Episode 18: “The Devil Made Me Do It”
In the summer of 1980 in Brookfield, Connecticut, 19-year-old Arne Cheyenne Johnson, his fiance Debbie Glatzel, and her 11-year-old brother David were cleaning up a rental property the couple planned to move into. David was by an old well on the property when he saw an old, sunburned man in jeans and a flannel who began pushing and taunting David and telling him that if the family moved onto the property, he would kill them. When a terrified David told Arne and Debbie, they initially brushed it off as the boy trying to get out of doing chores, until things began to escalate.
David started having night terrors where he saw the old man transform into a beast with black eyes, horns and jagged teeth, and he would wake up with unexplained bruises and scratches. His behavior began to change, and he would growl and hiss like an animal, bite, swear, and recite passages about the Devil from the Bible and “Paradise Lost”. His family reported that he would be flung around the room like a ragdoll and fight against an unseen force.
Terrified, the couple moved with David into Debbie’s mothers house and had the home blessed by a priest, but David’s condition began to worsen. The desperate family reached out to demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren, who sensed an evil presence with the boy and determined that he was possessed. During one of three lesser exorcisms performed, a distraught Arne yelled for the demon to enter him instead and to leave his “little buddy” alone.
Days later, Arne returned to the rental home and peered into the old well, where he says he came face to face with a demon. His behaviors began to change and mimic those that David had suffered from, and Debbie reported Arne would fall into trance like states, growl and bare his teeth like an animal.
On February 16, 1981, Arne and his two sisters as well as Debbie and her 9-year-old cousin Mary all went to the dog kennel where Debbie worked to hang out with their friend and Debbie’s boss, 40-year-old Alan Bono. Alan began drinking heavily, and the situation escalated when Alan grabbed onto little Mary and refused to let go. Arne began growling and baring his teeth, and then pulled out a pocket knife and stabbed Alan to death.
Martin Minnella, Johnson’s lawyer, attempted to submit a plea of not guilty by reason of demonic possession, the first in US history. The judge quickly rejected this and the defense changed their plea to self defense. Arne Cheyenne Johnson’s trial began on October 28th, 1981, and he was sentenced to 10-20 years on November 24th, 1981 for first degree manslaughter. He served five years and married Debbie during his prison stay.
This case inspired the 2021 movie The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It.
Image Sources:
oxygen.com - “What Really Happened With Arne Cheyenne Johnson’s 1981 ‘The Devil Made Me Do It’ Trial?”
archives.lawvirginia.edu - “The Demon Trial”, courtroom sketches by Ida Libby Dengrove