Narrator:
He was a demonologist...
I went into
a religious resistance
And I commanded it to leave
in the name of jesus christ.
Narrator: She was clairvoyant...
When you challenge the demonic,
It waits till you are
the most vulnerable.
Narrator: Together,
they documented
The most famous haunting cases
ever recorded.
The cases that
ed and lorraine warren worked on
Were groundbreaking.
Narrator:
Now for the first time,
Never before released
recordings.
Document how this unassuming
couple devoted their lives
To saving others
from the demonic.
Ed: In the name of jesus christ,
I command you to leave.
Narrator: And proving to
the world that the devil exists.
They thought there is evil
in the world,
We need to fight it.
You can't imagine what has
taken place in this home.
Narrator: They're the subjects
of a blockbuster film franchise.
My mother and father,
they just kept going.
They just kept helping.
Narrator: They are the pioneers
of the paranormal...
Ed and lorraine warren.
♪♪
In 2013, the film
"the conjuring"
Shocked
the entertainment industry
By earning more than
$300 million at the box office
And spawning
a blockbuster movie franchise.
The film and its sequels
are based on real life hauntings
Investigated by famed
demonologists,
Ed and lorraine warren.
Their pioneering
investigations are something
Their daughter judy
can attest to.
Dad, mom, they opened the way
for people
Of all these
paranormal groups to start,
And most of them will say it.
If it wasn't for your parents,
I wouldn't be doing this today.
Narrator: During their
extraordinary 50-year career,
The warrens investigated
thousands of reports
Involving poltergeists,
demons, and devils.
But perhaps the most documented
case of evil
Is one that took place
in ed warren's hometown.
♪♪
On Sunday, November 24, 1974,
Ed and lorraine warren
Receive a desperate call
from their friend,
Psychic, mary pascarella.
Mary pascarella was director of
The psychic research institute
in hamden, connecticut.
She was a personal friend
of ours and she said,
"ed, you have got
to meet me at this house."
Narrator: By the early 1970s,
Lorraine, a clairvoyant,
and ed, a demonologist,
Have been investigating
the paranormal
For over 20 years,
But to most people, the idea
of investigating haunted houses
Is a new phenomenon.
Hall: Mary pascarella said,
We have a real
poltergeist case going on.
There's police cars
People are starting
to form outside the house.
And that's when ed said,
"oh, okay, well,
This sounds like the real deal.
We'll be right over."
Narrator: The warrens,
Along with
father william charbonneau,
Arrive at the home
of jerry and laura goodin.
I went in the house and here
were police officers,
Firemen,
the goodin family, neighbors,
And it looked like somebody
went through the house
With a baseball bat,
smashed things off of the walls,
Knocked furniture over.
Every one
of these police officers,
When myself and the priest
walked in,
They know and asked
for the priest's blessing.
They were frightened.
Narrator: As part of his
investigative technique,
Ed warren tapes interviews
with witnesses.
In these rare recordings,
We hear ed speaking
with the first police officers
Called to the scene.
After talking with the officers,
Ed knows he must experience
the poltergeist himself
To be certain it's real.
Ed was really good at trying
to rule out
The logical physical causes
and explanations.
He would take a second look.
He would not just
take people's word for it.
Ed: I was standing
in the kitchen.
I noticed
that there was a movement
From my peripheral vision,
A set of melmac dishes flew
across the room
And landed on the floor.
[ glass shatters ]
A crucifix which was on a wall
was made of plastic, just burst.
♪♪
Narrator: After confirming
the existence of a poltergeist,
The warrens
gather more information
To help the goodin family.
In this unearthed recording,
ed interviews the homeowners,
Jerry and laura,
about when the hauntings began.
The goodins tell the warrens
That the previous evening
something attacked them.
Jerry was bringing
in the groceries,
Laura's in the kitchen,
And this table picked itself up,
throwing groceries everywhere.
And then these dishes come up
and go flying.
The knives came out
of knife holder
And were flown around the room.
They didn't know what to do.
Narrator: The goodins admit
being confused,
But not overly concerned.
So they straightened up
the kitchen,
Hoping it's just
an isolated experience,
But it's not.
Jerry's ready to go back
in and say,
"laura, you're not gonna
believe this."
Meanwhile, she's coming out
Because other things
are happening.
They have these three heavy
recliner chairs
And they're opening
and closing by themselves,
All three of them in concert.
It was horrifying.
Narrator: That's when
the goodins say they reached out
To their neighbor for help,
Off-duty police officer
john holsworth.
Several minutes later, patrol
officers arrived on scene.
When they witness
the unexplained,
The officers contact
the fire department.
Firemen, they don't know
what to do
Because they start
witnessing things
And they saw the tvs moving,
They saw the chairs
going in and out.
It was pretty clear to them
That this was not a job
for the fire department.
As the public statement went,
We're not very good
at fighting devils.
Narrator: City engineers
are also baffled
By what is happening.
Narrator: Outside,
news of the strange
Happenings on lindley street
attract huge crowds.
Just a few months before
the film "the exorcist"
Shocked audiences
with its dramatic depictions
Of the devil
and the power of evil.
So when news reports surfaced
of an actual poltergeist case,
What was once thought
to be fiction
Suddenly seems
frighteningly real.
Naturally, the media got
word of it,
And then it goes out
on the ap wire,
And now it's being reported
around the country
And it even goes
outside the country.
Judy: My friends had known
about the bridgeport case
Because it was the news
all over town.
So they said, "let's go down
and see what's going on."
And here's this massive
crowd of people.
I went to school with
a policeman that was there
And he looked at me and he said,
"judy, this is real.
This is real. What happened?"
Narrator: Convinced
they are dealing with
A true poltergeist case,
Ed asks father charbonneau
to perform a house blessing.
The religious ritual
goes forward without a hitch
Until they move to the basement.
Narrator: Suddenly,
as quickly as it appeared,
The black mass vanishes.
Meanwhile, upstairs,
Father charbonneau
seminary assistant,
Sees lorraine coming
under attack.
Lorraine and I were
sitting at the table.
All of a sudden, lorraine kind
of let out a little yelp
And a blister formed
right on her hand.
♪♪
Narrator: Coming up,
previously unreleased recordings
Of the investigation
that made the warrens famous.
♪♪
♪♪
The extraordinary happenings
began on Friday,
Some furniture began to move
And then a crucifix
fell off the wall.
Narrator: Ed and lorraine warren
had never investigated a case
With so many
eyewitnesses before,
And by Sunday night,
News of
the bridgeport poltergeist
Spreads far beyond
the city limits.
We had observed
the movement of objects...
Refrigerator, bureaus.
No one could have possibly
moved this thing.
Narrator: The moment lorraine
crosses the threshold,
She feels the house
acknowledge her presence.
Then it begins to wage w*r.
Ed became quite concerned
that the energy could especially
Affect her
being sensitive to these things.
And he was worried
about something much bigger.
Ed and father charbonneau
Take lorraine home
for the night,
But leave paul eno behind
to keep watch over the family,
Especially the goodins'
Ed told me to keep an eye
on her, to stay with her,
To make sure she wasn't doing
any of these things
Because there was
a natural assumption
That the child who seemed to be
the center of the phenomena
Would be the one
perpetrating it.
Narrator: The next evening,
While playing
a board game with marcia,
Paul senses something wrong,
All of a sudden
I felt a surge of energy.
There was like an ozone smell.
I looked into the kitchen.
The air had turn like
this gauzy, whitish color.
I picked up
a orthodox prayer book
And I started reading
an akathist or hymn
To the glory of christ.
