Allegations of abuse at McMartin Preschool

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The McMartin preschool trial related to hundreds of cases of alleged satanic - ritual abuse of children at a preschool in Manhattan Beach ( California ) in the 1980s. The trial of the allegations dragged on from 1987 to 1990 and was the longest and most expensive criminal case in the history of the United States. All of the defendants were acquitted.

Allegations of abuse

After initial allegations of abuse by the mother of a child were made in 1983, the Children's Institute International (CII), an abuse clinic in Los Angeles led by Kee MacFarlane, began investigations. The interviews were suggestive. They wanted to have found out that satanic rituals had also occurred; the children had spoken of secret doors and tunnels. In the spring of 1984 it was alleged that over 360 children had been molested.

Prosecution

On March 22, 1984, Virginia McMartin, Peggy McMartin Buckey, Ray Buckey and Peggy Ann Buckey and teachers Mary Ann Jackson, Betty Raidor and Babette Spitler were charged.

The trial lasted seven years and cost $ 15 million and was the longest and most expensive criminal trial in United States history. Ray Buckey spent five years in custody. Like all the other defendants, he was acquitted in 1990.

Archaeological investigation

In 1990, the archaeologist E. Gary Stickel of the University of California, at the behest of Ted Gunderson, former head of the FBI Los Angeles, excavated the school grounds, where he found structures that he interpreted as the remains of tunnels and an underground space. as the children had described them. This interpretation was met with disbelief: According to the psychologist W. Joseph Wyatt of Marshall University , Stickel only found the debris-filled remains of a garbage pit that was part of the previous development. The building was demolished in 1991.

filming

The proceedings were filmed in the 1995 judicial drama Under Charges - The McMartin Case, starring James Woods .

See also

literature

  • Edgar Butler, Hiroshi Fukurai, Jo-Ellan Dimitrius, Richard Krooth: Anatomy of the McMartin Child Molestation Case. University Press of American, 2001.
  • John Earl: The Dark Truth about the Dark Tunnels of McMartin. In: Issues in Child Abuse Accusations, Vol. 7, # 2, 1995.
  • Paul and Shirley Eberle: The Abuse of Innocence: The McMartin Preschool Trial. New York: Prometheus, 1993.
  • Debbie Nathan , Michael Snedeker: Satan's Silence: Ritual Abuse and the Making of a Modern American Witch Hunt . BasicBooks, New York 1995, ISBN 978-0-465-07180-7

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nadja Schreiber, Lisa Bellah, Yolanda Martinez, Kristin McLaurin, Renata Stok, Sena Garven and James Wood: Suggestive interviewing in the McMartin Preschool and Kelly Michaels daycare abuse cases: A case study . In: Psychology Press (ed.): Social Influence . 1, No. 1, 2006, pp. 16-46. doi : 10.1080 / 15534510500361739 .
  2. ^ S Garven, Wood JM, Malpass RS, Shaw JS: More than suggestion: the effect of interviewing techniques from the McMartin Preschool case . In: Journal of Applied Psychology . 83, No. 3, 1998, pp. 347-59. doi : 10.1037 / 0021-9010.83.3.347 . PMID 9648524 .
  3. ^ R Reinhold: The Longest Trial - A Post-Mortem. Collapse of Child-Abuse Case: So Much Agony for So Little. . In: The New York Times , January 24, 1990. Retrieved October 24, 2008. 
  4. ^ D Linder: The McMartin Preschool Abuse Trial: A Commentary . University of Missouri-Kansas City . 2003. Archived from the original on October 30, 2008. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved October 28, 2008. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.law.umkc.edu
  5. ^ Roland C. Summit: The Dark Tunnels of McMartin. in: The Journal of Psychohistory 21, Issue 4 (1994), pp. 397-416.
  6. ^ W. Joseph Wyatt: What was under the McMartin Preschool? A Review and Behavioral Analysis of the "Tunnels" Find . In: Behavior and Social Issues 12 (2002), pp. 29 - 39 ( online , accessed August 4, 2013); see. John Earl: The Dark Truth About the "Dark Tunnels of McMartin" . In: Issues in Child Abuse Accusations 7 (1995), accessed August 4, 2013; Edgar W. Butler: Anatomy of the McMartin Child Molestation Case. University of America, Lanham 2001, p. 213.
  7. ↑ http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mcmartin/mcmartinchrono.html