Roland Doe was a normal 13-year-old boy, until January 1949. Then, he became the centre of an alleged demonic possession, and endured weeks of exorcisms to free him from the demon.
His case was so shocking, that it inspired William Peter Blatty to write his novel, The Exorcist, which went on to become the blockbuster movie.
But how much of Regan’s ordeal did Roland Doe (now known as Ronald Hunkeler) go through? And how much can we separate fact from fiction?
SOURCES
📚 Exorcism! Driving Out The Nonsense, by Joe Nickell, published in the Skeptical Enquirer, 2001
📚 The Haunted Boy of Cottage City, by Mark Opsnasnick, published in Strange Magazine, 1998
📚 The Devil Came To St Louis by Troy Taylor
📚 Possessed, By Thomas B Allen
💻 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/exorcist-myths-true-story-facts-fiction/
💻 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/20/the-exorcist-boy-named-magazine
💻 https://skepticalinquirer.org/2021/10/demoniac-who-is-roland-doe-the-boy-who-inspired-the-exorcist/
📺 Exorcists: The True Story, first aired 2004
📺 Ghost Adventures 100th Episode, first aired 2013
📺 The Exorcism Of Roland Doe, first aired on Discovery+ in 2021
🎙️ Interviews with Troy Taylor
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THE LEGAL STUFF
I don’t claim ownership of all the extracts, including images, videos and audio, featured in this video. I will include material according to the Creative Commons CC0 licensing, or according to fair usage on the basis that I’m reporting, educating, or providing commentary or critique.
My whole aim for this channel is to educate and entertain you lovely people, using accurate factual information and personal experiences to the best of my knowledge. I spend hours and hours on the research for each one of my videos, using sources that I like to think are trustworthy. But let’s face it, no one’s perfect, and when you’re dealing with anything in history, especially the paranormal, mistakes will happen. If you’re interested, I’d highly recommend you do your own research, and if I have made a mistake, please tell me about it!
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