WEBVTT - Unexplained Halloween Special 2016 0:00:11.119 --> 0:00:15.280 Welcome to the special Halloween episode of Unexplained with Me 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:34.520 Richard McClain Smith. From the cab stepped a tall old man, 0:00:35.400 --> 0:00:39.880 black raincoat and hat and a battered valise. He paid 0:00:39.920 --> 0:00:43.640 the driver, then turned and stood motionless, staring at the house. 0:00:45.000 --> 0:00:48.320 The cab pulled away and rounded the corner of thirty 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:53.920 sixty Street. Kinderman quickly pulled out to follow. As he 0:00:54.000 --> 0:00:57.120 turned the corner, he noticed that the tall old man 0:00:57.360 --> 0:01:00.680 hadn't moved, but was standing under the treat light glow 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:04.960 in the midst like a melancholy traveler frozen in time, 0:01:07.040 --> 0:01:10.360 and so marks the arrival of the eponymous exorcist in 0:01:10.480 --> 0:01:15.319 William Peter Blattie's Extraordinary novel, first published in nineteen seventy one. 0:01:16.800 --> 0:01:19.600 The scene was later immortalized as the poster of the 0:01:19.640 --> 0:01:25.399 film adaptation, released on December twenty sixth, nineteen seventy three. 0:01:25.800 --> 0:01:28.319 It is for many the most iconic horror film of 0:01:28.360 --> 0:01:34.000 all time. From William Friedkin's masterful direction, to Blattie's profound 0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:37.360 and personal script to the intensely evocative use of Mike 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:42.360 Oldfield's tubular bells, it is a cinematic masterpiece. It is 0:01:42.400 --> 0:01:46.000 also regularly described as the scariest film of all time 0:01:46.680 --> 0:01:50.800 that on first screening had audience members fainting and vomiting 0:01:50.840 --> 0:01:53.720 in the aisles, with many reduced to tears by the 0:01:53.760 --> 0:01:58.480 sheer terror of it all. Ambulances and paramedics were regularly 0:01:58.520 --> 0:02:03.640 dispatched to attend to the hapless viewers. But what many 0:02:03.680 --> 0:02:07.680 people don't know is that Blattie's Nightmarish book was in 0:02:07.760 --> 0:02:13.040 fact based on a real life exorcism. This is that story. 0:02:25.160 --> 0:02:28.480 The town of Cottage City in Maryland, stretching from the 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:31.880 Fort Lincoln Funeral Home to the banks of the Anacostia River, 0:02:32.400 --> 0:02:35.320 is today home to a small but proud, working class 0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:39.920 community of roughly twelve hundred inhabitants. Back in the early 0:02:40.000 --> 0:02:44.359 nineteen hundreds, alongside what is now Colmar Manor, the area 0:02:44.560 --> 0:02:49.200 was the place to settle irreconcilable differences. Between eighteen oh 0:02:49.240 --> 0:02:52.760 eight and eighteen sixty eight, roughly fifty affairs of honor 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:56.880 were fatally concluded on the surrounding land, later named the 0:02:56.919 --> 0:03:02.440 Bladensburg Julian Grounds. As such, the small waterway that borders 0:03:02.440 --> 0:03:06.400 the area, formerly known as Blood Run, was later named 0:03:06.520 --> 0:03:11.480 Duling Creek. On twenty fourth of August eighteen fourteen, the 0:03:11.600 --> 0:03:15.080 area played host to the Battle of Bladensburg, a bitterly 0:03:15.080 --> 0:03:18.359 fought skirmish in the War of eighteen twelve, which resulted 0:03:18.400 --> 0:03:21.200 in the eventual capture and burning of Washington, d c 0:03:21.760 --> 0:03:26.440 By the attacking British forces. That evening, as distant flames 0:03:26.560 --> 0:03:29.160 leaped into the late summer sky, the Blood of the 0:03:29.200 --> 0:03:33.799 Dead washed into Duling Creek never had its former name 0:03:33.919 --> 0:03:38.800 of Blood Run been more apt. In eighteen seventy a 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:42.000 group of developers attempted to establish a township on the 0:03:42.040 --> 0:03:45.200 site of Duling Creek, but it wasn't until nineteen o 0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:50.400 four that the semblance of a community began to appear. Finally, 0:03:50.680 --> 0:03:53.800 in nineteen twenty four, the town of Cottage City was 0:03:53.840 --> 0:04:10.720 formerly incorporated. Two years later, roughly eight hundred miles away 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:14.760 in Saint Louis, Missouri, a happy young couple were getting married. 