The Tape Library - Archive of the Paranormal & the Unexplained - The Disturbing True Story of the Snedeker Family Haunting

Episode Date: September 11, 2025

In 1986, the Snedeker family rented a house in Southington, Connecticut. They soon discovered the basement had once been a funeral home, and according to their accounts, the building still held something dark within its walls. Over the months that followed, the family reported terrifying encounters — shadowy figures, physical assaults, and an overwhelming sense of evil. Their story drew the attention of famed paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, who declared the house to be plagued by demonic forces. The case became one of the most notorious American hauntings of the late 20th century, and later inspired the film The Haunting in Connecticut. But was it truly paranormal, or a case of stress, suggestion, and exaggeration? This is the chilling true story of the Snedeker Haunting. 🔔 Subscribe for more paranormal documentaries 👍 Like | 💬 Comment | 📢 Share with anyone who loves real ghost stories Support the channel with Patreon - www.patreon.com/thetapelibrary Do you have a supernatural story to share? Drop me an email at [e-mail] You can check out The Tape Library in audio form on all of your favourite podcast providers. Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thetapelibrary Tiktok - https://www.tiktok.com/@thetapelibrary Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/people/The-Tape-Library/100094332411836/ Archive of the Paranormal, the strange and the unexplained. The Tape Library brings you the creepiest stories, to keep you horror junkies up all night. True scary stories of ghosts, cryptids, UFOs and true crime. Additional footage and audio from Evanto, Artgrid, Epidemic Sounds, Singularity, Midjourney and Pexels. Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio and the youtube audio library. All other footage used under fair use. Chapters 00:00 A Haunting in Connecticut 04:05 Welcome to The Tape Library 06:16 Fragile 08:46 A Dark History 15:26 Something Is Here 38:26 Darkness Falls 42:27 The Entity Unleashed 47:53 The Ghostbusters 59:04 Final Battle 1:01:39 What Really Happened? 1:22:42 Wrapping Up SpectreVision Radio is a bespoke podcast network at the intersection between the arts and the uncanny, featuring a tapestry of shows exploring creativity, the esoteric, and the unknown. We’re a community for creators and fans vibrating around common curiosities, shared interests and persistent passions. spectrevisionradio.com linktr.ee/spectrevisionsocial Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I mean, we couldn't see it. How did we expect anyone else to believe us? I'll let her tell you about them if she can't. And I would lie there for five or ten minutes and listen to it. Along with the music, I could hear three or four voices. The landlord knew there was a problem with that house. You don't know the landlain. Yes.

What about the covers coming off? What about the sodomization? What about? What about the apparitions my children? You're probably saying to yourself about now, well, this story sounds crazy, but my guest today insist it's true. Philip stood at the window of the family's new kitchen. The early morning son was beaming on his face as he glanced out at the place they now

called home. He hated it. But he knew why they were there. Philip was sick, very seriously sick. his entire family had relocated to make sure they could get him the medical treatment he needed. He couldn't be the one to kick up a fuss. They had done this for him. But he had to wonder if the others were feeling the same way he was. Did they also feel like they were being watched, everywhere they went in this house? Philip walked out of the kitchen and along the staircase

that led down the stairs to the landing below, the entrance to the basement. The basement where his room, was. As he did, he heard something. At first he thought it was his mother, calling him. But then he noticed the hiss of the shower coming from the bathroom. She was still in there. He heard it again. It certainly wasn't his mother. It was a voice, coming from downstairs. A deep man's voice, one he did not recognize. Philip paused and looked over the banister. It called out. It was hard to explain the voice didn't feel loud as such, but it was clear now. It repeated, calling his name over and over again.

Philip froze. Someone was in their house. Philip, come down here. The voice says in an impatient tone. He leant over the banister and the voice repeated its instruction. Philip was sure now. The voice was coming from the basement. No one was in the basement. Then the voice's tone changed.

It chuckled a low laugh. Philip, you've got to come down here and see this, it said. The teenage boy glanced around in a panic, looking for help. He didn't know what to do. Philip, I've got something to show you. It repeated, from down in the darkened doorway to the basement. Philip turned and ran into the living room. He turned the TV on as loud as he could and buried his head in a blanket.

Despite all he had been through, he was still very much a child. His mother found him there moments later. After coming rushing from the shower to find out why the TV was so loud, Philip told her about the voice. But she reassured him that no one was down there. Philip replied, he knows there's no one down there. His mother looked at him confused, wondering what the problem was then. Philip responded, What was calling him, what wanted him to come to it?

It wasn't a person. It was something else. Good evening. This is an episode I've had planned for a long time now and one you guys have asked me to cover many times. This is actually going to be part of the first ever loose two-parter that I've done on the show. But don't worry, the two parts are connected by a specific theme. We're going to still be delving into the entire story here tonight, and won't be splitting it into two. The case of the Snellica family from the mid-1980s, while not reaching the levels of fame of cases like the Amateur Horror,

is still likely one of the most infamous hauntings in American history. This was a case that saw debates on mainstream TV shows. It ultimately inspired documentaries, books and even a successful feature feature feature. film based on the case. But the 2009 movie, The Haunting in Connecticut, doesn't really tell the story as was originally reported. What they claimed to experience may be one of the most disturbing paranormal cases ever reported. But can their story be believed? Well, that's a big conversation to have. And putting a serious content warning on this one, it gets into some very dark places, including some discussions of sexual assault. As a

always I try not to be too graphic with this stuff, but it is there. Across the various years, different pseudonyms have been used for members of the family, which is obviously a little confusing. I have tried my best to get all the names correct, but apologies if I get anyone mixed up here. As always, we will be first telling the story as described by the family, before discussing what really could have taken place here. And the second half of that conversation is likely to be a big one for this case because there is so much to unwrap. And now without any further delay, let's get into it. I suspect this is going to be a long one, so get yourself a warm drink, dim the lights and get comfortable. It's time to delve into the disturbing case of the Snedeker

family haunting. Welcome to the tape library. It was April 1986 when everything changed for the Snedeker family. The family was made up. of mother and father Carmen and Al Snedeker, and their four children, Philip, Bradley, Alan Jr and Jennifer. It all began with a cough. The 14-year-old Philip had developed a nasty hacking cough that seemingly wouldn't go away, then Carmen discovered a lump just under her son's jaw. Philip was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma, something that understandably turned the young family's life upside down. They had been living in Hurleyville, New York, but Philip had been sent to specialists at a hospital in Connecticut. The boy spent three weeks there, but would have to

return daily for cobalt treatments. This was a 106 mile drive for the family, so very quickly they began looking for an apartment closer to the hospital. Medical bills were already piling up, so finding somewhere they could afford that was still big enough for the six of them proved challenging. But while driving to view another property one day, Carmen passed a beautiful, colonial-style house with a for-rent sign outside. There were workmen all around renovating the house as she approached it, and she asked someone about viewing the house. The property was planned to be split into two apartments.

The downstairs wasn't safe for her to walk around currently, but the person she spoke to let her into the upstairs to see what it was like. In Carmen's eyes, it was perfect, but she assumed it was way out of their place. price range. She called the owner and was shocked to discover that the rent would actually be affordable for them. After hearing their story and discovering why Carmen was so desperate for a place to live, he offered her the downstairs apartment that was still being worked on. Carmen didn't hesitate. Even though she hadn't seen the downstairs, she thought it couldn't possibly be any smaller than the upstairs, and that was her main factor in looking for a property.

She agreed to rent the place. Al would have to stay. stay in New York for six weeks until his job could be transferred, but the entire family were on board with the move and excited to start their new life. Shortly before the move, Carmen shot Bolt upright in bed. She'd had a nightmare. Her memory of it was hazy, but she could remember something. Caskets, rows of caskets, and a man standing there looking at her. The family arrived at the new home on a warm June afternoon.

