In spite of an almost complete lack of evidence of ritual abuse, the report (1) is
heavily biased towards a belief that the crime is common throughout Utah. An almost
identical inquiry and report could be prepared by two other investigators in support of
abuse by LGM (little green men) on board UFO's. They would have found that hundreds of
residents of Utah believed in UFO abuse as well, and they would have uncovered no or
essentially no evidence to support the claims, other than that based on people's memories.
The report reads much like lecture notes from a standard Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA)
seminar of the type ridiculed by Ken Lanning of the FBI (2,3) in his study of ritual child abuse.
The authors use a number of methods to bolster their claim that ritual abuse is
widespread:
They use a "bait and switch" technique: They describe some of the horrors of
widespread ritual abuse in Utah, even though they provide evidence that only one case may
have happened. They insert a paragraph describing a horrible crime that resulted in
convictions, but is totally unrelated to ritual abuse. Finally, they revert to discussing
more beliefs about horrors of SRA. To the non-critical reader, the description of the
actual, non-ritual abuse case gives credibility to the author's claims about SRA.
They point to graffiti and other minor vandalism by rebellious teenagers as proof that
"occult" ritual activity exists. They use this as support for believing in SRA
and ritual killings by inter-generational Satanists.
They add scary items that are unrelated to ritual abuse, such as teenagers listening to
heavy metal rock music, animal mutilations by natural predators such as coyotes and
mountain lions to support their conclusions.
Lacking evidence, they bolster their beliefs with the unsupported opinions and fears of
community leaders and of the general public.
the investigators show a religious bias by concentrating entirely on "occult
crime" and ignored ritual crime by Christian individuals and groups (e.g. physical,
psychological and other abuse during exorcisms).
They refer to "victims" of ritual abuse rather than "alleged
victims"; this is a common trick used to promote the belief that these crimes
actually exist.
They blame homicides, ritual abuse and other crimes on "the
occult" which does not exist as an organization or movement. The occult is simply
a listing of unrelated activities: some religious practices, some men's fraternal
organizations, and some methods of foretelling the future. They all had one, and only one
common factor: their teachings were kept secret from the public and only revealed to
initiates during training. This factor does not really exist at this time. Many bookstores
and libraries contain books which describe every occultic activity. The technique that the
authors use is common to many conservative Christian books on the occult:
They link together under the "occult" label an enormous number of unrelated
activities, from heavy metal rock to Wicca, from Dungeons &
Dragons fantasy role playing games to Santeria, from the Masonic Order to Satanism,
etc.
Then they attribute profoundly evil activities to Satanists.
Finally, they imply that all members of the occult engage in such horrendously abusive
criminal acts.
They conclude that occult crime is a major threat to society
Pages 2-5: Report Preface
In 1990-MAR, the Utah Governor's Commission for Women and Families joined with
members of the Utah State Task Force on Child Sexual Abuse and created the Utah
State Task Force on Ritual Abuse. Their purposes were:
gather and analyze information about ritual abuse in Utah
sponsor responsible education of the public
assist in the education of professionals
suggest needed programs to public and private agencies
They recommended to the Governor that experienced investigators be assigned to
investigate ritual abuse allegations throughout the state. Money was subsequently
allocated by the Legislature to fund the inquiry.
Investigators Mike King and Matt Jacobson worked full time for 2 years and 6 months on
the project. They canvassed law-enforcement agencies, social-work offices and church
leaders. They scanned 225 SRA cases and thoroughly studied 125 of them. The investigation
lasted from mid-1993 to mid-1995. About 40 involved ritual, ceremonial killings. But, with
the exception of one case, no evidence of ritual abuse could be obtained that would have
justified an investigation. There were no dates, times, names or places. The one exception
is the case described below.
They did uncover one instance of mass, non-ritual child abuse, called the Zion
Society case. Charges were laid and successfully prosecuted against 12 adults
including a self-proclaimed prophet Arvin Shreeve who headed a commune in Ogden UT. No
ritual abuse was involved; no Satanism was involved either; it was a Christian group. We
believe that the authors mentioned this case as a general scare tactic to convince the
readers that terrible crimes exist, and therefore that ritual abuse might exist.
They report that "often the reports of victims are based on 'recovered
memories'." To our knowledge, this is always the case; no hard
evidence has ever been discovered to corroborate memories of SRA.
The authors conclude that "Evidence has shown that there are many isolated
instances of ritual abuse of children, perpetrated either by individuals or small
groups". However they supply no proof or even supporting evidence to this
assertion.
