The Alleged Smurl Family Haunting, Part 1 | Morbid | Podcast | Forensic Files

okay you guys went ham sandwich and ordered so many lunar dials in the in the pre-sale there like I was like oh my
God you became entire ham Hoagies what is that isn't it like a sub but somewhere else they call them Hoagies
a sub is a hoagie yeah I thought I was gonna say a hub is a sogi well I don't know all I know is that the
[ __ ] lunar dial is going to be available on the laundry shop starting August 1st www that's three W's Dot
wonderyshop.com and that's starting August 1st but if you're not one for the internet that's fine cause you can go
out into the world this is my favorite part and you can go to some of my [ __ ] favorite places Target Target
Barnes and Noble Barnes and Noble and Amazon starting August 1st and you can buy it there baby play the game play it
play it so hard go get it a bunch of Hoagies starting in August August hey weirdos I'm Ash and I'm Elena and
this is morbid [Music] this is morbid that was AI generated literally never we're not those kind of
people we're not those kind of girlies we're not robots we're not robots over here let's just say little feel I little
I feel a little robotic uh oh but you glitched everybody's like Katya my brother hurt your ear sorry
that probably did yeah uh I was just saying speaking of AI or or maybe just like or maybe just you know social media
listening to you oh wait I didn't mean to interrupt you but I'm I'm doing that you did you meant to which I just did to
my shirt okay Sims you're feral uh but yeah we were we're saying how uh Tick Tock
listens to you and apparently according to Ash I've been talking about the Sims a lot because I keep getting stuck
and all of a sudden and I'm not mad about it no what what is Sims content uh just people showing you their Sims
builds and also showing you funny things that happen in the game okay because there's a lot of glitches that happen in
The Sims that are hilarious and there's also a lot of like hidden places you can
go and hidden things you can do like creepy or like like fun things like you can like is this go inside of a of a
tree a fairy tree and go to like a fairy realm that's like a hidden fairy realm I
feel like your kids would love that oh yeah is the Sims ever scary like do like bad things happen I never I can
literally never play that that's wild to me I used to watch you it can be very unintentionally scary because glitches
happen and they can be terrifying sometimes like how so like again it's like a horse Apparently one of the new
glitches there's like a new expansion thing out I guess I don't have this one but I saw a tick tock about it crazy but
one it's like horse ranch is the thing so you can like have a horse ranch and and the horses like bend over backwards
and like walk at you like these crazy like a demon it's like a glitch in the game I feel like that's not a glitch I
feel like that's just like somebody in the office board probably wow yeah that's crazy it's pretty fun
that's the Sims is fun gotta say every I think a lot of people agree with me I know a lot of people a
lot of you play The Sims I know this because whenever I've mentioned it before I post something people like hell
yes and so you know what else people play a lot that I've never played and I don't think you've ever played it either
Animal Crossing I've never played do you remember during the panoramic when um Animal Crossing just like took over the
nation no everyone everyone was buying which Drew wants to buy one and I was like I don't know like I don't know
gamer boy I don't know so I'm not a I'm not a huge gamer I'm not a gamer girl I love I was a Sims
gamer girly yeah and I do love a horror video game sometimes but I haven't played one in like a billion years
because it's you know when but I'm not and I never have been a video game girly like Remember When papa and I was sick
and he got me those computer games The Hobbit he got me The Hobbit in like an aerial game which I [ __ ] loved the
aerial game because you just like put clothes on her yeah like it was like styling Ariel and I was like sign me up
but then the Hobbit I was like do you know me sir but who Took The Hobbit game I gave that right to her she was like
can I play this and I was like yeah I got it the [ __ ] away from me and this [ __ ] over here spent that I was
actually just talking about this recently I was telling Drew about it we were talking I think it was when we were
talking about the Nintendo thing yeah but I was like Elena overtook this [ __ ] game and I passed the point of
me being sick I was cured at this point oh yeah you're just thriving you were on
level after level after level that game ruled and I want to play it again it was
a cool game it was a cool game because I remember at that point when you started
playing I was like could I play now and you're like no I was like no I've always
been no it's a wild thing to think about I think computers scare me I'm on Papa's house
why did it scare you it's a freaky ass room do you remember that room I mean yeah
like the the weird side closet and [ __ ] I think that room was my room at one point that room was also my room I think
it was everybody's room at some point we all like love to switch rooms all the time yeah but yeah I think that was my
room at one point was was that like your childhood room no it was when I was like
a teenager and I was like I want this cool little room to myself and that's funny I don't like this room yeah that
room's honestly that room's too small to be like a room room truly room people like to say the way we say room
oh yeah I've heard people say that because I think people say room I don't think I say it differently we say room
room like room and other people say room like this is my room wait people say room like room this is
my room just it reminds me of brune it reminds me of brune oh no more girl I think they say
or did they say rum room we say rum this is what we're losing all okay everybody's like what we can buy
rooms and video games that was rums rooms and rooms yay I like that but you know what this
is the spooky crazy episode so spooky crazy so it makes sense that we're being spooky and crazy leading up to it this
case was particularly asked for my best friend we love a Dave we love Dave um it is the smurl family haunting and
Dave was like this is a goodie and I was like wow so many wild things happen in this that like oh my God and you know
what this with the name like smirls it has to be good that's one of the things that I thought
that's one of the things that yeah all right so the story of The Haunting really gained traction on August 19
1996. oh in the 80s no it was very 80s but on August 19 1986 that was when a rather interesting news story appeared
in the Wilkes Barre Times Leader and the article was written about the smurle family home in West Pittston
Pennsylvania and the smirl family home was owned by Jack and Janet smirl Jack and Janet Jack and Janet but they
claimed that's their that's their couple songs I was gonna say that's their theme
song [Laughter] claimed that for a period of about a year and a half that they had been the
victims of a truly insane haunt they said their home was infested with ghosts wandering the Halls they were tormenting
the family dog demons were attacking the kids in the house they were allegedly sexually assaulting the adults in the
house oh no it was a truly wild story from start to finish apparently apparently apparently I thought you said
Infested by goats at first too to be honest but then I I took the context clues later that was a pretty good
impersonation I thought it was a goat that just walked in here but it was just that color me a goat
um I don't know why I just like um got you that hard and I I appreciate it really like put us into business yeah I
feel like it was like um get to business so the article in the article in The Times Leader it got a lot
of attention and soon reporters from like all over Pennsylvania and even the surrounding states wanted to get an
interview with the Smurfs of course Prime Time media my guy yeah and the squirrels they were happy to give one
