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JANUARY 21, 1909, MILLVILLE, NEW JERSEY, USA, DAN POSSACK:

Brief summary of the event and follow-up:

The Asbury Park Evening Press newspaper for January 22, 1909, page 2, reportedly told of an encounter on Friday, January 21, 1909, in Millville, New Jersey, USA.

Dan Possack of Millville allegedly had a struggle with "one of the strangest freaks of nature, or a monster straight from the bad place." While Dan was doing his chores he heard someone in the backyard walking around, calling out to him.

When he turned around, he beheld a "monster beast-bird" about 18 feet high. The visitor demanded to know where the garbage can was, asking in perfectly good English. Dan, terrified, ran towards the barn, but the bird caught up with him.

It wrapped its sinewy and red beak around Dan's body. Dan began hitting it with a hatchet that he kept in his belt. He was astonished to see that he could chop splinters out of the body, much like he could be made out of wood. While he was chopping, the beast whispered something in Dan's ear, and with a mighty blow, Dan set the hatchet square into the monster's face. "Out popped an eyeball, and with a scream of pain, the assailant took in a long breath, filled it's body like a balloon, and floated into space."

Basic information table:

Narratives:

[Ref. wn1:] "WEIRD NEW JERSEY" WEBSITE:

The website says that in the Asbury Park Evening Press, for January 22, 1909, page 2, there was a report about an encounter on Friday, January 21, 1909.

Dan Possack of Millville had a struggle with "one of the strangest freaks of nature, or a monster straight from the bad place." While Dan was doing his chores he heard someone in the backyard walking around, calling out to him.

When he turned around, he beheld a "monster beast-bird" about 18 feet high. The visitor demanded to know where the garbage can was, asking in perfectly good English. Dan, terrified, ran towards the barn, but the bird caught up with him.

It wrapped its sinewy and red beak around Dan's body. Dan began hitting it with a hatchet that he kept in his belt. He was astonished to see that he could chop splinters out of the body, much like he could be made out of wood. While he was chopping, the beast whispered something in Dan's ear, and with a mighty blow, Dan set the hatchet square into the monster's face. "Out popped an eyeball, and with a scream of pain, the assailant took in a long breath, filled it's body like a balloon, and floated into space." Mass hysteria was certainly gripping the area.

[Ref. ar1:] ALBERT ROSALES:

Albert Rosales indicates that Millville, New Jersey, on January 21, 1909, at night, "Dan Possack was doing his chores at home when he heard someone in the backyard walking around, calling out to him. When he turned around, he beheld a 'monster beast-bird' about 18 ft high (!). The visitor demanded to know where the garbage can was, asking in perfectly good English, Dan, terrified, ran towards the barn, but the bird caught up with him. It wrapped its sinewy and red beak around Dan’s body. Dan began hitting it with a hatchet that he kept in his belt. He was astonished to see that he could shop splinters out of the body, much like he could out of wood. While he was chopping, the beast whispered something in Dan’s ear, and with a mighty blow, Dan set the hatchet square into the monster’s face. With a scream of pain, the assailant took in a long breath, filled its body like a balloon, and floated away into space (!). (If we are to believe all these stories of incidents that occurred on January 21, there was something really bizarre loose out in New Jersey that night)."

Albert Rosales indicates that the source is "Weird New Jersey".

Points to consider:

Before discussing this particular case, I must make some general remarks about what was called the "Jersey Devil".

In Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, for nearly two centuries at least, some people give reports of encounters with a "creature" whose descriptions suggested that it was some sort of "devil", though in my opinion it was often merely a large bird in migration there, the sandhill crane.

Ufologically, these stories are mostly not considered as related in any way with UFOs or UFO occupants, in my opinion too they should not be part of a catalog of "close encounters of the third kind".

However, some ufologists included such stories in such catalogs, thinking for some reason it does have something to do with the UFO question. Most of the time, they do not include all the Jersey Devil reports, but only a few of them, maybe due to lack of documentation or maybe for some other reason I do not understand.

So I have to include all these stories, because if some source considers, rightly or wrongly, that this a UFO-related, then it is within my scope, not to immediately and arbitrarily disregard their idea, but to evaluate it, and thus to collect the documentation and the comments about it. And therefore, I have to check and document all reported, not just those selected arbitrarily by these ufologists who believed this is UFO material. This is why you cans see I have a file for each Jersey Devil reports, even those that were never included in the ufology literature.

I should note that most stories are fragmentary, often because the sources write about several observations, and what is said about one report is supposed to be implicitly true for the others. I do not do it that way; I publish case files individually and discuss each on its own merits or issues, and offer a specific assessment for each case. But of course, generalities can be said on these reports. As I do not want to disconnect individual reports from these generalities, I make the following notes.