Pages 6-7: Introduction
King and Jacobson mention a number of other reports on ritual crime. One unfortunate
definition of "occult crime" is taken from a 1990-JUN survey by the Michigan
State Police:
Here, the report links together five unrelated religious practices, and implies that
they all engage in the "black arts". This implies that all are involved in
harmful activities, which is not true. On the other hand, the Michigan authors should be
commended for at least treating these religions as valid faith groups by capitalizing
their names.
The entire introduction is based on the unsupported assumption that ritual abuse is a
serious problem in Utah and is widespread throughout the state.
Pages 8-9: Legislative Concerns and Funding
The investigating officers averaged 14 years of police experience when they started the
inquiry; each had had "occult crime investigative experience". It is
obvious from their report that they were (and remain) strong supporters of the belief that
"occult crime" is a serious and pervasive problem in the US. The term cult
cop has been used to describe police officers who actively attempt to raise public
consciousness of SRA.
Pages 10-11: The Goals and Responsibilities of the Ritual Abuse Crime Unit
The authors describe "ritualistic" abuse in very broad terms, including
religious ritual abuse by Satanists
religious ritual abuse by other religious groups,
abuse motivated by cultural, sexual or psychological needs
They make reference to the Zion Society case, even though no ritual abuse seems to have
been committed there.
In spite of this broad definition, their entire investigation appears to have been
directed at Satanic abuse; there is no indication that they made any effort to assess
abuse during exorcisms or other forms of Christian Ritual Abuse.
They list the primary goals of the Ritual Abuse Crime Unit are to:
gather factual information regarding ritual abuse allegations statewide through a law
enforcement survey
investigate allegations of ritual crimes in the state of Utah
obtain opinions and impressions from each jurisdiction in the state regarding
perceptions and validity of ritual abuse claims
obtain any case history made available by departments
examine causes of occult activity
We question goal #3; why should a state agency collect impressions? It would seem more
reasonable to confine themselves to collecting evidence of crime rather than unsupported
beliefs. We also question goal #5. The authors have included a variety of legitimate
Neo-Pagan, Caribbean and other religions within their definition of "the
occult". The fact that a state police force would establish a goal of monitoring
religious minorities is a particularly scary thought. This role attacks the one of the
foundation principles of the American constitution: that of freedom of religious
expression.
Pages 12-21: Groups Involved in Occult Practices
The investigators acknowledge the help of "Captain Randy Johnson of the West
Jordon Police Department" who they describe as a "nationally and
internationally recognized authority on the occult."
We see a major switch in the report at this point. Although the inquiry was supposed to
deal with ritual crime, the investigators now start to investigate the makeup of "the
occult". The only logical implication is that people active in the occult are responsible for ritual crime. We are now two steps
removed from reality:
they have not shown that ritual abuse exists in Utah at any significant level
they have not shown that any occult group has engage in abuse of any sort
The authors list two dictionary definitions on the "occult", which cover a
wide variety of legitimate religious expressions as well as the Masonic Order, horoscope
casters, tarot card readers, fortune tellers - even Christian religious services and
prayer. They state that little information is available on the occult, and then contradict
themselves by mentioning that such information is readily available from occult and New
Age stores.
They then discuss a group of activities and religious beliefs that have sometimes been
called "occultic". Again, one questions why:
a state agency is investigating minority religions
some religions (e.g. Pagans) are included in their study, but very similar religions
(e.g. Native American Spirituality) are ignored
they link together followers of benign religions with psychotic serial murderers
King and Jacobson discuss:
Witches and Pagans or Neopagans: The report has many errors in just a few lines:
they identify these groups as worshipping a duo-divinity - a Goddess and God. This is
true of many Neopagans, but definitely not of all.
They say that "Contemporary witches and pagans" do not identify their
God as Satan; this implies (incorrectly) that in the past they did.
They state that Neo Pagans would label as a Satanist anyone who practices black magic;
this is not correct.
They quote an interesting phrase which they call the "Wiccan Rede". It is
apparently a combination of the actual Wiccan Rede, confused and combined with a Satanic
rule of behavior.
Satanism: They divide Satanists into 7 sub-groups, some of which are known to
exist; others appear to be nonexistent:
Self-Proclaimed Satanists: These are generally called religious Satanists by other
authors. King and Jacobson mention the First Church of Satan which
is a splinter group of The Church of Satan. 5Followers are
described by the pejorative term "self-proclaimed Satanists"; this
implies that their faith is not valid. The authors state that Satanists "profess
to denounce criminal acts by occultists and criminals"; this implies that they
may be lying. It also implies that occultists perform criminal acts.
Theatrical Satanists: These are young people from 9 to 17 who dabble in Satanism. A few
pass onto the next stage.
