June 3, 2025 • 26 mins
The Poltergeist and the Girl: Tina Resch’s Unbelievably Strange Story
🔮 Episode Summary: In this episode of Nightland Frights, we dive into the haunting and heart-wrenching tale of Tina Resch, a 14-year-old girl from Ohio who, in 1984, became the center of one of America's most notorious poltergeist cases. When objects began flying through her home, her foster mother reached out—not to a priest or psychologist—but to a journalist.
What followed was a media circus, a scientific investigation, and a national debate between believers and skeptics. But behind the flashing cameras and flying phones was a deeply troubled girl navigating trauma, fame, and suspicion. Was Tina truly haunted? Or was she crying out in the only way she knew how?
We explore the broader history of poltergeists, the bizarre preference these spirits seem to have for teenage girls, and how centuries of folklore, misogyny, and media hysteria shaped this unforgettable story.
👻 Topics Covered:
-
The chilling events in the Resch household
-
Photo evidence and national media attention
-
The role of parapsychologist William Roll
-
The skeptical intervention of magician James Randi
-
The history of poltergeists and why they often focus on young women
-
How trauma and adolescence may fuel hauntings
-
The tragic and complex aftermath for Tina Resch
🧠 Key Takeaways:
-
Poltergeist cases often center around vulnerable, adolescent girls.
-
The intersection of media, trauma, and the supernatural can distort reality.
-
The Tina Resch case serves as both a paranormal mystery and a sobering commentary on how we treat troubled youth.
📚 Resources & References:
-
VICE article: “The Unbelievably Sad and Strange Story of a Girl and Her Poltergeist”
-
Unleashed: Of Poltergeists and Murder by William Roll
-
James Randi’s investigations into paranormal claims
-
Historical records of 19th-century poltergeist cases
🎧 Listen If You Like:
-
Real-life haunting stories with a psychological twist
-
Exploring the dark side of supernatural fame
-
Paranormal phenomena grounded in history and social commentary
🔗 Stay Connected: Follow us on @dairylandfrights on Instagram, @dairylandfrights on X, @dairylandfrigthspodcast Facebook, and if you’ve ever experienced a haunting—or been haunted by your past—drop us a line at dairylandfrights@gmail.com. We’d love to share your story.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker A (00:00):
In 1984, Joan Resch was worried about her 14 year old daughter, Tina.
The teenager was deeply troubled, but hertroubles seemed to have begun manifesting
themselves as flying objects.
Telephones were flying across the Ohio house.
Framed family portraits shook and fell off the
wall.
The bric a brac of the middle class home hadtransformed into potentially lethal objects.
(00:23):
Joan, unsure of what was wrong with Tina,
didn't seek traditional methods of help.
Rather, she called Columbus Dispatch reporterMike Hardin.
Joan had worked with the reporter before.
Years before, Hardin had written a profile onher and her husband John.
The couple was well known in the community.
They had fostered and adopted hundreds ofchildren,
(00:44):
and Tina was one of their household's latestadditions.
There's little doubt then that the Reshis werefamiliar with the ever shifting contours of
adolescence,
that endless shape shifting of need andrebellion.
Yet there was something about Tina,
the way that her very presence seemed tosummon the fury of inanimate objects that
scared the Reshes.
(01:06):
When the living room lamp fell to the floor,Joan picked it up.
Then she found herself doing it over and overagain.
On the fourth time, the lamp tumbled to theground.
Joan left it on the floor and in frightenedfrustration called Hardin.
When he first spoke to Joan, Hardin wasskeptical.
However,
(01:26):
believing in her good intentions andmidwestern honesty, he decided to come to the
house to investigate.
He brought Columbus Dispatch photographer FredShannon with him.
They sat with Tina in the Resch's living roomand waited for hours,
hoping to be assaulted by familiar domesticobjects.
Finally, the journalists saw what they werewaiting for.
(01:47):
As Tina sat in an overstuffed chair, thetelephone next to her rose from its table and
the receiver flew towards her.
Though Shannon was looking away,
he had his camera pointed at Tina.
He shuddered.
36 negatives, one of which captured the
surprise on Tina's face, her mouth open as thephone flew across her body.
The photograph seemed to confirm what bothHardin and the Resches Tina poltergeist,
(02:12):
from the German meaning noisy ghost,
is nearly as old as the written word.
Reports of these pesky ghosts wrapping onwalls and knocking over furniture seem to date
from as early as the first century.
Poltergeists, however, went unnamed until1838.
Before their rather ominous sounding Germanmoniker, they were known as many things.
(02:34):
Witchcraft, possession and plain oldhauntings.
It's difficult to say why exactly.
It was in 1838 that poltergeists demanded to
be named.
Perhaps they were uncomfortable with their
association with mere ghosts.
Or maybe it was the Victorians renewed
interest in spiritualism and psychokinesis.
But post Naming the noisy ghosts appearedalmost everywhere.
(02:57):
In 1877, in the dull colored hamlet ofDerrygonely, Ireland,
a 20 year old named Maggie was the center of adisturbance centered around her home.
Rappings were heard on the walls and accordingto one writer,
stones began to fall and candles and bootswere repeatedly thrown out of the house.
A year later and thousands of miles away InNova Scotia, 18 year old Esther *** terrified
(03:22):
her family.
***'* ghost slapped her in the face and burneddown houses.
Her poltergeist's behavior worsened when adoctor prescribed her sedatives, burning down
even more houses.
And there are hundreds of more reportsthroughout the 19th century of young women and
girls tormented and tortured by these ghostswho seem to have no purpose other than
irritation.
(03:43):
Yet the poltergeist refused to be written offas a Victorian relic, refused to be reduced to
the dustbin of weird history, and continued tohaunt well into the 20th century.
