Wisconsin, a paranormal paradise with lake

monsters, dogmen haunted hotels, famous ghosts, and

deadly killers. It's a lot more than just America's

dairyland. It's time for a deep dive into the weird,

wonderful and terrifying that's lying just below the surface of

reality. From American ghostwalks and Badgerland

Legends. This is the Wisconsin Legends

podcast.

Welcome to the Wisconsin Legends Podcast, live from Milwaukee,

paracon 2023 to prove to the people

who are listening later that we are in front of a live audience. Can I

hear everybody give a clap and a woo.

Okay, I'm feeling the love. Mike, we totally

didn't edit that in post. All right. Coming up

with Jeff Finnab pageantland legends. And we are

joined today by my sister and Milwaukee

hauntings, I'm going to say expert, even though it's hard to say anybody in the

paranormal is an expert because we're dealing with the unknown. But you're the closest thing

we have to it in Milwaukee. Well, I like to call myself the

Milwaukee's Fordian Historian, because,

as Mike said, a lot of the paranormal is very speculative.

But when you look at the documents, you'll find that

there are a lot of amazing stories that were recorded. And

that's what we're going to talk to you about today. Some stories of incursions

by what really looks like demonic forces in the Milwaukee

area. They're all vetted stories. They're not just in the

newspapers, but these people did exist and you can find

them in census records. And these were real

people. So I'm not trying to make light of this. And some of these

stories are very scary, and I'll try to keep it kid

friendly, but there is murder involved. Just be warned. Just be

warned. Okay. And so also for the recording, your name is

Allison Jordlin. Yes. My name is Allison Jordan. I didn't say

that. Allison Jordlin from American Ghostwalk. Okay, perfect.

All right, well, let's get started with talking about tales of the

devil in Milwaukee. So how many of my ex girlfriends are you talking about today,

Allison? Oh, so many. Hey. All right. And here is

your litany of terror, otherwise known as a table of

contents. The itinerary of terror. Yes, that's

right. This is a list of the

cases we're going to talk about today. So we start

chronologically with 1854 and a convent

infestation that occurred in Milwaukee's.

Motherhouse. And then number

two is there's a strange death that occurred

in 1920 to a little nine year old boy

called Raymond Nats. And it's very frightening. I would

say it's probably the most scary story that I've ever

found. And he was real and his family members

were real. Number three is Milwaukee

exorcisms. We had our own exorcist in

Wisconsin that was ordained here right at St.

Francis Seminary. And

he's been involved in high profile exorcism that you may

have heard of, the 1928 Earling Iowa case.

But he was from Wisconsin, and

possibly the possessed woman was from

Milwaukee, although I'll talk about some problems with that

assertion, but they don't talk about

what happened in 1926. She was

exercised here first in Milwaukee at

your house. Then we're going to talk

about some conclusions and maybe take your questions and

stories or comments. All right,

the convent infestation. So anybody out there

remember that we had a motherhouse here in

Milwaukee? It was on Milwaukee

Street. And it's right where the Convent

Hill Apartments are located today. The

building is much smaller than you'll see. The convent. Was it's

called Convent Hill? It's called Convent Hill Apartments for

a reason. And the bells from the old convent

are in the back of the building, so you can still go visit those and

they still work very loud. But that's right on

Milwaukee Street and Ogden. Now, the Mother

Superior called mother Caroline. Was Caroline Freis?

And she's significant because this was

the first American convent of

the odor of Notre Dame. So maybe

or Notre Dame, as we sometimes say in the States.

But you might be more familiar with all these Notre Dame

schools all over the country. Well, this is

where they came from, from this woman who came to

establish the order in the United States

and also to establish these schools.

I think that's 500 some schools across the country.

But the headquarters was right here in Milwaukee. So that's

Caroline Fryce, and better known

as Mother Caroline. Well, Mother Caroline came

over in the 1850s. And

while we think of Milwaukee now as a

very, I would say Catholic

friendly city when it was first established,

they were facing a lot of anti Catholic

sentiment in the city at the time. In fact,

some of the German population that had come over were part

of this German revolution of the late 1840s.

And they hated Catholics in particular. Yes. And it was a

movement, and they were called the Know Nothings. And I think

something that they did might have led to the

demonic infestation. Yeah, so the German

48 ers were what they were called, and they weren't

minors or anything like that. They were people that hated Catholics

and were in an Irish place. So I guess it's supposed to be

fairly Catholic friendly. But in 1854, it

was not quite so friendly to nuns. Yeah, they

couldn't go out on the street. People would members of the Know Nothing

party would throw stones at them and actually

broke windows at the beautiful

Motherhouse, which, as you can see, was quite

large. There's the original building, but then it became

a whole city block. There's

a better depiction of it where you can see it's almost like

a citadel. And there's many buildings

where the nuns were housed.

And all the women that were thinking of becoming nuns

called the novices or postulates. That's my

favorite nun word. That's right. So I'm

glad that Mike mentioned the no Nothings, because not only

were they protesting outside the

convent throwing stones when the

nuns dared to leave and physically accosting

them or drawing negative signs on their

back with chalk when they could. There was also a

procession that they led through the streets

to the nunnery, and they were all

dressed in black cloaks and they had a goat with them,

never a good sign. And they also

had a book that they had made up to

look like the black book of the devil.

And they did a ceremony

out in front of the nunnery

and soon after is when all the

disturbances started. So I think there might be a connection there that

they were cursed. Malediction, it's called. You're going to hear that word a lot today,

probably. And that's interesting too, because they're performing.

They bring out the goat as you do when you're doing some

devil. You know, we think of these were the no

nothings devil worshippers. No, in fact, they were atheists.

So they're more like, if you think of that, the Satanic temple

today, the people that put up that like the statue of Ball in the

Oklahoma courthouse and everything. So it's the idea that

they're not particularly like they don't really think the devil's

going to show up when they do these things. They're doing it to show

that they hate the nuns. And it's like the Freedom from Religion

Foundation, which is based in Madison. It's their idea, like, hey, we're not

interested in getting the religion here. So I don't think the no

Nothings were particularly satanic or this idea that they really thought the devil would

come. They're doing something symbolic, right. But that doesn't mean

it still couldn't call in dark forces. Right.

So I've got a little timeline. It began

rather innocuously. It's

hard to say when a bunch of

novices were in their dorms and started

recognizing all this strange activity.

They couldn't get any of the candles to light that night on

December eigth, 1854. And so they

called for Mother Caroline, and

she took a very rational approach. These were young

girls thinking of becoming nuns. And she

thought, like many people at the time, they were prone to

hysteria and flights of imagination.

But when she entered, she saw that she

couldn't get any of the candles to light either.

And they were able to get some light in there

from the windows because it's moonlit night. And they saw

that there were all these night caps

that the sisters wore and they were lined

up on a table and they started

to dance, which is not very scary in

my Disney movie or whatever. Yeah, it's like

Beauty and the Beast, the Magician's Apprentice, where you see the broom start to

dance. Well, she said that she observed these

nightcaps dancing around and that

caused a lot of fear in everyone

involved. And also not being

able to shed significant light on the situation

made them very worried. So from

then on, over a period of 13 months,

the activity only got worse.

And they witnessed all kinds of extraordinary

things and also

abuse. Not only were the nuns complaining

of being physically assaulted by unseen

hands, one of the postulates

said that her ears were boxed. She was

hit about the ears violently. And their poor

dog, I hope he ran away. But

he was also a victim of this unseen force. And this is

what Carolyn Frice said herself. It was blood curdling the way

the poor dog yelped. He was being beaten

by something unseen, but she

distinctly heard the cracks of a whip. But as usual, I

saw nothing. And then she said,

the dog disappeared. He just ran away

after this attack and was never seen again.

So hopefully, he did just get somewhere safe.

There's many other alleged

paranormal events that took place.

So one night in the middle of the night, they had

call bells which would there was a

room and these bells, you could make them ring, in

particular sister's rooms. And so

one night, all the call bells rang at

once and they wouldn't stop ringing. And

so Mother Caroline didn't know what was the matter

and was especially concerned because she was the only one with a key

to the room where the call bell

apparatus was kept. So she ran in there.

There's no one there. But she saw that as she

approached, some of the bells were still moving.

Also, during Mass, there was a candle

that was lit on the altar and everyone

assembled watched this candle just blink

out of existence. And then later, it was found still

burning in a closed closet.

So in psychical research, we call that an

apport. There's also another apport where some

nuns were baking bread in the kitchen and they had

just put it into the oven and they went

back. They'd been working on something else in the kitchen and they just went

back to take a look and all the lobes were

missing. And they were found later

floating around in the cistern. And then shadowy

figures were seen in the church after

dark. And also howling was heard at night

throughout the echoing halls of the very

big convent. And as I said before,

sisters complained of being battered by unseen hands.

These events were eventually resolved. Not in a

very nice way, I don't think we'll talk about that in a second. But then

after these events, about a year later, after the

secession of these events, a choir of

angels was heard to

be singing in the chapel. So instead of

being awakened by these

horrible screams and howls in the middle of the

night, as they had become accustomed to over those

13 months of harassment, they

were, one night a year later, awoken

by sweet singing of what they assumed was a

choir of angels. And they went to the chapel and they saw

heavenly light emanating. And

from then on until modern

times, so this was 1854. This went on till

1859. When the convent was raised, mother

Caroline actually established a sacrament

of perpetual adoration,

which means that in the chapel 24/7

there were nuns praying. They would take shifts to make

sure that the Virgin Mary and other people that

are mother religious figures like Jesus and the angels

who they felt had now blessed the convent and

were protecting them from demonic forces, they would

have these sisters come and pray.

And they were there 24/7

for almost 100 years doing that around the clock.

That's called the sacrament of perpetual adoration.

Now, speaking of Mary, though, real quick. So one

reason that Mother Caroline thought that this demonic

infestation was happening, and this

goes back to the fact that they felt like they were under attack, not just

from the devil, but by the Know Nothings and the

other people in Milwaukee who were hostile to them. And this is from the

book as a Magnet the Life of Mother Caroline

by Sister Mary Thule Zimmerman.

So it's a book by a nun. So there's just a little bit of

vulgarity. Anyway,

so why did Mother Caroline think it happens? The state of affairs began

on the date that Pope Pius IX declared the Immaculate

Conception a dogma of faith. December 1854.

So the idea of the Immaculate Conception is that

Mary Jesus's Ma was born without sin.

And so that's a very particularly Catholic thing. And it came out

December 1854. It seems Mother

Carolyn reflected that just at the time, a new outburst of

hatred, our lady, manifests itself to the world. The devil

emerges with one of the older girls thoroughly disturbed by the

strangeness. And so Mother Caroline's talking to one of the girls who's

disturbed, and the girl says, it's all so frightening. She said, you

never know what's going to happen next. I didn't think the devil was real. I

thought he was just a myth or a fairy tale. Mother Caroline

looked at the girl calmly, but the attitude expressed made her feel anything

but calm. You didn't think he existed.

A few days later, she gathered the community together and spoke to them of what

was happening. Perhaps the girl who came to her was not the only one who

did not understand the reality of the devil.

There is no doubt about the origin of these happenings. Mother Caroline told

them, and if some of you are still doubtful regarding the existence of the

devil, it is time you learned that he exists.

So they had an idea why it happened, and then they had an idea who

was doing it. And this time it

wasn't the Know nothings. This time it was the

man downstairs. Okay, so how did

they stop all this harassment that they felt was

coming from the devil? Well, there was

one of the novices that

had come to the convent to escape a

marriage, so her name was Henrika. And

apparently there was a very persistent suitor that wouldn't take

no for an answer, but she didn't want to marry him, so she ran away

to the convent. Now, the

sisters began to believe that through

malediction or cursing, that's what had brought

the demonic influences into the convent, because

he was upset about losing this woman he wanted to

marry. Now, they also found

that strange pranks like this weird

slush that didn't act quite like water, was

found that initial night on the pillows

of all the novices except for this girl. And

then they found that she

acted strangely at certain times when approaching

religious objects inappropriately laughing

or being repelled by them. From that.

Sister Caroline was talking to the parish

priest and he said he felt that she

might be under demonic

influence or even possession. When we think of all

these hijinks that went on, I think of her more

as like a poltergeist agent as we would think of

poltergeist today, where they

manifest with these strange antics.

Anyway, they felt that she was

the reason for the activity. So did they give her a

sanctuary or an exorcism? Well, they made her go

back home. Yeah, they kicked her out. And that

guy who wouldn't take no for an answer, he had been lurking by the

convent. So as soon as she walked out the door, he

scooped her up. But after

she left, all the problems ceased.

So she was in some way connected, but I feel was an

innocent victim of a channel

for this activity, but not willingly.

And she suffered in an unhappy

marriage so that the convent could be freed

from this demonic infestation. And it's just sad

because I thought you could go to the church for asylum. And

I feel like they failed her in this case and they don't even acknowledge it

in the works that are written. So if you want to read more about this

case as a magnet is the one

source from the 60s that Mike mentioned. There's also

a longer account in a book called Running

Waters by Colon Lukum, and

you can find both of those at St. Francis Seminary in their

Salzman Library. So, I mean, it's kind of a sad story for the

girl. Ended up pretty good for the convent, where they had this

sight of perpetual adoration for over 100 years.

But in the end, the devil went home and

maybe he went back to their house or whatever.

So story number two involves a strange death.

