Fells Acres /Eileen Goodman

by **Dreams End** » Sat Nov 12, 2005 4:18 pm

We had someone post a comment in Jeff's blog who claimed to be Eileen McNamara....wishing a happy birthday to Johnny Gosch no less. Don't know if it's her but in any event, McNamara came under extreme attacks for supporting the prosecution's version of the Fells Acres daycare facility ritual abuse case. I can't find any of McNamara's actual articles on the web because Google returns so many of the articles ATTACKING her position on that case. But it's instructive and I don't know much about it so I thought I'd put this here for anyone...pseudonymous columnists included...might post what they know. If you search on the case you will find many, many articles about what a miscarriage of justice it was. Here's a summary of the case from the Frontline website. I don't know what their take on the whole phenomenon was as I haven't read the whole thing there but this seemed balanced: <blockquote>Quote:<hr> <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/innocence/etc/other.html">www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/fr...other.html</a> It's also worth noting that not only did the children testify about this abuse, to this day at least some of them stand by this testimony: <blockquote>Quote:<hr>Amirault released from prison after 18 years Associated Press/April 30, 2004 By Shannon Boklaschuk Norfolk, Mass. -- Gerald "Tooky'' Amirault waved and smiled nervously as he was released from prison Friday, 18 years after his controversial conviction in one of the country's most bizarre and bitterly disputed child-molestation cases. More than a dozen family members and friends were on hand as Amirault left Bay State Correctional Center in Norfolk with his wife, Patti, and his attorney, James Sultan. His three adult children followed in another car. Amirault was convicted in 1986 of molesting and raping eight 3- and 4-year-old children at his family's Fells Acres day care center in Malden. But he insisted he was innocent throughout his imprisonment, refusing to undergo counseling for sex abuse because he viewed it as an admission of guilt. "It's a bit overwhelming,'' Amirault said. "I'm grateful to my wife and my children and the family and friends I have that are surrounding me. This is what's representative of Gerald Amirault and his family, not this case, this Fells Acres fraud.'' His sister, Cheryl Amirault LeFave, who was also convicted in the case, smiled broadly and gave the thumbs-up sign as her brother's long ordeal came to an end. "We won't ever forget what happened to our family,'' LeFave said. But Amirault's joyous release from prison did not end the controversy that has swirled around the case for two decades. In a case that came to symbolize changing attitudes toward the mass prosecution of child sex abuse cases, the Amiraults insisted they were victims of the day care sex abuse hysteria that swept the country in the 1980s. They claimed they were railroaded by questionable testimony from child witnesses who they said were badgered by well-meaning therapists until they concocted their tales of abuse. "We invite scrutiny,'' Amirault said "We're not afraid of the truth.'' But their accusers - now young adults - insist that Amirault is the monster they said he was during his trial. Their testimony, which included stories of Amirault dressing up as a clown and raping children with knives, and the ritualistic slayings of animals, made up the bulk of the state's case. His sister and mother, Violet Amirault, were convicted during a separate trial and were released from prison in 1995. Violet Amirault died in 1997. Amirault victim Jennifer Bennett, now married with two children of her own, said earlier this week that her stomach was in knots just thinking about his release. She said she still has flashbacks, wakes up in a cold sweat and is terrified by clowns. Larry Hardoon, the chief prosecutor in the case, said he continues to believe Amirault committed the crimes. He defended the interviewing techniques used by investigators, which were later criticized as leading and suggestive to the children. "Anybody that takes the time to understand and pay attention to what the actual facts were - not the mischaracterization of facts that gets spread by the defense - the convictions have always been upheld as sound and fully supportable,'' he said. "I believe he had a fair trial and that the system worked the way it's supposed to work. I've never seen or heard anything from the beginning of this case to today - that makes me think otherwise,'' he said. The state Board of Pardons recommended in July 2001 that his sentence be commuted, but then-acting Gov. Jane Swift rejected the recommendation in February 2002. He was granted parole last October and Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley announced earlier this month that there was not enough evidence to have Amirault committed indefinitely as a sexually dangerous person. Amirault will return to Malden, the city of 56,000 north of Boston where the Fells Acres saga unfolded two decades ago. He said he will continue trying to prove his innocence. "I'm going to fight this case until the day I die,'' he said. "I'm going to get my name b<hr></blockquote><hr></blockquote> Violet Amirault had been running the Fells Acres Day care center for almost 20 years with her children and five other teachers when her son Gerald Amirault was accused of abusing children in their care. Gerald was not a teacher, but helped out at the school as a handy man and bus driver. The incident that prompted a large scale investigation and two trials with multiple appeals occurred in 1984, when a 5 1/2 year old boy told his uncle that Gerald had touched his private parts. According to Gerald, the boy had wet his pants, and in order to help out the boy's teacher, who was busy, Gerald took the boy into the bathroom, dried him off and gave him a fresh change of clothes. The boy's mother claims that soon after the incident, he began displaying disturbing behavior, wetting his bed, baby-talk, chronic masturbation and acting out sexually with his younger brother. She became concerned and asked her brother, who had been sexually abused as a child, to talk to her son. During a walk in the park, the boy told his uncle that while he was at school, Gerald had pulled down his pants and touched his penis. The mother started questioning the boy about what happened to him