The Satanic Panic of the 1980s : Another witch hunt

 America’s 80s witch hunt:
The Satanic Panic

The Satanic Panic was a widespread moral panic in the United States (and to a lesser extent in other English-speaking countries) during the 1980s and early 1990s. It was characterized by mass hysteria and unfounded fears that secret, organized Satanic cults were infiltrating society, ritually abusing children, and committing widespread murder and sacrilege.

Key Features and Timeline

•  Early 1980s – Origins
The panic began with the 1980 publication of the book Michelle Remembers, co-written by a Canadian psychiatrist and his patient Michelle Smith. The book claimed (under hypnosis) that Smith had recovered repressed memories of horrific Satanic ritual abuse (SRA) as a child, including being locked in a cage, witnessing murders, and being tortured by Satanists. The book was heavily promoted despite having no corroborating evidence and is now widely regarded as a hoax.

•  1983–1990 – Explosion of Accusations
The panic went mainstream after allegations at the McMartin Preschool in Manhattan Beach, California (1983). Staff were accused of running a Satanic child-abuse ring involving hundreds of children. The case became the longest and most expensive criminal trial in U.S. history. After years of testimony (much of it from very young children coaxed by suggestive interviewing techniques), all charges were eventually dropped in 1990 due to lack of evidence.

•  Daycare Cases
Dozens of similar cases followed across the country (e.g., Fells Acres in Massachusetts, Little Rascals in North Carolina, Oak Hill in Texas, Kern County in California). Teachers and daycare workers were accused of bizarre Satanic rituals: flying children to Mexico for abuse, sacrificing animals or babies, digging up graves, etc. Most convictions were later overturned or charges dropped.

•  Role of Media and “Experts”

•  Talk shows (Oprah, Geraldo Rivera, Sally Jessy Raphael) repeatedly featured “survivors” and self-proclaimed Satanic-cult experts.

•  Geraldo Rivera’s 1988 NBC special “Devil Worship: Exposing Satan’s Underground” was watched by millions and claimed “hundreds of thousands” of ritual murders were going unsolved.

•  Books like The Satan Seller (Mike Warnke, later debunked) and Satan’s Underground (Lauren Stratford, also debunked) were treated as authoritative.

•  Therapeutic and Law-Enforcement Community
Many therapists believed in “repressed memories” and used hypnosis, guided imagery, and leading questions to “recover” memories of Satanic abuse.
Police departments held seminars on “Satanic crime” taught by figures like Dale Griffis (who claimed a Ph.D. from a mail-order college) and attended “occult crime” conferences where attendees were taught to look for “Satanic symbols” (pentagrams, heavy-metal logos, Dungeons & Dragons books, etc.).

•  Moral Entrepreneurs

Evangelical Christians, fundamentalist preachers, and anti-occult crusaders (e.g., Pat Pulling of BADD — Bothered About Dungeons & Dragons) claimed rock music, role-playing games, and even Proctor & Gamble’s old man-in-the-moon logo were part of a Satanic conspiracy.

•  20/20 and other news programs later exposed many of these claims as baseless.

•  Mid-1990s – Collapse
By the early 1990s, the lack of physical evidence (no bodies, no blood, no mass graves despite claims of thousands of ritual murders) and overturned convictions, and exposés in newspapers and magazines (especially a 1994 FBI report by Kenneth Lanning that found no evidence of organized Satanic crime) caused the panic to collapse. Most remaining cases were dropped or convictions overturned.

The Legacy

The Satanic Panic is now almost universally regarded by historians, psychologists, and criminologists as a classic example of a moral panic and mass delusion. It ruined hundreds of lives (decades-long prison sentences, destroyed families, suicides), cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in trials and investigations, and severely damaged public trust in both the mental-health and criminal-justice systems.

In short, the Satanic Panic was 1980s–early 1990s America’s version of the Salem witch trials — a period when fear of an invisible Satanic conspiracy overrode reason, evidence, and due process. Not much changes does it?