In the late 1960s, 19 year old AnnemarieSchaberl took a job as a secretary at a law
office in Rosenheim, Germany.
The unassuming young woman brought chaos tothe law firm.
(04:05):
Overhead lights swung and exploded, furnituremoved and fluid leaked from the copier.
The lawyers might have chalked up the leakingcopy fluid and exploding light bulbs to a
poorly kept office,
but instead they were convinced that Shaeburlwas haunted by a poltergeist.
They called a specialist, a parapsychologistnamed Hans Bender,
(04:26):
who filmed the disturbances.
After an extensive investigation of the ghost,Bender determined that Shaebral's poltergeist
was simply the psychokinetic manifestation ofher deep and mournful sadness.
What a striking thought that a young woman'sdepression could be powerful enough to move
furniture.
What a striking thought that a young woman'sdepression could be powerful enough to move
(04:48):
furniture.
The poltergeist, it seems, is a bit of a timetraveler.
And the ghost has preferences.
Small towns and rooms where there are objectseager to be overturned and destroyed.
Most importantly, poltergeists prefer youngwomen.
In nearly every reported poltergeist case, thetroublesome ghost seems to have cozied up to a
(05:10):
woman.
And what a striking thought that a youngwoman's depression could be powerful enough to
move furniture.
The poltergeist, it seems, is a bit of a timetraveler.
And the ghost has preferences.
Small towns and rooms where there are objectseager to be overturned and destroyed.
Most importantly, poltergeists prefer youngwomen.
(05:31):
In nearly every reported poltergeist case, thetroublesome ghost seems to have cozied up to a
woman and particularly vulnerable are those onthe cusp of recognizable adulthood.
Indeed, if the poltergeist cases of thestunned and scared communities from 19th
century Ireland to 1980s Ohio revealedanything,
it was that the source of the disturbances wasall young women.
(05:53):
Hauntings have always been the province ofwomen.
The idea that the feminine body was thepreferred vessel for ghostly habitation likely
stemmed from a medieval belief that the devilcould more easily penetrate the soft bodies of
women and take up residence.
It was a concept that endured through time.
In New England, the Puritan preacher andprosecutor of witches, Cotton Mather,
(06:17):
used to regularly beat his daughter,
believing that a righteous hand could drivethe sins from her inherently iniquitous body.
Mather recommended the practice to his fellowcolonists, and given their problem with
witches,
they were eager to embrace it.
Though religious ideology underpinned thebelief that ghostly creatures are drawn to the
pliable bodies of women,
(06:39):
medicine sought logical reasons for thephenomenon.
The annals of early modern medical literatureare filled with attempts to find scientific
explanations as to why demons and ghostssingle out women.
Yet the possessed found little relief from therational men of science.
Medical inquiry during that timeoverwhelmingly echoed the sexist conclusions
(07:00):
drawn by men of God.
The 17th century French physician BarthelemyPardieu argued that demon possession was
almost natural to women and children becauseof their fragile and infirm condition.
Even into the 20th century,
physicians who specialized in hysteria by itsvery name, a woman's disease believed that the
(07:21):
physical paroxysms typical of the disorderwere little more than evil spirits leaving the
body.
Medicine confirmed the cultural beliefs thatformed the poltergeist's foundation.
Women, being childlike and primitive in theirvery nature,
were destined to be plagued by the noisyghosts and their kin.
Stuck in the heady years of transition,
(07:43):
suspended between girlhood and womanhood, theteenage girl seems like the poltergeist's best
friend.
If childhood is a tangent to adulthood, thenteenagers occupy a kind of transitional state.
In traditional haunting narratives, childrenpossess strange mediumistic powers facilitated
by their innocence.
(08:04):
I see dead people, a cherubic Haley JoelOsment whispered in the Sixth Sense.
The child's innocence allows him to see thedead and for others to believe in the reality
of his macabre powers.
Yet teenage girls have little of thatchildhood magic left their childhood
preciousness stripped.
They are restlessly irritating and sexually
(08:24):
tense.
But perhaps that's why the irksome poltergeistprefers the company of teenage girls.
They're of a kind.
Unsurprisingly, once the haunted girl fullymatures to adulthood,
the poltergeist abandons them, disappearing asquickly as they appeared,
no doubt eager to find another willing body.
Tina Resch must have been a poltergeist'sdream.
(08:46):
She checked nearly every requisite box for apsychokinetic, haunting young female and
troubled.
Tina had also, not coincidentally,
recently seen the 1982 blockbuster horror filmPoltergeist.
The movie deeply relied on antique theories ofdemonic possession,
dramatizing the development of evil in acherubic looking blonde girl.
(09:09):
Yet the movie was a cultural milestone ofsorts.
Not only did it scare the hell out of 1980sAmerica, but its release coincided with a
moment when the country sincerely believed inthe omnipresence of sinister supernatural
beings.
Tina's Poltergeist appeared just as thedaycare sex abuse hysteria swept the nation.
An entire population,
(09:31):
convinced that the devil lurked in daycareswaiting to seize on the innocent, was ready to
believe the Ohio teenager's story.
After the Columbus Dispatch published thephotograph that purported to capture Tina's
poltergeist manifested for the camera as aflying telephone, she became an instant
celebrity.
The photograph was picked up by the AssociatedPress, published in newspapers across the
(09:54):
country,
and broadcast on nearly every nightly newsprogram,
including Unsolved Mysteries.
Tina's story was ready made for the media.
Here was an abandoned orphan taken in by bighearted foster parents who seemed to want
little more than a normal life.
But instead,
a poltergeist had wreaked chaos and confusionon her home.
(10:15):
An entire population,
convinced that the devil lurked in daycareswaiting to seize on the innocent, was ready to
believe the Ohio teenager's story.
