“They Must Be Monsters…” is a true-crime/courtroom procedural documenting the McMartin trial in the 1980’s in California. What starts with a single accusation, a claim that a young boy was molested while in the care of the McMartin preschool, balloons into a modern-day witch hunt where no child care provider is safe.

Dozens of victims turn into hundreds, and what started at McMartin spreads to nearby preschools in what is claimed to be a child pornography “ring.” Kids flown to far away places and somehow returned for noontime pickup. The stories are ridiculous, and it’s shocking that no one, at the time, who said, “Hey, this is quite literally impossible,” was listened to.

Pretty soon it’s not just molestation by male staff, but by female staff as well, including well-respected pillars of the community with decades’ worth of accolades for their work with children. Not everyone can fathom the accusations, and the “Believe the children” movement is born. Parents are made to feel negligent for not blindly accepting that their children have been sexually assaulted. They’re told that their children have already been victimized, and that making them relive their trauma without support is akin to re-victimization.

Guilt propels an already out-of-control situation, inciting a parental riot. 20/20 gets involved. Geraldo. The story evolves again, this time to include ritualistic blood/urine drinking and a goat-headed man. Ritualistic animal sacrifices and black masses at local churches. Now, according to the victims’ families, almost all childcare providers in Manhattan Beach are satanic child pornographers and pedophiles.

The stories that are retold throughout this book are shocking to say the least. Ludicrous, really, and the unproven allegations land several folks in jail. The McMartin family lost everything, including years of their lives spent behind bars. You wouldn’t believe how this all started, but there’s an interesting woman named Judy whose psychological decline is chronicled throughout. She’s a compelling catalyst, apparently, for what would seem, in our justice system, to be the impossible. A fifteen-million-dollar trial spanning years that persecuted and imprisoned the innocent. Well-written and impeccably detailed, “They Must be Monsters,” is a stellar chronicle of the case, if not a little long-winded where it comes to Judy’s minutia.
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