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hey weirdos my name is Ash I'm Elena and this is more [Music] bad you sounded like you were hosting a
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show like Delila oh my God thank you hey hey out there everybody out there you single
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ladies this is Ash this one goes out to all my Queens I don't know oh my Queens then I just started
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sounding like Trixie and Kio when they're like doing a bit I like it may I please have bread
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bread um what's going on I'm in a silly goofy funny LOL mood me too yeah I'm feeling it good feeling it we got some
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Mini cadberry cream eggs in this I just ate two of them I ate no I ate two oh you're just trying to one up me with
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cadberry egg I took a third one out but I have not yet ingested it yeah maybe you should chill out um they're tiny
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they're baby no you can do what you want um this is kind of a Hot Topic cream cadberry eggs how do you guys feel about
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them my husband thinks they're the most disgusting things my husband also thinks
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that anytime I have them in the house he gags and oh that's EX one of us will eat one he will visibly
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gag Drew just says a little like like with his nose see my girls love them yeah my girls are correct it shouldn't
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be that hot of a topic No it should not but it is want to know what you guys think if you don't like them you're just
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wrong whoa she said it I didn't I said it me I'm here to I'm here to tell you that your opinion matters but Ash she's
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telling you're going to validate them in these streets no that's wrong validating
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it's wrong if you don't like them what are the there's another option is it car yeah the caramel so I like caramel but I
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don't like those ones I'm okay with them but it's not my yeah it's not my preference yeah I don't really [ __ ]
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with them you I either man but I was going to tell you guys something I thought of it this morning I
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was like getting my coffee ready and I was like I'll say that on the show later I'll say that on the show I'll I'll say
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that on the Pod what was it and then we had such a whirlwind of a morning and now I just have boats and hose stuck in
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my head so it's true cuz we got a couple of strep strep throat cases in my house um CU kids get
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sick calm down um I always get one person that's like why are your kids sick kids are always
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sick like yep kids are sick said no parent and also it's not just kid it is also John who has strep throat kid John
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so that child and John are the are kind of sticking together and so they started
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calling themselves strep Brothers but then it made boats and hoes get stuck in my head it did so that's a
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whole thing yeah but yeah it's good that we're in a silly mood today because we're talking about something like
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moderately silly yeah I mean anytime we can take it in a place of exorcism or paranormal it's um it's a different vibe
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yeah I would say it is a different vibe we can come in in a different angle yeah
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a silly goofy angle silly goofy It's Kind it's kind of a wonky angle yeah yes the best way it's like curved yeah I
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like that all right well let's talk about the exorcism hello wow I don't know what
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happened I need an exorcism hello all right we're going to talk about The Exorcism of one Roland doe so as long as
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the public has known about The Exorcist supposedly true Origins the character at
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the center of the story has always been known as Roland doe or sometimes Robbie manaheim I think Manheim Manheim Manheim
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both are obviously pseudonyms to protect his actual identity but in December 2021
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the skeptical Inquirer a magazine devoted to scientific skepticism revealed the identity of Roland
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doe can you believe that it's crazy yeah well they reason that he had passed away
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a year earlier so there was like not really any need for anonymity anymore I suppose I guess the identity of Roland
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Joe has been uncovered by an independent journalist two decades earlier it had been but the reporter actually opted not
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to publish the name for legal reasons probably smat so people knew who he was for a little bit but it was it was kept
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on the deal wow that's shocking I know it's well it was a different time I was going to say that would never happen now
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well exactly because in the year of our L 2021 it got it got leaked it got leaked
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yeah so in 1999 though taking it back a little bit a journalist named Mark o opik I believe was writing an article on
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The Possession for strange magazine which I prefer when he interviewed father Albert Hughes one of the priests
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involved in the case damn that must have been gnarly oh my God can you imagine that'd be crazy let's sit with that for
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a second yeah every like let let's paint a picture you get to sit down with the with Father Albert Hughes who was
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involved in the original case that inspired the exorcism that's a [ __ ] Exorcist I mean what did you say I said
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the exorcism who inspired the exorcism the exorcism that was in the exorcism not a exorcism the exorcism like that's
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a big moment yeah just a weird moment I would assume top 10 in your life for sure well according to Hughes the boy
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who was exercised was from Cottage City Maryland and he quote went on to graduate from G Gonzaga high and turned
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out fine any time I say Gonzaga High I just want to say gorgona and you do that for a reason and you don't even know
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what the reason is tell me what it is uh John loves March Madness and he usually
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has me do a fake bracket with him and I don't know anything about college basketball I like regular like higher
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basketball whatever NBA but like what is that called Big Boy basketball Big Boy basketball but I don't know anything
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about college basketball so I just pick based on what I think is a cool name and
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Gonzaga reminded me of gorg and so now I I only call Gonzaga gorgona W you probably you might have heard it in
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subconsciously it's possible and we're also just family it's true that proved it cuz he'll and he'll even do it now
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he's like oh Gorgonzola mov on to the next um round wow yeah look at us so connected Gonzaga G gorola say gor well
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with those facts and a few obtained a few other facts obtained from his research OBS hasnic was able to
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determine the years that the boy was in high school and after tracking down a copy of the 1954 Gorgonzola Gonzaga High
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School yearbook he narrowed the pool of potential boys to a very small number and after cross-checking list with the
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known attendees of St James Church where Albert Hughes was priest he was left with just one name Ronald hunkler Ronald
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hunkler Ronald hunkler that's a cool name it is I like it hunkler hunkler yeah the story of the Roland Joe and The
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Exorcist have been told and retold like a million gajillion times since the supposed possession occurred that it's
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become very very difficult if not almost impossible to tell all the facts from fictions those are my favorite kind of
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paranormal stories they're the best I don't I don't want clear facts and fic frankly it's most paranormal stories but
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then the popularity of the movie that came out made the already Sensational story even more sens Sensational with
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obviously aspects played up to promote the supernatural details of the story so facts about Ronald and his life before
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and after the exorcism are sparse and a little difficult to verify but here's what we do know Ronald Edwin hunkler was
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born June 1st 1935 hey we that that is my wedding anniversary and the day that one Marilyn Monroe passed away it's true
