Obscure Occurrences : The Exorcism of Anna Ecklund

 One summer evening in 1928, father Theophilus Riesinger was driving to the train depot in Erling, Iowa. He was scheduled to meet a woman in her 40s, who had travelled some distance to benefit from his expertise namely decades of experience as a potent exorcist of demons. Already the evening was off to a sinister start as an ill omen of what was to come, father Riesinger suffered car troubles on the way to the station. His car despite being relatively new, struggled to maintain speed meaning that it took him two hours to travel what should have been an inconsiderable distance.

 When he finally arrived late and apologised, the woman was unfazed. Calmly, she is described as having said to the friar, “I would have been much more surprised if everything had gone smoothly. The devil will try his utmost to foil our plans. I suspected he would try to interfere with your coming”. If the case which follows is as true as it is claimed to be, the devil's grip on the woman was so strong that he never let go. Despite being administered the right of exorcism not once but multiple times, she continued to experience diabolical possessions for the rest of her life with her story of possession and exorcism coming to shape our very understanding of the demonic.

Beginning of the Possession

 In order to understand the full and horrifying scope of this case, we must go back to the beginning and so, the story starts long before that fateful night in 1928. Many years earlier, during the woman's adolescence, the tragic figure at the centre of this phenomenal tale of demonic possession is known by the pseudonym, Anna Ecklund. Described as having been raised in a religious household in Wisconsin, at the age of 14 something changed for young Ecklund. Despite wanting to pray and go to church to receive the holy communion as she had always done, some interior hidden power is said to have stopped her from doing so. In the clutches of this mysterious force, she was physically incapable of entering the church and would hear sinister voices telling her to do all manner of unspeakable things.

 According to “Begone Satan!”, the book published by clergy members in 1935 about her ordeal, she even had violent visions of attacking and suffocating her spiritual advisor wanting nothing more than to shatter her holy waterfront and utterly destroy the church. Other strange symptoms began to manifest as Ecklund understood languages of which she had no knowledge including Latin, Hebrew and Polish. When blessed by a priest, she is described as having foamed at the mouth, enraged and wild and repulsed by holy objects. Medical professionals soon became involved but none could name the cause of Ecklund suffering. Declared physically and mentally fit, it was at this point that her family invited the church to help and so for the first time Ecklund met with father Riesinger.

Riesinger's initial exorcisms on Anna Ecklund

 A 1934 pamphlet informed by Riesinger's own private written accounts, suggests that she met the friar whilst he was active in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Not yet ordained as a priest, he entered the cleric there and developed a zeal for saving mortal souls from the clutches of evil. Ecklund so it seems, was the trigger for his interest. Referred to as Mary X in the text, Ecklund is also claimed to have met the friar in New York after he became a priest and conducted his ministry there. On the 12th of June, 1908, he exorcised a then 25-year-old Ecklund, for the first time and this at the age of 40 was also Riesinger’s first exorcism. It was, however, not successful as she would be free but only a short time perhaps a day or two before the demons would return.

 Trapped in diabolical bondage, they would compel her to smash crucifixes and eventually convinced her to abandon her pious life entirely. According to the 1934 pamphlet authored by a Jesuit who befriended and lived with Riesinger for a time, by 1912 the situation had somewhat resolved itself. After many years of exorcisms, Ecklund was quite free of the evil which had tormented her. For the next few years not much is known as Riesinger moved away and he and Ecklund continued to write to each other. Presumably, she was living her life free of the past and able to return to the faith which she so loved. 

