The Devil In Devon: Satan's Footprints In The Snow

Welcome To The Oddity Shop, Where The Bizarre is Always on Sale.  This Week, Your Curator Zach is trekking through the English Country Side.

The Devil’s Footprints of 1855. A winter storm wipes Devon clean like a blank page, and by morning someone has written a message across it in hoof prints. Not a scattered trail, not a looping animal track, but a single-file line that seems to march straight through the countryside for miles, ignoring fences, walls, and common sense.  

Small cloven hoof prints with consistent spacing, reports of the trail continuing over rooftops and up vertical surfaces, and moments where it appears to stop at front doors before showing up behind homes. As newspapers and clergy latch on, the story spreads from local shock to a national obsession, with investigators collecting sketches, witness reports, and attempted explanations.

If you like paranormal history, unexplained phenomena, cryptid lore, and true mysteries that still don’t have a clean answer, hit play, share this with your favorite skeptic, and then subscribe and leave us a review so more oddballs can find the show.

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Transcript

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Hot And Sweaty Catch-Up

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Welcome back to the Odyssey podcast, the podcast where we tell you creepy, odd, weird, strange, and bizarre stories from around the globe.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

I'm your curator, Kara, and this is your hot, sweaty little cute boy curator, Zachary.

SPEAKER_00 0:49

I think we're both hot

The Dumpster Fire Birthday Irony

SPEAKER_00 0:50

and sweaty today. Hello, how are you?

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Hot and sweaty. I'm fabulous.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

I'm so happy for that.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

I get to look at you.

SPEAKER_00 0:59

Oh, yeah, you're so cute. I'm I'm also excited to look into your eyes with your cute new Zulu. So you got me, first of all, side note with your Zulu. Zulu.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

And that was Missy did this.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

Ever since you talked to me about it, though, around my computer and devices, now I'm getting ads like crazy. Okay, I have a funny story for you, and it has to deal, I'm so sorry, Pat, with a car accident.

SPEAKER_01 1:24

What does this have to do with classes? Doesn't it doesn't? That was such a whiplash of conversation.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

I just I I have only one story to tell you this week. But Pat's birthday was very recently, and I had to get him a birthday card. And it was between a T-Rex using a grabber to grab a piece of cake. Which is cute. Which is cute. Or one that said happy, happy birthday in flames. And when you open it up, it was a dumpster fire that said despite all the horrors. And I'm like, it's kind of a dumpster fire year. Let's go with the dumpster fire.

SPEAKER_01 1:55

But what's dumb is that you manifest that in the wrong way because it's not really been that dumpster fire year. For free like you guys.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

Yeah. Well, so, anyways, we we celebrate his birthday. He stays at my house, he leaves to go. We hung out at my house after dinner. He goes home, stops to get a frosty, gets rear-ended, and his car is totaled. However, by the time I get to the scene, I'm like helping him like get the stuff out of his trunk. And his trunk is crushed. Like his birthday gifts that I just got him are destroyed. Right? I got him a flashlight though.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

Oh, it got the the gifts got ruined?

SPEAKER_00 2:32

A couple of them. The flashlight came in a really nice box. The box is exploded into pieces. The flashlight is on, and it is shining at this white thing sticking out from like literally being pinned in between two cars. And it's the card. So the card was crushed in the trunk, but it was perfectly unbent. It was pinned. Like I had to pull it out.

SPEAKER_01 2:52

If I remember, I'll post the picture.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

Hilarious photo of him standing in the rain with the photo in front of his car accident. It says happy, happy birthday with a dumpster fire on it.

SPEAKER_01 3:02

Well, I don't want to post that one, but I want to post like the trunk with the card sticking out.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

But I didn't realize that the I didn't realize the flashlight was on and on it.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

On and shining on it. You can see it in that second picture where it's pinned in the car still, because you can see the car pinned in it.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:18

Yeah, that's not a headlight. That's the flashlight. The headlights on the other car busted out.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

That's hilarious. I didn't not hilarious, but because he's okay. But I it's ironic. Yes. He just some pain, but he was so like his gifts got ruined.

SPEAKER_00 3:30

We had to replace the flashlight and the battery pack. The some of the other stuff was fine. Um but insurance is covering pretty much everything. So that's yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

But that's I didn't realize that.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

Yeah, a little irony story. I know this is now months later when you guys listen to it, but we've been laughing about it. Like I love though that he was able to immediately laugh about it.

SPEAKER_01 3:50

That child was laughing later on and during a FaceTime with me. Like it wasn't like he didn't just get into a freaking car accident and spend hours in the hospital.

