Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - Satanic Panic Pt. 4

Episode Date: October 10, 2020

Emboldened by power- and money-hungry conmen, Evangelical doomsdayers set the stage for an epic showdown of biblical proportions. The fight for the souls of every last American was beginning, they claimed, and Satan was coming to drag us all to hell. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Due to the graphic nature of this episode, listener discretion is advised. This episode contains discussions of murder, sexual assault, child abuse, and self-harm that some listeners may find disturbing. Extreme caution is advised for listeners under 13. Pastor Robert Robertson was frowning. He sat in yet another community meeting, listening to yet another round of accusations. For the last several months, his small town of Wenatchee, Washington, had been embroiled in a dark investigation. Children were accusing their parents

and the parents of their friends of sexual abuse. Every day, it seemed, more children came forward and more adults were revealed to be part of a massive, underground sex ring. And while several of the neighbors were horrified,

Pastor Robertson was skeptical. He'd led the local Pentecostal church for years. Several of the accused were part of his congregation, and he just couldn't believe that this vast conspiracy could really have been hiding under their noses for so long. The more he listened to the police briefing, the more agitated he became. When they opened the floor for questions, Robertson cleared his throat and stood up.

None of this seemed right to him. Were the police sure they had their facts straight? The accused were uneducated, many of them immigrants, and a lot of them barely made ends meet. He knew the members of his church. They would never do such a thing. At the front of the room, Detective Robert's, Robert Perez crossed his arms. He'd done good police work and had credible accusations.

He squinted his eyes, questioning, why was the pastor so quick to defend these people? Did he agree with the actions of these monsters? Pastor Robertson scoffed, of course not. He just wanted to make sure that what was actually being done was justice. But Perez was unmoved. He'd turned away from the pastor and called on another person in the crowd, closing the matter. Robertson sat back down, fuming. A few weeks later, Detective Perez revealed another round of accusations to the community.

At the top of the list, Pastor Robert Robertson. From his podium, Perez revealed that Robertson had conducted sexual rituals with children in his church, abusing them on the altar in front of his congregation. No wonder he'd felt so much sympathy for the accused, he was one of them. Hi, I'm Greg Poulson. Welcome to the fourth episode of our five-parts special on the Satanic Panic, exclusively on cults. For the next two weeks, we'll continue our deep dive into what sparked this modern-day

mass panic in America. New episodes air every Tuesday. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson. Hi, everyone. You can find episodes of cults and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. With several decades worth of distance, it's easy to pass judgment on those who were swept up in the madness of the satanic panic. But over the past three weeks, we've attempted to explain exactly how it took hold so firmly.

From 1960s popular culture to the serial killers and murderous cults that terrified the country, we're delving into the facts that fed the falsehoods. Today, we're taking a closer look at the explosion of fundamentalist evangelical Christianity in America, and its alliance with a network of phony cult experts. Together, evangelical churches of all stripes enabled conmen to spread fear and propaganda about Satan far and wide. We'll also discuss the best-selling books that led to widespread accusations of horrific child abuse

as a part of occult satanic rituals. Next time, we'll discuss the real victims of the satanic panic. We'll examine the highly publicized accusations and farcical trials, which resulted in terrible long-term consequences for hundreds of innocence. We've got all that and more coming up. Stay with us. This episode is brought to you by ZipRecruiter. Whether you're hiring for a role or searching for a killer, the hunt can be exhausting. When detectives looked and searched to find any kind of evidence to find the person they were looking for,

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Own the dream. The satanic panic gave the most fearful, sheltered, and alarmist sectors of America an outlet to voice their outrageous conspiracies about Satan's influence. In the 1980s, hysterical parents accused their children's teachers and daycare workers of being devil-worshippers. Children were coerced by law enforcement and psychologists into fabricating horrifying stories of satanic ritual abuse which never actually occurred. As we've already discussed, many factors contributed to the hysteria.

