The Memo

Behold the dreaded memo!

Reading this without context is fraught with entanglements. Please take the time to get acquainted with the context first by watching our video essay series.

In short, at the height of the Satanic Panic, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church AKA Mormon Church) offered extensive counseling services across the United States, including therapy. Just like therapists everywhere during the Satanic Panic, the Church's therapists were flooded with strange claims about Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA). Just as perplexed as every other institution, the leaders of the Church dispatched Glenn L. Pace to look into it. Pace was given a list of 60 names of severely mentally ill patients who had reported bizarre claims of SRA. He interviewed them and reported back what he heard. Pace bought into the very common hysteria of his time. The memo is an artifact of a strange chapter in American pop-culture, when stories about witches, demons and Satanic abuse were running wild.