The blog of author Dennis Cooper

Bacteriaburger presents … Five Credulous Books from the Satanic Panic Era (Restored)

“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

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

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. Surprise. I have a little more time than expected pre-auditions this early morning, and, since there are only 7 comments, here’s a p.s. Oh, and I now know that will be away from the blog through Thursday, so enjoy the restorations and leave comments as much as you like between now and then, and I’ll be back with a brand new post and a catch-up p.s. on Friday. ** David Ehrenstein, I hope you had a really great birthday, and I’m happy that Pam Grier added some cake icing. Awesome that you met and talked to her. Dreamy. ** Misanthrope, Hi. Yeah, I’m really sad about “The Animal”.  He’s my all-time favorite pro wrestler, as I think you know. Me too about counting my chickens about what age has doled out to me so far. Definitely get some Grier under your belt, as it were. Annapolis sounds as nice as its moniker sounds. Thanks, man, for my business trip good wishes. Hopefully we’ll get a ton accomplished, that’s the plan. And enjoy … uh, Presidents Day? That’s the vacation’s title, right? See you soon, buddy. ** Dóra Grőber, Hi! Yes, yes, do. If I don’t get some serious progress or even an apartment nailed down this week, it’ll be panic time. Ugh. See if WordPress is a good fit. I have no complaints at all, except for the fact that, for some weird reason, WP doesn’t let me resize gifs like Blogger did, which creates a big headache when making my gif works since I have use them at their original dimensions, but I don’t think too many people need that service. Thank you about today and this week. I’m starting it with a sudden bad head cold, so that’s not good. I’ll let you know the highlights of my attempts to progress our film and anything else when I get back, and I hope you’ll save your next few days’ highlights and share them with me too. Take good care! ** Jamie, Hi, hi! She is, right? She’s like joy. Thank you about the trip. It should be pretty involving and a bit nuts. Auditions, trying to secure locations to shoot in and around, and we have to scout out a river, and we need one that’s both pretty and deep enough in at least one spot to swim in. And we need either an amusement park or a fun-looking fun fair that will let us shoot a short scene inside and just outside it. That might be a toughie. And toughest of all, an abandoned mine. Good luck to us. I didn’t end up seeing the Lynch doc. Stuff got in the way, so you’ll probably see it before I do, and tell me the scoop. Have a safe but inventive next few days, man. Runaway train love, Dennis. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. Thank you very much! That’s not an easy thing to do, so, cool. Have a great few days, okay? ** Bernard, Hi, Bernard. How nice to get to see you before I scoot out of here (blog, Paris) for a short bit. Oh, right, I remember you did that crazily good double bill. You back home now? How did everything go? ** Right. So, Bacteriaburger, who is, in reality, the excellent writer Natty Soltesz, made this cool post for the blog kind of ages ago, and I thought it deserved a return to life itself. The blog will see you tomorrow, and I will see you directly again on Friday. Have lovely times ’til then, all of you.

9 Comments

  1. rewritedept

    bacteriaburger-

    i remember this day fondly from the old blog. happy to see it revived.

    d-

    of course the day i end up with a second to post, you’re off on work. things are pretty busy on yr end, then?

    pam grier weekend was a wonderful treat as well. she is one of my most favorite actresses. and she follows me on twitter, which, i have no idea how i made that happen, but it’s pretty rad regardless.

    so, since i last wrote, there has been all manner of madness, but things are in a really cool spot of late. i got fired from the call center because i called a caller a fucking asshole, and apparently my phone was not muted. this ended up being like the best way possible to start my year, though. i have a new job, cooking in a bar that a friend’s father took over on 1 jan. the work is awesome, the coworkers are very cool, and we are focusing everything on making this kitchen a massive success. i hated the shit out of my old job anyway. at this one, i’m working extra hours and totally loving it. when my next day off rolls around, i will have worked 11 or 12 days straight thru. i don’t know that i’ve ever done that in my life, except maybe once or twice when i was working on the zipline.

    one of my best friends since highschool was in town for a few days from denver, and we hit it pretty hard while he was here. monday night, we ate some acid and spent time with his sister and her friends. i did coke, which reminded why i only do coke once or twice a year. i didn’t have to be to work until 6pm on tuesday, but due to our intake the night before, i didn’t get to sleep until sometime in the early afternoon. luckily, tuesdays are fairly slow at work right now, though i’m hoping that changes soon. last night (meaning saturday night by the time you read this because it’s still sunday as i’m writing this (not really that it’s sunday technically, because it is 12.25am right now, but i have this thing about how it’s not the next day until you go to bed and then wake up (which probably makes sense to me, and only me))), i went to see ween, who i would guess you’re not the biggest fan of, but i don’t know if you are or aren’t. it was really great. i was on ecstacy at the time, which may have influenced that opinion a little bit, but it was a blast.

