Ronald Hunkeler: The Boy Who Inspired The Exorcist.

On May 10, 2020, a former NASA engineer named Ronald Hunkeler died from a stroke a month before his 86th birthday. After his passing, he was mainly remembered for his contributions to space explorations, including work on the Apollo space missions and even a patent on a technology that helped panels withstand extreme heat.


Then, about a year later, a magazine exposé revealed the bizarre, sinister, and unique experience that Hunkeler endured when he was a boy, one which he kept private during his adult life. In his youth, Hunkeler was better known under the pseudonym Roland Doe, a 14-year-old boy who was believed to be possessed by the devil and underwent several exorcisms.

His case, although it did not make any major national waves, still got mentioned in a few newspapers, including one small piece in the Washington Post which was seen by a student attending Georgetown University by the name of William Peter Blatty. For whatever reason, the story stuck with Blatty, and, two decades later, it inspired him to write a horror novel which then got turned into a movie that changed cinema forever - The Exorcist.

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Further Reading:
Thomas B. Allen - Possessed: The True Story of an Exorcism

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/20/the-exorci…

nationalpost.com/news/world/inspiration-for-the-mo…

skepticalinquirer.org/2021/10/demoniac-who-is-rola…

www.strangemag.com/exorcistpage1.html

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movie…

www.slu.edu/news/legends-and-lore/st-louis-exorcis…