The list of the signs of the Satanic Conspiracy in the media would continue to grow and grow, as this person and then that person added their own pet-peves. But it also brought kooky stories and allegations out of the recesses of crazy minds and into the mainstream media. I will give an example:

That is one of the lamest pictures of Satan I’ve ever seen! The two girls lay down in the street and started wriggling around? They crucified mice? And this got 2 cops fired? Countless even more insane stories would start appearing everywhere.

But coinciding with the Pope’s claims were patently demented statements made by guys who wanted…hold on to your hat…sell books! In 1972, a book called…

 
The Satan Seller appeared, purporting to be a memoir of the life of Mike Warnke.

The guy with the worst mullet ever! He claimed to have been part of a large Satanic cult group in the late 1960s, which goes along well with the founding of the Church of Satan, the starting point for more than one nonsense book. Warnke’s book features something that will be immediately recognized by anyone who has even a cursory exposure to conspiracy theories on the internet…the Illuminati, a German group of freethinkers of the late 18th century. He claimed that he had been forced out of his Satanic cult when he discovered that the Illuminati were running the show, despite the fact that the real Illuminati were diametrically opposed to superstition. So he left and did what any fugitive from Satan-worshipping Illuminati would do…join the Navy. He then became a Christian Comedian, something I didn’t know existed, claimed to be an expert on Satanism, and began his own ministry. When was he enticed into Satanism?

After watching Bewitched! That’s when most middle-class Christians were sucked into a life of worshipping Satan as part of a great Illuminati-backed scheme intended to prove that Pope Paul VI was right in his self-serving rants and raves. Well, not really...I think! Associated with Warnke was an Evangelist named Morris Cerullo of World Evangelism. And Cerullo shows just how loony the Satan Conspiracy conspiracy really was. He built the following:

The Witchmobile. This picture dates to December 1972. Cerullo toured the country with the Witchmobile, a van filled with all of kinds of cheesy supposed Satanic and Witch-oriented relics including voodoo oil, a Satanic altar, the Satanic bible, a human skull, a goat’s hoof, Oujia boards, Tarot cards, etc. He was also a faith healer, that breed of Evangelical Cranks who conned the sick, sickly, and disabled out of their money. I mean that in general, not specifically. Speaking in tongues is an important part of Cerullo’s show:

Sabababababa. Sandelamoniaha!” Cerullo exclaimed. “Those of you that have the gift of speaking in tongues… lift your voice!” All around, the babbling began. “Eyyyoo. Sabakakay. Ooooo, babababa!” said a woman to my side. “Gasteesdemashonananana. Ooofrabababababa,” said a man behind me. Others just said “B-b-b-b-b-b-b

Blah-Blah-Blah-supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

Bing Bing Bong Bong!

He made this claim in 1972:

And:

And it is worth noting that prior to 1975, branches of the Church of Satan were called grottos, not covens. Witches are organized in covens, not grottos.

Cerullo would also be associated with Hershel Smith, another guy who wrote a book about being delivered from a life of Satanism. He also formed his own ministry. Warnke’s crazy claims were debunked by Cornerstone magazine in 1991, the same publication that brought down Lauren Stratford. Warnke originally claimed that he led a Satanic cult with 1,500 members, and by the time his lies were were being exposed, he claimed that it only had 13 members. Later, it was found that the large amounts of money Warnke raised to save kids caught up in Satanism was used to fund a lavish lifestyle.

Cerullo moved on to…

Hershel Smith, who also purchased the Witchmobile, and jumped on the Warnke band-wagon:

The title of his book is not particularly original, at least not on the surface. There was a famous movie released in 1941 titled…The Devil and Miss Jones, which starred Jean Arthur and Charles Coburn... 

The owner of a New York department store goes undercover among his employees in order to stop the formation of a labor union. After becoming involved with Mary Jones, played by Jean Arthur, the store owner’s attitude toward his workers changes.

In 1973, a movie titled The Devil in Miss Jones appeared. It was by the same guy who made Deep Throat the year before.

