Corrections to Passages Concerning Michael Aquino and the Temple of Set in The New Satanists by Linda Blood

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by Michael A. Aquino
Temple of Set
Post Office Box 470307
San Francisco, CA 94147
as of February 2, 1995

[Note: This is not a complete expose of all of the lies and distortions contained in The New Satanists - simply of those concerning Blood's personal contact with the Temple of Set, the Temple generally, and Michael Aquino.]

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Linda Blood and the Temple of Set

In 1994 a Warner paperback appeared: The New Satanists by Linda Blood, 109 East Main Street, Norton, MA 02766. TNS portrays Blood as the innocent "victim" of the Temple of Set during her own brief 1979-80 membership. Throughout the rest of the book she excoriates the Temple in every way imaginable, issuing dire warnings that we are slavering neo-Nazis, ferocious sadomasochists, mind-destroyers, and just plain nasty people.

Michael Aquino is singled out for special attention. I am denounced not only as the Temple's fiendish mastermind, but also as a Svengali "romantically involved" with Blood herself.

The truth is somewhat more prosaic, if less flattering to Blood:

In 1978 Forrest J Ackerman, Hollywood's "Mr. Science Fiction", published several chapters from my Dark Side Star Wars story in his Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine. This attracted the interest of Blood, who wrote me a series of fan letters. She learned about the Temple of Set and joined it in mid-1979, shortly thereafter embarking upon a sexual affair with one of its officials, L. Dale Seago.

Simultaneously Blood decided that she and I were desperately in love with each other, which she proceeded to announce throughout the Temple. By February 1980 she had made herself so conspicuous and obnoxious on this campaign that an exasperated Seago first reduced her membership to probationary status as a warning, then expelled her from the Temple.

In June a repentant Blood wrote to me and asked if she could please just correspond concerning the new chapters I was writing for Dark Side. I saw no harm in this, and indeed thought it might help her regain some balance & self-respect. All seemed cordial and platonic for a few letters; then in early 1981 Blood once more began to demand a sexual relationship beyond simple friendship. I declined to answer her repeated telephone calls and simultaneously phased out my Dark Side correspondence with her.

By May 1981 Blood finally realized that I was just not going to have any romance, or sex, with her. This enraged her - towards not only my wife Lilith & myself, but also my mother, who Blood decided had failed to cooperate with her amorous plans.

Blood then commenced a ten-year marathon of obscene telephone calls, both to Lilith's & my answering machine and to my mother as well. These screamed messages ranged from threats against us, to graphic descriptions of self-mutilation, to promises of suicide, to angry complaints that we didn't care about her committing suicide (!), to grunting & squealing masturbation over the phone, and to endless vulgarities about Nazi sex. My aging mother - by the early 1980s increasingly ill with terminal cancer - was shrieked at by Blood as a "Nazi-fucking whore and bitch", although she had never treated Blood with anything but kindness and courtesy.

In February 1982, concluding that Blood was not going to lose interest in her campaign, Lilith and I filed a complaint with her local police department in Massachusetts. She was summoned to the police station and given a stern lecture, whereupon she agreed to cease the calls and get psychiatric help. Instead she moved to another town and recommenced the calls, which Lilith and I decided to ignore [though we did keep a taped record of them as a precaution].

In 1987 Lilith and I were suddenly attacked by an Army chaplain, Lawrence Adams-Thompson, and his wife - promoters of the then-ongoing "child abuse" scam at the Presidio of San Francisco - with accusations that we had abducted and raped/sodomized their child Kinsey Almond. This quickly became an international media sensation, and Blood's phone screaming changed promptly to coarse child-sex themes. Simultaneously she offered her services as an "escaped/reformed ex-Satanist" to anti-"cult" groups as a speaker, professing righteousness and a concern for social morals.

And that is the actual story of Linda Blood which she does not reveal in her book. Documented details follow:

[BLOOD BOOK EXTRACTS IN ALL-CAPITALS: Aquino comments in regular typeface:

2-3

SOPHISTICATED ORGANIZATIONS SUCH AS THE TEMPLE OF SET ARE MORE LIKELY TO TARGET PROSPECTIVE MEMBERS THROUGH A SHARED INTEREST IN SUCH EXOTIC SUBJECTS AS VAMPIRE LORE OR EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY. OTHER, LESS INNOCENT ASPECTS OF THE CULT'S PHILOSOPHY MAY BE HIDDEN FROM THE NOVICE UNTIL HE OR SHE HAS BEEN SUFFICIENTLY CONDITIONED, THROUGH PSYCHOLOGICAL MANIPULATION, TO ACCEPT AND RATIONALIZE QUESTIONABLE TEACHINGS AND PRACTICES. AS I DISCOVERED, IN THE COURSE OF SUCH CONDITIONING THE MOST INTIMATE PART OF ONE'S EMOTIONAL BEING IS OFTEN ABUSED AND BETRAYED.

Blood's book cites not a single example of any aspect of the Temple's philosophy which was concealed from her. She was expelled in 1980 because of her personal sexual obsessions and conduct, and her subsequent complaints all had to do with her sexual obsession over me - not a word about any aspect of the Temple's philosophy or design.

3

THE SUMMER THAT MICHAEL AQUINO CAST A SHADOW OVER OUR LIVES.

I never had any contact with any husband of Blood's.

It was Blood who initiated contact with me via fan letters.

Although we corresponded intermittently since November 1978, I did not meet Blood until June 1979, after she had made a purely personal decision to join the Temple of Set.

3

THE WAY HE [AQUINO] RAN ON ABOUT THE "WAGNERIAN" POTENTIAL OF THE STAR WARS SERIES MADE ME UNEASY.

If so, she never once expressed any "uneasiness" about it to me.

My sole statement about the Wagnerian element in Star Wars appears in the Introduction to my Dark Side story:

"In my opinion the first Star Wars film towered over its successors by the sheer strength of its 19th-century Romanticism; it was nothing less than a twentieth-century Ring of the Nibelungen in drama - and music! By contrast, The Empire Strikes Back degraded the three principal characters - Luke, Han, and Leia - into a tawdry soap-opera love triangle, turned Darth Vader into a mindless slave, contradicted Star Wars concerning Luke's parentage, and served up a preposterous 'Jedi initiation' for Luke presided over by a green gnome better suited to Sesame Street. The Freudian omelet of TESB gave way to comic-book slapstick in Return of the Jedi, wherein the last remaining vestiges of the original Star Wars atmosphere were submerged beneath a motley parade of absurd aliens and panda-bear Ewoks, and dealt a terminal blow by the grotesque 'Darth Vader Born-Again' finale."

4

I WAS FALLING INTO THE CONFUSED AND AGITATED STATE COMMON TO THOSE WHO BECOME INVOLVED WITH CULTS, AND I NEEDED HELP DESPERATELY.

"Well, by now I'm sure neither of us is surprised at how much of the LaVey [author of the Satanic Bible - M.A.] I liked, recognized, cheered at, and/or laughed with. In fact, one of my two main criticisms is that he too often accepts the designation of 'dark' when he should be more explicitly pointing out it is frequently the 'white light' doctrines that are evil in intent and consequences. The other is what I felt was an overemphasis on controlling others rather than independence from them. Comparing it with the Temple of Set literature, I am on the whole very favorably impressed with the changes and direction in which you seem to be headed." - Letter, L. Blood to M. Aquino, 4/17/1979

4

THERE WAS NO ONE MY INCREASINGLY BEWILDERED AND ALARMED HUSBAND, FAMILY, AND FRIENDS COULD TURN TO.

"Thing is, I'm going flaky for lack of someone to discuss all this stuff with. Allyn and some of his friends are interesting but I don't see them very often, and furthermore they are not really on my 'wavelength' as I suspect some of the Setians might be. Previous experience certainly suggests it! There's a warning in the [Temple of Set] brochure about one's sense of perspective suffering from merely internalizing data. You weren't kidding." - Letter, L. Blood to M. Aquino, 5/8/79

"The effect of all this [Blood's joining the Temple of Set] on the marriage has been and will continue to be the cliff-hanger of the season. My husband is a lovely man, but he is not married to the same lady he was married to back in August. He is also not Setian and couldn't care less." - Letter, L. Blood to C. Whitaker, 6/11/79

4

HE [Aquino] ALSO WARNED ME [in 3rd letter] THAT IF I BECAME INVOLVED WITH THE "BLACK ARTS" I WOULD SUFFER SOCIAL OSTRACISM AS WELL AS FEAR AND RIDICULE FROM OTHERS.

