Weird Island

63. HAUNTED: The Conjuring House

Episode Summary

Have you seen The Conjuring, the 2013 Hollywood film so successful it spawned a franchise of supernatural horror films? Did you know it’s loosely based on the haunting of a Rhode Island family? The old colonial farmhouse in Burrillville, where they lived and experienced paranormal phenomena in the 1970s, has been described by some as one of the most active paranormal locations in the world.

Episode Notes

Episode Source Material

Episode Transcription

In the woods in Burrillville, Rhode Island there’s a colonial-era farmhouse built of dark, weathered clapboards. It was for sale last year. And it sold–for $1.5MM - 27% over the original asking price, making it the most expensive home sold in Burrillville on record. Now, the real estate market has been a little crazy lately, so that could explain it. But it could also be because the house comes with something a little extra. It supposedly comes with its very own ghosts.
I’m Sara, and you’re listening to Weird Island. Each week, I’ll be telling you about the strangest stories I can dig up from my tiny little state of Rhode Island. And this week, I’ve got kind of a mini episode for you. A ghost story, about one of Rhode Island’s most notorious haunted locations. The Conjuring House.
That house in Burrillville that I mentioned is known by a few different names. Some call it the Old Arnold Estate. Some call it the Richardson Arnold House. But most today know it as The Conjuring House. Because the movie The Conjuring put it on the map.
Well, not literally. The house has been on maps of the area since it was built in the 1730s. It is an old colonial farmhouse that some believe is one of the most active paranormal locations in the world. The movie, The Conjuring, is a fictionalized version of the account of a family that lived in the home in the 1970s. That’s really when this house’s famous story begins.
Carolyn and Roger Perron bought the house in December of 1970 and moved in shortly afterwards with their five daughters, who were all under the age of 13. Andrea, the oldest, would later write of her experiences in the house, and she recalls that when they moved in, her mother chose the home because it was a true colonial home. And as someone who loves a house with some history to it, I can relate. But shortly after moving in, it started becoming clear that the history the house came with might have been more than they bargained for.
Almost right away they noticed something was… off. It was just little things. A broom would be out of place, doors would unexpectedly slam, beds seemed to shake, and there was this strange rotting smell. Then, the girls started to claim that they saw apparitions in the house.
In interviews, Andrea has shared stories about the ghosts of a father, son and dog who would appear at the top of the home’s staircase, and would just stare at a wall as though there was a window there that they could see out of. She remembers that her younger sister, April, who was five when they moved in, befriended the ghost of a young boy named Oliver Richardson, who she would encounter in her closet. And once, Andrea even claims to have seen a spirit she swore was the spitting image of herself, but older and dressed in 17th-century clothes.
While most people would be absolutely terrified, Andrea maintains that the spirits weren’t necessarily scary.
“I always got along with the spirits right from the start,” she has repeatedly stated. “We dwelled among the dead. The dead dwelled with us, and they would make their presence known with such regularity that it got rather crowded in that house from time to time. But mostly, it was a glorious experience.”
But not all of the spirits were peaceful. There was one spirit in the home who seemed to have more sinister intentions, and it was Andrea’s mother, Carolyn, who became the target. Carolyn began to see the spirit of a woman whose head was bent to one side, as if her neck had been broken. And then the spirit started tormenting her. She felt unexplained pinches and slaps. She even felt as though she was stabbed with a knitting needle.
But, despite Carolyn’s growing discomfort, the family continued to live in the home. News of the strange happenings must have spread, though. Because after more than two years of living with their unexpected house guests, the family welcomed two more strangers into their home.
A day before Halloween in 1973, there was a knock on the kitchen door. Andrea remembers that her parents had no idea who the two strangers were that stood on the other side, but it turns out they would change the family’s life. Those two strangers were famous paranormalists Ed and Lorraine Warren. Now, you’re probably familiar with at least one story that the Warrens were connected to. Either this one, or the story of the possessed doll Annabelle, or the Amityville Horror. The Warrens, for many years, were one of the biggest names in paranormal investigations and demonology.
The couple got their start in Bridgeport, CT, where they met when they were young. Ed was interested in the paranormal from a young age, having grown up in a house he believes was haunted. And Lorraine claims to have had clairvoyant experiences from a very young age. Later, Ed served in the Navy during WWII, and when he returned he actually studied art. The couple would travel around New England, selling Ed’s artwork, and stopping to visit haunted locations along the way. They would find out about a house that was haunted, and set up outside it. Ed would either paint a picture of the house or do a sketch of it, and they would knock on the door, offering the art to the homeowner as a gift. They’d often end up getting a tour of the home in return which is kind of an interesting and clever setup. In the 1950s, they established the New England Society for Psychic Research, one of the oldest ghost hunting groups in New England. These were the days before we had hundreds of ghost hunting shows and podcasts available, so the Warrens really did stand out. They claim to have studied over 100 well-known paranormal cases, and collected relics, artifacts and testimony – all of which they would later display in their CT home as the Warren’s Occult Museum.
So, they were a pretty big deal. And they’re really why we know this story today, and why it was made into a film. But, on that day in 1973, when Ed and Lorraine showed up to the Perron’s home, it was unexpected. They were there because they had heard that it was haunted. And once they heard a little more about what was happening, they told the Perrons they might be able to help.
After multiple trips to investigate the house, they decided to conduct a seance. Ed and Lorraine brought with them a priest and a medium and they tried to establish contact with the malevolent spirit who had been tormenting Carolyn. Andrea Perron writes that she was able to secretly witness the seance, and that what she saw was so terrifying, she thought she would pass out. She claims her mother became possessed, and started speaking in a language and voice that were not her own. Her chair levitated and she was thrown across the room.
