A Demonic Possession in the 1980s

Part XIII of The Possession Diaries

“The Devil Made Me Do It” court case was the first court case in American history where the defendant tried to claim innocence by saying he was demonically possessed.

Arne Cheyenne Johnson somehow managed to make himself the host to a demon that “escaped” during the exorcism of a possessed 12 year old boy named David Glatzel, in Brookfield, Connecticut.

Paranormal activity started when the Glatzels went to clean up a rented property they had just gotten. David “saw” an old man there who pushed him and frightened him.

David’s parents at first thought he was using this old man as an excuse to avoid cleaning, but then David told them the old man had said he’d harm them if they moved in.

David’s visions of this elderly man continued, and in some of them the man was a terrifying beast who muttered things in Latin and threatened to take the boy’s soul.

The family heard odd sounds coming from the attic, but only David saw the man.

The boy went on to suffer night terrors, displayed strange behaviour, and often had inexplicable bruises and scratches on his body.

The Glatzels called in a priest who tried to bless the house, but in the end the family decided the house was evil and stopped renting it.

David’s visions grew steadily worse, happening in the daylit hours as well. Twelve days after the inciting incident, the Glatzels called in two demonologists (Ed & Lorraine Warren) to help them.

Lorraine “saw” a black mist materialising beside David and said that was the sign of a malignant presence.

David’s sister Debbie and their mother had seen him being beaten and choked by invisible hands and that red marks appeared around the boy’s neck afterwards.

David had started doing such things as growling, talking in weird voices, and quoting lines from the Bible or Milton’s Paradise Lost.

Each night a family member had to remain awake with David whilst he went through convulsions.

The Warrens decided David was possessed and performed three “lesser exorcisms” on him. Lorraine said that during these David levitated, stopped breathing for a while, and even made predictions about the future, especially regarding the killing that Arne Cheyenne Johnson would later go on to commit.

Arne tried to force one of the demons to possess his own body while he was participating in the three minor exorcisms.

According to the TV show A Haunting, a few days after Arne tried this the demon attacked him by taking control of his car and making him drive it into a tree, though Arne was unscathed.

After that, Arne went back to the Glatzels’ old rented house to look down an old well that supposedly contained the demon. Arne made eye contact with the demon and became possessed.

He claimed that was the last moment where his thoughts were still lucid.

As David’s condition deteriorated more, Arne and his wife Debbie, who were then living in her mother’s house, moved to a flat close to her new place of work, a dog groomer’s, run by their landlord Alan Bono.

After moving there, Arne began to behave in a similar way to how David had been. He would go into trance states and growl and hallucinate, but have no memory of doing so.

On 16th February 1981, Arne took a sick day off from work at Wright Tree Service and went to the kennel where Debbie was working, along with Wanda (his sister) and Debbie’s nine-year-old cousin, Mary.

Alan Bono bought lunch for them all at a local bar and drank heavily. They returned to the kennel and Debbie took the girls out for pizza, but anticipated something bad happening and returned to the kennel as quickly as possible.

On their return, Alan Bono had become intoxicated by alcohol and grabbed hold of nine-year-old Mary, refusing to let her go.

Arne demanded he let her go. Mary dashed outside for the car while Debbie stood between Alan and Arne, trying to pull Arne away from him. Arne was growling like a wild animal and produced a 13-cm (5 inch) pocket knife, then stabbed Alan several times.

Alan suffered four or five large wounds to his chest, one stretching from his stomach to the bottom of his heart. He died hours later.

Arne was found and arrested two miles away from the crime scene, saying he didn’t mean to hurt anyone and couldn’t remember what he’d done.

As he entered the police car, Arne said he had a drinking problem. When told in police headquarters that Alan had died, Arne became incoherent and fell asleep for 20 – 25 minutes.

He was charged with first-degree murder and held at Bridgeport Correctional Centre with a bail of $125000.

The day after, Lorraine Warren informed police that Arne had been possessed while the murder took place.

Soon the story was all over the media, partly because of the Warrens, whose agents said that lectures, a book, and a film about the case were underway.

Martin Minnella (Arne’s lawyer) had phone calls from all over the world about what was then dubbed the “Demon Murder Trial.”

Martin went to England and met lawyers who’d been involved in two similar cases (though neither of them went to trial).

He planned to bring in exorcism specialists from Europe and threatened to subpoena the priests who conducted exorcisms on David Glatzel if they didn’t cooperate.

The trial happened in Connecticut’s Superior Court on October the 28th, 1981.

Martin tried to get a plea of not guilty due to possession, but the judge (Robert Callahan) quickly rejected this on the grounds of lack of evidence and that it was unscientific. After 15 hours, the jury found Arne guilty of first-degree manslaughter and he was sentenced to prison for 10 to 20 years.

However, he was released early (after almost 5 years) for good behaviour.

In 1983, a book about the case (The Devil In Connecticut) was written by Gerald Brittle with the help of Lorraine Warren. $2000 was paid to the Glatzel family by the publisher.

The book was republished in 2006 and David Glatzel, along with his brother Carl Jr, sued the authors and publishers for violating privacy, libel, and intentional causation of emotional distress.

Carl claimed the book said he did criminal and abusive acts towards his family and other people.

According to Carl, the publicity caused by the killing forced him to leave school and lose friends and job opportunities.

In 2007, Carl started writing a book, (Alone Through the Valley) detailing his side of the events that involved his brother.

Lorraine defended her work with the Glatzels, claiming the six priests agreed at the time that David was possessed and that the supernatural events were true.

Brittle, the author of The Devil in Connecticut, said he wrote the book because “the family wanted the story told,” and that he had videos of over 100 hours of his conversations with the family, and that they agreed the book was accurate and correct before it was printed.

David’s father, Carl Glatzel Sr., denied telling Brittle that his son was possessed.

Arne and Debbie (now married) supported the Warrens’ account of demonic possession and have said that the family were suing for the money.

The possession and killing inspired the premise of a 2021 film, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It.

In 2021, a TV series (Shock Docs) did an episode entitled The Devil Made Me Do It based on this story. Some said it was more accurate than The Conjuring film.

Netflix made a documentary in 2023, The Devil On Trial, based on this case. It included interviews with Carl Glatzel, who suggested a natural alternative to demonic possession that was possibly changing David’s behaviour — the influence of Sominex, a drug used for sleep problems.

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