Owl actually had family in the area, so a number of them made the trip over to help with the unpacking. When they arrived, Carmen and Al went in alone at first, wanting to see exactly what they were moving into, before bringing the children in. Carpenters were stood at work on the ground floor, so the couple made their way through towards the basement area that had been divided up into multiple rooms. The air felt musty, but there was plenty of room for the kids. But that was when they noticed something. At the end of the hall that stretched at length of the basement was another room. As they entered, they noticed each room in the property was adorned with a silver crucifix. They entered the room.

It was full of strange tools that they didn't recognize. Tubes, jars and blades. Underneath one of the tables were boxes of black. metallic plates. Just off of this room was a door that led to a ramp that sloped up towards the back garden. It was a loading ramp down to the basement. Entering another room they found a large rectangular platform that looked a little like a bed but with chains attached to a large hoist. There was a large piece of plywood on the floor that Al lifted up to reveal what appeared to be a concrete pit. It sighed stained with some sort of dark substance. Another

Her area saw them discover a table with a rusty sink nearby. It looked almost like a run-down operating room. By the time the couple headed back outside, they were a little shaken by what they had discovered, but decided it was best not to tell the children. Standing in the front garden now was the owner of the property, Mr Lawson. Carmen pulled him aside and flat out asked him, did this used to be a funeral home. He admitted that, yes it was, but it hadn't been used to. for a couple of years. He'd recently purchased it from the funeral home's former owner. He'd wanted

to turn the place into an office building but couldn't get permission. So decided with the hospital expanding nearby that it might work as a rental property. He asked that the Snedikas leave the stuff in the basement alone, claiming that it made a good conversation starter. He then apparently apologised that the downstairs apartment still wasn't ready and suggested they should stay with friends or in a motel, while the final bits of work could be completed. Why he hadn't pre-warned the family about this doesn't seem to be mentioned in the Snedeker story. But I get the feeling this guy was maybe not the best of landlords. Al headed back to New York for work and Carmen went to the motel with the children. But a motel room for all of them was far too cramped and after just two

days she decided it would be better just to move into the unfinished apartment. The family pulled mattresses out from the garage and set themselves up in the dining room while the finishing touches were put on their new home. By the weekend they were good to complete their move. Philip and his brother would take the two rooms in the basement while everyone else slept on the ground floor. But Bradley was staying with family for the summer, meaning Philip would be down there on his own for the first few weeks. Carmen was washing up in the kitchen when Philip came walking in. He was quiet. Carmen could feel the nerve, energy radiating off him. When she asked what was wrong, he said he didn't want to sleep in the basement. In fact, he thought they should leave the house altogether. She tried to calm

him down, telling him he was just worried about the change. But when she asked why he hated the place so much, he simply said, it felt evil. Leaving obviously wasn't an option, and although Though his words made calm and uncomfortable, she tried to put it to the back of her mind. Philip felt a combination of fear and guilt. In his eyes it was his fault, his family were there now, and he genuinely felt that something was wrong with this place. He would sleep upstairs in the living room, though, until his brother moved in. One morning Philip was awoken by what he thought was his mother calling him, only to find

her in the kitchen having breakfast, claiming that she hadn't. When she went to go and have a shower, that's when he heard it properly for the first time. A voice, coming from deep down in the basement. A voice that wanted to show him something. When Carmen found him covered in a blanket with the TV turned up to full volume, she tried to comfort him but Philip just kept repeating that the house was evil. Carmen decided to tell him the truth, that the house had been a funeral home. In her mind that would set his mind at ease.

Because no one had died there. They had died elsewhere. So the house couldn't be haunted, right? Carmen was just trying to help, but Philip saw this as validation that he was right. There was something wrong with this house. In those early weeks, Al was away a lot. Philip soon made friends with a local boy and having someone else there gave him the courage to explore the basement, a detail that gave Carmen a sense of relief. He seemed to be getting

used to the place. One day the landlord came to visit to see how the family was settling in. Carmen used this as an opportunity to ask him some questions about some of the objects in the basement. She learned that the rectangular object with chains was a body lift. The deceased would be hoisted up from there, onto the ground floor, directly into what was now Carmen and ours bedroom. The stained concrete pits was where the blood from the bodies was drained away. It was all very morbid, but the landlord was polite enough. And Carmen was happy to get some clarity on what all this stuff was.

But as she led him out of the house, he noticed that one of the rooms in the basement was set up for a bedroom. The landlord asked who was sleeping down here. And then he asked if anyone had noticed anything strange. She said her son had been claiming to hear voices. The landlord paused for a moment before smirking and saying, "'Kids.' He then mentioned one final thing.

He brought up the crosses above each doorway. He said he'd appreciate it if the family didn't remove those. Not even to clean them. One morning, Carmen was sitting looking for the letters that had just arrived, when the peaceful silence was shattered by a loud scream. Carmen ran towards the source of it and was met by her young daughter Jennifer in the hall. She was hysterical, terrified. Jennifer, in her frantic broken sentences, just kept telling her mother that there was a woman.

A woman standing in her room, with her arms stretched out wide, looking directly at her. Carmen inspected the room. Jennifer said she was standing over there by the dresser. But of course, there was no sign of anyone. Carmen was annoyed. She was sure that Philip had been scaring his little sister. But Philip denied it. And when he heard that Jennifer had seen someone, he looked equally terrified.

When Al returned, he discussed the whole matter with Philip. In Al's mind, his son was stressed and imagining things. He had been through a lot these last few months, and at 14 he was still very much a child. Al retreated to the living room and Philip went to the bathroom. But as he reached out at the handle, he heard it again. Clear as day. Someone called his name and asked what he was doing. Philip turned slowly and gazed down the stairs that led to the basement.

Philip, I think you should come down here. The voice repeated. Then he was sure he saw it. Movement in the darkness. Just a slight grey blur moving. Followed by the sounds of footsteps. Philip ran back to his family but didn't say a word. What was the point?

No one believed him. Philip continued to hear voices. Sometimes they sounded like a stranger. Sometimes he was sure it was his father, even when he wasn't home. Owl and Carmen were growing increasingly worried about their son and began to talk about getting him some help. But this would be another expense they would have to face. Therapists were not cheap, so they held off initially. But Philip wasn't alone.

Jennifer began confiding in her brother that she was seeing things, things that she called ghosts. Philip's treatments were really taking a toll on the boy, so it was easy for his parents to blame everything on that. One night, Carmen came into the living room to find Philip asleep on the sofa, but with all the lights turned on, when she asked him why he had switched him on, he said he had heard a voice, coming from one of the darkened corners of the room. He had switched them on, but when he did, the voice didn't stop, even know there was no

one there. These incidents continued, with Jennifer also coming to Carmen complaining of similar things. It wasn't until one afternoon that Carmen began to take it all a little more seriously. She was sitting in the sunroom, writing in her journal. Interestingly, she was writing about Philip's latest claim. When she suddenly heard a man's voice shout, Calm, you in here? Excitedly she jumped up.

It must be Al, he must be home early. She called his name in response but was met with silence. She called out again, nothing. She went out to the hall into the living room, and there was no one there. She tried to shrug it off, it was just the children's stories getting to her. But something in the back of her mind began to grow. One day Carmen was standing in the kitchen mopping the floor. when she noticed an odd coppery smell that appeared to come out of nowhere.

When she looked down at the bucket, she saw that the water had become a deep, dark red. Then she realised it wasn't just a bucket. Her feet were covered in this red substance, and so was the floor. She quickly cleaned it up with paper towels, telling herself that it was a problem with the lionelium. It just needed to be replaced, that was all. The voice continued tormenting force. Philip, speaking to him when he was alone, always trying to call him down to the basement, telling him it had things to tell him, telling him they had things to do.

