Jackie Hernandez Poltergeist Case, 1989 - 1990
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After moving to San Pedro, California, Jackie Hernandez began experiencing a wave of anomalous phenomena that persisted after multiple relocations. Researchers collected an abundance of documentation - including photos, video, and physical evidence - over two years of activity, and the story attracted some significant media attention. The case involves elements of both hauntings and poltergeists, and exhibits the wide variety of activity that are common to both phenomena. It also compels researchers to question their categorization of different anomalies, and seek a more comprehensive explanation for anomalous phenomena.
Early Activity
In the fall of 1988, Jackie Hernandez was 23 years old with a two-year-old son, and pregnant with her second child. She and her husband, Al, had just separated, so she moved into a small bungalow in San Pedro, California, just outside LA. Jackie was still finishing her degree, and struggled to pay her bills, but she was hopeful for a fresh start.(1) Almost immediately after moving in, however, strange things began to occur, beginning with a pencil holder that flew off the desk as she walked by.(2) Roughly a month later, Jackie heard what sounded like pebbles falling through the walls, then, for many nights after, she heard a high-pitched sound that seemed to come from the attic. More than once, she entered the laundry room to find the attic door open when it was last left closed.(3) In February, 1989, Jackie woke up in the night to the sound of loud breathing. On her way to the washroom she saw the apparition of an old man staring at her while sitting cross-legged on her son’s bed. She said that he looked around sixty years of age, and was very thin, with a “grayish” complexion like a corpse, and wore a red flannel shirt tucked into high-water pants. When she looked back again he was gone.(4) Jackie saw this apparition several times in the following months, always with a menacing look on his face.(5)
A couple of months later, Jackie was exploring the attic for the first time when she felt the presence of something behind her. When she turned around, she saw a large, disembodied head floating in her direction. The head had the face of a pudgy man with glowing red eyes - not the face of the thin man that she’d seen before.(6) Another day, Jackie and a friend heard a loud “crash” from the kitchen, and found that a large framed picture was now leaning against the opposite wall, propped up on the countertop, while the hanging nails were sitting upright on a table.(7) Another night, the same friend heard a voice in the darkness say, “don’t come in here,” as she made her way to the washroom.(8) Later, Jackie and her friend Chrissy noticed a viscous orange substance dripping down the sides of the glasses in her kitchen cabinet and out from one of the cabinet doors, and took a sample.(9) Jackie frequently invited three friends over for support, and there were many other incidents where each of them experienced strange things with Jackie.(10)
The Investigation
In early August, 1989, Jackie called Dr. Barry Taff, a parapsychologist whom her friend Susan had seen on TV, and a 20-year veteran of the parapsychology lab of the University of California.(11) He visited Jackie on August 8, and brought his girlfriend, his friend Larry, and a local photo-journalist. They were soon joined by videographer, Barry Conrad, and Conrad’s photographer and production assistant, Jeff Wheatcraft. Susan, Chrissy, and Al were already at the house.(12) In exploring the house, many of the visitors felt a pressure in the air, and noticed a smell like iodine in the laundry room below the attic.(13)
Skeptical of Jackie’s story, Jeff volunteered to go up into the attic, and took some photos in the darkness. He soon climbed down again saying that he saw movement in his peripheral vision and had a feeling of being watched. As Jeff went back up to take a few more pictures, Al heard a menacing voice in his ear downstairs. Just then, Jeff felt something yank the camera from his hand, and he hurried down from the attic shaking and pale.(14) He and Conrad then went back up to retrieve the camera with a portable light, and found it pointing face-down inside a crate.(15) The lens was discovered four to five meters away, completely undamaged.(16) All the while there was a foul stench in the air like decomposing flesh that slowly intensified. Hardly a minute into recording, the video camera lost power, though the battery was far from low. The recorder deck had its own separate battery as well, meaning that both sources had to have failed at the same time.(17) Even with fresh batteries, the equipment wouldn’t power on until it was downstairs.
As the men were leaving the attic, Jeff was pushed by a cold, bony hand on his back that left him in significant pain, and a chiropractor later confirmed that he had traumatic internal bruising.(18) When he and Conrad returned to the main floor, they heard footsteps from the attic.(19) Jackie had the attic door yanked from her hand, and the crew heard scratching and pounding sounds, as well as an unintelligible conversation between a man and woman that soon faded away. Looking into the attic one last time, Jeff saw three flashes of light and a large, “dark mass” that drifted across the room and dissolved.(20) Upon waking the next morning, he claimed that he saw the apparition of a dead-looking man, and he and Conrad found a “comet of light” in a photo that Jeff had taken before being pushed.(21) It was the first of many lights to appear on film: weeks later, Conrad filmed Jackie’s front gate opening and closing itself, and found a fast-moving light in the footage.(22)
The Haunting Intensifies
Jackie experienced a range of unusual phenomena over the next few weeks.(23) Some were quite benign. Once, Susan and Jackie saw floating balls of light - one of which flew over to the doll shelves and illuminated the eyes of a doll.(24) In August, 1989, Chrissy and Jackie saw a number of small, fast-moving lights dancing around the kitchen ceiling in a light “film” of smoke. The balls repeatedly broke apart and rejoined, and after about 15 minutes, they collapsed into one little ball and disappeared, but not before Jackie got a few photos.(25) Taff and his team also found another viscous orange liquid oozing from the walls and cabinet.(26) Taff took samples of this liquid, as well as the sample that Jackie took earlier, to a medical facility near UCLA where they were shown to be heavily oxidized blood plasma from a human male, high in copper and iodine.(27)
Other anomalies were decidedly more hostile. One evening, a friend of Conrad’s visited the house and poked his head into the attic. He then heard a “moaning” sound, and at the same time, Jackie felt cold hands push her from behind, leaving red streaks on her back.(28) On September 1st, Jackie was awoken in the night by something heavy pressing down on her face, preventing her from breathing. She saw nothing, but smelled an odor like a rotting corpse. The activity peaked on September 4th: lights turned on and off; a door slammed closed on Jackie; and objects flew across the room.(29) Susan came over for support, as did Conrad, Jeff and their mutual friend, Gary.(30) Jeff and Gary went up to explore the attic, and smelled the rotting odor, while Jackie and Conrad saw lights in the laundry room below and everyone heard what sounded like finger snaps.(31) Later, Susan saw a flash of white light above them, and heard moaning from the attic.(32) Just then, Gary spun around to see Jeff suspended by a clothesline tied around his neck and hanging from a nail in the rafter beam.(33) The crew had searched the attic before, and never found a clothesline.(34)
