User:Sofianemerouani1/sandbox

The San Pedro Haunting (also known as The Jackie Hernandez's Case) was a very frightening poltergeist case that occurred in late summer 1989 in San Pedro, Los Angeles, California. A woman named Jacqueline 'Jackie' Hernandez claimed that she and her two kids Jamie and Samantha were besieged by an unseen force in theirs house that manifested itself in form of disembodied head, black shadows, moving objects, strange smells and flying orbs. The haunting started in November 17, 1988 as soon as Jackie moved to San Pedro and increased in crescendo as the months went by until it reached its violent peak in August 1989 and with an attempt on a man's life in September 4, 1989. From October 1989 until 1993, the haunting continued even when Jackie finally decided to leave her bungalow with her two small children to a new home in Weldon, California. However, the evil spirit did not seem to give up on her as it "followed" Jackie to her new trailer. The events were extensively documented by the Emmy-Award cinematographer Barry Conrad assisted by the famous parapsychologist in the field of paranormal, Dr. Barry E. Taff PhD. "The San Pedro Haunting" made it right into the hands of local media and soon gained it's "haunting momentum" and became the greatest supernatural case ever recorded on television and shown to the wider audience as an evidence that ghosts and demon exist. As of September 2008, it is reported that Jackie's former bungalow is still being haunted as neighbors registered eerie activities happening around the house.

The Prelude
Jacqueline Hernandez (neé Hazard), was born in 1963 in Saratoga Springs in New York. Her father was certified public accountant and her mother had been a housewife for many years. She studied to become a child psychologist. As a young and beautiful girl, there was no hint that Jackie would be destined to experience the eeriest poltergeist case ever recorded in the history of paranormal activities. However, according to Dr. Barry Taff, Jackie fit perfectly in the profile of a quintessential poltergeist victim. She came from a very volatile background. Suffering from severe mental duress. Akin to Doris Bither who was the haunting victim of the Entity Case in 1974, Jackie was abused by men, violent lifestyle, mental anguish and depression. Like most poltergeist victims, Jackie lived in an unhealthy environment in which one can argue that was conducive to extreme acts of psychokinetic violence. She married an outraged husband Al Hernandez whom she has two kids, Jamie and Samantha. This latter was not yet born at the time of Jackie's domestic conflict with her husband. Her pregnancy was overshadowed by a marriage as rocky as Malibu landslide. Driven by the torment of unhappy wedlock, Jackie left her husband and took her two-year old son Jamie as they moved to a seemingly quite area of San Pedro, staying at a dab, turn-of-a century bungalow that sit among others identical bungalows at the corner of 11th and Grande Street, thinking she'd find a peace of mind but only to discover that another scary nightmare has just begun. A nightmare that would take over Jackie's life.

It all started with a Pencil Holder
Jackie vividly recalled that the first strange occurrence started as soon as she moved to her new bungalow. In November 17, 1988, while she was 25 years old and pregnant of her daughter Samantha, Jackie invited a friend to her new house for a stay. And as she walked by her desk, a pencil holder suddenly slid to the edge and toppled over, scattering all the items it held. Both Jackie and her friend traded a questioning look on how something like this could possibly happen. Jackie grew restless as the days went by. She noticed on several occasions a stream of water pouring mysteriously out of a light switch, claiming that the leaking would last only five seconds, and often streamed out as if somebody turned on the faucet. She'd also noted that one day, a painting of a goose which was hanging on a wall next to the refrigerator flew across the room and landed on the kitchen's counter-top. As if this weren't enough, in February 1989, the it would become terrifyingly real as Jackie catches the apparition of an old man sitting on the bed in her child's bedroom. According to her account, the man looked like a corpse in an advanced decomposition and donning a gas-attendant shirt and a high-water pent. He was sitting cross-legged and looking at her. The same "old man" was sighted in her dining room several days later. One night, while out of town, Darlene, Jackie's friend agreed to babysit her two kids, Samantha and Jamie. The babysitter heard a frightening voice coming from the kid's bedroom warning Darlene not to come in the restroom. The voice was so spooky that Darlene thought that her life would be in jeopardy if she did not obey. It should be noteworthy to add that not only Jackie experienced the poltergeist activity. Even her neighbor Susan Castaneda (who sadly passed away in 2010) was a potential witness. One day, she'd seen a painting flew across the room, and a lamp toppled over to the ground with such force that she thought it was a booth-cased telephone.

