The REAL Exorcist Story - St. Louis, MO 4K

[Music] [Applause] [Music] when it comes to scary movies the exorcist is considered one of the scariest movies of all time in fact when it came out people who went to go see it got so sick and was so bothered by it that people even threw up in the aisles some people even ran out of the theaters and to this day people won't watch it people are terrified of this movie probably because it's based off of actual events that took place in both maryland and here in saint louis right down this street actually getting a little nervous about this one i went to check it out the manager of the national theater in westwood says that there indeed are at least a dozen people who faint or become ill during every showing but the exorcist is still drawing sellout houses for every performance complete with lines around the block i spent an evening in the lobby just to see if people really do come stumbling out in the middle of the picture as reported they did so i asked them why it just scared me of death things just like this just it just get really scared me to death i'm just nervous do you remember what particular scene it was that she was in what was it when she was in a room the doctors came in and she was and when i guess it was when she was talking the devil's voice oh god i can't believe it [Applause] are you going to go back in and see more of the movie now probably yeah what are you going to do right now i don't want to see it but my curiosity's killing me i have to see it i fainted like 10 minutes after the first beginning of the movie and i walked out and they gave me some water yeah do you remember what caused you to faint uh well they started that spinal tap or whatever so and i started closing my eyes and i could hear the gagging and i was getting sicker and i walked up the aisle with my friend and i was just ready to pass out i passed out in about the first half hour yeah yeah do you remember what what it was what scene it was it affected you so much emotions when she took convulsions because i have a little girl and it was like watching my little girl i think it's disgusting why i don't know it's just it's just it doesn't sk you know it doesn't make him want to get sick like everybody says it just my legs are just going and i want to go in the lobby and not watch it and i have to cover my ears what was it that made that happen when she started talking like bevel coming out of her head what how about you i can't even describe it it's so horrible it just are you guys i don't know why i waited it four hours to see that the devil mater did it i better for those of you who do not know the exorcist follows a 12 year old girl by the name of reagan who's played by linda blair and after playing with a ouija board she contacts a spirit that she calls captain howdy she becomes possessed and things just kind of take a very nasty turn and people never look at pea soup the same again the movie the exorcist directed by william friedkin is actually based off of a novel by william peter blatty who got the inspiration for his book from a newspaper article about a 14 year old boy who was supposedly demon possessed now i found out for your biography that you had actually researched an extra system that happened with a boy back in 1950 something was it it was 1949. okay when i first heard of it and then how did that inspire you to right now imagine hearing about for the first time in your life having never heard of possession hearing the details so-called details of an alleged case of demonic possession going on in your neighborhood while you're attending classes at georgetown university i mean it was absolutely startling and i've i thought at the time that if one could induce enough evidence to demonstrate that this was most probably authentic what a tremendous piece of evidence for our hopes for immortality of the soul our hopes for everything i was being taught by the jesuits at georgetown being an absolute fact we all want to put our you know fingers into the wound in the hand of christ i guess that's the big difference between fact and fiction in the movie it's a 12 year old girl reagan but in real life it's a 14 year old boy known as roland doe now the church never gave the identity of the boy up until recently well actually they never gave the identity of the boy internet sleuths were able to figure it out and track down the location so much respect to them now here's the real story in a nutshell there's a lot of moving parts and a lot of stories and a lot of rumors and a lot of speculation now right now i'm walking down a sidewalk on roanoke drive to the house here in st louis where the exorcism took place but it originally started in maryland but it got so bad people got hurt that the family after seeing the word lewis cut into roland doe's body they took that as a sign to come here to st louis where they had some close family now here's where the story starts to get a little a little strange supposedly rolando we're going to talk about his name a little bit later on had a an aunt by the name of aunt harriet who was a bit of a spiritualist and she was the one who introduced roland doe to a ouija board and they used to play it together now kind of mirroring the movie roland doe started playing with the ouija board by himself and not too long after she died he started playing with it trying to contact her it was roughly according to reports that i've read 11 days after her death where strange things like really strange things