Speaker 1: In the evening of Sunday, February sixteenth, nineteen eighty one,
Speaker 1: in Brookfield, Connecticut, a bright, waxing gibbus is slowly rising
Speaker 1: as an ambulance makes its way north along the Root
Speaker 1: seven Highway. In the distance, the low lying curves of
Speaker 1: pine covered Carmen Hill run like a blot of ink
Speaker 1: under the darkening sky. Attacks At twelve, the ambulance fears
Speaker 1: to the right, taking the turn off for silver Mine Road,
Speaker 1: before circling back and continuing east toward the depot. Silver
Speaker 1: Mine was especially quiet that night. When inside the ambulance,
Speaker 1: a call was received requesting all emergency personnel beyond the
Speaker 1: lookout for a white, nineteen year old male with curly
Speaker 1: blonde hair going by the name of Arnie Johnson, who
Speaker 1: was wanted in connection with a stabbing incident. No sooner
Speaker 1: had the call ended, the driver looked ahead to see
Speaker 1: a dark figure lit up suddenly in the vehicle's headlights,
Speaker 1: trudging along the grassy verge by the side of the road,
Speaker 1: their head bowed and unmoved by the approaching vehicle. As
Speaker 1: the ambulance passed by, the driver caught a momentary glimpse
Speaker 1: of a pale youthful face under a mop of curly
Speaker 1: blonde hair. The driver stamped on the brake and brought
Speaker 1: the ambulance to a stop by the side of the road, then,
Speaker 1: taking a moment to compose himself, jumped out into the
Speaker 1: night with a deep breath. The driver held up his
Speaker 1: hands as the figure moved steadily toward him, staring aimlessly
Speaker 1: at the ground. Arnie Johnson said the driver. The young
Speaker 1: man stopped suddenly and looked up, as if only then
Speaker 1: just registering the person in front of him. Please, he said,
Speaker 1: his voice trembling in the cold, help me. After the
Speaker 1: arrival of a squad car from the nearby Brookfield Police Department,
Speaker 1: the young man was handcuffed and pushed into the back
Speaker 1: of the car. At seven thirty pm, Arnie Johnson was
Speaker 1: formally arrested for the attempted murder of forty year old
Speaker 1: Alan Bonno, the manager of a local dog kennel, who
Speaker 1: had been found unresponsive at its property, having been stabbed
Speaker 1: multiple times. Ten minutes later, a call came through from
Speaker 1: Danbury Hospital to say that Alan Bono had died. Nineteen
Speaker 1: year old Arnie Johnson was now facing prison for murder.
Speaker 1: When Johnson finally began to talk. However, he claimed to
Speaker 1: have recollection of the event, and not because of some
Speaker 1: kind of ruse to get off the hook, he insisted,
Speaker 1: but because he hadn't been in control of his mind
Speaker 1: at the time the devil had You're listening to unexplained
Speaker 1: and I'm Richard McClean smith eight months previously, in the
Speaker 1: evening of July nineteen eighty, not ten minutes walk from
Speaker 1: where Arnie was picked up. Sits a ranch style bungalow
Speaker 1: tucked away in a small patch of woodland on the
Speaker 1: edge of the quaint New England town of Brookfield. Insects
Speaker 1: chirp in the warm summer air as plump moths bump
Speaker 1: incessantly against the porch light. From inside, concerned voices are
Speaker 1: emanating from out of the kitchen where Arnie is. Twenty
Speaker 1: six year old girlfriend Debbie Gladsol, and her parents, Judy
Speaker 1: and Carl, are sat round the kitchen table, debating the
Speaker 1: merits of the young couple's new rental. It had been
Speaker 1: almost too good to be true when they first heard
Speaker 1: about the large bucolic idol set back amidst the trees
Speaker 1: at the end of a country lane in nearby Newtown,
Speaker 1: But now they were beginning to realize maybe it really
Speaker 1: was too good to be true. After all, the place
Speaker 1: was supposed to be a new start for the couple
Speaker 1: and Debby's seven year old son, Jason, as well as
Speaker 1: Arnie's mother Mary, his two half sisters, Wander and Janis,
Speaker 1: and their young cousin also called Mary, all of whom
Speaker 1: had been living together in Bridgeport, the state's largest city.
