History of the Perron family and the Harrisville Haunting (true story behind the movie The Conjuring)
Ed and Lorraine Warren
Ed
and Lorraine Warren had been investigating paranormal activity since
the early 1950’s. During their decades-long careers, they investigated
over 4,000 hauntings, including the well-known
Amityville Haunting where they were recognized as the first psychic investigators to step onto the scene. The 2013 film,
The Conjuring,
was based on their terrifying investigation of the Perron family and
their haunted farmhouse in Harrisville, Rhode Island. Known variously as
the “
Harrisville Haunting” or the “
Perron Family Haunting”,
the Warrens would say that their investigation of the Perron family’s
haunting was their “most intense, compelling, disturbing and significant
investigation” of their careers. Roger Perron, his wife Carolyn, and
their five children Andrea (Annie), Nancy, Christine, Cindy, and April
endured a decade of torture from the spirits that occupied their country
home.
The Harrisville Haunting – the hauntings begin
Seeking
to move the children to a quieter home life in the country, Roger and
Carolyn Perron purchased their dream home in the winter of 1970. The
Old Arnold Estate
was 200 acres in size and one of the original plantations in the area
surveyed by colonist John Smith in 1680 and deeded to Roger Williams for
the formation of the state of Rhode Island. Located on Round Top Road
in Harrisville, Rhode Island, the 14-room “lovely, charming” country
home was built in 1736 on a beautiful plot of land with plenty of room
for their five children, all girls, to roam about and play. Nancy and
Christine Perron shared one room, Cindy and April another, and Andrea
had a room all to herself – except on nights when, as Andrea put it, the
sisters “came crawling into bed with her, trembling and crying in
terror”.
The Perron family began to notice something was amiss from the first
day they stepped into their lovely new home. Later it would be learned
that eight generations of families had lived, and died, in the Old
Arnold Estate including Mrs. John Arnold who at the age of 93, hung
herself from the rafters of the barn. Other unfortunate losses of life
on the estate included several suicides (hangings, poisonings), the rape
and unsolved murder of eleven-year-old girl Prudence Arnold (later
presumed to have been murdered by a farm hand), two sudden drownings in
the creek located near the house, and four men who mysteriously froze to
death on the land. It did not take long before the Perrons’ understood
why the previous seller advised them on the day that they moved into the
house, “leave the lights on at night.”
The many friendly ghosts
At
first the ghosts, or demon spirits as the Warren investigators thought
of them, were harmless. Described variously as opaque or somewhat solid
in appearance, there were many spirits present in the old homestead. One
ghost smelled of flowers while another would gently kiss the girls
goodnight in their beds every night. Another appeared to be a small,
young male that the girls would watch, mesmerized, push toy cars about
the room propelled by an invisible hand.
One
apparition, presumably a female ghost, was a welcome presence in the
home. The Perron’s would often hear sweeping noises coming from the
kitchen. When they entered the room, they would find the broom had been
moved to a different spot in the room with a neat pile of newly swept
dirt sitting in the middle of the floor, waiting to be deposited in the
trashcan.
“Manny” was another spirit that the young Perron children loved.
Manny was believed to be the spirit of Johnny Arnold, who had committed
suicide by hanging himself in the attic of the house in the 1700’s.
Manny would appear before the children, often standing nearby quietly
watching the children going about their daily activities, a crooked
smile on his face, amused at the children’s’ play. If eye contact was
made with Manny, he would withdraw from sight just as suddenly as he had
appeared.
In addition to ghostly entities, the Perrons’ witnessed many other
odd and unexplained phenomena. Beds would levitate several inches off of
the floor, telephone handsets would hover in the air and slam down onto
the phone base when someone entered the room, and various household
objects would glide about the house on their own. Often chairs would be
pulled suddenly from beneath an unsuspecting guest and pictures would
tumble from the walls. The Perrons’ once reported seeing an orange ooze
blood and a wall dissolve into nothingness.
Some spirits, aka demons, were not so nice
Not
all the ghosts at Harrisville were welcome visitors. Some would yank
the girls’ legs and hair during the middle of the night. Others would
loudly bang the front door of the home with such force that the entire
house would shake. Doors would slam shut on their own while others would
stay frozen in place, unable to be shut no matter how much force was
applied to them. One entity in the home routinely kept the family awake
as it continually cried out in the night, “Mama! Maaaama!” while another
apparition tortured 8-year-old Cindy telling her over and over, “there
are seven dead soldiers buried in the wall”. One of the Perron’s
recalled a small, delicate spirit, appearing to be about 4 years old,
roaming the house crying, calling for her mother.
One of the spirits was so evil, the Perron family to this day will
not disclose what it did to them. Andrea Perron, who authored a book
about their experiences in the home (
House of Darkness House of Light),
hinted that the unmentionable spirit may have molested some of the
young girls. When asked about this spirit during an interview, she
avoided the question, telling the reporter:
“Let’s just say there was a very bad male spirit in the home – with five little girls.”
