Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - Satanic Panic Pt. 5

Episode Date: October 11, 2020

In the years since the Satanic Panic, it's become obvious that the crimes people were accused of never really happened. But while none of the nightmarish stories of ritual abuse in Satan’s name were true, it doesn’t mean there weren’t real victims…  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, and child abuse that some listeners may find disturbing. Extreme caution is advised for listeners under 13. In the fall of 1983, the parents of Manhattan Beach, California, were in a state of sheer panic. That August, one of the children at the McMartin preschool had come forward with allegations of sexual abuse against an investigation. adult at the school. Over the next several weeks, the school sent a letter about the alleged abuse to the 200 children who attended McMarton, and more and more instances of abuse were uncovered.

The details the children told their parents were horrible, and parents were determined to root out everyone responsible. Therapists and law enforcement began interrogating the children of the school. Unfortunately, it seemed like the children were reluctant to talk about what happened to them. Some didn't even know about the things they were asked, but the interviewers reassured them and encouraged them to be brave. They cajoled and flattered, insisting the young kids helped them get to the bottom of things. They reminded any reluctant kids that everyone else was helping. But one of the children, Witness No. 107, didn't have any of the puzzle pieces the adults insisted they hand over.

They didn't have anything to say. Still, the interviewer, was determined. They reminded Witness 107 about a game that some of the other children had told them about, the naked movie star game. Did they remember that? No, they didn't. The interviewer was perplexed and their questions got more pointed. They asked if Mr. Ray ever took naked pictures of them. Were they sure? According to the interviewer, everyone else remembered that game. If there's one thing young children hate, it's being left out. And after a few more minutes, Witness 107 started to talk about what was going on at the McMartin preschool. They agreed with everything the interviewer told them.

Yes, bad things had happened. Yes, they'd been hurt. They remembered everything now. The interviewer gave them a supportive wink and said, Oh, you're so smart, I knew you'd remember. Hi, I'm Greg Poulson. Welcome to the final episode of our five-part special on the Satanic Panic, part of a crossover event between serial killers and cults.

Over the past four weeks, we've taken a deep dive into what sparked this modern-day mass panic in America. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson. Hi, everyone. You can find episodes of serial killers, 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 we've examined exactly how it took hold. From 1960s popular culture and the rise of evangelical Christianity to serial killers and murderous cults, we've delved into the facts that fed the falsehoods.

Today we finish up our series by taking a closer look at the Satanic Panic as it took hold across North America. We'll examine how how much we'll examine how how much of the Satanic Panic Panic by taking a closer look at the Satanic Panic Panic Panic as it took hold across North America. We'll examine how hysterical parents and overzealous law enforcement carried the torches that burned entire communities to the ground and we'll learn about the lives that were ruined as a result as well as the modern incarnations of this insidious fear we've got all that and more coming up stay with us this episode is brought to you by zip recruiter 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, like Jack the Ripper, the Golden State Killer, the Unit Bomber. It's tedious

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and start your comeback today at PurdueGlobal.edu. Beginning in the 1960s, a sense of dread grew across North America as a thriving counterculture sprung up and stood opposed to more traditional Christian values. Many felt society teetered on a precipice. Alarmus, encouraged by the growing shouts of Christian fundamentalists and evangelicals, pointed to shocking crimes as evidence of dark forces swirling through the United States. The devil was here, they claimed, and he would drag every last American to hell. His servants were men like David Berkowitz, the son of Sam, Richard Ramirez, the Nightstalker,

or Sean Sellers, the reformed Satanist who murdered his parents. The devil had armies at his disposal, secret cults who thirsted for blood, and were only too happy to commit depraved, stomach-churning murders in his name. The Chicago Rippers, the Narco-Satonists, and one unnamed group that truly shocked the nation when its activities were revealed in a tell-all book. The book in question was published in 1980, became a bestseller, and went on to influence the developing satanic panic in catastrophic ways.

