Strange Happenings on New York's Long Island

The “Popper” case remains unique in the annals of the supernatural today for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that this became the first haunting that was actually shown on television. Wide-eyed audiences all across the country stared at their television screens in amazement as Popper literally performed for the cameras. These films became the ghost’s claim to fame, but were not the first incidents to take place in the Herrmann house. That February 3 was a day like most any other. It was clear and cold outside and Mrs. Lucille Herrmann, a registered nurse, was there to welcome her children home from school and to prepare dinner. The children were Lucille, 13, and James, 12, two ordinary kids with ordinary interests. Their ordinary world, however, was about to change!

Puzzled, Mrs. Herrmann called her husband, who worked for Air France in New York City, and reported the strange “popping” sounds they had heard and the opened bottles. Herrmann was just as confused by the incident as his wife was, but as no one had been hurt by the “explosions”, he decided that he would not leave work early and come home.

Thankfully though, the excitement over the event had calmed down and the Herrmann’s gave no indication of being upset. With that in mind, they decided to just write the whole experience off as “just one of those funny things.” Two uneventful days passed after that and the popping bottles were almost forgotten.

On Friday night, it happened again! Only this time, when the bottles began to pop open, James Herrmann began to suspect that he knew the culprit responsible for the multiple containers’ strange behavior. He surmised that his science-loving son had somehow rigged the bottles to pop to scare his family. He thought that perhaps some carbonated capsules might have been planted by his clever son and timed so that he could get home from school in time to see the startled expression on his mother’s face.

Many of the letters and visitors were not easy to remain patient with though. Letters arrived in barely intelligible scrawl, condemning the Herrmann’s for their sins and suggesting that they had invited these “tricks of Satan”. Ministers from all sorts of “faiths” conducted rituals on the front lawn of the house. One man in a blue serge suit, who claimed to be a “holy man from Center Moriches”, knelt in the yard and prayed for ten minutes. The he stood and announced: “Everything is all right. You have been forgiven”. With that, he left... but “Popper” remained.

Tozzi considered it anyway though, as he did any other information that came along. His case files became thicker and thicker with added notes, observations, research and facts that he collected. He had checked with the Air Force and after studying their flight plans, they had told him that sonic booms from passing jets could not have caused the disturbances. He also ruled out radio waves by contacting the Radio Corporation of America (RCA). The Long Island Lighting Company had set up a delicate oscilloscope in the basement, but they had detected no underground vibrations. Inspectors from the Town of Hempstead Building Department pronounced the house structurally sound. The Seaford Fire

Department even inspected a well on the property to see if the changes in water level could be causing the disturbances. However, they found that the water level had been stable for at least five years. Although puzzled, Tozzi remained determined and he tried valiantly to discover a source for the happenings.

But that wasn’t meant to be.... No sooner had the workmen completed the installation than a porcelain figure launched itself from a table and smashed against a desk! The figurine had managed to travel a distance of more than 12 feet! It left a dent on the wood that was broadcast to television audiences all over New York.

On February 20, events became even more violent. Another figure was smashed against the desk; a bottle of ink popped its screw cap, then sailed into the air and splashed its contents on the wall; and a sugar bowl flew off the table under the watch of Detective Tozzi. It had been close to James Jr. but not within his reach. Needing a break, the Herrmann family spent the night with a relative. Tozzi stayed in the house, but the rest of the night passed without incident. When the family returned the next evening though, the sugar bowl again flew from the table and this time it shattered into pieces.

Tozzi had become concerned about the new violence in the disruptions. Until that point, the activity had been limited to popping bottle tops. He had attempted every possible explanation that he could come up with and while he was not prepared to say the house was “haunted”, he was all out of fresh ideas. About this same time though, the staff of scientists at the Parapsychology Laboratory at Duke  University , North Carolina, became interested in the events reported in the Herrmann home. This group of men, under the leadership of Dr. J.B. Rhine had already compiled a mass of evidence that supported the idea that certain people, under the right circumstances, could influence the behavior of objects  without touching them. They called it psychokinesis, or PK.

On the other hand though, strong evidence remained for the idea that there was a human component behind the haunting. It had been noted by the Rhine researchers (and remember this was new and groundbreaking material at the time) that an adolescent child, usually a girl, was almost always among the members of the household being plagued by poltergeist phenomena. They believed it possible that this young person might be capable of psychokinesis during the height of puberty. In every case though, this person might manifest this without knowing, making them as bewildered as the adults around them. In the case of the Herrmann house, James Jr. (according to Detective Tozzi’s notes) was at or near the scene of the poltergeist disturbance more than 75 percent of the time. For many incidents, he was the sole witness. However, the detective had completely cleared the boy of faking or causing any of the disturbances.

Pratt then summoned another colleague from North Carolina, William G. Roll. Together, they interviewed the family members and were convinced that none of them were perpetrating a hoax. “The family was much too shaken for it to be a colossal hoax,” Pratt told a United Press reporter.

