OCC:Is Satanism linked to Crimes?  by Thomas D. Elias

   Scripps Howard News Service

   San Francisco - From small towns like Sanford, ME. and big cities
like San Francisco and Los Angeles, a steady stream of crime reports
are indicating that satanism - devil worship - is becoming a
fast-growing but still unmeasurable force in America.

   When Richard Ramirez, the accused night stalker, raised his right
hand in a Los Angeles courtroom, where he was accused of 14 murders and
dozens of other felonies, his palm displayed an inked pentagram.

   The five-pointed star within a circle positioned with two points up
to symbolize the devil's horns was found at several night stalker
murder scenes and the wife of one victim testified that Ramirez forced
her to "swear on satan" she wouldn't alert neighbors by screaming.

   In Huntington Beach, Calif., 33 small animals kept in an elementary
school yard were slaughtered last May, a crime that police say was
apparently part of a satanic ritual.

   In Contra Costa County, Calif., the battered body of a 17-year-old
boy who had graduated from playing "Dungeons and Dragons" to being
involved with a satanic coven was found dead at the bottom of a cliff
near San Francisco Bay last year He had told his father and others that
he wanted to leave the group.

   Police call the death a suicide, but a coroner's report says the
body bore marks more like those from a beating with sticks than bruises
typically received in a fall.

   Scores of reports link child molestations to satanic rituals
featuring chalices of blood and participants either nude or wearing
black hoods.

   Altogether, as many as 800 crimes now under investigation by police
nationwide are said to be linked somehow to devil worship.

   Detectives from seven western states last spring held a closed-door
session to play strategies against satanism.

   One tactic they reportedly agreed upon: deny its involvement in
crimes to discourage publicity and copycats.

   Consistent with that idea, police and prosecutors are almost
invariably hesitant to label devil-worship and sacrifice as the motive
behind any crime and no one has been convicted of a crime on the basis
of satanic involvement for more than a decade.

   "There was talk about drinking blood and allegations that people
involved worshiped the devil and had certain ceremonies, " says Stephen
Tauzer, a Bakersfield, Calif., prosecutor handling a case where as many
as 80 adults have been suspected of molesting up to 60 children "But
we're not trying the case on religious grounds I know satanism exists
as a fad and that there are reports of cremated victims But I have a
hard time concluding that anything as large as cremating victims would
not have witnesses."

   Police usually say satanism exists, but has only peripheral
involvement at most in crimes committed by alleged satanists.

   "One hears about cases, " says Joseph Kranyak, a crime analyst for
the San Bernadino, Calif., police department "But when you track them
down you find you're mostly chasing shadows The vandalous nature of
these things may not be organized and conspiratorial, but a response to
stimuli like rock music."

   And some of the leading fighters against satanism say there is a
distinct difference between organized satanists like those belonging to
San Francisco's Church of Satan and "freelance satanists."

   "In the formal churches, you get no murders, only symbolic actions,"
says Karen Hoyt, executive director of the Berkeley, Calf.-based
spiritual counterfeits project "But freelancers sacrifice animals and
reportedly infants, although no one has found a body as yet."

   Church of Satan members adamantly deny any use of actual or animal
sacrifice, although "The Satanic Bible" written by church founder Anton
Lavey spells out rituals calling for "symbolic" human sacrifices.

   "I'm a Satanist and I don't want to molest children, " says Blanche
Barton, Lavey's personal secretary "The Satanic Bible says both animal
and child sacrifices are illegal, so the whole idea of sacrificing to
release energy is bull But a lot of groups have adopted satanist images
like hoods and gongs."

   But the Satanic Bible does say that "Satan represents indulgence,
instead of abstinence" and that "Satan represents all the so-called
sins, as they all lead to physical, mental or emotional gratification."
and in a chapter titled "On the choice of a Human Sacrifice, " Lavey
adds that "Anyone who has wronged you" is a "fit and proper human
sacrifice" and "you have every right to (symbolically) destroy them."

   Opponents of satanism believe many "freelance" practitioners omit
the admonition to make sacrifices "symbolic, " and use the Satanic
Bible to justify psychoses or perversions.

   Covens centered around drugs, homosexuality, sexual fetishes, child
molesting and other illicit activities are known to use rituals from
the Satanic Bible and a later companion volume So do groups using
druidism, celtic witchcraft and Egyptian mythology Even "children's
covens" are known to use such rituals.

   Like many fundamentalists, Roger Burt, an Evangelical minister and
president of the Christian Counseling Association in suburban Los
Angeles, believes the current state of satanism is part of a long war
between the forces of good and evil.

