Episode 22: The Smurl Family Haunting
It was the calm before the storm that they thought had long been over…
Episode Transcript
When we think of haunted houses, we’ll often recall images of old decrepit buildings sitting at the end of a country road or a top a lone hill. And that makes sense when you really stop to think about it.
I mean, through our collective research, I’m sure a fair few of us have found that spirits—particularly negative ones—prefer dark crowded spaces where they can lurk in the shadows and remain relatively unnoticed. Not to mention, we all know that one house sitting abandoned at the end of our streets or maybe even across town that seems to harbor a haunted reputation.
But as I’m sure you all know, looks can often be deceiving. And throughout my work as a paranormal researcher, I have found that not all haunted houses fit this bill.
Take, for instance, the apartment at 226 5th avenue New York, NY. Dating back to the Civil War era, admittedly the apartment is rather old, but it is far from decrepit. In fact, the apartment is just blocks away from Madison Square—located in a high traffic area of manhattan. And as I’m sure you likely guessed this unit, even in spite of its urban surroundings is supposedly haunted by what the tenants described as a greenish ghost.
So in light of that, I would like you to keep in mind that the haunts we discuss each week on this podcast can crop up in the most unlikely of places. Even in a space that should’ve always remained a refuge.
I’m Courtney Hayes and you’re listening to haunts. Stay tuned…
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By most accounts, the suburb of West Pittston, Pennsylvania is not much more than a sleepy New England town that’s nestled along the banks of the north branch Susquehanna River.
As of the 2020 census, no more than 5000 people called this charming town home—making it an ideal destination for those of us trying to escape the hustle and bustle of the much larger cities scattered about New England.
Not to mention, West Pittston is known for being incredibly safe. And with a crime rate that falls 51% below the national average, well it’s no wonder why this close knit community is popular among growing families and retirees who are looking for a quiet place to spend their golden years.
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Yes, to the untrained eye, West Pittston, PA would likely seem to be an enviable place to call home. But what if I told you that there was more to this township than meets the eye? That something darker was laced into the fabric of west pittston’s history?
Of course, there are many, outside the reach of this podcast, who would argue that New England as whole is the direct result of rather precarious times in our past. And that those stories are just that: history that could never come back to haunt us in our modern lives.
But I would be willing to bet that more than a handful of you listeners would disagree with those claims. After all, many of us know firsthand that history has a funny way of repeating itself when we least expect it.
And when it does sometimes doors will open, that should have ultimately remained closed—granting the darker forces at work access to our small quiet communities. Or at least that was the case for the Smurl Family who moved to West Pittston in the wake of a nightmare all their own.
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It was Hurricane Agnes that flooded the streets of Pennsylvania in June of 1972. And in her stride came the worst natural disaster that the state had ever seen.
As the the storm progressed, she caused over two billion dollars in damages. And to make matters worse, a total 96 families were displaced by the time that all was said and done.
Among them, were Jack and Janet Smurl, who along with their 2 children were forced to leave their Wilkes-barre home thanks to the flooding that followed the storm. As they made the short drive out to West Pittston—their now meager belongings in tow— the family must a have felt that their troubles were finally over.
Of course the duplex at 328 Chase Street wasn’t the single family style home that Jack and Janet had left Wilkes-Barre. But there was plenty of room for the children and they were close to Jack’s parents who had purchased the neighboring unit one year prior.
Yes, this should have been an exciting new chapter in the family’s lives. But what they didn’t know is that this was the very first day in what would turn out to be 13 year long struggle. An unwavering fight between the forces of good and evil—one that would leave the Smurl family caught in between.
So as they settled in for their first night in this new home an eerie silence fell upon them. It was the calm before the storm that they thought had long been over.
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During the first 18 months living in the house on chase street, the Smurls fell into a busy schedule of school functions, work meetings, and extracurricular activities. Being devout Catholics, the family became involved in the local church while regularly volunteering their time to further ingratiate themselves into the community.
So as the family began to make a life for themselves in west pittston, any activity radiating throughout the home would have likely paled in comparison to the hectic demands of their everyday lives. But this is not to say that it went entirely unnoticed.
In fact, even in those early days, something sinister was afoot. Working away in the background, it knocked on walls and moved their belongings around the house. All while leaving a fowl stench along its way.
But the family, being occupied with their day to day routines, likely wrote these oddities off as a side effect of living in an old house that could likely use some remodeling. So, they added one more project onto the plates.
