Shock Docs (2020–…): Season 4, Episode 2 - The Devil's Academy - full transcript

The iconic blockbuster movie The Exorcist

terrified audiences in the 1970s.

Some say the movie may have helped unleash

a series of events we now call
'satanic panic.'

The Exorcist, The Omen.

If you look at movies that were
satanic, possessed,

and kind of black magic,

kids, they're influenced by that.

It wasn't just pop culture.

It was the beginning of the satanic
panic that would grip America.

Tarot cards, spirit boards and
black magic sprang into popularity.



Suddenly, strange things started happening.

It comes to a big, like, explosion
of paranormal activity.

Hysteria broke out.

A Miami hospital flooded with
thousands of people

claiming to be possessed by demons.

Law enforcement agencies throughout the
nation were dealing with occult activities,

sacrifices, reports of hauntings,
possessions,

dealings with demonic entities
were on the rise.

The devil was everywhere.

And then, in the fall of 1979,

police were called to break up
a riot at a Miami high school

where kids reported being possessed
by the devil.

Several of them had mentioned Satan.

They told terrifying stories



of students throwing themselves out
windows, screaming and writhing on the floor.

A girl levitating, and a boy
transforming into pure evil.

Eyes bulging, and head
turning around, like The Exorcist.

I know this is a paranormal event...

because of the eyewitness testimony.

Could an entire school become
possessed by dark forces,

turning children into demons?

There was something that was scaring
these kids. They were frightened.

Shocking revelations from former students,

speaking out for the first time,

shed light on the day hell broke loose

and turned a high school into...
the Devil's Academy.

This is, beyond a doubt,

the most significant
paranormal event in US history.

A week before Halloween,

at a Miami military academy in Florida,

it appears to be a normal school day.

Students at this institution
are called cadets,

and this morning the cadets are in class,

doing what most other
high-schoolers are doing.

Studying, daydreaming,

wondering what the weekend holds.

Until suddenly, everything changes.

It goes terribly wrong.

One student stands up
and runs out of the door.

Several classmates jump up and follow her

down the hall to the girls' bathroom

to make sure she's OK.

Her friends surround her.

They're rooted with terror.

They're watching, trying to
figure out what's going on.

She's spitting and mumbling,

and finally they make out
these terrible words.

'The devil is inside of me.'

The devil is inside of me!

She starts manifesting
full-on signs of demonic possession.

Right before her classmates' eyes,

the young woman seems to levitate.

That's when everyone knows that
something very terrible has begun.

All of the other students that were in
the girls' bathroom with her were terrified.

They didn't know what was happening.

Her friends have no idea what to do.

Some are trying to comfort her,

others are beginning to show signs
of being possessed themselves.

It's like an infection that's spreading

from one student to the next.

Back in the classroom,
the teacher hears mysterious cries

coming from the girls' room.

Unnerved, she goes to investigate.

Something seems to have unleashed
a malevolent force

that floods the entire school.

It struck. And when it struck,
it struck hard.

It hit the students like a tidal wave.

In another classroom,
the students have no idea

what horrors have just transpired
in the girls' room.

But they say two cadets suddenly erupt

into unprovoked, violent battle.

They're tussling between the desks,
sending things scattering and flying.

And then, the unthinkable.

One of the boys crashes through
a glass window,

slamming down onto the pavement
two stories below.

The students run to the windows,
looking on in horror,

expecting to see their classmate's
bloodied, lifeless body on the ground.

People observed that the kid got right up

and had red eyes, and was growling.

A school official races to help,

but gets a shocking response

from the unbelievably uninjured boy.

Eyewitnesses say he was wild-eyed,
animalistic,

he has the strength of...
God knows how many people.

He has superhuman strength.

The student body,
shocked by what they are seeing,

now explodes into
unfettered paranormal chaos.

We have a situation that is
absolutely out of control.

People are tearing doors off the hinges,

papers flying everywhere.

Some kids are convulsing on the
floor, others are screaming in terror.

Overwhelmingly, the students have undergone

a horrifying physical transformation.

Some of these students
describe making eye contact

with something that was very, very evil.

Some of them describe seeing eyes.
Bad eyes, evil eyes.

Looking into the face of people,
it was not them looking back.

Something looking out of
a friend that they knew

that was in their body
that wasn't there before.

They are acting with preternatural
strength and an absolute, chaotic energy

to destroy the building that was
once a calm institution of learning.

In an all-out war with their demons,

the school administration urgently
sends an SOS to Miami law enforcement.

On October 25, 1979,

this was a particularly strange call.

I could listen to the lieutenant
talking to the alarm office.

It was just chaos there.
Kids are running everywhere.

When I arrived, the children were
still running around.

They were frightened, and were
screaming. It was very chaotic.

They would get together in
little groups and yell and scream

and then split up and go in
different directions.

It appeared that they were,
like, afraid of something.

Many students, terrified of
their own classmates,

seemed to have morphed into monsters.

We saw a number of reactions

that were either fighting,
destroying property,

going crazy, or some people
just having a nervous breakdown.

The school was being destroyed.

It was chaos, and it was
utterly terrifying.

Police try everything to calm the students,

asking them, 'Who started the riot?'

Several of them had mentioned the devil.

The students were saying that
the devil was there,

or they were possessed.

But what they've witnessed
at the high school

leaves officials extremely shaken.

This type of an incident is very unusual.

And certainly, this situation
is the only one I have seen

during my 40 years
with the fire department.

The aftermath of the melee

leaves some students injured
and hospitalised,

but also raises terrifying questions

about what exactly took possession
of these teenagers.

In my opinion, there is no doubt

that what happened at
the Miami Aerospace Academy

definitely has the earmarks of
something both terrifying and paranormal.

What took place, as far as I can tell,

is the largest spiritual contagion,

of this kind of mass possession,

that has ever occurred in American history.

If what happened at
the Miami Aerospace Academy

on that October day
really was a mass possession,

it happened for a reason.

What could have provoked
a demonic takeover of the school

and its students?

When October 25 came around,

they already had the demons inside of them.

And that's what caused
all hell to break loose.

What could possibly explain a mass
possession of high-school students

at the Miami Aerospace Academy

on that shocking day in 1979?

