Dark History - 181: The Real Conjuring: Ghost Hunters or Grifters? Who Were Ed & Lorraine Warren

Episode Date: September 3, 2025

Hi friends, happy Wednesday! Listen… I know it’s not *officially* Fall yet, okay? But we all know Fall means Halloween, and Halloween is my favorite holiday. So I wanted to get started celebrating a little early this year.  I did a soft launch on my decorations. Put out a few pumpkins and spider webs. The crows in my backyard approved. And I decided this weekend, I was going to see a scary movie. I found out the last Conjuring movie was coming out and I was so excited.  This one is all about Ed and Lorraine Warren, the demonologists behind all the other Conjuring movies. And even though there have been *so* many Conjuring movies, I realized that I never looked into Ed and Lorraine Warren myself.  And listen… I’m left with nothing but questions. Were they legit? What made them so famous? And what was the reason they left the spotlight? Was it really because of one terrifying case, or, was the reason much darker? I need your opinions!  Welcome to the Dark History of Ed and Lorraine Warren!  I sometimes talk about my Good Reads in the show. So here's the link if you want to check it out. IDK. lol: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/139701263-bailey ________ FOLLOW ME AROUND Tik Tok: https://bit.ly/3e3jL9v Instagram: http://bit.ly/2nbO4PR Facebook: http://bit.ly/2mdZtK6 Twitter: http://bit.ly/2yT4BLV Pinterest: http://bit.ly/2mVpXnY Youtube: http://bit.ly/1HGw3Og Snapchat: https://bit.ly/3cC0V9d Discord: https://discord.gg/BaileySarian RECOMMEND A STORY HERE: [e-mail] Business Related Emails: [e-mail] Business Related Mail: Bailey Sarian 4400 W. Riverside Dr., Ste 110-300 Burbank, CA 91505 ________ This podcast is Executive Produced by: Bailey Sarian and Joey Scavuzzo Head Writer: Allyson Philobos Writer: Katie Burris Additional Writing: Xander Elmore Research provided by: Emma Lehman Special thank you to our Historical Consultant: Benjamin Radford, folklorist and author of "Investigating Ghosts: The Scientific Search for Spirits".  Director: Brian Jaggers Additional Editing: Julien Perez & Maria Norris Hair: Bailey Sarian Makeup: Bailey Sarian ________ Go to https://www.hellofresh.com/DARKHISTORY10FM now to get 10 Free Meals + a Free Item for Life! One per box with active subscription. Free meals applied as a discount on your first box, new subscribers only, varies by plan. That’s https://www.hellofresh.com/DARKHISTORY10FM to get 10 Free Meals + a Free Item for Life.

Listen, I know it's not officially fall yet, okay? But we all know fall means Halloween, and Halloween is my favorite holiday. So I wanted to get started celebrating a little early this year. I did a soft launch on my decorations at home. I put like a few pumpkins out, some spider webs, and the crows in my backyard approved. And I decided this weekend I was going to like watch some scary movies. I found out the last Conjuring movie was coming out and I was very excited. So apparently this one's all about Ed and Lorraine.

Warren, the demonologist behind all the other conjuring movies. And even though there have been so many conjuring movies, I realized I never really looked into Ed and Lorraine Warren myself. And once I did so, I was left with nothing but questions. Were they legit? What made them so famous? And what was the reason they left the spotlight? Was it really because of like one terrifying case? Or was the reason much darker? I need your opinions. Welcome to the Darkest of Ed and Lorraine Warren. Hi friends, I hope you're having a wonderful day today. My name is Bailey Sarian, and I like to welcome you to my podcast, Dark History.

Here we believe history does not have to be boring. It might be tragic, sometimes it's happy, but either way, it's our dark history. Before we get into it, don't forget to like and subscribe. I'm always posting new content. And let me know what you think. I love hearing from you in the comment section. And at the end, we read comments. Yeah.

Now, let's get into it. If you're watching on YouTube, you can see Paul came dressed as a ghost. And I love it. Paul, you look great. And Joan, what are you? Oh, Joan came as a ghost hunter. Is your radar going off? Because there's a ghost right there.

I love it, you guys. Thanks for including me once again. Yay. Love the outfits. Anyhow, so, okay, Ed and Lorraine, let's talk about their early days. So Ed Warren, Mione, was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 1926.

