ParaNet BBS/satanism

ParaNet BBS/satanism

File Name:	satanism.txt
Author:	Unknown
Date:	Unknown
Posting BBS:	Unknown
BBS Main Page:	ParaNet Main Page
Key Words:	ParaNet, UFO, Ufology

(6399)  Mon 26 Oct 92 11:53a
By: Brian 'rev P-k' Siano
To: All
Re: Satanism Sidebar-- The Paul Ingram Case
St:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@UFGATE newsin 1.27
From: revpk@cellar.org (Brian 'Rev P-K' Siano)
Date: 24 Oct 92 22:35:38 GMT
Organization: The Cellar BBS and public access system
Message-ID: <4076sB5w164w@cellar.org>
Newsgroups: sci.skeptic,soc.men,soc.women

Ingram sidebar - Part 1 of 1

[Note: This was a sidebar to the "Satanic Scare" article. It discusses
the Paul Ingram case with greater detail.]

     One of the more intriguing examples of how false memory can lead
to baseless accusations, mass hysteria and ruined lives was reported
by psychologist Richard Ofshe in the <International Journal of Clinical>
<and Experimental Hypnosis>. Paul Ingram was the county Republican Party
Chairman of Thurston County, Washington and the Chief Civil Deputy of
the Sheriff's department. By all accounts, Ingram was extremely
religious, and attended church several times a week. He is currently
serving twenty years in prison for rape-- and it's possible that his
guilty plea may be based on false memories.
     The story begins in September of 1988. When Ingram's 22-year-old
daughter Ericka attended a Christian retreat, intended to encourage
women to reveal abuse, she claimed that Ingram had raped her when she
was five years old. Within a few weeks, Ericka's story had changed
slightly; she now accused her father of having raped her nearly every
night for the past seventeen years. Her younger sister Julie, also at
the retreat, began a similar series of accusations-- that Ingram and
his poker buddies would creep into the daughters' bedroom on Saturday
nights and rape her every week. (However, according to Julie, Ericka
slept soundly in the upper bunk bed while this happened.)
     When confronted with the accusations, Ingram maintained his
innocence. . . at first. But, in keeping with his church's doctines on
"Satanic deception," Ingram acknowledged to the interrogators that his
memories of the events might have been blocked. During his
interrogation session (the first of 23 over a five-month period),
Ingram was maneuvered into agreeing that his daughters were honest. He
was repeatedly told that sex offenders frequently repress their
memories, and the interrogators promised him that, if he admitted his
guilt on the matter, his memories would return.
     The records of subsequent interrogations demonstrated how those
memories eventually <did> 'come back.' A psychologist whom Ofshe calls
"Dr. Smith" participated in the interrogations; Dr. Smith led Ingram

through a series of relaxation techniques that, in Ofshe's estimate,
"dramatically heightened suggestibility and trance logic." While
Ingram was in this dissociative state, the interrogators made helpful
suggestions to visualize the poker game events. During the second
day's interrogation, Dr. Smith asked Ingram if he'd ever had any
involvement in black magic. Over the next five months, Ingram was able
to 'recall' a variety of depraved, Satan-related crimes. Ingram's
dissociative state and fragmented memories also contributed to his
being misdiagnosed as having Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD)-- not
surprisingly, a syndrome that is often 'diagnosed' among Satanic cult
members and survivors to explain their failure to recall their evil
deeds.
     During this time, Ericka Ingram-- prompted by a reading of
<Satan's Underground>-- was claiming that 25 babies had been murdered by
Satanic cults, and identified locations where the bodies could be
found. (None were.) Julie, on the other hand, was talking about having
nails driven through her flesh and arms of dead babies being inserted
into her vagina. (Physical examinations found no scars on either
daughter.) Both daughters claimed that they'd been forced to attend
hundreds of Satanic coven meetings where these horrible events took
place. (Ingram's two <sons> denied that these meetings took place.) But
Paul Ingram had no trouble 'visualizing' these events under Dr.
Smith's interrogation. By September of 1991, Ericka had filed a
lawsuit against Thurston County alleging that, because the Sheriff's
department was controlled by Satanists, no action was taken to prevent
her 'brutalization.'
     Ofshe was brought in to assist the prosecution's case. However,
when it became apparent that Ingram's memories were manufactured
during the interrogation process, Ofshe tried an experiment; he
invented a false allegation of Ingram's forcing his son and daughter
to have sex. Sure enough; when Ingram was asked to relax and try to
visualize the scene, Ingram was able to 'recall' an event that even
his daughters said hadn't happened.
     When it became apparent that Ofshe's report on Ingram's
interrogation was going to be released to the defense attorneys, the
prosecutor handling the case gave Ingram an ultimatum to plead guilty
to something, or be charged with additional crimes. In May of 1989,
Ingram, pleaded guilty to six counts of rape. (The 25 babies allegedly
killed by the cult suddenly became a non-issue.) The visits by the
interrogators and psychologists stopped, Ingram's confidence in his
pseudo-memories had evaporated. As of this writing, Ingram was
attempting to have his guilty plea set aside, and to obtain a court
trial.

Source: Ofshe, Richard J. (1992) Inadvertent hypnosis during
interrogation: false confession due to dissociative state; mis-
identified multiple personality and the satanic cult hypothesis. <The>
<International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis>, Vol. XL,
No. 3., 125-156.


             ============================================
END SIDEBAR

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brian "Rev. P-K" Siano                                  revpk@cellar.org
Servo: "Dianetics, by L. Ron Hubbard."
Joel:  "Why is my life messed up? Page 74."
Servo: "When will this movie end? Page 155."
Crow:  "How much money can we get out of Tom Cruise? Page 85."
                                       "Mystery Science Theater 3000,"
                                       during a volcano scene in
                                       "Hercules and the Moon Men."

--- ConfMail V4.00
 * Origin: Paranet(sm) - The world's leading UFO Investigative News Network
(1:30163/150)

@SEEN-BY 104/2 422 428 30163/100 150
@PATH: 30163/150 104/422