Exorcist - Fact or Fiction
I have researched the story of the Exorcist. The book that later became a movie about the possession of a 12 year old girl. In the years since the book and movie came out, it has been said that they were based on an actual case of possession involving a 13 year old boy. Well, I don't know if it's a real case or not, some say it is, others say it's not. Much of the research I found is inconsistent. And since I wasn't there, I can't say for sure if the case is true or not. So, here is the background that I found. Just like everything else on the page...you decide..fact or fiction. If you have an opinion, we'd love to hear it so e-mail us.
Robbie Mannheim, 14, was living with his family in Mount Rainer, a suburb of Washington DC. He was a normal teenager until his Aunt Harriet died. The boy tried to contact her using a ouija board. Aunt Harriet was a spiritualist, so she and young Robbie spent many hours trying to contact the dead. Soon after Robbie began experimenting with the ouija board, strange noises were heard in Robbie's house. Later it became more frightening as the boy took on a demonic personality, swore continuously, and developed spontaneous body cuts.
His parents took him to doctors and were told that Robbie was a healthy boy. The parents were convinced that Robbie was possessed by the devil, and so, a priest was brought in and attempted to rid the boy of the sprits by conducting an exorcism in a local hospital.
This is just the beginning of the four month ordeal that began January 1949 and lasted until April 1949. The story was printed in the Washington Post on August 20, 1949, after a leaked story appeared in the Catholic Review.
According to Father Bowdern's diary (he was one of the priests involved in the exorcism) of the 1949 case, nine Jesuit priests witnessed Robbie being possessed. A Church report on the exorcism was signed by 48 witnesses.
The church still maintains it's silence on the case.
