Enfield Poltergeist: Documentary
Janet levitated by an unseen entity
The “Enfield Poltergeist” is a well known and well documented poltergeist case that took place in Enfield, London in the late 1970s. This poltergeist case surrounded the Hodgson family, which consisted of the mother (Peggy), 2 daughters (Margaret, Janet) and 2 sons (Johnny, Billy). As usual, the focus of the activities was around the prepubescent girls. The entity that was stalking the Hodgson’s was that of a supposed “Bill”. A previous owner of the house.
I remember reading about the Enfield Poltergeist case way back in 1993 for the first time. I always assumed that this was a hoax perpetrated by the Hodgson girls. The evidence that was taken from this case, albeit there being a lot of it, was not very useful to the scientific community. When I read about this case I assumed that there might have been some unexplained noises or raps heard, maybe even some spirit communication established. Reading up on it further, it is just as inconclusive today as it was back 30 years ago. People can’t either disprove or prove that any paranormal events happened.
What I do consider very tantalizing evidence is the recording done by the paranormal ivestigator Maurice Grosse. The investigator’s son was able to get the spirit of Bill to tell of how he had died. The ungodly voice then is heard telling of how it died:
“I went blind…. Then I had an Haemorrhage, and I fell asleep and I died in a chair in the corner downstairs…”
When Maurice Grosse located the previous homeowner’s son, he played the tape for him. Bill’s son confirmed the story. Stating that it was exactly how his father died.
To me, that is very good evidence. Although, one can argue that it could possibly be that one of the girls some how, overheard a neighbor perhaps telling of how Bill died. Interesting nonetheless.
To this day I still am on the fence about this case. The fact that the girls were caught manifesting some of the activities at times is a big red flag, but the fact that they admit that not all of it was faked, or the creepy revelation of Bill’s death sways me back and forth on the fence.
Check out “Interview with a Poltergeist”. A very well made documentary of this case. It’s a non-biased look at the Enfield case.
Interview with a Poltergeist – 1/6
Interview with a Poltergeist – 2/6
Interview with a Poltergeist – 3/6
Interview with a Poltergeist – 4/6
Interview with a Poltergeist – 5/6
Interview with a Poltergeist – 6/6
Real? hoax?
Written by Javier Ortega - javier@ghosttheory.com
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Wow, I have lived in london all my life and never heard of this before.
Scary to say the least. Thanks for sharing!
Excellent find.
I’ve read all about this case and to this day sends shivers up my back.
Truly one of the best documented cases that exist. Makes me wonder if the house is still haunted.
I think there was a chance that janet was jumping up the bed but no one can really tell
I think there was a possibility that janet was jumping off her bed but no one knows really. Would help if there was more pictures
Mickalena,
Makes sense that a little girl(s) would fake this whole ordeal to gain some attention. As a practical joke.
The only thing about this case that I find hard to explain is the fact that Janet knew how the former tenant had died in the home.
Thanks for the commnet
I have always found this case quite shocking, if only that the investigators seem to often ignore facts in order to prove that the case was supernatural. The photos seem simply to be of a girl jumping off a bed.
The tape of Janet’s voice of Bill, when listened to by voice experts was immediately identified as a child using the false vocal cords. Grosse then claimed that “it would be medically impossible to do this for hours on end”, but in fact she did not, as fellow researchers have said many times. The voice is done in stops and starts. She does not speak this way for “hours on end”.
One of the strangest acts of denial from people involved was when Janet apparently ‘manifested’ a book through the wall into the neighbours bedroom from her bedroom. The researchers claimed that Janet had not been in the neighbours bedroom at any point in the past in order to place the book in the room, but the documentary clearly states that the family had stayed at the neighbours house many times. Did they neighbours follow Janet everytime she went upstairs to the toilet? Couldn’t she have left it then?
And Janet could have easily known about the former resident who died in the house as the road was a community that was close and talked a lot. Even the familys relatives lived a few doors away, who would probably have known of the former resident. The neighbours especially would have been well aware of the previous resident, an with the publicity as it was, it is very likely the children would overhear such a conversation.
