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Sent: Monday, July 31, 2000 2:02 AM
Subject: Satanic Ritual Abuse
Satanic Ritual Abuse:
The Evidence Surface
YOU DON�T HAVE TO PLAY ME BACKWARDS...
SATANIC RITUAL ABUSE: THE EVIDENCE
SURFACES
Daniel Ryder, CCDC, LSW
The following lyrics are from a song
about Satanic ritual abuse off Joan Baez�s latest album, Play Me Backwards.
Incidentally, it�s the lead song.
"You don�t have to play me backwards
To get the meaning of my
verse.
You don�t have to die and go to hel
l To feel the devil�s
curse."
It'�s not only the "devil�s curse" survivors of Satanic ritual abuse have
been feeling of late. They have also been feeling the curse of a pronounced
societal backlash. In some circles now, the stories of some of the most heinous
abuse imaginable - sexual abuse, brainwashing, torture, murder/sacrifice - are
being labeled as "patently false." Therapists are being accused of planting
these memories. And, for instance, the FBI has come out debunking the
phenomenon, saying, unequivocally, there is no tangible evidence organized
Satanic ritual abuse exists at all.
However, my research shows it does exist. And indications are we are only
seeing the tip of the iceberg of a social phenomenon that, when totally exposed,
will rock the core of societal beliefs.
For the last four years, I have crises-crossed the country interviewing cult
researchers, ritual crime investigators, task force members, therapists,
investigative reporters, cult survivors...as part of an in-depth investigation
on the issue of Satanic ritual abuse. And, the research has yielded some
extremely eye-opening things.
The most eye-opening hasn�t been the mutilated backwoods remains of a cult
victim�s body in Massachusetts. It wasn�t the bloody pentagram carved into a
cult victim�s corpse in San Francisco. The most eye-opening, has been a widely
cited Law Enforcement Perspective report out of the FBI�s Behavioral Science
Center in Quantico, Virginia.
The report was written by supervisory special agent Kenneth Lanning. It has
gone out to law enforcement agencies around the country; and has been cited
consistently throughout the media the last several years.
The report states, in regards to "organized" Satanic ritual abuse homicide
(that is, two or more Satanic cult members conspiring to commit murder): "The
law enforcement perspective can�t ignore the lack of physical evidence (no
bodies, or even hairs, fibers, or fluids left by violent murders."
No bodies?
The following is an excerpt from a March 13, 1981, UPI article:
"Fitchburg, Mass. -- The alleged leader of a devil worship cult was found
guilty of first degree murder Friday in the ritual killing of a young Fall
River, Mass. prostitute last year. Carl Drew, 26, stood pale and
expressionless as the verdict was announced. He was immediately sentenced to
life imprisonment by superior court judge Francis W. Keating...Miss Marsden
was allegedly killed, mutilated and beheaded by Drew and two others in a
blood-soaked night time ritual in a wooded area because she wanted to leave
the cult."
In 1993, House Bill 1689 was introduced in the Massachusetts Legislature. It
is a bill prohibiting "Certain Ritualistic Acts." Some of these acts include:
ritual mutilation, dismemberment, torture, the sacrifice of animals, humans...(A
similar bill was passed in Idaho in 1990).
Also, in the 1993 Avon Books release: Raising Hell, author/investigative
reporter Michael Newton writes, "While some cult apologists may be forgiven
their ignorance of current events, (FBI) Agent Lanning -- with access to
nationwide police files -- should know better. As this volume amply
demonstrates, cult related killers stand convicted of murder in 23 states and at
least nine foreign countries. Numerous other occultists are now serving time for
practicing their "faith" through acts of arson, rape, assault, cruelty to
animals, and similar crimes."
The organization, Looking Up, founded initially as a nationwide
support/referral program for incest survivors, serves approximately 15,000
people a year, 40% of whom now are reporting they are dealing with ritualistic
or cult related abuse. According to a spokesperson for JUSTUS Unlimited in
Denver, a non-profit referral and resource center, they are currently receiving
more than 7,000 Satanic ritual abuse related calls a year. (What�s more, they
are also hearing from all over the world: Australia, New Zealand, England, The
Netherlands, Germany, Israel, Canada...)
Given the tangible evidence now surfacing, and given the volume of people
reporting Satanic cult related abuse, it would seem curious the FBI would come
out with such a definitive stance attempting to discredit the increasing
phenomenon. Of course, then again, it was the same FBI that for more than the
first half of this century consistently said there was no evidence whatsoever of
another type of "organized" criminal activity. That is -- Mafia related crime.
