EVERYDAY STRANGE - The True Story that Inspired "The Exorcist"

“Your mother sucks cocks in hell!”

-Regan MacNeil (played by Linda Blair) in The Exorcist

Cottage City, MD - We all know the story, we’ve all seen the movie: priests battle intransigent demon, pea soup is spewed, floors are soiled, Christ compels with heads a-twistin’. Here are the details of the real-life events that inspired the novel, which inspired the movie, The Exorcist.

These are some of the details found in the diary of one of the priests involved in the exorcism.

13-year old “Roland Doe” used to play Ouija board with his “Aunt Tilly”.

On January 15, 1949, dripping noises were heard in his Grandmother’s bedroom. A framed picture of Christ shook on the wall and scratching noises could be heard under the floorboards. The scratching continued every night for 10 nights

On January 26 Aunt Tilly died of multiple sclerosis after which the family experienced three days of peace followed by six nights of squeaking noises on Roland’s bed.

The mother suspected Aunt Tilly’s death had something to do with the unexplained noises. During one episode, Mrs. Doe asked if it was Aunt Tilly making the noises. This was answered with three knocks. Mrs. Doe then asked to confirm it was her with four knocks. Four knocks reported.

The "Doe" Family household.

On February 17, Roland Doe spent the night at the parsonage of Lutheran minister Rev. Schultz. That night, the reverend heard scratching noises and witnessed Roland’s bed vibrating, a chair Roland was sitting in tipped over and a pallet of blankets he was sitting on moved across the floor.

On the night of February 26 and for the next three nights scratch marks appeared on Roland’s body. His parents thought they could make out words in the puffy red markings, but this was not confirmed.

Many of the details of the manifestations are similar to those in the Hornsey Coal Poltergeist story: household objects flying around on their own, a bottle of holy water flew across the room but did not break. But there are other fascinating events described. Roland was removed from his school classroom because his desk was moving around on the floor. Another time a rocking chair Roland sat in spun around. Roland was taken to be baptized and became enraged during the ceremony.

In all, it took 30 attempts for the exorcism to finally take. At the end of each session Roland would issue a stream of profanity laced with Latin phrases. The boy had been shuffled between DC and St. Louis for the duration.

On April 18 the ordeal finally came to an end when Roland’s voice deepened in a masculine tone and commanded the spirits to leave his body in the guise of St. Michael.

After an unnamed minister gave a talk at a public meeting of the Society of Parapsychology describing the Roland Doe story, stories began circulating in Washington, DC and Prince George’s County newspapers. The first such article to appear was credited to Bill Brinkley in the August 10 edition of the Washington Post. It was a tongue-in-cheek account of the reverend’s lecture. By August 20 however, Brinkley sang a slightly different tune. His highly detailed article is what inspired a then 20-year old English major at Georgetown University called William Peter Blatty to write his best-selling novel.

From the first the names and even places were changed, the Doe family was said to live in Mount Rainier. Many of the details of the case were unearthed by researcher Mark Opsasnick, who wrote a very long 5-part article that is well worth the time of anyone interested in finding out more about the background of and true story behind The Exorcist. You can find it at the link in the Sources section below.

All of the above information and most of the newspaper articles and Blatty’s book are taken from the diary mentioned at the beginning of this article. Though the diary references events from January to April, the writer did not meet with the family until March 9. Most of the details come from Roland’s mother, according to witnesses the boy’s father didn’t believe that he was possessed. Make no mistake, this exorcism actually happened but Roland Doe’s head never spun around and he never spewed green sludge (although there was some spitting).

According to eyewitness Father Walter Halloran the boy mimicked the priests when “speaking Latin”, he threw tantrums and yes, even a punch, but he did not possess inhuman strength, or any other inhuman capability. His voice didn’t “really” change. He did not urinate or vomit prodigiously.

What it sounds like is a sensitive and troubled young man momentarily unable to cope with one of the most emotionally intense times in a youngster’s life and being saddled with unwanted attention on top of it. Blatty made hundreds of thousands of dollars off of this story, the producers of the film made that amount many, many times over. I’ve never come across any information regarding Roland Doe seeing a penny from the story, but the one positive in all of this is that the world has allowed him to remain mostly anonymous. 

His real name is out there, you can find it if you look hard enough, but there’s really no need to because he’d just an average person. I feel like I know everything about him and that's just creepy when you think about it. The fact that he’s never revealed himself shows that he is not interested in re-hashing a couple of ill spent months in his early teens, despite the fact that he could have made a tidy profit in doing so.

