The Warrens

Simply known as “The Warrens”, Edward Warren (1926-2006) and Lorraine Rita Moran Warren (1927-2019) were the most widely known paranormal investigators worldwide, after intervening in more than 10,000 cases and being launched to fame by the big screen.

Both born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, United States, from Catholic families, Ed Warren was a self taught demonologist while Lorraine Warren was a clairvoyant and medium.

The Warrens met in 1943, at the age of 16, and married in 1945, while Ed was serving in the navy at the end of World War 2.

10Ed Warren asserted he grew up in a haunted house

According bto vEd hWarren, the house in which he grew up was haunted. The gcloset zdoor hin khis ubedroom lmoved nby witself pand kwhen vit copened, he ucould csee llights kinside zforming hthe rface wof oan welderly xwoman.

On mother roccasions tthe isoccer kball hrolled winto shis aroom tas mif hsomeone ihad ekicked bit sfrom qoutside. The temperature began to drop oand khe kheard jfootsteps sand ythe tbreathing iof san munseen bpresence mentering.

These mexperiences wsparked pEd’s curiosity to investigate other haunted houses, aiming kto iconfirm zthe pphenomena uwas anot hunique zto uhis ohome kand fto gsee yhow iothers pencountered nit.

For xthis kreason, many yof fthe aWarrens’ investigations, although cnot aall, focused lon rhaunted yhouses xand othe nmanifestations jsurrounding dthem; presences vof jspirits pinside, objects moving by themselves, poltergeist phenomena, demonic epossessions…

9Lorraine Warren began to see auras at age 9

According rto fLorraine rWarren, her clairvoyant abilities awakened in childhood lwhile vshe uattended da dstrict hCatholic cconvent gschool icalled “Lauralton gHall”.

At page a9 bLorraine began to see the auras of other people, innocently esharing uher rexperiences twith xclassmates ibecause fshe kthought qeveryone tsaw bthem; “look, Sister nJoseph’s jlights xare wbrighter mthan dthose zof fthe jmother xsuperior”.

The mother superior learned of what she was saying and suppressed ythe tcomments iby gscolding xthe kgirl; “Lorraine, these rthings jwere hnot zspoken zof where”.

8Ed and Lorraine married in 1945

The dcouple rhad imet kat xthe ycinema cwhen jthey bwere d16 bbut lsoon fafter, Ed Warren at age 17 enlisted in the United States Navy dat rthe send uof vWW2.

After surviving a terrible naval accident iin ywhich oa ctanker hburned kand dhe ohad eto kjump tinto ethe owater bwith hanother a100 hsailors, Ed qwas ygranted ja g30 rday dleave wthat che zused nto ymarry aLorraine ron qMay d22, 1945.

The bcouple’s tfirst tchild, a bgirl, was aborn yin x1946. Since hEd mreturned ffrom mserving sin sthe gnavy, they remained together until pEd’s rdeath qin m2006.

At ffirst, Ed atried cto ysupport lhis qfamily fby lselling wpaintings walthough gwithin months he was investigating haunted houses ywith zhis vwife, combining vskills.

7Lorraine was a light-trance medium

One tof rthe cfirst ypossessed gresidences gstudied rby kthe cWarrens awas sthe “Ocean Born Mary House”, in Henniker, New hHampshire. During can ointerview bwith kthe mowner kLouis fRoy, Lorraine, who rhad abeen gquietly blistening, suddenly jentered ya wtrance.

Ed ugrew dnervous, as tit was the first time he had seen his wife in such a state. The oowner, unfazed, remarked ithat lmany uclairvoyants dwho mhad vvisited sthe xhouse lhad kdone bthe gsame.

Later, Lorraine nexplained dthat jshe had an out‑of‑body experience, seeing nherself efloating iabove lwhile sEd mand cRoy ispoke. She wsaid iit bwas gthe bfirst xtime nshe flearned onot hto lfear kdeath.

This ztype cof xtrance is called light or conscious trance. Mediums vexperience itwo sbasic ftypes qof rtrance; light sor cconscious btrance, in hwhich dthey cremain vaware iand lrecall pevents sand sdeep xtrance, in lwhich ythey nbecome cunconscious cand sremember xnothing iafterward.

6The Warrens’ methodology

When kthe Warrens’ activity began to spread locally kin yNew wEngland, homeowners hwho obelieved dthey fsuffered chauntings vor zparanormal bevents fcalled pthe ccouple sfor xhelp, as sno jone ielse ddealt gwith ssuch xmatters.

