The house of strange happenings.
By George Fallows and Douglas Bence.
A family is living in fear of strange goings-on that are driving them from their home. For two weeks, they have been terrorised by objects inexplicably shooting through the air, of furniture moving for no apparent reason. Two clergymen have blessed the house, but the happenings have only increased. Police are baffled by the phenomena, and one policewoman is too scared to return to the house.
For four days, Mirror reporters George Fallows and Douglas Bence and photographers David Thorpe and Graham Morris joined a psychic expert in keeping watch. They have witnessed events they cannot explain. In the last eight days, a saucer has jumped across the kitchen, furniture has moved, and marbles and toy building bricks have shot through the air in the 60-year-old house at Enfield, Middlesex. One brick hit Morris on the head. Children’s story books in a bedroom were seen to fly through the air by friends of the family.
Police heard knockings which they could not explain, and a policewoman saw a chair move on its own. Fallows says: “Having kept observation at the house for four successive nights I believe abnormal happenings are occurring. I have seen nothing unusual, but i have heard knocks, and I’ve been present when strange occurrences have been witnessed by others in a back bedroom.”
Photographer Morris says: “I was sent to what I was told was a haunted house. When I went into the living room I saw toy bricks flying through the air. One of them hit me on the head. Nobody seemed to be throwing them. They were coming at the speed of bullets. I saw at least three and attempted to photograph them – but they were too fast for me.”
Reporter Bence says: “I saw a yellow brick hit the wall where I lost it in the flash from Morris’s camera. I did not see the brick that hit him on the head and missed a third that others saw.”
In an effort to unravel the mystery, the Daily Mirror called in Mr Maurice Grosse, a member of the Society for Psychical Research, one of the most reputable organisations in the field. Mr Grosse said: “I believe that genuine poltergeist-type phenomena is occurring, but it does not mean it is a haunted house. This type of manifestation is attached to people, not places.” Shortly after Mr Grosse began to investigate, a ten-year-old son of the family returned to residential school and the strange happenings ceased. For 48 hours nothing unusual took place, then on Wednesday night a ten-year-old girl reported that a marble had “flown through the air” in her bedroom. Mr Grosse and Fallows returned to the house. They were joined by Bence and Thorpe.
In the early hours of Thursday, they heard a bump and found a book, which had been on the mantelpiece in the girl’s bedroom, was on the floor. They replaced it. A few minutes later, they heard another bump. Again the book was on the floor.
Bence and Thorpe watched from the doorway of the darkened bedroom. Fallows and Grosse went downstairs. There was an almighty bang. A metal-framed chair near the bed was lying on the floor – 4ft from its original position. As it toppled, Thorpe saw the movement of the chair and photographed it. A few minutes later there was another huge bang. They found the chair in a different position.
On Thursday night the family were alone in the house. They say a drawer of the sideboard in the living room opened by itself. They were so frightened they went to stay with neighbours. Mr Grosse persuaded them to return to the house, and he and the family say they then saw marbles thrown across the living room. Chime pipes from the front door began to swing on their own. A mug of water was found standing on the kitchen floor with only two drops spilt.
Fallows adds: “Because of the emotional atmosphere at the house and in the neighbourhood, ranging from hysteria, through terror, to excitement and tension, it has been difficult to record satisfactory data. Nevertheless, I am satisfied the overall impression of our investigation is reasonably accurate. To the best of our ability we have eliminated the possibility of total trickery, although we have been able to simulate most of the phenomena. In my opinion this faking could only be done by an expert.”
Daily Mirror, 10th September 1977.
Ghost Story
Bryan Rimmer investigates a mystery that has scientists guessing.
World scientists are attending a conference on psychic phenomena at Cambridge University – and last night their subject was a haunted council house in North London. The incredible story of one of the most fascinating ghost hunts of modern times is told here, just as it happened. But we have disguised the nam eof the family involved to save them further stress.
It was a hot August night when a chest of drawers took off across the floor of Peggy H’s sitting room. This inexplicable occurrence triggered an eerie chain of events that have terrified the family, amazed police and journalists and baffled scientists, doctors and researchers. Other astonishing goings-on in the North London council house have included flying objects that seem to be propelled by a supernatural force, a dancing teapot and a spine-chilling voice, apparently from the grave.
Perhaps the voice was the most frightening of all the sinister happenings that have surrounded the family of five and seem to be centred on Mrs H’s two young daughters. It started in mid-December… and it was no ghostly shriek but a rich, deep male voice. Since then, I have spent hours chatting with it – and so have the baffled boffins. Usually the voice speaks through the girls, aged twelve and thirteen and a half, though often their lips do not move. It chats to them as they lie in bed at night, wishes each of the family “Good morning” and often asks for dance music to be played. It gives itself a variety of names: Andrew Garner, Stewart Certain and Dirty Dick.
