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There is a movie so infamous that it’s gone down in history as one of the greatest horror films of all time. After its release in 1973, The Exorcist won two Academy Awards and quickly became the highest grossing horror film for over 40 years, surpassed only recently by the 2017 remake of "It." The Exorcist horrified viewers in the best possible way. Some even fainted or vomited while viewing the film, the graphic nature of the visuals was so shocking at the time. Children watched, leading to accusations that the Motion Picture Association of America should have given it an X rating instead of R. Several cities attempted to ban the movie outright. The Exorcist caused a stir, to say the least. It was like watching a train wreck. It was horrifying, shocking, and yet you just couldn’t look away. But did you know the story behind the film wasn’t just the original idea of a demented novelist turned screenplay writer? Author and producer William Peter Blatty borrowed it from real life, from a story his professor told him while he was attending Georgetown University in Washington DC. This was the story of a boy around 14 years old who experienced something truly bizarre back in 1949. And unlike Regan in the exorcist, whose story is completely fabricated, this one is well documented, with lots of credible witnesses. And did you know that while we’ve known his story for quite some time, we only just learned his identity a few years ago? And he’s not at all what you’d expect. Let’s fix that.

Hello, I’m Shea LaFountaine and you’re listening to History Fix where I discuss lesser known true stories from history you won’t be able to stop thinking about. This week concludes my Spooktober series for this year, but I’ve already started compiling a list of spooky episode ideas for next year so if you have one in mind please shoot it my way! You can always reach me on Instagram or Facebook or email me historyfixpodcast@gmail.com. I’ve sort of known that The Exorcist was based on a true story but until now, I haven’t really delved too deeply into it. But my goodness did I delve for this episode. Y’all I read a 29 page 12 point font single space Case File document compiled by Reverend Raymond J. Bishop who was deeply involved in this that is basically a play by play of the whole ordeal. And yes that is linked in the description in case you need to go deeper after this. It is not boring, I can promise you that.

But before we get into the real life story that inspired Blatty’s the Exorcist, let’s talk about the film and the book, because it was a book first. If you haven’t seen it or read it, it’s about a girl named Regan who gets possessed by a demon. She yells and spits and curses. She gets mysterious scratches all over her body. Her head spins around and she projectile vomits some sort of green liquid and she is eventually freed of this possession by some priests who perform an exorcism. As I mentioned in the intro, William Peter Blatty who wrote the 1971 book and the screenplay for the 1973 film got the idea for this story from his professor at Georgetown University named Eugene Gallager. Georgetown is a Catholic and Jesuit university, the oldest one in the US and Gallager was a professor but also a priest there. And he told Blatty the story of a boy we’ll call Roland Doe although that’s not his real name. His name was always changed to either Roland Doe or Robbie Manheim or just R. And so for a very long time, we did not know the real identity of this boy, until very recently. We’ll come back to that. Despite the success of Blatty’s film, it was ironically incredibly hard to shoot. They had a really hard time casting it. No major actors wanted to do it so they ended up casting relatively unknown actors which was a risk. The sets were incredibly difficult to film, possibly why no major actors wanted to do it. The prologue was filmed in the desert in Iraq which poses obvious challenges but then the 10 minute 27 second exorcism scene which is considered one of the most iconic and disturbing scenes in the history of cinematography was filmed on a refrigerated set. They are in Regan’s bedroom which is set up in like a recording studio right, or whatever you call it. But they refrigerated the whole set to negative 20 degrees Farenheit which is negative 29 degrees celsius for my international listeners who use measurement systems that actually make sense. Well, well below freezing in there because they wanted you to be able to see the actor’s breath. That was that important. A fire destroyed most of the set, delaying filming for a month. That was caused by a pigeon flying into a light box. Destroyed the whole rest of the house set but eerily enough, not Regan’s bedroom where the exorcism scene takes place. And then there were all these injuries and even multiple deaths. To the point where the director William Friedkin actually reached out to technical advisor Father Thomas Bermingham asking him to perform an exorcism on the set. Linda Blair, the little girl who played Regan and Ellen Burstyn who played her mother, Chris, both suffered back injuries that have plagued them ever since. One crew member lost a toe, a carpenter chopped off his thumb. And as many as 9 people died during shooting or shortly after, not on set, but like of various causes. One actor died immediately after filming of the flu, another died during filming but she was like 80 something years old. The man who was in charge of refrigerating the set died. The night watchman died. The assistant cameraman’s newborn baby died. It was enough misfortune that people began to believe the film was cursed. They also spent almost 3 times the initial budget. But, I mean it paid off. The movie was a smash hit. And that’s, in large part, due to the storyline that absolutely captivated viewers.