Another long exorcism on Anna Ecklund

 Then one day, Riesinger received a terrible letter from Ecklund dated to the 16th of July, 1928. Ecklund wrote that the demons had returned and that the devil himself laughed at already Riesinger had thought he had achieved. “Does he not know”, so the letter goes “that Hell is stronger than Heaven, that there are more in Hell than Heaven?” later on in the letter, Ecklund added that the devil had told her that he would “make life so disagreeable for me that I will gladly turn to a life of sin”. Reading this, Riesinger knew that he had to aid his penitent once again. Throughout his relationship with Ecklund, Riesinger was extremely concerned with both her spiritual and physical safety. Already she had suffered much and so with her body still plagued by demons and unwanted sinful designs, he knew he needed a place where he could work that would not draw attention. With the permission of the bishop, the small town of Erling in Iowa was chosen. Riesinger turned to the convent of the Franciscan sisters for help and with the consent of the mother superior, had Ecklund moved there for exorcism.

 Returning back to the train station in Erling, far from being two strangers meeting for the first time, Ecklund and Riesinger greeted each other as old peculiar friends bound together by evil. The following day, after spending the night at the convent, a large room was made ready for the deliverance. Ecklund was placed firmly upon the mattress of an iron bed and upon the advice of the friar, had her arm sleeves and her dress tightly bound so as to prevent any devilish tricks. The strongest nuns in the convent were called to help, as it was suspected that once the prayers began the demon-played woman would try to attack Riesinger and so, they were told to hold her on the bed.

 Soon after the prescribed prayers of the church began, Ecklund is said to have sunk into unconsciousness so deeply that she could not be roused. In line with the account in “Begone Satan!”, the father “had hardly begun the formula of exorcism in the name of the Blessed Trinity, in the name of the Father, The son and The Holy Ghost, in the name of the Crucified Savior, when a hair-raising scene occurred. With lightning speed the possessed dislodged herself from the bed and from the hands of her guards; and her body carried through the air, landed high above the door of the room and clung to the wall with a tenacious grip”. Cat-like and diabolical, Ecklund allegedly clawed into the wall causing all in the room along with Riesinger to tremble with fear. With the effort of several people, the woman was able to be pulled down from the wall and returned to the bed and so the exorcism continued. As the priest prayed, a loud shrill screaming is said to have been heard in the room and would not stop. they were unearthly sounds and Ecklund was utterly possessed.

What actually possessed Anna Ecklund?

 In order for the exorcism to be successful, the identity of the spirits possessing the woman had to be established. After all, there appeared to be many of them. It is claimed that Ecklund spoke with different voices, sometimes even in different languages. There were voices that sounded “bestial and most unnatural” as the “BegoneSatan!” account reports, uttering an “inexpressible grief and hatred that no human could reproduce”. Eerily, Ecklund is claimed to have remained unconscious for much of her ordeal with her mouth closed tight. Even when it was open, there was not the slightest movement of the lips nor were there any changes in the position of the mouth. It is claimed that the evil spirits simply spoke in an audible manner from somewhere within her and projected their voices out into the room.

 Such supernatural sounds are said to have continued for many days, sometimes lasting for hours at a time. Finally, after an invocation of Jesus, one of the evil spirits possessing the woman named itself Beelzebub. Barking like a hound from hell, alternating between English, German and Latin, the demon was quick to declare its hatred for God and obedience to lucifer. It is also said to have explained the reason for Ecklund's possession as her own father said that the demonic voice had cursed evil into her. As the conversation between the exorcist and demon continued, it was revealed that ever since his passing Eklund's father Jacob had also been possessing the unfortunate woman. Horrifyingly, he too eventually spoke through his daughter's body.

 Riesinger in the course of the exorcism came to learn of the despicable man who has led a debased and sinful life and had tried to force his child to follow in his dark footsteps. She a pious teenager, had resisted his advances and ever since, Jacob had cursed her wishing all the ill of the world upon her inviting demons to seize her body and after his own death joining them in tormenting her. The sin of giving his child over to hell had secured his eternal damnation. Equally terrible was another claimed to have possessed the woman, an aunt by the name of Mina who was also said to have been the mistress of Jacob. Her voice was high-pitched and her words especially hateful indeed. It is said that “her replies to Riesinger's interrogations were filled with such bitter hatred and spite that they far surpassed all that had happened so far”.

