When Ronald Edwin Hunkeler died last year at his Maryland home at the age of 86, official obituaries described his long career at NASA, including his work on the Apollo space missions of the 1960s and his expertise in developing heat resistant tiles. But, a recent issue of the Skeptical Inquirer announced that Hunkeler was the real name for "Ronald Doe," the fourteen-year-old boy whose repeated exorcisms in 1949 helped inspire the 1973 classic film, "The Exorcist."
Born in Cottage City, Maryland, in 1935, Hunkeler first reported experiencing paranormal activities at the age of fourteen. This supernatural activity reportedly occurred following the death of a favorite aunt who had been a spiritualist. Allegedly, she had introduced him to the supernatural along with how to use an Ouija board.
The paranormal phenomena Ronald began experiencing reportedly included hearing knocking and scratching sounds coming from behind his bedroom walls. He also became the center of apparent poltergeist activity including heavy furniture moving and images of Christ vibrating on walls.
It was the Hunkelers's family minister, the Reverend Luther Schulze, who wrote to Duke University in 1949 to describe the bizarre phenomena occurring whenever Ronald was nearby. During the night Ronald spent at Schulze's house, also described how “chairs moved with [Hunkeler] and one threw him out [of it.] His bed shook whenever he was in it.” This led S the reverend to conclude that "evil was at work" and arranged for a Lutheran rite of exorcism to be carried out. When this failed, Ronald's family then turned to the Catholic Church for further help.
Ronald's family then sought the help of Jesuit exorcist William Bowdern. Bowdern carefully documented what occurred during the course of the more than twenty exorcisms he and his colleagues carried out that year on Ronald Hunkeler. Along with describing how Ronald entered a "trancelike" state in front of witnesses, there were also reported episodes of religious relics being thrown to the floor, mysterious scratching noises, and mysterious messages being written on the boy's ribs.
Based on the messages, one of which involved the word "Louis" being written in deep red scratches, Ronald was then transferred to the Alexian Brothers Hospital St. Louis, Missouri to be treated for demonic possession. While at the hospital, Ronald "broke into a violent tantrum of screaming, cursing, and voicing of Latin phrases." Also, in a diary that Reverend Bowden kept of the exorcisms, he reported that words such as "evil" and "hell" erupted on Ronald's skin, and he broke the nose of one of the priests during his violent thrashing. When the final exorcism was complete, witnesses reported a loud noise in the hospital. Though Ronald himself had o apparent memory of the exorcisms, all of the priests in attendance were consistent in their belief that it was an actual possession.
While skeptics noted various discrepancies in the accounts provided by the priests, rumors about Along with inspiring William Blatty's book and the movie of the same name, the case of Ronald Doe was also depicted in the 2000 movie Possessed and a 1997 documentary In The Grip of Evil. Since then, the exorcism fervor the book and movie helped inspire has taken on a life of its own, driven by countless other films and television shows that have helped drive belief in demonic possession.
As for Ronald Hunkeler, the role that he had played in the entire exorcism phenomenon continued to haunt him for the rest of his life. According to one source close to Hunkeler, his long career at NASA was marked by a continuing fear that his colleagues would discover his past. While all published accounts gave his name as either "Ronald Doe" or "Robert Mannheim," his true identity was well known in many circles and the prospect of some enterprising journalist revealing the truth was never far from his mind. “On Halloween, we always left the house because he figured someone would come to his residence and know where he lived and never let him have peace,” the unnamed source said. “He had a terrible life from worry, worry, worry.” Even shortly before Hunkeler's death, a priest arrived unexpectedly to administer the last rites. Whether this was related to his long-ago history is unknown.
It hardly seems to matter that many of the reported details of the Hunkeler possession case seem either made up or exaggerated, as the recent Skeptical Enquirer article points out. The original Exorcist movie (and its planned remake) are likely to shape the dialogue surrounding demonic possession and exorcism for years to come. Sadly enough, the devil is in the details.