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I didn't mean to do that um yes it was in Cottage City Maryland that he was born to Edwin and Odell hunkler isn't
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Odell a cool name it is a cool name I also love the name Edwin I do too I think that's a really cute name that was
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Ronald's middle name and his father's name love it so his father Edwin worked for the federal government and Odell his
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mother was a homemaker Edwin was very fortunate in that he had a stable job during the peak of their Great
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Depression but the pay was relatively low and the family definitely struggled financially a lot of the time and this
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struggle became even greater a few years after Ronald's birth when Odell's mother
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moved into their house which obviously put in you know kind of an additional strain yeah more mths to feed more
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resources being used for sure sitting about one mile outside the Northeast border of Washington DC cottage city was
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and still is a pretty suburban area populated mostly by government employees like Edwin hunkler was according to
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Alvin Ki one of Ronald's childhood friends Ronald quote had friends but he was in a sense a little bit of a loner
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he was somewhat sedentary somewhat quiet as his parents were in his younger years
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Ronald did have a best friend for the purposes of this story we're going to call him John love that name we don't
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really you do I do that's crazy we don't really know like if his name was John or
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not so we're just going to call him that John John according to John's brother JC
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these two paired up and were virtually Inseparable they were loners who found each other and they caused a lot of
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Mischief there was a close relationship there a very close relationship good for
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them yeah loners causing Mischief let's go what's better kind of like what we do
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but we're not really loners no sort of I don't know according to JC when the stories about a possessed boy began
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making their way around town he immediately thought of Roland and John uh Ronald and John that's that sucks
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that they used essentially the same name no it does and let me tell you it [ __ ]
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me up the entire time I was reading about this and writing about it so Ronald if I say the wrong name I'm going
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to do my best to say Ronald the entire time cuz that is his name but if I [ __ ]
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up just like laugh with me okay yeah because no matter what that's the whatever name is used is a name that he
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was referred to as yeah Ronald or Roland yeah I'm doing my best to say Ronald so
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like imagine trying to save someone's identity and use essentially the same name you literally just switch three
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letters like that's fake come on and if you have dyslexia the [ __ ] yeah it's true that's not cool no but JC said you
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had these two Mischief Makers that had a strong tendency to take advantage of people who were weaker than themselves
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that's not good were a pair of connivers and they had their act down they were trying to outdo each other so he's like
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possessed boy got something to do with the two of them yeah now if JC remembered Ronald as a mischievous
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Troublemaker John who was actually his friend himself described Ronald in a lot more of extreme terms oh according to
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John Ronald's home life was anything but typical for a boy in the 1940s he said Ronald was quote smothered by his
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obsessively religious mother and grandmother who had deep interest in spiritualis and Ouija boards shunned by
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his classmates at school prone to traumas and even violent outbursts and exhibited cruel and at times even
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sadistic Behavior toward other children and even animals oh yeah so there's a lot going on with his
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pathology and when it came to his father's influence on Ronald both JC and John remembered Edwin hunkler as a man
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who was physically present in the home but emotionally absent anywhere else at the time which was kind of common to say
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of the time that's not shocking yeah but I think when you have all those other things at play it's going to add to it
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it was never good no nobody came out of that in a great way unscathed yeah JC said of the supposed Paranormal Activity
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I think he could see what was going on which is why he's never mentioned talking about Edwin interesting yeah now
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since the story broke in the papers and especially since the release of the book
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and then the movie John really tried to distance himself from Ronald and avoid any association with the legend which I
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can understand yeah in an interview in 1999 he said I've never said his name in front of anyone not even my wife whoa
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yeah damn in fact while nearly everyone remembered Jon and Ronald as Inseparable
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best friends even his own brother Jon himself wouldn't have actually described it in such intimate terms he said we
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were Playmates and classmates people ask what he was like back then and I can tell you that he was never what you
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would call a normal child he was an only child and kind of spoiled and he was a mean
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bastard he was a mean bastard I think it sounds like John just kind of put up with him for a while and then even he
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was like [ __ ] off I feel like everyone has at least had like some interaction with a person like that as they were
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growing up where you were just like you're kind of a dumb [ __ ] like why am I hanging out with you it's like a
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friend you just like do yeah yeah I feel like that's just one of those it's like
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then you move to like a new school like you move up a grade you kind of like Branch out a little more and you're like
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why the [ __ ] was I friends with that you kind of FL apart yeah for sure so I don't feel bad if you were friends with
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an [ __ ] think of exactly who I used to hang out with that was kind of yeah that I look back and I'm like why did I
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put myself through that yeah she was an [ __ ] well as an illustration of Ronald's Ronald's typical Behavior John
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remembered a story about a stray dog in the neighborhood that it's okay okay that seemed to take a liking to Ronald
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and vice versa that they actually liked each other but apparently he said this dog was mean and nobody ever knew who
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owned it it just came out of nowhere no dog is mean he was a little mean he's not mean he does mean to he was treated
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badly I bet yeah probably no dog comes out mean you're right and they all go to heaven yeah well and this is John's
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words he said well Ronald basically adopted that dog that dog really was his best friend not me one time he called me
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up and told me to come over and I never really trusted him because he was sneaky
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and a real mean little bastard I was going over there and he was looking out from the basement window and when I got
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to his house I heard the back porch door slam and I knew right away what he'd done he'd done this sort of thing many
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times before to different kids I started running like hell because he'd sick that
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dog on me when I got when I got home he called me up and he was laughing like hell that's the kind of person he
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was I mean that's pretty funny it's a little silly but also that's [ __ ] up it is a dog could have ate his face off
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that's like super 1940s Behavior though I feel I think I've seen that in like several movies I think I've seen that I
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feel like that's very like I'm just born yeah I'm going to stick my bean dog on 100% but it's supposed to be his best
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friend that's the [ __ ] you do your best friend though yeah you know John John didn't like it I don't know I feel like
