Wednesday, February 25, 2015

The Jersey Devil: The Red Kangaroo Theory

by Chris Chaos


There are many theories as to what the Jersey Devil might be. Deep within the Pine Barrens of the 1800's and early 1900's there was not much to do when the farming and chores were complete, except brew and drink moonshine.So between the cranes that were native to the area of the time, the deer in the woods and the circuses that passed through town, what were people seeing that had them convinced that there was a devil in Jersey?

To the Jersey Devil scholar and researcher we are all very well aware of the many fabrications and gaffes that hucksters tried to pass off as our most famous resident. No different than Bigfoot or the Feejee Mermaid, JD has his fair share of (proven) faked stories and sightings.


As we all know, 1909 was dubbed "Phenomenon Week" due to the spike in Jersey Devil sightings. A flap of sightings were reported, tracks were found in the snow and every unknown noise was attributed to good ole' JD himself. Since TV was not around people needed something to occupy their time, so some turned their imagination to the local legend in order to make a buck.

The Capture of the Hodag (obviously fake)

In January 1909 the Jersey Devil was revived by a hoax and displayed in a private museum in Philadelphia, the creature was actually a kangaroo outfitted with fake wings affixed by a harness and painted with green stripes. To make it leap at spectators when the curtain was drawn, a boy hidden at the rear of the cage prodded the unfortunate animal with a stick and a nail attached to it. The showman's name was Jacob Hope (or Norman Jefferies RIP May 25, 1933) and he claimed JD was an Australian Vampire and offered a reward for its capture.

In the 1800's and early 1900's many residents of New Jersey did keep exotic animals as pets and traveling circuses were the norm. So a kangaroo being either kept as a pet (or at a circus) could have possibly escaped and was spotted in the Pine Barrens mistaken for the Jersey Devil. But in my opinion I think you could look at a kangaroo in the dark woods and see a deer due to the very similar facial structure and body type. In modern times, it is "illegal" to have a kangaroo in the state of NJ but you can obtain an exotic pet license and a permit for the kangaroo.


Here is a report of a dead kangaroo found along Raritan Township Road:
http://www.nj.com/hunterdon-county-democrat/index.ssf/2009/12/report_of_dead_kangaroo_along.html

Kangaroos in America, this was in Oklahoma and not New Jersey:
http://www.news9.com/story/24299464/oklahoma-hunter-catches-kangaroo-on-camera

Many say that the Jersey Devil's face looks like a horse, moose or deer, so with that you can see how easily a kangaroo could lead to a Jersey Devil sighting.


A rare glimpse of a kangaroo eating a bird:
Kangaroo eating a bird

To follow along with the progress of our film, THE SEARCH FOR THE JERSEY DEVIL go here:

https://www.facebook.com/TheSearchForTheJerseyDevil

For more writings of Chris Chaos visit:
http://allthingsweird88.blogspot.com/

(Chris Chaos is a long time resident of South Jersey who once again resides in and writes from Gloucester City, New Jersey.  He is a filmmaker, a business owner, writer, urban explorer and investigator of the odd and weird, a proud parent, happily taken and a connoisseur of hot wings. Chris can be reached at AxisVideo@aol.com)

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Charles Fort's Notes Will Become Available Shortly

by Chris Chaos

Charles Fort (August 6, 1874 – May 3, 1932) was an American writer and researcher concerning anomalous phenomena and bizarre topics.. He considered himself a true skeptic, one who opposes all forms of dogmatism, believes nothing, and does not take a position on anything. He  stated  to being an "intermediatist," one who believes nothing is real and nothing is unreal, that "all phenomena are approximations one way or the other between realness and unrealness."  Starting in about 1912 he would visit the library and search through the newspaper articles seeking out the odd, strange, bizarre, weird and out of the ordinary stories for his writings.Tiffany Thayer created the Fortean Society back in 1931 (in New York) and he acquired Fort's notes when he passed away and only a select few had access to Fort's writings.

According to Above Top Secret (http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread1037963/pg1), 60,000 plus notes from Charles Fort's writings based on the weird and odd will soon be available to the public. These notes were written in the 1920's and 30's on a variety of paper sources and should prove a difficult task to transcribe. John H. Reed, M.D. of the World Institute for Scientific Exploration (WISE: http://wisewiki.org/ ) acquired them from a house in Connecticut as the new owners were going to throw them out, not aware of their significance.

