IN THIS ISSUE:
Report on the police raid of the OTO Temple in San Francisco
In depth report on Larson Satanism Symposium
Letter to the Editor
Dead Dogs in St. Louis
Review of CSER final report on Satanism And MUCH more........
KNOW YOUR RIGHTS
By Liz Mahaffey
(Ed. Note: This month's guest editorial is by Liz Mahaffey. Ms. Mahaffey has been a Wiccan for fourteen years, is a second degree priestess and a member of the Keepers of the Ancient Mysteries. She is also a mother of two, and has been a law enforcement officer for approximately seven years. She is currently with the Hall County, GA. Sheriff's office and is an investigator with the Multi Agency Narcotics Squad, a federally funded task force. We would like to thank Liz for taking the time to write this excellent article for CWR.
Attached is an article from the Berkeley OTO newsletter. (Reprinted in this issue.) I met with the lodge in Atlanta yesterday, as they were extremely concerned by the article, the treatment of their OTO members, and the possibility that Magical Lodges would become "targets" for misguided Law Enforcement Officers ... subject to "invasion" on somewhat shaky grounds. I sat down with them and discussed "probable cause" needed to be obtained for a LEGAL Search Warrant. In particular we discussed what could be, and what should not be seized in a normal drug search warrant, which was the basis for the issuance of the warrant on the Berkeley OTO Lodge.
The information available was strictly that which was contained in the newsletter. I do not know both sides, however, if the articles are correct, I would certainly cringe over some of the reported violations, such as the horrendous treatment and name calling directed at the OTO members.
In the article, the OTO author stated that the law enforcement officers came in without a search warrant, stating "they had forgotten it". This is not legal. An officer can not enter your premises, except in dire circumstances where life is endangered and where there is not ample time to obtain said warrant ( a few other exceptions apply), without a warrant. If a consent search is given, that consent can be withdrawn at any time the occupant so wishes. As far as I know, these laws apply all over the United States. They are Constitutional law!
From what I further understand, the OTO in Berkeley has a lawyer who generally represents them and will be filing a civil suit.
Do not think that you cannot challenge searches, seizures, etc. Case law is full of successful suits against unwarranted intrusions, violations of rights, etc. Acts by law enforcement officers can and must always be questioned by citizens. Law enforcement officers are sworn to protect your Constitutional rights. See that they do so!!
There is something continuously stressed in law enforcement agencies ... VICARIOUS LIABILITY. IMPROPER actions by police, if shown to be condoned, encouraged, overlooked by their superiors, or to be a fault or lack of training can result in not only that particular law enforcement officer, but the department as a whole being held civilly liable for his actions. Meaning, you can sue the officer, his supervisor, etc. right on up the line.
ANYONE who commits a crime must be prepared to answer for that crime to the proper authorities. CultWatch Response has been doing some interesting research on the seminars being promoted to and attended by law enforcement officers, and paid for by public funds, (your tax dollars). It is disastrous when members of law enforcement agencies go to Regional crime seminars and meetings and hear speakers blanket all occult groups as evil and threatening. There are many good, knowledgeable occult people out there. Very few of them are making the "occult crime circuit." Some of us, despite some of the hassles and potential problems have made ourselves "available" for questions. It might be in the best interest of law enforcement agencies to avail themselves of the offered expertise.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Dear Friends,
My name is John Walker. I'm the public relations chairman for the Denver Area Wiccan Network, and I am writing with a news item for your public relations file.
On January 10, 1990, I was scheduled to debate Texe Marrs on KBXG, a Denver local talk radio station. The host, Alan Dumas, has written several very positive articles about Wicca in two local papers, in addition to having myself and Bried Foxsong on his show on different occasions.
Mr. Dumas' time slot was changed shortly before our debate was to have taken place, and it became necessary to reschedule. Mr. Dumas' producer contacted Texe, and was told that Texe 'didn't have the time for this', and 'just wasn't interested'. No consideration was given to the idea of rescheduling, and the conversation was terminated. Fortunately, Mr. Dumas feels that we will be able to do another show sometime in the near future.
I hope that, in the future, Texe finds the courage to back up the outrageous and slanderous statements he has made about Wicca and the New Age Movement. But I wouldn't hold my breath.
