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   From CORNERSTONE magazine, volume 18, issue 90, pages 3-8:

    S  A  T  A N ' S S I D E S H O W
    Gretchen & Bob Passantino and Jon Trott

          Step right up!  It's Satan's Underground!   A
          hundred thousand  copies  in print!  Featured
          on radio and TV, from "Geraldo" to  the  "700
          Club"!   Stories  of  satanic  rituals, snuff
          films, and human sacrifice!    Author  Lauren
          Stratford  survived  to tell us all about it!
          Now judge for yourself ....


   THIS article is the extraordinary chronicle of how one woman's
gruesome fantasy was twisted into  seeming  fact.    Perhaps  the
people  who  believed  her tale felt the illusion of evidence she
offered was due to the desperate times in which  we  live,  times
when  little children are horribly abused and yet seem to find no
rescue or protection from the authorities or the courts.

   But we believe these  child  victims  can  be  protected  from
further  harm  and  exploitation  only if those who work on their
behalf   do   so   with   absolute   integrity,   honesty,    and
responsibility.    Sensational   stories  may  sell  more  books,
generate more television appearances, and provide more visibility
to one's cause, and one may believe  them  because  "they're  too
bizarre not to be true," but they should never be substituted for
careful, accurate, and truthful reporting.

   In  the  course of our research into the _Satan's Underground_
[1] story, we talked  with  parents  of  children  who  had  been
ritually  abused and who had reason to believe Lauren Stratford's
testimony was not true.  We asked them why they were  willing  to
tell  us  what  they  knew,  when, after all, her story supported
their children's statements.  One parent spoke for them all:


             We're so afraid that no one  will  believe
          our children.    If  this story were true, it
          would be invaluable.  But we know  it's  not,
          and the only testimony worse for our children
          than  no  testimony is a testimony that's not
          true.  If we can't find the courage to  speak
          out  and  tell  what  we  know  about  Lauren
          Stratford's story, then we're  sitting  ducks
          for the people we know who are guilty and who
          are  just  looking for a way to discredit our
          children. [2]

   The hard evidence we have uncovered and which we present  here
speaks for  itself.    The  story of _Satan's Underground_ is not
true.  And the same exploited children it may have been  designed
to help have been cheated of the truth.

      SATAN'S UNDERGROUND

   A  synopsis of the story told in _Satan's Underground_ is very
difficult to produce.  The book is missing dates, places, outside
events, and even the  true  names  of  the  principal  characters
necessary for placing the story in an historical and geographical
context.  Stratford says, "In part this is for my own protection,
but  it  also  serves to remind you that what I've endured is not
limited to one city or region.  I have  also  changed  names  and
descriptions  of  many  key  figures  in  order  to  protect  the
victims." [3]


   According  to  _Satan's  Underground_,  Stratford   was   born
illegitimately  and  adopted at birth by a "professional" couple.
Her adoptive father left when Lauren  was  four  because  of  his
wife's explosive  temper  and  physical abuse toward him.  At six
Lauren was raped in her basement by a day laborer. [4]  The  rape
was  the  mother's  idea of a "fair wage" for the laborer's work.
The rapes continued  by  various  "smelly"  men,  and  under  her
mother's authority child pornography pictures and bestiality were
added when  she was eight.  Throughout childhood, Lauren received
the physical abuse  her  mother  had  previously  heaped  on  her
husband.   Several  times  Lauren  tried  to tell adults what was
happening, but neither her school counselor, pastor, youth  group
leader, nor a woman sent by the police believed her.

   At  fifteen,  after a particularly brutal physical altercation
with her mother, Lauren collected bus  fare  donations  from  her
school friends and escaped to a city two hundred miles away.  She
ended  up  in juvenile hall and was picked up by her father, whom
she had not seen in eleven years.  She moved "across the country"
with him rather than returning to live with her mother.

   Lauren had only lived with her father for a  short  time  when
her  mother  called,  insisting  he  allow "them" to come and get
Lauren to continue the pornographic abuse.  She then realized the
multistate extent of the pornography ring her mother had inducted
her into as a child.

   By the time she turned twenty, Lauren had been living a  "dual
life" [5] at home (with her father, at church, and in school) and
at the  pornographer's  studio (mostly on weekends).  It was then
she met the leader of the ring: Victor.

   She  learned  that  Victor's  empire   included   pornography,
prostitution,  drugs,  sadomasochism,  and child prostitution and
pornography.  Victor wanted her to be his "woman," but she had to
pass a test first.  For several weekends in  a  row  she  had  to
properly  pleasure  his  best  customers,  no  matter  what their
perversions, demands, or tortures.

   She passed the test.  Victor had his assistant hold her  while
he  used  a  razor  blade  on her forehead to initiate her as his
"woman."  The sexual perversion didn't end, she just responded to
Victor's whims instead of any and all customers'.  She managed to
continue her college studies despite the drugs and the  torturous
weekends with Victor.    But  Victor got bored.  What was left to
excite and thrill him?

   Satanism.  It was, he told Lauren, the ultimate path to  power
and sexual  gratification.    At  first  he  forced her to attend
satanic rituals [6] where he  and  others  sexually  abused  her.
Then  he  demanded  she  participate in a child sacrifice ritual.
She  refused  and  underwent  brainwashing  and  torture  for  an
unspecified time.    Finally  Victor threatened he would ritually
kill a baby each week  that  she  continued  to  refuse.    After
holding  out  for four weeks, she was locked in a metal drum with
the dead bodies of four babies  who  had  been  sacrified.    She
finally gave in and evidently participated in an infant sacrifice
ritual on  Halloween  night.    She says, "It was the last time I
ever participated in a satanic ritual." [7]

   A later chapter in the book tells  that  sometime  during  her
late  teens  and early twenties she gave birth to three children.
The first two were killed shortly after birth in snuff films  and
the third, a son she calls "Joey," was sacrificed in her presence
at a ritual.

   When  Lauren's  father unexpectedly died, she realized she had
no real reason to stay in the  area.    Thus  began  her  frantic
flight from  Victor  and his conspiratorial enforcers.  She moved
to many cities over the next few  years,  [8]  but  Victor's  men
always  found  her  and  continued periodic threats to ensure her
silence.  Her emotional and physical  health  deteriorated  as  a
consequence of  the  extreme  abuse she had suffered.  During one
eight-year period she was hospitalized more than forty times.

   Her  "breakthrough,"  enabling  her  to  begin  the   "healing
process," began  with  some  sensitive  hospital therapists.  She
learned that she didn't have to be a victim any longer.  But  she
was far from well.

   Then she saw Johanna Michaelson on television.  Somehow Lauren
knew   that   her   physical   and  spiritual  healing  would  be
accomplished through her.  But it  was  another  eighteen  months
before she and Johanna met.

