A Rumor of Devils: The Satanic Ritual Abuse

Scare in the Mormon Church*

MassimoIntrovigne
CESNUR

I. The Satanism Scare

In 1993 sociologist Jeffrey S. Victor published a book on allegations of

Devil worship and Satanismin the United States. Onthe first page of the
book, Victor noted that "some really bizarre things have been happenirrg
in this country. These strange happenings may be omens of one of the
biggest secret conspiracies, or one of the biggest hoaxes, in recent
history. " He then proceeded to give a few examples. His first example
was that:

A top-level leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day

Saints (Mormons) wrote a confidential report for an internal study
of the church, in which he said that he believed that the church
had been infiltrated, up to the highest levels, by a conspiracy of
criminal Satanists who sexually torture children and ritually
sacrifice babies. The confidential report was obtained by an anti-
Mormon group of fundamentalist Protestantswho published it in
a Salt Lake City newspaperin October, 1991.1

It seemsthat the Satanism scare and Mormonism are related. Before

examining a few examples from the Intermountain West from 1985 to
1994,I will offer a short summary of the larger context: the history of
Satanismand anti-Satanism, the involvement of the anti-cult and counter-
cult movements, and the Satanism scare of the 1980s.

A. Satanism and fuiti-Satanísm: An Historical Overuíew

If we define Satanism as the organized worship of what the Bible
identifies as Satan or the Devil, by groups which are organized as
religious or magical movements, historians agree that Satanism is not a
very ansient phenomenon. Rumors of Devil worship surfaced during

t Text of a paper read at the annual

meeting of the Mormon History Association, park
City' Utah, M"y 1994. Apaft from some vory minor references, neither the text nor
the bibliography have been revissd nor updatod aftor 1994.
78 syrygy
witchcraft trials in Europe in the late Middle Ages and in America in the
late seventeenthcentury, but there was no suggestionthat organized and
hierarchical Satanic cults existed. The first Satanic cult which possibly
existed was operated by Catherine La Voisin at the Court of the French
monarch Louis XIV. Although some historians are skeptical, the
documents of the enquiry by Nicholas de la Reynie, the Police Chief of
the king--who was not a particularly religious man but a rather cold and
stubborn policeman--published by the l gth century historian Frangois
Ravaisson-Mollien, make a persuasivecase for the celebration of "Black
Masses" (the term was coined by La Voisin herself) at the Court of
Louis XIV. "Black Masses" were described as rituals mocking the
Roman Catholic Mass, in which Catholic hosts were desecratedthrough
sex rituals and children were occassionally sacrificed to the Devil in
order to obtain power and love for the wealthy customers of La Voisin.z
La Reynie's police effectively destroyèd the cult, but copycat imitations
surfaced during the 18th century and during the French Revolution.
These episodes were connected by pious Catholic authors to the
Revolution itself, which they believed had been masterminded by anti-
Catholic Satanists.
Between 1800 and 1865 more than thirty influential works exposing
a widespread Satanist conspiracy were published in France and in other
countries.3 New religious movements such as Spiritualism and
Mormonism were also believed to be the creation of the Devil and part
of the worldwide Satanic conspiracy. The anti-Spiritualist Orestes
Brownson (1803-1876) expressedhis opinion in the United Statesthat
only Satan could have been the real author of the Bookof Mormon-a His
theory was adapted in Europe by the Paris lawyer Joseph Bizouard
07n-870) in his six-volume anti-satanistwork published in 1864 and
which became one of the most influential books in the French anti-
Satanism scare of the 1860s.5In the meantime--in the second half of the
19th century--an occult subculture flourished in Paris and Lyon,
including both non-satanic and Satanic occult societies (some of them
operated by defrocked Catholic priests). Journalist Jules Bois (1868-
1,943) and novelist Joris-Karl Huysmans (1843-1907) explored this
underworld, and Huysmans published in 1891 a famous novel on
Satanism, IÀhas, which included one of the most famous literary
descriptions of a Black Mass.6 The Satanists of the 1880s were not
invented by Huysmans; they existed, but they were--admittedly--only a
few members in two or three small cults in France and Belgium.T Again,
public opinion overreacted and-in the wake of the successof I'A-bas-
 A Rumor of Devils 79

sensationalrevelations on a worldwide Satanic conspiracy were offered

to the French public by Dr. Charles Hacks, a medical doctor writing
under the pen name of "Dr. Bataille. " Hacks published his huge ^Le
Diable au XIXe siècle, whose two volumes appearedbetween 1892 and
1894, with the help of journalist Léo Taxil, whose real name was Gabriel
Jogand (1854-1907) and who had announced with much fanfare his
conversion fiom Freemasonry and anti-clericalism to Catholicism in
1995.8
Taxil supplemented Bataille's stories with more of his own, and the
whole affair became increasingly wild. Taxil claimed to be the
spokesman for Diana Vaughan, a High Priestess of Lucifer who was
converting to Catholicism. Vaughan--whosename appearedas editor of
a monthly journal published in Paris, Mémoires d'une etc-Palladiste:
revealed that a huge Satanic organization called Palladism was behind
Freemasonry, Spiritualism, occultism and even Mormonism. The arch-
rival of Diana, another American girl named Sophie Walder, who had a
Mormon connection, had been appointed High Priestess of Lucifer in
competition with Diana by the Satanic Pope himself, the prominent
American freemason Albert Pike (1809-1891). Her father, Phineas
Walder, was described as "the shadow" of John Taylor in Salt Lake
City; Taylor (1808-1887), the third Presidentof the Mormon Church,
was also accused of being a secret member of the Satanic Palladist
organiration.e Eventually, Taxil's stories about Diana Vaughan came
under increasing scrutiny by both Freemasons (including the British
Masonic encyclopedistArthur Edward Waite, 1857-1942)toandCatholics
(particularly the Jesuit press in France and Germany). The Jesuits were
actively engagedin the anti-Masonic campaign but, at the sametime, did
not trust Taxil. He was fìnally pressured to introduce the public to the
elusive Diana Vaughan (who had never been seen) or admit that her
existence was merely a literary device. In 1897 Taxil confessed at a
conference in Paris that there was no Palladism nor a worldwide Satanic
conspiracy at all; his own conversion to Catholicism had been a hoax
which he had conceived in order to convince the world how gullible the
anti-Masonic Catholics of his time actually were.11
Although a body of literature inspired by the Taxil fraud continued to
be published well into our century (including L'Elue du Dragon, a lglg
book claiming that U.S. President James Abram Garfield, l83l-lg$l,
had shortly replaced Albert Pike as chief of the worldwide Satanic
conspiracybefore his assassinationin 1881),12anti-Satanismwas largely
discredited after the infamous Taxil hoax. When in the 1930s Russian-
80 Syrygy
born occultist Maria de Naglowska (1883-1936) established an openly
Satanic cult in Paris, the press was more amused than sqandalized, and
some newspaperscharacterized Naglowska's Satanism as an interesting
religious experiment.13The international press was less kind when British
magus Aleister Crowley (1875-1%7) shocked his contemporaries by
styling himself "the Beast 666" and "the wickedest man in the world. "
Crowley made use of Satanic imagery and is still regarded by many as
the founding father of contemporary Satanism. The British occultist,
however, was a magical atheist who did not believe in the actual
existence of Satan; and although he has been influential on later Satanic
movements, he is not regarded as a Satanist in the narrow, technical
sense of the term.la On the other hand, It is true that Crowley
enthusiasts-including movie director Kenneth Anger--were instrumental
in founding the Church of Satan in San Francisco in 1966, whose
notorious spokesman is the former carnival performer Anton Szandor
L,aVey. To this day LaVey's Church of Satan and its main splinter
group-the Temple of Set, whose leader is Michael Aquino-are the
largest Satanic organizations in the world. They are not large. Their
combined active membership (not to be confused with their mailing lists)
does not exceed one thousand people and is probably even smaller.rs
LaVey's notoriety did have a role in the early stagesof the latest anti-
Satanist campaign, whieh can only be understood within the framework
of the larger anti-cult propagandaof the 190s and 1980s.
Summing up, from the Court of Louis XIV to contemporary
California the pendulum has periodically swung between Satanism and
anti-Satanism. Smaller Satanic cults have existed from time to time and
have produced--since Satanism iso by definition, intolerable--gross
overreactions in the form of Satanism scares. The successof the anti-
Satanistcampaignshas been self-limited by their own exaggerations. The
fact that each wave of anti-Satanism has been discredited has allowed
new Satanic cults to operate for a while, creating in turn a new
overreaction, and so on.

B. Anti-Calt and. Counler-Cult Movernents

The success of the latest Satanism scare in the 1980s can only be
understood as a peculiar development in the history of movements which
have been created to fight the so-called "cults. " Anti-cult movements are
not new in American history. In the lfth century Nativist organizations
devoted to the defense of a Protestant America labelled as "cults" three
 A Rumorof Devils 81

groups perceived as quintessentially hostile to the American way of life:

Freemasonry, Roman Catholicism, and Mormonism.ló
New entries were gradually added-seventh-Day Adventists, Christian
Science, Jehovah's Witnesses--while Catholics and Mormons were
eventually accepted by most Americans as part of the mainline of the
national religious life and anti-Masonism became marginalizd. By the
end of World War II, hostility towards "cults" was reduced to a bigoted
fringe of American Fundamentalism. The situation, however, changedin
the 1960s with the emergence of the juvenile counterculture and of new
religious movements such as the Children of God, the Moonies and the
Hare Krishnas. Their proselytism targeted young adults and college
students, leaving their families puzzled and worried when sons and
daughtersabandonedtheir secular careersto work full time for a bizarte
religious movement. The metaphor of "brainwashing" was quickly
applied to this apparently unexplicable change in behaviour, and a
militant opposition first against the Children of God and then against ttre
"big three" (no longer Catholicism, Mormonism and Freemasonry, but
now Moonies, Krishnas and Scientologists) spread from California
throughout the United Statesand eventually to many other countries.
The movement against the "cults" was, however, hardly a united
front. Students of the organized hostility to the "cults" have recognized
the difference between a secular anti-eultmovement (claiming to discuss
only deeds, not creeds) and a religious counter+ult movement (where the
fight against heretic creeds remains crucial). The different anti-cult and
counter-cult movements have occasionally cooperated,but their relations
have become increasingly difficult in recent years.17 Within each
movement against the "cults"--the secular and the religious-differences
have also arisen. I have argued elsewhere that both segments of the
arganrznd hostility to the "cults" are presently divided in a more
moderate "rationalist" and a more extreme "post-rationalist" wing.
Within the secular anti-cult movement the "rationalist" wing is composed
of professional skeptics who regard the leaders of the "cults" as clever
frauds, while the "post-rationalist" wing insists on the theory of
"brainwashing," seenas sornethingmagicaloor even "the modern version
of the evil eye."tt Within the religious counter-cult movement the
"rationalist" wing argues with logical arguments against the alÚi-
Scriptural heresies of the "cults" and cautions against any attempt to
connect the "cults" too directly with the activities of the Devil. The idea
that the Devil personally directs the "cults" is, on the other hand, the
trademark of the "post-rationalist" wing of the counter-cult movement.le
82 Syzygy
I have tried to show elsewhere that the different attitudes--religious and
secular, "rationalistu and "post-rationalist"--also apply to the history of
recent anti-Mormonism and rnay be used to build a typology of its
difbrent and often conflicting wings.20

C, The Satanism Scare of the 1980s

In his early studiesof hysteria, Sigmund Freud used hypnosis, and for
a while became convinced that what he called the "theory of seduction"
could explain the genesisof hysteria in female patients. All the patients
he hypnotized, in fact, remembered being sexually abused in their
childhood, a memory they were not conscious of while not under
hypnosis. While Freud was initially persuaded that these memories
correspondedto real, historical instancesof abuse, he becameperplexed
when, continuing the hypnotic therapy, almost all the patients
"remembered" abuse by Satanists (mostly their parents) in birarre
ceremonies and apparitions of the Devil himself. Freud dismissed these
stories as fantasies, abandonedthe theory of seduction and went on to
formulate ttre alternative explanation for hysteria which eventually made
him famous.2l Eighty years after Freud's early career, the theory of
seduction surfaced again. A Canadian Catholic therapist, Lawrence
Pazler, was told by his patient Michelle Smith that she had been abused
by a Satanic cult of international proportions twenty years before as a
child, had witnessedhorrible scenesof human sacrifice and cannibalism,
had seen the Devil but had forgotten these experiences until beginning
therapy with PazÀer. Unlike Freud, Pazder concluded that Smith's
memories corresponded to true, actual historical events. He persuaded
the Bishop of his Canadian Diocesis to accompany him and Michelle to
the Vatican, where their dramatic revelations about Satanism were met
with more caution than enthusiasm. Pazdet, however, decided to to
publish a book that eventually becamea bestseller, Michelle Remembers,
in 1980.22Shortly thereafter Pazúer left his wife and four children to
marry Smith, herself a divorcee, and the couple had to terminate their
relationship with the Catholic Church (which does not condone divorce).
Although Michelle Rememberuwas written from a religious point of
view, it was welcome more by secular mental health professionals than
by the Churches. Michelle's story has been interpreted within the context
of an ongoing discussion on Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD), a
disorder where the samepatient "dissociates" into different "alters" who
speak with different voices, may have very different personalities and
may not remember what the other "alters" think or do. Two Hollywood
 A Rumor of Devils 83