Mike Hardin, still skeptical,
did what any good reporter would do.
He called William Roll, director of thePsychical Research center in chapel hill.
The 1980s had been good to Roll.
(10:37):
He was America's go to expert on all
unexplained psycho and telekinetic activities.
And his multiple appearances on Unsolved
Mysteries had solidified both expertise andreputation.
On Hardin's invitation, he flew to Ohio.
On Joan Resch's invitation, he moved into theResch house.
(10:57):
In the Resch home, Roll believed that he sawtentative evidence of recurrent spontaneous
psychokinesis in Unleashed of Poltergeists andthe Curious Story of Tina Resch, a quasi
memoir of his time with the resches, publishedin 2004,
Roll recounted household appliances turningthemselves off and on and bottles and glasses
(11:20):
flying and crashing without visible cause.
But Rolle's account was not without critics.
He was most publicly questioned by his archnemesis of sorts,
James Randi.
Randi was a longtime member of the Committeefor Scientific Investigation of Claims of the
Paranormal, a skeptics group based in Buffalo,New York.
(11:41):
Once news of Tina's poltergeist and Roll'sinvolvement hit the airwaves,
Randy traveled to Ohio with the intent of alsotaking up residence in the Resch home.
But Joan refused Randy entrance into the homebecause it would, she believed, sensationalize
the matter.
Joan was probably right on this account.
In addition to his hobby as a skeptic, Randywas a magician, better known as the Amazing
(12:05):
Randy.
Yet Randy would not be dissuaded.
In a press conference held near the Reschhouse,
the magician denounced the possibility that apoltergeist was haunting Tina.
Examination of available material indicatesthat fraudulent means or perfectly explainable
methods have been employed to provide themedia with sensational details about an
(12:26):
otherwise trivial matter,
he declared, ominously adding,
tina has created a monster that she will neverto able to strangle.
Scan of the Columbus Dispatch via James A.
Conrad.com I have to live with myself, jones
said in response, adding that objects stillwere flying around the house and nearly 40
(12:46):
people had witnessed the events.
I don't feel I have to satisfy the AmazingRandy.
But the Amazing Randy would be satisfied,
and in a manner more horrific than eitherRandy or Roll could predict.
By March, the Resh house was a circus.
Media magicians and psychokineticinvestigators were keen to test Tina's powers
(13:08):
to pay witness to the shadowy poltergeist.
With cameras on the 14 year old nearly everywaking hour, her poltergeist began to show
signs of fatigue.
At the end of the month, a reporter for WTVNTVin Columbus caught Tina pulling a lamp off a
table.
We had the camera hooked up on wide angle, butshe didn't know it was operating, the reporter
(13:29):
told United Press International.
We left the house thinking we had recorded abona fide psychic phenomenon.
But when we replayed the tape at the station,
it clearly showed her reaching up to grab thelamp.
The reporter added that though the tape seemedto discredit Tina,
there was still something inexplicablehaunting her home.
(13:50):
I was seated at the kitchen table with Tinaand all of a sudden the chairs spread out.
I don't see how she could have sent them outin three directions like that.
Tina was declared a fraud, just a teenager whowanted attention.
The media went home,
as did the Amazing Randy.
Roll, however, was convinced that Tina's storywas true, that she was indeed plagued by
(14:12):
something that he called the force.
He invited Tina back to her researchLaboratories in North Carolina.
Do you think you could leave your mommy anddaddy for a while?
Roll asked her.
Eager to leave adoptive parents andpoltergeist behind,
she accepted his offer.
She spent a few months with Rolle undergoingpsychokinesis tests before returning to Ohio.
(14:34):
The poltergeist disappeared.
Tina Resch's story did not end with herpoltergeist's goodbye.
Two years after her poltergeist refused toperform for the media,
16 year old Tina was thrown out of the Reschhome.
The Resches, whom many alleged were abusive,were tired of Tina's teenage behavior.
Joan would later acknowledge that the deeplytroubled Tina had never received counseling
(14:58):
and that and was trying to contact her birthmother.
By 1990,
Tina was married with a newborn daughter.
Feeling lost and trapped by an abusivemarriage, she contacted the only person who
truly believed her,
William Rolle.
Later that year, Tina and her daughter Ambermoved to Rolle's home in Carrollton, Georgia,
where he was a professor of psychology at theUniversity of West Georgia.
(15:22):
In his research facility there,
he began working with her again,
observing and documenting her impressiveabilities.
With Roll, Tina's life seemed to find a bit ofnormalcy.
Despite the constant talk of her psychokineticpowers.
Rolle described her as happier, learningparenting skills and taking classes in
(15:42):
computers and nursing.
She began dating David Herron, a truck driverwho, like Tina,
was a divorced parent with a toddler.
By all accounts, the couple was happy.
In April of 1992, Tina's daughter Amber wasfound dead,
beaten to death.
She and Herron were arrested days afterAmber's death.
(16:03):
The Atlanta Journal Constitution dubbed herthe telekinetic mom,
and her arrest, like her poltergeist, turnedinto a media circus.
The Associated Press reported on her past,
reminding everyone that she had been marriedand divorced twice since she lied about her
poltergeist.
They called the death brutal, and residents inthe small Georgia town took donations to pay
(16:26):
for Amber's funeral.
The whole town came to the little girl'sfuneral,
the media circling and the town angry.
The trial was moved to nearby Floyd County.
Resch's attorney was convinced that even inFloyd, she could not win.
We couldn't have beaten these, her attorneysaid as he held photographs of the child's
(16:46):
battered body.
In 1994, she entered an Alford plea and wassentenced to life, plus 20 years in Pulaski
State Prison.
Rolle was again Tina's only champion.
