The Mammoth Book of True Hauntings

by Haining, Peter

  “At first I thought it was just a ghastly dream. But then I woke up and saw a creature bending over my bed. Its top half was a goat and the bottom half a man. I’ve also seen it with the animal half in the shape of a wolf. Once I put my arms out and felt the middle of its body, it was definitely a man’s body, but with that horrible animal head. Its presence was unbearable.”

  Debbie said that she always knew when something weird was going to happen. She saw strange lights moving around the room which experts told her were “spirits visible only to psychics like myself”. These lights manifested themselves particularly strongly after her marriage to Nick Field, son of the famous comedian Sid Field:

  “We were just about to make love when Nick shuddered and said, ‘Look at your chest!’ I looked down and found my breasts were covered in black hairs. I suggested that Nick must have had his hair cut recently and the clippings had fallen on me. But he hadn’t had a haircut for weeks. Then the hairs started to come away and part of the room started to light up again with one of those peculiar lights.”

  Debbie Watling helped to rid herself of these terrifying visitations thanks to a psychic group run by Lee Everett, widow of the comedian Kenny Everett. Later, she was even able to make a joke about the unwelcome visitor to her bed:

  “For a time I thought the experiences could have been a sexy practical joke by Nick’s father, who died in 1950. I feel I know him and he absolutely adores me. I’d go so far as to say that he says, ‘Hm. I’d like a bit of that!’ when he saw me in bed!”

  Reports by a number of doctors and psychiatrists reveal that ever since the 1970s there has been an increasing number of accounts of people in Britain and America – mostly women – suffering attempted rape by ghosts. There have also been dozens of accounts in the press of woman claiming to have been “assaulted” by phantoms – and although some have been rightly dismissed as sexual fantasies, the evidence of the remainder points to the fact that the phenomenon known as “Spectral Sex” might just be a reality after all. What has made some of the reports particularly intriguing has not just been the victim’s story, but the physical evidence of bruises, scratches and even bite marks on their bodies that examination has shown would be extremely difficult to self-inflict. Again, I have selected a few of the more authentic cases as well as one unique personal account which must rank as the most detailed case of the sexual rape of a woman by a ghost on record.

  What became a flurry of reports of sexual assaults by supernatural beings began in the 1970s with cases like that of the so-called “Smurl Poltergeist Haunting” in Pennsylvania. Accounts in the media told of a young female being sexually molested by what was compared by a local clergyman to an Incubus. The girl’s father had also been pinned down, paralysed and then raped by a female demon the churchman referred to as a Succubus. The tabloid press preferred the term “randy ghosts” and the story was soon the inspiration of the film, The Entity (1981) about a woman who is subjected to a series of sexual assaults by an invisible ghost.

  In Britain, the early examples of similar stories were a little lower key such as “The Ghost That Left Love Bites”, which appeared in the Sunday People in March 1975. According to the paper’s reporter, an amorous ghost wearing miner’s boots was haunting the home of the Gladwin family in Worksop, Nottinghamshire. His attentions were particularly directed at eighteen-year-old Beryl Gladwyn who told the People:

  “He visits me between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m. and gets into bed with me. First he tugs at the bedclothes and then I feel him next to me in bed. It holds my hand and starts kissing me and biting my neck. I’ve never been so frightened in my life.”

  Len Gladwin, Beryl’s father, decided to call in a clairvoyant, Simon Alexander, to observe the dangerous spirit. His report confirmed the family’s fears:

  “After sitting in the room as Beryl lay in bed during the ‘haunting hours’, I sensed a presence outside the door. It was a malevolent spirit and first of all it tried to get me to leave by making me feel ill. I had to fight really hard to stay. Then it materialized in the room. It was trying to dodge me and was very difficult to get in focus. But I could clearly see pit boots and a miner’s baggy, herringbone trousers held up by a belt with a big buckle. It tried to get into bed with Beryl and kiss her. She was trembling with fear. I am sure he will make love to Beryl unless something is done soon.”

