History professor talks Jersey Devil in Science channel documentary

By Estefani Hernandez | Published by Oct. 30, 2018

Dr. Brian Regal, a history professor, is going to be featured in the upcoming Science Channel documentary Mythical Beasts, as well as the History Channel series, True Monsters.

Regal has always been interested in history, but he is particularly interested in the relationship between professional scientists and their amateur counterparts.

The author of six books, his most recent book is “The Secret History of the Jersey Devil” discusses and explores the origins of New Jersey’s popular monster not in witchcraft but in the ‘political fights and religious upheavals of colonial America’, rather than just viewing the origins of the myth in some biological creature as it has been done in the past.

The legend of this Jersey Devil tells the story of a witch named Mother Leeds who lived in the Pine Barrens in 1735 and gave birth to her 13th child. As she gave birth, she cursed the child and it turned into a monster that flew off.

For more than 250 years, this mysterious creature is said to prowl through the marshes of New Jersey and emerge periodically to rampage through the towns and cities.

‘The Secret History of the Jersey Devil’ goes into detail on how the real story of the Jersey Devil’s birth is far more complex than most people tend to realize.

Regal explains how anger is what inspired him to write this book. He states, “Anger at how much horrible, awful writing there is out there on the Jersey Devil and so Dr. Esposito, my co-author   and I, a few years back decided we should write something.” What they found was that the real story is far more interesting and exciting than any sort of monster ghost tale.

Another one of Regal’s books is “Searching for Sasquatch: Crackpots, Eggheads and Cryptozoology.” This book considers the nature of monsters and monster hunting in the late 20th century.

“Most of the writing of cryptozoology is awful,” Regal said. “People who claim that they were writing histories of various monsters did almost no research.”

So, Regal decided he would approach this as a historian and looked for original sources in the archives.

His tremendous interest in history reflects in his teaching.

Regal believes in having a genuine passion for your subject and being able to convey that to your students, “I try to explain to my students how important knowledge of the past is, today more than ever,” states Regal.

Plenty of students realize when taking his class, that he loves what he does.

Regal states, “It’s important to learn about your history, because if you don’t know where you came from how can you know where you’re going.”

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