Actually, Satanic cults are somewhat similar to Mafia crime families.
There is, for instance, extreme secrecy through code of silence programming.
This is usually initiated with the signing of a "blood" contract. Wendell
Amstutz, author of Satanism in America, said these contracts are generally
signed in the initiate�s own blood. The contract, said Amstutz, usually demands
life-long obedience. And breaking it means death.
And that'�s exactly what it meant for the four California Satanic cult
defectors one fateful night in 1990. The defectors were tracked to an apartment
on, of all places, Elm Street in the small town of Salida.
The defectors were beaten and stabbed. Finally, they were decapitated.
What was left behind rivaled the carnage of the Tate-LaBianca crime scene.
The trail led back to five Satanic cult members, and the story began to
unfold...
The five who were indicted were part of a 55-member Satanic cult that was
operating out of a compound in Salida. Cult members stretched across a
three-county are, with a number of them holed-up in a Salida compound (homes and
trailers), somewhat similar to Waco�s Branch Davidian complex. Except for one
thing: What was going on in the Salida compound for the most part made what was
going on in Waco seem like a Disney production.
Randy Cerny, Director of the Northern Chapter of California�s Ritual Crime
Investigator�s Association, had followed the cult closely. And after the
indictments, he interviewed several of the cult members and reviewed extensive
diaries they�d kept.
He said the cult worshipped Satan, followed the teachings of renowned
Satanist Aleister Crowley, engaged in sexual abuse, ritual torture including
electric shock, child abuse, murder...In other words, many of the same things
Satanic ritual abuse survivors have been consistently reporting.
Cerny also said it was reported cult members were from all walks of life.
This even included a dentist, a minister, and a woman enrolled in a law
enforcement class at a local community college. (Satanic cult members aren�t, by
any means, always tattooed teen bikers who have listened to one too many
Metallica albums, Often, Satanic ritual abuse survivors report their cult
perpetrators are respected members of the community: doctors, law enforcement
officials, PTA members, little league coaches...This all, apparently, is part of
the facade.)
One of the Matomoros cult members responsible for some of the 13 grisly
murder/sacrifices in Mexico a few years back, was majoring in law enforcement at
Texas Southmost College at the time she was arrested.
"The California cult was a very secretive, close-knit, sophisticated group,"
said Cerny.
The Satanic cult was run under the iron fist of charismatic leader, high
priest, Gerald Cruz. And, as David Koresh had done in Waco, Cruz used sleep
deprivation, brainwashing, torture...to keep members in line. At a trial in
Oakland in December, 1992, cult expert and psychologist, Daniel Goldstine, would
characterize Cruz as "evil and sadistic."
The jury thought so too. Cruz and two other cult members were sentenced to
death for the murders. Two other cult members got life. "Now let�s project this
20 to 25 years down the road," Cerny continued. "Say someone walks into a police
department or therapist�s office and says, �I�m starting to have memories that
my dad was a leader of this Satanic cult in California. And they would brainwash
people, torture them with electric shock, sexually abuse me, sacrifice animals,
kill people...� "
Cerny wondered if that would all be passed off as a "false memory."
Nationally syndicated columnist Molly Ivins might well have passed it off as
just that. In a May, 1994, column, Ms. Ivins wrote: "...social workers who deal
with child abuse have nightmares about the people who come up with patently
false recovered memories of Satanic ritual abuse."
Monika Beerle seemed to be nobody�s "false recovered memory." The following
is a February 18, 1992, Newsday article excerpt:
New York -- Members of a cult here killed ballerina Monika Beerle
in August, 1989, and then dismembered her and fed her flesh to the homeless as
part of a Satanic ritual, law enforcement sources said yesterday after
arresting a cult member in connection with the slaying. "The public isn�t
generating enough momentum to get police mobilized around this (Satanic ritual
abuse) issue at this point," explained Akron, Ohio Police Captain Jerry Foys.
And John Hunt, Sherman, Texas ritual crime investigator says that "because of
the FBI report, the stigma around Satanism and other factors have made it hard
to get internal police department support in following up on the ritual
aspects of a crime."
Hunt and Foys both said they believe the Satanic ritual abuse is quite
widespread -- and extremely dangerous.
