The House of 15 Years of Hell: The Smurl Family Haunting
When we think of the great American hauntings, names like Amityville or The Conjuring house usually top the list. But tucked away in the quiet town of West Pittston, Pennsylvania, lies an 80-year-old duplex with a history so aggressive and so prolonged that it pushed one family to the absolute brink of sanity.
This week on Mystery Date, we’re stepping inside 327 Chase Street to explore the Smurl Family Haunting—a fifteen-year saga of sulfur, shadows, and a battle for the soul.
1. From Flood to Firestorm: The Move to Chase Street
In the summer of 1973—long before streamers, true-crime podcasts, and viral hauntings—Jack and Janet Smurl weren't looking for a paranormal showdown. They were looking for a dry place to live.
A year earlier, Hurricane Agnes had ravaged northeast Pennsylvania, flooding their original home in Wilkes-Barre. They packed up their station wagon and four daughters—Dawn, Heather, Carin, and Shannon—and moved to West Pittston, a quiet town tucked along the Susquehanna River.
Their new address, a duplex on Chase Street, was a classic "fixer-upper." On one side lived Jack and Janet with the girls; on the other lived Jack’s aging parents, John and Mary. At first, life was normal: neighborhood barbecues and the comfortable rhythms of small-town America. But as the autumn wind began to rattle the windows, the atmosphere inside the home began to shift.
2. When the Walls Start Bleeding
As a contractor by trade, Jack Smurl was no stranger to the language of old houses. He knew how to fix a loose board or tighten a rattling pipe. But within months, the family began experiencing phenomena that didn't behave like wood and nails.
The Escalation
Unexplained Stains: Janet found dark stains seeping up through the carpet. She would scrub them away, only to find them returning hours later.
The Putrid Scent: The air would turn sour with a sulfuric odor—the classic "rotten egg" smell associated with demonic presence. No gas leaks or plumbing issues were ever found.
The Knocking: It started with three sharp, deliberate raps. Then came the sound of slow, dragging footsteps across upstairs rooms when no one was home.
Physical Violence: During Shannon’s confirmation night in 1974, a heavy ceiling light fixture crashed onto the kitchen table, striking the young girl and leaving a visible injury. Jack had personally checked the wiring; there was no logical reason for it to fall.
The family’s German Shepherd, normally a stoic protector, reportedly became agitated, barking at empty corners before being lifted and thrown against a wall by an unseen force. By the late 70s, the daughters were reporting shadows moving along the walls and whispers in their bedrooms.
Most disturbingly, both Jack and Janet eventually reported sexual assaults by an unseen entity—claims that marked a turning point. The haunting was no longer just mischievous; it was invasive and hostile.
3. The Warrens and the "Dark Mass"
By 1986, the haunting had spilled into the headlines. A media circus descended on Chase Street, with dozens of journalists crowding the sidewalk. It was during this storm that the Smurls reached out to the most famous paranormal investigators in America: Ed and Lorraine Warren.
The Warrens' assessment was immediate and ominous. Ed described the home as suffering from a "demonic infestation." Their investigation concluded that the house was occupied by four distinct entities:
An elderly woman
A young girl with violent tendencies
A man who had died in the house
A dominant demonic force controlling the other three.
Ed claimed that when Catholic prayers or Gregorian chants were played, the spirits reacted violently. During one investigation, Ed stated that sinister writing appeared on a bathroom mirror, instructing the family to "GET OUT." Despite multiple blessings and attempted exorcisms by local clergy, the activity persisted, leading the Warrens to declare this the "worst case" of their careers.
4. The Skeptics’ Counter-Attack
The Smurl case did not unfold without fierce opposition. Skeptics, led by Paul Kurtz of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), labeled the case a "hoax and a charade."
Alternative Theories:
Psychological Stress: The family had endured the trauma of Hurricane Agnes and financial strain. Skeptics argued that high-pressure domestic conditions, combined with sleep paralysis (which can cause sensations of being held down or attacked), could explain the experiences.
Environmental Factors: Old homes are notorious for faulty wiring (flickering lights), settling foundations (knocks), and even mold, which can contribute to paranoia and headaches.
The "Media Effect": The case exploded the same year the Smurls co-authored the book The Haunted. Critics suggested the narrative may have been amplified to fit the public's post-Amityville obsession with the paranormal.
The Silence: Perhaps the most telling point for skeptics is that when the Smurls moved out in 1987, the subsequent tenants reported absolutely no paranormal activity.
5. Aftermath: A Legacy of Debate
Exhausted by the disruptions, the Smurls finally left Chase Street in 1987. They claimed the phenomena followed them until a final, secret exorcism in the early 90s finally brought them peace.
Jack Smurl passed away in 2017, but the family has always maintained they never sought fame or money—only answers. Today, the case lives on in the 1991 made-for-TV movie and as a major inspiration for the Conjuring cinematic universe.
The Smurl haunting endures because it forces us into a difficult gray area: When an entire family insists they were terrorized for 15 years, how do we weigh their human experience against the total absence of physical evidence?
What do you think? Was 327 Chase Street a portal to something dark, or a family caught in a psychological storm?
About This Episode
This blog post is adapted from our Season 2 episode of the Mystery Date Podcast — “The Smurl Family Hauntings | The Warrens Most Demonic Case”, part of our A Haunting season exploring the strange and mysterious side of the paranormal.
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