Strange doings at a Leeds house.
Poltergeist or a practical joker?
By a “Yorkshire Post” Reporter.
Two Leeds police officers searched a terrace house in Headingley last night for a “ghost” which is said to unscrew electric light bulbs from their sockets, put plant pots on top of doors, throw wooden planks through doors, overturn tins of paint and open locked doors. The house, in Ash Grove, off Victoria Road, is occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Haythwaite. They bought the house some time ago and went to live there in the middle of September. Last night, unnerved by the happenings, they went to stay with friends.
For over an hour last night, two police officers searched the house from top to bottom, but found nothing to account for the happenings. The search will be continued to-day.
Mrs. Haythwaite told me last night: “I heard peculiar noises when we came into the house, but things have come to a head during the last two days. Yesterday afternoon a tin of paint was upset down the bedroom steps. It took me almost all the afternoon to clear up the mess. Then, once, I saw an electric light bulb being unscrewed from its socket. I was just in time to catch it as it dropped. I have locked doors and then found them unlocked, and many times I have walked up from the basement to answer rings on the door bell, but found no one there. Once I heard a noise and was just in time to see a hand holding a hammer. But when I went into the house there was no one there. I have seen slippers move under a table, and during the night I have heard footsteps and shouts in a woman’s voice.”
Mr. C. Cliff, of Kirkdale Mount, Kirkdale Drive, Leeds, an electrician working in the house, said: “I have found electric light switches in a pot of paint and wires unravelled. Once, a washbasin had been moved from a bedroom and left on the stairs. Yesterday morning I opened a door and a plant pot which had been left balancing on top of the door crashed down and just grazed my face. Then I went upstairs with a painter, and when we opened a door a wooden plank fell through, nearly striking us. I just cannot get on with this job. I have already had to let one contract go, and I am losing money. The police seem to think that a practical joker may be at work.”
Lights blazed from all the windows as the police officers searched the house last night.
Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, 10th October 1949.
‘Unseen Agent’ at work again to-day at No. 11, Ash Grove.
E.P. Man tells of new shock in ‘ghost house’.
‘Jug flew on to stairs’.
Evening Post Reporter.
A demonstration by the unseen agent which is reported by the occupants of a house in Ash Grove, Hyde Park, Leeds, to be playing mischievous pranks in the house, was given to-day. A glass medicine bottle which Mrs. Haithwaite, wife of the occupier, and two workmen in the house yesterday, saw fly down the stairs to land unbroken in the tiled hall, to-day crashed and splintered on the floor of the hall. No one was in the hall at the time.
With a photographer colleague, I was in a room fronting the street. Two workmen decorating the house were in another room and Mrs. Haithwaite was in the basement when we all heard a crash of glass. I am convinced no human agency moved that bottle.
“It has started again,” said Mr. C. Cliff, electrician, Kirkdale Mount, as we rushed into the hall. The front door of the house was open at the time and a breeze was blowing, but certainly not with enough force to shift a medicine bottle lying on its side off the hall-stand and crash it down two or three feet away. A second or so later a bang, as though a door had been closed violently, was heard from the upper storey of the house – all empty.
Earlier to-day Mrs. Haithwaite told me: “I have heard a voice. I heard it again this morning, and it said something like, ‘I am stopping here. I am going to give you some shocks. I want you out of here, you have come in to make money, and I want you out.’ “
At 2.13, I went to talk to a neighbour about the happening at No. 11. When I returned at 2.17, a small metal jug had flown from the hatstand in the hall onto the stairs two yards away. An electric light bulb had crashed to the floor of the kitchenette. No-one knows where it came from. There are no electric light bulbs missing.
Mrs. Haithwaite was in the basement and Mr Cliff and Walter Wood, the painter, were upstairs. None of them heard any movement on the ground floor until the jug and bulb moved.
Mr. Leonard Shires, secretary of Leeds Psychic Research Society, said to-day: – “If Mr. and Mrs. Haithwaite are agreeable, the Society will do its best to investigate the phenomena.
