Dark City

23. HAUNTED: The Lindley Street Poltergeist

• Dark City Productions • Season 1 • Episode 23

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Bridgeport, CT | With a remarkable range of witnesses—police, firefighters, religious leaders, and neighbors—reporting impossible events, this might be one of the most convincing cases of poltergeist activity.  We are breaking from our current season on Los Angeles and taking a trip to 1974 Bridgeport, Connecticut to tell the story of the Goodin family haunting on Lindley Street.

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📚 In a world of viral history clips and quick hot takes, we do right by the many historians, journalists, and researchers who made this episode possible by citing their work.  Our key references for this episode are below.  For a full list of sources, visit us at www.darkcitypodcast.com.  We hope you will check them out!

Hall, William J. The World's Most Haunted House: The True Story of the Bridgeport Poltergeist on Lindley Street. Publisher: The Career Press. Kindle Edition. Publication Date: 2014.

The Day. (October 30, 1995). Supt Walsh - Lindley was a Hoax. Newspapers.com. Retrieved November 14, 2024, from https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-day-supt-walsh-lindley-was-a-hoax/157626236/

Romano, A. (2023, October 31). From Amityville to Annabelle, the Warrens on film are a lie: The onscreen version of exorcists Ed and Lorraine Warren is a far cry from their real-life counterparts. Vox. Retrieved November 14, 2024, from https://www.vox.com/culture/23939024/ed-lorraine-warren-cases-hoax-real-conjuring-amityville

Urquhart, A, & Kelley, A. (Hosts). (2024, October 17). The Amityville Horror conspiracy (No. 610) [Audio podcast episode]. In Morbid. Wondery. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-amityville-horror-conspiracy/id1379959217?i=1000671835155

Urquhart, A, & Kelley, A. (Hosts). (2024,October 10). The Snedeker haunting: A haunting in Connecticut (No. 608) [Audio podcast episode]. In Morbid. Wondery. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-snedeker-haunting-a-haunting-in-connecticut/id1379959217?i=1000671001222

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👏 Special thanks to our talented partners:
Paolo Sbrighi for Musical Composition (instagram.com/paulosbrighi/)
Mario Cintra for Logo Design (instagram.com/alacarala/)


Speaker 1:

Hello Dark City fans. This is Leah and this is April. Usually we pick the stories we tell, but our story today picked us. This is the most convincing case I have ever come across of activity that just cannot be explained by science as we know it. But if you're worried this episode is going to be too scary, just know it is so much more than a story about a poltergeist. We are breaking from our current season on Los Angeles and taking a trip over to the East Coast, to Bridgeport, connecticut, hi folks. So we wanted to get this episode out earlier. This episode is probably going to be brought to you by cough medicine. That didn't work. We're both in bad shape.

Speaker 1:

We got ahead on episodes and then my house just got ripped through with. First the kids had walking pneumonia for eight days, then I got sick with a demon virus or collection of viruses from hell. I I don't know the last time Rome Walker again we can't blame the Rome Walker for everything.

Speaker 1:

Maybe it's just it's a supernatural episode, so possibly I don't know. I don't know the last time I have been that sick. So it's like two weeks and counting and I'm finally starting to feel like okay, but still so tired. So, yeah, I'm glad you're better. So quick note on schedule. So we swear to God, we're gonna catch up. Um, we have been all over the place as we've been getting our groove for the past. I don't know what is this seven months, even though we've been talking about it for much longer and then recording for a lot longer, but here's where we landed.

Speaker 1:

Where we're landing, we're going to go to every other Monday and we're going to throw in a bonus episode routinely. Sometimes those might deviate away from our May season, like what we're going to do today, because there are just stories that are too good to pass up that we come across. Or like you go on a road trip or I go on a road trip and there's like a cool story about a town that we passed. Then we meet people, like we had that really cool interview with Nicole Strickland on the Queen Mary. We want to keep the quality high and so, in order to do that and to make sure that we do all the research that you guys love, with all of the details you love, that every two weeks, I think, at a minimum, will be good and eventually we will start a Patreon. So if you want to know when the episodes do drop officially, like those bonus episodes we'll throw in, just make sure that you click the follow button wherever you're listening and follow us on our social media. We are at Dark City Pod on all of the socials Instagram, facebook Threads and TikTok.

Speaker 1:

As I mentioned, we are going to take a little trip away from LA to Bridgeport, connecticut. And why are we doing that? Well, a few weeks ago gosh, this feels like it was forever ago. Maybe it was really more like a month ago, since like a month of my life was taken away by illnesses, but I was hunting for a good spooky season book to check out on my Libby app I don't know if it's universally called Libby, but I have Libby, okay, yeah, so it's the app that where you can check out. Get your library card on there and you can check out digital copies of books and audio books. It's fabulous, I love it. It's a good trick.

