The Killer Across the Table

by John E. Douglas

There has been much discussion over the years about the relationship between Satanism, the occult, witchcraft, black magic—or anything else we may call it—and violent crime. For a while in the 1980s and 1990s, it was a subject on nearly every television talk show, and police departments actually hired consultants to teach them how to recognize homicides that were satanic ritual murders. Though the media, the public, and much of law enforcement was convinced these ritualistic crimes were happening all over, the FBI looked intensively into each claim and didn’t find a single legitimate example. My friend and highly respected colleague, former Special Agent Kenneth Lanning, wrote a groundbreaking treatise around this time, entitled Investigator’s Guide to Allegations of “Ritual” Child Abuse, in which he basically debunked the entire phenomenon. Likening the claims to the numerous accounts of alien abduction, Ken wrote, “In none of the cases of which I am aware has any evidence of a well-organized satanic cult been found.”

AKA the 'Satanic Panic' of the 80s. Repressed memories, heavy metal causing suicide, you name it, the public (*including us* for those of us in my age bracket) ate it up.