Tina Resch Poltergiest Incident with Donnell and Robert

December 4, 2025·53 min·4 clips

Two retired podcasters face a quiz about the 1984 Tina Resch poltergeist case, where a phone appeared to fly.

1. Mondo Freako, hosted by an unnamed host identified only by the show's name, welcomes back two guests called 'the day jobbers' — former podcast co-hosts who now have regular jobs — to discuss the Tina Resch Columbus Poltergeist case. 2. The hosts and guests are Donnell and Robert, referenced by first name throughout; the main host runs the show from what he calls his swamp-like backyard. 3. The episode's organizing conceit is a five-question multiple-choice quiz on the Tina Resch case, designed to start easy and get harder. 4. The first quiz question establishes the case: Ohio, 1984 — the 'Columbus Poltergeist' — which the guests get correct. 5. The second question asks which household object was most famously photographed mid-air; the correct answer is a telephone receiver, not the wooden chair the guests chose. 6. The third question establishes the key debunking evidence: a hidden camera from a visiting television crew recorded Resch deliberately knocking over a lamp and then screaming as if the poltergeist did it. 7. The fourth question concerns Resch's adult legal situation: as Christina Boyer, she entered an Alford plea in 1994 — pleading guilty while maintaining innocence — to avoid a potential death sentence in connection with her daughter Amber's death. 8. The fifth question identifies the core controversy: the conflict between parapsychologist William Roll's documented observations and the accidental video footage of the lamp being knocked over. 9. After the quiz, the host reads a prepared two-paragraph summary of the case covering the full arc from 1984 media sensation to 1994 conviction. 10. One host argues Nancy Reagan's decision to close state psychiatric hospitals — inspired by seeing a journalist's undercover asylum exposé — meant Resch never received the mental health help she needed as a child. 11. The hosts note the poltergeist movie franchise (first film 1982, produced by Steven Spielberg, directed by Tobe Hooper; sequel 1985) was at peak cultural saturation in 1984, calling the timing of the case suspicious. 12. One host observes the Poltergeist film's credits are disputed: Spielberg reportedly directed much of the film around Hooper while still giving Hooper the directing credit. 13. The hosts debate whether Resch operated independently, was egged on by a journalist, or was set up by her foster parents, with one host noting he cannot rule out the foster parents having orchestrated it for media attention or additional foster care money. 14. One host proposes a heuristic for evaluating paranormal claims: 'the line of demarcation is anytime money is involved, then it all goes out the window.' 15. The hosts discuss James Randi, the famous magician-turned-debunker, noting his standing million-dollar challenge for verified paranormal phenomena was never claimed, and that he died before the episode was recorded. 16. A digression covers a psychic who confidently told a journalist that a boy in a photograph had died tragically — until the journalist revealed he was that boy, still alive. 17. A second digression involves the most fertile woman in recorded history: a Russian woman named Feodor Vassilyev who had 69 children through 27 pregnancies, including 16 pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets, and four sets of quadruplets. 18. A third digression covers identical twins — including a legal case where a murder conviction was impossible because both twins' DNA matched and neither could be proven guilty. 19. One host discloses personal unexplained experiences as an adult that he cannot attribute to jet lag or hallucinations, keeping the episode from being purely dismissive of paranormal claims. 20. The episode ends with a brief audio cameo from 'the OPA Ghost Podcast' hosts Jonathan and Heaven, then the group concludes that the most likely explanation is that Resch was a troubled foster child who latched onto an early incident and was amplified by media exploitation.

As heard by us

A skeptical hangout that favors banter over polish.

Static Radio opens in a loose, familiar register, with day-job jokes and Thanksgiving recovery giving way to paranormal debunking and paranormal talk.

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Why you'd press play

You want Tina Resch, James Randi, and a room full of guys needling the story from every angle.

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