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we're in the Northeast maybe we just I know that's actually this kind of I'm like that's just roasting somebody you
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love yeah you know yeah no that's honestly so true I remember one time I had play date with somebody who I
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thought was like my best friend and it was like the middle of winter and we were playing outside and they just
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locked me outside yeah that's just you know that's just somebody you love we were still besties after of course you
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were cuz that's love that's what that is New England is wild we're different we are but John John didn't like that so
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people who knew Ronald as a child paint a picture of a pretty lonely boy overall
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it sounds like also you know with pretty bad social skills since he's sick and his dog on people yeah that is pretty
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rough and you know obviously this is a great example of it a tendency to behave in Cruel if not outright sadistic ways
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which is scary cuz while we can laugh a little bit that is a [ __ ] up thing to do it is a [ __ ] up thing to do
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especially knowing that the dog is mean well that's the thing I don't all I'm hearing is that the dog was mean it's
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like I don't know what that means yeah well it's it's not only mean to like the friend it's mean to the dog you should
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put the dog in that position that's the thing cuz I mean again things were different in the 1940s now you do that
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that dog so muches touches that person you're going to have to put that dog down and that's your fault exactly and
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that's [ __ ] up because that dog's just doing what they think is going to make you happy exactly and that's all dogs
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want to do exactly but the cruel and sadistic stuff is like a different because again we're talking about like
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roast your friends roast the people you yeah like these do silly things yeah cruel and sadistic is like a totally
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different yeah don't do that and again people said that he was like mean to other animals and as soon as you said
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that I got a red flag that's more like what we're talking about unfortunately like I said like there's limited
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information so we don't have specific examples like what those cruel and statistic things are but we know that
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they happened or people said they did at least but there was at least one person
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in Ronald's life who he really truly bonded with and somebody who he was willing to let his guard down around and
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it was his father's sister Matilda who was his aunt Tilly as he called that's really cute I know they had a really
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cute relationship I think in the stories the documentaries and the movies that have been made since the original event
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there's always a great deal made about Aunt Tilly and especially her role as the person who introduced Ronald to the
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occult but oh damn a Tilly she might have but again there's a lot more fiction surrounding aspects of the story
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than facts so we don't know but what is true is that Aunt Tilly lived in St Louis and she visited her brother and
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his family a lot and during her visit she always made time for Ronald's they really like to hang out together that's
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some good Aunt [ __ ] it is author Thomas Allen wrote Aunt Tilly seems to have treated Ronald more like a special
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friend than as a nephew oh that reads a little creepy I just want to be clear she like it it's not creepy it's not
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creepy it was just a cute relationship it's like she she paid she she might have seen too that he was a little off
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off and like he was a little like socially strange and like a little bit of loner and so she was like I'm going
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to just you know I'm going to make sure that I pay attention to him and I think she even saw that her brother probably
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wasn't super present in her nephew's life and like he was struggling at school the adults around him didn't pay
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a lot of attention to him other than his mom like smothering him yeah which is not the attention that you want no so
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she was like let me just like be a normal person in your life but I feel like you hear special friend and that
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atically reads creepy like we're we're in a place now in the world where special friend with an adult is no no
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go so he just wanted to be you know thank you for clearing up on Tilly's name yeah I had to that's my girl yeah
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so given his inability to form bonds with children his own age and the fact that he you know treated his peers
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pretty shittily most of Ronald effect most of Ronald's time was spent with the adults in his life and like I was just
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saying most of them typically just ignored him or treated him like a nuisance so in that case it makes sense
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why he was drawn so much to somebody like his aunt Tilly yeah she was said to be outgoing outspoken and pretty
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eccentric in an era where most people were conservative and respectable and you know buttoned up so she probably
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sees a little bit of something in them you know what I mean like she's a little different so she's like I think you just
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need to be like steered in the right direction yeah we got to celebrate our differences yeah so like Ronald's mother
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and grandmother Tilly was also interested in spiritualism and she introduced Ronald to the Ouija board
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which they used together to try to contact the spirit world I'm kind of obsessed with all of this I'm also
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pretty obsessed with like I do also love that the mom and grandmother are super into spiritualist in the board I'm like
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wow it's funny too cuz the mom was like super religious but she also had an interest in that side of things yeah
00:19:06
that's very interesting yeah nobody really knows how much Ronald believed in his aunt's ability to talk to the dead
00:19:11
through the Ouija board or if he really bought into any of the beliefs but according to Thomas Allen his interest
00:19:17
in the board was at least strong enough for him to engage with it even when Tilly wasn't visiting so he was he was
00:19:23
using that Ouija board so he was into it and it wasn't just the spirit board that
00:19:26
Tilly believed in she was also Al a firm believer in spirit wrapping which is the
00:19:31
belief that Spirits can communicate with the living by like knocking on walls floors any heart this some people think
00:19:37
it's debunked I don't I feel like it's a hard one to debunk like fully yeah I agree you know and like we've he we've
00:19:45
heard weird topping in this room before and we've never found the source like you can debunk certain instances of it
00:19:52
for sure but not overall a blanket debunk doesn't feel right here thank you you're welcome so considering everything
00:19:59
that was going on it would definitely be fair to say that Ronald was struggling emotionally before his possession and
00:20:05
that he didn't have a lot of relationships where he felt supported yeah and throughout a lot of the 20th
00:20:10
century expectations of gender were rigid when it came to boys and young men and especially boys and young men asking
00:20:17
for help when it comes to like emotional problems that would have been super unusual and that's why they just acted
00:20:22
out exactly that's exactly my point here so let's kind of get into it now as far
00:20:29
as anybody can tell Ronald hunkler's paranormal experience began in early January
00:20:33
1949 about 5 months into his e8th grade year his behavior was starting to become
00:20:38
a problem at school and his bullying Behavior wasn't giving him any friends and things finally came to aead that
00:20:45
winter when one day just in the middle of class A supposedly paranormal experience made him the center of
00:20:51
everybody's attention oo his friend John remembered he was sitting in a chair and
00:20:56
it was one of those deals with one arm attached and and it looked like he was shaking the desk the desk was shaking
00:21:02
and vibrating extremely fast and I remember the teacher yelling at him to stop it and I remember he kind of yelled
00:21:08
I'm not doing it and they took him out of class and that was the last I ever saw of him at school holy [ __ ] yeah now
00:21:15
what yeah in later tellings of the story particularly the version told in Thomas
00:21:20
Allen's book possession the event in the classroom was a genuine Poltergeist phenomenon where the desk was moving
00:21:26
free of human hands like he wasn't n't doing it at all but John who was in that class said nah the desk certainly did
00:21:34
not move around the room like that book said it was just shaking all right I mean either way yeah two two versions of
00:21:40