And that brings us to our story today, the real life exorcism of Roland Doe which Blatty based the Exorcist on. Now, whether you believe in demonic possessions or not is up to you. I’m not going to tell you with certainty that Roland Doe was actually possessed by demons because I do not know. But I am going to present first hand accounts of what happened. There were a lot of witnesses to this and a lot of it was recorded, primary sources. So make of it what you will. But what we cannot deny is that something very very strange happened to this boy. Now whether that was actual demons or some sort of mental illness or some sort of trickery, scam, hoax somehow, I don’t know. But this is what the witnesses reported.

Roland Doe was born in 1935 and grew up near Washington DC and the Exorcist book slash movie also takes place in Washington DC by the way so Blatty kept that detail. So they lived in DC but they had a lot of family in St. Louis, Missouri. One of those family members was Roland’s Aunt Tillie whom he loved dearly. Aunt Tillie was really into spiritualism and the occult. And I’ve talked about spiritualism briefly before. This was a movement that really took off during the Victorian era based on the belief that you could communicate with the spirits of the dead. And so Tillie is into this, seances and quija boards and she actually shows Roland how to use a quija board, supposedly. You know what those are, I’m sure, but in case you don’t, it’s a board with letters and numbers on it and everyone puts their hands on this little thing, this little wooden paddle thing that has a clear circle in it so you can see through and you’re supposed to try to contact spirits with it. You ask them questions and the spirits can supposedly move the paddle around the board (with your hands on it of course, but you’re not moving it, the spirits are) and they can answer you by spelling things out. So Aunt Tillie showed this to Roland. And then Aunt Tillie died. And Roland was devastated. He was grief stricken by this loss of his beloved aunt and according to some reports, he may have attempted to contact Tillie using the Quija board. And that’s when everything took a turn for the worse.

But the weirdness actually started two weeks before Aunt Tillie died. Here’s where Father Raymond Bishop’s account begins on January 15, 1949. The case file says quote “On January 15,1949, at the home of R in Cottage City, Maryland a dripping noise was heard by R and his grandmother in the grandmother's bedroom. This noise was continued for a short time and then the picture of Christ on the wall shook as if the wall back of it had been bumped. By the time the parents of R returned home there was a very definite scratching sound under the floorboards near the grandmother's bed. From this night on, the scratching was heard every night about seven o'clock and would continue until midnight. The family thought that the scratching was caused by a rodent of some kind. An exterminator was called in who placed chemicals under the floorboards, but the scratching sound continued and became more distinct when people stamped on the floor.This scratching continued for ten days and then stopped. The family finally believed that the rodent had died. The boy, R, seemed to think he still heard the noise but the family did not hear anything for a period of three days. When the sound became audible again, it was no longer in the upstairs bedroom but had moved downstairs in the boy's bedroom. It was heard as the sound of squeaking shoes along the bed and was heard at night only when the boy went to bed. The squeaking sound continued for six nights, and on the sixth night scratching again was audible. The mother, grandmother and boy while lying on the bed on this night heard something coming toward them similar to the rhythm of marching feat and the beat of drums. The sound would travel the length of the mattress and then back again and repeat this action until the mother asked, "Is this you. Aunt Tillie ?" (Tillie had died in St. Louis two weeks after the first sounds were heard in the home of R.) The mother continued asking questions but had no verbal reply. She asked this question, "If you are Tillie, knock three times." There were waves of air striking the grandmother, mother and the boy, and three distinct knocks were heard on the floor. The mother asked again, "If you are Tillie, tell me positively by knocking four times." Four distinct knocks were heard. Then there followed claw scratchings on the mattress. When the mother or the grandmother paid no attention to the mattress scratching, the entire mattress would begin to shake. The action at times was very violent. On one occasion the coverlet of the bed was pulled out from under the mattress and the edges stood up above the surface of the bed in a curled form as though held up with starch. When the bystanders touched the bedspread, the sides fell back into normal position. The scratching on the mattress has been continuous since the first night it was heard,” end quote.