As Jackie’s kids waited on the porch that night, a red mark appeared on her daughter’s forehead. That the presence would target her kids crossed a line for Jackie, and by 3 a.m., she moved out for good.(35) A few weeks later, she moved to a trailer home in the town of Weldon, California, a three-hour drive from San Pedro, and for a while, the activity stopped.(36) However, in March 1990, Al was napping at her trailer when he got up and went outside to the storage shed. Jackie watched as he stood there staring into the shed before coming back into the trailer. At this point, a “plume of smoke” flew into the back of his head, and he started to attack her. Jackie fought him off until the smoke flew out the back of his head and disappeared, and Al returned to normal. The next morning, Jackie found his name written all over the closet walls.(37) Jackie’s babysitters experienced strange things as well.(38) 16-year-old Tina Lawler saw a dark gray “shadow” in the trailer, as well as several anomalous lights, and found red slash marks on the walls.(39) Later, Jackie and Tina found that a lamp had fallen onto the bedspread and left a burn mark that looked like a horned face.(40) On the morning of April 1st, Jackie’s neighbours were helping her move a large TV when they all saw the face of “an evil, corpse-like old man” with moving eyes in the corner of the screen.(41) After this event, activity in and around Jackie’s trailer increased: doors opened by themselves, the sofa levitated, and Jackie heard tapping at the windows and voices from the shed. She also saw human apparitions and skeletal figures here.(42)
The Ouija Sessions
On September 24th, 1989, shortly after Jackie had moved out of her bungalow, she invited a few friends and a local psychic to visit the house in hopes of making contact with the presence. The group conducted two Ouija sessions in which they determined that there were five entities present in the house, including one that called itself “SME.”(43) When Conrad realized that the activity had returned in force in Jackie’s trailer, he and Jeff made a visit on April 13th, 1990, while her neighbors were there as well. After a few interviews, all the neighbours but Tina went home, and Jackie insisted that they all try using the Ouija board.(44) Conrad set up two video cameras to record the session, but neither would turn on. He and Jeff held the planchette, while Jackie sat ready to transcribe.(45)
They asked the spirit to identify itself and the planchette spelled out “SME,” just as in the previous Ouija session. This time, however, it moved so fast that they barely had time to read the board. Through other questions, the group determined that spirit was a ghost from hell. At this point, the temperature dropped, the table shook, and a loud pounding sound filled the room while the candles went out one by one.(46) Though Tina was looking for signs of fakery, she saw that everyone’s legs were clearly resting on the ground.(47) The team surmised that the spirit was born in 1912, and was “held under water” in San Pedro Bay in 1930. When they asked why the entity focused its energy on Jeff, the planchette spelled out, “he is the likeness of my killer.”(48) Conrad asked the spirit who it hated and it quickly spelled out “Jeff” before Jeff and his chair were lifted from the ground and thrown against the wall behind him.(49) Later that night, Jeff was acting strange, as if “possessed,” and insisted that they all get back to the board. The group reluctantly started another Ouija session, and learned that the spirit “thrived” on their energy.(50) Later, in May, Jackie visited Susan in San Pedro, and the two saw a light the size of a softball outside her window that floated over her fence and into the Harbor View Memorial Cemetery. They walked to the graveyard and saw a ball of light appear that led them to the grave of John G. Damon, who had owned Jackie’s old house from 1910 to 1913.(51)
The Last Activity
Activity declined in the following weeks, but persisted when Jackie moved into an apartment just four blocks from her previous home.(52) On two occasions, she again saw orbs of light, and got some photos.(53) From July on, however, it was the investigators who experienced most of the unusual activity.(54) Conrad had experienced some anomalies in his apartment in Studio City before, but after July 1990, it became the center of the activity.(55) Conrad saw lights, heard breathing, and had a number of household objects catch fire, but more commonly experienced electronics being manipulated, stove burners turning on, and objects being moved or “apported” around the house. Jeff felt his leg being held down by what he described as “icy fingers” before he felt a shove on his back that left a “claw-like” scratch.(56) Both Jeff and Gary experienced a few anomalies in their own homes as well.(57) On December 4th, Conrad, Jeff, and Gary experienced over 40 poltergeist events within just a few hours.(58) Gary saw a light fly directly into Jeff’s chest seconds before he was thrown backwards, and the two later witnessed a large humanoid-shaped “slab of light” disappear into a wall in Conrad’s home, and were hit with flying coins and other objects as they followed its path to the bedroom.(59) After this night, the activity around Conrad decreased, as it did for Jackie.(60) For several years after 1990, Jackie still felt a presence but eventually no longer experienced any anomalous activity.(61)
In 1991, Conrad’s new cleaning lady told him that she saw the same apparition of an old man that Jackie saw, with the same red flannel shirt and pants. At the time, she was staying at her boyfriend’s place, just a few blocks from the bungalow, but had never heard of Jackie.(62) In 1996 or 7, Jackie, Conrad and Taff returned to Jackie’s initial San Pedro home with a video crew from the TV series Strange Universe. The crew heard cracking and pounding sounds from the attic, and their audio and visual equipment consistently failed inside the house.(63) The team spoke with the new property owners who told them that the longest anyone had stayed was about six months. Tenants saw and heard a variety of strange things, and said that objects were thrown at them, and that kitchen items moved around the house.(64) Clearly, Jackie and Conrad were not the last to experience the strange activity.
Significance
The sensational nature of the Jackie Hernandez case has earned it some notoriety, and it eventually became the subject of over 50 TV and radio shows, and at least 10 printed publications.(65) In 1997, Conrad produced and directed a documentary on the events called, An Unknown Encounter, and twelve years later, he published a book by the same name. This book remains the fullest account of the haunting, although Taff also included a chapter about the case in his 2011 book, Aliens Above, Ghosts Below. In 2012, Syfy’s Paranormal Witness interviewed the primary witnesses, and dramatized some of the events.
