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The Exorcist: Demonic Possession, Mass Hysteria, and NYC’s Unsolved Murders · DISGRACELAND

0:00
Speaker 1: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. This is a
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Speaker 1: story about a movie. It's a movie we've all heard of,
0:20
Speaker 1: and most of us, i'm guessing, have seen The Exorcist.
0:25
Speaker 1: It's actually a story about a story connected to that movie.
0:29
Speaker 1: It's the story of possession, it's the story of murder,
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Speaker 1: a story about depravity and lies, and it's a story
0:38
Speaker 1: about evil, but it's also about loneliness and identity, about
0:44
Speaker 1: a film so impactful it caused people to faint and
0:48
Speaker 1: vomit when they first saw it. And yes, it's a
0:52
Speaker 1: story about a movie that contained a great score, great music.
0:58
Speaker 1: Unlike that music, I played a few top of the
1:00
Speaker 1: show that wasn't great music. That was a preset loop
1:05
Speaker 1: for my melotron called Diabolical Dance Time MK One. I
1:11
Speaker 1: played you that loop because I can't afford the rights
1:14
Speaker 1: to The Most Beautiful Girl by Charlie Rich. And why
1:18
Speaker 1: would I play you that specific slice of George Costanza
1:21
Speaker 1: singing cheese? Could I afford it? Because that was the
1:27
Speaker 1: number one song in America on December twenty sixth, nineteen
1:30
Speaker 1: seventy three, And that was the day The Exorcist opened
1:34
Speaker 1: in theaters, a film that sickened everyone from Catholics to
1:39
Speaker 1: Agnostics living in denial of the existence of true evil.
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Speaker 1: On this episode demonic possession, cold blood and murder, hauntings, curses,
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Speaker 1: sickened audiences, and the exorcist. I'm Jake Brennan, and this
1:57
Speaker 1: is disgraceland. Exorcism, the religious or spiritual practice in which
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Speaker 1: a demon or another evil entity is driven out of
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Speaker 1: the body of a possessed person is very real, or
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Speaker 1: so saith the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, who
2:45
Speaker 1: have an entire page on their website dedicated to the
2:48
Speaker 1: century's old custom. On this page is written quote, there
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Speaker 1: are instances when a person needs to be protected against
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Speaker 1: the power of the devil or to be withdrawn from
3:00
Speaker 1: his spiritual dominion. At such times, the Church asked publicly
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Speaker 1: and authoritatively in the name of Jesus Christ, for this
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Speaker 1: protection or liberation through the use of exorcism. Father Vincent P.
3:17
Speaker 1: Lampert is a sixty one year old Catholic priest and
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Speaker 1: currently the designated exorcist of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis,
3:26
Speaker 1: a position he's held for over two decades. At the
3:30
Speaker 1: time of his appointment to this role, back in the
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Speaker 1: early two thousands, he was one of only twelve officially
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Speaker 1: appointed Catholic exorcists in the country. Now in twenty twenty four,
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Speaker 1: there are one hundred and seventy five. According to Father Lampert, However,
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Speaker 1: true cases of demonic possession are extremely rare. We're talking
3:52
Speaker 1: one in five thousand of all cases that appear to
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Speaker 1: require in exorcism. More commonly, the Church recognizes problems such
4:00
Speaker 1: as infestation, which is the presence of evil in a
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Speaker 1: location or in an object like a voodoo doll, demonic vexation,
4:08
Speaker 1: which is a physical attack, in demonic obsession, which is
4:12
Speaker 1: a mental attack. That's not to say that demonic possession
4:16
Speaker 1: never happens, because it does. Ask Father Vincent Lampert. He
4:21
Speaker 1: has seen demonic possession with his own eyes. He's watched
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Speaker 1: people levity. He's seen their eyes roll into the backs
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Speaker 1: of their heads, the guttural noises, the foaming at the mouth,
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Speaker 1: the unspeakable odors, tongue slithering like snakes, and faces twisted
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Speaker 1: into agonizing lumps of flesh. When the time comes to
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Speaker 1: perform an exorcism, when the Psalms and the Gospels are recited,
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Speaker 1: when the water is blessed, and sprinkled when the priest
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Speaker 1: breathes on the face of the afflicted. In order to
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Speaker 1: assert the power of the Holy Spirit at that time,
5:00
Speaker 1: one must be strong in the presence of pure evil.
5:04
Speaker 1: The one must also remain strong to carry forth the
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Speaker 1: work that must be done. Doing that work driving out
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Speaker 1: the devil, that's the easy part. Father Lampert will tell
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Speaker 1: you so. He'll also tell you that the hardest part
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Speaker 1: of an exorcism is convincing someone that they actually need
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Speaker 1: to let God in. Ronnie Hunkler shut the front door
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Speaker 1: of his house and locked the dead bolt with his key.
5:36
Speaker 1: He tossed an overnight bag in the car, put it
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Speaker 1: in drive, and left his darkened home behind for the night.
5:43
Speaker 1: The NASA engineer hated this day, Halloween. Every year. He
5:49
Speaker 1: was freaked out, not by the little kids in costume.
