EP. 266 - The DEVIL MADE ME DO IT Case: Murder, Ed & Lorraine Warren And Alleged Demons

Warning, the following podcast is not suitable for all audiences. We go into great detail with every case that we cover and do our best to bring viewers even deeper into the stories by utilizing disturbing audio and sound effects. Trigger warnings from the stories we cover may include violence, rape, murder, and offenses against children. This podcast is not for everyone. You have been warned. The voice coming out of 12-year-old David Glatzel sounded all wrong. It wasn't the voice of the boy his family knew him to be. A quiet, meek kid who loved to play outside and tried his best not to cause trouble. The voice that seemed to be erupting out of him, spewing vulgarities, sounded like a growl. It was animalistic, full of hate. Everyone in the room agreed. The voice did not belong to David. It belonged to something else, something demonic that had made a home inside of him. His family penned him down on the floor of the church as a priest stood over him, praying, speaking in Latin, and begging the evil spirit within him to leave. It was an exorcism and it wasn't going well. David thrashed beneath the grip of his loved ones. He howled. He lunged for the priest, his eyes rolled back in his head. And before anyone knew what was happening, he stopped breathing. Today's story is one that began in that room. In a church in St. Joseph's Cathedral in Brookfield, Connecticut, in the fall of 1981. And while it started there, beneath the crucifix, with Jesus looking down, it ended somewhere different. In a courthouse, where one of the people in that room was put on trial for murder. This is the story of the possession of David Glatzel in the murder of Alan Bono, a twisted eerie case that has been widely dubbed as the devil made me do it case. I'm Courtney Browen. And I'm Colin Browen. And you're listening to murder in America. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Brookfield, Connecticut, is the type of town you'd find stamped on a Halloween postcard. Boffty white steeples rising over quaint, winding streets dotted with 200-year-old homes. Farm fields peppered with pumpkins, surrounded by the blaze of autumn leaves. And though it's just 75 miles from the hustle and bustle of New York City, Brookfield's pastoral streets feel more like 750 miles away. It's quintessential New England, quaint, small, at times born. But if you've lived there long enough, you know that in that stillness, in that peace, there exist stories, stories that change based on who's whispering them. Stories that are remade through the eyes of their keeper, keepers who see the heroes and antagonists through their own eyes. The case we have for you today, the case of the possession of David Glatsole, and the murder of Alan Gono, isn't our usual. We want to flag that right off the bat. Here at Murder in America, we try to tell these stories as accurately as possible. We scour newspaper articles, police reports, books, legal documents. We cross-reference all the information we get to make sure we are giving you the facts, backed up by more than one witness, professional, or person directly involved. In this case, we did just that. And what we got out of it was, in all honesty, a small bucket of solid proven facts, an vast ocean of he said she said claims. This story has been divided by a broken family with the truth lost in the middle, where one side sees a demonic beast, another sees a mentally ill child, where one sees a bad mother, another sees the devil himself, where one sees a heroic martyr, the other sees a murderer. Now which of those is true, in this case, isn't left to fact, or legal ruling. It's interpretation. So we're going to show you both sides. And at the end, you'll have to let us know what you think. Was the devil and Brookfield Connecticut possessing a young boy? That young boy's life began on August 13, 1968, when he was welcomed into the world by his parents, Carl and Judy Glatzel. From the very beginning, he was the cherished little baby of the family. By the time he came along, he was the youngest of four siblings, Carl Jr., who was four, Allen, who was three, and an older sister, Debbie, who was already 14. Debbie remembers that, from the start, David was the golden child of the family. She relayed in a haunting, David was the teddy bear of the family. He was always willing to help out when we ask, he was just an extraordinary child. And with so many siblings, there was a lot to help out with, especially since Mr. Glatzel, Carl Sr., worked seemingly endless hours as a heavy duty machinery mechanic. That left Judy at home, cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the kids and bills. By all accounts, she took her home making seriously. Allen Glatzel stated, "My mom was an excellent cook. She was Hungarian and Italian, so she knew how to cook." The home was constantly full of the smell of fresh herbs and spices, and the sounds of kids coming and going. And unfortunately, that's where the children's agreement on what their upbringing was like, ends. According to David and Allen, their mom was a strict Catholic, who raised her kids to believe in God, and in turn believe in the devil. There were crucifixes on the wall, and rosaries hung around everyone's necks. But if you ask Carl Jr., that wasn't the case at all. Carl claims that while growing up, his mother had an obsession with spirituality, not necessarily Catholicism. He recalls her hopping from religion to religion, becoming enamored with things like the occult, voodoo, Hungarian folklore, various indigenous religions, and Hinduism, and items he posted pictures of allegedly indicate that. Now, again, this is just one sibling's perspective, but it is compelling, and it does give insight into how hard it is to decipher fact from fiction in this case. Carl shared photos with the podcast Truth or Demons, as well as on his own social media accounts, of items he claims to have found in his mother's belongings after her death. Some of these items included labeled envelopes with locks of hair, from not just members of the family, but friends and partners that visited the home. In addition, he claims that she had a voodoo doll, a 1940s stuffed monkey that had a pin struck through the back. He told Truth or Demons, "When people grab it without knowing the pins there, you're going to prick yourself." And my mom used to say, "If you get pranked, you're cursed." His siblings, David, Alan, and Debbie, have made no comment on this. So whether the children were raised, surrounded by Catholicism, or raised by a mother exploring her belief system, we can't say for certain, but there's one thing that all the siblings agree on. Their family was never exactly a picture perfect. David, the youngest, told the Netflix documentary The Devil on Trial, "I wouldn't call us an all-American family, but I would say we were as normal as we can be." Carl added, "We were far from the happy normal American family. My mother had her agenda. If things weren't going her way, she'd throw a tantrum." But through whatever struggles were or weren't happening, one thing remained steadfast. The siblings had each other. David was quiet. He loved spending time with his older siblings. He remembers, quote, "Playing outside with my brothers was the best time of my life. No Carl, the oldest of the bunch, loved working on cars, starting mechanical projects, and sports." Then Alan, the middle child, was more of a homebody. He loved to cook, disliked getting too dirty. And according to Carl, quote, "could bake a great cake." By the summer of 1980, David was 11. Alan was 13, and Carl was 14. Then there was Debbie, who by that point was 26 years old, and had already established a life of her own. In her late teens, she had gotten married and had a son named Jason, before she and her first husband separated. She lived with roommates for a bit, before finally moving back home with her parents and siblings for a time. At that point, her son was seven years old, just four years younger than David, which you can imagine made the two more like siblings than uncle and nephew. Regardless of which side of the family you ask, one thing is clear. The family was tight-knit. They had dinner together every night. And even in the struggles, there was love there. All of the glatzel brothers loved having their older sister home again. But come July 1980, that was set to come. change. Debbie was engaged to a man named Arnie Cheyenne Johnson, known to the family as Cheyenne or Chey. And you're going to have to buckle up for the story of how the two met, because like everything else in this case, it depends on who you ask. Debbie claims that the two met when she became roommates with Cheyenne's mom, Mary Johnson. Something that's undisputed is the fact that Cheyenne didn't have things easy growing up. His mother gave birth to him in 1962, and due to being born with severe bronchial pneumonia, he wasn't expected to live. As such, he was baptized by the church by his mother's bedside. But miraculously, he survived. Unfortunately, that bad luck seemed to follow him all throughout his life. Nine months after his birth, his father left. After, his mother went through a series of marriages and divorces, which resulted in two more daughters, Wanda and Janice, both of whom were significantly younger than Cheyenne. Then she adopted one of her nieces, which meant she had four kids to care for as a single mother. As long as everyone can remember, Cheyenne was the man of the house. When his mother got colon cancer in the early 1970s, he quit school to help her make ends meet and became the parent figure to his little sisters and little niece. In fact, he was the one who taught his youngest sister, Megan, how to walk, when she took her first steps into his arms. Now, if we're to believe Debbie's story, she moved into the Johnson home as a border and helped to sickly marry and young Cheyenne take care of all the other kids in the house. Over time, she and Cheyenne fell in love. But in her version of events, the two didn't fall for each other until Cheyenne was about 16 and she was 23. Obviously, that's a troubling age gap, especially when allegedly she was helping to raise Cheyenne. But the other version of events, one that's been told by the Washington Post and the Manchester evening journal, claims that the two had met way back when Cheyenne was 12 years old. According to those two papers, Cheyenne was working in a supermarket when Debbie bumped into a display and he helped her pick up the mess. For him, it was love at first sight. She