that story regardless of what was causing the commotion the disruption with the desk was the last straw for the
00:21:46
teachers and the administrators at the high school and Ronald was asked to not return so I there was definitely there
00:21:55
was definitely stuff leading up to this yeah there had to be a lot of [ __ ] leading up I think probably the bullying
00:22:00
yeah was like a bigger thingal and then like he definitely sounds like he was disruptive a lot yeah if you're being a
00:22:05
bully to everyone and treating everyone like [ __ ] sorry I just almost yawned while I was saying that not because this
00:22:11
is boring just because sleep it's tired uh but I said it's tired it's tired see it's tired over there it this this is
00:22:20
tired but yeah the like if you're bullying people you're being disruptive you're being like sadistic to people
00:22:27
like the fact that they use the word sadistic quite often means he's doing some [ __ ] and also it was a lot easier
00:22:32
to throw people out of school it's true and it's like if they're telling him to stop and he's like I'm not doing it and
00:22:37
he just keeps doing what get my it's like of course but what sucks is that if it like was legitimate then he just got
00:22:44
kicked out because of a ghost yeah like that's kind of [ __ ] you know yeah thanks a lot spur thanks a lot spir well
00:22:50
interestingly when the incident was reported to the priest months later it was reported that Ronald quote did not
00:22:56
continue his attendance out of embarrassment so there's two stories there now the next major event came a
00:23:01
few days later on January 15th Ronald and his grandmother were at home in his grandmother's room and they started
00:23:07
hearing a dripping noise followed by scratching sounds coming from within the walls in the ceiling I'd be like [ __ ] we
00:23:14
have M until without warning a framed picture of Jesus Christ began shaking quote as I
00:23:22
had to say it a framed picture of Jesus Jus Christ that's a big deal Jesus Christ himself
00:23:32
Jesus Christ Jesus jwa chist it started shaking quote as if the wall back of it had been
00:23:43
bumped so I'm just picturing I can't help it maybe that's a black of sleep I haven't had a lot of sleep I'm picturing
00:23:50
a diamond in the wall saying and I'm picturing him just booty bump in the wall and like he knows Jesus Christ in
00:23:58
the photo boom yeah Jesus Christ is in that photo like he knows yeah like he's just like dancing to his own beep behind
00:24:06
the wall and he's just booty bumping the wall every now and then I like the image
00:24:09
that conjures a big booty demon big booty demon little way he shake it a Bodacious demon in the wall it's going
00:24:18
to be like bump Mario's nickname for Brion or for Brien on Tik Tok yes it's so true well that happened
00:24:29
big booty demon or mice knocking pictures of big booty mice of Jesus Christ Off the
00:24:36
Wall I don't know why would you say it it's like so intense because I did it on purpose because it's so important it is
00:24:45
in the week or so following the scratching and the dripping sounds the inexplicable noise noises became a
00:24:50
nightly event in the hunkler house usually from like 700 p.m. to midnight yeah that's when he's getting his RAV on
00:24:56
that demon that first you pregame then you rage then he's really into it yeah he's he he starts like a little bit
00:25:03
slowly he takes a couple shots at the pregame but once he gets that feeling it's it's over it's over the night going
00:25:10
song comes on and that's it he says let's go girl he says let's go hunkler fam now it's unclear what type of
00:25:17
activity was experienced during these events for the humans but most accounts mention Ronald's reports of hearing
00:25:24
squeaking shoes on his bed for six nights in a row whoa so now the demon has some new sneakers that he's breaking
00:25:31
in on Ronald's bed some new Nike High Tops now it's worth noting that none of the accounts mention which of the family
00:25:40
members heard these sounds but after about a week of Ronald's complaints The Sounds did finally become audible to the
00:25:46
other members of the family aside from just Ronald but the noise was quote only heard at night when the boy went to bed
00:25:52
yeah cuz that's when you go that's when you go crazy yeah that's your time that I mean if a demon is going to start
00:25:58
partying it's definitely going to be when the youngest kid goes to bed of course duh yeah that's how demon tree
00:26:03
Works absolutely it does read the handbook read a book exactly thank you by the end of the week though Ronald's
00:26:09
mother and grandmother had accepted Ronald's claims as fact and they too started having paranormal experiences
00:26:15
good for them and good for them that was a crazy reaction let's go girls he said hell
00:26:25
yeah Nana one instance both women were laying down on Ronald's bed and they quote heard
00:26:32
something coming toward them similar to the rhythm of marching feet in the beat of drums this is all adding up and that
00:26:38
seemed to travel the length of the mattress and back again yes conga line all I can think of is the like the new
00:26:44
Gaga song Abracadabra it's like I love it and he's just like voking oh my God the demon I love it voguing
00:26:56
and throwing pictures of Jesus [Laughter] Christ now the next significant event came about a week later on January 26
00:27:06
when Aunt Tilly died no Aunt Tilly died from complications of Multiple Sclerosis
00:27:11
at age 54 oh she's young I know oh an MS that's tough yeah that's awful poor Tilly I know now given the special
00:27:20
relationship that Ronald had with his aunt til's death had to have been a devastating event for not him of course
00:27:26
and the entire family oh hell yeah now believing that Tilly's death might have had something to do with the events
00:27:31
happening in the house Ronald's mother held a seance with the Ouija board a few nights later in an attempt to contact
00:27:38
Tilly spirit I that sounds awesome I'm obsessed like that's awesome yeah she's just like let's Seance about it I think
00:27:48
it's rad like what a cool mom and I think the grandma probably went too cuz she was into spiritualistic [ __ ] I would
00:27:53
have loved to grow up in this house yeah that's pretty cool now according to her
00:27:56
testimony provided to father Raymond Bishop Odell called out to the spirit and asked if you are Aunt Tilly knock
00:28:02
three times supposedly Ronald's grandmother said she could feel waves of air rushing over her face and head and
00:28:08
then all three participants heard a faint knock three times and Odell called out if you are Tilly tell me positively
00:28:16
by knocking four times at which point she heard four distinct knocks followed by a quote claw scratching on Ronald's
00:28:24
mat on Roland's mattress Ronald's mattress you can keep that all in because he has 47 names that's scary I
00:28:32
don't like the claw well the other thing is you could ask a spirit who they are and you could say are you on Tilly and
00:28:40
they could say yeah [ __ ] yeah of course I am yeah it me that's the thing like you think a demon's going to be like ah
00:28:45
[ __ ] no caught me that's not my name it's me be I can only answer to my name like no they lie you're just him a cloak
00:28:53
I don't think that he's like totally opposed to lying no definitely not yeah so I don't think it's on I just wanted
00:28:58
to make that clear but after the Seance the story starts to get a little hazy and a little inconsistent according to
00:29:04
marnik Odell began quote alternating her beliefs that the problems with her son either were the work of the devil or
00:29:11
their departed relative she like couldn't make her mind up uh both of those sound like uh bad choices a
00:29:17
stretch Yeah so basically she thought that either the house was being haunted by the spirit of a Tilly or that some
00:29:22
sort of demonic entity had attached itself to Ronald and he was now harassing the family but Odell couldn't
00:29:27
quite set on which of the two she believed oh the devil I mean there's a lot going on so it's either the devil or
00:29:32
Aunt Tilly or Aunt Tilly and now we need Jesus Christ you need Jesus Christ to intervene you need your lord and savior
00:29:41
now whatever the case this is the point where according to skeptic Joe nickel quote the case which began as a seeming
00:29:47
Poltergeist outbreak soon Advanced to one of alleged spirit communication to one of supposed diabolic possession oh
00:29:54
which I love I am obsessed with the word diab diabolical yeah I describe many things as diabolical and now my kids
00:30:02
have started to call things diabolical I haven't heard that yet and I I can't wait for the moment that iidea we were
00:30:07
playing Mario Kart last night and one of them said that um Daisy is diabolical Daisy is diabolical that's I love when
00:30:16
they use things perfect they didn't I was like agreed is she like the village girl uh no she's the redhead princess oh
00:30:24
[ __ ] Daisy but they saw her a statue of her dancing with Mario and they were very angry for p Princess Peach oh I
00:30:30
don't like Princess Peach either yeah I don't mind her I she makes me really mad
00:30:34
at Mario party I just wanted to say that time to put that out the village girl is
00:30:38
diab the villagers are wild I don't like them no anyway back to the story yeah in
00:30:43
the early days of the phenomenon the hunkers reported experiences that would become common in later claims of
00:30:48
poltergeist activity including an instance where a parent and orange quote flew across the room where Ronald was
00:30:54
standing eat your fruit eat your fruit he said have a smoothie food and beverages were knocked from tables and
00:31:00
counters other objects seemed to fly off the shelves and even a bobble was hurled
00:31:04
from a shelf and fell right at Ronald's feet read the Bible Read It and Weep not
00:31:11
willing to rule out the possibility that her son was possessed of course Odell reached out to Reverend Luther Schultz
00:31:17
the minister and the family at the family's Lutheran Church she detailed what had been happening in the home and
00:31:22
explained that she was very worried that Ronald was quote the victim of an evil ghost and wondered if it could be on
00:31:28
Tilly an evil ghost I'm like that's not fair just because you don't like your sister-in-law doesn't make her evil no
00:31:33
and it I don't know evil ghosts don't feel real like a thing yeah no it's either a demon or ghost yeah or just a
00:31:42
regular ghost it's a ghost yeah agreed well in order to help guide the family Reverend sches determined he needed to
00:31:48
see the phenomenon for himself and so he arranged for Ronald to spend the night at his home don't love that Ronald