movies, The Three Faces of Eve in 1957 and Sybil in 1V73, popularized
this rather spectacular, if rare, disorder. The therapist who had treated
Sybil, Cornelia Wilbur, was also instrumental in promoting the theory
that MPD was almost invariably the result of severe childhood trauma,
often in the form of sexual abuse. Not only was Freud's theory of
seduction revived, but Freud himself was accusedof a coverup for his
refusal to treat seriously his patients' memories of Satanic abuse. In the
1970sDr. Wilbur was associatedat the University of Kentucky with Dr.
Arnold Ludwig and other therapists who were already active in the anti-
cult movement. In 1984 the First International Conference on Multiple
Personality/Dissociative Stateswas organized in Chicago, where Wilbur
delivered the opening plenary address. By 1986 leaders of the Cult
Awareness Network, the largest secular anti-cult organization in the
U.S., were invited to address the annual Chicago conference, thus
forging an effective link between the MPD professionalsand ttre anti-cult
aetivists. The latter simply applied to the Satanic cults whose memories
surfaced in MPD patients their model of brainwashing and mind sontrol.
The result was twofold: as a result of increasing media coverage of
MPD, thousandsof patients in the United Statesbeganclaiming that they
were "survivors" who had been abused by Satanic cults in their
childhood; and their therapists and anti-cult activists alike finally
repudiated Freud and claimed that the survivorso stories were literally
true. They also called for quick action by public authorities to uncover
the perpetrators, who were--they claimed--members of a vaste,
"multigenerational" and deadly dangerous-Satanic conspiracy. Anti-
satanists also speculated that MPD does not always arise as a
spontaneousprotection against tramautic memories but may be "planted"
by Satanists, who presumably have access to sophisticated psycho-
technologiesenabling them to brainwash childrento dissociation, making
their mernories so garbled that future identification of the perpetrators
becomesvirtually impossible.23
Another development took place in the same years. Survivors in
treatment fbr MPD began relating events that took place decadesbefore
their memories surfaced again. Influenced by the survivors'stories, some
therapists reasonedthat the Satanic cults were probably still operating,
and that many of the children sexual abuse incidents (unfortunately
conrmon in the United States and elsewhere) may include an undetected
Satanic element. The first and the most famous case involved the
McMartin Preschool in the affluent Los Angeles suburb of Manhattan
Beach. The McMartin case began in 1983, when the principals and a
84 syzysy
number of teachers of the respected preschool were ac,cusedof operating
an underground Sataniccult, which ritually abusedand tornrred children.
of
Mental health professionals involved in the case were later accused
having "planted" the stories in the children (some of them were only two
or three years old) based on their own persuasion that a Satanic
conspiracy exists. The McMartin trial was the most expensive in United
states legal history and ended in 1990 with no convictions-24 The
McMartin case had an enormous media impact and it surely had
something to do with hundreds of subsequent similar accusations of
sexual ritual abuses in both day-care centers and in family settings.
Although complete statistical data is lacking, it is possible that as many
as two thousand cases of Satanic ritual abuse of children have been
investigated in the decade 1983-19y2.2s The number of convictions
obtained in this ten year-period is a matter of dispute; but skeptical
sociologists claim that there are less than five, out of thousands of cases
investigated, while anti-Satanistscirculate a list of thirteen. Figures are
disputed because a specific felony of Satanic or ritual abuse has been
introduced only recently, and only in some States; in other caseswhere
a conviction for sexual abusehas been obtained it is unclear whether the
Courts have in fact recognized the existence of a "Satanic" element.26lt
is, at any rate, important to distingUish between the stories told by
survivors who suffer from MPD and the stories told by children. A bitter
debate exists between national lobbies who argue, respectively, that
children always tell the truth @elieve the Children) and that their
memories are often false (False Memory Syndrome Foundation).
However, while not even a single court conviction has been obtained
based on the survivors' stories, at least a handful of casesexist in which
abuserswho appearto have used Satanicsymbols and paraphernalia have
been convictedtased on reports by children. There was no evidence that
these abusers belonged to international, organized Satanic cults and no
reports of human sacrifice have been confirmed. Some therapists do not
of
believe in the stories of the survivors, but they do believe that some
the stories of Satanic abusetold by children may be true.
It is also important not to confuse the debate on Satanic ritual abuse
doubt
of children with discussionsof adolescentSatanism. There is little
mix
that gangs of teenagers exist who perform some sort of a home-made
drug
of Satanic rituals (copied from comics, books or movies) and
crimes such as
parties. These teenagers are often guilty of minor
vandalism or animal sacrifice. ln less than a dozpn cases more serious
murders'
crimes appear to have been committed, including a handful of
 A Rumor af Devils 85

In these cases it is difficult to determine whether d*9, gang-related

violence or Satan worship are mostly responsible for the crimes. What
is clear is that teenage Satanism is not connectedwith any international
conspiracy, and it is a different phenomenon from both religious
Satanismrepresented by organizations such as the Church of Satan and
"ritual" child abuse by adult perpetrators.2T
Attitudes before the widespread allegations of Satanic child abuse in
the 1980s reflect the differences between anti-cult and counter-cult
movements. Some anti-cult movements--whoseinfluence was declining
in the mid-1980s--quickly seized the opportumty of adding Satanism to
the list of "cults" they were claiming to fight, and became one of the
main tbrces behind the Satanism scare.28While "post-rationalist"
organizations such as the Cult Awareness Network do accept the claims
of survivors at face value, the "rationalist" wing of the anti-cult
movement is predictably more skeptical. CSER, the Committee for the
Scientific Examination of Religion, an organiration with connections to
CSICOP and with the skeptic press PrometheusBooks of Buffalo (New
York)-both active in exposing "cults" (including Mormonism) from a
secular humanist point of view--reacted very strongly against what it
perceived as a superstitious legend. CSER published a report in 1989 in
which the Cult Awareness Network was included on a list of "non-
experts" on Satanism. The skeptic Committee concluded that the whole
idea of a widespread Satanic conspiracy was a huge hoax.2eSurprisingly,
the religious counter-cult movement-alîhough firmly convinced of the
existence of the Devil--was quite slow in adding Satanismto its own list
of "cults." Evangelical counter-cultists were suspicious of secular
psychiatrists who figured too prominently in the promotion of the
Satanismscare. Evenfually, however, the "post-rationalist" wing of the
religious counter-cult movement (already persuadedthat the Devil was
behind most "cults") accepted the claims of the survivors. Evangelical
survivors, prepared to explain their experiencein strictly religious terms,
began to develop--particularly in Pentecostaland charismatic circles--a
techniquecalled "inner healing, " where lost memories of childhood abuse
are recovered not through secular therapy but through a protracted group
prayer on the disturbed individual.3o The "rationalist" wing of the
evangelical counter-cult movement, on the other hand, flatly refused to
jump on the Satanismscarebandwagon. The Christian ResearchInstitute-
-the organization founded by the late counter-Mormon activist Walter
Martin (1928-1989)-concluded that "there is still no substantial,
compelling evidence that Satanic ritual abuse stories and conspiracy
86 syzygy
theories are true (...). Careful investigation of the stories, the alleged
victims, and the proponents has given us every reason to reject the
Satanic conspiracy model."31 Christianíty Today, the most influential
voice of American Evangelicalism, recommended "skepticism" in a June
1993article authoredby two Evangelical universlty professors, noted that
while "for nearly a decade, American law enforcement has been
aggresively investigating the allegations of victims of ritualistic abuse,"
so far "there is no evidence for the allegation of large-scale baby
breeding [i.e. "producing" babies whose birth is not registered with
public authorities for sacrificing them in Satanic ceremonies], human
sacrifice, and organized Satanic conspiracies." "'We cannot fall victim-
the Evangelical professors concluded--to sloppy thinking or judgment
'He
basedon a mixture of fallacies, non-evidence,and subjectivism. who
chasesfantasies lacks judgment' (Prov. l2:lt)."32 In March 1991 the
sírme Christianity Today even r&ommended the ultimate skeptic book on
the Satanism scare, Sataníc Panic by (secular) sociologist Jeffrey S.
Victor. The reviewer confirmed, once again, that "to date there has been
no investigation that has substantiatedthe claims of alleged Satanicabuse
survivors" and quoted John F. Kennedy to the effect that "The great
enemy of the truth is very often not the lie-deliberate, contrived, and
dishonest--but the myth--persistent, pervasive, and unrealistic. "33
The most visible conflict was not, however, between "rationalist" and
"post-rationalist" groups against the "cults. " Sociologists and other
academics specialized in new religious movements were united in their
militant opposition to the theory of the Satanic conspiracy and did much
to ridicule the stories of survivors. The publication of the collective work
The Satanism Scare in 1991 by noted sociologists and anthropologists
was a crucial blow to the survivors' credibility.to By 1991 even some
psychiatric specialists of MPD were harboring doubts on the factual truth
of the survivors' stories, and the difficult decision to allow skeptic
anthropologists and psychiatrists to propose alternative points of view in
the yearly Chicago conferences on MPD was made, much to the
disappointment of militant survivors' organizations such as Voices in
Action and others.35
When former Mormon, turned anti-Mormon, William Schnoebelen
and the authors' of the God Ma&ers books and video series began
claiming that Mormons worship Lucifer or Satan in their temples,
arguing from a typical "post-rationalist" perspective, more "rationalist"
counter-Morrnons such as Jerald and Sandra Tanner reacted very
strongly, and labelled the "Lucifer-God Doctrine" of Schnoebelenas a
 A Rumor of Devik 87
wild fantasy, which causeda biuer fight to follow.36 When, however, the
Satanisrnscare hit Mormon country, "rationalist" and "post-rationalist"
counter-Mormons did not divide along predictable lines. In different
degrees, all Evangelical counter-Mormons accepted the reality of the
Satanic conspiracy. More surprisingly, the conspiracy theory was
acceptedby the Mormon Church itself.

II. The Feast of the Beast Comes to Utah

A. "A Folìtícal Nighttnnre": The khi Ritunl Abuse Scare (198s-lgss)

Sexual abuse of children in Utah has been the subject of much
controversy. Anti-Mormons often suggest that the statistics on child
abuse in Utah show that Mormon claims about the healthy situation of
I-DS families are mere propaganda, and some "post-rationalist"
Evangelical counter-Mormons even insist that the "evil" nature of
Mormonism and reminiscences of polygamy make child abuse more
likely in Utah than in any other State of the Union. In fbct, a l98B
national sfirdy sponsoredby u number of federal agenciesconcluded that
"as far as child sexual and physical abuse is concerned, there is no
evidence that the situation in Utah is much different from the [rest of the]
u.s."37 contrary to what some pious Mormons may believe, LDs
theology on the family does not make Utah a safe haven against child
abuse, but anti-Mormons are equally-wrong when they contend that
Utahns are more prone to child abuse than other Americans. When it
comes to Satanic child abuse, the number of accusations made by
children in Utah (as opposed to different accusationsmade by survivors)
appear to be smaller than in most other $tates. The comparative small
number of prosecutions against adults accusedof Satanic child abuse by
children has probably something to do with the particularly controversial
nature of the frst Satanic abuse scare in Utah, which took place in Lehi
between1985-1988.
During the Summer of 1985 Mrs. Sheila Bowers of Lehi, utah,
contacted Dr. Barbara Snow, a therapist working with the Intermountain
Sexual Abuse Treatment Center. Bowers was worried about her three
small children, who seemed to talk too freely about sex. Dr. Snow
interviewed the children and concluded that they had in fact been
sexually abused. Dr. Snow claimed that the children had told her about
the perpetrator, a teenage babysitter who was the daughter of Keith
Burnham, the respected Bishop of the l-ehi Eight Ward of the Mormon
 88 Syrygy

Church. Dr. Snow also asked to interview other Lehi children who had
been attended by the same babysitter, and most of the families involved
decided to comply. As a result of these further interviews, Dr. Snow
announoed that she had evidence that the babysitter and her parents,
Bishop Burnham and his wife Shirley, had sexually abused a number of
Lehi children. The Burnhams were also accused of abusing their own
younger children, who were removed from their parents and placed in
fcrsterhomes by the State Division of Family Services (weeks later, no
evidence of abuse was discovered-despite Dr. Snow's claims-and they
were returned to their home). While many Lehi citizens refused to
believe the claims against the Burnhams, others joined Dr. Snow in a
parent-therapy group. Alan B. Hadfield and Rex Bowers, both active
Mormons in the Eight Ward, emerged as vocal supporters of Dr. Snow.
At their urging, the Utah County Sheriff's Office and the Utah Attorney
General Office began a lengthy investigation. In the meantime Dr. Snow
continued to interview new children, and more shocking revelations
came. In February 1986the son of Rex Bowers, in an interview with Dr.
Snow, recalled instancesof sexual molestation by his father. In May both
a daughter and son of Alan Hadfield told Dr. Snow that they had been
forced by their father to have both anal and oral sex with him. Believing
the allegations, Hadfield's wife abandonedher husband, never to return.
Dr. Snow, at this stage, claimed that the children had confessed--justas
in other prominent cases throughout the country-- that they had been
initiated into Satanic cults, and compelled to worship Satan. They had
apparently described rituals very similar to the horrible "Feast of the
Beast" that Michelle Smith had remembered and described in her 1980
book. When the police concluded their investigation in 1987, Dr. Snow
had accusedfourty adults--almost all of them active Mormons in Lehi's
Eight Ward-+o be ritual child abusers and members of a secret Satanic
cult. Although Snow was publically and vocally backed by the
Intermountain Sexual Abuse Treatment Center and by Dr. paul L.
Whitehead, public-affairs representative fbr the Utah Psychiatric
Association, prosecutors decided to file charges against only one
individual, Alan Hadfield.
Both Snow and Whitehead testified against Hadfield at the 1987 rrial.
It was, however, clear that a sizeableshareof public opinion in Utah did
not believe the therapists. Some State legislators questioned whether it
was wise for Utah to fund controversial institutions such as the
Intermountain Sexual Abuse Treatment Center. The investigation was
described as "a political nightmare" by Utah's Deputy Attorney General
 A Rumorof Devils 89