Narrator: According to paul,
That's when the gauzy mist forms
into four separate shapes.
Just instinctively,
I pushed against it.
It pushed back.
It was a solid structure,
almost the skeletons of birds.
That's what it felt like.
There was
a bone structure there.
When the entity
was standing in front of me,
I got angry
and I was also fearful
Because I knew
it was after the little girl.
I wanted to protect her.
Paul: The energy
was so strong at that point,
I decided to pull everybody
out of the house
Because I didn't know
what would happen.
It felt like the place
was gonna explode.
Narrator: Convinced they are
dealing with something demonic,
The warrens make plans
to perform an exorcism.
Paul: Marcy hugged me said,
"promise, promise me
you'll come back."
And I did.
Mrs. Gordon hugged me and said,
"promise us you'll come back."
Narrator: The following morning,
Police superintendent
joseph walsh
Declares the haunting a hoax
perpetrated by marcia goodin.
The exorcism
would never take place.
The girl admitted that since
last Friday,
She's been banging on walls,
knocking pictures off.
We have no ghost in bridgeport.
Chief walsh made it his business
To make sure that he was
going to call that a hoax.
It's impossible
that this was a hoax.
Apparently,
right after we had left,
Superintendent walsh had
sent officers into the house.
Said this ends here now.
Ed: He not only made fools out
of the family and us,
He made fools
out of his own men.
These police officers
were going into the media,
Which were all around
the house, in the house,
Telling them about the things
that they experienced.
Hall: Ed was very frustrated
by it all.
He thought with all of these
police officers,
All of these firefighters,
all of these media people,
That the truth finally
would come out
About poltergeist activity.
Narrator: Two months later,
Vindication comes
when the police department
Allows a parapsychology group
To tape record interviews
with the police officers.
Today, those tapes, most never
before shared with the public,
Offer a unique insight
into what many describe
As the roswell
of haunted houses.
Hall: Something happened.
You can argue if you want,
whether it's a poltergeist,
Whether a poltergeist
is a demon,
But something happened
And nobody really
could explain what happened.
That case stands out in my mind
And the annals
of psychic research
As one of the most powerful,
most credible cases
Of poltergeist activity
ever recorded.
And it was recorded.
Narrator: Despite
a widespread belief
That something paranormal
had occurred,
The bridgeport incident fails
to convince a skeptical public
That demons do exist.
Their mission in life
was to let people know
That the devil existed,
that he was real.
♪♪
Narrator:
Understanding the paranormal
Is something ed's been obsessed
with since he was a young boy
Growing up in bridgeport,
connecticut.
Ed: I lived in a haunted house
when I was a boy.
Many times I would hear
the closet door opening up.
I'd look into that closet
darkness,
I start to see a light
starting to form,
And I went into
like a ball shape
And then I'd see face
in that wall.
It was a face of an old lady.
Next thing, the ball
came out into my bedroom.
The room became icy cold
and I could hear footsteps.
I could hear heavy breathing.
I'm saying to myself,
There's a logical reason
for all of this.
♪♪
Tony: He went to
his father one day
And he says weird things
happening in this house.
I see shadows. This old lady.
His father looked at ed
and said,
"ed, there's a logical reason
for everything that happens
In this house."
Then ed laughed when he told me.
He says, "my father never gave
me a logical reason.
"he just said,
there's a logical reason.
Then he dropped it."
Narrator: Like ed, lorraine is
a child when she first discovers
The supernatural
and her clairvoyant abilities.
♪♪
Lorraine: It started when I was
probably about 9 years old,
When I first had experiences
Where I could see lights
around people,
But the lights that
I could see around people,
I thought everybody
could see that.
Tony: When lorraine
was 9 years old,
She went to an all-girls
catholic school,
Very prestigious.
And there's two nuns overseeing
everybody outside the classroom,
Mother superior
and sister joseph.
Lorraine says, "hey, look,
sister joseph lights, look.
Her lights are brighter
than mother superior's lights."
What she was seeing was the aura
Around mother superior
and around sister joseph.
Anything that's alive
that god has created has an aura
And a certain psychic
can see the aura.
And when she said her lights
are brighter,
She meant the aura
was more spectacular,
More colors emanating
from around her body.
Mother superior overhears this
conversation about the lights
Between the two girls,
she walks over to lorraine.
She says, "lorraine, we don't
speak of things like that here."
Lorraine: Couldn't share things
like that with the nuns.
That was very much frowned upon,
and if I tried at home,
It was fine as long as
I could joke and lighthearted,
But it was never anything
to be discussed seriously.
And lorraine related
to me later,
She said it many times,
"I never wanted to be different.
In fact, I never even told
my parents."
Narrator: Lorraine's life
changes when, as a teenager,
She meets ed at the local
movie theater where he worked.
Ed: I was an usher in a small
theater called the colonial.
She used to come with her mother
every Wednesday night.
We started talking
and became friends
And I was 16 at the time,
she was 16.
One night walked her home,
asked her for a date.
That's how it started.
Then I went to the navy
the day I was 17.
And while I was in the navy,
we wrote back and forth.
Lorraine: Most of our courtship,
we were kids
And it was through mail
Because ed had entered
the service soon after we met.
Narrator: While serving in
the navy during world w*r ii,
A life-threatening experience
proved to ed once and for all
That there was a greater
spiritual dimension to life.
Coming up, a wartime disaster
forever changes ed
As he comes face to face
with death.
Reporter: Two oil tankers
in a collision
Exploded in one of the worst
shipping disasters of the w*r.
♪♪
♪♪
Reporter: Coast guard cutters
and fireboat battled flames
In one of the worst
shipping disasters of the w*r.
Narrator: While serving in
the us navy during world w*r ii,
A fiery collision
with an oil tanker forces
Ed warren and some
To fight for their lives
in the icy atlantic.
Tony: He goes into the water
And sees one of his sailor
buddies in trouble.
This guy named salazar.
Ed swims over to salazar,
puts his arm around him,
And starts to pull him away.
And then ed says,
"I'm pulling the guy away.
But I don't know
where I'm going."
He said, "all I see
is a wall of flame."
I said a prayer
to the blessed mother.
That gasoline opened up
and went around us.
Then a coast guard pick up boat
Comes through the flames
and pulls us out of the water.
Is that miraculous?
Is that an angel?
♪♪
I was a survivor, a lot of guys
were k*lled that day
And I came home
on survivor's leave.
I had a 30-day leave.
Tony: Ed came home.
He said, "lorraine,
let's get married."
He only had a few hours to do it
and get back, but he did it.
He married lorraine
in may 22, 1945.
She was 18
and he was going on 19.
Ed: We got married
in bridgeport,
Had a great big honeymoon.
One night, took a train
to new haven,
Stayed at the taft hotel,
And came back in the morning
left for the navy again.
[ laughs ]
Lorraine: And we were married
while he was still in service
And our daughter was born
While he was still
on active duty.
So when he came home
from the service,
I was at that time
maybe about 20,
Narrator: After the w*r
and supports his family
As an artist
selling paintings of homes
And landscapes to tourists
visiting new England.
Belanger: He was selling
the paintings for $3 and $5.
Back then, it was a pretty good
haul if he sold five
Or six paintings in a day,
he did pretty well.
But then they were always
interested in haunted places.
Narrator: While traveling
through new England,
Ed and lorraine visit
the ocean-born mary house,
A legendary haunted residence
Located in henniker,
new hampshire.
Curious, ed talks
with the homeowner, louis roy,
About his experiences
with the house.
While he's interviewing mr. Roy,
Lorraine is... she's over
the back of the chair like this,
Listening to ed very,
very diligently.
