On November 4, 1984, the bodies of eleven-year-old Daniel Babineau and his nine-year old sister Monique, children of…

…Marcel and Jeanne Babineau, were found on a local playground at the St. Peters School. Both had been strangled, but there was no sign of sexual assault. Both children had disappeared from their home only hours before the bodies were found…at their school. Kidnapping was ruled out because there were no signs of a break-in. And the murders sent local parents into a panic. The two children left their home, went to the school, where both were murdered.

The killer was made out to be a 14-year-old boy, whose identity has never been released to the public.

So, the boy was unable to state why he did it. And I think that, maybe, there was a little bit of embellishment when the dying girl told the killer that she would pray for him.

And now let’s blow this thing up with a bunch of nonsense…

I’m supposed to believe that the authorities got the whole thing right by hypnotizing a 13-year-old boy, no doubt after pushing him around? And it is important to remember that the two boys that the killer originally intended to murder, were alive and well. But we are left without a motive.

A headline we’ve seen many, many times. And…

This is the first time I’ve ever heard anyone connect D&D with…omnipotence. It sounds more like narcissism and megalomania.

But let’s make the story even more unbelievable…

And…

The troubling thing about this claim, is that the Babineau children weren’t there when the D&D book was being read or when the sword was being carved. They were at home, and it would seem likely that the boy was at his home too. Had they been present, we might get second-degree murder. But since they weren’t, as the story unfolds, we’re left with first-degree premeditated murder, depending on the outcome of a plea bargain. To recap…

It’s not easy to know what to think about this. The boy is at home carving a wooden sword. But he keeps breaking it. He breaks it a third time, and snaps…no pun intended. He goes over to the phone, picks up the receiver, calls Daniel Babineau, and asks him to meet him at the school. Monique comes along. Then he kills them. There is no way that this makes any sense. However, a different view arose…

And here we are yet again…a mentally disturbed kid. And it was noted earlier that the defense attorney described the boy as a…latent schizophrenic. I’m not sure why he used the word…latent, a word indicating that the person in question is susceptible to something, but it has not materialized yet and may never materialize.

The strange gets stranger…

…so, our unnamed kid was an altar boy at the funeral and, oddly enough, wanted to put holy medals in the two coffins, yet he showed no emotion?

For only five months?

That is interesting.

Furthermore…

So, it would seem that D&D was irrelevant, but mental disorder…was very relevant...

…certainly.

On April 1, 1985, sixteen-year-old Michael Cote of Killaloe Station, Canada, shot himself in the woods near his home. The parents went to the media attributing the suicide to Dungeons & Dragons. He attended Madawaska District High School, where he had organized a D&D club, with himself as Dungeon Master.

Young people who haven’t crystallized their personalities? The most interesting thing is the so-called poem…

 Forget life, forget light.

 I had never seen this before, but I’ve located it, and it is in a D&D context…

Search ye far or search ye near
You’ll find no trace of the three
Unless you follow instructions clear
For the weapons abide with me.
North past forest, farm and furrow
You must go to the feathered mound
Then down away from the sun you’ll burrow

Forget life, forget light…

…forget sound
To rescue Wave, you must do battle
With the Beast in the boiling Bubble
Crost cavern vast, where chain-links rattle
Lies Whelm, past water-spouts double.
Blackrazer yet remains to be won
Underneath inverted ziggurat.
That garnered, think not that you’re done
For now you’ll find you are caught.
I care not, former owners brave
What heroes you seek to hire.
Though mighty, I’ll make each my slave
Or send him to the fire.

In the game, this was a note left with three owners of magical weapons that were stolen by thieves. It also gives one the impression of having been used in a suicide note.

What else is known about Mike? First, his parents were divorced, and he went to Ottawa to live with his father, after living some time with his mother. Did anything happen on the day of the suicide?

So, there’s really no doubt that the showdown with his father over stealing and drinking is what pushed Mike over the edge. He so feared the clash with his father that he decided he’d rather be dead. There is a lot more to this story than we’ve been told.

