July 9, 2025 • 31 mins
The weathered farmhouse on Round Top Road in rural Rhode Island holds secrets far deeper than what you've seen on screen. Before the Warrens arrived, before the Perron family's terrifying encounters, and long before Hollywood transformed it into the centerpiece of a horror franchise, this colonial-era home already carried whispers of something unsettled.
Join host Robert Barber as our journey through the true origins of the Conjuring House reveals a complex tapestry of historical fact, local folklore, and the powerful force of belief. Built in the 1730s when Rhode Island was still a colony, this modest structure witnessed generations of hardship, loss, and unexplained occurrences that gradually coalesced into legend. The name most entwined with the property's supernatural reputation—Bathsheba Sherman—belonged to a real woman whose actual life bears little resemblance to the malevolent witch portrayed in popular culture.
The transformation from weathered farmhouse to America's most infamous haunted house accelerated when the Perron family arrived in 1971. Their experiences—doors opening on their own, mysterious cold spots, whispered voices, and increasingly frightening physical encounters—drew paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren to the property in 1973. What they claimed to uncover would eventually spawn books, films, and a cultural phenomenon, but the truth remains more nuanced and perhaps more unsettling than the dramatized version.
Was the Conjuring House truly haunted by vengeful spirits? Or could other explanations—environmental factors, psychology, or the power of suggestion—account for what happened within those walls? And what does our enduring fascination with this property reveal about our relationship with history, tragedy, and the unexplained?
Maybe what makes certain places feel haunted isn't just what happened there, but how we remember it, how we fill the silences with stories that help us make sense of loss and fear. The Conjuring House continues to captivate because it resists simple explanation. It challenges us to question not just what we believe about the supernatural, but why we believe it.
Listen now to explore the forgotten history behind America's most haunted home—where fact and folklore intertwine, where death and memory linger, and where sometimes the most haunting presence is the past itself.
##References in the Show##
Episode 3 - Mercy Brown | Rhode Island’s Last American Vampire https://www.buzzsprout.com/2465685/episodes/17010280-mercy-brown-rhode-island-s-last-american-vampire-fact-or-folklore
##Sound FX Credits##
Horror Ambiance by TheSoundFXGuy_YT -- https://freesound.org/s/534221/ -- License: Attribution 4.0
Drone Wave 6 by Erokia -- https://freesound.org/s/797855/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0
Tranquil Harmony (Calm Piano and Ambient Sounds for Relaxa
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Some stories don’t stay buried.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
In 1971, a family moved into a crooked old house
in rural Rhode Island.
What they were looking for waspeace.
What they found became legend.
Doors slammed, shadows moved,voices whispered through the
(00:22):
walls.
Their story launched afranchise, a ghost-hunting
pilgrimage, a pop culturephenomenon.
But no one ever asked the realquestion why that house?
Why them?
Why did it start at all?
The answer may lie in a curseolder than the haunting, in a
(00:48):
name nearly erased, in a legendthat waited long before the
first scream.
This is what happened beforethe haunting.
This is the haunting thatlaunched a universe.
But today we're not startingwith the seance.
We're going back before theinvestigators, before the
(01:13):
possessions, to ask the questionburied beneath the folklore
what happened before thehaunting, and did the legend
begin long before the first doorever slammed?
I'm your host, robert Barber,and today we trace the roots of
(01:47):
the Conjuring House, from itsforgotten tragedies to the myth
that took hold.
This is the story before theparents, before the screams,
before the world believed.
This is State of the Unknown.
(02:18):
The House Sits on Round Top Road, just outside Harrisville,
rhode Island, a modest farmhouseweathered by centuries of wind
and seasons.
Two stories, slanted roof,surrounded by fieldstone walls
and sloping grass that dips intothe tree line.
There is nothing theatricalabout it, and yet it became one
(02:42):
of the most infamous hauntedhouses in America.
Before the movies, before theinvestigators, before the
screams and recordings andheadlines, there was just the
land and the people who lived onit.
The house dates back to the1730s, built when Rhode Island
(03:03):
was still a colony, before theRevolution, before electricity,
in a time when death came easilyand most families buried their
dead within walking distance.
The original deed was tied tothe Richardson family.
Over the next two centuries,ownership passed through at
(03:24):
least eight generations.
These were farming families,working class and mostly
self-sufficient, the kind ofpeople who lived quiet lives and
left few written records.
The house saw births and deaths, just like any old homestead,
but some of those deaths becomethe root of local legend.
(03:46):
A few were recorded in townarchives, others became oral
history passed down by neighbors.
There are accounts of a childdrowning in a nearby creek, of a
man found frozen in a field, ofanother hanging in the barn.
These are not unusual fates forrural New England.
(04:07):
In the 18th and 19th centuries,life was often short, winters
were hard, medical care waslimited or even non-existent,
and isolation was a fact of life, but over time these stories
collected weight.
One name appears more oftenthan most Bathsheba Sherman.
(04:33):
She did not live in the houseitself, but nearby Census
records from the mid-1800s listher as Bathsheba Thayer, born in
1812, lists her as BathshebaThayer, born in 1812, later
married to Judson Sherman.
They had a son.
Local death records confirmBathsheba died in 1885 and is
(04:59):
buried in the nearby HarrisvilleCemetery.
In the decades following herdeath, bathsheba became the
focus of local folklore.
Her death Bathsheba became thefocus of local folklore.
Some claimed she was cruel tofarmhands.
Others said she was suspectedin the death of an infant, a
charge that was never brought tocourt.
No trial record exists.
No formal accusation wasdocumented, but the rumor
persisted.
(05:20):
By the 20th century her namehad become entangled with the
house, not through documentedhistory, but through belief, a
belief that whatever misfortunesbefell the property had roots
in something older, somethingunresolved.