All of a sudden ed asks lorraine
a question like,
"isn't that right, lorraine?"
no answer.
He looks back and lorraine
is staring like this
In a trance-like state.
Ed starts getting really
nervous.
He's like, "mr. Roy, what's
what's wrong? My wife there.
What's happening?"
Mr. Roy very calmly says,
"that happens to a lot
of clairvoyants in the house."
Lorraine leaves her body
and looks down
And she can see ed talking to
mr. Roy and she said,
"that was the first time
I knew not to fear death."
But all of a sudden, she snapped
back into her body
Like somebody jolted her
back into her body.
Narrator: Lorraine's
clairvoyance inspires ed
To seek out
other haunted houses.
Ed would read
about these places.
Then he'd go up and find
the location
And he'd paint the house.
Ed: I do a real nice sketch
of the house,
Ghosts coming out of it
and everything, you know,
And give it to lorraine
and she go knock on the door
And with her irish personality,
She'd say, "oh, my husband
loves to sketch
And paint haunted houses,
and he made this for you."
And that would pretty much
be their ticket in.
They would get to talk
To the homeowners
about their ghosts,
And ed would learn that
they've had experiences
That are pretty similar to what
he went through as a child.
And from there,
an entire career developed.
It progressed from just talking
about the ghosts
To people calling them in
on cases to come and observe
What's going on in the house
or to clear the house.
Hawes: And they would talk with
anybody about cases
And their views
of the paranormal.
That influenced me in the ways
Of just understanding
that everybody's different.
Everybody has
paranormal problems.
Typically, the people
who had contact
The warrens would be family.
It doesn't matter,
Socioeconomic background
doesn't matter,
Race, ethnicity
are people of all ages.
It gets to the point between
the 1950s into the 1960s,
If you lived especially
in new England
And you had a weird ghost story
in your house,
You would find them and ask them
to come to your home
And check it out because
no one else was doing it.
Narrator: For ed and lorraine,
both devout roman catholics,
A belief in the supernatural
comes naturally.
Ed: Now, I was brought up
a catholic.
My father was
a very strict catholic.
And I can remember one time,
father tomasco
He said to my father,
"you know, frank,
"you won't believe
what's happening
"two blocks away from here.
There's a man under possession."
He said, "this guy takes
on the appearance of a pig
"and makes noises like a pig.
"there's these foul smells.
So we are going to perform
The rite of exorcism
over this man."
Now, I'm only 8 years old,
but that was the very first time
I ever heard
about anything like that.
Ben: Our perspective plays a lot
into the paranormal phenomena
In general.
What we bring into the situation
Is what we're going
to get out of it.
The warrens, they were both
roman catholic,
So they had that belief system
framework on the phenomenon.
Narrator: By the early 1970s,
ed and lorraine
Have investigated
hundreds of hauntings
And are known as the seekers
Of the supernatural
throughout new England.
But most of the general public
views demons and devils
As the stuff
of a skewed imagination.
Then in 1971,
A stunning poltergeist event
threatens to expose the truth.
Up next, the warrens
open a portal to hell
And come face to face
with a demon.
♪♪
Narrator: By the early 1970s
ed and lorraine warren
Had devoted their lives
to investigating the paranormal.
Inspired by their unique
childhood experiences,
Ed and lorraine are on a quest
to prove the demons, devils,
And the supernatural exist.
♪♪
Ben: The paranormal changes
world views
In a way that nothing else
really does.
It's terrifying.
It's that line of not
understanding, I think,
That drives
everyday ghost hunters
To want to find out what it is,
Why they want
to gather evidence.
There's that need to not
just prove to themselves
That it's real,
But to prove to everybody else,
this is real, this is happening.
Narrator: A devout catholic,
Ed views the paranormal
through his religious beliefs
To exorcise any demons, he must
invoke the power of the church.
Ed uses audio
and video recordings
As proof to convince church
leaders to become involved.
More often than not,
It's an uphill battle.
Ed and lorraine warren
initially started
Investigating homes
throughout new England
Because a lot of paranormal
activity seems to reside here.
Belanger: Ed wanted to find out
Have other people lived
in haunted houses?
What was it like for them?
And he never stopped
looking from age 5
Until the day he died,
looking for more haunted houses,
Wanting to talk to people about
their experience in those homes.
Judy: People would call and say,
this is happening,
That is happening,
what should we do?
At the drop of a hat,
They go if people needed them,
never asked for money
Because these people
were desperate.
There was no one else to call.
♪♪
Narrator: In 1971,
a young rhode island family
Suffers a series
of threatening hauntings.
They desperately seek help
from ed and lorraine,
Who are known for
their paranormal investigations
And doing battle
with the demonic.
Ed: When I go into a home
not looking for devils.
I'm not looking for ghosts.
What I'm looking for
is a natural explanation
As to what's going on.
Only when I find that there is
something supernatural,
Something paranormal,
do I accept it.
Narrator:
Roger and carolyn perron
Say the haunting started the day
they and their five daughters
Moved into this
Known today
as the conjuring house.
Andrea perron's carrying boxes
from the truck
And setting it down
in the kitchen.
And she sees this man.
That she thought was with
the previous owner,
Then her sister sees
the same man.
Her third sister comes in
with another box
And the man just
kind of slowly vanishes.
♪♪
Over time, more and more
strange things are happening.
Carolyn perron, the mother,
She seemed to be the focal point
Of a lot of the negative energy.
I remember coming here once with
the warrens and carolyn said,
And this always stuck with me
and still does,
Years later, she went to cut
open an orange
And blood spurted out.
♪♪
Belanger: Living in
a haunted house
Is something that's difficult
for people to understand.
♪♪
Everyone in the family
almost feels like
It's only affecting them.
You get afraid to tell someone
else because you think,
Well, they'll think I'm crazy
or I don't want to scare anyone.
And so each sister is
experiencing different things.
But carolyn perron, she's seeing
an older woman in the house,
Apparitions, objects are moving.
She's afraid.
She's afraid for herself.
She's afraid for her family.
And so she seeks help.
Narrator:
While ed interviews the parents
about their experiences,
Lorraine attempts to pick up
The presence of
paranormal energy or entities,
Lorraine is walking
through the house
And seeing what she picks up,
Trying not only to connect, but
to see where are the hot spots,
Where is this entity or entities
located specifically?
Lorraine would put her hands out
when she would walk into a room,
And you usually knew
when she was getting something
Because she'd have a certain
look on her face.
Sometimes she would
even interact with it.
She would ask a question
and listen for the response.
Narrator:
In the perron farmhouse,
Lorraine picks up the presence
Of what appears to be
a female spirit.
Belanger: Ed depended on
lorraine a lot.
So if lorraine says
"I'm not picking anything up,"
That was good enough for ed
to say,
Maybe this place isn't haunted.
So because lorraine was picking
something up in this house,
Ed is now focused,
hyper focused.
He's thinking something
is going on here.
What it is he doesn't
quite know yet
Because this is just
the very early stages.
This is just
the first investigation.
They're gonna have to dive
in deeper.
They're gonna have to connect
With whatever is here
to try to identify it.
Is it just the spirit of
a person that lived here
Or died here or is it
something more sinister?
Narrator: Ed and lorraine
suggest holding a séance
To contact who or what is
haunting the perron family?
♪♪
The séance will allow them
to maybe find a name,
Maybe find a motive for why
some spirit might be stuck here.
Carolyn perron is for it.
She's fine.
She just wants answers.
Roger perron is
a little more skeptical,
But he goes along
with it anyway.
Narrator: Two days later,
the warrens,
Along with roger
and carolyn perron,
Gather to perform a séance.