Paul Warner.3t At trial, it came out that both Wayne Watson, Chief
Deputy Utah County Attorney, who had witnessed through a two-way
mirror one of Dr. Snow's interviews, and Judy Pugh, a colleague of
Dr.Snow at the Intermountain Sexual Abuse Treatment Center, thought
that Dr.Snow was coaching the children into admitting sexual and Satanic
abusesthat they had initially denied. A ten-year old girl testified that she
had tried to persuadeDr.Snow that she had never been abused, but later
had cracked under the pressure of the therapist, persuadedthat Dr.Snow
would not have let her go unless she agreed to accuse someoneof ritual
abuse.3eHadfield's defense attorney called as an expert witness Dr.
Stephen Golding, director of clinical psychology at the University of
Utah, who labelled Snow's techniquesas "subtly coercive and highly
questionable."4 A nervous and confused Hadfield did not help his case
when he said in Court: "If I did those things, I don't remember."al
Hadfield was convicted of four first-degree counts of sodomy on a
child and three second-degreecounts of sexual abuse of a child by an
eight-member jury on December 19, 1987. He should have been
sentencedto a minimum ten years jail term with no probation. However,
Utah allows probation for abusersafter six months in jail (with a further
possibility of work release) if they accept to place themselves in a
therapy program. Although most programs would not accept a convicted
abuser who, like Hadfield, maintains that he is innocentoHadfield's case
was somewhat unique. He was admitted for treatment and thereby
escapeda long jail term. Hadfield's suppolt in Lehi was massive.A rally
in his support after the 1987 decision drew eight hundred persons, and
a benefit banquet for his legal defense attracted around a thousand
persons, including State legislators and local Mormon leaders (one of
whom was Bishop Burnham, who at the beginning of the scarehad been
accusedof sexual abuse by Hadfield himself). While in Salt Lake City
Dr.Whitehead argued that such massive support for Hadfield in Lehi
merely showed that the town was in fact controlled by a Satanic child-
abuse úng.a The press believed, for the most part, that Hadfield was
innocent. Reporters became still more suspiciousof Dr. Snow's methods
when they discovered that the therapist, who had moved from Lehi, had
subsequently discovered other Satanic cults guilty of extended sexual
abuse in Bountiful in 1986 and in the Salt Lake City area in 1988. No
chargesrelated to a specific "Satanic" abusewere filed in Bountiful, and
a fourteen months probe was quietly dropped in Salt Lake in April
lggg.43
90 SYzYgY
The other therapist involved in the Lehi scare, Dr. Whitehead, wrote
the foreword of a book called Paperdolls: Healing from Sexunl Abuse in
Mormon Neighborhoods, written in l9V2 by two Salt Lake Valley women
using the pseudonymsApril Daniels and Carol Scott, who tell their own
and other stories of sexual abuse.a The book used material from the
1987-1988 ill-fated Snow investigation in the Salt Lake aîea.,and made
only passing referencesto ritual or Satanic elements in the abuses. The
sacrifice of a baby kitten was however described, and the book claimed
that in this particular incident the daughter and the son-inlaw of a
Mormon Apostle were involved.as In December l99l the Mormon
independent magtzine Sunstonepublished a letter by Marion B. Smith,
formerly the director of the Intermountain Sexual Abuse Treatment
Center, mentioning "sex rings discovered in Bountiful" (apparently the
same detected by Dr. Snory) and added that "one aspect of the second
alleged sex ring was that a daughter and a son-inJaw of a general
authority were named as the main abusers."{ As mentioned earlier, no
charges of Satanic abusewere filed in the Bountiful and Salt Lake cases,
perhaps becausepolice and prosecutors thought the controversies who
had surrounded the Lehi scare were enough.
One of the sociologists who has adopted a militant attitude againstthe
credibility of all survivors' and most children's stories about ritual abuse
is Anson D. Shupe. Although a vocal critic of anti-cult organizations
such as the Cult Awareness Network,ot Shupe is a also a skeptic of
claims of contact with supernatural beings by founders of religious
movements, including Joseph Smith. In 1991 he wrote a book for the
skeptic press PrometheusBooks. In this book, Shupe discussesat length
the Lehi incident. His sociological analysis of Lehi's reaction to the
Hadfield case concludes that all is not well in this Zion town, but also
claims that "there really was no evidence of a child-sexual abuse ring"
and "the unfortunate truth for Hadfield was that he was no rnore likely
to be an abuser than were his neighbors." Blaming "the psychoterapists'
conjecture," Shupe argUesthat "in the aftermath of the [Iadfield trial,
horrific possibilities gradually receded to become grotesque
improbabilities." Shupe also admits ttrat although "LDS Church leaders
were undoubtedly relieved to seethe controversy die," on the other hand
"there is no evidence they played any role in discouraging further
'scandal' collapsed of its own weight, not on account
prosecution. The
of outside pressure."€ Overall, Utah had reacted more coldly to claims
of sexual abuse by children than other States, equally or more affected
 A Rumor of Devils 9l
during the sameyears. Utah, however, proved more vulnerable to claims
of past Satanic abuse by MPD patiens and survivors.

B. "The Devil Makes Bod People": The Boby X Case

In early November 1989 in Minidoka County, Idaho, the
dismemberedand burned remains of z 4-to-8-weeks-oldfemale Hispanic
infant were discovered in a garbage dump. Forensic experts ascertained
that "Baby X"--whose identity was never discovered-had been
disembowelled and mutilated before she was burned. Rurnors of a
Satanic sacrifice started almost immediately. In March 1990 a lO-year
old boy, "Timothy" (tris name was not released by the authorities for
privacy reasons), entered therapy for disturbing dreams of sexual abuse
and torture. He began drawing pictures which, although open to multiple
interpretations, suggestedthat "Timothy" had witnessed Satanic rituals
including sexual abuse. "Timothy" told therapists and later police
detectives that his experiences had taken place in Rupert, a Southern
Idaho town close to where Baby X's remains had been found. Shortly
thereafter, "Timothy" claimed that during a Satanic ritual he had
witnessedthe sacrifice of an infant who may well have been "Baby X. "
"Timothy's" recollections were later published in the South ldaho Press
and included a graphic description of a Satanic ritual. "They put me on
a table with a Bible--'Timothy' reported--The devil is there. They pray
to the devil. 18 people stand around. The devil makes these people hurt
me. They hurt me so bad. Th"y hurt me iqthe private parts. They have
hurt me so many times. The devil makes bad people. They have
sacrifices. It's done in the real Bible. The devil is there. 18 people are
there. They sacrifice cats. They put them on a table and pray and
sacrifice and give them to the devil. They do this all the time, even in
the winter when it's cold. They sacrifìce all animals. They even sacrifice
babies. (Where do they get the babies?). From humans. They lay them
on this table and give them to the devil. They pray to him from the real
Bible. The Bible is on the table. Where do they get the babies, I don't
know. The babies don't have any cloths on. They just put them on the
table and pretty soon the devil makes a fire and they are on fire. My
mom and dad are there, they watch. "4eAlthough "Timothy" accusedboth
his parents of being involved in a Sataniccult, authorities were reluctant
to file charges. While the population of Minidoka County is
predominantly Mormon, " Timothy's " family--described by authorities as
"severely dysfunctional"--was associatedfor a short period of time with
92 Syrygy
Jehovah's Witnesses and "Timothy" was reportedly impressed by
Witnesses' literature graphically depicting the Devil and witchcraft.so
On November 8, l99l, with national TV networks in attendance,300
to 500 persons attended a candlelight vigil for victims of Satanic ritual
abuse, including Baby X, in Rupert. Apparently, "several busloads" of
"survivors" and advocatesfrom Salt Lake City came to Rupert for the
vigil.sl In the same month of November 1991 the Idaho Attorney
General's oftìce took over the investigation of the case. A noted
pathologist, Dr. William Brady, re-examinedthe remains of "Baby X,"
and a noted psychologist, Dr. Charles W. Gamble of Boise, examined
"Timothy." In lWL tÌre Attorney General's Office releasedhis report.
Dr. Brady reported that, although he could not tell exactly how Baby X
had died, he had ascertained beyond doubt that there was: "1) no
evidence of mutilation with-a knife or other sharp instrurnent, almost
certain to be present had some person dismembered the body;2) teeth
marlis on the body consistent with damage by small predators such as
rats, mice or birds; 3) evidenceof pneumonia in the infant's lungs. " The
prevailing theory was that poor Baby X died of pneumonia and her
illegal alien parents try to dispose of the body through amateur
cremation, with animal predators later attacking the infant's remains. The
Attorney General's report also noted that no member of "Timothy"'s
family was in the Rupert area "anywhere near the time of the infant's
death and disposal." As for "Timothy" himself, Dr. Gamble concluded
'had
that he never witnesseda Satanic ritual and (...) may have invented
the story. Randy Everitt, an investigator working for the Idaho Attorney
"
General's Office, told the press that authorities were "fairly well
convinced that the little boy didn't see anything. We believe the boy
jumbled what he's been read [in Jehovah's Witnesses' literature], and
other follcs interpreted that as they wanted."52 Although the Attorney
General's Office told the press that the case was not closed and
investigations continued on the possibility that "Timothy" had in fact
been victim of sexual-but perhaps not Satanic--abuse, and reporter
Christopher Clarke of the South ldnho Press embarked on a personal
crusade arguing that a Satanic cult may in fact exist in the Rupert area,
no charges were ultimately filed.
An interesting part of the Baby X case is the candlelight vigil held on
November 8, 1991 in Rupert. This episode proved that a network of
moral crusaders promoting the Satanism scare existed in Mormon
Country, and that "survivors" from Salt Lake had already formed a small
lobby trying to persuade the public that their stories and those of the
 A Rumor of Devils 93
children like "Timothy" were basically the same, equally deserving
public belief.

c. "secret combinations": The Mormon church Investigation

The fact that Satanic ritual abuse, perpetrated by active Mormons,
was possibly taking place inZion could not have been overlooked by the
Mormon Church. On May 24, 1989 the LDS Social Services releaseda
report on Satanism, tbllowed by another report from the U.S. attorney
for Utah Brent Ward (an active Mormon) and a further memorandum
from Bishop Glenn L. Pace, then Second Counselor in the Presiding
Bishopric, dated October 20,1989. All thesedocumentshave never been
published. A fourth document, a memorandum also authored by Bishop
Pace and directed to the Strengthening Church Members Committee on
July 19, 1990, although rnarked "Do not reproduce," came into the
possessionof Evangelical Salt Lake counter-Mormons Jerald and Sandra
Tanner in 1991. They doubted the authenticity of the rnemo, and even
doubtedthat a "Strengtheningthe Members Commiffee" (later to become
famous for reasons unconnected with Satanism) did in fact exist. They
were able to obtain from Pace's secretary a confirmation that the
Strengthtening the Members Committee did in fact exist and the reporr
was genuine. In November l99l the Tanners published the memo in their
Salt l-ake City Messmger, and-after its authenticity had not been
challenged by the LDS Church-they reprinted it in a book published in
1992 under the title Satanic Ritunt Abuse and Mormonism.s3 In the
memo, Bishop Pace reported that he has "met with sixty victims," all
members of the Church and most of thern adult survivors, the majority
having "been diagnosed as having multiple personality disorder or some
other form of dissociative disorder. " In fact the report includes only
passing refbrences to stories told by children, and relies primarily on
MPD and other survivors' cases. After ritualistic child abuse--Pace
stated, echoing the survivors'typical argument--utheonly escapefor the
children is to dissociate": "they will develop a new personality to enable
them to endure various forms of abuse. when the episode is over, the
core personality is again in control and the individual is not conscious of
what happened. Dissociation also serves the purposes of the occult
because the children have no day-to-day memory of the atrocities."
Pace's conclusion was that multiple personalitiesare willingly created by
Satanic cults. Satanist have developed technologies them to
brainwash their victims in order to make disclosure less "n"tling
likely to occur.
However, Satanic cultists are not entirely successfulbecauseafter many
94 Syzygy

years, when the children become adults, it may happen that "something
triggers the memories and, consequently, flashbacks and/or nightmares
occur"; when therapy follows and the memory "is tapped, it is as fresh
as if it happenedyesterday."
Bishop Pace main concern appearedto be the features of the Satanic
abusepeculiar to Mormon Country. While in Catholic settings survivors
tell of Black Masses, Mormon survivors report that they have been
abused within the context of a "black" version of Mormon temple
ceremonies. One particularly disturbing consequenceis, Pace reports,
that "many of the victims have had their first flashbacks while attending
the temple for the first time. The occult along the Wasatch Front usesthe
doctrine of the Church to their [sic] advantage. For example, the
verbiage and gesturesare used in a ritualistic ceremony in a very debased
and often bloody manner. When the victirn goes to the temple and hears
the exact words, horrible memóries aré triggered." We have recently--
Pace went on to say (and one has to remember that he was reporting to
the Strengthening the Members Committee)-been disturbed with
members of the Church who have talked about the temple ceremony.
Compared to what is happening in the occult along the Wasatch Front,
these are very minor infractions. The perpetrators are also living a dual
life. Many are temple recommend holders." Pace explicitely asked the
survivors not to provide him the names of the perpetrators, but allowed
them to explain what Church office the Satanistsheld. "Among others--
Pace reported--there are Young Women leaders, Young Men leaders,
bishops, a patriarch, a stake president, temple workers, and members of,
the Tabernacle Choir. These accusationsare not coming from individuals
who think they recognized someone, but from those who have been
abusedby peopte they know, in many casestheir own family members."
There was, according to Pace, ample cause for alarm: "Not only do
some of the perpetrators representa cross section of the Mormon culture,
but sometimes the abuse has taken place in our own meetinghouses."
Pace also speculatedon the extension of the problem: since he has met
with 60 victims, "assuming each one comes from a coven of 13, they are
tatking about the involvement of 800 or so right here on the lVasatch
Front" (the idea that all Satanic "covens" have thirteen members--in
order to mock Jesus Christ and the twelve Apostles--comes from
survivors' and anti-satanist literature; no Satanic Church or movement
known to scholars and active in the 19th or the 2fth century was ever
otganiznd in groups of thirteen, and the very name "coven" comes from
Witchoraft, a different phenomenon from Satanism). .dsking the
 A Rumor oÍ Devils 95

