The Enfield Poltergeist

thecactus · Joined: 07 Mar 2011 Posts: 3196 Location: Northern Ireland

The Enfield Poltergeist

The Enfield Poltergeist was a period of apparent poltergeist activity in England between August 1977 and September 1978, with an added outburst in August 1980.

Activity

The said activity occurred at Enfield in North London, in a council house on Green Street rented to Peggy Hodgson, a single parent with four children.

During this time furniture is said to have moved by itself, knockings on the walls were heard, and children's toys were said to have been thrown around and to have been too hot to touch when picked up. A police officer signed an affidavit to affirm that she saw a chair move. Reports of the activity attracted various visitors including mediums and members of the press. One photographer reported being hit on the forehead with a Lego brick. After visiting the house, George Fallows, a senior reporter for the Daily Mirror, suggested that the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) be called in to investigate.

Investigations

The incidents were duly investigated by Maurice Grosse and Guy Lyon Playfair, both members of SPR, who were convinced by the evidence which they encountered during their thirteen month investigation. They reported witnessing various phenomena, including moving furniture, flying marbles, cold breezes, shallow pools of water appearing on the floor, and fires which spontaneously ignited and extinguished themselves.

The family in the Enfield case consisted of a mother, two daughters, and two sons; Margaret aged 12, a younger sister Janet aged 11, Johnny aged 10 and Billy aged 7. Billy had a speech impediment. Johnny featured only marginally in the inexplicable events, at least 26 of which the investigators considered could not be accounted for by fraud. These included movement of small and large objects, interference with bedclothes, pools of water on the floor, apparitions, physical assaults, graffiti, equipment malfunction and failure, spontaneous combustion, disappearance and reappearance of objects, and apparent levitations.

Among other alleged phenomena they witnessed was Janet speaking using her false vocal folds for hours on end (which is believed to be medically impossible), while she was apparently possessed by another entity. When speaking with the false cords Janet said she was "Bill" who had died in the house of a brain haemorrhage. The "Bill" persona habitually made jokes and exhibited a very nasty temper, swearing at Maurice, once calling him "A fucking old sod." A man contacted Grosse, claiming to be Bill's son. Recordings were made of these occurrences. After the BBC went to the house the recording crew found the metal inside of the recording machines bent, and recordings erased.

Further investigations by Anita Gregory and John Beloff, also from the SPR, were less positive. They spent a few days with the family and came to the conclusion that the children had faked the poltergeist activity after they found them bending spoons themselves. One of the children (Janet) admitted to Gregory that they had fabricated some of the occurrences. This admission was repeated on the ITV News (12 June 1980) when she stated: "Oh yeah, once or twice [we faked phenomena], just to see if Mr Grosse and Mr Playfair would catch us. And they always did."

After writing a feature on supernatural activity for Loaded magazine, journalist Will Storr included a retrospective investigation of the events and conflicting personalities involved in the Enfield case in his book Will Storr Versus the Supernatural. The book comes to no positive conclusions regarding the truth of the haunting but throws considerable light on the personalities involved, particularly those of Maurice Grosse and Anita Gregory.

Conclusion

Margaret has publicly stated that although she did fake a few phenomena to catch the investigators in action, they were not responsible for all the phenomena. She has stated that "It is ridiculous to suggest that either my sister or I could have been responsible for the strange activity that went on in our house."

Peggy Hodgson remained in the house until her death in 2003. Grosse died in 2006.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NofBgeNklA

D B Sweeney · Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 11:07 am Post subject:

One of the best documented Poltergeist cases IMO. However I have my doubts. Certainly much of the reported phenomenon was faked and Grosse admits that it was but there are some elements that remain genuinely unexplained.

DB

bitterbuck1 · Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 12:05 pm Post subject:

Wish they had film of the goings on.

D B Sweeney · Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 12:11 pm Post subject:

I bought and read This House is Haunted as soon as it was published and have Will Storr vs The Supernatural. I've read both books many times from cover to cover and researched all references made in both of them.

DB

thecactus · Joined: 07 Mar 2011 Posts: 3196 Location: Northern Ireland

you can kind of understand why the girls started to fake some things for attention etc...but as DBD said there are still many unexplained happenings in this case

have you ever heard/watched the recordings with grosse talking to janet and she speaks in an old mans voice, and says she is bill and that he died in a chair downstairs? its very interesting

it did turn out a william had lived there about 15 years before and was found dead in the house

D B Sweeney · Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 1:46 pm Post subject:

it did turn out a william had lived there about 15 years before and was found dead in the house

They were aware of that Cactus and considerable doubt has been cast on the 'voice' of Bill.
I'll post at some length on this case on Monday.

DB

thecactus · Joined: 07 Mar 2011 Posts: 3196 Location: Northern Ireland

I dont think they knew that info until after she said this, but id have to check.

D B Sweeney · Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 2:33 pm Post subject:

thecactus · Joined: 07 Mar 2011 Posts: 3196 Location: Northern Ireland

D B Sweeney, so everything on the internet is false or fabricated?

D B Sweeney · Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2011 1:14 am Post subject:

GavKnight · Joined: 23 Jun 2009 Posts: 112 Location: Ollerton, Notts

I've seen the documentory on the enfield polterguist. It was quite interesting and they played the recording of janet talking as bill which i thought was quite freaky. I've also seen the photo of janet levitating over he bed although it does look like she's jumped off her bed and somebody took a pic of it. Which occurances would you say were uneplainable DB?

thecactus · Joined: 07 Mar 2011 Posts: 3196 Location: Northern Ireland

she was supposedly thrown out of the bed and i think there was a camera set up to take pics with movement or something - she did look frightened/distressed

D B Sweeney · Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2011 11:51 am Post subject:

Hi GavKnight,

The incident where Janet seemingly passed into the neighbours bedroom and the long conversations with the Bill personality.

DB

GavKnight · Joined: 23 Jun 2009 Posts: 112 Location: Ollerton, Notts

Thx DB, have you got any theories on how these things were possible? Cactus. She did look distressed in the photo and i think the guy investigating was in the room when she was thrown out of the bed, shame there was no video footage though as the photo does look like she was jumping

GavKnight · Joined: 23 Jun 2009 Posts: 112 Location: Ollerton, Notts

Thx DB, have you got any theories on how these things were possible? Cactus. She did look distressed in the photo and i think the guy investigating was in the room when she was thrown out of the bed, shame there was no video footage though as the photo does look like she was jumping