00:31:55
arrived at the parsonage a little after 9:30 : p.m. uh excuse me a little before
00:31:59
9:30 p.m. on the evening of February 17th and he stayed until a little after 9:00 a.m. the next morning according to
00:32:06
the Reverend that evening he heard scratching noises at various points throughout the night and witnessed uh
00:32:12
quote bed vibrations a chair in which uh Roland Ronald Roland Ronald sat tipping
00:32:19
over and the movement the movement of a pallet of blank it's the Rolland Ronald that's
00:32:25
[ __ ] up and the movement of a pallet of blankets upon which Roland sat a pallet of blankets is he like princess
00:32:32
in the pee yes put him on a bunch of blankets yes obviously sitting there and it moved
00:32:40
demonic the devil oh all right he's just staying at your house while that all happens yeah I don't like that well a
00:32:46
little over a week after Ronald spent the night at the reverend's home the phenomenon in the hunkler house
00:32:51
escalated and became more physical beginning on the night of February 26th and occurring four nights in a row he
00:32:57
complained to his parents that something had attacked him in the night and showed
00:33:00
them scratch marks all over his body that seemed to have been made by claws dang like the noises and the other
00:33:07
various phenomena father Bishop's diary indicates that the only other person to have seen the marks on Ronald's body at
00:33:13
the time were his mother okay but like they're there yeah so for more than a month the hunkler family had been
00:33:19
experiencing this crazy [ __ ] in their home you know it wasn't exactly dangerous but it was disruptive
00:33:25
especially for 13-year-old Ronald at time damn who you know was the focus of the activity that's very
00:33:32
um unfortun pues so it's very puberty s but there are studies that that happens I know
00:33:40
we've seen it different cases remember that one that we did a couple months ago that was the teen one that made me think
00:33:46
of then that one was like [ __ ] crazy like I I believe that one puber is wow puberty for so many reasons but it is
00:33:55
interesting that Poltergeist activity can kind of you know M kick to that well and you know it's causing a lot of
00:34:01
issues for him he got kicked out of school it removed a lot of I mean he didn't have like a lot of social support
00:34:07
but what social support he did have at school was now gone yeah outside of the home but fortunately Odell hunkler did
00:34:13
get the assistance that she was hoping for from the church but that assistance added even more people to the story
00:34:20
whose version of events would further complicate and already convoluted story making it even more difficult to tell
00:34:26
fact from fiction let's go which to some people is like wamp wamp to me that's like awesome no add more [ __ ] to this
00:34:33
give me more give me more crazy [ __ ] so the events that comprised the first month of Ronald's Supernatural
00:34:39
experience were based a lot on Odell and Ronald's reports to Father Bishop with some additional statements from one or
00:34:45
two other Witnesses they were pretty benign to a point until the introduction of those claw marks on Ronald's body
00:34:52
that obviously indicated that the problem was getting a lot worse and for Odell who had previously been un sure
00:34:58
about the origin of her son's problem it was now very clear that he was the victim of an evil entity an evil demon
00:35:05
an evil onion taken a back now in late February Odell consulted with Father Albert Hughes the priest at St James
00:35:13
Catholic Church in nearby mount rer a different priest now so father Albert Hughes explained that he knew very
00:35:20
little about demonic possession and even less about exorcism but he suggested that the family used blessed candles
00:35:26
holy water and prayer to bless the home that sounds nice it does I don't know why I went Southern but I just want to
00:35:33
you have to with this kind of stuff you just do in the days that followed Odell did as Hugh suggested she sprinkled holy
00:35:38
water around the house she prayed constantly but very little seemed to change at one point she actually even
00:35:44
tried to baptize Ronald placing candles around his bed and saying prayers and according to the diary account the
00:35:50
flames on the candles around the bed quote All Began moving back and forth in unison and Ronald he responded with rage
00:35:57
oh that's upsetting because when you first said that all I can think of was the Flames just being
00:36:01
like all just dancing together and Abracadabra still play it's always AB but then Roland is Roland Ronald is like
00:36:11
he's pissed that's that's upsetting that actually hurt I'm going to take a sip my
00:36:16
kids actually love the new Lady Gaga song as they should yeah all of them love it I love that for them now father
00:36:22
Bishop's diary indicates that this Behavior resulted in uh Ronald actually being admitted for three day stay at
00:36:28
University Hospital though there aren't really additional details about that hospitalization or the outcome they said
00:36:35
you got ghosts in your blood but like that's him like whatever he did like in response to being baptized landed him a
00:36:43
three-day Hospital stun sounds intense super duper sounds like it was more than just being like ra yes yeah but that's
00:36:51
all I thought that I could do I don't want to reenact anything and end up in the hospital myself and we've got you
00:36:56
know we've got flames in here yeah lighting [ __ ] up fire I have a job to do yeah so after Ronald's discharge from
00:37:04
the hospital the family took a trip to visit relatives in Missouri where according to Bishop other members of the
00:37:09
family also witnessed the markings on Ronald's skin it's here that father Raymond Bishop becomes involved for the
00:37:15
first time really he was a member of the clergy at St Louis University St Louis St Louis and the director of the
00:37:23
school's Department of Education in later years most of the information that informed both the legends about Ronald's
00:37:28
story and actually the story of The Exorcist would come from this man's diary I love that it's awesome something
00:37:35
about that is so spooky and cool it's like heavy metal yeah it really is like I did a rock on she did she was like
00:37:41
heavy metal heavy metal just all of you not regular metal no heavy that's why I the heavy variety that's why I like
00:37:48
really thrust my hands when I did it cuz if I if it was just metal I'd be like metal like just a
00:37:54
little but it's heavy metal metal so you have to thrust your hand thank you now anyways according to Thomas Allen one of
00:38:01
Roland's Ronald's extended family members referred to as Elizabeth was a student at St Louis University and after
00:38:08
becoming concerned about Ronald's condition she approached Raymond Bishop for advice like Albert Hughes the other
00:38:15
father and virtually all clergy at the time Bishop knew very little about possession or the right of exorcism
00:38:22
himself but he still agreed to meet with the family to see what he could do to help he lives to serve yeah I mean go
00:38:28
read up on exorcisms that's pretty much what he did that's what you can do he acknowledged that before he gave the
00:38:33
family his thoughts on the situation he needed time to quote think about what possession was and how it could be
00:38:37
proved I love that he's kind of like approaching it scientifically he is cuz he's like I need to think on this I got
00:38:43
to let me give me some time to think let me just quickly come up with a definition of possession first and then
00:38:48
I will discover how to fix it I'll work on it I like that so father Bishop met with the hungler family for the first
00:38:53
time on March 9th where he claimed to have witnessed the scratching on Ronald's body body and actually saw the
00:38:58
boy's mattress move at the time he kept his suspicions of any danger to himself but later he would admit that he quote
00:39:05
had sensed from the beginning that Robbie was threatened with possession he's like I wasn't going to tell these
00:39:10
people but but I thought [ __ ] was going to go down he said I had an inkling I wasn't going to give them a heads up but
00:39:17
what am I to do yeah so at the time he told the hunkers that he needed to consult with some other Jesuit priests
00:39:22
and that he would get back to them ASAP yeah hopefully Robbie doesn't get like super duper POS possed in the meantime
00:39:28
yeah you just kind of cuz right now it's just like a little threat of it like it
00:39:31
was like on the precipice of possession yeah you know it wasn't quite there possession is in the air yes you know
00:39:37
yes I feel like that might be like a good name for a movie possession in the air yeah I like it I like that maybe a
00:39:42
band name we'll we'll Workshop we're possession in the air I kind of like that yeah hello Wisconsin so it's not
00:39:48
completely clear who Bishop spoke with and what he told them at all um you know unclear things but as Mark up sasik
00:39:57
points out this vagueness and ambiguity would become one of the Hallmarks of Father Bishop's reporting which is a
00:40:03
little problematic when you consider the fact that the bulk of the information about the exorcism did come from his
00:40:07
reports yeah problematic and fun pretty awesome abasic wrote Bishop does not always make it clear who actually
00:40:15
witnessed the events being described he often fails to mention when the priests are in the room when they're absent and
00:40:21
when the information comes secondhand from the boy's mother the possibility of fraudulent activity is neither
00:40:26
considered nor investigated what he needed was a good editor you know just an Editor to be like you're
00:40:32
not really giving us enough uh texture in these descriptions can you can you kind of like who else is in the room
00:40:38
that's the thing it's like like when they go back on Bravo shows and they like the editors give you the time
00:40:43
stamps of the events that happened important he needed something like that so regardless of how things played out
00:40:48
behind the scenes though two days later on March 11th Bishop father Bishop returned to the family this time in the
00:40:54
company of another key witness in this story father Willi in bowar so many fathers lots of fathers daddies
00:41:00
everywhere yeah around that's inappropriate to say s horrifying leave it in F around 11:00
00:41:07
p.m. at night Ronald went to bed at 11 p.m. at night I don't know I'm just feel silly 11:00 p.m. at night at night
00:41:15
that's actually one of my biggest book I even know shocked you said maybe I'm almost possessed maybe around 11:00 p.m.