The Daily Mirror has spent weeks investigating this amazing story and talked to many people who claim to have seen mysterious happenings in th ehouse.
Psychic investigator Maurice Grosse has spent more than 1,000 hours watching the story unfold. Grosse, a level-headed middle-aged business-man has made a signed, typewritten statement to the Mirror. These are the bizarre events he claims to have witnessed:
Marbles and plastic blocks flying across a room – after apparently materialising from walls and windows.
A teapot dancing on a kitchen cabinet top.
The shade on a bed-lamp tilting 45 degrees, then straightening up.
The lavatory door opening and closing, seemingly by itself.
A cardboard box full of cushions thrown at him while he was trying to communicate with the phenomenon by knocking.
A slipper tossed at him across a bedroom.
A settee hurled in the air and overturned when he was standing a foot from it.
The younger sister floating into the air from the chair on which she was sitting, then on to the floor several feet away.
Hearing footsteps walking across the ceiling when there was no one upstairs.
Says Grosse: “I have studied psychic phenomena for forty years and this is the most exciting case I have come across or even read about. I believe it will be the best documented poltergeist case in history. Much of what is going on here is unique and the tests carried out are the most exhaustive. The family are going through a period of tremendous stress because of what happened.”
Grosse remains convinced, despite the fact that in a harrowing scene in the family kitchen the elder girl tearfully confessed to TV ventriloquist Ray Alan that the whole voice episode was a hoax. Ray, better known as the sidekick of dummy Lord Charles, was called in by the Mirror to use his special knowledge as a ventriloquist. The elder girl admitted to him, in my presence, that she and her sister had invented the voices to keep attention centred on them. The next day the girl retracted her admission.
But even if the voice was a fake, it still does not account for the other odd events. The sisters knew nothing about the moving furniture and flying objects, but Dirty Dick and Andrew Garner were products of their imagination. Ray Alan said later: “It’s very sad, but these little girls obviously loved all the attention they got when objects were mysterious moved around the house and they decided to keep the whole thing going by inventing the voice. But it got too big for them and they didn’t know how to stop what they had started.”
Many people, however, as well as Grosse, feel that the manifestations are genuine.
Bumps that have boffins baffled.
Maurice Grosse was not the first person to witness things going bump in the North London night. Before he was called in by the Society for Psychical Research, other independent witnesses had been staggered by what they saw. There were:
The Policewoman: WPC Carolyn Heeps, one of the first outsiders called to th ehouse, saw an armchair move across the living room, apparently of its own accord. She made an official report.
The Author: Guy Lyon Playfair has spent countless days and nights observing the case. He has written two books on supernatural activity and spent four years observing ghostly goings-on in Brazil. He says: “This is my fifth poltergeist case and by far the most interesting. I, personally, have witnessed five incidents for which no reasonable, normal explanation has yet been suggested. Each was recorded on tape.” On one occasion, as the younger girl got out of a heavy armchair, Playfair saw it slide forward and then overturn backwards. NExt, while he was watching the girl, a table overturned.
“One morning I saw a red slipper go over the top of the door of the bedroom opposite mine. I went into the room at once. There was only one place the slipper could be and it wasn’t there. Only the elder girl was in the room. When we went downstairs, there was the slipper on the doormat. Either it went round a corner on its own, or it went through the wall.” Other incidents included a flying book that turned corners, a short conversation with “the voice” by means of rapping, and recording tapes and cables that mysteriously snapped.
The Hypnotist: Ian Fletcher is a surgeon, a hypnotist and a member of the Magic Circle – and it was in this role that he made two visits to the “haunted” house. He said: “What is happening in that house is very strongly suggestive of paranormal phenomena. I hypnotised the younger girl and from what she told me and from what other observers have said, I feel there is a poltergeist presence in the house. On the evidence I have I can’t believe this is a fraud.”
The Engineer: David Annette, product manager of Pye’s business communication closed circuit television, and four other Pye technical experts visited the house with highly sophisticated camera equipment. They set it up in the main bedroom where the girls were sleeping. But the camera jammed and they found the film had come out of the cassette and got entangled with the drive mechanism – so tightly that it would have taken the force of a sledgehammer to get it there. David says: “There’s definitely something odd in that house which I can’t explain.”
The Researcher: David Robertson is assistant to Professor John Hastead, head of physics at London University’s Birkbeck College, who is supervising a series of tests on the girls. He has heard knockings from empty rooms – one that he locked himself – and from a bedboard only a foot from his head. He said: “Once I saw a sideboard lift up at an angle and fall face down on the floor. Many strange things are unexplained.”
The Magician: Milbourne Christopher is one of the world’s most skilled magicians. He is also chairman of the Occult Investigation Committee of the Society of American Magicians – a post once held by Houdini. He believes the only spirits responsible for the events are high spirits – of the girls.
Daily Mirror, 30th March 1978.