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JANUARY 21 OR 22, 1909, CAMDEN, NEW JERSEY, USA, MARY SORBINSKI, PATROLMEN WILLIAM CROUCH AND THOMAS CUNNINGHAM:

Brief summary of the event and follow-up:

"Jersey Devil" literature indicates that on January 21 or 22, 1909, in Camden, New Jersey, USA, Mrs. Mary Sorbinski, of Mount Ephraim Avenue, heard loud strange noises in her backyard, seized a broom and ran out the back door to find her pet dog in the "vise-like grip" of a "horrible monster".

She swung the broom at the creature who dropped the dog and emitting sounds that resembled a combination of the "hoot of an owl" and the "snarl of a hyena" nearly struck Mrs. Sorbinski in its escape.

After carrying her wounded pet into the house, Mary Sorbinski began screaming. Her cries attracted a large crowd, including the Camden police. Suddenly the crowd heard high-pitched screams from the top of the standpipe on Kaighn Hill, and Patrolmen Thomas Cunningham and William Crouch ran toward the noises with the crowd at their heels.

The officers emptied their revolvers, or tried to shoot, at the creature, but once again the so-called "Devil" disappeared into the night.

One source specifies the Philadelphia press said the dog was nowhere to be found when Mrs. Sorbinski emerged from her house to see the Devil fly away, and that she looked for he dog later. Most source claim the dog had a chunk of its flesh ripped out.

Basic information table:

Narratives:

[Ref. mm3:] JAMES MCCLOY AND RAY MILLER:

These authors indicated that on January 22, 1909, in Camden, New Jersey, Mary Sorbiski [sic], of that city, bravely raised a broom against the "Jersey Devil" when she found it had caught her pet dog in its vice-like grip.

But the Philadelphia press said the dog was nowhere to be found when this Camden housewife emerged from her house to see the Devil fly away. She looked for he dog later.

[Ref. jc1:] JEROME CLARK:

Jerome Clark says that on January 22, 1909, in the morning, Mary Sorbinsky of Camden, New Jersey, heard her dog screaming, ran outside, and a huge creature rose up from the ground, and took flight. Mrs Sorbinsky reported it had taken out a chunk of her pet.

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

These authors indicated that in Camden, New Jersey, on January 22, 1909, Mrs. Mary Sorbinski, who lived on Mount Ephraim Avenue, had heard loud, strange noises in her backyard. She seized a broom and ran out the back door to find her pet dog in the "vise-like grip" of a "horrible monster". With all her might, she swung the broom at the creature, who dropped the dog and, emitting sounds that resembled a combination of the "hoot of an owl" and the "snarl of a hyena" nearly struck Mrs. Sorbinski in its escape. After carrying her wounded pet into the house, Mary began screaming. Her cries attracted a large crowd, which included the Camden police. Suddenly the crowd heard high-pitched screams from atop the standpipe on Kaighn Hill, and Patrolmen Thomas Cunningham and William Crouch ran toward the noises with the crowd at their heels. The officers emptied their revolvers at the creature, but once again the "Devil" disappeared into the night.

[Ref. dh1:] "NEW JERSEY DEVILS HUNTERS":

[Ref. ar1:] ALBERT ROSALES:

Albert Rosales indicates that in Camden, New Jersey, on January 22, 1909, in the morning, "Mary Sorbinsky ran outside after she heard her dog screaming. A huge creature rose up from the ground and took flight. It had taken, Mrs Sorbinsky reported, a chunk out of her pet."

Albert Rosales indicates that the source is "Jerome Clark, Unexplained!".

[Ref. ss1:] S. E. SCHLOSSER:

[Ref. gm1:] "GODS AND MONSTERS" WEBSITE:

The website indicates that on January 21, 1909 - That night, a Camden woman named Mrs. Sorbinski heard a clamor in her yard. She went outside to see the Devil grabbing her dog. Sorbinski grabbed a broom and beat the Devil with it until it let go and flew away. The woman's screaming and shouting alerted a large crowd of neighbors who called the police and gathered in her yard. When the police arrived the crowd heard a high-pitched scream from a nearby hill and turned to see the strange creature. The crowd rushed the hill as police shot at the creature. It flew off and was not seen again for the rest of the night.