moving things started to get violent like poltergeist activity those started 11 days after aunt harriet's death now i do want to point out as well that in the movie the exorcist it was the catholic church that was performing the exorcism but in real life since the family was lutheran they actually seek the help of lutheran church officials it wasn't until they moved here to saint louis when the catholic church got involved now when roland doe and his family came out here to st louis this is where their close family was living in 8435 roanoke drive in the bel noor section of st louis now i reached out to the family and i thought we had something set up but sadly we can't get inside the house to see where roland doe's bedroom was but it is believed to be on the second floor don't know where where the exorcism here in st louis took place well the beginning of it everything that went on inside this house was very well documented by one of the priests who was there for the exorcism he actually kept a pretty detailed diary of it in fact that diary was actually used by william peter blatty whenever he was writing the book so that's kind of kind of cool a little piece of information right now things inside this house started getting violent just like in washington dc instead of somebody being cut there was one point where roland doe actually broke free and punched one of the priests in a nose breaking his nose in the process now if i'm not mistaken it was only about two weeks that the exorcism was actually here taking place inside this house he was only in here for two weeks until he was moved to another location now here in st louis to be completely honest there's three different locations that the exorcism took place when you think of the exorcist i know you think of the house and the stairs made famous from that terrifying movie and yes i said terrifying movie because it still terrifies me when i watch it today i love i absolutely love religious horror but we walk history there's so much more to the story i heard once maybe i read somewhere that every story is based off of real life right i mean i guess that's the human nature everything every bit of creativity is based off of something that happened in real life and this is just part of the story of the exorcist before we head out to the other locations let's go ahead and give you the true identity of the little boy his name was ronald hunkler i think that's how you say it h-u-n-k-e-l-e-r now ronald a little bit of difference from ronald and roland from the the priests diary he lived a full life in fact i think he actually worked for nasa for quite a few years and he retired he's passed away now and if i'm not mistaken he's um he's buried in maryland not too far from where the movie the exorcist took place our next stop in the story of the exorcism here in st louis brings us to this church in downtown st louis in fact not too far down the road that you're looking at is the fox theater now you have to keep in mind that when it comes to history things change all the time the exorcism took place in 1949 and at the time of recording this it is 2022 which means it was over 73 years ago that this took place now this church is still standing it's probably one of the most beautiful ones here in saint louis but the exorcism actually took place in the back of this church briefly i think it was maybe a month that they were here but way in the back there was a rectory it's no longer standing they actually tore it down to make way for a newer building but this is where roland doe was held where they performed parts of the exorcism back in 1949 just want to walk back here and just kind of get a feel i mean come on 73 years ago of course things are going to change but it's still pretty wild to just be walking this history there is a plaque here talking about some of the history that happened here but i know it's not the happiest of moments here in st louis but i was really hoping that there would be something stating hey this is where this this this famous infamous piece of horror history happened but nothing of all the places i don't think the church would acknowledge such a thing really right i mean even at the time they were so hush-hush about it yeah um right after the movie the exorcist came out the church was not too happy about how it was depicted i'm talking like green pea soup and crucifixes going into places they probably shouldn't have been going and the funny thing about what happened they said no that's not how we roll that's not how exorcisms happen but they never once denied that an exorcist an exorcism took place here in 1949 i dare i say it definitely is a beautiful day for an exorcism oh man so this is a church that's on the corner of the st louis university one of the biggest university here in st louis right so i wonder how many students know the history like this directly behind the church is this building right here and obviously it's a lot newer it says the saint francis xavier college church parish center i don't know if this is where the rectory was but it's definitely behind the building and everything that we read online the exorcism actually took place behind the building in the rectory so we're just going to go ahead and say that this was it we saw a sign that you can actually go into the paris center and buy some candles so we're going to go up inside and see if there's something we can take home from the exorcist church because everything that's going on in the world they're only allowing one