April 6, 2026
Terrifying & True | Anneliese Michel Exorcism True Story: Demonic Possession Claims and the Shocking Death Behind the Horror
The Anneliese Michel exorcism remains one of the most disturbing and controversial cases in modern religious history—a story of alleged demonic possession, failed medical treatment, Catholic ritual, and a young woman whose death still fuels arguments about faith, mental illness, epilepsy, and neglect. In this episode of Terrifying & True, we go beyond the sensational “real exorcism” legend and into the documented tragedy behind the case: a deeply religious woman in West Germany, months of ritual intervention, a body wasting away in plain sight, and the horrifying question of what happens when conviction replaces care.
We trace the full arc of the case, from Anneliese Michel’s early medical struggles and reported seizures to the growing belief that she was possessed, the Church-approved exorcism rites carried out by Fathers Ernst Alt and Arnold Renz, and the devastating collapse that ended in her death on July 1, 1976. The episode also follows the aftermath: the criminal trial, the role of her parents, the suspended sentences for negligent homicide, and the reason this case still endures as one of the darkest intersections of Catholic exorcism, psychological suffering, and preventable death.
Inside this episode:
- Who Anneliese Michel was before the case became world-famous
- Epilepsy, psychiatric symptoms, and spiritual interpretation
- How the possession narrative took hold
- The months-long Catholic exorcism rites
- Why medical treatment stopped
- Her death from malnutrition and dehydration
- The 1978 trial of her parents and the priests
- Why the real horror is more disturbing than the legend
If you’re drawn to true exorcism stories, real demonic possession cases, Catholic horror, paranormal true crime, religious mystery, and the devastating gray area where belief and mental illness collide, this episode is essential listening. The Anneliese Michel case is frightening not because it might prove a demon was in the room—but because a suffering young woman was, and the people around her could no longer see her clearly enough to save her.
We’re telling that story tonight.
🎧 LISTEN NOW and subscribe for spine-tingling horror stories every week!
🎉 Unlock exclusive bonus episodes and support the show on Patreon!
👉 WeeklySpooky.com/Join
📬 Contact Us / Submit Your Horror Story!
- Twitter: @WeeklySpooky
- Facebook: facebook.com/WeeklySpooky
- Email: WeeklySpooky@gmail.com
🎵 Music by Ray Mattis 👉 Check out Ray’s incredible work here !
👨💼 Executive Producers: Rob Fields, Bobbletopia.com
🎥 Produced by: Daniel Wilder
🌐 Explore more terrifying tales at: WeeklySpooky.com
WEBVTT
1
00:00:01.639 --> 00:00:07.200
A young woman is wasting away in a quiet German bedroom.
2
00:00:07.200 --> 00:00:12.560
Priests pray over her. Her family believes they're fighting evil,
3
00:00:12.800 --> 00:00:17.399
but as the ritual drags on and her body collapses.
4
00:00:18.079 --> 00:00:23.480
The most terrifying possibility isn't that a demon entered the room.
5
00:00:24.320 --> 00:00:30.519
It's that everyone inside became too certain to stop what's happening.
6
00:00:33.479 --> 00:00:37.119
What you were about to pet you is pit to
7
00:00:37.240 --> 00:00:46.560
be based on witness accounts, testimonies, and public record. This
8
00:00:46.840 --> 00:00:50.200
is terrifying and.
9
00:00:58.119 --> 00:01:05.040
July one, teen seventy six, klingenberg Am, main West, Germany,
10
00:01:05.879 --> 00:01:09.159
in a modest bedroom, a twenty three year old woman
11
00:01:09.319 --> 00:01:15.519
lies dead after months of sanctioned Catholic exorcism rights. Her
12
00:01:15.680 --> 00:01:20.239
name was Anna l's Michel. By the time she died,
13
00:01:20.840 --> 00:01:26.680
she weighed shockingly little, her body was failing. Her family
14
00:01:26.799 --> 00:01:30.840
believed she was possessed. The priests who prayed over her
15
00:01:31.400 --> 00:01:35.840
believed it too. For decades, her story has been sold
16
00:01:35.879 --> 00:01:41.640
as one of the most terrifying real exorcism cases ever recorded.