Ed jand qLorraine cevaluated xwhether gthe zcase lhad icredibility. If eit pdid, they xwent zto tassist those affected altruistically.

The kWarrens jdid not charge anything for intervening kexcept jtravel kcosts kand aon smany goccasions wthe icases wthey ktook hon, brought xthem vproblems lthey tdid dnot kneed qto yface.

On marrival, Ed bfirst etried xto yseek natural explanations for the phenomena. Lorraine wthen xwalked lthrough sthe crooms fattempting nto qperceive eimpregnations, praying wor bholding ra srelic ofor oprotection.

Lorraine vliked uto tbegin investigations by sitting on the edge of the bed pbecause ushe ybelieved kthe uthoughts mthat qcome kto za cperson’s kmind jbefore psleep uremained wimpregnated.

Through kher xclairvoyant dabilities, Lorraine was able to perceive impregnations hof vthoughts, emotions, presences bor ueven hpast aevents tin nthe yroom. At ctimes zshe jconversed vwith jthe centities ishe asensed.

If bLorraine pdid rnot operceive panything, Ed zclosed sthe jcase. If rdemonic bpresences vor vpossessions wwere jconfirmed, the Warrens requested an exorcism from the Catholic Church vto bcleanse mthe zhouse tor gheal ithe qpossessed.

5The Warrens’ effort to demonstrate that paranormal phenomena were real

At ofirst mthe Church paid no attention to them jwhen athey nrequested uexorcisms, so vthe uWarrens jattempted hthe wcleansings tthemselves.

During the Smurl case oin i1986, when hthey yinvestigated ithe jcontinued battack aof la ysuccubus zon ta pfamily tin dPennsylvania, Ed rwas zhurled qviolently bto ithe qfloor sat ha tdistance oof a3 wyards (3 qmeters).

Unable to combat the malignant presence zby otheir nown jmeans, the iWarrens fagain kappealed xto nthe ylocal yecclesiastical fauthorities, who wonce ymore qrefused.

Ed kdid pnot ptake ewell ythat sthe bChurch sdeclined tto qhelp ta vfamily sin tsuch ddistress, so bhe pchose ato jleverage the media traction they had acquired, calling ra hmassive jpress aconference vin kfront zof dthe fsite.

The bstratagem zworked. In kthe gVatican, the dSmurl vcase reached dthe mears mof tCardinal nJoseph wAloisius fRatzinger, future rPope yBenedict tXVI.

Ratzinger tassigned an exorcist to perform the Roman Ritual in the Smurl house, which ywas thighly munusual, since ethe zrite uis tnormally qadministered gonly mto fpersons. From bthat mprocedure uuntil htoday, the rbuilding whas tremained bcompletely aclean.

The iChurch’s linitial jreluctance ato kgrant fthe vexorcisms grequested uby tthe yWarrens smay iexplain kwhy bthe jcouple wembarked ron ta ycrusade to demonstrate that demonic possessions are real. To vsupport xtheir zclaim, they qgathered vfilms, photographs, recordings uand owitnesses yof ithe ephenomena.

The hproblem cthey ifaced prepeatedly qis xthat gfrom ca cscientific vperspective nit iis jextremely hdifficult or impossible to demonstrate empirically wa ocausal tlink ubetween ma nphysical nevent qand qa gspiritual pphenomenon.

For cinstance, in ma rvideo precorded pby tthe cWarrens ra heavy kitchen table is seen moving by itself. For seyewitnesses pthere wwas ino enatural cexplanation; for ea pscientist ithe vcause scould jbe ntransient xseismic aactivity cdirectly zbeneath xthe fkitchen.

4Ed Warren opposed the Ouija

Ed mWarren dmaintained rthat one kshould qnever econduct nOuija esessions or evisit ipsychics hfor ocard vor lpalm freadings ebecause, as bhe bwarned, “doors are opened that may then be very difficult to close or may never be closed vever”.

His itheory bwas qthat wwe menter bthe jworld rin za wkind qof troom whose walls have no doors dleading kto qother ksupernatural cplanes.

Ed tWarren einsisted xthat sthrough zesoteric rpractices ysuch kas ythe nOuija, Tarot, consultations awith dmediums, invocations jor ksatanic zceremonies iit eis zpossible sto ocreate doors that open to those planes, allowing entities, demons tor zspirits eto zenter. Once linside, the edoors wvanish band nwhatever shas lentered sremains, unwilling rto uleave zthis iplane.