The case is exceptional amongst hauntings and poltergeists for the extended duration of the activity, and the sheer number of events. It was also documented by an abundance of photo and video evidence. The two-to-three-dozen fast-moving lights captured on video were shown to entomologists, an aerospace physicist, and an image analyst who found “no logical explanation” for them. Several photography experts reviewed Jackie’s pictures of the light orbs and confirmed that none of the photos were faked or altered. One expert claimed that the images would be hard to duplicate, even in a laboratory setting.(66)
Jackie and Conrad felt that the anomalous activity was probably the work of multiple spirits. Conrad found an article in a local paper from 1930 on the death of a man named Herman Hendrickson, whose body was discovered under the San Pedro wharf.(67) They felt that Hendrickson’s ghost was responsible for the hostile activity, and that the previous owner, John Damon, was responsible for the more benign activity.(68) However, neither of these people have the initials ‘SME,’ identified in the Ouija sessions, and Hendrickson didn’t die by drowning. While Dr. Taff accepted that spirits may have played a role in the events, he felt that they were primarily unconscious manifestations of Jackie’s psychokinetic energy: energy that later spread to others.(69) Conrad and Taff’s disagreement reflects a wider debate in parapsychology: is poltergeist activity due to the action of some outside force like the spirit of a deceased individual, or can it be attributed to some unconscious power in the witnesses themselves, as speculated by early parapsychologists like Nandor Fodor and William G. Roll? In this case, there is an abundance of evidence that points toward the action of human spirits. At the same time, however, the activity seemed to correlate with the mental states of its witnesses, beginning in a time of great stress and uncertainty in Jackie’s life, and spreading to others as they met her. Researchers such as Stephen E. Braude have observed that poltergeist activity is most common amongst teenagers and young adults undergoing stressful situations and suffering from mental anguish. Perhaps, as the final Ouija session seemed to indicate, there was some force involved that fed off the negative energy of its witnesses and gradually lost power.
Summary
Given the broad range of anomalies that Jackie and her friends experienced, it is difficult to attribute them to any one force or entity. As in the case of other hauntings and poltergeists, many of the anomalies that they experienced defy simplistic categorization, and blur the lines between phenomena often thought to be distinct.(70) Whatever mysterious force was at work in the case of Jackie Hernandez, it expressed itself in many ways, and will probably not yield to easy explanations.
Notes:
1) Barry Conrad, An Unknown Encounter: A True Account of the San Pedro Haunting, Directed by Barry Conrad (BarCon Video Productions, 1997), 3:00; Paranormal Witness, season 2, episode 1, “Man in the Attic,” Directed by Stephen Kemp, August 8, 2012, on Syfy, 1:08.
2) Conrad, 4:05.
3) Paranormal Witness, 2:09; Barry Conrad, An Unknown Encounter: A True Account of the San Pedro Haunting (Dorrance Publishing, 2009), 286.
4) Conrad, 9 - 10; Conrad, 4:30; Paranormal Witness, 18:30; Barry E. Taff, Aliens Above, Ghosts Below: Explorations of the Unknown (Cosmic Pantheon Press, 2011), 58.
5) Conrad, 10; Conrad, 4:30; Taff, 58.
6) Conrad, 10 - 11, 207; Conrad, 9:31. Taff, 58; Paranormal Witness, 34:00.
7) Conrad, 7 - 9, 47, 80-82; Conrad, 5:15; Paranormal Witness, 4:30.
8) Conrad, 6:10; Conrad, 48 - 49.
9) Conrad, 11, 46; Conrad, 18:00.
10) Conrad, 12, 17 - 18, 46 - 47, 49; Conrad, 4:00, 14:30; Paranormal Witness, 4:20.
11) Taff, 6, 57; Conrad, 7:15. Paranormal Witness 11:44, 20:40; Taff, interview by Eman323, 0:50.
12) Conrad, 7:40, 9:00, 37:15; Conrad, 6 - 7, 11 - 12; Taff, 58, Paranormal Witness, 24:20.
13) Conrad, 12. Taff, 58. Garry Abrams, “Tangled Tales From the Crypt? : For 3 Years, Jackie Hernandez Says She Was Followed by a Pair of Puzzling--and Persistent--Ghosts,” Los Angeles Times, March 23, 1993.
14) Paranormal Witness, 25:50; Conrad, 12 - 14, 19 - 20; Conrad, 10:14, 11:08.
15) Conrad, 13 - 14. Conrad, 11:15, 12:43. Paranormal Witness, 27:00. Taff, 59.
16) Conrad, 11:34; Conrad 14; Taff, 59; Paranormal Witness, 28:40.
17) Conrad, 14 - 15; Conrad, 12:10; Taff, 60; Paranormal Witness, 28:10.
18) Conrad, 16, 22; Conrad, 17:15.
19) Conrad, 15 - 16, 102; Conrad, 12:33.
20) Conrad, 17 - 19; Conrad, 13:50, 15:00.
21) Conrad, 20 - 21.
22) Conrad, 55 - 58.
23) Conrad, 24, 32 - 33.
24) Conrad, 49 - 50.
25) Conrad, 19:20; Conrad, 41 - 42, 44.
26) Conrad, 29; Conrad, 17:45.
27) Conrad, 30 - 31; Conrad, 18:00; Taff, 58; Dr. Taff’s lab technician refused to be interviewed, having “no desire to be connected… to anything even remotely resembling a ‘pseudo-science.’” He refused payment because he wanted his work kept off the books.
28) Conrad, 26 - 29.
29) Conrad, 23:00, 25:20; Conrad, 37 - 39, 91- 96, 99 - 100; Paranormal Witness, 31:10, 31:50.
30) Conrad, 95 - 99. Conrad 22:55, 25:00; Paranormal Witness, 36:39.
31) Conrad, 99 - 104; Conrad, 26:05.
32) Conrad, 27:20; Conrad, 101 - 04, 112; Paranormal Witness, 38:25.
33) Conrad, 29:05, 30:03, 34:10; Taff, 59 - 60; Conrad, 104-05, 114 - 15; Paranormal Witness, 38:59.
34) Conrad, 108 - 09.
