Ed and Lorraine Warren

[joplinfrk]

Have you heard of them? I happen to be a fan and admire the work that they've done. They are ghost hunters out of Monroe, CT but they deal with the darker side of it: demons, possesion, etc. Good reading! Check out their website at Warrens.com!

[Snoopy]

Yeah I have seen shows that featured them they are really interesting..Did Ed Warren die recently?

[jesska_812]

Guess I was way off! In my original post, I was talking about how Lorraine's health wasn't very good! Totally forgot that Ed passed away. Anyway, yes, I have heard of them, they are big here in CT.

[Harry in Connecticut]

I saw them live once, years ago. I think they were frauds.

They were on a talk show way back in the late 70s early 80s.
They had a film supposedly showing a man becoming a werewolf, certain features were going to change before our eyes.

People in the audience stood up to say they didn't see a thing.

Oh, well the film was not cued up to the right place. Subject hurriedly changed by the Warrens. No effort to have the tech find the spot needed.

Few weeks later, another talk show, same film, same outcome.

[BobbyJrsy]

I am soooo excited to say that I am attending Lorraine's Halloween seminar/dinner this month. I have always been fascinated by their work. I will follow up afterwards and let you guys know what I think. Is anyone else attending? It's in Monroe CT on October 28th.

[joplinfrk]

I would LOVE to go, but I can't make it. Let us know how it went!

[hoxharding]

Ray Garton wrote a book for them about their adventure. He really admired them. In another book(after he finished their book) he revealed he became very disillusioned with them.
In fact, he said he realized they seem pretty fake. That what was shown to the public was show business. It really got to him.

[BeeCee]

I read one of their books awhile ago - The Demonologist I believe. I find them interesting, curious, unusual...the book was good creepy fun! I'd love to attend one of Lorraine's seminars for the heck of it...especially this time of year. Ed died about a year ago (in September...it was pretty well covered on the ghost boards I check into).

[jesska_812]

Hey, I just read this synopsis of a movie that is coming out in 2008. IMDB doesn't say who is going to play the Warrens, though.

"A Haunting in Connecticut"S1Ed and Karen Parker move their family into an old Connecticut home to be near the hospital where their teenaged son receives cancer treatment. Soon after learning that their residence was once a funeral home, son Paul begins seeing entities and his health worsens. With his behavior becoming increasingly erratic, his parents have him committed to a mental hospital. Once the son is gone, the evil forces inhabiting the house turn on the rest of the family. In desperation, the Parkers contact psychic investigators Edward and Lorraine Warren for help.

[BeeCee]

Hey, I just read this synopsis of a movie that is coming out in 2008. IMDB doesn't say who is going to play the Warrens, though.

"A Haunting in Connecticut"S1Ed and Karen Parker move their family into an old Connecticut home to be near the hospital where their teenaged son receives cancer treatment. Soon after learning that their residence was once a funeral home, son Paul begins seeing entities and his health worsens. With his behavior becoming increasingly erratic, his parents have him committed to a mental hospital. Once the son is gone, the evil forces inhabiting the house turn on the rest of the family. In desperation, the Parkers contact psychic investigators Edward and Lorraine Warren for help.

Sounds interesting - thanks for the heads up!

[joplinfrk]

The book was even more terrifying so was "Satan's Harvest" and "Beware the NIght" by Ralph Sarchie.

[Mr Chicken]

Yes ed died 23 aug 2003 i think he was 80 yrs old he had a massive heart attack.
But ole lorraine is still kicking around http://www.warrens.net/index.html

[TheWrath of MadelineKahn]

A "based on a true story" movie about a haunting and the Warrens is coming out this summer.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1457767/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Vera Farmiga (The Departed, Up in the Air) stars as Lorraine Warren.

The trailer only proves my theory about not playing hide and seek while blindfolded in a creepy old house.