Strengthening the Members Committee to "excuse me if I am being

presumptuous," Pace concluded his memo with seven good pages of
refbrencesto Mormon scriptures, claiming that the latterday emergence
of Satanic ritual abuse had been prophetically foreseen in the Book of
Mormon, which "is replete with descriptions of these secret murderous
combinations as well as prophecies that they will always be with us."
Pace explicitly quoted the Gladianton Robbers, and the prophecy of
Mormon 8:27 on "a day when the blood of saints shall cry unto the
Lord, because of secret combinations and the works of darkness."
Finally, Face said that he did not "want to be known as an alarmist or
a f,anatic on the issue" and in fact hoped "to take a low profile on the
subject." Because of the unknown hand who passed the merno to the
Tanners, this was not to be.

fr. "Floctts Pocus": Therapists and the Governor

According to an article in Network magazine, "soon after the memo
[by Bishop Pace] was written and releasedto the Strengthening Church
Members Committee of the church organization, the Utatr Governor's
Cornmission for Women and Families formed a subcommittee and task
force to address issues of ritual (including Satanic) child abuse."54
According to an article in the Deseret News of September 8, 1991-the
first of a f,our-part series who introduced Utah readers to the survivorso
stories--the subcommitteewas formed "in February 1990. @efore Pace's
memorandum).st When released in lW. the task force report statedthat
the subcommittee "was created in March 1990." 27 "community leaders"
wetre siuing on the ritual-abuse subcommittee, including former U.S.
Attorney Brent Ward (involved, as we mentioned earlier, in the Mormon
Church investigation on Satanism), first lady Colleen Bangerter and
Bishop Pace himself.56 The prime force (and the co-chair) in the
Committee appearedto be Dr. Noemi P. Mattis, a Belgian-born therapist
who had received a Ph.D. in psychology from Columbia University. Dr.
Mattis described herself to the Deseret News in September 1991 as "a
New York humanist Jew and a quintessential skeptic," part of a group
of people who "don't even believe in Satan." She was also referred to as
"a Holocaust survivor. "s7 The other co-chair was Aileen Clyde, a
counselor in the LDS Relief Society. The subcommitteeappearedto be
so stufTedwith Mormon leaders that it could hardly be called a secular
enterprise; it also included Reverend Richard W. Bauer of the Catholic
Communiry Services and Rabbi Frederick I. Wenger of the Congregation
Kol Ami. As early as 1987, Dr.Mattis was one of Utah therapists
96 Syzygy
attending the MPD yearly conferences in Chicago, and later described
the "emotional moment" when the attendeesrealized that the majority of
them, unknown to each other, were hearing similar stories of Satanic
cults (as mentioned earlier, in these years anti-cult activists also attended
the Chicago conferences and helped MPD therapists understand what a
Satanic "cult" may be like).58
Dr.Mattis' experience with survivors and her belief that their stories
were factually true were not unique to her; in fact, she representedrather
typically one side of a national controversy. What added unique features
to the case was the Mormon setting and the publicity which had
surrounded the publication of Bishop Pace's confidential memorandum
by the Salt Inke City Messenger of November 1991 (in fact issued in
October of that same year). Apparently the involvement of Bishop Face
and the fact that a confidential memorandum had been published by anti-
Mormons produced more excitement ttran the previous Deseret News
Septemberseries which had interviewed both skeptics and believers (the
latter possibly getting more coverage). Immediately following the
publication by the Tanners, between October 24 and October 25, l99l
both KTVX (Channel 4) and Mormon-owned KSL (Channel 5) reported
on Bishop Pace's document and interviewed survivors of Satanic cult
abuse readily supplied by Salt Lake therapists. A survivor told KTVX:
"My grandfather was a Bishop and my grandmother was a Relief Society
President. My grandparentswere the leaders of what was happening to
me as a child. As a very small child I witnessed my baby brother being
murdered by the cult. Everyone participated in this. I do remember the
evidence was often burned and, for instance, when I was an adolescent,
I was pregnant and the cult literally aborted my baby and burned it. " A
woman giving "Jody" as her name told KSL that at age three she
"unknowingly becametrapped in the sceneof ritualistic abuse. It lasted
five years. Twenty years of therapy has triggered her memory of the
most heinous rituals in which she was forced to participate" including
"intbnt sacrifice and cannibalism--a lot of torture."5e On the same
October 25, 1991 the Deseret News released full information on the
Mormon Church investigation whose existence had not previously been
widely known. The Deseret News published a short statement by the
LDS Church Public Affairs Department, stating that "Satanic worship
and ritualistic abuseare problems that have been around for centuries and
are international in scope. While they are, numerically, not a problem of
major proportions among members of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latterday Saints, for those who may be involved they are serious." The
 A Rumor of Devils 97

statement went on quoting from a previously unpublished letter of

September 18, 1991 from the First Presidency to Church leaders. The
letter, later called the Fírst Presídency's Statementon Evil Practices and
the Occult, reads as follows:

We occasionally receive reports from some areas about the

activities of people who engage in ritualistic practices including
forms of so-called Satanworship.
We express our love and concern to innocent victims who
have been subjected to these practices by conspiring men and
women. We are sensistive to their suffering and assurethem that
help is available through the mercy and love of our Savior, Jesus
Christ.
We caution all members of the Church not to affiliate in any
way with the occult or those mysterious powers it espouses.Such
activities are among the works of darkness spoken of in the
scriptures. They are designedto destroy one's faith in Christ, and
will jeopardize the salvation of those who knowingly promote this
wickedness. These things should not be pursued as games, be
topics in Church meetings, or be delved into in private, personal
conversation.60

The First Presidency's Statement mentioned a "conspiracy," but--

unlike Bishop Pace in his confidential memorandum-did not take an
explicit stand on the survivors' question. Mormon therapists who did
believe in the survivors' stories felt, however, encouraged. On
November 10, l99l Dr. Noemi Mattis appeared on the program Take
Two on Channel 2 in Salt Lake. The therapist announcedthat at least 360
victims in the Salt Lake area had been treated for ritualistic abuse by "a
total of 32 therapists" (later, appearing on the same TV station, Dr.
Corydon Hammond--a research associateat the Universlty of Utah who
had been elected president of the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis-
-also a member of the Governor's subcommittee, raised the number to
366). Questioned by reporter Rod Decker, Dr.Mattis said that "doctors
and morticians" are involved in Utah Sataniccults, and this explains why
Satanistshave "rather devious ways of disposing of bodies," which are
never found. Dr.Mattis also repeated the story of the so-called
"breeders," by then familiar in the national media coverageof survivors.
nThereare--Mattis told the TV reporters--a number of people who report
having given birth to babies who were never registered officially--babies
 98 syzygy
who were born in home-in home deliveries and who were then
sacrificed, and those babies may never have had a legal existence. There
are reports of women who have said that they have been breeders--that
they have had a number of babies raised specifically for sacrifice. "61
Although Dr.Mattis did not mention that police and FBl-despite
extensive investigations--have never fbund the slightest evidence of
"breeding" practices having actually taken place, and the most famous
"breeder," Laureen Stratford, had been exposed as a fraud (who had
never been pregnant during the period of her alleged "breeding") by
fellow Evangelicals in the Comerstone magazine,ó2 skeptics were not late
in manifesting themselves.David Raskin, a professor of psychology at
the Universrty of Utah, told the Satt l-ake Tribune after Dr.Matti s's Take
Two tnterview that "mass hysteria" was been fomented "in the form of
a non-existentevil called Satanicritualistic child abuse." Raskin criticized
the Governor's Task Force arguing ttiat "State government has becorne
the pawn of those who believe ritualistic child abuseexists despite a lack
of supporting evidence." "All this--Raskin concluded-is fantasy."63
Raskin was criticizpd on November 18 in an editorial of the same
Tribune, that was cautious but not skeptic.6a
In the meantime a tragic parallel developmenthad occurred in Logan.
Michelle Tallmadge, age 23, had committed suicide after repressed
memories of childhood ritualistic abusehad surfaced in therapy. Michelle
had been disturbed by various psychiatric diseasessince she was 15, and
was diagnosed as suffering of MpD. Michelre, an active Mormon, left
a note confessing that she "saw several babies bleed to death after I was
forqed hand over hand to cut their throat. " "Lord--Michelle wrote--I have
some repenting to do. I did many horrible things. I raped little children. "
Ultimately, the memories were too much for Michelle to bear and she
saw suicide as the only alternative. Active Mormons, her parents told the
local press that "unless we align ourselves with God, we will not win"
against Satanists. "We will not win with Governor's task forces.--they
said--We will not win with law enforcement. We will not win with public
awareness.We must align ourselveswith God and pray that this evil will
be made public. "65While therapists argued that Michelle's sad story was
a confirmation that Satanic ritual abuse was "widespread" in Mormon
neighborhoods, skeptics raised the question whether Michelle's death
could not be evidence of the dangers involved in therapy itself. on
January 18, lWz Mormon-owned KSL interviewed another survivor,
"Jane," who reported "human sacrificesu and other "horrific things"
which had happened in a canyon near Kamas, Utah, when she was a
 A krmor oÍ Devils 99

child. "Jane" told the TV reporters that "her father and others raped,
tortured and killed people in their worship of Satan." "I know it
happened--"Jane" explained--becauseI was forced to commit murder. I
committed several sacrifices myself-"66
In March lw2 Nettwrk, a feminist-oriented salt Lake magazine,
published the in-depth article that I mentioned earlier and interviewed
both Utah and national believers and skeptics. Overall, the point of view
of the skeptics sounded more convincing, although reporter Gode Davis
claimed she had not reached final conclusions.6T Dr.Mattis told Davis
that Satanistbehaviour is "as secretive as the Mafia-as strictly enforced
as the Mafia" and that, although in the first sessionsthe Governor's Task
Force included skeptics, in the end, to Dr.Mattis's satisfaction, believers
prevailed. When the report was released in April tgy\ although dated
May lgyz, it clearly exposed the point of view of believers.6sRitual
abuse, the report claimed, comes from three different "traditions":
Satanisrn, "a reversal of, Christianity," in which "members worship the
anti-Christ"; Black Magic, which is "a reversal of Witchcraft";
"ceremonial magic," which is "a reversal of tribal religion"; all three
traditions are most dangerous when they take the form of "generational
cults," which reverse whatever established religion they come across'
including Mormonism. "Generational" cults in a given area, according
to the report, "will mock the predominant church group in that area, for
'Black Masses' and other distortions of the traditional
example, doing
service in Catholic worship." It is, acgordingly, not surprising--thetask
force concluded-that " in predominantly Mormon areas, LDS ceremonies
are copied, distorted, and sadistically profaned. Scriptures and other
religious wordings are perverted. Ritual group members are subjectedto
experiences that mock not only baptism, but marriage and other
ordinances. When those victims are later involved in the legitimate
servicesof the benign religion, their programmed terror is triggered, and
the baptism or the wedding becomesa nightmare." This, according to the
report, constitutes a speeific category of "spiritual abuse," ofifen oo-
existing in Utah with "sexualn" "physical" and "emotional" abuse'
The subcommittee, which included two LDS general authorities,
described Mormonism as a "benign religion" and the temple ceremonies
as "legitimate services" in order to make it clear that members did not
share the most outrageous conclusions of anti-Mormons. The authors of
the report were, however, aware of the skeptics' objections and released
a statement executed in early Dn by sixty-six Utah therapists, reading
as follows: "'We, the undersigned mental health professionals, have each
100 syzygy
heard memories of ritual abuse recounted by some patients, as have
therapists acrossthe nation. We believe these patients allegations to have
basis in fact. We are dismayed by accusationsthat therapists brainwash
their patients or collude to create a mental health problem where none
existed. We urge our public officials to take appropriate actions to
counter ritual crimes." The crucial question "Where is the evidence?"
was answered by the report listing five different elements:

a) Independent identification, by victims unknown to each other, of the

same perpetrators;
b) Reports of recent ritual abusestrikingly similar in their particulars to
the abuse remembered by adult suvivors whose trauma was
perpetrated decades ago;
c) Independent detailed reports, in mnny dffirent states and in foreign
countries, of identical acts of rituhl abuse;
d) Successful prosecution of cases of child abuse which contains
elements of ritual abuse;
e) Perhapsthe most persuasiveof all, documentationfrom mental health
professionals throughout the nation showing that patients get well
when their memories of rttwl abuse are dealt with, even patients who
have not respondedto years of other therapy.6e