5:52
Speaker 1: He was freaked out that a random stranger would show
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Speaker 1: up uninvited on his doorstep, only to discover who he
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Speaker 1: really was, not just another geek working the Apollo program.
6:03
Speaker 1: His career would be of interest to no one. When
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Speaker 1: his secret his past was brought into the light. It
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Speaker 1: started small noises, scratches, a knocking coming from inside his
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Speaker 1: wall or under his floor. This was years ago, way
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Speaker 1: back in January of nineteen forty nine, when Ronnie was
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Speaker 1: just fourteen years old. He was an only child living
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Speaker 1: with his folks in Cottage City, Maryland, a small quiet
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Speaker 1: town just outside of the nation's capital. Ronnie and his
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Speaker 1: family were mourning the recent death of his aunt. It
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Speaker 1: hit Ronnie particularly hard. He got a Ouiji board and tried
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Speaker 1: to contact her on the other side because she didn't answer,
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Speaker 1: but something else did. Ronnie was sitting on his bed
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Speaker 1: when he felt it, a hand, a claw, something there
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Speaker 1: under his mattress. It went from one end of the
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Speaker 1: bed to the other, scraping at his legs. Ronnie jumped
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Speaker 1: and then the bed began to shake, and not just vibrate,
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Speaker 1: It rattled violently, and Ronnie quickly got to his feet
7:16
Speaker 1: and the shaking stopped, and out of nowhere the bed
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Speaker 1: she flew off the mattress like it had been pulled
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Speaker 1: by someone. There was no one else in the room.
7:26
Speaker 1: Soon it wasn't just the bed. Chairs would shake or
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Speaker 1: move when Ronnie sat in them. A portrait of Jesus
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Speaker 1: Christ hanging on the wall rattled whenever he came near it. Doctors, psychologists, shrinks.
7:38
Speaker 1: No one could help, so Ronnie's parents turned to the church, first,
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Speaker 1: to a Lutheran minister down the street. He observed it all,
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Speaker 1: the shaking bed, the moving furniture, the deep red scratches
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Speaker 1: that were beginning to appear on Ronnie's body. It was
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Speaker 1: obvious to the Lutheran minister what needed to be done,
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Speaker 1: but he couldn't do it. Ronnie needed the help of
8:02
Speaker 1: a Catholic priest. In February, Father Albert Hughes asked the
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Speaker 1: Catholic Church for permission to perform an exorcism on Ronnie Hunkler,
8:13
Speaker 1: and the church granted his request. Father Hughes strapped Ronnie
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Speaker 1: to his bed, put a rosary around Ronnie's neck, and
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Speaker 1: made the Sign of the Cross with holy water, and
8:24
Speaker 1: then he began, the power of Christ compels you. Ronnie
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Speaker 1: was hot. Something inside him began to flail. The power
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Speaker 1: of Christ compels you. The thing inside Ronnie was agitated,
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Speaker 1: was angry, squirmed and crawled all over Ronnie's skin. It
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Speaker 1: fought against the restraints. As Father Hughes carried on, the
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Speaker 1: power of Christ Compels you. A noise was coming from
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Speaker 1: Ronnie's throat, a voice, but not Ronnie's voice instead something
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Speaker 1: high pitched and horrifying. It was then that one of
9:00
Speaker 1: Ronnie's hands broke free. He grabbed an exposed piece to
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Speaker 1: the mattress spring and ripped it off. Then he thrust
9:07
Speaker 1: the sharp metal into the priest's shoulder. The ritual had
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Speaker 1: to end. Father Hughes, however, was not the only one wounded.
9:15
Speaker 1: There were more red scratches on Ronnie's body, clearly spelling
9:19
Speaker 1: out words. One read hell in another read Lewis.
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Speaker 2: Louis, as in Saint Louis, as in the city where
9:31
Speaker 2: Ronnie's dead aunt was, from the city where his parents
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Speaker 2: now believed he was supposed to go.
9:39
Speaker 1: In Saint Louis. Ronnie stayed with family while two local
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Speaker 1: Jesuit priests, Walter Holler and William Bowder and carried on
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Speaker 1: with the exorcisms. Once again, the rosary and the crucifix
9:50
Speaker 1: and other holy relics were laid out. Once again, the
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Speaker 1: prayer was recited, and again the thing inside Ronnie it
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Speaker 1: fought back. It screened and spat in the priests that
10:02
Speaker 1: laughed in their faces, and the power of Christ. Satan
10:06
Speaker 1: was in control. Satan had the power. Satan had the boy.
