Paranormal State’s ‘Jersey Devil’: Deer, Devil Or Hoax?

Submitted by Xavier Ortega on February 11, 2010 – 9:28 AM68 Comments | 15,679 views

OK, so I swore that I wouldn’t do any more ‘Paranormal State’ posts here on GhostTheory; but this was too good to pass up.

‘Paranormal State’ wrapped up their season finale with an episode that dealt with Cryptozoology. The PRS team decided to investigate the well known legend of the “Jersey Devil”. Emphasis on legend.
Now what was so interesting about this episode that I broke a promise to you guys and wrote about it? Well, the team supposedly filmed (with a thermal camera) a strange creature that appears to have hooves and wings. No, really.

See…here is a still from the thermal film:

And here is the video:

Let’s talk about the Jersey Devil for a bit. From Wikipedia, this is what is widely known to be the tale of the Jersey Devil:

“It was said that Mother Leeds had 12 children and, after giving birth to her 12th child, stated that if she had another, it would be the Devil. In 1735, Mother Leeds was in labor on a stormy night. Gathered around her were her friends. Mother Leeds was supposedly a witch and the child’s father was the Devil himself. The child was born normal, but then changed form. It changed from a normal baby to a creature with hooves, a horse’s head, bat wings and a forked tail. It growled and screamed, then killed the midwife before flying up the chimney. It circled the villages and headed toward the pines. In 1740 a clergy exorcised the demon for 100 years and it wasn’t seen again until 1890.”

Sounds like a good B movie right? Well there have been a lot of witnesses who over the years have come forward and claimed to have seen this god forsaken creature. Most of the eyewitness descriptions consist of a horse faced bipedal creature with wings.

The Jersey Devil, Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, January 1909

MonsterQuest, the famous television show, had made an episode dedicated to the Jersey Devil in which they presented the history and current evidence and eyewitness reports of the creature. It was a well put together show that was focused on facts. An interesting tidbit of information was learning that Napoleon Bonaparte’s brother, Joseph, had reported to have encountered the creature in the early 1800s during a hunt in the Pine Barrens.

Much of the MonsterQuest show focused on eyewitness accounts, like that of the Winkelmann family.

The Winkelmann’s claim that they had encountered a terrifying creature that resembled the known description of the Jersey Devil. One night, the mother and her son were out in the yard when they had spotted a very big and foreign looking creature perched up in a tree looking at them. It wasn’t until they ran for it that the creature spread its wings and swooped down attempting to scare them off. Or worse.

Once inside their home, they could hear it walking about on the roof and then quickly leaving their property to never come back. It so happened that it had snowed earlier in the day so they were able to see the prints that this creature had left in the snow on the roof.

Credit Winkelmann family

The tracks do present interesting evidence, but not evidence of the creature from Hell. These could have easily been done by a deer. Yes, deers can jump on roofs. They’re agile like that.

Going back to the ‘Paranormal State’ show…

So the team claimed that they captured an anomalous creature with wings that resembles the Jersey Devil. Now, given the sketchy past that the PRS team has had with thermal imaging such as the ‘Beer Can Incident‘ or the ghostly hand print (which is thought to be that of a crew member) we can only assume that this last season finale was just another example of the team jumping to conclusions. Or much worse, an attempt at trickery.

Let me explain.

If the thermal image is supposed to show a winged creature, then why do the wings show on the thermal device as not generating any heat? They are not even close to looking as heat radiant. If they were attached to such a large creature, wouldn’t it make sense that they would appear at least a bit warm in the thermal readings? Take a look at the thermal images of bats.

The description of the Jersey Devil is that it has wings like a bat. The thermal image captured by the PRS shows a deer like creature with bat like wings. Now, the wings of a bat are mostly made up of a thin skin membrane (patagium) and is very heat radiant when shown on a thermal camera. Here is a video shot by the Discovery Channel of bats under a thermal camera:

The patagium clearly is a heat radiant membrane. Even with bats it produces a highly visible radiant glow, so one can assume that with a larger creature like said Jersey Devil, the glow of the generated heat would be clearly visible. In the case of the PRS team, it’s not. The “wings” appear to be cold, or barely reflecting the body heat of the creature (deer).

We can then assume that either this is just a tree branch that is reflecting the deer’s body heat, some false wings put on a domesticated deer for the purpose of a hoax, or the Jersey Devil itself.

Given that this is their season finale, my guess is that the producers wanted to go out with a bang!

Thoughts?

Bio
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Xavier Ortega

Sr. Editor at GhostTheory

I'm a writer, a runner, and a hell of a coffee drinker residing in Los Angeles. I'm currently working on a book about Doris Bither and her terrifying account of a haunting in Culver City, California. The case was dubbed "The Entity" and it stands to be one of the most controversial cases ever to be studied by parapsychologists.