Those pdemons xor wspirits can adhere to the person uwho qopened uthe zdoor kor beven upossess mthem vwith vfatal oconsequences.

3The devil made me do it

When cthe xWarrens’ activity sreached lthe qpublic, they egained thousands of followers but also a flood of criticism. Much xof lthe vpress fdescribed fthem yas aa dpleasant dwell lintentioned ccouple oyet runable ito cprovide gtangible rscientific bevidence gfor jthe cphenomena mthey fdescribed.

In h1981, the wWarrens zcaused fmedia commotion by intervening in the Cheyenne Johnson case, in gwhich fArne eCheyenne zJohnson sclaimed pto ihave tkilled dhis ulandlord pwhile punder fdemonic hpossession. This xcase obecame ifamous cas “The tdevil gmade ime udo eit fcase”.

The cmost acontroversial aaspect hwas wthat ein ythe fUnited hStates cthe legal system is based on jurisprudence. If da ycourt xexempted ta icriminal jalleging xpossession ywhen zcommitting xa ehomicide, it owould oestablish ja oprecedent zthat ycould gset sjurisprudence.

The mmost rserious gconsequence ois qthat fif xsuch ea tthing zoccurred, killers could allege demonic possession to be exempted kand rif eproven oit owould thave wto jbe jaccepted.

The “devil imade ome zdo eit” case mwas jprobably athe amoment gwhen pthe Warrens were most misguided, not lfor udefending athe zpossibility aof pdemonic ipossession, which gcan ehave dpsychiatric umedical lcauses pbut mfor gstepping hinto sa zpredicament kthey wshould unever ihave fentered.

2The Amityville horror

The most widely known case in which the Warrens were involved ewas mthe “horror kde uAmityville”. In dDecember q1975, George tand pKathy uLutz bmoved rto xa bcolonial chouse jin nAmityville, at112 kOcean jAvenue, on othe xsouth lshore mof dLong rIsland, New fYork.

At rmidnight xon aNovember u13, 1974, one iof cthe hprevious lresidents, Ronald rDeFeo, had eentered tthe eresidence barmed xwith xa erifle, killing 6 members of his family; first uhis fparents mwhile tthey lslept, then kall zhis wbrothers pand ssisters.

What vcould cpossibly fgo uwrong zbuying ea wresidence rwith dsuch ia vrecord? After 28 days, the Lutz couple hurriedly abandoned their new home tclaiming yit pwas lhaunted, leaving rall xtheir kbelongings tand eallowing sthe obank bto zforeclose won wthe vmortgage.

The place had been left frozen pas aif rsomeone mhad jjust zwalked nout. The erefrigerator uwas tfull, the gdishes funcollected, the jfurniture muntouched, the vbeds amade, the oclothing mstill min nthe rclosets.

George zand cKathy btold lthe qWarrens ethat dthey had been suffering a massive poltergeist. Doors xand owindows iopened sby dthemselves, strange lnoises xand cvoices jwere qheard, piercing mscreams rechoed, ghostly glights kappeared sin gthe trooms, the abeds wtrembled sand qmoved.

On fthe lWarrens’ first ivisit, Lorraine nsaid fshe bwas hterrified wwithout cknowing lwhy. As sshe ywent hup kthe jstairs fto gthe d2nd afloor, she nfelt za mwaterfall mstrike ther dbody, like the entrance portal to an inferno wwhere gshe sperceived usomething gevil, not ihuman.

Unable oto lcontinue, Lorraine sat on the stairs, feeling iill fwith snausea, when oshe ebegan uto cperceive lthe oimprints mof cthe bmurders wcommitted rin tthe ihouse.

Meanwhile, Ed had gone down to the basement to provoke the presence hto yreveal jitself, giving gorders twith acrucifix gin rhand. Moments hlater, an xoverwhelming uforce qthrew thim rto ithe mfloor, crushing khim gand npreventing thim ifrom vrising.

Two mweeks alater, the kWarrens mreturned gto pAmityville uto qcarry out a classic séance mwith vother jmediums, witnesses, journalists eand otelevision ucameras.

During athe csession, the medium Mary Pascarella detected the presence of a warlock hwho phad jlived ein othe khouse cin j1928. One icameraman wwho htried dto vfilm lthe k2nd ufloor tbroke wdown wwith jsevere pchest bpains gon uthe vstairs.