The baddest of them all – Bathsheba Sherman
The most horrid ghost in the home targeted Mrs. Perron specifically. Known as
Bathsheba,
the entity was thought to have been the ghost of Bathsheba Sherman, a
practicing Satanist and witch who had lived in the home in the early
19th century and died there after hanging herself from a tree behind the
barn. The Perrons’ were not a religious family. Weak in faith, it was
theorized to be a primary factor for the particularly violent and active
nature of Bathsheba’s treatment of the Perron family. Credence to this
theory is strengthened when it was learned that the only previous
resident not to report any odd occurrences was a local minister.
Lorraine Warren explained was this was important:
“You only have your faith as your protection. I always
had my faith. God protecting me allowed me to do this. At that
particular time, the Perrons’ did not have religion – and it was very
dangerous.”
Bathsheba
was a vile, hideous creature described as having a face “similar to a
desiccated bee hive” covered in cobwebs with no real human features
other than vermin crawling from crevices etched into the wrinkled skin
of her face. Her head, round and gray, sat “leaning off to one side” as
if her neck had been broken and an evil stench permeated the room when
she was present.
Bathsheba Thayer was born in 1812 in Rhode Island and married fellow
Rhode Islander Judson Sherman on March 10, 1844. When alive Bathsheba
had lived a life of solitude, an outcast of the community she lived in
after being accused of killing her young baby as a sacrifice to Satan.
The baby’s body was found to have been impaled in the head with a sharp
object. Lacking evidence, the case was eventually dropped. Bathsheba was
believed to have had three other children, none of whom survived past
the age of four. Her children may not have been her only victims.
Bathsheba was also known to have brutalized the staff often starving and
beating them for minor infractions. When Bathsheba died on May 25,
1885, the coroner wrote that he had never seen anything like it – her
emaciated body had eerily solidified, seemingly turned to stone.
It was easily recognized that Bathsheba had her favorites in the
household. She tortured Carolyn Perron (one of the daughters, Cindy,
was often a frequent target) while lusting after Mr. Perron. During
their stay, equipment in the home frequently broke. Roger Perron would
take the broken machinery down to the cellar to repair. While working,
he often felt Bathsheba touching him, gently caressing his neck or
running her hands down his back. But while longing for Mr. Perron,
Bathsheba abhorred Carolyn. It was clear that Bathsheba wanted Carolyn
out of the house.
An August 1977 article in the local
Providence Journal described the appearance of Bathsheba:
“Mrs. Perron said she awoke before dawn one morning to
find an apparition by her bed: the head of an old woman hanging off to
one side over an old gray dress. There was a voice reverberating, ‘Get
out. Get out. I’ll drive you out with death and gloom.’”
In the beginning, Bathsheba’s treatment of Carolyn was merely
“cruel”. Carolyn would be pinched, slapped, or have objects thrown about
her. Her greatest fear, fire, was soon discovered by the entity and
used repeatedly to strike terror in her as Bathsheba banged torches
against her bed while demanding that she leave the home immediately.
As time progressed, the attacks grew harsher. In one instance,
Carolyn was lying on the couch when she felt a sharp pain in the calf of
her leg. She examined her leg and found a large, bleeding puncture
wound that looked “as if a large sewing needle had impaled her skin”.
Later, after threats failed to motivate Carolyn to leave, Bathsheba took
a different tack and attempted to invade Carolyn from within. Believing
that Carolyn had been possessed, the Perrons’ called in psychic
investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren to assist them.
Ed and Lorraine Warren offer to assist
Ed
and Lorraine Warren are often thought of as “the original paranormal
investigators”. For decades they had helped investigate hauntings and
demonic possessions across the country. In many of their cases, they
were able to convince the Vatican to provide exorcisms of the spirits
that they found. The Perrons’ heard of the Warrens after one of their
many public speaking engagements and pleaded with them to help save
their mother. By this time, it was believed that Bathsheba has
physically possessed Carolyn Perron, an assessment that Ed Warren could
not disagree with.
Daughter Andrea Perron remembered the night the exorcism took plae:
“The night I thought I saw my mother die was the most
terrifying night of all. She spoke in a voice we had never heard before
and a power not of this world threw her twenty feet into another room.”
Unfortunately, the true story of the Perron family’s haunting ended differently than
The Conjuring
movie portrayed. In reality, the Warrens were not successful in ridding
the Perron family of their hell-bent tormentors. Carolyn Perron
recalled that “dreadful night” and explained that even though the
Warrens’ intentions were good, they essentially found that things “got
worse around them”. As the situation spun out of control, Roger Perron
demanded that the Warrens leave the premises immediately.
The Perrons’ flee their haunted home
The
Perrons’ soon learned that every occupant (with the exception of a
local minister and his family) of the old Arnold Estate had reported
supernatural phenomena on the homestead. In fact, the owner just prior
to the Perrons’ had hired a contractor to renovate the house. The
contractor had been busily renovating the home when he suddenly stopped
work and fled. It was reported that he had left the home screaming
leaving behind his tools and his car. The owners never moved in and the
home sat vacant for several years before the Perrons’ discovered it was
on the market.
