Beware the Night

by Ralph Sarchie

  Over the years, the pattern changed, Greg told us. For a while, the attacks lessened, and his business thrived. “Then the fits of madness, or whatever you want to call them, started happening in the daytime, when I was awake. I could actually feel the frenzy coming on. It was like a roaring in my brain. For the safety of my family, I’d lock myself in the bathroom when I felt this way, because after this force took hold of me, I’d lose all control.”

  With an embarrassed expression, he told us that during these episodes, he’d dig at the bathroom tiles until his fingers bled. The fits became so frequent that he’d sometimes go completely berserk and run from his house to rip up the asphalt driveway, leaving the marks we’d observed when we parked. Understandably, he went back to the psychiatrist, but once again, the doctor was no help. Greg was simply sent home with a stronger prescription for tranquilizers that did nothing to tame his rages.

  Greg and his wife were now haunted by horrifying questions: What if he attacked his family—or someone else? Just how dangerous was he? Could he kill someone during one of these episodes? And what was the cause of his terrifying affliction?

  I could understand his fear, given what happened to Bill Ramsey: Roaring in the night led to horrifying daytime rampages. In the throes of one seizure, Bill brutalized a nurse, tearing at her arm with his teeth and drinking her blood. Police found him on all fours, his face contorted into a hideous, bestial expression, growling with inhuman fury. The officers wrestled him into a straitjacket and took “the wolfman,” as the British press later dubbed him, to a mental hospital. When Bill came to his senses later that day, he had no memory of his behavior but told the psychiatrists he felt there was a beast inside him. After his release from the hospital, he went on to attack several other people, including a prostitute and an entire police station full of cops.

  Having met Bill Ramsey myself and spoken to him at length about these events, I was particularly struck by how both he and several witnesses said that he really had taken on some physical traits of a wolf during these seizures, mainly in his facial expressions, body movements, and especially his clenched, clawlike hands. He also told me he’d feel drawn to the window when there was a full moon outside, to howl at it like a wolf. In demonological terms, we call this “lycanthropy”, from the Greek lykoi (wolf) and anthropos (man).

  I’m not saying that either Bill or Greg was a werewolf, because if I did it would be pure b.s. The truth is that both men were possessed by demons with some of the characteristics of a beast, whether a wolf, a panther, or another fierce predator. Making Bill howl at the moon was a ploy the evil spirit used to conceal its nature and create confusion. Think about it: Anyone who knows anything about wolves knows they really don’t howl at the moon. That’s just legend. They howl to communicate with each other, whether the moon is full or not. So Bill wasn’t acting like a wolf at all: He was being attacked in a way that fit his notion of lupine behavior, leading him to conclude that he’d turned into a werewolf.

  Through his involvement with the Ramsey case, my partner Joe has studied lycanthropy, a fascinating condition that’s inspired strange legends all over the world. The ancient Romans believed that certain magic spells or herbs could transform a human into a wolf, while the Greeks of antiquity had a wolf cult that held an annual orgy of human sacrifice and cannibalism. During the Middle Ages, people who were suspected of being werewolves were actually burned at the stake. Among the Gypsies, the view is that shape-shifters, or werewolves, are under a curse. Father Martin felt there may be some truth to this, as he knew of cases where lycanthropy was passed down from generation to generation, like a family curse. But with God’s grace this hellish cycle of possession could be broken. Navajo shamans hold that evil witches called “brujas” can change themselves into coyotes, while Japanese folklore speaks of people who turn into foxes. In India and China, legend has it that humans can shift their shape to that of the most dangerous beast in that part of the world, the tiger. A Nigerian priest reports that some tribes in his area have crocodile or leopard cults, where the members are said to become transfigured into these much-dreaded creatures through magic rituals. And, of course, the Devil is often pictured as half-man, half-beast, with cloven hooves, a long barbed tail, and a pair of horns.