In his book unleashed, he insisted on herinnocence, laying out inconsistencies with the
case,
believing in her when no one else would Tina'scase is still a cause celiber among the
(17:10):
psychokinetic community,
picking up Rolle's work when he passed away in2012.
Until his death,
Roll remained convinced that Tina waspowerful,
that her poltergeist was real.
I have been working on Tina's story for 20years, he wrote, and I still find much about
her mysterious her origins,
(17:31):
the full extent of her abilities,
the circumstances surrounding the death of herchild.
But one thing is certain.
For a time,
Tina had the power to directly affect thephysical world.
I am convinced that this power is still to befound in the depths of her mind.
Mike Hardin, still skeptical,
did what any good reporter would do.
(17:53):
He called William Roll, director of the
Psychical Research center in chapel hill.
The 1980s had been good to Rolle.
He was America's go to expert on allunexplained psycho and telekinetic activities,
and his multiple appearances on UnsolvedMysteries had solidified both expertise and
reputation.
On Hardin's invitation, he flew to Ohio.
(18:15):
On Joan Resch's invitation, he moved into the
Resch house.
In the Resch home, Roll believed that he sawtentative evidence of recurrent spontaneous
psychokinesis in Unleashed of Poltergeists andMurder, the Curious Story of Tina Resch, a
quasi memoir of his time with the resches,published in 2004.
(18:36):
Roll recounted household appliances turningthemselves off and on and bottles and glasses
flying and crashing without visible cause.
But Roll's account was not without critics.
He was most publicly questioned by his archnemesis, of sorts,
James Randi.
Randi was a longtime member of the Committeefor Scientific Investigation of Claims of the
(18:59):
Paranormal, a skeptics group based in Buffalo,New York.
Once news of Tina's poltergeist and Roll'sinvolvement hit the airwaves, Randy traveled
to Ohio with the intent of also taking upresidence in the Resch home.
But Joan refused Randy entrance into the homebecause it would, she believed, sensationalize
the matter.
Joan was probably right on this account.
(19:21):
In addition to his hobby as a skeptic, Randy
was a magician, better known as the AmazingRandy.
Yet Randy would not be dissuaded.
In a press conference held near the resthouse, the magician denounced the possibility
that a poltergeist was haunting Tina.
Examination of available material indicatesthat fraudulent means or perfectly explainable
(19:42):
methods have been employed to provide themedia with sensational details about an
otherwise trivial matter, he declared,ominously adding,
tina has created a monster that she will neverto able to strangle.
I have to live with myself, joan said inresponse,
adding that Objects still were flying aroundthe house and the events had been witnessed by
(20:04):
nearly 40 people.
I don't feel I have to satisfy the AmazingRandy.
But the Amazing Randy would be satisfied, andin a manner more horrific than either Randy or
Roll could predict.
By March, the Resch house was a circus.
Media magicians and psychokineticinvestigators were keen to test Tina's powers
(20:26):
to pay witness to the shadowy poltergeist.
With cameras on the 14 year old, nearly everywaking hour,
her poltergeist began to show signs offatigue.
At the end of the month,
a reporter for WTVNTV in Columbus caught Tinapulling a lamp off a table.
We had the camera hooked up on wide angle, butshe didn't know it was operating, the reporter
(20:48):
told United Press International.
We left the house thinking we had recorded abona fide psychic phenomenon.
But when we replayed the tape at the station,it clearly showed her reaching up to grab the
lamp.
The reporter added that though the tape seemedto discredit Tina,
there was still something inexplicablehaunting her home.
I was seated at the kitchen table with Tinaand all of a sudden the chairs spread out.
(21:13):
I don't see how she could have sent them outin three directions like that.
Tina was declared a fraud,
just a teenager who wanted attention.
The media went home,
as did the Amazing Randy.
Roll, however, was convinced that Tina's storywas true.
That she was indeed plagued by something thathe called the force.
(21:33):
He invited Tina back to her researchlaboratories in North Carolina.
Do you think you could leave your mommy anddaddy for a while?
Roll asked her.
Eager to leave adoptive parents andpoltergeist behind,
she accepted his offer.
She spent a few months with Rolle undergoingpsychokinesis tests before returning to Ohio.
(21:54):
The poltergeist disappeared.
Tina Resch's story did not end with herpoltergeist's goodbye.
Two years after her poltergeist refused toperform for the media,
16 year old Tina was thrown out of the Reschhome.
The Resches, whom many alleged were abusive,were tired of Tina's teenage behavior.
(22:15):
Joan would later acknowledge that the deeplytroubled Tina had never received counseling
and was trying to contact her birth mother.
By 1990,
Tina was married with a newborn daughter.
Feeling lost and trapped by an abusivemarriage, she contacted the only person who
truly believed her, William Rolle.
Later that year, Tina and her daughter Ambermoved to Roll's home in Carrollton, Georgia,
(22:39):
where he was a professor of psychology at theUniversity of West Georgia.
In his research facility there, he beganworking with her again,
observing and Documenting her impressiveabilities with Roll, Tina's life seemed to
find a bit of normalcy despite the constanttalk of her psychokinetic powers.
Roll described her as happier learningparenting skills and taking classes in
(23:03):
computers and nursing.
She began dating David Herron, a truck driverwho, liked Tina,
was a divorced parent with a toddler.
By all accounts, the couple was happy.
In April of 1992, Tina's daughter Amber wasfound dead, beaten to death.
She and Herron were arrested days afterAmber's death.
(23:25):
The Atlanta Journal Constitution dubbed herthe telekinetic mom, and her arrest, like her
poltergeist,
turned into a media circus.
The Associated Press reported on her past,
reminding everyone that she had been marriedand divorced twice since she lied about her
poltergeist.
