Red Web
Ed & Lorraine Warren | The True Story of These Famous Paranormal Investigators
Mon, 19 May 2025
Exploring the real life history of the paranormal investigators behind countless classic cases like the Conjuring House, the Amityville Horror, and the Annabelle Doll: Ed & Lorraine Warren. Ad-free episodes, bonus content, & more: redwebpod.com Paranormal investigators. Demonologists. Frauds. They've been called it all. Their names became synonymous with the most haunting stories of the last century. Stories that inspired a sprawling film franchise. But who were they, really? How did they rise to fame? And why do so many still question their legacy? Today, we explore the lives and infamy of Ed and Lorraine Warren. Our sponsors: Shopify - Go to http://shopify.com/redweb to sign up for your $1-per-month trial period. Huel - Go to https://huel.com/redweb and use code redweb to get 15% off and a free gift for new customers (Minimum $75 purchase) SelectQuote - Get the right life insurance for YOU, for LESS, at http://selectquote.com/redweb. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp — go to http://betterhelp.com/redweb to get 10% off your first month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: Who were Ed and Lorraine Warren?
Paranormal investigators, demonologists, frauds. They've been called it all. Their names became synonymous with the most haunting stories of the last century. Stories that inspired a sprawling film franchise. But who were they really? How did they rise to fame? And why do so many still question their legacy? Today, we explore the lives and infamy of Ed and Lorraine Warren. This is Red Web.
Welcome back, Task Force, to another episode of Red Web, the podcast all about unsolved mysteries, true crime, and the paranormal. I'm your resident mystery enthusiast, Trevor Collins, and joining me here in this case, probably not for the first time on this one, Alfredo Diaz.
I was first introduced to them through the plethora of movies.
really good movies some bad ones from the conjuring i was actually able to interview them they're very pleasant people to interview and then obviously with the different episodes that we've had you hear about them sometimes they've you know gone and had some type of involvement in a certain episode um because this is their world their realm and interestingly enough like we talk about them so much and they're so predominant in this field
that I feel like we did an episode on them already, but you're like, wait, we're doing an episode on them now. And I'm like, yeah, I feel like, I don't know. It's probably just because also the movies. And then, you know, we talk about them a handful of episodes that I feel like I know them already.
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we've done micro episodes within episodes. You know, we've covered so many of their cases. You're right. They're like synonymous when it comes to paranormal investigation. And within that, I give some caveats, some background, some of the claims as to why they might be frauds, some of the talks about their history.
And we figured behind the scenes, talking to Jillian, talking to Christian... It was time. The number one movie podcast about mysteries had to talk about the people that inspired the Conjuring universe, Ed and Lorraine Warren. And man, this one's going to be really interesting because we uncovered some stones we didn't expect to uncover.
We're going to walk through their history, kind of how they got started, who they are as much as we know. Some of their occult items, some of their major cases. Of course, we've talked about several of those in their own episodes. But then as we wrap up, we're going to talk about the other sides of the Warrens. They do have an infamous reputation. They have helped some people.
They have arguably hurt some cases. And we've talked about the very candidly in those episodes. But we're going to address the claims of fraud and some of the other more sinister claims about their lives. There is a lot of opinion around these two. And so we're going to go right down the middle, talking about everything as factually as possible.
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Chapter 2: What inspired the Warrens to become paranormal investigators?
The amount of people that are just like, I don't know this is true or not, but then you know what? Let's go with it. It's like, no, don't go with it.
Leave it to somebody else who does know. Right, right. You don't have to be the one that knows everything. You know, it's like us. We try to report on everything. We try to collate all the information. And we're going to be very honest when things get a little wiry, a little mixed up.
But again, I say this honestly, not to be a wet blank about this whole subject, but to give you a grounded look at kind of how some of these elements might be a little shaky from the get-go. So Judy, born here in 1951, lived primarily with her grandparents. And I found that to be interesting, but I want to quote her via the nerd culture news outlet Den of Geeks. She said, quote, End quote.
And then in response to why she mostly lived at her grandparents rather than at her parents, yes, they were traveling as one reason, but the other reason was, quote, I was terrified there, in their house. I just didn't sleep there. So while traveling and selling Ed's paintings, the Warrens would stop between their destinations at places that were said to be haunted.
These paranormal locations inspired Ed's work and eventually led to their career as full-on, self-proclaimed paranormal investigators.
Interesting. I didn't know that that's how, you know, just like, hey, traveling art. They already had like a little knack for it. But then the interest of the paranormal, they're like, OK, I mean, yeah, why not make a business out of it for sure?
Sure. I mean, it's so interesting because it feels like two completely different worlds. So I was really curious what kind of sparked their interest. Why on the road to selling paintings did they stop and go, oh, that is a haunted place. Let's go check it out. Maybe it just started as a really interesting story. True. They wanted to see for themselves.
I can also see it being like they've always kind of had their foot in that door. Right. So maybe that, too.
That's true. I mean, you're totally right. I'm kind of playing my hand a little bit. But like, if they do have history in this space, it would make sense for them to have a natural proclivity for haunted houses and the paranormal. But on the other hand, chicken or the egg, right? Yeah. A little tease of things to come.