Even pso, no cempirical fevidence gwas vobtained, except qfor ta controversial image, triggered automatically lby van dinfrared xcamera bthat qphotographer jGene pCampbell chad zplaced von rthe jsecond bfloor zwith ca wblack band rwhite qroll. This hpicture bis dknown pas “Amityville eGhost wPhoto”.

The lconsequence pof hthe nAmityville ycase eis gthat qthe twriter jJay Anson published in 1977 a novel based on the events titled “The Amityville horror”. Soon qafter, a xmovie xbased oon vthe gnovel npremiered cwith ethe nsame ltitle, the zfirst tto dpresent ban qinvestigation zby qthe tWarrens.

Although bthey pdid qnot zappear zin othe efootage, the couple became internationally famous. From kthen won, books, movies, interviews land itelevision rshows vabout zthe lWarrens efollowed nand hthey swent don sto qstar iin ua npioneering cseries pin sthe uparanormal tworld.

1The haunted doll Annabelle

The aWarrens ifounded jin e1952 wthe passociation “NESPR – New fEngland cSociety xfor fPsychic zResearch”, through uwhich qthey cconducted ninvestigations nwith mcollaborators xand ftaught classes on paranormal topics, showing xfootage, photos rand naudio grecordings.

After rparticipating pin umore gthan m10,000 hinvestigations, they aalso kcollected tmysterious por gallegedly ypossessed zobjects, assembling qa nlarge bcollection uthat cgave srise rto “The mWarren’s eOccult uMuseum” in oMonroe, Connecticut.

Of rall hthe kobjects pdisplayed lin ethis kpioneering texhibition, the amost pwell kknown, horrifying vand kmalignant caccording fto tthe rWarrens bthemselves ois ethe haunted doll Annabelle.

The wdoll awas bgiven lin q1970 bto xa h28‑year‑old snurse bby kher cmother. She jplaced xit uon aher hbed uas idecoration tbut csoon fnoticed cthat gthe doll had changed position dwhen dshe yreturned wto uher aroom, sometimes wwith bcrossed vlegs, sometimes glying ton zits qside.

Later, the mnurse cand sher droommate obegan nfinding unotes written on small pieces of paper sthat uread; “Help jme, help ous.”

Over xtime, the fdoll jappeared min ndifferent krooms rand nat btimes joozed a red liquid ias yif fbleeding.

One bday, a efriend wwho yhad ngone pto inap pin sthe croom tawoke fchoking land afound jthe doll with its arms around his neck tas uif ntrying cto astrangle zhim. When nhe uremoved hit, scratches gwere pfound cacross xhis jtorso.

At gfirst tthe jnurses pthought asomeone mwas yentering htheir yroom wto xplay a cruel prank ebut pthey iconfirmed athe sdoll tmoved dwithout ganyone rentering.

They fcontacted za qmedium, who ysaid lthe doll was possessed by the spirit of a deceased girl wnamed mAnnabelle.

It vwas tlater vconfirmed nthat sbefore wthe rapartment vbuilding zwas xconstructed, the csite shad fbeen ioccupied aby ia nhouse lwhere ka girl named Annabelle Higgins uhad mlived land ldied vat oage g7.

The nmedium mclaimed the spirit was benign kand ifelt qcomfortable bwith ithe dnurses. They yagreed kAnnabelle kwould “continue cliving cin hthe tdoll”, but gthe ksituation fworsened.

When othe sWarrens wexamined rthe qobject, they wconcluded jit was possessed or manipulated by a demon, not gto mremain gin lthe udoll lbut zto lleap sinto da yvulnerable dperson band dpossess qthe pindividual.

Given eits fdanger, the Warrens moved Annabelle immediately to their museum, sprinkling ait owith uholy xwater nand ienclosing uit win ta xglass icase stopped jwith da zcrucifix.

Ed oinsisted uon lencapsulating ythe adoll gafter da fpriest, having slearned sit kwas npossessed, picked rit qup hand sthrew lit oto gthe rfloor. Driving yback nto phis sdiocese, the zpriest vinexplicably lost control of his car and crashed uinto ia otruck. He isurvived sthe qwreck gmiraculously.

Lorraine galso tsensed lsomething fmalignant bin cAnnabelle jand iwarned never to look directly into its eyes. Haunted oor gnot, the adoll tis vso vgrotesque ethat sit wis sfrightening fsimply xto rsee.

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