All the five elements were not unique to Utah and had been often
mentioned in the national controvery. Their selection reflected the
composition of the task force, which included mental health and law
enforcement professionals and religious and children rights activists, but
no sociologists or anthropologists. Significantly, the report's bibliography
included 15 titles, only one of them written by a (cautious but not
skeptic) sociologisf0 and all the remaining by either mental health
professionals--including Michelle Remembersand an article co-authored
by the same Dr. Barbara Snow involved in the Lehi scare--or journalists,
some of them quite sensational.Tl Ignored altogether were works by
skeptics and by academic scholars of Satanism and the occult. For
skeptics, of course, evidence (a), (b) and (c) merely proves that
therapiststhroughoutthe nation read the sameliterature and conduct their
hypnosis investigations in the same manner, thus predictably obtaining
the same results. Evidence (d) only proves that in a percentage of child
abuse cases(minimal, as we mentioned earlier, with respect to the total
number of cases investigated) perpetrators scare children through
references to the Devil and Satanic paraphernalia. The small number of
 A Rumorof Devíls 101

"successful prosecutions" does not confirm that an international

conspiracy exists. Evidence (e) would not convince most of the therapists
themselves: in tact it is widely acknowledgedthat patients "get well" in
a variety of cultures when the spirits possessingthem are exorcised by
religious specialists (be they the spirits of the ancestors--or of foxes--in
Japanese folk religion, or wandering Devils in African witchcraft).
Mental health professionals and anthropologists have recognized that
patients "who have not respondedto years of other therapy" by Western
doctors in fact "get well" when treated in a more culturally familiar
setting by local African or Japanesefolk exorcists; this, however, has not
led therapists and anthropologists, with very few exceptions, to believe
that ancestor spirits or tribal Devils literally exist and possess these
African or Japanesevillagers.T2The report also ignored that, by 1992,
another category of academicshad entered the controversy: folklorists,
specialized in explaining how urban legends and rumors are born and
spread. To folklorists, the fact that the same narratives about Satanic
abuseare "strikingly similar" or "identical" throughout the nation or the
world--just as legends about the "vanishing hitchiker" are reported
identically in California, Italy and Japan--is precisely evidence that the
stories fbllow the typical cycle of expansion of rumors and arc not
factually true.73
In April 1993 the now defunct Utah Holiday mzgazine published a
further article on ritual abuse in Utah, taking openly the side of the
believers. The latter were, at that stage, actively engagedin name-calling
against the skeptics. Dr.Hammond reported that-perhaps as a response
to the subcommitteereport--in lWz the skeptic False Memory Syndrome
Foundation had established a chapter in Utah, whose membership was
growing. FMSF and other skepticswere, Dr.Hammond claimed, merely
"clever propagandistslobbying and doing public relations for pedophiles.
They engage in a classic propagandaploy of tainted scholarship, trying
to appear scientific by selectively quoting only research that appears to
support their premise."7a Dr.Hammond and his colleagues in the
Governor's task force had however produced a "selective" document of
their own, relying almost entirely on stories told by survivors and on the
national anti-Satanistliterature. Their typology of ritual abusecults could
not fail to raise eyebrows among scholars of the occult. The first
category, the Satanists, should include groups worshiping "the anti-
Christ. " However no Anti-Christ worship has appearedin the Church of
Satan, the Temple of Set or any other major Satanist group from
Catherine La Voisin to the present times. The only group which
 r02 syzygy
emphasizedreferences to the Anti-Christ was the Agapé Lodge-Church
of Thelema established in 1942 in California by nationally prominent
rocket scientist John Whiteside ("Jack") Parsons (1914-1952) with the
blessing from England of the then aging Aleister Crowley. In 1g+B
Parsons ritually changed his name in "Belarion Anti-Christ" and was
expelled by Crowley from his magical order O.T.O. parsons--who was
killed in the explosion of his chemical laboratory in 1952--was not a
Satanist but a crowleyan anti-Christian libertarian, and certainty his
group (no longer in existence) is not "typical" of Satanism.TsThe second
category of the subcommittee's report, "black magic," should be a
"reversal of witchcraft. " In fact, it is not always easy to distinguish
uwhiten
from "black" magic in witchcraft, and many groups describe
their magic as "white" only to find that the same rituals are regardes as
"black" by rival groups in a field where not many courtesies are wasted
-
between competing organizations. The third category describes
"ceremonial magic" as "a reversal of tribal religion. " The relationship
will be regarded as surprising by any scholar of the occult. It would have
seemed not less surprising to poet William Butler Yeats and Masonic
scholar Arthur Edward Waite, perhaps the two most prominent
practitioners of ceremonial magic in our century, both leaders of the
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, in turn the largest modern
organization of ritual magic. Waite, a pious Christian, regarded
ceremonial magic as a legitimate part of Christianity.'u Yeats, although
not as committed to Christianity as Waite, considered ritual magic a
sophisticated intellectual experienceclose to philosophy and poetry, and
would not have understood in which sensehis magical operations were
a "reversal of tribal religion. "77Finally the fourth category of the report,
"generational" Satanism, of course only exists if one believes the
survivors'stories.
It appears that in the subcomrnittee report, as in other widely
criticized documents, a number of Utah therapists, with the help of some
lawyers and a few religious leaders, had embarked in what could only be
described as amateur history and sociology of the occult, while these two
disciplines are studied by excellent professionals, whose works have been
ignored by the task force, When this approach is taken, strange incidents
may happen. In 9n a book on Satanismand ritual abuse introduced as
scholarly and endorsed by the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis
was published in New York. The main paper on the history of Satanism
quotes a "Vaughan 1990. source as evidence that "in the l830s"
American Masons were performing Satanic rituals in Charleston, South
 A Rumor of Devils 103
Caroiina. A look at the endnotes confirms that "Vaughan 19S' really
rneansthe 1990 publication by survivors' organiration Voices in Action
of the spurious Memoin of an ex-Palladist by Diana Vaughan, the most
egregious part of the infamous Taxil hoax, whose shadow of allegations
of Satanicabuseagainst Charleston FreemasonAlbert Pike (in the 1880s,
not in the 1830s, if one follows the Mem.oirsand Le Diable) apparently
still haunts some American therapists.Ts
T'he part of the subcommittee report on "black" versions of Mormon
temple ceremonies seems to be taken verbatim from Bishop Pace's
memoo minus the references to prophecies of "secret combinations" to
come in the Mormon scriptures. In fact, rather than the subcommittee
borrowing from Bishop Face, both documents may have a coiltmon
source. In the early 1990s Dr.Mattis gave a number of speecheson the
issue of Satanic ritual abuse. In 1993 she published a paper, co-authored
with Elouise M. Bell, a professor of English at BYU and a member of
the Governor's Task Force (as well as a former member of the General
Eoard of the LDS Church's Young Women's Organization), in a
collective work on abuse published by Mormon Church-owned Deseret
Book Company. Most of this paper is hardly original and summarizesthe
arguments of all advocates of the Satanic conspiracy theory in the
national controversy. The main points of the paper (which summarizes
Dr.Mattis' earlier speeches)are as follows:

a) survivors tell us--and we, as experiencedtherapists, know that what

they say is true--that in their childhood they have been "subjected to
sexual activities of bizarre, deviant and extremely painful sorts" by
carefully organized Satanic cults who routinely practice "sacrifice of
animals (...); the torture and sometimesmurder of babies, including
in some cases the infants of young girls required to bear children
specifically for sacrifice; the torture and sometimesmurder of adults;
and the systematic disposal of bodies";
b) survivors of ritual abuse "have been programmed ('brainwashed') to
dissociate and to develop multiple personalities" through a
"prolongued and carefully structured mind control or programming"
devised by the Satanic cults in order to make difficult or impossible
their detection and prosecution;
c) admitt"dly, no one has been convicted of any major crime based on
the survivors' stories. This, however, does not mean that Satanic
crimes, includingmurders, are not committed by Satanists.Bodies are
not fbund becausethe Satanic cults "include morticians, pharmacists,
104 syzygy
butchers. These individuals have accessto techniques and equipment
useful in eliminating evidence of the cult crimes." Second, "more
often, those killed are infants bofti and bred within the cult for that
expresspurpose" and "not recorded on any public records." Third,
"survivors have blocked the memories of their experiences and
retrieve them only in therapy. " They have been astutely "programmed
early on to tell contradictory stories" and for this reason their
accounts "rarely holds up in court under the present rules of
evidence" (theserules, the paper implies, should perhapsbe changed).
Fourth, the best "cultists' protection" is "public disbelief," actively
promoted by skeptic historians, mental health professionals and
sociologists, some of them perhapshired guns or even associatedwith
the Satanist ring;
d) "If solid evidence is so hard to come by, how do we, in fact, know
that ritual abuse truly exists? Essentially, it is the cumulative
experience of many therapists across the world that has led to
increased understanding of ritual abuse";
e) therapists have also discovered that "cult activities are often part of
a multigenerational tradition. That is, particular families have been
involved in ritual activities, children of successivegenerations being
indoctrinated and programmed by parents, grandparents, aunts and
uncles."

What is peculiar in Dr. Mattis's and Prof. Bell's paper--with respect

to the large amount of national and international literature on survivors
and ritualistic abuse--is the Mormon connection. "Cult members-they
report--sometimes hold respected and even elevated positions in the
churches in their areas: in the Eastothey may be prominent Catholics or
Episcopalians; in the South, active Baptists; and in the Westo Mormons
with priesthood and auxiliary callings. These respectablefacadesmay be
'fronts', thought to earn the cultists additional favour with
designed as
their [Satanic] gods." But the Sataniccults go beyond mere facades,since
they "pervert religious rituals for their own purposes." While in Catholic
'black
commUnitieS the SataniSts "do masses'," "in Mormon
communities, scriphres and other religious wordings may be perverted.
Latter-day Saint ordinances, such as baptism, marriage, of temple
ceremonie$, may be mocked or distorted. When victims are later
involved in the authentic services, their programmed terror is triggered,
and the ordinance becomes a nightmare. " Dr. Mattis also believe that
"LDS scripfural suggestions"are evidence that multigenerational "secret
 A Rumor of Devils 105

combinations" of Satanistsdo in fact exist.TeAs it is easy to see, Dr.

Mattis' and Prof. Bell's paper is very close not only in arguments but in
its very wording to Bishop Pace's memo, which in turn parallels the
Governor's task force report. It is interesting that Dr. Mattis, who in
l99l--as we mentioned earlier--had describedherself as "a New York
humanistic Jew and a quintessential skeptic" has signed her name--
although as a co-author with Prof. Bell-to an article with clear Mormon
scriptural references. If the paper Dr.Mattis co-published with Prof.Bell
in 1993 is in fact a modified version of speechesof the early 1990s,
Dr.Mattis--as spokespersofiof a group of believing therapists and as a
participant to the national Chicago conferenceson MPD where, as we
mentionedearlier, therapists and anti-cult organizationsforged their links
in the 1980s--may be a likely common source for both the Mormom
memo and the State report. The latter document was hailed by believers
as an act of courage. Skepticscalled it, more crudely, "hocus pocus."8o
What was the impact of the report? Not great, apparently. Before its
official release, the independent LDS magazine Sunstone reported in
November 1991 that "Utah Governor Norm Bangerter suggestedthat the
statetask force on Women and Families, which included the investigation
.budgeted more money
on child abuse, should disband" (although he also
for investigatorsto follow up on [individual] complaints"). Sunstonealso
reported that--consistently with their conspirational views--"some
supportersof the task force publicly speculatedwhether the governor has
'influential people' in the state who are satanists."8l
been pressured by
uA spokespersonfbr the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City' told
Sunstonethat "no one has ever complained to the diocese's office about
rifual abuse."82

