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The Smurl Family Haunting | The REAL Story Behind The Conjuring Last Rites · Mystery Archives Episodes

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In June of 2023, I covered the haunting of the Smurrell family.
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That video did exceptionally well, but years later, having
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learned much more, I now realize that whatever sources I had at
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that time all weren't entirely accurate.
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So with the last Conjuring film, The Conjuring Last Rites coming
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out this week, I wanted to revisit this story and dive into
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the haunting itself as well as correct some misinformation and
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give my take on the case itself as well as how I feel about the
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warrants now. So with that being said, like
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this video? Subscribe and get yourself a
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drink or a snack and buckle up because you're in for a wild
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ride. The summer of 1972 was merciless
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in Pennsylvania's Wyoming Valley.
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The Susquehanna River burst its banks under the wrath of
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Hurricane Agnes, flooding whole towns and erasing homes.
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Among those displaced were Jack and Janet Smurl, a hard working
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couple. They salvage what they could and
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searched for a fresh start in the town of West Pittston, a
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quiet community known for its coal mining history in tightly
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packed row houses. By August of 1973, the Smurls
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had found what seemed like a blessing, a modest two-story
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duplex at 330 Chase St. Jack's parents, John and Mary,
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would occupy 1/2, while Jack, Janet and their four young
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daughters settled into the other.
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The arrangement was ideal, close family ties under one roof but
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with privacy on each side. The home, though weathered, was
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sturdy and filled with potential.
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Jack, recently promoted at work, was eager to renovate, and Janet
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embraced the chance to create a warm household.
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The Smurls were devout Catholics.
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Their walls quickly filled with crucifixes, rosaries, and the
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Sacred Heart. By all accounts, they were a
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model family in a working class town.
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But within months of moving in, the house began to resist their
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presence. It started with nuisances,
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stains bleeding through freshly painted walls, stubborn
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discolorations that returned no matter how many coats of paint
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Jack applied. Tools vanished from the
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workbench in the basement, only to turn up in odd places days
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later, Unplugged appliances sparked and smoked as if ignited
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by an invisible hand. On quiet afternoons, A sickly,
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foul stench crept through rooms, lingering for minutes before
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dissolving into nothing. The Smurls dismissed these early
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disturbances as quirks of an old house, or perhaps side effects
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of flood damaged wiring. But the house had begun
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whispering a different story, one that would grow darker with
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every passing year. By the early 1980's, the strange
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disturbances that multiplied. Jack's mother, Mary, suffered a
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heart attack, leaving the family shaken.
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Financial struggles mounted despite Jack's earlier
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promotion. As the stresses of daily life
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pressed down. The house seemed to mirror their
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tension, growing more hostile and unpredictable.
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It began with voices. Janet heard what she swore was
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Mary calling her name, only to find Mary sitting silently next
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door. Mary, in turn, claimed she heard
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Jack and Janet in heated arguments, screaming, swearing
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and shouting at one another. Yet the young couple hadn't
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uttered a word. Disembodied calls echoed between
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the duplex walls, sewing confusion and unease.
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At night, Janet awoke to the sensation of being touched by
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unseen hands. More than once, she reported the
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horrifying violation of being sexually assaulted in her sleep
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by a presence she could neither see nor resist.
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Jack remained skeptical until his own encounter shook him to
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the core. One night, he was jolted awake
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by the sound of a woman whispering.
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As he turned to speak to Janet, his eyes locked on a shadowy
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figure crawling up her leg and darting across her body before
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vanishing. It was no dream.
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Jack could no longer deny what was happening in their home.
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Soon, dark masses drifted through hallways, formless,
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shifting clouds that left behind a sense of dread.
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Janet began to fear bedtime, knowing that whatever plagued
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their house was most active at night.
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The entity escalated from voices and shapes to direct physical
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assault. Janet recounted being lifted and
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hurled across the room by invisible hands, crashing into
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furniture with brutalizing force.
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The children, too, began to hear unearthly sounds, bloodcurdling
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screams reverberating through the walls, mingling with low,
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animalistic grunts that seemed to vibrate in the very air
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itself. The attacks spread beyond
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people. Their German shepherd, Simon,
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was once picked up and thrown into a wall.
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The children endured sudden shoves, with one even tumbling
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halfway down the basement stairs.
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On another night, a ceiling light fixture crashed to the
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floor, striking their daughter Shannon and splitting her
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forehead open. And then there were the most
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intimate horrors. Jack later claimed that he too
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had been sexually assaulted by an unseen force.
