Oct. 9, 2025

Feed Drop: Urban Legends — The Satanic Panic (True Crime History)

Feed Drop: Urban Legends — The Satanic Panic (True Crime History)

True Halloween Horrors for your Spooky Season! In this chapter, let's delve into the urban legends that brought forward what is now known as 'The Satanic Panic‘, from the first sensational cases and flawed investigations to the media frenzy and...

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True Halloween Horrors for your Spooky Season!

In this chapter, let's delve into the urban legends that brought forward what is now known as 'The Satanic Panic‘, from the first sensational cases and flawed investigations to the media frenzy and courtrooms that followed.  We’ll look at how fear, politics, and culture combined to create a moral wildfire, one that still echoes in today’s conspiracy movements.

If you have more information or a correction on something mentioned in this chapter, email us at luke@lukemordue.com.


For more information on the show, to find all our social accounts and to ensure you are up to date on all we do, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.lukemordue.com/podcast



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🎵 Music by Ray Mattis 👉 Check out Ray’s incredible work here !
👨‍💼 Executive Producers: Rob Fields, Bobbletopia.com
🎥 Produced by: Daniel Wilder
🌐 Explore more terrifying tales at: WeeklySpooky.com
WEBVTT

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Hello there, my Spookyes, Enrique Cuto here your host and narrator.

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And you know the time of year, the air is colder,

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the pumpkins are glowing, and the world feels just a

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little more haunted. As part of our Spooky Season celebration,

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I wanted to share something truly fascinating, a show that

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explores the dark corners where folklore meets fear. It's called

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Urban Legends with Luke Morjoux, and in this episode, Luke

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dives into one of the most unsettling moral frenzies of

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the twentieth century, the Satanic Panic. He unearths the stories,

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the hysteria, and the strange mix of fear and politics

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that turned rumor into terror and left scars that still

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shape conspiracies to this day. So it back, relax, enjoy

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Luke's show, and afterward, search up Urban Legends with Luke

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Morjeux on your favorite podcasting app and tell him weekly

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spooky Censia.

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In nineteen sixty two, the small Puritan settlement of Salem, Massachusetts,

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became the stage for one of history's most infamous moral panics.

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It began with a handful of young girls reportedly suffering

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with unexplained fits and visions of specters, eventually claiming to

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be being tormented by witches. Physicians found no medical cause

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for what was happening, and so he declared the affliction

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must have been the work of the devil. Ministers began

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to warn that Satan was moving among them, and the

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colony's leaders quickly decided that threat had to be rooted out.

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Within week, the accusations spread beyond the first household and

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into the entire community. Neighbours who had once worshiped together

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every Sunday were now beginning to denounce one another as

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old resentments over land inheritance and church politics surfaced. As

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proof of a secret evil, the colonial courts relied heavily

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on spectral evidence, testimony that a person's spirit or shape

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had appeared in a dream or vision, a standard that

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required no physical proof. Under intense pressure and the threat

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of execution, suspects began to confess whether they were guilty

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or not, sometimes even implicating others along with it, feeding

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a cycle that seemed unstoppable. By the time the panic

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subsided in sixteen ninety three, more than two hundred people

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had been accused, with twenty of them being executed. Others

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managed to survive but were confined to jail. Historians now

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see Salem as a textbook study of collective hysteria. Economic uncertainty,

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political instability, and the rigid Puritan worldview had all primed

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the population to see the devil's hand in every day misfortune.

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The trials revealed to humanity just how quickly dear can

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override reason, and how easily suggestion and coercion can create memories.

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Although it is a lesson that we've never truly accepted.

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Centuries have passed, but the patternate demonstrates never disappeared. In

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the twentieth century, the supposed signs had changed, as people

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no longer worried about whispered spells. Instead, their focus was

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drawn to the strange sounds of heavy metal lyrics and

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fantasy games being shared amongst the youth. In fact, the

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newly placed authority figures, such as police officers and specialist therapists,

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continued to repeat the exact same mistakes Salem's magistrates had

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consistently made by believing first and investigating later. My name

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is Luke Mordeu and this urban legend is the Satanic Panic.

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The Church of Satan began in San Francisco on Van

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Pulkasnat thirty of April nineteen six, when former carnival organist

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and police photographer Anton Levy shaved his head, donned the

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black robe, and declared the founding of a new religion.

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Although it is worth noting that his Satan was not

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meant to be the horned demon of Christian law. Anton

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had reassigned the devil as a symbol of rebellion, indulgence,

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and individual freedom, acting instead as a theatrical rejection of

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both Christian morality and the bland conformity. Members gathered in

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their now infamous black house that sat on California Street.

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Here they performed elaborate, incense filled rituals that borrowed Catholic

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imagery and occult aesthetics. However, this was always for the

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sake of theatrics and drama, rather than any real worship

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taking place. A few years later, in nineteen sixty nine,

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and On published The Satanic Bible, laying out a philosophy

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the prized reason, self interest, and ritual as mere performance.

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It was part philosophy, part provocation. Spreading quickly through underground presses,

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Anton wanted to shock and horrify a nation already uneasy

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with counterculture, and it worked spectacularly to an already anxious public.

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The word Satan was enough, and newspapers painted Anton LaVey's

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congregation as a genuine cult of devil worshippers. People were outraged.

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Evangelical preachers began to warn that the devil was recruiting,

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and by the nineteen seventies, the Church of Satan's black

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masses and inverted crosses had been used to feed the

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idea that shadowy covens really were gathering in base and forest.

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While the Church of Satan preached symbolism, the legend of

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very real devil worshipers was already taking root. This strange

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time of history may not present itself as a single,

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neat legend like we usually cover, but in many ways,

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the Satanic Panic was built on a wide web of

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them Instead. Stories of hidden covens, black robed kidnappers, and

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ritual sacrifice spread through neighborhoods, schools, and late night news

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broadcasts for years. Each tale, no matter how outrageous, was

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treated as a warning. Much like the folkloric stories of old,

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and just like many urban legends that surround them, They

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were widely believed, blurring what was mere storytelling and what

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was truly happening. In my telling of a fictional encounter

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set in the horrors of the Satanic Panic, we will

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follow Tevin on his way to meet a new group

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of friends in the autumn of nineteen ninety two. The

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night air carried the damp smell of rain soaked leaves,

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filling Tevin's lungs with a freshness that can only be

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found after a storm. The skies were clear for the

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first time in weeks, allowing the moonlight to proudly glow

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down upon the long, dark streets once again. This October

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didn't feel as cold as he previously remembered, which was

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just as well, considering he had only stepped out in

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a fin jacket and a T shirt, too busy trying

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to find batteries for his torch before rushing out the door.

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It had been weeks since he had hung out of

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his friends, and he didn't want to be late. He

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wasn't sure what had happened between them when he left

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for California to spend the summer with his mum. He

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was surprised to find that James, Mary and Molly had

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thrown him a little party just for the four of them.

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They were sad to see him go and excited to

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hear his stories when they got back. His dad had

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always been distant and cold, and his mum had moved

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across the country to live with another family, and so

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in many ways, these three who he had grown up

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with were his true family. Separately, none of them fitted

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in amongst society. In fact, to most they were downright strange,

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but together they had an understanding. He always felt invisible

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when they weren't around, and so much of his time

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in California had been lonely and troublesome. He arrived back

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in Virginia just in time for the beginning of the

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school year, and he was so keen to get back

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to his friends, although when he finally saw them, their

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attitudes towards him had completely changed. They seemed quieter them before,

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more distant and aloof towards school and sports. None of

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them did much gaming outside of role playing even before

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he left, but they at least enjoyed the chance to

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throw balls at students that had given them shit in

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the past during dodgeball. Now they avoided interacting with people

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all together, including him, it was them against the world,

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always together, always whispering about things that instantly halted the

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moment he would walk over. He was worried about them,

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but he didn't know what to say. How was he

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supposed to ask his friends why they're being weird now,

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especially with how insecure and left out he was feeling

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about the whole situation. He missed his friends and desperately

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wanted to be included once again. It wasn't as if

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he had a pick of friends at school, with many funding.

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The four of them weird long before the strange change

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of summer. That's why he jumped so enthusiastically at the

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chance to meet them when they finally called him up

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for a new adventure. Maybe, just maybe he wouldn't feel

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so invisible anymore. Out in the woods, they had apparently

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come across an old, abandoned building when they used to

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serve as a small factory or office space. They didn't

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know for sure what it was, but what they did

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know was that nobody had been there for many years,

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and that much of its foundations were still in place.

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It would be the perfect place to hang out, somewhere

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where they could be free from the rest of society.

