Original subtitles

NARRATOR: We've all seen or heard about the movie,

Of our Lord Jesus Christ,

who lives and reigns with the Father

and the Holy Spirit!

[ Grunts ]

But now a mysterious diary

reveals the true story

behind The Exorcist.

I'm hearing it firsthand from people who saw it,

who saw a bed levitate.

Finally, rare, unfiltered access into the real

and most frightening exorcism in America.

The demon said to me, "You can't get rid of us.

You're not strong enough."

And for the first time, an eyewitness appears on camera

to expose a shocking secret.

According to the church, somebody gave their life

for the child.

NARRATOR: What really happened to the haunted boy in St. Louis

and the devil that possessed him?

♪♪

♪♪

December 26, 1973.

The day after Christmas.

Audiences wait in long lines

for the much anticipated movie "The Exorcist,"

but no one in their darkest nightmares

can imagine what they are about to see.

I passed out in about the first half-hour. Yeah.

I don't know what they should do with that movie,

but I don't want to see the rest of it.

I fainted like 10 minutes after

the first beginning of the movie.

NARRATOR: "The Exorcist" follows the story of a 12-year-old girl

possessed by the devil and the ghoulish horror

facing the priests attempting to save her.

It's the power of Christ that compels you.

The power of Christ compels you!

Let the power of Christ compel you!

The power of Christ compels you!

NARRATOR: The movie strikes at one of our deepest anxieties,

the fear of the devil.

When she started talking like devil coming out of her, bleh,

my legs are just going, nrrrrr!

And I want to go in the lobby and not watch it

and I had to cover my ears.

I can't even describe it. It's so horrible.

It just --

I just scared me to death. Things just like this,

it just really scared me to death.

I'm just nervous.

Man: Are you going to go back in and see more of the movie now?

Probably, yeah.

I would say that everything in the movie can actually happen

because the devil will play on a person's memory and imagination.

♪♪

So head spinning, pea soup flying,

people crawling up the wall like a spider,

levitation, whatever it is,

all of these things are possible.

♪♪

NARRATOR: After the release of the film,

the Catholic Church notices a spike in attendance.

People come to profess their sins and seek salvation

through the ancient ritual of exorcism.

Aaaaaaah!

BELANGER: After the movie comes out,

the church sees this big uptick in people

thinking they need an exorcism.

And priests are just getting inundated with requests

for investigations of demonic possession.

I command you, Satan, enemy of human salvation

acknowledge the justice and goodness of God the father.

I was able to learn firsthand the church's ministry

to those who were up against the forces of evil

and that were turning to the church for help,

saw many different manifestations,

everything from eyes rolled in the back of the head,

foaming at the mouth, convulsing on the ground.

One occasion I even witnessed a levitation.

FRIEDKIN: Exorcism is a powerful ritual.

This is the belief of the church that the devil will,

in speaking through the body of the possessed,

will attempt to tear down the priest,

to destroy him physically and emotionally.

♪♪

NARRATOR: "The Exorcist" may be the scariest movie of all time,

and what makes it even more frightening --

the story is true.

♪♪

Writer William Peter Blatty loosely bases his book

and screenplay not about a girl,

but the real life horror of a 13-year-old boy from Maryland.

He's often known as Roland Doe

to protect his identity.

William Peter Blatty who writes "The Exorcist" book,

which is published in 1971,

was a student at Georgetown University.

At the time, he was an English major

and at least one of the Jesuits whom he knew

at Georgetown was aware of this and told him about it.

William Peter Blatty, he had a lot of privy to documents

that some of us may not have had privy to that had to do

with possession and exorcism and so on.

And he had kept newspaper clippings

from Washington, D.C.,

about this boy just outside of Georgetown

who had had these things happening to him.

♪♪

NARRATOR: But the book and movie only tell half the story.

Now the shocking discovery

of a secret diary

reveals chilling new details

of the real exorcism case

that happened over 70 years ago.

♪♪

January, 1949.

Roland Doe, an only child,

lives with his parents in Cottage City, Maryland,

a modest suburb outside of Washington, D.C.

A lot of the people that he went to school with,

a lot of his former friends,

people he knew growing up always described him

as being sort of hyper, sort of troublesome.

It wasn't that he was a bad student.

He just had a lot of trouble focusing.

♪♪

Roland forges a close bond with his Aunt Tillie,

who lives in St. Louis.

Tillie dabbles in spiritualism,

a belief in communicating with the dead.

She teaches Roland how to speak to spirits

through a popular board game.

Aunt Tillie no doubt spoke to him

about some of her spiritual beliefs.

They used this spirit board or talking board.

The talking board is a byproduct of the spiritualist movement.

It's got the alphabet printed on it.

And on that talking board is a little table

called a planchette.

And one, two, three, or more people can put fingers

on that planchette, and it moves and spells out messages.

♪♪

NARRATOR: But Roland and his aunt have no idea

they're opening a door to the dark side.

The aunt showed him how to use the talking board.

And there's a lot of people that believe that was the invitation

for the demon to step in.

♪♪

♪♪

NARRATOR: It all began in Roland's home

on January 15, 1949.

Roland's mother hears

what sounds like scratching noises inside the walls.

♪♪

When Roland's mother first started talking about

the strange scratchings to his father,

he actually had someone come in thinking that they had rats.

An exterminator came in to check the house,

couldn't find any signs of anything.

So they're thinking it's Roland acting up.

He's doing things, you know, to get attention.

But as time went on,

Roland's mother began to believe the house was haunted.

♪♪

♪♪

NARRATOR: 11 days after the first scratching sounds occur,

Roland receives devastating news.

His Aunt Tillie has died.

♪♪

Soon after her death,

Roland and his mother hear different noises,

this time in his bedroom.

♪♪

Once Aunt Tillie passes away, then everything

starts to really ramp up.

They hear what sounds like troops marching

towards Roland's bed.

Everybody's frightened.

There's knocks and bangs on the wall.

And Roland's mother screams out,

"Tillie, if that's you, knock three times."

And they claim they heard three knocks.

And so at this point, they start making the connection,

that it must be Aunt Tillie paying some visitation,

something like that.

If the alarming sounds truly come from the spirit

of Aunt Tillie,

why would she be tormenting her beloved nephew, Roland?

Is it possible the boy might be attracting someone

or something else?

TAYLOR: As things started to happen in the house,

according to his mother, they were seeing,

you know, dishes move around,

things fly across the room,

chairs that that would spin around,

slide across the floor almost every night

when Roland would go to bed.

At first, everything would be peaceful,

but then the bed would start to shake.

♪♪

But then it got worse, till the mattress was bouncing

up and down, the headboard was banging against the wall.

And all of these things were done with this skinny

13-year-old kid huddled in the middle of this bed.

NARRATOR: Beyond the scary noises and shaking bed,

Roland awakens in the middle of the night,

thrashing and screaming in a voice that doesn't sound human.

