Cryptozoology

See The Jersey Devil Here!

Come on in! See the Jersey Devil. Step right up. Get your tickets here. Look inside and see the actual Jersey Devil. Actually visible below, for real… In circus, sideshow, and carnival jargon, the gaff is the gimmicked item, the taxidermy fake, the rigged prop often used by the illusionists, the sideshow artists, the showmen to turn the tip, that is, get the audience, to enter the sideshow, tent, attraction, freakshow, exhibition. The Jersey Devil and the gaff go hand-in-hand. Take what happened…a hundred years ago. In 1906 huckster Norman Jefferies, publicity manager for C.A. Brandenburgh’s Arch Street Museum in [...]

Jersey Devil and Ivan T. Sanderson

One January night in 1909, E. P. Weeden of the Trenton, New Jersey City Council bolted upright in bed when he heard someone trying to break down his door. It was a most unusual “someone,” apparently, because Weeden also heard distinctly the sound of flapping wings. Councilman Weeden rushed to his second-floor window and looked outside. He did not see the intruder, but the sight that greeted his eyes chilled him far more than the icy temperature ever could: In the snow on the roof of his house something had left a line of tracks. And whatever that “something” was, [...]

Tom Slick, Snowmen, and Spying

In conjunction with the University of Texas’ display, "Bigfoot in Texas?" this weekend, one of the speakers will be Catherine Nixon Cooke, a niece of Tom Slick. Ms. Cooke in 2005 published her book, Tom Slick, Mystery Hunter from Paraview, Inc. A question I would ask her if I was there: Was the late Texas oil and beef millionaire Tom Slick partially using his Snowmen expeditions to hide, in plain sight, his spying activity? Tom Slick’s life-long cryptozoological pursuits have been worthy of my attention for 46 years. My awareness about his probable spying has occurred in the last two [...]