10:14
Speaker 1: Then to prove it. Satan put Ronnie in a trance
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Speaker 1: and made him piss all over the bed he was
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Speaker 1: lying in. How about that, Father, Satan pisses on your
10:23
Speaker 1: holy water. But the two priests kept at it, the Rosary,
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Speaker 1: the crucifix, the relics. And then on Monday, April eighteenth,
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Speaker 1: nineteen forty nine, the day after Easter, Ronnie woke up
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Speaker 1: immediately and began having a seizure. Three men had to
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Speaker 1: hold him down while Father voter and called upon Saint Michael,
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Speaker 1: the most Glorious Prince of the celestial host, Saint Michael,
10:47
Speaker 1: the Archangel, defend us in the conflict which we have
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Speaker 1: to sustain against principalities and powers, against the rulers of
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Speaker 1: the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness
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Speaker 1: in high places. He needed to convulse, while a blood
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Speaker 1: curdling scream rang from his throat. Present our prayers to
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Speaker 1: the most High, that without delay they may draw his
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Speaker 1: mercy down upon us. Ronnie was burning up. The stench
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Speaker 1: of rotting flesh filled the room. His father Bowden carried
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Speaker 1: on seize the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil,
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Speaker 1: and Satan, bind him and cast him into the bottomless pit.
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Speaker 1: The seizure stopped Ronnie. The bed, the furniture, the entire
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Speaker 1: room was still. Ronnie blinked his eyes and turned to
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Speaker 1: look at Father boder and standing next to him where
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Speaker 1: he lay. Calm, cool, collected, and once again speaking with
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Speaker 1: his own voice, Ronnie simply said, he's gone. All these
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Speaker 1: years later, as an adult, Ronnie could still remember that
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Speaker 1: moment like it was yesterday. He could still remember how
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Speaker 1: he told the priest of the vision he had while
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Speaker 1: in the thralls of demonic possession, a vision of a
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Speaker 1: battlefield full of blood and smoke and fire, of Saint
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Speaker 1: Michael himself riding atop a mighty steed, charging directly up
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Speaker 1: to Satan and smiting the devil down with one stroke
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Speaker 1: of his sword. But the story of Ronnie's possession and
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Speaker 1: exorcism didn't belong to him anymore. It had since served
12:22
Speaker 1: as the inspiration for The Exorcist, both the nineteen seventy
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Speaker 1: one best selling novel in the nineteen seventy three blockbuster film,
12:31
Speaker 1: not that anyone knew it was Ronnie's story. His real
12:34
Speaker 1: name was never used in the press. Instead, he was
12:38
Speaker 1: known as Roland Doe, which was just the way he
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Speaker 1: liked it. And this was the reason why, once again,
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Speaker 1: on Halloween Knight, he was fleeing his own house in
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Speaker 1: fear because he was at peace now spiritually and emotionally,
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Speaker 1: and if the world discovered that he Ronnie Hunkler was
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Speaker 1: that exorcism kid, then he never know true piece again.
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Speaker 1: William Peter Blattie was in the right place at the
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Speaker 1: right time, first as an English undergrad at Georgetown University,
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Speaker 1: where in nineteen fifty he learned about the exorcism of
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Speaker 1: the local boy known as Roland Dough just one year prior.
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Speaker 1: The story haunted him for the next twenty years, and
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Speaker 1: eventually it influenced his excellent writing in his nineteen seventy
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Speaker 1: one horror novel The Exorcist. William Bladdie was in the
13:57
Speaker 1: right place at the right time again when that novel
14:00
Speaker 1: of his was single handedly turned into a bestseller by
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Speaker 1: a blackout drunk named Robert Shaw. Let me explain, Robert Shaw.
14:08
Speaker 1: That's Captain Quint from Jaws, though this was a few
14:12
Speaker 1: years before Jaws. Robert Shaw was scheduled to be the
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Speaker 1: featured guest on that night's episode of The Dick Cavit Show.
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Speaker 1: Which at the time was known for its late night
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Speaker 1: long form interviews and some ways of precursor to podcast.
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Speaker 1: But I digress. Robert Shaw, however, had knocked back one
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Speaker 1: too many Gansetts or whatever he was drinking beforehand, and
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Speaker 1: was currently shitfaced in the Dick Cavit Show green room.
14:36
Speaker 1: William Blattie was sitting in his apartment six blocks away
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Speaker 1: when his telephone rang. He was surprised to hear a
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Speaker 1: member of the Cavit Show team on the other end
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Speaker 1: asking if you wanted to be that night's guest in
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Speaker 1: Robert Shaw's place. His novel The Exorcist up to that
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Speaker 1: moment had been a complete flop. No one was buying
14:54
Speaker 1: the thing. He recognized what this opportunity meant. Then an
14:58
Speaker 1: appearance on this late night law form interview show could
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Speaker 1: change his life. So yeah, Bladdie said yes, faster than
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Speaker 1: Linda Blair's possessed head to do a one to eighty. Sorry,
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Speaker 1: I'm getting ahead of myself, but the only thing was here.
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Speaker 1: He had fifteen minutes to get to the studio, so
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Speaker 1: he ran all six blocks from his apartment, sweating his
15:16
Speaker 1: ass off, where as Robert Shaw slept one off in
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Speaker 1: the next room, Peter Bladdie spoke to Dick Cavit about
15:22
Speaker 1: a shocking new book for forty minutes. The next week,
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Speaker 1: The Exorcist was the number one book on the New
15:32
Speaker 1: York Times bestseller list. Thank you, Captain Quinn. Again, this
15:37
Speaker 1: was the early seventies. It's right after Altamont, It's after
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Speaker 1: Charles Manson, It's after Rosemary's Baby. The American public it
15:46
Speaker 1: had grown up, it had lost its innocence, it had
15:49
Speaker 1: become disillusioned, and at this moment in time, the American
15:52
Speaker 1: public was more than ready to have the shit scared
15:55
Speaker 1: out of it by a very disturbing story of demonic possession.