IVE BEEN STUDYING CASES LIKE THIS AND I”LL WATCH FOR THE PEOPLE INVOLED,THE PEOPLE WHO ARE MAKING THESE CLIAMS OF PARANORMAL ACTIVITY AND THE PEOPLES WHO ARE INVESTIGATING.. ITS OBVIOUS THAT THIS WOMEN “JANET” IS STILL SUFFERING FROM THE EVENTS THAT TOOK PLACE….IT SEEMS LIKE SHES SUFFERING FROM P.P.D.. WHAT THIS IS POST PARDOM DEPRESSION….PEOPLE WHO GO THREW TRAMATIC EVENTS COULD DEVELOPE THIS TYPE OF SYMTOM.AND WATCHING THE CLIPS OF HER SPEAKING YOU CAN JUST TELL THAT SHES STILL, TO THIS DAY IS STILL DEALING WITH WHAT HAPPEND.SO WITH WHAT IVE SEEN AND READ ABOUT THIS CASE THAT ITS VERY LIKELY THAT THESE EVENTS ARE TRUE.I DID’NT GET THE EMPRESSION THAT THESE PEOPLE ARE LIEING AT ALL….THE ONLY THING WAS THE PICTURE OF JANET IN THE AIR THATS WHERE I THINK THAT JUST GOT OUT INTO THE PRESS AND THEY PUT IT OUT THERE…OR DID THEY SAY IN THE CLIP THAT SHE WAS THROWN BY AN ENTITY
ARE NOT LIEING I MEANT OOOPPPPS
JOHNIE.D,
According to some researchers, Janet did manage to fake some events. Events in which she did confess about. This was chalked up to be just “fun” play by the kids.
There were other events that were not created by Janet and witnessed by others.
I think the Enfield Poltergeist case is legit. It had some doubtful events, but overall was a genuine poltergeist case.
thanks for the comments.
I TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU…IN EVERY STORY THERES ALWAYS SOME FALSE CLAIMS….LISTEN LOVE THE SITE…YOU GET A FEW PEOPLE ON HERE THAT DONT KNOW WHAT THERE TALKING ABOUT BUT,IF YOU NEED SOME HELP WITH THE SITE OR I COULD WRITE A COLUME LET ME KNOW…..
The first time I heard about the Enfield case was in the book “The Demonologist”, a record of the career of Ed and Lorraine Warren. In there, of course, the case was presented as 100% legit with no trickery involved. Years later I read another story of the case and it told about the girls’ faking some of the activity while other things were still unexplained. The book layed everything to demonic activity and omcluded some spooky transcripts of conversations between Ed and the “demons” that were oppressing the family. But, after further reading and viewing, I have to take that with a grain of salt.
Like Javier I’m on the fence with this one. Perhaps real phenomena occurs, kids are in the spotlight, so they decide to step up the activity themselves to get even more attention.
talthar,
Yea, I don’t think this case had anything to do with “demons”. Ghosts? maybe….
Like you said, kids can have quite an imagination.
Most Of this is true. The story of the poltergeist, things moving around the house, some objects being thrown, and the voice on a few occasions. The rest is exaggerated. How do I know this? I witnessed several ‘happenings’. I was 7 or 8 at the time and went to Brimsdown Junior school which is opposite the house. The most disturbing incident that I can clearly remember is when my mother was having a conversation with the lollipop lady, Hazel. It was luchtime and she was returning me to school. She stopped to cross the road with Hazel and a noise of breaking glass made us look up. A pillow and blankets, possibly some sheets had broken out of the window and where now ‘dancing’ on the roof. I’m not sure how long this lasted for, but the reactions of my mother and Hazel were clearly of distress and I knew that this was not normal. As we went into the school playground, the teachers had broken off their lunch and were helping the dinner ladies get the children back into the school. Nothing was explained by the teachers of this so apparent experience. I still get a chill up the spine when I see or hear of the poltergeist from Green Street mentioned. I’d love to talk to other people who witnessed it first hand. But rest assured, it did happen. Maybe not everything you read about, because let’s be honest, some things get exaggerated over time and these were adolescents. However something paranormal did happen.
Look at episode 5 i think it was, and look carefully at Janet when ‘Bill’ is talking to the interviewer. She’s wearing a red top and her throat seems to move as do her lips. This is weird because she states that the voice comes from behind her? From this point the whole thing went downhill and was totally unbelievable.
Also, how come in every picture and video of Janet, she is clearly laughing/smiling when there’s a reference made to the poltergeist as if she knows she has everybody fooled.
Would be much more believable with more video clips as the researchers claim to have documented so much more evidence that must be [lost]…
Javier, you should try and find a copy of the book that deals with this case called This House is Haunted written by Guy Lyon Playfair (one of the two main investigators of this case- the other being Maurice Grosse). For me Enfield is the Holy Grail of Poltergeist cases. There is also an extensive interview with Janet and Grosse in the book Will Storr vs. the Paranormal. I’m convinced there was activity at Enfield- there were far too many witnesses. By the way, both Grosse and Playfair were extremely credible members of the SPR.
Ooooops. I meant Will Storr vs. the Supernatural. Great book about a skeptical journalist who comes around to believing there is something to all this. There are hundreds of hours of recordings from Enfield that are in the possession of the SPR. Wish they were digitized and made public.
One more thing, Janet mentioned to Will Storr that she had fooled around with a ouija board before things kicked off. I don’t think Grosse felt this was relevant- I think his own beliefs more closely paralleled those of someone like William Roll. Not exactly like Roll but similar. As for me, I’m not so sure. But I am sure some very strange things happened at Enfield.
BC,
I think the Enfield case is a particular one. So many witnesses like you mentioned.