Now, Ed said that he had experienced with the supernatural, and it started when he was like around five years old. According to his biography, it's titled The Demonologist, Ed claims that he grew up in a haunted house. He often had dreams where he would receive messages from dead relatives that he had never met. In 1927, his future wife, Lorraine Rita Moran was also born in Bridgeport. Lorraine said that she had experiences with the supernatural, claiming that she could actually see the future. So in 1944, Ed and Lorraine met for the first time at a theater in Bridgeport,

Connecticut, and it was said that they fell in love instantly. But at the age of 17, Ed felt a calling to serve his country. So he said goodbye to Lorraine, and he went off to enlist in the Marines. But they kicked him out. They kicked him out because they found out his real age. He was 17. You can't be 17. You have to be 18. So he was kicked out. A little while later, he would was allowed to join the Navy. But after only four months of deployment, an oil tanker crashed into the ship he was on, setting it on fire.

Now, I guess Ed had managed to jump out of the boat to safety, and he was able to visit home on something called Survivors' leave. When he got back, the first thing he did was go straight to Lorraine and ask her to marry him. And the two did. They got married. So then Ed went back to the Navy to finish his service, And when he was done, he returned home to live the suburban life with Lorraine.

In 1951, they even had a daughter together named Judy. But pretty soon it was clear that Ed was having a hard time adjusting to society. Instead of getting a typical job, Ed decided to go to art school. There, Ed discovered he had a very specific talent. He was really good at painting haunted houses. So Ed would plant himself in front of like old houses in Connecticut. and he would start painting, but it would be like the haunted version of the house.

So he had some luck, like selling these paintings, but he was having a really hard time making ends meet, you know? So Ed and Lorraine, they came up with a plan together. They would skim the newspapers every day looking for reports of local hauntings. So once they found one, Ed would sketch the haunted house. He'd knock on the door and be like, hey, I just sketched a scary picture of your house.

Do you want to see? Once they were let inside, they would offer to quote, unquote, investigate the home. I guess at this point Ed would tell people that he was a professional certified demonologist. Now, demonologists are people who study the nature and power of demons. Now, technically, anyone can call themselves a demonologist. But in order to be like an official demonologist, you usually have to go through some kind of certification process with a religious institute. But Ed, he skipped that part.

He was like, no, no, no. Like, I'm a demonologist. I have knowledge on demons and stuff. I went to church. I understand what it is. I'm a demonologist. He was said to be a very loud, obnoxious, kind of cocky man.

So no one really ever questioned his credentials. Plus, why would you? Because it's so random, right? Like, if someone's telling you they're a demonologist, I'd be like, oh, okay, yeah. Yeah. Why would you lie about that? It's just so random.

Once Ed and Lorraine were let into someone's house, Lorraine would go upstairs, like sit on the bed to get a clear sense of what was happening within the home. So they would do that, right? Investigating, you call it. The Warrens would then tell the homeowners all about the spirits that were in the house and what the spirits wanted from them.

And to be fair, it was said in the end that a lot of the homeowners would feel better about it. Like, they just felt better after the experience. So, you know, who's the judge? Yeah. Let them do their thing. So Ed and Lorraine, they managed to get, like, a great reputation in town. And after about five years, the Warrens did it so often that they became known as official paranormal

investigators. The Warrens also figured out, like, a pretty good formula for making money off of these investigations. They would never charge for the investigation itself, but they made sure the story was theirs. We own the story. Then they would sell the stories from their investigations to the media, TV stations, screenwriters, anyone. They also capitalized on their haunted home visits by opening up an occult museum. Essentially, this was a display of haunted objects, tapes, and files from their investigations. All on display. You can go and look at it and be like, ooh, that's haunted. Oh, no, that's

That must be haunted too, spooky. Even though they were enjoying all this success, it wasn't until like 1970 that they got major press attention. They received a call from a terrified family, not because of an evil spirit, but because of an evil done. If I had a dollar for every time I said, I'll just order takeout tonight. I could probably retire. Yeah, delivery always sounds like, you know, an easy solution.

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In 1970, the Warren's got a call for a very unusual case. A young nursing student named Donna was living in absolute fear because her toy doll was acting strange. Now, this doll wasn't exactly the same as the doll in the conjuring movies. It was more like a Raggedy Ann doll. They're these soft, stuffed fabric dolls with huge eyes, and they have like the red yarn hair, a very big smile plastered on their face.

They're cute, they're simple. Like the one Paul's holding. Oh wait, she's over here. Did she move? Well, she's over here now. Like that. Well, I guess Donna had been given the doll by her grandmother as like a graduation gift. She's like, thanks.

I could really use money, though. But it's okay. She loved this doll, and she had an attachment to her. At first, Donna said that she sometimes noticed the doll would sometimes be in different, in a different position than when she left her. Like the doll had fallen over or, like, shifted slightly when she was out of the house. And it was like, okay, yeah, sure. It's a, it's a doll.

Maybe she blew over. I don't know. It made sense. But then the doll would be in different. locations. Donna would leave it on the couch and then it would end up back in her bedroom with a door closed when she came home. And the doll would be found in positions it couldn't have fallen into. Like her arms and legs were folded. Like you know when you're pissed off and you fold your arms and stuff. That's how the doll would be like set up. Or she'd be standing up.

