Post by Graveyardbride on Aug 13, 2024 12:10:25 GMT -5
The Devil in JPV Woods
According to a rumor that is believed to have started in the early 1990s, those who walk along the old trail in Florida’s JPV (Jan Phyl Village) Woods on the night of August 13, between 11:30 p.m. and 12:30 a.m., will hear phantom children crying and screaming for help.
Unfortunately, the woods within the confines of the village are in excess of a mile in length and more than a half-mile wide in places, and no one is certain of the precise location where the disembodied voices manifest. Some say the spot is behind Jimmy Lee Road, while others insist the cursed site is near the end of Foxhollow Drive, East. Still, there is no denying strange things have been reported in this heavily wooded area.
Jan Phyl Village was formed from a purchase in 1950 of 1,200 acres of land west of Winter Haven by Harry Lesnick of Vermont. He christened the plot Jan Phyl Village in honor of his daughters, Janet and Phyllis. The majority of early home sales were to airmen and pilot instructors stationed at nearby Bartow Airbase during the Korean Conflict (June 25, 1950 - July 27, 1953). The development suffered its first recession at the end of U.S. military activity in Korea, leading to many foreclosures, and even today, homes in the neighborhood are considered reasonably priced in comparison to those in more desirable parts of the state.
But why do people hear the plaintive cries and screams of children? In an online discussion in the early 2000s, a woman identifying herself as PalominoBabe claimed to have lived in the area for years and recalled rumors of Satanic activity in the Village during the late 1980s and early 90s. “Some people who lived over on Jimmy Lee Road saw a light in the woods behind their house after midnight and they called the sheriff because they were afraid somebody might start a fire back there,” she posted. Apparently, those causing the disturbance were from the neighborhood because the lady said no one saw any cars parked along the street, an indication “the Satanists or witches, or whatever they were, all met at someone’s house and walked into the woods.” The same residents, she continued, had heard “what sounded like chanting coming from the woods.”
On another occasion, she wrote, a nurse returning from work after midnight saw several people – who appeared to be adults – in robes and hoods walking along the road. However, it was close to Halloween, so she assumed it was just someone “having some kind of weird costume party.” According to PalaminoBabe, there was a rumor making the rounds that Satanists from the surrounding area were holding regular sabbats in the woods.
Additionally, thrill-seeking students at All Saints Academy – an independent preparatory school under the aegis of the Episcopal Church – sometimes sneak into the forest. A young woman who attended All Saints in the 90s claimed she and three classmates were terribly frightened on the trail one cool winter afternoon. They had walked some distance, she recalled, when they heard “spooky chanting like you hear in scary movies.” Unnerved, they stopped dead in their tracks and when one whispered, “We’re being watched,” they hurried back the way they came. Almost all the way back to the school, she insisted, they heard someone or “something” moving among the trees and thick brush just off the path. “Some of it was imagination, I’m sure,” she conceded, “but the chanting was real, so there was definitely someone in those woods.”
A few years ago, a man calling himself “Adam” told a far more sinister tale. One summer night, he and his girlfriend decided to explore JPV Woods and although he admittedly thought the tales of ghostly activity and Satanic rites were a “load of crap,” early one evening, they set off on the trail. After walking an indeterminate distance, his girlfriend complained of not feeling well and when he looked toward her, he noticed her eyes appeared “darker than usual.” They continued walking, and a few minutes later, looking deathly pale in the light of the full moon, she complained of a headache, and her eyes were even darker.
Still, she declined to abort their mission, as it were, and the third time Adam took a good look at his companion, he claimed there was blood oozing from her nose, the whites of her eyes were totally black, and pieces of bone were beginning to protrude from her skull like small horns. As she commenced “whispering and grunting” under her breath, he insisted they get out of the woods.
When they exited the wooded area, his first inclination was to call for help, but not knowing how he, or she, would explain the horns, he contacted the church his family attended. Although he declined to name the church involved, he claimed the Catholic church determined the young woman was possessed by a demon and church leaders were in the process of transporting her to the Vatican for an exorcism.
Very few believe Adam’s story, and while the majority of adventurers exploring the wooded areas of Jan Phyl Village encounter nothing more alarming than the occasional alligator, Florida panther or poisonous snake, there have been so many reports of strange incidents in JPV Woods that many are convinced there’s something spooky going on. But why a specific phenomenon occurs on the night of August 13, no one knows.
Sources: Bartow Airbase History Museum; Haunted Florida: Ghosts and Strange Phenomena of the Sunshine State by Cynthia Thuma and Catherine Lower; All Saints Academy, Winter Haven, Florida; Demonic Encounters; Ryan E. Little, The Lakeland Ledger, June 11, 2012; PalaminoBabe; Reddit, and Topix.
Top photo is an aerial view of Jan Phyl Village with JPV Woods in the background.