Speaker 2:

Everybody, everybody yeah, everybody.

Speaker 1:

You should know that and use it. So when I was looking for my spooky season book, I was really picky because I was like it needs to be just right. So if I get like 10 pages in and I'm not feeling it, I'm returning it, and or if it's an audio book, I am not listening unless it just like grabs me Like I don't have a lot of time and this needs to be good, especially since it was following up on the secret history.

Speaker 1:

So one of the books I somehow came across was called the World's Most Haunted House the True Story of the Bridgeport Poltergeist on Lindley Street by William J Hall. I checked out this digital copy with all those other books and ultimately, after I started looking at it, I was like this would be a really cool like dark town special episode. But we just don't have time for it right now. So I decided, okay, I'm going to return this book back with all the other books that didn't make the cut, but I'm going to flag it, come back to it later. Except, I tried returning this thing.

Speaker 1:

I don't know how many times I took screenshots. I'll post them, but it would not come off my digital shelf Like it would like return, and then I'd go back into the app and it was back every single time. So finally I was just like okay, fine, all right, I will tell your story, just please. It was the weirdest. It was the weirdest thing. And again, like I checked out other books at the same time time, this one just needed to be read and the story needed to be told, for whatever reason. So here we are. This is why we're going to bridgeport I like it.

Speaker 1:

Also, I have a really I have a really cool treat at the end april. I didn't tell you about. Okay, it was this great find. So you guys have to stay through all the way to then Our story. It's going to take us all the way back literally almost 50 years.

Speaker 1:

November 23rd 1974. A married couple, jerry and Laura Gooden, are returning to their home in Bridgeport, connecticut, after taking a day trip to visit family with their 10-year-old daughter Marsha. Marsha had fallen asleep in the car on the ride home and they decided when they got home we'll let her sleep and along the way they had picked up some groceries. We'll unpack the groceries, get that settled and then get her into the house. So just keep this in mind when all these events happen, she's not in the house. So just keep this in mind when all these events happen, she's not in the house, she's asleep in the car. Important to know.

Speaker 1:

When Jerry and Laura get into the kitchen to put away their groceries, crazy stuff starts happening. Dishes are rising out of the sink and flying around the room until they shatter into pieces. Then the knives rise out of the knife block and fly across the kitchen. So Jerry goes to look at the knife block and it literally pulls itself off the wall, screws and all, and comes racing towards him. What? And then the activity stops. Jerry cleans the mess, laura puts away the groceries. My initial reaction, my missing pages, because this is the point where I would run out screaming to the next planet Right who, just like cleans it up afterwards.

Speaker 2:

I'd be like deuces.

Speaker 1:

I would love to see the original interviews or hear if they're recorded. Unfortunately, I don't have access to them. It's just as reported in the book, but this is what they do.

Speaker 2:

I have a question really fast, because these names are all familiar and I don't know if it's just because I've, like, briefly heard of this case before. Is this a movie? Is there a movie based off of this?

Speaker 1:

I don't think so. No, I don't think so. No, I don't think so. After jerry cleans up the mess, the table lifts up off the floor and rests on two kitchen chairs. Then the fridge rises six inches off the floor, rotates a quarter before it lands back onto the ground and then the tv console by the sink tilts itself screenside down and slams down on Laura's foot and smashes two of her toes.

Speaker 2:

Ouch, those TVs were heavy back then I know.

Speaker 1:

Jerry. He cleans up the wound, bandages her, gets her settled and they bring Marcia inside Again. I do not understand why they're not packing their car and leaving but this is what they do they eat dinner, they settle in for a show, and later Jerry goes into the kitchen to make coffee and the table flips again. So the family just decides we'll go to bed early.

Speaker 2:

Are you being serious that this is the most convincing story you've ever heard?

Speaker 1:

Hang in, hang in, just hang on. Sarcastic.

Speaker 2:

Okay, go ahead. I'm having a hard time here wrapping my head around this. Go ahead.

Speaker 1:

It's a lot. It's a lot. But yeah, I am serious. Am serious, believe it or not, even though these following details are going to sound bananas this is like, this is like the entity on drugs, like it is 10 levels higher.

Speaker 2:

Okay, go just wait just wait, okay.

