Speaker 1: Welcome to Unexplained Extra with me Richard McClain Smith, where
Speaker 1: for the weeks in between episodes, we look at stories
Speaker 1: and ideas that, for one reason or other, didn't make
Speaker 1: it into the previous show. In our last episode, Negative Space,
Speaker 1: we looked at the chilling tale of the Purran family haunting, which,
Speaker 1: like many people, I first came across through the film
Speaker 1: The Conjuring. It was also through this film that I
Speaker 1: first heard about Lorraine and Ed Warren, with whom the
Speaker 1: Puran's story has subsequently become inextricably linked. There is little
Speaker 1: doubt that, for whatever reason, some members of the Puran
Speaker 1: family had noticed and experienced various things occurring in their home,
Speaker 1: which they later came to speculate might be the result
Speaker 1: of a haunting. However, it was from the involvement of
Speaker 1: the war that the story really began to solidify into
Speaker 1: something that appeared to give the Peron's concerns some legitimacy
Speaker 1: and would later inspire the filmmakers of The Conjuring. I
Speaker 1: don't think for a moment that those filmmakers have a
Speaker 1: duty to present a story based on facts or truth.
Speaker 1: It is a film for entertainment and doesn't present as
Speaker 1: anything else, nor should it be required to. However, since
Speaker 1: many of the Warrens and Peron's assumptions and associations drew
Speaker 1: on the history of real people, it feels necessary to
Speaker 1: go a little deeper into the conclusions that they eventually
Speaker 1: drew and the subsequent mythology that has now been attached
Speaker 1: to the story. Having become increasingly unsettled by the peculiar
Speaker 1: events taking place in her home, Caroline Peron became convinced
Speaker 1: that her family was being haunted by at least one
Speaker 1: malicious spirit, and so in the summer of nineteen seventy two,
Speaker 1: she took it on herself to try and find a
Speaker 1: possible culprit. Caroline is said to have begun by going
Speaker 1: through the records at Burrowville Town Hall, the town which
Speaker 1: incorporates the area of Harrisville in Rhode Island, where the
Speaker 1: Perron's home was located. Despite finding some useful information about
Speaker 1: the past owners of the house, a family named Arnold,
Speaker 1: it wasn't until she met Franne, who worked at a
Speaker 1: local store, that she apparently began to get somewhere. After
Speaker 1: telling Franne about the supposed entity she had seen with
Speaker 1: the broken neck. Franne is said to have recognized the
Speaker 1: description of its clothes, a simple dress with wide pockets,
Speaker 1: as being typical of local fashion in the nineteenth century.
Speaker 1: From here the pair came across the name Bathsheba Sherman,
Speaker 1: as documented in a three part series of books titled
Speaker 1: House of Darkness, House of Life, written by old as
Speaker 1: daughter Andrea Peron. Caroline was then introduced to a mister mckeachen,
Speaker 1: an elderly member of the local community, who had in
Speaker 1: fact known Bathsheba as a young boy. What mckeachen is
Speaker 1: said to have gone on to tell Caroline gave her
Speaker 1: serious pause for thought. Back when Batsheba had been a
Speaker 1: young woman, it was said that a baby, possibly hers
Speaker 1: or someone else's it isn't clear, died mysteriously while in
Speaker 1: her care. The cause of death was thought to have
Speaker 1: been the result of a wound made by a needle
Speaker 1: that was found impaled at the base of the infant's skull.
Speaker 1: This event was said to have taken place when Bathsheba
Speaker 1: was staying at the farmhouse back when it was known
Speaker 1: as the Arnold's Farm. Batsheba was apparently accused of murdering
Speaker 1: the child, but ultimately escaped conviction when the judge presiding
Speaker 1: over her trial failed to find sufficient evidence to condemn her.