Michelle remembers was held up by alarmed Christians, frightened parents, and eager journalists as proof of satanic cults at work in modern society. Though the book was quickly discredited, it enjoyed years of success, thanks to its shocking claims of a devil-worshipping cult that tried to capture the soul of a little girl in the 1950s. That little girl, Michelle Smith, grew up remembering nothing of the frightening ordeal she suffered at the hands of the cults members, who included her mother. But after she began seeing Canadian psychologist Lawrence Pazder in her 20s, Michelle experienced recovered memories of the trauma. Pazder helped his patient-turned-

lover and then wife interpret these memories. Then he wrote them into a compelling book to warn others of the dangers of satanic cults. Of course, none of the things of the things things Michelle remembered were true. As far as we can tell, no evidence to support the claims in Michelle remembers has ever been found. But that didn't matter to panic parents across North America. The alarming pieces of the puzzle were all there. Violent and sexual abuse of children, animal sacrifice, murder, chanting, the devil. Dr. Pastor coined a term for this kind of activity, satanic ritual abuse. And it became a chilling phrase for, for anyone with children.

A warning. To parents, it was like reading pages from their own nightmarish dream journals. Their worst fears realized, if this could happen to one girl, it could happen to their own precious cherubs. And knowing that Michelle Smith seemingly forgot about her trauma that she never told anyone was terrifying.

What if the same thing happened in their own family, but no one was speaking about it? Suddenly, parents couldn't trust their own, own eyes or rely on their children to come to them if something horrible happened. They had to investigate for themselves, and once they started looking for it, they found satanic ritual abuse everywhere. As the mass hysteria settled like a blanket, snug and stifling, few communities went unaffected.

Accusations flew as parents questioned their children about what happened to them at daycare or school. And as children wove fantastical stories about flying. teachers, blood rituals, and horrific sexual abuse, grown men and women turn to psychologists to help unlock memories from their own childhoods. Vanessa is going to take over on the psychology here and throughout the episode. Please note, Vanessa is not a licensed psychologist or a psychiatrist, but she has done a lot of research for this show. Thanks, Greg. By the late 1980s, the idea of recovered memories had grown in popularity, perhaps thanks in

part to Michelle remembers. During the years that the satanic panic took hold, as well as long afterwards, debate raged about the validity of recovered memory therapy and whether such accounts could be believed. Dr. Allen W. Shefflin, an expert in memory, suggestion, and suggestibility, points out that recovered memories and repressed memories are misnomer's for the more accurate term, dissociative amnesia. As outlined in the DSM-5, five, dissociative amnesia is characterized by an inability to recall biographical memory as a result of trauma. The triggering of these traumatic memories is usually unconscious and can cause further distress. With these symptoms in mind and fearful that they were unknowing victims, patients were

perhaps more suggestible in sessions with therapists. And depending on the therapist's methods and beliefs, their experience of their own memories varied dramatically. According to Dr. Shefflin, at the height of the panic, the mental health community disagreed about the validity of dissociative amnesia and the accuracy of any recovered memories. Doctors also disagreed about the correct way to unearth the locked memories, and whether recollections about childhood sexual abuse were a result of inadvertent suggestion by the psychologists themselves. Dr. Shefflin reminds us that, to some extent, all memories are recovered from the past.

This means that recovered memories are neither inherently true nor false. However, it's clear that the memories of patients can be manipulated. In fact, debate continues to this day. It seems that even now, no one can agree on whether recovered memories are fact or fiction. Despite this, in the 1980s, the general public paid less attention to the truth behind the memories, choosing instead to focus on the content. So often, discussion about the satanic panic centers on the parents of young children and their fears about what might have happened to them. But there were also some parents of grown children who were blindsided by their kids' alleged recovered memories.

Like Michelle Smith, these grown children uncovered traumatic memories of horrific childhood abuse. At least they said they did. We learned last week about the rising popularity of evangelical Christianity. and its role in spreading fears of satanic influences across North America. So it would make sense that the victims of these misguided fears were those less faithful. But sometimes it was the most faithful who lost everything. In 1988, Erica Ingram was 22 years old and working as a counselor at her church's annual retreat for teenage girls. For the past several years, Erica and her younger sister, 18-year-old Julie, had attended the camp

at Black Lake just south of Olympia, Washington. This particular year, a guest speaker visited the retreat. Carla Franco, a former actor and comedian, with an unshakable belief in her God-given gifts of healing and spiritual discernment, was prone to grand pronouncements. So, according to author Lawrence Wright, in his book, Remembering Satan, a tragic case of recovered memory, Carla used her gifts to impress the teenagers at the camp. With her vague psychic visions of potential abuse, Carla elicited extreme responses from several girls, who claimed to have suffered at the hands of relatives or people they knew.