17
00:01:42.400 --> 00:01:47.480
A grim tale of demonic voices, sacred rituals, and evil
18
00:01:48.200 --> 00:01:54.760
refusing to leave it inspired films, documentaries, books, and endless
19
00:01:54.920 --> 00:01:59.359
arguments over whether something supernatural had taken hold of a
20
00:02:00.040 --> 00:02:05.840
deeply religious young woman. But behind the legend is a
21
00:02:05.959 --> 00:02:12.240
far more unsettling reality. Annalise Michelle had a history of seizures,
22
00:02:12.759 --> 00:02:19.919
psychiatric distress, and prolonged suffering. As her condition worsened, medical
23
00:02:19.960 --> 00:02:26.080
care gave way to spiritual intervention, and once that happened,
24
00:02:26.759 --> 00:02:30.840
every new symptom could be interpreted not as a warning
25
00:02:30.919 --> 00:02:36.479
sign of physical collapse, but as proof that the ritual
26
00:02:36.560 --> 00:02:42.319
battle was real. Tonight, we examined the true case of
27
00:02:42.360 --> 00:02:48.080
Annalise Michel, the illness, the exorcisms, the trial, and the
28
00:02:48.199 --> 00:02:53.199
terrible possibility that the greatest danger in the room was
29
00:02:53.360 --> 00:02:58.960
not an unseen force at all, but the absolute certainty
30
00:02:59.599 --> 00:03:05.960
of the people standing around the bed. So make sure
31
00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:23.560
you're subscribed as we tell that story tonight. On July one,
32
00:03:23.840 --> 00:03:29.680
nineteen seventy six, in Klingenberg, Am Maine, West Germany, inside
33
00:03:29.680 --> 00:03:33.439
a modest family home, a twenty three year old woman
34
00:03:34.080 --> 00:03:38.039
lies dying in a bedroom that has become over the
35
00:03:38.120 --> 00:03:43.759
past ten months, a battleground. Prayers have been shouted here,
36
00:03:44.199 --> 00:03:48.319
Latin rites have been spoken here. Priests have stood over
37
00:03:48.360 --> 00:03:54.280
the bed and commanded unseen things to leave. Tapes have rolled,
38
00:03:55.000 --> 00:03:59.639
parents have watched and as the room narrowed around her.
39
00:04:00.479 --> 00:04:06.599
Ritual after ritual, session after session, her body kept doing
40
00:04:06.680 --> 00:04:14.360
what bodies do when nobody truly stops the collapse. It weakened, starved,
41
00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:21.279
and failed. By the time Annelise Michel dies, she weighs
42
00:04:21.319 --> 00:04:26.319
about sixty eight pounds. The priests who prayed over her
43
00:04:26.759 --> 00:04:32.000
will later insist she was possessed. Her parents will insist
44
00:04:32.079 --> 00:04:37.519
the same. The state will charge all four with negligent homicide,
45
00:04:38.319 --> 00:04:41.959
arguing that her death could have been prevented even a
46
00:04:42.000 --> 00:04:46.879
week before the end, if someone had simply called a doctor.
47
00:04:47.839 --> 00:04:51.839
And that is the real horror of this story, not
48
00:04:52.000 --> 00:04:56.279
the possibility that evil entered the room, but the certainty
49
00:04:56.399 --> 00:05:00.319
that a suffering young woman did, and the peace people
50
00:05:00.360 --> 00:05:07.079
around her answered suffering with conviction instead of care. For decades,
51
00:05:07.160 --> 00:05:11.000
the case of Annelise Michel has been sold as the
52
00:05:11.120 --> 00:05:16.800
real exorcism story, the one too disturbing for fiction, the
53
00:05:16.839 --> 00:05:25.000
one that inspired movies, arguments, pilgrimages, and endless debates about faith, demons, medicine,
54
00:05:25.480 --> 00:05:29.839
and the limits of reason. But the truth is more
55
00:05:30.120 --> 00:05:34.360
troubling than the legend, because the truth does not need
56
00:05:34.560 --> 00:05:39.399
spinning furniture or sulfurous shadows. It only needs a sick
57
00:05:39.480 --> 00:05:45.040
young woman, a devout family, a church willing to authorize ritual,
58
00:05:45.639 --> 00:05:48.920
and enough certainty in the room to make every warning
59
00:05:49.040 --> 00:05:53.199
sign appear to be proof of the very thing that
60
00:05:53.360 --> 00:05:59.160
was killing her. Before she became an infamous case, before
61
00:05:59.480 --> 00:06:04.519
she became shorthand for real exorcism. Annalise Michel was a
62
00:06:04.519 --> 00:06:09.240
Bavarian student from a deeply Catholic family in the town
63
00:06:09.319 --> 00:06:16.360
of Klingenberg. Contemporary reporting described her as deeply religious, raised
64
00:06:16.399 --> 00:06:21.079
by equally religious parents, with a home life steeped not
65
00:06:21.360 --> 00:06:27.680
casually in faith, but in a worldview where sin, suffering, guilt, redemption,
66
00:06:27.879 --> 00:06:33.839
and spiritual warfare were all part of reality, not metaphor
67
00:06:34.360 --> 00:06:41.360
or old folklore, but cold, hard reality that matters because
68
00:06:41.639 --> 00:06:45.560
cases like this do not begin with spectacle. They begin
69
00:06:45.720 --> 00:06:49.920
