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The Smurl Family Portable

The family, including Jack, Janet, their four daughters, and Jack’s parents, moved into the home after their original house was destroyed by Hurricane Agnes.

The Smurl family remained in the West Pittston home until 1992, when they relocated to a different neighborhood in Wilkes-Barre. They reported that the haunting continued, though with less intensity, until approximately 1994. They eventually moved to Connecticut, and Jack Smurl passed away in 2019. the smurl family

The Smurl case is distinguished by the family's decision to go public, which was unusual for the time. The family, including Jack, Janet, their four daughters,

The Smurl case remains a cornerstone of paranormal lore. It was immortalized in the 1986 book The Haunted and a 1991 made-for-TV movie of the same name. Whether viewed as a genuine demonic encounter or a psychological phenomenon, the Smurl family’s story continues to fascinate those looking for answers in the dark corners of the unknown. They eventually moved to Connecticut, and Jack Smurl

The Smurl Family Haunting: A Decades-Old Mystery Between 1974 and 1989, Jack and Janet Smurl claimed their West Pittston, Pennsylvania, duplex was the site of one of the most intense and prolonged supernatural sieges in American history. What began as minor oddities—a missing tool or a strange odor—evolved into a terrifying ordeal involving physical assaults and unexplained phenomena that eventually drew the attention of the famous demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren. The Beginning: Small Disturbances

By 1986, the Smurls were desperate. They called in the Warrens, who brought a team of priests, psychics, and parapsychologists. Using electromagnetic field meters and thermal cameras (cutting edge at the time), the team recorded massive fluctuations in the basement. Lorraine Warren claimed she saw a "portal" in the foundation—a spot where the soil itself felt corrupted.