Philip had stopped talking to his parents about the voices, but he was still talking to Jennifer about it. She hadn't heard them herself, but she had obviously seen the woman, and she told her brother that she often didn't feel like she was alone at any point in the home. Philip had started seeing things too, not as vividly as his sister was, but he was sure he kept seeing a shadowy figure, just out of the corner of his eye. It was small and grey and seemed to be darting behind the furniture, as though it were hiding from him. But when he finally plucked up the courage to get closer, there was nothing there. Carmen was continuing to note strange events too, although it seems every family member was experiencing something a little different. Carmel was on the phone to her friend while making lunch,

but when she hung up the phone she realised a stack of plates and their utensils that she had placed on the side had all vanished. Then she discovered them, back in the cupboard. Someone had put them away for some reason. That weekend, Philip's brother Bradley finally came to the home. Summer was ending and it was soon time for the children to start in their new school. Philip had asked his mother not to tell Bradley why he wasn't sleeping downstairs, initially at least. He also said that now his brother was there, he was happy to try sleeping in the basement. Both boys would have their own rooms separated by French doors, but Philip was insistent that he still wanted to share one room with his brother.

It was a small step, but still this was a relief to Carmen. Philip's fears had been putting them all on edge, and maybe this was finally the opportunity to begin to fully settle in. But once the boys were alone, Philip told his brother everything, about how this place was a funeral home, about the strange items they found there, about what their sister saw. That night, Philip refused to go to bed until Bradley did.

When the pair finally did retreat to their room, Bradley left to go and brush his teeth, leaving Philip alone in the basement for the first time. The lights were all still on, leaving the only darkness just beyond the French doors, where Philip's room should have been, as he glanced over, and that's when he noticed it. The doors were open, just a crack, and in that crack was a face peering back at him. This was no case of Peridolia, a shadow playing tricks on his eyes. He could see the face as clear as they. It was a man with a long pale face,

So pale that he almost looked like a mannequin. His hair black and thin, his cheeks hollow with sunken eyes. His lips began to move as though he were talking, but Philip couldn't make out any words. He just stared as the pale face peered back at him, totally emotionlessly. The one thing that truly made this person feel out of place though was that Philip was sure he seemed to shimmer on occasion. The lips on the face moved faster. The bony hand that hung at its side began to slowly reach up to push the doors open. Philip jumped out of bed and ran as fast as he could. Forced to pass the figure to reach the stairs as he whipped past it. He could hear the faintest

whisper but couldn't understand its words. He collided with his brother at the top of the stairs. Philip couldn't speak, but Bradley knew something was wrong. He fetched their parents and got his brother a glass of water. Philip told them that he saw a man downstairs. Owl immediately went to look for the intruder. Al returned sometime later, confirming that no one was down there. When Philip started to say that he wanted to sleep in the living room again, Al, who had been drinking all night and whose temper had been growing in the past few weeks,

became incredibly angry with his son, telling him that he needed to grow up, and to stop telling his brothers and sister all these ridiculous stories about ghosts and voices. It would only be a few nights later that Bradley would see them for the first time too. Both boys had been laying in their beds talking to one another

when they heard a sound from across the room. There, on the dresser, sat a toy robot. And standing around the dresser, looking at the robot, were three men. One was tall and wore a suit and a fedora. The other two were shorter and wore all black. They seemed so dark that they almost blended into the darkened room, but they could still make them out clear enough.

They muttered between themselves in harsh, whispery sounds that the boys couldn't make out. Then the tallest one picked up the robot, turned and faced the two brothers. The two smaller men did the same. All three just stared at them. They continued to mutter between each other, gesturing at the boys as Philip and Bradley sat frozen in fear, before the tall man suddenly hoisted the robot up and smashed it onto the dresser. This snapped the boys out of their fear-induced trance.

They suddenly felt the very real danger they were in and ran upstairs screaming. Carmen came down to investigate. Still a little nervous to do so, but there was no one there, and no way anyone could have gotten into the house. But then she noticed it, the toy robot, smashed into pieces. She quickly separated the boys and made them tell her what had happened. Both stories were the same. Both of her son seemed genuinely terrified. Carmen went back downstairs alone to search the basement, making sure everything was all locked up.

was, but it was the strangest thing. At one point she was sure she heard footsteps, and then felt her sudden chill on her skin, as though someone had brushed past her, but she was alone. In the following days Carmen kept noticing odd things happening. Her belongings would go missing, taps would be found running, her alarm clock would turn off, time and time again she blamed Philip for it, believing he was acting up and messing with her, but he denied it every time. Philip began to retreat into himself more and more. In fact, he only seemed to be himself when the neighbour's boy he made friends with would come over. Carmen kept catching the children whispering to one another, but when she asked them what they were talking about, they wouldn't tell

her. It was around this time that Al had his first experiences. He had been laid, he had been laying in bed late on a Friday night when he was awoken by something. He wasn't sure what it was, but in his hazy state he suddenly snapped into focus when he became convinced he could hear voices, then a muffled, shuffling, bumping sound. He first thought it might be the children, but then he heard music. He could barely make it out at first, but after a moment his ears tuned to it, and he was sure it sounded like the scratchy sound of a record playing on an old gramophone. As he crept downstairs the sounds became louder. It sounded like a party, the chattering voices audible over the top of the dusty old music.

Al still assumed it was the kids. Specifically, it must be Philip and that weird new friend he was hanging out with that Al wasn't a fan of. But Al went into the basement and, noticed all the lights were off. The boys were fast asleep, and the music has suddenly stopped. He stood in the boy's bedroom, and then turned, pulled open the French doors and stepped into the darkened, unused bedroom. Instantly he was hit with a wall of cold air. He thought a window must be open, had someone broken into the house.

But then suddenly the cold vanished. The room immediately returned to its usual temperature. Nothing was out of place, no window was open. The following night he was awoken again, but this time his bed seemed to be gently vibrating, like energy moving through the floor to the bed frame. He sat up suddenly, and the vibrating stopped. It was weird, but he likely would have brushed it off and forgotten about it

if it wasn't for the repeated claims his son was making. But then something true. truly terrifying began to happen to the young Catholic couple. Their son Philip was becoming a metal head. He was listening to Ozzy Osbourne Records with his friend Jason from down the street. They were sitting in the bedroom looking at pictures of Joan Jeter and Madonna in a magazine. When Jason suddenly went quiet. Philip looked up at him and saw he was staring off behind Philip, towards the French

doors behind him. Philip turned to see what his friend was looking at. On the other side of the doors they could see an old man. His skin a pale white colour. White stringy hair clinging to his scalp. His eye sockets filled with glassy white orbs. He stood and stared at the boys. Jason immediately ran with Philip following quickly behind.

Again, Carmen dismissed his claims, believing both boys were now playing up to this story. Philip's attitude and behaviour was quickly changing. He was dressing differently. He was quiet, grumpy, at times mean to his siblings and parents. While all of this feels very much like the behaviour of your average teenager, it was the speed of this transformation that worried at Alan Carmen. Initially they blamed his new friend.

But deep down both worried that maybe, It was the house. Al was changing too. Every time he was home he would have a beer in hand and his drinking was increasingly leading the man to become angry and unpredictable. Philip and Al really began to clash and Al was quite angrily telling his son to drop all this ghost stuff. But Philip was beginning to not just hear the voices still

but starting to interact with them. It wanted something from him. Philip wasn't sure what, but it kept hinting that it needed him to do something. In the following weeks, the more subtle sides of the activity continued. Carmen would become convinced that she saw someone moving in the corner of her eye. She would feel the sudden cold surges in the house. She had also been awoken by the vibrating feeling in the bed that Al had experienced, although neither of them told the other about it.

