Solved Murders - True Crime Stories - The Hidden Truth Behind Satanic Ritual Abuse During the Panic Era of the 80s and 90s #48

Episode Date: August 24, 2025

#horrorstories #reddithorrorstories #ScaryStories #creepypasta #horrortales #SatanicRitualAbuse #80sPanic #truecrime #cultstories #urbanlegends  This investigative story explores the dark and controversial phenomenon of Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA) allegations that swept through the 1980s and 90s. It uncovers the panic, the myths, the real victims, and the lasting impact on society and justice during this turbulent era.  horrorstories, reddithorrorstories, scarystories, horrorstory, creepypasta, horrortales, SatanicRitualAbuse, panic, 80s, 90s, cult, truecrime, urbanlegends, abuse, controversy, mystery, darkhistory, investigation, trauma, conspiracy

All right, I'm going to warn you right now, this story is not for the faint of heart. It's disturbing, messed up, and the kind of thing that sticks in your brain long after you finish reading. So if you're expecting some light-hearted little tale about spooky campfire ghosts or silly urban legends, this ain't it. This one's dark. Like, real dark. You've probably heard of the satanic panic, right? That whole cultural phenomenon from back in the 80s and 90s when everyone, your mom, your pastor, your school principal, was convinced Satan himself was hiding behind every bush,

infecting music, TV, and games with his evil influence. It was a weird time. People thought playing dungeons and dragons would summon demons into your basement. They thought listening to a heavy metal album would make you sacrifice your cat to be Elzebub. And yeah, Marilyn Manson wasn't even safe from it later on. Parents were absolutely convinced he was saying, Satan's PR manager. Here's the thing, though, most of it. Total BS. A lot of that panic came from tabloid spinning lies,

preachers screaming about fire and brimstone, and gossip spiraling out of control. People were terrified of things they didn't understand, like video games and rock music, and they blamed the devil for everything. A kid runs away from home. Satan. A teenager gets moody and draws pentagrams in their notebook.

Satan Someone's cows stopped giving milk Obviously, Satan But, here's the part where it gets uncomfortable, Not all of it was made up. I know, I know. That sounds like I'm about to put on a tinfoil hat And scream about conspiracies, but stick with me here.

Among all the fearmongering and finger-pointing, There were real cases of something called SRA, that's satanic ritual abuse, for the uninitiated. And while it wasn't nearly as widespread as the tabloids claimed, it did happen. People suffered in ways I can barely even describe without my stomach turning. Let me give you a name, Dr. Bennett Braun. Ever heard of him? He was a psychiatrist from Chicago who, back in the early 90s, started looking into these claims.

The guy wasn't some TV personality trying to sell books or appear on talk shows. He actually dug into this stuff. By the time he was done, he'd studied over 130 cases of SRA. And the stories he uncovered. Man, they weren't just creepy, they were downright horrifying. We're talking about people who showed up in his office with scars all over their bodies. And not just random scars, some of them had words carved into their skin, profanities, and strange symbols that lined up exactly with the stories they were telling.

You know how people always say, oh, maybe they're telling. just making it up for attention. Yeah, hard to fake a word like, Satan burned into your arm when you were a kid. One case that haunts me was about two brothers. These boys weren't just traumatized, they had memories that should have been impossible for them to know. They could describe, in disturbing detail, the anatomy of a human stomach. Like, they knew exactly how the organs looked and where they were placed, as if they'd seen the inside of someone before. And the worst part. They also had this uncanny knowledge of a crematorium where they claimed the abuse happened. Every little detail, the layout of the building, the tiny nooks and crannies, where the ashes

fell, they knew it all. People tried to dismiss them. Said maybe they saw it in a movie, maybe their imaginations were running wild. But no. These were kids. They shouldn't have been able to piece together that kind of information. And these weren't isosoled. stories either. Some of Dr. Braun's patients, people who had never met each other in their lives, were able to describe each other. They talked about the same abuser, the same rituals, the same horrific acts, down to how the guy looked. And wouldn't you know it? Investigators later tracked down a man who fit their descriptions perfectly. So what exactly did these people go through? Well, brace yourself because it's rough, physical abuse, mental abuse, cannibalism, forced participation in rituals, nudity, murder, and yes, there were even rumors about snuff films.

You know, those alleged movies where real people get tortured or killed on camera for entertainment. This wasn't just random, disorganized abuse either. It was ritualistic. That's what made it so sinister. Victims spoke about ceremonies where animals, and sometimes people, were sacrificed. They described being forced to chant things they didn't understand, to wear robes, to drink blood. Some said they were locked in dark rooms for days at a time. Others talked about seeing children harmed in ways I can't even write here without feeling sick. And you want to know what's worse. This all came out during a time when the public wasn't really interested in hearing the truth. Instead of actually investigating these stories, people were too busy playing Beatles'

records backwards to look for, hidden satanic messages. Like, seriously, that's what they were focused on. A whispery Paul is dead Easter egg. Meanwhile, there were real kids being scarred for life, physically and mentally, and nobody wanted to believe them. Of course, the media it didn't help. They either ignored the credible cases or sensationalized the hell out of everything, making it impossible to separate fact from fiction. Every week there'd be some new tabloid screaming about a satanic baby-eating cult in the suburbs. And when none of it panned out, people started rolling their eyes and dismissing all of it, even the real victims, like it was some kind of mass hysteria. But here's the thing, SRA wasn't just some American urban legend.

similar cases were reported all over the world. Australia. The UK. Even Scandinavia. And while some turned out to be false or exaggerated, others left behind undeniable evidence, mutilated animals, strange symbols carved into trees,

basements with chains still bolted to the walls. Now, mix all of that with the ritualistic killings of serial killers like the Zodiac and the alphabet killer. Add in creepy stories like the exorcism of Julia, you know, that infamous case where a woman was allegedly possessed during a Catholic exorcism, and you've got a nation completely wrapped in fear. Everyone was convinced the devil was running wild in America. But instead of coming together to help victims or investigate actual crimes, society got distracted. Parents burned their kids' kiss albums. Churches held hellhouses

to scare teens straight. And politicians tried to outlaw dungeons and dragons because of apparently rolling dice was an invitation to hell. Meanwhile, the real evil. It kept on hiding in the shadows, grinning. Think about it, what if even half of those stories were true? What if there really were small groups of twisted people out there, performing rituals in the dead of night, praying on the vulnerable and leaving scars, both literal and emotional, on their victims? It's not as far-fetched as we'd like to believe. History is full of people doing unspeakable things in the name of power, belief, or simply because they enjoyed it. And that's the part that keeps me up at night. Not the tabloids. Not the panic. But the fact that for every false

claim, there might have been a real one buried beneath the noise, ignored because it was too inconvenient or too horrifying to accept. So yeah, you can laugh about the satanic panic now. You can joke about how your mom thought Pokemon was demonic and burned your Nirvana CDs. But don't forget that, beneath all the overblown hysteria and moral crusades, there were real victims, people who are still living with the trauma of what happened to them. And maybe the scariest part. Those people, the ones who hurt them, they never really went away. They just got better at hiding.

The end.