   After  their  first  meeting,  Lauren  moved  in with Johanna.
Johanna and her entire family, including her husband, sister Kim,
and brother-in-law Hal Lindsey, ministered healing to Lauren.  In
a number of months a new Lauren and a new  book  emerged  from  a
fierce spiritual  battle.    The  victim  is beginning to be left
behind, the victorious counselor appears.  The stage is  set  for
the counselor's  handbook,  _I Know You're Hurting_.  Such is the
story of _Satan's Underground_.

      WHO IS LAUREN STRATFORD?

   LAUREN Stratford doesn't exist, except  as  the  pen  name  of
Laurel  Rose Wilson, and _Satan's Underground_ is only one of the
stories she's told about her life.

   Laurel Wilson was born prematurely to Marrian E.  Disbrow  [9]
on August  18,  1941,  [10]  in St.  Joseph's Hospital in Tacoma,
Washington. [11] She was brought home after  forty-four  days  in
the hospital by her adoptive parents, physician Frank Cole Wilson
and  schoolteacher  Rose  Gray  Wilson,  to  a little town called
Buckley.  The littlest Wilson joined her big sister Willow  Nell,
who was  five  years older.  Laurel's adoption by the Wilsons was
finalized on February 17, 1942, before her first birthday.

   In a signed statement Willow prepared for  us,  she  described
her parents:

          My parents were devout Christians.  They were
          both active members of the Bible Presbyterian
          Church in  Tacoma.    Both of them were fully
          committed to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.    My
          sister and I were raised in a very sheltered,
          strict Christian home.  There was no place in
          our  home  for  anything  remotely  occult or
          pornographic.   My  mother  continues  as   a
          dedicated  Christian,  for  many  years now a
          member of _________ [12] Church .... [13]


   One assumes from _Satan's Underground that its  author  is  an
only child.   There  is  no  mention of any sibling.  The average
reader would also assume  that  Stratford's  mother  is  probably
dead,  which  would  explain why Stratford neither confronted nor
reconciled with her mother as part of her spiritual and emotional
healing.  Neither assumption is true.

      LAUREL'S EARLY CHILDHOOD

   THE Wilson home at 1624 "A" Street was not peaceful.  Rose had
an unpredictable temper, and Frank, with an explosive  temper  of
his own,  was  often  the brunt of her outbursts.  His health was
precarious, the result of a heart attack, and the stress  on  him
was taxing.    Willow  was  Laurel's protector and comforter, and
many Saturday and  Sunday  afternoons  were  spent  in  the  park
together, hiking  or riding bikes.  Willow remembers life for her
and Laurel during this time was very unpredictable.   They  never
knew if Mother would be in one of her rages or would take them to
the beach  for  the  day.  But even the anger Willow remembers is
nothing like what _Satan's Underground_ describes:

          My mother did have a temper.    And  she  did
          have problems.   But she loved us.  My mother
          was never involved with pornography.  No, no.
          No,  no,  NO!  Mother  would  be   absolutely
          appalled....    She's  _very_  straightlaced.
             [14]

   In actuality, Frank left the family in 1950, [15] when  Laurel
was   nine   years  old,  not  when  she  was  four  as  _Satan's
Underground_ describes.  This was after the family had moved from
Buckley to 805 North "C" in nearby Tacoma.  Both Frank and Willow
were living with Laurel and her mother  during  the  time  period
that  Laurel wrote in her book she was being repeatedly raped and
used in child pornography and bestiality. "I was never part of  a
porno empire," Willow explains wryly. "And let me tell you, I was
a very inquisitive little kid, with my ear to the door.  If there
had  been  any sort of business going on like that, believe me, I
would have known about it." [16]

   Laurel was very musically gifted.  Her adoptive parents  plied
her  with  music  lessons,  including voice, piano, clarinet, and
flute.  One of her singing competition judges wrote  when  Laurel
was eight, "Outstanding accomplishment for length of study.  This
must  be  a  very  intelligent and musical girl." [17] Her report
cards reflect almost straight A's.   Her  attendance  and  grades
precluded  long  absences  from  school such as would have seemed
necessary from the extreme sexual  abuse  described  in  _Satan's
Underground_. [18]

      HER LATER CHILDHOOD

   DURING  Laurel's  high  school years, she was active in school
clubs and extracurricular activities.  Returning from  a  singing
engagement,  Laurel  and  two  friends  were  involved in an auto
accident.  Laurel had a minor ankle injury, and both  members  of
the  trio recall that she was extremely distraught in the car and
in the hospital, continually calling for her father.  She  seemed
bitterly disappointed that he didn't come. [19]

   Laurel ran away shortly after the accident.  She stayed within
the  city of Tacoma, at Raymond Juvenile Hall, until arrangements
were made for her to stay with her father  in  California.    Not
liking  San  Bernardino  schools, she returned to her mother, but
soon moved in with her sister.  By then, Willow was married  with
two young children and living in Seattle.

   When  Laurel was seventeen, she told a friend at King's Garden
High  School  that  she  had  been  sexually  molested   by   her
brother-in-law, Willow's  husband.    She  sounded at the time as
though that were the only sexual abuse  she  had  ever  suffered.
Her allegations were disproven and Willow contacted their dad and
received  permission  for  Laurel  to get psychiatric counseling.
Willow and her husband were  told  by  the  psychiatrist  not  to
continue  allowing  Laurel  to live with them: "She's a danger to
your children." [20]

   Laurel graduated from King's Garden [21] and enrolled in  what
was  then  called  Seattle-Pacific  College in September of 1959.
[22] Marie Hollowell, the school's dean of women who had  been  a
special  friend  to  Willow,  also took an interest in "trying to
draw Laurel out." [23] Laurel soon told a classmate that she  had
been  molested sexually, perhaps by members of the college staff,
and that her mother had driven her to "the bad side of  town"  to
be a  prostitute.  In a meeting with Marie Hollowell, Willow, and
a psychiatrist, Laurel admitted she had made the  stories  up  to
"impress" her  new  friend.    Because  of  this controversy, the
school recommended psychiatric care for Laurel.  Soon after,  she
attempted suicide by cutting her wrists. [24]

      YOUNG ADULTHOOD

   BY  September of 1960 Laurel was living in Southern California
with her father, Frank.  He was a  physician  for  the  Santa  Fe
Railroad and  had  a  private  practice  in San Bernardino.  When
Laurel was nineteen, she wrote some of her old friends  that  her
father was sexually abusing her. [25]

   Enrolled  in  the  University  of  Redlands, Laurel majored in
music. [26] She directed the  choir  at  First  Assembly  of  God
Church  in  Rialto,  where  she and her father were members. [27]
Though she gained  acceptance  through  her  musical  talent  and
skill, her  emotional  troubles  were  not resolved.  Her pastor,
Eugene Boone, was called in numerous times because Laurel had cut
her arms in apparent suicide attempts.  This went on over the six
years Revered Boone knew her.