Speaker 1:

So before they can sleep, the tv in marsh's room crashes onto her ankle. Thank goodness she's okay. They're all wide awake, so they go into the living room. They go in to settle in the living room and watch a nice World War movie, the Battle of the Bulge. Marsha has to go to the bathroom at one point and chaos erupts. The shower rod detaches, nearly hits her. Towels are flying off the racks, toiletries are coming out of the cabinets, the lids are off or breaking. Jerry cleans it up and they finally go to sleep at 3 am.

Speaker 1:

This is the Goodens account as told in the William J Hall book, the one I could not return. The reactions are we've got this down, they're odd and we would have been out there. These events seem like they're totally made up and the reactions are like okay, who would stay right? But Laura and Jerry just don't seem like the type to fabricate a story like this. They're definitely not attention-seeking. You're going to see that soon. They had a lot to lose and you'll hear they lost a lot. So let's rewind and meet Jerry and Laura Gooden more formally.

Speaker 1:

Jerry Gooden is described as a very practical, independent, down-to-earth person and, honestly, just from everything what I read. He seems like a really good person, like Jerry Gooden forever. Here are a few examples when he was a Boy Scout leader, he convinced a local shop owner to give shoes to boys who were too poor to buy them. He was a really devout Catholic and he aspired to become a priest one day. However, the Great Depression had changed his plans. He ended up joining the Air Force. He joined the Air Force. After that he became a maintenance professional and stuck with that career, basically 23 years and counting up to the time where we're seeing him in this awful situation in 1974. A quote from Dennis Lexa, who knew Jerry well, quote in 1963, our home burnt down and he came to the house with a box and put it on the table clothes and things he got from people. My mother gave him a big hug for that. He was very compassionate and always was doing a good deed for a neighbor.

Speaker 1:

Jerry married Laura in 1960. Laura grew up in an area that it sounded like it was really isolated. There was no children nearby and she was Cherokee and Bohemian by descent. It sounds like also, in addition to just the actual isolation growing up, even as she got older there was a lot of prejudice she had to face. She and Jerry are described as a really great match. They get along really well, but as far as others, she didn't necessarily know how to be around other people. It wasn't easy for her to form relationships and generally she was known to be just a very anxious person, although some of that is understandable.

Speaker 1:

Laura and Jerry purchased a home together in Bridgeport, connecticut, where they planned to raise a family soon after they got married. Bridgeport is so I didn't know this. It's a fairly big city. It is the fifth largest in New England, has a population today of about 150,000 people. It's situated along the coast, port City, nicknamed Park City because it has 35 public parks, which I feel like that should just be a requirement. It has a strong manufacturing legacy but in the 70s through the 80s it lost a lot of manufacturing jobs and went through a really tough transition period. The home the Goodens purchased was really more of like a small bungalow, only 738 square feet with three rooms, so they're living in a very modest neighborhood. Before their daughter Marsha came into the picture, the Goodens had another child, a son they named Jerry Jr. He was born in 1961. But Jerry was diagnosed very early with cerebral palsy and it was a very sad case. He couldn't feed himself or crawl, or walk or talk.

Speaker 3:

Oh, that is sad.

Speaker 1:

I know. So very tough for the parents, and also Laura's mother, I think, had some health issues. She moved in with them, so she was a full-time caretaker for her too, so they're really going through it. Jerry and Laura, though, are absolutely dedicated to this child. They would have. They would have worked with him, helped him however they could until the day he died, which unfortunately was far too soon, because when he was six years old he got really sick and he did end up passing away.

Speaker 1:

And then, to make matters worse, the day after he died, laura had to get a hysterectomy because they found a tumor. She ended up being okay. Oh dang, I know. So when people say she's anxious, they're going through a lot, I mean this is Like tragedy after tragedy, exactly, Exactly. So this is, I think, just as much a sad story as it is a really scary story or disturbing, or perplexing.

Speaker 2:

I think sometimes it's those tragedies that like turn into the scary things I don't know. A lot of times I feel like there's a sad story behind a scary story.

Speaker 1:

For sure. Yes, and it could be an explanation. We'll get to it. After Jerry Jr's passing. After Jerry Jr's passing, Jerry and Laura still want a child, so they decide to adopt. They have 25 in all unsolicited letters written in support of them adopting another child, so that just goes to show just how well loved and respected that they were. So they end up adopting Marcia in 1968. So at that point she was only four years old. Marcia is originally from Canada and she's also Native American, but her ancestral ties are Seneca, Laura's background before coming to them. As is often the case in adoption cases, also very sad. She was the youngest of nine kids. Parents were not responsible, abusive. She would get tied in a chair for very long periods of time.

Speaker 2:

So she's coming to them with a lot of trauma. That is heartbreaking, yeah.

