That being said, I'd like to point out something that I found at Ralph Nader's library, in The Franklin Cover-Up -- Child Abuse, Satanism, and Murder in Nebraska, by John W. DeCamp, specifically the part regarding Investigator Roy Stephens' interviews with Paul Bonacci, and then I'd like to compare it to something else I came across recently:
http://www.naderlibrary.com/franklincoverup.17.htm
...Bonacci also conveyed to Stephens specific recollections related to two other notorious cases -- pedophilia and ritualistic abuse in Jordan, Minnesota, and satanism and child sacrifice near Bakersfield, California.
In 1983 and 1984, Scott County, Minnesota prosecutor Kathleen Morris investigated and began to prosecute a ring of child molesters centered in the town of Jordan. Child victims had testified about satanic rituals and the filming of children in sex acts. "The case involves the largest adult-juvenile sex ring in Minnesota history, authorities said," reported the Minneapolis Star-Tribune on November 18, 1983.
At least 30 children told police they had been molested. Morris brought indictments against 24 adults. People magazine of October 22, 1984 summarized, "The village harbored rings of adult sex abusers who incestuously victimized their own children and other children during ritualistic sex parties involving sadism and bestiality. Some of the children described a bizarre sexual variation of hide-and-seek in which children who were 'found' were taken to a bedroom and abused." The children told of witnessing three ritualistic murders.
Child care workers and psychologists found the children highly credible. Psychologist Michael Shea, who treated some of them, told People, "Children are not able to fantasize in such graphic detail about sexual acts which are outside their experience. And they certainly can't be coerced, or bribed or brainwashed into making statements about their parents." Minnesota psychologist Susan Phipps Yonas, who also inter- viewed some of the children, told the Star Tribune that she fully believed their reports: "It's not just the details that make them convincing, but the [emotional] effect behind the stories. They're extraordinarily upset when they recount these things. They'd have to be world-class actors to be so convincing if it wasn't true." Phipps Yonas speculated that since the children talked about large sums of money changing hands, organized crime was likely involved.
Morris indicted the ring's chief figure, 26 year-old James Rud, on 108 counts of child abuse. His parents, Alvin and Rosemary Rud, and his 17-year old brother were also indicted, as were several other people from the Valley Green Trailer Park, 35 miles outside of Minneapolis-St. Paul. Most of the abused children also lived in the trailer park.
Like the Franklin investigators in Nebraska, Morris came under savage attack from media and the political establishment in her state. Under pressure, she ultimately turned the investigation over to state Attorney General Hubert "Skip" Humphrey, Jr. To the horror of many, Humphrey soon released a 29-page report titled "Scott County Investigations," which closed the case, citing "insufficient evidence." Minnesota Governor Rudy Perpich then appointed a commission to investigate Morris! Humphrey named one of his political cronies, lawyer Kelton Gage, as "independent counsel" to present evidence against her.
Yet in 1991, from prison in Nebraska, Paul Bonacci identified by name, from pictures, some of the same individuals Morris had been investigating. Some of Bonacci's conversations with Stephens about these events have been transcribed:
RS: You know anybody else who hurts children or takes kids or sells them or takes pornography of them?
PB: I don't know what their names are and they're all from mainly not even from. ...
RS: From this area? Where are they from?
PB: Minnesota and California.
RS: Do you know where or who?
PB: ... in Minnesota there was one guy named James Rud. He lived with his mom and dad, cause I remember we went out to his place one time in a trailer.
RS: And that's in Minnesota?
PB: Yeah, that was in Jordan, Minnesota.
A second exchange between Bonacci and Stephens, recorded on September 28, 1991, shed more light on the events in Jordan.
RS: What do you remember about this little boy named Joey?
PB: Joey? Oh, that's what I wanted to tell you about ... Jordan, Minnesota.
RS: Jordan? That's where he came from?
PB: Well, he wasn't kidnapped, his parents let him go, 'cause his parents were friends with Emilio and they had some strange ...
RS: It's okay.
PB: That there's a bunch of parents, that are not just parents but other people in that town that were abusing kids. ... Bob Bentz, that's the one I told you about that had the two [inaudible]
RS: And this guy's name was Bob?
PB: Uh-huh. Bentz.
RS: How do you spell it? Bentz.
PB: B-e-n-t-z.
RS: And he's in Jordan? When was this?
PB: Mmmmm, that was in '82.
Stephens had asked Bonacci to draw up a list of both abusers and victims. Later in the same conversation, Stephens went through the written list out loud.
RS: Okay. What do you have written here? What does this say? Who is this Bob? Is that his wife's name? Lois? Bob and Lois Bentz? They had three sons? Okay. This is the Bob you told me about?
PB: Uh-huh [yes].
RS: And Joey is theirs? Okay, and Jim Rud is the guy who lives with his mom and dad at the Valley Green Trailer Park?
PB: Yeah. 'Cause I remember one of the games we played was called hide and seek basketball.
RS: Hide and seek basketball? How do you play that? You're not talking about regular basketball, are you?
PB: No, it's sex. ... A lot of people lived in Jordan that were doing that [child abuse]. 'Cause when we were up there [inaudible] they tortured a couple [of children] that came in.
Bob and Lois Bentz were tried for child abuse, including of their own three sons, in August 1984, and acquitted. How- ever, their acquittal left grave doubts in the minds of many in the town. Some incidents from the trial were featured in the People story:
Among the children who testified against the couple was their 6-year-old boy, Tony, who told the court that his father had sodomized him and his brothers. Although the boy was confused over the meaning of the sexual terms, when a defense attorney asked if he feared that his father would abuse him again, the boy looked across the courtroom at Bentz and replied, "You won't do that no more, right?"
During the grueling cross-examination, defense attorneys succeeded in shaking some of the young witnesses' stories by hammering away at dates, places and word meanings. However, a 12-year-old girl steadfastly refused to waver from her testimony. When a defense attorney accused her of lying, she snapped: "You're just helping Bob and Lois [Bentz] to get out of this stuff, this child-abusing stuff, I'm not lying, you guys are. It's the truth, they hurt us." Later she rushed tearfully into the arms of a social worker.
Though the Bentzes got off in the Scott County case, James Rud plea-bargained. Before the case was scratched, he pleaded guilty to lesser charges. In 1978 and 1980, Rud had been convicted of sexually abusing children in Virginia and Minnesota, respectively.
Ok, the bit of history that I remember in that Scott County, Minnesota case, and I'm going by memory now of something that happened over 25 years ago, was that Scott County Prosecutor Kathleen Morris mentioned above really fucked up that case, had gotten enmeshed in the investigation, interviewed child witnesses while they were sitting on her lap, that kind of thing. I apologize if this memory is inaccurate. So, who we have here is a case that is prime evidence for the satanic panic-ers.