And once the first few allegations emerged, the floodgates opened. Before Erica Ingram and her sister returned to their parents' house, she made a spontaneous shocking confession to her coworkers. Her father had sexually abused her. At least, that's the version of her. events as police presented them. According to Carla Franco's account, she was asked to pray over Erica. While she was doing so, she received a message from above that told her the young woman was a victim of sexual abuse. She advised Erica to seek help to recover the lost memories of her father's abuse,

then left to go to the airport. When Erica finally confronted her mother, Sandy, with the allegations, She went straight to her husband. Paul Ingram, a Pentecostal Christian and civil deputy in Olympia Sheriff's Department, was floored by his daughter's accusations. He swore that he never laid a hand on any of his children. Unfortunately for 43-year-old Paul, he also faced accusations from his other daughter, Julie. And by the time he found out what his daughters alleged happened, word was already spreading through their church community.

Soon after that, in November of 1988, detectives interviewed both Erica and Julie. In stories that changed with each telling, they revealed that their father had sexually abused them for years. On November 28, Paul went to work and was pulled in for questioning about his daughter's allegations. He was ready for the interview. He'd spent time praying on the matter recently, trying to understand why his daughters would make up such horrific stories.

And at last, he knew what the answer was. So after speaking with his colleagues, Paul Ingram dropped a bombshell. It was all true. Coming up, Paul Ingram's unmasking as a satanic murderer. Listeners, here's a new show I can't wait for you to check out. When it comes to love, every story is unique. Some play out like fairy tales seemingly meant to be. Others defy the odds to achieve happily ever after.

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Follow Our Love Story free on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. Now back to the story. In November of 1988, 43-year-old devout Christian and sheriff's deputy, Paul Ingram, confessed to sexually abusing his two daughters, Erica and Julie. Both girls, now grown adults, had recently recovered memories of the abuse and gone to the police. Faced with his daughter's accusations, Paul confessed to the crimes. But here's the thing. None of it was true. Though Paul himself had no memory of ever assaulting any of his children,

he seemed to believe his daughter's stories. In later interviews, Paul shared that he raised his daughters to be truthful, and so he was more inclined to believe them than his own. own memories. With just a little nudge from his colleagues, Paul freely admitted to sexually assaulting and raping his own daughters from when Erika was only five. By playing on his emotions, the detectives manipulated the devoted father into conjuring disturbing stories of sexual assault.

These stories dovetailed nicely with the details Paul's daughters told about their father's poker games, where his friends and coworkers would come into their bedroom to assault them as they slept. It was a chilling suggestion of a pedophile ring, one that Paul freely admitted to under guidance from his pastor. Then, with the help of a psychologist, a pastor, and police detectives, Paul started confessing to things his daughters didn't mention. The revelations were stunning. Animal sacrifice, slaughtering babies, orgies, all the well-known hallmarks of satanic ritual abuse. These shocking admissions were seized upon by Thurston County undersheriff, Neil McLanahan.

Accusations of satanic ritual abuse had raged around the United States since the start of the decade, but so many of the cases crumpled without a shred of physical evidence. Now, with a detailed confession on tape, McLanahan was excited to show the country's law enforcement exactly how to bring down a Satanist. And Paul's daughters enthusiastically verified the ritual abuse claims. Over time, Erica insisted that she was made to attend hundreds of satanic cult meetings, where she saw at least one woman murdered and underwent two forced abortions. Later, Erica appeared on the daytime talk show, Sally Jesse Raphael, to talk about her supposed trauma.

Trying hard to squeeze out tears for a national audience, Erica detailed one of the forced abortions. She said, quote, the baby was still alive when they took it out, and they put it on top of me, and then they cut it up. And then when it was dead, people in the group ate parts of it. But just like every other satanic ritual abuse case, investigators were unable to unearth a single piece of physical evidence to support this, or any of the other claims made by the Ingram family. An archaeology specialist went over to the Ingram family property with a fine, tooth comb and found no human remains, no evidence of animal sacrifice. Additionally, neither Erica or Julie had any scars on their bodies, despite their claims of mutilation and torture.

