On January 22, 1909, at least three newspapers reported that in Riverside, New Jersey, USA, on January 21, 1909, "John Manz saw his bulldog torn to pieces by the 'devil' last night. Manz says he saw a great bird with a horse's face swoop down and kill the dog."
However, the day before, the local newspaper told a different story.
The newspaper reported it visited the out-houses of Joseph Manz in Riverside, and next morning he found his pup dog dead. Believing that he was the victim of his testimony in a recent assault scandal, he reported the matter to Justice Ziegler, who detailed Officer Borton to investigate.
"Manz declared that the culprit wore small horse shoes on his shoes, the tracks of which he found all about the place, even on the top of the building. Later the Justice was startled to find similar tracks in his backyard, and he immediately made six plaster of paris moulds of them."
"The tracks were made in a single yet exact straight line resembling those of a small pony."
So it seems Manz did not report that he actually had seen the "Devil."
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[Ref. te1:] "TRENTON EVENING TIMES" NEWSPAPER:
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"FLYING HOOF" LEAVES PROOFS OF VISIT HEREFootprints Found at White City and Groveville and Ai May Have Boon PiercedCITIZENS TELL OF SEEING THE TRACKSTrail Leads Right Up to Houses and Then Disappears as Though He, Or She, Or It Or Whatever the Thing is Has Taken Flight Into Realms of Space The "Flying Hoof" is on its - or her or his way to Trenton. There are evidence that the route selected is more or less circuitous, but the mysterious "Jersey Devil" is surely in this neighborhood. In fact, the footprints of the wonderful "Air Hos," "Leeds Satan" and "Winged Dog," as it has been variously described by different persons claiming to have actually seen the peculiar species, are already discoverable at the White City Park, and, last evening its tracks in the rear yard of the home of Harry Clymer, in Yardville, completely upset the quiet peacefulness of that vicinity. so while the "Hoof" seems only to be flirting with us now, the residents in the neighborhood of the State Hospital and Cadwalader Park area are momentarily expecting its appearance. Early this morning came news of suspicious presence of tracks in the snow at Groveville. William McElmoyl, employed at the Trenton offices of the United Revolving Door Company, who lives there, had his attention called to the strange, weird prints, and upon investigation, declared that the "Flying Hoof" had surely arrived. NOT CLOVEN HOOF."I recognized the tracks from those reproduced in the papers," said Mr McElmoyl, "and there is no mistaking then. They look to me as if the hoof was that of a young colt, not a cloven hoof, as I've heard of its being described, and there are spaces for 100 feet or more between the regular steps in the snow, suggesting beyond doubt, that the visitor flys. You can see the tracks for yourself by going either to Yardville or Groveville and some of the people there are now engaged in a search for the animal." SEEN AT WHITE CITYThe following message, on a post explains the appearance of the hoofprints at White City: "Trenton, N. J., 1/20/09 "Dear Editor: In regard to the curious hoof prints seen in different parts of New Jersy, I thought I would let you know they are as far up as the White City. Charles Stupenszy and myself were going over some mukrat traps on Sunday and saw the hoofprints in the snow, and followed them for about a mile and gave it up. My friend saw them again Monday in the White City grounds, and followed them again, but had to give it up for a bad job. I have nover saw anything like it before. Yours respectfully, CLARENCE B. WILLIAMS. White City. RIVERSIDE's STORY.A correspondent of the Times in Riverside sends the following dispatch: "Riverside, N. J., Jan. 20. "This city has joined the South Jersey Towns in the 'What is it' stir. "The unknown animal, believed by local residents to be a one-legged, one-footed bird, has been lurking about this city the past thirty-six hours. Though never seen, its tracks are found mainly about small buildings and chicken coops. It visited the out-houses of Joseph Manz and next morning he found his pup dog dead. Believing that he was the victim of his testimony in a recent assault scandal, he reported the matter to Justice Ziegler, who detailed Officer Borton to investigate. "Manz declared that the culprit wore small horse shoes on his shoes, the tracks of which he found all about the place, even on the top of the building. Later the Justice was startled to find similar tracks in his backyard, and he immediately made six plaster of paris moulds of them. "The tracks were made in a single yet exact straight line resembling those of a small pony. (Continued on Page Three.) |
[Ref. ts1:] "THE SUN" NEWSPAPER:
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$500 FOR THE LEEDS DEVILSHOWMAN SAYS IT'S A VAMPIRE AND HE WANTS IT BACK.Vampirophobia Spreads From Jersey to Philadelphia, and Mothers Are Keeping the Kids Indoors - Beastie Kills a Bulldog and Steals a Chicken. Philadelphia, Jan. 21. -- It seems probable that the "Leeds devil," which has had all south Jersey terrorized for four days and which transferred its activity to Philadelphia last night and today, will be captured within a day or two and the real reason for its appearance be made known to a world in which two suckers for the press agent are born everyday. In the meantime from every town in south Jersey come reports of dogs torn in pieces, bloodcurling encounters and descriptions that fit any prehistoric monster one might pick out. Lots of these come from reputable people who are firmly convinced that they saw what they say they saw. J. J. Hope, an animal trainer