It's worth noting that not allowners of the house reported
(05:42):
strange activity.
Some families lived therewithout incident.
Others described oddoccurrences doors opening on
their own, cold spots, strangesounds.
Whether these were naturalcreaks of an old structure or
something else was never settled.
What is clear is this by thetime the Perron family arrived
(06:05):
in 1971, the house alreadycarried a reputation, not a
national one, not even statewide, but among locals it was known,
Known as old, as quiet, asheavy.
Whether that weight came fromtragedy, from age or from
(06:28):
stories repeated long enough toseem true, that depends on who
you ask.
And in Harrisville historydoesn't always stay buried.
Life in 18th and 19th centuryRhode Island was hard.
Even in the best seasons,families lived off the land with
(06:52):
little room for error.
A failed crop, a harsh winteror a sudden illness could shift
the future of a householdovernight.
Death was intimate.
It happened in the home, in thebarn, in the fields.
There were no funeral homes, noformal grief counseling.
(07:14):
Children died, young Mothersdied in childbirth, people were
buried on their own land insmall family plots marked by
simple stones or nothing at all.
In that kind of world, storiesfilled the gaps.
When death came unexpectedly orcruelly, people looked for
(07:38):
meaning and in tight-knit,isolated communities that
meaning often narrowed to blame.
Bathsheba Sherman lived in thatworld.
What little we know comes frompublic records.
She was born Bathsheba Thayer,married Judson Sherman and had
(08:00):
at least one documented child.
And had at least one documentedchild.
The family lived on a nearbyfarm, not in the Conjuring House
itself.
By all legal accounts she diedof natural causes in 1885.
(08:21):
But sometime after her death hername became myth.
One persistent rumor claimedthat she had murdered an infant
in her care, that the child wasfound with a puncture wound to
the skull.
No charges were filed, noarrest, no surviving
documentation supporting theclaim.
But the story, the story livedon.
The story lived on.
(08:42):
Folklore doesn't need evidence,it needs repetition.
And Bathsheba, stern andreclusive by some accounts,
became the perfect target.
A woman who outlived most ofher peers, a woman without the
warmth people expected, a womanwho aged alone.
(09:07):
In rural 19th century NewEngland that was sometimes
enough.
By the mid-20th century, asghost stories grew around the
old farmhouse, bathshima's namereappeared, not in newspapers or
archives, but in campfirestories, in whispers between
locals.
She was no longer just a nameon a gravestone, she had become
(09:31):
the source, the explanation, thelegend.
Her grave still stands in theHarrisville Cemetery.
The stone is weathered butintact.
Occasionally it's found toppledor defaced, a reminder of how
real lives can be twisted bystory.
(09:52):
There is no confirmed linkbetween Bathsheba Sherman and
any alleged haunting.
What exists is proximity A realwoman who lived and died near a
house that would later becalled Cursed, but once her name
was spoken enough times in thesame breath as the house, it
stuck.
(10:13):
Rhode Island has seen thisbefore.
In 1892, just 20 miles fromHarrisville, a girl named Mercy
Brown was exhumed by herneighbors.
Her body was found unusuallywell-preserved.
Her heart was burned and herashes fed to her dying brother a
(10:34):
desperate act by people whobelieved she was a vampire.
We actually did an episode onMercy Brown, which is one of my
personal favorites.
If you haven't listened to it,I highly recommend it if you're
interested in early Americanfolk superstition.
I placed the link to thatepisode in the show notes.
That fear, too, came from loss,from grief looking for form,
(11:00):
for meaning, and when theparents moved in they would be
told that story not as theory,not as speculation, but as truth
, because when fear takes rootin a place, it grows fast.
(11:23):
In January 1971, the Perronfamily arrived at the farmhouse
on Round Top Road Roger andCarolyn and their five daughters
.
They were looking for morespace, more nature and a place
to settle long-term.
The house was large and old,with history in its bones.
The house was large and old,with history in its bones.
(11:44):
It was also affordablesuspiciously so.
But the parents didn't ask manyquestions.
They were eager and that housefelt like a new beginning.
It didn't stay that way forlong.
From the beginning the familybegan to report strange
occurrences Doors opening andclosing by themselves, cold
(12:05):
spots, objects vanishing andreappearing.
The girls spoke of shadows,whispers and a lingering sense
of being watched.
Some of these claims wereechoed by more than one family
member.
Carolyn Perrin reported wakingwith bruises.
She couldn't explain.
She said she would sometimessmell rotting flesh and hear
(12:28):
noises as if someone weresweeping the floors when no one
else was there.
Over time her health declined.
She became increasinglyisolated, disturbed by what she
believed was a growing presencein the house.
Roger Perrin remained skepticalbut admitted to experiencing
(12:51):
oddities Tools disappearing andreappearing.
In his workshop there weredrafts with no apparent source.
The family began sleeping withthe lights on.
Some of the daughters wouldhuddle together at night, afraid
to sleep alone.
Not every member of the familyexperienced the same things.
Some were more sensitive thanothers, but the emotional strain
(13:20):
mounted.
The family reported that whatbegan as strange, seemingly
isolated events graduallyintensified as strange,
seemingly isolated eventsgradually intensified.
In her own later writings,daughter Andrea Perrin described
more dramatic experiencesclaims of being attacked, beds
(13:46):
shaking, even the suggestion ofpossession.
These events, however, havenever been independently
verified and are documentedprimarily through her memoirs
and interviews.
As the disturbances escalated,carolyn began to investigate the
house's past.
She uncovered stories of deathson the property, including
drownings, suicides and supposedtragedies.
She also heard tales ofBathsheba Sherman, the woman
accused in legend of havingcursed the land.