Jack and Janet soon began picking out paint colors and matching them with carpet swatches. They invested even more of their time into repairing, retooling, and remodeling. And in time their little fixer upper turned into a charming home.
Now if you have researched the paranormal as much as I have, then you likely already know that home renovations and remodeling has the tendency to stir up paranormal phenomena. So it should come as no surprise that the strange activity didn’t stop. Quite the opposite actually, as these events were now more persistent and violent they ever had before.
For instance, on several occasions, small spontaneous fires broke out around the home—specifically targeting the family’s TV set, their new stove, and even jack’s car. Not to mention, the family began to notice long jagged scratch marks that marred their fresh coats of paint. All while large grease-like stains started to appear on their brand carpets.
Jack and Janet would spend their evenings, scrubbing away with a carpet cleaner. Only to find that the stain had reappeared by the following morning.
Suffice to say, the Smurl household was taking a deep dive into a rather chaotic sea. And as they continued to plunge into those dark and murky waters, it soon became apparent that they were in way over their own heads.
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To Janet and Jacks horror, it seemed that there was a target on the children’s backs.
It started on a cold winter’s night in 1974, when their daughter Dawn came rushing into their bedroom. In a cold sweat, the poor girl cried out to her parents claiming that people were floating around her room while she tried and failed to sleep.
She ran to her mother’s arms, Janet doing what she could to soothe her. All while Jack got out of bed and trudge to his daughters room only to find that no one was there. Thinking that these visions were the result of a particularly wild nightmare, Jack return to his bedroom and help Janet console their daughter before they all drifted off to sleep.
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This would become a common occurrence for dawn as the years passed. And to make matters worse, the activity seemed to be intensifying. In fact, by the time that they welcomed twins Carin and Shannon to the family in 1977, the activity reached an all time high.
For starters they began to notice problems with the plumbing, their toilets often flushing on their own. Not to mentioned that they would frequently hear disembodied footsteps running up and down the stairs at night. Drawers would fly open without any human intervention and their radio developed the strange habit of turning on and off by itself.
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Now this is not to say, that the children were the only victims of these unseen forces. In fact, Jack and Janet seemed to be targets in their own right.
On one occasion, for instance, Jack was kneeling at the foot of their bed—his head bowed and hands folded in prayer—when he noticed a sickly odor encroaching upon him. The family fanned out, searching high and low to the source of this mysterious stench. But in the end they were never able to determine an apparent cause.
Janet was likely the most affected by this inexplicable activity. Being a full-time stay at home mom, she spent the majority of her time in the house on Chase Street. And as such she became very susceptible to these bizarre events.
Take the following incident for example: on one afternoon while Janet was home alone, she walked down into the basement to do some laundry. As she made her way through the dark dank space, she couldn’t shake the notion that she was being watched.
In spite of this, she did her best to ignore the sensation, continuing on with her chores. But as she began to write off this unsettling feeling, she heard her name being called out from behind her. She turned her head slightly, just out of habit, likely expecting to find one of her daughters at the bottom of the stairs. Then she remembered she was home alone.
By now, it was becoming quite apparent to Jack and Janet Smurl that something otherworldly had taken up residence in their home. And in an effort to project their children, jack’s parents, and themselves, they became determined to reclaim their beloved home. But as we will soon find, this would prove to be no easy feat.
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It was Ed and Lorraine Warren, who eventually came to the families aid. Now I’m sure the vast majority of you are well-versed when it comes to the warren’s and their work, but in case you aren’t allow me to clue you in.
Ed and Lorraine met when they were teenagers at the movie theater where Ed worked. Lorraine being a fledgling clairvoyant had a vision when they met, and after one day spent together, she knew that their paths would forever be in twined.
As their relationship grew from young love to strong marriage, the couple began to make a name for themselves in the world of the paranormal. In recent years, Ed had trained himself in the field of demonology—or rather the study of demons and demonic beliefs.
With Lorraine and her clairvoyant abilities by his side, the couple would venture into demonically infested locations, with the intention of freeing those spaces from their demonic attachments. And that was exactly what they had planned to do when they parked their car on chase street.
As they looked up at their destination, the duplex appeared to be an ordinary All-American home. But as we all know, the family who resided there had been weathering a storm that was 10 years in the making. And well their problems were only getting worse.
You see, before they were put in contact with the Warrens, Jack and Janet embarked on an investigation of their own. They looked into their property records, contacted their local mining office, and even reached out to the church—only to find that no one was willing to help them. And all the while their seemingly demonic housemate, was fighting them tooth and nail.
