Long before The Exorcist terrified moviegoers, a quiet middle-class family in 1940s Maryland claimed something unholy had taken hold of their son. In this episode, we revisit the chilling, real-life case that inspired William Peter Blatty’s novel — the 1949 exorcism of a boy known only by the pseudonym Roland Doe.
We’ll retrace the case from its first strange knocks and flying objects in the family’s home, to the desperate search for help that led Jesuit priests to St. Louis, Missouri — where one of the most documented exorcisms in modern history unfolded.
Drawing on eyewitness diaries, press coverage, and later Church records, we’ll separate fact from folklore and ask: what really happened in that room? Was Roland’s possession spiritual, psychological, or something science still can’t explain?
📚 Recommended Resources
- Thomas B. Allen, Possessed: The True Story of an Exorcism (1993)
- William Peter Blatty, The Exorcist (1971)
- The 1949 Exorcism Diary (transcripts archived by St. Louis University)
- “Diary of an Exorcist” – article, Washington Post Magazine (1998)
- American Psychological Association Journal: studies on dissociative disorders and possession-like states.
Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/from-the-void-podcast1430/exclusive-content
00:02 --> 00:07 [SPEAKER_00]: from the darkest reaches of space to the deepest corners of your mind.
00:09 --> 00:12 [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to From the Void.
00:20 --> 00:27 [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome back friends, the fire is burning low now, and outside, the night belongs to shadows.
00:28 --> 00:36 [SPEAKER_00]: In here we are, Halloween Week, the final chapter, and our October series on a legit possession.
00:37 --> 00:40 [SPEAKER_00]: All month long, we've walked together through stories of darkness.
00:41 --> 00:54 [SPEAKER_00]: The Ammon's family in Indiana, the suffering of Analyze Michelle, the reflections of psychiatrist, M. Scott Peck, each case strange unsettling and unforgettable.
00:54 --> 00:59 [SPEAKER_00]: But tonight, we arrive at the one that casts the longest shadow of them all.
01:01 --> 01:04 [SPEAKER_00]: This is the case that inspired the exorcist.
01:04 --> 01:20 [SPEAKER_00]: The story of a boy remembered only as Roland Doe, whose affliction in the late 1940s drew priests, doctors, and family into a battle between medicine, faith, and something darker.
01:20 --> 01:25 [SPEAKER_00]: His ordeal became the blueprint for nearly every possession tail told sense.
01:26 --> 01:29 [SPEAKER_00]: So, settle in close.
01:30 --> 01:33 [SPEAKER_00]: Let the firelight flicker one last time.
01:34 --> 01:36 [SPEAKER_00]: It's a gather on this Halloween night.
01:37 --> 01:41 [SPEAKER_00]: Let's step into the chilling case of Roland Doe.
01:48 --> 01:50 [SPEAKER_00]: You might remember from the previous episode.
01:51 --> 01:55 [SPEAKER_00]: We dove into the cultural juggernaut that was the exorcist.
01:56 --> 02:07 [SPEAKER_00]: a film that terrified audiences in the 1970s, broke box office records, and permanently rewired the way Hollywood and the public thought about possession.
02:08 --> 02:20 [SPEAKER_00]: It's also one of my all-time favorite horror movies, but what makes it even more unsettling is that this iconic story wasn't just cooked up in the imagination of author William Peter Blattie.
02:21 --> 02:21 [SPEAKER_00]: No?
02:22 --> 02:25 [SPEAKER_00]: It was inspired by a real case.
02:25 --> 02:35 [SPEAKER_00]: a case that played out quietly in the late 1940s, years before peace soup vomit and spinning heads became movie shorthand for demonic activity.
02:37 --> 02:43 [SPEAKER_00]: This was the story of a 14-year-old boy, hidden under the pseudonym Roland Doe.
02:44 --> 02:49 [SPEAKER_00]: His alleged possession would spark one of the most documented exorcisms of the 20th century.
02:50 --> 02:55 [SPEAKER_00]: It involved priests, doctors, and hospital staff.
02:55 --> 03:03 [SPEAKER_00]: and it left behind a diary so detailed that decades later, it still fuels debate among believers and skeptics alike.
03:04 --> 03:16 [SPEAKER_00]: In this episode, we're going to walk through that story from the strange events and a quiet Maryland home to the dramatic rights conducted by Jesuit priests in St. Louis.
