Corporations, musicians, and even game designers faced allegations of dabbling in Satanism in the 1980s and 1990s as Americans seemed to see the devil around every corner — but why?
In 1983, police in Manhattan Beach, California, sent an alarming letter to parents whose children attended McMartin Preschool. A mother of a two-year-old at the school had told the authorities that her son had been sexually abused, and the police were looking for additional victims or possible witnesses. But that wasn’t all they were looking for.
The mother had told the police other stories as well — claiming that her son had also described seeing a “goat-man,” that he’d witnessed a “ritual-type atmosphere,” and that he had seen one of his teachers flying in the air.
Then, to the horror of parents, administrators, and the authorities, other children at McMartin began to recount similarly terrifying stories.
They described seeing teachers beat a horse to death with a baseball bat, squeeze a parakeet to death, and sacrifice a baby in a church. The children even claimed that they’d been forced to drink the baby’s blood. They described secret tunnels beneath their preschool and a game called “Lookout” in which some children would stand guard, while their teachers took turns molesting their classmates.
However, these shocking accounts quickly came under scrutiny. It later came out that the mother who had raised the original complaint suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and that the children had been asked leading questions.
Nevertheless, many of the teachers at McMartin Preschool were forced to stand trial and deny the allegations. Finally, after several years, all the charges against them were dismissed.
UMKC School Of LawThe Satanic Panic reached a fever pitch at McMartin Preschool in the 1980s.
But how did such a case even get to trial in the first place?
The answer lies in the fact that, at the time, America was in the thick of a strange cultural moment now known as the Satanic Panic.
During this time, McMartin Preschool was hardly the only institution — and not even the only preschool — to face accusations of conducting sinister rituals or practicing Satanism. Corporations, musicians, and even game designers also faced allegations of dabbling in Satanism in the 1980s and 1990s.
Americans seemed to see the devil around every corner. But why?
How exactly did the Satanic Panic come into being? How did it touch every corner of American society? And did it ever really end?
Today, we’ll discuss the possible roots of the Satanic Panic, including how one book called Michelle Remembers first helped it spread, and why this strange American phenomenon, in some ways, never really went away.
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