The Jersey Devil comes out of hiding, slaughters a few hogs, and terrorizes two children in 1929.
Posse Combing Woods for “Jersey Devil”
WOODBURY HEIGHTS, N.J. — This town of 2,500 souls is in an uproar, its police called out to search the surrounding woods, an armed posse of 20 men is combing the countryside as a result of the death by violence of three hogs and the frightened tale of two school children.
Apparently not all of the excitement is caused by those things.
The older natives speak in hushed tones of four-toes footprints, of weird cries, of a black monster with a muzzle like a pig’s – of, to be specific, the “Jersey Devil.”
Fourteen years ago last fall the “Jersey Devil” – the mysterious apparition variously described as breathing fire, having wings, bearing tusks, hairy and bloodcurdling – terrorized the rural parts of South Jersey, slaughtered hogs, pigs, and chickens, frightened humans and was hunted on the outskirts of 50 towns, but never caught.
Several times later, the credulous declare, it reappeared in various forms.
Now it has been seen again, so the story goes.
A farmer living near a clump of woods on the edge of this town heard an agonizing squeal from his pig pen.
Rushing out he found a 200-pound hog lying dead.
Leading to the woods were four-footed, four-toed tracks.
Another hog was similarly killed. Then a third hog was slaughtered and the clues were the same.
Robert Eberhart, 13, and Phyllis Pisecco, 15, were returning home from school for lunch by way of a path through a clump of woods.
They stopped as they heard a moaning like that of an injured child. Robert walked into the thicket in the direction of the sound.
A moment later he came running toward the girl and behind him, according to both children, was a shaggy black monster with a pig’s snout, emitting uncanny cries.
The children ran home, outdistancing the animal.
John Eberhart, Robert’s father, reported the incident to the police.
Source: The Washington times. (Washington [D.C.]), 20 Dec. 1929.