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Tevin drew closer to the trees ahead, already feeling the

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darkness grow as the residential houses behind got further with

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every step. This was where they were supposed to meet,

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at least, he hoped it was the place they meant

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the entrance to the woods by Mary's old house. This

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is the corner they would meet up at and ride

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their bikes through town as kids, and although it was

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far more overgrown than it used to be, little else

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had changed. He clicked on his torch and shone it

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into the trees, hoping to see them nearby, waiting, but

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he saw nothing but the dancing shadows of the leaves

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and the gentle breeze. There was no way he was

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going to step in there by himself. He had watched

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far too many horror films for those kind of antics. Well,

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that wasn't till a greater fear took over the fear

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of getting caught. He sharply spun on the spot as

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the porch light of a nearby house flicked on, filling

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the area in a golden glow. By the time the

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owner stepped out of his dog in hand, Heaven had vanished,

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disappearing into the trees to avoid being seen. If their

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no spot had been taken away before they even got

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there due to him being sighted, they'd likely never speak

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to him again. He crept deeper into the trees, covering

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his torch of the palm of his hand, turning its

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bright light to a soft pink as he pointed it

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to the ground. He sat quietly, watching the man slowly

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wander up the street, his dog seemingly sniffing every blade

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of grass it passed as it slowly followed behind. Once

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the coast was clear, he turned to look deeper into

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the trees once again, although this time he just about

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jumped out of his skin. Standing in the dark amongst

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the trees were his three friends, Molly, Mary, and James,

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all watching him with excitable smiles on their faces. Good

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to see a dress to blend in, James remarked, alluding

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to the bright blue jacket Tvin had on compared to

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the black hoodies they had hanging off their shoulders. Tevin stuttered,

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feeling far more anxious than he had expected to feel,

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already worried that he'd messed it up. Luckily, Molly broke

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the ice by skipping forward and grabbing his arm. With

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energetic lee. He's kidding, she exclaimed, pulling him deeper into

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the trees. It's really good to see you, Devin smiled

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with a deep exail, feeling relieved to see the silly,

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playful Molly he had missed for so long. How far

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away is it, he asked, stretching out his free hand

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to calm his nerves, forcing himself to remember that he

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was safe and amongst friends. Not far, James replied, but

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before he could add anything to it, Mary began pacing

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into the trees with impatience, loudly demanding that they get

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a move on. They laughed it off together, venturing deeper

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into the woods. And they had ever been before. As kids,

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they were always too afraid to go inside, and by

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the time they got older and braver, Mary had moved,

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giving them no reason to ever be on this side

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of town. It wasn't as if there was much excitement

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for them to have found, though, surrounded by nothing but trees, shrubberies,

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and moss, the group caught up with each other, each

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of the three taking it in turns to ask Tevin

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questions about his trip, avoiding any real answers to anything

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he may have asked them. He didn't mind, though, he'd

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been wanting to tell them about California since before he'd

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even got back, and was happy that he was finally

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able to update them all with it. That was until

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Mary began questioning him about girls, causing the group to

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laugh and giggle amongst themselves as they teased him about

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being a virgin. Finally lost your vicarde, she asked, directing

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her torch directly into his face, quite literally putting him

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in the spotlight, just in time to see his cheeks

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blush rosy red as his eyes darted around him. But

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it was then, as he looked out into the trees

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to avoid their questions, that he spotted what looked to

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be an old man peering around the bark of a tree,

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watching them as they walked. He paused on the spot,

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flinging his torch towards it with a yelp, causing the

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entire group to stop with him. Were you doing? While?

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He called out? Frustrated by his loudness, Tevin studied the shadows,

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darting his torchlight to every corner he could see, Although

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the old man was nowhere to be seen, I swear

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I just saw someone, he whispered to ensure whoever it

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was didn't hear, although this was a pointless act, as

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James laughed, shouting, Oh, Tevin's seeing goes Now. With that,

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he carried on walking, refusing to age with any of it.

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I'm serious, Tevin replied, his eyes still studying the trees

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around him. It's probably just a shadow, Molly announced, swinging

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her arm around as she forced him to step forward.

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Don't think you're getting out of telling us about girls,

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you naughty boy, Mary added, putting her arm around his

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waist as she pulled him forward until they were all

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walking after James. Once again, there were no girls, Tevin,

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sheepishly admitted, his mind, quickly drifting away from the face

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he had seen amongst the shadows. The girl squeezed him tightly,

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telling him that they love that he's still a virgin

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and they think he should keep his innocence forever. With this,

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they stepped out onto a clearing for the first time

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since he had entered the trees, revealing a tall but

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thin building. It was made of old brown brick, with

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several of the windows blown out and crumbling on the

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floor below. Although all things considered, it looked fairly well kept,

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with several floors rising up onto the trees. What's the

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view like up there, Tevin asked, as he admired it,

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now adjoining them in the excitement of a new place

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to hang out. Oh it's great in the day, But

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I want to show you something else, Molly told him,

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grabbing his hand and instantly dragging him towards the entrance. Wait,

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don't rush, James called out, seemingly frustrated that she had

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taken the lead at the last minute. Tevin stepped into

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the main room as Molly jumped ahead, placing her torch

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against the windowsill, pointing it up at the ceiling so

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it served as a lamp, bouncing off the white painted

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ceiling above. She turned to him with a smile, widening

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her arms to proudly show off the space. It was cool,

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there was no denying that, But at the same time,

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Tevin became all the more aware just how dangerous this was.

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Now he was inside. It seemed sturdy enough in most places,

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although a large gaping hole spread over what used to

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be the ceiling of the hallway up ahead, with beams

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of wood and sheets of rubble scattered across the floor.

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Or do you think James asked as he remained in

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the doorway, Mary hovering in the shadow behind him. Yeah,

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it's really cool, Tevin replied, keeping a brave face as

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he nervously studied the ceiling for any cracks that could

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somehow cave in any minute. This isn't even the coolest part,

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James replied with a confident smile, turning his head to

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a doorway on the other side of the room. Molly,

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in her excitement, darted forward once again, flinging it open

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before Tevin could even register what was happening. Inside was

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nothing but darkness, even when Tevin lifted his torch as

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if the black itself was too thick. Go check it out,

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Molly demanded, struggling to keep her enthusiastic smile at Bay

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Devan instead stepped back away from it, shake it his

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head as he did. No way to that, Molly sighed

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with frustration, turning to James and Mary as if asking

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them what to do. Oh, come on, we'll all go down, Molly,

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you first, Mary announced to the room as she barged inside.

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Molly didn't move, widening her eyes as she stared back

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at her, clearly not wanting to be the first to enter,

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Tevan was quickly growing uneasy. They were acting stranger than usual. Fine,

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Molly replied with another smile, although this time through gritted teeth.

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But only if you come with me, she added, reaching

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her hand out to Tevian. He could never say no

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to Molly. He had always held a soft spot for her,

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and so without much thought at all, he took her

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hand and allowed her to lead him into the darkness.

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The moment he stepped through the doorway, he realized that

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it was a set of stairs, heavily creaking under every

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00:21:02.680 --> 00:21:07.640
step they took, delving deeper into the basement. Is this safe,

294
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he asked, peeking over his shoulder to look back up

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at the security he was leaving behind. Now James and

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Mary had moved, standing in the doorway, blocking anyone from

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coming in or out as they watched him go deeper.

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He was partly frightened, but mostly confused, unsure and what

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to do or say, and so he just continued to

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follow Molly's lead, venturing deeper into the dark. That is

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when Tevin knew that he had made a grave mistake.

302
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Now he could see into the basement he was being

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led to, and what he found was not the darkness

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he had expected. Instead, he witnessed dozens of candles flickering

305
00:21:57.480 --> 00:22:01.960
around the room, symbols scattered, and chalk across the walls,

306
00:22:02.240 --> 00:22:06.039
with one large circular one engraved in the dirt. Below,

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in the middle of the room was a wide wooden table,

308
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clean and strong, with leather straps wrapped around each leg

309
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draped on the table ready for use. This was a

310
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sight that frightened and horrified him, and yet it was

311
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nothing compared to the realization that they were not as

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alone as he had first thought. Standing in different corners

313
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of the room where several figures people cloaked in black

314
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robes patiently waiting for his arrival. Devin didn't scream, nor

315
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did he try to run. He just stood there, heartbroken

316
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by the way in which his friends had tricked him.

317
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He turned to look back up at the stairs to

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find Mary and James were still standing in the doorway,

319
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simply watching him, with blank expressions on their faces. Behind

320
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them was now the same face Tevin had seen in

321
00:23:04.079 --> 00:23:09.160
the trees, standing behind them in his large blood red cloak,

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a smile clear on his face. Tevin jumped back against

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the wall as the hooded figures that surrounded him drew closer,

324
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muttering strange incantations under their breath and unison. He turned

325
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to Molly, hoping that she would tell him that it

326
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was just a prank, but instead she watched him back

327
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with a reassuring smile, nodding her head as if thanking him.

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He wanted to say so much, he wanted to ask

329
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so many questions, but instead all that came out of

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his mouth was her name, repeated several times as they

331
00:23:47.200 --> 00:23:50.839
grabbed his arms. He fought back as hard as he could,

332
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but there was no way he could fight off the

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two lumbering men who stood either side of him, and

334
00:23:56.640 --> 00:24:01.079
so he was forced to watch as the rest slowly

335
00:24:01.160 --> 00:24:06.319
began to form a circle around Molly. She watched them

336
00:24:06.359 --> 00:24:09.920
with a confused expression, her eyes darting to each of

337
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them as she tried to step away. It became clear

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very fast that this was not part of the plan

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00:24:17.680 --> 00:24:21.440
as she knew it. Tevin watched as James and Mary

340
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slowly made their way down the stairs, followed by the

341
00:24:26.079 --> 00:24:29.960
old man, whose smiles seemed to grow with every step

342
00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:34.200
closer that he took. The room filled with Molly's screams

343
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as James and Mary joined the others lifting her up

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and placing her on the table, strapping her arms and

345
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legs to it with the lever. The two men either

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side of Tevin escorted him to a chair in the

347
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corner of the room, before placing their hands on his shoulders,

348
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forcing him to take a seat. He wasn't fighting back anymore,

349
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his mind now frozen still as he watched the horrors

350
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unfold across the room. Molly's cries continued, switching between threats

351
00:25:06.599 --> 00:25:12.160
and please with every breath, but none reacted. The old man,

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who had now reached the floor, ignored her also, his

353
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eyes fixated on Teven's as he edged closer, his smile

354
00:25:22.599 --> 00:25:27.759
growing wider with every step that he took. Slowly, the

355
00:25:27.799 --> 00:25:31.319
man crouched down in front of him, His sharp blue

356
00:25:31.400 --> 00:25:35.759
eyes dixated on Tevian's as his smile changed once again,

357
00:25:36.400 --> 00:25:43.039
although this one only confused Tevan further. Now he looked

358
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almost caring, gently reaching out and placing his hand on

359
00:25:48.480 --> 00:25:53.720
the side of Tevan's face. He leaned forward, gently placing

360
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his lips on Tevan's forehead for a moment before pulling away,

361
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a strangely tender moment amongst the horrified screams that swirled

362
00:26:03.000 --> 00:26:08.119
around the room. Tevan's eyes filled with tears as he

363
00:26:08.200 --> 00:26:11.440
watched the old man study him one last time before

364
00:26:11.480 --> 00:26:18.000
getting to his feet, and then finally he spoke, You

365
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don't need to feel alone anymore, he said, lifting a

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strange curved dagger in his hand. Tevan's eyes widened in

367
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horror as he watched the sharp blade edge closer to him.

