There had been “some eerie and unexplained knocking” the day before, but on the night of 31 August 1977, 11-year-old Janet Hodgson and her younger brother Jonny “were in their bedroom when a strange rattling began to sound” www.vice.com/en/article/4...
At this point, Mrs Hodgson called the police, who (remarkably) came, with a WPC witnessing a chair wobble. Not being able to see the malefactor, which would naturally have been an obstacle to slapping the cuffs on, they ‘took no further action’
For the next 18 months, furniture moved, objects were flung, children floated, and noises and voices were heard. Charlatans* came from across the world to investigate (*sorry, I appear to have misspelled ‘qualified psychic researchers’)
One day, the entire family was “chased out of the house ... and sought refuge with Peggy’s brother who lived up the road. While his wife Sylvia made some tea, a Lego brick appeared in front of her and dropped onto the table.” Yes, indeed: what could be more horrifying than... some Lego?
Having “realised that the entity could follow them out of the house”, they went to Clacton for a week, and merely heard a dog barking from Janet’s bed. Once back at home, psychic investigators suggested they leave pens and paper out, and QUITE BY COINCIDENCE messages began to appear
The sentence which follows that is perhaps the least surprising in that or any other account: “The writing was very similar to Janet’s”. She was also issuing “weird, gravelly sounds” and “a torrent of subconscious gobbledygook” (which makes her sound like a low-rent Linda Blair)
Then, one night, Janet heard investigator Maurice Grosse say “All we need now is the voices to talk”, and QUITE BY CHANCE they began to do exactly that. A man called Joe Watson spoke, and came back the next night with a new name: Bill Wilkins. They asked JoeBill how he died
Not an ordinary, unremarkable death, you say? WELL, WELL. The other Society of Psychical Research investigator, Guy Lyon Playfair, asked Bill why he wasn’t visible, and got the perfectly reasonable answer: “I’m invisible… because I’m a G.H.O.S.T.”
The story went on to inspire The Conjuring 2, Sky’s 2015 show The Enfield Haunting, and – perhaps most famously for those of us of a certain generation – the BBC’s infamous broadcast-once-sparking-a-reported-million-complaints Ghostwatch
You may have gathered that I am perhaps a tad less accepting of the supernatural explanations than others are. So, come on, then, Coates. If you’re so clever, what did happen? Well, obviously Guy Playfair believed it (and quite by chance also got a book out of it)
The two male investigators stayed in their house for 14 months, often sleeping in the same room as the two young girls. At one point the ghostly voice calls one of the Investigators a "dirty old man"
However, in his 1988 book, Forbidden Knowledge: The Paranormal Paradox, magician Bob Couttie says Playfair was “a devoted believer in Uri Geller”. Maurice Grosse was “a sincere and honest man”, but had joined the Society of Psychical Research on losing a child a year before
I am just reading Ben Machell's new book, a large chunk of which is about Tony Cornell, also of the SPR who also investigated and was intensely sceptical. I think it led to a major split in the organisation.
Always love how they got ‘experts’ to claim Janet couldn’t have just done the voice, would be physically impossible…like, had they *met* children? My 10 yo does that kind of creepy voice ALL THE TIME for funsies.
Well, quite. There are so many holes in it!
And they *never* talk about the sibling who was in some kind of borstal or other facility…like, obviously, there were much more real issues with the family that were never addressed.
"Can I have a tea bag?"