Unwelcomed (2015) is described as "The True Story of the Moffitt Family Haunting." The book is the nonfiction case study of the paranormal experiences that occurred to the Moffitt family between 1987 and 1992 in Rancho Cucamonga, Southern California. Author Deborah Moffitt has answered questions about her uncanny experiences with recorded interviews available online along with photographic evidence of her family's interaction with the haunting presence that she nicknamed 'Mr. Entity.'
There have been numerous articles at this blog about chronicled 'talking poltergeist' cases (see "List of 'Talking Poltergeist' Accounts"). Consistent blog readers will observe correlations between cases along with some aspects of novelty noticeable with each unique chronology. In the Moffitt family's predicament, the 'talking' aspect was accomplished by a lengthy sequence of messages written on a bathroom Mirror by an unseen being using bars of soap. When asked for a name, the entity is reported to have once left on the mirror the name "Prince."
Comparing this case with others, I found a surprising parallel with a famous poltergeist case. It was astonishing to learn about the abusive and threatening supernatural ordeal of Lee, Deborah's mother-in-law. Deborah reported:
"Prince" turned his wrath toward Lee. He wrote constantly of his hate for her and how he wanted her dead. We soon learned that Prince had a symbol. Throughout our home we discovered various manifestations of a triangle with a small tail extending out of the base. He burned it into walls, carved it into the rugs, and even scratched it into the surface of our cars. The entity started to destroy the second floor. Lee and Bill's [Bill Sr.] bed was sliced to ribbons and eventually Lee and Bill were forced to move into the master bedroom with Bill [Bill Jr.], Jamie [Deborah's son], and I for protection. Bill Sr. seemed indifferent to the entire situation. He didn't act frightened or worried about Lee in the slightest. He acted like he was an observer with no interest in what was happening. His callousness was astounding to us.
"Baby powder was used to make the entity's mark at the Moffitt's home."
(11-1-1988)
Readers will perhaps recall a well-publicized aspect of the 19th Century 'Bell Witch' talking poltergeist case. Richard William Bell wrote in memoirs eventually published in a 1894 book: ". . . the witch manifested a pernicious dislike for father, using the most vile and malignant epithets toward him, declaring that it would torment 'Old Jack Bell' to the end of his life." As I wrote in a previous blog article about the Bell case, some passages denounce the haunting presence as culpable not only for physical ailments experienced by Richard's father and sister but even for his father’s death. An undiagnosed malady was reported to have sometimes left John Bell unable to talk or eat while there was an interval when Betsy Bell was described as having been subjected to recurring fainting spells accompanied by a severe asthmatic condition. Richard Williams Bell acknowledged: "There is no positive evidence that these spells were produced by the witch. However, that was the conclusion, from the fact that there was no other apparent cause."
Some authors considering the published accounts have commented on the difficulty of attributing the death of John Bell to the haunting presence as described by Richard Williams Bell. Colin Wilson wrote in Poltergeist! A Study in Destructive Haunting (1982): "As [Nandor] Fodor points out, there is something very odd about this death. The witch had often revealed strength enough to strangle Bell, or kill him by hitting him with some object; yet she never made any such attempt . . ."
In 1986, Deborah while living in the state of New York met her future husband Bill who resided in the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area. The two had begun exchanging VHS tapes of local broadcasts of professional wrestling events. She reflected: "When I stop and think about some of the letters he wrote about his family, I should have realized that our life wasn't going to be ordinary . . . His grandfather, Andre Cuccia, was a powerful member of one of the Cosa Nostra families in California. Cosa Nostra is better known as the Sicilian Mafia. Bill's mother Lee knew where more than one body was buried herself . . . She loved her father dearly, but she was ashamed of the things he had done." Bill Sr., the father of Deborah's husband, "had a tendency to be sarcastic and insulting, hiding behind a guise of humor . . . the type of man who instigated situations just to watch an argument unfold." Deborah wrote that Bill Sr. cheated on Lee and was a binge drinker. At times Bill Jr. had to protect his mother from his father; nonetheless "Lee refused to be anything but a devoted and faithful wife to her husband."