(14:08):
Neighbors and locals told thePerrons the house was haunted.
Some pointed directly toBathsheba.
The story was known in thecommunity, if not universally
believed, and for the Perrons itbecame a framework for the
chaos they were living.
Eventually, desperate for help,they contacted Ed and Lorraine
(14:31):
Warren, a pair ofself-proclaimed paranormal
investigators who were gainingnotoriety across the region.
But before their arrival it wasjust the Perrons A family
trying to make sense of a housethat seemed to resist peace, a
family caught in the tighteninggrip of belief, a family that,
(14:52):
by their own account, wouldnever be the same.
The Warrens came to Harrisvillein 1973.
They were already known in theNortheast, part spiritual
advisors, part investigators andpart performers Ed, a
(15:13):
self-taught demonologist.
Lorraine, a clairvoyant whosaid she could see what others
could not.
The Perrons welcomed them, notbecause they believed everything
the Warrens claimed, butbecause they needed help and no
one else was offering any.
The Warrens conducted interviews.
(15:34):
They walked the property.
Lorraine claimed to sense adark force, something oppressive
and ancient.
They believed it was not just ahaunting but a spiritual
infestation.
They held seances hoping tomake contact.
According to the Perrons, thesesessions sometimes made things
(15:56):
worse.
Andrea Perron described oneincident where her mother was
thrown across the room.
No photographs, videorecordings or third-party
witnesses have ever confirmedthis event.
The Warrens pointed toBathsheba as the spirit behind
the activity.
They suggested she hadpracticed witchcraft and cursed
(16:18):
the land.
These ideas, while popularizedby later books and films,
originated from their owninterpretations and were not
supported by historical evidence.
Their involvement was notuniversally welcomed.
Some neighbors were skeptical.
Roger Perrin reportedly askedthe Warrens to leave after a
(16:40):
particularly upsetting session.
The family, under immensestress, had reached their
breaking point.
The Warrens moved on.
The parents stayed, enduringwhat they described as years of
intermittent activity until theyleft the house in 1980.
(17:02):
No formal investigation everconfirmed paranormal activity.
No hard evidence was collected,but the story persisted because
the Perrons believed it,because their experiences left a
mark and eventually the houseitself would become myth, not
through proof but throughretelling.
(17:24):
Not because it was solved butbecause it remained unresolved.
Before they stepped into theHarrisville farmhouse, ed and
Lorraine Warren had alreadybuilt a name for themselves in
(17:46):
the world of the paranormal.
They weren't scientists orclergy, they weren't licensed
psychologists, but they werepersistent and they were visible
.
Ed Warren, a Navy veteran andformer police officer, described
himself as a self-taughtdemonologist.
Police officer describedhimself as a self-taught
(18:07):
demonologist.
Lorraine claimed clairvoyantabilities from a young age,
saying she could see auras andspirits.
Others could not.
Together they formed the NewEngland Society for Psychic
Research in 1952, the oldestghost hunting group in the
country at the time.
They traveled across the UnitedStates investigating haunted
houses, churches, cemeteries andhistoric sites.
(18:29):
Their methods combinedspiritual insight with Catholic
ritual holy water prayers,relics.
They kept recordings,photographs and case files.
Some were compelling, otherswere later challenged.
The Warrens gained nationalattention through high-profile
(18:49):
cases the Amityville Horror, theAnnabelle Doll and later the
Snedeker family.
They became fixtures on thelecture circuit, appearing at
colleges, community centers andlate-night radio programs.
To some they were protectors,to others they were performers
(19:10):
and to skeptics they wereopportunists.
But regardless of opinion, onething is certain they shaped the
way paranormal stories are toldin America.
When the Warrens entered ahouse, they didn't just
investigate, they interpreted,they dramatized and often they
(19:32):
left behind a legend.
The Conjuring House was noexception.
The story of the Perron familyin the Harrisville farmhouse was
reborn on the big screen.
The Conjuring, directed by JamesWan, was a critical and
commercial success.
(19:52):
It claimed to be quote based onthe true case files of Ed and
Lorraine Warren.
But Hollywood is not history.
The film portrayed a dramatizedversion of the Warrens'
investigation.
In it, bathsheba Sherman ispresented as a Satan-worshipping
witch who sacrificed her childto the devil and cursed all who
(20:16):
would live on the land.
These claims have no historicalbasis.
There is no evidence thatBathsheba practiced witchcraft,
no record of her cursing anyoneand no documentation of her
involvement in infant deathsbeyond unsubstantiated rumors.
In the movie, the Warrensperform a dramatic exorcism
(20:38):
inside the house.
In reality, there is noofficial record that an exorcism
ever occurred.
According to the Perrons, theWarrens conducted a seance, a
spiritual communication, not arite of Catholic expulsion.
The church itself did notsanction the event.
Other scenes, like Carol andPerron being levitated and
(21:01):
hurled across the room, werebased on Andrea Perrin's
recollections but remainunverified by any outside source
.
The Conjuring amplified thelegend.
It introduced millions to thehouse, the family and the
Warrens, but it also reshapedpublic perception, blurring the
(21:21):
line between folklore, memoryand entertainment.
Today, the house remains apoint of pilgrimage for the
curious and the faithful.
Its current owners have leanedinto its reputation offering
tours and overnight stays, andfor some, that history is part
of the draw.
Not because it's proven, butbecause it's believed.
(21:43):
Not because it's proven, butbecause it's believed.
Since the Perrins left thefarmhouse in 1980, the property
has drawn a steady stream ofghost hunters, psychics and
paranormal investigators, eachhoping to document what others
could only describe.
Groups such as Ghost Adventures, kindred Spirits and Ghost
(22:04):
Hunters have spent nights at theHarrisville house.
