EXORCIST BOY IDENTIFIED
‘Roland Doe’ revealed as Ronald Hunkeler, plus obeah man drives out duppies
THE ‘HAUNTED BOY’ UNMASKED
It has long been known that William Friedkin’s 1973 film
The Exorcist was based on an actual case, and that the child at the centre of it was not a girl, as portrayed by Linda Blair in the film, but a boy, although his identity had always been disguised under the pseudonym “Roland Doe”. Now, following his death of a stroke at 85, Skeptical Inquirer
magazine has named the boy as Ronald Edwin Hunkeler. In 1949 at the age of 14, Hunkeler was exorcised in Cottage City, Maryland, and St Louis, Missouri, after experiencing paranormal phenomena that included hearing knocking and scratching sounds from behind his bedroom walls.
The Hunkeler family contacted their family priest, the Rev Luther Schulze who, in a letter to the Parapsychology Laboratory at Duke University, North Carolina, described how “chairs moved with [Hunkeler] and one threw him out [of it.] His bed shook whenever he was in it.” He went on to say that their house’s floors were “scarred from the sliding of heavy furniture” and that “a picture of Christ on the wall shook” whenever Hunkeler was nearby. Schulze involved another priest, the Jesuit William Bowdern, who conducted more than 20 exorcism rituals on Hunkeler over a period of three months. During these he noted that Hunkeler entered a trancelike state and that there was “scratching which beat out a rhythm of marching soldiers. Second class relic of St Margaret Mary was thrown on the floor. The safety pin was opened but no human hand had touched the relic. R started up in fright when the relic was thrown down”. After the decision was made to take the boy to St Louis for further exorcism, Bowdern wrote in his journal: “On one evening the word ‘Louis’ was written on the boy’s ribs in deep red [scratches.] Next, when there was some question of the time of departure, the word ‘Saturday’ was written plainly on the boy’s hip. As to the length of time the mother and the boy should stay in St Louis, another message was printed on the boy’s chest, ‘3½ weeks’. The printing always appeared without any motion on the part of the boy’s hands.” Once in St Louis, Hunkeler was admitted to the Alexian Brothers Hospital and the exorcisms continued, until almost a month later he “broke into a violent tantrum of screaming, cursing, and voicing of Latin phrases” after which the priests felt that they had successfully cast out the demon.
Freed from his demons, Hunkeler returned to obscurity and built a career in engineering that saw him work for NASA, where he contributed to the Apollo missions of the 1960s and patented heat shield technology used in the space shuttle, eventually retiring from the agency in 2001 after working there for nearly 40 years. He was always on edge about NASA colleagues discovering that he had inspired The Exorcist and a family spokesperson said: “On Hallowe’en, we always left the house because he figured someone would come to his residence and know where he lived and never let him have peace. He had a terrible life from worry, worry, worry.” She added that a Catholic priest had showed up unexpectedly just before his death to perform the last rites: “I have no idea how the Father knew to come, but he got Ron to Heaven. Ron’s in Heaven and he’s with God now”. theguardian.com, 20 Dec 2021. See also Mark Opsasnick, “The haunted boy of Cottage City, the cold hard facts behind the story that Inspired The Exorcist”, Strange Magazine 20, 1999.
DUPPIE CONQUEROR
In Jamaica, John Brown, a St Catherine’s resident in his early 30s, spent $100,000 (just under £500) to rid his family of a plague of duppies, an investment that he told The Star was excellent value for money as they can now live in peace. He said that for seven years his family had been unable to leave their home without fearing that the duppies would hurl stones at them, saying: “When mi look two side, nobody nuh deh deh but stone a lick mi. A night-time a bare tings a fling pan at mi house top, but is not a living person a fling dem. Whole heap a lick mi get.” He also complained that duppies had been eating and spoiling their food. “Di duppy dem eat out di food so all di kids dem in the yard start get sick, and a bag a tings did just a reach me,” he said.
Over the years he had spent thousands of dollars on various spiritual healers in an attempt to evict the duppies, but finally an obeah man from the east of the island had succeeded. “As soon as mi talk to this man, mi feel like a God inside himself mi talk to. Now mi can sleep good a night-time because a night-time a use to bare boom boom mi a hear on the housetop. Right now, mi yard feel free like Zion,” Brown said.
The obeah man explained that the cause of the problem was four ghosts and a demon, saying: “These people lived close to some old graves that were disturbed by mischievous persons who wanted to take over the yard… The spirits were throwing stones at the occupants of the yard and that was not a good way to live. So I had to help them.” Jamaica Weekly Gleaner, vol.3635, 23-39 Sept 2021.