   While still in college, during 1962,  she  met  a  Pentecostal
evangelist couple,  Norman  and  Billie Gordon.  Billie described
her relationship with Laurel this way:

          I like to help people, that's what I'm about.
          But Laurel was a hopeless case....    We  met
          her after  a  service we testified at.  A car
          pulled up in our driveway.  I opened my  door
          and  invited  her in, but she didn't come in.
          I closed my door.  I heard her  voice,  so  I
          opened my  door  again.    She said, "Please,
          come out and help me.  I  heard  you  testify
          tonight.   Please  come  and talk because I'm
          not the kind  of  person  you  want  in  your
             house."

   Laurel  ended  up practically living with the Gordons for most
of 1962.  During that time the stress was so intense that  Billie
went from  140  to  100  pounds.   Her children begged her to ask
Laurel to leave because Laurel was consuming all of Billie's time
and attention.  There was nothing left  for  anyone  but  Laurel.
[28]

   Laurel  told  a series of stories to Billie and Norman Gordon.
She told them that Frank Cole Wilson was her natural father,  and
that her  natural  mother  had died when she was very small.  Her
father had quickly remarried, and her stepmother  had  physically
and sexually  abused  her  ever  since.  The Gordons assumed that
Laurel was living with her father and  stepmother.  (In  reality,
Frank and Laurel lived alone at 1580 North Vista in Rialto.)

   Laurel  also  "became  blind" while with them, and they prayed
frequently for her healing.  However, they began to  suspect  she
wasn't really  blind.    One  day when they were driving past the
University  of  Redlands,  Laurel   pointed   out   a   landmark.
Confronted, Laurel tried to say she'd felt a familiar bump in the
road,  but finally admitted she had faked her blindness to obtain
sympathy and attention.  Billie told us that one afternoon Laurel
showed up with a huge red bump and bruises on her forehead.   She
asked  Billie  to  protect her--her stepmother had hit her on the
head with  a  can  of  peaches.  [29]  Again,  confronted  by  an
unbelieving  Billie,  she confessed that she had hit herself with
the can to gain sympathy.

   Laurel's  break  with  the  Gordons  was  precipitated  by  an
incident  that  took  place  in  their home while Norman was out.
Laurel, locking herself in the bathroom, broke a glass  vase  and
proceeded to  cut her face in three places.  She then charged out
of the room with the broken vase,  straight  for  Billie's  neck.
Billie's grown son wrestled the glass away from her. [30]

   Shortly after  this,  Laurel  returned  home to her father.  A
Woman who was a member of the Hemet First Assembly of God  church
befriended  her and attempted to help Laurel, whom she considered
troubled and emotionally depressed. (This woman is the  first  of
three  of  Laurel's closest acquaintances who asked to have their
names withheld.  We have labeled them "Friend One," "Friend Two,"
and "Friend Three.") Friend One confirmed that Laurel cut her own
arms several different times.

   When Laurel was twenty-two (1963), she told  Friend  One  that
she  had been seduced into a lesbian relationship with two church
women. [31] On June 7, 1964, she graduated from Redlands  with  a
bachelor's  in music, with a special secondary education teaching
credential in music. [32] Soon  after  this,  Laurel  disappeared
from home.    Later  she told Friend One that she had run away to
Teen Challenge in Los Angeles and gone through their  drug  abuse
program, then  had  become  a drug counselor.  Her friend angrily
pointed out that Laurel's drug use  was  a  lie.    According  to
Friend One, Laurel admitted she had never had a drug problem, but
had made the story up for Teen Challenge. [33]

   Laurel  was  still  living  with  her father when he died of a
heart attack at home.  Dr.  Frank Cole Wilson was pronounced dead
at 8:45 a.m. on January 4, 1965.  [34]  Willow  and  Rose,  their
mother, came  from  Washington  for the services.  Rose stayed on
for a while, signing a probate paper with Laurel  on  February  5
and  attending  Sunday services at the same First Assembly of God
in Rialto where Laurel was the choir director.   Probate  on  Dr.
Wilson's  estate took almost two years and wasn't finally settled
until the end of 1967.

      MID TO LATE TWENTIES

   LAUREL met Frank Austin at church while she was living  for  a
time at  208  Valley View in Hemet.  He was almost one and a half
years younger than Laurel  and  was  the  son  of  a  Pentecostal
Holiness  minister. [35] They dated three or four times and then,
Frank told us, she suggested marriage. "She seemed  like  a  nice
Christian girl and it seemed like a good thing to do, so we did."
They  were married on March 11, 1966, with Friend Two and Frank's
father as witnesses. [36]

   At that point, what one wishes could have been  the  beginning
of  a  happy  story  instead  led  to only more pain and failure.
Within  a  week  the  troubled  couple,  their   marriage   still
unconsummated,  sought  counsel  from Friend One and her husband.
[37] Here we reluctantly include comments from  Frank  which  are
very private.  We do so only because _Satan's Underground_ claims
that  Laurel  had been raped and abused since childhood, had been
involved in hard-core prostitution for at least five  years,  and
had borne  three  children  by  this  time.    Frank  told us the
marriage was eventually  consummated,  and  that  Laurel  "was  a
virgin until  then."    Frank  and Laurel agreed to an annulment,
granted on May 17, 1966.

   Laurel's desperate need for attention was described by  Friend
Two:

          I felt  sorry  for  Laurel....  She called me
          one night at midnight.  I went over and found
          her cutting her arm with a paring knife.  She
          had made several cuts  already....    She  so
          desperately  needed someone to say they loved
          her, in Christian love.  Laurel  didn't  have
          anybody,  because she would turn them against
          her by wearing them down.  She would go  from
          one friend to the next, knowing they wouldn't
          be her  friends  for  long.    That's sad....
          There were a lot of times I had  to  be  with
          her when  I  wanted to be with my kids.  I've
          apologized to my kids for that.  I will never
          allow anybody, ever again, to suck me in  the
             way she did.

   Laurel turned twenty-five in August of 1966.  She taught music
at  Hemet  Junior  High  School  for one and one-half years, from
September 1966 through January 1968.  [38]  Her  picture  in  the
school  yearbook  shows  her smiling next to the choir. [39] This
was the only public school teaching recorded  for  her,  although
her renewed teaching credential is valid until 1991. [40]

   Laurel  appears  to  have  been  employed  at  the  California
Institute for Women in Chino, probably from 1969 to  1971.    She
says she  was a correctional counselor on her alumni report.  She
gave the same information to Willow  and  others  throughout  the
years.   She  told  yet another friend that she had been a guard.
However, we have been unable  to  confirm  either  job  with  the
Prison  Personnel  Office  or  with  the  California Penal System
Office of Past Employment.