The levitating girl,

claiming to be possessed by Satan...

The boy who crashed through a
second-storey window and landed on concrete,

only to walk away without a scratch...

The terrifying displays
of superhuman strength...

leaves everyone asking why.

Why did it happen?

It happened because children
that felt marginalised and oppressed

were not given the kind of
supervision required.

They let these demons in
and they didn't know what to do,

and the worst-case scenario
literally took place.

Scratching the surface
of daily life at this school,

it suddenly becomes plausible

how something as inconceivable
as a demonic attack

could have occurred during the onset
of the satanic panic.

The situation at the school was unique.

These children were already oppressed.

The devil was already at work

before it ever showed up in possession.

It may have been using the staff...

and 'El General'...

to help further its cause

so it can take full possession.

'El General' is what the school's
founder calls himself.

His real name is Evaristo Marina.

Marina was a bastard, pure and
simple. He was likely corrupt.

The kids really believed he was
evil. But they didn't know the half of it.

Marina, he came over during, I
believe it was, the first exile community,

which was when my parents came over.

And he had to reinvent himself,

just as almost every other Cuban
that came here had to do.

The revolution in Cuba had just
basically taken effect,

what, maybe 10, 12 years prior.

Everybody basically lost everything there.

You had attorneys, doctors that couldn't work
as such here cos they didn't have the licence.

So they had to work in restaurants, hotels,

and find a way to come up back
as they were in Cuba.

Marina was no exception.

Marina came from a high-power
situation in Cuba.

He came here, he worked as a busboy,

but yet he would join the high-level society when he
finished his shift, cos he felt he was part of that.

He needed to be there.
That's where he belonged.

Marina had been a military official
in pre-revolutionary Cuba

before Castro exiled him.

He had political aspirations in Cuba,

so he had to capture some of
that prestige that he had.

What better way to do that
than to have a bunch of kids

line up, salute you,
and call you 'El General'?

That was, like... That was his schtick.

And he loved being called that.

Marina reclaims his power

by opening the Miami Aerospace Academy

in the late 1960s.

The school's credo, academics
through discipline and character-building.

The dyed-in-the-wool Republican general

says he himself is the role model
for the 350 students.

Then they see in me the example.

And that's very good,
because it's not telling them,

'Do as I say, and not as I do.'

I tell them, 'Do as I say and I also do',

so in me they see their second father.

What's incredible is that he
never reached the rank of general,

either here or in Cuba.

He kept awarding himself these stars.

I understand he achieved a certain rank

and then he started adding stars.

That's what conmen do.

It just became this, 'Oh,
look at me, look at me,

look at what a wonderful person
I've been my entire life',

and, 'How good I can be for
the community', and all that.

In this man, parents have
instilled an almost God-like quality.

All of us parents
have choose this school...

for the discipline that exists in it...

the competence of the staff...

and the clean life its general has had.

This is a guy who is trying
to make his way through life

by being something that he isn't.

I think this guy had demons himself.

El General's demons

manifested in the form of power
and punishment.

Mr Marina was a man
so focused on power and control

that the people he hired to run this school

were often thought of as his henchmen.

One of my teachers, he'd have a briefcase.

He'd have his book in the briefcase

and he'd have a .45 calibre handgun
right next to him.

When you have a group of students

who are living in such fear
from their teachers,

the people supposedly
there to protect them,

these are children who did not
feel safe, on a day-to-day basis.

The reason that Marina probably
didn't hire accredited teachers

is because he could have
more control over them, and control

over the information that would
come out of Miami Aerospace Academy.

That way, people wouldn't know
what was going on inside the school.

And what's going on inside the school

is the constant threat of abuse...

doled out by strict
disciplinarians like Major McKently,

who appears to revel in his
crushing power over the students.

Major McKently, he would
walk around jingling his keys

and snapping his paddle on his leg.

- I remember that paddle.
- Yeah, 'Big Ben.'

With a nice strap handle,
and drilled holes through it.

McKently had a nice technique whenever
he had to dispense some discipline.

And that's when he would swing for the
fences and make that cricket paddle whistle.

'Mr Silva, please have Cadet Smith

report to the general's office.'

Sometimes you would get called to the
general's office or the 'commandant's' office,

and it was nerve-wracking.

Life at the academy

is a never-ending cycle of fear.

A perfect breeding ground
for negative forces to fester.

It was sometimes a fight
for survival. Every day.

There were kids that were really terrible.

They had gotten kicked out of
other schools,

their parents were at
the end of the rope with them.

And then there were the kids like myself

who we thought we might want to
make the military,

in some form, a career.

I attended eight years at
Miami Aerospace Academy.

The kids that worked in the MAA, we all
came from middle-class working families.

I myself, you know,
I needed some structure.

I could have perhaps behaved better.

I was just a bad influence.

So, you had just regular kids

that didn't know that they were
being thrown in with the wolves.

Having a few bad apples in the student body

gives El General an excuse to impose
his own brand of martial law,

where students are forced
to be silent, obedient,

and subservient at all times.

They made them wear military uniforms,

they had them marching.

It was a pretty strict environment.

These are classic techniques
of mind control and brainwashing.

In order to control the mind
you break down the body,

physically, through exercise,
through discipline, through marching.

Breaking them down
emotionally and physically,

it's exactly what they did at the academy.

Dissent in any form is not tolerated,

and leads to harsh corporal punishment.

If they were having a bad day,
or you in some way slighted them,

then, yeah, they were gonna
build demerits against you,

to where if you had so many,
then that was, 'All right,

you're getting too out of control,
we're gonna paddle you.'

So there was that constant threat.

They would swiftly hand out

maybe two, three paddles
with the cricket paddle.

It was abusive control.

How do you fight against that?

Are you just gonna find a gun
and shoot the guy? Probably not.

But is there another way
to get back at him?

If he's evil, well...

find a more powerful evil
to get back at the evil.

On October 25th, 1979,

a more powerful evil shows up on campus

to settle the score.

The terrifying events
at the Miami Aerospace Academy

took place in 1979.

A 'satanic panic' was on the rise.

When you look at the '70s cinema alone,

from The Exorcist to Carrie,

they had a huge effect on the psyche of
those coming of age during that period.

