Feeling Devilish? Try The
Exorcist
To this day The Exorcist stands as one of the most
horrifying movies ever made, a legendary cinematic venture that
graphically portrays an epic struggle between human lives and
demonic forces. Adapted from William Peter Blattys best-selling
1971 novel of the same name, the film was released by Warner
Brothers on December 26, 1973 and immediately played to packed
movie theaters across the country. The ensuing media blitz
focused its attention on both the movies hard-to-stomach
scenes that depicted a child possessed by the devil and the fact
that author Blatty had based the story on a supposedly real event
that took place in the Washington, D.C. area back in 1949. The
film was nominated in 1974 for ten Academy Awards (including Best
Picture) and was the recipient of two: Best Screenplay
Based On Material From Another MediumWilliam Peter
Blatty, and Best SoundRobert Knudson and Chris
Newman. The Exorcist has retained a faithful following
since its debut and to date has grossed over $165 million (making
it the thirteenth top grossing film of all time), with video
sales and rentals still bringing home healthy sums.
Produced by William Peter Blatty himself and directed by William
Friedkin (who received a 1971 academy award for Best Director for
the movie The French Connection), the movie tells the
harrowing tale of diabolically possessed 12-year-old Regan
MacNeil (portrayed by Linda Blair) and the ensuing battle waged
by her mother Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn), Father Karras (Jason
Miller) and the exorcist Father Merrin (Max von Sydow) to free
her soul from the devils grasp. The movie, set in the
Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., deservedly achieved
its widespread notoriety for its gut-wrenching scenes of Regans
colorful exhibitions. She vomits, curses, spins her head around
and commits various grotesque acts of blasphemy. Mixed in with
her ill-mannered behavior are healthy doses of sensational
levitation and additional special effects designed to send the
weak-at-heart heading for the exits. While critics acknowledged
the films box-office power, reviews seemed equally divided
between those who loved the movie and those who hated it. The
Exorcist is a disturbing 121-minute film that leaves its
audience pained, drained, and entertained.
Emphasis on Blattys inspiration for The Exorcist intensified
after the novel was released in May 1971, went to the top of the
best-seller lists, and began receiving movie offers from
Hollywood. The first of many major publications to consider
Blattys literary sources was The New York Times,
which weighed in with an article by Chris Chase on August 27,
1972 titled Everyones Reading It, Billys
Filming It. The article chronicles how director William
Friedkin became involved in the project and touches upon the fact
that Blatty based his novel on a local story of demonic
possession that he learned of while attending college. Soon after
the movie achieved worldwide success, Blatty released the book William
Peter Blatty On The Exorcist From Novel To Film (New York:
Bantam Books, 1974) and filled in the gaps on how he devised this
literary project. He writes that as a 20-year-old English
Literature major at Georgetown University he spied an article in
the August 20, 1949 Washington Post (Bill Brinkley,
Priest Frees Mt. Rainier Boy Reported Held In Devils
Grip), that told of a 14-year-old Mount Rainier, Maryland
boy who had been freed by a Catholic priest of possession by the
devil through the ancient ritual of exorcism. For years the
notion of demonic possession stuck in his mind though he failed
to incorporate the information into his work product.
Blatty went on to become a screenwriter-author, responsible for
screenplays for several movies including A Shot In The Dark;
John Goldfarb, Please Come Home; and What Did You Do
In The War, Daddy? He began writing The Exorcist in
1969, drawing upon the material he had discovered some twenty
years earlier, and finished his project during the summer of 1971.
His creative process in researching and finishing both the novel
and movie is detailed in his 1974 book. The most interesting
aspect of this work is that Blatty tells of a letter he composed
to the priest who conducted the actual 1949 exorcism. Blatty
prints a censored version of the exorcists response,
revealing for the first time the existence of a diary kept by an
attending priest that recorded the daily events of the ongoing
exorcism. Blatty writes that he requested to see the diary but
the exorcist declined. Blatty decided to ease the exorcists
anxiety and change the lead character from a 14-year-old boy to
that of a 12-year-old girl. In this book Blatty goes on to
mention that five copies of the diary were known to exist at that
time: two were in the possession of people who watched over the
boy; copies were in the archives of two separate archdioceses;
and one was in the files of an unnamed public city hospital where
the boy had stayed. (It has since been determined that there are
several other copies floating around out there among private
collectors.) Blatty maintains that he did indeed eventually read
the diary and based much of his book and movie on that material,
though he does not reveal how he came upon his copy.
The Exorcist is truly a modern-day cultural phenomenon.
A best-selling novel, one of the highest grossing movies of all
time, and today a household word that instantly generates dark
images of uncontrollable horror, The Exorcist has
fostered an underground cult following that continues to embraceand
attempts to tracethe storys macabre origins. There
have been dozens of newspaper and magazine articles that have
tried to tell the true story. Books, television
specials, and video documentaries on the subject have appeared,
with the most recent offerings being the 1993 book Possessed:
The True Story Of An Exorcism by Thomas B. Allen and the
1997 Henninger Media video In The Grip Of Evil. Most of
the published works on this subject are poorly referenced and
offer contradictory and even erroneous material. So much has been
embellished and fabricated that it has become nearly impossible
to differentiate fact and fiction. There is only one constant
that seems to unite the biased writers who have tried to revise
this story to suit their own agendasnone have ever actually
talked with the possessed boy and none have ever interviewed
anyone who grew up close to the family in question. I always felt
the real story could only come from them.
Who Was This Possessed Kid and Where Did
He Really Live?
Inquiring Minds Want to Know...
My interest in The Exorcist tale gradually escalated
during the 1992 to 1996 time period. Most of my spare hours were
spent during those years conducting research for my book Capitol
Rock (Riverdale: Fort Center Books, 1997). Consequently, for
a lengthy chapter on blues-rock guitar great Roy Buchanan, I
spent a great deal of time canvassing the city of Mount Rainier,
Marylanda smallish working-class community of approximately
8,000 residents quietly tucked away in Victorian homes and
bungalows on the D.C. line. The town was known for two things:
the home of the great Roy Buchananand the alleged site of
the story behind The Exorcist.
Indeed, ever since the early 80s local high school teens
had been flocking to what was then a vacant lot at the corner of
Bunker Hill Road and 33rd Street right in the residential heart
of Mount Rainier. Believing it to be the former site of the house
where the possessed boy lived, these Prince Georges County
teens delighted in roaming the lot at all hours of the night,
drinking beer on the premises, erecting wooden crosses on the
property, and yelling and screaming until local police had to
come and chase them away. Several local newspaper accounts had
set the tale in motion and an urban legend was born.
As I logged hundreds of hours in Mount Rainier chatting with the
towns oldest residents, one unsettling aspect of the Exorcist
tale continuously reared its head. Without exception, the
old-timers insisted that although their beloved town was given
credit for being the home of the Exorcist story, the boy in
question never actually lived in Mount Rainier. I found this to
be very strange, since all of the sensational material printed on
the subject placed him in Mount Rainier. Having spoken with
members of Mount Rainiers largest, oldest, and most
prominent families, I found it very odd that not one person knew
either the boys name or the names of any of his family
members. Several told me that they had heard rumors that the boy
in question was really from Cottage City, a small semi-isolated
community just a short distance away. I felt I had hit paydirt
when one lifelong Mount Rainier resident, Dean Landolt (today 70
years old), candidly told me, I was very good friends with
Father Hughes, the priest involved in that case, as was my
brother Herbert. Father Hughes told me two thingsone was
that the boy lived in Cottage City, and the other is that he went
on to graduate from Gonzaga High and turned out fine. If Mr.
Landolts information was accurate it would explain why
nobody in Mount Rainier knew the boys name. I felt that a
serious, thorough investigation into this case was required to
patch up the growing holes that were now so evident.
I went back and examined my files on this local subject. The
various published writings on the 1949 possession case contained
a great deal of conflicting and confusing information. Still, I
felt it would be a tremendous personal challenge to conduct this
investigation from an entirely different viewpoint and in October
1997 I began my pursuit. Unlike those who had tackled this case
before me, I decided that I would present a completely objective
and unbiased factual report on the case. In setting my
investigative goals it was understood that proving whether or not
the boy in this case was actually possessed was not on the agenda.
I sought to explore new territories: I would examine the critical
elements of the case and create a factual framework from which to
work, determine who the boy was and where he actually grew up,
attempt to talk with him about his experiences, and interview
friends from his hometown who grew up with him or knew his family.
None of this had ever been done before.
Breaking the Story of the Haunted Boy
The following articles represent a large cross section of
published material on this case. A careful reading will reveal
many glaring inconsistencies in the basic story-telling, but I
feel all are important for the raw data they offer. In scanning
this material from 1949 to the present day one can discern the
most common and widely believed scenario for this case of
possession. Reporters to date have claimed that the 13- or 14-year-old
boy was allegedly from Mount Rainier, Maryland. (It was later
revealed that his date of birth was June 1, 1935, meaning he was
actually 13 when the rite of exorcism was finally completed).
Later accounts declared his home address to have been 3210 Bunker
Hill Road. It is said the boy underwent a first exorcism at
Georgetown University Hospital conducted by local priest Father E.
Albert Hughes (where the boy allegedly slashed Hughess arm
with a bedspring), and then underwent a final and successful rite
of exorcism by Father William Bowdern at Alexian Brothers
Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri in the spring of 1949. The road
linking this information together is a muddled trail indeed.
The media first became involved in this case when The
Washington Post ran an article on August 10, 1949 titled
Pastor Tells Eerie Tale of Haunted Boy.
