Ed and Loraine Warren have been deemed as the original ghostbusters because of all the cases they have done. They have solved countless cases and have even created a museum inside of their home of the haunted objects they have collected from their investigations. As they worked as demonologists, they went around to various places to discuss what they found and the cases they worked on, and even written a few books about them. Together they founded the New England Society for Psychic Research and are the most talked about paranormal investigators of all time. In total, they have investigated over 10,000 cases across the globe and have been criticized and labeled as frauds because of the media attention they received. However, despite all of the claims and allegations, they defied all the odds and continued on with their working, creating some of the most notorious paranormal cases of all time, which are listed below.
1. The Smurl Family Haunting
The Smurl family.
Source: The Line Up
In West Pittston, Pennsylvania, Jack and Janet Smurl had a terrifying demonic haunting in their home between 1974 and 1989. During those years, they heard loud noises echoing through their house, odors that made them gag and were nauseating, apparitions that were dark and ominous, and even experienced their dog being thrown against a wall one time and their daughter pushed down a flight of stairs. The family was in absolute fear of living in their house, making it a constant nightmare for them. They had enough of the demonic activity and reached out to the Warrens, and upon their arrival, Ed knew what kind of power the demon had in the house.
One of the occurrences that happened to the Smurl family.
Source: Top 5s
To provoke what was in the house, they started to play spiritual music and prayed occasionally with the Smurl family. During these particular sessions, Ed reported that furniture would begin to shake and mirrors would rattle excessively. There was also a distinct temperature drop, making everyone well aware that something spiritual was there with them; and, a dark mass would appear constantly during the sessions. One time, though, a mirror message appeared and gave a warning to whomever was in the house to “Get Out”. After extensively investigating their house and looking up the history of who was living there, etc., the Warren’s came to a conclusion that there were three evil spirits within the home and one demonic entity.
The Smurl twins.
Source: Dunheim
When news spread about the Smurl family and what was happening in their house, people started to claim that hallucinations and delusions were to blame for the things that the family was seeing. However, all activity in the house seized when there was a church-sanctioned exorcism on the house in 1989. This exorcism was long and grueling, but it cleared all paranormal activity from the Smurl’s house, and no further reports have been made about any terrifying experiences there.
2. Trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson
Arne Cheyenne Johnson.
Source: Spooks and Stuff
In 1981, the trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson became known as the first court case in the United States to use “The Devil Made Me Do It” defense. During the trial, his attorney’s started to point fingers at David Glatzel, who was 11-years-old and was the son to Johnson’s fiancée Debbie Glatzel, because of the recent phenomena happening around him. David started to experience strange apparitions around him and soon he was saying that a demonic figure was threatening to take his soul away. So, Arne and Debbie called the Warrens for help because they certainly couldn’t explain what was going on with David. When Ed and Loraine arrived and started their investigation, they were first hand witnesses to what was going on with David: he would growl, hiss, and was choked and beaten by hands that everyone else couldn’t see.
Loraine and Ed Warren.
Source: Amino Mailer
After experiencing those things with David, the Warrens decided to perform an exorcism on him and Arne decided to take part in it. During the ritual, Arne started to provoke and antagonized the demons that were possessing David, even though the Warren’s were instructing him not to do so. Arne was attempting to dispel the demons from David’s body, but instead of exorcising them out of David, he instead invited them into his body. Months after the exorcism, everything seemed to be fine with David, but Arne was being controlled by other forces and ended up murdering his landlord, Alan Bono.
Do you think a demon made him do it?
Source: YouTube
When it came time for the trial, the Warren’s appeared in court and provided evidence for the judge and jurors to prove that there was some type of demonic activity going on. They explained to the court that Arne had become demonically possessed after the exorcism, but that evidence wasn’t enough for the courts because Arne was convicted of first-degree manslaughter. He was sentenced to prison for 10 years, however, he only served 5 years of his sentence.
3. The Amityville Horror
The Lutz Family.
Source: Amityville Files
That’s right, the Warren’s most famous case was the Amityville haunting when they were called to investigate what was actually going on in the home. In the year 1974, Ronald Defeo Jr. murdered six of his family members in their home by shooting them. The house was abandoned and laid dormant until the Lutz family moved in, which they claimed that it was an absolute steal for a house like that, despite what had happened there. They thought they could forget about the murders and live their lives in their new home like nothing ever happened there. They were in for a rude awakening, though, because from the moment they stepped into the house, there was strong paranormal activity. While they were unpacking the boxes they brought, a priest came by to bless the house for them, but during his blessing a deep masculine voice instructed him to get out. The house soon became the hot spot for flies, making it seem like the Lutz’s could not escape, and Kathy Lutz started to have explicit nightmares and received welts on her body as she slept at night, and she even was levitating in her sleep. While this was going on with Kathy, George Lutz discovered a “Red Room” where the family dog would constantly cower in front of.
