Cannibalism.Ritual murders. Cults. Blood rites. Possessions. Human trafficking. At a timewhen Ronald Reagan promised optimism, America found itself gripped by awidespread mania: the fear that devil worshippers were rising from a demonic undergroundto commit unspeakable acts of violence and mayhem. For more than a decade-fromthe early 1980s to the mid-1990s-America suffered through what is nowinfamously known as the "Satanic Panic." Primed by the Occult-tinged '60s, whenAnton LaVey founded the Church of Satan, Roman Polanski shocked the public withRosemary's Baby, and the Manson Family became shorthand for evil, theSatanic Panic eventually grew into a national obsession.

Acrossthe country, crimes both real and imagined, ranging from human sacrifices,multiple murders, and Satanic Ritual Abuse dominated mass media coverage.Serial killers such as David Berkowitz, "The Son of Sam," who terrorized NewYork City in the late 1970s, the "Chicago Ripper" crew, allegedly run by aflesh-eating devil worshiper and "The Night Stalker," Richard Ramirez, whosebloodlust seemed unquenchable, fueled fears of a war for the soul of Americaagainst the forces of darkness.

InAmerican Hellfire, Carlos Acevedo traces the roots of Satanic Panic fromits beginnings as a pop-culture phenomenon to the sociological factors thatreached critical mass in the 1980s. Along the way, the notorious crimesattributed to Satanism-including the daycare hysteria that saw dozens ofinnocent people indicted for atrocities they never committed-are revisited, aswell as the hoaxes, tragedies, and conspiracy theories of an era whosenightmarish anxieties never truly went away.