Experimental Satanists: These are typically 14 to 20 years of age. They are described as
more sophisticated practitioners who engage in "a wide range of crimes from
vandalism to homicide." Here, the authors are confusing two completely different
groups:
Satanic youth who dabble in Satanism and often write graffiti on buildings, deface
tombstones in cemeteries, etc
Psychotic or psychopathic youth who are motivated by their mental disorder to murder
people, and who sometimes blame it on Satanism. Here, the crimes are quite serious, and
are caused by mental problems, not by belief in Satanism. Many such murderers are found to
have little or no knowledge of Satanism.
Solitary Satanists: These are identified as adults who are serial killers and who have "generally
only a limited knowledge of the occult." The authors are correct that these
serial murderers are ignorant of Satanism. They are driven to commit such horrible murders
by their mental disorders, not through any belief in Satanism.
In our opinion, these criminals should not be considered Satanists.
Pseudo-Satanists: These are described as groups of adult males and/or females. Some are
identified as pedophiles who act out their desires by sexually abusing children. Others
are child pornographers who create kiddy port for profit. The authors correctly describe
these people as being essentially ignorant of Satanism. They just use Satanic rituals as a
method of controlling the children. However one study of such
abusers has shown that many (perhaps most) who use these techniques are loners; they do
not operate in groups as King and Jacobson indicate.
Generational Satanists: Here, the authors basically resurrect beliefs about Witches and
Satanists that originated during the late Middle Ages and were responsible for the burning
at the stake of large numbers of innocent people. They didn't exist in centuries past;
they do not exist today. Generational Satanists are described as:
being of all ages; one is born into the group and can never leave it
nationally and internationally organized in a vast secret network
include women, called breeders, who donate their children to the cult for sacrifice
profoundly devoted to their leader Satan
very sophisticated in their methods; they rarely leave evidence
The authors correctly point out that "some skeptics are unwilling to believe
that this group exists." But they attribute that belief to skeptics denying the
existence of child torture and killing. This is not accurate. Skeptics accept that
children are sometimes tortured and killed but point to the complete lack of hard evidence
of Satanic groups, the impossibility that a group could remain undetected for generations
in spite of over 15 years of thorough police investigations, and the improbability of
maintaining a secret organization of this size for generations without an insider leaving
and exposing the group.
Black Magick Practitioners: These are Satanists who are primarily motivated by a desire
to commit violence. The authors claim that most started by practicing "white
magic" and became seduced by the power of evil. They "sacrifice and ritually
abuse animals and humans of all ages." This is an interesting concept but we are
unaware of any evidence of such activity.
Afro-Christian Syncretized Groups: They describe a number of Caribbean religions
which contain elements of African Native belief and Roman Catholicism: Santeria, Palo
Mayombe, Voodoo etc. These groups do sacrifice animals during their religious services,
much in the way that the ancient Israelites sacrificed sheep and goats prior to the
destruction of their Temple in Jerusalem in 72 CE. The US Supreme Court has been
determined this to be a religious practice protected by the US Constitution. This appears
to be more anti-religious propaganda which is unworthy of the authors and should never be
given official support by being included in a state document.
King and Jacobson define a group of words:
Demons: they describe a variety of beliefs about demons, spirits, evil angels
from Greek Pagan religion, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and Judaism. They
mention that "thousands of suspected sorcerers...were burned at the stake"
during the Renaissance. Actually, it was hundreds of thousands of innocent victims.
Satanism: The authors' definition is largely based upon late Middle Age beliefs
and are essentially unrelated to actual Satanism as practiced today.
Passage Rites: an anthropological term to refer to celebrations and rituals timed
to the transition points in life: birth, puberty, marriage, death, etc
Initiation: this includes rituals for both boys and girls at or near puberty,
including various tests, vision quest, religious confirmation, etc.
These definitions are certainly interesting, but appear to be totally unrelated to the
topic of the report.
Pages 22-23: Examples of Occult Symbols
No seminar which promotes the reality of Satanic Ritual Abuse would be complete without
a list of occult symbols. King and Jacobson have followed suit in their report. They
introduce the term "occult sexual abuse" which is undefined, but could
presumably mean sexual abuse by Wiccans or Masons or fortune tellers. Some observations:
the Ankh cross is incorrectly drawn as a circle on top of a conventional Christian
cross.
they present the peace sign as a Broken Cross symbol which "represents the
defeat of Christianity" Actually, it is made from the flag semaphore symbols for
the letters N and D, representing Nuclear Disarmament.
the Upside Down Cross is presented as a Satanic symbol. Actually it was not Satanic
originally. However it has been presented incorrectly by so many conservative Christian
books on Satanism that some teenage dabblers have adopted it.
