Satanic Trappings and the Search for The Secret Rooms and Tunnels

The formal charges were wrapped in a conspiracy theory that portrayed the defendants as satanists who used the preschool as headquarters for a vast kiddie porn/prostitution empire that produced millions of child sex photos. The children were allegedly drugged and forced to participate in satanic rituals and sex games with teachers and strangers at both on and off campus locations. During those episodes the children encountered turtles, rabbits, lions, a giraffe, a sexually abusive elephant, dead and burned babies, dead bodies in mortuaries and graveyards, goat men, flying witches, space mutants, a movie star, and local politicians.

The on campus rituals allegedly occurred in secret rooms, located above and below ground, that were accessed by trap doors and underground tunnels. Some of those tunnels led to the street or to the garage of a neighboring triplex; from there the teachers transported the children by automobile on various felonious field trips, sometimes to distant locations arrived at via train, airplane (with the children packed tightly in crates) and hot air balloons. The children had been sworn to silence by threats against their parents' lives, illustrated by the killing and cutting up of small animals and a horse: "If you tell, this is what will happen to your parents!"

In March of 1985, a group of 40 to 50 McMartin parents led by Bob Currie arrived on the vacant lot next to the school to dig for animal remains and a secret underground room.⁴⁰ Several days later, an archaeological firm hired by the District Attorney's Office began its own excavation. DA's investigators interviewed children on the school site and searched for trap doors. No evidence was found to support the children's claims about underground tunnels or rooms.