with atmosphere. A person gets sick inside a framework that
70
00:06:50.040 --> 00:06:55.439
already knows how to explain pain. As a teenager, Annalise
71
00:06:55.600 --> 00:06:59.959
had episodes that brought her into psychiatric care, and later
72
00:07:00.279 --> 00:07:06.319
she developed a documented history of epilepsy. Contemporary trial coverage
73
00:07:06.319 --> 00:07:11.800
said she underwent about four years of medical treatment. Even then,
74
00:07:11.920 --> 00:07:17.040
though treatment did not bring her relief, her condition continued
75
00:07:17.040 --> 00:07:22.600
to worsen. Depression, deepened. Doctors tried to treat what they saw,
76
00:07:23.120 --> 00:07:27.639
but for Annaale's and the people closest to her, medicine
77
00:07:27.720 --> 00:07:33.480
was not producing clarity. It was producing frustration, dread, and
78
00:07:33.839 --> 00:07:40.079
a terrifying vacuum where explanation ought to be. That vacuum
79
00:07:40.399 --> 00:07:44.240
is where this story starts to turn, because once a
80
00:07:44.319 --> 00:07:49.600
disease becomes emotionally unbearable, people do not always want the
81
00:07:49.800 --> 00:07:56.000
likeliest answer, They want the most meaningful one. Later archival
82
00:07:56.079 --> 00:08:00.800
work summarized by the Diocese of Wurzburg says Annals and
83
00:08:00.879 --> 00:08:05.120
her family refused medical help and placed their hopes in
84
00:08:05.199 --> 00:08:10.920
a spiritual solution. That shift was not some sudden thunderbolt
85
00:08:11.040 --> 00:08:15.079
where a healthy woman went from normal life to Latin
86
00:08:15.199 --> 00:08:22.279
prayers overnight. It was gradual. Symptoms continued to accumulate, religious
87
00:08:22.279 --> 00:08:28.079
interpretation accumulated along with them, and eventually one started feeding
88
00:08:28.160 --> 00:08:33.480
the other. There were experiences that had genuinely frightened her.
89
00:08:34.399 --> 00:08:39.120
Later church related commentary and reporting about the case described
90
00:08:39.279 --> 00:08:46.600
visual and auditory disturbances, hearing voices, seeing grotesque faces, feeling
91
00:08:46.799 --> 00:08:52.600
unable to pray normally, growing distressed around religious objects in
92
00:08:52.679 --> 00:08:58.200
a secular frame. Those details sound like psychiatric and neurological
93
00:08:58.279 --> 00:09:04.720
red flags. In without supernatural frame, they can sound like confirmation.
94
00:09:05.720 --> 00:09:10.320
If you already believe the world contains malevolent spiritual forces,
95
00:09:10.840 --> 00:09:13.559
then hearing a voice that tells you not to eat
96
00:09:14.320 --> 00:09:18.720
is not just a symptom. It becomes a message. If
97
00:09:18.759 --> 00:09:23.600
prayer fills you with revulsion or panic, that's not just distress.
98
00:09:24.240 --> 00:09:30.000
It becomes evidence, and there is a grounded reason that matters.
99
00:09:30.639 --> 00:09:34.440
Modern medical literature does not prove what happened to Anale's
100
00:09:34.519 --> 00:09:39.639
michelle specifically, but it does show that psychosis and epilepsy
101
00:09:40.159 --> 00:09:46.000
can overlap in serious ways. A systematic review and meta
102
00:09:46.080 --> 00:09:50.879
analysis found a pooled prevalence of psychosis in epilepsy of
103
00:09:51.039 --> 00:09:55.159
five point six percent, with a higher prevalence of seven
104
00:09:55.240 --> 00:09:59.879
percent in temporal lobe epilepsy, and an almost eightfold in
105
00:10:00.080 --> 00:10:05.519
increased risk of psychosis compared with controls. That does not
106
00:10:05.799 --> 00:10:09.360
settle her case from a distance, but it does remind
107
00:10:09.440 --> 00:10:16.200
us that bizarre, frightening, and apparently spiritual symptoms can emerge
108
00:10:16.279 --> 00:10:22.159
from organic illness without becoming any less real or terrifying
109
00:10:22.639 --> 00:10:27.960
to the person living through them. This is where sensational
110
00:10:28.159 --> 00:10:32.200
versions of the story usually go off the rails. They
111
00:10:32.240 --> 00:10:36.559
start acting as if medicine and religion are two cleanly
112
00:10:36.720 --> 00:10:41.039
separate lanes, and one of them must be lying. Real
113
00:10:41.120 --> 00:10:47.879
life is uglier than that a devout person with epilepsy, depression, hallucinations,
114
00:10:47.919 --> 00:10:52.360
and a collapsing sense of self can experience everything as
115
00:10:52.639 --> 00:10:59.080
spiritually meaningful while still being profoundly medically unwell. Those are
116
00:10:59.120 --> 00:11:03.039
not opposite. They can happen at the same time, and
117
00:11:03.480 --> 00:11:08.519
that overlap may be exactly what made Annalise Michel's case
118
00:11:09.080 --> 00:11:15.279
so combustible. Eventually, Father ernst Alt, a local priest, became
119
00:11:15.440 --> 00:11:19.559
convinced that more than illness was at work. Another priest,
120
00:11:19.720 --> 00:11:23.879
Arnold Wrens, would later be assigned to perform the formal rite.
121
00:11:24.519 --> 00:11:29.399
Above them was Bishop Joseph Stengel of Wurzburg, whose permission
122
00:11:29.519 --> 00:11:33.440
mattered because a major exorcism was never supposed to be
123
00:11:33.639 --> 00:11:39.559
a casual, local event. Even modern Catholic guidance is explicit
124
00:11:40.039 --> 00:11:45.159
a solemn or major exorcism may be performed only by
125
00:11:45.200 --> 00:11:49.799
a bishop or by a priest with the bishop's special permission,
126
00:11:50.240 --> 00:11:57.279
and only after thorough medical, psychological, and psychiatric examination. That
127
00:11:57.360 --> 00:12:02.120
guidance is modern, not a record of exactly how things
128
00:12:02.159 --> 00:12:06.919
were handled. In nineteen seventy five Bavaria, but it shows
129
00:12:07.279 --> 00:12:12.600
plainly that the Church itself sees this territory as dangerous.
130
00:12:13.799 --> 00:12:18.919
Once Bishop Stengel approved the right, the case changed shape completely.
131
00:12:19.480 --> 00:12:23.440
Annealise Michel was no longer simply a sick young woman
132
00:12:23.759 --> 00:12:28.799
whose treatment was failing. She became a possession case, a
133
00:12:28.840 --> 00:12:34.200
spiritual emergency, a person who's worsening condition could now be
134
00:12:34.320 --> 00:12:39.519
interpreted not as disproof of the exorcism, but as proof
135
00:12:39.559 --> 00:12:44.320
that the enemy being fought was stronger than anyone thought.
136
00:12:45.080 --> 00:12:50.200
And once that logic takes hold, every failed intervention can
137
00:12:50.240 --> 00:13:02.159
become fuel for the next one. The exorcisms began in
138
00:13:02.279 --> 00:13:08.240
nineteen seventy five and continued into nineteen seventy six. Archival
139
00:13:08.320 --> 00:13:13.159
research summarized by the Diocese of Wurzburg says the major
140
00:13:13.279 --> 00:13:18.000
exorcism was prayed over Anale's Michelle between September of nineteen
141
00:13:18.080 --> 00:13:22.879
seventy five and June of nineteen seventy six. A widely
142
00:13:22.919 --> 00:13:27.519
cited figure echoed in later accounts and consistent with long
143
00:13:27.600 --> 00:13:31.000
running reporting on the case, is that there were sixty
144
00:13:31.120 --> 00:13:37.480
seven exorcism sessions in total. Contemporary trial coverage from nineteen
145
00:13:37.600 --> 00:13:43.519
seventy eight described tapes recorded during some seventy visits by
146
00:13:43.559 --> 00:13:47.720
the two priests to the family home. So whether one
147
00:13:47.879 --> 00:13:52.759
uses sixty seven or some seventy, the important thing is
148
00:13:52.840 --> 00:13:58.200
not the exact dramatic number, it's the duration. This was
149
00:13:58.279 --> 00:14:03.919
not one night of pain. This was months, a campaign,
150
00:14:04.600 --> 00:14:09.720
a structure of belief sustained over time. Those rituals were
151
00:14:09.799 --> 00:14:13.559
conducted in secret in the bedroom of her parents' home.
152
00:14:14.639 --> 00:14:20.080
According to trial reporting, sessions lasted roughly an hour. Other
153
00:14:20.360 --> 00:14:25.399
later retellings stretched them even longer. But the reliable point
154
00:14:25.559 --> 00:14:30.799
is simple. They were frequent enough, intense enough, and prolonged
155
00:14:30.919 --> 00:14:39.600
enough that they became the defining rhythm of Analisa's life, prayer, exhaustion, expectation, fear,
156
00:14:40.399 --> 00:14:44.000
and more prayer. Her room ceased to be a place
157
00:14:44.080 --> 00:14:48.320
of recovery. It became a stage on which everyone present
158
00:14:48.519 --> 00:14:53.000
kept trying to force an answer out of suffering, and
159
00:14:53.120 --> 00:14:58.519
all the while the medical side was collapsing. Contemporary reporting
160
00:14:58.639 --> 00:15:02.879
said that eleven months before she died, all medical treatment
161
00:15:03.759 --> 00:15:09.200
was stopped. That point is central, because once active treatment
162
00:15:09.320 --> 00:15:13.840
falls away, ritual stops being something that coexists with care
163
00:15:14.519 --> 00:15:19.879
and becomes the care itself. Later archival reassessment adds an
164
00:15:19.879 --> 00:15:25.799
important wrinkle. The Diocese of Wurzburg summary says Annelise herself
165
00:15:25.879 --> 00:15:30.039
and her family refused further medical help and put their
166
00:15:30.120 --> 00:15:35.240
trust in a spiritual solution. In other words, this was
167
00:15:35.279 --> 00:15:40.159
not merely something done to her by remote authority. It
168
00:15:40.240 --> 00:15:45.080
was something reinforced by the convictions inside the house. That
169
00:15:45.279 --> 00:15:50.879
makes the case more tragic, not less. Loving people can
170
00:15:50.960 --> 00:15:55.600
absolutely help destroy someone when everyone is speaking the same
171
00:15:56.159 --> 00:16:03.679
catastrophic language. The image that's in popular memories usually grotesque
172
00:16:03.720 --> 00:16:08.840
