The Grimsby Ghostbusters were a Lincolnshire-based team of psychic investigators founded and led by psychologist and parapsychology lecturer Robin Furman, active from around 1984.[1]
(Note: sourcing for the group's formation and activity rests substantially on a single detailed retrospective source, corroborated by book-listing pages for the team's own published casebook; independent contemporary press coverage beyond the BBC Radio feature mentioned below has not been located.)
Formation and approach
The team was assembled around 1984, coinciding with the release of the film Ghostbusters, from which the group's popular name derived.[1] Furman, one of the country's few dedicated parapsychology lecturers at the time, deliberately built the team around technical and scientific expertise alongside his own psychological background, recruiting a microbiologist, a computer consultant, and an electronics engineer.[2] The group's stated aim was to bridge scepticism and belief, applying scientific rigour to reported paranormal claims rather than approaching investigations from a purely spiritual or anecdotal standpoint.[1]
The team investigated hauntings and reported paranormal activity across Lincolnshire and further afield in the UK, and gained a degree of national media attention, including a BBC Radio feature in 1992 that followed the team on an overnight investigation.[1] Locally, the group was well regarded, with the Grimsby community broadly supportive of a team that had brought the town a measure of national attention.[1]
Notable cases
Cases documented by the team, later recorded in Furman's book, included:
- The haunting of Grange Farm, associated with a series of sudden deaths and unexplained accidents.
- A churchyard investigation involving reported mist rising from open tombstones, unexplained lights, and sightings of cloaked figures.
- A "ghost train" case featuring what witnesses described as an unusually realistic apparent corpse.
- A case involving a woman reportedly describing possession by an entity she identified as Pazuzu, described in the book as a lion-eagle desert figure.[2]
Ghostbusters UK (1991)
The team's investigations were documented in Ghostbusters UK, a 192-page casebook written by Furman with journalist Moira Martingale, published by Robert Hale Ltd in September 1991.[2] Publisher listings for the book credit Uri Geller alongside Furman and Martingale, though the precise nature of his contribution — whether a foreword, illustrations, or something else — is not clearly specified across the sources found.[3]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "The Grimsby Ghostbusters."Retroculturati.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Ghostbusters UK."AbeBooks.
- ↑ "Ghostbusters Uk by Moira Martingale and Robin Furman."eBay UK.