Chapter 6
1. Unsolved Mysteries, “Rainboy,” first aired on NBC TV, February 10, 1993.
2. Unless otherwise noted, the following quotations are based on interviews from Dimitri Doganis and Bart Layton, “The Rain Man,” Paranormal Witness, season 1, episode 6, produced by RAW TV, first aired on the Syfy Channel, October 12, 2011.
3. Unsolved Mysteries 1993, op. cit.
4. Robert Lenihan, “Mystery Remains Puzzle,” Pocono Record (Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania), April 5, 1991, pp. B1, B4.
5. Kevin McCaney, “Strange Happenings Being Checked,” Pocono Record, March 10, 1983, p. 15.
6. Mark Treinen, “All Eyes on the Tube Watching ‘Rainboy’ Saga,” Pocono Record, February 11, 1993, p. B1.
7. “S-Burg Man on Povich Show,” Pocono Record, June 6, 1994, p. 14.
8. Gary Roberts, personal communication with Robert Bartholomew dated December 20, 2011.
9. Lenihan 1991, op. cit.
10. W. J. Kortz, “Stroudsburg Accepts Police Chief’s Resignation,” The Morning Call (Allentown), November 15, 1984.
11. Christina Tatu, “Stroudsburg Mysteries: The Devil and Don Decker,” Pocono Record, February 5, 2012.
12. Unsolved Mysteries 1993, op. cit.
13. Tatu 2012, op. cit.
14. Tatu 2012, op. cit.
15. Sandra Ho (editor), Moisture Problems in Manufactured Homes: Understanding their Causes and Finding Solutions (Manufactured Housing Research Alliance, 2000).
16. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) (2003), accessed November 10, 2013 at: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/2003/feb/februaryext2003.html.
17. Kyle Imhoff, personal communications dated December 3 and 20, 2011. Mr. Imhoff works for the Pennsylvania State Climate Office.
18. Pennsylvania State University temperature data for Scranton, Pennsylvania, accessed November 23, 2014 at: http://climate.met.psu.edu/www_prod/ida/submit.php.
19. Patrick Huelman, interview with Robert Bartholomew dated December 3, 2011.
20. Unsolved Mysteries, “Rainboy,” first aired on NBC TV, February 10, 1993.
21. Joe Nickell, The Mystery Chronicles (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2004).
22. Tatu 2012, op. cit.
23. Montgomery Ward Catalogue 1983, accessed November 24, 2013 at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wishbook/6137175108/in/set-72157624776668919/.
24. Tatu 2012, op. cit.
25. Tatu 2012, op. cit.
26. W. J. Kortz, “9 People Sentenced in Monroe County Court,” The Morning Call (Allentown), October 28, 1986.
27. Tracy Jordan, “Poconos Restaurant Owner Indicted on Arson Charges,” The Morning Call (Allentown), October 18, 2012.
28. Tatu 2012, op. cit.
29. Raegan Medgie, “Rainman Charged with Arson,” report airing on WNEP (Scranton-Wilkesboro), October 19, 2012, accessed on December 22, 2013, at http://wnep.com/2012/10/19/rainman-charged-with-arson/.
30. Sandra I. Bloom, Creating Sanctuary: Toward the Evolution of Sane Societies, revised edition (New York: Routledge, 2013), p. 155.
31. Bruce Jacobs, “Adolescents and Self-Cutting (Self-Harm): Information for Parents” (Cooperative Extension Service, College of Agriculture and Home Economics, New Mexico State University, 2005), p. 1.
32. Bloom 2013, op. cit., p. 155.
33. Lori Plante, Bleeding to Ease the Pain: Cutting, Self-Injury, and the Adolescent Search for Self (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2007), p. 18.
Chapter 7
1. E. Christopher Emmanuel, Living Divine Harmony (Bloomington, IN: Balboa Press, 2013), p. 5.
2. Ed Warren, Lorraine Warren, Al Snedeker, and Carmen Snedeker, with Ray Garton, In a Dark Place: The Story of a True Haunting (New York: Villard Books, 1992).