but unfortunately during these interviews like people would come to the house sometimes and all activity would
cease to exist like they could never show what was going on in the house they could never prove that anything had
actually happened I mean yeah even though people couldn't see what had happened with their own eyes the Press
at first and actually even the church believed the smells yeah like you know I I see what you're saying I don't see it
but like I I could see it yeah and like I get that ghosts don't have media training so I understand why they
wouldn't come out be a little shy and it's okay and I think the thing was like what they were claiming thing was so
wild that the people who believed them were like they couldn't possibly make this up yeah like this would be a
reckless thing to make up exactly but after a while though people were like the lack of proof is really kind of like
tugging at us and start people started questioning whether or not they had really experienced any kind of Haunt at
all oh boy so this went from like full-blown hell yeah smirls I'm so sorry you're going through that to like what
the [ __ ] are you talking like are you lying yeah so people just started to talk the whole
thing up to a hoax that was created by the family for like attention and fame and they eventually lost interest
but who knows maybe like something really did happen we don't really know maybe so let's get into the story and
let's get into the key people involved we got John James Jack John James Jack so that's Jack swirl he was born
December 19th 1942 in Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania to his parents John and Mary he was the younger of two kids and
looking back he said that he actually had a pretty ideal childhood I spent a lot of time outside with
friends they would you know go exploring they'd play sports they'd Adventure through the woods in the area yeah I
literally wrote you know side note isn't it [ __ ] wild that kids you just used to go off and play in the woods yeah I
used to play in the woods used to play in the woods yeah in the 80s they played in the well yeah I guess you grew up in
more than 90s yeah it was like late 80s early 90s we were playing the woods I didn't even know that you played in the
woods I was gonna say we were talking to ma about that recently and she would play in the woods oh yeah the woods were
was the [ __ ] before everybody came and made it awful I know we went to like Woods parties in high school but we
never like played in the woods like as a child played in the woods quote unquote
yeah you're not wrong yeah but wow yeah but overall though Jack he was said to be a really easy going kid he was smart
got along with his peers and everybody in high school really liked him um and he went to a Catholic High School
in Wilkes bar called Saint Mary's now even though he did well in school and he was clearly a pretty smart kid after he
graduated from high school Jack was kind of just done with the whole school thing
which is some people are relatable but he wanted to he just wanted like some kind of excitement he wanted a big
adventure and he wanted to go see more of the world than just Pennsylvania where he lived yeah so in the early 60s
pretty much uh the best way to guarantee traveling was to join the military so that's what Jack did and he served in
the Navy from June of 1960 until his honorable discharge in 1965. so he got a lot of travel time under his belt look
at him and it turned out that his personality the fact that he was a worker like he
had a strong work ethic and he was very attentive to rule following it made him an excellent serviceman so he did really
well during his Navy years and while he was enlisted he trained us in I'm gonna try this
electroconclusive therapy technician it was more intimidating than I thought but it turned out that was another thing
he was really good at and he was naturally empathetic and had like a lot of compassion when it came to people
struggling with their mental health so this work was just as rewarding as his time in the Navy was oh
now once he was discharged he had Big Dreams of settling down wanted to get married wanted to start a family and it
just so happened that during his time in the Navy he had met a girl named Janet ah I know her I do too he thought she
would be the perfect girl to eventually marry um he was a little bit older and Janet was in high school when they met
but despite the age difference Jack and Janet hit it off immediately oh Janet was very into school she was kind of
like a bookworm Robert Curran who wrote The Haunted one family's nightmare oh put it that Janet quote had no interest
in the drugs or promiscuity favored by the hippie movement oh yeah [ __ ] those people [ __ ] the hippies yeah okay my
people so Janet was not like that and neither was Jack so that's why they kind of
meshed so well together now their initial meeting was actually pretty brief but Jack just couldn't get Janet
off of his mind as he finished his ears on the service so he was really thrilled
when they met up again by happenstance at the 1967 company Christmas party for Tops chewing gum they actually both
worked there but in different departments oh wow and they didn't realize it until they met at the
Christmas party oh [ __ ] so it kind of seems like they were like meant to be a little yeah go to those holiday parties
guys I used to [ __ ] other companies holiday party some of them are fun some of them are fun so like Jack Janet she
was also raised a devout Catholic so they had similar morals and values and they bonded over those and like I said
their personalities just really seemed to complement each other's so they dated for one year and then they decided to
get married in this massive Catholic Ceremony looking back on the relationship Janet said I think I knew
right away I really liked the way he presented himself and the respect he had not just for me but all the things I
valued I like the way you move that's really what you said I think she was like I like God you do too and the
church is awesome and we like it together you know same thing morals they were like OMG OMG morals have those me too
yeah we love those yeah so Jack and Janet weren't the couple like out and about at parties they weren't joining in
on protests that a lot of people their age were joining in on at this time period but they were just you know
readying themselves to make a family Jack said diving they're just vibing making plans for a fam and Jack said we
both wanted a family and we both wanted to make sure that the family would be raised properly which good old Catholic
folk okay so the early years of Jack and Janet's marriage went really well it was
particularly Pleasant Jack was ever the hard worker he got a promotion and a pay
race and by the end of the 60s Janet had given birth to the couple's two daughters Dawn and Heather which I think
are really pretty names yeah Don and Heather yeah now Janet had left work to be a full-time mom and she said she saw
it as not only quote Her Sacred responsibility but a privilege as well that's cute so she really loved being
about that now as a young couple with two children support two support excuse me it wasn't always easy to make ends
meet on one income so the family ended up moving in with Jack's parents John and Mary smearl into their house in
Wilkes-Barre now living with Jack's parents but Jack's parents that's hard to say and it makes you feel like you're
saying yeah yeah it is hard Jack's parents Jack's parents it's because of the two s's also how biblical biblical
of them is what I meant to say John and Mary I didn't for some reason that didn't that didn't hit before good old
Catholic phone you know just just hit yep you know I was like oh Bible exactly and then we got John and Janet yeah
[Laughter] I wasn't that like only men who knows I don't [ __ ] I think I think it was
probably I think it was a guy's name I think it was dudes just being broke it was Saturday it was for the boys
so they move in with John and Mary not the Christ kind but the other ones living with Jack's parents meant that he
and Janet could save money to buy their own house and they also had John and Mary around to help with the with the
