The Tape Library - Archive of the Paranormal & the Unexplained - The Disturbing Case of the Becker Haunting | The 1st Televised Exorcism

Episode Date: April 20, 2025

In 1971, America watched as a real-life exorcism played out on television. What they didn’t see was what came before & after—the terror, the unrelenting presence in their home, the slow decent into madness. When Edwin and Marsha Becker moved into their Chicago home, they didn’t expect the strange occurrences to escalate into a full-blown haunting. Objects moved on their own, violent outbursts struck without warning, and apparent apparitions of the dead walked its halls. They slowly began to uncover the traumatic history of their home. Desperate and terrified, they turned to a group of mediums… and ultimately, to television. Broadcast to millions on NBC’s The Tomorrow Show, the televised exorcism shocked audiences and made history. But the haunting didn’t end there.  Edwin Becker documented the ordeal in his books True Haunting and True Haunting 2, offering deeper insight into the terrifying events that unfolded behind closed doors. His chilling account lives on—one of the most disturbing and under-discussed paranormal cases in American history. This is more than just a ghost story. It’s a haunting legacy. Support the channel with Patreon - www.patreon.com/thetapelibrary Do you have a supernatural story to share? Drop me an email at [e-mail] You can check out The Tape Library in video form at www.youtube.com/thetapelibrary Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thetapelibrary Tiktok - https://www.tiktok.com/@thetapelibrary Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/people/The-Tape-Library/100094332411836/ 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, Artgrid, Epidemic Sounds, Singularity, Midjourney and Pexels. Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio and the youtube audio library.  All other footage used under fair use. 00:00 Becker Family Haunting 04:54 Welcome to The Tape Library 05:59 A New Start 17:15 The Haunting Begins 29:55 The Tenants 49:47 Help 56:33 The Exorcism 1:04:51 The Downfall of April 1:11:20 Escape 1:13:38 What Really Happened? 1:21:11 Wrapping Up Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Most people are skeptics and they're not interested or concerned in the mysterious things which sometimes occur around them. All over today, we have the story of one family which says it was forced into becoming concerned. Moving into a new home of a newborn baby can obviously be stressful. Sir Ellen was delighted when baby Laura took to her new surroundings so quickly. They had decided to set the room at the front of their new home up as the baby's bedroom. That way they could put her down to sleep early without disturbing her. And it seemed this had been the correct decision. Ellen thought that they were so lucky to have such a good baby.

Any time she put her down in the room, she wouldn't cry. She would barely make a peep. In fact, the baby seemed happiest in the crib. It seemed like she could entertain herself alone for hours in there. Something that the new 19-year-old mother didn't even think twice about. That was until about. a month or so of living there when she suddenly realized that maybe her daughter wasn't entertaining herself. Her husband Dave had left for work hours ago and she was just finishing up her lunch in the

kitchen. She picked up baby Laura and took her to the front room, placing her down in the crib ready for an afternoon nap. Ellen returned to the kitchen and began tidying up the dishes, running the tap as the sun beamed through the window. An unusual occurrence. The apartment had always felt so cold and dark usually. Then a cloud must have moved across the sky on this warm Chicago afternoon, blotting out the temporary ray of light. As the dull darkness returned, she felt it. She wasn't sure what she felt exactly,

but a sensation ran through her body that caused her to stop washing the plates in the sink. She paused. She looked to her left and right, but saw nothing amiss. She then turned away from the sink. From the kitchen you could see directly down the hall to the open doorway of baby Laura's room. But it was even darker down there, like something was blotting out the light from the doorway.

And then, she suddenly realized what she was seeing. Ellen froze, paralyzed with fear. Standing in the doorway of her baby's room was a man, a little under six feet tall with dark brown hair and an almost impossibly slender build that just made him look unnatural even from this distance. But it was his face that troubled her the most. From this perspective she only got a brief side-on look at it, but Ellen would describe it as distorted,

like his face had some sort of deformity, but she didn't get a clear enough view to describe it in detail. The reason for that is he didn't stay in the doorway for long. His attention wasn't on Ellen at least. at all. This man was looking into the baby's room, staring in the direction of Laura, and then suddenly he took a step forward and disappeared into the child's room. Ellen instantly broke out of her paralyzed state and rushed towards her baby. She didn't even think to pick up anything to defend herself or call the police. She just needed to get to her child, motherly instinct

completely overcoming any fear she felt. She rushed to the doorway and looked inside. She couldn't understand what she was seeing because she was seeing nothing. No one else was in the room. There was no other exit that the man could have gone through, at least not that quickly. She thought her mind must be playing tricks on her. The stress of the move and of having a newborn baby clearly getting to her. But then she noticed, Laura was very much awake, smiling and making small happy noises. She was extending her arms out as though she wanted to be picked up.

although she wasn't doing this in the direction of Ellen. She was doing it towards the empty far corner of her room. All her attention focused on this empty space. As though someone was standing there. Someone she wasn't afraid of. Someone she was used to seeing. That night Dave was so confused when Ellen demanded they moved the baby into a different bedroom. She simply told him that she was worried she wouldn't be able to hear the baby cry in the night.

she didn't know how her husband would react to her claiming to have seen a man in their house who just vanished. But it wouldn't be long until Dave found out, and it wouldn't be long until they all wanted out of this new home. It seemed their landlord upstairs knew a secret about this place, and he hadn't told them. Welcome to the tape library. I've got a really creepy one for you all tonight.

I had never heard of this case before. but I received an email from a viewer recommending me a book on this haunting. And once I read it, I moved this right up my list of cover. I featured some slightly out there tales of the paranormal recently. But this one really got to me because it all felt so real. It's the tale of a young couple purchasing a building, a place they believe will be the start of a long and happy life together. But it seemed this place had a history, and that history was still there.

This strange little tale of a haunted house would actually go on to provide what I believe is the first ever televised exorcism, making this a significant piece of paranormal history, as well as just being a really scary account. So get yourself a warm drink, dim the lights and get comfortable. It's time to talk about the disturbing case of the Becker Family Haunting. July 25, 1970. A 24-year-old man named Edwin Becker was heading to a property in a rough neighbourhood in Chicago. His wife, Marshall, was soon to be given birth to their first child, and his landlady had made it pretty clear that she did not want children in her property. Ed had come across a listing for an apartment building.

The prior owner had passed away and their children were liquidating their assets, meaning that this property could potentially be the bargain that Ed had been desperately searching for. He knew it wasn't going to be the most amazing. home for his new family, but it was a house that had been converted into two apartments, meaning they could rent one out and live on the other floor, attempting proposition being he was so unsure if he really had the finances to buy a house of his own. When he arrived at the property on Campbell Street, he wasn't blown away by what he saw, but he just kept telling himself this was a stepping stone. It would be a temporary home

for five years before they could find something more permanent, plus with a little bit of to work, he was sure he could make it into something worthwhile. The building looked dirty and gloomy. A large tree on the street blocked out most of the light from the windows, and it was surrounded on either side by large three-story properties. An estate agent by the name of Art met him on the steps and began to show him around. He suggested they start by looking at the second floor. Art mentioned that the ground floor apartment was still lived in by a member of the family who owned the building, And she was, somewhat not all that well mentally. Before they could get up the stairs though, this woman made herself known.