0:04:15.640 --> 0:04:19.200 Twenty five year old machinist Edwin Hunkeler and twenty three 0:04:19.240 --> 0:04:22.360 year old Adele Coppage had been introduced a few years 0:04:22.360 --> 0:04:28.080 previously by O'Dell's brother James. Eight years later, the couple 0:04:28.120 --> 0:04:32.520 were overjoyed when O'Dell fell pregnant shortly before their ninth 0:04:32.520 --> 0:04:36.359 wedding anniversary on June the first, nineteen thirty five. The 0:04:36.440 --> 0:04:40.719 couple had a young boy who they named Ronnie. In 0:04:40.839 --> 0:04:45.200 nineteen thirty nine, the young family, along with O'Dell's mother, Anna, 0:04:45.320 --> 0:04:48.159 took the eight hundred mile journey to Cottage City and 0:04:48.240 --> 0:04:51.839 eventually settled down in a modest sized suburban bungalow on 0:04:51.960 --> 0:04:56.360 fortieth Avenue. For the young Ronnie, it was to prove 0:04:56.400 --> 0:05:00.920 a difficult transition. By nineteen forty eight, the thirteen year 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:03.839 old Ronnie was, by all accounts, a shy and reserved 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:06.960 child who struggled to make friends and seemed only to 0:05:06.960 --> 0:05:11.000 perk up whenever his Aunt Matilda came to visit. From 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:14.520 an early age, Ronnie had developed an intensely close relationship 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:18.279 with his aunt, whom he affectionately called Aunt Tillie, who 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:23.440 in return doated on her nephew. Tillie considered herself somewhat 0:05:23.440 --> 0:05:26.360 of a spiritualist and loved nothing more than to share 0:05:26.400 --> 0:05:31.120 her fascination with her favorite nephew. Ronnie was fascinated with 0:05:31.160 --> 0:05:34.719 her stories, but in particular a strange board that she 0:05:34.760 --> 0:05:38.320 would often talk about, a device that enabled her to 0:05:38.360 --> 0:05:42.720 speak to the dead. One day, Tillie brought one such 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:46.200 artifact as a gift for Ronnie. It was the first 0:05:46.200 --> 0:05:50.599 time he had ever seen a weija board. Over the 0:05:50.640 --> 0:05:54.039 next few days, Aunt Tillie instructed Ronnie on how to 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:57.200 use the board as together they attempted to communicate with 0:05:57.279 --> 0:06:00.719 the spirits. For a young boy brought up in a 0:06:00.760 --> 0:06:05.599 strict religious household, belief in the afterlife would have been absolute. 0:06:06.080 --> 0:06:08.880 As such, it would never have occurred to him that 0:06:08.920 --> 0:06:12.560 there wouldn't be somebody out there to answer their calls, or, 0:06:12.600 --> 0:06:16.720 more pertinently, since he trusted his aunt, that there would 0:06:16.720 --> 0:06:20.799 be anything to fear in the process. But on January 0:06:20.800 --> 0:06:26.040 the fifteenth, nineteen forty nine, all that was about to change. 0:06:27.040 --> 0:06:31.000 On Saturdays, Ronnie's parents would gather with friends to play Canaster. 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:34.679 On the night of the fifteenth, with Edwin and O'Dell 0:06:34.760 --> 0:06:37.080 out for the evening, it was left to Anna to 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:41.680 look after her grandson and something it seemed was stirring. 