kids so that was an added bonus with the kiddos with the kids a little chicken dues chickadee
Cadets plan hit a major snag in the summer of 1972 when Hurricane Agnes swept through
the East Coast Hurricane Agnes [ __ ] sounds like a [ __ ] like my grandmother's name was Agnes so
I'm allowed to say my mother's name was Agnes she was apparently awesome though yeah
um but like I don't know a Hurricane Agnes feels like she means business yeah she
does sorry like you don't come in being like hello I'm Hurricane Agnes I'm just gonna rain a little yeah no you look
like you [ __ ] [ __ ] up yeah you [ __ ] [ __ ] oh yeah and she did actually the storm
caused billions of dollars in damage really and it actually on a more serious note it actually killed over a hundred
people I didn't even know I have to look up this storm I didn't know that I hadn't heard of it either actually
because I think the first major hurricane in my life I think was Hurricane Bob I think it was on the East
Coast um the one that sticks out to me the most is Ida but she may have been recently I think she was recent I'm
pretty sure I don't know I get them confused but Hurricane Agnes I have not heard of I'll have to look it up me
either but so the so it was a really devastating hurricane for the area but luckily the smells they were lucky in
the sense that they didn't suffer nearly as much property damage as others did and they were actually able to fix much
of the damage but what did happen to them was that the house was actually seized by the city through eminent
domain oh [ __ ] isn't that isn't that when like they can turn it into like a hospital or they can turn it
into or something they can turn it into like something for them yeah for the uh City now that's the thing I was like I'm
not really sure how all of that works but Dave thought that the property was so ruined that they were probably
tearing down the area and redeveloping so the city kind of like took it back wow that's wild but either way now the
family was forced to find a new home that could accommodate the entire smirle family Jack's parents included yeah so
that's six people there's a lot of people that have to find shelter for exactly now luckily though it actually
didn't take long for Jack and Janet to find exactly what they were looking for in a duplex at 330 Chase Street and the
small town of West Pittston Pennsylvania about half hour outside of Scranton Scranton
I literally wrote The Cue Elena office reference you know no I don't know you all know I
wasn't talking to you I was talking to everyone else I know you don't know is it
no it's you Jim what don't worry about it so in the middle of 1973 when the swirls bought
the house Wes puts it it really seemed to be like the perfect area for them the town was filled with a lot of
hard-working young people a lot like Jack and Janet and most of them were like Working Class People again just
like Jack and Janet so once they moved in they wasted no time getting settled and as the quintessential Homemaker
stay-at-home Mama of two Janet got active in this community which this is impressive actually she worked to
establish a girls softball league whoa she joined a local chapter of students again Against Drunk Driving and she
spearheaded the town's Cherry Blossom Festival damn Janet which I was like okay Janet oh yeah what's your wig made
of all right Janet I had to find the other person what's your wig made of cherry blossoms
from the festival I spearheaded what I said that's right Jack was I know seriously he was doing
really well too he was moving up the corporate ladder at tops to a middle management position and he joined the
local Lions Club damn look at him assistant to the regional manager and everything that's office yeah it is so
years later Jack and Janet they looked back on those early years living in that home on Chase Street and they actually
agreed that they were some of the happiest times in their marriage especially in light of all the chaos
that followed so when they found their duplex on Chase Street like I said seemed to have everything they wanted in
a home as a duplex it could easily accommodate the Jack's parents while still having more than enough space for
everybody else so actually Jack ended up selling his parents their side of the living space
for four thousand dollars which would be about 25 000 now which like that's a [ __ ] deal on a it really is on a
whole less home so when they bought the house Jack and Janet didn't really know much about the owner all they knew about
him was that he was an elderly man who had been renting the property out for years but otherwise the house passed all
the standard inspections and all the major utilities Plumbing electric Foundation roof yada yada yada they all
seem to be in perfect working order which made the house feel like a steal at just ten thousand dollars damn yeah I
forgot to put in the translation of that like what it would be today I could see
you were like I want to know how much that is yeah I forgot to put it in it's okay but perhaps there was a reason that
it was that cheap perhaps there was I'm ready to find out what it was so the first stranger currents anybody in the
small family can remember actually happened in January of 1974 just a few months after they moved into the house
Mary had recently bought a large red carpet for her and John's side of the house but when the rug was delivered to
the house and rolled out on the floor they were pretty disappointed because right in the middle there was a huge
dark stain that uh obviously wasn't there when Mary had bought it huh so she was able to get the stain out of the rug
she just used like regular old carpet cleaner but a few days later it inexplicably returned in the exact same
spot almost like she had never removed it in the first place huh so they ended up
throwing away the carpet and they just didn't think much of it they were like well that was [ __ ] weird but maybe I
didn't get all of it like maybe it tried weird you know yeah they were just overall confused about the whole thing
but I should say here that the timeline of the smirle family haunt shifts around
a lot because it seems like when they first went to the Press they said the whole thing lasted about a year and a
half but then the timeline shifts again and again throughout the entire story and I think that was part of the reason
why people started to have doubts okay I honestly I think like obviously a real like true
haunting where you have this evidence and you catch things on tape and like catch things on you know video and all
that that is fascinating and awesome and that's like my favorite kind but there's
something fascinating about one where you question whether a whole [ __ ] family including adults are like
[ __ ] up yeah like that there's something so fat because I'm like you all banded
together why did you do this like what a weird thing to fake is a whole haunting
it's funny that you say that in the way that you did I don't know how to like reiterate how you said it but I'm
excited to see how that there potentially could be a reason not everybody oh felt this way and um I
should mention that we might not get there until uh part two oh sorry I forgot to tell you that we're beginning
spooky season early yeah [ __ ] October somewhere yeah you know so while the stain on John and Mary's new carpet
seemed relatively innocuous in the timeline that they do later put together it was soon followed by a whole slew of
issues in the home that they believed were Supernatural forces okay now just a few months after the rug incident Jack
said that he was watching the TV one night when suddenly the TV burst into flames without any warning or any sign
of a problem will you buried that League shortage he was just watching TV one night and the television burst into
flames he said these ghosts came in like a wrecking ball like it never fell so hard they
never did they were like hey I'm here like what wow that's demon that's pretty demonic that's demonic that's dark
that's given dark-sided or that's given faulty wiring it's certainly that's Sinister Wireless is the problem there
but so that's the thing Jack and Janet were like we got some faulty wiring up in this [ __ ] yeah but then they were
