IT'S THE 100th ANNIVERSARY OF THE JERSEY DEVIL'S PHENOMENAL WEEK! Connoisseurs of the legend of the Jersey Devil will already know about the "phenomenal week" (as it has been dubbed) of January 16-23, 1909 when our very own local monster The Jersey Devil made perhaps his most spectacular rampage in history. The cloven-hoofed fellow flapped his way all over the tri-state area 100 years ago today and was seen by scads of witnesses while making headlines in all the local newspapers. Beginning late Saturday night January 16 and into the early morning hours of Sunday January 17, first Thack Cozzens of Woodbury "...heard a hissing and something white flew across the street. I saw two spots of phosphorus -- the eyes of the beast. There was a white cloud, like escaping steam from an engine. It moved as fast as an auto." Mrs. Leeds' thirteenth child then apparently hopped over the Delaware River and appeared before the citizens of Bristol, PA; including police officer (and future Chief of Police) James Sackville who actually unloaded his revolver at the creature before it flew out of sight. Bristol's Postmaster E. W. Minster also saw the creature and described his experience this way: "As I got up I heard an eerie, almost supernatural sound from the direction of the river. . .I looked out upon the Delaware and saw flying diagonally across what appeared to be a large crane, but which was emitting a glow like a fire-fly. Its head resembled that of a ram, with curled horns, and it's long thick neck was thrust forward in flight. It had long thin wings and short legs, the front legs shorter than the hind. Again, it uttered its mournful and awful call..." Naturally, some wags among my readers will insist that what they saw actually WAS just a crane but, since we here all know that monsters are as common as bumblebees, we'll dismiss all pooh-poohing as Communist propaganda and move on.

The Jersey Devil apparently liked hanging around Burlington, NJ a lot since many sightings seemed to congregate around this particular city. The area had been covered by a blanket of snow and on Monday morning Burlington residents awoke to find scads of cloven-hoofed tracks all over their backyards. In fact, the town was gripped by panic and many people kept their children home from school on Monday or locked themselves into their homes until they were sure the monster had gone for good. Reports of sightings poured in from all over the area and search parties were organized; however, the hunters' dogs strangely refused to follow the tracks of the Jersey Devil. Perhaps they were wiser than their human masters?!?

On Tuesday, the Devil got bolder and actually started to seek out human contact. In Gloucester City, a Mr. and Mrs. Evans watched from their bedroom window late at night as the Jersey Devil danced something of a jig for ten minutes on top of their shed. Perhaps one of the most famous descriptions of the macabre creature came from Mrs. Evans when she said: "It made no sounds at all until it began flapping its wings. Then it sounded s-zzz s-zzz s-zzz just like the muffled sound a woodsaw makes when it strikes a rotten place." What a super(natural) way with words the old girl had!

Wednesday saw the Devil flying hither and yon: from an encounter with a Burlington cop as well as jaunts in rural Pemberton, Collingswood, Haddonfield and Moorestown, NJ. In Riverside, the Jersey Devil's hoofprints were found all around the body of a man's dead puppy and police actually took plaster casts of the tracks. Late Thursday night found the Jersey Devil terrorizing a social club in Camden. The creature rampaged on and menaced a trolley car leaving Clementon. Dozens of passengers saw the creature hovering above as the trolley stopped to pick up a passenger somewhere in Haddon Heights. The trolley conductor described the creature as looking like a black winged kangaroo. Trolley cars all over the area began travelling with armed men aboard. Chickens were found killed all over the towns of Millville and Bridgeton while still managing to hop the river into Pennsylvania and back into New Jersey from Mount Holly to Pleasantville where a lineman actually shot the creature in the wing. Not to be deterred, JD then managed to fly over to Philadelphia where it lurked in the corner of Mrs. J. H. White's backyard. Mrs. White fainted as the fire-breathing monster hovered menacingly; her husband grabbed a clothes prop and started swinging wildly as the Jersey Devil flew away back across the Delaware River to terrorize a women's meeting in Westville, NJ. Hunters with dogs and guns tracked the Devil all the way to the Washington Park woods where they lost the trail. The monster confronted the fire department of West Collingswood then flapped its way to South Camden where it took a bite out of Mary Sorbinski's dog as the woman frantically beat it away with a broom. This brought out all the neighbours and the Camden police who unloaded several shots at the Jersey Devil before it flew out of sight.

By Friday, the streets of Camden were deserted while the Jersey Devil continued to hang around on the rooftops. Another policeman came upon the "jabberwock" drinking from a horse trough. The town school closed for the day and employers reported rampant absenteeism as workers stayed home. Later reports came from Morrisville, PA that the Devil had been captured in a barn but authorities found nothing. The Devil was next sighted flying over Woodbury by a policeman and then spotted by a nightwatchman in Salem where it was successfully chased away by a bulldog. By this time, the Jersey Devil had apparently run out of steam as his reign of terror ended as suddenly as it had begun. Naturally, before 1909 the Jersey Devil had been considered just a fairy tale but now the hundreds of witnesses (many of them police or town officials) and newpaper headlines of the attacks all over the Delaware Valley changed the opinion of residents everywhere. While the Jersey Devil would continue to make his presence known over the years, never again has he made quite the impact as he did during the phenomenal week of 1909. But now, 100 years later, we can only extend our invitation to the old fellow and hope that he decides to provide us all here in the Land of Cerpts and Honey a repeat performance.