The Jersey Devil

Whilst playing Pokemon Pearl today (I love Pokemon, the idea of monsters being able to evolve is an interesting one and anyone who says Pokemon is for kids obviously hasn't played it. Ever heard of IV training?) I had an idea and decided to visit a long forgotten website www.Monstrous.com. This brilliant website basically is your in-depth Wikipedia for all things weird and wonderful. The new stories are just....well, read them yourself.

Anyway, I came across the urban myth of the Jersey (or Leeds) Devil. Apparently the 13th child of the witch Mother Leeds and the Devil, the story goes that the child was born deformed, killed the midwife and scrambled up the chimney. There have been over 2000 sitings for the last 270 years and there are a few features of the Devil that are always the same:

• Horse-like head, sometimes with red eyes
• Long neck and tail
• Large leathery wings
• Cloven hooves
• High-pitched, human-like scream

To me, this sounds like it could be the basis for a pretty cool looking monster. The picture here is apparently an artists depiction of the Devil when it was a child. Here's one decent photograph I could find of the damn thing.


This being a cryptid, there's not a lot of compelling photo evidence but that's not the point of what's interesting about it. It's backstory and appearence, as stated, could make for a good design.