The Demonologist: The Extraordinary Career of Ed and Lorraine Warren (25 page)

“Internal oppression can be seen as a building process,” Ed explains. “When it starts out, it’s basically a stimulus-response situation. The spirit stimulates a particular emotion—say, depression. If the person responds to the impulse, then the spirit stimulates it again and again. If the person keeps on responding, then eventually that emotion will be accented so often and so intensely until one day there’s either a breakdown or a catastrophe. Many times, though, the individual won’t even know he’s being programmed to destroy himself, because oppression can be external as well. So, while the spirit is turning internal depression into deep despair, it’s diverting the person’s attention to his thousand-dollar hi-fi set that’s levitating in the middle of the room and about to crash to the floor.”

Sharon Beckford had reacted on a more personal level. Why was this violence, destruction, vulgarity, and hate permitted to go on? For their whole life, they’d worked to build a good home and raise a proper family. They and their children attended church every Sunday. With tears of anger, Sharon Beckford asked forceful questions to which there were no ready answers: “If this is the devil at work, then where is God? Is it
just
for our whole home to be destroyed because our daughter used a Ouija board?”

Father Daniel sympathized with Sharon Beckford. Her questions required a reply, however, and the priest was forced to answer her through die words in Chapter 18 of Deuteronomy: “Let there not be found among you anyone who immolates his son or daughter in the fire, nor a fortune-teller, soothsayer, charmer, diviner, or caster of spells, nor one who consults ghosts and spirits or seeks oracles from the dead. Anyone who does such things is an abomination to the Lord.”

“People in oppression situations,” says Ed, “often ask ‘Why does God allow this to happen?’ Well, God
does not allow
it to happen:
people
allow it to happen. The demonic spirit has to play by rules set down by the Creator. This is why its actions and behavior are so devious; the demonic cannot directly interfere in human affairs. But people have to play by the rules too! Therefore, when an individual violates the rules through his own free will, he is then on his own. Even so, the powers of the demonic are, theologically at least, limited to ‘temptation.’ In other words, the demonic spirit cannot
make
you do something against your will—but it
can
influence you to commit actions you mightn’t ordinarily. Nor can the demonic oppress you beyond your ability to resist it. Cosmically, you see, the demonic spirit can come only so close, and no closer. But just as people break the rules, so does the demonic. In the Beckford case, the infesting spirits went
too far.
They broke God’s law.”

The effect of the horrendous disturbance on Eric was hard to determine. Being fifteen, the boy was sensitive and impressionable. Before the episode, he’d been outgoing and gregarious. By the middle of April 1974, he was traumatized, quiet, and reclusive. For his own good, the boy might have to see a psychologist.

Vicky displayed a range of emotions from guilt to indifference. Often her behavior was defensive; on occasions she would become hostile and lash out at anyone around her. She was a definite candidate for possession, and the circumstances were ripe for that to happen.

All the while the phenomena kept up as usual. Before leaving, the Warrens had taken Father Daniel aside. “There are a number of entities in the home,” Ed told him, “but judging by the intensity and power of the phenomena, we suspect the disturbance is being caused by more than demoniacal powers. There’s the distinct possibility that a higher, diabolical entity is involved, possibly having been drawn from the retreat house, where it could have sought to victimize the monks. If so, you might observe some sign that would alert you to its presence.” That sign occurred on Tuesday night, as Ed and Father Daniel spoke on the telephone,

One curious aspect to a diabolical siege is that rosary beads are a taboo item to the demonic spirit. Only the most menacing and blasphemous of entities would dare to move them. As Father Daniel was speaking on the phone, rosary beads floated out of the spare bedroom in which he was staying. He watched as they turned left, drifted down the hallway, turned left again into the kitchen, then finally wrapped themselves around a kitchen chair in a gesture of strangulation.

That was it! Ed told Father Daniel to get the family out of the house and stay away until he and Lorraine got back from New York on Thursday. With that, everyone packed up and left immediately.

