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I’m not as familiar as you are with the origins. As a member of the Skeptic Society and an admirer of Dorothy Rabinowitz and a student of my very commonsensical mother, I immediately doubted the ritual abuse stuff that started in the late 70s, early 80s as well as the “repressed memory” theory that ruined the lives of men who were accused, falsely, by their daughters of rape. Something that moron Roseanne Barr did.

Lauren Stratford and Mike Warnke were a big deal in some Christian circles in the 70s and 80s. And on national television once their stories became famous. Both offered up vivid stories of experiences with satanic rings, as victim or participant. They gave talks, wrote books, sold tapes about their firsthand knowledge of satanic ritual abuse.

Some friends of mine were investigative journalists for a Christian magazine that began looking into their stories. They found that when you tracked down the names and places mentioned by these two that their stories fell apart. They were both frauds and the magazine exposed them in some heavily researched articles in 1990. Stratford turned out to have had a history of mental illness. Warnke didn’t have that excuse, he knew what he was doing and he was making good money selling his BS to an eager audience.

But before they were exposed they really got the satanic ritual abuse idea planted, and Stratford even managed to insert herself in the McMartin case, which itself was a product of the panic that they had unleashed- Stratford claiming that she and the elderly Mrs McMartin had been lesbian lovers. This was just more of her insanity.

Anyway echoes of that SAR hysteria continue on today. People make unsupported claims that come right out of the stories spun by these two, or really three since there was a third player, one John Todd. Anytime you hear stories of ritual abuse start looking to see if there is any real evidence being offered, or if there is just a lot of excitement and a good story and a bunch of dots being connected.