THE ILLINOIS POLTERGEIST

Recently, and while researching for new material to share on this blog, I was fortunate to come across this archived newspaper story regarding a case of poltergeist activity in Illinois, USA on August 17th, 1957, and reported in the  Daytona Beach Morning Journal.

The paper stated that a `newspaperwoman` named Mrs Wayne Soltwedel, a journalist for Joliet Herald News said that whilst she was visiting a home in the town of Rest Haven, Illinois, USA, a soap and soap dish `flew off the bathroom wall`, and a stuffed kitten literally "jumped" off a television set twice, and magazines slipped mysteriously from an end table to the floor.

Mrs Soltwedel was assigned to look into the complaints of a Mr and Mrs James Mikulecky, and their 15 year old granddaughter, Susan Wall, that `spirits had been bothering them`.

They cited the following activity and events.

A week ago, after they had gone to bed, a crotcheting needle which had been placed on a sewing box in their patio, came flying into a bedroom. They restored the needle to the box but it soared out again - this time landing in the living room.

Later during the week, a shoehorn from a bathroom medicine cabinet flew into the living room.
A salad Mrs  Mikulecky was preparing to toss, tossed itself all over the kitchen floor.

Typical representation of poltergeist activity

Apparently chairs moved up into the air unassisted, and as high up as 5 feet, and in the end the family abandoned the home to seek refuge with a relative, Mrs May Viasek, about half a block away. But it didn`t help.

At the Viasek home, potatoes jumped without aid out of the sink. Additionally, tomatoes leaped upward and splattered the kitchen ceiling, and a cabbage struck Susan Wall in the back of the head.

While ironing one day Mrs Mikulecky found herself surrounded by bouncing mothballs.
Considering another flight, Susan began packing but twice had to retrieve a tube of toothpaste that wouldn`t stay in her suitcase.

At this point, police were notified, and Mrs Soltwedel paid a visit to the Viasek home. She says she is mystified by the apparently free movement of lifeless objects in the house.`

Of course then, a possible explanation for such activity would have been blamed on ghosts, `demons` or fakery, but this case draws strong similarities to the activity of the `Rosenheim Poltergeist`, a subject covered on this blog previously, and can be reviewed HERE.

The common denominator in both incidents was a young female. Anne Marie Schneider at Rosenheim, or in this case, Susan Wall who `took` the poltergeist activity with her from her grandparent`s home, to the Viasek house. It seems more than possible.that the activity may be produced by a subconscious psychokinesis with the then teenaged Susan, which led to her being completely unaware of the causation.

Sadly, I cannot find any further reference to this incident, and one can only assume that as Susan reach maturity, the incidents stopped.

Another curiosity for me was why Susan wasn`t living at home with her parents. Could poltergeist activity there be the cause, or was the move to her grandparent`s the catalyst required to trigger these events?
We will probably never know.

Story: Chris Halton
Reference: Google News Archive