2004, Columbia, SC- Wiccan Richard Legette shot and killed Chris Clark at the Lexington Green condominiums in an argument over a woman. Prosecutors at Legette's bond hearing said Legette is a Wiccan and that Wiccans don't believe the government of a Christian nation can dispense justice (apparently stemming from a comment Legette made). Legget's "fiance" said Legette is actually a Neopagan, NOT a Wiccan, (heavens, they wouldn't want to be one of THOSE weirdos!) and that what he was charged with had nothing to do with his beliefs. Apparently Legget's magic couldn't win his girlfriend or his freedom. (AP)

2004 Milan, Itlay A Satanist named Andrea Volpe (age 27) who lead a rock band called "The Beasts of Satan" was arrested along with two other band members for the murder of his girlfriend Elizabeth Ballarin (age 18) . Police discovered Volpe was also responsible for the murder of other band members: in 1998 of Fabio Tollis (age 16). It was also discovered the band members belonged to a Satanic cult called "The Beasts of Satan", the same name as the band. Police began to link Volpe's cult to several unexplained murders and questionable "suicides" that occured over the years in northern Milan. Volpe's girlfriend's murder, Chiara Marino, and had occured on a Friday the 13th during a full moon. Police also suspect the cult in other cases that were particularly baffling: two young men, at least one of them close to the alleged Satanists, both of whom worked in the Legnano cemetery and both of whom killed themselves in the past six months.Angelo Lombardo, 28, a guard at the cemetery, was the first to die. On a Sunday afternoon last December he went into the porter’s lodge at the cemetery, doused himself in petrol and set himself on fire. Visitors to the cemetery found him still in flames and writhing in agony. He was taken to hospital with 80 per cent burns but died four days later. Then, in May this year, his friend Luca Colombo, 21, a florist at the same cemetery, hanged himself from a tree in his parent’s garden. Before his death, Luca confided in friends and relatives that he was frightened. A local woman who claims to have been his girlfriend for five months told Corriere della Sera newspaper, “For the first three months he was happy, funny and very sweet. Then suddenly he changed. He wasn’t himself any more: nervous, bad tempered, always scowling … Just once he said that one day he would explain [the problem], but that moment never arrived.”He is known to have been friendly with some members of the sect, and particularly close to Nicola Sapone, the plumber who is thought to be its leader. As more evidence of the sect’s crimes emerged, people have began coming forward to denounce the police for failing to follow up satanic leads from years ago. Pasqualina Antonini, the mother of Chiara Marino, who died from stab wounds and whose remains were discovered earlier this month, has told reporters she gave police a full account of the Satanists she held responsible soon after her daughter’s disappearance more than six years ago.Volpe later plead guilty to his part in both murders of Tollis and Marino, and recieved 30 years. In 2006, Nicola Sapone, one of the leaders of the Beasts of Satan rock band, was sentenced to life behind bars for the double homicide. (telegraph.co.uk/news)

2004 The Bronx, NY A woman was arrested in the February death of her good friend during a Santeria ritual that went awry when candles "accidentally" ignited a flammable liquid and engulfed the victim in flames, police said. (AP)

2004 Hialeah, Florida -- Hialeah police arrested Pablo Fauria, 62, a Santeria priest who used his position to sexually abuse two children. Fauria was charged with 20 counts of sexual battery and sexual abuse. Police said Fauria offered to help the children after their parents died. But investigators discovered Fauria had sexually abused the 12 y.o. and 13 y.o. since 2000. (AP)

2004 Hopewell NJ Hopewell Township police think the human skull found in the Delaware River Nov. 22 may have been used in a Palo Mayombe ritual. Capt. George Meyer of the township police said Monday that the investigation has led authorities to believe the skull may have been a ceremonial artifact used in cult rituals by a Palo Mayombe priest. "According to experts we've contacted, the Palo Mayombe religion requires that such a skull be disposed of in a river, and in a way that seems related to the objects found with the skull," the captain said in a Hopewell Valley News article. (AP)