35) Conrad, 37:30; Conrad, 110, 112 - 13.
36) Conrad, 45:30; Conrad, 147, 157.
37) Conrad, 159 - 60; Paranormal Witness, 10:20.
38) Conrad, 160 - 61; Conrad, 47:03.
39) Barry Conrad, “Tina Lawler: Witness to the San Pedro Haunting (1995),” part1, 0:30, 0:53,1:25, 3:20; Conrad, 162 - 66; Paranormal Witness, 7:15.
40) Conrad, “Tina Lawler,” part 1, 14:43, part 2, 0:00; Conrad 46:35; Conrad, 163.
41) Conrad, 164 - 65; Conrad, 48:25.
42) Conrad, 161 - 62, 165 - 68.
43) Conrad, 138 - 44; Taff, 61.
44) Conrad, 173; Conrad, 51:48.
45) Conrad, 173 - 75; Conrad, “Tina Lawler,” part 1, 5:50.
46) Conrad, 175 - 76; Conrad, 53:00; Conrad, “Tina Lawler,” part 1, 4:30.
47) Conrad, 176; Conrad, “Tina Lawler,” part 1, 6:55.
48) Conrad, 176 - 79; Conrad, 54:45. Conrad, “Tina Lawler,” part 1, 5:23.
49) Conrad, 179 - 80; Conrad, “Tina Lawler,” part 1, 5:00; Conrad, 54:45.
50) Conrad, 180 - 83; Conrad, “Tina Lawler,” part 1, 9:46, 11:37.
51) Conrad, 209 - 10; American Journal, “Real X Files on San Pedro Haunting (1994),” 4:17; Garry Abrams, “Tangled.”
52) Conrad, 203 - 04, 217.
53) Conrad, 221, 237 - 38; Conrad, 1:00:05.
54) Conrad, 217 - 19; Conrad, 59:50.
55) Conrad, 155 - 56.
56) Conrad, 242 - 45.
57) Conrad, 258 - 60, 276 - 77.
58) Conrad radio interview on California’s Creepiest Ghost Story, 47:00.
59) Conrad radio interview on Ghost Story, 48:05; Conrad, 1:15:19; Conrad, 267 - 69.
60) Conrad, 276 - 77.
61) Conrad, 1:18:10; Paranormal Witness, 41:59.
62) Conrad, 284 - 85.
63) Taff, 69; Conrad, 283 - 84.
64) Conrad, 283 - 87; Taff, 69; Paranormal Witness, 41:59.
65) Conrad, 311 - 316.
66) Conrad, 22, 42-43, 58, 60, 62, 128 - 30, 237 - 38; Conrad, 40:05, 1:00:05.
67) Conrad, 176 - 7, 205 - 7; Conrad, 57:10; San Pedro News-Pilot, “Find body of young seaman under wharf,” March 25, 1930; Taff, 67.
68) Conrad, 147, 211, 280 - 83.
69) Taff, 65 - 68, 71, 74; Taff interview by Eman323, 3:40.
70) Claude Lecouteux. The Secret History of Poltergeists and Haunted Houses: From Pagan Folklore to Modern Manifestations, trans. Jon E. Graham (Toronto: Inner Traditions International, 2012), 15. See 28-29 for a listing of characteristics common to poltergeist cases. See also 36 for another case with mysterious sounds and doors moving. See 46-48, 156-163 for examples with fire. See 55 - 56 for an examples of “practical joker” cases with matching elements. See 64 - 65 for cases that include breathing sounds and “emaciated” apparitions. See 94 for a case containing rope that became tied around someone’s throat. See 151 and 166 for cases containing someone hit by an invisible cold hand. See 161 for a case with balls of light.
Sources:
Abrams, Garry. “Tangled Tales From the Crypt? : For 3 Years, Jackie Hernandez Says She Was Followed by a Pair of Puzzling--and Persistent--Ghosts.” Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles). March 23 1993. Accessed October 7. 2019. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-03-23-vw-14352-story.html.
American Journal. “Real X Files on San Pedro Haunting (1994).” YouTube. Video File. March 11, 2013. Accessed October 7. 2019. https://youtu.be/1a1ukBbwJKs.
Conrad, Barry. “An Unknown Encounter: A True Account of the San Pedro Haunting.” Vimeo. Video File. Directed by Barry Conrad. 1997. BarCon Video Productions. Accessed October 7, 2019. https://vimeo.com/142326236.
Conrad, Barry. An Unknown Encounter: A True Account of the San Pedro Haunting. Dorrance Publishing, 2009. Google Play.
https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Barry_Conrad_An_Unknown_Encounter?id=Zjw9dQS88jUC.
Conrad, Barry. “Tina Lawler: Witness to the San Pedro Haunting (1995).” YouTube. Video File. March 10, 2013. Accessed October 7, 2019.
Part 1: https://youtu.be/fvvDrihWsHA.
Part 2: https://youtu.be/J7bnn6PZxG8.
Conrad’s radio interview on California’s Creepiest Ghost Story. March 9, 2016. Accessed October 7, 2019.
https://wotrradio.com/blog/2016/3/9/california-creepiest-ghost-story-barry-conrad-interview.
Lecouteux, Claude. The Secret History of Poltergeists and Haunted Houses: From Pagan Folklore to Modern Manifestations. Translated by Jon E. Graham. Toronto: Inner Traditions International, 2012.
Paranormal Witness. Season 2, episode 1, “Man in the Attic.” Directed by Stephen Kemp. August 8, 2012. Syfy.
San Pedro News-Pilot. “Find body of young seaman under wharf.” March 25, 1930. https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SPNP19300325.2.16&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-san+pedro+news+pilot+March+25%2c+1930-------1.
Taff, Barry E. Aliens Above, Ghosts Below: Explorations of the Unknown. Cosmic Pantheon Press. 2011.
Taff, Barry, interview by Eman323. “San Pedro California Haunting.” YouTube. Video File. October 24, 2015. Accessed October 7, 2019. https://youtu.be/a9DOU7NIwJo.
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Think Anomalous is created by Jason Charbonneau. Illustrations by V. R. Laurence. Research by Clark Murphy. Music by Josh Chamberland. Animation by Brendan Barr. Sound design by Will Mountain and Josh Chamberland.
