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Diary of priest sent to help teenage boy ‘possessed by the devil’ in real-life case that inspired the horror classic The Exorcist
Author uncovers terrifying ordeal which began with the lad playing with a ouija board and escalated to 'his bed levitating and scars appearing on his body'
IT began with the gentle sound of running water behind a wall and a scratching noise beneath the floorboards.
Then a crucifix in the teenage boy’s room began to tremble, the bed shook and vials of holy water nearby exploded, scattering razor-sharp shards of glass.
And so began a terrifying ordeal for nine priests that lasted nearly two months — and sent one of them tumbling over the brink of insanity.
This is the story of the case that inspired William Peter Blatty’s 1971 novel The Exorcist that, two years later, became the classic film of the same name. The shocking events are now re-examined in a new book.
Paranormal investigator Steven LaChance tracked down a diary kept by one of the nine priests who “cured” a 13-year-old boy living in the suburban town of Cottage City, Maryland, back in 1949, and it reveals horrifying details of his “possession
He said: “Nobody in that quiet neighbourhood had a clue about the battle of good and evil that was about to take place in that quaint brick house.”
The boy, known under the pseudonym of “Roland Doe”, began to fall ill soon after dabbling with a ouija board owned by his aunt. Eerie sounds started up around him within days — including the rhythm of marching feet and the beating of drums, apparently coming from nowhere.
Roland was sent by his parents to stay with local priests for observation. One of them saw the boy’s bed levitating off the floor as he slept.
Then the scratches began. Painful red cuts across Roland’s body that often spelled words.
In February 1949, “LOUIS” appeared near the boy’s ribs, which his distraught mum took as a sign she should take her son to her hometown of St Louis, Missouri.
There, the family brought in a medium who conducted a seance during which the words “NO SCHOOL” ripped across Roland’s skin.
A cousin sought out the help of Jesuit priest Father Raymond Bishop, who visited to administer a blessing.
Roland’s bed banged and shook as deep, bloody scratches zig-zagged across his body.
Shaken, the priest applied to the archbishop, who agreed that a full exorcism should take place as soon as possible.
The ritual was led by Father William Bowdern, pastor of the church on the campus of St Louis University and began at 10.30pm on March 11, 1949.
Roland’s reaction was immediate — and violent.
According to Father Bishop’s diary, as the prayers began, the word “HELL” appeared on Roland’s chest and an image of the devil could be seen on his right leg.
Father Bishop noted: “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.”
When Father Walter Halloran — a student at the time who assisted with the exorcism — was later asked what the most frightening part of the ordeal was, he admitted: “The markings on the boy’s body. I didn’t think there was any way they could have been self-induced.
“When the evil spirit took over the child, there seemed to be nothing he could do about it
Roland slept for a few hours, but when he awoke he battered his fists uncontrollably on the headboard and then onto his pillow. Later emerging from this trance, he claimed he had been fighting a huge, red devil that felt “slimy and very powerful”.
He claimed to have dreamed he had been at the top of a pit of fire, 100ft deep, and the devil had been trying to pull him into the coals.
The exorcism rituals followed for weeks. The priests would hold him down as they prayed while he lashed out with blows “beyond the normal strength of a boy”. In one session, Father Halloran had his nose broken.
And while Roland writhed, he would spit, babble, scream — and sometimes sing, often in a “very accomplished and beautiful voice”, according to Father Bishop’s diary.
One frequent recital was a section from Strauss’s The Blue Danube. Yet when lucid the next day, Roland had no knowledge of the music.
Investigator LaChance added: “The diary describes how Roland moves between these terrifying tantrums at night, and waking in the morning and doing something normal like playing the game Monopoly.”
One entry describes how “fiendish laughter filled the house” and there was the sound of shouting, like the “barking of a dog”.
Another entry documents: “There was filthy talk and movements, and filthy attacks on those at the bedside concerning mastubation and contraceptives, sexual relations between priests and nuns.”
