Mar 1, 2010

Satanic Panic and the WM3



I've been watching some of the extra footage from Saturday's 48 Hours Mystery episode, covered in full here. This interview with former FBI Behavioral Science Unit investigator Ken Lanning is really worth a look. As is fairly common knowledge now, the 80s media obsession with Satanic cults turned out to be much ado about nothing. Lanning investigated allegations of incidents and ultimately found no evidence of this practice occurring anywhere in the country. And absolutely no evidence of any Satanic ritual was ever found in connection to the Robin Hood Hill murders. Satanic ritual murder was the conclusion reached in West Memphis not because of any ceremonial objects or altars -- there were none -- but because of the gruesomeness of the crime. It was a way people could make sense of the inexplicable murder of innocent children.Then they focused on the person most likely to be a Satanist; the boy who dressed in black, listened to Metallica, and was, well, a little unusual.


Damien Echols


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