[Linnie]

This is the notorious Ray Garton Usenet post, copied and pasted so often it is now part of the legend:

From Deja Archives:From: ray...@my-dejanews.com
Subject: Re: The Warrens
Date: 27 Apr 1999 00:00:00 GMT
Message-ID: <7g31el$gk7$1...@nnrp1.dejanews.com>
References: <19990425091418.29296.00001171@ng-fa1.aol.com>
X-Http-Proxy: 1.1 x8.dejanews.com:80 (Squid/1.1.22) for client 207.211.22.82
Organization: Deja News - The Leader in Internet Discussion
X-Article-Creation-Date: Tue Apr 27 00:47:18 1999 GMT
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
X-Http-User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; Windows 98)
I've posted about the Warrens in another thread, Cleo, but at the risk of
repeating myself, I felt the urge to do it again here, with more details.
You asked for Warren stories ... well, I've got one. Please don't take this as
a personal attack, because it's not, really. Neither is it an opinion. This
really happened. I'm going to tell you what I *think* of the Warrens, but
first I'm going to tell you what I *know* of the Warrens.

I wrote IN A DARK PLACE: THE STORY OF A TRUE HAUNTING, in which a family had
lived in a house that used to be a mortuary (allegedly...I never saw the
inside of the house myself), which was, according to the Warrens, infested
with demons. But the family involved, which was going through some serious
problems like alcoholism and drug addiction, could *not* keep their story
straight, and I became very frustrated; it's hard writing a non-fiction book
when all the people involved are telling you different stories. So I went
to Ed Warren and told him my problem. He told me not to worry, that the family
was "crazy". I was shocked. He said, "All the people who come to us are
crazy. You think *sane* people would come to us?" He knew I'd written a
lot of horror novels prior to that, so he told me to just make the story up
using whatever details I could incorporate into the book, and make it scary.
Because I couldn't afford the attorney fees it would take to get out of the
contract, I had to go through with the book, but I didn't like it. Since
then, other writers who have worked with the Warrens have told me the EXACT
SAME STORY, but they've done so quietly because they don't want to make any
waves with publishers.

I spent several days with the Warrens during that time. I spent time with
them in their home and ate with them and went on long drives with them. Of
the two, Lorraine is the sanest. She's an "enabler". Years ago, before
their career in the "supernatural" began, Ed suffered from mental illness.
It was bad enough to keep him from working, and the only way he could make
money was to hand paint haunted houses on dinnerplates and sell them door to
door. Once Ed decided that Lorraine was "psychic", selling the haunted
house plates eventually led to "investigating" haunted houses. At first, they
found "ghosts". But after the tremendous success of THE EXORCIST -- both
the novel and the movie -- ghosts suddenly became demons. If you go back and
trace their career, you can see the sudden change. Almost overnight, all
ghosts were really demons trying to possess residents, and sooner or later,
the demons anally raped someone. It never fails, every damned time, the
Warrens' demons bend somebody over a bed or a sink and beat down the back
door, if you know what I mean. From my time spent with the Warrens, I
learned from Ed that their job is not really to "investigate" so much as it
is to take the stories told by these families -- most of whom are dealing
with REAL problems like alcoholism, drug addiction, mental illness, and/or
domestic abuse, problems that are buried by their supernatural fantasies,
which are supported and made tangible by the very eager Warrens -- and
arrange them into a saleable package that will make a good book, and
hopefully a movie.

Not only are the Warrens frauds, not only do they give a bad name to people
who are SERIOUSLY investigating paranormal phenomena, I think they're EVIL
because of the way they exploit families already deep in despair and ready
to shatter. I can ignore a simple con job ... but the Warrens are actually
damaging people who are already damaged, who are desperate and vulnerable,
using them for the sake of a book, maybe a lucrative movie sale, or another
story to add to their traveling dog and pony show. Before I worked on that
book, I'd followed the adventures of Ed and Lorraine Warren faithfully since
I was a little boy. I was excited to work with them. Boy, was that a big
disappointment. It's nice to believe there's a smiling, grandparently
coupleout there chasing demons ... but not when you know they're hurting people
for the sake of publicity and the almighty dollar.

