William J. Hall - The Worlds Most Haunted House: The True Story of the Bridgeport Poltergeist on Lindley Street

Praise for The Worlds Most Haunted House

Bill, you are the only person that has the entire story of what happened on Lindley Street. Through your investigation and interviews, you know far more than even I do.

Boyce Batey, former executive director of The Academy for Spiritual and Consciousness Studies, Inc. and lead investigator in the 1974 Lindley Street investigation

This is a page-turning, compelling account of real-life horrora rare and extreme poltergeist case that shattered a family and intrigued both religious and scientific investigators. William J. Halls careful documentation makes a substantial contribution to the field.

Rosemary Ellen Guiley, paranormal investigator and author of The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits

Have you ever wanted to be able to hand over one book to someone who wanted evidence of the paranormal? William J. Halls The Worlds Most Haunted House: The True Story of the Bridgeport Poltergeist on Lindley Street, is that kind of book.

Dr. Andrew Nichols, director, American Institute of Parapsychology

THE TRUE STORY OF THE BRIDGEPORT POLTERGEIST ON LINDLEY STREET

BY WILLIAM J. HALL

Copyright 2014 by William J. Hall

All rights reserved under the Pan-American and International Copyright Conventions. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented, without written permission from the publisher, The Career Press.

THE WORLDS MOST HAUNTED HOUSE
EDITED AND TYPESET BY GINA SCHENCK
Cover design by Wes Youssi/M80 Branding
Printed in the U.S.A.

To order this title, please call toll-free 1-800-CAREER-1 (NJ and Canada: 201-848-0310) to order using VISA or MasterCard, or for further information on books from Career Press.

The Career Press, Inc.
220 West Parkway, Unit 12
Pompton Plains, NJ 07444
www.careerpress.com
www.newpagebooks.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hall, William J., 1964

The worlds most haunted house : the true story of the Bridgeport poltergeist on Lindley Street / by William J. Hall.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-60163-337-8 -- ISBN 978-1-60163-431-3 (ebook) 1. Haunted houses--Connecticut--Bridgeport. 2. Poltergeists--Connecticut--Bridgeport. I. Title.

BF1472.U6H3544 2014
133.1297469--dc23

2014009338

TO MOM, DAD, LAURA, WIL, AND ROBBIE. I LOVE YOU ALL.

Supreme gratitude to Rita Rosenkranz, my compassionate literary agent, and Michael Pye, Laurie Kelly-Pye, Kirsten Dalley, Gina Schenck, and the rest of the wonderful, passionate people at New Page Books. Thanks for everything!

Boyce Batey, without whom there would be no book. Namaste, Boyce!

Paul F. Eno for your time, memories, expertise, and, most of all, friendship.

Jerry, Laura, and Marcia Goodin; I hope my words have given your story the voice it deserves.

A heartfelt thanks to the bravery and honesty of so many witnesses for agreeing to share your piece of the puzzle; most notably Joe Tomek for confiding in me the untold story and providing the long-unavailable police report that is included in this book.

Ray Szwec, for his ideas, ears, and interesting discussions (often daily) as we reviewed the case. Youre an amazing friend. Thanks for being with me every step of the way! (And thanks, Darcie, for being so supportive of it all.)

Bob Bly, who generously gave of his time, his author advice, and supported me in my journey to publication. Bob, you truly are a gentleman and a scholar.

Julie Turner and Nancy Cardone of Jewel Photography for your amazing photography skills and for your generosity and support.

Infinite thanks goes to Valere Bilichka for the post on Facebook asking if anyone remembers the haunting. This post planted the seed that started it all.

To the Bridgeport Police and Fire Departments for their outstanding work here.

And to the many fans that followed the story on Facebook or the Lindley Street website. I appreciate your support!

TRUTH IS STRANGER THAN FICTION, BUT IT IS BECAUSE FICTION IS OBLIGED TO STICK TO POSSIBILITIES; TRUTH ISNT.

MARK TWAIN

The house on Lindley Street is not open to the public, as it is still currently a private residence. As well, the author has made every attempt to contact all people who were originally interviewed for this book; if he has left anyone out, he apologizes in advance and asks that he be notified so that the proper credit and attribution may be given.

What you are about to read is a true story. It is based on over 40 hours of testimony from over 60 witnesses conducted in 1974, 1975, 2013, and 2014.

There are two guiding principles that I feel are necessary when approaching any investigation into something paranormal. The first is Occams razor. This is a principle used in logic and problem-solving that is key when looking at these kinds of cases.

Merriam-Webster defines Occams razor in this way:

A scientific and philosophic rule that entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily, which is interpreted as requiring that the simplest of competing theories be preferred to the more complex or that explanations of unknown phenomena be sought first in terms of known quantities.

Occams razor is summarized for our purposes in this way:

Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary proof.

The second principle is one from science and statistics; it is to prove or disprove the null hypothesis: that there is no difference between two states or sets of data. In statistics, the typical way of proving a hypothesis is to reject the null hypothesis. Rather than trying to prove the validity of your idea (often called the alternate hypothesis), it is necessary to attempt to disprove your idea. The reason for this approach is it makes you use a logical process of elimination prior to accepting the new alternate idea. This practice calls for us to assume that our theory of a poltergeist at Lindley Street is wrong until we can find evidence to the contrary. Basically, the poltergeist is innocent until proven guilty.

Bear in mind that no religion, no belief in a divine being of any kind would stand up to the scrutiny of these two principles. We must, therefore, realize that it is only possible to assemble a certain level of proof. We must then balance that proof by weighing what the totality of the evidence tells us. As Lindley Street investigator Jerry Solfvin and Paul Eno said so well, To those who believe, no proof is needed and to those who do not believe, no amount of proof is good enough.

As a magician, I can easily rig the haunting of a house. Also, fake poltergeist cases usually involve a child, and this has been well established. When they are upset, children may throw things and blame it all on a spirit of some kind. Its not common, but it happens. In those cases, outsiders can usually see through the hoax easily even when a parent cant. The resulting damage is also very limited and the incidents are never seen from the beginning or when the child is not nearby.