The Franklinville specimen sent to the University of Pennsylvania (1925)

What the October report actually says

The Monitor-Register of October 22 named Morrell Langley as the finder. He lived with his sister in an old hotel at the junction of the Harding Highway and the Franklinville–Iona Road. The paper says he found the carcass hanging in a small pine tree in woods a short distance from the highway; it does not give a direction or distance from the hotel. A reporter said they examined the specimen on the preceding Sunday. It was already described as having been dead for weeks, so neither the examination day nor the newspaper date should be mistaken for its discovery date.

The newspaper estimated a length of about two and a half feet and weight of twelve pounds. It described hind feet and claws like a cat, a small toothless mouth, a short tail, tawny fur, and jointed triangular structures it called paddles in place of front feet. The body was exhibited at Henry Finger's Franklinville home. Those descriptions are a reporter's account, not a species determination.

Noises, tracks, and the university

Langley's sister said that she and others had heard unusual cries near the hotel and had once seen something heavy enter a tree. A former hotel owner recalled odd prints from the previous winter. These are separate claims; the paper did not establish that the dead animal made the sounds or tracks. Its October 29 follow-up said Finger had sent the specimen to the University of Pennsylvania and had received no answer. A December 17 recap still described the identification as unresolved while comparing the Franklinville find with a separate animal shot near Greenwich. No final university finding has been located in the sources checked.

What the map can show

The original report narrows the story to woods near the Harding Highway, with the hotel junction as context. It does not identify the tree or a public access point. The Jersey Devil sightings atlas therefore uses a broad Franklinville-area circle rather than a specimen-site pin. The October report also changes an earlier conclusion on this page: the contemporaneous Franklinville story does survive, and names its finder.