The Broken "S" is presented as a Satanic symbol. The authors write that the
Nazi SS adopted the symbol because Hitler and some of his officers were occult
practitioners. Actually, Hitler clamped down on many occultic activities and executed or
jailed practitioners.
Sponsored link:
Pages 24-27: Are There Subtle Forces at Work?
The section begins: "As we examine the threat to our society from groups
involved in illegal occult activity, we must also examine the less overt threat produced
from sources such as movies and video [sic], magazines, comic books, music and
games." They make this statement even though they have not established that
occult crime exists.
The report briefly reviews two horror B movies with Satanic themes, some comic books,
rock music containers with occult symbols, one Salt Lake City store specializing in occult
supplies. It is not obvious whether the authors are promoting restrictions on free speech
or advocating laws preventing children from buying some books and recordings. Again, the
section appears to be unrelated to child abuse.
Pages 28-32 A National Perspective:
They include an interesting picture of a gravestone engraved: "Lilly E Gray,
June 6, 1881 - Nov. 14, 1958. Victim of the Beast 666" They do not comment on
this photograph. There must be a fascinating story behind it.
King and Jacobson review a number of government sponsored studies on ritual crime. They
admit that none of them have been able to provide conclusive evidence "of the
existence or nonexistence of a ritually motivated crime or organized group practicing
criminal occult practices." Proving the non-existence of a group or crime is of
course impossible. They described:
The 1990 Occult Survey by the Michigan State Police Department's Investigative
Services Bureau: Of the 467 responses received from police agencies in the state, only
31 (7%) reported that "occult activity" was a significant problem in their area.
"..in most, if not all, instances where a death was reported by respondents to
have had occult overtones, no definite causal link could be established between occult
practices and the death." No causal link could be made between the occult and any
suicides in the state. They did find some dabblers involved in "graffiti,
vandalism, animal sacrifices and animal mutilations."
The 1990 Virginia Task Force Studying Ritual Crime: They found that:
their comprehensive investigation had not uncovered or indicated any network of ritual
crime
persons who follow minority or unconventional religious faiths who happen to be accused
of a criminal act are often cited as evidence of ritual crime
the vast majority of cases involving any spiritual system involve minor crimes like
trespassing, graffiti and vandalism and are committed by "dabblers"
The 1994 report (4) by Prof. J.S. Lafontaine, for the [Great Britain] Department of
Health, "Extent & Nature of Organized Ritual Abuse":
King and Jacobson quoted a United Press International news service article which described
how Dr. Lafontiane had examined 84 cases of suspected Satanic Ritual Abuse and found three
cases where non-Satanic child molesters had used Satanic rituals as a method of
controlling their victims. She found "no evidence to support 'allegations of
extreme acts such as human sacrifice, cannibalism and sexual abuse of children in
orgiastic rituals, where the purpose is an act of devil worship or witchcraft.'"
The 1992 report (7) by FBI Special Agent Kenneth V Lanning, "Investigators
[sic] Guide to Allegations of 'Ritual' Child Abuse": A long quotation from
Lanning's report reveals that he is a skeptic on matters of ritual abuse by organized
groups. One interesting statement is:
If 99.9% of satanists and 0.1% of Christians abuse children as part of their spiritual
belief system, that still means that the vast majority of children so abused were abused
by Christians."
99% of Satanists would total a few thousand; 0.1% of Christians would be over 100,000.
Lanning could just as accurately specified 0.01% of Christians in his comparison.
Pages 33-40 A Look Across Utah:
King and Jacobson describe their interviews of survivors of ritual abuse. Victims gave
detailed accounts of ritual killings, dismembering of corpses, burial of the remains in
the earth. But times, dates, places or names could never be identified. Floor plans of the
buildings where abuse occurred did not match the interiors of the actual buildings. Dates,
times and places of planned ritual meetings were given to the police, but nobody ever
appeared.
They conducted a survey of 135 police departments and 29 sheriff's offices. 4 of the 91
responses indicated that they were currently involved in a ritual crime investigation; 29
had interviewed a person in the past who claimed to be a ritual crime survivor.
Pages 41-44: Challenges to Law Enforcement
The authors speculate that SRA victims are often controlled through fear, intimidation,
drugs, etc. They warn of high stress levels and emotional stress on officers investigating
ritual abuse cases. They state that there has not been sufficient information discovered
to support claims of generational cultism. They commented on cases where police officers
had closed cases as unfounded or devoid of evidence, only to be accused of being a
perpetrator and be the subject of harassment from survivors. Other officers had received
threats while investigating a case.
