The Exorcism of Anneliese Michel (Part 2)

Morbid

This episode details the tragic conclusion of Annalise Michel's life, focusing on the nine-month period of repeated exorcisms that led to he

Key takeaways

• Annalise Michel died from starvation and dehydration after refusing food and water during exorcism rites.
• Priests performed the rite of exorcism 67 times over a period of approximately nine months.

Main topics

• Exorcism of Annalise Michel
• Religious psychosis and neglect

Notable quotes

There are no injections against the devil.

Conclusion

A harrowing look at how religious zealotry can override medical necess

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) Hey weirdos, I'm Ash. I'm Alayna. And this is a program that you tune into called Morbid. It sure is and we have been, we have totally redone the pod lab today. We have cleaned our little freaking parts out. We got a dumpster. Deb and Aiden. Real ones. Real ones. Throwing shit out the window. The shit is fresh. The shit is clean. Yeah. We salted the rugs. We did. Or baking soda them. I was going to say we baking soda it, but I'll take it. Mikey salts the rugs. Mikey salts the rugs. So we've been salted. Speaker 2 (0:47) But Speaker 1 (0:47) today we baking soda the rugs. Yeah, so we've got everything. Yeah, it's Speaker 2 (0:51) all Speaker 1 (0:51) covered. Elena got a new lamp. I did. She loves lamp. I do love, I love that lamp. It's a good lamp. Yeah. And Aiden's working on a cleaning drawer. There you go. Speaker 1 (1:02) Ice machine cleaner. Guys, we found our ice machine cleaner. I knew we had some somewhere. Yeah, somebody said that. And I wanted to throw out the ice machine. You did. I am sorry. And we said, no, I think we have cleaner. Yeah. But yeah, so that's exciting. We're feeling good. We're feeling fancy free. I have to get kids to after school activities. And I have to help. That's all the business that I'm going to do today. Me too. So whoever is timing, this was an easy one. Quick one, Ralphie. Ralphie, you got it. All right. Let's go. So we're talking about an exorcism. Yeah, we haven't got there yet. We've not gotten to the exorcism, but we've gotten to a part. Okay. In the story where we have gotten priest involved. A Jesuit priest. A Jesuit priest. Yeah. We had a couple of priests who were like, no, thank you. Don't want to. We had some that were like, seems like you should call a doctor. And then they were like, too far. And Speaker 2 (1:59) they were Speaker 1 (1:59) like, no. What was it? Too far. So far, too long, can't go. So sorry. I don't remember. I don't either. It was funny. Whatever Speaker 2 (2:09) it Speaker 1 (2:09) was. Pretty funny. Things are going to get wild in this part, though. You kept mentioning a trial in part one, so I don't. Yeah, I had a feeling it would get wild. It doesn't end well. This does not end well. It's very upsetting. ending actually. I don't recommend you look up pictures of this case personally. I heard there's also a really bad recording. Yeah. There's tapes. There's recordings. The pictures are just very jarring. I know that some people when they hear that they'll run to go look at them but I recommend if you're not into that. It's pretty upsetting. She's like a beautiful young girl and the pictures of during this are very scary. So yeah, there's that. Now... When we last left off, we had talked about how she was smelling things that no one else could smell and sometimes other people could smell. It smelled like it was coming from her at times. There were some strange physical things happening. Now, when Annalise and her mother first made contact with Father Alt, who we talked about in part one, that was in late 1973. And it was arranged through one of the priests in their church. A lot of times this is what happened in this case. There was a lot of like one priest says to go contact this one or arranges the communication with another one. It's priest networking. Exactly. And Father Karl Roth, a young priest who was close to Father Alt. So it was those two priests that got them in contact with Father Alt. So Roth was working under Father Alt at the time and had received all the information from Annalise's mother, which. He then passed on to Father Alt. Father Alt had passed on getting involved because he thought it was worthy of medical intervention. We talked about him in the first one. He was just like, I think you should contact a doctor, actually. But Roth's interest in the case had only grown since he heard about this. He was fascinated. I mean, it is a fascinating story. It is. It's just for sure. I don't think he, I mean, there's absolutely no way of telling this whether what his intentions were with this. I do think. It comes off a lot of times, like a lot of it was like wanting to kind of get ahead in his career and like, you know, looking at it that way. OK, so that can be like a little bit messy, you know. It can. And it gets messy here. Now, in the Michel exorcism case, Father Ernest Alt plays a significant role here. In fact, you could argue that without his involvement. a lot of this wouldn't have set in motion as it did. I'm not saying it's completely anybody's fault, but. Yeah. Now, but now, according to Felisa Tess Goodman, who we have in the show notes, quote, in the case of Father Alt, we are dealing with an abnormal personality in the wildest sense of the term. During the multiple psychiatric examinations he underwent in the late 1970s, the evaluating psychologist noted, quote, parts of his history. even suggests the presence of a psychosis of the schizophrenic type. Oh, so he may have had schizophrenia? Yeah, Speaker 2 (5:20) so Speaker 1 (5:20) there's other stuff going on here. Oh, okay. That's interesting. Now, the evaluations of Alt are a little confusing because they indicate that he both shows signs of a psychotic disorder, but is otherwise completely functional and it doesn't seem to affect a lot of his daily life. So he may have just been medicated. Potentially, maybe. Okay. Now, it's possible that, you know, he is a Catholic priest. I don't know if they're like if you're getting the full story here or if they're treading lightly on certain things, these evaluations. I'm not positive because like instead of labeling his delusions and hallucinations as symptoms of psychosis, the doctors refer to them as pseudo hallucinations. Oh? But regardless of how they were labeled, it does appear that Father Alt's interactions with the family would be influenced by those