The Enfield Poltergeist Tapes
One of the most disturbing cases in history. What really happened? Melvyn Willin
White Crow Books 2019 Pb, 206pp, £11.99, ISBN 9781786770738
In the 43 years since its occurrence, the Enfield poltergeist of 197779 has remained an impressive but controversial case. Investigators Maurice Grosse and Guy Playfair undertook 180 periods of observation at the home of the Hodgson family in Enfield, north London, obtaining over 200 audio cassettes of events and phenomena recorded on a daily and nightly basis. In the course of digitising these tapes for the Society for Psychical Research, Melvyn Willin has listened to all of them, as well as accessing the voluminous documentation. The results are distilled into this book, an impartial retelling of the case.
The most controversial aspect of the Enfield case was the emergence of a gruff, masculine voice from 11yearold Janet Hodgson and occasionally from her sister and brother. Willin summarises the contents of recordings, presenting the edited and often expurgated highlights of this voice, its outpourings and the reactions of the family and observers.
The Voice (as it became known) variously identified itself as different deceased people, whistled, barked, shrieked and imitated a dog. Such mediumistic communications from apparent discarnate beings are present in many poltergeist cases, but the Enfield Voice only rarely said anything meaningful or intelligent. This curious aspect alone proved enough to put many academics off the case, especially when in December 1977 the voice made comments about menstruation.
Seeking further perspectives on the recordings, Willin reviews the longneglected report produced in 1982 by the Enfield Poltergeist Investigation Committee, a group of SPR members who examined the original evidence and reinterviewed witnesses and a hitherto unpublished private report written by Maurice Grosse. Given that the ancient designation of “unclean spirit” provides an apt description of the frequently obscene utterances of the Voice, Willin includes a short chapter comparing and contrasting elements from Enfield with the Mount Rainier poltergeist of 1949 which served as an inspiration for The Exorcist.
Additional insights and reflections from interviews with surviving witnesses of the events of 197779 prove most interesting. Three useful appendices cover people, key dates and phenomena. Avoiding giving any personal verdict, Willin acknowledges that much more remains to be said, including on compelling evidence in the form of photographs and other documentary sources.
The evidential problem with Enfield is not a lack of data but a surfeit. If Grosse and Playfair made one mistake it was assuming this would attract scientists and scholars. Both at the time and subsequently it was suggested that the original investigators were out of their depth. But as this book indicates, all too often it was remote academics who proved illequipped in responding effectively, either to the evidence arising in an ongoing case or in properly comprehending the impact of these events on the lives of a troubled and impoverished singleparent family. This failure to engage and empathise is recognised by Dr Hugh Pincott, interviewed by Willin. It echoes the succinct comment by Grosse and Playfair in the SPR Journal in 1988 concerning the reception their investigation received in academic circles: “There are those, we have found, who are prepared to believe in psi phenomena provided they happened a long time ago and preferably in another country. The suggestion that they happened yesterday evening right here is less welcome.”
In providing a detailed and condensed summary of this complex material, this book will act as a confidenceboosting handbook for openminded scholars willing to probe this impressive and enigmatic case further.
Alan Murdie
★★★★★