THE STORY
Reported Haunting
The West Pittston duplex occupied by Jack and Janet Smurl became the center of a nationally publicized haunting during the 1970s and 1980s. The family reported unexplained knocks and bangs, foul odors, moving objects, shadowy apparitions, voices and alleged physical attacks. Ed and Lorraine Warren investigated the home in 1986 and characterized the activity as demonic, although the claims remain controversial.
The Smurl family haunting is one of the best-known American paranormal cases of the 1980s. Jack and Janet Smurl moved with their family into a duplex on Chase Street in West Pittston, Pennsylvania, where they later claimed to experience years of increasingly disturbing supernatural activity. Reports included unexplained knocking and banging, foul odors, doors and fixtures moving on their own, furniture shifting, shadowy figures, voices, physical attacks and other frightening phenomena. Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren became involved in the case in 1986 and concluded that several spirits, including a demonic entity, were present. The claims attracted national media attention and inspired the book and television film The Haunted. The supernatural interpretation of the events remains disputed, and later occupants reportedly did not experience the same activity.