The Tape Library - Archive of the Paranormal & the Unexplained - The Haunting of The Enfield Poltergeist

Starting point is 00:00:00 In every story of things that go bump in the night, there are two possibilities. One, that it's a hoax, two, that there's something going on beyond the grasp of the human mind. If this is a hoax, it means that some of the 17 people who've seen things have been playing an elaborate and twisted joke on the others. If it isn't a hoax, it means that either those 17 people have all been having hallucinations, including the police. or this is the best documented ghost story of all time. It all started with a Ouija board, or at least that is what the two girls at the centre of tonight's tale would later claim. A simple game sold to children.

Starting point is 00:00:49 It would take some years for the effects of this innocent exploration into the other world to come to light. But when it did finally happen, it sparked what might be one of the most well-recorded horse, hauntings in history, an incident that saw paranormal investigators, police and journalists, witnessing paranormal activity, a case that made the term poltergeist world famous and would go on to influence popular culture. And to think, this incredible account of supernatural entities all took place in a small council house in North London. This is the tale of the Enfield Poltergeist. Get yourself a warm drink dim the lights

Starting point is 00:01:32 and get comfortable This is going to be a good one The first incident As is often the case and events that involve supposed poltergeists Feels almost minor Compared to what would come later The Hodgson family consisted of single mum Peggy Hodgson

Starting point is 00:01:50 And her four children 13 year old Margaret 10 year old Johnny 7 year old Billy and finally, Janet Hodgson, 11 years old, and for some reason the main target of whatever was brewing inside their home. It started with noises, just the odd knock or a scrape. Nothing you couldn't dismiss as the house settling in the evening, but those knocks started to become more pronounced, more consistent. You would think that it was maybe a neighbour knocking through the wall.

Starting point is 00:02:28 but it would take place at random areas of the house. And anyway, the Hodgson's were close with their neighbours. In fact, they will play a key part in this story. At August 30th, 1977, things would escalate suddenly. The children were drifting off to sleep one by one, when from downstairs Peggy heard a horrendous repeated banging. She rushed upstairs to see what was going on. But nothing seemed to miss.

Starting point is 00:03:00 Janet claimed to her mother that her brother Billy's bed had been going all funny, and that it was moving around by itself. The very next night, Peggy herself would witness strange goings-on in her home. Once again early in the night, Peggy heard a loud banging coming from one of the upstairs bedrooms. She rushed upstairs, fed up with the children playing these silly games with her. Again, Janet claimed that the children were. were not to blame, and that the noise was coming from their chest of drawers. Almost immediately, Peggy saw the drawers move across the floor towards them.

Starting point is 00:03:39 Peggy pushed it back against the wall, only for the object to move once again on its own. Stunned and likely very confused, Peggy tried once again to push the furniture back into place, but this time it would not move. Like some unseen force was sort of. holding it in place. The sudden feeling that this wasn't being caused by something natural, and that someone or something was holding the drawers in place was too much for the mother. She grabbed her children, left the house immediately and went to their next door neighbor's house, the Nottingham's. Vic, the husband, was a contractor by trade and decided to come and take a look at the Hodgson's home to figure out the calls.

Starting point is 00:04:26 Vic left Peggy behind and went to investigate the property alone while he could find no structural issues that could be causing the chest of drawers to slide across the bedroom he did report hearing a distinct knocking sound a sound that appeared to follow him around the house we couldn't make out what it was I heard the knocking as I walked in the front door but I went all over the house checked it checked the walls checked everything

Starting point is 00:04:53 clearly distraught Peggy phoned the police What exactly she hoped they would be able to do is unclear, but at the same time her response feels very reasonable. Who do you turn to when something traumatic but unexplainable happens in your home? The two police constables arrived at the Enfield home at 1am and also experienced the strange knocking sounds around the property, but that wouldn't be all. Just as they were about to leave, one of the police officers noticed the chair wobbling on its own. Then, out of nowhere, the chair fell and slid across the floor towards her. It came off the floor, or nearly a half inch, I should say, and I saw it slide off to the right,

Starting point is 00:05:40 about three and a half to four feet before it came to rest. I checked to see whether or not it could possibly have slid along the floor. I placed a marble on the floor to see whether the marble would go in the same direction as the chair did, and it didn't, didn't roll at all. I checked for wires under the cushion, the chair, and I can find no explanation at all. We already have the police and neighbours as possible witnesses in this strange case. But this is the point when Peggy started to contact the media. Night after night of strange occurrences had left her and her family distraught.