Speaker 1: Formerly a prosperous industrial powerhouse on the coast of the
Speaker 1: Long Island Sound, Bridgeport had long since faded from prominence,
Speaker 1: and all had been desperate to leave, worried for the
Speaker 1: fate of the young ones on the city's increasingly troubled streets.
Speaker 1: For Annie, especially known as chey Anne to his friends,
Speaker 1: it was a chance to give something back to his mother,
Speaker 1: who'd single handedly raised him, along with Wonder and Janice,
Speaker 1: and their eight year old cousin, whom Annie's mother had
Speaker 1: effectively adopted despite two fathers walking out on them. Mary
Speaker 1: had done her best to provide for the more, but
Speaker 1: things were not working out as planned. Having intended to
Speaker 1: move in that day, they'd arrived at the property to
Speaker 1: find it a little more run down than they'd expected.
Speaker 1: While the extension to the main house where Annie and
Speaker 1: Debbie hoped to live was still occupied by the owner's daughter,
Speaker 1: who insisted she would be staying there for at least
Speaker 1: another two months, but there was something else about it too,
Speaker 1: that they couldn't quite put their finger on. A strange atmosphere,
Speaker 1: not helped by their discovery of a locked room in
Speaker 1: the cellar, of which they were told simply never to
Speaker 1: open under any circumstances. With Mary and the kids due
Speaker 1: to move in the following day, they needed to decide
Speaker 1: fast if they would take the place. As the two
Speaker 1: couples continued their conversation, they failed to notice Debby's eleven
Speaker 1: year old brother, David, now standing in the doorway with
Speaker 1: a look of abject fear on his face. What's wrong,
Speaker 1: asked his mother Judy. For a moment, David seemed reluctant
Speaker 1: to talk, Then slowly he looked up and began to speak.
Speaker 1: Earlier that day, David had joined his mother and two
Speaker 1: brothers been helping Debbie and Arnie move into their new home.
Speaker 1: As David went on to explain, the boys had been
Speaker 1: messing about on a water bed that had been left
Speaker 1: in one of the bedrooms when Judy found them and
Speaker 1: promptly told them to leave it alone. As his brothers
Speaker 1: ran out at the room, David went to join them
Speaker 1: when he felt something push him hard in the stomach,
Speaker 1: sending him sprawling backwards onto the bed. Thinking it was
Speaker 1: one of his brothers, David looked up in shock to
Speaker 1: see the faint figure of an elderly man with white hair,
Speaker 1: a torn red plaid shirt, and ripped jeans scowling at him.
Speaker 1: David watched, paralyzed with fear as the figure raised his arm,
Speaker 1: then pointed directly at him, mouthing the word beware, before
Speaker 1: he stepped back and faded into the wall. David's father, Carl,
Speaker 1: broke the silence, nearly spitting out his drink as he
Speaker 1: struggled to contain himself, and told David to go back
Speaker 1: to bed and get some sleep. But David didn't move.
Speaker 1: I can't, he said, because the man is here now.
Speaker 1: Arnie and Debbie looked to each other as Car took
Speaker 1: another sip of beer. Though evidently distressed, who was little
Speaker 1: to gain in indulging the boy's fantasy, and after some
Speaker 1: gentle persuasion, Judy finally succeeded in getting her son back
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Speaker 1: following day, haunted by the young David's peculiar story, Debbie
Speaker 1: and Arnie returned to the house in Newtown to check
Speaker 1: on their dog, George, whom they'd left there for the night,
Speaker 1: as claimed in Gerrard Brittle's nineteen eighty three book The
Speaker 1: Devil in Connecticut. When Debby opened the front door, she
Speaker 1: froze at the sight of reddish scratch marks on the
Speaker 1: inside of it. Moving inside, they found George cowering in
Speaker 1: the living room, strangely docile, and his paws covered in blood.
Speaker 1: Stepping down into the cellar to inspect the locked room
Speaker 1: once more, Arnie could have sworn he felt some one
Speaker 1: tap him on the shoulder, spinning round, only to find
Speaker 1: he was alone in the room. The couple decided there
Speaker 1: and then that the place was not for them, convincing.
