In the evening of Sunday, February sixteenth, nineteen eighty one, in Brookfield, Connecticut, a bright, waxing gibbus is slowly rising as an ambulance makes its way north along the Root seven Highway. In the distance, the low lying curves of pine covered Carmen Hill run like a blot of ink under the darkening sky. Attacks At twelve, the ambulance fears to the right, taking the turn off for silver Mine Road, before circling back and continuing east toward the depot. Silver
Mine was especially quiet that night. When inside the ambulance, a call was received requesting all emergency personnel beyond the lookout for a white, nineteen year old male with curly blonde hair going by the name of Arnie Johnson, who was wanted in connection with a stabbing incident. No sooner had the call ended, the driver looked ahead to see a dark figure lit up suddenly in the vehicle's headlights, trudging along the grassy verge by the side of the road,
their head bowed and unmoved by the approaching vehicle. As the ambulance passed by, the driver caught a momentary glimpse of a pale youthful face under a mop of curly blonde hair. The driver stamped on the brake and brought the ambulance to a stop by the side of the road, then, taking a moment to compose himself, jumped out into the night with a deep breath. The driver held up his hands as the figure moved steadily toward him, staring aimlessly
at the ground. Arnie Johnson said the driver. The young man stopped suddenly and looked up, as if only then just registering the person in front of him. Please, he said, his voice trembling in the cold, help me. After the arrival of a squad car from the nearby Brookfield Police Department, the young man was handcuffed and pushed into the back
of the car. At seven thirty pm, Arnie Johnson was formally arrested for the attempted murder of forty year old Alan Bonno, the manager of a local dog kennel, who had been found unresponsive at its property, having been stabbed multiple times. Ten minutes later, a call came through from Danbury Hospital to say that Alan Bono had died. Nineteen year old Arnie Johnson was now facing prison for murder.
When Johnson finally began to talk. However, he claimed to have recollection of the event, and not because of some kind of ruse to get off the hook, he insisted, but because he hadn't been in control of his mind at the time the devil had You're listening to unexplained and I'm Richard McClean smith eight months previously, in the evening of July nineteen eighty, not ten minutes walk from where Arnie was picked up. Sits a ranch style bungalow tucked away in a small patch of woodland on the
edge of the quaint New England town of Brookfield. Insects chirp in the warm summer air as plump moths bump incessantly against the porch light. From inside, concerned voices are emanating from out of the kitchen where Arnie is. Twenty six year old girlfriend Debbie Gladsol, and her parents, Judy and Carl, are sat round the kitchen table, debating the
merits of the young couple's new rental. It had been almost too good to be true when they first heard about the large bucolic idol set back amidst the trees at the end of a country lane in nearby Newtown, But now they were beginning to realize maybe it really
was too good to be true. After all, the place was supposed to be a new start for the couple and Debby's seven year old son, Jason, as well as Arnie's mother Mary, his two half sisters, Wander and Janis, and their young cousin also called Mary, all of whom had been living together in Bridgeport, the state's largest city.
Formerly a prosperous industrial powerhouse on the coast of the Long Island Sound, Bridgeport had long since faded from prominence, and all had been desperate to leave, worried for the fate of the young ones on the city's increasingly troubled streets. For Annie, especially known as chey Anne to his friends, it was a chance to give something back to his mother, who'd single handedly raised him, along with Wonder and Janice, and their eight year old cousin, whom Annie's mother had
effectively adopted despite two fathers walking out on them. Mary had done her best to provide for the more, but things were not working out as planned. Having intended to move in that day, they'd arrived at the property to find it a little more run down than they'd expected.
While the extension to the main house where Annie and Debbie hoped to live was still occupied by the owner's daughter, who insisted she would be staying there for at least another two months, but there was something else about it too, that they couldn't quite put their finger on. A strange atmosphere, not helped by their discovery of a locked room in the cellar, of which they were told simply never to
open under any circumstances. With Mary and the kids due to move in the following day, they needed to decide fast if they would take the place. As the two couples continued their conversation, they failed to notice Debby's eleven year old brother, David, now standing in the doorway with a look of abject fear on his face. What's wrong, asked his mother Judy. For a moment, David seemed reluctant to talk, Then slowly he looked up and began to speak.