"The commitment is a major one. If you pursue the Black Arts, your life will change. Very few people around you will understand you, and not a few of them will be afraid of you. You will suffer a certain amount of social ostracism and fear disguised as ridicule. The commitment is justified only because there is a level of existence to be attained through the Black Arts that can be approached in no other way. We seek those who want that level of existence so much that they will make that commitment.

"Upon being accepted into the Temple, therefore, you would be put in touch with two or three Priests or Priestesses in New York and/or elsewhere, and in due course you would come into contact with scores of Setians all over the country who would be delighted to explore 'all this stuff' with you. I say 'explore' because, as I think you know, we are non-dogmatic. The philosophy of the Temple is in a constant state of evolution, and we are all wrestling with it together. There are no sacred cows either in terms of ideas or in terms of persons. I may be a high Initiate, but no one sits at my feet. We have better things to do.

"So you are at the point where you will have to decide, like Luke Skywalker, how badly you want to be a Jedi. And, like Luke, you are confronted with an opportunity that could result in your becoming either a Darth Vader or an Obi-wan Kenobi. We can make no promises; we would be foolish to do so. We have had Initiates who have attained more than they ever dreamed possible, and we have had Initiates who, like Dr. Morbius in Forbidden Planet, were eaten away by the forces that they evoked within themselves. So I neither encourage you nor discourage you." - Letter, M. Aquino to L. Blood, 5/14/79

5

UNAWARE THAT AQUINO IS A PROFESSIONAL SPECIALIST IN THE AREA OF PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE ...

"I have just returned from a two-week tour at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center, Fort Bragg (& model for Dark Side's MindWar Center)." - Letter, M. Aquino to L. Blood, 6/20/79

5

I HAD YET TO LEARN THAT "INDIVIDUAL", "INDEPENDENT", AND "ETHICAL" ARE AMONG THE MOST ABUSED TERMS IN THE SATANISTS' LEXICON.

"Despite the high degree of individuality and differences of values and opinions, I have never once had anyone in this Temple question or fail to respect the fundamental importance of any of my values to me." - Letter, L. Blood to R. Neilly, 8/31/79

6

DEEP DOWN, PART OF ME KNEW THAT I DIDN'T REALLY BELONG IN THIS STRANGE WORLD. THE TEMPLE'S OBSESSION WITH THE "DARK SIDE" OF LIFE, TO THE EXCLUSION OF ALL THAT WAS SUNLIT AND JOYFUL, SEEMED TO ME UNBALANCED AND OPPRESSIVE.

"Sometimes it's hard to see the progress from day to day until I look back and see where I was a year ago when all this began for me. Then I am truly astonished at how far I have come - even if the road ahead does seem endless at times." - Letter, L. Blood to R. Neilly, 8/7/79

9

SINCE MOST MEMBERS HELD DOWN RATHER MUNDANE JOBS AND GENERALLY LIVED ORDINARY LIVES OUTSIDE THEIR RITUAL CHAMBERS, THERE WAS SOMETHING PATHETIC ABOUT THIS COLLECTIVE DELUSION OF GRANDEUR.

"I'm trying to touch again all the people of the Conclave; it helps combat the loneliness that I feel now that we are all physically apart and the letters haven't really started flying in both directions yet ... [I am] trying to define what made that special quality of the love that we all shared. I sensed that these people truly saw their lives as something precious and unique and important, and saw the lives of their brothers and sisters the same way." - Letter, L. Blood to R. Neilly, 7/26/79

"I keep trying to define that special quality Setians have that so affected me. That commitment to being that gives each of them (us!) an acute sense of his or her life and something unique and infinitely precious. So few people really have that deep-down, because they've never honestly come to terms with their own uniqueness and are still, one way or a million others, working their way back to oneness with the Great Law. So no matter what they do, in a sense they wind up being "just one more" of something. They aren't committed to digging out their essence and then living it, as we are." - Letter, L. Blood, published in the Scroll of Set newsletter, August 1979.

9

OVER THE NEXT SEVERAL MONTHS ... MY MARRIAGE BROKE UP UNDER THE STRAIN, AND I LEFT HOME AND BEGAN A ROUND OF STAYING WITH FRIENDS.

"Before I go [to California to visit Dale Seago again in March 1980], I want to see if I can get this thing [divorce] in Scarsdale settled. Charlie is really a good person, and he's taking the whole thing extremely well." - Telephone call, L. Blood to J. Bast, 2/2/80. [2 months earlier Blood had a sexual affair with Seago.]

"Where the heck did you find this latest maniac [Hunter S.] Thompson you're corrupting me with anyway? My housemates keep hearing these shrieks of glee issuing from various parts of the house. They were half convinced I was crackers already, now they're sure. Marvelous." - Letter, L. Blood to M. Aquino, 6/30/80

9

WHEN AQUINO AND I BECAME ROMANTICALLY INVOLVED DURING A VISIT TO WASHINGTON, HE DICTATED THAT I WAS NOT TO INTERFERE WITH HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH LILITH OR HIS POSITION WITHIN THE TEMPLE HIERARCHY. WISHING I WERE DEAD, I SOUGHT HELP AND EVENTUALLY FOUND A COMPASSIONATE THERAPIST.

After meeting him at the 1979 International Conclave, Blood announced [in her letter to me 8/20/79] that she had fallen in love with Temple of Set member Dale Seago. When my mother and I met Blood in Washington in October 1979, I neither "became romantically involved" with her nor had the slightest reason to lecture her about Lilith or my Temple of Set responsibilities. Far from "wishing she were dead", Blood traveled to California the following month and had a sexual affair with Seago in Santa Barbara, after which he showed friends a photo he had taken of her sitting on his bed in her brassiere. [Seago is mentioned in the acknowledgements in Blood's book.]

After arising from Seago's bed and getting dressed, Blood began announcing to various members of the Temple that she and Michael Aquino were passionately in love. Seago first asked her to control herself, then reduced her membership level from II° to I°, and finally in February 1980 expelled her from the Temple of Set.

"I agree with your aversion to most 'shrinks' because the majority of them are in a class with Alderaan brain surgeons [destroyers of the mind - M.A.], and the good ones find themselves trying to equip people to be sane within an insane society. (And you find yourself in a similar position when you give someone some perfectly good, sane advice and he goes out into this psycho ward we call a culture and gets creamed. That, however, does not invalidate the advice.) I've noted that the best of them feel obligated to try to instill in their clients a sort of emotional protective armor that holds them together at the price of dulling their ability to give themselves fully to anyone or anything." - Letter, L. Blood to M. Aquino, 6/30/1980

9

A CONFRONTATION WITH AQUINO RESULTED IN A BRIEF RECONCILIATION.

The "confrontation" consisted of Blood's writing a letter to me to ask if she could help critique my still-ongoing Star Wars story, to which I replied in a 5/28/1980 letter: "Of course you will get to review your chapters again. As you can see from my enclosed letter to Forry Ackerman, there are probably going to be many of them. Moreover I hope that you will talk to me about the entire story as you see it unfold."

"Last Thursday I said goodbye to my separation support group because I felt I no longer belonged with people who were basically struggling just to survive. Yup, I achieved closure! Everyone was so kind and concerned for me and wished me well, and listening to them I just felt so fortunate I can't tell you." - Letter, L. Blood to M. Aquino, 6/30/80

"Michael, never feel that you are giving me too little. When I look around me and then remember that I have you in my life, all I want to know is where to send the giant Thank You note." - Letter, L. Blood to M. Aquino, 6/30/80

"I'm sorry I've been so hard on both of us, but it seems I don't learn these things easily, and for what it's worth to you I'd like to say that moment [during her visit to San Francisco] when realization flooded over me felt absolutely authentic; and although I did it for myself, I feel you provided the catalyst I needed, and I'm grateful for it. You stripped away the nonessentials while holding fast to a very unique, special understanding and trust between us, and that allowed me to see what I needed to see on my own unique terms, in the way that would have the greatest impact and mean the most." - Letter, L. Blood to M. Aquino, 11/19/80

9

EVENTUALLY THE DISAPPOINTMENTS AND FRUSTRATIONS WORE ME DOWN.

"Funny, I suppose I shouldn't assume that because I have a sense of 'sharing' with you that you feel something of the same with me. I guess I just figure that's part of the reason you once said you needed me too [for collaboration on a Star Wars story! - M.A.]. I should've asked you why. I need very much to know that I give you back at least a little of the 'visibility' you give me, that this Strange and Wonderful relationship is truly an exchange. I know how careful and ethical you try to be, so please don't be afraid that I'll take anything you say the 'wrong way', but I guess I do need to know that we're still not just 'pals' too." - Letter, L. Blood to M. Aquino, 9/8/80

"Tried to get you on the Watts last night with no success. Frankly, I would prefer not to have to try to call you again until I'm in CA next week. Even with your mother's kindness, it's proven to be a frustrating, exhausting, and, to be quite honest, rather humiliating process. By the way, please tell your Mom I hope she's over her 'flu." - Letter, L. Blood to M. Aquino, 10/31/80 [Blood had access to a WATS telephone at this time, and had been making continuous calls to my mother's number trying to reach me when I was visiting her - M.A.]

