Laura Leuter is the co-founder and president of The Devil Hunters, an organization dedicated to uncovering the truth behind New Jersey’s infamous cryptid. I spoke with her about the legend, sightings and her own personal beliefs regarding the creature.

Emily: What is the Jersey Devil?

Leuter: The Jersey Devil is a creature that has been thought to terrorize the Pine Barrens of New Jersey for over 250 years. It is often described as having the face of a horse or deer, standing upright on two legs. It has large, bat-like wings, and makes a high pitched inhuman screeching sound. The creature was witnessed by the Lenni Lenape Native Americans, as well as original settlers of the state. It gained a large amount of notoriety in January of 1909 when it was sighted over 100 times in a week later dubbed “Phenomenal Week.” Hundreds of people throughout the Delaware Valley encountered the creature in some form.

The most popular legend surrounding the Jersey Devil is that it was the 13th child of a woman known as Mother Leeds, who cursed her child during labor by screaming, “Let this child be a devil!” The baby was born but quickly morphed into the deformed hideous creature originally known as the Leeds Devil, later to be renamed the Jersey Devil. Read the full post at Paranormal Insider

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