For most of us, ghosts, demons and spirits are only part of horror films or the inventions of overly impressionable people, but for the Warren family, exploring otherworldly phenomena has become a matter of life. We will tell you how Ed and Lorraine became famous as real ghost hunters, and what mystical mysteries they managed to uncover.
"The Curse of Annabelle", "The Conjuring", "The Amityville Horror" - almost all of us are familiar with these horror films. However, few people know that these plots are based on real mystical mysteries, the investigation of which was undertaken by the Warrens, the most famous American detectives who were looking for confirmation of the existence of paranormal phenomena. Over the years, Ed and Lorrien have participated in the investigation of more than 10,000 high-profile cases, but the public is still wondering who the Warrens really were, and did they really meet with representatives of other worlds?
Edward Warren and Lorraine Rita Morin met in 1943 in Bridgeport. Soon after they met, Ed was sent to serve in the US Navy, but this did not stop the lovers from getting married a few years later - according to the spouses themselves, they were bound not only by a strong feeling, but also by common interests, which later became the main business of their lives. …
Even before meeting her future spouse, Lorraine called herself a medium and regularly held séances, claiming that she communicated with ghosts and spirits. Edward was also fond of paranormal theories, but his profession was more "earthly" - after returning from service, the man got a job at the police station.
Ed and Lorraine Warren, 1981.
From the very first meeting, the couple began to discuss their common interest and make plans for a joint future - a year after the wedding, Ed and Lorraine began to travel around the country in search of people who encountered supernatural phenomena, and, fortunately, the couple, there were many such in the USA …
Soon, the Warrens became known all over America - new materials appeared in newspapers about the activities of ghost hunters, and people began to independently seek meetings with them in order to tell their story about meeting with representatives of the other world. In 1952, the couple founded their New England Society for Psychical Research, and also created the Warren Occult Museum in Connecticut, which to this day preserves the mystical findings of its founders.
During their careers, the couple solved more than 10,000 mystical mysteries, thanks to which they earned the title of the most experienced and dexterous ghost hunters. Let's talk about the most high-profile cases that made Lorraine and Ed famous.
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Amityville
One of the most high-profile investigations of the spouses was the case of the cursed house in Amityville. This story begins in 1974 - then 23-year-old Ronald DeFeo, on the night of November 13, shot six of his relatives, including his parents, two brothers and two sisters. The young man was immediately arrested, but he could not clearly answer the detectives' questions and explain the reason for the cruel crime. DeFeo was sentenced to 150 years in prison, and a year later, the Lutz family moved to the house in which this terrible crime was committed.
A still from the movie "The Amityville Horror".
The story did not end there - soon after the move, the Lutz couple began to feel a "demonic presence" in all the rooms of their new home. At first, they assumed that the unpleasant sensations were associated with their subconscious unwillingness to be in the room where the murder was committed, but later the confidence that someone was really pursuing them became stronger. Especially clearly the presence of spirits was felt at about three o'clock in the morning - at the time when Ronald DeFeo killed his family.
In total, the Lats stayed in the house for twenty-eight days, after which the couple and their children decided to leave the residence in Amityville - according to the family, being there was unbearable due to the obvious presence of evil spirits. Nine days after the departure of the new owners, the Warrens arrived at the house - they were invited by one of the local journalists to investigate what had happened.
A still from the movie "The Amityville Horror".
When Ed and Lorraine arrived on the scene with the film crew, the couple tried to get in touch with the spirits of this house, however, according to Mrs. Warren, something prevented them from performing a seance. After that, the reporters who arrived with the Warren couple decided to install a camera on the second floor of the house, which recorded a very strange phenomenon - when the group watched the recordings, one of the frames showed the figure of a little boy who could not be in the house at the time of filming. This picture was shown to the daughter of the spouses Lutz Missy, who recognized the boy as her friend, who appeared in her room at night. After comparing the photograph of the ghost and the photographs of his younger brother Ronald DeFeo, the Warrens came to the conclusion that at the time of shooting it was his spirit that came into the field of view of the camera.
After studying the history of the house, Ed and Lorraine found out that none of the deceased owners could have had such a clear influence on its inhabitants - according to preserved documents, before the November events, only one person died within the walls of the house, and his spirit did not want revenge. Then the couple delved into the study of the former inhabitants and soon got to the bottom of the truth - several centuries ago, the owner of the house was John Ketchum, who practiced black magic. After his death, his body was buried on the territory of the house, and it was he who became that evil spirit that persecuted its inhabitants.
This story formed the basis of Jay Anson's novel "The Amityville Horror", and later acquired a new sound thanks to the film project of the same name, which was released in 1979. In 2005, the history of the damned house reminded of itself again after the release of a remake of the motion picture under the same name.
The Perron family
In 1971, the Perron couple and their five daughters moved to a large new home in Harrisville, Rhode Island, which was previously owned by the Arnold family. At first, their life in the new place was going very well, but soon the peaceful existence of the inhabitants of the house was disrupted by the invasion of spirits.
Children were the first to notice the presence of otherworldly forces - girls began to complain that at night they heard a grinding, ominous whisper, and also felt something invisible touching their feet. The words of the children did not convince the parents, who felt that their daughters were simply tired of the recent move. A few days later, the spirits reached the Perron spouses - according to the eldest daughter, one day she woke up from a scream coming from her parents' room. When she entered the room to find out what was the matter, a terrible thing appeared before her eyes - the figure of a woman hanging over her mother with a withered face resembling a mummy, along which insects crawled.
A still from the movie "The Conjuring-2".
