(CBN News) “The Exorcist” book and movie have captivated — and terrified — audiences for decades, but what some might not realize is that the spine-chilling literary and Hollywood plot lines were purportedly based on a true story.
As I covered in my book, “Playing With Fire: A Modern Investigation Into Demons, Exorcism and Ghosts,” author William Peter Blatty, who wrote “The Exorcist” novel on which the 1973 film was based, predicated the text on the life of a teenager who has been referenced over the years by pseudonyms “Roland Doe” and “Robbie Mannheim.”
The real identity of this boy, who underwent a dramatic series of exorcisms in the 1940s in Cottage City, Maryland, and St Louis, Missouri, has always been kept secret – until now.