The language led Father Bishop to note: “His expressions were lowly and smacked of the abuse of sex.”
Steven said: “Over the years there has been speculation that Roland may have been subjected to some sort of sexual abuse in his past. Yet the kind of language he used shouldn’t have been familiar to a boy of his age in that era.”
Another favourite howl of Roland’s was to tell the Jesuits to “stick it up your ass”. At one stage, priests arranged for him to be baptised as a Catholic but on the way to the service the boy fell into a trance, grabbed the wheel and tried to run the car off the road.
Roland’s haunting finally ended in April 1949 during an electrical storm at the Alexian Brothers Hospital in St Louis, where he was being helped by the priests. It is also where Father Bishop’s diary was found hidden decades later.
The boy told them he saw a vision of “a beautiful man with flowing, wavy hair” holding a “fiery sword and standing over a pit containing a devil”. He sat up straight and declared: “He’s gone”. Just moments before, the crucifix on the hospital roof had been hit by lightning.
Young Roland went home — but the evil stayed.
Nurses at the hospital claimed that for years afterwards, the wall above the head of his hospital bed bore a large black stain that would reappear no matter how many times it was painted over.
That wing has now been torn down and the ground is a car park.
But on the spot beneath where Roland’s room was there is a deep crack in the asphalt.
Within weeks of being refilled, it reportedly always opens up again.
But during his investigations of the case — dramatised in 2000 film Possessed — Steven’s most chilling discovery was made at a nearby mental hospital.
He said: “There was always talk about a priest who was connected to the case who was later housed on a mental ward in St Louis.
“A source helping with my research told me on this priest’s deathbed in 1983 he grabbed a nurse by the throat and said, ‘I am going to kill you, f***ing bitch!’ And then he collapsed back in his bed.
“Did the demon move into the priest after the exorcism?”
In the decades since, some who have analysed Roland’s case have suggested he was not possessed but was a mentally ill young man, perhaps suffering from schizophrenia or Tourette’s syndrome — conditions far less understood in the Forties.
And although Roland has preserved his anonymity since, it is known he lived in Maryland, raised three children of his own and enjoyed a long career with Nasa.
On December 11, 2002, two motorists called police to report seeing a car veering off the A3 trunk road with headlights blazing at Burpham in Surrey. A thorough search uncovered a car concealed in dense undergrowth and the long-dead driver nearby. It turned out that the crash had actually happened five months earlier when the driver, Christopher Chandler, had been reported missing by his brother.
An unidentified animal has been attributed with multiple attacks on villagers in remote Indonesia.
75-year-old farmer Aris Kuna was working in his garden when he was inexplicably attacked by something which he later described as a cross between a bear and a wild boar. A week later a plantation worker was attacked by the same animal while gathering fruit. He described how it had made a strange noise and stood up on its hind legs while launching its assault. This time however the encounter didn't end well for the mysterious assailant; the worker it had attacked used a sickle to defend himself, killing the creature in the process.
The carcass was later laid out for others to come and view but nobody was able to identify it. To add to its repertoire of unusual features the creature appeared to sport a long mane and sharp wolverine-like claws. "In all my life venturing into the jungle, hunting and such, I’ve never come across this species," said one local
Back in 1727, a Serbian soldier returned home from war. However, his close friends and family noticed that he had changed somewhat and he finally admitted that he believed that he was attacked by a vampire while in the army.
Shockingly, he claimed to have tracked and killed the creature, but despite this, feared that there was no hope for salvation — soon after, he died. However, over the following couple of months people began to increasingly report sightings of Arnold — as a result, his body was exhumed from his grave, where witnesses were horrified to see what appeared to be new skin growing on his decaying corpse.
To ensure he was well and truly dead, his body was then staked and he reportedly made a rumbling groan in pain. His head was then removed and his body burned so that there was no chance of him returning from the dead
Located in London, Highgate Cemetery was known as the burial place for many famous people back in the 19th century. Yet in recent decades, it has also been known for being the home of a vampire.
