Has malicious poltergeist followed them?
Ghost terrorises elderly couple.
An elderly couple who moved to Runcorn recently told this week of the nights of terror that led them to flee their former home in Norris Green, Liverpool. The couple, Mr and Mrs William Morgan, now of 219 Fitzwilliam Walk, Castlefields, claimed that they had been driven out of their home at 5 Fairfax Road, Liverpool, by a malicious ghost or poltergeist that, for about twelve months, had given them a life of hell. Mr Morgan said that they had lived in the same house for some 32 years, but the trouble had only begun about a year ago.
“We were lying in bed one evening,” he said, “when suddenly we heard a tapping noise coming from the bed head. I got up to investigate. I couldn’t make it out, but I couldn’t find anything, so we took no notice. A couple of nights after, we woke to find the beclothes being lifted clean off us. My wife, Louisa, suddenly felt something grip her on the arm, and press her down to the bed. Then the same thing happenend to me… for about a minute I was pinned down and couldn’t move. It frightened me like mad… I was so scared I couldn’t even scream. We both got up and rushed round to see our minister, the Rev. William Todd of St Christopher’s. He came round and gave us a bit of a service, and for a few nights we got a bit of peace. But after that, things started happening again. Doors would open for no reason, and the light switch would go on and off.”
“I’m a logical person, and as far as I’m concerned the dead don’t come back,” he continued, “but the Bible does say there are evil spirits about.”
“One night I got a glimpse of it as it materialised,” he went on. “It seemed to be like an elderly woman with an old poke bonnet on. She seemed rather tall, and the laces of her hat were tied under her chin. I was up out of bed and out like a shot,” he said. But it wasn’t just the nights that were disturbed by the ghostly apparition, Mr Morgan claimed. “One day we took a dog from over the road up to the bedroom,” he said. “It went into a corner – this presence always seemed to be centred on that corner – and stood on its hind legs as though it was trying to push something away. The hairs on its neck were up as though it was really terrified. Then it shot down the stairs and wouldn’t come into our house again.”
Mr Morgan said that they had been “really persecuted” by the visitation, and that they had been recommended for a transfer by their local doctor and vicar because the strain of living in fear was harming their health. But Runcorn had not brought them the peace and quiet that they had hoped for, for within days there were signs that the ‘ghost’ was back, he said. One night they had both felt “the presence” and the knocking at the bedhead had started again. “It’s lovely here and I really like the place,” he said, “but I’m dreading being driven out of yet another home.”
The Rev. Todd confirmed that the couple had been recommended for transfer on health grounds because of what they feared was a visitation, and that he had performed ceremonies similar to the service of exorcism in the Liverpool house. “They came to me late one evening,” he said, “and they were absolutely petrified, so I did a service in their home. They didn’t appear to be the type who would imagine this sort of thing; they were really and genuinely frightened. I never experienced anything when I was in the house – I went on several occasions – but they said after my visits they had peace for a while. Eventually they said they couldn’t stand it any longer, so their doctor and I wrote to the M.O.H. recommending them for transfer on medical grounds because of the trouble.”
Runcorn Weekly News, 16th March 1972.