The Tape Library - Archive of the Paranormal & the Unexplained - Playback | The True Story of The Conjuring 4 - The Smurl Haunting

Episode Date: August 27, 2025

The Smurl Haunting is the real case behind The Conjuring 4, and its story is far stranger and darker than any film adaptation could capture. Experience the horror firsthand with a comprehensive exploration of the chilling Smurl family haunting. From their unsettling move to a seemingly normal home to the inexplicable events that followed on Chase Street in West Pittston, Pennsylvania. Experience the harrowing encounters, including a suspected demonic infestation and the involvement of renowned paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. Brace yourself for a riveting retelling of this terrifying saga, from the haunting's onset to the media frenzy that ensued. Do you have a supernatural story to share? Drop me an email at [e-mail] Support the channel with Patreon - www.patreon.com/thetapelibrary You can check out The Tape Library in audio form on all of your favourite podcast providers. Tiktok - https://www.tiktok.com/@thetapelibrary Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/people/The-Tape-Library/100094332411836/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thetapelibrary Archive of the Paranormal, the strange and the unexplained. The Tape Library brings you the creepiest stories, to keep you horror junkies up all night. True scary stories of ghosts, cryptids, UFOs and true crime. Additional footage and audio from Evanto, Singularity, Midjourney and Pexels. Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio and the youtube audio library. All other footage used under fair use. SpectreVision Radio is a bespoke podcast network at the intersection between the arts and the uncanny, featuring a tapestry of shows exploring creativity, the esoteric, and the unknown. We’re a community for creators and fans vibrating around common curiosities, shared interests and persistent passions. spectrevisionradio.com linktr.ee/spectrevisionsocial Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Playback. A new show where we look back at classic cases we've covered here on the tape library. Stories that for one reason or another are either relevant again, or that are worth thinking about. A chance to re-evaluate and reconsider what this story means. Each entry into playback features a brand new intro and where possible improved audio. The night is acting as a kicking off point for a short season here on the show, which is something I've never done before. The first ever episode of the tape library was on the case of the Annabelle Dole, one of the original tales from the infamous Ed and Lorraine Warren. Over the following years,

we've dipped back into quite a few big cases that the Warrens have been involved in, and along the way, as I feel my knowledge of them grew, my opinion of them shifted. I have longed promised a deep dive into the warrants, but about a year ago I covered the South End Werewolf case and I just felt a bit burnt out by their stories. Other than when they have unexpectedly popped up like in the Dudleyville story, I haven't really covered them since. But they are hard to ignore completely. They were involved in varying degrees with some of the most famous paranormal cases of all time and some of those stories make up some of the most popular episodes of the show. Tonight's playback, we'll see us revisiting, the most listened-to

episode of the Tape Library ever. I feel it's time to wrap up the warrants once and for all. To do this, we'll be first looking at one of their most interesting cases, before later in the month finally getting around to a deep dive into them. Next week sees the release of what will supposedly be the final entry into the Conjuring franchise, a series of film that have drastically altered the warring's legacy and that final film is going to be based on the case of the Smell family a genuinely creepy account of a family suffering one of the most intense hauntings ever reported but can it really be believed well that leads to a much larger conversation that we'll be digging into over the next few weeks but for now it's time to put the tape in and hit play

Let's revisit the disturbing case of the Smurl family haunting. Inhuman spirits, devils or demons, hate human beings. Sometime in the early 80s, a 37-year-old housewife by the name of Janet Smurl was alone in her basement, loading the machine with her family's dirty clothes. Her four children were all at school, and her husband Jack was at work. The only sound that could be heard in her home was the dim hum of the television playing upstairs punctuating the quiet atmosphere

with the sound of a game show audience having a great time. Janet sniffed the laundry detergent just as she started to pour it. It was a cold, crisp winter's day, a totally normal one at that. That wasn't Hill. Everything changed in an instant.

Lost in her thoughts as she loaded the washing machine and hit the start button. Janet for a brief moment was convinced she had been called by someone. She paused. The washing machine started to speed up. Janet shook her head, clearly mistaken. And she grabbed the basket and turned to leave. Before she could, she heard it again. Janet froze on the spot.

There was no mistaking it this time. She had heard someone calling her name. A woman's voice, soft but unsettling. She glanced around the basement and all she saw was boxes of Christmas decorations. The daylight seeping in through the small high-up window was enough to illuminate the darkened corners of the room. There was no one else in there. Janet. The voice whispered again.

This time it came from behind her. Janet spun around, her blood running icy cold at this point. She slowly back towards the stairs, and the voice called out once again. A soft whispery voice that Janet would later describe as eerie, then it came a fourth time, almost in a teasing, mocking turn. She was sure she heard a slight giggle, as it called her name. Whoever it was was clearly enjoying her fear. Janet backed to the stairs.

