It turns out that 2021 is not the year of Richard Ramirez and the Cecil Hotel after all. It seemed like it would be at first though, especially because winter started out with multiple documentaries and specials about both. But now summer’s here and the focus has shifted to the true story of “the Devil made me do it” case. When Arne Cheyenne Johnson fatally stabbed Alan Bono in 1981, Johnson’s lawyers contended that’s what happened anyway.
Or did they? You might be surprised to learn who actually first posed the prospect of a “demon defense.”
We’ll get to that, as well as 32 other interesting facts about the history-making case that, in addition to inspiring the newest Conjuring movie, The Conjuring 3: The Devil Made Me Do It, also inspired the latest Shock Docs. (Which shares the same title as the movie. Well, the Devil part. Not the Conjuring part.)
It all started when 11-year-old David Glatzel began exhibiting strange and disturbing behavior in 1980. The family, who were Catholic, reached out to the church for help, believing David to be possessed. That’s how they were referred to Ed and Lorraine Warren.
However, things took a tragic turn when Arne Cheyenne Johnson, who was the boyfriend of David’s older sister, Debbie, killed their landlord, Bono. For the police, it started as a rather routine and mundane case of murder, but it soon became anything but.
Let’s take a look at some of the other interesting facts in “the Devil made me do it” case.
1. First murder in Brookfield, CT in decades.
“The Devil Is His Defense,” an article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch dated Apr. 24, 1981, reported that when Arne Cheyenne Johnson killed Alan Bono, it was “the first murder this quiet town has known in decades.”
That’s likely true. I did some quick digging and the last time so much murder was mentioned in Brookfield was when the Murder on the Orient Express played in theaters in 1975 and its showtimes were listed in the papers.
2. At first, the story wasn’t front-page news.
In fact, it never really was. It was often first section news, like when the Hartford Courant first reported the murder in a short, six-paragraph article on Feb 17, 1981. It appeared in the first section of the paper, A, but not on the first page. (It was on page A7.)
It was front-page news in the Hartford Courant on Oct. 26, 1981, though. The week that the “Devil made me do it” case’s trial was set to start.
3. The Devil defense arose within days of the murder —but it wasn’t Arne Cheyenne Johnson’s lawyers who first suggested it.
Just 10 days after papers first reported the murder, the story took its sensational turn when the Hartford Courant reported how “…a bizarre story began to emerge, told mostly by Ed and Lorraine Warren of Monroe, known internationally for their psychic research.”
That’s when the beans were spilled publicly that Arne’s girlfriend, Debbie Glatzel, had a little brother, David, who was thought to be possessed.
It was the Warrens who suggested the “Devil made me do it” defense would be deployed.
“The couple… contend that his (Johnson’s) case will be the first in American legal history in which an accused murderer will argue that he was possessed.”
After that, the story gained national appeal. Or, as we say these days, it went viral.
4. David was possessed by something that followed him from a home in Newtown, CT.
David’s family explained the trouble all started after something followed the boy home on July 2, 1980. He’d gone with his sister, Debbie, and her boyfriend, Arne, to Newtown, Connecticut to help them clean the house they were going to move into.
That’s where he saw a little old man, “burnt and black-looking” in a plaid shirt and jeans that had a hole in one knee. David described the man as having “feet like a deer,” meaning hooves, and said the man pointed at him and said, “Beware!”
David also alleged the burnt man-beast shoved him onto the waterbed and then it followed him home, where it continued to torment him.
5. The Warrens said David Glatzel was possessed by not one demon, but by 43.
Lorraine Warren told reporters, “We knew this case would end in tragedy; it was inevitable.” Especially because Johnson had invited whatever was tormenting David Glatzel to “come into” him and leave the boy alone.
However, as she put it, “He never realized there were so many demons in the boy —43 as we found out.”
Did the burnt man-beast invite some friends along when they followed David home to Brookfield from Newtown?
6. David Glatzel was often described as obese.
I found it interesting that when articles would paint a physical description of David, they’d describe him as an obese little boy with tousled hair. Does his weight factor into anything? Were they implying heavier set people are more disposed to being possessed? It didn’t seem like a pertinent detail that needed to be included, but it was.
7. Possessed or Tourette’s?
In addition to seeking help from clergy, David’s family also sought medical and mental advice. Physicians didn’t really speak publicly about David or his condition, but some surmised he might be suffering from Tourette’s, which displays similar symptoms to what David exhibited.
8. Little comment from the diocese.
On Apr. 24, 1981, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the only two things that the Diocese of Bridgeport would confirm were that:
- Bishop Walter W. Curtis assigned Rev. Francis E. Virgulak to the case. (Who the Warrens said they had a close friendship with and who they had worked with during another exorcism.)
- “The church’s treatment of the boy never approached the full and formal rite of exorcism.”
The church declined to comment beyond that, citing it was a “pastoral matter.”
9. The Glatzels and Warrens disagreed about the request for a formal exorcism.
The Glatzels said they not only wished an exorcism had been requested, but that they had prayed for one.
