1949, St Louis, a 13 year old boy, began experiencing disturbing phenomena which progressed from strange sounds to bodily harm. Fearing the worst and desperate. His family solicited the help of doctors and priests alike. It was decided to attempt an exorcism. And what followed directly inspired 1973 classic horror film The Exorcist. What's the truth behind the Exorcism of Rolando? And will we ever know what truly happened? In early 1949, this is a study of strange.
Welcome listeners to another episode of a show where we study the unusual, the weird, the sometimes macabre, all this strange things from history. I'm your host, Michael May. And today we journey into a tale that has fascinated and horrified you both in equal measure. The Exorcism of Roland Doe. It's a tale that inspired William Peter Blatty's 1971 novel, The Exorcist, which in turn spawned one of my favorite horror movies, the 1973 film of the same name.
This is a mini Soad, which is essentially a study of strange without a guest. So it's just me. Lucky you. And the reason for this today is I have a couple of big episodes coming up that are taking a bit more time to research than I expected. So if you are into true crime, you're going to want to stick around for some future episodes coming up. So make sure you hit that subscribe button if you haven't already. So you can be notified when these episodes come out.
The big ones that I'm working on, Our story begins in 1949 in Maryland. and focuses on a 13 year old boy known typically by the alias Roland Doe. He's also sometimes referred to as Robby Manheim or an additional name, which I'll save until the end of this episode. I'll try to refer to him primarily as Roland today. Roland was reported to have experienced an array of disturbing phenomena that would lead to family and religious figures performing exorcisms. But what really happened?
The story has many skeptics and believers, but the facts of this story depend on who you talk to or what source you read. There are multiple versions of this tale, even within the library of the institution where some of the events took place. So let's try to dive into the history and sift through all these facts and explore perhaps the most famous exorcism of all time. It started when Roland was just 13 years old. His Aunt Harriet, a spiritualist, introduced him to a Ouija board.
Soon after and Harriet passed away. And then strange occurrences began to manifest around Roland. It started on or around January 15th of 1949 with small things like scratching sounds or sounds of dripping water coming from the floors or ceiling in his room. Soon after, objects began to move like pieces of furniture. The occurrences continued to progress over time, becoming stronger and more persistent, including an episode where Roland's bed shook,
concerned and terrified. Roland's family sought help. Turning first to their Lutheran minister, Reverend Luther Miles Schultz, a minister who just so happened to have an interest in the esoteric, the paranormal, the unexplained probably would be a fan of my show. Schultz advised the family to speak to a Catholic priest because they know of such things as demons and possessions. And this led the family to Father Edward Hughes, a Roman Catholic priest.
And Roland was apparently under such duress that Father Hughes recommended an exorcism. Let's take a quick moment to explain exorcisms. It's a spiritual practice to expel demons or evils from a person who's possessed. They do exist in different forms, depending on the religious beliefs of the practitioners. And in Western society, we usually associated with Christianity, the Catholic Church, to be specific. The practice practically died out in Christianity hundreds of years ago.
But there are rare examples and rare groups that still use them today. And in Roland Doe's case, the Catholic Church was involved and approved of the exorcism. In these cases, priest use prayers, holy water to evoke the name of Jesus Christ or saints. The movie and the book, The Exorcist, the highly dramatized for entertainment, does showcase some of the real practices of an exorcism. Back to the story.
Father Hughes was the first to attempt an exorcism on Rolando in late February or early March of 1949. However, this initial attempt failed when Roland broke free of his restraints and injured the priest with a spring from the mattress. It was a sign perhaps, of the intense struggle that was to unfold before the first exorcism. Brolin's family had observed markings appear on Roland's body, including words or symbols that seemed to be etched into his skin from within.
one such word was allegedly Saint Louis or Louis, which sparked the idea to move in with family in Saint Louis to get a change of scenery and see if that would help. This move happened around March 3rd. So, as you can tell, a lot of this is happening very quickly over a period of about a month. The case eventually caught the attention of Father Walter H. Halloran and Reverend William s Boughton, among others.
And Reverend Boughton observed the boy in his relative's house and blessed Roland with a relic, a piece of bone from Saint Francis Xavier's forearm. Saint Francis was one of the founders of the Jesuits, and less than a week later, the Archbishop gives approval for Boughton to perform an exorcism. On March 16th, 1949, Boughton Halloran and Reverend Raymond Bishop arrived at the family's house at 10:15 p.m. to perform said Exorcism. The story does not end that night. Roland does not improve.
