Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 8, No. 2, 1991, Page 56
prominent promoters of the Satanic hysteria arrive on the scene to lend a new credibility to
people‟s fears.”56 This statement is made with reference to a series of incidents in 1989 in
which dead and mutilated animals, usually cats, were found neatly arranged on the front
lawns of homes in Orange County, California. It is worth taking a closer look at this
California cat caper, since it provides such a vivid illustration of the posturing and bumbling
that ail too frequently accompany official “investigations” of such incidents.
A report prepared for the City Council by the Acting Chief of Police of Tustin, in Orange
County, dated March 21, 1989, acknowledges that the police “do have knowledge of some
cat killing in the ...area being committed by the human hand.” The memo continues:
There are two youth groups in the area that might be responsible for a
portion of this activity. They are the Orange County Skinheads and “Da Boyz.”
Information regarding these two groups indicates the Orange County
Skinheads got a new leader approximately one year ago, and that individual
is heavily involved in Satanic-type activity ...The change in leadership
direction may be the cause of the increase in the cat killings we are now
experiencing. Information on “Da Boyz” group reveals they are primarily
Hispanic, with selected members who are involved in cat killing and animal
mutilation connected with Satanic worship ...the Santa Ana Police
Department has information on this group in their city, and they have advised
there are a select few ...who are involved in this type of Satanism.57
“It looks like 10 to 15 cats were killed for skinhead fun and games or used in ritual or
satanic worship,” wrote a police officer in charge of Community Resources, whose opinion
was included in the Tustin P.D. report. In addition, notes from a February 1989 meeting of
the Orange County Gang Investigators contains the following information: From the District
Attorney‟s office: “Da Boyz have sacrificed cats and have access to AK47‟s and Uzis.” (No
indication that they used the Uzis on the cats, however.) And, from the Tustin Police
Department, “Two schools were broken into with the result of the “pet snake” being
sacrificed with satanic and racist graffiti put up by O.C. Skins and War [White Aryan
Resistance].”58 These documents clearly show that the local police departments were aware
of Satanist activity involving the killing and mutilation of animals. This being the case, how
did these same police departments deal with the public response to this issue?
The Orange County Sheriff‟s Department representative expressed fears that the allegations
of human involvement were “creating public panic or hysteria.”59 To head off the prospect of
wild-eyed cat lovers swarming through the streets with torches looking for hapless
skinheads to lynch, the cops came up with the perfect scapegoat: coyotes. Now, the coyote,
like its close relative, the wolf, characteristically devours its prey completely, leaving little
more than scraps behind. But most of the animals in question were found neatly severed in
half, their intestines strung out in a line or coiled into a circle nearby, perhaps with a
severed head and/or matching set of paws completing the arrangement did dawn‟s early
light revealed adorning ft front lawns of neighborhood pet owners. Nor did the police find
anything “satanic” about one particularly gruesome lawn ornament: a deceased black feline
found strapped to a two-foot-high wooden cross. Perhaps Orange County possesses an
especially precocious breed of coyote.
Local residents soon tired of the coyote party line and formed their own citizens‟ group,
Tustin Residents Against Animal Killers (T.R.A.K.). They instituted night patrols and offered
a $1,600 reward, later increased to $3,000, for information leading to conviction. The
group‟s leader, Tustin resident Janet Hampson, managed to get permission to recover the
bodies of 65 of the mutilated animals from Animal Control. She turned them over to local
veterinarians, all of whom were of the opinion that most of the animals were killed by
humans -while the bureaucracy continued to blame the coyotes. By the end of March,

Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 8, No. 2, 1991, Page 57
1989, Hampson had meticulously recorded 70 cases, most of them clearly suspicious the
list eventually grew to more than 250. Hampson recently presented the Orange County
Board of Supervisors with a 300-page report on the investigation. As of this writing, the
Board has asked the Orange County Sheriff‟s Department to reopen the case, based on
Hampson‟s report.60 But why, we must ask, was it left to private citizens to conduct a
proper investigation of this situation? Given that extreme cruelty to animals by a youth is
universally regarded as an early warning sign of a potential murderer, why have the police
so adamantly refused to pursue an investigation of this sort of crime? Is this what the
authors of the CSER report want -for law enforcement officials to turn their heads away
from any crime, no matter how vicious, that might be associated with “Satanism?”
Error Number Four: Significant Omissions
The fact is that the report‟s authors have obviously lost sight of their subject‟s attributes -if
indeed they ever had them in their sights in the first place. Elsewhere they have described
Satanism as “a symptom of a sick mind” and then, virtually in the same breath, as a
“benign religion”.61 Such contradictory statements detract from the report‟s credibility.
Anton LaVey, whose magical watchword is “Indulgence,” explicitly exhorts his flock toward
total self-aggrandizement. But the published goals of the Werewolf Order, a group related to
the Church of Satan, make LaVey sound like a Boy Scout leader, and dispel any doubts
about the nature of this “benign religion.”
Nikolas Schreck, editor of The Manson File, is the founder of the Werewolf Order. Its motto
is “To Unleash the Beast in Man.” The Order describes itself as “an international network of
men and women of action dedicated to the creation of a new Satanic world order ...an
unholy war for dominion of this earth.”62 It is linked to the Church of Satan, and credits “Dr.
Anton LaVey” with inspiring its mission. Zeena LaVey, who is cited in the CSER report as
official spokesperson for the Church of Satan and a source of “reliable and accurate
information regarding the occult and ritual crime,” is also involved with the Order. Ms.
LaVey, who, the report informs us, “consults with people interested in applying Satanic
principles to their lives,”63 received early childhood training in these “principles” from her
father. As she comments in her introduction to the elder LaVey‟s The Satanic Witch, “My
father taught me how to crack a bullwhip at nine, so by the time I was eleven I was already
attracting boys who needed to be told what to do (a recurring theme throughout my life).”64
Ms. LaVey should be able to put such training to good use in the Werewolf Order, of which
she is listed as co-director. “The warrior priests and priestesses of our Order are lone wolves
who shun the bovine herd of humankind and seek to fulfill their ancient legacy of power and
mastery of the world,”65 declares its recruiting literature. The group appears fixated on
psychotronics and bioacoustics as a tool with great propaganda potential. “We began our
operations in 1984 with the activities of Radio Werewolf, the sonic propaganda unit of the
Order,” the same recruiting material states.66 In an earlier broadside entitled “Radio
Werewolf Indoctrination,” a spokesman for the “Radio Werewolf Supreme Command”
informs readers that the music of Radio Werewolf “is designed to instill the gleam of pride
and independence of the beast of prey back into the eyes of the pitiless youth.” If this
sounds familiar, it should, because the statement incorporates a direct quote from Adolf
Hitler. Pretentious, deluded, and grandiose the Werewolf Order may be, but benign it is not.
In an interview with a Boston reporter, a youthful member of the Abraxas Foundation -
which he described as an “occult-fascist think tank” with ties to the Church of Satan -
named Hider and Charles Manson as among those whose “feral nature” he admires.67 The
Werewolf Order and Abraxas Foundation hardly constitute an “international conspiracy,” but
such details don‟t dampen the enthusiasm of a self-described “flesh and blood incarnation of
the timeless archetype of Loki‟s legions, the avenging army that rises from the underworld