03:16 --> 03:22 [SPEAKER_00]: We'll look at what was documented, what was witnessed, and what remains open to interpretation.
03:23 --> 03:33 [SPEAKER_00]: Because the truth is, whether or not Roland Doe was possessed by something supernatural, the events surrounding him left a real and lasting mark.
03:34 --> 03:41 [SPEAKER_00]: And in many ways, it all began with a simple game that is ant introduced him to, the Ouija board.
03:43 --> 03:49 [SPEAKER_00]: Roland Doe wasn't his real name of course, that was a pseudonym the Catholic Church used to protect his identity.
03:50 --> 03:55 [SPEAKER_00]: His real name wouldn't come out until decades later, Ronald Edwin Hunkler.
03:57 --> 04:04 [SPEAKER_00]: But in 1949, he was just an ordinary 14-year-old boy growing up in suburban Maryland.
04:04 --> 04:11 [SPEAKER_00]: By all accounts, Roland was quiet, shy, and deeply attached to one particular family member, his Aunt Harriet.
04:12 --> 04:20 [SPEAKER_00]: She wasn't like the rest of the family, where they were rooted in the Lutheran Church, and Harriet was the spiritualist.
04:20 --> 04:28 [SPEAKER_00]: She dabbled in the occult, and it was through her that Roland was introduced to a tool that would later loom large in this story.
04:29 --> 04:30 [SPEAKER_00]: The Weedja Board.
04:31 --> 04:39 [SPEAKER_00]: When at Harriet died suddenly, Roland was devastated, and that was when the strange events began.
04:40 --> 04:44 [SPEAKER_00]: At first, the family brushed it off as grief and coincidence.
04:45 --> 04:49 [SPEAKER_00]: But soon, the house itself seemed to come alive.
04:50 --> 04:55 [SPEAKER_00]: Scratching sounds in the walls, furniture, moving out of its own.
04:56 --> 05:00 [SPEAKER_00]: Religious items like a picture of Jesus crashing down and shattering.
05:01 --> 05:05 [SPEAKER_00]: Roland's mattress, shaking violently while he tried to sleep.
05:07 --> 05:11 [SPEAKER_00]: The family naturally grew alarmed, and so they turned to their pastor for help.
05:13 --> 05:17 [SPEAKER_00]: First, Lutheran clergy came, then ministers from other denominations.
05:18 --> 05:24 [SPEAKER_00]: Each one left shaken, unable to explain what they had witnessed.
05:24 --> 05:26 [SPEAKER_00]: And then things escalated.
05:26 --> 05:35 [SPEAKER_00]: Marks began appearing on Roland's skin, scratches that seemed to spell out words.
05:36 --> 05:36 [SPEAKER_00]: Lewis.
05:38 --> 05:40 [SPEAKER_00]: The family took it as a side.
05:40 --> 05:49 [SPEAKER_00]: They had relatives in St. Louis, Missouri, and so, with nowhere else to turn, they packed rolling up and sent him west.
05:50 --> 05:56 [SPEAKER_00]: To a city where the Catholic Church would take on one of the most infamous exorcism cases in modern history.
05:58 --> 06:00 [SPEAKER_00]: It's worth pausing here to understand something important.
06:01 --> 06:08 [SPEAKER_00]: In most Christian denominations, especially Protestant traditions, there isn't really a set process for exorcisms.
06:09 --> 06:13 [SPEAKER_00]: Sure pastors might pray over someone, read scripture, or annoyed with oil.
06:14 --> 06:15 [SPEAKER_00]: But there's no official handbook.
06:15 --> 06:19 [SPEAKER_00]: No centuries old ritual, and certainly no Vatican approved right.
06:20 --> 06:23 [SPEAKER_00]: That's what made Braulman's case so difficult at first.
06:24 --> 06:27 [SPEAKER_00]: His family being Lutheran naturally went to their own pastor.
06:28 --> 06:29 [SPEAKER_00]: He prayed with Roland.
06:30 --> 06:31 [SPEAKER_00]: He tried to counsel the family.
06:32 --> 06:37 [SPEAKER_00]: But as the activity escalated, he realized this was beyond his training.