at day care. Eventually, he told her that Gerald often took him to a "secret room" with a bed in it, or to the park, where he would undress the boy and fondle his penis. He also said that Gerald put his penis into the boy's mouth and rectum and indicated that other children were abused. The boy's mother called the state's child abuse hot line, and Gerald was arrested a few days later, accused of raping a child. The school was closed three days later. On September 12, 1984, a meeting was held at the town police headquarters. About 65 parents gathered with police and representatives of the state investigative agencies to discuss the situation at Fells Acres. Police encouraged the parents to question their children about what happened at Fells Acres, and to be persistent if the children did not initially disclose abuse. They asked parents to question their children about the existence of a "magic room" and a clown, and advised them of behavioral symptoms beleived to be consistent with sexual abuse. After this meeting, more children began to disclose stories similar to the first boy's. Parents, even some who had not been present at the controversial meeting, began noticing emotional and physical disturbances and sexualized play among many of the children who had been at Fells Acres. Children started to tell stories of abuse in a "magic room" by a clown or a robot. One girl said Gerald had penetrated her anus with a twelve inch knife. Other children claimed that they had been raped by a clown, tied to trees while naked, photographed, and forced to watch animals being killed. Eventually, 41 children aged three to six years old made accusations of abuse against the Amiraults. Gerald was charged with molesting 19 children, Violet and Cheryl, his sister, with abusing 10. The Amiraults were tried in two separate proceedings; Gerald in 1986 and the two women in 1987. The testimony of nine children was used in Gerald's case; four children testified against Cheryl and Violet. In both trials, the children testified in an unprecedented seating arrangement. They sat in special child-sized chairs and desks directly in front of the jury. The defendants were placed off to the side, so that the jury could see them but they could not make eye contact with the children. The unusual arrangment was devised to reduce the trauma of testifying for the children. Later, members of both juries said that the children's testimony was a major influence in their decisions to convict the Amiraults. In addition to the testimony of the children, prosecutors also pointed to physical evidence of abuse on five of the 10 children, citing vulvitis, vaginitis, a small scar on one girl's hymen and "well-healed anal fissures" on some children. All of the Amiraults were convicted; Violet and Cheryl were sentenced to 8-20 years in prison, Gerald to 30-40. In 1995, after 8 years in prison, Cheryl and Violet were released when the State Superior Court overturned their conviction and granted them a right to a new trial based on the unusual seating arrangement of the children, finding that the arrangement had violated their right to confront their accusers face to face. A different judge, the one who had initially approved of the seating arrangement in the 1986 trial, rejected a similar argument in Gerald's appeal. However, in March 1997, two years after their release, the State Supreme Court vacated the order for a new trial, and reinstated Cheryl and Violet's convictions, citing the need for finality in criminal proceedings and finding that the defendants did not sufficiently prove that there had been a miscarriage of justice. The court did note that some of the original investigatory practices were unsatisfactory and that the original seating arrangement violated the Amiraults' constitutional rights, but said that since the Amiraults did not raise the constitutional issue in the first trial, "the mere fact that, if the processes were redone, there might be a differing outcome, or that some lingering doubt about the first outcome may remain, cannot be a sufficient reason to reopen what society has a right to consider closed." In April, 1997, the Amiraults' lawyers filed a motion for a rehearing, asking the State Supreme Court to reconsider its decision. The following month a lower court judge ordered a new trial for Violet and Cheryl Amirault. They were released on bail, and Violet died of cancer months later. <a href="http://www.rickross.com/reference/false_memories/fsm92.html">www.rickross.com/referenc...fsm92.html</a> [/quote] I notice that McNamara also wrote a book about a man who was apparently badly treated by a therapist and committed suicide as a result. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0671796208/104-5122745-4452711?v=glance&n=283155&s=books&v=glance">www.amazon.com/gp/product...s&v=glance</a> Does this mean she's changed her opinion about psychotherapists and is making amends? Or is this just showing that she calls them as she sees them? Don't know, but the book sounds fascinating. <blockquote>Quote:<hr>Paul Lozano was a beloved son of a Mexican American family in El Paso, Texas. In his first year at Harvard Medical School, he had a difficult time adjusting to the loneliness and the strange environment. He sought psychotherapy with Dr. Bean-Bayog, a member of the Harvard psychiatry faculty. She told him to think of himself as a 3-year-old, and gave him flash cards with messages such as "I'm your Mom--I'll always be your Mom." Paul regressed, and his mental functioning deteriorated. As their relationship grew more peculiar, Dr. Bean-Bayog apparently gave Paul more than 50 pages of her handwritten sadomasochistic sexual fantasies about the two of them. Then she stopped seeing him, because she was adopting a baby boy. Paul killed himself. It's a distressing, suspenseful story. As the New York Times writes, "Breakdown: Sex, Suicide, and the Harvard Psychiatrist, its lurid title notwithstanding, makes a serious attempt to arrive at the truth in this strange case." Author Eileen McNamara also uses the case as a springboard for discussing broader issues such as the need for professional standards and accountability in psychotherapy. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.<hr></blockquote> She has also evidently written on the local sexual abuse scandals within the Catholic church there in Boston. Anyway, I had just gotten curious when she posted so I thought I'd post what I found.