The voice would punctuate the air a couple more times before she could reach the stairs. But once she did, Janet plucked up the courage to shout back. What do you want? She yelled. There was silence. Just a gentle fudder. of the washer and the laughter from the TV upstairs. Janet backed onto the first step,

glancing around with a full, clear view of the basement. It was empty. Was she imagining things? Maybe she was spending too much time alone at home, just as she was about to breathe a sigh of relief. The voice called out to her in that same mocking tone. Janet turned and ran up the stairs as quickly as she could, slamming the door behind her. The strange events that had been plaguing her family home since they moved in

had just moved up to a whole new level. Welcome to the tape library. In tonight's episode, we're going to be delving into one of the most infamous hauntings in American history. The Smurl family and the terrifying incidents that took place in their home on Chase Street. This is one of the most vicious hauntings that has ever been reported and grabbed the attention of people all over the world as it took place. We'll be getting into all the dark details,

the controversial involvement of Ed and Lorraine Warren, and try to figure out what really took place within those walls. A quick trigger warning, this does get pretty rough at times, then there are some reports of sexualized violence within this encounter. The timeline of the events that took place here is a little confusing, depending on what source you use. But I've tried to keep the events in chronological order as much as possible. If you enjoy tales of the paranormal and the unexplained,

I'd love it if you could join us here every fortnight, as we uncover new cases. Hit the subscribe button now so you don't miss out. and if you want to support us, you can do that simply by clicking the like button. Now with all that out the way, grab yourself a warm drink, dim the lights and get comfortable. It's time to getting to the haunting tale of the Smell family and their demonic infestation. When people have a haunting that's going to occur, a really bad one, these are all the things that occur to those people.

Doors open and closing, footsteps, psychic hole spots, hearing what we call magic whispering. These are all the beginning stages, Tony. The first few years of marriage were bliss for Janet and Jack Smell. Jack's job meant his new family were able to live comfortably, and their first two daughters were born, Dawn and Kim. Janet gave up work to become a full-time mother,

and the couple were especially close with Jack's parents, John and Mary Smell, who they shared a house with in Wilkes Bar, Pennsylvania. However, tragedy struck in 1972 when Hurricane Agnes decimated the area. The family's home was flooded underneath 12 feet of water in an instant. And although luckily no one in the family was hurt, the house was ruined. John and Mary did attempt to fix the place up, but the house was taken. over by the local redevelopment authority. With a young family in tow and unsure where to turn next, Jack's parents were the lifeline they needed. They didn't see this incident as a reason to

split up their family, and it just so happened they found a duplex for sale in the nearby town of West Pitson. John and Mary proposed that they would buy the entire duplex, and then Jack and Janet could purchase the other side of the duplex. at a discounted rate. The home was old and was a bit of a fixer-upper, but it gave both sets of the family a home to call their own at a very reasonable price. However, they didn't know that this particular property on Chase Street

was the focal point of a lot of local rumours. Locals said the police would make regular appearances over the years to investigate disturbances. Some said that odd. noise could be heard from the property, even when the place had been empty. Others said that residents that lived there previously had practiced witchcraft. Others reported seeing odd faces peering at them through gaps in the curtains as they walked past. But it was all just stories. Every town has their creepy house that kids dare each other to approach on Halloween night.

West Pitson itself was once a prosperous mining town. However, the long-closed mines are now filled with water. Even causing decades of mine cave-ins that caused some homes to collapse, although since the 1940s, the ground has become much more stable. Homes were still prone to making grumbles, as the foundation settled beneath them. In one of the stranger discoveries, A number of these homes that caved in led to the apparent discovery of pickbones,

buried deep within the mud, surrounding the properties. Jack, Janet and the girls quickly settled into their new home, and Jack and Janet both became prominent members of the local community, getting involved in any way they could. They were both seen as friendly, helpful and well-respected people within West Pittston. And no one ever thought to bring up the silly childish stories

about their house being a little strange. The events, like in so many of these cases, started out pretty minor. The first reported odd occurrence from the home came in the mid-1970s, when Mary Smell purchased a new rug for their half of the duplex. When they rolled it out across their living room, however,

they were shocked to discover a large, greasy stain in the middle of it. The stain was still wet, so had clearly somehow appeared since the rolled-up carpet was in their home. Mary and John gave it a thorough clean and went to bed, but two days later, the stain reappeared. They kept cleaning, but each time, after only a few days, would come back. This wasn't the only pain the families would experience while trying to try and fix the place up. The renovations were quite big and took a number of years to complete. During this time a number of pipes were replaced or repaired. But even after being freshly soldered, they would unexpectedly spring a leak, soaking Jack and Janet's home. This was despite

the work being carried out by John and experienced welder. Tools would often go missing and then reappear in strange places. This meant that small jobs that should take a few minutes were taking Jack and John hours to complete. At one point, Jack and Janet completely remodeled their bathroom. When they walked in the following day, their new sink and bathtub had been scratched beyond repair, with large chunks ripped out of the porcelain. Then the fire started. In 1974, Jack was sat alone.

one night watching a movie on his TV, when all of a sudden the set burst into flames before his very eyes. Other appliances within the home would start to smoke or even catch fire. This could maybe be chalked up to electrical issues in the home, but that wouldn't explain why the same thing happened to Jack's car one day. In 1975, their daughter Dawn started making regular appearances in their bedroom late at night, seemingly too scared to sleep in her in bed. After a few incidents like this, Jack asked his daughter what it was that was scaring her so much, to which she told him there were people floating around her room. Each night the dawn would run in screaming in flooded tears, Jack would go to investigate

to find nothing amiss. While you would normally pass these off as the nightmares of a young child, the fact that the strange things were continuing to happen throughout the home gave it a bit more weight to Jack and Janet. Radios would turn on all by themselves at full volume. Footsteps would be heard echoing

throughout the upstairs, even when no one was up there. The toilet would flush in the dead of night, when everyone was tucked up asleep. and most persistent of all, banging could be heard, coming from inside the walls. 1977 rolled around, and Janet gave birth to twins Shannon and Karen, bringing the smell children up to four. As the years continue to pass by, the couple continue to notice odd phenomena in their home. In the dawn hours of one morning, Jack and Janet found themselves awoken to a sudden. strange creaking sound. They followed the sound downstairs to their front door. They opened it to

see their lawn chairs, rocking back and forth in the windless morning air, as if someone was sat in them. Jack and Janet had almost come to terms with the fact that there was something in their home besides them. It had been years at this point, and despite the fact it could be a bit creepy, It was mostly harmless. They joked about sharing their house with a ghost, but really they just brushed it off, as all being explainable in some way, the odd quirks of an old run-down house.