Written in an almost tongue-in-cheek style by reporter Bill
Brinkley, the piece tells an out-of-this-world story
of a local 13-year-old boy. The story came to light when an
unnamed minister gave a speech before a local meeting of the
Society of Parapsychology at the Mount Pleasant Library in
Washington, D.C. According to the minister the family had
experienced many strange events in their suburban Maryland home
beginning January 18th: scratching noises emanated from the houses
walls; the bed in which the boy slept would shake violently; and
objects such as fruit and pictures would jump to the floor in the
boys presence. The minister, described as being intensely
skeptical, arranged for the boy to spend the night of February 17th
in his home. With the boy sleeping nearby in a twin bed the
minister reported that in the dark he heard vibrating sounds from
the bed and scratching sounds on the wall. During the rest of the
night he allegedly witnessed some strange eventsa heavy
armchair in which the boy sat seemingly tilted on its own and
tipped over and a pallet of blankets on which the sleeping boy
lay inexplicably moved around the room. Curiously, the article
described the minister as laughing as he related these incidents
to his audience. He admonished the boy by saying, Now,
look, this is enough of this.... The article ended by
saying that the minister called in the family doctor, who
prescribed phenobarbital for the whole family.
The Evening Star (Washington, D.C.) followed up the Posts
scoop with an uncredited article later that evening on August 10,
1949 titled Minister Tells Parapsychologists Noisy Ghost
Plagued Family. The Evening Stars account
differed from the Posts in that the family was
referred to as Mr. and Mrs. John Doe and their 13-year-old
son Roland. It also describes their house as a one-and-one-half
story home in a Washington suburb and refers to the events
as the strange story of Roland and his Poltergeist.
The article tells of the talk given by the minister before the
Society of Parapsychology, and recounts his experiences with the
boy. The minister told the reporter that Roland had made two
trips to a mental hygiene clinic and that during an earlier trip
to the Midwest the boy had been subjected to three different
rites of exorcism by three different faithsEpiscopal,
Lutheran, and Roman Catholic. The article quoted Richard C.
Darnell, president of the Society, as saying that Dr. J. B.
Rhine, director of the Parapsychology Laboratory at Duke
University, called the so-called haunting the most
impressive manifestation he has heard of in the poltergeist field.
The article ended with the minister saying that things had been
calm in the household for about the last two months.
The Times-Herald (Washington, D.C.) joined the fray with
an article by William Flythe, Jr. on August 11, 1949 titled
Haunted Boys Parents Tell Of Ghost
Messages. A basic rehash of the previous two accounts, this
piece adds that the boy lived in the Brentwood section
northeast and also tells that the family had found
dermographic messages written in a rash on the boys body.
The article states that when the messages were brought to the
attention of the minister involved, he could detect nothing
more than an ordinary rash. The family reported that the
boy was taken to St. Louis, where he returned to normalcy after
experiencing visions of St. Michael chasing away the devil.
On August 19, 1949 The Evening Star (Washington, D.C.)
featured the article Priest Freed Boy of Possession By
Devil, Church Sources Say. As the first account to provide
any exorcism details to the public, the article opens by saying,
A Catholic priest has successfully freed a 14-year-old
Mount Rainier, Md., boy of reported possession by the devil here
early this year, it was disclosed today. While names are
withheld, it is revealed that the ritual of exorcism was given
after the boys affliction was studied at both Georgetown
University Hospital and St. Louis University. The article went on
to describe the exorcism process, but offered no other
significant details. The next day the same paper ran a follow-up
titled New Details of Boys Exorcism In Catholic
Ritual Disclosed, though in reality few new details were
revealed. It did cite church sources as saying that during the
rite the boy had recited a stream of blasphemous curses,
intermingled with Latin phrases. The article then recapped events
that had earlier been printed regarding the minister at a meeting
of the Society of Parapsychology.
The Washington Post chimed in on August 20, 1949 with
another Bill Brinkley-authored piece, this one titled Priest
Frees Mt. Rainier Boy Reported Held in Devils Grip.
At greater length than the previous published accounts, Brinkley
recounts the familys entire haunting episode and reveals
that only after 20 to 30 performances of the ancient ritual of
exorcism was the devil finally cast out of the boy. He also tells
that during the rite the youngster would break into violent
tantrums of screaming, cursing, and voicing of Latin phrases. The
exorcism, which according to Brinkley was conducted by a St.
Louis priest in his fifties who accompanied the boy for two
months, was first initiated in St. Louis, continued in D.C., and
was ultimately completed back in St. Louis. The article states
that when the last performance of the ritual was given, the boy
became quiet and later reported witnessing a vision of St.
Michael casting the devil out. The exorcism ritual was completed
only after the boy had been taken into the Catholic church. It
was this article that inspired then-20-year-old Georgetown
English major William Peter Blatty to later write his novel of
demonic possession.
The Parapsychology Bulletin (August 1949, Number 14), a
periodical of the New York-based Parapsychology Foundation,
weighed in with the uncredited Report Of A Poltergeist,
an article that finally published the name of the anonymous
clergyman of the haunted boys family. He turned out to be
Reverend Luther Miles Schulze and in this article his experiences
with the boy were reported in detail. My own research revealed
that Luther Miles Schulze was born on July 30, 1906 and at the
time of this case served as the pastor of St. Stephens
Evangelical Lutheran Church (1611 Brentwood Road NE, Washington,
D.C.).
After the Novel
When The Exorcist was released in novel form in 1971 it
went straight to the top of the best-seller lists. It didnt
take long for Hollywood to show interest, with Blatty quickly
selling the film rights to Warner Brothers for $641,000.00. When
filming began in August 1972, articles surfaced in newspapers and
magazines around the country that explored the author-producers
various reference sources. Of these writings, the most
significant to appear was authored by Gwen Dobson in the November
3, 1972 edition of The Evening Star and The
Washington Daily News (Washington, D.C.). Titled Luncheon
With Father John J. Nicola, the article explains that
Nicola, then 43-year-old assistant director of the National
Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in D.C. and regarded as one
of the countrys leading authorities on exorcism, was called
upon to serve as the movies technical consultant. Details
of the entire case are recapped along with Nicolas views on
the subject as a whole. What makes the work intriguing, however,
is that one unusual piece of information surfaces while Dobson is
discussing aspects of the actual rite of exorcism that was
performed on the boy. The article states, The first priest
who worked with him suffered a slashed arm when the boy wrenched
a bed spring coil loose and cut the priest. While the name
of the priest who had his arm slashed is not divulged and no
further information is offered, this marks the first time that
such an event had ever been mentioned in print.
After the Movie
Media interest peaked after the movies 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.
Erdmanns 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 Erdmanns story.
Erdmann also explains that during the fall of 1949 an unnamed
Georgetown University student, whose father was a psychiatrist at
St. Elizabeths 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
Gallaghers 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 McGraths secretary that only
nine carbon pages remained. Erdmann wonders whether or not the
diary had somehow found its way into Blattys 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 OHara of Marquette Universityan
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, 1949A dripping noise was heard in his
grandmothers 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, 1949Aunt 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 Rolands 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, 1949On 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, 1949Beginning on this night scratches or
markings appeared on the boys 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. (Erdmanns
source for this information is not given.)
The chronology now becomes confusing. Between the diary writer (with
information supplied by Mrs. Doe) and Erdmanns 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 Rolands 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 Doeit is said he responded with rageand
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, 1949Father Raymond J. Bishop, S.J., of St. Louis
University was called in (for the first time) and witnessed the
scratching of the boys body and the motion of the mattress.
March 11, 1949Father 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 boys pillow. The relatives left and
Father Bowdern and Father Bishop departed. Soon afterward, a loud
noise was heard in Rolands 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 Rolands
mattress came to a halt only after the relatives yelled, Aunt
Tillie, stop!
March 16, 1949Archbishop 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 Rolands body as
these proceedings continued and of the boys 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 priests 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 boys 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,
Thats a nutcracker for you, isnt it?
April 18, 1949As the nighttime ritual continued, Father
Bowdern forced Roland to wear a chain of medals and hold a
crucifix in his hands. Rolands 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 Georges Sentinel, a weekly published in
Hyattsville, Maryland. Both articles were hastily written by
novice writers who apparently werent 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 priests 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 familys
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 areas 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 boys name. The
article did, however, name the address of 3210 Bunker Hill Roadthe
vacant lot where the familys 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 Youths
Bizarre Symptoms Led to 1949 Exorcism, author Arthur S.
Brisbane provided a quick overview of the whole story, with a
special emphasis on Father Hughess role in the local
exorcism attempt. The article identifies the location of the boys
home as 3210 Bunker Hill Road in Mount Rainier, citing The
Prince Georges 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 boys
identity is not revealed; the schools he attended are not
mentioned; no interviews are conducted with any of the boys
childhood friends or classmates; no interviews are conducted with
any friends or neighbors of the boys 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 boys 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
Rumors that the haunted boy had actually lived at 3210 Bunker
Hill Road in Mount Rainier have been around since the early
80s and have mostly been spread by neighborhood teens and
newcomers to the area, who have raised the aura surrounding this
location to urban legend proportions.
I went back to the literature and determined that the first
printed references to this address appeared in The Prince
Georges Sentinel articles of February 4, 1981 and
October 28, 1983. No definitive source for that address
information was given. The next article to highlight this
location, The Washington Post of May 6, 1985, quoted
Father Bober as saying that Father Hughes never told him exactly
where the boy lived. In fact, there is no printed reference to
Father Hughes ever having identified 3210 Bunker Hill Road as the
boys home. These articles set the rumors in motion, but
none could positively confirm that address as the boys home.
Furthermore, if the diary kept by the Jesuit priests
had mentioned 3210 Bunker Hill Road, then Thomas B. Allen
certainly would have cited that in his book. He doesnt, but
instead cites The Prince Georges Sentinel article of
February 4, 1981 as his source. He goes on to say that the diary
gives another address for the family, about a half mile away,
leading him to infer that the family moved from Mount Rainier.
