Arne Cheyenne Johnson “blacked out” and claimed he stabbed his landlord 4 occasions within the chest whereas he was possessed by the satan Feb. 16, 1981, his lawyer mentioned.
The case sparked some of the weird legal circumstances in historical past that attracted a world media frenzy and later impressed books, films and documentaries, together with a dramatized model of occasions in “The Conjuring,” and a present Netflix documentary, “The Satan Made Me Do It.”
Johnson by no means truly muttered these phrases, his lawyer, Martin Minnella, informed Fox Information Digital.
“(Arne Johnson) by no means mentioned ‘I used to be possessed by the satan.’ He by no means mentioned something. The monks mentioned that. The Warrens (paranormal investigators who grew to become well-known throughout The Amityville Horror) mentioned that,” Minnella mentioned. “However Arne by no means mentioned that. Arne simply mentioned, ‘I blacked out. I do not keep in mind something that occurred.'”
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Arne C. Johnson, 19, of Brookfield, Conn., arrives at Danbury Superior Courtroom, the place a grand jury was requested to indict him within the stabbing dying of Alan Bono, 40. (Bettmann Archive/Getty Photographs)
Johnson was arrested for fatally stabbing Alan Bono in February 1981. The arresting officer informed Johnson, “‘You simply killed somebody,'” Minnella mentioned. “And Ernie principally mentioned, ‘I do not keep in mind killing anyone. He is my buddy. I did not kill him. I did not harm him. I did not stab them.’ However police took him in, and we started to work on the case.”
Minnella was simply 32 on the time and was continuously informed to avoid the case.
“I feel I used to be the one lawyer prepared to take this,” he mentioned.
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“There have been some folks saying we’re doing this for cash or doing this for fame,” Minnella mentioned. “It wasn’t about any of that. These folks have been actually horrified. It scared us s—less. … He even noticed the being and described it.
“He mentioned it appeared just like the satan from a Halloween costume with darkish ft like a deer and eyes black like chunks of coal.”
Arne Johnson challenges a demon months earlier than homicide
David Glatzel, Johnson’s shut buddy and future brother-in-law, was 11 years outdated on the time. He was “functionally illiterate,” but uttered the names of 42 demons in Latin, Minnella mentioned.
He was recorded on tapes, a few of which have been performed within the documentary; Minnella would not know what occurred to others.
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“I do not know if they have been destroyed or what, however I definitely heard them sufficient occasions,” he mentioned. “And it wasn’t the voice of an 11-year-old child.”
Witness statements claimed the “police chief truly witnessed the boy levitate, and he additionally witnessed objects being thrown across the room,” Minnella mentioned.
Arne Johnson’s mugshot after he was arrested in 1981 for killing his landlord. (Brookfield Police Division)
There have been 5 monks assigned to Glatzel’s ongoing “exorcisms,” based on the famend lawyer, who famous just one was talked about within the Netflix documentary.
Throughout one exorcism in a church in Connecticut, Glatzel “had an amazing quantity of power” and went after one of many monks, Minnella mentioned.
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“Arne jumped on (Glatzel) and mentioned, ‘You permit him alone. Take me. Enter my physique,'” Minnella mentioned. “And the monks are saying, ‘Don’t do that.’ And the Warrens are telling him, ‘Don’t do that.’ However he continued. He challenged the satan.”
That is when Johnson’s household believes a demon transferred from Glatzel to Johnson.
Time between the ‘transference’ and the homicide
Then months of unexplained, disturbing incidents occurred, like when Johnson put his fist by a chest of dresser drawers “with no clarification.”
“He began to behave weird, and everybody was fearful about him,” Minnella mentioned. “After the exorcism the place Arne challenged the demon, he was given a cross with a sequence.”
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On the time, Johnson labored as an arborist, and he fell 100 ft from a tree and landed on his again.
“He did not have one mark on his physique. Nothing incorrect with him,” Minnella mentioned. “And the chain was gone, however the cross was nonetheless there, intact on his sweater.”
Arne C. Johnson, with a coat over his arm, steps from a police van on arrival at court docket in Danbury, Conn., for the opening day of his trial within the stabbing dying of Alan Bono, 40, in Brookfield, Conn. Superior Courtroom Decide Robert Callahan refused to permit “demonic possession” as a protection within the trial. (Bettmann Archive/Getty Photographs)
And Lorraine Warren, a magical investigator who gained fame throughout “The Amityville Horror,” went to the police and mentioned “a tragedy goes to happen.”
“She mentioned, ‘Anyone goes to get killed.’ That is months earlier than the homicide,” Minnella mentioned. “It wasn’t like he killed any person after which mentioned, ‘Oh, he is possessed.'”
