[from http://members.aol.com/Karol666/page7/serial.htm ] SERIAL MURDERS & THE SATANIC / RITUALISTIC CRIMES MYTH by Charles Nemo ( ChasNemo@aol.com ) (Walpurgisnacht, 1994 e.v.) The purpose of this essay is to present a brief, updated (15) overview of the "best" (i.e., most interesting as well as most apparently comprehensive) of literally hundreds of publications discussing purported Satanic/ritualistic crime conspiracies. Since Satanic/ritualistic murderers would likely repeat their actions year after year according to a calendar of Satanic holidays (e.g., Walpurgisnacht which falls on April 30, and Samhain [Halloween] which falls on October 31), such people would also be deemed serial murderers. Several books list hundreds of serial murderers (10, 12 and 20), but only a few of these people claim any Satanic link, notably Henry Lee Lucas who is the subject of both a recent biography (3) and at least one reasonably accurate movie (21). Lucas and his partner, Ottis Toole, both were allegedly part of a Satanic group known as the "Hand of Death" which allegedly kills on contract, deals in drugs and smuggles children to Mexico. No clear public evidence for such a group is available to the best of my knowledge, although its activities are claimed to be extensive. Alleged "Nightstalker" serial murderer Richard Ramirez became infamous when he flashed an inverted pentagram drawn on the palm of his hand as he walked into a Los Angeles courtroom but appears to have acted alone (8, 10 and 13). Author Maury Terry has written the most flamboyant book (18) concerning The Process Church of the Final Judgement, which he claims links New York's "Son of Sam" serial murderer David Berkowitz with California's Manson family (allegedly responsible for the 1969 Tate/LaBianca slayings) and numerous more obscure murders and other crimes. Author Ed Sanders was forced to remove allegations concerning The Process Church from his book (14) on the Manson family. Other less lurid books (1 and 16) cast The Process in a more benign light. What conclusions can we draw from these stories? Lucas' claimed existence of the "Hand of Death" stands unverified. The Process Church's supposed connections to various crimes rest primarily on Terry's 1987 allegations, but no indictments have been handed down. Terry's long-promised sequel book has yet to emerge. Serial murderers certainly have existed for centuries (2 and 7), but they appear to be lone actors in almost every case (9), even when Satanic motivations are attributed to them (2, 8, 10 and 13). [Infamous 15th century killer Gilles de Rais certainly had help, but his companions were hirelings which he found easy to corrupt as France's richest nobleman (2).] In a nutshell (pun intended), no solid evidence of a Satanic/ritualistic conspiracy involving serial murders has ever been presented! When the original version of this overview first appeared in a British anthology (15) in 1991, it appeared that the tide of fundamentalist books on the topic had peaked and might be receding, at least in the U.S.A., with the exception of Carol White's "epistle" (19). Many U.S. "fundies" seemed to have become disillusioned or gone into hiding following the well-publicized disgrace of a slew (pun intended) of TV evangelists. One xtian publisher had even gone so far as to withdraw its book (17) from the market after reporters cast doubt on its validity (23). Regrettably, however, this proved not to be the case, and poorly documented fundmentalist drivel has continued to spew from the gutter press (5 and 13 are only two of the more incredibly sensationalistic examples focussing on so-called "Satanic Ritual Abuse" [SRA]). On the bright side, exposures of fundamentalist abuses of legal processes are beginning to appear in mainstream journals such as "The New Yorker" (24) and "Time" (25), and even in xtian journals such as "Christianity Today" (22) and "Cornerstone" (23). Respected law enforcement personnel continue to battle fundamentalist fallacies. (6) Victims of false accusations have formed the False Memory Syndrome Foundation (26) to begin the arduous task of reclaiming territory lost to this modern witchhunt in the U.S.A. A similar effort by Chris Bray of The Sorcerer's Apprentice Fighting Fund (27) to fight misinformation on Paganism has been underway for years in the U.K. The most candid debunking that I have seen of the Satanic/ritualistic crimes myth is set forth in a 1989 book (4) sponsored by the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion (CSER). Its authors' credentials are impeccable, including a PhD physicist, an emeritus professor of religion, a doctoral candidate in comparative literature, a police consultant and an F.B.I. agent. The book concludes that "[t]he truth then is that Satanism is, as a religion, unfairly maligned and much misunderstood." p. 150. "Murders have been justified in the name of Christ many more times than