Makeup by Dick Smith

Author William Peter Blatty was inspired to write the novel The Exorcist (the 1971 novel was later adapted for film, directed by William Friedkin in 1973) based on an alleged historical account that impacted him. In Blatty’s own words, his motivation was to affect the casual reader that demonic possession was real, as Blatty himself had come to believe while researching for his novel. I can only speculate whether or not Blatty’s spiritual conviction was merely a ruse for profitability, but one thing’s for sure — The Exorcist spun heads. Though the rite of exorcism in the Rituale Romanum dates back to 16th century, Blatty and Friedkin’s collaboration brought exorcism to mainstream awareness. For the first time, the drug-addled post-Vietnam era became privy to an imminent, diabolical force — the Devil was no longer in the details, he was in pigtails.

Even with a vast archive of knowledge at our fingertips it’s very difficult to uncover the truth of the spiritual events that inspired The Exorcist. With names, locations (“St. Louis,” “Mount Rainier”), and details lost to a campaign of disinformation, the alleged boy (“Richard,” “Robbie”) was said to be 13 years old when overtaken by the demonic as the result of summoning spirits on a Quija board with an aunt (or relative) who dabbled in spiritualism. It’s reported that shortly thereafter the boy’s parents began hearing inexplicable noises in the house, particularly dripping water and the scampering of mice. Though this seems an embarrassing exhibition of diabolical power, the paranormal activity did supposedly increase. Coincidentally, the boy’s aforementioned relative passed away of multiple sclerosis on January 26, 1949, prompting his family to suspect her restless spirit was the cause of the phenomena. However, his visibly shaken bed and the alleged dermatographia (words that appear on the skin in the form of welts) inferred a malevolent, unknown presence. Grief-stricken and horrified, the family consulted a Lutheran minister (Rev. Luther Schulze) who suggested a priest with vast Jesuit knowledge — William S. Bowdern S.J. (deceased, 1983).

Father Bowdern is alleged to have taken the boy to Alexian Brothers, a Catholic hospital, to perform the month-long rite of exorcism. It was there, at Alexian, that the boy exhibited the worst of his paranormal symptoms — spitting, cursing, and writhing uncharacteristically — as though vehemently resisting the ritual. This would be the testimony of Walter Halloran S.J., the last surviving eyewitness to the event that transpired (though died of cancer in 2005). As an assistant to the rite, Halloran was instructed to keep a detailed diary of all that took place. In 2003, Halloran soberly recounted that a small, empty bottle of holy water flew off a table unprovoked and that the boy often urinated in arrogant defiance. That said, it’s been reported that Catholic confession saw a remarkable increase after the theatrical release of The Exorcist, a confession skeptics only hope Halloran partook of to save going to his grave a fool or liar.

As a skeptic myself, it would be disingenuous of me to pretend aspects of this story don’t have emotional or psychological merit. Yet I’m of the opinion that skepticism is justified when the only surviving details of this account are sold in a book. I also don’t consider it a coincidence that the number of authentic possession cases have practically disappeared proportionate to advanced understanding about scientific and medical diagnosis, even to the point of the Vatican revising the Rituale Romanum. Suspending the possibility of a hoax, there’s no behavior the boy exhibited that could not be explained by contemporary, scientific understanding. Psychologists and doctors have since weighed in on this topic, suggesting extreme agitation and uncharacteristic strength can be caused by electrical disruptions in the brain (seizures) and that other profane behaviors demonstrated by the alleged possessed could be fueled by the hyper-influential nature of the ritual itself. Furthermore, there are reports that Bowdern and Halloran both had inconsistencies in their retelling, conveniently immune to fact-checking since the alleged possessed boy is said to have converted to Catholicism and have no memory of his childhood possession. I also believe it’s fair to speculate about the Catholic Church’s exclusive use of the exorcism ritual, as it demonstrates supreme authority over evil and thus infers theological and doctrinal supremacy. Would you not be leary of the only self-proclaimed source of medicine telling you you’re sick? Perhaps — just perhaps — The Devil never did inhabit the body of an adolescent boy, confounding history with embarrasingly trite parlor tricks that sell books. Maybe Walter Halloran had it right after his time in Vietnam — where he confessed he saw more evil than in the boy’s hospital bed back in 1949.