An old woman who looked like she hadn't washed in mumps came bursting out of the door, cradling an equally dirty poodle in her arms. She began angrily screaming at the men to get out. Art turned to the woman and forcefully told her to get back into her property. The woman's name was Myra, and it was obvious by how he dealt with her. with her that Art had had his fair share of run-ins with her already. Inside the property was even more of a state. It appeared it had been vandalized. Someone had gone through the rooms tearing the place apart, and it was full of the prior residence belongings. Everything was old-fashioned,

dated and dirty. As they finished up their tour, Ed noticed the trap door to the attic, but Art assured him there was nothing to see up there. They headed downstairs into the basement area, which was a little over six foot high, meaning the particularly tall ed had to crouch to enter it. Down there were three partitioned rooms that had been created with wooden paneling. One was empty, one had been used to store coal. But curiously, the third had a padlock attached to the outside and was locked. At the front of the basement was a fully furnished room containing a stove and some seating. It smelt strongly of burnt wood, which, seemed odd because it looked like the stove hadn't been used for years.

They then headed into Myra's apartment, who continued to berate the estate agent, but Ed simply toured the property quickly on his own while she argued with art. Ed noticed that the front bedroom was notably colder than the rest of the building. In fact, the only place he had felt to chill quite like this was down in the darkened basement. It seemed odd for such a hot summer day, but he didn't think too much of it. Ed certainly saw the potential in the place, and then he was informed that it could be sold for just $16,500, meaning he would need to get together a down payment of $825, but with some effort he knew this would be possible. One week later, the deal had been accepted, and Ed took his wife Marcia to see the property. His main concern was how she may react to the inner-city neighbourhood, so he went out of his way to drive a scenic route to the building.

They toured the upper apartment. Ed was relieved that Myra didn't make an appearance this time. Marsha agreed that it would need a lot of work and she did note that the place felt weirdly cold, but she too could see the potential and trusted her husband's judgment on the place. The only part she didn't seem as keen on was the basement. As they ventured down there, they were both overcome with that strange burning smell again. Ed had suggested it could just be used as a laundry room, But Marshall was firm that she did not want to use the basement. In fact, she didn't want to have to go down there at all.

Ed kind of assumed that it was just because it was dirty and that she would change her mind once it was all cleared out. But Marshall was very definitive about this point. Something about the basement made her feel uneasy and she did not want to go down there for any reason. A few months later and with a newborn baby with them, Edwin was ready to close on. the deal but the family had thrown in another condition. Myra would have to stay for 90 days after

the purchase was complete. The day of the sales saw Edwin, Marsha and their attorney arrive at an office where they met the children of the prior owner. All had their own attorneys, all clearly hated one another. Ed didn't know what was going on but it was apparent there was a lot of bad blood within the family. But despite some tensions, the deal went through. and the beckers were now the owners of this two-story property on Campbell Street. They had no idea what they had really taken on. Ed and his younger brother Butch set out working on the place to make it livable for Marcia and the baby to move in the following month.

One of the first things they did was change the locks on the entranceway door. Ed worked on this while Butch headed upstairs to start getting other jobs ready. This caught the attention of Myra, who came running out, demanding to know what was going on. Ed tried to explain to the woman the situation. She had already been informed multiple times, but it was clear that she was not going to be able to remember this. She kept shouting at him that we don't want you here. He explained that he now owned the building and that her family would be moving her out in three months time. But this statement saw the usually

angry Myra change her tone. Instead, she started to laugh. Then Myra started to say, in between near hysterical laughter, You don't own this building. You can never own this building. She went back inside, closing the door behind her. Through the door, he could hear her continued laughter, as she repeated over and over. You think you own this building.

Ed was able to get all the prior owner's belongings cleared out by agreeing a deal with one of the neighbours. Once it was clear, Butch and Ed, began the process of decorating. Butch was painting the walls of the bedroom at the back of the apartment. But Ed noticed something as he worked. His little brother kept looking over his shoulder. Towards the closet at the far end of the room. Ed asked his brother what was wrong, but he dismissed it as nothing. Later, Butch would tell him that he felt like he was being watched. But at the time, that just felt silly. Ed walked down to the wardrobe and opened the doors. Butch wouldn't admit it at the

time but he felt a sense of relief. He wasn't sure what he expected to see when those doors opened, but he was relieved by the emptiness inside. That was until Ed noticed something, leaning against the back wall of the wardrobe. He picked it up, thinking at first it was just a sheet of wood, but when he flipped it over, they saw. It was in fact a very old-looking Ouija board. They looked over the curious find, but this wasn't the sort of thing either man was too interested in, and Ed quickly threw it outside. The two men went back to work in the apartment. When suddenly the door swung open and Butch got his first look at Myra, she walked in, screeching with hysterical laughter. Then she froze and burst into tears. Ed

helped the woman back down to her home, while his brother wondered what on earth he had gotten himself into. Later that day, they decided to investigate the locked room in the basement. It was just a small wooden partitioned shed so Ed hadn't been desperate to see inside it before purchase, but now seemed to time. They broke the lock open and were deeply surprised by what they found inside this small storage space. The entire room was full of stacks and stacks of magazines. Shoeboxes filled with images.

Other photographs were pinned up on the walls. They were all images of women, often scantily dressed. Some were from magazines dating back to the 30s. There were cartoon drawings of girls, old issues of Playboy, and nudist magazines. There must have been thousands of images. Some complete magazines, others just the photos cut out. The name Ben was scribbled, or many of the boxes. They also found an antique plate buried in the remains of the coal in the other area.

And stranger still, Ed came across the jar with a few bullets in it. hidden on top of one of the ceiling beams. He looked at the jar before putting it back where he had found it, something that he would forget about until much later. Ed was pretty convinced before, but now he was sure of it. There were obviously some deep-seeded generational mental health issues present in the family that had owned this building. He then found himself drawn to the finished room in the basement.

There were chairs, a stove. It seemed almost as though someone were living down, there and that smell. The smell of burning still lingered in the air. As he left the basement he realised there was also a padlock on the outside of this door. It seemed whoever had lived in the basement had been locked in at times. December 1st rolled around and after a lot of work the property was in a good enough state for the family to move in. Butch was unavailable to Ed got his friend George to help move him in. George had been blinded in the Vietnam War but was still a strong and capable man. Ed felt his family

babied him since his injury and George was more than happy to prove he could still be useful by helping his best friend move. Together the two men spent a rainy December day moving the furniture into the house while Marsha unpacked. The day went off without a hitch well except for one odd thing. Ed kept noticing that George would suddenly flinch or look over his shoulder. as though someone was about to bump into him. He didn't think too much of this, assuming it was just an effect of George's poor eyesight. But then, George would randomly shout out, who's there, in the apartment.

Ed was confused, it was just the three of them. But George was convinced he could hear someone else. I hated to think of what it was. I kind of put it out of my mind. And I tried to find a logical explanation for everything that happened. The activity started almost immediately, although in a rather strange way. On the first morning, Ed walked into the bathroom and began running himself a bath, put in the plug-in and turning the taps to run the water before leaving it to finish his coffee in the kitchen. He returned a few minutes later and was confused. The bath was empty, the plug chain was wrapped around the taps. The water was still running but just going straight down the plug hole.

It was odd but Ed assumed he had just forgotten to put the plug into the hole. This time he sat in the bath as it filled and there was no issue. Ed went off to work. He decided to give Marcia a phone call to see how she was getting on. But every time he attempted it the line was busy. All day this went on. Ed returned furious. Money was tight. Marsha couldn't be on the phone all day like this, the bill would be astronomical. But Marcia said she hadn't touched the phone. Instead, when they went to look, they found the phone was dangling from its holder, off the hook. It had clearly just fallen off. The following day, though,

was an echo of the prior one. Ed made sure the plug was in the bath this time before leaving it. But yet again, when he returned, he found the bath empty, and the plug removed. Each day when he phoned the house, the line continued to be busy. Ed was still convinced that Marsha was using the phone endlessly, but when the bill came, it confirmed this was not the case. Meanwhile, Marsha developed an odd habit that neither one of them picked up on for quite a long time. She would rarely leave the kitchen. Despite being home all day, it was like she subconsciously didn't feel comfortable in any of the other rooms, which is strange because the kitchen is where, it is where she, Marsha first started to notice. There was something odd about their new home.

