Abuse of Innocence

In 1983, the family-run McMartin Preschool Nursery in Manhattan Beach, a suburb of Los Angeles, was subjected to a sexual-abuse investigation that lasted six years, cost taxpayers $16 million and initially identified 42 children as victims. Children testified about being sodomized, fondled, forced to drink blood and made to watch teachers hacking up dead bodies and live animals. At the pretrial hearings, there were seven defendants, including school founder Virginia McMartin, her daughter Peggy McMartin Buckey and Peggy's son Raymond. The Buckeys were indicted. There were two trials--only Raymond was charged in the second; both ended in mistrial, the last in 1990. The Eberles ( The Politics of Child Abuse ) show that the prosecution was a witch-hunt complete with suggestible children and hysterical parents as well as sleazy lawyers and ``sex-abuse'' experts whose vested interests perverted justice. Trial testimony, juicy courthouse asides and the authors' keen descriptive powers make the proceedings come alive. 30,000 first printing; $30,000 ad/promo. (Apr.)