Blessed Be,
John Walker
SATANISM RUMOR A "DEAD DOG"
by J. Brad Hicks
(J. Brad Hicks is founder of the Magicknet computer network triad and sysop of Wierdbase computer BBS in St. Louis, Missouri.)
(St. Louis, MagickNet) Roughly one week after the Midwinter Solstice, police in South St. Louis County found the corpses of three large dogs. They were identified as a collie/German shepherd mix; very similar to the dogs which Maury Terry linked to the Son of Sam slayings. These dogs had been killed by blows to the back of the head, then skinned literally from the tip of the nose to the toes of their paws. The final bizarre detail was that investigation revealed that feces and urine were removed from the corpses. (Of course, anyone who's read the occult crime manuals knows that animal urine and feces are used in black masses.)
In light of all of the above, it comes as no surprise that the South County area has long been a hotbed of rumors of teenage Satanism; in fact, one former member of a teen Satanic "cult" in that area is well known to the author. And of course by now the entire nation knows that the founder of the Satanic church called the Temple of Set, Dr. Michael Aquino, has moved into the South St. Louis area--less than a year before the dead animals were found.
So, here were the clues: three dogs slain roughly one week after a Satanic ritual date, then mutilated, emptied of urine and feces, and dumped; all in an area known to be heavily infested with teen, self-styled, and religious Satanists.
The culprits are obvious, right? County officials obviously thought so; within 24 hours of finding the animal corpses, Dr. Dan Knox of the St. Louis County Animal Control Department and Jeff Gibbs, field director for the Missouri Human Society announced the dogs were clearly slain in a Satanic ritual. A two-column-inch story buried deep in the St. Louis Post Dispatch for January 3rd, 1990 carried the headline, "Satanism Suspected In Killing Of Dogs."
But then a trapper who'd heard about all of the fuss called Missouri Conservation Agent Arthur Johnson. He provided all the missing details: they weren't collie/German shepherd mix dogs; they were coyotes. He had trapped, clubbed, and skinned them for their fur; all quite legally. The urine and feces are commonly used by trappers to disguise the man-scent on their traps.
The Animal Control Department and the Conservation Commission went back and checked the corpses. Sure enough, the paws, teeth, and stomach contents of the animals were incompatible with those of domesticated dogs. The animals were clearly coyotes. St. Louis Sun, the same day: "Skinned Animals Probably Coy- otes." St. Louis Post Dispatch, the next day: "Three Skinned Animals Identified As Coyotes."
If they hadn't been blinded by occult- crime conspiracy theories, which are fash- ionable in St. Louis law enforcement circles these days, the various officials might have checked their facts more care- fully BEFORE they ran to the press. As it was, they rushed into print with an accusation against the Satanic religion, winding up with egg on their faces. For- tunately, South County officials didn't have a detailed "suspect list" of Satanists, or they would have been rounded up as suspects. More fortunately, St. Louis County officials learned not to go baying and barking after every "Satanic cult" accusation, and no serious harm occurred.
LARSON SEES 3 WORLD VIEWS
(Satanism Symposium Pt. 2)
by Vicki Copeland
CWR arrived about 10 minutes late and seated ourselves in the back of the room. Bob Larson was giving the welcome speech . According to Larson, there are only 3 world views.
The first is the Judeo-Christian view that believes in a personal God and a personal devil. The second is the Secular Humanist view. Secular Humanists, according to Larson, believe that evil is the absence of good, and that the devil is an archetypical myth. Their view might be best summed up by saying that "evil is the presence of what happens when good men do nothing."
The last world view is that of the Satanist. Larson divided this group into various sub-groups.
1. Dabblers - believe that the devil is a "convenient excuse to explore curiosity."
2. Self-styled - use the devil as a rationale for antisocial behavior.
3. Generational - use the devil as a philosophical validation for ritual abuse
4. Religious - the devil is an excuse for vices.
According to Larson, "Satanism is an outlet for problems the individual is unable to cope with." He thinks the general public and Christians in specific need knowledge and tools to work with on this problem.
He says that Satan's greatest weapon is the silence of the Christian community, the law enforcement community, educators, political leaders, preachers, and teachers.
THE GREAT RAID DEBACLE
By Bill Heidrick
(this article reprinted from the Thelema Lodge Calendar with permission.)