Speaker 1:

It was clear. But it was clear, though. Jerry and Laura loved Marsha very, very much. Unfortunately, though, given the history, they were incredibly overprotective, to a fault Laura in particular and that made it really hard for Marcia to make friends as she grew up. So she's, notably, really good at art, she's very smart, her relationship with Jerry is really strong, but she's got this hovering overbearing mother that just wants her to be safe, but it's like at what cost?

Speaker 2:

Like helicopter.

Speaker 1:

Yes, but to the upteenth degree. Marsha was treated really poorly by her classmates and just a few months before all this poltergeist activity started she was attacked by a classmate. She was so badly injured she had to wear a soft back brace. Jerry and Laura were so upset they decided to take her out of school and tutor at home. So she's being homeschooled. Back to the craziness. That was Saturday, november 23rd 1974. This isn't the first time there's been activity. Soon after Laura and Jerry adopted Marsha they notice things get moved around a lot Like pretty harmless, you know. Like think your book is on your nightstand and then it's on your bed. It's unsettling, but not an appliance, you know, crashing down on your foot.

Speaker 2:

It's not knives hurtling through the kitchen towards you.

Speaker 1:

Exactly. Then they start to experience a rhythmic pounding on the house that Jerry would describe as at its worst. It's like the house was getting stoned. This went on for a few years before Years yes.

Speaker 2:

A few years before 1974.

Speaker 1:

Apparently it would start every November. It would happen intermittently for the next few months. It could happen at all hours of the day, start out as tapping and gradually get louder. Police, fire were called out, but they never found anything to explain it. There didn't seem to be anything wrong with the foundation no kids responsible playing a prank. The activity through time keeps escalating. Laura sees a disembodied hand on the window. Ew Doors open by themselves, chairs move, curtains falling down.

Speaker 1:

So following the Goodens harrowing Saturday evening of poltergeist activity, things are not much better. Well, I cannot understand why in the world they would not have vacated their house immediately after Bright Plate started rising into the air. I cannot explain any of the following. There is a broad cross-section of people that witness things that are just not of this world. It's more believable it's a poltergeist than all of these people collaborating and conspiring to fake a haunting. That's my impression.

Speaker 1:

There's a lot of crazy stuff happening in the days that follow Tables flipping, of course this is like obligatory religious objects coming off the walls, crucifix shatters. The fridge keeps going crazy. At one point they see an outline of bodies that eventually separate into four entities and one of them throws Marsha across the room. Also, their cat had got it to the vet for an operation and afterward it was said it could be heard uttering words in three distinct voices. When it was in the basement they could hear this it would sing like a sailor. It would yell at the basement door racial slurs, what I know. That is just so random. Jerry never actually saw the cat talk, but this is what was reported from the family um, how does he know it was the cat then?

Speaker 1:

I know I mean could be.

Speaker 2:

This is like the, I don't know. This needs to be a special on my cat from hell.

Speaker 1:

Have you seen that TV show? I'm guessing it's not the cat.

Speaker 2:

My cat from hell, special edition. Okay, go ahead. My cat cusses like a sailor.

Speaker 1:

Sorry, how does one handle that? And this last week of November of hell, police are called, fires called. They call an engineer who sees a 450 pound refrigerator move across the room. They call priests. City officials clear people out because it's a hazard. It's like you have to sign a waiver just to get into this house.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to give you from William Hall's book, a few of the firsthand accounts though Hall's book, a few of the firsthand accounts though patrolman John Holsworth. He is a friend of the Goodens, he and his wife. They leave their baby with them, they spend time socially with them, so they really trust them. They don't think it's making up Now. When John goes over to the house on November 24th at 9 am, he observes furniture moving or being thrown about and he further states that he'd been called to the house on numerous occasions for the banging that had happened before and he never could figure it out.

Speaker 1:

One of the officers, joseph Tomek, who was called out to the house in his report to his captain he notes, while conducting the initial investigation himself, carl Leonsi, george Wilson and Leroy Walson so we've got four people writing to their captain observed one or more of the following happening the refrigerator rises approximately six inches off the floor. A 21-inch portable TV set in the living room rises off the table and turns around. This poltergeist loves the TV. Furniture moves away from the wall and falls over. Objects on shelves and hanging from the wall start vibrating and fall to the floor. At no time or any of the vibrations are shifting. At no time or any vibrations are shifting of the house felt. Also observed was a lounge chair where Marsha was sitting that moved rapidly backwards and overturned, and when the officers on the scene tried to move the chair and replicate, they couldn't. It was too difficult. Another patrolman named George F Wilson Jr said quote I saw a large TV slowly make a 90 degree turn away. I'm like maybe he just wanted to watch TV or something.

