Children of the Underground (2022): Season 1, Episode 3 - Satanic Panic - full transcript

- There's one drawing in here

I want you to...

see because it's...

It's Johnny's daddy as a devil.

Here you go.

A 10-year-old child drew that.

She said that this is
what happened to her.

She said
that's her on the table,

and that's her stepdaddy.

- But what's
going on in there?

- She said
she was raped by her--



by him
and all these other people,

that they raped her
during this ritual.

And you see
the candelabras here?

- Yager makes much
of alleged satanic influences

in child abuse syndromes.

She says she's developed
her own diagnostic techniques,

and her dining room
is cluttered

with children's drawings
she uses as exhibit A.

- Do any of you
have any knowledge

of the concept
of the worship of Satan?

Ritual abuse.

Satanic ritual abuse, yes.

- It's a case complete

with charges
of child sexual abuse,



devil worship, and kidnapping.

- 3/4 of these children
that are in the underground--

and a lot of you people
aren't going to believe it--

3/4 of them are satanically,
ritualistically abused.

It's a satanic movement
in this country.

- There have been
a series of criminal acts

reported around the country,
and the source of all this

is the apparent practice
of satanism.

- I believe the children.

When they told
of sexual abuse,

they talked about rituals,
satanic rituals.

I believed them.

- The trial now enters
its third week.

If convicted, Yager faces
up to 60 years in prison.

- Madame District Attorney.
- Thank you, Your Honor.

- For the state, Ms. Wing.

- It was shameful
and very tragic

that a woman who has
devoted herself non-stop

to saving children
should then be accused

not of hiding children,
but of abusing children.

- Ladies and gentlemen
of the jury,

during the course
of this trial,

I obviously am not saying
that there's

not any sexual abuse out there.

But if it be true or not true,

it's no excuse for Miss Yager

to talk and interview
these children

in the way
she interviews them.

- One of the reasons
why she was prosecuted

was that she was too strong

That she pressured them.

- Defense attorney
Bob Fierer says

the devil will be
in the courtroom

because evidence
will show child abuse

is characteristic
of devil worship.

- Now, what is going on?

There's something bad out there
that these children have seen,

and we haven't seen,
and there's a duty

upon the part of government

to get to the bottom of it.

- It's one of
the strange things

in our history
that we block out,

but this was the era
of widespread disclosure

of satanic ritual abuse.

- Welcome to "Sightings."
I'm Tim White.

Tonight,
"Sightings" investigates

what many people believe
is an epidemic

of organized evil.

- In the early to mid 1980s,

there was this idea
that satanists

were infiltrating all of our
beloved social institutions.

- Police suspect
secret meetings

are being held by people
calling themselves satanists,

people who worship the devil.

- There is anxiety

about the country

secretly but surely

succumbing to demonic forces.

"20/20" does an episode
in 1985,

and it is Barbara Walters

and Hugh Downs
telling parents,

"You should be afraid
of this."

13.5 million people
watched this program.

- America is being affected.

Nationwide, we found
that minor cases

of satanic activity
light up the map.

- That's terrifying.
It could be harmless.

It could just be a diversion,

but it could also be
deadly serious.

- Absolutely.

- And there's
an idea that satanists

are sexually victimizing
American children.

- Hello, everybody.
I'm Oprah Winfrey.

We are talking today
about satanic cults,

devil worship,

and the terrifying
ritual abuse of children.

- It is a weird moment,
but Faye Yager,

coming from
a Christian background herself

and wanting to prevent
sexual harm to children,

why wouldn't she
be compelled by this?

- Mothers on the run,

desperate women
who go underground

with their children.

You see, these people
are running from the devil.

Along with their mothers
and children on the run,

we are also joined by their
friend and ally, Faye Yager.

When you started helping,

in your clandestine fashion,

women running from allegedly
abusive husbands,

you created a hornet's nest
for yourself.

I suspect that those
were the good old days

compared to this story.

- Yes, when we first started
hiding these children,

it was from sexual abuse.

First couple of cases
that I got,

I thought it was just weirdos,
and just happening in Texas,

and then the next case
came from California,

and I thought, "Well,
it just happens

in California and in Texas."

And then the next thing
you know,

they start popping up
everywhere.

- We don't know if these
stories are literally true.

We know, again,
that the allegations

that you're going to hear
are incredibly consistent.

They are widespread.