allegedly claimed that she tried to discourage his romantic advances, though soon after, she moved in with his mother as a roommate and the two started taking the kids to the beach and out for picnics. And when Cheyenne was in his late teens, the two began to formally date. So, really, either way you slice it, how their romance started is controversial, to say the least. And many people online and in the media have classified it as grooming. Regardless, by 1980, the two were engaged and they planned to get married in the spring. At that point, Debbie was 26 and Cheyenne was just 19. And though they were temporarily living at the glassel home, they had plans to move out on July 2, 1980. The move wasn't going to happen alone. Debbie and Cheyenne were set to move into a large country home and nearby Newtown where they would live in an end-loss suite. And Cheyenne siblings and mother could live in the old farmhouse on the property. At the time, Cheyenne's mom was severely ill because tragically, her cancer had returned and it was deemed incurable. Debbie and Cheyenne planned to build a life for themselves, as a married couple in the end-loss suite, while also living right next door so they could help care for Mary, as well as Cheyenne siblings, who were all under the age of 12. Given the toughness of the situation they found themselves in, the plan was pretty ideal. The couple was excited. Arnie later told the devil on trial, quote, "Deb and I were very excited to move in together. We had plans on being married in the spring. We were working towards that. We couldn't wait." In an interview for the haunting, Debbie stated, quote, "It was my dreamhouse and I believed our life would be great there, but sadly, regardless of who you ask, Debbie couldn't have been more wrong." July 2, 1980 was a day of celebration as much as it was one in morning. For Debbie and Cheyenne, it was the start of a new life. For her siblings, it was the loss of someone they cared deeply for. David told the devil on trial, "I was a little sad to see them move out. You're 11 years old. It's your sister." Regardless, the whole family went along to help clean out the old house and start moving new things in. That meant that moving day was pretty hectic. With Judy, Debbie, Cheyenne, and the boys, Carl Allen, David and Justin, tacking along. Hopes were high, but as the glatzels pulled up to the old farmhouse, a sinking feeling set in. David later stated, "I had a bad feeling about it. It was a weird house. It was just something really off about it." This is yet another thing that everyone agrees on. The house was unsettling and immediately no one felt really comfortable there. It didn't help that the previous tenant had left their water bed in the master bedroom and the in-laws suite where Debbie and Cheyenne were supposed to move in was still occupied by the former tenant who had inadvertently switched her move-out date to mid-July. So things weren't off to a great start, but everyone tried to maintain their composure. Debbie handed out jobs to everyone while she got to work, scouring the floors throughout the home, but the boys didn't get to work right away. Amazed by the water bed, everyone took turns lying on it, laughing as they tried to see who could make it move the most. Everyone, that is, except for David. David notoriously had a weak stomach, and the eerie feeling of the building had already set him off, and he wanted no part in playing on something that might make him feel even more nauseous. Quickly though, Debbie came in and broke up the party, ordering everyone to go do what she had tasked them with. She handed David a broom and ordered him to sweep up the floor in the water bed room. And just like that, he was alone. What happened next is something that's been told time and time again, in many different ways too, as a campfire story, a cautionary tale before bed, even a testimony in court. Now we can say whether it's true or not. All we can do is tell you the unchanging story that David Glatzel has told the world ever since he was 11 years old. As he stood in that dusty room, sweeping back and forth, a cold came over him, his hearts skipped a beat, and then he felt it, strong, large hands, tightening around his shoulders, and then shoving him onto the bed. He looked up, terrified, his heart thudding, his stomach turning, and mere feet away stood a man, he didn't recognize. David claimed, quote, his eyes were black, solid black, like a chunk of coal, the eyes. Hollow beneath a furrow brow and wrinkled cheeks seemed to bore a hole through him. David was so distracted by them that it took a moment to even realize who they belonged to, an old man with long gray hair wearing a red flannel shirt and torn pants. But the identity of the man wasn't the mystery that had David's hair standing on edge. It was the fact that he was transparent. According to David, as he laid on the bed, unable to move as fear consumed his whole body, the apparition in front of him raised a single, shaky finger. He then pointed it at him and warned. As quickly as he appeared, he vanished, leaving David alone in the room, with nothing but the sound of the old wood-framed house, crackling in the wind. He managed to stumble to his feet and sprint out of the room, straight to his mom, who was working on cleaning out another room nearby. He tugged on her sleeve and urgently told her that he needed to leave. Now, his mom shook her head and told him that they couldn't leave until everything was done, but David, unable to say much else and unwilling to tell his mom why they needed to go, just repeated again. His mother Judy pressed why and David simply responded that he didn't feel good. Debbie, who was already stressed with the move, snapped at him, saying, "David, we have things to do. If you don't want to help, just say so." But David didn't say anything. Instead, he hurried out of the house and refused to go back inside. For the rest of the day, into the afternoon, he sat beneath the tree in the front yard. He later told the devil on trial, quote, "I just wanted to get out of the house, off the property, away from it, as far as I could." When it was finally time to leave, David was overjoyed, and happy to see that Debbie and Cheyenne were going to leave with them. Since the previous owner hadn't moved their bed, there wasn't room for the couple to move theirs in for the night, so they decided that, rather than sleep on a stranger's bed, they'd just head back and stay at the glatzels. As the farmhouse faded behind them, then the dirt driveway, then Old Hollyville Road entirely, David must have felt relieved, but what had allegedly happened inside that room weighed on him. Alan claimed that when they arrived back home, I could tell something was wrong with David. So that night, as they laid in bed, Alan asked what happened. And after making his brother promise not to make fun of him, David answered. He told him about the man he allegedly saw in the house, and the ominous warning he gave. Beware. In turn, Alan told him that he, too, had had a scary experience in the home. With spring beneath the covers, Alan told David that when he, Carl, and Justin had been in the room by themselves, the door had shut by itself, and locked them inside the room. The two boys laid in the dark room, connected by their fear, and by the paranormal activity they had both believed to have experienced. However, from the get-go, their older brother, Carl, didn't believe a word of it. [BLANK_AUDIO] See, he had also been present in the room with Alan during the alleged door slamming, and he claims there was nothing paranormal about it. He told Truth & Devon's podcast, as well as the devil in Connecticut that the door did seemingly close by itself, but every window in the house was open since they were cleaning up the dust, and in his opinion, the closing of the door was just a gust of wind, and the struggle the boys had to get the door open was because the house was over a hundred years old. Every door in the home, according to him, stuck because of the warped sills and decades of thick uneven paint. At the time, he admitted that it had felt scary. After all, they were in a creepy old house, one they had never been in before, and they had a door seemingly close itself on its own right in front of them. That night, according to David, the true nightmare began. As he laid in bed, desperate to sleep, the night went on and on, never ending. He stared at the ceiling unsettled, until suddenly, he claimed to have felt a presence at the end of his bed. He dared to look up, terrified, and there he was, the same man from the house. But as he watched the man before him, he transformed before his eyes, shifting from the man with long gray hair, and a flannel shirt into a beast, his skin darkened, withering and pulling against the bone, as though it was burning against a wall of flames. Warren sprouted from the top of his head, growing into a poet. He was no longer a man, he was the spitting image of the devil. David couldn't move or breathe. The fear running through his veins was unlike anything he had ever felt. Even the beast disappearing didn't settle his fear, because all through the night, he claims to have seen it and heard it, not directly in front of him, but visions in his head. He could see the old man turn beast, taunting Debbie and Cheyenne's dog, which they had left behind. He claimed that as the night wore on, he could see the dog in the house, clear as day, scratching at the front door, desperate to get away from the beast, so desperate in fact, that he wore his claws down to bloody stubs. For David, every new vision and every glimpse of the house was a horror movie playing out in his mind. And then there were the things that the beast was saying. He claimed that it whispered about taking his soul, about how it was going to get him, about how it was going to kill. When morning mercifully came, David couldn't hide what had happened any longer. His brother, Alan, urged him to come clean to his family. The boys claimed that if a beast or the devil truly was inside the home, it was their duty to protect their sister and future brother-in-law Cheyenne and Debbie. So that morning, David sat at the table and told them what he had seen and what the night had been like for him. At first, everyone was in disbelief. Cheyenne concerned, asked if David had taken a pill out of the medicine cabinet or maybe found one on the floor, but David was resolute, what he had seen was real. There only took David's mother an instant to believe him. She told the Washington Post, "I believed