STRANGE BUT TRUE TALES

THE INDIANAPOLIS POLTERGEIST

THE INDIANAPOLIS POLTERGEIST

A 1962 newspaper photo of the house on North Delaware Street, where the strange happenings took place.

And while all of this makes for a convenient explanation (as does the idea that the house is haunted by traditional ghosts!), what of cases that exist for which no easy explanations apply? How do we attempt to solve the cases during which such bizarre events occur that are so baffling that they remain unsolved four decades later? You will be pondering these questions in the pages ahead as you hear about bottles smashing, glass flying, "phantom bites" and even the victims of the poltergeist outbreak being arrested for causing the disturbance! Indianapolis was a strange place to be in March 1962!

The outbreak began on Sunday night, March 11 at a few minutes past 10:00 PM, according to Mrs. Renate Beck, a divorced woman who resided in a house at 2910 N. Delaware Street in Indianapolis. She shared the large two-story house with her widowed mother, Mrs. Lina Gemmecke (61) and her daughter, Linda (13). Their later accounts stated that they had experienced nothing odd in the house that day until that evening, when a heavy glass beer mug somehow moved on its own. It happened in the kitchen and the mug lifted out of the sink and fell behind a flower pot. Both Mrs. Beck and her mother were in the room at the time but neither of them had been close to the glass. Then, about 10:37, this strange incident was followed by the sound of a loud crash from upstairs.

Because of a number of robberies in the neighborhood, Mrs. Beck first assumed that a burglar may have broken into the house. However, when she and her mother and her daughter went to investigate, they found a large piece of German crystal lying on the floor about four feet from the bookcase where it had been sitting. The crystal was broken into pieces. "I don't see how it could have gotten off the bookcase in the first place," Mrs. Beck said, "nor how it landed four feet away."

Although disturbed by the incident, they thought little more about it until a few minutes after 11:00, when a heavy glass ashtray was hurtled across a downstairs room! Half an hour later, another piece of crystal was inexplicably shattered and too unnerved to stay in the house, they left and checked into a hotel for the rest of the night. Little did they know however, the strange events had just begun!

Before continuing with the chronicle of events, it would be worthwhile to take a closer look at the family involved. As already mentioned, researchers often point to the relationships within the family when trying to determine the cause of poltergeist outbreaks and the Beck family was far from a peaceful and contented group.

Renate Beck (32) was the divorced wife of a former U.S. Embassy officer whom she had married in her native Vienna. She was well-educated and spoke English fluently, although with an accent. Her daughter, Linda, was described by investigators as being shy and uncommunicative but the biggest detriment to tranquility in the household seemed to be the presence of Mrs. Lina Gemmecke, the mother of Mrs. Beck. Mrs. Gemmecke was the wealthy widow of a German newspaper publisher who had moved to Indianapolis in 1959, following the death of her husband. Friends and neighbors later told investigators that the family did not get along very well and that noisy and unpleasant fights could often be heard coming from the house.

As the events of March 1962 began to unfold, there were others who became involved in them. Most prominent were Mr. and Mrs. Emil Noseda, friends of the Beck family. Noseda was a respected Indianapolis businessman who operated the city's Sheffield Inn for many years. After the strange activity at the house began, Mrs. Beck telephoned Mr. Noseda and the police - in that order.

The police became involved in the case on the second day. Not surprisingly, the police reports (and subsequently what appeared in newspapers at that time) differed greatly from the eyewitness accounts of the events and the accounts that were given to investigators who looked into the outbreak. In fact, the "official" version of the story even offered a solution to the problem after some amateur "ghost busting" by one of the police officers!