The Satanic Panic reaches its peak in the eighties with the McMartin preschool trials, when a local preschool is accused of ritualistically abusing the children. In 1983, a mother of one of the children attending the preschool accused one of the workers of sexually abusing her son. She claimed that her son told her that ritualistic acts were performed and supernatural events took place. After the allegations spread like wildfire, social workers and therapists used coercive and misguided techniques to further their ideas. This got the ball rolling on one of the longest and most expensive trials in US history at the time. The decade-long trial cost LA a small fortune and dragged on for years, but was there any truth to it? And what became of those accused?
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