Oct. 20, 2025

Terrifying & True | Ed & Lorraine Warren: The Truth Behind Amityville, Annabelle & The Conjuring

Terrifying & True | Ed & Lorraine Warren: The Truth Behind Amityville, Annabelle & The Conjuring
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Terrifying & True

When the Halloween season rolls in, few names cast a darker shadow than Ed and Lorraine Warren—the real-life ghost hunters behind The Conjuring, Amityville Horror, and Annabelle. Their stories have fueled decades of scary movies, haunted house legends, and late-night whispers. But how much of it was true… and how much was carefully crafted myth?

This Terrifying & True deep dive unearths the real case files, skeptical investigations, and shocking contradictions that made the Warrens the most polarizing figures in paranormal history. We trace their rise from small-town “ghost chasers” to icons of spooky season, uncovering the faith, fear, and fortune that kept their names in the headlines—and on the silver screen.

Along the way, we reveal the cultural moment that made them possible: the 1970s exorcism craze, the birth of modern demonology, and the national obsession with what hides beyond the veil.
Inside this episode

  • Origins & Methods: How the Warrens’ haunted New England beginnings shaped their famous possession framework.
  • Legendary Cases: Amityville, Annabelle, Enfield, and more—what they claimed versus what investigators found.
  • Faith vs. Forensics: Photos, tapes, and testimony—what holds up and what falls apart under the light.
  • Skeptics & Secrets: From Ray Garton to Joe Nickell, the critics who challenged the Warrens’ every word.
  • Legacy of Fear: How their cases built the blueprint for Hollywood horror and every spooky story that followed.

If you’re hunting for real-life horror stories, haunted history, and a chilling listen to carry you through Halloween night, step inside. The truth may be far stranger—and far scarier—than the movies ever showed.

We’re telling that story tonight.

Check out more Terrifying & True episodes!
https://www.weeklyspooky.com/categories/terrifying-true/

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📬 Contact Us / Submit Your Horror Story!

🎵 Music by Ray Mattis 👉 Check out Ray’s incredible work here !
👨‍💼 Executive Producers: Rob Fields, Bobbletopia.com
🎥 Produced by: Daniel Wilder
🌐 Explore more terrifying tales at: WeeklySpooky.com
WEBVTT

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A door creaks, A cassette wheel ticks in the glass.

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A rag doll's blank face stares back positively. Do not open.

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The sign warns they said demons lived here, they said

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they had proof, and tonight we're conjuring up the truth

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about Ed and Lorraine Warren.

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What you were about to pat is burn wheel. Based

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on witness accounts, testamaties, and public record, this is terrifying

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and true.

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Rhode Island, nineteen seventy three. A farmhouse stands in the cold,

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kitchen stove worn with the touch of a visiting claravoyant

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name given Bathsheba. Across decades, similar scenes would repeat. A

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demonologist with a crucifix, a medium in trance, and families

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pleading for help. Their names Ed and Lorraine Warren became

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synonymous with America's most famous hauntings, Amityville, Annabelle, Enfield, Southington.

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But behind televised seances and crowded lecture halls lies another record.

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Skeptical investigations, contested evidence, and bitter disputes were the Warren's

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righteous sentinels against the inhuman or master storytellers. In an

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age eager for devils, we retrace the Devil's Road, from

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basement museums and ghost boy photographs to courtrooms, interviews and

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sworn statements to weigh belief against proof. If their legend

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is true, we'll find the marks it left, and if

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it isn't, we may discover why so many wanted it

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to be. We're telling that story tonight. Late one autumn

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evening in nineteen seventy three, a pair of strangers knocked

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on the door of a weathered farmhouse in Rhode Island.

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The couple, a soft spoken woman clutching a rosary and

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a rugged man carrying a briefcase of holy water and taper,

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introduced themselves as Lorraine and Ed Warren, Catholic paranormal investigators.

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They had heard about the paren family's desperate plight, a

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presence in the house that lurked in cold rooms and

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whispered in the dark that night, As the story goes,

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Lorraine closed her eyes and pressed her hand to an

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old iron stove in the kitchen. After a long silence,

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she announced, I sense a malignant entity in this house.

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Her name is Bathsheba. The Warrens believed an evil spirit

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had latched on to the family. Over the following weeks,

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they would sweep through the paren's drafty New England home

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with crucifixes, relics, and cassette decks, determined to document the

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haunting and drive out the darkness. For decades, scenes like

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this played out across America. Ed and Lorraine Warren presented

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themselves as the nation's premier ghost hunters demonologists on a

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mission from God. They became famous for confronting what they

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described as real demons and malevolent spirits tormenting ordinary families.

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By their own account, the Warrens investigated well over ten

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thousand hauntings over five decades. They were devout Roman Catholics

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who saw their work as a calling to prove that

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the devil exists and to help people who had nowhere

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else to turn in the public eye. They were a

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unique husband and wife team of self taught paranormal investigators.

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Ed a World War II veteran and self described demonologist,

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and Lorraine, a gentle claravoyant and trance medium. Together they

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founded the New England Society for Psychic Research or NESPER

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in nineteen fifty two, which they claimed was the oldest

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ghost hunting group in New England. In their lectures, and books.

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They often noted that Ed was the only non ordained

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demonologist recognized by the Catholic Church, while Lorraine was a

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gifted psychic armed with crucifixes, holy water, and empathy. The

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Warrens cast themselves as the first and often last line

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of defense against the supernatural. Throughout the nineteen seventies and eighties,

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an era fascinated by exorcisms and haunted houses, Ed and

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Lorraine became household names. They appeared on talk shows, in

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newspaper features, and later served as inspiration for a blockbuster

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Hollywood franchise. In the conjuring to the public who devoured

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their stories, the Warrens were heroes, sweet demon showing soulmates

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who chased evil across America. In these accounts, they emerged

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as devout warriors combating Satan himself in suburban living rooms,

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their love and faith unshaken by the terrors they encountered.

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Quote For over five decades, Ed and Lorraine Warren have

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been known as the world's most renowned paranormal investigators. One

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early biography declared, continuing Lorraine is a gifted claravoyant, while

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Ed is the only non ordained demonologist recognized by the

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Catholic Church. Together, they have investigated thousands of hauntings. But

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that is only part of the story. As we journey

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down the Warren's trail, from the infamous Amityville horror House

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to the mysterious rag doll named Annabel, from quiet New

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England hamlets to sensational televised exorcisms, we will see two

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portraits emerge. First, we explore Ed and Lorraine's own narrative,

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their origins, their methods, and the cases that built their legend.

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In this portion, their claims and exploits are presented largely

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as they told them, in a serious but open minded tone.

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Then about a quarter way through our path will shift

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will step into the shoes of investigators and skeptics who

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began to question the Warren's legacy. What really happened in

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those houses, How much of the Warren's story stands up

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to scrutiny, and how much was a product of media hype,

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creative embellishment, or even outright deception. What you are about

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to hear is a comprehensive three hundred and sixty degree

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expose of Ed and Lorraine Warren. It's a story of

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faith and fear of the things that go bump in

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the night, and of the fine line between belief and disbelief.

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By the end, we'll confront the uncomfortable contradictions behind the warm,

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heroic image of the Warrens. We'll hear from families who

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once sought their help but later felt misled, from journalists

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and skeptical investigators who dug into the evidence and found

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it wanting, and even from legal records that hint at

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troubling secrets behind closed doors. It's a journey that will

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take us from the dim light of seance rooms to

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the harsh glare of courtroom testimonies and media investigations. So

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settle in and be not afraid. Our exploration of the

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Warren's world begins where theirs so often did, with a house,

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a family, and an inexplicable knock in the dark. Ed

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and Lorraine Warren's reputation as paranormal investigators did not spring

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up overnight. It was the result of years of passionate,

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albeit unorthodox work. Edward Warren Maney was born in nineteen

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twenty six and raised in a haunted house, at least

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according to him, in Bridgeport, Connecticut. As Ed told it,

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the home he grew up in had a ghostly presence,

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doors would inexplicably bang, strange lights appeared, and he claimed

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to have seen an apparition in his bedroom closet as

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a boy. This early brush with the unknown kindled Ed's

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lifelong fascination with the paranormal. After serving in World War II,

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Ed married Lorraine Rita Moran, a schoolgirl sweetheart from Bridgeport,

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in nineteen forty five. Lorraine, born in nineteen twenty seven,

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had her own mystical origin story. From a young age,

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she purportedly could see auras and discern spirits around people.

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Though initially frightened by these abilities, Lorraine came to accept

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her gift of Clara voidance as God given. Together Ed

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and Lorraine would forge a unique partnership, blending religion, art,

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and ghost hunting in equal measure. In the early years

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of their marriage, Ed attended art school and painted landscapes,

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but his real passion lay in painting haunted houses. According

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to accounts the Warrens later shared, Ed developed a clever

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technique in order to get inside reputedly haunted homes. Whenever

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he caught wind of a local ghost story or a

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house known for strange occurrences, he and Lorraine would drive

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to the site and Ed would sketch or paint the house.

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He was talented enough that often the homeowners would notice

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the young man outside drawing their beloved if spooky residence,

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Ed would then offer the finished sketch to the owners.

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It was a friendly gesture that frequently opened the door

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literally to a conversation. Once invited in, Ed and Lorraine

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would politely inquire about any strange happenings and ask the

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family to share their story. In Lorraine's words, the goal

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was simple to help the family understand what was happening

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and to document proof of the supernatural. By nineteen fifty two,

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the couple formalized their hobby into the previously mentioned New

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England Society for Psychic Research. Working from the modest home

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they purchased in Monroe, Connecticut, the Warrens began to accumulate

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case files and equipment. Ed read everything he could about demonology,

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the study of demons and evil spirits, and styled himself

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a demonologist despite having no formal theological training. Lorraine honed

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her clairvoyant skills and later learned to enter light trances

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during investigations, attempting to communicate with any spirits present. Crucially,

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the Warrens also networked with clergymen and doctors who were

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open to paranormal possibilities. They liked to say their team

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included medical doctors, researchers, police officers, nurses, college students, and

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members of the clergy. If a case seemed truly dangerous

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or demonic, Ed and Lorraine would urge the family to

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seek a Catholic priest to perform a house blessing or exorcism.

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A devout Catholic, Ed positioned himself as a bridge between

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frightened lay people and the official church authorities who were

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capable of sanctioning exorcisms. In fact, the Warrens claim that

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Ed was one of the only few lay demonologists to

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be recognized by Catholic Church officials, though the church has

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never officially confirmed recognizing any lay demonologists. The Warren's methodology

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typically went like this. They would arrive at a client's

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home armed with their taper, coorders, cameras, still and video

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and religious items. Lorraine might walk through each room eyes

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half closed, reading the psychic atmosphere. Ed would interview the

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family members at length, taking notes on every knock, cold spot,

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or nightmare They had experienced. He was also known for

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delivering lengthy Catholic prayers or provocative challenges to whatever entity

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might be lurking. In the name of Jesus Christ, I

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command you to reveal your identity, he might declare into

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the darkness of an empty basement. If knocks or crashes

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answered back, Ed took it as progress. Over time, Ed

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amassed a library of ghostly audio recordings and blurry photographs,

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which he believed were hard evidence of the supernatural. Lorraine's

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sensitive impressions, combined with Ed's collected data, would be analyzed

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to form a diagnosis. Was the house truly haunted by

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a human spirit or ghost, or was something more ominous

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at work, a demonic infestation. Perhaps for the Warrens, demonic

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phenomena had a very specific profile. Ed often lectured about

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a progression infestation. A presence makes itself known with mild activity,

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followed by oppression, escalating attacks on an occupant such as shoves,

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terrible visions, or psychological torment, potentially leading to possession, wherein

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a demonic entity takes control of a person. In Ed

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and Lorraine's worldview, shaped by traditional Catholic demonology, these dark

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forces could be driven out only by invoking God and

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the Church. They saw themselves as spiritual warriors, aiding the

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church's fight against the adversary, the devil. Over the years,

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they cultivated contacts with a handful of priests willing to

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participate in exorcisms or house blessings at their request. Quote

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it wasn't just ed and I, Lorraine reminded one reporter,

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the cream of the Catholic Church was involved in our cases,

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and there was tremendous documentation that cooperation with clergy lent

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an air of legitimacy to the Warren's most extreme cases

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and often helped in obtaining official church sanctioned exorcisms when needed.

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One hallmark of the Warren's cases was their growing collection

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of haunted artifacts. If a particular item seemed to be

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focused on evil, a cursed doll, a ouiji board, a

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sinister mirror ed, and Lorraine would often remove it from

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the house, believing this would deprive the spirit of a conduit.

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By the nineteen seventies, the basement of their Monroe home

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was being filled wall to wall with occult oddities and

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supposedly possessed possessions. In time, it became the Warren's private museum,

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a locked room of horrors where they store everything from

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Satanic ritual paraphernalia to the infamous Annabel doll more on

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her a little later, Ed would say these items were

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still dangerous, but safer under glass thanks to the prayers

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and blessings placed on them. The museum eventually opened for tours,

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allowing curious visitors for a modest fee to see the

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eerie collection, but only under the watchful eye of the

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Warrens or their trusted associates. Lorraine in particular stressed that

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these objects were not curios for amusement. Quote, don't even

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touch them. We have a priest blessed the room regularly,

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but if you disrespect what's in there, it could be

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very bad, she'd warn tour goers. As their fame grew,

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the Warrens began lecturing at colleges and appearing in the

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media to share tales of their most harrowing encounters. Ed

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was the more blunt and forceful speaker, while Lorraine's gentle

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sincerity tempered the tone. It was an effective balance. Together

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they would admonish audiences that yes, the devil is real,

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but so is God, and faith is your strongest weapon.

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They displayed spooky photographs of floating blobs or glowing eyes,

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played scratchy audio recordings of ghostly voices captured on tape,

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and held up crucifixes they claimed had successfully fended off demons.

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All of this was done with a serious, matter of

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fact demeanor. By the late nineteen seventies, Ed and Lorraine

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had carved out a very specific niche. They weren't mere

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ghostbusters for hire. They were Catholic demonologist and medium, a

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duo who could tackle the cases too frightening for others.

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They would often emphasize that they charged nothing for their services, quote,

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we'll take donations for gas, but we never once charged

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a family in need. Ed once said their income instead

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would come soon from books and lectures, the telling of

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the tales, rather than the investigations themselves. To understand how

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the Warrens convinced so many people of their credibility, one

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must remember the era. The late nineteen sixties and nineteen

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seventies saw an explosion of public interest in the paranormal.

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The Exorcist was a box office smash in nineteen seventy three,

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making demonic possession part of water cooler conversation. Best Selling

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books like The Amityville Horror nineteen seventy seven and Sybil

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nineteen seventy three about alleged demonic abuse blurred the lines

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between fact and horror fiction. Amid the occult tinge zeitgeist.

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The Warren's real life cases offered a tantalizing promise this

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nightmare actually happened, ed and Lorraine's timing was perfect. They became,

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as one writer later put it, the fount of modern

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paranormal investigation in America. They offered simple moral clarity in

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a murky realm. Every story they told had the same moral.

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Evil is real, but with faith and the Warren's help,

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ordinary people could fight back. Lorraine often said their mission

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was quote to help people not be afraid anymore. Ironically,

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their cases would end up scaring millions, but that was

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never the Warren's stated intention. They saw themselves as educators

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as much as investigators, teaching the public how to recognize

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a demon's subtle signs or why one should never ever

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invite trouble by dabbling with seances or Uigi boards. If

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you listened to Ed and Lorraine in those days, you'd

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likely come away convinced that ghostly and demonic forces lurked everywhere,

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but also reassured that this kindly couple from Connecticut had

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the know how to handle them. Before long, Ed and

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Lorraine Warren had amassed a roster of famous hauntings that

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would cement their legend. They went from obscure hobbyists to

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bonafide paranormal experts in the public eye, partly through the

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dramatic cases we're about to delve into. In these cases,

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the ones that inspired blockbuster films and countless debates, we

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see the Warrens as they saw themselves, intrepid investigators confronting darkness,

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armed with little more than a crucifix, a tape recorder,

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and an unshakable faith. So let's step into the dimly

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lit hallways of some of the Warren's most famous cases,

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where reality and the supernatural supposedly intersect. For now, we

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will recount these stories largely as the Warrens and their

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supporters have described them, without any judgment or commentary. Later,

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we'll revisit them with a more critical eye. So keep

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your flashlight handy. No case did more to catapult Ed

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and Lorraine Warren into the public spotlight than the Amityville Horror.

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To this day, mention of Amityville conjures images of the

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iconic Dutch colonial house with its quarter moon eye windows

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glowing in the night and rumors of demonic eyes glowing

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from within. The Warrens were among the first investigators to

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explore this notorious haunting, and it became a cornerstone of

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their fame. In December of nineteen seventy five, George and

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Kathy Lutz fled their dream home at one twelve Ocean

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Avenue in Amityville, New York after just twenty eight days,

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claiming they'd been terrorized by violent supernatural forces. The previous year,

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a gruesome tragedy had occurred in that very house. A

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young man, Ann Ronald d'afayo Junior, had murdered his entire family.

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The Lutzes moved in not long after, fully aware of

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the crime but unfazed until strange things began to happen.

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According to their account later published in Jay Anson's nineteen

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seventy seven book The Amityville Horror, the family experienced foul odours,

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swarms of flies in the winter, unexplained cold spots, and

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a malicious, unseen presence. Kathy Lutz claimed she levitated off

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her bed one night. George Lutz woke at three point

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fifteen am, the approximate time of the Dafao murders every morning,

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in a panic. The most vivid detail, however, was the

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apparition of a demonic pig with glowing red eyes that

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their young daughter, Missy, named Jody. After a final night

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of banging drums, cloven hoof prints in the snow, and

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walls oozing green slime, so the story goes, the Lutz

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family could endure no more. They left all of their

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worldly possessions and ran enter Ed and Lorraine Warren in

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early nineteen seventy six, not long after the Lutz Is fled,

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the Warrens were called in by a local TV news

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team and paranormal researchers to investigate the now empty Amityville house. Ed, Lorraine,

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and a crew of a few others spent a long

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night inside one twelve Ocean Avenue. On March sixth, nineteen

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seventy six, Lorraine conducted a seance in the dimly lit

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living room. At one point, the clairvoyant became overwhelmed by

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what she sensed. She later said the demonic presence in

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Amityville was the worst she had ever encountered. In a

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later interview, Lorraine recalled the oppressive evil that seemed to

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permeate the house and how she clutched her rosary praying

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for protection. Ed meanwhile moved from room to room with

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the crucifix and a recorder. In the upstairs sewing room,

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which had been the bedroom of two murdered De Fayo boys,

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Ed provoked the spirit. He claimed that an invisible force

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threw him to the floor in that room, momentarily knocking

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him unconscious. The Warrens also set up a time lapse

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camera on the second floor. When the film was developed,

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it revealed a now famous photograph a young boy with

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glowing white eyes peeking out of a doorway on the landing,

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what became known as the Amityville Ghost Boy. There were

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no children in the house that night. The Warren's team

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insists this was a spirit, though skeptics suspect it was

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an investigator kneeling and the glowing eyes were an artifact

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of the infrared camera. The Amityville investigation turned Ed and

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Lorraine Warren into authorities on the paranormal virtually overnight. The

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story of the LUTs haunting became a media sensation. It

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inspired a best selling book, and, by nineteen seventy nine,

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a monster hit of a horror film. The Warrens were

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often given credit in these accounts as the psychic detectives

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who validated the Lutzes family claims. Indeed, Lorraine Warren flatly

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denied the growing accusations that the Amityville case was a hoax.

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When a pair of paranormal debunkers, Stephen and Roxanne Kaplan,

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publicly characterized Amityville as an invented story, Lorraine spoke to

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the press to rebut them. She told a reporter from

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the Express Times quote, the Amityville horror was not a hoax.

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The Warrens maintained that something demonic was in that house,

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something powerful enough to influence Ronald d' fayo to commit

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murder and to frighten the Lutzes away. The publicity from

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Amityville opened new doors for the Warrens. Soon they were

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00:31:14.079 --> 00:31:19.039
lecturing about the case, showing that eerie ghostboy photo to

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packed auditoriums. Ed often said that the Amityville house was

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quote as close to Hell as I ever want to get.