Ray Garton


Somehow I briefly got involved in the "Demon Murder" story by 3rd or 4rth hand. Remember that one? In 1981, the BF of a young woman allegedly challenged the Devil during the exorcism of the woman's much-younger brother, then later got into a fight with and murdered his landlord. It was a routine case (possibly jealousy over the young woman) until the lawyers tried to introduce the defense that the Devil had taken up the challenge and caused the younger man to stab the older one. Ed Warren was going to get involved. Luckily, this defense was aborted before the trial (self-defense was the new excuse), and the young man was convicted. (Unluckily, he only served a few years for manslaughter, married the-not-so-young-anymore woman, and led her a sorry life, making her son miserable, which son died just a few years ago in his 20s.)

This saga had already been made into a nearly-forgotten TV movie (featuring Andy Griffith in the Ed Warren-esque role), but as everyone knows, the book was re-released a few years ago, and a new theatrical film planned (though that has since gone into limbo.) The younger "possessed" brother and another brother, who had been minors when their parents agreed to let the Warrens use their real names for the book (not the TV film, though) and had come to regard their involvement as a kind of weird joke, decided they wanted a cut of the action, wanted their own book, sued Lorraine Warren (by now a widow, since Ed's death in August 2006), etc.. Their contention was that at the time, the "exorcism" was merely their parents' over-reaction to the slew of problems the family had going on, and perhaps it was so (the young boy who inspired THE EXORCIST was said to have had various psychiatric ailments, which his hyper-religious mother sought to cure in that manner, with mixed success apparently.)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/re.../1908350/posts

http://www.strangemag.com/exorcistpage1.html

Anyhoo, I had been absolutely lyrical on several forums about my learnings and leanings about the Warrens, whom I used to live nearby (and saw LW a few times at the local P.O., picking up her fan mail no doubt. She's a snappy dresser with perfect hair, gotta give her that, but with a rather unsettling expression. Maybe if she had bangs...) Even saw her live, A.E. (after Ed) with her son-in-law (who did not strike me as likeable) but the program by then was mostly showing videos from their programs back in the 1970s. Of course, this probably saved her energy (she was 80 by then) but her SIL was justy kind of annoying to listen to (plus suffered a delusion that he EVER resembled Tom Selleck. ONLY IN YOUR DREAMS, BUDDY!)

I was once a big fan, when Lorraine and Ed were just chasing ghosts (even though some of those had since been debunked or shown to have been mis-represented), but like Ray Garton wrote, there was something unsavory about the situations with sometimes tragic people with enormous problems, at least one of whom killed himself (this was part of the presentation I attended.) So here I was, going on and on about them, and then I got an e-mail from a writer who was going to write the Glatzel brothers' story from their point of view, and asking for MY opinion and MY knowledge. Which of course is not first-hand knowledge, so I had to respectfully decline and wished him well in his work (which I never heard more of afterward.)

Ed Warren DOES have the coolest tombstone in Connecticut, though, a tall black granite monolith which includes an invocation to Saint Michael and prominent mention of the Warrens' NESPR society. (And includes his real birth name, Edward Warren Miney. John Zaffis is his nephew, via his sister Babette.)

There's a little story behind that, too. Many years ago, the Warrens did a segment of the then-hot supernatural TV show SIGHTINGS, featuring the Connecticut classic tale of the White Lady of Easton. The White Lady most often appears (to drunken young men driving home late at night apparently) in the vicinity of an old (but still used) cemetery there, which has caused a lot of trouble for the church which owns the graveyard. Too many would-be ghosthunters have trampled, littered, and even vandalized the place, so the historic cemetery is strictly closed at sunset, when the Warrens intended to film their story.

So they moved operations to the more-cooperative Monroe cemetery near their former home, and next to a Latin-Mass Catholic church where Ed had participated in another exorcism years earlier, and people who watched the show in those pre-internet days were led to believe that was the White Lady's hangout. It was in that cemetery, over 15 years later, where Ed now resides (and eventually Lorraine.)

[TheWrath of MadelineKahn]

Sounds like The Conjuring is based on the Perron family, Mother, Father, and 5 daughters, in a haunted house in Harrisville, RI but told entirely through the recollections of Lorraine.

http://rhinoshorror.com/2013/03/03/t...ts-true-story/

Sounds like it was all fairly peaceful (the spirits did "talk" to members of the family, though) until the Warren's had a seance and unleashed a spirit that became fixated and violent towards the mother. Whoops.

