Hey weirdos, it's Ash here, ready to share a little secret.
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Hey weirdos, I'm Ash.
I'm Alayna. And this is Morbid.
we have a special guest today weirdos party party party it's Jodi Sweetin hello you probably know Jodi as Stephanie Tanner like first and foremost because iconic iconic but Jodi thank you so much for coming on this is like huge for us we're so excited oh my gosh this is huge for me I'm a big fan of the show and it's like I when I first jumped on the zoom I was like oh my gosh like I know these voices so yeah it's I'm also excited to be here.
I love Morbid. I love all things spooky and weird and creepy.
And and you guys are hilarious.
So, yeah. Oh, thank you.
Yes, we feel the same way, too.
As soon as you came on the Zoom, I was like, oh, my God, old friend.
Yeah, old friend. Just yep.
Yep. It's true. Living room.
Yeah. You didn't even know it, but I was in your living room.
That's wild. That's insane.
Not even when the TV was on.
Just yeah, they're standing.
You have no idea. Yep.
We're all just hanging out together.
Just vibes. Yeah. yeah yeah you didn't i mean you guys were asleep it was a little weird but you know it's fine we've been through a lot together yes yeah yeah in the last five minutes i mean we've been through true solar flares and planets in retrograde lifetimes we've lived lifetimes of things yeah planetary events we've lived together but the main reason that we're all here is the spooky of it all hell yeah so we have a couple spooky questions for you before we get into the the actual like cryptid of it all that elena's gonna present but is it cool if we ask you a couple questions first absolutely
go for it all right cool so we know that you're into true crime what would you say is the one case that interested you the most over the years oh man i know it's always a hard one there's so many i mean god i i was like the weird kid at the library when i was like eight to like checking out books on like the amityville horror and like you know like all kinds of weird stuff right all the ghost stories and like weird stuff at the library um oh that was you in the other aisle yeah yeah yeah that was me it was yeah I was hoarding all the weird creepy books um gosh one that's fascinating you know and it
depends because like there's like I I'm I'm fascinated with like serial killers simply because I find like abnormal psych or the sort of various shades of psychology really interesting.
Yeah, totally. Because it's just humans are more terrifying than any monsters we can really make up.
So much so. So for me, I think also because I'm an L .A.
girl, the Night Stalker has always been a fascinating case to me because it also involves the Cecil Hotel in downtown L .A., which I'm also fascinated by.
And my friend and I, my friend lives around the corner there.
So we've gone over there many times trying to, like, figure out how we can be creepy and get in.
um but the night stalker case in particular because I I I think it was what what year was that it was like oh that early like yeah I was gonna say yeah I think it was yeah because I I I was I I mean I was little but I vaguely remember it being sort of in the ether and like being talked about um but for me it's just such a weird case because there's no rhyme or reason yes the The chaos of it all.
Usually it's like it's one of the cases that you go, oh, wow.
Man, like some people just it's just that doesn't there's no victim profile.
It was there was no map.
There was no plan. There was no type.
It was just that was fascinating to me that it was just across the board chaos.
Yeah, it was kids. It was elderly, everything in between.
Yeah. And I also that one is interesting, too, because you read so much about like his childhood and and and brain trauma and not as an excuse, obviously.
But it's an interesting it's just sort of an interesting thing because you can kind of see this whole thing like pieced together.
And as an L .A. girl, I'm always fascinated by those.
Also, the I mean, the Manson murders.
Yeah, obviously. Also, my friend lives on that property.
yeah so like i it's just uh um i mean obviously the house has since been torn down and he's built a place and stuff but um but yeah it's i mean it's the property nonetheless so yeah yeah and that's kind of like a similar thing too like no rhyme no reason just pure chaos yeah pure and yeah and that one had like a weird beach boys connection and so yeah like there's so yeah there's i have several weird like connections to that case in particular so um yeah it's pretty pretty fucked up those are two can i say that yeah i can say that yeah yeah oh yeah we hear all the time got it i was like wait yeah
i can okay just checking yeah i can what were you gonna say no i was those two are like it really is the chaos of it all that stresses me out especially about the night stalker case yeah when you can go down to like like kids and go all the way up to like 90 year olds and everything yeah like it's like it was and no real rhyme or reason as to um the way it was done method like not yeah and that for me is it again from like the psychology aspect of it is really interesting because it's the chaos of that mind that comes out in that way is is I think that's the thing is I'm like I so desperately
want to understand not understand but like what it's so unrelatable that type of horror to me and i think that's like a lot of true crime is like it's so beyond that i'm like what in the world could possibly make someone go there and anyway it's just fascinating to me and yeah and getting to go to like the hotel cecil yes my friend and i like figured out how to get into the alley behind the thing there where like you can go to the place where like he's yeah yeah so did anything happen happen while you were at the Cecil?
Like any kind of paranormal happenings?
No, because I mean, we've got, we've also gone during the day, but I, I mean, I, I've, there's so many great, historic, creepy places in downtown LA.
But no, nothing ever happened while we were there.
But they've now since reopened it again.
Oh yeah, I saw that recently.
And turned it into, they originally were going to take it and turn it into like luxury condos.
Yeah. no imagine that that's a choice which well that they do that to everything in downtown la and obviously the housing market sucks and no one has money to buy two million dollar condos downtown no uh anymore so yeah so they i think they have now reverted it back to um like low -income housing oh which was kind of what it was previously yeah yeah um but there was also that weird weird documentarian that that was at the hotel cecil oh yeah i want to say he was dutch or yeah i'm trying to remember what there was that guy yeah there was the girl that wound up in the water tank yeah elisa lamb that's
like a really sad case really wild and just like bonkers yeah yeah yeah yeah there's all kinds of weird stuff but they have now since turned it back into i think it's low -income housing again which is much needed downtown um but it'll be interesting you you know that place is just such a people say it's like a hotbed of really weird activity and so I definitely wanted to figure out how to go in there before they turned it into anything I was like I want to go in here while it's empty oh yeah that's what I feel like that's when something would happen oh yeah so have you ever had any paranormal
experience in general in your life that's been like holy shit yes I have nice so okay you're like sit back for this one I'm like so So picture this Sicily 19.
No. So this was 10 years ago or a little more.
I worked in drug and alcohol treatment.
I was a director of operations and we had several properties here in L .A.
that we rented. And one of which was this huge property up off of Wonderland here in the Hollywood Hills.
hills and it i think used it was owned or jared leto bought it after we had rented it out or something iconic it's a it takes up three addresses it's a gigantic property and it was originally built as a military uh base they it has a soundstage attached to it they would shoot um world war ii propaganda films here and it's also rumored that they held people there um without because it was in the Hollywood, it's way back there, like way before there were houses or anything.
