mcmartin pre-school apology

That the McMartin pre-school ritual abuse case never happened isn’t exactly news. But now the L.A. Times has this fascinating first-person (“as told to”) account from one of the former pre-schoolers, now 30, who admits he lied and offers an apology:

I remember them asking extremely uncomfortable questions about whether Ray touched me and about all the teachers and what they did—and I remember telling them nothing happened to me. I remember them almost giggling and laughing, saying, “Oh, we know these things happened to you. Why don’t you just go ahead and tell us? Use these dolls if you’re scared.”

Anytime I would give them an answer that they didn’t like, they would ask again and encourage me to give them the answer they were looking for. It was really obvious what they wanted. I know the types of language they used on me: things like I was smart, or I could help the other kids who were scared.

I felt uncomfortable and a little ashamed that I was being dishonest. But at the same time, being the type of person I was, whatever my parents wanted me to do, I would do. And I thought they wanted me to help protect my little brother and sister who went to McMartin.

My parents were very encouraging when I said that things happened. It was almost like saying things happened was going to help get these people in jail and stop them from what they were trying to do to kids. Also, there were so many kids saying all these things happened that you didn’t want to be the one who said nothing did. You wouldn’t be believed if you said that. …

[T]he lying really bothered me. One particular night stands out in my mind. I was maybe 10 years old and I tried to tell my mom that nothing had happened. I lay on the bed crying hysterically—I wanted to get it off my chest, to tell her the truth. My mother kept asking me to please tell her what was the matter. I said she would never believe me. She persisted: “I promise I’ll believe you! I love you so much! Tell me what’s bothering you!” This went on for a long time: I told her she wouldn’t believe me, and she kept assuring me she would. I remember finally telling her, “Nothing happened! Nothing ever happened to me at that school.”

She didn’t believe me.

It’s hard to imagine now, but cases like these — with bizarre allegations involving witches and sex with giraffes — were all the rage against day-care providers in the 1980s. There’s a list of 42 such cases here, although I certainly say with certainty all didn’t happen. But some just sound so wacky it’s hard to imagine anyone took them seriously:

During an extensive series of therapy sessions, the children began to tell stories of Akiki mutilating and/or killing a baby, an elephant, [!] a giraffe and rabbits in their presence. They also said that he had kidnapped them, taken them in his car, raped them, dunked them in feces-filled toilets, sodomized them with curling irons and toy firetruck ladders, forced them to play naked sex games, hung them upside down, threatened them with guns and knives, urinated on them, and assaulted them with blood torture rituals. All of this abuse allegedly occurred during a series of 90 minute Sunday school classes.

I’m most familar with the Fells Acre case in Malden, Mass., as I grew up in Massachusetts. Gerald “Tooky” Amirault supposedly dressed up as a clown, raped children with knives in “magic rooms” and ritually slaughtered animals. There’s an article here describing how investigators used leading questions and refused to take “no” for an answer when interviewing these kids.

Amirault spent 18 years in prison and was finally released last year.