After the wedding Deborah and Bill moved in with his parents. "Bill had been an only child and he was very close to his mother. Bill also had a heart condition, and as a result he felt more secure being close to those he loved." The family owned three adjacent lots with houses. The first strange events personally witnessed by Deborah involved objects mysteriously transported from one place to another, at times constituting actual instances of "apports" (inexplicably moved and/or materialized objects). The family decided to sell the three houses and move to a larger house in the nearby Alta Loma neighborhood. Before moving to the new home with a swimming pool, there were odd circumstances involving tenants of two of the houses. Then the paranormal events started occurring in the house where the four of them lived.
Deborah and her husband urged his parents to contact "someone who knew about this sort of thing" yet Lee refused. Lee worried about what people would think and "began to foster the notion that she was being punished."
There were astonishing incidents that occurred on the last day of moving to their new home. Moments after finishing packing boxes in their bedroom, there was a loud noise from the front of the house and they found that in the kitchen all of the cupboards had been ripped completely off the walls. Then, the glass and wood of the bedroom windows were blown out from the inside. A pet dog (Pit Bull/German Shepherd mix) was left in the yard overnight and the family found a bizarre carcass the next morning: "Something incredibly strong had either pulled or pushed her through the four inch gap between the bars of our wrought iron fence, leaving her body with half on either side." Deborah gave birth to her son Jamie a month before the family relocated to the new residence.
For three weeks life in the new home was quiet. Then: "We were put into a state of nervous vigilance when the first anomalous occurrence happened . . . A picture frame was turned around." Upon accompanying Lee to the old house to get some plants as the new owners planned to demolish the properties, Deborah saw "Lee lifting off the ground as if someone very large and strong had kicked her in the backside." This was followed by "a shower of pebbles" falling on them and the stones felt "ice cold" to the touch.
The mirror writing began upstairs where Lee and Bill Sr. had their bedroom. On one occasion, the four adults were together outside the bathroom after the mirror had been cleaned. A few minutes, they returned to look at the mirror and there was a new message: "no escape."
At first, the messages weren't in response to their questions. In one message, a nickname for Lee was used that was only known to her and her dead sister.
Lee believed her sister was talking to her to issue warnings of impending danger but the others didn't think such a claim could be valid. Other messages were regarded as threats, such as "Talk or burn." Deborah recalled, "Fear finally convinced Lee to allow us to find help." They decided to see a psychologist together. The psychologist advised them to find a parapsychologist or university with courses in the paranormal. Lee contacted a local priest who came to the house, made the sign of the cross, tossed holy water, uttered a few words and then left the premises.
The symbol of "a triangle with a small tail extending out of the base" was "burned" into walls, carved into the rugs and scratched upon the surface of Lee and Bill Sr.'s cars. After Lee and Bill Sr. moved into the master bedroom downstairs with Deborah, Bill and Jamie, the mirror messages commenced in the downstairs guest bathroom. Deborah reported that hostile manifestations were focused on Lee: "It destroyed her clothes. It took her wallet, credit cards, and driver's license. She no longer could carry money."
Deborah and Bill visited a shop called 'The Crystal Cave' in Claremont and the owner—"a well-known witch named Annella"—agreed to visit the house. Annella conducted a ritual with a candle and bowl of water. Deborah wrote: "Her assessment was that all of the strange occurrences were generated by negativity stemming from Bill's illness." Before Annella drove away, the ritual items were gone and later found at the bottom of the pool.
Then "two local ladies" attempted to rid the house of the manifesting entity. Deborah recalled how they went from room to room challenging the entity to show itself.
Among other would-be 'saviors,' a self-proclaimed magician brought eggs to confront the entity. After chanting in Spanish over the eggs and placing them around the sitting room, the eggs began pelting him from different angles and he quickly ran away. Another time, after a 'psychic' tried to intervene, the sitting room was a shambles and Lee and Bill Sr.'s mattress was slashed and left unusable. Deborah commented about the people who tried to help the family:
The mirror writing became frequent. "Running commentary on our lives and conversations became the main topic of his communications." When Lee spoke to Bill in Tobresh to prevent the entity from knowing what she was saying, the entity's mirror messages began to be written in Tobresh. Lee conversing in Spanish and Italian brought fluent replies in those languages as well.