E. "Momon Miscrcants": Anti-Monnons and the 1995 Utah Atomey

General's Offt.ce's Report
As we have mentioned, the national Satanism scare in the United
States has divided the secular anti-cult and the religious counter-cult
movements along predictable lines. Secular "rationalist" skeptics and
Evangelical "rationalist" counter-cultists (such as those writing in the
Christian Research Journnl and Christianity Today) have dismissed
survivors stories as wild fantasies. The Evangelical counter-Mormon
reaction has been less predictable. We have mentioned that in a previous
controversy about whether Mormons worship Lucifer in their temples,
counter-Mormons had split along the usual lines: the "rationalist"
Tanners (who have very friendly relations with the Christian Research
106 syrysy
worship in the
Jourrwl) have strongly denied allegations of Satanic
defend such wild
temple, leaving to the lunatic "post-rationalist" fringe to
Tanners had
claims. Not so when it came to the survivors' stories. The
by all major
their scoop--and their obscure newsletter was mentioned
in publishing
newspapersand TV stations in Utah-when they were first
friends in the
Bishop Pace',smemo. Although aware that some of their
that survivors' stories
Evangetical counter-cult community do not believe
survivors--
in general are true, the Tanners this time concluded that Utah
senior Mormon Chursh
with their stories accepted at face value by
embarassthe
officers--were simply too good an opportunrty to attack and
differ in
LDS Church to be skeptically dismissed. They wrote that "we
christian Research
our views concerning satanic ritual abuse" from the
and Gretctren
Institute (and particularly from their friends Bob
"while we do not endorse many of
Passantino> fhuy also explained that -they
were ultimately not afraid to
Mr. Schnoebelen's conclusions,"
concur with Schnoebelenand other "post-rationalist" counter-Mormons
with
(no matter how bitterly they had previously engaged i1 name-calling
the Tanners
them) about the truth of Mormon survivors' stories.s3while
perhapsdeservecredits for having reactedagainst the gross exaggerations
abuse in
of the two God Malcers movies, on the issue of satanic ritual
a "rationalist" to a "post-
Utah they appear to have gone back from
rationalist " Position.
that
Like other anti-Mormons, the Tanners have been quick to note
should have a
references to "multigenerational" Satanic conspiracy
of,
particular meaning in Utatr. While li6le is known about the ancestors
are
other survivors throughout the United States, when the survivors
victimized in a
Mormon Utahns, the fact that they have been
ancestors
"multigenerational" family Satanicsetting meansthattheir own
they are, in fact, the
were Satanists.And their ancestorsare well known:
the remote
Mormon Utah pioneers. The Tannerso thus, suggest that
rings in Mormon Country rnay
origins of the "multigenerational" Satanic
who may have
tay in the unholy piactices of early Utah polygamists,
other forms of
indulged in marriages between brothers and sisters and
Mormon historians"
incest. They quote recent historical works by "new
to this This line of thought is not unique to the Tanners. A
"ff"ctjo Mormon
connection betweenpossible issuesof incest among polygamous
quoted in
pioneers and the satanic cults exposed by survivors has been
profession as
i""tor", by one Linda Walker, who describes her
,,genealogy researcher," and through Walker has found its way in the
as early
national survivors' lecture circuit and literature. Walker claimed
 A Rumorol Devils t07

as 1990 in an interview with a newsletter for the survivor coÍtmunity,

Beyond.Suryival, that she "could documentn not only "ritual abuse" but
also "mind controlu and "breeding" in Utah dating back to the times of
the first settlers and involving prominent Mormon pioneers, including
John Taylor and possibly Brigham Young himself. while one wonders
just
whether Walker had also read the pseudo-DianaVaughan's Memoírs,
republished by a survivors'group in 1990, on the Satanic connectionsof
Join Taylor, she claims that her evidence include the cirsumstance that
',along with congenital diseases,multiple personality disorder is also
found in greater frequency among polygamous Mormon families,"
statistics that "may point to either a high incidence of incest, or to ritual
abuse, or to both"; and the "startling fact" that among "early Mormon
patriarchs" "marriages and deaths seernedto occur in a higher-than-
randorn ratio on three suspectedoccult holidays. October 31, February
Z, andApril 13.u85Walker announcesa forthcoming book where she will
explain from what sources exaetly she knows that MPD is more cornmon
in "polygamous Mormon families." Ferhaps she will also explain how
the tfth century "Mormon patriarchs" could have access--unless,thatis,
they were in direct contact with the Devil, as Le Diable had already
claimed in 1892--to lists of occult datesand holidays which surfaced only
in the 1960s in the context of the occult revival in California and
England.
The Tanners also quote the persistent criminal practice of blood
atonementby present-day polygamous-cults in Utah and elsewhere, and
the perverted sexual ceremonies performed by the Fundamentalist cult
operated by John W. Bryant. They also speculate that the second
anointment ceremony--a ceremony that, for selectedMormons, followed
the common temple endowment in the 1fth century church, and which
apparentlyhas becameextremely rare in recenttimes--may have included
."iuat ritual practices between husbandand wife.86These argumentsare'
of course, extremely weak. Polygamy, blood atonement in polygamist
groups, the second anointing and even incest among early Saints have
nothing to do with Satanism. Even if some of these practices are highly
questionablefrom many points of view, people involved in them surely
had--and, in the case of present-day Fundamentalists,have--no idea nor
intention of worshiping Satan. On the contrary--even through polygamy
or blood atonement--their religious practices are intended to worship
God, perhaps in a paradoxical way. Far from being Satanists, even the
wilder Fundamentalists engaged in blood atonement (not to be confused
108 syzygy
with more moderate polygamous groups) would rather think that by their
deedsthey are actually fighting Satan.
It is not surprising that anti-Mormons, including the Tanners, use the
Satanism scare in Utah (in itself a part of the national Satanism scare) to
attack and embarassthe LDS Church. It is, also, not surprising that the
same conflict between believers (mostly in the mental health profession)
and skeptics (mostly in academicsettingsand among sociologists) on the
factual truth of the survivors' claims, which has been going on at a
national level in the United States (with international connections) for
more than a decade, has reproduced itself in Utah. What is surprising is
that the main religious organization in Utah, the Mormon Church, has
apparently decided to align itself with one party in the controversy, and
has released offìcial and semi-official documents proclaiming that
survivors should be believed. As sociologist Jeffrey S.Victor has
observed, the Mormon Church position is somewhat unique. Although
individual activists and members of the clergy of many denominations
have supported the survivors' claims, so far no Church has ventured to
take an official stand. As mentioned earlier, authoritative voices in the
Evangelical communlty, including Christianity Today, have rather sided
with the skeptics. In the Roman Catholic Church, the commission
appointed by four Vatican Secretariats to examine "cults" and new
religious movements decided to hear in a session held at Creighton
University in Omaha, Nebraska on May 10-12, l99l, as the only expert
on the Satanismscare, the skeptic Anson D. Shupe, whose report was
warmly endorsed by the commission.8TThe attitude of the Mormon
Church is, as Victor remarked, "paradoxical," since they are "lending
authoritative credibility" to anti-cult and counter-cult sources who
normally also attack Mormonism as a "cult. "88If the first LDS Church
document (unpublished, but mentioned in Bishop Pace's memo) dates
back to 1989, it seemsthat the first interest of the Church on ritual abuse
may have been connectedto the Lehi case, based on allegations made by
children. The concern of the Mormon Church on a sad and widespread
phenomenon such as child abuse is understandable, although we have
mentioned that child abuse does not appear to be significantly more
frequent in Utah than elsewhere in the United States. Nothing in this
paper is intended to minimize the very real danger of child abuse, nor to
suggestthat shurches should not be involved at their best in fighting and
preventing this tragedy. It is also possible, as some cases outside Utah
seemto suggest,that occasionally abusersscarechildren by using Satanic
symbols and paraphernalia. However, there is no evidence of national or
 A Rurnor of Devils 109

international Satanic conspiracies. What is more dangerous, looking for

such conspiracies may lead the efforts astray from the identification of
real perpetrators on a caseby casebasis. It had been suggestedthat when
social workers, therapists and law enforcement officers become too
concerned in finding evidence of Satanism, they may end up by making
the defense of the guilty abuser easier (and, sometimes, by prosecuting
the innocent).8eIt is also essential that stories told by children about
abuse that occurred in the last few weeks be not confused with stories
told by survivors about abusesthat they claimed occurred decadesago.
The two narratives belong to different categories.
The Mormon Church, understandably, becamevery concerned when
it heard from therapists stories told by survivors about Satanic abuse in
specific Mormon settings and "black" versions of the temple ceremony.
Apparently, however, some Church officers did not consider that
survivors' stories do not arise in a vacuum but are socially constructed
narratives. One of the leading academictextbooks on MPD explains that
a number of famous MPD patients--believed to be basically sincere by
the authors--had read a significant number of books in University and
other libraries and appear to have constructed some of their "alter"
personalities, perhaps unconsciously, based on what they had read.eo
Satanic stories told by MPD patients and survivors do not appear to be
independentfrom their cultural context either. Material from early anti-
cult triterature was largely used by survivors (which, as mentioned
earlier, does not necessarilymean that survivors are consciouslylying).
Thus in a Fundamentalist anti-Catholic setting, one finds the stories of
Edna Moses ("Elaine"), a survivor who told her therapist Dr. Ruth
Bailey (who had been barred frorn practising medicine in the State of
Indiana becauseof malpractice, and had changed her name to Rebecca
Brown) that most Catholics, particularly Jesuits, are secretly involved in
Sataniccults-although probably only extreme Fundamentalist audiences
would be prepared to believe "Elaine" when she tells the story of having
been taken by Satan in person, who owns a private jet, to the Vatican,
where Pope Paul VI admitted to be himself a member of the Satanic
cult.er In anti-Masonic settings, survivors recall tales of Devil worship
and ritual abuse in Masonic lodges, where Masons follow the famous
"Instruction on Lucifer" written by Albert Pike on July 14, 1889. In
1W2 Ann-Marie Germain, herself a survivor, graduated at Southern
Illinois University at Carbondale with a Master's thesis on ritual abuse
in Masonic settings, that was later used for a section on Masonry in a
book written by another survivor under the pseudonym of Margareth
110 syrygy
Smith.e2 Apparently, these survivors are not aware that Pike's 1889
"Instruction," where the famous Arnerican Freemason confessedthat he
worshipped Lucifer, was never written by Pike. It was a forgery by l-eo
Taxil, part of his famous hoax, and Taxil specifically admitted having
forged this document in his 18W confession.e3
As anti-Catholic Fundamentalist survivors told stories of Satanisrnin
the Vatican, and anti-Masonic survivors mentioned Satanism in the
lodges, it is not surprising that Utah survivors should have mentioned
Satanism in the Mormon temple. While anti-Masonic rnaterial frorn the
Taxil hoax and Diana Vaughan surfaced on survivors' stories about
Masonry, widely available anti-Monnon material alleging that Satan
worship takes place in the temple found its way to other survivors'
stories in the Intermountain West. .,A.nd,while the existence of anti-
Masonic survivors of course does not confirm that a Diana Vaughan
existed and that Albert Pike was a Satanist, Utah survivors' stories do
not constitute evidence that Satan is actually worshipped in Morrnon
temples. Both kind of stories are however an indication that the
survivors' experience is a socially constructed cultural metaphor, the
expressionof socio-cultural tensionsas well as of individual distress. The
situation is similar to memories of past-life experiences and of
"abductions" aboard UFOs by extraterrestrials often told in therapy. In
1980-the sameyear when Michelle Rememberuwas published--therapists
in California founded the Association for Past-Life Research and
Therapy.eo Later, some therapists decided that even UFO abduction
stories told by their patients may be factually true.es In a sense, the
therapists' position is easy to understand. Th"y are reluctant to "re-
victimize" their patients by not believing their stories on Satanic abuse,
past lives or extraterrestrial abduction. The "either/or" attitude ffi&Y,
however, be a misunderstanding. It is not necessary to conclude that
either the survivors (from dramatic past lives, UFO abductions, or
Satanism) are pathological liars or they are remembering factual
incidents. A third possibility exists. Survivors may be expressing their
anguishes and needs (that may sometimes come from very real
experiencesof rape or incest) by constructing stories conditioned by the
books they have read, the media, the social setting (and perhaps the
therapist's social setting and biases). That this may be the case is not a
new theory. In the last years of the 19th century Geneva psychiatrist
Théodore Flournoy (1854-1920)-highly respected by Freud--was
confronted with the case of his patient Catherine-Elise Muller (1861-
L9;9), whom he disguised under the pseudonym of "Hélène Smith."
 A Rumor of Devils 111