The plot? A woman commits suicide, which lands her in Limbo. Her way out of Limbo is going to Hell, and she is sent back to the world of the living with the task of earning her way into Hell by engaging in as much sexual activity as she can.  Ultimately this fails, leaving her in a strange Hellish existence with a man obsessed with catching flies. So, it would seem that the title of Hershel Smith’s book isn’t exactly very original. In the same year as the publication of The Devil and Mr. Jones, adult film star Linda Lovelace, best known for her role in Deep Throat, released in 1972, published two autobiographies…

And:

Deep Throat was her claim to fame, although she had earlier made a highly disgusting porn film titled Dogorama.

As the public was being bombarded with claims and allegations about the great Satan Conspiracy that was threating the universe, American popular culture continued its love affair with the Hollywood versions of the Prince of Darkness. In the same year that Hershel Smith published his book, a movie was released titled The Devil Made Me Do It…

And do I love the title! Only a genius could publish material with such a phenomenal name! How controversial does a film have to be to be banned in Hell? In 1974, Alice Cooper lent credence to his purported Satanic standing. There was a 90 minute TV series called The Snoop Sisters. They were two older mystery writers. On March 5, 1974 the episode The Devil Made Me Do It aired. And Alice Cooper made a cameo appearance dressed in a bizarre skeleton costume, and performed his song Sick Things:

And one of the Geriatric Mystery Gals didn’t care for him at all…

Alice’s role was that of a witch seeking to become a warlock. His appearance as a witch brings to mind two legends about the origin of the name Alice Cooper. As we all know, Alice Cooper was the name of the band that featured Vincent Furnier as vocalist. The legend circulated that the name was chosen as the result of a Ouija board spelling out the name. Another story claims that while Furnier was at a carnival, a fortune teller to him that he was the reincarnation of a witch who was burned at the stake during the Salem Witch Trials.

Alice stated himself that the name was chosen simply for the fact that it sounds nice and wholesome, which then served as a polar opposite to the band itself. Still, the idea of a carnival is a fitting one for different elements of the Alice Cooper Show...

Alice made some interesting comments in 1974:

So what's the story, Alice? Are you gay? Are you straight? Are you bisexual? Which?!

Oh, I'm straight. I'm attracted only to members of the opposite sex - girls, that is.

Much of this was rooted in the pre-1975 imaging of the band:

Don't you think that a lot of your fans want to believe that you're gay?

Yes, I know they do. Isn't that curious? They'll read this interview, and they'll say, "Bull! We know he's queer!" Nothing I could say or do could convince them that I'm not.

I think in the future everyone will be bisexual. And everything would be so much simpler then - you'd just make love with anyone you liked, and it wouldn't matter what sex they were, and maybe it also wouldn't matter what color they were, or what age, or anything, except that you liked them

And:

I think in the future everyone will be bisexual. And everything would be so much simpler then - you'd just make love with anyone you liked, and it wouldn't matter what sex they were, and maybe it also wouldn't matter what color they were, or what age, or anything, except that you liked them

It is certainly true that the manner of dress of Alice and the band prior to 1975 was interpreted as “drag.” Early audiences responded accordingly:

Alice was high on Bob Larson’s I-Don’t-Like list, and he forwarded his own version about the origin of the name Alice Cooper:

Hershel Smith was billed as a non-denominational youth minster since 1966, who also founded a Jesus People group known as Teen Power Inc, based in San Bernardino. The group developed from Power House U.S.A, who ran a coffee shop, and appeared on radio:

This add is dated June 12, 1971. So Powerhouse USA was associated with Calvary Assembly of God, whose pastor was Hershel Smith. These Jesus People youth organizations were often based around coffeehouses. David Brandt Berg, later known as Moses David, leader of the Children of God, was associated with a coffeehouse near the Huntington Beach Pier called the Light Club Mission, run by Teen Challenge. His mother, Virginia Brandt Berg was also associated with this ministry, who was involved in helping local hippies.

Aimee Semple McPherson was a charismatic Evangelical faith healer. She was also known for putting on a good show, and became a familiar person in the popular media. She appears to have also staged her own kidnapping.

