Savanah's on vacation, guys, so our friend, David, is filling in for this week's episode and boy is this one a doozy! On February 16, 1980, Arne Cheyenne Johnson awoke to a sore throat and other symptoms that led to him calling out of work. This would seem run-of-the-mill, but Arne and his fiance, Debbie Glatzel, had spent the last seven months enduring something so unusual, they didn't dare speak of it outside a very tight circle of family and friends. Back in July, while helping Arne and Debbie move into their dream rental, Debbie's 11-year-old brother, David, claimed to have seen the figure of an old man - an entity - who told him to "Beware." This would start a chain reaction of allegedly paranormal events that would involve not only the church, but the most famed paranormal investigators of the day - Ed and Lorraine Warren. It was these events that the Warrens, the Johnsons, and the Glatzels would claim led to the crime that inspired a defense that was the first of its kind in America: not guilty by reason of . . . demonic possession.
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Sources:
Baranski, Lynn. "In a Connecticut Murder Trial, Will (Demonic) Possession Prove Nine-Tenths of the Law?" People, 26 October 1981, https://people.com/archive/in-a-connecticut-murder-trial-will-demonic-possession-prove-nine-tenths-of-the-law-vol-16-no-17/. Accessed 5 February 2023.
Brittle, Gerald. The Devil in Connecticut. Graymalkin Media, LLC, 2021.
Clendinen, Dudley. "Defendant in a Murder Puts the Devil on Trial." The New York Times, 23 March 1981, p. B1.
Darling, Lynn. "By Demons Possessed." The Washington Post, 13 September 1981, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1981/09/13/by-demons-possessed/3479fa6b-eee3-4233-a2fc-b9defa403504/. Accessed 5 February 2023.
Piro, John. “Brookfield Man Sues Over ‘Demon Book.’” Religion News Blog, 10 October 2007, https://www.religionnewsblog.com/19687/devil-in-connecticut. Accessed 5 February 2023.
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