   During this time she was still active in various Assemblies of
God churches and gained a small popularity as a Christian  singer
in  different  churches.  [41]  She joined a singing group led by
Delpha Nichols called "Delpha  and  the  Witnesses."    The  male
singer,  Ken  Sanders, and his wife invited her to live with them
in Bakersfield. [42] She has lived in the Bakersfield area  since
1971.

   Delpha,  Ken, and Laurel sang at many churches and toured on a
limited basis.  Ken remembers Laurel as a  nice  Christian  woman
with good  values, but who was also emotionally troubled.  Though
"The Witnesses" stayed with nearby church  people's  homes  while
touring, Laurel  insisted  she  needed a private hotel room.  One
time, Ken related, she became frantic when  told  they  would  be
staying with  nearby  church  people.   Laurel attacked Delpha so
violently "she nearly clawed Delpha's dress off."  Laurel  got  a
hotel room. [43]

   Ken  stated  that  Laurel  did  talk about her mother sexually
abusing her and offering her to  various  men,  abuse  which  had
church-related overtones:

          One  night, when Laurel was still living with
          us, I took  out  the  Bible  for  our  family
          devotions.   She  jumped  up and ran off into
          her room and  locked  the  door  behind  her.
          Later, she said it was because when they used
          to do these perversions to her, that's how it
          would  begin.  "It  was  in the name of Jesus
          they did this stuff."

      HER THIRTIES

   DELPHA and her husband Willie loved Laurel.  They  felt  sorry
for  the  girl nobody seemed to love, and though she was an adult
of thirty or so, they legally adopted her and she called them her
family.  One of the many stories Laurel told Delpha was that  her
mother had abused her so horribly she was sterile and could never
have children. [44]

   Laurel  wrote  many  stories  of  her  childhood and family in
letters to Delpha.  Delpha saved them until Laurel contacted  her
more recently  and  requested she burn them all.  We asked Delpha
why Laurel had wanted them burned. "She didn't  want  anybody  to
see them,  I  guess....    She  was  telling  me about her past."
Delpha continued, "There's a lot of things  I  don't  understand.
I'm mixed up about a lot of things about Laurel like that."

   By  1973,  Laurel  had  written and copyrighted some Christian
songs while with the group. [45] "Delpha and the Witnesses" broke
up in 1974.  Ken calmly observed, "It was because of  Laurel,  of
course."   Laurel  and  the  Sanders  continued to go to the same
church in 1974, pastored by David Joiner. [46] Laurel was  living
at 1405  White  Lane  in Bakersfield.  Though she still sang some
with Delpha, she also accompanied other Christian singers both at
her own church and others.  During this  time  she  gave  private
piano lessons.

   Ken Sanders and Pastor Joiner both recalled Laurel and another
church  member,  Friend  Three,  leaving  the church some time in
1975. (Ken didn't see Laurel again until 1984, when he saw her at
a special church service in honor of Delpha and  Willie.)  Laurel
told  a number of stories to Friend Three, who lived with her for
a time.  Among other things, Laurel told her that her scars  were
from her mother's abuse.  The friend explained to us what she how
believes to be the stories' real source:

          Have you  read  the  book  _Sybil_?  I didn't
          read it until I started taking my  psychology
          classes.  I realized that most of the stories
          Laurel had told me about her mom's abuse were
          taken literally  from _Sybil_.  You know, the
          torture with enemas,  the  piano,  the  whole
          bit.   Even  the  part  about the mom's abuse
          with small sharp objects  that  rendered  her
          incapable of having children....  Laurel took
             that directly out of the book.

   Friend  Three explained to us Laurel's claim that the physical
and sexual abuse continued  until  she  went  to  live  with  her
father, and  then  it all stopped.  As the friend talked with us,
she shared the destructive influence Laurel had on her own life:

             At that  time  I  was  pretty  vulnerable.
          There  were  problems in my church, my father
          had  just  been  brain-damaged  in  a  severe
          accident.   My  brother  was  going through a
          very traumatic time, and  my  husband  and  I
          were having  trouble  in our marriage.  I had
          two  small  children,  and  I  was  extremely
          unhappy.   For  me,  I'm  very  interested in
          music.  She accompanied me when I sang.   She
          was  giving my daughter piano lessons, and we
          started being friends.

          She was very happy, always  laughing,  always
          very up.   And gradually manipulation is what
          it is.  Where I was the weakest, that's where
          she worked her way in, and I was so involved.
          She tried to separate me from my mom and dad,
          and at one point actually told them I  didn't
          need  them  anymore,  she'd  take care of me.
          She began  to  manipulate  things  so  I  was
          really putting distance between myself and my
          husband, more  and more and more.  And then I
          felt trapped.

          How could I extricate myself from this  awful
          mess I'd  gotten into?  For me, it got so bad
          that my way out was, "I cannot deal with  any
          of  this  anymore,  I'm  never  going  to get
          free."  The scariest part about it  was  that
          it  seemed  so normal, "I'll just go to sleep
          and never wake up again."  I took every  pill
          in the  house.    I  had a bottle of sleeping
          pills, I had a bottle full of  pain  tablets,
          another of valium, and I took them all.

          My family  discovered  me  in time.  I had to
          spend some time in a mental hospital, but the
          Lord saw me through.  I think she  was  scary
          fifteen  years  ago  ... and she still scares
          me.  She does not, she  really  doesn't  know
          the truth.  I suspected there were others she
          used like me.  Thank you, Lord, because I did
             find out in time.

   Through  the  latter  part  of the 1970s Laurel's physical and
emotional health deteriorated, incapacitating her from  full-time
work.   She was able to live on the small amount state disability
paid plus offering private music lessons.  Laurel spent  much  of
her time  hospitalized.   When Friend One from the Hemet Assembly
of God church visited her in the  hospital  in  the  late  1970s,
Laurel seemed helpless, physically and emotionally.  She told her
friend  she  had a "rare blood disease shared by only nine people
in the world." [48]

   In  1978,  Willow  and  her  family  visited  Laurel  at  2401
Christmas Tree Lane in Bakersfield.  Willow described the meeting
as short  and strained.  Laurel was distant and explained she had
been very ill and in and out of the hospital.  She kept repeating
that she had a new family now. "I got the feeling she was telling
us she didn't need me or Mother," Willow recalled.  This was  the
last time Willow saw or heard from her sister.