Late at night, on September 29th, the Berkeley Police raided O.T.O. They hit Merkabah House first, entered a detached dwelling behind Merkabah House, and then went off to break up Thelema Lodge. There was a search warrant, and the objects of the search were major drugs, paraphernalia involved in drug sales and use, and records of drug dealers. One would therefore characterize this effort as a connected series of "Crack House Raids". Of course, there was no crack, no dealing and no point to the raid. I under- stand that rolling papers were taken, pipes and something identified as a "bong". The rolling papers included Drum Brand, only sold with Drum Brand Tobacco and taken from beside a partly filled can of Drum Tobacco. Several people were listed on the search warrant as residents to be given special attention, including one person who actually lives in San Fran- cisco, and yours truly, Bill Heidrick. I was listed as living at Thelema Lodge, a place I have been able to visit to teach classes about six hours a month on average. I would like to be there more often; but my home has been in San Anselmo since 1971 e.v., and Grand Lodge duties spare me little time to enjoy the many events at Thelema. Since I was not there, I had to learn all this indirectly. These are my opinions of that happened, based on accounts of the witnesses and from documents.
The raid commenced with a knocking at the Merkabah house door. A resident opened it, and seventeen police with drawn guns burst in on a Hermetics class. Our members and guests were thrown down and cuffed without further preamble. Two were released after questioning (didn't live there and weren't on the list). The others were told that they had to give urine samples then and there or face 90 days in jail. A document purporting to justify this violation of civil rights was flashed, and mention was made of a new state law no one there had heard about. Copies of the document have been recovered from the police report and related papers. Bye, 5th amendment! It was nice knowing you, 4th amendment! I should note that more than seventeen officers seemed to be present, but only seventeen names of officers appear on the police report.
All remaining in the house were charged with narcotics intoxication, pending urine test results, I suppose. A couple of hypodermic syringes were produced by an officer, alleged to have been found in a sink that had just that day been cleaned. None of the people at the house recognized the syringes, and none used intravenous drugs. Other items of a similar nature were found by the police in locations where nothing was seen before the raid. These syringes were not charged against anyone at arraignment, according to the charges I have read. Two of the people taken to the Berkeley station were released that night, one being told that the reason for his arrest had been forgotten, the other being held until it was clear that no matron was avail-able to assist in her incarceration. Six in all were charged from Merkabah house, and after the charges finished dropping at arraignment only narcotics intoxication (urine tests were not back yet) and smoking para-phernalia charges were maintained (as best I can determine). There were illegal weapons charges earlier, with the ritual daggers and swords torn from religious shrines in the house giving that dubious base. The illegal weapons charges were dropped.
Most of the officers appear-ed confused. Remarks of "why are we here?" have been reported by witnesses. The officer leading the raid and some others made themselves busy, tearing out and emptying drawers and the like. They trashed the place. A little humor was evidently not lacking, and several books on occultism were arranged in a little display on one of the beds to make a nice picture. A baby photograph was seized and described in the police list as "showing infant white male child w/ black cross across front of body." This was a photo recently sent to a friend by the mother. The black cross was a creative interpretation of the straps of the car seat shown in the photo. One officer was interested enough to offer criticism of a painting on erotic themes, but it was too large to fit in the van. Two of the people in the house were making love in a bed room, and they were taken naked from the house and thrust into the police van. A couple of O.T.O. members from Thelema Lodge went over to the site during the raid, were questioned and released.
Off the jolly crew went with their involuntary guests to visit Thelema Lodge (in Oakland, remember). There were word games and similar entertainments: "Who's got the warrant? Do you have the warrant? ... Ah' we forgot the warrant" --- a copy was found in Merkabah House a few days later, in a spot where nothing had been seen after the raid. The Thelema Lodge copy of the search warrant was also discovered several days later, crumpled up in a cat box. Since it was Rosh Hashana, seasonal anti-semitic remarks were demonstrated by the of- ficers for the edification of any prisoners who might chance to be Jewish.
