Me Hi Megan, And that was my terrible attempt at Mike Myer's music do
do like you guys needed to see it. She was doing like a full
DJ set here and one hand on the headphones, the other hand twist in
the record. Sleigh, Sleigh, how are you all? How are you
guys? So this weink I have what I would describe as a spooky episode,
but it's not really spooky, but like you know, it's what a
movie is based off of, so you're gonna like it. Yeah. So,
if y'all remember, was it last year I covered the real life Conjuring
movie. I think it was last year, earlier this year, one or
the other. Eh, it was some time ago, at some point,
at some point in our recording history, I talked about the Conjuring movie.
Well, I have another installment for y'all. This one is the Devil Made
Me do it? Break it down for me, Nave, let's go and
don't go see the movie. The movie is terrible, probably one of the
worst in the Conjuring franchise. Yes, I would definitely say one of the
worst in the Conjuring franchise, but it's not the worst. It's not the
worst. It is what is that. The last Insidious movie that came out
is ass it's so bad. I haven't seen it, but and Carlin was
like, they freaking reused scenes from the I didn't even notice. Yeah,
Carlin was like, they reused a couple of jump scares, and he was
like, that's the fucking cop out, you know what I mean. Did
he say anything about the like the monsters get up in it, the villains
get up? No, but he finds that villain super hilarious anyway, Like
in the first Insidious he laughs when he pops up on screen and is like,
he is funny. But like in the movie, there's a whole bunch
of different ghosts and stuff and it is like a thirteen year old got their
hands and special effects make up. Oh god, it is so bad.
I was. It actually put me off through the whole movie because it is
just terrible. God. But then this movie that we're going to talk about
today, in its own right, if it was a standalone movie, it's
fine, But as part of the Conjuring series, it's not. The Conjuring
I think just started off on such a high. The first two were so
good, and then one of the Annabelles was really good. I feel it
was the middle one. I feel like it was the I can't remember their
names. I don't know the roommates that originally had Annabelle. No, is
that it the one where they're on a firm? Oh my god? And
doesn't I can't remember I'm getting them one that I'm on about is So it's
like, if you were to go in chronological order of the Annabelle's, it
would be the first one, like it's the one about how she How do
I describe this? There's Annabelle Comes Home, which was terrible. There was
Annabelle. I can't remember their names any hoodles. It's like the second Annabelle
movie. That one's very good, and the first two Conjuring movies are very
good. And that's pretty much that are all in the top tier. Wait,
hold on, Paranormal Activity? Is that is that in this it was
not really in the same like it vision, but it's in the same world
because it's demons. I I remember I went to see Paranormal Activity in the
cinema for my birthday one year, and I freaking shit myself because it was
like for my like tenth birthday or twelfth birthday or some shit, and I
was like that. But then when I rewatch it, I was like,
that wasn't scary. It wasn't the first one, I don't think. I
think it was like the second one or the third one that we went to
go see, the one with all the the one with all the fucking witches
or nuns or whatever. Yeah, I don't know, Yeah I don't.
I don't like that one either. I don't think that's a very good one.
But the very first original one I loved. I when I first saw
I loved it and I was like, Wow, that's so cool. And
then I learned that they had multiple different endings and I was like, nah,
that just ruins it, Like it ruined the whole Is that real?
Even though you knew, oh yeah, you knew it wasn't real, but
it also was like, oh, but imagine. And then it was like,
oh yeah, but there's like five different endings and you're like you've killed
it. Because that was the thing when it came out in the movies,
was like it's this is all based on a real story and whatever. But
they can say that, like the movie The Strangers. I remember somebody telling
me it's just based on the writer was home alone one night and somebody knocked
on his door and he just didn't answer it, and that was it.
And I think it's based off real murders where they have masks on. Yeah,
that's based off a real murder. I'm pretty sure it was. Oh
my god, yeah, yeah, I know it. That's somebody. Okay,
I was lied to anyway. But they can say anything. Is basically
they can take a like somewhat true story and they can literally spin it to
fit whatever the way they want it and then be like, this is based
off true events, because technically is based off of it's like inspired by That
is what made me like really scared going to see paranormal activity was the whole.
It's based on a true story. And this is found footage. Yeah,
which is what we have here, a based off of a true story
event. And I'm about to tell you the true story laid on me.
Ernie Cheyenne Johnson was born in nineteen sixty two. Not much is really known
about his childhood, Like could barely find where he was born, you know,
okay it was there was not much at all. He was described as
very friendly and no one really had a bad word to say about him.
He would often take his sister's fishing, and he would spend time with them.
I think his mother had I think he had. He either had two
or three sisters, and then his mother also took in two nieces, so
two of his cousins, oh okay, to care for as well. He
sang in the church choir. He was you know, he's a little boy.
His parents divorced when he was just four years old. His mother struggled
to support Oh yeah, here, his mother struggled to support him and his
two sisters and a niece. She'd taken the niece in like full time,
like she basically got custody of Denise. I don't know what the story is
behind us, couldn't find it anywhere. There's it is what it is.
Ernie had attempted to live with his dad for a little while when he was
like roughly I think thirteen or fourteen. He was like entering his like teenage
years, and it didn't really go very well, and he ended up having
to move back home to his mom's at sixteen years old. He dropped out
of high school to get a job to try help his mother in supporting the
family because he was like, I'm the man of the house, you know,
like I'm a help out best I can let the girls get like their
education and stuff. Oh, bless, now, this is a big gross.