"Please take care of yourself. When I heard how tired and drained you sounded the last time we talked, I felt sad and a bit ashamed of having contributed to it. I feel like I'm asking a battle-weary soldier to remember God & country by telling you that something good came out of it. It's been a hard few months for both of us, and even though it doesn't always seem so, I care about how you feel, so I hope things are a bit better now. It will be all right, Michael." - Letter, L. Blood to M. Aquino, 11/19/80

9

FURTHERMORE I HAD BEGUN TO LEARN SOME VERY DISTURBING THINGS ABOUT HIM. ONE WAS HIS ADMIRATION FOR CERTAIN ELEMENTS OF NAZISM. AS THESE REVELATIONS INCREASED AND THE TENSION BETWEEN US GREW, WHATEVER LOVING FEELINGS HAD EXISTED BETWEEN US DISAPPEARED, AND THE RELATIONSHIP WAS MUTUALLY BROKEN OFF EARLY IN 1981.

"Watched The Bunker the other night, the dramatization of Hitler & Co's last days - I thought it well done, straightforward and admirably free from the usual cheap shots. For me there was a special horror in the totality with which many of those people's souls had become lost in the Dream - that is, they no longer had any personal identity outside of it. When Hitler said he had nothing of his own, that it all belonged to Germany, to the Volk (to the Dream), he was true not just in the sense of personal possessions but of his Self as well. And I could empathize with them and feel the pain of it while at the same time feeling an awful revulsion, a sense that it shouldn't and needn't have been so." - Letter, L. Blood to M. Aquino, 1/31/81

There was no "relationship", and I was the one who refused to take further calls from Blood when it became apparent that she was once again trying to insist on one.

10

[Aquino convinces others] THAT HIS MOST OUTRAGEOUS BEHAVIOR IS DESERVING OF UNDERSTANDING AND FORGIVENESS.

I am aware of no "outrageous behavior" of mine for which I ask for "forgiveness", and Blood offers no examples of same.

10

SOMETIMES I WOULD PICK UP THE PHONE AND SCREAM ABUSE AT AQUINO'S ANSWERING MACHINE. I FELT I WAS FIGHTING FOR MY VERY SURVIVAL.

Messages from Blood on my mother's answering machine began February 1981 and continued incessantly until my mother's death from cancer in 1985. During the last year of my mother's life she was extremely ill and in considerable pain, and Blood's screaming and vulgarity caused her great distress. [She refused to have her phone number changed, she said, because of the many old friends of hers who might be trying to call her.]

Screaming messages from Blood on Lilith's & my answering machine at all hours of the day and night began February 1981 and continued until July 1990. [Since 1990 we have had an unlisted telephone number.] These came at a frequency of up to 10 calls/day; for example in the May-December 1981 time period Blood made 266 such calls plus scores of distinctive hangups. We never responded to these messages, but recorded them on tape in the event legal or police action might be necessary. Some examples:

"Now I'm going out in the car, and if I can manage to work up the courage, I'm going to drive it into an abutment, and if I can't work up the courage for that, I'm going to come home and take that bottle of pills I've been working on, so pretty soon it'll all be over ... I just wanted to give you a pep talk!" - 6/18/81

"Why don't you take that medallion I chose so tenderly and lovingly and shove it up between her [Lilith's] legs the next time she does a lust ritual for you?" - 7/2/81

"Give Dale [Seago] my number, Michael! Let him protect you just like Heinrich wanted to protect Adolf. [Heavy breathing.] I already told him about how ya finger-fucked me in Washington ... [heavy breathing] ... OH, HERE I COME! OH, GOD! UH! UH!" -7/21/81 [It was obvious that Blood was masturbating to orgasm during this call.]

"I'm standing here stabbing myself with a pin, and it's taking blood out of my arm ... I think I'll cut my wrists ... Oh, I've got a nice big welter of it up there. I bet you wish you could do it yourself. I know you don't have the guts to listen to this!" - 8/1/81

"I always knew you'd let me die, you fucking bastard! You're going to have to have me committed! Won't you love that! And Lilith, she'll love that - it'll make her spread her legs for you more than ever!" - 8/2/81

"This is Mistress Blood from the Tenderloin [an area in San Francisco known for prostitution - M.A.], you worm! You get in here and you call me mistress! You want your hairy ass whipped and horrible things done to your body? Get down on the floor in a dog collar!" - 8/2/81

"Go on, FUCK HER - She's waiting for you!" - 8/21/81

"Bitch, you son of a bitch, you FUCKING BASTARD!" - 9/5/81

"Is she [Lilith] still wearing her makeup to bed so you won't know what she really looks like?" - 9/11/81

"Mother-fucking son of a bitch, you know, when your mother took you around to stay in those French whorehouses, the old NAZI-FUCKING BITCH!" - 9/19/81

"Crawl, fucker, until you DIE!" - 10/26/81

"You know in your mind's eye you see me naked there on the bed with your fingers up between my legs!" - 11/14/81

"It must have been difficult for a young man to resolve the fact that his mother was FUCKING A NAZI!" - 12/6/81

"Do you think I'm a potential NAZI-FUCKER like your mother who spread her legs for the kind of monster who killed off whole races for the good of the iron Reich?" - 12/24/81

"You are CURSED, may your barren desert be everlasting and may you keep having to stroke the aggrandizement of that little BITCH you live with! But then what could one expect from someone who spends most of his life trying to justify the fact that his old lady was a NAZI-FUCKER!?" - 12/31/81

"If you don't like it, why don't you change your fucking phone number?" - 1/1/82

"I see you have your trained BITCH running your errands for you - I just want to tell you that since you haven't registered a complaint, I'll use you as a punching-bag whenever I feel like it!" - 2/8/82

"This is Mom - why couldn't my brilliant son marry instead of shacking up with a bimbo?" - 2/8/82

"Are you being nice to MOM, bitch? Are you being nice to the Ipsissimus's MAMA, being nice to MAMA, bitch? His little old NAZI-FUCKING MOMMY, huh, BITCH!?" - 2/12/82

In March 1982 Lilith and I finally filed a complaint with the police department of Blood's city (Lexington, Massachusetts). On 3/30/82 Detective Lieutenant George Forten wrote to me: "As a result of your letter of March 25, 1982, I contacted Mrs. Linda Osborne Blood and asked her to come to my office for an interview. Mrs. Blood arrived at my office this morning, March 30, 1982, and we had a very open and frank discussion in regard to her telephone calls to you. She stated to me that she would discontinue making any more calls to you and she would seek professional help." Blood moved to another town and continued her campaign:

"I understand that ever since Omen III came out that 'BITCH' has been an especially appropriate word for you, honey!" - 11/30/82

"Tune in 'The Wall' tonight, MAJOR MIND-FUCK, you'll enjoy seeing the honored SS warriors in action. And of course Dale Seago could come over in his uniform and bring his shiny new Eva Braun clone wife. You know, it's a good thing Frau Betty [Ford, my mother - M.A.] wasn't French, because they would have shaved her head and paraded her naked down the street. You really should call the old BITCH up and tell her to watch for herself - Go call the OLD BITCH up and tell her to WATCH!" - 12/16/82

"Any woman who slept with an SS officer is a WHORE or WAS a whore!" - 4/12/87 [This message was left after Blood had learned that my mother had finally died of cancer. - M.A.]

"Get on the line, BITCH! You god damn BITCH, and you can play this for anyone you want! We all know what you are and that animal you're married to! I hear he married you a month after his old NAZI WHORE of a mother finally kicked the bucket!" - 7/26/90

"You're there, aren't you, BITCH? Why don't you go put on your stupid little belly dancer outfit and do one of your stupid little destruction rituals? Why don't you go kill another kid, you god damn BITCH!?" - 7/26/90

My mother, who had always been kind to Blood, was never involved with any Nazi or neo-Nazi group. After graduating from Stanford in 1929, she went to Germany to study as an apprentice to the famous sculptor Georg Kolbe. While there, she had a romance with a university student named Karl Eitel Roth, who was not a member of the Nazi Party [or the SS]. In the late 1930s my mother returned to the United States and married my father, who served as a sergeant in Patton's 43rd Cavalry in World War II and was decorated with the Purple Heart for wounds in action. During the war my mother participated in various community efforts on behalf of American soldiers, such as sponsoring visits of draftees at Camp Roberts to San Francisco. Karl Eitel Roth married a German girl, was drafted into the German army, and was killed in the war. After the war my parents sent relief packages to his surviving wife and child, who were in danger of starving in the post-war devastation of their home. For the rest of their lives they remained close friends with my mother, and were extremely distressed when I told them of her terminal illness and death.