00:41:23
in the evening Ronald went to bed at which point the three men gathered around his bedside and B I hate it you
00:41:30
know they had to wait until he was sleeping B read the naena which is the Catholic devotional prayer it also could
00:41:37
be the Novena I didn't look it up and reportedly blessed the boy with a quote piece of bone from the forearm of St
00:41:43
Francis Xavier and fixed A Relic en crusted crucifix under the boy's pillow before leaving the room this is the most
00:41:50
metal [ __ ] I've ever heard why do you have a bone from the forearm of St Francis Xavier
00:41:57
Boop just like Boop him with the boat did he say that that's okay for you to have I don't know about that he's not
00:42:05
here to say that's what they just assum they're Assuming he's fine with it they say about assuming you know what though
00:42:12
so far he hasn't made a fuss so they're not maybe this is his fuss maybe this right here is his fuss
00:42:19
this is how he fusses the fact that they just Bess they quote unquote blessed him
00:42:23
with a piece of bone from the forearm of Mr St Francis Xavier I don't know and put a relic encrusted
00:42:31
crucifix under his pillow yeah you can't [ __ ] make this up no you literally can't real like you can't make that up
00:42:41
well a short time later while the priests were sitting in the living room with the family they heard a loud crash
00:42:47
come from Ronald's room Ronald Roland's room and ran in to see what happened in the bedroom they found that a large
00:42:52
bookcase had slid across the room a bench had been flipped over and the crucifix that father B had put under the
00:42:59
pillow appeared to be moved to the edge of the bed oh B also claimed that he witnessed the bed shaking when they
00:43:06
entered the room and it only came to a stop when Odell shouted Aunt Tilly stop Here's my thought though I think there's
00:43:13
two things at play here I think there's a Damon who's trying who's like pushing over bookshelves and [ __ ] and trying to
00:43:19
pull that Relic out I think on until he shaking the bed to wake him up to help like get out of the room maybe so that
00:43:26
that's my view of this I think Aunt Tilly is trying to let him know that shit's a foot I like to believe that
00:43:31
Aunt Tilly just passed on yeah if that's a if they're shaking the bed and she yells on till he stop and the bed
00:43:37
shaking stops then that she was trying to wake him up I agree she was the one doing it I like it yeah well the scene
00:43:43
witnessed in Ronald's bedroom that night was enough to convince the priest that something had in fact possessed the boy
00:43:49
after a few nights spent weighing their options the two men took their concerns to Archbishop Joseph Ritter and not to
00:43:55
be confused with John Ritter no this is Joseph Ritter the I know rip and on March 16th B was given permission to
00:44:03
perform the right of exorcism he got permission from the arch dasis which usually doesn't happen Arch dasis is
00:44:10
pretty stingy with their permission giving they don't just hand it out interesting that they don't just hand it
00:44:15
out but they gave it to a man who like wasn't super familiar with exorcisms yeah they were like you'll figure it out
00:44:20
they were confident in his abilities yeah he I mean he said he was coming up with a definition so and it seems as
00:44:25
though he did that night bishop and Bower returned to the house this time in the company of Bow's assistant father
00:44:31
Walter hollerin who becomes a bigger player later on and started what would ultimately be an almost month-long
00:44:38
process of attempting to exercise whatever evil entity had possessed Ronald hungler now if you've ever seen
00:44:44
an exorcism yeah picture that happening for a month no that's insane I don't have
00:44:52
the stamina a lot of times they last like a couple hours or like a couple days and even that is horrifying
00:44:57
a month a month almost a month yeah uh for reasons that remain unclear throughout the process Ronald would be
00:45:04
moved back and forth multiple times between his aunt's home in a local rectory and um a lexian Brother's
00:45:10
Hospital in St Louis huh so he was like hospitalized during this now after introducing the family to Father holl
00:45:18
howerin father Bodin wasted no time getting to work you cannot waste time when you're exercising no it's time yeah
00:45:23
on the treadmill or in a religious way yeah so in Ronald bedroom bow started talking with Ronald Roland to quote
00:45:30
examine his conscious and make an act of contrition before starting the right then joined by the two other priests and
00:45:36
several family members the group gathered around Ronald's bed and started praying according to Father uh as they
00:45:42
prayed the mattress began to lift slightly off the bed and then lower back down but he insisted that the family
00:45:48
ignore the theatrics and continue praying ain't no way I could ignore those theatri I could not pray through
00:45:53
that no way no for hours the three priests recite the right in Latin while the family continued their prayer and
00:46:00
finally the first cycle of the right had ended and father Baler concluded by shouting precipio Tibi which is I
00:46:07
command thee love it I don't know if I said it really well but I did my best priest yelling in Latin is one of the
00:46:13
scariest things ever yeah I don't even like like you really shouldn't read the Latin I should not read the Latin you
00:46:19
see what I did there I set that up but when he yelled that Ronald screamed in what sounded like terrible pain oh no
00:46:27
and his father bow was concerned as far as he was concerned Ronald's scream was evidence that he was indeed possessed
00:46:32
and that the right was actually working hell yeah so the priest continued aggressively reciting that right of
00:46:37
exorcism as Ronald just wed around uncomfortably on the bed yeah in his wild thrashing he quickly kicked the
00:46:44
blankets away uncovering his body and with his pajama top unbuttoned the participants in the room watched as
00:46:50
three red long welts appeared on his chest as if something was attempting to cut its way out of him from the inside
00:46:58
damn yeah later father Bishop would describe the welts as quote marks raised up above the surface of the skin similar
00:47:05
to an engraving ooh and father B he paid no attention to the welts he just carried on with his right oh yeah as
00:47:12
more and more welts started appearing on Ronald's body the more they recited the
00:47:16
more Ronald appeared to be in like immense pain and soon the welts and scratches started producing faint lines
00:47:21
of blood all over Ronald's legs his stomach and his back holy [ __ ] yeah the the longer the ritual dragged on the
00:47:28
more and more pain Ronald seemed to experience at one point one of the relatives in the room claimed that they
00:47:33
saw the image of the devil the devil the Devil Himself appear on Ronald's thigh they saw it in his journal Bishop
00:47:43
wrote The Arms were held above his head and seemed to be webbed giving the Hideous appearance of a
00:47:48
bat okay at other times in the evening bats are awesome he's not saying they're not the Hideous appearance well he
00:47:55
actually is it is rude you should think about his words yeah at other times in the evening though participants reported
00:48:01
seeing words appear in the scratches on Ronald's body people saw the words hell go and a large x on his thigh okay and
00:48:11
that was before the days of Twitter turning to X so I don't know what that meant exactly now after hours of the
00:48:17
Latin ritual the group finally broke for the night cuz everybody was really tired
00:48:21
yeah and Ronald appeared to fall into a deep sleep but through the night while still conscious he would periodically
00:48:26
slam his fists into the headboard above him or into his pillow and the next morning when father bodar asked what he
00:48:33
was dreaming about Ronald said he had been fighting a huge Red Devil it felt slimy and was extremely powerful and
00:48:40
Dave said that sounds like puberty he said how else would you describe puberty if not slimy and
00:48:46
extremely powerful and I said Dave that's a great Point you're right I said I don't have
00:48:52
an argument for you sir in the days and weeks that followed both the exorcism and Ronald's Behavior grew more and more
00:48:59
aggressive and offensive o in one diary entry father bowder reports from 12 midnight on it was necessary to hold R
00:49:06
during his fights with the spirit two men were necessary to pin him down on the bed R shouted threats of violence at
00:49:13
them but vulgar language was not used oh that's good AR spit at his opponents many times he used a strong arm whenever
00:49:19
he could free himself and his blows were beyond the ordinary strength of a boy so
00:49:24
he I like I they were like he was violent but he was never vulgar he was never vulgar it's important to know it's
00:49:30
important to not but he was also swole he was packing a punch swoll Beyond his ears yeah exactly now at
00:49:38
times Ronald would also speak in a quote diabolical high pitched voice which like
00:49:44
love it what is a diabolical high pitched voice can you try it can you please try it so like we're talking like