But it wasn't just pop culture.

It was the beginning of the satanic
panic that would grip America.

Law enforcement agencies
throughout the nation

were dealing with reports of
hauntings, possessions.

The devil was everywhere.

During the past several years,

the occult has become big business.

Suddenly, the advice and comments

of the astrologer and tarot card
reader are highly sought after.

For the disempowered teenagers
at the academy,

the dark arts become appealing.

Magic could be seen as the answer
to so many problems.

Very often it involves revenge,
it involves spells,

it involves getting even with people.

One of the popular forms of magic
involves Santeria,

rooted in African religious practices.

It spread to Cuba via the slave trade,

and eventually arrived in Miami.

Santeria comprises a religion that
worships different deities called Orishas

and a supreme god called Olodumare.

Through its rituals,
its initiations, its ceremonies,

it's about the healing of the body,
of the mind,

and of bringing together people
culturally as well.

Santeria has many rituals.

One involves animal sacrifice.

Santeria was pretty common.

You'd get called out for
decapitated animals.

People would call, and they'd send
a rescue because there was blood,

and they didn't know if there was
a person involved, or whatever.

And you'd get there, and it'd been a
santeria ritual that had taken place.

At the academy, subjugated students
begin experimenting,

apparently with a dark form of
Santeria mixed with the occult

in a desperate bid
to escape their daily misery.

You can't blame these kids
getting into this

when they're facing a reality
that's so overpowering

that there's no hope it's gonna change.

Their parents are
turning their backs on them.

They just say,
'I have to look for a way out.

It's a matter of survival.'

Some dark sciences have that allure.

It has that attraction to some people.

But it's something that's very dangerous,

something that could be very, very,
erm... hazardous, let's say,

to themselves and to others.

In place of homework,

sessions with tarot cards and spirit boards

become daily practice at school.

Tarot cards can be a harmless game.
Someone asks a question,

someone lays down the cards
to give them an answer.

Tarot cards are an occult device

used to tell the person

a little bit about themselves,

what they're going through,
and their future.

As the cards are placed, they
begin to tell a story of what's to come.

Some outcomes are positive.

Some can be very negative.

They can predict anguish,

death, or the toxic unknown.

But the reason tarot cards
can predict the future

is the same reason they are
said to be potentially dangerous.

I do not recommend the use of tarot cards.

It is considered spirit communication.

The person using the cards

is asking the spirit
to manipulate the cards

to try and predict something
that may happen in the future.

Demons are always waiting for
an invitation to communicate,

some way to influence your decisions,

some way to affect you.

And when you make that invitation,

like, 'What is in store for me?',

they're willing and ready
to jump right in there.

And once you make that invitation,

it's hard to pull it back.

With any kind of dark energy,
demons, spirits,

you don't have control over it.

You may feel like you have control over it

and you think you know what you're doing,

but you're really being controlled by them.

Of all the dark secrets at
the academy, one that's shocking

is that the teachers and staff were
also in on the occult practices.

The staff were the ones
that showed the kids

how to use the spirit board
and play with tarot cards.

But after the 25th, they all denied it.

After all, who would want to admit

that they showed their children how
to talk to the dead during class time?

These boards are basically
just a communication device.

People use them to try to talk to the
spirit and get an answer from them.

And the spirit can guide that planchette

using the person's energy
that is holding the planchette.

Sometimes you will get zero responses.

And sometimes the responses
can be immediate.

When you're using a spirit
board and you connect to somebody

and you start talking to them,

that allows the invitation in.

They knew they were playing with fire,

but yet they proceeded
without any oversight,

without any permission,
without any authorisation.

Everyone knows what
you're trying to conjure up.

There's rules in the spirit world. They
need an invitation to affect your life,

to try and possess you.

It may not act right then.

It'll wait for you to be at your weakest.

The teachers at the academy
assure their students

these are just harmless games,

never once suggesting
this might be a dangerous pastime.

It's one thing for the teachers to bring up
the subject of demonic, of the paranormal.

It's quite another not to give it some
warnings. Apparently that didn't happen.

At the academy,

practising the occult may not be
part of the curriculum,

but for some it quickly becomes
the most popular subject on campus.

Once out of class, every opportunity that
comes their way, every chance they get,

these kids are trying to hone their skills.

They are practising these occult rituals.

But these aren't typical students.

These cadets have been
relentlessly subjected to

harsh discipline and corporal
punishment on a daily basis

with no relief in sight.

Their pent-up collective anger
is explosive.

These students were
a victim of mind control.

And in the midst of that mind control,

the occult and forms of the evil
supernatural were introduced to them.

These kids were already being
oppressed by the academy.

That allows them to be very open

and susceptible to
a demonic presence and attack.

Could the students collectively
summon evil entities

and weaponise them
against their oppressors?

I think that is what led to
this terrible tragedy.

It's impossible to separate the
horrific events at the academy...

from the city where they took place.

For tourists, Miami might be
a tropical paradise,

but all that sunshine masks
a dark and brutal past.

There's a lot of bad juju around Miami.

You can go back 400 years to when
the conquistadors slaughtered the natives.

A lot of these malignant forces
and evil spirits linger to this day.

In 1974,

a Florida newspaper reported that
a Miami hospital

treated an astonishing 700
demonic possessions a month.

It seems the bloody history
has seeped deep into the soil.

There's also a legend
that the devil lives beneath Miami

near an underground river.

And others say that there's
a demonic force known as La Llorona

who feeds on the fear of children.

Unchecked over decades and centuries,

that can create a lot of bad energy.

The accumulation of bad energy

swirls around the academy campus

and invites negativity into its doors,

even welcoming a murderer
into its student body.

And no-one knew, except Marina.

If I did wrong, I accept responsibility.

The boy never create a problem

and the boy was doing well,

so I was talking to the boy often

and I said, 'If you make one single
mistake, you go back over there.'

Scandals rock the academy,

but Marina deflects any problems

at the school he rules with an iron fist.

Marina maintains he is being blackmailed,

that he is a victim of what he calls
'a campaign of defamation.'

You are asking me questions
in which I am not prepared.

Marina maintains, as president
and founder of this military academy,

sometimes he has to keep secrets
to protect youngsters here.

