Episode Details

Ronald Hunkeler: The Boy Who Inspired The Exorcist.

25 May 2024

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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. → Subscribe for new videos at least twice a week! https://www.youtube.com/c/biographics?sub_confirmation=1 Love content? Check out our other YouTube Channels: Geographics: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHKRfxkMTqiiv4pF99qGKIw TopTenz: https://www.youtube.com/user/toptenznet Eric's Stuff: Storyrant: https://www.youtube.com/@UC6Sk2h2WsYMxnGERAH_FbGg OEI Analog Horror Experiment: https://www.youtube.com/@UCsz5l0hY67TGoJR0CZiWVnA Free Scifi-Horror Ebook: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/1cw07o2uyb Link Tree to Other Books and Socials: https://linktr.ee/EricMalikyte Karl's Socials: Fact Fiend: https://www.youtube.com/@FactFiend Wiki Weekends: https://www.youtube.com/@wikiweekends Untitled Side Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@untitledsidechannel Twitter: https://twitter.com/KarlSmallwood Further Reading: Thomas B. Allen - Possessed: The True Story of an Exorcism https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/20/the-exorcist-boy-named-magazine https://nationalpost.com/news/world/inspiration-for-the-movie-the-exorcist-has-been-identified-as-former-nasa-engineer https://skepticalinquirer.org/2021/10/demoniac-who-is-roland-doe-the-boy-who-inspired-the-exorcist/ http://www.strangemag.com/exorcistpage1.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/features/dcmovies/exorcism1949.htm https://www.slu.edu/news/legends-and-lore/st-louis-exorcism.php/index.php

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