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McMartin Ritual Abuse Case 171
parents with children enrolled in the McMartin
school. The letter stated, in part,
Peggy McMartin Buckley, a principle defendent in the
McMartin day-care center case, 1989 (AP Photos)
Virginia McMartin and her daughter Peggy
Buckey owned the McMartin preschool in
Manhattan Beach, California. Ray Buckey, the son
of Peggy Buckey, also worked there as a part-time
aide. The case began on August 12, 1983, when a
mentally disturbed woman—a woman who was
later diagnosed as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia
and who died from liver problems caused
by alcoholism before the trial began—accused Ray
Buckey of molesting her son, a student at the
McMartin school. This parent’s allegations were
quite bizarre from the very beginning. For
example, she asserted that the preschool staff had
“jabbed scissors into [the boy’s] eyes, and staples
in his ears, nipples and tongue” and that her son
had been compelled to drink blood taken from a
baby that he had witnessed Peggy Buckey sacrifice.
In retrospect, it is surprising that police took her
accusations seriously.
Upon investigation, no physical evidence was
found, nor did other children confirm the initial
accusations. The police also searched the school
and scrutinized Ray Buckey. Among other things,
they seized Peggy Buckey’s graduation outfit (to
be described later as a “Satanic robe”) and Ray
Buckey’s collection of Playboy magazines (later
used to support the contention that he was a child
molester). Lacking any real evidence, Manhattan
Beach police then took the highly controversial
step of issuing a “confidential” letter to about 200
Our investigation indicates that possible
criminal acts include oral sex, fondling of
genitals, buttock or chest areas and sodomy,
possibly committed under the pretense of
‘taking the child’s temperature.’ Also, photos
may have been taken of the children without
their clothing. Any information from your
child regarding having ever observed Ray
Buckey to leave a classroom alone with a child
during any nap period, or if they have ever
observed Ray Buckey tie up a child, is
important. (Hicks 1991, 189)
The letter set in motion a panic that would
eventually culminate in the trial. Also, when a local
TV station got wind of what was happening, they
related the news that the school could be
connected with the pornography and sex business
in nearby Los Angeles.
The preschool children had not been disclosing
stories of abuse until after they had been interviewed
by the Children’s Institute International
(CII), which by the spring of 1994 had reported
that some 360 children had been sexually abused.
The interviews, which were videotaped, not only
reflect a great deal of suggestive questioning, but
also a seeming demand that children provide the
“right” answers. For example, at one point in a
session, one of the persons conducting the interviews
admonishes, “I don’t want to hear any more
‘No’s.’ No, no. Detective Dog and we are going to
figure this out. Every little boy and girl in the
whole school got touched like that...and some of
them were hurt. And some were afraid to tell”
(cited in Nathan 1989, 16). The attitude reflected
in this style of questioning—namely, requiring
children to confirm the conclusions that authorities
had reached beforehand—would, unfortunately,
set the tone for the many later SRA cases.
With this a priori approach to information gathering,
it was easy to develop charges and proceed
to a trial. The owners of the school and four teachers
were charged initially, but eventually charges
were dropped against everyone except Ray and
Peggy Buckey.