The Involvement
Jackie heard from her friend and neighbor Susan Castanada who had previously watched a random program on TV that dealt with paranormal cases, that a group of parapsychologists took their work very seriously. Jackie looked into the matter and decided to contact the group. Her call, got three men involved. Dr. Barry E. Taff PhD, the world's famous parapsychologist who during his 43-year career, he has investigated more than 4,500 cases of ghosts, hauntings, poltergeists and conducted extensive studies in telepathy and precognition. Taff is a former research associate of the classic 1974's "The Entity" which was later made into a movie. Professional cameraman and cinematographer Barry Conrad who has shot over five thousand news and feature stories for television. As an Emmy-Award winning photojournalist, Conrad has worked for both American Broadcasting Company (ABC) and NBC-affiliated TV Stations in Ohio and Colorado. He founded his own company Barcon Productions in 1986. And finally, Jeff Wheatcraft who first worked as a teacher and as a principal in the Elementary school in Nebraska before he moved to New York in 1980 to pursue his career as a professional still photographer. In 1986, he moved to Southern California. He met with Barry Conrad during the shooting of a low-budget movie called Platinum Blonde

Something odd is happening up in the attic
On Tuesday, August 8, 1989, Dr.Barry Taff, accompanied by Barry Conrad, Jeff Wheatcraft and a local journalist Larry Brooks paid a visit to Jackie Hernandez for the first time. Upon arrival, Dr. Taff reported the feeling of "over pressure" in their ears and a foul stench permeated the house. A peculiar odor which, according to Taff's words was quite reminiscent to the "Entity" Case he investigated almost fifteen years ago. The group did some walking around the premise while Conrad set up his camera and began to shoot every angle of the bungalow. Then they interviewed at length both Jackie and Susan. The women told the investigators everything they witnessed. According to Mrs. Hernandez, on several occasion, she saw a floating disembodied head each time she sneaked her head into the dimly light attic whose opening existed just above a small laundry room in the rear of the home. While listening to her account, the still photographer Jeff Wheatcraft remained skeptical. However, it did not take so long for Wheatcraft's skepticism to fade out when the group suddenly heard a large pounding emanating from the attic. The actual footage was captured in the camera. According to the investigators, the pounding sounded like a 200-pound rat scurrying down the attic. Before leaving, Conrad asked Wheatcraft if he could climb into the attic and shoot a couple of photos. Wheatcraft agreed and while standing atop a washing machine, he began clicking away. Suddenly, without warning, the group heard a scream. Jeff bolted down from the attic. As he approached the investigation team, he held out his trembling hands, his face as white as a ghost, indicating that something had happened. Everybody was on edge. They noticed that Jeff's camera was indeed gone. He went on to describe the fact that he was about to shoot his third picture when all of a sudden he'd felt a jerk and the camera went flying-to where, he didn't know. As the group tried to calm him down, Conrad felt an intense adrenaline rush and shot to his van as quick as he could to lay out his cumbersome video equipment.

Later, the investigators decided to venture into the attic, this time, videotape rolling. They decided to first check every angle of the attic to make sure there was no secret passageway or reverse trap-door of some kind, allowing a prankster to escape. However, as soon as Conrad climbed into the dimly attic, his camera unexpectedly powered-down. Quickly replacing the batteries, the camera remained inoperative for some unknown reason. According to Barry Conrad, when a battery went out, the "green" pilot light would change to "red" with the picture gradually fading to black. In this case, the pilot light failed altogether, a highly unusual occurrence. Stranger enough, Conrad's camera became operative again as soon as they exited the attic.

It's Human Blood Plasma
The activity in the attic was not the only event that was recorded that night. When Dr. Taff and Larry Brooks left Jackie's house, Conrad and Wheatcraft (along with Susan and Jackie) were puzzled by yet another paranormal incident that they witnessed; this time the apparent "ghost" manifested itself in the form of a mysterious substance that began to drip from a wall cabinet. The group tried to find a logical explanation for what was happening, thinking perhaps it could be a broken pipe that caused the leakage. However, after they took a sample and sent it to a forensic lab, the ooze turned out to be human blood plasma.

A Man Hung by a Ghost
Nearly one month later, on September 4, 1989, Barry Conrad and Jeff Wheatcraft received a frantic call from Jackie, telling them that she would not stay in her house anymore as the poltergeist activity escalated and became more violent. Dr. Taff bowed out to come over due to the concern about his father's illness. Conrad brought with him his former classmate Gary Boehm instead. The trio traveled to San Pedro where they were greeted by the badly-shaken Jackie who was looking totally disheveled and weary from her supernatural tormentor. The young woman told them unbelievable stories like Pespi-can being thrown at her. Doors started to fling open and slam shut, seemingly on theirs own volition and Kid's toys being levitated off the ground to cite a few. A night earlier, on September 3, Jackie had claimed that an invisible force had held her down on the floor for several minutes and tried to smother her! Intrigued by her account, Wheatcraft and Gary Boehm decided to venture once again into the attic. Soon after Wheatcraft and Boehm ventured into the attack, Barry Conrad, Susan and Jackie all reported hearing three loud snapping sounds. A loud groan was heard seconds after the sounds. The moan was of Jeff Wheatcraft, who had been hung with a tied piece of rope by an invisible force onto a nail that was attached to a rafter beam of the attic ceiling. Boehm, noticing Wheatcraft was in distress, quickly took several pictures of Wheatcraft hanging from the ceiling, then proceeded to help him off of the nail. The rope was attached so tightly around Wheatcraft's neck, Boehm had to bend the nail down to unhook him. Wheatcraft, who lost his glasses in the ordeal, exited the attic with the group downstairs waiting for him. He still had the wire wrapped around his neck and looked very shaken. Boehm believes if he had not been in the attic with Wheatcraft, he would have strangled and died. Wheatcraft had red marks on his neck and a very bad headache for several hours later.