like no everything passed inspection when we bought the house and then that TV Fire was followed by other small
fires in the house their new electric stove caught fire and so did Jack's Car days after he brought it home from the
dealership oh my God oh my God oh my God oh my God there's a fire there's there's a fire what oh my God is that
demonic oh my God oh my God oh my God it's giving Sinister babes what the [ __ ]
what the [ __ ] oh my God oh my God should we leave that in just we were getting we were just
talking about faulty wire and fire then there was a fire oh my God I I didn't even do any I just stared I was just
like oh my God fire I was like these damn they're getting into this right here and I was like I know why did we
continue to yell it in Southern Accents how did that happen um so that just happened I'm like not
even [ __ ] your dicks right now we left on it on purpose yeah and in the beginning it kind of sounds like I'm
being silly no a fire just happened it was not at all we had it what it what happened because you saw it so uh Ash
was talking about faulty wire and and I said fire multiple times wow that was Sinister and all that and then I had I
was just looking at Ash because right now you can't see it but I can Ash is bathed in rainbow light right now
because we have a little Rainbow things on our day yeah because she's so gay and
so I looked and I was like wow she looks she looks so Angelic right now in this rainbow bath and so I happened to look
over to my right and I said oh that that candle is really really going and then I
looked and I was like oh that's a bonfire in our room right now and it just like lit I don't even know what lit
on fire was it like the paper and underneath no no because we have like a little candle like yeah if I guess you
would call that like a candle holder and I think it just she's just lit on fire I don't really
know what happened here that was so scary and she was right next to baffy and she wasn't yeah like my little
Baphomet stuff she was living over there yeah he was like as above let's go but I yeah I don't know what just happened
but that was um terrifying that's interesting real bad I thought it was big I wish you guys had seen it I'm not
like massive but I should have got control of my Constitution and I should have taken a video of it while Mikey put
it out saved us all I just want just one when she says didn't move a muscle she didn't even uncross her legs
from crisscross applesauce no I sure didn't and I just went oh my gosh I forgot everything from stop drop I got
up but all I did was say oh no and stand over Mikey while he put it out and I I did open the door did you just like
just like yeah I but uh yeah that just happened so that was interesting I'm glad we could take
you guys along for that ride but we're okay now well it smells a little crispy in here but we're all right a little
crispy in here it smells like good though yeah it's like crispy candle it's bonfire it's a bonfire that it just
makes me think of how childish Gambino but I'm not gonna sing that so anyways so anyway so anyways Donald Glover no
I'm just kidding um so we got fire at the swirl residence cars electric stoves TVs the whole nine
but to the smells the first few unfortunate events in their home they just kind of dismissed them as like
surprise this is what what makes me lol they dismissed it as surprises that come
along with being first-time homeowners yeah when I didn't know a first-time homeowner my car didn't burst into
flames nor did my television no so like I wouldn't chalk that up no it definitely didn't happen to me either
but but you know everyone's experience is different I suppose it is wow it really does smell crispy in here it does
but anyway some of the issues like you know wiring if that was the case leaky Plumbing those things probably could
have been the result of them buying a house with a pretty long history of unknown repairs
yeah so they chalked it up to that for a minute I see why you don't want to immediately assume it is you know
the dark lord yeah no I never want to go in with assumptions that it's the dark lord I would like to get that I would
like to avoid that at all I can understand but here's the thing there was all see continuance to avoid the
dark lord sorry baffy there was also the fact that when these small problems would come up usually it was Jack or
John his father that would fix them and neither of them had any handyman experience really uh so like that could
have led to more issues yeah but John and Janet they eventually became convinced that there was a lot more to
it after they had installed a new sink and tub into their bathroom they described it as looking quote as if the
talons of some frenzied Beast had clawed at the porcelain oh but maybe they had just scratched it all up during the
installation maybe or maybe it was the talents of of us I don't know you don't know I don't know I wasn't there that's
the thing so a lot of the unfortunate events in the beginning in the early years could be chalked up to you know
poor craft manship and shoddy work but that kind of explanation would not cover the sudden change in behavior of the
smirl's oldest daughter Don in 1975 she started regularly going into her parents
room in the middle of the night and telling them that she had quote just seen people floating around her room oh
now each time they would go into her room and look around but find nothing out of the order they didn't see people
floating unfortunately no no or maybe fortunately for them but like I would find that unfortunate yeah I'd be like
what a bummer I'd be like honestly you just said you saw floating people no [ __ ] me fake fake fan
still but almost every night Dawn would come back and say the same thing like and she wasn't on acid she was like a
child I was gonna say and she was like a child she's a child so for the most part
the unusual and inexplicable things that happened in the small house they were just minor inconveniences disruptions in
their ordinary lives lots of like random noises radios would turn on by themselves drawers would open and close
they would hear footsteps up and down the halls in the middle of the night none of those things seem to have
explanations yeah and whenever they would happen Jack Janet and the kids they would usually just ignore them
because they were kind of getting used to it and it became much easier in 1977 when Janet gave birth to twin girls
Shannon and Karen I believe or Karen I think it's Karen sorry um so at this point the family had their
hands full so the noises were not something they were focusing on yes now there's like two screens now it's noisy
yeah it's noisy so you know like by the 70s and the 80s Jack Janet and the parents they were all so busy with like
the babies and just like other life things going on that they weren't bothering with every little irritation
or like footstep that would happen yeah but that would start to change in 1983 when the couple noticed an inescapable
quote stench of smoke and rotten meat that seemed to permeate the house no matter what they did
oh imagine if your house just smelled like smoke and rotten meat damn and like no no Febreze no incense no flammable
candle I was just gonna say right now it smells like smoke in here but not rotten
but not rotten meat they couldn't do anything to fix it and later Jack would claim that the first time he noticed the
stench was quote while he was kneeling before his bed saying the rosary so it was almost like some kind of
I don't like that Rosary of yours it's very demoning but at the time he and Janet thought that there might be like a
rational demonic denomination [Laughter] abomination spooky cases make us crazy it's usually also fires too I guess make
us pretty crazy but yeah I feel like spooky is usually when we need like a little slow down so yeah that's when we
really just shake out all the goofies yeah you know so yeah they thought that no demons just rations and rationalities
yep so they were worried though that the smell was being caused by subsidence from all the heavy mining going on in