Al was still hearing the music late at night, the vibrations of the bed. When a couple finally moved into the upstairs apartment, both Al and Carmen began to use it to dismiss some of what they were experiencing. It was easier to ignore the bumps in the night or the odd sound of voices when there were other people around, even if they knew that wasn't the answer. One night the couple were awoken by the bed vibrating, more violently this time. This was the first time that both had experienced something together.

But Al just tried to calm his wife by claiming it must be the vibrations from the fridge in the upstairs apartment. Once the shakin stopped, Al got up. He was drawn to the window by the sound of barking. Out there in the dark was their neighbour's dog, barking incessantly, looking at their house as it did. This became a common occurrence on most nights

when the family would experience something. Then the increasingly reserved Philip suddenly decided he did want his own room after all. He finally moved into the other bedroom on the other side of the French doors. Both boys were now alone in rooms that once housed the funeral home's caskets. Increasingly worried about his behaviour and changing fashion choices, Carmen decided to take Philip to see a priest at the local church. Philip began seeing the priest often, giving the boy someone outside the house to talk about his issues with. But the priest simply thought it was the teenager rebelling against his parents, and suggested the idea of him seeing a therapist.

Meanwhile, the family would face another tragic turn, when Carmen's father was murdered. He was found dead in his own trailer, shot by his own gun, but with minimal blood at the scene it seemed to suggest that he had been murdered. and then taken to the trailer and left there. Seemingly, the police weren't too interested in investigating the murder of an elderly alcoholic. And Carmen and her brother were forced to bury their father without knowing what had happened to him. While she was gone, Al was alone with the sounds at night. The music, the voices, the vibrating bed, the barking dog. When he found Philip up and walking around one night after hearing it all, he confirmed

fronted his son and asked if he had snuck some friends into the house. Chillingly, Philip replied, Why would I do that? It's crowded enough in here as it is. Just after Christmas, a sky-high electric bill dropped into the Snedeker's mailbox. A furious Al blamed this on Philip and his insistence on sleeping with all the lights on. Al went as far as to remove the bulbs from the lights in the basement. Later that night, Bradley came into Al and Carmen's room, complaining that the lights were on.

Al, confused, came down to investigate. Sure enough, the light was shining. But there was no bulb in the socket. Then the light suddenly went out. Ow didn't know how to react. He just said to Bradley that he had woken him up for no reason, that there was no light. Owl then retreated to the kitchen and began to drink. Well, after he pulled the bulbs out, one night I was laying in bed and my sister came down the stairs.

And she started flicking on the light switch downstairs. And I said, sis, what are you doing? You're not supposed to be down here. And I got up and I chased her up the stairs. And I chased her into the living room. And my dad and mom were sitting there and they said, what are you doing out of bed? You need to go downstairs and go to bed. And I said, well, where's my sister at? She just was downstairs turning the lights on and off.

And they said, no, she's in bed. Go look and see for yourself. And I walked in there and I looked. My sister was sleeping. And I was walking by my dad. He said, well, quit messing around because you know I took those bulbs out anyways. Philip had started saying that Al wasn't even his father. He was right in the way.

Al was his stepfather. But they had always called him dad. That night, the voice praised him for this. Agreeing that he wasn't their father, that Al didn't respect him, didn't believe in him, that he will stand in Philip's way of what he could possibly become. The voice asked Philip if he knew who it was. Philip said that the voice was his father. The voice asked a question again. Philip responded that the voice was God. The voice responded, That's right, my son.

Carmen was growing more and more concerned. She was arguing with the increasingly angry owl. Bradley was spent as much time out of the house as he could. Philip's behaviour was disturbing her. He was now walking around the house mumbling to himself. The look in his eyes scared both his parents. When she would mop, that strange brown reddish liquid would appear. What's more, she kept hearing the voices,

over and over herself. Always just whispers on the wind, hard to make out and easy to dismiss, but it was getting harder and harder to do so. Her only reprieve came from a friend that she had made with one of the neighbours, a woman named Tanya, who would come around and talk with her. Well, that was until one day when Tanya ran out without explaining. She wouldn't go near Carmen for several weeks, until finally Carmen confronted her. and asked why she was being so weird. Tanya told her that the Sennaker's house scared her, that it felt claustrophobic and suffocating when she was in there.

But she was also convinced that she kept seeing things. Figures walking around in the prefary of her vision. The pair talked about what Carmen had been experiencing. Carmen felt helpless. She didn't know who to talk to. Who could help her. That was when Tanya said she heard about a couple of. couple on the radio who dealt with issues like this. She dug around her house and found

a magazine article about them. She gave it to Carmen who initially didn't put much stock into it. By this point Philip's cancer was in remission, a fact that he felt was being helped by the voice. He went as far as telling his mother that it wouldn't come back, that his friends wouldn't allow it. This is where things start to get really dark. So I just want to to reiterate that warning from the start of the episode. Carmen got a phone call from her sister one day. She had fallen seriously ill and wanted to know that Snedekas could look after her daughter for a while, although some have said she was actually just going for a messy divorce. Al, still down

playing the activity, said it would be fine. While this conversation was going on, Bradley came running out of his room, claiming to have seen a little boy running around the basement. Just a few days later, 17-year-old Tammy and 12-year-old Mary moved in. Philip was in his room when they arrived, but he knew they were there. He knew because the voice told him. It spoke about them, his lovely cousins, as it described them. It spoke to Philip about how young and smooth skin they looked. It spoke about how good they were taste.

It told him he should go and see them later tonight. Increasingly, Philip rarely defied what the voice told him. The following morning the girl seemed tired. Carmen asked them if they didn't sleep well and they said they hadn't. They said it felt like they weren't alone in their room last night. This continued for weeks. Tammy especially spoke about feeling like she was never alone, like she was being watched at all times.

She felt this even more any time she showered or was getting her. dressed. On some occasions she almost became convinced that she had felt someone brushed past her in the halls, but there was never anyone there. Mary was awoken late one night by her sister calling her name. Tammy asked her if she could hear it. The footsteps. It sounded like someone was walking around their room in the dark. But when Tammy spoke to Carmen about it, calm and downplayed it, saying she was just picking up on the tension in the house, that Philip really wasn't well and it was causing the family a lot of stress. She especially told her not to mention it to Al.

So the girls kept most of their experiences to themselves, at least to begin with. One night, the voice woke Philip up. It told him it was time. This wasn't the first time he had gone to the girl's bedroom to watch. them sleep. But this was the first time it told him to touch them. He gently stroked Tammy's skin, carefully so as was not to wake her up. Then the voice told Philip she was bigger than him. She could defend herself. Philip turned and looked at Mary. Two days later, Carmen returned home from a shopping trip to find the two girls sitting outside the house crying. Tammy told her what a

happened. She had caught Philip attempting to molest Mary in his bedroom that afternoon. She had stopped him and the girls had rushed outside to wait for Carmen to return. Carmen rushed inside to confront Philip, who just sat on his bed, laughing. The police took Philip away later that day. He admitted trying to force Mary into sex, but that also he had been sneaking into their room at night and touching them. After being taken to a juvenile detention centre, Philip was diagnosed by a psychiatrist with schizophrenia. He would be taken to a psychiatric hospital for at least 60 days, but his stay would end up being much longer than that. When his parents finally visited him, he didn't respond to any of their questions or pleading for him to talk to them. He only

responded with one sentence to inform them that now he was gone. It was going to come after them. He was right. The family phoned Philip regularly, but after a while he started refusing to take their calls. Then he wouldn't see them when they visited. One of the doctors suggested it might be best that the family stay away for a while

as he was undergoing some pretty intensive therapy. Mary, understandably, didn't want to stay in the house anymore and was sent to Carmen's other sister's house. Tammy, however, decided to stay. Seemingly, she was one of the few who seemed to genuinely believe that something serious was happening here, and she wanted to stay to help her family. The activity kicked into a new gear with a bang. Literally, three loud explosion-like sounds were heard that rocked the entire house.

