Here’s How The Conjuring Hauntings Actually Unfolded In Real Life

The Conjuring and its sequels are predominantly focused on the lives and exploits of Ed and Lorraine Warren. This married American couple had a very unusual time on planet earth, to say the least. In the movies Ed and Lorraine are portrayed by actors Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga respectively.

Ed and Lorraine Warren would go on to forge the most unusual careers. Yes, rather than becoming doctors, lawyers, or the like, they would become paranormal investigators. Ed claimed he was a demonologist, and he authored numerous books on the subject, such as Ghost Hunters: True Stories From the World’s Most Famous Demonologists. He gave lectures in the realm of the paranormal too.

Lorraine, meanwhile, would claim that she was more of a clairvoyant, and a medium for those in a light trance state. With her husband Ed leading the way, Lorraine would take part in a series of investigations into the eerie and unexplained. And several of the couple’s probes into the paranormal would become infamous.

Because the paranormal investigations undertaken by the Warrens have featured in – or inspired – numerous films, TV shows and documentary series. And it is the work of the couple that features in The Conjuring and its sequels. Yes, believe it or not, the events of the movies are based on their real investigations.

So who exactly were the Warrens, and how and why did they go down the remarkable route that they did? To begin with, the future couple were born within less than a year of each other, both in the state of Connecticut. Ed was born Warren Edward Miney on September 7, 1926 in Bridgeport. Lorraine (née Moran) entered the world on January 31, 1927.

And Lorraine would recall having clairvoyant experiences in her youth. At the age of 16 in 1944, she would meet her kindred spirit and future husband Ed Warren at The Colonial Theater in Bridgeport, CT. Ed was working as an usher there, and when Lorraine turned up to a James Cagney movie with her pals, they hit it off.

But World War II would interrupt their blossoming romance. Ed went off to fight for the Allies, serving in the Navy. But his deployment lasted a mere four months after the ship he was on was sunk in the North Atlantic. So he was on “Survivor’s leave” following that incident in 1945, when he and Lorraine tied the knot.

After the war, Ed returned home. In 1951 the Warrens had their first and only child together, a daughter they named Judy. That same year, he enrolled in the Perry Art School, an art-related ancillary of Yale University. The budding painter began selling his work – mostly encompassing ghostly themes – by the side of roads in U.S. states.

Yet despite his efforts, Ed was not destined to be the next Claude Monet or Pablo Picasso. And like his wife, Ed had grown up with an interest in the supernatural and unexplained. He even became convinced that the house that he grew up in was haunted. It was in the early 1950s, then, that he would begin to combine his art work and his fascination with the paranormal.

Ed and Lorraine would go to houses that were reported to be haunted. Then Ed would erect his painting equipment outside the dwelling, capture it in all its glory, then offer the painting or sketch he had made to the tenant. This often led to him being given a tour of the residence, enhancing even further his interest in the supernatural.

But it was in 1952 when their interest in the paranormal took a more serious turn. Because the Warrens would form the New England Society for Psychic Research. The NESPR would conduct investigations of paranormal and demonic entities in the United States. It was the first of its kind in New England.

The Warrens later claimed that they had examined over 10,000 cases of alleged supernatural occurrences. We say alleged, as it is important to note that the now-deceased couple have not been without their doubters. Yet they argued that their NESPR utilized a wide variety of professionals for their investigations, including police officers, doctors and nurses, researchers and clergymen.

And a handful of the investigations the couple undertook have, of course, become famous – or should we say infamous – and used for horror movies and TV series. This includes the popular movie franchise The Conjuring. So our focus is on the famous hauntings that crop up in the film series, and how they played out in real life.

We begin with the curious and downright creepy case of Annabelle, the Raggedy Ann doll. And the reportedly true story, as relayed on the NESPR website, goes a little like this. Sometime in 1968, a student nurse receives a doll as a present, and proceeds to take it home with her to the place she lives. So far, so normal.

But soon after bringing the doll home, the nurse’s housemates begin to report strange things going on. A medium soon tells them that the spirit of a little girl has possessed it, that of Annabelle Higgins whose dead body was found nearby. Although the tenants try to live with the spirit, Annabelle responds only with “violent intent.” So the Warrens are called in, and they take the doll away from the house, locking it in a transparent box in their Occult Museum.

