HORROR ON CHASE STREET: The Smurl Family’s Thirteen Years of Hell, Hauntings, and Demonic Possession

Weird Darkness: Paranormal & True Crime Stories

Darren Marlar

History, True Crime, Society & Culture, Documentary

4.6 • 4.1K Ratings

🗓️ 17 September 2025

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

For thirteen years, the Smurl family reported being terrorized by invisible forces in their Pennsylvania duplex - entities that threw their German Shepherd against walls, sexually assaulted both Jack and Janet, and somehow knew to hide whenever priests came to investigate. The Catholic Church sent multiple clergy who witnessed nothing, the Warrens recorded hours of supposed evidence, and neighbors threw bricks at the house during the media circus, but no one could definitively prove whether the Smurls were victims of a genuine haunting or something else entirely.

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CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…
00:00:00.000 = Lead-In
00:01:19.246 = Show Open
00:03:14.088 = Part One: Foundation Cracks
00:13:02.456 = Part Two: The House Knew Their Names
00:34:04.296 = Part Three: The Intelligence That Hid From Priests
00:55:32.269 = Part Four: The Evidence That Remains
01:02:24.920 = Show Close
SOURCES AND RESOURCES FROM THE EPISODE…List of sources at bottom of page: https://weirddarkness.com/smurl-family-conjuring/=====(Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)= = = = ="I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." — John 12:46= = = = =WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2025, Weird Darkness.=====Originally aired: September 16, 2025
EPISODE PAGE at WeirdDarkness.com (includes list of sources): https://weirddarkness.com/SmurlFamily
ABOUT WEIRD DARKNESS: Weird Darkness is a true crime and paranormal podcast narrated by professional award-winning voice actor, Darren Marlar. Seven days per week, Weird Darkness focuses on all thing strange and macabre such as haunted locations, unsolved mysteries, true ghost stories, supernatural manifestations, urban legends, unsolved or cold case murders, conspiracy theories, and more. On Thursdays, this scary stories podcast features horror fiction along with the occasional creepypasta. Weird Darkness has been named one of the “Best 20 Storytellers in Podcasting” by Podcast Business Journal. Listeners have described the show as a cross between “Coast to Coast” with Art Bell, “The Twilight Zone” with Rod Serling, “Unsolved Mysteries” with Robert Stack, and “In Search Of” with Leonard Nimoy.DISCLAIMER: Ads heard during the podcast that are not in my voice are placed by third party agencies outside of my control and should not imply an endorsement by Weird Darkness or myself. *** Stories and content in Weird Darkness can be disturbing for some listeners and intended for mature audiences only. Parental discretion is strongly advised.
#SmurlHaunting #ConjuringLastRites #TrueHorrorStory #EdAndLorraineWarren #RealGhostStory #DemonicPossession #ParanormalInvestigation #TrueCrimeParanormal #HauntedHouse
NOTE: Some of this content may have been created with assistance from AI tools, but it has been reviewed, edited, narrated, produced, and approved by Darren Marlar, creator and host of Weird Darkness — who, despite popular conspiracy theories, is NOT an AI voice.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The weather. Tomorrow, expect a biting cold front. Hmm, how naughty. I wonder what I'll be
0:06.8	wearing or taking off. The night will be wild and untamed. Expect heavy, lashing rain
0:13.0	that'll soak you to the skin. By Monday, temperatures will rise slowly but surely reaching
0:18.7	their peak in the afternoon.
0:23.0	Not in the mood for miserable weather?
0:25.8	Fly cheaply to Turkey with Sun Express.
0:28.7	Sun Express, non-stop sunshine.
0:33.9	Hey, weirdos, just wanted to let you know that on the Weird Darkness YouTube channel recently,
0:38.3	we've been having fun doing a live chat each weeknight at 10.30 p.m. Central time. I set up the YouTube channel to premiere a video at that time, usually the podcast
0:42.8	episode for the day, and then during the premiere, we all hang out in the YouTube live chat.
0:47.6	Even if you've already heard that day's episode here in the podcast, you're still welcome
0:51.5	to join us for the YouTube chat. It's every weeknight at 10.30 p.m.
0:55.4	Central Time. And sometimes I do it over the weekends, too, because I have no social life
1:00.8	whatsoever. You can find my channel at weirddarkness.com slash YouTube. That's weirddarkness.com
1:06.2	slash YouTube. Hey, weirdos, as we get closer to Halloween and our 10-year anniversary of this podcast, I'd love to get your opinions on how I'm doing, what you like, what you don't like, what you'd like to see more of, what you'd change if you were in charge, well, you get the idea. I have a new Weird Darkness survey on the website so you can send me your opinions. And it's completely anonymous, so you
1:28.4	can be completely honest. This is a new survey, so even if you did give your opinion before, you can do so again, and I'd appreciate you doing so. Visit weirddarkness.com slash survey. That's weirddarkness.com slash survey.
1:57.0	The film The Conjuring Last Rites brings the Smurl Family Haunting to the big screen,
2:01.7	though Hollywood added fictional elements like a cursed mirror that never existed in the actual case.
2:03.7	The real story that took place from 1973 to 1986 in West Pistin, Pennsylvania, needs
2:10.9	no embellishment.
2:12.5	Jack and Janet Smurrell reported being sexually assaulted by demons, their German shepherd thrown against walls,
2:18.8	and their daughters pushed downstairs by invisible forces. Ed and Lorraine Warren investigated
	...

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