the area at the time so subsidence for those who don't know because I didn't know I also don't know it's when a land
of area an area of land excuse me starts to cave in on itself oh and I guess it smells I don't know I was gonna say that
it's stinky I think that I don't know why they thought it was so smelly but Jack contacted the department of mines
and he was told to check the foundation of the house for signs of cracking and crumbling
but they didn't find any there like there was no evidence that this was going on so once again the smirls were
at a loss to explain the unexplicable happening in their home yeah so since moving into the duplex in late 1973 they
had endured more than a decade of unusual and like sometimes pretty frightening events in their home like
you have small fires and that's a long time to keep up a ruse it is and after a while they said they just stopped
looking for any kind of rational explanation and they just came to terms with the fact that they lived in a
haunted house yeah and they were cool with that for a little bit yeah they were just like you know it's like
footsteps the small fire seemed to stop I guess they figured out a way to make it not smell like rotten meat yeah but
then in 1985 all that changed again because the activity took a dark and decidedly more threatening turn one
winter afternoon in late 1985 Janet was in the basement just you know separating
laundry and running through her to-do list in her head just stay-at-home Mama things and she was loading up the
washing machine while she did this and as she was doing that she thought she heard someone call her name Janet
and so she stood up a little bit straighter and kind of like listened closer just waiting to see if the voice
would call out again and she was just about to explain it away as you know like coming from the TV upstairs or
something when she heard it again a soft female voice calling Janet and it seemed like it was coming
from behind her so she whipped around to confront the voice but like we know no one was there oh so that that experience
seemed to contradict that like everything Janet knew about ghosts and hauntings just from watching TV and
movies it was the middle of the day all the lights were on in the house she was like why would this happen right now but
still here she was trying to listen over the sound of the washer and dryer for someone to call her name again huh and
she said she that she was just thinking about how violating it was having something in her house that she couldn't
see like she was just thinking that when she heard the voice call out her name again oh and this time Janet made horror
mistake movie number no [ __ ] horror movie mistake number one and she screamed at the voice what do you want
oh no you never do that Janet you never do that nope you don't say who's there and you don't say what do you want and
you don't say be right back nope but obviously there was no reply so she made her way toward the stairs and she
started climbing up them slowly backwards all the way to the top because she was [ __ ] terrified oh my god when
you just said that for somebody for a split second I was picturing like in like those scary like exorcism movies
where they like throw themselves backwards and like spider up the stairs so Janet just decided to backbend her
way up the stairs whoa in my head I was like oh my God you said that so casually
but no you just met like a normal person like she was like backing up back downstairs because she was also like
they kicked out thank you for clarifying that for me no problem anytime I said the wrong idea imagine if she just like
like dead girled up the stairs like you know like haunted person no big deal but
as soon as she got to the top she heard her name again like this thing was [ __ ] with her
so she ran to the kitchen and she said she dropped to her knees and immediately started praying and she said that she
continued to periodically return to the kitchen and pray like that for the rest of the night damn and I guess it went
away that's exhausting one would think so according to the smirls they had spent more than a decade laughing off or
you know trying to rationalize the strange events that occurred in their home but this was different this time
something spoke Janet's name it knew her yeah and it was in her home without her
permission yeah so that night she went to Jack about it and she was like I'm not cool with this like this is
something I can't ignore no way we're not on a first name basis here no I person think they are exactly now as a
devotely Catholic couple they had accepted a certain belief in a paranormal world but it was one thing to
believe in it a totally different thing to actually experience of course so they
agreed that they should start looking into options for help but then the topic just kind of fell by the wayside and
they continued about their day-to-day lives that makes sense so a few months went by and you know after Janet's
experience with the voice in the basement nothing happened but then something did happen but then
it happened she had a second experience and this time it was way more convincing
so months go by and then one February morning after she had sent all the girls off to school she was in the kitchen
ironing it's I feel like these these ghosts don't like house chores no they don't though what are you doing they're
honestly just telling her to live a little yeah but she was ironing and she said that she felt a sudden cold chill
rush into the room and she said she looked up from her chores like thinking oh she'd left a window open or something
only to see a quote black human-shaped form standing about 10 feet away from her oh and she later said to be honest I
wasn't sure at first whether it even existed I knew there was a possibility that I was hallucinating or something
but then it started moving toward me and I knew then that there was no doubt about it the thing whatever it was was
real very real oh but before the mass started moving toward Janet she just stood there not
really wanting to run or like move any kind of muscle that would alert it so she just stood there holding her iron in
one hand and staring at the mass in her kitchen she said eventually quote This is Wild a cape fluttered from its back
but was what was most upsetting was that the face had no features at all huh a cape
so it was a superhero no it was stylish oh excuse me obviously sorry I thought a
superhero I mean maybe who who am I to say well we don't know who this is I'm not the local Authority I'm not either
I'm big it could be either figures it could be a stylish superhero you know we don't know so she said the thing didn't
appear to be a solid Mass she could kind of see through it slightly and she said
it was the height of an average man but all of the sudden the shape again moving
toward her and she's just standing there Frozen in place with chalk and it just kind of like moves through her like like
moves like no you know nope now I don't I don't want you know how that happens and then like you just let the mask yeah
just just move right through you you don't know about that no I don't me either but Janet does and she said after
a minute or two had passed she finally composed herself enough to look around the room but it was gone oh because now
it's inside of you I think I don't know I'm worried for you Janet or maybe it like went through a wall or something
because I also just thought about the cape thing stylish and superhero are both like pretty innocuous you're like
that's fun yeah what if it's like Jack the Ripper he's always wearing a cape white literally know that you were gonna
in the pictures he's always wearing a cape and it's wild because you have a Jack the Ripper like um Pub thing behind
you oh yeah and he that's a that's a black figure yep with a cape about the height of a man oh I don't love that I
hate it I don't love that I hate it so a few minutes later she kind of went through the house and like checked the
other rooms but just like the voice she had heard in the basement there was no sign of this figure anywhere so when she
was sure that it wasn't hiding anywhere in the house she went over to her in-laws side of the house and knocked on
