Finsbury Park ghost

In 1988 my then girlfriend and I went to live at her aunt’s house, her aunt had moved out with her boyfriend and as we were then living with my mother and our young baby of 2 months old this seemed like a sensible move for us to make.

The house was a basement flat in Woodstock Road, Finsbury Park and although old felt very welcoming. I’ll describe the layout; Enter front door into narrow hallway, first door right main bedroom, continue hallway second door right bathroom/toilet, straight ahead living room and open plan kitchen. Ok so we’d been there about a week together when we started to notice that directly above the toilet there was an airing cupboard, this door would constantly be open even though the catch worked perfectly well.

There was no breeze coming out or in but it would always be open. My girlfriend actually watched it open while in the bath once! Freaky but no problem, we then started to have keys go missing, money, purses, tools, stupid small things you’d put down then they’d be gone!!

We asked her aunt (the previous occupier) about this and she said “oh weird things happen in that place all the time, take no notice and you’ll forget about it”. So we decided to ignore these silly things but one night my girl and daughter where staying with her Father for the weekend so i was alone, i borrowed one of my Mum’s dogs to keep me company for the night, an 8 year old Rottweiler called Ella who decided to spend the whole night nervously shaking by the back door and waking me throughout the night with loud barks, this was completely out of character for her as although she was a soppy old thing she had never acted like this.

Anyway I told my Mum and Gran about this in the morning and they decided to come to the house to check it out. Nan was very spiritual and often picked up on things. I’ll never forget her standing in the kitchen of that place and in the time it took to boil a kettle she said, “I don’t think you should stay here anymore and you’re welcome to come home with me now!” I declined as my girl was on route home and I said I’d keep it in mind.

Later my girls returned and we visited my Mum’s for dinner, she then drove us back to the house and my brother helped bring the babies buggy in and put it in the bedroom, in the room we kept a jar of sweets and my brother and I helped ourselves to a handful each and he left, I shut the front door walked past the bedroom, all was well in the house and I joined the girls in the living room.

About half an hour later I went to put the baby in her crib and on entering the room I couldn’t believe my eyes, the cupboard was open with clothes strewn everywhere, the bed was tipped up and the crib was on it’s side, the room looked like someone had gone crazy in it and i immediately checked the windows for an intruder. I called my girlfriend in and she asked why I had done this, I explained what I’d found and we just stood in silence.

I started clearing up and this feeling came over me as if someone was laughing at me, my girlfriend also felt the same. We put it out of our minds and got ready for bed, the baby was sound asleep and all felt calm. The timing of this was arriving home 10pm, room trashed 10.30/35pm going to bed 11.30pm. At 1.30am I was woken by the baby cooing in her crib, I looked in at her and she was looking straight passed me as her attention seemed to be engaged elsewhere.

I felt extremely cold to the point of freezing, I turned to my girlfriend who was sound asleep and said her name quietly in her ear to wake her, she didn’t stir and by the milli-second I began to be filled with fear and dread I whispered to her twice more and on the second whisper of her name a voice clear as a bell repeated her name into my ear! The baby then screamed and I can tell you I woke her up in an instant we gathered some belonging and left for my Mum’s house by foot. We stayed at my Mum’s over night and the next day we returned after deciding we could take no more to collect our things, when we got there the place was ransacked, bed upside down, cupboard tipped over contents of the kitchen cupboards all over the place, you name it it was everywhere. I spoke to the aunt again after moving out and she said it had happened in the past but once you got used to it it would stop, I obviously thanked her for not mentioning this before we moved in.

Subsequently the house keys where returned to the local council. I later found out that 2 tenants had moved out within weeks of moving in and that to my knowledge the property is to this day unhabited and boarded up. Also in the flat above lived a young girl with her daughter and her ex killed her sometime after we’d left in a very macbre and evil manner. Makes you wonder doesn’t it!!!

never go to Enfield

The activity occurred at Enfield in North London, at 284 Green Street, a council house rented to Peggy Hodgson, a single parent with four children.