It started small as it always does. She would enter the kitchen each morning and find items were in a different place to where they had been the night before. The cabinet doors would swing open on their own. The light fixtures would flicker. A lot of this was chalked up to just the quirks of the old rundown property. Both Ed and Marsha were keeping these small oddities to themselves. But while Ed was sure there was an explanation that he saw the bath curiosity as a puzzle to be solved. Marsha was instantly convinced that the house was haunted. On December 20th the beckers had arranged a christening of their baby daughter, Christine. As part of this, Ed had arranged for the priest to come to their home after the service and

blessed their new apartment. Marsha and their other guests had headed back already, but George, Ed and the priest arrived shortly after. Ed found the outer door locked, which he thought was strange, but as he tried to unlock it, Myra came out, screeching and screaming. Her anger this time directed towards the priest, who was the focus of her foul-mouthed ranting. She wanted the man out of the building. The priest entered the upstairs living room, pulling out a brass holy water dispenser and a small book that contained the house blessing. The priest, held up the bottle and began speaking the blessings words in Latin, shaking the water out as he did.

But then, unexpectedly, the bottle practically exploded in his hand. The glass and water flying everywhere as it did. Everyone froze, the priest included. No one seemed to understand what had just happened. Without saying a word, the visibly shaken priest picked up the glass shards, and then immediately said that he needed to leave. Ed could see the man was frightened, but was insistent that he needed to complete the blessing. The priest was adamant that the brief few seconds he had done would be enough, but Ed was persistent and convinced the priest to at least bless the baby's room before he left. Quickly the priest rushed to the bedroom, said a few words in Latin, then turned and rushed out. In his haste to leave, he accidentally

accidentally walked into a closet instead of using the door. Ed was confused. What had just happened? He wondered if the encounter with Myra had shaken the priest up more than he thought but he couldn't understand how the priest had smashed a bottle in his hands like that. The following day Marsha sat alone in the kitchen. On a hook next to where she was sitting was a hand mixer. Quite a few times Marcia had come home to find it laying on the floor. Ed had promised to fix the hook. But But then she suddenly heard a noise. Marcia turned her head just in time to see the hand mixer shaking on its hook.

She was even more surprised when it lifted off the hook and hung in midair for a few moments, before floating a further eight feet through the air, and then falling to the ground before her. Marcia saw this as a message. Something was trying to tell her it was there. meanwhile starting to notice some strange in the basement. Any time he was working down there, the hairs on the back of his neck would stand up, and he would become convinced that someone was behind him, like he could suddenly fill a presence standing over his shoulder. But any time he turned, there would be no one there, just the empty basement, and that lingering smell of burning,

and sometimes a sound, a distant argument between a man and a woman. that he assumed was one of his neighbours. Despite not believing the place was haunted, any time Ed found himself alone in the basement, he would begin talking out loud to Ben, the owner of all the magazines. He would have fun teasing Ben, calling him an old pervert and chastising him for not cleaning the basement.

To Ed, he was just having a bit of fun. But later he would have to wonder, if giving whatever was in their home, this attention was the start of things ramping up. Christmas rolled around and with it family came to stay, including Ed's Aunt Helen, a woman who had been fighting cancer for some time at this point. Ed noticed something odd. His aunt seemed to just keep wandering around the apartment, looking into rooms at seemingly nothing. Later she began to ask her nephew about the property, specifically about the family who had lived there before them, but Ed didn't really have much information to give her.

Helen didn't say much else, but it was clear that something was troubling her about the place. In the new year, Ed decided the family needed another pet to keep Marsha company. They already had a cat, but he went out and purchased a three-year-old husky sheepdog mix called Holly. Quickly, the dog began to bark and run to either the front door or back doors, as though someone was there at random intervals of the day and night, but quite often there wasn't anyone. Shortly after this was the first time, they heard the footsteps. Ed was awoken in the middle of the night by Holly's low grounds.

As he came to consciousness, he suddenly heard what was bothering the dog. The clear, unmistakable sounds of footsteps, on the wooden porch out back, Ed assumed it was Myra, so he went out to confront the woman, but when he investigated there was no one there. As the weeks passed, Ed continued to hear the nearby couple arguing. It seemed to often start late into the night after they had gone to bed. It would happen once or twice a week.

But whereas initially Ed had assumed it was one of the neighbours, as it continued it seemed it was in fact a lot closer. In fact, Ed was sure it sounded like the couple, were talking on the back porch of the house. Over time he noticed the argument would last for the same amount of time, for the same duration. The tone was always the same, although he struggled to make out the individual words. It was almost as though someone were playing a recording of an argument. But he was never able to figure out exactly where it was coming from.

One day a member of the family who had owned the building turned up on the becker's front door, asking to check the attic for something they had been left behind, a baby's crib. Ed didn't recognise the woman and something about the interaction made him feel uneasy so he wouldn't let her in but he offered to take a look up there himself and let her know. He fought back to the state the property had been in when he arrived

as though someone had torn the place apart looking for something. Ed hadn't been into the attic yet. In fact he wasn't even sure exactly how you got up there but eventually he rediscovered the hatch in the enclosed porch area out back. All he found up there were a few boxes that contained nothing of note. But something about the attic made him feel very

uneasy. He didn't stay up there any longer than he needed to. He had never been one to be afraid of the dark, but the attic terrified him, much like the basement had affected Marsha. He luckily realized there was only one reason for him to ever go back up there, as he discovered there were shut-off valves for the gas heaters in the apartment in the attic. Throughout the start of 1971, the activity continued. Doors would repeatedly open on their own. The cat would be seen running out of rooms looking over her shoulder, hissing at seemingly nothing. The dog would bark in the night at the footsteps.

The bath continued to unplug itself. Lights would continue to flicker no matter how often Ed replaced them. And friends and family would complain that whenever they phoned, the line was always busy. What's more, tension seemed to be rising between Marsha and Ed. it was as though they were blaming one another for the strange events, even though they knew this was not the case. As time passed, they practically stopped communicating with one another, each noticing oddities about their home, but refusing to speak about what they were witnessing out loud, they both became increasingly insular. Eventually, after several weeks, Marsha was the one to break the silence.

Outright saying that she thought the place was haunted, but Ed still denied it. blaming faulty hooks, electrical wiring, even that he felt paranoid by Myra still living below them. She was unpredictable and a source of constant tension for the couple. Ed would say years later that it was silly of him to be so dismissive, but you have to factor in that at the time the cultural representation of ghosts was very different. This was just before the sudden boom of fascination with the paranormal. When Ed fought of ghosts, he said he thought of wailing banshees, and full-blown apparitions that would pop up and say boo,

like in the Hollywood horror movies of the 50s and 60s, not items moving on their own, not what felt like very grounded real-world problems. But to try and appease Marsha, he decided to call the priest Father Barnes at the local church, to try and get him to bless the house again. But no matter how much Ed pleaded with the priest, he refused to return to their home,

saying it wasn't necessary, that he had done his job and there was nothing more that could be done for them. Eventually curiosity got the better of him. Ed flat out asked the priest why he was so scared to return. Ed asked him if he believed the house was haunted. The priest refused to discuss it, saying it was not a subject he could get involved in and asked Ed not to phone again.