2004 Jenner, OH Christian camp counselors Jason Allen, 26, and his fiancee, Lindsay Cutshall, 22, spread sleeping bags on the sand of a secluded cove that locals refer to as Driftwood or Fish Head Beach. The young Ohio couple also placed a Bible near where they slept, and where ultimately they died as martyrs for Christ. The two had taken a vow of chastity until they were married and slept in seperate sleeping bags. That night someone emerged from the darkness and shot each of them once in the head. The devil drawings on a piece of driftwood seemed to indicate a Satanic murder. A local homeless man, Jeff Winkler, claimed he drew the devil picture weeks earlier, but did not kill them. He also said he "hated Christians", but was not a Satanist. The case may have been the work of occultists. At any rate, the case is still unsolved and was featured on America's Most Wanted. Anyone with information on the murder should call the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department. (AP)

2004 Pretoria, South Africa Satanist and Tatoo artist Robbie "Goggaman" Robbie Classen (38) recieved 60 years for multiple counts of rape, indecent assault and abduction on a girl aged 7 at the time and her 9 and 11 year old brothers. Classen claimed the children accusing him of sexual abuse confused him a look-a-like...extremely unlikely considering the unique tatoos covering his body. Classen's body was a mass of occult tattoos, including one on his penis. The victim's mother told authorities she had known it was there because the children had told her about it before she ever met Classen. Classen sodomised the boys, made the children eat insects, even injected one of the boys with his own blood, and tried to teach the children "astral projection", among other things. The girl claimed she was tied to a cross upside down and raped. Despite Classen's claims to innocence, medical evidence corroborated the children’s claims that they had been raped and sodomised. Classen had a long list of previous convictions for drug-related crimes and had spent time in jail for robbery.(theherald.co.za)

2004 Escondido,CA In August Police arrested a "Gypsy", Fatima Demetro, 31, who is wanted for allegedly scamming an Illinois woman out of $80,000. Police believe she may also have duped local residents.The self-proclaimed psychic, palm reader and healer is known to target Latinos, police said. Demetro is accused of befriending a mother and daughter in McHenry, Ill., who used her services because they were down on their luck and overweight, Gaylor said. Police say she convinced the older woman that her luck would change if she cleansed her life savings of $80,000. The woman withdrew the money, all in $100 bills, and gave it to Demetro. During a seance involving vegetables and live lizards, the cash was wrapped into a white handkerchief. The women were asked to stare at a candle.They were given back the handkerchief and told to place it under a bed for several days, police said. "When they open up the (handkerchief), they find cut-up newspaper," a police officer said. Demetro also is wanted in another Illinois case. She is accused of telling a client that his wife had been unfaithful and he was not the father of their unborn child, police said.The man paid her with his wedding ring and ended up killing his wife, stabbing her 80 times, police said. Anyone who believes they might have been victimized by Demetro is asked to call Escondido police at (760) 839-4972 (AP)

2003 Portsmouth, England A 26-year-old druid was arrested in for going to the hardware store while wearing his ceremonial sword and dagger. The sword, named Talesin <snicker>, was confiscated by police as evidence. Apparently he didn't think the store owners would be afraid some clown dressed as a wizard wearing a sword & might be scared they would be robbed or something. Hey, you never know when you're going to need your sword at ACE Hardware. Chief druid "King Arthur Pendragon", who believes he's the reincarnation of King Arthur and claims a spiritual age of 1,451 years, wearing white robes with a red lion emblazoned on the front, acted as Williams's legal adviser...and he's not a crackpot! King Arthur had been arrested several times himself since 1985 for trying to gain admittance to Stonehenge during the Summer solstice, but the charges were always dropped. England has a high tolerance for eccentrics, and the man was freed by the court. The sword could not be reached for comment. (BBC News)