SPEAKER_00 3:57

I was like he needs to start doing our manifestation uh motivation Monday videos, tell you what.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

This is what Ryan and I were like, how is he so happy after because Ryan asked about him the other day, and I was like, Well, you talked to him right after he was giddy as all hell.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

Well, that's my new exciting news. My the only break I have for moving stuff is a car accident. What about you?

SPEAKER_01 4:16

Well, I don't know. I I don't know. I've got nothing after that. That was like the car accident with some excitement.

Comments And The Blarney Stone

SPEAKER_01 4:26

Um, but shop talk. We are shop talk, shop talk. Shop talk. I have, and I realize it's already like the comments from a couple weeks ago, but I I don't know why YouTube sometimes does not do a good job of telling me our comments.

SPEAKER_00 4:39

YouTube has the best comments though. Like the the reviews are great at stroking our egos. The comments I feel like are always unhinged. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:47

Oh, this is a good one. So this was on your the strangeness of superstitions, and it is Catherine Korn-E5N. Do you know this person?

SPEAKER_00 4:59

Yes, I do.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

Oh, so they put, what about the Blarney stone in Ireland? Kissing the Blarney stone will bring you good luck. However, you have to lean backwards and hang over to do it. Where did this come from?

SPEAKER_00 5:11

Have you ever seen the videos of like how you have to lean over? I don't think I could do it.

SPEAKER_01 5:15

I feel like I would feel and I guess I never realized you had to lean over backwards. I just thought you I just heard kiss the blarney.

SPEAKER_00 5:21

Yeah, you have to like lay on your back on the ground and like sh pull a bar and like pull your shoulders, like your upper back and everything is hanging over the edge of the castle.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 5:31

Hey, Mrs. Gorn, how are you?

SPEAKER_01 5:35

So I just thought that was like a fun one because I was like, wait, I've heard of kissing the Blarney stone, but I didn't realize you had to lean backwards and do that. I was like, what? Yeah. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:43

Oh, go back on Asa's Facebook. He has a video of it.

Merch Store Plans And Samples

SPEAKER_00 5:46

Okay. So here is a big one, and it's not live yet, but keep your eye out on balls because in the next weeks to maybe months, we are gonna have a merch store opening up. We just have to figure out a couple little operational things to get it. But we we've got some designs going. Yep, we're getting some samples in, we want to make sure it's good. We don't like some of the samples that came in so far. So we don't want to just pump out shit that's like not great. Okay. Right. So that's the that's yeah, we have some behind the scenes thing we have to figure out, but we've but for those of you who've been asking, it is coming, it is it getting very close now.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

Watch, they're like, Yeah, we don't like any of this.

SPEAKER_00 6:27

You're gonna love it.

SPEAKER_01 6:29

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

With that, should we open the shop? Are you ready for a question?

SPEAKER_01 6:33

Let me ask.

SPEAKER_00 6:34

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

Do you have a question for me?

SPEAKER_00 6:36

I do have a question.

SPEAKER_01 6:37

I would I was hoping you'd say no.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

What is a call back to last week's episode

Weirdest Things Seen In Snow

SPEAKER_00 6:43

when you brought up something? What is the weirdest thing you've ever seen in the snow?

SPEAKER_01 6:47

I mean, I don't know if it's weird, but Delilah does her little burrow tunnels in the snow, and so my backyard looks like a crop field, like a crop circle, I mean, and it's like all these little paths. And if you didn't know what it came from, you would really think it's like a very disturbing.

SPEAKER_00 7:03

Oh, she is kind of a little alien, though. Let's be just for real.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

My little alien. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 7:09

So imagine this. What's yours? Uh, the weirdest thing I've ever seen the snow, I didn't actually think of an answer.

SPEAKER_01 7:15

Or like, you know, like disturbing like uh snow people, like some kids make some fucked up looking snowmen.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

I will say though, like, I guess this doesn't truly count or not, but when I lived up north and we lived on the lake, when the ice when the ice would freeze over, when the lake would freeze over, there's this certain part in spring where it starts to break off in crystals that sounds like a wind chime, but like a monster groaning at the same time. It is one of the eeriest but prettiest sounds ever.

SPEAKER_01 7:45

That, but also it does make weird sculptures. True. Like breaking apart and stuff. Okay. All right,

The Straight-Line Tracks Appear

SPEAKER_01 7:50

all right, all right.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

So imagine this. You wake up a day after a big winter storm, you go about your day as normal, you're getting ready, you clean up the house, you put on all your winter gear, and you go to step outside, but then you notice it. Strange animal prints in the snow. However, they're in a single straight line, crossing your entire yard, not stopping and not turning. You look a little bit closer and it, you you think it might be hoof prints. Okay, and you start to follow it, but you can't find an ending. What are you feeling?