0:06:42.800 --> 0:06:45.440 At some point in the evening, Ronnie and his grandmother 0:06:45.640 --> 0:06:48.560 became aware of a dripping noise with no source to 0:06:48.600 --> 0:06:52.919 be found. Then, a picture of Jesus Christ hanging on 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:56.080 the wall began to shake, almost as if something had 0:06:56.080 --> 0:07:01.719 thumped it from behind, and then the scratching Anne it 0:07:01.800 --> 0:07:06.360 was coming from under Anna's bed. Edwin and Adele arrived 0:07:06.400 --> 0:07:10.360 home to find Anna and Ronnie in some distress. Edwin 0:07:10.520 --> 0:07:13.360 wasted no time in identifying the noise as nothing more 0:07:13.400 --> 0:07:17.400 than a rodent infestation, and an exterminator was duly called, 0:07:17.960 --> 0:07:21.920 But despite treating the entire house, the scratching did not stop. 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:27.680 For a full ten days, the peculiar noises persisted, and then, 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:31.600 as abruptly as it had begun, they stopped, or at 0:07:31.680 --> 0:07:35.880 least it appeared so to Edwin, O'Dell and Anna, but 0:07:36.120 --> 0:07:41.240 Ronnie was still hearing them. The following day, tragedy struck 0:07:41.240 --> 0:07:46.640 the family. Ronnie's favorite aunt, Tillie, suffered from multiple sclerosis. 0:07:47.320 --> 0:07:50.920 Although no longer classified as a fatal disease, for Tillie, 0:07:51.360 --> 0:07:54.360 life saving advances in the treatment of the illness were 0:07:54.400 --> 0:07:57.920 still many years away. In the early hours of January 0:07:57.920 --> 0:08:01.280 the twenty sixth, Matilda Hendricks passed away in Saint Louis 0:08:01.480 --> 0:08:06.200 at the age of fifty four. For Ronnie, the devastation 0:08:06.320 --> 0:08:11.120 was immeasurable. Meanwhile, back at home, things are about to 0:08:11.160 --> 0:08:17.800 take an even stranger turn. Are you always taking care 0:08:17.840 --> 0:08:20.360 of your family. Do you often take care of others 0:08:20.360 --> 0:08:23.720 and not yourself. Now it's time to take care of yourself, 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:27.880 to make time for you. You deserve it. Teledoc gives 0:08:27.880 --> 0:08:30.680 you access to a licensed therapist to help you get 0:08:30.720 --> 0:08:33.920 back to feeling your best, to feeling like yourself again. 0:08:34.600 --> 0:08:37.800 With teledoc, you can speak to a licensed therapist by 0:08:37.840 --> 0:08:41.480 phone or video. Therapy appointments are available seven days a 0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:45.080 week from seven am to nine pm local time. If 0:08:45.080 --> 0:08:49.439 you feel overwhelmed sometimes, maybe you feel stressed or anxious, 0:08:49.720 --> 0:08:52.719 depressed or lonely, or you might be struggling with a 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:57.480 personal or family issue, teledoc can help. Teledoc is committed 0:08:57.520 --> 0:09:01.199 to facilitating great therapeutic matches, so they make it easy 0:09:01.280 --> 0:09:05.599 to change counselors if needed. For free teledoc therapy is 0:09:05.640 --> 0:09:09.840 available through most insurance or employers. Download the app or 0:09:09.920 --> 0:09:13.920 visit teledoc dot com Forward slash Unexplained podcast to day 0:09:14.120 --> 0:09:17.720 to get started. That's t e l a d oc 0:09:18.160 --> 0:09:27.160 dot com slash unexplained podcast. Although Ronnie had continued to 0:09:27.200 --> 0:09:30.280 hear the noises, it wasn't until the twenty eighth, two 0:09:30.360 --> 0:09:33.360 days after Tillie's death, that the family began to hear 0:09:33.400 --> 0:09:37.360 them again too, only this time they had moved from 0:09:37.360 --> 0:09:42.319 Anna's room and followed Ronnie into his. On the night 0:09:42.320 --> 0:09:45.559 of February the second, O'Dell and Anna, who were suspicious 0:09:45.559 --> 0:09:48.280 of Ronnie's involvement, lay with him on his bed in 0:09:48.320 --> 0:09:52.120 the dark. Moments later, the sound of footsteps could be 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:57.079 heard coming straight towards them. The footsteps continued to run 0:09:57.160 --> 0:09:59.360 up and down the length of the bed until O'Dell 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:04.360 called out, Aunt Tillie, is that you? But there was 0:10:04.400 --> 0:10:08.480 no reply. She asked again if you were there? Tilly 0:10:09.000 --> 0:10:12.960 knock three times