I was introduced to this story in a way that feels worthy of a horror movie in itself. I was shown an old box that had been sitting in a dark, dusty attic for decades. Inside, were the files of Harold Chibbett, a paranormal investigator, friends with the likes of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle<\/a> and notorious occultist Aleister Crowley. \u2018Chib\u2019 had devoted his life to proving the existence of ghosts, and when he met the Hitchings family in Battersea, he believed he\u2019d finally uncovered the holy grail of hauntings \u2013 as did I, when I first sifted through his files and decided to put together a podcast series about the case.<\/p>\n I found it amazing that this story had essentially been forgotten; back in its day it gripped the British public, doing the 1950s equivalent of \u2018going viral\u2019. Shirley was splashed across the tabloids and even appeared on live television. The peak of the family\u2019s fame came after an attempted exorcism of Shirley was raided by police. The resulting scandal found its way into the Houses of Parliament with the home secretary of the day, Major Gwilym Lloyd George, forced to defend the police. It\u2019s the only occasion I can find when a poltergeist was debated in Westminster!<\/p>\n I felt sympathy for Shirley as I researched the press coverage. It makes difficult reading for our modern eyes, with salacious, exploitative headlines about her being in love with the poltergeist, who the family had nicknamed \u2018Donald\u2019. Whatever you believe about the existence of ghosts, it\u2019s clear the Hitchings suffered greatly \u2013 and if it was a hoax, they certainly didn\u2019t benefit from it. Shirley\u2019s father, Wally, was even injured in one of the fires.<\/p>\n You can hear the full story of this deeply odd case in my BBC Radio 4 podcast series The Battersea Poltergeist<\/a>, for which I met the person whose attic that box of old case files had been sitting in \u2013 Shirley herself. She\u2019s 80 now, but still razor sharp and highly convincing. The thing that sticks with me most is not something she said, but a little tremor in her voice that sent shivers down my spine \u2013 I realised, even 65 years later, Shirley is still scared\u2026<\/p>\nCausing a sensation<\/h3>\n
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