Then one night, Jack woke up to the feeling of his shoulders being robbed, in a sensual manner. He came out of his slumber, to the pleasant surprise of his wife's touch, only to glance over his shoulder and see Janet, fast asleep, facing away from him. Jack didn't get much sleep that night.

By the time 1983 arrived, the family were met by a phenomena that would be consistently appearing throughout their remaining years in the home. A foul smell would appear and spread through the house, but they could never find the source for it. Around this time, John and Mary were becoming concerned about their son and his wife. They began to hear arguments, clear as they through the walls, the sounds of Jack screaming, shouting and swearing at Janet. At times building into such a fit of rage, they began to genuinely worry for Janet's safety.

One day Jack Smurl was fed up with hearing his son talk to Janet like this. He stormed out of his front door to the other side of the duplex. He opened the door and walked straight in, only to find Jack and Janet and the small children sat having a relaxing evening in front of the TV. They had no idea what Jack was talking about, and that was when Janet had her encounter in the basement. As I said, they had already suggested the possibility their home could be haunted, but this was the first time that Janet had witnessed something herself that she just had just.

couldn't explain. The only possibility was that someone was playing a prank on her. But upon leaving the basement, Janet had searched the entire property, opened every room, wardrobe and looked under every bed. She had been totally alone in the house. The idea that this was somehow one of the girls playing a cruel prank on their mother, however, was quickly dismissed. Just weeks later, Janet once again found herself alone in the house. She was ironing in the kitchen when she was suddenly hit with a blast of cold air, something that had happened a few times now in the house. She glanced up, half expecting to see that she had left a window open

and that the cold February wind had whipped up suddenly. But that wasn't what she saw. Standing in her kitchen just a few feet away from her, in broad daylight was a human-like shape shape is the only real way to describe it you could see the vague outline of a person but its body was made up of an almost smoke-like black substance

while Janet got the sense it was looking back at her its face was completely featureless whatever this thing was it stood looking at Janet and Janet stared back, frozen to the spot in shock. Then suddenly, it began to move to water. And that's when she noticed something fluttering behind it as it walked, almost like the outline of a cape, but made of the same black moving smoky substance.

It only took a few steps before the creature was on top of Janet. But as she winced back in fear, it simply passed through her, and continued out of the kitchen door and into the living room. Janet slowly crept out of the kitchen, trembling in fear, but the thing was gone. The living room was empty. In a panic, Janet stormed out of her home and ran next door to Mary and John's place. She entered and found Mary, sat in a chair, and she entered and found Mary, sat in a chair, and she, and she, in the living room, she barely even acknowledged Janet's presence. While this was out of character, Mary had been unwell and was recovering from a recent heart attack, so it didn't immediately

strike Janet as anything to be concerned about. Before Janet could tell Mary what she had seen, the old woman began to speak, telling Janet she thinks she might be losing her mind. She then proceeds to tell Janet that just moments before she came in, she saw her a black smoke-like humanoid shadow, walk through a wall and out into their hallway before disappearing again. However, it seemed that the odd activity in the home had reached its peak. The incident with the shadow was followed by weeks of relative peace. As time created a distance for the family and the incidents, it became easier to just once again think. Their minds had been playing tricks on them.

The smells were often referred to as the traditional good Catholic family. One evening, Janet is in the kitchen with her girls. Kim's Holy Communion was coming up, and Janet was ironing her white communion dress, ready for the occasion. Janet and Kim were lucky enough to duck, as they heard the sudden creaking noise. A four-foot lighting fixture that was above their heads suddenly fell without warning. young Shannon wasn't so lucky and caught a glancing blow from the light as it fell but was luckily not seriously injured

when Jack inspected it afterwards it didn't look like the light had gotten loose and the ceiling looked damaged to such an extent it appeared the light had been ripped from its place and we have a four foot by two foot ceiling light and it came without no warning at all.

In a matter of a split second, it came crashing down onto the kitchen table. That must have been very frightening. It was very frightening because we didn't know. It was unexpected, and it wasn't like a light that had broken naturally. It didn't tip, it didn't sway. It just came crashing down. And it gouged Shannon on the forehead, and it gouged a mark onto the refrigerator. And this was about a half an hour before we went to church.

Just days later, Janet had taken the girls out early one evening to buy them new clothes for school. Jack, after a long day of work, had laid down on his bed with a book, but soon found himself nodding off to sleep. He began to wake a few hours later, and instantly could tell something was off. But couldn't quite figure out what. It wasn't long before he realized. He appeared to be floating, two feet in the air, above his mattress. He began to struggle and was instantly dropped back down onto the bed,

and left in the darkened room with complete silence, as if nothing had ever happened. The physical activity would take a vicious turn one summer evening in 1985. This is when the true horror of the small situation, would begin. Just moments after Janet and Jack had finished making love, Janet found herself being pulled violently from the bed by some invisible force. Jack grabbed his wife's hand, desperately trying to pull her back onto the bed. Eventually, whatever was pulling Janet gave up and retreated. Almost instantly, the familiar banging on the walls started, but louder than ever, and the smell returned.

