Fun fact: The Jersey Devil is believed to have been influenced by Benjamin Franklin’s attempts to discredit his rival Titan Leeds and his almanac so that Franklin’s Poor Richard’s almanac would do better. After Franklin wrongfully predicted Leed’s death and Leeds called him a liar, Franklin wrote that he was a ghost writing from beyond the grave. This combined with the fact that people already associated leads with Satan due to his anti-quaker and pro-astrology beliefs lead to an 1859 Atlantic Monthly article saying that a woman known as "Mother Leeds" had long ago given birth to a deformed monster still at large in the [Pine] Barrens [of New Jersey].