    saw deerhunter again a few weeks ago, as well. great show. they ended the set with this like 20-minute noisy psych jam. i contributed to it, which is a stupid way of saying i would depress the footswitch on lockett’s pitch shifter at more or less random intervals, and it made the feedback he was making do this really great whooshy sound like standing under the flight path of a plane coming in for landing. i met them after the show, which was also fun. and that same night i picked up a copy of the ‘found all the parts’ EP for $6. the cover of ‘day tripper’ on that EP is pretty rad. i was on no drugs at that show, except for my daily dose of suboxone and a couple rips off a hash pen.

    also also, on new year’s i finally got to see p-funk. they played so much stuff. sir nose, freak of the week, atomic dog, one nation under a groove, maggot brain, fucking cosmic slop, &c. they were on for almost three hours.

    the months prior to that were pretty shitty though. the new job has been incredibly beneficial to my mental state, as has the chance to see friends more frequently. part of that, though, is that i’m forcing myself to go out and be social. i’m also a little manic right now because i took some adderall earlier to help stay awake through my shift, and now i’m super wired.

    it’s a very late contribution, i know, but i did want to post my current 90’s american indie favorites since i didn’t get in on that day to post it.

    chris’ current list of 90’s boner jamzz in no particular order than the one in which i think of them:
    fugazi – last chance for a slow dance.
    belly – superconnected.
    pavement – rattled by the rush.
    sebadoh – sixteen.
    the breeders – saints.
    heatmiser – not half right.
    jawbox – static.
    gbv – jane of the waking universe.
    ween – roses are free.
    the jesus lizard – glamorous.
    chavez – unreal is here.
    sonic youth – bull in the heather.
    nirvana – sappy.
    superchunk – detroit has a skyline too.
    helium – pat’s trick.
    sleater-kinney – words and guitar.
    aimee mann – say anything.
    yo la tengo – (straight down to the) bitter end.
    elliott smith – angeles.

    that’s all i can think of right now. have you heard the new chavez EP yet? it is particularly brilliant. just righteous riff after righteous riff and these crazy hooks that just jump out of the songs at you. very worth the time if you haven’t. and it’s only 9 minutes long, so even if you don’t like it, you’re not out a whole bunch of time.

    everything good on yr end? so you’re casting for another movie now? is the tv series still in the works? has the tv series become the movie, or are they separate projects?

    i am going to space out on something stupid on the tv and maybe ice my hand down for a bit. i’m developing a weird cramp from holding a knife so often at work, which is probably caused by something like my left-handedness and lack of formal kitchen training leading to an improper grip on the knife.

    i managed a particularly poor grip on the knife my second night on the job. i was wiping a blade clean and holding it over the floor instead of over the counter and the handle slipped out of my hand and, you know how, like, if you drop something, you’ll instinctively try to catch it before it falls? yeah. i caught the blade, dropped the knife, screamed ‘mother fucker!’ so loud that my manager heard me in the bar through a closed door and over the music i was playing. cut my thumb right below the joint and on my palm and the webbing between my pinky and ring finger. the second cut was about an inch long, and took fucking forever to stop bleeding, but luckily the knife went in at an angle on both cuts leaving flaps of skin i could glue in place to keep the cuts sealed. so that was fun. luckily, the sight of my own blood doesn’t make me faint or anything like that. and i was still able to finish out my shift: we got a rush, so i had to expedite orders and run plates. so that was interesting.

    you probably won’t read this before you go, but have a safe trip. talk soon.

    -c.

  2. David Ehrenstein

    Great to see this again, Bacteriaburger. This should never be forgotten, cause there’s no telling when it might be whipped out again. There was a terrific “New Yorker” article about the nationwide Satanic Panic and why t arose as it did. Here in L.A. we had the McMartin Pre-School insanity. I wonder how those kids are today a they’re practically adults by now.

  3. Damien Ark

    Omg this reminds me. Where I live, close to Omaha, there used to be this apparent (although many people have told me it’s real and they know people who went through it) satanic sex cult that was mainly taking delinquent boys into the old market area under the “passageway area”. It was ran by some politicians I guess. There’s a whole book on it by some attorney that worked with the victims. It wouldn’t surprise me if that was happening since Omaha has a lot of trafficking issues and a pretty disgusting past with racism as well.