06:38 --> 06:56 [SPEAKER_00]: Other ministers stepped in, hoping maybe it was psychological, or maybe grief manifesting in strange ways, but when objects kept flying across the room, and the boy began lashing out in what witnesses described as an unnatural rage, most of them stepped back.
06:57 --> 06:59 [SPEAKER_00]: They had no structure for what they were seeing.
07:00 --> 07:03 [SPEAKER_00]: The Catholic Church, however, was different.
07:03 --> 07:14 [SPEAKER_00]: Dating back to the early centuries of Christianity, Catholicism had a defined ritual for confronting what it called demonic possession, the right of exorcism.
07:15 --> 07:30 [SPEAKER_00]: And by the mid-20th century, the right had been codified in the ritual, Ramanum, a Latin text that laid out the prayers, the invocations, and the step-by-step procedure, a priest was to follow if a bishop approved in exorcism.
07:30 --> 07:47 [SPEAKER_00]: So, after exhausting every other option, pastors, ministers, doctors, Roland's desperate family approached the Catholic Church, and that was when the case shifted into something far more structured and far more intense.
07:48 --> 08:00 [SPEAKER_00]: Let's pause for a second and go little further into the history of the right of exorcism, because to really understand why the Catholic Church became the go-to authority in Roland's case, you need to know a little bit
08:01 --> 08:05 [SPEAKER_00]: The idea of casting out demons goes all the way back to the New Testament.
08:05 --> 08:14 [SPEAKER_00]: The Gospels described Jesus himself driving out, unclean spirits, in the early church carried that practice forward, but in those days it was informal.
08:15 --> 08:20 [SPEAKER_00]: Any believer might pray or invoke Christ's name against what they thought was a demon.
08:20 --> 08:23 [SPEAKER_00]: as the church grew more structured so did its rituals.
08:23 --> 08:30 [SPEAKER_00]: By around the 4th century, there were even people known as Exorcists, a kind of minor clerical order.
08:31 --> 08:36 [SPEAKER_00]: They weren't priests, but they were recognized as having a role in combating evil spirits.
08:36 --> 08:41 [SPEAKER_00]: Fast forward to the Middle Ages, and the Catholic Church had begun formalizing its liturgy.
08:41 --> 08:49 [SPEAKER_00]: The prayers and instructions for exorcism were gathered into handbooks, written in Latin, and passed down to priests.
08:49 --> 08:56 [SPEAKER_00]: The most famous of these came in 1614 when Pope Paul 5 authorized the ritual, Romattam.
08:57 --> 08:59 [SPEAKER_00]: That texts laid out the official right of exorcism.
09:00 --> 09:03 [SPEAKER_00]: And for centuries,
09:03 --> 09:11 [SPEAKER_00]: A gave priest exact prayers to recite, science to look for, and even strict warnings not to jump too quickly to supernatural conclusions.
09:13 --> 09:20 [SPEAKER_00]: Because according to Catholic teaching, before an exorcism could be approved, natural causes had to be ruled out.
09:21 --> 09:24 [SPEAKER_00]: In other words, is this really demonic or is it mental illness?
09:25 --> 09:28 [SPEAKER_00]: Is it epilepsy or is it possession?
09:28 --> 09:32 [SPEAKER_00]: the church developed a set of criteria to help make that distinction.
09:33 --> 09:37 [SPEAKER_00]: Some of the signs included, the ability to speak languages the person had never learned.
09:38 --> 09:47 [SPEAKER_00]: Knowledge of hidden or distant things they should know, displays of superhuman strength, violent aversion to sacred objects or prayers.
09:48 --> 09:57 [SPEAKER_00]: If those were observed and no medical explanation could be found, then and only then
09:57 --> 10:05 [SPEAKER_00]: So by the 1940s, when Roland Does' family came knocking, the Catholic Church already had centuries of ritual and precedent.
10:06 --> 10:15 [SPEAKER_00]: It was the only institution that could bring structure and authority to a situation that had spiraled far beyond a frightened family's control.
10:16 --> 10:20 [SPEAKER_00]: So let's hold Roland's early symptoms up against the Catholic Church's checklist.
10:21 --> 10:27 [SPEAKER_00]: Remember, the Church warned its priests don't jump to possession.
10:27 --> 10:32 [SPEAKER_00]: But if certain extraordinary signs appear, that's when an exorcism might be warranted.