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It's worth noting that the Amityville case has a complex

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life of its own. We'll revisit the other side of

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the Amityville story later, including evidence that much of it

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was fabricated, But at this point in the Warren's timeline,

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Amityville was a triumphant validation for them. It put their

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name on the map. What matters here is that in

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the late nineteen seventies, a great many people believed the

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Amityville horror was a true and terrifying encounter with dark forces,

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and the Warrens were seen as the experts who could

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confirm it. Amityville taught Ed and Lorraine an important lesson

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in media relations. Their skill at self promotion was as

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critical as their skill at exorcism. They made sure the

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world heard about what they had found in that house

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in Amityville, and the world, hungry for a real life

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ghost story, eagerly listened. If you visit the Warrens Occult Museum,

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00:32:46.160 --> 00:32:49.559
at least when it was opened to the public, the

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00:32:49.759 --> 00:32:54.599
very first item you'd likely see was a large, raggedy

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ann doll secured inside a wooden display case, and lettered

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00:33:00.680 --> 00:33:08.160
sign on the glass warns positively, do not open this

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doll is Annabelle, perhaps the most infamous artifact the Warrens

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00:33:14.359 --> 00:33:22.000
ever possessed, and the subject of various films and nightmares.

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The real Annabelle case began in the early nineteen seventies

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in Hartford, Connecticut. A young nurse named Donna received a

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raggedy an doll as a gift from her mother. Donna

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lived in a small apartment with a roommate and would

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often come home from her hospital shift to find the

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rag doll had moved from where she left it. Sometimes

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00:33:58.799 --> 00:34:04.279
its arms and legs would be positioned differently. Assuming it

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00:34:04.400 --> 00:34:09.400
was just their imagination or perhaps an intruder with a key,

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the women grew uneasy. Things escalated when they began finding

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notes on parchment paper, which they did not keep in

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the house, with childish scrawls of help us. At night,

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the doll seemed to shift positions on its own. One day,

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a friend of theirs, who had never believed in the supernatural,

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made the mistake of taunting Annabelle. According to the story

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Ed and Lorraine later told, this young man was suddenly

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attacked by an unseen force. He felt searing pain and

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looked down to find bloody claw marks across his che asked. Terrified,

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Donna and her roommate contacted an episcopal priest, who in

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turn reached out to the Warrens for help. Ed and

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Lorraine arrived to investigate Annabel in nineteen seventy one, and

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Lorraine immediately sensed not a playful ghost, but something in

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human attached to the doll. The Warrens concluded that a

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demonic spirit was manipulating the doll, pretending to be the

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ghost of a little girl named Annabel to earn the

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nurse's sympathy. The roommates had earlier contacted a medium who

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told them the spirit was named Annabel Higgins, hence the name.

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The Warrens believed this was the demons lie in their theology,

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demons impersonate harmless spirits as a deception. To relieve the household,

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00:36:06.119 --> 00:36:09.719
The Warrens arranged for a priest to perform an exorcism

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00:36:09.800 --> 00:36:14.239
blessing of the apartment. They took the doll with them,

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declaring it too dangerous to leave with the women. As

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soon as the Warrens had Annabel in their car, Ed

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00:36:22.840 --> 00:36:29.119
claimed the doll behaved, the car's brakes failed and steering faltered,

391
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until he doused the doll in Holy Water. Once home,

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Ed would periodically report that Annabel inexplicably levitated or moved

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about the house. Eventually they locked her in the now

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famous glass case, sealed with ritual prayers. The Warrens treated

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00:36:53.400 --> 00:36:59.320
the Annabel case very seriously, often sharing a cautionary tale

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00:36:59.559 --> 00:37:03.840
about it. One version, they told a visitor to the

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00:37:03.920 --> 00:37:08.599
museum once banged on Annabel's case and joked, if you're

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00:37:08.639 --> 00:37:13.079
so powerful, do something to me. Ed ushered the man

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00:37:13.159 --> 00:37:18.519
out sternly and said he had taken a dangerous risk

400
00:37:20.119 --> 00:37:24.400
on the drive home. The story goes that flippant young

401
00:37:24.480 --> 00:37:31.400
man died in a motorcycle accident, his girlfriend surviving to

402
00:37:31.519 --> 00:37:36.280
confirm he had been joking about the doll moments before

403
00:37:36.320 --> 00:37:43.039
losing control of the bike. Annabel, so it seemed, had

404
00:37:43.039 --> 00:37:49.559
claimed another victim. Whether or not this accident truly happened

405
00:37:49.840 --> 00:37:55.519
as described, it became part of Annabel's lore, recounted in

406
00:37:55.639 --> 00:38:00.000
many interviews by the Warrens to underscore that the supernatural

407
00:38:01.039 --> 00:38:05.840
is not a game. Quote. That doll is what I'd

408
00:38:05.880 --> 00:38:10.320
call a focal point, a beacon for a demonic spirit.

409
00:38:11.360 --> 00:38:14.880
It's not the doll itself, it's what it's attached to

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Ed warned. Lorraine, for her part, simply said Annabel quote

411
00:38:21.920 --> 00:38:27.559
put a terrible fear in me. Within the Warren's personal

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00:38:27.639 --> 00:38:35.320
belief system, Annabel represented a perfect storm, an inhuman demonic force,

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attracted by the naive compassion of two young women who

414
00:38:41.119 --> 00:38:45.440
had unwittingly given it permission to reside in the doll

415
00:38:45.960 --> 00:38:51.840
by simply acknowledging it, and then confronted and contained by

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the Warren's intervention. It was a tidy narrative, with the

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00:38:57.079 --> 00:39:01.039
Warrens as both scholars figuring out out the spirit was

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00:39:01.079 --> 00:39:06.800
a demon, and saviors for removing the cursed object. Over

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00:39:06.840 --> 00:39:11.639
the years, Annabel's fame grew through the Warren's lectures and

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00:39:11.760 --> 00:39:17.440
later the Conjuring films, But long before Hollywood came calling,

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00:39:18.079 --> 00:39:24.079
Annabel sat silently in that museum, a mute testimony to

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00:39:24.360 --> 00:39:28.880
Ed and Lorraine's claim that evil can inhabit even the

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most innocent looking of objects. The case that eventually inspired

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00:39:35.840 --> 00:39:40.000
the two thousand and thirteen film The Conjuring began in

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January of nineteen seventy one, when Roger and Carolyn Perron

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00:39:45.800 --> 00:39:50.840
and their five daughters moved into an old farmhouse in Harrisville,

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00:39:50.920 --> 00:39:56.039
Rhode Island. The Paron's new home, a sprawling, fourteen room

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00:39:56.119 --> 00:40:01.320
colonial built in seventeen thirty six, held a storied past,

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00:40:02.039 --> 00:40:07.840
including rumors of tragic deaths and perhaps a curse on

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00:40:08.000 --> 00:40:13.519
the land. It wasn't long before the family started noticing

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00:40:13.840 --> 00:40:20.079
odd occurrences, bruises on Carolyn's body that appeared each morning

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00:40:20.800 --> 00:40:26.800
with no explanation, the smell of rotting flesh wafting through

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00:40:26.880 --> 00:40:31.760
the house at dawn, and the sound of something scraping

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00:40:32.480 --> 00:40:37.480
against kettle iron in the kitchen at night. One of

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00:40:37.519 --> 00:40:41.599
the girls spoke of an unseen boy she'd met in

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00:40:41.679 --> 00:40:47.559
her room, most unsettling of all, Carolyn began researching the

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00:40:47.639 --> 00:40:53.760
house and became fixated on a local legend about a

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00:40:53.800 --> 00:40:59.199
woman named Bathsheba Sherman, who had lived on the property

439
00:40:59.679 --> 00:41:05.119
in the eighteen hundreds. Bathsheba was rumored, without historical proof,

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00:41:05.800 --> 00:41:09.960
to have been a witch who sacrificed an infant to

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00:41:10.079 --> 00:41:16.920
the devil and who cursed the land before dying. Though

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00:41:16.960 --> 00:41:23.000
the details were murky, Carolyn grew convinced that Bathsheba's spirit

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00:41:23.760 --> 00:41:29.400
might be tormenting them, especially targeting her as the mother

444
00:41:30.079 --> 00:41:35.039
of the household. The Parons endured nearly two years of

445
00:41:35.239 --> 00:41:40.960
escalating scares. Finally, in nineteen seventy three, a team of

446
00:41:41.039 --> 00:41:46.119
student paranormal investigators from Rhode Island College got wind of

447
00:41:46.159 --> 00:41:57.440
the haunting and reached out to the Warrens. Ed and

448
00:41:57.559 --> 00:42:03.760
Lorraine agreed to visit them the paren farmhouse. Andrea Parn,

449
00:42:04.280 --> 00:42:09.280
the eldest daughter, vividly recalls the night the Warrens knocked

450
00:42:09.519 --> 00:42:16.360
on their door just around Halloween of nineteen seventy three.

451
00:42:16.679 --> 00:42:21.719
Carol and Parn welcomed the polite, neatly dressed Ed and

452
00:42:21.840 --> 00:42:27.119
Lorraine inside from the autumn chill, and poured them coffee,

453
00:42:28.119 --> 00:42:34.360
assuming they were simply curious researchers. That's when Lorraine, paused

454
00:42:34.400 --> 00:42:39.039
by the kitchen stove, closed her eyes as if overcome

455
00:42:39.199 --> 00:42:44.880
by a feeling, and made her pronouncement quote, there is

456
00:42:44.920 --> 00:42:52.599
a malignant entity here. Her name is Bathsheba. Everyone's jaws dropped.

457
00:42:53.480 --> 00:42:59.760
The Parens had not yet mentioned their Bathsheba theory to Lorraine.

458
00:43:00.079 --> 00:43:04.519
To the family, it seemed like stunning proof that Lorraine's

459
00:43:04.519 --> 00:43:12.599
psychic intuition was genuine. After that chilling introduction, the Warrens

460
00:43:12.639 --> 00:43:17.599
began a series of visits to the Harrisville farmhouse Over

461
00:43:17.639 --> 00:43:22.920
the next year or so, they conducted interviews and vigils

462
00:43:22.960 --> 00:43:28.960
in the house, and Lorraine's claaravoyant impressions grew more disturbing.

463
00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:34.920
She felt that multiple spirits roamed the house, but one

464
00:43:35.119 --> 00:43:41.400
in particular, a vengeful female presence, wanted to possess Carolyn.

465
00:43:42.559 --> 00:43:45.840
Ed came to believe that the Paron house was under

466
00:43:45.960 --> 00:43:51.000
demonic siege, with Carolyn as the main target. Under the

467
00:43:51.039 --> 00:43:56.039
Warren's guidance, the family started a nightly routine of prayer,

468
00:43:56.920 --> 00:44:03.679
but the phenomena only intensified windows would shatter, foul smells

469
00:44:03.719 --> 00:44:07.880
would overwhelm whole rooms, and one of the Paron girls

470
00:44:08.480 --> 00:44:15.079
was reportedly touched and scratched by invisible hands. The Warrens

471
00:44:15.159 --> 00:44:21.159
concluded that an exorcism was needed, However, since the Parons

472
00:44:21.159 --> 00:44:28.119
were not Catholic, obtaining church approval was tricky. Instead, Ed

473
00:44:28.199 --> 00:44:32.320
and Lorraine decided to perform a seance to provoke the

474
00:44:32.519 --> 00:44:40.559
entity and gain more information, a decision that would prove controversial.

475
00:44:42.239 --> 00:44:46.159
One night in nineteen seventy four, the Warrens and a

476
00:44:46.199 --> 00:44:50.519
small group gathered in the Paron's dimly lit dining room

477
00:44:51.039 --> 00:44:56.800
for the seance. Caroline, desperate for relief, agreed to participate.

478
00:44:57.800 --> 00:45:01.639
According to the accounts that followed, as soon as Lorrain

479
00:45:01.840 --> 00:45:08.719
began the ritual, Caroline's demeanor changed dramatically. She spoke in

480
00:45:08.800 --> 00:45:13.199
an unearthly voice and was suddenly flung backwards from the

481
00:45:13.280 --> 00:45:21.280
table by an unseen force, her chair toppling over. Chaos erupted.

482
00:45:21.880 --> 00:45:26.719
Roger Parn shouted in alarm, thinking his wife was dying.

483
00:45:27.800 --> 00:45:32.639
Roger later said that Caroline's body was bent into a frightening,

484
00:45:33.199 --> 00:45:39.960
unnatural shape on the floor unconscious. That was enough for him.

485
00:45:40.519 --> 00:45:43.920
He expelled the Warrens from the house that night out

486
00:45:44.000 --> 00:45:50.239
of fear for Caroline's safety. The Warrens departed deeply shaken,

487
00:45:51.000 --> 00:45:57.039
leaving Caroline to recover under her family's care. Lorrain had

488
00:45:57.079 --> 00:46:01.440
said that they did return briefly once more to check

489
00:46:01.480 --> 00:46:06.480
on Carolyn, who thankfully survived, but it was clear the

490
00:46:06.519 --> 00:46:12.800
Paron patriarch had lost faith in the intervention. The Paron

491
00:46:12.960 --> 00:46:18.119
haunting did not magically end that night. The family reportedly

492
00:46:18.199 --> 00:46:22.880
coexisted with the spirits for several years until they could

493
00:46:22.920 --> 00:46:28.320
afford to move out in nineteen eighty. No formal exorcism

494
00:46:28.880 --> 00:46:34.079
ever took place yet in the Warrens case files, the

495
00:46:34.159 --> 00:46:39.960
Paron haunting was still a spiritual victory of sorts. Lorraine

496
00:46:40.039 --> 00:46:44.480
believed that by confronting the entity directly in the seance,

497
00:46:45.199 --> 00:46:51.599
they prevented Carolyn from slipping fully into possession. The Warrens

498
00:46:51.679 --> 00:46:57.960
documented the case extensively, convinced it exemplified a demonic infestation

499
00:46:58.760 --> 00:47:03.920
tied to a historic curse. For her part, Lorraine Warren

500
00:47:04.039 --> 00:47:08.159
called the Paron Farmhouse one of the most compelling and

501
00:47:08.360 --> 00:47:15.280
disturbing hauntings they ever investigated. The case gained renewed attention

502
00:47:15.599 --> 00:47:21.239
decades later when the Paron's story was dramatized in The Conjuring.

503
00:47:22.119 --> 00:47:26.519
The movie took liberties, notably portraying the Warrens as saving

504
00:47:26.679 --> 00:47:32.679
Carolyn with a successful exorcism. But Andrea Peron, who has

505
00:47:32.719 --> 00:47:36.639
written her own accounts, attests that much of the strange

506
00:47:36.639 --> 00:47:42.719
phenomena on screen did occur in real life, minus the

507
00:47:42.800 --> 00:47:49.760
neat Hollywood ending. Andrea emphasizes that despite the frightening seance incident,

508
00:47:50.280 --> 00:47:54.800
her family was grateful that Ed and Lorraine validated their

509
00:47:54.840 --> 00:48:01.440
experiences and did sincerely try to help to Ed and Lorraine.

510
00:48:01.719 --> 00:48:06.000
The Paron case underscored a key point they often made.

511
00:48:07.119 --> 00:48:12.880
Not all hauntings are wayward human spirits, some are outright demonic,

512
00:48:13.639 --> 00:48:19.079
aiming to possess and destroy. It also taught them that

513
00:48:19.119 --> 00:48:24.719
their involvement wasn't always welcomed by everyone, a humbling lesson

514
00:48:25.360 --> 00:48:29.800
when Roger kicked them out. Still, they counted it as

515
00:48:29.880 --> 00:48:35.920
one of their milestone investigations. The Harrisville farmhouse, steeped in

516
00:48:36.039 --> 00:48:41.079
ghostly legend, had given the Warrens a chance to exercise

517
00:48:41.239 --> 00:48:49.320
their full repertoire psychic sensing, historical research, priestly blessings, and

518
00:48:49.440 --> 00:48:56.119
finally direct confrontation. If the stories are to be believed.

519
00:48:56.639 --> 00:49:03.159
It nearly ended in tragedy, but the family survived. The

520
00:49:03.239 --> 00:49:07.760
Warrens walked away convinced that evil had been faced down

521
00:49:08.039 --> 00:49:13.119
that night. The parn family haunting became part of Warren lore,

522
00:49:13.960 --> 00:49:18.159
another proof point that evil is real and that the

523
00:49:18.199 --> 00:49:23.599
Warrens had stood on the front lines against it. In

524
00:49:23.639 --> 00:49:28.719
August of nineteen seventy seven, happenings in a humble council

525
00:49:28.800 --> 00:49:34.719
house in Enfield, North London made headlines in Britain and

526
00:49:34.800 --> 00:49:39.719
eventually attracted the attention of the Warrens across the Atlantic.

527
00:49:46.599 --> 00:49:51.599
The case revolved around Peggy Hodgson, and her four children,

528
00:49:52.360 --> 00:49:58.199
especially her eleven year old daughter Janet. The Enfield poltergeist,

529
00:49:58.400 --> 00:50:04.199
as it came to be known, began with classic poltergeist symptoms.

530
00:50:05.079 --> 00:50:09.519
Furniture moved on its own, knocking sounds in the walls,

531
00:50:10.119 --> 00:50:16.840
and objects thrown by unseen hands. Janet was often at

532
00:50:16.880 --> 00:50:21.599
the center of the activity. Eye witnesses reported seeing her

533
00:50:21.719 --> 00:50:26.920
levitate in mid air and speak in a creepy, guttural voice,

534
00:50:27.519 --> 00:50:32.079
claiming to be the ghost of a former occupant. For

535
00:50:32.159 --> 00:50:37.519
over a year, two British paranormal researchers, Maurice Gross and

536
00:50:37.679 --> 00:50:44.079
Guy lyon Playfair, documented the strange occurrences, while skeptics suggested

537
00:50:44.719 --> 00:50:50.000
the clever children were behind the hoax. The British press

538
00:50:50.039 --> 00:50:54.000
had a field day, dubbing it the House of Strange

539
00:50:54.119 --> 00:51:00.159
Happenings Ed and Lorraine got involved briefly in nineteen seventy,

540
00:51:00.920 --> 00:51:05.199
near the tail end of the Enfield saga. The Warrens

541
00:51:05.320 --> 00:51:08.719
happened to be in England on other business when they

542
00:51:08.800 --> 00:51:12.280
heard about the case, and they decided to drop by

543
00:51:12.440 --> 00:51:17.239
the Hodgson home to see for themselves what was going on.

544
00:51:18.320 --> 00:51:22.159
As the Warrens later described it, they found the chaos

545
00:51:22.159 --> 00:51:28.159
in Enfield to be genuine. Ed often recounted that as

546
00:51:28.199 --> 00:51:32.000
soon as he entered the modest brick house on Green Street,

547
00:51:32.679 --> 00:51:36.719
a curtain flew up in the air and across the room,

548
00:51:37.039 --> 00:51:43.480
as if grabbed by invisible hands, a classic poltergeist stunt.

549
00:51:44.440 --> 00:51:51.039
The Warrens spoke with the Hodgson family and offered their assistance. However,

550
00:51:51.559 --> 00:51:55.360
since the case was already being handled by the British

551
00:51:55.400 --> 00:52:01.920
Society for Psychical Research, the Warren's role was limited. They

552
00:52:01.920 --> 00:52:09.480
were more like high profile visitors than lead investigators. Despite

553
00:52:09.559 --> 00:52:13.679
their brief stay, the Warrens were convinced Enfield was a

554
00:52:13.760 --> 00:52:19.599
case of true demonic possession rather than mere child pranks.