Earlier that day, David had joined his mother and two brothers been helping Debbie and Arnie move into their new home. As David went on to explain, the boys had been messing about on a water bed that had been left in one of the bedrooms when Judy found them and promptly told them to leave it alone. As his brothers ran out at the room, David went to join them when he felt something push him hard in the stomach,
sending him sprawling backwards onto the bed. Thinking it was one of his brothers, David looked up in shock to see the faint figure of an elderly man with white hair, a torn red plaid shirt, and ripped jeans scowling at him. David watched, paralyzed with fear as the figure raised his arm, then pointed directly at him, mouthing the word beware, before
he stepped back and faded into the wall. David's father, Carl, broke the silence, nearly spitting out his drink as he struggled to contain himself, and told David to go back to bed and get some sleep. But David didn't move. I can't, he said, because the man is here now. Arnie and Debbie looked to each other as Car took
another sip of beer. Though evidently distressed, who was little to gain in indulging the boy's fantasy, and after some gentle persuasion, Judy finally succeeded in getting her son back to bed. I share a bed with two Pro Bowl quarterbacks, an Olympic swimmer, and a national women's soccer star. I should explain. When I heard how many elite athletes sleep on a molecule mattress, I ordered one. Molecule is not like any other mattress in a box. Their sleep scientists
literally created the world's most perfect mattress. It has six times the airflow of my old mattress, so it keeps me cool or night. It has zone reflex layers that are just with me in all my weird sleep positions, so I never awakened with a stiff neck or a saw back. And it's antimicrobial. And if Russell Wilson sleeps on a molecule and calls it his best sleep ever, who am I to argue? So I tried it and Russ, Yeah, I call him. Russ was right. Molecule mattress is how
elite athletes and I get the best sleep ever. Audio molecule mattress and sleep on it risk free for a hundred nights. If you don't have your deepest, most restorative sleep ever, return it. Go to onmolecule dot com and save twenty percent with promo code unexplained. That's O N M O L ecu L dot com again, save twenty
percent with promo code unexplained at onmolecule dot com. The following day, haunted by the young David's peculiar story, Debbie and Arnie returned to the house in Newtown to check on their dog, George, whom they'd left there for the night, as claimed in Gerrard Brittle's nineteen eighty three book The Devil in Connecticut. When Debby opened the front door, she froze at the sight of reddish scratch marks on the
inside of it. Moving inside, they found George cowering in the living room, strangely docile, and his paws covered in blood. Stepping down into the cellar to inspect the locked room once more, Arnie could have sworn he felt some one tap him on the shoulder, spinning round, only to find he was alone in the room. The couple decided there and then that the place was not for them, convincing.
Arnie's mother, however, was a different matter. Unmoved by the property's strange energy, she refused to change plans and moved in with her niece and daughters regardless. That night, back at the Gladsall's family home in Brookfield, Judy was just explaining to Arnie and Debby the strange mood that David had been in all day, and how he'd been telling her that the ghoulish man he'd seen wanted to hurt him, when he suddenly burst into the kitchen. The man was
coming for them again, he screamed in anguish. He could see him, he said, floating over the trees and speeding fast toward the house. Once again. The family worked hard to calm the boy down, with Judy even going to the trouble of throwing holy water about the house to convince him that no one was coming for him and nothing was getting inside their home for now, at least. The following evening, after a day out together, the family
returned home. As Debby and Arnie made up a bed on the living room floor, aloud boom was heard coming on the top of the house. A terrified David emerged from his bedroom as Judy tried to reassure him that there was nothing to worry about. As the family gathered under the attic door, another noise was heard. It sounded like footsteps, Arnie volunteered to take a look. Pulling the attic ladder down, he stepped cautiously into the darkness above
and scanned the space with a flashlight. Seeing nothing untoward, he pushed on and quickly found the attic light. A soft burst of light revealed only a cramped room full of dusty cobwebs and boxes full of long forgotten items. There was no one there. Over the next few days, however, the strange, inexplicable noises intensified, from scratching in the walls to loud, sharp raps that seemed to be coming from outside.