in the name of Lucifer." p. 151. "All the promoters of this [new hysteria] are themselves suspect." p. 153. And what of the infamous Matamoros, Mexico drug killings? "Matamoros represents violence associated with a hint of borrowed religious ritual, nothing more. No evidence exists...of any participation...in satanic activities, involvement with a satanic organization, or human sacrifice to propitiate the devil." p. A- 27. What psychological aberrations might explain the flood of allegations? As the authors of the CSER book conclude, some promoters of the Satanism/ritualistic crimes myth are simply "...opportunists who have used sweeping statements justified only by shoddy research to create for themselves a cottage industry of fear." p. 153. Others are people whose "...long histories of emotional and/or psychological problems are well documented." p. 154. The CSER book's bottom line: "None of the theory's proponents can provide any significant physical evidence in support of their claims and all of the anti-Satanist activists whom we have investigated appear to be either gullible, fraudulent or insane." p. 154. The psychological term "projection" also comes to mind for fundamentalists who are not otherwise certifiably mentally ill, i.e., as defined in Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary (1981): "...the attribution of one's own ideas, feelings, or attitudes to other people or to objects; [especially] the externalization of blame, guilt or responsibility as a defense against anxiety." I have known and worked extensively with fundamentalists of various descriptions. Quite frankly, I have found them to be the most repressed and hate-filled human beings imaginable, although generally these emotions are extremely well hidden. Their urge to remake others' attitudes/behavior is incredible. Why not just live and let live? It seems to me, then, that a projected "witchhunt" mentality serves as the basis for paranoia concerning imagined Satanic/ritualistic crime conspiracies, when gullibility, greed and/or other mental illness are insufficient explanations. (I realize that my own statements should be evaluated carefully for projective tendencies and have thought carefully before saying these things.) REFERENCES Books 1. Bainbridge, William Sims. Satan's Power (1978). University of California Press, 2120 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, CA, USA. $14.95. A sociological view of The Process Church, which the author discreetly sanitizes as "The Power". 2. Bataille, Georges. The Trial of Gilles de Rais (1991). AMOK Books, P.O. Box 861867, Terminal Annex, Los Angeles, CA 90086-1867, USA. 3. Call, Max. Hand of Death -- The Henry Lee Lucas Story (1985). Prescott Press, Inc., 104 Row 2, Lafayette, LA 70505, USA. Interesting even though written from a fundamentalist perspective. 4. Carlson, Shawn et al. Satanism in America -- How the Devil Got Much More Than His Due (1989). Gaia Press, P.O. Box 466, El Cerrito, CA 94530-0466, USA. $12.95. The most objective book in print on the subject! 5. Feldman, Gail Carr. Lessons in Evil, Lessons from the Light (1993). Crown Publishers, Inc., 201 East 50th Street, New York, New York 10022, USA. $22.00. Save your money, folks. 6. Hicks, Robert D. In Pursuit of Satan -- The Police and the Occult (1991). $25.95. Prometheus Books, 700 East Amherst Street, Buffalo, NY 14215, USA. Telephone 716/837-2475. This book is a researcher's dream; it is extensively footnoted and indexed! 7. Knight, Stephen. Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution (1986). Grafton Books, 8 Grafton Street, London W1X 3LA, England. 8. Linedecker, Clifford L. Night Stalker (1991). St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA. $4.95. Written in lurid tabloid style. 9. Markman, Ronald et al. Alone with the Devil -- Famous Cases of a Courtroom Psychiatrist (1989). Doubleday, 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10103, USA. $18.95. Written by a court-appointed psychiatrist who examined two of Charles Manson's followers and a host of other celebrities! 10. Newton, Michael. Hunting Humans -- An Encyclopedia of Modern Serial Killers (1990). Loompanics Unlimited, P.O. Box 1197, Port Townsend, WA 98368, USA. $34.95. Expensive and woodenly written. 11. Newton, Michael. Raising Hell -- An Encyclopedia of Devil Worship and Satanic Crime (1993). Avon Books, 1350 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10019, USA. $5.99. Get this one while you can! It defames virtually everyone connected publicly with darker aspects of occultism and is destined to become an underground classic. 12. Newton, Michael. Serial Slaughter. Loompanics Unlimited, P.O. Box 1197, Port Townsend, WA 98368, USA. $19.95. 