Despite their unfortunate circumstances, financial constraints kept
the Perrons’ rooted in place for 10 long years. Unable to flee, they
endured the inconvenience of the “friendly” spirits and the torture the
malevolent ghosts bestowed upon them. Finally, in 1980, at the
insistence of Carolyn, the Perrons’ were financially able to vacate the
home. They moved to Georgia.
Aftermath and additional notes
The Warrens
Ed Warren died in 2006, but Carolyn Warren is still actively investigating paranormal cases. She runs the private
Occult Museum
in the back of her house in Monroe, Connecticut, with the help of her
son-in-law, Tony Spera. Admission is open to the public (with prior
reservations) with a small charge for admittance.
The Perrons’
Andrea Perron wrote a book of their experiences in the home,
House of Darkness House of Light. She tours the country giving lectures and recollections of her time in the haunted home.
Current owners
According to Andrea Perron, the current owner, Norma Sutcliffe, who
purchased the home in 1983, stated that she, her husband Gerry, and
various visitors to the home have had paranormal experiences in the
farmhouse, including the door banging in the front hall, sounds of
people talking in another room, the sounds of footsteps scurrying around
the house, and one odd instance when her husband’s chair began
vibrating in the study room. They claim to have also witnessed a glowing
blue light “shoot across the bedroom”, “fog” floating through the rooms
of the home, and vibrations in the walls so intense they felt the house
was going to come apart. Several visitors to their home have
independently reported seeing an elderly woman, hair in a bun, moving
silently throughout the house.
The making of The Conjuring movie
James Wan’s movie,
The Conjuring, was based on the facts
surrounding the Harrisville Haunting. The Conjuring screenplay was based
on personal case files from the Warrens as well as information that
Carolyn Perron provided to the producers. Lorraine Warren acted as a
consultant during the filming and appeared on set to offer guidance as
the movie was being filmed.
The Conjuring Doll (featured in the movie)
The doll shown in the movie was based on a separate case from 1970
that paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren handled, the case
of the Annabelle doll. Warrens.net explains the case:
“A nursing student named Donna received the Raggedy Ann
Doll from her mother as a birthday present. Shortly thereafter, Donna
and her roommate Angie began to notice that the doll would switch
positions and move around their apartment on its own. Donna and Angie
then began to notice childlike messages that had been scribbled onto
parchment paper, which they concluded must have come from the doll.
Things escalated when their friend Lou, who had been staying with them,
claimed that the doll tried to strangle him during the night. On another
occasion, Lou believed that the possessed Annabelle doll was
responsible for bloody claw-like scratches that mysteriously appeared
across his chest when he went to investigate a noise coming from Donna’s
room.
In
an attempt to rectify the situation, a séance was held. The medium
informed them that the doll was possessed by a young girl named
Annabelle, who had resided on the property before the apartments were
built. When she was just seven-years-old, Annabelle’s lifeless body was
found in a field where the apartments now stood.
Ed and Lorraine Warren eventually came to investigate after being
informed of the doll through a priest that Donna had contacted. At the
recommendation of the Warrens, an exorcism of the apartment was
performed, and at Donna’s request, the Warrens took the Annabelle doll
into their possession where it still remains today.”
The center of paranormal activity in the home
It has been noted that the paranormal activity in the Perron home
centered on Carolyn’s bedroom and the study room located directly below
it. Interestingly, below the study, located in the cellar of the home,
is an old well. Water was often used by the spirits to torment the
family (toilets flushing, washers turning on, faucets running, etc.) and
they began to wonder if any violent history had been associated with
the old well. To date this question remains unanswered.
Bathsheba Sherman
The graveside of Bathsheba Sherman is located in a historic cemetery
in downtown Harrisville, Rhode Island. Although the headstone has been
broken, it is clearly marked and easily visited by sightseers.
The participants
Lorraine Warren – born on 1/31/1927 in Connecticut
Ed Warren –born as Warren Edward Miney on 9/7/1926 in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Died 8/23/2006
Carolyn Perron – born on 8/1939
Roger Perron – born on 8/27/1935 in Providence, Rhode Island
Andrea Perron – born on 10/10/1958 in Rhode Island
Nancy Perron – born on 2/8/1960 in Willimantic, Connecticut
Christine Perron – born on 1/30/1961 in Willimantic, Connecticut
Cindy Perron – born in Willimantic, Connecticut
April Perron – born in Willimantic, Connecticut
Picture Gallery
Sources: Andrea Perron YouTube, Chasing the Frog, Yahoo Movies,
Examiner, Tallapoosa Journal, Rhine News, Following the Nerd, Ghost
Village, Wikipedia, Warren website, New England Society for Psychic
Research, Warner Brothers Entertainment, Andrea Perron personal
interviews
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