The real case that inspired The Exorcist Blatty first heard about the case of “Roland Doe” when he was a student at Georgetown University. A professor told him about the case of a 13-year-old Maryland ...

While Blatty’s primary influence was the alleged 1949 possession of a Maryland boy named Roland Doe, multiple elements of his novel correspond to the Schmidt account.

The story stuck with Blatty. In the late 1960s, the author — then a comedy writer — took a break to pen a nonfiction book based on the story of “Roland Doe.” Few involved with the case would speak to ...