Speaker 1: Arnie's mother, however, was a different matter. Unmoved by the
Speaker 1: property's strange energy, she refused to change plans and moved
Speaker 1: in with her niece and daughters regardless. That night, back
Speaker 1: at the Gladsall's family home in Brookfield, Judy was just
Speaker 1: explaining to Arnie and Debby the strange mood that David
Speaker 1: had been in all day, and how he'd been telling
Speaker 1: her that the ghoulish man he'd seen wanted to hurt him,
Speaker 1: when he suddenly burst into the kitchen. The man was
Speaker 1: coming for them again, he screamed in anguish. He could
Speaker 1: see him, he said, floating over the trees and speeding
Speaker 1: fast toward the house. Once again. The family worked hard
Speaker 1: to calm the boy down, with Judy even going to
Speaker 1: the trouble of throwing holy water about the house to
Speaker 1: convince him that no one was coming for him and
Speaker 1: nothing was getting inside their home for now, at least.
Speaker 1: The following evening, after a day out together, the family
Speaker 1: returned home. As Debby and Arnie made up a bed
Speaker 1: on the living room floor, aloud boom was heard coming
Speaker 1: on the top of the house. A terrified David emerged
Speaker 1: from his bedroom as Judy tried to reassure him that
Speaker 1: there was nothing to worry about. As the family gathered
Speaker 1: under the attic door, another noise was heard. It sounded
Speaker 1: like footsteps, Arnie volunteered to take a look. Pulling the
Speaker 1: attic ladder down, he stepped cautiously into the darkness above
Speaker 1: and scanned the space with a flashlight. Seeing nothing untoward,
Speaker 1: he pushed on and quickly found the attic light. A
Speaker 1: soft burst of light revealed only a cramped room full
Speaker 1: of dusty cobwebs and boxes full of long forgotten items.
Speaker 1: There was no one there. Over the next few days, however,
Speaker 1: the strange, inexplicable noises intensified, from scratching in the walls
Speaker 1: to loud, sharp raps that seemed to be coming from outside.
Speaker 1: The perhaps most disturbing of all, David soon began apparently
Speaker 1: claiming that the vision of the old man he'd been
Speaker 1: seeing had now morphed into something else, with red, scaly skin,
Speaker 1: large black eyes, and horns. He called it the beast,
Speaker 1: having claimed to have been visited by the beast in
Speaker 1: his bedroom the night before. On the evening of July fifth,
Speaker 1: David was apparently stood in the living room staring into
Speaker 1: space when he suddenly tumbled against a chair and crashed
Speaker 1: to the ground. Judy could only watch in horror as
Speaker 1: he rolled around, clutching at his throat and screamed for
Speaker 1: the beast to leave him alone. Over the next few days,
Speaker 1: things only got worse, as David began talking in a deep,
Speaker 1: gravelly voice and shouting obscenities at his mother, while the strange,
Speaker 1: invisible attacks continued unabated. Fearing that her son might be possessed,
Speaker 1: Judy paid a visit to the pastor of her local church,
Speaker 1: Saint Joseph's. Desperate for help. Though keen to avoid reinforcing
Speaker 1: the notion that David might be possessed. With his strange
Speaker 1: condition showing no sign of waning, father Denis agreed to
Speaker 1: conduct a blessing in the house. At first, the ritual
Speaker 1: seemed to bring calm, until two nights later, when David
Speaker 1: was apparently confronted by another nightmare vision, not one demonic creature,
Speaker 1: but multiple, materializing in his room from out of a
Speaker 1: ball of fuzzy blue light. Some were missing limbs and
Speaker 1: bleeding from the eyes. Others had freshly cleaved heads split
Speaker 1: down the middle, with thick blood oozing the wound, or
Speaker 1: gaping holes on the face wet with blood where lips
Speaker 1: had once been. There were forty three of them in total,
Speaker 1: he said, each as monstrous as the next, and slowly
Speaker 1: David seemed more and more to be coming under their spell.