10:33 --> 10:37 [SPEAKER_00]: One criterion was violent aversion to sacred objects.
10:37 --> 10:49 [SPEAKER_00]: Rollins' family reported that whenever religious items were brought into his room, like a crucifix, a Bible, even a framed image of Christ, they'd either crash to the ground or he would thrash violently.
10:50 --> 10:53 [SPEAKER_00]: Another was unexplained physical markings.
10:53 --> 10:57 [SPEAKER_00]: In Rollins' case, Red Scratches appeared across to skin.
10:57 --> 10:59 [SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes they formed random lines.
11:00 --> 11:04 [SPEAKER_00]: Other times, they seem to spell out words, like Lewis.
11:04 --> 11:07 [SPEAKER_00]: which the family took as a sign they should go to St. Louis.
11:08 --> 11:12 [SPEAKER_00]: The church also looked for knowledge of hidden things or unnatural speech.
11:13 --> 11:17 [SPEAKER_00]: Witnesses claimed Roland spoke in a gutteral voice that didn't sound like him.
11:17 --> 11:25 [SPEAKER_00]: And on some occasions, priest recorded him uttering Latin phrases, a language he had never studied.
11:25 --> 11:27 [SPEAKER_00]: And then there was superhuman strength.
11:28 --> 11:31 [SPEAKER_00]: Multiple adults struggled to restrain him during his violent outbursts.
11:32 --> 11:37 [SPEAKER_00]: One priest later recalled being physically overpowered by this 14-year-old boy.
11:38 --> 11:42 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, could each of these have natural explanations, possibly.
11:43 --> 11:50 [SPEAKER_00]: Psychosomatic markings, a teenager mimicking Latin phrases you overheard, rage giving him bursts of strength.
11:51 --> 11:53 [SPEAKER_00]: That's why the church's process was careful.
11:54 --> 11:59 [SPEAKER_00]: but the fact that so many boxes were being checked made Roland's case impossible to ignore.
12:00 --> 12:05 [SPEAKER_00]: For the Catholic clergy in Washington, DC, this wasn't just a troubled boy anymore.
12:06 --> 12:09 [SPEAKER_00]: This looked like a textbook case of possession.
12:10 --> 12:19 [SPEAKER_00]: And so, in early 1949, with a bishop's approval, the first Catholic attempts at an exorcism were authorized.
12:20 --> 12:23 [SPEAKER_00]: So let's talk about the first Catholic priest and the Maryland DC attempts.
12:24 --> 12:28 [SPEAKER_00]: The first Catholic priest to take Roland's case was Father E. Albert Hughes.
12:29 --> 12:34 [SPEAKER_00]: He was a young parish priest at St. James Church in Mount Renear, Maryland.
12:34 --> 12:37 [SPEAKER_00]: He had a reputation for being earnest and devout.
12:38 --> 12:43 [SPEAKER_00]: But this would become his very first and last attempt at an exorcism.
12:44 --> 12:52 [SPEAKER_00]: Hughes arranged to have Roland admitted briefly to George Town University Hospital, a Jesuit run facility in Washington, D.C.
12:53 --> 12:56 [SPEAKER_00]: There, doctors examined him.
12:56 --> 13:02 [SPEAKER_00]: but no clear medical cause explained his violent behavior or the bizarre phenomena surrounding him.
13:03 --> 13:11 [SPEAKER_00]: Convinced that the boy was genuinely afflicted, Father Hughes received permission from his bishop to attempt the right of exorcism.
13:11 --> 13:15 [SPEAKER_00]: The ritual was carried out late at night in a hospital room.
13:15 --> 13:24 [SPEAKER_00]: Hughes began reciting the prayers and Latin, sprinkling holy water, holding up a crucifix, and then it went sideways.
13:25 --> 13:31 [SPEAKER_00]: Roland flew into a violent rage, breaking free from the restraints holding him to the bed.
13:31 --> 13:41 [SPEAKER_00]: In the struggle, he somehow tore a metal spring loose from the mattress and slash
13:41 --> 13:44 [SPEAKER_00]: The exorcism was halted immediately.
13:45 --> 13:48 [SPEAKER_00]: Hughes never attempted another exorcism again.
13:50 --> 13:53 [SPEAKER_00]: For Roland's family, this was both terrifying and disheartening.