Yes, another incident involving a broken home.

On April 13, 1984, a group of friends showed up to the house where…

…eighteen-year-old Mary Towey lived with her parents…4126 Monte Vista Drive, Oakville, Missouri. She was a freshman student at St. Louis University.

It does seem a bit odd to go and party at someone’s house when that someone isn’t home. And it was a party for Friday the 13th.  When police investigated, it was noted that the house had been burglarized and in addition to finding out what was missing, things were there that shouldn’t have been.

In addition, the family’s 1981 Buick was gone.

Apparently, it was actually found in a motel parking lot at the airport. Two young men were arrested. Both were friends of Mary. Both were in possession of the items stolen from the house. And both were in Towey’s house that night.

Ronald G. Adcox and Darren Lee Molitor stayed in the house smoking pot and drinking. When Mary got up in the morning, the two attacked her, bound her hands and feet, and left her in the basement. Molitor told Mary that they were…messing with her mind, only to then later tie an ace bandage with tape around her neck. As Molitor and Adcox smoked more pot upstairs, Mary died. They hid her body in the woods, stole various items from the house, took her car, and drove to Atlanta, where detectives arrested them at the motel.

Molitor and Adcox worked as plasterers and drywallers…although they were unemployed at the time. Darren had dropped out of high school at the age of 16. His mother said that he became bored with school.

My son is very intelligent, she said. He has a very high IQ.

Really? It seems that dropping out of high school is a very intelligent thing to do. Maybe if he were less intelligent, and had a lower IQ, he’d have a job.

This a different version of the story that was described earlier, where the murder did not seem pre-meditated. Here it does, and that’s first-degree murder.

It came to light that the three were friends, who strangely, met at St. Louis University, despite the fact that Molitor and Adcox didn’t attend school there.

So it was a common interest in D&D that brought the three together. And they were unemployed, surprising given their lofty goal of being very intelligent dropouts and unemployed drywallers. The three had the habit of driving around together in Mary’s car.

But it was interesting that when confessing to the FBI, Molitor supposedly signed the document using three names:  his own, Sammy Sagar, and Demun. The latter two were identified as the names of Molitor’s D&D characters. But there has been much doubt about the significance of this, and whether Molitor was being serious. The name…Sammy Sagar, is highly suggestive of the rock singer named…Sammy Hagar, who has always been very popular in St. Louis. The name…Demun…is one letter away from…Demon. It is also the name of a neighborhood in St. Louis. Well, it was worth a shot. Molitor held fast to his decision to blame D&D for making him kill. Radecki and Pulling sought to interfere by claiming to be expert witnesses about the occult in general, and Dungeons and Dragons in particular. Molitor took the line taken by BADD…

Pulling and Radecki were forced to sit on the side lines, seeing that judge Alphonso H. Voorhees reached a very apt decision on the use of the D&D defense…

What was known is that prior to the killing, the two men were drinking, smoking pot, and, like a couple of children, practicing Kung Fu moves. But that had to change…

That is a lie intended to establish a link between D&D and Molitor killing Towey. The exclusion of D&D in the trial led to Molitor’s statement that if the testimony had been allowed to stand, he might not have been convicted. I will admit that the D&D claims should have been entered into evidence…not that it would help Molitor’s case, but so it would show how ridiculous the claims made about the game truly were. In an appeal filed in 1987, Molitor sought to have the judge’s exclusion of D&D testimony overturned. The appeals court upheld the lower court’s decision. It was decided that the testimony by Radecki and Pulling would be…off the record…

Irrelevant! Pulling would go on to exaggerate any role she may have had in the trial. To quote Molitor…

Ms. Pulling contacted either my parents or my lawyer after her husband saw a St. Louis newspaper with my case in it. She and Dr. Radecki did testify at my trial, but it was “off the record.” In other words, it went into the transcript, but the jurors were not allowed to hear it because it was ruled irrelevant.

