The Horrifying and Evil Exorcism of Emma Schmidt

On today's podcast, we look at the exorcism of Emma Schmidt. Her case is considered to be one of the most well-documented cases of demonic possession in the 20th century, although some have argued that the young woman was never possessed in the first place, rather she was mentally unwell. What truly happened to Emma Schmidt in 1928 is still up for debate.

Episode narrated by Top5s
Music by CO.AG

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:06

Exorcisms are religious or spiritual procedures in which demons or spirits possessing a person are expelled from the body. These spirits are often thought to be evil and are set to control the person whose body they takeover. Making a once ordinary person seem angry, violent, and disturbed. Many exorcisms involve practices such as rituals and pres. And for some time they were used to treat what are now thought to be mentally unwell people such as the case for Amish myth whose accesses and procedure has become something of a legend in recent years, her case is considered to be one of the most wild documented cases of demonic possession in the 20th century. Although some have argued that the young woman was never possessed in the first place, rather she was mentally unwell. What should he happen to Amish mint? In 1928 is still up for debate. Emma was born in Wisconsin on March 23rd, 1882 to parents who had immigrated from Germany to the United States before her birth. She spent a childhood being raised in a very religious household and she was by all accounts, a devoted follower of the Catholic church AMA often visited church multiple times a day on her own accord. After her mother died in 1890, she was raised by her abusive alcoholic father raised in marathon, Wisconsin, AMA was reportedly put to work at a factory in a teen years and early on in her life. She was seen by doctors and treated for female hysteria. According to some reports, she even underwent surgery as a means to treat her diagnosis. If true it's possible. She underwent a hysterectomy at age 14. Emma began to exhibit strange behaviors, which troubled those around her. She started to have violent thoughts about harming the priests in her local church, heard multiple different demonic voices in her head and struggled to bring herself to receive communion, her disturbed thoughts. However, were just the tip of the iceberg. Soon, Emma began to display an aversion to Holy objects, and she found herself unable to enter not only the church that she had once visited so regularly, but any other Holy establishment. She also reported he lost control of her sexual urges and began to take part in unspeakable sexual acts on June of 1912, Emma. Now age 30 took part in her first accesses. Leslie's documented about this initial ritual, but we know as performed by father, Theopolis rising, a Roman Catholic priest who had emigrated from Bavaria, Germany, father Risinger had been born in 1868 and after arriving in the U S spent some time in New York before moving to the Midwest in 1912, where he was a computer in fryer or the community of st. Anthony's in marathon after performing the exorcism on Emma that same year, his profile skyrocketed, and he became the GoTo priest for performing exorcisms. By the time he and Emma met again in the 1920s father Risinger had successfully performed 19 more exorcisms. Although the exorcism of AMA in 1912 was successful, it was short lived and the young woman found herself back in the throes of demonic possession, where she suffered greatly for several more years in the summer of 1928, father Risinger was contacted once more in relation to Emma's case. And he was given permission from the church to perform another exorcism on her. Reverend Joseph Steiger, a friend of father rising is offered up his convent as a place to carry out the accesses. The convent was owned by the Franciscan sisters of Erling, Iowa. It was agreed that this particular convent would be the ideal location for a number of reasons. It was in a secluded area, in a small town offering privacy and some level of anonymity for AMA. There was also a major railway line nearby allowing for the narrow 46 year old to conveniently make it there. And the convent also gave Emma and the priest somewhere to stay while the process took place. Lastly, it was hoped that as the convent was so far away from her home, that demonic forces would be severely weakened making the exorcism quicker and easier. However, father rising would soon learn that this was not the case. Emma's final exorcism in 1928, took place in three different stages. The first occurred between August 18th and August 23rd. During this time she exhibited many symptoms of demonic possession. She flew into fits of rage over the fact that her food had been sprinkled with Holy water. And she often hissed like a cat. She's also said to have clung to the doorframe and levitated ammo subjects, the two more sessions afterwards, the first of which took place between September the 13th and September 20th. And the second occurred between December 15th and December 23rd, the procedure was noted to be extremely violent and tiresome. Although AMA was bound to the iron bed frame by the