The perhaps most disturbing of all, David soon began apparently claiming that the vision of the old man he'd been seeing had now morphed into something else, with red, scaly skin, large black eyes, and horns. He called it the beast, having claimed to have been visited by the beast in his bedroom the night before. On the evening of July fifth, David was apparently stood in the living room staring into space when he suddenly tumbled against a chair and crashed
to the ground. Judy could only watch in horror as he rolled around, clutching at his throat and screamed for the beast to leave him alone. Over the next few days, things only got worse, as David began talking in a deep, gravelly voice and shouting obscenities at his mother, while the strange, invisible attacks continued unabated. Fearing that her son might be possessed, Judy paid a visit to the pastor of her local church, Saint Joseph's. Desperate for help. Though keen to avoid reinforcing
the notion that David might be possessed. With his strange condition showing no sign of waning, father Denis agreed to conduct a blessing in the house. At first, the ritual seemed to bring calm, until two nights later, when David was apparently confronted by another nightmare vision, not one demonic creature, but multiple, materializing in his room from out of a ball of fuzzy blue light. Some were missing limbs and
bleeding from the eyes. Others had freshly cleaved heads split down the middle, with thick blood oozing the wound, or gaping holes on the face wet with blood where lips had once been. There were forty three of them in total, he said, each as monstrous as the next, and slowly David seemed more and more to be coming under their spell. One minute, he was the softly spoken boy they knew
and loved. The next his head would drop suddenly to his chest, then rise again to reveal eyes rolled back into his head and a strangely screwed up face dripping with menace. Then a burst of unhinged laughter would explode from his lips, and his limbs would flail about manically. Night after night, the family took it in turns to
comfort him, seemingly powerless to help. It isn't clear exactly how infamous paranormal investigators Lorraine and Ed Warren got involved, with one report stating they'd been recommended by a coworker of Debbis, while others suggested that Judy and Debbie were already aware of them, since they lived only thirty miles away in the town of Munroe and were somewhat of
a local celebrity couple. Having been told about David's situation on the morning of July thirteenth, the couple agreed to help, and Julie made a visit to the Glassal's home, arriving at eleven thirty pm. That night, along with their friend doctor Anthony Gianne Grasso, to conduct a medical assessment of the boy. As the Warrens grilled the family, a series of loud bangs rang out through the property, after which
David began talking softly to a seemingly unseen presence. When Ed Warren asked him who he was speaking to, David replied sym plea Satan. Ed asked if Satan would make his presence known by banging three times on the wall, and sure enough the reply came back boom boom boom. Concerned by what they'd seen, the Warrens told the family to continue praying while they thought more about what to do.
