Most Haunted

William J Hall. The World’s Most Haunted House: The True Story of the Bridgeport Poltergeist on Lindley Street. New Page, 2014.
A revisiting of a 1974 poltergeist case from Connecticut, centering on an 11 year old adopted girl, subjected to a degree of over-protection amounting to emotional abuse from an adoptive mother, who previously lost a son with profound physical and mental handicaps. The typical poltergeist effects are recounted and the situation is made worse by the arrival of the self-proclaimed demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren on the scene, along with local flash mobs.

Like many such cases if the events occurred exactly as narrated they would be very difficult to explain in conventional terms, though the child is said by police to have confessed and clearly used normal means to produce some of the effects. Regardless of the issue of paranormality the case illustrates the kind of situations that investigators can get involved with, and why in my view those without some background in psychiatric social work and/or family counselling should not involve themselves. It speaks volumes of the situation in this family that the girl at the centre of this case left the adopted home as soon as she was legally able to do so. -- Peter Rogerson