in an instant. Waves of air struck 0:10:13.000 --> 0:10:15.920 them all, as if somebody had been walking past, and 0:10:16.080 --> 0:10:19.280 then the sound of three distant knocks came up from 0:10:19.280 --> 0:10:24.000 the floor. Suddenly, the mattress began to shake violently, and 0:10:24.120 --> 0:10:27.160 the edges of the bed sheets stood up stiff. When 0:10:27.200 --> 0:10:30.559 Adele touched them, they dropped down again limp, as there 0:10:30.559 --> 0:10:33.840 had been before. Perhaps there was some comfort to be 0:10:33.880 --> 0:10:38.520 found in Aunt Tillie's apparent communication, but Adele couldn't shake 0:10:38.559 --> 0:10:41.760 the sense that something far more terrifying was at play. 0:10:43.880 --> 0:10:47.319 Not knowing where to turn, the family consulted local Lutheran 0:10:47.360 --> 0:10:52.000 minister forty two year old Myles Schultz. Scholtz, the pastor 0:10:52.000 --> 0:10:55.600 of Saint Stephen's Evangelical Church, arranged for Ronnie to spend 0:10:55.600 --> 0:10:57.240 the night with him in the hope that he might 0:10:57.280 --> 0:11:01.280 get to the bottom of the unlikely claims. What followed 0:11:01.679 --> 0:11:05.960 was a night of unremitting disturbance. Scholtz watched a gasp 0:11:06.160 --> 0:11:09.640 as Ronnie's bed vibrated through the evening, and hideous scratching 0:11:09.640 --> 0:11:14.480 sounds were heard coming from the walls. Unable to identify 0:11:14.520 --> 0:11:17.800 the problem, the following day, Scholtz had Ronnie assessed at 0:11:17.800 --> 0:11:21.520 the Mental Hygiene Clinic of the University of Maryland. A 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:25.320 physician and psychologist were consulted, but neither could find anything 0:11:25.360 --> 0:11:28.640 wrong with the boy. In the days that followed, the 0:11:28.720 --> 0:11:32.600 disturbances intensified as items were thrown across the home in 0:11:32.640 --> 0:11:35.920 the vicinity of Ronnie, including a table laden with milk 0:11:35.920 --> 0:11:40.079 and food that was tossed upside down, and then a 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:44.480 terrifying twist. On the night of Saturday, February the twenty sixth, 0:11:44.720 --> 0:11:48.719 a horrific scream brought Adele running to her son's bedroom. 0:11:48.960 --> 0:11:53.360 On the bed, Ronnie writhed in agony, Adele lifted up 0:11:53.360 --> 0:11:56.200 his night shirt to reveal scratch marks across his body. 0:11:57.360 --> 0:12:01.040 It became clear to Adele that whatever this was, it 0:12:01.120 --> 0:12:11.240 was nothing to do with Aunt Tillie. Increasingly desperate, the 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:16.000 family turned, at Schultze's insistence, to the Catholic Church. A father, 0:12:16.120 --> 0:12:19.480 Edward Albert Hughes, priests of Saint James's parish at nearby 0:12:19.520 --> 0:12:23.960 Mount Rainier, was consulted. Hughes sent O'Dell home with a 0:12:24.000 --> 0:12:26.840 set of blessed candles, a bottle of holy water, and 0:12:26.920 --> 0:12:31.439 a strict set of instructions. Back at home, Adele immediately 0:12:31.480 --> 0:12:34.880 began sprinkling the water throughout the house. As soon as 0:12:34.880 --> 0:12:37.400 she placed the bottle on the shelf, it flew across 0:12:37.400 --> 0:12:42.000 the room. Later, attempts to light the blessed candles were 0:12:42.080 --> 0:12:45.000 quickly abandoned when a comb was thrown across the room, 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:49.440 extinguishing the flames. Reports of what happened over the next 0:12:49.480 --> 0:12:53.160 few days tend to vary wildly, but at some point 0:12:53.440 --> 0:12:56.520 it appears the strange scratches on Ronnie's body started to 0:12:56.559 --> 0:13:01.240 form words. At this point, O'Dell made the dramatic decision 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:03.440 to move the family back to Saint Louis In the 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:06.120 hope of some respite. But if she was hoping they 0:13:06.120 --> 0:13:11.200 could outrun whatever was haunting them, she was greatly mistaken. Nonetheless, 0:13:11.720 --> 0:13:15.440 Ronnie was promptly pulled from his class at Bladensburg