After the Movie
Media interest
peaked after the movie’s release and subsequent success. The most
fascinating and in-depth article ever to appear on the subject appeared
in the January 1975 edition of Fate magazine. In a feature
titled “The Truth Behind The Exorcist,” author Steve Erdmann reveals
never-before-known information regarding the facts behind the story.
Erdmann begins his account by providing the readers with basic
background information. The 14-year-old Mount Rainier boy, referred to
in the aforementioned “diary” as “Roland Doe,” became possessed
by an “invisible entity” after he and his “Aunt Tillie” began
experimenting with an Ouija Board in January 1949. He was treated at
D.C.’s Georgetown University Hospital before having the demon
successfully exorcised by Jesuit priests at St. Louis University.
Erdmann’s article is highly significant because in it he tells of a
“diary” kept by one of the priests involved in the exorcism (which
first came to light in the book William Peter Blatty On The Exorcist
From Novel To Film). The article includes extensive quotes from
that document to illustrate Erdmann’s story.
Erdmann also explains that during the fall of 1949 an unnamed Georgetown
University student, whose father was a psychiatrist at St. Elizabeth’s
Hospital in Washington, D.C. and may have been involved in the case,
told Georgetown faculty member Father Eugene B. Gallagher, S.J., of the
existence of the mysterious diary. Father Gallagher obtained from the
psychiatrist a 16-page diary-like document written as a guide for future
exorcisms.
William Peter Blatty, according to Erdmann, was a student of
Gallagher’s at the time and repeatedly asked his teacher for a copy of
the diary. In the spring of 1950 Father Gallagher loaned the diary to
then-Georgetown University dean Father Brian McGrath, S.J. When Father
Gallagher attempted to retrieve the diary, he was told by Father
McGrath’s secretary that only nine carbon pages remained. Erdmann
wonders whether or not the diary had somehow found its way into
Blatty’s hands.
The bulk of the article consists of reprints from the diary and details
given by Father Gallagher, who was relating information supplied to him
by Father O’Hara of Marquette University—an actual eyewitness and
participant in the exorcism rite administered on Roland Doe. The
following information is paraphrased from these sources.
Titled “Case Study by Jesuit Priests,” the diary begins by supplying
background information on “Roland Doe” (born 6-1-35), son of “Mr.
and Mrs. Edwin Doe” (obvious pseudonyms). It states that the family
lives in a middle-class Washington suburban development.
January 15, 1949—A dripping noise was heard in his grandmother’s
bedroom by the boy and his grandmother. A picture of Christ on the wall
shook and scratching noises were heard under the floor boards. From that
night on scratching was heard every night from 7 p.m. until midnight.
This continued for ten consecutive days. After three days of silence,
the boy heard nighttime “squeaking shoes” on his bed that continued
for six consecutive nights. (Note that the article and presumably the
diary makes no mention as to which family members actually witnessed or
were present when these events transpired.)
January 26, 1949—“Aunt Tillie,” who had a deep interest in
spiritualism and had introduced Roland to the Ouija Board, died of
multiple sclerosis at the age of 54. Mrs. Doe suspected there may have
been some connection between her death and the seemingly strange events
that continued to take place. At one point during the manifestations
Mrs. Doe asked, “If you are Tillie, knock three times.” Waves of air
began striking the grandmother, Mrs. Doe, and Roland and three knocks
were heard on the floor. Mrs. Doe again queried, “If you are Tillie,
tell me positively by knocking four times.” Four knocks were heard,
followed by claw scratchings on Roland’s mattress. (At various points
throughout this ordeal Mrs. Doe would attempt to verbally communicate
with Aunt Tillie, apparently alternating her beliefs that the problems
with her son were either the work of the devil or their departed
relative.)
February 17, 1949—On this night a local Lutheran minister named
Reverend Shultz [sic] arranged to have the boy spend the night at his
parsonage. Roland arrived at 9:20 p.m. and stayed until 9:20 a.m. the
next morning. The Reverend reportedly heard scratching noises, and
witnessed the following: bed vibrations; a chair in which Roland sat
tipping over; and the movement of a pallet of blankets upon which Roland
sat.