The rise of occult imagery in pop culture, sensationalized violent crime, and disingenuous media figures all fueled the paranoia. But in the end, the accusations aimed at daycare workers and teachers all led back to the devil, and those specific fears were largely spread through churches, preachers, and televangelists. The influence of Christian doomsdayers cannot be understated. Without a uniquely fervent base of fundamentalist evangelical Christians, the satanic panic could never have spread as widely as it did. To fully comprehend the churches that amplified the hysteria, we need to take a look at the turbulent landscape that forged them.

Fundamentalist evangelical Christianity has a long history in the United States, but the term encompasses a massive number of individual denominations, and not all those who identify as evangelicals necessarily believe the same things. This can make it hard to distinguish them from other forms of Christianity, but there are a few things all evangelicals have in common. First and foremost, they place a heavy emphasis on, well, evangelizing. They're at a very important. They're at a very emphasis on, well, evangelizing. Their active mission is to convert others to Christianity. British historian David Bevington got a little more specific. He wrote that evangelical sects have a special regard for an individual's personal search for salvation, the text of the Bible, and the suffering of Christ on the cross. Fundamentalist evangelicals comprise a smaller number of Christians

who claim that the Bible is without error or fault in all its teaching. In general, this means that they believe every event described in the good book literally happened or will happen exactly as written. This belief has often been a point of contention in the evangelical community over the years. In the early 20th century, a significant number of Americans belonged to evangelical sects, where the changing tide of culture in the 1900s presented the movement with a serious obstacle. The Fundamentalist Camp found their beliefs challenged by the emerging. scientific understanding of the world, specifically the theory of evolution.

They felt that the theory contradicted the story of creation in the Bible and thus refused to condone it. More liberal evangelicals, on the other hand, known as modernists, argued that the beliefs of their churches could and should change with the times. They didn't want a court conflict with the scientific community. Instead, they wanted to focus on the social ills of their day and adopt a more secular worldview. view. It was essentially an unbreechable impasse.

Fundamentalists could either dig in their heels and insist that their beliefs were all that stood against the moral rot of society, or they could change with the times and join the modernist camp, which attempted to compromise and soft sell the American people on a new form of Christianity. By the 1910s, most of the large Protestant churches opted for a modernist approach. Some abandoned the term evangelical altogether, as it became. became synonymous with a fundamentalist mindset in the eyes of the average Christian. Thus, fundamentalists took control of the evangelical movement and elected to isolate themselves

from a culture that they saw as corrupt. For nearly three decades, they all but refused to cooperate with the immoral masses, seeding ground to the modernists, their opponents in the battle for souls. Though they hadn't budged on their beliefs, some fundamentalists realized they'd given up much of their power. By choosing to cut themselves out of politics, American culture was further secularized. Everything they stood for was going out of fashion, and the moral direction of the nation was drifting further and further from their grasp. A new generation of preachers decided to end the long-standing isolation. Evangelicals like Billy Graham emerged and broadcast massively successful sermons on television. Graham was criticized by the most ardent fundamentalists

for his efforts to reach across the aisle to other Christian denominations, as well as his insistence on engaging with the social issues of the day. But even so, he was no modernist. He was somewhere in the middle, and many followed in his footsteps to revitalize evangelicalism. Some churches even broaden their teachings ever so slightly to take advantage of Graham's proselytizing. But just as membership surged, the social change of the 60s once again forced evangelicals to to take a hard look at their beliefs. Since the 1940s, the resurgence of evangelicalism pushed many older Christians to become morally

conservative. However, this shift was greatly outweighed by the liberal influence of the counterculture, the civil rights movements, and modern technological advancements. Despite the efforts of fundamentalists, Americans were more secular than ever. In some circles, Eastern religions were becoming popular, and church attendance consistently declined overall. It was the same old story. Evangelicals wondered whether they should compromise their beliefs further or simply fade into the background once again. It wasn't an easy choice to make. As the 1960s turned to the 1970s, hardline Christianity's dominance over the politics, education, and morality

of the country was waning fast. Those who still clung to stricter doctrines, which often stood against social tolerance and racial integration, felt themselves losing touch. But unlike in the 1910s, they wouldn't back down so easily. There could be no more civil debate. It was no longer a matter of live and let live or minor moral disagreements. Now evangelicals started to believe that the moral fabric of society was rotten to its core. Sexually suggestive rock music infuriated them. The drug culture disgusted them.

