Remembering Satan

A Tragic Case of Recovered Memory

By: Lawrence Wright

Narrated by: Danny Campbell

In 1988, Ericka and Julie Ingram began making a series of accusations of sexual abuse against their father, Paul Ingram, who was a respected deputy sheriff in Olympia, Washington. At first the accusations were confined to molestations in their childhood, but they grew to include torture and rape as recently as the month before. At a time when reported incidents of "recovered memories" had become widespread, these accusations were not unusual. What captured national attention in this case is that, under questioning, Ingram appeared to remember participating in bizarre satanic rites involving his whole family and other members of the sheriff's department.

Remembering Satan is a lucid, measured, yet absolutely riveting inquest into a case that destroyed a family, engulfed a small town, and captivated an America obsessed by rumors of a satanic underground. It follows the increasingly bizarre accusations and confessions, as well as the claims and counterclaims of police, FBI investigators, and mental-health professionals. Remembering Satan gives us what is at once a psychological detective story and a domestic tragedy about what happens when modern science is subsumed by our most archaic fears.

©1994 Lawrence Wright (P)2020 Tantor

Dreadful

Excellent review of such an awful case. To what depths will human depravity reach? Is there even a limit? Highly recommend if you are curious, as to what happened in this family..

Very interesting!

I was repulse and astonished by this case. This book provided a deep insight into the Ingram case.

probably an important story, but disturbing

The writing wascwell-done , but narration was a bit mechanical.The subject left me disturbed and somewhat uninterested.

Craziest thing I’ve ever read

I first encountered this book through Carl Sagan’s *The Demon-Haunted World*. I was struck by how readily people embraced the stories of sexual abuse and other extreme allegations. It wasn’t surprising because I thought such claims were undeserving of attention, but rather because many of these accusations turned out to be false, often completely implausible. This has devastating consequences for actual survivors of sexual abuse. It’s heartbreaking to think of the lives shattered—both the families affected by these unfounded accusations and the individuals who, with good intentions, led highly suggestible people to believe they had committed acts they hadn’t. The entire situation is deeply troubling.

A Dangerous Recurring Phenomenon

After researching the European witch hunts extensively, I was struck to realize the Satanic Panic is really the same phenomenon happening once again. Now with Qanon it's resurgent yet again. The process of confabulated stories of vast Satanic conspiracies is the same with minor variations. (Why don't they fly on broomsticks anymore? 🤔) Fascinating subject, but the writing could have been more engaging. I would have preferred something more high level and not so much about a single case.

Thank God for Lawrence Wright

This book is weird and important. The reader mispronounces a few words, which rankles this pedant, but overall does a good job. The story is staggering and one cries out "Why?" and "How?"

Fascinating and little known Story, well written and informative

I really enjoyed the way this book unraveled into insanity and its quick and straightforward explanation of events.

Lawrence Wright missed important details

Lawrence Wright has made a career out of publishing crime books at a pretty rapid pace. Details are cherry-picked to support the narrative that will sell the most books. There is no real investigative reporting being done, it seems. He does what he can to churn out the books as fast as possible, so he can stack the cash. This book could have been so much more, but he was lazy.

There was no mention of the summer camp that all the children went to every year. Camp Crestview was an extremely important part of their childhood, so it was important to this story. I personally witnessed Julie crying at the drop of a hat at least once a year, every summer. This was years before she was part of an internationally recognized scandal. Why was this sweet, wonderful little girl always so emotional? Why was she constantly crying so uncontrollably? To say she was ugly crying would be an understatement. Her friends could only look on, feeling helpless. When the scandal broke, it all made sense to me. THAT was why my friend was crying. She was being abused. My heart broke. I'm so sorry, Julie.

There was no mention of her involvement with her church youth group, the friends she had in that church youth group, or her boyfriend (I won't give his name here). Why was this such an important (yet missed) detail? There was one year where we all spent the night at the farm. As far as I know nothing happened that night, but something did just a few weeks later. We were all loading onto the church bus, talking about the slumber party, and Julie was in front of us all (her pack of friends). We were all going on and on about how great her parents were, how much fun we had, and what a great place her home was. Julie took a few steps ahead of us onto the bus, then turned around to look back and down at all of us. One of the sweetest people I have ever known had a look on her face so opposite to the friend we knew that it shocked us all into silence before she spoke a single word.

When she did speak, it was as if we had said nothing but horrible things about her family and home. "You know nothing about my parents, so don't you ever speak about them like that ever again!" Then she turned around like nothing had happened, and never spoke of it again. We all just stood in shock. We were all too afraid to ask her about it. For that, Julie, I am so sorry. We should have asked. We should have spoken up.

If Lawrence Wright were more concerned about doing real investigative reporting, and not just concerned about getting his next book out, details like this would have been considered. If he missed these details, what else did he miss? But this would have derailed from the chosen narrative. This would have taken more effort. This would have taken more time. That is not what Lawrence Wright does. I expected more from a writer of his reputation.

As a former friend of Julie's I suspect that abuse did happen, but her father used the 'Satanic Panic' of the time to make it more sensational. This was his attempt to derail the investigation. As a sheriff, he had inside knowledge on how to do just that. Thankfully it didn't work, and he did do time. But I don't think he would be free now if he wasn't able to distract with the sensationalism he caused during the case.

I write this review mostly to tell Julie that I'm sorry. I failed you as a friend. If you ever forgive me, I still care.

Yikes

This is a very disturbing book. People are insane. It’s well written and the narration is okay. The content is both fascinating and repulsive. It was hard to listen to SO MUCH sexual abuse detailed.

LET DOWN

I love Lawrence Wright and his books but this one is nothing more than the worlds worst narrator essentially read court documents. What a waste of time!!