      THE YEARS BEFORE _SATAN'S UNDERGROUND_

   LAUREL  read _Stormie_, [49] a book chronicling author Stormie
Omartian's abuse as a child, and contacted Omartian.  Laurel  and
a close friend, Sherry DeLynn Williams, began a support group for
women called Victims Against Sexual Abuse.  The local Bakersfield
press  covered  the  group's activities, and author Joyce Landorf
Heatherly invited Laurel to be a  guest  on  her  radio  program.
Laurel  talked  about  child and spouse abuse and related her own
stories. [50]

   In 1985 the Bakersfield area was rocked by charges  concerning
a  large  ritualistic  child abuse ring operating in Bakersfield.
The story received national  media  attention.    At  that  time,
Laurel  was  giving  private piano lessons to the child of one of
the Bakersfield investigators, Sgt.   Bob  Fields.  [51]  At  one
point  she contacted Colleen Ryan, the District Attorney handling
prosecution of the case.  Ryan told us, "She called me  a  couple
times ....  I don't really remember what her link was, except she
was  somehow  entwined  with  the  two  women [defendants] in the
case."  [52]  Ryan's  office  and  the  investigators  found  her
testimony useless. [53]

   Laurel  then met Pat Thornton, a foster mother caring for some
of the children whose family members were implicated in the child
abuse case.  Laurel told Pat she had personal knowledge  of  what
was going on and was afraid for her life.  Pat told us:

             For  a  short  period  of time, I was like
          Laurel's mother.  She would call  me  at  all
          hours  of the day or night, hysterical, and I
          had to drop everything I was doing to  go  to
          her or at least talk her through her hysteria
          on the  phone.   She almost consumed my life.
          It was very difficult for me, because  I  was
          trying to help the children I was caring for,
          too.   It was like she was another one of the
             kids.

   During this time Laurel _first_ began mentioning  satanism  as
part of  her  story.    According  to Laurel, she was still being
harassed and threatened by satanists (this  would  have  been  in
1985 and 1986).  In fact, she claimed they were still picking her
up  late  at  night  and  forcing  her  to  watch  their rituals,
including ritual child abuse.  She told Pat this as the basis for
her inside knowledge of the Bakersfield  cases.    There  was  no
Victor in  Laurel's  stories to Pat.  Instead there were two men,
"Elliot," who was the leader of this  massive  ritualistic  abuse
and  pornography  ring;  and  "Jonathan,"  to whom she had been a
"love slave" for many years.

   Laurel told Pat that Jonathan had branded her forehead with  a
circular  red  hot  brand so everyone would know she was his love
slave.  That's why, Laurel said, she always wore bangs  to  cover
her forehead--even though Pat couldn't tell the scar from typical
forehead wrinkles.    One  night,  Laurel called Pat hysterically
claiming that Jonathan had run her  off  the  road  in  a  murder
attempt. [54]

   One  of  the most macabre stories Laurel told Pat was that she
had a cassette tape of her son Joey's death  screams  during  the
satanic  ritual  in  which  he  was killed, and a black-and-white
photograph of baby Joey that had  been  taken  after  his  death.
Laurel  never  showed  Pat  the picture or let her hear the tape,
explaining they would upset Pat's sensitive nature.

   Concerning Laurel's own history, Laurel claimed she had become
pregnant for the first time when she was fourteen, and  that  the
many  scars  on  her  arms  were  caused by the pornographers and
satanists torturing her.  Laurel said  her  father  had  died  in
1983,  and  his death had freed her from the hold the ring had on
her--but it took almost three years for her  to  realize  it  and
finally try to break away. [55]

   Laurel  said  she  also had personal knowledge of the McMartin
Preschool ritual child abuse case in Manhattan Beach, California,
near Los Angeles.  She wondered if  Pat  knew  anyone  associated
with that  case.   In the spring of 1986 Pat introduced Laurel to
Judy Hanson, an investigator who was working  with  some  of  the
parents in  the  McMartin case.  Judy described her first meeting
with Laurel:

             She told me she was terminally ill and  in
          very great pain.  She had a wheelchair in the
          back  of  her  car  and she was using oxygen.
          Her apartment was  immaculate.    During  our
          conversation,  she  told  me the pain was too
          much for her to continue.  She had me  get  a
          bottle  filled with thick white liquid out of
          the refrigerator for her.  She told me it was
          morphine for her pain.  I didn't  notice  any
          difference in her speech or actions after the
          medicine.

          Laurel  claimed she'd been abused as a child,
          and had been trapped  in  this  ritual  child
          abuse  ring, both in Bakersfield and with the
          McMartin group in Los Angeles.  She said  she
          could  give  us  names,  places,  dates,  and
          events, but that she was afraid  of  physical
          harm  or  even death at the hands of the ring
             if they suspected she was talking. [56]

   Laurel gave Judy a manuscript containing her  stories,  and  a
tape  of  two  Joyce  Landorf  Heatherly  shows  she appeared on.
According  to  Judy,  she  arranged  for  Laurel  to  record  her
experiences  in a video tape done by Bob Currie. [57] Bob, one of
the parents whose children were involved in  the  McMartin  abuse
case,  had been looking for a credible adult witness or victim to
give support to the children's testimonies.  The video  was  made
in multiple sessions at a Bakersfield motel.  Respecting Laurel's
concerns  about  her own safety, Bob never revealed more than her
mouth and chin in the video.

   After the taping was completed, Bob took the video home.   But
he never  used  it.   Other McMartin parents who saw the video or
who were present during the taping told us they agreed with  Bob:
"Laurel's story wasn't credible."  We asked parent Leslie Floberg
why  she distrusted Laurel's story concerning the Manhattan Beach
activities.  She replied:

             That's just it.  She seemed to be  telling
          us exactly  what we wanted to hear.  Whatever
          we thought was happening, she  said  she  had
          witnessed it.    She described most things in
          very general terms.    The  only  things  she
          described  in  detail were incidents that had
          already  been  described  in  detail   on   a
          recently  aired  CNN television special about
          our case.  Somebody who  knew  nothing  about
          the case, but who had watched that television
          program,  could  have  given us as credible a
             "testimony."

   We asked Pat Thornton, who was present during the taping,  why
she didn't believe Laurel's video:

             She   didn't   give   concrete,  specific,
          testable details that hadn't been reported in
          the news.  It was almost like she  felt  safe
          in  repeating what we already knew from other
          sources, but she didn't want to say something
          new we could test.  I got  the  feeling  that
          she   didn't   really   have   any  firsthand
             knowledge.