After moving to San Pedro, California, Jackie Hernandez began experiencing a wave of anomalous phenomena that persisted after multiple relocations. Researchers collected an abundance of documentation - including photos, video, and physical evidence - over two years of activity, and the story attracted some significant media attention. The case involves elements of both hauntings and poltergeists, and exhibits the wide variety of activity that are common to both phenomena. It also compels researchers to question their categorization of different anomalies, and seek a more comprehensive explanation for anomalous phenomena.
Early Activity
In the fall of 1988, Jackie Hernandez was 23 years old with a two-year-old son, and pregnant with her second child. She and her husband, Al, had just separated, so she moved into a small bungalow in San Pedro, California, just outside LA. Jackie was still finishing her degree, and struggled to pay her bills, but she was hopeful for a fresh start.(1) Almost immediately after moving in, however, strange things began to occur, beginning with a pencil holder that flew off the desk as she walked by.(2) Roughly a month later, Jackie heard what sounded like pebbles falling through the walls, then, for many nights after, she heard a high-pitched sound that seemed to come from the attic. More than once, she entered the laundry room to find the attic door open when it was last left closed.(3) In February, 1989, Jackie woke up in the night to the sound of loud breathing. On her way to the washroom she saw the apparition of an old man staring at her while sitting cross-legged on her son’s bed. She said that he looked around sixty years of age, and was very thin, with a “grayish” complexion like a corpse, and wore a red flannel shirt tucked into high-water pants. When she looked back again he was gone.(4) Jackie saw this apparition several times in the following months, always with a menacing look on his face.(5)
A couple of months later, Jackie was exploring the attic for the first time when she felt the presence of something behind her. When she turned around, she saw a large, disembodied head floating in her direction. The head had the face of a pudgy man with glowing red eyes - not the face of the thin man that she’d seen before.(6) Another day, Jackie and a friend heard a loud “crash” from the kitchen, and found that a large framed picture was now leaning against the opposite wall, propped up on the countertop, while the hanging nails were sitting upright on a table.(7) Another night, the same friend heard a voice in the darkness say, “don’t come in here,” as she made her way to the washroom.(8) Later, Jackie and her friend Chrissy noticed a viscous orange substance dripping down the sides of the glasses in her kitchen cabinet and out from one of the cabinet doors, and took a sample.(9) Jackie frequently invited three friends over for support, and there were many other incidents where each of them experienced strange things with Jackie.(10)
The Investigation
In early August, 1989, Jackie called Dr. Barry Taff, a parapsychologist whom her friend Susan had seen on TV, and a 20-year veteran of the parapsychology lab of the University of California.(11) He visited Jackie on August 8, and brought his girlfriend, his friend Larry, and a local photo-journalist. They were soon joined by videographer, Barry Conrad, and Conrad’s photographer and production assistant, Jeff Wheatcraft. Susan, Chrissy, and Al were already at the house.(12) In exploring the house, many of the visitors felt a pressure in the air, and noticed a smell like iodine in the laundry room below the attic.(13)
Skeptical of Jackie’s story, Jeff volunteered to go up into the attic, and took some photos in the darkness. He soon climbed down again saying that he saw movement in his peripheral vision and had a feeling of being watched. As Jeff went back up to take a few more pictures, Al heard a menacing voice in his ear downstairs. Just then, Jeff felt something yank the camera from his hand, and he hurried down from the attic shaking and pale.(14) He and Conrad then went back up to retrieve the camera with a portable light, and found it pointing face-down inside a crate.(15) The lens was discovered four to five meters away, completely undamaged.(16) All the while there was a foul stench in the air like decomposing flesh that slowly intensified. Hardly a minute into recording, the video camera lost power, though the battery was far from low. The recorder deck had its own separate battery as well, meaning that both sources had to have failed at the same time.(17) Even with fresh batteries, the equipment wouldn’t power on until it was downstairs.
As the men were leaving the attic, Jeff was pushed by a cold, bony hand on his back that left him in significant pain, and a chiropractor later confirmed that he had traumatic internal bruising.(18) When he and Conrad returned to the main floor, they heard footsteps from the attic.(19) Jackie had the attic door yanked from her hand, and the crew heard scratching and pounding sounds, as well as an unintelligible conversation between a man and woman that soon faded away. Looking into the attic one last time, Jeff saw three flashes of light and a large, “dark mass” that drifted across the room and dissolved.(20) Upon waking the next morning, he claimed that he saw the apparition of a dead-looking man, and he and Conrad found a “comet of light” in a photo that Jeff had taken before being pushed.(21) It was the first of many lights to appear on film: weeks later, Conrad filmed Jackie’s front gate opening and closing itself, and found a fast-moving light in the footage.(22)
The Haunting Intensifies
Jackie experienced a range of unusual phenomena over the next few weeks.(23) Some were quite benign. Once, Susan and Jackie saw floating balls of light - one of which flew over to the doll shelves and illuminated the eyes of a doll.(24) In August, 1989, Chrissy and Jackie saw a number of small, fast-moving lights dancing around the kitchen ceiling in a light “film” of smoke. The balls repeatedly broke apart and rejoined, and after about 15 minutes, they collapsed into one little ball and disappeared, but not before Jackie got a few photos.(25) Taff and his team also found another viscous orange liquid oozing from the walls and cabinet.(26) Taff took samples of this liquid, as well as the sample that Jackie took earlier, to a medical facility near UCLA where they were shown to be heavily oxidized blood plasma from a human male, high in copper and iodine.(27)
Other anomalies were decidedly more hostile. One evening, a friend of Conrad’s visited the house and poked his head into the attic. He then heard a “moaning” sound, and at the same time, Jackie felt cold hands push her from behind, leaving red streaks on her back.(28) On September 1st, Jackie was awoken in the night by something heavy pressing down on her face, preventing her from breathing. She saw nothing, but smelled an odor like a rotting corpse. The activity peaked on September 4th: lights turned on and off; a door slammed closed on Jackie; and objects flew across the room.(29) Susan came over for support, as did Conrad, Jeff and their mutual friend, Gary.(30) Jeff and Gary went up to explore the attic, and smelled the rotting odor, while Jackie and Conrad saw lights in the laundry room below and everyone heard what sounded like finger snaps.(31) Later, Susan saw a flash of white light above them, and heard moaning from the attic.(32) Just then, Gary spun around to see Jeff suspended by a clothesline tied around his neck and hanging from a nail in the rafter beam.(33) The crew had searched the attic before, and never found a clothesline.(34)