Father Daniel returned to his rectory while the Beckfords went to stay with Pete’s parents nearby. Once again, the phenomena traveled along with them. Pete Beckford never told his seventy-five-year-old parents what was happening to his family, sure the burden of such knowledge would be enough to petrify them. Yet that night, as everyone went to sleep at “grandma and grandpa’s,” the activity let go. Small objects levitated, pictures left the walls, and “did-you-hear-that?” knockings erupted all around the house. The problem was not enough to be troublesome on Tuesday night, but Wednesday night the whole house was resonating with merciless poundings. The next morning, bathroom faucets and plumbing fixtures were violently wrenched from the wall by some unimaginably strong force. Without trying to explain the situation, Pete called a plumber to repair the damage, packed up his family, and left

Father Daniel was affected in a rather more sinister and ominous way. For the past two weeks he had witnessed the most incredible phenomena caused by the demonic. This theological devil had taken on real proportions, and he truly felt in danger. Indeed, a spirit from the Beckford house had followed him too. The first time, he saw a dark, black cylindrical form blocking his way in the narrow hall leading to his quarters. On the remaining nights, it posted itself in the hallway, keeping him a prisoner in his modest cell all night long. At the same time Pete’s parents’ house was experiencing damage, Father Daniel was shaving, when before his eyes, the bathroom light fixture went off and then disassembled itself from the ceiling. One by one, the parts floated down and landed in the sink.

On Thursday, April 25, the Warrens returned from upstate New York, having canceled other appointments and worked their schedule so they could fully concentrate on the Beckford case. They met Father Daniel at a nearby restaurant to discuss the latest developments. The Beckfords were nowhere to be found that morning, but Pete had given the priest a spare key to the house. Ed suggested it might be a good idea to go into the house without the family around to influence matters one way or another.

From the restaurant, Ed, Lorraine, and Father Daniel drove directly to the Beckfords’ house. Since no one knew what had gone on inside while the family was away, Ed decided it would be best if he first went inside the home alone.

Upon unlocking the front door, Ed discovered the whole place had been systematically vandalized. Lamps, tables, chairs, books, pictures, clothing, and furniture were strewn around the living room. The smell, too, was utterly repulsive. Anything that was fluid had been dumped and left to decompose. Walking through the house, Ed found beds turned over, drawers pulled out, and linens scattered everywhere. Indeed, anything movable seemed to have been ripped, torn, or turned upside down. In the kitchen, the contents of the pantry and refrigerator had been dumped in a pile on the floor, with dinner plates and silverware heaped on top of that Sheer insanity.

Heading back down the hallway, Ed suddenly realized something was awry. A moment later, the house began to violently rumble and shake, as if an earthquake had just struck. Fearing the house might actually collapse on top of him, Ed tried to get to the front door, but he couldn’t move!

At the same time, outside, Lorraine picked up on the fact that Ed was in jeopardy. When she and Father Daniel reached the front door, they saw Ed walking dazedly through the living room, his shirt covered with blood. Upon removing him outside, they discovered on his left arm two long, deep slashes forming the sign of the cross.

Refusing to see a doctor, Ed had them wash off the wound and then bandaged it tightly with gauze and tape from the first-aid kit in the car. Ed explained that “psychic slashes started to be thrown around the room, cutting into the walls and drapes.” He was cut on the arm because he threw his arms up to cover his face, feeling that the forces in the home intended to mutilate him. Ed believed the attack was directed specifically at
him,
for it was he who originally challenged the forces in the home with religious provocation, and who threatened to end their rampage by alerting Church authorities to the case. However, it was also Ed’s rationale that it was the Beckfords who were ultimately in danger.

“The spirits took over the Beckford house as a first step in a quest to take over the whole family,” says Ed. “In cases of this sort, however, Lorraine and I have found that for the most part, people possess very strong willpower. Therefore, no alien spirit is just going to arrive and take over a person or family all that easily. That’s why oppression phenomena tend to vary in intensity from one case to another. The spirit, or spirits, will methodically work on one emotion, or even a dozen, until you’re vulnerable and irrational from the strain. Everyone has a breaking point, but a weak-willed person—say someone on the verge of suicide—can be taken over pretty easily. The spirit doesn’t need to go off on a binge of activity. But with a strong-willed individual, the spirit will throw everything at him,
including
the kitchen sink. The oppressed may learn he can’t
do
anything about the activity, so rather than fight it, he stops resisting and falls passive to the oppressing force. When the person’s will
is
thrown open for domination, the oppressing spirit’s next step is possession.

