Weird NJ’s No. 1 fan hung out with us on Friday the 13th

Go ahead and call Brittney Leonard a freaky girl, and she won’t be at all insulted, even though she’s a grown woman in her 30s and has a professional career in a medical office.

That’s because the same fascination with creepy, freakish things that began when she was a girl still haunts her to this day. And she embraces it fully.

Already a fan of Weird NJ, the decades-old publication covering strange places around the state and urban legends, at 14 years old, Brittney went exploring inside her first abandoned building.

Exploring vacant Lakeland Psychiatric Hospital

She chose Lakeland Psychiatric Hospital in Blackwood (locals call it Lakeland Asylum) and went with a group.  Before even getting into the eight-story-tall building through its basement, she caught a glimpse of a figure looking out an upper window. Dressed in an olive-green sweater reminiscent of 1970s clothing and with very pale skin and red hair, the image was there and gone just as fast. She’s certain there was no one else in that building as her group methodically investigated it top to bottom for hours.

On the 8th floor of this long-abandoned place, there was an old elevator shaft. She was looking into that empty shaft when Brittney swore she felt two hands place themselves firmly on her back, where one would if one were about to try shoving you into that void. She moved swiftly from the touch to see no one there.

You would think that alone would be enough at 14 to keep you from ever messing with this sort of abandoned exploration again. In her case, it was enough to ignite an even deeper lifelong fascination.

She has since explored countless abandoned places and graveyards, and notorious urban legend sites across the state, but mostly in South Jersey. She wants to get up in the northern areas around creepily famous places like West Milford’s Clinton Road, Bernards Township’s Devil Tree, and Warren County’s Shades of Death Road.

SEE MORE: 30 top-rated NJ attractions that prove the haters wrong

Weird NJ magazine inspires life curiosity

How does a girl at 14 start this macabre journey? Big brothers are great for this sort of thing.

Her brother Justin, eight years her senior, showed her her first Weird NJ magazine at a young age. She remembers it had a decrepit Humpty Dumpty on the cover, and she was hooked.

It fueled a lifetime hobby of urban exploring, ghost chasing, and story swapping.

And collecting.

Mark Moran and Mark Sceurman began Weird NJ in the 1980s, and she has met them numerous times. She’s been dubbed Weird NJ's No. 1 fan.

They got to know Brittney so well when they heard her collection was just shy of owning every single issue they ever put out, they went out of their way to painstakingly go through an old warehouse to dig up what she was lacking.

She now owns the complete collection thanks to the guys she sometimes refers to as "The Marks."

Her home is a bit like a “Weird NJ” museum.

She has the trivia game, the books, and the cans of lager.

One of the most blood-chilling and beautiful things she owns is a Ouija board coffee table. It’s exactly what it sounds like it is. A Ouija board made into a coffee table. Even the drink coasters are specially designed planchettes. (For the uninitiated, that’s the thing you rest your fingertips on, which then glides around the board to spell out words.)

Notice the corners? How Jersey is this beauty? A face of Asbury Park’s Tilly, Calico the evil clown of Middletown in the upper right, and even a rendition of the Jersey Devil.

Yes, of course there’s more.

Wall hangings? Check. T-shirts? Check. Skeleton? Check. Oh, the skeleton? That’s Steve, her roommate. Don’t mind him.

It was a fun Friday the 13th visit with “Weird NJ”’s #1 fan, Brittney Leonard!

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

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