1. Mass Hysteria and an Unscrupulous District Attorney Combined to Produce America’s Most Expensive Criminal Trial
Although the McMartin preschool accusations were incredible, they came at a time when America was gripped by widespread panic about demonic rituals involving the abuse of children. Such rituals were supposedly connected to satanic worship and dark magic, so the bizarre McMartin allegations found fertile soil in which to grow. With elections drawing near, ambitious Los Angeles District Attorney Ira Reiner unscrupulously sought to capitalize on the mounting public hysteria. So he slapped Ray Buckey and his mother Virginia McMartin with 208 counts of child molestation.
Buckey and his mother were arrested in 1984, and the investigation lasted for three years. Mother and son were then put through a three-year-trial, that lasted from 1987 to 1990. It was the longest and most expensive criminal trial in American history. At its conclusion, a jury acquitted Virginia McMartin of all charges, while Ray Buckey was acquitted of 52 of 65 charges, with the jury deadlocked on the remaining counts 10 to 2 in favor of acquittal. Those charges were then dropped, and the McMartin preschool hysteria and trial concluded without a single conviction.
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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading
BBC – People Have Always Whinged About Young Adults. Here’s Proof
Brown, David – A Guide to the Salem Witchcraft Hysteria of 1692 (1984)
Business Insider, March 10th, 2014 – How a Bogus Sex Abuse Accusation Fueled a Nationwide Hysteria
Destination Salem – Salem Witch Trials
Encyclopedia Britannica – Salem Witch Trials
History Collection – Mistakes That Changed History
Londonist – The Time Somebody Shot a Ghost Dead in Hammersmith
Schama, Simon – Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution (1990)
Wikipedia – McMartin Preschool Trial
Wikipedia – Salem Witch Trials
History Collection – The 1970s Witchcraft Trial and Other Oddities in Witch History