by **Project Willow** » Sat Nov 12, 2005 7:51 pm

Thanks DE, I should go through my files on the various cases. It seems like I was just writing about this case a couple of years ago. The then MA governor refused to commute the sentence of one of Girald Amirault, and at the time there were some news stories based on interviews with the victims. The victims had not recanted, and indeed were extremely frustrated at how the case has been portrayed in the media. Their accounts were painful to read, and of course practically no one paid any attention to them. I wish I could find them now. Here's a snippet from a mainstream article: From: The Boston Globe Wednesday, February 20, 2002 "Swift denies Amirault's release bid Parole Board's view rejected on Fells Acres figure" By Frank Phillips "But victims rejoiced last night, praising the acting governor for standing up to the Parole Board and claiming vindication after years of doubts about the case. "All along, they've always told the truth," said Harriet Dell'Anno of Lynn, whose daughter, Jamie, remains in therapy over the incidents." Barbara Standke of Tewksbury, whose son, Brian Martinello, was molested when he was 4, said, "He may be doing 20 years, but my son's doing life." You mentioned the Frontline website, just FYI, Frontline, employing producer Ofra Bikel has done a superb hit job on SA, DID, and RAT. I believe she produced at least two docs. and was largely resonsible for silencing survivors and creating widespread disblief in moderate-liberal-pbs watching public. Quite an accomplishment. If someone had the time, researching Bikel and Frontline could be very productive. I can no longer listen to that Frontline narrator without feeling an extreme sense of betrayal. Nothing like hearing blatant lies issued forth by such a paternal and rational sounding voice.

