----
“When you once believed something that now strikes you as absurd, even unhinged, it can be almost impossible to summon that feeling of credulity again. Maybe that is why it is easier for most of us to forget, rather than to try and explain, the Satanic-abuse scare that gripped this country in the early 80's -- the myth that Devil-worshipers had set up shop in our day-care centers, where their clever adepts were raping and sodomizing children, practicing ritual sacrifice, shedding their clothes, drinking blood and eating feces, all unnoticed by parents, neighbors and the authorities.
Of course, if you were one of the dozens of people prosecuted in these cases, one of those who spent years in jails and prisons on wildly implausible charges, one of those separated from your own children, forgetting would not be an option. You would spend the rest of your life wondering what hit you, what cleaved your life into the before and the after, the daylight and the nightmare.”
-- Margaret Talbot, The Devil in the Nursery
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1) Michelle Remembers by Michele Smith and Lawrence Pazder, M.D.
The pitch:
“For over one year, [Dr. Lawrence] Pazder listened as…Michele [Smith] painfully divulged the incredible story. Her mother had been forced by a group of prosperous Satanists to yield Michelle for use in their most important ritual. They tried in vain to convert her to evil, using both torture and cruel psychological manipulation.”
About:
“A best-seller, Michelle Remembers was the first book written on the subject of satanic ritual abuse ... The book has been discredited by several investigations which found no corroboration of the book's events, while others have pointed out that the events described in the book were extremely unlikely and in some cases impossible.
“[After publication of Michelle Remembers] Pazder was considered to be an expert in the area of satanic ritual abuse. …In 1984, Pazder acted as a consultant in the McMartin preschool trial which featured allegations of satanic ritual abuse.” -- Wikipedia
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Sample passage:
“The others started doing this funny dance, and the nurse was doing it with them. She would bend down and walk in a slinky way, as if she were a cat, and then she would jump up and turn around, and then she would walk like a cat again, holding her kitten in her arms. Then Michelle got very scared, because they bent and took the kittens in their teeth, holding the cats by the napes of their necks. And then Michelle started screaming, because now they were biting the kittens in their teeth, chewing at their paws to make them come free, stopping only spit out the hair. Then they rubbed themselves with the cats’ blood, slowly, as they continued their catlike dance.”
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2) The Satan Seller by Mike Warnke
The pitch:
"A former Satanist high priest reveals the demonic forces behind the fastest-growing and most deadly occult religion in the world."
About:
“After he got famous, I always wanted to write him a letter and say, ‘Mike, remember me? The one you gave the silver cross to? When were you able to have this coven of fifteen hundred people? Don’t you remember, about the most exciting thing we used to do was play croquet in Greg’s backyard?’ ” -- Dyana Cridelich, friend of Mike Warnke
“A generation of Christians learned its basic concepts of Satanism and the occult from Mike Warnke’s testimony in The Satan Seller… We believe The Satan Seller has been responsible, more than any other single volume in the Christian market, for promoting the current nationwide ‘Satanism scare.’
“After our lengthy investigation into his background, we found discrepancies that raise serious doubts about the trustworthiness of [Warnke’s] testimony.” -- Selling Satan: The Tragic History of Mike Warnke
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Sample passage:
Background: Drug use and moral conflict over his actions as a Satanic high priest have led formerly mild-mannered college student Mike Warnke to become increasingly paranoid. Here he takes out his stress on his church-provided sex slaves.
“‘Where's my fix?'
'We're still looking for it,' Carmen answered. 'Where did you put the speed?'
'Speed? I don't want speed. The H.'
'H?' They looked at each other grimly. 'You don't have any--'
'The hell I don't. I picked some up yesterday. It's stashed in the sugar can in the kitchen cabinet. Why don't you chicks use your damn heads?' I jumped out of bed and grabbed them by the hair and knocked their heads together. 'You just need some sense knocked into you.' I laughed. 'Now, split.'
They rushed off, crying, to the kitchen."
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3) Jay's Journal by Anonymous (Edited by Dr. Beatrice Sparks)
The pitch:
"Jay was a nice, bright high school kid who cared about good grades, good friends, and good times... When a charismatic friend lured him into a nightmare world of the occult, Jay couldn't handle it... Only in the pages of his journal could Jay express the dark forces that led to his suicide."
About:
"Beatrice Sparks…is known for producing books purporting to be the 'real diaries' of troubled teenagers [most famously Go Ask Alice]. Although Sparks always presents herself as merely the discoverer and editor of the diaries, records at the U.S. Copyright Office show that in fact she is listed as the sole author for all but two of them.