10

I STARTED TO WORK WITH THE NEW CULT-MONITORING ORGANIZATIONS THAT WERE BEGINNING TO FORM IN THE EARLY 1980S.

I have seen no evidence of Blood's involvement with any anti-"cult" groups until after Lilith and I were attacked in 1987 in the Presidio of San Francisco "Satanic abuse" scam and it received widespread publicity. As is evident from the examples above, Blood's screaming messages on our telephone answering machine were continuing during the 1980-84 period, however, but consisted wholly of sexual vulgarities having nothing to do with the Temple of Set or her organizational experiences in it.

10

THESE SHOWED ME THAT MY EXPERIENCES WITH AQUINO AND THE TEMPLE OF SET REFLECTED THAT OF MANY OTHERS WHO HAD BECOME INVOLVED WITH CULTS.

As documented above, Blood enjoyed the friendships she made and ideas she exchanged during her Temple of Set membership, and her sole objection to me was that, although considering her a close friend, I refused to have a romance - or sex - with her.

In documented fact it was Blood who harassed, slandered, stalked, and intruded upon the privacy of my mother [until her death], my wife, and myself for a decade after her expulsion from the Temple of Set.

33

THESE GROUPS [inc. Temple of Set] ARE INCREASINGLY DOMINATED BY A PHILOSOPHY HOSPITABLE TO RACISTS, NEO-NAZIS, AND HOLOCAUST DENIERS.

The Temple of Set includes among its membership and highest offices persons of a wide variety of races, colors, and nationalities - to include African-Americans and persons of Jewish lineage.

The Temple of Set is not and has never been affiliated or associated with any neo-Nazi group or activity.

The Temple of Set has made no official statement concerning the Holocaust. Setians are welcome to decide such questions for themselves.

68

THERE ARE INDICATIONS THAT SOME PEOPLE ASSOCIATED WITH THE TEMPLE OF SET MAY NOT BE CONDUCTING THEMSELVES IN STRICT ACCORDANCE WITH THE RULES OF DECORUM LAID DOWN IN THE GROUP'S OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS. CONSIDER THE OBSCURE LITTLE GROUP KNOWN AS THE CHURCH OF RAVEN, WHOSE MEMBERSHIP INCLUDES AN INDIVIDUAL WHOSE NAME ALSO APPEARED ON A 1990 TEMPLE OF SET ROSTER.

The Temple of Set has no affiliation with any other organization, religious or otherwise.

Confirmed (II°) members of the Temple of Set may not belong to any other religious organization. If they wish to do so, they are expected to resign from the Temple. Nevertheless the Temple does not aggressively involve itself in the private affairs of all of its members, trusting them to follow its ethical guidelines as responsible adults. When/if such ethical standards are found to have been violated, the individual will be asked either to correct the problem or resign from the Temple.

203

THERE IS NO SECTION DEVOTED TO LOCKE OR TO OTHERS WHO CONTRIBUTED TO THE INTELLECTUAL FOUNDATIONS OF AMERICA ELSEWHERE IN THE TEMPLE'S READING MATERIAL, BUT THERE IS PLENTY ON THE NAZIS AND ON GERMAN PHILOSOPHERS SUCH AS HEGEL AND NIETZSCHE.

In the Ruby Tablet of Set - to which Blood, as an Adept II° member of the Temple had access - there are major narrative sections dealing with the social contract theorists Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau, as well as with empiricist Hume, formulator of modern conservative political philosophy. Neither Hegel's nor Nietzsche's philosophies are "Nazi", as students of these theorists are well aware. Hegel formulated a theory of social evolution called dialectic idealism, reacting to the ideas of Berkeley and Kant, and Nietzsche reacted to the "rational history" of Hegel, asserting a personal prerogative and freedom leading the way to modern existentialism.

204

THE TEMPLE'S DEFENSE THAT ITS INTEREST IN NAZISM IS LIMITED TO THE NAZIS' EXTENSIVE RESEARCH INTO OCCULTISM ...

The Temple of Set is interested not only in ideas, but in the social impact of ideas. Hence it studies a great many of history's major influences and episodes, including fascism. To study does not mean to endorse, and the Temple has made it quite clear that it does not endorse fascism, nor any other political ideology.

Blood's book - and her past interests and telephone screaming - do substantiate that she herself is fascinated with Nazi themes, particularly as a sexual stimulant.

206

HE HAD HIMSELF PHOTOGRAPHED [in the Hall of the Dead of the Wewelsburg] IN THE UNIFORM OF AN OFFICER OF THE U.S. ARMY.

I was not in Army uniform during my visit to the Wewelsburg, hence was not so photographed.

210

AQUINO HAS REFUSED TO CONFIRM OR DENY THE REALITY OF THE HOLOCAUST.

I am not an expert on the Holocaust, and I of course was not there at the time to see for myself. I prefer not to make statements about subjects which I have not carefully researched.

211

DRURY, A PERCEPTIVE AND INTELLIGENT INTERVIEWER, IS OBVIOUSLY TROUBLED BY THE CONTRADICTIONS HE ENCOUNTERS AND THE "DARKER FORCES" HE SENSES IN AQUINO AND HIS MAGICAL PARTNER AND WIFE.

At no place in his book does Drury suggest that he is "troubled" by his interview with Lilith and myself. Indeed he expresses interest and admiration for the precision of the Temple of Set's approach to metaphysics. Upon publication of his book, he sent us a presentation copy inscribed to us with his best wishes and appreciation.

The Urban Myth of "Satanic Child Abuse"

34

SATANIC RITUAL CHILD ABUSE ...

• does not exist in the United States, as reported by the FBI's National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime in 1992, after an 11-year study. "There are many children in the United States who, starting early in their lives, are severely psychologically, physically, and sexually traumatized by angry, sadistic parents or other adults. Such abuse, however, is not perpetrated only or primarily by satanists. The statistical odds are that such abusers are members of mainstream religions ... For the last eight years American law enforcement has been aggressively investigating the allegations of victims of ritual abuse. There is little or no evidence for the portion of their allegations that deals with large-scale baby-breeding, human sacrifice, and organized satanic conspiracies." (Investigator's Guide to Allegations of "Ritual" Child Abuse, January 1992)

• does not exist in the United States, as concluded by an exhaustive national study for the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect: "In a survey of more than 11,000 psychiatric and police workers throughout the country, conducted for the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, researchers found more than 12,000 accusations of group cult sexual abuse based on Satanic ritual, but not one that investigators had been able to substantiate. 'After scouring the country, we found no evidence for large-scale cults that sexually abuse children,' said Dr. Gail Goodman, a psychologist at the University of California at Davis, who directed the survey. The survey included 6,910 psychiatrists, psychologists, and clinical social workers; and 4,655 district attorneys, police departments, and social service agencies. They reported 12,264 accusations of ritual abuse that they had investigated. The survey found that there was not a single case among them where there was clear corroborating evidence for the most common accusation, that there was "a well-organized, intergenerational Satanic cult who sexually molested and tortured children in their homes or schools for years and committed a series of murders," said Goodman. (Daniel Goleman, New York Times, reprinted San Francisco Chronicle 11/1/94)

• does not exist in the United Kingdom, as reported by the British Government's Department of Health in 1994, after a three-year investigation. "There is no evidence that these ["Satanic ritual abuse"] have taken place in any of the 84 cases studied ... The study of cases in detail showed that the Evangelical Christian campaign against new religious movements has been a powerful influence encouraging the identification of satanic abuse. Equally important in spreading the idea of satanic abuse in Britain are the professional 'specialists', American and British. Their claims or qualifications are rarely checked. Much of their information, particularly about cases in the United States, is unreliable." (The Extent and Nature of Organised and Ritual Abuse, HMSO, 1994)

The 1987 Presidio of San Francisco "Satanic Child Abuse" Fraud

15

IN ONE CASE, A THREE-YEAR-OLD GIRL HAD CLAIMED THAT SHE'D BEEN TAKEN TO THE HOME OF U.S. ARMY RESERVE LIEUTENANT COLONEL MICHAEL AQUINO AND HIS WIFE, LILITH, AND SUBJECTED TO BIZARRE SATANIC RITUAL ABUSE.

