| Joseph Bonaparte and The New Jersey Devil: | | | | City to Trenton in 1909. Until this time, tales of the Devil |
| "Commodore Stephen Decatur was an American | | | | were passed by word-of-mouth. However, published |
| naval hero in the early nineteenth century. According to | | | | police and newspaper accounts during a famous |
| legend, he visited the Hanover Mill Works to inspect his | | | | week in January of 1909 took the story of the Devil |
| cannonballs being forged. While there, he visited a firing | | | | from folk belief to authentic folk legend. Thirty different |
| range and sighted a flying creature flapping its wings. | | | | sightings in a one-week period told of the Devil sailing |
| He fired a cannonball directly upon it. It had no effect | | | | across the Delaware River to Maryland, Pennsylvania |
| and the creature flew away. | | | | and Delaware. Newspaper articles created a near |
| Joseph Bonaparte, the brother of Napoleon Bonaparte | | | | panic in the region. |
| and former King of Spain, was reported to have seen | | | | Theory and the Devil |
| the Devil. The incident took place in Bordentown, New | | | | After the 1909 appearances, the scientific community |
| Jersey while he was game hunting in the nearby | | | | was asked for possible explanations. Reportedly, |
| woods. | | | | science professors from Philadelphia and experts from |
| The infamous Captain Kidd is reputed to have buried | | | | the Smithsonian Institution thought the Devil to be a |
| treasure in Barnegat Bay. Legend has it he beheaded | | | | prehistoric creature from the Jurassic period. Had the |
| one of his men to guard forever his buried treasure. | | | | creature survived in nearby limestone caves? Was it a |
| Accounts claim the headless pirate and the Jersey | | | | pterodactyl or a peleosaurus? New York scientists |
| Devil became friends and were seen in the evenings | | | | thought it to be a marsupial carnivore. Was it an extinct |
| walking along the Atlantic and in nearby marshlands. | | | | fissiped? However, the Academy of Natural Sciences |
| In Clayton, New Jersey, the Devil was chased by a | | | | in Philadelphia could not locate any record of a living of |
| posse to the edge of a wooded area. The Devil fled | | | | dead species resembling the Jersey Devil." (2) |
| into the wood. The posse, afraid to pursue him, halted | | | | There is a remote 'possibility' that the Hapsburgs and |
| and declared 'if you're the Devil, rattle your chains.' | | | | Randolphs or other Merovingian sorcerers who live in |
| The Devil's taste varies. He was seen cavorting at | | | | the upper Chesapeake area have something to do |
| sea with a mermaid in 1870. And he is reputed to have | | | | with this Devil. Some of their rituals definitely involve the |
| had a ham and egg breakfast with a Republican - | | | | invocation of Asmodeus or other elementals that |
| Judge French. But the Devil is not known to have | | | | some call demons. They also claim to be able to |
| specific political leanings. | | | | shape-shift but I suspect they are involved in projecting |
| The Devil's sightings have covered great geographic | | | | hallucinations or what is called mind-fogging. In any |
| distances. - from Bridgeton to Haddonfield in 1859; to | | | | event it is interesting to find Napoleon's brother living in |
| the New York border in 1899; and from Gloucester | | | | these parts of America. |