3. “The Haunting in Connecticut,” Box Office Mojo, accessed 1 May 1, 2014, at http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=hauntinginconnecticut.htm.
4. Oliver Jones, “Inside Story: The Real-Life Haunting in Connecticut,” People, April 4, 2009, accessed July 29, 2014, at http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20270145,00.html.
5. Jones 2009, op. cit.
6. The two oldest were Carmen’s by a previous marriage.
7. Susan Dunne, “Family Tell-All Is Part of ‘The Haunting’ Set,” The Courant (Hartford, CT), July 14, 2009.
8. Dimitri Doganis and Bart Layton, “The Real Haunting in Connecticut,” Paranormal Witness, season 2, episode 7 (2012).
9. Susan Corica and Glenn Smith, “An Unworldly Being,” Herald Extra (New Britain, Connecticut), August 15, 1988a; Bryant Carpenter, “Southington Haunting Is Daunting,” Record-Journal (Meriden, Connecticut), August 13, 1988; Kathy Rivard, “Southington Family Spooked by House,” Bristol Press (Bristol, Connecticut), August 11, 1988.
10. Corica and Smith 1988a, op. cit.; Carpenter 1988, op. cit.
11. CNN reporter Melissa Long interview with Carmen Snedeker (2009), accessed May 4, 2014, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTsNC3lxGr0.
12. Carpenter 1988, op. cit.; Corica and Smith 1988a, op. cit.; Susan Corica and Glenn Smith, “Haunted House Claim Clouded by Tenant, Landlord Dispute,” Herald (New Britain, Connecticut), August 29, 1988b.
13. Joe Nickell, Entities: Angels, Spirits, Demons, and Other Alien Beings (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1995), p. 131.
14. Ed Warren, Lorraine Warren, Al Snedeker, and Carmen Snedeker, with Ray Garton, In a Dark Place: The Story of a True Haunting (New York: Villard Books, 1992).
15. “I Was Raped By a Ghost,” Sally Jessy Raphael show transcript no. 1084 (Multimedia Entertainment, October 30, 1992), airing on American national television.
16. “A Haunting in Connecticut,” League of Paranormal Investigators International, interview with Sandy, accessed May 4, 2014, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioWGiOXbVRQ.
17. The Maury Povich program was taped on March 2, 1992, and aired soon after.
18. This show was taped October 19 but aired on October 30, Halloween Eve.
19. “I Was Raped By a Ghost,” op. cit.
20. “I Was Raped By a Ghost,” op. cit.
21. Ken Dimauro and Jeanne Starmack, “Demonic Presence Said to Plague Family,” Observer (Southington, Connecticut), August 18, 1989.
22. Corica and Smith 1988b, op. cit.
23. Dimitri Doganis and Bart Layton, “The Real Haunting in Connecticut,” Paranormal Witness, season 2, episode 7 (2012).
24. Doganis and Layton 2012, op. cit.
25. Doganis and Layton 2012, op. cit.
26. Doganis and Layton 2012, op. cit.
27. Warren et al. 1992, op. cit., pp. 145–147.
28. Karen Schmidt, “Couple Sees Ghost; Skeptics See Through It,” Hartford Courant, October 30, 1992.
29. Joe Nickell, “Death of a Demonologist: Ed Warren dead at 79,” Skeptical Inquirer 30:6 (November/December 2006), p. 8.
30. “Damned Interview: Ray Garton,” interview by Ray Bendici in March 2009 in Damned Connecticut, accessed May 1, 2014, at http://www.damnedct.com/damned-interview-ray-garton.
31. “Damned Interview: Ray Garton,” op. cit.
32. “Damned Interview: Ray Garton,” op. cit.
33. “Damned Interview: Ray Garton.” op. cit.
34. “Damned Interview: Ray Garton,” op. cit.
