Feature | Life & Culture

_Among all the horror movies that have been made in the world so far, 'The Conjuring' series of movies are the most popular. All the films in this series are collectively called 'The Conjuring Universe', which includes a total of 7 films so far. The most interesting thing about this series of movies is that its stories are based on some true events.

The Ed and Lorraine Warren family are fairly regular characters in The Conjuring series. They rushed to support the families of the victims on behalf of the Church in various physical problems. They talk to the ghosts, find out the reason for their return and then use various methods to exorcise the ghosts.

Ed and Lorraine Warren, the ghost experts, are not fictional characters at all, but two real characters who came to the discussion after one year of the Amityville murders on November 13, 1974, describing the attacks of ghosts on a Lutz family. The Amityville massacre is one of the most brutal murders in history, in which a young man shot his entire family while they slept with a .35-caliber Marlin rifle. The family members included the youth's parents, two brothers and two sisters.

The killer's name was Ronald Joseph DeFew Jr., he was 20 years old. Ronald was found guilty by the court and stated that his one other sister had assisted in the murder. The information of the murders were reported to the police by Ronald himself, he claimed to have seen the bodies the following evening. Amityville is a village on the Suffolk end of the Nassau-Suffolk border at Great South Bay and with a population of about 10,000 at the time. However, Ronald was sentenced to six counts of 25 years and died in prison on March 12, 2021.

Whether Ed and Lorraine Warren's claims were true or false is not the point of this article, but who they were. Edward was a self-taught and self-motivated demonologist, author and lecturer. Lorraine Warren is his wife, who claims to be a trance medium. Both of them used to solve ghost problems together.

Ed Warren was born on September 7, 1926 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and died on August 23, 2006 in Monroe, Connecticut. He fought for the United States Navy during World War II. After his release, he made a living as a sign painter, traveling throughout New England. Pauline (Denise) and Frank Edward Meaney were her parents. Frank Edward was of Slovak and Czech descent and was the son of a Polish family.

On the other hand, Lorraine Warren was born on January 31, 1927 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA, and died on April 28, 2019 in Monroe, Connecticut. Professionally he was an actor and writer. Ed and Lorraine Warren became close to each other as they followed the same mentality and faith, and they married in love. The couple had one child named Judy Warren.

According to various media reports, both Ed and Lauren Warren were haunted or possessed by ghosts in their childhood. From then on, their interest in ghosts grew, and they tried to learn about it whenever they got the chance. Basically, they become experts in this matter as they acquire techniques to escape from the attacks of ghosts. Lorraine Warren claimed to be able to detect the movements and activities of spirits.

This house was that house where six members of the DeFew family were murdered just one year earlier. The Lutz family left the house after 28 days, claiming that there were several ghosts in the house that haunted them. Although almost everyone dismissed the accusation as a hoax, the Warren family swore that the ghosts were none other than members of the DeFew family who were victims of the murders.

Ed and Lorraine Warren founded the New England Society for Psychic Research (NESPR) in 1952, which is recognized as the oldest ghost-hunting group in New England. They also wrote many books following their personal investigations into various reports of ghostly and paranormal activity. They claimed to have investigated more than 10,000 cases in their career.

One of the characteristics of the Warren family was the attempt to scientifically prove the existence of ghosts, which is why they would work with a variety of people including doctors, researchers, police officers, nurses, college students and church clergy in any of their investigations. They even had people with them to take pictures of ghostly activities. All this because they believed with all their hearts that ghosts exist, and that they are not imposters.

In this way they also collected several pictures, in which the possessed people were seen in various strange poses. The images include broken furniture and doors opening by themselves, with two police officers even testifying that they saw a chair move by itself. They checked that the chair was not obstructed by anything.

However, the claims made by the Warren family were not accepted considering that these evidences were insufficient. Two skeptics, Perry DeAngelis and Steven Novella, described the evidence presented by the Warren family as mind-boggling. In addition, two skeptics, Joe Nickell and Benjamin Radford, also commented that nothing supernatural happened in Amityville.

But neither Ed nor Lorraine Warren tried to pressure or coerce anyone into accepting their claims, always being slow and logical in presenting their claims. Perhaps that's why people were attracted to them, and they never performed the same dramatic exorcisms as other exorcists. Rather, they tried to detect the presence of ghosts or negative energy through the use of various scientific instruments. Lorraine Warren's biggest claim was that she could talk to ghosts, and even learn about their activities through meditation.

Famous Warren family investigations include Annabelle, the Perron family, Amityville, the Enfield poltergeist, Arne Johnson, the Snedeker house, Smurl family, Union Cemetery etc.

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