I realized, however, that there was no evidence demonstrating
that the family ever lived in Mount Rainier in the first place.
Something was amiss.
The first stop on my mission to determine who it was that really
lived at the Mount Rainier address of 3210 Bunker Hill Road was
the Hyattsville Branch Public Library in Prince Georges
County, a facility that would become my base of operations for
the duration of my search. It was there that I found an extremely
rare copy of the Prince Georges County Metropolitan
Directory of the Mt. Rainier-Hyattsville-College Park Area,
published in 1950 by C. E. Wooten. This directory listed the
families and their phone numbers according to their street
addressan unusual and highly effective method of tracking
the local population. Looking at the entries for Bunker Hill
Road, Mount Rainier, I scanned down the listings until I found
3210 and discovered the listed occupants as being
Joseph Haas and Grace Miller.
Now that I had a name to work with I next went to the Prince
Georges County Historical Society Library at the Marietta
Mansion in Glenn Dale, Maryland and checked out information
pertaining to the last name of Haas. While searching
the index of a book titled Gleanings From The Records Of The
Francis Gaschs Sons Funeral Home, Prince Georges
County, Maryland 1860-1940 (published in 1996 by the Prince
Georges Genealogical Society Inc. of Bowie, Maryland) I
found a highly significant entry on page 313 regarding the Haas
family. It read:
Miller, Martina Gregory3226 Bunker Hill Road, Mount Rainier, Maryland. 08 Jun 1926. (Note Evening Star 07 Jun 1926 p. 9 reports died on 06 Jun 1926 at the residence of her daughter Mrs. Joe S. Haas, 3226 Bunker Hill Road, Mount Rainier, Maryland.) Wife of the late Lemuel E. Miller (Morristown, NJ papers).
This entry clearly states that Joseph Haas and his wife were in a
house on Bunker Hill Road in 1926. While at the Historical
Society Library, I next checked the Atlas Of Prince Georges
County, Maryland, Volume 1, a large bound collection of maps
published by the Franklin Survey Company of Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania in 1940. Indeed, the map listed in detail all of the
houses and their respective address numbers in Mount Rainier and
the home at 3226 Bunker Hill Road sat right on the corner of 33rd
Street. It was in the exact location of the vacant lot where 3210
was said to have stood. I was later told by Susan G. Pearl of the
Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commissions
Historic Preservation Division that all of Mount Rainiers
house numbers, along with many street names, were changed in 1942,
a move that was also enacted in many neighboring communities
including Cottage City.
There was no question that 3226 Bunker Hill Road and 3210 had
been one and the same house. My research, then, has revealed
beyond any doubt that Joseph Haas lived in the house at 3210
Bunker Hill Road from at least 1926 through at least 1950.
Common sense would then dictate that the possessed boy was a son
of Mr. Joseph Haas. That is, if this were the actual site, as was
almost universally accepted. I began scouring the microfilm
newspaper holdings at the Hyattsville Branch Public Library and
found that they had a complete run of The Prince Georges
Post newspaper, a weekly that was published in Hyattsville,
Maryland and dated back to 1932. I read every copy from 1932 to
1984 and discovered to my amazement that every issue had, without
fail, a large number of neighborhood reports written by local
residents that focused on the countys individual towns and
included all the local gossip and newsworthy tidbits. Columns on
Mount Rainier, Brentwood, Cottage City, and Hyattsville (along
with numerous others) were in every issue and I began intensely
searching these columns for information on Joseph Haas and the
possession case in general.
In the Mount Rainier column I found numerous references to Joseph
Haas, including mention of his being hospitalized after a heart
attack in the December 28, 1950 and February 8, 1951 editions. On
March 8, 1951 Mrs. M. E. Davis writes that Mr. Joseph Haas
3210 Bunker Hill Road is still in the hospital. They
include updates on his condition in the March 22nd, March 29th,
April 12th, July 26th, and August 9th editions. In the August 23,
1951 issue they announce that Joe Haas died on Thursday August 16,
1951 at his home. I felt it was odd that no other family members
were mentioned, unless of course he had no survivors. Checking
his obituary in the August 20, 1951 Washington Post confirmed my
suspicions. In part, it read: Joseph Stroup Haas
.On
Thursday, August 16, 1951, at his residence 3210 Bunker Hill
Road, Mt. Rainier, Md. JOSEPH STROUP HAAS, beloved husband of the
late Emily G. Haas (nee Miller)
. A special communication
was also published by the Mount Hermoa Lodge No. 179 for the
purpose of conducting the last masonic rites for our late brother
and past master, Joseph Stroup Haas at the Masonic Temple in
Hyattsville.
No survivors to Joseph Haas were listed. It was clear that he
never had any children, hence the haunted boy could never have
lived at 3210 Bunker Hill Road.
I needed corroboration and instinctively checked the 1950
directory to see who else had lived on Bunker Hill Road at that
point in time. There were ten homes listed in the 3200 block and,
given the tremendous demographic change that had transformed
Prince Georges County over the last thirty years, I
realized that the chance of locating someone who remembered the
Haas household was slim. I noted that Richard and Irene Ashton
were listed as living at 3208 Bunker Hill Road in 1950 and after
a little legwork in the community I located their daughter Peggy
Lanahan.
The Ashtons, it turned out, had lived at 3208 from 1947 until
1959, with Peggy spending most of her childhood in the home. She
recalls visiting the house next door at 3210 many times: It
was an older couple and a woman named Grace Miller who lived
there. Grace Miller was an elderly gray-haired lady and she was
my piano teacher. I was going over to their house and taking
lessons from her every day during the late 40s. I never
thought it (the possession) happened there because I was in that
house almost every day and I never knew of anything like that
happening and I never saw any kids in that house. I asked my
mother about that too and she remembered a man and his wife and
Grace Miller living in that house and she didnt remember
there being any children there.
As one of the few who can actually remember visiting 3210 Bunker
Hill Road, Mrs. Lanahan continued with her vivid memories:
It was a big, old, three-story house. [Note how this description drastically differs from the one-and-one-half story home description given by the August 10, 1949 The Evening Star, Washington, D.C. newspaper account.] It was gray and drabdidnt have a coat of paint on itand looked like a haunted house. There was never any talk of a possessed boy living there. The first story I ever saw about it was the movie itself. I went to a class reunion and my girlfriend at the time, who used to live in Mount Rainier also, said to me,Did you see the article in the newspaper? That exorcism took place in the house next to you. I said, No, it couldnt have been there because how could something like this happen next door and none of us know anything about it? Especially since I was taking piano lessons in there every day. None of the neighbors ever mentioned it. I told her it couldnt have been there. She showed me the article and there was a picture of the lot on the corner and our old house in the background and I couldnt believe it. They are wrong!
Many Mount Rainier residents spoke warmly of Herbert and Mary
Landolt and their family, who had moved in at 4002 33rd Street in
1945 and remained until they passed away in the 80s. They
had a large, well-known, and highly respected Catholic family of
nine children and it was recommended that I talk with them about
3210 Bunker Hill Road, a house that their backyard happened to
border. Having already spoken with Herberts brother Dean
Landolt, who was instrumental in my pursuing this case, I called
Robert Landolt (a son of Herbert and today a very successful
Howard County attorney) to see if he remembered anything about
the story. The people in the neighborhoodthey never
said anything about that house, Mr. Landolt affirmed.
You know, that was just a strange house and we called it
the haunted house because in the 50s it would
be empty for long periods of time and it was the only house in
the neighborhood that was like that. My brothers and I all served
The Washington Star and The Washington Post and
I probably served that house for a while. I dont remember
there being kids in that house until later on in the 50s,
well after that case was said to have taken place.
Mr. Landolt went on to state that he had heard about the case
shortly after the rite of exorcism was completed, despite the
fact it simply was not talked about in Mount Rainier. My
dad and Uncle Dean were very good friends with Father Hughes and
I gained my knowledge of the incident through them, he told
me. Honestly, I had always heard he (the haunted boy) was
from Cottage City and he was a Lutheran who later converted to
Catholicism. Thats what I was told and thats what I
believed.
Other longtime Mount Rainier residents told similar tales about
3210 Bunker Hill Road. Joan Flanagan, who grew up in the town and
worked in City Hall for several years said, My mother knew
everyone in this town and she said someone named Haas lived in
that house and that they didnt have children. All of the
other old-timers said the same thing. It couldnt have been
that house.
Mrs. Flanagan directed me to Mary Prosperi, who had also grown up
in the area. These two women had attended eighth grade at St.
James School together during the 1948-49 school year (the same
year the haunted boy was in the eighth gradethough he didnt
attend St. James) and had maintained a friendship ever since. Mrs.
Prosperi frankly related to me, My husband John said that
he served newspapers to that house at 3210 throughout that whole
timethe late 40s and into the 50sand no
children ever lived in that house. It wasnt until after the
movie came out that people started saying that house was the
location but to us it was always the big joke. There were never
any kids in that house.
From published information in The Prince Georges Post and
documents on file at the University of Maryland Fire and Rescue
Institute I was able to determine that the house at 3210 Bunker
Hill Road was burned down in March 1962 (which differs from the
date of April 1964 given by Thomas Allen in his book Possessed)
as the final training class exercise of the Section II Advanced
Training Course in Firemanship, a program for firefighters
offered through what was then called the Fire Extension Service
of the University of Maryland. The burning of the house was
completed under the supervision of University of Maryland senior
instructors Matthew Dillon and Robert Smith, with the cooperation
of the Mount Rainier Fire Department. Representing Mount Rainier
were Chief Francis Xander, Deputy Chief John Fisher, and Captain
Karl Young. Firefighters from neighboring departments such as
Brentwood, Cottage City-Colmar Manor, and Hyattsville were also
invited to participate, with about four-dozen men eventually
taking part in the festivities (including the 18 training class
students). While the top three 1962 fire officials from Mount
Rainier have all passed away and no one on Mount Rainiers
current force was an active member, I had little difficulty
locating firemen who did participate in the burning of that house.
