International Journal of Coercion, Abuse, and Manipulation Volume 9, Issue 2 2026 28
to murdering her (Hananoki, 2021). As extreme and
odd as Pizzagate and the Clinton Body Count theories
are, Frazzledrip takes the Satanic Panic trope of
ritualistic child abuse and the blood libel to a new and
truly bizarre level.
Despite the falsity of the accusations, the unlikely
perpetrators, and the extraordinarily fantastical
nature of these claims, hundreds of discussion videos
(each with thousands of views) emerged on YouTube.
Conspiracists claim that the video was found on the
computer hard drive of Abedin’s ex-husband. The
theory further adds to the Clinton Body Count by
alleging the death of an unnamed minor and by
claiming that several police officers who viewed the
video were later killed at Clinton’s behest (Goldberg,
2021). In another variation of the narrative, many
QAnon supporters believe that just watching the video
may be “fatal to the viewer” and that the police officers
in question committed suicide in response to what they
saw (Sommer, 2023).
One of the weirdest parts of the already bizarre
Frazzledrip conspiracy is the claim that Clinton and
Abedin harvested their young victim’s blood for
adrenochrome prior to murdering her (Hananoki,
2021). Adrenochrome is the oxidized compound of
adrenaline and has no practical use unless it is bound
to monosemicarbazone to produce carbazochrome,
a medication that aids blood clotting (Schwarcz,
2022 Volle, 2024). QAnon adherents believe that
adrenochrome’s properties prevent its users from
aging and that high-ranking older Democrats are
harvesting it to prolong their lives (Volle, 2024). The
alleged consumption of adrenochrome extends beyond
the original Frazzledrip narrative to incorporate new
claims. Despite QAnon’s insistence that adrenochrome
is harvested from the blood of children, it can be and
is produced synthetically in a lab, and researchers can
purchase it from reputable suppliers (Schwarcz, 2022).
Finally, another particularly bizarre conspiracy that
developed along with Pizzagate was the proposal that
Clinton had developed an exceedingly rare neurological
disorder called kuru (Brisini, 2019). Kuru is a fatal
prion25
1
disease transmitted through the consumption
of infected human remains, especially neurological
25 A prion is a protein in the brain that can initiate abnormalities in
other proteins. This process may lead to several types of rare but often deadly
prion diseases (John Hopkins Medicine, 2024).
tissue (Brisini, 2019 Liberski &Brown, 2009). The
disease emerged in the Fore people of Papua New
Guinea and primarily affected women and children
(Liberski &Brown, 2009). The Fore used to engage
in ritualistic endocannibalism until the Australian26
1 government outlawed the practice in the mid-1950s
(Imran &Mahmood, 2011).
According to the kuru conspiracists, this disease
explained Clinton’s allegedly strange behavior and
emotional outbursts that had supposedly destroyed
her 2016 presidential campaign. Furthermore, the
kuru narratives posited that Clinton engaged in
deviant worship practices with Marina Abramovic, a
performance artist who often uses themes of blood and
pain in her work and is thus characterized as Satanic
in conservative media and Christian circles (Brisini,
2019). Casting Clinton as a witch with a propensity for
the consumption of neurological tissue was a bizarre
accusation in many ways, not least because researchers
have not found evidence of the spread of the kuru prion
since 1960 (Alpers cited in Brisini, 2019). Hence, even
if one were to accept the extremely bizarre accusation
that Clinton commits acts of cannibalism, it would be
biologically impossible for her to develop kuru (Brisini,
2019).
Criteria 4 and 6: Blatantly False Accusations and
Unreliable Methods
We have paired these criteria based on their
intersection. The criterion, blatantly false accusation,
requires that “at least one accusation” be evidently
untrue. For example, the accusation may include
“impossible acts” or “harm that should leave physical
injury” despite findings that no such harms transpired,
or “being transported for long distances” despite a lack
of evidence (Wood et al., 2017, p. 901). Wood et. al.
explain unreliable methods as the improper gathering
of evidence and breaches of “scientific or professional
standards... [and] procedures” (Wood et al., 2017).
As noted, the prion disease kuru no longer exists,
and adrenochrome must be modified for use. From a
scientific standpoint, adrenochrome cannot be used
as an anti-aging agent derived from blood. Evidently,
claiming that Clinton had contracted kuru and that she
26 Following World War One, the League of Nations gave Australia
control over territory that Germany had previously colonized in Papua New
Guinea (Britannica, 2025).