Each arrived with equipment andskepticism.
Each left with their owninterpretation of what occurred.
In their 2019 special GhostAdventures focused heavily on
the house's reputation, zachBaggins and his team reported
disembodied voices, cold spotsand shadowy figures.
(22:34):
They claimed to experiencephysical symptoms headaches,
nausea, a sense of oppression.
Their audio and videorecordings captured what they
presented as unexplainedphenomena, including electronic
voice phenomena, or EVPs, andsudden battery drains.
Baggins described the house asquote.
(22:54):
The team from Ghost Hunters in alater investigation under
Newcastle leadership took a moremeasured approach.
They acknowledged strangesounds and temperature changes,
but they did not declare thesite definitively haunted.
Their equipment registeredminor anomalies but no strong
repeatable evidence.
They emphasized thepsychological effects of
(23:17):
suggestion and the atmosphericpower of the home's long and
layered history.
Power of the home's long andlayered history.
Many regional teams have echoedsimilar patterns unexplained
sounds, erratic equipment,readings and personal discomfort
but to date no investigationhas produced clear peer-reviewed
evidence of supernaturalactivity.
(23:39):
Still, the house has become akind of testing ground for
paranormal technology andbeliefs.
Some teams bring infraredcameras and REM pods.
Others rely on traditionalmethods like seances, divining
(24:01):
rods or asking questions intothe silence, hoping for a knock
and reply.
Skeptics argue that the power ofsuggestion plays a major role.
The house's reputation precedesit.
The creaks of old wood andshifting air pressure can be
interpreted as supernatural inthe right state of mind, but for
believers, the Conjuring Houseremains one of the most active
sites they've ever studied.
In recent years, the house hadbeen open to the public under
(24:26):
prior ownership, allowingstructured investigations and
overnight stays.
Guests were invited to conducttheir own amateur research.
Footage from those sessions wasfrequently posted online,
contributing to a growingarchive of alleged phenomena.
However, as of 2024, the houseis no longer open to the public,
(24:47):
access is limited and privateinvestigations are no longer
routine.
Whether these are the signs ofa true haunting or echoes of
belief amplified by expectation,that's still debated.
But the house continues toattract attention night after
night, not because it explainsitself, but because it doesn't,
(25:15):
for a place as storied as theConjuring House.
Theories about what happened andwhy are nearly as numerous as
the investigations themselves.
Some look to the supernatural,others to psychology and the
fragile line between fear andreality.
One of the most persistentparanormal theories centers on
(25:37):
residual energy, the idea thattrauma, especially repeated over
generations, can imprint itselfon a location like a recording.
In this view, the house doesn'thost spirits so much as it
replays events, footsteps,voices, moments of fear looping,
endlessly, detached from anyconscious entity.
(25:59):
Now, I'll be honest, there'ssomething about this idea that I
find oddly poetic.
Like the house is grieving inits own way, not malicious, just
haunted by memory, like therest of us, it makes me think
about what we leave behindemotionally, not just in
journals or photographs, but inthe places that held our worst
(26:23):
days.
Maybe those impressions linger,maybe some walls do remember.
Now, others believe inintelligent hauntings where
spirits are aware, responsiveand capable of interacting.
Those who subscribe to thistheory often point to the
parents' experiences names beingwhispered, targeted physical
(26:46):
contact and a sense ofmalevolence focused specifically
on Carolyn Perrin.
And if that's true, it makes mewonder what does a spirit
actually want, and how long cananger or fear survive without a
body to hold it?
If something stays behindunfinished, what does it need to
(27:07):
rest?
Maybe the answers aren'tdramatic.
Maybe it's just the echo ofsomeone needing to be heard.
Now more extreme theoriessuggest the house was subject to
demonic infestation, not justhaunted but invaded.
This is the explanation favoredby the Warrens and the one
(27:28):
dramatized in the Conjuring.
It posits that a dark,non-human force sought to harm
or possess those inside the home.
This one's always been thehardest for me to wrap my head
around, not because I rule itout completely, but because when
everything becomes demonic, werisk losing the human story
buried underneath.
(27:49):
And sometimes that story thepain, the fear, the grief is
scarier than any demon Becauseit's real.
Skeptics offer a different kindof explanation environmental
psychology.
The house is old, with unevenflooring, poor lighting and
drafty windows.
(28:10):
It creaks, it groans.
The floorboards shift withtemperature.
These natural elements, pairedwith a known reputation, can
create a heightened state ofsuggestion where the mind fills
in the gaps.
Now, honestly, this makes a lotof sense to me.
Belief is powerful and fear,once planted, tends to bloom
(28:33):
fast in the dark, especially ina place where you already expect
something to happen.
The brain connects dots.
It builds meanings from chaos.
That doesn't make the fear lessreal, just differently real.
Others point to mold,infrasound or carbon monoxide
(28:54):
leaks as potential culprits.
Low-frequency vibrations caninduce anxiety, nausea and
feelings of dread.
Certain molds have been linkedto hallucinations, and carbon
monoxide poisoning can causesymptoms often attributed to the
paranormal headaches, confusion, auditory and visual
disturbances.
(29:16):
If we're serious about findingreal answers, maybe this is
where we should start, in thecorners of science, before we go
reaching for the spectral.
It's not as cinematic, for sure, but it's grounded, and
sometimes the truth hides invery unglamorous places.
Then there's the social theorythat stories like this grow not
(29:39):
just because of what people seeor feel, but because of what
they want to believe.
Not just because of what peoplesee or feel, but because of
what they want to believe.
The Conjuring House, by virtueof its history, has become a
magnet for myth.