And it goes down about three or four stories into the side of the mountain.
And it's got 18 inch thick cement walls.
It's a nuclear fallout shelter.
It's a whole thing.
So we had it as a property and we, there was, we had it as a sober living and we had, there was like an art art gallery attached.
I mean, it was gigantic, right?
So at the time I was looking for an apartment, had to be out of my old apartment with my kids.
I was going through divorce, whatever.
It was kind of crazy.
And so there was an apartment that was on one of the lower floors of the addresses, had its own separate entrance.
It was like 1200 square feet, but it was just kind of a big room with a little kitchen attached.
And then this ridiculous, gigantic bathroom bathroom that I called the Scarface bathroom because it was like black and white tiled and all mirrored.
And I'm not kidding you.
When I lived there for like the month and a half with my kids, the bathtub was like a small swimming pool.
Like my kids used to just like paddle through it.
Yeah, it was crazy.
They're like, mom, we love this place.
Right. And it was but it was like weirdly old.
Like it was just it was a weird spot to be, but it was kind of cool to live there.
So anyway, I was there.
And when we had first acquired the property, our the handyman that used to go over there all the time he would talk about how like creepy it was over there and we would all kind of laugh and be like oh yeah whatever he's like no no no like it's real there's like a woman's voice that keeps talking and i'm like anyway like whatever like and i i mean i didn't discount it because like you know stuff happens but i was like ah it's probably fine there's so many you know whatever people coming and going well i move in and within maybe the first week or 10 days uh i'm in the bathroom brushing my teeth
and my my younger daughter is b is standing there and kind of looking back into the room and she just starts going no no no no no no oh and i was like what what's happening what are you talking to and she was like it's the lady in the corner again again i don't want to talk to her she's scaring me oh no oh i hate i have goosebumps already i don't like that at all and i was like okay you're like i have to parent through this like shit well let's talk to her and let her know let's communicate i'm always like i don't know what i i don't always like let's reason with them i you know so i was like
um whoever is here right now we know that you're we're in your space like it's okay but um you're scaring my my little one right now and so um you know if you could leave that would be great like i don't know what he's what to say you know i feel like that's the perfect thing to say yeah and then she said like oh you know a few minutes later like she didn't see her anymore but we definitely would um hear knocks on the door um in that hallway and there would be i mean it would be late at night nobody was there and nobody was in that section of the house and yeah like a lot of creepy things like
that happened but the creepiest part is that well not the creepiest part i'd say the lady in in the corner was probably the craziest part.
She takes the cake.
So I had to store all of my stuff in the old film vaults that were on the property.
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And in order to access the film vaults, you had to go downstairs into like down into the thing.
And it was like stepping back into like a 1950s like military.
It was all that weird green metal. oh you know what I mean that you see from like 1950s and 60s offices and stuff and like big sliding doors that were green metal and all like and and the lights were the kind that were on sensors because it was obviously so big so you would walk through somewhere and then if you were still for a while the lights would turn on oh my god that's a terrible setup no so I would be down like carrying stuff down to the vaults or like getting stuff out or whatever and putting it back backpack and um yeah there were definitely quite a few times that I'd be in there and it
was just like like the lights start turning off and you're like oh and then you'd be like waving and if you're not right in front of the sensor you're like okay so you're like waving running up and down a hallway yeah it was it was definitely um a creepy uh a creepy place to live but kind of cool and I'm always glad that I uh can say that I had that experience yeah that's wild that's horrifying horrifying.
Those are a couple of spooky experiences.
It reminded me of the story with your little ones.
Yeah I've told this on the show before but my little ones when they went into their first like big girl beds right they freaked out the first night and we were like oh it's you know it's a new little big girl bed of course the transition like a toddler bed right right of course it's yeah so we come running in we're like what's the matter and they were like and they were right next to the door and there was a little hallway right outside their door and one of them said there's people that keep coming in my room and they're trying to cut my sheets with scissors and I was like right right oh god
I was like there's not like what I don't know what to do here and it's like you're like okay I can't freak out because I can't freak them out more so I was like right right right and then I was like are they here now and they were like no they're right there and they pointed to the dark hallway right outside their room and I was like okay and I was like they're just standing there and they were like yeah they're just there and i was like okay like this was like an old it was an old it was from like the 1800s so i was like right right right and i just stepped into the hallway and i was like hey
every and i was like they're around me right now and they're like yeah and i'm like awesome okay and then i'm like okay guys yeah like awesome right yeah you're just like i don't know what's happening and i feel sort of ridiculous but also this is fine i'd like you know i'm gonna say hi you guys like i'm gonna give this a try yeah so it's like hey guys like you're freaking them out like yeah can you just like chill out not try to cut their sheets tonight like we'll talk about it tomorrow maybe and they were like yeah i was like is everything good now and they were like yeah they never complained
about it again just like one time yeah you gotta yeah that's what i'm saying you gotta like be like excuse me just take a little charge i know i know whatever you're going through you've been been trapped in this weird in -between space for hundreds of years i get that um could you not freak my kids out while we're trying to sleep that would be so much appreciated yeah thanks like i totally get you're going through it if you need someone to talk to come to me it's fine really but like try to cut my sheets like not scare the shit out of the kids because they're never gonna go to sleep and then i'm
gonna be angry yeah like i can deal with it they're gonna going to be traumatized forever so like just come in my room like i can handle it right right right yeah look if you need to cut sheets whatever right here take it here's some old ones yeah have at it but just leave the kids alone please do a craft project like you're dead i can't imagine what that's like so yeah yeah i get it ghost look ghost need crafts too i mean it's gonna get boring for a while you know yeah you know yeah that's wild they were trying to recreate the scene from beetlejuice where they cut the holes out of the eyes of the sheets
and just floated in they were trying to get us out of that was it so that someone would notice them right but they yeah they were like shit they just went about it in a weird way you know you're like oh man guys we're just trying to get our outfits right yeah should have just gone to the linen closet it's true we had some sheets in there and they weren't daniel tiger so they would have been a little better i think so yeah i don't i don't miss the days of like everything being like a a cartoon yeah something thing yeah it's fun with my i have seven year old twins and we're coming out of that a little
