Rascals case in brief
In the beginning, in 1989, more than 90 children at the Little Rascals Day Care Center in Edenton, North Carolina, accused a total of 20 adults with 429 instances of sexual abuse over a three-year period. It may have all begun with one parent’s complaint about punishment given her child.
Among the alleged perpetrators: the sheriff and mayor. But prosecutors would charge only Robin Byrum, Darlene Harris, Elizabeth “Betsy” Kelly, Robert “Bob” Kelly, Willard Scott Privott, Shelley Stone and Dawn Wilson โ the Edenton 7.
Along with sodomy and beatings, allegations included a baby killed with a handgun, a child being hung upside down from a tree and being set on fire and countless other fantastic incidents involving spaceships, hot air balloons, pirate ships and trained sharks.
By the time prosecutors dropped the last charges in 1997, Little Rascals had become North Carolina’s longest and most costly criminal trial. Prosecutors kept defendants jailed in hopes at least one would turn against their supposed co-conspirators. Remarkably, none did. Another shameful record: Five defendants had to wait longer to face their accusers in court than anyone else in North Carolina history.
Between 1991 and 1997, Ofra Bikel produced three extraordinary episodes on the Little Rascals case for the PBS series “Frontline.” Although “Innocence Lost” did not deter prosecutors, it exposed their tactics and fostered nationwide skepticism and dismay.
With each passing year, the absurdity of the Little Rascals charges has become more obvious. But no admission of error has ever come from prosecutors, police, interviewers or parents. This site is devoted to the issues raised by this case.
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Todayโs random selection from the Little Rascals Day Care archives….
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Todayโs random selection from the Little Rascals Day Care archives….
Abuse primer was big seller for county
Oct. 24, 2012
โIndeed, at a time when the (Los Angeles County) Board of Supervisors has been meeting just five floors below the (Ritual Abuse) task force to dismantle county health care programs, lay off part-time employees and cut all other services because of a severe budget shortfall, some are questioning whether the group โ and particularly its obsession with poisoning โ is not justย a little frivolous.
โOne county employee suggested that the task force has not been disbanded because it is โone of the few that actually make money.’ Since 1989, the task force โ made up of therapists, alleged victims and religious leaders โ has sold a handbook that outlines the telltale signs ofย ritual abuse. More than 17,000 copies of the handbook have been sold at $1 apiece, more than enough to offset the costs of the task force.โ
โ From the Los Angeles Times, December 1, 1992
Early on, the task force handbook โโRitual Abuse: Definitions, Glossary and the Use of Mind Controlโ โ played a significant role in inflaming fear of ritual abuse.
By 1992, however, the last charges in the McMartin case had been dropped, and skepticism about ritual abuse was finding its voice. (But not among Little Rascals prosecutors โ Bob Kelly had just been convicted and Dawn Wilson was being tried.)
Today the Los Angeles County Commission for Womenย websiteย makes no mention of its onetime task force.
Sex-abuse journalism raises ‘strange question’
Nov. 9, 2012
โDid I recognize that child sex abuse existed and was a serious problem? reporters would ask. A strange question, that. The discussion of no other crime would require such a disclaimer. Journalists who have written about false murder charges are seldom asked to provide reassurance that they know murder is a bad thing, and it really happens.โ
โ From โNo Crueler Tyrannies: Accusations, False Witnessย and Other Terrors of Our Timesโ by Dorothy Rabinowitzย (2003)
A dispatch from the ‘comfort zone’ of rationality
Aug. 10, 2014
A final (perhaps) thought onย Professor Sylvia Gillotte, after rereading this passage from our exchange of emails aboutย her belief in โsatanic ritual abuseโ:
โThe thing is, Mr. Powell, you canโt do this journey without a willingness to look into the darker side of humanity. You must be willing to challenge every previously held notion that you may have about the world and how it operates. You must push past your comfort zone and look beyond the veneer and the facade to what lies beneath the surface and within the bowels of the human psyche. You must be courageous enough to swim against the tide long enough to reach still water, where you can actually study dissociative trauma and even mind control in conjunction with ritual trauma allegations. Only then will you begin to see these allegations in their true light….โ
Why do I continue to resist Professor Gillotteโs call to โchallenge every previously held notion… about the world and how it operatesโ? Is it passivity? Timidity? Lack of imagination? Or is it simply a stubborn bias for fact over faith?
Is Finkelhor now less panicked by day cares?
Feb. 3, 2016
โA new survey finds that adults at school, day care and organizations such as churches and scouting groups are less likely than relatives to abuse or mistreat children.
โIn general, organizations that serve young people โdo not look like particularly risky environments,โ said study co-author David Finkelhor,ย director of the University of New Hampshire’s Crimes Against Children Research Center. This contradicts perceptions by some people who โthink these are magnets for molesters,โ he said.โ
โ From โChild Abuse at Daycare, Youth Groups Rarer Than Thought: Surveyโย by Randy Dotinga in the Northwest Indiana Times (Feb. 2)
Surprising to see Dr. Finkelhor dismiss the notion of day cares as โmagnets for molesters,โ given that his own overwrought โNursery Crimes: Sexual Abuse in Day Careโย (1988) was an influential text in spreading the moral panic.
How did he determine back then whether sexual abuse had actually occurred? โIf at least one of the local investigating agencies had decided that abuse had occurred and that it had happened while the child was at a day-care facility….then we considered the case substantiated.โ In other words, one supposed โred flagโ sighting from Brenda Toppinย was certification enough.
As recently as 2012, when I queried Dr. Finkelhor about his beliefs past and present,ย he denied being โan authority on the validity of claims”ย that he had laid out with such credulity in โNursery Crimes.โ
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