Carl Pabst, who passed away in 2004, painstakingly hand copied all the notes by 1987 and then typed up Fort's work on 3x5 index cards and lived in his CT house for more than 40 years. Pabst was the only person besides the NY Public Library who possessed all of Fort's notes.

For more information concerning Charles Fort please visit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Fort
and
http://www.skepdic.com/fortean.html

For more writings of Chris Chaos visit:
http://allthingsweird88.blogspot.com/

(Chris Chaos is a long time resident of South Jersey who once again resides in and writes from Gloucester City, New Jersey. He is a filmmaker, a business owner, writer, urban explorer and investigator of the odd and weird, a proud parent, happily taken and a connoisseur of hot wings. Chris can be reached at AxisVideo@aol.com)

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Point of View, Opinions, Threshold and Bad Taste

by Chris Chaos


The other day I was having a conversation about bands, album covers, logos and band names. The band ANAL CUNT (http://www.discogs.com/artist/276341-Anal-Cunt) came up and if you know who they are you either love them or hate them. They were an extreme metal grindcore band that mocked all those around them. They were EXTREMELY offensive...on purpose..and they would intentionally send their albums to reviewers just to get the bad reviews and press. Anal Cunt was a morbid joke band and the man behind the band was Seth Putnam (May 15, 1968 – June 11, 2011).


Sadly on June 11, 2011, Putnam died of a suspected heart attack at the age of 43.


Here are some samples so you can get a feel for their music...but you will have to Google search for the lyrics:

"I Just Lit Your Baby on Fire"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5eFk5x0o44

Defenders of Hate Full album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfbBjp7EboE

In the mid 1990's I had the pleasure of speaking to Seth several times through one of his side bands, "Vaginal Jesus", he was a really funny guy and I could see where he gleamed the content for his songs. Before I knew the various bands that Seth was in I questioned if he was in Vaginal Jesus and Anal Cunt, but him being the jokester never gave a straight answer.

Now back to the conversation mentioned at the beginning of this article....The other person in the conversation stated that Anal Cunt had some very offensive album covers and he could not understand how they chose to pick such a gruesome image as their logo to represent them. (The "A" for anal depicting a butthole and the "C" for cunt depicting a vagina)
While talking I noticed that he had a crucifix (A crucifix (from Latin cruci fixus meaning "(one) fixed to a cross") is an image of Jesus on the cross, as distinct from a bare cross. The representation of Jesus himself attached to the cross is referred to in English as the corpus (Latin for "body") around
his neck. I thought the image of a man nailed to a cross and left to die was not all that less gruesome than some of the images that the band Anal Cunt came up with. When this observation was brought to his attention, he thought for a moment, paused and then stated that it was very true. Perspective unveiled.


Normally this conversation would have ended up in a Social Parasite article, but since level headedness and no ignorance was presented, here it is. Mutual respect and understanding was gained.

Music is an acquired taste and subjective to the listener. The same goes for what is offensive, acceptable and in bad taste. Everyone has their limits, point of views, opinions and threshold as to what to classify things. The crucifix is a somewhat common sight to see in the modern world and many take it for granted without really thinking to the morbid visual image that it bears to a viewer. As goes for the blatant shock rockers of the world.

For more information concerning Anal Cunt and Seth Putnam:

Seth's side projects and former bands:
Vaginal Jesus
Angry Hate
Mudoven
Satan's Warriors
Impaled Northern Moonforest
Shit Scum
Full Blown A.I.D.S.
Death's Head Quartet
 including backing vocals on Pantera's The Great Southern Trendkill


(Chris Chaos is a long time resident of South Jersey who once again resides in and writes from Gloucester City, New Jersey. He is a filmmaker, a business owner, writer, urban explorer and investigator of the odd and weird, a proud parent, happily taken and a connoisseur of hot wings. Chris can be reached at AxisVideo@aol.com)

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

"The Oaklyn Suicide Nazi Tree Revisited" (AXIS VIDEO) Oaklyn, NJ April 2016

by Chris Chaos

On a small peninsula in Oaklyn there is a terrifying location with a dark history. According to the locals there have been several suicidal hangings at the tree present here.