How many other scandalous secrets
is Mr Marina still guarding?

There's more than one deep, dark secret

Marina might be guarding.

And there were rumours

that Marina was practising
the dark side of Santeria.

I do remember him mentioning
something about Santeria.

Earlier this month, a number
of goats, chickens and pigeons

were found sacrificed
in south-west Dade County.

The kids found different signs
of Santeria throughout the campus.

The signs include burnt pennies,

which can mean someone is casting a spell.

Santeria is a form of religion

if you take it in the pure form.

They talk about good Santeria
and bad Santeria.

White and black Santeria.

There are people that have twisted it

to support other means and endeavours

which don't work within
the framework of the religion.

And there's other evidence
to suspect Marina

of practising the dark magic at school.

If you see dead chickens or chicken bones,

that means there has been
a blood sacrifice.

That raises to another level
of seriousness.

It means something was actually sacrificed

and the blood was used in a ritual.

This is not white magic.

This is bad magic. Casting spells.

This is all about curses.

It's all about summoning
the powers of darkness.

If the students at the academy

think their general is practising
black magic,

how far would they go
to protect themselves?

Here's Marina, an all-powerful
figure. 'El General', the general.

He's running the show,

so it wouldn't be far-fetched
for these kids to believe that

Marina was involved in
some kind of Santeria

that had these special powers.

I was of the opinion that
Marina would be capable of anything.

Now some of the students were starting to

experiment with the dark arts on their own.

Some were just curious.

Others were looking for
an escape from their harsh reality.

These are teenagers.

And cognitive abilities,

to think about the consequences
of actions, isn't there yet.

That's just the kids, without
any supervision, any guardrails,

were playing with a fire

that is about to spread out of control.

If students at the academy learn
about the occult from their teachers,

and power of Santeria from Marina,

then the real lesson may be

how to invite a massive demonic attack.

Satan is very clever. In the beginning,

when he offers people certain powers,

he doesn't tell you what

the consequences of those powers
will do to you and to other people.

Suddenly, all the things
these kids have been doing,

the seances, the tarot cards,
the spirit boards, all of this...

is converging like the perfect storm.

What's been called the biggest
mass demonic possession in history

happens when many factors converge
at the same time.

And one major factor is the time of year.

Halloween week is when
paranormal activity is at its peak.

This goes back to the belief of the Celts

that thought that the veil between
our world and the netherworld

was at its thinnest
during this time of year,

and when the souls of the departed
can return to the living.

So the cadets, like the Celts,

were pretty busy summoning spirits.

But unfortunately for them,
it was the wrong ones.

It's the night of October 24th, 1979,

only hours before evil lays siege to
the academy campus.

As the story goes,

some of the students gather for a party.

Strongly bonded by their shared
trauma at the military school,

the kids find refuge
in each other's company.

When you're that age, your friends,
your peers, are your whole universe.

So when you have a community
that is that tightly knit,

there is this belief that, 'It's us
against them, and I'm part of this world.'

But what looks like
a typical teenage house party

turns out to be an unexpected game-changer.

On that night, for the first time,

the students of the Miami Aerospace
Academy gather in a larger group.

And those that were practising
the occult in smaller groups

finally came together in what was
a supercharged mass event.

The dark-magic games
the kids have been playing in school

are now being played in
the same place at the same time.

Because you have
a concentrated group of people

that you have different areas,
somebody doing hypnosis,

somebody using a spirit board,

it's definitely creating an increased
paranormal activity in the area.

For kids that have been
abused and forgotten

and stripped of their identities,

reclaiming their power through the occult

is nothing short of exhilarating.

When we talk about
involvement in the occult,

the risk is that when kids
go beyond exploration

and this becomes life,

this becomes their religion,
this becomes their power,

and they're drawn too far into it.

You're gonna reach out for supernatural
power, and I think that's what these kids did.

That feeling of empowerment

might come at a cost
these students could never foresee.

When you reach out and do that,

you say to the demons,
'Here I am. You give me power.'

They don't know it, but that night
the academy students may be creating

a gateway to hell.

Everything going on in
one concentrated place

definitely allows a portal to open up.

A portal is considered
an open door to the spirit world.

Another dimension
where demons are said to dwell.

There are disagreements about
how and when a portal can open.

But most would agree that

a concentrated amount of occult activity

would be enough to rend it asunder.

Some people believe that a portal
can open in the blink of an eye,

while others are convinced that a
mirror, something found in every home,

can serve as a portal to allow in
creatures not of our world.

In fact, a mirror is the focal point

of one of the occult games
the students play.

Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary.

It's been around for a long time.

So the idea is you stare into a mirror.

You look right at your own eyes,

and you chant 'Bloody Mary,
Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary.'

It's a dare, it's a thrill,

but it actually is an invitation
to dark forces.

They say 'Bloody Mary' three times

and that serves an an invocation

for a diabolical spirit
known as 'Bloody Mary'

to manifest herself.

That night, three girls from the academy

lock themselves in a bathroom
to try to summon Bloody Mary.

Now if they don't know what they're doing

they can easily open something up like
that because it is inviting something in.

And the spirit comes in and says,
'Yes, this is who I am.'

Bloody Mary.

Bloody Mary.

No-one really expects anything to happen...

Bloody Mary.

Over and over. And then
you watch to see what happens.

until it does.

Bloody Mary.

Bloody Mary. Bloody Mary.

Bloody Mary.

Bloody Mary.

The girls are so freaked out they
immediately stop the Bloody Mary game.

But it's too late.

First they're communicating with the dead,

now they're opening portals to the unknown.

This is when things
take a turn towards the worse,

because what they don't know is that
they aren't just unlocking these doors.

They're pushing them wide open.

The kids start acting out

because the demons can take over their body

and make them do crazy things.

By all accounts, the mood at
the party instantly turns dark.

Personalities suddenly change,

becoming menacing and aggressive.

Two boys, always close friends,

are now at each other's throats

without any provocation.

Why would this be?

Because demonic entities
may have influenced them

to act in violent ways that would have
ordinarily been against their nature.

The problem with any kind of
dark energy, demons, spirits,

is you don't have control over it.

You may feel you have control
over it and know what you're doing,

but you're really being controlled by them.