368
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His heart pounded in his chest as he waited for

369
00:26:34.920 --> 00:26:39.960
the final blow to come. Then instead, the two men

370
00:26:40.160 --> 00:26:46.000
etherside of him let go. The old man was not

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holding the dagger to use, he was offering it to him.

372
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You have a family here if you want it, he added,

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as Tevern reached out to take the dagger from him.

374
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He rose to his feet as the man edged closer

375
00:27:03.680 --> 00:27:07.960
to the table. Molly, who had now spotted Tevin holding

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the dagger, began to panic further, begging him to help her.

377
00:27:12.200 --> 00:27:16.359
The hooded figures had now parsed ways, gathering on one

378
00:27:16.440 --> 00:27:19.319
side of the table, creating a gap for Tevin to

379
00:27:19.400 --> 00:27:24.559
approach without obstruction. James and Mary stood by Molly's feet,

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their hoods now above their heads as they watched him,

381
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their eyes beaming with excitement. And pride. Tevin arrived at

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the table, looking down at Molly's vulnerable body that lay

383
00:27:38.680 --> 00:27:43.240
strapped to the wood. She no longer screamed or pleaded.

384
00:27:44.279 --> 00:27:48.079
She watched him as he contemplated what to do, her

385
00:27:48.160 --> 00:27:54.119
eyes filling with tears. Tevin gripped the dagger tightly. He

386
00:27:54.200 --> 00:27:57.160
could turn and run, but they would catch him. He

387
00:27:57.200 --> 00:27:59.319
could swing that dagger and take out as many as

388
00:27:59.319 --> 00:28:02.119
he could before he had a weapon off the rule,

389
00:28:02.359 --> 00:28:06.039
and it didn't look as though any of them did. However,

390
00:28:06.440 --> 00:28:09.759
there was something else in his mind that both excited

391
00:28:10.160 --> 00:28:14.960
and terrified him. The words the old man had said

392
00:28:15.519 --> 00:28:17.759
had appealed to him in a way that he had

393
00:28:17.759 --> 00:28:22.799
not expected. This was made all the worse when he added,

394
00:28:23.799 --> 00:28:27.880
we see you, Devin. He gently placed his hand on

395
00:28:27.920 --> 00:28:32.640
Tevin's shoulder, once again, giving him a reassuring smile. He

396
00:28:32.720 --> 00:28:37.279
sees you. Tevin turned to his friends, who both watched

397
00:28:37.319 --> 00:28:42.400
him with pride. Mary nodded her head encouragingly, whilst James

398
00:28:42.799 --> 00:28:47.319
waited for his decision. He didn't look back at Molly.

399
00:28:48.000 --> 00:28:50.920
He didn't want to anymore. She was luring him into

400
00:28:50.920 --> 00:28:54.720
a trap, or at least she thought she was, so.

401
00:28:54.759 --> 00:28:58.759
Why should he care. What could she possibly say that

402
00:28:58.839 --> 00:29:05.559
could change anything? He wasn't alone anymore, He wasn't invisible.

403
00:29:41.480 --> 00:29:44.480
In the spring of two thousand and one, British journalist

404
00:29:44.599 --> 00:29:50.319
John Ronson released a book titled Them and Adventures with Extremists.

405
00:29:51.119 --> 00:29:55.240
In this book, he chronicled his encounters with conspiracy theorists,

406
00:29:55.359 --> 00:30:00.279
militia leaders, and secret societies across the world. What he

407
00:30:00.400 --> 00:30:06.440
uncovered wasn't just fringe eccentricities. It was those who had

408
00:30:06.480 --> 00:30:10.799
given into the impulse to split the world into insiders

409
00:30:11.039 --> 00:30:16.079
and outsiders, with the comforting and safe us and the

410
00:30:16.240 --> 00:30:22.720
untrustworthy and threatening them. Psychologists refer to this as in

411
00:30:22.880 --> 00:30:28.240
group outgroup bias, a reflex that makes unfamiliar ideas or

412
00:30:28.279 --> 00:30:33.000
communities feel dangerous to us. That instinct, which was so

413
00:30:33.200 --> 00:30:36.960
vividly captured in Ronson's brilliant reporting, is what sets the

414
00:30:37.000 --> 00:30:41.680
stage for the dark and strange time of the Satanic Panic.

415
00:30:43.160 --> 00:30:46.680
In the United States, the late nineteen seventies and early

416
00:30:46.759 --> 00:30:51.759
nineteen eighties were marked by Cold War anxieties, a sharp

417
00:30:51.839 --> 00:30:56.559
economic recession, and the rise of family values movements that

418
00:30:56.720 --> 00:31:01.759
promised to restore a Christian social order, with evangelical leaders

419
00:31:02.000 --> 00:31:07.640
such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robinson, warning that secularism, feminism,

420
00:31:07.920 --> 00:31:13.319
and new religious movements threatened the nation's soul. This climate

421
00:31:13.599 --> 00:31:19.400
of cultural backlash primed churches, local politicians, and law enforcement

422
00:31:19.440 --> 00:31:24.319
agencies to treat any whisper of occult activity as evidence

423
00:31:24.359 --> 00:31:28.599
of a deeper moral decay. Insider bias is a core

424
00:31:28.720 --> 00:31:33.440
element of nationalism, and we see it repeated time and

425
00:31:33.519 --> 00:31:38.880
time again over history. Even today, certain groups fixate on

426
00:31:39.039 --> 00:31:45.160
those they consider them, demonizing their very existence to justify

427
00:31:45.519 --> 00:31:50.920
their internalized anger, serving as a scapegoat when the need arises.

428
00:31:51.480 --> 00:31:53.559
And one thing that we've seen over the years amongst

429
00:31:53.559 --> 00:31:57.559
countries with notable sample sizes of Christian theologians is that

430
00:31:57.759 --> 00:32:02.799
labeling the outsiders as demon becomes a well worn and

431
00:32:02.920 --> 00:32:07.960
successful tactic. It was in the twelfth century that Christians

432
00:32:07.960 --> 00:32:11.640
began accusing Jews of using the blood of kidnapped Christian

433
00:32:11.720 --> 00:32:16.960
children in secret rituals, an invention that fused religious prejudice

434
00:32:17.160 --> 00:32:21.480
were fears of the occult. This belief reached a gruesome

435
00:32:21.519 --> 00:32:25.400
crescendo in fourteen seventy five with the Simon of Trent

436
00:32:25.759 --> 00:32:29.640
Blood Libel. Here, the body of a two year old

437
00:32:30.039 --> 00:32:33.279
named Simon was found in a ditch in the city

438
00:32:33.359 --> 00:32:38.359
of Trento, Italy, leading local officials to quickly blame the

439
00:32:38.480 --> 00:32:46.000
Jewish community. Authorities arrested nearly every Jewish resident, subjecting them

440
00:32:46.240 --> 00:32:51.799
to brutal torture until they produced the confessions investigators demanded.

441
00:32:52.960 --> 00:32:57.240
In the end, fifteen Jewish men were executed, whilst the

442
00:32:57.279 --> 00:33:02.200
women and children were forced to invert or expelled as

443
00:33:02.240 --> 00:33:07.519
the entire Jewish quarter was destroyed. The child was declared

444
00:33:07.519 --> 00:33:11.519
a martyr and eventually venerated as Blessed Simon of trent.

445
00:33:12.400 --> 00:33:17.960
Pilgrims blocked to his shrine and laurid woodcuts depicted Jews

446
00:33:18.200 --> 00:33:22.640
committing ritual murder, spreading the myth across Europe as fact.

447
00:33:24.440 --> 00:33:27.519
It wasn't until Pope Sixtus the fourth eventually ordered an

448
00:33:27.519 --> 00:33:31.599
inquiry that doubt was cast on the charges. Although by

449
00:33:31.640 --> 00:33:36.759
now the damage proved to be irreversible, the blood libel

450
00:33:36.960 --> 00:33:40.559
had been reprinted in pamphlets and sermons from Germany to Poland,

451
00:33:40.920 --> 00:33:46.640
feeding the hatred and demonization for generations. This entrenched a

452
00:33:46.759 --> 00:33:51.440
template for anti Semitic violence that has persisted into modern times,

453
00:33:51.920 --> 00:33:56.720
inspiring later outbreaks in places like Prague, Kiev and beyond.

454
00:33:58.200 --> 00:34:01.839
The myth of Jews murdering Crists children for ritual purposes

455
00:34:02.079 --> 00:34:08.079
never truly disappeared. It just mutated, resurfacing in different guises

456
00:34:08.400 --> 00:34:13.400
well into the twentieth century, even still found in many

457
00:34:13.400 --> 00:34:19.960
contemporary conspiracy theories. Episodes like the Simon of Trent's Libel

458
00:34:20.320 --> 00:34:25.480
also helped entrench the habits of scapegoating outsiders whenever societies

459
00:34:25.480 --> 00:34:31.199
felt destabilized. These narratives fed later witch hunt mentalities, linking

460
00:34:31.280 --> 00:34:35.079
fears of heresy to cosmic evil and offering a template

461
00:34:35.119 --> 00:34:41.800
for communities to turn ordinary neighbors into existential threats. Then

462
00:34:42.119 --> 00:34:45.960
there's the witch trials during the fifteenth century, where Europeans

463
00:34:46.000 --> 00:34:51.119
tortured and executed many innocent people, reportedly in the tens

464
00:34:51.159 --> 00:34:56.239
of thousands, with the intention of ending demonic connections and

465
00:34:56.320 --> 00:35:01.559
witchcraft amongst the accused. This was very much embedded into

466
00:35:01.559 --> 00:35:04.960
European culture as they continue to spread across the West,

467
00:35:05.360 --> 00:35:09.440
and soon enough the Americas were filled with demonic claims,

468
00:35:09.480 --> 00:35:16.400
with it leading to the infamous Cases of Salem. In

469
00:35:16.519 --> 00:35:20.599
nineteen twenty seven, Herbert Gorman released a novel titled The

470
00:35:20.679 --> 00:35:24.559
Place Called Dagon, which follows the story of devil worshippers

471
00:35:24.800 --> 00:35:29.920
that derived from Salem. The book was purely fictional, of course, However,

472
00:35:30.079 --> 00:35:33.920
it was considered to be radical and influential at the time,

473
00:35:34.519 --> 00:35:38.719
with historian Philip Jenkins claiming that it would actually become

474
00:35:39.079 --> 00:35:42.800
a key influence on the Satanic panic that would come

475
00:35:42.920 --> 00:35:48.400
decades later. By the twentieth century, US child protection laws

476
00:35:48.480 --> 00:35:53.440
and mandatory reporting requirements, which were designed to safeguard children,

477
00:35:54.199 --> 00:36:01.000
unintentionally created powerful incentives to investigate even the thinnest of allegations.

