The “Devil made me do it” defense doesn’t often work, but that doesn’t stop murderers from blaming their crimes on Satan.
Take, for instance, the case of Arne Cheyenne Johnson. The Connecticut man claimed he saw his brother-in-law levitating, reciting the names of forty-two demons in Latin, and displaying abnormal strength.
Well, Arne figured it had to be the Devil’s work, and he just couldn’t let his brother-in-law be doomed to such a fate. So, champion that he was, Arne invited the demon to leave his brother-in-law’s body and enter his own. Talk about taking one for the team!
That old Devil jumped at the chance.
Guess what happened next?
Arne started acting strangely—possessed, even.
He punched a hole through a chest of drawers with no explanation. Then, he fell 100 feet—and didn’t even get a bruise.
Was that the end of it? Of course not.
One more thing happened: In 1981, Arne stabbed his landlord to death and pleaded not guilty by reason of demonic possession.
The judge wasn’t having any of it. He refused to allow Arne’s lawyer to call Catholic priests to testify that demonic possession was real.
Arne was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 10 to 20 years. He served just five.
Then there’s the story of Kody Lott.
On September 2, 2016, the 20-year-old Texan opened fire on two teenage girls with a .22-caliber rifle as they walked home from school. With no warning, Kody drove up, pulled the trigger, and changed their lives forever.
He killed 13-year-old Lauren Landavazo and wounded her best friend, Makayla Smith.
Why?
You guessed it—Kody said the Devil made him do it.
And, he also admitted he was jealous because he thought Lauren had a boyfriend.
At first, he was found mentally unfit to stand trial and sent to a Texas mental hospital. But later, he was convicted of aggravated assault for shooting Makayla and sentenced to life in prison.
Now, we go to England—to the town of Ossett in West Yorkshire.
It’s 1974, and we present the story of Michael Taylor, a 31-year-old married father of five. A happy guy. Cheery, his friends said. But occasionally, Michael would slip into deep depression.
Still, nobody thought he had even one screw loose.
Then he started going to church.
Oh boy—things went south in a hurry.
Michael had never been very religious, but he became obsessed with a local group called the Christian Fellowship. He never missed a meeting, never skipped a sermon.
Had he found God? Maybe.
Had he fallen for the group’s preacher, 21-year-old Marie Robinson? Absolutely.
One night, this married father of five was found in bed with Marie—both of them as naked as Adam and Eve.
Was it Michael’s fault? Should we blame Marie?
No, declared Michael.
It was the Devil’s doing.
So, a local Anglican vicar was called in to perform an exorcism—an all-night ritual in October 1974, during which he claimed to drive out not just one demon, but 40.
Good heavens!
But the vicar was so exhausted, he admitted he couldn’t finish the job. Three demons remained inside Michael—Murder, Violence, and Insanity.
Wow.
But still, where’s the crime, you ask?
Here it is:
A few hours after the exorcism, Michael was found soaked in blood from head to toe.
It was the blood of his wife, Christine.
Her mutilated body lay in their home.
Yeah, Michael did it. He murdered his wife.
Guess the demons won.
And yet, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity.
We can’t forget about Jason Dalton—if only because today, February 20, marks the ninth anniversary of his killing spree through Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Dalton murdered six people and left a woman and a teenage girl fighting for their lives.
His excuse?
He claimed he was receiving messages from the Devil through his iPhone. Whenever an app that looked like a horned devil’s head turned from red to black, Jason believed he had no choice but to kill.
It's a devil of a story.
