Unexplained Halloween Special 2016

sixty Street. Kinderman quickly pulled out to follow. As he turned the corner, he noticed that the tall old man hadn't moved, but was standing under the treat light glow in the midst like a melancholy traveler frozen in time, and so marks the arrival of the eponymous exorcist in William Peter Blattie's Extraordinary novel, first published in nineteen seventy one. The scene was later immortalized as the poster of the film adaptation, released on December twenty sixth, nineteen seventy three.

It is for many the most iconic horror film of all time. From William Friedkin's masterful direction, to Blattie's profound and personal script to the intensely evocative use of Mike Oldfield's tubular bells, it is a cinematic masterpiece. It is also regularly described as the scariest film of all time that on first screening had audience members fainting and vomiting in the aisles, with many reduced to tears by the sheer terror of it all. Ambulances and paramedics were regularly

dispatched to attend to the hapless viewers. But what many people don't know is that Blattie's Nightmarish book was in fact based on a real life exorcism. This is that story. The town of Cottage City in Maryland, stretching from the Fort Lincoln Funeral Home to the banks of the Anacostia River, is today home to a small but proud, working class community of roughly twelve hundred inhabitants. Back in the early nineteen hundreds, alongside what is now Colmar Manor, the area

was the place to settle irreconcilable differences. Between eighteen oh eight and eighteen sixty eight, roughly fifty affairs of honor were fatally concluded on the surrounding land, later named the Bladensburg Julian Grounds. As such, the small waterway that borders the area, formerly known as Blood Run, was later named

Duling Creek. On twenty fourth of August eighteen fourteen, the area played host to the Battle of Bladensburg, a bitterly fought skirmish in the War of eighteen twelve, which resulted in the eventual capture and burning of Washington, d c By the attacking British forces. That evening, as distant flames leaped into the late summer sky, the Blood of the Dead washed into Duling Creek never had its former name

of Blood Run been more apt. In eighteen seventy a group of developers attempted to establish a township on the site of Duling Creek, but it wasn't until nineteen o four that the semblance of a community began to appear. Finally, in nineteen twenty four, the town of Cottage City was formerly incorporated. Two years later, roughly eight hundred miles away in Saint Louis, Missouri, a happy young couple were getting married.

Twenty five year old machinist Edwin Hunkeler and twenty three year old Adele Coppage had been introduced a few years previously by O'Dell's brother James. Eight years later, the couple were overjoyed when O'Dell fell pregnant shortly before their ninth wedding anniversary on June the first, nineteen thirty five. The

couple had a young boy who they named Ronnie. In nineteen thirty nine, the young family, along with O'Dell's mother, Anna, took the eight hundred mile journey to Cottage City and eventually settled down in a modest sized suburban bungalow on fortieth Avenue. For the young Ronnie, it was to prove a difficult transition. By nineteen forty eight, the thirteen year old Ronnie was, by all accounts, a shy and reserved child who struggled to make friends and seemed only to

perk up whenever his Aunt Matilda came to visit. From an early age, Ronnie had developed an intensely close relationship with his aunt, whom he affectionately called Aunt Tillie, who in return doated on her nephew. Tillie considered herself somewhat of a spiritualist and loved nothing more than to share her fascination with her favorite nephew. Ronnie was fascinated with her stories, but in particular a strange board that she would often talk about, a device that enabled her to

speak to the dead. One day, Tillie brought one such artifact as a gift for Ronnie. It was the first time he had ever seen a weija board. Over the next few days, Aunt Tillie instructed Ronnie on how to use the board as together they attempted to communicate with the spirits. For a young boy brought up in a strict religious household, belief in the afterlife would have been absolute.

As such, it would never have occurred to him that there wouldn't be somebody out there to answer their calls, or, more pertinently, since he trusted his aunt, that there would be anything to fear in the process. But on January the fifteenth, nineteen forty nine, all that was about to change. On Saturdays, Ronnie's parents would gather with friends to play Canaster.

On the night of the fifteenth, with Edwin and O'Dell out for the evening, it was left to Anna to look after her grandson and something it seemed was stirring. At some point in the evening, Ronnie and his grandmother became aware of a dripping noise with no source to be found. Then, a picture of Jesus Christ hanging on the wall began to shake, almost as if something had thumped it from behind, and then the scratching Anne it was coming from under Anna's bed. Edwin and Adele arrived

home to find Anna and Ronnie in some distress. Edwin wasted no time in identifying the noise as nothing more than a rodent infestation, and an exterminator was duly called, But despite treating the entire house, the scratching did not stop. For a full ten days, the peculiar noises persisted, and then, as abruptly as it had begun, they stopped, or at least it appeared so to Edwin, O'Dell and Anna, but Ronnie was still hearing them. The following day, tragedy struck

the family. Ronnie's favorite aunt, Tillie, suffered from multiple sclerosis. Although no longer classified as a fatal disease, for Tillie, life saving advances in the treatment of the illness were still many years away. In the early hours of January the twenty sixth, Matilda Hendricks passed away in Saint Louis at the age of fifty four. For Ronnie, the devastation was immeasurable. Meanwhile, back at home, things are about to take an even stranger turn. Are you always taking care