Speaker 1: One minute, he was the softly spoken boy they knew
Speaker 1: and loved. The next his head would drop suddenly to
Speaker 1: his chest, then rise again to reveal eyes rolled back
Speaker 1: into his head and a strangely screwed up face dripping
Speaker 1: with menace. Then a burst of unhinged laughter would explode
Speaker 1: from his lips, and his limbs would flail about manically.
Speaker 1: Night after night, the family took it in turns to
Speaker 1: comfort him, seemingly powerless to help. It isn't clear exactly
Speaker 1: how infamous paranormal investigators Lorraine and Ed Warren got involved,
Speaker 1: with one report stating they'd been recommended by a coworker
Speaker 1: of Debbis, while others suggested that Judy and Debbie were
Speaker 1: already aware of them, since they lived only thirty miles
Speaker 1: away in the town of Munroe and were somewhat of
Speaker 1: a local celebrity couple. Having been told about David's situation
Speaker 1: on the morning of July thirteenth, the couple agreed to help,
Speaker 1: and Julie made a visit to the Glassal's home, arriving
Speaker 1: at eleven thirty pm. That night, along with their friend
Speaker 1: doctor Anthony Gianne Grasso, to conduct a medical assessment of
Speaker 1: the boy. As the Warrens grilled the family, a series
Speaker 1: of loud bangs rang out through the property, after which
Speaker 1: David began talking softly to a seemingly unseen presence. When
Speaker 1: Ed Warren asked him who he was speaking to, David
Speaker 1: replied sym plea Satan. Ed asked if Satan would make
Speaker 1: his presence known by banging three times on the wall,
Speaker 1: and sure enough the reply came back boom boom boom.
Speaker 1: Concerned by what they'd seen, the Warrens told the family
Speaker 1: to continue praying while they thought more about what to do.
Speaker 1: After consulting with the church, the Warrens apparently succeeded in
Speaker 1: convincing them that the peculiar activity taking place at the
Speaker 1: Glassl's home, which by the end of July had evolved
Speaker 1: to include flying objects, needed careful monitoring. From August first,
Speaker 1: a number of priests from Saint Joseph's are said to
Speaker 1: have taken it in turns to assess the situation for themselves,
Speaker 1: with tape recordings and photos of David's apparent possession also
Speaker 1: handed over to them by the second week of August,
Speaker 1: two of the priests, Fathers James Grosso and William Malia,
Speaker 1: were so disturbed by what they saw they began lobbying
Speaker 1: the local bishop to consider an exorcism. A few days later,
Speaker 1: Arnie Johnson took it on himself to speak with Father
Speaker 1: Francis Virgilac, theological adviser to the bishop on behalf of
Speaker 1: the family. Seeing Arnie's evident pain for the plight of
Speaker 1: his girlfriend's brother, Virgilac implored him to be patient and
Speaker 1: wait for the church's various procedures to play out. In
Speaker 1: the meantime, he offered Arnie a statue of the Virgin
Speaker 1: Mary to place in the home, as well as a
Speaker 1: silver crucifix for himself to wear, and some holy salts
Speaker 1: to use on David the next time he seemed taken
Speaker 1: by the demons. As David's affliction continued, more often than not,
Speaker 1: it would apparently be Arnie at the forefront doing his
Speaker 1: best to reassure the boy, while also helping to pin
Speaker 1: him down as he held the crucifix to his head
Speaker 1: and challenged the demonic spirits to fight him instead to
Speaker 1: take his body instead. As the nights grow darker and
Speaker 1: the air begins to chill. There's no better streaming surface
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Speaker 1: that a full scale exorcism was needed, the church agreed
Speaker 1: to perform a high Mass at the Glassol's home instead,
Speaker 1: to be led by Father Virgilac, who was joined by
Speaker 1: Father's Grosso Malia and one other local priest. After days
Speaker 1: of praying and the careful selection of the appropriate liturgy,
Speaker 1: on the day before the mass, Vergilac warned his colleagues
Speaker 1: not to sleep travel alone should the demon seek any
Speaker 1: reprisal against them, and so it was that on August twentieth,
Speaker 1: the priests arrived at the Glasal home to conduct the mass.