Still determined to secure a conviction in the trial, the prosecution brought in Dr. Richard Offshe, a social psychologist and expert in cults, mind control, and false confessions. Offshe spoke to Paul Ingram and the various witnesses in the case. Dr. Offshe was suspicious of the claims and wanted to test Paul's ability to separate fact from fiction. So he lied to Paul, telling him that his son and daughter had accused him of forcing them to have sex with one another while Paul watched. Paul had no memory of the incident. But after a little reflection, he returned to Dr. Offshe with a three-page written confession, detailing the minutiae of the imagined scenario.

The confession to an entirely fictional crime convinced Dr. Offshey of Paul's susceptibility to persuasion and suggestion. Reflecting on the case, he said, Paul wasn't confessing. He was describing delusions, make-believe memories, and it was fairly obvious coercive and manipulative techniques were repeatedly used to create these false recollections. Armed with this information, Dr. Offshe interviewed Erica, asking for specific details of the ritual, The 22-year-old avoided giving answers or gave conflicting or expanded accounts that differed from earlier ones. In April of 1989, when Dr. Offshey submitted his report to Thurston County prosecutor Gary Tabor, he made it very clear that he believed Erica and Julie Ingram were lying.

He reminded Tabor that there was no physical evidence to support any of the Ingram family allegations. The report also warned that innocent people were at risk. of going to trial and face the very real possibility of conviction. In his conclusion, Dr. Offshe pointed to the Salem witch trials of the late 1600s. The Ingram case, he suggested, reminded him of that earlier episode of Moral Panic, and he urged Tabor to research Salem before proceeding with his case against Paul. Dr. Offshe's report was a damning indictment of the prosecution's case, and as such it was seemingly ignored by authorities who proceeded with charges without a trial. In the end, Paul was convinced that for his daughter's safety,

he should plead guilty and accept his punishment. He did so and was sentenced to 20 years behind bars. Soon after this, however, Paul realized the magnitude of his mistake and appealed to have his guilty plea thrown out. But it was too late. He'd admitted to being a satanic killer and rapist, and though there was no evidence against him, except for the shaky word of his daughters, the courts refused to grant him a trial. For their parts, Erica and Julie Ingram never publicly admitted to lying about their father and the other people they accused, and Paul Ingram remained behind bars for years, serving time for crimes that never even happened.

Unfortunately, though Paul's story is remarkable, it wasn't wholly unique. Dozens of cases just like it went to trial all over North America. The fear of Satan had taken root in hearts across the continent, and there was no slowing its spread. In Los Angeles, Austin, Miami, almost every state in the U.S. recorded cases of satanic ritual abuse. Everywhere you turned, innocent people were accused

of abusing the children they lived or worked with. Countless lives were ruined over fictional accounts of abuse and torture over recovered memories and invented trauma. But there was at least one crime that actually happened, a trio of children brutally murdered in 1993. On May 5th, 8-year-olds, Stevie Branch, Christopher Byers, and Michael Moore were reported missing in a town sitting alongside the Mississippi River and Arkansas. The friends were last seen playing together that evening,

though local police didn't mount a thorough search until the next morning. Just hours into the search, the boys' bodies were found in a muddy creek, naked and hogtide. Immediate reporting on the murders focused on sexual mutilation, as one of the boys' genitals were cut off. That was one of the standout pieces of the story as it flooded the local press. Unfortunately, journalists focused less attention on the mishandled crime scene, which was trampled and contaminated for hours before a coroner arrived. But those details mattered less than the sensational broad strokes of the case. Given that the victims were children who were hog-tied and mutilated,

it seemed like all signs were pointing to the actions of a satanic cult. And with that, the international spotlight shone on the city of West Memphis. After initial investigations, police followed a tip from a juvenile probation officer about who might be capable of committing the crime. The officer suggested that 18-year-old, Damien Eccles fit the bill. A bit of an outsider, Damien liked to wear black, read Stephen Stephen King novels, and listen to heavy metal. It seems likely that his interest in the occult marked him as an early suspect. And once they zeroed in on him, investigators were blinded

to sense. Damien was called in for questioning over the murders several times, but the West Memphis Police Department were unable to make a case against the teen. He submitted to a polygraph test and denied any involvement in the triple murder. But police seemed determined to punish Damien simply because he was a rebellious teen. They weren't having much luck with that until they called on Damien's friend, 17-year-old Jesse Miss Kelly, Jr.