Deborah estimated that around 1,000 photographs were taken of the mirror messages but most were destroyed on the advice of the paranormal 'experts' with whom they consulted: "Destroy these pictures! That's what's keeping the demon here!" Deborah surmised: "If I had ignored their advice and kept all the pictures, perhaps we could have pieced together some answer by now."
Lee was a devoted Catholic and the gamut of observed paranormal phenomena included her porcelain saints having their heads and left arms ripped off. During one period, the crow population in the vicinity increased exponentially in a matter of weeks, resulting with a cacophony of cawing that became "maddening." Following the interlude with the crows, there was an invasion by rats. On one occasion, Deborah and Lee went into the pantry and found five rats or more hanging from the beams in the ceiling.
After the wedding Deborah and Bill moved in with his parents. "Bill had been an only child and he was very close to his mother. Bill also had a heart condition, and as a result he felt more secure being close to those he loved." The family owned three adjacent lots with houses. The first strange events personally witnessed by Deborah involved objects mysteriously transported from one place to another, at times constituting actual instances of "apports" (inexplicably moved and/or materialized objects). The family decided to sell the three houses and move to a larger house in the nearby Alta Loma neighborhood. Before moving to the new home with a swimming pool, there were odd circumstances involving tenants of two of the houses. Then the paranormal events started occurring in the house where the four of them lived.
A picture was turned backwards on the wall. Soon things began to move from place to place around the house. It was strange. Some things seemed random while others indicated a type of intelligence or purpose. Items moving, doors shutting by themselves, lights going on and off, and the TV changing channels on its own were just a few of the events that were growing more common.
Deborah and her husband urged his parents to contact "someone who knew about this sort of thing" yet Lee refused. Lee worried about what people would think and "began to foster the notion that she was being punished."
There were astonishing incidents that occurred on the last day of moving to their new home. Moments after finishing packing boxes in their bedroom, there was a loud noise from the front of the house and they found that in the kitchen all of the cupboards had been ripped completely off the walls. Then, the glass and wood of the bedroom windows were blown out from the inside. A pet dog (Pit Bull/German Shepherd mix) was left in the yard overnight and the family found a bizarre carcass the next morning: "Something incredibly strong had either pulled or pushed her through the four inch gap between the bars of our wrought iron fence, leaving her body with half on either side." Deborah gave birth to her son Jamie a month before the family relocated to the new residence.
For three weeks life in the new home was quiet. Then: "We were put into a state of nervous vigilance when the first anomalous occurrence happened . . . A picture frame was turned around." Upon accompanying Lee to the old house to get some plants as the new owners planned to demolish the properties, Deborah saw "Lee lifting off the ground as if someone very large and strong had kicked her in the backside." This was followed by "a shower of pebbles" falling on them and the stones felt "ice cold" to the touch.
The mirror writing began upstairs where Lee and Bill Sr. had their bedroom. On one occasion, the four adults were together outside the bathroom after the mirror had been cleaned. A few minutes, they returned to look at the mirror and there was a new message: "no escape."
At first, the messages weren't in response to their questions. In one message, a nickname for Lee was used that was only known to her and her dead sister.
It wrote that there was danger in the attic and that everyone was to stay out of that area. "Bad wire," sprawled across the mirror warned Lee that a fire was eminent. Its purpose was to keep us out of the attic, but why?
Lee believed her sister was talking to her to issue warnings of impending danger but the others didn't think such a claim could be valid. Other messages were regarded as threats, such as "Talk or burn." Deborah recalled, "Fear finally convinced Lee to allow us to find help." They decided to see a psychologist together. The psychologist advised them to find a parapsychologist or university with courses in the paranormal. Lee contacted a local priest who came to the house, made the sign of the cross, tossed holy water, uttered a few words and then left the premises.
"The entity used spray paint to make its mark above Lee's bed."
The symbol of "a triangle with a small tail extending out of the base" was "burned" into walls, carved into the rugs and scratched upon the surface of Lee and Bill Sr.'s cars. After Lee and Bill Sr. moved into the master bedroom downstairs with Deborah, Bill and Jamie, the mirror messages commenced in the downstairs guest bathroom. Deborah reported that hostile manifestations were focused on Lee: "It destroyed her clothes. It took her wallet, credit cards, and driver's license. She no longer could carry money."