2003 San Mateo, CA Janet Adams, 41, was arrested Saturday after police say she fleeced a Half Moon Bay teen out of $15,000 -- payment to ward off the bad fortune she predicted. San Mateo Police Lt. Kevin Raffaelli said the 19-year-old met Adams in December, when Adams did a psychic reading for her. Adams got the teen's phone number, and called her asking for more money to perform incantations to protect her and her family from harm, Raffaelli said. `This 19-year-old was very innocent, very vulnerable,'' Alberti said. Over several months, Adams would make predictions that the woman's family members were about to die, and would tell her that she needed to pay or the predictions would come true, Alberti said. The victim had access to a parent's bank account, and also charged payments on her credit cards, Alberti said. (AP)

2003, Tokyo, Japan Japanese 'psychic' Shunichi Miyazaki,55, and his group were arrested for fraud. A Japanese man has been arrested along with eight "disciples" on suspicion of fraud, after taking millions of yen in fees for performing exorcism rites on the public. Most of the victims were believed to be women in their 20s or 30s, the Daily Yomiuri said. Police said that the group dressed in tennis clothes and carried racquets or violin cases to make them appear more "credible" when approaching potential clients in public places, such as train stations.The group members told passers-by: "Your back is possessed by the spirit of a dead woman and she has attached strings to your neck," or "the spirit of a dead man with severed legs is cling to your waist," the Daily Yomiuri reported. The group, led by 55-year-old Shunichi Miyazaki, is suspected of charging more than 1,000 people between 30,000 and 1 million yen ($253-8,449) for an exorcism, the paper said. "When I was a high school student, I nearly drowned. After the incident I came to have psychic power. I didn't mean to cheat them and it is not a fraud," he was quoted as saying. (The Daily Yomiuri)

2003 Roanoke, VA Satanist Terry Dale Duncan, 30, says he tried to ‘disassemble’ his month-old son. Duncan, who claims to be a Satanist, was convicted of attempted capital murder. The child, identified previously as Terrence Alexander Duncan, likely would have died if not for intervention from a Child Health Investment Partnership nurse and a social worker who visited the Duncans after the boy missed a doctor’s appointment. Doctors discovered the child had suffered fractures to a leg, a shinbone and both collarbones. Bruises covered his nose, forehead and eyes. They later discovered a wound that appeared to be a cigarette burn at the back of his throat.(AP)

2003 Des Moines, Iowa In Nov. Iowa Melissa Fernandez, 20, is charged with one count of child endangerment. Tina Kish said she was shocked by what her daughters told her about the times they stayed with Fernandez, a family friend and baby sitter who also lives in the Park Ridge Apartment complex on Indianola Avenue. Kish said the girls told her that Fernandez served them alcohol, and got one of them drunk. The girls also said Fernandez taught them things about witchcraft, took them to an abandoned building Fernandez told them is haunted, and allowed one girl to cut herself as part of a blood ritual. Fernandez admitted she studies Satanism as a "religion", but denies she practices witchcraft. Fernandez admits she's a cutter, like many Wiccans and Satanists, it seems. "I had cut myself. I do that kind of out of habit now. And she just kind of copied me," Fernandez said. Fernandez also admitted to getting the kids drunk, "I had been drinking a little bit that night. And they pretty much wanted to try it, like kids always do," Fernandez said. However, she tried to explain away the Satanism part, I can completely understand the charges for distributing alcohol to a minor, and I will fess up to that, but anything else I completely do not understand," Fernandez said. Fernandez said she simply showed the girls the movie "Practical Magic," which is about witches, and the twin's Satanism claims are just "a misunderstanding". Eeeeeeyeah. (AP)