During this time furniture is said to have moved by itself, knockings on the walls were heard, and children's toys were said to have been thrown around and to have been too hot to touch when picked up. A police officer signed an affidavit to affirm that she saw a chair move. Reports of the activity attracted various visitors including mediums and members of the press. One photographer reported being hit on the forehead with a Lego brick. After visiting the house, George Fallows, a senior reporter for the Daily Mirror, suggested that theSociety for Psychical Research (SPR) be called in to investigate.The incidents were duly investigated by Maurice Grosse and Guy Lyon Playfair, both members of the SPR, who were convinced by the evidence which they encountered during their thirteen month investigation.

There are four main theories explaining poltergeist phenomena

Religious

the belief that the activity is being caused by an unclean spirit or demon that has entered the victim. Fundamentalist Christians believe that this invasion is more frequent than we would think, and contrary to popular religious reports, exorcisms and prayer meetings to cast out unwanted demons are common place. Perhaps not as dramatic as portrayed in some films, but nonetheless, they do take place. Devil worship is usually cited as a cause, but according to the church, this activity is much rarer than the tabloids would have us believe. What is commonplace, is the misuse of so called occult practises - astrology, Ouija boards, séances, divining etc. - they are all gateways for demonic entry. Spiritual - the belief that the activity is caused by the spirit of a deceased person or ‘lower entity’ that has not moved on to the next plane of existence, has not ‘passed into the light’. The activity is attributed to anger or frustration on behalf of the spirit at not being able to come to terms with a violent or sudden death, or at not being able to communicate with the family or persons under siege for instance. ‘Lower entities’ or demons can also inhabit the other dimensions where spirits are believed to exist, and can also contribute to poltergeist activity. Mediums are used to ‘persuade’ the spirits to move onto the next plane of existence, or to simply leave the victims alone. In the case of serious demonic possession, spiritualist will seek an exorcism.  Whilst Spiritualism and Christianity may seem like they occupy the same theological ground, Christian doctrine is very specific about the fact the communing or claiming to commune with the dead or spirits is not divine, and therefore the work of the devil. The Bible states that anything claiming to be spiritual that is not God, or a messenger of God, is unclean and evil. Use of Ouija boards, séances and clairvoyancy, widely practised and used in the Spiritual movement, is strictly forbidden in Christian religions. Spiritualists are more tolerant of their differences with Christians. Other variations on the spiritual theme include voodoo, witch doctor curses etc  Scientific - the belief that the activity is entirely caused by some natural mechanism of the mind, as yet unexplained by science - commonly referred to as Psychokenesis (PK), the ability to move objects with the mind. Telepathy, the ability to see or hear things with the mind, is also claimed to explain hearing voices or sounds in an alleged haunted house. Whilst the scientific explanation is attractive in this technological day and age, there is no real evidence, although the theory is awash with almost overwhelming circumstantial evidence. Most scientific investigations have been carried out by very dedicated amateurs whose techniques and practises are far from a laboratory environment. The common conditions for poltergeist infestation, presence of pubescent girls, recent family trauma for instance, are commonly hijacked by PK investigators as proof of some kind of psychological trigger for PK - it should be noted that these conditions could also be regarded as a clear gateway for demonic infestation. Various conspiracy theories have included top secret government agencies using PK to carry out political assassinations, effect government and elections, convening with beings from another planet etc. The connections with these kinds of groups often invalidates the claims of so called scientific investigations. Fraud - in the cold light of day, this is perhaps the most tangible explanation. Religious and Spiritual theories rely heavily on belief, citing evidence that is extremely circumstantial or pure philosophical presumption. The scientific data is equally shaky, there is a noticeable lack of photographic, electronic or audio evidence. What evidence does appear, tends to support the theory for fraud even more. Sensational cases such as the Amityville Horror and the Smurl Poltergeist have all been connected with book and movie deals, often netting the alleged victims, thousands. It cannot be denied that most cases are probably fraudulent. Some cases appear to started as a genuine infestation, but turned into fraud once the spirits were expected to perform for the media, the Enfield Poltergeist being a prime example.