I say again we could have
filled this audience

with three or four score
of parents on the run

from alleged satanic
or ritual abuse.

Mothers running
from the devil our focus.

We'll be back with
more stories in two minutes.

Stay with us, please.

- My grandmother
really just kept everything

she could get her hands on.
I don't know where to start.

This is just...

An insane mess.

Look, look.

"How to be a Satanist
in America."

- It almost looks
like a guidebook.

"In the school library,

"books were found,
as in many school libraries,

"on witchcraft and occultism.

"Many suggestions and rituals
are described,

"like the drinking of women's
menstrual blood.

"Living animals are sacrificed,

"and recipes are given
calling for the brains

of an unbaptized infant."

This is crazy.

- I don't know.
What is this?

- You went through
that already.

- My grandparents,
they were firmly under

the grasp of satanic panic.

The satanic panic was real.
It was ongoing,

It was, you know, pervasive
throughout all of society.

- I found
your favorite picture.

Orphan Annie
in her little sweater.

- You were a really cute kid.

- My grandmother, she was
always looking at,

like, reading materials
that had to do

with, like, the satanic cults.

The--Faye Yager,

Mothers Against
Raping Children?

I'm wondering if that's
where she found her name.

There's nothing on this side,
but here it says,

"Number one, get your money...

"out in small amounts.

"Number two, you need a car.

"Get the car from out of state.

"Three, if you can't do that,

we will get someone
to help you get out."

One day, my grandparents
came to pick me up,

and I get in the car,
and they're like, "OK,

"so do you want
to live with us?

Or do you want to live
with your parents?"

My grandparents
were very convinced

that I was in danger.

They accused my dad
and my stepdad

of molesting me.

Over the years, they claimed
that members of my family

were abusing me for Satan,

and there was ritual sacrifice

and drinking of blood.

It's--it's fuzzy.

I don't have a--

I don't have a definite answer
for it all,

but I do remember
being scared.

I do remember being in pain.

So I said, "Well,
I want to live with you."

And they said, "OK, well,

"if we leave right now...

"and we don't come back,

"you can't come back
for a really long time,

"and you can't tell anyone
where we're going.

Do you still want
to come with us?"

They were the only nurturing,
loving environment

I ever really knew,
so I was like,

"I want to live with you."

And they said, "OK,
so we're leaving,

and we're not coming back."

And then we just kept driving.

- So I wrote this monograph,
put a lot of time into it.

It's called
"Investigator's Guide

to Allegations
of 'Ritual' Child Abuse."

"These are the most polarizing,
frustrating, baffling cases

"I have ever encountered

"in more than 18 years
of studying

the criminal aspects
of deviant sexual behavior."

This stuff is stuff
that I was in the middle of

for a long time,
for about 15 years.

I was assigned to
the behavioral science unit

longer than
any other FBI agent

that was there, for 20 years.

One day, this detective
begins to tell me

about this case
where an adult woman

comes to him and describes
how she was sexually victimized

all during her childhood.

Not only was this
sexual activity going on,

but there was other kinds
of stuff going on.

I knew of cases where people
were killing people

and drinking blood
and eating body parts,

and I investigated
the sexual victimization

of children,
but I can't think of a case

where I heard
all of this together.

And since it was so extreme
and so horrible,

I felt that I needed to play
whatever role I could play.

This is the opening
of this door

that totally changed
my law enforcement career.

Pretty soon,
I was aware of hundreds

of these cases,
the most famous one

being the McMartin
daycare case.

- It started out
here in Manhattan Beach

looking like
an isolated incident.

One mother noticed
that her young son

was having nightmares
and difficulty sitting down.

- The McMartin Preschool

is a preschool

in a fairly affluent area
of California,

and in 1983,
a mother makes a report

that her son
has been sexually abused.

- We have arrest warrants

for the various occupants
of the house.

- The allegations
first went against Ray Buckey,

who was one of the assistants,

and then ultimately,
six other people were charged.

I spent years going through
the actual trial transcript.

There was medical evidence

that there was abuse
for some of the children.

- The police
really start digging in,

and the more they're talking
to parents and the more

they're talking to the kids,

the wilder
the accusations become.

- We are alleging that
approximately 100 children

were sexually molested
at the school

over the past 10 years.

- Tales of
rape, sodomy, and reports

that animals were mutilated
in the classroom

to scare the children
into silence.

- And more and more parents
are coming forward.

The accusations
become more and more satanic.