When Ernie was just twelve years old, he met Debbie Glatzel. She
was working in a supermarket and she accidentally knocked over a display and he went
over to help her. Debbie was nineteen years old. Oh no, I
hate everything about that. And she became close friends with Ernie's mother, and
then a few years later, Ernie and Debbie began dating despite their seven year
age gap. No, it's unclear when, Like, it's unclear when they
started dating, Like, it's unclear on whether it was when he was fifteen
or when he was seventeen. They say it was from I'm pretty sure they
say they started dating when he was seventeen. But then are they just saying
that because that's when he was legal. Yeah, and either way, it's
weird. You met him when he was twelve, Yeah, exactly. You
watched him grow up and go through like childhood and majorhood. Weird people that
watch somebody grow up and then go after them. Yeah. Debbie moved in
with Ernie and his family, and it was so that they could save for
a house of their own. They were like super duper in love. In
nineteen eighty, the couple found a small house to rent. They accepted it,
and the plan was that Ernie and Debbie, along with Ernie's family,
would move into this new house. They were all extremely exciting excited about moving
in, and Debbie even described it as quote, it was like my dream
house. I thought we could build a beautiful life there. The dream sadly
didn't last too long. When Debbie, Ernie, and a couple of her
family all went to the house to clean, to clean it and prepare it
for life moving in. Yeah, you know, see what needed to be
fixed or you know, oh that jazz when something unexpected happened. Oh no.
Debbie's brother, David, who was eleven years old, was remarkably close
with Ernie, and he often would play with his sister's boyfriend, and you
know, he he loved them. He was like, he's part of the
family. So he wanted to go with the family and Debbie and Ernie to
go clean the house. So they're like, yeah, you come alone,
Yeah, yeah, come on, let's go. When they got to the
house. They discovered that the previous tenants had left behind some furniture. I
think there was like a sofa, like a table, and then I think
there was a bed left in the master bedroom. Okay, David was asked
to clean the master bedroom and as he was doing so, he all of
a sudden ran screaming from the house. So naturally all the family go out
after him, and they're like, what's wrong, What's going on? Why
did you just literally leave the house screaming? Yeah, creepy. He was
claiming that he saw an old man who was burnt and blacklocking like who was
all like charcoaled, you know, like, and he said that the figure
was telling him to beware and to get out of the house. That's nightmare
fuel m. In the new documentary, he said that he was pushed onto
the bed. I hate that he refused to go back into the house.
He waited until everybody was finished doing their jobs. Like he waited outside until
everybody was finished in the house, and then they all went home. They
were like telling Debbie's mother about what had happened and what he had claimed to
see. And while like Debbie and Ernie and Debbie's mother were all talking.
David came out of his room, saying that he was still having visions of
the old man, but now he could hear his voice. David said that
he could see that the old man had an animal trapped in the house and
that he was torturing it. He could see the animal scratching at the front
door, trying to get out of the house. Every time David talked about
what he was seeing, like what these visions were, he would add more
and more details. Yeah, just leave the kid there, move house.
David said that the old man had hooves for feet, and sometimes there would
be more men around him. Hooves for feet. That's not very practical,
No, it's really not. Debbie was starting to feel a little uneasy about
the move, but they had put quite literally all of their savings into it,
so they couldn't really afford to back out. They'd like paid like two
months rent in advanced, like plus the deposit and you know for other things
as well. So they were like, they kind of can't really get out
of this. That's the thing. Everybody just says, like, oh,
just get up and move. People can't afford to just get up and move.
Literally the next day, Ernie and Debbie went back to the house to
continue setting up for their move when they noticed scratches on the back of the
front door. Mixed in with what David had been saying the night previous,
they were just like, ah, fucking shit, yeah, of course.
Ernie said that when he saw the scratches quote, I was starting to really
question, well, maybe something definitely is wrong here. Despite having paid their
two months rent upfront, the couple decided that they just could not move into
the house. Ernie's mother wasn't so convinced about what was going on, and
she wasn't so convinced that there was actually anything to worry about. She had
given her landlord her notice of the move, and she was relying on moving
in with Ernie and Debbie. So Ernie's mother moved into the house with her
two daughters and her niece, despite Ernie and Debbie refusing. Ernie and Debbie
were left with no other choice but to move in with Debbie's family to try
to save some more money, because obviously they put so much into the move.
Debbie then claimed that David told her that the old man that he was
seeing was angry at him for telling Ernie and Debbie not to move into the
house. He began calling the old man the beast, which is what I'll
be referring to it as now on. He said that the beast wanted to
take his soul and that the beast would push him and scratch him. Ernie
later claimed that quote the fear in this child was overwhelming. Something was going
wrong, and I believed him. The next day, Ernie and Debbie decided
to take David out for the day, like, took him to like the
park and did some things with them. They were like, look, this
kid is after seeing something something at the house and so after freaking them out,
and now he's having nightmares. And so they were like, we'll take
him out and we'll, you know, cheer them up. Yeah, because
even if he didn't see anything, the child is still absolutely terrified. Exactly
exactly. Everything was going really well until they got back to the house and
David like, they're in Debbie's homehouse now. And they got back to the
homehouse and David refused to go back inside. It took a lot of convincing
to get him to go into the house. They finally managed to get him
in, and then later that night, David was attacked by an unseen force
according to Ernie and David, or Ernie and Debbie. So this happened in
Debbie's homehouse, not in the new rented house, not in that in their
homehouse. Why didn't he go into the homehouse. So he was claiming that
the beast had followed him from the rented house to his homehouse, and now
the beast was mad at him because he told Debbie and Ernie not to move
in, and so now the beast wanted his soul so once, even if
he was at any house, the beast was following him to any house.