him instantly. I've read about the supernatural, I've heard the Warren's lectures, when he first explained it, I thought it was a ghost." And so, Judy decided she wasn't taking any chances. Immediately, she called the local Catholic Church, St. Joseph's, and spoke to father Dennis, begging him to come out and bless their home. And just an hour or two later, he arrived. The siblings all watched as the father walked from room to room, equipped with holy oil, holy water, and incense, which he used to bless each room, each window, and each corner of the home. Rituals have a way of making us all feel safe. And as soon as Father Dennis completed this age-old ritual, a sense of peace fell over the house. David told the devil on trial, "We thought it was over and done with, but this was just the beginning." At 3 a.m., just hours after the blessing, the house was awakened by blood-curdling screams. Judy, Debbie, and Ellen reportedly rushed to David's side, trying to calm him as he thrashed and cried. Through his sobs, he kept repeating one thing over and over. His family frantically asked who was coming for him, and David told them that a shaky, terrified voice. David's fear was palpable. The room was practically alive with it, vibrating as he trembled. It was undeniable to everyone that David was terrified, but what happened next? Well, it's debatable. Allen and David claimed in the devil on trial that after a moment of silence, the house began to shake. David stated, "It was like someone had driven a truck into the house." Allen added, "It sounded like a UFO, was literally landing on top of the roof." The wall's windows and floor began to shake wildly, somewhere in the home, glass shattered. With the shaking, the lights flickered, rapidly plunging the room into darkness, and then blinding light. Through the chaos, David screamed, "He's here, he's here, going up in the door." For 30 or 40 seconds, the house was engulfed in shaking. And in overwhelming noise, then in an instant, it stopped. The house fell quiet, leaving the family sitting on the bedroom floor, frozen. Allen said in the devil on trial, "I was petrified. Okay, we have a ghost problem, and we didn't know what to do with it." However, not everyone who was in the home that night recalls or believes that it happened. Carl remembers his brother screaming himself and others awake from night terrors. But the shaking, lights flickering, and glass breaking, he claims is completely made up. In several podcasts, shows and interviews, he's declared that there was never any visible paranormal interference in the home. He told Truth or Demons, "They'd call out, look, that's moving, but I never saw shit. It's not that I wasn't a believer, I wanted to see something." His father, Carl Sr., also refused to say he saw anything unexplainable happen inside the home. But to this day, the other glotsoles along with Cheyenne begged to differ. Throughout the beginning of July, they claim that David's behavior grew worse and worse. He would awaken nearly every night, screaming that the man was coming for him, to stab him, or even shoot him. There's one incident in particular that Cheyenne, Allen, and David all recall as one of the scariest moments of their lives. In the evening, just before bed on July 6, 1980, David began to sob and scream, one moment he was screaming for his life. The next, he was on the ground, his hands limp at his sides, his eyes rolled back in his head, the family scrambled around him, trying to get him to breathe, but it was no use. Cheyenne told the devil on trial that when he bent down to take David's pulse, his skin was cold to the touch, and he couldn't find a heartbeat after what felt like an eternity. David gasped for breath, the color returned to his face. That was the moment, according to Judy, that she had had enough. She stated, quote, "We weren't gonna let no entity, no ghost or anybody run us out of that house. It was our house." And we were gonna make sure that whatever was there, we were gonna get it out one way or the other. When a family friend suggested a pair of psychic investigators, Judy and Debbie leapt at the opportunity. And if you're at all interested in the paranormal, chances are, you know their names. Ed and Lorraine Warren. It's impossible to look into the supernatural without hearing the story about the warrants. The couple, comprised of Ed, who referred to himself as a demonologist, and Lorraine, who claimed to be a clairvoyant, investigated thousands of hauntings, and ran an organization out of their home called the New England Society for Psychic Research. They lectured at colleges, went on television, and sold books as perhaps the two most famous supernatural investigators in history. And that fame stemmed from two cases. In 1970, the warrants were called in by two young women who set a doll in their apartment moved around on its own and left them written notes. A medium had told the women the doll was inhabited by the spirit of a seven-year-old girl, named Annabelle. But when the warrants inspected the doll, they came to a different conclusion. They believed that the doll was possessed by something demonic posing as a young girl. They took the doll back to the basement of their home, where they operated in a cult museum and locked the doll in a glass case, allegedly for the protection of everyone around. They claimed that the doll could psychically cut people in its vicinity, leaving them with bloody scratches on their bodies. They also claimed that if anyone insulted the doll, they'd meet a horrific fate. In one instance, they stated that a priest who would call the doll creepy soon after lost control of his vehicle and crashed into a tree. And in the decade since, that doll has become the center of books, television shows, and the popular conjuring movie franchise. Then there is another case that the warrants are most well known for investigating the Amity ville Horror. In 1974, a young man named Ronda An old Defeo, Jr. shot his parents in four siblings, killing all of them. A year later, a family named the Lutzes moved in, and while there, they claimed they encountered paranormal activity, so severe that they moved out after just a few months of living in the home. Ed and Lorraine Warren investigated the home following their claims. An ed later stated, on a scale of 1 to 10, the Amityville home was a 10, in 1977, three years after the horrific family annihilation, and the subsequent haunting made the news. An author named Jay Anson wrote a book that you've probably heard of, the Amityville whore. From that book, the Warrens rose to fame, becoming recognized as the most professional paranormal investigators available, which is precisely why when Debbie and Judy Glatzel heard their names in the wake of their encounters, they looked up their number and called them immediately. Debbie was the first one to call, after his two rings, Ed Warren answered and asked what he could help her with. Debbie painstakingly explained everything her brother had experienced, the ghost at the house in Newtown, the figure at the end of the bed, and the seemingly unexplainable attacks David was facing. Ed and Lorraine lived in nearby Monroe, Connecticut, so eagerly, they agreed to come to the home and speak to the family. Not only that, but they promised to bring a doctor with them to look over David and make sure that none of his behavior could be attributed to any health conditions. Debbie was stunned by how quickly they were getting help. That very night, Ed and Lorraine arrived outside the Glatzel's home. It was a place that they would grow very, very familiar with in the coming weeks and months. When Ed and Lorraine arrived at the home, everyone claimed to have felt a sense of peace. Judy was relieved, that quote, we were finally getting some help, end quote. Alan described Ed as warm and sure of himself, which made him feel safer, given the chaos that had been unfolding in their home. Cheyenne said Lorraine was, quote, gentle and careful with her words, end quote. The warrants went around the home, doing their introductions, and soon, Dr. Tony, the doctor they had brought with them, sat David down in the living room, and gave him a quick physical. According to David, and everyone present, it only lasted a few minutes. David stated, quote, "Dr. Tony never said that I was off my rocker or anything like that. He said I was a normal kid." But Ed and Lorraine would soon discover that what was happening to David was far from normal. The warrants sat down at the kitchen table with the family and started asking questions. Ed wanted to know what had been happening, how often, and what David had seen in the bedroom. David relayed the story to Ed and Lorraine, essentially the same story that we have told you here. But at some point during that conversation, Ed stopped talking to the family and started talking to whatever he believed was in that room. He wanted to challenge it. He said that if it had the power, he wanted it to knock on the table three times. "If there's a demon in this room, knock back, and knock three times, I don't know it's you. So, are you guys ready? Let's do this." Three bangs, which according to David Allen and the warrants, were hard enough that the whole room shook and the lights flickered. Allen stated in the devil on trial, quote, "It sounded like someone taking a sledgehammer to the kitchen door," end quote. But Ed didn't flinch or miss a beat. Instead, he turned to David and asked if that frightened him. Of course, David said yes. And when asked why he explained, Ed reassured David that they were going to take care of him. Meanwhile, Lorraine began to walk through the house. That was part of what she did during every investigation. She'd move through every room to feel out what was there. Because in her experience, spirits attached themselves to one particular person or place within a household. When she came back, Carl heard her lean in and say quietly that there was a large, dark mass, standing next to David, and that it was evil. Nobody else could see anything. Arnie said it felt strange, standing there, while she described something that wasn't in the room as far as any of them could tell. After their assessment, the warrants had unsettling news for the Glatzel family. They believed that what was in the home wasn't a ghost at all. It was a demonic entity, one that had attached itself to 11-year-old David, and that it was attempting to possess him. Hearing this, the family was obviously terrified. They begged the warrants to tell them more and tell them what to do. So Ed went about explaining