Whatever had tried to take Janet in that moment was clearly angry that it hadn't been successful. The family were at a loss for who to turn to. They were now living in daily fear. They had sunk so much money into the home that moving again was not an option. And regardless,

they had spent years rebuilding their lives here since relocating. They didn't want to be chased out so easily. But from this point on, whatever had been hiding in the shadows of the small home, these past few years, had now fully awoken and seemed more powerful than ever. Days later, the family's pet German Shepherd Simon was laying in the kitchen next to Janet, when he was suddenly lifted from the ground and thrown into the kitchen door. The children began to report hearing the odd sound of fluttering in their rooms, as if, a giant unseen bird was flying around. One evening, Jack and Janet had fallen asleep. When they suddenly heard a massive crash and sobbing,

they rushed to the stairs to discover their daughter Shannon, lying at the bottom of the stairs. She had no idea how she had gotten there. Soon after this, Janet was awoken to find a strange smoke filling their room. She tried to wake Jack, but he seemed to be stuck in an almost coma-like deep slumber. something that became a recurring theme whenever whatever was in their home

wanted to present itself to just one of the couple. It appeared to be able to keep the other one unconscious. The smoke appeared a few nights in a row at one point taking on the form of a person. Not unlike that of the shadow figure Mary and Janet had seen, but this time it scurried off into the Smoll's bedroom wardrobe. and vanished. But it wasn't just Jack and Janet who were suffering. Mary and John were continuing

to notice odd phenomena around their side of the duplex. With Mary claiming one night, while John was out, her entire mattress was levitated off the bed, before she was dropped to the floor, injuring her leg in the process. Janet began researching as much as she could, devouring book after book on the paranormal to try and understand what could be happening and how to deal with it. On two separate occasions, priests who were friends of the family came and blessed the house. Each time this happened, it calmed the activity for a short while, but much like the case of Helvannock that we covered before, the energy would bounce back with a vengeance. Janet was introduced by a friend of hers to a university professor who had an interest in the realm of the paranormal.

Janet met with the man who said that his interest in the topic was purely academic. And while he couldn't help her with a solution, he had met two people who possibly could. This is when he handed Janet the phone number for Ed and Lorraine Warren. I imagine that most people here will be familiar with the Warrens. We have already covered their cases a number of times here on the take. Library, and their involvement in the Ammeseville case, as well as their most recent depictions in the conjuring movies, has made them basically household names at this point. The warrens are Ed and Lorraine, a married couple who just might be the most famous paranormal investigators to have ever lived. Ed,

a self-proclaimed demonologist, and Lorraine, a clairvoyant, have been involved in many of the largest paranormal cases of all time. A number of books and movies have been made about their encounters. While they apparently never charge money for investigating and helping the families involved in these hauntings. They certainly made a pretty penny on the lecture circuit, media appearances, and books and movies made about them. To call the Warren's controversial would be an understatement. Some viewed them as charlatans, jumping on any case that could help boost their fame. Their involvement with the Smurls did lead to some very odd choices from the family that we'll get into later. It's also worth noting that the warrants come at everything involved in the supernatural from a very

Catholic viewpoint. They operate in the world of good and evil, where demons are apparently just a part of everyday life, which obviously aligns perfectly with the Smell's existing belief system. While they may not have entertained the idea of possibly sharing their home with demons before, they were certainly more open to the concept now. At this point in time, the warrants are claimed to have investigated over 3,000 paranormal cases across the world, and were rising on new levels of fame post the cultural sensation that was the amateurville horror. The Warren sat at the kitchen table with Janet and Jack, drinking coffee and beginning their interview, which to the smells felt more like an interrogation with Ed Warren asking to the point questions about if the

family had ever been involved in the occult, if they had had to be involved in the occult, if they had ever played with a Ouija board? Were they Satanists? The entire ordeal felt a bit intense for the smells. But this was the first time someone was sitting in their home, seriously willing to offer them help. While Ed conducted the interview, Lorraine and Diane Hayes, another member of their team, an apparent psychic, started to walk around the house. The pair described that they felt fear as they moved throughout the home. They soon found themselves drawn to the smell's bedroom by a strange sound. As soon as they opened the door, they were hit with the strange smell. They had plagued the smells for years now. They found themselves drawn specifically to the wardrobe,

with a strong sense that something was hiding in there, while they could see nothing physically. Both psychics were filled with an overwhelming sense of evil. They returned downstairs to fill the family in. Lorraine told the smells that she had sensed four presences in their house. She said one was an elderly woman who seemed very confused, possibly suffering from dementia before she passed away. While she may seem scary, she appeared at least to be harmless. The second spirit was of a younger woman. This one was described by Lorraine as insane and violent. The third was a man. Lorraine knew he had a moustache and was capable of violence, but not much beyond that. The fourth, however, wasn't a spirit at all. It was a demon,

and was seemingly capable of controlling the other spirits. It had likely been in the property for decades, but for some reason had been awoken by the Smell family. This The demon would feed off the family as though they were batteries. Their fear and confusion giving it energy. The demon would keep the family in a constant state of edge, never quite making sense in its actions, being unpredictable and at times violent. This was when Ed laid out the four stages of demonic activity,

infestation, oppression, possession. And finally, Death, and these four stages, were already well underway. The Warren's investigation began that very night, and straight away they witnessed some of the phenomena the smells had been experiencing. The mirrors in their bedroom began moving unexpectedly, and a small portable black-and-white TV that had been left unplugged through fear of fire suddenly lit up. In the static, they swore they could see figures, as if they were looking back at the family, through the screen.

