I just think
that the commodore was like, no, I totally hit it, but it
bounced, it bounced off. We should go down and have some of more
of my lord's ale. I'm a commodore, damn it. Yeah. Yeah,
especially well, it doesn't nothing says how close it was to him at
the time, But I'm guessing if he sees it flying around, especially something
that's you know, between three and seven feet tall or long, it's not
a very big target to hit, especially when speed is supposed to be its
ally right anyway, that's yeah, that that is a pretty silly siding,
but one of the earliest. Yeah, also of notable us. We have
a celebrity sighting. Oh yeah, Harris Hilton almost almost the brother. This
is this is a hell of a thing that I didn't actually even think about.
Frank Stallone. Frank Stallone, Roger Clinton no u, the brother of
Napoleon Bonaparte. Joseph Bonaparte lived in Jersey. Yeah, right now, this
was this was well after the revolutionary times. This was around eighteen twenty.
Yeah, I mean, but still, you know, my brother was the
emperor for like twenty minutes, guys, and married a woman named Josephine.
Yeah, weird. Anyway, they were into that in that family. He
claims to have witnessed that. He claims that he saw the Jersey Devil while
he was hunting on his his state. So he had in a state in
Jersey. I didn't even know that we were letting Bonapartes in. And you
see this is why we need border reform. Just any family of the emperor
can just fly in here take over some pine barrens. Yeah, and see
maybe maybe that's maybe the Jersey Devil's protecting us. Yeah, he's interesting.
It's like our unofficial border patrol was like first Department of Homeland Security. Yeah,
he's like, it's like he's getting shot at by zone because it's like
sasquatch in the North Jersey Devil got, the has the eastern seaboard, Supercabras
got. Yeah, they've got the southern border and uh, I don't know
what's about. Carlos might see it. It's California now, so yeah,
he says he saw it. I mean there were Now this also gets into
some interesting and potentially UFO crossover blamed for some animals, some catamutulation. It's
true, that's true. Apparently one of the things about the Old Devil is
that it was blamed for some livestock killings, and as as the sightings persisted
up into the twentieth century, it was also blamed for some pet mutilations and
some of the you know, crappy stuff like that killing killing animals and eating
them or just leaving them for dead, which is too bad. Yeah,
but at that time, I mean, like, I'm surprised people made note
of it. My my belief in history is just like, if you go
back a hundred years, it's just dead animals everywhere and people wearing pelts and
children making shoes. They but they needed those animals to make all that stuff.
Yeah, so that was what basically was worth stuff. So who's making
Who's complaining? You're like, hey, I can I make half a shoe
out of that? I'm not mad. I don't know. I'll tell you
who's not complaining, Jimmy, the one legged I am. I would make
the world's worst time traveler. I mean if if I if I go anything
like yet a hundred years back in time and I'm positive that we all have
typhoid and that every animal is there to be kicked or l like. I
not a good I have no I went to public school. I did,
so history never came alive for me. We didn't have that back then.
I didn't have television back then. Every time I think about going back in
time, I just think of installing myself as like some omnipotent emperor and making
everyone my slaves, because you know, you know what's what's going on,
you know it barely. I couldn't even perform like a miracle. I wouldn't
be able to like advanced medical science. I mean what I bet you could.
All you have to do is tell them and wash their hands. Yeah,
if you go back far enough, that's true. I guess I just
have to keep going far enough back to where I'm smarter than the people.
Ever, that's what. Two thousand years, three thousand years, and then
I'm smarter than everybody. Some uppity Greek shows me up with math, and
I gotta get back in my time machine to go further back and kill him.
Yeah, I'll show you. Never mind, I'm going to make a
great time traveler. Uh. So we come to about nineteen o nine,
big year for the Devil for the guy mid January, and all of a
sudden we get hundreds of encounters of the Jersey Devil that that people are claiming
to see him and interact and run into and stuff enough so to where the
fervor, uh and the the the fear of this thing closes schools and some
businesses because people didn't want their children going out, and they didn't want to
go to work, didn't want to you know, get picked up by this
thing. That's awesome. I love that. I mean, I ending pretty
heavily towards just mass hysteria. I mean, it's it's January in Jersey.
People are indoors a lot. There's not a lot of going on outside.
You know, Christmas is over, so everyone's a little bummed. Yeah,
try to whip up a little fear about Look at that, damon, I'm
gonna get you. And but I love the idea that some school administrator had
to say about we're closing this spirit on account of demons. That's it.