13:54 --> 14:00 [SPEAKER_00]: The Catholic Church had been their last hope, and even the trained ritual had failed.
14:02 --> 14:04 [SPEAKER_00]: But things didn't stop there.
14:05 --> 14:11 [SPEAKER_00]: The disturbances continued, the scratching, the voices, the violent outbursts.
14:11 --> 14:19 [SPEAKER_00]: And soon, with the family nearly out of options, the case was referred to a group of Jesuits and St. Louis Missouri.
14:20 --> 14:26 [SPEAKER_00]: Men who would become central to the most famous exorcism and modern American history.
14:28 --> 14:32 [SPEAKER_00]: After father Hughes' failed attempt in Washington, the family was shaken.
14:33 --> 14:35 [SPEAKER_00]: Their local priests had tried.
14:35 --> 14:37 [SPEAKER_00]: Doctors had examined Roland.
14:38 --> 14:43 [SPEAKER_00]: Even the Catholic Church, with its official right, had been unable to bring relief.
14:44 --> 14:47 [SPEAKER_00]: And worse, the boys seemed more dangerous than ever.
14:48 --> 14:51 [SPEAKER_00]: Night, after night, the disturbances continued.
14:52 --> 14:57 [SPEAKER_00]: Scratches still appeared on his body.
14:58 --> 15:05 [SPEAKER_00]: Roland lashed out with such violence that it terrified not just his parents, but anyone who tried to intervene.
15:05 --> 15:08 [SPEAKER_00]: Then came the markings.
15:09 --> 15:15 [SPEAKER_00]: According to family members, newscratches began appearing on Roland's chest in torso.
15:14 --> 15:18 [SPEAKER_00]: And among them was one word that stood out, Lewis.
15:20 --> 15:22 [SPEAKER_00]: The family took this as a message.
15:22 --> 15:24 [SPEAKER_00]: They had relatives in St. Louis, Missouri.
15:25 --> 15:32 [SPEAKER_00]: People who might be able to help are at the very least, give them a temporary escape from the torments in Maryland.
15:33 --> 15:41 [SPEAKER_00]: And so, in early March of 1949, Roland and his mother boarded a train for St. Louis.
15:41 --> 15:43 [SPEAKER_00]: They weren't just traveling to visit family.
15:44 --> 15:47 [SPEAKER_00]: They were following what they believed was a supernatural sign.
15:48 --> 15:54 [SPEAKER_00]: Pointing them to the place where the most famous exorcism of the modern era would unfold.
15:55 --> 16:05 [SPEAKER_00]: When Roland and his mother arrived in St. Louis, they stayed with relatives in the suburb of Bel-Nor, but almost immediately, the disturbances followed.
16:06 --> 16:10 [SPEAKER_00]: Scratches appeared, the bed shook, objects flew.
16:11 --> 16:15 [SPEAKER_00]: The relatives terrified turned to their local parish priest for help.
16:16 --> 16:30 [SPEAKER_00]: That priest quickly realized that this was something beyond his capacity and reached out to St. Louis University, where the Jesuits maintained both a strong, academic and spiritual presence.
16:30 --> 16:32 [SPEAKER_00]: Enter, Father William Bodern.
16:33 --> 16:42 [SPEAKER_00]: He was a seasoned Jesuit priest known as level-headed and practical, the kind of man you called when you needed calm and a storm.
16:43 --> 16:46 [SPEAKER_00]: His bishop authorized him to take the lead on Roland's case.
16:47 --> 16:50 [SPEAKER_00]: By his side, was Father Raymond J. Bishop.
16:50 --> 16:59 [SPEAKER_00]: another Jesuit who would keep meticulous notes, a diary that remains the primary record of what happened during the exorcisms.
17:00 --> 17:05 [SPEAKER_00]: Without him, much of this story would have slipped into legend.
17:05 --> 17:08 [SPEAKER_00]: And then, there was father Walter Holleran.
17:09 --> 17:14 [SPEAKER_00]: At this time, he was just a young Jesuit scholastic, not even ordained yet.
17:15 --> 17:22 [SPEAKER_00]: He was brought in partly for physical strength, since Roland's violent thrashing, often required more than one man to restrain him.
17:23 --> 17:29 [SPEAKER_00]: Later, Haloran would become one of the few surviving eyewitnesses to confirm the extraordinary events.
