Known as one of the most well documented poltergeist cases in history the malevolent haunting in the San Pedro area turned deadly when paranormal investigators were attacked by an unseen presence haunting a young woman and her family. Sometimes hauntings are localized to a place or a house with a dark past or a business with a history of death, but sometimes in the worst cases you can find yourself haunted no matter where you run to by things that go bump in the night. That’s exactly what happened to Jackie Hernandez between 1989 and 1990 In one of the most documented and possibly dangerous cases in the history of paranormal investigation in America a young mother became the victim of a predatory spirit while trying to get a new start in San Pedro neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Jackie Hernandez was a newly single mother who left her husband along with their two children to get a fresh start in San Pedro, California. Jackie was already under severe emotional distress as she struggled with multiple jobs to feed her two young children and often left them in the care of her neighbor Susan Castenada. It was during this time in their stay in the home that Jackie began to experience strange things. One night when Jackie went to check on her children she was met instead by a sight straight out of a horror movie: a haggard old man sitting in the corner of the room staring back at her. She described his eyes as glowing and his face emotionless. In a state of panic she ran to her neighbor’s house where Susan calmed her down and listened to her bizarre tale. Susan was however not thrown off by the seemingly fantastical nature of Jackie’s story. She believed the figure to be a spirit and advised her friend to get in touch with paranormal investigator Dr. Barry Taff and his team after watching them on an televised episode investigating the Queen Mary.
With Jackie’s growing fear and the presence of two young children in the house Barry Taff prioritized Jackie’s claims and arrived at the house with his cameraman Barry Conrad and photographer Jeff Wheatcraft. They were immediately greeted by a foul odor similar to sulfur or rotten eggs that they could not locate. So they proceeded to air out the house in an attempt to discover the source. During the opening questions of the investigation the crew and Jackie heard a loud bang in the attic followed by another even louder one right after. Jackie traced the source of the banging to the ceiling above her kitchen and claimed to have seen the ghostly image of a severed head there before accompanied by muffled voices. It was also during this initial questioning that she claimed to have been the target of projectile objects from an unseen force and that a strange liquid had been chronically oozing from the walls (later discovered after laboratory testing to be human blood plasma). Next the team began to take preliminary photographs of the house. It was during this photo session that Jeff Wheatcraft and Barry Conrad went up to the attic to document the area. Jeff Wheatcraft was reportedly attacked by an unseen force that threw his camera from his hands and pushed him. They left for the night determined to return and discover what had accosted them in the attic.
The second attempt proved even more dangerous when on September 4th Jeff Wheatcraft was the victim of a potential strangulation when a chord mysteriously wrapped itself around his neck. Photographer Gary Boehm who was also in the attic at the time saw what was happening and rushed over to help and brought him back downstairs. After explaining what happened Jeff Wheatcraft left the house never to set foot inside it again.
Dr. Barry Taff, Barry Conrad, Jackie Hernandez and two neighbors listen terrified to the pounding sounds coming from the attic. Eventually, Jackie moved out of the house to return to a trailer park with her estranged husband, 300 miles north. Everything returned to normal and the case if not solved was at least closed. However one night when Jackie was helping a neighbor store a TV in their shed she claimed the screen flickered on and the image of the old man from the San Pedro house was staring back at her. Loud bangs began to come from inside the shed just as they had with the attic. Jeff Wheatcraft and Barry Conrad traveled up north to Weldon California where Jackie had moved with her children to continue investigations They held a séance using a Ouija boardwith Jackie where the apparition claimed to be the ghost of a man murdered in the San Pedro harbor. It also informed them several other spirits were haunting the area and Jeff had been targeted in an attack because he looked like the spirit’s murderer. The ghost revealed it was using Jackie for her energy before signing off claiming the sun was coming up. Just as the electronic equipment seemed to malfunction Jeff was attacked again by an unseen force leaving him physically fine but with lasting paranoia and post-traumatic stress disorder.
With no closure on the incident Jackie decided to move again. She moved several times over the course of the next several years and the paranormal activity seemed to lessen each time. She finally settled back in Los Angeles, but far away from her former home. Residents have come and gone in her San Pedro home with several of them claiming to have heard strange and unexplainable sounds coming from the attic. Ultimately the team believed the ghost to be that of Herman Hendrickson a 28-year-old man whose body was discovered floating in the harbor in March of 1930. The death was officially ruled an accident by the Los Angeles Police Department. Dr. Barry Taff also believed the ghost of the haggard old man was that of John Damon who originally built the home and perhaps still resides there. Although undoubtedly one of the most famous cases in parapsychological history this is just one of many documented cases Dr. Barry Taff and his team have investigated where emotional distress and possible recent mental trauma have made people easy pickings for the paranormal. It was concluded that Jackie’s emotional distress at that time in her life helped contribute to the power of the hauntings and since gaining a sense of safety and calm the powers of the spirits have weakened their hold on her. Since the haunting Jackie and others affected by the incidents say they have put the haunting behind them and moved on with their lives.