The doll. Yeah. Like a person? I'd be like hell. No doll. Throw that right out my window. Hell no. But Donna's roommate Angie and even her friend Lou would notice these changes. Now Lou, it was said, hated this doll. He always called her evil and implied that like she was creepy. After that, Donna and her roommates found notes around the house that said things like, Help me! Or help Lou!

Now, apparently it wasn't either of the roommates, so they were pretty freaked out. You know, so then one night Donna is sleeping, she went Mimi's, sleeping in her bed, when suddenly she bolts up out of like a dead sleep, she looks around her room and apparently, allegedly, finds her precious doll covered in blood. No, thank you. Grandma, why did you give me this doll? Murder doll? I don't know. Donna immediately thinks the blood belongs. to like her roommates, but neither of them were hurt. That's when she's like, okay, this is a little too weird. It's getting creepy. I'm calling a medium. So a medium comes over.

They do a seance. I don't know. I think that's what you do in a seance. They close their eyes and they talk to the spirits in the room. And this is when it's revealed that the doll is possessed by the spirit of a seven-year-old girl named Annabelle Higgins. Now apparently Annabel was murdered as a little girl in the same location where Donna's apartment was. I guess Annabelle had communicated that she liked being around the girls. But Lou, he was a different story.

She hated his ass. Now, Lou wasn't at the seance when this was happening. He was over at his apartment sleeping alone. It was said after the seance, he started having like a really bad dream, almost like a night terror. And guess who makes an appearance in his night terror? Annabelle. Lou claims the doll climbs on top of him and starts choking him. I guess the doll keeps choking him to the point where he is paralyzed and can't move.

Yeah, even though he's dreaming, he says that it felt like a real out-of-body experience. Now, after this, he was so freaked out that he stayed away from the apartment for a while. A few days later, though, Lou visits Donna and the roommates at the apartment because they were going on a trip together. So he kind of had to go there. And he walked into Donna's room thinking like he heard her talking. So he gets in there. He's like, hello? It was Annabel.

Annabelle was in the room, I guess, waiting to attack his ass. He said he got like suddenly an overwhelming feeling and like super tight in his chest. Then he falls onto the ground and his stomach starts cramping. Then he said he felt pain all over his arms. Like he was under attack. So the roommates, they run over to him, and he's on the ground, like, twisting and turning and, like, just moving funny, but he's, like, in a lot of pain, just on the ground. He's covered in bloody scratch marks. I don't like it.

They rush him to the hospital, and after a few days, he recovers. But for Donna, I guess it was the last straw. She ends up getting in contact with people who send over Ed and Lorraine Warren. So the warrants, they come over, and they talk with Donna, Lou, the roommates, everyone. And shockingly, they determine pretty quickly that the doll isn't possessed. Instead, they say that the doll is being manipulated by his spirit to get Donna's attention, not lose. The warrants say Donna is in serious trouble. Apparently, Annabelle had big plans to possess Donna.

Not the doll. Gasparella. I know. I was like, what? Ed tells them that the spirit was just in the infestation phase, meaning that the spirit is like in the doll waiting to attack and possess someone else, okay? But there was still time to save Donna. And as for Lou's scratches, Ed believes it was the mark of the beast. I mean, sure, okay. Because of that, they bring in a priest to perform an exorcism on the apartment. okay and um so they do that la la la and it was successful the girls think ed and lorraine and that was that i guess i didn't have any more problems after that so ed and lorraine they decided to take annabel with them

as like a little souvenir and as a like a sign of ed's power over evil spirits so for a while ed had kept the doll like near his desk then they had like a special case built for it and everything to put in their occult's museum. And they put like a giant warning sign on it that said, warning, positively, do not open. The doll is actually still in the museum today. Like you can go visit it. Throughout the years, people have said

that the story was a big joke. But apparently someone visited the occult's museum specifically to see the doll, you know, and see if it was like really haunted. So they knocked on the glass and they spoke to it and taunted it a little bit. Like they're knocking on it. They're like, hey, you little fucking red-headed little fucking bitch, whatever they say.

Hey, you little freckle fuck. And then, allegedly, on the way back home from the museum, the visitor got into a car crash. Yeah. And died instantly. Now, his girlfriend was in the car with him. She survived and said that they had been joking about the doll right before the crash. Spooky. That's probably why he wasn't paying attention.

They were probably laughing about the doll. He wasn't looking at the road. You know? Or it was the doll. I don't know. Now our next story is based on real murders that actually happened. And if the Warrens weren't famous before, they freaking blew up after this case.

