The Smurl Family -

This is the story of 1754 Pennsylvania Avenue. Jack and Janet Smurl moved into the duplex in 1973. It was a modest home, but it was theirs. For the first 12 years, life was normal. The only oddity was the basement—a dark, damp pit that gave visitors an unexplained sense of dread. But the Smurls weren't the type to believe in boogeymen.

Ed Warren was blunt: "You don't have a ghost. You have a demonic infestation." the smurl family

The family began sleeping in the same room. The television would turn on to static at 3:00 AM—the "Devil’s Hour." Janet developed scratches on her arms, three parallel lines, the classic calling card of a malevolent force. This is the story of 1754 Pennsylvania Avenue

Whether you believe in demons or not, the Smurl family story forces a terrifying question: What happens when the haunting isn't the house? What happens when you take it with you? For the first 12 years, life was normal

The Warrens performed a "progressive blessing" of the home. For a few weeks, the violence stopped. But then it returned, worse than before. The Church was hesitant to authorize a full Exorcism of a place (rather than a person). The Vatican’s position was that buildings cannot be possessed, only oppressed. Here is where the story takes its strangest turn. The Catholic Diocese of Scranton initially dismissed the Smurls as hysterics. But after a bishop secretly visited the home and witnessed a crucifix spinning upside down on the wall, the Church relented. They did not perform an exorcism. Instead, a priest came to the house, blessed every room, and performed a "Supplication of the Laity."

Janet was the first to notice it: the smell. A foul, sickly sweet odor of rotting meat mixed with sulfur that would waft through the house, then vanish. Soon after, the furniture started moving. Not the subtle, "did-I-leave-the-window-open?" kind of movement. This was a heavy armchair sliding across the living room floor while the family watched TV . The haunting didn’t come all at once. It escalated in three terrifying waves, as documented by renowned demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren (yes, those Warrens).

The family claimed to see an old, gnarled woman with black eyes standing in the corner of the basement. They also saw a tall, man-shaped beast with matted hair that smelled of decay. The house had become a spiritual war zone. By 1986, the Smurls were desperate. They called in the Warrens, who brought a team of priests, psychics, and parapsychologists. Using electromagnetic field meters and thermal cameras (cutting edge at the time), the team recorded massive fluctuations in the basement. Lorraine Warren claimed she saw a "portal" in the foundation—a spot where the soil itself felt corrupted.