It's it's great. I mean people people claim to have the things corpse,
you know people some people. I think there was one person that dressed at
Kangaroo up to to have people come. And you know, I don't pay
a nickel to see to see it, you know, the Jersey Devil.
There are reports of people seeing tracks and um hearing screams, you know,
and it's a real consistent thing people always talk about. It's scream and it
is not like a haunting moan. It is a shrill piercing Yeah, pretty
inhuman and not of animal origin. Seems like yeah, it seems seems like
a weird combination or such. But there are plenty of animals that make weird
sounds if you're around them enough. And no, you know, like deer
can make weird sounds. But now I think that you did try to gin
up one yourself. Let's play it right now, that's all right? Oh
no, if I could just have gotten you to be quiet for two seconds,
you would have tacitly accepted that you were gonna make up big Jersey devil
screaming play it. I do, I do have one. I'll play it
now. Pretty pretty charity, pretty scary stuff. That's my new ring tone.
You know, all that is is like me and my dog. That's
the best I like that where I like teamwork game. So yeah, nineteen
o nine was the big year for it, and then you know, the
stories kind of died off a little bit, but each kind of decade from
there on after had its share of sightings, you know, kind of ebbed
and flowed as it were. It does seem to go cyclically, and even
that is incorporated into the legend of it. There was was there an account
of that a priest exercised it for a hundred years? Yeah, yeah,
back back a little a little bit after it started, after it was born.
Basically it was like you know, twenty fifty some years after it was
born, this priest exercised it, and I guess only gave it the cheap
version, right, like, oh, I ran out of holy water right
towards the end. We won't be around in a hundred years. Let's let
our children's children to deal with it good enough. And then it came back
and started terrorizing again. I probably did it on purpose so people would be
so he knew. He's like, you know, in two generations, it's
gonna be a priest with a job. So it's job security for the Catholics
in the area. I mean, it's it's funny because the sightings by Bonaparte
and Decatur and all those happened in betwixt the time that it was supposed to
be exercised, so that that's a that's a weird story to come out of
nowhere. But it does seem like a lot of people are trying to cash
in on on this, this thing. Yeah, this one. This has
such a feeling of like willful complicity, like everyone really wants the devil to
be around. Yeah, it's it's sort of a prideful thing. Now,
I mean, you people chose this as the name of their hockey team.
When the NHL, you know, had had a team in Jersey, people
chose the name Devil's for it. Um so, so I think there's a
there's there's a weird fear mixed with a weird pride about the Jersey. It
sounds cool. Sure, Sure. I mean, if if you've got something
that that is some conglomeration of all kinds of animals and could be Satan or
of Satan, and it's in your home state and your home state ownly,
I guess you would be a little little little prideful of that. Well,
and you know, consider New Jersey's cultural exports historically mafia violence. Oh yeah,
I have a promise to myself to make no Jersey shore jokes, but
I am referencing them now. You look at the cultural exports of New Jersey
and the thirteenth Misshape and Child of a Witch is literally the most palatable one.
It's the one that people can most get behind. Well, I think
people can get behind John Stewart too. Is he is he a Jersey guy?
He's a Jersey guy. But I see where you're going with that.
Yeah, I think, I mean it is it sounds cool. Jersey devil
look out. Well, yeah, yeah, yeah, it does kind of
roll off the Tom huh. We actually we both have a couple of friends
here in Chicago that are from New Jersey. I went ask them, you
know, if they had any stories about it, because you know, if
you if you're from New Jersey, you obviously know everyone else in New Jersey,
and everything that happens there happens to you two. For our listeners who
are taking detailed notes, this is our first interview. Oh yeah, our
first interview. Not on the mic though, right right, but it happened
in person. Was asked questions, this is this is very true, and
the results of that interrogation are now for you to hear. And then they're
they're not They're not terribly scary or detailed you know stories. I guess scary
is probably the wrong word, because it could be scary. But they each
did have something to to relay about the Old Jersey Devil. Our friend Tom
said that his mom and his sister and he, I guess, we're camping
in the pine barrens, and his mom and his sister went for walk through
the woods, just you know, like you do when you're camping, and
they came across this old, dilapidated shack and from from what he said,
it sounded like it was maybe something like a hunter's shack, you know,
where they just go to chill out for a little bit. Not not a
fully functioning house, you know, or anything like that, but was definitely
an abandoned place. So it was it was kind of creepy in its own
right. And then he said as they as they left the shack, they
all of a sudden, there was this huge creature that that ran towards them
and they from what Tom said, they described it as just a huge dog,
and they said, you know, it scared the crap out of them.