Speaker 1: That morning, David, Arnie and the rest of the Glassals,
Speaker 1: along with Lorraine and ed Warren, gathered in the main
Speaker 1: room around a makeshift altar comprised of a kitchen table
Speaker 1: and an altar cloth from Saint Joseph's and watched on
Speaker 1: as the priests carefully laid out their implements of chalices, cruets,
Speaker 1: and holy oils. After a finally polished ornate cross was
Speaker 1: placed in the center of the altar, Father Vergilac was
Speaker 1: ready to begin. As Vergilac prayed out loud, David sat
Speaker 1: between his father and ed Warren began to stir. Ten
Speaker 1: minutes later, his quiet groans and morphed into a strange growl.
Speaker 1: Virgil Ac instinctively flicked the vial of holy water over
Speaker 1: David and the growling stopped. By four pm, the mass
Speaker 1: was over and David smiled for what seemed the first
Speaker 1: time in weeks, and all agreed the atmosphere had become
Speaker 1: somehow lighter. A few days later, a late night screamed
Speaker 1: from David's bedroom announced the apparent return of the demons.
Speaker 1: After further consultation with the local bishop, although still reluctant
Speaker 1: to perform a full scale Rituala Romanum, the church agreed
Speaker 1: to take the slightly lesser step of performing a deliverance
Speaker 1: ritual on David. On September second, Having apparently become incensed
Speaker 1: at the mention of the ritual, David was tied to
Speaker 1: a chair with a sheet and promptly taken to the
Speaker 1: school chapel of Joseph's Church. Inside, Father Virgilac and the
Speaker 1: three other priests were waiting for him, With David eventually
Speaker 1: settled between his family and the warrens on the front pew,
Speaker 1: Father Virgilac began in the name of Jesus Christ, our
Speaker 1: Lord and Savior, strengthened by the intercession of the Immaculate
Speaker 1: Virgin Mother of God, the Blessed Michael, the Archangel of
Speaker 1: the Blessed Apostles, and all the saints. We undertake to
Speaker 1: repulse the attacks and to seats of the devil. When
Speaker 1: suddenly David broke free and charged toward the priest, only
Speaker 1: to be restrained and brought back to the bench. David
Speaker 1: was said to have struggled throughout the procedure, railing against
Speaker 1: the priests, spitting and crying out for them to shut up,
Speaker 1: as Vergilac continued unmoved, begone, Satan, cease your insolence. I
Speaker 1: command you, in the name of God Almighty, the Creator,
Speaker 1: to produce the sign of thine departure by the precious
Speaker 1: blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. At four pm, again
Speaker 1: with David finally subdued after hours of kicking and screaming,
Speaker 1: Father virgil Act brought the session to an end. Closing
Speaker 1: her eyes. Lorraine Warren sensed that much good had been done,
Speaker 1: but warned the more that the fight was not yet over,
Speaker 1: believing as many as four demons were still trapped in
Speaker 1: poor David's body. On September eighth, David was once again
Speaker 1: brought from his home to the priests of Saint Joseph,
Speaker 1: this time to a haul in the convent opposite the church.
Speaker 1: Accompanied by his mother, Debbie, and one of his brothers,
Speaker 1: David was brought to the front of the room, joined
Speaker 1: the Warrens and the priests. At three pm. With the
Speaker 1: priests stood in a semicircle around the boy, they performed
Speaker 1: the rite of exorcism without interruption. With all seeming finally
Speaker 1: well and David now free of demons, he returned home
Speaker 1: with his family later that evening. They were joined by
Speaker 1: the Warrens and Father Virgilac. All talk was laced with
Speaker 1: the tentative hope that the Glassl's problems were finally at
Speaker 1: an end. Then, at twelve thirty pm, David's head tipped
Speaker 1: forward to his chest and he began to growl. Then
Speaker 1: he turned his face to the ceiling. His eyes rolled
Speaker 1: back into his head as his limbs began to shake.