and theatrical, a girl shrieking in demonic voices, recoiling from
173
00:16:08.919 --> 00:16:14.480
holy objects, speaking obscenites, kneeling until her body breaks. Some
174
00:16:14.559 --> 00:16:18.399
of those details entered the public record through the tapes
175
00:16:18.480 --> 00:16:22.919
and testimony. But what matters more than the lurid details
176
00:16:23.559 --> 00:16:28.480
is the pattern. As her physical state worsened, the exorcisms
177
00:16:28.559 --> 00:16:33.320
did not stop. They continued. That is the detail that
178
00:16:33.360 --> 00:16:37.720
should chill all of us. Not that adults thought something
179
00:16:37.840 --> 00:16:42.679
supernatural was happening. People have thought that for centuries. The
180
00:16:42.799 --> 00:16:46.399
chilling part is that a room full of adults watched
181
00:16:46.440 --> 00:16:51.840
a body deteriorate and interpreted that deterioration as part of
182
00:16:51.879 --> 00:16:57.320
the ritual logic instead of as a medical emergency overtaking
183
00:16:57.600 --> 00:17:02.120
everything else. By Earth only nineteen seventy six, the case
184
00:17:02.200 --> 00:17:07.400
had deepened into something almost impossible to interrupt. An Alis
185
00:17:07.400 --> 00:17:11.559
reportedly heard voices telling her not to eat and compelling
186
00:17:11.680 --> 00:17:18.240
punishing physical behaviors. Jesuit priest and physician Ulrich Niemann later
187
00:17:18.359 --> 00:17:22.119
said the descriptions of her seizures pointed to epilepsy, and
188
00:17:22.240 --> 00:17:27.519
that in rare cases, anti epileptic treatment can be associated
189
00:17:27.559 --> 00:17:33.839
with psychosis. He also described hallucinations and extreme exertion as
190
00:17:33.960 --> 00:17:37.880
part of the picture. He argued that the exorcism itself
191
00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:41.559
was not the direct cause of death, but that under
192
00:17:41.640 --> 00:17:48.200
nourishment combined with extreme physical strain was fatal. That distinction
193
00:17:48.640 --> 00:17:53.200
is very important. It's the difference between the ritual killed
194
00:17:53.240 --> 00:17:58.279
her and the ritualized environment failed to stop what was
195
00:17:58.359 --> 00:18:02.640
killing her. Her body was telling the truth, whether anyone
196
00:18:02.759 --> 00:18:06.720
wanted to hear it or not. By the end, she
197
00:18:06.920 --> 00:18:12.240
was emaciated. The best supported contemporary figure is about sixty
198
00:18:12.240 --> 00:18:16.759
eight pounds at death. Later archival summaries say she died
199
00:18:16.839 --> 00:18:22.960
of under nourishment. Contemporaneous reporting said the autopsy attributed death
200
00:18:23.079 --> 00:18:29.519
to malnutrition and dehydration resulting from almost a year of
201
00:18:29.640 --> 00:18:36.000
semi starvation during the rites. However phrased, the body's testimony
202
00:18:36.559 --> 00:18:42.319
was plain. This was not a case of floating above biology.
203
00:18:43.119 --> 00:18:49.359
Biology had become the entire emergency. One of the most
204
00:18:49.480 --> 00:18:53.160
dangerous things that can happen in a crisis is for
205
00:18:53.279 --> 00:18:59.039
worsening evidence to become stronger confirmation of the chosen explanation.
206
00:18:59.720 --> 00:19:03.680
If if someone believes a person is possessed, refusal to
207
00:19:03.720 --> 00:19:09.119
eat can seem as though its demonic interference. If someone
208
00:19:09.200 --> 00:19:13.559
believes a person is profoundly ill, refusal to eat is
209
00:19:13.640 --> 00:19:20.480
a medical emergency. Same behavior, different reactions. One framework narrows
210
00:19:20.519 --> 00:19:25.119
toward intervention, the other can keep widening until the person
211
00:19:25.160 --> 00:19:30.640
at the center disappears inside it. By June of nineteen
212
00:19:30.759 --> 00:19:34.759
seventy six, there was very little ambiguity left in the
213
00:19:34.799 --> 00:19:40.440
physical facts. The spiritual narrative was still raging. The body
214
00:19:40.559 --> 00:19:45.480
had nearly run out. On July one, nineteen seventy six,
215
00:19:45.960 --> 00:19:51.400
Annelise Michel died at home in Klingenberg. For all the
216
00:19:51.599 --> 00:19:56.720
arguments that would come later about devils, rights, visions and voices,
217
00:19:57.359 --> 00:20:03.039
the immediate reality was brutally ordinary. A twenty three year
218
00:20:03.079 --> 00:20:07.160
old woman had been allowed to deteriorate to the edge
219
00:20:07.160 --> 00:20:13.000
of starvation, and beyond that is where the legend ends
220
00:20:13.839 --> 00:20:25.680
and the case begins. After her death, the state moved
221
00:20:25.720 --> 00:20:32.400
in the story shifted from prayer to prosecution. Investigators concluded
222
00:20:32.440 --> 00:20:36.880
that Annelise Michel's death could have been prevented even a
223
00:20:36.920 --> 00:20:40.200
week before the end if a physician had been called.
