Late in the 1990s, on a cold night, I fondly recall being covered up with warm blankets.. the room was dark.. and a small AM radio was playing next to my bed. Long before iPods and phones, the age of dial up was just too slow.. The radio worked fine. The voice of Art Bell interviewing Father Malachi Martin billowed through the shadows… They chatted about the ‘perfect’ possession.. Bell bragged that Martin told him of the TRUE secrets of Fatima.. it was all given to us like a novel, like a perfect novel. About perfect possession.
Father Malachi Martin was a very real Jesuit priest. He passed away just before the turn of the century.. His mark was made on the paranormal world thanks to Coast to Coast AM at that time, and other media outlets that broadcast his story ..
Martin’s fame was given a higher credibility after his numerous appearances with Bell. But his story did not end with the radio show appearances.
Father Martin is well known in the exorcism community as being a major player — he often even said he could spot possessed persons as he walked the streets of his home town of New York City..
He was involved in a number of exorcisms.. He battled demons, he said. And now thanks to a new Netflix documentary hitting this weekend, others will say he claim he battled demons as well..
The new feature length documentary HOSTAGE TO THE DEVIL will feature some stunning claims .. such as this: That after an exorcism in 1999, and after a fall that later led to his death, Fr Martin told a friend that an invisible force had pushed him, leading to the head trauma…
Writer and producer Rachel Lysaght recalled how Fr Martin, from Ballylongford in Kerry, had his first encounter with exorcism while in Egypt working on a book, The Scribal of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The story will go on to showcase ACTUAL footage from exorcisms.. we are told that faces will be blurred to protect the possessed.
One amazing claim gaining a lot of traction today thanks to a link on the Drudge Report (Drudge was a listener to Art Bell back in the day as well, don’t forget) is this: The UK DAILY MAIL is blaring this: Catholic priest who inspired The Exorcist died from a fall after a ‘possessed’ child spoke to him and he was ‘pushed over by an invisible force’, CIA agent claim
Reporting from the MAIL as follows:
Ahead of the release of a new documentary, his close friend Robert Marrow has lifted the lid on the moment he believes the priest was effectively killed – when a possessed four-year-old girl he was meant to be exorcising spoke to him in America.
Talking to RTE Radio 1’s The Ryan Tubridy Show, the producer of the feature-length show called Hostage to the Devil Rachel Lysaght recalled a harrowing moment during filming.
Former CIA agent Mr Marrow retracted the steps to Connecticut where Father Martin had offered to carry out an exorcism on the four-year-old girl.
When he arrived at the neutral home, the family were already there, and the girl walked up to the priest and said: ‘So you’re Malachi Martin – and you think you can help her?’, suggesting she was talking while having an out-of-body experience.
It has been claimed that after the exchange in 1999, a fall led to his death from a head trauma at the age of 78.
He told a friend that it was caused by an invisible force that pushed him.
By this time, the father from County Kerry in South-Western Ireland was hiring himself out as a private exorcist and it is believed he was the inspiration behind the famous film released in 1973.
Due to Father Martin’s age, Mr Marrow drove him to his clients across America where he had relocated after turning his back on the church.
The former CIA agent told RTE the encounter between the priest and the girl was the most disturbing thing he had ever seen, according to Rachel Lysaght, who also wrote the new documentary.
There are times I have my doubts.. We all do. Faith in God is one thing. Faith in the devil– or at least the acknowledgment that one exists– seems more difficult. But Father Martin had no doubts. He was aware perhaps of things that none of us want to be.. that none of us are able to be.. that very few of us would ever believe if we saw.
If the stories presented are to be considered true, then the real mysteries of the paranormal and bizarre are even deeper and more foreboding than anything we know.
I will be watching this documentary on Sunday January 15 on Netflix. I think you should too..
And if you never heard or experienced the wonderful dark long nights of 1990s Coast to Coast AM, go back on YouTube and give it a whirl.. start with a search for “Art Bell Malachi Martin.” And let the mysteries of the deep darkness within our souls become revealed..
