"Mystery Unsolved-4"

"Exorcism Of Roland Doe"

Exorcism Of Roland Doe

In the late 1940s, in the United States, priests of the Roman Catholic Church performed a series of exorcisms on an anonymous boy, documented under the pseudonym "Roland Doe" or "Robbie Mannheim". The 14-year-old boy (born circa 1935), was the alleged victim of demonic possession, and the events were recorded by the attending priest, Raymond J.Bishop.

 The boy lived in a home with adults, he had no siblings and there were no other children in the house to play with when he was young.Many of the other children who went to school with him described him as quiet, withdrawn, and unpopular. He wasn’t very athletic, but he was a good student who loved to learn. One of his favorite people to spend time with was his Aunt Harriet, who was also a spiritualist.His Aunt Harriet introduced Roland to a Ouija board when the boy showed interest in the game.This introduction to Ouija opened the gate to another world and allowed a demon to enter his body.

Ouija Board

Things were relatively normal for Roland until the death of his Aunt Harriet in 1949. After she died, the family began to note strange occurrences in the house. Furniture started to move on its own,water dripped inexplicably from pipes and walls. The most troubling thing was that his mattress would suddenly move,objects would levitate or fly across the room, and strange noises kept the family on edge.As the disturbances continued, they also got worse. It started with some scratching on the walls that sounded like water. Then the noises turned into thumping and footsteps. At one point, a portrait of Jesus Christ hanging on the wall began moving and banging against the wall. The occurrences only happened when Roland, who was 14 years old at the time, was nearby.

Exorcism Of Roland Doe

The family turned to their pastor for help and guidance. The pastor was a Lutheran by the name of Luther Miles Schulze, who just happened to have an interest in parapsychology. Schulze corroborated the claims of unusual activity that the family was experiencing, and he told the parents they should consult with a Catholic priest who was familiar with exorcism.

The boy was “treated” by more than one priest and in differing locations. One of the most famous instances was the attempted exorcism by Edward Hughes, who conducted the exorcism at Georgetown University Hospital.Father E. Albert Hughes, the local Catholic priest, asked his superiors’ permission to perform an exorcism on the boy in late February of 1949. However, Hughes stopped the rite when Ronald broke off a piece of spring from the mattress that he’d been strapped down to and lashed the priest across his shoulders.The exorcism was halted and the family made contact with a Catholic priest who was also a professor at St. Louis University, Raymond J. Bishop. Being the academic he was, Bishop kept a daily log of the events that transpired while working with Roland.

Haunted House

A cousin of the family was attending St. Louis University at the time of Ronald’s struggles. She put the Hunkelers in touch with Father Walter H. Halloran and Rev. William Bowdern. After consulting with the university’s president, these two Jesuits agreed to perform an exorcism on young Ronald with the help of several assistants.


The men gathered at the residence on Roanoke Drive in early March of 1949. There, the exorcists witnessed scratching on the boy’s body and the mattress moving violently. These were the same types of things that had happened in Maryland when the first exorcism failed.

Amid these bizarre happenings, Bowdern and Halloran, according to their reports, noticed a pattern in Ronald’s behavior. He was calm and normal during the day. But, at night after settling in for bed, he would exhibit strange behavior including screaming and wild outbursts.Ronald would also enter a trance-like state and start making sounds in a guttural voice. The priests supposedly also saw mysteriously flying objects in the boy’s presence and noted that he would react violently when he saw any sacred object presented by the attending Jesuits.

Exorcism Of Roland Doe

At one point during this weeks-long ordeal, Bowdern reportedly saw an “X” appear in scratches on Ronald’s chest, which the priest believed signified the number 10.

After learning how the first exorcism unfolded, the priests decided to make detailed preparations for the next exorcism.Another priest by the name of William Van Roo was available to assist in the exorcism as well. The boy was strapped to a bed to prevent injury to himself and others, but the preparations weren’t enough to keep the boy calm during the ritual.

Exorcism Of Roland Doe

The second and final exorcism took place on Easter Monday in 1949. Having completed their preparations, the priests began the process of exorcising the demon from the boy in a secluded room in the hospital. During the exorcism, Halloran noted that words and marks began to appear on the boy’s body. At one point, he saw the word “evil” materialize. The word “hell” is also said to have appeared on the boy. The portion of the exorcism where the saints are called upon resulted in a violent shaking of Roland’s mattress.
The Litany of Saints portion of the rite was one of the most harrowing for the priests, but they continued on with the exorcism. While no priest had an arm sliced this time, Halloran’s nose was broken by the boy. The exorcism took a total of eight minutes, and when it was over the boy said in a tone that signified relief, “He’s gone!” Other reports indicate that the boy said, “It’s over. It’s over.” The room where the exorcism took place was sealed off to prevent further access.
After the exorcism, the boy reportedly went on to live a normal life. Writer Thomas B. Allen attempted to protect the boy’s true identity by giving him the aliases Robbie Mannheim or Roland Doe. The Mannheim family didn’t experience any additional problems, and they returned home to resume their lives.

Exorcism Of Roland Doe

The boy grew up to live a happy life and he later became very successful, getting married and having children. Fifty years after the exorcism took place, Robbie Mannheim reported that he could not remember the possession and has no idea what it was like to be possessed. The experience would most likely scar anybody for life, but it seems that along with the exorcism of the demon, traumatic memories were wiped away as well.