1/12/2024 0 Comments Conjure up a killing guilty![]() The Hartford Courant reported that prosecutor Walter Flanagan claimed Johnson killed Bono because he made an offensive comment about Johnson's girlfriend Debbie. Much of the assembled press left before a verdict was announced. Ultimately, the "devil made me do it" defense never even made it to court. And he carefully limited what "demonologist" Ed Warren could say in Johnson's defense. The judge also declined to let Minnella call any priests to the stand. Callahan denied Minnella's attempt to use "demonic possession" as a defense. Over the years, more has been made of the supposed possession than of the trial, for a simple reason. He faced a jury trial in which his future hinged largely on his lawyer convincing the court, not only of the existence of the devil, but also that the devil worked through him to kill Alan Bono. ![]() Books were planned and eventually written (" The Devil in Connecticut"), and a 1983 TV movie was churned out (" The Demon Murder Case") starring Kevin Bacon as a possessed boy who commits murder and Andy Griffith as a demonologist.Īlmost lost in these stories - then and since - was the fate of young Arne Cheyenne Johnson. But in an audacious burst of legal inspiration, Johnson's lawyer shoved the case into global headlines with a novel defense that would beget thousands of frenzied media accounts, books, TV shows, movies and endless religious debate.Īnd so, in November 1981, press from all over the world descended on Connecticut for the trial. In the greater American consciousness at that time, when murder rates were spiking across the U.S., another killing would normally have hardly registered - even in a quiet town like Brookfield, which is about 60 miles (97 kilometers) north of New York City. Johnson stabbed Bono at least four times in the chest and stomach. According to authorities, Johnson argued with, then killed, Alan Bono, the manager of a local dog kennel after a day of drinking. In February 1981, in a classic New England town in southwestern Connecticut, 19-year-old Arne Johnson stood accused of murder. Did the devil really make him do it? Ida Libby Dengrove/(CC BY 4.0) His legal defense was guilty by reason of demonic possession. Arne Johnson stabbed a man to death in 1981.
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