And we're going to talk about the victim,

which was poor little Raymond Nance, who I've

talked about before, because this is possibly the scariest story,

in my opinion, that I ever found, because it's just a straight

newspaper. It's a couple of straight newspaper articles,

and it involves little Raymond Nash.

Nats. He's nine years old. This is a picture of him from

one of the newspaper articles in the local papers. And he seemed

like a regular nine year old boy. This was May

of 1920 that this happened. And there

was an epidemic going through the schools at the time of

Measles, and he had just recovered from

measles. But on this beautiful May

Day, he decided to go fishing. And that

would have tragic results. Previous to this day that

we're going to talk about, he had been seeing things that only he

could see. And this isn't an exact quote from him all

the way home, that white shadow crept right along behind me.

Something is going to happen. I can feel it. So he

felt that his death was

imminent and that this creature, whatever

it was he described it as a white shadow, had been

following him for reasons unknown. Now, here's the

Milwaukee Sentinel article which gives the most details.

I just gave the headline. It's super long, but it talks

about what had happened. Now,

as you may have seen on the slide, raymond's

parents were estranged, and they were

separated and about to go through a

divorce. But he had bigger problems because this

strange thing was following him. So

the scariest night was the night before his

death, where his parents noticed him acting

strangely. He had first gone to his mother's

house, which was in the neighborhood of Lincoln Village.

So although, according to census records, the

family was German, they were living in a Polish

neighborhood. Anyway, he lived right

near Fourth or Fifth Street, where that

is today. And he

went down the street to visit his mom. And she

said that all night he just seemed terrified. He

wouldn't talk about it, but he was following something around the

room and just seemed

white, knuckled, frozen in fear. And so, of course, she

noticed something was wrong. And he would just sit in the corner

and his eyes darted about as if following

some imminent threat. And then his father came and picked him

up. And for some reason, he maintained a distance

between him and his father. And that's when he said, this

white shadow is following me. So he was in some way

protecting his father, not wanting to be too close,

because that white thing would be close to his father as well.

And the same thing, when he got home, just sat

dejected in the corner looking around at whatever

thing this was and wanted to just

stay up all night. But of course, his dad had work in the morning.

He was a woodworker at a local sawmill. And

so he made Raymond go to bed. But in the

night, Raymond woke his dad up because he was talking in his

sleep and screaming loudly. And

then his mother came to his bedside and shook him

awake. And he was saying,

oh, Daddy, I was in the

water with the fishes. And it was so beautiful. But before

that, he had been screaming at something and

saying to something, that an unseen forest that, you're just

fooling me. You can't get me. And

then he had this strange attitude about playing with the

fishes. So then that morning, Herman

Nance had to go back, had to go out to work, and

he left Raymond with a neighbor lady.

But he slipped away early that morning to go fishing at

Lake Michigan. Lake Michigan

is about an hour

away, walking wise from where he was

later found in the lake. So he had to walk

for an hour, and then,

sadly, he disappeared and they had to drag the

lake, and he wasn't found

until that Friday afternoon. So

it was Wednesday, the evening of Wednesday that

we were talking about. And then

after midnight is when he awakened his

father. And then the

drowning happened around

845, because little Raymond had a pocket watch.

So although when he got to the lake, it looks like he just

dropped his pole, his fishing rod,

and his hat, his cap on the ground, he still had

his pocket watch. So from the time the

police only came to one conclusion, that Raymond hadn't

intended to go fishing at all, he'd walked for an

hour and then kept walking straight into

Lake Michigan until the water was over his head

and he could walk no more. Now, what nine year

old is capable that kind of

behavior? So when we talk

about the activity here, yeah, we

don't have multiple witnesses seeing the

shadow. Only Raymond sees that. And

only Raymond is aware of this harassment. But he's got

this incredible sense of foreboding. Perhaps he was

foretelling his own death. And it's just

shocking, though, to think of just think of you

as an adult. Could you walk into the water? I mean, they often show that

on TV and movies where somebody just walks

into the water and they just keep walking. But could a nine year

old do that? And why would he do that? And Lake

Michigan's cold. Let's be real. Nobody just jumps

in, like, especially in May. But that's why he wasn't in school, because of this

measle epidemic. It had closed down schools. He was

just recovering from it himself. But this was

me in the middle of the week, and he was out

there because nobody was in school to

quell that epidemic. Now, I see several different

connections for different things.

What happened to Raymond, to mother. Paranormal

activity number one is the

nokniche, which is the Polish night.

Hag. So you guys ever had a sleep

paralysis? Can I get a round of applause? If anybody's ever had sleep

paralysis, I. Don'T want to cheer for that. I've had it.