and the rise in violent crime frightened them. If they stood by and did nothing, they feared they'd be allowing the devil to come right to their doorstep. So fundamentalists refused to compromise and refused to stay silent in the face of this apocalyptic threat. It was time to step out of the shadows and fight, and they were ready to fight dirty. Coming up, fundamentalists emerge louder than ever before,

setting the stage for the satan. Panic Panic. Parcasters, you know the world can be chaotic and unpredictable, but how far would you go to turn the tides of favor in your direction? In the newest Spotify original from Parcast, we're taking a closer look at bad omens, good luck charms, and age-old traditions that just might have the power to change our faiths. Each episode of superstitions presents a new drama that unpacks a different belief. Can holding your breath while passing a cemetery save your life?

Will carrying a rabbit's foot bring you luck? How can you go through life always avoiding the number 13? And why should you try? They may seem mystical, unusual, completely illogical, but one thing is certain, you ignore them at your own risk. You can find and follow superstitions free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. To hear more parcast shows, search Parcast Network in Spotify's search bar

and find a growing slate of thrilling new series to enjoy. Now back to the story. By the latter half of the 20th century, hardline fundamentalist Christianity had lost much of its influence in America. For decades, fundamentalists had adopted an isolationist strategy, refusing to engage with a culture that they saw as immoral and corrupt. But in the mid-1970s, they decided to venture into the spotlight once again. Many preachers were concerned that Christians in the United States had strayed too far from the righteous roots.

They believed Satan's influence had created a hedonistic popular culture and public education system tainted by secularism. The spark of paranoia was there. All it needed was someone to pour some fuel onto the fire and all-out war would explode. Enter Mike Warnke, one of the most successful con men of the 1970s. He was one of the first to recognize the paranoia that was festering among sheltered Christians all over America. To take advantage of it, he played to their fears. In his 1972 book, The Satan Cellar, 26-year-old Warnke, told a compelling and entirely fictitious account of his life as a Satanist. He claimed that at a young age, he stumbled upon a massive underground group of devil worshippers in Southern California and quickly rose through their ranks.

Warnke made up stories about cult activity, drug dealing, and ritual sacrifice out of whole cloth. Unknowingly, he created many of the tropes that would influence the average Christian's conception of what a Satanist was. For example, in interviews, Warnke pointed to a minuscule scar on his palm, which he claimed he got after a satanic cultist took his blood as an unholy communion. According to him, they collected his blood in a cup, mixed it with wine and urine, and drank it as part of their rituals. His stories were broad and conspiratorial in scope, but they would be echoed during the satanic panic by people all over the country. For example, he said he'd been forced to use drugs until he was addicted, then helped

to traffic them. He swore that he'd sacrificed cats to Lucifer and ate human fingers. He claimed he once had 1,500 satanic followers. These followers helped him become fabulous. wealthy before he joined the Illuminati. Then he said he gave up all that money and power in the name of Jesus Christ. All lies. But despite these outrageous claims, Warnke became tremendously successful. To naive and sheltered suburbanites, he confirmed all of their worst fears about counterculture. He wrote about the immoral dangers of life in Southern California, the link between Satanism and

drugs and the profane horrors of life outside of the church. After his book hit the bestseller list, Warnke was ordained in multiple churches and toured the country. In the 80s, he made millions selling albums of his sermons on Christian comedy, all while serving as an expert on the occult. He even advised law enforcement on the inner workings of satanic cults. The more successful he became, the more the media bought into his lies. It was taken for granted that everything Warnke said was true,

though he never provided a shred of evidence to back up his stories. News anchors listened in rapt awe, as Warnke described rituals in which Satanists told the future using human bones. On national news, cartoonish thundersounds played while Warnke trotted out ornate swords and daggers, which were supposedly used to sacrifice people to the devil. At every opportunity, Warnke stoked the fears of his viewers. he claimed that popular horror movies helped to convince him to try black magic. In his words, if the devil has PR, then it is cinema.