There were supposedly
tunnels where kids

were abused
under the McMartin Preschool.

- They talked about
these strange rituals,

and killing animals,

and all kinds
of bizarre things.

- The boy testified
about being taken to a church.

People wore black costumes

with ropes around their waists
and devil suits.

- My initial reaction
was the same reaction

that many people have,
is that,

well, this must be going on

because why would somebody
make this up?

Where would they get these kind
of details from?

So I assumed
it must have happened,

although it seemed
kind of strange and unusual.

- I didn't know much
about the McMartin case,

had had no exposure
to that kind of thing,

and there was this mama,
and she kept saying,

"Faye, read this.
Get yourself educated.

This is what's going on."

- One of the things I began
to gradually realize

as I heard about more
and more of these cases,

there was a strong
emotional component to this.

- Your situation
was so extreme.

You can't think
that everybody else's situation

is that extreme, and you're
gonna just bury these people,

and try and--
and just tear up families.

- You don't believe children?
You think they lie?

- We must believe the children.

- I'm hoping
that with us hollering

and carrying on
and fussing about this,

that they are going to listen
to the children,

believe these kids,
and protect them.

- Because once you decide
that you're gonna believe

these children,
if she claims that that's

what the children are saying,
then you have to buy into that

and include that in the story.

And so a lot of these people,

however well-intentioned,
they can't look

at any of this
in an objective way.

- And I don't think that
that's unique to Faye Yager.

I think we saw a lot of that
in McMartin Preschool trial

and in any of
the other SRA cases.

- One of
the greatest difficulties

in reporting a story
like this one

is that so much of it sounds
so outrageous, too dreadful.

This organization is called
Believe The Children.

Its guiding principle,

that the stories these
young victims are telling

are too widespread,
too consistent not to be true.

- You begin to hear
the same thing time and again--

different stories,

but the same horrible
underlying things,

the same behaviors.

And the kids,
they just want to scream.

- You see this rallying of,
at first, the McMartin parents,

and then parents
all over the country,

we need to believe
the children.

- Well, I'd like to say to
the children who survived this,

that I do believe
their stories,

and I'm so grateful
that they told,

and they kept telling.

- If we're at the dawn
of recognizing abuse,

and you're a parent,

and you're trying to understand

how could someone
abuse my child?

How could anyone abuse a child?

It's not that far a jump

to go to
there's satanic forces.

- Come on in.

- Some of the kids and moms
that came through the house,

you know,
I met and remember them.

And some of the stuff,
like when it went

into the satanic cults,

that level of abuse
that those kids endured

was just mind-blowing.

- List some of the things
that you allege

happened to your kids.

- They've seen murder.

They've seen human sacrifice
of babies as well as adults.

- When I first met
Faye Yager,

I remember her asking me--
asking us all these questions

about ritualistic abuse.

The story went that, you know,
my dad knew we were in Georgia

and actually came
to the campground

where we were staying,

and that we had drugged
our mom and stepdad

so that he could take us out
in the middle of the night

and have a satanic ritual,

and that people were sacrificed

and thrown into
the lake or the river,

wherever we were staying.

So I remember
that they actually--

the authorities actually,
like, dredged the river

looking for bodies.

And it was very shortly after
that initial meeting with Faye

that my mom came to pick me up
one day out of the blue

and took me straight
to a mental institution

where I was for, like, a year.

- The field of
psychology and psychiatry

took satanic ritual abuse
so seriously

that they're having
these workshops

where they're saying,

"Satanic ritual abuse
is a thing.

"Here's how
you can recognize it.

"We're giving you a checklist.

"Here's what you look for.

Here's what you ask about."

- I proceeded
to take these children

to psychiatrists in Atlanta
and had them evaluated,

and the hospitals
believed these children,

thought they should be put
in the hospital and protected.

- And then suddenly,
you have something like 2%

of the psychologists
and psychiatrists in the U. S.

being responsible
for, truly, thousands--

a cottage industry, really,

of satanic
ritual abuse diagnoses.

- I'm being told
I'm such a victim

of abuse of my dad

that I need
to be institutionalized,

and now there's
all these doctors

and, you know,
credentialed people

saying she was abused.

You know, I was probably,
I don't know,

maybe eight or nine years old.

I think that my mom genuinely
was trying to protect me.

Some of the therapy
was really good,

and I did need it.