The Warrens, of course, pushed that prayer was the answer to the Smell's Troubles. They should go out and purchase Holy Water to sprinkle around whenever something would happen and pray as hard as they could. The Warrens would investigate the house for months on end, apparently gathering all sorts of photographic and recorded evidence. However, none of this was seemingly ever made public. The Warren's primary focus was to try and get the local church involved and have an exorcism commissioned on the property, something that will require the Scranton Diocese to get involved in the case. That night after the warrants had left,

the children huddled in their room, afraid that the grey thing they had been seeing at night would return. Meanwhile in Jack and Janet's room, as they lay there trying to sleep, Janet was slapped repeatedly by an unseen force. Banging on the walls grew in intensity throughout the night, and once again the television glowed, with those strange images hidden within. By 3 a.m., the activity began to calm down. But both Jack and Simon the dog patrolled the house throughout the evening, in a vain hope of keeping everyone safe. Simon refusing to leave the hallway outside the young girl's bedroom. The Smiles purchased several items from the church shop

and took them to a priest to have them blessed, per Ed Warrant's instructions. The priest was hesitant to do so, but still went ahead. It was clear the church were not taking the Smurl's predicament too seriously, and post-Amitiville, the involvement of the Warrens likely made them even more hesitant to get involved. The last thing they wanted was to be involved in a media circus like that. Just days later, Janet was taking a rare moment to relax in the bathtub. As she sunk into the water, she suddenly felt extremely uncomfortable. Like she wasn't alone.

Like she was being watched. Suddenly becoming aware of how naked and vulnerable she felt in that moment. A place of relaxation was turned on its head. head, but it got worse when the whistling started. A whistle that Janet described as akin to that of a group of drunken men, filled with innuendo and fret. Jack was awoken one night around 2 a.m. to the sounds of two female voices.

In his half-asleep state, he assumed it was the twins. He opened his eyes to see two women standing at the foot of his bed. wearing old-fashioned dresses, asking in the familiar glow of the TV. In the blink of an eye, they vanished. The following night Jack awoke late into the evening, yet again to the voices. He could see the two women, standing this time in the darkened corner of the bedroom. He tried to nudge Janet awake, but to no luck, as he sat there terrified, staring at the women. This time he could see one was around 40, and the other was younger, possibly in her early

20s. He could see them whispering to each other, but couldn't make out what was being said. This time they seemed aware of Jack's presence. The younger woman slowly turned to face Jack, her lips curling into an exaggerated smile. Jack tried to scream, but no noise would come out. The two women continue to look at Jack, whispering to each other, and grinning at him in a way that sent chills down his entire body. Then they slowly stepped backwards and seemed to disappear into the darkness that surrounded the wardrobe. By this point the warrants were in touch daily with the smells and were making regular visits to the house. Ed was able to get another priest to come and bless the house.

Shortly after this, Ed decided to attempt something called religious provocation, a ritual that he hoped would force the supposed demon to reveal himself. And it appeared to work to some degree as halfway through the ritual, Ed was choked to the point of near unconsciousness by the unseen force. Then the bite marks and scratches began appearing. First on Jack and then other members of the family began reporting similar. There seemed to be no source. They would just appear overnight. Incidents were occurring on the other side of the duplex as well,

with Mary C in the darkened shadow in her doorway one night. Only this time, she didn't know how, but she got the overwhelming sense. it was attempting to call her, to convince her to follow it, into the darkness. At this point, incidents were happening every single day, but it took on a whole darker level on the evening of June 21st. Jack once again asleep in bed was jolted awake violently.

He looked around his room in a sense of panic, but nothing seemed to be wrong. It wasn't until she was already climbing onto the bed. that Jack became aware of the presence of the woman, if you could call her that. What Jack saw crawling up his bed was an old woman's face with the body of a much younger woman. Her hair was long, white and messy, her skin pure white, and what appeared to be scales covering her body. Covered in open sores that oozed pus. Her eyes are vivid red. The inside of her mouth green, with several missing teeth.

The few remaining teeth she did have were long, and described by Jack as vampire-like. She climbed on top of Jack. He had already realised at this point that he was completely paralysed. He was conscious, but there was nothing he could do. Once again, Janet slept next to him in a deep trance-like state. Jack couldn't feel any sensations below his neck, but he realised this creature had climbed on top and had started to have sex with him. The creature used Jack while staring at him and smiling,

with her demented, crooked smile. When she was done, she simply retreated back into the darkness of the corners of the bedroom and vanished. Soon after Jack was able to move, he realised he was covered all over in a smelly, sticky substance. that appeared to be oozing off the woman's skin. Jack took himself off and scrubbed himself in the shower till his skin nearly bled. He could have passed it off for some sort of nightmare

or sleep paralysis hallucination. If it wasn't for the soreness that ached through his body, the day after, Jack told Janet everything, his wife burst into tears, terrified by this massive escalation. The following morning, at breakfast, Dawn told her parents about a nightmare she had. She had seen exactly what happened to Jack

in her dreams. After this new attack, Janet once again contacted the Scranton Diocese to ask the church to help them. Once again, her request was seemingly not taken seriously by the higher-up members of the church. Soon after this, Janet too was a victim of sexual attacks from whatever was in their home. While at this point, it didn't go as far as Jack's encounter. She reported feeling like she had been sexually assaulted by an unseen person. One of the Warren's team relayed this story to the Warren's over the phone, and then proceeded to play them a recording he had made.