But no one could find the source of the noise. Just after their search concluded, the phone rang. It was Carmen's friend, Tanya. She asked Carmen if their upstairs neighbours were home. Carmen said no, they were away. But had Tanya heard the explosion. Tanya hadn't heard anything, but that wasn't what she wanted to talk about. From her place, Tanya could see the old funeral home.

She was calling because through the upstairs windows, she could see a woman walking around. She looked angry, but more concerningly, She was glowing. Al rushed outside but by the time he got there, Tanya said the woman had gone. That night as she lay in bed, Tammy claimed that she felt something touching her. Its hands moving between her legs. She jumped out of bed pulling her covers off, but there was nothing there.

She wasn't alone. That same night, Jennifer claimed to see a shapeless black shadow walking through her room. Bradley, now alone in the basement, heard whispers. And the youngest boy, Alan Jr., who hadn't seemingly experienced anything yet, woke everyone else up when he began screaming from his room. He claimed that something had stung him in his bed. The following night, Tammy was attacked, more viciously this time. She was in the bathroom alone.

It began with feeling like someone had pulled on her bra. Then she felt it again, fingers moving up her legs. She tried to push the bathroom door open but it wouldn't budge. She began to scream out for her aunt and uncle to help. As Al began trying to break the door down, the explosive sounds were heard again, rattling the house, the lights flickered as it did. Suddenly Al fell to the floor, screaming in pain. He said it felt like he had been stabbed.

Then, everything stopped. There was silence. The bathroom door slowly swung open. Tammy was laying on the bathroom counter, naked and crying. She said there were hands, hands all over her. The following day Carmen called the priest who had helped with Philip. He came to the house and blessed the place, but it was clear he didn't truly believe the family. As he left, he gently suggested to Carmen that they had all been through a lot, and maybe

should consider talking to a therapist. After he had left, Carmen went to the kitchen to do the washing up. As she stood at the sink, she felt hands on her, touching her, moving up her legs, just like Tammy had experienced. Carmen ran to her bedroom slamming the door shut behind her, but this didn't help. The invisible hands threw her down onto the mattress, holding her down. That was when she felt something, being pushed into her. She screamed out for help.

Tammy burst into the room and everything suddenly stopped. Carmen took herself to the shower, desperately trying to scrub herself clean. As she did, she was sure she heard it. A voice. A voice laughing and mocking. about all the things it wanted to do to Carmen, to Tammy. Then it attacked again. That night Carmen told Al what had happened. But instead of his usual angry reaction, he instead broke down in tears. He finally confessed to Carmen that he had been hearing and seeing things too. Both

of them were finally able to admit it. There was something seriously wrong with this house. It continued. The children saw figures. Bradley started sleeping in the living room. Carmen felt a presence envelop her in the basement, with such an intense feeling that she collapsed into the fetal position on the floor. Tammy was attacked in the night again, sexually assaulted by an invisible presence. The smell of feces appeared and disappeared seemingly at random. Swarms of flies seemed to infest the house.

Carmen looked for the magazine article that Tanya had given her and decided to get in touch with a couple that he had. be mentioned. This was Connecticut in the 1980s, so of course there was only one couple with the Snediccates would be contacting. The phone rang at the home of Ed and Lorraine Warren. I mentioned at the start of the episode that this was the first of a long promised two-parter. The very first proper episode of the tape library was the case of the Annabelle Dole and since then we have spoken about a large number of cases that Ed and Lorraine Warren have been involved in, some where they were key figures in the case, others where they had a tiny amount of involvement. For several

decades they were involved in countless major paranormal stories, so it becomes difficult to not talk about them, but over time my personal opinion of the pair has shifted. It's been nearly a year since we last spoke about one of their cases at length, and I wanted to finally bring an end to them as a topic on the tape library, so I decided to tackle this in two parts. The first is what you are currently listening to, the Snedeker case, which I think is a great example of one of the more controversial cases involving the Warren's, that in the next part, we will be doing a deep dive into them as a topic in their own right. The following morning, Ed and Lorraine Warren were on the Snedeker's doorstep. For those that maybe aren't familiar, Ed and Lorraine Warren

are arguably the world's most famous paranormal investigators, especially at this time. Ed was a self-presenter professed demonologist, Lorraine McLeervoyant. Together, the investigated countless claims of paranormal activity, and during that time gained as many fans as they did detractors. To some they were heroes. To others, they were liars and scammers. Ed Warren began as he often did by interviewing the family at Lemp. He asked if anyone in the family took drugs or if they had ever attended a seance. Anything that could have kicked started this activity or could point to a moment. awards a more human explanation. Meanwhile, Lorraine began walking around the house to see if she could pick up on anything with her abilities. To begin with, she felt nothing. But that seemed to change

as she entered the basement. She felt unwell, a dark feeling, a feeling of helplessness. But it wasn't here in the bedrooms the boys stayed in. She was just getting closer. It was coming from somewhere deeper. It was at the back in the room where the bodies used to be embalmed that it really hit her. Dead bodies burned black, as if they had died in some sort of explosion. Then she saw a man touching the bodies, then laughing, evil laughter as the man began to do things to the bodies. Unspeakable things. This had been a place where necrophilia had been a place where necrophilia had practised. Ed and Lorraine told the family that whatever was present in the home wasn't a ghost. It was evil. It was demonic. They explained that its goal was to break them down, to make them scared,

to make them weak, and then when they were at their lowest, it would try to possess them. There was no point leaving the house, it would follow them wherever they went. The house wasn't haunted as such. Something dark lurked there, and now it had lacked. matched on to the Snedekas. For the next several weeks, the Warrens, along with other investigators on their team, effectively moved in. The entire family were now sleeping in the living room, after the warrants told them it was more dangerous to be alone.

The activity continued. In fact, it seemed to grow stranger and more angry due to the presence of the investigators in the home. One night, Owl awoke to see lights swirling around the living room. The lights all seemed to combine together as the man lay there speechless. as it appeared to take on the form of Jesus. He was on the cross, his face distorted, eyes swollen and tongue protruding. He was dead, but speaking to Al, telling him he couldn't help his family,

that there was no help for them. The figure fell on Al, screaming and bleeding, and then just vanished, as he leapt up screaming himself. One day, Owl and Carman were assassinated. on the porch while the investigators were inside. When suddenly Carmen fell off her seat, her throat swelling, completely unconscious. Al called for help and everyone rushed outside. In Carmen's mind she said she was transported somewhere completely black, with a red circle of light above her. In the air two faces appeared, one man, one woman, their hair stringy and thin, skin pale with wide,

decaying grins. They mocked Carmen viciously, mocked her faith. She bundled herself up on the floor helplessly, and then the world shifted around her. The faces vanished and Carmen was on a long road, that she began to walk down. Meanwhile, Al was shouting for someone to call an ambulance, but the investigators said it wouldn't help, that she was under attack from a demonic force. They all prayed. Carmen started making noises and said she was in a dark place in broken words.

Carmen finally came to claiming that the last thing she saw were souls trapped in a black world. I knew I was no longer in my room. The entity opened up a hole and he started shouting obscenities at me and when I began to pray the our father he got worse.

And he said, there's no way you could possibly believe what you've been taught as a child. I went into this place. It was called Ithrum, a desert road of hot tears, and I was taken down this road. These represent souls, lost souls. I could actually feel the emotion, the anger, the hurt, the desperation, the sadness. There were no positive emotions. They were all human, negative emotions. Two hours later Carmen was in bed when it began again.

They told him not to but Al began to shout out for the demon to leave her alone and come into him. Instantly the life drained from Al's face as he too collapsed down onto the bed. Al's trousers were pulled down by an invisible force and it attacked him, just as it had to his wife and niece. Eventually it was over. The couple were broken. They felt humiliated, terrified. During their time there, Ed Lorraine and the other investigators witnessed a whole host of activity, including seeing the apparitions that the family had seen, and even experiencing attacks themselves.