As Jackie’s kids waited on the porch that night, a red mark appeared on her daughter’s forehead. That the presence would target her kids crossed a line for Jackie, and by 3 a.m., she moved out for good.(35) A few weeks later, she moved to a trailer home in the town of Weldon, California, a three-hour drive from San Pedro, and for a while, the activity stopped.(36) However, in March 1990, Al was napping at her trailer when he got up and went outside to the storage shed. Jackie watched as he stood there staring into the shed before coming back into the trailer. At this point, a “plume of smoke” flew into the back of his head, and he started to attack her. Jackie fought him off until the smoke flew out the back of his head and disappeared, and Al returned to normal. The next morning, Jackie found his name written all over the closet walls.(37) Jackie’s babysitters experienced strange things as well.(38) 16-year-old Tina Lawler saw a dark gray “shadow” in the trailer, as well as several anomalous lights, and found red slash marks on the walls.(39) Later, Jackie and Tina found that a lamp had fallen onto the bedspread and left a burn mark that looked like a horned face.(40) On the morning of April 1st, Jackie’s neighbours were helping her move a large TV when they all saw the face of “an evil, corpse-like old man” with moving eyes in the corner of the screen.(41) After this event, activity in and around Jackie’s trailer increased: doors opened by themselves, the sofa levitated, and Jackie heard tapping at the windows and voices from the shed. She also saw human apparitions and skeletal figures here.(42)
The Ouija Sessions
On September 24th, 1989, shortly after Jackie had moved out of her bungalow, she invited a few friends and a local psychic to visit the house in hopes of making contact with the presence. The group conducted two Ouija sessions in which they determined that there were five entities present in the house, including one that called itself “SME.”(43) When Conrad realized that the activity had returned in force in Jackie’s trailer, he and Jeff made a visit on April 13th, 1990, while her neighbors were there as well. After a few interviews, all the neighbours but Tina went home, and Jackie insisted that they all try using the Ouija board.(44) Conrad set up two video cameras to record the session, but neither would turn on. He and Jeff held the planchette, while Jackie sat ready to transcribe.(45)
They asked the spirit to identify itself and the planchette spelled out “SME,” just as in the previous Ouija session. This time, however, it moved so fast that they barely had time to read the board. Through other questions, the group determined that spirit was a ghost from hell. At this point, the temperature dropped, the table shook, and a loud pounding sound filled the room while the candles went out one by one.(46) Though Tina was looking for signs of fakery, she saw that everyone’s legs were clearly resting on the ground.(47) The team surmised that the spirit was born in 1912, and was “held under water” in San Pedro Bay in 1930. When they asked why the entity focused its energy on Jeff, the planchette spelled out, “he is the likeness of my killer.”(48) Conrad asked the spirit who it hated and it quickly spelled out “Jeff” before Jeff and his chair were lifted from the ground and thrown against the wall behind him.(49) Later that night, Jeff was acting strange, as if “possessed,” and insisted that they all get back to the board. The group reluctantly started another Ouija session, and learned that the spirit “thrived” on their energy.(50) Later, in May, Jackie visited Susan in San Pedro, and the two saw a light the size of a softball outside her window that floated over her fence and into the Harbor View Memorial Cemetery. They walked to the graveyard and saw a ball of light appear that led them to the grave of John G. Damon, who had owned Jackie’s old house from 1910 to 1913.(51)
The Last Activity
Activity declined in the following weeks, but persisted when Jackie moved into an apartment just four blocks from her previous home.(52) On two occasions, she again saw orbs of light, and got some photos.(53) From July on, however, it was the investigators who experienced most of the unusual activity.(54) Conrad had experienced some anomalies in his apartment in Studio City before, but after July 1990, it became the center of the activity.(55) Conrad saw lights, heard breathing, and had a number of household objects catch fire, but more commonly experienced electronics being manipulated, stove burners turning on, and objects being moved or “apported” around the house. Jeff felt his leg being held down by what he described as “icy fingers” before he felt a shove on his back that left a “claw-like” scratch.(56) Both Jeff and Gary experienced a few anomalies in their own homes as well.(57) On December 4th, Conrad, Jeff, and Gary experienced over 40 poltergeist events within just a few hours.(58) Gary saw a light fly directly into Jeff’s chest seconds before he was thrown backwards, and the two later witnessed a large humanoid-shaped “slab of light” disappear into a wall in Conrad’s home, and were hit with flying coins and other objects as they followed its path to the bedroom.(59) After this night, the activity around Conrad decreased, as it did for Jackie.(60) For several years after 1990, Jackie still felt a presence but eventually no longer experienced any anomalous activity.(61)
In 1991, Conrad’s new cleaning lady told him that she saw the same apparition of an old man that Jackie saw, with the same red flannel shirt and pants. At the time, she was staying at her boyfriend’s place, just a few blocks from the bungalow, but had never heard of Jackie.(62) In 1996 or 7, Jackie, Conrad and Taff returned to Jackie’s initial San Pedro home with a video crew from the TV series Strange Universe. The crew heard cracking and pounding sounds from the attic, and their audio and visual equipment consistently failed inside the house.(63) The team spoke with the new property owners who told them that the longest anyone had stayed was about six months. Tenants saw and heard a variety of strange things, and said that objects were thrown at them, and that kitchen items moved around the house.(64) Clearly, Jackie and Conrad were not the last to experience the strange activity.
Significance
The sensational nature of the Jackie Hernandez case has earned it some notoriety, and it eventually became the subject of over 50 TV and radio shows, and at least 10 printed publications.(65) In 1997, Conrad produced and directed a documentary on the events called, An Unknown Encounter, and twelve years later, he published a book by the same name. This book remains the fullest account of the haunting, although Taff also included a chapter about the case in his 2011 book, Aliens Above, Ghosts Below. In 2012, Syfy’s Paranormal Witness interviewed the primary witnesses, and dramatized some of the events.