Later that evening, Ed was confronted yes again by Myra, who informed him she would be moving out this week. Myra then went on to say she was happy she was leaving. She was sick of Ed sneaking into her apartment at night and moving things around. She ended their strange conversation by telling Ed that the house was now all his. Myra did move out that week, but she didn't seem as happy as she had made out. She was practically carried, screaming and crying out of the place by her family. A couple of days later, Ed began to work on getting the place ready.

for new tenants. He found the ground floor property dark and cold but was pleasantly surprised that Myra hadn't left the home in too bad estate. He noticed that in particular the front bedroom felt especially cold. Something about that room creeped him out so he got out as quickly as he could. Later that day, Ed was cleaning in the dining room when he suddenly saw what he assumed was his wife in the corner of his eye, standing further down the hall next to the front bedroom. But when he turned to say hi, there was no one there. At first he brushed it off as his eyes playing tricks on him,

in his darkened apartment, but then it happened again. This time he was in the kitchen when he saw a figure, walked straight past the kitchen door. This time he knew it wasn't his wife or his imagination. It was much taller, possibly even a man. He rushed to the doorway and shouted out to see who was there, but was met only by silent. He searched a building but again found no signs of anyone else there.

By March, a young couple named Dave and Ellen moved in. Much like the beckers they came with a newborn baby in tow. Ed came up with a plan to replace the bathplug, making it harder to be removed. Sure enough, it worked. He was able to run his bath without any further issues. Ed, smugly thought that he had got one over on their resident ghost. but when he returned home later that day after work, he was met by a clearly distraught Marsha,

who told him the animals had been going crazy all day. The cat endlessly hissing at nothing, the dog refusing to take its eyes off the front door, growling as she did. That night, Ed headed down to the basement. He had told Dave and Ellen they could use it for a laundry, so he wanted to get it straightened up for them. But Dave would often hear his new landlord down there.

talking to himself, often using the name Ben as he did so, a detail that made the new resident a little wary of Ed, but this night it was Ed who would get spooked. It was totally silent. Ed was sat down there lost in fault about the family who had lived their prior and their mental condition, when suddenly a loud piercing noise was heard. It sounded like a large piece of furniture being dragged across the kitchen floor of the ground floor apartment, which was concerning because Dave and Ellen hadn't moved in yet. In fact, the property had no furniture, but yet again, there was no one in there when he went to investigate.

Dave and Ellen moved in shortly after, but it wouldn't be long until they began to have questions. Dave grabbed Ed outside one day and asked him if they could have some warning before the electricity was turned off. Ed was confused. Dave said their power had been completely shut off for a few minutes, but when he went to look outside,

he could see the beckers still had power, so he assumed that Ed had turned off their switch for some reason. This became a semi-common occurrence. Interestingly, Dave noted that it seemed to happen any time he tried to play music. In fact, he thought it was his landlord turning off the power because he was making noise. But no matter how quietly he played it, the power would still shut off. Ed said he had nothing to do with it, but he would try to get to the bottom of it. Then the arguing started. Dave and Ellen had seemed like such a happy couple, but the beckers heard them constantly arguing. A few weeks passed and Ed returned home one afternoon to find an old lady sitting on the steps of the building's porch. He said hello to her as he passed. The woman smiled at him, but didn't say a word.

When he asked Marcia who the woman was, she had no idea. And when they went to look, she was gone. Initially, Ed assumed this was just an old woman who was out for a walk, and had decided to rest on the steps for a few moments. But over the coming weeks, he saw her numerous times, always sat on the steps outside. A few times he tried to engage her in conversation, but with no luck. She remained silent. Then he told himself she must be related to Dave and Ellen somehow.

It was around this time that Ed met his neighbour, Walter. And one afternoon the pair shared a few glasses of southern comfort, and Walter finally filled Ed in on the history of the home that he now opened. Bauter had lived there for 40 years, and knew many of the neighbours well, but curiously, little about the family in the home next to him. They kept themselves rarely ever saying a word, but he did provide Ed with some details. There was the mother, a woman he described as dying of a broken heart. He said that one of her sons still lives just further down the street.

His name was Bob. He told Ed that Bob and his mother had a huge falling out and he moved out. leaving his mother there confined to a wheelchair. Apparently she used to sit and watch out the window as her son walked past each day but he would never visit. He said she had passed away in the ground floor apartment. He also said she had a son who had died. His body was found in the front bedroom of the ground floor.

He was only 20 years old but Walter said there was something wrong with the boy mentally. There was some level of mystery about his death but apparently the common belief in the area was that he had taken his own life. Then there was Ben, her other son, who lived there with his wife. Even after getting married, Ben didn't want to leave his family home for some reason, and stayed there until he was an old man himself.

He said that Ben's wife had also taken her own life, that they had found her hanging in the basement. Walter had apparently seen the body himself. Walter went on to say the father had been abusive to his children. He was a mean man, but he had actually built that house with his own two hands. When the father passed, the children had searched for his money, that he apparently kept hidden in various places in the house, but couldn't find a penny.

Ed wasn't sure what aspects of Walter's story were simply local rumour, and what parts were facts that he knew. Five members of the family had seemingly died in that home, and two of them had died at their own hands. The children never left the house, even when they grew up. and Walter said that he believed that they never left even in death, that they were still there, that he was worried about the beckers when he saw them moving in with such a young child, but that he didn't want to scare them with his silly superstitions.

Walter made one final comment to Ed before he left that afternoon, that with the exception of Ben's wife, that the beckers were the first people outside of the bloodline to live in this property. He was shaken by what he had learned, but decided to keep it from Marsha. The beckers spent the remainder of the day out, but when they returned that night they were confronted by a clearly worried Dave, who said he had been hearing loud crashes coming from their apartment,

like someone was throwing furniture around. But when the beckers went inside, everything seemed to be in place. The only strange detail was that they found the pets, cowering in the corner of the bedroom. One night in May the beckers were awoken, when Holly jumped off their bed, suddenly in the middle of the night. Ed sat up to see the dog staring out at the darkened hallway, her head low, hair raised, growling and bearing her teeth, trying to scare away whatever was in the darkness.

The thing that was there but couldn't be seen. This was the point that Ed finally emitted to his wife that he believed to. They had a haunted house. Ed and Marcia didn't know what to do. They couldn't afford to move again so soon. Despite now being open to the idea, Ed still tried to downplay the severity of their situation. He tried to make light of it, still teasing and talking out loud to Ben, something that made Marsha extremely uncomfortable.

But Ed saw it as just this being that was stuck there. He might move things about, but there was no real danger. And he assured Marsha that if he was concerned that either them or their daughter were in danger, They would leave instantly. Ed even figured out a way to tie the kitchen door so that when Ben or whoever this presence was try to open it, it would pull back on the string and stop it from moving. Focusing their attention on the door that night at dinner, they saw that it worked. But also, every time the door had opened before, it had just caught their attention as it swung

open. Leaving some level of possibility in their minds that this could be explained somehow, that was less of an option that night, whereas they waited for the door to open. They saw the door knob turning before the door was pushed. The entity, clearly in Ed's eyes, irritated by this, then proceeded to yet again knock the phone off the hook. The following morning they awoke to find the house freezing cold. After some investigating, Ed found that the valves for the gas in the attic had been shut off, something that would keep happening from this point onwards. That night George and his wife Anne came for dinner.

Ed had been talking to George a few times about the idea of this place being haunted, but George thought the whole idea was stupid. Over dinner that night, Ed provoked Ben time and time again. Until sure enough, he attempted to open the door. Anne was stunned. George, unable to see, was less convinced. George continued his sceptical rant, explaining a variety of possible ways this could be something natural.

when one of the spindles that Edd had attached to the top of the kitchen cabinet flew out of place, before hovering over the kitchen table momentarily, everyone looked on in shock. George was none the wiser, until it suddenly slammed down on the table in front of him. If this was Ben or something else entirely, whoever or whatever it was, didn't seem to appreciate George's lack of belief. George still declared that he did not believe in ghost. Although, despite this, the couple soon made their excuses and left. They wouldn't come to visit the Campbell Street house again.