People come with expectations,and expectations are powerful,
and maybe that's the mostunsettling thought of all, that
(29:59):
belief itself has weight, thatwe go looking for ghosts and we
actually bring them with us,that the scariest thing in any
haunted house is us.
Now, each theory offers a piece.
None explain everything, andthat, in its own way, is what
keeps the legend alive.
Some places are steeped insilence, others in stories.
(30:26):
The Conjuring House has alwayshad both.
We've followed the trailthrough history, folklore, fear
and belief.
And though the story is tangled, one thing is clear this house
became what it is, not justbecause of what happened, but
(30:47):
because of how we remembered it.
Maybe it's not haunted byspirits, maybe it's haunted by
questions, the kind that linger,the kind we carry with us.
If this episode stayed with you,follow the show now so you
never miss what's next.
And if you believe thesestories deserve to be heard,
(31:08):
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It helps more than you know.
Want to go deeper?
Visit stateoftheunknowncom.
You'll find full episodes, shownotes, blog posts for each
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(31:31):
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Just search for State of theUnknown Listeners, because this
isn't just a podcast, it's agathering of questions and the
answers they're out there.
Until next time.
Remember what's buried doesn'talways stay that way.
In 1971, a family moved into a crooked old house
in rural Rhode Island.
What they were looking for waspeace.
What they found became legend.
Doors slammed, shadows moved,voices whispered through the
(00:22):
walls.
Their story launched afranchise, a ghost-hunting
pilgrimage, a pop culturephenomenon.
But no one ever asked the realquestion why that house?
Why them?
Why did it start at all?
The answer may lie in a curseolder than the haunting, in a
(00:48):
name nearly erased, in a legendthat waited long before the
first scream.
This is what happened beforethe haunting.
This is the haunting thatlaunched a universe.
But today we're not startingwith the seance.
We're going back before theinvestigators, before the
(01:13):
possessions, to ask the questionburied beneath the folklore
what happened before thehaunting, and did the legend
begin long before the first doorever slammed?
I'm your host, robert Barber,and today we trace the roots of
(01:47):
the Conjuring House, from itsforgotten tragedies to the myth
that took hold.
This is the story before theparents, before the screams,
before the world believed.
This is State of the Unknown.
(02:18):
The House Sits on Round Top Road, just outside Harrisville,
rhode Island, a modest farmhouseweathered by centuries of wind
and seasons.
Two stories, slanted roof,surrounded by fieldstone walls
and sloping grass that dips intothe tree line.
There is nothing theatricalabout it, and yet it became one
(02:42):
of the most infamous hauntedhouses in America.
Before the movies, before theinvestigators, before the
screams and recordings andheadlines, there was just the
land and the people who lived onit.
The house dates back to the1730s, built when Rhode Island
(03:03):
was still a colony, before theRevolution, before electricity,
in a time when death came easilyand most families buried their
dead within walking distance.
The original deed was tied tothe Richardson family.
Over the next two centuries,ownership passed through at
(03:24):
least eight generations.
These were farming families,working class and mostly
self-sufficient, the kind ofpeople who lived quiet lives and
left few written records.
The house saw births and deaths, just like any old homestead,
but some of those deaths becomethe root of local legend.
(03:46):
A few were recorded in townarchives, others became oral
history passed down by neighbors.
There are accounts of a childdrowning in a nearby creek, of a
man found frozen in a field, ofanother hanging in the barn.
These are not unusual fates forrural New England.
(04:07):
In the 18th and 19th centuries,life was often short, winters
were hard, medical care waslimited or even non-existent,
and isolation was a fact of life, but over time these stories
collected weight.
One name appears more oftenthan most Bathsheba Sherman.
(04:33):
She did not live in the houseitself, but nearby Census
records from the mid-1800s listher as Bathsheba Thayer, born in
1812, lists her as BathshebaThayer, born in 1812, later
married to Judson Sherman.
They had a son.
Local death records confirmBathsheba died in 1885 and is
(04:59):
buried in the nearby HarrisvilleCemetery.
In the decades following herdeath, bathsheba became the
focus of local folklore.
Her death Bathsheba became thefocus of local folklore.
Some claimed she was cruel tofarmhands.
Others said she was suspectedin the death of an infant, a
charge that was never brought tocourt.
No trial record exists.
No formal accusation wasdocumented, but the rumor
persisted.
(05:20):
By the 20th century her namehad become entangled with the
house, not through documentedhistory, but through belief, a
belief that whatever misfortunesbefell the property had roots
in something older, somethingunresolved.
It's worth noting that not allowners of the house reported
(05:42):
strange activity.
Some families lived therewithout incident.
Others described oddoccurrences doors opening on
their own, cold spots, strangesounds.
Whether these were naturalcreaks of an old structure or
something else was never settled.
What is clear is this by thetime the Perron family arrived
(06:05):
in 1971, the house alreadycarried a reputation, not a
national one, not even statewide, but among locals it was known,
Known as old, as quiet, asheavy.
Whether that weight came fromtragedy, from age or from
(06:28):
stories repeated long enough toseem true, that depends on who
you ask.
And in Harrisville historydoesn't always stay buried.
Life in 18th and 19th centuryRhode Island was hard.
Even in the best seasons,families lived off the land with
(06:52):
little room for error.
A failed crop, a harsh winteror a sudden illness could shift
the future of a householdovernight.
Death was intimate.
It happened in the home, in thebarn, in the fields.
There were no funeral homes, noformal grief counseling.
(07:14):
Children died, young Mothersdied in childbirth, people were
buried on their own land insmall family plots marked by
simple stones or nothing at all.
In that kind of world, storiesfilled the gaps.
When death came unexpectedly orcruelly, people looked for
(07:38):
meaning and in tight-knit,isolated communities that
meaning often narrowed to blame.