I'm talking about the Amity Bill horror. So it's 1974, just a few years after the whole Annabelle incident happened. It's a Wednesday night in Amityville, which is like this little town on Long Island in New York. A bunch of regulars are sipping on beer in a little dive bar called Henry's. So I guess suddenly, like a man burst into the bar and screams like, you got to help me. I think my mother and father are shot. And, you know, it's like, what? And right away, people realize the man who is screaming, his name is Ronald Defeo, Ronald DeFaio,

Ronald Defeo Jr. He's a local. Everyone knew him. So they're like, oh my God, what? So people call the police, like, right away. So police and officers, everyone, like, shows up to the house. Officers walk into the house and immediately sense that something is off. So they walk around, they check the house, and while doing so, they find six bodies.

Ronald's father, mother, and four siblings. They were all shot in the back of the house. head with a rifle so the scene uh you could say is very bloody and gruesome yeah so at first ronald telling everyone like it was like a mob hitman had killed his family he's going with that story for just a little bit of time but it wouldn't take long for ronald to crack and he eventually confessed he was the one who killed his family ronald told police that he slipped his family sleeping pills during dinner and then shot them in their bed while they slept. So he's arrested, right?

Okay, yeah, you can't do that. Arrested, whatever. And then not long after, you know, he's taken a trial. And he tweaks his story a little bit. He pleads the insanity defense saying that the quote, unquote, voices in his head told him to kill his family. Even though they never found, like, the motive for these murders, Ronald was convicted of second-degree murder.

And people were really freaked out by this case because, again, like, no one could understand why Ronald did this until the following year. On December 18, 1975, a new family moved into Ronald's old house in Amityville. It was George and Kathleen Lutz, as well as their three kids, Daniel, Christopher, and Missy. Now they got this house for a steal.

Okay, it was discounted. They paid $80,000 for it and they were like, hell yeah, you know, it's a big house. It's like they're mansion owners now. I mean, yes, a whole family did get murdered into it, but like, that's old news, you know? According to them, as soon as they stepped through the front door, they started to get that uneasy feeling. Like something wasn't right. So they called up a local priest to come and bless the house. give it a little spring cleaning, some holiday cheer.

So the priest shows up and he's going around blessing the house and sprinkling holy water everywhere as the family continues to unpack. But then he gets to one of the bedrooms in the house and before he can even sprinkle holy water in this room, he hears get out. It was an evil voice saying get out. So the priest, he panics.

He's like, okay, I will. Bye. You know, because there's no one in the room. So I guess the priest that keeps the incident to himself, but he tells the family like, hey, maybe just don't sleep in that room. Just leave it alone. So after he left, it was said that the house felt a little wider. Things seemed good until changes started happening within the family. Apparently the family, they all started to seem more like tense and moody.

And after just a few days, everyone's personality started to change for the worst. The dad, George, he also caught a chill, meaning he was freezing cold all of the time. He started spending most of his time near the fireplace trying to just stay warm. He also stopped taking showers or like keeping up with any of his hygiene. And he was battling insomnia. I guess he would wake up every night at exactly 3.15 a.m. I mean, even if he was in like a dead sleep. The mom, I guess she also seemed to be falling apart.

She was sick all the time and had a hard time leaving her room. It was said there was this one night where George woke up, you know, he wakes up. He looked over and he saw his wife levitating over the bed. Yeah, I don't know. I would think that would be enough. She was levitating over the bed. George felt like he was losing his mind, so he didn't know whether it was like real, was it fake. I don't know.

George said he was like having night tears. One time he woke up and like turned to Catherine, but when he looked at her, it wasn't Catherine. It was like a 90-year-old hag, like a scary, scabby old woman. Around the same time, the family also noticed a strange ooze that was like appearing in places.

It was almost like a jello-like substance that would appear on surfaces and slowly seep out of the wall. I don't know. I mean, okay. Then the family started noticing smells in the house that came from nowhere. Yeah. Someone was farting.

It was said in the bathroom, black stains that looked like mold appeared in the toilets. Sounds like a personal issue, really. Catherine said, like, no matter how much she cleaned, she could not get rid of these stains, they just kept coming back. And similar black stains would also appear in places that just would not make sense. like on ceramic figurines in the home. The family also reported hearing doors slamming shut for no reason. You know, it was just a freaky situation. Everyone was on edge.

Now, everyone, the whole family reported that they felt like someone was in the room with them at all times, someone was watching, even if they were alone, and it was like just them. It just always felt like someone was there. I know. at this point my ass would grab my tent I would go outside set up my tent and I would just live there from now on you know it's but that's okay really shut up it's not about you the Lutz family said that you know they tried to call the priest to have him come back help him out but every time they try to call him the phone would not connect so finally the family decided to handle things like the best that they could they each held a crucifix or rosary and walked through the house sang the Lord's Prayer.