Speaker 1: A series of guttural profanities sprang from his mouth. Arnie
Speaker 1: was said to have rushed over to the boy once more,
Speaker 1: compelling the demons to come into him instead, while Father
Speaker 1: Virgilac began to shout, through the power of Christ, I
Speaker 1: command you tell us your name, I am the devil,
Speaker 1: came the course reply from David, and then finally it
Speaker 1: was over. After almost six hours, at roughly six to
Speaker 1: fifteen am, the last of the apparent demons was finally
Speaker 1: expelled once again. However, Lorraine Warren was not convinced. Hoping
Speaker 1: she was wrong, she and her husband wished the Glassul's
Speaker 1: luck for the future, telling them not to hesitate in
Speaker 1: contacting them again if they ever needed them. Later that month,
Speaker 1: the Brookfield Police Department received a call from the Warrens,
Speaker 1: who told them that they'd been helping a family in
Speaker 1: Brookfield in relation to a demonic possession, and though they
Speaker 1: were hopeful the issue had been resolved, there was still
Speaker 1: the potential for a dangerous violent act to occur in future.
Speaker 1: In late October, Derby Glatsall was introduced to forty year
Speaker 1: old Alan Bonnoe, the manager of Brookfield Kennels, located just
Speaker 1: off Route seven, not far from the Gladsall's home. Having
Speaker 1: just recently returned to the US after seventeen years in Australia,
Speaker 1: Allan had been given the job by his sister, who
Speaker 1: owned the kennels with her husband. With a number of
Speaker 1: years experience working at another kennel near by. Debby agreed
Speaker 1: to help Allan run the place and also provide a
Speaker 1: grooming service for pets. What sold the job more than
Speaker 1: anything else, however, was Allan's offer of an apartment to
Speaker 1: live in on sight, and so in late November, with
Speaker 1: all seeming well at the Gladsall family home, Debbie, her
Speaker 1: son Jason, and Arnie moved in to the apartment. For
Speaker 1: the next few months, things couldn't have been better for
Speaker 1: the young couple, with Arnie also getting a new job
Speaker 1: as a tree surgeon. Staying on site enabled them to
Speaker 1: keep saving money for their own place, and plans to
Speaker 1: marry the following spring was soon being discussed. Early in
Speaker 1: the next year, on the long weekend of George Washington's birthday,
Speaker 1: Debbie and Arnie invited Arnie's sisters and cousin to stay
Speaker 1: with them at the kennel. The girls had recently moved
Speaker 1: back to Bridgeport, with Arnie's mother Mary, having all become
Speaker 1: increasingly unnerved at the new Town property. On the morning
Speaker 1: of Monday, February sixteenth, however, Arnie was said to have
Speaker 1: woken up feeling unwell. After calling in sick, he promptly
Speaker 1: went back to bed. Later that morning, as the girls
Speaker 1: helped Debbie with some groom work, and allegedly already visibly inebriated,
Speaker 1: Allan invited Debby and the girls to join him for lunch.
Speaker 1: By then feeling a little better, Arnie decided to join
Speaker 1: them too. After a quick meal, where Alan is said
Speaker 1: to have kept topping up Debbie and Arnie's drinks, they
Speaker 1: all returned to the kennels, where Debbie carried on her
Speaker 1: work with the girls and Arnie headed back to bed.
Speaker 1: When Arnie got up again at five pm, Alan asked
Speaker 1: him to help fix his stereo in the office. A
Speaker 1: short time later, as Debbie finished off the last assignment
Speaker 1: of the day, the kennels were engulfed in loud rock
Speaker 1: music coming from Alan's office. Delighted to have the stereo fixed,
Speaker 1: Allan then invited everyone to have dinner with him too.
Speaker 1: Debbie later said she had the feeling that something terrible
Speaker 1: might happen, but eventually relented and agreed to take the
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Speaker 1: l and Branch dot com promo code unexplained. As music
Speaker 1: blasted up from beneath the floor of Allen's apartment, Debbie
Speaker 1: finished laying out the table and invited the others to
Speaker 1: sit down and eat, stumbling up from downstairs to join them.
Speaker 1: Allen apparently had little interest in eating, preferring instead to
Speaker 1: rage at his broken TV. As Debbie urged him to
Speaker 1: calm down, Allan was said to have become only more
Speaker 1: and more angry with the obscenely loud music ringing in
Speaker 1: her head. Debbie eventually had enough and told Arnie and
Speaker 1: the girls to go out and meet her by the car.