February 26, 1949—Beginning on this night scratches or markings
appeared on the boy’s body for four consecutive nights. After the
fourth night words began to appear and seemed to be scratched on by
claws. (The diary indicates that at this point only Mrs. Doe was present
when the markings occurred.) Erdmann mentions that Father Albert Hughes
of St. James Catholic Church in Mount Rainier was consulted. Hughes
suggested the family use blessed candles, holy water, and special
prayers. (Erdmann’s source for this information is not given.)
The chronology now becomes confusing. Between the diary writer (with
information supplied by Mrs. Doe) and Erdmann’s unnamed sources a
number of details are alleged. Mrs. Doe claims that she was using the
blessed candles when a comb flew across the room and extinguished them.
At different times fruit flew across the room, a kitchen table turned
over, milk and food moved off a table, a coat and its hanger flew across
the room, a Bible landed at Roland’s feet, and a rocker in which
Roland sat spun around. Roland was removed from school because his desk
moved around on the schoolroom floor.
The diary is quoted as saying that at one point Mrs. Doe took a bottle
of holy water and sprinkled it throughout the house. When she placed the
bottle on a shelf it flew across the room on its own but did not break.
One night she held a lighted candle alongside Roland and the whole bed,
Mrs. Doe, and Roland all began moving back and forth in unison. Attempts
were made to baptize Roland Doe—it is said he responded with
rage—and a three-and-a-half day stay at Georgetown University Hospital
is mentioned. The events continued when the boy was taken to Normandy,
Missouri, during the first week of March 1949. Various relatives in
Missouri were said to have witnessed the skin brandings.
March 9, 1949—Father Raymond J. Bishop, S.J., of St. Louis University
was called in (for the first time) and witnessed the scratching of the
boy’s body and the motion of the mattress.
March 11, 1949—Father Bowdern (described as being pastor of St.
Francis Xavier Church) arrived on the scene. After Roland retired at 11
p.m., Father Bowdern read the Novena prayer of St. Francis Xavier,
blessed the boy with a relic (a piece of bone from the forearm of St.
Francis Xavier), and fixed a relic-encrusted crucifix under the boy’s
pillow. The relatives left and Father Bowdern and Father Bishop
departed. Soon afterward, a loud noise was heard in Roland’s room and
five relatives rushed to the scene. They reportedly found that a large
book case had moved about, a bench had been turned over, and the
crucifix had been moved to the edge of the bed. The shaking of
Roland’s mattress came to a halt only after the relatives yelled,
“Aunt Tillie, stop!”
March 16,
1949—Archbishop Joseph E. Ritter gave Father Bowdern permission to
begin the formal rite of exorcism. That night, accompanied by Father
Bishop and a Jesuit scholastic (later revealed to be Walter Halloran),
Father Bowdern began reciting the ritual prayers of exorcism.
Throughout March and into April, Roland was confusingly moved back and
forth between the home of his aunt in Normandy, Missouri, a nearby
rectory, and Alexian Brothers Hospital in South St. Louis. The rite was
an ongoing process. Instructions in the ritual command the exorcist to
“pronounce the exorcism in a commanding and authoritative voice.”
The Roman Ritual of Christian Exorcism reads: “I cast thee out, thou
unclean spirit, along with the least encroachment of the wicked enemy
and every phantom and diabolical legion. In the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, depart and vanish from this creature of God….”
Erdmann tells of markings appearing on Roland’s body as these
proceedings continued and of the boy’s usual bad habits: outbursts
featuring excessive cursing, vomiting, urinating and the use of Latin
phrases. Erdmann also mentions that on one occasion Roland got his hand
on a bedspring, broke it, and jabbed it into a priest’s arm. (He
mentions he is not sure if this event took place in his Maryland home or
during the exorcism ritual.) Another time during a round of prayers
after Roland had been instructed into the Catholic faith and had
received his first holy communion, a six-inch portrait of the devil with
its hands held above its head, webs stretching from its hands, and horns
protruding from its head appeared in deep red on the boy’s calf. (It
is not stated who actually witnessed this.) Later, Roland was
transported back to Maryland for a short-lived visit and on one of the
train rides he became maniacal, striking Father Bowdern in the testicles
and yelling, “That’s a nutcracker for you, isn’t it?”
April 18, 1949—As the nighttime ritual continued, Father Bowdern
forced Roland to wear a chain of medals and hold a crucifix in his
hands. Roland’s demeanor changed and he calmly asked questions about
the meanings of certain Latin prayers. Bowdern continued the ritual,
demanding to know who the demon was and when he would depart. Roland
responded with a tantrum and screamed that he was one of the fallen
angels. Bowdern kept reciting until 11:00 p.m. when Roland interrupted.
In a new masculine voice Roland said, “Satan! Satan! I am St. Michael!
I command you, Satan, and the other evil spirits to leave this body, in
the name of Dominus, immediately! Now! Now! Now!” Roland had one last
spasm before falling quiet. “He is gone,” Roland pronounced, later
telling Bowdern he had had a vision of St. Michael holding a flaming
sword. Twelve days later he left Missouri and returned to Maryland.
Two of the more influential articles to appear on this subject (at least
as far as local lore goes) can be found within the pages of The
Prince George’s Sentinel, a weekly published in Hyattsville,
Maryland. Both articles were hastily written by novice writers who
apparently weren’t too concerned with factual content and wrote down
anything that was told to them. Both pieces should be approached with
caution as some valuable information is present, though obscured at
times by nagging inaccuracies.
The first, “The Exorcist: The real incident involved a Mt. Rainier
priest in 1949,” was written by Spencer Gordon, and appeared in the
February 4, 1981 edition. The article reveals for the first time that
Father E. Albert Hughes of St. James Church in Mount Rainier was the
priest who conducted the mysterious, much-rumored first exorcism attempt
on the boy at Georgetown University Hospital. This great revelation was
made when Hughes engaged in a two-hour talk over dinner on the night of
Wednesday, October 8, 1980, with his then-assistant pastor, Father Frank
Bober. It marked the first and only time Hughes ever spoke with Bober
(who would go on to become a key figure in this case for his
high-profile media presence) about the incident. The article states,
“He mentioned few details but as they rose from the table, they
planned to resume their discussion the next week.” However, as Gordon
points out, the second discussion never took place as Hughes died of a
heart attack on October 12, 1980.
The article tells that after psychiatrists failed to help the boy at
Georgetown University Hospital, Father Hughes was called in to perform
the exorcism. At one point the boy ripped out a bedspring and slashed
the priest’s arm (this incident was first referred to by Rev. John J.
Nicola in The Evening Star and the Washington Daily News
article by Gwen Dobson of November 3, 1972). Gordon states that the
incident allegedly had a traumatic effect on Father Hughes and that the
event had been “shrouded in mystery.” He also states that Father
Hughes went into a long seclusion after the aborted rite of exorcism. In
this article the alleged site of the family’s home is revealed for the
first time. Displayed is a photo of an empty field on a street corner,
highlighted with the caption, “Vacant lot on Bunker Hill Road in Mt.
Rainier, exorcism site.” Gordon concludes his work by writing, “The
only physical remains of the exorcism in Mt. Rainier are the steps and
wall surrounding the house where the boy lived. The house burned down
years ago and the lot is vacant.” Gordon does not reveal the full
address of the site and does not reveal who told him that that
particular vacant lot was the site. (It is noteworthy that Father Bober
is not credited in this article as the source of that information.)
Understandably, the article kicked off a local furor as the teen
population made this location the area’s number one twilight
attraction.