his beliefs on possession. He told them it came in five stages. First was permission. Somebody does something that lets the demonic force in, like using a Ouija board or conducting a seance. The second stage is infestation, when it's in the house but outside of you. Then oppression, when it starts taking your free will and you begin acting on darker impulses. Then rarely full possession, where spiritually you're not there anymore, and your body belongs to something else. And what comes after that according to Ed's grandson is this. The ultimate goal is the destruction of the family and finally death. You're being killed or where somebody else is murdered. It does happen. Now, neither the warrants nor the glatzels could explain how the demon had passed the permission stage with David. He had never played with a Ouija board or held a seance. But regardless, Ed came out of that first meeting claiming that David was already at the oppression stage, which meant that what likely came next was something they had to prepare themselves for. He stated that the demon would make David act like someone else entirely, that he may swear and become violent, thrash, spit, and scream as the days went on. In order to stop the progression, the family would need to take the next step. They'd need an exorcism. Ed told the family that he would help them get one, because evidently, the Catholic Church isn't exactly a fan of handing them out. They often require hard proof. If the glatzels wanted the diocese of Bridgeport to act, they were going to have to prove that what was happening inside their home was demonic in nature. Ed told the family, "You need to start documenting this. Collect as much evidence as you can and present it to the Archbishop. And the Archbishop of Bridgeport will make the decision as far as what we are dealing with." So that's what they did. Judy got out the family's cassette recorder, Debbie went out and bought a Polaroid camera, and from that day on, the glatzels documented everything. And there was a lot to document. The recordings started that summer, and the tapes are hard to listen to. Over the weeks that followed, David would thrash and scream, fighting the alleged demon inside of him. The glatzels claim that it took more than one person to hold him down as he swore, spit, and hurled obscenities at them. In some of the tapes, David can be heard growling in a deep, low voice. "You will die," he says, and another can cause his mother a douchebag and laughs afterwards. Later on that same tape, Judy begs the demon to get out of her son. And this is his response. That tape ends with Cheyenne leading the family in the Lord's Prayer, while David screams, thrashes, and swears at them. Debbie and Alan claim that these possession outbursts would sometimes go on for hours at a time. Alan said the worst of it was watching his brother scream and fight, with nothing there. At one point they photographed him with his hands in the air, gripping something none of them could see and trying to pull it off his throat, all while he gasped for air. He later claimed, quote, "I remembered being choked, but I don't remember anything else when I blacked out," end quote. For the family, it was torturous. The one was sleeping every night, they rotated who was on duty watching David, always making sure it was at least two people at a time, because they believed that if you were alone, that's when the demon would fight from within David the most. But when we say the family really were leaving two people out, because already the home was broken into two parties, the believers, David, Judy, Cheyenne, Debbie, and Alan, and the non-believers, Carl Junior, David's older brother, and his father, Carl Senior. This is where things get well complicated, as if the story is not complicated enough. You guys know that Courtney and I love the paranormal. I mean, I literally have a YouTube channel called The Paranormal Files, I have been working in that field for over a decade. But our admiration and interest in the paranormal is built on the search for truth. But in this case, like we stated earlier, the truth depends on who you ask. If you ask Carl Junior and Carl Senior, there is absolutely no possession happening whatsoever. Carl Senior strongly believed that David was just in the midst of a mental health crisis. And according to a lawsuit that we'll touch on later, David legally verified this. by writing an illegal document that he was struggling with mental health issues extensively from 1979 to 1982. Carl Sr. believed that the rest of the family was feeding into David's mental health struggles by pushing the demon narrative. In one instance, that has shared an audio in the Devil on Trial, Carl Sr. stormed into the room when David was in the midst of one of his possession episodes. During it, David was allegedly screaming at his mother, calling her every name under the sun as she begged him to stop. Carl Sr. decided he had had enough. He slapped David across the face and bellowed at him, "Get up! Now go over there and sit down!" According to Carl Jr., David wiped tears from his eyes and sat down. In the Devil on Trial, Carl Jr. states, "Sure enough, the Devil sat down and shut up." Carl Jr. has been the most outspoken member of the family, regarding his disbelief that his brother was ever possessed. In fact, he claims that the possession episodes were actually much different than they've been described in the media and by the warrants themselves. And regard to the claims that his brother had super strength and had to be penned down by several people, he told Truth or Demons, quote, "No, he wasn't. We'd lay him down, cover him with a blanket." Then he starts spitting, quote, "He also claimed that David never displayed any of the supposed demonic treats until after Ed Warren talked about how he may begin to behave, which according to Carl was done with David sitting in the room, listening to every word." He believes that David was influenced to behave that way, and that Ed and Lorraine had relayed that information about what a demonic possession looks like, in order to steer him towards acting that way. Now again, this is a he said, she said, situation. Since the gletzels only started recording, after the warrants visited the home, it's impossible to confirm or deny, whether the swearing, spitting, vulgar language, and behavior began before or after that conversation. But regardless of when it began, Carl Jr. still believes that it was, in his words, "Beloney." He states that in the clips, "You can hear a preteen boy," quote, "testing his limits." He specifically references one of the clips we played for you earlier, where he calls his mom, quote, "a friggin' fucking bitch." Carl Jr. states that he said "friggin," because the F-bomb wasn't allowed in the home, so he wasn't completely comfortable saying it. Here is that again, just for reference. Carl also claims that the language and insults his brother used were the kind his brother would use, not a demon. Specifically, his frequent use of the insult douchebag and his use of the insult cockknocker. Now, according to Carl Jr., David would call people that during his possessive episodes. It was an insult he alleges that he had only heard his mother use, and then David Parrot during his episodes. Now, again, these are the claims made by Carl, which have not been addressed by any other member of the family. Each side, the so-called believers and non-believers, swear that they are telling the truth. Carl stated on the Truth or Demons show, "Look, if it was real, I'd be the first promoting it, because it's a gold mine." He added, "I just want the truth to come out, because an innocent man got killed. And yeah, in case that is slipped your mind in all the details here, there's still a murder coming in all of this chaos. And it came at the hands of likely the last person in the story who you'd expect." After several weeks of agony inside the Glaxo home, which included nearly daily visits by the warns, the family was desperate for respite, and they firmly believed their only salvation would come with an exorcism. Now, there are two different kinds of exorcism. The first is the kind that most people picture, the Roman ritual, the formal 28-page right that only a bishop can authorize, and one the Catholic church almost never grants. The second is what is referred to as a lesser exorcism, which an ordinary priest can perform, and which doesn't require any of that. The Glaxo's wanted the Roman ritual. They asked the diocese bridge port for it, and the diocese turned them down. The church had a condition, and it would come up again and again over the next year. Before the diocese would consider a formal exorcism, they wanted David evaluated by a psychiatrist. The Glaxo's said no. Reverend Nicholas Grieko, the communications director for the diocese, later said that was one reason a formal exorcism was never approved. Judy described her reason for refusing to see a psychiatrist to the Washington Post stating, "They just wanted to stick needles into my kid. There's no way in hell they're going to do that." So, instead, the Glaxo's decided to see a priest to perform a lesser exorcism at their local church, St. Joseph's. Now, the details on when these exorcisms precisely took place are a bit all over the place. Most sources, including David and Carl Glaxo, claimed that four lesser exorcisms took place in September and October of 1980. Sometimes, they claim that the exorcisms took place at St. Joseph's. Other times, it's been stated that they were held at another church, and others are even said to have taken place inside of the Glaxo home. In the book, The Devil and Connecticut, the author claims that a final exorcism, a full exorcism, took place over the border in Montreal. However, the family denies this, saying that they only went to Montreal for healing prayers. Carl has since posted the original printed pictures of the trip, which detailed the trip on the back in his mother's handwriting, and include the date and the words for David's healing prayers on the bottom. With that being said, we're going to discuss the final exorcism, which, according to the majority of sources, took place at St. Joseph's Church, under the watchful eye of Father Virgilach. It is the most documented exorcism the Glaxo's and Warns have shared, and it took place on a cold autumn afternoon. Allen David, Judy Debbie, and Cheyenne all entered St. Joseph's Catholic Church, with Ed and Lorraine Warn following close behind. At the end of the aisle, priests, led by Father Virgilach, awaited them, clothed in