Jesse's family wasn't wealthy, so when police mentioned reward money, his father allowed them to talk to his son, and he let them do so unsupervised. Now, Jesse's IQ was 72, putting him just above the cutoff for limited intellectual functioning. So it's little wonder that after 12 hours of questioning, he confessed just like the police wanted.

In his patchy, coerced confession, Jesse also implicated Damien and another teenager, 16-year-old Jason Baldwin, in the crime. Like Damien, Jason was also something of an outsider. He didn't trust like his friend, but shared his taste in heavy metal, and his artwork was clearly influential. by the album covers of his favorite bands.

Almost as soon as he confessed to the murders, Jesse tried to recant, but it was too late. The police had what they wanted, and nothing was going to convince them they had the wrong guys. This mirrored what had been happening around the country for over a decade.

Children were questioned by adults in positions of authority until authorities heard the answers they liked. Once the incriminating words left their mouths, the children had forfeited their right to take them back. Children who said they were abused were believed. Children who said they weren't abused were not believed. In most cases, their allegations changed someone else's life.

But in West Memphis, where three families were already reeling, many lives were destroyed by the country's fixation with Satan. After Jesse's confession, all three teens were arrested, and rumors about their involvement in the occult raced through the small town. One prevailing story insisted that the testes of one of the boys were found in a jar inside Damien's house. The idea was so frightening and so devilish, that it was quickly accepted as fact. Before long, it was an agreed-upon truth in West Memphis that Damian, Jason, and Jesse were cultists who killed the three young boys as part of some satanic ritual.

Except there was no evidence to back this story up, while Damien was a practitioner of Wiccan magic, he was not a Satan worshipper, and no ritualistic marks had been found on the bodies of the victims, nor signs of any kind of ceremonial activity. But that didn't stop the prosecution from doubling down on the public spheres. They took advantage of society's outsized reaction to encroaching change, labeling anything different as evil. Damien was different, odd. Therefore, he couldn't be trusted.

out of his mouth was a lie. As such, Damien and Jason's trial resembled more of a witch hunt than a murder trial. Instead of proving Damien was guilty of murder, the prosecutors painted him as a twisted boy with satanic aspirations. By that point, the ritual nature of the murder was a foregone conclusion. So they made an effort to show he was the most likely ritual abuser in town. His real name, they contended, was actually Michael. But he had changed it after seeing the 1976 horror film The Omen, in which the devil has a son named Damien. When he took the stand, Damien and his attorney were forced to spend time addressing the farcical rumor. When he was born, Damien's parents named him Michael. But growing up, he heard a story

at church about a saintly priest named Damian of Molokai, who cared for people with leprosy. Moved by the story, the young boy asked to change his name. But by then, the best of bell had been rung, and there was no unringing it. Based only on cherry-picked facts and wild rumors, Damien was painted as a dishonest teen who dressed in black and read about non-Christian religions. It seems that was the prosecution strategy, proved that Damien like the darker side of life to clinch their win. In closing arguments, Damians and Jason's attorneys pointed to the prosecution's complete lack of evidence tying the teenagers to the murders. The prosecution's again pointed to Damien's black clothing and taste in music.

Individually, he said those weren't bad things, but together they offered a glimpse into who Damien was. And according to them, that was a man without a soul. In February and March of 1994, each of the teenagers was convicted for the murders of Stevie Branch, Christopher Byers, and Michael Moore. Jesse Lucenta life plus 40 years. Jason received life, and Damien, the one with the occult connections,

was sentenced to die by lethal injection. With the West Memphis 3 behind bars, parents in the small Arkansas city breathed a sigh of relief. Their children were safe from the Satan-worshipping teens at last. With their sentences, the teenagers became just three more victims of the satanic panic. As the 1990s wore on, accusations of demonic cult activity diminished, as did prosecutions of innocent people. Though there were still those who believed Satan's servants walked among us, they became outnumbered by skeptics. That said, the satanic panic didn't just dissipate overnight.

