Doris Bither case


The Doris Bither case, also known as the Entity haunting, was an alleged haunting which occurred in 1974 in Culver City, California where a woman named Doris Bither alleged the ghosts of three men were raping her. The case inspired Frank De Felitta's 1978 book The Entity which was made into a 1982 film of the same name starring Barbara Hershey.

Background

Doris Bither, a mother of 4 children, met Barry Taff and Kerry Gaynor after a female friend of hers overheard a private conversation between the gentlemen in a Westwood bookstore near the UCLA campus. At the time, Taff was working in the now defunct parapsychology lab run by the late Thelma Moss. Taff, with the assistance of Gaynor conducted a preliminary interview of Ms. Bither's paranormal claims on August 22, 1974. This interview revealed Bither had a history of physical and substance abuse along with a traumatic childhood. Investigators also noticed there was a poor relationship between Doris and her four sons. Their home was likewise in severe disrepair having been condemned twice. Bither alleged she was attacked and raped by an invisible entity. Later she reported the spirits of three men assaulted her. Taff allegedly photographed a variety of luminous anomalies while investigating Bither.
Taff claimed to have photographed orbs and said the frequency and intensity of attacks decreased with time. Bither died in 1995 of pulmonary arrest.