The Warrens said they had tapes proving two priests had gone directly to the bishop and requested an exorcism.
“We hope that the priests will do what’s right, and come in and testify,” he said. “If they don’t, we will have to subpoena them to testify, and we’ll have to use our tapes to prove it.”
However, there are two things that are unclear in the above statement published in the Apr. 24, 1981 St. Louis Post-Dispatch article:
- If it was Ed Warren making the statement or one of Johnson’s attorneys.
- If there was a typo and the “he” should’ve been “she” to refer to Lorraine, who they had been quoting before this.
10. The killer and his victim were described as “the best of friends.”
Alan Bono was 40-years-old. He had only moved to Connecticut from Florida in the summer of 1980. Arne Cheyenne Johnson was 19.
Now, I know people can become “fast friends,” especially when they’re kindred spirits. It could’ve happened that Johnson and Bono became instant besties. However, between that and the age gap, I doubted the veracity of the claim that some papers made about Johnson and Bono being the best of friends.
Perhaps the defense was trying to sell that story to paint Johnson as more sympathetic? That he’d never kill a friend, so it had to be the Devil that made him do it?
I don’t know, but with friends like that, you definitely don’t need enemies. (Some way to detect and perhaps repel evil might come in handy, though.)
Then again, Johnson might’ve been mature for his age because Bono wasn’t the only older person he spent time with.
11. Debbie Glatzel was an older woman.
While The Conjuring 3 portrays Johnson’s girlfriend, Debbie, as his same age, she was a 26-year-old divorcee at the time of Bono’s murder, making her seven years older than the 19-year-old Johnson.
12. The trouble started at the Mug ‘N’ Munch Cafe.
Shortly before Johnson lost his temper and stabbed Bono, they spent three hours in this establishment. According to the barmaid who served them, the duo shared three carafes of wine, or between 13 and 15 glasses.
13. Many believed the real “spirits” in the case were not the supernatural kind, but the alcoholic variety.
That’s what prosecutors alleged and what many others believed at the time too.
14. The Brookfield police reported seeing nothing out of the ordinary.
The officers who first found Johnson and the detectives who first started investigating the case said they had no reason to believe the murder was supernaturally influenced. Until, of course, the Warrens said it was.
15. The family did not allow reporters to talk to David.
This isn’t so surprising really. To this day he shies away from the media. Again, not surprisingly.
16. The hauntings continued after the exorcisms —and the murder.
Even after the murder, David’s mom said the boy was still “petrified by terror-breathing demon forms with holes in their heads oozing blood.”
The Glatzels and the Warrens both said paranormal activity still happened at the family’s home, including apparitions and unexplained noises. Any attempts to rid David of whatever was afflicting him hadn’t worked. They returned to haunt him even after Johnson was arrested.
17. Defense attorneys took the case to make a name for themselves.
Arne Cheyenne Johnson’s lawyers, Martin Minnella and his law partner, Paul Yamin, admitted they took the case because they wanted the publicity. They hoped it would lead to more high-profile cases.
18. The defense wanted to examine Bono’s body for signs of “demonic involvement.”
When Minnella and Yamin’s motion to examine Bono’s clothes and bodily tissue was granted in April 1981, they took it as a good sign. As the Hartford Courant reported on April 14, 1981, the defense felt “the permission to examine the evidence was a positive sign that the judge is willing to listen to demon possession arguments and consider the defense even though it hasn’t been used before.”
However, because Bono’s remains were cremated, a pathologist was only able to examine body tissue that the coroner still had on hand.
But what did they hope looking at his clothes might turn up?
“Among the signs of demonic involvement would be lack of blood on Bono’s clothes, the absence of rips in his clothing and no trace of stab wounds.”
Obviously, signs of all that had been present.
19. Headlines never reported it as “the Devil made me do it” case.
Most headlines referred to it as the “Brookfield demons” or the “demon murder” case. It was rarely even referenced as “the devil made me do it” case. That’s a modern invention.
However, one headline that came close was “A demonic defense for murder: Did the devil really make him do it?” in The Baltimore Sun dated Sep. 22, 1981.
20. Jury selection started on October 28, 1981.
Is it just me, or does anyone else see the irony in a case involving demons and possession starting during Spooky Season?
21. The trial lasted three weeks, but was briefly postponed because of a deadly car crash.
One of the jurors had a daughter who was in a bad crash that resulted in the daughter being injured and one of the daughter’s friends being killed. The judge respectfully postponed the trial to allow the juror to be with the daughter.
22. There was precedent for the defense.
The “Devil made me do it” may have been the first time such a defense was attempted in the U.S. However, Johnson’s lawyers pointed to “demon” cases in England for precedent to try it in the States.
On Oct. 14, 1981, The Record reported: “Yamin points out that ‘demonic possession’ has been successfully argued in two recent cases in England. In 1977, a Nigerian accused of raping a nurse received a suspended sentence; in an arson case, the defendant was acquitted.”