To a concerned parent, testimonies like these were beyond alarming. Warnke wasn't just ranting about Lucifer on a deserted street corner, or even warming his way into a small rural church and making these claims. He was on ABC's 2020, ostensibly an in-depth program for investigative journalism. In this context, it's easy to see why the average person may have taken him seriously. Trusted journalists nodded respectfully while he claimed he was a high priest in the Church of Satan. Then they egged him on, probing for more details. Millions of Americans saw his title in bold under his name,

describing him as a former Satanist and expert on the occult. Conman like Warnkeen laid the groundwork for the horrors to come. At every step of the way, he was bolstered by a gullible establishment, who preferred to sensationalize rather than investigate. Armed with horror stories like Warnkees, fundamentalist Christians recruited donations and followers to help stand against the unprecedented satanic threat. But they didn't just seek to dominate the popular culture. They were after political power, too.

Few were as successful as Baptist minister, Jerry Falwell, Sr. Fallwell had long opposed the tide of social change in the United States. Thanks to the rising fears of Satanism and the proliferation of men like Mike Warnke, he believed that a silent majority of Americans felt the same way. In 1976, 43-year-old Falwell set to test this theory by embarking on a nationwide speaking tour. Falwell held huge demonstrations known as, I Love America rallies all over the country. On the pulpit, he propagated racist and homophobic views and excoriated preachers who he deemed to be too engaged in the political process.

Though controversial, Falwell's rallies were successful and proved that he did have a passionate base of support. They established him as an influential religious figure and offered him a platform to make his voice heard. But this initial success wasn't enough to convince Falwell to step further onto the national stage. At the time, he stuck to the standard fundamentalist stance that clergymen should stay out of politics. He believed that a minister was best served tending to matters of the soul, as he put it. But everything changed in 1978, when a Christian school, Falwell founded in Virginia, came under fire. The Lynchburg Christian Academy, or LCA, was one of many so-called segregation academies in the South, created specifically to skirt the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision.

This ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court officially desegregated public schools. So figures like Falwell founded private institutions in order to perpetuate racial segregation. For years, these schools operated without paying taxes due to their religious affiliation. But in 1978, the IRS ruled that all white private schools formed in opposition to Brown v. the Board of education were no longer tax exempt. Falwell was furious at the decision. In his mind, it was religious persecution and government overreach to interfere with private schooling.

And it was the final straw. He wasn't going to sit idly by and watch the government interfere with what he considered to be religious matters. In 1979, he launched the political organization Moral Majority, using the mailing list he built up during his I Love America rallies. On its face, the group was billed as pro-life, pro-traditional family, and pro-American. While it refrained from directly attacking pro-choice advocates, gay rights activists, and the feminist movement, these were exactly the groups Falwell stood against. The moral majority marked a significant turn in American politics. Before, the only Christian

leaders who joined the political stage were modernists, who often supported a liberal agenda. Falwell's group was one of the first to explicitly link conservative politicians with fundamentalist Christians. Moral majority quickly formed a variety of political action committees, or PACs, across the country. These PACs solicited donations from Falwell's followers and used them to funnel money to political campaigns or run ads that furthered the group's agenda. For almost a decade, Moral Majority was met with large-scale success. It further polarized debates about LGBT rights and abortion, opposing them under the vague defense of traditional family values. Falwell supporters reignited the fundamentalist movement in the United States. Fiery rhetoric about the nationwide moral collapse made the religious right frightened of a phantom quote-unquote gay agenda or feminist conspiracy to take over the country.

