The male child who inspired the film and bookThe Exorcistwent on to become an engineer at NASA , working on the Apollo program and patenting applied science of his own design that helped space shuttles withstand the extreme heat of takeoff and reentry .
In August 1949 , aseries of articlestold the strange story of a teenage male child who had a telephone number of extrasensory experiences , actuate a call to a priest . According to reports , the boy ( named at the time as Roland Doe to protect his identity ) and his family begin to get wind scratching noises from the walls , and saw objects startle to the floor when the son was around . More disturbingly his bed would apparentlyshake violently at night .
While they may have been better off searching for asource of carbon monoxide , the family succeed the far more dubitable process of necessitate a priest to stay the night . The priest – who was said to be skeptical , just like his counterpart in the films – did so , and purportedly witness consequence like the scrape on the walls , plus sheets moving around enigmatically on their own . The non-Christian priest , to his credit , is report to havecalled in the family doctorshortly afterward .
The pressure piece up on the level , but it was n’t until later that calendar month that it blow up , when several report reported that the male child had been"freed " from the " devil ’s grip"after 20 to 30 dispossession by a catholic priest .
" In all except the last of these , the male child broke into a red tantrum of yell , cursing and voicing of Latin phrases - a language he had never studied - whenever the non-Christian priest give the climactic power point of the ritual,“one article by the Washington Post read , " ' in the name of the Father , the Son and the Holy Ghost , I cast thee ( the devil ) out ' . "
During this round of articles , details became more elaborate and incredible , with reputation of beds fly around the room before the eventual dispossession . The real story , long after the article fill with bizarre claims of raise forcefulness and had inspired the picture , is far more quotidian – and cheerless .
Roland Doe ( whose tangible name was Ronald Edwin Hunkeler , asrevealed by Skeptical Inquirer late last year ) grew up as a troubled boy in an extremely spiritual family . The strange detail – the ones which are verifiable , at least – can be explain with ease . One third-year non-Christian priest who was attestant to the events explained , for example , the part about him speak Latin idiomatic expression .
" Did the boy speak in any languages other than English ? " a diary keeper publish for Strange Magazine who go after him downasked in 1999 .
" Just Latin , " the non-Christian priest replied .
When necessitate whether he appeared to understand the Latin he spoke , the non-Christian priest replied “ I recall he mimicked us . ”
The non-Christian priest went on to explain that there was no real change to the boy ’s articulation , and that he had the military capability of a normal person . When asked whether the bed really move across the room , he replied yes , before adding “ it was on hair curler like any bed , but I was leaning on it when it impress . ”
Hunkeler managed to escape infamy thanks to the nom de guerre used by newspaper at the time . He go on to dwell a successful life as a NASA railroad engineer , before his end of a accident in 2020 at the age of 86 . Hunkeler contributed to the Apollo program , which finally examine humanness set foot on the Moon . He worked at the agencyuntil his retirement in 2001 .
In malice of his success and normal aliveness , he never quite shook the look that his past would be find out .
“ On Halloween , we always go forth the house because he enter someone would come to his residence and know where he lived and never let him have ataraxis , ” someone who knew himtold the New York Post . “ He had a terrible animation from worry , concern , worry . ”
