The Demonologist: The Extraordinary Career of Ed and Lorraine Warren

by Brittle, Gerald

  “Anyway,” Ed goes on, “it was apparent I was going to have to do something that very afternoon to stop the disturbance. In a situation like this, the best solution is to ‘Stab the devil with his own pitchfork,' so to speak—therefore, what I had to do was reverse the ritual that Steven had performed. I did this, at considerable danger to myself, but it put an immediate stop to the action, and also nullified any future evil the man had projected—because it committed the demonic to perform the evil on itself, or else cease the oppression altogether.

  “That afternoon, when our work was done, Mr. Zellner wanted to know if we would take the conjuring mirror with us when we left I said, ‘Sure.’ That way, at least I knew I wouldn’t have to come back on the same case twice. So, I put the mirror in the trunk of our car, and Lorraine and I started back home, just before dark.

  “When I was young and new to the dangers of this work,” says Ed, “I sought the advice of very learned people who had long ago learned the deeper secrets of this world. At that time, a very wise man told me, ‘Ed, I would never go into homes and confront the kind of entities you do for any reason—especially where the demonic is concerned. Once you cross the threshold into the world of darkness, you will forever live in danger, as will all those whom you love. Like it or not, you will be unique—and alone—among men. Never forget, the diabolical forces you challenge are clever, for unlike any mortal, they possess the wisdom and the knowledge of the Ages.’

  “It was bitterly cold that evening. The roads had ice patches on them, so we took our time. I also knew that removing the mirror incensed certain malicious spirits and made me the object of their wrath, so I made it a point to be extra careful driving. Well, caution or not, about five miles from the man’s house, I hit a small pothole. Under ordinary circumstances, it wouldn’t have been of any consequence, but on this occasion it exploded a new, hundred dollar, radial tire—something that’s almost impossible to do. This made our car veer into the oncoming lane of traffic. Cars screeched and swerved, missing us by an inch. It was a miracle we weren’t killed right there.

  “After I changed the tire, I got onto the parkway. A large tractor-trailer came up from behind our car, moved around the left side, and then inserted itself in the lane in front of us. I noticed there was something strange about the truck right off: it didn’t have any lettering, plates, or markings on it. Suddenly, off this dry pavement, the truck began throwing up gallons of green, gelatinous sludge on our windshield, making it impossible for me to see out. The windshield wipers were barely able to move the slop away. When I was able to see again, the truck had vanished. Yet, no sooner did I clear off the windshield, than this same truck moved up from the left, got into the lane in front of us, and caused the same mess to occur again.

  “By the third time this happened, it was evident that something sinister was going on, so I pulled off the road and let traffic go by while I cleaned the mess off the windshield. Five minutes later, after we got rolling again, the very same truck appeared, passed on the left, recklessly swung into the lane ahead of us, and immediately proceeded to throw up gallons of this thick, green slop. The stuff only hit our car, and when I managed to regain visibility, the truck was gone, just like before. Similar things have happened to us when we’ve been driving to or from other investigations. It’s never been this green sludge before, but our car has been deluged with downfalls of urine and—on one occasion—beer. As usual, it’s only our car that gets hit.

  “Anyway, this business with the truck repeated itself at least a half-dozen times, and there was no way I could shake him—or it. The situation was so dangerous we fully expected to be killed. I finally managed to exit off the parkway at the first opportunity, and got onto a back road leading to Connecticut.

  “Things went all right for about an hour after that,” Ed continues. “There was almost no traffic on that back road, so we both felt pretty safe. But then suddenly, in my rear-view mirror, I noticed a car moving up from behind at tremendous speed. It was dark by now, yet this car had no headlights on at all! The only thing I could make out was a pair of dim parking lights. In no time at all, the car rushed up behind us, swerved into the passing lane, and raced on up the road. This was a jet-black car, and I swear the driver missed hitting us by no more than an inch. Lorraine, looking at the car as it went by, said it was as though the devil himself had just passed! ‘It might as well be,’ I told her, ‘because the damn fool nearly killed us.’ The guy was nuts, traveling that fast at night on an icy road with no headlights.

  “I continued on my way as this guy went tearing down the road ahead of us. In the distance, I saw him travel over a one-lane suspension bridge, then begin climbing up a hill. All I could see of his black car were the rear parking lights, and I was glad to be rid of him. But when he got to the top of the hill, about a mile off, I saw him hit the brakes, turn his whole car around, and come racing back down the hill. An awful, sick feeling came over me then. All I could think was that we were going to have a terrible accident.

  “Now, I had already started our car across that narrow suspension bridge, but by the time I’d driven no more than a third of the way across, this character had traveled full speed down the hill and was starting onto the bridge from the other side! ‘What’s this?’ I remember saying to myself at the time. ‘Is this guy on some kind of death trip?’

  “With him bearing down on us at high speed, there was no chance to do anything like back up and let him pass. Just the opposite—if he didn’t stop immediately, we were going to crash head on! But he just kept coming! The bridge arched, like a trestle, over a ravine. If I swerved to the left or right, we’d have plunged into the valley and been wiped out for sure. When my headlights picked up the chrome grill of his car, I yelled to Lorraine to get down on the floor. Because, sure enough, here comes this maniac right down the middle of the bridge, racing straight at us.