[Ref. ch1:] LOREN COLEMAN AND BRUCE HALLENBECK:

The authors says that on January 21, 1909, in Camden, New Jersey, Mary Sorbinski heard a commotion in her backyard around 7 p.m., and rememberingher dog had been out there, immediately went to see the cause of the noise. She was stricken with shock and terror as she saw her dog in the "vise-like grip" of a "horrible monster!" She then began to smack at the creature with a broomstick, and it dropped her dog, began screaming its awful high-pitched cries and flew right at Mrs. Sorbinski, but at the last second changed direction and flew away.

After it had gone, Mrs. Sorbinski carried her injured dog into the house to find that a chunk of its flesh had been ripped out. She became overwhelmed with fear and panic. Within an hour, the house was filled with neighbors, police officers, and others who were curious as to the night's incident. While the crowd gathered, the Jersey Devil made its presence known once more at the Sorbinski residence by emitting its awful screeches. The police officers on scene attempted to fire at the creature, but to no avail, and it eventually flew away. The incident caused a statewide outbreak of panic and fear.

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 let's see this report.

This classic "Jersey Devil" case even appeared in a theater play, "Death Cap and the Jersey Devil", by Dana Lang, 2011.

The testimony as given here is so poor that we cannot say much. The "creature" is hardly described - all we know is the "vice-like grip" and "awful screeches" and that it can fly - and could be almost any aggressive bird, a hawk maybe.

This could also be partially invented, or terribly exaggerated by people in the neighborhood and/or the Press. A hint of contradiction appears in [mm3], "But the Philadelphia press said the dog was nowhere to be found..."

As no continuity of sighting is established, it is possible that the creature reported my Mrs. Sorbinsky and the creature seen by the two patrolmen and the crowd is not the same.

Only one, late version, [ss1], gives a description, a "dragon-like" description, but it is so similar to what Mrs. Sorbinsky apparently knew in advance of the Jersey Devil as described in the Press and sketches, her description it is not sourced, so it appears quite dubious.

There is not enough information to make any explanation a certainty. The only thing that seems clear is that no UFO is involved here, and there is nothing alien here.

List of issues:

Evaluation:

Probable bird. Not UFO-related.

Sources references:

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

• [---] ? A newspaper from Philadelphia, USA.
• [mm3] * Article by James F. McCloy, Ray Miller, Jr., in New Jersey Folklore, USA, #1, page 11, 1978.
• [jc1] * "Unexplained!", book by Jerome Clark, Visible Ink publishers, USA, page 198, 1993.
• [mm2] * "Phantom of the Pines: More Tales of the Jersey Devil", book by James F. McCloy, Ray Miller, Jr, BB&A publishers, USA, page 32, 1998.
• [dh1] * "Phenomenal Week", web page by Laura K. Leuter, the New Jersey Devils Hunters, USA, 2004, at www.njdevilhunters.com/1909.html
• [---] ? "The Ultimate Urban Legends", book, Publications Pinkmint publishers, USA, page 65, 2008.
• [---] ? "Pseudoscience: A Critical Encyclopedia", book by Brian Regal, Greenwood Press publishers, USA, page 98, 2009.
• [ar1] * "1909 Humanoid Reports, compiled by Albert Rosales, circa 2006, at www.aforteanosla.com.ar/albert/anuarios/1909%20Humanoid%20Reports.pdf
• [ss1] * "The Jersey Devil and the Dog - A New Jersey Legend", by S. E. Schlosser, USA, 2010, at americanfolklore.net/folklore/2010/07/the_jersey_devil_and_the_dog.html
• [gm1] * "New Jersey Devil Sightings", on the website Gods and Monsters, 2011, at www.gods-and-monsters.com/jersey-devil-sightings.html
• [ch1] * "Monsters of New Jersey: Mysterious Creatures in the Garden State", book by Loren Coleman, Bruce G. Hallenbeck, Stackpole Books publishers, USA, page 106, 2010.

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This page was last updated on July 11, 2013