At this point in their saga, the Smurls were beginning to find long, deep scratches on their bodies and on more than one occasion, members of their families had been thrown from their beds by an unseen force. Then the activity came to a head when one of their light fixtures fell on top of 13 year old Heather Smirl almost killing her in the process. Oh, and I should mention that this traumatic event occurred on the night of her catholic confirmation.
In short, the Smurl family now had their backs against the wall and it was Ed and Lorraine Warren who were their last hope.
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By the time their investigation concluded, the Warrens had arrived at a chilling realization: the Smurl household had reached the second stage of demonic attachment.
I should explain. In terms of demonology there are three phases or stages when it comes to demonic attachments. The first being manifestation, followed by oppression, and from there full blown possession.
And with the family being well into the second phase of this process, the warrens felt that had no choice but to move quickly. After all, in the short time they had spent with the Smurl family, they had witnessed the violent assaults perpetrated by what Lorraine believed to be four distinct negative entities.
So they reached out to the contacts in the Catholic Church. When that lead to a dead end, the Warrens began working through their network of peers and colleagues until they finally found someone who could perform an exorcism on the house at chase street.
Enter Robert McKenna a former priest and ordained exorcist of the Catholic Church. Now while his assistance wouldn't be officially sanctioned or recognized by the Church, what McKenna could offer the family was a glimmer of hope in the form of three unofficial exorcisms.
Now these makeshift rites did at least have some affect—keeping the spirits a bay for short stints after each blessing. However, the respite proved short-lived, as the activity would return with a renewed ferocity after a week or two.
The children began discovering unexplained bruises on their bodies, while Jack and Janet had to fend off sexual advances from an unseen presence. Carin, their daughter, suffered the most, falling ill with a mysterious infection so aggressive that it nearly took her life.
And with that the Smurls had reached their breaking point. Once again they began packing boxes and left the home that should have been their sanctuary. But there story did not end there.
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It was when the activity recurred at their new home that a church sanctioned exorcism became available. One that would ultimately rid the family of their attachments once and for all. Although it came too little too late for the Smurls. Because for the last 13 years, they had been tormented by agents of the damned. And to add insult to injury, their community had turned against them.
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If you’re familiar with the many cases investigated by Ed and Lorainne, than I’m sure you already know that their work has faced an overwhelming amount of scrutiny. We touched on this fact in our discussions of the Ametyville haunting and as we end today’s episode, I’d like to revisit that criticism.
You see, before the Smurls moved out of the house on chase street, they exhausted every resource they could think of. Including but not limited to the mainstream media.
It was August of 1986 when headlines surrounding the small family haunting first hit the press. Jack and Janet, along with their children participated in a handful of interviews recounting the horrors that they had experienced over the last 13 years. On top of that, they contacted more clairvoyants and continued their work with the Warrens—which of course fueled the fire of this media frenzy. Although this likely didn’t have the affect they were hoping for.
By participating in those interviews, the smurls had intentions of asking for help and advice. Or at least that’s what they claimed. But instead, the media, various neighbors, and even a few members of the surrounding community, wrote the story off as a money printing hoax.
And to be honest their critics may have been onto something. After all, a book entitled The Haunted, which documents the Smurl Family’s story, was released less than one year after they moved away from West Pittston. Then a made for TV movie by the same title was released in 1991.
In case you are interested, I will have both variations available in today's show notes. But for now, I'll turn the discussion over to you. Could it be that this story is truly one of demonic infestation? Or does it seem more likely that this is nothing more than an incredibly elaborate rouse? Well, regardless of what the answer may be, I hope you’ll let me know what your thoughts are.
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Credits
Sources
Disclaimer: The following may include affiliate links and I may earn a small commission when you make a purchase. This will come at no additional cost to you. As an Amazon Affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases!
https://www.areavibes.com/west+pittston-pa/crime/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Pittston,_Pennsylvania
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Agnes
https://cdn.centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/1987/01/22165319/p27.pdf
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smurl_haunting
https://the-line-up.com/smurl-family-haunting?amp=1
https://brianfanelli.com/2019/06/17/revisting-the-smurl-story-and-the-haunted-1991/
https://www.poconorecord.com/story/news/state/2017/06/25/jack-smurl-famous-for-haunting/20438473007/
https://www.boweryboyshistory.com/2021/10/new-york-citys-most-famous-haunted-houses.html