They called the death brutal, and residents inthe small Georgia town took donations to pay
(23:48):
for Amber's funeral.
The whole town came to the little girl'sfuneral,
the media circling and the town angry.
The trial was moved to nearby Floyd County.
Resch's attorney was convinced that even inFloyd, she could not win.
We couldn't have beaten these, her attorneysaid as he held photographs of the child's
(24:09):
battered body.
In 1994, she entered an Alford plea and wassentenced to life plus 20 years in Pulaski
State prison.
Roll was again Tina's only champion.
In his book unleashed, he insisted on herinnocence, laying out inconsistencies with the
case,
believing in her when no one else would.
(24:30):
Tina's case is still a cause celebr among thepsychokinetic community,
picking up Roll's work when he passed away in2012.
Until his death, Roll remained convinced thatTina was powerful, that her poltergeist was
real.
I have been working on Tina's story for 20years, he wrote, and I still find much about
her mysterious.
(24:51):
Her origins,
the full extent of her abilities,
the circumstances surrounding the death of herchild.
But one thing is certain.
For a time,
Tina had the power to directly affect thephysical world.
I am convinced that this power is still to befound in the depths of her mind.
In 1984, Joan Resch was worried about her 14 year old daughter, Tina.
The teenager was deeply troubled, but hertroubles seemed to have begun manifesting
themselves as flying objects.
Telephones were flying across the Ohio house.
Framed family portraits shook and fell off the
wall.
The bric a brac of the middle class home hadtransformed into potentially lethal objects.
(00:23):
Joan, unsure of what was wrong with Tina,
didn't seek traditional methods of help.
Rather, she called Columbus Dispatch reporterMike Hardin.
Joan had worked with the reporter before.
Years before, Hardin had written a profile onher and her husband John.
The couple was well known in the community.
They had fostered and adopted hundreds ofchildren,
(00:44):
and Tina was one of their household's latestadditions.
There's little doubt then that the Reshis werefamiliar with the ever shifting contours of
adolescence,
that endless shape shifting of need andrebellion.
Yet there was something about Tina,
the way that her very presence seemed tosummon the fury of inanimate objects that
scared the Reshes.
(01:06):
When the living room lamp fell to the floor,Joan picked it up.
Then she found herself doing it over and overagain.
On the fourth time, the lamp tumbled to theground.
Joan left it on the floor and in frightenedfrustration called Hardin.
When he first spoke to Joan, Hardin wasskeptical.
However,
(01:26):
believing in her good intentions andmidwestern honesty, he decided to come to the
house to investigate.
He brought Columbus Dispatch photographer FredShannon with him.
They sat with Tina in the Resch's living roomand waited for hours,
hoping to be assaulted by familiar domesticobjects.
Finally, the journalists saw what they werewaiting for.
(01:47):
As Tina sat in an overstuffed chair, thetelephone next to her rose from its table and
the receiver flew towards her.
Though Shannon was looking away,
he had his camera pointed at Tina.
He shuddered.
36 negatives, one of which captured the
surprise on Tina's face, her mouth open as thephone flew across her body.
The photograph seemed to confirm what bothHardin and the Resches Tina poltergeist,
(02:12):
from the German meaning noisy ghost,
is nearly as old as the written word.
Reports of these pesky ghosts wrapping onwalls and knocking over furniture seem to date
from as early as the first century.
Poltergeists, however, went unnamed until1838.
Before their rather ominous sounding Germanmoniker, they were known as many things.
(02:34):
Witchcraft, possession and plain oldhauntings.
It's difficult to say why exactly.
It was in 1838 that poltergeists demanded to
be named.
Perhaps they were uncomfortable with their
association with mere ghosts.
Or maybe it was the Victorians renewed
interest in spiritualism and psychokinesis.
But post Naming the noisy ghosts appearedalmost everywhere.
(02:57):
In 1877, in the dull colored hamlet ofDerrygonely, Ireland,
a 20 year old named Maggie was the center of adisturbance centered around her home.
Rappings were heard on the walls and accordingto one writer,
stones began to fall and candles and bootswere repeatedly thrown out of the house.
A year later and thousands of miles away InNova Scotia, 18 year old Esther *** terrified
(03:22):
her family.
***'* ghost slapped her in the face and burneddown houses.
Her poltergeist's behavior worsened when adoctor prescribed her sedatives, burning down
even more houses.
And there are hundreds of more reportsthroughout the 19th century of young women and
girls tormented and tortured by these ghostswho seem to have no purpose other than
irritation.
(03:43):
Yet the poltergeist refused to be written offas a Victorian relic, refused to be reduced to
the dustbin of weird history, and continued tohaunt well into the 20th century.
In the late 1960s, 19 year old AnnemarieSchaberl took a job as a secretary at a law
office in Rosenheim, Germany.
The unassuming young woman brought chaos tothe law firm.
(04:05):
Overhead lights swung and exploded, furnituremoved and fluid leaked from the copier.
The lawyers might have chalked up the leakingcopy fluid and exploding light bulbs to a
poorly kept office,
but instead they were convinced that Shaeburlwas haunted by a poltergeist.
They called a specialist, a parapsychologistnamed Hans Bender,
(04:26):
who filmed the disturbances.
After an extensive investigation of the ghost,Bender determined that Shaebral's poltergeist
was simply the psychokinetic manifestation ofher deep and mournful sadness.
What a striking thought that a young woman'sdepression could be powerful enough to move
furniture.
What a striking thought that a young woman'sdepression could be powerful enough to move
(04:48):
furniture.
The poltergeist, it seems, is a bit of a timetraveler.
And the ghost has preferences.
Small towns and rooms where there are objectseager to be overturned and destroyed.
Most importantly, poltergeists prefer youngwomen.