And they're going to hold
the séance right here
In this room behind me.
They're sitting around a table.
Lorraine is a psychic medium.
She's gonna take some
deep breaths, close her eyes,
And she's gonna try to connect
With whatever might be there.
She'll start to
ask who's around.
♪♪
But then suddenly things
take a dangerous turn.
Something, some unseen force,
overpowers carolyn,
She is picked up from her chair,
thrown across the floor
To the ground.
Very, very unexpectedly,
Carolyn began speaking
in strange tongues.
She became possessed.
Roger is petrified for his wife.
Something's happening to her
That he's never seen
anything like this.
So he runs to her,
but ed stops him.
Ed believes
that she's under demonic attack
And that if roger intervenes
in any way,
He could put himself in danger.
At that point, roger's furious,
and he punches ed in the face
Because he's hell bent
on helping his wife.
And then roger kicks
ed and lorraine warren
Out of this house,
And they're not
allowed back again.
♪♪
Narrator: The warrens learn
a difficult lesson,
Even with the best
of intentions,
Investigating the paranormal
can be a dangerous undertaking.
♪♪
Ed: In this case, I do not
believe that any exorcism,
Any ritual of a religious nature
or anyone could ever clear
That home of the very negative
human and inhuman spirits
Which are bringing about
these destructive acts.
As good as the warrens might be,
They don't have
Nobody does. And sometimes
unintended consequences ensued
When they did a séance or in
the course of the investigation.
Narrator: While the conjuring
case would not be the one
To convince the public
demons are real,
Years later,
the amityville horror case
Would open the eyes
of the world.
♪♪
♪♪
Narrator: Five years after
the conjuring house,
The warrens find themselves
in the middle
Of what will become the world's
most infamous haunting,
This time in a sleepy village
on new york's long island.
♪♪
A lot of people will look
at a home
And think the place looks
like a haunted house,
But looking
at the amityville home,
You would have never thought
that anything
Was going on there,
any type of paranormal activity.
But you never truly know
until you look inside.
Narrator: The three-story
dutch colonial
Is where in November 1974,
Ronald defeo jr. Shoots
and kills
The six members of his family.
Belanger: Ronald defeo jr.
Walked into the house
With a r*fle
in the middle of the night.
First he went to
his parents' bedroom
And he shot them both
in their beds where they slept.
[ g*nshots ]
Then he went down the hall
and systematically shot
Each of his brothers,
each of his sisters.
[ g*nshots ]
Narrator: Then a year later,
the new owners,
George and kathy lutz,
Hold a press conference
where they announce
That they have
abandoned the home
After just 28 days claiming
the house to be haunted.
♪ The choice is channel 5 ♪
♪ metromedia new york, 5! ♪
I just happened to be
at channel five
Working on a series
On psychic phenomenon
and paranormal events,
So of course,
we were going to do the story.
Now, this was not
the amityville horror case
At that time.
This was just another haunted
house and we didn't even realize
That six people had been
m*rder*d in that house.
So we said, sure, we would
come down there and we did.
And that was the beginning
of an adventure,
Which we'll never forget,
a supernatural adventure.
Narrator: Laura didio
sets up a meeting
Between the warrens
and george lutz.
George tells ed and lorraine
about some of the insane stuff
That happened,
windows would open and close.
They would hear strange sounds,
They would hear voices.
They would see ghost lights
over their beds, in the rooms.
The beds are shaking.
They heard screams and they
couldn't get to the children.
This house,
something dark is going on.
Narrator: After speaking
with george lutz,
Ed and lorraine inspect
the amityville house.
It would be a visit
they would never forget.
Lorraine: The very first night
that ed and I went to that home,
I was fearful, but I didn't know
what I was fearful of.
I took with me a relic
of a very pious priest,
And I asked many clergy
of different faiths to enter
That home with us in spirit
and prayers to protect us.
My mother was more affected
by these things,
But she was very religious
and she depended on that,
Always, she relied on
her religion to get her through.
When the lutzes said
they fled in terror,
They weren't kidding,
they left everything there.
It looked like you might have
just gone out to go to school,
Work, run some errands.
Everything was just the way
they left it.
Lorraine: The media asked me
to go on to the second floor
To tell them what I felt.
And as I was going up
the stairs,
I reached a point where it felt
As if a force of water
coming against my chest,
Almost like a waterfall.
It was the worst feeling.
I stopped on the landing
and held tight to the relic
That was in my hand and asked
for strength and direction
In going forward,
it felt ominous to me.
There was something inhuman
or very, very negative.
She started to feel ill there,
nauseous,
And she could pick up
the things that had happened,
The murders.
Judy: My mother,
she would relive things,
She could see
these things happening.
And she said herself
that was the closest to hell
That she'd ever want to go.
Narrator:
While lorraine is upstairs,
Ed warren searches down
in the basement,
Hoping to provoke
any demonic spirits.
I felt as though
I was underneath a waterfall.
That's how terrific the pressure
was on my head and shoulders,
Forcing me down to the floor.
Narrator: Forced to the ground,
ed fights back
The only way he knows how.
Ed: I went
into a religious resistance.
I then envisioned myself
in a christ light
And I, again, commanded it
to leave the name
Of jesus christ.
It immediately lifted off.
I knew right at that point
what we were dealing with.
♪♪
Narrator: Ed survives the attack
And is now convinced
a demon infests the house.
Two weeks later, he and lorraine
returned to amityville,
This time to hold a séance.
Joining the warrens are several
other psychics,
Paranormal researchers,
and members of the media,
Including laura didio.
During the séance itself, what
came through for lorraine warren
Was she felt a demonic presence.
Mary pascarella,
one of the other psychics,
She felt there had been
a warlock living right
Where the house
was built in 1928.
She felt that this man
Had brought
a lot of dark energy with him.
Narrator: Although the séance
is intense,
The group does not make contact
with the other side.
But several people
report feeling ill.
Our cameraman walked up
the stairs,
Got to the second floor landing
where lorraine had been ill,
And all of a sudden
he clutched his chest,
Doubled over in pain,
And I could see the color
draining out of his face.
Mary pascarella,
who was the director
Of the psychic research
institute
In hamden, connecticut,
Never went into
a haunted house after that.
She gave up the work.
Didio: They did not feel so much
that there were ghosts
Of the m*rder*d defeo family,
But they felt that there was
a demonic presence there.
And lorraine said
another priest, an exorcist,
Is gonna have to come here
and cleanse the house.
Narrator:
The warrens hope an exorcism,
Especially one caught on film,
Will prove once and for all to
the world that demons are real.
But just like in
the bridgeport poltergeist case,
The exorcism never takes place.
Instead, george and kathy lutz
Let the bank foreclose
on the house
And move their family
to california.
The warrens kept in touch
with them long
After they had moved out
of new york and to california.
They were very concerned
at the impact
Of those experiences
on the lutz children.
And they did that
with every case.
They didn't go
in asking for money.
They had a sincere desire
to help.
Narrator: In 1977, a
best-selling book by jay anson
And subsequent film adaptation
turned the amityville horror
Into the world's
most famous paranormal event.
Although not featured
in either the book
Or the movie, through
their connection to the case,
Ed and lorraine warren
become famous.
They were no longer
the "warrens ghost hunters."
They're "america's ghost
hunters,"
Lorraine and ed warren.
♪♪
Narrator: Coming up,
Ed and lorraine
go from small-town new England
To the bright lights
of the international stage,
Bringing them new fame
and critical backlash.
Would you welcome
ed and lorraine warren?
