Malevolent Haunts: The West Pittston, PA Inhuman

Note: Upon reviewing my many files concerning cases of demonic haunts and possession while at work last night I came to the conclusion that this series should be entitled, Malevolent Haunts because human spirits as well as poltergeists have the capacity to be just as malicious as any demon. Sorry if this causes any confusion. Thank you.

A malevolent haunt can be a terrifying experience for all those involved and can quickly turn a once seemingly innocent home into a pure hell on earth for all involved. Although the alleged haunting that transpired in Amityville has become the standard by which all malicious haunts are to be measured, a particularlly terrifying haunting that held a West Pittston, Pennsylvania family captive for almost 15 years deserves to be looked at once again because the Smurl family knows just how powerful and horrible an inhuman spirit can be.

In 1974, Jack and Janet Smurl found themselves seeking a new home after theirs was destroyed by a hurricane that came ashore in their Pennsylvania town. Shortly after beginning a search for new digs the Smurls found a two story split duplex in the small mining town of West Pittston where they could raise their two young girls and Jack’s parents could inhabit the other half of the home. The house was perfect and the neighborhood was perfect, however they would soon discover that not everything was as perfect as it seems.

One night after putting the children to bed, Jack and Janet retired to their room for a little sleep after the taxing move. As Jack and Janet rested in their bed watching television the couple took notice of a strange unearthly glow that seemed to emanate from the back of the small color television. When Jack approached the television to investigate this glow the TV burst into flames and quickly extinguished itself. Jack was mystified by this strange event however he did not give it much thought believing bad wiring was to blame. After taking the TV out to the trash the couple drifted off to sleep.

There also appeared to be a considerable plumbing problems in the house. Numerous times the Smurls would discover pools of water forming in areas of the house where plumbing should not be. Jack, ever the jack of all trades attempted numerous times to fix the plumbing however, no matter how hard he tried the mysterious pools of water still formed. Other bizarre but completely innocuous phenomenon presented itself over time when Janet discovered numerous claw marks covering the bottom of the bathtub. Animal control was called to see if perhaps some creature, perhaps a raccoon , had invaded the home and left the claw marks, nothing was ever found.

As the years passed and the phenomenon slowly progressed the strange activity began to occur not only on Jack and Janet’s side but on Jack’s parents side as well. Toilets flushed day and night with no apparent human agent to flush them. Drawers and cabinets flung open and slammed of their own accord and heavy almost labored footsteps could be heard around the home at all hours of the night. Mary, Jack’s mother, who was a saintly woman of high moral standards confronted her daughter one afternoon after hearing through the walls what sounded like Jack and Janet having a vicious fight with swear words being exchanged. Janet was awestruck and swore on everything that was holy that Jack was at work and she was busy doing the laundry. A fact later confirmed by Jack when he returned home from work a few hours later. The two woman became convinced that something truly odd was happening in their home however the men remained unconvinced believing that everything could be explained by something other than ghosts and goblins. Jack and his father would soon eat those words.

The bizarre events were quickly spiraling out of control and Janet began to fear for the safety of her family. One afternoon as Janet was doing dishes she became aware of a swirling black mass forming in the corner of the kitchen making a strange grunting sound. Janet watched as the shadowy figure moved from the kitchen into the front room and dissappeared through the wall that divided the the two sides of the building. Janet immediately rushed over to her in-laws side and found a terrified Mary Smurl sitting in her chair staring at the space on the wall where the black form issued from. Mary had indeed seen the black form and hoped that they could soon convince their husbands that their home was in the grip of some demonic entity.

Later that night over a night out for pizza, Jack and his father came clean concerning their experiences in the home and the strange phenomenon they had personally witnessed. The two men admitted the only reason they said nothing because they felt powerless to do anything about whatever this was that had invaded their home. Where can a person go to deal with such odd phenomenon?

Later that night after the meeting at the pizza joint, Jack found it difficult to sleep as his mind pondered on the strangeness that had invaded his home

and saught to keep his family in the bondage of abject fear. Shortly after turning the television on, Jack became aware that he was not alone. Jack thought at first he was dreaming when as he watched as a beautiful descended the stairs, Jack immediately jumped up and attempted to challenge this unexpected intruder. Before Jack could get out a word the young woman leaped upon his chest knocking him to the ground and began to rip his clothes off. Jack watched in horror as the previously lovely young woman morphed into a hideous old crone that dribbled foul swelling saliva from it’s cackiling mouth. After a few moments of enduring the assault by the terrible creature the crone vanished leaving Jack on the floor of the front room with a ripped shirt and the sensation of terror in his soul. After regaining his sense Jack ran up the stairs and told his wife everything that happened. This was the final straw that the family would suffer and decided it was time to turn to the only people who could rescure them from this terror that haunted their once peaceful home, The Roman Catholic Church.