It was said as soon as they did that, the house filled with voices, screaming at them to stop. They said this was the final straw. I don't know. I think your wife levitating. That would be a final straw. Maybe, I don't know.

But this was the final straw. So the Lutz family, they immediately jumped into the car and they drove to Catherine's mother's house. Now, they left behind pretty much everything they owned. They only lived in the house for 28 days. Once they were safely out of the house, they began to tell people about their experiences.

So of course, this got the attention, you know, of the local news. A reporter decided to call everyone's favorite paranormal investigators, the warrants, you know, to get their hot take on this. And when the warrants got this call, it was the best thing that had ever happened to them. Well, yeah, it was. I mean, this is exactly the kind of case they were hoping for. So the warrants get the call and decide to go straight to the scene. Ed brought along extra help to photograph and document the investigation. They spoke to the Lutz family about, you know, listening to their experiences and began recording their conversations for research.

Inside the house, Lorraine said that she kept receiving visions of the Defeo family's bodies all lined up in the living room with white bloody sheets over the. their bodies. She also felt something trying to physically push her back out of the house. She believed that this something, this force, was a, quote, overwhelming demonic presence. Ed also agreed that he had feelings of being pushed or moved while he was in the house, but their investigation uncovered something no one saw coming. The warrants claimed to uncover the reason why this house was like so haunted in the first place. According to them, a man named John Ketchum had once lived on the property in the 1920s. Now, he had a cottage that was torn down sometime before the current house was built.

John was apparently known to be someone who dabbled in the art of black magic. So when he died and was buried on the property, all the evil spirits associated with that black magic stayed on the property. But that's not all. The Warrens also claimed to have uncovered Shinnecock Indian spirits. According to them, when they lived on this land, it was used almost as a place for people who were sick or mentally ill. Many who were considered outcasts were sent there, I guess, to just die. All of these spirits, the Warren said, left the property with, quote,

a very negative energy and dark history, end quote, which, quote, was a magnet for demonic spirits, end quote. Dark history. Isn't that fun? It's like when you're watching a movie and they say the title of the movie and the movie and you're like, ah, dark history, ah. It's like that. Anyway, Spirits, the wildest and most important piece of research that the Warns captured was a photograph from inside the home. Now listen, in this photo, it shows like the top of the stairs, okay, and there seems to be like a shadowy figure. It's not even shadowy. It looks like a young boy looking around the corner. Photoshop wasn't easily available yet, so many people believed, like, that's the spirit of, the little boy who died on the property.

It was creepy looking. Now this picture was run in every newspaper in the area and like no one could identify this person. Now the Warrens, they didn't charge for this investigation, but you know, they made a life-changing amount of money on this case. They did interviews, they delivered lectures, they wrote books about it.

They even managed to get the deed to the house so that they would like always have control of the property. Lorraine said, quote, the case itself has affected our personal lives more than any other case we've ever worked on in 54 years of research, end quote. Now the Lutz, they never returned home. Their stuff was sold at auction, and an author named Jay Anson turned the Lutz's story into the novel, The Amityville Horror, in 1977. It was an instant bestseller and overnight turned the Warrens into celebrities. Today it's sold over 10 million copies. The book was even turned into a famous movie in the 70s. They did a remake in 2005

with Ryan Reynolds. Maybe you saw that one. Who wasn't that great? Was it? I don't remember. Spooky though. The original one was good, I think. It was. It was scary. Now, the Lutz, they were even able to get like some money from this book deal. They said they made around like $300,000 from their story going to the press, and it all seemed to be going very well for the Warrens until they faced their biggest case yet. So it's the late 1970s, the Amityville case is all over the news, and at the same time over in England, a family was dealing with an invasion in their own homes, an invasion of poltergeist. Poltergeist are ghosts that usually move objects or make loud noises.

So it said that they're not exactly like demons. They're still terrifying and usually a sign that like something is up in your home. From 1977 to 1979, two tween sisters named Janet and Margaret Hodson began experiencing poltergeist activity. So they lived in apartments in an area called Enfield. According to them, the first things that like started to happen were that when they were in bed, like when the sisters were in bed sleeping, the beds would start shaking violently.

Then they would start to hear strange sounds, like shuffling and banging, almost like someone was knocking on a door. So they would tell their mom, her name's Peggy, they'd tell her, they'd be like, something's happening, but she never saw any of it. So she's like, okay, sure, she had her doubts. Then one day, a chest of drawers

slid across the room and blocked the door So the girls couldn't leave their room. Now, when that happened, the mom was in the room. So she saw that and was like, oh shit, you're not lying. Something's happening. So on August 31st, 1977, after there were like a bunch of disturbances, Peggy called the police. So she calls up the police and she's like, hey, my furniture's moving. And there's like strange loud sounds.