During one of her psychic visions, Lorraine claimed to see the necrophiliac who had operated there. He told Lorraine he wanted her to watch what he did to the bodies. This act was what they believed had attracted the demonic energy to the place. The Warrens felt they now had enough information to get the church involved. A father George first visited the Snedekers, after talking to the warrants and understanding how serious the situation this was. Just on a visual level, he could see how much the family was suffering. They were all sleeping on mattresses in the living room together. Everyone looked exhausted and depressed. First, he was.

walked around the upstairs, blessing each room with holy water. Before he then began to descend into the basement. Much like Lorraine, he instantly fell to knot in his stomach as he began to walk down the stairs. While down there performing his blessings, he was shocked to see some kind of dark black substance begin to leak out of one of the walls. Initially he was just curious until the dark mass seemed to move towards him. Father George returned to the family and the investigators and informed them he would need help. That night he returned with Father Gary and they conducted Mass in the home.

During the Mass, Carmen and Tammy would later claim they saw a dark cloud moving around the two priests. Then Tammy would feel hands pulling at her legs and whispering obscene things to her. But it wasn't just her. Carmen began to feel something similar. Then one of the investigators, a man named Chris, claimed he felt a hand groping around the zipper of his jeans, before he then felt it touching him, grabbing him. He said it felt like a hard, cold grip, like the fingers of a corpse. Chris wanted to scream out, but all three just tried their best to focus on the ceremony

until it was all over. The mask didn't work. the next week the activity was vicious and constant. At one point during its attacks, Tammy was convinced she felt the cold blade of a knife being brushed over her body, even though there was nothing there. Then she felt it cut into her. She had been in bed and initially thought it was all a dream. That was until she realised she couldn't see. She sat up, desperately pleading for help as everyone around her began to wake up. She was saying in a croaked, barely audible voice. It's cutting me. I'm blind. Then it all just stopped.

Another evening, one of the researchers named John was awoken by the sound of footsteps. The living room was icy cold. He tried to wake the others up, but no one stirred. This seemed to happen frequently. It happened early on with Al not hearing the children's screams in the middle of the night, and it was continuing with others now. When it wanted to, the entities seemed to be able to keep people in a deep sleep, leaving just its intended targets awake. John grabbed a torch and headed in the direction of the footsteps. As he did, he heard a voice quietly saying, Do you know what they did? That was when his torch beam caught it. Standing in the hall was a naked woman. Her fleshy, flabby skin, blotted purple and white, hanging off of her body in an almost

exaggerated fashion. Her toothless mouth spoke again and said, Do you know what they did to us down there? John began to invoke the name of Jesus Christ, and the woman simply smiled, before telling him she loved it. They all loved it. Then it began to run towards him, as it did its appearance. seemed to change. John was convinced he saw wings, but it all happened so quickly, and then he hit the floor unconscious. He awoke hours later, still on the floor. He couldn't believe what he had witnessed. This sort of thing continued for weeks until the church finally agreed that an exorcism could be performed. The task was given to Father Sean Nolan. The children were all removed from the house and the priests attended in casual clothes so as not.

to draw attention from the neighbours. As Father Nolan began the mass, it all kicked off again. Carmen felt something touching her. Al heard voices taunting him. Lorraine was seeing white strobe-like flashes in her eyes. Ed's chest was tightening. He had suffered a heart attack a couple of years prior, and suddenly he realized that familiar feeling was coming back. As soon as the mass ended, so did the activity. But then it was time to be. to begin the exorcism, and it was like the switch was immediately flicked back on. The taunts, the prodding, touching, the pains in Ed's chest, objects in the home began to shake. The exorcism went on for hours and was a brutal experience for everyone involved. Around the four-hour mark, the pain in Ed's

chest became so bad that Lorraine attempted to get him out of the house. As they did, it was like the entire house tilted to one side before falling back into place. Lorraine, knowing this was just an illusion, ignored it, and helped her husband to safety. Smoke was beginning to rise from the carpets. Voices filled the air. Voices shouting vile, disgusting things. Hands groped. A putrid smell filled the air. Then suddenly it all just stopped. Father Nolan, breathing heavy and drenched in sweat, went to check on Ed, who seemed to have recovered. The family all looked around at one another. They could feel it. The entire house was different. It felt bright and warm for the first time in a long time. They hadn't realised how dark it was

until it was gone. In that moment they knew, their horror was over. Months later, Philip was released from the hospital. Understandably, he didn't want to go back to the house, and plans were put in place for them to move out. After they did, they heard a story about the new tenants complaining about witnessing some odd things in the house. The new tenants didn't stay long, nor did the ones after that. Or the ones after that. Or so, the story goes. But what really happened?

I always like to explore possible explanations after our stories. after our stories. But in this case, I think this section is going to be much larger than usual. The story I have laid out for you here is the Snedica's case as told in the book, In a Dark Place, apparently written by author Ray Garton, Carmen Reed, formerly Stedica, Al Snedica and Ed and Lorraine Warren. This would not be the only version of this story to come out, though.

It has been told in episodes of paranormal documentary shows, and even made into a feature film that loosely borrously boring, from the Snedica story called The Haunting in Connecticut. Each retelling appears a little different, which is understandable. This is other people taking the Snedica story and telling it in their own way. Little details get added here and there, but by and large the main points of the Snedika story has stayed consistent. Nearly 40 years later, the family still stands by their story.

So why is this case so controversial? Well, to begin with, if we take it take a story, If we take the story from in a dark place at face value, this is on paper one of the most extraordinary and violent tales of a haunting ever reported. I have deliberately not gone too graphic with the details here, but what the Snedekas claimed happened to them in that house is horrifying. This alone will obviously make a lot of people sceptical. Most people's reports of the paranormal are seeing something odd, or things moving on their own. This is on another level. Then you have the involvement of the Warrens, who even at this point in time a lot of people had

strong doubts on. This is one of those stories that has been the subject of serious public scrutiny, mostly because it went so public. While it never turned into a household name like the Amityl horror, the media jumped on this case. And thanks to the wonders of YouTube, we are able to revisit an episode of the talk show, Sally Jesse Raphael show, which brought on not just the Netticus, but aired Lorraine and a whole host of their neighbours for what ended up being quite a fiery piece of television. This interview took place in 1992, several years after the events, but around the time of the book's release. This wasn't

the only televised expose that went into the case at the time, but I thought this was the more interesting one to dissect. In the interview Carmen states that she didn't know the place was a funeral home until after they moved in. There was a sign on the wall outside but this had apparently been covered up while the work was being done on her first visit. She said she didn't believe in ghosts, that she didn't take her children seriously when they started talking about the house being evil. In fact, she said she didn't truly believe until her niece is moved in. Tammy or Kelly as she is called on the show is also interviewed, but she nearly bursts into tears as soon as she begins to tell her story, causing Carmen's take over. She also described the vibrating beds that

Al and Carmen had experienced, but Tammy referred to it in a much more chilling way, that it was almost like the bed was breathing. Al explains in the interview that he was also sexually assaulted by the entity. They apparently turned to their neighbours and even the police before the warrants, but no one could help them. Carmen states that a visiting police officer saw a door open on its own and was so caught off guard that he nearly shot at the door. Although the police officer interviewed in a 2009 documentary claims there were no reports of officers being called to the home

specifically due to a haunting. The sheet of the reported visits does make more than one reference to a landlord-tenant dispute as well as trouble with a neighbour, which is an interesting detail even if it doesn't confirm much. When asked why they didn't just leave, Carmen said it would follow them, explaining that she also had experiences at work. They also couldn't afford to move straight away, so going to someone else's home would just involve them in the horror.