2003 North Carolina - Wiccan Janine Sutphen, 57, a cellist with the Durham North Cartolina Symphony Orchestra, became suspicioua of her husband's spending practices. She, along with Wiccan husband William James Petrick, were part of a polygamist marriage. Sutphen's remains turned up in North Carolina's Falls Lake in May 2003. Her body was wrapped up in sleeping bags and a chain was tied around her legs. The absence of apparent wounds led police to determine the cause of death was asphyxiation. Petrick rejected an initial plea deal to second-degree murder and fraud charges. But just before jury selection began in July in his fraud trial, he pleaded no contest to a single count of obtaining property by false pretenses and admitted to being a habitual felon.Sutphen's remains turned up in North Carolina's Falls Lake in May 2003. Her body was wrapped up in sleeping bags and a chain was tied around her legs. The absence of apparent wounds led police to determine the cause of death was asphyxiation. Following an investigation of the couple's home, Petrick was charged with multiple counts of fraud related to bogus checks, including one for $47,866 alone. Petrick dismissed his defense attorney and decided to represent himself, just like Ted Bundy and other psychotic killers have done in the past. He got life in prison. From this we can conclude 1. His money spells didn't work, which is why he had to steal. 2. His magic couldn't gain him his freedom 3. Criminal types are attracted to the occult. (AP)

2003 Lake Placid, Florida A little publicized case occured when a man was arrested for the murder of his wife. The two were both Satanists and made their living owning a funeral home. One night the couple engaged in a sex game involving drainig the blood out his wife necks with a syringe and drinking it. The vampire "game" went to far when the bleeding got out of hand, and the wife bled to death. He was arerested for murder. (local undrertaker)

2003 North Jersey, NJ - Karen R. Mitchell, 32, of Allendale has to answer charges of theft by deception for claiming to be a psychic and bilking a client out of nearly $24,000 over two years.The client told police the scam began on her first visit when Mitchell said she needed more time for a séance and asked her to get more money from an automated teller machine. At one point she and the soothsayer traveled to New York City to buy a $12,000 Tourneau watch so they could "turn back time." The watch was among jewelry and clothing that police say persuaded the woman to buy. In other instances, the client was persuaded to buy clothing to dress up figures to look like people from her past. (AP)

2003 Pompano Beach,FL On 11-6-03 cops say Jean-Marie Jean-Francois beat his girlfriend Fritz-Anna to death as part of a well thought out plan. Jean-Francois had abused the woman throughout their relationship. Jean-Francois was a Voodoo practitioner, who had his own handwritten book of spells, and he was more than just a "dabbler". Jean-Francois led a double life; on the one hand, he seemed like a church going man, but police say nothing could mask his obsession with voodoo, seduction and pain. Jean-Marie Jean-Francois is still at large and could be hiding out among Florida's Hatian community, Canada, or Haiti. Anyone with any information should call law enforcement or 1-800-CRIME-TV. (America's Most Wanted)

2003 Burton, MI - Two girls and their mother spent six years in constant fear, hiding from a devil worshipper who raped the girls dozens of times while he baby-sat them. On Halloween when the family received an anonymous “Friday the 13th” videotape depicting two sisters being killed. Fearful that David Lindensmith, 40, would kill them, the girls finally went to police and detailed a horrific story of molestation that began in 1992 when they were 4 and 6 years old. The girls, now 14 and 16, told police Lindensmith pointed a pistol at them and threatened to kill them if they went to police. Genesee County Sheriff Robert J.Pickell said Lindensmith met the girls in 1992 when he became their mother’s boyfriend for a short time. A search of Lindensmith’s Bergin Avenue home turned up 300 DVDs and four computer hard drives with images of child pornography, Pickell said. Police also found satanic cult items in his house, along with books they said he used to cast evil spells on people. (GCSD Press Releases)

2003 King's Moutain SC Police shut down a home explosives lab operated by Phillip Lovelace, Jonathan Garrett, Roger McFarland and George Adams the third, who all belonged to a Satanic cult. The police chief says the group tested homemade napalm and Molotov cocktails in unoccupied places in town and possibly threw one at an Amtrak train driving through town where it bounced off. Police also discovered occult books, and several copies of The Satanic Bible. (NTI: Global Security Newswire)