  What do Joe and I think about all this? We think a lot of it is superstition. What legends leave out is the role of the demonic. From my personal experience in the Work, I know that diabolical forces definitely have the power to induce grotesque visions in humans through a process called “telepathic hypnosis.” Such fiendishly inspired hallucinations could certainly account for the centuries-old tales of werewolves and other shape-shifters, since demonic possession has been with us since God created humanity. Or it may be that some demons really can cause animalistic changes in the people whose bodies they inhabit, though I’ve never seen such a thing myself. As Father Martin once said, “Confusion, it would seem, is a prime weapon of evil.” And what could be more confusing than a man who changes into a beast, and back?

  Joe and I have seen many cases where possessed people will go through periods of normalcy, as Greg and Bill did, and function as usual in everyday life. The demon doesn’t seize control twenty-four hours a day. Most of the time, the victims are in command of themselves. In nine out of ten cases, people suffer blackouts lasting an hour, a day, or weeks on end where their personality undergoes a drastic change. They may become violent, abuse their loved ones, destroy property, become sexually promiscuous, or act in other depraved ways. This amnesia is merciful: Sometimes God allows the demonic to so oppress these people’s souls that they aren’t aware of their repugnant behavior.

  Others, however, know what takes place but are powerless to do anything about it. They’ll say that it’s like watching a movie—something else is in complete control and moving their bodies. I’ve seen the same thing with exorcisms: Some people have no memory of the ritual, and others remember everything. Even in their lucid intervals, possessed people always sense an alien presence. Often, however, they don’t understand the true nature of the evil spirit inside them. Because belief in the Devil has declined so much, most people aren’t familiar with the signs of demonic possession. Greg didn’t realize what speaking in a foreign language he’d never studied really meant, nor did Bill realize that his supernatural strength was a red flag. All they knew was that something was terribly wrong: Greg was so tormented that he actually told us he thought he’d be better off dead.

  I could understand his despair. Being possessed is like having cancer. The longer a person has it, the more the malignancy spreads. Yet the person’s spirit is never totally obliterated by the darkness inside him. Even when a demon has been digging in for decades, there’s always a part of the victim that refuses to yield completely to the assault. When someone is taken over by an evil spirit, most people think that means the Devil owns that person’s soul. That’s incorrect. Even if Greg had died while possessed, he wouldn’t automatically be destined for Hell.

  Satan has no claim over a person’s soul—all a demon can do is take over the physical body, while the soul continues to belong to God. The only exception is when someone makes an actual pact with the Devil and gives his soul away. This is called “perfect possession.” The difference between regular and perfect possession involves free will. If an evil spirit breaks down your resistance until you can no longer fight off possession, you won’t lose your soul because you didn’t give yourself over voluntarily. As long as even one little piece of your being is resisting, exorcism can work.

  Another common misconception is that while a demon is inside someone, its torments are lessened. That’s untrue because the demonic are spirit and cannot remove themselves from the torments of Hell, no matter where they go. The reason they don’t want to vacate the “home” they’ve found when they possess someone isn’t that they’re comfortable or happy there but due to their extreme loathing of humanity. They fight like hell out of hatred.

  A very striking f
eature of both Greg and Bill’s cases, however, was how suddenly and savagely the demon attacked. This wasn’t what Joe and I usually see when a satanic spirit takes someone over; there were no mysterious whisperings, shadowy shapes, or eerie bumps in the night here. Neither man experienced any infestation or oppression, no gradual breaking down of the will. Instead, it was straight to possession with just one knockout punch from the demonic.

  Even though they lived half a world apart, on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean, their stories mirror each other so closely that they may have been taken over by the same satanic spirit. Since the demonic have vast powers and aren’t subject to the physical laws of time and space, there’s no reason why one demon couldn’t take over two people, or even several people, at the same time. It’s also possible that there were two different fiends at work, using a virtually identical M.O.

  Whether it was one demon or two, the method these satanic forces used to attack told me what kind of demon I was dealing with. I’m a firm believer in the science of “profiling,” a technique the FBI developed to create psychological portraits of vicious criminals whose identity is unknown. Profiling helps police: predict what a serial killer, mad bomber, or rapist might do next; narrow the list of suspects; and figure out the best way to catch the perpetrator. I use the same method in my work as a demonologist and have identified several categories of satanic offenders.

