MONROE, CONNECTICUT – The world’s most famous paranormal-investigating couple left behind a museum full of real-life “haunted” relics they collected in their adventures – including the creepy doll that inspired the horror movie “Annabelle.”
Late husband-and-wife couple Ed and Lorraine Warren, who are now immortalized as characters in “The Conjuring” series of movies, kept an occult museum on their property that is no longer open to the public.
But those lucky enough – or unlucky enough – to get a look inside are surrounded by occult items like haunted fragments of crashed Eastern Airlines Flight 401, an organ that plays on its own and a human skull.
Visitors are given holy water to sprinkle on their hands before setting their sights on the museum’s most notorious item – Annabelle, a giant Raggedy Ann doll that isn’t as aggressive-looking as its Hollywood counterpart but sits staring quietly in a glass case marked “Warning: Positively Do Not Open.”
“We keep it in a case because we don’t want anybody to touch it with their bare hands,” said Tony Spera, the Warrens’ son-in-law – who now continues the couple’s work as the head of the New England Society for Psychic Research.
“We have a priest come in and he does ritualistic prayers on this doll on a regular basis probably once a month. He blesses the entire museum, and he blesses specifically this doll using holy oil and holy water.”
Annabelle, whose case is engraved with the “Our Father” and two plaques with Catholic St. Michael the Archangel, allegedly terrorized two roommates in the 1970s by mysteriously moving by itself and leaving creepy notes.
After a seance, the force supposedly controlling the doll became more aggressive and it tried to strangle a friend sleeping in the apartment, according to the lore. The theory was that a dead girl had possessed the doll but Ed Warren later concluded something much more sinister was controlling the toy – a demon.
Visitors, even now, have claimed to see the flimsy doll arms move on their own, Spera said.
The Warrens’ unassuming yellow wooden house at the dead end of a tranquil suburban block is now headquarters for Spera and the continuing work of NESPR.
Zoning issues closed the museum, housed in a shed in the Warren’s former yard but a reporter and photographer from The Post were recently given access to the bone-chilling exhibits ahead of Halloween.
There are several “No Trespassing” signs that were placed in the yard by Spera to discourage curiosity – to limited success.
Ed Warren was a demonologist and Lorraine Warren a “trance medium,” with the couple investigating alleged paranormal activity in some high-profile cases around the globe, including the claims of a haunting after a murder in Amityville, Long Island that inspired the novel and film “The Amityville Horror.”
Ed Warren died in 2006 and Lorraine died in 2019 after she asked daughter Judy and Spera to continue the work through NESPR. They investigate hauntings, demonic entities and help those in need with blessings and even exorcisms, he said.
“But it’s all a way to show people that the paranormal is a reality, that the devil is real, ghosts are real, and not to dabble in occult practices, and what to do if you do encounter things like that,” Spera said. “If you do have a haunting, how do you correct it, how do you stay away from it?”
His main tip – don’t “give recognition” to supernatural things that may happen in your house because that will only draw the entity to you.
Don’t dabble in the occult, even if it means using a Ouija board.
“If you keep thinking about, ruminating about, OK, I have a ghost in the house, I saw a shadow, I wonder if that shadow is bad, if you keep thinking about it, you’re drawing it more to you,” he warned. “So you’ve got to block that off. But also you have to use God. If you’re religious, you pray to God to protect you from anything negative.”
At the heart of the Warrens’ work, he said, was a belief in God. With that, comes the acknowledgement that the devil is real.
“What is it that he wants? He wants you to be away from God,” Spera told The Post. “He wants you to worship him. He may want your soul. Try to get your soul so you want to stay away from all of that.”
Annabelle
NESPR History: This huge Raggedy Ann doll – that inspired the very-different looking killer toy in “The Conjuring” and “Annabelle” movies – was purchased by a nurse for her daughter in the 1970s, but she found it moved on its own and left creepy handwritten messages that said “Help Us.” The doll pretended to be possessed by a little girl but after a seance it was found to actually be under the control of a demon.
Spero says: “Innocent looking doll, right? It’s not innocent … This doll has caused a lot of problems for people. Just don’t give it any recognition. If you have a nightmare tonight, don’t call me.
Exhibit: The Shadow Doll
NESPR History: This item is no children’s toy – it’s made for black witchcraft as a tool to curse people.The doll can haunt your dreams and even stop your heart. It had been sitting in an antique store for 20 years before an intrigued newlywed couple bought it, but they gave it to Ed Warren after they noticed strange happenings in their home.
Spero says: “To use the doll, you take a photo of it, and on the back of the printed photo, write the curse and mail it to your enemy.
“Just by you accepting the photo, not even turning it over to read the curse, you accept the curse that goes with it – in the hopes of either making you sick, die, bad luck, whatever.”e.”
Exhibit: The Satanic Idol
NESPR History: The 6-foot tall, horned figure, was supposedly found by a hunter in the woods of Newtown, Connecticut who was then followed back to his car by a figure in black that Ed Warren said was the head of a satanic cult. He took the item back to the museum, but the next day Lorraine Warren fell into a semi-conscious state for three days – a mystery illness Ed blamed on the cult leader.
Spero says: “He said, ‘As a warning, what this guy did was he did that to Lorraine to let me know he was pissed off because I took his idol.’”