And the boy would speak in a very guttural kind of voice

that didn't quite seem like the voice of a boy.

Maybe this was an alternative personality.

Maybe this could even be a demon.

[ Guttural voice muttering ]

♪♪

TAYLOR: People who had gone to school with him years later

talked about how they were starting to hear

in the neighborhood, about the things that were

going on at night.

They were hearing the yelling and the screaming

and the banging that was going on in the house.

♪♪

And their parents would talk about it.

They just thought there was something wrong with this kid.

NARRATOR: As rumors rippled through the neighborhood,

Roland's classmates witnessed bizarre phenomena

happening around him at school.

While he was in class, sometimes his book would fly off the desk,

papers would fly across the room.

There were a couple of instances

where his desk was actually moving,

almost kind of vibrating across the floor.

Well, the teachers accused him of doing it, of course,

because, you know, this was a kid who was kind of

high strung and pranks were not out of the ordinary for him.

So they just assumed he was acting up,

but he swore that he wasn't.

Can you imagine you're having these horrible things

happening to you, and you go to school,

and your peers see this, and everybody thinks

you're just trying to get attention.

What a horrible thing to go through.

NARRATOR: As his troubling behavior escalates,

Roland stops going to school.

Could the boy be losing his mind,

or has he conjured an evil spirit

from the depths of hell?

♪♪

♪♪

NARRATOR: The quaint Maryland suburb of Cottage City

was once home to 13-year-old Roland Doe,

a seemingly ordinary adolescent.

But back in February 1949,

Roland's world is suddenly torn apart.

Every evening, he bursts into frenzied fits

and when throttled awake by a rattling bed

and recurring nightmares of evil spirits.

♪♪

TAYLOR: I think that's when things started to really get strange,

because it just seemed impossible

that he was doing these things.

♪♪

He was waking up, going through these fits,

these contortions and screams and cries.

♪♪

NARRATOR: Worried about his health,

Roland's parents take him to a doctor.

Could their son's nightly tantrums be the result

of physical illness, perhaps epilepsy?

Possession could also be signs that people exhibit

if they have a physical issue,

whether somebody is suffering from seizures,

Tourette syndrome.

The church wants to be very cautious

because if I'm too quick to label somebody

as being possessed, and that label prevents the person

from getting the true help that they need,

then I believe I've done more harm than good.

NARRATOR: The medical doctor can't find anything

physically wrong with Roland.

So his parents take him to a psychiatrist.

Perhaps their son has a mental illness

such as manic depression or schizophrenia.

This was 1949. So psychiatry was not real developed,

but nevertheless, they could find nothing wrong

with Roland at that time.

So they also went to see a psychologist,

and he couldn't find out anything wrong with him either.

GOMEZ: I think a lot of therapists and psychologists

and psychiatrists, they really are very hesitant

to endorse demonic possession as a diagnosis.

[ Screaming ]

If someone had childhood trauma or even current trauma,

that could also mimic signs and symptoms of demonic possession.

♪♪

NARRATOR: In Roland's case, no known medical records exist

except for a psychiatrist describing the boy as normal,

but high strung.

I don't think there is an available

psychological diagnosis that can account for all of the things

that have been reported with this kid.

♪♪

Does that make me leaping to the conclusion,

"I'm 100 percent sure this is a bona fide case of possession"?

I don't know.

But do we open the door for the possibility

is something maybe going on

that's beyond the scope of science?

♪♪

NARRATOR: After consulting doctors,

Roland's parents turned to their minister,

Reverend Luther Miles Schulze,

the pastor at St. Stephen's Evangelical Lutheran Church.

COOPER: Reverend Schulze happened to be very interested

in what is called parapsychology.

That's when these abnormal things are happening

around a person, and by some mechanism we don't understand,

internal turmoil is expressed externally.

♪♪

NARRATOR: Reverend Schulze wonders if mischievous ghosts

known as poltergeists could be wreaking havoc in Roland's home.

♪♪

A poltergeist is energy that causes things to happen,

objects moving around, lights turning on and off,

doors opening and closing.

The beginning of Roland's case,

that's the things that were starting to happen.

WILKINSON: Schulze was curious, but also maybe a bit skeptical.

Initially they wanted to observe him outside of the home.

So if there was something happening in the home,

is it just at the home?

NARRATOR: Reverend Schulze believes poltergeists

typically won't move from house to house.

So he comes up with a plan.

♪♪

Reverend Luther Schulze made an arrangement for Roland to come

and spend the night at his house.

His wife was going to sleep in the guest room.

They get into their separate beds, and almost as soon

as the lights are turned off,

the bed starts vibrating.

♪♪

Now, Schulze is still thinking this could be a prank.

Well, when he realizes it's not a prank,

this skinny little kid is making the entire bed shake,

he said, "Okay. I know how to solve this.

Why don't you go sleep in the armchair

on the other side of the room?

♪♪

And no sooner than things had calmed down again,

the chair starts shaking.

It starts bouncing so violently

that the chair actually tips over

and dumps Roland out on the floor.

♪♪

NARRATOR: Stunned by what he's seeing,

Reverend Schulze tells Roland

to lie on a mattress next to his bed.

And then this mattress starts sliding around on the floor,

and he slid underneath the bed.

♪♪

Then started bouncing up and down.

And then smashing his face on the bedsprings.

♪♪

Schulze said, well, this isn't this isn't going to work.

NARRATOR: When returning home,

Roland's condition takes a terrifying turn.

♪♪

The minister claimed that three scratches appeared

on Roland's body

and that happened four consecutive nights in a row.

And at this point, they know this isn't normal.

This isn't psychological disorder.

There's something diabolical happening here.

NARRATOR: Reverend Schulze no longer believes a poltergeist

is pestering Roland.

He said that this was getting beyond what he could deal with.

He was a Lutheran minister.

He suggested that the family take him

to see a Catholic priest

because they know more about these things

and more about possessions.

NARRATOR: Could the Catholic Church

explain these frightening manifestations?

Roland's parents reach out to Father Albert Hughes,

an assistant priest at St. James Catholic Church.

COOPER: They took Roland to see this Catholic priest.

What basically happened there was that the priest reported

that the temperature in the room all of a sudden became very cold

and he saw the telephone go sliding across the desk.

And the kid said something along the lines,

"Why bother me, you priest of hell?"

♪♪

NARRATOR: As Roland casts obscenities,

Father Hughes senses an evil presence in the boy,

perhaps the devil himself.

BELANGER: The devil is one of the most interesting figures

in mythology, in religion,

in art, in popular culture

because in the Bible,

he's Satan, he's the opposer.

He's the loyal opposition. He's the other side.

If you believe God is real,

you almost have to accept that the devil is also real.

NARRATOR: Catholics believe the devil, also known as Lucifer,

was an angel who defies God and falls from grace.