17:31 --> 17:40 [SPEAKER_00]: Together, these three men, Bowderm, Bishop, and Haloran would conduct more than 20 exorcism sessions over the course of several weeks.
17:41 --> 17:47 [SPEAKER_00]: They began in March of 1949, inside the relative's home and Bel-Nore.
17:48 --> 17:52 [SPEAKER_00]: The ritual followed the strict text of the ritual remanum.
17:52 --> 17:57 [SPEAKER_00]: Latin prayers, holy water, the crucifix raised high.
17:57 --> 18:06 [SPEAKER_00]: and, almost immediately, Roland responded with violent resistance, Grows, shouting and voices that didn't sound like his own.
18:07 --> 18:23 [SPEAKER_00]: Scratches appearing spontaneously across his skin, just as the priest back in Maryland had witnessed, but the Jesuits persisted, and for the first time, the case had
18:23 --> 18:30 [SPEAKER_00]: Which is why today, Roland does story is still considered one of the most significant cases of possession of the 20th century.
18:31 --> 18:33 [SPEAKER_00]: The sessions in St. Louis were relentless.
18:34 --> 18:41 [SPEAKER_00]: Night after night, the Jesuits gathered with Roland and his family, reciting the ancient prayers of the ritual remanum.
18:42 --> 18:47 [SPEAKER_00]: According to Father Bishop's diary, the boys' reactions were violent and immediate.
18:48 --> 18:53 [SPEAKER_00]: He screamed and guttural voices that seemed far older than his 14 years.
18:53 --> 18:58 [SPEAKER_00]: he thrashed so violently that it often took multiple men to hold him down.
18:59 --> 19:05 [SPEAKER_00]: At times he spat, curse, and lashed out at the priest, calling them names they refused to repeat.
19:06 --> 19:07 [SPEAKER_00]: Then there were the markings.
19:08 --> 19:16 [SPEAKER_00]: Witnesses describe scratches appearing spontaneously on his skin, words like hell, an evil, carved across his chest and legs.
19:17 --> 19:22 [SPEAKER_00]: One night the word exit appeared, stretching from
19:22 --> 19:25 [SPEAKER_00]: Objects in the room seem to take on a life of their own.
19:26 --> 19:29 [SPEAKER_00]: A bottle of holy water reportedly shattered.
19:29 --> 19:31 [SPEAKER_00]: A chair slid across the floor.
19:32 --> 19:36 [SPEAKER_00]: At one point, the mattress lifted off the bed with Roland on it.
19:37 --> 19:41 [SPEAKER_00]: And yet, through all of this, the priest pressed forward.
19:42 --> 19:47 [SPEAKER_00]: Repeating the prayers, commanding the spirit to leave in the name of Christ.
19:47 --> 19:56 [SPEAKER_00]: If father Walter Halleron, the young Jesuit brought in for muscle, later admitted that what he saw that spring was unlike anything he'd ever encountered.
19:57 --> 20:01 [SPEAKER_00]: He claimed he saw the scratches appear on Roland's body with his own eyes.
20:02 --> 20:04 [SPEAKER_00]: He saw objects move that no one was touching.
20:05 --> 20:07 [SPEAKER_00]: Even confessed that he couldn't explain it.
20:09 --> 20:14 [SPEAKER_00]: But if the priests thought the exorcisms would be over quickly, they weren't mistaken.
20:14 --> 20:17 [SPEAKER_00]: the sessions stretched on for weeks.
20:18 --> 20:26 [SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes Roland would seem calm, almost normal, only for the violence to erupt again with even greater force.
20:26 --> 20:35 [SPEAKER_00]: The battle between the priests and whatever they believed inhabited Roland was long, exhausting, and for a time, seemed endless.
20:36 --> 20:44 [SPEAKER_00]: As the weeks were on, the exorcisms took a visible toll,
20:45 --> 20:53 [SPEAKER_00]: Father Boeder and the leader of the rights would leave Sessions trembling, drenched in sweat, his once steady hands shaking as he tried to rest.
20:55 --> 20:58 [SPEAKER_00]: Friends later said he looked years older by the time it was over.
20:59 --> 21:06 [SPEAKER_00]: Father Bishop, who carefully documented each night, began the Ordeal with neat careful handwriting.