So like the police are like, all right. They took her seriously. They showed up at the house, but even they were confused by what they were seeing and what they were hearing. I guess one of the chairs in the house kept wobbling and sliding around without anyone touching it. So police checked all around the house. They checked the chair, and they couldn't figure out, like, what was happening. So they decided for some reason to call the press. I know very random.

I thought they were going to call it a priest or something, but. No, the press. Yeah. So a photo journalist from the Daily Mirror showed up to see like, what's going on? He shows up in the evening and he's watching Peggy and Peggy is like, I guess, bringing her kids into the living room one by one. She's like putting them down for a nap. Nothing was happening, I guess. The journalist is like, okay, this is really boring.

Then Peggy brings her daughter Janet in and that's when like all her. hell breaks loose. It was said that objects in the room rise up from the ground and start flying all over the place. Yeah. What? A Lego brick flies across the room and clocks the journalist in the eye. Lego to the face. The journalist knew like it wasn't any of the kids. Okay, so he actually gathered everyone into like one corner of the room so he can keep track of like the objects. They were all moving on their own. So then he set up a camera to take photos in the girl's bedroom, you know, capture anything odd. I guess a little while later he goes and he checks the camera and he finds a photo of Janet.

People claim in the photo like she's levitating above her bed, almost like she's being thrown by a force no one can see. I think this is the most famous photograph from this whole incident. And to them it was like proof. But I don't know, when you look at the photo, it kind of looks like she's jumping up in the air. I don't want to discredit them at all, but I'm like, okay. I don't know. Anyways, after this, a paranormal investigator named Maurice Gross investigated the situation. He also witnessed the magical, like, flying Lego pieces, and he observed that there were some marbles in the room that were very hot to the touch.

I guess Maurice stayed at the house for long periods of time over several months, and every single weird, bizarre thing that the family experience happened while he was there. One of the daughters started screaming that someone was holding her leg. So Maurice, I guess, tried to pull her and like she didn't move. Something was holding her back. Maurice even saw Janet go through violent trances. But it wasn't just Maurice, like multiple witnesses from the neighborhood claimed that they saw this as well. Janet said, quote,

the lady saw me spinning around and banging against the window. I thought I might actually break the window and go through it, end quote. Ugh. Sounds painful. Now apparently when girls are at the quote unquote cusp of adolescence, the poltergeist activity

can get way worse. I know, it's a thing. So apparently after Janet got her period for the first time, things got even darker. Which is so awkward, because when you get your period for the first time, like, it's already an awkward time and now, like, everyone knows,

plus, like, now spirits are attacking you. Jeez, rough, poor thing. I guess Janet started, like, talking in a deep, gruff voice. It was said almost like an old man who smoked his whole life. You know, that's how she was speaking. And she claimed to be speaking for a dead man named Bill Wilkins. Now, Bill, I guess, lived in the apartment, the same apartment years before.

And I guess he died or something. Now, we have record of all this because there were voice recordings from the house. Maurice even called for backup. So someone not in the world of like paranormal activity could be a witness. So Maurice called his brother, Rich. He's like, boy, you got to come over.

This shit's wild. So Rich comes over. He talks to Janet, who was claiming to be Bill Wilkins. So Rich was like, okay, let me talk to you, Bill. and, like, started asking him questions through Janet. So Bill was dead, okay? So Richard asked Bill about his death. And Bill, again, through Janet's body, responds, quote,

I had an image and I fell asleep and I died in a chair in the corner downstairs. And then he added, quote, I'm impenvisible. So much you hanged out as. There was no way for Janet to know any of this information, so it was a huge turning point in this whole case. By the summer of 1978, tons of paranormal investigators show up to try and help, including Ed and Lorraine Warren. But when they showed up, apparently, they were turned away immediately. According to one of the paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine wanted to blow this case up in the media even more,

saying, quote, they did turn up at Enfield, and Ed Warren told me that he could make a lot of money for me out of it. So I thought, well, that's all I need to know from you. And I got myself out of his way as soon as I could, end quote. The paranormal investigators were genuinely concerned for the family, you know, and not like turning this into a freaking movie or a book. So after just a day, the Warren's had nothing to do with this case. Now, thankfully, about a year and a half later, the activity just stopped out of nowhere. Yeah. The family was traumatized by what happened, but they were able to move on with their lives.

The incident became known as the Enfield Poltergeist, and it's one of like the most documented paranormal events in modern history because it lasted so long. It lasted a long time, almost two years. A little side note. I read that later on the sisters eventually admitted to like making some of the story up. Yeah. So who knows how long like it actually lasted? Yeah, sorry. I don't know.

