Earling played host to the devil in 1928; an exorcism evicted him

By Erin Randolph

Demonic possession. Is it real? The Catholic Church would have you believe that it is. It would have you believe that a 40-year-old woman from Milwaukee was possessed by the devil, and that she was brought to Earling, a southwest Iowa town, in order to be exorcised, the process of evicting demons from a person or object. It would have you believe that this woman could climb walls, speak in foreign tongues and spew forth obscene amounts of foul-smelling gunk.

It would also have you believe that, after a 23-day exorcism, the devil finally left that woman. The story is told in "Begone Satan," a book outlining the exorcism in great detail. It was written by Rev. Carl Vogel and commissioned by the church, and Rev. Joseph Stieger, an eyewitness, attested to the facts, incidents and events relayed in its pages.

Her exorcism took place in three stages during 1928: Aug. 18 through 26, Sept. 13 through 20, and Dec. 15 through 22. The accounts of the exorcism are culled from the text of "Begone Satan."

Located among a sea of gently rolling hills that are sprinkled with farmsteads, Earling sits at the intersections of highways 191 and 37 and County Road M-16. But it doesn't matter from which direction one approaches the town. Towering above the trees is the steeple for St. Joseph's Catholic Church, welcoming people from all directions to this German, Catholic hamlet.

Earling is a small town that keeps getting smaller. You know the kind. With a population hovering just above 400, the Catholic school closed a year ago, a victim of consolidation, as did the grocery store. And on this crisp Friday afternoon, the town is deathly quiet. The automated sign on Farmers' Bank reads 2:45 p.m. and 52 degrees. An elderly woman drives slowly down Main Street before parking her car in front of the post office to drop off a package. Besides the post office, however, many of the Main Street proprietors are not open for business. At the end of Main Street, on Highway 37, the occasional piece of farm machinery passes noisily by, reminding the town of its surrounding farmland and of the harvest.

Cars entering Earling from the east pass over two sets of train tracks, a relic from the hamlet's history as a railroad town. Perhaps these were the tracks that brought 40-year-old Emma Schmidt here from Milwaukee, where she was from. Perhaps they're also the same tracks that brought the German immigrants here who established the town and St. Joseph's in 1885. The Catholic church is and always has been the only center for worship in Earling, so it's fitting that it sits on a four-square block in the center of town on what appears to be its highest point.

On Second Avenue, another elderly woman, her head covered with a scarf, is bent over tending to a small flower garden that sits in front of a statue of the Virgin Mary. Behind this shrine, next to St. Joseph's, is an open field of grass. It was here that the Convent of the Franciscan Sisters once stood. It was here that Emma's demons were exorcised. Having fallen into disrepair, the building was torn down about 10 years ago. Now, only two Franciscan Sisters reside in Earling in a modest house across the street from the fallen convent, though both are retired and were not a part of the 23-day exorcism.

No. All of those sisters present at the exorcism requested for a transfer in 1929, the year after the well-documented ceremony took place. Perhaps the experience was too much for them to bear. Or perhaps they could no longer view their convent the same way. Not after they'd witnessed, with their own eyes, the devil at work in their home.

Emma was born in 1882. She was of small stature and had only an elementary education. At the age of 14, she became possessed, though the Catholic Church would not approve her exorcism until she had reached the age of 40 and after all other possibilities for her behavior had been exhausted by a slew of professional minds.

Her exorcism was performed by a Capuchin priest, Rev. Theophilus Riesigner, who had previously succeeded in expelling a demon from Emma's body. Riesigner had asked his good friend, Rev. Joseph Stieger, then the priest of St. Joseph's, if he could perform the rites of exorcism in Earling. The quiet, remote town would provide the secrecy and security that Riesigner desired. And with it being summer, the farmers would be out tending their fields, and the work in the convent could be done undisturbed and without the knowledge of the townspeople. Despite his reservations, Stieger agreed, perhaps unaware of the trials that were on the way for him and the sisters. But if he didn't know then, he soon found out.

In the convent, Emma was already stirring up trouble the night of her arrival. A well-meaning sister had brought Emma a plate of blessed food. Though the possessed could have had no knowledge of the blessing, she became enraged, purring like a cat and refusing to eat.

"It was not possible to trick her with any blessed or consecrated article; the very presence of it would bring about such intense sufferings in her as though her very body were encased in glowing coal," wrote Vogl in "Begone Satan."