rogues, bibles held tightly in their hands. The room was empty, but the air felt impossibly heavy. Allen, who was 14 at the time, remembers, quote, "I wasn't worried at all. I didn't think anything bad could happen, because I'm in the house of God," end quote. And in the beginning, it felt like any other Catholic ceremony. Jesus stared down at them from the crucifix, hanging high above, as the priests began with prayers, as they all began to recite the Lord's Prayer. Something in the room changed. Cheyenne recalls, quote, "The room went ice cold." Allen claims that it was them when he began to panic, telling the devil on trial, quote, "I immediately realized something was wrong, but no one could predict just how wrong it was like a switch flipped." And instantly, David began to growl. According to those present, the voice sounded inhuman. He snorelled at Father Virgilach. David's body jerked from side to side. Everyone watched and whore, as his body creaked, and deep groaned erupted from inside him. Allen stated, quote, "He would move his body in positions that you shouldn't be able to bend." The family tried to hold him down, but in his rage, he broke loose and began running towards the priest. Hands outstretched. It was a mad panic scramble to grab him and pin him down. Cheyenne grabbed one leg, while Ed Warren grabbed another. Somewhere in the room, Lorraine Warren hovered, watching as she claimed a 12-year-old boy fought Roman. The priest stood over him, reciting prayers. But for Cheyenne, watching the boy he saw, as his own little brother became too much, he encouraged him, yelling out, "You are weak. Jesus is a lot stronger than you are. You are so weak. God, this is God's child. You can't hurt God's child." This went on for at least an hour. All the while, David thrashed, screamed, cursed, and spit at his loved ones. All while Father Virgilach stood over him, refusing to stop the prayers. Now at one point, when David began to wiggle loose, Cheyenne begged for someone to hand him a crucifix. When they did, he pressed the coal metal against David's forehead. And according to him, "You could see it sizzled." Right after the sizzling subsided, David's tongue allegedly began to swell. His breathing became gaspate, desperate, as his face paled. All of his family members began to scream, begging the demon they believed was inside David to stop, to leave him alone. They truly felt they were watching a 12-year-old boy die before their very eyes and the house of the Lord. Desperate, Cheyenne yelled out, "Leave this little kid alone. I'm here. Take me off. Take me off. Take me off." The room fell silent. A coldness seemed to engulf Cheyenne. And then, Lorraine turned to him, saying, "Oh, my God." The rain would later say that Arnie hadn't understood what he was taking on, that it had been a terrible challenge, and that it was, in her words, an open invitation. And according to those at the exorcism, the demon took the invitation. David grasped for his breath and began breathing again, with the demon seemingly gone, the right ended. And for quite some time, David went back to being David. He stated to the devil on trial, "I remember I was happy." He went back to playing outside, back to laughing, and according to his family, back to being himself. But from that moment on, if you ask Cheyenne and Debbie, someone else changed entirely. Debbie claimed that after the exorcism, Cheyenne began to act completely out of character. She claims that one day, she discovered Cheyenne staring blankly out the window, and he whispered to no one in particular. "There he is." Debbie's heart sank. She asked her fiancee who he was talking about, and what he meant. And according to her in response, he began to growl at something outside the window, his teeth bareed, like an animal. The site terrified her. She tried to draw his attention, to scream at him, to do anything to pull his attention away from whatever he was seeing outside the window. Eventually, she felt she had no other choice. She slapped Cheyenne across the face, yet still, he continued to stare out the window, unbothered, almost as if she hadn't hit him at all. It was at that moment she stated that she believed for certain that Cheyenne had welcomed something demonic into him, and from that point on, she said it got worse. One night when Debbie was fast asleep, she was startled awake by a primal feeling of dread. Before she even opened her eyes, she knew someone or something was watching her. When she finally had the courage to look, she discovered Cheyenne, standing at the edge of the bed, his eyes burning a hole through her. Panicked, she asked what he was doing up, and then watched in horror as he hid a dresser so hard that his hands shattered the wood for near. Then he simply plucked down in bed and fell asleep. In the morning, Debbie sat down and spoke to him about how much she had scared her, but he didn't remember any of it. She shared her concerns with the Warrens, and they were also concerned. Sometime in October of 1980, with Connecticut a wash in those New England red and golds, and the red Warren pulled into the parking lot of the Brookfield Police Department on Grey's Bridge Road. They asked to speak to a detective, and the meeting was so unusual that the detective they spoke to, Glenn Cooper, remembered it, even decades later. He said Ed introduced himself as a demonologist, and the rain introduced herself as a psychic. She wasted no time telling him where she was there. She sensed that something bad was going to happen. She believed that the devil had left David Glatzel's body, and entered the body of Arnie Cheyenne Johnson after he challenged him. She relayed that he never should have challenged the devil, and that it was going to undoubtedly lead to death and destruction. She wanted to warn the detective of what was coming, and she claimed that it was "serious death or injury with a knife." What she wanted was for the Brookfield Police to be on notice that a crime might happen, so he wrote it down. And out of all the he said she said things we've presented in the story, that actually is not one of them. There is a physical police report that was filled out before the crime occurred, stating exactly what Lorraine Warren said, which, does indeed, make what happened soon afterwards, that much more disturbing. Despite the occasional unsettling behavior Cheyenne was allegedly presenting, things were going pretty well for the Glatzel's and the Johnson's. David seemed to have returned to his old self. There were no more night tears, no fits, no swearing or screaming. After what felt like an eternity, David was free. And Debbie and Cheyenne seemed to feel the same way. With most of the devil talk behind them, the two began to look forward to the future. Cheyenne got a job with a tree surgery business, trying to save up as much money as possible, to reach their ultimate dream. They wanted to home together, one that wasn't tied to the chaos of the last few months. Only what they wanted the most was a fresh start, and it seemed like they were getting an opportunity for just that. Around October, Debbie took a job at a boarding kennel on Federal Road. It was going to be better paid than her previous job as a dog groomer, and it came with an added bonus, an apartment just a few feet away from the kennel, where Debbie and Cheyenne could build their life as a married couple. It was a perfect opportunity presented to the couple by a man named Alan Bono. Now sadly, not much is known about Alan. We scoured newspaper archives in both the US and abroad, desperately trying to find any information we could about him, but we came up empty handed. What we do know for certain is that he was a man full of stories, a man who loved to travel and have a good time. In early 1981, he was 40 years old. His sister who lived in Florida was the legal owner of a dog boarding business, but had passed it off for Alan to manage when he came back to the US from Australia or he had been managing a plantation for over a year. When he arrived in Connecticut, as the leaves were crisping and frost was starting to blanket the landscape, he still had a tan. It's something that caught the attention of everyone who interacted with him, and when they asked how he was so tan and the non-existent New England sunshine, he told them stories about his travels, about the plantation, about the sailing and all the fun he had. Immediately after meeting him, both Debbie and Cheyenne were fascinated by him, and the three quickly became, according to the Washington Post, quote, "the best of friends." February 16, 1981 was a Monday, President's Day. For some businesses, it's a holiday. For Cheyenne's job, it wasn't. However, he decided to make it one. That morning, Cheyenne called in sick, stating that he had a cold, but really, he had other plans for the day. He had told Alan Bono that he was going to go to his house, which was also attached to the kennels, and helped fix his stereo. Before that, though, he and Debbie drove to Bridgeport to pick up his sisters, Wanda, who was 15, Janice, who was 13, and his 9-year-old cousin Mary. If you recall from the beginning of the story, Cheyenne's mom was struggling with colon cancer, and the family had been planning to move into the new townhouse together. The house where David was allegedly pushed onto the bed by an evil spirit. However, following the possession and haunting, everyone refused to formally move into the home. So, for the time being, as Cheyenne and Debbie built up their lives, the family was living separately. However, they saw each other constantly, and that day, the 16th, was no different. With everyone loaded up in the car, the family decided to go to the Muggenmunch, a small restaurant and a shopping center where they planned to meet up with Alan Bono. They ordered food, drank red wine, and exchanged jokes, one of which was Alan's all-time favorite, that he was going to give up drinking next weekend. But how heavy the drinking was that day has remained a matter of debate, even decades later. Debbie claims Alan was drinking heavily, and that Cheyenne had just two glasses of wine. Wanda said it was mostly Alan's party. However, the barmaid who served them, Susan Burrows, testified that they were there about three hours, and that Alan and Cheyenne went through 13 to 15 glasses of wine between them. So, according to her, they weren't exactly drinking casually. After finishing up, the group went back to the kennels, and up to Alan Bono's apartment, where Cheyenne fixed the stereo. There, the drinking continued, and as a continued, Debbie