Strange Happenings in Bethnal Green.
Bed Clothes Torn Off, Chairs Overturned, Cries and Tappings
Expert’s Story to the “Observer”. What our reporter saw.
Ghostly manifestations in a Bethnal Green house have aroused the curiosity and interest of thousands of people. This week experts have been carrying out careful investigations – but the strange happenings continue.
While some are sceptical, many especially the children are slowly being terrorised into a state of acute nervousness and fear. The “haunted” house is No. 132, Teesdale Street, occupied downstairs by Mr. George Davis, a compositor, and his son Sidney and daughter Grace and upstairs by Mr. and Mrs. Harrison. Furniture is mysteriously moved, bedclothes torn off, chairs overturned and bolted doors unlocked while eerie cries are heard. A manifestation occurred while an “Observer” representative was in the house.
Since last Saturday, Dr. Nandor Fodor, research officer of the International Institute of Psychic Research, has been carrying out investigations, and on Tuesday a seal and lock was placed upon one of the rooms in which most of the phenomena occur. The sealed room was opened by Dr. Fodor on Thursday, but nothing had been disturbed.
Every day and late into the night, huge crowds gather in the street, and the police have had to be called to regulate them. The occupants of the house are naturally much distressed. It appears that Mr. Davis’s wife died in hospital last September, and then things began to happen about a month or six weeks later. They have been going on ever since. The family ask us to deny the statement which has been circulated that before she died Mrs. Davis said she would come back and haunt them.
Our Representative’s Experience.
“I was present in the house with Dr. Fodor at five minutes to six on Thursday,” writes an “Observer” representative, “after the sealed room had been opened. I went upstairs with him and we changed the position of a photograph on the mantelpiece, noting carefully all details in the room, then we came downstairs to the kitchen. No one was upstairs. There we stood talking to the daughter, brother and tenant of Mr. Davis, and also the Vicar from a nearby Church. We then went into the front room through the communicating door to examine objects that had been previously moved and thrown into the room. Suddenly we were called, and rushed back into the kitchen where all the others, including the Vicar, were gathered, and were told they could hear something moving.
“Neither Dr. Fodor nor myself heard any footsteps or anything fall, but we were in another room. We immediately went up to the first floor. We found both doors, which we ourselves had left firmly bolted, were flung open and a chair in the bedroom of the late Mrs. Davis was partly thrown out on the landing. The Vicar vouched for the fact that nobody had left the kitchen. It was a terrifying experience, and something I would never have believed at secondhand. There is no doubt that something supernatural is happening in this house.”
Dr. Fodor sealed up another room on Thursday – the back bedroom, which will not be opened until Saturday. When he left Police were on guard outside until the crowds had dispersed.
“It is genuine”
Last evening, Dr. Fodor said over the telephone: “I am left with no alternative but to believe that it is a genuine disturbance of haunting character, however unreasonable and extraordinary it may appear. You cannot explain it as complicity, or as a conscious action on anybody’s part. These people, all of them very frank and sincere, are on edge because of the unknown. Not only a clergyman, but a policeman and others have all borne testimony to extraordinary occurrences. You may criticise the testimony of a single individual because of imagination but you cannot do that with all. I do not think the disturbances will last long,” he concluded. Dr. Fodor intends to continue his investigations and will not be satisfied until he has solved the mystery.
Sealed Room
Speaking to the “Observer” on Thursday morning, Dr. Nandor Fodor said:- “We have not had a happening in the house in our presence which we should have considered as distinctly super-normal, and for that reason we have sealed up one of the bedrooms which at the moment is not used because the girl Grace, owing to the nervous shock, has moved into her father’s bedroom.”
We were told in this room the furniture had been overturned, and in fact we found the whole room upside down. As the phenomena apparently has acted in that room, presumably it may act again. We were told the furniture became upset, even if the doors are not opened. There is reason to suppose the sealing of the doors cannot stop the ghost. We are hoping the ghost has gone into that room, which was sealed up on Tuesday for 48 hours. We are going this afternoon to open it. If in that room we find furniture upset – and we have taken precautions against any other than spooky phenomena entering – it will be the first proof positive that some agency which is definitely not normal is at work in that house.
Would Have Followed Him.
Asked if it was a case of poltergeist (violent manifestations which invariably follow a boy or girl), Dr. Fodor replied definitely in the negative. “Poltergeist phenomena are not restricted to the house,” he said, “but are centred in a young man or girl. They usually follow that young girl or boy. Had it been that Sidney, the 16-year-old boy, was the poltergeist person, then the phenomena would have followed him to the hospital, where he was, with the result that he would probably have been discharged long ago. This is a phenomena that only takes place in the house. Poltergeist is a man haunter, not a house haunter.”