One weekend, Ed's younger sister April came to visit with her husband Jim and their two children. Unlike Ed, she was totally fascinated by the topic of the paranormal. She told Ed that if the tenants downstairs ever decided to move out, she wanted to live there. Afternoon, Ed saw the familiar old woman sitting on the steps. By this point he had grown frustrated. Every time he had seen her and then taken Marsha to the door to meet her, she would be gone. But this time, Marsha came over, and sure enough, she too saw the old woman, just sat there on her own.

She looked up at the house, like she knew the couple were looking down at her, but the normal polite smile was gone. looked sad. Ed went to go outside, wanting to finally get to the bottom of who this woman was. But she was gone. There was no way she could have disappeared down the street so quickly. So Marcia said she must have gone inside with Ellen and Dave, seemingly confirming the idea that she was a family member of theirs. But when Marsha asked Ellen about the woman, she had no idea who she was talking about. Then the idea came about. Maybe she wasn't. just an old woman. Maybe she was one of the ghosts that resided in this property. But Ed was sure

she seemed so real. She wasn't some semi-transparent specter. She looked just like a real woman. The following day, Ed cornered Walter and asked him to describe the mother who had lived in the house, the one who would look out the window from her wheelchair all day. Sure enough, his description. Matched a woman Ed had been seeing. Walter pleaded with Ed to try the church again. He was now very worried for his neighbour. When Ed did try again, this time in person with his local priest, the priest once again said he couldn't help and suggested that Ed should speak to a counsellor instead.

Ed was furious. He said this was the last time that he visited a Catholic church. Marsha desperately needed a break and decided to head to her mother's in Tulsa for a week or two, leaving Ed alone for the first time. As he arrived home from dropping her and Christine at the airport, He was met by Dave, who was once again complaining about the electricity. Dave also said that he had heard that Marcia had gone away for a bit and asked if everything was okay.

It soon transpired that Dave and Ellen thought Marcia had gone due to the couple having marital difficulties. The reason for this, Dave and Ellen said they kept hearing the couple arguing late at night. Ed didn't know how to tell them that the arguing wasn't then. This got Dave to open up about his. his own relationship a little. He said it was strange. Him and Ellen had always been such a happy couple. But it felt like ever since they had moved into the apartment. They couldn't stop arguing

themselves. Later that night Ed was about to cook some soup on the stove when the dog started barking and running back and forth across the kitchen. Ed thought that she maybe needed to go out, so he took her out into the yard before returning to the kitchen. He was met by the strong smell of smoke. His soup was burning and smoking. He rushed over to turn the gas burner off, but he was sure he hadn't turned it on before taking the dog out. He was awoken later that night by the dog once again staring out of the bedroom, growling, but this time it wasn't out to the darkness,

because there was a trickle of light in the hall, coming from the kitchen. It had been off before he went to bed. The next morning he went to get his keys to leave for work, but they weren't on the hook like usual. Eventually he found them, laying in the drain of the sink. The key to the garage had been bent into an L-shaped. Ed got the key repaired on his lunch break,

but the following morning the process repeated itself. The key went missing. When he finally found them, the garage key was again bent. This became a phenomenon that was repeated time and time again over the following weeks. Ed finally saw Ellen on her own one morning. and decided to ask if she had noticed anything strange since moving in. She quickly told him everything, how they would hear footsteps on the back porch at night, how their dishes would suddenly crash to the floor in the kitchen,

how the basement door would swing open all by itself, even when she was sure she had locked it, how the chandelier would swing even though there was no draft. She had been keeping it a secret from her husband. She thought it all seemed fairly harmless, but a hard. husband was very superstitious, and she knew he would take it much more seriously. The activity continued until Ed finally had enough. He took the remainder of the week off and went to his wife in Tulsa, desperate for a break himself. When they finally returned a few

days later, Dave was standing there waiting for them, holding his 90-day notice. Dave said since the beckers had been gone, it was chaos. There had been screaming, shouting, furniture smashing, all coming from the apartment upstairs. But he hadn't seen a single soul entering or leaving the apartment. He was just about to call the police before the beckers returned. He didn't know what was going on with this building, but he didn't want any further part of it for his family. Yet again, when Ed looked inside, pretty much everything was in place,

except for a large chair that appeared to have been pulled out into the centre of the room. That night, both the beckers and Dave and Ellen, were awoken by the sound of large, heavy footsteps, walking up and down the back stairs. Dave and Ellen had agreed to come around the following night to talk about what was going on, but Ellen came a little earlier to talk to Marsha without her husband present. Her story sounded very similar to what the beckers were experiencing, but with some notable differences that made them sure that both households were dealing with different entities. It was then that Ellen told them the terrifying.

story of the man standing in her baby's bedroom, and also how the argument they kept hearing that they were sure was Ed and Marcia had continued the whole time they were in Tulsa. She repeated the stories of swinging chandeliers, doors opening on their own, and a strange burning smell coming from the basement. Some time later, Ed would talk to Walter about the description of the man Ellen claimed to see. Walter said it sounded a lot like the younger son Henry. the one who had died under mysterious circumstances.

He wasn't sure why, but this one troubled Ed the most. He decided not to share the name Henry with anyone else. The following weekend, Ed a marshal called to go and visit Ed's aunt, Helen. She was dying and it was time to say their goodbyes. Helen outright asked Ed in her weakened voice about the building, and Ed spilled the whole strange story to her. She told him she knew from the moment she walked. walked in at Christmas, she knew that something was in their house, but she was worried about

scaring them. She told Ed to wear a crucifix and said to be careful about paying it too much attention, suggesting it would only make things worse. Then her final piece of advice was to sell the place as quickly as possible. Before they left, Helen handed Marsha a copy of a relatively new horror novel. The book was The Exorcist. The couple never got around to reading it. They had a enough on their plates. Ed later went on to say based on what was to come. He was pleased that he didn't read the book at the time. It would have made the whole ordeal even scarier. When they returned home, the cat was nowhere to be found. When Ed saw their bedroom window as ajar, he feared the worst. Sure enough, he looked out of the window to see the cat laying

on the floor below. But when he rushed downstairs to check on it, he was shocked to find the cat was absolutely fine. There was no way in his opinion that it should have been able to survive that fall. But there wasn't a scratch on it, almost like the cat had floated out of the window and been placed carefully on the ground. Every time the beckers left,

the couple downstairs reported hearing shouting and crashing. Every night the dog would grow and bark desperately trying to protect its owners, even at times biting at thin air. They were reaching their breaking point. The following morning, seemingly Holly the dog, had already reached hers. When Ed let her into the garden, she immediately ran and jumped over the back fence. He searched for hours, but they never saw their dog again.

Ed did buy another dog sometime later. They saw a repeat of what they had experienced with Holly. Loud barking in the night, clearly agitated by something they couldn't see or hear. This dog only lasted a day. before just like Holly, jumping the back fence and never being seen again. Marsha and Ellen had been doing research into possible solutions. And Marcia came to Ed with the contact information for what she described as ghost experts. There were two organisations in the local area that investigated reported cases of psychic phenomena.

The first group they contacted came along and instantly Ed thought they looked like a strange bunch. But the group claimed they could help the beckers rid the home of any ghosts. They took them on the tour of the building, telling them everything that had happened while they set up a variety of strange-looking gadgets. While Ed was skeptical of them, he did admit that one of the psychics was drawn to the front bedroom of the downstairs property and stated that she believed this was once the room of a disturbed young man who died violently. The group began some sort of ritual in the kitchen and on cue the entity decided to swing open the kitchen door. This seemed to shock the group, who were clearly not expecting to witness anything like this.

