The Boy Behind William Peter Blatty’s “The Exorcist”

The Possession Diaries Part X

In mid-1949, newspaper articles ran anonymous stories about the alleged possession and exorcism of “Roland Doe” or “Robbie Mannheim,” a 14 year old boy born to a German family living in Cottage City, Maryland, in the US.

Their source was perhaps the former pastor of the child’s family, Luther Miles Schulze.

Roland was an only child and dependent on the adults of his household for amusement, particularly his Aunt Harriet, a spiritualist who let him play with her ouija board.

A total of 48 people witnessed his exorcism.

Thomas B. Allen wrote about Roland in his 1993 book, Possessed: The True Story of an Exorcism. According to him, Roland / Robbie’s family heard weird noises, had furniture move by itself and saw objects flying or floating whenever the boy was nearby.

The family asked Luther Miles Schulze for help. Luther had a deep interest in parapsychology, and he arranged for Roland / Robbie to spend one night in his house so that he could observe him.

Luther also claimed he saw his household objects and furniture move by themselves, and advised Roland’s parents to see a Catholic priest^.

According to the traditional story, the child then underwent a few exorcisms. Edward Hughes, a Roman Catholic priest, performed an exorcism on him at Georgetown University Hospital.

During this rite, Roland / Robbie allegedly slid one of his hands out of his restraints, snapped a bedspring off from under the mattress, and used it to slash the priest’s arm, bringing the ritual to a premature stop.

Roland’s family then traveled to St. Louis, where his cousin reached out to one of his professors at St. Louis University — Raymond J. Bishop, another priest — who then talked to William S. Bowdern, an associate of College Church, about it.

Both priests paid a visit to Roland in his relatives’ house, where they allegedly saw a bed shaking and objects flying, and allegedly heard the boy speak in a guttural voice whilst demonstrating a repulsion to anything holy.

Bowdern was given the go-ahead by the archbishop to carry out another exorcism rite.

That exorcism was held at The Alexian Brothers Hospital in South St Louis, Missouri, which became South City Hospital.

Before the exorcism started, another priest named Walter Halloran was summoned to the hospital’s psychiatric wing, where he was asked to help Bowdern.

Halloran said that during his time there, words like “evil” and “hell”, as well as other odd marks, appeared on Roland’s skin.

During the “Litany of the Saints” part of the exorcism ritual, Roland’s mattress was said to have started shaking and the boy broke Halloran’s nose.

Halloran assured a reporter that, after the exorcism was over, “Roland” or “Robbie” went on to have “a rather ordinary life.”

According to Thomas B. Allen, Father Walter H. Halloran was one of the few extant eyewitnesses of the exorcism.

Allen wrote that Father Bishop had kept a diary detailing the exorcism.

According to Allen, Halloran “expressed his skepticism about potential paranormal events before his death.”

When asked to make a statement verifying the boy had actually been possessed, Halloran said, “No, I can’t go on record. I never made an absolute statement about the things because I didn’t feel I was qualified.”

Elements of this exorcism case inspired a well-known 1971 novel, The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty, which was made into a 1973 horror film with the same title. 

Roland’s case also inspired the 2000 movie Possessed, which is closer to the story as told by Allen.

A documentary was made about this case, entitled “In the Grip of Evil” and another documentary film was created in 2010, “The Haunted Boy: The Secret Diary of the Exorcist,” in which a bunch of investigators travelled to the location of these events and found the diary said to be written by William S. Bowdern.

In December 2021, The Skeptical Inquirer revealed the true identity of Roland Doe/Robbie Mannheim as Ronald Edwin Hunkeler, born June 1st 1935 and died May 10th, 2020.

Read the rest of The Possession Diaries: