John Zaffis is the nephew of controversial paranormal investigators Ed and Lorrain Warren. He followed in their footsteps, and has become famous for his Museum of the Paranormal, which is located on the bottom floor of a two-story building behind his house in Stratford, Connecticut.

The collection includes items from cases that he worked over the past three decades, as well as items given to him by researchers and people who just wanted them out of their house. The collection contains artifacts from all over the world and run the gamut from innocuous artifacts such as a china set and a painting of a clown on velvet to more sinister-looking items, like tribal masks and a ventriloquist dummy.

The items are supposedly “cleansed” before joining his collection and include a black cast-iron human skull discovered in a secret compartment in the home of a political family, a black idol that was supposed to have been used in various black magic ceremonies, a sword that is claimed to have been a tool of Satanic rituals, and an old-fashioned military jacket purchased at an estate sale and worn by teenage girl for fun before she began complaining about strange and unpleasant military dreams.

Also in the collection is a small statue of the Virgin Mary from the famous Snedeker case, which he worked alongside his aunt and uncle, and the events of which were turned in the 2009 movie “The Haunting in Connecticut”. A closer look revealed that the hands of the statue were missing, supposedly melted off during the exorcism.

Adapted with Permission from: The New England Grimpendium by J.W. Ocker

Update as of March 2020: The museum is currently closed as they search for a new location.