(This is an updated version of the article with a new video at the bottom)

The first time I visited this location was in the Spring of 2013, for a long time I wanted to go back for an update and this Fall (October 20th, 2014) afforded the perfect weather day to go back and see if there were any updates. So I gathered the gear and charged the cameras and headed off. Luckily for me, the location is only three miles from my house.


Since the first draft of the article went live back in 2013 this location raised more questions than it answered. I decided to put my nose to the books and conduct more research in an attempt to go deeper and find more information about this legendary location. Some of the residents living in the area were unaware of this dark history that this location welcomed, but then again many didn't know that a dinosaur (Reference: Hadrosaurus) was found in Haddonfield many years ago. Too many people are unaware of their surroundings and if it isn't presented blatantly in their face, then in their little world it did not exist or happen. Also when the original article hit a popular social media outlet, a member went ballistic after the word "Nazi" appeared in the headline. Of course they never bothered to read the article, just that word, "Nazi", set them off and they thought Neo-Nazis were invading. They panicked and started some unnecessary drama within the group before they were removed.

The peninsula dead center in the photo is the location of the Oaklyn Nazi Tree.
Image from Google Maps

This article was formed with research from the internet, old news microfilms reporting on the incidents and interviews with people from the area that follow and are aware of these kinds of events.

Where my hand is in the picture, is approximately
 where  the Swastikas are repeatedly spray painted on.
At the time of my visit someone took it upon themselves 
to remove the spray paint.

I pulled up and parked in the VFW parking lot which takes care of the park and has a nice garden and picnic bench set up in the center. It was a beautiful Autumn day and the leaves were falling, a nice 51 degrees, not too cold and not too hot, just perfect for a walk in a hoodie. While I was getting out of the car an older gentleman was making his way towards the benches with his newspaper ready to enjoy the day.
Image from Google Earth Maps

I entered the peninsula and walked along the waterline of Newton Lake which snakes its way to Newtons Creek and was a part of the infamous Haddon Lake before Blackhorse Pike, Route 130 and 76 were built. It is such a beautiful view and the water was a crisp blue hue. I made my way to the tree that claimed many lives, several of the "suicide" branches were cut in an attempt to stop the "curse" that many claim possesses this tree. The blue spray paint on the trunk of the tree was faded to a degree that you could not tell what it was. Many times a swastika was spray painted on the truck, hence how the Nazi part found it's way into the tree's name.

The rope is still visible

Ever since the first time that I visited this tree, one of the rope pieces was still visible on a branch that was cut down from a previous suicide. The location is still used as a party spot as I could see beer cans, blunt wrappers, condoms and what appeared to be a burnt hoodie on the ground. When teenagers come back to this isolated location they get a great view of the lake while they drink, get high and have sex.

Some of the evidence of teens partying here


On the bank of the lake I found a segment of police caution tape, I wonder if that was left over from some prior or recent incident. I conducted an intense internet search and study of the last few weeks but I did not find anything related to the location.


I even went as far as contacting Weird NJ to see if they had any additional information:

"Hey Chris,
We couldn't substantiate any reports either. Here is our report from issue #39 including the original letter.
Thanks for the photos!
Mark Sceurman"

I forwarded them some photos that I took along with requesting more info, but they didn't have anything new either.

This article mentions one of the hung men

A Video about the Oaklyn Suicide Tree

The original article that I wrote follows:

"The Oaklyn Suicide Nazi Tree" Oaklyn, NJ
April 7th, 2013

by Chris Chaos

This ominous tree stands sturdy in Oaklyn NJ, on a small peninsula jutting out from a public park in this quiet suburb. This location is used by teens as a party spot and you can see beer cans and other evidence of partying on the ground near Newton Lake right off of Manor Ave.