   "People who are getting involved in satanism are looking to get the
power of demons and use it for themselves, " he says "It all centers on
power over their peers, especially among teenagers, which is where this
is growing fastest This is not just a fad of the '80S It is actual
spiritual warfare

   Spiritual possession has great power in attracting young people."

   Games like Dungeons and Dragons, with medieval imagery, help attract
children and teenagers to satanic rituals, which sometimes involve
archaic dress.

   Rock music groups are even more of an influence, according to many
police officials.

   Burt lists heavy metal groups like AC/DC, Iron Maiden, Black
Sabbath, Motley Crue, Blue Oyster Cult and Merciful Fate among the most
influential

   All have performed music with a satanic-style message that critics
contend is taken literally by many listeners.

   Burt says membership in satanic groups has grown to "at least
60,000," with about one-third in California, the world's main center of
modern satanic activity.

   Hoyt and Burt agree that young children are often recruited by
parents or teachers, then molested or forced to watch and participate
in ritual killings of animals Some are photographed during rituals and
later blackmailed into continuing either via threats to show the
pictures to parents or threats of harm to the parents.

   Runaway teenagers, the anti-satanists say, are an especially fertile
class of recruits.

   Other experts contend that many teenagers join satanist cults
willingly.

   "Many kids believe there is a force for evil in the world and some
think it is the really powerful force in the universe, " says Rabbi
Jack Bemporad of Tenafly, N.J., a nationally-known expert on cults "A
lot of them believe in demons, which are mentioned in the new testament
Kids also have a lot of rage and anger and a feeling of powerlessness
because of the threat of nuclear war and the increasing complexity of
the world. They come to feel if the world is going to destroy itself,
they might as well glory in it."

   In short, says Bemporad, they feel "if you can't beat evil, you
might as well join it."

   'SATANIC BIBLE' AUTHOR DENIES RESPONSIBILITY By Thomas D. Elias,
Scripps Howard News Service

   San Francisco - Some people call him Satan Others say he's merely
the devil's advocate.

   Anton Lavey says he doesn't care what they think, although with a
shaved head, a small pointed beard and an all-black costume broken only
by a red necktie, he takes pains to look like the common image of a
devil.

   "If the shoe fits, " says the author of "The Satanic Bible," "I'll
wear it But I don't claim it I'd rather be known as a devil's advocate
with a small 'D, ' a champion of individual freedom."

   Many opponents of satanism claim Lavey's books, "The Satanic Bible"
and "The Satanic Rituals, " inspire many of the crimes linked to
satanic symbols and rituals.

   Lavey doesn't argue with them.

   "Anything can be misused, " he says "When I was a kid, every time
there was a murder, the murderer would say something like, 'God made me
do it.' A lot of psychotics are doing whatever they're doing and saying
they're satanists as a way of getting themselves off the hook There are
crazies and there will always be crazies Whatever is around that they
can lay blame on, they'll do it."

   Many of satanism's opponents point to passages in Lavey's books that
they contend specifically encourage crimes ranging from murder to
grave-robbing.

   One instruction in "The Satanic Rituals" calls for waving a human
arm or leg bone through the air, but offers no hint of where to get it.

   "I figured people the bone someplace other than by killing a person,
" Lavey said "But if they're going to kill, I hope they at least get a
deserving victim."

   Lavey says he has no personal knowledge of any murders attributed to
satanic practices, although he recalls meeting Richard Ramirez, accused
Night Stalker Killer in the Los Angeles area.

   "When I met Richard Ramirez, he was one of the nicest, most polite
young men you'd ever want to meet, " said Lavey, 56 "When I met him in
1983, he was a model of deportment I suppose that shows even murderers
may not be all bad Maybe he did his murders for reasons other than
satanism Maybe he was disturbed or had an axe to grind."

   His satanic bible specifically prohibits animal and child sacrifice,
but approves of "symbolic" adult human sacrifice Readers are told to
choose their own victims and to graphically visualize "appropriate"
revenge in a voodoo-like procedure.

   "It's just a short step from that to action, " Says Rabbi Jack
Bemporad Of Tenafly, N.J., a cult expert.

   Says Lavey, "Of course murderers can use my books But they can use
the Holy Bible, too That's the most incendiary book ever written
There's raping and patricide and matricide and killing your own kids in
there."

   Responds Bemporad, "Comparing his book to the Hebrew Bible is like
trying to compare Shakespeare to a comic book There's violence in
Shakespeare and the Bible, sure, but there's a great moral sense, too
The Bible has the ethics of the western world in it, but it couldn't
legislate away the reality of its time."
