The Most Famous And Horrific Exorcisms In History

In a 1936 issue of TIME magazine, a hair-raising article appeared that related the story of a dramatic exorcism held in Earling, Iowa. An unnamed middle-aged woman had been suffering from possession for many years. When doctors came up with a collective shrug, the local bishop gave the go-ahead for an exorcism. The woman was

In a 1936 issue of TIME magazine, a hair-raising article appeared that related the story of a dramatic exorcism held in Earling, Iowa. An unnamed middle-aged woman had been suffering from possession for many years. When doctors came up with a collective shrug, the local bishop gave the go-ahead for an exorcism. The woman was escorted to a convent, where seasoned exorcist Father Theophilus conducted the rite.

The woman broke away, flew through the air, and ended high up on a wall. After she was pulled down, the woman claimed to be possessed by not just demons, but also her abusive dead father. When she sensed that holy objects were near, the woman screamed and claimed that she was burning. She also suffered physical effects, said to include a body that seemed to grow large and then deflate, as well unspecified but still presumably disgusting bodily effluvia. Finally, after 23 days, it was all over and the woman seemed to be her own person again.

But who was she? While TIME was coy about naming her, a variety of other accounts deemed her Emma Schmidt, Anna Ecklund, or Mary X. They also claim that the demons came back after the Earling exorcism, that the woman also spoke to heavenly beings, and that the demon-fighting affair would play a part in a larger, grander fight between good and evil that would come sometime after the apocalypse kicked off around 1955.

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