  “He’s doing ninety. I’m doing forty. At that point, even if we both tried to stop, the momentum would have still carried our cars into a collision. It was an impossible situation. Still, I had to do something. With five seconds to go, my life was reduced to one basic question: Should I swerve or go straight? At the last moment, something told me keep going straight!

  “There was no time left. My last words to Lorraine were ‘Call on Saint Michael!’ With two seconds to go—and in these situations you think in terms of time, not distance—my arms are braced and I’m ready for the hit. One second before crashing, I draw my final breath. Then, right smack at the moment of impact…SWISH!!! He’s a phantom! Lorraine was right.”

  Religious writers have often called the demonic spirit an “evil genius”—a veiled reference to the premeditated strategy that can be discerned when the demonic is responsible for disturbances in a home. During an investigation, therefore, it is this intelligence—a rational moving force behind the phenomena—that the demonologist primarily looks for.

  Because of the extraordinary nature of Ed and Lorraine Warren’s work, the strategy of the demonic often envelops them too. Indeed, it begins even before they are requested to enter an investigation, or follow up a call for help. Ed explains recent vandalism that occurred in his office:

  “This happens a couple of times a year, usually after sunset. The last time, though, it happened in broad daylight. Lorraine and I were in the kitchen after lunch. First the phone rang. Lorraine picked up the receiver, but since there was no one on the line, she hung up. About a minute later, the phone rang again—but instead of the normal, intermittent rings, it rang continuously. When Lorraine picked up the receiver, a deep-throated, animal growl came across the line.

  “She became upset and handed the phone to me, and I listened to the growling too. No sooner did we hang up than our German shepherd began barking savagely outside. At that point, what sounded like a violent brawl started up in my office. You could hear furniture being thrown around, with crashing and breaking sounds going on for a good ten minutes. Most people’s inclination would ha
ve been to run down and find out what’s happening, of course, except you wouldn’t want to have seen what was going on down there!

  “An hour later, we went into the office. It was a complete wreck. Pictures were torn off the walls, files were dumped over. Books, papers, chairs, lamps, tables all were thrown into a pile in the center of the room. We know from experience this was not the work of human beings. This is the demonic.

  “Understand, these entities are spiritual hoodlums. They’re always down there. You see them sometimes out of the corner of your eye, flitting from here to there. Other times, they’ll be loitering between the physical and non-physical state: semi-materialized, formless, like a charcoal-gray cloud. We’ve got an understanding,” Ed says ironically, but deadly serious. “They don’t bother me, and I don’t throw holy water on them.”

  Then why was the office torn up?

  “Right now,” Ed answers, “we don’t know why this buildup is taking place, but most likely more strange things will go on—hopefully nothing serious. This kind of thing routinely occurs a week or two before we’re called in to investigate a serious case where the demonic is involved. Right now, all we know is that somewhere, someone is being either oppressed or possessed by the demonic. The person or family under siege probably has no idea who Lorraine and I are, let alone how to get hold of us. But one way or another, they’ll call for help. The spirits, however, know his too. That’s part of the reason why the office was torn up: to try and intimidate us right now. As I say, there’s a method and a strategy to all these phenomena.”

  The religious community has long been the target for demoniacal attack, with the pious being the very select target. Compare Ed Warren’s statements with this passage from the biography of Padre Pio:

  Many times, entering his modest little cell, Pio found everything upside down, his cot, coverings, books, and ink splattered over the walls. These strange spirits appeared to him under the most diverse forms, often in the habit of monks. One evening he saw that his bed was surrounded by fearful monsters... they grasped him, shook him and threw him on the floor and against the walls as they had often done to the Curé of Ars....To no one, outside his confessor, did he say anything about these visitations.

  One night he saw enter his cell a monk under the form and aspect of Padre Agostino, his old confessor. The feigned monk counseled him and exhorted him to give up his life of asceticism and privations, affirming that God could not approve of his way of living. Padre Pio, stupefied that Padre Agostino should speak in this manner, ordered him to cry out with him, “Viva Gesu”[Long Live Jesus].

  The strange personage disappeared immediately, leaving in the room a strange odor of stinking sulphur.…*

  Obviously, demonology arose in the religious community as a necessary protection against this incredible unworldly influence. And though the matter is usually kept confidential today, all major religions have specialist clergy assigned to demonology and exorcism; not as a remnant from the past (Padre Pio died in 1968) but as a real contemporary necessity. For Catholics, demonology is a subject important enough to be taught to clergy at the Pontifical universities in Rome. “The religious community would rather not have to deal with the problem of demoniacal phenomena,” says Ed. “They only do so because they have to.”

  As a discipline, demonology incorporates the study of philosophy, theology, psychology (both normal and abnormal), anthropology, chemistry, biology, physics, and metaphysics. Such a broad-based approach enables the clergyman-demonologist to determine, when other researchers cannot, whether unusual phenomena are ultimately supernatural in origin. Such judgments are serious; people’s lives often hang in the balance.