the door not really sure what the [ __ ] she was gonna tell her mother-in-law but
sure that she needed to talk to like anybody about what just happened now for as long as Janet had known her
mother-in-law Mary Mary had been this warm comforting presence in her life but on that day there was something very off
about Mary oh so the two of them sat there in the living room Janet you know just trying to figure out how to explain
what the [ __ ] she had just gone through to marry when Mary leaned forward and said to her I have to tell you something
Janet oh no There's Something About Mary there is so Janet could tell that Mary was really upset so she was like okay
like yeah tell me and Mary goes maybe you won't believe me Janet I don't know if I Believe Me Maybe I'm getting old
and then she explained that she had been sitting in the living room praying a short time earlier when she saw what
appeared to be the hazy black shape of a man come through her wall as though it had simply walked through a door from
Janet's side of the house damn the form the form Mary told Janet I was sitting here in my chair saying my
I don't know when I felt some kind of presence I looked up and saw this black form up here it walked past me and
disappeared so they both had the same experience like whenever the shape left Janet's
just went straight to Mary it went through the wall to Mary's side of the house wow so even though it really look
like it's doing anything though it's passing through it's just vibing yeah he seems like he's just observing
seeing girlies go to lunch with each other yeah the ladies who lunch just like do something you know at least he's
not being well not yet you know I assume this this doesn't stay as docile I don't know how she is right
now I don't know so even though they were both still scared absolutely shitless they were both a little
relieved that they both seen the same thing and you know they weren't necessarily losing it yeah it was
validating to know that they weren't hallucinating or having any kind of episode and that validation only
strengthened Janet's belief that they couldn't wait any longer to do something about this like this presence in their
home was getting more and more frightening as the months and days passed yeah but the problem was that
Jack hadn't seen what his wife or his mother had seen and he was still very much of the belief that there was a
rational explanation for what was going on I don't know how you rationalize like
a black shape-shifting thing with a cape walking through your house but that's so
Jack talk to Jack about it that's so Jack to try to rationalize yeah you know very Jack thing to do it is I agree yeah
so a few more weeks passed without any unusual incidents in the home and you know Jack and Janet suspected that their
ordeal was over it just ended one day yeah but their hopes went down the drain later that spring when a light fixture
in the kitchen Came Crashing Down out of nowhere almost landing on Janet and Heather who luckily managed to get under
the table to avoid all the falling debris but Shannon that one of their daughters
on the other hand didn't move out of the way fast enough and the large fixture caught her in the shoulder and knocked
her down to the floor oh so Jack he looks up at the ceiling and he was shocked because when he sees the hole in
the ceiling it didn't look like the light had just Fallen it looked like it had been ripped out of the ceiling he
said by some kind of force what what yeah so this incident reminded them about their commitment to find Outside
help for this problem they were experiencing but they didn't know where to start Janet said after that we spent
hours days weeks talking to people who might possibly be able to help us but unfortunately a lot of the people that
the smirls reached out to in the beginning weren't really taking them seriously yeah because remember this is
like the 80s and everybody's like what the [ __ ] are you talking about not a lot of people had gone through
this before no now one of the people that they reached out to just implied that maybe they were watching too many
horror movies and were letting their imaginations run wild wow and Jack and Janet were really pissed off about that
yeah I would be pissed off too right yeah so by the late spring the haunts and the smell house had asked escalated
considerably and now included physical assaults oh this is strange okay so in one instance Jack claimed that he woke
up from a nap to find himself suspended in the air above his bed and at first he
thought that he was still dreaming but as he emerged from a sleepy State he realized that he was very much awake and
after thrashing around in the air for a few seconds he dropped from the air and landed back on the bed with no sign of
what had caused this experience um I the only thing I can think of is he turned 16 years old and he became a
witch finally I'll ask Sabrina the teenager he had already turned 16 long ago so it doesn't work it doesn't I
don't know if they I officially don't have an explanation that was my explanation there's no explanation no
it's it's going to get particularly steamy here oh so weeks after that on a particularly steamy night in more ways
than one in June Jack and Janet had just finished getting together if you're picking up what I'm putting down good
for them I know you know and they were laying in bed together when suddenly something grabbed Janet by her ankle and
started pulling her from the bed a la oh the movie we were talking about this morning Paranormal Activity oh so Jack
grabbed a hold of Janet and he held tightly onto her as whatever it was that was trying to do whatever it was trying
to do with her was trying to rip her from the bed still oh my God he said it was like a tug of war going on I was
holding on to her as hard as I could because I had no idea what the thing wanted to do to her but the harder I
tried to keep her next to me the harder it pulled on her oh I hate it now after a few more seconds whatever was pulling
Janet abruptly let go and just seemed to vanish huh and it left behind a horrible
odor and started banging on the walls as it left so it farted I it kind of did I guess
and then it I was trying to think and then it banished itself wow now that's rude
right after they finished their you know moment together sure the moment together it tries to steal her and then
can't so just farts like that's so shitty it is that'll ruin any hope of a Encore
like whatever just happened yeah that's a bummer I know so in the months that followed the assault on the small house
continued and got worse and worse day after day Jack and Janet said they could hear the hissing of phantom snakes ooh
drawers and cupboards opening and closing on their own and heavy footsteps of course walking up and down the Halls
at night so they were totally still at a loss to do for what to do because they're still even reaching out to
people and getting door slammed in their face everywhere they go so Janet started reading about the
supernatural in any book that she could get her hands on and she also started keeping a diary of all the things that
were happening in the house and then soon one afternoon in early 1986 a call from a friend changed the
course of the smells lives in ways they never could have imagined you don't say I do say
after a Blessing by their Parish priests failed to resolve the haunting Jack and
Janet were starting to lose hope but then a new solution presented itself in the form of a phone call from Janet's
friend Carla I knew it was going to be Carla who was going to break this wide open tell John yeah so Carla and Janet
had been friends for years and Janet had confided in her girl Carla about all the
things going on in the house and especially how much it had been affecting the family because at this
point it's affecting their relationships with one another yeah clearly you got a
piece of ghost so Carla mentioned that she had come across the name of a professor professor nope who taught at
Marywood College which was a private Catholic School in Scranton Scranton Pennsylvania I thought I thought you
were gonna do the whole thing I was going to but I thought it would be annoying and then I almost went to sing
