The Enfield Poltergeist
In a council house in north London, furniture moved, knocks sounded, and a young girl spoke in a deep old man's voice.
What was reported
In August 1977, Peggy Hodgson called the police to her home in Enfield, saying furniture was moving and knocking was coming from the walls. A police officer said she saw a chair slide across the floor.
Over the next two years, investigators Maurice Grosse and Guy Lyon Playfair recorded knocks, objects thrown, and eleven-year-old Janet speaking in a gruff voice that called itself Bill. Photographs showed Janet in mid-air above her bed.
Explanations offered
Other investigators, including members of the same Society, caught the children faking some events, and the 'levitation' photographs can be explained as jumping. Janet later said that some of it was faked, but not all. Grosse and Playfair remained convinced.
- When
- 1977–1979
- Where
- Enfield, London, England
- Witnesses
- The Hodgson family, neighbours, police and investigators
- Status
- Disputed
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.