evidence strongly points to twelve-year-old James Hermann Jr. as having been the deliberate cause of the Seaford "poltergeist" outbreak. The motive, means, and opportunity were his, and the case was unwittingly prolonged by the credulousness of adults." Reception Roll's theory that poltergeists are the result of psychokinetic activity has drawn criticism from magicians and skeptics. Roll is notable for endorsing Tina Resch a central figure in a series of incidents that came to be called the Columbus poltergeist case, who he spent a week investigating. Magician and skeptical investigator Bob Couttie has written: Roll's report has been heavily criticised. For instance, a picture fell from a bedroom wall and Roll started to replace it by hammering in a nail with a pair of pliers. As he did this, he was watching Tina out of the corner of his eye, or so he says, yet Roll is very short-sighted and it takes a brave man to hammer in a nail and attend to very poor peripheral vision at the same time. While he was doing this, Roll's tape- recorder was moved from a dresser that was immediately behind him. He turned to pick up the machine, which had come to rest between 7ft and 9ft behind him. As he did this his pliers were moved to a far wall. It is difficult to accept that Tina was sufficiently closely observed to preclude her moving the tape-recorder and pliers. Resch was detected utilizing trickery by James Randi, but Roll had endorsed her phenomena as genuine. Henry Gordon has stated that parapsychologists such as Roll and Nandor Fodor took a speculative approach to the poltergeist subject, ignoring the rational explanation of deception in favor of a belief in the paranormal. Publications The Poltergeist (1972, 2004 edition, Paraview Special Editions) Theory and Experiment in Psychical Research (1975) Psychic Connections (1995) [with Lois Duncan] Unleashed: Of Poltergeists and Murder: The Curious Story of Tina Resch (2004, Pocket Books) References External links William G. Roll papers. Annie Belle Weaver Special Collections, Ingram Library, University of West Georgia Member bio on William G. Roll Paraview Pocket Books - publisher's website on "Unleashed" with author Roll's bio 1926 births 2012 deaths 20th-century American psychologists Parapsychologists