by **Dreams End** » Sat Nov 12, 2005 8:01 pm

Ask, and ye shall receive. <blockquote>Quote:<hr>"Divided Memories: Letters to PBS and Frontline" Editor's note: Moving Forward received copies of several letters that were sent to PBS in response to its broadcast of Frontline's "Divided Memories." The film aired on April 4 and 11 [1995]; was produced, written, and directed by Ofra Bikel; Associate producer, Karen O'Conner; Editor, Susan Fanshel. The following letters by Ross E. Cheit (a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and Associate Professor of Public Policy and Political Science at Brown University), Ellen Bass (author several books including The Courage to Heal) and William Freyd (whose brother and sister-in-law founded the False Memory Syndrome Foundation) are printed here with their permission. Ross Cheit [ Copyright 1995, Ross E. Cheit, All Rights Reserved. Used by permission.] Mr. Ervin S. Duggan, President and CEO Public Broadcasting Service July 23, 1995 Dear Mr. Duggan, I am writing in reference to the Frontline program on "Divided Memories." First of all, let me say that this program did an excellent job of documenting examples of bad therapy. It is incredible that any licensed therapist would engage in something purporting to address trauma in "past lives" - or in the birth canal for that matter! The program performed a public service, I think, by bringing those examples to light. Unfortunately, the program made no serious effort to address the most obvious public policy question about such therapy: how widespread are these practices? The narration made vague references to "thousands of women" being in support groups and to "hundreds of stories" having been published, but the viewer was left without any actual evidence concerning the magnitude of the problems illustrated by a handful of stories. Indeed, the only number used with any precision was, as it turns out, exaggerated by a factor of six. (The narration claimed that the False Memory Syndrome Foundation has over 15,000 members; in fact, its membership is around 2,500.) In the end, the viewer was left with the impression that these practices are widespread, when in fact the program provided no systematic evidence to support that contention. This shortcoming is unfair to those therapists who do not engage in such techniques; and if, as various surveys suggest, that is the vast majority of therapists, then this program did a significant disservice by not making that clear. Regrettably, the failures of this program are far worse on the issue of recovered memory. The narration posed two questions near the beginning of the show: Can memories be lost and retrieved? Are such memories accurate? I was surprised and disappointed that those questions were never actually answered in the remainder of this lengthy program. There is the implication that the answer to both questions is "no," but the whole issue seems to get lost in the vast attention given to bad therapy. I concluded in April that the program was inappropriately titled -- the show was about bad therapy, not about recovered memory -- that some of the narration did not fit the actual content, and that for some unexplained reason virtually all corroborated cases of recovered memory must have been left on the editing floor, so to speak. In short, while the program did an excellent job of asking whether some claims of child sexual abuse might actually be confabulations, the show never really addressed the question of whether some cases of recovered memory are in fact true. The omission was one of silence, and I chalked the whole matter up to poor editorial judgment and editing. Thanks to the new PBS program "Media Matters," this very criticism -- that "Divided Memories" failed to present any corroborated cases of recovered memory -- was recently posed directly to Frontline by Judy Steed of the Toronto Star. Remarkably, Ofra Bickel [sic] responded that it was "impossible" to include such cases because none exist. (She seemed to qualify this statement by saying something about people who were unwilling to go on camera, but she never told us how many cases fell into that category. Ms. Bickel also said something about giving every therapist she interviewed "the task" of finding such cases. It is unclear how, if at all, Ms. Bickel thinks that this "assignment" to others alters her own obligation to research her subject.) Anyway, I have since learned that Ms. Bickel told a Chicago reporter essentially the same thing: that in thirteen months of research she found only one case - and that one, included at the beginning of the program, was actually ambiguous - "where a claim of recovered memory could be backed up by anything more substantial than a woman and her therapist believing it so" (Steve Johnson, "Past Imperfect: 'Divided Memories' Casts Skeptical Eye on Repressed-Memory Movement," Chicago Tribune, April 3, 1995). To anyone familiar with the debate over recovered memory, Ms. Bickel's assertion is, at best, an indication of incredibly sloppy research. Take, for example, Mark Pendergrast's highly-publicized book Victims of Memory (Upper Access Press). This book, by an accused father and self-proclaimed skeptic of recovered memory, was available to reviewers in the summer of 1994. The author questions the scope and magnitude of recovered memory but he also allows that a few cases are "beyond dispute." (See pp. 101-104). [This includes Frank Fitzpatrick, whose case was corroborated by the testimony of dozens of men and the guilty plea of James Porter. Marilyn Van Derbur, former Miss America, has also obtained corroboration from her sister.] Strangely, these cases are not discussed in "Divided Memories." But is it really so difficult to "find" corroborated cases of recovered memory? I asked my undergraduate Research Assistant to spend a few hours finding out. Using electronic databases that are widely available and presumably used by investigative reporters, she quickly found these cases in addition to those acknowledged by Pendergrast: 1. Herald v. Hood, C.A. No. 15986 (Court of Appeals of Ohio, July 21, 1993). Julie Herald sued her uncle in 1989 alleging sexual abuse from age 3 (in 1962) through 15. The memory returned when Herald was watching her 4-year-old daughter playing with a friend. She was awarded $150,000 in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages. The Ohio Supreme Court recently upheld the decision. Herald presented a taped telephone conversation in which her uncle indicated his guilt, and two therapists testified about the confession he made in their presence. The case has been covered in the Plain Dealer since December 17, 1993. 2. Pfiefle v. Hustwaite, No. 98-2-00044-8 (King County Superior Court, Seattle, 1991). Mentioned in Anastaia Toufexis, "Can Memories be Trusted?" Time (October 28, 1991). Ms. Pfiefle received $1.4 million from her church-run school in settlement of her claim that a teacher repeatedly raped and sodomized her two decades earlier. According to Verdicts, Settlements & Tactics (Shepard's/McGraw-Hill, 1991), "discovery revealed several other victims whose testimony was helpful in establishing that the Seventh Day Adventist defendants should have known of the teacher's propensities." 3. Tingirides v. Tingirides (Case No. KC-000-053<img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/wink.gif ALT=";)"> Pomona, California; Verdict date July 7,1992. Reported under the Topic: Repressed Memory - Child Molestation in California Jury Verdict and Settlement Reports. Plaintiff verdict in the amount of $1.65 million. 