After much searching, the family found priest Ernst Alt, who convinced local bishop, Bishop Josef Stangl, to approve another priest, Arnold Renz, to perform an exorcism. The one condition: it must be performed in absolute secrecy.
Over the next 10 months, Alt and Renz conducted 67 exorcisms, lasting up to four hours, on Anneliese’s fragile body and mind. She would often need to be restrained to endure the sessions.
During that time, she revealed that she believed she was possessed by five demons: Lucifer, Cain, Judas Iscariot, Adolf Hitler, and Nero. She also broke the bones and ripped the tendons in her knees from continually kneeling in prayer in an effort to exorcise the demons in her mind.
By this stage, her parents had stopped all medical consultations to treat their daughter. Anneliese began starving herself, and finally, stopped eating. She eventually died of malnutrition and…