The case is exceptional amongst hauntings and poltergeists for the extended duration of the activity, and the sheer number of events. It was also documented by an abundance of photo and video evidence. The two-to-three-dozen fast-moving lights captured on video were shown to entomologists, an aerospace physicist, and an image analyst who found “no logical explanation” for them. Several photography experts reviewed Jackie’s pictures of the light orbs and confirmed that none of the photos were faked or altered. One expert claimed that the images would be hard to duplicate, even in a laboratory setting.(66)
Jackie and Conrad felt that the anomalous activity was probably the work of multiple spirits. Conrad found an article in a local paper from 1930 on the death of a man named Herman Hendrickson, whose body was discovered under the San Pedro wharf.(67) They felt that Hendrickson’s ghost was responsible for the hostile activity, and that the previous owner, John Damon, was responsible for the more benign activity.(68) However, neither of these people have the initials ‘SME,’ identified in the Ouija sessions, and Hendrickson didn’t die by drowning. While Dr. Taff accepted that spirits may have played a role in the events, he felt that they were primarily unconscious manifestations of Jackie’s psychokinetic energy: energy that later spread to others.(69) Conrad and Taff’s disagreement reflects a wider debate in parapsychology: is poltergeist activity due to the action of some outside force like the spirit of a deceased individual, or can it be attributed to some unconscious power in the witnesses themselves, as speculated by early parapsychologists like Nandor Fodor and William G. Roll? In this case, there is an abundance of evidence that points toward the action of human spirits. At the same time, however, the activity seemed to correlate with the mental states of its witnesses, beginning in a time of great stress and uncertainty in Jackie’s life, and spreading to others as they met her. Researchers such as Stephen E. Braude have observed that poltergeist activity is most common amongst teenagers and young adults undergoing stressful situations and suffering from mental anguish. Perhaps, as the final Ouija session seemed to indicate, there was some force involved that fed off the negative energy of its witnesses and gradually lost power.
Summary
Given the broad range of anomalies that Jackie and her friends experienced, it is difficult to attribute them to any one force or entity. As in the case of other hauntings and poltergeists, many of the anomalies that they experienced defy simplistic categorization, and blur the lines between phenomena often thought to be distinct.(70) Whatever mysterious force was at work in the case of Jackie Hernandez, it expressed itself in many ways, and will probably not yield to easy explanations.
Notes:
1) Barry Conrad, An Unknown Encounter: A True Account of the San Pedro Haunting, Directed by Barry Conrad (BarCon Video Productions, 1997), 3:00; Paranormal Witness, season 2, episode 1, “Man in the Attic,” Directed by Stephen Kemp, August 8, 2012, on Syfy, 1:08.
2) Conrad, 4:05.
3) Paranormal Witness, 2:09; Barry Conrad, An Unknown Encounter: A True Account of the San Pedro Haunting (Dorrance Publishing, 2009), 286.
4) Conrad, 9 - 10; Conrad, 4:30; Paranormal Witness, 18:30; Barry E. Taff, Aliens Above, Ghosts Below: Explorations of the Unknown (Cosmic Pantheon Press, 2011), 58.
5) Conrad, 10; Conrad, 4:30; Taff, 58.
6) Conrad, 10 - 11, 207; Conrad, 9:31. Taff, 58; Paranormal Witness, 34:00.
7) Conrad, 7 - 9, 47, 80-82; Conrad, 5:15; Paranormal Witness, 4:30.
8) Conrad, 6:10; Conrad, 48 - 49.
9) Conrad, 11, 46; Conrad, 18:00.
10) Conrad, 12, 17 - 18, 46 - 47, 49; Conrad, 4:00, 14:30; Paranormal Witness, 4:20.
11) Taff, 6, 57; Conrad, 7:15. Paranormal Witness 11:44, 20:40; Taff, interview by Eman323, 0:50.
12) Conrad, 7:40, 9:00, 37:15; Conrad, 6 - 7, 11 - 12; Taff, 58, Paranormal Witness, 24:20.
13) Conrad, 12. Taff, 58. Garry Abrams, “Tangled Tales From the Crypt? : For 3 Years, Jackie Hernandez Says She Was Followed by a Pair of Puzzling--and Persistent--Ghosts,” Los Angeles Times, March 23, 1993.
14) Paranormal Witness, 25:50; Conrad, 12 - 14, 19 - 20; Conrad, 10:14, 11:08.
15) Conrad, 13 - 14. Conrad, 11:15, 12:43. Paranormal Witness, 27:00. Taff, 59.
16) Conrad, 11:34; Conrad 14; Taff, 59; Paranormal Witness, 28:40.
17) Conrad, 14 - 15; Conrad, 12:10; Taff, 60; Paranormal Witness, 28:10.
18) Conrad, 16, 22; Conrad, 17:15.
19) Conrad, 15 - 16, 102; Conrad, 12:33.
20) Conrad, 17 - 19; Conrad, 13:50, 15:00.
21) Conrad, 20 - 21.
22) Conrad, 55 - 58.
23) Conrad, 24, 32 - 33.
24) Conrad, 49 - 50.
25) Conrad, 19:20; Conrad, 41 - 42, 44.
26) Conrad, 29; Conrad, 17:45.
27) Conrad, 30 - 31; Conrad, 18:00; Taff, 58; Dr. Taff’s lab technician refused to be interviewed, having “no desire to be connected… to anything even remotely resembling a ‘pseudo-science.’” He refused payment because he wanted his work kept off the books.
28) Conrad, 26 - 29.
29) Conrad, 23:00, 25:20; Conrad, 37 - 39, 91- 96, 99 - 100; Paranormal Witness, 31:10, 31:50.
30) Conrad, 95 - 99. Conrad 22:55, 25:00; Paranormal Witness, 36:39.
31) Conrad, 99 - 104; Conrad, 26:05.
32) Conrad, 27:20; Conrad, 101 - 04, 112; Paranormal Witness, 38:25.
33) Conrad, 29:05, 30:03, 34:10; Taff, 59 - 60; Conrad, 104-05, 114 - 15; Paranormal Witness, 38:59.
34) Conrad, 108 - 09.
35) Conrad, 37:30; Conrad, 110, 112 - 13.