nuns before every practice she wants managed to break free of her restraints and clung to the wall, opposite her bed. While in another instance, she was hurtled across the room. Emma would also Howell and make animal like noises, as well as speaking several voices and different languages, including English, German, and Latin. She often dipped in and out of consciousness during each exorcism. The process was so grueling that the nuns who are helping out rotated their attendance in order to recover father Risinger was the only one there every day. As a consequence, some of his colleagues noted that it looked like he had aged years by the end of the exorcism. At one point, Reverend Steiger, who had originally offered up the convent for father rising as yous began having doubts about his initial offer. He suggested that the activism be moved elsewhere outside of his competent, which led to a disagreement between the two longterm friends, father rising a claimed that the devil was attempting to drive a wedge between the two men reportedly during this argument, the demons utilizing AMA as their mouthpiece sand, just wait until the end of the week, when Friday comes then at Friday, Reverend Steiger wound up in a car crash. Although luckily he came out of it relatively unharmed sustaining only minor injuries. Extensive process was exhausting to all involved and eventually Anna's body started to deteriorate both the face and body was said to have changed and disoriented during the exorcism, whether it had an limps beginning to swell for a time, she was laughed, appearing, disfigured, and bloated with her eyes protruding from her face, AMA refuse to eat food during the exorcism, living off a small amount of milk and water. Despite the fact he would not consume food, she frequently vomited a bile and what appear to be tobacco leaves. Although again, she is not known to ingest it any, ultimately as believed that Emma was being possessed by several different demons, including bouncy bump and Judas Iscariot. When father rising asked Judas why he was there, he reported, he responded to bring her to despair so that she will commit suicide and hang herself. These two were not the only ones possessing Emma, however, as she was also being influenced by a father, Jacob and I and Mina Mina was apparently a well known local winch who had placed spousals on the Herb's. She had used to prepare Emma's food with, and she was also allegedly Jacob lover during the axes Adams, the 48 year old spoke in a high falsetto voice on numerous occasions, which indicated a father Risinger and the nuns that this was Mina speaking. It was believed that Jacob and Mina had placed a curse on Emma because she had rejected his repulsive incestrious advances during her teenage years after their death, their spirits tormented the young girl and forced other demons inside of her leading to decades of suffering on December 23rd, 1928, the last day of Emma's final exorcism father rising a command at the demons in the name of the father, the son, and the Holy to depart to how afterwards Emma collapsed on the band and began to shriek bouncy Burma, Judas, Jacob MENA followed by how, how, how, when she finally opened her eyes, she spoken to own voice saying from what a terrible burden have I been freed at last, my Jesus mercy praise be Jesus Christ. It seemed that Emma was finally free. The exorcism had worked afterwards the 46 year old reportedly exhibited milder and quite manageable possessions for quite some time. After the successful procedure, Amazon identity was kept under wraps. She went by the pseudonym and Auckland and is sometimes referred to as Mary acts as well. Reverend Carl Vogel was the first person to shed light publicly on Emma's case, he documented the exorcism extensively under the title began Satan, which was first published in German before being published in English in 1935 in the book, Reverend Vogel included detailed eyewitness accounts and full dialogue between father rising and Emma in recent years. Emma's story became the inspiration for the film, the activism ism of Anna Auckland, which was released in 2016. Her activism has also been cited by some, as the inspiration behind William Peter Blatty is the exorcism novel and subsequent head film, but he was actually inspired by the Rolando case from Maryland in the 1940s. According to some sources, Emma lived a normal life after her final exorcism and faded into obscurity. She apparently never married or had children and remained a strange from her family after the process, when she passed away in 1946, five years after father rising her, she was buried next to her alleged tormentor and father Jacob. Although the case of Emma Schmitt appears to be rather well-documented, it's not without his doubters. Many people believe the 46 year old never existed. What are the speculate that it was more likely she suffered from mental health problems rather than demonic possession, especially if it's to be believed that she was treated for female hysteria early on in her life. While the validity of Emma's tale is questionable. It's been documented by the convent leaving many to believe that this story is one of the few actresses and McCain's that really occurred.