Edward Warren Miney (7 September 1926 – 23 August 2006), known as Ed Warren, was an American self-described demonologist, author, and lecturer, best known as the co-founder, with his wife Lorraine Warren, of the New England Society for Psychic Research (NESPR), one of the oldest ghost-hunting organisations in the United States.
Early life
Warren was born and grew up in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where he had lived as a child in a house he later described as haunted, an experience he credited with sparking his lifelong interest in the paranormal. He met Lorraine Moran at a Bridgeport movie theatre where he worked as an usher in 1944. He enlisted in the Navy shortly afterward, and survived an attack on his ship in the North Sea in 1945; he married Lorraine that same year while on leave.
Career
After the birth of their daughter, Judith, in 1950, Warren briefly attended art school. By 1952, he and Lorraine had begun touring New England, with Ed painting reportedly haunted houses and offering the paintings to homeowners in exchange for their accounts of the alleged hauntings — a practice that led directly to the founding of NESPR that same year. Warren went on to describe himself as a lay demonologist recognised by the Roman Catholic Church, a distinction unusual for someone outside the clergy.
Over more than five decades, the Warrens claimed to have investigated well over 10,000 cases of alleged paranormal activity, including the Amityville haunting, the Perron family investigation in Harrisville, Rhode Island (later dramatised as The Conjuring), and the case of the "Annabelle" doll. Several of their cases and claimed methods have been publicly disputed by researchers, authors, and others directly involved in the original events, though no formal fraud conviction was ever brought against either Warren.
Death and legacy
Warren died on 23 August 2006 in Monroe, Connecticut, at the age of 79. NESPR has continued under the leadership of the couple's son-in-law, Tony Spera.