The Tenant From Hell...

…And I just might be speaking literally.

Landlord/tenant disputes are common, and sometimes incredibly rancorous.  Fortunately, few such clashes are as malevolent--not to mention Fortean--as the account given by Maureen Taylor in the August 1973 issue of “Fate Magazine.”

Taylor related that soon after her parents, Katherine and Leonard Morrell-Jones, were married in 1936, they built their “dream home” in Croxley Green, a town in Hertfordshire, England.  It was a charming two-story house the newlyweds named “Kelm” (a combination of their initials.)

About a year later, Leonard volunteered for service in the Royal Army Medical Corps.  His new duties kept him away from home for a few weeks at a time.  During one of his visits home, his wife informed him that she was pregnant.  The couple agreed that given her condition, managing a large house on her own would be too taxing.  They decided that for the duration of the war, Katherine would move in with her husband’s grandmother, Lucy Jones.  During that time, Kelm was rented out to a family named Browne.  Little did they know that the war would see to it that these “temporary” living arrangements would last for years.

Early in 1947, Leonard was finally demobilized, and the family prepared to move back to their home.  However, they were disconcerted to realize that Mrs. Browne had become so attached to Kelm that she refused to leave.  When the Morrell-Joneses remonstrated with her, Mrs. Browne argued that they had been very good tenants, and they had lived in the house longer than the owners had, anyway.  Mrs. Browne was so insistent on staying put, Leonard was forced to take her to court.  Unsurprisingly, the judge ordered the Brownes to be evicted.

When Mrs. Browne heard this ruling, she was infuriated.  The outraged woman hissed to Katherine, “You will never be happy in that house.  You will be forced to leave it just as I have been.  Curse you and your family!”  Mrs. Browne made such a scene, she had to be forcibly ejected from the courtroom.

By August 1947, the Morrell-Joneses were finally settled in their beloved home.  Leonard found work at a nearby printing firm, and little Maureen, who was now seven, soon started school.  All seemed well.  At first.

One evening in September, Leonard and Katherine were reading in the living room when they suddenly heard what sounded like a child’s scream.  It seemed to come from right outside the front windows.  Katherine ran outside, but saw nothing.  Leonard went upstairs to check on Maureen, who was sleeping soundly.  The shaken couple could only surmise it had been some animal.

A few days later, the telephone rang.  When Katherine answered, she heard only a low grunting.  Assuming it was just some crank call, she hung up.  Almost immediately, it rang again. And again, she heard nothing on the other end but those unsettling grunts.  Whoever--or whatever--was on the other end repeated these calls five more times within the next few minutes.  Then it stopped.

The Morrell-Joneses suspected Mrs. Browne was behind the calls.  They asked the telephone company to keep a record of all calls placed to their number.  When the grunter started up again three days later, Katherine wrote down the exact times the calls were placed, and reported them to the phone company.  The family was told that at the times given, no calls had been registered by the phone operator.  The “normal” calls to their number were all accurately registered--just not the 13 “prank” calls.

Strange things continued to happen at Kelm.  The wooden gateposts on either side of the driveway had two metal numbers, “4” and “3” screwed on them.  One day, Leonard washed the gateposts and polished the metal numbers with a cloth.  Then he briefly went into the house.  When he returned, he found that the numbers were gone…but the screws were there.  He went back in to fetch his wife.  When she examined the gateposts, the numbers were back in place.

One night early in 1948, Maureen was awakened by screams and wails that seemed to be in the room with her.  Her light was on, although she knew she had turned it off when she went to bed.  When she looked at her watch, she saw that its crystal cover was missing.  When her mother, curious to see why Maureen’s light was on, entered the room, the screams stopped.  The next morning, Maureen saw that the crystal was back on her watch.

The bed in the master room was always covered by a fine quilt of silk and goose down.  The quilt began repeatedly appearing on the floor, even when nobody had been near the room.  One day, the family did a little experiment.  Replacing the quilt on the bed, the room’s windows and doors were locked.  Then, they went to the living room to await events.

Twenty minutes later, the family heard bangs and thuds coming from the bedroom.  When the noises stopped, they reentered the room.  The quilt was gone.  They finally found it jammed behind a large oak wardrobe in the corner of the room.

One Sunday evening, a Mr. and Mrs. Greaves were having tea with the Morrell-Joneses.  As they sat in the living room, they all heard a series of crashes coming from the kitchen.  When Leonard and Mr. Greaves went to investigate, they saw all the pots and pans flying through the air.  Leonard was hit square on the head with a meat platter.  Mr. Greaves felt vibrations like an earthquake.

By March 1949, the Morrell-Joneses had to admit defeat.  They sold Kelm and moved elsewhere.  The family who moved in never experienced any of the unsettling incidents which had so plagued the original residents.

Mrs. Browne’s revenge was complete.