All the Lies They Did Not Tell: The True Story of Satanic Panic in an Italian Community

In this harrowing account, Italian journalist Trincia revisits a case of Satanic panic that gripped two Italian villages in the late 1990s that resulted in 16 children being removed from their families amid horror stories of ritual pedophilia and midnight cemetery child murders. Trincia, the co-creator of the podcast Veleno, which led to the reopening of the case, draws on extensive interviews, mountains of trial documents, and hours of videotaped sessions between psychologists and the children. Five trials resulted in some adults going to prison for years, while others were acquitted, all on the same sketchy evidence. Why did the children lie? Similar cases throughout the world, including America, point to the now debunked claim of recovered memories as well as the pressure from judges and psychologists who endlessly questioned the children, often planting the stories in their heads as the allegations grew. The true horror wasn’t the stories of a Satanic priest and a pedophilia ring run amok but the devastation brought to the lives of the children who were ripped from their homes and the parents who often never saw them again. In straightforward prose, Trincia lets the facts speak for themselves. True crime fans won’t want to miss this engrossing tale of mass hysteria and a massive failure of the Italian court system. (Aug.)