The entity, which the family nicknamed "The Old Man," became brazen. It would manifest as a tall, hulking shadow in the hallway. It would whisper obscenities. It attempted to physically drag Jack’s daughter down the stairs.
However, supporters argue that gas leaks don't scratch you. Coal mines don't throw you out of bed. And pipes don't whisper your darkest secrets in a dead language. Jack Smurl passed away in 2018. Until his death, he never recanted his story. He lived in that house for decades after the haunting, a testament to his stubborn grit. He often said that the entity fed on fear, and he refused to give it the satisfaction of moving out. jack smurl
Then the smells arrived. A foul, sulfurous stench that would waft through specific rooms and then vanish as quickly as it came. The entity, which the family nicknamed "The Old
If you consider yourself a fan of paranormal horror, you’ve probably heard of Ed and Lorraine Warren. The famous demonologists are responsible for investigating cases that became The Amityville Horror and The Conjuring . But there is one case from their heavy file cabinet that doesn’t get a Hollywood blockbuster—yet it might be the most terrifying of them all. It attempted to physically drag Jack’s daughter down
Jack tried to brush it off. He was a practical man—a former Marine and a truck driver. But the practical explanations ran out the night the television turned on by itself, blasting static at 3:00 AM, and the crucifix hanging on the wall flipped upside down. The Smurls did what any logical family in the 80s would do: they called the cops. They called the media. They called plumbers to check the gas lines for the smell. Nothing helped.
According to the Warrens, the entity was eventually driven out of the home and "pushed" into the nearby Susquehanna River. The activity subsided, though Jack reported low-level harassment continued for years afterward. Naturally, not everyone believes the Smurl story. Skeptics point out that the family sold the rights to their story to a TV movie ( The Haunted , 1991) and that the Warrens had a financial incentive to sensationalize claims.