SPEAKER_01 8:19

Well, it's clearly interdimensional because clearly there's no ending. Well, it just disappears.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

Um no, there's no ending, it doesn't disappear, it doesn't stop.

SPEAKER_01 8:29

Oh, I'm sorry, I understood that wrong. Um and it kind of looks like hoof prints, kind of looks like hoof prints.

SPEAKER_00 9:53

Okay. This is what what your exact reaction of just staying silent. You're like, B Well there is right.

SPEAKER_01 10:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:03

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_01 10:04

That's what I'm thinking.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

So this is what was true for the people of Devon County, England in 1855. But it gets a little bit weirder. So let's let's set the scene. Okay. So Devon is a county in southwest England, and it sits with the Celtic Sea to the north and the English Channel to the south. So you know, like the southeast part of England where it's like a peninsula, basically?

SPEAKER_01 10:26

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 10:26

This part is like not quite the tip of the peninsula, but it's like the girthy part of the peninsula.

unknown 10:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:32

The shaft of the peninsula, if you will. Okay. It's made up of quiet rural villages, isolated farmhouses, narrow stone streets, and it gets like damn, damn dark at night. Okay, you only got candles, torches, and moonlight.

SPEAKER_01 10:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:46

Especially in wintertime, like it is not only dark, but it's super quiet. So, like, usually the only things you're hearing at night are animal noises outside. So the story that we're going to talk about takes place in February of 1855. Did I say it right?

SPEAKER_01 11:01

Or did I say it the way you I like the way you say it. February February.

SPEAKER_00 11:06

February. Okay. So it's bitterly cold, it's dark, and like you have to realize this place is really isolated. Like it's mostly farmland and then coastal villages where there's fishing communities. You know, time is like it's 1855. There's no clocks. Time is told by church bells, and most travels done on horseback. Like, this is olden days.

SPEAKER_01 11:27

God, must have been a time.

SPEAKER_00 11:29

Must have been peaceful. Well, somewhat.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

I know, kind of.

SPEAKER_00 11:32

As long as like illness didn't break out. Okay, so on the evening of February 8th comes a strong snowfall that covers the entire area. It turns the landscape into like blank page. Okay. So the snow continues overnight, but it stops before the morning, leaving fresh, uninterrupted snow cover. Okay. Before we talk about what happens next, though, let's focus on the people a bit. So the farmers know footprints. Villagers relied heavily on tracks to identify if you know foxes are coming for their chicken, if livestock is escaping, if strangers are approaching, or if predators were nearby. So, like for them, footsteps were information and survival. Okay. Not only are these people like good with footprints, right, they're still Victorians, so they have uh deep hell folklore traditions around omens, spirits, and devilish warnings. Oh, okay, okay, okay. So when the people of Devon stepped outside that February morning and saw a single line of hoof-shaped prints stretching farther than they could follow, they don't just see a track in the snow, they see a message.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

Can I ask a really quick question? Yes. When you're saying single say it to me again, straight.

SPEAKER_00 12:44

Single file straight tracks. We'll get into the description a bit.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00 12:50

All right. Before we do though, so it's February 9th now, early morning before sunrise. Most people are still asleep, right? Everything, roads are empty, nothing seems unusual. Then people start to get ready for their day. And when the first door is open, that's when they notice it. And it was the farmers who saw it first. They're usually earliest up, right? They need to check on their flock, take care of the livestock, blah blah blah blah blah. So they saw a single line of hoof-shaped marks across their fields. And so when I say a single line, and it's not staggered like a four-legged animal would be.

SPEAKER_01 13:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 13:25

Okay. It's not two animals side by side like most farmers would move their animals at this time. It is a straight line.

SPEAKER_01 13:33

But we're not we're not necessarily saying it didn't have four hooves. Are we thinking it's only two?

SPEAKER_00 13:39

I'm gonna get into the description more later. Sorry. Just don't focus on that, right?

SPEAKER_01 13:44

Okay, I can't help it.

SPEAKER_00 13:45

But the weird thing is at this point, is there's no wandering, there's no circling, there's no moseing. It is a perfectly straight line moving forward.

SPEAKER_01 13:55

Which that is strange for any type of animal to be perfectly straight.

SPEAKER_00 13:59

So at first, people assumed it was an animal, right? But they're like, yeah, something's weird here. The longer they followed the tracks, the stranger it became. They didn't stop, not at fences, they didn't turn at roads, they didn't circle around homes or barns. The print just continued straight ahead.

SPEAKER_01 14:17

Oh. So, like if it it almost like went through the barn and then on the other side it was continued on.