[ applause ]
♪♪
Narrator: In 1977,
the amityville book and movie
Turn ed and lorraine warren
Into pop culture figures
in demand
By television talk show hosts
across the country.
Would you please welcome
ed and lorraine warren.
The amityville case made
ed and lorraine warren's
Career explode.
It put them into
the national consciousness.
Reporter: Last year,
over one million
Ouija boards
were sold in america.
I'd like to know what it is
that's out there.
"the exorcist" took it
out of the closet,
But now you have
Real life demonologist,
paranormal investigators,
An exorcists who have
a lot of credibility.
The way they worked
with the media,
The way that they got
the word out,
Opened up the doors
For a lot of
other investigators.
Narrator:
The warrens find themselves
In high demand for interviews,
speaking engagements,
And especially college
lecture tours.
Belanger: I remember attending
their lectures.
I had never seen a ghost.
I had friends who lived
in haunted houses.
But when you saw an ed
and lorraine warren lecture,
They played video clips,
They played audio clips,
they showed you pictures.
And I remember sitting there
thinking,
"oh, my god,
maybe now I have seen a ghost."
Tony: College kids
are drawn into this like
A moth to a flame.
But ed didn't do it
just for entertainment purposes.
Ed would say to me, "I'm here
to also give a warning
"not to dabble
in occult practices,
"that the devil exists,
that the devil is real,
"and don't dabble with
ouija boards.
"don't go to a psychic reader,
don't do any of that stuff.
"you're opening doors.
"and once you open the door up,
very difficult,
If not impossible
to close that door."
He holds the unique title
of demonologist.
She's a psychic. Would you
welcome ed and lorraine warren.
[ applause ]
We... we, uh...
We thought it'd be fun to have
a couple of demons on the show.
I think we better
bless them first.
Belanger: There weren't
paranormal ghost hunting shows
Back then, there were none.
It was just people
like ed and lorraine willing to
Put themselves out there,
willing to talk about it,
Put themselves up to ridicule,
get called hoaxers.
And that broke down
a ton of walls.
Once we start talking
about something,
Then it becomes out in the open.
Ed: I don't mind skeptics.
That means they're open-minded.
But show me a closed-minded
atheist and I say,
Put up your money
or shut your mouth
Because we can prove
that there is to our evidence.
Lorraine: Where haunting
phenomenon is concerned,
We have never really met
a true atheist
In a haunted home.
I was there. I saw it firsthand.
I know the work
that ed and lorraine did.
They were willing to take
that risk for other people,
For strangers,
And to be the subject
of ridicule like that.
It was very difficult for them.
Narrator: Lorraine attempts
to quiet critics
By undergoing scientific testing
by parapsychologists at ucla.
The team of scientists led
by dr. Thelma moss put lorraine
Through a battery of tests
that indicate
She is what they call
a light trance medium.
A deep trance medium will have
a spirit guide come through
And when that part is over,
they wake up
And they might not be aware
of what they said or did.
Lorraine was always aware
in this light trance state.
She's going to another plane.
♪♪
But is still aware of
all of her surroundings.
She was found to be well above
average in psychic ability,
Which kind of vindicated her
in her mind.
Now, she had real test results
that proved that she was not
Just like making up stories.
Narrator: In the 1980s,
The warrens take on a number
of controversial cases.
One offers yet another chance
to prove that the devil exists,
This time in a court of law.
♪♪
Not guilty of m*rder by reason
of demonic possession.
That's what an attorney
for a 19-year-old
Connecticut teenager
will try to prove.
We're going to take
the devil to court.
In the words of ed
and lorraine warren,
We can back up this case history
With numerous other case
histories can prove
Beyond a shadow of a doubt
That preternatural phenomenon
was taking place here.
Narrator:
According to prosecutors,
Stabbed to death his landlord,
alan bono in a fit of rage.
But johnson's lawyer claims
arne was possessed by demons
At the time,
demons that entered his body
During an exorcism of
his fiancée's younger brother.
Ed: This 11-year-old boy
would become extremely strong
And would take five men
to hold him down.
Arne johnson, who was engaged
to this boy's sister,
Would help every night
to control the boy.
One night he screamed
at these devils.
"take me on,
leave my little buddy alone."
When you challenge the demonic,
It doesn't act
at that particular time.
It waits until you are
the most vulnerable,
Then it strikes.
We're gonna have to prove
to a jury
That there is such a thing
as demonic possession.
Belanger: The warrens are out
to establish in the court of law
That demonic possession
is possible.
And if it can be used
successfully in a legal defense,
Then from ed warren's
perspective,
We have legal precedent
of the existence of demons
And that it can affect
a person's actions
And activities.
Narrator: Johnson's fiancée,
deborah glatzel,
Backs up arne's story
of demonic possession.
What did you see take place?
- All hell broke loose.
- What do you mean?
With the growling, when he went
under demonic attack.
What about the actual stabbing?
Did you see mr. Bono fall?
No, I never saw
mr. Bono get stabbed.
♪♪
Narrator: In November,
nine months after
The stabbing of alan bono,
The judge in arne johnson's
case makes his ruling.
The judge listened
to precedents, to arguments,
And then he said
that demonic possession
Is not an acceptable offense.
It is irrelevant in this case.
And unfortunately,
united states,
It is not a science
and he will permit no evidence
On demonic possession
and devils.
Ed: If the judge had let us
bring in our evidence
And the priests waiting
outside of the courthouse
To testify that what occurred to
this young boy, arne johnson,
Was indeed
a diabolical possession.
The judge didn't want to be
known as the judge
Who allowed
"the devil made me do it" case
Into his courtroom.
Ed and lorraine's daughter
remembers the case well.
Judy: I know debbie glatzel
personally and arne johnson.
I believe that the paranormal
exists, absolutely.
Absolutely. Yes, I do.
I can't help but believe it
If you're around it
as much as I was.
We knew it was inevitable that
there was going to be a tragedy,
But never, ever did we think
it would be arne johnson.
♪♪
Narrator:
Although ed and lorraine
lose their case in court,
Their battle
with the devil continues.
Up next, the warrens do battle
With one of the most evil demons
to infest the earth...
The succubus.
♪♪
Narrator: In January 1986,
Ed and lorraine warren
receive a desperate call
From a married couple
in pennsylvania.
For years, they and their
four children have been plagued
By a strange series
of unexplained events.
Blood curdling screams,
rumblings in the night,
A mysterious
and foul stench in the air.
Well, a family in west pittston,
pennsylvania,
Says this is a nightly horror
they endure.
Man: The strange happenings
at the home of the small family
Began the day daughter
dawn received her confirmation.
My parents see it
And sometimes they hear
a heartbeat
In the middle of them
when they're sleeping
And the closet door's open.
Man: And even the family's
german shepherd has provided
Little comfort against these
allegedly demonic forces.
Narrator: After enduring
a series of hauntings,
Jack and janet smurl
ask for help
From their local catholic
diocese, but to no avail.
Cast doubt ye evil demons.
New york's cardinal
john o'connor
Revealed that a priest
performed exorcisms
On people who were allegedly
possessed by the devil.
Our guests are janet
and jack smurl.
Who did you bring in
to help you?
We went to our local priest,
and said, "father,
There's something very strange
going on here."
So he came over.
He blessed the home and said,
"there's no one here
who can help you."
Narrator: After the church
diocese fails to send help
The smurls contact the warrens.
Ed: I'll never forget I was
driving up to west pittston.
It's in a coal mining area
and they thought, well,
Maybe something
was happening underneath
Because of the old mine shafts.
Lorraine: When phenomena first
began to occur in this house,
They tried everything.
They called people.
