The Persistent Poltergeist

It is often stated that changing an environment can stir up paranormal activity. In 1981 a woman by the name of Francis Freeborn learned this lesson the hard way. 

Ms. Freeborn had just purchased a home in Bakersfield, California. She took the home with the understanding that she take ownership of the house “as is” for the former owner, a Mrs. Meg Lyons, had died suddenly and the house had not been touched since. 

Anxious to make the home her own, Freeborn immediately started to clear out the previous owner’s stuff, which included everything from furniture to clothes.

She carefully boxed up the essential items that the Lyon family had requested she set aside for them. These family members, who lived out of state, told her they would pick these items up shortly--but weeks dragged into months. 

Freeborn wanting to redecorate, finally started to place these boxes in the spare bedroom. 

Once this was done--odd things started to occur. At first, she heard loud banging coming from the home’s kitchen--Freeborn brushed this off as noisy plumbing. 

Next, Freeborn noticed that doors and cabinets she shut at night were always wide open when she was up and about the following morning. Freeborn at first thought she must have just forgotten.

Soon after, Freeborn noticed that whenever she left home--she would return to find all the lights turned on. Like with the cabinets doors she thought she was just forgetful. 

Up until this point, Freeborn was able to take these strange experiences in stride, but then something happened that she couldn’t blame on her own forgetfulness. 

She decided to hang some of her pictures on the living room wall. One of these pictures--a photograph showed two pre-Civil War women.

The next morning Freeborn was surprised to find that this picture of the women was no longer on the wall. It had fallen to the floor. But the glass was not broken, and the frame was not on the carpet. Instead, it was leaning against the wall. Not concerned at this point, she placed it back on its' hook. 

But when she entered the room again that afternoon, the same picture was gone. Again, it was leaning against the wall on the floor--as if careful hands had placed it there. 

Frustrated, Freeborn re-hung it. The next day and for three more days the picture was not on the wall. Each time Freeborn re-hung it was found on the floor leaning against the wall carefully.

A week later giving up, she hung it in the home’s spare bedroom near the light switch. This time it stayed put. Shortly after this one of Meg Lyon’s relatives came to collect her things. 

Freeborn escorted Lyon’s son-in-law to the spare bedroom so he could start moving the boxes out. As he worked, he stopped to look at the picture of the slave women near the light switch. He mentioned to Freeborn that it was very curious because his mother-in-law had a similar photo, and it had been hung in that exact same spot.

A year passed without incident, so Freeborn felt the strange occurrences that happened when she initially moved into the house must have been connected to Meg Lyon’s belongings. 

But things changed in the fall of 1982 when Freeborn decided to redecorate the home’s master bedroom. 

She went shopping to pick out paint and new wallpaper. While in the store she got the eerie feeling that someone was watching her. Once home, as she brought her purchases inside, she felt a sensation as if unseen hands touched her.

Despite these odd feelings, Freeborn went to bed that night excited about her new project. But faint knocking noises and banging sounds that came from various parts of the house kept her awake. 

Around 2:00 a.m. she gave up trying to sleep and went into the master bath. As she turned on the tap the bathroom window behind her suddenly opened. Startled, she turned and shut it quickly and then she returned to her bed. As she sat down, she heard the bathroom window open once more, at the same time her bedroom window, which she had opened as she went to bed earlier, shut violently.

Within moments her folding closet door slammed open as her other closet door violently closed. Her little dog who always slept with her started to bark frantically at something she could not see. 

Now scared Freeborn had one rational thought--she must get out of the house immediately. She picked up her dog and fled the bedroom into the hallway. She ran smack into what she later described as "an unseen force."

Freeborn stated there was "a large mass out in the hall--as if something ominous and ugly was concentrated there." She realized she needed to get out of the house before she was harmed. She insisted later that there were three entities in the hallway with her. 

There was a presence on each side of her and then a large dark force that blocked her way. Gathering all her courage, she shouted, “Get out of my way!” She then forced her way past this dark entity. 

She ran out the back door and sped away in her car, with her dog--still wearing her nightgown.

Afterward, she stated, "she got the sense that the two presences at her sides were actually surprised that she was able to do this." She felt that the center entity was physically knocked back as she rushed forward.