Date:         Wed, 3 Jan 1996 14:22:02 EST
From: Bruce Robinson <ocrt@LIMESTONE.KOSONE.COM>
Subject:      Re: FMSF??? (fwd)
To: Multiple recipients of list WITCHHNT <WITCHHNT@MITVMA.MIT.EDU>

On Wed, 3 Jan 1996, Jan asked about the Paul Ingram case. 

The full story can be seen in:
Lawrence Wright, "Remembering Satan, A case of recovered memory and
the shattering of an American family", A.A. Knopf, New York (1994)
ISBN 0-679-43155-1

This is a truly fascinating case.

Paul Ingram was a member of a charismatic Christian church and a
police officer. He believed his church's teachings in the existance of
Satan as a very real, profoundly evil entity. The church taught that
Satan had magical powers that enabled him to cause an individual to
perform awful acts and then to erase that individual's memories of the
events. After he was accused by his daughter of sexual abuse, Mr.
Ingram came to believe that he was guilty even though he had no memory
of the abuse. He had brought up his children to always tell the truth,
so he had no reason to believe that she was not describing abuse as it
really happened.

Paul is believed to be the first individual in the US to plead guilty
to Satanic Ritual Abuse. This caused some interest among people
working in the SRA field. Dr. Ofshe was hired by the investigators to
examine Mr. Ingram. Dr. Ofshe concluded that Mr. Ingram was capable
of going into a self-induced trance and creating false memories of
events that never happened. Dr. Ofsche then stunned the investigators
by asking Ingram for information about an imaginary instance when he
had his children engage in sexual activities with each other. There
had never been any indication of this type of abuse. Ingram initially
stated that he had no recollections of this event. However, after
being asked to go back to his cell and think about it, he returned
with a description of the event and admitted to having been the
perpetrator.

Paul Ingram eventually realized that his recollections were false
memories of events that never happened. He tried to reverse his guilty
plea, but was unable to do so. I believe that Mr. Ingram is still
rotting in jail; a clearly innocent person. His family disintegrated.


In Canada, up until perhaps a year or two ago, recovered memories were
widely accepted by the courts and a lot of people were found guilty of
sexual abuse of children as a result of memories recovered during
hypnotism, guided imagery, "truth serum" and other suggestive
techniques. For the past year, the pendulum has definitely swung the
other way. Now, if an alleged perpetrator has sufficient money to
afford a knowlegeable lawyer, there is very little chance that a
person would be found guilty on the basis of recovered memories alone;
supporting evidence would be needed. That is a big IF. A MVMO
(Multi-victim, multi-offender) case in Prestcott ON Canada is having
great success putting people in jail on the basis of what may well be
implanted memories in the alleged child victims. But the defendents
are mostly impoverished and developmentally handicapped to some
degree.

The Canadian and American pendulums seem to be closely linked.

Regards
Bruce Robinson
Coordinator
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