It is of unknown origin but was passed on to the Glatzel family in the early 1950s. It was simply a piece of household furniture until the summer of 1980 when it became the center of a tragedy that struck the family. The sinister relic became a part of one of America’s most notorious exorcisms, which involved two demonic possessions and murder. It is believed that the chair, quite literally, was cursed by the Devil.
The horror began in July 1980 when David Glatzel, 11, became possessed by a demon. One night, he woke up screaming, claiming that he had been visited by a “man with big black eyes, a thin face with animal features, jagged teeth, pointed ears, horns, and hooves.” David was, everyone agreed, not the kind of kid who liked scary movies or who was likely to make things up, and he was visibly shaken by this experience. He became withdrawn and quiet. His older sister, Debbie, asked her fiancée, Arne Johnson if he would stay with her family for a while and see whether it would help David get out of his depression.
Arne, of course, agreed, but things didn’t get better. David reported more nightmares about the terrifying man, who promised to take his soul. Odd scratches and bruises began to appear on the boy, and all the injuries seemed to happen while he was asleep. Odd sounds, which Arne couldn’t explain, were heard in the attic. Worst of all, David began to claim that he was now seeing the Beast while he was awake. He was always seen sitting in the family’s rocking chair, which the Beast now claimed as his own. David (and later, Lorraine Warren) was the only one who saw the Beast in the chair, but family members often saw it rocking back and forth, seemingly under its own power.
The family first brought over a priest to bless the house. This didn’t help. In fact, it made things worse. The sounds in the attic got louder, David’s visions increased, and he began to hiss at his family and speak with multiple voices. He started to quote from Paradise Lost, a book that most 11-year-olds aren’t exactly familiar with. During the night, someone had to stay up and watch David, who woke every 30 minutes, sometimes having seizures.
Desperate for help, the Glatzels called Ed and Lorraine Warren, who began making regular visits to their home, bringing more priests with them, and performing exorcisms. Many of those exorcisms took place while David was seated in the rocking chair. The chair itself moved about the house on its own, mysterious disappearing and reappearing in different places. Most incredibly, it levitated on numerous occasions in full view of witnesses, including the Warrens, clergy members, and shocked family members. It happened once while David was sitting in it during an exorcism.
After a final exorcism, the demon left David. He soon began to show signs of improvement. However, his sister’s fiancée, Arne Johnson, was not so lucky. Apparently, the demon left David and entered him. He started making the same kind of growls and hisses that David had made, as well as slipping into trances for a period of months before killing his landlord, Alan Bono, with a five-inch pocket knife, stabbing the man over and over as Debbie watched. Bono died a few hours later in the hospital, and Johnson was picked up by the police two miles from the murder scene. Eight months later, Johnson appeared in court with a plan to enter a plea of not guilty, due to demonic possession.
For the first time in American legal history, demonic possession was used as a reason for murder. It didn’t work. Judge Robert Callahan refused to accept the plea since there was no evidence to show that Johnson was possessed. Johnson eventually went to prison for his crime. He was found guilty of first-degree manslaughter and received a 10- to 20-year sentence, although he only served 5. Arne and Debbie married after he was released.
For many years after the horrifying events of 1980, the rocking chair remained in storage. When the Glatzel family later moved, it went with them. However, over time, it became apparent that there was something very wrong with the chair. Whoever sat in the chair, whether innocently or because they knew its strange history, were suddenly stricken with incapacitating sciatica or abnormal back problems. Some were so bad that they required surgery. Once close family member was unable to walk upright more than ten years after testing the legend of the chair.
Today, the Devil’s Rocking Chair is at The Haunted Museum. There are stains on the original cushion from holy water and blessed oils that were part of the exorcisms conducted by Catholic priests and Ed Warren. An evil presence surrounds it, and even before it was on display, it was already causing problems in the building. Soon after it arrived, doors at the museum began shutting themselves and locking, light switches were physically turned off, and it created a terrible tension between staff members in the area where the chair was stored. The shipper who picked up the rocking chair from the Glatzel house told sources that he was plagued by terrible nightmares after coming into contact with it.
Like the other cursed items at The Haunted Museum, the Devil’s Rocking Chair will be safely displayed so that it creates the least amount of havoc in the building. Even so, there remains the chance that the menacing aura that surrounds it will have an effect on those who are brave enough to visit it.