References to demonic spirits appear often in religious texts.

In Catholicism, the devil personifies pure evil.

The demonic spirit is bent on creating havoc

and wreaking havoc in every aspect of your life

and breaking you down.

Breaking you down spiritually,

emotionally, physically,

mentally, psychologically.

Just breaking you down.

NARRATOR: After observing Roland's behavior,

Father Hughes becomes convinced the devil is possessing the boy.

But why?

When people are turning to what I would call

practices of the occult,

doing seances, trying to communicate with the dead,

those are things that we should not be doing

because the devil is an opportunist.

If somebody is experiencing some type of brokenness

in their lives,

even from a mental perspective,

the devil could try to

enter into the cracks, if you will...

♪♪

...and fracture the person even more.

NARRATOR: According to sources, Father Hughes contacts

Archbishop Patrick O'Boyle of Washington, D.C.

He thinks Roland needs an exorcism.

Father Hughes was very upset by all this,

and he thought right away that it warranted a trip

to see the archbishop.

A priest can't randomly decide

"I think this guy needs to be exorcised."

Father Hughes went to the archbishop,

and very reluctantly, the archbishop was convinced

that it was okay to go ahead and do an exorcism.

♪♪

NARRATOR: Sometime between February 27th and March 6th,

Father Hughes reportedly admits Roland to Georgetown Hospital

under an assumed name.

While Roland's strapped to a bed,

Father Hughes reads the prayers of exorcism,

but it goes horribly wrong.

♪♪

Roland slips his hands out of the restraints.

The devil doesn't like to be shackled.

♪♪

♪♪

NARRATOR: Georgetown Hospital in Washington, D.C.

becomes the scene of a nightmare beyond imagination.

♪♪

♪♪

Between late February and early March of 1949,

Father Albert Hughes, a Jesuit priest,

attempts to perform an exorcism on 13-year-old Roland Doe

in the hospital's psychiatric ward.

But as father Hughes begins the ritual,

Roland reportedly breaks free of a hand restraint.

LACHANCE: There's an eyewitness account from the Georgetown Hospital.

Someone was there while Father Hughes did the exorcism.

And in the process of the exorcism,

the boy grabbed a spring from the bed

and sliced Father Hughes's arm.

♪♪

♪♪

NARRATOR: According to witnesses,

Roland lacerates Father Hughes' arm from shoulder to wrist

requiring 100 stitches.

People who knew Father Hughes said that he was never the same

after this and that he had a problem with his arm.

♪♪

♪♪

NARRATOR: Days after being discharged from Georgetown Hospital,

Roland plunges deeper into despair.

♪♪

When getting ready for bed,

he glances in the mirror and shrieks with horror.

[ Screaming ]

♪♪

Bloody scratches appear on his chest

and seemed to form the word "Louis."

♪♪

Roland's parents believe the word is a sign.

They have relatives in St. Louis.

WAIDE: They believe that since the word Lewis did appear on his body,

that maybe this evil spirit was sending a message

that you should take Roland to St. Louis.

In addition to his Aunt Tillie,

who is deceased by this time in early March of '49,

Roland's father had a brother who lived in St. Louis.

♪♪

I talked personally with a woman

who was a best friend of Roland's cousin,

and she told me that I can't possibly imagine

the sense of chaos

that was going on with his family at that time.

♪♪

They purely were at the end of their rope,

maybe willing to do anything.

I mean, they didn't have a plan.

♪♪

When they got on the train to come to St. Louis,

all they knew is they were basing this on "Louis,"

and they had relatives here and thought maybe they could

find some support and relief

and help spiritually from their relatives.

TAYLOR: This family, blue collar family,

job in a postwar economy

upended their entire life

to move halfway across the country

on the off chance that this might help.

So whatever you believe in this, something was happening.

Something earth shattering was happening to this family

to make them do this.

♪♪

NARRATOR: March 8, 1949.

Once arriving in St. Louis,

Roland and his parents stay with relatives

who are devout Catholics living in the quiet suburb of Bel-Nor.

♪♪

The family hopes they left the evil spirits behind,

but the devil reportedly follows Roland to St. Louis.

♪♪

So they moved to Bel-Nor,

which was the home of Roland's uncle,

his father's brother.

They were happy to help.

They love the family. They love Roland.

But now Roland seemed very different, especially at night.

So he goes to bed,

and immediately things start happening.

♪♪

He starts screaming, howling.

The bed's moving, bouncing up and down.

Things are flying around the room, and this poor kid

is terrified, and so is the rest of the family.

♪♪

LACHANCE: Roland had a cousin who was seeing everything

that was going on.

She was going to St. Louis University.

She was Catholic.

She goes to her professor who was Father Bishop.

And she tells him,

"I think there's something spiritually wrong

with my cousin. Will you come look at him?"

NARRATOR: Father Raymond Bishop agrees to meet with Roland

and observe his nightly behavior.

♪♪

March 11, 1949.

Father Bishop arrives at the home of Roland's relatives.

He brings along Father William Bowdern,

a respected Jesuit priest at nearby

St. Francis Xavier College Church.

♪♪

I am the great niece of Father William Bowdern,

the Jesuit who was the exorcist.

I grew up with this story from the time I can remember.

Uncle Bill was probably one of the finest men

I will ever be privileged to know.

He had the most rock solid faith I've ever seen.

♪♪

♪♪

NARRATOR: As Roland prepares for bed,

Father Bowdern reads several prayers.

Roland appears calm.

After observing Roland for nearly an hour,

Father's Bowdern and Bishop witnessed no dramatic signs

of demonic possession.

But as soon as the priests leave...

♪♪

...all hell breaks loose.

♪♪

♪♪

NARRATOR: 8435, Roanoke Drive, Bel-Nor, Missouri.

♪♪

All is not right in this seemingly normal suburban home.

♪♪

March 11, 1949.

Sometime after 11:00 p.m.,

Jesuit priests William Bowdern and Raymond Bishop

finished reciting prayers over 13-year-old Roland Doe.

♪♪

After observing no significant signs

of demonic possession,

the priests no sooner leave

when loud noises resound from the boy's room.

♪♪

A bottle of holy water on the nightstand

mysteriously hurls across the room.

♪♪

While Roland tries to fall back asleep,

a bookcase somehow moves and blocks the bedroom door.

♪♪

So the priests went back, and once again witnessed

all of the strange activity.

♪♪

And at this point, even Father Bowdern

started to believe that perhaps

there was some sort of demonic activity.

♪♪

NARRATOR: Knowing little about exorcisms,

Father Bowdern consults the Roman Ritual.

♪♪

A 17th-century manual detailing the rules,

prayers, and procedures of the ancient Catholic rite

of exorcism.

DERMINE: I use mainly the Roman exorcism ritual.

The exorcism consists mainly in praying.

Priest: I command thee, in the name of the Father

and of the Son, I exorcise thee.

Let thou depart!