SPEAKER_00 14:23

Maybe. Sometimes. Other times it did something a little different.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

Okay, okay, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00 14:28

Here's where it gets unsettling because when they crossed fields and gardens and walls and rooftops, the tracks continued straight up walls over roofs. Many times stopping at front doors, and if they couldn't find prints on the roof, it would just

Walls Rooftops Doors And Panic

SPEAKER_00 14:42

continue out the back of the house as if it either crossed over or straight through. Oh. In some some places, like I said, the the the prints are going straight up the wall. Yeah, perpendicular to the wall. Okay, animals don't do that in case you weren't aware. So at first, each household was kind of like thinking they're the only ones seeing them, right? But then the neighbors begin to talk, and that's when the true scale of this starts to I was gonna ask, how long do we have? This happens over the course of a day, okay. Oh so this is still early morning, right? This appeared everywhere across villages, roads, churchyards, farm lanes, everywhere in a perfectly straight line by mid-morning. The mystery and talks of what it could be across entire communities. People were following the tracks as far as they could, and then they would meet up with somebody else, right? Who would like kind of take them the next route? They're like, Are you seeing this? Okay, it's like your turn. So the tracks covered the towns of Exeter, Topsham, Darlish, Dawlish, and Tainmouth.

SPEAKER_01 15:46

What year was this again?

SPEAKER_00 15:47

This is 1855.

SPEAKER_01 15:48

1855.

SPEAKER_00 15:49

So even the clergy of churches begin to find the prints throughout their enclosed gardens and churchyards. Like, not easy to get like over. We're talking stone walls.

SPEAKER_01 15:59

Fun.

SPEAKER_00 16:00

I know. Animals can't get in here, by the way. By late morning, all the same day, theories start to pop up, and people were like, We have to know what did this. So at first they thought it was like a stray animal, right? But obviously not, because no no animal goes that straight. Others were like, Okay, this is a prank, but no single human in the cover of night could cover the distance, which was anywhere from that's what I was gonna ask 40 to 100 miles in a continuous straight line.

SPEAKER_01 16:33

Yeah, you named all those towns.

SPEAKER_00 16:35

I was like, this is miles and miles, at least dozens up to a hundred. So the villagers, right, with deep beliefs in folklore, start to think maybe something else crossed the countryside at night. Yeah, something not meant to be seen. Okay, so now it's midday and fear starts to replace their curiosity.

SPEAKER_01 16:53

Well, yeah, because it's getting close to night again. It's like, what the heck?

SPEAKER_00 16:56

Well, midday. We're talking new.

SPEAKER_01 16:58

No, I'm just saying, but it's getting closer. Like you're like, oh, we don't even know how to do that.

SPEAKER_00 17:01

Well, they're also like they're it's like it's coming across now. It's like this isn't just one person's field, this is hundreds of miles, this is weird, or not hundreds, but a uh up to a hundred miles. Like it's just it they can't explain it, you know, it's not like a single family explaining away something weird anymore. Now it's like everyone, so there's an emotional shift.

SPEAKER_01 17:21

I'm sorry, but this is so fun. I know it's not for these people, but like, oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

Well like wildfire rumors start to spread in whispers, right? Now, what most people start to say is the devil himself had walked across Devon that night.

SPEAKER_01 17:38

So I was kind of thinking that when you first asked, because like the stereotypical like devil is like kind of like a minotaur, like with which like an upright bipedal.

SPEAKER_00 17:49

I love it because my sentence next was, What are your thoughts so far? So good job.

SPEAKER_01 17:53

That's my thoughts. But I didn't want to go in a devil red way, I wanted to give you something else.

SPEAKER_00 17:58

I know.

SPEAKER_01 17:59

But or it could be like Faye, because they do they are a little I don't want to I'm not even talking about them anymore than what I just said.

SPEAKER_00 18:08

That comes back up at the end a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 18:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 18:11

So, but let's get into what you wanted to talk about, which is what the prints were actually like. So they're small, narrow, cloven hoof prints. They're not big enough to be a donkey, but they're not small enough to be a goat. So they're about four inches long, two to three inches wide, and spaced eight to sixteen inches apart in a single file line. This means it was one animal, like I said, not paired like it would be if they were being walked.

SPEAKER_01 18:35

Like herding or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 18:36

Not staggered like a horse on four legs. It seems to be something with eight to sixteen inches. You don't if it was a longer animal, right? You they would be still further apart. Their gates are pretty long. It also didn't appear to be a set of four separate prints. They could only see two distinct prints. So, like something was walking upright. And this is where the fear really starts to go into the folks, okay? Like we said, we already talked about this. They didn't stop at fences, walls, hedges, they didn't stop at rooftops, right? It's like it either went above it or straight through, which would I think almost be more unsettling to be the people in the houses without prints on the roof, but to see it like stop at your front door and just leave the back of your house.