555
00:52:20.400 --> 00:52:25.800
Lorraine Tuning In psychically agreed with Ed that something inhuman

556
00:52:26.360 --> 00:52:33.280
lurked behind the poltergeist phenomena. Perhaps they speculated the entity

557
00:52:33.400 --> 00:52:39.519
had targeted Janet in hopes of eventually possessing her. Ed

558
00:52:39.719 --> 00:52:45.360
was impressed with the amount of documentation, knockings recorded on tape,

559
00:52:45.400 --> 00:52:49.840
furniture movements witnessed by police, et cetera, and said it

560
00:52:50.079 --> 00:52:55.480
quote couldn't all be faked. In media interviews years later,

561
00:52:56.079 --> 00:53:00.719
Lorraine Warren asserted that she quote knew uugh the moment

562
00:53:00.800 --> 00:53:06.679
we crossed the threshold that the activity was real. However,

563
00:53:06.760 --> 00:53:10.320
it must be noted that the Warren's direct involvement in

564
00:53:10.519 --> 00:53:15.840
Enfield was extremely limited. They did not conduct a full

565
00:53:15.920 --> 00:53:21.480
investigation of their own. They essentially dropped in. In fact,

566
00:53:22.199 --> 00:53:26.559
Guy lyon Playfair, one of the primary researchers on the

567
00:53:26.599 --> 00:53:32.360
scene recalled Ed Warren telling him there's money to be

568
00:53:32.480 --> 00:53:37.320
made here, which Playfair took as a sign of Ed's

569
00:53:37.400 --> 00:53:44.639
true motives. We'll revisit that claim a little later. Regardless, publicly,

570
00:53:44.760 --> 00:53:48.960
the Warrens maintained they were simply there to help validate

571
00:53:49.400 --> 00:53:55.199
and support the family. The Enfield poltergeist case, as told

572
00:53:55.320 --> 00:54:01.559
by the Warrens, boils down to this Poltergeist final are real,

573
00:54:02.480 --> 00:54:08.119
and sometimes they mask a demonic presence. The Warrens in

574
00:54:08.199 --> 00:54:13.280
interviews would back up the Hodgson family's claims and chastise

575
00:54:13.360 --> 00:54:19.400
skeptics who laughed it off as simply children's tricks. When

576
00:54:19.400 --> 00:54:24.719
the film The Conjuring Two dramatized Enfield in two thy sixteen,

577
00:54:25.400 --> 00:54:29.320
it took great liberties by portraying Ed and Lorraine as

578
00:54:29.639 --> 00:54:34.719
central to resolving the case, even saving Janet from possession

579
00:54:35.239 --> 00:54:39.599
in a climactic scene. In truth, the Warrens made a

580
00:54:39.639 --> 00:54:44.000
short visit and were involved to a far lesser degree

581
00:54:44.559 --> 00:54:48.960
than portrayed in the movie. They apparently were even turned

582
00:54:49.000 --> 00:54:53.840
away at one point, as the British investigators hadn't invited them,

583
00:54:54.519 --> 00:54:57.920
But in the narrative the Warrens shared with their followers,

584
00:54:58.519 --> 00:55:04.440
Enfield was another data proving demonic forces at play internationally.

585
00:55:05.519 --> 00:55:09.440
After meeting the Hodgsons, Lorraine commented that the events in

586
00:55:09.639 --> 00:55:16.679
Enfield showed demonic activity doesn't care about borders, England or America.

587
00:55:17.440 --> 00:55:24.039
Evil is everywhere. She felt their experiences in Connecticut gave

588
00:55:24.079 --> 00:55:28.599
them insight into what was happening in Enfield, and she

589
00:55:28.679 --> 00:55:34.960
attempted to counsel the family on prayer and faith. Ultimately,

590
00:55:35.239 --> 00:55:40.519
the Enfield case resolved or petered out in nineteen seventy

591
00:55:40.599 --> 00:55:46.199
nine without the Warren's direct intervention, but Ed and Lorraine's

592
00:55:46.199 --> 00:55:50.400
brief stint allowed them to attach their names to one

593
00:55:50.440 --> 00:55:56.199
of the twentieth centuries most famous poltergeist cases, bolstering their

594
00:55:56.280 --> 00:56:03.079
global reputation. It demonstrated the reach of their curiosity. They

595
00:56:03.079 --> 00:56:07.760
weren't confined to New England. They would go wherever the

596
00:56:07.840 --> 00:56:13.000
demons were Enfield, as portrayed by the Warrens, was a

597
00:56:13.079 --> 00:56:18.400
validation that even when skeptics cried hoax, the Warrens could

598
00:56:18.400 --> 00:56:25.239
discern a darker truth underneath. As Ed would later summarize, quote,

599
00:56:25.880 --> 00:56:28.559
a lot of people thought those girls were making it

600
00:56:28.599 --> 00:56:32.039
all up. We met them, we saw what we saw,

601
00:56:32.440 --> 00:56:35.599
and let me tell you, something was in that house,

602
00:56:36.440 --> 00:56:44.199
something evil. In nineteen eighty six, Carmen and al Snedeker

603
00:56:44.880 --> 00:56:49.800
thought they had found an incredible bargain, a spacious rental

604
00:56:49.880 --> 00:56:54.480
house in Southington, Connecticut, where they could live with their

605
00:56:54.599 --> 00:57:01.800
daughter and three sons while their eldest boy underwent treatment nearby.

606
00:57:03.280 --> 00:57:08.159
The rent was cheap, and only later did the Snetekers

607
00:57:08.719 --> 00:57:22.039
discover why. While moving in, they stumbled upon strange mortuary

608
00:57:22.159 --> 00:57:28.079
tools in the basement, toe tags, coffin hardware, a gurney.

609
00:57:29.159 --> 00:57:34.320
The house, it turned out, had once been the Hallahan

610
00:57:34.559 --> 00:57:40.559
funeral home. According to Carmen, the landlord had not disclosed

611
00:57:40.679 --> 00:57:46.920
this unsettling fact, though the landlord insisted the family was

612
00:57:47.079 --> 00:57:54.079
told up front. Regardless, the Snetekers decided to stay. They

613
00:57:54.199 --> 00:57:58.559
draped the basement morgue area in sheets and turned it

614
00:57:58.599 --> 00:58:03.360
into a bedroom for their eldest son, Philip. It was

615
00:58:03.400 --> 00:58:17.440
a decision they'd soon regret. Not long after, the Snedeker

616
00:58:17.599 --> 00:58:26.639
family began experiencing intense and bizarre phenomena. Philip, thirteen years old,

617
00:58:27.079 --> 00:58:33.679
who was battling Hodgkin's lymphoma, started seeing terrifying apparitions. He

618
00:58:33.840 --> 00:58:40.519
described figures with hollow eyes and pinstriped suits. At first,

619
00:58:40.559 --> 00:58:44.159
his parents wondered if the visions were side effects of

620
00:58:44.199 --> 00:58:51.920
his medical treatments, but Philip's personality shifted dramatically. The sweet

621
00:58:52.000 --> 00:58:56.559
boy took to wearing leather and writing about demons in

622
00:58:56.599 --> 00:59:02.679
a journal. He became moody and aggress Carmen reported hearing

623
00:59:02.800 --> 00:59:09.960
strange clanking noises from the basement, like chains dragging reminiscent

624
00:59:10.079 --> 00:59:15.480
of mortuary equipment. There were foul smells they couldn't trace,

625
00:59:16.239 --> 00:59:21.880
dishes rattled in empty rooms. Most shockingly, both Carmen and

626
00:59:22.079 --> 00:59:28.320
al claimed they were sometimes physically assaulted by unseen entities,

627
00:59:29.119 --> 00:59:34.760
even describing instances of sexual molestation by the invisible Force.

628
00:59:35.920 --> 00:59:40.760
This detail of demonic sexual assault was notably similar to

629
00:59:40.800 --> 00:59:45.920
what another family, the Smurls in Pennsylvania, had reported only

630
00:59:45.960 --> 00:59:49.760
a few years earlier. In a case the Warrens also

631
00:59:50.039 --> 00:59:55.639
handled to the Warrens. Such disturbing assaults were a telltale

632
00:59:55.800 --> 01:00:01.519
sign of a demon at work. By nineteen eighty eight,

633
01:00:01.960 --> 01:00:06.719
at their wits end and financially unable to relocate, the

634
01:00:06.760 --> 01:00:11.719
Sneteckers reached out for help enter Ed and Lorraine Warren.

635
01:00:12.599 --> 01:00:16.119
They arrived at the Southington house in nineteen eighty six

636
01:00:16.719 --> 01:00:23.079
and quickly pronounced it infested with demons. This case would

637
01:00:23.119 --> 01:00:30.519
become one of their most famous and later most controversial investigations,

638
01:00:30.599 --> 01:00:36.199
sometimes referred to as a haunting in Connecticut. When Ed

639
01:00:36.280 --> 01:00:39.840
and Lorraine first walked through the house, Lorraine said she

640
01:00:39.920 --> 01:00:44.719
could sense a deep evil in the basement, likely due

641
01:00:45.199 --> 01:00:50.960
to the former funeral homes practices. Ed theorized that perhaps

642
01:00:50.960 --> 01:00:57.760
an undertaker had engaged in necromancy or ungodly rituals with corpses,

643
01:00:58.400 --> 01:01:03.760
inviting a demonic presence that now plagued the living. The

644
01:01:03.800 --> 01:01:07.360
Warrens moved into the house for several weeks to observe

645
01:01:07.639 --> 01:01:12.679
and help. They brought along two trainees, their nephew John

646
01:01:13.119 --> 01:01:17.239
and an English researcher, as they later noted, as well

647
01:01:17.320 --> 01:01:22.039
as a professional horror novelist named Ray Garton. Whom they'd

648
01:01:22.039 --> 01:01:27.800
commissioned to eventually write a book about the case. Living

649
01:01:27.880 --> 01:01:31.920
with the Snedeckers, the Warrens witnessed first hand many of

650
01:01:31.960 --> 01:01:37.559
the disturbances. If their account is to be believed. They

651
01:01:37.639 --> 01:01:41.840
claimed to hear the same metallic clanking of the old

652
01:01:41.960 --> 01:01:46.480
coffin lift late at night, though an investigation by a

653
01:01:46.559 --> 01:01:51.719
neighbor would later attribute such sounds to passing trucks scraping

654
01:01:51.760 --> 01:01:58.280
the road. Lorraine reported seeing dark, shadowy forms gliding through

655
01:01:58.320 --> 01:02:03.400
the halls, confronted the entities with prayer and also a

656
01:02:03.440 --> 01:02:08.480
bit of provocation. According to Carmen Snedeker, when Ed recited

657
01:02:08.599 --> 01:02:14.239
passages from the Roman ritual of exorcism, the whole house shook.

658
01:02:15.199 --> 01:02:18.599
Things had gotten so bad that Carmen and al Snedeker

659
01:02:18.800 --> 01:02:23.440
publicly stated they had been raped by demons in the house,

660
01:02:24.400 --> 01:02:29.320
a sensational claim they repeated on television talk shows as

661
01:02:29.360 --> 01:02:34.159
the Warrens stood by their side validating it. All of

662
01:02:34.199 --> 01:02:39.199
this was building toward a climactic resolution. The Warrens eventually

663
01:02:39.239 --> 01:02:43.480
brought in a Catholic priest to perform a full exorcism

664
01:02:43.559 --> 01:02:49.159
ritual on the house. This detail is sometimes disputed, but

665
01:02:49.280 --> 01:02:56.519
the Warrens maintained and exorcism was indeed done. After said exorcism,

666
01:02:57.039 --> 01:03:03.360
they declared the house cleared of evil. Carmen corroborated that

667
01:03:03.400 --> 01:03:09.360
after intense prayer, the oppressive atmosphere lifted and the attacks ceased,

668
01:03:10.159 --> 01:03:13.400
at least long enough for the family to move out

669
01:03:13.960 --> 01:03:18.920
in nineteen eighty eight. The Snedeker case could have ended there,

670
01:03:19.599 --> 01:03:22.760
but Ed and Lorraine had made arrangements from the start

671
01:03:23.360 --> 01:03:28.000
to document the story for the public true to form.

672
01:03:28.320 --> 01:03:32.079
They saw in this dramatic haunting the makings of a

673
01:03:32.159 --> 01:03:37.559
book and perhaps a movie. They had brokeered a deal

674
01:03:37.719 --> 01:03:41.639
for a share of profits with the Snedekers. Carmen even

675
01:03:41.719 --> 01:03:45.360
confided to a neighbor early on that the family would

676
01:03:45.440 --> 01:03:50.480
receive one third of the prophets from the book. Gary

677
01:03:50.559 --> 01:03:54.679
Garton's nineteen ninety two book In a Dark Place, The

678
01:03:54.719 --> 01:03:59.760
Story of a True Haunting, presented a terrifying narrative of

679
01:03:59.760 --> 01:04:04.639
the s the Snedteker's Ordeal, co authored with Ed and Lorraine.

680
01:04:04.679 --> 01:04:08.760
Around the same time, in a coordinated media push, the

681
01:04:08.800 --> 01:04:13.719
Snetekers and Warrens appeared on shows like Sally Jesse, Raphael,

682
01:04:14.159 --> 01:04:18.639
and A Current Affair dramatically sharing their story to a

683
01:04:18.679 --> 01:04:23.840
wide audience. The haunting was big news in Connecticut newspapers

684
01:04:23.880 --> 01:04:29.400
as well, with lurid headlines about a demonic presence in

685
01:04:29.440 --> 01:04:34.199
a family home. For those who only heard the Warren

686
01:04:34.360 --> 01:04:39.119
side in nineteen ninety two, the Snedeker case was absolute

687
01:04:39.280 --> 01:04:43.880
proof of the supernatural. The Warrens pointed to it as

688
01:04:43.920 --> 01:04:48.960
a rare example where they had everything multiple eye witnesses,

689
01:04:49.440 --> 01:04:54.119
physical attacks, even an actual exorcism with a happy ending.

690
01:04:54.960 --> 01:05:00.320
It contributed greatly to the Warren's mystique. In fact, it

691
01:05:00.400 --> 01:05:05.960
spawned a Discovery Channel TV docudrama in two thousand two

692
01:05:06.239 --> 01:05:10.480
and a feature film in two thousand nine, The Haunting

693
01:05:10.559 --> 01:05:16.920
in Connecticut, all billed as based on true events. The

694
01:05:16.920 --> 01:05:21.440
Warren's version of the story held that diabolical forces had

695
01:05:21.519 --> 01:05:26.480
converged on an innocent family, but through the Warren's intervention

696
01:05:27.039 --> 01:05:33.639
and the power of God, those forces were exposed and defeated.

697
01:05:34.000 --> 01:05:37.719
Like in all of these famous cases, the Snedecker story

698
01:05:37.960 --> 01:05:42.079
had another side, and this one is perhaps more damning

699
01:05:42.320 --> 01:05:47.840
than most. Will explore the intense skepticism and even admissions

700
01:05:47.840 --> 01:05:52.000
of fabrication that later emerged about a haunting in Connecticut.

701
01:05:52.920 --> 01:05:57.280
Ray Gartin himself would eventually raise serious doubts about the

702
01:05:57.320 --> 01:06:02.159
book he authored under the Warren's guidance, But staying with

703
01:06:02.239 --> 01:06:06.360
the Warren's perspective for now, the Snedeker case in the

704
01:06:06.400 --> 01:06:12.239
late eighties and early nineties was an absolute triumph for them.

705
01:06:12.639 --> 01:06:18.000
It demonstrated their pattern of operation. Identify a family in

706
01:06:18.199 --> 01:06:23.079
supernatural trouble, move in to gather evidence, call in the

707
01:06:23.199 --> 01:06:28.639
church for the final blow, then publicize the heck out

708
01:06:28.679 --> 01:06:33.199
of the story. Ed and Lorraine's presence during the height

709
01:06:33.280 --> 01:06:37.880
of the Snedeker's nightmare lent credibility to the family's claims

710
01:06:38.280 --> 01:06:41.880
in the eyes of many, and for those keeping score,

711
01:06:42.480 --> 01:06:46.760
it was yet another demonic entity vanquished. As Ed liked

712
01:06:46.800 --> 01:06:51.880
to say, this one was a doozy. The Warrens warned

713
01:06:52.280 --> 01:06:57.239
that the combination of adolescent energy, sickly Philip, the former

714
01:06:57.320 --> 01:07:02.920
funeral home setting, and possible dabbling in necromancy had created

715
01:07:02.960 --> 01:07:09.920
a perfect storm that opened a door to something truly evil.

716
01:07:11.440 --> 01:07:15.719
Thanks to their efforts, so the story went, that door

717
01:07:16.320 --> 01:07:20.360
was slammed shut, but of course, in a haunted house,

718
01:07:20.840 --> 01:07:32.400
when one door closes, another opens. While the prior five

719
01:07:32.519 --> 01:07:38.960
cases Amityville Annabelle, The Paron Haunting, Enfield, and the Snenecker

720
01:07:39.039 --> 01:07:43.599
House are arguably the most famous in the Warren's case files,

721
01:07:44.239 --> 01:07:48.519
especially after their dramatizations in The Conjuring Universe of films.

722
01:07:49.360 --> 01:07:52.920
They were far from the only sensational stories Ed and

723
01:07:53.039 --> 01:07:57.639
Lorraine told in order to give you the deep dive promised.

724
01:07:58.039 --> 01:08:01.280
It's worth noting a few other insect evidence that often

725
01:08:01.320 --> 01:08:07.119
came up in the Warren's interviews and lectures. The smurl

726
01:08:07.159 --> 01:08:13.199
Haunting Pennsylvania nineteen eighty five to nineteen eighty seven, Jack

727
01:08:13.280 --> 01:08:17.600
and Janet Smurrele and their daughters endured a demonic siege

728
01:08:17.720 --> 01:08:23.119
in West Pittston, Pennsylvania. Not unlike the Snetekers, the Warrens

729
01:08:23.199 --> 01:08:28.119
became involved and claimed four spirits and a demon were present,

730
01:08:28.920 --> 01:08:33.199
one of which sexually assaulted Jack and Janet, according to

731
01:08:33.279 --> 01:08:37.279
their report. The Smurle case also resulted in a book,

732
01:08:37.720 --> 01:08:43.199
The Haunted, and a TV movie. It bore striking similarities

733
01:08:43.239 --> 01:08:48.039
to the Snedeker's claim, which occurred shortly after, reinforcing the

734
01:08:48.079 --> 01:08:52.920
Warren's narrative that demons were active all over. It was

735
01:08:53.000 --> 01:08:57.199
also featured in the final Conjuring movie, The Last Rites

736
01:08:57.640 --> 01:09:04.399
in two thousand and twenty five. The Devil in Connecticut, Brookfield, Connecticut,

737
01:09:04.800 --> 01:09:09.680
nineteen eighty one. This was the famous demon murder trial

738
01:09:10.159 --> 01:09:14.239
of Arn Cheyenne Johnson. The Warrens were called when eleven

739
01:09:14.319 --> 01:09:20.199
year old David Glatzel allegedly became possessed, and during the exorcisms,

740
01:09:20.439 --> 01:09:25.760
Ed claimed a demon left David and entered Arne. Months later,

741
01:09:26.039 --> 01:09:29.319
Arn Johnson killed a man and tried to argue in

742
01:09:29.399 --> 01:09:33.800
court that the devil made me do it. Ed saw

743
01:09:33.840 --> 01:09:39.199
this as a landmark chance to prove the supernatural in court.

744
01:09:39.840 --> 01:09:42.159
He viewed it as his big chance to put his

745
01:09:42.279 --> 01:09:45.760
work on trial to prove what he does is real.

746
01:09:46.199 --> 01:09:49.239
In front of a court of law, recalled a reporter

747
01:09:49.600 --> 01:09:54.159
who interviewed Ed. The judge didn't allow the demon defense,

748
01:09:54.560 --> 01:09:58.880
and Arn went to prison for manslaughter. But the Warrens,

749
01:09:58.920 --> 01:10:02.960
along with author Gerald Briddle, wrote a book about the case,

750
01:10:03.560 --> 01:10:08.079
The Devil in Connecticut, upholding that the possession was real.