The prosecution said this to the judge…

In other words, D&D was only an interest that brought them together. And that was it. When Molitor was interviewed about the crime, he gave several versions, none of which involved D&D. In 1987, an appeal was filed by Molitor about the judge’s decision…

Well, it was worth a try.

Adcox showed just how truly how rotten he was…

On November 14, 1980, Gary Consolino and Ellen Dooling were shot to death in Gary’s car that was parked in his driveway. Gary attended UMSL, and Ellen was taking classes at SLU. On that evening, they attended a school play, ate at McDonald’s, and went to Gary’s place to watch TV. Then he drove her home. Three hours later, Ellen’s father found them dead in the driveway. There were no signs of assault or robbery.

The murders of Gary Consolino and Ellen Dooling remain among the coldest cases in the history of St. Louis.

Information was finally found that led detective Chris Pappas to Ronald Adcox.

In 1989, Pappas received a tip from an informant that an inmate at Marion had information about the Consolino and Dooling murders, but the inmate wasn’t talking. Finally, four years later in 1993, that inmate spoke.

The story he told was of a conversation with another inmate who claimed he was responsible for the murders. That inmate was Ronald Adcox.

The detective met with Adcox in prison, where the murderer showed his true colors. When asked about whether he killed Consolino and Dooling, Adcox said…

“I wouldn’t have done it if I was sober, but if I was drunk and high, I might have,” Adcox reportedly told Pappas. Pappas kept his foot on the gas, pressing for details. Adcox just laughed.

Adcox’s final words to the detective were…

“If I knew I would be here the rest of my life, I would fess up.”

However, these three murders are not the only ones involving Ronald Adcox.

If Pappas was right, and Adcox’s comments are taken into account, then one half of the Adcox-Molitor Terror Team had already murdered two young people before Mary Towey’s life was taken. Dungeons & Dragons may safely, as was done by the court and appellate court, be ruled out.

Drugs, alcohol, and a violent personality led to the acts committed by Ronald Adcox.

A letter circulated, supposedly written by Molitor, on March 22, 1985. In this long, rambling letter, he spends much of his time describing how the game is played. He also states that the game is dangerous, refers to Satan, and provides a very amateurish description of how the human mind works. He appears to have been coached in some respects. He ends with…

So, please for your own safety and salvation and the safety of others don't play the game anymore. If you don't play it now, don't even start. It is more dangerous than I can fully explain. Don't play with your physical life that way and don't condemn your soul to hell by participating in the game.

Later, inaccuracies involving Darrin and his letter were noted…

Darren is not, as Mrs. Pulling said in her book, “[working] hard today, writing from his prison cell to warn others about the dangers of fantasy role-playing games.” In fact, according to Darren, the distribution of his “letter” concerning D&D was out of his hands. “Pat Pulling did all of the work in distribution. As far as that goes; how many, when, where, etc., I have no idea.”

Then Molitor walked back what he said in his letter, essentially referring to the evil effects of D&D with a more limited scope…

Though I no longer feel the game is dangerous for everyone as it was for me, I do feel it can be harmful if circumstances occur.

At the time of the writing, I was under a lot of tension and completely in confusion because I was still awaiting my trial. I say this because I may have gone a little overboard.

Do you think so?

On October 18, 1983, forty-two-year-old Ann Renski was found murdered in her 941 James Street apartment in Syracuse, New York. She had been stabbed to death with two knives and a pair of scissors that the killer left protruding from her body. The rental agent, James Wenling, was told by another resident that newspapers were piling up at Renski’s door. After finding the body, he called police. Renski had, or so it was originally reported, also been raped. Suspicion quickly fell on…

…Dominick Tucci, and there was a connection between his family and that of Ann Renski. Ann’s brother, Charles Renski, was dating Dominick’s mother.

Ok. So, Ann Renski was causing problems in a local bar, and someone there called Tucci’s mother. She went to the bar but was unable to get Renski to return home with her, but Tucci’s mother did take Ann’s purse and coat. The story is strange already.