Yeah, okay, I get it. So like the beast had like latched
onto him, not the house anymore. Ernie said that the scariest part to
me was seeing David go through this with nothing there to do it. David
was having convulsions. He would be screaming and cursing, which they claimed was
not like him. He was being pushed and beaten around the room. He
was getting aggressive, which was also out of character, and the family really
struggled with what to do about it. Like they were like, what is
going on, Like this is not David, Like he doesn't curse, he
doesn't shout or scream or you know. So they decided that they should go
to the church to speak to a priest, and they asked the priest if
he could perform an exorcism or any other kind of ritual. So around this
time, the church are kind of being like, s No, no,
we don't do exorcisms. What that's not us. That's just a stray movie.
Yeah, just a silly little movie. Nobody pay attention to that.
No, don't have a popular and pop culture. We only watched that movie
recently, The Exorcist, and it's such it holds up, It holds up,
it does genuinely. I was surprised. I thought I wasn't gonna like
it, but I really do. For a movie that was made in the
seventies, like is good and holds up really well. Yeah, and then
when you look into like the backstory and stuff of it and you're like,
wow, Okay. The priest that David's family went to for the exorcism denied
their request, but said that he would come to the house and he would
do a blessing and that he would also do some research for them. So
he did just that. He comes to the house, he blesses it,
and then he's like, light some candles, pray some harder, and that
should save David. Saul, he's got to pay the trolls tall literally.
The Glassals did do just that, but nothing seems to change. David's behavior
didn't get any better, and he continued to feel attacked by the beast.
The family claimed that at one point David began speaking Latin, which he didn't
know, so they did not understand how he could be speaking ith fear his
body would be contorted and he would be screaming at the top of his lungs
in pain. He stid reciting paragraphs from Paradise Lost, which is a poem
about the devil and how he fell from heaven. And again he's eleven slash
twelve. He he doesn't yeh, he's not reciting poems, but he's also
not reciting poems about heaven and hell and you know, yeah. The family
decided that they had to go back to the priest and ask for help again.
So the priest agreed to go to the house and do another blessing on
David, and after he finished, he told the Glattels that it wasn't enough
and that they should reach out to a couple who specialized in paranormal activities.
Who could it be? Who could it be? He recommended Ed and Lorraine
Warren. The Warrens arrived at the family home, and Lorraine immediately noted that
the blessing performed by the priest didn't work and that David was still very much
possessed by the demais. Lorraine felt there was a creature in that child's body.
She was very dramatic. She believed that the creature was there to cause
harm to David and to the Glatto family, including Ernie. The Glastols informed
Ed and Lorraine how David's behavior was getting increasingly more aggressive and way out of
control. Debbie felt that the beast was attached to the house and not to
the family and wanted to move, but Lorraine was like, no, no,
sweetie, that's not how that works, and then basically was like,
that's the difference between haunted people and haunted houses. Insightful, Lorraine, Thank
you, Lorraine. What would we do without you? The beautiful bastard.
The Warrens felt that the only thing that would help David was if the church
performed in exorcism. It takes months for the church to review a case before
they agreed to do any exorcisms, so they filled out a form like paperwork.
They filled out paperwork to request an exorcism off the church. I wonder
is that paperwork available online for me to fill out? Oh my god,
can you fill out an exorcism form and stop it? The first thing that
comes up is the Archdiocese of Washington request in exorcism, and then you have
the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Exorcism Amazing Exorcism Protocol. Google. That's
how to apply for exorcisms. The Archdiocese of Toronto says, first you should
contact your priest and then your priest will meet with the individual to cern their
needs. I don't have a priest. Step one already gone. If further
assistance is necessary, the priest is to write the Chancellor of Spiritual Affairs outlining
the matter with medical or other supporting documents. Once the case has been received
by that office, the file will be opened and have written. A request
for assistance will be made to a relevant expert so that a psychosocial spiritual assessment
may be completed. That was not a nice sentence for somebody with a lisp.
Once the assessment has been returned, the case file is referred to the
chancellor for discernment before proceeding. The Chancellor in consultation with the exorcist will decide
on one of the three actions. One, the case should be referred to
the exorcist for his discernment and recommendations. Two, the case requires additional medical
and or psycho psychological supporting documentation before proceeding further. Three, the case does
not require action, and the individual is referred back to the parish for ongoing
pastoral care. And once the recommendation of the exorcist has been obtained, the
Chancellor in consultation with the exorcist will provide guidance to the parish priest who made
the initial contact with the office. This is a lot of hassles. Do
you know what I'd rather just be, to be honest, So David was
only getting worse. So Ed told the family that he could perform a minor
exorcism, which is basically just a bunch of prayers used to break the influence
on evil and sin in a person's life. He's eleven, what evil in
sin does he do? So, while the family were waiting for Ed to
like come back and perform this minor exorcism. David's behavior was getting like beyond
out of control at this point, ed in Lorraine, and of course it's
ed and Lorraine claimed that they've seen David levitating off his bed, and this
is when they decided that they were going to record all of their interactions with
David. There are several recordings that the Warrens have of David saying but bizarre
things. Look, I heard one of them on the documentary and I couldn't
help but laugh a little because in it, he's like, I think I
sent it to you. What does he say? Douchebag? Oh yeah,
he called. He's like, you're a douchebag. And I'm like, I'm
sorry, a demon is using much fouler language than that. Douchebag is,
so like, we're on the playground. Honestly, on one recording, you
can hear David saying, quote, Cheyenne dies at work tomorrow, which that's
Ernie's middle name. So the next day at work, Ernie reportedly fell twenty
feet out of a tree. He suffered a minor knee injury, according to
Debbie, but there is absolute no records of this, Like, I mean
anywhere. Hm, what did he work as he did? I don't know.