  First are the intellectuals. This is the type of demon that attacked Tony Petri, the young musician. So cleverly did it insinuate itself into his consciousness that, for years, he couldn’t recognize that the evil force was separate from himself. It was only after he finally realized the spirit wasn’t part of his psyche that he was freed from possession. Sometimes these demons gain a foothold through someone’s spirituality, by giving their assault the overtones of a religious experience. The goal is to become such an integral part of the person’s life that he doesn’t even seek exorcism, a torment that the demonic find worse than the torments of Hell.

  Another type of demon, the con artists, cunningly preys on people’s emotions, the technique the spirit that called itself “Virginia” used to captivate Gabby Villanova. The evil force may be drawn by the human weaknesses that lead us to sin. The incubus in the Washington, D.C., case was drawn to that particular house by the unnatural lust of its previous tenants. Violent behavior of any kind—child abuse, rape, domestic violence, assault, murder—can all be a lure for the demonic. But human weaknesses or viciousness doesn’t necessarily result in possession. There must also be an “invitation” that brings evil forces on the scene: occult practices, moving into a house where the demonic are already present, or a curse directed at the person, which can sometimes cause instantaneous possession if it’s sent by a very powerful sorcerer.

  The diabolical force in Greg and Bill’s case came from a distinctly different group of evil spirits I call the brutes. These low-level demons are quite different from the shrewd spirit that captivated Tony Petri by appealing to his hunger to know the secrets of life. Rather than attacking through a person’s intellect or emotions, brutes operate on a visceral, animalistic level. There’s nothing subtle about these diabolical perps: They don’t go for your brain, they just grab you by the throat. In the criminal world, they’d be muggers who hit you over the head and rip the rings off your fingers, not white-collar swindlers who surreptitiously embezzle from your bank account.

  I explained to Greg that he was possessed by a demonic spirit and that the only way to expel it was by an exorcism. Although he wasn’t a Catholic or even particularly religious, he was so frightened by what he’d become—and the terrible danger his family faced from him—that he not only embraced this offer of salvation but asked to have the ritual performed as quickly as possible. Joe and I put him in touch with Bishop McKenna, who was extremely familiar with this particular demon, having served as Bill Ramsey’s exorcist. Bill had learned of the bishops through the Warrens, who were visiting England at the time.

  Initially Greg had the same view that Bill did about the ritual: It’s something you read about in books or see in the movies, a last resort for the truly desperate. Yet the more the two men thought about it, the more right it seemed that faith should be the cure for a curse that all the doctors and psychiatrists they’d seen were powerless against. Their decades of affliction didn’t have its roots in medicine. Nor could their problems be explained by science: They originated far outside the realm of reason and physical laws. To a scientist or doctor, these events sounded insane, even impossible, the stuff of legends and myth. Possession does not fit into their neat little view of the world. To them, it must be mental illness.

  These two men knew better than that. Their terrible fits sprang from humanity’s most ancient and wily enemy; and the solution surely lay in our infinitely old and powerful ally, God. Since both men prayed, at least occasionally, each prayed that his exorcism would be successful.

  From what Joe had told me about the Ramsey exorcism—and my own knowledge of how demonic brutes act—I anticipated that Greg’s ritual might be extremely violent. Shortly before Bill’s exorcism, he’d assaulted both his wife and his dog. His hands shaped themselves into claws, so frightening his little terrier that the pet growled at him. Enraged, the carpenter flung his dog against a wall. Its pitiful whimpering halted him from further abuse. “I got right up to the edge of the craziness that usually overtook me,” he said. Bill was able to make it to America, but the worst was yet to come.

