ARNE CHEYENNE JOHNSON

Opening

On 16 February 1981, in Brookfield, Connecticut, 19-year-old Arne Cheyenne Johnson stabbed his landlord, Alan Bono, after an argument. Bono died hours later. It was the town's first murder in its 193-year history.

The killing became famous because of what Johnson's lawyer tried next. The previous summer, Johnson's girlfriend's young brother, David Glatzel, had been declared possessed by the paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, and Johnson was said to have dared the demon to leave the boy and take him instead. At trial his lawyer wanted to argue that Johnson was not guilty because he had been possessed. It was the first time a possession defence had been attempted in an American court. The judge would not allow it.

Timeline

Summer 1980The Glatzel family help Debbie and Arne move into a rented house in Brookfield. David Glatzel, eleven or twelve, begins to describe a frightening old man visiting him, and his behaviour changes. The family contact the Warrens.

Summer and autumn 1980The Warrens say David is possessed by dozens of demons and arrange for priests to perform what they describe as minor exorcisms. Arne Johnson, who is living with the family as the boyfriend of David's older sister Debbie, is said to have challenged the demon to take him.

October 1980According to the Warrens, they contact Brookfield police to warn that the situation could become dangerous.

16 February 1981After a day of drinking, Johnson argues with Bono at Bono's apartment and stabs him several times with a pocket knife. He is arrested soon afterwards.

28 October 1981The trial opens in Danbury Superior Court. Defence lawyer Martin Minnella plans to plead not guilty by reason of demonic possession. Judge Robert Callahan rules the possession argument inadmissible, calling it irrelevant and unscientific. The defence switches to self-defence.

24 November 1981Johnson is convicted of first-degree manslaughter.

18 December 1981He is sentenced to 10 to 20 years. He serves about five.

1983Gerald Brittle's book The Devil in Connecticut, written with the Warrens, tells the family's story as a case of demonic possession.

2007David Glatzel and his brother Carl Glatzel Jr. sue Brittle and the publishers over the book's republication. Carl says the possession story was a hoax devised by the Warrens to make money.

Key figures

Alan Bono was the man who died. He managed a kennel in Brookfield and rented an apartment to Johnson and Debbie Glatzel. In the decades of retelling, he is the person most often left out.

Arne Cheyenne Johnson killed him. He married Debbie Glatzel while in prison. David Glatzel was the child at the centre of the possession claims. Ed and Lorraine Warren publicised the case before and during the trial. Martin Minnella was the lawyer who tried to bring the Devil into court.

Physical and documentary trail

The record: the police investigation and court record of Johnson's trial, which are solid, and the judge's ruling excluding possession. The possession claims rest on the Warrens' account, Brittle's book, and statements from some family members, while others in the same family, notably Carl Glatzel Jr., have said it was invented. No recordings from the 1980 exorcisms have been made public.

Things you might not know

• It was a first for the town. Bono's death was the first recorded murder in Brookfield's history.
• The family split over it. Debbie and Arne have said the possession was real. Her brother Carl has said for years that it was not, and that David was ill and needed medical help.
• The press named it. Newspapers called it "the Devil made me do it" case.
• It became a Conjuring film. The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021) is loosely based on it.

Competing explanations

A drunken argument and a killing. The jury's view. Johnson had been drinking, there was a quarrel, and a man died. The possession story belonged to the defence, and the court decided it had no place in the trial.

Demonic possession. The Warrens' view and that of Johnson and Debbie. It rests on the events of 1980 as they and the Warrens describe them. It cannot be tested, and the court would not hear it.

A family crisis made into a case. Carl Glatzel Jr.'s view: that a sick child and a frightened family were turned into a famous possession by investigators who then profited from it.

Later life of the case

The case is still cited as the first time a possession defence was attempted in the United States. For another Warren case, see the Perron farmhouse.

Finding

A man was killed, and the man who killed him was convicted in an ordinary trial. The possession claim never reached the jury, and the family at the heart of it disagree with each other about whether it happened at all.

What still will not resolve: what was wrong with David Glatzel in the summer of 1980, since the only detailed accounts come from people with strong reasons to tell it one way or the other.