The Conjuring is a very popular American horror film series, based on the real-life cases of paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. The first movie was about the Perron family, who bought a house in Rhode Island and was haunted by demons there. The second part focused on highly disturbing events in Enfield, UK, which are often compared to the incidents in Amityville. Conjuring 3 will be about Bill Ramsey, a man who may have been possessed by demons and became known as the Southend Werewolf.
An Icy Blast Of Frigid Cold
Bill grew up in the Essex seaside town of Southend. In 1952, Bill was 9 years old at the time, playing in the garden behind the house. Without warning, an icy cold breath suddenly swept over him. Sweat froze on his skin, and a bad smell almost made him vomit. His mother, who saw him standing near the garden fence, tried to call attention by loud shouting. Without any success.
Little Bill tore a fence post out of the ground with a sheer superhuman force. Not even both parents together could have done that. An intense and pure rage had become firmly anchored in Bill's psyche. With a deep growl, he put a piece of barbed wire in his mouth and began to chew on it. Blood ran down his chin, and with the eyes of a madman he stared at his parents. They fled back to the relative safety of their home and stayed there until it turned out that her son had calmed down considerably.
Happily Married?
For almost fifteen years, nothing happened that was comparable to the terrible incident that Bill Ramsey had experienced as a nine-year-old child. Bill grew up, married and was a proud, loving father of three children.
However, the first two years of his marriage were plagued by terrible nightmares. The dream was the same every time. He saw himself a few paces behind his wife, who turned to him, panicked and ran away in the utmost fear. Ramsey always woke in a cold sweat and was overwhelmed with fear and discomfort. As far as known, these dreams did not stop until 1967.
18 months later, Bill woke up in the middle of the night and thought he heard the panting and growling of a wild animal in the bedroom. Horrified, he realized that he himself had made these sounds.
The Werewolf Awakens
Another 15 years passed without anything happening. It was 1983 now and Bill was in a local pub with some friends. After drinking a few beers, he began to feel the same icy chill that catched him as a child. He apologized and went to the bathroom. Once there, he looked in the mirror. What he saw made the blood in his veins freeze. Instead of his own face, a wolf stared at him! But that was only a harbinger of what was to happen to him on the way home…
Bill, sitting in a friend's car as a co-driver, suddenly began to growl loudly. He formed his hands into claws and tried to bite into the leg of his friend. The driver remained calm, stopped the car and tried to drag Bill out of the car. When he finally made it, Bill's rage had disappeared as suddenly as it had come.
Shortly before Christmas 1983 Bill began to suffer from severe chest pain. He feared a heart attack and went to the emergency room at the local hospital. When a nurse examined his blood pressure, he bit her in the left arm and began to run like a insane through the corridors. Witnesses stated that Bill had stooped shoulders and his hands were formed into claws. He showed his teeth and had foam at his mouth like a rabid animal. Ramsey knocked down anyone who approached him with almost superhuman strength. A few strong men eventually managed to overpower him, a policeman handcuffed him. But that was not enough. Only when the doctors pumped Bill with more sedatives than a human can tolerate, ended his temper tantrum.
The next morning, after the sedative had subsided, Bill told the attending doctor his entire life story. He recommended Ramsey to remain under observation. Bill refused and went home.
In January 1984, Bill visited his mother and realized that a new outburst was imminent. Immediately he went back to the hospital. There he attacked a male nurse. Coincidentally, four policemen were in the building, circling Ramsey. Bill defended himself with claws and teeth. One of the policemen was injured so badly that he had to spend four days in the hospital. After some time, the officers managed to fetter Ramsey and put him in a patrol car. The Southend Werewolf thought about the proposal to be admitted to a mental institution. Ultimately, he decided against it because he was afraid for his good reputation. Because no guilty behavior could be proven to him and he had no further outbursts of anger, Bill Ramsey was, after his personal details were clearly recorded, released.
In the summer of 1987, he was back at the police station after he attacked a police officer. The cop had made the grave mistake of touching Ramsey's arm lightly. The Southend werewolf threw the officer to the ground and would have killed him if help had not arrived at the last minute. It took a dozen policemen to hold down the wild wolf and two injections of powerful narcotics to tame it. For the next ten days, countless MRIs, X-rays, and psychiatric tests failed to detect what was wrong with Ramsey. Obviously, there was a problem that needed to be resolved. Nobody should really switch from an easily understandable logic to a furious berserk and back again within a few minutes, unless something is seriously wrong.
The Warrens Enter The Stage
Exactly at that time, the demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren, who became famous through the Amityville case, and who also play an important role in the Conjuring films, were in London. They saw Bill's story appeared at the time of her stay on a television show. Lorraine immediately thought that Bill was possessed and contacted the Southend-on-Sea Police Station. After a short while, the Warrens got the chance to talk to Ramsey.
The Warrens convinced Bill Ramsey to come to their church in Connecticut and to undergo an exorcism with Bishop Robert McKenna. Bill refused at first because he could not afford the trip to America. Only when the tabloid The People agreed to sponsor the trip did he set off with his wife. The night before the exorcism was to take place, Ramsey tried to strangle his wife while she slept. When the exorcism actually started, Bill was not impressed at all. The service was in Latin and nothing happened for half an hour.
But then the Warrens and Mc Kenna still felt the concentrated rage of the Southend Werewolf. Ramsey tried to kill the bishop, but the cleric was able to drive out the demon in the last second successfully. The whole event was recorded on film.
The Years After
In 1992, Bill Ramsey appeared for the last time in public. He said in an interview that his outbursts of rage had risen in frequency and seriousness just before his exorcism. Since that time, there have been no incidents recorded. No-one has been rampaging uncontrollably through the streets of Southend-on-Sea. But soon, the Southend Werewolf will return. As main actor in Conjuring 3.