   The stories Laurel told on the video for the McMartin  parents
are very different from the stories in _Satan's Underground_.  In
the  video  she said that both of her parents, mother and father,
were involved in pornography and satanism.  She  told  how,  when
she  was  a  child, even after her father left home, the three of
them would meet at the satanic abuse rituals.  She said that  she
lived  in the basement of a farmhouse with farm animals (the same
animals  she  was  forced  to  pose  with  for  the  pornographic
pictures).   Laurel  explained  her many scars by saying that her
mother forced her to pleasure her sexually, and that if  she  did
not  do so quickly enough, her mother would take razor blades and
slice her arms and legs to punish her.    Laurel  also  explained
that  she  had  spent  two  years  of  her life in a warehouse on
Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles  with  other  "baby  breeders,"
where  she  had  two  children killed in ritualistic snuff films.
[58]

   All six parents who witnessed the  video  and/or  its  filming
attested  to  us that she said she had participated in an ongoing
lesbian  relationship  with  Virginia  McMartin,  then  the  star
defendant in  the  McMartin preschool case.  They also agree that
she claimed to have been present while ritual abuse  of  children
went on.

   According  to Bob Currie, he provided the access Laurel wanted
to Johanna Michaelson, Christian author of _The Beautiful Side of
Evil_. (Michaelson had talked briefly with a few of the  McMartin
parents.) After Laurel became close to Johanna, she asked for her
video back  from  Bob..  Bob hand-delivered the original video to
Johanna.  Laurel then  broke  off  all  communication  with  Judy
Hanson,  Pat Thornton, Bob Currie, and the other McMartin parents
involved.  Only a few months later, Laurel's  story  of  _Satan's
Underground_   was   published  by  Harvest  House  with  Johanna
Michaelson's strong encouragement.

   Johanna Michaelson admitted to us  that  she  had  viewed  the
video, including  the  segment concerning Virginia McMartin.  She
first explained  to  us  that  the  legal  ramifications  of  the
McMartin  story  were too complex to deal with, but when we asked
point-blank if she believed the lesbianism story, she replied, "I
don't know."  We asked if it seemed odd to be unsure if  Laurel's
McMartin  story was true, yet believe totally in and help publish
another equally fantastic tale from the same source.  Johanna did
not answer the question. [59]

   Parent Leslie Floberg concluded our conversation in  an  angry
outburst.  "Put  this  in  your  magazine;  I  feel  raped by the
so-called Christians who've promoted Lauren Stratford as a victim
just like our children."

      WHAT PROOF EXISTS OF LAUREL'S TESTIMONY?

   OUR inclination has always been to give Laurel the benefit  of
the  doubt, to presume her story was true until proven otherwise.
If Laurel's story were true, many people would be wholly ignorant
of the torment she had  lived  through.    There  would  also  be
details   which  could  never  be  verified  on  paper  or  other
documentaton.  Yet at the same time, there would be a  number  of
mundane details  that  couldn't  escape  outside  notice.   As we
proceeded, we used this  basic  principle:  if  a  person  proves
trustworthy  in the "normal" details of their lives, it is easier
to trust them when they make claims about events which cannot  be
verified.

   There  were two considerations: First, what evidence exists or
would exist if Laurel's story is true?  In other words,  can  her
story be  verified?    Second,  are  there any evidences or facts
which contradict or cast doubt on her story?  Can  her  story  be
falsified?

   One more  thing must be said.  We believe that when extreme or
extraordinary claims are presented as objective truth, the burden
of proof lies on the claimant to give evidence of what he or  she
affirms.   This should especially hold true for Christian authors
and publishers.  In our opinion, _Satan's Underground_ manifestly
falls into such a category.

   From the beginning, we were led to  believe  that  substantial
validation of  Laurel's testimony exists.  Laurel's book contains
a moving portrayal of how safe she felt when Hal Lindsey publicly
warned satanists to stay away from her because he had  the  goods
on anyone who might retaliate. [60] (Johanna Michaelson, however,
told  us  that Hal was "bluffing" when he said this. [61]) Laurel
claimed she had passed the untold facts  (e.g.    Victor's  name,
etc.)  along  to  people  like Johanna Michaelson and Ken Wooden.
[62] Harvest House told us they possessed documentation more than
sufficient to prove her story. [63]

   However, the most stunning element of the true  Laurel  Wilson
story is  that no one even checked out the main details.  When we
contacted Laurel's mother, sister, brother-in-law, cousin, church
friends--in fact, anyone who would have known Laurel  during  the
book's  most  crucial years--we were shocked to discover that, in
nearly every case, we were the first  people  to  have  contacted
them! [64]

   We  had  a  lengthy  conversation  with Laurel, asking for any
documentation of her story.   She  told  us  that  many  parties,
including  Johanna  Michaelson  and ohters "from the U.S. Justice
Department on down," had advised her not  to  give  us  anything.
She  then  warned  us  that further research on our part would be
futile. "The trail's been cold for over twenty-five  years,"  she
said. "You can't hope to find confirmation now." [65]

   In  our  conversation,  Laurel said John Rayben was one of her
advisers and implied he was from the Justice Department.  Johanna
Michaelson and Lyn Laboriel (a kind woman who  believes  Laurel's
story)  also  used Rayben's name as a defense for Laurel's story.
So we called him.  Rayben actually represents the National Center
for Missing and  Exploited  Children,  a  respected  organization
which is not an agency of the U.S. Department of Justice, nor any
federal office.  Raybe also disavows being on any advisory board,
much less Lauren Stratford's.

   "I  have  never  seen any objective documentation for Lauren's
story," he stated, and "I do not consider  her  story  credible."
He  told us Laurel had called him in September, asking his advice
on whether she should provide  us  with  documentation.    Rayben
asked her what kind of documentation she would provide.  She said
the problem was that "she didn't have names, dates, places, etc."
Rayben's  reply  was, "Well, you can't very well give it to them,
can you?" [66]

      "PLEASE SHOW US THE EVIDENCE"

   SINCE we had already (twice) attempted to confront Laurel with
our questions, we felt our only remaining Christian duty  was  to
Harvest House,  Laurel's  publisher.    Upon  contacting them, we
explained that  the  evidence  we  had  collected  was  virtually
overwhelming,  and  asked them as responsible publishers to carry
the burden of proof. "Please show us the evidence which  led  you
to publish _Satan's Underground_."

   For  instance,  we asked them if it was possible to produce an
eyewitness to any of Laurel's pregnancies.   If  we  accept  that
Laurel  had  three  children  by  brutal  rape, whose births were
unrecorded and who had been secretly  killed,  she  still  had  a
"public"  life  which included attending high school and college,
church attendance,  and  playing  concert  piano.     Since   her
pregnancy  would  have  to  have  been  "showing" during her high
school and college years, there should have been an abundance  of
witnesses.   After  all, first one should have proof that a child
existed before asking  others  to  believe  that  the  child  was
murdered.    Eileen  Mason,  editor-in-chief  at  Harvest  House,
informed us that Laurel "could not produce such a witness."