  A lustful ghost with a more violent approach was featured in the Daily Mirror in March 1978. The spirit first manifested itself to Lorraine Price of Weoley Castle, Birmingham, but apparently quickly shifted its attention to her twenty-year-old younger sister, Jenny. The frightened girl told the newspaper:

  “It first touched Lorraine about three years ago, but no one told me. Then I was sitting up in bed one night when I felt invisible hands round my neck. They had great strength and tried to push me down on the bed. I was frightened and I tried to scream. I thought the ghost was going to strangle me, but then I realized it had other intentions. A week later, the ghost returned. I realized it meant no harm and I began looking forward to his visits. Sometimes they occurred as often as three times a week.”

  According to the Mirror, as time passed the biggest problem the Price family had was getting Jenny out of bed. She seemed intent on staying there waiting for her invisible lover to return. Jenny confessed:

  “It begins with a kiss on my shoulder. Then hands come under the covers and caress me before he gets into bed beside me. I just let him do what he wants and he does it beautifully. He can certainly love!”

  Jenny Price offered little indication as to the appearance of her phantom lover unlike nineteen-year-old Margaret Hardie of Stockton-on-Tees who told her story to Sydney Foxcroft of the Sunday People five months later. He was a bald-headed Victorian gentleman who announced his arrival by slipping his hands under the bedclothes during his regular visits. Margaret revealed his “regular visits” in an interview in August 1978:

  “I was lying awake in my bed one summer night when the apparition first appeared. It was some time after midnight. I heard a thumping on the landing and then the bedroom door flew open. The bed shook and the bedclothes were slowly lifted. A hand slid slowly down the outside of my nightdress from my shoulders to my legs. The hand rested on my legs. I felt paralysed.”

  As Jenny lay shivering, half-exposed and wondering what was going to happen next, she got a clear look at her spectral seducer.

  “I saw a bald-headed man, in a Victorian cape. He kept his face hidden from me. He then spoke, ‘Come to the bathroom, Margaret.’ He said it four or five times. I didn’t move – I couldn’t. I don’t know what he wanted me to go to the bathroom for. Eventually, I let out a scream and my mother ran into the bedroom and found me wringing with perspiration. After that experience, I slept downstairs – but the ghost just kept following me. I never believed in ghosts until now and I’m hoping we can persuade this Victorian gentleman to leave.”

  A ghost who returned to the same house after a gap of a quarter of a century with seduction in mind made headline news in June 1979. The story was told by Denise Dyke, a seventeen-year-old living in a council house in Cannock, Staffordshire to William Daniels of the Daily Mirror. She was lying in bed when the figure of a man she thought looked like a poacher materialized from a wardrobe and came towards her:

  “He grabbed my arm and touched my leg and then seemed to pin me down on the bed. He ran his hands all over my body. He had broad shoulders and black, greasy hair and was wearing baggy trousers. A few months later he came back again. I was asleep and awoke to find him standing by the bedside. He pulled back the covers, breathing heavily. I tried to move, tried to scream, but I couldn’t do either. Then he was on top of me, laughing.”

  Denise’s mother, Flo, told the Mirror that she heard the sounds from the bedroom and rushed in to her daughter just in time to see the figure beginning to dissolve. Mrs Dyke continues the story:

  “It doesn’t need much imagination to see what he’s after when he starts pinning my daughte
r to the bed. But I saw enough to recognize it was the same ghost who had attacked my eldest daughter twenty-six years before, just after her seventeenth birthday. He even materialized from the same wardrobe to attack my middle daughter when she was seventeen, too.”

  The story attracted widespread attention because of the three sisters having exactly the same supernatural experience at the same age. Suggestions that it might have been a case of a sexual fantasy repeating itself were difficult to justify because of the time lapse between the experiences of the three girls and the fact the attacks ceased as soon as each of them reached the age of eighteen. The consensus of opinion was that the visitations were real.