All of them echoed the same sentimentsthere was never any
talk among any of the firefighters that 3210 Bunker Hill Road had
ever been the site of any type of demonic possession.
Dave Manning, age 71, served on the Mount Rainier Fire Department
for twenty-five years (1950-1975) and vividly recalls the corner
house going down: We burned it down in 1962 and it was just
a big old house that they wanted to get rid of. I never heard
anything like that from any fireman or anyone else in Mount
Rainier. It was just a way of getting practice. Wed light a
room and put it out and do that over and over and finally the
whole thing went down. I know that the whole time I was a fireman
nobody ever talked about that house as being a part of The
Exorcist or there ever being an exorcism down there or
anything at all like that.
Another longtime Mount Rainier resident who remembers the burning
of the old house is 82-year-old Ralph Collins, who was an active
member of the Brentwood Fire Department from 1935 to 1976 (including
a stint as chief from 1944 to 1949) and served as president of
the Firemans Association for all of 1950 and 1951. Collins
frequently hung around and rode with his friends on the Mount
Rainier force. He told me, As I remember that house was all
boarded up and in bad shape and looked kind of spooky and the
city of Mount Rainier was disgusted with it. It was set up
through the University of Maryland Fire School. No one ever said
anything about it being the house where The Exorcist happened.
That was never talked about. It was just an old house that had to
go.
At this point I realized that my work on 3210 Bunker Hill Road
was over. I had conclusively proven not only that the people who
had lived in the house never had any children, but that there
were absolutely no stories (not even any rumors) circulating
among Mount Rainier residents prior to the release of those Prince
Georges Sentinel articles in the early 80s that
anything like a case of demonic possession had ever affected
anyone living at 3210 Bunker Hill Road. The belief that the
haunted boy had lived in that house was nothing more than an
urban myth, classically spurred on by some irresponsible
journalists. I was the first investigator to debunk this mystery.
(The house still has a history, as at least two people, Martina
Miller and Joseph Haas, had died there, possibly spurring on
tales among the local youth of the house being haunted.) Still
the nagging question remained: who was the boy and where did he
really grow up?
Identifying the Haunted
Boy
The haunted boy never lived in Mount Rainier, then, which meant I
had to start from scratch and go back and study the notes and
taped interviews I had accumulated. The information given to me
by Dean Landolt continued to stick in my mind. He had related to
me that Father Hughes told him that the boy had gone on to
graduate from Gonzaga High School, a private Catholic school
located in Washington, D.C.
I rechecked Steve Erdmanns Fate article from January 1975
and noted that the boy was born on June 1, 1935. I figured that
if the boy missed the 1948-49 school year, he probably graduated
in 1954.
Obtaining a 1954 Gonzaga High School yearbook proved to be no
easy feat, but I located a copy nonetheless. I was surprised to
discover that when a student graduated from Gonzaga, they would
enter under his senior picture his full name, current home
address, and the name of the parish in which he was a member. For
the 1954 school year, there were five graduates who were members
of St. James Church in Mount Rainier, Maryland: two from Mount
Rainier, one from D.C. and two from Cottage City. I took those
five names and checked their birth dates through Marylands
various systems of vital recordsall public information. I
knew that the individual who came up with a birth date of June 1,
1935 would prove to be the mysterious haunted boy. The first name
I randomly selected matched up with that date of birth. For
reasons that will later become obvious I will from now on refer
to this individual as Rob Doe (a combination of
previously used pseudonyms). Robs home address was listed
in the yearbook as being 3807 40th Avenue, Cottage City, Maryland.
There was now no doubt that I had successfully identified the boy
in question, something no other investigator had ever
accomplished.
Everything quickly fell into place as I searched for
corroborating evidence. The first thing I did was check the
family name and 40th Avenue address in the 1950 Prince Georges
County Metropolitan Directory of the Mt. Rainier-Hyattsville-College
Park Area at the Hyattsville Library. Indeed, the family was
listed at that address. The investigation immediately picked up
tremendous momentum as soon as I focused my efforts on the town
of Cottage City, Maryland, the real home of the haunted boy.
Entering a new phase of the investigation, I sought to determine
how long the Doe family had lived at 3807 40th Avenue, Cottage
City. I trekked down to the Martin Luther King Memorial Library
in Washington, D.C., whose third-floor Washingtoniana Division
contains a complete collection of Washington, D. C. and Suburban
Maryland phone directories dating back to the 19th century. I
conducted a thorough search of these directories (which are
stored on microfilm) and discovered that the very first
publication of the family name in question appeared in the Boyds
District of Columbia Directory-1935 (D. C.: R. L. Polk &
Company) under a Brentwood listing. The family was listed at that
location through 1939. According to the Boyds District
of Columbia Directory: Vol. 1940, the family was listed as
residing at 41 Central Ave., Cottage City, Maryland. Running back
to the Prince Georges Historical Society, a check with the
Franklin Survey Companys 1940 Atlas Of Prince Georges
County, Maryland, Volume 1, revealed that at that point in
time, what would soon become 40th Avenue in Cottage City was
still called Central Avenue. This verifies that the Doe family
had been in the house at 3807 40th Avenue since at least 1940 (I
later verified that they moved into this house in 1939).
Subsequent checks revealed that the street name did indeed change
to 40th Avenue in 1942 and the family was at that address until
1958. Immediately I realized that the priests involved had most
likely identified the town of Mount Rainier as the boys
home to act as a smokescreen so that he could not be readily
identified.
So much additional evidence of the familys involvement in
Cottage City community life surfaced that I felt certain that
residents in that tiny community would still remember the family.
It was obvious that no other investigator had ever thought to
look there for evidence. I went back to The Prince Georges
Post and searched the neighborhood columns on Cottage City,
which appeared in every issue. There were many references to the
Doe family contained within. The first that illustrates that the
family never moved from Cottage City to Mount Rainier during the
time in question appears in the June 24, 1948 edition. In the
column Cottage City, Mrs. Cletis E. Luther writes:
Mrs. (Doe) of 3807 40th ave [sic]
has not been well
for some time. She is in hopes of avoiding an operation. (I
have been told that one local author stubbornly believes that the
Doe family moved from their Cottage City home and rented the
house at 3210 Bunker Hill Road, for a short while, then moved
back to Cottage City. There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever
for this pointless move. There is no connection between Joseph
Haas and the Doe family and when I later interviewed dozens of
Cottage City residents, they all confirmed that the family in
question had always lived in Cottage City in the 40th Avenue
houseand never moved until Mr. Doe sold it in 1958).
Other references to the Doe family are made in the Cottage City
columns of May 30, 1950 (which details a bridge game that
involved Mr. and Mrs. [Doe], Mr. and Mrs. Alvin Kagey, and Mr.
and Mrs. Elmer Hodges of Berwyn Heights); June 8, 1950 (Mr. Doe
was operated on at Sibley Hospital); June 29, 1950 (Relatives
from St. Louisfurther corroborationvisited the family
and took Rob on a two-week trip to St. Petersburg, Florida),
September 14, 1950 (visiting the Does and Anna Coppage were Mr.
and Mrs. John Schwab and Mr. and Mrs. Jess Zengel and daughter
Janis Ann of St. Louis), and numerous other similar announcements
throughout the early 50s. In 1955 Mrs. Doe fell ill and The
Prince Georges Post frequently published notices on
her condition. In the June 14, 1956 edition they reported, Sympathy
is also extended to the family of Mrs. [Doe], who passed away on
June 7th. Mrs. [Doe], who lived at 3807 40th Avenue, is survived
by her husband, [Mr. Doe]; a son [Rob Doe]; her mother and sister
of St. Louis, Missouri. Funeral services were held from Nalleys
Funeral Home with Requiem Mass at St. James Catholic Church on
June 9. Interment was in St. Louis, Missouri.
Continuing on this Cottage City theme, the 1997 video release In
the Grip of Evil shows a house in two separate sequences
that they purport to be the home of the haunted boy. They dont
identify its address, though representatives from Henninger Media
Development, the producers of the video, revealed to me that it
was the only address given for the family in the diary of the
exorcism kept by Father Raymond Bishop (which was supplied to
them by Thomas Allen). When I began my investigative work in
Cottage City and visited 3807 40th Avenue, I immediately
recognized it as the house in the video.
Friends and Neighbors
Speak Out For
the First Time
Cottage City, Maryland, is a small working-class community of
around 1,200 residents that quietly sits one mile from
Washington, D.C.s northeast border. Nestled between the
towns of Colmar Manor and Brentwood, Cottage City is located
about two miles due east across Rhode Island Avenue (Route One)
from Mount Rainier. Originally laid out in 1904 as a town called
Highlands, the gradual construction of over three hundred one-story
cottages in the subdivision provided for a unique landscape and
eventually led to its current name, with incorporation in 1924.
Cottage City has traditionally been known as a tight-knit family-oriented
community that has been home to blue collar and government
workers for decades. Today, like all of surrounding Prince Georges
County, Cottage City is a community in transition. Nevertheless,
I had little trouble locating a number of older residents who had
spent their lives there. I was also able to interview a large
number of former Cottage City residents who had moved away, but
still had ties to their old home. Many of these people from both
camps remembered the Doe family. I was astonished to learn that
no other investigator or journalist had ever questioned any of
them about the story behind The Exorcist that had taken place
just up the street in the heart of their hometown.