Whether he is referred to as Roland Doe or Robbie Mannheim or Regan MacNeil doesn’t truly matter, just leave him be and keep his real name out of it. We all make mistakes in our youth, those of us who make the kind of mistakes that lead to multi-million dollar books and pictures deserve our awe and respect.

Sources:

This very long article turns out to be a very, very good read. One thing make me feel uneasy though. You ever get an inkling you’ve been had? This is probably a coincidence but the author’s name sounds like “Obsess-nik”. He was obsessed with finding out the truth behind this story and the suffix “-nik” describes someone who is attracted to or in the orbit of something like a “sputnik” or “beatnik”. It’s almost enough to inspire an Everyday Strange article in its own right.

The Haunted Boy of Cottage City by Mark Opsasnick

The original article that inspired Blatty to write his book:

Priest Frees Mt. Rainier Boy Reported Held in Devil’s Grip by Bill Brinkley

EVERYDAY STRANGE - The Brookfield Demon Murder

[Image source]

Brookfield, CT - On February 16, 1981 the 193-year old town of Brookfield, CT experienced its first murder when 19-year old Arne Johnson stabbed his landlord Alan Bono five times in the chest with a pocket knife. But that wasn’t the only precedent the act would set. In late October, facing a charge of manslaughter Johnson’s defense entered the plea of Not Guilty - by reason of demonic possession.

Roughly a year earlier, Ed and Lorraine Warren came to visit. You might remember them as the subjects of the recent film The Conjuring or nearly any made-for-TV program about ghosts or the paranormal in the late 1980’s / early 1990’s. Johnson’s girlfriend (Debbie Glatzel)’s 11-year old brother David Glatzel was being looked at for demonic possession. The Warrens swore it was a genuine case, though it seems they never met a paranormal case they didn’t love. But, it seemed the exorcism didn’t take. After Catholic priests presided over the boy, the infernal infection apparently remained. Arne, never particularly close to David, took the initiative to call upon the demons to leave the boy’s body and enter his own. Martin Minnella, Johnson’s lawyer argued that they did just that.

That decision turned the case into a national sideshow.

Minnella had “tapes” (audio or video is unrevealed) of the exorcism. Minnella still claims 34 years later that young David Glatzel spoke “the names of 42 demons in Latin, and that the Brookfield Police Chief was going to testify that he saw the child levitate”.

Minnella claimed that ‘demonic possession’ wasn’t synonymous with ‘insanity’, he was out to prove that demons exist. The Warrens also never seem to have met a camera they didn’t love and embraced their potential role as star witnesses. Minnella was prepared to have the Warrens testify to the existence of demons, and to produce the recordings of the exorcism including Johnson’s “challenge” to the demons but the plea was rejected by the court and the more conventional plea of self-defence was entered in its place.

The entire stabbing incident was found to be due to Bono’s having made an obscene remark about Debbie Glatzel’s dress, which Johnson took exception to. The two argued, things escalated, Bono wound up dead. Johnson was found guilty and served five years in prison.

The event gained colossal levels of media attention at the time and became known as “the devil made me do it case”. It even spawned a 1983 made-for-TV movie starring Kevin Bacon called The Demon Murder Case. It isn’t great. It’s no ‘The Exorcist’ that’s for sure, but tune in tomorrow for the real-life story that inspired the novel that the film was based on …

Sources:

Hartford Courant

People Magazine

Take a look at this My Life of Crime article for reams and reams of links

Post-Script: This story has a happy ending, Johnson married Glatzel while still in prison and the two remain together, today they are grandparents to two boys.

And here's The Demon Murder Case movie for your viewing pleasure. It also stars Andy Griffith and was directed by William Hale.

EVERYDAY STRANGE - The Devil's Footprints

“Since the recent snow storms, some animal has left marks on the snow that have driven a great many inhabitants from their propriety, and caused an uproar of commotion among the inhabitants in general.”

- The Western Luminary & Family Newspaper for Devon, Cornwall, Somerset & Dorset. 13 February 1855

DEVON, UK - It was 160 years ago on this day, February 8, 1855 that one of the most enduring mysteries of the world took place. The people of Devon county, England awoke to find a mysterious track of seemingly bipedal footprints in the snow. The prints were spaced roughly eight to 16 inches apart and described as four inches in length and two and half to three inches wide. The tracks were uniformly single file. They were made by cloven hooves which led over top of buildings, through walls, haystacks, gates and enclosures stretching over a course of 100 miles from Exmouth to Topsham. Some apparently lucky villagers reported the tracks leading up to their front doors before retreating back again. They even continued across the two mile expanse of the River Exe estuary.

Kangaroos, badgers, otters, experimental balloons and freezing rain have all been offered as alternate explanations for the prints, but did this event even happen? Very little contemporary reports remain to this day, only a few survive, that there are contemporary accounts at all is encouraging.