They called the church.
The priest came out
and blessed it.
But so much more was needed.
Ed: The smurls lying in bed
one night
And all of a sudden the bed
starts to rattle and shake.
Then they start
seeing black shadows
Moving across the bedroom
And suddenly something grabs her
by the leg and yanks her
Right out of the bed
onto the floor.
Then there's the night
when the both of them
Were lying in bed
and both of them
Rise up into the air
as high as the ceiling.
Narrator: Several nights later,
A demonic creature
known as a succubus appears.
Ed: Now a succubus is a name
given to a demon or a devil.
It attacks the male
physically and sexually.
Jack is sitting down
in his living room.
It's about 10:00 at night,
just about ready to go to bed.
And he sees this woman
coming down the stairs.
Now from a distance,
she looked very beautiful,
But then as she came closer,
the face changed
And what he'd seen
was a skeletal face
With rotting teeth
that attacked him.
Why would a demon want to attack
somebody sexually?
Did they get pleasure out of it?
No, they don't.
It's an insult to the birth
cycle of jesus christ and god,
That's why they do it.
Narrator:
To save the smurl family,
Ed and lorraine must do
everything in their power
To exorcise the succubus,
Including religious provocation.
Religious provocation is all
about using your belief system,
Your faith in this case,
catholicism,
To try to vanquish whatever evil
might be in the building.
Ed would bring in holy water.
He would hold up holy relics
like crosses,
And he would tell
Whatever entities were around
in the name of jesus, get out.
He pictured himself a warrior
and these were his weapons.
Ed: I had a police officer
with me.
We were walking down
that hallway
And I was using
religious provocation
When I felt a pressure,
grab me right by the neck.
Suddenly, ed finds himself
under attack.
Ed: This thing threw me back
about 10 feet onto the bed.
Police officer, he came in,
And threw
holy water at this thing.
Finally, lessened up.
♪♪
Narrator: The succubus proves
too powerful for ed and lorraine
To battle by themselves,
they need reinforcements,
But when the warrens approach
the catholic church for help,
They are turned away.
During the time the warrens
were really at the peak
Of their investigations,
they were having a hard time
Because the church was keeping
all these things a secret
About performing
these exorcisms.
So they were shunning
the warrens.
Nothing made ed warren
more angry than if you went
To the local catholic priest
And said, "you've got a family
in your community in need."
And if that priest said,
"no, no, I don't do that.
There's no such thing
as ghosts."
That infuriated ed.
So he had no qualms whatsoever
about using his fame
To escalate the situation,
to get the media involved.
Man: What do you want
the church to do?
We would like him to bring
in two or three priests
Who are exorcists
to clear this house
Of what is here.
Why doesn't the family
just move?
They have left here.
They have gone to a camp site.
The same type of phenomena
That had occurred to them
in their home
Also followed them
to the camp site.
None of you would be able to go
Through what the smurls
are going through.
You cannot even imagine what has
taken place in this home.
Woman: In your expert opinion,
How much longer
do you feel the family
Can go on living here?
By the looks of the family,
today, dear.
I think that they couldn't even
go through the rest of this day.
Narrator:
The press conference works.
When the vatican hears
about the case,
Cardinal ratzinger,
a future pope, intervenes.
Ed: Cardinal ratzinger assigned
an exorcist
From the catholic church
who went to the house
And performed the ritual
of exorcism,
The ritual romano in that house,
which is very unusual
Because they usually do
that only over a person.
And to this day,
that house has been clear.
People will say, well,
why would god allow the devil
To attack a family like this,
Because god lets this happen
every now
And then to prove that he is
more powerful than any devil.
♪♪
Do you, father lebar,
believe the smurls?
Absolutely, 100%.
What does the church,
guess or know, that this is?
They would call it,
as lorraine mentioned,
The diabolical infestation.
This is where diabolical spirits
Are not actually
possessing people,
But rather they're
inhabiting the place.
What happens during an exorcism?
During an exorcism,
The church calls
upon the power of christ
To remove the devil
from the person or the place.
We're talking about a creature
of god who is a fallen angel,
Therefore has powers greater
than a human being.
Would all catholics
believe this?
All catholics
should believe this.
- The pope would believe this.
- Absolutely.
He's spoken on it several times.
Narrator: The warrens prove
victorious this time,
But their w*r against evil
is never over.
Coming up, ed and lorraine
Investigate a former
funeral home
Where unspeakable horrors
took place in this world
And beyond.
Ed: I suspected necrophilia.
♪♪
Narrator: By the mid 1980s,
the warrens had helped
Over a thousand families
overcome demonic hauntings,
But perhaps their most trying
case involved an attack
So devious that had left
a residue of evil,
The remains with the family
over three decades later.
♪♪
Carmen snedeker desperately
needs a place
To rent in southington,
connecticut.
Her son is undergoing
cancer treatments
At a nearby hospital
and the commute from
Their home in upstate new york
is wearing both of them down.
And I drove by this
beautiful old colonial
And there was a for rent sign
out front
And I just pulled over.
I fell in love,
it was perfect for my family.
Narrator:
Carmen doesn't realize it,
But her perfect house
is a former funeral home.
Snedeker: There's no way
we're gonna find another place.
I've already scoured
the entire county
For a place to live that
will support four children,
So we're kind of locked in.
We can't really go anywhere.
Narrator: On the day
her family moves in,
Carmen notices
something strange.
I went to mop the floor,
The mop water turned
this thick red.
Narrator: Horrified,
carmen calls the housekeeper
Into the room.
Snedeker: She leaned down
and she smelled it.
And she got up,
walked out the door,
And I never saw her again.
Narrator: Carmen's son, philip,
is the next family member
To have a paranormal encounter.
He said, "mom,
we have to leave this place."
And he was shaking,
visibly shaking.
And he said, "this place
is evil, it's evil."
And I said, "son,
evil lives in the hearts of man,
Not in a house."
And that's what I truly
believed at the time.
And he said, "you're gonna see."
He started seeing this man,
the way he described this man,
Is long black hair,
very narrow face.
He had squinting dark eyes.
There was no whites.
And the man, we just stand
on the other side of the door
And tell him to do bad things.
But he would stand there
and say, "philip."
Man: [ whispers ] philip.
Philip.
He said he knew his name.
Narrator: Carmen refuses
to believe her son
And instead suspects
his cancer treatments
Are causing him to hallucinate.
But then carmen's niece suffers
a horrifying incident.
My niece tammy
came in from a date
And I was asleep in bed already.
She knocked on the door
and she's like,
"aunt carmen, aunt carmen.
It's happening again."
The entity, would pull her shirt
down on her shoulder
And start pulling her bra down.
She got very upset by this.
Narrator: Carmen grabs her
bedside bible
And heads to tammy's room.
Snedeker: I open the book and it
was psalms 24 where it opened.
And I started reading
and she said,
"aunt carmen, it's coming.
Can you feel it? It's coming."
And I can feel this...
This heaviness
growing in the room.
And I see under her light shirt
A hand I could see the knuckles
go up under her shirt
And it laughed a hideous...
[ evil laughter ]
And went through the back wall.
I've got to
protect these children.
I'm the last line of defense.
I reach for the rosary
and I grab the crucifix.
And it shatters.
I don't know
what to think or to do.
I'm lost.
Narrator: Desperate,
carmen looks up the number
For the warrens and calls.
Lorraine: I took a phone call
in the middle of the night
From a very hysterical woman
on the other end of the phone.
Ed and lorraine arrived
the next afternoon
With a team of investigators.
Ed: Mrs. Snedeker was terribly
frightened.
They were seeing ghosts.