In the movie much the same happens. The names of the nurses are changed, but the Warrens are called in to help after the Annabelle doll moves around, leaves passive-aggressive notes and wrecks things in the house. They are informed of how one of the nurses called a medium in, and were informed about the deceased girl. But Ed and Lorraine then learn that the young ladies had given “permission” to the girl to enter the doll so it could live on in the apartment. Big mistake!

And throwing it in the trash hadn’t worked for the girls, as Annabelle returned, knocking on the door loudly and entering the house. The movie cuts to one of Ed and Lorraine’s lectures, where they explain that they brought in a priest to bless the house and inhabitants and took the doll away. That toy is made to look much more sinister and scarier than the real-life Raggedy Ann one, though.  

The next case covered in The Conjuring movie concerns the Perrons. They are a large family consisting of a married couple named Roger and Carolyn and their five daughters Andrea, Nancy, Christine, Cindy and April. In the movie, as in real life, they moved into a large 14-room farmhouse in Harrisville, Rhode Island, formerly known as the Arnold Estate. But things soon took a sinister turn.

In the movie, the family arrives at their new house to move in, but their dog Sadie senses danger and stays outside. In their first few days, a bunch of weird things happen, like the clocks all changing to the same time of 3:07, birds flying into windows. Mom Carolyn finds bruises on her legs that seemingly occurred overnight. The youngest girl April then finds Sadie dead outside that morning. Oh no! 

Then one night daughter Christine has a hair-raising experience with an evil spirit, whilst on another Carolyn gets mysteriously locked in the basement after hearing clapping in the hallway of the house. Finally, Andrea and Cindy are in their bedroom when a spirit attacks them. With all that terrifying stuff happening to the Perrons in the movie, they had to do something. They call… Ed and Lorraine Warren.

Ed and Lorraine heed the call of the Perron family. And after visiting the house and talking to the parents, they decide an exorcism is needed. But they can’t just go ahead and perform it, however, without the permission of the Catholic Church. Plus they need to provide more evidence.

Subsequent research by the Warrens uncovers how the house was once owned by an accused witch named Bathsheba Sherman. Interestingly she is a relative of Mary Towne Eastey, who was executed during the Salem Witch Trials. Sherman is noted to have sacrificed her week-old child to the devil before killing herself in 1863 at precisely 3:07 a.m. Oh, and she cursed anyone who would take her land with a premature and ugly death.

So the Warrens gather proof of demonic activity by carefully installing bells and cameras around the house. They capture Bathsheba spewing black bile into Carolyn’s mouth, making her possessed. In the end, Ed has to forgo the approval of the Vatican to stop the Perron mother from stabbing her own daughter Christine. He swiftly performs an exorcism when Lorraine beckons her back, and lifts the curse. But how much of it happened in real life?

Quite a bit, in fact! It’s true that the Perron family believed their home was haunted by evil spirits that stunk of rotten flesh, and that they reported it to the Warrens and enlisted their help. Daughter Andrea told USA Today in 2013, “Whoever the spirit was, she perceived herself to be mistress of the house and she resented the competition my mother posed for that position.”

And Bathsheba Sherman really existed, too. But in the mid-1800s the alleged witch lived next door to the farmhouse, and was eventually buried by her husband Judson in Harrisville Cemetery. Plus Roger Perron reportedly booted Ed and Lorraine out of the house, when he became worried about his wife’s mental stability. Cosmopolitan reported that the daughter Andrea said the family didn’t leave the address until 10 years later due to money problems – and that most of the hauntings continued. So even worse then?

Well, maybe. But in real life, Ed never performed an exorcism. They can only be performed by Catholic priests, so there was some poetic license taken there by the writers. Although he did attempt to summon a spirit via a séance. And the Perrons’ daughter Andrea claimed she watched it, stating, “I thought I was going to pass out. My mother began to speak a language not of this world in a voice not her own. Her chair levitated and she was thrown across the room.” Yikes!

The sequel to The Conjuring – simply titled The Conjuring 2 – mainly focuses on a creepy case that occurred in England known as “the Enfield poltergeist.” There’s also a scary vision of a demonic nun. The former involved alleged paranormal activity at a council house in the North London suburb from 1977-79. The Warrens learn of this and turn up to investigate.