Speaker 2:

I'm like what show was on every time the TV moved, like what were the top shows of 1974?.

Speaker 1:

It's like look, there's not streaming. Okay, you know, I gotta see what I gotta see when it's playing. So he continued quoting George F Wilson Jr. A bureau bounced on the floor. A couple of times a crucifix nailed to the wall vibrated and pulled itself off. A picture on the wall fell and nearly struck his partner, patrolman Leroy Lawson. Three different reclining chairs bounced around changing position in the room. A large clock I'm laughing about the TV.

Speaker 2:

Wait, I pulled up the top TV shows of 1974. What do you think it was?

Speaker 1:

trying to watch, I don't know. Do you have any guesses for what? The top TV shows of 1974.

Speaker 2:

What do you think it was trying to watch? I don't know. Do you have any guesses for what? The top TV shows of 1974?

Speaker 1:

No idea. Was Charlie's Angels on? No, is that when Dallas was on? It's not one of them.

Speaker 2:

Dallas was in the 80s. Is that what you said, dallas? Yeah, oh, oops, it was in the 80s. Is that what you said, dallas? Yeah, oh, oops, it was in the 80s. So this was my one guess and it's on here. I'm really surprised. Good Times, happy Days, little House on the Prairie were the first three that popped up. Also, Rockford Files, land of the Lost the Muppet Show show look I bet it was little house on the prairie did they like laura? What's her name?

Speaker 1:

laura ingalls, yeah I remember reading all those books, or did they not? Like her? I wouldn't tear apart a house over that show, but you do you.

Speaker 2:

I did like the books when I was a kid.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I do too. Well, now here's a quote to from deputy. Here's a quote from deputy fire chief. I think you pronounce it Zwirline. He called a priest named Father Doyle, the fire firehouse chaplain, and he asked him if he could come by to help the family. He said quote I'm not drunk, but this is what is happening here, father fireman, a fireman by the name of Paul McKenna. He had returned after seeing a lot of crazy things happening with his substance. They witnessed the TV floating and falling and other things fall Like. This is starting to feel like a circus, right. So, and it is because through it all the press starts covering this. It's all over the news. There's a crowd of a few thousand people outside of the house. Some people literally start selling soda and snacks at a huge markup, which is so messed up, oh my gosh, and it's no wonder that the press gets alerted early to what's happening.

Speaker 1:

It's not by the good ends. They do not want this attention. It is so crystal clear. But Ed and Lorraine Warren, however, have entered the scene and this is the first well-known case that they have some involvement in Are you familiar with Ed and Lorraine?

Speaker 2:

Yes, okay, because I think the movie Insidious is like loosely based on one of their cases or something right.

Speaker 1:

I don't know if it's Insidious, but they have been involved with a lot of controversy in a lot of cases and their cases have been at least the basis of a couple of the Conjuring universe A Haunting in Connecticut yes, among Okay.

Speaker 2:

Yes, yes, okay, among others, maybe I got my movies mixed up Okay.

Speaker 1:

Yes, I watched the Conjuring and after that I was like peace out, I'm done. That is not how things happen in real life. They are Sure, they say loosely based. Still I'm like I don't care, I'm good, I'm going to go read about a serial killer instead, something that actually will happen.

Speaker 2:

I'm going to go watch an episode of Dateline. Thank you very much.

Speaker 1:

Exactly, exactly, a mutual contact a woman named Mary Pasquarella who is a self-proclaimed psychic. She contacted Ed and Lorraine. She told them about what's happening in the Goodens' house. Ed Warren so here's what he was in real life he was a former police officer, a self-described demonologist, and Lorraine claimed to be a psychic who could communicate with spirits. Demonologist and Lorraine claimed to be a psychic who could communicate with spirits.

Speaker 1:

They show up with a priest, father Bill Charbonneau, from St John's of the Cross Rectory, and a student at one of the seminaries close by a man named Paul F Eno. One of the first things they do when they show up is a very logical thing they make several calls to the news media, tv stations, which is so like. This family is in trauma. They do this time and time in cases where they claim we don't know what to do, the Catholic church won't help us. So you know, we'll just try to get the word out. So somebody comes over. I don't know about that. I don't want to get too sidetracked. We'll talk about them at the end, because there's a lot more to be said about them, but suffice to say like this is not how a professional whatever you call them would handle it.

Speaker 1:

Because the Goodens absolutely do not want this. When they find out, they are so angry they have them leave and they are just like wash my hands of them.