person in the office at a time so i have no idea what's going on inside there jessica she was the first in so i'm just hanging back and hoping fingers and bones crossed that maybe we can get a candle from this place a little you know exorcism candle whatever you want to call it while waiting though here's a view from the front steps of the paris center st louis is definitely a place with a bunch of history sadly a lot of it is abandoned or burned down or left a rot but there still is so much beauty here when it comes down to it this is really just a small stop on our story about the exorcism that happened here back in 1949 again the building out back is no longer here so there's really nothing to see but as walkers of history you kind of have to stop you know it's it's it's walking history walking the steps of this famous incident that inspired so much nightmares and and horror not only for a family but for countless of people who watched the movie and read the book at this point i'm just walking around the building exploring and i came across this little staircase that goes down underneath the parish let's get down here so you can see this there's some artwork down here i am loved i am worthy i am safe i am seen i am forgiven i am not alone wow even though pretty much everything that took place back here in 1949 was in the back of the church we're gonna walk through the church right now to show what it looks like because it's beautiful i'm gonna keep it quiet because there are people in there praying and you know doing what they do everything's so quiet wow [Music] truly beautiful the third stop on our st louis exorcism tour brings us to the corner of broadway and asajj street now what you're looking at right now is the saint alexia hospital it didn't look like this back in 1949 but you see that concrete wall that rock wall that's right there now it's a parking lot but back in 1949 there was a building that stood here and this is where the little boy was brought and this is where the final battle between good and evil took place now i swear this wasn't intentional it's kind of an unconscious nod to the movie the exorcist but if you look right across the street here there's a lamp post now the story goes after the little boy roland doe was successfully exercised that good one and the devil went back to hell supposedly they sealed up that room and nobody ever went in it again and then the building was torn down but this is it crazy right doing these mini documentaries for youtube i often find myself wondering why there are no plaques or anything describing or commemorating the history good or bad that happened in these locations now the hospital has been long closed but whenever it was open so rumor is story is however you want to call it on their website they had a page talking about what happened here on property went looking for it since the hospital is closed the website is sadly gone but even though so much has changed no matter how hard you try you can't erase the history that happened on the property you just can't our fourth and final stop on our st louis exorcism tour brings us to calvary cemetery now if we were to keep going straight down this road it's the belfontaine cemetery where the limps are buried and clark from lewis and clark's expedition they're buried there here in this cemetery however there's a whole bunch of priests including one in particular that we've come here to see now we're in section 33 of this cemetery and this is where you will find the final resting place of reverend william beauderne now reverend beaudern he was the chief priest that was overseeing the exorcism back in 1949. in fact go a little further with this one in the movie the exorcist his character was portrayed by max von siddow the power of christ compels you the power of christ compels you the power of christ compels you jessica's really good at locating the graves in the cemetery now we weren't sure entirely where he was buried but jessica was smart and she found where all the other reverends were and this is it and there it is just a simple stone reverend william s bodern 1897 to 1983. again he was the the chief exorcist the chief priest in the exorcism in the 1949 exorcism of roland doe which we know his name crazy right and there it is just a simple stone reverend william s bodern 1897-1983 again he was the chief exorcist the chief priest in charge of the 1949 exorcism of roland doe now of course we know roland's real name and how wild is it to be standing right here paying respects the wind is really starting to pick up out here in the cemetery that's okay i think that's pretty much it for our tour our visit of the exorcist locations here in st louis from 1949 73 years ago at the time of filming this it's funny we get a lot of requests to come out here and visit the exorcism house and uh we try to take requests and make them happen we do a lot of research so we knew about this place and jessica being from here we wanted to come back and it was on our agenda so it was pretty special to do that and of course we don't like to just visit one little place we want to visit everything we want to try to tell as much of a complete story as we possibly can because after all it is history and it is people's lives with that being said thank you for joining us on another grim adventure and as always happy halloween

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Id: wGMykRcZXt0

Length: 22min 18sec (1338 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 23 2022