751
01:10:09.039 --> 01:10:13.760
This incident intersected with the height of nineteen eighty satanic panic,

752
01:10:14.359 --> 01:10:17.800
and Ed and Lorraine were right there on national TV

753
01:10:18.479 --> 01:10:25.279
supporting the idea that demons could cause murder. Satan's harvest

754
01:10:25.800 --> 01:10:30.000
in the nineteen eighties, Ed and Lorraine also investigated a

755
01:10:30.119 --> 01:10:34.479
chilling case of an alleged satanic possession of a farmer

756
01:10:35.000 --> 01:10:40.600
named Maurice or Frenchy in Massachusetts, documented in the book

757
01:10:40.760 --> 01:10:45.520
Satan's Harvest. During the exorcism, Maurice supposedly bled from his

758
01:10:45.640 --> 01:10:50.640
eyes and a cross manifested on his skin, phenomena the

759
01:10:50.680 --> 01:10:55.880
Warrens presented as real. This case tied into fears of

760
01:10:55.920 --> 01:11:00.680
satanic cults, another zeitgeist element of the late nineteen teen eighties.

761
01:11:01.359 --> 01:11:05.279
It showed the Warren's willingness to engage not just with ghosts,

762
01:11:05.960 --> 01:11:12.319
but with the then prevalent anxieties about secret satanic activity, again

763
01:11:12.479 --> 01:11:19.000
reinforcing the theme that demonic evil is lurking everywhere, even

764
01:11:19.720 --> 01:11:27.079
rural farms. Union Cemetery's White Lady. On a lighter note,

765
01:11:27.399 --> 01:11:30.479
Ed loved to show a grainy video he took at

766
01:11:30.479 --> 01:11:36.000
Connecticut's Union Cemetery purportedly capturing the ghost of a white

767
01:11:36.119 --> 01:11:40.159
lady floating. He claimed it was among the clearest ghost

768
01:11:40.239 --> 01:11:45.239
footage ever captured. Skeptics shrugged, but fans ate it up

769
01:11:45.319 --> 01:11:51.399
as proof that the Warren's actually documented spirits on film.

770
01:11:52.039 --> 01:11:55.079
By the end of the nineteen nineties, Ed and Lorraine

771
01:11:55.119 --> 01:11:58.840
Warren had cemented a public image as the ghost hunter's

772
01:11:58.920 --> 01:12:04.680
par excellence. They wrote and co wrote numerous books, always

773
01:12:04.760 --> 01:12:10.239
labeled true stories, and they lectured widely. They had a

774
01:12:10.279 --> 01:12:15.279
devoted following of fellow paranormal enthusiasts and a network of

775
01:12:15.439 --> 01:12:20.600
younger proteges, like their nephew John Zaphis, now a well

776
01:12:20.640 --> 01:12:28.039
known demonologist himself, sometimes called the Godfather of paranormal. In

777
01:12:28.039 --> 01:12:32.119
two thousand one, at age seventy four, Ed Warren suffered

778
01:12:32.119 --> 01:12:37.800
a stroke that effectively ended his active investigations. He passed

779
01:12:37.840 --> 01:12:43.000
away in two thousand and six. Lorraine, however, remained accessible

780
01:12:43.119 --> 01:12:47.920
and involved well into her eighties, serving as a consultant

781
01:12:48.119 --> 01:12:52.680
on the conjuring films and giving interviews until shortly before

782
01:12:52.720 --> 01:12:58.000
her death in two thousand nineteen. To many, the Warrens

783
01:12:58.079 --> 01:13:02.079
died as heroes who had sped a lifetime keeping darkness

784
01:13:02.279 --> 01:13:06.880
at bay. Their cases had inspired countless other ghost hunters,

785
01:13:07.319 --> 01:13:13.239
and their names became nearly synonymous with paranormal investigation. But

786
01:13:13.479 --> 01:13:17.439
even as early as the nineteen eighties, and increasingly after

787
01:13:17.680 --> 01:13:21.880
Ed's death, a chorus of critics began to speak out,

788
01:13:22.640 --> 01:13:28.920
challenging virtually every aspect of the Warren's story. Families they'd helped,

789
01:13:29.359 --> 01:13:33.199
fellow investigators, and even one of their own co authors

790
01:13:33.520 --> 01:13:37.359
would paint a very different picture of what went on

791
01:13:37.960 --> 01:13:43.600
in those hauntings. Some accused the Warrens of exaggeration and opportunism,

792
01:13:44.279 --> 01:13:49.840
others flat out called them frauds. Moreover, whispers of a

793
01:13:49.920 --> 01:13:53.600
scandal in the Warren's personal life, something that stood in

794
01:13:53.720 --> 01:13:59.279
stark contrast to their wholesome, pious image, began to surface.

795
01:14:00.319 --> 01:14:04.399
It's time now to shift our viewpoint. We've seen the

796
01:14:04.439 --> 01:14:10.760
Warrens as they saw themselves, righteous demonologists triumphing over evil.

797
01:14:11.840 --> 01:14:17.359
But now let's examine the cracks in that narrative, the

798
01:14:17.479 --> 01:14:22.560
counter evidence and controversies that suggest ed and Lorraine's legacy

799
01:14:23.359 --> 01:14:34.920
is not so unassailable. After all, the Warrens relished their

800
01:14:35.039 --> 01:14:39.880
role as ghost hunters, but not everyone was convinced. As

801
01:14:39.920 --> 01:14:45.960
their fame grew, so did scrutiny. Journalists, investigators from the

802
01:14:45.960 --> 01:14:51.720
skeptical community, and even some allies turned critics started digging

803
01:14:51.760 --> 01:14:57.840
into the Warren's claims. What they found was often unsettling,

804
01:14:58.520 --> 01:15:02.840
and not in a superna natural way. Now we are

805
01:15:02.880 --> 01:15:06.520
going to turn a critical eye on Ed and Lorraine Warren,

806
01:15:07.119 --> 01:15:10.760
leaving behind the fun and spooky narrative of it all,

807
01:15:12.119 --> 01:15:15.560
now looking at the reality of their stories that have

808
01:15:15.640 --> 01:15:21.880
been challenged and sometimes even dismantled by evidence or lack thereof.

809
01:15:22.960 --> 01:15:26.680
Far from the United front of the Conjuring movies, we

810
01:15:26.720 --> 01:15:31.359
will hear from family members who felt exploited, authors who

811
01:15:31.439 --> 01:15:35.079
say they were told to make up horror stories, and

812
01:15:35.239 --> 01:15:40.960
researchers who accuse the Warrens of shameless self promotion. We

813
01:15:41.000 --> 01:15:45.439
will also address the striking contrast between the Warren's public

814
01:15:45.479 --> 01:15:52.439
persona and private behavior, including allegations of an improper long

815
01:15:52.560 --> 01:15:57.079
term relationship in the Warren household that was kept secret

816
01:15:57.640 --> 01:16:02.880
for decades to be clear Ed and Lorraine always had

817
01:16:02.920 --> 01:16:06.640
their defenders, and we will give those defenders their due

818
01:16:06.760 --> 01:16:11.119
voice as well. The Warrens insisted until the very end

819
01:16:11.600 --> 01:16:16.680
that every case they presented was genuine, that they never

820
01:16:16.920 --> 01:16:22.119
fabricated evidence, and that they truly helped thousands of people.

821
01:16:23.199 --> 01:16:28.279
But the mounting criticisms cannot be ignored. They compel us

822
01:16:28.319 --> 01:16:33.319
to ask tough questions. Were the Warrens documenting demons or

823
01:16:33.960 --> 01:16:40.520
inadvertently or deliberately crafting modern folklore? Did they seek the

824
01:16:40.680 --> 01:16:46.880
truth or headlines. Let's investigate these matters one by one,

825
01:16:47.479 --> 01:16:51.239
starting with what the skeptics discovered when they decided to

826
01:16:51.279 --> 01:16:56.960
go hunting for the ghost hunters. In the mid nineteen nineties,

827
01:16:57.079 --> 01:17:01.560
two members of the New England Skeptic Society, Perry DeAngelis

828
01:17:01.600 --> 01:17:06.640
and Stephen Novella, decided to conduct an in depth investigation

829
01:17:07.279 --> 01:17:13.479
of the Warren's supposed evidence. DeAngelis and Novella, both skeptics,

830
01:17:13.560 --> 01:17:17.399
and the latter a neurologist at Yale, had the advantage

831
01:17:17.439 --> 01:17:21.960
of being in the Warren's home state of Connecticut. They

832
01:17:22.000 --> 01:17:27.079
approached Ed and Lorraine, who granted them some access, perhaps

833
01:17:27.159 --> 01:17:32.319
assuming the skeptics would end up as believers. That did

834
01:17:32.359 --> 01:17:38.199
not happen. After examining the Warren's famous photographs, audio recordings,

835
01:17:38.239 --> 01:17:43.159
and other trinkets in the Occult Museum, the two skeptics

836
01:17:43.199 --> 01:17:49.920
published their assessment. The Warren's evidence ranged from misinterpretation to

837
01:17:50.079 --> 01:17:56.199
outright flimflam. They found no clear documentation that couldn't be

838
01:17:56.279 --> 01:18:01.680
explained by normal means. Their blunt conclusion was that the

839
01:18:01.720 --> 01:18:07.039
Warren's claims were quote at best as tellers of meaningless

840
01:18:07.079 --> 01:18:13.840
ghost stories and at worst dangerous frauds. In fact, DeAngelis

841
01:18:13.880 --> 01:18:18.640
and Novella famously described the Warren's body of evidence as

842
01:18:18.920 --> 01:18:23.600
and I quote nothing but a big pile of blarney.

843
01:18:24.880 --> 01:18:30.840
In other words, charming Irish storytelling entertaining may be sincere,

844
01:18:30.960 --> 01:18:37.199
but not factual. Ed and Lorraine, they noted, were masterful

845
01:18:37.239 --> 01:18:42.119
self promoters, but offered zero proof of the paranormal that

846
01:18:42.159 --> 01:18:48.720
could withstand independent scrutiny. Around the same time, Joe Nickel,

847
01:18:49.159 --> 01:18:54.159
one of America's most prominent paranormal skeptics and an investigator

848
01:18:54.199 --> 01:18:58.840
with the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, was digging into specific

849
01:18:59.000 --> 01:19:04.000
Warren cases. In nineteen ninety two. Nichol had actually met

850
01:19:04.039 --> 01:19:08.000
the Warrens during the publicity tour for the Snedeker Haunting

851
01:19:08.479 --> 01:19:12.560
on the Sally Jesse Rafael show. No Less, he was

852
01:19:12.600 --> 01:19:18.520
struck by Ed Warren's intensity and by something unsettling off camera.

853
01:19:19.760 --> 01:19:24.279
Ed was quote cursing like a sailor and even making

854
01:19:24.880 --> 01:19:31.920
veiled threatening asides to investigator Nichol about not interfering. This

855
01:19:32.159 --> 01:19:35.680
hinted at a less than saintly side to the Warrens

856
01:19:36.159 --> 01:19:41.279
when dealing with critics. Nichol proceeded to investigate the Snedeker

857
01:19:41.439 --> 01:19:46.600
case on the ground in Southington. Interviewing neighbors, police, and

858
01:19:46.720 --> 01:19:52.239
other local sources, what he found diverged sharply from the

859
01:19:52.239 --> 01:19:58.880
Warren's narrative. First, Nicholl discovered evidence that the Snetekers knew

860
01:19:59.000 --> 01:20:02.239
the house had had been a funeral home from the start,

861
01:20:02.960 --> 01:20:07.039
Contrary to their claim of being shocked by that discovery,

862
01:20:08.159 --> 01:20:12.880
neighbors and the rental's previous owners insisted the family was aware,

863
01:20:13.680 --> 01:20:18.000
suggesting the we didn't know it was a mortuary angle

864
01:20:18.439 --> 01:20:22.960
was played up for drama. What was more damning, Nicol

865
01:20:23.039 --> 01:20:27.000
learned the Snedekers had fallen behind on rent and were

866
01:20:27.079 --> 01:20:31.000
served in eviction notice during the time they started going

867
01:20:31.079 --> 01:20:37.119
public with the haunting. In fact, their own landlady, frustrated

868
01:20:37.199 --> 01:20:42.119
and suspecting a ploy, told reporters quote, after more than

869
01:20:42.159 --> 01:20:45.920
two years as tenants, suddenly we are told about these

870
01:20:46.279 --> 01:20:50.079
alleged ghosts, and then read in the paper that the

871
01:20:50.119 --> 01:20:53.800
Warrens will be conducting a seminar and charging the public

872
01:20:53.880 --> 01:20:57.920
for it. If the ghosts really are there, then why

873
01:20:57.960 --> 01:21:01.680
did the Snedekers stay over two and why are they

874
01:21:01.720 --> 01:21:06.159
staying now? Are they looking for publicity or profit? Or

875
01:21:06.520 --> 01:21:13.680
what her skepticism was understandable. It did look suspicious that

876
01:21:13.760 --> 01:21:17.800
only when facing eviction and with a lucrative book deal

877
01:21:17.840 --> 01:21:22.600
in the works did the Snedeker's demonic horror reach its

878
01:21:22.680 --> 01:21:28.119
peak and become a media circus. Nichol also tracked down

879
01:21:28.159 --> 01:21:33.079
an upstairs neighbor who lived above the Snetekers throughout the

880
01:21:33.159 --> 01:21:38.960
supposed haunting. This neighbor had some choice words. She called

881
01:21:39.000 --> 01:21:45.479
the Warrens con artists, flatly stating quote, I haven't experienced anything.

882
01:21:45.960 --> 01:21:49.159
I definitely know that no one has been raped up here.

883
01:21:50.239 --> 01:21:54.199
She was convinced the Warrens had quote, caused a lot

884
01:21:54.199 --> 01:22:00.199
of problems, and they are not ghost problems. Essentially, the

885
01:22:00.279 --> 01:22:04.760
people who observed the Snedeker saga unfold felt it was

886
01:22:04.800 --> 01:22:08.479
a money grab and a hoax, and they resented the

887
01:22:08.600 --> 01:22:14.720
negative attention it brought to their quiet town. The skeptical

888
01:22:14.760 --> 01:22:20.760
investigation uncovered a possibly scandalous explanation for some of the

889
01:22:20.800 --> 01:22:27.079
Snedeker's claims too. Recall the invisible sexual assault on a

890
01:22:27.119 --> 01:22:32.880
young cousin that Carmen Snedeker's niece had reported. According to Nichol,

891
01:22:33.319 --> 01:22:36.520
the eldest son, Philip, was caught in the act of

892
01:22:36.640 --> 01:22:42.159
molesting his female cousins, a fact quietly documented in the

893
01:22:42.199 --> 01:22:46.800
book In a Dark Place itself. The boy admitted to

894
01:22:46.920 --> 01:22:50.319
fondling the girls at night. He was removed from the

895
01:22:50.359 --> 01:22:56.159
home for psychiatric help and diagnosed with schizophrenia. So the

896
01:22:56.199 --> 01:23:01.439
demonic fondling wasn't demonic at all. It was a tragic

897
01:23:01.560 --> 01:23:05.600
case of abuse by a disturbed teen in the family

898
01:23:06.600 --> 01:23:11.079
that casts the sensational demon rape narrative in a much

899
01:23:11.119 --> 01:23:17.760
more disturbing light, suggesting that something very human was behind it,

900
01:23:18.319 --> 01:23:23.520
and the ghost story served to obscure an ugly reality.

901
01:23:30.039 --> 01:23:35.119
Perhaps the most significant revelation from the Snedeker case was

902
01:23:35.159 --> 01:23:38.840
what happened after the book and TV deals were signed.

903
01:23:39.760 --> 01:23:44.720
Many who knew the inside story came forward to cry foul.

904
01:23:45.600 --> 01:23:49.079
Ray Garton, the horror author hired to write In a

905
01:23:49.159 --> 01:23:54.119
Dark Place, became one of the most vocal critics. Garton

906
01:23:54.239 --> 01:23:58.199
initially tried to play along with the Warren's program, but

907
01:23:58.319 --> 01:24:03.079
he was privately very frustrated. He later said the Snedecker

908
01:24:03.199 --> 01:24:08.520
family members were inconsistent in their stories, likely due to

909
01:24:08.600 --> 01:24:13.520
personal problems. Quote the family involved, which was going through

910
01:24:13.560 --> 01:24:18.520
some serious problems like alcoholism and drug addiction could not

911
01:24:18.760 --> 01:24:23.640
keep their story straight, and I became very frustrated. It's

912
01:24:23.640 --> 01:24:27.279
hard writing a nonfiction book when all the people involved

913
01:24:27.279 --> 01:24:32.640
are telling you different stories, Garton admitted. When he went

914
01:24:32.720 --> 01:24:38.199
to Ed in confusion, Ed reportedly told him quote, they're crazy.

915
01:24:38.600 --> 01:24:41.520
All the people who come to us are crazy. Just

916
01:24:41.760 --> 01:24:44.520
use what you can and make the rest up. Make

917
01:24:44.600 --> 01:24:51.159
it scary. This jaw dropping allegation from Garten basically accuses

918
01:24:51.359 --> 01:24:55.880
Ed Warren of encouraging him to fabricate elements in order

919
01:24:55.960 --> 01:25:02.079
to create a better horror story. Since distanced himself from

920
01:25:02.119 --> 01:25:06.399
the book, even expressing relief when it went out of print.

921
01:25:07.239 --> 01:25:12.840
Involving Lorraine, Garton didn't mince words. Quote if she told

922
01:25:12.840 --> 01:25:15.800
me the sun would come up tomorrow morning, I'd get

923
01:25:15.800 --> 01:25:22.800
a second opinion. That quip, reprinted in Skeptic Benjamin Radford's writings,

924
01:25:22.920 --> 01:25:29.319
encapsulates how little credibility he now gives the Warrens. Joe

925
01:25:29.439 --> 01:25:33.720
Nichol's Skeptical Inquirer report on the case came to a

926
01:25:33.920 --> 01:25:39.960
scathing conclusion. He quoted the Snedeker's own landlady's husband, who,

927
01:25:40.079 --> 01:25:45.640
upon seeing the media frenzy, declared, quote, it's a fraud.

928
01:25:46.279 --> 01:25:51.680
It's a joke. It's a hoax, it's Halloween. It's a

929
01:25:51.800 --> 01:25:58.600
scheme to make money. Nichol agreed. Nichol agreed, pointing out

930
01:25:58.640 --> 01:26:02.640
how the book release was timed for Halloween and heavily

931
01:26:02.720 --> 01:26:07.399
promoted on television. He noted that some of the Warren's

932
01:26:07.439 --> 01:26:11.600
own co authors have admitted ed told them to make

933
01:26:11.720 --> 01:26:17.399
up scary incidents to spice up the accounts. In Nichol's estimation,

934
01:26:18.079 --> 01:26:22.960
even if something initially strange happened in Southington, by the

935
01:26:23.039 --> 01:26:27.199
time the Warrens were through, it had been transformed into

936
01:26:27.239 --> 01:26:32.239
a commercial hoax. If the case did not originate as

937
01:26:32.319 --> 01:26:36.319
a hoax, people could scarcely be blamed for thinking it

938
01:26:36.359 --> 01:26:43.560
has been transformed into one, Nichol wrote dryly. Subsequent developments

939
01:26:43.720 --> 01:26:49.199
only bolstered that conclusion. Nichols not the only skeptic to

940
01:26:49.279 --> 01:26:56.079
scrutinize famous Warren cases. Fellow investigator Benjamin Radford examined the

941
01:26:56.119 --> 01:27:01.880
Amityville file and noted that it too had been refuted

942
01:27:01.960 --> 01:27:08.600
by eye witnesses, investigations, and forensic evidence. The Warrens always

943
01:27:08.680 --> 01:27:13.520
swore Amityville was real, but the weight of evidence, which

944
01:27:13.560 --> 01:27:18.560
we will outline soon, suggests it was a concocted story.

