Ah yes, the Satanic Panic of the 80s and 90s. Ruined the childhood of a lot of kids because parents (usually the mother) totally bought into all of it and believed there were roaming bans of Satanists running amok.

Couldn't play outside without an adult supervising.
Couldn't ride your bike anywhere, even with friends.
Had to always be home before dark, even if you were just at a friend's house, because it was always possible the friend's parents were Satanists.
Dogs had to be brought in at night because they surely would have disappeared for sacrifice.
Halloween was completely toast. No going trick or treating, no giving our candy, or if something was given out, it was Bible tracts.
Ronald Clark O'Bryan didn't help either because after what he did, parents always assumed all candy was poisoned or tampered with. The irony is the hysteria over that is probably why people have tampered with candy over the years.

Hundreds if not thousands of people had their lives destroyed by this moral panic, many of them due to the daycare sexual abuse hysteria that was part of the Satanist panic. Yes, a few actual pedophiles were found during all of the investigations (to be expected because shake enough trees, something bad will eventually fall out), but they were not part of any group or organized community.

As in this case, it was shown that it was easy to get kids to say whatever the investigator wanted them to say, given enough time and prodding. Kids are eager to please adults, so it is not hard to manipulate them into saying something that isn't true. Sadly, most of those who were guilty of malicious prosecution never faced punishment for their actions.

What was amazing is just how quickly it spread across the country in the age where the most common long distance communication was a letter, and long distance phone calls were not as common due to cost. There was no Internet, social media, newsgroups, or message boards to spread it.

In Melvin Quinney's case, the saying "justice delayed is justice denied" is absolutely correct.

Quote:

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The accusation came during a period when "Satanic panic" conspiracies were heard across the country, creating a widespread belief that children were being sexually abused, tortured and killed at the hands of devil worshipers.
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In his testimony last summer, Parker said he and his siblings were all under 10 when their parents divorced in 1990. It was then that their mother contacted authorities and alleged that her husband was a cult leader who committed multiple killings as part of Satanic rituals.

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I remember all these crazy stories coming out during the late 80's & early 90's. I was too young and inexperienced to understand how people will play along with false narratives to further their own interests. It was almost like the Salem witch trials.

I was too young to really remember the satanic panic but really got interested into looking into it all after The West Mephis Three were released back in 2011. Even cases where no one went to jail but had to fight in long expensive trials like the california preschool are so insane to think about. The investigators and the media wanted darker stories with more gore and sex and insane rituals and people just fell right into the phenomenon.

This stuff was rampant, and it ruined A LOT of lives

Jerkin_my_durkin said:

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I was too young to really remember the satanic panic but really got interested into looking into it all after The West Mephis Three were released back in 2011. Even cases where no one went to jail but had to fight in long expensive trials like the california preschool are so insane to think about. The investigators and the media wanted darker stories with more gore and sex and insane rituals and people just fell right into the phenomenon.

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McMartin Daycare

Wenatchee

there were many more

I remember that a 12-year-old girl was abducted in Stamford, Texas while she was walking to a convenience store. Her remains were found a couple of years afterwards by some hunters. No one was ever charged for her murder. This caused a major scare in all the small cities in west Texas, and Satanists were the major suspects.

Ghost of Andrew Eaton said:

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Moral panics are usually a joke. I hope everyone remembers that.

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Shhhh......

This one?

Texas Cold Case: Who Killed Cortney Clayton? The 7-year-old was abducted less than a block from her home.

Some people latch onto a movement to make a profit.
This guy did.
So did Geraldo.

Is that who Nancy called to cleanse her house after Hammer Gate?

I know someone that works for Bob Larson. They are complete believers. Crazy stuff and sad.

Publishers made videos designed to teach LEOs about "Satanic Cults." Including this one.



Redlettermedia reviewed it as part of their "Wheel of the Worst" series. Great episode.

Stories like this are why I'm anti death penalty.

Rapier108 said:

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Ah yes, the Satanic Panic of the 80s and 90s. Ruined the childhood of a lot of kids because parents (usually the mother) totally bought into all of it and believed there were roaming bans of Satanists running amok.