♪♪

NARRATOR: Exorcism is almost as old as religion itself.

♪♪

The Bible contains vivid stories of Jesus performing exorcisms

on the demonically possessed.

When I was first appointed, I became one of about 12

officially appointed exorcists in the United States.

Today, I think that number is around 125.

The pope is an exorcist

because he is the supreme shepherd of the church.

I think there is examples of Pope John Paul II

performing exorcisms.

♪♪

It will become our spiritual drink.

♪♪

♪♪

NARRATOR: According to the Catholic Church,

Father Bowdern must prove that Roland is moving along

the classic path to full demonic possession.

♪♪

The church identifies four different types

of extraordinary demonic activity.

There can be demonic infestation,

which is the presence of evil in a location or an object.

♪♪

There can be demonic vexation.

♪♪

Which somebody believes they are experiencing physical attacks

from a demon.

There can be demonic obsession, which are mental attacks.

♪♪

And then demonic possession itself,

whereby a demon will take control of a person's body,

treating their body as if it were its own.

♪♪

NARRATOR: Roland reportedly experienced

the first three stages of demonic activity.

Perhaps an exorcism can prevent him

from complete diabolical possession.

♪♪

LAMPERT: When it comes to doing formal exorcisms

for people who are possessed,

probably around 12 cases is all that I have done

over the last 15 years.

When it comes to exorcisms for infestation,

vexation, and obsession,

there would be thousands of those

that I've done over the years.

♪♪

NARRATOR: Following church protocol, Father Bowdern

contacts Archbishop Joseph Ritter of St. Louis.

He requests an exorcism to be performed on Roland,

but tells the archbishop to choose another priest.

Father Bowdern didn't really want anything to do

with this exorcism.

He knew he wasn't qualified for it.

He didn't feel that he was in a right place

spiritually to be an exorcist. But he wasn't given any choice.

The archbishop just simply told him, "You have to do this."

♪♪

DREYER: When it came back to the fact that this was going

to be a case of exorcism, the bishop requested Uncle Bill

specifically to carry on the exorcism.

He didn't believe that he should,

but he was requested by his bishop, and so he did.

♪♪

BELANGER: The Archbishop grants Father Bowdern

permission to perform the rite of exorcism.

Now we're talking about something that's officially

sanctioned by the church,

and this is not something that the church takes lightly.

NARRATOR: In the eyes of the Catholic Church,

evil walks the earth,

and only faith can combat it.

In Roland Doe's case, Father Bowdern realizes

he's about to do battle with Satan himself.

♪♪

♪♪

NARRATOR: This suburban St. Louis home

was once the scene of unspeakable horror.

♪♪

March 16, 1949.

Jesuit priest Father William Bowdern

arrives at the residence of Roland Doe's relatives

to carry out the first exorcism.

Father Raymond Bishop and Walter Halloran,

a seminary student at the time,

volunteered to assist with the solemn ritual

of the Catholic Church.

The priests are aware of the risks.

The devil could also take possession of them,

but they're determined to purge the demon

from 13-year-old Roland,

no matter how long or whatever the cost.

♪♪

Bowdern went through a series of preparations

in order to do this exorcism.

♪♪

The idea of a big shootout at noon with this demon,

so to speak, was not on his agenda.

He wasn't thinking this way at all.

In fact, he approached the whole case with fear and trembling.

♪♪

The archbishop instructs the priests

to maintain the utmost secrecy about the exorcism,

but Father Bowdern insists Father Bishop keep a diary --

a rare, detailed testament

to the events that are about to unfold.

WAIDE: I think Bowdern was certainly aware from the very beginning

this was an extreme case,

and so I think Bowdern just wanted to have

some type of documentation as to what happened.

TAYLOR: The idea was to take this diary

and make it a how-to manual for the next priests

that came along that found themselves in the same boat.

Because people weren't being trained to be exorcists.

In preparation, Father Bowdern lays out religious items

needed for the exorcism -- holy water, a crucifix,

a long purple stole to wrap around the priest

and the possessed,

and a Roman Ritual,

the official manual of exorcism rites.

LAMPERT: At its very core, an exorcism is a prayer.

It's a very special prayer that is meant to help somebody

who is being afflicted by the demonic.

♪♪

There's the laying on the hands

on the head of the person who's possessed,

invoking the Holy Spirit, breathing on the face.

According to the exorcists' diary,

as Father Bowdern recites the prayers in Latin,

the priest shriek with horror...

♪♪

...as bloody scratches suddenly appear on Roland's body.

♪♪

MAN: These scratches caused red marks on the body

and caused a small amount of blood to flow.

Roland recoiled under the evident pain

as each mark was made.

♪♪

And usually the manifestations will begin immediately.

♪♪

Because what the church is doing in the right

is forcing the demon to reveal itself,

because once the demon reveals itself,

then the battle against it begins.

NARRATOR: But the demon possessing Roland

refuses to divulge its identity.

It really is a battle. The demon inside of Roland

is fighting back at the priests,

whatever relics are being placed on or near him.

He's pushing back in however way he can.

NARRATOR: Then the priests witness something beyond belief.

♪♪

The word "Hell" appears on Roland's chest

as if it's been branded onto his skin with a hot iron.

They were a burned kind of brand.

I would say that it was like words

that were appearing from underneath onto the surface,

but they were very red and rashlike.

The priests had been observing the boy's hands

at all time and realized there's no way

Roland could have made those markings on his own body.

Father Lampert, who's experienced

in the rite of exorcism,

believes it's the devil's way of inciting terror.

♪♪

The manifestations are really meant to instill fear

either in me or in other people that are present

because the devil wants to convince us

that he has the upper hand.

Another case of when the demon manifested,

their eyes actually turned green

and their pupils became slanted like a serpent.

And the demon said to me, "You can't get rid of us.

We've been here too long, and you're not strong enough."

♪♪

NARRATOR: After almost nine hours of hostile resistance,

Roland collapses and falls asleep.

LACHANCE: Father Bowdern really didn't think

the possession set in with Roland,

which is interesting, until the first exorcism began.

That's when they think the possessor really took hold

for whatever reason.

NARRATOR: the exorcism provoked the devil within Roland,

and now the demon refuses to leave.

The priest's realize it will take more than one night

to purge the evil spirit from the boy.

♪♪

In a movie, when an exorcism takes place in 15 minutes,

it loses a lot of its reality because, you know,

when you hear about them in real life,

they go on for months.

Some that allegedly have gone on for years.

♪♪

NARRATOR: After two nights of exorcisms,

Roland Doe spends the day like a typical 13-year-old

and acting as if nothing has happened.

His relatives think the exorcisms are working,

but that evening, his mood suddenly changes.

♪♪

When the priests arrive to continue the exorcism rituals,

Roland transforms into a rabid creature,

snarling and biting the man holding him down.