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Dragged, pinned and violated in ways that he could barely bring
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himself to describe, he spoke of being attacked while praying,
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forced to his knees, bruised by blows from nowhere.
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On one evening, he recounted being assaulted by a succubus
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like presence on the living room sofa as a baseball game played
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on the television. The neighbors noticed as well.
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Those living nearby sometimes heard terrible screams echoing
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from the Smirrel home, only to discover that no one inside had
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made a sound. Even when the house was empty,
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cries and crashes spilled into the night air.
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Something inhuman had made a claim on 330 Chase St.
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For the Smirrels, life had become a waking nightmare.
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The walls of their home were no longer a sanctuary.
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They were a prison. And the demon within was only
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growing bolder. In January of 1986, the Smurls
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reached out to Ed and Lorraine Warren, demonologists from
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Connecticut. The Warrens were no strangers to
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the media spotlight. Amityville had already made them
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famous, but what awaited them in West Pittston, they claimed, was
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among the most violent hauntings they had ever encountered.
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On their very first night in the house and invoked the name of
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Christ, sprinkling holy water and oil around the rooms.
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The temperature plunged 30°. Objects on a nearby desk began
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to rattle and fall off. The mattress rose into the air
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and then slammed back down in a black, shapeless mass
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materialized before him, throbbing with malevolence.
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Lorraine, who was sensitive to spirits, described a cluster of
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entities throughout the home. An elderly woman, a spirit that
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was benign but trapped. The presence of a young girl,
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one that was restless and volatile, and a man who had died
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within the house. And behind them all, a demon
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orchestrating the torment, manipulating them like puppets.
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The Warrens claimed the demon was intelligent, cunning and
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powerful. It taunted Ed by scrawling
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obscenities and smoky mucus like script across a mirror.
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They recorded hours of knocks, bangs, and guttural voices.
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But no matter how many times Ed commanded it to leave in
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Christ's name, the entity only grew more violent.
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For the Smurrels, the Warrens arrival was both a relief and a
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revelation. At last, outsiders had seen what
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they had endured. Yet the torment did not cease.
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The Warrens urged the family to stay strong in faith while they
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petitioned the Catholic Church for an exorcism.
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But the demons seemed to relish the challenge.
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It would not be cast out easily. By summer 1986, the Smurl's
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private nightmare had become a national spectacle.
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Reporter swarmed Chase St. Camera crews camped outside.
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News anchors spoke of the West Pittston demon.
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The family appeared on Larry King Live and Entertainment
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Tonight, their quiet lives shattered under the glare of
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public fascination. Dozens of journalists crowded
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their lawn daily, and Janet later lamented that they had
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hoped for help but instead received 150 interview requests
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and people camping outside their home instead.
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The haunting had gone viral before the word existed in its
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current context. Neighbors, once sympathetic,
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grew weary of the constant commotion.
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Skeptics seized their chance. Paul Kurtz of CSICOP dismissed
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the case as a hoax, A charade, a ghost story.
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But the Smurls stood firm. They pointed out that over 30
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witnesses had experienced the phenomena.
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Neighbors, relatives, priests. And still the pounding, the
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screams, and the assaults continued.
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As the Warrens documented their findings, the Smaugle saw what
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they believed was the only true weapon against evil.
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The Catholic Church priests were called into the duplex.
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They blessed the rooms, sprinkled holy water, and prayed
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over every threshold. The entity responded with
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mocking laughter, foul stenches, and violent manifestations. 3
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separate private exorcisms were attempted by an out of state
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priest and each failed. The family insisted that the
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demons slipped between the two halves of the duplex.
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When one side was blessed, it simply fled to the other,
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waiting until the prayers ceased before returning with greater
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vengeance. On one family trip in their
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camper, the demon followed them. Thunderous bang shook the
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trailer roof, seemingly reminding them that there was no
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escape. Neighbors now spoke in hushed
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tones. Chase St. had become a stage for
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terror. Some swore they still heard
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screams. Others avoided eye contact,
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hoping that the darkness would not contaminate them.
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Still, the Smurls prayed their rosaries each evening.
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Statues of Saints crowded their shelves.
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Saint Michael the Archangel was invoked nightly.
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By late October of 1986, Reverend Joseph Adonicio
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declared that prayers had driven the demon out and that things
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were back to normal. The Smurls cautiously agreed,
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though shadows still lingered at the edges of their Knights.
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Peace was fragile. In 1987, Janet admitted that
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Knox and fleeting shadows still haunted the duplex, but the
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family was exhausted. The children deserved normalcy,
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and so in 1988, after 13 years on Chase St. the Smurls sold
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their half of the house and moved to the Wilkes Bar area.
