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URECAT - UFO Related Entities Catalog

URECAT is a formal catalog of UFO related entities sightings reports with the goal of providing quality information for accurate studies of the topic. Additional information, corrections and reviews are welcome at patrick.gross@inbox.com, please state if you wish to be credited for your contribution or not. The main page of the URECAT catalog is here.

January 18, 1909, Burlington, New Jersey, USA, a police officer:

Brief summary of the event and follow-up:

All that seems to be reported is that on January 18, 1909, a policeman in Burlington, New Jersey, USA, allegedly saw what he called a "Jabberwock", with no teeth, eyes like blazing coals, and "other terrifying features".

Basic information table:

Case number: URECAT-001461
Date of event: January 18, 1909
Earliest report of event: 1909?
Delay of report: Day, weeks, decades?
Witness reported via: Not known.
First alleged record by: Not known. Newspaper?
First certain record by: Folklore society publication.
First alleged record type: Not known. Newspaper?
First certain record type: Folklore society publication.
This file created on: April 5, 2013
This file last updated on: July 15, 2013
Country of event: USA
State/Department: New Jersey
Type of location: Not reported.
Lighting conditions: Not reported or night.
UFO observed: No
UFO arrival observed: N/A
UFO departure observed: N/A
UFO/Entity Relation: None
Witnesses numbers: 1
Witnesses ages: Not reported. Adult.
Witnesses types: Not reported. Man, policeman.
Photograph(s): No.
Witnesses drawing: No.
Witnesses-approved drawing: No.
Number of entities: 1
Type of entities: Uncertain, bird
Entities height: Not reported
Entities outfit type: Not reported.
Entities outfit color: Not reported or N/A.
Entities skin color: Not reported.
Entities body: Not reported. "Jabberwock."
Entities head: Not reported.
Entities eyes: Like blazing coal.
Entities mouth: Not reported. No teeth.
Entities nose: Not reported.
Entities feet: Not reported.
Entities arms: Not reported.
Entities fingers: Not reported.
Entities fingers number: Not reported.
Entities hair: Not reported.
Entities voice: None reported.
Entities actions: Not reported. Flew..
Entities/witness interactions: None.
Witness(es) reactions: Observed, went.
Witness(es) feelings: Not reported.
Witness(es) interpretation: Not reported.
Explanation category: Confusion, bird, sandhill crane, or invention or unexplained.
Explanation certainty: High.

Narratives:

[Ref. ny1:] NEW YORK FOLKLORE QUARTERLY:

The magazine says that on January 18, 1909, a policeman in Burlington, New Jersey, saw what he called a "Jabberwock" with no teeth, eyes like blazing coals, and "other terrifying features".

Soon reports of mysterious tracks in the snow came from Chester, Connecticut; Hoboken, Reading, in Pennsylvania; Willmington, in Delaware... [Etc.]

[Ref. jc1:] JEROME CLARK:

Jerome Clark says that on January 18, 1909, a policeman at Burlington spotted a flying "Jabberwock" with glowing eyes, and soon residents in the neighborhood found mysterious tracks in the snow.

[Ref. jc2:] JEROME CLARK:

Jerome Clark says that on January 18, 1909, a policeman at Burlington spotted a flying "Jabberwock" with glowing eyes, and soon residents in the neighborhood found mysterious tracks in the snow.

[Ref. fc1:] FRAN CAPO:

The author says that on January 18, 1909, a policeman in Burlington, New Jersey, saw what he called a "Jabberwock" with no teeth, eyes like blazing coals, and "other terrifying features".

[Ref. ar1:] ALBERT ROSALES:

Albert Rosales indicates that Burlington, New Jersey, on January 18, 1909, at night "A police officer spotted a flying 'jabberwock' with glowing eyes, and soon residents of neighboring towns were finding mysterious tracks in the snow, apparently related to the creature."

Albert Rosales indicates that the source is "Jerome Clark, Unexplained!".

[Ref. gm1:] "JERSEY DEVIL" GOOGLE MAP:

Burlington, NJ January 17 and 18, 1909

The night of the 17th, the Lowden Family were awakened by a creature circling the house, screaming and trying to open the door. In the morning, they found strange tracks and packed snow around the garbage can, with trash strewn through the yard. Neighbors also found tracks, some obviously leaping on rooftops and across backyards then randomly disappearing as if the creature had flown away. Burlington was inundated with ‘Devil’ fever, people wouldn’t leave the house, they cowered in fear locking doors and windows. Search parties were formed and rewards were offered but no ‘Devil’ was found.

Burlington, NJ January 20, 1909

A Burlington policeman saw the Jersey Devil describing a creature with eyes ‘like blazing coals’. The policeman considered it an encounter with a “Jabberwock.”

