The dark spirits of a family won't let go of their house
It was the year 1970 when Edwin
and Marsha Becker, a couple that have been married for 3 years, were waiting
for the arrival of their first baby. The couple lived just outside of Chicago
and were over-the-moon at how happy their life was together as a little family.
“Life was exactly as it should be!” Marsha exclaimed. One day, when Edwin went
to pay the rent for the landlady, he told her about Marsha’s pregnancy.
However, rather than a “congratulations”, the landlady told them to leave because she allowed no children and pets in
the apartment complex they stayed in. Marsha was 7 months pregnant so the
couple were desperate to find any suitable place to call home before the baby’s
arrival. Edwin took off into the inner-city and found a 2-story apartment
building within the city. He was interested in it so he met with his realtor
about it. The realtor took him inside the place when the two men came across an
old woman named Myra that screamed obscenities at them and told them to get
out. “This house is not yours, it will never be yours!” she screamed. The
realtor saw how startled Edwin was so he assured her that she was going to be taken
to a care home and was just upset because she was the last remaining member of
the family that owned the living space.
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| A young couple's big steps |
The men went upstairs into a
scattered, cluttered, room. “Paper, clothes, scattered all over the floor!”
Edwin recalls. “I thought someone vandalized it!” The realtor affirmed him that
it had great potential for his wife and baby. Desperate to shelter his wife and
unborn baby, Edwin took it. Meanwhile, Myra kept on giving him the “evil eye”.
But Edwin swore he would make a home for his family.When they settled in, Marsha
just had her baby and the couple were ecstatic at their new life. “In the first
few days, I was so busy that there wasn’t time to think,” Marsha said. Marsha’s
prized possession was a very beautiful candy dish that was a wedding present;
despite being so busy she made it a habit to leave the candy dish in the middle
of the table. When she went to get a tablecloth, she noticed the candy dish was
on the other side of the table. During dinnertime, the couple are home at night
when the dining room light began flickering but it did it in a way that made
Marsha feel uncomfortable; “it was almost in rhythm, like moarse code…fast
flashes then one flash,” Marsha recalls of the strange flashing light. Edwin
tried convincing her it was just a circuit. Then it stopped. A month later, Edwin woke up at 5am to work. Once he got
into work, he called Marsha and heard the phone was busy He figured Marsha was
calling family and friends. Few hours later, he calls again…phone is busy
again. “I didn’t know who she could talk to all day long!” he said and began to
get bothered at how busy the phone was. Edwin came home and was frustrated that he couldn’t reach
her all day. Marsha swore she wasn’t
on the phone, which made him even more upset. She saw the phone was on the table but that
the cord and receiver earpiece was on the floor. “I didn’t understand why he
was upset with me, he should’ve known me better than that,” Marsha exclaimed. One
day, Marsha was tending to the baby when the phone receiver dropped again and
she couldn’t understand what was wrong but knew it wasn’t good
Every morning, Marsha
would wash the dishes from breakfast when she turned around and saw the cabinet
door open. All the sudden, the dishes were flying out of the cabinet, all flying
in one motion and then slam down to the floor. “That scared me to death and it
felt dangerous, very very dangerous!” Afraid to have the place by themselves,
the couple decided to rent out the first floor to potential tenants. Dan and
Diane White were interested in living downstairs; they responded to an add to
rent the place. They were about their age with a brand new baby as well. “I was
very excited about the apartment and I saw that Diane could see it as a home,”
Dan recalls. Marsha was even more ecstatic to have someone like her in the
place. “She was sweet and smiling and had a kind look to her eyes. All I could
think about is I was not going to be alone.” Edwin called the next day and told
them to move in whenever they wanted.
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| Wondering what help would be out there for the couple's unusual problem... |
Dan would come home
from work, Diane would be out and Dan would see chandeliers swinging back and
forth. Dan thought it was the couple upstairs walking around that was causing
it. But then it would begin to swing on its own again. One afternoon, Diane put
her baby in a walker while the women visited. There was no way the baby could
touch the floor and move because the baby was so tiny so there were no
concerned of the baby moving about. But out of the corner of the eye, Marsha
sees something moving. Her mind didn’t accept that the baby was doing that. The
baby’s stroller was moving towards the staircase and the baby started wailing
and screaming. A panicked Diane rushes
to save her baby in the nick of time, while Marsha felt an overwhelming
sensation of guilt because she should’ve told the new tenants the house was
haunted. Marsha and Edwin had a talk where she told him there was something in
the basement that wasn’t right. Edwin didn’t believe her fully but also wanted
his wife to fill at ease. Edwin went down the basement one night and “it was s
a cave filled with junk”. He was examining everything in the room. He noticed a
particular jar. He opened it up and noticed it had old Monopoly pieces and then
noticed that there was a live bullet round in it. He noticed there was a door
in the back of the basement and opened it. One side of the house was shoe boxes,
the other side was magazines dated from the 1930s. The name “Ben Verdere” was
written on every magazine. He began opening up shoe boxes “it was the most
amazing things I’d ever seen,” Edwin describes at his discovery. “There were
clippings of paper of women. Maybe a tight sweater, a skirt up in the air…” Edwin
figured out that Mr Verdere must’ve beenquite disturbed and perverted. Edwin
didn’t want to tell Marsha because she didn’t want to add fuel to Marsha’s
fear.
One morning, Marsha
would take a bath once she put the baby down and Edwin went to work All the
sudden, Marsha felt uncomfortable. “I just felt like I wasn’t alone.” She then
felt a hand touch her shoulder and she lost it. When she went to reach the
phone, the phone fell down. She felt someone was attacking her and threatening her
life. Marsha didn’t belong to the church but wondered if a kindly, old priest
would come fix the house “to take the evil out”. After contacting a priest, he
agrees to come out to help the couple. Edwin thought it was “a bunch of crap”
but insisted to help Marsha. The priest comes over and pulls out a goblet, holy
water and bible.He reached in his robe and pulled out a holy water dispenser. Marsha
was frightened that something was going to happen. Then, the holy water
dispenser (which was made of brass) shattered. Even the priest was frightened
and packed up to leave.
At this point, even Edwin begins to believe that someone
disturbing is haunting the house and his family….
TO BE CONTINUED
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