The Enfield Haunting
Most Hollywood movies are based on fiction but some were inspired by true events almost too shocking to be believed. The movie The Conjuring 2 is one of the most successful horror movies ever made and it was based on the true story of a haunting triggered by a Ouija board in London in 1977.
In summer 1977 the Hodgson family moved in to a council estate property in Enfield, North London. They were not there for long before strange occurrences began to take place in the home. One night in secret Janet, one of the children of the family, tried to contact the spirits of the house using a home made Ouija board. A few days later on the 30th August 1977 Peggy, the mother, was woken in the night by her two daughters running into her room screaming that their brothers beds were moving on their own and knocking sounds were coming from within the walls.
The following evening Peggy heard a heavy scraping noise coming from an upstairs room. She went up to investigate and found a large wooden chest moving on its own towards the door. She tried to stop the chest from moving but it overpowered her. It seemed that some unseen force was trying to use it to block the doorway.
After this the family experienced many frightening occurrence almost every day. The poltergeist phenomena was even corroborated by visiting police officers who saw a chair levitate nearly an inch off of the ground and float towards the corner of the room. In spite of this and the pleading of the Hodgson family the police didn’t step in to help.
When word got out about what was happening to the Hodgson family many paranormal investigators, magicians, journalists and other interested members of the public flocked to the house to see it for themselves. One journalist from the Daily Mirror even captured pictures of Janet being levitated by the spirits but skeptics claim she was simply jumping from the bed.
One of the most convincing pieces of evidence from the haunting is a recording of Janet speaking in a gruff masculine voice that would be nearly impossible for a young girl to perform. The voice coming from her claimed to be the spirit of Bill Wilkins and revealed details about his death the the young girl couldn’t possibly have known. She said that moments before his death he had gone blind after suffering a brain hemorrhage. Bill indeed had died in his chair in the very same home that the Hodgsons now lived in. Janet’s descriptions of Bill Wilkins were presented to his son who confirmed that it was all true.
Skeptics claim the whole situation was simply a hoax perpetrated by Janet and the adults around her. Janet herself admitted to faking some of the hauntings to ‘test’ journalists but stated that 98% of the activity that took place was genuine.
If you liked this article you may also like learning about how a spirit solved her own murder case or the ghosts of the London Underground.