By playing these games,

they didn't realise that
the infestation had already begun

and that demonic forces were at play,

influencing how they behave,
how they perceive the world.

The Halloween party goes from fun
to frightening in a heartbeat.

The students, desperate to escape
the bad energy at school,

have just stirred the paranormal pot.

It's a very dangerous thing,
because what happens is

Satan can concentrate his focus
on this one single group

and look for something that sparks the fire

of the contagion of mass possession.

It's now gonna take over. You're not
calling the shots any more.

By the morning of October 25th,

all the ingredients are in place

for a massive demonic attack
on the academy.

Demoralised kids with damaged psyches...

a collective obsession with the occult...

and constant contact with the spirit realm

where evil entities lie ready
to pounce on unwitting victims.

At the Halloween party the night before,

it's clear that something dark and powerful

is taking hold of the troubled cadets.

The pressure was building
and building and building

amongst the students.

And on that day, October 25th,

they simultaneously reached
a breaking point.

The fuse was lit,

and what happens in class
sets off the explosion.

As I heard it,

some students that were at the party
the night before were actually in this class

with a teacher who was one of the ones

who taught them about the occult.

The kids haven't been able to shake off

the disturbing events
that took place at the party.

Bloody Mary.

Bloody Mary. Bloody Mary.

The next day in school,
they're all still talking about it.

They're all still
a little freaked out about it,

and one of the teachers picks up on it.

And she wants to try... and help the kids.

The teacher's idea
to help settle the kids down?

Hypnosis.

What is hypnosis? Hypnosis is really
a state of focused attention.

The word 'hypnosis'
is from the Greek word for 'sleep',

and it's been practised as far back
as the ancient Egyptians.

For a licensed and trained therapist,

it can be a safe and effective
therapeutic tool.

But in the wrong hands,

dangerous.

Hypnosis is a clinical tool
you have to be careful with

when you have these kids under this
state of anxiety and suggestibility.

The teacher, being a novice hypnotist,

tried to do a regression session.

The problem with doing that
and being a novice

is you never know what's gonna come out

during a regression session.

The students, now at their breaking point

from all the abuses
by Marina and the staff,

cling to their last shred of willpower -

the very thing hypnosis will free them of.

I have no idea

what type of hypnosis this is.

But mind-control hypnosis,
it's a very dangerous thing.

And you start messing with that
level of consciousness with people

and you don't know what you're doing,

it could be very, very dangerous.

One of the students

is the one traumatised at the party
the night before

playing 'Bloody Mary.'

Bloody Mary.

Bloody Mary.

Bloody Mary.

The teacher insists
the girl undergo hypnosis

right then and there,

but the girl tries to resist
the teacher's strange request.

Her insistence sent this poor child
spinning off the edge,

and in so doing basically unlocks a key.

But could there be a more sinister reason

the student resists being put under?

Did the demon inside of her

know that if she got put in
regressive hypnosis

it would be exposed?

Maybe that's why she didn't
want to be involved in it.

The relentless teacher keeps pushing.

The student knows the consequences
for not obeying teachers' orders.

Finally, she gives in.

The risks involved
with an amateur hypnotist

trying to probe into a delicate young mind,

especially one that has already
suffered a traumatic incident

as recently as the night before,
are myriad.

There are all sorts of things
that can go wrong.

The powder keg of paranormal instability

ignites a flame from hell.

It goes TERRIBLY wrong.

The little girl panics.
She's overwhelmed with horror...

She felt something was attacking her.

until the kid finally snapped.

It hit her hard, and she just bolted.

The girl flees down the hallway
to the restroom,

followed by worried friends.

She collapses on the floor

and makes a terrifying confession.

Next thing you know, she's levitating.

A classic sign of demonic possession.

Whatever dark force
that's taken hold of the girl

also seems to be
seizing control of her friends.

The students who have been using dark magic

to gain freedom and liberation
from school oppression

are about to come under
all-out spiritual assault.

Truth is, they opened the door.

And when they opened that door,

these things saw their opportunity
and they came through it.

And not just one came through it.

A bunch of them came through it.

At the Miami Aerospace Academy,

the devil has entered the building.

It's almost as if
the gates of hell have opened up.

Something was tapped into there
that was probably better left alone.

They seem to have released
some energy there

that was negative, very negative.

And it had to be building
for a long, long time.

The stage has been set

for a catastrophic mass demonic possession.

Possessions exist in the
mythology of nearly every culture.

And for thousands of years, people have
reported the phenomenon of demonic hauntings.

In the spirit realm,
demons are fallen angels.

They are inhuman spirits.

And they've never walked the Earth
as a human being.

Demonic hauntings in homes
are very oppressive,

and are usually accompanied with
foul odours

and smells such as rotting meat
and sulphur.

It's very identifiable.

It's almost like you're
walking through the gates of hell...

except it's in your home.

Or your school.

And it's terrifying.

Demons have the ability
to cause physical harm.

People have reported being scratched,
bitten, or even pushed down the stairs.

But the most devastating is when

a demon enters a human body

and possesses that body.

It's very rare, and the conditions
have to be just right.

And the conditions were just right.

In 1973,

the whole world becomes aware of
demonic possession.

That's the year The Exorcist is released,

with its terrifying special effects

designed to strike primal fear
into the hearts of moviegoers.

Real-life possessions
have been going on for centuries.

Not like it is in the movies,

where they're throwing up pea soup
and their head is spinning around,

but their faces change.

Their demeanour changes.

They end up doing things

that they would never do.

Those who have studied the phenomenon

report that demonic possession
occurs in three stages.

The three stages of possession
are infestation...

then oppression...

and then full possession.

Infestation is when it is just starting.

It's when it is introducing itself

to the person that it has chosen.

When it announces its presence,

it will usually do it with three knocks...

which mocks the Holy Trinity,
the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

And that's where the spirit
really tries to break you down.

Bad things start to happen.

Your finances could fall apart.

Accidents could happen.

All kinds of negative things
start happening with oppression.

Once it's broken you down to the
point where you just can't take any more,

it takes full control.

And then you're at the mercy of that demon.

Finally comes the possession itself...

where a human being is inhabited
by an intelligence of evil nature

that is not their own.

