The Ammons 'demon house', Gary
From November 2011 Latoya Ammons, her mother and three children reported flies, footsteps, choking and a levitating child at a rented house in Gary, Indiana; a police captain said he believed the house was haunted.
2011 CE · 41.56, -87.34 · status: disputed
The account
A priest, Michael Maginot, performed three exorcisms, the story was reported in 2014, and Zak Bagans bought and later demolished the house for his film Demon House.
The sceptical view
The family's doctor recorded hallucinations and delusions, child services believed the children were acting for their mother, the landlord and other tenants reported nothing, and Joe Nickell found that the 'police photo' was not official.
The researched reading
A family crisis that became a demonic-possession story, amplified by clergy, police and media. Psychological distress and embellishment explain it better than the supernatural.
| Explanation | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Perception, memory or mind | 45% | Medical records noted hallucinations and delusions, and child services believed the children were coached or acting under the mother’s influence. A family under stress can build shared belief (folie à deux), and once officials joined in, suggestion spread. |
| A hoax or fabrication | 15% | Joe Nickell showed that the “police photo” of a face was not an official image. The landlord and later tenants reported nothing, and media and a film deal followed. |
| Undetermined | 15% | The share the reading had given to fabrication on doubt rather than evidence: the record does not settle it either way. |
| A cultural story | 12% | A priest performing exorcisms and a police captain’s endorsement fitted the events to a familiar demonic-possession script. |
| Something in the surroundings | 6% | An old house with flies, noises and possible poor air quality could feed fear, though no tests were reported. |
| Genuinely anomalous | 4% | Some officials reported events they could not explain, such as the child walking backwards up a wall, but none was recorded or observed under control. |
| A known natural phenomenon | 3% | Swarming flies in winter can have mundane causes, such as dead animals in walls. |
Official position: Gary police and DCS files record the claims; a police captain said he believed it, while DCS records cite psychological factors.