TAYLOR: Father Bishop and Father Bowdern would borrow

some relics, pin them to Roland's pillow,

hoping any of these things would have a positive influence

on what was going on.

♪♪

NARRATOR: Amid the hysteria,

Roland suddenly makes vomiting gestures

and asks for the window to be opened.

Roland said that he believed that the demon was leaving him

and actually had them throw open the windows

so that he could purge it from his body,

figuratively and literally get rid of this demon.

♪♪

MAN: He said sweetly, "He's going. He's going.

Finally, there he goes."

♪♪

If a person during the exorcism feels that he must vomit,

he does vomit during the exorcism.

It happens quite frequently.

Quite frequently.

And it's a form of liberation.

NARRATOR: As Roland falls asleep,

Father Bowdern leaves the house for the night

thinking the boy finally purged the demon.

But he is dead wrong.

♪♪

MAN: About 2:00 a.m.,

Roland felt strange sensations in his stomach,

and in a few moments, he began to call out fearfully.

"He's coming back! He's coming back."

Father Bowdern was called at 3:15 a.m.

WILKINSON: If you have someone possessed by the devil

and there's an exorcism being performed

and that's unpleasant for the devil,

they might might want to throw you off the trail.

The sense that, "Well, this is over.

This is ending," only for the priest to leave

and things to begin again.

LAMPERT: The demons are doing these things

to try to get the upper hand,

and I did work with somebody who was possessed by seven demons.

The weakest of the demons are always the first to go.

But a demon that's more dominant will be the last to go.

♪♪

NARRATOR: Roland's nightmare is far from over.

As the exorcisms continue,

eyewitnesses both in and outside the inner circle of priests

witness an otherworldly sight that rattles them to the core.

♪♪

♪♪

NARRATOR: Bel-Nor, Missouri, will forever be linked

to the most chilling exorcism case in America

and inspiration for the horror

classic "The Exorcist."

♪♪

♪♪

March 20, 1949, day five.

13-year-old Roland Doe and his parents are staying

in a St. Louis suburb with relatives.

They're hoping Catholic exorcist Father William Bowdern

can expel the demon that's possessing Roland.

♪♪

But Father Bowdern and the assisting priests

continue to confront disturbing behavior.

During one of the nightly exorcisms,

Father Walter Halloran recalls a startling sight.

♪♪

♪♪

TAYLOR: I started interviewing Father Halloran

toward the end of his life.

He said "One night, I was down at the end of the bed

and I watched the bed levitate eight inches off the floor.

♪♪

And slam back down again.

I'm hearing it firsthand from people who saw it,

who saw a bed levitate.

Could there be a natural explanation for it?

Maybe as unbelievable as believing it's a demon.

I don't know.

But that's some strange things that were going on in there.

And they were seeing it every single night.

♪♪

NARRATOR: Levitation also is rumored to be witnessed

by someone outside the inner sanctum of priests.

Roland's family reportedly invites scientist

and mathematician Frank Bubb to observe the possessed boy.

Bubb worked on the top-secret Manhattan Project,

creating the world's first atomic bomb.

♪♪

The professor, he saw something there that deeply disturbed him.

♪♪

♪♪

Supposedly, what he saw was a nightstand levitate.

He would later be reported to say something along the lines

that we still had a lot to discover

regarding electromagnetism.

♪♪

♪♪

NARRATOR: Scientists have found ways to levitate objects

if placed in a strong enough magnetic field.

But Roland's family wonders

if levitation also can be a tool of the devil.

♪♪

Roland's family were all there in the house,

and he was becoming more and more volatile as this went on.

So Father Bowdern and Father Bishop

thought that perhaps moving him to another location

might help things.

♪♪

NARRATOR: Father Bowdern transfers Roland to the rectory

at St. Francis Xavier College Church

on the campus of St. Louis University.

But Roland's haunting outbursts draw unwanted attention.

Students were talking about what was going on

at the rectory at night because the lights were on,

the windows were thrown open,

and people are out walking around in the evening.

They're hearing screaming, animal noises,

shouting, and all kinds of things.

And it was attracting attention on campus.

[ Roland screaming ]

♪♪

♪♪

NARRATOR: Inside the church rectory,

the priests keep a detailed diary of the horror

as Roland displays the telltale sign of possession --

unnatural human strength.

Sometimes they can get incredibly strong.

It's unclear if it's adrenaline

or just superhuman kind of a strength.

But oftentimes we'll have to put hands on,

and sometimes it has been known to happen

that they'll kind of break free of the restraints

and even the people holding them.

And you have to be very careful.

♪♪

NARRATOR: As Father Bowdern repeats the exorcism prayers,

three men can barely restrain Roland

as he wildly swings his fists and throws a punch...

♪♪

...to Father Halloran's face.

The priests now believe that the demon

behind Roland's violent bloody attacks

is just getting started.

♪♪

NARRATOR: St. Louis, Missouri, March 23, 1949.

After a week of grueling exorcisms,

the priests move Roland Doe to the rectory

at St. Francis Xavier College Church

to continue the nightly rituals,

but the boy's diabolical rage and superhuman strength

become almost too powerful to control.

BELANGER: During this exorcism, little 13-year-old Roland

is fighting, he's punching.

And at one point...

♪♪

...he breaks Father Halloran's nose.

He's that strong.

Something inside of him has given him

unnatural strength and rage.

♪♪

Something evil is happening in the room.

♪♪

There were several times when he got loose

and would hit people, punch people, slap people.

Once he actually punched one of the priests in the groin

and paralyzed him with pain.

Roland was just completely out of control.

♪♪

NARRATOR: What's happening during the exorcisms

of Roland Doe are typical terrors

when clergy and laypeople of all faiths attempt to expel the evil

from a person possessed by the devil.

GOMEZ: Myself and my colleagues have been injured

during exorcisms many times.

We've been pushed, we've been hit, and we've been bitten.

We've been scratched. I've had my hair pulled several times.

I've been locked in rooms. I've been burned.

So, yeah, it happens frequently.

By the power of Christ, release him!

LAMPERT: To me, restraining people during an exorcism

was pointless because if it's truly something demonic,

the only one that's going to be able to restrain the demon

is the power of God himself.

I command you, Satan, prince of this world,

acknowledge the power and strength of Jesus Christ.

I was doing an exorcism one time,

and when the demon manifested, it lunged at me.

I think I jumped back five feet.

My heart was pounding a mile a minute,

but immediately went right back towards the person

and laid my hand on their head and began praying.

♪♪

NARRATOR: These same frightening conditions

were what priests confronted in 1949 in St. Louis

as they tried to drive out the dark force

within a 13-year-old Roland Doe.

♪♪

But what could they have done so far

to finally turn the demonic tide?

♪♪

♪♪

Unable to subdue the nightly fits in the church rectory,

Roland returns to the home of his relatives

in a suburb of St. Louis.

For the next five days, the boy remains

suspiciously calm and quiet.

