Exorcism of Roland Doe

In December 2021, The Skeptical Inquirer reported the purported true identity of Roland Doe/Robbie Mannheim as Ronald Edwin Hunkeler (June 1, 1935 – May 10, 2020).

Roland was born into a German Lutheran family in 1935.

In the late 1940s, in the United States, priests of the Roman Catholic Church performed a series of exorcisms on an anonymous boy, documented under the pseudonym "Roland Doe" or "Robbie Mannheim".

The 14-year-old boy was alleged to be a victim of demonic possession, and the events were recorded by the attending priest, Raymond J. Bishop.

During the 1940s the family lived in Cottage City, Maryland.

According to Allen, Roland was an only child and depended upon adults in his household for playmates, primarily his Aunt Harriet.

His aunt, who was a spiritualist, introduced Roland to the ouija board when he expressed interest in it.

According to Thomas B. Allen, after Aunt Harriet's death the family experienced strange noises, furniture moving of its own accord and ordinary objects such as vases flying or levitating when the boy was nearby.

The family turned to their Lutheran pastor, Luther Miles Schulze, for help.

Long interested in parapsychology, Schulze arranged for the boy to spend a night in his home in order to observe him.

When parapsychologist Joseph Banks Rhine learned that Schulze claimed he witnessed household objects and furniture seemingly moving by themselves, Rhine "wondered if Schulze 'unconsciously exaggerated' some of the facts."

Schulze advised the boy's parents to "see a Catholic priest".

According to the traditional story, the boy then underwent a number of exorcisms.

Edward Hughes, a Roman Catholic priest, conducted an exorcism on Roland at Georgetown University Hospital, a Jesuit institution.

During the exorcism, the boy allegedly slipped one of his hands out of the restraints, broke a bedspring from under the mattress, and used it as an impromptu weapon, slashing the priest's arm and resulting in the exorcism ritual being halted.

The family traveled to St. Louis, where Roland's cousin contacted one of his professors at St. Louis University, Bishop, who in turn spoke to William S. Bowdern, an associate of College Church.

Together, both priests visited Roland in his relatives' home, where they allegedly observed a shaking bed, flying objects, and the boy speaking in a guttural voice and exhibiting an aversion to anything sacred.

Bowdern was granted permission from the archbishop to perform another exorcism.

The exorcism took place at The Alexian Brothers Hospital in South St Louis, Missouri, which was changed to South City Hospital.

Before the next exorcism ritual began, another priest, Walter Halloran, was called to the psychiatric wing of the hospital, where he was asked to assist Bowdern.

William Van Roo, a third Jesuit priest, was also there to assist.

Halloran stated that during this scene words such as "evil" and "hell", along with other various marks, appeared on the teenager's body.

Allegedly, during the Litany of the Saints portion of the exorcism ritual, the boy's mattress began to shake.

Moreover, Roland broke Halloran's nose during the process.

Halloran told a reporter that after the rite was over, the anonymous subject of the exorcism went on to lead "a rather ordinary life."

In mid-1949, several newspaper articles printed anonymous reports of an alleged possession and exorcism.

The source for these reports is thought to be the family's former pastor, Luther Miles Schulze.

According to one account, a total of "forty-eight people witnessed this exorcism, nine of them Jesuits."

According to author Thomas B. Allen, Jesuit priest Father Walter H. Halloran was one of the last surviving eyewitnesses of the events and participated in the exorcism.

Allen wrote that a diary kept by attending priest Father Raymond J. Bishop detailed the exorcism performed on the pseudonymously identified "Roland Doe" aka "Robbie".

Subsequent supernatural claims surrounding the events were used as elements in William Peter Blatty's 1971 novel The Exorcist.

In his 1993 book Possessed: The True Story of an Exorcism, author Thomas B. Allen offered "the consensus of today's experts" that "Robbie was just a deeply disturbed boy, nothing supernatural about him".

Author Mark Opsasnick questioned many of the supernatural claims associated with this story, proposing that "Roland Doe" was simply a spoiled, disturbed bully who threw deliberate tantrums to get attention or to get out of school.

Opsasnick reports that Halloran, who was present at the exorcism, never heard the boy's voice change, and he thought the boy merely mimicked Latin words he heard clergymen say, rather than gaining a sudden ability to speak Latin.

Opsasnick reported that when marks were found on the boy's body, Halloran failed to check the boy's fingernails to see if he had made the marks himself.

Opsasnick also questioned the story of Hughes' attempts to exorcise the boy and his subsequent injury, saying he could find no evidence that such an episode had actually occurred.

During his investigation Opsasnick discovered:

Speaking in 2013, Allen "emphasized that definitive proof that the boy known only as 'Robbie' was possessed by malevolent spirits is unattainable."

According to Allen, Halloran also "expressed his skepticism about potential paranormal events before his death."

When asked in an interview to make a statement verifying that the boy had actually been demonically possessed, Halloran responded saying, "No, I can't go on record. I never made an absolute statement about the things because I didn't feel I was qualified."