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It's why my friend's parents wouldn't let him pay Dragon Warrior (NES game). It sounded too much like Dungeons and Dragons, and of course that's what turns your kids into devil worshipers.

The Fife said:

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Rapier108 said:

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Ah yes, the Satanic Panic of the 80s and 90s. Ruined the childhood of a lot of kids because parents (usually the mother) totally bought into all of it and believed there were roaming bans of Satanists running amok.

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It's why my friend's parents wouldn't let him pay Dragon Warrior (NES game). It sounded too much like Dungeons and Dragons, and of course that's what turns your kids into devil worshipers.

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Don't forget He-Man. He-Man was blasphemous and evil because he was a pagan stand-in for Christ. Made no sense to me then and still doesn't.

I think it's kind of funny that the same people who thought Harry Potter was promoting satanic pagan wizardry to lead children to witchcraft 20 years ago now don't have a problem with it because JK Rowling is anti-woke. People are weird.

TxTarpon said:

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The "satanic panic" era is a terrible stain upon our legal system.
Justice in this case was slow, but finally arrived.


[url=https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/san-antonio-man-caught-in-satanic-panic-gets-indecency-conviction-overturned/ar-AA17zY1I?ocid=entnewsntp&pc=U531&cvid=aee8626ffa2b4381af3e54b765762fc9][/url]

Quote:

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San Antonio man caught in 'Satanic panic' gets indecency conviction overturned
Because his son recanted testimony against him, a San Antonio man has been exonerated 32 years after he was found guilty of indecency with a child and sent to prison.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals this week threw out the conviction of Melvin George Quinney Jr., 74, and ruled he was innocent of the charge.
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Mike Ware, executive director of The Innocence Project of Texas, said the appeals court decision on Wednesday "marks an end to this more than 30-year-long injustice."

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From 1999 to the present this man had to register as a sex offender.

Quote:

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Quinney was 43 in 1991 when he was arrested and charged with indecency with a child, accused by John, then 10.

The father pleaded not guilty, watched his son (Parker) testify against him at trial, and was convicted, sentenced to 20 years in prison. He was released for good behavior in 1999 after serving eight years and completed his parole in 2011.

Last summer, Parker said he was told and believed stories that his father led a Satanic cult that abused and tortured children and animals, and kidnapped and killed hitchhikers. He told his story at an evidentiary hearing conducted in San Antonio by Criminal Magistrate Judge Andrew W. Carruthers.
--------------------
The accusation came during a period when "Satanic panic" conspiracies were heard across the country, creating a widespread belief that children were being sexually abused, tortured and killed at the hands of devil worshipers.
---------------------
In his testimony last summer, Parker said he and his siblings were all under 10 when their parents divorced in 1990. It was then that their mother contacted authorities and alleged that her husband was a cult leader who committed multiple killings as part of Satanic rituals.

Eventually, the children were split up by Texas Child Protective Services and placed in foster care, he said. Parker told the court that agency caseworkers and therapists questioned him until he provided the answers they sought. "If I told them stories the crazier, the darker the story, the more they liked it," Parker said in testimony last June.

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He should have made up stories about a dystopian future where Drag Queens read stories to kids.

Quote:

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Now that Quinney's conviction has been overturned, a future proceeding to expunge his record can be held, Ware said via text message.

Quinney said he looks forward to proceedings to remove him from the state's sex offender registry, and possible compensation from the state for the wrongful conviction, so he can move to Dallas to be closer to his children and grandchildren.

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I really wish he could milk all the cash from the evil therapists, DA's and cops involved in this BS.

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Unfortunately, this kind of thing will likely come back around. People will get all worked up about significantly few but much publicized incidences, and if the current state of America is at a point where people are easily scared into panic, it will suddenly become something that is perceived rampant across the U.S. Then que the torches and pitchforks...due process be damned. Luckily...all is well in the current climate.

flakrat said:

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Is that who Nancy called to cleanse her house after Hammer Gate?

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I laughed well with that one!

Great finds there!!

He would do over the phone exorcisms and play them over the radio.