So, after an evening helping people have it their way, Dominick suddenly discovered, much to his surprise, that he had three sets of keys in his pocket. How did they get there? When he got home, did he attempt to find the owner of the keys? No, he hid them under his mattress. At least, that was the claim, but one that is open to debate. And yes, one set of keys belonged to Ann Renski. None of this makes any sense. What else did he keep under his mattress? Souvenirs…

Quite embarrassing, but not uncommon. None of the underwear belonged to Renski, but Tucci, or so it was claimed, did put the keys where he kept his souvenirs.

Yes! Did he say Black Sabbath? The album he is referring to is…

There is a slight problem…the person being strangled is not a naked woman…the person is a naked man. Oops. They did have a 50% chance of being right, and it just shows how little these guys knew, be it album covers, or the dynamics of D&D.

And had they looked a little harder, they would have seen the back cover image. This is the album that includes…Killing Yourself to Live, which I discussed in an earlier essay. This is also the album that has my favorite Black Sabbath song on it…Spiral Architect. This is the only song that featured a backing orchestra…

They ended up at the nearby Pye Studio along the road, with Ozzy trying to explain what he wanted them to play like some sort of mad conductor. He had no written music to give the orchestra, he just hummed the part and they picked it up."

Mad conductor? Wouldn’t he be driving a…

…Crazy Train? I wonder if the guy on the album cover keeps foundation garments under his mattress. In addition to the keys, critical evidence came from the testimony of Frank A. Romeo, a supposed friend of Tucci…

There’s no doubt that this testimony was very detrimental to Tucci.

Black magic? Really?

This makes no sense. How can a murder that included jabbing the victim with a pair of scissors possibly be linked to the occult? Wouldn’t we expect some kind of weird, ceremonial dagger? Why leave the two knives and scissors sticking out of the body? This would seem to suggest that the killer was in a panic, not carrying out some bizarre occultic ceremony that made use of scissors.

Tucci would maintain during the trial that the self-condemnatory statements he made to the police were the result of the pressure that Police Investigator Thomas Stassi put on him.

What next?

So here we go again. D&D has nothing to with the occult, witchcraft, or Satanism.

It seems to me that the testimony of Frank Romeo is highly suspect, with Tucci’s “friend” apparently having made a very favorable deal with investigators. And Tucci’s mother didn’t help…

Why did Romeo want to leave town, with Tucci, at the last minute? The question answers itself. And what mother calls the police to tell them that she thinks her son was involved in the murder? This is something very important in interpreting this case. Tucci went on to be convicted of second-degree murder. And my how underwear can cause judicial miscarriages of justice…

The issue of the women’s underwear could, hypothetically, been relevant to the rape charge, though that’s stretching it. But of the five charges made against Tucci, four were thrown out by the judge…robbery, sexual assault, robbery related to murder and sexual assault related to murder. So all charges involving a sexual element were thrown out. Why? Could it have been that she really hadn’t been raped? The robbery charge was dropped when it was found that, or so it was claimed, only $13.00 was missing from the apartment.

But yet again, the specter of police taking advantage of young people once again haunts the courtroom.

Yes, he was denied a lawyer and questioned without one, even when one was present and trying to get into the interrogation room. So the defense sought to have the taped confession ruled inadmissible.

Frankie seemed to be drunk or strung out on drugs. I vote we stuff Romeo’s testimony under the mattress like a pair of lady’s underwear.

If Romeo’s testimony is thrown out, and all the testimony given by Tucci to the police when he was being illegally interrogated is thrown out as well, then we are left with very little…except the keys. I found it interesting that the police didn’t find the keys…

Mom found the keys, so the police could only take her word for it that she found them where she did. Mom also told the cops that she thought her son was the killer. And mom was the one who went to the bar to deal with Ann Renski, who refused to go home with her. Oh, Mom was also living with Ann Renski’s brother. And of course, Mom and Charles did not mention the incident at the bar involving Renski’s disturbance when interviewed by the police.