The bulk of my investigative time spent on this case was directed
at interviewing present and former Cottage City residents who had
personally known Rob Doe and his family. In all, I taped
interviews with 102 individuals for this investigation.
Specifically, I located and interviewed members of five of of the
17 families that resided in the 3800 block of 40th Avenue in 1949.
All of them knew the Doe family. Many of the people I interviewed
were friends of Rob Doe and many had gone to school with him at
Cottage City Elementary and Bladensburg Junior High.
For the record, Rob Doe entered the seventh grade at Bladensburg
Junior High in the fall of 1947, and was removed in the middle of
his eighth grade year in January 1949. He re-enrolled in the
eighth grade at Bladensburg Junior High for the 1949-50 school
year, then spent the next four yearsfrom the fall of 1950
until June 1954at Gonzaga High School in Washington, D.C.
Of the dozens of persons I talked with who knew Doe, there seemed
to be an even split between those who were aware that The
Exorcist was based on events that happened to him and those
who were not.
One of the first individuals I spoke with was T. Weston Scott Jr.,
a Cottage City resident since 1919 and a lifelong member of the
Cottage City-Colmar Manor Fire Department. Having served as the
local fire chief for over twenty years, there was little about
his community Mr. Scott didnt know. He offered his
knowledge of the situation without hesitation.
The boy involved was [Rob Doe] and he lived at 3807 40th
Avenue, he stated. I knew the boy but I didnt
know too much about what was going on to be frank. They kept it
quiet at the time and later on there was a lot of stuff about it.
The [Does] lived there since the thirties and they stayed in that
house for about 20 years. I think most of the older neighbors who
were around at the time knew about it. Most of them are gone now,
though.
Cottage Citys current town chairman and police
commissioner, William Hall Sr., moved into his home at 3810 40th
Avenue in 1968. His house faces the former Doe residence and from
the day he moved in he had known of the strange story that had
supposedly transpired across the street. He told me:
I just know what people tell me. Years back I heard the name and it was [Doe], but I dont personally know him or anything like that. It happened in the house directly across the street from me at 3807 and that was back in 1949. When I moved in here, the neighbors knew. When I first moved here it was still talked about, but now people dont say too much about it. After the movie some of the older residents called it The Exorcist House but today it is vacant and no one really comes around talking about it or anything like that. Most people think it happened over in Mount Rainier.
Between interviews I sifted through the large pile of The
Prince Georges Post references from the late forties
and early fifties that I had collected and filed on the Doe
family. I noticed that time and again this family had played
cards with some neighbors named Kagey, obviously one of the few
families they chose to socialize with. In my travels around town
I was told that a son, Alvin Kagey, was now a dentist in Southern
Virginia and had even been called on to testify as a state dental
expert on the famed Marv Albert trial. In an interview with me,
Mr. Kagey revealed some fascinating insights into this case:
Let me preface this by saying I have not seen [Rob Doe] for probably 45 years but I would still consider him a friend so I dont really want to betray that. [Rob] is a year younger than me and was a year behind me at Cottage City Elementary and while I know he had friends, he was in a sense a little bit of a loner. I dont know of any other word that I might use that would be more appropriate. He was somewhat sedentary, somewhat quiet, as his parents were. I dont think he was interested in sports. The contact that I had with him was through his parents playing cards. In those days Canasta was the hot game and my parents, along with the [Does] and the Hodges and the Clarks, played Canasta almost every Saturday night on a rotating basis. The [Does] were very active members of this group and it went on for years and back then the parents would just bring their kids with them and I got to know [Rob] that way.
I asked Mr. Kagey if he was aware of Rob Does alleged
possession. It sure must have put a damper on the card games. He
responded:
It was never really discussed. I know that [Rob] somehow, Im going to use the term became sick and if I remember the facts he and his mother went out to St. Louis for treatment. They were Lutheran and at some point there was a conversion to Catholicism. I remember during that time his father telling my father something about how [Rob] was acting funny or strange or something and there were some other things they talked about as well. Possession was not used at all. I heard about that when it was going on and the next time I heard about it was probably 1974 when the movie came out and I was down here in Virginia and this friend of mine, I told him where I was from and he said Oh have you seen the movie Exorcist?, and he said that it happened in The Mount Rainier and started telling me about the movie and I thought Uh-oh, I know where that happenedand it was not Mount Rainier! I knew it had really happened in Cottage City and not Mount Rainier so I went to my father who had neither seen the movie nor read the book and I talked to him and went through the whole thing about the movie and he said, Thats [Rob Doe]. My father absolutely had no knowledge of the movie or the book or anything. It was just what he knew from the [Doe] family. The [Doe] family had lived in Cottage City for as long as I can rememberthey never lived in Mount Rainier, but I dont think people really knew anything about what had happened. We lived differently then. It was as though it never happened in Cottage City and I dont think it was covered up. I just dont think it was general knowledge. I never heard it discussed in town. My parents were the only source and that came right from [Mr. Doe].
As I tapped into a growing pool of valuable Cottage City sources,
the name of one family in particular surfaced repeatedly. Three
brothers from this household had grown up in the town and were
well-known for their community involvement. One of the brothers
in particular was said to have been Rob Does best friend
and constant companion for a number of years. The two boys were
born just days apart and developed a unique relationship at a
very early age that lasted throughout their teens. Two of the
brothers from this family agreed to speak to me, but only on the
condition that they be granted anonymity. Their testimony puts
them right at the heart of the Rob Doe saga. The older brother,
J. C., was born in 1926. He recounted his memories of
what happened just up the street from his home in 1949:
Im aware of the story and I know a lot of people who followed the story and, well, yes I knew him. There were very few people that knew about it at the time. We have kept very quiet about it over the years deliberately because it didnt happen in Mount Rainier. He and my younger brother were very close friends and they were very precocious, if you know what Im saying. In every neighborhood kids pair up and this is the kind of thing that happened, these two paired up and were virtually inseparable. They were loners who found each other and they caused a lot of mischief. There was a close relationship there, a very close relationship.
I asked J. C. if he knew any specifics about the possession that
was allegedly taking place to their friend up the street. He
responded:
I knew something was going on before the first article ever came out. It was developing over a period of time and you could see this condition building up. You could say I was in the house and witnessed these things. I attended the local premier of that video [In the Grip Of Evil] and they exaggerated so many things that happened. One of the things that they tried to emphasize in that show was the thing about the boy spitting. Well, with this pair, I noticed that one of the common bonds between them, they found this very clever way of doing it, they could spit with great accuracy up to ten feet. It was a common thing. Theyd keep their mouths closed and raise their lips and spit through their teeth and they somehow developed a way to do that. I saw them do that all the time. Another thing was with the bed moving about. In those days the beds had wire springs and were on wheels and it was not too hard at all to make the bed bounce and move aboutit was harder to keep it in one place and his bed was like that. A lot of these things can be exaggerated to make a story and that is exactly what happened.
Since J. C. was one of the very few who actually knew that Rob
was going through this phase at the time and was able to observe
the situation firsthand, I asked him if he thought the boy was
actually possessed by the devil, and he responded:
No, I dont think he was ever possessed. I think it was psychological. As far as any real possession or anything like that, I dont think so. There are some interesting psychological aspects to it. They were German Lutherans and he was an only child and I think the grandmother is actually the central figure. She played a very influential role in all of this. You had this old world religion superstition and the mother got caught up in it and the father just kind of stayed in the backgroundI think he could see what was going on which is why he is never mentioned. The true story is much more intriguing from a psychological point of view. The basis of the real thing could be a damn good story, no doubt about it in my mind. The rest of it I can run a parallel. You had these two mischief makers that had a strong tendency to take advantage of people who were weaker than themselves. They were a pair of connivers and they had their act down. In pairs like that they compete with each other and they dont get along well and they have to keep doing something to retain their relationship and all the time this is mischief in one form or another. They were trying to outdo each other.
J. C.s brother B. C. was said to be Rob Does
best friend throughout childhood. I was warned by several that
talking with him would be difficult due to his close relationship
with the subject of this article. I obtained his address andwithout
forewarningI knocked on his front door at 1:00 p.m. on the
afternoon of January 20, 1998. Warily he invited me in and
proceeded with an intense and detailed description of his
childhood relationship with Rob Doe in Cottage City. Because of
the sensitive nature of the subject, I cannot reveal much of what
was discussed that day. I can say that B. C. provided a detailed
profile of an only child who went through anything but a normal
childhood: smothered by his obsessively religious mother and
grandmother who held deep interests in spiritualism and Ouija
Boards; shunned by his classmates at school; prone to tantrums
and even violent outbursts towards his family and his few
friends; exhibiting cruel and at times even sadistic behavior
towards other children and even animals. It was evident that
elements of the alleged possession had always been there, going
back years and years. Dysfunctional would be the word
modern-era psychiatrists would use to describe the boys
home life and upbringing.
B. C. was frank with me right from the beginning:
Since the movie came out Ive never said his name in front of anyone, not even my wife. We were playmates and classmates. We were playing together from the time we first moved in here when I was three years old and we went all the way through school togetherCottage City Elementary throughout the 40s into Bladensburg Junior High. They always lived at 3807 40th Avenue so I dont know where that Mount Rainier crap came from. People ask what he was like back then and I can tell you that he was never what you would call a normal child. He was an only child and kind of spoiled and he was a mean bastard. We were together all the time and we used to fight all the time.
