So in February of 1981, in Brookfield, Connecticut Alan Bono who was 40 at the time, was stabbed with a pocketknife multiple times by his tenant Arne Cheyenne Johnson.Which was the first homicide in 193 years, which is WILD. But what really made the case difficult was Johnson’s defense in court. He claimed that “the Devil made him do it”
courtesy of Hartford Courant
So the murder and the actual court case happened in ‘81, but to give more of an explanation you gotta go back to July of 1980.
Johnson’s fiancee’s, her name is Deborah btw and she was 26, family had just moved to Brookfield to clean up some rental property. And a short time after that Deborah’s little brother started acting strangely.
One of the sources I found says it started with David, thats the little brother he was 11 at the time, being shoved or just suddenly fell kinda abruptly onto their mother’s bed by seemingly nothing. But when his mother asked about it later, David said he was shoved by an old man with burnt looking skin. Now this is according to only one of the sources I found which waaas mysteriousuniverse.org
Most of the other sources say that it really started with David having these nightmares. He’d just wake up just sobbing about “a man with big black eyes, a thin face with animal features and jagged teeth, pointed ears, horns and hoofs” and at one point the Beast Man, not my name fore it, told David to “Beware”. There could be more to that, one source said it was in regards to the family moving into the rental place but thats it. It DEF told him to BEWARE though.
This kept happening for a while and eventually David;s whole behavior began to just shift. He was super quiet and nervous an he wasn’t the sort to just make stuff up for the hell of it either. After a bit of this Debbie, the fiancee at the time asked Arne to stay with the family at the rental house just to make everyone feel better.
So whaddya know, it didn’t do anything. In fact, David starting getting strange injuries in his sleep that are actually pretty common with demonic possession, yknow bruises and scratches. There’s a lot more that happened apparently, there were more sightings of the Beast Man in the day, but it looked like an ‘old man with a white beard dressed in a flannel shirt and jeans’, there were sounds from the attic, slamming doors, sounds of footsteps, and voices.
So at this point the family sought the help of their church, St/ Joseph’s, to bless their house, and wouldn’t ya know it it only made things worse. The sounds got louder. David had more dreams, and multiple times he would just start quoting Paradise Lost 1667, which is an old as balls book of poems and is about how Adam and Eve got kicked out of Eden essentially. OH. Also, side note, the demon tells David he was coming for his soul so that’s fun.
So at this point things are getting real intense, and its obvious that blessing the house didn’t work so their priest gets a hold of a couple that the church has worked with before and, anyone whos interested in Amityville or has seen the Conjuring movie’ll know their names, but the priest asked for help from Ed and Lorraine Warren.
“While Ed interviewed the boy, I saw a black, misty form next to him, which told me we were dealing with something of a negative nature. Soon the child was complaining that invisible hands were choking him – and there were red marks on him…”
So I think its safe to assume that whatever Lorraine saw was the demon or spirit or whaTEVER that was attacking David.
The Warrens preformed four minor rites exorcism, which, it was either all of them or just the one preformed at the family church St. Joseph’s with four other priests there. And according to the mother
''He would kick, bite, spit, swear -terrible words,'' his mother, Judy, said. Worse, she said, he experienced strangling attempts by invisible hands which he tried to pull from his neck, and powerful forces would flop him rapidly head to toe like a rag doll. ''And he can't even do a sit-up,'' she said. ''He's too fat.'' 'Leave the Lad Alone'
courtesy of Hartford Courant
Which just a side note, i feel like I’ve heard of people LOSING weight with possessions but never gaining it? Cause all the pictures you ever see of folks after and exorcism are all gaunt with sunken cheeks and all that jazz.
The exorcisms were NEVER approved and was constantly denied by Father Nicholas Grieco with the diocese of Bridgeport and all of the priests involved just wouldn’t comment about it or were transferred. The Warrens DID claim to have a friend they worked with named Reverend Francis Virgulak, who WAS assigned to look into the case by the Diocese of Bridgeport. But no actual exorcism was approved.