SPEAKER_01 19:21

Well, that's why, yeah. Cause I wonder what makes those homes different.

SPEAKER_00 19:26

Even frozen rivers, right? Like with thin ice, the trail didn't stop. It either continued right over the ice, or if it came to a waterway, it would end at one, like a part that was unfrozen, end at one and just be on the other side for up to a hundred miles, dude. By the time people realize how far it stretched and how many obstacles it crossed, they're like, no animal did this.

SPEAKER_01 19:49

I'm just trying to like I'm trying to. If we were to like, I hate saying logically thinking because dumb, irrelevant. But if you were to be like that person that's like, there's gotta be a logical explanation. Okay, what is it?

SPEAKER_00 20:04

We'll get to those. They're all they're all debunked, don't worry.

SPEAKER_01 20:07

Yeah, I'm trying to think of what I would think it would be, and I can't.

SPEAKER_00 20:10

So it's full panic at this point, right? And the villagers start to investigate, and that like just turns into fear. So people start to compare notes, they're following the tracks, they're trying to identify what this could possibly be. And when they couldn't, and they started to hear reports from miles and miles away, right? Everyone's like, this has to be the devil. Farmers couldn't explain it, naturalists, scientists couldn't explain it, and the clergy was even having a really hard time. So by the end of the day on February 9th, the supernatural belief that evil was walking among them takes over. Uh, they thought it was an omen, a warning, a message. They didn't quite know what to do. So newspapers at the time start to print stories about these hoof marks that belong to Satan himself. It was him who crossed the countryside. And the church joins in. Of course, attendance at the church has never been higher because people thought like the apocalypse or judgment day was coming. There's like a real emotional impact to these hooves.

SPEAKER_01 21:10

Could you imagine, like though, like I kind of just had said, the people, or like we had said, the people that it went through their house, are you thinking, oh my god, I didn't I haven't gone to church the last like two weeks? Am I yeah, am I gonna be like, you know, put on your Sunday's best, everyone?

SPEAKER_00 21:26

We're going.

SPEAKER_01 21:27

Because realistically, though, if you think about that, that would be terrifying. If you had not been going to church and it went through your house, you've got to be thinking, like, I'd be like cleaning my whole house with holy water sometimes, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 21:40

Confessing everything you've ever done. Yeah. Obviously, though, not everyone believes it was the devil, right? But everyone agrees on one thing something that wasn't an animal walked through. The story doesn't stay to localize newspaper for long at all.

SPEAKER_01 21:57

I wouldn't imagine it would.

SPEAKER_00 21:58

So, but this is the thing. I feel like usually when we have these kind of tales, the devil walked through or encrypted this or that, it's folklore stories that are handed down, right? And then it turns into lore, and you're not quite sure if it's true or not. This is one where it's like this unfolded so fast.

SPEAKER_01 22:14

This was the lore.

SPEAKER_00 22:16

It didn't become legend, it was like real for everyone, and the news gets in on it quick and it spreads across the nation in real time. So within days, local papers started writing about it not long after it reaches London.

SPEAKER_01 22:31

Well, I I have to imagine in that time, that's that's very impressive. Like, think about that.

SPEAKER_00 22:37

Because I I mean it's still quite a distance to London.

SPEAKER_01 22:39

Well, yeah, but just also think if it's mostly word of mouth.

SPEAKER_00 22:42

Yeah, it's not and it it spreads quick. Well, I mean, if you think you have physical proof that the devil walked through your neighborhood, of course. So the Illustrated London News publishes reports of strange tracks along with many other news sources, right? And some readers originally kind of like dismiss it as being overly superstitious,

Newspapers Clergy And Investigators

SPEAKER_00 23:02

but others set out to investigate. So this includes uh now clergy from London, regional officers, scientists, etc. Everyone wanted to try to explain what was going on in Devon. So now Now it goes from fear to reports to like a full-on investigation.

SPEAKER_01 23:19

Has had LB ever heard of this?

SPEAKER_00 23:21

I don't know. I didn't ask him.

SPEAKER_01 23:22

Oh wow. We need to ask him. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 23:24

Okay. So Reverend Henry Thomas Ellicome.

SPEAKER_01 23:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 23:29

He heads to the region and he collects a lot of witness reports. He gathers letters, sketches, descriptions, local testimony. And he is kind of noted for being the one who preserved many of like the eyewitness accounts we still have today.

SPEAKER_01 23:42

I'm sorry, he was from London, the paper?

SPEAKER_00 23:44

Yes. Okay, okay. Yeah. He wasn't from the paper. He was a clergyman. Oh, sorry. But he was from London.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

From London. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 23:49

Naturalists and scientists go down, right? They rule out animals. First, people think it might be these like woodland mice who would hop, but they're like, well, it they it doesn't quite fit. They looked at other rodents, they looked at badgers, all sorts of other animals.