Starting point is 00:06:16 They needed answers and had no idea where to turn. The newspaper, The Daily Mirror, decided to send reporter Douglas Bence to the house, alongside photographer Graham Morris. The pair wanted to spend the evening alone in the house to see if they would witness anything themselves, so the Hodgson's went to their neighbour's house while the reporters investigated. And...

Starting point is 00:06:40 Nothing happened. It was late, around 2.30 when the pair finally decided to give up, disappointed. They might get a small fluff piece out of this story. But predictably nothing more than that. That was until the Hodgson family came back to go to bed. Before Benson Morris had chance to leave, they witnessed the children's Legos and marbles flying around the room. Benz himself was hit with one of the bricks.

Starting point is 00:07:13 The mirror continued to cover the case further. But they were the ones who decided to contact one of the most prestigious institutes in the UK when it comes to investigating the strange and unexplained. The Society for Psychical Research. The organisation founded in 1882 has dedicated itself to researching areas that traditional science tends to shy away from. Specifically incidents of what could be described as psychic or paranormal phenomena.

Starting point is 00:07:43 The SPR sent Maurice Gross, an inventor and one of their newest investigators. Some say that Maurice took a special interest. interest in the family, as the activity seemed to be increasingly centering around the young Janet Hodgson. Just one year previous, Maurice had tragically lost his own daughter. Her name was Janet. Whatever influenced his behaviour, Maurice would go above and beyond what would be expected

Starting point is 00:08:10 of an investigator in his position. He didn't just see an opportunity to provide proof of a possible phenomena that we know nothing about. He saw a family in need. a family with no one to turn to. A family that needed him. Maurice returned days later,

Starting point is 00:08:30 again with reporters from the mirror. At approximately 1.15 a.m. after what had been a quiet evening up until that point, they heard a loud crash coming from the girl's bedroom. They rushed upstairs to find the girls somehow still sound asleep in their beds, but a chair had been flipped across the room. Maurice was convinced that this. point that this was a case that required serious investigation. That weekend, the Enfield

Starting point is 00:08:59 Haunting would appear on the front page of the Daily Mirror, and several radio stations featured the story, including BBC Radio 4, who sent their presenter to spend the night in the home. That night, the journalist would witness the familiar chairs being thrown across the room and an incident of a bed shaking. In just a short time, the Enfield Haunting had become one of the most credible cases are for haunting in history. This wasn't just anyone reporting the case. There were credible witnesses to the phenomena that was taking place. We've just heard a noise having come downstairs. We've just heard a noise upstairs. And the chair, which was standing by Janet's bed, appears to have moved.

Starting point is 00:09:42 The chair has been thrown behind a page. Well, I'm hoping I'm not getting the microphone shaking in my hand, because that was rather an unnerving experience. The SPR decided that with a case this, potentially significant, that maybe a more experienced investigator should be sent along to give Maurice Gross a hand, who had at this point personally witnessed a whole host of poltergeist-like activity. That investigator would be the author, Guy Lyon Playfair. It's worth noting that Playfair and Gross didn't just visit a few times. They attended the home on hundreds of occasions

Starting point is 00:10:18 and dedicated years of their lives to this case. The strange occurrences continued as the investigation properly began. Objects would fly across rooms. Strange banging sounds would be heard throughout the house, but it wasn't until Sunday, the 25th of September, that things began to escalate to another level. Peggy Hodgson happened to live on the same street as her brother, John Bercombe, and his wife, Sylvia. On this particular night, the activity had become too much for the family, and they'd decided it needed to get out, so they headed to John's home a few doors down.

