Forgotten Long Island

Amityville is not the only town with a house of 'horrors'.  There is another, perhaps lesser visually recognizeable, horror house.  It's not really all that far from Amityville, either.  The house is located in Seaford, in the middle of a typical Long Island suburban sprawl.  We're not here to tell ghost stories.  They may or may not be true.  We'll leave that for you to decide.

This unassuming home may not look like much more than a regular home from the outside, but it's been the inspiration for what is arguably one of the greatest ghost stories ever told.  What makes this alleged haunted house so different from others, is that there are so many witnesses to the supernatural events inside.  Like the Amityville Horror, there was a priest involved.  There was also a police patrolman, the homeowners, and even a Newsday reporter (David Kahn) that claimed to have witnessed the events inside.  It was claimed that items would fly about the home, and smash themselves into walls and onto the floors.  Caps twisted themselves off of soda bottles.  Toy soldiers went flying across rooms, and dented furniture. 

 There has been much speculation as to what natural phenomenon may have caused such incidents.  Lilco (now called LIPA) brought in equipment to check for ground vibrations.  RCA checked the radio frequency spectrum.  Mitchel Field's air officials were consulted.  They even had the local town of Hempstead building department in to check for defects in the Herrmann home.  No plausible explanations could be found. 

Many felt that the young boy in the home, Jimmy, was to blame for the mysterious actions taking place in the home.  However, neither the patrolman, Newsday reporter, or Duke University parapsychologist (J. G. Pratt) found this likely.  The objects were thrown at too great a force for the young boy to be suspect.

Some say that the events were supernatural in nature.  They speculate that the home was built upon an old native American burial ground.  There are those who claim that the events were the very spirit of Sachem Tackapausha himself.   Most of these stories are speculation and rumor and have yet to be substantiated in any way.

Does this story sound vaguely familiar to you?  It should, if you've ever watched the movie "Poltergeist" (1982).  The movie was based upon the events that supposedly took place in this Seaford home.  The year was 1958. 

Patrolman Tozzi                      Article                                                           Boy from the home, with broken dishware.

http://www.survivalafterdeath.org/articles/pratt/seaford.htm

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,863178-1,00.html