The Haunted Boy: The Story That Inspired "The Exorcist"

Here's the story:

www.strangemag.com...

I found this on the interenet about 5 years back and just found the link for it again tonight. Just wondering what people around here thought.

The reason I asked is because I grew up with Father Albert Hughes nephew. We were best buddies between 1974 to 1985. I was 11 when we started hanging out. We did everything together as kids. Getting into mischief, getting into fights, staying overnight at eachothers houses. Our Mom's became good friends. When we hit our teens I would go down to Ocean City, MD with the Hughes family every summer. They had a nice condo on the beach. I remember one summer, I was probably 16, we were driving down to OC, listening to the radio and talking. It was only 4 of us. Mr. Hughes and his wife, and me and my buddy. His older bother and sister were meeting us down there. Anyway, during the course of the drive the conversation was going all over and somehow landed on my buddy's uncle, who I had never heard about. I remember when we were kids my buddy mentioning he had an uncle that was a very well respected Catholic priest who lived in nearby Washington D.C. As the conversation unfolded, it turns out that his name was Father Albert Hughes. Mrs. Hughes said to Mr. Hughes, tell Bob about your brother. He proceeded to tell us that his brother was one of the priest involved in the actual case of demonic possession that the movie "The Exorcist" was based on. He said his brother had even been approached by the Hollywood people when the film was being made for research, but his brother wanted no part of it. He said that the child was not a girl, but a boy, and that it really hadn't taken place in Georgetown at all. He told us that his brother was called in to the case and they had tried unsuccessfully to cure this boy. He said he remembered conversations with his brother where he was terrified of what he was experiencing. He said that toward the end of the exorcism (at least as far as his brother was involved) this kid was speaking in tongues, had super human strength and had reached into his mattress and tore out a spring and sliced his brothers arm open. Mr. Hughes told us that at this point his brother was so shaken up that he retired from the case and went into seclusion.....his hair turning white almost over night.

So, what I'm saying is I talked with Father Hughes' brother and this man swears all this really occurred. My buddy will still vouch to this day that what happened to his uncle wasn't a lie. We use to sit around and talk about this late at night when we were young hanging out with my buddy and we always ended up having to walk him home (either that or we'd scare the crap out of him...LOL). But the Hughes family swears that Father Albert Hughes experienced the demonic supernatural.

Anyway, (after reading this article 5 years ago on the web) I sent a letter to the author of the linked story above. He wrote me back and said the family was lying. I was kinda "urked". I thought, "What a jerk." I knew some people indirectly connected to this story who were family of this priest. I mean, you know, I heard it from the mouth of the priests' brother. These people are good people, they're not liars. But this guy insists it was all a lie.

What do you guys think?

[edit on 13-1-2007 by rocknroll]

*I'm bumping this for the daytime crowd*

I don't understand how he can say they were lying when the names and events you related, match exactly what he claims..?

Does he mean they're lying when they say the priest was their brother? How the hell would he know?

The kid would be 70 this year.. how old is George Bush Sr?

Originally posted by mythatsabigprobe
I don't understand how he can say they were lying when the names and events you related, match exactly what he claims..?

Does he mean they're lying when they say the priest was their brother? How the hell would he know?

Well, I never kept a copy of the email (it was 5 years back), but what he implied to me was that based on all his research in the case: that Father Albert Hughes lied about his experience, and all the things supposed that happened to him were a fabricated/exaggerated lie. Everything from the kid really being possessed, to the kid speaking in tongues, to the kid having super human strength and attacking the priest with the bed spring, to saying he never went into seclusion, nor did his hair turn white overnight after the case. He basically told me the priest lied and my friends father lied to me.

This writer/journalist/investigator basically was firm in his conviction the whole thing was a rumor gotten out of control and that all details of the story were completely exaggerated and total lies.

That's not what I was told by Father Albert Hughes actual brother, back in that summer of 1979 driving down to the beach.

Originally posted by mythatsabigprobe
The kid would be 70 this year.. how old is George Bush Sr?

LOL!
That flew over my head when I first read it.