bit with them but my three -year -old is like paw patrol and i'm like oh oh yeah yeah you're still now you're still in it seven and three yeah i've got 15 and almost 13 it's a it's it's a wild ride that's a different journey right that must be such a different journey it is it is quite a different journey I just remember who I was at 13 and 15 I'm like sorry mom sorry sorry everyone I've called my mom and apologized so many times oh yeah so many times although now my kids are they're actually great but it really was I mean pandemic did not do anyone any favors but my older one like started middle
school right when it was she was like started sixth grade and then it hit and then it was all seventh and then part of eighth like yeah it was not a great experience because middle school was horrific anyway in and of itself i'll be glad we're done with that truly it is not looking forward to that at all talk about spooky just middle school that's it like just gonna say that's horror right there they are horrifying yeah i would take someone cutting my sheets every single night and and the lady in the corner over having to go to middle school again oh yeah ten times over i welcome it let's go yeah
yeah yeah yeah well i feel like all of of that is like the perfect transition into the jersey devil yeah we're gonna talk about the jersey devil today or the devil in the pine barren the jersey devil does he do uh gym tan laundry or is this a totally different kind of jersey no no that's poly d honestly he might though because there's there's a lot of different versions of him so who knows maybe jersey shore is a version of maybe it is is this like chupacabra type a little bit the new jersey devil a little bit okay yeah it's like lore kind of stuff so i am all about it i love a good cryptid oh
nothing like it a good cryptid we got so many here because we're like around the bridgewater triangle where all that fun stuff is i know i know i remember you guys talking about that one time on one of your episodes about and i was like i have to go yeah like i we'll take you on a tour anytime we will oh my god i i've done like ghost tours here i did a whole night at a theater in and I did a supernatural show here as well with a couple other people that was really fun but I yeah I I'm the one that like goes and finds weird old creepy abandoned places and I'm like you guys we should go in yeah
and everyone else is like something hell yes yeah no thank you no you're our people no we would go in with you we gotta take you to the Lizzie Borden house yeah close by us I would oh my god I want to go there so bad we spent the night there yeah we did it was wild you did was it creepy yeah it was horrifying we didn't sleep I wouldn't let us yeah it has the harshest vibe in there like it is really very hard to relax you can feel it yeah it's heavy yeah yeah yeah yeah fascinating okay yeah we'll make plans for that after yeah okay yeah yeah we'll make our we'll do our our ghost tour plans after part
two is ghost tour can't wait so we're going to talk about the birth of the jersey devil first so the story of the jersey devil is kind of unique to the united states for sure it's the pine barons is where it came out of wow there's so many things that are so unique to the united states that are horrifying it's really unique is such a nice way to put it it's a unique horror to the united states Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
We got, yeah, I know what you're talking about.
So the Pine Barrens in New Jersey is a very dense forested region, and it covers more than 1 ,700 square miles, which is apparently 1 .1 million acres.
Holy shit. That's a lot of acres.
That's all of the acres.
That's a lot of acres.
Many acres. And it's in southeastern New Jersey.
So what's really spooky about this place is that although New Jersey is one of the more heavily populated states in the country, according to author James McCloy, quote, one can travel in the pines for many miles and not encounter a single sign of modern civilization.
Love that. Thank God.
There's, you know, too many miles of human civilization.
conversation truly some open space some somewhere you can go like i forget about those assholes and then yeah exactly just take me all the way off the grid into the pine barrens with the jersey devil right just yeah seriously just please stick me in a tree let's call it a day you guys are going together yeah we're going to pine barrens i'm like have fun guys i was just like tell me about it later i'm like i don't think they have starbucks bye so in addition to a large amount of timber harvested from the pines, the area was also really important for being a source of iron ore and it kind of drove
the iron industry and munitions production during the 17th and 18th century.
Oh, okay, interesting.
I was thinking like World War II, but no, 17th, like yeah, yeah.
Way back. You know, bullets.
You know, bullets. There's always that.
We're always needing bullets.
again right a uniquely american horror i feel where we're going with this so it's a pretty critical part of the region's economy but when manufacturers began relying on cheaper and more plentiful iron ore from the west in the mid -19th century what was once a dense population in and around the pine barrens started to kind of dwindle down much like many industrial cities of the east exactly sorry i'm a big history nerd i'm gonna just interject on every stupid oh no honestly i love that yeah please do so who remained were this small number of really like rugged individuals who were just living off
the land kind of thing they were like we're not leaving the hills have eyes the hills have eyes that's what i'm feeling exactly and i think honestly that's kind of they're like kid from the beginning of deliverance here we go.
Here we go, we're off.
And I think they're like the places around them who are more into like modern conveniences would derogatorily refer to them as the pineys because they were left in the pine barrens.
And honestly, the pineys were like, I don't give a shit.
Like it's cool in here.
It's quiet. We don't like you anyway.
So this is kind of a perfect setting for one of these cryptids or urban legends to come about where it's like the people in the modern civilization with the the people who refuse to leave the Pine Barrens kind of thing.
I think M. Mike Shyamalan did that movie.
Yes. Wasn't it? The Village?
The Village. I love that movie.
That's one of those movies you either love or you hated.
I love it so much. I actually, that's one, I actually like that one.
I do too. He, you know, again, hit or miss, but sorry, not to derail the conversation.
I feel like that was one that just hit.
At the end, I was like, all right.
And it took place not in the Pine Barrens, but exactly.
But close enough. It's reminiscent, for sure.
It's what I'm imagining.
It's what I'm picturing.
It felt very Salem.
You know, Salem. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Love, love, love. We got to take you to Salem, too.
Add it to the list. Right.
It's right over there.
Yes. So according to McCloy, one of the earliest versions of the Jersey Devil's origins are from a woman named Jane Leeds.
So Leeds lived in Estillville, New Jersey, which is about an hour away from the Pine Barrens.
And she was a mother of 12.
Whoa. Of 12 what? What?
12 children? At the time.
Well, actually, yeah, 12 children, I will say.
I mean, my dad's much older and his family each had like 17 and 16 kids on his parents' side.
So yeah, I get it. Oh, goodness.
Wow, that's a lot. I mean, you're living out in the Pine Barrens.
You got to, you know, the kids disappear in the pines.
There you go. So you got to keep just replacing them.
Cheaper by the dozen.
There you go. Oh, great movie again.
And it's, I wonder why, but she was actually referred to as Mother Leeds.
And I'm like, huh, where'd you get that name?
all the dozens of children.
And she's still referred to as that when people talk about this story.
I mean, I feel like it'd be grandmother at this point.
Great, great, great grandmother leads.
Just Nana leads. Old lady leads.
Old lady leads. So she discovered though, that she was pregnant with another child, a 13th child, lucky number 13.
And she, weirdly enough, was not happy about this.
So she cursed the pregnancy and said, wait, though, wait, where's the dad?