2002 Manahttan, NY Two self-described psychics, Sonia Merino, 50 and her daughter-in-law, Nasta Merino, 23 were arrested and charged with five counts each of mail fraud for allegedly conning clients into paying thousands of dollars in fees to "free them from bad karma". The pair offered psychic readings for as little as $10 but would then tell clients that additional sessions, ranging up to $20,000, were needed to drive away a curse or some negative spiritual force. One client told investigators that he gave Sonia Merino more than $518,000 in checks, a 1999 Volkswagen Beetle, a CD player and a personal computer over a three-year period after first going to her for a tarot card reading in 1996 after a failed romance. He says Sonia told him he needed a series of costlier sessions including a request for $750,000 to pay a group of psychics to conduct all-night meditations on his behalf. One victim was quoted in the affidavit as saying that Sonia Merino threatened to put a curse on her when she refused to pay several thousand dollars for a series of sessions. Another told of being badgered with phone calls every few hours throughout the night. In addition to mail fraud, Sonia and her husband Steve, 44, were charged with tax fraud for allegedly underreporting $750,000 in income from 1995 through 1999. Sonia Merino also sold clients what she described as "holy water" from the Vatican but analysis showed it was Manhattan Beach tap water, authorities said. Nasta Merino was accused of selling at least one person "holy water" from Ste.-Anne-de-Beaupre, a Catholic shrine near Quebec City, Canada, which is frequented by invalids seeking miracle cures. It, too, came from a local tap. (AP)

2002 Bochum, Germany A couple who killed a friend by stabbing him 66 times in a Satanic ritual were jailed in Jan. Daniel Ruda, a 26-year-old former car parts salesman, and his 23-year-old wife Manuela had confessed to the killing in their apartment, surrounded by human skulls, cemetery lights, scalpels and incense. The dead man, a 33-year-old colleague of Daniel Ruda's, was found in the couple's apartment covered in knife wounds and with a scalpel protruding from his stomach. A pentagram, the sign of the Devil, had been carved into his chest. A judge in the western town of Bochum sentenced Daniel to 15 years and Manuela 13 years in a psychiatric ward. Manuela, a former high school student who said she drifted into the "Gothic" scene after the devil contacted her when she was 14, slept in a coffin in their apartment. The court heard how Manuela acquired a taste for vampirism during a visit to London, where she attended "bite parties" at which people voluntarily had blood sucked from their veins. She met Daniel after responding to his advertisement in a heavy metal magazine that read: "Pitch black vampire seeks princess of darkness who hates everything and everyone."They have shown no remorse, saying the devil ordered them to send him a human sacrifice because he wanted a "court jester". Daniel said he had merely been a tool of the devil. "If you run someone over with a car, you don't prosecute the car," he said at one point.(serialkillercalendar.com)

2002 Tucson, AZ Jason Paul Doty, the "Aryan Satanist" who murdered Grady Towers in March 2000, was found guilty on January 18, 2002. His sentencing hearing is coming up in a few weeks. He recieved 2 life sentences. His "spiritual war to purify the white race" prompted Doty to shoot a security guard at Tohono Chul Park and brag about the sacrifice to friends. Grady Mitchell Towers, 55, was killed because Doty, 29, needed to slay a white person on March 20, 2000—the Spring Equinox—to achieve magical powers, Deputy County Attorney Teresa Godoy told jurors. Jurors heard excerpts from letters Doty wrote to friends and from an "archive" he kept of his activities. "Violence is the law, death to the dove. Behold the terror in [Towers'] eyes," Godoy read from Doty's writings. He was shot 7 times; once in the upper chest, above the left eye, in the back of the head and all other shots were to the left side of the head—two shots against the head. The Satanist Doty also remains the primary suspect in the unsolved murder of Robin Hay, a mother of two who was brutally slashed to death in March 2000 at the eegee’s restaurant at Ina and Thornydale roads where she worked. (Pima County Attorney's Office)