13. Raschke, Carl. Painted Black (1990). Harper & Row, 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022, USA. $16.95. A truly lurid potboiler of fundamentalist sleaze. Get this one and see how many inconsistencies and outright lies you can spot. 14. Sanders, Ed. The Family (1971 hardback and 1989 paperback). New American Library, 1633 Broadway, New York, NY 10019, USA. $5.95 paperback. A 1972 court settlement forced rewriting of this book to delete unflattering references to The Process. Thus the 1971 first edition is rare. The paperback contains four new chapters. 15. Sennitt, Stephen (ed.). The NOX Anthology -- Dark Doctrines (1991). NOX Press, 15 Oxford Street, Mexborough, S. Yorkshire S64 9RL, England. Send a couple of postal International Reply Coupons and inquire as to current price and availability. This is a classic anthology of "darkside" occultism, and I'm not just saying that 'cause Stephen was kind enough to publish the original version of this article! 16. Sennitt, Stephen. The Process (1989). NOX Press, 15 Oxford Street, Mexborough, S. Yorkshire S64 9RL, England. NOX Press, 15 Oxford Street, Mexborough, S. Yorkshire S64 9RL, England. Send a couple of postal International Reply Coupons and inquire as to current price and availability. This is one of the fairer evaluations of The Process Church of the Final Judgement. 17. Stratford, Lauren. Satan's Underground -- The Extraordinary Story of One Woman's Escape (1988). Harvest House Publishers, 1075 Arrowsmith, Eugene, OR 97402, USA. A fundamentalist rant withdrawn by the publisher after doubts surfaced about the author's truthfulness (see also #23). 18. Terry, Maury. The Ultimate Evil (1987 hardback and 1989 paperback). Bantam Books, 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10103, USA. $5.95 paperback. What a great address for conspiracy theorists (see also #9)! 19. White, Carol. Satanism: Crime Wave of the '90s (1990). Executive Intelligence Review, P.O. Box 17390, Washington, D.C. 20041-0390, USA. $100.00. An expensive but fascinating rant by a publishing arm of perennial American presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche (recently paroled after serving a long prison term for alleged financial misdeeds). 20. Wilson, Colin et al. The Encyclopedia of Modern Murder (1988). Crown Publishers, Inc. 225 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10003, USA. $17.95. Film 21. "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer" by John McNaughton(1990). It was speculated that this movie might make Henry Lee Lucas the next American cult hero -- like Charles Manson! Journals 22. Christianity Today. For example, the August 17 (p. 50), September 14 (p. 18), October 26 (p. 67) and November 9, 1993 (pp. 49 and 52) issues report the ongoing scandal of phony ex-Satanist Mike Warnke. 23. Cornerstone, 939 W. Wilson Ave., Chicago, IL 60640, USA. Telephone 312/989-2096. $15.00 for 12 issues plus a free T-shirt. Jesus People USA puts this out, and it's the only xtian 'zine I recommend. Issues 90 and 98 exposed phony ex-Satanists Lauren Stratford and Mike Warnke respectively. Issue 100 questioned the credibility of radio preacher and anti-Satanist Bob Larson. Each issue usually has at least one juicy item on the fraudulent "Satanic panic" in America. (It is truly pathetic to read letters to the editor from xtians condemning the 'zine for "shooting their own wounded," i.e., exposing the phonies!) 24. The New Yorker. See Lawrence Wright's two-part (May 17 and May 24, 1993 issues) "Remembering Satan," an exposÇ of the tragic "recovered memory" persecution of Paul Ingram. 25. Time. For example, see Leon Jaroff's "Lies of the Mind" at pp. 52-59 of the November 29, 1993 issue. Other Resources 26. False Memory Syndrome Foundation, 3140 Market Street, Suite 130, Philadelphia, PA 19104-3315, USA. Telephone 800/568-8882 or 215/387-1865. FAX 215/387-1917. 27. Sorcerer's Apprentice Fighting Fund, 6/8 Burley Lodge Road, Leeds LS6 1QP, England. Donations to this worthy cause are well worthwhile! Send news clippings of interest if you can't send anything else. PURVEYORS OF UNUSUAL PUBLICATIONS Certain booksellers carry some of the titles listed above, as well as other most unusual publications! A. AES-NIHIL PRODUCTIONS, 7210 Jordan Ave., No. B-41, Canoga Park, CA 91303, USA. Catalog is $8.00 ($12.00 foreign), but price is refundable with orders of $50.00 or more. Excellent source for videos, cassettes and photocopies of rare publications dealing with Manson, The Process and many other "dark" counterculture subjects. B. AMOK, P.O. Box 861867, Terminal Annex, Los Angeles, CA 90086-1867, USA. Catalog contains over 4,000 titles and is $12.95. Best weirdness source I've seen! C. Loompanics Unlimited. P.O. Box 1197, Port Townsend, WA 98368, USA. Catalog is $5.00. Also very worthwhile if strangeness is your game! D. Paladin Press, P.O. Box 1307, Boulder, CO 80306, USA. Catalog always includes interesting articles and is $1.00. Stocks a wide variety of underground titles dealing with everything nasty from homemade explosives to revenge and beyond. ************* EOF