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A new residents reported no unusual activity.
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To skeptics, this was proof that the Haunting was a fabrication,
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but to the faithful, it meant the demon had been bound to the
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Smurl family themselves and not the building.
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Either way, 330 Chase St. stood quiet again.
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Ordinary on the outside, infamous in memory.
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The Smurls closed the door on their nightmare, but their story
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was far from over. In late 1986, just months after
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the height of the Haunting, journalist Robert Curran, in
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collaboration with the Smurls and the Warrens, released The
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Haunted One Family's Nightmare. The book was marketed as a
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chilling first hand chronicle of what the Smurls had endured.
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It sold briskly. Readers were captivated by the
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detailed accounts of invisible assaults, levitations and
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demonic taunts. But critics were unforgiving.
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Reviewers dismissed it as A1 sided and sensational story,
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accusing Quran of abandoning journalistic integrity.
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The Wilkes Barre Times leader called it poorly written and
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impossible to believe. For the Smurls, the book was not
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about the fame, it was their testimony.
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They wanted people to know what had happened even if the world
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sneered. But the publication tied their
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name forever to the haunting. There would be no true escape.
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In 1991, their ordeal was adapted into a made for TV film,
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The Haunted, produced by 20th Century Fox.
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The movie aired in prime time starring Jeffrey Damone and
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Sally Kirkland as Jack and Janet.
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The script Co written by Quran. The Warrens and the Smirrels
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themselves dramatized the horrors of Chase St., The
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levitations, browls, obscenities on mirrors, the desperate
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prayers of a family under siege. For millions of viewers across
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America, the Smurl haunting became more than a headline.
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It became a cinematic nightmare. The film cemented the Smurls as
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reluctant figures in paranormal history.
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Their names were now spoken in the same breath as Amityville,
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Enfield and other infamous cases.
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But with recognition came further skepticism.
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The family's desire for privacy deepened.
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By the late 1980's, the Smurls had settled into a new home.
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Their life was calmer. The children grew up and the
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family healed. The old duplex became someone
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else's problem, or perhaps nothing at all.
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Jack and Janet rarely spoke publicly again following the
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media circus. In 2017, Jack Smirrell passed
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away at age 75. His daughter Karen shared that
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he had finally put the nightmare behind him.
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Inspired by her family's ordeal, Karen occasionally worked as a
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paranormal investigator, helping others who felt trapped by
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forces that they couldn't explain.
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We had such a hard time and nobody to turn to.
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She would later say he was happy.
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I was a voice out there for people who needed help.
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In reference to her father. Today, the house at 330 Chase
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St. still stands, ordinary on the outside yet legendary among
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ghost hunters. No new reports of paranormal
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activity have surfaced, but the story endures.
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In the twenty 20s, renewed interest in the Warrens case
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files brought the Smirrel Haunting back into the
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spotlight. The producers of The Conjuring
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franchise announced that their upcoming installment, The
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Conjuring Last Rites, coming out this year in 2025 would draw
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heavily from the Smurl case. Once again.
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It seems the world will watch a dramatized version what the
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family had claimed nearly destroyed them.
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The Smurl Haunting remains one of the most controversial and
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infamous alleged demonic infestations in American
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history. The believer cited as proof of
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genuine evil a case where faith alone kept a family alive.
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Skeptics dismiss it as hysteria, fabrication or
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misinterpretation. But for Jack and Janet, for
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their children and their neighbors, it was not a theory.
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It was a livid experience. For them, the house on Chase St.
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was not just a duplex, it was a battlefield.
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The ordinary collided with the unholy.
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Now that I've given you a brief overview of the case itself with
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corrected details, I want to specifically address some of the
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things I got wrong in my original video to set the story
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straight so to speak. I'll do my best to link the 2 so
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that people can get more of a first hand experience feel from
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the first video, but have the facts from this video as well if
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that makes sense. I did speak about an entity
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seemingly causing the stains to manifest through the paint when
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the swirls were renovating, so no matter how many coats of
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paint they put on, these stains would come through.
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They also appeared on the floors as well as the walls.
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That aspect, as far as I've researched, is true, but I do
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recall saying that Jack was attacked by this entity in my
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video, and albeit that perhaps could have been true, they could
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have been one in the same. But at that time I was extremely
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worried about YouTube's rules and I did not want to mention
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that it sexually assaulted Jack or Janet multiple times.
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So my apologies there. But I want to be as accurate as
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I can, and hopefully with this video was a guide you can get
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the fullest story alongside watching my original video.