At the academy,
the kids have already gone through

a couple of phases of possession.

They've opened up the portals
by inviting them in.

Playing with a spirit board,

playing with tarot cards.

And the second part is oppression.

Oppression is where
the spirits and the demons

try to break them down
mentally and physically.

Satan tries to possess somebody...

in a situation where there's some type of

trauma, deprivation, punishment.

And the staff has done that
to the kids already.

By the time the troubled girl
runs to the restroom,

a full-scale demonic possession
is under way.

She's collapsed onto the floor.

She's claiming that the devil
himself is inside of her.

The devil is inside me.

Her friends surround her.
They're rooted in horror.

And that's when something happens
that none of them will ever forget.

The girls are shocked
to see their friend shake

and her eyes roll back in her head.

They think she's having a seizure, but no.

It's far worse than
anything they can imagine.

Levitation is one of the devil's tools

to show you that you are completely
powerless, a puppet in his hands.

He uses it
to take full control of your body,

and in so doing to show you and
all around you that he is the one

completely in control.

The young witnesses watch in abject horror

as the girl's body appears to
lift off the floor on its own

and hover miraculously in mid-air.

A demon will use levitation
almost like a shock-and-awe.

It shocks anybody that sees it.

It almost stuns you, because it's so
against the rules of science and physics.

Back in the classroom, the teacher
who triggered the incident

hears mysterious cries
coming from the girls' room.

Unnerved, she goes to investigate.

The teacher sprinted out of the lavatory

and was never seen again.

Later it was reported that
this teacher absolutely denied

that she had ever performed hypnosis
on that student.

The girl who was possessed, what she was
experiencing was overwhelmingly horrifying.

An utter loss of control,
combined with the fact that

you know something evil has gained
control of the vessel that is you.

The terrifying display of demonic power

leaves the girl's classmates
in shocked disbelief.

But what none of these students
can fully understand

is that this is ground zero
of a diabolical infection.

The levitation in the girls' room

is just a demonic taste

of the horror yet to come.

Once that girl was levitated...

it opened the floodgates.

and the demonic activity
flooded through that school.

The amount of occult activity that
was being practised in that school

by not just the students but the faculty...

it just opened everything wide.

It made it so that this was

an easy, easy entrance into
this world and to these children.

They had everything they needed.
It was the perfect storm.

Everything came together.

The portal was open.

The fear, the anger, the oppression
had unleashed the demons.

Bloody Mary.

The demonic force
that manifested in the girls' room

starts to spread throughout the school.

The devil invaded.

Room by room, floor by floor,

through the stairwells...

through the whole building.

Simultaneously, in a classroom upstairs,

an air of menace seeps in,
permeates the room,

and slowly begins to take them over.

These students had no idea
what happened in the bathroom.

But still, something had shifted.

Something was there.

Without any provocation,

two boys start throwing punches
at each other,

escalating into an all-out brawl.

It seemed to affect two of the cadets,

and they started to fight.

They didn't realise that
the infestation had already begun

and that demonic forces were at play,

influencing how they behave,
how they perceive the world.

They weren't themselves.
They were infected by the devil.

They were possessed.

That demonic force
that came into that school,

it just started going through the two boys

like a force nobody's ever seen.

The superhuman strength of these
two high-schoolers is shocking,

as one is picked up
and hurled across the classroom.

Next thing you know, one of the boys had
actually been thrown through the window.

This boy falls from a two-storey building,

lands unhurt, pops up.

Mr McKently comes over.

He is unable to subdue this smaller boy.

Unbelievable strength is one of the
classic signs of demonic possession.

I've had instances of doing
an exorcism on a 95-pound woman

that took six or eight men to control.

I've seen violent, abnormal strength.

Having witnessed these
horrific demonic events,

the students are infected with evil.

All hell breaks loose,

and the mass possession ignites.

Once the spark was lit,

once this fire started to spread,

then what happens?

Mass possession.

Possession was like a virus.

It spread through the school, fast.

Chaos is literally rippling
down the hallways.

Kids were suddenly acting like
wild animals.

Weird sounds, wild eyes, acting crazy.

The minute a demon starts to present
itself in a person, the eyes change...

in numbers of ways. The colours
may change. The dilation may change.

Sometimes they widen beyond
a human ability.

There are different reports on
what it feels like to be possessed.

Some people remember everything.

Some people remember nothing.

They remember that they no longer
had control of their faculties.

The worst feeling is that
instant loss of control.

You feel like you're a stranger
in your own body.

You do things you never would do,

you say things you would never say.

Demonic possession is
the ultimate loss of control

to something very dark, very malicious,

and extremely dangerous.

There's no doubt
these students were possessed.

And the ones that weren't possessed
were running for their lives.

These kids saw their classmates

change their personalities, change shape,

become something else entirely.

They were possessed by something demonic.

Some of the kids were shredding
doors right from the walls.

That is a show of demonic strength.

I have had instances where
I have seen people in an exorcism

actually rip a door off its hinges.

That's possible. That was described.

There are too many things
being described here

that just aren't normal.

It's paranormal. It is demonic.

When law enforcement officials
finally arrive,

they find a school embroiled in
paranormal pandemonium,

with kids pleading for protection
from their possessed classmates.

The first responders could look up and
see that the kids were still in the school.

They were banging on windows,
trying to get out.

Our initial thought was to find
somebody in charge of the campus

and try to get a handle on
exactly what the incident was

or what caused the chaos
that we were viewing.

The one person they think could help is
the demagogue general Evaristo Marina,

who rules his students with an iron fist.

But where has the powerful general been

while the devil lays waste to his academy

and endangers his kids?

The first responders
go searching for answers.

We were directed
to the office. We went there.

There was nobody there.

The devil was summoned for the reckoning...

and the general disappeared.

Chaos, confusion and fear.

That's what first responders find
when they finally arrive

at The Devil's Academy.

On October 25th, 1979,

my position with the fire department
at that time

was a rescue operations officer.

It was just chaos there.
Kids were running everywhere.

And so that's why I responded.

Officers see students
raging out of control.

Bizarre, animalistic behaviour.

Screaming, gnashing,

some afraid for their lives.

They were scared of something and
that's what we tried to find out,

what was making them act

in the behaviour that they were in.