Basically, from my understanding, he was like a gardener and like trimmed
trees. Oh okay, So like he'd be up in the tree, you
know, like fixing it up, making it great up. Yeah. And
so he fell out of the tree. Nobody else like, it's just Ernie
and Debbie are like, he fell out of the tree, and he hurt
his knee. He scraped his knee real bad, and they're like, and
and David last night said that Sha dies at work tomorrow. I don't know.
I feel like, if a demon wants you to die at work tomorrow,
you're gonna die at work tomorrow. Yeah, You're not gonna just injure
your knee. Yeah. Ernie would often challenge the demon to get out of
David's body, like he'd be like, get out of him, leave him
alone, and the Warrens would be like, whoa, whoa, whoa,
whoa, whoa. What are you doing challenging a demon? Ernie? Come
on, and Ernie Powell, what are you doing. On another recording belonging
to the Warrens, Aaron Ernie is in the background yelling tell tell him I'll
fight him. Come out and fight me like a man. I'll beare knucklebacks
you. Honestly, you're gonna you're threatening to You're threatening to fight a demon.
You're threatening to fight a demon. You're not gonna win, babe.
Sorry, but this demon is like has like thousands of years of experience against
you, and like ed and the rain are like, bro, the fuck
did you just do so? Soon after this, Ernie began claiming that he
was seeing a figure and that he was experiencing paranormal activities. Debbie claimed that
one day, while they were talking with another, Ernie out of nowhere began
growling and his whole body began shaking. She said that she knew it wasn't
Ernie, and he has no memory of this. Okay, I'll just take
their word for it. By the end of nineteen eighty, David's behavior was
so out of control that he attempted to stab Ernie with a knife that he'd
taken from the kitchen. He claimed that the beast had called on more demons
to possess his body, and Lorraine, at a later point, claimed that
David was possessed by not one, not two, and not three demons.
But forty three demons. Forty three, he had his own ten, he
had his own board of directors, Like, how do you get together?
Hew? Does one demon? How does I want to know? Did the
beast like go to his friends? Was it a pyramid scheme? I have
got this kid, and he's a little fucking shit and he ruined my plans
to possess a whole damn house. So now I need all of y'all's help
to bring this motherfucker down. And also his brother in law threatened to fight
me, So we got to teach these little shits what we got. Can
you imagine that is like a split screen with like forty seven It's like a
zoom meeting at Zoom meeting. If we could meet tomorrow nine am and we'll
loop back around by EOD nine am, doesn't work for me. I have
plans to possess this other kid. Look, if you can make it for
at least two that would be great. That would be great, great.
I'll clear my schedule for the rest of the day. So, according to
Ed and Lorraine and to the glattal family, priests came to the family home
to perform a second blessing on the house. And Ed helped perform a minor
exit. The family claimed that David had four minor exorcisms, with one stopping
his heart and something happened to administer CPR. The family believed that the minor
exorcisms worked and that the demons were expelled from his body. They said that
things began to settle, but David he was still having a few behavioral issues
and he was suffering a few psychological issues. But they're like the demons were
going to do but you would you would expect it if you were actually possessed
by forty odd demons. Everything was returning to normal for the Glattals. Ernie
and Debbie were getting more work again because like everyone kind of halted life to
watch David and make sure that he was okay, and nothing like awful happened
to him. So Debbie got a new job and a kennel. This is
where she meets Alan Bono Bono whenever you want to call him. Everyone in
the documentary was calling him Bono, and it was really annoying me because his
name is spelt the same as Bono from the singer of You Two. So
why we don't know who you're talking about? We don't claim that man Alan
was the manager of the kennel. Ernie claimed that despite everything calming down for
David, he was still having visions of the demon and he was feeling strange.
He believed that challenging the demons in David had worked and it caused them
to jump into his body, and that something had latched on to him.
Debbie said that Ernie would enter a trance like state where he would begin growling,
and he would say that he saw the beast, and Ernie would claim
that he would never have any memory of this. Imagine if your partner just
started growling. I would piss myself laughing, and then I would walk away
from pure and utter embarrassment and be like, and we're okay. I'm okay.
I don't need a grown man that rails at people. If you're growling
at strangers, you got a problem. Yeah, yeah, that's not good.
We're going to take a quick outbreak and we're back. Growl Oh brah
means I love you in Dinosaur. Sorry, I'm just having visions. She's
like, he's growling at people, and it's Buddy is shaking and he's just
like In January nineteen eighty one, Ernie and Debbie move into an apartment that
is owned by Debbie's boss Alan. He's like the manager of the apartment complex.