LACHANCE: There was about a five days reprieve, and that's unusual.

And it makes everybody stand back and go, "Oh, is this over?"

And then, all of a sudden,

things went completely backward again.

There was a night when Roland wanted to write things down.

Now, his uncle was an architect

and had these huge sheets of paper,

and he was writing out messages and words.

NARRATOR: According to the exorcists' diary,

Roland's family frantically calls the priests to come over

and help decipher what the possessed boy is trying to say.

♪♪

MAN: I will stay 10 days,

but will return after the four days are up.

I am the devil himself.

♪♪

WILKINSON: So they were trying to interpret what did that mean?

It looked like Roman numerals, and there was speculation

at that point about the timeline of the exorcism.

Is it going to be 10 days? What does the 10 represent?

LACHANCE: Father Bishop thought the boy was going to be possessed

for 10 more days.

♪♪

So the devil was definitely playing with him.

♪♪

NARRATOR: On day 17, after over a dozen exorcisms,

Father Bowdern suggests that Roland

should be baptized as a Catholic.

♪♪

A baptism is a form of exorcism

because it rejects the powers of Satan.

TAYLOR: Because Roland had been raised a Lutheran,

it was thought that perhaps by instructing him in Catholicism

that it might help to ease the exorcism along.

♪♪

But on the drive to the church for the baptism,

Roland falls into one of his deviant spells.

His aunt and uncle are driving him to the church

when, all of a sudden,

Roland in the back seat just goes into a rage, a fit,

and he leaps to the front seat,

tries to grab the steering wheel,

saying, "You're going to try to baptize me?

You're going to try to offer me communion?

It's not going to work."

And his uncle is forced to pull the car over

for fear that he's going to kill all of them.

He put all of their lives, including his own, in danger

to try to avoid going to that church.

♪♪

NARRATOR: 13-year-old Roland curses and spits

as he is dragged into the church rectory for the baptism.

♪♪

Father Bowdern demands Roland to renounce Satan,

but the boy slips deeper into his hysterical state,

repulsed by the holy water.

[ Roland screaming ]

BELANGER: He's just fighting and kicking.

Three men are doing all they can to try to hold him down,

and it's decided that they're just going to have to do

a shortened version of the baptism ritual

just to get it done.

♪♪

♪♪

NARRATOR: Three days after the baptism,

Father Bowdern makes a radical decision --

Roland should return home to Maryland.

♪♪

TAYLOR: Father Bowdern suggested that the family go back to Maryland.

♪♪

He would go with them, and he would find a hospital

or a convent or a monastery

where he could be treated under medical conditions,

because at this point, you know,

this kid has been going through this,

and it's not wearing well on him.

Physically, he's becoming thinner.

He's not eating.

He's despondent, and his behavior is wild and crazy.

And so Father Bowdern said,

"I will find someplace in Maryland

where someone can continue the exorcism."

BELANGER: They're trying to find some institution or hospital

where they can keep him, but no one wants him.

No one wants to touch this case because of how complex it is.

Whether it's psychological or diabolical,

no one wants to seem to deal with poor Roland.

NARRATOR: Unable to find anyone to help

near the boy's home state of Maryland,

Father Bowdern decides that their only option

is to go back to the Midwest

and make one more desperate attempt to save Roland Doe.

TAYLOR: Father Bowdern realized that he was going to have

to take Roland back to St. Louis

and he was going to have to continue this himself,

because after all this time around Maryland and D.C.,

no one would take him.

So he decided that the best thing for him to do

was to take him to a hospital, and he knew just the place.

♪♪

NARRATOR: Upon returning to St. Louis,

Roland is admitted to the psychiatric ward

at the Alexian Brothers Hospital,

which is run by an ancient order of Catholic monks.

WAIDE: The brothers were known for taking care

of the really extreme cases of both physical

and also mental illness.

And so that's where he ended up staying in the psychiatric ward

at Alexian Brothers here in St. Louis.

TAYLOR: The Alexian Brothers Hospital had a secure

psychiatric facility where Roland could be taken

out of the public eye and everything would be kept secret

because the Alexian brothers were known for their secrecy.

♪♪

NARRATOR: But soon after,

hushed whispers echo down the corridors

about a special patient in the psychiatric wing.

♪♪

In his only interview, a dying Alexian monk

breaks his silence and divulges his darkest secrets

of what really happened during the terrifying final chapters

in the exorcism of Roland Doe.

♪♪

♪♪

NARRATOR: April 10, 1949,

After more than three weeks of unsuccessful exorcisms,

Roland Doe enters the Alexian Brothers Hospital

at the beginning of Holy Week,

one of the most sacred and celebrated times

in the Catholic Church.

But the week turns into sheer hell for the priests

and monks tending to 13-year-old Roland.

Before his death, an Alexian brother

breaks his vow of silence

and speaks about the exorcisms he witnessed firsthand.

TAYLOR: In 2014, I got the opportunity to interview

Brother Greg Holewinski.

an Alexian Monk who had never talked about

his participation in the exorcism,

and he was dying of cancer.

And he wanted to tell his story.

♪♪

The first night I went up, there was a boy laying in bed,

there were three priests that were the exorcists.

During the prayers of the possession,

the priest wears the stole.

It's a fine silk ribbon.

The devil, using the boy's hand, reached over and snatched...

♪♪

...that silk cloth, and within a split second,

it was a thousand threads.

NARRATOR: Then Brother Greg witnesses a frightening sight.

HOLEWINKSI: You could feel the powers of the devil.

They saw the boy's body levitate.

♪♪

I was at the foot of the bed and had my arms crossed over

from his ankle to his knee.

♪♪

I was frightened.

What I saw was real, what I touched was real.

It was an experience that I would never forget.

Anybody with common sense just walk in seeing that

knows that couldn't be faked.

♪♪

After the second night, the boy...

...and the devil had possession of him.

Suddenly, the devil threw this decanter.

♪♪

And it crashed into a thousand pieces.

I've been through storms, hurricanes, tornadoes

and whatnot, but this thing was the worst.

There's no reason he would have lied or made this story up.

You know, here we are 65 years later at the time,

and he'd never talked about it before,

but what happened had never left him.

♪♪

NARRATOR: A few days before Easter,

Father Halloran takes Roland

to an outdoor retreat center on a high bluff

overlooking the Mississippi River.

He thinks the fresh air might help Roland.

♪♪

The expansive grounds include statues

depicting the stations of the cross,

the path Jesus endured on the way to his crucifixion.

There was a path that goes along the bluff that's

the various stations of the cross.

And so while they were out there,

Roland seemed very interested in the stories of the stations.

When they get to the 14th station,

where Jesus is being placed into the tomb...

♪♪

...something snaps in Roland.

He starts going into a fit, a seizure.

He starts running.

NARRATOR: Father Halloran chases after Roland,

who charges straight towards the edge of the cliff.