In nearly every reported poltergeist case, thetroublesome ghost seems to have cozied up to a
(05:10):
woman.
And what a striking thought that a youngwoman's depression could be powerful enough to
move furniture.
The poltergeist, it seems, is a bit of a timetraveler.
And the ghost has preferences.
Small towns and rooms where there are objectseager to be overturned and destroyed.
Most importantly, poltergeists prefer youngwomen.
(05:31):
In nearly every reported poltergeist case, thetroublesome ghost seems to have cozied up to a
woman and particularly vulnerable are those onthe cusp of recognizable adulthood.
Indeed, if the poltergeist cases of thestunned and scared communities from 19th
century Ireland to 1980s Ohio revealedanything,
it was that the source of the disturbances wasall young women.
(05:53):
Hauntings have always been the province ofwomen.
The idea that the feminine body was thepreferred vessel for ghostly habitation likely
stemmed from a medieval belief that the devilcould more easily penetrate the soft bodies of
women and take up residence.
It was a concept that endured through time.
In New England, the Puritan preacher andprosecutor of witches, Cotton Mather,
(06:17):
used to regularly beat his daughter,
believing that a righteous hand could drivethe sins from her inherently iniquitous body.
Mather recommended the practice to his fellowcolonists, and given their problem with
witches,
they were eager to embrace it.
Though religious ideology underpinned thebelief that ghostly creatures are drawn to the
pliable bodies of women,
(06:39):
medicine sought logical reasons for thephenomenon.
The annals of early modern medical literatureare filled with attempts to find scientific
explanations as to why demons and ghostssingle out women.
Yet the possessed found little relief from therational men of science.
Medical inquiry during that timeoverwhelmingly echoed the sexist conclusions
(07:00):
drawn by men of God.
The 17th century French physician BarthelemyPardieu argued that demon possession was
almost natural to women and children becauseof their fragile and infirm condition.
Even into the 20th century,
physicians who specialized in hysteria by itsvery name, a woman's disease believed that the
(07:21):
physical paroxysms typical of the disorderwere little more than evil spirits leaving the
body.
Medicine confirmed the cultural beliefs thatformed the poltergeist's foundation.
Women, being childlike and primitive in theirvery nature,
were destined to be plagued by the noisyghosts and their kin.
Stuck in the heady years of transition,
(07:43):
suspended between girlhood and womanhood, theteenage girl seems like the poltergeist's best
friend.
If childhood is a tangent to adulthood, thenteenagers occupy a kind of transitional state.
In traditional haunting narratives, childrenpossess strange mediumistic powers facilitated
by their innocence.
(08:04):
I see dead people, a cherubic Haley JoelOsment whispered in the Sixth Sense.
The child's innocence allows him to see thedead and for others to believe in the reality
of his macabre powers.
Yet teenage girls have little of thatchildhood magic left their childhood
preciousness stripped.
They are restlessly irritating and sexually
(08:24):
tense.
But perhaps that's why the irksome poltergeistprefers the company of teenage girls.
They're of a kind.
Unsurprisingly, once the haunted girl fullymatures to adulthood,
the poltergeist abandons them, disappearing asquickly as they appeared,
no doubt eager to find another willing body.
Tina Resch must have been a poltergeist'sdream.
(08:46):
She checked nearly every requisite box for apsychokinetic, haunting young female and
troubled.
Tina had also, not coincidentally,
recently seen the 1982 blockbuster horror filmPoltergeist.
The movie deeply relied on antique theories ofdemonic possession,
dramatizing the development of evil in acherubic looking blonde girl.
(09:09):
Yet the movie was a cultural milestone ofsorts.
Not only did it scare the hell out of 1980sAmerica, but its release coincided with a
moment when the country sincerely believed inthe omnipresence of sinister supernatural
beings.
Tina's Poltergeist appeared just as thedaycare sex abuse hysteria swept the nation.
An entire population,
(09:31):
convinced that the devil lurked in daycareswaiting to seize on the innocent, was ready to
believe the Ohio teenager's story.
After the Columbus Dispatch published thephotograph that purported to capture Tina's
poltergeist manifested for the camera as aflying telephone, she became an instant
celebrity.
The photograph was picked up by the AssociatedPress, published in newspapers across the
(09:54):
country,
and broadcast on nearly every nightly newsprogram,
including Unsolved Mysteries.
Tina's story was ready made for the media.
Here was an abandoned orphan taken in by bighearted foster parents who seemed to want
little more than a normal life.
But instead,
a poltergeist had wreaked chaos and confusionon her home.
(10:15):
An entire population,
convinced that the devil lurked in daycareswaiting to seize on the innocent, was ready to
believe the Ohio teenager's story.
Mike Hardin, still skeptical,
did what any good reporter would do.
He called William Roll, director of thePsychical Research center in chapel hill.
The 1980s had been good to Roll.
(10:37):
He was America's go to expert on all
unexplained psycho and telekinetic activities.
And his multiple appearances on Unsolved
Mysteries had solidified both expertise andreputation.
On Hardin's invitation, he flew to Ohio.
On Joan Resch's invitation, he moved into theResch house.
(10:57):
In the Resch home, Roll believed that he sawtentative evidence of recurrent spontaneous
psychokinesis in Unleashed of Poltergeists andthe Curious Story of Tina Resch, a quasi
memoir of his time with the resches, publishedin 2004,
Roll recounted household appliances turningthemselves off and on and bottles and glasses
(11:20):
flying and crashing without visible cause.
But Rolle's account was not without critics.
He was most publicly questioned by his archnemesis of sorts,
James Randi.
Randi was a longtime member of the Committeefor Scientific Investigation of Claims of the
Paranormal, a skeptics group based in Buffalo,New York.
