The Controversial True Story Behind The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It Movie
Bettmann/Getty ImagesArne Cheyenne Johnson fatally stabbed his landlord and then infamously claimed the Devil made him do it.
In 1981, 19-year-old Arne Cheyenne Johnson was charged with murdering his landlord Alan Bono in Brookfield, Connecticut. But this was no normal murder case. Johnson claimed that he had been possessed by a demon when he stabbed Bono — and that “the Devil made me do it.”
It was certainly an unconventional defense, but the timeline of events leading up to the murder painted an alarming picture.
At the time, Johnson was engaged to a woman named Debbie Glatzel. Debbie’s younger brother David, 11, had begun exhibiting strange behavior, claiming to be tormented by a figure with “big black eyes, a thin face with animal features and jagged teeth, pointed ears, horns and hoofs.”
Tell-tale signs of paranormal activity purportedly followed. David reportedly hissed, seized, spoke in unusual voices, and saw visions of increasingly bizarre beings. At times, it seemed as if he was being attacked by invisible forces. Neighbors and family members tried helping him, to no avail.
So, the family eventually called Ed and Lorraine Warren.
Warner Bros. PicturesRuairi O’Connor as Arne Cheyenne Johnson in The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It movie, which was inspired by the violent true story of Johnson’s murder of his landlord.
Upon seeing David, the Warrens determined that he was possessed by a demon. Over several exorcisms — allegedly three conducted with priests present — David’s condition seemed to worsen. During these attempts at expelling the demon, David reportedly levitated, cursed, and even briefly stopped breathing. Shockingly, he also allegedly predicted that a murder would happen — and that Johnson would be the perpetrator.
Johnson seemingly sealed his fate when he made a plea with the spirit: “Take me on, leave my little buddy alone.”
Then, on Feb. 16, 1981, Johnson was at a dog kennel that Bono managed. The two were known to be friendly and meet up at the kennel often, but things that day weren’t so pleasant. Debbie Glatzel was working at the kennel with her nine-year-old cousin Mary when Bono, in a drunken rage, allegedly grabbed Mary. Johnson reportedly flew into a rage himself, growling at Bono as he pulled a pocketknife and stabbed the man multiple times.
Bono died of his wounds, and Johnson was quickly arrested.
At the trial, the bizarre demonic possession defense was introduced. Johnson claimed to remember nothing of the act, asserting that a demon had compelled him. The plea, however, was rejected, as the court found it unprovable. The Warrens’ support of Johnson’s claims didn’t help.
“They have an excellent vaudeville act, a good road show,” a mentalist named George Kresge said of the Warrens. “It’s just that this case more involves clinical psychologists than it does them.”
Though the movie The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It accurately shows that the Warrens were unable to protect Johnson from facing legal consequences, many aspects of the film were entirely fictional, such as the idea that an occultist priest had placed a curse on the Glatzels.
In the end, the real Johnson was convicted of first-degree manslaughter on Nov. 24, 1981, and he was sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison. He only served about five, though, and when he left at age 24, he and Debbie Glatzel married, but Debbie’s brother Carl later ended up suing Lorraine Warren and Gerald Brittle for publishing The Devil in Connecticut, a book about the case, arguing that they had exploited his family for monetary gain.
