13. In 1883, The “Jersey Devil” Was On Display at the Arch Museum in Philadelphia
Just like P.T. Barnum’s museum of curiosities and Ripley’s Believe it or Not in Atlantic City, the Arch Museum in Philadelphia specialized in displaying hoaxes. It spread posters around town claiming that they had captured the Jersey Devil, and that it was on display at their museum. They actually took a curiosity they once called “The Australian Vampire”, which was a taxidermy abomination. It was really the body of a kangaroo with wings attached, and they rebranded it into the Jersey Devil.
At that time, a lot of Americans had not seen what kangaroos looked like, so it’s possible that some people might have been fooled. In the posters around Philadelphia, they announced that they caught the beast after a long struggle. Tickets were only a dime, but there were enough customers that it helped keep the business afloat for a few weeks longer. However, the museum was going bankrupt, and soon enough, people were tired of the beast, so they had to shut its doors.