‘I’m going to spend my life in jail’
Minnella traveled to England to fulfill with protection attorneys who had argued a demonic possession protection as he prepped for trial.
“Our argument was, something that exhibits there wasn’t a selected intent ought to be allowed in,” he mentioned.
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However the choose did not permit this protection as a result of it was “unscientific,” based on Minnella, who mentioned the choose “would not allow us to produce the witnesses that we had.
“It by no means bought thus far, however the Catholic Church was so afraid that they employed a lawyer to quash subpoenas of the monks that have been concerned within the exorcisms.”
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After the choose issued the ruling, Johnson turned to his lawyer and mentioned, “I’ll spend the remainder of my life in jail for one thing I did not do, or one thing I do not keep in mind doing.”
Minnella needed to pivot and concocted a “half-baked” self-defense angle.
“The variety of wounds like that might negate self-defense,” Minnella mentioned. “Any a kind of blows to the center might’ve killed him.”
However that was one of the best they needed to work with.
Trial begins, and ‘bizarre’ stuff occurs
The primary day of the trial, lights flickered on and off, Minnella mentioned. Upkeep crews tried to repair them, however could not get them working.
Day two, “I consider, in jury choice, one thing occurred to a potential juror’s household. We needed to postpone,” Minnella mentioned. “There have been all these weird issues that stored taking place to all of us.”
Prosecutors argued Johnson and Bono have been ingesting, and an argument escalated to bodily violence.
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Johnson was convicted in November 1981 on a diminished cost of first-degree manslaughter and spent about 5 years in jail of a 10-to-20 yr sentence.
Wanting again, Minnella mentioned although they could not introduce their deliberate protection, the case was splashed throughout the entrance pages of just about each main newspaper within the nation, mentioned in depth on each primetime information present and identified all around the world.
The demonic possession protection in Arne Cheyenne Johnson’s homicide case made worldwide headlines. (Fox Information)
And it labored of their favor.
“So although the choose would not permit the jurors to listen to our case, they watched tv, they learn Folks Journal, they learn the entrance pages of the paper. All of them knew what this case was about,” Minnella mentioned.
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Johnson’s case was introduced at a time when the Catholic Church fought towards the concept it was performing exorcisms regardless of the archbishop assigning a staff of 5 monks to Glatzel’s case.
That modified drastically in 1999, when the Vatican launched new pointers on exorcisms, which have been permitted by Pope John Paul II.
In a Latin textual content, ”De Exorcismis et Supplicationibus Quibusdam” (Of Exorcisms and Sure Supplications), the Vatican cautioned that exorcists, ”initially, should not think about folks to be vexed by demons who’re struggling above all from some psychic sickness.” It cautioned towards treating as possessed “victims of creativeness.”
With that change, Minnella believes he would’ve been in a position to current the jury along with his deliberate protection and win the case.
“I consider the courts would have let all of it hang around,” Minnella mentioned. “That is what these monks noticed. That is what the bishop noticed. They (The Catholic Church) simply do not assign 5 monks if there is no credibility to those allegations.”
Ed and Lorraine Warren arrive at Danbury Superior Courtroom March 19, 1981, the place a grand jury returned an indictment towards Arne Cheyenne Johnson within the slaying of Alan Bono, 40, Feb. 16, 1981, in Brookfield, Conn. ( Bettmann Archive/Getty Photographs)
Was all of it a hoax?
The case nonetheless creeps out the true-crime neighborhood greater than 4 a long time later, however Glatzel’s brother, Carl, has mentioned in interviews over time he believes it was all a hoax.
In June 2021, Carl informed the Hartford Courant his brother suffered from a psychological sickness as a toddler and even sued Lorraine Warren and creator Gerald Brittle in 2007. The case was in the end dismissed.
“That’s why I moved out of Connecticut,” Carl informed the native newspaper. “I by no means did consider within the bulls—.”
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Johnson and David’s sister, Debbie, bought married in 1985 whereas Johnson was in jail. She died shortly earlier than his launch.
Bono’s dying had nothing to do with David, his brother Carl mentioned within the documentary.
“There’s nothing demonic on this. Arne was very possessive of Debbie. There was speculations and rumors that Debbie was having an affair with Bono,” Carl mentioned, based on Time journal.
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Director Chris Holt, who sat with David, Alan and Carl Glatzel, in addition to Arne Johnson, informed Netflix, “There are individuals who inform lies, however I sat down with David and Arne and Carl, for hours on finish, and their tales by no means modified.”
“I feel they have been telling me the reality — nevertheless it’s their interpretations of the reality relatively than it being a hardened truth. However they believed — and I believed — what they have been saying is truthful,” he mentioned.
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