“On the other hand, if the person doesn’t give up, the phenomena will go on or intensify until the stress becomes unbearable. A mental breakdown would be the next logical step, but at the point where a breakdown should happen, usually possession or some other catastrophe will occur instead Violent inhuman spirits capable of causing fires could easily burn the house down with everyone in it” The worse the phenomena became, the closer the Beckfords came to either experiencing possession or death.

Thus now, more than ever, the case had transmuted into a confrontation, with the Beckfords pawns in a much bigger game. As a matter of survival Ed and Father Daniel
had
to stop these determined, maniacal forces. To back down would simply give the demonic a green light to kill, possess, or torment the Beckfords indefinitely, and also to torment Ed and Father Daniel for the rest of
their
lives. Consequently, they had no alternative but to persevere—and succeed.

Around noon that Thursday, April 25, the pale, drawn, and bedraggled Beckfords pulled into their driveway in a four-door sedan. When they went inside and saw their house torn asunder, the Beckfords plunged into despair. The Warrens and Father Daniel bolstered their confidence, though, and with everyone working, by nightfall the house was put back into a semblance of order.

On Friday, April 26, after a night of havoc, Ed and Lorraine assisted Father Daniel with the paperwork he had to submit to Father McKeegan. Under normal circumstances, verification could take a priest weeks to complete, but with the Warrens’ help, Father Daniel left that same night with all the documentation he needed to request an exorcism for the family.

In the meantime, Ed and Lorraine stayed with the Beckfords. The oppressive siege had worn the family down physically and mentally, such that any one of them could now potentially come under possession. That had to be guarded against most of all, yet it took everyone’s strength to withstand the barrage of activity that occurred the weekend of April 27 and 28.

Metal
picture frames now smoldered and caught fire. Scarves, linens, dresses, and towels burst into flames and were flung directly at the people in the room, often causing painful burns. Night and day, without letup, the phenomena went on. Furniture from the living room was found in the master bedroom, while the bedroom furniture was now in the living room. Five minutes later, both rooms of furniture switched back to their proper place while the Warrens and the Beckfords watched in amazement.

Saturday night, April 27, Ed commented to the Beckfords how much he liked his car and how economical it was to run. The next morning, Ed unlocked the car door and found the directional signal had been snapped off the steering column and tossed on the seat. When the car wouldn’t start, he released the hood-latch from inside, then checked the engine. Under the hood, the car’s sparkplug wires had been tied up in knots, and the carburetor’s vacuum hoses had been pulled loose and left dangling.

Sunday, at last, Father Daniel telephoned the besieged Beckford house with some very good news. Father McKeegan, with whom Father Daniel had been in constant contact, approved the need for exorcism to be performed on the premises. He would assign an exorcist who required three full days of prayer and fasting before the ritual could be performed. The exorcist assigned to the case would begin his Black Fast on Monday morning. The date of the exorcism, therefore, was set for three days later—Thursday, May 2.

With the final confrontation now imminent, the negative activity inside the house intensified in a strange new way. Movements now seemed to happen faster, like a movie being shown at twice its normal speed. That Sunday night, as a show of strength—or to indicate the arrival of new entities—two large metal radiator covers suddenly vanished into thin air. A few seconds later, a loud metallic crash was heard in the basement. Rushing to the cellar door, Eric found the radiator covers lying on the basement stairs.

Later on that night, there was an incredible commotion in Vicky’s bedroom, but no evidence of activity could be seen. When Lorraine turned to leave the room, however, she tripped over a sixteen-foot aluminum extension ladder that had been leaning against the garage outside only hours before.