35. Kim Newman, “The Haunting in Connecticut,” Sight and Sound 19(6) (June 2009): 60.
36. Doganis and Layton 2012, op. cit.
37. “The Haunting in Connecticut: The True Story with Carmen Reed,” interview with Rita Scott from The Crypt interview program on Westport Radio in Ireland, accessed July 4, 2013, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxt3C1g_oyc.
38. “I was Raped by a Ghost,” op. cit.
39. “I was Raped by a Ghost,” op. cit.
40. “A Haunting in Connecticut,” League of Paranormal Investigators International, interview with Sandy, accessed May 4, 2014, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioWGiOXbVRQ.
41. “I was Raped by a Ghost,”
op. cit.; “A Haunting in Connecticut,” op. cit.
42. Doganis and Layton 2012, op. cit.
43. Doganis and Layton 2012, op. cit.
44. Doganis and Layton 2012, op. cit.
45. “The Haunting in Connecticut: The True Story with Carmen Reed,” interview with Rita Scott from The Crypt interview program on Westport Radio in Ireland, published July 4, 2013, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxt3C1g_oyc.
46. Scott Beaulieu, “Haunting” House Owner: Casper’s Not Here. ‘A Haunting in Connecticut?’ Not Likely, the Homeowner Said,” NBC Connecticut, March 16, 2009, accessed 2 May 2, 2014, at http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/I-Aint-Afraid-of-No-Ghost.html.
47. “‘Haunting in Connecticut’ Draws Unwanted Visitors to Real-Life House,” Associated Press report in the New York Daily News, March 23, 2009.
Chapter 8
1. Isaac Asimov, The Roving Mind (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus, 1997), p. 43.
2. Annekatrin Puhle and Adrian Parker, “Science in Search of Spirit,” in James Houran (editor), From Shaman to Scientist: Essays on Humanity’s Search for Spirits (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2004), pp. 9–10. Quote from p. 10.
3. Puhle and Parker 2004, op. cit.
4. Bette Bonder, Laura Martin, and Andy Miracle, Culture in Clinical Care (Thorofare, NJ: SLACK Incorporated, 2002), p. 30.
5. Ruth M. Underhill, Red Man’s Religion: Beliefs and Practices of the Indians North of Mexico (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965), cited in Shelley Osterreich, Native North American Shamanism: An Annotated Bibliography (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998), p. 48.
6. See Robert E. Bartholomew, “The Conspicuous Absence of a Single Case of Latah-Related Death or Serious Injury,” Transcultural Psychiatry 36(3) (1999): 369–376; Robert E. Bartholomew, rejoinder to invited replies by Drs. Ronald Simons, Michael G. Kenny, and Robert L. Winzeler on “The Conspicuous Absence of a Single Case of Latah-Related Death or Serious Injury,” Transcultural Psychiatry 36(3) (1999): 393–397; Robert E. Bartholomew, “The Medicalization of the Exotic: Latah as a Colonialism-Bound ‘Syndrome,’” Deviant Behavior 18 (1997): 47–75; Robert E. Bartholomew, “The Idiom of Latah: Reply to Dr. Simons,” The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 183 (1995): 184–185; Robert E. Bartholomew, “Culture-Bound Syndromes as Fakery,” Skeptical Inquirer 19(6) (1995): 36–41.
7. Blake Smith, Benjamin Radford, and Karen Stollznow (hosts), “The Warren Omission,” Monster Talk radio show airing on October 16, 2013, accessed May 2, 2014, at http://www.skeptic.com/podcasts/monstertalk/.
8. Smith, Radford, and Stollznow 2013, op. cit.
9. Smith, Radford, and Stollznow 2013, op. cit.
10. “I Was Raped By a Ghost,” Sally Jessy Raphael TV show transcript no. 1084 (Multimedia Entertainment, airing October 30, 1992) on American national television. Multimedia Entertainment Incorporated, Show 1030-92.
11. “Ed and Lorraine Warren: The Haunting in Connecticut” interview with the Warrens on the Seekers of the Supernatural TV program hosted by Tony Sparrow, accessed May 5, 2014, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8NpfyNhfp4.