The claim was actually made not by the girl (Kinsey Almond - whom Blood refers to in her book as "Lisa Adams-Thompson"), but by her stepfather (Chaplain Lawrence Adams-Thompson), as part of his and his wife's (Michele Adams-Thompson) effort to defraud the U.S. government of a $3 million false claim based upon this fabricated story.

15

ANGEL MADE FORMAL INQUIRIES ABOUT ISSUING A SUBPOENA TO LIEUTENANT COLONEL AQUINO ... MICHAEL AQUINO NEVER DID APPEAR AS A WITNESS. HIS ATTORNEY ASSERTS THAT HE NEVER RECEIVED ANGELL'S SUBPOENA.

Ms. Cynthia Angell was an attorney for the father in yet another child-custody case in which "Satanic child abuse" tactics were being employed against the other parent in an attempt to win custody. On 11/13/90 Angell appeared on the Geraldo Rivera show and twice stated that she had "issued a subpoena for Michael Aquino". When on 11/19/90 my attorney wrote her for a copy of such "subpoena", she never responded. Nor was any such subpoena ever served on me.

Further on the Geraldo show Angell said: "They, they, put me, they, one man got into my car, pushed a gun up against my side, told me to take a drive. As I drove, he told me that I'd been investigating things that I shouldn't be investigating, that I was involved in something I shouldn't be involved in, and that unless I dropped this case immediately that they would kill me. They took me outside of the town, at which point I was blindfolded, put into another car - there were two men at that point - they drove me around for two, perhaps three hours and simply threatened me and told me that these things were real and that I shouldn't pursue the case any further."

At first Angell says that two men kidnapped her. Now she says that only one man kidnapped her, and that the second man appeared only at a switch to a second car. Yet before "that point" she said "they took me". So did the second man just "appear" in her car while she was driving it?

After Angell had already had a good look at the two men during the "quite lengthy" drive, why should they then bother to blindfold her? Why should it take 2-3 hours to make 30-seconds-worth of threats? Why should criminals try to convince a witch-hunt attorney that "these things were real" if their interests lay in promoting the view that "Satanic child abuse" is not real?

Obviously Angell did not drop the case, and by the time she went on Geraldo she cited no further threats against her. Nor, obviously, was she murdered. In fact she felt confident enough to go on Geraldo and tell a detailed story about the supposed "abduction".

162

A CHILD CLAIMED TO HAVE BEEN TAKEN OFF THE POST [Presidio of San Francisco] AND ABUSED IN A RITUALIZED MANNER.

As noted above, the claim was made not by the girl, but by her stepfather, as part of his and his wife's effort to defraud the U.S. government of a $3 million false claim based upon this fabricated story. (SFPD Incident Report)

162

NO FORMAL CHARGES WERE FILED, THOUGH, LARGELY DUE TO THE DIFFICULTY OF OBTAINING FROM YOUNG CHILDREN TESTIMONY THAT CAN SATISFY THE VERY STRICT PROCEDURAL REQUIREMENTS FOR INTRODUCING EVIDENCE.

The decision not to file charges was officially made long before the investigation was even completed, as communicated to our attorney by the Army Judge Advocate General office, since the Army knew from the outset that no such crime had ever occurred. The "investigation" was never intended as such, but rather as a psychological device to put pressure on my wife and myself to intimidate me into resigning from the Army. [I was not so intimidated, and did not resign.]

162-3

HOWEVER, THROUGH A PROCEDURE KNOWN AS TITLING, THE ARMY ITSELF HAS OFFICIALLY TAKEN THE POSITION THAT THERE WAS PROBABLE CAUSE TO BELIEVE THAT AQUINO COMMITTED AT LEAST ONE ACT OF RITUAL MOLESTATION.

The decision to "title" is significant only within the Army's Criminal Investigation Division (CID), hence does not appear in my official Army personnel file. The CID report containing the titling resulted in no charges whatever when submitted to the legal department of the Army. Nor were charges expected, as the "titling" was decided long before the investigation was actually completed, and substantiated by no evidence in the report whatever. Immediately upon completion of the report, my Top Secret security clearance was restored, and I continued in service as an Army Reserve officer, with that clearance, for another five years until my [voluntary] honorable retirement in 1994.

163

WHILE HIS WIFE'S NAME WAS REMOVED ENTIRELY BECAUSE THE CHILDREN'S IDENTIFICATION OF HER WAS INADEQUATE, MICHAEL AQUINO'S NAME REMAINS ON THE INVESTIGATION REPORT BECAUSE THE EVIDENCE OF ALIBI HE OFFERED WAS NOT PERSUASIVE.

Lilith Aquino's name was removed as soon as the CID learned of our impending lawsuit concerning the report. It is strictly illegal under Department of Defense Directive #55525.7 and Titles 18, 21, & 28 United States Code for the CID to "title" civilians.

Michael Aquino's name remained on the report because not to do so would have acknowledged manufacture of evidence and deliberate falsification of the report by the CID, in violation of Article #134, Uniform Code of Military Justice.

As Adams-Thompson had accused us of doing the kidnapping and raping together, and as the CID report echoed this theme, the removal of Lilith's name while mine was retained further illustrates the fabricated nature of that report.

The "evidence of alibi" that I presented for both Lilith and myself was simply that we were both verified to be in Washington, D.C. (where I was attending daily, attendance-recorded classes at the National Defense University) at all times during the alleged period (9/1/86-10/31/86) when Kinsey Almond was at the Presidio day-care center. How the CID could call this "not persuasive" remains a curiosity which it declined to explain.

169

LARRY AND MICHELLE ADAMS-THOMPSON, LEADERS IN THE FIGHT TO HAVE THE CHILDREN'S CHARGES INVESTIGATED, HAD NOTICED SOME ODD CHANGES IN THEIR DAUGHTER'S BEHAVIOR LATE IN 1986, SHORTLY BEFORE THE TOBIN CASE BROKE.

No records indicate that the Adams-Thompsons ever noticed anything wrong with Kinsey Almond, or took her for an emergency medical examination of a sexual-abuse nature, at any time during the 9/1-10/31/86 period. (CID Report of Investigation)

On 1/14/87, after the Presidio child-care scandal had been in process for two months, Chaplain Adams-Thompson and his wife Michele were interviewed by FBI Special Agent Patricia J. Peyton. In this interview - only 2-1/2 months after the time-period in which Adams-Thompson would later allege so many different and dramatic sexual atrocities occurred - the Adams-Thompsons stated Almond's denial of any abuse. They made no mention of any emergency medical care of Almond, such as would have been necessary had she been abused as they would later allege. They made no mention of anyone other than Hambright at all, nor of any reason to think that Almond had been abducted from the day-care center at any time. They did not accuse Hambright of anything. (FBI #FD-302, 1/14/87)

170

IN JANUARY 1987 [Almond] WAS QUESTIONED BY THE FBI BUT MADE NO DEFINITIVE STATEMENTS.

From the transcript of the FBI report (FBI #FD-302, 1/14/87): "Mrs. Adams-Thompson advised that her daughter Kinsey had been attending the school [Presidio day care center] since spring 1986. When she turned 3 in September, she was transferred to 'Mr. Gary's' (Gary Hambright) class. When Mrs. Adams-Thompson asked if Mr. Gary had been mean to her or tried to touch her, Kinsey replied negatively."

170

IN FEBRUARY THE ADAMS-THOMPSONS TOOK [ALMOND] TO A THERAPIST ... AFTER SEVERAL VISITS THE THERAPIST BROKE THE NEWS THAT THEIR CHILD HAD BEEN MOLESTED BY HAMBRIGHT - AND BY AN UNIDENTIFIED MAN AND WOMAN KNOWN TO THE CHILD ONLY AS MIKEY AND SHAMBY.

None of the therapist's (Debbie Hickey) notes, as incorporated in the CID report, verify that Hickey ever made such an abuse-diagnosis to Adams-Thompson.

"Mikey" was never mentioned initially by Almond, and there is no mention of this name whatever until 6/30/87 - after her mother Michele had previously introduced the idea of a "Satanic cult" to Hickey on 6/2/87. On 6/30/87 it is Michele, not Almond, who introduces the name "Mikey" to Hickey, stating that "Mikey is Shambee's husband".

"Shambee" (Hickey's spelling) appears in the notes on 1/27/87, introduced by Almond as "her friend at school who was spanked by Mr. Rogers on TV". Almond added that Shambee "also had its neck broken", indicating that "Shambee" is either an imaginary "friend" or perhaps a doll.