But this would not be Popper’s “farewell performance”. That event would occur on March 10 while Mrs. Herrmann, James Jr. and Lucille were getting ready for bed (James Herrmann was away on business). Pratt and Roll suddenly heard a loud popping sound in the cellar and they hurried downstairs to see what it was. They found that a bleach bottle, sitting in a cardboard box, had somehow lost its plastic

lid.

Weeks after the household returned to normal, “experts” still came to investigate and to theorize about what had taken place. As last at August 1985, the scientists at Duke still had no clue as to what had happened and why. By this time though, the Herrmann’s had had enough of investigations and just wanted their lives to get back to normal. James Herrmann no longer cared why the disturbances had

taken place, he was just happy they were over.

And what did happen at the Herrmann house on Long Island? No one really knows, as these events remain as puzzling today as they were in 1958!

Sources:

• Hauck, Dennis William - Haunted Places: The National Directory (1996)

• Guiley, Rosemary Ellen - Encyclopedia of Ghosts & Spirits (2000)

• Norman, Michael & Beth Scott - Haunted America (1994)

• Steiger, Brad - Strange Guests (1966)

• Singer, Kurt - The Unearthly (1965)

• Roll, William G. - The Poltergeist (1972)

The events took place at a house in Seaford, Long Island in 1958. There were four members in the family – Mr and Mrs Lessing and their two children, 12-year old Michael and 13-year old Nancy. The events centred on Michael, but this was not noticed at first. In total there were 67 incidents (including three thumping sounds), the first on 3 February 1958 and the last on 10 March.

The Lessings had contacted the police on 9 February. Two days later, a detective was assigned full-time to the case. He was present during six of the incidents, the Lessings reporting the remainder within minutes or hours of their occurrence.

The detective first thought that he was dealing with tricks by the children and warned them that it would be a serious matter if they were implicated in any way. The phenomena nevertheless continued, some taking place when the detective was close by. On one occasion, when he was alone with Michael and a small metal horse fell to the floor close to the detective’s feet, he accused the boy, saying he had seen him throw the horse, which he had not. The detective subjected him to a severe grilling with the boy denying he had anything to do with that or the other incidents. Mr Lessing also accused Michael, claiming the detective had proof he had caused many of the incidents and that it was time to confess. The father said that the boy, driven to tears, only said, “Dad, I had nothing to do with any of it”.

It is true that the children could have caused many of the incidents by simple throwing or pushing. Two classes of events seemed beyond simple tricks:

• Occurrences where adults saw an object move at the same time the children were observed.

• Occurrences when adults were with the children in other areas than the place of the incident.

The event which convinced Mr Lessing that something strange was going on and made the family lodge a complaint with the police took place on 9 February. Mr Lessing said he was standing in the doorway to the bathroom, watching Michael brush his teeth, when he saw a bottle of Kaopectate and a bottle of shampoo on the counter move at right angles to one another. One bottle fell into the sink; the other to the floor. The investigator attempted to duplicate the event on the same counter by placing one of the bottles on a film of wet soap, but the bottle did not move on its own even when pushed (Mr Lessing said that the counter had been clean and dry).

On 15 February, when a cousin of Mr Lessing, Miss Murphy, was visiting, she said she saw a figurine on an end table by a couch “wiggle” and then fly two feet into the room, landing on a rug with a crashing sound but without breaking. According to Miss Murphy, she was talking to Michael, who was sitting in the middle of the couch with his arms folded, when the event took place.

On 2 March, Mr Lessing said he saw Michael’s night table turn 90 degrees and fall over while the boy was lying quietly in bed.

The parents and visitors stated that there were 13 occurrences when they were with the children, which took place either in the presence of the children or elsewhere. Shortly before Mr Lessing had seen the Kaopectate and shampoo fall to the bathroom floor, he was with his wife and children in the dining room when (as reported to the police) they heard noises from different rooms. They discovered that a bottle of holy water and a bottle of toilet water in the master bedroom had fallen over and spilled; the same had happened to a bottle of starch in the kitchen, to a can of paint thinner in the basement, then to the Kaopectate and shampoo in the bathroom. The bottles all had screw caps and the toilet water also had a rubber stopper.

The police officer who responded to the complaint said he was with the family in the living room when he heard a noise from the empty bathroom and found a bottle, probably the Kaopectate, turned over. He had previously inspected the bathroom and was certain that the bottle was not then lying down.

On the evening of 20 February, Mrs Lessing had taken the children into the hallway to get away from the disturbances when they heard a loud noise from the living room and found that a figurine had travelled ten feet from an end table and had broken against the secretary, marking it. When she heard the sound, Mrs Lessing was facing the children and there were two walls between them and the living room.

The last occurrence was on 10 March when the two investigators heard a loud thump and found a bottle of bleach in the basement on its side with the cap on the floor. The family was upstairs and the basement was empty.