12. David Hess, Science in the New Age: The Paranormal, Its Defenders and Debunkers (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1993), p. 138.
13. Emily D. Edwards, “A House That Tries to Be Haunted: Ghostly Narratives in Popular Film and Television,” in James Houran and Rense Lange (eds.), Hauntings and Poltergeists: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2001), p. 86.
Index
Adelman, Howard, 80
Adolescents: poltergeist faking syndrome, 129, 136–37; targeting of, xii
Alford, David, 3
Allen, Thomas, 22
Altemus, Kathy, 121–22
Ames, Aldrich, 87
Amityville 3-D, 96
Amityville 4: The Evil Escapes, 96
Amityville Asylum, The, 96
Amityville Curse, The, 96
Amityville Dollhouse, 96
Amityville Haunting, The, 96
Amityville horror, xiv, 79–80; a closer analysis, 86–91; Danny's story, 98–99; doubts about, 84–85; as enduring myth, 91–92, 99–101; extraordinary claims, 81; money as motivator, 92–98; unraveling a mystery, 82–85
Amityville Horror, The (Anson), xiv, 80, 85, 91–92, 96
Amityville Horror, The (movie), xiv, 80, 85, 96, 119
Amityville II: The Possession, 96
Amityville: It's About Time, 96
Amityville: New Generation, 96
An American Haunting, xii–xiii, 1–2
Anson, Jay, xiv, 80, 83–84, 92, 96; artistic license by, 84–85; inaccurate claims by, 86–89, 91–92, 94–95; lawsuits against, 85, 98; Lutzes’ beating of children, 158n9; on the Lutzes' finances, 94; money as motivator for, 95; as skeptic, 94
Arnold, Matthew, 16
Arnold, Mrs. John, 77
Authenticated History of the Bell Witch and Other Stories of the World's Greatest Unexplained Phenomenon (Ingram), 4, 10
Avant, George, 15
Ayers, Nancy, 18
Bartholomew, Robert, 132, 142n30
“Based on a true story” genre: The Amityville Horror, 80, 96; documentaries, distinguished from, x; The Exorcist, 21; falsehood in, 129–30, 137; Hollywood claims, x, xv; the Warrens and, 134
Bathsheba, 69, 75, 77
Batts, Katy, 1–2, 15
Baujan, John, 105–8, 112, 115
Bauman, Steve, 82
Bell, Elizabeth “Betsy,” 1–2, 5–6, 12, 17, 142n20
Bell, John, xii, 1–2, 4–6
Bell, Lucy, 1
Bell, Richard Williams, 2, 4–7, 9–10, 14, 17–18
Bell Witch: accounts of, 1–4; Bell diary account, 4–6, 9–10; functions of the legend, 19–20; as hoax, 11–20; Jackson and, 7–9, 11; as Masonic spoof, 6–8
Bell Witch, The: The Full Account (Fitzhugh), 3
Bell Witch Cantata, The (Bryan), 3
Bell Witch Cave, 2–4, 19
Bell Witch Haunting, The, 3
Bell Witch: The Movie, 3
Bishop, Frank, xiii, 22–29
Blackburn, William, 106, 110, 115
Blair, Linda, 21
Blatty, William Peter, xiii, 22–23
Bloom, Sandra, 116
Bowdern, William, 22, 27
Bowman, Elizabeth, 25
Brinkley, Bill, 22
Brown, Alan, 23
Brown, Nathan, 97
Bryan, Charles, 3
Bubb, Frank, Sr., 23
Burch, Frank, 91, 100–101
Buzzuto, James, 21
Calf-napping story, 147n112
Cammaroto, Pat, 89
Campbell, Audrey, 3
Christopher, Milbourne, 37–38, 44–46, 49–51, 53–54, 136
Cinematic neurosis, 21
Cleary, Francis, 23
Clifford, Colin, 75
Community deceptions, 16–17