21:06 --> 21:19 [SPEAKER_00]: But as the knights dragged into weeks, his entries became jagged, hurried, almost frantic, like a man desperate to get the words down before the chaos swallowed him too.
21:20 --> 21:22 [SPEAKER_00]: and then there was father Haloran.
21:23 --> 21:24 [SPEAKER_00]: He wasn't just a witness.
21:25 --> 21:26 [SPEAKER_00]: He was a target.
21:26 --> 21:36 [SPEAKER_00]: More than once, Roland broke free from his restraints and struck him with such force that Haloran ended up with bruises and even a broken nose.
21:36 --> 21:39 [SPEAKER_00]: and what disturbed the most wasn't Roland's violence.
21:40 --> 21:41 [SPEAKER_00]: It was his words.
21:42 --> 21:47 [SPEAKER_00]: He shouted curses and blasphemies at the priest, and guttural voices that didn't sound like his own.
21:48 --> 21:59 [SPEAKER_00]: And on some occasions used Latin phrases, which one witnessed later thought he mimicked, during the exorcisms, words like evil, and hell appeared in scratches or welds on his skin.
22:00 --> 22:04 [SPEAKER_00]: By early April, Roland was moved to a lexian brother's hospital in St. Louis.
22:05 --> 22:10 [SPEAKER_00]: It was there, according to Father Bishop's diary, that the climax unfolded.
22:11 --> 22:12 [SPEAKER_00]: The fits were violent.
22:13 --> 22:17 [SPEAKER_00]: At one point, Bishop recorded the demon mocking Father Boder and sneering.
22:18 --> 22:21 [SPEAKER_00]: He asked to say one more word, one little word.
22:21 --> 22:22 [SPEAKER_00]: I mean one big word.
22:23 --> 22:24 [SPEAKER_00]: He'll never say it.
22:25 --> 22:25 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm always in him.
22:26 --> 22:30 [SPEAKER_00]: I may not have much power always, but I am in him.
22:30 --> 22:38 [SPEAKER_00]: The priest pressed on, reciting the prayers of the ritual Ramana, and then, shortly before midnight, a new voice erupted.
22:39 --> 22:42 [SPEAKER_00]: Bishop noted that it didn't sound like Roland at all.
22:43 --> 22:56 [SPEAKER_00]: It said, Satan, Satan, I am St. Michael, and I command you, Satan, and the other evil spirits to leave the body in the name of Dominus, immediately, and then shouted, now, now, now.
22:56 --> 23:00 [SPEAKER_00]: Shortly after the command, Rollins' convulsions ceased.
23:01 --> 23:02 [SPEAKER_00]: He came back to consciousness.
23:03 --> 23:09 [SPEAKER_00]: And according to Bishop's diary, as summarized by SLU, his first words, he's gone.
23:11 --> 23:20 [SPEAKER_00]: He then told the priest he'd had a vision that St. Michael, the Archangel, had battled Satan and his demons, and had freed him.
23:21 --> 23:27 [SPEAKER_00]: Some witnesses recall a loud noise, like a gunshot, erupting from the hospital room at that moment.
23:28 --> 23:32 [SPEAKER_00]: Whether that was physical, or spiritual, the timing remains unclear.
23:33 --> 23:36 [SPEAKER_00]: But the records all state that Roland came back to normal.
23:37 --> 23:40 [SPEAKER_00]: The diary records that he told the priest he felt fine.
23:41 --> 23:44 [SPEAKER_00]: No further documented detail survives in the summaries.
23:45 --> 23:52 [SPEAKER_00]: We don't know exactly how pale or exhausted he was, whether he trembled or how quickly his breathing steadied.
23:52 --> 24:01 [SPEAKER_00]: But the contrast is stark, from violent upheaval to calm, from a voice not his own to his own lucid speech.
24:02 --> 24:05 [SPEAKER_00]: So how do we make sense of what happened in that hospital room?
24:06 --> 24:09 [SPEAKER_00]: For the priest involved, the answer was clear.
24:10 --> 24:12 [SPEAKER_00]: The ritual had worked.
24:13 --> 24:20 [SPEAKER_00]: Roland's torment ended at the exact moment, a voice identifying itself as Saint Michael commanded the demons to leave.
24:21 --> 24:24 [SPEAKER_00]: The scratch is stopped, the violent stopped.