36) Conrad, 45:30; Conrad, 147, 157.
37) Conrad, 159 - 60; Paranormal Witness, 10:20.
38) Conrad, 160 - 61; Conrad, 47:03.
39) Barry Conrad, “Tina Lawler: Witness to the San Pedro Haunting (1995),” part1, 0:30, 0:53,1:25, 3:20; Conrad, 162 - 66; Paranormal Witness, 7:15.
40) Conrad, “Tina Lawler,” part 1, 14:43, part 2, 0:00; Conrad 46:35; Conrad, 163.
41) Conrad, 164 - 65; Conrad, 48:25.
42) Conrad, 161 - 62, 165 - 68.
43) Conrad, 138 - 44; Taff, 61.
44) Conrad, 173; Conrad, 51:48.
45) Conrad, 173 - 75; Conrad, “Tina Lawler,” part 1, 5:50.
46) Conrad, 175 - 76; Conrad, 53:00; Conrad, “Tina Lawler,” part 1, 4:30.
47) Conrad, 176; Conrad, “Tina Lawler,” part 1, 6:55.
48) Conrad, 176 - 79; Conrad, 54:45. Conrad, “Tina Lawler,” part 1, 5:23.
49) Conrad, 179 - 80; Conrad, “Tina Lawler,” part 1, 5:00; Conrad, 54:45.
50) Conrad, 180 - 83; Conrad, “Tina Lawler,” part 1, 9:46, 11:37.
51) Conrad, 209 - 10; American Journal, “Real X Files on San Pedro Haunting (1994),” 4:17; Garry Abrams, “Tangled.”
52) Conrad, 203 - 04, 217.
53) Conrad, 221, 237 - 38; Conrad, 1:00:05.
54) Conrad, 217 - 19; Conrad, 59:50.
55) Conrad, 155 - 56.
56) Conrad, 242 - 45.
57) Conrad, 258 - 60, 276 - 77.
58) Conrad radio interview on California’s Creepiest Ghost Story, 47:00.
59) Conrad radio interview on Ghost Story, 48:05; Conrad, 1:15:19; Conrad, 267 - 69.
60) Conrad, 276 - 77.
61) Conrad, 1:18:10; Paranormal Witness, 41:59.
62) Conrad, 284 - 85.
63) Taff, 69; Conrad, 283 - 84.
64) Conrad, 283 - 87; Taff, 69; Paranormal Witness, 41:59.
65) Conrad, 311 - 316.
66) Conrad, 22, 42-43, 58, 60, 62, 128 - 30, 237 - 38; Conrad, 40:05, 1:00:05.
67) Conrad, 176 - 7, 205 - 7; Conrad, 57:10; San Pedro News-Pilot, “Find body of young seaman under wharf,” March 25, 1930; Taff, 67.
68) Conrad, 147, 211, 280 - 83.
69) Taff, 65 - 68, 71, 74; Taff interview by Eman323, 3:40.
70) Claude Lecouteux. The Secret History of Poltergeists and Haunted Houses: From Pagan Folklore to Modern Manifestations, trans. Jon E. Graham (Toronto: Inner Traditions International, 2012), 15. See 28-29 for a listing of characteristics common to poltergeist cases. See also 36 for another case with mysterious sounds and doors moving. See 46-48, 156-163 for examples with fire. See 55 - 56 for an examples of “practical joker” cases with matching elements. See 64 - 65 for cases that include breathing sounds and “emaciated” apparitions. See 94 for a case containing rope that became tied around someone’s throat. See 151 and 166 for cases containing someone hit by an invisible cold hand. See 161 for a case with balls of light.
Sources:
Abrams, Garry. “Tangled Tales From the Crypt? : For 3 Years, Jackie Hernandez Says She Was Followed by a Pair of Puzzling--and Persistent--Ghosts.” Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles). March 23 1993. Accessed October 7. 2019. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-03-23-vw-14352-story.html.
American Journal. “Real X Files on San Pedro Haunting (1994).” YouTube. Video File. March 11, 2013. Accessed October 7. 2019. https://youtu.be/1a1ukBbwJKs.
Conrad, Barry. “An Unknown Encounter: A True Account of the San Pedro Haunting.” Vimeo. Video File. Directed by Barry Conrad. 1997. BarCon Video Productions. Accessed October 7, 2019. https://vimeo.com/142326236.
Conrad, Barry. An Unknown Encounter: A True Account of the San Pedro Haunting. Dorrance Publishing, 2009. Google Play.
https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Barry_Conrad_An_Unknown_Encounter?id=Zjw9dQS88jUC.
Conrad, Barry. “Tina Lawler: Witness to the San Pedro Haunting (1995).” YouTube. Video File. March 10, 2013. Accessed October 7, 2019.
Part 1: https://youtu.be/fvvDrihWsHA.
Part 2: https://youtu.be/J7bnn6PZxG8.
Conrad’s radio interview on California’s Creepiest Ghost Story. March 9, 2016. Accessed October 7, 2019.
https://wotrradio.com/blog/2016/3/9/california-creepiest-ghost-story-barry-conrad-interview.
Lecouteux, Claude. The Secret History of Poltergeists and Haunted Houses: From Pagan Folklore to Modern Manifestations. Translated by Jon E. Graham. Toronto: Inner Traditions International, 2012.
Paranormal Witness. Season 2, episode 1, “Man in the Attic.” Directed by Stephen Kemp. August 8, 2012. Syfy.
San Pedro News-Pilot. “Find body of young seaman under wharf.” March 25, 1930. https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SPNP19300325.2.16&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-san+pedro+news+pilot+March+25%2c+1930-------1.
Taff, Barry E. Aliens Above, Ghosts Below: Explorations of the Unknown. Cosmic Pantheon Press. 2011.
Taff, Barry, interview by Eman323. “San Pedro California Haunting.” YouTube. Video File. October 24, 2015. Accessed October 7, 2019. https://youtu.be/a9DOU7NIwJo.
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Think Anomalous is created by Jason Charbonneau. Illustrations by V. R. Laurence. Research by Clark Murphy. Music by Josh Chamberland. Animation by Brendan Barr. Sound design by Will Mountain and Josh Chamberland.
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