In this version of the story, it was actually someone at work who suggested that she should contact the warrants. The warrants and their researchers stayed for nine weeks, and they did not receive any pay for their work there. But the Snedeker's neighbours, who also appeared on the show, were much more sceptical of their claims. One of those interviewed was the man who moved in after them. He claims that despite what the book says,

he never encountered anything strange. Although apparently the claims that the new residents had reported something came from a third party to Carmen. Al simply states that this just means the exorcism worked. But the neighbours go on. to claim that no priest ever stepped foot in the house. Later in the episode it's revealed by another local that someone else had moved in before the man on stage, and she suggests that this is the person who had the encounters, leaving a bit of mystery in the air of if any activity continued

after the exorcism. Very quickly, the interactions with the neighbours devoles into a shouting match, with one claiming that the Snedekers fell behind with their rent, and that was suddenly when the stories began, but Al and Carmen refute this. One of the neighbours claims that the woman who lived above them never experienced anything, and ultimately moved out because of the Snedikas continued claims and the attention it brought. But this time it's Tammy who jumps in, and says this is a lie, claiming that the upstairs neighbour talked to her numerous times about witnessing strange activity herself, although it's worth pointing out that later it seems to be revealed that the woman who lived upstairs was a real estate agent who worked with the landlord, adding to the

Snedekers claims that a lot of the backlash is the result of their previous landlord trying to discredit them. But some of the other neighbours took it more seriously, claiming they did see priests visiting, and that one neighbour who visited the house was so freaked out that she started making her children where crucifixes. Interestingly, most of the neighbours on the show that are most vocal and appear on stage seem to have moved into the area after the Snedikas left. One was the resident who took the downstairs apartment, the other moved in upstairs later. Most of their claims seem to come from things that other people have told them, which seems odd given how passionately they are denouncing the Snedeker's story. Although there were other neighbours in the audience, including one

woman who possibly had a little too much time on her hands and decided to keep detailed notes about the comings and goings at the Snedica home and possible explanations in the area, although one of her main claims was that the haunting was caused by a truck with a bad muffler, driving past one night. Then Ed and Lorraine appeared on the show, which didn't help the Snedekers. Ed refutes the claims that no priest visited the home, although he does refuse to provide the actual name of the priest who performed the exorcism, only referring to him as Father A, a fact that Ed got rather irate about here, and in another show where he was pressed to reveal the identity of the priest.

One name is a name I give you. I don't have to give a name. A fool name. Ed claimed that some of the people on stage were potentially being paid off by the landlord, who wanted the negative reputation his property now had, gone. Another person in the audience claimed that Philip was also taking illegal drugs, along with his medication. Both his treatment and, if true, the drugs he was taking, could have led to hallucinations. But others point out, even if that could be used to explain what Philip was seeing,

it wouldn't account for any other part of the Snedeker story. Apparently, the Snedekers had no intention of writing a book. It was Ed Warren who had pushed for the book to be written, telling the family that it would be good so that other people out there who experienced something similar could know that help was available if they knew where to look. Then the show introduced long-time skeptical writer and investigator Joe Nicol, a man that Ed Warren clearly has had prior run-ins with, and instantly the pair engage in a pretty fiery back and forth. Everyone on the show, on both sides of the argument, comes off as angry and defensive and just leaves the entire thing.

feeling like a bit of a mess. Joe Nicol points out that the entire presentation of the book is like a horror novel. A point that he backs up by pointing out its lead writer Ray Garten was a horror fiction writer and it would be Ray Garten who would likely go on to provide the most damning information on this story. Around 2009 during the release of the movie, Ray Garton became quite outspoken about his experiences of writing the book. Garton said that he took the job because he remembered the warrants from reading about their stories as a kid. While he didn't believe in the paranormal himself, he took this assignment with the belief that the people involved genuinely believed it, and he wanted to share their stories. But quickly he said there were issues. He said the Snedikas

couldn't keep their story straight. He said they were going through some pretty serious problems like drug addiction and alcoholism. Carmen was apparently running an illegal lottery scam, that he was told not to mention. He barely got to speak to Philip, but once he did have a phone call with him, the boy apparently claimed that his visions went away after he was medicated. Ed and Lorraine told Garton

that he had videotape of the activity, that they could show him. But every time he asked to see it, a different excuse was used for why they couldn't show it to him right now. He never got to see inside the house because the new residents wanted nothing to do with the story, which in hindsight now explains,

now explains why I struggled so much to really understand the layout of the house from Garten's book. When he finally approached Ed Warren with his concerns, he apparently said to Garton, They're crazy. All the people that come to us are crazy. That's why they come to us. Just use what you can and make the rest up. You write scary books, right? We'll make it up and make it scary.

That's why we hired you. Garton went on to question. questioned the legitimacy of the various priests that have worked with the warrants. He also claims that the activity only began when the landlord, frustrated he wasn't getting his rent, started plans to evict the family. Although why the haunting claims could stop the landlord from evicting them, I'm unsure. One newspaper report though seems to suggest they just moved out before the eviction, and the haunting claims began after they had already been living there for two years.

The timeline in the book is fairly vague, so I'm not sure how this matches up. Garten also points out that Carmen has capitalised on this story, now working as a spiritual advisor herself, trying to apparently help others in similar situations. What adds weight to Garton's claims is it seems true. Across various interviews over the years, while the major details of the haunting match up, there's a lot of smaller inconsistencies that pop up. You can pass a lot of these off as people misspeaking, misremembering small details as time goes on, or even that the story has been told through so many different people over the years

that it kind of makes the details of the real story tricky to pin down. But these inconsistencies are there, and they do cast a lot of doubt on their story. Garten claims that he has been open about all of this since the beginning, but the most often referred to example of these claims seems to come from a 2000 9 interview, leading some to speculate that he was just angry that he hadn't received any money from the movie being made, but he denies that this is the reason. John Zaffis, one of the investigators on the case and the nephew of the warrants, asks why Garten did not have his name taken off the book, or even refused to write it if he thought it was all a scam. Garton's response to this was

that he couldn't afford the legal fees to back out of the contract he had signed, before knowing what he was really getting into, as is so often the case in these big paranormal stories. Money is a constant factor in both the debunkings and the more wild claims of activity. Some have pointed to a lot of the more extreme attacks mirroring scenes from the movie, the entity, and that Carmen and Tammy may have just lifted the idea from there, although the believers could easily say that of course the entity was also based on the real-life case of Doris Biffa. If anything, maybe, there being a prior example of a paranormal case featuring similar activity, adds weight to their claims.

Another big sticking point for the sceptical claims is whether Carmen knew that the house was a funeral home. The landlord and other neighbours claimed that it was made very clear to her before moving in, but the Snedekers deny this. Personally, I'm not sure why this is such a big point of debate. In the book, the Snedekers learned that it was a funeral home really quickly, before fully moving in. I guess having prior knowledge could point towards them planning this whole hoax before moving in, but I don't know, it doesn't alter the story drastically for me.

The other prevailing theory that could explain all this isn't a nice one, but makes a lot of sense for at least parts of the story. This was a family who were genuinely going through a very dark period in their life. They had uprooted their entire family because their child had been diagnosed with cancer. Carmen's father was murdered. Her sister was having such serious issues that Carmen was forced to take care of her nieces. Her husband was developing a pretty serious drinking problem. Philip had been faced with his own mortality at such a young age and at the same time moved into a funeral home. If you believe demons were the cause or not, it's pretty clear his mental health was taking a dark tumble into the abyss.

