Oct. 24, 2012<\/p>\n
\u201cIndeed, at a time when the (Los Angeles County) Board of Supervisors has been meeting just five floors below the (Ritual Abuse) task force to dismantle county health care programs, lay off part-time employees and cut all other services because of a severe budget shortfall, some are questioning whether the group \u2013 and particularly its obsession with poisoning \u2013 is not just\u00a0a little frivolous.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne county employee suggested that the task force has not been disbanded because it is \u2018one of the few that actually make money.’ Since 1989, the task force \u2013 made up of therapists, alleged victims and religious leaders \u2013 has sold a handbook that outlines the telltale signs of\u00a0ritual abuse. More than 17,000 copies of the handbook have been sold at $1 apiece, more than enough to offset the costs of the task force.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 From the Los Angeles Times, December 1, 1992<\/em><\/p>\n Early on, the task force handbook \u2013\u201cRitual Abuse: Definitions, Glossary and the Use of Mind Control\u201d \u2013 played a significant role in inflaming fear of ritual abuse.<\/p>\n By 1992, however, the last charges in the McMartin case had been dropped, and skepticism about ritual abuse was finding its voice. (But not among Little Rascals prosecutors \u2013 Bob Kelly had just been convicted and Dawn Wilson was being tried.)<\/p>\n