4. From the St. Petersburg Times, March 6, 1994: "One who found proof was Frank Leonard of Fort Lauderdale. In a lawsuit Leonard said that therapy in 1992 helped him recover memories of sexual abuse in the 1960s by his uncle, Tampa publishing executive Frank Louis Cowles Jr. Records were produced showing that Cowles had been convicted in 1959 of sexually abusing young boys in Clearwater, and had been sentenced to probation and counseling. According to the lawsuit, Leonard's uncle admitted the abuse and then killed himself after a confrontation. Leonard won a settlement from Cowles' estate." 5. From the Washington Post, February 6, 1995: "The former altar boy, now a Baltimore-area professional who requested anonymity, told the Post that molestation began when he was 11 or 12 and continued until he was about 17. He began having marital problems several years ago and sought therapy. On Jan. 19, he met for nearly two hours with Monsignor William Lori, chancellor of the archdiocese. The next day, Lori separately interviewed the four priests and each admitted to the victim's allegations." 6. Jane Doe v. Budge (Case No. NWC 10610; Van Nuys, California) Verdict date: January 15, 1993. The case was originally tried in 1989; this was a retrial on the question of punitive damages. Plaintiff (age 26) alleged sexual abuse 14 years earlier. "Defendant admitted to a few acts, but denied most allegations. Defendant also argued that he had changed his life since the incident." Verdict in the amount of $1.25 million -- nine day trial; jury deliberations: 1 hour, 10 minutes. Since Ms. Bickel has claimed that she could not "find" such cases, I think it is fair to ask: (a) whether she actually researched the cases mentioned above, and if so, (b) on what grounds she excluded them. If she did not consider these cases, the obvious question is: why not? Undoubtedly, it might require special investigative skill to find the parties in some of these cases, but that is exactly the kind of thing Ms. Bickel is supposed to be good at. Indeed, I can think of several other avenues likely to yield corroborated cases. 1. Cases involving accusations by more than one sibling. A 1993 survey published by the False Memory Syndrome Foundation indicates that eighty (80) families claiming "false" recovered memories by a family member report that the accusations are from more one sibling [FMSF, Family Survey Results: Summer 1993," p. 1<img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/alien.gif ALT="0]"> . Unless the siblings are under the influence of the same therapist, these cases seem ripe with the potential for containing corroboration. Ms. Bickel spent months looking into this Foundation and its members. Did she make any effort to look at these cases for possible corroborating evidence for recovered memory? I don't know whether ten or seventy of these cases contain convincing corroboration, but I wonder how hard Ms. Bickel tried to find out? Or did she take it for granted that cases reported as false by the accused were always false? 2. Prosecutions under California Penal Code Section 803(g). This would also be a natural place to "look" for such cases since this statute, which went into effect January 1, 1993, requires "corroboration by independent evidence" for retroactive prosecutions. How many California District Attorneys did Ms. Bickel contact to find out about cases brought under Section 803(g)? One of the first people arrested under the statute, Richard Giovannetti, has confessed to various charges dating back to 1960 (Sacramento Bee, Marc 12, 1994). Did any of these victims experience memory loss? Did Ms. Bickel "find" this case, or did she assume, as do some extremists who share her position on recovered memory, that the government somehow always makes the same mistake even when treating claims of child sexual abuse in the criminal justice system -- only prosecuting the innocent, never the guilty? [Oklahoma law also requires "objective, verifiable" evidence in corroboration of such civil claims. Stat. tit. xxii at 95 (West 1994). Did Ms. Bickel seek out any cases filed under this statute?] How many of these avenues did Ms. Bickel explore before she concluded that she couldn't "find" any corroborated cases? Moreover, as I hope you'll seek to find out, how did she manage to dismiss everything mentioned above? What you will find, if you look hard enough, is that an associate producer of Frontline was told specifically about one corroborated case: my own. (I have enclosed for your information Katy Butler's article from the San Francisco Chronicle, ["S.F. Boys Chorus Settles Abuse Case; Man's 'recovered memories' supported by 5 witnesses, tape"] September 1, 1994, p.2.) My case was first covered by Miriam Horn in U. S. News & World Report, November 28, 1993. Early in 1994, Ms. Horn had a direct conversation with an associate producer of "Divided Memories." As she has recounted that conversation to me, she told the producer: "if you are looking for corroborated cases, give Ross Cheit a call." They never called. I point this out not to "promote" my case. Indeed, I have scrupulously avoided talks shows and all other television offers save two: the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation program "In the Nature of Things," and the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. (Both of those requests came after Ms. Horn told Frontline to give me a call.) The Canadian program has not aired in the United States. The MacNeil/Lehrer story [2/2/95] was approximately eight minutes long; I appeared for the first few minutes. It is remarkable, in retrospect, that Lee Hochberg of MacNeil/Lehrer did a better job of presenting both sides of the recovered memory debate in eight minutes than Ofra Bickel did in four hours. You should take at look at his story before assessing Ms. Bickel's claim. What Ms. Bickel did in "Divided Memories" is not just sloppy journalism. By saying what she did on "Media Matters" -- ironically, a show aimed at examining the media -- she has perpetuated a fraud on your viewers. It is difficult enough to believe that in thirteen months of research Ms. Bickel did not "find" any of the cases that my Research Assistant located in a few hours. But even if her research was that bad, the producers of this show knew about my case and did not even bother to conduct a telephone interview. It appears to me that this is journalism at its worst: ignoring contrary evidence, jumping to conclusions, and then lying about the breadth and depth of the investigation. It was not "impossible" for Ms. Bickel to find corroborated cases - she was so uninterested in finding them that she didn't even follow-up on a most promising lead. Ms. Bickel fights extremism with extremism. She exposes the horror of the assuming that virtually all claims of recovered memory are true; but in doing so she falls into the equally horrendous position that all cases must be false -- as if her first argument somehow depended on this. Her position is far more extreme than that held by most of the "Science Advisory Board" of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation! But that is a subtlety that eludes Ms. Bickel, who spent months examining the organization. Ms. Bickel told another reporter in April: "I don't really care if there is such a thing as repressed memory or not -- after a while, I put that argument behind me." (Mark Sauer, "Repressed Memory Case a War Zone," San Diego Union-Tribune, April 11, 1995) How long, I wonder, did Ms. Bickel spend investigating this issue before she lost interest? And what are we to conclude about the editorial judgment of someone who "doesn't really care" about the answer to a central question posed in her own documentary? Why didn't Ms. Bickel give her viewers the benefit of just one or two of the corroborated cases mentioned above? Did her "investigation" into the matter really satisfy the journalistic standards of