I think it's his sister that owns it, and he just like runs
it. Ernie's two sisters and his cousin moved in with them as well.
According to Ernie's mother, him and Alan got on really well and they spent
a lot of time together. However, on February sixteenth, nineteen eighty one,
Ernie, Alan, Debbie, and Ernie's sisters all went to a cafe
called the Mugan Munch. According to the witnesses, at the restaurant, Alan
and Ernie had about fourteen to fifteen glasses of wine between them. This is
for breakfast and no, it's like evening time. They have like a bottle
and a half of wine each just at dinner. It's been done. The
party was at the cafe. You know, they're all having a good time.
They're there for about three hours just living it up, and then they
all leave the restaurant or a cafe whatever, and they go back to the
apartment. At about six thirty pm. According to Ernie and Debbie, Alan
made an inappropriate comment about Debbie, which made her uncomfortable. This led to
a ribe between Alan and Ernie and things got heeded between the two of them.
They ended up outside fighting outside and it turned physical. During the fight,
Ernie took out a five inch pocket knife and began stabbing Alan. He
stabbed Alan four times in the stomach. Alan fell to the ground, Ernie
dropped the knife and Ernie walked towards the woods. Ernie claims to have no
memory of this. Debbie ran inside rang her father for help. Nine one
one would have worked. Two but some of us would have called for help,
you know, from medical professionals. But your dad works too. Yeah.
Yeah. Debbie's dad arrives at the scene and an ambulance is called in
and around the same time, the paramedics found Alan lying on his back,
alive, but in an unbelievably bad way. One of the paramedics testified that
at the scene of the crime, he overheard Debbie tell her father quote,
oh, daddy, he didn't mean to do it. You know how he
gets when he's been drinking. Oh oh no. Debbie's father informed the police
that it was Ernie who had stabbed Alan. Alan was taken to Danbury Hospital
where he sadly passed away from his injuries. Shortly after arriving, Ernie was
found by police roughly about an hour later, a couple of miles from the
scene. He was arrested and charged with the murder of Alan Bono. He
was taken to Bridgeport Correctional Center and his bail was set for one hundred and
twenty five thousand dollars. Soon after Ernie's arrest, though, Warrens began getting
involved. Of course, they talked about how it appeared to look like an
argument gone wrong, but it was in fact a demonic possession. Okay.
Lorraine claimed that the demons that had been in David had possessed Ernie. They
wanted to ruin Ernie's life because he had challenged them, and they said that
he was possessed at the time of his murder. At the time of the
murder, but the demons had since left his body. Oh perfect, great
timing, great, great, great timing. Wait was it all the forty
odd It's unclear. They never say how many demons were in Ernie. Unintended.
Now, police would normally ignore such claims, you know, they'd be
like, okay, take your demonic possession. And shove that up your asshole.
But the Church were alleged to have been involved with David's miner's minorcisms,
and so this gave the Warrens claims credibility. The public went absolutely not over
what the Warrens were saying. The Catholic Church confirmed that David's family had appealed
for an exorcism. They said that a priest was sent out to investigate whether
an exorcism was necessary, but said police said priest failed to turn in his
report and he was unreachable as he was out of the country on a mission.
I thought you were going to say on holiday, and I was like,
holiday, priests deserve holidays, Tom Megan, I'm sure they do.
The church refused to comment on the case after that and never did. Like
after that radio silence, the Church would not confirm or deny nothing. I
mean, they said what they have to say. There's not much more that
they can do. The Warrens went on many talk shows and radio shows to
talk about Ernie's possession. They talked about how it was going to be the
first case in America to use possession as defense. Ernie's court appointed lawyer would
refuse to comment on what the Warrens were talking about. He was like not
having any of it, and he was soon replaced by Martin Manella. Martin
Manella was super interested in this case and he even took it on pro bono.
I mean, I get it because it's like the whole the defense is
going to be very interesting. But I don't know, even if I was
a big shot, big time lawyer, I think I would stay fair away
from something like that. Yeah. On March nineteenth, nineteen eighty one,
Ernie was indicted quite literally after the judge heard evidence, like twenty five minutes
into the indictment, the judge was like, guy, I've heard enough,
and yeah, yeah, we're going to trial. Okay, yeah, perfect.
Martin he is loving the media attention and he's like doing interviews and shit
lawyers. Yeah, the lawyer. He told the media that he intended to
argue that Ernie's actions were caused by demonic possession. He then set up a
fund to try raise money for the cost of Ernie's defense. He reportedly was
planning on like bringing in priests and like members of the church to talk about
demonic possession, making a scene, basically making a scene, basically indeed is
correct. The media became obsessed with the case because they really wanted to see
how that kind of defense would play out in a court of law. It
was unclear if the church would be asked to testify for a little while,
and Martin told the media quote, I hope the priests will have enough moral
conscious to come forward your haskan priests to have a moral conscious in your client
stab a man four times and then walk into the woods. Okay, but
yeah, yeah, I sure hope the priests have moral conscious The warrants talked
about how they were disappointed in the church because they were refusing to confirm or
deny their involvement. Meanwhile, members of the church had commented that the claims
so members of the church had claimed that claims of possession were often the result
of a mental illness that required the attention of a medical professional. Yeah,
fair enough. Can we just snaps and claps for those members of the church,
because at least somebody from the church was like, I mean, they're
probably just mentally ill. Yeah, they probably just need like professional help.