What the house originally looked like.
Source: ABC News
With all of the paranormal activity happening with the family, the Lutz’s started to reach out to the Catholic church, but during their phone conversations that phones would constantly cut them off whenever they started to bring up what was going on. On the final night of this haunting, though, things in the house escalated quickly and became drastically worse for the family. Banging started to echo throughout the house, furniture started to move on its own, and the children were soon victims of dark entities they couldn’t see. After 28 days of being inside of the house, the Lutz family packed their belongings as quickly as possible, fled the home, and never returned to it.
The ghost boy caught on camera with the glowing eyes.
Source: Slightly Warped
After hearing their claims, the Warrens adventured to the house with a Channel 5 New York Television Crew and a reporter from WNEW-FM. Throughout their investigation, the investigators captured a picture of a boy standing in a door way with glowing eyes. This lead the Warren’s to believe what was causing such paranormal activity and decided to close the case. Upon further research of the land and the house, it was discovered that a previous owner of the land, named John Ketchem, was believed to practice dark arts on occasion. Before John passed away, he requested to be buried on the land where he practiced the dark arts and where he was buried was where the infamous house was built. Further research showed that the Shinicock Indians used the land as an enclosure to house the people who were sick and the mad. It also used a place for people who were deserted to die alone, or were in pain.
Ronald DeFoe’s arrest photos.
Source: The Unredacted
After digging up all of this information, the Warren’s concluded that was what caused all of the paranormal activity for the Lutz family as well as the DeFoe family. They believed that the negative energy that was already at the house was some type of pull for demonic entities to reside there and wreck havoc on anyone who dared to enter the home and the land they once claimed.
4. Annabelle the Demon Doll
The real Annabelle doll.
Source: The Ness
The world’s most known demonically possessed doll started her journey in the 1970’s when a mother purchased the Raggedy-Ann doll for her daughter, who was a student nurse. Donna, the student nurse, loved the doll and kept it in her apartment, but soon she started to notice that the doll would move on its own when no one touched it and would often have small drops of blood on its dress. No one knew where these blood drops would come from nor understood how they got there, but they continued on with their lives and ignored the few strange occurrences that involved the doll. Soon, notes started appearing to both Donna and her roommate that would read “help us”, which drove the two roommates to contact a local medium to see what was in their apartment. When the medium was performing her reading, she claimed that she got in contact with a little girls spirit named Annabelle Higgins who had possessed the Raggedy-Ann doll.
Annabelle surrounded by other haunted objects inside of the Warren’s Occult Museum.
Source: Road Trippers
After the medium finished their reading and said the two roommates would be okay, events quickly escalated when the doll attacked a friend of Donna’s one night. With fear pricking at her, Donna and a local priest got in contact with the Warren’s and asked them to come help them. After investigating the doll and questioning Donna, the Warren’s immediately knew that the doll was being possessed by evil, darker forces, specifically a demon. When the investigation was over, the Warrens performed a small exorcism on the apartment and a blessing ritual to help rid the apartment of any negative spirits.
The Warren’s with Annabelle and the warning sign they put up for visitors.
Source: Warrens
Per Donna’s request, the Warren’s took the Raggedy-Ann doll back to their home and placed it in their Occult Museum. Inside of the museum, Annabelle sits inside of a glass cage where her evil is contained, with a sign on the door telling people not to open the door or touch the case for any reason. She remains there today as well as the evil thats conjured up inside of her.
5. The Perron Family Haunting
The Perron family.
Source: Img Flash
The Perron family moved into a delightful farm house on the Old Arnold Estate in Harrisville, Rhode Island in the year 1971. From the moment she stepped foot in the house, the mother, Carolyn, became the main focus of the paranormal activity that occurred in their home. What started the paranormal activity was a woman in a grey dress telling Carolyn to, “Get out. Get out. Or I’ll drive you out with death and gloom.” Ignoring this strange warning, Carolyn continued on with her life, but soon fell victim to burning sensations, pinching, slapping, and stabbing sensations all over her body. Carolyn and her family would also hear strange noises in the house late at night, would witness objects floating all by themselves, and even saw their beds levitating. The Warrens were contacted almost right away and from the moment they entered the house, they became aware that the basement was the hot spot and the spirit that was haunting and viciously attacking was Bathsheba Thayer. This particular spirit had cursed the house during the 19th century and Carolyn unfortunately became victim to the curse.
Bathsheba’s gravestone.
