April 22, 2013

“Lecturing recently, I mentioned the American witch-hunts of the 1980s and 1990s. When the audience looked puzzled, I explained that I was referring to the Satanic Panic of those years, the wave of false charges concerning ritual child abuse and devil cults that made regular headlines in the decade after 1984. The explanation helped little.

“Even people who had lived through those years, who had been following the media closely, had precisely no recollection. Lost in memory it may be, but the Satanic Panic needs to be remembered, if only to prevent a renewed outbreak of this horrible farrago. And when better than in the 30th anniversary of the affair’s beginning?

“It all started in southern California, in Manhattan Beach, in the Fall of 1983….”

– From “Remember the Satanic Panic” (Jan. 9, 2013) by Philip Jenkins, Distinguished Professor of History at Baylor University, on Real Clear Religion

I share Dr. Jenkins’ concern about public memory, of course.

Which are more worrisome – those who have no recollection at all of cases such as McMartin and Little Rascals, or those who have forgotten they all were hoaxes?

Nov. 7, 2011

Last week I mentioned a misleading characterization on the website of the Raleigh personal-injury law firm Brent Adams & Associates:

“A highly publicized case occurred in coastal North Carolina almost 30 years ago. Making national headlines, the Little Rascals Day Care Center was run by a husband-and-wife team, Bob and Betsy Kelly…. The Little Rascals abuse case involved 90 children who all required extensive therapy sessions.”

After I asked that the passage be removed, instead this sentence (along with a Wikipedia link) was added:

“The convictions were later overturned by the NC Court of Appeals and all charges were dropped.”

Better. A lot better. But the remaining reference to “90 children who all required extensive therapy sessions” is still exactly 90 children away from being accurate.

Jan. 18, 2012

“One way or another, justice has failed miserably in the agonizing case of the Little Rascals Day Care…. Last week, eight years after launching an investigation into possible sex abuse at the center, prosecutors announced they were dropping all charges against those who worked at the center.

“That means one of two things:

“(1) Either the defendants originally charged with hundreds of allegations of sex abuse in the 1980s are going to go virtually unpunished for their unspeakable deeds; or

“(2) Those same defendants have been badly treated by an overzealous prosecution team that broke all the rules of fairness in winning flawed guilty verdicts….”

– Editorial in The Charlotte Observer, May 29, 1997

So was that “overzealous prosecution team” simply blindered true believers, or did they realize early on their case was rotten to the core?

Defendant Scott Privott, who pled no contest and was released on probation after spending more than three years in prison, cuts through to the truth when he asks:

“Why did they offer me a plea? You know, if I’m supposed to be the monster that they said I was, if I did these crimes that they said I did, why would they offer me a plea?”

Why indeed, H.P. Williams?… Nancy Lamb?… Bill Hart?

Aug. 3, 2012

“Betty Ann Phillips, who had worked at the day care center, said (in the first episode of “Innocence Lost’) that she had complained to (District Attorney H.P.) Williams when she found out that indictments had been filed in her child’s name.

“She said Williams had advised her ‘not to go out on the street and say you’re unhappy with what we have done.’

“‘And then in the next sentence he said, “Because you know that all of the children are saying that you were the lookout while this was going on.”’

“In a telephone interview, Williams did not dispute that he had told Mrs. Phillips he had evidence from other children that she had acted as a lookout, but… if he made such a statement to her it was not meant as a threat.”

– The Associated Press, May 9, 1991