16:00
Speaker 1: At the center of that story was an eleven year
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Speaker 1: old girl, Reagan, which was one of the many ways
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Speaker 1: in which Peter Bladdie's novel differed from the true life
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Speaker 1: tale of Roland Doe aka Ronnie Hunkler from which The
16:12
Speaker 1: Exorcist was conceived. The book sold millions. Among the many
16:17
Speaker 1: people who loved it was the director William Freakin, who
16:20
Speaker 1: wanted to turn the book into a movie. And when
16:22
Speaker 1: it came to turning The Exorcist into a movie, Freakin
16:25
Speaker 1: knew he was the guy for the job. Now there's
16:29
Speaker 1: something you should know about William Freakin here, because despite
16:32
Speaker 1: his many accolades at the time, he has since become
16:35
Speaker 1: somewhat of an underrated underdog who isn't as routinely celebrated
16:39
Speaker 1: as many of his peers. He was a grizzled, foul
16:42
Speaker 1: mouthed Chicago kid who quote didn't give a fuck about
16:45
Speaker 1: anybody else that walked the face of the earth unquote,
16:47
Speaker 1: as one Hollywood producer kindly put it. In the early
16:51
Speaker 1: nineteen seventies, William Freakin was motivated by three things. Number One,
16:56
Speaker 1: he wanted to make a better movie than his buddy,
16:58
Speaker 1: Francis Coppola, of course, had just made The Godfather, so
17:02
Speaker 1: good luck. Anyways, Coppola was currently the hottest ticket in town.
17:07
Speaker 1: That very fact it put a fire in Freakin's belly.
17:10
Speaker 1: This kind of unofficial competition, this creative back and forth.
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Speaker 1: It's what made the Beatles and the Beach Boys great
17:16
Speaker 1: in the sixties, and it's what made cinema great in
17:19
Speaker 1: the seventies. Number Two, William Freakin was emboldened and empowered
17:25
Speaker 1: by his recent success. Freakin had just won the Oscar
17:28
Speaker 1: for Best Director for his incredible film The French Connection, which,
17:33
Speaker 1: as he loved to tell Steve McQueen to his face,
17:35
Speaker 1: had a way better car chase scene than Bullet. In
17:38
Speaker 1: Freakin's eyes, that Oscar Win was a mandate quote. I'm
17:42
Speaker 1: glad that people deified directors, he once said, because I
17:45
Speaker 1: make more money that way. I'm quoting I. When it
17:48
Speaker 1: came to making money, William Freakin knew how to do
17:52
Speaker 1: that because he had made movies that entertained people, that
17:55
Speaker 1: people wanted to go see. A movie wasn't made to
17:57
Speaker 1: hang on a wall in the museum. A movie was
18:00
Speaker 1: an art. A movie's primary purpose was to entertain. And
18:04
Speaker 1: if he didn't do that, he didn't do your job.
18:07
Speaker 1: And finally, number three, and this is the big one,
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Speaker 1: William Freakin wanted his film adaptation of The Exorcists to
18:14
Speaker 1: feel real, just like his previous film, The French Connection
18:19
Speaker 1: had felt real. For that film, Freedkin created the gritty, propulsive,
18:24
Speaker 1: almost documentary feel of New York City in part by
18:27
Speaker 1: hiring a camera operator who had shot the Cuban Revolution
18:31
Speaker 1: right alongside Fidel Castro. That's one hundred percent true, by
18:35
Speaker 1: the way, go look it up. In Freakin's estimation, if
18:38
Speaker 1: the Exorcist was cheesy. It would bomb plain and simple.
18:43
Speaker 1: Hollywood being a fickle mistress and all that. He knew
18:46
Speaker 1: that his oscar wouldn't mean shit anymore if he wasn't
18:48
Speaker 1: making Warner Brothers money. So he made sure the movie
18:52
Speaker 1: felt real. The makeup, the practical effects, the disgusting sores
18:57
Speaker 1: and cuts covering the face of then thirteen year old
19:00
Speaker 1: Into Blair, her spinning head, the pea green vomit that
19:04
Speaker 1: she spewed all over the priest trying to rid her
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Speaker 1: body of a demon. Freedakin obsessed over minor details. He
19:11
Speaker 1: went over budget and over time while his buddy Francis
19:14
Speaker 1: fort Coppola wrap production on The Conversation, the masterpiece he
19:18
Speaker 1: made between the first two Godfather movies. Meanwhile, Freedkin's attention
19:22
Speaker 1: to detail on The Exorcist drove a lot of people crazy,
19:26
Speaker 1: so did his temper. He tossed phones across the room,
19:29
Speaker 1: He blew his fuse regularly, He fired staff at will,
19:32
Speaker 1: even giving his longtime production designer the axe and then
19:36
Speaker 1: ordering the entire set to be rebuilt. And attention to detail.