And then the dog, I guess stopped before it got to them,
you know, and just sort of stared them down kind of thing. And
he said that his mom and his sister just sort of slowly backed away and
then left, and the dog, I guess didn't follow them. It's it
stayed there. But but he said that that that's kind of the closest Jersey
Devil story that he and his family have. And I think the reason that
that they related to the Jersey Devil is it sounded like they weren't exactly sure
that it was a dog. They said it sort of almost looked lying like
in a way as well. So basically because it's under the umbrella of Jersey
Devil is because it was kind of unidentified, and it happened in New Jersey.
It happened in the pine barrens around a scary shock kind of thing.
You tell the story in Maryland, you got yourself a goat man. Oh
man, oh you you you just you just pop the cherry of just wait
for it. So the goat man, the goat man will come back.
But I wanna I'll get to our other story. Our friend Mel actually she
said her her mom in the sixties would drive up and down Maniloaking Road and
I guess her and her friends would look for the devil. And I don't
know she she didn't, she didn't say this, but I did see some
some stuff online where it said at one point, and I think it might
have been in the sixties, they offered like a ten thousand dollars reward.
Yeah. I ran about that. Yeah, people wanted they wanted a proof
of it, they would approve. Yeah, And they were even promising to
not kill it. You know, they were going to put it in a
zoo or something, but they wanted this proof, so they offered its reward.
So I don't know if if Mel's mom, you know, if that
was what their intent was, or if they were just getting a thrill out
of out of looking for it. But apparently driving up and down this road
where you know where sightings had been one night, she said they saw eyes
in a tree and it was real, real creepy, but they kept looking
at it and looking a little closer. She said that that she swears they
saw a noose hanging in the tree and then it either took off or maybe
they took off, but some pretty harrowing stuff. Yeah, that's kind of
creepy. That's a good creepy story. But you know, and I love
that. I love the idea that it's a it's a cultural thing to New
Jersey, you know, like let's pack a bunch of checks in the car
and go looking further for the devil. For the devil pretty fun. And
that's another thing that is associated, like the screams. Having some glowing red
eyes is a big thing that people kind of say when they claim to have
spotted it, which is interesting. Do you know where we've heard that before.
Absolutely see you tell this story in West Virginia, got yourself, got
him off man. Now that that leads us to some of the explanations of
maybe what the Jersey Devil may be. If it's not, you know,
a spawn of Lucifer himself. If anybody says that it's a crane, I
am I'm furious because that they blame everything on crane's I'll tell you what they
say. It's a sandhill crane. God, I knew it. They say
it as a sand hill crane. The same thing they say them off man
is see you know what, not only is that a disservice to cryptozoology,
it is it is a disservice to ornithologist everywhere. It is a disservice to
the majesty of the sand Hill crane, which is a beautiful bird and a
beautiful, tall, glowing eyed, creepy bird. Right, it's not fair
and it's dumb to call it that. I am officially calling it dumb.
And I want anyone who's listening who thinks that they've seen the Jersey Devil and
they're like, you get yourself a crane, call me I will. I
will never post my phone number. But you'll if you have seen the sand
Hill crane. I'm sure you're clever. You've bet a form on the on
the site that you can contact us at least. Yeah, tell me,
tell me what a dumb person I am for for saying that it is absolutely
not a crane. I hate the crane excuse. It's so weird that this
crane is the excuse because of the glowing red eyes, because it's got that
that red and and the hype and the height of it. Yeah, I
mean the little picture that that the Jersey Devil has floating around that that is
the most common picture of it does have Sandhill crane type legs, just if
you put a horse hoof or or something or maybe pig feet I don't know
what cloven hooves on there. Whatever. Yeah, but the legs of it
definitely do make look a crane. Mic But that's just somebody's rendition, right,
No, that's the thing. They don't have to The crane just irritates
me. No one is afraid of a crane ever, apparently. I mean,
if these things are are as big as they say, and it's night
and this thing just flies in front of your car, it might be a
little freaky, but you know what, when renting a car, that's what
I'm doing on my vacation, driving up and down Jersey, waiting to get
freaked up by a crane. I'm a man enough to admit if I ever
get spooked by a crane, I will make sure that everyone knows that it
happened, and I will apologize to all the people who are afraid of cranes.
Yeah, it's becoming the excuse djure of these cryptid It's like, well,
can't explain it. So it's a sand hill crane, right, swap
gas, sand hill crane, swap gas. They're the same thing, same
thing. It's that that's that red face that you see glowing. Yeah,
it's it's sand hill crane. It would be a much cooler bird if it
glowed, you know, the chibcabra. Actually, uh, it's it's a
sand hill crane that that flew to Mexico. It just started sucking goes right,
that's what they do. Sand hill crane, big foot, saggy sand
hill crane, sandhill crane that hasn't pruned. Yeah, exactly, it's molding.