Muller told Flournoy vivid stories of past lives in India and elsewhere,
and of having been taken to the Planet Mars by extraterrestrials.
Flournoy noticed that Muller's Indians and extraterrestrials talked and
behavedlike Swiss of the finde-siècle, but at the same time he was sure
of his patient's good faith. He concluded that Muller (who was also a
painter) was rendering in artistic terms certain problems of her own.e6
How sacred scriptures are read may also be conditioned by social
settings. When the first Mormons--and anti-Mormons--read about "secret
cornbinations" in the Book of Mormon, they immediately pointed at the
controversies of their time about Masonry, and Martin Harris called the
Book of Mormon the "anti-Masonick [sic] Bible. "e7Today, the reference
to "secret combinations" is more easily read as a prophecy of presentday
Satanic cults. Finally, Mormon Church authorities accepting the theory
of "rnultigenerational" Satanism in Utatr apparently did not realize that
they were opening the door to the conclusion that the "multigenerational"
ancestorsof present Utahns could only be the Mormon pioneers andoas
a consequence,to wild speculations about a connection between early
Mormon polygamy, blood atonement, and Satanism.
Will the Satanismscare continue unabatedin Utah for years to come?
Will the Mormon Church continue to support therapists who believe that
survivors' stories are factually true? One frequent Utah myth is that
everything in the Beehive State should necessarilybe unique and without
parallels elsewhere. While it is true that the Utah Satanism scare has
certain peculiar features, it is largely part of the national Satanismscare
and of a larger national--and now international--controversy. As
mentioned earlier, skepticism about the factual truth of survivors' stories
seemsto be more and more prevailing in academic settings. Apparently
even MPD specialists start having doubts. Dr. Lawrence Pazder--who
largely started it all with Ìvlichelle Remembers and who coined the very
term "Satanic ritual abuse"--recently told reporters that perhaps Satanic
abuse memories are "more an expression of a deep level of violation
causedby abusive family members than actual accounts of Satanic ritual
abuse."s When believers in the factual truth of survivors's stories started
becoming marginalizd ln'the mental health profession throughout United
States (as they already were among sociologists and law enforcement
professionals, despite the resistanceof a small lobby of "cult cops)"D the
Intermountain West showed clear signs of following the national trend.
In lWz, following the controversial Task Force report, the Utah
Attorney General's Office establishedthe Ritualistic Abuse Crime Unit.
In 1995 the .A,ttorney General's Office released a new report, Ritwl
tL2 syrygy
Crime in the State of Utah, submitted by Lts. Michael R. King and Matt
Jacobson. The investigators, although obviously reluctant to criticize the
earlier findings of the IWZ Task Force, concluded that allegations of
"organized satanists" active in the State were "unsubstantiaGd" and that
"the multitude of reports by abuse'survivors'(...) hasn't been
corroborated." The only "ritual" abusesthe 1995 report was able to
document referred to Ogden's ZionSociety, a millennial group obviously
not related to Satanism. In order not to disconfirm too blatantly the 1992
Task Force doeument, the new report suggestedthat "the worn out adage
'where
that thers's smoke... there's {ire', may be the best best of asvice
for this peculiar problem"--a somewhat disappointing conclusion
considering that $250,000 had been appropriated for this investigation.lm
Anti-Mormons used the careful wording of the 1995 report in order to
continue to argue that Satanismby "Mormon miscreants" is still a real
possibility. The switch in emphasis between the 1992 and 1995 reports
is, however, obvious. As for the LDS Church, Bishop Pace's memo and
Dr. Noemi Mattis' papers notwithstanding, its general authorities do not
appear to be committed to the survivors' agenda and a more cautious
attitude seemson its way to pravail (as evidenced from church handling
of more recent incidents involving allegations of ritual abuse in Arizona
and elsewhere).
At the May 1993 meeting of the Mormon llistory Association in
I-amoni, Iowa, LDS sociologist Armand Mauss noted among other
evidences of a Mormon "retrenchment" from the 1960s to the 1990s an
increased "susceptibility to fundamentalist'scare' scenarios." Mauss--
who used "fundamentalist" in the national meaning of "conservative
evangelicals," as opposedto the Utah meaning of "polygamous splinter
Mormon groups"--argued that an "indication that [LDS] church leaders,
as well as the folk, might be susceptibleto fundamentalist scare scenarios
can be seen in the credence which a member of the Fresiding tsishopric
gave a couple of years ago to stories of satanic child abuse." Mauss, who
does not believe that these stories are factually true and rather supports
the "general debunking of such satanismstories by social scientists," sees
in the church involvement in the Satanismscare evidence of "the process
by which folk fundamentalism gets disseminated upward into the
leadership echelons and then back downward to the folk with an
authoritative aura." Mauss, on the other hand, does not believe that "folk
fundarnentalism" reflects the collective consensus of the general
authorities, nor of the whole Quorurn of the Twelve. The lack in the late
years of the Ezra T. Bensonadministration in the Mormon Church of "a
 A Rumor of Devils tL3
full and vigorous First Presidency" has, Mauss thinks, made it very
difficult to rein in the "folk fundamentalist" preferences of individual
general authorities, but this does not necessarily mean that these
preferences were or are shared by the majority of the brethren.lol An
indication that cautious voices on the Satanic abuse issue existed among
general authorities as early as in 1992 came from Apostle Richard G.
Scott's speechat the General Conference of April19y2. Although Elder
Scott deplored the "tragic scars of abuse," he also cautioned against
"improper therapeuticapproaches," "leading questions,"and "excessive
probing into every minute detail of past experiences." The LDS Apostle
argued that such techniques may "unwittingly trigger thoughts that are
more imagination or fantasy than reality. They could lead to
condemnation of another for acts that were not committed. While likely
few in numbers, I know of cases where such therapy has caused great
injustice to the innocent from unwittingly stimulated accusations that
were later proven false. Memory, particular adult memory of childhood
experience,is fallible. Remember, false accusationis also a sin."l@

Notes

1 . Jeffrey S. Victor, Sataníc Panic: The Creatíon of a Contemporary Legen"d,Chicago

and La Salle (llinois): Open Court, 1993, pp. 1-2.
2. SeeFrangois Ravaisson-Mollien, z{rchives de Ia Bastille : Docwncnts inédits , 19 vols . ,
Paris: A.Durand et Pedone-Lauriel, 1866-1904,see vo1.6 (1873) and vol.7 (1574).
3. The most influential works include: Jean-Baptiste Fiard, La France trompée par les
magiciens et démonolàtres du XWIIe síècle, fait demontré par les fai*, Paris:
Grégoire, 1803; (Jules) Eudes de Mirville, Fnetarwtologic, LA vols., Paris: Vrayet
de Surcy, DelaroqueetWattelier, 1853-1868;Henri-RogerGougenotdesMousseanDr,
Moeurs et pratiques des Démons ou des esprits visiteurs d.u spiitisme ancicn et
moderne, Paris: Plon, 1865; Joseph Bizouard, Des Rapports dp l'horane avec le
Démon. Essai historique et phílosophique,6 vols., Paris: Gaume Frères et J.Duprey,
1864.
A
See Orestes Brownson, The Spirit-Rapper: ,4n Autobiograplry, Boston: Little, Brown
and Company and London: Charles Dolman, 1854, pp.l64-I67; Brownson's book
was translaùedinto French: L'Espritfrappeur, Scènesdu Mond.eInvisible, Paris and
Tounrai: H.Casterman,1862 (see p.103 for the reference to the Book of Mormon).
5. Bizouard, Des Rapports de l'homme avec le Démon, vol.Vl, pp.lll-127.
6, Joris-Karl Huysmans, LAias, Paris: Tresse et Stock, 1891. Seealso Jules Bois, Ie
Satanisme et Ia magie, Paris: Léon Chailley, 1895.
See Richard GrifFths, The Reactionary Revolution: The Catholic Revival in French
Literature 1870-1914, London: Constable, 1966, pp.L24-18.
E. Dr. Bataille, Le Díable au XIXI siècle, 2 vols., Paris aud Lyon: Delhomme et
Briguet, 1892-1E94.
IL4 syzygy
9. Bataille, Le Dia,ble, vol. 1.,p.360.
10. See A.E. Waiùe, Devil Worshíp ín France or the Questínn of Lucifer, London:
George Redway, 1896. In 1E97-1898 Waite wroúe an interesting sequel to this
uDevil
book, Diarw Vaughan and the Question of Modem Palladisrn: A Sequel to
n,
Worship ín France which has remained unpublishedand is at present in a private
collection in England.
11. Taxil's confossion was publishedin the anti{atholic magazineLe Frondezr, April
ZS, t9y1. A good treatment of the Taxil incident is Eugen Weber (ed.), Sata.n
Franc-magon. La rnystification de Léo Taxí\, Paris: Julliard, 1964. After Weber's
book a number of new documents have surfaced and are dlscussed in my Il inmo
d.el Diavolo. Satanistí e anti-satankti dal Seicento ai giorni nostri, Milan:
Mondadori. L994.
12. See Clotilde Bersoue, L'Élue d'u Dragon, Paris: L'Étince[e, 1'929' The book is
kept in print to this day by anti-Masonic groups in various languages-
L3. See Maro Pluquet, La Sophiale, Marín de Naglowskn: so' víe, son oeuvre, Faris:
The Author. n.d.; Alexandrian, Les Líbérateurs de I'amour, Paris: Seuil, L978,
pp.185-206
L4. For Crowley's non$elief in the existence of the Devil (nor of God) see Aleister
Crowley, Magick, edited by John Symonds and Kenneth Grant, York Beach
(Maine): Samuel Weiser, Lyl3, p.296. For a discussion see my Il cappello del
nurgo- I nuovi movimenti magtci datto spiritknw al satankmo, Milan: SugarCo,
1990, pp.268279.
15. See David G.Bromley and SusanG.Ainsley, "Satanism and Satanic Churches: The
Contemporary Incarnations," in Timothy Miller (ed.), Arncrica's Alternative
Religíons, Albany (New York): State Universlty of New York Press, L994.
16. See Robert N. f,ellah and Frederick E.Greenspabn (eds.), Uncívil Religion:
Interreligíous Hostility ín America, Ne'v York: Crossroad, 1987; David Brion
Davis, "Some Themes of Counter-Subversion: An Analysis of Anti-Masonic, Anti-
Catholic, and Anti-Mormon Literature," Míssissippí Valley Historical Review 47
(1960):2os-224.
L7. See my "Strange Bedfellows or Future Enemies?" Updnte & Dialog 3 (October
1993): L3-22.
18. See Barbara Hargrove, "Social Sources and Consequences of the Bruiawsshing
ControversY", h David G. Bromley and James T' Richardson (eds'), The
Brainwashin g /D epr ogrammin g Controv e rsy: Sociolo gícal, Psycholo gic al, Le gal an'd
Historical Perspectìvas, New York: Edwin Msllen, 19E3, pp' 299-3O8 (p' 303)'
lg. For more details, see my Strange Bedfellows.
',The Devil Makers: Conùemporary Bvangelical Fundamentalist Anti-
20. See my
Mormonism," Dial.ogue: A fournat of Mormon Thought, YoL. T7, n' 1 (Spring
1994): 153-169.
Zl. See Sigmgnd Freud, with Josef Breuer, "On the Psychical Mechanism of Hystericai
phenomena,u in Collected. Papers, vol.l, London: International Psychoanalytic
Press, L924.
22. Michelle Smith and Lawrence Pazder, Michelle Remembers, New York: Congdon
& I . a f i É s , 1 9 8 0 ,P ' 7 3 .
*The Demonization of
23. For these developments see Sherril Mulhern,
psychopathology," in Jean-BaptisteMartin and Massimo lntrovigne (eds.), Le Défi
 A Rumor oî Devils 115

magique .II. Satanismz, sorc elle ríe, Lyon : PressesUniversitaires de Lyon, 1994, pp.
53:13.
24. For a story of the trial from a skeptical point of viown see Paul and Shirley Bberle,
The Abuse of Innocence: The McMartin Preschool Tríal, Buffalo (New York):
Prometheus Books. 1993.
25. See Victor, Satanic Panic, p.109.
26. For the anti-satanists' list, widely circulated (including in Utah) by Cavalcade
Productions, a producer of anti-Satanist videos based in Ukiah, California, see
Craig Lockwood, Other Altars: Roots of Cultic and. Satanic Ntrul Abuse and.
Multiple Personalíty Dkorder, Minneapolis: CompCare Publishers, 1993, pp.269-
27r.
n. The most balanced treatment of adolescent Satanism has been writúen by a
Fresbyterian pastor who is also a clinical social worker specialized in assisting
teenagerswith problems: Joyce Mercer, Behi.ttd.the Mask of Adolescent Satankm,
Minneapolis: DeaconessPress, 1991.
2E. See Vicùor, Satanic Panici David G. Bromley, "The Sooial Construction of
Subversion: A Comparison of Anti-Religious and Anti-satanic Cult Narratives",
in Anson D. Shupe and David G. Bromley (eds.), The Arti-Cult Movement: An
Internatiolal Perspecúiua, New York and London: Garland, 1994.
29. CSER, Satanism in Amertca, Buffalo (New York): CSER' 1989.
30. See John and Mark Sandford, A Comprehensíve Guíd.eto Deliverance and Inner
Healing, Grand Rapids (Michigan): Chosen Books, 1991. Whether or not innor
healing is an acceptable form of prayerhas been the subject of considerable debate
inCatholiccharismaticcircles: see "TwoViewsof InnerHealing," NewCovenant,
vol.23, n.7 (February 1994):7-t0.
31. Bob and Gretchen Passantino, "The Hard Facts about Satanic Ritual Abuse,"
Christían Researc h f ourna I, 14 :3 (Winte r 1'992): 2O-23: 32-34.
32. Robin Perrin and Less Parrott III, "Memories-of Satanic Ritual Abuse: The Truth
behind the Panic," Chrktianity Todny, June 21 , 1993: L9-23.
33- SusanBergman, "Rumors from Hell," Chrktinnity Todcy, March'1, L994:36-37.
34- JamesT. Richardson, Joel Best and David G. Bromley (eds.), The Satanism Scare,
New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1991.
35. See Lockwood, Other Altars, pp.13-15.
36. See for the whole story andbibliography my "Quand le diable se fait Mormon. Le
Mormonisme corlme complot diabolique: I'affaire Schnoebelen," Politíca
Ilerrnetica, 6 (1992);36-54; and "The Devil Makers." Schnoebelenalsoclaims that
the Satanic Masonic cult called Palladism (the core feature of Taxil's hoax) is a
real organization still existing in Chicago, and that both himself and his wife
Sharon have been initiated in the cu1t. In order to persuade skeptics, they have
reproduced in their 1993 book Lucif,er Dethroned a certificate of initiation into
Palladism signed "D.DePaul" (see William and Sharon Schnoebelen, Lucífer
Dethroned, Chino [California]: Chick Publications, 1.993, p.205). I contacted
Michael Bertiaux, the Chicago occultist who had consecrated Schnoebelea as a
Bishop in his Gnostio Church, for additional information about DePaul. Bertiaux
assured me that, my doubts notwithstanding, DePaul was "a real p€fson," a
"Roman Catholic from an orphan home." Since DePaul was anxious to establish
a new Satanist order, Bertiaux himself--haH-jocularly--"suggested that he make
116 syrysy
the Palladium'
contact ashally with the 19th cent' Satanist movement in France,
Vaughan was a real spirit trying to contact him'
He [DePaul] believed that Diana
to him and direcùed hirn in softing up a mystioal
He also stated that she came
the work of the Palladium, of which he was chief'" In
society thqt would continue
1980s DePaul moved from chicago to Georgia and Bertiaux "lost contact with
the
him,' (letter from Michael Bertiaux to the authof , February 12, t994')' Accordingly,
in an organization
it is not impossible that the schnoebelen had been initiated
estabtshedby Diana Vaughan. What they fail to explain is that it was the spíit of
the Chioago Palladftun in
Diana Vaughan, channeledby DePaul, who had founded
catholicism as she tells in the
the 190s. Why Diana-having converÙed to
(if it is not hell) to contact mediums in
Mernoírs*should now bother from heaven
Iuinois úo establish satanie. cults also remains unclear.
and Neglecr; 1988'
37. Sttdy of Natínnal Incid.ence and. Prevalence of Child Abuse
\v4shington, D.C.: U.S. Departmentof HealthandHuman services, 1988, p' XIII;
Thomas
see BoydC. Rollins andCraig K. Manscill, "Family Violence in Utah," in
Martin, Tom B. Heaton and Stephen J. Bahr (eds.), Uah ín Demographic

Perspectíve,Salt Lake city: signafire Books, 1986, pp.163-1ó4.