Elementary School, 0:13:15.760 --> 0:13:18.800 and on March the third, nineteen forty nine, the family 0:13:18.840 --> 0:13:21.240 made the trip back to Missouri to stay at the 0:13:21.240 --> 0:13:24.600 home of Leonard and Doris Hunkeler, Edwin's brother and sister 0:13:24.640 --> 0:13:29.960 in law. Almost immediately, the disturbances began again, witnessed this 0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:34.640 time by six different relatives. A cousin of Ronnie's who 0:13:34.640 --> 0:13:37.760 attended Saint Louis University, brought the case to the attention 0:13:37.800 --> 0:13:42.280 of her tutor, Father Raymond J. Bishop Bishop, a Roman 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:46.600 Catholic priest, was deeply disturbed by her account. On Wednesday, 0:13:46.600 --> 0:13:50.080 March ninth, Father Bishop arrived at the Hunkoler home in 0:13:50.120 --> 0:13:54.679 the Belnour neighborhood of Saint Louis. After being introduced to Ronnie, 0:13:55.000 --> 0:13:58.120 he quickly and quietly went about his business while a 0:13:58.200 --> 0:14:03.199 distraught Odell and five other relatives watched on. From his bag, 0:14:03.600 --> 0:14:06.360 he removed a vial of holy water and a second 0:14:06.360 --> 0:14:10.400 class relic of Saint Margaret Mary. Father Bishop pinned the 0:14:10.400 --> 0:14:12.960 relic to the corner of Ronnie's bed and watched in 0:14:13.000 --> 0:14:16.560 horror as immediately the bed began to move. When he 0:14:16.600 --> 0:14:19.480 sprinkled the holy water of Saint Ignatius over the boy 0:14:19.560 --> 0:14:22.400 in the shape of a cross, the movement ceased abruptly, 0:14:23.480 --> 0:14:26.960 but when Father Bishop left the room, the movement began again. 0:14:28.080 --> 0:14:31.520 Ronnie cried out and doubled over in pain. His mother, 0:14:31.560 --> 0:14:33.880 who had not left the room, pulled up his shirt, 0:14:34.280 --> 0:14:37.800 revealing red zig zag scratches underneath, as if a claw 0:14:38.040 --> 0:14:42.040 had been dragged across his chest. Father Bishop relayed his 0:14:42.120 --> 0:14:44.840 thoughts to his colleague and pastor of the College Church 0:14:44.880 --> 0:14:49.120 in Saint Louis, Father William Bowden. Over the next few days, 0:14:49.560 --> 0:14:53.840 Bowden too witnessed the extraordinary phenomena for himself, including the 0:14:53.880 --> 0:14:57.080 scratching of a cross on to Ronnie's arm. A few 0:14:57.120 --> 0:15:01.600 days later, he sat the family down. The devil has 0:15:01.720 --> 0:15:05.480 hold of your son, he said, and so On the 0:15:05.520 --> 0:15:09.720 evening of March sixteenth, Father William Bowden and Father Raymond Bishop, 0:15:09.760 --> 0:15:12.880 accompanied by a mister Walter Halloran, stepped from the dark 0:15:12.920 --> 0:15:15.760 of the street into Leonard and Doris's home to begin 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:23.120 the exorcism of Ronnie Hunkuler. At ten thirty p m. 0:15:23.320 --> 0:15:27.720 Father Bowden put on the vestments, first his surplice, followed 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:30.600 by the draping of his purple silk stole around his neck. 0:15:31.520 --> 0:15:34.240 He removed a vile blessed water from his case and 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:39.480 a selection of holy relics. Shortly after, Bowden entered Ronnie's 0:15:39.520 --> 0:15:42.360 bedroom and, standing over him, made the Act of contrition. 0:15:43.600 --> 0:15:48.680 Then Father, Bishop Walter Halloran, Odell Leonard, and Doris were 0:15:48.680 --> 0:15:53.200 called in to prepare for the exorcism. Together they knelt 0:15:53.200 --> 0:15:56.240 around the bed and recited the acts of faith, hope, 0:15:56.520 --> 0:16:00.600 love and contrition. When they were complete, and began to 0:16:00.600 --> 0:16:05.840 recite the Rituale Romanum. At the utterance of the first word, 0:16:06.280 --> 0:16:09.560 Ronnie began to Writhe Then three large parallel bars were 0:16:09.600 --> 0:16:12.680 scratched across his stomach. At any mention of the name 0:16:12.720 --> 0:16:15.040 of the Lord or his blessed Mother and Saint Michael. 