Arne Cheyenne Johnson

Arne Cheyenne Johnson

BORNc. 1961, Connecticut, USA

OCCUPATIONTree surgeon

KNOWN FORFirst person in the US to attempt a legal defence based on demonic possession

STATUSUnknown / limited public information since the 1980s

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Arne Cheyenne Johnson is an American man convicted of first-degree manslaughter in 1981 for the killing of his landlord, Alan Bono, in Brookfield, Connecticut — the first recorded homicide in the town's 193-year history at the time. His case, widely known as the "Devil Made Me Do It" case, is the first known criminal trial in the United States in which the defence sought to argue the defendant was not responsible for his actions due to demonic possession.

Background: the Glatzel case

In 1980, Johnson's future brother-in-law, eleven-year-old David Glatzel, began reportedly experiencing disturbing visions and behavioural changes. His family, unable to find an explanation, contacted paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, who in turn arranged for Catholic clergy to become involved. Lorraine Warren later said six priests took part in a series of what she described as "minor" exorcisms, and that they agreed David was possessed — a characterisation repeated widely in press coverage but never independently confirmed by the Catholic Church itself. During one of these rites in September 1980, witnesses said Johnson, then engaged to David's sister Debbie Glatzel, challenged the entity to leave David and take him instead — a moment his family would later describe as a turning point in his own behaviour.

The killing of Alan Bono

On 16 February 1981, Johnson fatally stabbed Alan Bono, his landlord and Debbie Glatzel's employer, following an argument at Bono's dog kennel in Brookfield, Connecticut, after the group had spent the day drinking together.

The trial

Johnson's attorney, Martin Minnella, sought to mount what would have been a landmark defence: not guilty by reason of demonic possession, citing two British legal precedents in which similar arguments had reportedly been permitted. On 28 October 1981, Judge Robert Callahan ruled the proposed defence "simply not relevant" and barred it from trial, on the grounds that claims of demonic possession could not be scientifically or objectively proven as evidence. With the possession defence excluded, Minnella instead argued self-defence. Johnson's lawyers were permitted to examine Bono's clothing, arguing the absence of blood, rips or tears was itself notable, though this did not form part of an admitted possession defence.

After roughly fifteen hours of deliberation over three days, the jury convicted Johnson of first-degree manslaughter on 24 November 1981 — a compromise verdict that acknowledged his responsibility for Bono's death while rejecting the premeditation or malice required for a murder conviction. He was sentenced on 18 December 1981 to the maximum term of 10 to 20 years in prison.

Later life

Johnson served approximately five years of his sentence and was released in 1986 on the basis of good behaviour, during which time he earned a high school diploma while incarcerated. He and Debbie Glatzel married while he was still in prison. Following his release, Johnson and Debbie continued to maintain that their account of the case was true; the Warrens, speaking to the Associated Press in 1986, said Johnson showed no ongoing signs of possession, with Ed Warren remarking that "possession doesn't last 24 hours a day." Little further public information about Johnson's life is available following this period.

Disputes over the case

The case's public profile grew substantially following the 1983 publication of The Devil in Connecticut, a book by Gerald Brittle written with the involvement of Lorraine Warren. David Glatzel's brother, Carl Glatzel, later disputed the book's account and sued both Brittle and Lorraine Warren, alleging the book violated his family's right to privacy and misrepresented events. The underlying dispute over what actually happened within the Glatzel household — as distinct from the undisputed facts of Bono's killing and Johnson's conviction — remains a matter of contention between the family and the Warrens' own published accounts.

VAULT PROFILE ASSESSMENT

CATEGORY

Central figure in a legal/paranormal case

VAULT RELEVANCE

Major

CONNECTION

The first attempted use of a demonic possession defence in a US criminal trial, and the case's close association with Ed and Lorraine Warren's casework

ASSESSMENT

Arne Cheyenne Johnson's case sits at an unusually clear intersection of the paranormal and the legal system: a real homicide conviction, a real, formally excluded legal defence, and a set of paranormal claims that remain disputed even by people directly involved in the underlying events. The case is significant to the Vault less for what it proves about possession — the court itself never allowed that question to be tested as evidence — and more as a documented example of how paranormal claims interact with formal legal and journalistic scrutiny, including the later dispute between the Glatzel family and the case's own chroniclers.

See also

• Ed Warren
• Lorraine Warren
• The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It
• New England Society for Psychic Research

External links

• University of Virginia Law Archives — Arne Cheyenne Johnson
• Oxygen — What Really Happened With Arne Cheyenne Johnson's Trial