On reaching Thelema Lodge, the two Thelema Lodge inhabitants who were not detained at Merkabah house were seen to drive up to park at their home. The police dragged both out of their car and hustled them into the house. The police gained entry by being admitted and by crashing in several interior and at least one exterior door. The exterior door was described as not being seriously damaged in the police report, but the frame was smashed. The rush, floor, and cuffs procedure was repeated. Two members of the O.T.O. were questioned and largely ignored. The others were given the full treatment; urine samples and the like. One of these refused the urine test, and he alone appears to have been charged with the syringes that mysteriously appeared by spontaneous generation at Thelema Lodge --- again never before seen by any of the folks who live there. One person was charged with the infraction of having less than a 1/4 ounce of marijuana.
Several rooms were trashed downstairs in a vigorous but inconsistent fashion. There was some breakage that does not appear in the police reports. It is rather difficult to understand what training led to the techniques in evidence. Photos show clothing and papers all over the place, but there seems to have been little effort to look behind the thousands of shelved books or under seat cushions and the like. Some rooms were given a minimal look; others ended up like an earthquake in a thrift shop.
The situation upstairs took some additional turns. Our Temple was broken up and generally desecrated, making it difficult for the Gnostic Mass to be held two days later. One of the members is a student of pyrotechnics (safe and sane style fireworks). He had a room rented upstairs for storage of his materials,colorants, tubes and chemicals --- all obtained legally. This presented a new option to the officers. A call was made to the judge who issued the original search warrant, and a verbal extension was given to include bomb making supplies. We do have a list of the chemicals and "Fire Works Components" (yes, the police did identify the components as fire works), including at least two substances that cannot exist. Possibly that sort of error can be excused by misreading bottle labels, but really --- "flowers of sodium"! The name of the owner of the fire-works chemicals was identified by the police and written into the report. His name was also on the door to the room. It would appear, however, that this brother was not in the target list. The two brothers who had been pulled out of a car in front of the house were charged with possession of these materials. The actual owner of the materials was identified by the police, was in the house and was not charged. These two brothers therefore have felony charges for possession of materials not in their own rooms and known to be the property of a person released without arrest. Naturally we are glad that our brother was not charged for his legally owned property, but it is a bit much to see others charged who had nothing to do with the material. Chemicals were spilled and not cleaned up during the raid.
There is no doubt in my mind that the officer in charge knew he was visiting desecration on a church. He characterized the Temple as "temple" in his report. He knew that the place was known as "Thelema Lodge", and he used the term of opprobrium "cult" to describe the group. I really must take exception to that term "cult". We have been in existence for more than eighty years, have more than 1500 members in 26 countries, and the word "cult" does not appear on our letters of religious tax exemption from the Federal Government and the State of California. I don't recall our being called a "cult" in the case we brought and won in the IXth District Federal Court in 1985 e.v., and our religious status was noted in that decision. The discriminatory language got worse.
When the six arrested at Thelema Lodge were brought with the six from Merkabah House over to the Berkeley Jail, it became immediately apparent that religious persecution was the name of the new game. Our members were called "devil worshipers" consistently by the jailers. These remarks were spread beyond the jail. Abusive language appears to have been used in an attempt to prejudice. There are Satanists in the world, but for an officer to use the language "devil worshiper" to character-ize the religion of a person in custody is in no way different from an officer calling civil rights marchers "niggers". This language is used to dehumanize and to deny due process. It has no place in public, let alone on the lips of arresting officers and jailers. O.T.O. has it's own religion, and does not give place for the Christian "Devil" to exist outside metaphor. Quite frankly, this "devil worshipper" tag is not even ethical if applied to real Satanists of education much beyond grammar school. I have met several over the years, and most could not be said to worship the "Devil". For non-Christians, Satan is more often the symbolic hero of John Milton's "Paradise Lost" than a foolish mental disorder with a pitch-fork.
In jail our members and friends were subjected to the verbal abuse already mentioned, but there were other things. No one had been read their rights, and only after the arrest papers became accessible did anyone learn of a very fine print statement of civil rights on a paper that had been signed under pressure without time for reading. Ordinary requests made by prisoners were honored by the jailers, but not identical humanitarian requests made by our folk. One of our people had suffered an injury when he was allowed to tumble down stairs during the raid. He had lost sensation in his right arm, and was experiencing an increasing loss of motor function. His requests for medical examination were refused to his face. With persistence, he was finally heard by an officer from another part of the building. When the matter was brought to the attention of a judge, this brother was immediately released on "OR" (own recognizance). This was on the third day of his incarceration, and he had been denied his first phone call for about 60 hours.
