Part One: Michelle Remembers

Satan is coming for your children. It’s too late. He’s already in your home, your child’s daycare, their schools. It sounds ridiculous, I know. In the 1980s, all you had to do was turn on the TV, or pick up a newspaper—you’d hear someone saying it. Except it wasn’t coming from a mad preacher or your crazy uncle. Police officers, FBI agents, trusted reporters, clinical psychologists, even Oprah warned parents to watch out for the devil at the door. At the time, experts scrambled to name and blame the phenomenon. Eventually, they settled on what we call it today: the Satanic Panic.

Law enforcement, media and other experts referred to it as ‘satanic ritual abuse.’ It was happening en masse, in secret, done by people you trusted with your children: teachers, day care providers, even police officers. A network of underground cults were abusing and killing children in the secret service of Satan. The accounts of the abuse were horrific. Across America, children were being sexually abused, forced to drink blood, and killed in ritual sacrifices, amongst other things. One particular rumour alleged the use of “baby wax made from murdered infants.”

All those horrors were being reported by real children. You would think so many accusations would lead to strong investigations with legitimate evidence. You’d be wrong. There was little to no evidence that these crimes occurred. Hundreds were accused and charged anyways. Many were convicted based on accusations alone. Some cases fell apart during trial or were overturned on appeal. By the early 1990s, it was found that nearly 12,000 claims of satanic ritual abuse could not be substantiated.

While the Satanic Panic is remembered largely as an American phenomenon, its roots started in Canada. Perhaps the most publicized case of supposed satanic ritual abuse is that of Michelle Smith, and the book that details her abuse— “Michelle Remembers.” The book was written by Canadian psychiatrist Dr. Lawrence Pazder and his patient, Michelle Smith. It tells, in vivid detail, shocking therapy sessions where Smith recovered repressed memories of satanic ritual abuse she suffered as a child.

The book was published in 1980. It sold millions of copies and quickly became a best-seller. Together, Pazder and Smith went on a relentless media tour. They appeared on endless talk shows, news channels, and radio shows across North America. They gave speeches to petrified parents and lectured law enforcement. Smith told the horror stories of the abuse she allegedly suffered at the hands of a satanic cult in her hometown of Victoria, British Columbia. She claimed that as a five-year-old, she was forced to take part in satanic rituals. Accusations included physical and sexual abuse of all kinds, animal sacrifices, even the sacrifice of human fetuses.

The term ‘satanic ritual abuse’ came from Pazder’s work. His definition became the official explanation used by law enforcement agencies like the FBI. Pazder defined it as "repeated physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual assaults combined with a systematic use of symbols and secret ceremonies designed to turn a child against itself, family, society, and God.”

Due to the legitimacy the pair earned from their success, they became the go-to experts of the Satanic Panic. They travelled to the Vatican to warn the Catholic Church of the dangers of satanic ritual abuse. Their book was considered a textbook for law enforcement. In 1986, Pazder and Smith acted as consultants to the prosecution for the infamous McMartin Preschool case. In Manhattan Beach, California, seven McMartin Preschool employees were accused of satanic ritual abuse. Despite no physical evidence, prosecutors spent $15 million dollars on the case before they dropped all charges in 1990.

The pair became such media darlings that no one questioned anything they said or did. Not even when Pazder and Smith eventually divorced their spouses and married each other. Nobody questioned the ethics or credibility of a man who married his former psychiatric patient—not until the panic that ensued caused so much damage that it’s still hard to understand, even thirty years later. Many of the accused and their families are traumatized to this day. In part two of this series, we’ll take a deeper look at the relationship between Pazder and Smith, and what happened to them in the years following the Satanic Panic.

My name is Angie Mosher (she/her) and I'm a Professional Writing student at Algonquin College. I have a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing from UBC, and when I’m not writing, I’m playing video games, hanging out with my cats, or getting a new tattoo. I’m originally from Halifax, Nova Scotia, but have been living in Ottawa since 2017. I like shining a light on things otherwise left to rot in the corner. Let’s kick up some dust.