Paranormal Book Reviews Blog: The Devil in Connecticut

I grew up Catholic, which meant that I went to a parochial school from Kindergarten all the way up to my second year of college, where I finally decided to hang up my rosary beads. While I left religion behind me, this did not mean that stories of angels, devils, and demons did not scare the crap out of me to some degree. On the contrary, despite my lack of belief in said otherworldly beings, I was still fascinated with the accompanying tales of demons, devils, and possessions. Growing up in New York, I’ve heard the stories and saw the movie of the Amityville Horror. A bonafide haunted house right in my backyard! At the time, however, I was not privy to the wonders of the internet. Fast forward a couple of years when the internet was still in its infancy, and neglecting to read the Jay Anson book, I looked up the story surrounding Amityville. It was indeed, as described, a horror, and it scared the crap out of me. “This stuff really existed!” I remember thinking! It was also the first time I read about the famous ghost-hunting couple, Ed and Lorraine Warren.

The Warrens opened up a pandora’s box of tales of the macabre and demons. I was beyond myself and read everything I could about them. The first book that I remember reading that dictated many of their cases was Graveyard. The tales featured in this book were harrowing and out-right frightening – at least that’s how I remembered it. Then, there was Annabelle. No, not the film but the original tale of Annabelle, which was a haunted Rageddy Anne doll. I can remember finding an article on what I think was on an old Geocities website, and the story captivated me. A Raggedy Anne doll possessed by a demon?! Ok, sign me up for that!

It wasn’t until much later in my life, when I was older and slightly a little wiser, that I started to look at these tales with a tinge of doubt. Having read a few of the novels based on their “investigations,” including The Haunted and The Demonologists, among them, I questioned the validity of these alleged happenings. For starters, the Warrens were not ghost hunters but, rather, demon hunters or demonologists. This house is not haunted by spirits or ghosts. Nay! This house is infested by demons! Okay, sure, demons are creepy – I’ll bite.

The Devil in Connecticut is another one of their tales that prominently features, wait for it, demons! When a family, the Glatzels’ moves into a rental home, they are met with an unseen dark force that is immediately hellbent on making their lives a living hell. Author Gerald Brittle wastes little to no time establishing the horror, and we are quickly entwined in the terror that befalls the Glatzel family, in particular, their youngest David, who seems to be the primary target of the dark entity. It all starts with a push onto a waterbed, and chaos ensues, or should I say hilarity.

Right off the bat, I braced myself for what was to come and embraced the horror that awaited – not in a good, scary way, but in an oh man, this is going to be a lousy read kind of way. Take the following passages, for example:

“He’s coming to take me!” David cried. “You gotta stop him!”

“Who, David? Who?”

“Him! That thing- that figure from Mary’s house. It’s coming now!” he cried frantically. “It’s coming down Route Twenty-five! It’s floating fast above the treetops!”

Finally, David reported that the entity had stopped trying to get in and was now sitting on a lawn chair in the backyard. Sure enough, a lawn chair that had been folded-up on the porch had mysteriously been set up on the lawn.

I could not stop laughing upon reading this. The thought of a ghost /spirit/demon just flying above the treeline at a rapid speed was absolutely hilarious. Add to that, the “beast” seemed to be tired and sat down to rest on a lawn chair. I could have done without those visuals. There were many instances when I felt as if I were reading a Hollywood script and I would not be surprised if this is what Brittle, and the Warrens, wanted to accomplish being that it was made into a TV movie in 1983, The Demon Murder Case. It is also the basis of the upcoming (as of the time of this review) The Conjuring 3 movie.

As explained in the first Conjuring movie, the Warrens explain the significance of the “three” knocks as a way of mocking the holy spirit. Three knocks are a staple for the Warrens to “prove” demonic activity and were used with great effect in the films, but I feel Brittle strived to accomplish the same with little or no impact. When the Warrens finally show up at about page 100 or so, I was met with a crash course in demonology. It was as if the author, probably at the behest of the Warrens, was trying to establish credence in this story and convince us that demonology is a real thing. There was certainly a push to promote the belief and practice.

The book was riddled with “demonic” antics, ridicule and just downright bullying that eventually, at the request of the Warrens, not the Catholic church, led to a “lower” form of exorcism by priests who were not sanctioned by the church nor trained in the rite. The Warrens? Well, they just happened to be around the multitude of exorcisms because as luck would have it there was more than one carried out because they needed additional padding to add more content to the book – or so it seemed. When one exorcism would be completed there would be a celebration only to come to the realization that it was not over and it had to be done yet again. This was a tired tactic and rather frustrating. Again, the Warrens did not, in my opinion, have a prominent role in this whole ordeal and seemed to have just injected themselves into the narrative for the sake of recognition and dare I say, fame and fortune. They already had a good start with Amityville, so why not keep building up that resume?

If you haven’t figured it out by now, I was not a fan of The Devil in Connecticut. I lost all faith in any tale of the Warrens long ago but was interested in this book because of the many positive reviews. Intrigued, I figured I’d give it a shot. Much to my dismay, the book was out of print, and used copies fetched up to $200! That is a big no-no. Still, I was compelled to get my hands on a copy to give it a read. Thankfully I was able to find an e-book version of the book on Scribd. After having read it, I thank the heavens I didn’t splurge and purchase a copy because it would have easily been a purchase that I would have deeply regretted. There were so many The Exorcist rip-offs where the possessed shouted sexual obscenities and whose head spun 360 degrees! I slapped my forehead at reading this passage.

Do not go into this one and expect to be terrified. Check your brain in at the door and try to read this as a work that is 90% fictionalized. The 10% that is non-fiction comes at the very end of the book, where there was, indeed, a murder that materialized out of the whole ordeal. With this in mind, I could not help but wonder if the makers of this book seized that moment as an opportunity to write this tale of possession and wrap it around this tragedy to make a killing with sales and publicity. If this is the case, then shame on them.

Just for kicks, here are a few other passages that made me roll my eyes to the back of my head:

“…he revealed why Judy always found the kitchen chairs pulled away from the table: the entities sat there and had “meetings,” in which they discussed what to do next.”

“…that’s strange, how could I look at my watch without turning on the lights? Yet the whole room was completely lit up with a bright, bluish light. 

The wall switch was off and so were the lamps.

“I sat up, trying to figure out the source of the light. That’s when I saw it- a face on the wall. Not a human face. This was something else. It was a head, maybe two feet across, about the size of one of these round patio tables. The thing was hairy, and the face was glowing red.” 

This passage was a bit inconsistent as a bright bluish light was described, yet it was glowing red. The person who witnessed this phenomenon, Paul Glatzel, found this to be strange but went back to bed anyway. Had I seen something like this, no one would be sleeping that night!

This next passage was a hoot:

“When David turned around from the sink, he was shocked. The model dinosaur had come to life!

Aghast, David watched as the nearly two-foot-tall toy took a few steps toward him and stopped.

Its right front leg swiveled up and pointed at David. With its hinged jaw moving, it said, Beware! You will be stabbed! The plastic beast then went still.”

I kid you not; these are all taken directly from the book!

Further doubt about the validity of the story is exemplified in this article:

https://www.newstimes.com/news/article/Brookfield-man-sues-over-demon-book-86231.php