Speaker 1:

Here's a complication, though that happens. A few other officers come by none of the ones that I've mentioned so far and they notice, and Marsha slyly inches up to the TV and pushes it so it hits Jerry's leg. So they walk aside and they're like I think we know who the demon is, and it's Marsha. They talk to the good ends, ultimately. They talk to Marsha and she confesses yes, she staged some of this. I don't know what to make of this, because how do you stage a floating refrigerator as a 10-year-old girl and like when you have that many people?

Speaker 2:

I don't know. David Blaine could do it. Who is that? Should I know who that is? He's a magician. David Blaine could do it.

Speaker 1:

Who is?

Speaker 2:

that. Should I know who that is, he's a magician. Okay, but she's 10. I don't know, maybe she's brilliant.

Speaker 1:

I don't know she is smart. I mean, they all say she's very smart, but I don't know. When you have that many different people across, I think it's too coincidental. We'll talk about the methodology, though.

Speaker 2:

In a sec I'd be really pissed if my kid kept knocking over TVs Sorry, they're heavy, they're expensive Like come on, what are you doing?

Speaker 1:

Sorry, so clearly. There goes my little house in the prairie theory.

Speaker 2:

Now you don't get to watch any episodes of the Muppets. Way to go.

Speaker 1:

I know it's strange. I think this little girl is just has been through so much. I think she finally saw she was getting some attention that was one of the theories and so she claimed responsibility, or she took responsibility for some of it, like maybe, when the activity kind of died down a little, she would help, you know, kick it up, like stir things up, yeah, which I could see. I mean, I definitely can see that the police superintendent, a man named Joseph Walsh, he gets involved and ultimately he says, okay, guys, it's a hoax. Okay, you know, hands washed, we're, we're done. They recommend Marv should go see a doctor for psychiatric treatment, which she probably just needs anyway, she probably, yeah, needed some therapy for all her childhood trauma.

Speaker 1:

Exactly Now all these accounts, though they were included in William Hall's book, the one that I could not return, the digital copy of after trying multiple times. William was born and raised in Bridgeport and he was 10 when all of these events happened and he remembers them. He is a magician. So my first thought was can he get us into the magic castle in LA?

Speaker 2:

Second, can you recreate all of these things from the book?

Speaker 1:

Yeah. So he wrote a syndicated 1990s column called Magic in the Unknown, which ran for six years in multiple local papers in his home state. He would debunk what he thought was a hoax and then try to explain what you know, try to explain the unexplained. William Hall got all of his documentation. So interviews, videotapes from a man named Boyce Beatty. Boyce Beatty worked for an organization called the American Society for Psychical Research and he was the lead investigator on a study that was performed in December and into, I think, early January, after this crazy week in November, to try to figure out and document what happened. The quotes are direct from that. So here's also the thing. So William Hall, he still, I think even until this day. He wrote this book years ago.

Speaker 1:

But he gives a lot of talks in the local community. I saw he gave one at the library. So honestly, I don't think we always have to question the credibility, right, but I just don't think, given the extensive documentation, I wish he would release all of it. He did some of it in the book, but I'm sure there's confidentiality issues, but just given that. But it would be really bold to go out into the community and basically make stuff up. He's pretty out there. And then I read reviews of the books and I read Reddit threads, just seeing and, granted, this isn't entirely scientific, it's not scientific, but I didn't see anything where people were like that's BS, I knew so and so. But I didn't see anything where people were like that's BS, I knew so-and-so. But I did see comments that were like I knew this police officer or I believe that this happened or I heard about it, but nothing that was like this whole thing is just made up.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, interesting. I mean it's kind of like you said that I don't know is it true or are all of these people in on it? I don't know. It's still kind of like fantastical. So it's hard to like.

Speaker 1:

Right, I think it would be crazy for that many people to be in on it. But then it's also crazy to say like these things defy gravity, because also too, like the police report from Officer Tomet he signed that with another officer and referenced several more. This is documentation that's going in, so they're putting their reputations on the line. After reading the book and looking that extensively at it, I thought I think she did some of it. I think some of it is probably dramatized or made up or maybe lost in translation, but I kind of think there's a lot there.

Speaker 1:

Now, one thing that Boyce Beatty, who did the investigation, one thing he noticed, noticed like he did actual measurements, like they actually had a log of with marcia in the house, like remember at the beginning, when all that crazy stuff happened in the kitchen and I said, remember, she's not in the house, she's in the car and she's asleep. So he had documented when she was in the room, when she wasn't in the room, her like exact proximity. One thing that was speculated too was that there seemed to be, well, there is tension between the mom and the daughter because laura is just so overprotective, yeah, of her. So there's speculation of is it like flint and stone between the two, like, given how close they were to some of these events, that they sparked objects in the physical world to move.

