William Peter Blatty’s 1971 novel The Exorcist—later adapted into the 1973 William Friedkin film of the same name—was inspired by the story of Roland Doe. Blatty had heard about Doe—who’d evidently undergone several exorcisms—from one of his professors at Georgetown University. In 1949, the 14-year-old Doe claimed to have heard knocking and scratching sounds coming from inside his bedroom walls. But that would only be the beginning of his supposed paranormal experiences.
After visiting Doe in March 1949, Reverend Luther Schulze reported that chairs would move while Doe was sitting in them and that the boy’s bed would shake whenever he was in it. Schulze also wrote that the family’s floors were “scarred from the sliding of heavy furniture,” and remembered a picture of Jesus shaking when Roe was nearby. 20 exorcisms were eventually conducted on Roe throughout the course of three months, with Doe traveling from Maryland to St. Louis for further treatment. William Bowdern, a Jesuit priest who performed those rituals, noted in his diary that Roe once entered a trance-like state in the presence of 14 witnesses.
The Disturbing True Story of the Boy Who Inspired ‘The Exorcist’
“On one evening the word ‘Louis’ was written on the boy’s ribs in deep red [scratches],” Bowdern recalled. “Next, when there was some question of the time of departure, the word ‘Saturday’ was written plainly on the boy’s hip,” he continued. “As to the length of time the mother and boy should stay in St. Louis, another message was printed on the boy’s chest, ‘3 ½ weeks.’ The printing always appeared without any motion on the part of the boy’s hands.”
Following his trip to St. Louis, Doe was said to have finally had the demon cast out of his body. In the process, he allegedly “broke into a violent tantrum of screaming, cursing, and voicing of Latin phrases.” Although there’s been much debate as to the validity of the story and what became of the boy in question, Skeptical Inquirer positively identified him as Ronald Edwin Hunkeler in 2021. It turns out Hunkeler went on to become a NASA engineer and even contributed to the Apollo missions.
According to a former acquaintance, Hunkeler often worried that his NASA colleagues would discover he was the inspiration for Blatty’s book. Hunkeler died from a stroke in 2020, a month shy of his 86th birthday.
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