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….
A lack of reporters โsufficiently passionate to get at this storyโ? ย
July 8, 2016
โAs for an โinvestigativeโ piece about the Kelly case that would get to the โtruth,โ we will have to seeย if we have any staff members who are sufficiently passionate to get at this story….โ
โ From News & Observer executive editor Frank Daniels IIIโs reply (June 10, 1992) to a plea for coverage from Jane W. Duffieldย of the Committee to Support the Edenton Seven
Danielsโ predecessor, Claude Sitton, lamented laterย that โmy greatest mistake (was) my failure as editor… to make sure we had a top-notch investigative reporter on the Little Rascals case.โ
Iโve asked Daniels to share his own recollections of the paperโs coverage, but havenโt heard back.
How did prosecutors let go โ16 psychotic, baby-killing pedophilesโ?ย
June 3, 2017
How did prosecutors let go โ16 psychotic, baby-killing pedophilesโ?
โAn early indicator of the bizarre and fickle nature of the [Little Rascals] prosecution was that in all, 23 Edenton residents were named by the children (via counseling) as having engaged in essentially the same abominable acts as those indicted.
โYet the county DA’s office arbitrarily pared the case to seven, leaving, one assumes, 16 psychotic, baby-killing pedophiles to walk freely on the streets of their small city….โ
โ From โA โFrontlineโ documentary on child abuse hysteria shows how good TV can beโ by Brian Lambert in the Saint Paul Pioneer Press (May 27, 1997)
Among the lucky 16: the mayor and sheriff.
How one journal editor went very, very wrong
Dec. 7, 2012
Following up on Wednesday’s post:
Here’s how editorย Gerry Fewsterย began his introduction to “In the Shadow of Satan: The Ritual Abuse of Children,” theย still-unretractedย 1990 special issue of the Journal of Child and Youth Care:
โPutting this issue together has been my most difficult Journal assignment…. It began as a fascinating prospect with little or no supportive documentation. As I discussed the concept with colleagues and friends the most unlikely doors began to open. Fragments of information โ odd papers, crude and unfinished manuscripts, unsolicited telephone calls, personal revelations, and even photographs โ began to appear….โ
Dr. Fewsterโs professional skepticism seems to have quickly yielded to those phantasmagoric โfragments of information.โ He details an investigative process that….well, evaluate for yourself:
โMany times during the course of reading the material, I decided to quit. I found that I had neither the head nor the stomach for the task…. After spending many hours reading from the protective armor of the editorial role, I would feel physically ill. At first I attributed all of this to my reluctance to examine the depths of my own โshadowโ and urged myself on. Then, as my curiosity rekindled, I would shrink back in horror from the spectres of my own hidden motives and intentions….โ
Dr. Fewster goes on to introduce his fellow contributors to โIn the Shadow of Satan.โ
Pamela S. Hudson, for instance, โprovides an authoritative wide-angle perspective. Based upon clinical experience and the results of her own survey, the author identifies and discusses the most frequently reported symptoms and allegations surrounding ritual child abuse. Beyond the grisly nature of the content, this seasoned practitioner offers a wealth of insight for those who wish to know about satanic practices and better understand the terrifying experiences of children caught up in this vicious network.โ
Hudsonโs article isnโt available online, but fortunately is preserved in her subsequent book โRitual Child Abuse: Discovery, Diagnosis and Treatment.โ Here’s an example of the โwealth of insightโ provided by โthis seasoned practitionerโ:
โThe exceptional symptom in ritual abuse cases is the sudden eating disorder
demonstrated by these children. Besides being revolted by meat, catsup, spaghetti andย tomatoes (which resemble organs), (cf.,ย Catherine Gould)ย I had a case of a 20-month-old girl suddenly start to throw away her baby bottle. When she was older she said the perpetrator urinated into her baby bottle during his visits with her. Later, she spoke of witnessing the death of a baby girl….โ
All this impressionistic pseudoscience could be written off as overreaching silliness, had it not contributed to the moral panic that swept up innocent victims such as the Edenton Seven. Isnโt it time for the editors at those professional journals that enabled the reign of error to at last set the record straight?
The shocking ease of installing ‘lost memories’
Feb. 13, 2015
โPsychologists terminated a study (of 70 students at a Canadian university) that showed the ease of implanting false memories of committing terrible, violent crimes in the recent past โ because some subjects couldn’t be convinced that they hadn’t committed the crime after they were told the truth.โ
โ From โPolice interrogation techniques generate false memoriesย of committing crimesโ by Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing (Feb. 9)
More on this recent study from Sarah Barmak at theย Toronto Star:
โIf subjects said they couldnโt remember the false event, questioners reassured them they would be able to retrieve their โlost memoriesโ if they tried hard enough. If they began to โremember,โ experimenters asked for more detail. Do you recall any images? How did you feel? Visualize what it might have been like, they said, and the memory will come back to you….โ
โLost memories,โ of course, were the foolโs gold mined so relentlessly by the prosecution therapists in the Little Rascals Day Care case. Remarkably, it took only three 40-minute sessions for the Canadian researchers to corrupt the memories of fully 70 percent of their college-age subjects โ the Little Rascals children requiredย months of implantation!
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