The Demonic Possession Of Arne Cheyenne Johnson, The Accused Murderer Behind The Devil Made Me Do It
Bettmann Archive/Getty ImagesArne Cheyenne Johnson arriving at court in March 1981.
On Feb. 16, 1981, 19-year-old Arne Cheyenne Johnson stabbed 40-year-old Alan Bono to death in Brookfield, Connecticut. But though Johnson’s guilt seemed undeniable, his defenders offered a surprising explanation for his actions: They said that the murder was caused by demonic possession.
“The courts have dealt with the existence of God,” Johnson’s attorney, Martin Minella, said according to The New York Times. “Now they’re going to have to deal with the existence of the Devil.”
Indeed, Johnson’s defense team insisted that he’d been possessed by the same demon that had reportedly possessed his girlfriend’s younger brother. The 12-year-old had allegedly had visions of an old man with “burnt” skin, suffered from severe convulsions, and kicked, bitten, and cursed at his family.
Bettmann/Getty ImagesArne Cheyenne Johnson was found guilty of first-degree manslaughter and served five years in prison.
While trying to help his girlfriend’s family with the younger brother, Johnson had allegedly spoken straight to the demon. Multiple times, the family insisted, he had told the purported demon, “Come into me – leave the little lad alone.”
That appeal, they said, had caused Johnson’s demonic possession.
But though a subsequent investigation found that Johnson’s girlfriend’s family had sought help from priests — and even from paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren — for their son, local police insisted that there was nothing supernatural about Bono’s murder.
“It was not an unusual crime,” Police Chief John Anderson told The Washington Post. “Somebody got angry, an argument resulted.”
A jury seemed to agree. After deliberating for three days, they found Arne Cheyenne Johnson guilty of first-degree manslaughter. He was later sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison, though he served five.
His story, though, has lived on. Forty years after Johnson stabbed Bono to death, the 2021 film The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It dramatized this possible case of demonic possession.