(11:41):
Once news of Tina's poltergeist and Roll'sinvolvement hit the airwaves,
Randy traveled to Ohio with the intent of alsotaking up residence in the Resch home.
But Joan refused Randy entrance into the homebecause it would, she believed, sensationalize
the matter.
Joan was probably right on this account.
In addition to his hobby as a skeptic, Randywas a magician, better known as the Amazing
(12:05):
Randy.
Yet Randy would not be dissuaded.
In a press conference held near the Reschhouse,
the magician denounced the possibility that apoltergeist was haunting Tina.
Examination of available material indicatesthat fraudulent means or perfectly explainable
methods have been employed to provide themedia with sensational details about an
(12:26):
otherwise trivial matter,
he declared, ominously adding,
tina has created a monster that she will neverto able to strangle.
Scan of the Columbus Dispatch via James A.
Conrad.com I have to live with myself, jones
said in response, adding that objects stillwere flying around the house and nearly 40
(12:46):
people had witnessed the events.
I don't feel I have to satisfy the AmazingRandy.
But the Amazing Randy would be satisfied,
and in a manner more horrific than eitherRandy or Roll could predict.
By March, the Resh house was a circus.
Media magicians and psychokineticinvestigators were keen to test Tina's powers
(13:08):
to pay witness to the shadowy poltergeist.
With cameras on the 14 year old nearly everywaking hour, her poltergeist began to show
signs of fatigue.
At the end of the month, a reporter for WTVNTVin Columbus caught Tina pulling a lamp off a
table.
We had the camera hooked up on wide angle, butshe didn't know it was operating, the reporter
(13:29):
told United Press International.
We left the house thinking we had recorded abona fide psychic phenomenon.
But when we replayed the tape at the station,
it clearly showed her reaching up to grab thelamp.
The reporter added that though the tape seemedto discredit Tina,
there was still something inexplicablehaunting her home.
(13:50):
I was seated at the kitchen table with Tinaand all of a sudden the chairs spread out.
I don't see how she could have sent them outin three directions like that.
Tina was declared a fraud, just a teenager whowanted attention.
The media went home,
as did the Amazing Randy.
Roll, however, was convinced that Tina's storywas true, that she was indeed plagued by
(14:12):
something that he called the force.
He invited Tina back to her researchLaboratories in North Carolina.
Do you think you could leave your mommy anddaddy for a while?
Roll asked her.
Eager to leave adoptive parents andpoltergeist behind,
she accepted his offer.
She spent a few months with Rolle undergoingpsychokinesis tests before returning to Ohio.
(14:34):
The poltergeist disappeared.
Tina Resch's story did not end with herpoltergeist's goodbye.
Two years after her poltergeist refused toperform for the media,
16 year old Tina was thrown out of the Reschhome.
The Resches, whom many alleged were abusive,were tired of Tina's teenage behavior.
Joan would later acknowledge that the deeplytroubled Tina had never received counseling
(14:58):
and that and was trying to contact her birthmother.
By 1990,
Tina was married with a newborn daughter.
Feeling lost and trapped by an abusivemarriage, she contacted the only person who
truly believed her,
William Rolle.
Later that year, Tina and her daughter Ambermoved to Rolle's home in Carrollton, Georgia,
where he was a professor of psychology at theUniversity of West Georgia.
(15:22):
In his research facility there,
he began working with her again,
observing and documenting her impressiveabilities.
With Roll, Tina's life seemed to find a bit ofnormalcy.
Despite the constant talk of her psychokineticpowers.
Rolle described her as happier, learningparenting skills and taking classes in
(15:42):
computers and nursing.
She began dating David Herron, a truck driverwho, like Tina,
was a divorced parent with a toddler.
By all accounts, the couple was happy.
In April of 1992, Tina's daughter Amber wasfound dead,
beaten to death.
She and Herron were arrested days afterAmber's death.
(16:03):
The Atlanta Journal Constitution dubbed herthe telekinetic mom,
and her arrest, like her poltergeist, turnedinto a media circus.
The Associated Press reported on her past,
reminding everyone that she had been marriedand divorced twice since she lied about her
poltergeist.
They called the death brutal, and residents inthe small Georgia town took donations to pay
(16:26):
for Amber's funeral.
The whole town came to the little girl'sfuneral,
the media circling and the town angry.
The trial was moved to nearby Floyd County.
Resch's attorney was convinced that even inFloyd, she could not win.
We couldn't have beaten these, her attorneysaid as he held photographs of the child's
(16:46):
battered body.
In 1994, she entered an Alford plea and wassentenced to life, plus 20 years in Pulaski
State Prison.
Rolle was again Tina's only champion.
In his book unleashed, he insisted on herinnocence, laying out inconsistencies with the
case,
believing in her when no one else would Tina'scase is still a cause celiber among the
(17:10):
psychokinetic community,
picking up Rolle's work when he passed away in2012.
Until his death,
Roll remained convinced that Tina waspowerful,
that her poltergeist was real.
I have been working on Tina's story for 20years, he wrote, and I still find much about
her mysterious her origins,
(17:31):
the full extent of her abilities,
the circumstances surrounding the death of herchild.
But one thing is certain.
For a time,
Tina had the power to directly affect thephysical world.
I am convinced that this power is still to befound in the depths of her mind.
Mike Hardin, still skeptical,
did what any good reporter would do.
(17:53):
He called William Roll, director of the
Psychical Research center in chapel hill.
The 1980s had been good to Rolle.
He was America's go to expert on allunexplained psycho and telekinetic activities,
and his multiple appearances on UnsolvedMysteries had solidified both expertise and
reputation.
On Hardin's invitation, he flew to Ohio.
(18:15):
On Joan Resch's invitation, he moved into the
Resch house.
