Some exorcisms by mad people

On this page four bizarre, lethal and screwed up exorcism attempts are carried out - note that all of them are carried out by more than one individual.

I quoted these from the Feb2000 issue of Bizarre magazine, and left out three more: "I killed the bearwalker!", "Children were demons!", "Thank you, Jesus!"

All of these stories involve group hysteria provoked by religious belief. Wherever there is religion, preaching about evil, we find evil preaching about religion in a most convincing empirical way.

"The Devil goes round like a roaring lion looking for souls to devour", warns the Exorcisms, the Catholic Church's official doctrine on exorcisms. This year, the Vatican updated the document to warn that demonic signs might actually be signs of mental or physical illnesss, rather than an invasion by Old Nick.

In 1997, AMY burney, a five-year-old girl from the Bronx, was fed a lethal poison by her mother and grandmother to rid her of demons. Angelic Burney (her real name, honest) forced her daughter to drink what she called "the blue bottle medicine" - a lethal mixture of ammonia, vinegar, pepper and olive oil. As Amy's grandmother, Rosa Wilerson, explained to the police, "After she took the medicine, she started to growl and fight with us. We tied her hands with tape behind her back and we tied her feet together. We put a pair of underpants in her mouth and we taped her mouth."

Amy stayed bound for several hours until calmed down. Her mother and grandmother cut the tape from her mouth, legs and hands. At first, she had no pulse, but they were able to revive her. They bathed Amy and then put her to bed in Angies room. "For about five days, she stayed on the bed in Angie's room", said Wilkerson, "and then we decided to get plastic bags because she started to smell. Amy was wrapped up and dumped in a trash bin.

A police source described old Ma Wilkerson as possessing 'extreme religious fervor'. Prior to Amy's death, she had attempted to have her granddaughter baptised at the New Jerusalem Holy Church in Harlem, but the ministers had refused on the grounds that Amy was too young. "She was always saying her kids were possessed", Church minister Frances Lopez said, "but she had a personal thing against that little girl." When Amy appeared in church with scratches and bruises on her face, Wilkerson explained that she scratched herself because demons were inside her.

On the first story:

It is the last paragraph of that story that struck me. The horror of the story is bad enough, but one cannot blame religion for the crazy behaviour of this family, can we?

As with all these stories, it wasn't just one mad person, but (in this case) two, both of whom apparently thought she was possessed. You could say that one of them crazy, but two? Crazy religious teachings infiltrate some sects of society so deeply that this type of behaviour is encouraged, increasing the chances of any less-than-sane believer from acting out their fantasies.

Where is the loving, Christian community that they constantly say they uphold?

"She was always saying her kids were posessed, but she had a personal thing against that girl", said the priest.
When Amy appeared in church with scratches and bruises, Wilkerson explained it was caused by demons.

But no-one called social security, etc, no-one seemed shocked or scared beforehand. In a secular community, if a mother associates "evil" with their child then people know something is wrong. It seems that where religious sentiment is strong (be it an individual, family or society), we see increasingly dramatic bad psychology.

There are too many people who find religion as a source for craziness and justification for all kinds of horrendous acts. Personal beliefs are fine, but no-one should ever assume their theology is correct to the extent that it justifies antihuman action.

Cheerleader Charity Miranda cried out in pain as her family engaged in her two-hour exorcism. Her sisters, 15-year-old Elizabeth and 20-year-old Serena, assisted thier mother Vivian in holding the 17-year-old Long Islander down. The mother, who had receantly embraced the Santeria religion, believed that her daughter had become possessed by demons.

In a four-page handwritten statement, Elizabeth wrote, "Charity knew the demon was consuming her and that it had to leave her body." Elizabeth claimed that the demon screamed and fought them. Once Charity stopped screaming, they let her go. Elizabeth described the exorcism: "My mom asked herif the demon was gone andif it was her in there, meaning Charity. Charity shook her head no and very faintly said 'no' ... Mom put her mouth to Charity's mouth and told her to blow the demon into her and she would try to kill it" When this failed, Vivian tried to smother her daughter with couch pillows. When that didn't work, she placed a plastic bag over Charity's head.

After the 'ceremony', Vivian and Serena periodically chanted, napped and read aloud passages from the Bible. They were listening to Frank Sinatra when the police entered the home. Attempting to make the death appear accidental, mother and daughter had removed the plastic bag and placed Charity's body at the bottom of the stairs. Detectives surmised that tensions had been created when Charity did not fully embrace her mother's new found religion, and this ultimately led her mother to perform the fatal 'exorcism'.

ON 31 MARCH 1996, Mario Garcia from Pawtucket, Rhode Island, gathered his family to perform an exorcism on his brother-in-law, who was depressed because his mother was acting strangely. Garcia burned leaves and spoke to demons only he could see while his wife, father-in-law, brother-in-law and three small children all prayed. Garcia claimed that the devil flew out of his brother-in-law and into his mother-in-law. He then jammed two 8" steel crucifxes down his mother-in-law's throat, puncturing her oesophagus. When police arrived they found the women on the front porch with blood pouring from her mouth, and Garcia screaming, "The devil is inside her!"

TWENTY FIVE YEAR-old Kyong A Ha travelled with her family from South Korea to the San Francisco Bay Area, where they were taken in by Jean Park, a self-proclaimed Reverend of the 15-member-strong Jesus-Amen Ministries. After a few days, members of Park's flock began to suspect that Ha was possessed by demons, an opinion shared by her mother. Aware that something bad was going down, the frightened Ha made a desperate call to relatives saying: "get me away from these people". Her plea was in vain. A few days later she found herself the focus of a bizarre pre-dawn ritual.

The group fasted for two days before then grabbed Ha and wrapped her in an electric blanket and comforter. Park and Ha's mother hit her over 100 times while three other women held her down. A towel was stuffed in Ha's mouth to prevent her from swallowing her tongue and to muffle her screams. She suffered ten broken ribs and defecated on herself before dying. After she was dead, the group continued to hold prayer meetings over her body. Park eventually phoned Ha's relatives and informed them that Ha 'was in a deep sleep' and should be seen immediately. The family phoned the police. Park's defence? "The damage to Ha was done by demons."