   It strains one's credulity to think that no one would notice a
teenager who was pregnant three times, yet never ended up with  a
baby.  Remember, this all supposedly took place in the late 1950s
or  early  1960s,  while  she was singing with Pentecostal church
groups, attending  Christian  schools,  and  living  with  family
members other  than  her mother.  In reality, at least ten people
who knew her quite well during that time are emphatic: Laurel was
never pregnant during her teens or early twenties.

   Harvest House explained what they felt  constituted  proof  of
her testimony.    They  had  a three-part test: (1) several staff
members talked with Laurel at different times and  got  the  same
stories  from  her,  and  all of the staff members were impressed
with her sincerity; (2) they talked with "experts" who  confirmed
that  such  things have happened to others; and (3) they gathered
character references for her from her supporters. [67]

   These tests can establish consistency  and  plausibility,  but
they are not tests to establish the validity of actual historical
events.   Over  the  past  ten  years, we have heard stories from
several "victim impersonators" that paralleled those of real drug
dealers and cult members, but this similarity was not proof  that
the victim impersonator's particular story was true. [68]

   On  the  other hand, we know that Laurel's book conflicts with
known history, and over the past twenty years, she has  not  only
given  contradictory stories, but those who knew her testify that
she has been disturbed and manipulative.  If genuine evidence for
the major facets of Laurel's testimony exists  anywhere,  we  are
still willing  to examine it.  In light of the inability of those
supporting  Laurel's  story  to  provide   such   evidence,   the
overwhelming weight of our evidence must stand.

   As  believers,  our  concepts  of  ethics  and truth should be
higher, not lower, than those of  the  secular  press.    When  a
publisher  issues  a  testimony  which  he  knows is likely to be
sensationalistic,  we  believe  he  is  obligated  to  ask   what
constitutes verification  of  that testimony.  Certain claims and
assertions require greater validation than others.  This  is  not
to lay  all  the  blame  at  the  doors  of Harvest House.  Other
Christian   publishers    have    recently    released    equally
sensationalistic "survivor stories."

   Though  publishers  have  the  responsibility  to test a story
before offering  it  to  the  public,  we  as  readers  are  also
accountable.  If we exercised the gift of discernment more often,
publishers  would  be persuaded to offer books that can stand the
test.  As individual Christian  readers,  we  cannot  investigate
every questionable  testimony.   However, we should encourage the
publishers whose books we buy to do that job for us.  It  is  not
wrong  to  question  a  story which initially seems fantastic and
offers no corroboration or documentation.

   This article is not a condemnation of Laurel Wilson.    Though
we  don't  know,  and  may  never  know,  the  true causes of her
problems, Laurel evidently has  been  emotionally  disturbed  for
most of  her  life.   Emotionally disturbed people should receive
compassion and empathy from their friends and  other  Christians,
and  constructive, biblical therapy from Christians whose special
gifts are conuseling. [69]  Laurel  Wilson  needs  her  Christian
friends  to  comfort  her  in her distress, to love her enough to
commit themselves to helping her resolve her  problems  according
to biblical  principles.    The story of _Satan's Underground_ is
not true, but Laurel's emotional distress is real.  Our prayer is
that she gets the help she needs.

   However, when Laurel Wilson wrote  _Satan's  Underground_  and
Johanna  Michaelson  and  Harvest  House  promoted  it, the story
stepped from the world of therapy  to  the  world  of  testimony.
_Satan's  Underground_  has become the basis, the foundation, for
Lauren Stratford's authority as an expert  on  ritualistic  abuse
and as  a  counselor  of other victims.  Because the story is not
true,  the  foundation  is  illusory,  and  her   expertise   and
counseling qualifications are nonexistent.

   That  is  why this investigation had to be conducted, and this
article had to be written.  As Laurel's  old  friend  who  nearly
ended  her  own life told us, "I don't want to see her counseling
anyone.  If she counsels other people as she did  me,  there  are
going to be a lot of people in real trouble." [70]

   ---------- Sidebar:

   C O N T R A D I C T I O N S

          *  HER  FATHER:  Variations  in  stories  ...
          Frank Cole Wilson was her natural father/left
          home when she was  four/she  didn't  see  him
          again until she was fifteen/he was present at
          satanic   rituals   she  attended  throughout
          childhood/  had  an  incestuous  relationship
          with   her/was   part   of  the  satanic  and
          pornographic ring/died in 1983.    The  truth
          is, he was her adoptive father, left when she
          was  eight or nine, and saw her many times in
          the intervening years, during  vacations  and
          holidays.  Christian doctor who died in 1965.

             *  HER  MOTHER:  Often  called stepmother.
          Stories of  mother's  abusive  behavior  have
          varied  from  physical only to sexual/selling
          Laurel           into            pornography/
          prostitution/satanism.    In   truth,  mother
          adoptive,   strict   Christian   woman    who
          sometimes had temper.

             *  HER SISTER: Laurel has claimed to be an
          only child/in 1975 claimed sister named Betty
          "wants  to  either  put  me   in   a   mental
          institution or   kill   me."    Real  sister,
          Willow, a missionary.    Laurel  raised  with
          Willow,  lived  with  her,  her  husband, and
          family during high school.

             * ABUSE: Laurel says 1985 first time  able
          to admit   she  was  abused.    Yet  multiple
          accusations  of  abuse  over   thirty   years
          against  mother/father/brother- in-law/school
          personnel/lesbian church  members/pornography
          and prostitution rings.

             *    SATANISM:    1985   first   mentioned
          involvement with satanism,  after  two  major
          satanic ritual abuse cases became news.  This
          contradicts all her previous abuse stories.

             *      HER      SCARS:      Blamed      on
          mother/pornography/prostitution
          leaders/and/or satanists.    Actually   three
          people  observed  her cutting herself, others
          told    by    Laurel    her    wounds    were
          self-inflicted.

             *  HER  "CHILDREN": Various stories: she's
          sterile/had  two  children  killed  in  snuff
          films/three  children  killed,  two  in snuff
          films, one in satanic ritual/  says  she  had
          children     during     teenage     years/her
          twenties/lived  two  years   in   a   breeder
          warehouse.   In  reality, no evidence she was
          ever pregnant.

             * RITUAL INVOLVEMENT: States  in  _Satan's
          Underground_  ritual  involvement ended after
          her  father's  death  (1965)/vs.   story   of
          involvement   in   satanic   rituals  through
          1985-86 (McMartin ring and others).  Truth is
          no proof found for any involvement.