Okay, so that’s how it starts according to the case file. Then, whatever this is, Aunt Tillie perhaps or something else, starts to focus its attention on Roland, the boy. The case file lists in a section called “other manifestations” quote “An orange and a pear flew across the entire room where R. was standing. The kitchen table was upset without any movement on the part of R. Milk and food were thrown off the table and stove. The breadboard was thrown onto the floor. Outside the kitchen a coat on its hanger flew across the room; a comb flew violently through the air and extinguished blessed candles; a Bible was thrown directly at the feet of R., but did not injure him in any way. While the family was visiting a friend in Boonesborough, Maryland, the rocker in which R. was seated spun completely around through no effort on the part of the boy. R's desk at school moved about on the floor similar to the plate on a Ouija board. R. did not continue his attendance out of embarrassment,” end quote

So they start to seek help. They take him to see a medical doctor, a psychologist, and a psychiatrist. Everything checks out. And then they go to a local Lutheran minister, Reverend Shulze who agrees to observe him. He witnessed the bed shaking, dishings flying across the room, and furniture moving on its own. He even had Roland come stay at his house for a night but the strange events continued and seemed to get worse when the minister prayed. He suggests that they turn to the Catholic church. He’s like, I’m just a Lutheran, you gotta go, they do this sort of thing, we don’t do demons. So they go to a Catholic priest named Reverend Hughes who prays with them and gives them blessed candles and holy water to use in the house. But when his mother tried to use these things, the bottle of holy water flew across the room and the candles blew out. At this point, she’s still convinced this all has something to do with Tillie, the weird spiritualist aunt who died shortly after all the weird stuff started happening. Aunt Tillie from St. Louis. And so Roland’s mother starts to feel like they need to go to St. Louis. The answer is in St. Louis.

The case file continues quote “On [Sat.] February 26,1949, there appeared scratches on the boy's body for about four successive nights. After the fourth night words were written in printed form. These letters were clear but seemed to have been scratched on the body by claws. Since [the mother] is a native St. Louisian she thought of leaving her home and taking the boy to St. Louis in order to avoid some of these strange manifestations. It seems that whatever force was writing the words was in favor of making the trip to St. Louis. On one evening the word "Louis" was written on the boy's ribs in deep red. Next when there was some question of the time of departure, the word "Saturday" was written plainly on the boy's hip. As to the length of time the mother and boy should stay in St. Louis, another message was printed on the boy's chest, "3 1/2 weeks." The printing always appeared without any motion on the part of the boy's hands. The mother was keeping him under close supervision. There seemed to be a sharp pain when the marks occurred so that the boy doubled up and uttered a rather terrifying sound. The markings could not have been done by the boy for the added reason that on one occasion there was writing on his back. Even in St. Louis the writing continued. There was some question of sending R. to school during his visit here, but the message, "No," appeared on his wrists; also a large "N" on both legs. The mother feared disobeying this order,” end quote. Which like, okay, if this is Aunt Tillie like, can we get her some paper, bust the quija board back out, something? Does she have to carve it into the child’s flesh? Seems extreme.

So they go to St. Louis. They have family there still, aunts and uncles and cousins. And they go to stay with this family at their home in the Bel-Nor neighborhood of St. Louis, arriving in early March. But it doesn’t stop, quote “Different displays were witnessed by two aunts of the boy, four uncles and four cousins in St. Louis. The printing "No School," was seen by four different

people. The swaying of the mattress, the upsetting of the bedroom furniture and the scratching on the mattress were observed by the entire group,” end quote. One of Roland’s cousins, who attends St. Louis University tells his professor what is happening. That professor was Raymond Bishop, a Catholic priest who was currently teaching at St. Louis University. Bishop is the guy who wrote this case file. So he goes to bless the home and meet Roland and he witnesses the bed shaking. He sprinkles holy water on the bed in the sign of the cross and it stops shaking. He’s like, yep, this is demons. He goes to pastor William Bowdern at St. Xavier College Church and gets him involved. Bowdern was very experienced and he was a World War II veteran. He had seen some stuff. So Bishop gets him in on this and he goes to visit Roland. He witnesses scratches appearing on Roland’s body in the shape of a cross and objects, including holy water, flying across the room.