and dealer at 36 North Ninth street, issued a statement this afternoon saying that the strange bird beast is "an Australian vampire devil" which escaped from him ten days ago. He offers $500 reward for its capture. He gives warning to all who wish to try for the reward that the creature is dangerous. Hope says that no one should attempt the feat unless armed and that a net should be utilized to secure the beastie before it is approached. "I am very anxious to recover the vampire," he said this afternoon. "There is only one like it in captivity, at that is at the Zoological Garden in Berlin. I purchased the animal in Europe and it arrived in this city ten days ago. I had it in a menagerie at Beach street and Fairmount avenue, and it esacaed from there. "It can swim as well as fly, and after it had broken out of its cage it swarm across the Delaware. I have no doubt that the animal which has been seen in Jersey is the one I lost. The description given by Nelson Evans and his wife at Gloucester city fits it exactly. "Scientists are puzzled to give a name to the beast, which is a combination of bat, kangaroo and pony. It is white and belongs to the kangaroo family, for it travels by leaps and has the marsupial pouch under the breast with which the kangaroo is provided. "You should have seen the havoc caused by the beast's effort to break from its cage. A more ferocious animal I have never seen. "The beast has the head of a horse, stands nearly 3 feet high and is covered with short, thick fur. On its back are two wings that measure 4 feet, so that when it is flying the stretch of the wings from tip to tip is almost 10 feet." Mr. Hope backed up his offer of a reward of $500 by inserting an advertisement to that effect on to-day's newspapers. On the heels of this announcement came a very pronounced attack of vampirophobia in the downtown section about Fifth and Porter street. There the Taggart school was nearly put out of business, and to-night mothers are not allowing their children on the streets. About 3 o'clock, according to the stories of the children, they saw a big bat hovering over the school. It was five feet long, they said. The children were just leaving. Mary Ellen Carson of 2514 South Marshall street, a six-year-old pupil, told her parents she was chased by it. There are forty men and women who affirm that the thing swooped down among the children, scattered them, then flapped around the street, stole a chicken out of the yard of 2522 South Fifth street and soared away. It flew over League Island, where a lot of Marines fired at it. Then it disappeared into Jersey again. All these people solemnly swear they saw the "Vampire." In fact if something rather weird is not flying around, the condition of mind of South Jersey and Philadelphia would provide a feast for students of mob hallucination. Here are a few scattered reports from various sections: RIVERSIDE, N. J., Jan 21. -- John Manz saw his bulldog torn to pieces by the "devil" last night. Manz says he saw a great bird with a horse's face swoop down and kill the dog. RIVERTON, N. J., Jan 21. -- A posse of our bravest young men set tout to-night to hunt down the "devil." It appeared at the home of Mrs. William Tackfling this morning, barked though the window and flew away. Its tracks are everywhere. PEMBERTON, N. J., Jan 21. -- The "What-is-it" was seen by two persons in this town. Edward Archer, a conductor of the Pemberton Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad, says that the creature sprang at him early this morning as he was going out of his barn. It was hiding behind a shed, he says, and he has a confused recollection of a hairy body coming at him. Then he ran as he never ran before. He also declares that the Rev. John Purcel, a clergyman living at Pemberton, saw the "Thing" last night. It was crossing the snow in quick, short leaps and its progress was very rapid. Mr Purcel describes the creature as about three feet long and having a long black hair. MOUNT HOLLY. N. J. Jan 21. -- William Cronk, a venerable citizen says he saw a large bird flying low across the lawn as he was eating dinner yesterday. The bird flew about two feet from the ground and soared over the fence, turning in the direction of Rancocas Creek. It had long legs and wings with a spread of four feet. These are only a few of hundreds of similar reports. |
[Ref. nb1:] "NEW BRUNSWICK TIMES" NEWSPAPER:
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RIVERSIDE, N. J., Jan 21. -- John Manz saw his bulldog torn to pieces by the "devil" last night. Manz says he saw a great bird with a horse's face swoop down and kill the dog. |
Note: this article was the same as [ts1] above, and it also appeared in [wp1].
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:
This case just shows journalistic errors. The most local newspaper did not say the man saw the "Jersey Devil", this is only stated the following day in the national press.
The firstname of the man is also distorted, "Joseph" becomes "John". His dog, only a puppy initially becomes a bulldog the next day!
This shows that the reliability of the press was not always very good.
| Id: | Topic: | Severity: | Date noted: | Raised by: | Noted by: | Description: | Proposal: | Status: |
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| None. | ||||||||
Press error, entity not seen. Not UFO-related.
* = Source I checked.
? = Source I am told about but could not check yet. Help appreciated.
| Main Author: | Patrick Gross |
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| Contributors: | None |
| Reviewers: | None |
| Editor: | Patrick Gross |
| Version: | Created/Changed By: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | April 13, 2013 | Creation, [1]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | April 13, 2013 | First published. |