There was the familiar bangings from inside the wall, but in between the banging was the unmistakable sounds of pig squealing. With the local Catholic church being unwilling to help, the Warrens brought in Father Robert F. McKenna from Connecticut to perform what would be the first of several exorcisms on the house. An old-school Catholic priests who the Warrens had known for a number of years. The night before he could arrive, however, Jack was once again visited by the two women in the night.

Only this time they had a middle-aged man with them. The man got right up into Jack's face, who was once again paralysed in his bed, and said, You will pay for this. He repeated this phrase to Jack multiple times, while the women continued to whisper and look at Jack, even laughing at him in his terror as he lay there helpless, before all three simply faded away before his eyes. The exorcism was seemingly unsuccessful. Although the activity lessened in severity for a while

and was reduced more to the sort of behaviour one would see in a poltergeist case, everyone involved in the house seemed to be falling ill repeatedly. Ed Warren wasn't able to attend the first exorcism due to suddenly falling ill. And then the Smol's daughter Karen fell severely ill in the aftermath of it, losing several pounds and scaring the life out of her parents before her fever finally broke. The sexual nature of some of the attacks that Jack and Janet had began to encounter

took on a whole new level of terror when their 16-year-old daughter, Dawn, began to attract the attention of whatever was hiding inside their house. Dawn was undressing to get into the shower when she heard the familiar banging from inside the walls. At this point, this barely raised a reaction in any of the family due to how common it was.

She climbed in and began washing herself when she suddenly felt something, grab her arms forcefully, and then begin to lightly stroke one of them, before beginning to squeeze her arms tighter and tighter. Whatever it was had dawned back against the wall in the shower. She threw herself past whatever it was and fell to the floor outside the shower, screaming for her parents to help. The family on both sides of the duplex,

continue to discover bite marks and slashes on their bodies. Apparitions continue to show up, with Jack watching TV one night, and seeing a 20-year-old male, with long hair staring at him from across the room, with a terrifying smile. Once again in the bathroom, a seemingly favourite location for the spirits.

Janet was in the bath when she claimed a three-foot-tall humanoid-like creature, began to materialise before her eyes, coated in the same goo that the woman who assaulted Jack was. She didn't give it time to attack her, however, and fled from the bathroom instantly. Mary Smell was regularly haunted by the black shadow figure. A visiting relative claimed to see an old woman staring from the duplex's window that they didn't recognize. And Jack found himself once again waking up while levitating, before being thrown forcefully into a wall.

It was getting too much for the smells, so they did what they often did when the haunting grew too insane. They packed up their belongings into their campervan and headed off for a nearby camping ground in Honesdale, hoping the trip would offer them some much-needed respite. However, they would be in for a shock. At approximately 9.15 on the first evening, Jack was starting up a fire

Simon the dog was lying nearby to it enjoying its heat when he caught sight of something and quickly jumped up the dog stiffened up staring forward and growling intensely Jack followed the dog's line of sight to some nearby bushes

and there staring back at them was a young girl no more than 14 She was looking at Jack directly in the eyes and smiling. A disturbing, false, familiar smile. It was then that Jack noticed she was wearing what appeared to be, an old-fashioned colonial dress.

She didn't move. She didn't blink. She just kept smiling. Slowly she vanished before his very eyes. Jack crept closer to the bushes. only for the girl to rematerialise and once again disappear in the span of just a few seconds. Later that night as the family crowled around the campfire, the distant sounds of a young girl calling for help could be heard. They searched everywhere but couldn't find anyone. It didn't take them long to realise that whatever was happening in their home had the ability to follow them anywhere.

Meanwhile, back at the house, neighbours were startled to hear repeated screams coming from the Smurl residents in the middle of the night, even though they knew the family were away. On other occasions when the family were out of town, neighbours complained they could hear what sounded like massive flocks of large birds flying around the house, chillingly echoing something that the Smell children had encountered in their bedrooms previously. One neighbour even attempted to phone the smells to see if anyone was actually home. She was very confused when the voice of a young girl that she didn't recognise answered. When she asked who she was speaking to, the girl chillingly laughed repeatedly down the phone

until the call disconnected. No one answered again. As soon as the family returned home from the trip, the attacks began again with the irregular appearance of the black form on both sides of the duplex, and multiple members of the family waking up, levitating in the middle of the night. Even work didn't offer any respite for Jack. His work colleagues, who were now well aware of what was going on in this home, started to report strange occurrences around the office when Jack was in. The same foul smell that had permeated

their home appeared. Phones would start making deafingly loud buzzing noises out of nowhere. And even what one colleague referred to as the sound of someone banging from inside the radio. It sounded strange, but they were convinced it sounded like someone was inside their radio, trying to get out. Shortly after their camping trip, Janet decided to have a lay down on their sofa due to a throbbing headache. She awoke to the now familiar experience of an unseen force, touching her in a sexual manner. These invisible hands seemed to move up her body, until they clasped around her throat. Its grip tightened to such a degree, her vision started to turn black. Simon, the dog, attempted to lunge at the attacker, but just passed straight through

whatever was harming his owner. Janet claimed she used the religious visualization techniques that Ed Warren had taught her, and remarkably, this seemed to see. send her attacker into a slow retreat. The following day, Father McKenna returned for the second exorcism on the property. As the priest drove home after the ritual, he knew deep down that he still hadn't been able to help the family. Janet continued to be attacked night after night, either in her bed or whenever she was alone in the bathroom. Whatever was doing this seemed to take great pleasure in attacking or appearing to the family when they felt the most vulnerable.