But the family still has reason to believe this is Aunt Tillie. The case file reports for March 7th quote “Spirit questioned through an alphabetical medium, on porcelain kitchen table. Letters of alphabet written on paper were underlined whenever the table moved. A code of messages became evident. Phenomena indicated that the spirit was not the devil but the soul of deceased Aunt Tillie. Spirit confirmed to all present that she was Tillie by moving a heavy bed two or three feet with no one of the bystanders near the bed. All the group saw this action. Furthermore, writing appeared on R's body while he was reading a comic book. There was a sharp pain. The writing was done through his clothes.When R retired, there was violent shaking of the bed and scratching on the mattress. Hardly any relief through the night,” end quote.

But Bishop and Bowdern are on it. They start going to the house every night and spending the night in Roland’s bedroom, recording all of this, the bed shaking, a heavy bookcase moving around, more scratches, a relic of Saint Mary Margaret being thrown to the floor, holy water being thrown, etc. Meanwhile the family is still trying to get to the bottom of this Aunt Tillie business. The case file says, and this is fairly redacted so bare with me, quote “There is some question about an amount of money which was concealed by Aunt Tillie before she died. Through many different questions it seemed that the map which would locate the money hidden in the metal strong box would be found in the attic of xxxxxxx's home, but only Edwin the father of R who lives in xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx could find it. When Edwin's name was suggested the bed shook violently. Further questioning revealed that the money was for xxxxxxxxxx, the daughter of xxxxxxxxxx. Whenever the [family] wanted the bed shaking to stop they called, "Tillie, stop" and the bed stopped as though Tillie listening for a question. On the night that Tillie died she told everyone in the house to go to bed at 10:00pm and she died between 2:00 and 2:30 the following morning. The parallel indicated is that the bed shaking and noise always ceases by ****AM,” end quote. 2 am, I’m assuming? 2:30 am? That part is redacted for some reason.

So maybe this is Tillie just being a real jerk. But Bishop and Bowdern think there’s more to it. And so do I. They go to the archbishop and get permission to perform an exorcism. And this isn’t like a one and done event. This exorcism goes on every night for months. They go to Roland’s bedroom every night, Bishop and Bowdern, but also other church guys Walter Halloran, William Van Roo, John O'Flaherty, and Joseph Boland. This all starts on March 15th, according to the case file. And on that very first night, right from the jump, it gets pretty crazy. Roland immediately starts getting scratched up. The case file says quote “The most distinct markings on the body were the picture of the devil on R's right leg and the word "HELL" imprinted on R's chest in such a way that R. could look down upon his chest and read the letters plainly. The imprint of the devil and "HELL" appeared at the repetition of the "Praecipio" demanding the evil spirit to identify himself. The devil was portrayed in red. His arms were held above his head and seemed to be webbed, giving the hideous appearance of a bat. All the room observers agreed that the above two signs could not be mistaken for other designs. In further answer to the prayer "Praecipio" two letters "GO" and a third pointed away from the crotch, an indication which might have meant that the devil would leave by way of urination or excrement. To the question how many demons? a single line was scratched on R's right leg. There were at least four heavy brand marks in the form of an "X". This impression may have indicated that the exorcism would take ten days, or that the devil would depart at 10:00 o'clock. At least during the first days of the exorcism the "X" had no significance [side note - later they start to believe that this meant he was possessed by 10 demons] The markings on the legs seemed to be long scratches with no special meaning. Marks were made on the boy's body more than twenty-five different times during the course of the evening, each mark causing the boy to double up with pain,” end quote.