945
01:27:19.520 --> 01:27:24.600
James Randy, the famed magician and skeptic, frequently lumped Ed

946
01:27:24.680 --> 01:27:29.479
and Lorraine Warren in with what he called quote Charlatan's

947
01:27:29.920 --> 01:27:34.720
who prey on the gullible. Though Randy did not devote

948
01:27:34.760 --> 01:27:39.079
a column specifically to the Warrens, he often cited the

949
01:27:39.119 --> 01:27:46.159
Amityville saga as an example of a paranormal claim definitively disproven,

950
01:27:46.439 --> 01:27:50.399
yet believers clung to it, thanks in part to the

951
01:27:50.399 --> 01:27:57.560
Warren's efforts. In private conversations, Randy reportedly had little patience

952
01:27:57.640 --> 01:28:02.479
for Ed Warren's tales of demon and ghosts, considering them

953
01:28:02.640 --> 01:28:08.840
unproven at best and laughable at worst. Even within their

954
01:28:08.880 --> 01:28:15.640
own paranormal circles. Not everyone admired the Warrens. Guy lyon Playfair,

955
01:28:16.039 --> 01:28:20.960
the spr researcher we referenced at Enfield, had a negative

956
01:28:21.039 --> 01:28:25.640
view of Ed Warren's involvement Playfair felt Ed was a

957
01:28:25.880 --> 01:28:31.479
quote a complete fill in whatever word you want, implying

958
01:28:31.600 --> 01:28:36.640
he saw Ed as a charlatan or phantasist. And remember

959
01:28:36.840 --> 01:28:41.640
Playfield reported that Ed told him quite bluntly during Enfield

960
01:28:42.159 --> 01:28:45.600
quote you could make a lot of money off this case.

961
01:28:46.800 --> 01:28:51.560
To Playfair, that was proof that prophet, not truth, was

962
01:28:51.840 --> 01:28:57.159
Ed's driving motive. In that instance. The Warrens, he said,

963
01:28:57.680 --> 01:29:02.680
showed up uninvited and were quickly shown the door, hardly

964
01:29:02.720 --> 01:29:08.600
the gallant heroes portrayed in films. The New England skeptical

965
01:29:08.680 --> 01:29:14.159
society's ultimate verdict, echoed by others like Nickel and Radford,

966
01:29:14.880 --> 01:29:19.960
is that Ed and Lorraine never actually proved anything supernatural.

967
01:29:20.880 --> 01:29:24.640
They might have been sincere at times, but they were

968
01:29:24.680 --> 01:29:30.920
mistaken seeing demons in every corner, but never providing concrete,

969
01:29:31.399 --> 01:29:37.399
testable evidence, or they were exaggerating and fabricating stories to

970
01:29:37.479 --> 01:29:43.079
build their mystique and bank account. Either way, skeptics assert

971
01:29:43.640 --> 01:29:48.479
the Warrens did not have the goods. As Benjamin Radford

972
01:29:48.520 --> 01:29:52.960
put it, the Warren's real talent was in storytelling and

973
01:29:53.039 --> 01:30:00.079
self promotion, not demon expulsion. So on one side we we

974
01:30:00.119 --> 01:30:05.800
have the Warren's elaborate stories of ghosts and demons. On

975
01:30:05.880 --> 01:30:10.640
the other, we have skeptics tearing holes in those stories

976
01:30:11.159 --> 01:30:15.600
and sometimes catching the Warrens in what appear to be lies.

977
01:30:16.760 --> 01:30:21.720
But nothing drives the skeptical point home more than hearing

978
01:30:21.880 --> 01:30:28.359
from the insiders, the families and collaborators themselves, who eventually

979
01:30:28.960 --> 01:30:34.039
spoke out. It's one thing for outside skeptics to cast

980
01:30:34.159 --> 01:30:38.159
doubt on the Warrens. Believers could brush that off as

981
01:30:38.560 --> 01:30:44.319
cynics who simply weren't there. It's far more damaging when

982
01:30:44.319 --> 01:30:48.920
the people who were directly involved in Warren cases come

983
01:30:49.079 --> 01:30:55.199
forward to contest the official story. And indeed, over the years,

984
01:30:55.760 --> 01:31:01.279
several key individuals, from haunted family members to the Warren's

985
01:31:01.319 --> 01:31:08.920
own writers have delivered testimonies that seriously undercut the Warren's legacy.

986
01:31:15.840 --> 01:31:20.920
We've already heard from author Ray Garton about the Snedeker case,

987
01:31:21.800 --> 01:31:26.279
but this is not the only voice. Let's consider the

988
01:31:26.359 --> 01:31:31.640
aftermath of the Warren's Devil in Connecticut case, the Arne

989
01:31:31.720 --> 01:31:36.479
Johnson trial, and the purported possession of young David Glatzel

990
01:31:37.199 --> 01:31:42.239
in nineteen eighty. In two thousand and six, the book

991
01:31:42.560 --> 01:31:46.960
The Devil in Connecticut was set to be reprinted, riding

992
01:31:47.039 --> 01:31:52.199
the wave of renewed interest in Warren's stories. This did

993
01:31:52.239 --> 01:31:55.920
not sit well with one of the Glatzell family members,

994
01:31:56.680 --> 01:32:02.560
Carl Glatzel, junior David's older. In two thousand and seven,

995
01:32:02.720 --> 01:32:08.319
Carl Glatzel sued Lorraine Warren and author Gerald Briddle, alleging

996
01:32:08.359 --> 01:32:13.520
that the book grossly misrepresented the truth and violated his

997
01:32:13.680 --> 01:32:18.439
family's privacy. Carl, who was sixteen at the time of

998
01:32:18.479 --> 01:32:24.680
the events, stated emphatically that the claims of demonic possession

999
01:32:25.039 --> 01:32:29.399
were a hoax engineered by the Warrens along with a

1000
01:32:29.439 --> 01:32:34.680
local priest. He said the Warrens quote concocted a phony

1001
01:32:34.800 --> 01:32:38.720
story about demons in an attempt to get rich and

1002
01:32:38.840 --> 01:32:45.079
famous at our expense. Those are strong words, get rich

1003
01:32:45.119 --> 01:32:50.520
and famous at our expense. Carl was angry that after

1004
01:32:50.600 --> 01:32:54.520
twenty plus years, the Warrens were dredging up what he

1005
01:32:54.600 --> 01:32:59.560
called lies that had caused his family nothing but ridicule

1006
01:33:00.119 --> 01:33:05.560
and pain. Carl recounted that as a teenager, he'd never

1007
01:33:05.640 --> 01:33:11.039
believed his brother David was truly possessed. Instead, he says,

1008
01:33:11.159 --> 01:33:16.439
David was mentally ill and later recovered with proper treatment.

1009
01:33:17.520 --> 01:33:22.279
The Warrens, he claims, manipulated the family's story and even

1010
01:33:22.399 --> 01:33:25.239
made him out to be a villain in the book

1011
01:33:25.800 --> 01:33:31.399
simply because he didn't go along with the demon narrative. Indeed,

1012
01:33:31.479 --> 01:33:35.000
in The Devil in Connecticut, Carl is portrayed as an

1013
01:33:35.039 --> 01:33:41.000
antagonist who didn't believe and supposedly even dabbled in occultism,

1014
01:33:41.680 --> 01:33:46.439
something he denies. Carl said many incidents in the book

1015
01:33:46.520 --> 01:33:52.720
were complete lies. The effect on him was devastating. He

1016
01:33:52.840 --> 01:33:58.239
felt ostracized, had to leave town, lost friends and business

1017
01:33:58.279 --> 01:34:05.319
opportunities because people associated him with quote that demon's story.

1018
01:34:06.600 --> 01:34:10.680
In the lawsuit press release, he flatly asserted his brother

1019
01:34:11.319 --> 01:34:17.359
was never possessed, just ill quote the entire family was

1020
01:34:17.439 --> 01:34:23.880
manipulated and exploited by the Warrens. Carl said, how did

1021
01:34:23.880 --> 01:34:30.960
Lorraine Warren respond to this serious accusation by doubling down? Lorraine,

1022
01:34:31.279 --> 01:34:35.319
then about eighty years old, defended the case as real.

1023
01:34:36.239 --> 01:34:39.800
She pointed out that the Catholic Church had been involved

1024
01:34:40.399 --> 01:34:47.600
quote six priests who participated in exorcisms agreed David was possessed,

1025
01:34:48.279 --> 01:34:54.960
Lorraine said, and she claimed quote tremendous documentation existed from

1026
01:34:55.000 --> 01:35:00.680
the church's investigation. Basically, her stance was he didn't make

1027
01:35:00.720 --> 01:35:05.720
this up. The highest religious authorities saw it too. Lorraine

1028
01:35:05.760 --> 01:35:12.119
also questioned Carl's motives. Quote after twenty something years, why

1029
01:35:12.199 --> 01:35:16.399
is this coming up now? What's behind it? She mused,

1030
01:35:17.000 --> 01:35:23.880
insinuating that Carl just wanted money or attention. Author Gerald

1031
01:35:23.920 --> 01:35:28.279
Briddle also defended his work. He said he spent over

1032
01:35:28.399 --> 01:35:33.960
one hundred hours interviewing the Glatzells and had tapes to

1033
01:35:34.079 --> 01:35:39.439
prove they endorsed the story. In fact, Brittle claimed the

1034
01:35:39.479 --> 01:35:44.159
family even signed off on the manuscript as accurate back

1035
01:35:44.199 --> 01:35:49.199
in nineteen eighty three. So Briddle's line was Carl's the

1036
01:35:49.239 --> 01:35:53.760
only one complaining and he has an agenda. Everyone else

1037
01:35:53.800 --> 01:35:57.119
in the family was on board when we published. It

1038
01:35:57.199 --> 01:36:03.359
became a he said, she said. Carl's lawsuit was eventually dismissed,

1039
01:36:03.960 --> 01:36:08.720
largely on technical grounds the Statute of limitations, since he

1040
01:36:08.880 --> 01:36:12.760
was suing after the reprint and not the original publication.

1041
01:36:13.960 --> 01:36:17.119
Brittle did agree to pull the book from print to

1042
01:36:17.239 --> 01:36:24.319
avoid further legal hassle, which might say something in itself. However,

1043
01:36:24.439 --> 01:36:29.439
Carl Glatzel's case is illuminating regardless of the legal outcome.

1044
01:36:30.119 --> 01:36:33.319
It demonstrates that at least some of the real people

1045
01:36:33.840 --> 01:36:40.680
behind the Warren's true stories felt harmed and misrepresented. Carl

1046
01:36:40.880 --> 01:36:47.039
essentially accused the Warrens of exploiting his family's trauma for profit.

1047
01:36:48.199 --> 01:36:53.039
It also highlights how the Warren's narrative often relied on

1048
01:36:53.119 --> 01:36:58.840
the co operation or silence of the families as long

1049
01:36:58.880 --> 01:37:04.199
as everyone went along the story stood, but once someone

1050
01:37:04.359 --> 01:37:09.720
like Carl objected, it exposed that the unanimous front was

1051
01:37:09.800 --> 01:37:16.800
not so solid after all. Another insider critic is Jack Smurle,

1052
01:37:17.479 --> 01:37:22.760
patriarch of the Smurle Haunting. While Jack and Janet Smurle

1053
01:37:22.920 --> 01:37:28.000
themselves mostly stood by their claims, they co authored The

1054
01:37:28.079 --> 01:37:33.359
Haunted with the Warrens after all other relatives had doubts.

1055
01:37:34.239 --> 01:37:39.720
Janet's mother was vocal that she never experienced anything supernatural

1056
01:37:39.760 --> 01:37:44.039
in the home, and a local priest who investigated the

1057
01:37:44.079 --> 01:37:49.399
Smurle case for the diocese, Father Alfredo Callerco, said he

1058
01:37:49.520 --> 01:37:53.600
found no evidence of a haunting and suggested the family's

1059
01:37:53.720 --> 01:37:59.079
issues might be medical or psychological. Janet Smirle had a

1060
01:37:59.199 --> 01:38:04.760
history of teen liberal lobe epilepsy, which can cause hallucinations.

1061
01:38:06.039 --> 01:38:10.439
Though the Warrens and Smirls pressed on with a demon explanation,

1062
01:38:11.319 --> 01:38:16.880
the church itself did not officially affirm it. The Warrens

1063
01:38:16.920 --> 01:38:21.920
sometimes clashed with church investigators. If a priest or bishop

1064
01:38:22.279 --> 01:38:27.079
didn't support their claims, ed would insinuate the clergyman was

1065
01:38:27.079 --> 01:38:33.079
inexperienced or in denial. This sometimes put them at odds

1066
01:38:33.560 --> 01:38:39.399
even with the church they championed. Perhaps the most startling

1067
01:38:39.560 --> 01:38:44.760
insider perspective comes not from a haunted family, but from

1068
01:38:44.760 --> 01:38:49.399
within the Warren's own household. This is the case of

1069
01:38:49.520 --> 01:38:54.720
Judith Penny, which remained hidden for decades until surfacing in

1070
01:38:54.760 --> 01:39:00.680
twenty fourteen via legal declarations tied to them the Conjuring

1071
01:39:00.800 --> 01:39:06.479
Film Franchisees litigation. According to Penny in a sworn testimony,

1072
01:39:07.319 --> 01:39:11.960
Ed Warren initiated a sexual relationship with her when she

1073
01:39:12.159 --> 01:39:18.600
was just fifteen years old around nineteen sixty three. Penny

1074
01:39:18.680 --> 01:39:22.520
says Ed was in his mid thirties, then working as

1075
01:39:22.560 --> 01:39:25.359
a city bus driver, and he met her as a

1076
01:39:25.439 --> 01:39:31.239
teen riding the bus. By nineteen sixty three, Penny alleges

1077
01:39:31.840 --> 01:39:35.760
she had moved into the Warren's home, with Lorraine being

1078
01:39:35.800 --> 01:39:40.760
aware of the situation. Effectively, she became Ed's live in lover.

1079
01:39:41.520 --> 01:39:45.119
While Lorraine, around thirty six years old at the time,

1080
01:39:46.000 --> 01:39:52.000
was fully aware and accepting of this highly unconventional arrangement,

1081
01:39:53.439 --> 01:40:05.800
Penny's account gets even more unsettling from there. In nineteen

1082
01:40:05.960 --> 01:40:10.439
sixty three, a neighbor found out about the situation, and

1083
01:40:10.600 --> 01:40:16.960
Judith was arrested for underage relations. A court apparently ordered

1084
01:40:17.000 --> 01:40:21.000
her to a delinquent youth program for a while Ed,

1085
01:40:21.199 --> 01:40:24.319
she says, would pick her up from high school and

1086
01:40:24.479 --> 01:40:29.840
drive her to these mandated meetings. To avoid scandal, Ed

1087
01:40:29.920 --> 01:40:34.800
and Lorraine allegedly told people Judith was a niece or

1088
01:40:34.960 --> 01:40:40.399
a poor girl they were helping out. This charade eventually

1089
01:40:40.560 --> 01:40:45.720
continued for years. Penny claimed that in nineteen seventy eight,

1090
01:40:46.239 --> 01:40:51.800
she even became pregnant with Ed's child, but Lorraine persuaded

1091
01:40:51.840 --> 01:40:55.399
her to get an abortion to prevent the affair from

1092
01:40:55.439 --> 01:41:02.079
coming to light and jeopardizing their ghost hunting business. If true,

1093
01:41:02.239 --> 01:41:07.560
that suggests Lorraine was complicit in maintaining a facade of

1094
01:41:07.600 --> 01:41:14.439
the happy, pious couple while tolerating Ed's sexual relationship with

1095
01:41:14.520 --> 01:41:20.760
a minor turned mistress. Moreover, Penny stated Ed could be

1096
01:41:21.119 --> 01:41:27.800
physically abusive toward Lorraine, alleging sometimes Ed would have to

1097
01:41:27.880 --> 01:41:31.399
slap her across the face to shut her up. Some

1098
01:41:31.520 --> 01:41:33.800
nights I thought they were going to kill each other.

1099
01:41:35.079 --> 01:41:39.119
This paints an ugly picture of their home life, far

1100
01:41:39.239 --> 01:41:43.760
removed from the loving partnership depicted in books and films.

1101
01:41:44.800 --> 01:41:48.840
Penny says she stayed with Ed until the early two thousands,

1102
01:41:49.399 --> 01:41:54.039
over four decades, effectively as part of the Warren household,

1103
01:41:54.560 --> 01:41:59.640
until Ed's death in two thousand and six, she expressed

1104
01:41:59.680 --> 01:42:05.119
deep regret and confusion as to quote, while Lorraine let

1105
01:42:05.159 --> 01:42:08.119
me stay there, I screwed up my life like this,

1106
01:42:09.199 --> 01:42:16.239
indicating she felt exploited and emotionally damaged. These allegations only

1107
01:42:16.279 --> 01:42:21.279
became public because of a lawsuit different from Glatzell's involving

1108
01:42:21.319 --> 01:42:26.319
film producers and authors fighting over the Conjuring franchise's prophets,

1109
01:42:27.000 --> 01:42:32.000
where Penny's story was used to question the Warren's public image.

1110
01:42:32.640 --> 01:42:36.840
Warner Brothers lawyers called it hearsay being weaponized by a

1111
01:42:37.079 --> 01:42:42.600
disgruntled author with a vendetta, referring to Gerald Briddle, who

1112
01:42:42.680 --> 01:42:47.199
was suing them at the time. Lorraine's attorney, Gary Barkin,

1113
01:42:47.720 --> 01:42:52.960
denied Judith was Ed's lover, insisting quote the Warrens opened

1114
01:42:52.960 --> 01:42:56.520
their home to miss Penny when she was eighteen and

1115
01:42:56.640 --> 01:43:00.560
had nowhere to go. She lived and watched the house

1116
01:43:00.640 --> 01:43:05.319
while Ed and Lorraine or on the road. In other words,

1117
01:43:05.680 --> 01:43:09.640
the official line was we were just helping a troubled team.

1118
01:43:10.239 --> 01:43:15.680
Nothing inappropriate happened. She was like a housekeeper. The attorney

1119
01:43:15.760 --> 01:43:19.680
also claimed the family had no knowledge of any affair.

1120
01:43:20.680 --> 01:43:26.680
Of course, that denial is somewhat inconsistent with Penny's detailed account.

1121
01:43:27.479 --> 01:43:32.039
For instance, she says she was fifteen when it all started,

1122
01:43:32.680 --> 01:43:38.479
not eighteen. To date, Penny's allegations haven't been adjudicated in

1123
01:43:38.560 --> 01:43:44.239
court or thoroughly investigated by media beyond the initial Hollywood

1124
01:43:44.279 --> 01:43:49.159
reporter story that broke it. Lorraine was in her nineties

1125
01:43:49.199 --> 01:43:53.119
and in declining health by that point, and she passed

1126
01:43:53.159 --> 01:44:00.920
away shortly after without ever publicly addressing the specifics. For some,

1127
01:44:01.119 --> 01:44:04.880
the Penny story is a sordid footnote, irrelevant to the

1128
01:44:04.880 --> 01:44:11.640
Warren's paranormal claims, but for others it's profoundly significant. It

1129
01:44:11.760 --> 01:44:15.800
suggests Ed and Lorraine were not who they appeared to

1130
01:44:15.880 --> 01:44:20.279
be morally, and that they were capable of maintaining a

1131
01:44:20.399 --> 01:44:25.079
long term deception like the illusion of a monogamous marriage,

1132
01:44:25.760 --> 01:44:30.560
in order to protect their image. If they could fool

1133
01:44:30.600 --> 01:44:35.119
the world about something as fundamental as their living arrangements,

1134
01:44:35.600 --> 01:44:41.159
critics argue, what else could they be hiding or misrepresenting?

1135
01:44:42.119 --> 01:44:48.399
In summary, the voices from inside the Warren, Mythos, Ray Garton,

1136
01:44:48.840 --> 01:44:55.600
Carl Glatzel, Judith Penny, and others provide a stark counter narrative.