That's kind of what I'm wondering.
Yeah, right. Where's the man?
Where's father leads?
That's my question.
Where's old man leads over here?
Where is he in this picture?
I need to talk to him.
That's what I want to know.
I'm like, what do you mean?
Keep it in your pants.
You got 12 kids, my guy.
This woman is losing her mind.
She's out grilling.
He's just always out grilling.
he's like I'm not here sorry he's just like I've gotta go hide the lawnmower although this was probably in the days before running lawnmowers but anyway he's chopping down wood yeah what time period are we talking about by the way just so I can picture what clothes to put these people in in my mind this was like 1700s I want to say yeah so he's chopping wood oh okay got it got it so this is guys like potato sacks these are just children coming out of everywhere we are you know know out in the wilderness it is the 1700s things are not awesome why we came here we don't know everyone's questioning
it everyone's like why are we here yeah but apparently no one decided to leave no and she's like i'm just gonna have all these kids here they really settled truly they settled put down roots yeah really settled in that's for fucking sure they created a civilization of their own but that it was that 13th child that she was not psyched about it's always the It's the 13th kid that really puts you over the edge.
Yeah, lucky number 13.
That's the one when you feel truly outnumbered.
It's number 13. You're like, you know.
It's number 13. Right, right.
I felt like I could handle this.
Up until then. Me and all my personalities are doing pretty well.
But 13th, man. It's just really a bitch. I don't have that 13th.
I can't do it. And she said, she said, I am tired of children.
Let it be the devil.
Let this baby be the devil, she said.
Which I have a couple of questions.
like the baby in you yeah like what why why the devil and two a child would be easier to deal with all i'm saying is if she's hoping that the baby is the devil what is wrong with these kids they must be pretty bad they must if she's like look i'll take a devil baby over these poor assholes you know what i mean like honestly these children must be wild and out what are your kids doing Lighting shit on fire in the Pine Barrens You know, killing small animals They destroyed half the Pine Barrens Poor mother leads I'd rather have a devil baby Well, you know what?
She got one Maybe she's like, you know what?
If I have one devil baby, maybe I'll be about ten kids lighter There you go, and she got it Because apparently this beastly child Came into the world on the evening Of a violent storm that actually Came from the direction of the pine barons in 1735 oh yeah so people also claimed that mother leads probably indulged in sorcery as well which easily explained of course because she's a woman in the 1700s who had a complaint about having 13 babies so therefore she must be a witch get her she's gonna have a devil hurry quick she sank oh she's not a witch yeah whoops too late whoops we'll get it right
next time we were wrong again one less mouthy woman to deal with so obviously this is easily what explains what happened because the legend goes that mother leads gave birth to a healthy very normal average child but within minutes of being placed in her arms the baby began to change into a terribly unholy thing now according to mccloy this is a quote human features disappeared the body elongated tremendously forming into a long serpentine shape hooves replaced the feet its pink chubby baby face coarsened into a long bony structure of a horse's head bat wings sprung from its shoulder blades finally
it arose from the bed larger and more powerful than a fully grown man.
Damn. Then the silence was broken by the monster's rasping snarls as he curled his forked, thick tail and proceeded...
No, no. This is always funny.
He proceeded to beat everyone in the room with it, including Mother Leeds.
With the tail? With the tail.
Well, I mean, if he's...
Look, how big is this room?
You know what I mean?
He might not have meant to.
Like, this baby is just born.
it's trying to get a hold of itself it's probably turning around like oh shit he's got a tail and just whacking people with his giant tail like I'm so sorry I'm oh god and it's just knocking things over maybe devil baby didn't mean to I don't know he's got a lot going on he's got a lot of appendages to deal with devil baby was not to blame here you know look I we've all we've seen the Seinfeld episode we've all seen some ugly babies exactly this was just a a really exceptionally unfortunately stretched out child they're not cute right when they're after they're born they look weird i mean i bumped
into a couple things they do this morning you know i walked in and i bumped into my coffee it could have been the same was it your tail he's got a whole ass tail to contend with he might not have meant to beat everybody with it he was just stressed no spatial awareness you know what i mean it's just like i've got a tail oh my god yeah Yeah.
It's hard. It's hard. I mean, we've all we've all seen babies.
Babies don't have any spatial like a toddler doesn't have spatial awareness.
It bangs and everything.
And now all of a sudden, this baby's growing from like just fresh out of the oven baby into full grown fucking bat wolf.
Yeah. Also, I think I read this article in the New York Daily News at the supermarket about three years ago.
It was bat baby. That's what I'm getting.
Oh, my God. Bad boy.
Yeah. He used to be on the front of every tabloid.
of everything that everyone and the weird head and eyes like oh man that and that was like the days before good ai like someone really fucking photoshopped that thing that was those images together they went to town hell yeah just sharpened teeth and weird and they like dark blue under the eyes look really tired yeah it was wild poor thing yeah and here he was this is his beginning right This is his beginning.
He was also loud because he had an ear piercing bellow and then he flapped his huge wings and shot right up the chimney and out into the night.
Damn. He just went right for it.
He just beat the shit out of everybody in the room and then left. Wow.
That's it's like a giraffe right after birth.
They just get up and go around.
I'm impressed. I am impressed.
He didn't even need to try.
And he knew that the chimney went out, which is impressive.
Smart. Right out the oven.
He was like, I bet that leads out.
I'm going to go out there.
He's like, you know where that goes?
Up. The air. I think that's what that is.
And you know what? You know what I can fit through as a full grown bat human being?
A chimney. Bat chimney.
I think so. Yeah, yeah.
That'll be fun. So according to this account, this very believable account, McCloy notes, several sleeping children with a Jersey Devil's first worldly meal, which is rude.
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Other versions say that his first meal was just the entire Leeds family.
Well, there was a lot of them to, you know, go through.
He either ate his entire family, all 12 children, Mama Leeds, and if there was a Daddy Leeds, he was gone too.
Or he just went out into the night and ate a bunch of sleeping kids.
I mean, I would, I feel like going with the sleeping kids would probably be an easier get at first, you know what I mean?
While you're kind of still learning how to function in this weird devil body.
I think so. You want to, you don't want to work for it.
I mean, my kids first meal was mashed up avocado, but like sleeping babies are, I guess, a great first meal.
Sleeping babies, mashed avocado, whatever works, whatever you have on hand.
choices all I know is I we're all canceled no this is the end of this that's it this is the end I hope this was really fun this has been so fun what a farewell our farewell episode what a farewell the yep the the Leeds Bat Boy has come to take us all there's another version of this story too in case that wasn't good enough so this version takes poor mother Leeds totally out of the equation entirely this baby's creator oh yeah because now there's a totally different different young woman who is also lonely.