They wrapped up their work quickly and began to pack up. They were clearly scared, but they still declared that the beckers should have no further trouble. However, they very quickly departed the house after witnessing the phone lift off its receiver and floated in the air for a moment, before crashing down onto the table. Next they contacted the Illinois Psychic Research Group, who seemed a little more serious. A man named Tom Valentine came to visit the beckers. He asked a variety of in-depth questions, not just about the events that were taking place, but also about the beckers themselves, clearly trying to weigh up if he believed they were reliable witnesses or not.

During their conversations, Tom gave them a bit of insight into his own theories and experiences. One story in particular stood out to Ed. He told them a story about a study that he had done and he had done, at a mental institution. He said he found a disturbingly high number of patients had dabbled in the occult, performing seances, playing with Ouija boards, as well as more serious practices. In many cases he said they seemed to do this before becoming ill, but that over time their entire personalities changed, like they weren't the same person anymore. Ed couldn't help but make the connection to the mental troubles that had clearly plagued.

the family that built the building, and of course there was that Ouija board in the cupboard, but he was also forced to evaluate what had been happening to his own mental health over the past few months. After the meeting and tour was over, Tom said he would return with a few others. They would inspect the building and make sure there was not a hoax being performed here. He stated that he believed the beckers, but for their work to be taken seriously, they needed to go through the process. Ed felt that this was a much more serious study than the prior group of investigators had conducted. Tom returned a few days later with two others. Both were apparently psychics.

One was named Barbara. The other was a more well-known member of the field, named Joseph de Louise. They toured each room, again asking questions as they went. Once more, Ed was sceptical. It felt like they were making obvious observations about the house, but phrasing it in a way that they were reading them. This was until halfway around. Barbara turned to Ed and said,

Bullets. At first he wasn't sure what she was talking about, but then he clicked in. He asked her, what about the bullets? Barbara said there were bullets in the basement, in a jar. Ed hadn't told anyone about the bullets,

not even Marsha. In fact, he had practically forgotten about that particular discovery. from the prior year. This convinced Ed that Joe and Barbara were the real deal. They asked many questions about their family and their experiences. Joe seemed particularly interested in the case of the floating cat. The pair then spent an hour touring the house on their own, before sitting the beckers down to explain what they believed they had uncovered.

Joe said there was more than one ghost, and at least one of them was dangerous. He then listed off the different beings they had sensed, He spoke of an old woman who appeared to be harmless, but was seemingly unable to leave the place. There were at least two men, one younger and one older. Joe was particularly concerned about the younger man. He believed he was evil, and was the entity that frightened him the most. Barbara then added that there was a woman in the garage who had apparently hung herself. This contradicted the information he had gotten from Walter, who believed she took her life in the basement.

but Barbara was sure it was the garage, suggesting maybe her body was moved after the fact. Joe asked to tour the house again without Ed and Marsha present. He had a fear that the couple may have some level of psychic ability themselves, even if they didn't know it, and possibly their presence was drawing the spirits out. By the end of the evening, the beckers felt for the first time. They genuinely had found some people who knew what they were doing, people who maybe, just maybe, could actually help them. The following week, Joe returned, this time with a priest in tow.

He was accompanied by Reverend William Darl Davis, a tall man with curly hair and a booming loud voice. The Reverend informed the couple that he was an exorcist. Joe had been so concerned about the presence of the younger man that he began to think that this was not a ghost at all, that he radiated touch from a levelant energy, that he may in fact be a demon. Again, they asked everyone to leave the building so they could conduct their work. When the beckers returned, Joe confirmed his suspicions about the number of entities and said they would need to perform an exorcism.

The couple didn't really understand what this involved, so Joe talked them through the process. It was dangerous, and one of the things that was dangerous, and one of the things that was a couple didn't really understand what this involved. and one of the things Joe stressed was that the beckers needed to immediately stop engaging with the spirits. Do not talk to them. Do not acknowledge them at all. After they had left, Ed and Marsha crawled into bed, hopeful for the first time in a long time about the future. They fell asleep to the now familiar sound of arguing, coming from their back porch. They had no idea, but their story was about to become public knowledge.

Joseph had reached out to another priest known as Father Wood about what was going on, hoping for some advice. But the priest also hosted a radio show, and through his contacts, decided to get in touch with NBC, about the Becker's case, seemingly without Joe's knowledge. Ed was very confused when he suddenly got a phone call from NBC news correspondent Carol Simpson. Ed was reluctant at first, but after meeting with Carol at their home the following evening, he was convinced by her. that this would be presented in a fair and serious manner, not as a source of entertainment. With the recent popularity of the novel, the topic of exorcisms was now becoming part of wider public knowledge. This would give the news crew the first ever broadcast of an exorcism on American TV. The following day, the NBC crew rolled into town.

They spent hours filming throughout the home before the beckers sat down to film their interview with Carol. True to her word, Ed felt she conducted the interview of a sense of genuine curiosity and professionalism, neither sensational nor sceptical. The exorcism was due to take place just a few days later. The night before, the beckers noticed something odd. Silence. It wasn't just a lack of activity. It was almost like a suffocating sensation. Like it was waiting to see what was going to happen next.

9 a.m., the NBC trucks returned and began setting up equipment. Along with the crew, a number of NBC executives had come along to see what all the fuss was about. Ed noted that the sound guy looked particularly nervous. He was on edge the entire time they were setting up, clearly worried about what he was about to witness. Later that morning, Joseph and William arrived, both wearing clerical robes and carrying a large leather case. It transpired that Joseph was also an ordained minister, although he had not presented himself as such in prior meetings. Everyone watched silently as the two men set up to perform the ritual.

They turned to the onlookers and told them that once the ceremony began, no matter what's happened, no one could leave until it was completed. This made it all seem very real, leading to four of the NBC people leaving immediately. Just the crew, the beckers and the priests, remained. The nervous sound guy was only willing to stay if he was able to wear a cross and sit on a Bible. In fact, the priest suggested that everyone that was staying should hold or wear a crucifix for the remainder of the day. The two priests then began the ritual, with Joseph entering a trance-like state.

Almost straightaway the NBC crew got to witness something odd. As Joseph entered his trance, a sudden extremely strong gust of wind shot through the house, causing the blinds to crash against the window, and nearly knocking the sound guy's headphones off. The crew had made a point to close all the windows before they started. No one could explain the source of the wind, but the priests continued. There appeared to be some conflict between the two men about how the ritual should proceed. Joseph was comfortable to use his trance-like state to go deep and attempt communication, whereas William was a lot more cautious and kept calling Joseph back, clearly worried for the man's safety.