So during these exorcisms, the Warren’s claimed that there were 43 demons that spoke from him. These happened apparently in the span of a several days according to wikipedia, but during what I’m assuming is the last one. Our good ol friend Arne Johnson was just so tired of it all and did the classic move of just said. “Come into me, I’ll fight you, come into me.”
And if that reminds you of somebody I have some wonderful news. So, side story real quick.
Apparently during these exorcisms there was a a chair present. Its this old rocking chair with those tie on cushions and during the exorcisms it would “rock on its own, levitate, disappear and reappear.” and the Warrens even claim to have seen the devil sitting in it. So ofc you know who had to have it? Bagel Bites himself. He bought it for $67,000 put it on display in his Haunted Museum thing, and the exhibit got shut down in May of 2019 cause things got too intense. A woman allegedly went temporarily blind, folks just staring crying uncontrollably, and a plug got yanked out of a wall socket..
So, like this isn’t really an uncommon thing you hear about with exorcisms, yknow objects becoming possessed by the spirit or demon that was controlling the person. But if you believe in that, then one of two things happened. The Beast Man in David DID move on in and chilled in that chair that is allegedly haunted, OR. It did in fact take up Arne’s challenge and possessed him instead. There were supposed to be 43 demons, but in my head they can just Volton into one big one.
So back to Arne being a bitch. When that last exorcism was over the Warrens, which seems to have happened in October? The Warrens called the police to keep an eye on Arne and said that something bad was going to happen.
Judy and Carl, the parents of David did do some, well i dunno if good is the right word but, good things, they took him to a doctor to have checked and he was deemed normal with a “minimal learning disability” and then had him enrolled into a private school for disturbed children.
So Arne and his girlfriend Deborah had been together for a bit and because of all the shit that went down in that house, she wanted to move out, and of course he went as well. They ended up moving to an apartment rented out by her new boss at the Brookfield Pet Motel, 40 year old Alan Bono. And up until this point Arne’s been a “Good Guy”, he hasnt had any previous issues with the law and dropped out of high school to help his mom when she was in a tough spot.
But Debbie started to notice that Arne would just growl out of nowhere in a trance and say he saw the Beast Man. And after just. Forget the whole thing. This happened about 4 times in those 6 months leading til the murder according to Debbie. He also started to get into minor trouble with the police but it wasn’t anything WILD, but strange considering he’d done nothing til now.
But on Febuary 16th, 1981 yknow. Murder.
So Arne called in sick to his job to hang out with Debbie, his sister Wanda, and Debbie’s 9y/o cousin Mary who as there cause school was out for President’s day. So I imagine these kids are just hangin out when Alan Bono, the boss shows up and takes em all to lunch at a bar. Which. First of all. At lease TWO of the 4 are underage. So yknow WHATEVER.
When they got testimony from the waitress she said she served three carafes or red wine to BOTH men. So they all finish up lunch and head back to the couple’s apartment, and Arne and Alan start to argue over Debbie, over what exactly I couldn’t find. So OFC Debbie tries to get Wanda and Mary out, and when she does Alan grabs Mary, whos the 9 y/o, and just doesn’t let go. Debbie is standing between these two men as Wanda is trying to get Alan to get go and at some point Arne growls, takes out his pocketknife, and stabs Alan over 20 times. He flees and when the police find him later 2 miles away. And he just says “I think I hurt someone.”
Alan Bono dies hours later to his wounds, one of which that stretched from his stomach to his heart.
So I do give credit to his lawyer for trying at least, he found two cases in England (which nEITHER went to court) and decided to just say FUCK IT and give it a shot. So the first defense of demonic possession was a total bust the Judge wasn’t havin ANY of it, so then they shifted to self defense.
The jury deliberated for 15 hours before declaring Johnson guilty of first degree manslaughter for 10 to 20 years, but he only served 5.
When he got out Arne and Debbie got married and still are to this day.
Sources:
Wikipedia, People.com, The 13th Floor, Mysterious Universe, NY Times, The Truth Source, Skeptical Inquirer