Ray Bucky Trial

The Merriam Webster definition of a witch hunt is, “the act of unfairly looking for and punishing people who are accused of having opinions that are believed to be dangerous or evil.” (“witch hunt”) However, a definition that describes a witch hunt more specifically is, “the punishing of people with abnormal views through false accusations, and scapegoats, all within an atmosphere of fear and hysteria.” The McMartin Preschool Abuse Trial is a seven year long 1980’s trial that happened in Manhattan Beach, CA, where Ray Buckey, the owner of McMartin preschool, had been accused of molesting Judy Johnson’s two year old son. This leaded to the longest and most expensive criminal trial in history. Although some say that all of the accusations were

The scapegoats of this trial were Ray Buckey, and several teachers at the preschool. Ray Buckey did have power, as the owner of the school, but he was accused of molesting a child, which then influenced every other parent's opinion on him. As people started to become suspicious of Buckey, the police took action; "the police conducted searches of Buckey's home, confiscating such 'evidence' as a rubber duck, a graduation robe, and Playboy magazines. Detective Hoag arrested Buckey on September 7, 1983. (Linder 1) The finding of the Playboy magazines could have been evidence hinting to the performance of the crime, but it was a baseless piece of evidence that did not have much significance on deciding if Buckey actually molested the

The fear in this case is the fear of a parent, thinking that their child had been molested. It started with Judy Johnson, stating that Ray Buckey had molested her child. This fear of molestation had turned into hysteria, where parents feared the very existence of the school. Parents had heard of secret tunnels under the school, where many children were said to be molested, and began digging. However, no such evidence of any secret tunnels were found. Not only were the parents afraid, but the children were as well. All of them were interviewed and were persuaded to create lies in fear of being in trouble from their parents and from