Detective Work at the Conjuring House

[ INVESTIGATIVE FILES JOE NICKELL Joe Nickell, PhD, is a skeptical demonologist. His many books include The Science of Miracles and The Science of Ghosts. Dispelling Demons: Detective Work at The Conjuring House he horror movie The Conjuring thirty to forty years. Then there was denly appear on their property, while (2013) focused on the “demons” the influence of Ed and Lorraine War- others make harassing phone calls at T that allegedly plagued the Perron ren—“demonologist” and “clairvoyant,” night. There have even been Internet family—Roger, Carolyn, and their respectively—who made a dubious ca- discussions about destroying the eigh- five daughters—at their Rhode Island reer of convincing such troubled peo- teenth-century residence because “it’s farmhouse. The movie was a major ple that they were plagued by demons so full of evil”—among other outrages box-office success. while seeking book deals and encour- (Sutcliffe 2015–2016). In an article in the SKEPTICAL IN- aging their coauthors, some admit, to Norma invited me to visit her eigh- QUIRER (Nickell 2014) and in the book fabricate elements to make the books teenth-century property in mid-June American Hauntings (Bartholomew and “scary” (Nickell 2014, 23). 2016 to see for myself much of the rest There have even been Internet discussions about destroying the eighteenth-century residence because “it’s so full of evil”—among other outrage. Figure 1. Norma Sutcliffe stands at her historic home, now made notorious by the movie The Conjuring (2013), which bears little resemblance to the truth. The barn in the background never saw a hanging. of the evidence behind the fictionalized and fantasized story. Guided by her, I Nickell 2015, 57–77), I analyzed the Norma Sutcliffe, who with her hus- toured the historic Arnold-Richardson Perrons’ claims of demonic activity and band, Gerry, acquired the property in house and property, visited old ceme- showed that they were consistent with 1987 and has lived there until the pres- teries in the area, and searched archival the effects of strong winds, mispercep- ent (Figure 1), reports no demonic ac- records in the Harrisville town hall and tions, schoolgirl pranks, vivid dreams, tivity. Yet the two have been plagued library—all helping to further dispel simple suggestion, role-playing, and by a “Conjuring-instigated siege of their the falsehoods and exaggerations that other factors—including one child’s property,” according to legal papers have been used to promote this utterly having had an imaginary playmate— filed in their lawsuit against Warner bogus case of demonic activity and and the effects of memory after some Bros. Studios. Uninvited people sud- demon possession. 20 Volume 40 Issue 6 | Skeptical Inquirer Revealing Tour occasion, two girls were playing with the next move.” She concluded: “It was Norma walked me through the historic a Ouija board in an attic room when far more than infestation. It was man- house—from cellar to attic—where I they were unaccountably locked in— ifestation.” In time, “inexplicably, the saw the locations of many occurrences ostensibly by evil entities (Perron 2013, phantom flies disappeared,” she said, reported by the Perrons that were sup- 24–25). Actually, the door has the same but years later Lorraine Warren “would posed to give evidence of demonic type of latch as the cellar door, and if arrive and explain that the flies were presences: the door had been pulled unthinkingly there with purpose and reason, as the Dark Passages. With what the Per- or had been allowed to swing after harbingers of things to come.” Andrea rons would come to think was an omi- the girls entered, the latch bar would would call them “the devil’s pets” (Per- nous warning, the previous owner told bounce upward as the door closed and ron 2011, 83–94, 265–266). In fact, Roger, “For the sake of your family, then drop down and engage, “locking” clues to the real explanation are found leave the lights on at night” (Perron the girls inside the room. No demons in her own words (“winter,” “clusters,” 2011, 45). But Norma found that a were needed. etc.), which indicate that the infestation light would have been needed down- Dead People in Walls. Young Cindy was probably caused by housefly-looka- stairs so family members could get Perron claimed she could feel the spir- likes called “cluster flies” that behave as to the bathroom in the middle of the its in her bedroom, insisting there were night from their far-flung bedrooms described (see “Ask the Orkin Man” on two floors—requiring treks through 2016). They are explained by science, multiple rooms that were dangerously not demonology. dark. The man obviously had given Kitchen Phenomena. Several suppos- practical advice—not a warning of su- edly supernatural events occurred in the pernatural entities, which, in fact, he kitchen (now the dining room), “Con- made no mention