 According to the account of the exorcism, she would also take control of Ecklund's body so as to spit at the priest and even vomit with one shocking description detailing how the woman would expel horrific fluids in “quantities that were humanely speaking impossible to lodge in a normal being”. Even then, the worst was yet to come. The reason for mina's damnation the evil spirit claimed, was infanticide. “Little ones” she said bitterly, had suffered at her hand. They were her own children and after being pursued by Riesinger she confessed to having disposed of six of them. In death and damnation, it was now her aim to drive her niece to a similar horrific end.

Looking at the 1934 pamphlet which is now largely lost to time and having been censored by the church, one uncovers more disturbing details about Mina and her relationship with Ecklund. The woman was allegedly known among the people as a witch with it being rumoured, that she bewitched herbs so as to induce her niece's demonic possession. She and Jacob so it was suggested, worked together to destroy the young woman's soul. Decades later, both now dead, they were still determined to complete their malevolent scheme. 

Another long exorcism on Anna Ecklund (Cont'd)

As the exorcism dragged on, Ecklund suffered more and more. It is reported that her face became disfigured, as different entities fought to take control of her. One particularly long and chilling description, details how her pale death-like and emaciated head often assuming the size of an inverted water pitcher became as red as glowing embers, her eyes protruded out of their sockets, her lips swelled up to proportions equalling the size of hands and her thin emaciated body was bloated to such an enormous size that the pastor and some of the sisters drew back out of fright, thinking that the woman would be torn to pieces and burst. Throughout all of this, Riesinger is said to have persisted

 Undaunted, untiring and singular-minded in his mission, he continued to administer the right of exorcism even on his own. It is said that the demonic presences were so strong that the pastor of Erling who had been assisting Riesinger throughout, could no longer tolerate the friar or the exorcism. Perhaps identified as the weaker party in the exercising duo, Satan is said to have turned his attention towards the pastor. “You will have to suffer for that” a demonic voice is reported as having said, it then went on to say “just wait until the end of the week when Friday comes”. That Friday morning after delivering mass, the pastor had to drive to administer the last sacraments to the dying mother of a farmer. On the way there, a dense black cloud is said to have formed on the road blinding him and causing him to crash his vehicle just as he was about to pass a bridge over a deep ravine, his car collided with the railing of the bridge. Now a complete wreck, its carcass hung onto the iron trellis “threatening every moment to drop into the deep abyss below”. Miraculously, a nearby farmer who was out ploughing a field heard the crash and rushed to help thus saving the pastor.

The 1928 exorcism of Anna Ecklund, lasted 23 days. In addition to Beelzebub, her father Jacob and her aunt Mina, she is also said to have been possessed by judas and a whole host of other impish demons both audible and silent. In line with the text “Begone Satan!”, the number of silent devils was countless. The exorcism's great length has been described as unusually long especially considering how Riesinger worked from dawn to dusk.

Aftermath

 According to the aforementioned record, “on the 23rd day of September, 1928, in the evening about nine o'clock that with a sudden jerk of lightning speed the possessed woman broke from the grip of her protectors and stood erect before them. Only her heels were touching the bed”. With the father calling for the fiends to depart and leave her body, “a piercing sound filled the room”. It was voices, many voices repeating the names of the various demons who claimed to have infested the woman and eventually, the sounds faded away into the distance. Soon, Ecklund opened her eyes and mouth for the first time since the exorcism had begun.

 However, according to the 1934 pamphlet based on Riesinger's own German-written accounts, Ecklund relapsed into possession almost immediately. Her on-off demonic assault was still ongoing at the time of the pamphlet being written. Unwilling to abandon his charge, the ageing friar re-administered the right over and over even commenting during an interview in 1936 that this case will continue until Christ says it is enough. Ecklund eventually died in obscurity still suffering from demonic possession.