Terrifying. Sleep paralysis is terrible, and

especially when you're in the hypnagogic state, which is as you're

falling asleep, sometimes you see things, or if you ever have the

experience where that falling

or that kind of trip or whatever, then you wake yourself up.

It's a physical experience. It's happening to you.

Or you wake up and you feel that someone's sitting on your chest and

you can't move. That's the night hag, and every

culture seems to have it. The Slavic culture, which would have

been Lincoln village of the nocnitsa, is from the Wikipedia

article. In Russian and Slavic folklore,

nocnitsa is known to torment children at night, and a

stone with a hole in the center is said to be the protection. Mothers

in some regions will place a knife in their children's cradles

or draw a circle around the cradles with a knife for protection. This

is possibly based on the belief that supernatural beings cannot

touch iron. Nocnitsa is known to sit on one's chest

drawing life energy. Because of this, many refer to the

nocnitsa as a type of vampire. They will often continue

visiting, and according to some folklore night hags visit while

one sleeps on one's back with the hands on the chest, a

position allegedly called sleeping with the dead.

Accordingly to some folklore, night hags are made of

shadow, just like what Raymond saw. She might also have a

horrible screeching voice, just like my ex

girlfriends. She might allegedly also

smell of moss and dirt from her forest of origin.

So these are obviously villages we're talking about. Like your ex girlfriend,

right? They smell bad. No. Okay.

This idea of the night hag, though, he's talking to something, and he says, you

can't get me, you just fool, and you can't get me, until eventually

he kind of accepts what's going to happen to him. We all talk

about if you think about nightmare on Elm Street or think

about the movie dreamscape. Remember that classic? Oh, yeah. It's the

idea though. In those movies, they say if you die in your sleep, you die

in real life, right? And everybody's like, nah, that's not true.

What if it was sudden unexplained

nocturnal death syndrome? We got an

article here talking about

from the 2018 journal of the American

Heart association. It's called Lie Thai. In

Thailand, the word lie in leotian means a loud

groan occurring during sleep or a loud noise made while frightened.

And thai is a Thai word meaning death.

It's called bangagut in the Philippines, and that's

a tagalog word meaning to rise and moan in your sleep.

Bakuri death syndrome. In Japan, Bakuri means suddenly and

unexpectedly. This is a Los Angeles times article from July

10, 1981. Night deaths of Asian men.

Unexplained Tokyo. Each year, hundreds of apparently

healthy young Japanese die suddenly in their sleep, sometimes with

a gasp or a shout, and doctors do not know why.

Reports of similar deaths in the Philippines and among indochinese refugees

in the United States have given rise to speculation by medical experts

that the disease might be common to ethnic groups throughout Asia. Okay?

Obviously not. Raymond nantz. It's not a matter of the heart being good or bad,

said Dr. Michio Inui of the Tokyo Metropolitan Medical examiner's

office, which studies pokiri. They seem to be dying of heart

failure, but we can only guess the cause. So

this comes through and these articles in the La times,

when they came out, when it happened to the hng population after

the Vietnam War, that's what inspired Wes Craven to

create Nightmare on Elm Street. And we could actually do a whole podcast on

that, just that now who's. Going to have a hard time falling asleep

tonight, right? Yeah. Well, we didn't want you to fall

asleep during the presentation. And I'd say take your

Ambien to help. But what does Ambien do

to people? Makes them sleepwalk. Yeah.

So go on. So here's another thing that could have happened to

Raymond. This is from the Toronto Star. In the wake of the Chris

Heinman tragedy, experts say death by sleepwalking is

possible. This is from August 6, 2015.

It's rare, but experts say it's definitely possible to die while

sleepwalking. Of course it's dangerous, said Dr. Colin

Shapiro, a University Toronto professor. People can essentially do

anything. They can walk in their sleep. They can talk in their sleep. They can

eat in their sleep. They can drive their car in their sleep. They can have

sex in their sleep. I didn't make that up.

He said that and to fall and injure yourself or

die, it's definitely possible. Shapiro said. The

plausibility of such a demise has come up in the wake of Chris Heinman's

death. The popular television personality it's Canada. Who knows who

this guy is? The popular television personality was found dead in

an alleyway next to the East End apartment where he lived with his on screen

partner and spouse, Stephen Sabados. Heinman's mother told

the Star she believed her son died in an unfortunate

accident while sleepwalking. So,

okay, people can die in their sleep. Now,

why is that happening? This is from Scientific American in 2012.

