Poltergeist is No. 1 Suspect.
Detectives were called to a house in Rhondda Street, Swansea, last night because of damage caused by what the occupants believed to be the work of a poltergeist. The occupants refused to go back to the house after incidents which started on Monday when 20 years old Mrs Marcia Howell said she saw a bottle of medicine picked off a shelf and hurled towards her. The bottle smashed against a door which she slammed to protect herself.
She and her husband, Mr David Howell, a 25 years old decorator, their two children, Beverley (three) and Gareth (one), together with her grandparents, Mr and Mrs Jack Howells, moved out last night to live with relatives.
Police were told that furniture in the front bedroom had been hurled about, a table turned upside-down on a baby’s bed, and bedclothes scattered. While the family stood on the doorstep awaiting the detectives they reported hearing a crash inside. A gas-stove had been overturned, although no-one had been in the house at the time.
Detectives had to break their way into a bedroom because a bed, which had apparently been moved, caused an obstruction.
A clergyman was being called in later today to exorcise the suspected poltergeist.
Coventry Evening Telegraph, 2nd December 1965.
Bid to banish noisy ghost.
Family call in priest.
A Roman Catholic priest has agreed to go to a house in Rhondda Street, Swansea, tomorrow to exorcise a poltergeist, the 20-years-old wife of the owner of the house said to-day. The house, owned and occupied by Mr and Mrs Howells, is in a terrace. Mrs Howells said furniture in a bedroom, kitchenette and living room had been moved around.
After incidents on Monday night Mr and Mrs Howells, their two children, Beverley, aged three, and Gareth, aged one, and her grandparents, Mr and Mrs Howells, moved out to stay with relatives. The wife, Mrs Marcia Howells, went to-day to see Father Martin at St. David’s Roman Catholic Church, Swansea, to ask him to visit the house to exorcise the poltergeist. Mrs Howells said: “Father Martin agreed to come tomorrow morning at 9.15 a.m.”
Liverpool Echo, 2nd December 1965.
Family flee from super-ghost.
A Roman Catholic priest will try to rid a house of a heavyweight poltergeist today. The young couple, their babies, and the wife’s grandparents fled in terror from their terrace home in Rhondda-street, Swansea. The “strong-arm” ghost caused havoc on Wednesday by overturning the [?] and the TV set. And it threw a double bed on a cot. While the damage was being done, Mrs Marcia Howells, 20, and her grandmother, 75-year-old [?] Howells stood terrified at the front door. Detectives had to break down the front bedroom door which had furniture piled against it from the inside. The bedroom window was secure.
Mrs Howells and her 25-year-old husband David, a decorator, vowed yesterday never to return to the house. Mrs Howells, who has two children, Beverley, 3, and Gareth, 1, said: “My baby could have been killed in his cot.” She said her husband had thought the house “sinister” since they moved in in July. But they heard nothing until Monday, when two medicine bottles hurtled from the living-room mantelpiece against a wall.
Mrs Howells yesterday visited Father Martin, of St. David’s Roman Catholic Church, Swansea. Later she said he had promised to try to exorcise the house today.
Daily Mirror, 3rd December 1965.
Priest tries to banish ‘ghosts’.
A house where a suspected poltergeist was said to have created havoc last week was blessed yesterday by a Roman Catholic priest in Swansea. Father Martin Griffin remained in the house for about 5 minutes saying prayers and sprinkling holy water.
Mrs Marcia Howells, 20, mother of two children, who, with her family, left the house where she said medicine bottles were “invisibly” thrown at her and furniture upturned, declared that she would not return to live in the house although it had been blessed. She and her husband were making arrangements to move the furniture to a temporary home.
Belfast News-Letter, 8th December 1965.