                "DABBLING IN OCCULT: Teen vandlals on the rise"
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               The Virginian-Pilot (local)  Monday 2 January, 89
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                        By Joe Jackson     Staff writer


   NORFOLK - It was the most gruesome thing Robert Kirby had seen in his 12 years 
as superintendent of cemeteries. 
   On the nite of Nov. 25. someone broke open a padlock on the gate of an 
Elmwood Cemetery mausoleum. The marble front of a vault was smashed. The casket
of a woman, entombed in 1961, was dragged halfway out and the casket's lid was
opened, revealing her skeletal hands folded atop her black dress.
   "Whoever did it must have been interupted or scared off by something,"
Kirby said, adding that no jewelry seemed missing nor body parts disturbed.
"... This kind of thing makes no sense - no scense at all."

   BUT Investigator B. L. Hill Jr. of the Norflok Detective Division and 
Investigator Don H. Rimer of the Virginia Beach Detective Division said this and
other recent incidents make sense in a twisted and perverse way.
   Both investigators said there were more animal mutilations and graveyard
vandalism in 1988 than in any year they can remember.
   In separate interviews, Hill and Rimer said they believe most of the acts
might have been committed by "experimenters" or "dabblers" in the occult.

   Dabblers - teenagers and young adults - are less sophisticated than cult 
members, who are more discreet, Rimer said. They wear satanic jewelry, listen
to heavy metal rock 'n' rool, vandalize cemeteries, paint graffiti on walls
and read paperback books such as Anton Szandor LaVey's "The Satanic Bible."
   In Virginia Beach, police have identified four organized satanic groups, 
Rimer said. A security guard saw four to six people digging into a grave in
Virginia Beach. And at least one middle school student was disciplined for
what appeared to be satanic activities.

   THE worship of Satan, as all religions, is protected by the First Amendment.
"That's not what police are worried about," Hill said. "You can worship a tree
in this country if you want."
   The problem is that to practice satanic rituals, an adherent might break
the law, police said.
   Each crime serves a different ritualistic purpose. The mutilation of animals
occurs because certain groups "traditionally offer a blood sacrifice durring
certain times of the year," Rimer said. Graves are raided to obtain bones used
insatanic rites.
   "In the past, police misclassified incidents like this as vandalism," Hill
said. "We didn't always know what to look for."
   Police also are learning to recognize satanic graffiti. These include 
inverted crosses, pentagrams and 666, the "mark of the beast" mentioned in
the Bible's Book of Revelations.

   "This is all new to us," Rimer said. "Until two years ago, we didn't
have the training to recognize the signs of any (satanic) activity. Now there
are more and more schools and seminars across the country on ritualistic
crime."
   Incidents fall into two catagogies. During the spring and summer there were 
a number of animal mutilation, mostly in Virginia Beach.

   AFTER Halloween, there was a spate of graveyard disturbances in both cities,
although police said they are not aware of any body parts having been taken.

   [*] In March, two pigs and two dogs were found slaughtered and disemboweled
near the Princess Anne Courthouse complex in Virginia Beach. The killings
appeared ritualistic - the animals were arranged in the shape of a cross,
Rimer said.

   [*] In May, a goat was found decapitated and burned in the Dam Neck area of
Virginia Beach in what appeared to be a burned offering, Rimer said.

   [*] In June, a blood-stained noose was found under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge
Tunnel. Some satanic graffiti was found nearby, sprayed on the concrete bridge
with black paint.

   [*] On July 3, vandals destroyed several tombstones at Forest Lawn Cemetery
in Norfolk, with damage estimated between $50,000 and $60,000. Twenty more
tombstones were vandalized July 22 or 23, with damage about the same.
   Such could be evidence of satanic activity, Hill said, but other officers
believe it is simple vandalism.

   [*] On Aug. 5, the charred, hairless body of a dog was found stuffed into
a dark plastic bag beneath the Chesepeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.
   Inverted crosses and five-lined pentagrams were spray-painted nearby.

   [*] On Oct. 28, a security guard at a constuction site off Lynnhaven
Parkway in Virginia Beach observed four to six people digging at a grave in
an old family plot, Rimer said.
   The guard frightened off the vandals; investigators later discovered they 
had dug several feet into one grave and started several inches into a second,
but no bodies were disturbed.

   [*] On Nov. 5, there was an unsuccessful attempt to break into a 
mausoleum in Forest Lawn Cemetery.

   [*] On Nov. 25, the Elmwood Cemetery mausoleum was vandalized and the
woman's remains exposed.

   [*] Sometime between mid-November and mid-December, vandals dug into graves
in an old family plot off Great Neck Road in Virginia Beach, Rimer said.
   The vandalism was discovered in mid-December by workers at a nearby 
construction site. No bodies were disturbed, and it appeared the vandals had
been frightened off, Rimer said.
   No arrests have been made in any of the cases.

   THE manager of Waldenbooks at Military Circle Shopping Center said her store 
sold 470 copies of "The Satanic Bible" in 1987. Most sales were to young men,
ages 15 to 25, she said.

   Kelley Smith, owner of Ye Olde Mystique Shoppe, 3130 Tidewater Drive in
Norfolk - a store specializing in spiritual, religious and occult paraphernalia
- said that a couple of times sense Halloween, some customers "wanted real 
bones to make ornaments ...someone wanted me to order a real skull."
   John H. Tucker, headmaster of Norfolk Academy, confirmed that sometime
during the fall term an eighth-grade girl was responsible for leaving what
appeared to be blood and satanic graffiti on student lockers. It is unclear
whether the girl withdrew from school or was suspened, and Tucker would not
comment further, saying that "we are doing everything we can to help this girl."
   Rimer an Hill's ultimate worry, however, is that a human will be killed in
a ritual. There is no evidence that such a murder has occurred in South
Hampton Roads, they said.
   However, both  pointed to satanic activity in Richmond as one source of
worry. The Richmond News-Leader in Sptember quoted police Detective William
Lightfoot as saying there have been two ritual satanic murders in Richmond 
area in the past two years.
   "These are not your normal young people" who take the occult to extremes,
Smith said. "People can believe in these things enough that it becomes
detrimental to their mental health."
                                    -=-
     
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