Demon of Brownsville Road author tells of demonic infestation
The historic and “haunted” house at 3406 Brownsville Road in Brentwood.
Bob Cranmer holds up a rosary, one of the “weapons” his family used to “fight back against a demon” inside their home.
Though unconfirmed, Cranmer said there’s evidence a family was killed by Native Americans and buried on or near the Brownsville Road property.
Bob Cranmer is a former protestant politician turned Catholic exorcist who says he battled a demonic presence in his Brentwood home, eventually quashing it after a final mass in the basement.
Cranmer’s documented his experience in the book “The Demon of Brownsville Road,” which he re-told in part to a group of 50 gathered at Peters Township Public Library Oct. 20.
“I wasn’t Catholic (for most of my adult life), and I’m not going to put down one sect of Christianity over another, but the Catholic hocus pocus – I didn’t believe in it until it became a weapon,” the 58-year-old former Allegheny County commissioner said as he held up a rosary.
“These would fall apart in my hands… after I hung rosaries on chain-pull lights, only to come back later to find them tightly wound around the light to prevent you from turning it on.”
Cranmer said he would keep “portable exorcism kits” around the house, comprised of crucifixes, chalices and holy water and vinegar to splash what he said were “pillars of stench.”
“That was its presence later on. You could smell this acrid burning smell of electricity, rubber and sulfur. I would toss the water on it and it would move. It was almost like a discussion. It wouldn’t talk to me, but I would say things to it.”
Cranmer keeps with him an orange-spattered paper towel, which he says was some of the blood-like residue often found on the walls – and a developed photograph of a white spectral apparition he said he took after his dog barked at him strangely while he stood on the stairs.
The story of the house at 3406 Brownsville Road was published in August, and tells of Cranmer returning to his “childhood fantasy” home that he always dreamed he would own. The 105-year-old home was designated a landmark by the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks foundation in 1994. Cranmer and his family of five moved into it in 1988, when he says the trouble started shortly after. Cranmer would sometimes wake up with three claw-like scratches down across his chest.
When the “demonic infestation” came to a head in 2004, with bent crucifixes and broken family pictures, the former Army officer reached out to the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh for some ghost busting tips.
“Father Ron Lengwin, he told us, you can move and hope the best for the next owners, or you can stick it out and we can help you. ‘We’ll know in about a year if we’re making progress’ he said.”
So started thrice daily masses, and the perhaps relatively unusual tactic of playing “The Passion of the Christ” movie on repeat in one of the affected rooms – only for the DVD to be found lying on the floor and the TV turned off.
The apex, or “void in the house” where Cranmer said the demon stayed when not causing malevolent hi-jinx, was a closed-up closet behind the stairs.
“We found Lego toys and my sons’ drawings in there. But the thing was completely plastered up. How did it get in there?”
One of the more serious incidents Cranmer said was caused by the demon was his wife’s two-week admittance to a psychiatric hospital.
“Total lockdown. She was having panic attacks and was having nervous breakdowns.”
Over the course of two years Cranmer’s family battled, and with a final mass in the basement in February 2006, the house has remained incident free.
“I thought it would end with something dramatic, a lightning strike. But no, it ended with a whimper.”
“Demons. Ghosts. Jesus Christ on the cross. It’s all real. God exists, the devil exists … this book will reaffirm your faith or force you to make a decision about it. But I set out to write this book to document what happened, and prove there’s evil out there beyond the intent of people.”