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:20.760 Scratches appeared on Ronnie's legs, thighs, stomach, back, chest, face 0:16:20.920 --> 0:16:25.960 and throat, with at least one scratch drawing blood. Bowden 0:16:26.120 --> 0:16:31.120 demanded the evil spirit identify itself Again, came the scratches, 0:16:31.360 --> 0:16:35.320 and the witnesses gasped the word hell was written across 0:16:35.360 --> 0:16:39.720 the boy's chest. Soon after, Ronnie seemed to drift into 0:16:39.760 --> 0:16:43.280 a quiet sleep. Then, as Bishop and Bowden began the 0:16:43.320 --> 0:16:48.000 prayers to Saint Michael, something changed. A strange smile stretched 0:16:48.000 --> 0:16:52.120 across Ronnie's face. He began to stir from sleep, before 0:16:52.120 --> 0:16:55.920 breaking into an eerie laughter. In a sudden fit, he 0:16:55.960 --> 0:16:59.400 sat bolt upright and began pummeling the headboard with his fists, 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:03.480 then swung his arms wildly in the air. Holy water 0:17:03.600 --> 0:17:06.680 was sprinkled across his body, and immediately he stopped as 0:17:06.720 --> 0:17:11.480 if suddenly awakening. Asked where he had been, Ronnie explained, 0:17:12.359 --> 0:17:15.520 I was fighting a huge red devil. He was slimy 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:19.040 and very powerful. I was above a fiery hot pit 0:17:19.520 --> 0:17:22.199 about two hundred feet deep, and he was stopping me 0:17:22.280 --> 0:17:25.359 from getting through an iron gate, while all around stood 0:17:25.359 --> 0:17:30.080 other smaller devils. The prayers continued, which seemed only to 0:17:30.080 --> 0:17:33.199 provoke Ronnie back into a tantrum as he wrestled with 0:17:33.240 --> 0:17:37.479 his apparent demonic foe. At midnight, the movement became so 0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:40.440 violent that two men were required to hold Ronnie down, 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:44.280 who ride with uncommon force and spat at his tormentors. 0:17:45.640 --> 0:17:48.280 At the peak of each outburst, the holy water would 0:17:48.280 --> 0:17:52.840 again be sprinkled, calming the boy momentarily before the gyrations returned, 0:17:53.800 --> 0:17:58.520 before finally moderating around five am. At seven thirty am 0:17:58.720 --> 0:18:02.159 in the morning of March the seven, Ronnie finally managed 0:18:02.200 --> 0:18:05.720 to sleep. The first day of the exorcism was finished, 0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:14.800 but it was far from over. In the days that followed, 0:18:15.280 --> 0:18:18.600 Ronnie continued to lash out, violently, spitting and cursing at 0:18:18.600 --> 0:18:21.960 the priests and anyone else who came near, imploring them 0:18:22.000 --> 0:18:25.240 to go to Hell and be damned, his voice alternating 0:18:25.400 --> 0:18:29.719 from childlike to guttural growls. He snapped his teeth as 0:18:29.760 --> 0:18:33.040 they held him down. On occasions, he would harm and 0:18:33.119 --> 0:18:37.119 sing in a broken and peculiarly high voice, all the 0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:41.679 while his family watched in desperation, utterly convinced the devil 0:18:41.920 --> 0:18:46.919 had their son in his grip. The next few weeks 0:18:47.080 --> 0:18:50.040 saw Ronnie moved from a number of different locations as 0:18:50.040 --> 0:18:53.679 the priests continued their work. He was moved first to 0:18:53.680 --> 0:18:57.040 the rectory at Saint Francis Saviour's Church, which seemed only 0:18:57.040 --> 0:19:00.840 to increase the intensity of the apparent possession. In one incident, 0:19:01.280 --> 0:19:05.600 Ronnie lashed out at Halloran, breaking his nose. At times 0:19:05.600 --> 0:19:10.600 he was being restrained by four grown men. It was 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:13.080 then decided he would be moved to the Alexian Brother's 0:19:13.119 --> 0:19:15.800 Hospital in Saint Louis, where Ronnie was placed in a 0:19:15.840 --> 0:19:20.399 psychiatric ward. On Thursday in March thirty first, having been 0:19:20.400 --> 0:19:25.160 briefly returned to the rectory, Ronnie began to talk Father Bishop. 