From that night on, the evil spirit began to haunt all family members, paying special attention to Carolyn Perron - for some reason, it was the mother of the family that interested him most of all. Every day the atmosphere in the house became more and more tense, but the family, experiencing financial difficulties after the move, did not have the opportunity to buy another home, and therefore they decided to turn to the demon hunters already known at that time.
When Ed and Lorraine Warren arrived at the cursed house, they immediately sensed the presence of evil spirits and tried to perform a purification ritual, which only angered the otherworldly entity. According to Lorraine, the family was haunted by the ghost of the witch Bathsheba Sherman, who lived in the house in the 1840s - the locals believed her to be guilty of the death of her own son, whom she allegedly sacrificed to demonic forces.
A still from the movie "The Conjuring".
After the failure of the ceremony, the head of the family asked the Warrens to leave their home, and this temporarily calmed the spirit of Bathsheba. However, otherworldly residents of the Perron family residence continued to haunt them, appearing at night and threatening them with death. The nightmare ended only in 1980, when the family had the money to sell the damned house and move to another state.
These scary and mysterious events formed the basis of The Conjuring, which was released in screens in 2013 and became one of the most talked about horror films in the history of cinema.
The curse of Annabelle
The story of the doll named Annabelle began in 1970 when a woman bought a toy at a sale to give it to her student daughter Donna, who collected old toys. The girl was happy with the touching gift, and immediately took the doll to her apartment, where she lived with her neighbor Angie.
A still from the movie "The Curse of Annabelle 3".
Soon, mysterious events began to take place in the girls' house - students constantly found Annabelle in different rooms and different poses, and sometimes blood appeared on the doll's hands. Then Donna and Angie called a medium to their house, who told them that the spirit of the deceased girl Annabel Higgins was inside the toy. For some reason, the students were reassured by the psychic's explanation, and they decided that it was worth offering the ghost to stay with them.
This decision led to dire consequences - suddenly the doll, which had not previously caused harm to its owners, began to behave extremely aggressively. According to the girls, she attacked them at night, scratched them bloody, and once tried to strangle their friend Lou, who was visiting Donna and Angie's house during the holidays.
The frightened students went to the local church, whose priest recommended that they turn to Ed and Lorraine Warren. When the demon hunters arrived at the girls' apartment, they examined the doll and came to disappointing conclusions - the spirit of the girl Annabelle, enclosed in a toy, was possessed by a demon who is looking for a human body for himself.
A still from the movie "The Curse of Annabelle 3".
After that, several cleansing rituals were held in Donna and Angie's apartment, and the doll itself went to the Warren Museum, where it is kept to this day. Many visitors to the museum asked why the couple did not want to destroy the dangerous exhibits, to which Ed gave a very frightening explanation:
The events of those years formed the basis for the plot of the third part of the film about the cursed doll called "The Curse of Annabelle 3".
Enfield poltergeist
The Enflide poltergeist story is one of the most famous ghost cases. The mystical events that took place in the 1970s in one of the houses of London formed the basis of the acclaimed horror film "The Conjuring 2" and attracted more than thirty psychics and mediums to the home of the Hodgson family, including the Warrens.
This story begins in August 1977, when Peggy Hodgson, putting her daughters to bed, first noticed strange phenomena in the nursery - her daughter Janet suddenly began to complain about the sounds and voices she hears in her head. When Peggy looked around, she saw that the heavy cabinet, previously standing in the corner of the room, was moving independently towards the door - the frightened woman tried to move the furniture into place, but encountered strong resistance.
A still from the movie "The Conjuring-2".
Since then, the family has been regularly pursued by the otherworldly inhabitants of the house - furniture constantly moved in the rooms, cutlery bent by itself in the kitchen, cabinet doors opened. The worst was for Peggy's daughter, Janet, who was the first to notice the presence of an evil spirit in the house - according to the family's testimony, the ghost regularly scared her, appeared in her room, and sometimes even threw her into the air and pressed her against the wall.
Soon the situation began to worsen - once Peggy went into Janet's room to find out if she was all right. When the woman came closer to the girl sitting with her back, she turned sharply, threw her mother aside with force and shouted to the girl in a terrible low voice: "Get out!"
Frightened, Peggy Hodgson began to turn to mediums and specialists who were engaged in the study of paranormal phenomena - in a few months about thirty psychics visited her house, one of whom said that the evil spirit who terrorized the Hodgson was the former owner of the house, named Bill Wilkins.
A still from the movie "The Conjuring-2".
When the Warrens arrived in Anfield in 1978, they confirmed the theory that Peggy and her children were suffering from the presence of the ghost of Wilkins, who did not want to share his home with outsiders. However, Ed and Lorraine were unable to calm the spirit of the former master and suggested that the Hodgson invite a priest to perform a cleansing ceremony.
After the family followed the advice of the Warrens, order reigned in their house, albeit not for long. A few years later, a terrible misfortune happened in Peggy's house - her 14-year-old son Johnny died of cancer, and a little later the same illness caused the death of Mrs. Hodgson herself. After these events, Janet left the damned house, where new tenants soon settled - a woman named Claire Bennet and her four children. However, two months later, the Bennets also chose to hastily leave the new refuge - apparently, the ghost of Bill Wilkins did not want to share his house with the new guests.
Returning to the question of who the Warrens really were, it is worth saying that to date there is no answer to this riddle - many scientists who studied the cases of Ed and Lorraine after their death, found a lot of inconsistencies and details that indicate that that all these stories were just clever hoaxes. At the same time, one cannot ignore the facts collected not only by the demon hunters themselves, but also by those people who have encountered frightening paranormal phenomena in their homes - have they become victims of the influence of the Warrens, or are there really phenomena in the world that are beyond the control of the human mind?