Poltergeist. United Kingdom

This case became known as a perfect example of a poltergeist haunting which began as genuine... and devolved into trickery, thanks to media attention and the imagination of two little girls.

The case began in Enfield, in North London, in a perfectly ordinary suburban townhouse. It was occupied by a woman named Peggy Harper and her four children; Rose, age 13; Janet, age 11; Pete, age 10; and Jimmy, age 7. The disturbances which would make this house famous began on the night of August 30, 1977, shortly after Janet and Pete retired to the bedroom they shared. The other children slept with their mother in another room of the small home.

The activity was first reported by Janet to her mother. She stated that their beds began bouncing up and down and "going all funny". By the time that Peggy got to the room, the movements had stopped, leading her to believe that perhaps the children were making it all up. All remained quiet for the rest of the night, but the following evening, the events began in earnest.

Around 9:30 the following night, Peggy was called to Janet and Pete’s room by their excited laughter. This time, they claimed to hear noises coming from the floor. Janet said that it sounded like a chair moving, so Peggy took the only chair with her out of the room and downstairs. She believed this would calm the children down and get them settled for the night. Then, from downstairs, she too heard something odd. It was the same shuffling sound that Janet had mentioned. She hurried up to their room but found both children lying in their beds asleep.

Then, four distinct knocks were heard from the wall which adjoined the neighboring house. This prompted Peggy to turn the lights on once more, but she saw nothing out of the ordinary. Then, a heavy chest of drawers moved out away from the wall about a foot and a half. Peggy shoved it back again, but the chest moved back to its former position. The next time she tried to shove it into place, the chest refused to budge! Shaking with fear, the family left the house and went next door to the neighbor’s house. The neighbors investigated, as did the police.

The officers also reported hearing the knocking sounds, now coming from all different walls. One of the officers was in the living room when a chair suddenly slid several feet across the floor. He examined it closely, but could find no explanation as to how it had moved.

The next day brought more phenomena, like flying toys. The police were unable to help, so the Harpers and their neighbors turned to the press. The Daily Mirror sent out a photographer and a reporter, who stayed in the house for several hours. Nothing happened during their stay, until just as they got ready to leave. Suddenly, both men were assaulted with flying marbles and Lego bricks. A piece of a Lego flew across the room and hit the photographer so hard that it left a bruise which lasted over a week.

The newspaper contacted the Society for Psychical Research about the case and they in turn, contacted Maurice Grosse, a resident of North London and an investigator. Grosse arrived at the Harper house on September 5, exactly one week after the disturbances began. His presence seemed to have a calming effect on the family and for a few days, nothing out of the ordinary occurred.

Then, on the night of September 8, Grosse and three reporters were keeping watch when they heard a crash in Janet’s bedroom. Investigation showed that her bedside chair had been thrown about four feet across the room. Janet was asleep at the time and no one had seen the chair move. However, it did happen again an hour later... and this time one of the photographers captured the event on film!

Shortly after this, Grosse was joined in the investigation by author Guy Lyon Playfair and the two men spent the next two years studying the case.

The case had a couple of aspects in common with standard poltergeist cases, including the involvement of two adolescent girls. In this case, one had already gone through puberty and another was about to. The case also had another feature typical of such cases, personal tension. Peggy had never altogether resolved her feelings surrounding her divorce from the children’s father. After she realized this might have something to do with the phenomena, she came to term with her volatile emotions and the disturbances ceased.

Or rather, they took a short break. When they started up again, they had a somewhat different character. Now, more than ever, they seemed to focus on the two girls, Janet and Rose, and on Janet’s bedroom. Investigators quickly came to the opinion that this new phenomena was more the work of human trickery than the work of a human agent. Two SPR investigators later revealed that reports from the two girls, usually unsubstantiated, seemed very contrived.

Some of the alleged activity had the girls literally "flying" out of their beds at night

In addition, a video camera secretly set up in the bedroom caught Janet bending spoons and attempting to bend an iron bar in an entirely normal manner. She was also seen bouncing up and down on the bed, from where she would later claim she was thrown.

Despite how this case concluded, there seems to be some strong evidence to say that the initial disturbances in the house were genuinely paranormal.