But this was merely the beginning. Nobody could have anticipated what happened the very next morning when Riesigner began the formula of exorcism with a prayer.

Rev. Mike Berner lives in the rectory that sits just to the west of St. Joseph's, the same one where Stieger lived. When his secretary gave him a phone message that said to return a call to a newspaper in Des Moines, he knew exactly what for. It being October, close to Halloween, he reasoned that it must be about the exorcism. It was.

Berner has been the priest in Earling for about 10 years now. He's also the priest in neighboring Defiance. He was a deacon in Earling for one year in 1985, and he remembers then that there was a sign on the outskirts of town that read, "Begone Satan." Now, sitting in the pew of beautiful St. Joseph's facing a massive, and very intricate, altar area, he pontificates on the exorcism of Emma in a way that's akin to a ghost story retelling.

"She wouldn't eat for days at a time and then would have puking spells," he says with an air of disbelief. "And what? She hadn't eaten anything."

She spoke in and understood languages she had no prior knowledge of. She displayed supernatural strength. She somehow knew when unscheduled mass was being conducted in the church next door. She used horrible, foul language. Voices spoke out of her.

And from what he knows about the exorcism, Emma never stepped foot in the church. In fact, he doesn't think she ever left her room at the convent. But the fact that this took place in Earling is not a big deal to the people of the town. It's not necessarily a point of pride: no signs or monuments announce that this has taken place. It's merely a piece of history. However, copies of "Begone Satan" have been sold in the town since 1935.

Emma was placed firmly on the mattress of an iron bed. Her sleeves and dress were tightly bound and the strongest nuns were selected to stand at her bedside in case anything should happen; it was thought that Emma might try to attack the exorcist during the ceremony.

No sooner had Riesinger started the formula of exorcism in the name of the Blessed Trinity than Emma's body shot up out of bed with lightning speed, out of the hands of her watchful guards. Her body flew through the air, landing above the door of the room where she fiercely clung to the wall. Extreme force had to be applied to her feet to pull her down from her perch and bring her back to her place on the bed.

The prayers continued. But now, shrill, feral screams were emanating from Emma's body - sounds that penetrated the convent walls and were heard throughout the neighborhood. The news of the exorcism traveled through the town, the way small-town gossip is always fed - very quickly. While inside the convent, the sisters and the priests were enduring a truly vile sight. Emma's appendages were distorted, she would hurl torrents of spit and filth, and she would puke the most horrendous-smelling liquid (sometimes with chunks, though she hadn't eaten any solid food) a good 20 to 30 times a day.

Her face became so disfigured that her features were unrecognizable. Her body, too, would become so contorted that the regular contour of it vanished. Her eyes would protrude from their sockets, her lips would swell to twice their normal size and her body would bloat so much that the sisters feared she would tear or burst. Emma would float above the bed at times, and at other times, the weight of her body would bend the iron rods of her bed toward the floor.

"As soon as the name of Jesus was mentioned, [the devil] began through the woman to foam and howl like a wild, raving animal," Vogl wrote. "This ugly bellowing and howling took place every day and at times it lasted for hours. At other times, it sounded as though a horde of lions and hyenas were let loose, then again as the mewing of cats, the bellowing of cattle and the barking of dogs."

However, the entire time the exorcism was being performed, Emma would be unconscious. Her mouth would remain closed tight, as would her eyes. The voices - of which there seemed to be several - would emanate from somewhere within her body.

And soon, the priests and nuns would find out exactly who they were dealing with.

"Exorcisms have always been a part of the church," Berner says. "Jesus himself was known for exorcising people all through the New Testament."

But to say exorcism is archaic or never used is just ridiculous, Berner goes on to say. In fact, Pope John Paul II performed three during his tenure.

The Des Moines Diocese is made up of the 23 counties of southwest Iowa, which includes the cities of Des Moines and Earling. Though exorcisms still take place around the United States and across the world, there have been no official exorcisms as mandated by the bishop in the Des Moines Diocese in recent years, says Rev. Dave Fleming of St. Patrick's Church in Council Bluffs. Fleming is the individual in the diocese who is asked to field questions from people who may be concerned about demonic possession or hauntings. However, the Des Moines Diocese does not have its own exorcist, unlike cities like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, where full-time exorcists reside.