Overcoming an initial reluctance to directly discuss the details
of the case, B. C. eventually opened up and offered some
interesting accounts:
One thing happened regarding all of this and I have a hard time clearing it in my mind. We were in eighth grade, it was the 48-49 school year and we were in a class together at Bladensburg Junior High. He was sitting in a chair and it was one of those deals with one arm attached and it looked like he was shaking the deskthe desk was shaking and vibrating extremely fast and I remember the teacher yelling at him to stop it and I remember he kind of yelled Im not doing it and they took him out of class and that was the last I ever saw of him in school. The desk certainly did not move around the room like that book [Possessed] said, it was just shaking. I dont know if he was doing it or what was doing it because I just cant clear it in my mind. I put everything together. It was very closed-mouth in the neighborhood at firstno one knew anything. I hadnt seen him for some time and I was wondering what happened to him. I would still see his father around and I remember going to his house and his German grandmother came out and she could barely speak English and she told me he was in St. Louis visiting relatives and he would be there for a while. He hadnt been in school and from what I saw I knew something strange was going on but I didnt know what. When that Washington Post article came out later that summer I knew from the details that was him. No one else around Cottage City knew that it was him, then, a year or so later his mother told one of the ladies at a local ladies club meeting and that was like broadcasting it over a loudspeaker. The story went out in Cottage City but then it died out shortly after that.
B. C. had some odd theories on what may have happened regarding
the possession:
The reason behind it, youre going to laugh but I dont care. There was this dog that ran around the neighborhood at that time . It was half-red cocker spaniel and it looked like it was half-chow. This dog was mean and nobody ever knew who owned it. It just came out of nowhere. Well, [Rob] basically adopted that dog. That dog was really his best friend, not me. That dog hated everyone and everything and would bite anyone in sight but he loved [Rob]. [Rob] would feed it and bring it in the house with him. One time he called me up and told me to come over and I never really trusted him because he was sneaky and a real mean little bastard. I was going over there and he was looking out from the basement window and when I got to his house I heard the back porch door slam and I knew right away what hed done. Hed done this sort of thing many times before to different kids. I started running like hell because hed sicked that dog on me. When I got home he called me up and was laughing like hell. Thats what kind of person he was. He did that all the time. Hed always sic that dog on anyone who came around . I could tell you many, many other stories like that.
B. C. has been thankful all of these years that the true story
had never been revealed by anyone. Prior to the release of the
video In The Grip Of Evil he had always been protective
of Rob Does real identity. With a sarcastic laugh he
continued:
A friend of mine drives me by the spot where the house stood on Bunker Hill Road in Mount Rainier and tells me Thats where The Exorcist story happened and I just play dumb and look at him and act surprised and say Oh is it really? How interesting. And to myself Im saying, Thank God nobody knows the real story. Theyre all looking in the wrong place. Theyre all looking at Mount Rainier and St. James and Father Hughes and its not there. Its always been in Cottage City and you are right on the money and everyone else is wrong.
I left B. C.s home at 4:45 p.m., my head reeling from the
character reference given by the best childhood friend the
haunted boy ever had.
Truth and Consequences
After talking with so many people who had personally known Rob
Doe it was disheartening to review the published material on the
case from a new perspective and observe the various discrepancies
between what has been written by others and what was told to me
by individuals close to the family in question.
In Possessed Thomas Allen bases much of his
investigation on a series of alleged events culled from the
mysterious diary kept by Father Bishop during the St. Louis
exorcism.
This diary, which also inspired William Peter Blattys novel
and movie, began chronicling events on January 15, 1949 and ended
on April 19, 1949, and was designed to act as a guide for future
exorcisms. As a surviving case artifact it is shrouded in mystery.
No one really knows for sure how many copies are circulating or
even its actual page count (as previously mentioned, Steve
Erdmann says 16 pages, Thomas Allen puts the number at 26).
Passages from this case study have been published by both of the
aforementioned writers and from their examples one discovers: the
keeper of the diary, Father Bishop, did not arrive on the scene
or meet any family members until Wednesday, March 9, 1949almost
two months after the initial symptoms occurredrendering
much of his reported background information as hearsay; Bishop
does not always make it clear who actually witnessed the events
being describedhe often fails to mention when the priests
are in the room, when they are absent, and when the information
comes secondhand from the boys mother; the possibility of
fraudulent activity is neither considered nor investigated (for
example, no control experiment was set up where an individual
could observe the boys actions when no one else was in the
room); no mention is made whatsoever of the alleged first
exorcism attempt by Father Hughes at Georgetown University
Hospital; nothing is written of the boys fathers
feelings or level of involvement (sources close to the family
told me he did not believe the boy was possessed); and the
possible presence of psychosomatic illness within the boy is
never discussed.
In addition to the diary, an array of places and persons play
critical roles in his story told by author Thomas Allen: the
familys alleged Mount Rainier homesite; the plight of the
first exorcist, Father Hughes; information supplied by local
expert Father Bober; and interviews with eyewitness Father
Halloran. With so much questionable material being culled from
the diary, I felt it was imperative to study these miscellaneous
factors and sources with a critical eye.
I called Thomas Allen. After identifying myself and explaining
what I was doing, he declined to comment for this article. I had
planned to offer help in correcting the errors in Possessed
(free of charge) for any revised edition he might be planning. I
also planned to ask him a number of questions. Why, for example,
does he have a mindset about the boy having lived in Mount
Rainier? Did he ever consider the possibility that the priests
involved in the case could have used Mount Rainier as a front to
discourage the discovery of the boys true identity? How
come he never checked the Cottage City address that Father Bishops
diary listed with phone directory listings for the family in
question from 1939 to 1958? Why had he never looked for former
friends of Rob Doe in Cottage City (or talked with long-standing
community members like the town chairman, fire chief, or
residents of 40th Avenueall of whom could have provided him
with valuable facts)? Why did he never verify any of the
information he wrote regarding Father Hughess involvement
with the family and post-exorcism-attempt activities? And,
finally, if he was really so concerned about keeping Rob Does
identity a secret, then why was he a writer of the video
production In The Grip Of Evil in which the boys
home at 3807 40th Avenue in Cottage City was shown, knowing full
well that it would then be possible for anybody to locate the
house and identify its occupants in local city directories from
that period? Only Thomas Allen knows the answers.
Possessed is based on the widespread misconception that
the family had resided in Mount Rainier. The books first
four chapters are filled with references to this erroneous
location: Allen claims neighbors knew something odd was happening
at 3210 Bunker Hill Road; he claims neighbors heard maniacal
cries and saw lights radiating around the house; and he claims
the family moved to a similar house about a half-mile away. In
reality, none of these things happened, as I have demonstrated.
In fact, sources close to this case have verified that the diary
kept by Father Bishop never once mentions 3210 Bunker Hill Road,
Mount Rainier as the familys homebut it does identify
the site as 3807 40th Avenue. Allen does not mention this in
Possessed.
Regarding the first exorcism attempt at Georgetown University
Hospital by Father Hughes, Allen makes several bold presumptions:
Hughes apparently visited the boy at his house,
further claiming that there is some question about this action
stemming from the priests own confusion; Hughes
decided the boy belonged in a hospital, under restraints, and
that on Hughess orders the boy was strapped
down; when Hughess arm was allegedly slashed by the boy,
the priest screamed and struggled to his feet while
his arm hung limp; Hughes subsequently disappeared
from St. James, suffered a nervous breakdown, and during later
masses could only hold the consecrated host aloft with one hand.
The suppositions regarding Father Hughes seemed so absurd I
decided to do some in-depth research into the actions of this
mysterious priest from St. James Church in Mount Rainier,
Maryland. Born Edward Albert Hughes on August 28, 1918, he was
assigned as assistant pastor of St. James (the pastor at the time
was Rev. William M. Canning) on Wednesday, June 16, 1948 and
served without a break until Saturday, June 18, 1960. Despite
what is written in Possessed, there is absolutely no
written record of the alleged exorcism attempt by Father Hughes
at Georgetown University Hospital. A source close to the case
verified for me that Rob Doe was admitted to Georgetown
University Hospital under his real name on the morning of Monday,
February 28, 1949 and released at 12 noon on Thursday, March 3,
1949. The facts surrounding this Georgetown stay are: Father
Hughes never initially visited the boy at his Cottage City home (Mrs.
Doe took her son to the St. James parish for their one and only
consultation); there is no evidence that Father Hughes was ever
confused at all about this entire situation; there is no evidence
whatsoever that Father Hughes had the boy admitted to Georgetown
University Hospital or held under restraintsThomas Allen
himself gives no reference in Possessed regarding these
alleged actions; there is no evidence that while hospitalized Rob
Doe ever slashed Father Hughess arm or what the priests
reaction to the attack may have beenAllen even mentions
that while Father Hughes mentioned this exorcism attempt during a
lecture at Georgetown University, he made no reference to the
alleged attack at all. Of further significance is that the St.
Louis contingency, Father Bowdern and Father Bishop, were never
informed of the alleged first exorcism attempt and their diary
makes no mention of the event.
Even if Rob Doe had slashed the arm of Father Hughes, would it
really cause the priest to have a breakdown and disappear from St.
James Parish? I easily located several individuals who were in
daily contact with Father Hughes throughout the spring of 1949,
the time period that immediately followed his alleged exorcism
attempt on Rob Doe. I wondered if the priest showed any signs of
injury, any change in behavior, or if any evidence existed of a
breakdown or personal hiatus from his busy job. I found just the
opposite.
Thomas Kearney, an eighth-grader at St. James during the 1948-49
school year revealed that Father Hughes was the parishs CYO
junior boys baseball coach that spring: I saw Father Hughes
every day at St. James that school year and I dont remember
him being missed and I dont remember him being beat up or
hurt or anything like that. He coached baseball that spring and
would pitch us the ball and there was nothing wrong with him.
Another eighth-grade classmate that year was Joan Flanagan, who
recalled: The recent story going around now was that Father
Hughess arm was slashed back then. I never heard that at
the time. I never noticed a slash or an injury and he was the P.