And this goes on night after night for months. Bishop wrote on March 18th quote “The prayers of the exorcism were continued and R was seized violently so he began to struggle with his pillow and the bed clothing. The arms, legs, and head of R had to be held by three men. The contortions revealed physical strength beyond natural power. R spit at the faces of those who held him and at those who prayed over him. He spit at the relics and at the priests’ hands. He writhed under the sprinkling of Holy Water. He fought and screamed in a diabolical, high-pitched voice,” end quote. He starts to say really profane things, a lot of cursing and profanity and this was not something Roland would have normally done. This was not language he had ever been exposed to. And then he would go from these waking phases of yelling profanities and hitting the priests, he actually broke Halloran’s nose at one point, to sleeping, sort of. The case file says quote “The next phase of the reaction took the appearance of quiet sleep. R seemed to relax and there were no painful scratches. The prayers were continued by Fathers Bowdern and Bishop alternating. When the prayers to St. Michael was begun, R began sparring. He struck the board back of his bed strong blows with his fist, and then began punching, the pillow with more than ordinary force… The family had not seen such violent reaction as was shown on this night and the following. Evidently the exorcism prayers had stirred up the devil. Holy Water was sprinkled on R and he came out of his apparent sleep. R was asked what he was doing and what he saw. He said he was fighting a huge red devil who felt slimy and was very powerful. The devil was trying to prevent him from getting through the iron gates at the top of a pit that was about two hundred feet deep and was very hot. R wanted to fight that devil and felt that he was strong enough to overpower his enemy. R mentioned that there were other smaller devils,” end quote.

This goes on night after night. Roland’s father flies in from Maryland. He joins them in St. Louis as things continue to escalate. Roland starts urinating all over the bed during the exorcisms. He complains that the urine burns his skin. He has seizures. He starts to sing songs which is really creepy. The case file says quote “Songs were sung very beautifully in a clear voice and with real finesse. The best rendition was the "la la" of the "Blue Danube" with excellent and flowing gestures of interpretation. Another song was the hymn the "Old Rugged Cross." The striking thing about the singing on this night was the professional ability shown. R cannot sing well in normal life, nor does he like to sing. Father Bishop hummed the tune of the "Blue Danube" after R was awake, but R was unable to carry the melody. He said he did not know the song. He made this same affirmation several days later,” end quote.

After days and days of this, the family starts to suffer because they aren’t sleeping. Roland is up all night screaming and carrying on, thrashing around, and his mother is mostly at his side. Her health starts to suffer and so they make the decision to hospitalize Roland. He spends time at the Alexian Brothers hospital in St. Louis and also at the College Church Rectory at Saint Louis University and the exorcism continues night after night. He also goes home some nights, they’re sort of shifting him around. On the night of March 31st, at home, he begins to write something with his finger on the sheets. They give him a pencil and he starts to write on the headboard. Here’s what the case file says quote “Taking the pencil, he began to write with it on the head of the bed, which was covered with a white cloth. This type of spell and writing was repeated perhaps eight or ten times. What he wrote was recorded for the most part. The family washed away the writing a few times, making room for more, and XXXXXXXX fastened large sheets of wrapping paper to the bed. The following is a record of most of the writings, though it is not complete. Some of the things written were repeated: 1) . In answer to the first set of questions he wrote the Roman numeral X. (It was clearly the numeral, with crossbars at the top and bottom). This was written four times on this first occasion and was repeated several times during the exorcism, usually in answer to the question, "diem." [which means day in Latin] 2) . I will stay 10 days and then return after 4 days are up. 3) . I am the devil himself. You will have to pray for a month in the Catholic Church. 4) . (In answer to the command to give "nomen lingua Latina.")I speak the language of the persons, (word language was misspelled). I will put in XXXXXXXX's mind when he makes up his mind that the Priests (sic) are wrong about writing English. I will, that is the devil will try to get his mother and dad to hate the Catholic Church. I will answer in the name of Spite. 5) . In 10 days I will give a sign on his chest he will have to have it covered to show my power. 6) . He drew a strange thing that looked somewhat like a map, with "2,000 ft" written on it (apparently connected with early dreams about hidden treasure and a map to find it). I believe that it was in this connection that he spoke also, saying "Yeah, this is what I got on the Ouija board." He drew a face also, and wrote the words: "Dead bishop." 7) . You may not believe me. Then R will suffer forever. 8) . When commanded to give a sign in Latin, he wrote meaningless marks on the paper, not even letters of the Roman alphabet,” end quote.

