About this episode

This episode examines the Fall River murders and the alleged Satanic cult involved in the case.

Between 1979 and 1980, three young women connected to the same troubled corner of Fall River, Massachusetts were murdered. Doreen Levesque was found beneath high-school bleachers. Barbara Raposa was discovered frozen in the woods. Karen Marsden vanished shortly after telling police she believed she was going to be killed. Then investigators began hearing about Satan worship, secret rituals, blood ceremonies, and a supposed cult operating inside the city's drug and sex trade. The resulting trial sent Carl Drew to prison for life—but the prosecution's central witness later recanted, other witnesses followed, and questions surrounding the convictions never disappeared. Tonight, we examine the Fall River murders, the alleged Satanic cult that made national headlines, and a case where deciding what was real may be harder now than it was forty-five years ago.

Topics covered

• murder
• Satanism
• trial
• cult
• Fall River
• crime

Keywords

• Fall River murders
• Satan worship
• cult
• Carl Drew
• 1979
• 1980
• mystery

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Satanic cult

Places: Fall River, Massachusetts

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