Right now I'm reading an interesting true crime book about a murder in Bakersfield, California. It's not just about the murder; it's in large part an attempt to expose corruption in Bakersfield law enforcement. The author has quite a lot to say about the Bakersfield "Witch Hunt", a very sorry episode involving accusations of child molestation. It all started with two young girls who had a crazy honorary aunt who babysat them. She was obsessed with molestation, and used to "examine" their genitals regularly. (Now in my view that IS molestation.)
Eventually she managed to persuade them that they had been molested by their grandfather, and then the whole thing took off. The entire community got into the act--law enforcement, the D.A., social workers, even some judges. Dozens of families were ripped apart; many people went to jail. Some kids were sent to foster families out of the area, and they tried to recant. But when they did they were sent back to Social Services in Bakersfield, where the social workers once again drilled them in Proper Responses. They claimed to have been "molested" in all kinds of bizarre ways: hung from hooks attached to ceiling beams and more. No proof of any of this was ever produced.
Then somehow the kids began talking about Satanism. It isn't clear how that got started, but it probably wasn't their idea. They told all kinds of utterly silly tales about babies being sacrificed in local churches, and other kinds of satanic rituals. No dead babies were found; neither was anything else.
Yet almost the entire community bought into this nonsense for YEARS. Any local bold enough to express doubts was not only ostracized but also investigated. There were, of course, outside "bashers", mostly in the form of journalists from other cities. Their efforts had no impact.
Meanwhile, other communities were "discovering" organized groups of molesters and Satanists in their midst. For awhile, the very considerable number of people who believed in this lunacy were convinced they were the victims of a worldwide conspiracy.
Eventually all this exploded in the faces of the communities that had made the claims. Why? There just wasn't any proof, only the accounts of the kids who'd been coached to repeat what the social workers and law enforcement people had suggested to them. People were released from jail; charges were dropped; convictions were reversed. This took much longer--more than a decade--in Bakersfield than in other places. Seems that for some reason there were more True Believers--and also more corrupt law enforcement types--there than elsewhere.
It was a clear case of mass hysteria, like the Salem witch trials but on a much larger scale. The True Believers who got caught up in it were ordinary people. Maybe not the most intelligent or the best educated folks in California, but they hadn't previously shown signs of obsession, dementia, or other forms of mental illness. Yet they were firmly convinced of accusations that most "normal" people would just have laughed at. Now, of course, the locals don't like to talk about it, but I'll bet there are STILL some who still believe.
Doesn't all that sound very familiar?