Speaker 2:

I mean, we kind of talked about this a little bit when we talked about our other case that had, you know, potential poltergeist activity that a theory is that it comes from the energy, comes from the people, and it's usually somebody that's like emotionally vulnerable or going through something or, I guess, potentially somebody that has trauma and unresolved things within them that produces this energy.

Speaker 1:

It's just so interesting. It's just so interesting why with some people and not with others, like what is special about that circumstance? One of the theories put out there was there's a multiverse and geotechnical factors in this specific area and the soil conducts electromagnetic fields, and I I read that and I was like I do not have the knowledge nor the intellect I mean, I guess anything's possible, but I it. I just have to say, though, after reading all of it and the stupid book not returning, I was like there's something.

Speaker 1:

There's something here. Maybe we have a listener out there that's going to go do a documentary. I would love to, because they have. They have all that documentation in the interviews that were conducted way back. That I think you could take a closer look, but it's.

Speaker 2:

So you weren't being sarcastic in the beginning when you said this was like the most convincing story that you've heard.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, well, what do you think after hearing all of it? It's hard to believe.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, I didn't read the book, but I'm highly skeptical.

Speaker 1:

I'm like was there nothing else that they could have done to, like, modify the house or to Well, one of the questions is always are they making it up because they want book rights or a movie? I mean, that's totally. I think that's totally fair. But here's why I don't think that the Goodens really, really did not want the attention. They hired an attorney by the name of Victor Ferrante, who they wanted him to handle the publicity and, frankly, to do some damage control, because they didn't want their daughter smeared all over the press. They just wanted to be left alone. This attorney told them do not give an interview without getting paid. They said, no, we don't want to get paid, which honestly at that point would be understandable.

Speaker 1:

Think about how much stuff in their house has been damaged. They're living in a small house. It's not like they're rich. So I could even say, even for like just sheer practical motivations. You could see that. But they never did that. They only ended up doing one interview. It was for free and that's it, and after that they wouldn't talk to anyone about it. They just truly wanted to be left alone. It, they just truly wanted to be left alone. Also, they lost a lot from this. So one thing we know that's real is really awful people. A couple of people tried to set fire to the house. Jerry was teased mercilessly at work. The house was egged. Their tires were slashed. People would chip off paint from. They had swans on their front porch that people observed moving. They'd chip off the paint as souvenirs. Yeah, so I mean, there's always a lot to lose For very like private and practical people. It just it doesn't make sense. Yeah, it doesn't make sense.

Speaker 2:

I guess that's the 1974 equivalent of like an internet troll.

Speaker 1:

Right, I know, at least on the internet, like your stuff doesn't get damaged, right. But on january 10th 1975 the goodens put up their house for sale. It would never sell jerry um. He dies at 70 of natural causes, but 10 years before that Laura would die in a fatal car crash. Jerry and Laura, they kept in touch with Boyce Beatty, the lead investigator that came in after the main events happened. They kept in touch with him and they told him. When Marsha was 18, she decided they weren't good enough as parents. She cut them off completely and she decided to find her real parents. According to the Mansfield News Journal, she dealt with multiple sclerosis and epilepsy over the years and she ultimately died of natural causes at the age of 51, which is really really young.

Speaker 1:

A family member did not want to take her ashes, considering the history of what happened at that house. So this is not. This does not end up.

Speaker 2:

It's terrible for all of them. Nobody can see my face except you. I keep like. My jaw keeps dropping. They were stuck in that house forever. Nobody would buy it, Right? Yep? What happened after they died?

Speaker 1:

Someone else eventually bought it. I don't know details. The only winners from this might be the Warrens. Although debatable. Let's talk about them for a second, just because this was so interesting. I had a dig when I read that they started calling the press right away. I was like that is so messed up.

Speaker 1:

It turns out too, those calls to the press. Ed Warren had the nerve to call Collect, and so the attorney that they hired sent him a bill for the Collect calls, which I was like awesome. There are so many sketchy things about them, the podcast Morbid, which you know I'm absolutely obsessed with and why we're here today. They cover a lot of the cases that they ultimately got involved in that were much more publicized later. I'm not going to go into all of them, but some of the names that might sound familiar the Snedeker haunting, the Smurl haunting. The Arne Johnson murder case, which there was just a Netflix series called the Devil Made Me Do it. Based off of that, the Warrens tried to argue that Arnie Johnson committed a murder because he was possessed by the devil, the demonic possession.