alleged that she got a sinking feeling. Around six, she claims that Alan Bono was heavily intoxicated, and that he had the stereo and television blaring. He was belligerent, punching his fist into his palm, over and over, as he tried to make a point that made no sense to anyone. According to Debbie's claims, she told the girls it was time to go, and she started urging them outside. Her two sisters made it onto the grass. But before nine-year-old Mary could make it, Alan Bono allegedly grabbed her by the arm on the stairs, and wouldn't let her go, telling everyone to stay. In a romantic, Debbie tried to pull Mary away, but Alan was stronger than her. At that point, Cheyenne went into a fury. He demanded that Alan let Mary go, but he didn't. And then, Wanda told the Washington Post, quote, "All of a sudden, it just broke. I can't explain it. It just broke. That's all," end quote. It happened outside on the lawn in front of the kennel, 13 to 15 feet from the door. The kids ran for the car. Debbie was between the two men. Wanda had a hold of her brother, but she couldn't move him, claiming, quote, "It was like a stone. I couldn't budge him." She told the Washington Post that she heard Arnie growling like an animal. There was a flash of silver in the air, and then everything stopped. At first, the girls claimed no one knew what had happened. Cheyenne blankly walked off, staring straight ahead as he disappeared into the nearby forest. Behind him, Alan stood for a moment or two, still punching his fist into his palm. Then he fell on his face. laid there and didn't move again, and lying beside him in the grass was a five-inch pocket knife that Arnie Cheyenne Johnson carried with him everywhere he went. Allen's blood was slick and warm on the blade. However, Debbie claimed she never saw stabbing take place. She has repeated time and time again, but did not see no stabbing take place. I was right in the middle of it. Whenever she's pressed, she tells people that all she saw was shoving until suddenly all hell broke loose and Allen fell back covered in blood. Now, obviously there are some facts missing from that story. What really happened at the kennels is left to speculation because everyone who witnessed the stabbing refuses to say it took place and will only speak of it in vague terms. Of course, everyone at the stabbing had something to lose if they told the truth. For Debbie, it was her fiance. For the girls, it was their father figure. But what paramedics eventually testified painted a very different picture of what exactly happened on the scene. Though paramedics didn't arrive right off the bat, Debbie didn't call an ambulance first. Instead, she called her parents, sobbing. When her mother Judy picked up the phone, and Debbie told her something that happened, she screamed. David claims that before his mother said anything, he knew. He told his brother that he saw Allen Bono and that he was dead. Now, according to David in his brother, Allen, before learning anything, David began to sob that the beast had killed Allen Bono and that Cheyenne was now possessed by him. Carl, his older brother, who was present, claims that never happened. In his version of events, immediately after getting the news, Carl, his mother and his father sprinted to the car and be lined for the kennels, and that David didn't say anything regarding a killing whatsoever. Regardless, what awaited the family at the kennel was something out of a nightmare. Debbie was pacing on the lawn, sobbing hysterically, and the rapidly dimming light. Behind her, Allen Bono was curled up on his side. Carl Jr approached him while his mother and father desperately tried to calm Debbie down. Slowly, Carl Jr turned Allen Bono onto his back and was stunned to discover that he was still alive, gasping for air. Carl tried to calm him down, telling him that things were going to be okay and that he just had to hang on for the ambulance. But he could see the damage, four stab wounds, deep in his chest, with blood bubbling up from them. The site was traumatic. He told the devil on trial, quote, "I never had to deal with this in my life. You can't help somebody. It's just sad to see somebody die like that." Then an ambulance came and the Brookfield police came with it. Officer Joseph Lamperelli pulled up to Debbie's screaming for help. The paramedic found Allen Bono lying face up on the ground, the way Carl had left him. And something this paramedic would later recall was what Debbie kept saying to her father at the scene. It was something she repeated over and over, as sobs racked her body. Quote, "Shye didn't mean to do it. He didn't mean to. You know how he gets when he's drinking." You know how he gets when he's drinking. That was a statement that Arnie Cheyenne Johnson and Debbie both claim was never said. Arnie Cheyenne states that that night he'd only had a glass or two of wine and Debbie is claimed the same. However, her father, the paramedics, and the detective all disagree, and have said that Debbie openly admitted that Cheyenne was intoxicated and that this had been a stupid mistake. Her father, Carl Sr., even told Officer Lamperelli upon his arrival, Cheyenne Johnson did it. Obviously, finding Cheyenne was on their radar, but even more important was getting Allen helped. He was rushed to Danbury Hospital, where tragically, just a few hours later, he was pronounced dead. He was the first person on record ever murdered in a small town of Brookfield. We wish we could tell you more about him. What music he liked, who his siblings were, if he had any kids or special talents, but tragically, in the media, his life has been completely overshadowed by how he died, and the hard to believe story about how that happened. A story that some argue started and ended on February 16, 1981, and that others believe started with David Glatzel's possession months earlier. It wasn't long before police spotted Arnie Cheyenne Johnson, just two miles from the crime scene, the ambulance driver who had taken Alimgono to the hospital, spotted him, walking along the side of the road. He called dispatch to let them know where their suspect was, and within minutes, Sergeant Gordon Fairchild was standing on the side of the dark road, speaking with the first person who had killed someone in Brookfield in at least 200 years. Sergeant Fairchild testified, quote, "As I was loading him into the cruiser, the defendant stated, quote, "I need help because I've got a drinking problem." Now once they arrived at the station, Cheyenne was so tired he could hardly stand. He also didn't seem to understand what had happened. He asked the officer, "Why am I here? What's going on? Why am I here?" The officer told him, "You just killed your friend." But Cheyenne was in disbelief. He repeatedly told the officer that he was wrong, that his friend was fine, Arnie told him he had never hurt anybody, that he'd never been arrested for anything, and that they must have the wrong person. But the detective who processed him set him straight, telling him, "No, Alimgono is dead, and you killed him." That same officer told the devil on trial, "There was no crying. There was no "I'm sorry." It's, I just don't know what's going on." Soon after, Cheyenne became incoherent, and then he fell asleep on the bench for 20 to 25 minutes. When he woke up, Sergeant John Lucas read him his rights, and charged him with murder in the first degree. He was held at the Bridgeport Correctional Center on a $125,000 bond, which nobody and either family had. Now somebody started an Arnie Cheyenne Johnson defense fund, but the total raised didn't even come close, even with the publicity that followed his arrest. Alimgono wasn't even buried when the media maelstroms surrounding his death began. On February 18, Debbie Gladsel picked up the phone and called the Danbury News Times. She told the reporter that Cheyenne wasn't a killer. He had been possessed at the moment he stabbed Alim, and that she knew it because she had looked right at him. She told them, "I turned Cheyenne around and his face was distorted. He had that stare." And Debbie wasn't the only one sharing that news with the press. Just three days after Alan was killed, Ed and the Rain Warren went on what we can only describe as a media tour, speaking with dozens of publications and telling them about the so-called "possession" and their investigation into it. The Rain told the news times, "We are dealing with something that has wisdom, the cunning of the ages." She added, "Last fall we predicted. New. There would be a murder or some violent act." The two went to each newspaper in the area, explaining how a demon moves from one person to another during an exorcism, which is a mechanism the whole case would rest on. Because it wasn't just fame the Warrens and Gladsels were seemingly after. They wanted Arnie Cheyenne Johnson found not guilty of murder due to the fact that he was possessed at the time of the killing. Before Arnie Cheyenne Johnson even had a lawyer, the Warrens and his fiance presented his defense to the media. And on March 19, 1981, a grand jury in Danbury returned an indictment against Arnie Cheyenne Johnson for the murder of Alan Bono. Ed and the Rain Warren were photographed arriving at the courthouse that day, and by then the case had an infamous name in the papers that devil made me do it. And the Warrens were suddenly on the Tomorrow Show, CBS Morning News, and even Good Morning America. The Rain told a reporter that in the previous 12 months they had lectured at 100 colleges. Letters came in from all over the country, and the Brookfield Police Department was getting sacks of mail every week from people who had opinions about demons. In March of 1981, the reporter for the playing dealer got the Warrens booking agent on the phone. He said, "They're getting calls from all around the country. Get it now, all the goings good." And the reason was that the Warrens lecture fee was about to go up. It had been a thousand dollars before plus expenses, and by the fall, when the murder trial started, it was going to be 2000. Brookfield's police chief, John Anderson, didn't mince words with the playing dealer about how he felt regarding their involvement. This is the Warrens bread and butter. They have a vested interest. It bothers me. Now, Martin Manella was a defense attorney in Connecticut, with a reputation as one of the better criminal lawyers in the state. And when the Warrens brought him the case, he didn't believe any of it. Telling the playing dealer, "I was very skeptical. I didn't buy it." So, before he went to take on the case, he went to see