224
00:20:40.960 --> 00:20:44.519
That conclusion became the backbone of the case against her
225
00:20:44.599 --> 00:20:51.160
parents and the two priests. They were charged with negligent homicide.
226
00:20:51.319 --> 00:20:54.680
Think about that term. The court did not have to
227
00:20:54.759 --> 00:20:57.880
prove the devil did not exist. It did not have
228
00:20:58.000 --> 00:21:02.640
to solve theology. It only had to ask whether adults
229
00:21:02.720 --> 00:21:07.079
responsible for a collapsing young woman had failed in a
230
00:21:07.200 --> 00:21:12.200
duty of care. The trial began on March thirtieth, nineteen
231
00:21:12.359 --> 00:21:19.839
seventy eight, in Aschoffenberg and drew major attention. Contemporary reporting
232
00:21:19.960 --> 00:21:24.559
described a court room transfixed by tapes recorded during the
233
00:21:24.680 --> 00:21:29.839
exorcism sessions. Spectators listened to the sounds of a dead
234
00:21:29.880 --> 00:21:36.119
woman's voice being replayed in public space. Her sister reportedly
235
00:21:36.200 --> 00:21:41.559
fled in tears. Her father sat listening through an amplifier.
236
00:21:42.440 --> 00:21:45.880
Her mother took notes and cried out When the doctors
237
00:21:45.960 --> 00:21:51.960
described her daughter as mentally ill rather than demonically afflicted.
238
00:21:53.119 --> 00:21:56.599
You can feel the split in the room, even across
1
00:00:01.639 --> 00:00:07.200
2
00:00:07.200 --> 00:00:12.560
3
00:00:12.800 --> 00:00:17.399
4
00:00:18.079 --> 00:00:23.480
5
00:00:24.320 --> 00:00:30.519
6
00:00:33.479 --> 00:00:37.119
7
00:00:37.240 --> 00:00:46.560
8
00:00:46.840 --> 00:00:50.200
9
00:00:58.119 --> 00:01:05.040
10
00:01:05.879 --> 00:01:09.159
11
00:01:09.319 --> 00:01:15.519
12
00:01:15.680 --> 00:01:20.239
13
00:01:20.840 --> 00:01:26.680
14
00:01:26.799 --> 00:01:30.840
15
00:01:31.400 --> 00:01:35.840
16
00:01:35.879 --> 00:01:41.640
17
00:01:42.400 --> 00:01:47.480
18
00:01:48.200 --> 00:01:54.760
19
00:01:54.920 --> 00:01:59.359
20
00:02:00.040 --> 00:02:05.840
21
00:02:05.959 --> 00:02:12.240
22
00:02:12.759 --> 00:02:19.919
23
00:02:19.960 --> 00:02:26.080
24
00:02:26.759 --> 00:02:30.840
25
00:02:30.919 --> 00:02:36.479
26
00:02:36.560 --> 00:02:42.319
27
00:02:42.360 --> 00:02:48.080
28
00:02:48.199 --> 00:02:53.199
29
00:02:53.360 --> 00:02:58.960
30
00:02:59.599 --> 00:03:05.960
31
00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:23.560
32
00:03:23.840 --> 00:03:29.680
33
00:03:29.680 --> 00:03:33.439
34
00:03:34.080 --> 00:03:38.039
35
00:03:38.120 --> 00:03:43.759
36
00:03:44.199 --> 00:03:48.319
37
00:03:48.360 --> 00:03:54.280
38
00:03:55.000 --> 00:03:59.639
39
00:04:00.479 --> 00:04:06.599
40
00:04:06.680 --> 00:04:14.360
41
00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:21.279
42
00:04:21.319 --> 00:04:26.319
43
00:04:26.759 --> 00:04:32.000
44
00:04:32.079 --> 00:04:37.519
45
00:04:38.319 --> 00:04:41.959
46
00:04:42.000 --> 00:04:46.879
47
00:04:47.839 --> 00:04:51.839
48
00:04:52.000 --> 00:04:56.279
49
00:04:56.399 --> 00:05:00.319
50
00:05:00.360 --> 00:05:07.079
51
00:05:07.160 --> 00:05:11.000
52