public television? Don't PBS viewers deserve to know the real story behind Ms. Bickel's failure to include corroborated cases in her program? I look forward to your response. Sincerely yours, Ross E. Cheit Associate Professor [Public Policy & Political Science Brown University] [Addendum: Since sending this letter, I have learned about more than one corroborated case that Ofra Bickel acknowledged in the course other research, but did not include in "Divided Memories." First, there is Frank Fitzpatrick - certainly the most highly corroborated case of all. Sara Fitzpatrick recently informed me that Ms. Bickel interviewed the Fitzpatricks and chose not to include the case because it had "already been publicized." It should be noted that Ms. Bickel did not apply this editorial rule to cases she found dubious, such as Eileen Franklin's. Nor did she inform the viewers of "Media Matters" that she had excluded any cases for this reason, telling them instead that it was "impossible" to find such cases. Ms. Bickel also interviewed Lana Lawrence about her case. As an adult, Ms. Lawrence remembered abuse that was corroborated by a direct admission by the perpetrator to a Washington Post editor who called to verify the story. Ms. Bickel did not include this case, apparently deeming it "an exception" because Ms. Lawrence had remembered other abuse all along. Why did Ms. Bickel tell the viewers of "Media Matters" that it was "impossible" to find such cases, when in fact she had found some but quietly excluded them from her program? I am passing this additional question on to Mr. Duggan, who has not yet replied to my letter. RC 9/10/95] Since this letter was written in 1995, Ross Cheit has established The Recovered Memory Project, an archive of more than 30 of corroborated cases of recovered memory. Following is the APA-style citation for this article, which may be copied and pasted into your document. Freyd, William. (1993). "Divided Memories: Letters to PBS and Frontline" in Moving Forward, Vol. III, No. 3. Retrieved from the World Wide Web: <a href="http://movingforward.org/v3n3-cheit.html">movingforward.org/v3n3-cheit.html</a> Ellen Bass on "Divided Memories" [Copyright, 1995 Ellen Bass.] Ms. Ofra Bikel WGBH 125 Western Avenue Boston, MA 9 May 1995 Dear Ms. Bikel: I am appalled at the gross misrepresentation that you have managed in "Divided Memories." Of all the shows -- including tabloid talk shows -- that I have seen and participated in, yours is the most manipulative and distorted of all.... I don't mind being presented in opposition to groups such as the FMS -- with both sides having a clear hearing. But to be presented as though I am in alignment with therapists who believe in recovering memories from alien abductions or fallopian tubes -- or who don't think the truth about whether or not someone was abused matters -- is, in essence, lying. Although you used real footage of my image and my words, you used it in such a way as to convey an absolute lie about me and my beliefs. Less importantly, you misrepresented The Courage to Heal and its section in which we list the multitude of effects that survivors of child sexual abuse may suffer from. It is not a checklist by which someone can determine whether or not they were abused. In fact, in the new edition -- which you had -- we say that explicitly .... Yet in spite of our careful explanation that it was not a diagnostic tool, you said it was one. But that is a small issue compared to the license you took in linking my work to Fallopian tube memories. What possible purpose can this wild distortion serve? ... [Y]ou created an unbearably long mishmash from which a viewer not sophisticated in this field cannot possibly emerge with a clearer understanding of the serious issues involved. And how could you present a person of integrity, such as Jennifer Freyd, as though she were the victim of a kooky therapist? Or use the video tape of her speech or photographs of her children without her permission? And why did you omit essential information about the FMS, such as the connections some of its founders and most prominent members have to pro-pedophilia publications? I have never seen such slanted coverage. I am not innocent about the inevitable distortions that occur in the media. Yet, I am shocked -- truly shocked -- to see this kind of irresponsible, exploitative reporting from PBS. I deeply regret having participated in your show. It was not serious journalism. It was a deliberate obfuscation of the real and important issues involved. And it was insulting to me and to other responsible professionals who have worked ethically in this field for many years. Sincerely, Ellen Bass cc: Ervin S. Duggan Following is the APA-style citation for this article, which may be copied and pasted into your document. Bass, Ellen. (1993). "Divided Memories: Letters to PBS and Frontline" in Moving Forward, Vol. III, No. 3. Retrieved from the World Wide Web: <a href="http://movingforward.org/v3n3-cheit.html">movingforward.org/v3n3-cheit.html</a> William Freyd on "Divided Memories" [Copyright, 1995 William Freyd.] WGBH Re: Frontline 125 Western Avenue Boston, MA 02134 April 17, 1995 Gentlemen: Peter Freyd is my brother. Pamela Freyd is both my stepsister and my sister-in-law. Jennifer and Gwendolyn are my nieces.... The False Memory Syndrome Foundation is a fraud designed to deny a reality that Peter and Pam have spent most of their lives trying to escape. There is no such thing as a False Memory Syndrome. It is not, by any normal standard, a Foundation. Neither Pam nor Peter have any significant mental health expertise. That the False Memory Syndrome Foundation has been able to excite so much media attention has been a great surprise to those of us who would like to admire and respect the objectivity and motives of people in the media.... We do not understand why you would "buy" such an obviously flawed story. But buy it you did, based on the severely biased presentation you made of the memory issue that Peter and Pam created to deny their own difficult reality. For the most part, you presented very credible parents and frequently quite incredible bizarre and exotic, alleged victims and therapists. Balance and objectivity would call for the presentation of more credible alleged victims and more bizarre parents. While you did present some highly regarded therapists as commentators (Dr. Herman, for example), most of the therapists you presented as providers of therapy were clearly not in the main stream. While this selection of examples may make for much more interesting T.V., it most certainly does not make for objectivity and fairness. I would advance the idea that "Divided Memories" hurt victims, helped abusers, and confused the public. I wonder why you thought these results would be in the public interest that Public Broadcasting is funded to support. Sincerely, William Freyd cc: Congressman John Porter Ervin S. Duggan Related Letter: Follow-up to Frontline by William Freyd Following is the APA-style citation for this article, which may be copied and pasted into your document. Freyd, William. (1993). "Divided Memories: Letters to PBS and Frontline" in Moving Forward, Vol. III, No. 3. Retrieved from the World Wide Web: <a href="http://movingforward.org/v3n3-cheit.html">movingforward.org/v3n3-cheit.html</a> <hr></blockquote> <a href="http://movingforward.org/v3n3-cheit.html">movingforward.org/v3n3-cheit.html</a> And a link referenced above is Dr. Ross Cheit's recovered memory project: <a href="http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Taubman_Center/Recovmem/index.html">www.brown.edu/Departments...index.html</a> The first letter nails it pretty well, but I thought the second and third would be of interest due to the name value.

