A company that sells toothpaste and soap had to deny, repeatedly, that it was acting as an agent of Satan. Early in the 1980s, baseless conspiracy theories about cults committing mass child abuse spread around the country. Even as cases slowly collapsed and skepticism prevailed, defendants went to prison, families were traumatized and millions of dollars were spent on prosecutions. The phenomenon was so sprawling that, in its aftermath, it took on several names, like the ritual abuse scare or the day care panic. But one name has increasingly stuck: the satanic panic.

Source: New York Times March 31, 2021 11:01 UTC