Some of it could be very real. The Legos? I think, yeah, that's yep. Now for some reason, even though Ed and Lorraine were turned away from the case, like they're still associated with it. And that's how I think they wanted to be. I mean, any chance he got. Ed would take partial credit for the Enfield Poultergeist investigation. A lot of people in the paranormal community thought that Ed and Lorraine were fakes, frauds, phonies.

And in my opinion, like, this was the beginning of the downfall of the reputation of the Warrens. Before, you know, they seemed like legit demonologist, but to others, they were kind of appearing to be, like, just media. whores, you know what I'm saying? For years, the Warrens made money off their most famous case, the Amityville horror. Within the paranormal community, there were whispers that something was off with that case. But again, like, there was lots of evidence, so no one really questioned anything publicly. But then in 1988, those rumors were confirmed to be true. So the DeFaio murders were real.

An entire family was murdered by Ronald Defeo Jr., but Ronald's attorney, his name was William Weber, he fessed up to something shocking. William, the attorney, met with the Lutz family after they already lived in the Amityville home. The Lutz family told William that they wanted to create like this big elaborate story about their home being haunted to like make money. So they invited Jay Anson, the man who would eventually write the famous Amityville horror novel. They called him up. They had dinner together. I guess they got, you know, they had some wine, they're drinking, and they like started to take random things that happened in the house and turn them into like terrifying ghost stories. Like for example, someone spilled a plate of spaghetti.

So the writer was like, oh my God, like let's make that evil green slime. oozing from the walls. And they're like, hell yeah, write it down. That makes a lot of sense. Spaghetti, slime, same thing. So, you know, you get it. So William knew that the story wouldn't sell without, like, Ronald's help.

So he pretty much used his power as a lawyer to convince Ronald to go for the insanity plea at trial and say that voices were telling him to kill his family. Ronald said William wanted to, quote, make the story more attractive for possible book and movie contracts, end quote. And, quote, he told me I had to do this. He told me there would be a lot of money from book rights and a movie. The whole thing was a con, end quote.

So where did the Warrens come in on all this? Well, I guess they were like supporting everything the Lutz family said and even kind of making stuff up to make it more believable. Remember how Ed said that the Shinnacock Indian spirits were haunted? the property. Well, no one could back up that claim. The Montucket tribe of Long Island even reached out to ABC News to confirm that there was absolutely no record of burials at that house location. It was completely made up. And remember the famous photo of the little boy on the stairs inside the Amityville house? Well, many believe it's actually a grown man in glasses

kneeling down behind a staircase. Christopher, one of the Lutz kids, said his dad was, quote, a professional showman, in my opinion. And, quote, I just feel as though we're being exploited, end quote. So, this all kind of made Ed and Lorraine look like, not very credible, like a joke. So Ed Warren, he ended up passing away in 2006, and Lorraine went on to do many interviews with the media

in order to protect. their legacy. But as the years go on, even more like stuff had came out about them. In 2017, a woman named Judith Penny spoke to the media. So Judith talked about how she was around for almost every single investigation that the Warrens did. She was the woman in the background that like no one really acknowledged. You know, yeah, you get. Most people knew her as the girl who ran the Warren's Occult Museum. According to Judith, The truth was she was more than that. Ed had groomed Judith from the time she was 15 years old.

I guess at one point, Ed was a driver who would make deliveries to the high school she was attending, and that's how they met. One thing led to another, and Judith moved in with the Warrens in 1963. She lived in an apartment they built for her above their house. Ed and Lorraine's daughter even confirmed this, saying they took her in because she had nowhere, nowhere to go. The truth was, this wasn't charity. Judith was Ed's girlfriend.

Yeah. Ed would alternate between spending nights with Lorraine and then with Judith. She was 15 and he was 37. Mm-hmm. Disgusting. In 1963, Judith was arrested after the local police got a tip about her relationship with Ed. I know, I was like, why was she arrested? Connecticut's laws at the time prohibited an unmarried minor

from cohabiting with a married adult. In other words, yeah, that's kind of, it's backwards. So she gets arrested, she spent one night in prison in Bridgeport. The police wanted her to admit to the affair and sign legal documents. And I guess when she didn't cooperate, she was court ordered to report to a delinquent youth office for a month. Ed would pick her up from school and drive her to these meetings. This is something allegedly Lorraine knew about and didn't seem to care about.

The only time Lorraine cared about anything was in 1978 when Judith found out that she was pregnant with Ed's child. Now this was like at the height of the Warren's Amityville Horror Fame. According to Judith, Lorraine forced her to get an abortion. She said, quote, They wanted me to tell everyone that someone had to come into my apartment and raped me, and I wouldn't do that. I was so scared. I didn't know what to do, but I had an abortion, end quote.