We know that Ann Renski was…crazy and belligerent. And there is more…

I wonder what happened to her keys when she did that. And…

More…

…she was mentally ill, combined her prescription medication with alcohol, and it would appear that she was very inconsiderate of the people around her. In short, she was impossible to get along with and had probably made a few enemies. If true, her habit of leaving her door open was just asking for trouble. So, with this case, it would seem that things only go from confusing to more confusing.

Yes, overkill. You strangle a woman and then you practically slice her up with two knives and a pair of scissors, so many times that you can’t count all the slashes, leads to only one conclusion…it wasn’t black magic, robbery, D&D, hashish…and it wasn’t Dominick. Renski was killed by someone who hated her, hated her very much, someone she was in conflict with…that was the person who killed Ann Renski.

On July 25, 1988, businessman Leith Peter Von Stein and his wife, Bonnie, were attacked in their home. Peter was stabbed and bludgeoned to death. Bonnie survived the attack but suffered serious injuries.

Initially, the crime scene appeared to be a burglary gone wrong, seeing that the house had been ransacked. But the police soon decided that the scene had been arranged to look like a burglary. A farmer reported finding a burned piece of paper with a…

…map of the von Stein’s neighborhood drawn on it. Bonnie and her daughter, Angela, passed polygraph tests, and the police quickly ruled them out. Chris, Bonnie’s son, however, refused to take one…which was his legal right, and although it can’t be brought up at trial, it made the police suspicious. There were also rumors at NC State University that Chris and two friends had been involved in something illegal. The police investigation took a predictable turn when it was discovered that Von Stein had an estate worth $2 million.

And then…

…Neal Henderson spoke with investigators, on June 9, 1989, to say that his friend…

…Chris Pritchard, the son of Bonnie Von Stein and stepson of Leith, told him to drive another friend…

…James Upchurch, to and from the scene of the murder. It was determined that Chris drew the map. Chris told Henderson that he would share part of the inheritance money with him. This is what Henderson testified…

What else would he say? Actually, Henderson took a plea bargain, pleading guilty to reduced charges and agreed to testify against the other two. Pritchard, it would seem, knew that his stepfather inherited one million dollars, and had other money, but was unaware that much of Leith’s wealth was tied up in trusts, meaning he wouldn’t receive the money in any case. Chris returned home to visit his family and had a violent argument with his stepfather, the two almost coming to blows. Although his parents were providing him with spending money, they questioned his use of it and told him that he would have to make an accounting of it. On July 20, 1988, Pritchard and Upchurch discussed the money that was presumed to become available if the von Steins were dead.

According to the plan, Pritchard went home on Friday, 22 July. On Saturday morning he told his parents he was leaving to go see some friends. Instead, Pritchard drove to Raleigh to pick up the defendant. In Raleigh, the defendant gave Pritchard a package of crushed sleeping pills. The two of them drove back to Washington that afternoon. Pritchard dropped defendant off at a location away from the house where defendant was to wait until Pritchard returned. Pritchard then went home and prepared hamburgers for the family lacing the food with the sleeping pills. After dinner, Pritchard told his family he was returning to Raleigh. After leaving his parents' home, Pritchard drove back to where the defendant was staying. The two of them tried unsuccessfully to crush a fuse. The defendant told Pritchard the plan would not work so they returned to Raleigh. The defendant's new plan was to chop off the Von Steins' heads. The defendant wanted to purchase a machete, but no Army surplus stores were open.

The new plan was to have Upchurch kill the family with a hunting knife and baseball bat. A phony break-in was staged. Angela, Chris’s sister, slept through the attack, and remained unharmed. Chris promised to pay Upchurch $50,000 and give him a Porsche. Henderson was to receive $50,000 and a Ferrari.

In the early morning of July 25, Leith was attacked in his bed, and his screaming awoke Bonnie, who was then attacked. She came to and saw the attacker leave. At 4:30 am, a farmer called the police about a fire. The police found the burnt map, burned clothing, the knife, and part of a tennis shoe.