Something Worried Her
“In this particular case, I cannot make up my mind,” continued Dr. Fodor. “It is most interesting. It looks definitely like a spiritualised story in that the phenomena seem to be connected with the death of Mrs. Davis. We are satisfied no one is concerned in normally producing the phenomena; it would seem unlikely, because it is a very strange case. It is a possibility that something had been worrying Mrs. Davis, that she had something on her mind before she died, and somehow this is responsible for the phenomena. But I cannot say that until I have definite proof. There is material force, and they have seen visions of it. There were mists out of which Mrs. Davis seemed to form, and they recognised her. There was a hand coming round the door and the girl recognised the hand of her mother by the lace on the wrist, and she heard a cry peculiar to her mother when she had epileptic fits. The phenomena as a rule follows the cry. I heard one night something which they said was it, but it was far too faint for me to take any notice.
The door was sealed by my assistant on Tuesday, and he heard a cry while he was there which seemed to come from below. It was a moan, a cry of agony. He went down immediately and the two women there, who were rather excited, said it came from the sitting room.
Not Practical Joking
There is no chance of practical joking. There is no motive whatever discoverable for anyone trying to put this over another. The people in the house are exposed to a discomfort, and suffering because of it, and the nerves of each one of them are worn. It is long past the stage of practical joking. A practical joker would have stopped long ago. They have been to the police three times to see if they can put a stop to it. This is a matter creating a public annoyance and any practical joker would go to gaol if he were caught. It has absolutely no sense. You have simply to look for a possible source of it. These ghostly agencies don’t take notice of anybody’s requirements. There is complete and utter disregard for the comfort of people.
Has Happened Before
If we find nothing in the room has been disturbed, we are going to seal it again with some of Mrs. Davis’s knick-knacks inside or try to get the Davis family out of the house for an afternoon and stay by ourselves. This particular type has happened before. If someone dies suddenly with something on their mind, after some time phenomenal disturbances might occur in the house. The great thing to do is to find what was on the deceased person’s mind and remove it, and then the phenomena should stop.
East London Observer, 12th February 1938.
Attempt to Trap a Ghost
Mr Henry Price is to visit the Bethnal Green “haunted” house on behalf of the University of London Council of Psychical Investigation. “I shall take recording instruments and automatic cameras,” he told a reporter. “These cameras will be so set that any person or persons approaching the rooms where the phenomena are said to take place will authomatically be photographed.”
Dr. Nandor Fodor is continuing his inquiries for the International Institute for Psychical Research. He proposes to pay special attention to the room in which Grace Davis, the 20-year-old daughter of Mr. G. Davis, used to sleep. Mr Davis with his daughter and 16-year-old son Sidney, occupies the ground and first floors of the house. “I am going to send my assistant to bolt, padlock and seal the door,” Dr. Fodor said. “It will then be impossible for any human being to enter without leaving visible traces. We ought to be able to tell then whether anything can take place inside.”
Dundee Evening Telegraph, 12th February 1938.
“Haunted House”: Tenant Reveals Secret
Expert’s Investigations Completed. The Final Story.
Investigations were concluded yesterday into the strange happenings at a house in Teesdale Street, Bethnal Green, where for several weeks, it has been testified, furniture has mysteriously moved, doors have been unbolted and weird cries and tappings have been heard. Dr. Nandor Fodor, Research Officer of the International Institute of Psychical Research, who has been investigating the occurrences, said: “I find no cause for further investigation into the Bethnal Green “Ghost,” after my final visit with your representative.”
Here is the story told by the “Observer” Special Representative:-
On Thursday morning I visited the house in Teesdale Street with Dr. Nandor Fodor, to ascertain whether recent conversations I had had with him over the telephone were in order. Upon our arrival, we were met by Mrs. Harrison, the tenant who was moving out that day, and conducted into the kitchen where Grace Davis, her two brothers and sister-in-law were sitting. The first question the Doctor asked was “Has anything happened since I was here last?” The reply came from Grace Davis, “Owing to the publicity we have received I prefer not to say anything about it.”
After a while, however, Grace and Mrs Harrison told us the following story. “Last Sunday afternoon, we were sitting in this room, when Mrs. Harrison happened to glance through the communicating door of our front room and saw the outline of a man standing in front of the piano, gazing at an object. She called me and I saw it too,” said Grace. “Mrs Harrison asked my father to move from the position he was standing in. He did so and the vision still remained. We noticed that my father was in his shirt sleeves, whereas the apparition had a black coat on and a moustache, while my father is clean shaven. This occurred in broad daylight.”