However, there are some cases where there are credible witnesses and no apparent gain for the victims, indeed, genuine suffering. No matter how few or far between, in those instances, one must look to the three other explanations, or indeed other theories, for a solution.

The family in the Enfield case consisted of a mother, two daughters and two sons; Margaret aged 12, a younger sister Janet aged 11, Johnny aged 10 and Billy aged 7. Billy had a speech impediment. Johnny featured only marginally in the inexplicable events, at least 26 of which the investigators considered could not be accounted for by fraud. These included moving furniture, flying marbles, interference with bedclothes, cold breezes, pools of water on the floor, apparitions, physical assaults, graffiti, equipment malfunction and failure, disappearance and reappearance of objects, apparent levitations, and fires which spontaneously ignited and extinguished themselves.

Among other alleged phenomena they witnessed was Janet speaking using her false vocal folds for hours on end while she was apparently possessed by another entity. Speaking in this way is believed to be medically impossible.

When speaking with the false cords Janet said she was "Bill" who had died in the house of a brain haemorrhage. The "Bill" persona habitually made jokes and exhibited a very nasty temper, swearing at Maurice, once calling him a "fucking old sod". Grosse was contacted by a man who claimed to be Bill's son. Recordings were made of these occurrences. After the BBC went to the house the recording crew found the metal inside of the recording machines bent, and recordings erased.

Further investigations by Anita Gregory and John Beloff, also from the SPR, were less positive. They spent a few days with the family and, after they found them bending spoons themselves, concluded that the children had faked the poltergeist activity. Janet admitted to Gregory that they had fabricated some of the occurrences. This admission was repeated on the ITV News (12 June 1980) when she stated: "Oh yeah, once or twice [we faked phenomena], just to see if Mr Grosse and Mr Playfair would catch us. And they always did."

After writing a feature on supernatural activity for Loaded magazine, journalist Will Storr included a retrospective investigation of the events and conflicting personalities involved in the Enfield case in his book Will Storr Versus the Supernatural. The book comes to no positive conclusions regarding the truth of the haunting but throws considerable light on the personalities involved, particularly those of Maurice Grosse and Anita GregoryMargaret has publicly stated that although she did fake a few phenomena to catch the investigators in action, they were not responsible for all the phenomena. She has stated that "It is ridiculous to suggest that either my sister or I could have been responsible for the strange activity that went on in our house."

Peggy Hodgson remained in the house until her death in 2003. Grosse died in 2006.

In the book The Ghost That Haunted Itself, Jan-Andrew Henderson argues that "(b)oth [the Amityville and Enfield poltergeist cases] turned out to be fakes. The witnesses were misrepresented or had something to gain. Evidence turned out to be manufactured."

In the June 2003 edition of Focus magazine, Caroline Green wrote "There was no concrete evidence and [Peggy] was accused of making it upIn 1998, Living Spirit Pictures produced a film called Urban Ghost Story starring Jason Connery and 
  which is loosely based on the events of the Enfield Poltergeist.

In March 2007 Channel 4 aired a documentary about the events of the Enfield case, entitled Interview with a Poltergeist.

In 2010 Dead House productions registered the name "The Enfield Poltergeist" with a view to making a feature film version with the same title. Although the film is billed for release in October 2012, casting is not expected to start until the beginning of 2012On Halloween night, 1992, the BBC aired a fictional mockumentary entitled Ghostwatch, written by Steven Volk and based on the Enfield Poltergeist investigation. Like the Enfield Poltergeist, Ghostwatch supposedly took place in a North London house, and featured a possessed adolescent girl speaking by using her false vocal cords. The programme, which was only aired once on television, created a brief period of public hysteria due to many viewers believing the events that they had just witnessed were real