Many things can be said about investigating cases of alleged hauntings, ghosts, poltergeists and apparitions. However, saying that this avocation is dangerous to one's health is not one of them. Since the dawn of psychical research in Great Britain in 1882, there have been only a handful of documented cases where the phenomena demonstrated discrete malevolent or belligerent behavior, or more precisely, where it actually harmed someone. In point of fact, to the best of my knowledge, there has never been a reported case where the phenomena directly attacked the investigators. Until now, that is.

One of the few contemporary instances that demonstrated such violent activity was The Entity case. The focus of The Entity case, Doris Bither a mid-thirty year-old woman on welfare living in a two-time condemned house with four children, claimed to have been repeatedly sexually assaulted by three male ghosts: two held her down and one raped her.

The Entity case demonstrated a high degree of psychokinetic (PK) activity along with the materialization of three dimensional balls of light that were captured on film. On one eventful evening, the apparition of the upper torso of a large man appeared in a greenish-yellow light in the corner of the bedroom while numerous witnesses watched in stunned amazement. Two friends assisting in the investigation felt their knees buckle and lost consciousness after observing the apparition. That was the last time they accompanied us on any cases.

Somewhat substantiating the psychokinetic hypothesis in this case was Doris’ psychological profile, which was a perfect match for the emotionally volatile, self-destructive stereotype researchers have come to recognize over the decades. However, in all fairness, a retroactive assessment of The Entity case cannot account for the appearance of apparitions anymore now than it could then? Like many other cases from my files, there is a very fine line differentiating true hauntings from poltergeists.

Since most cases never evolve into a full investigation due of the lack of observed and/or recorded phenomena, it was the furthest thought from our minds that we would run into another case that, for the most part, paralleled The Entity in almost every way.

This case began in early 1989 when I received a phone call from Susan Castenada, a woman who claimed that her close friend, Jackie Hernandez (whose maiden name was appropriately, Hazard), was being troubled by ghosts. However, at this early stage, Jackie was excessively concerned about the possibility that we would automatically assume she was crazy and so she would not allow us to meet or speak with her. Adding to the emotional turmoil and frenzy was the fact that Jackie was pregnant with her second child from her estranged husband in a made-in-hell marriage.

We did not hear from Susan or Jackie again until August of that year when Jackie finally gathered up the courage to call me and allowed us to pay her a visit. As we approached Jackie's little, turn-of-the century bungalow in a seedy, run-down area of San Pedro, we had no way of knowing that this case would alter all of our lives in ways we could never imagine.

Accompanying me on the evening of August 8, 1989 was professional videographer Barry Conrad who had been working with me for about eighteen months, Jeff Wheatcraft, a highly skeptical still-photographer and long-time friend and associate of Conrad's, Beth Shatsky, a local photo-journalist, and Larry Brooks, a close friend.

Upon meeting and finally interviewing Jackie at length, it was apparent that she had endured a very intense, hectic life. In fact, in many ways her background and psychological profile were almost identical to that of Doris in The Entity case; a quintessential poltergeist agent (PGA). In other words, Jackie was depressed and anxiety ridden. She had intense generalized anger, distress, pent-up hostilities, massive unresolved emotional conflicts, and a history of emotional abuse in a dysfunctional family environment wherein Jackie was the black sheep. If Jackie had been wound any tighter and more distressed, she would surely have been under a psychiatrist’s care. I believe that Mr. Spock from Star Trek fame would have summed up Jackie’s personality as “A mass of conflicting impulses.”

Immediately upon entering Jackie's house we were overwhelmed by an intense putrid stench of decomposing organic matter and a strong sense of overpressure.....like being at the bottom of a very deep pool at several atmospheres. Interestingly, both of these sensations were present at the onset of The Entity investigation.

While taking a tour of her small, disheveled home and talking with several other witnesses, we kept hearing what sounded like a 200 pound rat running around the attic, an area where Jackie had allegedly seen the disembodied apparitional head of an old man and heard muffled voices some months earlier. We checked out the rather large attic, but found nothing that could account for the loud, recurring noises. We were also told of several incidents where large quantities of water spewed from a two-by-four in the corner of the dinning room as if a garden hose were somehow attached.

We observed a peculiar, viscous liquid dripping down from the inside of the dining room cupboards and we put some in a plastic sample bag. Analysis by a local forensic lab determined it was male, human blood plasma with a heavy iodine and copper content that was strongly oxidized. Jackie related how various pieces of furniture--lamps, children's toys, chairs, framed paintings, etc.--were violently thrown about the house.

Additionally, cans of Pepsi were thrown about and were frequently hurled directly at her. There were numerous instances where electrical appliances behaved as if they had a mind of their own -- for instance, the TV would turn itself on but would be unable to obtain reception.

Jackie's most dramatic claim was the observation of male apparitions. One night while she was pregnant and on her way to the bathroom, she saw a gnarled old man. On several other occasions, she saw another old man sitting at her dining room table. This was not the same man whose head she had earlier seen in the attic. According to Jackie, this apparition was an elderly man in his late fifties or early sixties, wearing a plaid shirt and 1950's-style gasoline station attendant high-water pants. He had a sunken, emaciated look with large peering eyes. Considering an artist's rendering that was drawn from Jackie's description, the image bore a striking resemblance to a very gaunt Ernest Borgnine.