In a CID interview on 4/7-8/89, Almond "denied that 'Mikey' and/or 'Shamby' had ever done anything bad to either her or to other children in her presence". (CID Report)

170

ON AUGUST 12, 1987, AS THE FAMILY WAS SHOPPING AT THE PRESIDIO POST EXCHANGE, [Almond] SUDDENLY RAN TO LARRY AND HID BEHIND HIS LEGS, APPARENTLY TERRIFIED BY THE PRESENCE OF AN OFFICER STANDING A FEW YARDS AWAY. LOOKING UP, LARRY RECOGNIZED LIEUTENANT COLONEL MICHAEL AQUINO. "DO YOU KNOW THAT MAN?" HE ASKED HIS STEPDAUGHTER. THE FRIGHTENED CHILD SAID NOTHING BUT CONTINUED TO CLING TO HIS LEG. LARRY CALLED TO MICHELLE, WHO CAME TO HER DAUGHTER'S SIDE. THEN LARRY ASKED [Almond] ONCE AGAIN IF SHE KNEW THAT MAN OVER THERE IN THE WHITE SHIRT. "YES, THAT'S MIKEY," SHE REPLIED. LARRY GATHERED IN HIS FAMILY AND TOOK THEM OUTSIDE. "HE'S A BAD MAN AND I'M AFRAID," [Almond] TOLD THEM AS SHE WAS BUNDLED INTO THEIR CAR. AS THEY DROVE AROUND TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE PX AND OUT OF THE PARKING LOT, LARRY SPOTTED AQUINO'S WIFE LILITH. HE ASKED [Almond] IF SHE KNEW THE WOMAN. "YES, THAT'S SHAMBY," SHE SAID.

There is only the word of the two adult Adams-Thompsons that this incident ever happened at all. All that is known for certain is that Lawrence and/or Michele saw us at the PX on that day. There is no evidence that Almond was with them, that she reacted to anyone as they alleged, and/or that she "identified" anyone as they alleged. No PX employee substantiated the Adams-Thompsons' account of this incident.

In his 4/10/89 statement to the CID, Lawrence Adams-Thompson admits that he recognized me from the time I had still been assigned to the Presidio Headquarters, and also that he knew at that time that I was a member of the Temple of Set.

171

[Clyde Foreman FBI report of 8/13/87 interview with Kinsey Almond].

Kinsey Almond made no "identification" of Michael or Lilith Aquino during this interview, nor did she say anything about any "PX encounter" (FBI #FD-302, 8/13/87).

171

THE INVESTIGATORS TOOK [Almond] TO THE 2400 [Leavenworth Street] BLOCK AND ASKED HER IF SHE RECOGNIZED ANY OF THE HOMES. AS THEY WALKED PAST 2430 LEAVENWORTH STREET, THE GIRL IDENTIFIED IT AS "MR. GARY'S HOUSE" WHERE SHE HAD MET MIKEY AND SHAMBY. IT WAS THE AQUINOS' RESIDENCE.

The 8/13/87 official record of this trip by CID Special Agent Bradley Potter reveals that virtually every element of Adams-Thompson's account concerning it [above] was a lie. From Potter's report it is clear that Almond did not "identify" 2430 Leavenworth at all. She did not say anything about it, point at it, or refer to it in any way whatever, after being taken by it repeatedly. All that Potter's report establishes is that Michele Adams-Thompson finally chose to pick Almond up and hold her in front of 2430 Leavenworth, which Michele knew to be our address. Even while being held stationary by Michele in front of the building, Almond said nothing about it and made no gestures concerning it. (CID Report)

171

ACCORDING TO THE FBI REPORT [Almond] TOLD THEM THAT SHE HAD BEEN "FILMED WITH A MOVIE CAMERA WITH STEADY LIGHTS WHILE SHE BATHED IN A PLASTIC LION BATHTUB". SHE ALSO DESCRIBED THE LIVING ROOM AS HAVING BLACK WALLS AND A GOLD CROSS PAINTED ON THE CEILING.

The FBI report makes no mention whatever of a movie camera, steady lights, a plastic lion bathtub, a living room with black walls, and/or a gold cross painted on the ceiling. (FBI #FD-302, 8/13/87)

In the FBI report Kinsey Almond states only that the house to which she was taken had "a bathtub with lion's feet". As verified by the SFPD, CID, and FBI on 8/14/87, our house has only one bathtub, which is built into the wall and has no feet whatever.

171

DURING THE INVESTIGATION OTHER CHILDREN WOULD IDENTIFY A MIKEY AND SHAMBY AS THEIR ABUSERS.

There was no mention of any "Shamby" by any other child in the investigation (CID Report).

The only other mention of the name "Mike" (not "Mikey") was by Jaime Parker. On 7/17/87 Parker said that "Mr. Mike" spanked kids and her. On 7/8/87, however, Parker identified this same individual as "Frank" and said that "he watched the news and didn't want her mom to make cookies". (CID Report)

171

AFTER CONFIRMING [Almond's] IDENTIFICATION OF THE AQUINOS' HOUSE ...

No such "identification" occurred [see above].

171

THE PURPOSE OF THE SEARCH WARRANT WAS TO SEIZE ITEMS THAT MIGHT BE EVIDENCE OF THE SEXUAL MOLESTATION OF CHILDREN. WHEN THE POLICE LEFT, THEY TOOK WITH THEM SEVERAL CARTONS OF SEIZED ITEMS, INCLUDING VIDEOTAPES, AUDIO CASSETTES, NOTEBOOKS WITH NAMES AND ADDRESSES, TWO PHOTO ALBUMS, FOUR PLASTIC CASES OF NEGATIVES, TWENTY-NINE PHOTOS OF COSTUMES AND "STARS", AND A COMPUTER.

Every single item confiscated in the raid had nothing whatever to do with the sexual molestation of children [or any other crime], and all the property was returned to us.

In its later investigation of the serving of this search warrant, the San Francisco Police Commission found that it had been improperly executed, in that materials unrelated to the warrant had been wrongly confiscated. (Findings of Investigation of Alleged Misconduct Case #0468-88, 11/22/89)

172

THE SEARCH ALSO CONFIRMED THAT THE AQUINOS' LIVING ROOM WAS PAINTED BLACK.

The search confirmed that the Aquinos' living room was not painted black [or even a dark color].

173

HE CLAIMED THAT HE WAS LIVING IN WASHINGTON, D.C. AT THE TIME WHEN THE ALLEGED ABUSE TOOK PLACE.

Daily attendance records of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, National Defense University, Washington, D.C. verified this.

176

THERE WAS MEDICAL CORROBORATION ON THE TOBIN AND ADAMS-THOMPSON CHILDREN.

No allegations were ever made that Lilith or I had ever been in contact with the Tobin child in any way.

There was no "medical corroboration" whatever in the case of Kinsey Almond. As noted above, there is no record of her ever being taken to the hospital for any sexual-abuse symptom during the 9/1-10/31/86 time period. On 3/12/87 Kinsey Almond was medically examined by the Presidio's Letterman Army Medical Center in connection with the ongoing day-care scandal. The findings of this medical examination state specifically that there was "no physical evidence of abuse". (CID Report)

177

[Asst. D.A. Mike Williams]: "THERE WASN'T ENOUGH CORROBORATING EVIDENCE TO PROCEED ON THE INITIAL ALLEGATIONS [against the Aquinos]."

There was in fact no corroborating evidence whatever.

179

THE CID TEAM SELECTED WHAT THEY THOUGHT WERE THE SIX STRONGEST CASES AGAINST AQUINO, AN ADDED A FEW MORE AFTER INTERVIEWING SOME OF THE RELATIVELY FEW PARENTS AND CHILDREN WILLING TO UNDERGO QUESTIONING YET AGAIN. SEVERAL OF THE CHILDREN HAD INDEPENDENTLY IDENTIFIED THE AQUINOS AS THEIR ABUSERS.

The final CID report identifies only one allegation by Presidio parents - Chaplain & Mrs. Adams-Thompson - that was ever made concerning Michael and Lilith Aquino. There were no "other cases" at all.

None of the children at the Presidio "identified" the Aquinos at all (CID Report).

179

ALL HAD IDENTIFIED THE BY-NOW DEPRESSINGLY FAMILIAR COMPONENTS OF RITUAL ABUSE: DARKENED ROOMS, BLACK CANDLES, CHANTING, ROBED AND MASKED FIGURES, BLOOD AND URINE, ANIMALS, CAMERAS, DRUGS, AND RITUAL SEX.

No such "identification" was made concerning Michael or Lilith Aquino or their home by any Presidio child (CID Report).