Footnote: Such manifestations are often attributed to poltergeists. The name is of German origin and means “racketting spirits.” They are said to constitute the principal type of spontaneous physical phenomena. The word is used to describe cases of strange noises, movements of furniture and breakages of crockery which appear inexplicable to the inmates of the houses where they occur. Cases of this kind have been recorded for many hundreds of years and from all parts of the world, civilised and barbarous.
Yorkshire Evening Post, 19th October 1949.
“Ghost” failed to turn up at Leeds “Mystery” House.
From a Staff Reporter.
Maurice Fogel, mind-reading expert, attempted to debunk the Leeds poltergeist during the early hours of this morning, and then offered a cheque for £5,000 to anyone who could prove that such phenomena existed.
At the same time, the secretary of the Leeds Psychic Research Society, Mr. L. Shires, offered to investigate the unusual happenings at the house, 11, Ash-grove, Hyde Park, Leeds, and Mrs. J. Haithwaite, the occupier, commented: “We sell. You can have the house at any price.”
Voices and hammerings have been reported to have been heard, electric lights to have been removed, and mysterious steps heard in the house. Chairs, it is said, have been overturned and tins of paint upset.
In the early hours of this morning, along with members of the Leeds Psychic Research Society and Fogel, who is appearing at a Leeds theatre, we gathered in the attic of the house. Debunking, Fogel commented: “It is a pity that the police and other people should be disturbed in these times by such nonsense,” and then offered his cheque for £5,000. Fogel, at the outset, was securely tied with light rope and the knots sealed with wax. On his knees was a tambourine. We joined hands, myself holding the hand in the darkness of Mr. Shires. I was known to Fogel and passed my torch to Mr. Shires – just in case. Throughout the hour we were in darkness nothing happened to Mr. Shires.
The tambourine trembled, I trembled, but Mr. Shires confidently asked his questions of the debunking medium, got his reply, and the lights were eventually switched on. Fogel commenting upon the experimenting, “That is my job.” But Mr. Shires had other views, and before he left the house in the early hours he had obtained permission to investigate the phenomenon at a future date.
Throughout the hours I spent in the house nothing untoward happened but nobody went to bed.
Bradford Observer, 20th October 1949.
The Poltergeist – ‘bunkum,’ says Mr. Fogel, but Psychic Research Society are not so sure.
By Derrick Boothroyd.
A dozen reporters, half a dozen photographers and four members of the Leeds Psychic Research Society stood in a circle holding hands in an attic in Ash Grove, Leeds, at midnight last night and waited for a poltergeist to manifest itself – a poltergeist which is alleged to have caused all sorts of mysterious happenings in the past few days.
Behind the circle Mr. Maurice Fogel, the celebrated mind-reader, who is appearing at the City Varieties theatre in Leeds, sat in a chair with his hands and legs bound and a tambourine on his knees. Downstairs a policeman in a uniform stood on guard against physical intruders.
“Right!” said Mr. Leslie Brown, a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians, a friend of Mr. Fogel’s and an associate of the late Mr. Harry Price, the psychical research expert. “Any more photographs?” The photographers got down on their knees and there were a series of brilliant flashes and cries of “Hold it.”
“Right!” said Mr. Brown, “Lights out!” Half a dozen candles and a couple of torches were extinguished and we stood in the eerie silence. A long minute passed uneventfully, the only sound being caused by a reporter standing on a loose board. Then there was a sudden crash and the tambourine bounded across the room. “Put it back,” said an official of the Psychic Research Society. “I will ask some questions.” Someone picked it up.
He proceeded to interrogate the poltergeist, who replied on the principle of one knock meaning “Yes,” three knocks meaning “No.” It said it had nothing to do with the mysterious happenings in the house and could shed no light on them. “Spell out your name,” said a Psychic Research member, inspired. “Knock at the appropriate letters as I go through the alphabet.” The poltergeist spelt out HOUDINI.