“[Jay's Journal] is based on 'true' events of 16-year-old Alden Barrett from Pleasant Grove, Utah, who committed suicide in 1971. According to a book written by Barrett's brother Scott … Sparks used roughly 25 entries of 212 total from Barrett's actual journal. The other entries were fictional…" -- Wikipedia
Sample passage:
"When I found out Tina was having our wedding in the cemetery, by the big tomb, I about died. It was like making a mockery of the whole thing. I knew we'd invited only the kids connected with O and it was to be part of the sacred ancient sacrament but... Anyway, it was fantastic! …we each cut our tongues and let the blood pour into each other's mouths. It was Nirvana. We were one! One blood, one toucla, one being!
When the chanting started Martin brought in a teensy mewing kitten. With one twist he wrung its little neck. Instantly we all put forth every gram of power at our command to bring it back to life again, that being the supreme taloa.
I don't know how the others felt but I concentrated until I thought my whole being was going to detonate, then I relaxed ... calling the cat's karma ... magnetizing its karma...but in vain, we had not yet advanced to that plane.
In a way the stilled kitten ruined the evening."
![]()
4) Satan's Underground by Lauren Stratford
The pitch:
“As a child, Lauren Stratford lived the agony of being trapped between two worlds - the outside world of school, church, and friends, where everything appeared normal, and the inner world of a twisted, satanic nightmare, where mind control, fear, and ritualistic child abuse were her constant companions.”
About:
“Lauren Stratford's story…became one of the key sources for promoting, perpetuating, and validating the satanic ritual abuse (SRA), ‘adult survivor,’ and ‘repressed memories’ hysteria that peaked in the early 1990s.
*
p.s. Hey. In his real life, Bacteriaburger is the eminent author Natty Soltesz. Did you know that? Well, it's true. This is an awesome post he made some while back that definitely deserved a second fore-fronting. As I'm sure you agree? Dig. So, on my front, assuming the pre-made plans have gone as had been planned, I'm on my way to Hong Kong today where I will spend my last couple of traveling-days before heading back to Paris and here and you at the end of this week. Cool.
“When you once believed something that now strikes you as absurd, even unhinged, it can be almost impossible to summon that feeling of credulity again. Maybe that is why it is easier for most of us to forget, rather than to try and explain, the Satanic-abuse scare that gripped this country in the early 80's -- the myth that Devil-worshipers had set up shop in our day-care centers, where their clever adepts were raping and sodomizing children, practicing ritual sacrifice, shedding their clothes, drinking blood and eating feces, all unnoticed by parents, neighbors and the authorities.
Of course, if you were one of the dozens of people prosecuted in these cases, one of those who spent years in jails and prisons on wildly implausible charges, one of those separated from your own children, forgetting would not be an option. You would spend the rest of your life wondering what hit you, what cleaved your life into the before and the after, the daylight and the nightmare.”
-- Margaret Talbot, The Devil in the Nursery
1) Michelle Remembers by Michele Smith and Lawrence Pazder, M.D.
The pitch:
“For over one year, [Dr. Lawrence] Pazder listened as…Michele [Smith] painfully divulged the incredible story. Her mother had been forced by a group of prosperous Satanists to yield Michelle for use in their most important ritual. They tried in vain to convert her to evil, using both torture and cruel psychological manipulation.”
About:
“A best-seller, Michelle Remembers was the first book written on the subject of satanic ritual abuse ... The book has been discredited by several investigations which found no corroboration of the book's events, while others have pointed out that the events described in the book were extremely unlikely and in some cases impossible.
“[After publication of Michelle Remembers] Pazder was considered to be an expert in the area of satanic ritual abuse. …In 1984, Pazder acted as a consultant in the McMartin preschool trial which featured allegations of satanic ritual abuse.” -- Wikipedia
Sample passage:
“The others started doing this funny dance, and the nurse was doing it with them. She would bend down and walk in a slinky way, as if she were a cat, and then she would jump up and turn around, and then she would walk like a cat again, holding her kitten in her arms. Then Michelle got very scared, because they bent and took the kittens in their teeth, holding the cats by the napes of their necks. And then Michelle started screaming, because now they were biting the kittens in their teeth, chewing at their paws to make them come free, stopping only spit out the hair. Then they rubbed themselves with the cats’ blood, slowly, as they continued their catlike dance.”
2) The Satan Seller by Mike Warnke
The pitch:
"A former Satanist high priest reveals the demonic forces behind the fastest-growing and most deadly occult religion in the world."