E. teacher for our class. He never missed a class and I remember
him pitching us softballs in the spring. Something like that
would have been a big story at the time. I just dont
believe it happened.
The prefect for the Ladies Sodality of St. James for all of 1949
and 1950 was Gloria Nowak, who today is 74 years old and is still
a Mount Rainier resident. She told me, I knew Father Hughes
very well because he was director of the Sodality and would come
to each meeting and start it off with a prayer. I never knew that
he had any kind of arm wound. I had heard about the possessed boy
but it was something we didnt ask about. Father Hughes was
a very nice person, very outgoing and friendly and a very holy
priest. I never noticed any change in behavior or any absence
while I was prefect. He was always there and always in a good
mood.
Furthermore, the neighborhood columns for Brentwood and Mount
Rainier in The Prince Georges Post throughout the
spring of 1949 seemed to go out of their way to document the
activities of the very popular young priest. In their pages they
document that Father Hughes, among other activities: attended a
dinner given for Father William E. Kelly of St. Martins
Church on Sunday, February 27, 1949; missed a social given by the
Mothers Club of St. James on Tuesday, March 1, 1949 (possibly
the night he was visiting Rob Doe at Georgetown University
Hospital); spoke at the Communism in Religion seminar
sponsored by the Washington General Assembly Fourth Degree
Knights of Columbus held at the Hyattsville Town Hall on Monday,
March 7, 1949; said mass at the KCs To Inaugurate Day Of
Recollection, an annual Day of Recollection inaugurated by
the Prince Georges Council of the Knights of Columbus on
Sunday, March 20, 1949 at St. John de Matha Monastery in
Hyattsville; presided over a wedding between Mildred ODea
and Edward A. Williams on Saturday, April 30, 1949 at St. Jeromes
Church; performed a wedding on Saturday, June 4, 1949 for Francis
Wersick and Sam Morina at St. James Church; addressed
Commencement Exercises for St. Jeromes first graduating
class on Sunday, June 12, 1949; and according to the June 16,
1949 Brentwood column, hosted an outing and picnic for the St.
James graduating class at Chapel Point. Coverage of the dynamic
Father Hughes in the pages of The Prince Georges Post continued
throughout 1949, all the way up to his departure in 1960 without
any noticeable break in the action. In the June 16, 1960 edition
of The Prince Georges Post, Joseph Bianchini writes in the
Mount Rainier column that Father Hughes had performed 2,712
baptisms, 486 marriages, 251 baptisms of converts, and 247 burial
masses during his assignment. Not bad for a priest who disappeared.
(Hughes was later reassigned to St. James in 1973 and remained
there until his death in October 1980.)
The one local clergyman that Father Hughes confided in before his
death was his assistant pastor Frank Bober, who has since figured
prominently in this scenario, mainly because of his accessibility
to journalists and general congeniality. Bober has appeared in
literally dozens of television specials, news broadcasts, and
printed articles on the subject. In Possessed Allen cites him as
one of his extremely reliable sources for the first
exorcism attempt that Hughes was involved in. However, despite
the accolades, it was my opinion that over time the comments that
these journalists attributed to Bober began to take on a more
dramatic tone with each retelling.
At this point in my investigation I felt that it was Bober who
had been responsible during the early 80s for the
implication that 3210 Bunker Hill Road had been the actual home
of the possessed boy. I harbored these feelings despite the fact
that he told The Washington Post of May 6, 1985 that
Father Hughes never told me the exact spot (of the
residence). In the same article he later told the reporter,
I think it was common knowledge in Mount Rainier. At
first Father Bober claims Father Hughes did not reveal where the
boy lived, but in later interviews he maintains that Father
Hughes told him the boy was from Mount Rainier. This conflict
over something as simple as where the boy resided calls into
question everything that Father Bober alleges was told to him by
Father Hughes.
Hoping Father Bober would straighten his stories out, I located
him in Washington, D.C., where he was enjoying an extended
sabbatical. He was extremely friendly and cooperative and told of
what Father Hughes reportedly experienced during his time with
the boy: coldness in the room, the movement of a phone, the
speaking of archaic languages and of course the slashing of his
arm by the possessed boy during the aborted exorcism attempt. He
claimed that he thought Father Hughes told him the boy had lived
in Mount Rainier on Bunker Hill Road. All of this was
interesting, but when I presented to him my evidence that the boy
never lived in Mount Rainier and attempted to clarify Bobers
original statements to the newspapers he became a bit defensive.
I never did any in-depth investigating, I just accepted his
word and thats what he said, Bober insisted. All
I know is Father Hughes gave me certain information which I
communicated to the press and the Archdiocese and so on and that
was his information. You know I was not around in 1949. I was
ordained much later in 1969 and was at St. James from 1980 to
1985. When people interview me I just tell what I know and thats
all I can do.
We discussed certain aspects of the case which curiously had
never been printed in any previously published accounts. My
investigation led me to conclude that the mother initiated
contact with the church and that Father Hughes never actually
visited the family. Bober confirmed this. Father Hughes
never went to the boys home, he said. Basically
it was the mother that brought the kid to the rectory and the
thing is shes the one who gave Father Hughes all the
information. Everything that I know of that he shared with me
took place in the rectory, not at the house.
Bober continued, I cannot affirm where the family lived
because I was not there at that point in time. Maybe the guy did
live in Cottage City, I dont know. If the mother wanted to
shield the identity she might have said it was Mount Rainier, I
dont know. It could be the churchs approach. The
church likes to keep it all secret. They might suggest this is
where it is to keep the persons identity secret and leave
it at that. I just dont know.
While Father Bober became entangled in the Exorcist saga by
simply lending an ear to his weary pastor, Father Walter Halloran
emerged as a central figure for his role in the actual St. Louis
exorcism conducted by Father Bowdern. In 1949 Halloran was a 26-year-old
scholar at St. Louis University studying for a masters
degree and preparing for priesthood. He was called upon by
Bowdern to assist the priests in different aspects of the
exorcism and today is the one living eyewitness to those events
who is still willing to discuss his experiences. In August 1997
Halloran was reassigned from San Rafael Church in San Diego,
California to Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, where
today he works as the hospital chaplain.
When I contacted Halloran by phone, he sounded tired and clearly
was not interested in discussing the incident with me. Still, to
his credit, he thoughtfully answered every one of my questions. I
first asked Halloran if he would go on record as saying whether
he thought the boy was possessed or not. No, I cant
go on record, he told me. I never made an absolute
statement about the things because I didnt feel I was
qualified. I hadnt studied the phenomena and that sort of
thing. All I did was report the things that I saw and whether I
would make a statement one way or another wouldnt make any
difference because I just dont think I was qualified to do
so.
My questions to Halloran a were met with brief, direct responses.
Did the boy speak in any languages other than
English?
Just Latin.
Did it appear he understood the Latin he was
speaking?
I think he mimicked us.
Was there any change in the boys voice?
Not really.
When the boy struck you in the nose, did he exhibit
extraordinary strength?
I dont know, I never even thought very much
about it. It certainly wasnt [former world boxing champion
Mike] Tyson hitting me in the nose or something like that (laughs).
I asked Halloran to elaborate and describe to me some of the
things he witnessed that he could not explain. He paused and
slowly said, I saw a bottle slide from a dresser across the
roomthere was no one near it. The bed moving.... I
interrupted and asked if the bed was stationary or on rollers. He
said, It was on rollers like any bed, but I was leaning on
it when it moved one time.
I inquired about the boys spitting, urinating and vomiting,
all activities that he was said to have indulged in with great
vigor during various points of the exorcism. Halloran responded,
Well, spitting was frequent...it wasnt significant...there
wasnt any vomiting or urinating that I recall.
I wanted to know about the boys fathers level of
involvement. Had Halloran even met the father? Had the father
been present during all of this? I met him once, I think. I
think that he was back home in Maryland working most of the time.
He wasnt really a part of this.
I asked about the markings or brandings that were said to have
appeared on the boys body out of nowhere. Did Halloran
actually see them materialize on his skin? Did he feel the boy or
someone else was responsible? I saw them...well, right on
the skin...yeah, I did. It wasnt the boy doing it himself,
you know, as far as I could see. I wanted to know if the
markings ever formed numbers or letters or words, as other
writers had reported. It was kind of hard to really tell.
Was there blood dripping from the marks? It looked more
like lipstick. There were just some very clear marks like that.
Continuing on this subject I asked if the priests had ever
bothered to check the boys fingernails for flesh or blood
deposits. Halloran was taken aback. After a long pause he said,
When I was there his hands were nowhere near the markings.
No, we didnt check.
And of course, I inquired about the famous diary of Father Bishop.
I dont have it any more, Father Halloran
reported. I burned it.
Problem Child
It is a fact that no journalist has ever identified and spoken
with the subject of this alleged exorcism, Rob Doe. While I felt
it was imperative that I establish some type of contact with him,
I realized that in all likelihood an interview with him would
prove anticlimactic. If Rob Doe had actually been the victim of
demonic possession, he very well may not have any memory of the
events. If his behavior had been staged and there had never been
a possession, he would probably not admit to the sham. With that
in mind I waited until my investigation drew to a close to
contact him. I believe that the strength of this investigation
lies within the factual framework that has been constructed.
Several key issues have been defined and verifiedwhere the
boy actually lived, where he went to school, what his friends had
to say, and what he was like prior to the questionable events
that engulfed his family in the winter and spring of 1949. I
wondered if Rob Doe would have anything significant to say even
if he was willing to discuss his life experiences.
