In the summer of 1916, as a brutal heatwave drove Americans to seek relief along the New Jersey shore, a series of shark attacks transformed tranquil waters into scenes of unimaginable horror. The final chapter of this 12-day nightmare unfolded on July 12 in Matawan Creek, where an 11-year-old boy named Lester Stillwell would never make it back to shore.
Lester was playing in the creek with friends near their homes when one of the boys spotted what appeared to be an “old, black, weather-beaten board or a weathered log” drifting toward them. Moments later, a dorsal fin broke the surface. Before Lester could reach safety, the shark seized him and pulled him underwater. The terrified boys raced into town for help, returning with a group of men that included local businessman Watson Stanley Fisher, 24.
Fisher and the others dove into the creek in a desperate bid to recover the boy. During the rescue effort, the shark struck again, biting Fisher severely on the right thigh. In the chaos, Lester was lost. Fisher was pulled from the water and rushed to Monmouth Memorial Hospital in Long Branch, but he bled to death at 5:30 p.m. that evening. Lester’s body was recovered two days later, 150 feet upstream from the Wyckoff dock.
Just 30 minutes after the initial attack on Lester, another young swimmer fell victim half a mile away. Fourteen-year-old Joseph Dunn of New York City was bitten on his left leg while swimming. In a dramatic tug-of-war, Dunn’s brother and a friend fought the shark to pull the boy to safety. Dunn survived the ordeal, enduring three months of recovery at Saint Peter’s University Hospital in New Brunswick before being released on September 15, 1916.
Lester Stillwell and Watson Stanley Fisher became the fifth and final fatalities in a terrifying string of attacks that gripped the Jersey Shore and captured national attention.
The Beginning of the Terror
The first major attack had occurred twelve days earlier, on Saturday, July 1, in Beach Haven on Long Beach Island. Charles Epting Vansant, 25, of Philadelphia, was vacationing with his family when he decided to take a quick swim before dinner. Witnesses heard him shouting as a shark latched onto his legs. Lifeguard Alexander Ott and bystander Sheridan Taylor managed to pull Vansant to shore, but accounts claimed the shark followed them as they dragged the bleeding man from the water. The shark had ripped away much of the flesh from Vansant’s left thigh. He bled to death on the manager’s desk of the Engleside Hotel shortly before 7 p.m.
Five days later, on July 6, the horror struck again farther north in Spring Lake. Charles Bruder, 27, a Swiss bell captain at the Essex & Sussex Hotel, was swimming just 130 yards from shore when a shark attacked. The shark bit him in the abdomen and severed his legs, turning the water red with blood. Lifeguards Chris Anderson and George White responded to reports of a capsized canoe and reached Bruder in a lifeboat. They pulled him from the water, but he died from his injuries on the way to shore.
Warnings Ignored
Sea captains had reported sightings of large sharks swarming off the coast, yet these warnings were largely dismissed. Beaches remained open, and beachgoers continued to enter the water, unaware of the growing danger. The attacks shattered the sense of security that had surrounded the popular Jersey Shore resorts.
The shark—or sharks—responsible for the 1916 attacks was never definitively identified. Some accounts suggest that fishermen later caught a large shark containing human bones in its stomach, though the connection remains part of the enduring mystery surrounding the events. In the aftermath, numerous sharks were killed along the coast as fear spread.
The 1916 New Jersey shark attacks remain one of the most infamous episodes in American history, forever altering public perception of the ocean’s safety. What began as a routine summer escape for families and vacationers ended in tragedy, leaving five people dead and a lasting legacy of caution along the shoreline. The story of young Lester Stillwell, who vanished beneath the creek waters and never made it back to shore, stands as a haunting reminder of nature’s raw and unpredictable power.