Hello, and welcome back to Reel Horror, where we discuss the real-world inspirations behind horror films. Today, we’ll be looking at the Roland Doe case, which inspired William Peter Blatty’s 1971 novel and subsequent film The Exorcist.

The Roland Doe case is one of the most-documented possession cases in American history. It entered the mind of the public in 1949, when several newspapers printed anonymous articles describing the possession and exorcism of a 14-year-old boy in Missouri, pseudonymously referred to as Roland Doe or Robbie Mannheim. It is widely believed that these articles were written by Luther Miles Schulze, the former pastor of Doe’s family. The case itself was documented in a diary by Raymond J. Bishop, a priest who was present at the exorcism. Much of the information now known comes from a book by Thomas B. Allen.