According to witnesses, the sightings started just over 60 years ago, when a figure with red eyes was spotted wandering the crypts and grave stones. In 1971 however, a more sinister story was circulated involved a young girl who was attacked in the cemetery by a tall, pale-faced creature.
She was thrown down onto the ground but the figure was luckily spooked by a car passing-by! Many believe that if the vampire hadn't been driven away, the girl would have been killed, or worse -- turned into a bloodsucker herself!
Big cat sightings in the UK in recent years include leopards, panthers, jaguars and jungle cats.
1 The Beast of Cumbria Is reported to be a black cat like a panther.
2 The Hull Hell Cat A huge puma ‘spotted hiding in a field near Hull’.
3 The Bury Beast A black panther spotted in the suburbs of Manchester.
4 The Wildcat of Wakefield A black panther-like cat spotted in a Yorkshire field.
5 The Pershore Panther A huge black cat beside the road in Worcestershire.
6 The Wildcat of Warwickshire. A possible lynx spotted wandering Warwickshire.
7 The Bedfordshire Big Cat. A “panther-like” cat stalking the county.
8 The Beast of Silsoe A ‘cat as big as Labrador’ seen roaming the small parish.
9 The Beast of Bucks A puma which attacked a dog in High Wycombe.
10 The Beast of Broomfield A huge cat spotted in Essex.
11 The Dartmoor Lynx Several sightings in recent months on the moors.
12 The Dartmoor Devil A leopard believed to be behind cattle attacks.
13 The Creature of Cornwall Reportedly a stalking lion.
14 The Beast of Bodmin Several sightings of a puma-like creature wandering the moors.
15 The Suffolk Panther A huge black cat spotted on the Norfolk/Suffolk border
BIG CAT ALERT What is the ‘black panther’ of Huddersfield and how many other big cat sightings have there been in the UK?
From the Beast of Cumbria to the Creature of Cornwall - the big cats 'on the prowl' in Britain
HUNDREDS of terrified walkers have seen big cats prowling in the British countryside in recent years – sparking fears the beasts are breeding.
There have been 455 sightings logged by police in England, Wales and Northern Ireland between 2010 and 2015.
What is the Wildcat of Warwickshire?
The Wildcat of Warwickshire is a big cat which has been reported roaming the countryside in the West Midlands county.
The 4ft animal was captured on camera in November 2016 by dad Philip White who spotted it behind his home in the picturesque village of Great Alne, Warks.
The cat has been reported to have all the markings of a Eurasian Lynx which were once a common sight in the UK until hunted into “extinction” around 700AD.
However, they could soon be reintroduced to the north of England and southern Scotland as part of a scheme announced earlier this year by the Lynx UK Trust.
The animals, which were killed for their highly prized pelts, have already been successfully reintroduced in northern Germany, where 14 of the cats introduced in 2000 have grown to a population of up to 100.
Their preferred diet of roe deer makes them popular with the ‘re-wilding movement’, which argues for the reintroduction of apex predators in order to control herbivore populations, promote forest growth and reinvigorate ecosystems.
Campaigners argue that a healthy lynx population would restore the ecosystem’s balance and would be a driver of biodiversity, resulting in a cascade effect of more trees, birds and mammals.
But concerns about their hunting behaviour have attracted strong opposition from farming unions, which fear for livestock.
In 1948, strange distress calls from the SS Ourang were picked up off the coast of Indonesia. One voice was heard to say, "All officers including captain are dead, lying in chartroom and bridge. Possibly whole crew dead..."
A nearby vessel soon received a message in Morse code. It read, "I die." When another boat investigated the ship, they found the Ourang crew all dead, eyes open, faces staring towards the heavens.
In 1885, a man received a letter from his brother in the mail. However, his brother had been dead for 13 years...
The letter mentioned that his brother was mentally ill and would soon be coming to visit. When the man dug up his brother's coffin, he found it completely empty.
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