The fact is, when “ritual abuse” hysteria was at its peak in the eighties and nineties, we wanted to believe this kind of thing was going on. People were becoming more and more obsessed about the safety of their children – culminating in the society in which we live now, where parents organize (ugh) “play dates” in which they know the kids won’t get hurt – and stories of abuse, violence and Satanic rituals were horrifying yet strangely compelling. (Come clean, folks: how many of you watched Geraldo Rivera’s mid-eighties NBC prime-time special about devil worshippers?)
It took many years for cooler heads to prevail, but it hasn’t helped Gerald Amirault, the sole Fells Acres employee still in prison. In an act of shocking political cowardice, former Massachusetts governor Jane Swift overturned the release he had been granted by the state’s Board of Pardons, tearing away an innocent man’s liberty just when he could touch it. (That Swift resigned rather than face certain defeat for the Republican gubernatorial nomination is small comfort.) A justice system is only as good as the flawed human beings who run it, and the system has failed Gerard Amirault miserably.
Witchhunts tend to backfire in the long run, as people start to assume the witches never existed in the first place. McCarthy’s anti-Communist buffoonery in the 1950s forever discredited anti-Communism (which explains all these execrable Che Guevara T-shirts), and “ritual abuse” hysteria has done almost incalculable damage to the fight against child abuse. It was only in the Fells Acres era that real stories of long-buried abuse were coming to light – notably at the infamous Mount Cashel orphanage in Newfoundland – and it would be an unforgivable sin if we start ignoring these hideous crimes again. But when so many police officers, child-welfare officials, prosecutors and “experts” have shown their willingness to lie and railroad innocent people, what are we supposed to believe?
The authorities should diligently track down abusers wherever they’re hiding, but they should not invent abuse where none exists. No Crueler Tyrannies is an important, compelling book, and it should be read as a cautionary tale by everyone involved in the fight to protect our kids.
![Do You Know the Muffin Man? [Region 2]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/517EXS7VA4L._SL120_.jpg)
Article comments
1 - DrPat
Thank you for a very well-presented review! I remember watching Do You Know the Muffin Man, and following the McMartin case in the press. One wonders what the McMartin and Fells Acres cases would have been like in this era of blogging...
2 - Damian Penny
Since writing this review, I've learned that Gerald Amirault gained his long-overdue freedom on April 20, 2004.
3 - Eric Olsen
Thanks Damian, I was right there in Redondo Beach during the entire bizarre, tragic McMartin marathon, which in retrospect turned out to be not unlike the Salem Witch Trials in veracity and pyschology. It's horrible stuff for all concerned.
I knew Kevin Cody, the author of this book on the subject quite well.
4 - Eric Berlin
Witch hunt indeed! Outstanding review, Damian -- well written, well laid out, well delivered.
Total aside: passed through Redondo Beach for (probably) the first time today, stopping off at a Manhattan Beach satellite campus. A 5:20 am wakeup (Mom to airport in Long Beach from Pasadena, then over to the West Side) plus Starbucks had me howling at the blasted 405 traffic for an exit, and a restroom. Oh well, that was my morning.
5 - Eric Berlin
This book review has been selected for Advance.net. You’ll be able to find this and other Blog Critics reviews at such places at Cleveland.com’s Book Reviews column.