  An ex-nurse from Liverpool, Gill Philipson, was also absolutely certain that a ghost sexually molested her for over ten years from 1984 to 1994. She told The People in June 1996 that she had regularly been awoken in the middle of the night to find a hooded figure with grey wrinkled skin on top of her:

  “Every time I felt the figure pressing down on me. I was paralysed and unable to scream to attract the attention of my husband who was sleeping next to me. On the advice of two paranormal investigators I took a relaxation course and the attacks have become less frequent. I hope they have now disappeared forever.”

  The same newspaper ran a similar story about Jill Cook of Blackpool who had been raped repeatedly by an invisible entity for about four months in 1994. She explained that the entity would wake her up, speak to her and then push down on top of her. It would then fondle her genitals before raping her. Again Miss Cook was told that her attacker was probably an Incubus. The People reported that she had been advised to fill her room with electrical goods as these would block out the “mental signals” being given off by the ghost.

  Which brings me to probably the most authentic case of spectral rape on record. The facts were gathered by researcher Lee Allane and published in Forum: The International Journal of Human Relations. The events occurred on 9 August 1980 and describe what happened to a twenty-six-year-old South London woman – whose anonymity was preserved for reasons that will become apparent – as she was getting undressed ready for bed. As she slipped off her skirt she was aware that someone was calling her name. She was a little puzzled as she knew her parents were asleep upstairs and there was no one else in the house. She takes up the story here in her own words:

  “The voice was faint and taunting, as if someone close by was whispering. It was definitely a man’s voice so I automatically assumed that my father must have woken up and was asking for something. But when I went upstairs to find out what he wanted, both he and my mother were asleep. Now I’d got used to the eccentricities in my parents’ house – creaking doors and unidentifiable groans occurred all the time – so I dismissed the voice and returned downstairs to continue getting ready for bed.”

  It was a warm and humid night and the young woman was conscious that her clothes were damp with perspiration and were sticking to her body. She began to unbutton her blouse when a series of sensations changed her attitude to the supernatural and ghosts forever.

  “The cool evening air which was drifting in from the open window moved affectionately between the fabric of my clothes and my flesh. It felt good. Then it became intense as if I was actually being touched – as if there was a hand inside my blouse. I’d had a very strict Catholic upbringing and always felt uneasy about sex. I’ve only slept with a man twice in my entire life and both times were a total disaster. I know in my mind that there’s nothing evil about making love to someone you care about – but it’s hard to shake off your upbringing. Masturbation is even worse. So when I felt my body reacting, it was like getting something I wanted without being held responsible for my actions.”

  The young woman’s first impression was that the whole thing happening to her was just a fantasy. The combination of the night, the humidity and the wind arousing her body. But as soon as she moved any such illusion was shattered.

  “When I touched my breast, my hand was pushed away. ‘No,’ I heard someone say, ‘let me, my pretty. Let me.’ I was terrified. Someone was talking to me, touching me, pulling at my blouse. It wasn’t fantasy – it was real. I tried to move, but I couldn’t. I felt this incredibly strong arm around my waist and this hand inside my blouse, fondling my breasts. I tried to scream, but my screams were drowned by this voice whispering, ‘Pretty little face, pretty little tits, pretty little pretty.’

  “I don’t remember what happened then, except that I was undressed. My blouse and skirt were on the floor. And someone, something was pressing me down beside them. I could feel his hands all over me, squeezing my nipples, running up and down my thigh – toying with the elastic of my panties. My body seemed to be alive with hands. And then tongues. A tongue was in my mouth and in my ear, prodding me, licking me, I couldn’t see his face, but I could feel him all over me, crushing me. And his voice – I could hear his voice whispering, taunting. “A good fuck, my pretty. You’ll feel better after a good fuck.”

  The girl admitted later that at that moment she was no longer afraid. She no longer felt she was going to be hurt. When she felt the spirit’s hands inside her panties she let him slide them off her. She no longer resisted. She let whatever was going to happen . . . happen. She was conscious of nothing else until she awoke next morning.