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to get started. That's t e l a d oc dot com slash unexplained podcast. Although Ronnie had continued to hear the noises, it wasn't until the twenty eighth, two days after Tillie's death, that the family began to hear them again too, only this time they had moved from Anna's room and followed Ronnie into his. On the night of February the second, O'Dell and Anna, who were suspicious of Ronnie's involvement, lay with him on his bed in the dark. Moments later, the sound of footsteps could be

heard coming straight towards them. The footsteps continued to run up and down the length of the bed until O'Dell called out, Aunt Tillie, is that you? But there was no reply. She asked again if you were there? Tilly knock three times in an instant. Waves of air struck them all, as if somebody had been walking past, and then the sound of three distant knocks came up from the floor. Suddenly, the mattress began to shake violently, and

the edges of the bed sheets stood up stiff. When Adele touched them, they dropped down again limp, as there had been before. Perhaps there was some comfort to be found in Aunt Tillie's apparent communication, but Adele couldn't shake the sense that something far more terrifying was at play. Not knowing where to turn, the family consulted local Lutheran

minister forty two year old Myles Schultz. Scholtz, the pastor of Saint Stephen's Evangelical Church, arranged for Ronnie to spend the night with him in the hope that he might get to the bottom of the unlikely claims. What followed was a night of unremitting disturbance. Scholtz watched a gasp as Ronnie's bed vibrated through the evening, and hideous scratching sounds were heard coming from the walls. Unable to identify the problem, the following day, Scholtz had Ronnie assessed at

the Mental Hygiene Clinic of the University of Maryland. A physician and psychologist were consulted, but neither could find anything wrong with the boy. In the days that followed, the disturbances intensified as items were thrown across the home in the vicinity of Ronnie, including a table laden with milk and food that was tossed upside down, and then a terrifying twist. On the night of Saturday, February the twenty sixth, a horrific scream brought Adele running to her son's bedroom.

On the bed, Ronnie writhed in agony, Adele lifted up his night shirt to reveal scratch marks across his body. It became clear to Adele that whatever this was, it was nothing to do with Aunt Tillie. Increasingly desperate, the family turned, at Schultze's insistence, to the Catholic Church. A father, Edward Albert Hughes, priests of Saint James's parish at nearby Mount Rainier, was consulted. Hughes sent O'Dell home with a set of blessed candles, a bottle of holy water, and

a strict set of instructions. Back at home, Adele immediately began sprinkling the water throughout the house. As soon as she placed the bottle on the shelf, it flew across the room. Later, attempts to light the blessed candles were quickly abandoned when a comb was thrown across the room, extinguishing the flames. Reports of what happened over the next few days tend to vary wildly, but at some point it appears the strange scratches on Ronnie's body started to

form words. At this point, O'Dell made the dramatic decision to move the family back to Saint Louis In the hope of some respite. But if she was hoping they could outrun whatever was haunting them, she was greatly mistaken. Nonetheless, Ronnie was promptly pulled from his class at Bladensburg Elementary School, and on March the third, nineteen forty nine, the family made the trip back to Missouri to stay at the home of Leonard and Doris Hunkeler, Edwin's brother and sister

in law. Almost immediately, the disturbances began again, witnessed this time by six different relatives. A cousin of Ronnie's who attended Saint Louis University, brought the case to the attention of her tutor, Father Raymond J. Bishop Bishop, a Roman Catholic priest, was deeply disturbed by her account. On Wednesday, March ninth, Father Bishop arrived at the Hunkoler home in

the Belnour neighborhood of Saint Louis. After being introduced to Ronnie, he quickly and quietly went about his business while a distraught Odell and five other relatives watched on. From his bag, he removed a vial of holy water and a second class relic of Saint Margaret Mary. Father Bishop pinned the relic to the corner of Ronnie's bed and watched in

horror as immediately the bed began to move. When he sprinkled the holy water of Saint Ignatius over the boy in the shape of a cross, the movement ceased abruptly, but when Father Bishop left the room, the movement began again. Ronnie cried out and doubled over in pain. His mother, who had not left the room, pulled up his shirt, revealing red zig zag scratches underneath, as if a claw

had been dragged across his chest. Father Bishop relayed his thoughts to his colleague and pastor of the College Church in Saint Louis, Father William Bowden. Over the next few days, Bowden too witnessed the extraordinary phenomena for himself, including the scratching of a cross on to Ronnie's arm. A few

days later, he sat the family down. The devil has hold of your son, he said, and so On the evening of March sixteenth, Father William Bowden and Father Raymond Bishop, accompanied by a mister Walter Halloran, stepped from the dark of the street into Leonard and Doris's home to begin the exorcism of Ronnie Hunkuler. At ten thirty p m. Father Bowden put on the vestments, first his surplice, followed by the draping of his purple silk stole around his neck.