SPEAKER_01 24:04

Okay, but it's and nothing would fit. Bigger than a goat print.

SPEAKER_00 24:08

So why don't smaller than a donkey? What are these so they they would these mouse mice would hop in the snow?

SPEAKER_01 24:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 24:16

So they see saw if the hopping would kind of make make that print.

SPEAKER_01 24:21

Okay, okay. That okay, I get it. I get it.

SPEAKER_00 24:23

And they thought badgers for the way they kind of like trudge along, so it's like they're looking at things like okay, this looks like a hoof. Maybe it's not.

SPEAKER_01 24:31

Maybe it's not. Okay, I can respect that.

SPEAKER_00 24:33

None and badgers were known to like travel really far distances, yes, but not in a straight line.

SPEAKER_01 24:39

Like nothing not up straight walls. Right. Yeah. Roofs. So could you imagine if you just saw a badger? Badger just like the side of a house.

SPEAKER_00 24:50

And it's like the hoof, the prints were like, they weren't angled on walls.

SPEAKER_01 24:54

It was just like constantly like the same. Do you think did I mean maybe you're gonna talk, but did they like measure, do anything like that, where like the depth of the pressure of each print is like the same. I didn't see anything on the depth. Okay. I'm just because like that's another that would be another thing to just for how crazy it is because the depth and everything on the on the side of the same.

SPEAKER_00 25:15

Yeah. Oh, for sure. God, I wish we had that. At the end of the day, though, the investigators couldn't give an answer, right? So the newspapers now turn from reporting a local event to creating a national mystery. This story of the Devil and Devon goes all over Devil and Devon. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 25:32

That sounds familiar, that name, but none of this I've never heard.

SPEAKER_00 25:37

I I looked in to see if anything bad happened in Devon afterwards.

SPEAKER_01 25:42

Oh, like if it was an omen.

SPEAKER_00 25:44

Right. And and nothing did. There is no verified famine, no epidemic, firestorm tragedy right after this February 1855. And if something dramatic followed, right, like Victorian newspapers would have certainly tied it back.

SPEAKER_01 25:59

Yeah, and I'm sure they would have tied it. So, okay, never mind. Go, go, go.

SPEAKER_00 26:03

So, I mean, the devil's footprints of 1855 is really what this is called. Um, a lot of people think it was a warning from God, a sign of judgment, evidence that the devil can walk among men, or supernatural visitation of unknown meaning, right? Nothing bad happened, but maybe their acts of going to church helped keep something bad from happening. I don't know. So that's Victorian England, though, it they're still super religious.

SPEAKER_01 26:30

Statement that just makes me think it was a hoax and the church did it somehow.

SPEAKER_00 26:35

I mean, how though?

SPEAKER_01 26:36

But how would they do it for that many miles? Like maybe if it was just one town, right? But no, because how? Because even if you had a device that made those prints, you'd have your prints aside behind like seriously.

SPEAKER_00 26:49

So, and that's the other thing. There, there's no other prints, yeah. Prints, there's nothing else. So there were some theories that came up, and a lot of it we've already kind of talked about, right? So some said small rodents like mice,

Theories From Mice To Balloons

SPEAKER_00 27:02

rabbits, or badgers, but the tracks weren't right, and no animal could do that distance in straight lines. This one I thought was actually pretty interesting. Some of the other people started to suggest maybe it was an escaped animal from a zoo, and these were just prints we hadn't been used to seeing. Which so possibly an escaped kangaroo, which can go in a straight line for some time, but they reached out to local zoologists and they're like, nah, we don't we don't have anything that would make these kind of prints. Which it's a good theory, though.

SPEAKER_01 27:30

It is, but I'm sorry. I don't give a shit about the theory about it going straight line. That's not what hangs me up. It's going up walls and roofs. Or potentially jumping over the other side.

SPEAKER_00 27:43

Okay, like a kangaroo jumps. Okay, so it could go over the roofs, it could go over the walls. It they technically go in straighter lines than most animals, but so did any of I I can't remember if you said this.

SPEAKER_01 27:53

Did any of these people ever say that they didn't hear anything?

SPEAKER_00 27:56

No, nobody in the night.

SPEAKER_01 27:58

Nobody heard anything.

SPEAKER_00 27:59

There was no like There was one website I saw that seemed like it was written more like uh um R slash no sleep. Okay, so it was probably made up. That said there's screams in the night, but I that's the only one I saw.

SPEAKER_01 28:12

Then I wouldn't even ignore that.