Bathsheba Sherman lived in thatworld.
What little we know comes frompublic records.
She was born Bathsheba Thayer,married Judson Sherman and had
(08:00):
at least one documented child.
And had at least one documentedchild.
The family lived on a nearbyfarm, not in the Conjuring House
itself.
By all legal accounts she diedof natural causes in 1885.
(08:21):
But sometime after her death hername became myth.
One persistent rumor claimedthat she had murdered an infant
in her care, that the child wasfound with a puncture wound to
the skull.
No charges were filed, noarrest, no surviving
documentation supporting theclaim.
But the story, the story livedon.
The story lived on.
(08:42):
Folklore doesn't need evidence,it needs repetition.
And Bathsheba, stern andreclusive by some accounts,
became the perfect target.
A woman who outlived most ofher peers, a woman without the
warmth people expected, a womanwho aged alone.
(09:07):
In rural 19th century NewEngland that was sometimes
enough.
By the mid-20th century, asghost stories grew around the
old farmhouse, bathshima's namereappeared, not in newspapers or
archives, but in campfirestories, in whispers between
locals.
She was no longer just a nameon a gravestone, she had become
(09:31):
the source, the explanation, thelegend.
Her grave still stands in theHarrisville Cemetery.
The stone is weathered butintact.
Occasionally it's found toppledor defaced, a reminder of how
real lives can be twisted bystory.
(09:52):
There is no confirmed linkbetween Bathsheba Sherman and
any alleged haunting.
What exists is proximity A realwoman who lived and died near a
house that would later becalled Cursed, but once her name
was spoken enough times in thesame breath as the house, it
stuck.
(10:13):
Rhode Island has seen thisbefore.
In 1892, just 20 miles fromHarrisville, a girl named Mercy
Brown was exhumed by herneighbors.
Her body was found unusuallywell-preserved.
Her heart was burned and herashes fed to her dying brother a
(10:34):
desperate act by people whobelieved she was a vampire.
We actually did an episode onMercy Brown, which is one of my
personal favorites.
If you haven't listened to it,I highly recommend it if you're
interested in early Americanfolk superstition.
I placed the link to thatepisode in the show notes.
That fear, too, came from loss,from grief looking for form,
(11:00):
for meaning, and when theparents moved in they would be
told that story not as theory,not as speculation, but as truth
, because when fear takes rootin a place, it grows fast.
(11:23):
In January 1971, the Perronfamily arrived at the farmhouse
on Round Top Road Roger andCarolyn and their five daughters
.
They were looking for morespace, more nature and a place
to settle long-term.
The house was large and old,with history in its bones.
The house was large and old,with history in its bones.
(11:44):
It was also affordablesuspiciously so.
But the parents didn't ask manyquestions.
They were eager and that housefelt like a new beginning.
It didn't stay that way forlong.
From the beginning the familybegan to report strange
occurrences Doors opening andclosing by themselves, cold
(12:05):
spots, objects vanishing andreappearing.
The girls spoke of shadows,whispers and a lingering sense
of being watched.
Some of these claims wereechoed by more than one family
member.
Carolyn Perrin reported wakingwith bruises.
She couldn't explain.
She said she would sometimessmell rotting flesh and hear
(12:28):
noises as if someone weresweeping the floors when no one
else was there.
Over time her health declined.
She became increasinglyisolated, disturbed by what she
believed was a growing presencein the house.
Roger Perrin remained skepticalbut admitted to experiencing
(12:51):
oddities Tools disappearing andreappearing.
In his workshop there weredrafts with no apparent source.
The family began sleeping withthe lights on.
Some of the daughters wouldhuddle together at night, afraid
to sleep alone.
Not every member of the familyexperienced the same things.
Some were more sensitive thanothers, but the emotional strain
(13:20):
mounted.
The family reported that whatbegan as strange, seemingly
isolated events graduallyintensified as strange,
seemingly isolated eventsgradually intensified.
In her own later writings,daughter Andrea Perrin described
more dramatic experiencesclaims of being attacked, beds
(13:46):
shaking, even the suggestion ofpossession.
These events, however, havenever been independently
verified and are documentedprimarily through her memoirs
and interviews.
As the disturbances escalated,carolyn began to investigate the
house's past.
She uncovered stories of deathson the property, including
drownings, suicides and supposedtragedies.
She also heard tales ofBathsheba Sherman, the woman
accused in legend of havingcursed the land.
(14:08):
Neighbors and locals told thePerrons the house was haunted.
Some pointed directly toBathsheba.
The story was known in thecommunity, if not universally
believed, and for the Perrons itbecame a framework for the
chaos they were living.
Eventually, desperate for help,they contacted Ed and Lorraine
(14:31):
Warren, a pair ofself-proclaimed paranormal
investigators who were gainingnotoriety across the region.
But before their arrival it wasjust the Perrons A family
trying to make sense of a housethat seemed to resist peace, a
family caught in the tighteninggrip of belief, a family that,
(14:52):
by their own account, wouldnever be the same.
The Warrens came to Harrisvillein 1973.
They were already known in theNortheast, part spiritual
advisors, part investigators andpart performers Ed, a
(15:13):
self-taught demonologist.
Lorraine, a clairvoyant whosaid she could see what others
could not.
The Perrons welcomed them, notbecause they believed everything
the Warrens claimed, butbecause they needed help and no
one else was offering any.
The Warrens conducted interviews.
(15:34):
They walked the property.
Lorraine claimed to sense adark force, something oppressive
and ancient.
They believed it was not just ahaunting but a spiritual
infestation.
They held seances hoping tomake contact.
According to the Perrons, thesesessions sometimes made things
(15:56):
worse.
