The Skeptics Society & Skeptic magazine

Episode Notes for
The Warren Omission

WAS THE STORY OF The Conjuring the true story of how Ed and Lorraine Warren fought demonic forces in Rhode Island? In this special episode of MonsterTalk, we hear a different side to the story of America’s first family of ghost hunting. Features interviews with investigators Joe Nickell and Steven Novella.

Interviewed for this episode

Dr. Steven Novella is a neurologist and notable skeptical activist, a founder of the New England Skeptics Society, and the host of The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe.

Dr. Joe Nickell is a researcher and scientific paranormal investigator, and author of numerous books and articles related to the field.

Ray Garton is an author of many horror books, including In a Dark Place, the novel based on the allegedly real-life events behind The Haunting in Connecticut. He has distanced himself from that marketing approach, and now says that he had to make up much of the story at the behest of the Warrens.

Marvin Scott is a senior reporter for WPIX, New York. He brought the Warrens to the site of The Amityville Horror and says that nothing noteworthy took place. Ed and Lorraine claim that it was one of the most traumatic events in their lives. (We interviewed Martin Scott but the resulting audio was too poor for inclusion in the episode.)

Articles

• The New England Skeptics Society—an investigation into the Warrens
• Joe Nickell—Demons in Connecticut
• Rocky Mountain Paranormal interviews Lorraine Warren
• A highly critical look at the Warren’s involvement with the Amityville case
• The town of Dudley is besieged by ghost hunters after a write up by the Warrens
• The mystery of the Amityville Ghost Boy, by Sharon Hill

Books

• The Demonologist: The Extraordinary Career of Ed and Lorraine Warren, an unskeptical look at The Warren, by Gerald Brittle
• The Science of Ghosts: Searching for Spirits of the Dead, by Joe Nickell

Videos

• The Sally Jesse Raphael show about The Haunting in Connecticut
• Ed Warren claims that the Simon Necronomicon is a book of shadows of the occult. (It isn’t.)
• Marvin Scott interviews Hans Holzer about The Amityville Horror:
  • Inside WPIX News 11—Marvin Scott Pt. 1
  • WPIX News 11—Marvin Scott Pt. 2