2002 Los Angeles, California The company that operated a telephone psychic line that saturated the airwaves with infomercials was brought to court by the Federal Trade Commisison for fraud. It seemed rather than give people a "free reading" as promised, the company (Psychic Friends Network) was charging folks a hefty $6.00 per minute (as much as Sprint charges for a call to Vietnam). One man sued after his "free" call cost him $300. Lady Cleo (who's real name is Youree Harris), the infomercial's star, had seemed to lose credibility with the public after failing to predict the terrorist attacks on the U.S.A. on 9-11-01. It also turned out the spokeswoman, "Lady Cleo", wasn't a Jamaican born psychic, but a Californian actress with a phony accent. Harris wrote a play called "Women Only" in which she cast herself as a Jamaican woman. This characther became the basis for her psychic Cleo charachter. In 2006 Harris apparently tried to gain some publicity by "coming out" and admitting she was a lesbian. The story only recieved coverage in a few gay newspapers and was largely ignored by the mainstream press. You don't have to be psychic to figure our her acting career is over. (Court TV)

2002 Leesberg, Virginia "Dr. Robert Schwartz, 57, was a founding member of the Virginia Biotechnology Association, and the Executive Director of Research and Development at Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology. In his farmhouse he was stabbed and slashed repeatedly with a sword and an 'X' was carved in the back of his neck . His daughter, who identifies herself as a Wiccan high priestess, and three of her fellow pagans have been charged." [Globe and Mail, 5/4/02] All were part of what they called a coven, and interested in magic, fantasy and self-mutilation. The police have no motive as to why they would have wanted to kill Schwartz, who was a single parent and said to be very close to his children. One of the Wiccan murderers, who has a history of mental illness, says he was given permission to kill Schwartz by "vampires and creatures named Ordog, Sabba and Nicodemus". Schwartz worked at Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology on DNA sequencing and pathogenic microorganisms. Despite wiccans always claiming how scientists endorse Wicca, I guarentee you one at least who wouldn't if he were still alive! (AP)

2002 Prince William County VA Russell John Smith a.k.a "Reverend Sorath." operated his own Satanic internet website called "The Order of Perdition", open to Satanists & "Left Hand Path Pagans." "Satanism allows for indulgence in life and its pleasures rather than abstinence, as Christianity preaches," Smith wrote on his website. Smith’s "indulgences" included talking 12year old girls into sex as part of a Satanic sex ritual. He was charged with rape and forcible sodomy of a child and was eventually sentenced to 48 years in prison. After allegations surfaced that Smith, 37, had repeatedly molested two girls, he resigned his job as a corrections officer and was on the lam, along with his 12 y.o. daughter. Police searched Smith’s home & found a goat skull with a pentagram drawn on it, black robes, black candles, young girls’ underwear. His spells couldn’t keep him out of jail, and he became America’s Most Wanted capture #720. Russell Smith tried to evade serving hard time by attempting to slash his wrists with a piece of tin foil from a juice carton. But a judge saw right though it and sentenced him to 48 years in prison. I guess his magic doesn't work either. The Order of Perdition "excommunicated" Smith, and stated on their website : "We ...DO NOT promote or have anything to do with Child Abuse, Animal Abuse or Animal Sacrifice, Illegal Substances, or ANY Criminal Activities what so ever." But even LaVey didn’t measure up to those standards in real life! The website is gone at this writing, and the order has apparently been disbanded. Perhaps eventually they’ll get tired of apologizing and realize Satanism is for criminals and ditch it. (America's Most Wanted)

2001 London, England In Feb. Thelemite and jobless drifter Henry Bibby (alias Edward Crowley) was sentenced to life imprisonment at the Old Bailey for carrying out a