He was writing threatening dark messages in his journals. He was drawing pictures of his stepfather dead. If you believe the neighbour boy, he was also taking illegal drugs. Ultimately, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. But before that, he was apparently caught attempting to molest his 12-year-old cousin and then omitted to touching both her and her sister while they slept. In the story, the very sexualised attacks seemed to begin shortly after its revelation. Maybe this wasn't a case of a family trying to create a haunted house story.

to try and make some money. Maybe this is instead an example of a family dealing with some very real-world trauma and somehow transmuting that trauma into their home being evil and haunted. A fact that maybe they truly believed, even if it wasn't true. But of course, if you are a believer,

you could say this is simply the sort of environment that demons would happily feed upon and make worse. Then, of course, you have the Warren's involvement It's hard not to notice that even in the book the activity ramps up considerably once Dorans get involved. This wasn't just a factor in this case, but in the careers of Edel Lorraine as a whole. To begin with, their claims about hauntings were a lot more grounded. Sure, there were some really out-their claims, but they were a little more sparse in their occurrences within their cases. By the 80s, however, these reported cases were becoming dramatic events,

that seemed to mirror the changes in paranormal horror movies of the time. One thing that jumped out to me was the aggressive sexual violence present in the story, something that also stood out to me in the Smell family haunting, that took place around the same time. Many have suggested that the war on stories become increasingly provocative was their attempt at creating a story that would finally eclipse the Amateurville horror, a story that obviously made a lot of money for, the people involved, but crucially not for the warrants. However, if they were exaggerating

a lot of the details in these later cases, you could also look at Ed's claim on the talk show. If you believe him that this is all about getting the message out there, that these things happen and people need to know they are not alone. In a world of increasingly outlandish horror stories in movies and books, maybe a more simple grounded haunting, wouldn't make a dent in the public's perception. Instead, it needed to be terrifying, dark, disturbing. People needed to know that they should turn to the Catholic Church to be safe from this sort of thing. Or, if that didn't work out, maybe you needed to turn towards Ed and Lorraine Warren.

Of course, the Snedicas were not happy with Garton's claims, nor the claims of their neighbours. Carmen, Tammy and Bradley are all interviewed in a 2009 document. where they deny most of his claims, and Lorraine says she has no idea how her and Ed got mixed up with a man like Garten. But prior to looking into this, my impression of this story was that it was very much the Snedekers and the Warrens on one side and Garton and the Landlords on the other. But seemingly, Carmen at the very least has become quite outspoken on the Warrens as feeling they took advantage of her family. Once the Warrens got involved it seemed they began to control the narrative, telling the family what to say and coaching them through any media

interactions. She stated that the book was not an accurate representation of what they went through, although I'm unsure which detail specifically she is referring to. There also seems to be conflicting thoughts on if she is actually upset about the details or if she just wasn't happy about the book as a whole, particularly the details about her son and her nieces. If she is suggesting that maybe the story about what Philip did to his cousins is inaccurate, seems unclear. But either way, it appears Philip was genuinely quite an unwell boy, and in subsequent interviews about the case, he and the two younger children are shielded from the public eye. In a later interview, she said,

They refused to remove anything she wanted removed from the book, saying that her story wasn't her story anymore. They had taken it away from her. Carmen also interestingly states that the Snedekas never wanted to go public with this story, that the idea of going public was heavily pushed on them by Ed Warren. His reasoning for that was apparently to pressure the church into performing the exorcism. Although Carmen now believes it was actually for the Warren's own gain. Neither Carmen or Al said they truly understood the level of attention.

attention going public would bring to their family. She didn't think they cared about them, nor their reputations, or what all this would do to their children's lives. She grew so angry that the family completely disconnected from the warrants and everyone else involved in the case, and moved to Tennessee. You can say anything you want to about me. It's going to affect me. I choose to move on and try and understand what did happen to me. Raise my money. children and live the best life I can live. But Carmen and the rest of the Snedikas have surely gained a decent amount from this story. There was the original book, the feature-length movie, that the family were heavily involved

in the promotion for, episodes of paranormal witness and other shows, as well as a long-promised book that Carmen is apparently writing herself, although it seems this is still not out yet. One of the more vicious claims that skeptics on this case make is that even Philip's cancer was not real. A claim that Garten himself doesn't explicitly make, but he does allude to those rumours, and states that not only did he see no evidence of his cancer treatments, that also the family didn't seem to know a lot about the boy's illness, which felt odd to him. It feels like every single element of the story was called a lie by someone. 2012, Philip, now a father of four himself, would die at the age of 38, after his cancer returned.

That's all for this entry into the tape library. I'm not going to lie as I'm writing this, my head hurts. It really is the fallout from this case that I think makes it so interesting, but it also just devolves into a whole lot of people screaming and shouting that the other people are lying. It reminds me of Amityville a lot in that regard. People seem to pick the narrative they want to believe in both these cases and just turn a blind eye to anything that might contradict that story. Before I give my thoughts on this one, I want to hear yours. So drop me a comment below with what you think.

Is this an example of the Warren's taking a family story and twisting it into something more dramatic? Did the Snedekas plan this all along to try and make money from a hope? Is this a manifestation of the genuine trauma the family went through? Or was it all real? Did the Snedekas really uncover something evil in that house? Or is the truth?

Somewhere in the middle. Me? I have no idea at this point. The story is so extreme and so over the top that, combined with my previous dips into the Warren's cases, leaves me with a lot of doubts about how true any of this is. But at the same time, the people arguing against them don't really convince me either. The TV appearances with all the various neighbours just feels like people wanting to argue because they wanted to be on a talk show and get attention,

rather than because they had serious thoughts on what's happened to the family. Garten's statements are pretty damning and do echo some of the things that another writer, Gerald Brittle, would later speak about in regards to the Warrens. Although both these stories seemed to come out around the time that big money was being thrown about for movie deals, and both were being left out, which kind of leaves a slight sour taste in my mouth. I just thought like I don't believe anyone in this story. The sceptics or the claimants, which just leaves me feeling frustrated and painfully curious. I believe something could have happened in that house in Connecticut.

But if that something was paranormal, or simply the dark, sides of human behavior. I couldn't say. So that leads us nicely into part two, where we will finally be getting into the Warrant's as a topic in their own right. I'll hopefully bring you guys some updates on the release of that episode soon. So if you don't want to miss out, please do click subscribe. And if you enjoyed this episode, either leaving me a rating on your podcast platform of choice or a like on YouTube is a really easy way to help me out. If you want to support the show directly, you can do that through YouTube memberships and Patreon. There are a few different perks depending on what you sign up for, such as add-free episodes, early releases and shout-outs.

So be sure to check those out. So let's thank some of those wonderful supporters who keep the lights on in the tape library archives. Our tape library archive is Umiko Grimm, West Virginia Vegetable Man, Tina S, Thomas Boatwright, the God Emperor of Mankind, Crimson DM, the detective, Stephen Lutman, Sean Minner, Sandy Lusk, Sagel, Kavry, Callie Sarah Boyd, Rosary Sudrabin, Quirky Joseph, Plump Blossom, Pixelina, Monty Mirichard, Midias Abine, Emie Bartley, Lisa Mary Sheridan, Lady Bet Noir, Juno, Judafacker, Joseph Condola, Jolly Jolly Jellie Jail, Jamie Long, Groyal, Gabrielle, Emily Carlin, Eric Salad, Dominic Degan Odorleg, Dominic, DeAngelis, Dawn Swan, Dalla, Crystal Edwards, Ashlaffield, Alfredo Sandoval, Adeline.

Our lead archivist Xavier Angle, Vaniel, Triclellaello, Tater Salad, the original Dear, ridiculous, old soul like mine. Plague Doctor Is In, Melissa Harrington, Lord William, London Grace, Creepy Candy, Brian Baker, Amy Stubblefield, Alex O'Neill, Alex Goldberg and 1000th Ghost, and our very generous Grand Overseers. Morning Rain 2619, Leah Carmella, Katie, Harrison the Ogre Lord, Bad Didley, Agent 355 and Queen of Flatchelands. As always, a huge thank you to them. All my junior archivists on Patreon and all my members on YouTube. Until next time, my friend. Pleasant dreams.