His rightward push in politics made hardline Christianity somewhat made. mainstream and is credited with helping Ronald Reagan win the 1980 presidential election. Suddenly, fringe views about the devil's influence in public schools and the danger of a secular pop culture were being taken more seriously. Even debates about the theory of evolution, which had largely been settled in the 1920s, were revived. In this environment, it was no wonder that many Christians saw Satan everywhere. For years, they had worried that he was influencing their children's music, tempting them to take psychedelic drugs, or seducing them into joining violent, depraved cults. Now, preachers like Falwell convinced them that Lucifer was infiltrating their

public schools, the civil rights movement, and even the Oval Office. Falwell and the rising right wing were integral impriming fundamentalist Christians to panic. But even he couldn't have predicted where things would go next. In helping to create a monster, he'd be able to create a monster. He'd put everyone at risk, including himself. Falwell pushed many evangelicals toward the Republican Party and encouraged them to make their faith central to their political views. But for some of his followers, he didn't go far enough. Ironically, by successfully directing Christian anger toward national politicians, Falwell became part of the political establishment himself. As his influence grew, it became harder for him

to speak as if he was a persecuted underdog. Which didn't go unnoticed by more radical fundamentalists. Some started to wonder if Falwell himself was a false flag, playing a willing role in the conspiracy to corrupt America's soul. For years, he had preached for the government to stay out of church business, but now he was all but a politician himself. And for those who believed he wasn't far enough to the right, he became part of the problem.

One of the most well-known fundamentalists who attacked Falwell was a man named John Todd. Todd had a long history as a figure on the religious fringes. He began his career in the late 60s by claiming to be a former witch who converted to Christianity. It was a fabricated backstory, but as Todd struggled with mental illness all of his life, it might have been based on genuine delusions. Either way, Todd soon made his fantasies a reality by becoming an actual Wiccan in the mid-70s. For several months, he had actively recruited for a coven in Dayton, Ohio, and was eventually investigated for having sex with teenage girls. In 1977, after serving several months in prison, he returned to Christianity.

But once again, he claimed he was raised as a witch before being saved by God. But this time, 28-year-old Todd's claims were much grander. He married the satanic paranoia of the time with long-standing conspiracy theories about secret organizations, such as a lot of as the Illuminati. According to him, an elite cabal of celebrities, religious leaders and politicians were working with Satan to establish a new world order. He named people like Jerry Falwell, President Jimmy Carter, and various celebrities as Satanists and architects of the conspiracy, claiming they sought to enslave the working people of the world and lead them into moral rot. It wasn't just a political struggle for the future of society. It was a literal war

between the forces of darkness and the angels of the Lord. The message was considerably more violent than speakers like Mike Warnke, but it was attractive to some militant fundamentalists who had already started to conflate the political arena with their religious beliefs thanks to Falwell. Unfortunately, Todd's absurd fabrications had violent consequences. Carrie Noble, a former member of a paramilitary cult in the 1980s, was heavily influenced by Todd's team.

teachings. In his first-hand account of his experience, tabernacle of hate, seduction into right-wing extremism, Noble wrote, We wanted to believe Todd. He seemed to confirm all that we felt was wrong with the country, as well as what we believed would happen in the future. He explained the source of our problems. John Todd told conspiracists that the wheels of the New World Order were already in motion. He warned them to arm themselves and shout from the rooftops to fight back against Satan. Carrie Noble's group bought guns and built bombs based on Todd's advice. In Noble's mind, Todd positioned fundamentalists as both the ultimate victims and the ultimate

heroes, because only the most hard-line fundamental Christians could see the real truth of what was happening, and only they could save the country through glorious and noble violence. It was up to them to fight Hellfire with Hellfire. This rhetoric was particularly successful because it offered a flattering explanation for the declining popularity of hardline Christianity. When fundamentalists opposing racial integration, LGBTQ rights, and even pop culture were called out for their prejudices and paranoia, Todd assured them they weren't hateful. In fact, the so-called tolerant liberals were the ones to blame.

