The McMartin Preschool case involved hundreds of accusations of ritual sexual abuse of children at a school in Manhattan Beach, California. The case began in 1983 when a parent accused a staff member of abusing her child, which set off a zealous investigation by the local district attorney’s office. Interviews with the school’s students produced many outlandish stories of children being forced to drink blood and witness animal sacrifices. There were also stories about a staff member who could fly and secret tunnels below the school.
In 1984 the school’s entire staff, consisting of six women and one man, was charged with molestation and conspiracy. The charges against five staff members were later dropped because of weak evidence. The McMartin Preschool case became one of the longest and most expensive criminal trial in U.S. history, lasting from 1987 to 1990, but produced no convictions. It is considered a landmark case of the satanic panic during the 1980s and ’90s.