them. They brought him back to their house and took him down to the room at the back where they kept the objects from mirrored cases. Down in that spooky area, the Annabelle doll sat in her blessed glassed case, and in that environment, surrounded by tokens of the paranormal and cursed objects, they played him the tapes of David's possession. And what came out of the speaker, to him, didn't sound like a 12-year-old boy. Then, after the haunting audio, the Warrens laid out the Polaroids, snapshots of David being held down. David, with his hands in the air, gripping something none of them could see, trying to pull it off his own throat. And from that moment on, Manel stated, "I believed in the story. I believed in the defense." And, at the same time, he believed. "There's probably not another lawyer in the state of Connecticut who would take this case." At the time, legal experts said that the obvious play was insanity. But Manella disagreed, stating, quote, "This is not an insanity case. The guy is not insane. The state has to prove intent. There's no intent here," end quote. And what he was going to argue instead had never been argued in an American courtroom. He said, quote, "The nature of our defense is one that has been used in England. It's never been used in the United States. The defense of demonic possession." Now, jury selection began on October 28, 1981, at the Superior Court in Danbury, and front of Judge Robert Callahan. Walter Flanagan was prosecuting for the state, and Flanagan's position on the case had not changed since February. He stated, quote, "This is a case which the media has, and the warrants have spent a good deal of time publicizing for their own. I would suspect financial interest." In his opinion, it was a routine homicide, and the media frenzy surrounding this case was on full display. Even getting inside that morning was almost impossible, where reporters had come in from out of state, and even out of the country. In that day, defense attorney Manella told Judge Callahan that he intended to call Catholic priests as witnesses, because the doctrine of the church holds that demonic possession is real. But Judge Callahan had come to a decision. On the bench, with finality, he told the defense, quote, "I'm not allowing demonic possession as a defense. Period. There's no such defense." He said evidence of demonic possession was not relevant, and that what people believed would be unreliable, that it would mislead a jury, and that it was not competent evidence in a court of law. He said it was not a science, so there would be absolutely no testimony regarding the devil, possession, or spirits. Just like that, the demonic possession defense was over. It had been in a newspaper two days after Alain Bono died. It had made the case famous all over the world. Manella had flown to England to research it. However, the jury would never hear about it. What was left was self-defense. Manella's argument now was that Alain had been drunk and aggressive, that he had grabbed the nine-year-old girl and wouldn't let go, and that Arnie Cheyenne Johnson had gone back into that room to stop him. But the state had signed agreements from Arnie's own sisters, taking the night it happened, saying that they had watched him stab Alain Bono, and self-defense has limits. A man can be attacked and defend himself, but he can't keep going. Dr. Catherine Galvin, the chief state's medical examiner, testified about the wounds. Four of them were to Alain's abdomen, and they traveled all the same way, left to write an upward. The fifth was to his left shoulder, and that one came from behind him, and it went down. The one that killed him went into his abdomen and reached his heart. The blade went inside of his body six and a half inches. It came partway out without clearing the body, and then it went back in seven inches this time. His heart was struck twice. That wasn't someone defending himself. That was someone stabbing to kill, and then there was something else the prosecution argued. Cheyenne may have had a motive to kill Alain. According to Detective Glenn Cooper, following the murder, Debbie came into his office one day and told him, "You know, I'm hearing a rumor that this murder was over a three-way, a triangle between myself and Alain Bono, with Arnie Cheyenne Johnson. It wasn't. I had a relationship with Alain Bono, that's over with. And this, this stabbing, this murder had nothing to do with that." So Debbie herself allegedly told a police officer that she'd had a relationship with Alain, but when exactly was that relationship? Because by all accounts, she'd been dating Arnie Cheyenne Johnson exclusively for over 10 years, and Alain Bono had only been in Brookfield for six months at the time of his death. So, at some point in the six months before the murder, according to her statement to Detective Glenn Cooper, she had dated Alain. Now, what people do in their relationship is none of our business, but it's notable that Cheyenne wasn't the kind of man to share his partner. According to his previous boss, Sanford Dean, Arnie was incredibly jealous when he came to Debbie. He told the plain dealer newspaper, "One of the guys gave him a hard time about her, and he put a knife to his throat." He noted that he was "hard to get along with" and had a very poor temper. He'd goof off and then tell the men to stick it. When he got mad, he'd fly off the handle and didn't know what he was doing. The prosecution proposed that, jealous over whatever relationship Debbie and Alain had, Cheyenne got drunk and flew into a rage killing Alain. And that wasn't the only evidence they presented that made the case look like a murder rather than self-defense. On November 5th, the bar made from the Muggin Munch testified that Alain and Cheyenne had 13 to 15 glasses of wine. Leo Hanksler, the paramedic, testified about finding Alain face up on the ground, and about what Debbie kept saying to him at the scene. That Cheyenne hadn't meant to do it, but you know how he gets when he's drinking. And finally, Arnie Cheyenne Johnson took the stand in his own defense. He told the jury what he had told the police in February. He said he didn't remember it. He recalled in the devil on trial, it was kind of difficult to take the stand because I really didn't remember what happened, and that's what I told them. It took the jury 17 hours over three days to come to a deliberation. On Tuesday and November 24th, 1981, they came back with a verdict. Arnie Cheyenne Johnson stood up. You could hear a pin drop in the room as the decision was read, and he was found not guilty of murder in the first degree, but guilty of manslaughter in the first degree. He didn't move, no one did. In the courtroom, Debbie was stunned. Evidently, Arnie Cheyenne Johnson was as well. His attorney, Manella, told the media, "My client is very disappointed. He believed he was going home today, but finding out when he would be going home would have to wait." Sentencing was set for December 18th. When it came, Judge Callahan took the stand and spoke to Arnie directly, saying, "I have no alternative but to give you the maximum sentence allowed 10 to 20 years to a maximum security prison." For Debbie, the news was devastating. She left out of her seat and screamed at Judge Callahan, calling him sick and insane, before she sprinted out of the courtroom, sobbing. Later, outside on the courthouse steps, she pushed through the camera crews. To get to him is he was being loaded into the bus to be taken to jail so she could kiss him. She promised to stay by his side, and that one day she would be his wife. Arnie Cheyenne Johnson went into the Connecticut State prison system in December of 1981, and by every account, he was a model inmate. He got his high school diploma inside. He took college coursework. He had no disciplinary problems at all, and Debbie kept her word. She visited him and remained loyal to him. He credits her with his success in prison, saying, "I could have never made it through this time without Debbie support. The support gave me hope." In 1985, Arnie and Debbie were married inside the prison. Cheyenne stated, "She looked real beautiful. She was radiant. I couldn't wait to hold her. It was great." And he didn't have to wait long. In 1986, after serving about five of a 10-20-year sentence, Arnie Cheyenne Johnson was released on parole. Connecticut's chief of parole cited good behavior. He was 24 years old. And by the time he exited prison, the case was no longer a story. It was a business of its own. According to Carl Glatzel, the warrants flew the family out to Hollywood. There was a jet, a limousine, and a dinner with Dick Clark. Judy couldn't believe it was happening to her. Carl said the warrants told the family that they were going to be millionaires. And David agreed, saying that at one point, Lorraine told him, "You are going to be a very, very rich little boy." The warrants reached out to a writer, Gerald Brittle, to work on a book about the case. According to Carl, he heard Ed Warren talking to author Brittle, and during their conversation, Ed Warren gave him instructions on how to write the book, telling him, "Make it scary." Brittle apparently pushed back, saying that some of the information conflicted with what people had told him. And once more, Ed Warren apparently repeated, "Make it scary. People come to us for scary." Six months later, the warrants came to the glatzels with paperwork. Judy asked whether the family should get a lawyer. Carl remembered Lorraine's answer. No, dear, William Morris Agency has a whole floor of lawyers. And Carl's answer to that, 40 years later, was this. Yes, they do, but it's not for us. It's for you. David and Carl were just kids. Their mother, Judy, was a woman who had never dealt in business matters. And in the end, the glatzels were paid $4,500. Meanwhile, from the book alone, Ed and the reign pocketed $81,000 from the initial run when the book came out in 1983. And that now infamous book was called The Devil in Connecticut, and was built out of the warrants files with the reign's cooperation. That same year, NBC made a television movie out of it, with Kevin Bacon starring in the lead role, and the names slightly changed. But the glatzels never saw a penny of the money. Later, when the book was reprinted in 2007, Carl and David, who had been divided by their statements on what was true and what was false in the past, actually united to sue the warrants, brittle, and the publishers for defamation, libel, invasion of privacy, and for intentional inflection of emotional distress. And this is where things