In Todd's worldview, only militant fundamentalists held the, moral high ground, but they were held back by a worldwide conspiracy working overtime to assassinate their characters. The only recourse was to take back control and send Satan's army straight to hell. Despite the fact that Todd's background was entirely fictitious and his demonstrated history of mental health issues and criminal behavior, his stories were accepted by those who wanted to believe. He recorded his long, meandering sermons about the New World Order on tape and gave them out at fundamentalist churches. He also latched on to support from more legitimate organizations in order to bolster his credibility.

He successfully convinced Jack Chick, author of a widely distributed series of Christian comics trips, that he was the real deal. Chick even wrote several comics about the dangers of Satanism, based entirely on John Todd's false claims about how such cults operated. He may also have recruited support from Dr. Tom Berry, a pastor at one of the the largest Baptist churches in the U.S., high-profile devotees meant Todd was subjected to even less scrutiny and was allowed to spread his misinformation more widely. Just like Warnke, once he got others to vouch for him, Todd was taken at his word without having to provide corroborating

evidence. So the public paranoia only grew. Pious Americans had to either believe that Satan was everywhere or else turned their backs and their church's teachings. Who could resist the temptation to retaliate when the enemy represented the ultimate evil? It was only a matter of time before everyday people started looking for evidence of demons in their own lives and exercising them by any means necessary. Coming up, the first accusations of satanic ritual abuse emerge and the panic begins. Now back to the story. In the 1970s, fundamentalist Christians emerged from political exercise.

and gained prominence by criticizing what they saw as the moral decay of American society. As the Christian Wright grew, it searched for anyone or anything that could fuel its narrative of fear and alleged Christian persecution. In this environment, a slew of cranks and conmen came out of the woodwork to spin lies about the threat of Satanism. A gullible media apparatus legitimized and amplified their messages until men like Mike Warnke were making millions of dollars preaching nonsense. As time went on, the stories got wilder. Those who had already bought into the conspiracy were drawn deeper into the propaganda. They even started seeking out media that fed their fears, descending deeper into their paranoia. The public wanted to be

shocked, thrilled, and frightened. And that's exactly what they got in 1980, when Michelle Smith and her psychiatrist, Lawrence Pazder, published Michelle Remembers. The book chronicled Pazder's work to recover memories of satanic ritual abuse that Michelle had supposedly repressed as a child. According to Pazdur, Michelle underwent more than 600 hours of hypnosis and months of psychiatric treatment in order to recall and cope with the trauma. The book became a bestseller and heavily influenced the abuse accusations which would later emerge during the satanic panic. With that in mind, we're going to cover Michelle's account in detail. Listeners be advised. The following section contains graphic descriptions of violence,

sexual abuse, and self-harm. The story of Michelle Remembers opened in 1976, after 23-year-old Michelle Smith experienced a miscarriage and started seeing 37-year-old Dr. Pasder for depression. During one of their sessions in 1976, Michelle suddenly started screaming at the top of her lungs. She continued for over 20 minutes straight. When she finally calmed down, Michelle spoke to Pazder in the voice of a five-year-old girl, describing a jumbled memory. It sounded as if she was recalling an episode of childhood sexual abuse. Over the next year, Paster worked with Michelle to bring what he believed were repressed memories of

trauma to the surface. Using hypnosis, he guided Michelle as she relived the experiences of her childhood. These supposed memories went far beyond typical cases of child abuse. Michelle described being subjected to satanic rituals at the age of five. According to her, as many as a dozen hooded people looked on as she was sexually abused on a demonic altar, cut with a knife, then painted red and white. Soon afterward, she described a separate ritual in which she was surrounded by people with knives jutting out from their bodies. Among the crowd was her mother, who lay with a person hiding underneath her skirt. In a fit of confused rage, five-year-old Michelle claimed she beat the person to death using a bottle,