And this is about sleepwalking

killers. And this is by people that have done the research on

it. For as long as we have recognized walking and talking in our sleep,

we have also been aware of more extreme nighttime behaviors.

Homer's epics mention, a sleeper's tragic suicide. In

1313, a church led council concluded that a

sleepwalking killer was not culpable for his

crimes. We have no way of knowing the truth of these matters.

Nonetheless, the medical literature reflects many complex

actions occurring during sleep. The first brain

imaging study to observe this state was led by

one of the authors. A 16 year old sleepwalker was monitored for

two nights with electrodes placed on his scalp to produce

a polysomnogram of his brain activity. So what they found,

when he rose from his deep sleep, walked around, opened

his eyes, even had a scared expression on his face, they

put a little radioactive tracer in him while he was sleepwalking.

And so then they scanned it and they compared the boy's brain activity

when sleepwalking and when in deep sleep and his sleepwalking state. The

scans revealed greater activity in areas of the brain involved in motor

control. So walking and then compared with. The brain of a

healthy, awake subject. They had a lot less engagement in the

regions necessary for higher cognitive functions thinking,

planning, insight. So basically,

sleepwalking, it's activating your motor part of your body

and your part of your body that thinks and that knows what's going on is

off. Yeah. So did you find also a connection to

measles? I did. Early onset. Sorry, this is

a word I'm going to butcher subacute sclerosing

pancephalitis. And this is something that happens to people,

especially children, after they have measles. And because

not everybody's vaccinated in India. This is an article from the Indian

Journal of Psychological Medicine, 2017. Now, the

cases are normally fatal. The symptoms can range from altered

behavior, alienation and personality my, clonic

jerks, which is an epilepsy type thing,

cognitive decline, gradual behavior changes, an

unsteady gait, photosensitivity. And

the average latent period is seven to ten years. So often people,

this happens to them ten years after they get measles, but it's happened

up to one month after they've gotten measles. And what happens

as a result? Well, sometimes they get a

paranoid, hallucinatory psychosis. Oh, wow.

There might be a medical explanation for what happened to Raymond. Right, so this is

a different this is a 2003 article, and they reported

a case of a 19 year old man who was first diagnosed with

schizophrenia, which is hearing voices,

but finally shown to have subacute sclerosing

panencephalitis. And he had hallucinations

and negative symptoms with the onset, and he had seizures. So they thought that he

was schizophrenic, but really he had this disease which results from people

getting measles. So while I do probably think it was the

nighthag that got him, we. Have to

entertain other explanations. So we're going to go a little bit long.

Is that okay? That's okay. We can go into a couple of Father Reesinger's

greatest hits, because I think. You got to hear about

Milwaukee's exorcist Father Theophilus

Reesinger, and that's who we're going to talk about next. Because we could do a

whole thing on sudden death in the

night, because one of those instances in Asia

occurred in the Singapore where 400 men died as a

result. So there's a lot to be talked about there. But anyway, let's

get back to Milwaukee and Milwaukee exorcisms. So

has anybody here heard of the 1928

Earling exorcism in

Earling, Iowa? Yeah. Okay. There's a couple

of people. All right. This is quite a famous case because in

addition to the Roland Doe 1949

case in St. Louis that you hear a

lot about, this 1928 case

also influenced William Peter Blatty

and the writing of the book and then later the movie

The Exorcist. He read these accounts

of exorcisms and the dramatic

things that were said to happen. So as far as the body

contortion and the pea soup, projectile

vomiting, that comes from the 1928 case

in which a 40 year old woman

was exorcised by a Milwaukee ordained

priest called theophilus Re singer.

But they don't talk about 1926,

when that woman was first exorcised in

Milwaukee. Yes,

like the devil right here. And I also want to mention

that the Archdiocese actually had a press

conference in 1926 to

announce two exorcisms that year by Father

Theo. One was of a

mechanic, a male mechanic from

Milwaukee, and I don't have many details about that

one, but I do know that Father

Reesinger was quoted saying that as

he released the demons from this man, it

shook the seminary. So we think that

that went on in Milwaukee at

the Capuchin Monastery on

Fourth and Harmon streets. And again,

as the devils were released, the whole building shook.

That's all I know about that one. They should have press releases now.

Yeah, I know. This was actually a press

conference where two top officials from the Catholic

Church came out to say that there were these two

exorcisms that were performed locally and

this news went national. Can you imagine the reporters, though? It's like the

1920s, like, talking, like, okay, so did you vomit pea soup

out of it? Just think about 1920s reporters talking to these

priests about an exorcism. I would have liked to be there.