Mrs. Harrison here took up the conversation and described once again the sensations she experienced on Friday, when Dr. Fodor’s assistant and myself persuaded her to lie down on the bed of the late Mrs. Davis. She then complained of feeling “deathly cold,” and said she felt as if the back of her head were being pressed in. She seemed to be in a state of coma and clutched her throat, declaring her mouth and throat were dry and sore. By careful questioning, I discovered that Mrs. Harrison was the first to see or hear any untoward happening three months ago. She said, “I saw the figure of Mrs. Davis clearly and the word “Go” was uttered distinctly. Immediately after this I visited a London spiritualist who warned me that unless I moved something serious might happen on the middle floor.”
A fear has been on the household for some time owing to the disappearance of a piece of string from the bedroom of the late Mrs. Davis when a chair was tied to the bed and, apparently, the “ghost” decided, after several times untying it, to remove it completely. Every member of the household definitely states that this piece of string was not removed by themselves and they have spent many hours searching for it, owing to a fear of strangulation.
Mrs. Harrison, continuing her conversation, stated that she had not told anybody of the fact that she had been to the spiritualist. Dr. Fodor and myself visited the rooms which, it was suggested, had been disturbed since our last visit and could find no traces of upheaval. A quick test by the Doctor showed no results. He has decided that imagination is playing a part in the latter happenings and discounts the theory that the “ghost” is still present in the house. As far as the new “vision” is concerned, we discovered that when the house was being built, a man was supposed to have fallen off the scaffolding and was killed. Dr. Fodor suggested to me that the tenants, knowing this, it re-acted on their agitated minds, which readily associated the “vision” with this past occurrence.
To demonstrate his theory, he showed me that a person passing or standing outside the house, their shadow would be thrown and reflected through the front window, and owing to the number of glass objects in the room, could possibly be seen in outline.
Mrs. Harrison leaves the “haunted” house to-day (Thursday) and Dr. Fodor is convinced that the manifestations will not recur. “I believe in the first place there was a genuine phenomena behind it,” said Dr. Fodor, summing up his conclusions. “I refuse to believe all that has happened in the house could be due to imagination alone, neither could it have been a hoax. Many things could be explained, but others were inexplicable. The latter ‘happenings’ are in my opinion an aftermath of the original manifestations, due to overwrought nerves. It is the well known last phase of all ghostly disturbances.”
East London Observer, 19th February 1938.
Ghost that broke up a home after a dying woman said ‘I will come back!’
Ghosts seldom stand before the public eye for long. The Bethnal Green ghost was an exception. For over a week it had prominent place in the columns of the daily Press. As investigator in charge, I found myself compelled to issue statements every day. But the full story has not been told. It is a strange one. I now propose to reveal it. The haunted house was in London, tenanted by Mr George Davis, a sixty-one-year-old compositor. Of his large family, two children live with him: Grace, aged twenty, and Sidney, aged sixteen.
There are two rooms on each floor. The second-floor rooms were tenanted by Mr Harrison, a lorry driver, his wife, and their eighteen-month-old daughter.
Mr Davis is a widower. His wife died on September 12 last year after an operation for cancer. She was a strong-minded woman, vital and brave. For twenty-nine years she suffered from epileptic fits, having five to eight attacks a day, yet she bore the burden of housekeeping alone. Mrs Harrison, a good-hearted woman in radiant health, used to run to her assistance when she heard the thud of her falling body. She attended to her bruises and wounds. Mrs Davis, probably with the bitterness o the sick woman against the healthy one, resented this help. For reasons which she could never make plain to the family she wanted the Harrisons to go. They had been there for five years, always paying promptly, and Mr Davis was loth to give them notice for an unreasonable fancy on the part of his wife. Mrs Davis sulked. She did not speak to Mrs Harrison for three weeks. Then she was taken to the hospital. She had a presentiment that she would die. She told her married daughter, Mrs Rose, that if Mrs Harrison will not go by herself she would come back from the dead and haunt her out of the house.
A fortnight after Mrs Davis was buried Grace woke up with a feeling of oppression on her chest, unable to move. She saw her mother sitting in an armchair in a golden light, smiling at her. Then the vision vanished, the room became dark and she fell into a heavy sleep. On Armistice Day she visited her mother’s grave. She fancied that she saw the earth rising and heaving. Returning home, she was greeted by a shower of raps on the panel of the kitchen. This was the beginning of a strange visitation which lasted for three months before the public heard of it and ceased as suddenly as it had begun.
Misty shapes were seen, recognised by Grace and Mr and Mrs Harrison as the late Mrs Davis. Mr Charles Davis, a son, saw only an outline. Footsteps crossed the bedroom above when no one was upstairs. Mr Davis sent for the police. The house was searched. Policemen bolted the doors upstairs. While they were talking below the doors flew open and a chair fell over. They heard a cry and they could not explain it.