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With that cleared up, there are also several very interesting
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questions and points that I'd like to address.
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People often ask me what my opinion on the Warrants is, and
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I can tell you now that it's much different than when I made
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the initial video on the Smirrel Haunting.
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Before I share my opinions, I do want to say that I do respect
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the Warrens for pioneering making a living researching the
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paranormal because I do think that their work helped many
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creators over the years and since be able to do the same.
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Unfortunately, whether it's been with or without integrity for
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some. But my opinion is that I think
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the warrants perhaps started out with the right intentions, but
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as years went on they've turned into grifters.
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They essentially developed a formula on how to create
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sensationalism surrounding a case, whether the case was
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supposedly A legitimate haunting or not, in order to profit.
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As far as I know the only means they had at making money was
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from Ed selling his paintings, them selling their books, which
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would be an example of said formula and or media appearances
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in relation with hauntings and later movie deals.
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And as many have said, it didn't necessarily matter if the family
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profited or not either, which many of the families did.
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For example, a family allegedly experiences a haunting, the
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Warrens find out and get involved, and then they
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effectively become business partners, publishing books,
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media kits, etcetera together. Thus, whenever they're involved
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in a case that I cover or learn about, it really makes me
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question the validity of it. Sadly, just given what we know
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now, I can't help but feel that way.
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Now, As for the Smirrel case in particular, these are my
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opinions. I do think it's possible that
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the family did experience something legitimate, whether
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that was paranormal as in a spirit haunting the place, or
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even, as it's been suggested, poltergeist activity manifesting
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as a result of the teenage girls.
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It's hard to say there, but considering I've had some very
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real experiences in my life that I would consider to be extremely
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dark, if not demonic. It's not entirely out of the
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realm of possibility that what the Smurls experienced was of a
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diabolical nature, especially considering the sexual assaults
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and foul odors, etcetera. But it seems that with almost
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every Warren case it becomes a demonic haunting.
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Now it could have been real or it could have been a
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misinterpretation of other paranormal phenomena, but I do
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become extra skeptical because of the Warren's involvement and
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their formulaic strategy given the other cases they were and
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would later be involved in. Another thing that makes me
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skeptical is the fact that the Smurls were devout Catholics.
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As someone who was raised Catholic myself, I do think as a
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result of the beliefs that it makes one more susceptible to
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believing that something could potentially be supernatural.
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That's not to say that it's not possible for things to be so.
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I mean, I just covered a family in Taiwan who was non religious
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that experienced a rather malicious haunting.
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But I would argue that there are probably an overwhelming number
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of cases percentage wise where those who are the victims or the
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haunted are of that belief system.
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Again, not all. And this is not to disparage
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anybody or their beliefs. It's simply a pattern that I,
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and I'm sure many others, have recognized.
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I did also see that Jax Murrell had had brain surgery in 1983 to
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address memory loss caused by a past case of meningitis, a
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procedure that some critics and skeptics suggested may have
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clouded his judgment and could provide an alternative
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explanation for the paranormal events.
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However, considering he was not the only member of the family or
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the only other person to experience the alleged
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phenomena, I find this detail to be kind of irrelevant.
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Like perhaps someone was trying to find additional reasons or
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what have you as to why the family said they experienced
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what they had. There is much more that can be
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said on this case and the Warrens as a whole, and I'm
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lucky to have two friends who are fantastic in their research
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and just for great people in general that I'd like to shout
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out as well as urge you to check out because their content dives
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deep on these very types of questions, especially
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surrounding the Warrens and other questionable figures.
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I'd be my friend Stevie over at Truth or Demons podcast who sent
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me some great resources during my rehashed research for this
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video, and my good friend Florio over at Florio's Phantom Files.
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Definitely check them out, subscribe and learn something
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new because you definitely will. I know this one was a revisited
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case, but it's certainly, at least at the moment, is a pretty
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relevant 1 to revisit if I don't say so myself.
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And I've been itching to correct some information that I got
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wrong for a good while, so the opportunity just seemed right.
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If you enjoyed this video, please give it a like subscribe
26:26
if you're new here and let me know your thoughts down in the
26:29
comments below. If you have a case you'd like to
26:32
to see covered or one that I've already covered, revisited and
26:36
definitely let me know down below.
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You can also grab yourself something cool to help support
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which is my official store that I run myself.
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And with all that being said, as always, I'm grateful for each
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and everyone of you and I appreciate you taking the time.
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This has been Cody here at Mystery Archives.
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Remember to please stay safe out there from grifters and demons
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and much more. And take care.
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I'll see you next time.