19:40
Speaker 1: Freakin's attention to detail didn't come without a little pain.
19:46
Speaker 1: In the scene where the mother Chris McNeil played by
19:48
Speaker 1: Ellen Burston, has thrown off the bed by the demon
19:51
Speaker 1: inhabiting her daughter. Freedkin rigged a unit around Burson's body
19:55
Speaker 1: that literally yanked her and tossed her to the floor,
19:58
Speaker 1: and Burston landed on her cocks. That's the bone at
20:01
Speaker 1: the basier's spinal column, causing her incredible pain. The screen
20:05
Speaker 1: that comes from Ellen Burston at that moment in the
20:08
Speaker 1: film is very real. In the film's final scene, when
20:12
Speaker 1: Father Carris, having just spoiler alert here, jumped out of
20:16
Speaker 1: Reagan's bedroom window and is dying on the street, and
20:19
Speaker 1: another priest rushes to give him absolution. That priest, a
20:23
Speaker 1: real priest named Father William O'Malley, wasn't giving freaking the
20:27
Speaker 1: performance he wanted. Freakin thought about that third motivation of
20:31
Speaker 1: his make it real. He looked at Father O'Malley and asked,
20:36
Speaker 1: do you trust me? Of course O'Malley had faith in
20:39
Speaker 1: the director. He wasn't a real actor. What did he know?
20:42
Speaker 1: And at that moment, Freakin drew back his arm and
20:44
Speaker 1: slapped O'Malley across the face as hard as he could
20:47
Speaker 1: with his hand. O'Malley was frozen in shock, freaking tot
20:51
Speaker 1: O'Malley to do the scene again. This time O'Malley's heart
20:55
Speaker 1: was pounding. This time his own hand was shaking as
20:58
Speaker 1: he reached out to the dying priests on the ground,
21:01
Speaker 1: and this time it was real, as real as some
21:06
Speaker 1: of the extras Freedkin hired to lend credibility to the
21:09
Speaker 1: world that he was creating. Extras like Paul Bateson, a
21:12
Speaker 1: radiology technician who worked at an NYU lab. That's him
21:16
Speaker 1: with the short hair and the beard, prepping Linda Blair
21:18
Speaker 1: for an angiogram and a scene which features a dramatic
21:21
Speaker 1: spurt of blood, a visual which to many was the
21:24
Speaker 1: most disgusting in the entire film. Paul Bateson helped simulate
21:28
Speaker 1: a practical effect based on something he did in his
21:31
Speaker 1: everyday life. But just like Ronnie Hunkler, the NASA engineer
21:36
Speaker 1: who was living with an old secret about his childhood
21:39
Speaker 1: demonic possession, Paul Bateson's life wasn't exactly what it seemed.
21:45
Speaker 1: Paul Bateson had a secret too, the only difference being
21:50
Speaker 1: he wasn't nearly as good at keeping his skeletons in
21:52
Speaker 1: the closet as Ronnie Hunkler. But it wasn't until well
21:56
Speaker 1: after The Exorcist became a nationwide sensation and sent audiences
22:01
Speaker 1: into hysterics that William Friedkin would discover he hadn't just
22:05
Speaker 1: hired NYU's chief neural radiology technician for his movie. He'd
22:10
Speaker 1: hired a murderer. We'll be right back after this.
22:21
Speaker 2: We're, We're, We're.
22:28
Speaker 1: There's been a lot of talk about the so called
22:31
Speaker 1: curse of the Exorcist. Yes, nine people connected to the
22:35
Speaker 1: movie died during or shortly after production. Yes, Selen Burst
22:39
Speaker 1: had developed a permanent spinal injury following the incident described earlier,
22:44
Speaker 1: and yes, one of the movie sets mysteriously burned to
22:47
Speaker 1: the ground. But those are just a bunch of random
22:50
Speaker 1: coincidences that people were eager to make some kind of
22:52
Speaker 1: sense out of. As people tend to do, we humans
22:56
Speaker 1: must have explanations for things that are not ever meant
22:59
Speaker 1: to be explained, to rationalize why they happened. To reason,
23:04
Speaker 1: the reality is that The Exorcist scared the living hell
23:08
Speaker 1: out of everyone who saw it in theaters when it
23:10
Speaker 1: opened the day after Christmas in nineteen seventy three, and
23:14
Speaker 1: perhaps because of this, the legend of the film's supernatural
23:17
Speaker 1: powers grew. People literally went into hysterics right in the
23:21
Speaker 1: theater in the middle of the movie. They collapsed, They fainted,
23:26
Speaker 1: they vomited. They left halfway through the film, falling to
23:29
Speaker 1: the floor of the lobby hyperventilating, only to return the
23:33
Speaker 1: next day, punk down more hard earned money for another ticket,
23:37
Speaker 1: and see if they can make it through to the
23:39
Speaker 1: end this time. Watching The Exorcist in nineteen seventy three
23:43
Speaker 1: was like running an endurance race. For many Catholics, however,
23:48
Speaker 1: the real disgust was the blasphemy a teenage girl masturbating
23:53
Speaker 1: with a crucifix. This was supposed to be entertainment. Still,
24:00
Speaker 1: the Exorcist entertained in part because it was so shocking
24:04
Speaker 1: that it was impossible to turn away, no matter how
24:07
Speaker 1: bad you wanted to. It was like looking directly into
24:10
Speaker 1: the eyes of pure evil. And within a few years
24:14
Speaker 1: that evil was everywhere. It was out on the streets
24:18
Speaker 1: in New York City. And I'm not just talking about
24:20
Speaker 1: the son of Sam sneaking up on unsuspecting couples necking
24:23
Speaker 1: in a ship box on the side of the road.