These features are simply staple fantasies invented and advertised by promoters of the "Satanic Ritual Abuse" urban myth. Cf. Jeffrey S. Victor, Satanic Panic: The Creation of a Contemporary Legend (Chicago: Open Court, 1993)

179

THE CID PREPARED VIDEO "LINEUPS" USING FOOTAGE FROM AQUINO'S APPEARANCE ON OPRAH. WHEN THE CHILDREN WERE SHOWN THE FALSE AND REAL VIDEO CLIPS ALONG SIDE ONE ANOTHER, THEY "PICKED OUT AQUINO AS 'MIKEY' EVERY TIME".

At the time of the Adams-Thompson allegations, Kinsey Almond was never shown a photo or video lineup.

As reported in the San Francisco Chronicle 8/2/88, at the time of the allegations: "26 other Presidio children were interviewed, and [said Deputy District Attorney Michael Williams] none could pick Michael Aquino out of a police photo lineup."

My appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show occurred on 2/17/88, by which time my photograph and numerous television interviews had been sensationalized nationwide - as, of course, had been the "Mikey" theme of Adams-Thompson's fabricated story.

179

THEY WERE EQUALLY SUCCESSFUL IN PICKING HIS PICTURE OUT OF LINEUPS OF DRIVER'S LICENSE PHOTOS, IN WHICH EVEN AQUINO LOOKED NO WEIRDER THAN ANYONE ELSE.

As noted above, I was never picked out of any such lineup at the time of the allegations.

My driver's license photograph was never confiscated.

My distinctive facial features (including sharply pointed eyebrows and prominent widow's peak) appear on my driver's license photo as in any other photo.

180

SOME OF THE CHILDREN WERE EQUALLY SUCCESSFUL IN IDENTIFYING LILITH AQUINO.

Lilith Aquino was never "identified" by any child at the time of the allegations.

By the time the CID attempted "identifications" (mid-1989), Lilith Aquino's photograph and numerous television interviews had been sensationalized nationwide.

181

ONE REASON FOR THE DECISION TO TITLE AQUINO, ACCORDING TO THE STATEMENT OF AN ARMY SPOKESMAN, WAS THAT [Kinsey Almond] ADAMS-THOMPSON HAD PROVIDED INVESTIGATORS WITH A SMALL BUT SIGNIFICANT PIECE OF EVIDENCE. SHE TOLD THEM THAT MICHAEL AQUINO SOMETIMES PARKED HIS CAR NOT AT HIS OWN HOUSE BUT IN A GARAGE SEVERAL DOORS AWAY. SHE NOT ONLY TOLD THEM ABOUT IT, SHE LED THEM TO IT. WHEN THE INVESTIGATORS FOUND HER INFORMATION TO BE CORRECT, THEY FELT THEY NOW HAD ENOUGH EVIDENCE TO TAKE ACTION. AFTER ALL, HOW COULD THE CHILD HAVE KNOWN THIS IF SHE HAD NOT BEEN THERE?

No mention of this garage appeared in the CID report, nor were we asked about it by any investigator at any time.

Almond made only one trip with investigators to the 2400 Leavenworth block - on 8/13/87 [see Potter CID report above]. There is no mention of this "garage identification" in that report.

Mrs. Aquino and I had previously rented a garage near our house, which the CID obviously learned about from canvassing neighbors. What the neighbors evidently did not tell the CID was that we had rented this garage only during a period several years previously, and had had to return it to the landlord for other tenants two years before the Presidio child-care scandal - at a time when the Adams-Thompsons presumably had not yet even been assigned to the Presidio, and when Almond would have been only one year old. After this we had no access to the garage whatever, as its subsequent tenant was using it. (McGuire Real Estate contract 1982 & notice of termination 1984).

181

THE [northern California] CHILDREN HAD NOT BEEN ABLE TO IDENTIFY ALL OF THEIR ALLEGED ABUSERS AT FIRST, BUT SOME OF THEM SAID THEY RECOGNIZED AQUINO WHEN HE WAS FEATURED IN TELEVISION AND NEWSPAPER COVERAGE OF THE PRESIDIO CASE.

In the entire rash of northern California "abuse" cases, not a single child mentioned anyone remotely resembling Michael or Lilith Aquino until after the Adams-Thompson allegations had become a national media sensation.

The CID interviewed all of the northern California children whose parents later alleged "identifications", and stated in the CID final report that not a single such "identification" was corroborated in the least: "During the course of this investigation the following children who were reported victims of ritualistic sexual abuse, at various locations in CA, were interviewed and provided the opportunity to view photographic line-ups. None were able to provide any information of value to this investigation." (CID Report)

181

ONE SMALL BOY WAS WATCHING LOCAL TELEVISION COVERAGE OF THE PRESIDIO CASE THAT INCLUDED A GUIDED TOUR OF THE AQUINOS' APARTMENT. ACCORDING TO HIS MOTHER, HE "GRABBED THE ROCKING CHAIR AND HUNG ON REAL TIGHT. HIS EYES GOT HUGE AND HE SAID, 'MOMMY, THAT'S THE MAN FROM THE CHURCH IN FORT BRAGG.'"

In January 1989, when the child's mother alleged this, a worthless "identification" after extensive media publishing and broadcasting of Michael Aquino. This statement is not evidence of any alleged crime whatever. I have never "led church services" at which any minors were present, in Fort Bragg or elsewhere.

This same child had been used to promote a 1985 day-care child abuse scam in Fort Bragg, California. Barbara and Sharon Orr, according to a major national study conducted by the Memphis Commercial Appeal, were two sisters who operated a day-care center in Fort Bragg, California. In January 1985 they were suddenly attacked by the usual collection of parents and "therapists". Under the usual "therapy" children dutifully recited "rituals in which animals and babies were sacrificed and children placed on meat-hooks and held underwater. Barbara Orr was alleged to have cut the children with a long, jeweled knife and sucked their blood. Parents took their children into graveyards to search for clues. One mother upbraided authorities for declining to send scuba divers offshore in the Pacific Ocean to look for a submarine entrance to an underground amusement park." Obviously there were no missing babies, nor meat hooks, nor knife-cuts, nor underground amusement parks to be found. No charges were ever filed against the Orrs, but they were of course terrorized and professionally ruined. According to the 1/21/88 Commercial Appeal:

"Barbara Orr, 35, said she deteriorated physically during the ordeal, suffering from stress and severe depression. She said she contemplated suicide, but was inspired by others who said they were falsely accused of abuse. 'I guess that's what really motivated me - getting mad, saying "No, I'm not going to do this to myself,"' she said. Ms. Orr said she has lost forever the ability to enjoy the company of children. She's afraid to be left alone with, or show any affection toward a child. 'It's something I don't think I'll ever be able to get over,' she said."

182

THE TEMPLE OF SET'S "HOLY LAND", CALLED XEMSET ... WAS LOCATED IN A HILLY, REMOTE PART OF THE NEARBY TOWN OF POTTER VALLEY.

No such property was or is owned by the Temple of Set, and the person who did own it resigned from the Temple in 1982.

182

THE SFPD WAS BOMBARDED WITH DEMANDS THAT PAMFILOFF AND GALLANT, THE POLICE OFFICERS WHO HAD CONDUCTED THE "MIDNIGHT RAID" ON THE AQUINOS' HOUSE, BE REPRIMANDED AND DISCIPLINED - FOR HAVING EXECUTED A LEGAL WARRANT.

A complaint concerning the actions of Pamfiloff and Gallant was filed with the San Francisco Police Commission on 4/8/88. This complaint was investigated by the SFPC for 1-1/2 years, and on 11/22/89 the SFPC issued its formal letter of findings sustaining the complaint concerning both officers.

182

AN ARMY PSYCHIATRIST WHO HAD EXAMINED SOME OF THE CHILDREN WAS STARTLED TO LEARN THAT HER NEW COMMANDING OFFICER HAD RECEIVED A LETTER FROM MICHAEL AQUINO INSISTING THAT SHE BE COURT-MARTIALED.

Hickey was the "therapist" involved in the Presidio scare. Documents obtained by me revealed that:

• Hickey diagnosed "sex abuse" in scores of children, including her own.
• Hickey introduced references to the "devil", and statues of "gargoyles", into her sessions with the children
• Hickey had no known training in the diagnosis or treatment of "ritual child sex abuse".
• Hickey has no education in or experience concerning the Satanic religion.
• Hickey regularly introduced leading questions into her sessions. Tales of "sex-abuse" did not originate spontaneously from the children, but only in response to specific and pointed questions from Hickey.
• When Hickey received an "unhelpful" answer, such as a denial of abuse, she would refuse to accept it or change the subject, and would persist in the question until receiving something she could characterize as a "helpful" answer, i.e. supportive of a "sex-abuse" diagnosis.
• On 23 April 1987, in a sworn affidavit, Hickey made numerous statements about Kinsey Almond directly contradicted by her actual notes of the sessions.

