HALLOWEEN SPECIAL Episode 90: The Possession of "Roland Doe," the boy who inspired “The Exorcist”

Sitting in the Bel-Nor neighborhood of St.Louis, Missouri is a house with a dark history. Its brick exterior and white shutters makes it just as average and innocuous as the homes that surround it, but this was once the home of Roland Doe - the boy who would go on to inspire William Peter Blatty’s 1971 novel “The Exorcist,”and subsequently William Friedkin’s film of the same name.

At this point, we have all witnessed exorcisms taking place. Fictional ones, of course, but nonetheless, horror fans, and those poor souls that we have dragged to the movies with us, have all witnessed a young priest and an old priest, reciting the Rites of Exorcism over a writhing, spitting, tormented man, woman, or child. We’re scared but we know it's not real. We know they are playing characters in a movie. But how would you react if you were watching a real person go through it all? Well in April of 1991, ABC viewers were faced with that very question when “20/20” aired the live exorcism of a teenager known only as “Gina.”

The thought of a minister or a reverend or a nun becoming possessed feels wrong on so many levels, but demons get brownie points for possessing and inhabiting the bodies and souls of those who have given themselves fully to God. However, the overtly religious are taught that evil can wear many faces. If you’re expecting evil to be lurking in every dark corner, anything can seem like a sign from the Devil. And that’s where the lines start to blur - that’s where the waters get murky with paranoia. And that's where Sister Maricica Irina Cornici found herself trapped between paranoia and doctrine.

There is a line in Arthur Miller’s 1953 play The Crucible, that reads, “What victory would the Devil have to win a soul already bad? It is the best the Devil wants, and who is better than the minister?” When we think of demonic possession, we think of random, wrong-place-wrong-time, bad luck of the draw happenstance. We don't think of the religiously devout, but maybe Arthur Miller was right - what better trophy for a demon than one of God's favorites. Which leads us to our first episode to kick off our Halloween season, the case that inspired the 2005 film The Exorcism of Emily Rose, the Possession of Annaliese Michel.

Halloween is here! Well, for the chronically obsessed it’s BEEN here, but now it’s officially official. Listen to this exclusive trailer to learn more about our special Halloween episodes. The topic this year: infamous cases of demonic possession!

Listen to The Legend of La Llorona, narrated in Spanish by published poet, Sandra Cortes

To celebrate the start of National Hispanic Heritage Month, we are releasing a remastered version of Episode 3: La Llorona! The legend of La Llorona is one that every Hispanic and Latin child has heard before. Children are warned never to be alone at night because La Llorona will take them away, and the legend changes from person to person and region to region.

Hungry Ghost Day is the one day of the year where all of the ghosts and spirits that have been dwelling in the Lower Realm can leave the Underworld and walk amongst the living. But the ghosts that walk the earth during the Hungry Ghost Festival are not those of our beloved dead ancestors who just popped in to say hello, or to tell us that they miss us. No, these spirits have a much more anguished story to tell.

The United States boasts an abnormal amount of haunted lighthouses, none of which hold a candle to Cape Romain Lighthouse on Lighthouse Island, in McClellanville, South Carolina.Cape Romain Lighthouse has seen murder and insanity, as has the lighthouse keeper of our original ghost story. When Daniel Merriwether is instructed with the care of a haunted lighthouse, he must do anything he can to survive!

Lighthouses are strange things. By definition and functionality, they are symbols of good, symbols of light. And yet there is something about them that also projects loneliness, isolation, and fear. There is a reason why lighthouses were very rarely entrusted in the hands of one person alone, but sometimes, even with someone there with you, things could still go horribly wrong. And that is exactly what happened off the coast of Scotland one strange December day.Let’s dive into the Flannan Isle Lighthouse Mystery.