Then they decide he needs to be baptized in the Catholic church. But this is a monumental task. The case file reports quote “As the party of five relatives drove from R's home, R felt a strange sensation in his feet. There were alternations of hot and cold feelings, and the R went into one of his spells. He began by saying, "So you are going to baptize me! Ha ! Ha!- And you think you will drive me out with Holy Communion! Ha! Ha!" R grabbed the steering wheel of the automobile and his uncle was forced to pull up to the curb in order to subdue the violence. R stiffened and fought. It was a major task to remove him from the front seat and force him into the back of the car. R's father and uncle held R in the back seat while the aunt drove. Even with careful supervision R leaped up to seize his aunt as she drove. An interesting sidelight is that the radio in the car would not operate while R was in a spell, although it worked before and after. In the College Church Rectory another hard struggle almost made it impossible for three men to carry R from the car to the Rectory. Inside the door of the Rectory R shouted and spit. He was thrown on the floor… Even ice cold water had little effect upon him. The father and uncle were completely exhausted from the battle. R was carried to the third floor of the Rectory and placed on the bed. There was little hope that the Baptism could be administered at the baptismal font in the presence of the chosen sponsors. Michael, the workman, was chosen as proxy. R was in and out of his seizures for short periods but there was not enough time for the long profession of Faith and abjuration of heresy. Father Bowdern had R repeat the words of a briefer form. Then the regular procedure for the Baptism of infants followed. However, when R was asked, "Dost thou renounce Satan?" he went off into a spell. The action was repeated three or four times, but R went off before he could answer the question with the words, "I do renounce him." Finally R was normal long enough to give the answers. When Father Bowdern came to the Baptism proper the physical resistance exceeded any violence of the evening. R remained conscious for the words, "Ego te baptizo in nomine Patris" and then there was a violent upheaval. None-the-less, the Baptism was completed with a generous amount of baptismal water. It seemed from the reactions that the Lutheran Baptism had not been administered properly, or that it had not taken effect,” end quote. That last part cracks me up. Bishops like “I guess the Lutherans just did it wrong. They don’t even know how to baptize people properly, sheesh.”

But the Catholic baptism doesn’t seem to help either. The madness continues. At one point they decide to go back to Washington DC, having way overstayed their welcome at the aunt and uncle’s house in St. Louis, I mean can you imagine? The worst possible house guest. But also, his father needs to go back to work. So they go back to DC and Bowdern goes with them. But it goes so poorly there, he reaches back out to the Alexian Brothers hospital again and they pretty quickly head back up to Saint Louis where Roland is hospitalized once again. And I do want to note that 10 days after the writing on the headboard incident when he writes quote “I will stay 10 days and then return after 4 days are up,” well after 10 days there is a bit of relief for like a day. The case file says quote “R became quite normal and was able to receive Communion without special effort. The Blessed Sacrament brought peace to R. He settled back on his pillow with a smile and was soon in deep sleep. Nothing disturbing happened throughout the night,” end quote. But it starts right back up again the following night so I’m not sure what the 4 days thing was about. April 17th is Easter and the priests are trying to force Roland to take communion but it keeps failing. The case file reports on April 18th, the day after Easter quote “There were more spells when attempting Spiritual Communion. R was able to say: "I wish to receive you" (That is all the Priest attempted to have him say, since it was sufficient), the devil laughed and said: "That isn't enough. He has to say one more word, one little word, I mean one BIG word. He'll never say it. He has to make nine Communions. He'll never say that word. I am always in him. I may not have much power always, but I am in him. He will never say that word" Several spells: violence, singing, urination,” end quote.

