Michael Taylor
Born (1944-09-21) September 21, 1944
Ossett, West Yorkshire, England
OccupationButcher
Known forMurdering his wife; acquitted due to insanity
Spouse
Christine Taylor
​
(died 1974)​

Michael Taylor (born 21 September 1944[1]) became notable in England in 1974 as a result of the Ossett murder case and his alleged demonic possession.[2]

Exorcism

Taylor lived in Ossett, West Yorkshire, working as a butcher.[3] In 1974, Taylor's wife, Christine, stated to a Christian Fellowship Group to which Taylor belonged, that his relationship with the lay leader of the group, Marie Robinson, was "carnal" in nature.[4] Michael Taylor admitted that he felt evil within him and eventually attacked Robinson verbally, who screamed back at him.[4] During the next meeting, Michael Taylor received an absolution, but nevertheless, his behaviour continued to become more erratic.[4] As a result, the local vicar called in other ministers experienced in deliverance in preparation to cast out the demons residing within the man.[4]

The exorcism, which occurred on 5–6 October 1974 at St. Thomas's Church in Gawber,[1] was headed by Father Peter Vincent, the Anglican priest of St. Thomas's, and was aided by a Methodist clergyman, the Rev. Raymond Smith.[5][6] According to Bill Ellis, an authority on folklore and the occult in contemporary culture, the exorcists believed that they had: "In an all-night ceremony...invoked and cast out at least forty demons, including those of incest, bestiality, blasphemy, and lewdness. At the end, exhausted, they allowed Taylor to go home, although they felt that at least three demons—insanity, murder, and violence—were still left in him."[4][7]

Murder

While at home, Taylor brutally murdered his wife, Christine. He attacked her with his bare hands, tearing her eyes and tongue out and almost tearing her face off,[3] then strangling their poodle.[8] He was found by a policeman, naked in the street, covered with blood.[9][10]

At his trial in March, Taylor was acquitted on the grounds of insanity.[1][11] He was sent to Broadmoor Hospital for two years, then spent another two years in a secure ward in Bradford before being released.[3] The bizarre nature of the case attracted significant publicity.[12]

Taylor's case makes a prominent appearance in David Peace's novel Nineteen Seventy-Seven, the second of Peace's Red Riding Quartet. Taylor, renamed Michael Williams, is exorcised by Father Martin Laws, the series' main villain, and afterward kills his wife Carol by driving a nail into her skull. Jack Whitehead, one of the two protagonists, witnesses the exorcism of Williams and the murder of Carol Williams, his ex-wife, which as in real life takes place in Ossett.

Taylor's case is mentioned in the 2021 film The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, which is based on another case in which a killer claimed demonic possession, that of Arne Cheyenne Johnson, who killed his landlord with a pocket knife in a fit of rage in 1981.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology. Kessinger Publishing. January 2003. ISBN 9780766128156. Retrieved 4 April 2010. In 1975, 31-year-old Michael Taylor was exorcised at St. Thames Church, Barnsley, England, but went home 'possessed with the devil' and brutally murdered his wife. He was found guilty but insane.
  2. ↑ The devil within. W. H. Allen. 1979. ISBN 9780491023665. Retrieved 4 April 2010. A few years ago a young Englishman by the name of Michael Taylor was being treated for what was taken to be demoniacal possession.
  3. 1 2 3 "1974 exorcist 'killer' back before court". Wakefield Express. 8 July 2005. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Raising the devil: Satanism, new religions, and the media. The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0813126827. Retrieved 4 April 2010. Within days, Robinson was able to get Taylor to speak in tongues at meetings, but events began to go wrong when his wife, Christine Taylor, expressed suspicions at one meeting that his relationship with Robinson was more carnal than at first seemed. Suddenly, Taylor later explained, it appeared that he and Robinson were both naked. "I felt evil within me," he said. "I fought it – but it overcame me. I had sought knowledge of myself and my being on this earth and she tried to give it to me but this is not the way." The result was a series of violent encounters. Taylor first physically attacked Robinson in a kind of Charismatic rage. "I did not know what to say," she recalled. "I started speaking in a tongue...Mike also screamed at me in a tongue. We just screamed at each other." Physically restrained, Taylor was calmed down, and he received absolution at the next meeting of the group. However, his behavior became more and more erratic until the local vicar called in other ministers with experience in deliverance. In an all-night ceremony, the group invoked and cast out at least forty demons, including those of incest, bestiality, blasphemy, and lewdness. At the end, exhausted, they allowed Taylor to go home, although they felt that at least three demons-insanity, murder, and violence-were still left in him.
  5. ↑ "Casting out the Devil!". Archived from the original on 4 August 2010. Retrieved 4 April 2010. Such was the case with Michael Taylor of Ossett, Yorkshire. On 6 October 1974, Taylor murdered his wife ripping her face off with his bare hands. Taylor happily married, had undergone an all-night exorcism. Father Peter Vincent, of St. Thomas's Gawber, near Barnsley, conducted the exorcism, helped by a Methodist minister and his wife. They exorcised Taylor of 40 demons except one – murder.
  6. ↑ Watkins, Leslie (1983). The real exorcists. Methuen. ISBN 9780413494405. Retrieved 4 April 2010. This exorcism lasted all night until 6 am. Mrs. Smith, Reverend Raymond Smith's wife, said that at least forty demons had been cast out and left Michael Taylor.
  7. ↑ Lure of the sinister: the unnatural history of Satanism. The University Press of Kentucky. April 2001. ISBN 9780814756454. Retrieved 4 April 2010. The exorcists subsequently explained that although they had driven forty spirits out of Taylor, a few remained, including the demon of murder.
  8. ↑ Confession: studies in deviance and religion. Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd. January 1982. p. 4. ISBN 9780710091987. Retrieved 4 April 2010. Michael Taylor murdered his wife by taring out her eyes and tongue in October 1974 after an all-night exorcism conducted by two Yorkshire clergymen.
  9. ↑ Lure of the sinister: the unnatural history of Satanism. New York University. April 2001. ISBN 9780814756454. Retrieved 4 April 2010. He then went home and murdered his wife, strangled the family poodle, and was found on the street by a policeman, naked and covered in blood.
  10. ↑ The freethinker, Volumes 97–98. G.W. Foote. 1977. Retrieved 4 April 2010. Readers may recall the case of Michael Taylor, in 1975, who killed his wife shortly after an all night exorcism.
  11. ↑ The annual register, Volume 217. Longmans. 1976. ISBN 9780582501201. Retrieved 4 April 2010. The ancient practice of exorcizing demons aroused interest at a trial in March when Michael Taylor, of Ossett, Yorkshire, was found to have been insane when killing his wife after an exorcism.
  12. ↑ Confession: studies in deviance and religion. Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd. January 1982. p. 4. ISBN 9780710091987. Retrieved 4 April 2010. This fear of the bizarre dimensions of confession was particularly marked in the press coverage of the Ossett murder case of 1974.

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