It's molting sand hill crane. We just cracked everything ever, New World
Order. Sand hill crane, it's it's a bunch of sand hill cranes.
It's it's a conservation effort to not only preserve them, but to elevate them
in society. Anyway. That's one explanation. Another explanation that's out there is
that it was it's just like the Boogeyman. It's just something that, like
I said before, people told their kids so they wouldn't go wandering off in
the woods by themselves or at night, you know which. To me,
that's that's a pretty vulnerable explanation. Yeah. Yeah, to me, it
just has the sound of like local lore, which I think is awesome.
That's great. I wouldn't spend personally a huge amount of time looking for it.
I think that it's more fun to make up stories and say that you've
seen it and be like, it looked nothing like a sandhill crane, because
only a fool would say that, would you. Would you be more inclined
to spend more time searching for it if they were, say ten thousand dollars
in it for you, I will do very much, pretty much anything for
ten thousand dollars. Right, Once again, we'll have a form on the
website. Uh, make me an offer, you know, I'm negotiable.
What will Stacco do for ten thousand dollars? Right? So there's another story
that it may have been a politician that was named Daniel Leeds, and I
love that. You know, stories kind of got got mixed up here and
there, so the Leads devil became the politician, the polititician became the Leads
devil. That the Jersey Devil came in there, and oh so it's like
a kind of like a smear campaign, right right. Oh, and then
I kind of got mixed in there, and and that might be where we
get the name Leads from. Who knows. It's weird, huh see.
And again that's why I'll lean smartly towards this this kind of lord thing,
because it seems to adapt to its situation, you know, like, oh,
well, don't do that. Jersey devil will get you. Don't don't
be a bad politician, You'll be the Jersey devil. This guy wants to
take away our right to vote. He's a Jersey devil. Yeah, which
reminds me it's about time Rick sam Torm gets hit with the old Jersey devil
stick. He's from Jersey, is he? Yeah? Oh man, that's
funny. So well, too bad he's not. He's not He's not in
any Yeah, too bad, too bad, Jersey devil. Well, Paul
Ryan's now the Jersey devil by proxy. Yeah, that's how it works.
Uh. This and this explanation is maybe my favorite one. Not the one
I believe the most, but my favorite one is that it is a terrasaur.
This goes back to your raptor. I'm really pleased that you did not
pronounce the pee like I would have. Oh we uh. But if you
if you look at some pictures of a terrasaur called a demorphodon, it looks
like it could be something something like what what people are describing because it's got
kind of a long head with a beak on it. Um, but the
beak is is not like two can beak. It's kind of like, uh,
part of the face, and you know, has something muzzle. Yeah
yeah, but yeah, it's definitely elongated. Uh. It's got wings but
doesn't really have arms. I think I think the wings are the arms kind
of like a bad uh. And then it's got scott legs and it's got
a long long tail that may or may not be fourth. See now that
is awesome? Yeah? Does that look? And you know what, if
you're at your computer, pull up a picture of the sand Hill crane next
to a de morpho d I m O r P h O d O N
de morphodon nice and is it in a sense? Yeah, look, check
these things out and then pull up the old Jersey Devil on on the wikipedias
and check out that picture and then see for yourself what's it looked more like?
You know, maybe we should start a campaign where we flip the script
and we say, there's no such thing as sand Hill Crane's It is a
population of alien multidimensional beings that are also demons. Okay, that the sand
Hill crane doesn't even exist. So the sand Hill crane is a made up
excuse, yes, by the illuminati. Oh it's so true, you know,
so that people don't say we've got these these multidimensional beings. They're there,
they're the people who live in the hollow earth. That's right, sand
hill cranes are Wait what that's how you know it's a winner? If it?
If it, if it, if the circular logic just breaks down in
less than thirty seconds you're onto something. Oh great, So I don't know.
I don't know who lives in a gartha, but it may be sand
hill crane. Yeah, exactly what we call them, that's what. That's
what the way they want us to see them. They eat giant grapes,
such great grapes, and they are very nice to Well, now now we
have to compare sand hill crane to pumpkins. That's right. Yeah, that's
so we had to bring that around. So there's there's one more explanation that
I that I saw that I that I really liked, and that is the
African hammer headed bat and this thing what yeah, this thing. Pull up
a picture of it real quick. Check this out. Yeah, it's it's
got a three foot wing span and they can be about they can be a
foot high. Um. But yeah, this thing, the face of it
especially, looks a lot like what we get for the Jersey Devil classic illustration.