On 5/9/89 the Deputy Commander for Clinical Services of Hickey's current unit refused to have Hickey investigated for professional misconduct. He offered no justification nor explanation concerning any of Hickey's actions at the Presidio as listed above.

182

NEWSPAPER EDITORS RECEIVED COMPLAINTS ABOUT THEIR REPORTERS.

Only when a reporter wrote a story containing knowingly false or inadequately researched information. All such complaints were documented with accurate information.

183

[Aquino] CLAIMED THAT LARRY ADAMS-THOMPSON HIMSELF HAD MADE THE ABUSE ALLEGATIONS AND DESCRIBED THE SCENE OF THE CRIME, WHEN IN FACT HIS STEPDAUGHTER HAD MADE THESE STATEMENTS DIRECTLY TO THE INTERVIEWING FBI AGENTS.

The first accusation against Lilith and myself - and invention of the Kinsey Almond "PX encounter", "abuse story", and "scene description" in complete detail - was made by Chaplain Adams-Thompson to the San Francisco Police on 8/14/86. Almond herself was not interviewed, and was not even present. (SFPD Incident Report)

In an interview with the FBI the previous day, Kinsey Almond did not "identify" either Michael or Lilith Aquino, and did not recite a story even close to the elaborate version invented by her stepfather. (FBI #FD-302, 8/13/87)

The Hickey "therapy" session notes, which Adams-Thompson cited in his SFPD statement, do not substantiate, and in fact contradict, his 8/14/86 fabrication. (CID Report)

183

LARRY HAD MERELY CALLED THE AUTHORITIES TO NOTIFY THEM OF [Kinsey Almond's] IDENTIFICATION OF THE AQUINOS AT THE PX.

As noted previously, there is no evidence that this "PX identification" was anything more than a complete invention by the adult Adams-Thompsons. In fact, they themselves gave significantly different and inconsistent versions of it to the SFPD, the FBI, and the CID.

184

AQUINO ALSO CLAIMED THAT THE MEDICAL EXAMINATION SHOWED [Almond] TO BE "COMPLETELY UNTOUCHED".

Correct, as cited from the official Letterman Army Medical Center records above.

184

BUT THE ARMY RESPONDED THAT THIS WAS A "DIRECT LIE", SINCE THE MEDICAL EVIDENCE DID INDEED SHOW THAT [Almond] HAD BEEN SEXUALLY ABUSED.

A deliberately false statement (in direct violation of UCMJ #133 & 134) by the CID, which possessed a copy of the LAMC official records cited above, but which was pre-committed to a scenario in which Almond had to have been "abused".

184

AQUINO'S COMPLAINTS AGAINST ADAMS-THOMPSON WERE DISMISSED WHEN AQUINO SUGGESTED A CONTINUING INVESTIGATION.

I twice preferred formal court-martial charges against Adams-Thompson for making false official statements (Article #133 UCMJ) and for attempting to defraud the government of $3 million in false claims (Article #132 UCMJ). These charges were documented in detail. They were simply dismissed without proper investigation as required by law.

184

AFTER REVIEWING THE EVIDENCE, LIEUTENANT SCHWENDER DETERMINED THAT THERE WAS PROBABLE CAUSE TO CHARGE AQUINO WITH "OFFENSES OF INDECENT ACTS WITH A CHILD, SODOMY, CONSPIRACY, KIDNAPPING, AND FALSE SWEARING", THIS LAST STEMMING FROM HIS SWORN STATEMENT AGAINST ADAMS-THOMPSON.

There was no "evidence" whatever of any such crimes against any child, and all of the statements in the sworn charges I preferred against Adams-Thompson were and are true. Not a single one was ever refuted by the CID or any other authority.

"Schwender's determination" had been pre-decided by the CID headquarters in Washington for political reasons.

184

THE ARMY'S JUDGE ADVOCATE GENERAL'S TEAM [was] CONVINCED THAT LIEUTENANT COLONEL AQUINO "DEFINITELY DID ABUSE" [Almond].

No charges were ever preferred against me by the Judge Advocate General.

The Judge Advocate General's office of the Department of the Army knew full well that the CID report was an intentional fraud with a predetermined conclusion. The titling was announced before the report was even completed, and the report's Summary of Significant Information presents not a single item of evidence that any such crime ever occurred.

184

THE REASON THEY GAVE "FOR NOT FORCING A COURT-MARTIAL IN THIS CASE" WAS THAT THEY DID NOT THINK IT WOULD BE GOOD FOR THE CHILDREN TO GO BACK TO COURT AND FACE CROSS-EXAMINATION.

This was simply the cover-story, as the paper trail of the "investigation" later established. From the outset it was never intended that I be court-martialed, as the Army knew no such crime had ever been committed. The CID "investigation" was designed simply to be an attempt at intimidation for political reasons.

184

AS A MEMBER OF THE TEAM OBSERVED, "WE JUST WON'T RENEW HIS CONTRACT, SO IN FACT WE ARE GETTING RID OF HIM THAT WAY." IN 1990 AN ARMY RESERVE CONTINUATION BOARD RECOMMENDED DISCONTINUING AQUINO'S MILITARY SERVICE, AND HE WAS SUBSEQUENTLY PROCESSED OUT OF THE ARMY.

As noted above, the actual intent of the "investigation" was to intimidate me out of the Army. This it did not accomplish. Therefore the CID - illegally - used an administrative board to discontinue my full-time active duty. This the CID denied doing under oath in federal court, but in the above quote, the CID Judge Advocate General in charge of the "investigation" admits this illegal action. [I requested disciplinary action against him accordingly, which was ignored by his superiors.]

Although the board discontinued my full-time active service, I retained my commission as a Lieutenant Colonel, received the highest possible performance evaluation in my current assignment, and proceeded directly to another 3-year assignment as an Intelligence Officer for the U.S. Space Command. I honorably retired in 1994 on my own initiative, in full standing.

On September 8, 1994 the [new] Secretary of the Army awarded me the Meritorious Service Medal "for outstanding meritorious service over a long and distinguished military career, whose service was characterized by selfless dedication and great personal commitment from 22 March 1984 through 21 March 1994. This dedicated service, marked with significant contributions, has greatly improved the effectiveness of the U.S. Army."

185

THE APPEALS COURT ... AGREED THAT THERE WAS PROBABLE CAUSE FOR THE ARMY INVESTIGATORS TO BELIEVE THAT AQUINO HAD COMMITTED THE OFFENSE.

I filed suit under the Privacy Act, which would have required the court to review the actual evidence on which the CID made its findings. Understandably the CID argued strenuously that its investigative reports should be exempt from the Privacy Act - that the court should endorse its right to draw any conclusion it wished in such reports without looking into the reasons. The court simply upheld this exemption, thereby avoiding a de novo review of the "evidence". In refusing such a review, how could it then endorse "probable cause"?

Aquino/Temple of Set Lawsuit for Libel against Linda Blood's The New Satanists

On October 28, 1994 the Temple of Set, Michael A. Aquino, and Lilith Aquino filed suit in federal court for libel against Warner Books and Linda Blood for The New Satanists.

After detailing the true, ethical nature of the Temple of Set, and Blood's actual experiences with the Temple and sexual obsession with and harassment of Michael and Lilith Aquino over ten years, the complaint continued:

"On August 14, 1991 Linda Blood left the following message on the Aquinos' answering machine:

'It's going to be coming down real hard on hubby. You soaking all this in? Uh-huh, you bet. We're gonna hang him up the way he needs to be hanged up and the way he deserves to be hung up, you little whore!'

"Given that this statement was made immediately prior to the writing of the book in question, actual malice on the part of Blood can be inferred.

"Notwithstanding this actual malice on the part of Blood, Warner proceeded to accept a manuscript and went to press with The New Satanists.

"Warner, without contacting the Aquinos, the Temple, or any other party subject to the defamations contained in the book, proceeded to publish and distribute the book, which publication and distribution were done with malice and/or in reckless disregard of the facts."

Neither Warner Books nor Linda Blood filed an Answer with the court denying any of the allegations of the complaint, nor challenging nor refuting any of my corrective statements in this commentary.

On January 31, 1995 the president of Warner Books and Linda Blood signed an out-of-court settlement of the lawsuit. While a condition of the settlement is that its details remain confidential, the Temple of Set and Michael & Lilith Aquino are satisfied with its provisions.

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