The atmosphere changed as the ritual proceeded. Ed said it was like the air felt thick, the temperature dropped and the building grew darker. Joseph held out a mirror, informing the spirits that they did not belong here, claiming that they should look at and see that they had no reflection. They were dead and they needed to move on. Then he began talking in a voice that didn't sound like his own. But the words didn't really make sense to anyone. He kept referencing a picture and the voice kept demanding a number. Then later it said something about a combination. While all this was going on, the sound guy had noticed something, a chirping. A loud single bird chirp that must be

coming from the tree outside, but then another joint, and then another. Soon you didn't need the mic to hear it. Everyone could hear the birds chirping. Ed looked out the window to see the large tree outside their property, was suddenly full of hundreds of birds. Joe continued to demand that the spirits leave the house, but Reverend Davis was clearly still very concerned about this. He didn't seem to have the same. confidence in their ritual that Joe had. After an hour, Joe's body suddenly relaxed and he opened his

eyes. Seemingly, it was over, but Joe didn't seem happy. Something was wrong. Reverend Davis declared that the house was clear, but Ed couldn't shake the feeling that neither man looked particularly confident or happy. He was worried that this hadn't worked, and that the priests knew it. They quickly left after a short interview, leaving the beckers with the news crew. Ed had set up his own recorder during the exorcism, and the following night he and Marsha sat down to listen to the recording. They heard all the sounds they expected to, the exorcism, the birds chirping, the sudden gust of wind, but they also noticed a strange knocking that seemed to be recorded intermittently throughout the ritual. Plus something they couldn't explain, nor something that seemed to match up with

what they believed was haunting their home. It was quiet, but it was definitely there, a small child's voice saying, Mama. Ed was awoken at 5am. At first he wasn't sure why, but then he heard it. A woman crying, coming from their living room. He woke Marsha up, she could hear it too. Ed reached, out to the tape recorder that was still next to the bed. But the second he hit record, the sound stopped, as though it suddenly knew they were listening. The ritual had failed. The activity continued on as if nothing had happened. Dave and Ellen had finally had enough and moved out. There was clearly in all of their eyes no way to stop this. Carol Simpson and Joseph both reached out to the beckers, to see how they were getting on. Ed decided to live,

lie, telling them that the exorcism had worked. He was convinced now that there was nothing that they could do to help, and didn't want to worry them any further. Ed set about clearing up the ground floor apartment after Ellen and Dave left. While down there he saw her for one final time. He was scrubbing the kitchen floor when he was suddenly hit by that now familiar feeling that he was being watched. Sure enough, he turned his head, and from down the hall he could see her in the front room. Only this time she was sitting in a wheelchair. She looked at Ed and then turned her head to the window. Then in the blink of an eye she was just gone.

Ed walked into the front room and glanced out the window. Sure enough, standing outside, was the last remaining living prior resident. The woman's son Bob was walking past. Seemingly, even in death, she watched out for her son, hoping he would come to say hello. This was the last time that Ed saw the woman. The television segment aired and beckers were suddenly inundated with requests for interviews. While they did agree to a few, their experiences were very different to the initial NBC interview. They felt like it was all treated as a joke or overly sensationalised, so quickly they began to stop talking about it,

hoping the public attention would all blow over. But the horrors of Campbell Street, were not over. When she discovered they now had an empty apartment, Ed's 21-year-old sister, April, became insistent about moving in. Ed kept telling her this wasn't a good idea, but she wouldn't let it rest. She was so fascinated by all of this that she wanted to experience it for herself firsthand. Her husband Jim didn't really believe in all of this, and was happy to move in. Ed reluctantly agreed after a lot of back and forth. He warned his sister not to provoke the spirits. She did not heed his warning.

Once she began to witness the phenomena herself, she became even more fascinated and began attempting to communicate with it. She purchased the Ouija board and even started to invite friends round to communicate with the spirits. Ed was largely unaware of how deep his sister was going. He knew they needed out of this property and he had taken on a second job, desperately trying to save up enough. for them to move. April began communicating with who she thought was Ben. She was even

able to get him to hit keys on her piano. Guests would be fascinated to come and see the party tricks she appeared to be doing with the ghosts, but over time it became clear this wasn't Ben she was communicating with. The board began mentioning a name that she didn't recognize. Henry. April's behavior quickly changed. The best Workers would hear her angrily screaming at the children, demanding that her husband beat them when they misbehaved. It got so bad that Ed had to intervene on several occasions. She was verbally abusive to Jim, but he kept down playing his wife's behaviour to Ed. Marsha told Ed about the Ouija board, and that April had apparently been talking to someone called Henry.

Ed had never told Marcia about the younger of the sons Henry, at least not by name. He was the one who had visited Ellen's baby, the one the priest thought may have been a demon. When Ed found out she had been playing with a Ouija board, he stormed into the apartment and smashed it to pieces. Strangely, April didn't even react. She just watched silently as her brother destroyed the board and warned her to stop. But she did later tell her brother that he might be possessed. When he was smashing the board, April claimed that she saw her face. behind him, a distorted face with brown hair, hovering right next to Ed's. Eventually, Ed confronted Jim, telling him they should move. He wasn't going to evict them, but he was worried for

their safety. Jim confirmed that they were experiencing all the strange sounds and events that Ellen and Dave had also experienced, but he still didn't think it was ghosts. He thought his wife was certainly on edge, but he blamed being locked up all day with the kids, and these weird friends of hers that would come round and play about with seances. He brushed it all off and ignored Ed's warning, claiming April was just going through some changes. April continued to spiral down a dark hole. She would sit in the Becker's kitchen, chain smoking and pacing around. She kept telling Marsha that she felt like she was always being watched. On the rare occasion she could sleep, she would have nightmares, nightmares about a dark hooded figure.

She was hearing voices, telling her to kill herself. She would be woken in the middle of the night by the piano, playing just a single key at a time. Something that had brought her much amusement early on, now sent a chill down her spine every time she heard it. She believed Henry was after her. But for some reason, she still didn't want to leave the apartment. Then it started to affect her children. She would find her oldest son talking in his room to no one.

If she ever punished him, the boy would threaten to tell Henry. Then she started to fill him. An unseen hand would grab her as she walked around the apartment. Then she started to see him. She tried her best to ignore it all, but it was too late. She had opened up something with this entity, and she couldn't make it stop. While all this was going on, Ed had finally gotten enough money together to buy a second property. Again, it had two apartments, and his plan was for April and Jim to take the second one,

to get them away from the Campbell Street home and its other residents. Plans to move were put in place and the activity ramped up. Any time the beckers left, the banging and crashing sounds would be heard. Taps would turn on by themselves. And the cat was once again seemingly. floated out of the bedroom window, only this time it was left with a bloody nose, but no other injuries. At this point, Ed had enough. He contemplated burning the place to the ground, leaving the entities with nothing but smouldering rubble. Eventually, the beckers moved, but April and

Jim did not move with them. Ed still couldn't afford to leave the Campbell property empty and set about getting new tenants for their former home. Meanwhile, April's family was falling apart. She apparently was complaining to Jim one night that she couldn't sleep. She was just sitting in the kitchen, chain smoking, refusing to come back to bed. When Jim awoke the next day, she was gone. April wouldn't contact her family until a few days later, informing them that she would not be coming back. She had left everything she owned and her family behind. Eventually Jim moved out, taking the children with him. seemingly they did not continue to have any sort of relationship with April. What's ever happened on that final night, April would never discuss it.

Her life continued to spiral, her mental health in tatters, and she began to delve deeper into the world of substance abuse. It seems April ultimately took her secrets from that last night in Campbell Street to the grave with her. They had only lived in the apartment for a few mums, but the experience totally destroyed her life. Ed noted that any time his sister would come to stay with him after this, she would always sleep with the lights on, and the radio playing.

Despite this, Ed was apparently still happy to rent out the building to new tenants. But of course it wasn't long before they too all started reporting strange activity to their new landlord, objects moving and randomly breaking, complaining about arguments from above, arguments from below. Eventually, Ed decided he wasn't quite cut out for this landlord business. He found a real estate agent named Ron, who said he could sell both buildings to becker's owned, giving them enough to go and buy a small house in the suburbs. They sold the new building quickly, but the Campbell Street property was much harder. At first, this wasn't a huge source of stress as the current residents were still paying rent,

but soon the tenants wanted out of their leases. and obviously with everything Ed knew, he couldn't blame them. Eventually, Ed confessed all to Ron about why he was maybe having such a hard time selling the place. He told him the whole story, even telling him it was on the news. Surprisingly, Ron was absolutely fascinated. It turned out he and his wife were obsessed with the paranormal, and the idea of owning a real-life haunted house was hugely appealing to him. Ron offered to take the property off of Ed's hands. Ed made it very clear what the estate agent was getting himself into, but he was all in on the idea.

