In the summer of 1977, single mother Margaret Hodgson called the police to her council estate apartment in Enfield, London to report that she and her two daughters, Janet and Peggy, had seen furniture move in the apartment and were hearing strange noises coming from within the walls. That simple albeit unusual call set in motion a chain of events that would thrust the unassuming Hodgson family into the center of a debate about the existence of the supernatural and forever associate them with one of England’s most notorious paranormal cases, the Enfield poltergeist.
Over the course of roughly eighteen months, the family claimed they were subjected to a variety of supernatural harassment that ranged from moving furniture and knocking in the walls to disembodied voices and even involuntary levitation. Soon after the report was made to the police, the story attracted a variety of news outlets and paranormal investigators, all determined to either prove the case a genuine poltergeist or a hoax perpetrated by two adolescent attention-seeking girls.
Nearly fifty years later, the case remains controversial among skeptics and believers, all of whom want to know what exactly did happen in the Hodgson's apartment and who—or what—is to blame for the disturbances.
Thank you to the Amazing Dave White (of BRING ME THE AXE PODCAST) for research and writing assistance!
References
Amin, Meghna. 2022. "Man behind photos of the Enfield poltergeist ‘still can’t believe’ what he saw." The Metro, October 28.
Brimmer, Ryan. 1978. "Ghost Story." Daily Mirror, March 30: 20.
Cambridge Evening News. 1978. "Pitfalls facing psychic investigator." Cambridge Evening News, March 31: 18.
Couttie, Bob. 1988. Forbidden Knowledge: The Paranormal Paradox. Cambridge, UK: Lutterworth.
French, Chris. 2016. Five reasons why London’s most famous poltergeist case is a hoax. June 17. Accessed October 7, 2023. https://www.timeout.com/london/blog/five-reasons-why-londons-most-famous-poltergeist-case-is-a-hoax-061616.
Grosse, Maurice. 1977. "Poltergeist in Enfield." The Observer, November 20: 16.
Hyde, Deborah. 2015. "The Enfield 'poltergeist:' a sceptic speaks." The Guardian, May 1.
Nickell, Joe. 2012. "Enfield Poltergeist." Skeptical Inquirer 36 (4): 12-14.
Playfair, Guy Lyon. 1980. This House is Haunted. New York, NY: Stein and Day.