Through the hysteria, a dark, evil force

becomes the curator of this chaos.

Several of them had mentioned the devil.

The students said that they were possessed,

or there was a demon present...

and that they had been learning
about the occult.

First responders search everywhere

for the school's infamously
evil general, Evaristo Marina.

He's nowhere to be found.

He and his sycophant staff disappear.

We walked the entire campus

trying to find somebody
that knew what was happening,

and it was odd that
there wasn't anybody there,

especially on a school day.

When the hellfire exploded,

the fearsome militarian forces
abandoned their post.

Where were the enforcers? Where were they?

They had left the scene.

We found it very odd that we
couldn't locate anybody at the site

that was... tacitly in charge.

Finally, the students
come out of their trance.

By noon, it was over. Whatever had
taken over the building had left.

But something had been there.

The next day,
the event hits the local news.

The headlines were clear as to
what the kids thought happened.

'Hypnosis unleashes demons.'

The story of the possession was
picked up by the Associated Press

and went around the country.

It was even picked up by
The New York Times.

After learning the horrific details
of the supernatural riot,

parents are enraged.

There was immediate fallout. At
least one teacher quit on the spot,

and other parents just
pulled their kids out of school.

But oddly, the bizarre story
of the high school's mass possession

quickly fades from the headlines.

People wanted to sweep it under the rug,

and the authorities involved wanna
sweep it under the rug as quickly as possible

so that it doesn't harm their reputation.

It's as if everybody forgot what happened

the day Satan showed up at the school.

For his part, Marina calls
the whole story a smear campaign.

Marina had an excuse for everything.

Marina maintained that it was his
enemies trying to do him in that day.

The question is,

were the general's enemies real,
or conjured?

As the years go by,

Marina's academy continues to be
at the centre of sordid scandals.

In the mid-'80s, charges of
sexual misconduct and rape

are levelled at some of its cadets.

Miami police detectives converged on campus

because they had many unanswered questions.

Not long after,

a young female cadet becomes pregnant

while living in the school's dormitory.

As the '80s wore on, the scandals
started to have some effect.

This is the day Evaristo Marina
promised to explain everything,

and he left the media still hungry for
answers at his news conference today.

The academy lost students

and later the faith of the parents.

Eventually, the building altogether.

They had to move into a hotel

that was later deemed 'deplorable'
by city officials.

Finally, the Miami Aerospace Academy
closed in 1988.

Marina dies in 2009,

and for a time it seems like
the legend of the mass possession

might die with him.

The story of what happened in '79,

during my time, had been
sort of lost in the wind.

I think there's a lot of students

that are reluctant
to talk about these things,

because the social stigma that is
associated with experiencing the paranormal,

it runs deep in our society.

It can cut off opportunities.

It can label you as having experienced this,
then no one sees anything else about you.

Which is tragic, because
you should be able to come forward

when you have a paranormal event
and be honest about it.

But perhaps there's another,
more chilling reason

why this dark chapter in demonic history

has gone largely untold.

When those kids were taken over by demons,

it ended on its own.

However...

that doesn't mean it's over.

Those demons could return at any time.

At Miami Aerospace Academy,

the constant threat of
harsh corporal punishment,

combined with a culture of
dark occult rituals,

takes a lasting toll
on many of its students.

A common saying among former cadets

is that your best day at Aerospace
is your last.

Former students remember how
they made their escapes.

I attended eight years at
Miami Aerospace Academy.

It seems the general felt
I was a bad influence.

He called me in with my mother

after I had finished my junior year,

and informed us that I was not gonna
be allowed to graduate from his school.

And I could just leave,
any time I felt I should leave.

And he said, 'You're not coming back here,

you're not gonna graduate from my
school, you're a bad influence.'

And that was the best day of my life. I
was so happy, I could have kissed him.

I said, 'You don't know what you're
doing. You are giving me my wish.'

But not all departures were so peaceful.

For some students,

the pressure-cooker atmosphere
of the school

pushed them into violent
confrontations with the staff.

I was called to the office for something.

I don't know why, but I got into
an argument with Marina

over I don't know what.

But at some point,
it turned from just an argument

to shouting,

to then me calling him out

to go fist-fight out in the street.

And I'm just, 'Come on, old man!
Come outside!

Come on, I'm waiting for you! Come on!'

And that was my last day at Aerospace.

If the school's toxic atmosphere could
push its top students over the edge,

it's no wonder that the entire institution

could be infected by evil.

That was just what the school was.

That was the whole thing about the school,
that everything was aggressive, and... It was.

And there was the threat of violence

from the staff as well as
from the students in the school.

It was. It was a big power play there,

all the way from the general
down to his brother, his nephew,

and his enforcers.

Normally when children are placed in
a high-discipline environment,

parents most of the times have given up.

They don't wanna hear about it.

We didn't feel that we had
a voice in anything,

or that we were exaggerating
if we told our parents.

Or that they wouldn't believe

that somebody who ran a school
could do this,

and therefore, you know,
you're just a kid. You don't know.

It's, 'It'll be fine', you know?
'You'll see.' That sort of thing.

So we didn't really say anything.

Sometimes you'd get hit with a ping-pong
paddle, they'd use a little wooden paddle.

But man, when they brought in a cricket
paddle with a strapped handle... Yeah.

and drilled, you know, holes through it,

I said, 'We're in a whole 'nother
ball game here.'

They'd hit you on the half-beat,

so they'd take the paddle and
they'd go, 'Here it comes',

and then they would act like
they were gonna do it

and you'd tense up,

and then right as you're like,
'What's going on?' and then you relax,

BAM! That's when they would hit

and then you would hear
the godawful scream.

But there was no offence that we did

that was suitable for that level
of punishment at all.

And there was one kid,
I'll never forget him, Ernie.

Ernie was, you know,
toughest kid I ever known.

He was around same grade as me,

maybe, you know, pre-teen,
going into a teenager,

and Ernie would take the paddles.

And Ernie would never, ever
give them the satisfaction

of crying, or moving, or flinching.

Ernie would take the beating,

and he'd look at him and say,
'Are you done?'

Like that. And that would make him
even more inflamed.