♪♪

Whatever demon has seized Roland's soul

is leading the boy and the priest toward a violent death.

♪♪

NARRATOR: April 13, 1949.

♪♪

After nearly a month of nightly exorcisms...

♪♪

...Father Walter Halloran takes 13-year-old Roland Doe

outdoors for fresh air.

♪♪

They walk the grounds of the White House Retreat Center,

which features statues depicting Jesus

on the day of his crucifixion.

But Roland snaps

and falls into one of his spells.

He takes off and heads toward the edge of a steep bluff.

♪♪

Father Halloran has to chase him down

because he could kill himself if he runs off.

And Father Halloran eventually has to tackle him

to get him back under control.

♪♪

NARRATOR: Roland comes out of his crazed trance

and doesn't remember what happened.

LAMPERT: People that I've worked with who have been possessed,

some of them will tell me that they're aware

of what's going on.

But just like they're trapped in their own body

and they're powerless to stop what is taking place.

Other people tell me that once the demon takes over,

they no longer have any awareness of what took place.

NARRATOR: As Roland's demonic state worsens,

Father William Bowdern shows signs of stress and fatigue.

Oozing boils cover the priest's frail, emaciated body.

♪♪

TAYLOR: These priests went through long periods

where they had to fast and pray,

and during the course of these exorcisms,

Father Bowdern lost almost 40 pounds.

These men were exhausted.

LACHANCE: Father Bowdern, who is on the side of the bed

praying for the boy, and he felt weak,

but he's fighting for the life of this young boy.

When you think about what he went through, what he did,

that he could love this child so much

that he would pretty much sacrifice himself for him.

♪♪

LAMPERT: If I just did exorcisms every day of the year,

I think I would reach the point where it would have an impact

on my own mental health and physical health as well.

I've known exorcist priests over the years

who've actually left the priesthood.

They just reached the point where they just felt like

they were so broken that they just couldn't go on.

♪♪

♪♪

NARRATOR: On Holy Saturday, the day before Easter,

a monk places a statue of Saint Michael the Archangel

in Roland's room.

Saint Michael symbolizes protection from evil forces.

Michael represents a dragon slayer figure

and is often depicted that way,

sort of a soldier and triumphant over the devil.

And so he's often invoked as sort of a protector figure.

♪♪

Prayers that were dedicated to Saint Michael

seemed to be particularly effective.

Roland seemed to really react in a different way.

♪♪

NARRATOR: Do the monks believe Saint Michael the Archangel

could finally save Roland from Satan's wrath?

♪♪

♪♪

The day after Easter marks more than one month

since Roland's first exorcism.

Father Bowdern uses every weapon in his holy arsenal

to exorcise the demon.

Roland complains the religious medals

around his neck burn his skin.

But Father Bowdern refuses to remove them.

Instead, he forces a crucifix into Roland's hand,

which makes him go into convulsions.

♪♪

Oftentimes when a relic

is placed on a person who is possessed,

you'll hear screams that somehow it's burning.

So it's the confrontation

between the holy with the demonic.

♪♪

At that point, Roland turns violent and he's shaking

and he screams, and in a deep, masculine voice,

as Father Bowdern demands to know who's inside of Roland...

[ Screaming ]

Father Bowdern was evidently trying to get the demon

to express to him, "Tell me your name. Who are you?"

NARRATOR: According to the Diary of the exorcisms

kept by Father Bishop, the demon speaks through Roland

and provokes Father Bowdern with a haunting threat.

MAN: He has to say one more word, one little word.

I mean, one big word. He'll never say it.

I am always in him.

I may not have much power always, but I am in him.

He will never say that word.

[ Groaning ]

The demon said, "I'm not going to leave until Roland's said

a certain word."

NARRATOR: In a pivotal showdown between good and evil...

Until he said it, it would stay with him.

...what word could release Roland...

[ Roaring ]

...from the devil's grip?

♪♪

NARRATOR: April 18, 1949.

After more than a month long battle,

Father William Bowdern engages in a decisive exorcism

of 13-year-old Roland Doe at the Alexian Brothers Hospital.

♪♪

A demonic spirit speaks through Roland

and claims the boy refuses to say a word

that might finally set him free.

DISTORTED VOICE: One more word.

He'll never say it.

I am always in him.

♪♪

NARRATOR: But according to the exorcists' diary,

Roland suddenly defies the demon possessing him

and commands the evil spirit to leave.

♪♪

MAN: Roland was in a seizure, but lay calm.

In clear, commanding tones, and with dignity,

a voice broke into prayers.

♪♪

ECHOING VOICE: Satan.

Satan, I would seek Michael.

And I command you, Satan,

and the other devil spirits to leave the body

in the name of Dóminus immediately.

Now! Now! Now!

♪♪

NARRATOR: Father Bowdern realizes Dóminus is the word

that the devil claims Roland would never say.

"Dóminus" is the Latin word for "Lord."

LAMPERT: Dóminus, our Lord, it's forcing the demon

to recognize the lordship of Jesus Christ,

and by doing that, it's showing a sign of weakness,

and then it's going to be compelled to to depart.

♪♪

NARRATOR: Suddenly, Roland erupts

and experiences the most violent convulsions

of the entire period of exorcisms.

♪♪

In his delirious state,

Roland claims to have a prophetic vision.

TAYLOR: On the final day of the exorcism,

Roland envisioned himself outside of a cave

with an angel with a flaming sword

that he believed was Saint Michael.

WAIDE: He sees this vision of Saint Michael the Archangel

with a sword and a pitchfork,

pushing these demons back into the fiery pit of hell.

♪♪

And this angelic figure, Saint Michael,

smiles at Roland and says the word Dóminus,

which is the word that the devil said Roland would never say.

NARRATOR: After several minutes of uncontrollable spasms,

Roland relaxes and falls still.

♪♪

MAN: After seven or eight minutes of violence,

Roland, in a tone of complete relief, said,

"He's gone!" Immediately,

Roland came back to normal.

♪♪

Suddenly, this spell, this seizure that Roland

was going through just stopped.

He just went silent.

And he looked up at the priests, and he said, "It's over."

♪♪

At an exorcism, once the person says they want help,

then that connection with the demonic can be broken,

even though the demon might be trying to say,

"No, no, no, no, it can't be broken.

You've made a pact with me."

NARRATOR: While the priests and Alexian monks celebrate,

Father Bowdern remains skeptical.

Has the demon truly left for good?

TAYLOR: Father Bowdern wasn't so sure.

He'd seen this before.

This was not the first time that Roland

or the demon in Roland told him that it was over.

So he had prayed for a sign to be sent

so that he would know it really had come to an end.

And then suddenly, there was this massive boom...

♪♪

...that shook the building.

In fact, one of the monks there believed that their furnace

had exploded, it was that loud.