Even people who were walking by would see Janet levitating and floating about the room.
I think this would be a good interview. Maybe one day GhostTheory can get a hold of one of the family members.
What about Tina Resch? Are you familiar with that case Javier? She’s in prison now- at one time the episode of Unsolved Mysteries that dealt with it was on YouTube. William Roll investigated it. One thing I’ve noticed regarding poltergeists- they almost never occur in happy households. There’s almost always some serious tension.
BC,
I heard about the Tina Resch case before, wasn’t it proven that it was a hoax?
I don’t recall. I’ll look for the youtube episode in a few…
That’s what Randi and his pals claimed. But no. What happened was after a famous picture of a phone flying in front of Tina was published in a local newspaper the case started to get massive amounts of attention. There was an occasion where there were a ton of reporters in the house and they were not gonna leave until they saw something. Tina’s mother grew frustrated and wanted them out of the house but she was too polite to tell them to leave. So she told Tina to do something to get them to leave. I seem to recall it was a lamp she tried to knock over but she was caught. But when you look at the case in it’s totality (and again, I think considering the large number of witness testimony and the job done by an investigator as credible as Roll are key to forming an opinion) I’m convinced something was going on. Actually, when Tina was brought to the Rhine lab in Durham a number of things happened there as well. Roll wrote a book about her a few years ago.
By the way Javier, one of the things that happened in the Resch case points to just how difficult it is to get evidence in a poltergeist case. It’s as if the phenomena often does not want to be able to observed. The photographer who took the famous picture of the phone told a story on Unsolved Mysteries. He was sitting with his camera up at his eye while the reporter interviewed Tina. He kept it there for a long time waiting for something to happen and grew tired. As soon as he removed it a blanket flew up from the floor and covered Tina. So he decided to try and trick it. The next time he put the camera down he kept his finger on the shutter and as soon as started to put it down he clicked the shutter and caught the now famous pic of the phone flying through the air.
there is also plans for a movie guys,,
Danny,
I hope it’s not a “haunting in connecticut” type of movie.
They should have the people over at the Discovery channel direct it.
A movie about Enfield? Thanks for the heads up. I think Enfield will make for a great movie. By the way, as confident as I am that what happened at Enfield was legit I’m even more confident that the Haunting in CT was total bs.
Johnie D…………..dreadful.
“IVE BEEN STUDYING CASES LIKE THIS (well, it’s apparent you don’t spend time with your spell-checker; allow me)
AND I”LL WATCH FOR THE PEOPLE INVOLED (involved)
,THE PEOPLE WHO ARE MAKING THESE CLIAMS
(claims)
OF PARANORMAL ACTIVITY AND THE PEOPLES
(people) WHO ARE INVESTIGATING.. ITS
(It’s) OBVIOUS THAT THIS WOMEN (woman) “JANET” IS STILL SUFFERING FROM THE EVENTS THAT TOOK PLACE….IT SEEMS LIKE SHES
(she’s) SUFFERING FROM P.P.D.. WHAT THIS IS POST PARDOM DEPRESSION…. (Post Partum Depression, idiot, and the phrase you want is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD; ppd is depression after childbirth)
PEOPLE WHO GO THREW (through)
TRAMATIC (traumatic)
EVENTS COULD DEVELOPE (develop)
THIS TYPE OF SYMTOM
(symptom).AND WATCHING THE CLIPS OF HER SPEAKING YOU CAN JUST TELL THAT SHES STILL, TO THIS DAY IS STILL DEALING WITH WHAT HAPPEND (happened)
.SO WITH WHAT IVE
(I’ve)
SEEN AND READ ABOUT THIS CASE THAT ITS VERY LIKELY THAT THESE EVENTS ARE TRUE.I DID’NT
(didn’t) GET THE EMPRESSION
(impression)
THAT THESE PEOPLE ARE LIEING (lying)
AT ALL….THE ONLY THING WAS THE PICTURE OF JANET IN THE AIR THATS (that’s)
WHERE I THINK THAT JUST GOT OUT INTO THE PRESS AND THEY PUT IT OUT THERE…OR DID THEY SAY IN THE CLIP THAT SHE WAS THROWN BY AN ENTITY
If you bother to pay attention or read the facts, it is stated over and over that she was levitated, then thrown. “Studied the case” indeed. Not too bright, are we? Maybe you’re suffering from PPD.
“YOU GET A FEW PEOPLE ON HERE THAT DONT (don’t)
KNOW WHAT THERE (they’re)
TALKING ABOUT (you mean, like yourself?)
BUT,IF YOU NEED SOME HELP WITH THE SITE OR I COULD WRITE A COLUME (column)
LET ME KNOW…..”
Dear God, who would let you write a column for anything? You can’t spell, don’t know what you’re talking about, and can’t seem to make your pinky scale that 1/8″ to shut the caps lock off.
As I said at the beginning, dreadful.