In February, 1983, a strange phenomenon took place. For a few days, a man was seemingly able to make it rain inside. This inexplicable rain was said to move sideways, upwards and materialise out of thin air.
What caused this strange rain? Did Donald Decker have his own personal raincloud? Let’s explore the bizarre case of Don Decker and the Devil’s rain.
The First Incident
Don Decker, a 21 year old man from Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania was serving a short prison sentence for receiving stolen property when his Grandfather passed away.
Decker was given a few days leave to attend the funeral, but his feelings towards the deceased were not straight forward. Unknown to the rest of his family, Don had been abused by his grandfather from the age of 7.
That Friday night, Don stayed with friends, Bob and Jeannie Keiffer, but unknown to the three of them, the night would turn out to be anything but normal.
According to Don’s account, he was upstairs inn the bathroom, when an uneasy feeling washed over him. He began to feel strange, “as though the air had gone out of the room”. He then had a vision of an old man in the window, wearing a crown and laughing, before feeling scratches on his wrist.
Don came to and went downstairs, where the Keiffers noticed the scratches and were told of the strange incident in the bathroom. The three shared an uneasy dinner before retiring to the living room, where things were about to get weird.
According to the Unsolved Mysteries segment on the event, the air around Don changed, “vibrating with a deep chill”. Then a loud noise came from upstairs and water began to drip from the walls.
Quite sensibly, the Keiffers wondered if there was a leak from the bathroom. They checked the house and found nothing obvious so decided to call the landlord, Ron.
Ron arrived to find the water dripping from the ceiling. So much so that the Keiffers had set out pots and pans to catch it. Proceeding to explore the house inn search of a leak, they once again found nothing wrong with the plumbing. In fact, Ron attested that there were no pipes at all in the ceiling above the living room.
It was then they noticed the strange qualities of the mysterious water. Not only was it falling from the ceiling, but they found it moving sideways along the floor, and even tracking upwards from the floor. When they touched the liquid, it left behind an oil like residue.
All this time, Don remained still, in a seemingly “trancelike” state.
Ron decided to call his wife, Romayne, and the police. Officer John Baujan arrived first and quickly summoned his partner, Richard Wolbert. When the latter arrived, they were immediately soaked in water droplets.
As the officers stood in the doorway, they witnessed a large ball of water pass between them and travel into the adjacent room. They then left to report the incident to Chief of Police.
At this point, hours had passed, and the Keiffers and a still vacant Don went across the road to grab some food. During the time they were out of the house, the rain stopped. Ron and Romayne, who stayed behind in the house, began to suspect that one of the three were the cause of the strange water. If you remember the title of this article, you’ll know who it is.
Meanwhile, at the restaurant across the street, Don and the Keiffers sat down to eat. While there, the rain started again. The restaurant owner, had visited the house to see the rain, and had begun to suspect it had something to do with the still trance-like Don. She told the Keiffers to call a church, as she suspected him to be possessed by the Devil.
In fact, she was so convinced, she grabbed her crucifix and gave it to Don. When he touched it, he felt a burning sensation and the gold cross eventually turned black. Of course when the three left the restaurant, the rain left with them and restarted once they were back in the Keiffer house.
At this point, the landlords confronted Don, accusing his of producing the rain on purpose. The Keiffers too had begun to suspect him, and pleaded for him to make the rain stop.
All at once, the cabinets and pans began to rattle. The lights went out and, apparently, Don was thrown across the kitchen. As he cowered in the corner, scratches appeared on his body.
Now terrified, and believing an evil presence was at work, Jeannie Keiffer began to read from the bible, as the rain began to pelt her and her alone.
The police officers soon returned, with their Chief in tow. Despite being hit with the rain upon entering, the Chief was skeptical of the whole affair and insisted the problem was with the plumbing. He ordered the officers to leave the house, to not file a report and never speak of the incident again
Against the Chief’s orders, three officers returned to the house the next day. They placed a paper bag over Don’s head – in case he was causing the rain through spiting – and gave him a cross to hold. Don quickly dropped the cross, saying again, that it burnt him. The officer who picked it up from the ground noted that it was unusually warm to touch.
The rain quickly started again, then, without warning, Don was lifted off the ground, thrown across the room, and three “claw marks” appeared on his neck.
The officers quickly departed, at a loss for an explanation into the phenomenon.
By Sunday, the Keiffer’s found a priest willing to help them, a woman known by the pseudonym “Reverend Johnson”. According to the Keiffer’s, they’d contacted every Protestant and Catholic priest in town, who’d all refused to help.
The Keiffers, their landlords and the reverend gathered to pray for Don, who, apparently, began to convulse. Over the next hour, Don began to relax – or “quiet down,” as Romayne stated. The Rain stopped, Don seemed to break from his trance, and everything retuned to normal.
Unfortunately for Don, this was short lived.
Return to Jail
As scheduled, Don returned to the country jail after his leave, and within days, the rain began again. Unlike the first time, Don retained a sense of calm, even feeling like he could control the rain. When it began to rain from the concert floor of his cell, his terrified cellmate begged to be moved.
Guards witnessed the rain rolling up the cell walls and flying sideways, although they remained skeptical that it could be controlled, until one of them suggested Don make it rain in the Warden’s office. Apparently, water drops appeared on the Warden’s shirt at the same time.