SPEAKER_00 28:14

Now there is a theory that came up later that I started to give weight to that a there's a port nearby that was doing a lot of different scientific experiments, and they had tested some weather balloons, and they thought that there was a uh one of their balloons had a hook, a metal hook at the tail end of it. And so it was like down and bopping. But but you and I both know in a snowstorm that a balloon is not gonna go in a straight line.

SPEAKER_01 28:38

Uh okay, you and you're so hung up on the straight line thing. I'm hung up.

SPEAKER_00 28:43

But that one that one could go over roofs, uh straight, whatever wall. You sure could. If it had a hook bouncing at the end of it, I I could see that one.

SPEAKER_01 28:52

I could see that would mean of anything we talk about. Okay, but let me talk about it. That would mean that the bottom of the hook is the exact same as the side. Is that what you're saying? Because the balloon then wouldn't go sideways, it would just be upstill and hitting on the side of the house.

SPEAKER_00 29:09

Fair.

SPEAKER_01 29:09

So fair, not to say that it couldn't be the exact same print, but it would be, I would think a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 29:15

I I don't fucking know what this hook on the last one you already debunked is that it was a hoax, right? Like somebody created these tracks, but like across 30 different locations in Devon, there's not another human footprint that was found nearby.

SPEAKER_01 29:28

Okay, but some you said fade has come up, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:31

So people start to think, right? So now at this point, they're like, it's either the devil or some sort of rare cryptid.

SPEAKER_01 29:36

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:37

Came to Devon one night in 19 or 1855, moved silently across the countryside, never seen again. That's literally it. That's the whole story.

SPEAKER_01 29:45

What cryptids are known around there?

SPEAKER_00 29:47

I don't know. I'm sure there's a bunch.

SPEAKER_01 29:50

Yeah, but that happened.

SPEAKER_00 29:51

However, Devon is not the only place that experienced this. Oh. So here's one of the last things I'm gonna leave you with that I think just kind of strengthens that this isn't a hoax because there was a bunch

Similar Cases Beyond Devon

SPEAKER_00 30:02

of other places that had similar things. So let's go recent. 1909, New Jersey. I mean, more recent than 1852. No, yeah, yeah. Um, similar tracks were reported in January. Newspapers reported strange tracks appearing on rooftops across frozen waterways, stretching across entire neighborhoods. Sounds eerily familiar to what happened in Devon like 50 some years earlier, but this ended up being um contributed to the Jersey Devil.

SPEAKER_01 30:30

So I was thinking the Jersey Devil at first, but but again, we always well, you can continue.

SPEAKER_00 30:37

So Belgium in the 19th century, a similar occurrence happened, right? Devil prints appearing in the middle of the night, hoof-shaped prints crossing long distances, um, that happened earlier that year. And the people in Belgium actually started writing into the papers in London when they broke the Devon Devil story. So similar time frame. Scotland has also had multiple reports of this happening.

SPEAKER_01 30:59

Okay. That's wild.

SPEAKER_00 31:01

They blame these tracks on something in their own folklore, not far related from the Faye. It's something they call the fareful.

SPEAKER_02 31:08

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 31:09

So that leads to more cryptid, and I I think you were onto something there, and that's funny because it's literally the last part of the episode that I have that while people were so quick to go to this being the devil, this might just be some other type of either you hit it on the head very, very first off in the episode, interdimensional, or of this earth that we just don't see and interact with, but for some reason in the snow, it leaves its little prints. But that is the story of the devil footprints of 1855.

SPEAKER_01 31:40

I yeah, well, right. Okay. So what I was gonna say though, before um was it's it's funny because even in my like Patreon couple episodes and things like that, I keep bringing it back, and it's like now that we're you know almost four years in, it's hard not to. But there are so many different cultures and countries and places that have the same, let's just call it thing with a different name.

SPEAKER_00 32:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:02

You know what I mean? So it's like the Jersey Devil is obviously just a Jersey Devil because of where it was, or you know, Bigfoot, Yeti, you know, folk monster, all these things could be the are most likely the same thing in just different places, right?

SPEAKER_00 32:17

Right. We just we just don't put it together.

SPEAKER_01 32:20

So to me, I don't really think it's Faye. That was just like I don't and also I'm not talking about them. They they do their own thing and I don't bug them. They live their lives and I don't.

SPEAKER_00 32:31

I'm gonna think girls and guys and I just I think this one sounds like so many of the other folklore legends that we hear about, but it's we don't have the firsthand. It's always it was told by stories, and you know, this happens in the middle of winter or so and so happens.

SPEAKER_01 32:47

This is the first I guess this is the start of the folklore, right?

SPEAKER_00 32:50

So yeah, but this one is like well documented at the time in the news when it happened. To like it's something that seems so mythical, but was like it this legit happened.