Andrea Perron described oneincident where her mother was
thrown across the room.
No photographs, videorecordings or third-party
witnesses have ever confirmedthis event.
The Warrens pointed toBathsheba as the spirit behind
the activity.
They suggested she hadpracticed witchcraft and cursed
(16:18):
the land.
These ideas, while popularizedby later books and films,
originated from their owninterpretations and were not
supported by historical evidence.
Their involvement was notuniversally welcomed.
Some neighbors were skeptical.
Roger Perrin reportedly askedthe Warrens to leave after a
(16:40):
particularly upsetting session.
The family, under immensestress, had reached their
breaking point.
The Warrens moved on.
The parents stayed, enduringwhat they described as years of
intermittent activity until theyleft the house in 1980.
(17:02):
No formal investigation everconfirmed paranormal activity.
No hard evidence was collected,but the story persisted because
the Perrons believed it,because their experiences left a
mark and eventually the houseitself would become myth, not
through proof but throughretelling.
(17:24):
Not because it was solved butbecause it remained unresolved.
Before they stepped into theHarrisville farmhouse, ed and
Lorraine Warren had alreadybuilt a name for themselves in
(17:46):
the world of the paranormal.
They weren't scientists orclergy, they weren't licensed
psychologists, but they werepersistent and they were visible
.
Ed Warren, a Navy veteran andformer police officer, described
himself as a self-taughtdemonologist.
Police officer describedhimself as a self-taught
(18:07):
demonologist.
Lorraine claimed clairvoyantabilities from a young age,
saying she could see auras andspirits.
Others could not.
Together they formed the NewEngland Society for Psychic
Research in 1952, the oldestghost hunting group in the
country at the time.
They traveled across the UnitedStates investigating haunted
houses, churches, cemeteries andhistoric sites.
(18:29):
Their methods combinedspiritual insight with Catholic
ritual holy water prayers,relics.
They kept recordings,photographs and case files.
Some were compelling, otherswere later challenged.
The Warrens gained nationalattention through high-profile
(18:49):
cases the Amityville Horror, theAnnabelle Doll and later the
Snedeker family.
They became fixtures on thelecture circuit, appearing at
colleges, community centers andlate-night radio programs.
To some they were protectors,to others they were performers
(19:10):
and to skeptics they wereopportunists.
But regardless of opinion, onething is certain they shaped the
way paranormal stories are toldin America.
When the Warrens entered ahouse, they didn't just
investigate, they interpreted,they dramatized and often they
(19:32):
left behind a legend.
The Conjuring House was noexception.
The story of the Perron familyin the Harrisville farmhouse was
reborn on the big screen.
The Conjuring, directed by JamesWan, was a critical and
commercial success.
(19:52):
It claimed to be quote based onthe true case files of Ed and
Lorraine Warren.
But Hollywood is not history.
The film portrayed a dramatizedversion of the Warrens'
investigation.
In it, bathsheba Sherman ispresented as a Satan-worshipping
witch who sacrificed her childto the devil and cursed all who
(20:16):
would live on the land.
These claims have no historicalbasis.
There is no evidence thatBathsheba practiced witchcraft,
no record of her cursing anyoneand no documentation of her
involvement in infant deathsbeyond unsubstantiated rumors.
In the movie, the Warrensperform a dramatic exorcism
(20:38):
inside the house.
In reality, there is noofficial record that an exorcism
ever occurred.
According to the Perrons, theWarrens conducted a seance, a
spiritual communication, not arite of Catholic expulsion.
The church itself did notsanction the event.
Other scenes, like Carol andPerron being levitated and
(21:01):
hurled across the room, werebased on Andrea Perrin's
recollections but remainunverified by any outside source
.
The Conjuring amplified thelegend.
It introduced millions to thehouse, the family and the
Warrens, but it also reshapedpublic perception, blurring the
(21:21):
line between folklore, memoryand entertainment.
Today, the house remains apoint of pilgrimage for the
curious and the faithful.
Its current owners have leanedinto its reputation offering
tours and overnight stays, andfor some, that history is part
of the draw.
Not because it's proven, butbecause it's believed.
(21:43):
Not because it's proven, butbecause it's believed.
Since the Perrins left thefarmhouse in 1980, the property
has drawn a steady stream ofghost hunters, psychics and
paranormal investigators, eachhoping to document what others
could only describe.
Groups such as Ghost Adventures, kindred Spirits and Ghost
(22:04):
Hunters have spent nights at theHarrisville house.
Each arrived with equipment andskepticism.
Each left with their owninterpretation of what occurred.
In their 2019 special GhostAdventures focused heavily on
the house's reputation, zachBaggins and his team reported
disembodied voices, cold spotsand shadowy figures.
(22:34):
They claimed to experiencephysical symptoms headaches,
nausea, a sense of oppression.
Their audio and videorecordings captured what they
presented as unexplainedphenomena, including electronic
voice phenomena, or EVPs, andsudden battery drains.
Baggins described the house asquote.
(22:54):
The team from Ghost Hunters in alater investigation under
Newcastle leadership took a moremeasured approach.
They acknowledged strangesounds and temperature changes,
but they did not declare thesite definitively haunted.
Their equipment registeredminor anomalies but no strong
repeatable evidence.
They emphasized thepsychological effects of
(23:17):
suggestion and the atmosphericpower of the home's long and
layered history.
Power of the home's long andlayered history.
Many regional teams have echoedsimilar patterns unexplained
sounds, erratic equipment,readings and personal discomfort
but to date no investigationhas produced clear peer-reviewed
evidence of supernaturalactivity.
(23:39):
Still, the house has become akind of testing ground for
paranormal technology andbeliefs.
Some teams bring infraredcameras and REM pods.