Hearing of his strange prisoner, the Warden went to visit Don’s cell, only to find a small ball of water heading towards him and the accompanying guard. The ball struck the Warden in the chest and “splashed off”.
Intrigued and afraid, the Warden called a plumber, who supposedly entered the cell only to become upset and walk out, refusing to return. Now believing that evil forces were at work, the Warden contacted the prison chaplain, who agreed to meet with Don.
The chaplain, Reverend Blackburn, reportedly found Don to be mild-mannered and listened to his account of the last few days, and found it unbelievable, and encouraged Don to admit to a fraud.
At this, Don seemed to change. The Reverend then reported a strange and “evil” smell entered the room, and Don rubbed his fingers together to cause a sudden “misty rain” to appear.
Now terrified, the Reverend began to pray – the pages of his bible seemingly the only thing to be speared the damp. After a period of prayer, the rain stopped, and Don seemed to return to normal. Peace came over the room, and Don thanked him, before crying.
The rain has never happened reappeared.
Paranormal Explanations
So what the heck was going on with Don Decker?
According to his own beliefs, and that of the witnesses, Don was temporarily possessed by an evil spirit, possibly linked to his abusive Grandfather.
Now, I’ve said before and I’ll say it again – I’m not a strong believer in demonic possession – however, in the interest of balance, let’s discuss.
The seemingly positive intervention of prayer, as well as the initial “evil old man” sighting at the beginning of this story point to an apparent possession, although there are a few differences between this and the pacing of a “typical possession”.
- In cases of “possessions”, a period of “oppression” is often reported prior to the actual event. This may take the form of personality changes, changes in regular habits and a general sense of depression. Sounds like the first signs of a mental health issue to me, but let’s go on.
- Some possessions seem to come with some sort of “invitation”. The infamous Ronald Doe case, for example, supposedly began with the playing of a Ouija board.
- Many – but not all – cases of possessions are reported to be experienced by people with a notable religious background. The cases of Antoine Gay, Anneliese Michel and Michael Taylor support this, if one is to believe these three were truly possessed.
Don decker doesn’t seem to line up with these, and if we’re discussing paranormal causes for this cause, my own opinion is to consider poltergeist activity.
As touched upon back in Volume 2 of my Handy Dandy Ghost Guid, there are those who believe that poltergeist phenomenon is the result of a person’s subconscious action.
Don Decker, was under a great deal of distress. The death of his abusive grandfather, let alone his imprisonment are factors towards this.
If we are to believe the accounts are accurate, the activity was centred exclusively around Don, which is also typical in poltergeist cases, and the fact that he felt as though he was “in control” of the manifestations, points towards him as the cause.
But what about the scratches and being thrown around? Still keeping in the realm of the paranormal and are blaming poltergeists, could these events not be caused by poltergeist activity? If one’s own being can manifest rain, why couldn’t it also manifest scratches and unintentional body movements?
Poltergeist phenomenon is often seen to diminish after a short space of time – just like Don’s rain. If he believed himself to be possessed, the intervention of prayer could easily make him believe he’s cured.
If we are searching for paranormal explanations, my vote goes to this. Under the stress of the situation, and likely the build up of a lifetime of repressed emotion regarding his Grandfather, Don Decker subconsciously triggered the manifestation of rain, possibly alongside the belief – of others as well as himself – that he was possessed by the evil spirt of his Grandfather, which released him after the two interventions of prayer.
But was this case paranormal at all?
Skeptical Explications
It must be noted that the only evidence for this event is eyewitness accounts.
The good news is that many of these witnesses are said to have been police officers, giving them a measure of credibility. There are also a good number of them. In addition to the named police officers, we also have the Keiffer couple, the landlords, the restaurant owner and two separate priests, all prepared to go on record to support the event.
However, these reports are primarily found in the segment of the episode of Unsolved Mysteries in 1993, as well as an episode of Paranormal Witness in 2011 – both paranormal reality programs meant for entertainment.
There’s no documentation to support the events. No pictures or film – we’re in 1983, so cameras were readily available, even if they weren’t as wide spread as today. The only news reports to reproduce these claims came after the media appearance.
We know that eyewitness testimony can be unreliable, and without other evidence to support it, it’s even weaker.
Don’s “trance-like” states could easily have been stress induced. Of course, they can also be faked, but I’m less inclined to believe this – we’re not looking at another Amityville here.
Aside from the media segments, Don Decker hasn’t sought any other publicity. No books, no movie deals. In fact the only other mention of him is a report of his 2012 arrest for allegedly setting fire to a restaurant and being hired but the owner to do so.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that nothing happened. In the same WNEP report above, one of the police officer witnesses, detective Richard Wolbert, stands by the claims he made in the Unsolved Mysteries segment. According to the report, other witnesses turned down the request to appear, as the memories were “too upsetting”.
So, paranormal theories aside, what could have caused the rain?
Robert Bartholomew, a New Zealand researcher has suggested that the cause may be “ice damming”. This happens when warm air from an attic space melts snow of the building roof. When temperatures drop again, this can form more ice, which traps water that later leaks. According to the Pocono Record, weather reports from the time show that temperatures were around freezing at the time of the rain.
We may never know for certain what happened that February weekend back in 1983. Perhaps it was paranormal, perhaps it was not. Maybe it was a little bit of both. It’s up to you to decide.
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