#020 - The Columbus Poltergeist

Regular Episode

July 10, 2010

#020 – The Columbus Poltergeist

FRAME 25: Famous photo of Tina Resch and the “flying phone.”
Copyright © 1984 by The Dispatch Printing Company. Photographer: Fred Shannon.

James Randi (1928 – 2020)

Early in March of 1984, the Ohio newspaper The Columbus Dispatch began to tell the tale of a 14 year old girl who was undergoing a terrible ordeal. Objects in her house began to fly across the room and smash. Clocks ran faster than normal. Silverware and china flew and broke. Several witnesses reported seeing these terrifying events and a newspaper man caught photos of a telephone flying through the air in front of the frightened teen.

Tina Resch, a foster child, was in the care of a couple who, over the course of 31 years would take care of over 250 foster children. Was she just seeking attention? Or was she being plagued by the terrifying paranormal phenomena known as a poltergeist?

We talk with James “The Amazing” Randi on his recollections of this case and on the tragic life of a poltergeist victim. Randi highlights the case in his upcoming book, A Magician in the Laboratory.