Graveyardbride

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New Owners Intend to Open The Conjuring House to the Public



Cory Heinzen and his wife Jennifer of Mexico, Maine, were excited when they learned the 1836 farmhouse in the quiet village of Harrisville, Rhode Island, the location of the allegedly true story of the haunting of the Perron family, was for sale. “We immediately fell in love with it,” Heinzen told the Lewiston Sun-Journal last month. “Eight-and-a-half acres, a river in the back and a pond. It’s so serene down there. Never mind the story behind the house.”



The Heinzens, who are paranormal enthusiasts, paid $439,000 for the house at 1677 Round Top Road and became the official owners in late June. They hope to restore the structure and open it to others with an interest in the paranormal. “All these people that just love the paranormal, they just wanted a peek at it,” Heinzen explained. “So why not give them a peek of it and let them come in and experience for themselves?”



But the process has been anything but easy. “I’ve had a hard time staying there by myself,” Heinzen admits. “Footsteps, knocks ... we’ve had lights flashing in rooms, and when I say lights flashing in rooms, it’s rooms that don’t have light in there to begin with.”



The couple said they don’t feel the presence is evil, but that it is similar to testimony from members of the Perron family, who claimed their haunting began with innocent, but unexplainable, incidents in the home.



Roger Perron, his wife Carolyn and their five daughters moved into the old farmhouse in 1971 and immediately noticed strange occurrences, including, but not limited to, missing objects and odd noises.



Mrs. Perron researched the history of the home and learned a woman named Bathsheba Sherman, a resident in the 19th century, was rumored to have been a witch. Born Bathsheba Thayer in 1812, she married Judson Sherman, a farmer, in 1844. At the age of 37, she gave birth to a son, Herbert, but according to local lore, she had given birth to several other children, all of whom died by the time they were 7-years-old. The witchcraft allegations arose after an infant in Mrs. Sherman’s care died and it was discovered a large sewing needle had been forced into the child’s skull. It was rumored she killed the baby as an offering to Satan. There are no extant records supporting these allegations, but according to Andrea Perron, a local historian passed along the stories to her mother. Bathsheba died in 1885 at age 73 and she is buried in the Harrisville Cemetery, where an impressive tombstone marks her grave.





Two years after they moved into the house, Carolyn Perron contacted Ed and Lorraine Warren, well-known paranormal investigators and demonologists from Connecticut, to look into what she and her family were experiencing. This was the basis for the movie The Conjuring.



“It’s magical,” said Andrea Perron, who wrote House of Darkness, House of Light about her family’s experiences while they lived in the home. “It’s a portal cleverly disguised as a farmhouse,” she continued. “It’s multiple dimensions, interacting simultaneously.”



The family moved out of the residence in 1980 and it was purchased by Norma Sutcliffe, who eventually sued Warner Bros. in 2015, claiming the movie encouraged trespassers to trespass on her property, the New York Post reported.



The Heinzens are still renovating their home, which Heinzen calls “a piece of paranormal history.” In the meantime, they have set up 12 cameras throughout the house for “research” purposes. “Sometimes we catch it on camera and sometimes we don’t,” Heinzen added.



The Conjuring centers around Ed and Lorraine Warren, played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson (above). In the film, they come to the aid of the Perron family who are left traumatized by the strange things happening in their home. The culprit turns out to be a witch who cursed the house in 1863.



Sources: Paulina Dedaj, Fox News, August 27, 2019; Tom Skinner, NME, July 16, 2019; R.J. Heim, WJAR, June 26, 2019; Jack Wilhelm, ScreenRant, December 30, 2019; The New York Post; Find-a-Grave; and Trulia.

kitty

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Member Back to Top Post by kitty on Mrs. Perron researched the history of the home and learned a woman named Bathsheba Sherman, a resident in the 19th century, was rumored to have been a witch. Born Bathsheba Thayer in 1812, she married Judson Sherman, a farmer, in 1844. At the age of 37, she gave birth to a son, Herbert, but according to local lore, she had given birth to several other children, all of whom died by the time they were 7-years-old. The witchcraft allegations arose after an infant in Mrs. Sherman’s care died and it was discovered a large sewing needle had been forced into the child’s skull. It was rumored she killed the baby as an offering to Satan. There are no extant records supporting these allegations, but according to Andrea Perron, a local historian passed along the stories to her mother. Bathsheba died in 1885 at age 73 and she is buried in the Harrisville Cemetery, where an impressive tombstone marks her grave.