00:05:11.120 --> 00:05:16.800
53
00:05:16.839 --> 00:05:25.000
54
00:05:25.480 --> 00:05:29.839
55
00:05:30.120 --> 00:05:34.360
56
00:05:34.560 --> 00:05:39.399
57
00:05:39.480 --> 00:05:45.040
58
00:05:45.639 --> 00:05:48.920
59
00:05:49.040 --> 00:05:53.199
60
00:05:53.360 --> 00:05:59.160
61
00:05:59.480 --> 00:06:04.519
62
00:06:04.519 --> 00:06:09.240
63
00:06:09.319 --> 00:06:16.360
64
00:06:16.399 --> 00:06:21.079
65
00:06:21.360 --> 00:06:27.680
66
00:06:27.879 --> 00:06:33.839
67
00:06:34.360 --> 00:06:41.360
68
00:06:41.639 --> 00:06:45.560
69
00:06:45.720 --> 00:06:49.920
70
00:06:50.040 --> 00:06:55.439
71
00:06:55.600 --> 00:06:59.959
72
00:07:00.279 --> 00:07:06.319
73
00:07:06.319 --> 00:07:11.800
74
00:07:11.920 --> 00:07:17.040
75
00:07:17.040 --> 00:07:22.600
76
00:07:23.120 --> 00:07:27.639
77
00:07:27.720 --> 00:07:33.480
78
00:07:33.839 --> 00:07:40.079
79
00:07:40.399 --> 00:07:44.240
80
00:07:44.319 --> 00:07:49.600
81
00:07:49.800 --> 00:07:56.000
82
00:07:56.079 --> 00:08:00.800
83
00:08:00.879 --> 00:08:05.120
84
00:08:05.199 --> 00:08:10.920
85
00:08:11.040 --> 00:08:15.079
86
00:08:15.199 --> 00:08:22.279
87
00:08:22.279 --> 00:08:28.079
88
00:08:28.160 --> 00:08:33.480
89
00:08:34.399 --> 00:08:39.120
90
00:08:39.279 --> 00:08:46.600
91
00:08:46.799 --> 00:08:52.600
92
00:08:52.679 --> 00:08:58.200
93
00:08:58.279 --> 00:09:04.720
94
00:09:05.720 --> 00:09:10.320
95
00:09:10.840 --> 00:09:13.559
96
00:09:14.320 --> 00:09:18.720
97
00:09:18.759 --> 00:09:23.600
98
00:09:24.240 --> 00:09:30.000
99
00:09:30.639 --> 00:09:34.440
100
00:09:34.519 --> 00:09:39.639
101
00:09:40.159 --> 00:09:46.000
102
00:09:46.080 --> 00:09:50.879
103
00:09:51.039 --> 00:09:55.159
104
00:09:55.240 --> 00:09:59.879
105
00:10:00.080 --> 00:10:05.519
106
00:10:05.799 --> 00:10:09.360
107
00:10:09.440 --> 00:10:16.200
108
00:10:16.279 --> 00:10:22.159
109
00:10:22.639 --> 00:10:27.960
110
00:10:28.159 --> 00:10:32.200
111
00:10:32.240 --> 00:10:36.559
112
00:10:36.720 --> 00:10:41.039
113
00:10:41.120 --> 00:10:47.879
114
00:10:47.919 --> 00:10:52.360
115
00:10:52.639 --> 00:10:59.080
116
00:10:59.120 --> 00:11:03.039
117
00:11:03.480 --> 00:11:08.519
118
00:11:09.080 --> 00:11:15.279
119
00:11:15.440 --> 00:11:19.559
120
00:11:19.720 --> 00:11:23.879
121
00:11:24.519 --> 00:11:29.399
122
00:11:29.519 --> 00:11:33.440
123
00:11:33.639 --> 00:11:39.559
124
00:11:40.039 --> 00:11:45.159
125
00:11:45.200 --> 00:11:49.799
126
00:11:50.240 --> 00:11:57.279
127
00:11:57.360 --> 00:12:02.120
128
00:12:02.159 --> 00:12:06.919
129
00:12:07.279 --> 00:12:12.600
130
00:12:13.799 --> 00:12:18.919
131
00:12:19.480 --> 00:12:23.440
132
00:12:23.759 --> 00:12:28.799
133
00:12:28.840 --> 00:12:34.200
134
00:12:34.320 --> 00:12:39.519
135
00:12:39.559 --> 00:12:44.320
136
00:12:45.080 --> 00:12:50.200
137
00:12:50.240 --> 00:13:02.159
138
00:13:02.279 --> 00:13:08.240
139
00:13:08.320 --> 00:13:13.159
140
00:13:13.279 --> 00:13:18.000
141
00:13:18.080 --> 00:13:22.879
142
00:13:22.919 --> 00:13:27.519
143
00:13:27.600 --> 00:13:31.000
144
00:13:31.120 --> 00:13:37.480
145
00:13:37.600 --> 00:13:43.519
146
00:13:43.559 --> 00:13:47.720