it but then my brain said to sing the bluey song but anyways so Carla's like hey I know
this professor who teaches at a Catholic school and he has been studying the subject of demonic possession and it
kind of sounds like that's what you're dealing with wow that's pretty awesome but convenient I know super convenient
but after all the negative experiences that Janet had contacting like academics like this in the past she wasn't very
hopeful she was actually kind of worried that it was going to be a waste of time
but she was like you know what my friend Carla is my good girl I'm gonna listen to her what do I have to lose let me
appease my friend here and give this guy a call so she does and the professor at
Marywood College explained that his interests in the subject was purely academic and he really didn't think
there was much he could do to help but he did provide them with the contact information of two people who could most
definitely help two people are you talking about Ryan and Shane from BuzzFeed unsolved no
as much as I [ __ ] love those two individuals I'm talking about Ed and Lorraine one
I bet you didn't even couldn't tell I could never have guessed I said I bet you didn't even couldn't tell I didn't
even couldn't have told you were correct in your assumption oh man and he described them as a
professional psychic researchers that quote have even been hired by the United States Army [ __ ] yeah which I know
nothing about I don't either look at that now by the summer of 1986 Ed and Lorraine they had built up quite
a name for themselves on the talk show circuit and among certain circles uh you know for their involvement in dealing
with the supposed Haunting of George and Kathy Lutz's house in Amityville New York I don't know if you guys have heard
of that one I don't know maybe you've heard of this one the claims of demonic possession in the murder trial of uh
Arne Johnson oh have you heard of that one Elena covered it and there was a bunch of other things that they were
known for so some people had faith in Ed and Lorraine but most people were deeply
skeptical skept skeptical even about their methods and motives and the more vocal Skeptics and scientific
investigators usually pointed to documentation of fraud surrounding the Warrens like the Lutz's admission of
fraud in the Amityville case oops as evidence of their sus intentions yeah now for their part Ed and Lorraine
always maintained that their intentions were good and that Lorraine had powers as a psychic medium and those were
genuine Powers Yeah she said we have a single message we want to get across to people there's a demonic underworld and
that on some occasions it can be a terrifying problem for people hey which like I agree with seems legit pour one
out for Lorraine now after a brief telephone conversation with the smurls Ed and Lorraine were
pretty sure they could actually help the couple so they agreed to travel from their home in Connecticut to
Pennsylvania as soon as possible and in their initial interview with the smirls Ed and Lorraine it kind of ran
through their standard battery of questions regarding the couple's familiarity with Satanism use of Ouija
boards practice of Witchcraft all the activities that the Warren said could lead to a demonic infestation
you know yeah obviously you know that now as Ed Warren continued his interview with the smurls
when they finally got out there Lorraine started exploring the house and she was
accompanied by her friend Rosemary who also claimed to have psychic abilities and also had a baby what no maybe I
actually have no [ __ ] idea I picked up what you're putting down now the two psychic mediums immediately
sensed the presence of evil oh no and you won't get that unless you watch SpongeBob but it seemed to get stronger
as they made their way up the stairs to the second floor of the house huh and after exploring the second floor when
they reached the door to Janna and Jack's bedroom they sensed that they would find whatever it was they were
looking for behind that door oh but they checked the bedroom and they found nothing in the actual bedroom
all that remained was to look in the couple's closet so they did now up to that point Lorraine and rosemary claimed
to have identified three ghosts in the small home two were benign and one was very angry now later when they were
assembled at the kitchen table Lorraine presented the profiles of the entity she
believed were haunting the smells home the first was an elderly woman Lorraine said that she was quote probably senile
but not violent she's just confused okay the second Spirit was a young woman Lorraine described as and this is her
words not mine an insane violent Spirit who might want to harm you oh but she said the spirit could be quote dealt
with through prayer and then there was the third ghost a man with a mustache Who quote possesses the ability to carry
out great harm oh man so Lorraine is a mustache it's the mustache always so Lorraine has some problems everywhere
what did I say in Buffy the other day they always tell lies don't trust them never they always lie yeah listen to
Buffy the re-watcher do it Kane admitted that other than that she received no information from this specific ghost at
that time or entity but finally they got to the fourth entity in the house which
I believe they found in the closet and they said this demon Lorraine said was there to quote create chaos
and destroy the family oh [ __ ] destroy them damn Total Domination prepare for Total Domination domination domination
and then the Sparky is doing the actual the actual dance fantastic bring it on now once Elaine had finished presenting
you know her spirit profiles on Bumble just kidding Ed took over the conversation he told Jack it's like I
said before Jack I suspect that the demon has been in the house dormant for decades but one thing I know is that
your girls reaching puberty gave the demon energy gross okay I don't love that I don't
even like it I I actually don't perceive that I just don't perceive it I don't accept it um he said Ed to Jack he said
his he told them about his belief that adolescents possessed a ton of psychic energy that had the potential to attract
and even activate non-human entities leading to all manner of Panera paranormal phenomena
oh mother of cheddar broccoli soup dinner of a you pick two are you getting a cookie on the side
Jack because it's time to end this [ __ ] it's gonna be hungry business no I'm glad you
didn't have paranormal phenomena there you go he told the family quote you should get the broccoli
you're like a battery it draws on for power it's a real psychic explosion it wants to keep you and your family
confused and afraid that's why it often appears to only one of you at a time oh which is true okay so based on their
initial investigation Ed and Lorraine concluded that in addition to the three ghosts haunting the house a demon had
latched onto the smells and was drawing energy from the family and because it was able to draw this energy from the
family it was growing more powerful and more aggressive and it was wearing on them day after day after day Janet
remembered as we listened to the Warrens and rosemary talk I remember feeling a strange combination of release and or
relief and Dread The Dread came from knowing that Ed and Lorraine and rosemary were confirming our worst
suspicions our had been taken over by a demon a Daemon and the rest you'll have to
wait to hear in part two but their house had been taken over by a [ __ ] demon y'all it certainly has and Panera it has
and yeah cheddar broccoli soup everywhere that's the kind of haunt I'm in fortnite
seems pretty Rad but a little sticky and smelly eventually smelly oh maybe it wasn't just cracked the code
shredded broccoli soup went to Panera uh Panera it's fun to say it like that do you ever say Panorama instead of Panera
I wonder when they opened huh we'll update you in part two part two we'll let you know when Panera opens and
if it was their fault so yeah we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it but that's where you don't get it you
pick two after this because why wouldn't you [Music] oh [Music]