The second Sentinel article, “Exorcism: Demonic possession still
haunts Mt. Rainier residents,” was authored by Brenda Caggiano and
appeared in the October 28, 1983 edition, just in time for the Halloween
season. This rambling article includes rough interviews conducted with
local residents and tavern occupants, none of whom knew the possessed
boy’s name. The article did, however, name the address of 3210 Bunker
Hill Road—the vacant lot where the family’s alleged house once
stood. This article also shows a picture of the lot (with the caption
“Where it happened?”) and includes a reference to Father Bober, who
“acknowledged that a boy with demonic possession lived in the vicinity
of the vacant lot at 33rd Street and Bunker Hill Road….”
The last of the significant newspaper articles that treated this event
was also the most widely read, appearing in The Washington Post
of May 6, 1985. In an article titled “Youth’s Bizarre Symptoms Led
to 1949 Exorcism,” author Arthur S. Brisbane provided a quick overview
of the whole story, with a special emphasis on Father Hughes’s role in
the local exorcism attempt. The article identifies the location of the
boy’s home as 3210 Bunker Hill Road in Mount Rainier, citing The
Prince George’s Sentinel article of February 4, 1981 as its
source. The real significance of this article lies in the quotes
attributed to Father Frank Bober. Discussing where the boy lived, Bober
tells the reporter, “Father Hughes never told me the exact spot (of
the residence) but people who were familiar with the case who are still
living in Mt. Rainier identified it.” Curiously, Bober does not
identify the people who identified that location. I would discover the
reason later in my investigation: no such individuals existed.
The ’90s
Resurgence
The recent release of two Exorcist-related projects and the
25th anniversary of the film this year have rejuvenated public interest
in this case. The first to appear was the book Possessed: The True
Story Of An Exorcism which was authored by Thomas B. Allen. Two
editions appeared, a hardback published by Doubleday in July 1993 and a
more accessible paperback version issued by Bantam in April 1994. The
second item is a video titled In The Grip Of Evil, which was
produced in 1997 by Henninger Media Development Inc. of Arlington,
Virginia, in conjunction with the Discovery Channel. Thomas B.
Allen also served as story consultant and writer for this video.
Possessed is the only book to focus entirely on the exorcism of
the possessed boy (who Allen refers to as “Robbie”) and is
essentially based on two sources: the 26-page diary (Steve Erdmann
claims the diary was 16 pages long in his January 1975 Fate
article) that Allen reveals was kept by Father Raymond Bishop; and
interviews with Father Walter H. Halloran, a then-Jesuit scholastic who
assisted in the St. Louis exorcism and is one of the few eyewitnesses
still alive who is willing to discuss his experiences. The author puts
great stock in the belief that the family always resided at 3210 Bunker
Hill Road in Mount Rainier and includes sketchy information about Father
Hughes and the first exorcism performed on the boy at Georgetown
University Hospital. Heavy emphasis is placed on the St. Louis exorcism,
where we learn that 52-year-old Father William S. Bowdern, pastor of St.
Francis Xavier Church in St. Louis conducted the final rite, assisted by
43-year-old Father Raymond Bishop, director of the St. Louis University
Department of Education. Much of the material mirrors what Steve Erdmann
printed in his January 1975 Fate article.
However, the book suffers many shortcomings: the possessed boy’s
identity is not revealed; the schools he attended are not mentioned; no
interviews are conducted with any of the boy’s childhood friends or
classmates; no interviews are conducted with any friends or neighbors of
the boy’s family (once again raising suspicion as to the dubious Mount
Rainier location); and the possessed boy himself is not interviewed.
The 50-minute video In The Grip Of Evil simply reflects the
material Thomas Allen presented in his book Possessed. It
combines theatrical reenactments with Unsolved Mysteries-styled
cameo commentaries by a host of characters including Allen himself,
Father Walter Halloran and Father Frank Bober. Curiously, Allen opens
the video explaining that the family was from Mount Rainier (which I
felt from the beginning was a critical error), though clips shown in two
different parts of the video depicting the boy’s home reveal a
still-intact house that is clearly not at the famed corner of 33rd
Street and Bunker Hill Road in Mount Rainier. Where is this house?
Locating that house and determining the name of the family that once
lived there would be my next investigative objective.
Debunking
the Myth of 3210 Bunker Hill Road, Mount Rainier
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