24:26
Speaker 1: There was also another depraved, unknown killer responsible for what
24:30
Speaker 1: were being called the bag Murders. From nineteen seventy five
24:34
Speaker 1: to nineteen seventy seven, the hacked up body parts of
24:38
Speaker 1: six men were discovered in plastic bags floating in the
24:41
Speaker 1: Hudson River. The shreds of clothing that remained on the
24:44
Speaker 1: body parts all came from the same leather stores in
24:48
Speaker 1: the village, leading NYPD to come to the conclusion that
24:52
Speaker 1: the victims were all members of New York City's gay community,
24:56
Speaker 1: and by September of nineteen seventy seven, the son of
24:58
Speaker 1: sam Aka, David Berkowitz, had been apprehended, ending one of
25:03
Speaker 1: the city's long lasting nightmares. But New York City could
25:06
Speaker 1: never be rid of all its nightmares. The bag murders killer,
25:11
Speaker 1: for one, was still out there, still targeting gay men,
25:14
Speaker 1: if the cops were to be believed. But of course,
25:17
Speaker 1: the bag murders were on the minds of men who
25:19
Speaker 1: took their lives into their own hands when they went
25:21
Speaker 1: out to the leather clubs late at night, like Paul Bateson,
25:25
Speaker 1: who on the night of September fourteenth, nineteen seventy seven,
25:29
Speaker 1: was hanging out at bad Lands over on Christopher Street.
25:35
Speaker 1: The last four years since his minor appearance as a
25:37
Speaker 1: radiology tech, and the Exorcist hadn't been kind to Paul Bates,
25:41
Speaker 1: and he was drinking a lot. He lost his job
25:44
Speaker 1: at NYU, and he picked up some other hustles, like
25:48
Speaker 1: the most recent gig as a cashier at a place
25:50
Speaker 1: that showed dirty movies. But he couldn't even hold that down.
25:54
Speaker 1: He was broke, desperate tonight, he wanted to make a connection,
26:00
Speaker 1: just sex, something deeper, and he seemed to find one
26:04
Speaker 1: quite easily with another man here at Badlands, Addison Verel,
26:08
Speaker 1: a journalist who covered movies for Variety. They smoked some weed,
26:13
Speaker 1: did some coke and amyl nitrate, and then around three
26:16
Speaker 1: in the morning they headed over to the meatpacking District.
26:20
Speaker 1: There they went to another club, this one called the
26:23
Speaker 1: Mine Shaft, where the only clothing required to meet in
26:27
Speaker 1: New York City code were shoes, dress shirts, ties, sweaters.
26:32
Speaker 1: None of those things were allowed. Instead, the all male
26:35
Speaker 1: clientele wore jockstraps, torn t shirts, then off it even
26:40
Speaker 1: less tonight. Like most knights, those men were engaged in
26:44
Speaker 1: all forms of sex in the Mine Shaft's bathtub, on
26:47
Speaker 1: its sex swings, and in the back room where if
26:50
Speaker 1: you were particularly bold and especially horny. Anything at all went.
26:57
Speaker 1: Hours later, the sun was coming out. Hi, drunk on
27:01
Speaker 1: the mind shafts beer, and simultaneously exhausted and exhilarated from
27:05
Speaker 1: hours of clubbing, Addison Verro invited Paul Bateson back to
27:09
Speaker 1: his seventeenth floor studio apartment in the village. There they
27:13
Speaker 1: continued to drink, to do drugs, and around seven point
27:16
Speaker 1: thirty that morning, they had sex. Paul prepared to bask
27:20
Speaker 1: in the afterglow, but instead found that he was experiencing
27:24
Speaker 1: something else, a feeling of loneliness, of abandonment. Going into this,
27:30
Speaker 1: he had wanted more than the ecstasy of the flesh.
27:33
Speaker 1: He wanted a spiritual connection to the soul, which is
27:36
Speaker 1: not at all what had just happened between him and Addison,
27:39
Speaker 1: at least not in Paul's eyes. Paul felt like Addison
27:43
Speaker 1: wasn't into it, like he was just going through the motions.
27:47
Speaker 1: Paul's mood suddenly swung. His head was full of disappointment,
27:51
Speaker 1: of weed and coke, of the knowledge that in a
27:53
Speaker 1: few minutes he'd walk out of that front door, without love,
27:56
Speaker 1: without money, with nothing. Slowly he began to move his body.
