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JANUARY 21, 1909, PLEASANTVILLE, NEW JERSEY, USA, HOWARD CAMPBELL, THEODORE HACKETT, AND OTHER TELEGRAPH LINEMEN:

Brief summary of the event and follow-up:

During the flow of stories about the "Jersey Devil", a story appeared in the press regarding an incident on 21 January 1909 or in the middle of January 1909. The story was written by a one Theodore Hackett. He claimed:

"In an isolated spot in the Jersey Pines, about five miles from Pleasantville, at a place known as Beaver Pond, one of the linemen, Howard Campbell, was detailed on a piece of work a little distance from the rest of the men on duty. After walking a little way into the woods, his attention was attracted by something coming down the path toward him. He became so frightened by the unusual appearance of the thing that he straightway made for the nearest telegraph pole. Letting out several yells for help and losing his wits entirely by the time he reached the top of the pole, Campbell threw himself out on the mass of wires between the two poles and was lying there helpless by the time the rest of the gang, including myself, had arrived. Seeing the ‘Terror’ on the pole, I raised my gun and fired. One shot broke a wing and it fell to the ground, uttering hideous screams; but before anyone could collect his wits the thing was up and off with long strides and a sort of hop, dragging one wing, and then disappearing into the pine thicket. We got ropes and other tackle and helped Campbell down from his precarious position. As nearly as I can describe the terror, it had the head of a horse, the wings of a bat and a tail like a rat’s, only longer."

Basic information table:

Narratives:

[Ref. mm2:] JAMES MCCLOY AND RAY MILLER:

The authors say that during the Jersey Devil appearances of 1909, in the Pines outside of Pleasantville, Howard Campbell, a lineman for the Delaware and Atlantic Telephone Company, was chased up a telegraph pole by the Jersey Devil. Theodore Hackett, a fellow lineman, was drawn to the scene by Campbell's screams, and he shot the Devil in the wing. Screaming in pain, the beast disappeared into the woods.

It had the head of a horse, wings of a bat, and a long, rat-like tail.

[Ref. ar1:] ALBERT ROSALES:

Albert Rosales indicates that in Beaver Pond, New Jersey, in the middle of January 1909 in the afternoon "Several telephone company employees were working in an isolated area when one of the workers walked into the woods. He soon came running back out of the woods and climbed up a telegraph pole. The rest of the men came running when they heard him yelling for help. He had climbed to the very top of the pole and thrown himself onto the lines. A strange creature was climbing the pole after him. One of the men pulled out a gun and shot at the creature. One shot apparently damaged a wing and it fell to the ground uttering hideous screams. But, before anyone could collect his wits the thing was up and off with long strides. It had a short hop, dragged one wing, and then disappeared into the pine thicket."

Albert Rosales indicates that the source is "Jerry A Young, Mysterious Monsters".

[Ref. sl1:] STEVEN LEMONGELLO:

The writer tells of the Jersey Devil sightings from January 16 to 22, 1909, 100 years ago, referring to the 1976 book "The Jersey Devil" by James F. McCloy and Ray Miller Jr.

He writes it was on the railroad tracks, five miles out of Pleasantville - either in Hamilton or Egg Harbor Township, whichever wants to take credit - that man finally fought back against the Devil.

A lineman, Howard Campbell, was so frightened by the sudden appearance of Horsey McLucifer that he "straightaway made for the nearest telegraph pole." Fortunately, to the rescue came the heroic Theodore Hackett; according to Hackett, Campbell was "losing his wits entirely" and "lying there helpless" on the wires between the poles by the time Hackett arrived.

"Seeing the 'Terror' on the pole, I raised my gun and fired," Hackett boasted later, as recounted by McCloy and Miller. "One shot broke a wing and it fell to the ground, uttering hideous screams, but before anyone could collect his wits the thing was up and off with long strides and a sort of hop, dragging one wing, and then disappearing into the pine thicket."

Although this epic battle took place in its own backyard, the local paper, the Atlantic City Evening Union, was having none of it.

[Ref. gm1:] "JERSEY DEVIL" GOOGLE MAP:

[Ref. rc1:] "CRYPTOZOOLOGY RESEARCH TEAM" WEBSITE:

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 cryptozoologists 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 let's see this report.

The report as in [gm1] and [cr1] appears on hundreds of web page as of 2013. None of them gives more information, or some source reference. Some give the description saying it was the description by Howard Campbell, though it appears that the writer of the report is not Howard Campbell but Theodore Hackett.

The report may be just a hoax, like some of the hoaxes then and there. If another explanation has to be proposed, it may be the very deformed story of a sandhill crane attack. Of course, if taken at face value, the description is quite odd. Sandhill cranes have wing but not bat wings, they have a long head but not a horse's head, and their tail has nothing of a rat's tail.

There is not enough information or credibility in here to make one of the other explanation a certainty.

"Sandhill Crane" (Grus canadensis) - pictures above - is a species of big crane living in North America, Canada, and in the extreme northeast of Siberia. Some are resident, some are migratory, passing sometimes indeed by the states where the "Jersey Devil" was reported.

Its sound is described as having to do with a French "r" sound, a frog's squawk and a trumpet tone. Male and female sometimes engage in duets of complex cries.

Its wingspan can reach more than 2 meters.

It is known that it can attack people when it is disturbed.

List of issues:

Evaluation:

Possible confusion, bird, sandhill crane, or invention. Not UFO-related.

Sources references:

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

• [---] ? "The Jersey Devil", book by James F. McCloy, Ray Miller, Jr., Middle Atlantic Press publishers, USA, 1976.
• [---] ? "Mysterious monsters: Real or unreal?", book by Jerry A. Young, Willowisp Press publishers, USA, 1983.
• [---] ? "The Jersey Devil", book by James F. McCloy, Ray Miller, Jr., BB&A publishers, USA, page 62, 1987.
• [mm2] * "Phantom of the Pines: More Tales of the Jersey Devil", book by James F. McCloy, Ray Miller, Jr, BB&A publishers, USA, pp 72-73, 1998.
• [ar1] * "1909 Humanoid Reports, compiled by Albert Rosales, circa 2006, at www.aforteanosla.com.ar/albert/anuarios/1909%20Humanoid%20Reports.pdf
• [sl1] * "Believe it or not, this little devil had a wild week 100 years ago", article by Steven Lemongello, Staff writer, in the newspaper The Press of Atlantic City, Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA, January 12, 2009.
• [gm1] * Google Maps, 2010, at maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&t=h&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=111307155664998215229.000492efa03d92c95c0b9
• [cr1] * "Devil in the Woods: Creature of the Pine Barrens", article by Daniel Black, on the Cryptozoology Research Team website, found 2013, at livingdinos.com/2012/12/devils-woods-creature-pine-barrens

Document history:

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This page was last updated on April 12,, 2013