Speaker 1: As she told it later, Arnie headed straight to the
Speaker 1: office to turn off the music. When he headed back
Speaker 1: toward the flat, Debby was half way down the stairs,
Speaker 1: while Allan was in the doorway blocking the girls from leaving.
Speaker 1: What happened next, Derby claimed not to understand, saying that
Speaker 1: out of nowhere, something shifted in Arnie. Within seconds, he
Speaker 1: was laying into her, violently shoving and kicking her to
Speaker 1: the ground. Horrified, Wonder finally broke free from Allan and
Speaker 1: pushed Arnie away from Debby saying later that Arnie seemed
Speaker 1: then to suddenly come too confused about what had just happened.
Speaker 1: Then Janis and Mary finally wriggled free from Allan and
Speaker 1: managed to escape to the car. The next anyone knew,
Speaker 1: in a flash, Arnie and Alan were facing off against
Speaker 1: each other. There was a sudden coming together. Then Arnie
Speaker 1: stepped back, leaving Allan supposedly standing still in the middle
Speaker 1: of the yard, pounding his fist into his hand. A
Speaker 1: second later, his face froze and he collapsed to the ground.
Speaker 1: Derby and Wonder claimed to then have quickly rushed to
Speaker 1: his aid, rolling him over to find two stab wounds,
Speaker 1: rapidly expelling blood in his stomach. Then Mary, having run
Speaker 1: from the car, spotted Arnie's woodsman's knife in the dirt,
Speaker 1: its five inch blade slick with blood. When they looked
Speaker 1: up to find Arnie, they just managed to catch sight
Speaker 1: of him heading off in the direction of Silver Mine Road,
Speaker 1: before slipping into the trees and disappearing from view. Half
Speaker 1: an hour later, he was found wandering the road alone
Speaker 1: and taken to Brookfield Police station with his bail set
Speaker 1: at one hundred and twenty five thousand dollars, Arnie had
Speaker 1: no choice but to remain in custody until his trial began.
Speaker 1: Eight months after his arrest, on October twenty eighth, Arnie
Speaker 1: Johnson arrived at Danbury Superior Court to begin his trial
Speaker 1: for murder. By then, the bizarre details leading up to
Speaker 1: the murder of Alan Bonno had long been made public.
Speaker 1: Lorraine and Ed Warren wasted no time in making their
Speaker 1: case known that Arnie was the innocent victim of a
Speaker 1: diabolical possession, claiming that whatever had possessed David Gladsall had
Speaker 1: somehow made its way into the hapless nineteen year old
Speaker 1: Arnie Johnson and his lawyer came to this conclusion, too,
Speaker 1: intending to enter a plea of not guilty under the
Speaker 1: grounds of diminished responsibility due to the fact that he
Speaker 1: had merely been a conduit for the devil. Not long
Speaker 1: after the trial began, Arnie's attorney turned to the jury
Speaker 1: and asked the troubling question, do you believe in God?
Speaker 1: All of them who only moments ago had taken the
Speaker 1: juror's oath with one hand placed on the Bible as
Speaker 1: they promised to make true deliverance under the eyes of God,
Speaker 1: nodded in agreement. Well, then how about the other way,
Speaker 1: he continued, Do you believe in the devil too? Before
Speaker 1: they had a chance to answer, however, the judge struck
Speaker 1: down the line of questioning, stating that he would not
Speaker 1: permit such an unprovable defense as demonic possession. In his courtroom,
Speaker 1: with the jury asked to decide whether Arnie had committed murder,
Speaker 1: man slaughter, or was in fact completely innocent, things soon
Speaker 1: proved complicated, with no blood found on his clothes, no
Speaker 1: fingerprints on the knife, and Debbie and his sisters all
Speaker 1: saying that none of them had actually seen him put
Speaker 1: the knife in, allan who was little to no evidence
Speaker 1: that he'd actually done it. After two days of exhausting deliberation,
Speaker 1: the jury finally came to a decision and found the
Speaker 1: defendant guilty of manslaughter. Arnie Johnson was duly sentenced to
Speaker 1: twenty years in prison for the crime, but was eventually
Speaker 1: released after serving only five years for good behavior. If
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Speaker 1: by me Richard McClain smith. Please subscribe and rate the
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