It definitely proved dangerous for an alcoholic drifter known only as John
Doe No. 60, whose body was found in San Francisco. According to a May 6, 1988,
San Francisco Chronicle article:
"The victim had a pentagram carved into his chest, lash marks across his
buttocks, a stab wound to his neck, wax in his right eye and hair, and a
sliced lip. The naked body was virtually drained of blood."
Clifford St. Joseph, 46, was eventually convicted and
sentenced to 34 years to life for the killing.
In his book, Raising Hell, Michael Newton writes when police came to
St. Joseph�s apartment nine days after the body was found, they found St. Joseph
dressed in a black robe, companion Michael Bork, 26, stripped to the waist, his
face daubed with cosmetics, and another man, Edward Spela, 26, passed out from
drugs. In the middle of the room was a 19-year old man, who was laying on the
floor, handcuffed and surrounded by candles.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle:
"Investigators said that St. Joseph appeared to be part of a Satanic cult
that involved men of means in San Francisco�s gay community."
Again, John Doe No. 60�s mutilated body was real. It was nobody�s false
memory.
A term popular culture has latched onto tightly in the last couple of years
is the very clinical sounding, false memory syndrome. It is a term coined by the
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania based False Memory Syndrome Foundation (FMSF), which
is an advocacy group for people whose children have accused them of either
sexual abuse and/or Satanic ritual abuse.
Despite its scientific sounding title, there is actually no such thing as a
clinically acknowledged category for "false memory syndrome," reports Judith
Herman, an associate clinical professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School,
and author of the book, Trauma and Recovery. "The very name FMSF is prejudicial
and misleading," said Dr. Herman. "There is no such syndrome, and we have no
evidence reported memories are false. We only know they are disputed."
Many professionals dealing with Satanic ritual abuse believe we are seeing
the beginnings of a phenomenon that might well mushroom into staggering
proportions. And they draw a parallel to the amazing evolution of the sexual
abuse field.
"As recently as the 1970s," said Herman, "rape was considered rare, and
incest was regarded as a universal taboo. Less than twenty years ago, for
example, the Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry estimated the prevalence of
all forms of incest at one case per million population. And popular and
professional literature [as in the case with SRA survivors now] routinely
questioned the character of victims, and disparaged the credibility of women who
made claims of assault. Today, however, widespread sexual abuse/incest has been
extensively documented."
In the case of false memory allegations, perhaps we should be spending a bit
more time actually questioning the character of some of those accusing the
"alleged" victims of confabulation. And perhaps we should start at the False
Memory Syndrome Foundation itself.
The following is an excerpt from a February 29, 1992, FMSF Newsletter where
the organization claims it is:
"...not in the business of representing pedophiles...We are a
good-looking bunch of people: graying hair, well-dressed, healthy,
smiling...Just about every person is someone you would likely find interesting
and want to count as a friend."
Joan Baez's song goes on:
Let the night begin
There�s a pop of skin
And a sudden rush
of scarlet
There�s a little boy riding on a
goat�s head
And a little
girl playing the harlot
It�s a sacrifice in an empty church
Sweet little
baby Rose...
A Fall 1989 Cleveland Plain Dealer article
excerpt reads:
Three Norwalk area residents charged with opening two graves,
beheading the corpses and stealing the skulls, were part of a cult that had
recently gotten instructions on how to sacrifice babies to Satan, Norwalk
police said yesterday. "We�re taking this very seriously," he [Police Chief
Gary Dewalt] said."
Maybe society should take the police chief's lead, in a lot of different
areas regarding this problem. For one, many youth are bombarded with Satanic
symbols, images, lyrics...One area where it is probably the most prevalent is in
the heavy/black metal music scene. For instance, the heavy metal band Venom
sings:
"Candles glowing, altars burn
Virgin�s death is needed ther
Sacrifice
to Lucifer my master
Bring the chalice, raise the knife
Welcome to my
sacrifice..."
Just a passing phase kids go through? Just lyrics?
May 5, 1993 -- Three eight year old boys were riding their bikes down a
country road in West Memphis, Arkansas. Suddenly they were forced off the road
and horribly killed. One of the suspects accused in the murders, Jessie Lloyd
Miskelly, Jr., 17 according to wire service reports, told police that the
murders were tied to a teen Satanic cult sacrifice. "Miskelly said the
children were lured into a wooded are of West Memphis known as Robin Hood
Park, choked until they were unconscious, then brutalized in various ways --
including rape..."