No one could think of any more questions and after a pause Mr. Fogel’s arms and legs were untied. “Gentlemen,” he said, stretching himself, “I have proved that the mysterious happenings in this house have been caused by a human agency, I claim that it is all bunkum.” The proof seemed to satisfy some of the photographers, who promptly departed, but not the Leeds Psychic Research Society, who treat poltergeists seriously. “You’ve proved nothing,” said one of them, sceptically. Mr. Fogel, however, maintained that he had, and a long argument ensued.
Meanwhile Mr. and Mrs. Haithwaite, the occupants of the house, were wishing downstairs that everyone would go. “It’s past a joke,” Mrs. Haithwaite told me. “We’ve had dozens of people here all day, and we’re no nearer to solving the mystery. To-day a medicine bottle has fallen on the floor, an electric light bulb has come out of its socket, a plant pot has been smashed, and the wash bowl has come out of the bathroom to the top of the stairs. It’s not good enough.”
But Mr. Fogel, escaping the now angry remonstrations of the Psychic Research Society, had good news for her. “Don’t worry,” he confided, “Someone is trying to get you out of this house, but you must not let him. It is all bunk.”
As for the Psychic Research Society their view was still that the happenings of the night had proved nothing. “We shall make further investigations – on our own,” one member told me. “It doesn’t tie up,” said another. “What’s Houdini got to do with it?” This is only one question that might be asked.
Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, 20th October 1949.
‘There is no ghost at No. 11’: Investigations end.
A police investigator said of the “haunting” at No. 11, Ash Grove, Leeds: “There is no ghost. We have found a reasonable explanation for all the events that have taken place and that is all there is to it. That practically concludes our investigations.”
Police earlier were reconstructing events at No. 11 in an effort to solve the mysterious events of the last few days. Bottles flew through the air and a copper jug crashed from the hall stand as three C.I.D. officers, called in by the owner, Mrs. J. Haithwaite, continued their experiments.
Earlier, Mrs. Haithwaite, after consulting with a clergyman, declared she was convinced the unusual happenings had been caused by some person. The clergyman, a Leeds vicar who has made a study of supernatural forces, had brought his vestments ready to perform a service of exorcism.
Mr. Maurice Fogel, mind reader, appearing at a Leeds theatre, after a mock seance at the house, told Mrs. Haithwaite that the poltergeist theory was “bunk.”
Yorkshire Evening Post, 20th October 1949.
C.I.D. ‘exorcise’ poltergeist.
Leeds C.I.D. yesterday “exorcised” the poltergeist at No. 11, Ash-grove, Leeds. After spending many hours in the house where it had been reported that bottles flew through the air, paint pots were overturned, electric lights had dropped from their sockets, and strange voices were heard, they came to the conclusion that there is no ghost.
During yesterday a clergyman called upon Mrs. J. Haithwaite, the occupier of the house, complete with vestments ready to perform a service of exorcism, but Mrs. Haithwaite was herself convinced that the unusual happenings in her house had been caused by human agency.
On the previous night Mr. Maurice Fogel, the mind reader, had carried out a seance in the attic of the house in the presence of members of the local Psychic Society and declared that the poltergeist was bunkum. He even offered £5,000 to anybody who could prove otherwise.
Bradford Observer, 21st October 1949.
Leeds ‘ghost’ laid by police.
The “ghost” of Ash Grove, Hyde Park, Leeds, was decisively laid yesterday – by the police. That is the view of Superintendent T. Bowman, head of Leeds C.I.C. Yesterday police officers spent three hours at the house of Mr. and Mrs. J. Haithwaite, who had complained of happenings such as are traditionally attributed to poltergeists. Bottles, tins and other solid objects had flown through the air, it was said, without apparent human help. The police yesterday did some bottle throwing themselves in an effort to reconstruct the occurrences.
Last night Superintendent Bowman told “The Yorkshire Post”: “The matter has been fully investigated. There is no ghost. I am quite satisfied with the explanation we have arrived at for the happenings in the house.” He would not say who was thought to be responsible.
Mrs. Haithwaite also said that she was convinced that the movement of tins, plant pots, electric lamps and other objects, which had forced her and her husband to leave the house and sleep with friends, was caused by human agency.
Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, 21st October 1949.