I like the outfit. She also cultivated the image of a Hollywood star:

The pose is great, as is the not-so-subtle halo effect. Perhaps she’s a voluptuous version of Sol Invictus! It was Virginia Brandt Berg’s son David who founded the…

Hershel Smith became associated with Cerullo in May 1971:

Smith and Teen Power were involved with Cerullo in 1972 in conjunction with the Witchmobile.

The interesting thing about Hershel Smith is that he wrote his book in 1974. The picture of Teen Power shown above dates from April 2, 1972, and comes from a spread in the San Bernardino County Sun.

So Smith was a drunk and a dope-fiend who had been strung out and living on the streets?

This article is dated November 12, 1970. Here, Smith and his wife know first hand about drug and alcohol abuse by the work they had done with young people. And I must ask…if you’ve already mentioned dope, sex, liquor, broken communications, and hippie philosophies, then what have you left out that you would have to mention…Godless pleasures? So was he ever a drunk and a dope fiend?

The odd thing about these articles is that they completely omit any reference to Satanism, the Occult, or anything other than Smith’s serious substance-abuse problems. The following is dated May 21, 1972:

Smith and Teen Power become involved with Witchmobile, but no statement is made about Smith having been a leader of a Satanic cult. This is dated 09/02/1972:

So Hershel Smith is still just Mr. Teen Power Guy. Now for March 12, 1973:

So he’s a bad dresser, with a terrible comb-over, and takes a bad picture. San Bernardino is the Capital City of Witchcraft?

So now he is no longer Mr. Teen Power Guy. Now he is a retired warlock.

Wow…he admits to national media that he is a cannibal, which is disgusting. This is something that he will mention in his book, but not in the way that you would think someone claiming to have indulged in cannibalism would:

A reference to his book dated October 31, 1974. Yes…Halloween, and Hershel Smith is presented as The Skin Eater! And what is sexual sacrifice?

Hotbed of sorcery, and capital city for witchcraft. I thought people moved there for the weather. Now he doesn't mention a witch/fortune-teller named Louise Huebner, who does indicate how weird the whole witchcraft thing can be:

Close up!

No kitty…look away! Now, cats are often cast in the role of a witch’s Familiar Spirit. But not here! How subtle…I don’t get it. Unfortunately, the Retired Cannibal had to share the spotlight in this article with Heidi, a Gray Witch who denies any connection to Satan, and quite rightly connects witchcraft with Cernunnos whom I mentioned earlier, and rightly claims that American Christians were the ones behind the besmirching of the religion of witchcraft, by which I will understand, Wicca. I like this:

Also appearing was Hans Holzer, Ghost Investigator. If you make a cross evil by turning it upside down, and you make a five-pointed star evil by turning it upside down, then, if you wanted to play organ during a Hershel Smith, Cannibalistic Warlock Ceremony:

It seems odd that Smith and Teen Power became involved with Cerullo, who was involved with Warnke. Then Warnke published a fraudulent book in 1973 about Satanic nonsense, and then in that same year, the guy that went from youth minister working with young people with drug and alcohol problems, to youth minister who had these same problems, to a retired warlock and, of course, writer of his own book that appears to piggy-back off that of Warnke. But he was still involved with Teen Power in 1975, at which time they ran a donut shop. But Smith had plans:

A Teen Power Gas Station! And the Teen Power Furniture Mart I find fascinating given:

They work two jobs, and sometimes three jobs…they sacrifice every day for the furniture of their children…

What wouldn’t a parent sacrifice for the furniture of their children? You might have to work three jobs if you want your children to have really good furniture. Perhaps all a parent need do is to head on down to Teen Power’s Powerhouse Gas Station, Donut Shop, and Discount Furniture Store! I’ll bet you’ll only have to work one job to afford the furniture being sold by the Former Cannibalistic Warlock Hershel Smith.

