LORRAINE WARREN
Lorraine Moran (as she then was) attended Lauralton Hall, a private Catholic school in Milford, Connecticut, where at the age of nine she is said to have remarked to a fellow student: “Look, Sister Joseph’s lights are brighter than Mother Superior’s”. She was allegedly seeing human auras, and thought that everyone could see them. She professed to be a clairvoyant and a light trance medium.
Edward Warren Miney (19262006) was a US Navy veteran from WWII and former police officer who became a self-taught demonologist. He had known Lorraine since they were both teenagers and they married in 1943. In 1952 they founded the New England Society for Psychic Research (NESPR), the oldest ghost hunting group in New England. They claimed to have investigated over 10,000 cases during their career, including Amityville (leading to the movie The Amityville Horror) the West Point ghost, the Perron farmhouse in Rhode Island
(subject of The Conjuring), and the case of poltergeist activity at 966 Lindley Street, Bridgeport. They travelled around the world lecturing about demons, the supernatural and psychic phenomena, wrote numerous books, and ran an Occult Museum in Monroe, Connecticut, featuring artefacts from their investigations. In
The Conjuring (2013), Vera Farmiga played the role of Lorraine and Patrick Wilson portrayed Ed. The duo reprised their roles for The Conjuring 2 (2016), about the Enfield Poltergeist. The poster for the latter film stated that it was “based on the true case files of the Warrens”. Guy Lyon Playfair, author of the main work on the Enfield case, This House is Haunted (1980, 2013), said that their involvement with the investigation was limited to a couple of visits to the house, at one of which Ed Warren declared he considered it would be possible “to make a lot of money out of this”. Playfair added: “I don’t remember anyone commenting about them at all. They were just two more uninvited visitors who came and went.” For a full examination of the Warrens’ (non) involvement, see http://tomruffles.blogspot. co.uk/2016/01/ed-and-lorrainewarren-and-enfield-demon.html
As Alan Murdie commented: “The Conjuring 2 has been seen as a film with Catholic themes. Since Catholicism emphasises the importance of truth, it is necessary to put the record straight… those who want the truth on the case should acquaint themselves with the evidence by going to Guy Playfair’s book and the original data and records. The Enfield Poltergeist was genuine. The Conjuring 2 is fiction like Harry Potter!” Let’s give the Warrens the benefit of the doubt: perhaps the claim to have investigated the Enfield case was made by the movie’s publicity machine without consulting them.
Lorraine Rita Moran, afterwards Warren, paranormal investigator, born Bridgeport, CT 31 Jan 31 1927; died Monroe, CT 18 April 2019, aged 92.