One night after another sexually motivated attack, Janet saw the apparition of an old woman looking at her from the foot of her bed. But for the first time in years, this was a rare moment that didn't feel threatening. Whoever this woman was, Janet said, felt peaceful. And like she was simply trying to tell her something. But her words made no. noise. The family finally decided to go public with their story, approaching a television station and agreeing to take part in a studio interview, albeit in an anonymous fashion. They hoped that even though the viewers at home wouldn't recognize them, that the church would put two and two together, and realized this was the Smurls, trying another way to force them to take action. The Warrens

were repeatedly telling the Smurls that while Father McKenna was a respected practitioner of the exorcism rights, having the church send in their priests from higher up, would hopefully be more successful in driving back the demonic forces that were plaguing their home. But the plan to go public seemingly angered the apparent demon. On the way to the studio, Janet and Jack were nearly forced off the road by the unseen force. When they did turn up at the studio, they were a wreck. Neither had slept a wink all night, on account of the the fact that their bed had been violently shaking in the motel they chose to stay at. While the interview went well, their return home was met with increasingly violent activity.

Janet once again found herself attacked in the night to such a vicious degree that she was convinced the spirit was trying to break her arms and legs, but it was Jack who would witness a new level of apparition appearing in their home. Jack was awoken in the night by a strange breathing sound. When he opened his eyes, he saw it staring down at him. He described whatever this thing was as eight feet tall, standing on two legs with a furry head, red eyes and a pig snout on its face, waving its rake-like fingers as it lumbered towards Jack in his bed. Jack screamed as loud as he could, for once actually managing to

wake Janet. But it was gone. however she could see in the state her husband was in, whatever he had seen had broken him. Just days later, Janet saw the figure of a mustached man, with animal horns protruding from his head. Even after all this time, the house was finding new ways to shock and scare the family. They were long past breaking point.

Janet and Jack rarely slept now, and Jack's parents' health was racking. rapidly deteriorating. The strange beast creature Jack saw would return just a short while later. He was up one night and headed to the bathroom. As he flicked on the bathroom light, it materialized in an instant. The same half-man, half-animal creature he had seen in his bed. Only this time, it started charging at him, squealing as it did. Jack ran back to his bedroom and the creature cornered him right up against the wall. Jack closed his eyes, praying that this wasn't going to be the end of him. When he slowly opened his eyes, the beast was gone.

Following this, Janet was lying in bed late one morning. When she felt something, grabbed the back of her neck, despite the fact she was laying on her back. As she struggled to get free, she could. could see, clear as day, a human hand poking up through her mattress. After all these violent attacks, it would ultimately be a rather harmless, but all too haunting experience that would send the smiles into a new level of desperation for help. Janet raced upstairs one afternoon as she heard her daughter Shannon screaming in terror. When she got there, she found her

daughter, crying on the floor. She said there was a man in her room, taking things out of her toy box. She said he's been there before, and that he smells real bad. Janet asked her daughter if the man had ever hurt her, to which Shannon luckily said no, but she replied that he just stares at her, and that he scares her. He scares her a lot. A plan was constructed between the Warrens and the Smell family. They had tried time after time to get the church to take their case seriously.

So it was time they started to make some serious noise. And the family began to contact the press. Yet again, the move towards getting help led to a vicious retribution from the entities in the home. Once again, Jack was sexually assaulted by a woman while he lay paralyzed in bed. This time it took on the form of a much more attractive, almost human-looking girl. He said, however, the red eyes were the giveaway of what this thing actually was. The Smurl's told their story to a reporter by the name of Sandy Underwood. They could have had no idea what came next.

In the wake of the Amityville horror, the country was desperate for its next big ghost story. And in the Smurls, it had it. There was a media frenzy. Worldwide newspapers started reporting on what was going on in the home. TV stations were turning up with cameras. Hundreds of members of the general public were showing up on the Smals' property. What they thought was their chance to get their story out there and gets help actually added more pressure to the Smiles.

So many people were showing up that the police were forced to close the street. Their neighbours, understandably. were angry with them about the chaos they had brought to their quiet community. The children were startled to see people climbing the trees in the middle of the night, staring in through their windows. At one point a coven of witches turned up and asked if they could perform rituals in their home, and a number of people seemed to be lurking outside the property, sinisterly carrying weapons.

It was absolute chaos. The one shining light came in the form of a psychic who got in touch with the family by the name of Betty Ann Moore, who came and visited the home. She not only identified the fact that there were three spirits in the home and one darker entity, just like Lorraine had all those months earlier. She was actually able to provide information that seemingly filled in some of the gaps and explained some of the behaviour of the apparitions they were seeing. She spoke of a senile older woman named Abigail, who appeared to be harmless.

