ParaNormalRomance.org

"Very interesting despite author bias"

In 1984 teenager Tina Resch gained fifteen minutes of fame as the focus of major poltergeist activity. Among those observing what was occurring in her family's Columbus, Ohio home were noted parapsychologist William Roll and his investigative partner Kelly Powers. Mr. Roll relates what he saw and what he was told by other eyewitnesses.

The rest of the Resch story occurs a few years later. In 1988 Tina gives birth to a girl. She raised the child by herself until she met divorced father David Herrin. In 1992 Georgia, police arrest Tina and David for the brutal murder of Amber. Tina confessed and was convicted to spend life in prison.

Mr. Roll believes that Tina has special extrasensory powers that enable her to do extraordinary telekinetic actions. The author admits that he is fascinated with her prowess and likes her so has a bias towards Tina. The writers insist that Tina did not commit the infanticide, but fail to defend their assertion; instead they insist that too many years considered a freak by "friends" and her adopted parents took its toll so she simply confessed. Most of the writing focuses on the paranormal happenings, which will attract many readers, but also turns Tina into an oddity as she is rarely presented as a person with battered feelings. Still, this well written and enticing biography combines a true crime tale (towards the end of the book) with a documented poltergeist series of episodes.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted June 15, 2004

One scientist's account of the poltergeist case that made headlines across the country -- and the riveting examination of a child's mysterious murder.

When she was just fourteen years old, Tina Resch became the center of the best-documented case of poltergeist activity of the twentieth century. During the spring of 1984, Tina's home in Ohio was thrown into chaos: appliances turned themselves on without electric current, objects flew through the air, furniture scooted across the floor. Censured endlessly by her adoptive family and thrust into the eye of a media twister thanks to one reporter's photographic evidence of a flying phone, Tina was propelled into a downward spiral that led to an abusive marriage, a divorce, and the birth of a child -- all before her twentieth birthday. Three years later she was charged with that child's murder, and she is currently serving a life sentence for a crime as controversial, mysterious, and complex as the accused herself -- a crime she maintains she did not commit.

Unleashed is Tina's story as told by a parapsychologist who witnessed striking paranormal phenomena in Tina's presence. Examining the destructive powers of thwarted emotions from a scientific perspective, William Roll sheds remarkable light on the case of Tina Resch -- and boldly confronts our cultural responses to events that cannot be easily explained.