23. Arne Cheyenne Jackson’s 13-year-old sister testified during trial —but was declared a hostile witness.
Janice Johnson had told a grand jury that she had seen her brother stab Bono, but during trial recanted that testimony and said she didn’t remember telling authorities what she had witnessed.
24. Speaking of eyewitnesses, there were three.
In addition to Johnson’s 13-year-old sister being present at the time Johnson stabbed Bono, so was his 15-year-old sister, Wanda, and Johnson’s girlfriend, Debbie.
25. Johnson’s attorneys also aimed to use the demon defense for appeal purposes.
The Nov. 6, 1981 edition of the Record-Journal reported that “Minnella has said he will argue the demonic possession defense in the absence of a jury so he could try to use the judge’s rejection as the basis of an appeal.”
26. Minnella hoped not only to prove Johnson innocent, but also the existence of God.
If he had been allowed to use demons as a defense in this case, Minnella knew this would prove not only such evil was real, but that God was too. That really would’ve been a history-making case.
27. The judge banned the devil defense approach —even before the jury had been selected.
Minnella and Yamin thought it was a good sign that they’d been allowed to examine Bono’s clothing for “demonic involvement.” They hoped that meant they’d get to use their “Devil made me do it” defense in the case.
Nope. Superior Court Judge Robert J. Callahan shut that down immediately. Within minutes of jury selection starting, in fact. Most legal experts expected the judge not to allow the defense, but most felt he’d make that judgment after jury selection.
However, during voir dire, Minnella asked the first potential juror if they were Catholic and believed in demonic forces. Judge Callahan dismissed the jury and said, “I’m not going to allow the defense of demon possession, period.”
That delivered a blow to Minnella’s strategy. It also meant he couldn’t call the Warrens as witnesses. However, he hoped Judge Callahan’s remarks showed prejudice, which could help him appeal any unfavorable rulings.
28. Instead of demons, Johnson’s lawyers argued their client killed in self-defense.
They could’ve also tried insanity, but Minnella didn’t like that approach, feeling someone could be both sane yet still possessed by the devil and supernaturally compelled to murder.
Instead, he shifted his strategy to argue that a fight between Bono and Johnson over Debbie, when Bono became too aggressive towards Johnson’s girlfriend, was when Johnson stabbed the older man in self-defense.
29. Arne Cheyenne Johnson testified in his own murder trial —but he never blamed demons.
Johnson denied killing Bono. He said he didn’t remember doing it and the last thing he did recall was telling his friend and landlord, “Let go of the knife, my knife.”
However, he “never claimed that an evil spirit forced his hand.” That was all due to, as the Hartford Courant put it, his lawyers “hawking” the devil made me do it case as being “more frightening than The Exorcist.”
30. The jury didn’t immediately declare Johnson guilty.
They deliberated for fifteen hours over three days before deciding to find him guilty of manslaughter.
31. Johnson got the maximum sentence but didn’t serve all of it.
Judge Callahan determined Bono’s stabbing was “completely unjustified” and that Arne Cheyenne Johnson showed no remorse and was only concerned about himself. That’s why the judge gave Johnson the maximum sentence of 10 to 20 years. However, Johnson only served five years.
32. Arne Cheyenne Johnson and Debbie Glatzel married.
I’m not sure how happily ever after they lived following the “Devil made me do it” case. However, the couple married in 1985 while Johnson was still in prison. They ended up having two children together and remained married until recently when Debbie died from cancer.
33. Besides the murder, David’s brother says the rest didn’t happen.
The Conjuring 3 is an over-the-top exaggeration of David Glatzel’s problems in 1980 and the 1981 murder.
Distractify reported how Carl Glatzel, Jr., David’s older brother, contends David was never possessed. Rather, Carl says his brother struggled with mental health problems as a child. The Warrens looked to profit from it, especially following Bono’s murder.
Gerald Brittle wrote The Devil in Connecticut, which was re-released in 2006. Carl Glatzel Jr. sued and the book was taken out of print. Carl is now working on his own book, which he says will reveal “twists” that will really throw people.
Check-In
Did any of the above facts make you look at “the Devil made me do it” case in a new light?
Courtney Mroch is a globe-trotting restless spirit who’s both possessed by wanderlust and the spirit of adventure, as well as obsessed with true crime, horror, the paranormal, and weird days. Perhaps it has something to do with her genes? She is related to occult royalty, after all. Marie Laveau, the famous Voodoo practitioner of New Orleans, is one of her ancestors. That could also explain her infatuation with skeletons.
Speaking of healing, to learn how she channeled her battle with cancer to conjure up this site, check out HJ’s Origin Story.
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It feels weird to say this, but nope, learning more about the facts doesn’t make me think differently about the case. I know there’s going to be drama and family fallout and finger pointing from any kind of high publicity case.
You’ve quickly become one of my sheroes, you know that? You’re just so calm and together. Like the ladies I adore on Call the Midwife. You flow with that same kind of calm and knowing and non-judgment. Thank you for these comments. They help tame the critical Virgo in me and show her a less judgmental way!