I want to first list the various explanations offered for the "Jersey Devil" - they could apply its late equivalent the West Virginia "Mothman" which was introduced in UFO books the 1960s:

• "Devil" per se, a creature from hell, the one that Christian traditions talks about. It is not far from the explanations that claimed "witches" made this Devil appear using witchcraft.
• "Devil" in the sense that there would be some sort of "parallel world" that shelters evil creatures who occasionally pop in "our" world. It is further argued that UFOs and their occupants are of the same nature, in an attempt to support a "theory of everything" claiming the existence of some "other worlds" or "parallel worlds or "other dimensions".
• UFO occupants, aliens; some rare ufologists seem to consider that any unusual creature must come down from some spacecraft, whether it is a "Bigfoot", "Chupacabras", "Devil" or whatever else. A variant thereof proposes that all these creatures are "engineered" by more "classic" extraterrestrial beings.
• Some cryptozoologists put forth that the "Jersey Devil" is some ordinary earthly animal hitherto undiscovered by mainstream science. Most cryptozoologist do not vehemently claim this as if it was a proven fact, but merely suggest it is a possibility among other possibilities.
• Some cryptozoologists felt that the Jersey Devil may be a "Bigfoot". This generally does not fit well with the descriptions, whereas a known bird fits better. Yes, some reports mention a four-legged creature, but generally with wings too.
• It was suggested the Jersey Devil is a Pterodactyl, the prehistoric dinosaur-bird, allegedly still living nowadays. Or some other survivor of the distant prehistoric times.
• An investigation by cryptozoologist Ivan Sanderson made him explain that there was a real estate scam in 1909 there in which people had created false traces of the "Jersey Devil." Most debaters admit this, but consider, rightly in my opinion, it could not be the single explanation for all the reports. This does not mean that other reports could not be hoaxes too, and some definitely were, as the "Hyman" case or the case of the dead kangaroo fitted with wings.
• Some offer a pure "folklore" explanation. There would never have been any true observation, everything would be purely invented nonsense. It can obviously be suggested that some, if not all, of the stories are of this nature. It is clear that a Jersey Devil folklore has emerged, but it cannot be used as evidence that all reports were entirely imaginary from the start.
• At the time, a "malformed" and abandoned child ("the baby of Mrs. Leeds") was said to be the explanation. But it turned out that the descriptions, the geographical and temporal span, leave little credence to this explanation if it was supposed to be the only one.
• Various birds were named as an explanation for the Jersey Devil. Some are completely unsuitable, too small or too different from the descriptions. However, one bird seems to be an excellent candidate, the sandhill crane. In each of my "Jersey Devil" case file, I obviously check this explanation out. I am neither the first nor the only one to propose it, however, many authors made no mention of the sandhill crane, preferring to highlight the ridiculous "explanation" explanations to support their favorite one. For example they would ridicule the "Mrs. Leeds' baby" explanation to try to convince the Jersey Devil must have been "supernatural".

Now, for this particular report, suffice to compare it with the other reports of the "Jersey Devil" in the area at the time to see that there is virtually no resemblance. No other such report described something 5.50 meters tall, made of wood, speaking English, "inflating" to fly away, etc..

It is quite obvious that the story can be completely invented, perhaps by someone slightly retarded and living in relative isolation and not having a good idea of what the "Jersey Devil" was supposed to look like, thus inventing these odd features.

List of issues:

Evaluation:

Probable invention. Not UFO-related.

Sources references:

* = Source I checked.
? = Source I am told about but could not check yet. Help appreciated.

• [---] ? Article in the newspaper Asbury Park Evening Press, Asbury Park, New Jersey, USA, page 2, January 22, 1909.
• [---] ? "Dictionary of Cryptozoology", book by Ronan Coghlan, Xiphos Books publishers, USA, page 28, 2004.
• [wn1] * "Demonic Birds", on the Weird New Jersey website, dated 2008, at cressida.websitewelcome.com/~weirdev/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=42&Itemid=28
• [---] ? "Weird N. J.: Your Travel Guide to New Jersey's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets", book by Mark Sceurman, Mark Moran, Sterling Publishing Company publishers, USA, page 111, 2009.
• [ar1] * "1909 Humanoid Reports, compiled by Albert Rosales, circa 2006, at www.aforteanosla.com.ar/albert/anuarios/1909%20Humanoid%20Reports.pdf

Document history:

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This page was last updated on April 9, 2013