Danny the Poltergeist

Overview

In 1998 in Savannah, Georgia, the once peaceful Cobb family was disrupted by an unwanted poltergeist activity by the ghost of a boy named Danny. Danny would leave messages for the family at first, somehow appearing friendly. However, the paranormal activity increased; opening of kitchen cabinets, moving furniture and even trying to hit one of the Cobb children with a plate.

Danny and the Bed

During Christmas of 1998, Al Cobb bought an antique bed for one of his twin sons as a present. The vintage design of the bed made it apparent that it was a style of the late 1800s and Al Cobb’s son, Jason, liked his present very much. The family rearranged the boy’s room to accommodate the new bed that they placed against the wall.

Three days after, Jason complained of feeling uncomfortable in the new bed. He told his parents that he felt an invisible presence as he was sleeping. It was as if someone was lying beside him, an elbow on the pillow and watching him sleep. He could also feel a cold breath on the side of his neck. Thinking that Jason was just acting up, his parents ignored the incident.

However, the next morning, Jason found the picture frame of his dead grandparents facing downwards. He fixed it and placed it upright but the picture faced down again the next day. On the third day, Jason vividly remembered how he put the picture in the right position, the picture was no longer on the table on the side of the bed.

Instead, it was in the middle of the bed, together with random objects originally placed in different parts of the room. The family was terrified but Al Cobb still managed to ask if there were any ghosts in the room and if there were, he asked their age. When they didn’t hear a response, Al left a piece of paper and some crayons in Jason’s room. They went out for a few minutes and when they came back, the paper had scratchy writing that said ‘Danny, 7’.

Danny’s Story

It was through crayons and writing that the Cobb family got to know Danny. Danny had told them in writing that his mother died in 1890 in the same bed that Jason was using. He deliberately stated that he did not want anyone sleeping on his mother’s bed by writing ‘No one sleep on bed’. Because of that, Jason moved into Lee’s room, his twin brother,

The communication continued and the ghost of Danny did not seem to do them any harm. When the mother of the family, Lila, asked what Danny looked like, the ghost described himself having brown eyes and hair. On some occasions, Danny wrote sorry notes for reasons the family did not know of.

He would leave random notes that would cause minor conflicts in the family, like telling Lee to stop smoking. The ghost would also play games with the family. When Al and Lila left a note with a tic-tac-toe grid, Danny reputedly filled the grid with ‘O’s and wrote a triumphant message of ‘Ha ha, beat you!’ using Jason’s crayons.

After some time Jason seemed to have gained the ability to ‘see’ Danny’s apparition. On one occasion, Jason came running up to his father to tell him that Danny was in the master’s bedroom, humming to himself and writing with crayons. When Al Cobb rushed to his and his wife’s room, he found a still moving scissor balancing on top of a lotion bottle. He also found a torn page from a colouring book signed with Danny’s name.

Continued Poltergeist Activity

Danny did not prove to be destructive until Jason tried to sleep in the antique bed again. When Jason finally did, a plate hanging on the wall swung forward and missed the boy’s head by an inch. That was the start of more intense poltergeist activity.

The family found themselves in a house with cabinets that opened and closed of their own accord. The furniture was often moved in different areas of the house and the chairs in the kitchen and the living room were sometimes overturned.

Other Ghosts

Aside from the increasing disruptive activity of Danny, Jason also claimed to have seen other ghosts in the house.

Uncle Sam

Jason reported the presence of a ghost who called himself ‘Uncle Sam’.

According to the ghost, his daughter was buried under the house and he came to claim her body.

Gracie

Another ghost is a young girl named Gracie. Gracie was buried in the cemetery near the Cobb residence.

Her purpose in haunting the house was unknown but her existence in the past was somehow confirmed by a statue erected in the cemetery, subsequently carved with the name “Gracie”.

Jill

Jill was yet another spirit of a young girl who communicated with the family like Danny.

She would write notes on loose sheets of paper. On one occasion, she left a note inviting the family to a party she had set up in the living room.

Investigation

As the poltergeist case became known in the area through the morning news, a parapsychologist came to the Cobb’s residence to investigate the case. Andrew Nichols, the head of the parapsychology research unit in Florida, set up cameras all over the house and brought a Geiger counter to detect abnormal electromagnetic waves throughout the Cobb residence.

The investigation was filmed for a show, ’48 hours’, with another parapsychologist, William Roll. During the team’s two-day stay in the Cobb house, the camera set-up did not record any paranormal activity. However, the electromagnetic counter registered erratic readings in Jason’s room, especially on the wall adjacent to his bed.

According to Nichols, the house itself is probably haunted and the high psychic energy on the boy’s bed might have improved his ability to see, feel and hear ghosts like Danny and the other ghosts that haunt their house.

SOURCE:

True Paranormal Hauntings