For many months Chris Pritchard lied to his family, friends, and authorities. In June 1989, he was arrested, and, in late December, just before the trial, he first confessed to the police and his family. In June 1989, the police also arrested Neal Henderson who cooperated with them in their investigation. At defendant's trial, Henderson testified that Pritchard and defendant first approached him two or three weeks before the attack and asked him to be the driver. He identified the baseball bat used in the assault and defendant's knapsack, which defendant carried that night and left in the Von Stein home.

By December 1989, just before his trial, and I’m not sure why, Bonnie, who had been beaten and stabbed, reconciled with her son…

Upchurch was found guilty of murder, and was sentenced to death. The death sentence was commuted to life in prison, with possibility of parole. Pritchard was sentenced to life imprison, but paroled in 2007. Henderson was sentenced to 40 years and was paroled in 2000. Time for what we expect. Comments about Henderson…

And…

Furthermore…

Finally, a jury stupid enough to buy the D&D nonsense…

As it is, this case was hopelessly confused by…

…two paperback books written about it, including Cruel Doubt by Joe McGinniss, and Blood Games, by Jerry Bledsoe. In addition, both books spawned TV specials. I will say for the record that TV shows about historical events have little value. They are ultimately written for entertainment, and the money associated with it. I also distrust paperback books about historical events, because they are ultimately sensationalistic, with the same goal of making money. A notable red flag is the title of such books. Blood Games? TV shows aside, paperback books usually contain historically reliable information, but one has the overwhelming task of looking for the proverbial needle in the proverbial haystack. The books and TV shows set up Dungeons & Dragons as having a large impact on the three men and the crime they committed. This is not consistent with the murder. Pritchard said…

…killing his parents occurred to him when he was in a mental fog from drugs, including LSD, and under pressure for his poor grades.

Really? Dragging D&D into this event is mindboggling.

Steam tunnels? This is a direct reach-back to the legends centered around James Dallas Egbert, which were discussed previously.

This crime was based on one of history’s most classic motives for murder…money. Killing someone to get at an inheritance has played out with an overwhelming regularity in human history. The focus on D&D in the myth that has been created on the basis of the Stein murder appears to be weak at best.

Excuses, excuses, excuses. It’s so much easier to convince other people you were tricked into a heinous crime, rather than acknowledge that you’re a cold-blooded murderer who wanted to kill your parents for their money. In other words, you’re a psychopath.

So what, in the end, can be said about…

…Pat Pulling?  Ok, that’s not fair. I’ll try again…

I don’t know what she was doing in this one…

Pat was a key figure in the Satanic Panic, and didn’t hesitate to branch out into Tipper Gore Territory…

…taking on Motley Crue. Bass player Nikki Sixx credited Tipper Gore with greatly contributing to the band’s record sales, and perhaps he would say the same about Pat Pulling, who died at the young age of 49. But one must give her credit for knowing what she believed in, and her willingness to fight for it. That said, she abruptly left BADD in 1990. Michael Stackpole produced a report on Pat Pulling based on his research. He found that she had been misleading in her claims about her own credentials…

Just as clearly, somewhere in her career as an investigator, she lost her perspective. She has, willfully or negligently, manufactured reports concerning suicides and murders related to games and Satanism. She has promoted individuals who are, at the very least, in need of serious psychiatric help to deal with their emotional and psychological problems. She has repeatedly represented herself as an “expert witness” concerning games of which she knows little or nothing. She has perpetrated a deception concerning the circumstances surrounding the senseless death of her son.

Clearly Pat Pulling is a “cult crime expert” only in her own eyes and those of her cronies, allies and disciples. Barry Goldwater once said, “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.” The extremism connected with the battle against the Satanic Conspiracy is not defending liberty. Fanaticism such as that which perpetuates a hysterical fantasy is nothing short of pure evil. The only greater evil is to do nothing to share the truth with those who might be misled by Mrs. Pulling.