then drew the sign of the cross in blood on the bodies of the gathered cultists. All of this was just the tip of the iceberg. According to Michelle, the leader of the cult covered up the murder by staging a cross. car accident with the corpse in the passenger seat. Michelle was supposedly confined to a hospital bed because of her injuries after the crash, which Pasder later estimated to have taken place around Christmas 1954. But her hospital stay didn't stop the abuse. According to Michelle, a nurse who was also a member of the cult sexually abused her in her room and presented her with a dead bird. Satanic agents were literally everywhere. Despite the logic,

stretches it took to believe Michelle's claims, Pastor largely took Michelle's memories at face value. A devout Catholic, he was sensitive to the fears of the devil, and was convinced by what he believed to be Michelle's intense sincerity. After these first confessions, he encouraged her to tell him more, and the story soon spiraled even further out of control. Michelle next described being forced to eat the ashes of the person she had killed. She then took part in a bizarre ritual in which the cultists around her danced and meowed like cats. She also reported being shut inside a mausoleum in the local cemetery for an indefinite period of time. Pastors somehow deduced that these rituals were meant to provide Michelle a rebirth into evil. After that, she endured the most horrifying ordeal yet.

In a stone room furnished with a round bed in the center, she watched, as the cultists' mutilated animals and even an infant in front of her. As the months of therapy and hypnotization continued, Michelle described a slew of increasingly disturbing rituals and abuse. All the time, she was enabled by Pazder's unfailing belief in her tales. He very often intervened to interpret the garbled events of her repressed memories and helped to get what he believed to be the truth. At one point, he referred Michelle to a priest, who suggested that she be baptized. According to Pazder, after the holy water touched her skin, he could smell the faint stench of burning flesh before the odor miraculously passed and

Michelle was cleansed of her evil. But though her soul might have been clean, the horrifying memories continued to haunt her. Sometime in 1955, Michelle claimed she was forced to participate in a monumental 81-day-long satanic ritual. This time, Michelle was surrounded by hundreds of members of the Satanic cult, far more than she ever hinted at before. During the event, she mentioned many of the same horrors she'd recounted before, people dancing and chanting in various stages of nakedness, the mutilation of animals, and hordes of snakes and spiders in cages.

At the conclusion of the ritual, Michelle claimed that Satan himself appeared in the room and spoke to his father, followers in rhyme. He then commenced a black mass in which a human sacrifice was performed and new high priests lopped off their middle fingers in a show of dark devotion. Michelle claimed that while Satan continued speaking evil invocations, she was saved by the Holy Spirit, the Virgin Mary, and the Archangel Michael. Mary spoke to her in French, telling her that they would lock her memories of the black

mass away until the time was right to spread the word to the world. The Archangel Michael also cleansed her of the many scars she'd gained as a result of the abuse. Then the angels disappeared and Satan headed back to the underworld. He also predicted that the apocalypse would occur in 1980, the same year Michelle remembers was published. Then it was all over. Michelle's story abruptly ended with her waking up the day after the marathon satanic ritual with no recollection of any abuse. Her mother, who had supposedly taken part in the torture, acted completely normal in the years that followed, without offering an explanation as to why the cult never bothered Michelle again. Michelle remembers was a deeply disturbing and horrifying tale. Not only did it suggest that North America

harbored at least one massive satanic cult, it also meant that unspeakable, violent, and crimes were happening right under the noses of everyday working people. The book had a major media impact and inspired full-blown hysteria. Besides being a bestseller, it cemented Dr. Lawrence Pastor's influence as a cult expert. Much like Mike Warnke, Pastor later served as a consultant for law enforcement to help them combat devilish threats. He coined the term satanic ritual abuse and gave expert testimony in several trials during the satanic panic. Michelle's influence only grew over the next decade. In 1989,