They were being physically hurt,
even attacked sexually.
When she told me that it was
a funeral home,
I suspected necrophilia,
Which would be an abuse
of a dead body.
And we know that this can bring
about terrible phenomena
And hauntings in such a house.
Snedeker: They were kind to us
and they listened to our story
And ask us a million questions.
They ask us about our faith,
what had been going on.
They ask us about deaths
in the family
And then ms. Warren wanted
to tour the house.
Narrator: Lorraine makes her way
through the former funeral home,
Spending extra time
down in the basement
Where much of the mortuary
equipment still remains.
Snedeker: She was very calm
and composed, just listening.
And we went back upstairs,
She told me that she felt that
There was demonic in the house.
My heart sank
and my world crashed.
The whole episode was as
if somebody had taken
Everything I had learned
in that 36 years,
That was in a box that I had
all neatly stacked in there,
And it was dumped out
on the floor and strewn around.
What I believed, the physical
realm, the materialistic world,
Was not all there is, it's not.
Narrator: Coming up, the warrens
in the snedeker family
Team up with the church
to do battle against the devil.
♪♪
♪♪
Narrator: While investigating
a haunting case
Inside a former funeral home,
Ed and lorraine warren
documented numerous examples
Of demonic activity
that threatened to destroy
Not just the family
living there,
But the warrens themselves.
The warrens arranged
for a priest
To conduct a special mass
to cleanse the house of evil.
The way that ed and lorraine
would try to cleanse
A house would be
a multifaceted attack, actually.
Ed would call in a priest,
Either catholic
or of the family's faith,
To do a blessing of the house,
Sometimes a simple blessing
will work.
Ed: It's a set of prayers
casting out evil spirits
Out of a home or a location
or out of a person
Where they are diabolical,
possessed.
In this case, you have to have
a man who realizes that
When he leaves there,
even though he has commanded
That these evil spirits
to leave,
They could attack him
in his own rectory and they did.
Narrator:
The attack on the priest,
Along with
the warrens' evidence,
Convinces church officials
To grant permission
for a formal exorcism.
When I first heard
about exorcism,
I had no idea
what it would entail
And they told me that anything
could happen during an exorcism.
There have been even people
that died during exorcisms
And they warned, "are you
willing to take that risk?"
Their warnings made me tougher,
stronger, more determined.
Narrator:
Nine weeks after carmen
called the warrens for help,
Catholic priests arrived
to perform the ancient rite
Of exorcism...
The rituale romanum.
First private confessions are
made by each person
And the sacred rite
of absolution is given.
Everyone is then
given one last warning.
Once the exorcism starts,
They must keep going
until it's finished.
I had no idea what to expect,
But I have extreme trust in god
And that's what
I was trusting on.
Narrator: Shortly after
the prayer service begins,
Strange sounds rise up
from the basement.
There were knocking sounds
all around the house,
But you could feel what I would
call evil in that home.
Narrator: As the noise grows
in intensity,
Something grabs carmen's niece.
My niece was lifted up
by her neck.
And I could feel
the growling behind me.
I reach my hand on her shoulder
and that calmed everything down
It kind of like brought her
in my safe space.
Narrator: Minutes later,
the attack resumes,
This time targeting ed.
He felt like it was the demon
That was actually
attacking his heart,
Which was his weakest point,
his chest pain got so bad
He was removed from the exorcism
and taken into the living room.
Narrator: The priests continue
the ritual undeterred
As the exorcism escalates
into a full scale spiritual w*r.
♪♪
Carmen ignores the chaos
unfolding around her.
I'm focused on the priest.
Narrator: After hours of prayers
and blessings,
The danger finally lifts
for carmen and her niece.
♪♪
It was amazing,
faith was overtaking me
And I was feeling
that wondrous presence
And knew she was gonna be fine.
I just knew.
When it was all over,
I went in to find
lorraine and ed
'cause I was concerned
about his heart.
I asked if he was okay
and he said now
That the exorcism was over,
he was sure
That he would be fine
and everybody would be good.
Narrator: After the exorcism,
carmen moves her family out
And has never looked back.
she remains vigilant,
Fearing a return
by the demonic force.
Snedeker: The way the priest
explained it to me,
You're born into a room
with no doors.
You can do something
to create a door,
What they do is they come in
and they close the door,
But the door remains there
and that door can be opened
Very, very easily.
So I have to walk a very tight
path to keep that door closed.
Narrator: Books about
the snedeker haunting
And other cases
raised widespread interest
In awareness of the warrens
and their paranormal work.
Each week, dozens of callers
reach out for help.
To handle this
increasing caseload,
Ed and lorraine train a team
of investigators.
Coming up,
never before broadcast video
Of the warrens helping a young
woman possessed by a demon.
[ squealing ]
In the name of jesus christ,
I command you to leave.
♪♪
♪♪
Narrator: By the 1990s,
Ed and lorraine warren
had established themselves
As the world's preeminent
paranormal investigators.
The number of people asking for
their help grew beyond
What they alone could handle.
Not wanting
to turn any cases away,
Ed and lorraine passed down
their knowledge
To a new generation
of investigators.
When I first started
attending classes,
It was more instructional.
They didn't just send you out
on a case immediately.
You know, they might go
for a few months
Before you even went
on your first case.
We usually go as a group
like ed and lorraine,
Plus maybe four or five others.
Eventually,
with more experience,
She'd send us out on our own.
I started going to their classes
and they would present cases.
And it was just fascinating.
All the knowledge that they were
trying to impart.
Petonito:
Our job for ed and lorraine
Were to observe and report
and then get back to them.
If ed and lorraine felt
it's an interesting case
To investigate, they would call
on it themselves
And they would start
from the beginning again,
Interviewing the people
involved.
Narrator: One of jimmy's
responsibilities
While working with the warrens
is to videotape
Their investigations.
In this never before released
footage,
Ed and lorraine help a family
who suspects their daughter
May be under demonic possession.
One time, ed and lorraine were
interviewing a couple
And the daughter
that was sitting at the table
With us all of a sudden
started acting up.
Like, she started coming
under possession.
She's talking to kind of
in a different voice.
[ squeals ]
And ed said, give her a pen.
Ed: Are you a devil?
Petonito: And she started
writing on a notebook
Without looking, she's writing,
get out, get out of my house.
Get out of my house.
The girl ended up
getting an exorcism.
Man: The name of jesus christ,
I command you to leave
And go back
to where you came from.
The name of jesus christ,
I command you to tell us
Why you are bothering
this family.
Who are you?
What? - You're okay.
♪♪
Ed was the bravest person
I have ever met in my life.
He'd go into any situation
And doesn't seem
scared of anything.
But he would tell us later,
You know,
I was still scared myself,
But I can't show
that I'm scared.
Narrator: Over the years,
Jimmy petonito
works alongside the warrens
On hundreds of hauntings
and dozens of exorcisms.
Petonito: When we're assisting
in an exorcism
We usually set the altar up
for the priest,
We get the restraints out
in case they're needed,
The person afflicted
will sit in the chair.
The priest will start doing
the litany of the saints
To start the prayers.
Narrator:
The prayer service often
Generates a violent reaction.
We had a 95-pound woman
rip out of hospital restraints,
Like the canvas unbuckles
on our legs and arms.
She stood up like
they were straining,
Just broke everything.
There was one time where
the woman being exorcised
Was trying to gouge
her own eyes out.
We're trying to hold
our arms back.
She bit me on my arm.
Narrator:
Often, physical restraint
Is the least of their worries.
During an exorcism,
it would not be unusual
At all to experience different
types of manifestations.
