In the entire history of the United States legal system, there has only been one example of demonic possession officially being used as a defense in a murder trial. On Oct. 17, The Devil on Trial premieres, recounting the brutal crime that led to this unprecedented legal strategy. It incorporates firsthand accounts, fictional reenactments, and actual recordings of alleged devil possession.
At its core, The Devil on Trial is the heartbreaking story of what happens when one family is ripped apart by a fracturing of strongly held beliefs — and what remains in the aftermath. The story begins in 1980, when an 11-year-old boy named David Glatzel (played by Foster Hamilton) starts shouting blasphemies and acting erratically. His family believes that he’s demonically possessed and arranges for an exorcism. The Glatzel family’s story draws the attention of self-professed demonologists and paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, known for their probe into the infamous haunting in Amityville, Long Island, several years prior.
“He started having these outbursts, and [the family] didn’t know what to do,” The Devil on Trial director Chris Holt said in the podcast You Can’t Make This Up. “When the Warrens came along, they were told to start documenting it. They needed to provide proof and evidence to the diocese [to get approved for] an exorcism. [The documentary] is the first time that audio and those Polaroids have ever been shown — these have been laying in a drawer for 20 to 30 odd years.”
Glatzel’s family was in attendance at his exorcism — including his brothers Alan and Carl, his sister Debbie and her boyfriend, 19-year-old Arne Cheyenne Johnson. During the event, Johnson says he challenged the devil to leave Glatzel’s body and occupy his instead, despite Lorraine Warren’s warning that doing so could have dire consequences. Several months later, Johnson murdered his 40-year-old landlord Alan Bono, claiming he was under the influence of demonic forces. Often referred to as the “Devil Made Me Do It” case, Johnson’s trial quickly became the subject of lore and fascination after it made national news in 1981. The Devil on Trial recounts the troubling events leading up to Bono’s murder, the trial, and the aftermath, using firsthand accounts of the people closest to the case, including Johnson.
Johnson’s story inspired countless fictionalized tales in film and television, but The Devil on Trial is the first time many of the subjects directly involved in the events are telling their stories, sparking a new conversation about what happens when assumptions about reality are in direct conflict with strongly held beliefs. The Devil on Trial ending may shock some people — but Holt says that despite the story’s twists and turns, everyone’s experience of the events is authentic.
“There are people who tell lies,” Holt said. “But I sat down with David and Arne and Alan and Carl, for hours on end, and their stories never changed. I think they were telling me the truth — but it’s their interpretations of the truth rather than it being a hardened fact. But they believed — and I believed — what they were saying is truthful.”
Watch The Devil on Trial on Netflix now.