Others rely on traditionalmethods like seances, divining
(24:01):
rods or asking questions intothe silence, hoping for a knock
and reply.
Skeptics argue that the power ofsuggestion plays a major role.
The house's reputation precedesit.
The creaks of old wood andshifting air pressure can be
interpreted as supernatural inthe right state of mind, but for
believers, the Conjuring Houseremains one of the most active
sites they've ever studied.
In recent years, the house hadbeen open to the public under
(24:26):
prior ownership, allowingstructured investigations and
overnight stays.
Guests were invited to conducttheir own amateur research.
Footage from those sessions wasfrequently posted online,
contributing to a growingarchive of alleged phenomena.
However, as of 2024, the houseis no longer open to the public,
(24:47):
access is limited and privateinvestigations are no longer
routine.
Whether these are the signs ofa true haunting or echoes of
belief amplified by expectation,that's still debated.
But the house continues toattract attention night after
night, not because it explainsitself, but because it doesn't,
(25:15):
for a place as storied as theConjuring House.
Theories about what happened andwhy are nearly as numerous as
the investigations themselves.
Some look to the supernatural,others to psychology and the
fragile line between fear andreality.
One of the most persistentparanormal theories centers on
(25:37):
residual energy, the idea thattrauma, especially repeated over
generations, can imprint itselfon a location like a recording.
In this view, the house doesn'thost spirits so much as it
replays events, footsteps,voices, moments of fear looping,
endlessly, detached from anyconscious entity.
(25:59):
Now, I'll be honest, there'ssomething about this idea that I
find oddly poetic.
Like the house is grieving inits own way, not malicious, just
haunted by memory, like therest of us, it makes me think
about what we leave behindemotionally, not just in
journals or photographs, but inthe places that held our worst
(26:23):
days.
Maybe those impressions linger,maybe some walls do remember.
Now, others believe inintelligent hauntings where
spirits are aware, responsiveand capable of interacting.
Those who subscribe to thistheory often point to the
parents' experiences names beingwhispered, targeted physical
(26:46):
contact and a sense ofmalevolence focused specifically
on Carolyn Perrin.
And if that's true, it makes mewonder what does a spirit
actually want, and how long cananger or fear survive without a
body to hold it?
If something stays behindunfinished, what does it need to
(27:07):
rest?
Maybe the answers aren'tdramatic.
Maybe it's just the echo ofsomeone needing to be heard.
Now more extreme theoriessuggest the house was subject to
demonic infestation, not justhaunted but invaded.
This is the explanation favoredby the Warrens and the one
(27:28):
dramatized in the Conjuring.
It posits that a dark,non-human force sought to harm
or possess those inside the home.
This one's always been thehardest for me to wrap my head
around, not because I rule itout completely, but because when
everything becomes demonic, werisk losing the human story
buried underneath.
(27:49):
And sometimes that story thepain, the fear, the grief is
scarier than any demon Becauseit's real.
Skeptics offer a different kindof explanation environmental
psychology.
The house is old, with unevenflooring, poor lighting and
drafty windows.
(28:10):
It creaks, it groans.
The floorboards shift withtemperature.
These natural elements, pairedwith a known reputation, can
create a heightened state ofsuggestion where the mind fills
in the gaps.
Now, honestly, this makes a lotof sense to me.
Belief is powerful and fear,once planted, tends to bloom
(28:33):
fast in the dark, especially ina place where you already expect
something to happen.
The brain connects dots.
It builds meanings from chaos.
That doesn't make the fear lessreal, just differently real.
Others point to mold,infrasound or carbon monoxide
(28:54):
leaks as potential culprits.
Low-frequency vibrations caninduce anxiety, nausea and
feelings of dread.
Certain molds have been linkedto hallucinations, and carbon
monoxide poisoning can causesymptoms often attributed to the
paranormal headaches, confusion, auditory and visual
disturbances.
(29:16):
If we're serious about findingreal answers, maybe this is
where we should start, in thecorners of science, before we go
reaching for the spectral.
It's not as cinematic, for sure, but it's grounded, and
sometimes the truth hides invery unglamorous places.
Then there's the social theorythat stories like this grow not
(29:39):
just because of what people seeor feel, but because of what
they want to believe.
Not just because of what peoplesee or feel, but because of
what they want to believe.
The Conjuring House, by virtueof its history, has become a
magnet for myth.
People come with expectations,and expectations are powerful,
and maybe that's the mostunsettling thought of all, that
(29:59):
belief itself has weight, thatwe go looking for ghosts and we
actually bring them with us,that the scariest thing in any
haunted house is us.
Now, each theory offers a piece.
None explain everything, andthat, in its own way, is what
keeps the legend alive.
Some places are steeped insilence, others in stories.
(30:26):
The Conjuring House has alwayshad both.
We've followed the trailthrough history, folklore, fear
and belief.
And though the story is tangled, one thing is clear this house
became what it is, not justbecause of what happened, but
(30:47):
because of how we remembered it.
Maybe it's not haunted byspirits, maybe it's haunted by
questions, the kind that linger,the kind we carry with us.
If this episode stayed with you,follow the show now so you
never miss what's next.
And if you believe thesestories deserve to be heard,
(31:08):
leave a review.
Just a line, just a few words.
It helps more than you know.
Want to go deeper?
Visit stateoftheunknowncom.
You'll find full episodes, shownotes, blog posts for each
episode and a place to submit astory of your own.
And if you're on Facebook, comebe part of the conversation.
Share your theories, yourquestions or your own strange
(31:31):
experiences in our private group.
Just search for State of theUnknown Listeners, because this
isn't just a podcast, it's agathering of questions and the
answers they're out there.
Until next time.
Remember what's buried doesn'talways stay that way.
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