1137
01:44:56.520 --> 01:45:01.960
They speak of invented incidents, pressured or vulnerable people, and

1138
01:45:02.119 --> 01:45:08.319
priorities of money and fame over truth. They suggest that

1139
01:45:08.359 --> 01:45:13.119
when the Warrens declared something a demonic haunting, it might

1140
01:45:13.199 --> 01:45:19.000
actually have been a family's personal struggles or outright fabrications

1141
01:45:19.560 --> 01:45:26.239
molded into a saleable story. Importantly, these whistleblowers highlight a

1142
01:45:26.319 --> 01:45:30.119
pattern the Warrens often worked with people who were in

1143
01:45:30.239 --> 01:45:36.399
some kind of distress or crisis, illness, financial trouble, or

1144
01:45:36.439 --> 01:45:42.680
personal trauma. It was precisely those people's stories that became

1145
01:45:42.840 --> 01:45:50.560
sensational hauntings. Skeptics suggest the Warrens possibly exploited these crises,

1146
01:45:51.199 --> 01:45:55.880
intentionally or not, by fitting them into a demonic framework

1147
01:45:56.439 --> 01:46:02.439
and then monetizing that framework. We should note, however, that

1148
01:46:02.600 --> 01:46:06.960
not every family turned on the Warrens. The Paron family,

1149
01:46:07.079 --> 01:46:12.840
for instance, while acknowledging the Hollywood movie was exaggerated, has

1150
01:46:12.960 --> 01:46:18.840
not accused the Warrens of any wrongdoing. In fact, Andrea

1151
01:46:18.960 --> 01:46:23.920
Paron remains on friendly terms with Lorraine's team and still

1152
01:46:23.960 --> 01:46:29.000
asserts her haunting was genuine, though she doesn't blame the

1153
01:46:29.039 --> 01:46:33.479
Warrens for being kicked out by her father. The Smirls

1154
01:46:33.560 --> 01:46:38.920
remained believers, and there are surely many cases the Warrens claimed,

1155
01:46:39.039 --> 01:46:45.159
thousands we'll never hear about, presumably where folks quietly moved on,

1156
01:46:46.039 --> 01:46:51.000
either helped by the Warren's council, or at least feeling validated.

1157
01:46:52.119 --> 01:46:56.920
None the less, the pattern of significant cases unraveling under

1158
01:46:57.000 --> 01:47:02.600
scrutiny is hard to ignore. Now it's time to dissect

1159
01:47:02.760 --> 01:47:09.359
those inconsistencies and debunct elements case by case to see

1160
01:47:09.439 --> 01:47:15.359
how the legend of the Warrens fares against documented reality.

1161
01:47:16.680 --> 01:47:25.319
Let's revisit those five big cases, Amityville, Annabelle, the Pairon Farmhouse, Enfield,

1162
01:47:25.840 --> 01:47:30.399
and the Snedeker House, but now under the cold light

1163
01:47:30.640 --> 01:47:36.520
of facts and contradictions. The goal here is not to

1164
01:47:36.640 --> 01:47:40.439
mock belief in the paranormal, but to see whether the

1165
01:47:40.479 --> 01:47:45.800
specific claims made by the Warrens hold up as well

1166
01:47:45.840 --> 01:47:59.680
as where they fall apart. First, Amityville. Perhaps no haunting

1167
01:47:59.760 --> 01:48:06.319
has been more thoroughly debunked than Amityville, ironically the one

1168
01:48:06.359 --> 01:48:11.439
that started the war in Celebrity journalist Rick Moran and

1169
01:48:11.640 --> 01:48:16.960
others found numerous holes in the Lutz's story. For instance,

1170
01:48:17.520 --> 01:48:21.199
the Lutz family said they called the police multiple times

1171
01:48:21.760 --> 01:48:27.840
during the haunting, but records show no calls. They claimed

1172
01:48:28.000 --> 01:48:32.239
cloven hoof prints were found in the snow, but weather

1173
01:48:32.359 --> 01:48:39.199
records show no snow on those dates. Neighbors saw nothing unusual.

1174
01:48:39.960 --> 01:48:45.840
And then there's the bombshell. William Webber, attorney for the

1175
01:48:45.880 --> 01:48:52.119
Dafao murderer, admitted publicly in nineteen seventy nine that he

1176
01:48:52.359 --> 01:48:57.880
and the Lutzes invented the horror story quote over many

1177
01:48:58.399 --> 01:49:03.560
bottles of wine. Weber had hoped a demon angle might

1178
01:49:03.640 --> 01:49:07.359
help his client, or at least make money from a

1179
01:49:07.399 --> 01:49:13.079
book deal. Jay Andsen's book was indeed a lucrative project,

1180
01:49:13.880 --> 01:49:20.079
so essentially one of the original architects of Amityville confessed

1181
01:49:20.239 --> 01:49:25.800
it was a hoax for profit. Stephen and Roxanne Kaplan's

1182
01:49:25.920 --> 01:49:31.720
nineteen seventy nine investigation came to the same conclusion. They

1183
01:49:31.800 --> 01:49:35.920
called the whole thing a hoax and wrote The Amityville

1184
01:49:36.000 --> 01:49:43.399
Horror Conspiracy, detailing the inconsistencies. But what about the Warrens.

1185
01:49:44.239 --> 01:49:48.840
They stuck to their guns that Amityville was real and dangerous,

1186
01:49:49.479 --> 01:49:54.359
even as evidence of a hoax piled up. Skeptics argue

1187
01:49:54.399 --> 01:49:58.680
the Warrens had every reason to cling to Amityville's vorocity.

1188
01:49:59.479 --> 01:50:04.319
It was, after all, their claim to fame. If Amityville

1189
01:50:04.560 --> 01:50:10.600
was fake, their credibility would suffer. They've been criticized in

1190
01:50:10.640 --> 01:50:15.199
the past for ignoring evidence. Benjamin Radford points out that

1191
01:50:15.359 --> 01:50:21.680
eye witness testimony and forensic evidence flatly contradict key elements

1192
01:50:21.720 --> 01:50:26.960
of the Warren's version. This raises a question. Did Ed

1193
01:50:27.039 --> 01:50:32.920
and Lorraine truly experience something in that house or were

1194
01:50:32.960 --> 01:50:38.119
they simply eager to validate the Lutz's story. We know

1195
01:50:38.239 --> 01:50:42.720
the Warrens weren't present during the actual LUTs haunting, they

1196
01:50:42.760 --> 01:50:48.239
went in afterward. If the Lutzes fabricated things, the Warrens

1197
01:50:48.279 --> 01:50:54.239
could only experience an empty house except for whatever atmosphere

1198
01:50:54.560 --> 01:50:59.840
they brought with them, It's conceivable the Warrens spooked themselves

1199
01:51:00.560 --> 01:51:05.600
or outright fibbed about experiences like Ed being thrown by

1200
01:51:05.680 --> 01:51:12.720
a spirit. Regardless, today, Amityville is widely regarded as fictional,

1201
01:51:13.520 --> 01:51:20.000
Yet the Warren's promotional materials never conceded that this willingness

1202
01:51:20.039 --> 01:51:25.359
to endorse a probable hoax calls into question their discernment

1203
01:51:26.079 --> 01:51:33.720
or honesty. With Annabel. We enter Murkier Territory. Because the

1204
01:51:33.840 --> 01:51:39.439
case relies entirely on the Warren's word, we have the

1205
01:51:39.520 --> 01:51:44.720
testimonies of Donna and Angie the nurses as relayed by

1206
01:51:44.760 --> 01:51:51.640
the Warrens, but not much independent verification. The events moving doll,

1207
01:51:52.079 --> 01:51:57.119
parchment notes scratches on a young man are frankly things

1208
01:51:57.159 --> 01:52:02.640
that could be pranks or misremembered incidents. No one outside

1209
01:52:02.720 --> 01:52:08.319
the immediate circle saw the doll move. The Warrens jumped

1210
01:52:08.359 --> 01:52:13.600
to the conclusion of demon based on their own demonology framework.

1211
01:52:14.239 --> 01:52:18.039
Another investigator might have thought it was a spirit or

1212
01:52:18.720 --> 01:52:24.199
nothing at all. The question of authenticity here rests on trust.

1213
01:52:25.319 --> 01:52:29.359
Do we trust the Warren's account They did keep the

1214
01:52:29.399 --> 01:52:35.960
doll locked up, but skeptics would say that's just theater. Notably,

1215
01:52:36.319 --> 01:52:40.159
some skeptics, like Joe Nickel, point out that raggedy a

1216
01:52:40.439 --> 01:52:45.079
dolls don't walk if it was found in different positions,

1217
01:52:45.680 --> 01:52:48.960
could it be someone in the household moving it for

1218
01:52:49.119 --> 01:52:56.439
fun or simply memory playing tricks. Without evidence, Annabel is

1219
01:52:56.479 --> 01:53:00.840
a great spooky story, but not proof of the paranormal.

1220
01:53:01.800 --> 01:53:05.640
Even the supposed fatal motorcycle accident of the young man

1221
01:53:05.960 --> 01:53:11.039
who taunted the doll is hard to confirm. Names were

1222
01:53:11.039 --> 01:53:15.039
never given. It has the feel of an urban legend,

1223
01:53:15.520 --> 01:53:20.079
amplified by the Warrens, who certainly had motive to discourage

1224
01:53:20.119 --> 01:53:26.920
people from mocking their prized exhibit. In summary, Annabel's case

1225
01:53:27.119 --> 01:53:32.439
hasn't been debunked per se, but it's on tenuous ground

1226
01:53:33.119 --> 01:53:39.239
reliance solely on anecdotes, and given the other credibility issues

1227
01:53:39.319 --> 01:53:43.680
swirling around the Warrens, one has to consider the possibility

1228
01:53:44.159 --> 01:53:50.239
that Annabel's legend grew with retellings. The doll, after all,

1229
01:53:50.880 --> 01:53:56.119
makes for a perfect iconic centerpiece in the occult museum,

1230
01:53:56.479 --> 01:54:01.159
whether truly cursed or not. When it comes to the

1231
01:54:01.239 --> 01:54:06.000
Paron family and the so called Conjuring House, thanks to

1232
01:54:06.079 --> 01:54:10.760
Andrea Paran's extensive memoirs House of Darkness, House of Light,

1233
01:54:11.399 --> 01:54:15.279
as well as interviews, we have a pretty full picture

1234
01:54:15.560 --> 01:54:21.640
of this case. The Parans absolutely experienced something, but the

1235
01:54:21.680 --> 01:54:27.880
interpretation varies. Andrea's view is that there were multiple spirits,

1236
01:54:28.640 --> 01:54:32.600
not all evil, and the family eventually came to some

1237
01:54:32.720 --> 01:54:38.479
kind of truce with them. She doesn't actually blame Bathsheba's

1238
01:54:38.520 --> 01:54:44.680
ghost for everything bad. That was more the Warren's theory. Importantly,

1239
01:54:45.359 --> 01:54:49.079
the Parons never had the house cleansed while they lived there.

1240
01:54:49.680 --> 01:54:55.039
They endured until moving out. The Warren's involvement was brief,

1241
01:54:55.199 --> 01:55:01.119
but indeed dramatic with that seance gone wrong. From a

1242
01:55:01.159 --> 01:55:05.159
critical perspective, what happened in the seance could have been

1243
01:55:05.199 --> 01:55:12.119
induced by the power of suggestion or even stress. Carolyn

1244
01:55:12.239 --> 01:55:16.920
Parron was already under strain. The Warrens repeatedly told her

1245
01:55:17.039 --> 01:55:22.439
she was in danger of possession. Under that psychological weight,

1246
01:55:23.199 --> 01:55:27.079
it is plausible she entered a sort of trance or

1247
01:55:27.319 --> 01:55:32.439
had a fainting spell during the seance, which everyone then

1248
01:55:32.479 --> 01:55:38.359
interpreted as a sort of demonic attack. Psychologists call this

1249
01:55:38.960 --> 01:55:44.560
mass suggestibility in high tension events. The fact that Roger

1250
01:55:44.680 --> 01:55:49.720
threw the Warrens out indicates he felt their intention was harmful,

1251
01:55:50.319 --> 01:55:56.319
not helpful. Indeed, one could argue that the Warrens made

1252
01:55:56.439 --> 01:56:02.199
things worse for the Parons, not better, by stirring up panic.

1253
01:56:03.159 --> 01:56:07.600
The Paron case lacks physical evidence. It is a collection

1254
01:56:07.800 --> 01:56:14.920
of subjective experiences. Opposing viewpoints even among the family exist.

1255
01:56:15.600 --> 01:56:19.479
One of the younger Paron daughters later said she never

1256
01:56:19.560 --> 01:56:25.199
saw anything and slept through all the commotion. The Warrens

1257
01:56:25.279 --> 01:56:30.079
claim that Bathsheba was the culprit witch spirit also doesn't

1258
01:56:30.119 --> 01:56:35.520
hold historical water. Bathsheba Sherman was a real person, but

1259
01:56:35.800 --> 01:56:39.800
there's zero evidence that she was a satanist or murderer.

1260
01:56:40.680 --> 01:56:45.039
The legend was a local myth at best, So one

1261
01:56:45.119 --> 01:56:51.000
inconsistency is that the Warrens confidently identified an entity by

1262
01:56:51.119 --> 01:56:56.439
name that might have been nothing more than folklore. But

1263
01:56:57.399 --> 01:57:01.000
what did later owners of the claim and most haunted

1264
01:57:01.039 --> 01:57:12.640
house in America experience when they moved in? Later owners

1265
01:57:12.680 --> 01:57:18.960
of the house have said they experienced nothing unusual, which

1266
01:57:19.039 --> 01:57:24.560
suggests that maybe the Paron's own dynamics. Five kids in

1267
01:57:24.600 --> 01:57:29.439
a drafty old house, financial troubles, marital strain from the

1268
01:57:29.479 --> 01:57:37.760
haunting stress created an atmosphere for perceived paranormal activity. To skeptics,

1269
01:57:38.159 --> 01:57:42.840
the Paron haunting could be a case of misinterpretation of

1270
01:57:42.960 --> 01:57:50.159
natural noises combined with vivid imaginations influenced by local ghost stories.

1271
01:57:51.039 --> 01:57:56.760
It's telling that the Warren's supposedly authoritative involvement didn't resolve

1272
01:57:56.840 --> 01:58:02.119
a thing. It ended with them leaving in defeat. That

1273
01:58:02.359 --> 01:58:06.920
undermines the notion that they had some special powers to

1274
01:58:07.039 --> 01:58:12.359
combat demons. In this case, they retreated and the family

1275
01:58:12.479 --> 01:58:19.319
lived on haunted for years. That reality is far messier

1276
01:58:19.840 --> 01:58:24.840
than the neat and tidy feature film version. Now we

1277
01:58:24.880 --> 01:58:29.079
move our attention to Enfield. This one has been dissected

1278
01:58:29.119 --> 01:58:34.760
by the spr investigators in detail. The consensus among many,

1279
01:58:35.079 --> 01:58:40.359
though not all, investigators, is that the Hodgson girls faked

1280
01:58:40.399 --> 01:58:44.439
some of the phenomena in order to get attention. They

1281
01:58:44.439 --> 01:58:50.399
were caught on occasion bending spoons or tipping chairs. However,

1282
01:58:50.880 --> 01:58:55.479
Maurice Gross and Guy Playfair believed that while the girls

1283
01:58:55.520 --> 01:59:00.079
may have exaggerated at times, there was a core of

1284
01:59:00.199 --> 01:59:07.600
genuine poltergeist activity, like furniture moving without explanation, which they witnessed.

1285
01:59:08.600 --> 01:59:12.520
But where do the Warrens fit? As noted, they had

1286
01:59:13.039 --> 01:59:19.279
minimal access. Guy Playfair was unequivocal that the Warrens showed

1287
01:59:19.359 --> 01:59:25.479
up and immediately sensationalized the case, offering to make it profitable.

1288
01:59:26.520 --> 01:59:31.920
He didn't take them seriously. Indeed, no official report from

1289
01:59:31.960 --> 01:59:38.680
the Enfield case includes anything the Warrens contributed, except Lorraine's

1290
01:59:38.760 --> 01:59:45.239
later public statements agreeing it was demonic. The Warrens didn't

1291
01:59:45.239 --> 01:59:50.000
publish a report or book on Enfield, so any claimed

1292
01:59:50.000 --> 01:59:56.479
that they investigated is tenuous. At best, they simply dropped by.

1293
01:59:57.520 --> 02:00:01.399
Yet the Conjuring Two film gives gives the impression they

1294
02:00:01.520 --> 02:00:08.439
were deeply involved an invention for dramatic purposes. This highlights

1295
02:00:08.479 --> 02:00:13.760
a broader pattern. The Warren's actual role in cases is

1296
02:00:13.840 --> 02:00:20.479
sometimes exaggerated in later retellings, whether by themselves or others.

1297
02:00:21.439 --> 02:00:26.319
In Enfield, the critique is they tried to inject themselves

1298
02:00:26.359 --> 02:00:31.279
into someone else's investigation, perhaps to attach their name to

1299
02:00:31.399 --> 02:00:36.279
a high profile case, and were rebuffed for it. That

1300
02:00:36.399 --> 02:00:40.920
doesn't reflect well. It suggests a bit of clout chasing,

1301
02:00:41.600 --> 02:00:46.640
and the fact that Ed allegedly fabricated a sensational interview

1302
02:00:46.720 --> 02:00:51.760
transcript with Janet, which Playfair said the girl did not recall,

1303
02:00:51.880 --> 02:00:56.399
giving hints that Ed might not have been above making

1304
02:00:56.439 --> 02:01:00.920
things up in order to boost a story. Now we

1305
02:01:01.079 --> 02:01:06.279
finally land back at the Snedeker House the Southington Haunting.

1306
02:01:07.359 --> 02:01:11.079
We've already covered much of the debunking here thanks to

1307
02:01:11.199 --> 02:01:16.840
Nichol and Garten. This case, when deconstructed, looks very bad

1308
02:01:17.000 --> 02:01:22.199
for the Warren's credibility. The timeline of events haunting claims

1309
02:01:22.279 --> 02:01:25.760
crescendo exactly when a book deal is inked and an

1310
02:01:25.760 --> 02:01:31.800
eviction looms, is indeed suspicious. The repetition of claims from

1311
02:01:31.840 --> 02:01:35.720
the Smirl case, like demon rape, for instance, makes it

1312
02:01:35.800 --> 02:01:40.960
seem like the Warrens were recycling a narrative template. The

1313
02:01:41.039 --> 02:01:46.079
direct witness testimony from the neighbors and clergy basically indicates

1314
02:01:46.199 --> 02:01:51.479
nothing supernatural happened in that house that couldn't be explained

1315
02:01:52.479 --> 02:01:56.640
ad Garton's revelation of being told to embellish and the

1316
02:01:56.720 --> 02:02:02.760
Sun's misdeeds explaining phenomena, and it's pretty much a case closed.

1317
02:02:04.039 --> 02:02:08.039
The Snedeker Haunting, as sold to the public, was largely

1318
02:02:08.279 --> 02:02:12.720
a work of fiction. Nickel even uncovered that after the

1319
02:02:12.760 --> 02:02:17.680
Warren's left, Carmen Snedeker's landlord had a priest blessed the

1320
02:02:17.760 --> 02:02:22.079
house and then rented it out to new tenants who

1321
02:02:22.159 --> 02:02:28.039
reported zero problems. If a place is truly infested with demons,

1322
02:02:28.720 --> 02:02:33.560
one wouldn't expect the next family to live peacefully. The

1323
02:02:33.600 --> 02:02:39.520
silence of subsequent tenants is telling. It implies the demons

1324
02:02:40.119 --> 02:02:44.920
left when the story did, or, more bluntly, the demons

1325
02:02:45.079 --> 02:02:50.079
were likely a concoction and not a reality anchored to

1326
02:02:50.199 --> 02:02:57.560
that location. This systematic breakdown reveals one consistent theme. The

1327
02:02:57.600 --> 02:03:01.000
more evidence we seek for a warre and case, the

1328
02:03:01.079 --> 02:03:06.560
more it dissolves into normalcy or deception. Their biggest cases

1329
02:03:06.680 --> 02:03:11.840
either have been discredited, like Amityville, or have zero verifiable

1330
02:03:11.880 --> 02:03:17.760
evidence like Annabelle, or involved them only peripherally such as

1331
02:03:17.760 --> 02:03:22.560
an Enfield, or or co created with people who later

1332
02:03:22.680 --> 02:03:28.119
cried foul, like Snedeker with the Devil in Connecticut. None

1333
02:03:28.199 --> 02:03:32.199
of this is to say Ed and Lorraine never sincerely

1334
02:03:32.319 --> 02:03:37.439
helped anyone, or that all their cases were fraudulent. Many

1335
02:03:37.520 --> 02:03:41.000
families who called them may have been comforted by their

1336
02:03:41.039 --> 02:03:46.720
belief and prayers, But from an investigative standpoint, the Warren's

1337
02:03:46.800 --> 02:03:51.479
legacy is built on accounts that are not reproducible or

1338
02:03:51.560 --> 02:03:57.880
independently verified. In fields like science or law, such anecdotes

1339
02:03:57.960 --> 02:04:04.520
aren't considered to be relied bible. As one Reddit commentator quipped, quote,

1340
02:04:05.000 --> 02:04:10.239
they sold themselves as experts, and they were great at selling.

