I agree. This is a far better way of putting all of it than I have been able to manage. Whatever the early "dogma" was, even then it was not the driver of the case - what tended to drive this case was the myth of "Foxy Knoxy" that the PLE tried to construct. There is very little which emanated from the FOA which "drove" what went wrong with the case in Perugia (and Florence) - unless one believes in all powerful PR firms from Seattle!
I posted a Washington Post article upthread which referred to the 1990s and beyond where there were some prosecutorial jurisdictions which seemed stuck on Satanic-related crimes. There was one in Martensville, Saskatchewan. Over 100 charges were filed, and one conviction resulted, in a satanic-hysteria which took over the investigation.
It is clear that in relation to AK (as well as RS), this theme was a driver; but was also abandoned. Seems to me to be something a little more central to what went wrong early on than anything the early FOA did or didn't do.
The WashPo article wouldn't load for me, but I agree this is an important line of thought.
The 'satanic ritual abuse' theme of Mcmartin preschool and others in the US is, imo, a flame shot round the world.
The satanic angle Mignini tried to use in the Kercher case, was a continuation of the same fraudulent hoax he and Giuttari had been pursuing in their Narducci trail cases going back to 2002 (possibly 2001), and even earlier. Giuttari invented the satanic sect as an element in the Monster of Florence cases in the trials of Vanni and Lotti as accomplices to Pacciani, I think around 1998 (but I'd have to go back and check).
Pacciani was acquitted on appeal in 1996, but Giuttari produced his 4 'algebraic witnesses' claiming to support Pacciani's guilt, along with Vanni and Lotti. Of course none of them had anything to do with the Monster of Florence crimes, the credibility of the 'half-wits and lowlifes' that were the algebraics has been thoroughly discredited.
Interestingly though, there is a bloody rag found after one of the MOF killings, the Scopetti rag I think), which may be susceptible to modern DNA analysis. Perhaps Italian law enforcement will pursue such further testing, if they decide they would like to know the truth of the MOF killings, instead of hanging their hats on the two plainly wrongful convictions of Vanni and Lotti.
