As successive editions of the magazine were published, readers began sending Sceurman and Moran undocumented "weird tales" from communities across New Jersey.
Notable subjects included reclusive colonies of albinos and evil cult sacrifices in the woods.
[4] While setting out to check out the substance of the legends and stories and their relationship to known events and historical data, Sceurman and Moran claim they make no attempt to differentiate between what is true and what is not but aim simply to present the local legends in as unadulterated a form as possible, leaving the task of separating fact from fiction to the reader.
They aim to document the stories as "an important and intrinsic part of our modern America culture", but because they are about real people or events or concern specific locations, the books serve as a travel guide as well, albeit because of problems of access they often use the description "travel guide of the mind".
[5] He attended Bloomfield High School in his hometown, where his fellow graduates voted him "most likely to spontaneously combust".