Who is Paul Ingram? Paul Ingram was an elder at his church, former chairman of the Thurston County Republican Party, and the chief civil deputy in the Thurston County Sheriff's Department. In November 1988, he was accused, and convicted, of horrible crimes against his family. After initially denying the charges, Ingram later told police investigators (his colleagues in the Sheriff's Department) that he he was in a satanic cult; that he had engaged in the rape and torture of his two daughters; that he had quietly looked on as they were assaulted by other men. Ingram is now serving a 20-year jail term after pleading guilty to six counts of third-degree rape. Growing numbers of people are coming to believe that Ingram didn't commit any of these acts. He confessed, not because he committed these crimes but because he was manipulated into believing he had. Ingram was the victim of a modern-day witch hunt, in which aggressive police tactics, a Satan-fearing fundamentalist pastor and Ingram's own enormous vulnerability to suggestion led him to concoct stories about crimes he never committed. There are enough egregious irregularities in the way the case was handled to suggest malicious intent or extreme negligence on the part of the authorities (a Republican Sheriff, and Democratic Prosecutor) who prosecuted the case: * The prosecution brought in Social Psychologist Dr. Richard Ofshe, a University of California professor who has extensively researched cults and mind control, to attempt to sort out the supposed cult information the investigation was uncovering. Ofshe concluded there was no cult, and there were no ritual crimes; Ingram's only "crime" was a dangerous zeal to please authority figures. When he submitted his findings, the prosecution attempted to suppress his report. * Eleven other members of the Sheriff's Department were named as co-perpetrators by Ingram and his accusers, including Undersheriff Neil McClanahan, who spearheaded the investigation, yet only two others were arrested. All charges against these two (after their lives and reputations were ruined) were eventually dropped, due to a complete lack of evidence. The whole affair should have been handled by an outside agency from the very beginning. * Stories told by principles involved in the case remain just that - stories. There has never been a scrap of physical evidence in the case. The was never any real corroboration of any of the charges. Despite extensive contamination of testimony by Thurston County Detectives, as well as a pastor and a psychologist, the stories grew more divergent, not more similar. * Paul Ingram was never allowed a trial. His attempt to withdraw his guilty plea weeks before sentencing was denied. Who Are We? The Paul Ingram "Right to a Fair Trial" Organization represents the grass-roots component of this coalition. We are all ages, from all walks of life, and of diverse political persuasions. We have one thing in common: a shared conviction that justice has not been served in the Ingram case. We believe that a thorough, independent investigation preceding a pardon hearing or a trial is a required first step in rectifying a grave injustice. To join us, contact: Dan Brailey PO Box 7465 Spokane, WA 99207 (800) 476-6489 e-mail: IngramOrg@aol.com Further Reading: Lawrence Wright, Remembering Satan: A Case of Recovered Memory and the Shattering of an American Family, $22.00, Knopf. This book will doubtlessly remain the standard work on the Ingram case. Elizabeth Loftus and Katherine Ketcham, The Myth of Repressed Memory , $22.95 + $4.50 shipping To order: St Martin's Press. Call 1-800-288-2131 Richard Ofshe and Ethan Watters, Making Monsters: False Memory, Psychotherapy and Sexual Hysteria, $22.00 To order: Charles Scribner's Sons . Call 1-800-257-5755 Mark Pendergrast, Victims of Memory: Incest Accusations and Shattered Lives , $24.95. To order: Upper Access Books of Hinesburg, VT. Call 1-800-356-9315. Available in November.