by **proldic** » Sat Nov 12, 2005 8:11 pm

Holy shit this is what I'm saying...even just a few seconds ago in the previous thread.

by **israelirealities** » Sat Nov 12, 2005 8:33 pm

ofra bikel in Israeli google returns an israeli producer of 2 documentaries from 1976, under the aupices of Ministry of education. The documentaries cover the jewish immigration from Morroco and the other one about Syrian Jewry. i don't know if that the same lady, but it would seem possible. She would not be very young.

by **Project Willow** » Sat Nov 12, 2005 8:37 pm

DE, Those letters bring back memories. proldic, which thread? I do wonder about Ofra, of course I can't get over her name. It reminds me of "The Handmaid's Tale", when after the Christo-fascist takeover, all women are named based on who owns them, for example Ofred, Ofsam, etc. Who owns Ofra??????

by **Dreams End** » Sat Nov 12, 2005 8:47 pm

She is indeed from Israel...studies in Paris. She herself, I think, may be sincere. She seems to have a history of going after "wrongly accused" folks on death row or whatever, and there are certainly lots of them. Still checking around.

by **proldic** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 12:58 pm

This is very very important imo, also important to not just understand but to develop some good analysis/ pr / sound bites about and start to get to work activist-wise on this. Are we all on board now that these somewhat liberal-leftist media sources such as PBS/Frontline/Nova/Pacifica/Democracy Now [lumping them all in willfully] are on the cutting edge of the deepest propaganda and disinformation? I won't even get into Democracy Now which is a huge and divisive case. One that IMO needs to be monitered on a daily basis with a really fine comb to record all the deep disinfo coming from them. I'll just point out the significance of the Griffin v Berlet "name me one structural engineer that supports your case" "debate" and their current pushing of fake intel whistleblowers like McGovern and Kwiatowski. As far as PBS, within the last year Frontline has run shows that are clearly pushing the worst -- I mean the worst -- memes clothed in the finest of silk camo... Last night this post by PW made something sort of click in me big time -- sort of half knowingly/half unknowingly I have been developing a scarier case than even I thought regarding what is considered our most respectable most "balanced" sources. And it's more than just some philosophical difference i.e. they're not radical enough. Obviously I realize that just "getting to gatekeeper" is not enough. In fact that's the door behind which the worst conspiracy disinfo lies (ie. 9/11 "Truth" Movement) . In one post recently I remember talking about a show attacking black political power called "Street Fight" that was an utter fucking poison sundae topped with a covert anti-semitic cherry. Another about Frontline on Chechnya and Beslan that was so much evil disinfo I'm getting apoplectic trying to explain. If I get the time later to develop this thread I will dig these up. And now this Silverstein NOVA episode I posted about last night which I'm starting to think was the piece that "started it all" as far as the CD case. And now OF COURSE smear and cover-up on RA, memory. This is the ESSENCE. I had trouble sleeping because of this last night. I can't even analyze this now it's making me so mad. What else have we missed? I'm sure there's been a skeptic/debunking show or fucking thirty. (*snapping handle of cup*)

