Thread by @GlenntheGolden1

One thing that I’ve been meaning to revisit is Programmed to Kill’s chapter on McMartin Preschool. I’ve been skeptical of PTK’s conclusions on the case, but no longer am. Let’s talk about the “deboonked” archeologist’s report:🧵

If you’re unfamiliar with the McMartin case 460 children alleged abuse in Manhattan Beach, however, one of the aspectse that McGowan mentions that is often overlooked was the physical evidence in a large share of the victims.

Furthermore, victims made IDs of people who are alleged to have been part of the ring. One of those men was known to be running a front for an abuse ring and was dead before he could be indicted from a “drug overdose.”

McGowan also details one of the McMartin parents who died under moderately unusual circumstances and a suspicious suicide in one of the investigators.

One of the most important inclusions by McGowan is the discovery of the underground tunnels that the children alleged were used to traffic them. While this is certainly a smoking gun one debunker says they found another explanation for the tunnels, W. Joseph Wyatt.

Wyatt alleges that the tunnels are from underground trash piles and the relics are not religious and uses a “theoretical functional analysis” to account for the archaeologist’s “evident misinterpretation.” BUT WAIT, Wyatt isn’t an archaeologist he’s a psychologist…

Why not only is Wyatt a psychologist but he’s also taught at West Virginia University, employer of B.F. Skinner’s daughter and by extension a hub for behavioral conditioning. Before coincidence theorists get too excited Wyatt himself wrote a text on Skinner.

Can we know that Wyatt wanted to use behavioral modifications (a la Skinner) in therapy? Yep, he coauthored an article saying behaviorism should be used to treat ADHD, schizophrenia, depression, and anxiety.

Is Wyatt writing any other red flag articles that may throw aspersions on his work on McMartin? Well, only an analysis of the “likelihood of school shootings” and an Americana piece about the positive spot Boy Scouts of America holds in his heart.

Lastly, we can look at his report on the tunnels itself where he (a psychologist) says that the only reason the archaeologist said these were tunnels was because he didn’t know about the fictional condition “false memory syndrome.”

At the very least I feel like we can safely say that Wyatt does not have an interest in peer reviewing the work of the original archaeologist, but is instead vested in a specific side of the McMartin debate. He is not an expert in what he claims to be able to debunk.

@CAVDEF_George I believe when we first met you said you had wanted to read the report on the tunnel debunking. I think this is a good jumping off point for why it’s inconclusive and I no longer find it worth weighing in the conversation.

Well and by met I mean digitally bumped into each other, but it’s not dissimilar.