But the end is near, my friends. Later that night, the case file reports quote “10:45 PM, the most striking event of the evening occurred. R was in a seizure, but lay calm. In clear, commanding tones, and with dignity', a voice broke into the prayers. The following is an accurate quotation:

"Satan! Satan! I am Saint Michael, and I command you, Satan, and the other evil spirits to leave the body in the name of Dominus, immediately. -- Now! NOW! N O W!” Then there were the most violent contortions of the entire period of exorcism, that is since March 16. Perhaps this was the fight to the finish. Father O'Flaherty and the Brothers were weary and sore physically from the exertion. After seven or eight minutes of violence R, in a tone of complete relief said,

"He's gone!" Immediately R came back to normal and said he felt fine. R now explained what he saw. He said there was a brilliant white light and in that light stood a very beautiful man, with flowing, wavy hair that blew in the breeze. He wore a white robe that fitted close to his body. The material gave the impression of scales. Only the upper half of the body of this man was visible to 'R, In his right hand he held up a wavy and fiery sword in front of him. With his left hand he pointed down to a pit or cave. R said he saw the devil standing in the cave. R felt the heat from the cave and saw the flames. First the devil fought, resisting the angel and laughing diabolically. Then the angel smiled at R and spoke, but R heard only the one word "Dominus". As the

angel spoke, the devil and about ten of his helpers ran back into the fire of the cave or pit. After the devil disappeared the letters " Spite" appeared on the bars of the cave. As the devils disappeared into the pit R felt a pulling or tugging in the region of his stomach. As the devils

disappeared, he felt a snapping, and then felt relaxed completely, He said that this was the most relaxed feeling he had since the whole experience began in January. R related his visual experience at 11:00 PM . This time was approximate to the time that the manifestations of the devil began in Cottage City, Maryland, on the evening of January 15,” end quote.

And that was it. That was the end of it. There’s a short follow up in the case file quote “August 19,1951. R and his father and mother visited the Brothers. R, now 16 is a fine young man. His father and mother also became Catholic, having received their first Holy Communion on Christmas Day, 1950,” end quote. R. The case file always called him R. Other accounts referred to him as Roland Doe and others Robbie Manheim. And this was understandably to protect his privacy. He was a child. He deserved to live a normal life after this which would have been impossible if his identity had been revealed. Because the newspapers reported on this. I linked a Washington Post article from August 20, 1949. It begins quote “In what is perhaps one of the most remarkable experiences of its kind in recent religious history, a 14-year-old Mount Rainier boy has been freed by a Catholic priest of possession by the devil, Catholic sources reported yesterday. Only after between 20 and 30 performances of the ancient ritual of exorcism, here and in St. Louis, was the devil finally cast out of the boy, it was said…” and it goes on, you can find the link to that article in the description. But they never name the boy or anyone really in the article. It wasn’t until 2021, after he died, that R’s true identity officially came out.

Ronald Edwin Hunkeler died in 2020, just before his 86th birthday in Marriottsville Maryland of a stroke, according to a Guardian article by Maya Yang. And with this name, we get more of his story. Yang writes quote “In adult life, Hunkeler was a NASA engineer whose work contributed to the Apollo space missions of the 1960s and who patented a technology that helped space shuttle panels withstand extreme heat,” end quote. Yeah, dude became an aerospace engineer. How freaking cool is that? Isabel Vincent and Jack Morphet write in an article for the New York Post quote “His identity has been something of an open secret among the community of Jesuits who were close to the priests who participated in his exorcisms and a handful of academics and reporters who studied the phenomenon beginning in the mid-1970s. But he lived in fear of more people finding out the truth. According to a 29-year companion of Hunkeler, he was always on edge about his colleagues at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center finding out that he was the inspiration for “The Exorcist.” Hunkeler retired from NASA in 2001 after nearly 40 years with the space agency. Quote “On Halloween, we always left the house because he figured someone would come to his residence and know where he lived and never let him have peace,” the woman, who asked not to be named, told The Post. “He had a terrible life from worry, worry, worry.” But Hunkeler was recently revealed in an article in The Skeptical Inquirer: The Magazine for Science and Reason, a bimonthly journal based in upstate New York that applies scientific rigor to explain “extraordinary” events, especially in the paranormal” end quote. And that article in the Skeptical Inquirer is pretty interesting, I’ve linked it as well. It goes into detail about how they tracked down Ronald Hunkeler’s identity, using an old yearbook and ancestry.com, apparently, but chose not to publish it until after they were sure he had died.