24:25 --> 24:31 [SPEAKER_00]: And the boy who had been thrashing and screaming
24:32 --> 24:37 [SPEAKER_00]: For believers, that's as close to a textbook exorcism as you'll find.
24:38 --> 24:41 [SPEAKER_00]: The case checked nearly every box the Catholic Church looked for.
24:42 --> 24:52 [SPEAKER_00]: Supernatural strength, a version to sacred objects, marks on the body, knowledge of Latin phrases, and it ended in sudden dramatic release.
24:53 --> 24:56 [SPEAKER_00]: But for skeptics, the story looks very different.
24:56 --> 25:05 [SPEAKER_00]: They point out that Roland was a grieving teenager under immense stress, possibly suffering from psychological illness, or psychosomatic symptoms.
25:06 --> 25:16 [SPEAKER_00]: They note that the Jesuits involved were predisposed to see dramatic influence, and that Bishop's diary will detailed is still the testimony of a believer.
25:16 --> 25:26 [SPEAKER_00]: Even Father Haloran, who assisted in the exorcism, downplayed some of the more sensational claims years later, he admitted seeing scratches and hearing Latin.
25:27 --> 25:32 [SPEAKER_00]: But believe Brullen was mimicking the priest rather than speaking in a language he didn't know.
25:33 --> 25:36 [SPEAKER_00]: The truth is, we may never know what really happened.
25:37 --> 25:45 [SPEAKER_00]: What we have is a diary, a handful of eyewitness accounts, and a story that has taken on a life of its own.
25:45 --> 25:51 [SPEAKER_00]: What's undeniable is that the Roland Doke's became the template for how we imagine possession.
25:52 --> 25:55 [SPEAKER_00]: Without it, the exorcist might never have existed.
25:56 --> 26:03 [SPEAKER_00]: And with it, the idea of the Catholic exorcism was seared permanently into our cultural imagination.
26:06 --> 26:08 [SPEAKER_00]: It's worth remembering how all of this began.
26:08 --> 26:14 [SPEAKER_00]: A grieving boy desperately missing his aunt Harriet, sat down at a Ouija board.
26:14 --> 26:24 [SPEAKER_00]: Was it simply a game that sparked his imagination, a way for a teenager to cope with loss, or did that simple board open the door to something darker?
26:24 --> 26:27 [SPEAKER_00]: Then neither he nor his family could control.
26:27 --> 26:32 [SPEAKER_00]: For believers, the connection is clear.
26:32 --> 26:33 [SPEAKER_00]: the Ouija board was the portal.
26:34 --> 26:37 [SPEAKER_00]: For skeptics, it was a prop.
26:37 --> 26:42 [SPEAKER_00]: One that let Roland subconscious grief take on a terrifying physical form.
26:43 --> 26:46 [SPEAKER_00]: Either way, the Ouija board is the thread that ties the story together.
26:47 --> 26:51 [SPEAKER_00]: From the first scratches on the wall to the climactic scene in the hospital.
26:52 --> 27:00 [SPEAKER_00]: Everything traces back to that moment when Roland tried to reach for the anti-lost and something else may have reached back.
27:02 --> 27:08 [SPEAKER_00]: And with that, the flyer grows low, and our journey through possession comes to an end.
27:09 --> 27:14 [SPEAKER_00]: This October, we've walked through four of the most unsettling cases ever told.
27:15 --> 27:24 [SPEAKER_00]: From the Ammon's family-haunted home to the suffering of Analyze Michelle, to the strange reflections of Dr. Emscott Peck.
27:24 --> 27:28 [SPEAKER_00]: And finally, the chilling story of Roland Doe.
27:29 --> 27:37 [SPEAKER_00]: Were they encounters with the demonic, tragic misunderstanding of illness, or something stranger that lies between?
27:38 --> 27:41 [SPEAKER_00]: That choice, as always, is yours.
27:42 --> 27:46 [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for sitting by the fire with me each week this Halloween season.
27:47 --> 27:51 [SPEAKER_00]: But remember, the shadows don't only come out in October.
27:52 --> 27:54 [SPEAKER_00]: They linger all year round.
27:56 --> 28:05 [SPEAKER_00]: So until next time, keep your eyes open, your mind sharp, and whatever you do, don't look too long into the dark.
28:07 --> 28:08 [SPEAKER_00]: Happy Halloween.