29
Susan Raine, Kilian LaBonte-bon |Witch Hunts and Gendered Politics
and other Democrats have consumed adrenochrome
from the blood of children are blatantly false accusations
based on conspiratorial hearsay rather than scientific
methodologies. Moreover, dead and/or injured
children have not been found, dispelling any truth to
the accusations that Clinton and other Democrats have
ritually abused and cannibalized children. No snuff
film showing Clinton and Abedin torturing a young
girl has been submitted as evidence in a court of law.
Clearly, these claims and others have no foundation
and are not supported by any professional standards or
investigative procedures.
Criminal justice agencies and medical findings identify
the true causes of the verified deaths there is no
evidence to support the conspiracy that the Clintons
had people murdered.27
1
Problematically, conspiracists
often ardently advise, “Do your own research!” as a
counter to knowledge produced and disseminated by
traditional social institutions.28 This self-styled research
does not conform to the standards of academic and
other forms of professional investigation, including
those of investigative journalism.
When Edgar Welch, a father of two young children,
arrived armed with a rifle and handgun at Washington
D.C.’s Comet Ping Pong Pizza, ready to free the allegedly
sexually abused children in the restaurant’s basement,
he found none. Indeed, Comet Pizza has no basement
(LaFrance, 2020). The only children present were
those eating pizza with their families and friends in full
public view. The entire premise of basement-dwelling,
Satanic-worshipping, pedophilic Democrats gathering
at the beloved, family-friendly pizza restaurant is based
upon the claims of influential individuals capitalizing
on the distrust of American citizens in the existing
political system.
27 Disciples of Q (the leader of QAnon), known as QTubers, “engage
in elaborate presentations of evidence” (Barkun, 2013, p. 7) in the form of
video essays on platforms like YouTube. QTubers and other similar adherents
and/or perpetrators of conspiratorial narratives are what Wood et al. (2017)
describe as unreliable experts whose statements are hyperbolic, false, or
unreliable.
28 Influential American conspiracy theorist William Milton Cooper
(1943–2001) coined the phrase to encourage his readers to reject official
governmental and other institutional narratives so that the ‘truth’ might be
uncovered. In the contemporary era, the phrase has become increasingly
popular in conspiracy culture (Ballentine, Celniker &Dunning, 2022).
Both Donald Trump and Alex Jones were the public
face of these and other claims.29
1
During a particularly
dramatic outburst, Alex Jones accused Clinton of being
the most prolific serial killer ever and of working for
Satan (Kirk, 2020). While the criminal justice system
may not recognize Alex Jones as an expert, enough of
his viewers believed his accusations against Clinton to
engage in the perpetuation of the evil cabal narrative.
Moreover, prior to his first presidency and during
it, Donald Trump, who formed a close relationship
with Jones during the pre-election period, has made
numerous significant and serious claims about Clinton
that have no foundation at all. Methods and evidence
are absent from the process of making extreme, and as
we argue, blatantly false accusations. Alarmingly, the
fact that Trump and Jones simply proclaim something
to be true seems to satisfy their followers that it must
be so.
Clinton has faced an unimaginable array of blatantly
false accusations based on unreliable methods.
Certainly, we could catalog many more examples, but
these few are more than sufficient for our purposes
here.
Criteria 10. Classic Witchcraft Accusations
Wood et al. (2017) round out their criteria for
identifying a witch hunt with classic witchcraft
accusations. As noted earlier, this characteristic of
witch hunts has eight features (of which at least three
must be present) as follows: (a) “orgiastic or group
sex,” (b) “cannibalism, including drinking blood,” and
(c) “sacrifice, torture, or murder of babies, animals,
or other innocent victims,” (d) “corpses, graves,” (e)
“feces, urine, or oral contact with anuses,” (f) “clothing,
objects, symbols, or rituals supposedly associated
with witchcraft or devil worship (e.g., robes, masks,
dancing, spells, ceremonies, desecration of graves or
religious objects),” (g) “appearances of Satan or other
spirits, exercise of supernatural powers such as flying,
psychokinetic control, or unnatural strength,” and (h)
“rapid transport of a person to a distant place through
flying or other unlikely means” (Wood et al., 2017,
901).
This article does not address every conspiratorial claim
made about Hillary Clinton. Rather, we present some
29 Even although Pizzagate did not originate with either person, both
men were responsible for continuously promoting it to large audiences.