An international conference for exorcists was also recently held in Rome, Italy, to help train priests to perform the rites of the ceremony, as that's not taught in seminary.

"From just what I've read and studied in more recent times, the last few years especially, I think there's a greater understanding of exorcisms and the need for priests to be trained to do it," Fleming says. "There's a growing awareness of it and I would assume a growing need for it, which in my mind would mean that there's not necessarily more possessions happening but more of a growing awareness, even in the church, for people to be trained to do that type of ministry."

In 1999, the Vatican issued its first new guidelines for driving out devils since 1614. They urged exorcists to take into account modern psychiatry in deciding whether or not someone should be exorcised.

"The process we have for doing exorcisms - in terms of a formal exorcism of the church where something needs to be requested from the bishop - includes a real extensive investigation that has to be undergone," Fleming says. "We take these things very seriously."

And that includes the exhaustion of all other explanations for the behavior. The person must be evaluated by physicians and psychiatrists in order to eliminate any sort of natural concerns, Fleming says. The behavior must be beyond the natural realm, such as levitation, abnormal strength or physical manifestations, the ability to foresee future events or other supernatural occurrences.

"In the name of Jesus and His most Blessed Mother, Mary the Immaculate, who crushed the head of the serpent, tell me the truth," Reisinger said to the possessed. "Who is the leader or prince among you? What is your name?"

"Beelzebub," barked a voice from deep within Emma.

But he wasn't alone.

A deep, rough voice introduced itself as Judas Iscariot, the former apostle. A healthy, manly voice introduced itself as Jacob, the possessed girl's father, who had tried to force himself on his resistant daughter. (He had cursed her because of this resistance.) And last came a high-pitched, shrill voice, the most bitter demon of them all - Mina, who lived an immoral life as Jacob's lover while his wife was still living. Mina also admitted to killing four of her own children.

Reisinger spoke to the demons in English, German and Latin. And Beelzebub, as well as the other demons, replied in the same tongue with which they were addressed.
When Reisinger, in his exhausted state, mispronounced a word, the demons would taunt him.

But those four weren't the only fallen angels within her; they were just the only ones to speak. The number of silent devils within her was innumerable, but they appeared to have very little power.

As the days passed, however, and the demons kept their stranglehold on the woman's body, Stieger grew tired of Reisinger's presence. Perhaps this had something to do with the devil's revenge against the priest - the event that could have taken his life, and the one that changed his sleeping habits for the rest of his life.

"Begone Satan" used to be sold at Finken's, a former grocery store on Main Street. Across the street from the empty building sits Finishing Touch, a hair and tanning salon that also sells crafts. Among a few birdhouses and a pane of glass with flowers painted on it that sit in the front window of the business is a faded sign that reads, "'Begone Satan' books available here!"

Owner Sharon Bruck agreed to sell the books when Finken's closed. She's spent her whole life in Earling, and has heard stories about the exorcism from her parents, customers and from the elderly folks whose hair she tends to at the town's nursing home. In the year that Bruck's been selling "Begone Satan," she's sold maybe 40 or 50 copies. However, a couple dozen of those were sold within the past two weeks - mostly to out-of-towners.

Berner chalks this up, like the interest from a reporter, to the nearing of Halloween. However, it may also have something to do with an upswing in Hollywood's interest in demonic possession, most recently with this year's film "The Exorcism of Emily Rose," loosely based on the possession of Annaliese Michel, a German college student who died during an exorcism. Her parents and the two Bavarian priests who carried out the exorcism were later convicted.

"The Exorcism of Emily Rose," by contrast, was set in current-day Minnesota. The film is, in some ways, more of a courtroom drama than a horror film, as it's focused around the trial of the priest who performed the exorcism during which Emily died. The film brings to the forefront the modern debate about whether demonic possession exists, or whether it's merely mental illness.

"The movie, as it stood in and of itself, was a pretty fair treatment of the issue," Fleming says. "In the movie, if you believe the girl was sincere and was genuinely having these experiences with evil, those are the types of things that would be happening."

And he feels this film is more realistic in terms of how a person responds to an exorcism than "The Exorcist," an influential 1973 horror film in which a young girl named Regan becomes inexplicably ill before she is discovered to be possessed.

"Hollywood tends to over sensationalize these things," Fleming says. "Even when there are exorcisms that happen, they're not as dramatic as they are in the movies. As it was demonstrated [in 'The Exorcism of Emily Rose'], it would be a fair assessment of what it might look like. Obviously the specifics of how they did the ritual aren't quite accurate, but that's Hollywood."

