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Writer's pictureFATE Magazine

Man Claims to Have Photographed Mythical 'New Jersey Devil'


David Black says he witnessed the creature sprout wings and begin to fly.

One man continues to stand behind his claim that he snapped a photo of the mythical “New Jersey Devil” soaring through the sky, even though, he said, people have been calling him crazy.

David Black, a resident of the Garden State, says he captured a winged animal on camera Monday evening while on his way home from work.

Black told ABC News he was driving around 6 p.m. Monday when he saw what he believed to be a llama running outside. And as he got closer, he said, he pulled out his camera and snapped a photo. Then, suddenly, he said, the creature sprouted wings and took flight from a golf course.

Black said his heart was racing as he witnessed both a "childlike wonder and deep-seeded child nightmare" while capturing the apparent black cryptid.

The myth of the “New Jersey Devil” dates back to 1735 in U.S. folklore, which describes tales of a creature that's said to be half human, half devil.

Indeed, Black isn't the only one making hard-to-believe accounts that he saw the devil Monday. Another person shared a video allegedly showing the animal less than 9 miles from where Black said his encounter took place.

Although he said people are laughing at his report, Black said he wanted to alert the community, saying that the creature "could snatch children out of cribs" and "steal souls."



Aliens Visit Surry


Here is an interesting piece brought to our attention from the Mt Airy News


Sunday, July 20, 1969, saw not one but two Eagle Scouts elevated in Westfield, Surry County. Philip Sutphin, 14, and Mike Owens, 15, stood for their Court of Honor before 150 of their friends and family that night.

Scoutmaster Jimmy McMillian knew the reason more weren’t there. “The moon walk kept our crowd down in size.”

Church attendance was down that day as well, as the Mount Airy News reported. Local “citizens remained glued to their television sets, anticipating the moment when (Neil) Armstrong should make history.” The News reporter found many at a loss for words when the first man walked on the moon. They simply let out with that most Southern of expressions, a “Rebel yell.”

While they may have watched the first men on the moon it was far from the first time local folks had eyes fixed on the heavens.

Records exist as early as 1893 of people in this region seeing unexplainable things in the skies. There were so many, in fact, that George Fawcett, son of Canadian immigrant and founder of Mount Airy’s First National Bank, Thomas Fawcett, developed a passion for investigating such reports.

His research details reports from many years including 1947, ’52, ’62, ’81, ’95 …. And, of course, the cluster of two dozen UFO reports from 1973-’74 in Surry County. He spent a lifetime on the hobby, published books, spoke internationally, and submitted his research and exhibits to both the International UFO Museum in Roswell, New Mexico. and the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.

In 1897 hundreds of people were “out on the streets and wharves last night, looking at a brilliant floating mass in the heavens to the west of the city,” reported the Wilmington (North Carolina) Messenger on April 6. Such sightings had been reported across the continent and globally for months leading up to that date. Some speculated the ships were from Mars. Others, that they were grand inventions being tested.

“It seemed to have something like a search-light facing earthwards, and created a sensation among all classes of people,” the story continued. “The ship moved to the west at a rapid rate.”

West, apparently, to Surry County where the Mount Airy News picked up the ship’s progress on April 8.

“Air ships are seen in the heavens some where nearly every night. A big one with a search light passed over Wilmington Monday night creating much stir among the people. Our citizens mistook the air ship when it passed over Mount Airy for a big meteor. It was the search light they were looking at. In real earnest now, it seems to us something unusual is happening constantly. What does it all mean? Is the end of time near at hand?”



The question remained unanswered as the years and decades marched on.

In 1952 – Holly Springs farmer P.C. Richardson and his family, stood transfixed in their yard watching a UFO for half an hour before it took off. He said the object was about the size of a man and lit with a bright red light with a long streamer trailing off from it.

“My whole family saw it,” he said in a Mount Airy News interview in October. “It wasn’t moving fast, and kept on a straight line like it was following a compass. I don’t know what it was,” he said. “The Bible mentions seeing sights and wonders, but I believe this thing must have been something the government was experimenting with.”

The years 1973 and ’74 saw an uptick in UFO sightings the world over, but especially in North America. More than two dozen where reported and investigated in Surry County. One, seen over the Mayberry Mall, turned out to be a parachute with a flare attached. Another was a plastic laundry bag with birthday candles mounted inside.

Sights and wonders, space debris, or government experiments, UFO sightings continue to be reported and most, but not all, explained. Regardless, I hope we never stop wondering what’s out there. I hope we never stop looking to, and reaching for the stars.




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