get particularly interesting. The lawsuit reads, "During their childhood, particularly between 1979 and 1982, David was beset with behavioral problems, learning disabilities, and mental illness. During that time the defendant, the rain Warren, who was a paranormal investigator, looked into and investigated the glatsel family, including David and Carl Jr. Warren, speculating that supernatural forces caused David glatsel symptoms. The lawsuit argued that David was mentally ill and had been taken advantage of, and David actually signed that lawsuit, essentially tying the court that his possession had been made up. The court dismissed all but one of the counts that David and Carl filed. They maintained that the book was full of lies. Carl said none of it happened. The whole thing was a hoax, he claimed that the warrants had built up to make money off a family with a sick child, and he claimed they also promised it would help get Arnie Cheyenne Johnson out of jail. Now, since 1983, the devil made me do it trial has been replicated again and again in the media. And in the year 2021, Warner Brothers released a film The Conjuring, the devil made me do it, and that movie made over $200 million, but the glatsels didn't see a penny of it. By the time the film came out, both Ed and the Lorraine were dead, but perhaps the saddest part of the film to us is how Alan Bono is portrayed. In the movie, his name is Bruno, and he's shown to be drunken, cruel, and mean, but the real Alan was nothing like that. Despite the divide in the family, that's something they all have agreed on. Alan was not a mean or bad man, yet in his death, he became nothing more than a plot device, and an antagonist in a story. In 2023, Netflix released a documentary about the case, called The Devil on Trial, which we've referenced throughout this episode, but in it, Carl Glatzel said something that he had never said publicly before. According to him, after his parents died, he and his wife went through their belongings. He stated, quote, my mother wrote down everything. She had OCD, it'd be on a piece of paper, a calendar, or whatever. She'd write notes down. It was her diary, and quote, "An on one of those notes, in Judy's handwriting, Carl found this." Quote, "Well, the family had their medicine tonight, and everything was good." Now, Carl believes that the medicine she's referencing is Saminex, and over-the-counter sleeping pill sold on television all throughout the '70s. The act of ingredient is dipped from hydramine, the same drug in Benadro. But back in the day, the formula actually included Scopolami, a known hallucinogen. Dipfenhydramine alone can cause delusions, paranoia, and hallucinations, if given it high doses to vulnerable populations. But adding another hallucinogen on top of it resulted in even more negative side effects. Carl firmly believes that his mom was slipping Saminex into their meals whenever she needed a calm night. He reported, "I remember my mother serving us dinner. Her bowl was always separate from ours. So if she had spaghetti, everybody eats out of the bowl. She had her separate. It's like, want more? She goes, no, I'm good." The reason he believes it was Saminex, in particular, is because he claims to remember his mother telling other women in the neighborhood and his older sister, Debbie, to use it to keep kids calm. He added, "I believe my mother used Saminex to control all us boys and my dad. At the end of the day, if everybody's tired and exhausted, guess what? Everybody's gonna rest and sit down. There's no more problems." He believes that that is where the possession stuff stemmed from, saying, "Saminex has long lasting effects on people. Mood swings, weight gain, and hallucinations. It is very possible that my brother, David, has ingested enough of this stuff over the years where he did see things, or at least he thought he saw things. David, however, disputes his brother's claim and told the devil in Connecticut, my mother would not drug the family. My mom took good care of us. I was possessed. That's what the truth is. I have no reason to lie about anything." Despite the lawsuit in 2007, in every interview since, David has maintained that he was possessed back in 1980. And you could make the argument that he claimed he wasn't possessed in order to file a lawsuit in order to claw back some of the money that he believed had been stolen from his family. And also, at this point, with the family not making any money on the devil made me do a conjuring film, not making any money on any of the books published about this case, you would imagine that at some point they would just say, "I made it all up. This is not true. And if it were really all about money for someone like David, they would go on podcasts and monetize that truth." But he hasn't done that. Carl Glatzel, though, still says that he believes none of it happened. And Alan, the middle brother, says this, "It scarred everybody. It's twisted all of our lives upside down. We're at the point where we're basically all scattered. You know, none of us really talk no more." Now, today, Arnie Cheyenne Johnson is in his 60s. He lives quietly in Connecticut, and he doesn't talk about this often. He and Debbie were married for 36 years, and they had two children together. But in 2021, she passed away with him at her side. After the manslaughter charge, he lived an entire life. Obviously, he's now older than Alan Bono ever got the chance to be. He says, "This whole thing changed my life. Brought me more to religion. I am not possessed. I never had an exorcism, but I'm not possessed. And I know how to protect myself. And I know what prayers to say, so I'm very much in control. My faith keeps me strong." From the alleged possession of David Glatzel and the killing of Alan Bono, there's been money to be made, a Netflix documentary, a Discovery Channel episode, a travel channel special, and a blockbuster movie. In all of the media coverage, in all of the retellings, the victim Alan Bono is lost. They portray him as an aggressor, a violent, unhinged, lonely man. But he wasn't. Alan made friends wherever he went. He loved to talk to people about his journeys throughout the world. About the different things he explored. He was just 40 years old. Nobody ever went on camera to say what he was like, as a kid. No one told stories about him. The only people who the media has ever brought to the microphone are the people involved in his murder. He's never gotten to speak. His true story has never been told. He's a footnote and a possession story. And we wish desperately that we could change that. But we hope that this episode is given some perspective on the case, which is often one-sided, and erases the victim entirely. At the end of this story, though, we're still left with so many questions. Who are we to believe? What's the truth of the story? What really happened on that chilly day in Connecticut? It makes you want to go back for a second, doesn't it? So that we could see what really happened, we could see it and document it for ourselves? The glatsel family home still exists, where at the bulk of the alleged possession took place. And there are still some who believe, in the small communities surrounding that town in Connecticut, that the area really was visited by the devil himself back in the early 1980s. There are still whispers of paranormal activity that echo through the fields of Connecticut, folklore stories from surrounding regions, telling tales of spooky supernatural beings that are supposedly cursed to wander the earth, and the dark forests of Connecticut on full moon evenings. It is that time of the year after all, where the air goes deathly still. The time of the year when ghosts are present. So this weekend, while you're out enjoying the Halloween festivities, don't forget to take that in for a second. To remind yourself that there's a very strong possibility that in all times we're surrounded by forces and energies that remain unseen. Maybe one night soon, one of these forces will pay you a visit, and you're alone in your bedroom. Rain pelting the window, thunder clapping outside, lightning striking above. You'll look to the corner of the room and see a shadow. A woman with long hair, not moving, not shaking, just staring at you with a smile on her face. Because remember, at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter if you believe in ghosts, because I can guarantee you ghosts believe in you. I hope everybody has a safe, happy, fun Halloween weekend, Halloween weekend, and from Courtney and I both. Thank you everybody for tuning in this week, and, oh yeah, happy Halloween. Hey, everybody. Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of Murder in America. This is a case that I've wanted to cover for a long time, personally, because I feel like there are so many facts that are misrepresented in a case like this. And it is important that, you know, somebody might not believe in a story, other people might believe in a story. You have to take in holistically all perspectives to really kind of gauge how true a story like this is. Because at the end of the day, none of us were really there and all of this is speculation. So one person could be tying the truth, one person could be lying, one person could have said nothing happened. When in reality, so many things did happen. So at the end of the day, the validity of the paranormal activity and the exorcism in this story is completely up to you to decide. If you guys want to help support the work that we do here on the show, please consider joining us over on Patreon. On Patreon, you can get early ad free access to every single episode that we post on the main feed for our show. And in addition, if you can't get enough of what we do, we post bonus episodes every single month to a month on the Patreon. These are full length episodes of the show with both Court United, just like the episode that you listen to just now. So if you want to help support the team of writers, researchers, and editors that help bring this show to life, please consider supporting us over there. We would be very happy to have you. Also, don't forget to follow us on Instagram @MurderInAmerica to see photos from every case that we cover here on the show. And leave us a five star review wherever you listen to this podcast, whether it's Apple podcast, Spotify, or any other podcasting platform we love to see those good reviews. Anyways y'all, thank you so much for tuning in. Once again, have a very happy Halloween if you're listening on Friday or Saturday. And yeah, we'll see y'all on the next one. [Music]