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.