of. sidered one of the most active rooms Apparitions in Carolyn’s Bedroom in the house” (Perron 2011, 448). For (now a study). Carolyn Perron once example, Andrea once witnessed a pot stirred from sleep to feel a “presence” of meatballs “go flying off the surface of and see a grotesque female figure loom- the stove without the assistance” of her ing above her while she was “immobi- father. Actually, her mother disagreed, lized” (Perron 2011, 185–187; Johnson and in fact Roger Perron was at the 2009, 70–71). Clearly, she experienced time “seething with anger” and had not a common waking dream that occurs only “touched” the pot handle but even between sleep and wakefulness, coupled followed up by “kicking the pot past his with sleep paralysis since her body was daughter.” It seems absurd therefore still in the sleep mode. And this was Figure 2. Norma Sutcliffe points out the cellar well where— to postulate a “kitchen witch” (Perron not the only waking dream to occur according to unfounded accusations—Bathsheba Sherman 2013, 235–238). among the Perrons (Nickell 2014; Bar- supposedly drowned her children. In fact, she never lived in the house. On another occasion, Carolyn started tholomew and Nickell 2015). peeling an orange when she saw blood Opening Cellar Door. This had a trickling from it. She first thought she habit of partially opening during the had nicked herself with the knife but night, “Even after the family remem- “seven dead soldiers buried in the wall” could find no wound. To keep her bered locking it” (Johnson 2009, 48). (Perron 2013, 279). However, the walls youngest daughter from wandering in Also when someone walked past the and becoming frightened, she hastily door, it might suddenly open behind were only seven inches thick—we mea- cleaned the blood from the sink and the person’s back (Perron 2011, 149). sured—so that could never have hap- floor and threw the “bloody orange” in Norma explained that the door was a pened. (She also perceived “a whole the trash (Johnson 2009, 545–555). The bit warped so that the antique latch did bunch of people eating in our dining not fully engage. Thus, temperature room” and several “little ghosts”—“na- most likely explanation here, I think, is fluctuations (such as the house’s wood tive children”—playing in a nearby pine that she had mistakenly gotten hold of a and metal cooling at night) could cause grove [Perron 2013, 69–70, 164–165].) California blood orange. Some of these the latch to release and the door to pop Her claims were surely only the imag- can resemble ordinary oranges but yield open. (It was never actually “locked,” inings of a child who exhibited many of a deep, blood-colored juice—hence, the only latched.) Or when someone walked the traits associated with fantasy prone- fruit’s name (“Blood Oranges” 2016). by, depressing the floorboard, the latch ness (Nickell 2014, 23). Many more examples could be could again release and the door open. Fly Infestation! Andrea Perron wrote given, but these are sufficient to show Norma and Gerry had the door fixed pages about “houseflies” in their home, how the Perrons repeatedly suggested after they moved in and discovered the appearing unaccountably “in the middle supernatural explanations for mundane problem (Sutcliffe 2015–2016). of deep winter.” There were “clusters of events—even before they found them- Locking Attic-Room Door. On one them huddled together, as if plotting selves under the spell of the Warrens. Skeptical Inquirer | November/December 2016 21 Deaths Multiplied 1 Burrillville town records give the cause 1911)—not at the Arnold-Richardson Numerous people have allegedly died of death as “paralysis.” Her obituary in house as alleged by Perron (2014, 182). tragic deaths at the Arnold-Richardson The Burrillville Gazette (May 29, 1885) Still other alleged deaths on the his- house—an implication being that their corroborates the cause as “a sudden toric house property have no known basis unrequited spirits haunt the place or attack of paralysis”—almost certainly in fact. These include the infant whom that they have somehow been trans- a stroke. Her funeral service was con- Bathsheba Sherman allegedly killed, formed into malevolent entities or ducted by Rev. A.H. Granger, a Baptist the wound “presumably inflicted with demonic presences. But what are the minister, one of various facts belying a needle” through the base of the skull facts about the deaths of the people the claim that she was a witch. (Perron 2011, 384–385; Johnson 2009, allegedly involved? Historical research But if Bathsheba Sherman did not 51), and one or more of Bathsheba’s reveals the eye-opening truth. hang herself in the Arnold-Richardson own children, whom she is “rumored” The central figure is a reputed witch barn, maybe it was instead Susan Ar- to have drowned in “the basement well” named Bathsheba Sherman.

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