478
00:36:02.079 --> 00:36:07.280
Federal grants rewarded aggressive pursuit of child abuse claims, and

479
00:36:07.360 --> 00:36:12.800
social work training often emphasized believe the child, making it

480
00:36:12.840 --> 00:36:18.960
difficult for investigators to pause when stories grew fantastical. The

481
00:36:19.119 --> 00:36:22.559
USA at the time had gotten very comfortable with its

482
00:36:22.679 --> 00:36:27.880
unmoving sense of religion, family dynamics, and expectations. But as

483
00:36:27.880 --> 00:36:32.119
culture progressed and expanded, these systems began to look different

484
00:36:32.159 --> 00:36:35.400
in several places across the continent, and as we've learned

485
00:36:35.440 --> 00:36:38.199
over the years, there are a large number of people

486
00:36:38.599 --> 00:36:44.480
who despise this change. New religious movements had appeared, family

487
00:36:44.599 --> 00:36:50.320
dynamics were diversifying, and media began to delve deeper into taboo. Subjects,

488
00:36:50.880 --> 00:36:54.320
most notably ones that delved into the themes of the occult.

489
00:36:55.039 --> 00:36:59.239
By the nineteen thirties, satanic cults had become part of

490
00:36:59.280 --> 00:37:03.960
pop fiction, being consumed by millions over the years. By

491
00:37:04.000 --> 00:37:07.000
the nineteen sixties, some who had grown up during the

492
00:37:07.039 --> 00:37:11.559
times of these stories were now working as huge Hollywood directors,

493
00:37:12.000 --> 00:37:16.079
creating films such as Rosemary's Baby of nineteen sixty eight,

494
00:37:16.559 --> 00:37:20.519
The Exorcist of nineteen seventy three, and The Omen of

495
00:37:20.679 --> 00:37:25.519
nineteen seventy six. Beyond this, people had begun to see

496
00:37:25.559 --> 00:37:30.719
signs of not quite the same, but unnervingly similar events

497
00:37:30.800 --> 00:37:34.800
taking place in the real world, such as the horrifying

498
00:37:34.880 --> 00:37:39.400
murders committed by the Manson family in nineteen sixty nine. This,

499
00:37:40.199 --> 00:37:45.239
along with several other factors such as Anton LaVey's theatrical

500
00:37:45.360 --> 00:37:51.320
antagonistic antics, cemented worldwide associations between cults and violence in

501
00:37:51.360 --> 00:37:55.239
public imagination, and by the end of the nineteen seventies,

502
00:37:55.880 --> 00:37:59.639
the ingredients for a moral panic had begun to mix,

503
00:38:00.559 --> 00:38:07.519
slowly forming in the quiet, anxious parts of society. Evangelical communities,

504
00:38:07.960 --> 00:38:10.159
who were already wary of the way the world was

505
00:38:10.199 --> 00:38:14.239
going found further justification in their fears. When Mike Wonke

506
00:38:14.679 --> 00:38:19.559
published his nineteen seventy two memoir The Satan Seller, which

507
00:38:19.599 --> 00:38:23.960
falsely claimed he had led a one thousand, five hundred

508
00:38:24.000 --> 00:38:29.239
member Satanic group that engaged in human sacrifice and other horrors.

509
00:38:30.199 --> 00:38:34.199
The book was treated as expert testimony in the churches

510
00:38:34.199 --> 00:38:38.679
and Christian media, and Warnkey parlaid it into a lucrative

511
00:38:38.760 --> 00:38:44.280
career as an occult expert, even briefing police. Only in

512
00:38:44.320 --> 00:38:50.800
the early nineteen nineties did Cornerstone Magazine's long investigation comprehensibly

513
00:38:51.199 --> 00:38:55.719
debunk his story. Before that, though, things had gotten far

514
00:38:55.800 --> 00:38:58.760
worse before they were ever going to get better. With

515
00:38:58.840 --> 00:39:04.199
the nineteen eighties Public Location of Michelle Remembers, a discredited

516
00:39:04.239 --> 00:39:09.119
memoir co authored by psychiatrists to Lawrence Pasda and his patient,

517
00:39:09.679 --> 00:39:16.119
the titular Michelle Smith. The book presented laurid recovered childhood

518
00:39:16.159 --> 00:39:20.480
memories of Satanic ritual abuse, uncovered in more than six

519
00:39:20.599 --> 00:39:25.639
hundred hours of hypnosis, complete with an eighty one day ritual,

520
00:39:26.159 --> 00:39:31.519
angelic visitations, and infant sacrifice. None of it could be

521
00:39:31.519 --> 00:39:37.159
corroborated by investigators or local records, but nonetheless it sold briskly,

522
00:39:37.679 --> 00:39:44.000
putting Pasda on television and conference stages, giving police, prosecutors,

523
00:39:44.039 --> 00:39:50.400
and therapists a ready made narrative template. At the center

524
00:39:50.440 --> 00:39:54.800
of this all was the misguided adoption of recovered memory

525
00:39:55.039 --> 00:40:01.119
therapy or RMT, which purported to uncover repressed memories of

526
00:40:01.199 --> 00:40:06.840
childhood trauma through techniques like hypnosis and guided imagery. Many

527
00:40:06.880 --> 00:40:11.039
of those doing this were operating from a Christian worldview,

528
00:40:11.519 --> 00:40:16.199
which meant disassociative symptoms such as mood swings or identity

529
00:40:16.239 --> 00:40:21.800
fragmentation were sometimes interpreted as signs of Satanic ritual abuse.

530
00:40:23.079 --> 00:40:26.880
In peer reviewed and professional outlets at the time, clinicians

531
00:40:26.920 --> 00:40:31.039
treating multiple personality disorder as d ID was then known

532
00:40:31.480 --> 00:40:36.760
report large proportions of patients recovering Satanic ritual abuse, accounts

533
00:40:37.000 --> 00:40:42.480
that later proved impossible to verify. Others warned that suggestibility

534
00:40:42.599 --> 00:40:47.559
and leading interviews by authorities were inadvertently turning therapy rooms

535
00:40:47.800 --> 00:40:53.360
into story factories, conjuring up the tales the authorities wanted

536
00:40:53.400 --> 00:40:57.280
to hear. It was on the twenty fifth of October

537
00:40:57.360 --> 00:41:03.519
nineteen eighty eight that NBC aired Devil Worship, Exposing Satan's Underground,

538
00:41:04.119 --> 00:41:08.800
a two hour primetime special hosted by Giraldo Rivera, reaching

539
00:41:08.880 --> 00:41:15.559
roughly nineteen point eight million households. The program stitched together

540
00:41:16.000 --> 00:41:21.880
horrific anecdotes, supposed expert sound bites, and several interviews with

541
00:41:22.039 --> 00:41:27.360
self proclaimed Satanists. Rivera told viewers there were around a

542
00:41:27.519 --> 00:41:31.480
million Satanists in the United States alone, operating through a

543
00:41:31.599 --> 00:41:39.639
secretive network. This show horrified audiences, accelerating already placed anxieties,

544
00:41:40.559 --> 00:41:43.480
But what many weren't aware of at the time was

545
00:41:43.519 --> 00:41:49.719
that this special, presented as investigative journalism, relied almost entirely

546
00:41:50.119 --> 00:41:57.719
on unverified testimony and sensational claims. Newspapers and magazines jumped

547
00:41:57.719 --> 00:42:02.360
on the hype next, further sensationalizing the panic by repeating

548
00:42:02.400 --> 00:42:06.599
the claims with minimal due diligence. Segments of the religious

549
00:42:06.639 --> 00:42:11.840
press amplified them further, as evangelical outlets and bookstores platformed

550
00:42:11.880 --> 00:42:16.519
Walkey and similar survivor narratives for years. On top of that,

551
00:42:17.000 --> 00:42:20.760
local press began to run police warnings about supposed occult

552
00:42:20.760 --> 00:42:25.280
crime waves taking place. This merged the laurid with the

553
00:42:25.360 --> 00:42:29.639
legitimate and created a trapdoor for skepticism, as if you

554
00:42:29.679 --> 00:42:32.440
were to push back on the urban legends being spread,

555
00:42:33.320 --> 00:42:36.679
you'd be seen as somebody who doesn't care about the

556
00:42:36.760 --> 00:42:42.320
victims of child abuse. Sensationalism was not confined to television.