Some prosecutions took years to work their way through the courts, while others were dismissed earlier. Some of these cases did prove that the accusations were completely fabricated. But there were others, like the Ingram case and the West Memphis 3, that saw innocent people sent to prison for fictional crimes. And while the world slowly returned to a semblance of sanity, these victims remained behind bars, trapped in a nightmare that seemed unlikely to ever end. Coming up, the lasting repercussions of the satanic panic

and the very real danger of a new era of moral panic. Now back to the story. Throughout the 1980s and 90s, the satanic panic swept across North America. A general fear of the creeping influence of dark forces manifested in accusations of horrific child abuse, likely influenced by fictionalized memoirs presented as factual accounts. Capitalizing on rising fears of the occult, books like Michelle remembers did irreparable damage to the lives of hundreds of if not thousands, by inspiring paranoia about actual devil-worshipping cults. In the service of Satan, these cults were accused of blood rituals, animal sacrifice,

horrific sexual abuse, pedophilia, and murder. Like past moral panics, such as the Salem witch trials, the bulk of the accusations came from children and teens. The overzealous parents and investigators seized upon their claims, only too eager to believe the worst. During the satanic panic, not believing victims was unthinkable. PSAs were broadcast, urging parents to take their children seriously. They wouldn't lie and couldn't possibly make these things up.

In a misguided attempt to uncover the truth, counselors and therapists were often included in the questioning of witnesses and the accused. In Paul Ingram's case, both his pastor and a psychologist were present for some of his confessions, encouraging him to dig deeper into his memories of crimes that never happened. At one of the earliest cases of satanic ritual abuse accusations, the McMarton preschool case from California, a team of unqualified psychotherapists examined 400 children who had crossed paths with the daycare. Though one of these therapists represented herself as an expert psychologist, the most advanced credential she had was a master's in social work.

Needless to say, the testimony of these children was dubious. Unfortunately, as was the case in West Memphis, once investigators coerced a story that lined up with their own fears, they shut down any protestation. Confessions and accusations seemed to be enough to prove guilt. In the McMarton trial, which went on for six excruciating and expensive years, all charges against the daycare workers were finally proven false. and dropped. In cases across the United States and Canada,

millions were spent investigating the wild accusations of young children, some of whom were only two or three years old. And though no physical evidence was ever uncovered, cases proceeded, making names for successful prosecutors, ruined lives. Even of those exonerated were forgotten as the world spun on. For Paul Ingram, his life behind bars was a nightmare from which he couldn't wake up.

His petitions to recant his confession and ask for a trial were all denied, and he was forced to serve out his sentence. In 2003, he was finally released. His term served. He lost 14 years of his life to the satanic panic. Likewise, the West Memphis 3, Jesse Miss Kelly Jr., Jason Baldwin, and Damien Eccles

appealed their convictions. All were denied by a court system only too happy to ignore the lack of physical evidence. But the three young men had support. A series of documentaries were produced about their case, earning them a groundswell of voices calling for their release. Finally, in 2007, investigators bowed to pressure and tested DNA evidence taken from the crime scene.

The results matched none of the convicted men, and a few years later, a retrial was ordered. However, before the trial could begin, it was announced that the West Memphis 3 were entering Alford police in exchange for their freedom. This meant that they were maintaining their innocence, but acknowledging that the prosecution had a strong enough case to convict. Jesse, Jason, and Damien were released in 2011, having served 17 years. Now in 2020, 27 years after the original crime, the murders of Stevie Branch, Christa Christopher Byers and Michael Moore remain unsolved, thanks in part to the tunnel vision fear induced

by the satanic panic. In the years since the satanic panic faded from public discourse, it's become a subject that inspires eye rolls and gentle headshakes, as people remember the lunacy that took over. Few people stopped to consider the lives that were ruined and those that remain in prison to this day for crimes that never took place. It's easy to believe we progress to a place where those kinds of moral panic can't happen again. We like to think that we won't let history repeat itself, but unfortunately it seems like in the era of fake news, clickbait, and power-hungry politicians, the danger of moral panic

still looms large. In fact, there have been incidents as recent as this year, 2020, that have very many times. eerie echoes of the 1980s. These days, the moral panics can be fleeting, but still cause outsized reactions. At its height, the satanic panic spread most rapidly through mass media. Television shows, print journalism, and books all stoke the flames. And today, moral panics are more likely to emerge online, like a fire that leaps from tree to tree, the fear moves across social media platforms, a spark at first, sometimes deliberately lit, but before long, the forest is engulfed. In 2016, someone hacked the email account of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign chairman.

