Almost 50 years later, the mystery of the Enfield Poltergeist continues to stir the minds of paranormal enthusiasts. Daily Mirror news photographer Doug Bens and young reporter and photographer Graham Morris witnessed the poltergeist in Enfield (North London), and this story not only made them famous but also accompanied them throughout their lives. Recently, Apple TV+ launched a four-episode series titled “The Enfield Poltergeist,” depicting the events that took place in September 1977 in the municipal building at 284 Green Street.
It all started when a reader from the Nottingham Gazette called the editorial office and reported hearing strange noises in his neighbor’s house. According to 83-year-old Doug, he had dealt with calls from readers talking about ghosts before. So, being convinced that this was something from the same category, he and Graham set out for the specified house mentioned in the phone call.
When the reporters arrived, they found Vic and his neighbor, single mother Peggy Hodgson, with her three children—14-year-old Margaret, 11-year-old Janet, and 7-year-old Billy—inside the small house. “We went inside, they offered us tea. Nothing happened at all. We talked to the family and learned their names. We saw the two girls and the boy playing. We met a concerned neighbor, and nothing was happening. We had tea and left,” recalls Bens.
However, before the men could reach their car, they heard Vic scream, “It’s happening again!” They rushed back and saw objects flying around the room in the house.
“Lego bricks were flying everywhere, and one of them hit Graham. It’s hard to say how many, but it was a relatively short period, about a minute. Two girls were screaming and crying. The mother was in a state of shock. Vic Nottingham tried his best. There’s no doubt they somehow planned it,” says Doug.
As Graham had a bruise on his face, the newspaper staff immediately rushed back to the office, astonished at what they had witnessed. For the next few days, Doug returned to the Hodgson house every evening with Graham and senior reporter George Fallows. When nothing more happened, they sought the help of the Society for Psychic Studies, which investigates paranormal phenomena.
Soon, experts Guy Lyon Playfair and the late Maurice Grosse visited the house. Doug and George then reported on the front page of the Daily Mirror on September 10, 1977:
“Over the past eight days, a saucer leaped across the kitchen, furniture shifted, and balls and toy building blocks flew through the air.”
Although Doug witnessed only flying Lego cubes, Graham captured an image of Janet, who was likely suspended in the air. He set up a camera on a tripod in the corner of the children’s bedroom. Attached to it was a long cable that descended into the living room, allowing the Mirror photographer to take pictures whenever he heard a sound from above and also recording the sound on a separate device. The result was a photo of Janet hanging in the air above her bed in a nightdress, with Margaret lying at the other end of the room with a look of horror on her face.
Many paranormal enthusiasts later actively used the photo to prove the presence of the poltergeist, but Doug himself remained skeptical.
“She wasn’t levitating; you can see that from the photograph,” he says. The pensioner explains that this perspective was part of the illusion. “If you know anything about photography, you lower yourself, and the world looks different,” he adds.
However, over the next 10 months, the house witnessed numerous dramatic and paranormal events, including the hurling of new objects across rooms, levitation, and recordings of the daughters speaking in demonic voices. Reports also came in of knocks on the walls, and, most horrifyingly, Janet would sometimes speak in a deep, gruff male voice, claiming to be Bill Wilkins, the former tenant who died in the house.
“The girls were terrified. They were clearly very disturbed by this. It was all very hard for them,” Doug continues. Later, the sisters admitted to staging some paranormal phenomena, but Bens is convinced that something unusual was happening in that house.
“I wouldn’t use the word ‘supernatural.’ There was something I couldn’t explain. Something strange was happening in that house. I believe there are energies and forces that we cannot measure and understand,” emphasized the former photographer.
He is convinced that the intervention of the Society for Psychic Studies somewhat worsened the family’s problems. The family did indeed need help, but the attention they received sharply increased after the “real paranormal investigation turned into a farce.”
“For the family, it was horrifying. There are forces we do not understand. I haven’t seen ghosts, but funny things were happening in this house,” Benes concludes.
Most of the poltergeist activity was centered around Janet, and in 2015, she explained that “only 2%” of her stories were made up.
“I knew, of course, when voices echoed, I had this feeling as if something was always behind me. Levitation was frightening because you didn’t know where you would land. I remember having a curtain wrapped around my neck; I thought I was going to die,” the woman confessed.
The story has long stirred the minds of skeptics and even became the basis for the horror film “The Conjuring 2” and a series of documentary films.