0:19:25.240 --> 0:19:28.520 He said, all people that mangle with me will die 0:19:28.760 --> 0:19:34.040 a terrible death. The priests agreed converting Ronnie to Catholicism 0:19:34.040 --> 0:19:37.440 would help his chances. The next day, as he was 0:19:37.480 --> 0:19:40.520 being driven to the church by his uncle, Ronnie complained 0:19:40.560 --> 0:19:43.639 that his feet were becoming hot. He turned to Leonard, 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:46.600 you think you can drive me out with holy communion? 0:19:47.760 --> 0:19:50.760 Ronnie then laughed, grabbing the steering wheel with both hands 0:19:50.920 --> 0:19:53.919 as Leonard wrestled to keep the car under control, before 0:19:53.960 --> 0:19:56.280 finally bringing it to a standstill up the side of 0:19:56.320 --> 0:20:01.120 the curb. The baptism was eventually co had, but by 0:20:01.160 --> 0:20:04.320 now the strain un Ronnie's aunt and uncle had become unbearable, 0:20:04.600 --> 0:20:09.120 and the priests arranged for Ronnie to return to Cottage City. However, 0:20:09.720 --> 0:20:12.800 unable to find anywhere willing to take him, the priests 0:20:12.800 --> 0:20:16.399 had Ronnie brought back to the Alexian Brother's hospital for 0:20:16.520 --> 0:20:20.960 ten more days. Father Bowden, Bishop and mister Halloran continued 0:20:21.000 --> 0:20:28.840 the exorcism to no avail, but then something changed. At 0:20:28.880 --> 0:20:32.360 ten forty five pm on the evening of Monday, April eighteenth, 0:20:33.040 --> 0:20:35.840 Ronnie fell once more into a seizure, but as he 0:20:35.880 --> 0:20:39.280 writhed on the bed, suddenly his body stilled, and from 0:20:39.320 --> 0:20:44.320 his mouth, with a strange calm, he uttered the words Satan, Satan, 0:20:45.080 --> 0:20:47.879 I am Saint Michael, and I command you Satan and 0:20:47.960 --> 0:20:50.520 the other evil spirits to leave the body in the 0:20:50.600 --> 0:20:55.760 name of Dominus immediately now. And then came the most 0:20:55.840 --> 0:20:59.720 violent contortions of the entire exorcism. The brothers struggled to 0:20:59.760 --> 0:21:02.480 hold Ronnie down as he continued to thrash and writhe, 0:21:02.720 --> 0:21:08.760 until suddenly Ronnie stopped moving and opened his eyes. He's gone, 0:21:09.000 --> 0:21:13.879 he said. Ronnie later claimed in that moment to have 0:21:13.960 --> 0:21:16.560 been taken to the mouth of a fiery cave, in 0:21:16.600 --> 0:21:19.640 front of which stood the devil. There was a brilliant 0:21:19.640 --> 0:21:22.680 white light, and in that light stood a beautiful man 0:21:22.920 --> 0:21:27.760 holding a fiery sword. It was Saint Michael. He pointed 0:21:27.800 --> 0:21:30.760 to the devil and then at the cave, he spoke 0:21:30.800 --> 0:21:35.199 only one word to Ronnie Dominus, at which point the 0:21:35.280 --> 0:21:38.720 devil ran back into the flames and was vanquished for good. 0:21:41.200 --> 0:21:44.959 After ninety four days, the disturbances had ceased once and 0:21:44.960 --> 0:22:00.880 for all. All elements of Unexplained and are produced by 0:22:00.880 --> 0:22:04.040 me Richard McClain smith. Please subscribe and rate the show 0:22:04.040 --> 0:22:06.119 on iTunes, and feel free to get in touch with 0:22:06.160 --> 0:22:08.760 any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on 0:22:08.800 --> 0:22:11.440 the show. Perhaps you have an explanation of your own 0:22:11.440 --> 0:22:13.959 you'd like to share. You can reach us online at 0:22:14.000 --> 0:22:56.800 Unexplained podcast dot com or on Twitter at Unexplained Pod. Now. 0:22:56.800 --> 0:22:59.760 It's time to take care of yourself. To make time 0:23:00.080 --> 0:23:04.040 for you, teledoc gives you access to a licensed therapist 0:23:04.359 --> 0:23:07.399 to help you get back to feeling your best. Speak 0:23:07.440 --> 0:23:11.359 to a licensed therapist by phone or video anytime between 0:23:11.440 --> 0:23:14.720 seven a m. To nine pm local time, seven days 0:23:14.720 --> 0:23:19.240 a week. Teledoc Therapy is available through most insurance or employers. 0:23:20.000 --> 0:23:23.560 Download the app or visit teledoc dot com forward slash 0:23:23.640 --> 0:23:28.200 Unexplained Podcast today to get started. That's t e la 0:23:28.600 --> 0:23:31.919 d oc dot com Slash Unexplained Podcast