Starting point is 00:10:57 While making them cups of tea, Sylvia claimed that she saw a children's toy appear in the air before her eyes, before it dropped, and crashed onto the kitchen counter. Was whatever was responsible for these incidents growing in power? Was it free to roam wherever it pleased? Or was it attached to someone? in the Hodgson family. The activity continued. The strange sounds and moving objects

Starting point is 00:11:29 continued to be witnessed by reporters, investigators and the family alike, but it was really starting to take its toll on the children, particularly Janet, who seemed to be experiencing the strange phenomena the most. Peggy had desperately been trying to get the Enfield Council to move her family from their home. Moving between council properties isn't particularly simple,

Starting point is 00:11:50 and it's probably not a stretch to suggest that the local council wasn't used to dealing with cases that involved hauntings. Janet was struggling at school by this point. A fact that was understandable since none of the family were getting much sleep. Peggy was able to secure the funds to at least take her family away for a week by the seaside to allow them the chance to rest. And it worked. While the family were away, it appears whatever had been told.

Starting point is 00:12:22 lamenting them didn't follow. They were able to experience a week of peace by the sea. As soon as they returned, they were welcomed back into their house of horrors, and it wouldn't be long until whatever was sharing their home with them decided it wanted to communicate. While the family were away, Morisa decided to start trying to communicate with the presence through its apparent knocking. The day the family returned, they sat down, and he started to ask the spirit questions. Maurice made hours upon hours of recordings within the home, and captured these sessions on tape. Well, thank you very much. That was a very good answer.

Starting point is 00:14:22 On Saturday, November the 12th, Janet found herself being thrown from her bed to the floor. That same morning, Peggy had began placing notepads and pens around the house, as a test to see if it would try to communicate in other ways. Within five minutes she found a pad with unrecognisable handwriting on it. It simply said, I will stay in the house. Do not read this to anyone,

Starting point is 00:14:49 or I will retaliate. The following weekend, Janet experienced a violent seizure. The doctor gave her a sedative, and the family put her to bed. Later that evening, the girl's uncle went to check on her. only to find her strangely laying over the top of her radio in an unnatural position. This was just the beginning of Janet seemingly being physically toyed with, and she would often be found unconscious in strange places. Shortly after this physicality started, Janet started to produce drawings.

Starting point is 00:15:24 Drawings that she seemed to create in a near semi-conscious state, a technique she witnessed a medium doing in their home in the previous weeks. The pictures were dark, with blood, death and knives, all being a consistent aspect of all the drawing she created. December 3rd, 1977. Another night of Janet seemingly being thrown around a bedroom, ended when Melrice heard another strange sound at 1am. A common period of time that the poltergeist seemed to be at its strongest. he rushed out into the hall to witness Janet, sliding down the stairs head first while still asleep. Ever since Maurice had made contact with the spirit, the activity had become more common and even more focused on Janet than before.

Starting point is 00:16:17 Early in December, the entity seemingly discovered its voice, apparently taking control of Janet and at times Margaret and talking in a gruff voice. The first instance of this, Maurice was able to capture again on tape. He challenged the spirit to speak to him. At first he was met with the response of a dog bark and whistling before the voice first made itself heard. It claimed to be someone called Joe. Although the voice would remain the same in the months to follow, the person who was apparently talking would change.

Starting point is 00:16:55 The barking here is quite extraordinary, actually. I then said to it, as I said on the tape here, I then said to it, if you can whistle and bark and groan, then you can talk. And I asked it to actually say my name. Now that was the first time we heard the voice and since then we've been hearing it again and again and has been getting louder and louder. These voices, while rough and deep, were talking in an almost childlike manner, often making crew jokes and taunting the investigators. Just days later, the voice began to claim that it was in fact the spirit of someone called Bill.