Upstairs in one of the bedrooms, she then claimed to sense the spirit of a man named Patrick, a large mustached man who had died here and would often beat his younger wife Elizabeth. One day Patrick came home to find Elizabeth with another man. He proceeded to strangle her and beat the man to death. She then said that Janet resembled Elizabeth And she believed that the spirit of Patrick Has confused her for his wife And Jack for her lover

She claimed Patrick didn't want to cross over to the other side Because he was afraid he would be punished Punished by what or who Wasn't clear Interestingly she claimed that the third spirit presumably the younger woman who had been spotted regularly wasn't Elizabeth. It was a violent, insane woman who wanted to cause the family harm and was somehow working alongside the demonic entity in the house

with the aim of possessing a member of the family. She was also capable of making Patrick commit violent acts. Then there was the demon itself. which she described as being everywhere in the house. It had invested its very walls. Meanwhile, during the media circus, the neighbours once again started contacting the smells. Although seemingly not to complain about the chaos outside, six different houses close to the smells started reporting, banging in their walls,

strange odours, and screaming late at night in their homes. It seemed, with the awareness, and recognition, the entities were growing in power. What they hoped would be their salvation had turned on them. The Smurls couldn't leave their home without being hounded by the press and the public. But if they stayed inside, they were endlessly being tormented, while their spirits within. This seems a good time to talk about some of the more skeptical takes on this case. As the press continued to feature the Smur's story,

public perception began to turn on them. Rumors of a book deal and movie began to circulate, and many started to believe they were simply doing this for fame and money. The warrants became the public-facing entity in this case for a lot of the press. Some suggested that the plan to go public had nothing to do with the Smurls, and it had been done entirely by the Warrens. Stephen Kaplan, a parapsychologist with some connection to the Yamitville case, claimed that while he believed the Smur's had in fact experienced the haunting, that the suggestions that a demon was to blame had been entirely inserted into their heads by the Warrens, something he claimed they had also done in Amateurville. The organisation of CSI cop wanting to investigate the case, casting a more sceptical wire over proceedings. While initially the Smurl said they could, when the team arrived at the property, they were met on the porch by Jack Smurl, with Ed Warren flanking him.

They were then told they would not be permitted entry into the home. The Smurl's later claimed that CSI Cop was one of the first organizations they got in touch with when looking for help, but they were not taken seriously. Something CSI cop deny having any record of. Jack Smell then said, no other paranormal investigators beyond the warrants would be allowed to investigate. He apparently feared that any provocation of the entities could put his family in further danger. and that any help would need to come from a strictly religious source. The church hadn't completely ignored the family's pleas, and had been willing to bless the house.

However, organizing an exorcism required sign-off from higher-ups in the church, and particularly once the Warrens got involved, there was a strong sense of skepticism amongst them about how serious this really was. The Warrens told the press time and time again they had video and audio evidence of many of the events that took place in the home. However, when asked to present these, Ed first claimed it had been given to a TV station

they didn't recall the name of, before then claiming it had all been given to the church as evidence. Another interesting theory came out when it was reported that Jack Smurl had brain surgery in 1983 to have water removed from his brain. It has been suggested by some psychologists that this could be the root cause of some of the things he was seeing and experiencing. And that his fear and belief in what was happening was fuelled to his family's fear, creating a kind of mass hysteria that then saw everyone close to them start believing they were experiencing stuff too. The noises in the home could be explained away by the settling of minds beneath the property. And apparently residents had complained for years about a faulty sewer main that was pumping out foul odours into the community.

Of course, the answer could come in some sort of combination of a lot of these factors. Maybe the family really were experiencing something, especially in those early days. But it does seem that the involvement of the warrants really amped up the apparent evil nature of the phenomena that was taken. taking place? Was there insistence on looking at these events through a Catholic lens and blaming it on demonic entities, fueling the family to look at it from a malevolent viewpoint? The other possibilities that the family really were scared and were feeling abandoned by their church, so began to exaggerate the stories that were happening to them, in the hope it would force the church into action. After some of the press attention started to wane, the warrants came up with the idea of holding a mass exorcism, with multiple

prayer groups, both in the home and across external locations, all focusing their energies on ridding the home of whatever lay inside it. This was the moment the Scranton diocese finally stepped in, telling the warrants that they would be taking over the investigation from here on out. Father McKenna returned for a third exorcism, and for days afterwards, friends, family members and representatives from the church returned to the home in an attempt to almost drown the evil in prayer. For the smells who had felt so alone for many long stretches of their encounter, this was a powerful and beautiful moment. Their home, long a place of misery and fear, was now filled with warming candlelight, loving friends, and most importantly, support,

and seemingly, it worked. Weeks went by and no incidents took place within the small family's home. But then, just two weeks before Christmas, Jack was alone in his living room. He switched off the TV and was about to head up to bed when he saw it again. Standing there was the black, faceless being. Its cape still fluttering, just as it had the first. time Janet had seen it. But there was a difference this time.

He couldn't explain how, but Jack felt the overwhelming sense it was calling to him, trying to tempt him closer. Jack resisted, but then it all began again. The family would spend the following weeks in their beds terrified as the pounding on the walls returned, and the haunting started up all over again. Although it seemingly never reached the same levels it once had. Subsequently, a book and television movie both named The Haunted were released on the Smell family's case. The family were finally able to get themselves into a financial position where they could move,

leaving the dark memories of the house on Chase Street long behind them. Karen Smell, the youngest of the children, has since grown up, but the events of her children, childhood have clearly stayed with her, as she has become a paranormal investigator herself. It is reported by some that after moving out of the house and the subsequent spotlight having been taken off the events, the church went and finally performed their own exorcism in the property. The residents have lived there since have reported no strange activity. Thank you for joining me on this entry into the tape library. This might be the most in-depth I've gone on a case so far, but there is just so much information to work with.

Even here, I've still been forced to leave out a lot of events. This was a lot of research, so please, if you enjoyed this episode, drop me a comment below and let me know what you think of this case. Hit the like button, and if you haven't already, then please do subscribe. Thank you once again. Pleasant Dreams.