In the Resch home, Roll believed that he sawtentative evidence of recurrent spontaneous
psychokinesis in Unleashed of Poltergeists andMurder, the Curious Story of Tina Resch, a
quasi memoir of his time with the resches,published in 2004.
(18:36):
Roll recounted household appliances turningthemselves off and on and bottles and glasses
flying and crashing without visible cause.
But Roll's account was not without critics.
He was most publicly questioned by his archnemesis, of sorts,
James Randi.
Randi was a longtime member of the Committeefor Scientific Investigation of Claims of the
(18:59):
Paranormal, a skeptics group based in Buffalo,New York.
Once news of Tina's poltergeist and Roll'sinvolvement hit the airwaves, Randy traveled
to Ohio with the intent of also taking upresidence in the Resch home.
But Joan refused Randy entrance into the homebecause it would, she believed, sensationalize
the matter.
Joan was probably right on this account.
(19:21):
In addition to his hobby as a skeptic, Randy
was a magician, better known as the AmazingRandy.
Yet Randy would not be dissuaded.
In a press conference held near the resthouse, the magician denounced the possibility
that a poltergeist was haunting Tina.
Examination of available material indicatesthat fraudulent means or perfectly explainable
(19:42):
methods have been employed to provide themedia with sensational details about an
otherwise trivial matter, he declared,ominously adding,
tina has created a monster that she will neverto able to strangle.
I have to live with myself, joan said inresponse,
adding that Objects still were flying aroundthe house and the events had been witnessed by
(20:04):
nearly 40 people.
I don't feel I have to satisfy the AmazingRandy.
But the Amazing Randy would be satisfied, andin a manner more horrific than either Randy or
Roll could predict.
By March, the Resch house was a circus.
Media magicians and psychokineticinvestigators were keen to test Tina's powers
(20:26):
to pay witness to the shadowy poltergeist.
With cameras on the 14 year old, nearly everywaking hour,
her poltergeist began to show signs offatigue.
At the end of the month,
a reporter for WTVNTV in Columbus caught Tinapulling a lamp off a table.
We had the camera hooked up on wide angle, butshe didn't know it was operating, the reporter
(20:48):
told United Press International.
We left the house thinking we had recorded abona fide psychic phenomenon.
But when we replayed the tape at the station,it clearly showed her reaching up to grab the
lamp.
The reporter added that though the tape seemedto discredit Tina,
there was still something inexplicablehaunting her home.
I was seated at the kitchen table with Tinaand all of a sudden the chairs spread out.
(21:13):
I don't see how she could have sent them outin three directions like that.
Tina was declared a fraud,
just a teenager who wanted attention.
The media went home,
as did the Amazing Randy.
Roll, however, was convinced that Tina's storywas true.
That she was indeed plagued by something thathe called the force.
(21:33):
He invited Tina back to her researchlaboratories in North Carolina.
Do you think you could leave your mommy anddaddy for a while?
Roll asked her.
Eager to leave adoptive parents andpoltergeist behind,
she accepted his offer.
She spent a few months with Rolle undergoingpsychokinesis tests before returning to Ohio.
(21:54):
The poltergeist disappeared.
Tina Resch's story did not end with herpoltergeist's goodbye.
Two years after her poltergeist refused toperform for the media,
16 year old Tina was thrown out of the Reschhome.
The Resches, whom many alleged were abusive,were tired of Tina's teenage behavior.
(22:15):
Joan would later acknowledge that the deeplytroubled Tina had never received counseling
and was trying to contact her birth mother.
By 1990,
Tina was married with a newborn daughter.
Feeling lost and trapped by an abusivemarriage, she contacted the only person who
truly believed her, William Rolle.
Later that year, Tina and her daughter Ambermoved to Roll's home in Carrollton, Georgia,
(22:39):
where he was a professor of psychology at theUniversity of West Georgia.
In his research facility there, he beganworking with her again,
observing and Documenting her impressiveabilities with Roll, Tina's life seemed to
find a bit of normalcy despite the constanttalk of her psychokinetic powers.
Roll described her as happier learningparenting skills and taking classes in
(23:03):
computers and nursing.
She began dating David Herron, a truck driverwho, liked Tina,
was a divorced parent with a toddler.
By all accounts, the couple was happy.
In April of 1992, Tina's daughter Amber wasfound dead, beaten to death.
She and Herron were arrested days afterAmber's death.
(23:25):
The Atlanta Journal Constitution dubbed herthe telekinetic mom, and her arrest, like her
poltergeist,
turned into a media circus.
The Associated Press reported on her past,
reminding everyone that she had been marriedand divorced twice since she lied about her
poltergeist.
They called the death brutal, and residents inthe small Georgia town took donations to pay
(23:48):
for Amber's funeral.
The whole town came to the little girl'sfuneral,
the media circling and the town angry.
The trial was moved to nearby Floyd County.
Resch's attorney was convinced that even inFloyd, she could not win.
We couldn't have beaten these, her attorneysaid as he held photographs of the child's
(24:09):
battered body.
In 1994, she entered an Alford plea and wassentenced to life plus 20 years in Pulaski
State prison.
Roll was again Tina's only champion.
In his book unleashed, he insisted on herinnocence, laying out inconsistencies with the
case,
believing in her when no one else would.
(24:30):
Tina's case is still a cause celebr among thepsychokinetic community,
picking up Roll's work when he passed away in2012.
Until his death, Roll remained convinced thatTina was powerful, that her poltergeist was
real.
I have been working on Tina's story for 20years, he wrote, and I still find much about
her mysterious.
(24:51):
Her origins,
the full extent of her abilities,
the circumstances surrounding the death of herchild.
But one thing is certain.
For a time,
Tina had the power to directly affect thephysical world.
I am convinced that this power is still to befound in the depths of her mind.
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