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The House of Knocks and Bumps, pg. 1

Typewritten manuscript, page 1, "The House of Knocks and Bumps" by Daniel Lehmann The text, which has faded, contains handwritten edits The text reads: Near the end of July, 1959, in a house on a poultry farm not far from New York City, a series of mysterious knocks and scratching noises began to annoy the residents. The family of four consisted of the father, mother, and two daughters, age 17 and 11. Although these are not their names, let us identify them as Mr. and Mrs. Marx and their daughters, Julia and Alice. The strange phenomena came to the attention of psychical researchers and the general public on August 28 and the first days of September, when Mrs. Marx called the local newspapers to ask for help in solving the problem. Up to that time, for six weeks, the mysterious knocks were heard in the upstairs and downstairs walls of the house at various times of the day and night. The most remarkable manifestations were those knocks that were heard "like clockwork," to use Mrs. Marx's phrase, every night at 9:30. On September 3, this reporter and Dr. Karlis Osis, Research Director of the Parapsychology Foundation, New York, received permission to go there and visit the house. We arrived about the middle of the afternoon and stayed until after 10 P.M. We heard nothing unusual. This action was true to form, as reported in other cases of this type - more often than not, the disturbances do not take place when under close observation. However, ten minutes after we left, it was reported later, the knocks were heard again, starting in the bedroom and continuing for about twenty minutes. This action, also, was true to the usual behavior of "poltergeist" infestations - for such events usually begin again "as soon as your back is turned"! Dr. Osis and I had a certain frame of reference with which to judge the case. Dr. Osis, of course, is a trained parapsychologist, and we had both visited the "house of flying objects"

The text introduces the 1959 poltergeist case which occurred at a home on a poultry farm not far from New York City. Note the use of pseudonym “Marx,” an interesting choice for the Cold War Era. In later pages, the parents are identified as Russian immigrants.

See: “The House of Knocks and Bumps” page 2, page 7, page 8

Manuscript, “The House of Knocks and Bumps,” Daniel Lehmann, pg. 1, Folder “Baltimore Poltergeist,” Box D, Eileen J. Garrett Parapsychology Foundation collection, Collection 331, Special Collections, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (Baltimore, MD).

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