1341
02:04:11.039 --> 02:04:14.600
But when you look for the substance behind the showmanship,

1342
02:04:16.000 --> 02:04:20.720
it is truly lacking. Why did the Warrens become so

1343
02:04:21.000 --> 02:04:27.039
famous and influential despite the shaky foundations of their stories.

1344
02:04:27.840 --> 02:04:32.079
The answer lies partly in the cultural context of the

1345
02:04:32.159 --> 02:04:37.319
times and the savvy way Ed and Lorraine engaged with

1346
02:04:37.439 --> 02:04:42.560
the media. The Warrens heyday coincided with the late nineteen

1347
02:04:42.600 --> 02:04:47.439
seventies through the nineteen eighties, a period when America and

1348
02:04:47.560 --> 02:04:53.199
Britain were going through the so called Satanic Panic. There

1349
02:04:53.279 --> 02:04:58.560
was widespread fear of Satanic cults, demonic possession, and occult

1350
02:04:58.640 --> 02:05:04.600
influences on youth, such as the hysteria around dungeons and dragons,

1351
02:05:05.079 --> 02:05:11.600
heavy metal music, daycare, sex abuse, cases with supposed Satanic rituals,

1352
02:05:11.640 --> 02:05:22.199
and many more such claims. While the Warrens were not

1353
02:05:22.439 --> 02:05:27.960
directly involved in most of those specific moral panics, their

1354
02:05:28.039 --> 02:05:34.000
work certainly fed into the general demon fearing atmosphere. They

1355
02:05:34.079 --> 02:05:39.119
would lecture church groups warning that evil is real, the

1356
02:05:39.279 --> 02:05:46.119
devil is real, which resonated with evangelical and Catholic audiences

1357
02:05:46.680 --> 02:05:53.520
worried about societal decline. They often stressed that seemingly innocuous

1358
02:05:53.560 --> 02:05:59.680
practices like Ouiji boards or witchcraft could open doors to

1359
02:05:59.840 --> 02:06:07.279
literal demons, a classic panic narrative. Essentially, the Warrens provided

1360
02:06:07.680 --> 02:06:13.640
real life validation to people's worst fears. Yes, demons are

1361
02:06:13.680 --> 02:06:19.520
out there stealing souls in suburban Connecticut. This played right

1362
02:06:19.600 --> 02:06:26.079
into the anxieties of the era. They became go to demonologists,

1363
02:06:26.720 --> 02:06:31.680
just as the cultural appetite for them had peaud media

1364
02:06:31.800 --> 02:06:37.920
sensationalism further amplified their profile. Ed and Lorraine cultivated media

1365
02:06:38.039 --> 02:06:44.319
relationships shamelessly. They appeared on daytime talk shows that thrived

1366
02:06:44.399 --> 02:06:50.039
on shocking stories. For example, they turned the Snedecker case

1367
02:06:50.439 --> 02:06:54.600
into compelling television by bringing the family on the Sally

1368
02:06:54.680 --> 02:07:01.600
Jesse Raphael Show, dramatically recounting demon attacks to a horrified audience.

1369
02:07:02.680 --> 02:07:08.079
Tabloid newspapers lapped it up with headlines like demonic presence

1370
02:07:08.439 --> 02:07:12.840
said to plague family. One local paper's headline about the

1371
02:07:12.880 --> 02:07:20.399
Snedeckers was cheekily telling quote, couple seize ghost skeptics see

1372
02:07:20.439 --> 02:07:25.960
through it. That about captures the dichotomy of public reaction.

1373
02:07:26.840 --> 02:07:30.920
But the fact is the ghost part made the front

1374
02:07:30.960 --> 02:07:37.000
page and the skeptic rebuttal was a subheading. The Warrens

1375
02:07:37.119 --> 02:07:41.439
understood that the media loves a good story more than

1376
02:07:41.479 --> 02:07:46.279
it loves a thorough fact check. Audiences rarely saw the

1377
02:07:46.399 --> 02:07:52.439
follow up where neighbors or investigators debunked the case. They

1378
02:07:52.520 --> 02:07:56.800
remembered the thrilling tale of a family under siege by

1379
02:07:57.279 --> 02:08:03.279
hellish forces. As Disrupt's magazine noted, the Warrens were adept

1380
02:08:03.319 --> 02:08:11.600
at leveraging various platforms to share their experiences. TV radio magazines.

1381
02:08:12.000 --> 02:08:18.680
All were regular outlets, and Ed's assertive personality complemented Lorraine's

1382
02:08:19.039 --> 02:08:25.279
serene demeanor in engaging audiences. In other words, they made

1383
02:08:25.359 --> 02:08:30.319
for great TV. Ed the blunt, ex cop type talking

1384
02:08:30.359 --> 02:08:36.399
about demonology and Lorraine the sweet, grandmotherly psychic. It was

1385
02:08:36.439 --> 02:08:43.399
an irresistible combo of spooky and wholesome. They were characterized

1386
02:08:43.439 --> 02:08:49.800
in press releases as kindly pious ghost hunters helping desperate people,

1387
02:08:50.319 --> 02:08:55.039
which created a narrative of altruism all around them. But

1388
02:08:55.279 --> 02:08:59.239
as skeptic Kenny Biddle has pointed out, many of those

1389
02:08:59.640 --> 02:09:06.119
medium appearances were light on evidence and heavy on anecdote.

1390
02:09:06.199 --> 02:09:11.319
The Warrens rarely, if ever, shared raw data for outside analysis.

1391
02:09:12.119 --> 02:09:15.680
It was all, here's a spooky photo we took, or

1392
02:09:16.279 --> 02:09:22.439
listen to this creepy audio, Ambiguous items that believers could

1393
02:09:22.439 --> 02:09:30.239
get excited about, but skeptics could reasonably explain or doubt. Financially,

1394
02:09:30.880 --> 02:09:34.760
Ed and Lorraine built a cottage industry from their demonology.

1395
02:09:35.800 --> 02:09:38.840
Let's talk a little about the money trail, as it

1396
02:09:38.920 --> 02:09:44.399
often explains motives. The Warrens always claimed they did not

1397
02:09:45.159 --> 02:09:50.239
charge for investigations, which may be true. At least there's

1398
02:09:50.359 --> 02:09:54.279
no evidence they had a fee, like some psychic mediums

1399
02:09:54.399 --> 02:10:00.000
often do, but they certainly monetized their cases in other words.

1400
02:10:01.159 --> 02:10:07.880
Most notably was books, starting with The Demonologist in nineteen eighty,

1401
02:10:08.319 --> 02:10:14.479
which recounted their early career. Nearly every famous case became

1402
02:10:14.600 --> 02:10:19.479
a paperback. These books sold well to horror fans and

1403
02:10:19.680 --> 02:10:24.239
believers alike. They typically had the Warren's name on the

1404
02:10:24.319 --> 02:10:30.199
cover for credibility, alongside an actual authors who had done

1405
02:10:30.239 --> 02:10:35.439
the writing. Royalties and advances from these would flow partly

1406
02:10:35.840 --> 02:10:39.880
to the Warrens. When Brittle sued Warner Brothers in two

1407
02:10:39.960 --> 02:10:45.479
thy seventeen, it came out that The Demonologist alone had

1408
02:10:45.520 --> 02:10:50.880
sold over one hundred thousand copies in its first run,

1409
02:10:51.640 --> 02:10:57.000
and interest researched after the Conjuring movies, so they made

1410
02:10:57.000 --> 02:11:02.159
a tidy sum from book deals. Another source of income

1411
02:11:02.880 --> 02:11:07.279
was the lecture circuit. Throughout the eighties and nineties, the

1412
02:11:07.319 --> 02:11:13.960
Warren spoke at hundreds of venues, universities, church gatherings, even

1413
02:11:14.239 --> 02:11:19.600
high school assemblies on Halloween. Often these were paid gigs.

1414
02:11:20.199 --> 02:11:23.560
A college might pay a few thousand dollars for a

1415
02:11:23.600 --> 02:11:29.920
single appearance. They also sometimes charged admission for special talks

1416
02:11:30.119 --> 02:11:36.720
or demonology classes ed ran his own College of Demonology

1417
02:11:37.039 --> 02:11:41.319
out of his house at one point, basically evening classes

1418
02:11:41.359 --> 02:11:47.880
for local curiosity seekers. Lecture income wasn't astronomical, but it

1419
02:11:48.039 --> 02:11:52.319
was steady, and combined with book sales, gave them a living.

1420
02:11:53.399 --> 02:11:56.760
Ed had retired from the police force or from being

1421
02:11:56.800 --> 02:12:01.239
a bus driver. Accounts vary, and this was their full

1422
02:12:01.319 --> 02:12:07.960
time vocation. Another source, especially later on, were media rights.

1423
02:12:08.960 --> 02:12:12.840
The Warrens were quite business savvy in optioning their stories

1424
02:12:12.880 --> 02:12:18.239
for film and TV. The Amityville case yielded multiple movies,

1425
02:12:18.439 --> 02:12:22.720
though indirectly as Jay Anson and the Lutzes had the

1426
02:12:22.760 --> 02:12:27.640
main rights. The Warrens were directly involved as consultants on

1427
02:12:27.720 --> 02:12:31.359
The Haunted, the nineteen ninety one TV movie about the

1428
02:12:31.399 --> 02:12:35.479
Smurl case the Haunting in Connecticut. They weren't in it,

1429
02:12:35.600 --> 02:12:39.840
but they likely got some royalty from the underlying books adaptation.

1430
02:12:41.199 --> 02:12:45.279
The big payday obviously came with The Conjuring from twenty

1431
02:12:45.520 --> 02:12:50.640
thirteen and its sequels and spin offs. Lorraine Warren was

1432
02:12:50.720 --> 02:12:54.680
a consultant on The Conjuring, even making a cameo in

1433
02:12:54.720 --> 02:12:59.399
the promotional videos, and according to reports, the Warrens or

1434
02:13:00.119 --> 02:13:03.359
Rain and Ed's estate had made a deal with New

1435
02:13:03.399 --> 02:13:07.239
Line Cinema Warner Brothers for rights to their case files.

1436
02:13:08.239 --> 02:13:13.680
This is particularly interesting. Brittle claimed he had exclusive rights

1437
02:13:14.119 --> 02:13:19.399
via his nineteen seventies contract, but apparently the Warrens or

1438
02:13:20.039 --> 02:13:23.880
perhaps their son in law who managed the estate, sold

1439
02:13:24.039 --> 02:13:29.640
overlapping rights to the studio that turned into the lawsuit,

1440
02:13:29.720 --> 02:13:35.359
where Warner Brothers argued these stories are historical facts in

1441
02:13:35.399 --> 02:13:40.520
the public domain in order to avoid paying Brittle. Ultimately,

1442
02:13:40.600 --> 02:13:45.319
Warner Brothers settled regardless. By the end of her life,

1443
02:13:45.600 --> 02:13:51.439
Lorraine likely saw substantial money, perhaps not nine hundred million

1444
02:13:51.560 --> 02:13:55.920
dollars as Brittle sued for, but certainly in the hundreds

1445
02:13:55.960 --> 02:14:00.600
of thousands, if not few million, for the sale of rights.

1446
02:14:01.880 --> 02:14:06.079
The occult Museum's current operators, the Warren's daughter and son

1447
02:14:06.119 --> 02:14:11.159
in law, have also capitalized on the conjuring craze, doing

1448
02:14:11.199 --> 02:14:15.880
Annabelle tours at horror conventions, etc. Which appear to be

1449
02:14:16.039 --> 02:14:21.439
profitable enterprises. People pay fifty dollars or more just for

1450
02:14:21.520 --> 02:14:26.600
a photo op with the supposed cursed doll While Ed

1451
02:14:26.840 --> 02:14:30.520
was alive, they would open the museum in Monroe for

1452
02:14:30.680 --> 02:14:34.880
small groups that maybe five or ten dollars a head.

1453
02:14:35.319 --> 02:14:39.079
Reports say three dollars back in the early days a

1454
02:14:39.119 --> 02:14:44.279
token fee. Really it wasn't a cash cow. However, in

1455
02:14:44.439 --> 02:14:49.239
recent years, with zoning closing the home museum, the artifacts

1456
02:14:49.239 --> 02:14:53.880
are taken on the road to conventions like Scarefest, where

1457
02:14:53.920 --> 02:15:00.239
fans pay for the quote Warren occult museum exhibits. Some

1458
02:15:00.279 --> 02:15:03.960
have reported thirty five dollars for entry at an event.

1459
02:15:05.199 --> 02:15:09.239
The Warren Legacy is now a brand helded by their

1460
02:15:09.279 --> 02:15:13.840
son in law, Tony Sparra, who runs Nesper. They sell

1461
02:15:13.920 --> 02:15:20.319
merchandise online, annabl t shirts, etc. And hold annual Warrenology

1462
02:15:20.520 --> 02:15:25.960
conferences that can cost attendees hundreds of dollars for admission.

1463
02:15:27.039 --> 02:15:30.560
While this is after Ed and Lorraine, it's all built

1464
02:15:30.680 --> 02:15:36.800
on the foundation that they lay is chasing money inherently bad.

1465
02:15:37.520 --> 02:15:41.880
Not necessarily everyone needs to make a living, but the

1466
02:15:41.880 --> 02:15:47.960
potential for financial incentive to exaggerate or fabricate is clearly

1467
02:15:48.079 --> 02:15:52.720
present in the Warren's model. When a case could yield

1468
02:15:52.800 --> 02:15:57.439
a lucrative book or movie deal, the temptation to make

1469
02:15:57.479 --> 02:16:02.359
it as frightening and marketable as possible would be strong.

1470
02:16:03.399 --> 02:16:08.039
Joe Nickel once noted how the Snedeker's story seemed almost

1471
02:16:08.399 --> 02:16:13.119
tailor made for a Hollywood script and indeed it did

1472
02:16:13.239 --> 02:16:18.039
become one. He pointed out the formula quote, take a

1473
02:16:18.119 --> 02:16:22.960
house reeking of death, bring in a demonologist, commission a

1474
02:16:22.960 --> 02:16:28.039
writer to enhance alleged events, and hollywoodize the book into

1475
02:16:28.079 --> 02:16:34.239
a thriller flick. That formula very easily applied to Amityville,

1476
02:16:34.840 --> 02:16:41.000
to Snedeker, to Smirl, etc. It's hard to imagine it's

1477
02:16:41.040 --> 02:16:47.879
all just a simple coincidence. Although there is another aspect

1478
02:16:47.920 --> 02:16:53.200
to consider. What if the Warrens weren't entirely legitimate but

1479
02:16:53.360 --> 02:17:07.280
also were not outright frauds and hoaxters. It's worth considering

1480
02:17:08.000 --> 02:17:15.360
confirmation bias and exaggeration rather than outright fraud. It's possible

1481
02:17:15.440 --> 02:17:19.879
the Warrens began by It's possible the Warrens began by

1482
02:17:20.479 --> 02:17:27.040
genuinely investigating and just gradually started interpreting any odd thing

1483
02:17:27.239 --> 02:17:32.120
as supernatural, as the old saying goes, when you're a hammer,

1484
02:17:32.600 --> 02:17:38.920
everything looks like a nail. Once they became demonologists, all

1485
02:17:39.000 --> 02:17:44.479
their cases miraculously involved demons. In that case, you would

1486
02:17:44.520 --> 02:17:48.879
start finding what you expect to find over time. In

1487
02:17:48.959 --> 02:17:52.879
order to keep their stories fresh for books and lectures.

1488
02:17:53.559 --> 02:17:58.079
Maybe they embellished a bit more each time. Perhaps ed

1489
02:17:58.239 --> 02:18:03.319
rationalized it as a dramatization in service of a higher truth,

1490
02:18:03.959 --> 02:18:09.200
teaching people about evil. This is, of course speculative, but

1491
02:18:09.360 --> 02:18:12.840
many who met Ed described him as having a big

1492
02:18:12.920 --> 02:18:17.360
ego and a flare for the dramatic. He may have

1493
02:18:17.399 --> 02:18:21.079
thought a little enhancement of facts was fine if it

1494
02:18:21.120 --> 02:18:24.959
made for a better lesson or a more convincing tale

1495
02:18:25.760 --> 02:18:32.040
to save souls. Lorraine's role in this dynamic is interesting,

1496
02:18:32.120 --> 02:18:37.479
to say the least. By most accounts, she was kind, empathetic,

1497
02:18:38.040 --> 02:18:43.319
and maybe genuinely believed in her gift. Some wonder if

1498
02:18:43.360 --> 02:18:48.040
Lorraine was as clueless as outsiders in cases where Ed

1499
02:18:48.280 --> 02:18:53.920
or others may have concocted things, or if she was complicit.

1500
02:18:54.879 --> 02:18:58.959
Garton's comments about Lorraine needing a second opinion if she

1501
02:18:59.120 --> 02:19:02.840
said the sun will rise, implies he found her just

1502
02:19:02.920 --> 02:19:09.000
as lacking in credibility as Ed. But publicly Lorraine retained

1503
02:19:09.040 --> 02:19:15.200
a grandmotherly near saintly reputation. The movies certainly cast her

1504
02:19:15.239 --> 02:19:20.440
that way. The Judith Penny allegations, if believed, tarnish that

1505
02:19:20.559 --> 02:19:27.120
image by suggesting Lorraine aloud or tolerated serious wrongdoing for

1506
02:19:27.239 --> 02:19:32.280
the sake of appearances. It introduces the idea that Lorraine

1507
02:19:32.319 --> 02:19:38.159
could compartmentalize fervently devout on one hand and capable of

1508
02:19:38.559 --> 02:19:44.159
moral compromise on the other. In weighing opposing viewpoints, we

1509
02:19:44.200 --> 02:19:50.000
should note that many devout paranormal believers still defend the Warrens.

1510
02:19:50.760 --> 02:19:55.040
They argue that skeptics have an anti religious or anti

1511
02:19:55.200 --> 02:19:59.920
spiritual bias, or that families like the Glatzells or Snedic

1512
02:20:00.639 --> 02:20:06.239
who oppose the stories are motivated by embarrassment or payback.

1513
02:20:07.000 --> 02:20:11.719
For instance, David Glatzel, the supposed possessed Boy, did not

1514
02:20:12.000 --> 02:20:16.600
join his brother Carl's lawsuit and has never publicly refuted

1515
02:20:17.159 --> 02:20:22.760
being possessed. In fact, he reportedly still believes something did

1516
02:20:22.920 --> 02:20:27.319
happen to him. Arn Johnson and his wife, Debbie Glatzel

1517
02:20:27.840 --> 02:20:32.520
stuck by the Warren's account until their deaths. The Warren's

1518
02:20:32.520 --> 02:20:36.879
son in law, Tony Spera, frequently states that thousands of

1519
02:20:36.920 --> 02:20:42.079
grateful letters exist from people the Warrens helped, but those

1520
02:20:42.200 --> 02:20:46.959
cases just aren't public. If that's true, it could be

1521
02:20:46.959 --> 02:20:52.639
because minor cases without dramatic demons were never promoted. But

1522
02:20:53.000 --> 02:20:56.120
the Warrens might have done a lot of quiet good

1523
02:20:56.760 --> 02:21:03.680
by easing people's fears, even if only psychologically. Another defense

1524
02:21:03.840 --> 02:21:08.680
worth looking at is deception in pursuit of a good

1525
02:21:08.760 --> 02:21:14.920
cause and ends justify the means. Kind of attitude some

1526
02:21:15.120 --> 02:21:20.079
have suggested ed may be embellished because he thought scaring

1527
02:21:20.159 --> 02:21:25.280
people about demons would bring them closer to God. The

1528
02:21:25.360 --> 02:21:29.360
Warrens often said their main message was quote to make

1529
02:21:29.440 --> 02:21:33.159
people aware of the devil so they'd turn to God.