Starting point is 00:18:37 When Maurice asked Bill how he had died, the voice responded through Janet that he went blind and had a hemorrhage, dying in the chair in the living room, a claim that would be chillingly backed up at a later date when the investigators were able to get into contact with the son of the house's previous resident, Bill Watkins. His son confirmed that his father had in fact died of a hemorrhage in that exact spot. Died in a chair in the courtroom downstairs. But it describes exactly what happened. He died in the chair, down in the living room. My mum popped out to the shop for 10 minutes. When she came back, he was dead. As part of the investigation, automatic cameras were set up around the house to try and

Starting point is 00:19:31 any strange occurrences, taking an image every quarter of a second. These cameras were able to capture the series of photos that have now become synonymous for the case, depending on if you are a skeptic or a believer. The images either show a young girl leaping across her room or something moving her through the air against her will. Well over 30 years later, this series of pictures still fascinate and divide people in equal measure. This wasn't the only apparent incident of levitation that was well. witness, though. In one experiment, an investigator tried to convince the spirit to demonstrate its power and levitate Janet while the girl was in her bedroom. To begin with, objects would

Starting point is 00:20:14 begin to move around, including a cushion that appeared to miraculously appear on the roof of the house. But once again, speaking through Janet, the poltergeist apparently told investigators that they couldn't be in the room to see its performance. This didn't stop what happened, being witnessed by two separate passes by, though. A woman claimed to see several objects hitting the window of the bedroom, before then seeing young Janet floating past the window horizontally. A second witness also claimed to see Janet floating past the window, and even banging against the glass.

Starting point is 00:20:51 When the baker's roundman who delivered bread next door was coming along the road, he heard a tremendous commotion in the Hudson house. and he looked up, the curtains had been pulled across, he looked up and he saw Janet floating around the room in a horizontal position like this, followed by some books and toys. But at the same time, across the road, is a lollipop lady.

Starting point is 00:21:21 I saw Janet laying flat, and she was floating. She was going up and down in front of the bedroom window. Just days before Christmas, the family's pet goldfish was found dead. Speaking once again through Janet, Bill took responsibility for the act. On Christmas Day, their pet budgie would also be found dead. And reportedly, a curtain wrapped itself around Janet's throat, choking her.

Starting point is 00:21:57 She was luckily found by Peggy and Untangled. or thought anything bad could happen. After nearly four months of strange occurrences, the incidents were becoming increasingly violent. Messages were appearing in new ways. The word shit was found smeared onto the bathroom wall in human excrement. A message made out of 20 individual pieces of tape was found on a wall that simply said, I am Fred. And Peggy witnessed what she described as the bottom half of a man,

Starting point is 00:22:30 dressed in old-fashioned trousers, walking upstairs. Reporters continued to visit the home, and BBC Scotland even recorded a visit to the family in which they were able to capture Janet talking in the gruff voice, as well as capturing the banging sounds throughout the house. In April, after eight months of vigorous investigation, Maurice and Guy took a break, but asked the family to keep track of any paranormal activity that occurred.

Starting point is 00:22:59 When they returned just a few weeks later, they discovered that Peggy had made notes of over 150 incidents. The family were increasingly seeing apparitions of people in the home, and small unexpected fires had begun starting. Long-time patrons of the tape library might notice the disturbing similarity there to another haunted location. The Sally House It was around this time that infamous paranormal investigator, Ed and Lorraine Warren became involved in the case. The Enfield Haunting had a huge impact on the imagination of many, influencing popular culture surrounding the phenomena of Poltergeist

Starting point is 00:23:40 and playing a big part in creating of the movie's Ghostbusters and of course Poltergeist. But, particularly the younger members of the audience, might associate the Enfield case with the more recent movie The Conjuring 2. Ed and Lorraine Warren were famous for being involved in countless paranormal investigations, including the Amesville House and the mysteries surrounding the Annabelle Dahl. But despite what The Conjuring suggests, they only had a minimal involvement

Starting point is 00:24:10 in the Enfield case, visiting for a brief period with their team in June of 1978. The movie does suggest that certain aspects of the haunting were faked by the children. A common critique of many of the strange occurrences that took place in the home is that the children could have simply been pulling pranks, especially when it came to the voices that Janet seemed to be putting on and the photos of apparent levitation is well worth noting that many of the incidents of furniture moving took place out of the eyesight of the investigators, and almost always when the children were present. However, the investigators themselves admit to this. Maurice Gross says himself that there were instances where the children were pull pranks and claimed that the apparent ghosts were doing it.