His full report is well worth reading for specific details that don’t need to be presented here. But what about…

…Dr. Thomas Radecki? He seems to have been influenced by a novel titled…

…Mazes and Monsters. It has been suggested that he came to his conclusions about D&D from Rona Jaffe’s book, which was made into a made-for-TV movie of the same name. A book called…Hobgoblin…also sought to connect D&D with mental disorders. Both are novels, and nothing more. I have been unable to find a game called Mazes and Monsters…because it never existed. There are games called…

Monsters and Mazes, a game called Mazes & Minotaurs, and Hobgoblins. But again, these two books were novels, and you can’t learn Roman history by reading…I Claudius, an excellent example of the genre of literature called the…historical novel. These kinds of books are not historically or factually reliable.

In September 2012, Radecki voluntarily surrendered his Pennsylvania medical license while facing allegations of unprofessional conduct with patients. These allegations included the fact that Radecki traded drugs to patients for sex.

In August 2013, Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane announced Radecki's arrest for over-prescribing, trading opioid-addiction treatment drugs for sex through a program he ran in several counties called "Doctors & Lawyers for a Drug Free Youth. In June 2016, he was sentenced to an 11- to 22-year prison term as a result of the case. In February 2018, a judge rejected a request that his sentence be reduced because of his age and because of what Radecki claimed was improperly introduced evidence in his case.

Another source…

A Pennsylvania psychiatrist who traded pills to 13 female drug addicts for sex in a bid to build a "commune" could be fated to die in prison.

Radecki would hire patients with whom he was having sex.

But there were also specific drug crimes…

$5 million worth of prescription medications, and he kept them in his house. He was a sexual offender who hoped to create a sex commune, for which we could read…harem…and an arch-hypocrite who used Doctors & Lawyers for a Drug Free Youth to get women to do something he was apparently not getting in the normal way. He was a fiend who got what he deserved. So, Mazes & Monsters, Hobgoblin, Pat Pulling, and Thomas Radecki…are NOT reliable. Of course, you can measure credibility by the type of language your source uses…

Enough said. The same considerations apply regarding the works of Jack Chick…the guy who produced tons of little Evangelical booklets in the form of comics. This is my favorite…

Dungeon of bondage is a badly chosen expression. In the end, there’s a lot more to be said about Dungeons & Dragons and its role in the Satan Panic. But that can wait until a later time. Suffice it to say, it shared the spotlight with rock music, TV, movies, video games, and…in the 1950’s…comic books. They all serve a very important role in American society…something to blame for the problems of young people. Things go wrong, but society has a tendency to overlook the real causes, such as the trauma of abuse, broken homes, alcoholic parents, a lack of parental supervision and neglect, and ready access to guns…to name a few. However, it is far more tempting to ignore the real problems that impact young people, all of which society just can’t seem to fix, and to blame things that adults think are easy fixes…blame something else, something that parents have been seduced to do since the 1950s…find things to ban. Banning has never worked and never will. Do warning labels work? No, and they can end up making something with the label all the more popular because of it. The internet makes banning things impossible. How many people play Dungeons & Dragons? It has been widely popular since it first appeared. So why have so few people been identified as having lost their sanity because of the game? Does the game appeal to people who are, to some degree, normal? Yes. Does the game appeal to people who aren’t suffering from an apparent, or latent, mental or personality disorder? Yes. Are there people who twist and distort the game into something malevolent? Yes, but this isn’t the fault of the game. If it wasn’t D&D, something else would be blamed, as other elements of youth culture have been. There are hold-outs in the movement to blame D&D for evil things, but there is no doubt that the general view of the game changed dramatically in 2016…

Fisher-Price Little People, from left, Dungeons & Dragons and the swing were enshrined into the National Toy Hall of Fame on Thursday. To be nominated, toys must have lasted across generations, influenced new toys and fostered learning or creativity through play.

I think Dr. Joyce Brothers would add, in the case of D&D…help young people to develop team-work skills. The cases discussed in this essay have all involved very troubled people, and in some instances, troubled people who were failed by their families and society. Perhaps it’s time for American society to escape from the dungeon of its own making.