I don't think
I needed to be inpatient

because now
here I am without my family.

The biggest thing for me

was being separated
from my brother.

All we had was each other.

Him and I
were in this together.

And then all of a sudden,

having that, like, last sense

of security taken away from me

was probably the hardest thing,
and not knowing

when I was going
to see him again.

- This is relating
to Christine.

"It is clear from
the onset that this youngster

"has experienced severe trauma,

"and she's been very
consistent with her stories

"of sexual abuse
and satanic worship,

including human sacrifice."
Can this be true?

- Some of what these children
alleged in some of these cases

was almost impossible.

Supposedly what happened
in McMartin

was they began
to talk about tunnels

that they
were brought through,

and they talked about--

they were taken
out of the daycare center

and taken to different places.

- They said that if we told,

that the devil would come
and kill our parents,

and then they would,
like, threaten us,

like, "We're going to send you
to the devil and everything."

And they would scare us
really much.

- I began to have some doubts
about what's happening.

Part of it, certainly,
could be going on,

but there seems to be
some amount

of embellishment
or exaggeration,

and some of these things just
don't seem to have happened.

- Threats to kill generally,

the placement
of sharp foreign objects

into vaginal areas,
bombing the family home.

- Well, they started
to talk about burying bodies,

and they would talk about
where the bodies were buried.

The police would go out,
and they'd dig up this area,

and they just
didn't find anything.

- The prosecution tried
to corroborate

the children's stories
of animal mutilation,

underground tunnels, satanism,

and child pornography,
and they failed.

Despite a worldwide search
aided by the FBI,

nothing was found.

- It's the lack
of corroborative evidence

when there should have been
corroborative evidence.

And it didn't take long

before I realized
the significance of that.

Because this is a problem
that we've been trying

to make professionals and the
American public more aware of,

to believe children
and to understand this happens.

Now, we have cases where
children are describing things

that didn't happen.

That has tremendous
significance.

I began to believe
that some of these cases,

what they are is a legitimate
case that began,

but wasn't properly
investigated, run amok,

and just kind of blew up.

And I felt, we've got to get
to the bottom of this.

We got to understand
what's happening here.

- How did you find out
that your husband was allegedly

involved in this devil worship,
this satanic abuse?

- We came to Faye Yager
for help, came cross-country.

She took the kids out,
talked to them

for a couple hours,
and came back.

She told me she had a terrible
story to tell me.

- I contacted Ms. Yager,

and she had
interviewed Matthew.

And within a very short
period of time,

he said he had been made
to kill children,

and that he had
also poisoned me.

- It seems like
Faye Yager became part

of a larger cultural way
of explaining child sex abuse

that involves Satan as
the cause of child sex abuse.

- I talked to Faye.

I told her of the sexual abuse,

which is all I knew about
at the time.

She said, but that sounds
like satanic to me.

- I have, like, snippets
of memory of this.

- Yeah, seeing the kids with
the comically large sunglasses.

- We actually have grandparents
on the run here,

the little girl down there.

- We did the "Geraldo" episode
because of Faye.

- Why did you feel it necessary

to take your own granddaughter
and run?

- Even with proof that she'd
been sexually molested,

by then, the court placed her
into the abuser's custody.

- At some point, something
influenced my grandparents

to go from, we need
to deal with the abuse to,

they're doing
ritualistic abuse,

and they're
cannibalizing people.

- Do you feel that she was also

ritually abused
in this devil worship style?

- After we left,
she started talking

and telling us all about the--

the cult
and the human sacrifice

and the blood that she'd
been drinking and all that.

- They completely,
100% believed it.

I feel like--

I feel like...

I feel like my head is
going around and around.

When we left,
my grandparents would have me

sit down at, like,
one of the campsite tables

with my coloring Crayola pens
and saying,

"Draw the thing that you told
me about that one time."

"Can you draw the friends
that your mom has

"that, like,
have parties with your mom,

and they drink blood and do,
like, all the ritual stuff?"

- Hand you what has been
marked and is in evidence,

defendant's exhibit 24 and 25,

and ask you
whether you recognize

those crayon drawings?

- Yes.

I ask her to--
I asked little children

to draw pictures for me

so that we could get a better
idea of what their problem was.

- And did they do that,
in fact?

- Yes, they do.

- For the record, Your Honor,
being indicative

of satanic cult activity.

- So a big emphasis on how
to investigate these cases was

basically how to get
children to talk.

