A journalist and leading member of the National Council of Switzerland, Melchior Joller, a somewhat methodical and obstinate character, was to find himself embroilled in a two year onslaught of strange poltergeist activity within his family home that would finally drive him to the edge and change his personality forever. The Joller family home was situated in Stans, near Lake Lucerne. Melchior lived with his wife Caroline, their four sons Robert, Edward, Oscar and Alfred, and their three daughters, Emaline, Melanie and Henrika, along with their house servants. It was in the autumn of 1860 that one of the maids first reported that at night she was hearing knocking sounds upon her bedstead. This was to be the start of the families worst nightmare. A few weeks later Joller's wife and daughter, both of whom had been sharing a bedroom, were woken by knocking noises. At the time Joller just put the sounds aside and didn't think of them as been of any great importance. Nearly a year was to pass before anything else was to occur. In June of 1861 Joller's son Oscar was to miss supper. When he was searched for he was finally found unconscious in the wood store. When he finally came round he was to explain to his family that he had heard knocking sounds and had gone to investigate the sounds, when suddenly the door had burst open and a ' whitish formless shape came in '. The other children too, in the days to follow, also began to complain of hearing noises. Henrika said she had seen the apparition of a small child. In the autumn that followed another one of the maids said she had seeing ' grey shapes ' and reported that on one occasion at night someone had come up the stairs in the house, and then passed into an upstairs living room, and walked right past her. The same maid claimed that she had heard her name been called on many an occasion. Then once whilst in the living room the maid could hear ' profoundly disturbing sobs'. Joller took little or no notice of this maid. He fired her from his employment as he believed her to be superstitious and proceeded to hire a 13-year-old girl as her replacement. Things were to fall quiet then until the summer of 1862. The activity when it did begin again was much worse than before. It was on the 15 August of that year that Joller, his wife and son Robert went to Lucerne at seven o' clock in the morning. The remaining family members and the servant girl stayed behind in the house. Henrika heard rapping noises and told Melanie ( then aged 14 ) and the servant girl. She then ran to the corridor that she had assumed the knocks to be coming from to investigate. Melanie then called out, ' In god's name, if there is anything to it, let it come and rap.' Following her demand there appeared to be a reply in rapping noises. Oscar then appeared on the scene as was told what had happened. He called out the exact same challenge but got no reply. Edward also tried the same words too. They then became scared and fled the house. While they were sitting outside the house, on the cold stone steps, a pebble, the size of a fist, fell between Melanie and Alfred. Come lunchtime they decided they would return inside the house. Inside the house they found that every room and cupboard door had opened wide. These they closed again, bolting doors where it was possible to do so. But soon they were all open again. Including those doors that had been bolted. The children then heard the sound of heavy footsteps and fled the house once more. The servant girl peered back as she fled in terror and claimed that she saw a shape somewhat like a sheet hung up by one corner, coming towards her. When she called to it the figure disappeared. The children ended up, finally, running to a barn were some labourers were at work. They made occasional trips back close to the house to see what was going on. Traditional poltergeist activity seemed to be taking place in the Joller house through-out the duration of time the case lasted. The sounds, moving furniture and what seemed to be the sound of a deep melancholy voice saying, ' even if no one is around.' A spontaneously formed death head shape was also seen on the floor, ( as if poured on ), but it soon faded. Later that same evening a light was seen coming down the chimney. When the maid looked up to see what it was, she could see an object, that she described as, ' having innumerable little blue flames '. It was said to have exploded deep inside the chimney, dowsing the fire with water. Amazingly, Joller, himself, still did not at this point believe the stories he was been told. It was on Tuesday 19 August that he was to suffer first-hand poltergeist activity himself. He heard rapping noises on the wall which seemed to mimic noises he himself was making at the time. As a result of this he promised his family he would have the events investigated at once. The following day Joller was to witness the door between the bedroom and the kitchen bend as the banging sounds struck up again. He raised the catch on the door and the door burst open. He immediately could see a dark form but could not make out its exact shape. Suddenly it moved from the door to the chimney. But when he went to investigate closer it had gone. The following day he was to witness a force he described as ' as powerful as a wooden mallet might make when swung with all the strength of a powerful arm'. Doors slammed and opened with great force. The subject then became a matter of discussion locally because other people were claiming that they could hear the sounds now too. In the kitchen Joller found that the poltergeist had attacked bottles, glasses and other containers, leaving them as if they had been struck by a metal implement. Sounds also arising from different parts of the house were so rapid in succession that it would have taken four or maybe five people to have made them all, as one person simply would not have been able to move fast enough around the house. On the night of the 23 August in a first-floor bedroom Joller, his wife and a servant were all touched on the head, as if by a hand. Both Joller and his wife made a grab for the hand and found it to be warm and small like a child's. On 16 September Joller witnessed an apple hopping around in a strange way. It jumped down the stairs, along the corridor and into the kitchen. After having been picked up and put on the kitchen table it again jumped off towards the corridor. It was then thrown out of the window by the servant. But in an instant it flew back in again and landed on the kitchen table and then when on to bounce further around the house. On the 6 October five people different people claimed to have seen a figure, on four occasions. The figure was described as been that of a melancholic woman with bowed head. The same figure Melanie had described seen on the 10 September. Late in October 1862 Joller and his family fled the house and moved to Zurich. They finally had had enough. What happened after this date is unknown. Though Emaline, when she was contacted, in the 1930's said the poltergeist did not follow them to their new home. She told how her father had died in 1865 in Rome were he had been forced to live in excile in poverty after been ridiculed and attacked by family and friends in Switzerland.