When a homeless man is found in the woods just outside Atlantic City with his arm and shoulder chewed off, Mulder thinks it may be the work of the fabled Jersey Devil. Mulder has an X file from a killing in 1947 where a man who stopped to fix a flat tire was snatched and dragged into the woods in front of his wife and children. The agents are in Atlantic City informally but they get little or no support from the local police. It's clear that they know there is beast out there but are worried about the impact it might have on tourism if it became widely known. Mulder and Scully investigate on their own with the help of a park ranger and a paleontologist.