A lot of sounds in the room,
guttural types of noises
And a lot of banging happening
all around us in the room.
And all of a sudden,
The temperature would
just plummet to,
You know, you can almost see
your colleagues' breath.
Narrator: Of the thousands of
paranormal investigations
Conducted by the warrens,
Ed considered perhaps
his most important case to be
One involving a single mother
living in hebron, connecticut.
♪♪
There was a woman
who believed the house
She was renting was haunted
And she was freaked out
and she left.
The realtor was suing her
for $2,000
To get back the money
that she still owed in rent,
So they called in the warrens.
Ed: She begged us to go
into the house and to find out
Or get some evidence
that would prove
That there really were ghosts.
Now you don't walk
into a court of law and say,
"well, judge, there was
ghosts there."
Well, that's fine, yes.
You have to have evidence,
any court of law,
They use photographs,
recordings,
Credible witnesses as evidence.
That's what we use.
We won the case.
We set a precedent here
in the united states.
When you would talk to ed
about his legacy
And about the work he did,
It was one of the things
he was most proud of.
He said we did it.
We proved in the court of law
That there are such things
as ghosts.
Ed: Now, scientists would say,
well, you didn't prove a thing
Because you didn't take that
ghosty and put them in a bottle
So that we could open it up
and examine them.
You know, they're saying
that scientifically you have
To prove that god exists,
that ghosts exist.
There is no such thing.
You can't get scientific
in the supernatural world.
So if we can prove in a court
Of law that ghost exists
in haunted houses,
I think that's good enough
for anyone.
Narrator: In addition to their
books and media appearances,
Ed and lorraine
expand their reach by producing
And starring in their own
television program.
"seekers of the supernatural."
Good evening,
ladies and gentlemen,
And welcome to
"secrets of the supernatural."
My name is tony spera.
I'll be your moderator tonight.
It was ed's idea.
What do we talk about?
He says we're gonna talk
about the demons,
We're gonna talk about ghosts,
We're gonna talk about
the reality of ghosts,
About these certain cases
we've been on
And what happened
in these cases.
He goes, we're gonna show
the people
That these things are real.
Narrator: The warrens also open
their own occult museum
To the public.
Here they display the many
haunted and demonic artifacts
Collected over the years.
Perhaps the most infamous item
In their collection
is annabelle,
The doll since featured
in several "conjuring" films,
Was given to the warrens
by a nurse
Who feared its demonic power,
A power ed believes
it still possesses.
The priest came here one day
and he said this doll,
It's supposed
to be infested by devils.
He picks the doll up and he
throws it across the room.
On his way home,
the car went out of control
Almost head on
to a tractor trailer truck.
It was demolished
And the priest
was almost k*lled.
Judy: My mother told me not to
look annabelle in the eye.
When I go into the museum,
Whenever I've been in and very,
very few times,
I don't even look there.
Horrible in there.
It's oppressing it's very heavy.
Just get an awful heavy feeling.
Narrator: Decades after their
first paranormal investigation,
The warrens finally receive
the star treatment.
Up next, hollywood
comes calling.
♪♪
Narrator: In 2001, a documentary
film company invites
Ed and lorraine warren to japan
In order to investigate
a haunted tunnel.
After the filming completes,
ed and lorraine visit nagoya,
A city where ed served
for a time after world w*r ii.
Tony: January 11, 1946,
ed was in the navy.
He was standing
on a dock in nagoya
When he gets word that his
daughter was just born.
Years and years later,
goes to the same dock
And he looks at lorraine
and he says,
"this is where I stood
all those years ago
When I heard judy was born."
You're thinking about w*r time
All the people you saw die,
And then the birth
of your daughter.
He had this revelation
about his life
That he had come full circle.
Narrator: Not long after
returning from japan,
Ed suffers
a debilitating stroke.
Tony: His heart stopped
and the medics
Actually use the paddles on him
and got him back.
But he was never the same.
He was in a coma for 11 weeks
And never really regained
control of his functions.
In other words,
reasoning and speech.
Narrator:
Distraught but determined,
Lorraine takes it upon herself
to care for ed.
Tony: She moved him around
so he wouldn't get bed sores,
She would change his catheter,
She would do things
that a nurse would do.
Narrator: On August 23, 2006,
five years after his stroke,
Ed warren passed away.
When my dad finally passed away,
My feeling was that he was free.
I even said that to him as
I was driving to the hospital.
I said, "you're free, dad."
Hawes: It hit me hard.
He was just a wonderful guy.
Anytime I talk to him,
he was down to earth,
Was willing to express
his beliefs
And his thoughts
on different types of hauntings.
And I think when he passed,
The the field lost
an incredible person.
Narrator: After ed's passing,
his son-in-law, tony spera,
Stepped into help lorraine
carry on the warren legacy.
Tony: Lorraine and I continued
lecturing after 2006.
Lorraine got satisfaction
out of doing it
Because she would talk about ed
at these lectures.
Then one day, we get a call
from an entertainment lawyer.
Warner brothers wanted to buy
her rights and ed's rights
Their life story rights
and their cases.
Lo and behold, all of a sudden,
there's a movie
Gonna be made
on one of their cases.
It was a haunted farmhouse
in rhode island.
Narrator: In 2013,
warner brothers releases
"the conjuring" based on
the perron family case.
The film shocks
the entertainment industry
By earning more than
$300 million at the box office.
I had chills down my back
Seeing actors portraying
ed and lorraine like that.
You know, they couldn't
have picked two better people
In my book...
Patrick wilson and vera farmiga.
I'm proud of them
for what they've accomplished.
Just seeing others
portraying them,
They've brought so much
attention to the field
That it's only a positive thing.
Narrator: "the conjuring"
and its sequels and spinoffs
Introduce the warrens
to a new generation.
♪♪
On April 18, 2019,
at the age of 92,
Lorraine warren passes away.
When I heard
that lorraine warren had passed,
I was in shock.
It was the end of an era.
Ed and lorraine
were some of the original
Pioneers in this field
And they meant so much
to so many.
They meant a lot to me.
I've never seen a greater love
between two people than them
Because they did everything
together.
They were never apart.
Judy: My mother,
when she passed,
One of the undertakers,
said they have security cameras.
And there were orbs
floating around her coffin
All night long,
which I thought was wonderful
Because it felt like there
was a good spirits around her.
♪♪
They were a regular couple
And they were very religious,
Lorraine especially,
and that was no act.
The warrens blazed a trail
That is still
being traveled today
By so many different paranormal
investigative groups
And television shows saying,
I believe in ghosts,
I believe we can document them
And I want to tell others
about it.
They were doing it first.
Now it's out in the open
and it's out in the open
Because of people like
ed and lorraine warren.
Paul: I refer to them
as the grandparents
Of modern ghost hunting.
The warrens brought the idea
of the paranormal
To the public consciousness
In a way that
had not been done before.
And I don't think it could be
replicated or replaced.
Judy: My mom and dad were
very sincere in what they did.
They truly wanted
to help people.
They truly wanted people to know
that the devil existed,
That god exists.
Narrator: Today, tony spera
keeps the warren legacy
Alive through investigations
And a youtube channel
dedicated to ed and lorraine.
The legacy of ed
and lorraine warren
Is always do right,
Always try to help others.
To prove that the devil is real,
Not just a mythological figure,
And that god is our protector.
Their legacy is love and love
for mankind.
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01x01 - Devil's Road: The True Story of Ed and Lorraine Warren
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A documentary series that takes a fresh look at true and terrifying tales of paranormal encounters.
A documentary series that takes a fresh look at true and terrifying tales of paranormal encounters.