The Warrens were claiming to the media that they had a really close working relationship
with the Catholic Church. But once again the Catholic Church were like, no,
I'm not saying nothing. Maybe they do, maybe they don't. You
don't know me. When Ernie's trial began on October twenty eighth, nineteen eighty
one, the judge refused to allow the defense of demonic possession. Quote evidence
of demonic possession is simply not relevant. I mean, at the end of
the day, there is a man dead and you did kill that. There
are witnesses to say that you killed the man. His own sisters. His
own sisters were like, yeah, he stabbed him. Yeah, there's no
refuting it. Debbie tried to say that she didn't see him stab him,
but like his sisters were like, yeah, we saw him take out a
knife, stab him, drop the knife, and then make his way into
the woods. Yeah. Like this is really just does he go into it
like a mental institution or does he go to jail. Yeah. The judge
had learned of Martin's defense in the media, and he learned that Martin was
intending on calling priests to the stand to testify to discuss demonic possession. The
judge felt that quote such a defense could not be reliable and could mislead the
jury, which, yeah, like what does demonic possession have to do with
anything? When it boiled down to it, did he stab him? Yes?
He did? Like what more is there to it? You know?
Like yeah, in a panic, Martin requests requested a recess because he was
like, I'm going to have to try to come up with the new fucking
defense m h, because my plans are fucked. So the judge is like,
yeah, sure, we'll take a recess. You come up with a
new defense, and then we'll come back, you know, try this again.
And Martin went out to the media that were stood outside the courthouse and
was like, this judge has anti Catholic bias. Oh oh, that's not
fair, and he should disqualify himself from the case. Can you imagine being
the judge watching that in your chambers, You'd be like, bro, I
give you the recess. The prosecution like they had a clean case, you
know what I mean, Like they were like Ernie killed Alan Bono in a
drunken argument gone wrong, Like yeah, what else is there to this?
Martin Manella was left with no other option but to scrap his demonic possession claim,
and he decided to argue that Ernie killed Alan in self defense of his
family. They claimed that Alan had started a fight. He also said that
Alan grabbed Ernie's youngest sister, who was nine at the time of the murder,
and he tried to take her into his apartment, and that's why Ernie
stabbed him. Now, to my knowledge from my research, this didn't come
like this was the first time that like that had been said. Like,
there was no mention of Alan trying to I don't know, kidnap what like.
Yeah, it was very roch. There was very much like grasping at
straws here, and he's not there to defend himself from that. Literally.
Martin did still try to call some prists to the stand, and he was
warned very quickly by the judge to watch his line of questioning. When the
jury was going off to deliberate, the judge told them to only consider the
evidence giving at trial and to ignore any media influence, meaning to ignore all
theory of demonic possession had no business being in the courtroom and so therefore it
had no business being like questioned by the jury. Yeah, fair enough.
After about fifteen minutes of deliberation, the jury was deadlocked. So the judge
was like, Hey, why don't you remember and talk about a case that
had happened a few years previous where basically the jurors had deadlocked and what ended
up happening is the minority just agreed with the majority. He was like,
basically like, why don't you just talk about that time that the minority had
respected the intelligence of the majority. Oh so, he said, you are
stupid. You are very, very stupid. The jury like, despite being
told not to, the jury were like, but what if he was possessed
and that's why he did it. I don't know. Whenever you hear if
you're in a jury and you hear something and then the judge says not to
pay attention to it, and it's been such a major part of the case,
obviously you're going to, yeah, think about it. After sixteen hours,
the jury found Irony guilty of manslaughter because they were like, he was
he was being charged with first degree murder. But the jury were like,
no, I don't think he went outside in the argument with the intent of
killing him. I like, and I would agree with that, Like,
I do very Look, I don't fully believe that he was possessed, but
I do think that he did not intend on killing the man. Yeah,
and I very much believe that it was manslaughter, not like a planned out
murder. On December sixteenth, nineteen eighty one, Ernie was sentenced to the
maximum sentence, which is ten to twenty years in prison. The judge said
that he felt that he had no other option but to give the maximum as
Ernie just seemed to lack remorse. This upset Debbie, who yelled out that's
sick before storming out of the courthouse. There's a man dead, Debbie.
You know what's also sick, Debbie, is that your boyfriend stobbed a man
to death. Yeah, that is pretty sick. And then you decided to
call your father instead of he might have lived if you called the ambulance a
bit quicker, Yeah, exactly, because he was alive. So like,
I'm not saying it's your fault, Debbie, but also you didn't help.
Can I just imagine, right, imagine you have been stabbed, You're lying
on the floor, you need help. There are a bunch of people around,
because there was a few of them there. You see one of them
pick up a phone and you're like, oh, thank god, they're getting
me help. And then you hear god Dad, alright, excuse me.
They appealed the judge's decisions soon after, but in March nineteen eighty two,
Ernie requested that the appeal be withdrawn. He was like, nah, I
just leave it. I accept my fate. Now this is where things get
interesting. And I think this is, to me, the most important paragraph
of this whole story. Okay, So Debbie had three brothers, the oldest
being Carol, and he remembers what happened in nineteen eighty a little differently,
just dis mission, just dismission. Carl claims that when he was only he
was about fourteen fifteen. He remembers like the years of his early teens being
a very upsetting time and he had a lot of feeling of helplessness as David,
who was the youngest. So he the youngest. I think Debbie was
the oldest, and then it was Carl, and then it was I think
his name is Alan, and then David. Okay, David's emotional and mental
health was starting to decline. Carl claims that David was beginning to show signs
of behavioral issues. He was struggling with learning disabilities in school, and Carl
claims that by nineteen eighty David was starting to suffer from seizures and delusions.