28:02
Speaker 1: He stood up from the bed and walked out to
28:03
Speaker 1: the kitchen. There he picked up a heavy frying pan,
28:07
Speaker 1: and then he returned to the bedroom. Without any warning,
28:09
Speaker 1: he swung the frying pan and he hit addison barrel
28:12
Speaker 1: directly in the head with it. The pan vibrated in
28:15
Speaker 1: Paul's stiff hands, and there was a cracking sound, and
28:19
Speaker 1: Addison's body hit the ground with a thud. Paul didn't
28:25
Speaker 1: look to see if there was any blood yet, he
28:28
Speaker 1: left Addison moaning and went back to the kitchen. He
28:31
Speaker 1: opened a drawer and found a large knife. He picked
28:34
Speaker 1: it up in his trembling hand, and again he returned
28:37
Speaker 1: to the bedroom. Addison struggling to move, to understand exactly
28:41
Speaker 1: what was happening, why it was happening, but he could
28:44
Speaker 1: barely see straight through the blurred vision, through the pain,
28:48
Speaker 1: through the ringing in his ears, a ringing that was
28:51
Speaker 1: finally silenced when Paul bateson the man he'd just met,
28:55
Speaker 1: the man he'd welcomed into his home, plunged that knife
28:58
Speaker 1: deep into Addison verro'st Paul took Addison's master charge card,
29:05
Speaker 1: his passport, some of his clothes, fifty seven dollars in cash,
29:09
Speaker 1: and left his one night stand dead in his own apartment.
29:16
Speaker 1: Eight days later, an anonymous man placed a phone called
29:19
Speaker 1: Arthur Bell, a reporter at the Village Voice who had
29:22
Speaker 1: just written an article about Addison Verrio's still unsolved murder.
29:27
Speaker 1: Arthur Bell wrote this article partially out of frustration that
29:30
Speaker 1: the mainstream press, the press patronized by Joe Q. Hetero,
29:34
Speaker 1: gave zero fox when it came to all the gay
29:36
Speaker 1: men who were being murdered across the city. It was
29:40
Speaker 1: during this phone call that the anonymous man told the
29:42
Speaker 1: story that I've just told you and confessed that he
29:45
Speaker 1: was the one who did it. He never said that
29:47
Speaker 1: his name was Paul Bateson. That detail came later thanks
29:51
Speaker 1: to another tip that was called in, and when the
29:54
Speaker 1: cops arrested Paul, he told him a story very similar
29:57
Speaker 1: to the story that the reporter Arthur Bell had been to.
30:01
Speaker 1: Paul later claimed that he delivered his confession while drunk
30:04
Speaker 1: and before the police had read him his rights. He
30:07
Speaker 1: also maintained that he wasn't the one who called Arthur
30:09
Speaker 1: Bell in the first place. Didn't matter. A judge ruled
30:12
Speaker 1: the police had properly upheld Paul's constitutional rights and thus
30:16
Speaker 1: his confession, as well as a subsequent Village Voice article
30:19
Speaker 1: Arthur Bell wrote. After receiving that anonymous phone call were
30:22
Speaker 1: admissible in court, prosecutors tried to pin the bag murders
30:27
Speaker 1: on Paul Bateson as well, but in the end he
30:30
Speaker 1: was convicted solely of the murder of Addison Verel and
30:33
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy nine was sentenced to at least twenty
30:36
Speaker 1: years behind bars. Twenty four years later, in two thousand
30:42
Speaker 1: and three, according to the New York Department of Corrections,
30:46
Speaker 1: Paul Bateson was released on parole. Five years after that.
30:50
Speaker 1: In two thousand and eight, his parole ended. His last
30:53
Speaker 1: known place of residence was Freeport, New York, a village
30:57
Speaker 1: on Long Island. An entry in the United States Social
31:00
Speaker 1: Security Index indicates that a man with his name died
31:03
Speaker 1: in twenty twelve, but it's unknown unconfirmed. Just like the
31:08
Speaker 1: killer being the notorious Bag murders, Paul Bateson vanished into
31:13
Speaker 1: the background, and so too did evil. Passing between the
31:18
Speaker 1: visible and the invisible, from one host to another. Paul
31:23
Speaker 1: Bateson's life was finite. Evil, on the other hand, never
31:28
Speaker 1: really goes away. It just quietly moves on when no
31:32
Speaker 1: one's watching. Hey guys, brief interjection here to mention that
31:52
Speaker 1: you may have heard me talk about at the top
31:54
Speaker 1: of this show, the great soundtrack for The Exorcist. The
31:58
Speaker 1: story about how this soundtrack came to be is wild.
32:01
Speaker 1: It's kind of unbelievable, actually, and it didn't really fit
32:04
Speaker 1: into this narrative. So we've got it this week as
32:07
Speaker 1: a special mini episode, which you can listen to by
32:10
Speaker 1: becoming a Disgraceland All Access member on Apple Podcasts or Patreon.
32:14
Speaker 1: All right, back to the show. Twenty twenty eighty five
32:22
Speaker 1: year old Ronald Hunkler, the man the world knew only
32:25
Speaker 1: as Roland Doe, the same one whose personal experience with
32:29
Speaker 1: demonic possession at the age of fourteen inspired the novel
32:32
Speaker 1: The Exorcist. Since that something else was in the room
32:36
Speaker 1: with him, he was going to tell his twenty nine
32:39
Speaker 1: year old female companion, but then he thought better of it.
