Perry DeAngelis

Perry J. DeAngelis (August 22, 1963 – August 19, 2007) was an American podcaster.

He is best known for co-hosting the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe podcast, which he helped found.

DeAngelis is known for his and Steve Novella's investigation into Ed and Lorraine Warren's ghost hunting claims.

DeAngelis was born in 1963 to parents Lawrence and Marie Cook DeAngelis in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

He had an older sister, Marie and brother Derald, and a younger sister Celeste.

As Evan Bernstein tells it, "One night sometime in late 1995, Perry was over [at] Steve's condo, casually flipping through a copy of SI (Skeptical Inquirer). He was reading through the list of local groups, and commented to Steve: 'There's no local skeptics group in Connecticut. We should start one.'" Steve states that he [Steve] took on the majority of the "heavy lifting" but Perry was "right there" the whole time.

"He was in love with the big ideas, the logistics and the details that was for other people to worry about, which is why Perry and I worked really well together. Because I quickly became the detail and logistic person that made things happen," but he gets the credit for having the original big idea.

According to Bernstein, "He was a man of large thoughts."

According to the Connecticut Post DeAngelis "if punched in the nose by a ghost, would immediately look for the zipper on the assailant's costume."

DeAngelis states that they wanted to form the Connecticut Skeptical Society because "too few people were 'looking for the zippers'... 'We just felt that it was important that there be somebody right here standing for the vanguard of reason and critical thought'."

DeAngelis sees critical thinking skills as being very important for society, Heaven's Gate might not have happened if the UFO culture weren't so popular.

'"There's so much around us that is so fantastic. If you do see a bright light in the nighttime sky, maybe that's a satellite, the space shuttle on the way home, or some other wonderful thing of a terrestrial nature."'

The group later joined with the Skeptical Inquirers of New England (SINE) and the New Hampshire Skeptical Resource to form the New England Skeptical Society (NESS).

The NESS was actively involved in investigating claims of the paranormal.

"If there are ghosts, great! If there are spirits, terrific! I'd love to talk to the spirits of the past."

DeAngelis is quoted as saying, but he never received a good answer to "What is your evidence?"

Satanism, homeopathy, Dowsing, Cults and UFOs have all been given attention by NESS.

In 1996 DeAngelis and brothers Bob and Steven Novella founded The Connecticut Skeptical Society.

"The three... formed the society in January 1996 after their love of science drew them into the network of national and regional skeptical societies and they discovered there were none in Connecticut."

In October 1996, Steven Novella appeared on an episode of the Ricki Lake show that talked about vampires.

One of the other guests claimed to be a psychic vampire who could drain people's minds.

DeAngelis stood up in the audience spread his arms and said "Drain Me".

The psychic claimed that it does not work in public.

DeAngelis later stated "I had my doubts she could drain a sink".

One of DeAngelis' favorite investigations was when he and Steven Novella looked into the stories of Ed and Lorraine Warren, on which the movies The Amityville Horror and The Conjuring are based.

"Perry thought they were cranks", said Novella, "He always loved extreme personalities, and they were very extreme."

In an article for the Sydney Morning Herald that examined whether supernatural films are really based on true events, that investigation was used as evidence to the contrary.

As Novella is quoted, "They (The Warrens) claim to have scientific evidence which does indeed prove the existence of ghosts, which sounds like a testable claim into which we can sink our investigative teeth. What we found was a very nice couple, some genuinely sincere people, but absolutely no compelling evidence..."

While neither DeAngelis nor Novella thought the Warrens would intentionally cause harm to anyone, they did caution that claims like the Warrens' served to reinforce delusions and confuse the public about legitimate scientific methodology.

According to an interview with DeAngelis and Novella for the Connecticut Post, the NESS report on the Warrens found the couple to be very nice people, but their claims of demon and ghosts to be "at best, as tellers of meaningless ghost stories, and at worst, dangerous frauds."

They took the $12.50 tour and looked at all the evidence the Warrens had for spirits and ghosts.

The watched the videos and looked at the best evidence the Warrens had.

He was also co-founder and executive director of the New England Skeptical Society, and was very active in the skeptical movement and paranormal investigations until his death from scleroderma in 2007.

According to his close friend Steven Novella, DeAngelis worked for his father as a property manager until his death in 2007.

Novella remembers DeAngelis as someone who was "interested in having extreme experiences . . [having] a joie de vivre . . . just wanted to grab life by the horns."

For several years in his late teens he competed in the local demolition derby, creating a persona called Dr. Demo.

"He would sign surgical masks and hand them out after his races".

Friend Evan Bernstein remembers that DeAngelis would wear scrubs and rubber gloves to the races, and stand on the top of the car to get the audience riled up.

DeAngelis graduated from Joel Barlow High School and attended New York University.

He posthumously contributed to a book, The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe, released in 2018.