Rapier108 said:

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Ah yes, the Satanic Panic of the 80s and 90s. Ruined the childhood of a lot of kids because parents (usually the mother) totally bought into all of it and believed there were roaming bans of Satanists running amok.

Couldn't play outside without an adult supervising.
Couldn't ride your bike anywhere, even with friends.
Had to always be home before dark, even if you were just at a friend's house, because it was always possible the friend's parents were Satanists.
Dogs had to be brought in at night because they surely would have disappeared for sacrifice.
Halloween was completely toast. No going trick or treating, no giving our candy, or if something was given out, it was Bible tracts.
Ronald Clark O'Bryan didn't help either because after what he did, parents always assumed all candy was poisoned or tampered with. The irony is the hysteria over that is probably why people have tampered with candy over the years.

Hundreds if not thousands of people had their lives destroyed by this moral panic, many of them due to the daycare sexual abuse hysteria that was part of the Satanist panic. Yes, a few actual pedophiles were found during all of the investigations (to be expected because shake enough trees, something bad will eventually fall out), but they were not part of any group or organized community.

As in this case, it was shown that it was easy to get kids to say whatever the investigator wanted them to say, given enough time and prodding. Kids are eager to please adults, so it is not hard to manipulate them into saying something that isn't true. Sadly, most of those who were guilty of malicious prosecution never faced punishment for their actions.

What was amazing is just how quickly it spread across the country in the age where the most common long distance communication was a letter, and long distance phone calls were not as common due to cost. There was no Internet, social media, newsgroups, or message boards to spread it.

In Melvin Quinney's case, the saying "justice delayed is justice denied" is absolutely correct.

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I remember a book being passed around in the 8th grading letting you know what things had Satan hidden in them....Like the band Kiss, Journey, Ray Kroc (of McDonald's fame), various records played backwards, etc. It was crazy. I was into post-punk/new wave so it was a big deal but it was crazy how they could spin anything to be satanic.

TxTarpon said:

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He would do over the phone exorcisms and play them over the radio.

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The Catholic version of Ms Cleo

He is protestant but chooses a collar.

From wiki

Quote:

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By the late 1980s, in what would come to define his later ministry, Larson was often heard performing exorcisms of callers on the air. The subjects of Satanism and Satanic ritual abuse were frequent topics of discussion. Death metal performer Glen Benton of Deicide became a regular caller, as did Bob Guccione Jr., eldest son of Penthouse founder Bob Guccione and founder of the music magazine Spin. At one point during the 1980s, Guccione Jr. paid Larson to go on tour with American thrash metal band Slayer and write about it.[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Larson#cite_note-6][6][/url]

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[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Larson#cite_note-6][/url]

Ellis Wyatt said:

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Ghost of Andrew Eaton said:

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Moral panics are usually a joke. I hope everyone remembers that.

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Yeah, there's no sexual agenda being rammed down our chidlrens' throats! That's a creation of the religious right.

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I stand by what I said.

Sad. Jury should have realized the satanic crimes being committed are against children who haven't been born yet.

BluHorseShu said:

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I remember a book being passed around in the 8th grading letting you know what things had Satan hidden in them....Like the band Kiss, Journey, Ray Kroc (of McDonald's fame), various records played backwards, etc. It was crazy. I was into post-punk/new wave so it was a big deal but it was crazy how they could spin anything to be satanic.

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I remember Proctor & Gamble being accused of being tied to the church of Satan. Supposedly their logo was satanic. It was all made up BS.

TxTarpon said:

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This one?

Texas Cold Case: Who Killed Cortney Clayton? The 7-year-old was abducted less than a block from her home.

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Yes. I misremembered her age.

Weird thing is that her remains were found about 2 miles from where another murdered body was found……..a woman had hired some young men to kill her husband, and they drove his pickup truck (and his body) to the same desolate stretch of highway.

I wonder if that guy got all the jail house justice that is gleefully wished upon here against perpetrators. I've seen way too many cases like this.

Quote:

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creating a widespread belief that children were being sexually abused, tortured and killed at the hands of devil worshipers.

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