You might not know, but I love a TV movie from the ’90s.

I was watching one a few months back titled The Haunting of Patricia Johnson (also known as The Uninvited or The House at the End of the Street or Victim of the Haunt) starring Beau Bridges (FYI, it’s available on Tubi). I was watching a fuzzy version on YouTube and learned from the comments that the movie was based on a haunting in Madison, Indiana. Then, I fell into a rabbit hole for months. Join me in the hole. 

In the late ’80s/early ’90s, a family in Madison, Indiana* was terrorized by a poltergeist. Doretta Johnson, the matriarch, wrote about the experience in her book The People in the Attic: The Haunting of Doretta Johnson (1995).** The book is a fascinating firsthand account of confronting generational trauma and otherworldly forces. 

Doretta, her husband Ron, and her two children (Steven, age 16; Ashley, age 6) moved into an old motel in Madison with hopes of creating a home and childcare business. The paranormal activity happens almost instantly. Lights would flicker, but inspections of the wiring revealed no cause. A large stain on the fireplace reappeared after extensive sandblasting. Flowers and bushes planted outside would die. Newly installed windows would crack. Wallpaper would fall off the walls. This was just the beginning. 

Other paranormal activity included:

• Scratching and noises coming from the attic (searches were fruitless) 
• Visions of a woman in the bathtub 
• A toy doll talking after the batteries were removed (“Mama, mama, mama”) 
• Bows appearing tied to furniture and toys in her daughter’s room 
• The apparitions of a little girl and grinning man 
• Car radios turning on and off
• Breaking appliances 
• Voices coming from the radio asking for help 
• A phantom snake choking her daughter as she sleeps

In an effort to not spoil too much, I’ll stop there. This book contains all the great parts of a ghost story: a Lorraine Warren cameo, an investigation by a Catholic priest, a Ouija board session, etc. 

While these hauntings are going on, Doretta is dealing with once repressed memories of an unstable childhood and abuse. Further, she is helping her sister navigate the twisted road to addiction recovery. She, and the experts she calls upon, do not believe the supernatural activity is a separate occurrence. Rather, the poltergeist activity may be a manifestation of her personal struggles. So, along with providing a detailed description of one family’s haunting, the book is an exploration into the mind and body’s connection to the paranormal. All this is told with openness and wit. 

While the TV movie took many liberties when it came to telling Doretta’s story,  you can hear her and family tell the story themselves on several television shows. She even discusses filming with Sightings, a paranormal docuseries, in the book. Below are a list of television shows featuring the Johnson poltergeist with YouTube videos linked.

• Sightings (Season 1, Episode 9; 1992)
• Real Ghosts (Episode 2; 1992)
• Paranormal Witness (Season 4, Episode 1; 2015)

These television versions are fun (especially those from the ’90s), but the book goes deeper into the connection to and effect on Doretta’s mental well-being.

*Some internet sources say the haunting occurred in Marion, Indiana. It is incorrect.

**You can find cheaper copies of this book on eBay.