Complete Idiot's Guide to the Paranormal, The (Brown), 97
Conjuring, The, xiii–xiv, 57, 72, 74, 76, 119
Connolly, Helen, 40
Cook, Jack, 13, 16–17, 143n32
Cornell, Tony, x–xi
Cromarty, Barbara and James, 91, 93, 98–101
Crowe, Catherine, ix
Darden, Mahalia, 18
Davenport brothers, 31
Davies, Paul, 63
Davies, William, 105, 112, 115
Decker, Don, xiv, 103–4, 133, 136; the episode, 104–6; explanation of events, 113–15; as hoaxster?, 116–17; ice damming as explanation, 110–12; photos, lack of, 112–13; self-mutilation by, 115–16, 123; witnesses at the house, 106–9; witnesses at the jail, 109–10
DeFeo, Geraldine, 85
DeFeo, Ronald “Butch,” Jr., 80, 82, 91, 93
DiDio, Laura, 83
Dissociation, 67, 116
Doak, Henry Melville, 10
Documentaries, x
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan, 108
Drehsler, Alex, 95–96
Duke University P
arapsychology Laboratory, xiii, 34, 37–38, 42–43, 48
Eden, “Bims,” 19
Edwards, Douglas, 35
Edwards, Emily, 137
Encyclopedia of Freemasonry (Waite), 7
Enfield poltergeist, 143n38
Exorcist: accounts of, 21–23; Bishop's diary, 23–29; as a hoax, 29–31
Exorcist, The (Blatty), xiii, 22–23
Exorcist, The (movie), xiii, 21–23, 30–31, 81, 112
Faxon, Charles, 148n119
Faxon, Henry, 148n119
Featherston, Joshua W., 18
Fitzhugh, Pat, 3
Fox, Jack, 44
Fox sisters, 31
Freemasonry, 7–8, 143n52, 144n61
French, Chris, 149n14
Gardner, Josh, 142n20
Garton, Ray, 121, 123–25
Gauld, Alan, x–xi
Ghosts: adolescents and, 136; belief in, ix, 99, 135, 139n2; chill, association with, 112; from friendly to threatening, 130; Hollywood and, 137; little, 64; noisy, xi, 47, 131; in the Perron home, 73; photos of, 134; the Snedeckers and, 120, 122, 126
Gionfriddo, Al, 89
Glass, Jesse, 10, 14–15, 18, 143n32, 147n111, 148n119
Goodspeed, 11–12
Guiley, Rosemary, 34, 94
Gunn, John Allen, 14, 18
Halloran, Walter, 23, 27
Haunting in Connecticut, 119; background to, 119–20; discrepancies in the stories, 125–27; fraud behind the book, 123–25; investigation, 121–23; the Warrens arrive, 120–21
Haunting in Connecticut, The, xiv–xv, 119, 123–25, 127
Hauntings. See Poltergeists and hauntings
Hayes, Chad and Carey, 57
Herrmann, James, 35–37, 41–42, 44, 47, 50–51, 54
Herrmann, James “Jimmy,” Jr., xiii, 35, 37–39, 41–47, 49–54
Herrmann, Lucille, 35–36, 43–44, 49, 54
Herrmann, Lucille, Jr., 35, 37
Hess, David, 137
Hevesi, Dennis, 89, 92
History of Tennessee (Goodspeed), 11–12
Ho, Sandra, 110
Hoaxes: Amityville horror, 85–91; Bell Witch, 11–20; community deceptions, 16–17; deception hypothesis, xii; Decker, 117; The Exorcist, 29–31; fraud, human tradition of, 132–34; ideas, power of, 30–31; literary, 16; Perron haunting, 68, 76; Popper the Poltergeist, 41–42, 49–55; reasons for, xii; the Snedeckers, 123–27; the Warrens, 123–27, 134–35
American Hauntings: The True Stories behind Hollywood's Scariest Movies—from The Exorcist to The Conjuring: The True Stories behind Hollywood’s Scariest Movies—from The Exorcist to The Conjuring Page 23