Like I said, Ed died in 2006, so he never, like, publicly addressed these claims. But Lorraine was extremely protective over her husband's image. I mean, Lorraine was a consultant. on The Conjuring movies. So, and like, she had to protect the family business. And she made sure to add that the filmmakers were prohibited from, quote, showing her or her husband engaging in crimes, including sex with minors, child pornography, prostitution, or sexual assault,

and that neither the husband nor wife could be depicted as participating in an extramarital sexual relationship, end quote. I just feel like she just aired all their dirty laundry. Talent attorney Jill Smith told a Hollywood reporter that this is not common in contracts. Oopsie. Lorraine, she passed away. She died in 2019, but Judith did get the last, she got the last word in the whole situation. Lorraine prided herself on being a devout Catholic her whole life. Judith's response was, quote, her real God is money, end quote.

What a ride, huh? Spirits. Ghosts. Sexual predators. Ain't that something, huh? Movies. They're never true, right? Yeah. I don't know. I think at the end of the day, Ed and Lorraine were really good salespeople. Is that mean to say? I don't think so. I think they were good business people, maybe? I don't know. They're obviously hiding something. They had some skeletons in their closet. I don't know. And look, just because Ed and Lorraine Warren were full of it does not mean I don't believe in ghosts. I swear there's there's a ghost in my, okay, I have this like hallway and there is a, there is something. There's something going on in this hallway. Okay, it's dark, it's spooky, and I don't know what it is. So this is what I do. This is how I handle ghosts.

This is what I do. So when I feel like when I'm walking down this hallway and I feel like I feel it, I just start screaming. Not like bloody murder, but like, wah, like I just start kind of like just yelling and screaming because I feel like the ghost can't scare me if I'm scaring the ghost. Because the ghost is going to be like, what is this chick doing? Because I'm just like, and it works every time. If you release it and you get rid of the scare and you pass it on. to the ghost instead. You just feel better. As I say it out loud, it sounds stupid. And yeah, if you're like watching me through a window, I look like a lunatic, but it works, okay? Instead of

waiting for the ghost to scare you, you scare the ghost first. And I'm like, you can stay here, ghost. You got to put it up with me. So that's what I do. I believe it works. Just a little tip from me to you. Thank you so much for listening. I know, I know a lot of you, a lot of people have very hot takes on the Warrens, so I can't wait to read your thoughts in the comment section. Okay, friends, next time we are shifting gears. No ghosts, no haunted dolls, but honestly, still creepy. We're diving into the story of a man who was obsessed with purity, physical purity, spiritual purity, and colon purity. I'm going to be talking about Dr. John Harvey Kellogg.

Yes, the serial guy. This guy ran a massive wellness empire, which honestly, it gives cult vibes. He was obsessed with yogurt enemas, electroshock machines, and led a literal crusade against masturbation. So join me next time for the dark history of Kellogg. Now I'd love to hear your guys' reactions to today's story, so make sure to leave a comment down below so I can see what you guys are saying.

And your comment might even be featured in a future episode. Now let's read a couple of comments you guys have left me. Taylor, Wingo, S-G-5P-K left us a comment on my YouTube saying, quote, My mom and I love watching your videos while in our shop making soap, end quote. Oh, Taylor, I love that you watch with your mom, and I love that you're doing this. while like you guys are working on your business? What kind of soap are you making? What sense do you have?

Let me know. Anyways, thank you for watching. Hi, Mom. I hope you guys are having a good day. Lex Love 3003 commented on our board games episode saying, quote, you say the monopoly fight sounds fake, but I can definitely say that sounds like

the most real fight I've ever heard between dudes playing games. If you've ever heard a guy rage quit, you know what I mean end quote I could yeah you're right good point it just seems so silly

but at the end of the day this is I'm not trying to stereotype but sometimes men do get really heated about silly things you know the whole like parking spot thing so I guess you're right I guess you're right sorry I recant my statement

thank you for your comment Destiny Grounds left us an episode suggestion you should do an episode on Bob Ross Destiny, that is a great idea. I did actually go down a little rabbit hole of Bob Ross, his whole story, and you're right, that could be actually really interesting episode. Okay, I'm going to take note, Bob Ross.

I like this. Stay tuned. I might do it. I like that. That's a good one. Well, thank you guys so much for watching and engaging. Keep on commenting because maybe you'll be featured. And you can join me over on my YouTube where you can actually watch.

these episodes on Thursday after the podcast airs. And while you're there, you can also catch my murder mystery and makeup. Don't forget to subscribe. And hey, if you don't know, dark history is an audio boom original. A special thank you to our expert, Benjamin Radford, folklorist and author of Investigating Ghosts, The Scientific Search for Spirits. And I'm your host, Bailey Sarian. I hope you have a good day. You make good choices. And I'll be talking to you guys later. Goodbye.