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Chapter 3: How did the Warrens gain fame in the paranormal field?
right yeah and that the the old man that haunted the like kids the daughters yes the the crooked man was that what it was there was that was introduced that was introduced yeah yeah but you're right that's the one and we'll talk about all of these but yeah the enfield poltergeist was the one where the daughter was kind of being thrown out of the bed and was speaking in a very guttural voice yes there's audio recordings too
Yes. Yes. In that one. You know, I'm going to jump to that one because, again, we we did full episodes on all the ones I just mentioned. But in that particular episode, which I encourage you to check out, I made a time lapse of all the images of her kind of being thrown out of the bed because I'm like, listen, this is very gripping. It's very intriguing. I'm not here again to be a wet blanket.
I desperately want to experience something poltergeisty or otherworldly. Yes. But I got to know that if I experience it, that it's the real deal.
You have to. You have to give it some sense of like, because look, there's lies all over the place. You know what I mean? So you really got to give it some thought. Otherwise, you're going to believe everything. It's going to be a world to hurt mentally.
Truly. So in that case, kind of made that time lapse and it does look like she's jumping out of the bed. We've talked and we'll get into this case actually when we approach the idea of them being frauds and some of the other things that kind of attack their reputation. And rightly so. There is a lot of things I'm very interested to get to in there.
And we were very forthcoming about those theories in that particular case. But again, I digress. Let's dive into some of these cases just to give you a refresher. I really want this to be a starting point, no matter if you've heard our episodes before, if this is your first one. So let's talk about some of these cases. The Perron family.
In 1971, the Perron family moved into a Rhode Island house dating back to 1763, and they started having almost immediately strange events happening in the house. I do have an image of this house, and it does very much evoke the imagery of the original movie.
Oh, yeah. Yes, it does. A wood cabin house that looks like it's two houses stuck together. Yes. Can you say it was like an extension, like they built upon the first one?
I believe so. My memory is admittedly a little rocky, but yes.
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Chapter 4: What notable cases did the Warrens investigate?
So let's move into the final section, and the reason kind of why we wanted to talk about Ed and Lorraine Warren separately, because I felt like every time we approached them, each of the cases had some sort of riddling of decrying fraud or some sort of problematic angle on it that I felt just... earned its own conversation.
And I didn't want to kind of belabor each of those previous paranormal discussions and stories with this. So let's talk about it.
Okay.
The Warrens had many critics over the years. Of course, as you know, Fredo, there are many believers, many skeptics. We find ourselves straddling that middle ground, you and I. Where we want to believe, but we also don't want to mess with it, but we want to have a little bit more of a scientific grounded foundation.
Now, many of these critics actually said that their investigations were simply fraudulent. Others go so far to say as their investigations were predatory, profiting off the situations of others while making it worse in many of those cases. For example, as I was kind of hinting at and getting ahead of myself with, we covered the Enfield Poltergeist.
I feel like they leaned into the imagination of the daughter in that case, who was admittedly going through a lot, and they validated what she might have been feeling, what she might have been experiencing. In fact, they might have planted the idea of being possessed by a demon in
which would only cause her to further act out much to her detriment to her mental health, sometimes the physical health. And so we talk about that more in detail in that episode. Now, this is a part where I found it kind of shocking. And the reason why I wanted to put some of these sensitive topics in the description, because this part I truly had no idea about.
Now, of course, we know that they used their faith in many of these cases. It was their motivator. It was a lot of the reasoning behind these entities was demons and their study of demonology. But some believe their use of the Catholic faith was all an act. Now, there's a lot of gruesome details to dive into. Lawsuits were filed, but not a lot of those details go public.
So we'll keep it pretty succinct. But suffice to say, Ed Warren has allegations of sexual abuse of a child in addition to allegations of physical abuse against Lorraine. So without going into those details, this is where a large part of the argument that their public image was false kind of comes from.
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Chapter 6: What are the claims of fraud against the Warrens?
It's showing a door that's kind of ajar. And it's one of the most pointed to photos that supposedly prove the idea of a spirit being there because there is some kind of blurring and some shading. But it looks very clearly like a young boy with glowing eyes looking out this kind of bedroom door that's open.
Yeah, I'm good.
And that was that imagery was pulled for the Conjuring 2 opening, which takes place at the Amityville house. And it does look a little bit like one of the boys who passed from this crime, who was murdered in this house.
I'll be honest, you know, I don't think you should be hitting anybody, but the little boys got demonized. I'm shoving that kid out the way on my way out.
You know it's not a little boy if it's got them demon eyes.
That's what I'm saying. It's not a little boy, okay? You're going to give that little demon a boom bop? Granted, he probably can't even be shoved in the first place. He'd probably just look at you and fling you across the room. Right, right. If he's standing between me and the door, I'm shoulder checking that little kid.
okay okay let's get you braved up let's get you like let's get you to a point where you can like just shrug off these hauntings yeah to the point where you see it and you just brush it off like you didn't to the point where i'm just kind of reckless right what yeah you're reckless but you're also aggravating this demon he starts doing stuff like in front of you and the tv and you're like i don't see it great great reviews just me the hell out of some demons and stuff
What would a demon do at that point, you know?
I don't know, man. Probably get really aggravated at you and then just do all kinds of nasty stuff. You know, I don't think it's the same thing like, you know, if you're going to get into a fight with somebody, just trip down butt naked, just try and get all wild, crazy. Oh, yeah, I definitely know that. Good chance they'll back off, you know what I'm saying?
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