10 Disturbing Possessions And Exorcisms That Really Happened

After hurricane Agnes damaged and flooded their home, Jack and Janet Smurl moved into a Chase Street duplex in West Pittson, Pennsylvania. Like every horror movie ever made, the paranormal activity they encountered was initially benign with rapscallion ghosts hiding tools and unplugging kitchen appliances.

Presumably having grown bored of their childish antics, the ghosts infesting the house quickly became hostile: the family’s German Sheperd was tossed against the wall, one of the daughters was badly sliced by a falling light fixture, and Jack told his missus that a succubus dragged him around the bedroom and raped him. Understandably terrified of the sexual assaulting entities whose voices mimicked the entire family, Jack and Janet sought help from the church.

Similar to The Conjuring’s Perrons, Ed and Lorraine Warren investigated the Smurls’ home and declared it was haunted by a powerful demon who manipulated three other spirits to oppress the family: a harmless grandma, an old man who died in the house, and a violent young woman. The Warrens performed a group prayer to draw out one of the entities, and in the middle of the session the house started shaking, a voice ordered them to get out, and two female ghosts of the colonial America era dashed through the halls.

With the help of parishioners and several priests from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Scranton, Ed and Lorraine performed an exorcism that was successful until the ghosts returned years later. Tired of being punching bags, the Smurls moved out of the duplex in 1987, and subsequent owners have reported nothing unusual ever happening.