  4. Nick Toti

    Hi Dennis,

    I became weirdly obsessed with the ex-satanist/christian-standup-comic/debunked-yet-unapologetic-narcissist Mike Warnke a while ago. I did a ton of research on him with the idea of making a documentary, but it’s since lapsed into one of those ongoing casual obsessions that may never materialize as anything. His “family friendly” standup has these moments where he launches into graphic descriptions of Satanists cutting off children’s genitals. Very crazy stuff! His then-wife Rose Hall Warnke wrote one of the oddest books I’ve ever read called The Great Pretender in which she basically rants nonsensically for 200 pages. At one point she (I swear to God) discusses fucking Spinal Tap as a serious example of satanic rock music. She and Warnke later divorced…but not before collaborating on a book about why it’s sometimes okay for Christians to get a divorce.

    There’s not a ton of info on Warnke available online apart from snarky blog posts about his contribution to the Satanic Panic and later debunking (by Christian journalists!). If you ever wanted a “Mike Warnke Day” on this blog I could dig through my box of research materials and pull out some real gems for you!

    Hope all is well.

  5. steevee

    This reminds me of a “true crime” TV show I saw where a distraught father warned other parents about the dangers of metal bands like Venom, Iron Maiden and Slayer, which supposedly lured his son into the occult. It was amazing how the idea that these bands might be writing lyrics with a sense of irony or humor and that even teenagers could pick up on this never occurred to him.

    This is awkward to talk about it publicly, but frankly, I’ve been on the verge of tears over it the past few days. I’ve been going
    through a spiritual crisis of sorts. My father is Catholic,
    my mother is Jewish, I was raised Catholic but left the
    church circa age 13 on pretty bitter terms and became an
    atheist. Over the past six months, I’ve been increasingly
    interested in exploring my Jewish heritage, to the point
    where I now identify as Jewish, rather than half-Jewish.
    However, I remain an atheist and I’m attracted mainly to the
    historical and cultural traditions of secular Judaism
    represented by figures like Freud, Hannah Arendt and a whole
    long list of Jewish filmmakers, writers, musicians and
    comedians I could reel off. I want to become part of that
    tradition. J. Hoberman, Jonathan Rosenbaum and Serge Daney,
    the three film critics who’ve influenced me the most, all
    are or were Jewish. I don’t know quite how I will explore
    this, but I went to the “Jewish Rally For Refugees and
    Immigrants” the weekend before last.
    It’s the start of a journey. Anyway, I’ve had
    several conversations about this with my parents, and they
    just don’t get that this is not about religion in the
    literal sense, despite the fact that I kept repeating the words “atheist,” “secular” and “cultural.” My father asked if I needed to take a class
    to convert from Catholicism. I pointed out that I was 13 the
    last time I identified as a Catholic and that I’m
    automatically considered Jewish because my mother is. (She’s
    stunningly ignorant about the religion and culture, by the
    way – when I told her once I was going to see an Israeli
    film, she asked “What language do they speak there?”) He
    said something like “Yes, but that’s just ethnically.” That totally infuriated me. Being married to a Jewish woman seems to have taught him nothing about the variety of Jewish culture. Being gay has taught me that no matter how complex and nuanced I think my identity is, the greater world will always stereotype and pigeonhole me; I was naive to think it wouldn’t happen once I started identifying as Jewish, but I didn’t expect it from my own family.

    • Misanthrope

      steevee, Do it. Just do it. And don’t look back. You have only yourself to satisfy.

      • steevee

        Thanks, Misa. I really appreciate it. I’m not trying to satisfy my father, but he seems to have some weird views of my current beliefs – even though I’ve repeatedly tried to explain them – and really doesn’t understand Jewish culture, even though he’s been married to a Jewish woman since the mid ’60s. He’ll get it in time, I expect. But I never expected that it would be easier to come out as gay to my parents than to come out as Jewish.

  6. _Black_Acrylic

    @ Bacteriaburger, this is a great post and I’m super happy to see it again. There was a contemporaneous bit of Satanic panic came to Scotland about that time, when things were alleged to have happened on the Orkney islands. That still gets brought up on local newspapers’ letters pages on occasion, but it never inspired a whole literary genre as you documented here.

    It also puts me in mind of the definitive Mike Kelley – Educational Complex artwork, which is never a bad thing.

  7. Misanthrope

    bacteriaburger, I was just telling someone in her early 20s about this shit a couple weeks ago. She was wholly incredulous. That’s one of the fun things about being older, shocking the shit out of younger people with really weird but true bullshit you witnessed firsthand.

    Dennis, Yeah, Annapolis ain’t so bad. Though I picked up another fucking cold. Zicam to the rescue! Again. My one friend said her whole family had been sick all week. I think I got it from her.

    Yes, Presidents Day. We can celebrate every single one of them. Or not.

    LCTG is on its way, btw. See you Thursday-ish, if I don’t pop in sooner.

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