Shortly after this last apparitional sighting, Jackie came close to losing her life while sleeping on the living room floor with Susan Castenada. They slept in the living room to avoid the continual onslaught of phenomena in the bedrooms. A strange, dense, brightly luminous cloud appeared over Jackie's head and began suffocating her. As she started choking in her sleep, the sound awoke Susan who observed the hovering cloud and pulled Jackie out from under it to safety.

After completing the initial interview we began wrapping up and were about ready to go when Larry Brooks casually suggested to Wheatcraft that he go back up into the attic and shoot a few more photographs, just in case anything showed up. Although still very skeptical about the entire situation, Wheatcraft agreed and went to climb back through the tiny crawl space located above the laundry room at the back of the house. After a few minutes, we heard a loud thud and Wheatcraft flew down out of the attic as if the devil himself were on his tail. When Wheatcraft came into the living room where the rest of us were talking, he was literally drained of all color and shaking intensely.

He told us that something had forcefully grabbed his 35 mm. camera and wrenched it from his hands while he was shooting. Considering that this statement came from Wheatcraft, the ardent disbeliever, was rather impressive, even though the rest of us did not witness the event ourselves.

Immediately we again went up into the attic and found Wheatcraft's expensive camera. We discovered that whatever agency pulled the camera from his hands had neatly detached the lens from its body and placed both pieces down on opposite ends of the attic, some fifteen feet apart, all without damaging them. The camera's body lay in a fruit box and the lens on the floor.

While examining the attic in even greater detail and finding nothing to account for what happened to Wheatcraft and his camera, Wheatcraft was suddenly and violently pushed across the attic by an unseen force. Conrad, who was right in front of Wheatcraft with his video camera, witnessed the event and described it as if a very large, invisible hand had shoved Wheatcraft in his back, vaulting him forward. Wheatcraft suffered actual injuries that required medical attention.

At this point we decided to call it a night as the phenomena began to settle down. Needless to say, we certainly did not expect anything to occur during our visit, so the loud pounding noises and Wheatcraft's experiences were a welcome change from the boring tedium experienced while investigating most cases. Except, of course for Wheatcraft.

On September 4th, Jackie called Conrad at midnight complaining of intense activity. Conrad, Wheatcraft and photographer/assistant Gary Boehm arrived shortly together. (Due to a massive heart attack suffered by my father, I was temporarily sidelined for several months during the course of this investigation and as such could not attend several expeditions to Jackie's original house.)

During this visit, small and sometimes large corpuscular masses of light were seen in the laundry room and later in the attic. These optical apparitions were preceded by strange snapping noises and the sounds of heavy breathing, which eventually led Gary to the area below the attic crawl space. While Wheatcraft was again examining the attic in a desperate effort to determine what happened to him on August 8th, something unseen violently attacked him.

According to Wheatcraft, he was walking towards the crawl space where Gary was about to descend, when suddenly he felt a restriction around his neck pulling him up and to his left. As the force tightened its grasp around Wheatcraft's neck, he let out a loud yell or moan that alerted Gary as to his plight. Being a trained photographer, Gary turned toward the direction of Wheatcraft's voice and fired off several shots of his 35 mm. camera while rushing to his aid. The only light available to Gary was the camera’s flash.

Apparently, something had wrapped a plastic clothesline around Wheatcraft's neck, severely tightened it and pulled him up over a large nail extending away from a rafter in the attic's ceiling. The force behind the attempted hanging threw Wheatcraft's glasses off, sent him into momentary shock and rendered him unconscious. As Gary eventually got Wheatcraft down off the nail he discovered that Jeff’s eyes to be glazed over and suffering from deep rope burns in his neck. We later determined that the knot tied in the clothesline was a bowline or "seaman's knot" which none of us knew anything about prior to this event. (See Photo 5)

One thing we did know was that if it had not been for Gary, in all likelihood, Wheatcraft would have died from a broken neck. After attempting to bring Wheatcraft back down to reality and calm his nerves, Conrad and Gary went back up into the attic to search for what almost hung Wheatcraft. Nothing unusual was discovered.

Following this terrifying event, Wheatcraft had to face the disturbing contradiction generated by his otherworldly ordeal. He previously had absolutely no belief whatsoever in paranormal phenomena, and now he had to deal with the fact that a direct encounter almost took his life. Wheatcraft's behavior did not demonstrate any immediate changes apart from the stress resulting from the encounter. However, for good reason he never again returned to Jackie's San Pedro house.

During one of the numerous visits that followed without Wheatcraft, an immense ball of light appeared behind Conrad after which he suddenly lost consciousness for no apparent reason. In fact, Conrad himself did not directly observe the light as it appeared behind his back. Susan, Jackie and others witnessed it.

Another peculiar aspect of this investigation was the fact that our equipment, whether high-quality video cameras, tape decks, thermal imaging devices, 35 mm. SLR cameras or audio recording equipment, would mysteriously malfunction as if the internal electronics were neutralized. Even though we always arrived with freshly charged or new battery packs, most of our systems would inevitably shut down. This type of effect is actually quite common in our investigations.

One noteworthy event in particular was when Beth Shatsky's mini-35 mm. Nikon camera began shaking for no apparent reason while in my hands. I put the camera down on the kitchen table on top of an overturned drinking glass and watched it rapidly rock back and forth while Conrad captured the event on video.

What was not seen by the naked eye, but caught by Conrad's video camera, was the appearance of a small yellow-orange mass of light speeding through the readout window of the Nikon from no apparent source. Later analysis revealed that the diminutive ball of light was the image of a middle-aged man's head, displaying a receding hair line and large dark eyes.

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