So nobody really knows if a historian told her about the witch, or if she just said someone told her. Of course, since there really was a woman with that name, I suppose there could have been some kind of legend about her.

demdike

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Member Back to Top Post by demdike on I was quite fascinated with Bathsheba after seeing the film, which hams it up something rotten. There is a very peculiar picture of the house in the 19th century with some kind of garden party going on and people wearing creepy looking masks, not unlike those we are now accustomed to in Covid times. I remember thinking, what if... just what if there was nothing wrong with Bathsheba and she was just persecuted the hell out of and a whole mythology grew up around this woman. What if... what if her children died by natural causes as was common in those times (needle in skull notwithstanding) but was the child apparently killed by the needle investigated properly?



It is such a shame these films ham things up. They did the same with the so called conjuring 2 about the Enfield haunting. I remember that being played out in the newspapers in the seventies, but they have to go and hype it up with the stupid long man thing.its almost as if a simple haunting isn’t good enough any more without we get demons and god knows what. And I don’t recall lorrain and Ed having anything to do with that one. I don’t remember it being reported that they got involved. Yes, the British outfit the SPR did, but bringing in world famous Americans?



It seems that facts just get in the way of a good ham up for the film business. But the true story around this case I think still has a lot of secrets.

Kate

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Member Back to Top Post by Kate on demdike said:



It is such a shame these films ham things up. They did the same with the so called conjuring 2 about the Enfield haunting. I remember that being played out in the newspapers in the seventies, but they have to go and hype it up with the stupid long man thing.its almost as if a simple haunting isn’t good enough any more without we get demons and god knows what. And I don’t recall lorrain and Ed having anything to do with that one. I don’t remember it being reported that they got involved. Yes, the British outfit the SPR did, but bringing in world famous Americans?



It seems that facts just get in the way of a good ham up for the film business. But the true story around this case I think still has a lot of secrets. I was quite fascinated with Bathsheba after seeing the film, which hams it up something rotten. There is a very peculiar picture of the house in the 19th century with some kind of garden party going on and people wearing creepy looking masks, not unlike those we are now accustomed to in Covid times. I remember thinking, what if... just what if there was nothing wrong with Bathsheba and she was just persecuted the hell out of and a whole mythology grew up around this woman. What if... what if her children died by natural causes as was common in those times (needle in skull notwithstanding) but was the child apparently killed by the needle investigated properly?It is such a shame these films ham things up. They did the same with the so called conjuring 2 about the Enfield haunting. I remember that being played out in the newspapers in the seventies, but they have to go and hype it up with the stupid long man thing.its almost as if a simple haunting isn’t good enough any more without we get demons and god knows what. And I don’t recall lorrain and Ed having anything to do with that one. I don’t remember it being reported that they got involved. Yes, the British outfit the SPR did, but bringing in world famous Americans?It seems that facts just get in the way of a good ham up for the film business. But the true story around this case I think still has a lot of secrets.

I suppose filmmakers think if they don't sensationalize a story, the movie won't appeal to teenagers, who now make up most of the movie going public.



A needle in the top of the skull of a baby wasn't all that unusual in the 19th and early 20th century and probably started a lot earlier. Women worn out from childbirth sometimes killed the babies shortly after they were born and everyone just assumed it was crib death, so this may have happened in the case of Bathsheba, although there's no evidence that it did.



I live in the part of Tennessee where the Bell Witch haunting happened and the 2005 movie, "An American Haunting," was a travesty. Instead of just telling the story of what happened, it was based on Brent Monahan's novel, "The Bell Witch: An American Haunting," that claimed John Bell sexually assaulted Betsy. There are a lot of members of the Bell family still in the area -- some of them are my cousins -- and they and others who know the real story were upset about the movie.



BTW, are you still writing your book about Borley Rectory?



pat

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Member Back to Top Post by pat on It is such a shame these films ham things up. They did the same with the so called conjuring 2 about the Enfield haunting. I remember that being played out in the newspapers in the seventies, but they have to go and hype it up with the stupid long man thing.its almost as if a simple haunting isn’t good enough any more without we get demons and god knows what. And I don’t recall lorrain and Ed having anything to do with that one. I don’t remember it being reported that they got involved. Yes, the British outfit the SPR did, but bringing in world famous Americans?

The Warrens did travel to England in 1978 during the time of the Enfield haunting and as usual, they pronounced the place full of demons. But I don't think they were as involved in the case as they later led everyone to believe. They were frauds. Have you read the three articles about them in this thread? whatliesbeyond.boards.net/thread/1985/2nd-update-warrens-myth-truth







