American Monsters: Tabloid Media and the Satanic Panic, 1970-2000
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AMERICAN MONSTERS: TABLOID MEDIA AND THE SATANIC PANIC, 1970-2000 A Dissertation Submitted to the Temple University Graduate Board In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY by Sarah A. Hughes May 2015 Examining Committee Members: Kenneth L. Kusmer, Advisory Chair, History Carolyn Kitch, Journalism Susan E. Klepp, History Elaine Tyler May, External Member, University of Minnesota, American Studies © Copyright 2015 by Sarah A. Hughes All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT “American Monsters: Tabloid Media and the Satanic Panic, 1970-2000,” analyzes an episode of national hysteria that dominated the media throughout most of the 1980s. Its origins, however, go back much farther and its consequences for the media would extend into subsequent decades. Rooted in the decade’s increasingly influential conservative political ideology, the satanic panic involved hundreds of accusations that devil-worshipping pedophiles were operating America’s white middle-class suburban daycare centers. Communities around the country became embroiled in criminal trials against center owners, the most publicized of which was the McMartin Preschool trial in Manhattan Beach, California. The longest and most expensive trial in the nation’s history, the McMartin case is an important focal point of this project. In the 1990s, judges overturned the life sentences of defendants in most major cases, and several prominent journalists and lawyers condemned the phenomenon as a witch-hunt. They accurately understood it to be a powerful delusion, or what contemporary cultural theorist Jean Baudrillard termed a “hyperreality,” in which audiences confuse the media universe for real life. Presented mainly through tabloid television, or “infotainment,” and integral to its development, influence, and success, the panic was a manifestation of the hyperreal. This dissertation explores how the panic both reflected and shaped a cultural climate dominated by the overlapping worldviews of politically active conservatives. In 1980, neoconservatives, libertarians, economic conservatives, and evangelical Christians, who had begun their cultural ascent over the course of the previous decade, were brought together temporarily under the aegis of President Ronald Reagan. With collective strength they implemented their joint agenda, which partly included expanding their influence on the nation’s iv media sources. Coinciding with a backlash against feminism and the gay rights movement, media outlets often represented working women and homosexuals as dangerous to conservative idealized notions of white suburban family life. Such views were incorporated into the panic, which tabloid media reinforced through coverage of alleged sexual abuse of children at day care centers. Infotainment expanded dramatically in the 1980s, selling conservative-defined threats as news. As the satanic panic unfolded through infotainment sub-genres like talk shows and local news programs (first introduced in the late 1940s), its appeal guaranteed the continued presence of the tabloid genre, and reinforced conservative views on gender, race, class, and religion. Although the panic subsided in the early 1990s as journalists and lawyers discredited evidence and judicial decisions turned against accusers, the legacy of the panic continued to influence American culture and politics into the twenty-first century. v Dedicated to Carl Sagan. “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are many important people in my life I want to thank for making this project possible. I first want to acknowledge the support of my advisor, Ken Kusmer. His guidance and advice over the past decade have been invaluable and kept me both focused and motivated. I would not have been able to survive graduate school without his encouragement. I also want to thank my committee members: Carolyn Kitch, Susan Klepp, and Elaine Tyler May. I gained both wisdom and confidence from their continued feedback, generosity, and support. My several email exchanges with Elaine Tyler May were particularly helpful and consistently sparked my intellectual curiosity. Collectively, my committee made the process of writing a dissertation both enjoyable and exciting. A Dissertation Completion Grant from Temple University allowed me to spend all of my time focused on researching and writing this project, for which I am also incredibly grateful. My project would also not have been possible without the help of my family and friends. The brilliance and determination of my mom, Dr. Rhonda Hughes, my dad, Dr. Anthony Hughes, and my brother, Jeremy Hughes, inspires me every single day. I also want to thank my second family, the Grangers, particularly Rose, for always steering me in the right direction. I owe my family everything and sincerely hope that they enjoy reading this dissertation as much as I enjoyed writing it. I want to thank my good friends, including Ross Hutchison, Lisa Gagliardi, Heidi Kendall Middlemas, Amanda Weyerbacher, Rachel Schwab Turbet, Cameryn Robinson, Renisha Griffin, and Amber Clemens for always having my back. My dissertation is partly a reflection of their continued love and support. Finally, vii thank you to Drew McKevitt for suggesting the topic. Writing about this episode in American history has changed my outlook on the world and I will always be appreciative. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………………...….iii DEDICATION…………………………………………………………………………….......v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS……………………………………………………………….........vi INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………………..viii CHAPTER 1. A “VAST WASTELAND”: AMERICAN MEDIA PENETRATION IN THE 1980s…………….……………………………………………………………..1 2. “THE HYPERREAL AND THE IMAGINARY”: THE SATANIC PANIC AS INFOTAINMENT…………………………………………………...………31 3. NIGHTMARES AND DREAMSCAPES: PARANORMAL ACTIVITY IN EVANGELICAL SUBURBIA………………………………………………..66 4. “THEY’RE ALL GONNA LAUGH AT YOU”: GENDER, SEXUALITY, AND CHILDHOOD IN THE 1980s.................................................................................107 5. “HELL IN THE CITY OF ANGELS”: THE SIGNIFICANCE OF RACE IN RITUAL ABUSE CASES……………………………………………….........147 6. DENOUEMENT AND TRIUMPH: THE PANIC AND ITS LEGACIES IN THE 1980s……………………………………………………...….……………....185 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………..…222 ix INTRODUCTION In February 1984, in the modestly wealthy suburban community of Manhattan Beach, California, news reporter Wayne Satz of KABC-TV, ABC’s local Los Angeles affiliate, delivered a live story on an area daycare center that would eventually lead to the longest and most expensive criminal trial in American history. Over the next several years, Ray Buckey, an employee at the McMartin preschool, along with the women in his family who owned and operated it, stood trial for hundreds of counts of conspiracy and abuse as part of cult practices the media and experts called “satanic ritual abuse.” Police and the FBI closed down the daycare center, conducted exhaustive searches, and firebombed the facility. Although juries ultimately acquitted all of the defendants, other communities around the country similar to Manhattan Beach turned against one another in variations of McMartin. After Satz’s report, other individuals were arrested and imprisoned, including the Amirault family of Fells Acre Day School in Massachusetts; Robert Fulton Kelly and wife Elizabeth of Little Rascals in North Carolina; Margaret Kelly Michaels of Wee Care in Maplewood, New Jersey; Edward L. Clark and his co-director, Anita Shuler, of Citrus Day Care Center in Inverness, Florida; Frank Fuster and wife Ileana of County Walk Babysitting Service in Miami; Arnold Friedman and son Jesse, who ran an after-school computer class from their home in Great Neck, New York; and parent Paul Ingram, Chief Civil Deputy of the Sheriff’s department in Olympia, Washington, as well as Ray Buckey and the McMartin family. They would become the most prominent names and faces of evil in a widespread panic over the presence of devil-worshipping pedophiles in America’s suburbs. Daycare centers and after-school programs in communities across the country were closed down and dozens of people incarcerated, a few of whom were never released from x prison. Most others who were accused did not see their sentences overturned until years or decades later, when influential individuals rejected the plausibility of their cases. Ray Buckey and other defendants were some of the many casualties of the “satanic panic,” which lasted from 1983, when Buckey was first accused of molesting Matthew Johnson, a two-year old boy who attended McMartin, until 1990, when a second hung jury led to Buckey’s final acquittal on all counts. In the interim, men and women were accused of satanic ritual abuse in places as geographically distant as Clarkesville, Maryland; Greer, South Carolina; Grenada, Mississippi; Jordan, Minnesota; Niles, Michigan; Pittsfield, Massachusetts; North Ridge, California; Stuart, Florida; and Wenatchee, Washington. Although charges were only filed against some people, interviews between social workers and alleged child-victims produced hundreds of accusations against friends, teachers, policemen, relatives, religious authorities, case lawyers, and celebrities. Residents who were not accused also suffered, believing that either neighborhood children had been raped and tortured by those tasked with protecting them, or that the accusations against the latter were false. The panic polarized entire towns and brought social and financial devastation