Oh come on, it's like a it's like an awful evil snoopy.
I you know, when I see it, I think of the cartoon shoe.
I think, is that is that what I'm thinking of? Is that
right? I don't I don't know, but I see Yeah. But doesn't
it kind of look like that that illustration a little bit. Yeah, it's
got that that weird like dog horse, But how weird? How on earth
do you get an African hammer headed bat Jersey You gotta have slaves in seventeen
hundred, oh, coming over on a slave ship, and the bat was
just like, all right, that's just hanging out, man. I mean
you see the region there in Africa where it's coming from. That's a that's
true, pretty pretty popular. Yeah, that's all place for slave traders,
I think. I mean, doesn't that that to me? That that just
kind of add adds credence to it. Yeah, yeah, that that could
be a winner. Wow weird huh. Yeah, it doesn't explain why you
get so many sidings up through the twentieth century. But if if there was
a family of these things, yeah, if they figured out a way to
make it work. Weird huh. Yeah. So I like that one as
an explanation for you listening. Pull up a picture of the old hammer headed
bat and and compare that to the Jersey devil illustration. Don't pretty cool.
Don't be eating when you do it, though probably not it does. Don't
be eating when you start this podcast. That's a good point. Yeah,
don't don't work, don't stand, don't eat. Yeah, if you could
just be like in a nice like temperature neutral room, if you have one
of those, uh those isolation tanks, it's a great place to listen to
this podcast. I think that would be the worst place, because then you're
gonna start feeling this crap brush up against you or you're gonna be floating in
the pine barrens in your mind. That would be weird. But since we
brought it up, Oh yes, we brought it up. Let's let's go
to town on this all right. Another like one of my favorite things,
one of my favorite this is a bonus for you, for you guys this
episode. One of my favorite things in all of like the unexplained and the
occultish things in the whole wide world is regional monsters. Yeah, that are
I mean it's not like they're I mean obviously like not blocked this monster,
but like there are some that that kind of fall below the raid radar of
of even general credence. And my favorite, my hands down favorite North American
Cryptid and then I am giving in a lot of cred with that is the
goat Man. Of Maryland, Maryland Goatman. Yeah, in Maryland they have
the goat man. And you might be wondering, really, goat man,
tell me more? All right, well let me tell you that according to
legend, the goat man, it's the best. It is the best.
And if any of you would are an artist, please please, I am
begging you to send us any depiction you have of this ocase, according to
legend, the Maryland Goatman is an axe wielding half man, half animal creature
that was once a scientist. All of the elements are there, Oh,
I mean, and and you know what what's better is that even like,
you know, even the venerable Wikipedia says not not only was he a science
but he actually worked specifically at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center bom bom bomb.
Yeah. And as with any magnificent comic book, he was doing goat research,
genetic goat research, right like or doesn't even say, it doesn't even
matter, gee, he was he was working with goats. Something went astray?
No, right then, this is the story, this is verbatim.
He was experimenting on goats comma, the experiment went to stray comma. He
began attacking cars with an axe. Yes, because because because his wife was
run over by it. It was hit and run with a are right,
I've already got the movie in the work, so you all right, young,
I'm ahead of God. Don't worry about it now. In case you're
thinking, whoa, this is sort of I'm not, I mean incredulous,
I don't believe you. Well, you know, it turns out that it
was a It was a research grade acts and when they recovered it from a
Chevy Nova's grill, it was laser etched with the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center's stamp.
Wow, I made all of that part up. But but that's how
it's going to go in the screenplay. All right, of goat man?
What? Yeah, Well, mister Flora please, you are the rational one
here. Okay, So what's the story with the goat man? Well,
I'll tell you what. When we say goat man, we mean goat man.
We it's it's a sader like being. It's a half man, half
half goat kind of thing. This is in the area of what is a
bowie Maryland I think, And it started in the seventies, which is a
period rife for all kinds of you. Know, crazy man, scientists,
I guess this, you know what? And this is the era where the
one hand, you know, the hook hand and on the that's where that
that great story you go up to Lover's Lane right there and then and you
hear scratching and then there was something great and dark about America in the seventies.
And that's where all of these awesome stories came from. Its true,
and we still tell them and we wish that we were that we believe them.