According to a March 8, 1994 article on the trial appearing in the West
Memphis The Commercial Appeal: "A witness last week told him Baldwin (one of the
accused) told him he sucked the blood from one victim after he mutilated him."
Diaries indicated the Satanic cult in Salida, California, followed the
teachings of renowned Satanist Aleister Crowley. In his book, Magick in Theory
and Practice, Crowley wrote, "The blood is the life...any living thing is the
storehouse of energy...at the death of the animal this energy is liberated
suddenly. The animal should therefore be killed within the Circle, or Triangle,
so that it�s energy cannot escape...For the highest spiritual working one must
accordingly choose that victim which the greatest and purest force. A male child
of perfect innocence is the most satisfactory and suitable victim."
There'�s a good bet that seven year old Yvando Caetano, like most seven year
olds, was living a life in "perfect innocence" in the small town of Guaratuba,
Brazil. This may well have been the precipitating factor in his death. According
to a July 28, 1992, Cable News Network (CNN) report/transcript, Yvando was found
in a shallow grave. His arms and legs had been dismembered, his internal organs
cut out. Ritual implements used during the ceremony were also found near the
body.
Investigator Jose Moscic Favetti said police believed the mayor�s wife and
daughter were involved with a Satanic cult, and that the wife had paid five cult
members to sacrifice Yvando to Satan -- in return for the mayor having a good
political year.
"The stories (about different aspects of cult rituals) are very much the
same, whether it�s someone reporting about a ceremony in Melbourne, Australia,
Vermont, Utah..." said Dr. Judianne Densen-Gerber. "This leads me to believe,
not only are the cults all over, but because of the similarities, many are also
networked."
Dr. Densen-Gerber is a New York Psychiatrist who has treated a number of SRA
survivors since 1980. She also has a law degree, and is the founder of PACT
(Protect America�s Children Today).
Are American children in danger because of these Satanic cults? Well, the
small town in Brazil might provide some clues. Besides the death of 7-year old
Yvando in July, 10 other children had come up missing in Guarutuba since January
of that year.
According to Brandon Perez, initial Development Director of the National
Missing Children�s Center, based in Houston, Texas, there are currently some
4000,000 abductions a year in the United States of which, said Perez, almost 50%
of the children are never found. Perez added that many of these cases are not
adequately tracked.
In his book, The Franklin Cover-up: Child Abuse, Satanism and Murder in
Nebraska, author and former Nebraska State Senator John DeCamp interviewed
28 year veteran FBI agent Ted Gunderson. Since his retirement from the FBI,
Gunderson has been actively investigating reports of Satanic ritual abuse.
DeCamp writes:
"Evidence from Gunderson�s investigations has convinced him tens
of thousands of children or young people disappear from their homes each year,
and that many of them are ritualistically sacrificed...nobody knows the true
figure because the FBI doesn�t keep count. Gunderson observes, �The FBI has an
accurate count on the number of automobiles stolen every year. It knows the
number of homicides, rapes, and robberies, but the FBI has no idea of the
number of children who disappear every year. They simply do not ask for the
statistics.� Gunderson goes onto say he believes they don�t ask for the
statistics, simply, because they don�t want to see them. "They would be
confronted with an instant public outcry for action, because the figures would
show a major social problem that would demand action.�"
And it�s not just the tragedy of the missing children that come up dead as a
result of this savage cult abuse -- there are many children that are "walking
wounded."
Pamela Hudson, LCSW, a child therapist with a county health outpatient
department in northern California began to identify the symptoms of SRA in
several children who had been referred to her in 1985. What was to follow was a
most frightening phenomenon. Throughout the remainder of 1985 and into 1986,
twenty-four children, all from the same day care center, all exhibiting varying
degrees of ritual abuse symptoms, were brought to her by concerned parents.
(What was even more amazing, said Hudson, was that the cases came to her
individually, without the parents initially talking among each other.)
Some of the symptoms included frequent night terrors, night sweats, extreme
separation anxiety, uncontrolled vomiting, 3,4, and 5 year olds acting out
sexually in bizarre, sadistic manners...all indicators of significant trauma. As
Hudson continued to work with the children, the Satanic ritual abuse stories
started to surface: the children reported being locked in cages, buried for
short periods in coffins, injected with drugs, defecated and urinated on,
sexually abused, forced to watch animal and human sacrifice...
Hudson took the information to authorities, but the District Attorney�s
office decided not to prosecute. A disappointed Hudson said she attributes the
decision to the lack of physical evidence, and the children being perceived as
too young, and also considered too emotionally traumatized for the stories to
appear credible to a jury.