Speaker 1: As a result, it was said that the local community
Speaker 1: remained suspicious of Bathsheba for the rest of her life,
Speaker 1: with some accusing her of being a witch in league
Speaker 1: with the devil, and that was only the beginning. Having
Speaker 1: felt uncomfortable in the barn on numerous occasions, Caroline was
Speaker 1: also said to have been shocked to learn that one
Speaker 1: of the Arnaults had hung themselves in the barn, and
Speaker 1: that pantry door leading just off the parlor that wouldn't
Speaker 1: stay shut, might, as she is said to have discovered,
Speaker 1: have had something to do with the eleven year old
Speaker 1: girl raped and murdered in there many years before. It
Speaker 1: was some months later that a friend of Caroline's was
Speaker 1: attending a lecture in the town of Putnam, roughly twenty
Speaker 1: miles away, being given by Lorraine and Ed Warren. Lorraine
Speaker 1: and ed Warren had been making a name for themselves
Speaker 1: as a self described clairvoyant and demonologist, respectively, offering their
Speaker 1: services to clear unwonted spirits from people's homes. The Warrens
Speaker 1: had first met back in nineteen forty three, and after
Speaker 1: marrying two years later, went on to set up the
Speaker 1: New England Society for Psychic Research in nineteen fifty two.
Speaker 1: Ed had grown up in a house which he believed
Speaker 1: was haunted, and having convinced Lorraine of the idea, came
Speaker 1: up with a plan to see if they could find
Speaker 1: other homes that were also haunted. Ed, who had spent
Speaker 1: some time at art school, would paint the apparently haunted
Speaker 1: homes and offer the paintings to the owners in return
Speaker 1: for a chance to investigate the house. It was from
Speaker 1: these unconventional beginnings that the pair developed a reputation as
Speaker 1: paranormal investigators. Though their Psychic Research Society had been founded
Speaker 1: simply to investigate apparent haunting, their approach changed when in
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty five, the Warrens claimed to have conversed with
Speaker 1: the spirit of a young child named Cynthia, who was
Speaker 1: trying to find her mother. The pair as said to
Speaker 1: have been so touched by this apparent communication that instead
Speaker 1: of merely investigating hauntings, they became dedicated to helping the
Speaker 1: supposed spirits they encountered. As self described paranormal investigators, the
Speaker 1: Warrens received their first break in nineteen sixty eight, after
Speaker 1: looking into the alleged possession of a raggedy ann doll,
Speaker 1: a toy that had become popular in the US in
Speaker 1: the nineteen tents. The doll, which would later inspire the
Speaker 1: film Annabel, was said to have been possessed by the
Speaker 1: spirit of someone called Annabel Higgins. By the nineteen seventies,
Speaker 1: the Warrens had well and truly cemented their reputation and
Speaker 1: were embarking on a tour of lectures to explain their
Speaker 1: practices when Caroline's friend Barbara went to see them in Putnam.
Speaker 1: Speaking to them afterwards, Barbara told them all about what
Speaker 1: was apparently taking place at the Pearan's home. With their
Speaker 1: interest piqued, the Warrens appeared one morning at the Peran's
Speaker 1: farmhouse and requested permission to inspect the property. Caroline Julie agreed,
Speaker 1: also showing them all the apparent evidence she had amassed
Speaker 1: about who she believed might be responsible for the hauntings.
Speaker 1: When Caroline then mentioned an inexplicable wound she had received
Speaker 1: while resting one afternoon in the parlor, Lorraine Warren had
Speaker 1: a sudden epiphany. Since the wound was a small, circular
Speaker 1: puncture in the skin as if made by a needle.
Speaker 1: It was clear who the culprit was Bathsheba Sherman. Are
Speaker 1: you always taking care of your family? Do you often
Speaker 1: take care of others and not yourself? Now it's time
Speaker 1: to take care of yourself, to make time for you.