One Sunday after attending Mass, Jack and Janet took their priest to the side and began to spin a bizarre tale of the strange activity that held their family hostage. The priest, either out of skepticism or perhaps fear of the terrible stories that he heard suggested that perhaps the phenomenon the family was experiencing was nothing supernatural at all but perhaps the couple’s marriage was in jeopardy and what they needed was marriage counseling and not an exorcist. Jack and Janet were crestfallen, they both had been brought up with the belief that the church’s function was seeing to the spiritual safety and security of the faithful. However this did not appear to be the case the church only showed the couple one thing, indifference because it did nothing.

As the haunting progressed the family discovered that no matter where they ran whatever entity haunted them was capable of following them anywhere. The entity bothered Jack at his work almost causing him to be terminated the entity also followed and harrased the family on a camping trip. The Smurl family came to firmly believe in the old saying, “You can run and you can hide, but eventually we will find you.” Whatever this thing was also proved to be in two places at one time. When the Smurl’s returned home from their short trip they were stopped by their neighbors who told them that while they were gone they could hear what sounded like loud shrieks and loud bangs coming from inside the house at all hours of the day. Jack and Janet considered again telling the church of their experiences but decided to go a different route, enter the brave ghosthunters.

A few days after their return Janet paid a visit to the local library and read an interesting article in the newspaper of a couple from Connecticut who specialized in the extremely rarified field of paranormal investigation and their success rate of rescuing families who were under siege by demonic creatures, Ed and Lorraine Warren. Since the 1950s the Warrens, who considered themselves Religious Demonologists, were involved in the investigation of literally hundreds of cases of demonic infestation and partook in dozens of exorcisms. Although for decades the Warrens have been considered highly controversial even among paranormal researchers, Janet was convinced that if anyone could help them it was this couple.

A few days after Janet’s initial phone call Ed and Lorraine arrived and immediately went about the business of determining whether or not the home was indeed invaded by a paranormal presence. After touring the home, Lorraine a light clairvoyant determined that the home played host to four seperate entities. Three were entities that had once been human and lived on the land many years before the split duplex was built, however the fourth entity was a spirit that never walked the earth in human flesh, this entity was a demon and had been invited to live on the land by some unknown offense that occurred many years earlier. It had laid dormant for many years but was awakened by the devout religious beliefs of the Smurl family. The Smurl’s were understandbly shaken by this news and questioned the ghost hunters how they could rid their home of this evil presence. Ed advised the family what they needed was a blessing and perhaps an exorcism. The Smurl’s stated that they had tried to seek the help of their church but their priest had treated them as if they were crackpots. Ed told the frightened family that he knew of such a priest but it would take a few weeks for him to open up his schedule and in the meantime he would have investigators come and stay with the family to gather evidence.

While in the home investigators gathered literally hundreds of pieces of evidence of the spiritual entities that resided in the Smurl home. On many occassions when religious music was played in the home the demon responded by shaking the home and throwing objects around the house. The two young investigators also captured dozens of EVPs and orbs and anomolous streaks of light. After the investigators presented Ed with the irrefutable evidence of a presence in the home, Ed advised the Smurls that, Bishop Robert McKenna a priest who held traditional views on the church would soon arrive to rid the home of the wicked spirit. The line had been drawn and a holy war was soon to be played out.

When Bishop McKenna arrived he immediately called the demon out and went to battle on behalf of the Smurl’s and their souls. The Warren’s would later report that Bishop McKenna performed several rounds of the ancient Rite of exorcism and the demon finally left the family and signaled it’s departure with the smell of roses, which is a common feature whenever an exorcism proves to be successful. The horrible saga of the Smurl family and their dealings with an unearthly evil had now come to an end.

Over the years many skeptics and researchers have claimed that the Smurl family hoaxed the whole horrible episode and have called them straight up liars. Many researchers are very careful when a malevolent haunting is reported and understandbly so after the whole Amityville episode. However, the Smurl’s have never gained a dime from their experiences in the house in West Pittston, Pennsylvania. Sure a book called, “The Haunted” was written and a terrible movie was made in the early 90s but from what I understand the Smurl’s did not have a whole lot of say so in either the book or the movie basically the Smurl family, like most who experience such phenomenon, just want to be left alone.

Rick E. Hale

t_seeker@hotmail.com

I apologize that it took me such a long time to get this out. The phone company turned me off although I had paid the bill and it took a while to get turned back on. Please drop me a line sometime I can be found at myspace, my username is Rick E. Hale:Paranormal Researcher, and writer and I’m also on Facebook just type in Rick Hale.