Lola Karimi ’25
EE Co-Managing Editor
The story of Ed and Lorraine Warren, the Connecticut-based paranormal investigators behind ‘The Conjuring’ series, and other well-known horror flicks.
Ed and Lorraine Warren are well-known paranormal investigators and the reigning king and queen of hauntings in New England and Hollywood.
The Warrens, who are both now dead, told stories that were later adapted into films that have grossed over a billion dollars. The Warrens investigations have gone all over Connecticut. From an apartment in Hartford where the real “Annabelle” lived, to a crime scene in Brookfield that inspired “The Devil Made Me Do It“, to the “Haunting in Connecticut” house in Southington.
I interviewed an eighth-grade science teacher at Madison Middle School in Trumbull Connecticut to get a better understanding of the supernatural and why so many cases appear in Connecticut.
“I believe there are things happening in the universe that there are no known scientific explanations for yet; so, it is safe to say I strongly believe in supernatural events and entities we just can’t understand”, says Mr. John Mastrianni. “CT is a very old state with a violent history. Pending on your supernatural beliefs, it can be said that spirits may have unfinished business that causes their behavior”.
A mass murder occurred in 1974 at a residence in Amityville, Long Island. A new family came into the property about a year later. They left the household in less than a month. When Ed and Lorraine were summoned to the house, they discovered that it was haunted. Lorraine was sensing a lot of negative energy. Ed was attacked by an unidentified assailant. He claimed he felt as though someone suffocated him by placing a hot, wet woolen blanket over him and knocking him to the ground.
A Raggedy Ann doll from a charity store was given to a Hartford nurse in 1970. The doll, according to the nurse, assaulted her companion. She performed a séance and learned that the doll was haunted by the spirit of a little girl named Annabelle. A priest was summoned by the nurse. She was instructed by the priest to contact the Warrens. The Warrens came to the conclusion that the doll was demonic. The nurse summoned the priest, who performed an exorcism and blessed the nurse and her roommate. They stated that they no longer want the doll. The Warrens returned it to their Monroe museum. It’s still on display in a glass cabinet. The museum is not available to the public due to zoning constraints.
The latest Warren film, “The Conjuring 3: The Devil Made Me Do It” is based on a 1981 murder in Brookfield. Arne Johnson took part in three exorcisms before killing Alan Bono. The Warrens offered Johnson exorcism counsel. Because Johnson was tormented by demons, Martin Minnella, Johnson’s lawyer, and the Warrens believed he was innocent. They believed the demons had escaped David Glatzel, a 12-year-old boy, and taken up home in Johnson.
The Warrens’ fervent Catholicism contributed to their belief in demonic possession. Johnson’s defense was framed by Minnella as demonic possession. It was the first time in American history that such a claim had been made. That didn’t go down well with the judge.
According to legend, this 18th century home in Harrisville, Rhode Island, is “haunted” by a woman who killed herself and her child in order to punish any tenants who dared to enter the house. In 1974, the Warrens returned to the house many times to investigate reports of levitating beds and the odor of decomposing flesh. Their trips to the residence would be documented in the first “Conjuring” film. The home was purchased by a new family 45 years after Warren’s research, and it is currently open to paranormal investigations.
Both Ed and Lorraine Warren had extremely successful careers, and are both no longer with us. Ed Warren died in his Monroe house at the age of 79, due to poor health. He had previously been in and out of a coma and had multiple trips to the hospital five years prior to his death. Loraine died at the age of 92 in her sleep in her home, about 13 years after Ed died.
Photo courtesy: Sydney Morning Herald