After consulting with the church, the Warrens apparently succeeded in convincing them that the peculiar activity taking place at the Glassl's home, which by the end of July had evolved
to include flying objects, needed careful monitoring. From August first, a number of priests from Saint Joseph's are said to have taken it in turns to assess the situation for themselves, with tape recordings and photos of David's apparent possession also handed over to them by the second week of August, two of the priests, Fathers James Grosso and William Malia, were so disturbed by what they saw they began lobbying
the local bishop to consider an exorcism. A few days later, Arnie Johnson took it on himself to speak with Father Francis Virgilac, theological adviser to the bishop on behalf of the family. Seeing Arnie's evident pain for the plight of his girlfriend's brother, Virgilac implored him to be patient and
wait for the church's various procedures to play out. In the meantime, he offered Arnie a statue of the Virgin Mary to place in the home, as well as a silver crucifix for himself to wear, and some holy salts to use on David the next time he seemed taken
by the demons. As David's affliction continued, more often than not, it would apparently be Arnie at the forefront doing his best to reassure the boy, while also helping to pin him down as he held the crucifix to his head and challenged the demonic spirits to fight him instead to take his body instead. As the nights grow darker and the air begins to chill. There's no better streaming surface
to satiate your horror needs than Shudder. Often called the Netflix of horror, Shudder has the largest, fastest growing curated selection of thrilling and dangerous entertainment. Shudder has just kicked off its annual sixty one Days of Halloween, a two month supersized celebration full of new movies and series like a new season of Creepshow from executive producer Greg Nicotero of The Walking Dead and VHS ninety four, the brand
new installment in the acclaimed Found Footage anthology franchise. I've been a huge fan of Shudder since it began with its awesome range of films, from the familiar to criminally lesser known like the wonderfully deranged masterpiece Baskin from Turkish director Chan Evno, to awesome horror related documentaries like Leviathan The Story of Hell Raiser Gets started streaming the best horror,
thriller and supernatural content. Now. To try Shudder free for thirty days, go to shudder dot com and use promo code unexplained That's shudder dot com. Despite the Warrens insisting that a full scale exorcism was needed, the church agreed to perform a high Mass at the Glassol's home instead, to be led by Father Virgilac, who was joined by
Father's Grosso Malia and one other local priest. After days of praying and the careful selection of the appropriate liturgy, on the day before the mass, Vergilac warned his colleagues not to sleep travel alone should the demon seek any reprisal against them, and so it was that on August twentieth, the priests arrived at the Glasal home to conduct the mass.
That morning, David, Arnie and the rest of the Glassals, along with Lorraine and ed Warren, gathered in the main room around a makeshift altar comprised of a kitchen table and an altar cloth from Saint Joseph's and watched on as the priests carefully laid out their implements of chalices, cruets, and holy oils. After a finally polished ornate cross was placed in the center of the altar, Father Vergilac was ready to begin. As Vergilac prayed out loud, David sat
between his father and ed Warren began to stir. Ten minutes later, his quiet groans and morphed into a strange growl. Virgil Ac instinctively flicked the vial of holy water over David and the growling stopped. By four pm, the mass was over and David smiled for what seemed the first time in weeks, and all agreed the atmosphere had become somehow lighter. A few days later, a late night screamed from David's bedroom announced the apparent return of the demons.
After further consultation with the local bishop, although still reluctant to perform a full scale Rituala Romanum, the church agreed to take the slightly lesser step of performing a deliverance ritual on David. On September second, Having apparently become incensed at the mention of the ritual, David was tied to a chair with a sheet and promptly taken to the
school chapel of Joseph's Church. Inside, Father Virgilac and the three other priests were waiting for him, With David eventually settled between his family and the warrens on the front pew, Father Virgilac began in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, strengthened by the intercession of the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God, the Blessed Michael, the Archangel of the Blessed Apostles, and all the saints. We undertake to
repulse the attacks and to seats of the devil. When suddenly David broke free and charged toward the priest, only to be restrained and brought back to the bench. David was said to have struggled throughout the procedure, railing against the priests, spitting and crying out for them to shut up, as Vergilac continued unmoved, begone, Satan, cease your insolence. I command you, in the name of God Almighty, the Creator, to produce the sign of thine departure by the precious
blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. At four pm, again with David finally subdued after hours of kicking and screaming, Father virgil Act brought the session to an end. Closing her eyes. Lorraine Warren sensed that much good had been done, but warned the more that the fight was not yet over, believing as many as four demons were still trapped in
poor David's body. On September eighth, David was once again brought from his home to the priests of Saint Joseph, this time to a haul in the convent opposite the church. Accompanied by his mother, Debbie, and one of his brothers, David was brought to the front of the room, joined the Warrens and the priests. At three pm. With the priests stood in a semicircle around the boy, they performed
the rite of exorcism without interruption. With all seeming finally well and David now free of demons, he returned home with his family later that evening. They were joined by the Warrens and Father Virgilac. All talk was laced with the tentative hope that the Glassl's problems were finally at an end. Then, at twelve thirty pm, David's head tipped forward to his chest and he began to growl. Then he turned his face to the ceiling. His eyes rolled back into his head as his limbs began to shake.