And so now the only question that remains is, what the heck happened to Ronald Hunkeler between January 15th and April 18th, 1949? Because if you don’t believe in demonic possession then what in the world was all that about? The Skeptical Inquirer is, of course, skeptical, Autumn Sword writes in the article that revealed his identity quote “While we’ll never know all the details or be able to definitively prove that nothing supernatural or diabolical took place in 1949, there is overwhelming evidence to suggest the sensational account of the exorcism of Roland Doe, a.k.a. Ronald Hunkeler, is more fantasy than fact. For one thing, Father Raymond Bishop was not involved with the case from the very beginning but was brought on once the decision had been made to perform the exorcism on March 9, 1949. Therefore, in writing the Background of the Case, Father Bishop would have had to rely on someone else’s account of the events from January 15 until March 9. This calls into question the accuracy of secondhand information as well as the reliability of the primary sources,” end quote. Which is a good point. But it’s not just someone else’s account. Like one person who could easily be lying. It’s a bunch of other people’s accounts. It’s his whole extended family, mom, dad, grandma, aunts, uncles, multiple cousins who witnessed this. It’s also the Lutheran minister and the Catholic priest back in DC. These are the accounts Bishop based January 15th through March 9th events on. And then after that March 9th through April 18th the craziest time of all, when the exorcism is actually taking place, it is a first hand account, Bishop is, supposedly witnessing all of this and recording it first hand which Autumn Sword conveniently overlooks. But not just Bishop, Bowdern and Halloran and the other guys.

And do they have motive to deceive us into believing that all of this took place? Sure they do. They’re Catholic priests saving the day, once again. Belief in demonic possession and the church’s ability to vanquish the devil strengthens humanity's faith in the Catholic church which is their single most important mission as Catholic priests. So factor that in. But we’re talking about like 8 or 9 priests here from two different cities, and one of them Lutheran. I can’t imagine all of them conspiring together to tell such an unbelievable lie. And these are credible guys. They aren’t just priests. They are college professors and several of them are war veterans. I just cannot imagine this story getting as far as it has, Bishop’s diary, the case file, Halloran did all sorts of interviews, the Washington Post, if it wasn’t at least somewhat true. Which to me makes it some of the most compelling evidence backing demonic possession. It’s certainly an interesting and hard to explain blip in the historical record, to say the least. And it certainly had an impact, inspiring one of the most prolific and shocking horror films of all time.

But you know what’s even better than Blatty’s fictional Exorcist? The actual story of Ronald Hunkeler. I love it. I love that it had a happy ending. He went through actual hell for months, was tormented and tortured, and fought, and won. He won. He came out of it, out the other side of whatever this was. And he did more than just survive it. He thrived, becoming a NASA space engineer who helped put men on the moon. And while he was able to keep the whole thing mostly underwraps for the rest of his life, maintain his privacy, so the darn kids would leave him alone on Halloween, part of me wishes he had come out in the open about it. I would have loved to hear Ronald’s take on the whole thing. Can you imagine that interview? We have Bishop’s side of things in the case file. I’d love to hear Ronald’s. I know that he named his son Michael, possibly after the archangel Saint Michael who, he claimed in Bishop’s report, finally drove the devil out of his body on April 18th. And so, to me, that’s a clue. It’s a small nod to what happened to him in 1949, a subtle acknowledgement of the trials he endured and the victory he ultimately won.

Thank you all so very much for listening to History Fix, I hope you found this story interesting and maybe you even learned something new. Be sure to follow my instagram @historyfixpodcast to see some images that go along with this episode and to stay on top of new episodes as they drop. I’d also really appreciate it if you’d rate and follow History Fix on whatever app you’re using to listen, and help me spread the word by telling a few friends about it. That’ll make it much easier to get your next fix.

Information used in this episode was sourced from the exorcism diary of Father Raymond Bishop, Saint Louis University, the Guardian, Collider, Wikipedia, the Washington Post, the American Society of Cinematographers, the New York Post, and Skeptical Inquirer. As always, links to these sources can be found in the show notes.

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