  “I found my body was covered in scratches. My vagina was sore and there were traces of blood on both my clothes and the carpet. When a doctor examined me he put the incident down to ‘hysteria’ caused by repressed sexuality. And the local priest who was called in by my parents said I had been the victim of an Incubus. But the doctor could not explain how someone who had bitten her fingernails, as I had done since I was a child, could have left deep scratches in the middle of my back. Nor could our priest understand how any demon could have ignored the crucifix I always wear around my neck . . .”

  The evidence of these pages, I think, clearly indicates that “Spectral Sex” in any of its various forms is a phenomenon that deserves further study. The suggestion that it is “all in the mind” will not convince any of the men and women quoted here that their experiences with the unknown were pure fantasy. For them, amorous ghosts are an undeniable fact.

  I have just one last story of a sexual ghost to tell. But it had a rather different purpose. It was told to me by an American writer, William F Nolan, author of Logan’s Run (1967) and a skilled writer of ghost stories. In 1969, he says, director Martin Ritt was filming The Molly Maguires about a secret society trying to improve the lot of miners in the coalmines of Pennsylvania during the 1870s. Location shooting took place at Eckley, unflatteringly described as “the ugliest town in America”, which did nothing to improve the temperaments of the three stars, Richard Harris, Sean Connery and Samantha Eggar. The filming in such an inhospitable location resulted in a number of delays, says Nolan, and the notorious womanizer Harris took every opportunity to pick up any spare women. But he had not bargained on a prudish resident ghost who, unlike his fellow spirits, objected to sexual shenanigans. Nolan explains:

  “Another actor who was there said that Harris pursued skirts relentlessly. However, whenever he managed to get a girl into his motel room and was about to make out with her he was rudely interrupted. A ghost would appear and scare the hell out of the girl. There was nothing Harris could do to stop these visitations and it completely ruined his love life for the entire making of the movie!”

  Sunday People, 25 January 1981

  News of the World, 21 July 1974

  Sunday People, 25 October 1981

  Sunday Mirror, 23 September 1979

  Daily Mirror, 11 June 1979

  8

  What Are Ghost?

  The Theories of the Experts

  In an article for the London Evening News on 17 April 1931, M R James, the master of the ghost story, discussed the genre and picked some of his personal favourites including Charles Dickens, Sheridan Le Fanu, Algernon Blackwood, Walter de la Mare and his friend, E F Benson. He explained h
ow he first became fascinated by ghosts – watching the cut-out cardboard figure of “The Ghost” in a Punch and Judy Show as a child – and in response to the question as to whether they existed, added, “I am quite prepared to believe they do.”

  A great many of the contributors to this book share James’ opinion, although there are almost as many opinions as to what ghosts are as there are opinion makers. By definition a ghost is a dead person who appears to the living. Yet a living person can also appear to another person – perhaps across a very great distance – which has allowed the ghost of earlier times to become the apparition of the modern day.

  Ghosts have, of course, been reported by people from all walks of life, every degree of intelligence and literacy, and in every country of the world. Yet, if they are a “mental aberration”, as some have claimed, then the aberration is common to a very large number of people. Just as puzzling as the idea of accepting that ghosts exist, is the question as to why particular places acquire a reputation for being haunted, regardless of whether they are old or new. And why should people who have no connection with one another and may visit a place weeks, months, and even years apart have the same uncanny experience?

  What does seem to be true is that ghosts should not be dismissed as nonsense because they cannot be observed at will and no one knows precisely what they might be. Their appearances are due to factors about which we cannot be certain; and no one knows the criteria for a place to become haunted. However, there has been a tendency for spirits to appear at times of great stress, perhaps even the moment of death, giving rise to the term, “crisis apparitions”. Some experts have also looked for clues in the fact that ghosts have frequently been seen during the course of buildings being demolished.