When I arrived on the scene I found a family with shattered nerves, the woman hysterical, jumping at the slightest unexpected noise. Outside was a huge crowd. Special policemen had to restrain them. The house was in a state of siege and life in it was almost unbearable.
I spent a long time in recording and analysing the witnesses. Most o them started by assuming that someone was playing a practical joke, but I could find no reason for thinking that was the explanation. I studied both Mrs Harrison and Grace Davis for many days. I found them truthful, simple, and sincere. Their memory regarding the events was not very clear, but they gave me every help they could. They were naturally both very excitable as a result of their ordeal.
The family already had a spiritualistic explanation. They expected me to tell them that the trouble was caused by the earthbound spirit of Mrs Davis. I was told that first came a cry, then a thud and then mumbling. The cry was the cry Mrs Davis used to utter when she was seized with an epileptic attack. The thud was caused by her falling body or by the furniture which she dragged down. The mumble was her incoherence when she was regaining consciousness. It was a perfect picture of a ghost which suffered from epileptic fits. Unfortunately, the further facts did not fit in with this explanation.
The cries were not always followed by a thud, and there were thuds that preceded the cry. Moreover, the thuds were not caused by the overturning furniture.
Mr L A Evans, my assistant, walked across the haunted bedroom and threw the chair over while I listened below. His footsteps were too loud, the crash of the chair terrific. None of the sounds which the family heard was of similar volume. This discovery was quite a shock to them. For the first time they realised that the chair never fell over of its own accord. It was either dropped lightly or just placed on the floor. The thud or bang probably did not coincide with it at all.
The appearance of things was not improved by our first experience. Sitting in the kitchen, we heard a bang. Grace exclaimed: “That is it!” We flew upstairs. Both doors, which we carefully bolted before, were open. The bolt of one was still sticking out, with the knob locking it and the bolt hole undamaged. The chair was over. This would have been convincing had not Mrs Harrison been upstairs in her flat while we heard the bang below.
Our next experience was more evidential, and it exonerated Mrs Harrison from suspicion. We were talking in the sitting room to the reporters. The Davis family, with Mrs Harrison and a visiting clergyman were in the kitchen next door. No one was upstairs. The clergyman heard tapping sounds from the bedroom above. The communicating door between the sitting-room and the kitchen was opened by Sidney Davis, asking excitedly, “Did you hear it?” We did not. But rushing upstairs we found both doors, bolted a few minutes ago, wide open. The clergyman vouched for the fact that no one left the kitchen.
The following day Mr Evans sealed the front bedroom upstairs in the hope that the ghost would upset the furniture while the seal remained intact. Just as he finished he heard the cry. It was the wailing voice of a woman in pain. It came from the sitting-room. Grace Davis and Mrs Harrison were sitting in the kitchen. In the sitting-room Mr Evans found a glass cover lifted and an ornamental pin-cushion removed.
The baby was asleep near the two ladies when the cry was heard. This is important. I was told that the baby heard the cry so often that she picked it up and uttered it frequently herself. Could she have been uttering it from the very beginning?
I was told that the falling o the chair was accompanied by a bad smell. But the explanation was not far to seek. It came from a gas meter on the landing.
The opening of the sealed bedroom upstairs was a great disappointment. The starch powder on the floor showed no ghostly footmarks. The furniture was as we left it. But the ghost was busy downstairs in the sitting room. Its field of activity had to be restricted. So we sealed both rooms.
The front bedroom remained sealed altogether for four days, the sitting room below for two. Nothing happened in either. The ghost could not or would not enter. This was illuminating. But it is dangerous to overestimate negative evidence.
To prevent the chair from falling over, Mr Davis tied it with a string to the bedstead. On three occasions the string was found neatly undone and the chair on the floor. On the fourth occasion the string had gone.
It is always tempting to explain such phenomena by fraud or hoax. In the Bethnal Green case this was impossible. No hoaxer would have carried on the game for so long. With the house watched by policemen and with a howling mob at the door this would have been far too dangerous.
Could the ghost have had a motive? It could, if the ghost was the shade of Mrs Davis. There is a very strong appearance that the ghost wanted Mrs Harrison to depart from the house. Mrs Harrison herself discovered this. She found the phenomena directed against herself. She had the feeling that the ghost was trying to frame her up. She was also worried about a medium who came to the house. The medium said that she would have an accident if she did not move. The missing string was preying on her mind. So out of her own free will she gave Mr Davis notice. From that day the disturbances began to diminish. No sooner did she leave than the house became peaceful once again.
Copyright by the author (Nandor Fodor).
Sunday Mirror, 27th March 1938.