Death on the Devil's Teeth

Four decades after Jeannette DePalma's tragic death, authors Jesse P. Pollack and Mark Moran present the definitive account of the shocking Springfield township cold case.

As Springfield residents decorated for Halloween in September 1972, the crime rate in the quiet, affluent township was at its lowest in years. That mood was shattered when the body of sixteen-year-old Jeannette DePalma was discovered in the local woods, allegedly surrounded by strange objects. Some feared witchcraft was to blame, while others believed a serial killer was on the loose. Rumors of a police cover up ran rampant, and the case went unsolved - along with the murders of several other young women.

Jesse P. Pollack is a New Jersey native who has served as a contributing writer and correspondent for Weird NJ magazine since 2001. In addition to Death on the Devil’s Teeth, Pollack is the author of The Acid King (Simon & Schuster, 2018) and co-directed a 2021 documentary of the same name. Pollack is the co-host of Podcast 1289, the True Crime Movie Club podcast and the Devil’s Teeth podcast. Mark Moran graduated from Parsons School of Design. In the early 1990s, Moran teamed up with Mark Sceurman to create Weird NJ magazine, the ultimate travel guide to New Jersey’s local legends and best-kept secrets. The magazine has since spawned several books and a History Channel television series. Moran and Sceurman can be seen on the Travel Channel television series Paranormal Caught on Camera.