That included
many different ways

to get children to open up
and communicate.

- I'd send the pictures
to an art therapist

and ask the art therapist
to evaluate these pictures.

And then the art therapist
would send me back a letter

and say, this is their opinion
about these pictures.

- Tell us about the psychology
of the child and drawings.

- It's very difficult
to get a clear picture

from an abused child,
so when a child does come forth

with real data
like we see here,

it is of high significance.

- The first time I became
aware of ritual abuse,

the story had rings
of truth to it.

You know, they said,
"We're gonna show you

drawings that they've done."

- Get the kids
in a safe house,

six months later,
these kids are drawing pictures

of rituals, kids' heads
being chopped off,

the most violent--
people getting peed on.

Just the most violent pictures
you've ever seen in your life.

- A man who I was
working with,

he says, this is
definitely satanic.

And I said, wait a minute,
it looks like a child trying

to draw a cat or a dog--
oh, no, no, see right here?

This is where he's
drawing a horn.

And over here, that looks
like a little mark.

That's definitely satanic.

- It's a self-fulfilling
prophecy.

And so the group of people
that are aware of this--

so they put on their
satanic glasses,

and that's what they find.

- It's possible she saw more
and more stories coming out

and something clicked,
and she said,

I would never have
thought this,

but I'm gonna believe them.

- But how surprised were you
at finding this?

- Shocked.

You know, when we started
getting the pictures

like what you filmed,

you don't think I'm not
gonna ask about that?

This is Faye Yager with
Children of the Underground.

Hold that up.

Nothing else happened to you?

- They made us...

drink blood.

- Made you--in the cage?

- Yeah.
- Okay.

Um, they told me stuff like
they'd kill me and all that.

And one of the reasons I told
Faye was because, you know,

she told me
that she'd keep me safe.

When I was interviewed
by Faye on tape...

I just wanted
to get through it.

I just wanted it to be done.

I wanted her
to be done filming,

so I just needed to say
whatever I needed to say

to have it go away,
to make it stop.

Me and my brother, we were
both like, oh, my gosh,

now we have to say this?

We both were on the same page.

My dad wasn't
performing satanic rituals,

and that never happened.

Kind of becomes, like, a
snowball running down a hill,

Is just gets bigger and bigger,
and you know,

you're not really sure
how you can back out

of the things
that you're saying.

- Did they kill animals
at these meetings?

- Mm-hmm.
- And drink blood?

Did you have to do that too?

- Mm-mm.

- It's okay. It's okay.

I know how they do.

- Videotape is playing
a big part

in the Atlanta trial
of Faye Yager.

- Prosecutors will show
video tapes

of Yager interviewing other
children in the Underground,

video tapes they say
will clearly illustrate

her methods of coercing
young victims.

- So you're saying you're not
manufacturing this?

- No. I'm getting it out.

It's already got it in there.

Faye Yager doesn't come in here
and get a kid and say,

hey, you've been satanically
ritualistically abused.

I don't bring--
I don't do that.

What I do is I simply ask
the child

a series of questions.

- Dr. Robert Alpern, a child
and adolescent psychiatrist,

provided the strongest case
yet for the prosecution,

and some of the greatest
fireworks for the defense.

- Would you mind stating to the
jury some of the observations

that you had made in viewing
those particular videos?

- The interviewer, Miss Yager,
was told by the child's mother

or whoever brought the
children or are responsible

for her having the children--

has told her that this
is an abused child,

and she starts
with that assumption.

So this is not,
to my way of thinking,

an investigative kind
of interview,

and I'm not sure,
after being subjected

to several interviews
of this sort,

whether the child's reports
any longer have validity.

If you interview children
this way,

you don't always get the truth.

- This child is gonna be
exposed to all kind of people--

the parents, therapists,
all kinds of people,

who are interested
in validating the fact

that this child was molested.

These overzealous people,
they were in a good position

to contaminate
and influence the child

who's making the allegation.

- I wasn't there,
so I need you to tell me

exactly what happened, okay?

- I've reviewed interviews
where the interviewer is asking

the most leading and suggestive
questions you can think of.

- The child is subjected
to a barrage

of questions and statements
which clearly suggest

what answer the interviewer
would like to hear--

an answer that implicates
McMartin teachers

in sexual abuse.

- In the McMartin case,
kids are being interviewed

for hours and hours and hours
at a time by multiple people.