557
00:42:43.000 --> 00:42:47.199
Tabloids such as The National Inquirer got involved, hungry for

558
00:42:47.280 --> 00:42:53.079
circulation spikes, and radio hosts booked self described occult experts

559
00:42:53.119 --> 00:42:56.159
to appeal in the air, keeping alleged satanic crime in

560
00:42:56.199 --> 00:43:01.840
the headlines week after week, and turning local rumors international

561
00:43:01.920 --> 00:43:06.440
talking points. None of this, though, quite summed up the

562
00:43:06.480 --> 00:43:10.719
sheer panic of this time, like the McMartin preschool trials

563
00:43:10.960 --> 00:43:20.960
that span from nineteen eighty three to nineteen ninety. It

564
00:43:21.079 --> 00:43:26.920
began in Manhattan Beach, California, when mother Judy Johnson told

565
00:43:26.960 --> 00:43:30.639
police her preschool age son had been abused by a

566
00:43:30.679 --> 00:43:36.000
young teacher, Ray Bucky. Police went on to send around

567
00:43:36.360 --> 00:43:41.039
two hundred letters to families urging them to question their

568
00:43:41.119 --> 00:43:46.880
children about sexual abuse, listing specific acts to ask about.

569
00:43:48.039 --> 00:43:52.679
The police chief wrote, the following procedure is obviously an

570
00:43:52.760 --> 00:43:56.039
unpleasant one, but to protect the rights of your children

571
00:43:56.280 --> 00:43:59.480
as well as the rights of the accused, this inquiry

572
00:44:00.119 --> 00:44:05.199
is necessary, and please question your child to see if

573
00:44:05.239 --> 00:44:09.519
he or she has been witness to any crime or

574
00:44:09.559 --> 00:44:14.159
if she has been a victim psychologists looking back at

575
00:44:14.159 --> 00:44:18.559
this have considered this letter a perfect example of what

576
00:44:19.000 --> 00:44:23.280
not to do in this situation, but when ahead regardless.

577
00:44:24.159 --> 00:44:28.320
Hundreds of children were then interviewed at Children's Institute International

578
00:44:28.480 --> 00:44:32.880
by social worker Kee McFarlane's team, using techniques later criticized

579
00:44:33.199 --> 00:44:38.840
as highly suggestive, such as repeated sessions, heavy adult talk,

580
00:44:39.119 --> 00:44:47.079
anatomically detailed dolls, and encouragement to pretend or remember. Within months,

581
00:44:47.519 --> 00:44:53.559
the allegations had ballooned far beyond their original interpretations, now

582
00:44:53.639 --> 00:44:59.880
filled with claims of secret tunnels, animal sacrifice, naked movies,

583
00:45:00.079 --> 00:45:06.599
dar games, and even celebrity involvement. This caused a frenzy

584
00:45:06.599 --> 00:45:11.559
amongst believers, and it horrified citizens up and down the country.

585
00:45:12.440 --> 00:45:16.440
Soon enough, excavations had begun under the school, where they

586
00:45:16.440 --> 00:45:20.559
did turn up old debris of earlier buildings. However, they

587
00:45:20.639 --> 00:45:24.800
found no secret chamber inside. On top of that, the

588
00:45:24.880 --> 00:45:28.559
taped interviews with the children, when eventually played to jurors,

589
00:45:29.360 --> 00:45:35.000
showed the degree of leading and pressure, quickly becoming decisive

590
00:45:35.119 --> 00:45:40.199
to those in the courtroom. After an eighteen month preliminary hearing,

591
00:45:41.119 --> 00:45:47.639
multiple defendants faced hundreds of counts, but eventually all were

592
00:45:47.679 --> 00:45:52.480
acquitted or left with hung juries, with the last charges

593
00:45:52.840 --> 00:45:59.039
dismissed in nineteen ninety Although the McMartin case was far

594
00:45:59.119 --> 00:46:04.280
from unique. In New Jersey, Kelly Michaels, a young daycare worker,

595
00:46:04.320 --> 00:46:08.159
in nineteen ninety three, was convicted after a trial built

596
00:46:08.199 --> 00:46:14.039
solely on interviews, ones that were so coercive that experts

597
00:46:14.119 --> 00:46:19.480
later called them textbook examples of how to create false memories.

598
00:46:20.320 --> 00:46:26.760
Her conviction was overturned on appeal. In North Carolina, the

599
00:46:26.800 --> 00:46:31.239
Little Rascal's Daycare prosecution became a drawn out ordeal that

600
00:46:31.400 --> 00:46:35.400
consumed most of a decade for those involved. What began

601
00:46:35.599 --> 00:46:39.119
in nineteen eighty nine as a single parent's vague worry

602
00:46:39.440 --> 00:46:45.360
quickly escalated after investigators used highly suggestive interviews with the children.

603
00:46:46.239 --> 00:46:51.760
Soon more than twenty youngsters were accounting laurid scenes of

604
00:46:51.880 --> 00:46:57.360
satanic ceremonies, secret boat rides, and impossible acts of violence.

605
00:46:58.280 --> 00:47:02.320
Seven staff members in total, including owner Bob Kelly and

606
00:47:02.480 --> 00:47:07.119
cook Dawn Wilson, were charged with hundreds of counts of abuse.

607
00:47:07.920 --> 00:47:11.920
The trials stretched on for seven exhausting years, marked by

608
00:47:12.039 --> 00:47:19.559
sensational headlines and televised testimony. There was never any physical evidence,

609
00:47:20.400 --> 00:47:25.719
yet some defendants spent years in jail awaiting verdicts, while

610
00:47:25.760 --> 00:47:32.000
the community split into bitter factions. The McMartin investigation itself

611
00:47:32.400 --> 00:47:36.079
ended up being the longest and most expensive criminal prosecution

612
00:47:36.440 --> 00:47:39.679
in American history at the time, and left the accused

613
00:47:40.000 --> 00:47:44.719
bankrupt and stigmatized, but the children traumatized by the process

614
00:47:45.039 --> 00:47:49.199
and the public no closer to evidence of a Satanic conspiracy.

615
00:47:50.159 --> 00:47:54.239
By now, though, their case was a national spectacle, and

616
00:47:54.320 --> 00:47:58.559
the hunt for the Satanists was continued, even as more

617
00:47:58.639 --> 00:48:02.440
and more people became gan to question the legitimacy of

618
00:48:02.519 --> 00:48:07.199
their very existence. The stories, in some cases had grown

619
00:48:07.559 --> 00:48:12.639
too outlandish for even the most susceptible of audiences, including

620
00:48:12.760 --> 00:48:15.880
tales of a goat man who would later become an

621
00:48:16.000 --> 00:48:19.800
urban legend of their own. On top of that, tales

622
00:48:19.800 --> 00:48:23.480
of school employees having the ability to fly or cause

623
00:48:23.519 --> 00:48:27.280
bodily harm without leaving a mark caused many to reconsider

624
00:48:27.679 --> 00:48:32.400
the legitimacy of these tales. In May nineteen eighty five,

625
00:48:32.880 --> 00:48:36.400
the news program twenty twenty ran a segment on satan

626
00:48:36.480 --> 00:48:41.400
worship to regurgitating many of the theatrical supposed facts that

627
00:48:41.440 --> 00:48:44.840
were spreading across the continent. Now there were a couple

628
00:48:44.840 --> 00:48:48.559
of caveats to this, as the host, Hugh Downs did

629
00:48:48.639 --> 00:48:52.000
open the show by saying police have been skeptical when

630
00:48:52.039 --> 00:48:56.199
investigating these acts, just as we are in reporting them,

631
00:48:56.360 --> 00:48:59.039
but there is no question that something is going on

632
00:48:59.119 --> 00:49:02.719
out there and that sufficient reason for twenty twenty to

633
00:49:02.760 --> 00:49:06.480
look into it. However, it was only at the end

634
00:49:06.599 --> 00:49:11.239
that he stated the link between crime and Satanic cults

635
00:49:11.920 --> 00:49:17.360
will remain speculative. The problem with this, of course, is

636
00:49:17.360 --> 00:49:20.719
that by now the audience has sat and watched full

637
00:49:20.800 --> 00:49:24.679
narrative displayed as fact, so by the time this disclaimer

638
00:49:24.760 --> 00:49:30.880
is said, viewers are already emotionally enthralled, disgusted, and horrified

639
00:49:30.920 --> 00:49:35.280
by the concept. This in itself serves as a leading question,

640
00:49:35.800 --> 00:49:38.840
which is a tactic still used today under the guise

641
00:49:38.880 --> 00:49:43.719
of I'm just asking questions. By planting the seed, a

642
00:49:43.800 --> 00:49:47.599
belief can grow, whether it's sprouting from fact or fiction.

643
00:49:48.960 --> 00:49:52.039
This works in the favor of the person putting that

644
00:49:52.119 --> 00:49:56.480
question forward, as technically they've actually made no statement and

645
00:49:56.559 --> 00:50:00.760
can claim their innocence in any future time. In that sense,

646
00:50:01.599 --> 00:50:05.760
this part of history is repeating itself again. It's only

647
00:50:05.800 --> 00:50:15.320
the boogeyman himself that has changed. Eventually, law enforcement agencies

648
00:50:15.360 --> 00:50:20.480
began to institutionalize the panic through occult crime seminars, speciality

649
00:50:20.480 --> 00:50:26.159
officers and training materials, and now infamous nineteen ninety four

650
00:50:26.280 --> 00:50:32.239
training film Law Enforcements Guide to Satanic Cults circulated in departments,

651
00:50:32.559 --> 00:50:36.599
teaching rank and file officers to read everyday items and

652
00:50:36.760 --> 00:50:41.880
youth subcultures as red flags sold out conference halls taught

653
00:50:41.920 --> 00:50:46.119
officers to treat heavy metal records, fantasy role playing, and

654
00:50:46.320 --> 00:50:52.760
even Halloween decorations as gateways to satanism. Parents groups and

655
00:50:52.880 --> 00:50:58.280
prosecutors targeted bands like Judas Priest and Ozzy Osbourne, bringing

656
00:50:58.400 --> 00:51:04.119
high profile trials over alleged subliminal messages, while moral crusaders

657
00:51:04.159 --> 00:51:08.199
painted dungeons and dragons as a recruiting tool for the occult.

658
00:51:09.079 --> 00:51:14.480
In fact, the Recording Industry Association's Parental Advisory sticker, which

659
00:51:14.559 --> 00:51:17.519
was introduced in nineteen eighty five, owed as much to

660
00:51:17.599 --> 00:51:22.960
this climate of satanic fear as any concerns regarding explicit lyrics.