Stories range that anywhere between 6-12 people took their own lives by hanging themselves from this tree over the years. It was on a bright and sunny Sunday we went to visit the tree beside the lake. Upon inspection of the tree we noticed the swastika was stripped from the tree and appeared it might have been painted over several times and two of the main branches that were used in previous suicides were cut down to "prevent" future attempts. A rope that was used by the last person that hung themselves can still be seen on an upper branch after they cut the person down. This tree is also in close proximity to the notorious location known as Haddon Lake. Rumor also has it that on Manor ave someone committed suicide in one of the houses. (This I have not been able to confirm, it was based on several readers relating the same story to me.)



Mention of the tree

More photos and info can be found at:

www.facebook.com/chrischaos88

and

www.facebook.com/Cursedbook

For More Writings of Chris Chaos Visit:

(Chris Chaos is a long time resident of South Jersey who once again resides in and writes from Gloucester City, New Jersey. He is a filmmaker, a business owner, writer, urban explorer and investigator of the odd and weird, a proud parent, happily taken and a connoisseur of hot wings. Chris can be reached at AxisVideo@aol.com)

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

"FEAR...CREEPY....DANGER....SAFETY and The UNCANNY VALLEY"

by Chris Chaos


"Love is what we were born with. Fear is what we learned here."
Marianne Williamson


Safety..creepy...danger. There are always 3 points in this scenario:
On one side of this situational cliff you have safety, the place that most people like to be. The middle ground is creepy, that spot where it is slightly uncomfortable, disturbing and a bit off. On the far side of the spectrum you have danger, real danger, where you can get hurt.



According to Stephen King there are 3 levels to fear which are: The gross out, the horror and the terror.
“The 3 types of terror: The Gross-out: the sight of a severed head tumbling down a flight of stairs, it's when the lights go out and something green and slimy splatters against your arm. The Horror: the unnatural, spiders the size of bears, the dead waking up and walking around, it's when the lights go out and something with claws grabs you by the arm. And the last and worse one: Terror, when you come home and notice everything you own had been taken away and replaced by an exact substitute. It's when the lights go out and you feel something behind you, you hear it, you feel its breath against your ear, but when you turn around, there's nothing there...”
(Reference: "Stephen King: Master of Horror." Jack Perkins, correspondent. NBC News. NBCUniversal Media. 27 Nov. 1981. NBC Learn)



Terror, the Uncanny Valley, and Fear
The uncanny valley is when an object has features and moves similar to a human but something is off and not quite human which may cause a response of revulsion among people that witness this act. The valley is a dip in the level of comfort among the people that see this human likeness in objects such as robots, prosthetics, zombies, puppets, clowns, mannequins, teddy bears or something that mimics humans but periphery context is off. In many people unaccustomed to this may experience an unsettling feeling due to the closeness the above mentioned items resemble humans.
(Reference: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/UncannyValley)



A fear that is brought up from masks or a neutral and vague expression creates a dissonance in the human brain since the person may get the creeps since the mask may hide the true intentions of who is behind the mask. Are they a threat or not?



AMERICAN FEARS as taken from a Gallup poll 2001:
(ranked in order)
snakes
public speaking
heights
being in a small space
spiders and insects
needles and getting shots
mice
flying on an airplane
dogs
thunder and lightning
crowds
going to the doctor
the dark
(Reference: http://www.gallup.com/poll/1891/snakes-top-list-americans-fears.aspx)


Common Fears by a Gallup Poll conducted in 2005 reveals the most common fears of teenagers in the United States, here are the top 10:
Terrorist attacks
Spiders
Death
Failure
War
Heights
Crime/Violence
Being alone
The future
Nuclear war
(Reference: http://www.gallup.com/poll/15439/what-frightens-americas-youth.aspx)

"Fear stifles our thinking and actions. It creates indecisiveness that results in stagnation. I have known talented people who procrastinate indefinitely rather than risk failure. Lost opportunities cause erosion of confidence, and the downward spiral begins."
Charles Stanley

"Risk and dangers are real, but fear is a choice."
Chris Chaos

There is much truth to this quote, but some fears are rational and inbred into humans and animals alike. Natural fears are heights, predators, bugs, the dark and a few others.




(Chris Chaos is a long time resident of South Jersey who once again resides in and writes from Gloucester City, New Jersey. He is a filmmaker, a business owner, writer, urban explorer and investigator of the odd and weird, a proud parent, happily taken and a connoisseur of hot wings. Chris can be reached at AxisVideo@aol.com)