So after a bit of paperwork and a small monetary loss, the beckers were finally rid of the Campbell Street property. A few years later, Ed attempted to get into contact with Ron to see if there were any updates on the activity, but couldn't track him down. He found his business was gone. The house was abandoned and derelict. Ron had apparently gotten divorced, had fallen very sick, and left Chicago he was never heard from again. The experience has left the beckers with one unusual talent. They claim that now, any time they enter a property, they can sense if it's haunted. Over the following decades, they believed they witnessed many other examples of paranormal activity, but nothing quite like what took place within the walls of their first home.

So what really happened? Edwin Becker ultimately wrote two books on his experiences in the home, and it's worth looking at this detail first. Ed claims that he actually started writing his first manuscript in the 1980s, but he found in the wake of the Amityville horror, the publishers wanted his story to be more exciting. They seemed happy to share his story, but wanted him to embellish details,

to make it a more entertaining one. Ed was firm in his stance that he would not do this, and he seemingly stood by it. Ultimately, despite the book having been mostly written decades before, he self-published the book in 2011, before writing a follow-up that told the events through the eyes of Marsha shortly after. These books were titled True Haunting and True Haunting 2. While to me this adds a certain level of believability to Edwin's story,

it is worth noting that he did also pen a number of fictional horror novels, although these did all come much later in his life. At the time of the haunting, he actually worked with computers, a slightly unusual profession for the 1970s. He could have easily gone along with what the publishers wanted and embellished the story. The attention the news report got at the time would have been perfect marketing for it.

But seemingly this was important to him, to tell his story accurately, to how it played out in his eyes. Which, if true, I think is commended. And that is the part of this story that really draws me in. For the most part, it is so grounded. The vast majority of the activity is centered around doors creaking open and objects moving. There are the reports of apparitions, but these are often just fleeting glances.

Obviously, I have presented an edited version of the events that took place here. Edwin's retelling of events almost begins to feel mundane at times, the same activity repeating day after day. It never builds into this exciting Hollywood take on the paranormal, which to me just makes it a little bit more believable. You can see the original news report on YouTube, although the quality is obviously poor, and it doesn't really provide any outright evidence. But it is fascinating to see this strange event being treated very seriously by a major news organisation.

One possible explanation that did jump out to me on this one was the idea of a gas leak. Now I see this used as a fairly lazy, sceptical response to most of the topics I cover. Even if it doesn't make sense for most of the reported story, there will always be at least one person claiming that it all can be explained by a gas leak. But in this one, I think it could be a genuine possibility, mostly because there are several references to gas throughout. Most notably the valves to the gas heaters in the attic that seem to be turning themselves off. the gas system in this run-down old house have been slowly leaking out for years, making

their pets behave weirdly and even fleeing, affecting the mental capacity of all its residents, not just the beckers. The only possible issues I could find with this one though is the old woman, who Edwin claims to see numerous times outside the house, and the fact that various residents of the downstairs property reported similar activity to one another. without prior knowledge of what the previous residents endured. As is often the case, we don't have any real concrete evidence of what actually took place in this home. Just the reports from the beckers.

He obviously wrote two books on the topic, but you can also find a few interviews that Edwin conducted later in his life, about their time on Campbell Street. And it appears that a film has been made about the haunting in the last few years, although it seems to date it has not been released for some unknown really. reason. Edwin's books were obviously my main source for this one, but even though this episode is super long, I still only brushed over a lot of the details of their story, so if you want to dive in deep to this one, I strongly recommend checking them out. There is also a lingering mystery

in this one that I really enjoy. While there are little clues scattered throughout, we never do get any clarity on who had vandalised the house before the beckers moved in. What were the previous residents looking for? Why were the spirit? apparently demanding to know a combination. Who was locked in the basement? Why did it smell of burnt wood? Why were they using a Ouija board? Were these plot points that Edwin fabricated to make the story feel more fleshed out? Or are they examples of a genuine mystery that the beckers were never able to get to the bottom of? I found a few posts that seemed to suggest that Edwin Becker is no longer with us, although I was unable to find an obituary to confirm

if this is fact. It seems a lot of the mysteries about this place will remain unsolved. Another interesting aspect of this story to me is the failed exorcism, which brought to mind some of my thoughts I had when discussing psychics in the episode on the Wheat Sheaf Pub. It always seems odd to me, this idea that if ghosts are real, that there are people who understand what they are exactly and how they work and how to control them. I don't want a bad map mouth anyone here, but it just feels so arrogant. If the paranormal were real, if there really are ghosts, then what right do the living have to interfere the world they could never possibly understand? Why do some people believe they have the knowledge and authority to deal with matters of the afterlife?

If you were a true believer in this, I just struggle to wrap my head around it. Speaking from my own personal opinion here, of course, I'm really open to hearing others' explanations on this. Another element of what makes this story so interesting to me is the time period. Edwin mentions in his book a few times that knowledge of the paranormal isn't what it is today, at least not in the wider public sphere. There were no TV shows on the topic. The film adaptation of The Exorcist wasn't out.

The Amadville Horror wasn't released. Edwin's idea of ghosts was more the depiction of them from movies of the 50s and 60s. and he raises something that I think connects to an interesting idea about the paranormal boom of the 70s. He suggests that many people do experience paranormal phenomena, but they just don't notice it. People at the time maybe weren't looking out for a strange sound in the middle of the night, a door creaking open by itself, that set of keys being somewhere different than where you left it. But over the course of the 1970s, as horror stories made these more common tropes, Were people being influenced by these fictional stories, or were they simply noticing things they maybe wouldn't have before?

And by noticing these events, by paying attention to it, were they making it worse? Maybe this could play a part in our modern lives too. Maybe we are all so constantly distracted now that we tend not to notice that strange feeling when we walk into someone's house. that strange tingling on the back of our neck that maybe suggests something isn't right that's all for this entry into the tape library and as always I would love to know your theories on this one

do you believe the beckers do you think there is some rational explanation for all this or could this truly be a case of a haunted house this has been another big project for me I think I've now come to accept that these episodes are just getting more and more tricky to write For a long time I've stuck to this arbitrary deadline for myself of trying to make sure there is a new episode out every two weeks. But since the start of 2025, I feel my writing and research into each of these topics is becoming more and more detailed.

And I think this release schedule just isn't really helpful. I want to bring you the best possible episodes I can. So I think I will be beginning to take a little longer to put these together when I feel it's needed. On average, I'll still be aiming for every two weeks. but if a specific topic needs a couple of days extra work like this one did, I think I'll do that rather than trying to rush stuff through. That doesn't mean that every episode is going to become an hour plus. I'm still a firm believer in the idea that these should be as long as the story fits,

rather than trying to pad a story out to hit a specific runtime. This is just a long, windy way of me saying, it's just me working on these episodes. So if it looks like I haven't released anything for a little while, it likely just means I'm cooking up some massive weird topic for you all. If you enjoyed this episode, please click the like button if you're watching on YouTube. Or leave me a rating if you are listening to the podcast edition. It really helps me out massively.

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ogre lord, bad diddle and Agent 355. I've been having a few issues with Patreon, so if you are missed out from the shoutouts or I have credited you with the wrong name, please do get in touch on there. I feel like I may have missed out a couple of people on this one. Thank you to all the YouTube members as well, and to you especially for making it to the end of the episode. And here officially ends my new longest script of all time. I'm going to go get some sleep in my crypt for a bit. Until next time, Pleasant dreams.