Speaker 2:

I saw that when it came out, but I didn't ever watch it. I didn't either. Like the teaser trailer thing.

Speaker 1:

I just thought demonic possession defense, that is just. I do not believe it.

Speaker 2:

They were also involved with the Amityville horror stuff. Right they were.

Speaker 1:

And Morbid did an episode on it and it sounds like a lot of it was a hoax too. I'll link it because it's just too much to get into. But I think they were honestly involved for Amityville for like a day. The Warrens love themselves some PR for sure. They're always calling the press. And here's some other sketchy things I just have to share that I found about them. So there were cases where they said, oh, we called the Catholic church for help and they said we won't give you an exorcism or we won't help with that. And then the church would say, yeah, they never talked to us, we were never involved in that. So sketchiness there.

Speaker 1:

In one of the cases I believe it was the Spurl case they said Ed Warren said he had tapes of the poltergeist activity but the demon burned a hole through them, but then he wouldn't actually produce the tapes with the hole. So they would claim over and over again to have video and photographic evidence and then they would just never produce it. And this is incredibly troubling too. And this is incredibly troubling to a woman by the name of Judith Penny, who was described as Ed's assistant, came forward and said Ed had moved her into the house that he and Lorraine lived with when she was 15. And they had a full blown affair. Lorraine was consenting. Lorraine was also awful to her during this time. It lasted until just a few years before Ed died in 2006. Oh my gosh, how old was he when he died.

Speaker 1:

Okay, lorraine lived for quite a bit longer, but that's not sure where it happened because there isn't a ton on it, but just enough. So Yikes, yes, very sketchy. And then I found this. At the end, I started laughing out loud Alongside Catholic bishops and retired police officers, ed and Lorraine Warren claimed that they exercised the angry spirit of a werewolf from a man named Bill Ramsey, who would reportedly turn into a wolf man. Previously, ramsey had been arrested for accosting officers. We both got our head in our hands right now, laughing. Previously, ramsey had been arrested for accosting officers, which he attributed to a werewolf demon overtaking him.

Speaker 2:

Did he actually eat bath salts or something beforehand? I think that's more logical, to be honest, Was that the fun treat that you had for me at the end?

Speaker 1:

It's not the fun treat. It's not, oh my gosh, no, no. So the fun treat is it's not, oh my gosh, no, no. So the fun treat is I discovered. So it turns out there is an AI song generator by the name of Suno and you can write in like a quick summary of the song you want it to create. So I wrote in a summary of our episode today and it made a song, and it's actually not half bad, oh my gosh. So I'll play it for all of you at the end.

Speaker 1:

I'm so excited so more scary than this is um ai is gonna take over. Oh, the matrix is gonna happen. Take over. Oh, the matrix is going to happen. Hopefully not until next week. Next week we are going to cover a really gritty, gritty, gritty case. This is a rough one. We're going to go back to Los Angeles and we are going to cover the most infamous and unsolved personally, I think it's solved case in Los Angeles, if not probably ever, and I think solved by the son of the man who ultimately probably committed the crime. In the meantime, stay away from the dark side, because if you don't, you'll make collect calls when a family's in crisis, either because there's a poltergeist or because things are going crazy. Either way, I know that's really unprofessional. Bye.

Speaker 3:

Bye, police knocking out, yet they can't seem to find it. All Neighbors whisper secrets about the place. Fire trucks in the yard, shining lights on the space. Adopted a daughter. She was sent to be their light. Overprotective hearts try to shield her from the night. But the last baby gone left a chill in the air. Cold winds blowing through the halls of despair. Adopted a daughter she was sent to be their light. Overprotective hearts try to shield her from the night. But the last baby gone left a chill in the air. Cold winds blowing through the halls of despair. Holes of ice left her echoes in the walls. Burniture dancing down the haunted halls, frantic voices crying out in the mist and a doubt to the law of tangles.

Speaker 3:

In a phantom twist, spectral figures take a walk in the gloom. The law of time woven in a phantom twist. Spectral figures take a walk in the gloom, phantom footsteps thumping heavy in the room. Every night they lay awake in dread, fearing what was left unsaid. Before they go to bed, an eerie force pulling at the seams, lost within the family's forgotten dreams, trying to protect the life they saved, while the spirit of the past digs up what they craved. But luck has a way of weaving through the dark, casting light on the shadows, leaving a mark With every whispered tale from ages old. They face down the spirits with a heart bold Holes of dice, laughter echoes in the walls, furniture dancing down the haunted halls, frantic voices crying out in the mist, and a thought to love tangled in a phantom twist.