So we know the most about the woman,

although there's a lot of things that still

need to be sorted out because there's two different stories of how she

became possessed. She was given the pseudonym

Anna Ekland. So if you search for that online,

you'll find a lot about the 1928 exorcism because there's

a book that's popularly available

called Begone Satan, which is all about the

1928 exorcisms. And you can read it for free

online. Some people say that her real name was

Emma Smith, but finding her census

records has proved difficult for me

because some of the details just don't match up. But this

guy was definitely real. Theophilus

Reesinger. He was ordained here in Milwaukee at St. Francis

Seminary and he moved to the Appleton area. But he came back to

Milwaukee often whenever he was needed. And he wasn't afraid to take

people out of state like he did with

Emma. That's what I'm going to call her, because he

felt that they needed to be taken away

from their local area so that the

community wouldn't be talking about them first. He took her

in 1926 to St. Joseph's

Hospital, which was located on Fourth Street and

Reservoir Avenue. So she was admitted as a

patient, and then he underwent a three day

fast and then performed the rites of

exorcism in the church chapel. Now, he was known

to be an extraordinarily strong man. He said

that most people, most exorcists

didn't live long after their first exorcism. Now,

I can't support that through documentation, but this is what he

believed. And he said he was

gifted with extraordinary strengths from

the Lord and was able to successfully

exercise 22 people

in his long career, but by extraordinary strength. Do you

mean, like, strength of character, or do you mean, like, spiritual?

Okay. I was just saying, like, if he could, like, airplane spin. Well,

he did have a very athletic physique. He was known

to work long hours and have big

muscles. You got a picture of him? What was that? I said,

you got a picture of him? He looks like a badass. Yeah, he is kind

of a badass. I would say. Look at that. Really tall and really built.

But he had this spiritual strength that

he could withstand the onslaughts of the

devil. And then the 1928 exorcism that he

performed for 23 days, not

consecutively. There were breaks in between, so it was over a period of several

months. But the whole exorcism of Emma

in Caroline, Iowa, at the convent there lasted

for 23 days. And

it's a really physical work. Apparently, his

cassocks would get sweated through and he would

have to change his clothes sometimes three times a day. And

also there was the projectile vomiting. Don't forget about that.

That could have something to do with it. He did have help in the

1928 exorcism by Father

Joseph Steiger, and that was his local parish in

Caroline, Iowa. This

guy actually reported that

the spirits were, like, after him, and he had a hard

time staying in the exorcisms because they would say terrible

things to him and accuse him of terrible things. And

then one day they said, well, just wait till Friday.

And he's like, okay. On Friday he was called away because

one of his parishioners needed last rites. And so

he drove to their house and administered last rites. And

then on the way back, he said that as he was

crossing this treacherous bridge, this black

cloud descended in front of his face and

blinded him. So he crashed into the rails.

Now, thankfully, he

survived. His car didn't, but he survived. And a nearby

farmer had heard the crash and ran to his aid. And

when he returned to the exorcism, he hadn't told anybody

about that, but the demon knew right away. So how did you like

that, Father Steiger? And so Father

Steiger was surprised that the demon knew about his

accident. And the demon also acknowledged that if he hadn't been protected by one

of the saints, he would have been dead. As I said,

these 1926 exorcisms made national

news. But you won't find information about the press

conference in the Milwaukee papers, but what you will

find is in depth accounts

of the exorcisms at the

hospital chapel. This is the most amazing one, I think,

from February 18, after the rites, which took

place around the end of January.

The woman was still in the hospital, and

they interviewed a nun named Sister Blanche,

and she talked about how this little

woman exhibited extraordinary strength

and had to be dragged into the chapel

by four big men. And the howling and animal

sounds that came from her just seemed unnatural.

Now this is interesting, something that

Mother Theophilus Reesinger said in a later

interview which, when begun, Satan came out in

1936. He was interviewed in the Milwaukee

papers and then his interview

went national and then Time magazine actually featured

him. Can you imagine opening up Time magazine today and

seeing them profiling an exorcist and talking

about details of exorcisms?

Well, this is interesting to me because I always thought you had to

give yourself to the devil, like verbally or at least in the

exorcist films, like play with the Ouija board or something naughty that you're not supposed

to do that allows you entrance. But he said

that sometimes there is diabolical material

in the body and this must be expelled. And

as long as it is there, the devil can always come

back. You might like to pick up the sensational book about

the case of Emma's exorcism called The

Devil Rocked Her Cradle. Anyway, in here you find

out that her aunt, who was having

infidelity with her father, was said to have cursed her

along with her father cursing her for various abuse

ridden reasons that I won't mention. The

Aunt Mina cursed her by putting some strange

herbs in her tea and performing malediction, which is

essentially putting a spell on her. Father Theo is

acknowledging that that you could have some tainted food

that has some cursed herbs in it and that

could make you a swinging door for all manner of

devils and demons. But he would later come to believe that

Anna, or Emma, as I'm going to call her, that

she was actually a vessel of the

Lord and she was the swinging door.

