Let’s carry on October’s theme of “scary things” with Zaffis Museum of the Paranormal located in the barn at the back of John Zaffis’ house in Stratford, Connecticut. Zaffis is the nephew of controversial paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, who are best known for their involvement in the 1976 Amityville Horror case. Lorraine is still alive and runs her own museum in the back of her house; the Warren’s Occult Museum in Monroe, Connecticut. Not only is it a family tradition to devote one’s self to the supernatural, but one must also open a museum in or behind one’s house. Good to know!
Everyone knows about haunted houses, graveyards, and people possessed by evil spirits (The Exorcist, anyone?) but what about the things that creep people out or are considered “evil” or “cursed”. It might be a rusted pipe wrench in the garage or your grandmother’s wedding ring or a doll in your child’s bedroom. Zaffis, who starred in the SyFy reality TV show, Haunted Collector, has collected thousands of objects from cases that he worked on over the past thirty years. His personal collection (although private is open by appointment only) is full of artifacts that made the lives of their former owners absolutely miserable from a china set to a ventriloquist dummy. Supposedly the items are “cleansed” before joining the exhibit, so visitors don’t have to worry about a “possessed” clown painting or a statue that suddenly comes to “life”. Or are they? Hmmm…
