Arne Johnson

The trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson, also known as the "Devil Made Me Do It" case, is the first known court case in the United States in which the defense sought to prove innocence based upon the claim of demonic possession and denial of personal responsibility for the crime.

In October 1980, the Warrens contacted Brookfield police to warn them that the situation was becoming dangerous.

According to eyewitness testimony, Arne Johnson coerced one of the demons, purportedly within David, to possess him while participating in David's exorcisms.

It is here that A Haunting veers away from the circumstances of Johnson's possession as described by those involved.

According to the show, a few days after Johnson egged the demon on during the exorcism, he was attacked rather viciously by the demon, which allegedly took control of his car and forced it into a tree, but Johnson was unharmed.

After this incident, Johnson returned to the rental property to examine an old well that supposedly housed the demon.

In both the dramatized version and his personal account, Johnson said that this was his final encounter with the demon while completely lucid.

After encountering the demon at the well, and making eye contact with it, he became possessed.

The Warrens claim to have warned him not to do this (although their warning was not mentioned in A Haunting).

As David's condition worsened further, Debbie and Johnson, who had been living in her mother's home, decided it was time to move.

On November 24, 1981, in Brookfield, Connecticut, Arne Cheyenne Johnson was convicted of first-degree manslaughter for the killing of his landlord, Alan Bono.

According to testimony by the Glatzel family, 12-year-old David Glatzel allegedly had played host to a demon.

After witnessing a number of increasingly ominous occurrences involving David, his family, exhausted and terrified, decided to enlist the aid of Ed and Lorraine Warren in a last-ditch effort to "cure" the child.

The Glatzel family, along with the Warrens, then proceeded to have multiple priests petition the Catholic Church to have a formal exorcism performed on David.

The process continued for several days, concluding when, according to those present, a demon fled the child's body and took up residence within Johnson.

These events were documented in the book The Devil In Connecticut by Gerald Brittle.

Several months later, Johnson killed his landlord during a party.

His defense lawyer argued in court that he was possessed, but the judge ruled that such a defense could never be proven and was therefore infeasible in a court of law.

Johnson was subsequently convicted, though he served only five years of a ten to twenty-year sentence.

The trial attracted media attention from around the world and has obtained a level of notoriety due to numerous depictions of the events in literature and television.

A live-action TV prequel titled Where Demons Dwell was released on August 31, 2006.

The story was later made into a film adaptation titled The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021).

Arne Cheyenne Johnson and Debbie Glatzel provided firsthand accounts for the version of events depicted in Discovery Channel's A Haunting, episode "Where Demons Dwell".

They said their father was an eyewitness to demonic possession.

Both Johnson and Debbie were adamant in their support of the Warrens' recollection of events.

They asserted that paranormal activity began after they went to clean up a rental property they had just acquired.

David recalled an old man suddenly appeared, pushing and terrifying him.

The couple initially thought David was using the old man as an excuse to avoid cleaning, but David informed them that the old man had vowed to harm the Glatzels if they moved into the rental home.

David's visions of the old man included the man appearing as a demonic beast who muttered Latin and threatened to steal his soul.

Although the family allegedly heard strange noises coming from the attic, no one but David ever witnessed the old man.

After David experienced night terrors, exhibited strange behavior, and obtained unexplained scratches and bruises, the family called upon the services of a Catholic priest, who attempted to bless the house.

The terrified family concluded that the house was evil and would no longer continue to rent it.

David's visions worsened, occurring in the daytime as well.

Twelve days after the original incident, the family summoned the demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren to assist.

Lorraine witnessed a black mist materialize next to David, an indication of a malevolent presence.

Debbie and her mother told the Warrens they had seen David being beaten and choked by invisible hands and that red marks had appeared on his neck afterward.

David had started to growl, hiss, speak in otherworldly voices, and recite passages from the Bible or Paradise Lost.

The Glatzels recounted how each night a family member would remain awake with David as he suffered through spasms and convulsions.

After receiving a prognosis of multiple possessions from the Warrens, David was subjected to three "lesser exorcisms".

Lorraine asserts that David levitated, ceased breathing for a time, and even demonstrated the supernatural ability of precognition, specifically in relation to the manslaughter Johnson would later commit.