But I guess if the Warren's didn't believe in any of this, they wouldn't recognize the danger in jacking around with the supernatural.

The book by one of the Perron's daughters, Andrea, sounds good "House of Darkness, House of Light: The True Story"

[Linnie]

P.S., some disappointing, even boring home truths about the former mortuary at the center of A HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT:

http://depletedcranium.com/the-real-...n-connecticut/

Aw shucks, no real haunting, no spooky woods, no necrophilia, no lustful demons, just annoying tourists who pestered the current owners after the movie came out a few years ago.

[Wendy A.]

P.S., some disappointing, even boring home truths about the former mortuary at the center of A HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT:

http://depletedcranium.com/the-real-...n-connecticut/

Aw shucks, no real haunting, no spooky woods, no necrophilia, no lustful demons, just annoying tourists who pestered the current owners after the movie came out a few years ago.

I think it's really pathetic that people flock to homes like this and bother the families that live there now. What the hell makes them think it's an ok thing to do? They gotta know they aren't the first jackass to knock on the door. I was never a fan of the Warrens, they have always seemed fake to me.

[Linnie]

People with legitimate, recognizable issues who claim to have suffered demonic malfeasance, have a lot in common with people who claim to have suffered alien abductions.
I guess blaming problems on entities whom nobody else can see and likely don't believe in, makes the whole powerlessness / futility-of-seeking-redress angle more bearable.
Still doesn't make the exploitation and profiteering from their misery (and without really helping them after all) right. Devout Catholics, my necktie.

Which brings me to another point that has always bugged me (when I think about it anyway, which mercifully is not often..) The Warrens (and now John Zaffis & family) accumulated substantial inventories of "haunted" or "possessed" items, which they tended to store right in their basements, in the midst of well-populated suburban neighborhoods. I'm not sure how one could shield anyone from the "influences"--- it's not like storing nuclear waste in silos or paneling the X-ray room with lead. It's not like the fictional "Ghostbusters" method of containing lively ectoplasms in a similar facility. Clearly they were NOT worried about the escape of evil and/or mischievous spirits from their basement or barn of whatever, to invade neighbors' nearby homes!

Only in America, only in America....

[TheWrath of MadelineKahn]

Just to help out, I would be willing to remove any "haunted" or "possessed" gold bars, fine antiques, or jewelry, that are plaguing the lives of these unfortunate people.

I would store the items in a spirit/demon proof safe, adorned with a vial of holy water, and a sage scented air freshener.

Sure it would be an inconvenience, but after all, I'm a giver.

[Linnie]

The monolith of the Warren/ Miney clan. There is also a military-issue flat marker, the funeral home marker, and a matching black granite bench to sit and take it all in. Two sides are blank, plenty of room for the rest of the family, including the Tom Selleck wanna-be.

[babyblujems]

Just had to say I'm from Warren, Satan's Harvest was actually banned in town for a really long time!

The book was even more terrifying so was "Satan's Harvest" and "Beware the NIght" by Ralph Sarchie.

[Linnie]

Last night I attended a free program with Lorraine Warren in her hometown's high school... You would not believe it--- the auditorium was PACKED. I could count the empty seats on the fingers of one hand.
Part of the reason, of course, was that it WAS free--- but she's a local, well-known around town as well as famous (or infamous, depending on one's PoV.)
Mrs. W. is now quite frail-looking, uses a cane, and mostly sat. Plus her memory is a bit dithery. But she still talks the talk, even if it seems contradictory at times. I WAS pleased that she DID talk far more than the last time I saw her 6 years ago. Still, too much video, but there WAS a Q&A, and she was supposed to sign books (a lotta work for a woman approaching 87 and admitting she spent days in bed)--- but I had to leave after the Q&A (almost 9 PM. I had a LONG drive home!)
Plus there was lots of banter with her ubiquitous son-in-law/attendant Tony Spera (who now suffers the delusion that he resembles James Brolin. 1980 James Brolin.) I'll give the guy SOME cred, he does keep her as in-the-moment as is possible at this point.
I reckon I'll be sorry when Lorraine finally joins Ed at their monolith... For better or worse, they were quite a pair of characters, and Connecticut originals, peculiarly ours.