1530
02:21:34.239 --> 02:21:37.799
If one takes a charitable view, they might have seen

1531
02:21:37.879 --> 02:21:44.959
themselves almost as pastors, using ghost stories as modern parables.

1532
02:21:45.000 --> 02:21:50.360
Still lying for Jesus is, as one would imagine, not

1533
02:21:50.600 --> 02:21:57.920
a doctrine any church would endorse. And finally, Hollywood versus

1534
02:21:58.000 --> 02:22:03.639
reality deserves some attelle. The conjuring movies have cemented an

1535
02:22:03.680 --> 02:22:07.760
image of Ed and Lorraine far more heroic and clean

1536
02:22:07.840 --> 02:22:13.920
cut than reality. In films, they swoop in, figure everything out,

1537
02:22:14.360 --> 02:22:19.319
risk their lives, and save the day, all while exchanging

1538
02:22:19.440 --> 02:22:25.600
loving gazes and quoting scripture. The real Warrens, as we've cataloged,

1539
02:22:26.079 --> 02:22:31.840
had far murkier outcomes. It was rare they conclusively solved

1540
02:22:31.879 --> 02:22:36.559
a case. No one was clearly freed by them, except

1541
02:22:36.639 --> 02:22:41.040
via claims we have to take on faith. Often, priests

1542
02:22:41.280 --> 02:22:46.879
or time would solve the issue. They also didn't always

1543
02:22:47.040 --> 02:22:52.479
immediately identify what was going on. They misidentified ghosts as

1544
02:22:52.559 --> 02:22:59.200
demons or vice versa. Arguably, and crucially, their marriage, as

1545
02:22:59.319 --> 02:23:04.239
portrayed on on screen a perfect union, clashes with the

1546
02:23:04.280 --> 02:23:09.440
Penny story. As one Vox article put it, on one side,

1547
02:23:09.479 --> 02:23:15.840
we have the cinematic Warrens, lovable, wise, courageous, the type

1548
02:23:15.840 --> 02:23:21.239
of happily married couple anyone would want as friends. On

1549
02:23:21.319 --> 02:23:27.120
the other side, skeptics see them as conniving, reality distorting

1550
02:23:27.200 --> 02:23:33.559
self promoters running a long term con job, plus allegations

1551
02:23:33.600 --> 02:23:37.399
of a deeply unhealthy private life where Ed was a

1552
02:23:37.440 --> 02:23:42.959
predator and Lorraine complicit. That's a gulf as wide as

1553
02:23:43.639 --> 02:23:56.639
well heaven and hell. The truth probably lies somewhere in

1554
02:23:56.719 --> 02:24:01.520
between the two extremes. Ed and Lorraine were devout, They

1555
02:24:01.559 --> 02:24:06.360
did sincerely hold a belief in the supernatural, and they

1556
02:24:06.399 --> 02:24:11.239
did actually visit haunted houses and spend long nights in

1557
02:24:11.319 --> 02:24:17.879
cold attics waiting for ghosts. That does take a certain

1558
02:24:18.079 --> 02:24:24.319
kind of dedication or obsession. They likely brought comfort to

1559
02:24:24.399 --> 02:24:28.559
some people and perhaps deterred a few from dabbling in

1560
02:24:28.639 --> 02:24:34.000
occult things that they considered dangerous, but at the same

1561
02:24:34.079 --> 02:24:40.239
time they embellished and monetized these experiences to serve a narrative,

1562
02:24:41.040 --> 02:24:46.879
one that made them quasi celebrities and eventually characters in

1563
02:24:46.959 --> 02:24:52.079
a lucrative pop culture franchise. As time goes on, the

1564
02:24:52.159 --> 02:24:56.239
real Ed and Lorraine will probably be subsumed by the

1565
02:24:56.360 --> 02:25:02.200
legends they helped to create. The movies will stand loosely

1566
02:25:02.319 --> 02:25:08.360
inspired by real events but largely fictional. Tony Sperra and

1567
02:25:08.559 --> 02:25:14.159
nesper will continue to portray the Warrens as pioneering researchers,

1568
02:25:14.719 --> 02:25:22.719
minimizing the controversies as lies or misunderstandings. Skeptics will continue

1569
02:25:22.760 --> 02:25:26.959
to use the Warrens as a cautionary tale of why

1570
02:25:27.040 --> 02:25:33.239
not to trust ghost stories without evidence. Regardless of where

1571
02:25:33.319 --> 02:25:37.399
one falls on the belief spectrum, Ed and Lorraine Warren

1572
02:25:37.719 --> 02:25:42.600
undeniably left a mark. They can, in many ways be

1573
02:25:42.760 --> 02:25:48.280
seen as the progenitors of modern ghost hunting culture. Today's

1574
02:25:48.280 --> 02:25:53.479
plethora of paranormal reality TV shows, from Ghost Hunters to

1575
02:25:54.159 --> 02:25:59.120
Ghost Adventures owe a debt to the Warren's template. Go

1576
02:25:59.239 --> 02:26:05.000
to a spooky location with gadgets and a medium, seek evidence,

1577
02:26:05.520 --> 02:26:11.399
dramatize the slightest bump in the night, and always conclude

1578
02:26:11.520 --> 02:26:18.799
something paranormal is afoot. Shows like these rarely find anything conclusive,

1579
02:26:19.600 --> 02:26:25.120
yet the format itself is popular, and that's essentially what

1580
02:26:25.200 --> 02:26:32.079
the Warrens were doing decades prior. Moreover, the idea of

1581
02:26:32.159 --> 02:26:37.319
the demonologist as a vocation wasn't really a thing in

1582
02:26:37.440 --> 02:26:43.120
public consciousness until Ed Warren. Now you have self styled

1583
02:26:43.120 --> 02:26:49.479
demonologists everywhere, often also laying claim to being sanctioned by

1584
02:26:49.520 --> 02:26:55.120
some religious authority, much like Ed did, though that claim

1585
02:26:55.159 --> 02:27:00.520
of recognition by the Catholic Church is disputed. The Warrens

1586
02:27:00.600 --> 02:27:05.280
brought religious warfare into ghost hunting, framing it as a

1587
02:27:05.399 --> 02:27:11.239
fight of good versus evil. That's become standard in many

1588
02:27:11.399 --> 02:27:16.920
paranormal circles. If there's a ghost, assume it might be demonic.

1589
02:27:17.719 --> 02:27:23.639
Have crosses and holy water ready. Their influence extends to

1590
02:27:23.719 --> 02:27:29.520
the occult artifact fascination as well. John Safis, their nephew,

1591
02:27:30.000 --> 02:27:34.600
has a show called Haunted Collector, where he, quite like

1592
02:27:34.680 --> 02:27:41.079
his uncle, collects supposedly cursed items in a museum. Zach

1593
02:27:41.200 --> 02:27:45.399
Baggins of Ghost Adventures now has a famous haunted museum

1594
02:27:45.440 --> 02:27:50.520
of his own in Las Vegas, displaying things like Dibick

1595
02:27:50.639 --> 02:27:56.319
boxes and allegedly a piece of the Amityville House, clearly

1596
02:27:56.399 --> 02:28:02.079
echoing the Warren occult museum concept. The whole trope of

1597
02:28:02.200 --> 02:28:08.000
the evil doll in popular culture arguably has turbocharged since

1598
02:28:08.040 --> 02:28:13.719
Annabel's story went mainstream. Now we have multiple Annabelle movies

1599
02:28:14.200 --> 02:28:18.959
plus other creepy doll films, and most people post videos

1600
02:28:19.000 --> 02:28:24.520
on TikTok of their very own haunted dolls moving, usually

1601
02:28:24.719 --> 02:28:30.680
using phishing line or ai. Annabel took a story about

1602
02:28:30.719 --> 02:28:34.360
a raggedy ann doll, gave it a new coat of paint,

1603
02:28:34.879 --> 02:28:39.399
a more sinister appearance and face, and managed to create

1604
02:28:39.959 --> 02:28:46.120
a horror icon, which is pretty remarkable on social media.

1605
02:28:46.680 --> 02:28:53.000
Thousands of amateur investigators trade EVPs or electronic voice phenomena

1606
02:28:53.079 --> 02:28:58.719
recordings and ghost photos sincerely or for clicks. A lot

1607
02:28:58.760 --> 02:29:01.719
of them site being in inspired by reading Ed and

1608
02:29:01.799 --> 02:29:06.639
Lorraine's books or seeing them on television when they were younger.

1609
02:29:07.840 --> 02:29:12.120
The Warrens are almost folk heroes to the believer community,

1610
02:29:12.879 --> 02:29:17.159
figures who fought the darkness and prove to the world

1611
02:29:17.239 --> 02:29:22.399
that supernatural forces exist, and of course in the image

1612
02:29:22.559 --> 02:29:29.000
of their own Christian beliefs. That image persists robustly in

1613
02:29:29.079 --> 02:29:35.959
believer communities, with the skeptical expos as known but heartily dismissed.

1614
02:29:36.920 --> 02:29:41.360
The Conjuring Universe films also introduced the Warrens to a

1615
02:29:41.399 --> 02:29:46.520
whole new generation globally. Many who watch the movies then

1616
02:29:47.079 --> 02:29:51.680
search and are surprised to find the Warrens or real people.

1617
02:29:52.680 --> 02:29:56.079
From there, many fall down the rabbit hole of reading

1618
02:29:56.120 --> 02:30:00.040
the pros and cons about them. In a way, the

1619
02:29:59.799 --> 02:30:04.920
w Warrens have attained a legendary status where they themselves

1620
02:30:05.360 --> 02:30:10.920
are now characters in ghost lore. People share alleged true

1621
02:30:11.040 --> 02:30:15.840
tapes of Ed Warren's exorcisms on YouTube or revisit old

1622
02:30:15.959 --> 02:30:22.200
interviews as if they are cryptic gospel. Religiously, the Warrens

1623
02:30:22.280 --> 02:30:27.520
might have impacted how some individuals view the paranormal. Typically,

1624
02:30:27.559 --> 02:30:32.200
the Catholic Church Warrens against ghost hunting and especially taking

1625
02:30:32.239 --> 02:30:37.840
it lightly. They urge people to go through priests, not freelancers.

1626
02:30:38.760 --> 02:30:42.239
Ed's claim of being recognized by the Church was refuted

1627
02:30:42.600 --> 02:30:49.479
by Catholic spokesmen. Officially, no lay demonologists are sanctioned. However,

1628
02:30:49.600 --> 02:30:54.079
the Warren's high profile possibly pressured the Church to clarify

1629
02:30:54.239 --> 02:30:58.760
its stance on exorcisms. Notably, in the two thousands, the

1630
02:30:58.879 --> 02:31:03.399
church did start and more formally training exorcists in response

1631
02:31:03.520 --> 02:31:07.719
to demand and ironically to counter a lot of the

1632
02:31:07.799 --> 02:31:12.360
freelance exorcists that were popping up. The Warrens were a

1633
02:31:12.360 --> 02:31:16.639
bit renegade in that sense, Ed performed parts of rituals

1634
02:31:16.639 --> 02:31:21.719
he wasn't supposed to, and Lorraine held seances things conservative

1635
02:31:21.799 --> 02:31:27.040
Catholics frown upon. Yet they remained devout Catholics and had

1636
02:31:27.120 --> 02:31:32.239
friendly relations with some clergy. It's a complicated legacy in

1637
02:31:32.280 --> 02:31:36.920
religious terms. They promoted faith on one hand, but also

1638
02:31:37.159 --> 02:31:40.959
kind of dabbled in the areas the Church considered risky.

1639
02:31:41.600 --> 02:31:45.840
Seeking out spirits is discouraged in doctrine, even if the

1640
02:31:45.840 --> 02:31:51.440
Warrens framed it as helping people under attack. Another interesting

1641
02:31:51.559 --> 02:31:55.959
aspect of their legacy is the conversation about mental health

1642
02:31:56.440 --> 02:32:01.239
versus supernatural. Many cases they had handled, like the Glatzell

1643
02:32:01.319 --> 02:32:06.680
Boy or the Snedeker's Son, or even Janet Hodson at Enfield,

1644
02:32:07.040 --> 02:32:11.639
could be interpreted as mental or emotional issues that might

1645
02:32:11.680 --> 02:32:16.559
have been better helped by therapy or medical intervention rather

1646
02:32:16.680 --> 02:32:22.200
than exorcism. The Warren's approach was always through a demonology lens.

1647
02:32:23.280 --> 02:32:28.959
This sometimes came under ethical fire, were they possibly delaying

1648
02:32:29.040 --> 02:32:33.680
proper care for people by insisting it was a demon.

1649
02:32:34.639 --> 02:32:39.000
Carl Glatzel insinuated as much, saying his brother had an

1650
02:32:39.000 --> 02:32:44.319
illness and recovered, implying the demon narrative was simply a

1651
02:32:44.479 --> 02:32:57.760
harmful distraction. Modern ghost hunter teams often include psychologists or

1652
02:32:57.920 --> 02:33:03.559
emphasize ruling out mental ills illness first, a nod perhaps

1653
02:33:03.959 --> 02:33:10.239
to lessons learned from past excesses. The Warren seldom, if ever,

1654
02:33:10.799 --> 02:33:16.120
publicly entertained the idea that something might not be supernatural.

1655
02:33:17.079 --> 02:33:23.639
That absolutism is something current paranormal investigators are more cautious about,

1656
02:33:24.079 --> 02:33:30.719
at least publicly, to avoid liability. In the end, Ed

1657
02:33:30.840 --> 02:33:36.399
and Lorraine Warren leave us with a paradoxical legacy. They

1658
02:33:36.440 --> 02:33:42.040
advanced the popularity of the paranormal while simultaneously serving as

1659
02:33:42.120 --> 02:33:49.040
examples of why paranormal claims demand scrutiny. They have ardent

1660
02:33:49.159 --> 02:33:53.920
fans and equally ardent critics, and both camps use the

1661
02:33:53.959 --> 02:33:59.680
Warren saga to bolster their worldview. Believers say, look at

1662
02:33:59.680 --> 02:34:04.319
the war Warren's files, so many cases, all these people,

1663
02:34:04.959 --> 02:34:10.159
surely not all made up. Skeptics would say, look at

1664
02:34:10.200 --> 02:34:15.600
all the inconsistencies and admissions of fabrication. Around the Warrens.

1665
02:34:16.239 --> 02:34:20.239
It shows how even intelligent people can be fooled or

1666
02:34:20.760 --> 02:34:25.760
be fooling others. In a sense, the Warrens will forever

1667
02:34:25.920 --> 02:34:33.639
occupy a gray space between fact and fiction, belief and doubt.

1668
02:34:34.920 --> 02:34:40.079
As we conclude this lengthy expose, it's only fair to

1669
02:34:40.200 --> 02:34:44.920
acknowledge that Ed and Lorraine themselves, if they were here,

1670
02:34:45.600 --> 02:34:49.879
would likely shrug off the criticism and reiterate their mission.

1671
02:34:51.079 --> 02:34:55.639
Lorraine often said she never paid mind to skeptics. She

1672
02:34:55.799 --> 02:35:00.280
felt vindicated by her faith and the evidence she had

1673
02:35:00.319 --> 02:35:04.719
seen with her own eyes. Ed would likely go on

1674
02:35:04.799 --> 02:35:09.280
the offensive, challenging doubters to spend a night in the

1675
02:35:09.319 --> 02:35:14.600
old Haunted Museum with Annabelle to see just how brave

1676
02:35:15.399 --> 02:35:21.239
they really are. For my listeners, the Warren story is

1677
02:35:21.479 --> 02:35:26.239
a cautionary tale. It teaches us about the power of belief,

1678
02:35:27.040 --> 02:35:31.760
the hunger for wonder and fear in a modern world,

1679
02:35:32.959 --> 02:35:37.680
and the very human tendency to let narrative and emotion

1680
02:35:38.600 --> 02:35:44.760
override empirical truth. Whether one sees Ed and Lorraine Warren

1681
02:35:44.840 --> 02:35:51.360
as dedicated demon fighters, kindly grandparents with a unique calling,

1682
02:35:52.239 --> 02:35:58.399
or as Charlatan's simply spinning yarns for fame, and fortune,

1683
02:35:59.479 --> 02:36:03.840
or per perhaps as a bit of both. One thing

1684
02:36:04.360 --> 02:36:11.040
is very certain. Their impact on paranormal culture is indelible.

1685
02:36:12.040 --> 02:36:18.000
They've become, in essence, ghosts in their own right, haunting

1686
02:36:18.040 --> 02:36:24.520
the annals of American folklore, refusing to fade away, continuing

1687
02:36:24.600 --> 02:36:32.000
to provoke curiosity, dread, admiration, and doubt in equal measure.

1688
02:36:33.000 --> 02:36:36.879
If you've listened this far into the program, our lengthiest

1689
02:36:37.000 --> 02:36:40.959
Terrifying and True ever, thank you for joining us on

1690
02:36:41.000 --> 02:36:47.280
this ride, because you, like me, love everything spooky, You

1691
02:36:47.440 --> 02:36:50.760
love thinking about what goes bump in the night, but

1692
02:36:50.879 --> 02:36:55.840
you also maintain a bit of objectivity. You love to

1693
02:36:55.879 --> 02:37:00.600
know the stories, but that doesn't mean you always believe them.

1694
02:37:00.719 --> 02:37:07.079
You simply find joy in the telling and retelling. So

1695
02:37:07.239 --> 02:37:10.680
I hope this episode has shined a little light onto

1696
02:37:10.719 --> 02:37:13.920
the reality of the war ends, while still giving you

1697
02:37:14.040 --> 02:37:18.319
a bit of that spooky fun All about the yarns

1698
02:37:18.920 --> 02:37:26.000
they spun, Happy Halloween, My Spookies. Terrifying and True is

1699
02:37:26.120 --> 02:37:30.120
narrated by Enrique Kuto. It's executive produced by Rob Fieldsman

1700
02:37:30.200 --> 02:37:34.440
Bobbletopia dot Com and produced by Dan Wilder, with original

1701
02:37:34.520 --> 02:37:37.440
theme music by Ray Mattis. If you have a story,

1702
02:37:37.479 --> 02:37:40.360
you think we should cover on Terrifying and True. Send

1703
02:37:40.399 --> 02:37:44.000
us an email at Weekly Spooky at gmail dot com,

1704
02:37:44.040 --> 02:37:45.559
and if you want to support us for as little

1705
02:37:45.559 --> 02:37:48.319
as one dollar a month, go to Weeklyspooky dot com

1706
02:37:48.319 --> 02:37:51.079
slash join. Your support for as little as one dollar

1707
02:37:51.159 --> 02:37:53.680
a month keeps the show going. And speaking of I

1708
02:37:53.719 --> 02:37:55.479
want to say an extra special thank you to our

1709
02:37:55.520 --> 02:37:58.639
Patreon podcast boosters, folks who pay a little bit more

1710
02:37:58.799 --> 02:37:59.959
to hear their name at the end of the show.

1711
02:38:00.319 --> 02:38:04.159
And they are Johnny Nicks, Kate and Lulu, Jessica Fuller,

1712
02:38:04.239 --> 02:38:08.600
Mike Escuey, Jenny Green, Amber Hansburg, Karen we Met, Jack Ker,

1713
02:38:08.879 --> 02:38:11.280
and Craig Cohen. Thank you all so much and thank

1714
02:38:11.319 --> 02:38:14.040
you for listening. We'll see you all right here next

1715
02:38:14.079 --> 02:38:17.120
time on Terrifying and True.