It's we got to make sure that we know she's lonely.
And she's from Leeds Point.
It's a 1700s for women.
I'm sure she is. Everybody's not like she's like, hey, let's talk about our feelings, honey.
He's like, I'm going to go cut things in the field and have another woman.
You're a witch. So it's like, yeah, I think they're all lonely is pretty much it.
But apparently this poor woman fell in love with a British soldier during the the american revolution that's and so the obvious punishment for that is getting a devil baby because she betrayed the american cause obviously that's what i always say yeah i mean i feel like that's also a story that i've heard recently people like you know what happens a devil baby that's definitely you're like you know this is familiar so there are besides this one so that's that's the second way that he came about was just like, oops, you married a British soldier.
Wait, sorry, quick tangential question.
Isn't the New Jersey Devils the name of their hockey team?
Sure is. Because now they're, now we're proud of it.
Now we're like, okay, it was a thing where everybody was scared of it.
And then at the end, they were like, let's name a hockey team after it.
They were like, this thing is pretty rad.
This thing that eats children sleeping in bed, we're going to name a hockey team after it.
So there are other less common versions of the story that kind of incorporate like one or more of the elements of those two kind of like mixed and match. Right, right, right.
But in any case, they all just result in some hideous creature being born and either fleeing or being forcibly cast out into the Pine Barrens.
And that's where it would adapt and live to this very day.
So like any legend, the Jersey Devil exists mostly or in large part, heart I would say to kind of explain a variety of unfortunate or difficult events and phenomena in the region I blame it for everything I'm everything that's happening right now the echo in the zoom it's his fault the planet's going backwards all of it they would blame like droughts and crops on the Jersey devil cows under producing milk the Jersey devil the absence of fish in a local stream the Jersey devil it's all his fault and in one instance American naval hero Commodore Stephen how do you say it Dave?
Decatur. I was like David will know.
Decatur oh yeah yeah yeah D -E -C -A -T -E -U -R or whatever.
There you go Commodore Stephen Decatur I like it.
He visited the Hanover Iron Works in Burlington New Jersey just to like oversee the production of cannonballs because he wanted to make sure they met his standards and would actually work you know.
Imagine if that was your job the oversight of cannonballs.
Truly I just got to make sure they're cannonballs i just gotta make sure that the balls are looking good i just need it to be a sphere here to measure the balls but that afternoon while he was readying the cannons for test firing he observed a bizarre creature flapping its wings across the range and everyone present on the range that day backed up his that his aim was perfect when he fired the cannon and directly through the Jersey devil and apparently literally ripped a hole straight through the Jersey devil but the Jersey devil just was like and he just kept going like merely a flesh wound and just
flew off like it was not at all worried about this but everyone there was like saw it he shot a cannonball at the Jersey devil that's wild i just picture him like he's just like flying away right yeah yeah way to test fire i thought in your general direction yeah like they enact the entire scene for monty byron yeah he's the original now across southern new jersey the devil was definitely a common scapegoat um he was blamed throughout this 19th century again for like loss of livestock on farms uh he became the source of howling and shrieking that would be heard by farmers which i'm also like maybe
what was it if it wasn't that maybe we should investigate yeah i was gonna say it was someone being murdered and buried on someone's property is what that was but we're just blaming a cryptid but every now and then apparently the devil would make his way out of the pines and would be spotted on battlefields and more heavily populated areas like atlantic city so there were sightings he's a tourist you know he just wants to see the sights that feels also very on brand for the jersey devil like hey i'm gonna go to some battlefields and it legs in atlantic city you know what i mean like i'm gonna to go
blow some shit up with those cannonballs and gamble exactly it really makes sense has anyone ever seen the jersey devil and a certain former president just saying i've been thinking that the entire time do we know it's are there reports i never have are there right i can say i haven't but who am i to say that's all she wrote has it been on a simpsons episode because because if it has if it has and we know it is true then we know yeah okay i like it but it wasn't really until the very end of the 19th century that he began to begin to appear in news reports that's when we started reporting on him
got it got it he started giving interviews then that's when he was like his manager was like you really need to give a quote yeah he got out he was like this yeah i was like look dude you've got to get out and fight this story i mean like i know you know you've gotta let people know what's going on exactly you gotta give me a reason people are gonna misunderstand me no one's gonna listen they're gonna take it out of context and I'm just eating babies you know that's I it's hard it's hard there's that whole story where I beat everyone in the room upon birth with my tail right he's like I just was it
was my tail no one's gonna believe that right so I get it he's he's in a difficult position and we believe you I'm so sorry I've come on as a guest to your show and completely taking it off the rails oh no oh no we love that this is what we need there are no rails off the rails is where we live we rarely live i was just gonna say our show has never ever been on the rails it shouldn't be okay good i only like to do off the rails shows because that's how my brain works it's our brains as well so on july 29th 1899 issues of the new jersey city news reported that the beast had quote reappeared in new
jersey for the first time since it warned the pioneers of the approach of the civil war which i was like wow i love that he just is like hey guys this thing is like nostradamus too it's also it's all yeah wait wait who did it warn about the civil war did it go up to someone and be like hey guys pass it on more it's gonna be really fucked up just let you know but we're gonna call it civil we're gonna call it did he tell that did he tell mr cannonball corporal decatur i'm saying i need to know because someone knew that the civil war was coming from the jersey devil and didn't say shit and he didn't
pass it on yeah because because you know the jersey devil was like pass it on and that guy was like i'm not gonna pass it on yeah he was like she's gonna let it happen right and then now he's like i'm getting a bad name meanwhile i tried to warn people he's like if I say pass it on you pass it on you know at the end of this I think that we're gonna come out that the Jersey Devil is uh has just been mis misaligned this yeah hundreds of years yeah misunderstood he needs to do a tell -all memoir is what he needs to do I can't wait I'll do it right let's keep our eyes out for that it's gonna happen
I wouldn't I wouldn't doubt anything these days truly I don't know I wouldn't either we're manifesting it it's gonna hit number four on the like new york times bestseller okay yeah good for him i called that like oh yeah i got the audiobook so the article described the beast as quote a strange combination of serpentine body horse head cloven hooves and forked tail which is pretty much the origin description oh which okay we're sticking with the original original body shape yeah we're going with that i hope he's gotten to use the tail a little better at this point though i think he probably got
used to it at this point uh but he was believed to have been banished from the area many years after bringing considerable misfortune to the residents of jersey of south jersey but wait does that mean that he's there hanging out and being welcomed in and people are like come on buddy that's what i wonder like are you hanging out with him then have a drink and then all of a sudden they're like whoa whoa whoa that was you one too many fucking cows okay buddy you gotta go you crossed a line well several years later in the spring of 1905 the devil started making headlines again and this time with a slightly
different story attached to him now so in the article oh exactly it's changes a hundred thousand times changing up right right changing he's always evolving with the times the old story wasn't working not getting as much traction exactly gotta change it up a little bit gotta change it up so the article was titled story of the leads devil and a reporter for camden's morning post newspaper alleged that the devil had been born many years ago in bordentown new jersey and was the product of a relationship between an american sea captain and his wife oh well now it does it does involve um because they
called him or they called the woman a tarlatan before she married the captain which when i first heard that i was I was like, is that like a mixture of a harlot?