Deborah and Bill visited a shop called 'The Crystal Cave' in Claremont and the owner—"a well-known witch named Annella"—agreed to visit the house. Annella conducted a ritual with a candle and bowl of water. Deborah wrote: "Her assessment was that all of the strange occurrences were generated by negativity stemming from Bill's illness." Before Annella drove away, the ritual items were gone and later found at the bottom of the pool.
Then "two local ladies" attempted to rid the house of the manifesting entity. Deborah recalled how they went from room to room challenging the entity to show itself.
This was the only time I actually heard "Prince." Booming laughter from upstairs reverberated through the house. He followed them through the house terrorizing them. He slammed the doors behind them, moved things in front of them, and when they entered the kitchen he turned on all of the burners on the stove, making the gas flames burn higher than I had ever seen them.
Among other would-be 'saviors,' a self-proclaimed magician brought eggs to confront the entity. After chanting in Spanish over the eggs and placing them around the sitting room, the eggs began pelting him from different angles and he quickly ran away. Another time, after a 'psychic' tried to intervene, the sitting room was a shambles and Lee and Bill Sr.'s mattress was slashed and left unusable. Deborah commented about the people who tried to help the family:
They thought they would come to our home, do a little show, and tell us that the entity had left, and then wait for us to show our gratitude with fifties and hundreds. Instead, many of them learned the hard way that there was something beyond their limited comprehension in our home.
The mirror writing became frequent. "Running commentary on our lives and conversations became the main topic of his communications." When Lee spoke to Bill in Tobresh to prevent the entity from knowing what she was saying, the entity's mirror messages began to be written in Tobresh. Lee conversing in Spanish and Italian brought fluent replies in those languages as well.
Deborah estimated that around 1,000 photographs were taken of the mirror messages but most were destroyed on the advice of the paranormal 'experts' with whom they consulted: "Destroy these pictures! That's what's keeping the demon here!" Deborah surmised: "If I had ignored their advice and kept all the pictures, perhaps we could have pieced together some answer by now."
Still, I wasn't afraid. Not for my own safety at least. I had little knowledge of the paranormal beyond my own experiences, but I had the impression that the entity couldn't or wouldn't harm me.
Lee was a devoted Catholic and the gamut of observed paranormal phenomena included her porcelain saints having their heads and left arms ripped off. During one period, the crow population in the vicinity increased exponentially in a matter of weeks, resulting with a cacophony of cawing that became "maddening." Following the interlude with the crows, there was an invasion by rats. On one occasion, Deborah and Lee went into the pantry and found five rats or more hanging from the beams in the ceiling.
In desperation I went into the bathroom and asked the entity to keep the rats out of the house. I never received a response on the mirror, but from that day on we never saw or heard another rat in the house again.
"We found a picture of Lee inside this symbol it made with wood." (11-1-1988)
(10-26-1988)
Some mirror messages related to two books that had been found in Deborah's shopping basket at a bookstore alongside the new picture books for Jamie and sports magazines for Bill.
Deborah commented: "I'm not sure why, but I did read the books. For the life of me I still can't remember the title of the books or what they were about. For some reason it's a complete blank."
Not only did he ['Mr. Entity'] convey that he wanted me to read them, he even went to lengths to point out what pages in which books he felt were important.
Deborah commented: "I'm not sure why, but I did read the books. For the life of me I still can't remember the title of the books or what they were about. For some reason it's a complete blank."
The family was visited by the police twice during the period of the haunting. While searching for assistance and discussing their situation with people who might potentially know a way to intervene, a photo of the bisected pet dog brought suspicion of animal abuse and on another occasion a Native American 'shaman' shopkeeper's conversation with Bill Sr. resulted with an officer warning Bill Jr. he would be arrested for elder abuse if anything happened to his father.
This article describes occurrences chronicled in the first seven chapters of Deborah's case study book, which has 27 chapters, a Foreword, Epilogue, Afterword and Postscript. The most unexpected mirror messages were yet to come. Unwelcomed will be further profiled in next week's blog article.
This 1984 movie poster art shows the orientation of many unenlightened people concerning 'anomalous phenomena.'
This post first appeared on Interesting Articles, Links And Other Media, please read the originial post: here
