The Smurl Family -

For a year, the Smurls lived upstairs, terrified of the door at the bottom of the stairs. The activity died down significantly. But the curiosity was too much. Jack, wanting to retrieve Christmas decorations, eventually opened the door. According to his testimony, as soon as he stepped onto the top stair, the lights exploded, and he was hurled backward into the kitchen, landing with a broken wrist. The Smurls eventually moved out in 1988. They sold the house at a massive loss. The new owners? They reported absolutely nothing unusual for decades. The house on Pennsylvania Avenue stands today, quiet and unassuming, with a basement that is now a finished game room.

Initially, the entity behaved like a bored teenager. Pictures flew off walls. Bedsheets were ripped off sleeping bodies. Dishes stacked themselves into precarious towers in the middle of the night. Jack tried to rationalize it—settling foundation, faulty wiring, pranksters. But then the shadows started moving. Dark, human-shaped silhouettes would dart from room to room, seen only in the periphery. the smurl family

In the mid-1980s, the Smurls—Jack, Janet, and their three daughters—became the epicenter of one of the most documented, divisive, and terrifying poltergeist cases in American history. It wasn’t just a ghost that rattled chains; it was a multi-layered siege involving psychic phenomena, demonic oppression, and a legal battle with the Catholic Church. For a year, the Smurls lived upstairs, terrified

For most people, a “fixer-upper” means peeling wallpaper, creaky floorboards, and a stubborn water stain on the ceiling. For the Smurl family of West Pittston, Pennsylvania, it meant something far worse. It meant a doorway. They sold the house at a massive loss

This is where the Smurl case diverges from typical poltergeist lore. Janet claimed she was attacked physically and sexually by an invisible entity. She reported being pinned to the bed by a crushing weight, unable to scream. According to the Warrens, this was not a ghost. It was a demonic presence—specifically, a low-level demon posing as a deceased relative to gain trust.

Ed Warren was blunt: "You don't have a ghost. You have a demonic infestation."