Source: Horror Galore
Bathsheba Thayer had married JudsonSherman on March 10th, 1844 and they both decided to move to the Old Arnold Estate a short time after their wedding. Unfortunately, though, the first child of the union had died and Bathsheba became the prime suspect in the case. Soon, she was charged with the murder of her baby and upon investigation of the newborn, the baby’s head was impaled by a sharp object. People started to speculate that Bathsheba was a Satanic worshiper and that the reason why she killed her baby was because it was a sacrifice to Satan. After countless days, the case was eventually dropped because there was a lack of evidence that proved Bathsheba actually committed the crime, but she remained an outcast of the community. Because of the guilt and shunning from the community, Bathsheba hung herself behind her home. When her body was examined, the coroner wrote that it was something no one has ever seen before. Why? Because the way that her body was found it was like it turned to stone because of how solidified it was.
The Old Arnold Estate.
Source: National Paranormal Association
The paranormal activity in the Perron house intensified throughout the time they were living there, making the Warrens come frequently to their house during the year 1974. They continuously blessed the house for them, but that only angered the spirits and made the activity worse. However, the family continued to live in the house until they were able to sell the property in 1980, and continued to have a milder haunting even after they moved from the house.
6. A Haunting in Connecticut
The real Haunting in Connecticut house.
Source: NY Daily News
In 1986, the Snedeker family moved to Connecticut so they could be closer to the hospital that had been treating their oldest son for Leukemia. After moving into the new home and settling in, the family discovered that the basement contained mortician equipment, making the family feel somewhat odd and skeptical about what went on in the house. They decided to do some research on the house and found out that the house used to be a funeral home, creating a more uneasy feeling for the family. Nonetheless, they continued living in the house because they never really noticed anything out of the ordinary and the equipment was down in the basement. 
A scene from the movie adaptation of A Haunting in Connecticut.
Source: Horror Film Central
However, just like every famous haunting, slowly but surely some entity started to harass the family. One of the most shocking and terrifying experiences the family had was when Carmen Snedeker claimed that the water that was being used to mop the floor turned to straight blood. The family soon realized that the entity, or entities, that were harassing the family seemed to have a set focus on their eldest son, who gradually became obsessed with some of the functioning equipment located in the parlor in the basement. He also claimed that he started to have intense visions of evil presences throughout the house. When the activity in the house became too intense for the family to bear, they reached out to the Warren’s and pleaded for them to help the family out. When the Warren’s came to the house, they believed that there were vengeful and hateful spirits still in the house that were upset at the morticians who would perform necrophilia acts on the deceased bodies as they getting prepared for burial. The Warren’s jumped into action and immediately performed an exorcism on the house. They finished it with the blessing and even though they felt confident the spirits were released from the house, the family moved out and relocated somewhere else. Since then, there have been no further reports about activity happening in the house or with the Snedeker family, and thankfully, their oldest son survived his cancer.
7. Demonic Werewolf in London
Bill Ramsey, the demonic werewolf in London.
Source: Historic Mysteries
Yes, you read the title right. The Warren’s claim that this is one of their most bizarre cases that they have ever worked on because the man that they needed to exorcise claimed that he was being demonically possessed by a demon werewolf. Bill Ramsey informed the Warren’s that he first witnessed this entity when he was only 9 years old and strongly believes that it returned to haunt him during adulthood as well. When Ramsey was a child, he would have visions that he was in fact a wolf and he fell victim to episodes with extreme violence in them, a temper that was easy to set off, and even experienced foul smells around him. People exclaimed that the episodes Ramsey’s were experiencing were so awful and terrifying, that local children and even his parents would avoid him until the episode and phases were over. When everything was over, no one ever dared to mention it again and they continued on with their lives like nothing happened. But, when Ramsey was driving home one day in December 1983 (he’s an adult now), he started to experience a sharp shooting pain in his chest and he instantly broke out in a sweat. The episode he was experiencing progressed as he made it to a local hospital, but it was even worse in there. The nurses and workers claim that Ramsey began growling at the nurses, almost like he was warning them to stay away from him, and they say that he even bit a nurse before he was taken away to a mental hospital. 
The Warren’s exorcising Bill Ramsey.
Source: Bent S***
The Warren’s saw Ramsey’s case on television and knew he needed their help right away. They started to track him down and once they found him, they began to exorcise the demon that was possessing his body. They brought him to a church, where the exorcism happened, and had a local bishop assist during the exorcism. The exorcism itself was an extremely violent ordeal, according to the Warren’s, making it one of their most violent and terrifying exorcisms they ever experienced. After fighting long and hard against the entity that was possessing Ramsey’s, it was finally banished from his body, as well as the church, and Ramsey’s has yet to report of any more violent episodes.
These cases have become some of the most famous paranormal cases in the world. The Warren’s have gained endless fame for all of the investigations they have done and the countless families they have helped. Despite the claims that they are frauds, they are still talked about and idolized as the original ghostbusters, making people flock to their museum tours whenever they are. People sit during their lectures and listen intently to their stories and viewing the evidence from their cases, becoming speechless by some of the things they have discovered.