Satanism Stories

 

Richard Ramirez is a famous case of a serial killer professing to be a Satanist.  Here are some stories about other killers professing the same.

*July 197O - Steven Hurd and four other California Satanists are charged with two murders involving ritual dismemberment and cannibalism. Hurd is declared insane and remains in a state hospital "his accomplices are duly convicted and sentenced."

*July 1970 - Satanist Stanley Baker is convicted in the cannibal- slaying of a Montana resident. He confesses other crimes, committed as a member of the "Four P" cult - a spinoff from the Process Church of Final Judgment - and bloody fingerprints link Baker to another homicide in San Francisco, but California courts bar prosecution on a claim that he has been denied a "speedy trial." Paroled in 1985, he is at large today.

*December 1979 - The mutilated bloodless corpses of Carol Marron and Howard Green are found by police, outside West Paterson, New Jersey. Both victims are known to be involved with the occult, and while the crimes remain unsolved, authorities say of the case, "It was definately a satanic murder. And it wasn't a one-man job"

*April 1981 - Self-styled Satanist Kimberly Goytia, age 13, is convicted of manslaughter for the shooting death of her sister in Sacramento, California. She informs police that Satan orderd her to fire the fatal shot (Newton, 1993a).

*October 1981 - Robin Gecht and three fellow Satanists are arrested following a series of cannibal murders in Chicago. Gecht escapes prosecution for murder, but is sentenced to 120 years in prison for mutilating a prostitute who survived the attack. His accomplices are convicted of multiple murders, with two sentences to death and one to life imprisonment.

*July 1984 - Teenage Satanists Richard Kasso and James Troiano are arrested for the ritual slaying of a fellow "stoner." Kasso hangs himself in jail; Troiano is acquitted in 1985, after a key prosecution witness admits using drugs on the night of the crime (Newton, 1993a).

*January 1986 - Satanic "priest" Harold Smith and four disciples are jailed following a series of murders in Houston, Texas. All are convicted and sentenced for the ritual torture-slaying of a young man at a local cemetery.

*February 1986 - Dana Jones admitted member of a "sex magic" cult founded by Aleister Crowley in 1907, is arrested for the ritual mutilation-slaying of a man in Denver, Colorado. Acquitted on grounds of insanity and confined to a state hospital, she escapes in June 1988, with aid from a nurse on the staff, and flees to New Mexico, where she commits suicide.

*March 1987 - Tim Erickson and two other Minnesota teenagers, admitted members of a "vampire cult" inspired by the movie The Lost Boys, murder a 30-yr old drifter and drink his blood. Erickson is sentenced to life in prison.

*September 1987 - Ohio Satanist John Fryman is convicted in the dismemberment slaying of 21-year old Monica Lemen, whose severed legs are found outside a rural Indiana church. Discovery of a black- painted ritual chamber in Fryman's mobile home, including a gravestone employed as an alter, prompts the defendant to admit, "I'm involved with the occult. I think everybody knows that. You don't have a room like that in your trailer if you're not."

*December 1987 - Three teenage Satanists in Carl Junction, Missouri, bored with sacrificing cats and dogs, beat classmate Steven Newberry to death with baseball bats while chanting, "Sacrifice to Satan! Sacrifice to Satan!"

*May 1988 - Satanists Clifford St. Joseph is convicted in the 1985 murder of an unidentified man, whose mutilations include an inverted pentagram carved in his chest. Despite the victim's injuries, confiscation of ritual paraphernalia, and testimony from another participant in St. Joseph's rituals, Ken Lanning describes the case as a "sadistic" murder with no occult overtones.

*May 1988 - Teen Satanist Terry Belcher is convicted for the ritual murder of Theresa Simmons, in Duglasville, Georgia. A month later, co-defendant Robert McIntyre is likewise convicted, and both are sentenced to life. (A female accomplice is jailed for three years.) On the witness stand, Belcher describes animal sacrifices for the court: "We ate their eyeballs and innards and drank their blood. We toasted the devil by drinking the blood."

*June 1988 - Satanists Jason Rose and John Jones are indicted for murdering 19-year-old Melissa Ann Meyer "while deliberately effecting a human sacrifice." A videotape of the murder in progress earns Rose a death sentence in May 1989, while Jones is sentenced to life a month later.

*October 1988 - Joseph Bradsberry, age 22, is sacrificed by California Satanists as part of an initiation ritual. A 15-year-old cultists confesses his role in the murder, leading to the arrest of several adults who deny responsibility on grounds that they were "stoned" when the murder occurred.

*March 1989 - Alleged Satanist Tony Hall is convicted and sentenced to death for the 1987 murder of victim Ngoc Van Dang near Orlando, Florida. Accomplice Danny Bowen is convicted in May and sentenced to life. Two male participants in the crime, including outspoken Satanist Bunny Dixon, plead guilty on reduced charges and are sentenced to prison (Newton, 1993a).

*September 1990 - Daniel Rakowitz, self-styled leader of the "Church of 966" (his own peculiar variant of "666") is convicted and sentenced to life in New York City of the murder of Monika Beerle. Cult member Randy Eastherday is arrested in 1992, charged with helping Rakowitz dissect and boil Beerle's corpse, after which Rakowitz carried her skull and bones around in a bucket. (Cawthorne, 1995; Ryder, 1994)

*July 1991 - Michigan Satanist Jaime Rodriguez is convicted and sentenced to life for beheading a teenage runaway and severing one of her fingers, to wear as a charm around his neck. Accomplice Augustin Pena, who kept the victim's head in his refrigerator, is also charged in the case.

*July 1992 - Two Satanists are sentenced to die for the 1990 decapitation murders of four cult defectors in Salida, California. Two more defendants are convicted and sentenced to life in January 1993. (Modesto Bee, 1990-93)

*February 1994 - Jessie Misskelly, Jr. is convicted and sentenced to life plus forty years in prison for the mutilation-murders of three eight-year old boys at West Memphis, Arkansas, the previous year. A month later, accomplices Damien Echols and Charles Baldwin are likewise convicted, with Echols sentenced to death and Baldwin sentenced to life without parole. Echols is an admitted practitioner of black magic, and prosecutors describe the triple murder as a ritual slaying.(USA Today, March 21, 1994)

*April 1994 - Self-described Satanist Carey Grayson, 19, and three younger defendants are charged with the murder of a female hitchhiker in Birmingham, Alabama. Police say the victim was mutilated "in an apparent ritual that involved cannabilism" (USA Today, April 28, 1994)

*May 1996 - Three teenage Satanists in San Louis Obispo, California, are charged with raping, torturing and murdering 15 year old Elyse Pahler. Prosecutors say the defendants hoped a virgin sacrifice would earn them "a ticket to hell." (Indianapolis Star, May 3, 1996)