Starting point is 00:25:02 But he believes these were simply cases of children being children during a very strange period in their lives. And that these incidents in no way take away from the overwhelming amount of evidence that both himself, other investigators, journalists and even the police witnessed. When it came to the voices, Morrie's claim he carried out numerous experiments. to determine if Janet was putting it on, including filling her mouth with water, taping it shut, and then seeing if she could still do the voice, which amazingly still saw the responses from Bill and his friends. He also suggested that due to the gruffness of the voice, and wherein the throat it was being created, it would be impossible for anyone to keep it up for hours

Starting point is 00:25:49 on end without shredding their voice. Mr. Gross, a lot of people hearing these voices produced by the children will simply say that they are very good ventriloquists and that this is all a hoax. How would you react to that? Certainly not. They're certainly not very good ventriloquists. We have had tests on them to see whether they can ventriloquists. They can't. To keep up this particular type of voice for any length of time without damage to the vocal cords is absolutely impossible.

Starting point is 00:26:22 I mean, there must be some hoarseness attached to it. But don't forget these children don't do this for a couple of minutes or so. They do it for lengths of periods up to three hours. And without any hoarseness or sore throats whatsoever. Whatever actually took place during the Warren's brief visit to the Enfield House, Peggy had grown increasingly concerned about Janet's mental and physical well-being, and she was sent to live temporarily in a house, run by nuns. One month later, Janet was admitted to the Mawesley Institute,

Starting point is 00:26:55 of neuropsychology in South London. There they ran a series of tests on her to see if there was any possible physical or psychological reason for what she was experiencing. Nothing was found and Janet experienced no paranormal activity while in the hospital. When Guy and Maurice asked why she thought that was, she suggested that the spirit

Starting point is 00:27:16 needed the other people in her home to build its energy. However, after six weeks of peace, the very same night that Janet returned to her home, the terror started again. Within half an hour of being home, Janet saw, as clear as they, the spirit of a young boy,

Starting point is 00:27:38 standing in the family's kitchen. After months of various mediums, priests, and paranormal investigators, having attempts at getting the phenomena under control, were at the very least trying to understand what was going on, Guy was put in touch with a Dutch medium, who didn't speak a word of English. Named.

Starting point is 00:27:59 And I'm going to butcher this name. Dono Gimiligmailing. Playfair asked the medium to have an attempt at healing whatever was wrong with the house. The medium went up to the children's bedroom alone. What he actually did up there, Guy has no idea to this day. But whatever he did,

Starting point is 00:28:17 it seemed to have a profound effect on the activity in the home. Over the course of the next year, the viciousness and regularity of the phenomena began to calm. It's also worth noting that the medium claimed that a 24-year-old woman was in some way connected to the incidents that were taking place in the home, but he wasn't sure who she was. The same age, Maurice's daughter, Janet, tragically lost her life. Although, it didn't stop completely. A year later in 1979, the warrants would return to the home capture more evidence, but nothing that appeared to be as violent or falseful as what the family was experiencing before the medium visited.

Starting point is 00:29:05 That autumn the family had a priest come and blessed the home, which once again saw the strange occurrences diminishing power further. But according to the Hodgson's, whatever was inside that house never fully went away. Eventually the family were able to move away from the house, After some time away, Janet made a full recovery and now claims that there are many incidents that she cannot remember clearly from her time in the home. Many of the people in this story are sadly no longer with us. Their stories never changed. Both Janet and Margaret continue to talk about their terrifying childhood experiences, and Maurice

Starting point is 00:29:47 Gross was passionate about the evidence his investigation had uncovered, up until his death in 2006. Whatever you believe, there has rarely been a case like the Enfield Poltergeist. So many eyewitnesses of varying degrees of authority that came together to paint for us a picture of a strange incident that occurred in this unassuming North London house. Thank you for joining me on another entry into the tape library. If you've enjoyed this episode, then please be sure to give us a thumbs up, or even better, let me know what you think about this case in the comments below.

Starting point is 00:30:28 If you want to hear more true life stories of the unexplained, then be sure to subscribe. Thank you for sticking with me through to the end of this strange story. Until next time, pleasant dreams.

The Tape Library - Archive of the Paranormal & the Unexplained - The Haunting of The Enfield Poltergeist

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