  Besides knowledge, the demonologist or exorcist must possess an unshakeable inner strength and be totally in command in situations of wild, unrestrained pandemonium. “A person who walks into a full-blown demonic situation without self-control,” Ed notes, “would be haywire in five minutes. The phenomena come at you separately through all five senses; at the same time, it pounces on your personal psychology. If you even waver, you falter, and if you falter, you fall prey to a force that specializes in the innocent, the ignorant, and the fallen.

  “What’s worse,’ Ed astonishingly adds, “these spirits know your whole life: past, present, and to some degree, the future. In fact, when I’m working with the possessed, the first thing the possessing entity usually says to me is, ‘Ed Warren, I KNOW WHO YOU ARE!’ ”

  Although Ed is not a clergyman, he nevertheless performs much of the work of the clergy in this field. “Traveling, long-term investigations, data analysis, discernment of spirit forces, counseling, follow-ups—things the clergy have no time to do—this is my work, and more,” says Ed. “Being a demonologist is something you don’t broadcast, you understand, because the very word tends to stop people in their tracks. There’s also no sense in alarming people, especially if they really are caught up in a demonic situation and don’t know it.”

  Anyone who’s ever witnessed the vile, ungodly phenomena brought about by malicious inhuman spirits knows that a demonologist risks his life every time he enters a home to confront the forces of darkness. Yet that job must be done. Otherwise, individuals who unwittingly fall into the trap of the demonic will suddenly find themselves helpless and alone in the presence of powers that are merciless merchants of terror and violence. And with that, the strategy of the demonic will have just begun.

  As Mr. Zellner so aptly put it when first describing his problem to Ed Warren, “There’s an invisible being in my house with a deranged mind that’s causing havoc and trying to overwhelm me.” Though he didn’t know it at the time, Mr. Zellner not only identified the problem, but defined the demonic’s basic strategy in one fell swoop.

  * Father John Nicola, Diabolical Possession and Exorcism. Rockford, I11.: TAN, 1974.

  * Padre Pio: The Stigmatist, by Rev. Charles Carty, TAN Books. 1953 edition.

  VII

  Infestation:

  The Process Begins

  “Long before we become involved in a case, in fact, long before we’re even aware there is a case at all,” says Lorraine, “strange occurrences will begin to happen. My word for them is ‘little-big-things.’ The telephone will ring in an odd way, and when I answer it, there’ll be voices whispering in the distance, or animal growls, or bizarre sound effects coming across the line. Later on, when the case comes into the open, we’re liable to hear these same whisperings or sound effects at the haunting site.

  “Beyond that, other disturbing things are likely to happen to us before a demonic case approaches. Around midnight, we’ll hear someone walking around in circles on the front porch, or pacing back and forth on the rear deck of the house. We’ll check, of course, but no one will be there, though the footsteps may continue to be audible. Other times, we’ll hear footsteps running up a stairway inside the house, trying to frighten us. Bright car lights will be seen pulling into the driveway, followed by the sound of footsteps, and then three knocks at the front door. But again, upon checking, there won’t be anybody at the door, and there’ll suddenly be no car in the driveway. Often, we’re liable to hear a ruckus out in Ed’s office, although the office door is locked and the sonic alarms haven’t been tripped. We may be sitting quietly at home when a rush of freezing cold wind sweeps through the house, or there will be the rustle of clothes sounding like someone has just walked by. A black cat may saunter into the living room, sit down, and vanish—symbolizing demonic involvement.

  “Two nights ago, Ed was called out of town on official business to the Midwest, and I felt terribly apprehensive about his safety. At exactly three o’clock in the morning, there was a tremendous, incredible crash, complete with breaking windows and the tinkle of glass. It actually sounded as though the roof had caved in! I got up and walked around the house using a flashlight—because light stuns the demonic—but there was nothing to be seen. Although nothing physical had happened, the thunderous crash still scared me to jitters. You just do
n’t get accustomed to this kind of thing! Instead, Ed and I have come to understand that such negative ‘set-ups,’ as we call them, are part of a larger, more comprehensive demonic strategy that’s already in effect before we are ever called in. It’s only in retrospect, once the case is over, that these disturbing incidents tie in. What we do know beforehand, though, is that some person or family is being closed in by a spirit that wants no interference and will do almost anything to prevent detection.”

  As the time nears for the Warrens to become involved in a particular case, obstructions and interference in their lives become more and more overt. If someone desperate for assistance sends a letter, it is apt to be delivered to the wrong address. If someone tries to telephone, the instrument will not ring, although Ed and Lorraine are home and available. Messages spoken into their answering machine are strangely not recorded or distorted by overriding static. Once the message does get through, and the Warrens leave for the site, anything can be expected to happen to them on the way, including head-on collisions with phantom cars. And as Lorraine notes: “When viewed in isolation, none of these obstructions make any sense at the time; they amount to being no more than curious coincidences. Again, only after the fact, when viewed in totality, do the delays and obstructions tie in with a larger strategy.”