About:
“After he got famous, I always wanted to write him a letter and say, ‘Mike, remember me? The one you gave the silver cross to? When were you able to have this coven of fifteen hundred people? Don’t you remember, about the most exciting thing we used to do was play croquet in Greg’s backyard?’ ” -- Dyana Cridelich, friend of Mike Warnke
“A generation of Christians learned its basic concepts of Satanism and the occult from Mike Warnke’s testimony in The Satan Seller… We believe The Satan Seller has been responsible, more than any other single volume in the Christian market, for promoting the current nationwide ‘Satanism scare.’
“After our lengthy investigation into his background, we found discrepancies that raise serious doubts about the trustworthiness of [Warnke’s] testimony.” -- Selling Satan: The Tragic History of Mike Warnke
Sample passage:
Background: Drug use and moral conflict over his actions as a Satanic high priest have led formerly mild-mannered college student Mike Warnke to become increasingly paranoid. Here he takes out his stress on his church-provided sex slaves.
“‘Where's my fix?'
'We're still looking for it,' Carmen answered. 'Where did you put the speed?'
'Speed? I don't want speed. The H.'
'H?' They looked at each other grimly. 'You don't have any--'
'The hell I don't. I picked some up yesterday. It's stashed in the sugar can in the kitchen cabinet. Why don't you chicks use your damn heads?' I jumped out of bed and grabbed them by the hair and knocked their heads together. 'You just need some sense knocked into you.' I laughed. 'Now, split.'
They rushed off, crying, to the kitchen."
3) Jay's Journal by Anonymous (Edited by Dr. Beatrice Sparks)
The pitch:
"Jay was a nice, bright high school kid who cared about good grades, good friends, and good times... When a charismatic friend lured him into a nightmare world of the occult, Jay couldn't handle it... Only in the pages of his journal could Jay express the dark forces that led to his suicide."
About:
"Beatrice Sparks…is known for producing books purporting to be the 'real diaries' of troubled teenagers [most famously Go Ask Alice]. Although Sparks always presents herself as merely the discoverer and editor of the diaries, records at the U.S. Copyright Office show that in fact she is listed as the sole author for all but two of them.
“[Jay's Journal] is based on 'true' events of 16-year-old Alden Barrett from Pleasant Grove, Utah, who committed suicide in 1971. According to a book written by Barrett's brother Scott … Sparks used roughly 25 entries of 212 total from Barrett's actual journal. The other entries were fictional…" -- Wikipedia
Sample passage:
"When I found out Tina was having our wedding in the cemetery, by the big tomb, I about died. It was like making a mockery of the whole thing. I knew we'd invited only the kids connected with O and it was to be part of the sacred ancient sacrament but... Anyway, it was fantastic! …we each cut our tongues and let the blood pour into each other's mouths. It was Nirvana. We were one! One blood, one toucla, one being!
When the chanting started Martin brought in a teensy mewing kitten. With one twist he wrung its little neck. Instantly we all put forth every gram of power at our command to bring it back to life again, that being the supreme taloa.
I don't know how the others felt but I concentrated until I thought my whole being was going to detonate, then I relaxed ... calling the cat's karma ... magnetizing its karma...but in vain, we had not yet advanced to that plane.
In a way the stilled kitten ruined the evening."
4) Satan's Underground by Lauren Stratford
The pitch:
“As a child, Lauren Stratford lived the agony of being trapped between two worlds - the outside world of school, church, and friends, where everything appeared normal, and the inner world of a twisted, satanic nightmare, where mind control, fear, and ritualistic child abuse were her constant companions.”
About:
“Lauren Stratford's story…became one of the key sources for promoting, perpetuating, and validating the satanic ritual abuse (SRA), ‘adult survivor,’ and ‘repressed memories’ hysteria that peaked in the early 1990s.
“In the years since the discrediting of Satan's Underground, Lauren developed a new story. …Lauren Stratford became Laura Grabowski, child survivor of Auschwitz-Birkenau, a Polish Jew who was experimented on by the infamous Dr. Joseph Mengele, liberated to a Krakow orphanage at the end of the war, brought to the United States, and adopted by a Gentile couple at age nine or ten.” -- Lauren Stratford: From Satanic Ritual Abuse to Jewish Holocaust Survivor
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Sample Passage:
“It was a Saturday night. Sometimes around midnight, I was rudely awakened. Before me was a large barrel, like an oil drum. I was lifted up and dropped into the barrel, and a lid was closed over my head. The darkness was total. And the silence.
A few minutes later, the lid was opened and something was dropped on top of me. As it slid down my skin, another something was dropped on me…and another…maybe three or four. The last object was positioned directly in front of me, on top of my stomach. Then the lid was slammed shut. Again, there was only darkness…and silence.
There was a smell. A horrible smell. What could it be? With so little room in my small prison, I slowly maneuvered my arms and hands above my knees so I could grasp the last object that was put in…
Slowly, fearfully I touched the object that was pressing against my stomach. It took only a few seconds to realize it was a small body. A baby’s body. It was lifeless, but not stiff. It had probably been sacrificed that evening, just a short time before.”