Over several weeks, they continued performing rituals on Roland. Sometimes things got violent. He would scream, he would yell, he would speak and intelligently. looking for any sort of help. The boy was taken to a hospital, and then they decided to fly him back home to Maryland. And then they decided to bring him back out the Saint Louis again. The desperation that the family had was very evident in all of these actions.
Roland even converted to Catholicism at this time and made his first Holy Communion. Then the day after Easter, April 18th, they perform One Last Exorcism. Roland was restrained and they began their prayers. Roland apparently yelled, Satan will always be with me. Saint Michael was called upon to battle Satan. And then Roland calmed down, looked around the room and simply said, he's gone. And with that months of worry and heartache, we're over.
Roland seemingly was able to return to a, quote unquote, normal life. It was much more than throw up in yelling. Father Hallorann later said, reflecting on the Hollywood portrayal versus their real experiences. He described phenomena that were beyond human in existence, suggesting a battle was being waged. Some of the rituals took place in the family's house in Saint Louis.
The Alexy and Brothers Hospital in Saint Louis, and the rectory of the Saint Francis Xavier College Church on Saint Louis University's campus, where apparently the room in which part of the exorcism took place is left alone and rarely opened. And just to be cleaned, though accounts about which room. The exorcism took place in is still debated to this day, CE not all accept the supernatural explanation or the religious explanation for what was going on.
Skeptics point at the potential psychological explanation, suggesting Roland may have suffered from mental illness, emotional disturbance, or sexual abuse. These kind of things are quite common with supposed exorcism situations. They question the reliability of eyewitness accounts and the influence of religious fervor in interpreting these beliefs. The Washington Post in 1949 reported on The Exorcism with an article headlined Priest Frees Mt. Rainier Boy reportedly held in Devil's Grip.
This piece of journalism brought the case into the public eye, including William Peter Blatty, and offered a blend of caution and curiosity. In its reporting. That article and its influence on the movie The Exorcist is what made this likely the most famous exorcism story of all time. Roland was a normal boy, a family member told The Post, which made the whole thing even harder to believe.
other articles were published soon after the Washington Post and all of these original articles are thought to have originated with the family priest, Father Schultz. So what really happened to Roland Doe? Was it a case of demonic possession? Or can the events surrounding Roland be explained by psychological disturbances, as skeptics suggest? Despite the decades that have passed, the case remains a touchstone for the debate between science and faith.
and then there's the author and historian, Thomas Allen. He wrote one of the preeminent books on the exorcism of Roland Doe called Possessed. Allen got in touch with Father Halloran to learn about the case and even had access to a diary from Father Boughton. Allen has shared publicly that there's no proof that this boy was actually possessed. Even Father Halloran has expressed doubt.
And he was the last surviving, lying witness of the events, the behavior, the phenomena happening with Roland and around Rohan, some of which I have shared in this episode, come with an asterisk where scratching sounds or moving objects, etc. There's no evidence that any of those things came from something paranormal or unexplained. It's mostly rumors that spread after the article from the Post was published.
And perhaps that's where the true mystery lies, not in the definitive answers we seek, but in the questions that continue to haunt us. In the tale of Roland Doe, we have a reminder of the power of the unknown to captivate our imagination and challenge our beliefs. Part of this unknown is that Roland's real identity was always kept a secret for his protection. And since he was a young boy, I'm grateful that those involved continue to do so throughout their lives.
Though investigators have identified in recent years a possible match. Ronald E Honkala, Ronald, known by Ronni by his friends, passed away about four years ago. As of this recording, he lived an impressive life working successfully for NASA for many years. From what we can tell, he was normal, lived a normal life. He never spoke about his experiences with the exorcisms publicly, though according to find a grave Rt.com, a close friend has said, and I quote here, he said he wasn't possessed.
It was all concocted. He said, I was just a bad boy. What do you believe? thank you for joining me on this many soad on this journey through this strange. I'm michael may and thank you for listening to the show. As i mentioned earlier, we have a couple of big true crime episodes coming out, so make sure you're subscribed so you can be notified when those episodes drop. If you're interested in supporting the show, the best way to do that is to leave a rating and review.
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