hallucinations. Yeah. I kind of feel like you're like hallucinating or you're not. Yeah, I would think that too. I Speaker 2 (6:18) don't know what a Speaker 1 (6:18) pseudo hallucination is. I'm not really sure how you just like kind of hallucinate. Just a touch. Like, I don't know, maybe a little. Just Speaker 2 (6:23) a Speaker 1 (6:23) dab will do you. Now, it was in the fall of 1975 that Roth finally managed to convince Father Alt to visit the family. In a letter to Bishop Yosef Stangle, Alt wrote, quote, In the evening, I took a walk with my friend, Father Roth. And once more, as we talked about Annalise Michelle, we smelled the same series of stenches described by Annalise and her mother. Finally, now, I heard some of the details of the girl's affliction. And this was while they were on a walk not with her. Yeah, just talking about it. That's weird. This, it turned out, was not the first time that Alt had experienced. hallucinations in connection with this particular case. Just a few months earlier, he saw a vision of, quote, the living Christ on the cross calling out to him. Well, he's a priest. You know. Between the stories of Annalise's symptoms and the hallucinations, Father Alt was convinced that this was a genuine possession. And he was like, I have to meet with this family. Okay. Now, in the two years that she had been enrolled in classes at the university, Annalise's life had continued to spiral downward in some like pretty remarkable ways. At first, she was simply anxious and very exhausted all the time. She told the psychologist, in the morning, I wake up listlessly and really don't feel like getting up. Same sister. Her struggles and like disposition were also confirmed by her roommate, Ursula, who said during the first few weeks at school, Annalise was completely withdrawn and went to lectures only if we dragged her. Oh, man. Now, things did improve slightly in early 1974 when Annalise met a young man named Peter at a local dance and they started dating. Nice. Yeah. So Ursula, her roommate, said it completely revived her. Wow. Annalise often went dancing and bowling with him, things she was not interested in before. Oh, that makes me sad that there was like a little glimmer of hope. And it seemed like after years of like true depression. Friends and family were overjoyed to see her coming back to life in a way they hadn't seen in so many years at this point. Now, unfortunately, Annalise's embrace of this whole new life and love, it was short-lived because just a few weeks after they started dating, she ended her relationship with Peter. Oh. She said, quote, I often get terribly depressed and I'm not good company for anybody. Oh, that's so sad. Now, not willing to let go of the relationship entirely, Peter insisted they remain friends. He sounds like a good kid. Yeah, he does. And he wanted to see each other socially. He was like, I don't want to just, like, not be Speaker 2 (8:52) in Speaker 1 (8:52) your life. Well, Speaker 2 (8:52) it sounds like Speaker 1 (8:52) he was like, you're not too much. Yeah. You know? And this was despite Annalise's, like, frequent attempts to, like, rebuff him. She was like, because she's thinking, because this isn't like, I don't want to be around you. This is, I don't think I'm good enough to, like, more, like, social enough to be around you. Yeah, yeah, Speaker 2 (9:09) yeah. Speaker 1 (9:09) You know? No. And he's just saying, like, let's be friends. Yeah, exactly. And she would say. you know, I cannot feel what you feel for me. Because she was basically saying I can't feel. Yeah, period. Like I'm having trouble with feelings. Basic emotions. Right. Determined though, Peter insisted she would feel love if she let herself do so. Annalise replied, you do not, you don't understand. I cannot feel any love at all. I am all numb, sort of. I can't feel emotions like that. Oh my God, this is so sad. And I think Peter was seeing, because he seems like a good kid, like he was really trying to get her out of this. Yeah. I think he was trying to be like, I see what's happening here and you're kind of like self-sabotaging and I'm trying to get you out of it. And you deserve love. Now, in retrospect, any psychologist would identify the things Annalise was saying and feeling as symptoms of profound chronic depression. Yeah, like severe. Unfortunately, in the 1970s, mental health and the issues surrounding it were not spoken of publicly. And treatment for mental health was... Definitely not routinely encouraged. No. They were like, why don't you just do some cocaine about it? Yeah. So as evidenced by her parents' discussion of mental illness and like very hushed tones and don't let anyone find out about it, Annalise too would likely, you know, have understood depression or any other mental illness as a subject that was like deeply covered in shame and stigma. Yeah. Also, after so many failed, but like... Pretty inconsistent and half-hearted attempts to treat her depression, in my opinion. Annalise had already decided her problems were of a spiritual matter and not something that could be treated by medical doctors. Okay. Now, to make matters worse, where once her parents had placed their faith in science and medicine and encouraged Annalise to see specialists, by the time she entered her second year at university, at least her mother's perspective on the matter had changed. Anna had said of her daughter, Annalise was a kind, loving, sweet and obedient girl. But when she was possessed, it was something unnatural, something that you can't explain. Every weekend, when classes would end for the week, Annalise took the train home to see her parents and sisters in Klingenberg. And visiting home each weekend would definitely have provided like a sense of stability for her. But that stability did not do a whole lot to help with her erratic symptoms. By 1974, she had abandoned any attempts to hide her unusual behavior when she was around her family. According to her mother, quote, she would perform 600 genuflections a day, eventually rupturing her knee ligaments. What is a genuflection? Praying, like getting down on your knees to pray. Like genuflecting is like bowing and... Speaker 1 (11:51) respect and prayer. Okay. So getting down on your knees 600 times. That is according to her mother. That is obviously. Speaker 2 (11:58) Wow. Speaker 1 (11:59) Yeah. And she said she ruptured her ligaments. Oh. Yeah. Ouch. Sometimes she could also be found, this is according to her parents as well. Sometimes they said she could be