00:49:49
a demon high voice diabolical high pitched it's got to be like do it I'm trying to like think about she's getting
00:49:56
ready she cuz you have to like get in a snarly way I think it's got to be like that kind of
00:50:03
I don't like it you got to like show teeth when you do ite doesn't like it either Mikey shook his head I mean it's
00:50:09
diabolical I'm just picturing like I'll get you my pretty that's diabolical and high
00:50:15
pitched yeah you know thanks I don't know we weren't there we weren't there and unfortunately they don't have voice
00:50:24
notes from back then they unfortunately he also was said to be swinging his fists at the priests and other adults in
00:50:30
the room he also supposedly broke father hen's nose [ __ ] I know and then at other
00:50:35
times he would sit up normally in bed and just sing sweetly oh that's nice said sit up and just go
00:50:45
afri oh that's great he would also sad cry off and on oh but then immediately his attitude would change and he'd start
00:50:53
swearing he did eventually start swearing and being vulgar and he would also make masturbation gestures in order
00:50:58
to embarrass the other people in the room keep it together that's diabolical it truly is other times he would spout
00:51:06
Latin words and phrases to the surprise of his parents who swore that Ronald did
00:51:10
not know Latin and had never been exposed to that language before if I know one thing about my kid it's that he
00:51:14
doesn't know Latin that's the thing at times though he was said to be more lucid and appeared to be on the men so
00:51:21
his parents started wondering maybe if it was time to return to Maryland and send him back to school yeah that sounds
00:51:27
like a great idea cuz no but there were like little like weekl long periods where he would be completely fine yeah
00:51:32
so they'd be like all right like I guess we 13 we got to give you to school you got to learn and [ __ ] this will just be
00:51:38
a silly time we think about later where you were possessed for a little while honestly what's funny is like that's
00:51:44
ultimately what ends up happening this man lives a long life funny story that we look back on but unfortunately and
00:51:51
this is so crazy as soon as Ronald caught on to their conversations he would become possessed again wow in one
00:51:58
instance when the subject of his returning to school came up he started thrashing around on the bed and tore
00:52:02
open his pajama top and it revealed that the words no school were scratched on his
00:52:08
chest this demon does not [ __ ] with the the heavy learning he said schools out
00:52:17
for I wish it said that instead that song wasn't a thing yet I don't think no so as the days wore on
00:52:24
Ronald became more abusive to anyone and everyone who entered the room he would swear at them he would attempt and
00:52:30
sometimes succeed to make himself vomit oh that would piss me off he would piss on himself and otherwise be assaultive
00:52:37
yeah in one instance he managed to break one of the bed springs from the mattress
00:52:42
and jam it into father bow Bow's arm oh uh drawing blood obviously another time when the family traveled back to Cottage
00:52:50
City for a visit accompanied by father bow Ronald became physically violent on the train he was said to have punched
00:52:56
bow in the testicles and screamed that's a nutcracker for you isn't it which is lowkey just teenage boy
00:53:11
[ __ ] that is L I'm like babe he wasn't possessed that's just a 13-year-old boy
00:53:18
he just doesn't have another 13-year-old boy to do it to so he does it to the priest that's
00:53:24
been sitting by his bed every night thinking of him punching a priest in the p and saying that's a nutcracker for you
00:53:35
isn't it is love isn't it I love I love that part of it that's a nutcracker for you isn't
00:53:47
it father can you confirm that's a nutcracker father can you confirm that I just
00:53:54
cracked your nuts D's Nuts it is literally if this kid had friends if he hadn't been pulled out of
00:54:07
school and all that [ __ ] oh he was Nutcracker in people when he was cracking everybody he's 13 years old and
00:54:13
he'd be doing it and being like that's a nutcracker for you huh and then they was
00:54:16
doing that that's why he got kicked out of scho but instead he's got like an older priest that HS out all the time
00:54:22
that's his friend he's like of course that's what we do oh isn't it so funny oh damn imagine being on that train I
00:54:30
would I would have taken on my phone my little bit 1943 wouldn't have stopped me just getting that for Tik
00:54:43
Tok well for some reason after all that craziness on April 4th the hungers decided it was time to go back to
00:54:50
Maryland so that Edwin could go to work and Ronald Roland could go back to school and nut crack or someone else
00:54:57
then after 5 days in Maryland Ronald started acting out again so he got sent back to Missouri and admitted to a
00:55:03
hospital where he was observed for psychiatric symptoms feeling like they'd left too soon Edwin and and Odell also
00:55:09
returned to Missouri to support their son those are good parents right there yeah the exorcism finally came to an end
00:55:16
on the evening of April 18th the priest had spent most of the afternoon and evening reciting the right of exorcism
00:55:22
over the boy who now was draped in several religious medals and holding a crucifix in his hand my God God it's it
00:55:30
creates imery yeah it constructs a visual yeah throughout the day his demeanor had swung back and forth from
00:55:36
calm and pleasant to mean and violent but by the evening he did seem to have calmed down and his father B recited the
00:55:43
Latin phrases over the bed demanding to know the identity of the demon that possessed the boy Ronald Roland's
00:55:49
demeanor changed again and he started thrashing about the bed claiming he was a fallen angel oh like the devil like
00:55:56
like Lucifer Morning Star yeah finally around 11: p.m. a quote new masculine voice emerged from Ronald who said Satan
00:56:04
Satan I am St Michael I command you Satan and the other evil spirits to leave this body in the name of Dominus
00:56:11
immediately now now now that's my best masculine voice like is literally like his beat
00:56:25
rest than sh broke [Applause] me Satan sat in the name of Dominus immediately immediately all junior girls report to
00:56:44
the gymnasium immedi immediately oh my God I haven't laughed this hard in years oh [ __ ] I love a paranormal story D
00:56:56
they're so good they're so fun well after that male voice emerged that was a clip by the way oh man it was it was
00:57:02
audio they got it from 1940 whatever uh like 19 yeah whatever that was funny after that Ronald Roland's body spasmed
00:57:11
one final time he fell backward on the bed and then in his normal 13-year-old voice he said he is
00:57:18
gone he said peed out y'all y'all he left he said Peace up hey town so later the ultimate Irish
00:57:32
goodai he didn't feel like staying any longer he didn't say bye but he just left so later Ronald would tell father
00:57:41
bod in that final moment of possession he had a vision of St Michael holding a flaming
00:57:47
sword Heavy Metal the hunkler family stayed in Missouri with the family for 12 more days just to be sure that Satan
00:57:55
was actually gone before finally returning home to Maryland during this time father checked
00:58:00
in with them regularly but as far as anybody could tell the possessing demon had left Ronald's body for good for him
00:58:07
by all accounts the phenomenon never occurred again once the hunkers went back to Cottage uh City Ronald was
00:58:12
enrolled at gorgonzilla high school and he went on to college where he studied chemical engineering and went on to work
00:58:19
as a scientist for NASA okay Ronald period okay the [ __ ] ucker who inspired the story
00:58:28
of The Exorcist became a scientist for NASA that blew my mind that's the funnest fact that is the funnest fact
00:58:36
the funnest of all facts the funnest fact thank you for agreeing that's really cool in a letter dated August
00:58:42
19th 1951 father Bishop wrote of his visit to the hunkler's house he said R now 16 is a fine young man his father
00:58:49
and mother also became Catholic having received their First Holy Communion on Christmas Day 1950 damn praise be I mean
00:58:57
I guess if anything's going to turn you Catholic it's an exorcism possession yeah well the diary of the account
00:59:04
written by father Bishop like I said became something of a legend at Georgetown University though few have
00:59:09
actually seen it I see it well few have so good luck yeah no one seems to be able to settle on how long the document
00:59:15
actually is some people say it's 16 pages and others say 26 okay but presumably this is how it came to the
00:59:21
attention of the Washington Post and other Washington area papers in late 1949 where it gained some brief traction
00:59:27
before mostly Fading Into Obscurity since none of the reporters seem to be able to track down any of the
00:59:32
participants to verify any kind of story other sources alleged that father Luther
00:59:37
miles the family's local priest was the source to leak to the press and that's when the story like really came
00:59:43