A harlot and a charlatan?
Yeah, like is that what that is?
A lying... That's what I thought it would be.
This woman? But apparently a tarlatan is a village in England.
So I think they were just going back to that whole like, it's not an American, so that's what happened.
But like the Mother Leeds origin story, the captain's wife wished not to have a second child and was not psyched about the baby even before it was born.
So she gave birth to a child bearing a close resemblance to the Orthodox devil.
Oh, so now we're getting the real devil into it.
And exactly. And now that this.
Oh, the basfomet, the one with the horns and the basfomet.
Yeah, like the whole.
He's literally right there.
He is. He's hanging out right here.
Yes, I love him. So yeah, he's great.
He's so cool looking.
He is. Right. He's great.
He's doing the whole like as above, so below thing.
Yeah, the whoop piece.
uh so that's this is what that baby did it was like whoop hey and they were like that's not okay so they're like no thank you so judgmental really you know just for your thinking that's all listen to what he has to say man but apparently he became known and known in the neighborhood as the leeds devil and i love because when this came out it was like he's walking to school with his backpack like there's a devil already he's like mom yeah he's like you know i'm just trying to get to chemistry but yeah exactly i love it period man because it said like it was a surprise to no one that she gave birth
to the devil and it's like to no one like no one was i don't know i feel like i would be surprised if i was there like that's harleton she's from england i'm just gonna i'm gonna invent tarleton though as the word that we described and just start using it it feels right like i think it's an excellent word it's more tarleton it's got a good tarleton to it yeah you You tarlatan.
And you can say it to people and they won't know what you mean at all.
But they'll know it's an insult, that's for sure.
Because it's got all those T's in it.
One of those great words that you don't quite know what it means, but you know it's supposed to slap you.
Hell yeah. I love those.
You're a tarlatan. So despite being described as looking like the orthodox devil and being described as a demon -human hybrid, the Morning Post said that the beast is not just something of legend, but was actually a real creature that terrorized the town until it crawled into the fireplace and up the chimney and into the Pine Barrens.
So it's always going up a chimney.
But once he had left to go in the pines, he would be seen by townsfolk in and around the pines and in the woodlands and desolate tracts in the southern section of the state.
So that was going on.
And then for much of the 19th century, the story, it appeared in newspapers from time to time, but it kind of was just like a oral storytelling thing.
and by the beginning of the 20th century all of a sudden there was a rash of sightings in more than 30 different towns and it elevated this story to be like a full -blown like national thing that everybody was watching okay there you go and during the week of january 16th 1909 thousands of people from southern new jersey to trenton reported seeing the jersey devil or at least seeing the tracks left behind.
So in Trenton, the devil's hoof prints were discovered in White Horse Park and in some backyards of a bunch of residence houses.
Oh my God. Imagine if that was your house.
I'm saying. I would think that was pretty cool.
I would think that was awesome.
I'd be excited. Yeah.
Like I want a big foot to just walk through my backyard. Oh, I didn't say that.
I did. Yeah. I want that to happen.
That's your manifestation.
I would say, hey, and just have him walk right Right through.
I would say, yeah. Just, Hey, Hey, so cool to see you.
Yeah. I want, I get it.
Yeah. You don't want to be, you want to be left alone out here, minding your business, having your lunch. You know, I get it.
I'm not going to blow up your spot.
I just want to say hi.
Yeah. I see your hat that says no pictures.
It's okay. Like I respect you.
That's fine. You're dressed in disguise.
Your security people are with you.
I get it. Carry on.
Carry on my friend.
Thanks for the visit.
Yeah. But one of the residents told the local, uh, local reporter, I recognize the tracks from those reproduced in the newspapers they look to me as if it was the hoof of was that of a young cult not a cloven hoof as I've heard of it being described so if it was a young that person probably then got murdered by the rest of the townspeople that were like it's the devil I mean it's like you guys I'm pretty sure it's just like a small horse on the loose they're like I feel like it's just an animal though they're like you're a witch yeah and apparently after After these reports came out in Trenton,
letters from residents in nearby towns started reporting sightings of what they described as a one -legged, one -footed bird that had been lurking about the city and attacking small animals.
I had a one -legged bird once.
You had a one -legged bird?
I had a one -legged bird. I had a canary.
Anyway, that's my one -legged canary story.
Please go. You had like a one -third Jersey devil.
It's a good two truths in a lie.
Just edit it out. Just edit all of it out.
Just the intro. hi welcome jodi sweeten and then edit everything else i said out i'd be like let's get to the fucking point that was fun i thought jodi sweeten was there like she was she was really here like too much never never so the attacks caused a small panic but to along uh southern and northern new jersey so much so and i this i would say this is more than a small panic they um actually closed schools and factories down at one point because they were so panicked and residents were locking their doors and windows scared this thing was going to come into their house The Jersey Devil is the new
Snow Day People were like, it's coming for you and they're like, close the schools, close the factories, don't do anything, no more cannonball building No more cannonball measuring That was his thing He was like, I don't want to be shot by a cannonball again again, I'm going to shut all this shit down.
And I don't want these kids getting smart enough to go work in a factory.
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So one man in Bristol was actually awakened one night who his young daughter screams in the night, and when he ran into her room he saw through the window a large beast standing just outside along the banks of the river and he described the noises it was making as quote like the scratching of a phonograph before the music begins and yet it also had something of a whistle to it you know how the factory whistle sounds well it was something like that and i said no sir i don't know what the factory whistle sounds like but i can imagine wait was that a quote that would no that was me that was me at the end
that was just you got it wouldn't that be amazing if the reporter was like i don't know what that sounds like but thank you but it sounds like a phonograph like and then it also sounds like i would imagine you know what though have you ever heard it have you ever heard cats fighting on your roof at two in the morning i can't say i have i'm just saying that shit sounds like the devil it does i'm not a huge fan of cats but that yeah i just i can't imagine what like mouth shape this thing was making to make those kinds of sounds like the like scratch sounds and then they're like it was like you know
it's sort of like beatboxing you know you watch people like i don't know how you're making that noise with your mouth but it's like coming out yeah you know they're like doing it all at once that's actually hilarious not like I just did because that was terrible.