This is where
the harm starts happening,

where you're not letting
the child share

what's happened to them, but
telling them what's happened

so that their narrative fits
into the broader narrative

that you're presenting as your
case of satanic ritual abuse.

I don't think folks who are
involved in these cases

are deliberately trying
to harm children.

I think they were
trying to help.

- No further questions.

- Mr. Fierer, on redirect.

- Okay.
Now,

these children clearly came
with problems, did they not?

You and I can agree on that.
- Yes.

I think that all of these
children have been subjected,

before seeing Ms. Yager,
to some form of abuse--

emotional, physical, sexual.

I don't think that's in
question, at least in my mind.

- If you were trying to help,

and you had had significant
experience with the courts

putting children back
with their abusers,

there would be
a sense of urgency

in your approach,
would there not?

- In my professional judgment,
Mrs. Yager tried, in her--

in her way, to treat them
or take care of them,

and that her treatment itself
was abusive in many respects.

- Let me make sure
that we can emblazon this

on the minds of everyone here--

"And in her own way, tried
to treat them and help them."

- All right, and then this is
one of the assessments that--

that was done for me
when I was a little baby.

"Based on the present
allegations,

"a physical examination was
conducted

"at the rape treatment center.

"It was apparently the stated
position of Dr. Miranda

"that Kaylee's expressed
concerns did not appear

"to be fabrications, and were
to some degree supported

by the rape treatment
center findings."

I do remember being taken
to the hospital.

I was very tired.
I was in pain.

I was lying on the--the table,

and I look over,
and my grandmother was crying,

and the doctor was
speaking to her.

And I remember
the doctor, like, reaching out

and, like, touching her.

But nobody spoke to me.

Nobody told me anything,

so we just--we just went home.

So maybe there was abuse.

I'm not saying
that there wasn't,

but the satanic thing,

it wasn't really something
that I went through.

As a young child,
the adult gets to fill in

the missing pieces with...

the truth or whatever else
they might want to.

- The unfortunate part
about having a childhood

where you push things back
is that I have huge chunks

of my childhood that are,
like, nothing.

I have nothing.

My memories that I have
are very clear.

Like, I can describe
every single thing

down to color,
down to everything.

And then it goes black.

When I talk about my childhood
and what happened,

it's like I'm talking
about somebody else.

When I look at pictures,
I don't have any feeling at all

towards it because it's just,
like, another person.

So it's just pushed
out of the way.

In certain things,
I do feel like, you know,

if you don't remember,
there's a reason.

It just was a little too much
for you to comprehend.

I'm sure one day,
I'll have to deal with it.

But I'm like--

I don't know if I really want
to feel all those feelings.

You know what I mean?
Like, I'm--

you know, I like the fact
of how strong I am right now.

I don't want to--

you know, I don't want
to have to feel like that.

- So look,
there's Mandy's report card.

Some of her drawings were
in here.

When we were underground,
staying in that house,

she just had a table where she
could go color and do whatever.

And so then she would
do something,

and then I would ask her
to tell me what that was about.

Here's where they come,
the cages with kids

and German Shepherds on top.

And so she would draw,
I mean, pictures of babies

in cages with--well,
she said German Shepherds.

There were many,
many drawings,

many--I mean, the strangest
things that she was saying.

- Mandy?
- And I don't know--yeah.

I don't know
if you want this even

part of the documentary,
because it just--

then people start going,

"Oh, satanic stuff,
oh, this or that."

And see, look,
here's another one.

- I didn't realize there were
so many drawings.

- There's something going on.

There was documented
medical evidence

that she had
been sexually abused.

And so all
of these other things,

you know, are peripheral,
and because what matters is

what the child has
gone through.

- It's easy to question the
Believe the Children parents

from McMartin or Faye Yager
in retrospect.

But it is statistically likely
that many of these kids might

have been survivors
of sex abuse of some kind.

Their stories were
so overwhelmed

by the satanic ritual
abuse narrative

that that script honestly
might have robbed them

of any sort of clarity about
what actually happened to them.

- I believe in some
of these cases,

there is a seed of truth.

There is something
that did happen,

but it gets lost
in these bizarre allegations,

and it becomes unprovable.

- And at the end of McMartin,
the jury was hung,

and it was hung pretty evenly.

Like, half the jurors thought
they should be guilty,

half thought uh-uh, not.

So at the end of the day,
no one was convicted,

but the case began
with credible charges

that I think still
stand up over time.