There was definitely a control thing,

and the only form of control or power

that we held was taking it

and showing that you were...

you were strong enough to do that
and to not be messed with.

You have the harsh discipline,
the beatings,

the constant monitoring,
the forced haircuts, the marching.

Everything about this place

is crushing the... the vibrant,
rebellious nature inherent to teens

down to dust.

And this becomes
the fertile ground in which

demons can make their purchase.

And that was normal for us.

There was normalcy to this lunacy

that we went through.

And you couldn't speak out against it,

because then, you know, you were
the odd person out. So...

Had you even been believed.

Our parents wouldn't believe us if
we said half the stuff that went on there.

I would have given anything
to get to public school.

I would have loved to go to
public school. I was the same way.

Back then, fighting was just
a part of life.

And you got into a fight, let's say,
they'd break you up.

They took you to the gym.
You both put on gloves,

and you fought, in the gym.

One day I went to jump the fence, and
the chain was a little loose on the gate,

and the gate kicked back.

And the chain went with it, and
I fell over and I broke my ankle.

And I'm laying there, and I try to get up.

And I couldn't put any weight on it,
so I went back down.

And here comes the commandant, walking.

He unlocks the gate, looks at me,
he says, 'What happened?'

I said, 'I think I broke my leg.'

He says, 'Well, that's what you get
for trying to skip school.'

And he closes the gate,
and he walks in the building.

And he left me there. Yeah. Yeah.

Many alumni refuse to speak of their
time at the Miami Aerospace Academy.

Especially the day when
all hell broke loose.

It was very bizarre,
a very bizarre incident. Very scary.

To me, it doesn't surprise me in the
least bit that that's what happened.

Something happened that day,
and everybody just lost their minds.

Yeah, it just blew the top right off
of whatever was compressed.

A lot of pressure was
building up there. A lot. Yeah.

I'm just... I'm happy that
we made it out alive,

because it wasn't easy.

As for what may have caused

the events of October 25th, 1979,

El General gave his answer to the press.

He claimed that
the entire incident was a scam

invented to damage him politically.

From the 1970s to the 2000s,

Marina ran for office multiple times,

going for commissioner, mayor and senator.

He would run for everything.

The Water Commission,
the Agriculture Commission.

Hell, he would run for dog catcher.

He's what I would term
a serial political candidate.

Marina maintained that it was his
enemies trying to do him in that day.

He blamed it on politics.

And so that's something
that would seem plausible.

'Oh, I'm running for office,

so it's the other candidate
that's playing dirty.'

It's worthy of note that
with nine attempts,

he never found a major seat in city hall.

But if dirty politics weren't the cause

of what happened that day
at Miami Aerospace Academy,

what was?

There hasn't been much
written about this event.

It's sort of been lost to history
and paranormal history.

But those who were there
will never be able to forget it.

There was a lot of things that went on.

I talk about them to people,
and people almost don't believe me.

You had to have lived it.
You had to have experienced it.

Because there wasn't much
written about this event

and not a lot of people
choose to talk about it,

we really don't have the clearest
picture of this episode.

I had 40 years with the fire department.

And, er, you have a few incidents
that just stick in your mind

that are very weird or very unusual.

And this is certainly one of those
that you remember.

Could satanic panic,

which some say was unleashed by
films of the time like The Exorcist,

have been a factor in the event?

The cult was running rampant.

It was in movies, it was in everyday life.

There was higher crime,

there was more satanic rituals being done.

The satanic panic had infused itself
into everyday society.

Some people say it wasn't demonic,

but just a simple episode of mass hysteria.

That's when the panic of the moment,
the suggestion, takes over,

makes people believe that
something is happening that isn't.

And that spreads like an insidious fear

and makes people act in ways
they ordinarily never would.

You had several factors that are classic

in a mass-hysteria situation.

You had high-level stress

and a cohesive group. They're united.

They're united by their common
enemy. They're united by the occult.

They're united because they're peers.

And these kids were
in fear constantly. All the time.

When the kids took control
in the '79 incident,

I think it was just a way for them to...

to finally say, 'Enough. Enough is enough.'

What we saw is a collective uprising

of their psychological distress

take the form of these spiritual practices,

these demonic possessions,
all of this acting out,

as a way of saying, 'We're done.
We can't handle any more.

We have to take back our power.'

Some people say it was just a hoax
perpetrated by the students.

A way to get back at Marina and the rest
of the faculty for their oppressive regime...

driven by the anger that they were
harbouring towards this institution.

'If I hate this institution,
I hate the teachers, I hate Marina,

I'm gonna go against what's tangible.

The walls. The door. The school.

The tangible parts of the school
represent them. I'm gonna hit 'em hard.'

These kids weren't organised

to pull off a hoax like this.

There was...

way too many physical manifestations

of paranormal events.

Dismissing this does no justice to the
eyewitnesses that were on the ground.

Those that saw people do things
human beings simply can't do.

Things that cannot be explained
through normal means.

Things that truly have to be
paranormal in nature,

and likely of a diabolical origin.

If it wasn't mass hysteria,

and it wasn't a hoax,

then what was it?

Many occult experts insist that
this was a paranormal event.

One of the biggest mass possessions
in United States history.

There's no way that this was anything but

a demonic attack.

I'm convinced that there was
actual possession taking place,

so there was a kind of mass possession.

The pandemonium in the hallway

is a full-blown paranormal event.

One that scholars have called

one of the strangest incidents
in the history of American academia.

That that paranormal occurred there,

it seems to have been building up
over years.

And I think the kids could feel the fear,

and I think it built up over years.

I think that anxiety, and that whole
power trip that they were on.

It seems like what happened
at MAA is impossible,

but I know from my research and my podcast
that things like this happen all of the time.

In 2014, there was a mass possession
in a Japanese high school...

where one girl stood up
and started screaming,

and it just multiplied
to all the female students.

These kinds of things occur in
little pockets throughout the world.

And they all seem to be
of diabolical origin.

If mass possessions have happened before,

they can happen again.

For the students of
Miami Aerospace Academy,

they'll never forget the day

the devil took over the school.

This stuff happens. Cos these things
have been around forever.

Time means nothing to them.

But they know sooner or later,
you're gonna be weak.

And that's when it will come after you.

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