That was really good.
I liked it. It was also like kind of like ventriloquism, you know?
Yeah. Maybe he had like a mini Jersey devil.
Maybe. And he was like, watch what it says.
It's about just doing the side thing.
Yeah. Look at this thing.
It's a scritch, scritch, scritch. Woo.
I was like, holy shit.
Now, everyone from children to police officers reported seeing the Jersey devil.
And in one case, Patrolman James Sackville of the Bristol Police reported going to investigate reports of dogs howling and barking in a residence yard. And when he turned to leave the area, he ended up finding himself standing right in front of the Jersey Devil.
Oof. Also, this guy, Patrolman James Sackville, he went on to serve as the city's chief of police.
Oh, damn. And he described the devil as winged and hopping like a bird, but also had the features of some peculiar animal.
And he claimed, which this is my favorite claim because I'm like, no, you didn't.
He claims that he ran towards the beast. And I was like, did you, James, did you?
Whatever. I don't know.
I don't know about that.
Untrue. If this thing is standing there looking the way it looks and it goes, ricker, ricker, woo.
He had a reputation to uphold.
You shit yourself. and then you ran away and changed and then you were like i ran after it and you did not serve yeah no way and he and he also said this thing ran away from him this thing retreated down the path mm -hmm he also said that it emitted a frightening cry or it's frightening cry until it flew out of sight so it went and then ran out of it was like remix i'm gonna leave now while most who claim to have seen the beast described it as bird -like at least with the wings and all that and that like screechy sound.
Well, some used completely unique descriptions.
EW minister, Bristol's postmaster at the time, described the devil as having a head resembling that of a ram with curled horns.
And he said his neck was thrust forward in flight.
So he was just slithing.
He's just slithing.
But he ended up making his way south from Trenton and he began causing some more havoc now in the early morning hours of january 19th mr and mrs nelson evans that's my birthday no way well a couple on your birthday they were woken up by strange noises and looked out their window to find the devil quote cavorting before their eyes on the roof of their shed which i just picture him being like like sassy on the roof of their just like shimmying a little of it rewarding to me just seems like it's like what's happening out there rewarding to me feels like was there a was there a late bg devil you know
what i mean was it were things happening on the room was there that's what i thought or was he right or was he just by himself which is weird bro come on don't do that nobody needs that in the middle of the night and yeah not on my roof don't do it on a shed i need you cavorting on the roof of my house come on go give it go to the woods you've got a whole fucking forest go find some privacy you've got an entire pine barrens to do that in with like a lack of civilization this feels inappropriate sir it really does but in their report to the newspapers mr evans said the devil was about three feet
and three feet and a half high with a head like a collie dog and a face like a horse what how do you have a head like one thing and a face like another that's what i was just thinking well he did have a long neck wings about two feet long this is what's weird though he said his back legs were like those of of a crane and it had horses hooves what sir I'm sorry what are you talking about this man had some chocolate before bed how did how did crane legs hold this whole thing but then the feet are horses hooves it's like I just also love that nobody can agree what the fuck this looks like nobody
can nobody can he also he also said he watched this thing for about 10 minutes in the backyard and then he opened the window this is my favorite part he said he opened the window and he went shoo and the devil turned around barked at him and then flew away i love that it took him 10 whole minutes to go what should i say to this shoo shoo and he went rough and then if the devil leaves when i say shoo i'm not scared well he wasn't done because by the end of the week the devil had made its way down to philadelphia oh wow a reporter for the morning call wrote scientists are puzzled to give a name
to the beast which is a combination of bat kangaroo and pony what now he's a kangaroo like now that we're adding in kangaroo to the mix i'm like oh i get locking your doors now i don't want that yes i want to know you just come and kick your door down you know what i mean yeah and what part of it is kangaroo is i heard cran legs in in this same uh this same article from this reporter for the morning call he said if something rather weird is not flying around the condition of mind of south jersey and south philadelphia would provide a feast for students of mob hallucination so i think this reporter
is like i think you're all hallucinating yeah but in an editorial in the atlantic city daily press one person wrote when one stops to think about how absurd is the latest jersey sensation about the leeds devil which has been given much space in the newspapers of the entire country one must feel ashamed of himself to think that he stopped long enough to read the headlines less the entire article rude which i was like okay that's rude that was directly at officer shots fired officer ballsack or whatever his name was that yeah it was like yeah bro that's true yeah but i'm like you know like live
a little it's also like let's believe in this little devil well like are you not writing an article but can you imagine if you're like living somewhere and just every story is like a pony kangaroo collie showed up at the door you're like shut up and your editor's like you have to write an article about this a week later or so sightings of the jersey devil after this little article the sightings just kind of ended and And everyone was apparently shamed out of saying it.
I was going to say everyone was ashamed of themselves.
Everyone was ashamed.
But then the Jersey Devil, the Jersey Devil was like, you guys, no, like I'm not letting you be ashamed.
Because he made just one more appearance in a village just outside Salem that February before returning to the Pine Barrens.
So in the months and years that followed, people all over southern New Jersey and northern Pennsylvania started to theorize as to what could have caused the sighting.
and they were blaming it on everything from a complete hoax and misidentified creatures to genuine sightings of the actual jersey devil the brooklyn meteor research society suggested it was quote a type of marsupial carnivore which a kangaroo is a marsupial correct that's what i was just gonna say or fishapad both previously thought to be extinct so we're thinking it's like an extinct creature that we are like oh shit we're wrong what is a fishapad it's just when you have toes separated to the base so it just means cloven footed oh okay that makes sense so they thought that was extinct and they
were like maybe it's not and the academy of natural science on the other hand told reporters there is no bird which could make such tracks in the snow and there is no scientific record of such animals or as have been described in the newspapers so they're like shut up shut up if the academy of natural sciences was unable to find evidence of any animal that would resemble anything described in the papers it's probably because despite some of the overlap in those descriptions like you know the wings and the the horse feet and the cloven hooves and all that stuff they they also varied so wildly from one
description to the next that it's like of course you're not going to find something that makes sense yeah no and also you know at night cavorting on a roof there's no you know there's no street lights there's no outdoor door lights not like you can flip on the the garage sensor light you know i mean it is you are just going by what you see dancing in the dark dancing in the moonlight and you just woke up too so you're groggy then many years after the jersey devil panic of 1909 had kind of ended people in and around south jersey started reporting uh reportedly started attempting to create additional
action by making their own jersey devil footprints and reporting them to authorities in the press They wanted to start it up again.