Points to consider:

Before discussing this particular case, I must make some general remarks about what was called the "Jersey Devil".

In Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, for nearly two centuries at least, some people give reports of encounters with a "creature" whose descriptions suggested that it was some sort of "devil", though in my opinion it was often merely a large bird in migration there, the sandhill crane.

Ufologically, these stories are mostly not considered as related in any way with UFOs or UFO occupants, in my opinion too they should not be part of a catalog of "close encounters of the third kind".

However, some ufologists included such stories in such catalogs, thinking for some reason it does have something to do with the UFO question. Most of the time, they do not include all the Jersey Devil reports, but only a few of them, maybe due to lack of documentation or maybe for some other reason I do not understand.

So I have to include all these stories, because if some source considers, rightly or wrongly, that this a UFO-related, then it is within my scope, not to immediately and arbitrarily disregard their idea, but to evaluate it, and thus to collect the documentation and the comments about it. And therefore, I have to check and document all reported, not just those selected arbitrarily by these ufologists who believed this is UFO material. This is why you cans see I have a file for each Jersey Devil reports, even those that were never included in the ufology literature.

I should note that most stories are fragmentary, often because the sources write about several observations, and what is said about one report is supposed to be implicitly true for the others. I do not do it that way; I publish case files individually and discuss each on its own merits or issues, and offer a specific assessment for each case. But of course, generalities can be said on these reports. As I do not want to disconnect individual reports from these generalities, I make the following notes.

I want to first list the various explanations offered for the "Jersey Devil" - they could apply its late equivalent the West Virginia "Mothman" which was introduced in UFO books the 1960s:

Now, about this particular report, it is so poor that not much can be said...

The date is different in some sources. The hour is generally not given, though [ar1] claims in was in the night.

There seems to be no good reason to claim the "mysterious tracks in the snow" are related to the policeman's report; they may be of some other or same animal but do no say much about the creature the policeman claimed to have seen.

The "no teeth" feature may be a way of saying the creature had a beak. The "eyes like blazing coal" may be the interpretation of the red parts near the eyes of a sandhill crane (image below).

The "Jabberwock" qualification may be a way to say it was a bird, but a bird the policeman had not seen previously, and a way to say he was scared. After all, we do not know how log he saw it, how well he saw it. The sandhill crane is a large bird with a wingspan that can extended over 2 meters; if such a bird, scared by the policeman, flapped its wings at him in the night at close range to fly away under the man's nose, it may indeed have been a frightful encounter, a motive for making the report.

Above: The Jabberwock is a fictional character from the novels "Through the Looking-Glass", and "What Alice Found There" by Lewis Carroll. It only appears within the poem Jabberwocky that Alice reads during the first chapter and never interacts with the rest of the cast. In the book illustration by Tenniel, the Jabberwock is a large winged mixture of several animals, with the body of a dragon, a whiskered, fish-like head, insect antennae and a pair of talon-like hands on both its arms and its wings, which may also serve as forelegs when it walked on the ground. It also wears a vest.

The qualification "Jabberwock" will be used by "police officer Louis Strehr" in a case in Camden dated a few days later. It is possible that the two cases are really the same.

List of issues:

Id: Topic: Severity: Date noted: Raised by: Noted by: Description: Proposal: Status:
1 Data Severe April 5, 2013 Patrick Gross Patrick Gross Primary source not available and not known. Help needed. Opened.
2 Ufology Severe April 5, 2013 Patrick Gross Patrick Gross Lack of description, shape, colors, size, distance, lighting. Help needed. Opened.
3 Ufology Severe April 5, 2013 Patrick Gross Patrick Gross Single witness case. Help needed. Opened.
4 Ufology Severe April 5, 2013 Patrick Gross Patrick Gross Anonymous witness case. Help needed. Opened.
5 Ufology Severe April 5, 2013 Patrick Gross Patrick Gross No sign of investigation or checking. Help needed. Opened.

Evaluation:

Confusion, bird, sandhill crane, or invention or unexplained.

Sources references:

* = Source I checked.
? = Source I am told about but could not check yet. Help appreciated.

Document history:

Authoring

Main Author: Patrick Gross
Contributors: None
Reviewers: None
Editor: Patrick Gross

Changes history

Version: Created/Changed By: Date: Change Description:
0.1 Patrick Gross April 5, 2013 Creation, [ny1], [jc1], [fc1], [ar1], [gm1].
1.0 Patrick Gross April 5, 2013 First published.
1.1 Patrick Gross July 12, 2013 In the "Points to consider", addition of the paragraph "The qualification "Jabberwock" will be used by..."
1.2 Patrick Gross July 15, 2013 Addition [jc2].

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This page was last updated on July 15, 2013.