The True Story Season 2
The True Story is a documentary series shown on History in the United Kingdom and on the Smithsonian Channel in the US under the name The Real Story.
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The True Story
2008The True Story is a documentary series shown on History in the United Kingdom and on the Smithsonian Channel in the US under the name The Real Story.
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The True Story Season 2 Full Episode Guide
This documentary explores the real-life incident that inspired the 1973 film ‘The Exorcist’. In 1949, Catholic priests attempted to exorcise a 13-year-old boy who was seemingly possessed by demons. The event inspired William Peter Blatty to write his bestselling novel, but modern-day scientists now pour doubt on the veracity of the tale. In 1949, a 13-year-old boy in Cottage City, Maryland was apparently possessed by demons. The boy, who has never spoken about his ordeal and has never been identified, demonstrated extreme behaviour shortly after the death of his beloved aunt. The family experienced strange noises around the house and the boy’s bed began to shake violently. After bizarre markings appeared on his skin, the parents turned to the local hospital for help. When this proved fruitless, they called upon local priest Father Albert Hughes. The late Father Hughes’s colleague, Father Frank Bober, recalls the priest’s first meeting with the boy. “He noticed a very dark stare – almost as if there was nothing behind the eyes,” he says. When Hughes asked the boy his name, he replied, “I am legions” – indicating that numerous spirits had taken up residence inside his body. Hughes attempted the then little-known practice of exorcism to dispel the demons – to no avail. The family sought treatment in St Louis, where a priest named Father William Bowdern decided to embark upon nightly exorcisms. “Father Bowdern doesn’t want to do it. He doesn’t feel he has the training, but he feels obliged to help the kid,” explains author Tom Allen. The exorcism lasted six weeks, during which time the child swore, struggled and displayed fits of seemingly superhuman strength. Then, abruptly, his symptoms ended. The boy and his family returned to a life of relative obscurity. Decades later, author William Peter Blatty became fascinated by the tale. After reading Bowdern’s diary, he received a letter from the priest. At the end of the letter, the priest asserted his belief in the truth of what he had seen. “Had it not been for that last sentence and the fact that he had kept a detailed diary, I would not have written the novel,” says Blatty. The resulting book and film reignited interest in the centuries-old practice of exorcism. However, scientists now believe they can explain the boy’s symptoms without resort to the supernatural. Neuroscientist Professor Michael Persinger insists that the brain holds the key. “When it comes to religious experience, the brain generates all behaviours, no matter how mystifying they may be,” he says. Persinger believes the abrupt loss of the boy’s aunt at a vulnerable stage in his brain’s development may have prompted his bizarre behaviour. In Persinger’s view, the nightly “harassment” of the exorcism created a frenzied state that led to the seizures. “The treatment itself causes the phenomenon,” he explains. Experiments have shown that disrupted brainwaves can cause subjects to detect a “Godly presence”, which sometimes manifests itself as a malevolent force. Despite these theories, 40 per cent of American adults – including William Peter Blatty – say they believe in demonic possession. The Catholic church now offers exorcism training to its priests. Father Thomas Euteneuer is an officially sanctioned exorcist. “I just love to see people become free of their evil through the power of the church,” he says. This film includes remarkable footage of a modernday exorcism. Persinger, however, warns that exorcisms can harm the treatment of people with serious mental disorders. “I see the risks associated with maintaining a fallacy,” he says. “People are responsible for their behaviour, not bad influences.”
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The historical documentary strand continues with an exploration of the events that inspired the Martin Scorsese movie ‘Casino’. The 1995 film was based on the true story of a murderous enforcer who ruled Las Vegas for the Chicago mob. Only a highly organised FBI operation was able to expose the criminal tentacles flowing through the city’s underbelly. In the 1970s, Las Vegas was ruled by the Chicago mob. Around $1million was siphoned from the top three casinos each month to line the pockets of mob bosses in the Windy City. One of the mafia’s key men in Vegas was a ruthless enforcer named Tony Spilotro, who inspired the Nicky Santoro character played by Joe Pesci in ‘Casino’. Spilotro was sent to protect the mafia’s take – known as the ‘skim’ – from light-fingered employees. Despite orders to keep a low profile, Spilotro fuelled a wave of violence. In his first three years in Vegas, more people died in gangland murders than in the previous 25. Spilotro also established his own burglary ring – the ‘hole-in-the-wall gang’ – which targeted wealthy homes in the suburbs. By 1979, Spilotro’s activities had come to the attention of the FBI, who were keen to impose law and order on the desert town. “We had to come in here and replant the American flag,” recalls former agent Emmett Michaels. A huge FBI surveillance operation recorded thousands of hours of illicit conversations. Agents even dressed up as maintenance men in order to infiltrate mob dens and plant bugs. In late 1979, an increasingly paranoid Spilotro learned that one of his underlings, Jerry Linser, had turned informant. He ordered his right-hand man, Frank Cullotta, to deal with Linser. “I went over to Linser’s house that same night, I opened up the door and that’s when I proceeded to kill him,” recalls Cullotta. By killing a state’s witness, the mobsters had raised the stakes. The FBI redoubled its efforts and began to follow the money flowing from Vegas to Chicago. Agents watched casino employee Phil Ponto deliver a package to a Chicago mobster. Meanwhile, local police turned up the heat on Spilotro by tailing him everywhere he went. This resulted in the fatal shooting of one of Spilotro’s associates by a Las Vegas cop. Spilotro’s response was to put a contract on the lives of the two cops involved in the shooting. Police commander Kent Clifford, a tough Vietnam veteran, became personally involved. “I’d been in war, I’d been shot at... so I wasn’t afraid of Tony Spilotro,” he says. Clifford flew to Chicago to warn Spilotro’s bosses not to harm the two police officers. Remarkably, the Chicago bosses agreed to his request and overruled their enforcer. Undeterred, Spilotro plotted a heist on a jewellery store. But the shop was under surveillance and the hole-in-the-wall gang – including Frank Cullotta – was captured by the FBI in one fell swoop. Cullotta subsequently agreed to become a state’s witness when he heard that Spilotro had ordered his death. “I knew then that Tony wasn’t on my side,” he says. However, the FBI still needed to prove that the money going to Chicago came directly from the casino floor. Agent Michaels went undercover in the casino and proceeded to gamble away thousands of dollars in marked bills. Investigators hoped that some of these bills would show up when the Chicago delivery was intercepted. But on the day of the sting, Phil Ponto was found to be carrying nothing more than a box of cookies and a bottle of wine. Someone had tipped the gang off. “It was a bad day for the FBI,” recalls agent Lynn Ferrin. The FBI regrouped and turned its attention to the casinos’ paper trail. The strategy paid off spectacularly when agents discovered the mafia had been forging documents to cover up their skim. The mob’s control of Vegas suffered a fatal blow and Tony Spilotro paid the ultimate price. In 1986, he was found buried in an Indiana field. Spilotro’s former nemesis, Kent Clifford, sheds no tears. “He was bad for society,” he...
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The truth behind the swashbuckling pirate Blackbeard and revealing the real pirate ship and tales that inspired the action in the series of films starring Johnny Depp.
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Exploring the truth behind the murders of several women in Boston, Massachusetts, in the early 1960s. Were they the work of one person?
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