Arraignments were held Monday and Tuesday, with everybody still in custody being released on "OR" following arraignment. Most charges had been dropped, and further court appearances are scheduled later this month.
At this writing the homes are still in great disarray, but enough clean-up has taken place to discover over $380 missing from Merkabah House and almost $500 missing from Thelema Lodge. That's rent money, personal cash and temple furbishment funds. Some of it may have been lost in the street during hasty searches, but there is no explanation for most of it vanishing from boxes, drawers and the like. Also missing are initiation reports plainly marked the property of Grand Lodge (with address!) and being readied for forward.
While I sat typing this account, a call came in. The affidavit that led to issuance of the search warrant had surfaced. This entire raid was based on the verbal assertions of one individual, with the complicity of another. I will restrain myself from describing the mental and moral qualities of that person. Suffice it to say that the lurid details offered to the ear of the officer were so absurd that I cannot imagine anyone crediting them for a moment. I was accused of conducting something unfathomable called "a black baptism" in the yard behind Thelema Lodge. Preposterous nonsense about minors, drugs, and the like abounded in the document. The officer entered Merkabah house a few days before, posing as a plumber. He wandered about the rooms trying to "smell" amphetamines. He had to be instructed before entry on how to pour a can of cleaner in a drain and how to soap a gas line joint. When he was asked to snake a blockage, he had no answer. For heaven's sake! Education in the public schools is a disaster, but ...! I would also like to know why Oakland PD appears not to have been contacted about the Thelema Lodge address. It seems only natural that Berkeley PD would consult Oakland PD before doing Elliot Ness impressions in Oakland. What would have happened if someone in the house had called 911 before identifying the intruders?
I can't help wondering what impact the big cocaine seizure in southern California and the Night Stalker trial sentencing may have had on this decision to go so far on so little. It's too bad the news about the Oklahoma sheriff didn't attract as much attention. That guy is on trial for allegedly trying to kidnap a suspected drug dealer out of Texas to drag back to Oklahoma for torture with a hot curling iron. Could it be that the admitted drug problems in this country have induced hysteria? Has the fundamentalist hate literature that has been flooding police agencies and service magazines actually been believed? Some of that trash lists the Star of David, the Star and Crescent of Islam, the Peace Sign, the Pentagram from the American Flag and the reverse of the Great Seal of the United States as "Satanic Devices." Several years ago I wrote a piece on the revival of "The Blood Libel"; this blithering nonsense is full of it.
By all accounts, most of the officers drawn into this exercise were reasonable and professional individuals. It seems to me that only a few of the officers were responsible for abuses, although those were very serious indeed. I wasn't there. All I have to go on is what the officer wrote in his reports and what the witnesses said. Pray to the deities you still are allowed that you can continue to say the same.
UPDATE:
Owing to the intervention of a 7 point earth quake and delays in getting attorneys, the criminal charges against our brothers and sisters have dragged on a bit. Of the twelve charged, four have had all charges dismissed, including all felony charges. The urine tests have indeed returned negative. The fireworks materials were determined to be "insufficient evidence" on the brothers accused. That leaves eight people with misdemeanors or infractions still pending. The pre-trial dates have been moved for these folks twice now, but an informed source at the district attorney's office has stated that all remaining charges are expected to be dropped later this month.
Now that matters have quieted down somewhat, a few details need to be corrected from last month's article. The couple described as being taken naked from Merkabah house were in fact taken from Thelema Lodge, and their genitals were covered even if nothing else was. The baby photograph did not in fact show car seat straps, but a decorative T-shirt. There are conflicting accounts on how many were not taken in from each address, ranging from two to four. Other than those minor corrections, the account stands substantially correct. Other details have surfaced. Several people were battered by the officers, variously kicked in the head and ribs. Arm, wrist and other injuries were also reported. Medical attention proved necessary in at least one instance for a back injury. Details of verbal assaults and intimidations will be held for a civil case.
The officer leading the raid displayed some confusion about the syringes he alleged to have found at Merkabah house. After our people expressed surprise over seeing these objects for the first time, the officer remarked that he had found them in a drawer in the bathroom. On being told that there were no drawers in the bathroom, the officer is reported to have changed to "in a drawer in the sink". On discovering that there were also no drawers in the sink, the officer finally settled on having found these mysterious objects IN the sink. These several drafts of his story having been worked out, the officer wrote up his "find" as having been in the sink, and that report is the source I used for my account last month.
