OVO

Followup to my 20 February 2003 post What Happens When a Public Hysteria Dies Out?

What happens when a public hysteria dies out? It seems that everyone agrees to simply not talk about it any more. Y2K created a huge stink – I confess I thought something would ‘happen’ – and now Y2K is all but forgotten. But what about Kelly Michaels, Gerald Amirault, Bernard Baran and Patrick Figured? All of them are currently in prison as a result of the public hysteria of the 90s, ‘ritual abuse.’ The satanic panic has subsided but they remain in prison, for things that they did not do and in fact no one did. Dozens of other people were ‘lucky’ enough to only serve extended prison sentences and lose their homes, friends, family and jobs – they are now out of prison and free to be ‘registered sex offenders’ in their community for the rest of their lives. With so much genuine misery in the world, it is criminal that some people are punished for crimes never committed and other people are made ‘survivors’ who were never victims.

Kelly Michaels spent five years in prison for crimes neither she nor anyone else committed. She was released in 1994.
Gerald Amirault spent eighteen years in prison for crimes neither he nor anyone else committed. He was released in 2004.
Bernard Baran spent twenty-one years in prison for crimes neither he nor anyone else committed. He was released in 2006.
Patrick Figured has spent nineteen years in prison for crimes neither he nor anyone else committed.  He is serving a life sentence, reduced in 1996 from three consecutive life sentences. He was denied an appeal in 1994. “I have learned one thing in here; they can’t do anymore to me than they have… I have lost everything as it is.”

It’s not easy to find up-to-date information on these men and women. The circus has passed and nobody wants to clean up after the elephants and the horses and the clowns. But here are the names I could find of those in prison for crimes neither they nor anyone else committed, all victims of the satanic panic of the 1980s.  What is a convincing argument that this could never happen to you?  That’s right.

Cheryl Amirault
Jason Baldwin
Jack Barnes
Linda Barnes
Damien Echols
Jesse Friedman
Frank Fuster
Robert Halsey
Danny Keller
Fran Keller
Jeanette Martin
Kristie Mayhugh
Jessie Misskelley, Jr.
Elsie Oscarson
Michael Parker
Bruce Perkins
Elizabeth Ramirez
Cassandra Rivera
Ryan Smith
Anna Vasquez
James Watt

Violet Amirault died in prison.
Earl Barnes died in prison.

Further reading
False Memory Syndrome Foundation
National Center for Reason and Justice
Wikipedia, File 18
Wikipedia, Day Care Sex Abuse Hysteria