Subject: Re: Witches of the West Date: 2 Feb 1994 17:50:51 GMT pplante@netcom.com (P. Plan

From: tjf43388@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Theodore J. Francis)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Witches of the West
Date: 2 Feb 1994 17:50:51 GMT

pplante@netcom.com (P. Plantec) writes:

>For some years, I was the shrink in a small Colorado mining and cattle 
>town near Aspen.  I'd heard a steady stream of rumors about witches in 
>the hills.  I'd heard that there were several covins that did unspeakable 
>things to children.

>Then I got a new patient who claimed to have been brought up in one of 
>the covins and as a teen she was kept as a breeder to provide babies for 
>human sacrifice rituals.   She sayz that there are literally hundreds of 
>burnt baby corpses burried in the hills.  She was a severely screwed up 
[...]
>I called Denver.  It turns out that Colorado has about three thousand 
>registered witches (members of WICCA).  WICCA claims that they only 
>represent white witches who are good and work for the betterment of man.  
>But they admit there are covins of black witches (no racial slur mail 
>plez) who practice arcane and evil arts.  Off the record, I was told that 
[...]
>Then Opra has a show on women who were raised in covins.  They all have 
>the same story.  It gives me a chill to think it's all true.  What do you 
>think Is this another UL or is it..like real man.

>Peter "Patch'em up with meditation." Plantec


Ritual abuse. What fun.
Check out the False Memories Foundation in (I believe) Philledelphia;
they have some very strong things to say about ritual abuse, lost
memories of ritual abuse, etc.

To paraphrase a Michigan State Police investigator I once interviewed,
there have been no reported cases of _any_ satanic/black-magic-oriented
violent crime anywhere in the United States.  Trespassing, graffiti, etc.,
yes, mostly done by prankish teenagers who (like all teenagers) enjoy
getting their elders in a tizzy.
Your description has several elements common to ritual abuse stories:
1) vast numbers of dead bodies "in the hills" "behind the garage" or
   "in the basement";
2) a vast network of underground satanists/evil people who perform not
   only vile rituals, but heinous crimes unbeknownst to any;
3) breeders who are abused in order to produce said dead bodies (almost
   invariably dead babies)

This UL (although I consider it something slightly more serious than a
standard UL, and it seems to me to have some different traits) plays on
many of societies fears, from underground networks to sexual and violent
crimes against infants and children.
The fact that there is _no_ evidence of said crimes, the fact that state
and federal law enforcement agencies nonetheless investigate each such
allegation anyway and other shady factors indicate that the network
or underground-movement part of it is bunk.  That individuals occasionally
do pretty vile things is no doubt true, however.
Any connection between Wicca/neo-Paganism and satanic crime is spurious,
as most (even ardent ritual-abuse believers) will agree. Furthermore,
Wicca is a highly unorganized group, not some sort of witchcraft church.
For more information on Wicca and related phenomena, check out T.  
Luhrmann's _Persuasions of the Witch's Craft_ (sorry, no details on
hand)
Above, I alluded to other shady details; these include the large sums
of money made by several groups of people in satanist scares. There
are therapists, "law-enforcement experts" and other people who make
quite a bit of cash off these fears.  This is not to say that the
panic has its roots in someone's get-rich scheme, but rather that some
people are exploiting a volatile situation brought about by various
societal factors.  For more information on this, I am told the book
_Satanic Panic_ (a look at such a phenomenon in a New York town) is
a good source.

So the upshot is this: be very, very careful about your conspiracy
theories.  If it sounds too horrible to be true, there's a good chance
that it is.  In any case, check the facts.  If there's supposed to be
bodies, they can be found.  If there's abuse, it can be documented. This
is a situation for law enforcement officials, and they should be contacted
with any serious suspicions

Theo "Not an expert, but feel free to ask questions, and sorry this
note was so damn serious..." Francis

>-- 
>************************************************************************
>Peter Plantec                                     DreamScape Prods      
>Beverly Hills, CA                                 Movies in the Mind
>pplante@netcom.com                                Gargleing at the
>                                                  fountain of Knowledge