Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Categories
Religion & beliefs

POSSESSED

Thomas B. Allen

Based on the diary of one of the participants, this chilling non-fiction account describes the harrowing and bizarre events of the real-life 1949 exorcism that inspired William Peter Blatty's THE EXORCIST.

For 40 years the truth about the exorcism of 14-year old Robbie Mannheim remained a mystery. Then a diary, hidden in a locked room in the mental ward of a St. Louis hospital, came to light—a diary written by one of the Jesuit priests who witnessed the bizarre and harrowing events firsthand. Over the period of several terrifying months, the Mannheim family was caught in a titanic struggle while physicians, psychiatrists, and clergy fought for the soul of their child against a power that identified itself with Satan. In POSSESSED, acclaimed author and journalist Thomas B. Allen reveals what he found in the priest’s diary as well as his interviews with witnesses to the exorcism of Robbie Mannheim. The evidence Allen uncovered in his investigations is so shocking, so chilling and so totally credible, it will challenge everything you believe—or don’t believe—about the forces of good and evil. POSSESSED served as the basis for the 2000 Showtime Original Picture starring Timothy Dalton, Henry Czerny, Piper Laurie and Christopher Plummer.

Available products
Book Published 2000-09-15 by iUniverse (revised edition)/Doubleday

Comments

...but it's good to have Allen's levelheaded account, which allows the apparent facts of this influential case to speak for their own--and compelling--selves.

In 1949, a teenaged boy in suburban Washington, D.C., exhibited signs of demonic possession. His desperate family moved him to a relative's home in St. Louis, where they persuaded a team of Jesuit priests to perform an exorcism (a practice unheard of at the time). William Peter Blatty noticed a news article concerning the incident, which provided him with the inspiration for his novel and screenplay The Exorcist. Allen, coauthor with Norman Polmar of several American histories, based his work on a secret diary of one member of the exorcism team and personal interviews with another. His account is horrific, and he will succeed in forcing even highly skeptical, worldly readers into doubting their preconceived ideas about the "medieval" notion of demonic possession.