From mcall.com

...When Marj Snyder tells the story of her life, she returns again and again to the same horrifying tableau -- a satanic cult run by her father that victimized her hundreds of times, inflicting sexual, physical and psychological abuse.

With its details of devil worship, sexual orgies, torture and even human sacrifice, hers is a story similar to scores of others that have surfaced in recent years from abuse survivors around the United States

"We now have 400 or 500 of these stories being told and we're unable to find the least bit of corroborating evidence," said J. Gordon Melton, a Methodist minister who directs the Institute for the Study of American Religion at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

One of the leading debunkers of ritual abuse stories, FBI Academy instructor Kenneth V. Lanning, warns law enforcers about believing such charges without critical investigation.

"There is little or no hard evidence that (Satan worshipers) are involved in serious, organized criminal activity," he wrote in a 1989 article for The Police Chief . "The American people should not be frightened into believing that babies are being bred and eaten, that 50,000 missing children are being murdered in human sacrifices or that satanists are taking over America's day care centers."

But Baltimore County police officer Donald H. Thompson said such skepticism may be misplaced.

"I know that ritual abuse goes on," Thompson said. "I've worked on three or four cases here this year that can be substantiated. Cannibalism, sacrifices -- it does occur."

Thompson has become convinced of the existence of ritual abuse "because a lot of kids from different areas will tell you very similar stories." He cited one 7- or 8-year-old boy who drew a picture of a crematorium. "Now how does a kid like that know what a crematorium looks like unless he's seen it?"

http://articles.mcall.com/1991-06-29/news/2792048_1_ritual-abuse-abuse-survivors-satanic

From Sacred-texts.com

Lanning (debunker of ritual abuse stories) :

...Two or three people murder a couple of children in a few communities as part of a ritual, and nobody finds out? Possible. Thousands of people do the same thing to tens of thousands of victims over many years? Not likely. Hundreds of communities all over America are run by mayors, police departments, and community leaders who are practicing satanists and who regularly murder and eat people? Not likely.

Children do fantasize. Perhaps whatever causes a child to allege something impossible (such as being cut up and put back together) is similar to what causes a child to allege something possible but improbable (such as witnessing another child being chopped up and eaten).

Many police officers ask what to look for during the search of the scene of suspected satanic activity. The answer is simple: Look for evidence of a crime.

A pentagram is no more criminally significant than a crucifix unless it corroborates a crime or a criminal conspiracy.

http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/lanning.htm

In response to accusations by a few that I (Lanning:) am a "satanist" who has infiltrated the FBI to facilitate cover-up, how does anyone (or should anyone have to) disprove such allegations?

http://www.skeptictank.org/fbi1992.htm

He also wrote a few books

• Encyclopedia of occultism and parapsychology
• The Cult Experience
• The vampire book