32:43
Speaker 1: She was already well versed in his fears, specifically the
32:46
Speaker 1: fear that took hold around Halloween each year that a
32:49
Speaker 1: stranger would find out the truth about him, that he was,
32:52
Speaker 1: in fact, the inspiration for one of the biggest horror
32:55
Speaker 1: movie franchises, of all time, and that would mean attention, grutiny, questions.
33:02
Speaker 1: He didn't even want to think about the questions. He
33:05
Speaker 1: no longer had to fear questions at work. It had
33:08
Speaker 1: been nearly two decades since he retired from NASA, and
33:11
Speaker 1: during his long tenure there he never told a single
33:14
Speaker 1: coworker about his past. Still, you didn't let your guard
33:19
Speaker 1: down just because you were retired and off and alone.
33:22
Speaker 1: You never knew when someone might be around when you slipped,
33:26
Speaker 1: like whatever was here with him now, He tried to
33:30
Speaker 1: pass it off as a draft in the house, and
33:32
Speaker 1: the light playing tricks with him, the same light's now
33:36
Speaker 1: growing darker, everything slowing down, the world on its axis
33:41
Speaker 1: like a record on a turntable, the plug pulled from
33:44
Speaker 1: the wall, the platter getting slower and slower with each
33:48
Speaker 1: passing revolution as that platter spun. Ronald's secret was safe
33:53
Speaker 1: with him. He was there in his deepest and darkest recesses,
33:59
Speaker 1: buried under years of disguise, a sleight of hand. But
34:04
Speaker 1: there was a secret even deeper than that, And that
34:07
Speaker 1: other secret was this. Ronald Hunkler was a phony, his
34:15
Speaker 1: demonic possession from back in nineteen forty nine, the one
34:18
Speaker 1: that made the papers, that haunted writer William Peter Blattie,
34:22
Speaker 1: that drove the agnostic director William Friedkin to make one
34:24
Speaker 1: of the most frightening films of all time. It was
34:27
Speaker 1: all a lie. Supposedly Ronald Hunkler had never been possessed.
34:33
Speaker 1: Supposedly he just made it all up. Why I was
34:38
Speaker 1: a bad boy? That that was a quote attributed to Ronald,
34:42
Speaker 1: according to his twenty nine year old companion, who says
34:45
Speaker 1: that Ronald confessed this to her at some point before
34:48
Speaker 1: his death. And speaking of death, Ronald knew it was coming.
34:55
Speaker 1: In fact, that's what was in the room with him now.
34:58
Speaker 1: Its presence was disorder and comforting. At the same time,
35:03
Speaker 1: he allowed himself to slip into the cold grip of nothingness.
35:06
Speaker 1: But just before he did, there was a knock at
35:09
Speaker 1: his front door, and once again Ronald Hunkler felt that
35:13
Speaker 1: old fear, felt the panic. Who was here at his house?
35:18
Speaker 1: And what did they want? They want to ask him
35:21
Speaker 1: who he really was, to demand the truth to blacken
35:24
Speaker 1: his good name. According to Ronald's twenty nine year old companion,
35:28
Speaker 1: the following is what happened. The door opened, and unannounced
35:33
Speaker 1: in walked a Catholic priest, but neither she nor Ronald
35:37
Speaker 1: had called for a priest. Nevertheless, here he was, and
35:43
Speaker 1: that priest performed last rites as Ronald Hunkler passed from
35:46
Speaker 1: this world into the next absolution, just like the blessing
35:52
Speaker 1: Father Karros received at the end of The Exorcist forgiveness
35:57
Speaker 1: for the sins of a past life. I'm Jake Brennan
36:03
Speaker 1: and this just disgrace laand all right, thanks for listening
36:18
Speaker 1: to this episode on the Exorcis. This week's question of
36:21
Speaker 1: the week. Guys, it's an easy one. I want to know,
36:24
Speaker 1: is an Exorcist the scariest movie of all time? And
36:28
Speaker 1: if so, why? And if not, well, what is six
36:33
Speaker 1: one seven nine oh six six six three eight. Leave
36:35
Speaker 1: me a voicemail, send me a text and let me know.
36:37
Speaker 1: You can also reach me at disgracelam pod as well
36:40
Speaker 1: on Instagram, X and Facebook. All right here comes from credits.
36:47
Speaker 1: Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly and is produced in
36:50
Speaker 1: partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be
36:53
Speaker 1: found on the show notes page at disgracelampod dot com.
36:57
Speaker 1: If you're listening as a Disgraceland All Access member. Thank
37:00
Speaker 1: you for supporting the show, we really appreciate it, and
37:03
Speaker 1: if not, you can become a member right now by
37:05
Speaker 1: going to disgracelampod dot com slash membership, rate and review
37:09
Speaker 1: the show and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and
37:12
Speaker 1: Facebook at disgrace lampod and on YouTube at YouTube dot
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Speaker 1: com slash at disgracelampod. Rock a roll up, He's a
37:24
Speaker 1: bed Don Man.