When the emails were published by WikiLeaks, right-wing conspiracy theorists claimed that hidden code words indicated a child sex trafficking ring was operating in DC. A pizza store was implicated in the rumor, which went viral on social media, and a man attacked the store with a rifle. Luckily, no one was injured in the attack, though the entire Pizza Gate controversy drew considerable attention during the 2016 presidential campaign by stoking the fears of conservatives around the United States. And despite multiple news outlets thoroughly debunking the wild conspiracy theory, many still

believed it held at least kernels of truth. Just as the voices of evangelicals validated the long-derided fears of believers during the satanic panic. Conspiracy theories like Pizza Gate stroke the egos of people clinging to socially conservative values. You're not wrong to hate what's different, they seem to say. Distrust is good when evil is all around. Sticking with what you know is the safest thing you can do. The seeds planted by Pizza Gate in 2016 eventually flourished into a full-blown conspiracy theory of epic satanic proportions. In 2017, the idea of QAnon materialized fully formed on anonymous message board 4chan. QAnon purports that high-profile

politicians, celebrities, and businessmen control a worldwide pedophilic sex trafficking ring. Not only do these people traffic children for sex, they do so while worshiping Satan. And standing in their way of world domination is the unlikeliest of saviors, Donald Trump. No part of the conspiracy is based in anything resembling truth, but because it hits the pain points of a group of people fearful of the changing world, it doesn't need to be true. And while stories like Michelle remembers were held up as factual by journalists in the 1980s, today public trust has shifted away from news media. At least it has for those who believe in QAnon. And those inclined to follow the rabbit hole of that outlandish theory

are led into deeper levels of unfounded fears. In recent months, the BBC linked Q&N believers to the COVID anti-mask movement and anti-vaxxers. And though these kinds of people inspire yet more frustrated eye rolls, their unfounded fears can be catching. Unchecked, rumors and conspiracy theories leap from one platform to another, until large-scale demonstrations take place in major cities demanding the supposed truth behind worldwide cover-ups. And much like during the satanic ritual abuse epidemic, a denial works just as well as an admission. The devil, it seems, works in just as mysterious ways as his upstairs neighbor. There are some ways that these modern moral panics differ from the satanic panic accusations of the

1980s and 90s. Chief among these differences is that the contemporary iterations seemed to be guided less by fear and confusion than by political motivations. Anonymous activists play on the anxieties of the gullible and devout in an effort to secure power for a favored politician. And despite the very real repercussions of this deliberate stoking of the flames, we can take comfort in small mercies, with a 24-hour news cycle and an endless array of plastic platforms and devices competing for our attention. There are few instances of panics flooding the media in the same way as in decades past. Still, fear is an insidious thing.

It creeps, slowly at first, then snakes a hand around the heart, and its grip is hard to break. With politics motivating today's moral panics, it's frightening to think about what might happen were a large-scale outbreak to occur again. Carl Marx once wrote that history repeats itself, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce. Surely the satanic panic was a tragedy, but if it happens again, it's unlikely to be a laughing matter. Thanks again for tuning in to our Satanic Panic Special. We'll be back next week with a brand new episode. For more information on the satanic panic, among the many sources we used, we found Remembering Satan,

A tragic case of recovered memory by Lawrence Wright and the HBO documentary Paradise Lost, The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, particularly useful to our research. You can find more episodes of serial killers, Cults, and all other 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 Cutler, sound design by Russell Nash, with production assistance by Ron Shapiro, Carly Madden and Bruce Katovic. This episode of Cults was written by Joel Callan with writing assistance by Abigail Cannon and stars Greg Polson and Vanessa Richardson. Don't forget to check out Our Love Story,

the newest Spotify original from Parkast. Every Tuesday, discover the many pathways to love, as told by the actual couples who found them. Listen to Our Love Story, free on Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. A beloved 75-year-old man washing up getting ready for bed is brutally beaten and killed. Despite an exhaustive investigation, the killer avoids arrest and then strikes again. I'm global news crime reporter Nancy Hicks.

You might listen to a lot of true crime podcasts this year, but they're not crime beat. Search for and follow the award-winning podcast Crime Beat on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you find your favorite podcasts. Do you want to hear something spooky? Some monster, it reminded me of Bigfoot. Monsters Among Us is a weekly podcast featuring true stories of the paranormal. One of the boys started to exhibit demonic possession. Stories straight from the witnesses' mouths themselves.

Something very snake-like lifted its head out of the water. Hosted by me, your guide, Derek Hayes. Somehow I lost eight whole hours. Listen now on Spotify or wherever. You get your podcast.