by **Dreams End** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 3:09 pm

God, I wish I could simply get funded to spend a year researching this stuff. Believe it or not, every time I post something so "revelatory" it's usually after only about 3 or 4 minutes of Googling. This stuff is simply too big to actually be hidden. There's actually a style for coding information called "steganography" which means hiding things in plain sight. More specifically, it means that you take a message that those whom you don't want to reveal info to are likely to see and WITHIN that message you hide another message. (my favorite example from ancient times...Greek, I think...is to send a messenger who has had a message tatooed on his head and then time allowed for his hair to grow back. He doesn't know the message and anyone who captures him will likely miss it as well. Still, he IS a messenger). They think they've gotten the message, when, in fact, they've missed the main point. I bring it up because I think that the information we need is in our hands. I'd love, after the revolution, to get into those specific files and computers that spell everything out in detail, but the shredders will be whirling by the time that day comes, if it ever does. But as I was saying...this stuff is out there. And the stuff I post here is just what is easily available on the internet. It's just that the deeper message lies just underneath. But it is there. Deep memes on PBS? Surely...especially after the pressure in the past couple decades to "reign in" the "liberal" public television stations. I don't know how coordinated I think it is just yet. That Silverstein quote, for example. He did say it...I've seen the tape. It could have been a "meme" or it could have been a detail that got overlooked. There's even another possibility as well. He could have meant that after they decided to "pull" the building, it came down before they could get to it. That's actually the first way I interpreted it, (approximating) "We decided to pull it...and then we watched the building come down." (Please don't turn this thread into a CD thread, it's just an example of how hard it is to interpret one such piece of data.) However, ADD ALL the data, I think you do something more useful. How many "experts" on these RA debunking stories are tied to FSM, founded by people whose own relatives say they are full of shit and in denial about what actually happened in their own family? Who funds FSM? And, of course, we know about people such as Martin "MKUltra" Orne. I think the Catholic scandal is REALLY interesting here. You see, in our "consensus reality", the Catholic stuff REALLY HAPPENED. Everyone agrees that, to some extent or another, Catholic priests engaged in this activity and higher ups covered it up. Sure, we are getting a 'limited hangout' but it's interesting to watch that work as well. Who is on the committee overseeing this investigation? SW has noted some disturbing things there. And for whatever reason, the weirdest stuff is coming to the surface these days. Had I the money, I'd go first to Belgium, where a rightwing/occult/child sex ring has been uncovered already. It's OUT IN THE OPEN now. People don't understand exactly WHAT they've uncovered, but they've done it. (To those who'd minimize Dutroux, he had several very expensive houses and yet was unemployed....it takes more than just a few kidnappings to make that kind of cash (sorry to put it so crudely)). What does Belgium show us? There's a rightwing network behind the criminal network AND that they've used these kids to engage/entrap/blackmail officials in the socialist government so that that side of the spectrum is also pretty "dirty." What I wouldn't give for a good database of all these cases. Alleged locations and alleged adults involved, stripped of all emotion. Pure facts. Sure, there'll be noise and delusional paranoid-schizophrenics in the mix. Oh, and outright disinfo liars. But the patterns that would emerge would be very telling. Just making connections among the California cases would be a good start. I don't think the key is to analyze little tiny bits of info, then. I think the key is to assemble it in a big picture. McGowan had a good start (though the lack of index in his book really drove me nuts) but I think lots more can be done. And the thing is, it doesn't even depend on what occult perspective the perpetrators have or (often, in my growing opinion) pretend to have. If there's a network of folks kidnapping and torturing kids, it will show up. Someone, I think Parenti, quipped that "the plural of anecdote is not data." However, that's not completely true. Enough anecdotes (and let's also realize that lots of this stuff CAN BE corroborated) and you can see patterns. Interestingly, you know how I could get funding for this? I'll bet you a proposal to track SRA stories as "folklore" and a project to trace the rise of a "collective delusion" would be just the trick. In fact, I think reading the books out there that purport to do just that would be quite interesting. Add in, as those who critized the Fronline series did, the missing datapoints and you'll have a very strong case. Thinking out loud a bit more: You could contact in a massive effort as many RA stories as possible both by combing the existing literature and also by contacting therapists. A questionnaire, in which they could reveal as many details as possible without endangering the anonymity of their clients, as well as an invitation to any particularly brave souls to go public so more thorought documentation could be sought could bring in tons of data. Another part of this, and it is unbelievable that it is not being done already but it's not, is to collect ALL MISSING CHILD cases. By law, the Justice Department is supposed to, but they simply don't. Many of these cases are non-custodial parent kidnapings..often done, I think, to protect the child from abuse from the custodial parent. But there are many other such kidnapings that go unreported. (I get REALLY pissed when I hear the "where are the reports of missing kids if all this is going on?" Well, that's a GREAT question. So great, in fact, that there was a mainstream article not long ago asking exactly that: why isn't the Justice Department collecting this data as it's required to by law? One guess.) Another idea would be to find one such person who has yet to begin the journey of corroborating their stories and to work side by side to do so. It would need to be a case from the not too distant past and they'd need some significant recall of specific locations, etc. And, (and fuck FSM for even making me say this) they'd need much of the memories to have remained continuous, I think, for the strongest possible case (though recovered memories with at least one rock solid bit of corroboration from a witness, say, would also work.) I'll end with something I'd forgotten. I've written about a girlfriend I had for awhile who had all kinds of weird experiences, was very emotionally disturbed and thought perhaps there was some issues with her Dad. I just remember a story she told me. She said that once (she was an adult...so not completely the same thing) she'd been drugged and awakened in the house of some German man. She was his prisoner for two weeks but somehow managed to talk her way out of the situation. She was supposed to be some kind of sexual slave or something, and I don't know how she got out. But she did, and called her dad...who simply didn't believe her. He picked her up from wherever she was but that was that. No police. No investigation. Nothing. I think these sorts of things simply happen a lot. The data is out there. Now, damn it! Someone fetch me a publisher! I'd need about a thirty thousand dollar advance and one year.. It really could be done. Alternately, if enough people really wanted to tackle this (with at least one such person being very tech savvy) I could see a collective effort at data collection and data mining as useful as well. I don't get my advance, but it might actually be a better way. And you'd also then have an online database that therapists and researchers could utilize. I, for example, would really like to know about such activities in Cincinnati and also in Dayton (home of Wright Patterson AFB) just for my own reasons. But you still would need to pull that data together in a rigourous and objective way. This thing is doable but it would take a big chunk of time. Oh, and proldic, I'll be interested in your thoughts that you were just beginning to bring together in the above post.

by **Project Willow** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 11:26 pm

Excellent ideas DE. You probably know of this site but I'll post it here: <a href="http://www.ra-info.org/library/index.shtml">www.ra-info.org/library/index.shtml</a> The connections between the big cases are pretty stunning sometimes. proldic I'll be interested to read your continuing thoughts on the media issue.

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