From a Cottage City source I obtained an East Coast address where
the Haunted Boy now resides and his current phone number. I
called and Rob Doe himself answered. Our conversation was brief
and direct and he gruffly spoke to me in a very deep, gravelly
voice. He admitted to me that he had grown up in Cottage City and
had never lived in Mount Rainier. He stated that he had seen the
movie The Exorcist but did not offer his take on the
film. He seemed very alarmed that I had contacted him and told me
there would be no cooperation on his part whatsoever. He would
not confirm that he was the subject of this investigation and
firmly stated he did not want me to ever call him back again. His
response was typical of someone who did not want to be reminded
of some distant embarrassing event from his past.
While Rob Doe was unaware of it at the time, the events that
centered around the troublesome teenage boy from Cottage City
between January and April 1949 would later have a profound effect
on people all over the globe. As the inspiration for The
Exorcist, this case emerged as one of the most significant
examples of paranormal phenomena in history. It spawned movies,
books, and videos, and influenced hundreds of copycat
cases around the world that led to exorcism-styled assaults,
mutilations, and even deaths.
Despite the widespread popularity of this story in the aftermath
of William Peter Blattys novel and movie, no one had ever
actually investigated this case prior to my involvement. Rob Doe
had never been interviewed, nor identified. No investigator had
ever talked with his childhood friends or people from the
neighborhood in which he grew up. In fact, no journalist ever got
the location right in the first place. All previous accounts had
placed the boy at 3210 Bunker Hill Road in Mount Rainier, an
inexcusable error.
With the completion of this adventure we now know who the boy
was, where he really lived, where he attended school, who his
friends were, what his family life was like, and what behavior
and personality traits he exhibited before his alleged possession.
The credibility of the mysterious diary has now been called into
question. I have shown that Father Walter Halloranthe one
living, talking eyewitness to the St. Louis exorcism attempts,
maintains that he did not witness any supernatural behavior by
Rob Doeno strange foreign languages (other than mimicked
Latin), no changes in tone of voice, no prodigious strength, no
excessive vomiting or urinating, andto top it offhe
is uncertain about the nature of the markings or skin brandings
on the boys body. Perhaps most important of all, this case
illustrates the need in paranormal investigation for close
scrutiny of both initial newspaper accounts and highly touted
individuals as providers of information. In this instance, both
sources muddled the picture by embellishing the story when facts
were uncertain.
Personally, I do not believe Rob Doe was possessed. There is
simply too much evidence that indicates that as a boy he had
serious emotional problems stemming from his home life. There is
not one shred of hard evidence to support the notion of demonic
possession. The facts show that he was a spoiled and disturbed
only child with a very overprotective mother and a non-responsive
father. To me his behavior was indicative of an outcast youth who
desperately wanted out of Bladensburg Junior High School at any
cost. He wanted attention and he wanted to leave the area and go
to St. Louis. Throwing tantrums was the answer. He began to play
his concocted game. For his efforts he got a collection of
priests (who had no previous exorcism experience) who doted over
him as he lay strapped to a bed. His response was that of any
normal childhe reacted with rage, he wanted out. Without
delving into the dynamics of psychosomatic illness, there is no
question there was something wrong with Rob Doe prior to January
1949, something that modern-era psychiatry might have best
addressed. Rob Doe was not just another normal teenage boy.
Each of the parties involved in this case approached it from its
own frame of reference. To psychiatrists, Rob Doe suffered from
mental illness. To priests this was a case of demonic possession.
To writers and film/video producers this was a great story to
exploit for profit. Those involved saw what they were trained to
see. Each purported to look at the facts but just the opposite
was truein actuality they manipulated the facts and
emphasized information that fit their own agendas.
While my efforts in this investigation were not meant to be all-inclusive, we now have a wealth of previously uncovered information about the alleged possession of Rob Doe. Future investigative work into this case will hopefully begin at the heart of the matter, rather than weave its way through a confusing maze of myths, false leads, and self-serving propaganda.
References
Thomas B. Allen, Possessed: The True Story Of An Exorcism
(New York: Doubleday July 1993, Bantam Books, April 1994). (Discussed
in this article.)
William Peter Blatty, William Peter Blatty On The Exorcist
From Novel To Film (New York: Bantam Books, 1974). (The 41-page
introduction provides some valuable information on how Blatty
became aware of the story and how he developed his novel. The
rest of the book deals with the movies screenplay.)
Denis Brian, The Enchanted Voyager: The Life Of J. B. Rhine (Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1982). (Chapter 29 consists of six
pages on the case. J. B. Rhine learned of the case from Reverend
Luther Miles Schulze, the first clergyman called in by the family.
It is revealed that Rhine never witnessed any of the phenomena
himself and actually wondered if Reverend Schulze unconsciously
exaggerated some of the facts. Rhines feelings have
been conveniently ignored by other journalists.)
Martin Ebon, Exorcism: Fact Not Fiction (New York:
Signet Books, January 1974). (This pocket paperback reprints the
April 1951 Fate article and mainly summarizes the early
newspaper accounts of the case.)
Rosemary Ellen Guiley, The Encyclopedia Of Ghosts And Spirits
(New York: Facts On File, 1992), pp. 226-227.
Dennis William Hauck, The National Directory Of Haunted
Places (Sacramento: Athanor Press, 1994), page 184.
Rev. John J. Nicola, Diabolical Possession and Exorcism
(Rockford, Illinois: Tan Books and Publishers, Inc., 1974),
chapter 10. (Nicola poorly reconstructs the case that inspired The
Exorcist, providing no documented sources for his
sensational version of the alleged possession.)
Peter Travers and Stephanie Reiff, The Story Behind The
Exorcist (New York: Signet Books, 1974). (A rather
disappointing treatment of how the movie was filmed. There is
very little here on the actual background of the 1949 possession.)
Periodicals (in chronological order):
Bill Brinkley, Pastor Tells Eerie Tale of Haunted
Boy, The Washington Post, 10 August 1949.
Minister Tells Parapsychologists Noisy Ghost
Plagued Family, The Evening Star (Washington, D.C.),
10 August 1949.
William Flythe Jr., Haunted Boys Parents
Tell Of Ghost Messages, The Times-Herald (Washington,
D.C.), 11 August 1949.
Priest Freed Boy of Possession By Devil, Church Sources
Say, The Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 19
August 1949.
New Details of Boys Exorcism In Catholic Ritual
Disclosed, The Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 20
August 1949.
Bill Brinkley, Priest Frees Mt. Rainier Boy Reported Held
in Devils Grip, The Washington Post, 20
August 1949.
Report Of A Poltergeist, Parapsychology Bulletin,
Number 14, August 1949.
D.R. Linson, Washingtons Haunted Boy, Fate,
April 1951.
Chris Chase, Everyones Reading It, Billys
Filming It, The New York Times, 27 August 1972.
Gwen Dobson, Luncheon With Father John J. Nicola, The
Evening Star and the Washington Daily News (Washington, D.C.),
3 November, 1972.
Sally Quinn, Exorcism: Beating The Devil, The
Washington Post, 6 November 1972.
Curtis Fuller, I See by The Papers: Exorcism And
Possession, Fate, March 1973.
Gary Arnold, Exorcist: The Word Made Flesh, The
Washington Post, 23 December 1973.
Jeremiah OLeary, The Exorcist: Story That Almost Wasnt,
Washington Star-News, 29 December 1973.
Ronald V. Borst, The Exorcist, Photon,
Number 25, 1974.
Tom Shales, Exorcist: No One Under 17 Admitted,
The Washington Post, 3 January 1974.
Pauline Kael, The Current Cinema: Back To the Ouija Board,
The New Yorker, 7 January 1974.
Cathe Wolhowe, Bedeviled By Film, Curious Go To GU, The
Washington Post, 10 January 1974.
Movies: The Ghoul Next Door, Newsweek, 21
January 1974.
James L. Foye, M.D. A Psychiatrist On Rites Of Exorcism,
The Washington Post, 22 January 1974.
William Gildea, Confronting Satans Wrongs With Rites,
The Washington Post, 29 January 1974.
Elizabeth Peer, The Exorcism Frenzy, Newsweek,
11 February 1974.
Steve Erdmann, The Truth Behind The Exorcist,
Fate, January 1975.
Lynda Hoover, The Devil In Prince Georges County?
The Prince Georges Journal, 19 June 1975.
Sharon Page, Q And A: Father Nicola Pursues Trail Of The
Devil, The Washington Star, 19 August 1975.
Spencer Gordon, The Exorcist: The real incident involved a
Mt. Rainier priest in 1949, The Prince Georges
Sentinel, 4 February, 1981.
Brenda Caggiano, Exorcism: Demonic possession still haunts
Mt. Rainier residents, The Prince Georges
Sentinel, 28 October 1983.
Arthur S. Brisbane, Youths Bizarre Symptoms Led To
1949 Exorcism, The Washington Post, 6 May 1985.
Arthur S. Brisbane, Violent Deaths Plague Old Exorcist
Haunts, The Washington Post, 6 May 1985.
Vincent F.A. Golphin, Is Town Viewing Live Rerun Of The
Exorcist? Some Say Demons Have Come Back, National
Catholic Reporter, 24 May 1985.
Vincent F.A. Golphin, Priest Says Not Devil, But Force Of
Evil, National Catholic Reporter, 24 May 1985.
Marybeth Burke, Exorcist Based On 1949 Event,
The Prince Georges Journal, 22 July 1986.
John M. McGuire, The Exorcist Revisited, The Post-Dispatch
(St. Louis, MO), 17 April 1988.
Mary Mann, Setting The Exorcism Record Straight, South
Side Journal (St. Louis, MO), 14 March 1990.
Thomas B. Allen, Possessed, Washingtonian,
June 1993.
Susan Adeletti, The Exorcist: The Real Story, The
Prince Georges Journal, 11 July 1997.