nine years after the book's publication, she appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show to recount her satanic experiences. Michelle's claims were accepted, at least implicitly, at face value. Which was a bit of an issue, as nearly every aspect of her and pasture's story has been thoroughly debunked. Though both of them continued to claim that the events described in the book really happened, there is absolutely no evidence to support Michelle's account. Meanwhile, there is plenty of verifiable testimony which makes some of her claims impossible to believe. For example, Michelle claimed she was involved in a horrific car crash sometime around Christmas in 1954, but there's no newspaper article or police report of any crash that matches

her description. In fact, there's no independent verification of anything in the the book. Her father and siblings who weren't mentioned at all of the book ardently deny the events. For the entire time period of the alleged abuse, Michelle was enrolled in primary school. None of her fellow students, teachers, or neighbors recall her bearing any horrific scars that later miraculously disappeared. There's no record of any extended absence from class, even during the alleged 81-day-long final ritual. The insignia she described which adorned the occultists and the sacrificial altars don't match any historical record of symbols associated with Satanists either. Tellingly, some of Michelle's alleged memories were very suggestive of the horror

movies at the time. Her description of a cultist who was possessed by a demon, for instance, mirrored well-known scenes in the movie The Exorcist. Dr. Pastor's relationship with Michelle Smith is also divisive. Though both of them were married at the time they met, Pastor and Michelle divorce their spouses after the book's publication and married each other. Some have alleged that their romantic desires may have clouded both of their judgments throughout the psychiatric treatment. It should also be mentioned that though Lawrence Pazder is a psychiatrist, much of his work is considered controversial because his theories about satanic ritual abuse were later discredited. After the publication of Michelle remembers, he was revered as an expert on satanic cult activity

and provided expert testimony to law enforcement, much of which was later criticized. All in all, there are myriad reasons to doubt Michelle's account and none to believe her. In hindsight, it can be easy to view Michelle remembers as a farce. Some journalists at the time did, and several wrote ex-bosés interviewing Michelle's relatives and pointing out the obvious holes in her story.

Unfortunately, it wasn't just a harmless con or a sensational flash in the pan, it had real consequences. Whether or not Michelle and Pazder sincerely believed the account is up for debate, but the book led to genuine harm. Along with Mike Warnke's book, The Satan's Seller, Michelle remembers played a pivotal role in the average suburbanites' conception of Satanism. They imagined a darkened evil world, where a human sacrifice and sexual abuse were the norm.

By purporting to be true stories, they also gave the impression that there were satanic cults with hundreds or thousands of members lurking in major cities. People started to look for evidence of Satanism everywhere, and they saw what they wanted to see. Flighty daycare workers or babysitters from another part of town suddenly seemed suspicious. If children cried when coming home from school, paranoid parents wondered if something unspeakable had occurred. It was the beginning of the satanic panic, a living nightmare which continued unabated for years afterward. Though it's nigh impossible that Michelle ever suffered as she claimed, her book led to long-lasting pain for those who were accused after its publication.

And no angels were coming to save them. Thanks again for tuning it to cults. We'll be back next week with our final episode on the Satanic Panic. Next week, we're diving into the real victims of the satanic panic, who suffered public damnation, harassment, and legal consequences for crimes they did not commit. For more information on Michelle Smith, amongst the many sources we used, we found Kerr Kuhulhulin's writings on Michelle Smith's story extremely helpful to our research. You can find more episodes of cults and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify.

We'll see you next time. Cults is a Spotify original from Parcast. Executive producers include Max and Ron Cuddler, sound designed by Russell Nash, with production assistance by Ron Shapiro, Carly Madden, and Bruce Kitovich. This episode of Cults was written by Terrell Wells, with writing assistance by Abigail Cannon,

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