661
00:51:24.480 --> 00:51:27.639
It was due to this mix of pop culture devils,

662
00:51:28.159 --> 00:51:33.360
podium experts, therapeutic fashions, and police training that a perfect

663
00:51:33.440 --> 00:51:38.719
feedback loop had been created, feeding on media sensationalism and

664
00:51:38.840 --> 00:51:46.199
public panic and reinforced by confirmation bias. That's why, looking back,

665
00:51:46.920 --> 00:51:51.519
the most sobering figures remained the simplest ones out of

666
00:51:51.679 --> 00:51:56.760
thousands of allegations. No real proof of an intergenerational organized

667
00:51:56.800 --> 00:52:02.039
Satanic network ever surfaced. People who believed they were acting

668
00:52:02.119 --> 00:52:06.840
virtuously to save lives and stop evil instead left a

669
00:52:06.920 --> 00:52:12.719
trail of wrecked families and shattered reputations. Ordinary teachers and

670
00:52:12.800 --> 00:52:18.440
caregivers were demonized and vilified, while children were pressed to

671
00:52:18.639 --> 00:52:24.760
remember horrors that never truly happened. And yet, of all

672
00:52:24.840 --> 00:52:28.199
the stories to emerge from this fevered time, one stands

673
00:52:28.199 --> 00:52:33.559
out above due to how dark, confusing, and troubling the

674
00:52:33.599 --> 00:52:37.880
case was from the beginning to the end, and that

675
00:52:38.079 --> 00:52:49.559
is the Trial of the West Memphis three. If you're

676
00:52:49.599 --> 00:52:53.000
still listening, I know you share my passion for folklore

677
00:52:53.000 --> 00:52:56.400
and urban legends. But to keep these stories coming, I

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00:52:56.519 --> 00:53:00.119
need your help for just three pounds a month and

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00:53:00.280 --> 00:53:04.599
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680
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exclusive perks, including access to our bonus series Modern Myths,

682
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683
00:53:22.599 --> 00:53:26.599
such as the Hodag, the Dark Watchers, and many more.

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You'll also enjoy behind the scenes insights, discounts on merchandise,

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687
00:53:40.519 --> 00:53:44.239
as an extra thank you, I randomly feature patrons in

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to join, just click the Patreon link in our show

693
00:54:09.880 --> 00:54:14.840
notes to subscribe and I'll see you there. But for now,

694
00:54:16.039 --> 00:54:41.000
back to the Legend. On the warm evening of May

695
00:54:41.000 --> 00:54:44.559
the fifth, nineteen ninety three, three eight year old friends

696
00:54:45.119 --> 00:54:49.800
Stevie Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers climbed onto their

697
00:54:49.800 --> 00:54:53.960
bikes and set off through the quiet streets of West Memphis, Arkansas.

698
00:54:54.760 --> 00:54:59.280
They were a familiar sight, Stevie leading the way, Michael

699
00:54:59.360 --> 00:55:03.000
keeping pace, Christopher determined not to be left behind as

700
00:55:03.000 --> 00:55:05.800
they pedaled towards a patch of woods the locals called

701
00:55:06.159 --> 00:55:12.280
robin Hood Hills. Although when darkness fell and the boys

702
00:55:12.320 --> 00:55:16.360
hadn't returned, parents began calling their names through the back

703
00:55:16.400 --> 00:55:21.360
gardens and vacant lots. Soon enough, police joined the search,

704
00:55:22.320 --> 00:55:26.079
flashlights cutting through the trees as hours passed with no

705
00:55:26.199 --> 00:55:30.039
sign of them. It wasn't until the following afternoon that

706
00:55:30.159 --> 00:55:32.639
a volunteer spotted a black tennis shoe in a muddy

707
00:55:32.679 --> 00:55:37.920
drainage ditch. They investigated further, hoping to find some form

708
00:55:37.920 --> 00:55:40.519
of evidence that could lead them to the boys whereabouts

709
00:55:40.920 --> 00:55:46.280
so they could be brought to safety. However, unfortunately, what

710
00:55:46.440 --> 00:55:50.440
she found were the bodies of all three boys laying

711
00:55:50.519 --> 00:55:55.760
submerged in water. They were naked, hog tied, with their

712
00:55:55.760 --> 00:56:01.199
own shoelaces and their clothes found nearby, inside out, and

713
00:56:01.280 --> 00:56:05.280
caked with mud. Stevie and Michael bore signs of blunt

714
00:56:05.360 --> 00:56:10.760
trauma and drowning, but Christopher Byers had additional injuries such

715
00:56:10.760 --> 00:56:15.320
as knife wounds and genital mutilation. There were no fingerprints,

716
00:56:16.000 --> 00:56:21.920
no usable DNA, no clear weapon. West Memphis had a

717
00:56:21.960 --> 00:56:26.719
horrifying crime and not a single obvious suspect to question.

718
00:56:28.079 --> 00:56:31.760
But this was in nineteen ninety three, a time where

719
00:56:31.800 --> 00:56:35.599
America was deep in the grip of the satanic panic,

720
00:56:35.960 --> 00:56:40.320
and so whispers of an occult motive filled the void

721
00:56:40.440 --> 00:56:44.840
left by this lack of evidence. Because of this, police

722
00:56:44.880 --> 00:56:49.000
soon focused on three local teenagers who didn't quite fit

723
00:56:49.119 --> 00:56:54.679
in with the town's expectations. Dimian Eccles eighteen, who wore black,

724
00:56:55.000 --> 00:57:00.519
read about Wicka, and loved heavy metal, Jason Baldwin sixteen,

725
00:57:01.079 --> 00:57:06.800
his quiet friend, and Jesse miss Kelly Junior seventeen, who

726
00:57:06.880 --> 00:57:12.760
was a neighbor with a mild intellectual disability. After more

727
00:57:12.800 --> 00:57:16.159
than twelve hours of interrogation without a parents or lawyer present,

728
00:57:17.239 --> 00:57:22.280
Jesse miss Kelly gave a confused confession riddled with contradictions

729
00:57:22.519 --> 00:57:28.760
as times continuously didn't match and details consistently shifted. He

730
00:57:28.880 --> 00:57:33.480
recanted almost immediately, but by now it was too late

731
00:57:34.400 --> 00:57:40.320
and the story had been locked onto over time. Prosecutors

732
00:57:40.400 --> 00:57:45.519
wove a story of ritual murder, presenting Damien Eckles's music, taste,

733
00:57:45.719 --> 00:57:49.960
black clothing, and interest in alternative religion as proof of

734
00:57:50.039 --> 00:57:55.000
satanic allegiance. The trials for their convictions began in nineteen

735
00:57:55.079 --> 00:57:59.360
ninety four. Jesse miss Kelly was convicted of one counter

736
00:57:59.519 --> 00:58:03.920
first murder and two of second degree murder. Sentenced to

737
00:58:04.000 --> 00:58:08.719
life plus forty years, whereas Damien Eckles and Jason Baldwin

738
00:58:09.159 --> 00:58:13.239
were tried together and with no physical evidence, the state

739
00:58:13.400 --> 00:58:17.639
leaned heavily on Miss Kelly's disputed confession and testimony from

740
00:58:17.679 --> 00:58:22.960
the so called occult experts. This led to Baldwin receiving

741
00:58:23.480 --> 00:58:32.800
life without parole and Eckles being sentenced to death. Damien

742
00:58:32.920 --> 00:58:38.800
Eckles spent eighteen years on death row, but luckily constant appeals,

743
00:58:39.039 --> 00:58:44.800
outside scrutiny and later DNA testing kept any execution at bay.

744
00:58:45.960 --> 00:58:51.480
Beginning in the late nineteen nineties, HBO's Paradise Lost documentaries

745
00:58:51.800 --> 00:58:55.440
pulled back the curtain on these trials, and the first

746
00:58:55.480 --> 00:58:59.519
film from nineteen ninety six revealed glaring holes in the

747
00:58:59.599 --> 00:59:04.840
prosecut us story, spotlighting the three supposed devil worshipers as

748
00:59:05.039 --> 00:59:11.000
three alternative kids being caught up in hysteria. Its sequel,

749
00:59:11.320 --> 00:59:16.039
Paradise Lost Two Revelations in two thousand and the follow up,

750
00:59:16.320 --> 00:59:21.599
Paradise Lost Three Purgatory in twenty eleven, followed the years

751
00:59:21.800 --> 00:59:24.920
of the appeals put forward by the three, who were

752
00:59:24.960 --> 00:59:30.440
now grown men. By now, their story had inspired a

753
00:59:30.519 --> 00:59:36.039
worldwide movement of musicians, activists, and legal advocates to raise

754
00:59:36.119 --> 00:59:40.480
money and demand a new trial. By now, it was

755
00:59:40.599 --> 00:59:45.320
public knowledge that modern forensic testing had found no DNA

756
00:59:45.679 --> 00:59:50.639
from any of the three defendants on the crime scene evidence. Instead, however,

757
00:59:51.199 --> 00:59:55.559
a hair recovered from a ligature was consistent with Terry Hobbs,

758
00:59:55.960 --> 01:00:02.840
the stepfather of victim Stevie Branch. Facing mounting public pressure

759
01:00:03.039 --> 01:00:05.760
and the likelihood of a new trial, the state of

760
01:00:05.880 --> 01:00:10.119
Arkansas offered an Alford plea in the August of twenty eleven.

761
01:00:10.760 --> 01:00:14.719
This rare legal mechanism allowed the three men to plead

762
01:00:14.760 --> 01:00:19.679
guilty while maintaining their innocence. After eighteen years in prison,

763
01:00:20.480 --> 01:00:25.360
Damien Eccles, Jason Baldwin, and Jesse ms Kelly walked three,

764
01:00:26.320 --> 01:00:32.599
still legally convicted, but no longer behind bars. The murders

765
01:00:32.599 --> 01:00:39.280
of Stevie Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers remain officially unsolved.