He removed a vile blessed water from his case and a selection of holy relics. Shortly after, Bowden entered Ronnie's bedroom and, standing over him, made the Act of contrition. Then Father, Bishop Walter Halloran, Odell Leonard, and Doris were called in to prepare for the exorcism. Together they knelt around the bed and recited the acts of faith, hope, love and contrition. When they were complete, and began to

recite the Rituale Romanum. At the utterance of the first word, Ronnie began to Writhe Then three large parallel bars were scratched across his stomach. At any mention of the name of the Lord or his blessed Mother and Saint Michael. Scratches appeared on Ronnie's legs, thighs, stomach, back, chest, face and throat, with at least one scratch drawing blood. Bowden demanded the evil spirit identify itself Again, came the scratches, and the witnesses gasped the word hell was written across

the boy's chest. Soon after, Ronnie seemed to drift into a quiet sleep. Then, as Bishop and Bowden began the prayers to Saint Michael, something changed. A strange smile stretched across Ronnie's face. He began to stir from sleep, before breaking into an eerie laughter. In a sudden fit, he sat bolt upright and began pummeling the headboard with his fists, then swung his arms wildly in the air. Holy water was sprinkled across his body, and immediately he stopped as

if suddenly awakening. Asked where he had been, Ronnie explained, I was fighting a huge red devil. He was slimy and very powerful. I was above a fiery hot pit about two hundred feet deep, and he was stopping me from getting through an iron gate, while all around stood other smaller devils. The prayers continued, which seemed only to provoke Ronnie back into a tantrum as he wrestled with

his apparent demonic foe. At midnight, the movement became so violent that two men were required to hold Ronnie down, who ride with uncommon force and spat at his tormentors. At the peak of each outburst, the holy water would again be sprinkled, calming the boy momentarily before the gyrations returned, before finally moderating around five am. At seven thirty am in the morning of March the seven, Ronnie finally managed to sleep. The first day of the exorcism was finished,

but it was far from over. In the days that followed, Ronnie continued to lash out, violently, spitting and cursing at the priests and anyone else who came near, imploring them to go to Hell and be damned, his voice alternating from childlike to guttural growls. He snapped his teeth as they held him down. On occasions, he would harm and sing in a broken and peculiarly high voice, all the while his family watched in desperation, utterly convinced the devil

had their son in his grip. The next few weeks saw Ronnie moved from a number of different locations as the priests continued their work. He was moved first to the rectory at Saint Francis Saviour's Church, which seemed only to increase the intensity of the apparent possession. In one incident, Ronnie lashed out at Halloran, breaking his nose. At times

he was being restrained by four grown men. It was then decided he would be moved to the Alexian Brother's Hospital in Saint Louis, where Ronnie was placed in a psychiatric ward. On Thursday in March thirty first, having been briefly returned to the rectory, Ronnie began to talk Father Bishop. He said, all people that mangle with me will die a terrible death. The priests agreed converting Ronnie to Catholicism

would help his chances. The next day, as he was being driven to the church by his uncle, Ronnie complained that his feet were becoming hot. He turned to Leonard, you think you can drive me out with holy communion? Ronnie then laughed, grabbing the steering wheel with both hands as Leonard wrestled to keep the car under control, before finally bringing it to a standstill up the side of

the curb. The baptism was eventually co had, but by now the strain un Ronnie's aunt and uncle had become unbearable, and the priests arranged for Ronnie to return to Cottage City. However, unable to find anywhere willing to take him, the priests had Ronnie brought back to the Alexian Brother's hospital for ten more days. Father Bowden, Bishop and mister Halloran continued

the exorcism to no avail, but then something changed. At ten forty five pm on the evening of Monday, April eighteenth, Ronnie fell once more into a seizure, but as he writhed on the bed, suddenly his body stilled, and from his mouth, with a strange calm, he uttered the words Satan, Satan, I am Saint Michael, and I command you Satan and the other evil spirits to leave the body in the name of Dominus immediately now. And then came the most

violent contortions of the entire exorcism. The brothers struggled to hold Ronnie down as he continued to thrash and writhe, until suddenly Ronnie stopped moving and opened his eyes. He's gone, he said. Ronnie later claimed in that moment to have been taken to the mouth of a fiery cave, in front of which stood the devil. There was a brilliant white light, and in that light stood a beautiful man

holding a fiery sword. It was Saint Michael. He pointed to the devil and then at the cave, he spoke only one word to Ronnie Dominus, at which point the devil ran back into the flames and was vanquished for good. After ninety four days, the disturbances had ceased once and for all. All elements of Unexplained and are produced by me Richard McClain smith. Please subscribe and rate the show on iTunes, and feel free to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on

the show. Perhaps you have an explanation of your own you'd like to share. You can reach us online at Unexplained podcast dot com or on Twitter at Unexplained Pod. Now. It's time to take care of yourself. To make time for you, teledoc gives you access to a licensed therapist to help you get back to feeling your best. Speak to a licensed therapist by phone or video anytime between seven a m. To nine pm local time, seven days

a week. Teledoc Therapy is available through most insurance or employers. Download the app or visit teledoc dot com forward slash Unexplained Podcast today to get started. That's t e la d oc dot com Slash Unexplained Podcast