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Anonymousity

Maybe there´s something lurking in these woods but cmon! This show is fake! Just like the rest of them, ghost adventures, fact or faked! Just look at some of the guys from those crews, allways atleast one good looking dude. it´s guys wanting money for new crips and surf equipment! Somewhere in the video where one of the guys says “i think we got the jersey devil” he looks like he´s holding a laugh back, don´t you think the guys had a huge laugh after that cut? while some of you including myself once really put some believe into it(allso for the thrill) If the real jersey devil crew with Leut doesn´t have any evidence, why should some moneymaker crew suddently have it? yes they have smart equipment but the jersey devil hunters have been for over fourty hunts and havent really experienced anything! I find them more truthfull! But you´ll never know, i just know that i find it kinda exiting, just like other paranormal things! It´s a good thrill nonthless and people seem to experience something once in awhile. I find these shows exiting, and they´re really good at what they´re doing, SOME paranormal shows might have some truthfullness, but it´s allso a show! Really don´t know.
Harvest

I actually thought this footage was the most conniving evidence PRS has ever presented for any paranormal phenomenon; that is to say I am not aware of them presenting anything else that could qualify as evidence. Of course as you say, such documentation could easily be a hoax, none the less it’s still better than the usual siting in a dark room alone for a few hours and saying “What’s that?! Is someone there? Are you trying to communicate with me?” every time the woodwork creeks and “Oh!..I suddenly don’t feel well”.

As you say the image in question is just that: questionable to say the least. However, I would put an amendment in your hypothesis about the limited amount of heat radiating from the creature’s ‘wings’.

The Jersey Devil is a hard pill to swallow even compared to other classic cryptids like Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster in that its morphology makes zero sense based off of everything we currently know about vertebrates (assuming it’s a vertebrate). Since wings are specialized limbs and the Jersey Devil is supposed to have four legs that would mean the creature would have a total of six limbs, and no vertebrate anywhere in the known fossil record has ever displayed such a trait. Therefore I would suggest the possibility that, IF the Jersey Devil is indeed real, the appendages that witnesses have described as wings are in fact something else. What that something else could be I haven’t the slightest, but it could help explain why the creature’s “wings” in the thermal imaging were giving off such low levels of body heat.

You know, assuming PRS wasn’t pulling the old plastic-wings-on-a-deer grift.
kevin

This is a bunch of crap .. These people are geting all worked up over a deer at best .. Its amazing the garbage people will put on TV ..
Amber

Just watched the “Jersey Devil” episode. While I firmly believe in the paranormal, I also believe in the power of suggestion. These “researchers” appears to be CERTAIN they have captured footage of something “unknown”. Being from the South and living in an area where the opening of season is almost a holiday, I would like to say that the “unknown” creature is none other than……a deer. What appears to be wings may simply be a heat signature left behind as the “creature” moved. The way the “creature” stands and moves, especially when startled, are all consistant with any deer I’ve ever witnessed. But I will give the guys credit….their intense reactions were definitely entertaining acting…
Anonymous

its a tv show you dont have to go all into of course its fake, being from pines i do believe in the jersey devil but i hate the publicity that the pines has gotten over it, these stupid shows want to be the first to catch everything so they fake it all, the only source that you can trust (at least more then tv) is eye witness pictures or videos, that is if theyre put to the test. And on another note all of the guys on those shows are complete douche bags anyway so why the hell would anyone believe them…god people are dumb
Anonymous Ducky

Ithink that the Jrsey Devil is real Iam doing a search on him and by the amount of info. he seems real
richieb

Since 2002,I have watched the UK paranormal series here ‘Most Haunted ‘. As the next few years rolled by more started to crop up on tv from the US and New Zealand. MH finally wrapped up in 2010 after pushing its own limits too far. Internal jealousies and squabbles didnt help along with many accusations of cheating, all brought it to an end…it went out with a whimper in fact.Think about it…how does a tv childrens show presenter and her cameraman husband suddenly become expert investigators into the paranormal. They dont. How do 2 plumbers become experts.They dont.College students. They dont.
In the last 9 years or so of these different programmes , I have never seen a ghost foto/video image that would withstand close scrutiny..Have never heard a ‘voice’ message that could be beyond refute or any recording that made any sense..Everything is if and maybe , too vague and it has to be said in the case of TAPS, too easily debunked.Personal view but the TAPS crew seem quite a funny bunch. Far to overly polite for me to feel comfortable and their programme is the most obviously stage managed of all of them.The whole paranormal thing on tv has proved to be pure hokum. Shame really because like so many of you out there, I started watching 9 years ago with such high hopes and a genuine interest. But I’m older and wiser now.Genuine students and investigators of the paranormal have tried for years to capture something worthwhile taking back to their peers in the same field of investigation,on foto/vid/sound and yet these programmes we are talking about can capture all this and more in an hours episode. But then of course they have to if they want to make good tv and ensure that their show stays on air.
http://hannah123 Anonymous

I personaly do not care what anybody thinks I believe in the jersey devil because I like to think there is more out there than we know and if u dont agree with that forget you !!!

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