December 1, 2020 ▸ History, Paranormal

Episode 538: Enfield Poltergeist: Fear or Fake?

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On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we look into one of the most famous cases of a haunting to come out of the UK, the Enfield Poltergeist. This is the story of a single mother living in government housing trying to support four kids when some very strange things started to happen in their house. One night in 1977, she went upstairs because her kids were freaking out, and she saw the chest of drawers move several times amidst knocking inside the walls. What came next was a series of hauntings that ran for 18 months–or a series of hoaxes if you think the daughters were up to no good!

So on the night of August 31, 1977, Peggy Hodgson saw the chest of drawers move and ran next door with all of her kids. The neighbor went to investigate the now empty house and heard bizarre knocking in the walls follow him around. He went back home and called the cops. They investigated, and the officer saw a chair move on its own. She tried to find out how but could see no logical explanation.

Since nobody was in danger and there was no crime, the cops left. The family called the local reporters, and that’s where the investigations started. Graham Morris of the Daily Mirror investigated with an eye for skepticism and was convinced something strange was happening in the house. So too were members of the Society for Psychical Research, Maurice Grosse and Guy Lyon Playfair. These three investigators as well as a BBC reporter experienced thousands of unexplained phenomenon, and they even caught the girls faking it a few times. Their ultimate conclusions, however, was that something very strange was happening in this house.

What is the story of the girl named Janet levitating in her bedroom? What made grown men think that the gruff voice coming out of the girl’s throat was genuinely not her own? What facts about previous home owner did the children seem to know? What was strange enough to make natural skeptics still believe, even when they saw a few instances of fraud? Listen, laugh, learn.

 

Visit Our Sources:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/may/01/the-enfield-poltergeist-a-skeptic-speaks

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4GjC93L35KcswfsR13Gvj8F/what-it-s-like-to-meet-a-poltergeist

https://people.com/movies/inside-the-real-story-that-inspired-the-conjuring-2/

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/6023279/enfield-poltergeist/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enfield_poltergeist

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2054842/Enfield-Poltergeist-The-amazing-story-11-year-old-North-London-girl-levitated-bed.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poltergeist

Voice Recordings: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p063w9vj

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p063w9py