He said that his family had watched The Exorcist shortly before they all went over
to help clean Ernie and Debbie's new home. Oh okay, just a fun
little fact. Not at all, anything that could influence somebody. Not at
all, something that would influence an eleven year old. Oh no, not
at all. He also said that the Warrens came to interview David, like
when they had been called and they came, they came, and they like
interviewed David, and they questioned him about what he was experiencing. And then
the Warrens turned to talk to their mother, but in front of David,
and they talked to the mother about how if they don't get control of this
possession, like he'll start to shout and spit and curse and vaults and in
front of David, and then, shocking me enough, soon after that he
started doing all of those things. Yeah, maybe a smidge bit influenced.
Yes. Carl talked about how his father was the only one. Him and
his father were the only ones to not believe the possession. He recalled how
David had been screaming and cursing because of this quote unquote possession, and the
mother is trying to calm him down, and she's like, I'm your mother.
Come back to me, David, like you know, like fight the
devil and come back to me. And then their dad walks into the room,
picks up David yells at him to like sit the fuck down, stop
what you're doing, and then he walks out of the room and shocking me
enough, the demon listened what a demon listens to dad crazy, He stops
like what he's doing, and he just like shut up, like and like
right, Carol is like that to me, is like solid telling, you
know, because everyone's afraid of their dad, do you know what I mean?
Hmmm, And so he's like, wow, even the demon was scared
of my dad. Carol described this part of his childhood as a living nightmare.
He said that his family was not in any way religious until all of
this started happening with David. His family believed that David's problems were all caused
from something spiritual, but he just felt that his brother needed to see a
doctor. That must be a really lonely experience as well. I know he
had his dad. But when you're like, no, he just needs to
go see a medical professional, and then and then and then like your mother
is like, let's go bring him to the priests. Yeah, he's got
demons in his blood. Yeah, it's like what No. Carl believes that
his family went out to seek the help of the Warrens themselves. So the
Glattals claimed that the priest referred them onto the Warrens, but Carl believes that
his family just went and found them themselves. It's also believed that Debbie had
attended at least one of their seminaris before David was Oh okay Debbie, mm
hmm. Carl feels as though the Warrens exploited his family and only saw them
as a gold mind. Carl had actually gone with his father to the scene
of the crime when Debbie had called, and he is still very much haunted
by seeing Alan Bono lying on the ground dying, of course, and like
he believes that like Ernie is solely responsible for that, and like in the
interview, like he's like like a man died, like he killed somebody,
Yeah, do you know, Like and he's like that seems to be like
forgotten. Do you know, like, hm hmm, it's the main point
of what's going on here. Yeah, And when their mother passed away,
Carol claims that he found diaries belonging to his mother in which she wrote about
how she basically was slipping sleeping pills into their dinner. What excuse me,
ma'am. That is a crime. And he recalls about how like her dinner
used to always be separate from everybody else's, like it used to be in
its own dish. Oh. Yes, And he's like, if she was
slipping us sleeping pills. I can't remember the name of them he mentioned,
like a brand. He was like, if she was slipping us those,
especially like David who was so young at the time, this would cause hallucinations,
like convulsions, seizures, like all all of that stuff. And so
he kind of is like, to me, that explains that. That's why
David believes he was possessed. M m. But I can understand that it.
No, that's not what happened to you. Now. David is like,
no, my mother would have never drugged us, but her journals say
otherwise. Mm hmm, yeah. Yeah. And after Ernie's trial was oh
where their mother went to Los Angeles with the Warrens to like go on TV
to do like these TV interviews, so really drawing attention to everything. Yeah,
and the Warrens promised them a lot of money for a book deal and
told the Glassls that to make the scary, to make the story scary,
because that's what that's what would sell. Oh, perfect, that's great from
the Warrens. Never expected that. What So this case has never fully been
forgotten about. In nineteen eighty three, a friend of the Warrens wrote the
nonfiction like It was a friend of them that wrote this book, The Devil
in Connecticut, And it was classed as a non fiction, but they were
told to make it scary, so it's a fiction. Yeah. The book
was turned into a made for TV movie starring Kevin Bacon. The Demon Murder
Case is okay, Well, if Kevin Bacon is in it, then it's
fucking scary. Ernie and Debbie got married in January nineteen eighty five while he
was serving out his sentence, got that jail house love, and after five
years, five fricking years, Ernie was released for being a model prisoner in
That's not justice, It's not any semblance of justice. In two thousand and
seven, David and Carl sued the author of The Devil in Connecticut, and
they felt that as children they were exploited and that the book exploited what as
a whole the family went through. I mean, I get that somebody else
writes about your family. Now, David and Carl have two different opinions as
what happened in those years. David feels as though his story was exploited for
entertainment and his hell like what he went through, and you know where Carl
feels as though the pain that his family went through and the ordeal of like
because he's like, no, my brother was not possessed, like he just
was mentally ill and therefore, like you are taking advantage of like a mentally
ill kid. Mm hmm. But unfortunately, the court favored with the author
as their mother had signed forms for the author to use all of this inform
and at the time they would have been minors, so which is upsetting for
them because I at the end of the day, it's still is their story
and it's something that happened to them. Yeah, as we know, the
Warrens then have been turned into this magical franchise. The conjuring, and they
released the movie The Devil Made Me Do It. Debbie passed away in twenty
twenty one. Oh okay, Ernie is still very much alive. And as
far as I know, none of the family speak. That's sad because I
guess all the drama would push you away. Yes, and Ernie and Debbie
like fully believe he was possessed and he did not kill Alan Bono like the
Devil made him do that. Carol very much is of the belief, like,
no, you got drunk, you killed a man. Yeah, And
you know, I'm kind of inclined to agree with Carol. Yeah, I
kind of am too. Yeah, And I think it's very very sad that
a man's death was almost like overshadowed, do you know what I mean,
Like along the way, like the Warrens and the fucking lawyer lost sight of
No, he killed somebody. Yeah, there's a family out there missing somebody
right now. Yeah. And according to David, the Warrens like sold him
a dream in order to get their book deal, like they were like,
you're gonna be a multimillion dollar Like you know, you're gonna make so much
money off of this, And in the end, the Glassals were paid something
like four thousand, five hundred dollars and for the book, and the Warrens
were paid like hundreds of thousands. That's rough. Warrens took them for a
wild ride. The more like, the more I learn about the Warrens,
yeah, the more I don't like them, Like probably if you listen back
on old episodes of ours, we're like, fuck, yeah, the Warrens.
