Exorcism of Roland Doe

In the late 1940s, in the United States, priests of the 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 said to be a victim of demonic possession, and the events were recorded by the attending priest, Raymond J. Bishop. Subsequent supernatural claims surrounding the events were used as elements in William Peter Blatty's 1971 novel The Exorcist.[1] 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).[2][3]

  1. ^ Opasnick, Mark. "The Cold Hard Facts Behind the Story that Inspired "The Exorcist"". Strange Magazine #20. Retrieved 7 November 2015.
  2. ^ JD Sword (November 2021). "Demoniac: Who Is Roland Doe, the Boy Who Inspired The Exorcist?". Skeptical Inquirer. Vol. 45, no. 6.
  3. ^ Maya Yang (2021-12-20). "Boy whose case inspired The Exorcist is named by US magazine". The Guardian.