After the seance, Roger Perron kicked the Warrens out, fearing that the couple and their investigation were a threat to his wife’s mental stability. But they continued to live in the house, until 1980 when Carolyn decided she just couldn’t take it anymore. She couldn’t take the house and she couldn’t take the cold New England winters. I can relate. So, after 9 years, the family packed up and left for Georgia.
Andrea recalls that for some of the family, leaving was “a relief. For others, it was a heartbreaking loss.” She had loved the home, their memories there, and even some of the spirits. She even wondered, just a little, if the spirits would leave with them, but her sister Cindy said, “No,” and that the spirits were trapped there. “If they could have gone with us when we left, they would have, because they loved us.”
If you’ve seen The Conjuring film, you might have already picked up on some little differences between the story Andrea Perron wrote in her account and the story on the big screen. There was no real-life exorcism that rid the house of spirits and provided for a happy ending, like in the film. The Perron’s, and others, actually still believe spirits reside in the home.
But more recent residents don’t necessarily agree that the house is haunted. Norma Sutcliffe and her husband purchased the property in 1987, and lived there happily for many years. They were able to explain away many of the house’s supposed paranormal quirks. Like a cellar door that the Perron’s would often find inexplicably open, despite having been locked the night before. Norma recalls that the old door was warped, with an antique latch that wouldn’t fully engage. She fixed the door when they moved in and the issues stopped.
In fact, she claims they lived there happily without event up until 2013. That’s when things really got scary. Suddenly there were noises in the night. Shadows skirting by windows. Footprints in the dirt around the home. And beams of light appearing out of the woods.
But, these weren’t ghosts. Forty-two years after the Perrons moved into the Harrisville home, “The Conjuring” hit theaters and was called one of the scariest movies of 2013. And those new spirits haunting the home… they were just people who wanted to check out the real location behind the story. Eventually, these forces became so powerfully inconvenient that the couple moved out.
Back in May, the house was purchased for $1.5MM by a Boston real-estate developer who has since opened the house up for tours and events. If it weren’t for that, I don’t think I would have done this episode, because I would never want to encourage anyone to show up at a private home and disrespect those living there.
To be fully transparent, I don’t personally have a reason to believe in ghosts. I haven’t had any paranormal experiences that have convinced me that there are spirits in this world that exist after people die. But I love that for other people, if that is what they believe and what they’ve experienced. Especially if those experiences have been positive. This story, today, is one family’s story. I can’t link you to the same quality of sources that I normally would, and that makes me very stressed, if I’m being honest. But it is their story, and it is very uniquely set here in Rhode Island.
There’s one part of the story told in the movie that I haven’t really addressed, and that’s the identity of the spirit who was supposedly haunting Carolyn Perron. That one malicious spirit was given the name Bathsheba Sherman. And, if you look online, you’ll find a lot of sites claiming to share the real story of this woman. And there was, actually, a Bathsheba Sherman who lived in Burrillville back in the 1800s. But, while different sites claim that she either lived in the house, or worked in the house, or that she was a known witch, or that she killed a baby. There’s no evidence to support any of that. We actually know, for a fact, that she did not live in this house. And, in my opinion, she had no reason to haunt it. She was just a person who lived in the area, and likely she lived a pretty tough life. She had three children who died very young, and those losses would have been crushing. She lived into her 70s and passed away from a stroke. And, a Baptist minister spoke at her funeral. These are the only things we really know about her. That’s it.
Even the Perron family does not believe Bathsheba Sherman had anything to do with the haunting of their home. In fact, Andrea has been quoted saying that she thinks Bathsheba got “royally screwed,” in the Conjuring. “I don’t think that you should accuse someone of murder unless you’ve got some real evidence to back up that claim,” she’s said.
When asked what she learned from living in the haunted Burrillville home, Andrea Perron has said, “One thing that I do know: life goes on. Death is not the end. It is the beginning of another journey.”
And whether you believe in ghosts or spirits or nothing at all, I think that’s true. Life continues to go on, and those of us who are still living become custodians of the stories and histories of those who are no longer with us.
In the years since the Conjuring movie has come out, Bathsheba Sherman’s grave has been broken and destroyed and desecrated. I was reading through the Burrillville Historical Society’s newsletters, wondering if I’d find any mention of Bathsheba Sherman, and I sure did. Over the course of issues and years, there were columns reporting that the grave had been damaged and then fixed, damaged and then fixed. Damaged and fixed. Over and over again. We owe her more than that. We owe each other more than that.
Something I really like about the way the Perrons tell their own story is that they’ve said it’s not a scary story, it’s a love story between the family and the spirits in their home. It’s on all of us to love and respect and honor the people we interact with, both living and passed away. By respecting their homes, their graves, and by telling their stories respectfully. As, I’m sure we all hope that, someday, people will say only the best things about us.
Thank you for listening to this little, somewhat mini episode! And thank you to Tina and to Eric for suggesting the topic! This week’s episode was a little shorter than usual, because I panicked that I couldn’t tell this story well. And I switched topics. And then I switched topics again. I just couldn’t settle. But eventually I made my way back here, and I hope you like how it turned out. Thank you, truly, to everyone who has listened to this podcast and reached out and been so kind, from day one. I’ve never believed so much in the care we can all show for each other. If you want to send me a note, you can reach me at weird Rhode Island @ gmail.com or on Instagram at Weird Island Podcast. See you next time as we uncover more stories about all things weird and wonderful in the little state of RI.