On August 19, 1986, a curious news item appeared in the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader regarding the home of West Pittston, PA family Jack and Janet Smurl. The couple claimed, for more than eighteen months their home had been a battleground of spiritual warfare that included everything from ghosts wandering the halls and tormenting the family dog to demons attacking the children and even sexually assaulting the adults in the house. The article in the Times Leader began a weeks-long fascination with the family and their ordeal, drawing reporters from all over Pennsylvania and the surrounding states, and eventually attracting the attention of self-proclaimed demonologist and psychic medium Ed and Lorraine Warren. At first, the Smurls' claims of demonic infestation were taken seriously by the church, many members of the press, and countless of the Smurls neighbours. As time wore on, however, the inability of both the Smurls and the Warren’s to produce any evidence of their supposed haunting led many to believe the claims were just a hoax perpetrated by the family for attention and fame. Thank you to David White for research assistance

References

Citizen's Voice. 2017. John James Smurl obituary. June 23. Accessed July 5, 2023. https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/citizensvoice/name/john-smurl-obituary?id=15953106.

—. 1986. "Ghosdt briefing turns into shouting match." The Citizen's Voice, August 26: 5.

—. 1986. "Haunted family negotiating movie deal." The Citizen's Voice, September 6: 2.

Collins, Jim. 1986. "West Pittston Mystery: Is basis murder or mishmash." Scranton Times, August 22: 3.

—. 1986. "If you like sideshows, there's one close to home." Times-Tribune, August 31: 23.

—. 1986. "Screen exorcist Jason Miller visits site of demonic doings." Times-Tribune, August 22: 3.

Corbett, Steve. 1986. "Family: Home is under siege by evil spirits." Times Leader, August 19: 1.

Curran, Robert. 1988. The Haunted: One Family's Nightmare. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press.

—. 1986. "Brain surgery revelation casts demon dwelling doubts." The Scrantonia, August 24: 15.

—. 1986. "Smurls credit prayers of many with cleansing house of demons." The Tribune, October 27: 3.

DeAndrea, Francis. 1986. "Different kind of scare job." Times-Tribune, August 30: 3.

Kurtz, Paul. 1987. "A case study of the West Pittston 'haunted' house." The Skeptical Inquirer 11 (Winter): 137-146.

Lancaster New Era. 1986. "Scientists, priest skeptical about 'demons' in house." Lancaster New Era, August 23: 1.

Morning Call. 1986. "Demons: Exorcisms fail to end family's nightmare." The Morning Call, August 22: 3.

Porter, Jill. 1986. "A demon by any other name." Philadelphia Daily News, August 29: 2.

Rotstein, Gary. 1986. "Bedeviled: Town is divided over 'haunted' family." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 25: 1.

Shurmaitis, Dawn. 1986. "Demonologist says family is 'under attack'." Times Leader, August 19: 12.

Singleton, David. 1986. "Publicity has cost haunted family." Danville News, August 23: 1.

Trosky, Pat. 1986. "Are ghosts haunting West Pittston family?" Citizen's Voice, August 20: 3.

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Brief Summary

The Smurl family experiences a haunting in Pennsylvania, leading to paranormal investigations by Ed and Lorraine Warren.

Key points

The Smurl Family Haunting. A wild story of a family tormented by ghosts, leading to media frenzy.
Hurricane Agnes Strikes. The Smurl family faces devastation as their home is seized after the hurricane.
Janet's Community Impact. Janet became an active member of her community, establishing a girls' softball league and more.
The Mysterious Carpet Stain. After buying a new carpet, a mysterious stain reappears, leading to confusion.
The Voice in the House. Janet hears a voice calling her name, leading to a terrifying encounter.
Janet's Chilling Encounter. Janet experiences a ghostly figure in her kitchen, leaving her terrified and confused.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

The Sims can be unintentionally scary!

3:15WatchAug 8, 2023

Tension

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