Black Hope Curse-Williams Family

[James T]

Just been reading a Joe Nickell book where this case makes a brief appearance & the following is said.

In 1980 after the family moved into their Texas home they became aware that their house site had once been a cemetery for poor blacks. Following some neighbours suffering from stress & strange happenings & suing the developers for failing to inform them of this & that they had disturbed the graves of the dead.

The Williams family then started reporting every odd occurrence such as an ant infestation in the house or snakes in the backyard as being evidence of demonic activity, as was the malfunction of their garage door. When their eight year old granddaughter came to live with them & reported seeing shadowy presences, even though she had a tendency to invent imaginary friends, daydream & pretend this was taken as further proof.

Of all the phenomena they attributed to this force the most profound was the passing of their daughter Tina, but she suffered from Hodgkin's disease which was in remission, however she then acquired a virus that which caused her immune system to attack her heart muscle. She in fact died of a massive heart attack.

In reality the Wiliiamses were emotional & religious people-prone to outbursts, Jean to crying & Ben would shout at whoever would challenge him, as was demonstrated on the Maury Povich show. Jean was an avid reader of books on the supernatural & paranormal phenomena & at times wished she were a Catholic so that she could attempt an exorcism. When it became difficult for her to carry a bible through the house she instead bought a crucifix & walked around reciting prayers while holding a thirty eight pistol in her other hand.

Ida Ruth McKinney the ranch owner whose father had at one time owned the property said she thought it was a hoot, she had never heard so much as a boo on the property & added that someone is a little off in the head or wants some money & maybe we will see a sequel from this. Then in March 1992 CBS aired a made for television movie based on their story.

Pretty obvious that these people were religious zealots, eager to join the spurious lawsuit nonsense & of course make some money from selling their story & writing a book.

[wiseguy182]

thanks for sharing. Definitely clears the air on a few things.

This had to be the most blatantly racist segment UM ever aired, as those poor, deceased black folks get accused from everything to theft to outright murder.

Now, according to this, they get accused of causing problems with ants and garage doors, two common everyday problems.

UM was definitely scraping the bottom of the barrell for new material as the years wore on.

[James T]

Originally Posted by wiseguy182

thanks for sharing. Definitely clears the air on a few things.

This had to be the most blatantly racist segment UM ever aired, as those poor, deceased black folks get accused from everything to theft to outright murder.

Now, according to this, they get accused of causing problems with ants and garage doors, two common everyday problems.

UM was definitely scraping the bottom of the barrell for new material as the years wore on.

Always felt from the standpoint of videography that it was one of their best segments & it was certainly a ripping tale, but the undercurrent of racism & religion was uncomfortable. As with a lot of stories from UM, Sightings etc when you start to dig deeper the reality is somewhat different from the way it was presented. In one sense the show got cancelled at the right time-with most people starting to get online by 2002/2003 & a lot of information on many cases pointing to them being nonsense, back in the late 1980's & for most if not all of the 1990's the majority of people would have to travel to the area & go through records to find anything out.

[drew4824]

Originally Posted by James T

Just been reading a Joe Nickell book where this case makes a brief appearance & the following is said.

In 1980 after the family moved into their Texas home they became aware that their house site had once been a cemetery for poor blacks. Following some neighbours suffering from stress & strange happenings & suing the developers for failing to inform them of this & that they had disturbed the graves of the dead.

The Williams family then started reporting every odd occurrence such as an ant infestation in the house or snakes in the backyard as being evidence of demonic activity, as was the malfunction of their garage door. When their eight year old granddaughter came to live with them & reported seeing shadowy presences, even though she had a tendency to invent imaginary friends, daydream & pretend this was taken as further proof.

Of all the phenomena they attributed to this force the most profound was the passing of their daughter Tina, but she suffered from Hodgkin's disease which was in remission, however she then acquired a virus that which caused her immune system to attack her heart muscle. She in fact died of a massive heart attack.

In reality the Wiliiamses were emotional & religious people-prone to outbursts, Jean to crying & Ben would shout at whoever would challenge him, as was demonstrated on the Maury Povich show. Jean was an avid reader of books on the supernatural & paranormal phenomena & at times wished she were a Catholic so that she could attempt an exorcism. When it became difficult for her to carry a bible through the house she instead bought a crucifix & walked around reciting prayers while holding a thirty eight pistol in her other hand.

Ida Ruth McKinney the ranch owner whose father had at one time owned the property said she thought it was a hoot, she had never heard so much as a boo on the property & added that someone is a little off in the head or wants some money & maybe we will see a sequel from this. Then in March 1992 CBS aired a made for television movie based on their story.

Pretty obvious that these people were religious zealots, eager to join the spurious lawsuit nonsense & of course make some money from selling their story & writing a book.

Do you know the name of the movie?

[James T]

Originally Posted by drew4824

Do you know the name of the movie?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgU30Q-ib5Q