Page Eight
THE SUMMER DAILY
Wednesday, May 30, 1973
Page Eight THE SUMMER DAILY Wednesday, May 30, 1973
Ritual
By PAT LEISNER
Associated Press Writer
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla-Late
last month the body of 17-year-
old Ross "Mike" Cochran w a s
'found in a thicket of scrub pine
and palmetto outside town. It
was a bloody pulp, battered by
heavy chains and slashed by
jagged glass.
The verdict of police is that
Cochran was the victim of devil
worshippers: killed in a frenz-
ied sacrificial ritual while strap-
ped to an altar in the basement
of a broken-down apartment
dubbed "roach haven" by i t s
young residents.
IN THE WEEK after the body
was found, police arrested 10
young beach drifters and charg-
ed them with first-degree murder
in the death of the Fresno, Calif.,
youth who worked as a money-
Changer in a pinball arcade. In-
vestigators termed it a Black
Mass sacrifice, but at the same
time said Cochran's f a 1 s e
boasts about being an undercover
narcotics agent may have weigh-
ed heavily in his death.
The killing was the latest in a
series of murders linked to devil
worship - two cases were re-
ported by police in New Jersey in
the past 18 months - and raised
anew questions about a multi-
million-dollar occult revival
sweeping the country.
In the past decade witchcraft
slayings signal
has emerged from underground goer, says weirdos are screened
as a religious phenomenon with out and only one of every 50 ap-
broad-based appeal to scholars, plicants is accepted. Membership
self-proclaimed witches, devil cards were stopped at 15,000.
worshippers and the disenchanted "We weed out people who be-
subculture. lieve in blood sacrifice or are
involved with drugs" she said.
BOTH students and practition- "Drugs, rape and stealing are
ers cite psychic powers to probe taboo. But curses and hexes are
the human mind, but vehement- permitted."
ly deny any connection between The renaissance first became
the field and murder. apparent in the astrology boom
Bill Heim, a University of South
Florida professor and long-time
student of the occult, calls such 'A long-time Stude
acts "the idiot fringe of occult- A l -
ism." acterizes ritual sla
"It sounds like kids turned on u turned slay
by weird tales on dime store kidst on by
magazine racks picturing young store magazine rack
women with their guts torn out
by werewolves," he said. women with their gt
AND THE same goes for An- wolves."
ton La Vey, the colorful "black
Pope" and founder of the popu- of a few yars back. Today it
lar First Church of Satan in San o farsback.oT d ysi-
Francisco, which is legally re- has stretched to the edge of ad-
cognized by the state of Califor- ence in fields of paraposychology
nia. and extrasensory perception.
"Saying 'the devil made me do
it' is a dangerous cover-up, an AND FROM San Francisco and
excuse people use for their ac- New York City the occultists have
tions," said Sharon Hansen, 21, gravitated inland gaining new
a follower of La Vey. footholds in Minnesota and ten-
"We believe in gratifying one's tral Florida.
self-indulgence in the seven dead- A single publisher, Llewellyn
ly sins" she added. "There's no Publications of Minneapolis,
abstinence or sacrifice in satan- claims a record million dollar
ism." business last year in serious oc-
HANSEN, a five-year church- cult literature.
occult revival
A $12 text that 10 years ago FLAGELLATIONS are part of
sold 500 copies today is selling at the ritual in many covens. But
the rate of 20,000 a year, accord- the whippings are done in a sym-
ing to President Carl L. Wesch- bolic sense reminiscent of anc-
cke, Llewellyn president. ient Christian practice to scorn
the flesh, he said.
"WITCHCRAFT is psychologi- Marcello Truzi, a sociologist at
cal therapy for healthy people, New College in Sarasota who nas
he said. spent eight years researching the
Weschcke conceded it's also a occult, calls the Cochran slaying
merchandiser's gold mine. "acid related occultism."
In larger cities mail order hous- "Not even the ritual indicates
anything long term or serious was
involved" he said. "It appears
nt of the occult char- to be a typical narcotics orient-
rings as the work of, ed youth group."
wierd tales on dime
HEIM traces roots of modern
ks picturing y o u n g American witchcraft to the hip-
uts torn out by were- pie movement of the 1960s.
Youth revolted against the es-
tablishment, groping for some-
es and numerous novelty shops
do a booming trade in occult
curios.
IN NEW YORK, there's a
witches' liberation movement, the
Witches International Craft As-
sociation known as WICA.
Heim contends, however, that
the blitz of sensual trappings and
ominious demonic portrayals has
attracted some people with maso-
chistic tendencies and spawned
half-baked spinoffs from a ser-
ious, legitimate movement.
thing positive, a philosophy to re-
place disenchantment some turn-
ed to Christianity. The J e s u s
freaks evolved. Some probed
deeper into Eastern religions.
The progression eventually led to
occultism - the belief in hid-
den or mysterious powers sub-
ject to human control.
True covens rejected nar-:'scics
as artificial stimulus. "[t de-
feats the whole purpose of nagic
which is to assert the power of
the individual mind to use one's
own will and mental Disciplines"
Heim said.
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