And this is why he had to exercise her so

often. There are sources that claim that Father Theo

his first rite with Emma when she was a teenager in

1912. And then in 1926

he brings her to Milwaukee and exercises her here.

And then in 1928 he takes her

to Caroline, Iowa to the convent there and

the nuns there helped by holding her down and doing

Mother various services. But I think most importantly,

what he wanted is just like we were talking, the rite

of perpetual adoration. They could assist with the

exorcism by constantly praying

during that 23 day period, praying around the clock.

And that's what I think happened real quick. Alzheimer, we're running out of

time. So how did it end up? So let's just how did how did what

happened to poor Emily and how did it end up? So we can let everybody

know. We can't leave on a cliffhanger. So in 1936,

he admitted in Time magazine and in local

interviews that Emma would have to be exercised

for the rest of her life, that she wasn't so much a

victim of these spirits anymore. But

they were trapped in her body. And then they could be exercised by

Father Theo and then locked up in hell for a

long time. So they wouldn't be set anyone else on Earth. And she

also at one point felt that she was having communications

with holy figures, like the Virgin Mary was possessing her.

So she became like a vehicle for the faith. Interesting.

So it was not a really happy ending for Emma?

Well, it depends on how you look at it, because

she was more in control of her actions. But she always

performed that service of taking in the devil into her

own body. And then Father Theo would come along and

take those devil and throw them back into

so he said that she literally freed this world

from billions and billions of demonic

beings. All right, well okay. Well, thanks, Emma. We appreciate that

today. Yeah. So I know we're wrapping up, but I wanted to just take

a minute to see if anybody had any questions or comments

or their own stories to. Share, because what do

we can definitely do the stories to share at the Ghost

Story open mic. Oh, that's right. We're ending the day with that.

Yeah. So we'll talk about that more later. But any questions, though? Will you

take one or two? Yes, go ahead.

Oh, 59. Yeah. So she didn't live a very long

life, unfortunately. How old did Father Theo

live? He lived to 73. He died in

1941. Okay. I know we talked about Theo, but

the Earling Exorcism case is one of the most monumental. It

was a lot of the inspiration for, obviously, the Exorcist.

But just inside the Calvary Cemetery here in Milwaukee,

there's a grave that you can visit interred. There are the remains of

clergyman Walter Halloran. Now, Halloran, he attended a

Jesuit boarding school in Pradusheen before joining the Society of

Jesus, better known as the Jesuits. As Halloran worked towards his

ordination, he participated in one of the most bizarre and notable events in

American paranormal history. He assisted Father Raymond Bishop

in the exorcism of Roland Doe. So it was 1949,

the notes of which inspired the exorcist novel, as well as the monumental film

adaptation. Halloran was the last living witness of the possession,

and it said that he later expressed

skepticism of the supernatural claims of Bladdy's

novel and also the directorial work. But Halloran, he'd

go on to teach at Marquette. He served as a chaplain in Vietnam, and

he directed campus ministry at St. Louis before retiring

at St. Camillas here. He died in

Wawatosa, and he's buried here at the Calvary

Cemetery. Yes. Actually, two witnesses to the

Rolando Exorcism died here in Milwaukee at St.

Camillas, which is a retirement home for

priests. So they ended their life here in

Milwaukee. And you can go and see

Halloran's Gravestone at

Calvary Cemetery on Jesuit Hill. And

if you need exorcism yourself, you might want to check out

this seminary, which is really beautiful.

It's called the University of St. Mary of the Lake. The

Mundaline Seminary. It's 1 hour from

Milwaukee, and I thought you had to go to Rome

to get exorcism training, but they have a

yearly cohort there where they train exorcists from

all over the world. And they also have an annual

conference for exorcists. They actually come to Mundeline,

Illinois, and talk shop. But you can't

get in because you have to be a clergyman

or you have to be okayed by the bishop. So if you want

to go get that bishop for your letter going, and then you'll be able to

go to the conference next summer. All right? So that's

right. Milwaukee, home of beer brats, the violent

stems and exorcism, and, of course, the

devil. So we'll see you next time on Wisconsin Legends

Podcast.

Sam.

Sam.

Sam.