5 Cases of Poltergeist Infestations

Thursday, October 28, 2010

A Poltergeist is described as a spirit or ghost that enjoys terrorizing humans and/or animals. Poltergeists are usually associated with events of telekinesis and demonic possession. Our list was created to present you some stories believed to be manifestations of a Poltergeist. Enjoy:

The case of Eleonore Zugun
Eleonore Zugun, born on 24 May 1913 in Talpa, Romania, is better known as Poltergeist Girl. When she was eleven years old, while visiting her grandmother's house at Buhai, she found some money by the side of the road and she spent it on sweets. But then, her 105 years old grandmother who was supposedly a witch, warned her that the devil (Dracu in Romanian) had left the money to tempt her and once she took the money Dracu started „stalking” her. The next day poltergeist activity began: stones crashed against the house and broke windows and furniture, and when a priest called by her grandmother marked a stone and threw it out, it crashed right back into the house. Eleonore’s father sent her to the Convent of Gorovei where monks performed an exorcism, but to no avail, so she was sent to a mental asylum. Berlin Engineer and a Psychic researcher Fritz Grunewald took her out of the asylum and studied the phenomenon, but he suddenly died of a heart attack. Countess Zo Wassilko-Serecki, interested in Psychic research offered Eleonore a home. The Countess kept a diary of events and recorded witnessing movement of various objects in and outside the house. The activity stopped when Eleonore turned 14.

The Bell Witch
The story of the Bell Witch comes from the Southern United States folklore. In the early 1800s, John Bell moved his family from North Carolina to Robertson County, on the Red River, near Adams, Tennessee. In 1917, while inspecting his corn field, he encountered a strange-looking animal that had the body of a dog and the head of a rabbit sitting in the middle of a corn row. He shot at it several times but the animal vanished. Later that night the whole family started hearing banging sounds on the outside walls of their log house. The sounds got louder as time went by, but each time Bell and his sons went out to discover the culprit, they found no one. The voice sang hymns, quoted scripture, carried on intelligent conversation and in one occasion quoted word-for-word two sermons that were preached at the same time on the same day, thirteen miles apart. The children woke up terrified every morning and they complained their blankets were pulled from them and their pillows tossed onto the floor. As the sounds became clearer, they distinguished a woman’s voice. Bell’s younger daughter had violent encounters with the spirit: it pulled her hair and slapped her violently, leaving marks on her face. It is said that before his presidency, the Bell Witch haunted Andrew Jackson.

The Drummer of Tedworth
Joseph Glanvill in the West Country of England reported the story of the drummer of Tedworth in his „Saducismus Triumphatus (The Triumph over Saducism)”. Saducees denied the existence of the soul and life after death, thus contradicting the doctrines of Christ and were seen by Glanvill (a believer in witchcraft and very religious) as worshipers and cohorts of Satan. Apparently local landowner, John Mompesson brought a lawsuit against a local drummer, whom he accused of extorting money by false pretenses. After winning the lawsuit the drum was confiscated and given to Mompesson. From then on, 1661, Poltergeist activities started happening. Several members of the household saw apparitions, invisible hands around small objects, young children levitating and heard continual drumming every night. According to Glanvil he heard the phantom drummer one morning shouting: 'A witch, a witch!' and days after his visit tot the household his horse died. How the Poltergeist’s activities ended is not clear, but by the time Glanvil published his book, 20 years later, there were no more strange occurrences. This story is considered by many to be an early account of the activity of a Poltergeist.

The case of Robbie Mannheim
Robbie Mannheim, also known as Roland Doe, born circa 1936 is a pseudonym given by author Thomas B. Allen to an anonymous 14 years old boy better known for allegedly being possessed by a Poltergeist and exorcised during his childhood in the late 1940s. The events which were reported in the media of the time inspired the novel “The Exorcist” by William Peter Blatty and film of the same name, as well as Thomas B. Allen's nonfiction account “Possessed”. Mannheim was an only child born into a German Lutheran Christian family and during the 1940s they lived in Cottage City, Maryland. When Robbie was thirteen his aunt died in Saint Louis and the Poltergeist activity commenced around that time: strange noises, furniture and objects moving or levitating, the word "hell" appeared on Robbie’s skin and blessed objects placed near him smashed to the ground on their own. His case was referred to various reverends and legend says Rev. William S. Bowdern casted out the spirits that possessed Mannheim. Apparently “Robbie” had no memory of the events and the story of his alleged possession and exorcism comes from a diary kept by the attending priest, Fr. Raymond Bishop.

The case of Tina Resch
Tina Resch born October 23, 1969, is better known as the protagonist of what the media called the “Columbus Poltergeist” case. Tina was an adopted child, and while she was 14 unexplained events of alleged spontaneous telekinesis at her home were covered extensively by news media: especially flying objects. Many experts visited Tina’s home, even James Randi, but he accused the Resches and parapsychologist William Roll of denying him full access at the phenomena. In 1992, as an adult with the divorced name of Christina Boyer, she was jailed for allegedly being responsible for the death of her three-year-old daughter, who was in the sole custody of her boyfriend at the time. She accepted a plea bargain to avoid the possibility of a death penalty although she passed a polygraph examination indicating her innocence less than 24 hours before her plea hearing. She was sentenced to life plus 20 years in prison. She was dubbed "Telekinetic Mom" by the media and a book about her case called “Unleashed - Of Poltergeists and Murder: The Curious Story of Tina Resch” by William Roll and writer Valerie Storey was published which shed some light on the family's and paranormal investigators' side of events.

BONUS:

The case of Gef the Talking Mongoose
Gef the Talking Mongoose is thought to have been a manifestation of a Poltergeist. It was a talking mongoose that inhabited a farmhouse near the hamlet of Dalby on the Isle of Man. The Irving family heard persistent scratching and rustling noises behind their farmhouse's wooden wall panels. The creature making the sounds introduced itself as Gef, a mongoose. It claimed to have been born in New Delhi, India, in 1852. Gef variously claimed to be "an extra extra clever mongoose" and an "earthbound spirit". It had an uneven temper, threw objects at people and was arrogant. Gef was friendly towards the Irvings and joked around with them, even spying on their neighbors for them. James Irving kept diaries about Gef between 1932 and 1935. These diaries, along with reports about the case, are in Harry Price's archives in the Senate House Library, University of London. The story of Gef became popular in the press and many journalists came to the Isle to see it, but apparently no one other than the Irvings saw Gef.

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