  The night before the exorcism, the Ramseys were staying in a Connecticut hotel. Relieved that her husband’s ordeal might soon be over, Nina Ramsey slept soundly, then woke in the wee hours of the night to a chilling sound. Although Bill was asleep, the demon wasn’t. A loud growl reverberated through Bill’s body, then his hands reached for Nina. She tried to escape, but the brute moved even faster. Filled with superhuman strength, Bill overpowered her. But just as his hands wrapped around her throat, Nina found the ultimate antidote to demonic hate. “Bill, I love you,” she whispered bravely. Her words seemed puny compared to Bill’s incessant growls, but their effect was potent: He released her and made the same appeal Greg had left on my answering machine: “Help me!”

  During the exorcism, Bill’s face twisted into a horrible grimace of rage. His hands clawed at the air in front of him, as if he wanted to rip at Bishop McKenna and stop the prayers that were tormenting the demon inside him. When the exorcist held up a crucifix, the carpenter lunged at him, snarling furiously. Although many possessed people have tried to attack the bishop, he’s never been injured during an exorcism. I’ll tell you why: He’s one of the living saints and wears his holiness around him like a bulletproof vest to deflect evil. The demonic brute was no match for the pious bishop, and Bill was finally freed of the demon that had enslaved him.

  * * *

  I prepared for Greg’s exorcism the same way I always do. In the Scriptures, Jesus tells us that some demons can be exorcised only through prayer and fasting. The “black fast” is mainly for the exorcist, but I feel it doesn’t hurt if the assistants do it too. Prayer is a must before an exorcism. I can never emphasize this enough to people. As a Catholic, I believe that to really worship God, you also need to show a devotion to the Virgin Mary. I pray the rosary every day, whether I have a case or not. I like to walk around while I’m praying, so I sometimes stroll around my neighborhood early in the morning, after I get off patrol, with my rosary in hand. It’s very peaceful at this time. Even though I live in the city, one morning I saw a mother raccoon and her babies when I finished my prayers. Since I love animals, it was like a blessing for me to enjoy the sight of these charming creatures of God.

  When I pray the rosary, I don’t ask for any special favors. I just offer my prayers up to God to use as He sees fit. But before an exorcism, I offer them up to Him for the person who is possessed. Great miracles have happened by showing devotion to the Mother of God and the holy saints. This is the mercy of God because He knows each of us b
etter than we know ourselves. He gave us His Son, Jesus Christ, who became a man and was nailed to the cross for us. This happened in front of his mother, whose suffering must have been unimaginable. Jesus gave us all the Virgin Mary as our mother that day on Calvary, even as he was dying on the cross for us, which is why I pay her tribute and hope her intervention will help the person who is suffering on this earth from possession.

  * * *

  On the way to Greg’s exorcism, I prayed again for its success. Since Joe and I knew we would be up against a demonic brute, we made sure to have plenty of strong assistants at hand. Greg was about five foot ten and 185 pounds. There were eight of us to keep him under control: Joe and myself, Phil, Scott, Ritchie, John, and Joe Z. and his wife, Donna. All of us were as big or bigger than Greg. Joe and I both have martial arts training—and Scott is a karate champion—though we have never had to use it during an exorcism. I also felt good about our spiritual strength. As Jesus said, “When two or more people are gathered together in My name, I am with them.”

  For our safety, Greg consented to wear a straitjacket. If he hadn’t agreed, I don’t think any of us in the church that day would have wanted to be there, because this was one nasty, dangerous demon. We secured him as tightly as possible, carefully fastening the straps, then tied a thick nylon rope around his ankles to further immobilize him. He sat quietly on the front pew. He knew from past experience that he could go berserk at any moment, even though that wasn’t his true nature. He told us to do whatever we thought best: He just wanted the nightmare to end.

  Lucinda was extremely nervous and practically quivering from the strain. Stress was written all over her face. She had no idea what was about to take place, since Joe and I tell people as little as possible about an upcoming exorcism, so as not to influence their reactions in any way. Like Greg, she just wanted to be done with this ordeal. Anxiously she asked me what would happen if the exorcism didn’t work. “This is my last hope for a normal life with the man I love,” she emphasized. I just told her to put her faith in God. What else could I say? I couldn’t make any guarantees, much as I would have liked to. She gave her husband a kiss, quickly wiped the purplish lipstick print off his cheek, and took her seat at a side pew.