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Speaker 1: was indeed a woman named Bathsheba Sherman who lived in Burrowville,
Speaker 1: Rhode Island at the time in question, having been born
Speaker 1: in eighteen twelve after dying in eighteen eighty five around
Speaker 1: the age of seventy three. It is also conceivable that
Speaker 1: mister mc keachen had met her as a young boy,
Speaker 1: although he would have had to have been in his
Speaker 1: nineties in nineteen seventy one to have had any real
Speaker 1: recollection of this. However, there is nothing on record to
Speaker 1: suggest that Bathsheba ever visited the Arnold's farmhouse, let alone
Speaker 1: lived there for any prolonged period of time, nor is
Speaker 1: there any record of her being involved in the possible
Speaker 1: murder of a child. In fact, no evidence of any
Speaker 1: scandal of the thought having taken place in the Burrowville
Speaker 1: area has ever been found. What is known is that
Speaker 1: Bathsheba born Bathsheba Thya, was married to a Judson Sherman
Speaker 1: in eighteen forty four. The record state the pair had
Speaker 1: four children together. The first three would die tragically young,
Speaker 1: not in any way unusual for the time, with their
Speaker 1: only surviving son being a Herbert Sherman born in eighteen
Speaker 1: forty nine, when Bahbad died in eighteen eighty five, most
Speaker 1: likely from a stroke. Not only was a eulogy given
Speaker 1: by the local Baptist minister, but she was buried alongside
Speaker 1: the graves of her first husband and deceased children. As
Speaker 1: writer and historian Jamie Rubio has pointed out, both these
Speaker 1: incidences would have been unlikely if the local community had
Speaker 1: suspected her of any of the crimes she had apparently
Speaker 1: been accused of. Neither was there any mention of these
Speaker 1: alleged crimes in Sherman's obituary. As for the other individuals
Speaker 1: that had been suggested as potential spirits, Jamie Rubio unearthed
Speaker 1: some interesting information about them too. It was claimed that
Speaker 1: an elderly woman of the Arnold family had committed suicide
Speaker 1: by hanging herself in the barn, although this isn't true.
Speaker 1: A member of the Arnold family, when the family was
Speaker 1: still in possession of the farm was found to have
Speaker 1: hung themselves back in eighteen eighty six. However, the woman
Speaker 1: in question, Susan Arnold, didn't die at the farm house,
Speaker 1: nor was she elderly at the time of death. In
Speaker 1: a devastatingly tragic account of the incident, Susan Arnold's obituary
Speaker 1: recounts how her husband, John, who had a disability at
Speaker 1: the time, struggled to break into a store room which
Speaker 1: had been locked from the inside. When he finally managed
Speaker 1: to get in after climbing through a back window, he
Speaker 1: found the fifty year old Susan's lifeless body suspended from
Speaker 1: a wardrobe hook with a very small cord, evidently having
Speaker 1: had every intention of succeeding with her plan to commit suicide.
Speaker 1: A loaded gun, a life and a file of mercury
Speaker 1: was also found by Arnold's body. Another connection drawn by
Speaker 1: Lorraine Warren to the Peron's home was with the death
Speaker 1: of a young girl named Prudence Arnold, who Warren claimed
Speaker 1: was raped and murdered in the pantry. This also was
Speaker 1: found to be some distance from the truth, ten miles
Speaker 1: to be precise. Again, tragically, an event similar to this
Speaker 1: did take place, but not in the Perron's home, rather
Speaker 1: in the nearby town of Uxbridge. It was there that,
Speaker 1: in eighteen forty nine, twenty two year old William Nolton
Speaker 1: became so angry at twelve year old Prudence's refusal to
Speaker 1: marry him that he slit her throat and watched her
Speaker 1: bleed to death. Nolton was eventually convicted of the crime
Speaker 1: and sentenced to death by hanging, justifying his actions as
Speaker 1: the simple consequence of love and jealousy, which he stayed
Speaker 1: would lead a man to do anything. If you enjoy
Speaker 1: listening to Unexplained and would like to help support us,
Speaker 1: you can now go to Unexplained podcast dot com, Forward
Speaker 1: Slash Support. All donations, no matter how large or small,
Speaker 1: are massively appreciated. All elements of Unexplained are produced by me,
Speaker 1: Richard McClain Smith. Please subscribe and rate the show on iTunes,
Speaker 1: and feel free to get in touch with any thoughts
Speaker 1: or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show.
Speaker 1: Perhaps you have an explanation of your own you'd like
Speaker 1: to share. You can reach us online at Unexplained podcast
Speaker 1: dot com, or Twitter at Unexplained Pod and Facebook at
Speaker 1: Facebook dot com, Forward Slash Unexplained Now it's time to
Speaker 1: take care of yourself. To make time for you, teledoc
Speaker 1: gives you access to a licensed therapist to help you
Speaker 1: get back to feeling your best. Speak to a licensed
Speaker 1: therapist by phone or video any time between seven a m.
Speaker 1: To nine p m. Local time, seven days a week.
Speaker 1: Teledoc Therapy is available through most insurance or employers. Download
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