Profile: Rutherglen poltergeist case

REPORTS that a poltergeist case in Rutherglen is being investigated by police has made headlines around the world, revealing a widespread interest in the phenomenon.

Such ghostly behaviour is often attributed to mental health issues of the humans witnessing the activity but in the Rutherglen incident police officers reportedly saw evidence of the paranormal.

They apparently witnessed clothes sailing across a room, lights going off for no reason, and a dog, which had been romping in the garden, suddenly appearing atop a seven foot hedge.

The woman and her teenage son who were living in the house had endured two days of weird incidents before calling the police in distress.

According to the Daily Record, in a story that has been picked up globally, a police source said: “Officers with more than 20 years’ service are saying they’ve never seen anything like this. It really is something that down-to-earth police officers are having trouble getting their heads round. How do you handle what, despite us not liking to use the word, has been described as a poltergeist?”

On the request of the police and the support of the family, a priest from the Roman Catholic Church has since visited the house to perform a “blessing”.

WHAT ELSE HAS HAPPENED?

IT is not the first time Scots have been involved in Poltergeist cases that have captured the world’s attention. One of the most notorious, in 1982, centred on Carole Compton, a Scottish nanny working in Italy. Strange incidents appeared to follow her. Household objects flew around and a mattress caught fire. Compton was eventually charged with arson and attempted murder after fire engulfed the room of the three-year-old in the home. No-one was hurt but the child’s grandmother accused Compton of witchcraft and the trial became a media circus. Court proceedings took more than a year and Compton was refused bail even though no-one had seen her start the fire. After 16 months she was found not guilty of attempted murder but guilty of arson. She was released because of the time she had already spent in jail and came home to write a book about the events.

However, poltergeists do not belong to any one country or time period with reports of cases dating back to the first century. Wherever and whenever they appear in the world the reported phenomena are similar. The word is German for noisy ghost and typically poltergeist are behind physical disturbances like loud noises and the movement or destruction of objects. They can hit, pinch, bite and trip people up and are usually associated with one living person.

ANY OTHER CASES?

SOME believe there is a psychological explanation for the occurrences but others who have investigated cases have been unable to explain them.

In Italy in 1900 poltergeist occurrences in a wine shop were investigated by Cesare Lombroso who wrote: “I went into the cellar, at first in complete darkness, and heard a noise of broken glasses and bottles rolled at my feet. The bottles were ranged in six compartments one above another. In the middle was a rough table on which I had six lighted candles placed, supposing that the spirit phenomena would cease in the bright light. But, on the contrary, I saw three empty bottles, standing on the ground, roll as though pushed by a finger, and break near the table. To obviate any possible trick, I felt and carefully examined by the light of a candle all the full bottles which were on the racks, and assured myself that there was no cord or string which could explain their movements. After a few minutes, first two, then four, then two other bottles on the second and third racks detached themselves and fell to the ground, not suddenly but as though carried by someone; and after their descent, rather than fall, six of them broke on the wet floor, already soaked with wine; only two remained whole. Then at the moment of leaving the cellar, just as I was going out, I heard another bottle break.”

ARE THERE MORE?

In 1926 a Romanian “ghost” girl was brought to London to be the subject of investigations at the National Laboratory of Psychical Research. There she exhibited stigmata and was present when there was apparent poltergeist activity. The researchers said they could detect no fraud.

“Conclusions reached by the investigators are that: stigmatic markings appeared spontaneously on various parts of Eleonore’s body. She was not consciously responsible for the production of the marks and under scientific test conditions movements of small objects without physical contact undoubtedly took place in the girl’s presence and that the coins which moved were attracted towards the medium and that neither movement was due to magnetism,” said the report.

The 13-year-old returned to Romania after the tests and reportedly went on to lead a normal life.

In Germany, the Institute for Border Areas of Psychology studied 35 cases of poltergeists that had cropped up since the Second World War. The Rosenheim case in the 1960s attracted the most publicity. Here it was reported that a lawyer’s office in the Bavarian town of Rosenheim was plagued with loud bangs, exploding light bulbs, fuses blowing, telephones ringing for no reason with conversations often unaccountably cut off, and the persistent breaking down of office equipment. The focus appeared to be a 19-year-old employee as the disturbances ended when she left – although colleagues at her new office claimed they followed her there.

Meanwhile in Rutherglen, the afflicted family are said to be living at the home of the woman’s parents while teenagers singing the Ghostbusters theme song are reportedly cycling up and down past the, allegedly, haunted house.