But the more, like you say, the more I learn more,
I'm like, oh no, that's gross. Yeah, and like I do
enjoy the movies, like half of them are shit, but like also like
they are entertaining. Like we were talking earlier, it's the fictional Warrens we
love literally and then like you learn that like they literally took this family for
a fucking ride, do you know what I mean? Like now it's completely
like of your own beliefs on whether you want to believe if David was possessed
or not, Like that's up to you. That's your beliefs, that's you
know, mm hmmm. The Warrens saw a family where they believed their child
was possessed, and they thought to themselves, easy fucking money. Like Carol
talks about how like, oh, how convenient. Like the child is in
convulsions, like yelling fucking profanities like and it's like you're gonna die, You're
gonna die. Mm And the Warrens, he's like the first thing they do
is whip out their recording devices and start taking pictures of them. M m.
Do you know, Like he's like, instead of helping him, they
want to record them. But then at the same time, with that having
been said, I feel like when there are no recordings are and there are
no picture, nobody believes say the same thing. We were like, well,
why didn't anybody record it? Why didn't anybody take pictures? I'm not
though, Like so in the documentary you can see photos, like they show
actual photos and like in a few of the photos, like the microphones like
here, oh like it's in the child's face yeah, right up at his
neck. Yeah, and you're like, what give him some room? Yeah,
you're like whatever is that? Like honestly, whatever happened to David,
Like whatever it was, he needed help and he didn't fully get it.
Yeah. Now he like, as I said, like he is like,
no, I was possessed. Mm hmmm, Like he's he fully believes he
was and like, at the end of the day, we weren't there.
It didn't happen to us, it happened to him. So but then I
think as well as an eleven twelve year old, like if like Ed Warren
comes along and it's like you're possessed, You're gonna be like, Ohm,
I gonna shit, I'm possessed. Yeah. Of course. I mean,
your parents tell you something at that age and you take it as truth as
well. So if his mother is telling him you're possessed, you had this,
you're gonna believe it too. Yeah. I also find it very telling
though that like they weren't a super religious family and then they became one,
because Karen is like when the mother is doing all the interviews, like she
talks about her they always went to church and God and this and that,
and he's like, no, we're very like we basically never went to church.
Yeah, and then he's like and then all this started happening, and
then all of a sudden, his mother was like, Okay, church yeah.
But then in the same breath, if I did think something like that
was happening to my child, I wo okay church yeah. Because as well
as that, like that's what movies teach you, do you know what I
mean? Mm hmmm, like they teach you like, oh the demons after
you. So you you you gotta go to church. You gotta believe in
God. Now that's the devil made me do it. You guys, I
would love to hear your thoughts on all of that, like all of it.
Do you think David was possessed? Do you think Ernie was possessed?
Do you think Ernie should have been sentenced to life in prison? Because I'm
done his life in prison five years for murdering somebody? Are you freaking kidding
me? Yeah? It doesn't sit right with me. Like, even if
like he was possessed, it was still his body that murdered somebody. And
you mean to tell me that you're only going to do five freakin' years for
that. Yeah, there's like we keep saying, there is a man dead,
somebody died. Debbie, Yeah, Derby, that's fucking sick. You're
sick. Okay? How old was Ernie again? You got with well,
Ernie was like nineteen when he murdered Alan Bono. So, Debbie, what's
more sick? A judge sentencing sentencing a man for a crime that he committed,
or you watching a preteen grow up and getting him with him while he
is still eighteen and you're in your what twenties, you're sick, fucking freak.
Yeah, well, we really hope you liked this episode. If you
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all I got to say. Well, thank you. I have nothing to
say either. I hope you're having a spectacular October. WHOA, well spectacular
Yeah, we'll get the big word she said, the S word. Oh.
I hope you're enjoying spooky season and let us know what you're dressing up.
That's for Halloween. Okay, Well, we'll see you next week for
another spooky episode because it octop all right, see you next week. Saloncha rocking out