38. Satt Lat(e Tribwte, December 16, 1987'
39. SattLa.ke Tríbwte, Decomber t7, 1987'
40. Deseret News, December 17, l9n.
4L. Satt Lake Tribune, December 27, L987'
42. Deseret News, January 13, 1988.
Barbara Snow and
43. Satt laks Trtbwr.e, April 26,1988. For Dr. Snow's version see
,'Rihlalistic Child Abuse in a Neighborhood Settitlg," Thc lournal
R.N. Sorenseo,
of Interpersonal Yíolence, 5:4 (December 1990): 474487 '
Abuse in Mormon
44. April Daniels andCarol Scott, Paperdolls: Healingfrom Sental
Neighbourhood.s, Salt Lake City: Palingenosia Press, 1992'
45. Daniels and Scott, Paperdolls, p. 108'
46. Marion B. Smith, Lettor, Sunstone, Deoember 199L, PP' 4ó'
47. See Shupe and Bromley (eds.), The Anti-Cult Movement'
Mormon
48. AnsonD. Shupe, The Darker sid.eof virtue: corruption, scan"dalandthe
p. 123.I have largely used
Empire,Buffalo (New York): PrometheusBooks, 1991,
of Lehi's incident, together with
the relevant chaptor of Shupe's book for the story
a number of press clippings supplied by Michael W' Homer'
49. Sottth Idaho Press, September 13, L99L.
50. Los Angeles Tímes Magazine, May L7, 1992'
*In the Name of Satan," Network: A Progressíve Publication for Unh
5 1 . Gode Davis,
Womcn, vol. 14, n. 12 (March L992):15-16'
May 19'
52. The Times-Neus (Twin Falls, Idaho), May L9, t992; South ldaho Press,
L992; Los fuigeles Tímes Magazine, May 17, t992'
,,Ritualistic Child Abusp and the Mormon Chufch," Salt I'ake Cíty Messenger 8{1
53.
arw
(November 1991): 1-15; Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Satanic Rinnl Abuse
See also
Mormonisrn, salt Lake city: utah Lighthouse Ministry, 1992, pp. 7-18'
,'Mormon Leaders Fight Satanic Infiltration ," Salt l-ake City Messenger 81 (Mar'*i:
1992):1-15.
54. Davis,In the Nameof Sann, t4'
55. DeseretNews,SePtember 8, 1991.
 A Rumor of Devils tt7
56. Deseret News, October 25, 1,ggl.
57. Deseret News, September9, L991,.
58. Davis, In the Name of Satan, 16.
59. Transcripts in Tanner and Tanner, Satanic Rifinl Abuse and Mormonism, p. 45.
60. Deseret News, 25 ocúober 1991; see Ensign, June l9g2: 79; aad R.clayton
Brough, Teachings of the Prophets: Statements of LDS Leaders of Contemporary
Issues,Bountiful(Utah): HorizonPress, L993,p.80. TheonlyotherLDSdocgment
on Satanic abuse Brough mentions (but does not reproduce) is Bishop Pac€'s
memorandum, and it is somewhat strange ùo see this devout (althoug unofEcial)
compilation of LDS docrunents referring its readers to the Tanners' anti-Mormon
Sah Lake City Messenger, November 1991, as the only source where the
memorandum could be found.
61. Take Two, November 10, 1991, transcript.
62. See Gretchen and Bob Passantino, and Jon Trott, "S&tan' Sideshow: The True
Lauren stradord story," comerstone, Lg:90 (December E, 19g9): z3-zs.
63. Salt Lake Trtbwre, November 13, L991.
64. Sab Lake Tribune, November 18, 1991.
65. The Cache Citízen (Logan, Utah), December 1g, 1991.
66. KSL, January 18, 1992, transcript in Tanner and Tanner , Satanic Ritwt Abuse and
Mormonism, p. 45.
67. Davis, In the Name of Satan.
68. Report of [Unh] Governor's Task Force on Ritual Abuse, Salt Lake City: n.p.,
May L992.
69. Report, p. ó, emphasis in original.
7 0 . David Finkelhor Imisspelled in the Report, p. 1l as "Finklehor,,l, Nursery Crimcs,
Newbury Park (California): Sage press, 19gg.
72. See "Bibliography," in Report, pp. LI-1.2.
7 3 . For a comprehensive treatnrent by an anthropologist see Felicitas Goodman How
,
about Demons? Possession an^dExorcism ín the Modem World., Bloominglon and
Indianapolis: Indiana University press, 198E.
74. Alf Pratte, "Too Bizarre úo Believe: Ritual Abuse in Utah?" Utah Holiday, April
1993:20-25.
75- See John rùlhiteside P&rsons, The Manifest of Antichrist/The Book of Antichríst,
ed.by E.W.Plawiuk, Edmonton (Alberta): Isis Research, 1980; Idem, Freedom is
a Two-Edged Sword and. Other Essays,ed. by Cameron and Hymenaeus Beta, Las
Vegas: Falcon Press, 1989.
76. see Waiùe's biography by R.A.Gilbert, A. E. waíte: Magician of Many parts,
Wellingborough (Northampronshire): Crucible, IggT .
77- See' for his definition of magic, William Butler Yeats, "Magic,n ia Essaysand
Introductions, London: Macmillan,1.96L, p. Zg.
78. Martin lI. Katchen, "The tlistory of Satanic Religions", in David K.Sakheim and
Susan E.Devine (eds.), Out of Darhtess: Expbring Satankm and. Riant Abuse,
New York: I-exingúon, Lgg2,pp.2L-39. see Diana vaughan, Memoírs of an ex-
Falladist, Chicago: Voices in Action, 1990.
79. Noemi P. Mattis and Elouise M. Bell, "Ritual Abuse," in Anne L. Horton, B. Kent
Harrison and Barry L. Johnson (eds.), Confronting Abuse, Salt Lake C.ity: Deseret
Book Company, 1993, pp. 180-200.
118 syzysy
80. Pratte, "Too Bizarre to Beliove," 23'
*Leaked Bishop,s Memo Spottights LDs Rifiral Satanic Sexual Abuse,'' Sunstone
81.
15:5 (November 1991): 58'
82. Ibid.
p' 24 andp' 34'
83. Tanner and Tannet, satnnic Rífi&t Abuse and.Mormonism,
Mormonism' pp'70:74'
84. See Tanner and Tanner, Sataníc Rínnl Abuse and'
is the editor of the newsletier
85. Lockwood , other Altars, pp.11E-120' Lockwood
(under the heading "Mormon Miscreants")
Beyon^dSumival,and quotes in the book
from his 1990 interview wiú Walker'
g6. Tanner and Tanner, sataníc Ritunt Abuse and Mormonìsm, pp' 8L'82'
Federation
g1 . I am myser a member of the commission organizedby the International
oftheCatholicUniversity(IIlcU)uponamandateoffourVatioanSecretariats'and
who believe in survivors'
have heard shupe's rather strong remarks against those
remain confidential'
stories in Omaha. koceedings of the trFCU commission
88. Vicùor,Sannic Panic, P' 269'
ClaPton, The Satanic Abuse
89. See the commentsby British social worker Gary
Press, London: UniversitY of
Controversy:Social Worlcersand the Socínl Work
North Londoa Press, L993'
and Richard D' sy'etzel'
g0. carol S. North, Jo-Ellyn M. Ryall, Daniel A. Ricci
Psychiatríc classifi'cation and' Media
Multipte Personalíties,-Muttiple Disord.ers:
oxford university Press, 1993' pp' 118-119'
Influence, New York and oxford:
gl.seeRebeccaBrown,HeCametoSettheCaptivesFree'Chino(California):Chick
whitaker House' 1992);
Publications, 1986 (2nd ed.: Springdale [Pennsylvania]:
Tragir Hístory of Mike Wamke '
Mike Herùensteinand Jon Trott, Seùfug Satan: The
Satankm in Anwríca' pp' 1'04-
chicago: cornerstone Press, !gg3, p. 271; CSER'
105.
an'd the Process of R'ecovery
92. See Ann-Marie Germain, Ritual Abuse: Its Efficts
of
(Jsing self-Hetp Method,sand, Resources,and Focusíng on the spirítwal Aspect
Illinois: Southern Illinois
Damage and. Recovery, Master's Thesis, Carbondale'
Rinnl Abuse: whht It Is' why
university of carbondale,1992; Margareth súith,
ItHappens,and'HowtoHelp,SanFrancisco:HarperSanFrancisco,1993.
Pilgriln's Path: Freemasonry
93.see weber , satyn Franc+nagon;Iohn'J. Robinson,A
M. Evans and Company, 1993, pp' 57-59'
and the Religiotrs Right, New York:
the entry "Past-Life Therapy"' in 'tr' Gordon
94. For an historical overview, see
Aidan A.Kelly (eds.), New Age Almanac, Detroit:
Melton, Jerome Clark and
Visible Ink Press, 1991, PP' 80-E9'
David Michael Jacobs' Secret Life:
95. For a summary of the believors' arguments see
Simon & Schuster' 1992'
Firsthand. Aciowtts of {JFO Abdactions, New York:
JacobsisAssociateProfessorofHistoryatTempleUniversity.
Mars' Ét"at d'un cas de
96- See Théodore Flournoy, Des hl.es à ta Ptanète
Atar, amdParis: Fischbacher'
somtwmbulkme avec glossolalie, 4th ed., Geneva:
boeo published after her death by
1909 (lst ed.: 1900). A biography of Muller has
W.Deonna.De|aPlanèteMarsenTerreSaínte.Artetsubcoscienf--UnMédùnn
peintre: Hétène Smith, Paris: E' de Boccard' 1932'
in Masoory: The Relationship
n. See Michael W.Homer, "similarity of Priesthood
betweeu Mormonism and Freemasonryn" Díalogue: A Journal of Mormon Thoughr
27:3 Gzll1994), 1-115'
 A Rumor of Devils I19
98. Perrin and Parrott, "Memories of satanic Rituat Abuse", 23.
99. On ncult cops" and their decline soe Robert D. Hicks, In Pursuit of Satan: The
Police and the Occult, Buffalo (New York): PrometheusBooks, 1990. Some of the
most prominent "cult cops" in the United States are from Idaho and Utah, although
Utah police also has a percentage of skeptics: seeDeseret News, September 10-11,
L991 where both skeptic and believer law enforcement of,Ecers were interviewed.
The most vocal "cult cop" in utah, capt. Randy Johnson of west Jordan
Deparbnent Rrblic Safety, was a member of the Governor's task force.
100. Utah Atùorney General's Office, Ritwt Crime in the State of Uah: Investigation,
Analysk & A Look Forward, Salt Lake City: Utah Atùorney General's Offìce,
1 9 9 5 ,p p . 2 , 5 , 4 7 4 9 .
101. ArmandL. Mauss, "TheMormonStrugglewithAssimilationandldentity: Trends
and Developments Since Midcentury", Dialogue: A fournal of Monnon Thought
27:1 (Spring 1994): 129-149. This is an adaptodversion of Mauss' 1993 speech at
the Mormon History Association annual meeting in Lamoni, Iowa. See also
Armand L. Mauss, The '4ngel and the Beehive: The Mormon Stntggte with
Assimilatíon (Urbana and Chicago: Universrty of Illinois Press, 1994), 185-gS.
102. (Elder) Riohard G. Scott, "t{ealing the Tragic Scars of Abuse," Ensign 22:5 (May
1992): 31.-33. salt lake Trtbune, April 5, lggz. predictably, a number of
therapists-including Marion B. Smith--wroùe to the Tribune to criticize Elder
Scott's remarks. See letters by Marion B.Smith in the Tibune's Pgblic Forurn,
April L9, 192; and by therapist Robert Buck and by SusanG. Aldous on April 21
,
1992- According to the Tribwte of April 6, Iggza protest against Ssott's talk was
stagedon Temple Square by úenwomen carrying placards the day following Scott's
speech. Of course, proúesúerswere not wrong in claiming that Elder Scott's
remarks on the fallibility of survivors' memories contradicted Bishop pace's
insistence in the 1990 memo on the reliability of the same memories "as fresh as
if it happenedyesterday." Elder Scott, on the other hand, had in L992 the benefit
of rwo moîe years of scholarly ."r""rdh which had critically analyzed the claims
of the survivors.