There is an unconfirmed account of officer R. (who lead the raid) calling ( another officer ) in SF prior to the raid. An informed source describes the conversation to have included remarks roughly reconstructed as follows: "This isn't a religious thing is it?" "No, ah, there's drugs too..."
Well, there weren't drugs one, let alone "too". Where does that leave us?
REVIEW:
by Vicki Copeland
Satanism in America: Final Report for the Committee for Scientific Examination of Religion (CSER) by Shawn Carlson, PhD, Physicist, and Gerald Larue, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Religion, USC The long-awaited final report from CSER is finally available, and it was well worth the wait. Drs. Carlson and Larue, in conjunction with co- authors Gerry O'Sullivan, April A. Masche, D. Hudson Frew and with the help of Robert Hicks, Criminal Judicial Analyst, Kenneth Lanning, Special Agent, F.B.I, and Michael Stackpole, authority on fantasy role playing games, have put together an intensive well-researched report.
Topics covered include, "Who are the 'Satanists?'", "The 'Satanic Conspiracy'", "Recruiting for the Devil", "Satanic Vandalism", "Profile of Occultic Murderers", "Ritual Child Abuse", "'Satanic' Child Abductions: The Numbers", and "Damage Being Done by the Anti-Satanic Hysteria". Also included as appendices are the excellent papers by Kenneth Lanning and Robert Hicks which were reviewed in CWR 1-6 last October. "Who are the Satanists?" includes a brief history and overview of Satanism from 1022 to the present day. The topics include the "Black Mass", the "Malleus Mallificarum", the Church of Satan, and the Temple of Set. A brief discussion of Wiccan and Santeria are included here, as these two religions are often confused with Satanism and lumped together in the media reports of criminal activity.
"The 'Satanic' Conspiracy" looks at the claims of many "experts" concerning the activities of practitioners of Satanism. Included in this section are the topics of "Survivors and Breeders", "The Motives", "Adequate Evidence?", and "'Satanic' Intimidation". CSER examines the claims of such media personalities as Michelle Smith, co-author of Michelle Remembers, Lauren Stratford, author of Satan's Underground, Cheryl Horton and Cassandra Hoyer, survivors of Satanic cults, and Mike Warnke, former Satanic High Priest. Careful examination of the claims of these persons failed to turn up any evidence that the claims they had made were true. CSER points out such flaws and inconsistencies as the fact that Michelle Smith said she had no further contact with her tormenters after her mother's death. CSER observes that since she had said that the cult members would cut off their middle fingers of the left hand as a sign of obedience to Satan, the members should be easy to recognize. Ms. Horton likewise claimed that the cult members of her group severed digits as a sign of obedience. One would think that there are a lot of cultists running around out there who are VERY easy to recognize if this is the case!
Among the possible reasons for these allegations by many people, CSER offers the following suggestions; need for media attention, celebrity status, mental illness or insanity, cover-up of the past, denial of abuse, and opportunism. This is entirely concurrent with the findings of CWR in our own investigations.
As adequate evidence of the crimes, CSER cites the same things that CWR has been advocating since our inception, namely bodies of victims, willingness of 'survivors' to name names, dates, and places, stories which are consistent and do not change with time, correlation of claims with known data on missing children, number of murders, etc, and finally, reasonable numbers. They then point out that current claims of survivors and breeders fail every one of these tests.
"Recruiting for the Devil" includes a look at horror movies, fantasy role playing games, backward masking, and heavy metal and punk rock music, all of which have been accused of leading young people into devil worship. CSER finds no evidence to lead them to believe that any of these activities lead to Satanic involvement. "Satanic Vandalism" looks at graffiti, desecration of religious property, grave robbing, and cattle and animal mutilations. The Committee concludes that, while these crimes do occur, there is not sufficient evidence that there is any kind of organized effort behind their perpetration.
"Profile of the Occultic Murderers" includes overviews of the Sean Sellers, Tommy Sullivan, Pete Roland, Richard Ramirez, and Matamoros cases. The findings indicate that in each case, these crimes were isolated incidents and not the work of a conspiracy or network, and in the case of all but the Matamoros incident, the young men in question were severely disturbed and involved with anti-social acts long before they escalated to murder.