However, several years later, a jury in Austin, Texas, did find children�s
stories of sexual and Satanic ritual abuse credible enough to put Fran�s Day
Care directors, Fran and Dan Keller, in prison for extended sentences. (The
Kellers aren�t eligible for parole until 2004.)
As with the case in California, the children talked of extreme forms of
abuse: being threatened with guns, being buried alive, forced to make
pornographic movies, watch an infant sacrifice...
In addition, my research has also turned up similar day care and school SRA
cases in Florida, several more in California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and in
Christchurch, New Zealand.
The longest trial in American history, California�s McMartin Day School case,
was one of the first day care center cases to claim Satanic ritual abuse. There
were some 500 separate reports filed at the Manhattan Beach Police Department in
connection with the case. The children�s stories matched those of other cases
cited. However, there was an additional component to the McMartin case. The
children consistently talked of being abused in an underground tunnel below the
day care center.
A highly qualified archaeologist, hired by the children�s families, talked
about a series of what he says were highly questionable incidents in the search
for the elusive tunnels.
Archeologist Gary Stickle, Ph.D., has worked extensively in the United States
and in Europe, including heading the largest underwater archeological sonar
survey ever conducted in Europe. In addition, he has been a consultant to Lucas
Films in the development of the Indiana Jones movie series. He has also been
professor of Archeology at the University of California at Long Beach. Stickle
said initially a private investigator went to the day care center site and did
some preliminary informal digging. It is reported, said Stickle, that this
investigator found some rabbit bones in the soil. (The children talked about
rabbits being sacrificed.) However, the day before he was to testify, the
private investigator was found dead from a gun shot wound. It was determined to
be a suicide. But Stickle said that determination was questioned by more than a
few people, given the timing. Eventually, said Stickle, the prosecution hired an
archeological firm that dug seven pits clustered outside of the building. (This
was curious, said Stickle, because the children were reporting the abuse had
gone on in tunnels below the building.) Stickle said a remote sensing device was
also used at the time, but it was reported that no tunnels were found. That was
1985.
The lack of a tunnel damaged the credibility of the children�s stories
tremendously.
Stickle�s firm was hired by the parents in 1990. Using a sophisticated ground
penetrating radar, Stickle said a tunnel was found, right where some of the
children had told his staff it would be.
However, even though evidence of the tunnel was found in May of 1990, while
the trial was still in progress -- the evidence was never introduced in court,
said Stickle.
"Finding such a tunnel was highly relevant (to the case)," said Stickle.
"Because it (prior lack of physical evidence of a tunnel) was a major thing used
to discredit the children."
The accused McMartin Day Care Center staff were eventually acquitted.
However, some of the McMartin parents haven�t quit fighting. A two hundred page
report on the tunnel findings has recently been released by the parents, in an
ongoing effort to keep the case before the public.
As with these children, it is becoming more and more apparent that there are
many adult SRA walking wounded as well. As a result of the trauma, these are
people often afflicted with things like severe paranoia, schizophrenia, multiple
personalities. They are people almost off the scales in terms of
addictions/compulsions, depression, self-mutilating behavior...
However, an advancing therapeutic field has developed highly sophisticated
techniques to help survivors. And the prognosis for recovery is often good.
In addition, parts of society are also rallying around these survivors. The
County Commission for Women has a Ritual Abuse Task Force in Los Angeles; there
is a state-wide Minnesota Awareness of Ritual Abuse group; Jireh, headquartered
in Arlington, Texas, is a national program to create safe-houses for cult
survivors breaking away; The International Council on Cultism and Ritual Trauma,
in Richardson, Texas, ; and a number of cult survivor resource and referral
organizations; ritual abuse twelve-step programs are evolving.
As much as we don�t want to believe it as a society -- Satanic ritual abuse
is a reality. And, as was done by the parents in the McMartin Day Care Center
case, we need to be rolling up our sleeves and digging deeper to get at the
whole truth.
May 25, 1994 was designated National Missing Children�s Day. Those postcards
that come to our homes so very often don�t represent anybody�s "false memories."
Those are real children, with real fates.
Daniel Ryder, CCDC, LSW, an investigative journalist and a counselor, is the
author of Breaking the Circle of Satanic Ritual Abuse. The above article is
based on material from Mr. Ryder�s newest book,/I> Cover-up of the Century
(Satanic Ritual Crime and Conspiracy).
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