Unseen footsteps, bangings, and rattlings.
Mysterious happenings at a Tyrone farm-house.
Strange happenings are reported to have taken place recently at a farm house at Altamullen, some miles from Killeter, where the occupants, a highly respectable family, have been subjected to a considerable amount of annoyance of a somewhat mysterious character. Those who have experienced the visitation report that there is mysterious banging of the door at the back of the house, followed by the rattling of chairs as if they were being smashed by some unseen force. The dog, which is tied in the scullery, barks ferociously during these operations, and immediately afterwards the scene changes to the font of the house, where unexplained noises are heard in the hall, and mysterious footsteps, resembling that of a man with an artificial limb, are heard on the stairs. The steps apparently proceed half way up the stairs, and then rush to the top and enter one of the bedrooms with a noise, described by a witness to the affair, as “like the rushing wind and a rustle of skirts.”
These extraordinary occurrences are stated to have occurred for hours at regular intervals, and have been the subject of the closest investigation by all branches of the constabulary force, from the principal officers down. It is stated that on one occasion when one of the occupants heard the noises she called for a gun, and the sounds suddenly became weaker. A few nights ago a sergeant in the “B” Specials observing strange figures in the garden of the householder under suspicious circumstances, opened fire upon them, and since then there has been no recurrence of the strange affair.
Derry Journal, 20th May 1927.