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5) The Haunted by Robert Curren with Jack & Janet Smurl and Ed & Lorraine Warren
The pitch:
“You are holding in your hands perhaps the most shocking, terrifying, unforgettable story of demonic infestation ever told. And it’s true.”
About:
“[Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine] Warrens' most famous case, the Amityville Horror, has been thoroughly investigated by other researchers and revealed to have most likely been a complete hoax.
Sample Passage:
“It was a Saturday night. Sometimes around midnight, I was rudely awakened. Before me was a large barrel, like an oil drum. I was lifted up and dropped into the barrel, and a lid was closed over my head. The darkness was total. And the silence.
A few minutes later, the lid was opened and something was dropped on top of me. As it slid down my skin, another something was dropped on me…and another…maybe three or four. The last object was positioned directly in front of me, on top of my stomach. Then the lid was slammed shut. Again, there was only darkness…and silence.
There was a smell. A horrible smell. What could it be? With so little room in my small prison, I slowly maneuvered my arms and hands above my knees so I could grasp the last object that was put in…
Slowly, fearfully I touched the object that was pressing against my stomach. It took only a few seconds to realize it was a small body. A baby’s body. It was lifeless, but not stiff. It had probably been sacrificed that evening, just a short time before.”
5) The Haunted by Robert Curren with Jack & Janet Smurl and Ed & Lorraine Warren
The pitch:
“You are holding in your hands perhaps the most shocking, terrifying, unforgettable story of demonic infestation ever told. And it’s true.”
About:
“[Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine] Warrens' most famous case, the Amityville Horror, has been thoroughly investigated by other researchers and revealed to have most likely been a complete hoax.
“Renowned horror author Ray Garton gave an interview … discussing his experience with Ed and Lorraine Warren while he wrote a reputedly ‘non-fiction’ book titled Dark Place: The Story of a True Haunting. The book is an account of the alleged haunting of the Snedeker family in Southington, Connecticut. Ray Garton discussed how during the process of developing the book he became increasingly frustrated, as the family could not keep their story straight, when he confronted Ed Warren about his frustrations Ed told him ‘not to worry,’ that the family was ‘crazy’ and that ‘all the people who come to us are crazy. You think sane people would come to us?’ Ed Warren also advised Ray to ‘just make the story up using whatever details [he] could incorporate into the book, and make it scary.’” -- Wikipedia
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Sample passage:
“Q. How would you describe her?
A. [Pause on tape.] To be honest, I even hate to think about her. [Pause again.] Her skin was paper white, but it was covered in some places with the scaly surface I mentioned, and then in other places with open sores, the kind you’d think a leper would have or something. And these sores were running with pus.
Q. How old was she?
A. I would estimate around sixty-five or seventy. I can’t be sure. …She had long, white, scraggly hair and her eyes were all red and the inside of her mouth and her gums were green…
Q. What about her body?
A. That was the weird thing. Her body itself was firm, you know, like that of a younger woman.
Q. What did she do?
A. [Long pause.] She paralyzed me in some way. I saw her walking out of the shadows to our bed and I sensed what she was going to do but I couldn’t stop her.
Q. Then what?
A. Then she mounted me in the dominant position and she started riding me. That’s the only way I can describe it.”
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----
Sample passage:
“Q. How would you describe her?
A. [Pause on tape.] To be honest, I even hate to think about her. [Pause again.] Her skin was paper white, but it was covered in some places with the scaly surface I mentioned, and then in other places with open sores, the kind you’d think a leper would have or something. And these sores were running with pus.
Q. How old was she?
A. I would estimate around sixty-five or seventy. I can’t be sure. …She had long, white, scraggly hair and her eyes were all red and the inside of her mouth and her gums were green…
Q. What about her body?
A. That was the weird thing. Her body itself was firm, you know, like that of a younger woman.
Q. What did she do?
A. [Long pause.] She paralyzed me in some way. I saw her walking out of the shadows to our bed and I sensed what she was going to do but I couldn’t stop her.
Q. Then what?
A. Then she mounted me in the dominant position and she started riding me. That’s the only way I can describe it.”
----
*
p.s. Hey. In his real life, Bacteriaburger is the eminent author Natty Soltesz. Did you know that? Well, it's true. This is an awesome post he made some while back that definitely deserved a second fore-fronting. As I'm sure you agree? Dig. So, on my front, assuming the pre-made plans have gone as had been planned, I'm on my way to Hong Kong today where I will spend my last couple of traveling-days before heading back to Paris and here and you at the end of this week. Cool.