But back then that shit was as real as it got. This was
in the area also of I found. It was Governor's Bridge Road, Lotsford
Road, Fletchertown Road, and in Prince George County in Maryland. And it
was near the like you said, the Glendale Hospital, which I found was
a former state tuberculosis sanatorium apparently mmmmmm, but there was. Now I know
what you're saying to yourself, What does that have to do with the go
man everything everything? Crazy? Yeah? Sanatorium. Yeah, they had goats
in there. They help people breathe. Who worth scientists gonna experiment on but
they're already clinically insane? Right? And how do you how do you cure
tuberculosis with an axe. But this thing apparently it killed pets, like like
all cryptids seem to do. I don't want what they have against pants.
They don't. They're jealous, Yeah, exactly. They want to be pet.
They want to say no, I'm not pretty enough, career puppy.
It apparently it attacked some humans in their cars. I mean, now,
let's not jump to conclusions. The historical accounts of these things make it quite
clear that he was interested in attacking the cars. It was mere accident that
there were people in them. Yeah. And the other thing I found was
that he was blamed for some ranking and entering cases. Oh yeah, a
little b an e on the side when you're not terrifying people with your axe
attack, Yeah, you were looking for him in their home when they were
there. Oh my god. And apparently this is this kind of is on
the tales of the Old bunny Man of Virginia. Have you heard of this?
A bunny man in Virginia? Apparently all I've got to name. Maybe
we can throw that out for a future episode. But oh man, this
and that and the bunny Man are kind of on the same page again.
Was it genetic research that caused him? Was it satan that caused him.
Did he have an axe? Yes, we know that for a fact.
But here's the other weird thing he associated with. The old Maryland Goatman also
high pitched squeals and screams. The scream so much. Where did he get
the axe? The Bunnyman has a lot more on it on Wikipedia than the
Goatman, doesn't it. Yeah, but that's what's wrong with America. You
come up with an awesome dude like the goat Man and you're like, oh,
he was a scientists on the way he hates cars moving on. But
somebody was like, the Bunnyman, give me ten years and that will tell
you his tai. I hope you're wearing clean Yes, sits ye down comfortably,
for this is a tail that will rend your soul. The Bunyan he's
got a bridge. The bunny Man has a bridge or a tunnel. Tunnels
are scary things, Yeah, they are, especially in Virginia. I just
well, well, we'll bring up the Bunnyman, yeah on some future thing,
because we haven't nearly done our due diligence on him. Yeah, we
really got to get to the bottom of the Bunnyman. But the Maryland Goat
and is just a classic seventies horror movie waiting to be made. Maybe it
has been made. Oh yeah, dude, they make they make about like
killer snowmen, you know, like so yeah, if there isn't a goatmen,
then then I think there's some some movies on the Jersey Devil, not
not done very well, but there's some movies that reference the Devil in them,
the Jersey Devil, and there's a good X Files episode. Well,
that's right, it's one of one of the early ones, right. Yeah.
I thought they thought it was a feral people, which I am more
inclined to believe that. Well, because the place it's so big. There
are people that are like you you think of in the hills of Kentucky where
they you know, they they're in breeding because there's not very many peep people
around there, or or something like a deliverance, you know, where you
get the Hillbillies back back in there and stuff. There are apparently people that
exist in the pine barrens like that as well, which is really interesting.
Wow. I like this. I like the sound of that. I just
need to know more about the goat man. I tell you what I'm doing,
is I amd being to see if there's a goatman movie that would teach
us a lot. Well, i'll tell you what. There's there's a movie
called goat Man, and let me let me read the synopsis. Okay,
there is no synopsis shrouded in mystery. It's just a short field. Ah
that doesn't even those don't even count. I don't even know why they have
those at the Oscars. Both short film where everyone goes m like they're somehow
gonna, somehow see that it'll never happen. I don't. I don't see
a synopsis on here. Anyone who's anyone who watches short films is someone that
you're actually actively avoiding, you know that. Oh wait a minute, Oh,
there's a two thousand tim uh movie called Jimmy Tupper Versus the Goatman of
Bowie, which is Bowie Maryland. Right, let me let me look at
this thing and see see what it says. Be great if it were David
Bowie. Oh God, and he go man versus David Bowie. David Bowie
owns a goatman. And that's why it's about time. I I macho Goatman.