The chapter concerning ritual abuse of children points out the improper handling of many of the cases, notable the McMartin Daycare Case, that have come to light in recent years. They go on to list many of the problems inherent in the prosecution of child abuse in general, including extensive therapy, coaching of the children, and the fact that young children sometimes are easily confused.
"'Satanic' Child Abductions: the Numbers" challenges the allegations that there are millions of children abducted and sacrificed each year with hard facts from the F. B. I.
"Damage Being Done by the Anti-Satanic Hysteria" points out the several ways that this phenomena is causing harm, including waste of tax dollars and law enforcement time and manpower, rumor panics such as the ones reported on in "Tracking an Urban Legend" CWR 1-5, harassment of and discrimination against minority religions, and copy cat crimes.
The report concludes with lengthy lists of experts and non-experts, an excellent bibliography, and appendices by Lanning and Hicks, which were reviewed in CWR 1-6. All in all, I would give this report my highest recommendation. Copies of may be obtained for $12.00 from :
CSER: Satanism in America P. O. Box 5 Buffalo, N. Y. 14215-0005
Oprah, the Jews, and Blood Libel
By Vicki Copeland
In the course of investigating "occult related crime", I have often alleged that the "survivors" who appear on TV and radio shows and in the printed media are likely to arouse hysteria which results in harm to a number of people. Recently, several pieces of information have come across the CWR desk which have confirmed these fears.
In May of 1989, a woman calling herself "Rachel" and claiming to be a survivor of ritualistic child abuse appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show. What made Rachel different was that she claimed to be a member of a Jewish family. Among the accusations made by Rachel was ritual child sacrifice.
Jews were unimpressed with Ms. Winfrey's show. Winfrey and her producers met with Jewish leaders and admitted that the remarks could be construed as "grievous misconceptions" and apologized.
End of story? Not hardly. "Rachel" was sponsored by a group calling itself Victims of Incest Can Emerge Survivors (VOICES in Action). In an undated VOICES newsletter, "Rachel" responded to the incident by saying "Recently I had enough courage to share some of my story ... I revealed that I am a Jewish survivor of a multi-generational family who practiced human sacrifice and cannibalism.
The response from the Anti-Defamation League was to call several meetings with Oprah. They said that she was anti-semitic and I was a crazy person.No one is going to get away with calling me crazy anymore ..."
Unfortunately, someone else agreed with Rachel. In the June, 1989, issue of "America's Promise Newsletter", the story is picked up and enhanced. This publication is printed by one of the anti-Semitic groups in America, and uses Rachel's story as a springboard for a 3-page article justifying all of the blood libel stories concerning the Jews and human sacrifice that have been circulated through the centuries. I wonder how long it will be before someone gets REALLY hurt as a result of these wild accusations?
For further information on this issue, the reader is referred to the following:
"Oprah, the Jews, and Ritual Murder", by Bob Hallstron, "America's Promise Newsletter, June 1989.
"Jews protest sacrifice tale on Oprah show", Chicago Tribune, May 7, 1989. Section 1, page 26.
"The Courage to Show Up and Tell the Truth" and "Rachel Speaks Out", VOICES in Action, Inc. THE NEWSLETTER, undated.
CLIPPING LIST AVAILABLE
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___Please send me ____ copies of Kerr Cuhulain's "A Law Enforcement Guide to Wicca". I have enclosed $10.00 ppd. (U.S. addresses only, please - Canadian addresses write to W.I.N., P.O. Box 2422, Main Post Office, Vancouver, B.C. V6B 3W7 and inquire as to cost.)
___Please send me ____ copies of Rowan Moonstone's "Origins of Halloween" pamphlet. I have enclosed $1.00 for each copy ordered.
___Please send ____ copies of Clipping List to the address below. I have enclosed $5.00 to cover costs.
___I do not wish to subscribe right now, but would like to be informed of future booklets and brochures to be published by CWR. I have enclosed a self-addressed, stamped envelope.
NAME:____________________________________________________________ADDRESS:_________________________________________________________
CITY, STATE, ZIP:_____________________________________________________ (Or City, Province, Postal Code)
Mail this coupon or facsimile to: CultWatch Response, Inc. - P.O. Box 1842 - Colorado Springs, CO 80901-1842