The Smurl Haunting
When Ed and Lorraine Came to Town — The true haunting that inspired The Conjuring: Last Rites
Called Pennsylvania's "Amityville Horror," the Smurl family's nightmare of demonic possession is the subject of both the current motion picture, The Conjuring: Last Rites, and this book. Venturing far beyond the West Pittston coal region, author Maxim W. Furek's narrative explores the dark crawlspaces of High Hopes, the Hindsdale House, the damned Welles House, and good and evil, as seen through the eyes of history's foremost exorcists and psychics, such as the mysterious Fr. Alphonsus Trabold O.F.M and Alexander Tanous. There was something of the supernatural channeling through Furek that inspired him to write this book. The 92-year-old West Pittston Smurl duplex was a half-hour drive from his home, and, during their 15-city book tour promoting The Haunted, the author befriended Ed and Lorraine Warren. And sadly, Furek met Annabelle handler Dan Rivera, the day before he died during the 2025 "Devils on the Run" Tour in Gettysburg.
It wasn't a coincidence. It was destiny. I believe that psychic energies were being channeled through me to allow this thing to take shape and manifest. I only know that it flowed and had energy and a life of its own and that I was placed at the right place at the right time.
— Maxim W. Furek