Monthly Archives: August 2013

THE CONJURING, THE WARRENS, AND ME.

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Whenever anyone lists famous American ghosthunters the names of Ed and Lorraine Warren are always at the top of the list. 

  Although Ed passed away several years ago, Lorraine is still going strong, still giving public talks about ghosts, still appearing on television and radio and lately, consulting on a movie—The Conjuring. I did see the movie and was impressed by how well the actors portraying the Warrens demonstrated the couple’s compassion for the people that sought them out.


I first met the Warrens many years ago when I was living in Monroe, Connecticut, their hometown. The old abandoned settlement of Dudleytown caught my attention and I visited the place as I was doing my research. My interest was not in the paranormal—at the time I knew nothing of Dudleytown’s alleged haunted history—but was strictly historical. However, when my photos of the place revealed what appeared to be a face peering out from one of the cellar holes, I called the Warrens.


They graciously invited me to their home and reviewed my photos. They also showed me dozens of photos they had taken at Dudleytown; they all showed anomalies of some kind. We talked at length about Dudleytown and other haunted sites in Connecticut. I didn’t know a lot about ghosts and ghosthunting before that time, but the Warrens gave me an earful that evening and the interest has stayed with me.


I wrote about that first meeting with the Warrens in my book, Ghosthunters: On the Trail of Mediums,Dowsers, Spirit Seekers and Other Investigators of America’s Paranormal World.  

That chapter also contains a story about my much later visit to the Warrens after Ed had suffered his debilitating stroke. In between those two visits, Ed kindly wrote the Afterword in my book, GhosthuntingOhio. Only a few months after that visit to their home, Ed passed away.


What I remember most about the Warrens was the compassion the couple showed toward me, somebody they didn’t know, some guy that just called them on the phone. Clearly, they considered their work to be important in both a physical and spiritual sense and they welcomed with open arms and open hearts anyone that showed the same serious interest in the paranormal. I try to be the same way and feel that I am paying them back whenever I help a novice ghosthunter.


That initial meeting also left me with the germ of an idea that took root years later as a novella titled DarkEntry. Available as an electronic book on Amazon.com, the book is an imaginative journey into the haunted legends about Dudleytown. 

Fact and fiction come together to weave what I hope you will agree is a terrifying paranormal tale. Read it with the lights on.