             *   CHILD   PORN:   States   in   _Satan's
          Underground_  she  was involved in child porn
          films and magazines during  the  forties  and
          fifties.  According to FBI expert, child porn
          films  and magazines were all but nonexistent
          during this time. [71]

---------- Photo captions:

1.  Frank, Laurel, Rose, and Willow Wilson.

2.  Infant Laurel and Rose.

3.  Laurel at 14 years (1955).

4.  Willow's 11th birthday (Laurel second from right).

5.  Car license dated 1947, two years after _Satan's Underground_
says her father left Laurel behind.

6.  Laurel in her late teens, Laurel's birth certificate.

   ----------

   Endnotes: 1.  Lauren Stratford, _Satan's Underground_ (Eugene,
Oreg.: Harvest House  Publishers,  1988).  2.    Bob  Currie,  in
conversation with  us.  Note: we interviewed dozens of persons in
the course of research for this  article.    In  most  cases,  we
talked  with people several times, and double-checked our quotes.
To  avoid  confusion,  we  do  not  list  the  exact   dates   of
conversations in this article.  The reader is safe to assume that
the  conversations took place between 7 September and 10 November
1989. 3.   Stratford,  _Satan's  Underground_,  17.  4.  _Satan's
Underground_  is  one of the most sexually explicit and violently
graphic contemporary Christian books we know.  Those descriptions
are not necessary in this synopsis. 5.  Including  being  drugged
almost continually.  6.    Lauren  says  she was never a satanist
because she had become a Christian as a young child and was  only
at the  rituals  because  she  was  forced  to be. 7.  Stratford,
_Satan's Undergound_, 114. 8.  And managed to finish her  college
education. 9.    According  to Pierce County adoption records, on
file.  Marriage records show that Marrian  Disbrow  married  Carl
H--- one  month  later.  10.    According  to Pierce County birth
certificate, on file. 11.   According  to  hospital  records,  on
file. 12.   Some non-crucial details have been omitted to protect
certain persons' privacy. 13.  Statement dated 9 September  1989,
on file. 14.    Willow,  in  conversation  with  us.  15.   Years
resident in Calif., listed on his  death  certificate,  on  file.
Frank  and  Rose  never  divorced,  and  Frank left a substantial
portion of his estate to Rose  as  his  wife.  16.    Willow,  in
conversation with  us.  17.    Washington  State  Music  Teachers
Association Auditions, Spring 1949, on file. 18.  Copies  of  her
grade  school,  junior  high, and high school report cards are on
file. 19.  Her father had moved to Calif. six years earlier.  20.
Willow  and  Willow's  husband,  in  conversation  with  us.  21.
Documentation on   file.   22.      Enrollment    confirmed    by
Seattle-Pacific. 23.  Willow and Marie Hollowell, in conversation
with us.  24.  Willow and Billie Gordon, in conversation with us.
25.   Laurel's  mother,  Rose,  in  conversation  with  us.   26.
Enrollment confirmed  by  Redlands. 27.  Reverend Boone, formerly
of First AG Church, Rialto, in conversation with us. 28.   Billie
Gordon, in  conversation with us. 29.  She told the same story to
"Friend Two." 30.  Billie Gordon, in conversation  with  us.  31.
"Friend One,"  in  conversation with us. 32.  Record confirmed by
University of Redlands Registrar and Alumni Office, on file.  33.
"Friend One," in conversation with us. 34.  San Bernardino County
death certificate  and probate record, on file. 35.  Confirmed by
Riverside  County  marriage  certificate  record,  on  file.  36.
Information  supplied  by Frank Austin, "Friend One," and "Friend
Two." 37. "Friend One," in conversation with us. 38.    Confirmed
by the  Hemet  School  District Personnel Office. 39.  Picture on
file. 40.  Confirmed by  the  California  Commission  on  Teacher
Credentialing. 41.   Confirmed by "Friend One," "Friend Two," and
the Archers, a couple involved at the Hemet AG Church. 42.    Ken
Sanders,  Willie and Delpha Nichols, in conversation with us. 43.
Ken Sanders, in conversation with us. 44.    Delpha  Nichols,  in
conversation  with  us. 45. "You've Done So Much For Me Lord" and
"Beholding His Beauty," copyright 1972;  "He  Owes  Me  Nothing,"
copyright 1973.   On  file.  46.    Information  supplied  by Ken
Sanders, Reverend David Joiner, and "Friend Three."  According to
her church membership card, Laurel had previously been  a  member
of  Glad  Tidings  Assembly of God in Mira Loma, Calif., near San
Bernardino. 47.  Flora Rheta Schreiber, _Sybil_ (New York: Warner
Communications Company, 1973). 48. "Friend One," in  conversation
with us. 49.  Stormie Omartian, _Stormie_ (Eugene, Oreg.: Harvest
House Publishers,  1984).  50.  Information supplied by a tape of
Joyce Landorf Heatherly Programs, and  from  additional  comments
Laurel  taped  at  home concerning statements she made during the
program which were not  aired.  51.    Confirmed  by  Bakersfield
Sheriff's Dept.  Lt.      Brad   Darling  and  Sgt.    Fields  in
conversation with us. 52.  Bakersfield District Attorney  Colleen
Ryan, in  conversation with us. 53.  Information provided by Brad
Darling and Colleen Ryan. 54.  Pat didn't get  out  of  bed.  55.
Pat Thornton,  in  conversation  with  us.  56.   Judy Hanson, in
conversation with us. 57.  Our conversation with  Bob  covered  a
lengthy   meeting   in  person  as  well  as  by  telephone.  58.
Information from video  corroborated  by  a  number  of  McMartin
parents and   (partly)   Johanna  Michaelson.  59.    Information
supplied from two and one-half hour phone conversation  involving
Randolf and Johanna Michaelson, Jon Trott, and Bob Passantino, on
20 October  1989.  60.    On his television program, as quoted in
_Satan's Underground_,  166.  61.      Johanna   Michaelson,   in
conversation with  us.  62.   Laurel Wilson, in conversation with
us. 63.  Eileen Mason, in conversation with us.    She  told  the
skeptical  John  Stewart of KKLA (30 March 1988), "We have plenty
of evidence in many places." 64.  Apparently  no  one  considered
the fact that, if Laurel is not telling the truth, her mother and
family become  the  abused.  65.   Laurel Wilson, in conversation
with us,  22  September  1989.  66.    Chuckling,   John   Rayben
concluded, "I would have liked to see that documentation myself!"
67.  Eileen  Mason,  in  conversation  with  us.  68.    One such
impersonator was "escaping the Moonies."  She lived with us,  and
her  story was so good it took us a month to discover she was not
16 years old, but 30, and had never been a Moonie.    Later,  she
appeared  on  _Oprah Winfrey_ as a victim of Multiple Personality
Disorder.  More recently, we ran across her while she was  trying
to  convince a church group that she was an adult survivor from a
satanic cult! 69.  The therapist doesn't initially have  to  know
whether or not the story is true, only that the person is hurting
and  needs help. 70. "Friend Three," in conversation with us. 71.
(See "Contradictions" sidebar.) Information supplied (enough  for
an article in its own right) by FBI experts Ken Lanning and Homer
Young.