Utah Attorney General, Ritual Crime in the State of Utah (1995) — the Investigation Hammond Cited
nodeOccult & Esoteric
He told the room Utah had investigators working on this. They did. They found nothing.
Who they are
The Utah Attorney General's investigation into ritual crime, running from 1992.
What they do
Two years, about $250,000, more than 125 reported cases.
How it works
Investigators reported they could not substantiate the incidents with physical evidence and could not support the cases well enough to bring charges. One case led to criminal charges. The report flagged problems with recovered memories and noted that courts treat material obtained under hypnosis as unreliable.
Why it matters
Hammond pointed his 1992 audience at this investigation as support. It reported the opposite. It sits next to the FBI's national finding, which came to the same place separately — and next to the accounts of individual people, which it does not settle.
The engine's record — word for word
[Report #192] In the 1992 lecture Hammond told the audience that Utah had two full-time state ritual-abuse investigators with statewide jurisdiction under the Attorney General's Office. That investigation existed, and it reported. Launched 1992, it ran two years at a cost of about $250,000 and examined more than 125 reported cases of alleged occult or ritual activity. Its finding, as reported contemporaneously: investigators found insufficient evidence 'to substantiate with physical evidence the incidents reported to them' and 'were unable to support the cases substantially to justify filing of criminal charges'. One case resulted in criminal charges. The report cited difficulties with recovered memories and noted that courts treat hypnotherapy-derived material as unreliable for admission. Held beside hammond_greenbaum_speech_1992: the state body he pointed the room to as corroboration published a null. Held beside lanning_report_1992, which reached a parallel null nationally. Neither is adjudicated here against the accounts of individual claimants.
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