Forget about the Baby's Labyrinth. By the way, that it's all the
Bowie I've got, all right. Jimmy Tupper is a no one. He's
nothing. He spends his days working at a Starbucks in suburban Maryland, poor
bastard, and spends his nights drinking and playing rock band. His friends see
him as the residence stoner and waste of space. One night, they decide
to pull a prank on poor Jimmy, and while he is passed out drunk,
they leave him in the middle of the woods. The next day,
Jimmy is nowhere to be found. When he finally emerges from the woods,
he is beaten and bloodied and making out landish claims. He claims to have
seen a monster, the famed goat Goat of Boeo. His friends believe this
to be the drunken ramblings of an over excite to knit wit, but Jimmy
knows better. He heads to the woods determined to capture footage of the elusive
creature. Was Jimmy only dreaming? Did he really see a monster? Only
time? And Jimmy's video camera will tell? Can I see that please?
Because I would like to read that. Also, Oh yeah, I'm gonna
put a little spin on this. Jamie Popper is a no one. He's
nothing. He spends his day's working as Starbucks in suburban Maryland and spends his
night's drinking and playing rock band. His friends see him as a residence stone
on waste of space. Then one night they decided to pull prank on put
Jimmy. While he's passed out drunk, they leave him in the middle of
woods. The next day, Jimmy's nowhere to be found. When he finally
emerges from the woods. He's beaten and bloody and that's not fair, and
he's making a landish claim. He claims he's seen a monster, the famed
goat Man of Bowie. His friends believe this to be the drunken ramblings of
an excited knitwit, but Jimmy looks better. He heads to the ons to
determine the capture footage of the elusive creature. Was Jimmy only dreaming? Did
you really see a monster? Only time and Jimmy's vay field camera will tell
you see the movie you want? Pervernessing the movie narrated by Jimmy. Look,
I was right, I was right. Please please look up. Jimmy
versus the goat Man of Bowie Man I'm gonna find this and I am gonna
watch the sho tonight. I hope that you guys enjoy coming along with us
while we look things up on the internet and tell you about them, because
we certainly do enjoy doing it. And maybe, yeah, see, this
is why you can't work while you listen. We're asking you to do too
many things for you to keep a job while you listen. I was right
right off the bat. I was right. Poor Jimmy, Poor Jimmy,
he was beaten blood. Wow, sou So there's some East Coast crypto for
you side. Yeah, you, that was great. You. That is
not something you're gonna get anywhere else. There are a number of sources of
information on the unexplained, and they are all scared to touch the hot button
issue of the goat Man and the Jersey Devil here and talk about it.
Well you're scared, Yeah, I mean rarely you get some episodes that talk
about the Jersey Devil. I had never heard of the Goatman before you brought
it up. Yeah. I had a book when I was a kid.
It's called Americans America's Own Monsters. When was that written? Do you think
in the early eighties. I saw the Jersey I saw something about the Jersey
Devil for the first time in the eighties with an old book. Um,
that's that's how I was familiar with it. Although the Jersey Devil is pretty
prevalent in some pop culture stuff, especially you know, like I don't know,
nerd things that we like. Yeah, Like it's in Castlevania a couple
of times, is it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was at
the Jersey Devil in Castlevania. It's it's a demon you gotta fight. There's
always so many demons in the world. Well, that's why they that's why
they they can't keep doing like Green Demon and Blue Demon. They gotta get
something good. I guess, I guess all right, I'll give it that.
I don't know. It's I think I played that game. It's on
ADS, a Nintendo DS game. But oh gosh, um, I'll you
ladies out there that that really want my phone number. Now everybody knows h
Castlevania meetups dot com is just waiting to happen. It's blowing up. That's
a huge we're gonna we're gonna start that up too. But if you would
like to go on a date with us, perhaps to watch a really excellent
viewing of Jamie versus Jimmy, Jimmy versus the goat Man. Uh, you
know, we'll put a form on there. We're gonna make an entire form
just for chicks who want to date us. And then you know what,
let's be polite, no switcher ruse, Okay, don't don't, don't be
a girl. But then surprise you're a goat man or sand hill crane or
you're a sand Hill crane. Don't surprise sand Hill cranes man. Oh geez,
I guess we better do some puns about these things. Oh, my
gosh, puns. Yep, yep, we've got to do puns. I
see, I see we do three puns since we didn't have an entire episode
on the Goatman, but if we got one for him, we can throw
that out there. Okay, for the Jersey Devil, All right, well
what do you got? What do you got for the Jersey Devil? Well,
I'll tell you what. I came up with a couple and then and
then I started coming up with just and just switching out one one or two
words, just based on rhyming and stuff. So I kind of feel like
I cheated on it, but sheeter, I've got a woodworking shop called the
Jersey Bevil. Um. I like that for all you uh, carpenters and
woodworkers out there that that might appeal to you to visit. Visit there.