SPEAKER_01 33:01

Maybe in like another 50 years or so, there's gonna be more experiences popped up, and they're gonna be like, Well, back in the day.

SPEAKER_00 33:07

Back in the day, yeah, it could turn to lore, but it's it's interesting that it was it was well documented right away. No, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 33:14

I think it's this is a fun one. I I definitely think that it was well, okay, what do you think?

SPEAKER_00 33:20

I don't know. I mean, so at first when I started researching it, I'm like, this has to have just been like a wayward goat. Because goats can't. I mean, there's mountain goats, right? They're good at climbing, but they don't go straight up the walls and they don't live in Devon.

SPEAKER_01 33:36

Well, right, okay. So if you weren't going goat or like quote unquote logical, I don't I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 33:42

I I can't explain this one. I just thought it was like it was just really interesting.

SPEAKER_01 33:47

Of a cryptid type that let lurks in is already thinking is my energy.

SPEAKER_00 33:52

It's probably probably more cryptid with how much it's happened. Yeah. I would have led it to be or been led to believe it was more spiritual. And that's why I specifically looked if something bad had happened in the time. For sure. That's a good call. If it was, like I would have gone, I mean, even though Mothman's not spiritual, but more that omen route. Like this is a sign, pair yourself, whether it's good or bad, take that away from it.

SPEAKER_01 34:15

No, it's a good call looking that up.

SPEAKER_00 34:17

But yeah, with nothing happening, I that just left me even more confused, honestly.

SPEAKER_01 34:21

So I I think it's one of those things like where I'm just can not confused, but like it's strange that nothing else happened. Not necessarily bad, but there was no like I heard something, the vibes in the morning fell off when I woke up. Like, um Yeah, nothing.

SPEAKER_00 34:38

It was just a completely normal day when people work outside.

SPEAKER_01 34:41

Eaten, like you know what I mean? Like there were like button.

SPEAKER_00 34:43

Right, like it was a Jersey devil, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:45

Well, that we're just like usually in any of these other cryptid stories. There's like a smell, a feeling, uh glowing eye. Like, there's other things. So, like this is like so. Was it just like these couple instances was like where it's an interm interdimensional something that just for whatever reason is just like imprinting, like physically imprinting our what if this is just like some weird bird or something that like you know does this multiple times a year, but we we just don't see it until it happens in the snow.

SPEAKER_00 35:16

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 35:17

I'm definitely leaving leaning towards cryptid or like interdimensional, like where they're just or you know, like a time slip where it's just or at the end of the day, was this like a weird game of telephone?

SPEAKER_00 35:27

Because it was neighbors talking to neighbors, maybe something got blown out of proportion. I mean, we can't totally just credit.

SPEAKER_01 35:33

I'm sure it got blown out of proportion in some aspects. It did because I can't imagine there was much going on in Devon in 1855 to talk about otherwise of telephone in any which way you actually physically call or neighbor to neighbor personally talking. The game itself, or that concept, I should say, is always proven to not be accurate, like it'll never get to the last person and be the exact same message that started from the first person. So you have to there's discrepancies in all of the stories that we talk about. So I guess we just have to put that aside. This is a fun one, though.

SPEAKER_00 36:07

Well, to finish it off, LB says hi, and he has never heard of the double footprints of 1855. For this episode, the emoji I want you to leave if you made it this far, is emoji for emojis.

SPEAKER_01 36:22

You reminded

What We Think And How To Support

SPEAKER_01 36:22

me to go and like ice or goat and snow.

SPEAKER_00 36:25

Goat and snow, goat and snow. Goat and snow. Um, what else do these people need to do before we close the shop up for the day, Kara? They need to leave us reviews, write in stories. I don't know why I'm answering for you.

SPEAKER_01 36:36

Um, that's really it. And head on over to Patreon.

SPEAKER_00 36:40

Don't forget my Patreon survivors, subscribers is what I'm trying to say. I'm still doing free tarot readings over there, so ask me for one. I think I'm getting kind of good.

SPEAKER_01 36:54

And I'm doing bonus content every Saturday and other days.

SPEAKER_00 36:59

And book club? Is book club still a thing?

SPEAKER_01 37:01

Uh book club still is a thing. I perfect kind of stopped reading because I read like 17 books in February, so I only read a few, and I I it's on my list of things. I have it ready to upload what I read in March, but no one's really been communicating a lot in it, so I don't think they're missing it. But every Saturday.

SPEAKER_00 37:21

Join the book club.

SPEAKER_01 37:22

Join the book club. But every Saturday, if you are um an inner inner cabinet Patreon or oddballer, uh, I do bonus episodes every Saturday, and they're full video.

SPEAKER_00 37:34

Perfect, and they're chaotic. All right, let's uh let's close it up for the day.