Another, yet even more insane, proponent of the Satanic Conspiracy, and slightly earlier than Warnke, was John Todd:

His role is perhaps the most disturbing, seeing how the issues of psychotic delusions are so readily apparent. He claimed to have been born in a family of witches who intended to put him on a governing body of the Illuminati consisting essentially of a High Council of Druids. He claimed that witches and druids had taken control of much of the world, and were about to destroy Christianity. They would then establish witchcraft as the official religion of the U.S. Having been at the top of the Illuminati food-chain, he then converted to Christianity. Wild claims about the non-existent Illuminati would dominate most of the claims made while still in the limelight. He was active in the early 1970s, and then again in the late 1970s. Unfortunately, he found other Christian lunatics to take him seriously:

That is dated 1978. Christian Idiots with guns! God bless America! Well, at least Jesus Gardens sound safe enough. Also from 1978:

Todd went on to rant and rave for years. He declared that Armageddon was about to be unleashed by a coalition consisting of the Illuminati, Masons, witch covens, banks, governments, Charles Mason freaks, and motorcycle gangs. A New Adam would become dictator, being Lucifer’s representative. The advice he gave to Evangelical Weirdos is frightening:

The No. 1 weapon in everybody’s home should be a 12-guage pump shotgun. I prefer that you choose the Remington 870. The next weapon should be a Colt AR 15 assault rifle. And for a handgun, the Colt. 45.

Secrets about the Illuminati are to be found in the Great Seal on the 1 dollar bill. He claimed that John F Kennedy was still alive, and that he was his personal witch. Over the years, various horrible allegations had been made against him, until he was arrested in May 1987 on charges of rape and child molestation. He received a sentence of 30 years in prison in 2004. He died in 2007. While he was in the insane asylum he supposedly admitted that he was never a Christian, but he had been a deceiver (EAEC; 8/11/11). In fact, he is the virtual saint of the thriving world of Illuminati conspiracy theory lunatics.

The year 1973 also saw the publishing of the book:

By Doreen Irvine...

Irvine, born in the UK, claimed that she had been the Queen of the Black Witches of Europe, until she had 47 demons exorcised from her body.  Included among her claims was that she had been a prostitute in the East End of London (Swallowing the Camel/3/11/2011). I would point out that the prostitutes murdered by the Whitechapel Killer (aka Jack the Ripper) livened in the East End of London. While working as a stripper, she was told about a coven of witches at a Satanic temple. She became involved after signing a physical contract that represented a pact with the Devil. I must say that this claim is cliché and corny, which I have discussed elsewhere, and the element of actually signing a document is laughable. Known as Diana, she studied witchcraft, including a mysterious book called the Book of Satan. She finally became Queen of the Black Witches, and claimed to be able to make people invisible. And she, of course, met the real Satan, who gave her a golden crown. After her time as Queen had expired, she became a prostititue and drug addict. Then, of course, she converted to Christianity, although she claimed that Satan appeared to her once again and attempted to prevent her conversion. The story requires no refutation, and is a great example of the kind of mindless drivel passed off by guys like Todd, Smith, and Warnke to sell books.

And although Protestants sided with Catholics in opposition to the Pope as far as his ruling on birth control is concerned, key Protestant church men then broke ranks and sided with the Pope’s claims about a Satanic Conspiracy:

It is very tempting, but not appropriate here, to recount the tales about evil popes. Perhaps another time. However, Pope Stephen VI showed how demented, insane, and out-right disturbing a man claiming to be the Vicar of Christ can be. His predecessor was Pope Formosus. He died in 896, and was succeeded by Boniface VI. After the latter’s death, Stephen VI became Pope. And it is to Stephen VI that we owe a veritable Living Horror Show that would relegate Alice Cooper to being a mere second-rate shock rocker. Pope Stephen’s hatred of Formosus burned so brightly in his Christian heart that he decided to:

Dig up Formosus’s grave, remove the corpse, dress it up in papal garb, and then put him on trial! Hey, Alice! You never thought of that one, did you? It seems to me that it would be difficult to defend yourself in court if you’re dead. And you can’t choose your own lawyer! You could end up with Erbecker.