♪♪

NARRATOR: Moments after the mysterious blast reverberates

throughout the hospital,

priests report an image of Saint Michael

illuminating the dome above the altar

at nearby St. Francis Xavier College Church.

♪♪

TAYLOR: Father Bowdern knew that was the sign

that he had been waiting for, and that it really was over.

That was the end of the exorcism.

♪♪

♪♪

Roland stayed in St. Louis for a couple of weeks,

and then returned home to Maryland.

He did contact Father Bowdern one last time,

he wrote him a letter, told him how happy he was,

he was back in school, that he had just gotten a new dog.

And things seemed to be going okay for him.

NARRATOR: After examining all of the evidence

gathered in Maryland and St. Louis,

the Catholic Church reportedly refuses to confirm

or deny Roland Doe was a genuine case of demonic possession.

COOPER: There were 48 eyewitnesses who signed off

on this final ecclesiastical document

reporting that these abnormal things had occurred.

Now, that's not a signing off saying absolutely

I know with 100% this was a case of demonic possession.

But we saw some really weird stuff

that happened around this kid

that we don't know how to explain naturally.

♪♪

NARRATOR: Despite the church's conclusion,

the priests who were there believe Roland Doe

was an undisputed case of demonic possession.

♪♪

WAIDE: Father Bowdern soldiered through this whole ordeal

and said virtually nothing to family members about it

until his dying days.

But he did say that he believed,

you know, that he was dealing with a true demonic possession.

If you've ever had anyone in your life

whose word you implicitly believe,

this was the guy, was Uncle Bill, was Father Bowdern.

He wasn't an exaggerator. I think with his common sense,

he would never think to exaggerate anything.

WILKINSON: Do you choose to believe that this was something

that was real and that happened as it's reported?

Do you choose to remain skeptical?

It boils down to, do you trust the veracity of the witnesses?

TAYLOR: I have doubts about parts of the story,

but I do think something happened.

Whether you want to believe it was a demon

or some sort of presence or some sort of psychological problem

that was instantly cured somehow,

whatever it was, it was expelled.

♪♪

NARRATOR: While the final report of the exorcism

remains locked away in the Roman Catholic archives,

speculation and questions persist.

Now, an investigator talks on camera for the first time

about a possible cover up surrounding the exorcism case.

What happened to the real Roland Doe

and the demon that allegedly possessed him?

♪♪

NARRATOR: The 1949 exorcism case of Roland Doe

is supposed to be kept top secret.

While most involved remain tight-lipped,

stories eventually leak to the press

and reported details about the boy's life

after the exorcisms are revealed.

Roland remains Catholic.

He goes to a Catholic Jesuit high school,

Gonzaga Prep.

He marries, had several children.

He evidently named his first child Michael

after Saint Michael.

TAYLOR: He did very well, went to college,

literally became a rocket scientist,

went to work part-time with NASA.

He has a couple of patents for scientific devices to his name,

including shielding they used on rockets.

So he has lived a very full and long life,

never troubled by anything that had happened to him

during that time period.

♪♪

I had always said I would never put his name into print,

and I think his privacy needs to be respected.

♪♪

NARRATOR: The real Roland Doe, now in his 80s,

has never spoken publicly

and will most likely take his secrets to the grave.

BELANGER: I don't blame him.

I don't blame him for keeping silent on it.

And it's possible he doesn't even remember.

It's possible if he really wasn't himself,

he would have no recollection of it.

So what is there to say at this point?

But we do know he lived a life.

♪♪

While Roland Doe may have put the exorcisms behind him,

eyewitnesses and residents of St. Louis

claim physical reminders of his ordeal

continue to haunt the city.

♪♪

In 1978, the psychiatric wing of the Alexian Brothers Hospital

is scheduled to be torn down.

Before leveling the building,

construction workers make a chance discovery.

The construction crew found a particular room

that was locked.

They found a desk in the room,

and inside was this booklet

that had been put together that mentioned an exorcism.

And it turned out that it had been a copy

of Father Bishop's diary of the exorcism.

And that's how the story eventually became public.

That's how we have access to the diary now.

♪♪

NARRATOR: The diary might not be the only

eerie vestige of the exorcism.

Investigator Stephen LaChance says he's discovered

a possible conspiracy in the case.

He claims an unnamed church official

provided him access to a medical facility

near the old Alexian Brothers Hospital.

LACHANCE: I was taken to a hospital. I was taken through security.

There's a little elevator. We were taken up.

It was the third or fourth floor.

It was completely deserted. There was no one there.

I walked up to the door, and I started to pull the door

and they stopped me and they said,

"You can't open it." And I said, "Why?"

They said, "Put your ear to the door."

And I put my ear to the door

and there sounded like there was things...

flying against the wall, crashing.

And they asked me, "Do you know where you are?"

And they said, "This is the place where the priests stayed."

For decades, rumors persist that once the devil left Roland Doe,

it must have possessed someone else.

Now, I believe that Roland Doe's demon

went from Roland into a priest.

♪♪

And the priest took the demon over from the boy,

which is not uncommon. It has happened before,

and I believe they housed the priest in a hospital

until his death in 1983.

And I believe that's where I was.

During exorcisms, the entity will try to leave

the afflicted individual and go into other people

who may be present at the exorcism,

including the exorcist himself.

NARRATOR: In an ultimate act of sacrifice,

is it possible a priest took possession of the devil

to save Roland and then spent the rest of his life

locked in a mental hospital?

LACHANCE: According to the person from the Catholic Church

that I was with, that was indeed what had happened.

So there you go.

That's one of those St. Louis things that you're not going

to hear anywhere else, and I think it's sad

that somebody gave their life for the child.

NARRATOR: If the story is true, perhaps William Peter Blatty

knew this before writing the climax

to his screenplay, "The Exorcist."

In the shocking scene, a priest takes the devil

into his own body and then ends his life.

♪♪

♪♪

The St. Louis exorcism

inspired one of the most iconic horror films of all time.

♪♪

Yet the real case of Roland Doe

and its strange aftermath remains unresolved.

♪♪

We're still talking about this case because it was made

into one of the greatest horror movies of all time,

and then you find out that there's a story behind the story

and that it's real?

You're never going to stop talking about it

because that's what profound stories do.

They stay with us.

LACHANCE: How can a child go from being innocent and pure

to a monster?

I think that's interesting.

And I think with people, that's where the curiosity lies.

TAYLOR: I think for other people, they see it as a warning.

Why why in the world would a 13-year-old boy

be possessed by some evil or demonic presence?

Why? What did he ever do? Nothing.

This is just a kid living his life in 1949.

There's that fear of if it can happen to him,

it could happen to me.

It could happen to anyone.

If it's real,

then this could happen to anyone, any time, any day.

NARRATOR: For those who believe,

the exorcism of Roland Doe endures as a haunting warning

evil walks among us,

and the devil's greatest trick

is making us believe he doesn't exist.

♪♪