out while some of the press reports minimized the supposed demonic possession which is [ __ ] lame others
00:59:48
chose to play it up or just tell it as it was for all it was worth citing the various ungodly messages that appeared
00:59:54
on Ronald's body like no school like no school that's ungodly and the various examples of unknown telekinetic Force
01:00:01
like when the picture of Jesus Christ Jesus Christ was booty bumped off the wall exactly yeah if it wasn't for
01:00:07
William Peter Batty's 1971 novel in the movie that followed two years later it's
01:00:12
pretty likely that nobody actually would have ever heard of Roland do or Ronald hunkler it's true but the timing was
01:00:18
just right Americans were taking a particular interest in the occult at the time so the story was thrust back into
01:00:23
the spotlight and it kind of took on a life of itself now it's important to be clear that even
01:00:29
bat's novel was heavily influenced by Ronald's story even though it was it's actually just one of several influential
01:00:36
stories and events that also included the Lun possessions and The louvier Possession both were 17th century witch
01:00:43
trials that I think you would probably be pretty interested in covering so write that down beond I'm writing it
01:00:49
down right now and there were different archaeolog archaeological excavations that occurred throughout the early to
01:00:55
mid 19th centur across Africa in the Middle East that also inspired his story so with so many different versions of
01:01:01
the story floating around in the cultural Zeitgeist the question remains what exactly did happen to Ronald
01:01:06
hunkler in 1949 was he possessed by a demonic presence or was there something even more complicated going on who knows
01:01:15
now at this point it's probably impossible to say with certainty what exactly happened to Ronald but if there
01:01:21
was an authority on the subject it would probably be investigative journalist marsnik more than just the individual
01:01:27
responsible for discovering Roland Do's real identity he also devoted a ton of time to the story he conducted
01:01:33
interviews with more than a hundred people who actually knew the hungler family personally and the other figures
01:01:39
in the story all in an attempt to verify the details of what has become one of America's most iconic scary stories in
01:01:46
his interviews with Ronald's childhood friends and peers revealed that far from being an ordinary Shy Boy Ronald hunkler
01:01:52
was a very lonely somewhat troubled kid who was struggling yeah his father never
01:01:58
actually believed that his son was possessed reportedly was emotionally unavailable so he really comes up in the
01:02:03
story at all and the women in his life on the other hand were hugely influential almost to his detriment
01:02:09
especially like his mom I think using their love of spiritualism as maybe the only means of bonding with him and when
01:02:16
it came to Children his own age it seems like his behavior and you know flaws kept them at an arms length yeah but OBS
01:02:23
hasnic didn't just speak to Ronald's friends and family also tracked down anybody who was directly involved with
01:02:28
the case or familiar enough with those who were and of the three priests at the center of the exorcism Story Only father
01:02:35
uh howerin was alive when OBS hasnic began his investigation at the time howerin actually reluctantly agreed to
01:02:43
an interview but he ended up revealing a lot about the case and its Legacy oh damn when asked whether or not he would
01:02:49
go on record as saying he believed that Ronald was truly possessed he declined oh he said no I can't can't go on record
01:02:56
I never made an absolute statement about these things because I didn't feel I was
01:02:59
qualified I hadn't studied the phenomena and that sort of thing huh according to
01:03:04
him Ronald never spoke in a voice other than his own oh he never demonstrated Supernatural strength or abilities oh
01:03:12
and when asked about Ronald's supposed extraordinary strength howerin said I don't know I never even thought very
01:03:18
much about it it certainly wasn't Mike Tyson hitting me in the nose or something like
01:03:22
that and as for Ronald speaking Latin language that he supposedly didn't know and had only occasionally heard father
01:03:29
clarified I think he mimicked us oh so he's a nonbeliever okay you know I mean all valid all valid but the rest of his
01:03:38
interview with Father H howerin unfolded in a similar thread he recall Ronald spitting and swearing a lot he didn't
01:03:44
have any recollection of Ronald's vomiting or urinating oh and as far as the multiple reports of the bed moving
01:03:50
he acknowledged that they did but he said it was on rollers like any bed at the time so there was really no way of
01:03:56
knowing if it was moving like how it was from him moving or if it was okay yeah OBS asik's investigation obviously
01:04:02
provides a lot of clarifying information around what did and didn't happen during
01:04:06
The Exorcism of Ronald hunkler but it also provides some insight as to why there are so many gaps in the story and
01:04:13
how it managed to get out to the public yeah for sure and when it comes to the earlier part of the story where Bishop
01:04:18
claims to have been involved with the family in Ronald's hospitalization as well as his own attempted exorcism OBS
01:04:24
hasnic was unable to to find any information on Bishop's claims so we don't know his Research indicates that
01:04:30
Bishop didn't get involved until March and that the vast majority of the information he collected was from
01:04:36
secondhand sources okay abasik pointed out no mention is made whatsoever of the alleged first exorcism attempted by
01:04:42
father Hughes at Georgetown University hospital and nothing is written of the boy's father's feelings or level of
01:04:48
involvement or the possible presence of psychosomatic illness within the boy interesting very interesting if markup
01:04:55
snik and other Skeptics are correct and Ronald hunkler was never really possessed then what actually did happen
01:05:01
obaz says personally I do not believe Robo was possessed and instead he's come to his own conclusion based on
01:05:08
everything he learned about the case and the people involved he said there's simply too much evidence that indicates
01:05:14
that as a boy he had serious emotional problems stemming from his home life there's not one shred of Hard Evidence
01:05:19
to support the notion of demonic possession the facts show that he was a spoiled and Disturbed only child with a
01:05:24
very overprotected mother and a non-responsive father to me his behavior was indicative of an outcast youth who
01:05:30
desperately wanted out of uh Bladensburg Junior High School at any cost he wanted
01:05:35
attention and he wanted to leave the area and go to St Louis throwing Tantrums was the answer he began to play
01:05:41
his concocted game for his efforts he got a collection of priests who had no previous exorcism experience who doed
01:05:47
over him as he lay strapped to a bed his response was that of any normal child he
01:05:51
reacted with rage he wanted out without delving into the dyn dynamic of psychosomatic illness there's no
01:05:57
question there was something wrong with Rob do prior to January 1949 something that modern era Psychiatry might have
01:06:04
best addressed Rob do was not just another normal teenage boy my favorite part of that is that he got a collection
01:06:10
of priests as his PR like as his he said he was upset and he got a collection of
01:06:17
collection of priests yeah like that's just the most horrifying thing I can imagine that's not the prize that I
01:06:23
personally want like you oh you want to play this game here's a collection of priests that's going to sit by your bed
01:06:29
at night do you feel as though you won did you win did you win Ronald that's a that's a real lose lose it is well
01:06:35
whether he was possessed or not Ronald hunkler's 1949 claims of possession did help to fuel America's imaginations and
01:06:42
of course America's interest in the Supernatural and of course as one of the primary influences on The Exorcist his
01:06:48
story is everywhere it's like part of American Supernatural lore and while we may never know if it was real or not it
01:06:56
seems at this point really doesn't matter no it really doesn't it's a fun [ __ ] story the story is [ __ ] a
01:07:01
blast all the way through I think it's great yeah I like that story I love that story and I love that he became a NASA
01:07:07
scientist so like he got it worked out all and he came out the other end personally good for him I think he was
01:07:14
possessed I think you know let's go girls yeah and I think I my story is that he was possessed and until he
01:07:20
helped him out that's I like that thank you thank you Jesus Christ Jesus Jesus Christ um so yeah if you want to keep
01:07:31
listening we hope you do we hope you keep listening we hope you keep it weird but not so weird as getting a prize of
01:07:43
three priests of a colle un you want that a collection of priests you can have it if you want it if you want it
01:07:50
keep it that if you want that you get it and that if you don't you don't you don't
01:07:58
bye bye [Music] [Music]