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A Serial Killer Crosses Paths With The Devil
The Missoula Mauler and the Satanic Panic: How Rumor Can Spread Hysteria
Two words: Satanic Panic. You might remember it well as it gained momentum like a tidal wave in the 1980’s and early 1990’s, its ramifications persisting even to this day.
Considered a moral panic, not unlike the Salem Witch Craft trials of 1692, allegations of satanic ritual abuse began to surface that caused mass hysteria in the United States and around the world. The best part is, it still doesn’t make any sense! We’ll begin in the late 1960’s, early 1970’s with the rise of occultism and Satanism.
The year 1969 saw the publication of The Satanic Bible by Anton LaVey, a former lion tamer and speaker on the occult. His bible-infused occult ideas, black magic, secular philosophy and anti-Christian ridicule stressed human self-determination in the face of an indifferent universe. While these were mostly other people’s ideas about ‘self-actualization and self-empowerment’, LaVey made Satanism a ‘thing’. This book would become the key tome in the Church of Satan, founded in 1966, much like the Bible to Christianity. From then on, LaVey would be known as the Black Pope.
In addition to the publishing of LaVey’s book, another cult philosophy was playing out before our very eyes — Helter Skelter. This was a belief touted by Charles Manson in which he believed that a racial war was coming and he and his ‘family’ would be the spark to ignite this apocalyptic scenario. Charles Manson’s Family would go on to murder Sharon Tate in her home, along with four others, on August 8th, 1969, followed by the murders of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca the next day, August 9th. The string of murders, including a few others perpetrated by the group earlier in the summer, traumatized the nation. The ritualistic nature of the crime scenes left its indelible mark on the collective public.
The rise of Satanism also grew alongside the ‘golden age’ of serial killers in the 1970’s with the likes of the Zodiac Killer and the Alphabet Killer who both used patterns and symbols as a signature to…
