The Demonic Possession of David Glatzel and Arne Johnson

This week we dive into one of the most terrifying possession cases in American history – the haunting of the Glatzel family in 1980s Connecticut.

When the family moved into what seemed like an innocent rental home in Brookfield, they had no idea they were stepping into a nightmare that would tear their lives apart. It all began when 11-year-old David was violently pushed by an unseen force while cleaning his new bedroom, coming face-to-face with a grotesque demonic entity with coal-black eyes and melting skin.

What followed were months of escalating supernatural terror – mysterious whispers, vanishing medicine bottles, unexplained scratches appearing on David’s body, and the boy speaking in foreign tongues while contorting his body in impossible ways.

The situation reached a breaking point when renowned paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren were called in, bringing multiple priests to perform what would become a series of harrowing exorcisms.

But during the final ritual, David’s sister’s boyfriend Arne Johnson made a fateful decision that would change everything – he challenged the demon to take him instead of the boy. Months later, this act of apparent heroism would lead to the first recorded homicide in Brookfield’s history and result in the first-ever legal defense of “demonic possession” in an American courtroom – infamously becoming “the devil made me do it.”