766
01:00:40.880 --> 01:00:44.920
The West Memphis three continue to fight to clear their names,

767
01:00:45.440 --> 01:00:49.000
and the case endures as one of the most infamous

768
01:00:49.039 --> 01:00:53.840
examples of how fear, In this instance, the satanic panic

769
01:00:54.480 --> 01:00:58.519
can shape an investigation, a court room and nearly cost

770
01:00:58.800 --> 01:01:04.000
an innocent man his life. The satanic panic thrived in

771
01:01:04.039 --> 01:01:06.920
the broader atmosphere of the nineteen eighties, when a new

772
01:01:07.039 --> 01:01:11.559
culture war was taking shape and powerful voices were working

773
01:01:11.599 --> 01:01:15.840
to reassert traditional values against what they saw as a

774
01:01:15.880 --> 01:01:22.320
secular drift. To many, Satanism became the imagined endpoint of liberalism.

775
01:01:22.719 --> 01:01:27.840
If you didn't fit the demands placed on gender, age, viewpoint,

776
01:01:28.000 --> 01:01:32.119
or sexuality, you were seen as flirting with the devil.

777
01:01:33.199 --> 01:01:38.239
That framing was dangerous as it made suspicion a virtue

778
01:01:38.679 --> 01:01:42.519
and doubt as sin, asking people to choose a side

779
01:01:42.599 --> 01:01:47.480
first and check the facts later. This isn't unfamiliar to you,

780
01:01:47.559 --> 01:01:51.840
I'm sure, as modern conspiracy movements recycled these exact same

781
01:01:51.840 --> 01:01:55.519
plot points, only now spread faster and wider in our

782
01:01:55.559 --> 01:02:00.400
digital age. It was in late twenty seventeen that Cumanon began,

783
01:02:00.679 --> 01:02:05.800
when an anonymous poster calling themselves Q dropped cryptic posts

784
01:02:06.079 --> 01:02:10.119
on the message board four chan. What stood out about them, though,

785
01:02:10.599 --> 01:02:13.559
was that they were claiming to have high level US

786
01:02:13.639 --> 01:02:18.679
security clearance. Q, during his posts that would later be

787
01:02:18.760 --> 01:02:22.599
known as Q drops, began to talk of an impending

788
01:02:22.679 --> 01:02:27.039
showdown between Donald Trump and a secret network of child

789
01:02:27.119 --> 01:02:32.119
abusing elites. Followers flocked to these drops treating each vague

790
01:02:32.239 --> 01:02:36.519
post as a riddle for them to crowdsource interpretations using

791
01:02:36.719 --> 01:02:41.519
older Satanic panic myths with every strain of Internet paranoia,

792
01:02:41.679 --> 01:02:47.079
such as global cabals, coded symbols, and apocalyptic storms of

793
01:02:47.159 --> 01:02:52.519
mass arrests. Within months, QAnon migrated from fringe forums to

794
01:02:52.599 --> 01:02:58.280
Facebook groups, YouTube channels, and mainstream social feeds. Certain influencers

795
01:02:58.559 --> 01:03:02.440
saw an opportunity and ran with it, labeling themselves as

796
01:03:02.840 --> 01:03:08.519
digital soldiers, making podcasts, live streams, and memes. The movement

797
01:03:08.639 --> 01:03:13.440
even borrowed legitimate anti trafficking language, most notably the slogan

798
01:03:13.760 --> 01:03:17.639
save the Children, forcing the actual charity of that name

799
01:03:17.920 --> 01:03:22.280
to publicly distance itself from a campaign it never endorsed.

800
01:03:23.000 --> 01:03:27.840
Official endorsement was unnecessary, though, and just like the Satanic Panic,

801
01:03:28.480 --> 01:03:33.639
anyone who approached the subject with suspicion was seen as naive, stupid,

802
01:03:34.199 --> 01:03:39.800
or downright evil. But that all being said, this is

803
01:03:39.880 --> 01:03:43.880
not where these stories of reemergence begun. It was actually

804
01:03:43.880 --> 01:03:47.320
a year prior to QAnon's beginning, back in twenty sixteen,

805
01:03:47.880 --> 01:03:51.800
that a rumor known as Pizzagate was being spread, laying

806
01:03:51.840 --> 01:03:56.559
the groundwork for much of the coming conspiracies. It began

807
01:03:56.960 --> 01:04:01.280
when hacked political emails from the US president campaign were

808
01:04:01.320 --> 01:04:04.679
misread and twisted on forums like Reddit and four Chan.

809
01:04:05.760 --> 01:04:09.360
Strangers had somehow come to the conclusion that the word

810
01:04:09.440 --> 01:04:14.320
pizza was code for a child trafficking ring allegedly run

811
01:04:14.519 --> 01:04:18.000
by prominent Democrats out of Washington, d C. At a

812
01:04:18.039 --> 01:04:22.320
restaurant called Comets Ping Pong, even though there was never

813
01:04:22.360 --> 01:04:26.400
a shred of evidence to any of it. As we've

814
01:04:26.400 --> 01:04:30.159
seen time and time again, though that didn't matter, and

815
01:04:30.239 --> 01:04:34.280
in that December, a man named Edgar Madison Welch drove

816
01:04:34.320 --> 01:04:38.000
from North Carolina to the pizzeria with an assault rifle,

817
01:04:38.639 --> 01:04:43.639
Convinced he was on a mission to rescue children. Once there,

818
01:04:44.239 --> 01:04:48.480
he fired several shots before surrendering to the police. No

819
01:04:48.639 --> 01:04:53.079
children were ever found inside, because, as you may have expected,

820
01:04:53.920 --> 01:04:59.159
no ring was ever found. Far from ignoring the Pizzagate scandal,

821
01:04:59.599 --> 01:05:03.719
q had absorbed its wholesale treating the Comet Ping Pong

822
01:05:03.800 --> 01:05:08.480
fantasy as early proof of its own sweeping claims, and

823
01:05:08.559 --> 01:05:12.519
due to this the two movements became entwined, as Pizzagate

824
01:05:12.559 --> 01:05:18.760
provided the script, whilst QAnon gave it a new global stage.

825
01:05:18.880 --> 01:05:23.079
QAnon never did ever produce credible evidence of its grand conspiracy,

826
01:05:23.800 --> 01:05:27.159
but it didn't need to. Like the Satanic ritual legends

827
01:05:27.199 --> 01:05:31.840
before it, the movement thrived on fear, symbolism, and the

828
01:05:31.880 --> 01:05:36.440
promise that deciphering secret signs could reveal the ultimate truth.

829
01:05:37.519 --> 01:05:41.199
Just as the Satanic Panic left lives in ruins without

830
01:05:41.280 --> 01:05:45.159
ever proving its dark claims, QAnon continues to linger in

831
01:05:45.199 --> 01:05:49.760
the culture, with shouts of blood harvesting, child sex rings,

832
01:05:49.800 --> 01:05:55.440
and deep state still prominent amongst many Nearly two hundred

833
01:05:55.519 --> 01:05:58.960
people were charged with crimes during the years of the

834
01:05:59.000 --> 01:06:05.519
Satanic Panic, and amongst them, dozens were convicted. Fortunately, many

835
01:06:05.639 --> 01:06:10.440
of these defendants were eventually freed, although some were incarcerated

836
01:06:10.719 --> 01:06:14.719
for far too many years due to misinformation and urban legend.

837
01:06:15.519 --> 01:06:18.840
Geraldo Rivera, whose TV show was a key component in

838
01:06:18.880 --> 01:06:22.159
the spread of the Satanic Panic misinformation, has even gone

839
01:06:22.199 --> 01:06:25.239
on to apologize for his partner at all. Even one

840
01:06:25.280 --> 01:06:28.239
of the former students of mcmartin's school came out to

841
01:06:28.280 --> 01:06:31.679
openly admit what we all by now knew that she

842
01:06:31.719 --> 01:06:36.199
had lied. Whilst talking to the Los Angeles Times, she

843
01:06:36.320 --> 01:06:40.039
was quoted as saying it was an ordeal. I remember

844
01:06:40.079 --> 01:06:42.840
thinking to myself, I'm not going to get out of

845
01:06:42.880 --> 01:06:45.320
here unless I tell them what they want to hear.

846
01:06:46.840 --> 01:06:50.760
The stories and the panic along with it were powerful

847
01:06:50.920 --> 01:06:54.800
enough to jump borders. In the United Kingdom, allegations of

848
01:06:54.920 --> 01:06:59.480
ritual or satanic abuse surfaced in high profile child protection

849
01:06:59.599 --> 01:07:04.639
action at Rochdale and Orkney, but once again, subsequent inquiries

850
01:07:04.679 --> 01:07:09.599
criticized interviewing methods and found no evidential basis for organized

851
01:07:09.639 --> 01:07:14.559
Sitanic crimes. Jean de la Fontaine's government commissioned review of

852
01:07:14.679 --> 01:07:18.840
hundreds of British cases concluded that there was no corroborated

853
01:07:18.920 --> 01:07:22.440
proof that child abuse was part of rights with a

854
01:07:22.480 --> 01:07:28.519
religious or magical objective, even as genuine non ritual abuse

855
01:07:28.880 --> 01:07:34.920
certainly existed. In Canada, the Martinsville prosecution in Saskatchewan spiraled

856
01:07:34.920 --> 01:07:37.719
into claims of a cult called the Brotherhood of the

857
01:07:37.800 --> 01:07:43.239
Ram before or later RCMP review condemned the investigation as

858
01:07:43.320 --> 01:07:49.360
driven by emotional hysteria and by suggestive child interviews. Later,

859
01:07:50.039 --> 01:07:55.559
multiple defendants were eventually compensated for malicious prosecution. In the Netherlands,

860
01:07:55.760 --> 01:08:00.199
the nineteen eighty seven to nineteen eighty nine Oude peculareted,

861
01:08:00.239 --> 01:08:03.639
a Justice ministry work group whose nineteen ninety four report

