Bogeyman scares a family.
A chilling series of strange coincidences…
By Mark Thomas.
The bogeyman in two-years-old Bobby Higgins’ bedroom is a bit different from the ones most toddlers live with – for he has started to frighten the whole family. The Higgins family moved into 11 Woolfall Close, Huyton, six months ago. They are a young family, without much time for things like ghost stories. So they were at first unimpressed when their next-door neighbours at No. 15 – there is no No. 13 because it would be unlucky – told them that in the six years they had been there, they had had a friendly, but uninvited guest who could be heard walking the landing and stairs late at night. A recent series of chilling events and rather extreme coincidences has caused them to think again.
Bobby’s 24-years-old father, Robert, said: “Bobby had complained for ages about a strange man who kept standing by his toy box. Knowing how kids are at his age, we didn’t think much about it. We had also heard one or two bumps and noises, but we didn’t really give them much attention. Then a couple of weeks ago I heard someone moving around behind the door in Bobby’s room. I thought it was Bobby and went into the room to put him to bed, but he was tucked in, sound asleep.”
Then his wife’s young brother, David Walters, aged 14, was sleeping in Bobby’s room when he heard footsteps approaching the bed. He went to sleep downstairs, but heard the noise again and decided to go home. “He was so scared he cycled to the other side of Huyton in about five minutes,” said Mr Higgins. Then Mr Higgins taped up a crucifix in the bedroom, to see if that would stop the strange happenings. The next morning his wife, Maureen, aged 21, was going upstairs with Bobby ahead of her when she heard a loud bang from his bedroom.
“When I went into the room a heavy chest of drawers had been tipped over and there were clothes strewn everywhere,” said Mrs Higgins. “It couldn’t have fallen by itself. It took me and a neighbour to lift it again.”
The next night, Bobby was moved out into his parents’ bedroom and carefully tucked up for the night. The couple awoke at 4 a.m. to a loud bang. They found Bobby’s bedclothes pulled right back from the bed and Bobby lying flat on the floor. They found the crucifix in Bobby’s room lying on the ground next morning. They have since replaced it.
At the insistence of Mrs Higgins, parish priest Father P.J. Macnally, was told of the events and was invited to visit the house and bless it. Father Macnally said he noticed nothing unusual about the house, but Mr Higgins said: “I had it done anyway, to put Maureen’s mind at rest. I have thought of possible explanations for all that happened, except the chest of drawers falling, which has me baffled. But everything happening at once like this seems very odd.”
Pre-war council homes in Huyton, like the Higgins’ house, do seem prone to this kind of unnatural attention. Recently there has been the tape recorder ghost of Wimborne Road, and the ticking clock poltergeist in Calgarth Road.
There is just one more coincidence that makes the Woolfall Close incident still stranger. Father of six, Norman Roberts, aged 41, has lived at No. 15 for six years and can never recall even stumbling on the stairs… until last week. He fell downstairs one morning, at the same moment that the chest of drawers was falling over next door. He fell downstairs again on his way to the toilet at 4 a.m. the next morning, at the same moment that Bobby fell out of bed. “I don’t know if anything pushed me,” said Mr Roberts. “I am not sure how I came to fall. But there has been something strange in this house ever since we have lived here.”
Mrs Maureen Higgins pictured with her two children, two-years-old Bobby and three-months-old Mark, together with their neighbour, Mr Norman Roberts, who suffered a dislocated arm after being “pushed” down stairs.
Liverpool Echo, 17th October 1977.
Wife is held on £3,500 coats charge.
When police went with a search warrant to a house in Huyton they recovered stolen suede and leather coats to the value of £1500, said Mr Keith Mountain, prosecuting, at Liverpool. Mrs Maureen Higgins, aged 21, of Woolfall Close, was charged with entering the premises, Erskine Clothing Ltd., and stealing a quantity of the coats, total value £3,500, and handling stolen coats to the value of £1,500, in that she dishonestly assisted in their retention for the benefit of Robert Higgins.
Reporting restrictions were lifted on the application of Mr Ian Levin, defending. Mr Mountain said the firm’s premises in Pembroke Place were forcibly entered on December 10 and the coats stolen. It was believed that access was gained by breaking through a wall adjoining the roof space of a club next door, and it was alleged that the offenders had concealed themselves in the club’s premises after closing time.
Mr Mountain, asking for a remand in custody, added: “If granted bail, it is believed that Mrs Higgins would take active steps to prevent the detention of her husband and hinder the recovery of the remainder of the property.” In answer to Mr Levin, Detective Sergeant Coffey said that when Mrs Higgins was arrested, she made efforts to tell her neighbours to warn her husband not to come near the house.
Mr Levin, asking for bail for Mrs Higgins, said he understood her husband had been seen in a local public house and, therefore, it would not be very difficult for the police to find him. “She has given an undertaking to notify the police if she sees her husband.” Mrs Higgins was remanded in custody to December 20.
Liverpool Echo, 14th December 1977.