In the movie, paranormal events begin to occur in the Enfield home of the Hodgson family after their second child Janet uses a Ouija board. But it begins with Ed and Lorraine separately investigating the so-called “Amityville horror” in a small Long Island town house. This concerned Ronald deFeo Jr. who butchered his parents and four siblings as they slept in November 1974. The Lutz family subsequently moved into the home and got scared big time.

So the Warrens want to find out if the subsequent haunting reported by the Lutz family is real. When performing a seance, Lorraine has a vision that re-experiences the DeFeo Jr. murders, and also encounters a demonic nun. She even has a vision of Ed being impaled and killed, which not surprisingly, is terrifying for her.

Back in Enfield, the movie shows Janet Hodgson sleepwalking and talking in her sleep with an old man, who angrily tells her the house belongs to him. Then when the media arrives, Janet begins to talk like the old man. Word reaches the Warrens, but Lorraine doesn’t want Ed to go after enduring another vision of the demonic nun.  

Janet Hodgson continues to act out, as if possessed by a demon. So the Warrens travel to England to investigate. Once there, they confer with other paranormal investigators and watch footage of Janet seemingly destroying the kitchen consciously, causing them to brand it a hoax and leave. But Lorraine’s dark vision of a nun returns. And she surmises that the possession of Janet is genuine, and the old man was merely a pawn being manipulated by the real demon, the nun.

So the Warrens return to the Enfield house, and discover Janet possessed and the family locked outside. When Ed goes in, Janet is by the window, about to kill herself. He grabs her just before she can, but is soon in danger of falling himself. Then lightning hits a tree in the Hodgsons’ yard, creating the impaling wood that kills Ed in his wife’s vision. Lorraine thus addresses the demon by its name, Valak, sending it back to Hell and saving Janet and her hubby. Phew!

But how real were the events concerning the Enfield poltergeist and the nun in the movie? Well, sources have suggested that the Warrens were much less involved than they made out in the Enfield case, and in fact were denied entry to the home. Parapsychologist Guy Lyon Playfair, stated in 2016 that the couple only “turned up once,” were “not invited” and that Ed told him they “could make a lot of money” out of the case.

As for the whole nun business? According to the website Den of Geek “there is no lore that has ever portrayed Valak as a nun.” They also note that the whole idea was thrown in the movie in the reshoots. Hmmm, it doesn’t seem like there is a lot of truth there, then. Let’s now turn to the final case, the trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson and the basis for the series’ third installment, The Conjuring 3: The Devil Made Me Do It.

That real life case centered around Johnson and the 1981 killing of his landlord Alan Bono, which he committed before fleeing. But the long and terrifying story begins with the alleged possession of the young brother of the killer’s fiancé, David Glatzel. He began exhibiting strange behavior, from growling, hissing and quoting biblical verses to seeing visions of an old man and murder. His exhausted family called in a Catholic Priest to bless the house before turning to the Warrens in desperation.

Lorraine claims that she saw a black mist next to David. And when the Warrens performed one of the three exorcisms on him, Arne purportedly coerced one of the demons in the possessed child to move into his body. There are even claims that David exhibited precognition, specifically to a manslaughter which his sister’s fiancé would commit. And the Warrens reportedly told Brookfield Police in October 1980, before the murder. Sounds too good to be true, perhaps?

A few short months after, during which Johnson had reportedly started exhibiting behavior similar to David, he would stab Bono to death. The killing occurred on February 16, 1981 after an altercation with the landlord who had hired Arne’s fiancé as a dog groomer. Johnson was arrested, and a day after the killing, the Warrens told the police he was demonically possessed. On trial he claimed “the devil made me do it” as a defense. But it was unprovable, and thus unsuccessful.

There was a media blitz around the strange killing, which Johnson would only serve five years for. Digital Spy notes how the case is depicted quite accurately in the movie, and how it was reported by key players in the story such as Johnson, Debbie Glatzel and the Warrens. But the website noted small changes, such as moving the timelines of events so that David’s exorcism is on July 18, 1981, months after Bono’s slaying in real life. Bono’s name was also changed to Bruno.

But the truth around the Warrens and their work remains murky itself. Numerous investigators and critics of the couple – such as Perry DeAngelis and Steven Novella – have claimed it is all “blarney.” Plus David Glatzel’s brother Carl accused the pair of being money motivated and exploiting his brother’s mental illness. Whatever the exact reality, there is little doubt that there were some strange goings on. And that the Warrens led an existence that continues to fascinate today.