Right, right, right, right.
Because I'm sure that hadn't happened before.
Yeah, of course not.
All those other ones were fake ones.
Yeah. And in one case, a Philadelphia animal trainer was hoping to bolster attendance to his performances, so he kind of contributed to the press with the whole thing.
He told reporters his vampire bat had escaped and was on the loose and attributed that to the increase in devil sightings.
He's like, oh, sorry.
And actually, and this leads right into one of the biggest hoaxes was from that was probably the one that Norman Jeffries of New York did.
He was an entrepreneur with a real penchant for very bizarre promotional events.
He wanted to capitalize on the whole hysteria surrounding the devil.
So he bought a small kangaroo from a friend in upstate New York and planned to pass it off as the Jersey Devil.
So there were small kangaroos in upstate New York is what I'm saying.
There were. And it's not.
That's my issue. Thank you.
Why is there a kangaroo in upstate New York?
Your guess is as good as mine.
And it gets worse because he painted green stripes on the kangaroo.
But the kangaroo licked the paint off before it dried.
Now the kangaroo's got lead poisoning.
So then he attempted to attach a set of wings.
wings and apparently the kangaroo just demolished the wings that he made because it's a kangaroo and it's like why the fuck are you putting wings it was like i'm already cool enough on my own yeah he's like i'm a fucking kangaroo what are you doing i'm yoked i am yoked don't mess with me so he made a second set of wings out of bronze and rabbit fur and that worked he put the wings on his jersey devil and then he draped the kangaroo in nets and paid about 10 like local local heathens to act as farmers with pitchforks surrounding the animal in a cage oh that makes me really sad that's so horrible
like fuck you man this animal's like what is wrong with you i'm just a small give me back to that guy i'm still in new york and i yeah that's all that's all he's like i belong in australia get me the fuck out of here and this whole thing happened in the basement of the dime museum and spectators were led in one by one to look at the jersey devil but they could only look at it for a second or two when the curtain would be lifted and then it would be dropped immediately but throughout the 19th century residents of southern new jersey feared the jersey devil and they panicked at the mere mention of a sighting
it was a big deal and stories of his presence would circulate from town to town and sometimes posses were formed to capture it and bounties were placed for on its head some ranging from a hundred to a hundred thousand dollars damn and by the 1930s societal attitudes toward the devil kind of changed because all of a sudden instead of forming posses to go you know to put a bounty on his head they were like we kind of love him like he's kind of our guy and he became like 130 years of pride and in 1938 the The Jersey Devil was officially designated as the state demon of New Jersey, making it the first
only state demon in the country.
Wow. I was going to say, wait, wait, wait, that that feels like it implies that there's other state demons.
And I would like to know that.
I was so hoping there was more.
Can we make more? I would love to make more state demons.
It sounds like you could.
You know that there's some states in this country that definitely I'm like, I could think of a few.
I could think of some demons.
that we could name and while sightings of the creature definitely became less common than they once were like we talked about earlier it the name became popular and even became the name of an nhl talkie team called the new jersey doubles look at that foreshadowing there you go look at i i can't believe i first of all i can't believe i knew the name of the nhl hockey team for new jersey that is a random piece of information that was good um but secondly wow way to just it would be like if we had just uh the bad boy nhl team the bad boys that would be a good baseball team oh yeah boys oh although i
don't think anybody would be very like intimidated by them i don't think so either i'd be like here hold my bat here oh my god tall as far as we know yeah it's not very intimidating either what goes away when you say shoe no come on that's that's fair right you know what bat boys it is bat boys there you go bat boys but the jersey devil never went away he's still he appears in books and television shows he's in video games he's in movies he's like on late night talk shows you know he he is at the forefront of licensing out his imaging to ai is what he's doing hell yeah he's gonna be on the next
one of like the hot wing show i've been trying to start my dj career all of a sudden now he's like i'm a soundcloud rapper i've got you know i've got i've got a podcast i've got an nhl team really his branding and marketing is genius top notch congratulations it all started in the beginning she was like give a quote find him on tiktok guys yeah at the jersey devil doing doing trending dances that's him i would love that so that that's the story of the jersey devil that was so much fun i really like that the jersey devil is fun yeah i kind of love it rarely does it wind up in the naming of an nhl
hockey team you know true so go new jersey how many cryptids can claim that yeah yeah right pour one out they gotta keep something going and that's good for them it's true oh you guys this was so much fun this was so much fun thank you so much for coming on yeah seriously you are literally welcome back you are so fun anytime i well what i'm going to start doing now is listening to the podcast when i'm driving around my car and just interjecting my own thoughts uh that you will neither be able to hear nor will anyone else but i'll feel like i'm a part of the podcast voice note them to us i was just
gonna say we'll exchange numbers and you can voice note it no seriously this has been so much fun i'm such a huge fan of you guys i I love, I love your energy.
I love like the vibe, everything.
It's great for somebody who also obviously tells stories with 1500 side stories.
It's really great to listen to.
Thank you so much. And we're huge fans.
So this was a big deal.
I think, what was it that Drew said?
Drew goes, this, my fiance, he goes, this is your biggest get.
Like, and I was like, I agree.
I was like, yes. And our researcher, Dave, dave who did like all of the research for the jersey devil stuff great work huge fan huge hallmark he's in the room hi dave we got great job you did great i know you're always doing a lot of research and you do a really great job with it hell yeah dave for the win research yeah yeah because i i know how it is having a podcast if i were left to do all of my own work it would it would be a shit show so yeah we did for a while and then we were like well then it it was like chaotic we were like help help dave yeah and dave swooped in like the jersey devil
and said i've got you he beat us with his tail we pulled it out of his little pouch because he's a smoking guru went and just yeah he flew in the room it was great he was just storing it well this has been amazing well thank you guys so much for listening thank you jody for joining us we hope you guys keep listening and we hope you keep it weird dude but not so weird that you actually wind up like stitching on like hooves onto a small kangaroo and putting it on your roof to cavort and then trying to sell it to stories and and make a big thing about it and naming it an nhl hockey team like don't
keep it that weird but almost never that was fantastic because all of a sudden i was like fuck i'm blanking yes it's happening If you like Morbid, you can listen early and ad -free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
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