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acknowledged that they were influenced by satanic ideation. But F.B.I. Special Agent
Lanning apparently believes that his more pedantically constrictive criteria should be
sufficient guides for judging satanic motivation.
Another of Lanning‟s lacunae involves his acknowledgement that investigators must prove a
connection between beliefs and crimes. But he then proceeds to declare that serious crimes
lack such evidence. Although he accepts that valid evidence reveals a connection between
Satanism and desecration, animal mutilations and the like, he obscures the issue by
insisting that “a teenager‟s excessive involvement in Satanism ...is a symptom ...not the
cause of a problem,”82 i.e., satanic involvement cannot be the cause of such a teenager‟s
particular crimes. This subtle ad hominem argument neglects the obvious. While a troubled
youth may seek a rebellious path, the one he embraces will strongly influence the
destination. Satanism accelerates the progress to violence, frames its arena, and authorizes
the act. It is not a necessary cause, but when present it can be a sufficient one.
Lanning‟s conclusions are, at first glance, reasonable. He begins with a call for a balanced
law enforcement perspective. He immediately follows this with a repetition of the main
report‟s supercilious straw men. He waltzes through the charges about widespread claims of
babies bred for sacrifice, the 50,000 per year figure for satanic sacrifices, and the claim that
Satanists dominate the day care centers. [At this point, it may be pertinent to ask if the
“50,000 baby sacrifices” is an “urban legend” that the CSER report itself has taken a major
role in perpetuating.] As does the report, Lanning fails to provide valid evidence
demonstrating who originated these statements. He is correct in warning against an anti-
satanic hysteria. He is not, however, serving the cause of responsible investigations.
The third appendix, “The Truth About Role Playing Gaines,” by Michael A. Stackpole, repeats
the themes of the main body of the report, while ostensibly demonstrating the benign
nature of fantasy role-playing games. Stackpole repeats the arguments of Hicks and
Lanning, his primary target being Patricia Pulling, founder of Bothered About Dungeons and
Dragons [B.A.D.D.J. Stackpole extends the main report‟s scientific pretensions into an
attack on what he claims is Pulling‟s misuse of statistics in regard to the issue of whether or
not role playing games contribute to teen suicides. Stackpole argues that Pulling
erroneously claims that they do. It is interesting to see how he develops his point. His first
tactic is to cite a list of studies on attempted and successful teen suicides. Four such
studies, Stackpole tells us, clearly fail to demonstrate a correlation between role playing
games (RPG) and teenage suicide.83 This sounds impressive. The lack of relevance to
Pulling‟s claim, however, is revealed in Stackpole‟s comment on the first of his cited studies.
This study of “over 700 adolescents who had attempted suicide,” was conducted by Dr. S.
Kenneth Schonberg of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.84 Stackpole adds
the observation that none of these cases indicated that a role playing game (RPG) was a
factor in the attempted suicide. He also conveniently informs us that “the subjects were not
selected for the study in any special way.”85 But he then proceeds to claim this and the
other studies as authoritative reflections of the impact RPGs have on a very select cross-
section of our adolescent population, those who play role playing games and attempt
suicide. Stackpole uses this faulty observation as the background from which he attempts to
demolish what he says are Pulling‟s errors. In truth, all he establishes is comparison.
Stackpole uses Pulling‟s figure of 4,000,000 -the number of people her book, The Devil’s
Web, says are Dungeons and Dragons players. He then cites an undocumented set of
figures for the percentage of suicides among the 15-24 years old segment of our population,
using a fluctuating rate of 11.7 per 100,000 to 12.8 per 100,000 during the period between
1975 and 1980.86 He adds the undocumented observation that the rate has since dropped.
From these figures, Stackpole extrapolates necessary figures for suicide among D&D players
of 468 and 512 per year, respectively. Then, resuscitating the by now tired straw man
approach, he claims that this should add up to 6,840 suicides among “the players of role

Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 8, No. 2, 1991, Page 62
playing games [emphasis added] since Dungeons and Dragons was published, role playing
games did not incite teens to suicide.”87 [italics in original] This laborious line of reasoning
culminates in Stackpole‟s revelation that Pat Pulling‟s book cites approximately 70 suicides
among all RPG players “as of 1987.”88 He further reports: “But this number is only about
1% of the 6,840 successful suicides expected if D&D has no effect at all on the suicide rate
of its players.”89 All this appears coherent until one examines some important contributing
factors. Pulling, for example, thinks of adolescents as falling into the 13-20 years old range,
not the 15-24 years old range. Her comments, therefore, refer to a different population
group from the one Stackpole cites. Pulling also notes that the percentage of 13-20 years
old players of Dungeons and Dragons is quite small relative to the population at large. She
elaborated on her viewpoint during an extensive phone interview by pointing out that she
believes that only 8%-10% of the 13-20-year-old population group plays Dungeons and
Dragons. Fewer still are recurring players. Even in the absence of a solid statistical base,
this means that the pertinent subject group is much smaller than that to which Stackpole
alludes. By using his straw man of 6,840, Stackpole artfully diminishes the impact of
Pulling‟s observations.
Pulling‟s conclusions may overestimate the impact of D&D -we are not arguing that point.
But Stackpole‟s argument does not support his accusation. Pulling‟s warning that D&D is a
dangerous game that warrants serious scrutiny is home out by her analysis as well as by
our own observations of its impact on individuals we have counseled. The issue is not the
ratio of suicides per 100,000 people. The issue is whether or not it can be demonstrated
that fantasy role-playing games have contributed to any suicides or murders. If, as we
believe, this is the case, then Ockham‟s Razor says that Pulling‟s concern is legitimate.
Stackpole is too eager to brush aside this concern. The percentage of suicides among people
owning steak knives may be no higher than that of nonsuicides. But this does not mean that
a steak knife which slashes an artery didn‟t contribute to a particular suicide.
In keeping with the “independent” nature of his appendix, Stackpole faithfully resurrects the
keen polemical edge of Ockham‟s Razor -but not effectively. After linking Patricia Pulling to
a circle of allegedly spurious critics of Satanism, Stackpole reintroduces the grand
conspiracy theory. His source for this is the newsletter File 18, which is published by a
“questionable” investigator, Larry Jones, and which espouses the theory of a vertical
Satanist conspiracy. We do not adhere to this viewpoint, and regret the lack of space in
which to explain why we hold our position. However, we do wish to comment on several
statements by Stackpole, including one that demonstrates that the mildest use of Ockham‟s
Razor will reveal the flaw in File 18’s “ vertical conspiracy theory.”90
Stackpole notes that adolescents caught up in “bizarre occult antics” frequently say they
learned them by watching Geraldo Rivera‟s talk show.91 Because people we have counseled
have made that same claim, we do not doubt Stackpole‟s observation. We do, however,
seriously question his credulity. Those individuals we have counseled who have cited this
show as the source of their satanic knowledge and inspiration have uniformly lied. Examples
include members of a New England group which employed satanic symbols for over a year
before the Geraldo Rivera show debuted. These youths calmly acknowledged their
longstanding practice of self-mutilation, done to the energizing refrains of heavy metal
music. A 17-year-old Pennsylvania girl who tried to calm her parents with this claim, had for
a period of three years been a member of a ritualistic sex group which sacrificed animals for
thrills and power. A group of drug dealers whose locale will go unspecified learned their dual
trade of Satanism and dealing from their fathers. These cases do not suggest a worldwide
conspiracy. They do satisfy us that a correct application of William of Ockham‟s logical
economy leads to the conclusion that this problem exists, is based on fairly uniform
influences, and certainly predates Geraldo Rivera‟s talk show.