However, Regan having dabbled with an Ouiji board in "The Exorcist" is an accurate portrayal of how one might become possessed, Fleming says. Participating in the occult can open oneself up to that sort of vulnerability. Also realistic in "The Exorcism of Emily Rose" is when the priest and lawyer charged with defending the failed exorcism are afflicted by the devil, as well.

This, of course, was also documented in "Begone Satan."

"For the rest of his life, Stieger never slept in the rectory without wearing his priestly stole and having holy water next to the bed," Berner says.

This surely had something to do with the "rats." One night, in the middle of the night, Stieger was awakened by a disturbance. During his 14 years in the house, he'd never experienced anything of that kind, but it sounded as if rats were gnawing somewhere, that they were running about in the walls. He pounded on the wall with his cane, then his shoe.

The noise became worse.

Thinking these night visitors may be the work of the devil, Steiger put on his stole and then crawled back into bed. The noise weakened, but didn't disappear. He got up, lit two candles before a crucifix and recited the small formula of exorcism against evil spirits.

All was quiet.

Another time during the exorcism, Steiger was called out to the countryside to perform the last sacraments for a dying woman. Upon his return in his near-new car, a black cloud formed just as he was to pass over a bridge traversing a deep ravine. Steiger couldn't see. It was as if he was blindfolded.

Although the car was in low gear, it crashed into the railing of the bridge with an indescribable force, the noise of the accident so loud it stirred a farmer from his field some distance away.

Upon returning to the convent and to the room where the exorcism was being performed, Steiger was met by a devil roaring with laughter. Nobody at the convent had received word about his accident.

"Today he pulled in his proud neck and was outpointed!" the devil bellowed through Emma. "I certainly showed him up today. What about your new auto, that dandy car which was smashed to smithereens? It served you right!"

The exorcism lasted 23 days, ending just before Christmas in 1928. The ceremony lasted from early morning until late at night. Reisinger grew so exhausted and wet with perspiration during the process that he would often change clothes three or four times.

Though Emma would be unconscious during the exorcism itself, during the periods of rest she would awaken. It was then that she would talk about elaborate visions she had seen of battles between good and evil spirits.

Gradually, the resistance of the demons began to wane. Ever aware of the devil's attempts to fool the priests, however, Reisinger and Stieger remained steadfast in their attempts to rid Emma of those that plagued her body. About 9 p.m. on Dec. 23, Emma's body jerked from the grip of the nuns and stood erect above the bed, only her heels touching.

"Depart, ye fiends of hell!" said the priests. "Begone, satan, the lion of Juda reigns!"

She fell to the bed. A piercing sound filled the room as voices were heard repeating, over and over again, "Beelzebub, Judas, Jacob, Mina."

The voices continued until they grew further away into the distance.

"Beelzebub, Judas, Jacob, Mina. Beelzebub, Judas, Jacob, Mina."

And with that, Emma's eyes opened.

On the northwest side of town sits St. Joseph's Cemetery. Among the gravestones for the past residents of Earling sits a modest, copper stone for Stieger, who died in 1938. Certainly, his participation in the successful exorcism would go down as one of his biggest religious accomplishments.

It is said that Emma returned to her normal existence, one she hadn't known since she was 14. After that, the woman frequently attended church, which the demons hadn't allowed her to do, though she wanted to.

There are many skeptics, would say demonic possession is a bunch of hogwash, that mental illnesses aren't being treated properly. But then there are the believers, perhaps chief among them, the Catholic Church. And to not believe in the devil and his powers of evil, they say, would be to give satan exactly what he wants.

"One of the key things the devil would like us to do is to have us not believe in him because, by logical progression, that would lead us to doubt in the existence of God," Fleming says. "The bottom line is that we do believe in the reality of the forces of evil that's real in the world. The force of choosing against God, the power of sin and evil, it's real. Not only do we struggle with our own interior movements of sin and crises in faith, but we also do believe that there are other forces that will try to take advantage of the sin in our hearts, and ultimately have their way with our bodies. But ultimately, we believe in faith, that God is always victorious in overcoming the power of Evil through his love and through his grace."

Is demonic possession real? Was Emma overpowered by demons? No matter. It's one hell of a story. CV

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