Pages 45-46: Recommendations:
Since the Legislator funded the ritual abuse survey, the number of ritual abuse
accusations in the state has increased. However, no criminal charges have been filed in
any of the cases. The authors recommend continuing providing expert assistance on ritual
abuse from within the Attorney General's office. Also recommended was training in ritual
crime for all levels of law enforcement, continuing in-service training, and updates to
the Training Academy's curriculum.
We would agree in part with these recommendations. We believe that it is beneficial to
have a group actively looking for ritual abuse cases. Otherwise SRA promoters may take the
position that cases are being overlooked because nobody is specifically looking for them.
We would agree with their recommendation to train police in ritual crime; however, we
would hope that skeptics would be allowed to participate in the training, along with
persons who passionately believe in this type of crime.
Pages 47-48: Conclusion
"Utah's police officers and their departments have dedicated thousands of hours
as they followed up on allegations, searched hillsides for ritual sites, 'staked out'
potential ceremonies, etc. Their combined efforts were unable to uncover any physical
evidence to support the claims of the existence of organized cults." They claim
that evidence has been uncovered that individuals have and are committing crime in the
name of Satan or other deity; they are presumably referring to child molesters who pretend
to be Satanists in order to better control their victims.
Therapists and religious leaders stated that they have dealt with ritual abuse
survivors, but feel that it is not their task to investigate the allegations and seek
corroborating evidence.
Even in the absence of confirming evidence, the authors conclude that ritual abuse has
occurred and is happening throughout Utah. They base this belief on the old adages: "where
there's smoke, there's fire" and "anything is possible".
One possible ritual abuse case was uncovered, but could not be prosecuted because of
the statute of limitations. It happened over 25 years ago. Both parents confessed to
serious sexual and physical abuse of their children. "Rachel Hopkins" (a
pseudonym) came forward to describe her recovered memories of horrendous abuse, and of
being threatened with death if she ever told anyone.
She said that both of her parents signed confessions that they had sexually and
physically abused her. She also has a child photograph of herself which shows bruises. Her
siblings have corroborated the events. She said "the truth is they (Satanists) do
wear black robes, they do abuse children, they do kill animals...It exists, and to say
otherwise is to deny the facts in front of them. Our society used to deny the existence of
incest, too, because we didn't want to believe it...I was sexually abused in every way you
can conceive. I was tortured and had the bottoms of my feet cut. I was made to believe I
was killing a baby, and they forced me to kill dogs and cats...I was bathed in a tub of
blood and forced to look at myself in a mirror. I was tied up and hung upside down and
spun. I was suffocated and electrocuted to the point of being bowed and paralyzed.
Sometimes they forced me and my siblings to hurt one another. They would tell me, `now
you're one of us. If you tell anybody, they won't believe you and they'll put you in a
mental hospital.' And they threatened to torture me until I was dead." She
believes that she was given more intense abuse than her siblings because of her blond hair
and blue eyes.
It seems relatively certain that "Rachel" and her siblings were sexually and
physically abused during childhood by her parents and other adults. But the parents
apparently admitted only to regular, not ritual, abuse. It is not clear is whether:
Rachel actually experienced Satanic Ritual Abuse as she remembers, or
she was subjected to non-ritual physical and sexual abuse motivated by the parent's
sadistic desires. But the memories of a Satanic ritual component to the abuse emerged
later during Recovered Memory Therapy and are not of real events.
It is impossible to determine on the basis of available data which of these two
explanations is correct.
References
Lt. M.R. King & Lt. Marr Jacobson, "Ritual Crime in the State of Utah:
Investigation, Analysis & A Look Forward", Utah Attorney General's Office,
State of Utah, (1995)
Kenneth V. Lanning, "Investigator's Guide to Allegations of 'Ritual' Child
Abuse", Behavioral Science Unit, National Center for the Analysis of Violent
Crime, Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI Academy, Quantico, Virginia 22135 (1992)
The Alliance for Magical and Earth Religions (AMER) has an on-line copy of the
FBI report on the (non)existence of evil Satanic cults by Ken Lanning, titled "Investigator's
Guide to Allegations of 'Ritual' Child Abuse". See it at: http://sanctum.net/amer/abuse.html
Prof. J.S. Lafontaine, [Great Britain] Department of Health, "Extent &
Nature of Organized Ritual Abuse" ISBN 011 11 321797 8; 1994-May. Available from
Unipub, 4611-F Assembly Drive, Lanham MD 20706, for USF$ 11.49