862
01:08:04.159 --> 01:08:09.239
judged that the satanic narrative was unlikely and instead attributed

863
01:08:09.360 --> 01:08:14.800
many accounts to suggestive questioning within a therapeutic network. South

864
01:08:14.840 --> 01:08:17.920
Africa formed an occult related Crimes unit in the early

865
01:08:18.000 --> 01:08:22.920
nineteen nineties, and media carried scattered Satanic ritual abuse claims,

866
01:08:23.560 --> 01:08:28.119
but historians note the panic never anchored itself in sustained,

867
01:08:28.359 --> 01:08:33.920
corroborated cases. Australia two saw waves of allegations, conferences, and

868
01:08:34.000 --> 01:08:38.439
bitter professional disputes about ritual abuse, with scholars later describing

869
01:08:38.479 --> 01:08:42.760
it as an imported moral panic rather than a phenomenon

870
01:08:42.760 --> 01:08:47.199
supported by material evidence. A key factor across all of

871
01:08:47.239 --> 01:08:51.960
these cases was a profound misunderstanding of memory. Decades of

872
01:08:52.000 --> 01:08:57.159
research show human memory is reconstructive, it can be actively

873
01:08:57.239 --> 01:09:02.640
distorted by post event information, leading questions, repeated interviews, or

874
01:09:02.680 --> 01:09:07.760
discussions with peers. Elizabeth Floftus's work on the misinformation effect

875
01:09:08.039 --> 01:09:13.399
demonstrates how exposure to misleading cues can alter what witnesses

876
01:09:13.439 --> 01:09:17.680
firmly believe they recall, and with children the risks are

877
01:09:17.760 --> 01:09:23.760
even higher. Classic reviews by Stephen J. Cesci, Professor of

878
01:09:23.840 --> 01:09:28.479
development psychology and Maggie Bruck, Professor of psychiatry and behavioral

879
01:09:28.520 --> 01:09:35.119
science document how young witnesses incorporate interviewers assumptions, how confidence

880
01:09:35.399 --> 01:09:42.279
can outtrip accuracy, and how repeated directive questions inflate error

881
01:09:43.199 --> 01:09:47.640
props make things worse, as reviews find anatomically detailed dolls

882
01:09:47.680 --> 01:09:52.159
and other interviewing aids can actually invite fantasy play and

883
01:09:52.279 --> 01:09:57.920
false reports rather than improve recall or touch events. Eventually,

884
01:09:58.199 --> 01:10:02.640
modern forensic protocols are arose precisely to counter these problems.

885
01:10:03.239 --> 01:10:09.359
The NICHD Investigative Interview Protocol, for example, emphasizes open ended prompts,

886
01:10:10.000 --> 01:10:15.560
minimal interviewer input, and careful pacing, which reliably increases the

887
01:10:15.600 --> 01:10:21.119
proportion of accurate, forensically useful details. Courts have also had

888
01:10:21.159 --> 01:10:24.760
to reckon with these limits. Professional bodies warned in the

889
01:10:24.800 --> 01:10:29.439
nineteen nineties that so called recovered memories retrieved in suggestive

890
01:10:29.479 --> 01:10:33.920
therapy could not be treated as inherently reliable and urged

891
01:10:33.960 --> 01:10:40.000
extreme caution in criminal proceedings. Appellate reviews in daycare panic

892
01:10:40.079 --> 01:10:45.760
cases repeatedly flagged interviewing flaws such as repetitive leading questions

893
01:10:45.880 --> 01:10:50.880
and contamination from prior conversations, and in some jurisdictions, convictions

894
01:10:50.920 --> 01:10:56.760
were even overturned and compensation paid. In short, what looked

895
01:10:56.840 --> 01:11:01.880
like a hidden international network was off, and network of ideas,

896
01:11:02.560 --> 01:11:08.199
suggestive training materials, professional seminars, and media narratives that primed

897
01:11:08.239 --> 01:11:12.800
investigators and therapists to expect the worst. The panic traveled

898
01:11:12.880 --> 01:11:17.399
quickly because the human mind wants sharp lines between us

899
01:11:17.399 --> 01:11:21.000
and them, and because memory under pressure can be made

900
01:11:21.239 --> 01:11:27.479
to serve the story. In the end, the Satanic panic

901
01:11:27.760 --> 01:11:30.760
had no real victims of devil worshiping, torture and evil

902
01:11:30.800 --> 01:11:35.319
cult like behavior. Instead, the victims were those who had

903
01:11:35.319 --> 01:11:40.600
been either coerced or accused, versus the obvious people who

904
01:11:40.600 --> 01:11:44.359
had been accused of horrifying acts whilst being completely innocent.

905
01:11:45.000 --> 01:11:49.199
These people would have been vilified, abandoned, and treated terribly

906
01:11:49.319 --> 01:11:51.800
during this time, let alone the stress and horror of

907
01:11:51.840 --> 01:11:55.039
the situation. What that would do to a person's mental

908
01:11:55.079 --> 01:11:57.880
well being I hope to never find out. But then

909
01:11:57.920 --> 01:12:01.399
there are those who were actively convicted for the supposed crimes,

910
01:12:01.439 --> 01:12:05.199
such as the aforementioned West Memphis free or husband and

911
01:12:05.239 --> 01:12:09.199
wife Francis and Dan Keller, who ended up serving twenty

912
01:12:09.239 --> 01:12:12.520
one of their forty eight year sentence for abuses they

913
01:12:12.560 --> 01:12:16.960
allegedly committed at their Texas daycare. It wasn't until twenty

914
01:12:17.039 --> 01:12:19.840
thirteen that the couple were finally released due to the

915
01:12:19.920 --> 01:12:24.119
lack of evidence and false medical testimony. But then, there

916
01:12:24.119 --> 01:12:27.119
are those that are forgotten in many stories surrounding the

917
01:12:27.199 --> 01:12:31.720
Satanic Panic, and that is those who were coerced to

918
01:12:31.760 --> 01:12:35.920
begin with. These were small children at the time who

919
01:12:36.079 --> 01:12:39.159
likely did not fully understand the repercussions of what they

920
01:12:39.199 --> 01:12:43.520
were saying. There are horrible things these children would have

921
01:12:43.560 --> 01:12:47.079
heard during the coercive interview tactics being used on them.

922
01:12:47.239 --> 01:12:51.079
Not to mention the false memories that these children would

923
01:12:51.079 --> 01:12:54.680
now have, as many had been truly convinced that these

924
01:12:54.720 --> 01:12:59.439
were real life memories. The trauma of a horrifying crime,

925
01:13:00.119 --> 01:13:03.399
alongside the guilt of knowing it was all made up,

926
01:13:03.720 --> 01:13:07.119
must be such a troubling and confusing thing to deal with.

927
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By the mid nineties, the Satanic Panic had settled and

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much of the world moved on as if it had

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never happened. Generally, there was no moment of realization amongst

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01:13:20.520 --> 01:13:23.720
the general public where they became aware of how easily

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01:13:23.760 --> 01:13:27.960
they could be influenced. Instead, it fizzled out into nothing,

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01:13:28.479 --> 01:13:31.560
only to rise up once again under new names within

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01:13:31.600 --> 01:13:35.560
a couple of decades. With that in mind, we end

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01:13:35.600 --> 01:13:40.800
where we began with fear and misinformation. We can repeat

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01:13:40.840 --> 01:13:44.760
the pattern, treating every rumor as a clue and every

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01:13:44.800 --> 01:13:48.239
symbol as a confession. Or we can do what the

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01:13:48.279 --> 01:13:52.399
satanic panic begged does not do and insist on proof,

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01:13:53.359 --> 01:13:59.800
protect children with facts not folklore, hold institutions to account

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01:14:00.079 --> 01:14:06.159
with evidence not vibes, and remember that a movement can

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01:14:06.279 --> 01:14:12.279
feel righteous and feel urgent and still be wrong.

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01:14:21.319 --> 01:14:25.039
Urban Legends is researched, written and produced by Luke mooreg

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01:14:25.479 --> 01:14:29.319
co edited by Sophie tikl music by Billy Japp with

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01:14:29.399 --> 01:14:33.279
additional sounds from storyblocks and inverto. If you liked what

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01:14:33.359 --> 01:14:35.600
you heard and want to hear more, please like a

945
01:14:35.640 --> 01:14:39.119
review our show on your chosen podcast provider. This simple

946
01:14:39.159 --> 01:14:42.520
task is a big part of our shows continuation and growth.

947
01:14:42.960 --> 01:14:46.560
To access more chapters through our bonus material, early releases,

948
01:14:46.600 --> 01:14:49.720
add free content and more, become a patron by clicking

949
01:14:49.720 --> 01:14:52.680
the link in our show notes To follow us on TikTok,

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01:14:52.920 --> 01:14:57.399
Instagram or YouTube. Simply search Urban Legends Folklore or visit

951
01:14:57.479 --> 01:15:01.479
lukemogue dot com slash podcast If you have more information

952
01:15:01.720 --> 01:15:04.680
or a correction on anything said, email us on Luke

953
01:15:04.760 --> 01:15:07.840
at lukemodude dot com. We aim to ensure that all

954
01:15:07.880 --> 01:15:11.239
information provided is accurate and up to date, and this

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01:15:11.439 --> 01:15:12.960
remains a top priority.

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01:15:15.279 --> 01:15:18.199
Thank you again, my spookyes for giving Luke moore Jew's

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01:15:18.239 --> 01:15:23.720
podcast Urban Legends a good old Halloween listen. If you

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01:15:23.840 --> 01:15:27.640
enjoyed what you heard, I recommend you go and subscribe

959
01:15:27.640 --> 01:15:31.760
on your favorite podcasting app. I really do appreciate it,

960
01:15:32.159 --> 01:15:34.359
and a big thanks to Luke and the team at

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01:15:34.439 --> 01:15:40.039
Urban Legends for supporting our program as well. So until

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01:15:40.079 --> 01:15:45.600
next time, stay spooky and always check your candy