A series of guttural profanities sprang from his mouth. Arnie was said to have rushed over to the boy once more, compelling the demons to come into him instead, while Father Virgilac began to shout, through the power of Christ, I command you tell us your name, I am the devil, came the course reply from David, and then finally it was over. After almost six hours, at roughly six to fifteen am, the last of the apparent demons was finally
expelled once again. However, Lorraine Warren was not convinced. Hoping she was wrong, she and her husband wished the Glassul's luck for the future, telling them not to hesitate in
contacting them again if they ever needed them. Later that month, the Brookfield Police Department received a call from the Warrens, who told them that they'd been helping a family in Brookfield in relation to a demonic possession, and though they were hopeful the issue had been resolved, there was still the potential for a dangerous violent act to occur in future. In late October, Derby Glatsall was introduced to forty year old Alan Bonnoe, the manager of Brookfield Kennels, located just
off Route seven, not far from the Gladsall's home. Having just recently returned to the US after seventeen years in Australia, Allan had been given the job by his sister, who owned the kennels with her husband. With a number of years experience working at another kennel near by. Debby agreed to help Allan run the place and also provide a
grooming service for pets. What sold the job more than anything else, however, was Allan's offer of an apartment to live in on sight, and so in late November, with all seeming well at the Gladsall family home, Debbie, her son Jason, and Arnie moved in to the apartment. For the next few months, things couldn't have been better for the young couple, with Arnie also getting a new job as a tree surgeon. Staying on site enabled them to keep saving money for their own place, and plans to
marry the following spring was soon being discussed. Early in the next year, on the long weekend of George Washington's birthday, Debbie and Arnie invited Arnie's sisters and cousin to stay with them at the kennel. The girls had recently moved back to Bridgeport, with Arnie's mother Mary, having all become increasingly unnerved at the new Town property. On the morning of Monday, February sixteenth, however, Arnie was said to have woken up feeling unwell. After calling in sick, he promptly
went back to bed. Later that morning, as the girls helped Debbie with some groom work, and allegedly already visibly inebriated, Allan invited Debby and the girls to join him for lunch. By then feeling a little better, Arnie decided to join them too. After a quick meal, where Alan is said to have kept topping up Debbie and Arnie's drinks, they all returned to the kennels, where Debbie carried on her work with the girls and Arnie headed back to bed. When Arnie got up again at five pm, Alan asked
him to help fix his stereo in the office. A short time later, as Debbie finished off the last assignment of the day, the kennels were engulfed in loud rock music coming from Alan's office. Delighted to have the stereo fixed, Allan then invited everyone to have dinner with him too. Debbie later said she had the feeling that something terrible might happen, but eventually relented and agreed to take the girl to pick up pizzas for the more. It is
one of her biggest regrets. It took me a long time to realize that it isn't the bed, or even the mattress necessarily that makes for the perfect sleeping experience. It's the sheets. Now, I might not be sure of much in life, but this I can guarantee you that feeling when you get home from a stay at your parents house or a night at a fancy hotel. If you're so lucky and your bed just doesn't feel the same,
I'm telling you now, it's the sheets. Recently, I was lucky enough to get a set of sheets from boll And Branch, and if it wasn't for the fact that I have to wash them from time to time, I'd never take them off, which is just as well, because incredibly they get even softer with every wash. Buttery soft, lightweight in a one hundred percent organic cotton satine weave. Boll And Branch sheets are also made with toxin free processes and fair trade certification to ensure workers are paid
fair living wages. To experienced the best sheets you've ever felt, choose boll And Branch. You can try them worry free for thirty nights with free shipping and returns, and My listeners can get an exclusive fifteen percent off your first set of sheets with promo code unexplained at boll And Branch dot com. That's boll And Branch b o l
