How Three Dead Prostitutes Triggered a Wild Satanic Panic

How Three Dead Prostitutes Triggered a Wild Satanic Panic

The new Epix docuseries ‘Fall River’ examines a series of murders in Fall River, Massachusetts, that were attributed to Satanic cultists. It was all a lie.

he Satanic Panic of the ’80s and early ’90s was fueled by wild stories about ritualistic killings, human and animal sacrifices, and pledges of allegiance to dark demonic lords. Most of those claims turned out to be tall tales, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t result in criminal justice system convictions.

One such example involved the nightmare that befell Fall River, Massachusetts, (the birthplace of Lizzie Borden) in1979-1980, when three young prostitutes were found bound, bludgeoned to death, and, in one instance, horribly mutilated.

Though the victims were all killed in a strikingly similar manner, police didn’t investigate them as the work of a single fiend.

And in the case of the third slaying, they decided that the perpetrator’s motivation had less to do with personal impulses than with getting in good with a higher power: Satan.

Premiering on Epix May 16, the Jason Blum-produced Fall River revisits this tumultuous episode in traditional docuseries fashion, employing archival photos and videos, newly recorded interviews, graphical flourishes, and unnecessary dramatic recreations to try to assemble a puzzle whose pieces, decades later, don’t quite fit.

Director James Buddy Day’s four-part docuseries begins with the Oct. 13, 1979, murder of 17-year-old prostitute Doreen Levesque, who was found under a high school’s bleachers with her head brutally caved in by a blunt object.

At the time of Doreen’s death, there was a turf war in the area between two rival pimps: notorious Carl Drew and 17-year-old Robin Murphy.

The latter was dating a prostitute named Karen Marsden, who said that she was present at Doreen’s murder, which had been carried out by Carl. Karen, however, refused to outright finger Carl to the cops, and on Feb. 9, 1980, she was found murdered in Freetown-Fall River State Forest.