The medical evidence
for multiple children

was never refuted.

- I have a daughter
who has massive evidence

of being raped
and being sodomized.

- And so one
of the problems is,

the case began with people

who wanted it to be true
of everything,

and it ended with people who
wanted none of it to be true.

And what do you know?

I think that the truth
is more complicated.

- There's no doubt
in your mind,

every child you've handled
has been abused?

- I'm not gonna go
that far with it.

I'm gonna say that the cases
that I've handled,

I did everything in my power

to substantiate
what that child said,

and I always put
the child first.

- In a Georgia
courtroom today,

the controversial founder

of an underground network

which hides abused children

was back on the stand,
defending herself.

- And during the time
that you were questioning,

did you intend
in any way to harm?

- No, not at all.

I was just trying
to find out the truth.

I wasn't wrong.

I wasn't wrong in doing what
I did with those children.

- This woman is incapable

of maliciously being cruel
to a child.

They had to prove that.
They had to look in her mind

and in her heart
and find malice.

- I think that anyone that
would go through a child being

molested all of her life,
and you'd known about it,

would cause someone
to want to take action.

- And when they looked
into her heart and her mind,

they found sadness and love.

- The prosecution must
prove Yager intended

to hurt the children.

The defense contends
her crime, if any,

was of the heart,

that she was simply trying
to dig out the truth.

To do nothing, they say,
was in everyone's power.

- If I was to get convicted,

everything
these children said--

they'd just be liars.

Nobody will ever
believe a child again.

- She was attempting
to do right.

She is not anything more
than what she appears to be--

a deeply caring person.

She asks for justice.

- Cobb County is now
in session.

The Honorable Harris Hines
presiding.

- Thank you,
and please be seated.

Ladies and gentlemen
of the jury,

have you reached verdicts?

- Yes, Your Honor, we have.
- All right.

Mr. Foreman, if you will give
the verdicts to the bailiff,

he will bring them to the court

for inspection prior
to publication.

Thank you,
and you may be seated.

Madam Clerk, the verdicts
appear to be in proper form.

I would ask that you please

publish the verdicts
at this time.

- In the Superior Court, County
of Cobb, State of Georgia,

The State of Georgia
versus Billie Faye Yager,

we the jury find
the defendant not guilty

of the offense of kidnapping
and count one

of the general bill
of indictment.

Count two,
we the jury find the defendant

not guilty of the offense
of cruelty to children

and count two of the general
bill of indictment.

- There's a little support
there from the public.

- There's always support
from the public.

You wouldn't believe
who we have supporting us.

You'd be shocked.

- What do you think the key
to your victory today was,

had to pick one key thing?

- The children were abused.

They did nothing.

They didn't protect them.

That was the key.

I mean, when you get
those kinds of numbers,

and you get authorities
turning a deaf's ear

to abused children, you can
expect what we got today.

- What do you think about
what your mother's been doing--

she may continue to do
in the future?

- I think it's about time
somebody stood up

to the system.

Because you know,
obviously no one stood up

besides her, what,
17 years ago?

She got off, of course.

Mama always gets off.

They didn't have anything.

They were grasping at straws,

hoping they could make
an example and take her down,

and you can't prosecute,
like, a vigilante.

- We did not think that
the charges being brought forth

were indicative
of what she actually does.

- Faye Yager leaving
the Cobb County

courthouse complex today
in a Rolls Royce,

unfurling a banner
that plugs her organization.

- Come over to the house.
We'll have a celebration.

- Her not being found
guilty was such a shock.

I was just stunned--

stunned.

- There are those who say
that your heart may be

in the right place, but
that your overzealousness--

that you crossed a line
somewhere with that.

How do you respond to that?

- That I've crossed a line?

- You've gone too far.

- I probably have.
I've stepped on somebody's toes

that I shouldn't have.

- After the trial,
we all thought,

oh, this is fantastic,
we're in the clear,

and you know, that it was just
gonna be smooth sailing.

The jury has given Faye Yager

the right to hide children.

What is this system coming to?

You can't be vigilante.

- Mrs. Yager may be viewed
by many as a martyr.

For my son, she has been
the ultimate nightmare.

- You know,
these people don't understand,

they're playing with fire here.

Frankly, I think every one
of them ought to be

in the federal penitentiary.

- Little did we know
that there were people

waiting in the wings
to take her down.