l and Branch dot com promo code unexplained. As music blasted up from beneath the floor of Allen's apartment, Debbie finished laying out the table and invited the others to sit down and eat, stumbling up from downstairs to join them. Allen apparently had little interest in eating, preferring instead to rage at his broken TV. As Debbie urged him to calm down, Allan was said to have become only more and more angry with the obscenely loud music ringing in
her head. Debbie eventually had enough and told Arnie and the girls to go out and meet her by the car. As she told it later, Arnie headed straight to the office to turn off the music. When he headed back toward the flat, Debby was half way down the stairs, while Allan was in the doorway blocking the girls from leaving. What happened next, Derby claimed not to understand, saying that
out of nowhere, something shifted in Arnie. Within seconds, he was laying into her, violently shoving and kicking her to the ground. Horrified, Wonder finally broke free from Allan and pushed Arnie away from Debby saying later that Arnie seemed then to suddenly come too confused about what had just happened. Then Janis and Mary finally wriggled free from Allan and managed to escape to the car. The next anyone knew, in a flash, Arnie and Alan were facing off against
each other. There was a sudden coming together. Then Arnie stepped back, leaving Allan supposedly standing still in the middle of the yard, pounding his fist into his hand. A second later, his face froze and he collapsed to the ground. Derby and Wonder claimed to then have quickly rushed to his aid, rolling him over to find two stab wounds, rapidly expelling blood in his stomach. Then Mary, having run from the car, spotted Arnie's woodsman's knife in the dirt,
its five inch blade slick with blood. When they looked up to find Arnie, they just managed to catch sight of him heading off in the direction of Silver Mine Road, before slipping into the trees and disappearing from view. Half an hour later, he was found wandering the road alone and taken to Brookfield Police station with his bail set at one hundred and twenty five thousand dollars, Arnie had no choice but to remain in custody until his trial began.
Eight months after his arrest, on October twenty eighth, Arnie Johnson arrived at Danbury Superior Court to begin his trial for murder. By then, the bizarre details leading up to the murder of Alan Bonno had long been made public.
Lorraine and Ed Warren wasted no time in making their case known that Arnie was the innocent victim of a diabolical possession, claiming that whatever had possessed David Gladsall had somehow made its way into the hapless nineteen year old Arnie Johnson and his lawyer came to this conclusion, too, intending to enter a plea of not guilty under the grounds of diminished responsibility due to the fact that he
had merely been a conduit for the devil. Not long after the trial began, Arnie's attorney turned to the jury and asked the troubling question, do you believe in God? All of them who only moments ago had taken the juror's oath with one hand placed on the Bible as they promised to make true deliverance under the eyes of God, nodded in agreement. Well, then how about the other way,
he continued, Do you believe in the devil too? Before they had a chance to answer, however, the judge struck down the line of questioning, stating that he would not
permit such an unprovable defense as demonic possession. In his courtroom, with the jury asked to decide whether Arnie had committed murder, man slaughter, or was in fact completely innocent, things soon proved complicated, with no blood found on his clothes, no fingerprints on the knife, and Debbie and his sisters all saying that none of them had actually seen him put the knife in, allan who was little to no evidence
that he'd actually done it. After two days of exhausting deliberation, the jury finally came to a decision and found the defendant guilty of manslaughter. Arnie Johnson was duly sentenced to twenty years in prison for the crime, but was eventually released after serving only five years for good behavior. If you enjoy Unexplained and would like to help supporters, you can now do so via Patreon to receive access to add three episodes. Just go to patron dot com Forward
Slash Unexplained Pod to sign up. Unexplained, The book and audiobook, featuring ten stories that have never before been covered on the show, is now available to buy worldwide. You can purchase through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Waterstones, among other bookstores. All elements of Unexplained, including the show's music, are produced
by me Richard McClain smith. Please subscribe and rate the show wherever you listen to podcasts, and feel free to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have an explanation of your own you'd like to share. You can reach us online at Unexplained podcast dot com or Twitter at Unexplained Pod and Facebook at Facebook dot com Forward Slash Unexplained Podcast