147
00:13:47.879 --> 00:13:52.759
148
00:13:52.840 --> 00:13:58.200
149
00:13:58.279 --> 00:14:03.919
150
00:14:04.600 --> 00:14:09.720
151
00:14:09.799 --> 00:14:13.559
152
00:14:14.639 --> 00:14:20.080
153
00:14:20.360 --> 00:14:25.399
154
00:14:25.559 --> 00:14:30.799
155
00:14:30.919 --> 00:14:39.600
156
00:14:40.399 --> 00:14:44.000
157
00:14:44.080 --> 00:14:48.320
158
00:14:48.519 --> 00:14:53.000
159
00:14:53.120 --> 00:14:58.519
160
00:14:58.639 --> 00:15:02.879
161
00:15:03.759 --> 00:15:09.200
162
00:15:09.320 --> 00:15:13.840
163
00:15:14.519 --> 00:15:19.879
164
00:15:19.879 --> 00:15:25.799
165
00:15:25.879 --> 00:15:30.039
166
00:15:30.120 --> 00:15:35.240
167
00:15:35.279 --> 00:15:40.159
168
00:15:40.240 --> 00:15:45.080
169
00:15:45.279 --> 00:15:50.879
170
00:15:50.960 --> 00:15:55.600
171
00:15:56.159 --> 00:16:03.679
172
00:16:03.720 --> 00:16:08.840
173
00:16:08.919 --> 00:16:14.480
174
00:16:14.559 --> 00:16:18.399
175
00:16:18.480 --> 00:16:22.919
176
00:16:23.559 --> 00:16:28.480
177
00:16:28.559 --> 00:16:33.320
178
00:16:33.360 --> 00:16:37.720
179
00:16:37.840 --> 00:16:42.679
180
00:16:42.799 --> 00:16:46.399
181
00:16:46.440 --> 00:16:51.840
182
00:16:51.879 --> 00:16:57.320
183
00:16:57.600 --> 00:17:02.120
184
00:17:02.200 --> 00:17:07.400
185
00:17:07.400 --> 00:17:11.559
186
00:17:11.680 --> 00:17:18.240
187
00:17:18.359 --> 00:17:22.119
188
00:17:22.240 --> 00:17:27.519
189
00:17:27.559 --> 00:17:33.839
190
00:17:33.960 --> 00:17:37.880
191
00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:41.559
192
00:17:41.640 --> 00:17:48.200
193
00:17:48.640 --> 00:17:53.200
194
00:17:53.240 --> 00:17:58.279
195
00:17:58.359 --> 00:18:02.640
196
00:18:02.759 --> 00:18:06.720
197
00:18:06.920 --> 00:18:12.240
198
00:18:12.240 --> 00:18:16.759
199
00:18:16.839 --> 00:18:22.960
200
00:18:23.079 --> 00:18:29.519
201
00:18:29.640 --> 00:18:36.000
202
00:18:36.559 --> 00:18:42.319
203
00:18:43.119 --> 00:18:49.359
204
00:18:49.480 --> 00:18:53.160
205
00:18:53.279 --> 00:18:59.039
206
00:18:59.720 --> 00:19:03.680
207
00:19:03.720 --> 00:19:09.119
208
00:19:09.200 --> 00:19:13.559
209
00:19:13.640 --> 00:19:20.480
210
00:19:20.519 --> 00:19:25.119
211
00:19:25.160 --> 00:19:30.640
212
00:19:30.759 --> 00:19:34.759
213
00:19:34.799 --> 00:19:40.440
214
00:19:40.559 --> 00:19:45.480
215
00:19:45.960 --> 00:19:51.400
216
00:19:51.599 --> 00:19:56.720
217
00:19:57.359 --> 00:20:03.039
218
00:20:03.079 --> 00:20:07.160
219
00:20:07.160 --> 00:20:13.000
220
00:20:13.839 --> 00:20:25.680
221
00:20:25.720 --> 00:20:32.400
222
00:20:32.440 --> 00:20:36.880
223
00:20:36.920 --> 00:20:40.200
224
00:20:40.960 --> 00:20:44.519
225
00:20:44.599 --> 00:20:51.160
226
00:20:51.319 --> 00:20:54.680
227
00:20:54.759 --> 00:20:57.880
228
00:20:58.000 --> 00:21:02.640
229
00:21:02.720 --> 00:21:07.079
230
00:21:07.200 --> 00:21:12.200
231
00:21:12.359 --> 00:21:19.839
232
00:21:19.960 --> 00:21:24.559
233
00:21:24.680 --> 00:21:29.839
234
00:21:29.880 --> 00:21:36.119
235
00:21:36.200 --> 00:21:41.559
236
00:21:42.440 --> 00:21:45.880
237
00:21:45.960 --> 00:21:51.960
238
00:21:53.119 --> 00:21:56.599