You'll scream at these prices I've got. I've got one. Since the Jersey
Devil is a very very regional phenomenon, I've decided to go with the regional
product. It's called the Jersey Devil. All right. What it is It's
like bedazzling, but on your sports jersey. So if you want to trick
out you your next jersey and make it look real badass? Who could put
your own name on the back, Jersey Devil do that for you. Nice.
It's it's exclusively for tricking out your jersey to make it extra cool.
That's great. That guy also went on to have a successful voiceover career for
Imbabs Andnosis. Um. So, the next one I got was called,
uh it's it's a chiropractor called the spine barrens. Oh nice. See I
like that a lot too. Um I got uh mother leads I U ds
oh god yeah. Oh man, Well, so you don't have a thirteenth
one, right, yeahs. A Baker's dozen is something rhymes a dozen?
It's a Baker's doesn't Ah, Yes, I brought it home, motherless.
I also have a winter apparel store called the Maryland Coatman. Oh, we're
hacking our prices. That is awesome, all right, I've got Beltsville Petting
Zoo at no point of research industry. Wait, wait a minute, was
there a little legal disclaimer? What was No, it's just it's a Beltsville
petting Zoo. Okay, point was there was there something that are you legally
obligated to? No? No, I just assisted a tick. I've got
a I've got a sickness. Let's go to Let's go to the Beltsville Petting
Zoo. No longer culture research for none of these were genetically modified the seventies.
You do have to ride bikes there. They don't have a parking lot.
It's some green thing. But you don't have a drive there. Some
green no cars. Yeah, yeah, you want to keep your cards away.
As far as there's hooligans. Well that that about does it for for
this episode. Um, some some good, some good crypto out there on
this one. Yeah, that was awesome, like so much delicious rich speculation.
Sometimes that's that's all you need to survive. Yeah, that's right.
So so next week, here's a little little teaser because I've got clues.
Oh why didn't you drop a clue and all and all get angry or agree?
No, no, no, you're not even no, it's okay,
okay, okay, these are these are your clothes. I got three clues
lark Bunting stegasaurus, and uh, there's two kids. No, not,
no, I'm not no, I'm not I'm not. Oh h no,
I can't say that one. But Lark Bunting Stegasaurus, he got it,
Douglas fur. Lark Bunting i Gasaurus, Douglass Fur. So should I even
give Should I even give my clue? Because people by this point are are
probably pissed that we're not even either saying what's going to be next episode or
just ending the episode right now? Hey whatever, you know, give them.
I'm not going to tell the people what they want. I'm not that
kind of person. But I want this clue, all right, So I'll
just say conspiracy theory and Colorado. Oh so, yeah, well, you
blew all mic clues out of the water, because those were Colorado's state bird,
uh, state tree, and state dinosaur because I'm from Colorado and I
know these things intrinsically. It's in my DNA, all right. The third
one was real hard for me to come up with. Why don't Why don't
we have a state lasagna or something a state cast role dish? If we're
gonna have a state dinosaur, Yeah, why don't. There's there's also the
state insect, which is the Colorado hair streak, but I couldn't say that
because that just gives away it's got the name of the title. I'm even
okay with with insect. But we really need a state dying sore, if
only if it's the Stegasaurus, which is badass as it gets. I get
it, I get it. But if you're not already enticed by the next
episode, or you haven't already turned the podcast off, you're listening, that's
that's uh. That's some hints for what's coming up, based on a trip
I'm gonna take. Yeah, that's right, you're gonna This is AH a
research expedition, a personal investigative foray into uh into a mystery and in truth
be told. If if you had the means to to go down into the
pine barrens yourself. I'm sure you would have. You have taken that up.
Absolutely, It's a great opportunity. I think, you know what.
That's a that's a good advice for anyone listening anywhere you're going on a vacation.
A little googling will tell you that there's something weird there. Yeah,
why not spend two hours trying to find it? Yeah, take a camera.
Yeah that works. Oh, here's a here's a tip for you.
You know, you know what else I got us so mute guy's got them
all. Don't go just yet. When you're taking pictures and stuff like that.
Don't don't hold your elbows out. Keep them in close to your chest.
It'll help the stability of your shot. Whoa man, keep the thing
framed. You know, dangerously useful information, right, got him? I'm
just tired of seeing shaky stuff. Yeah, I'm sick and tired of blurry
photos. Great, speaking of that, this has been blurried photos. I
have been David Florida, and I shall continue to remain Dave stuff and we
will talk at you next time. Yep. But