THE PINE BARRENS' WINGED CURSE. THE LEEDS CHILD. THE MIDNIGHT SHRIEK.

Born in blood, raised in shadow — the Jersey Devil is no campfire tale. According to legend, Mother Leeds’s thirteenth child came into this world not as a baby, but as a cloven-hoofed abomination with leathery wings, a goat’s head, and a scream that tears through pine and time alike.

For over 250 years, this creature has haunted the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. Locals speak of hoofprints in the snow, livestock ripped apart without a sound, and a chilling cry that echoes just as the fog rolls in. Some say it flies. Some say it watches. Everyone agrees: it never forgets a trespass.

Whether it’s a demonic omen, a colonial-era curse, or something worse, the Jersey Devil refuses to fade into folklore. Even skeptics pause when they hit the pines after dark — because in South Jersey, the trees remember.

It washed up once. What else hasn’t made it to shore?