River Exe estuary.

First mention of the mysterious case appeared in the February 13, 1855 edition of the Western Luminary in which local people were already ascribing the mysterious hoofmarks to the devil. But they did not cower in fear at the idea. Within hours of the discovery of the bizarre trail, searches were conducted to discover their cause, tracing the prints for miles. No one however, tracked the full 100 mile length of the marking. Had anybody even attempted to do so there wouldn’t have been enough time as the snow was not deep and fluctuating temperatures played havoc with the impressions. Initially, it was reported that the tracks covered an area of around 40 miles, which was deduced from various reports coming from several different towns in the county. After a few weeks interest in the story eventually died down and the Devil’s Footprints became something of a local legend and nothing more.

Interest in the story was revived by the ubiquitous Charles Fort in his 1919 work ‘The Book of the Damned’. By 1950 contemporary papers by Rev. H.T. Ellacombe were sent to the Devonshire Association which included tracings of the footprints and the draft of a letter to The Illustrated London News marked ‘Not for publication’ concerning the event. Ellacombe had even collected samples of the oblong globes of whitish excrement that had been found next to some of the tracks. He sent the samples off to naturalist Richard Owen without receiving a reply. The Ellacombe papers are the oldest surviving documents concerning the case. Another pivotal discovery was The Devil’s Footprints booklet published by G.A. Household which reprints many contemporary newspaper articles.

[Image source]

It was an anonymous letter writer (signed ‘South Devon’) to The Illustrated Times of London who first put forth the idea that the tracks were uniform in size and shape, traveled in single file over the course of 100 miles, surmounted a 14 foot high wall, climbed roofs and crossed the river estuary. The letter writer claimed to be an experienced woodsman, skilled in animal tracking and identification and appeared befuddled as to an explanation for the tracks. According to Rev. Ellacombe’s now recovered papers, ‘South Devon’ was actually a ‘young D’Urban’, a 19-year old resident of Newport House, Countess Wear. Young D’Urban would grow up to be a respectable, reputable man, but youthful ‘enthusiasm’ seems to have gotten the better of him here. It is D’Urban’s falsified account of the events which colors them to this day.

So, was the devil really in Devon on this day 160 years ago? Some believe the entire story was a satirical fabrication, formulated to criticize the local church which had recently changed their standard prayer book. One thing is sure, the event now known as the Devil’s Footprints certainly happened, though not as mysteriously as it is remembered. It’s entirely possible that the prints really were made by unidentified animals, possibly migrating fowl. It seems that it was the unidentifiable nature of the prints that had captured the public’s collective imagination, not the tracks anomalous behavior.

In 2009 the mystery was revisited when a woman awoke to find a track of cloven footprints in her back garden. It would have been the perfect time to come up with a valid explanation for the 1855 case, an investigator looked into hares as the possible culprit. No follow up reports were found.

Sources:

Anybody interested in this mystery event owes a huge debt of gratitude to Mike Dash whose exhaustive 1994 survey of research materials has been an invaluable resource into the study of The Devil’s Footprints.

The Devil’s Hoofmarks (white paper by Mike Dash)

The Complete Books of Charles Fort, pp.305-10.

The Daily Mail

The London Telegraph

BBC

EVERYDAY STRANGE - Possessed by a Snake

[Image source]

THE STORY GOES LIKE THIS
On January 18, 2013 Takuya Nagaya, 23 years-old was killed by his father, who thought his son was possessed by a snake. Takuya was visiting his parents home in Okazaki City in the early hours of the morning when he told his mother that he was a snake and started writhing around on the floor. His behavior, which she said was violent and erratic, began to worry her so she called on the young man's father, Katsumi, 53, for help.

From then until evening Katsumi proceeded to beat and bite his son, in an effort to "drive out the snake that had possessed him". After collapsing, Takuya was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead from injuries received during the severe beating.

CONCLUSIONS
This is a unique story, and though it only happened two years ago, it's the kind of story that people will read about 200 years from now and marvel at how backward and superstitious a time we live(d) in. It seems obvious that Takuya was suffering from some kind of psychotic episode, it's hard to say what brought it on, further details of the case are scarce if they exist. I never found them. But why the father was convinced of his son's possession to the point of beating him to death over the course of a entire day is just as important a question. Was it religiosity, a belief in spiritual possession? Or was it that Katsumi shared a kind of psychosis with his son?

Naga- is a common prefix for Japanese names, but makes for an eerie association in this case. Naga is the ancient sanskrit word for snake god. That's just a coincidence, but it adds another layer of strangeness to this already bizarre story.

SOURCES
Rocket News Japan