The Back Bedroom: A True Story of Exorcism and Murder

A charismatic cult leader is driven to horrifying extremes in a shocking true crime short story by Gregg Olsen, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of If You Tell.

In 1976, in the sealed back bedroom of a home in Washington state, authorities found the decomposing body of three-year-old Davey Weilbacher, beaten to death nearly two months prior. Beyond that bedroom door was self-proclaimed prophet Leon Cunningham, who convinced his sheltered cult of family and friends—including Davey’s lost young mother—that the boy was possessed by the Devil. Exorcism was the only way to save him, leading to a ritualistic campaign of abuse, control, unimaginable violence, and murder.

Gregg Olsen delivers a meticulously researched account of religious manipulation, domestic terror, and one woman’s fifty-year journey to finally tell the truth about what happened behind closed doors in that modest little yellow house in Yakima.

I live in rural Washington State (a mile as the crow flies from Dr. Hazzard's infamous Starvation Heights sanitarium). My thriller, THE LAST THING SHE EVER DID, was an Amazon Charts bestseller. LYING NEXT TO ME was a reader favorite, charting at No. 1 in the Kindle store and the bestseller's list at the Washington Post. My true crime book, IF YOU TELL, found a home on Amazon Charts for more than 340 weeks. In fact, it was the bestselling Kindle ebook of 2020 (and the second-bestselling of 2021). THE AMISH WIFE was a finalist for the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for best fact crime book in 2025, and OUT OF THE WOODS held the same distinction in 2026. OUT OF THE WOODS was also a nominee for Book of the Year at Crime Con. THE BOY SHE LEFT BEHIND was a finalist for the International Thriller Writers of America Thriller Award for best juvenile novel. I have been a guest on Dateline NBC, NPR, Good Morning America, Early Show, FOX News, CNN, Anderson Cooper, Entertainment Tonight, Inside Edition, Extra, Access Hollywood, 20/20, Snapped, Deadly Women, William Shatner's Aftermath, and A&E's Biography.