Poltergeist Case Book: The Miami Poltergeist

Poltergeists

'In one test, [Suzy] Smith placed a Coca-Cola bottle on a shelf and ensured no one went near it. It flew off the shelf. [William] Roll also set up a number of target objects. He later commented, 'It was the best chance I've ever had to observe the breakages and movements of objects by some unexplained force ... In Miami I was able to observe with my own eyes numerous instances of objects and check for the possibility of fraud or accident. Neither existed.' - 'The Poltergeist Phenomenon by John and Anne Spencer, p.51.

According to the Society for Psychical research (SPR), poltergeist 'disturbances are characterized by ‘rapping’ or ‘knocking’ noises of unknown provenance, along with the anomalous and often violent movement of furniture and other objects, outbreaks of fires, inundations, and the like.' 

Poltergeists are thought by some to be relatively rare; however, if one looks more deeply into the relevant literature and research on poltergeist they may come to a different conclusion: that they are more common than one realises. Given the limited resources available to parapsychologists and psychical researchers to investigate current cases of poltergeists, it is highly likely that the phenomenon occurs at an even greater scale than might be assumed.
 

In this article, the case of the Miami Poltergeist will be explored. 

The Miami Poltergeist

 The phenomena was witnessed by a large number of people - who were convinced that most of the activity could not be explained by fraud occurring. A magician unsuccessfully tried to demonstrate his conviction that sleight of hand was involved, but to no avail - as the tric ks he performed paled in comparison.

    The phenomena first began in December 1967, with events coming to a peak on Friday 23rd January 1967 - by this time there were, William Roll states in his book, The Poltergeist, (p.120) '52 incidents [occurred], nearly a quarter of the 224 [events] that were recorded.'. This poltergeist case was investigated by Suzy Smith, William Roll and Gaither Pratt. It also featured in the media at the time - on the radio and in newspapers.

      According to Psychic News, the Miami Poltergeist focused on a 19-year-old refugee called Julio Vasquez, who was the focal person for the poltergeist activity of 'objects being moved, thrown and smashed'. It appears also that the likely trigger for the poltergeist activity is Vasquez's experiencing family problems, attempting suicide and dislike of his employer (the activity occurred when he began working for that individual's company). Indeed, Vasquez had also been, 'thrown out of his home' - as noted by John and Anne Spencer in their book, The Poltergeist Phenomenon.    

      Interestingly, the authors note that poltergeist phenomena seemed to surround
Vasquez even before he started working at the Tropication company around which much of the case centres. During the investigation, it  was realised that the poltergeist activity that occurred at Tropication only happened when the 19-year-old Cuban was around, since 'it was noticed that the phenomena which occurred around him were not present on the days he was off work'. Investigators established that Vasquez was indeed the poltergeist focus, after having kept especial watch on him and ensuring that the activity could not be explained through any normal means - notably trickery or accidents. 

       Unlike some poltergeist cases (e.g. the Enfield case), John and Anne Spencer state that the Miami poltergeist 'never developed beyond the phenomenon of movement and breakage of objects', asking whether this 'was because the warehouse where this took place was so full of objects that the poltergeist never tired? Or could it be that the investigators, with so much happening around them, never wanted or thought to ask for any other phenomena?' Whilst Vasquez (p.51) 'denied deliberately causing any damage, ... he did admit to feeling happy when items in the warehouse fell over or smashed.' This might be because Vasquez felt that this activity was pay-back for his employer (who he disliked), or perhaps because he tended more toward criminal-like activity - as he had been involved in theft and robbery, the latter resulting in a sentence in jail. 

       When television camera were set up, no poltergeist phenomena occurred, but it commenced when the cameras were taken down. One sales representative witnessed some of the phenomena that occurred, such as a Coke bottle 'crashing to the floor', and shot glasses hitting and falling in different aisles. The poltergeist activity stopped at the company when he got fired, but it followed him when he got taken to Durham, North Carolina, for further testing - though this time in laboratory conditions.

      Individuals who seem to be the focus of poltergeist activity when tested in the parapsychological laboratory, have tended to display what John and Anne Spencer term a 'high ESP factor'  - that is, high scores in tests of extra-sensory perception (ESP). In the laboratory, Julio was no exception in producing interesting results - though in his case, this was in demonstrating clear psychokinetic (PK) ability, for a (p.231) 'decorative bottle 'fell' when he was around and a few other events occurred, suggesting something of the poltergeist was still with him.' 

      Whilst in PK tests he generally scored quite badly (in terms of getting a significant score that was higher than chance expectation), getting scores that did not go much higher than chance, it seemed that Vasquez had ability in the psychokinetic influence of falling dice (i.e. in trying to influence a particular dice face to occur when the dice landed), with a score that far surpassed chance, with the dice mostly falling on the appointed numbers. In
The Poltergeist Phenomenon, the authors note that the machine responsible for shuffling the dice (a random number generator - or RNG) broke four times, apparently as a result of the PK force that Vasquez exerted on it to influence the dice. 
     As with most poltergeist cases, the activity finally died down once Vasquez left the company - and nor did it seem to follow him, as far as can be told. For more information about this case (particularly regarding more instances recorded and experienced by William Roll himself), his book, The Poltergeist is highly recommended (see references below).

References

Daniels, M. (2016). Notable Modern Poltergeist Cases [online]. Psychic Science. Available at: http://psychicscience.org/polt3.aspx (last accessed: 26⁄  7 ⁄ 17).

Roll, W. (Republished: 2004). The Poltergeist. New York: Paraview Special Editions.

Society for Psychical Research (2014). Psi Encyclopedia - Poltergeists, Hauntings and Apparitions [online]. Available at: https://www.spr.ac.uk/publications/psi-encyclopedia  (last accessed: 26⁄  7 ⁄ 17).

Spencer, J & Spencer, A. (1996.) The Poltergeist Phenomenon. London: Headline Publishing.