Posted by: 阿希巴尔德1 2023-12-26, 12:00
1985年六月,旧金山的SoMa区发现了一具年轻男性的尸体。这名年轻男子——身份尚未确认——在生前遭遇了可怕的折磨与残害。三年后,一名男性被定罪……但这个案件是否陷入了“撒旦恐慌”?
1985年六月15日,一具尸体在旧金山被发现。
尸体发现于南Market区——通常缩写为SOMO区——是一具年轻的男性流浪汉的尸体,尸体被塞到了一辆半挂式卡车的牵引车厢下面。受害者——是一名身材瘦弱的高加索人[1]——身高五英尺五英寸(约165cm),体重130磅(58kg)。他被裹在一个地毯里面,然后扔到了街上。
单独来看,这件事有些吓人——如果不能完全称之为可怕的话——但更糟糕的是,受害者遭受了虐待然后才被杀害。当这一发现在报刊上发表时,算是本地媒体的
Santa Ana Orange County Register宣称:
“警方称该男子死于失血过多,此人被杀害的方式类似以一种邪教崇拜仪式。”
很不幸,上面说的没错。警方报道了尸体伤口具有以下值得注意的地方:双手被吉他弦绑在身后,脖子上有数处烧伤痕迹;蜡油倒进了右眼;逆五芒星[2]刻在了脸颊上;脸颊和脖子被一把刀多次划过;生殖器遭到毁坏;他嘴唇被划开。
值得注意的是,这些报道称受害者的嘴唇被故意撕开,以制备重要仪式所需的血液,但是……这些报道很难说是真的,还是一种时代烙印,当时这一地区深深陷入撒旦恐慌与对超自然的恐惧之中。
这就是旧金山无名尸60号[3]的故事。
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[1]译注:即通常说的“白种人”。
[2]基督教文化中逆五芒星常与撒旦联系起来
[3] 原文John Doe Number 60,“John Doe”约等于中文的“无名氏”,这里根据实际情况译作“无名尸”。
过去了大约两年,鉴别无名尸60号身上发生了什么的调查断断续续。自无名尸于1985年六月发现以来,追查冷淡了下来。
直到一个名叫Maurice Bork的人进入了警方的视野。
在发现无名尸后的一个月内,Bork被指控绑架与抢劫。嫌疑人[4]——如果你感兴趣的话,他还活着——称Bork在实施绑架时,在被害人的胸口上划出了逆五芒星的图案……这种让人想起撒旦崇拜的意象让这一暴力犯罪变的更加骇人。
Maurice Bork声名不佳。他是加拿大公民,曾有入狱经历,在加拿大时越狱并于20世纪80年代逃至美国。有时他住在Bay Area,沿着海岸以假身份活动。
还懂得弹吉他。
Bork被指控为绑架和抢劫并因此入狱,但似乎在监狱中坐立难安。在1987年——在其被定罪后约莫一年之后——Bork与警方接触,并告知警方他手中关于一件未破案件的信息。当警方询问更多细节时,他说他走到无名尸60号发生了什么……更重要的是,他知道凶手是谁。
他的前男友,一个名叫Clifford St.Joseph的人。
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[4]原文如此,结合上下文来看应该是“受害人”,后文的“their”应该指性别不明而非复数。
Clifford St. Joseph是一名已出柜的男同性恋,住在旧金山,靠当服务员维持生计。
Clifford生长在单亲家庭,与母亲生活在一起,二人的关系据说很紧张。他在十四岁时决定独立生活,曾短暂地靠卖报纸谋生。最后,他成了服务员,对他是份不错的工作。
尽管Clifford似乎搬到了更大的地方,有更好的工作,他还是有黑暗的一面。他曾有过账目欺诈的不检点行为,同时还曾遭到强奸的指控。Clifford在17岁那年与一个15岁的人做爱,这令他遭到起诉,在青少年监狱待了一段时间。
因此,也就是说……在账目欺诈一案的几年之后,Clifford都没有真正的犯罪记录。他度过了一段相对平静的日子,身为服务员,交际圈如流水一样。
我们知道,Clifford St. Joseph将他的住处提供给那些不合群与离家出走的人:他自称自己试图为那些挣扎度日的青年人创造一个可以得到肯定的环境。但在开放住家的过程中,他向所有人开放:包括无家可归之人。包括Maurice Bork这样的流浪汉——他就在警方称为“无名氏60号”的人死亡前数周和Clifford St. Joseph相遇并成了朋友。
当时,Bork从加拿大越狱,过着与世隔绝的生活,想要在Bay Area找到一份工作。St. Joseph帮他搞到了一份假的ID卡,让他可以在St. Joseph的公寓待上一小段时间。
不久,两个人成为了爱人。两个人是怎样的关系并不为人所知,但二人的关系似乎在某个时间点结束了。
这将我们带向了那通命运的通话,Bork在那通电话中决定告发他的前室友与爱人。他宣称St. Joseph——目前是独居的中年人——残杀了那个无名氏,而他——Maurice Bork——则协助处理了受害者的尸体,并掩盖了他们的罪行。
这立刻激起了调查者的兴趣,他们看到了解决这个旧案的可能。调查者立刻重启了此前停滞不前的调查,将目光放到了Clifford St. Joseph身上。
Clifford St. Joseph于1987年在自己的家中被逮捕,并被起诉鸡奸、非法拘禁与谋杀。
可以看到,他不止被诉于两年前谋杀了那名身份不明的男子,还因另一起案件而被一同受审,那一案件发生在两年前的1987年。他被怀疑策划绑架了一名21岁的无家可归的男妓,然后与一群同伙折磨并轮奸了受害者。
据称其中一个同伙正是他的前室友与爱人,Maurice Bork。其他位于St.Joseph社交圈中的人包括Edward Spela,此人也是St. Joseph最近的室友。
这确实听上去有点迷惑,因为这样的事通常不会发生。通常来说几个案子不会像乱炖那样被放在一起指控。通常来说,两个案子会分别审理,但控方宣称两件案子应该一起审理——如果愿意的话,可以建立起一种联系。
最新一季的“Serial”中讲述了这样一个案子:检方会把一切都扔给被告,让他[未知性别单数]在受审之前就看起来像是有罪。由此可以增加被告接受认罪协议的概率,以减轻法院和司法体系的负担。
将两起案子合并,控方希望确定年轻的受害者——据说曾遭绑架与轮奸——就是Clifford St. Joseph和他同伙的下一个受害者。因此,仅仅通过联想,他们就在审判开始前被当做了某种撒旦崇拜的信徒。
和往常一样,控方有自己的手段。几个案子将一起审判,Clifford St. Joseph在一场审判中被指控了所有可能犯下的罪行——他面临被他抛弃的前恋人的指控,还有一位受害者的证词,在以谋杀旧金山无名氏的罪行逮捕St. Joseph之前,警方曾数个月无视了他[性别未知]的证词。
St. Joseph的辩护律师Harriet Ross后来表示,在审判还未开始就将两个案件合并在一起粉碎了他们的希望。
“把强奸案和谋杀案放到一起审判真他妈的……这是令人难以置信的偏见。我永远都没法相信这事。每件案子都单独审判——有很好的理由可以获得无罪判决或更轻的指控。但放在一起就很可怕了,而陪审团也不得不对事实动感情影响判决结果。”
不出意外,Clifford St. Joseph的庭审变为了某种不可思议的戏剧化事件。
受传唤的证人变成了一批犯罪者、瘾君子和那些通常不会在案件中被传唤的人。其中包括Maurica Bork——被指控是同谋——目前正因为武装抢劫和绑架在狱服刑,因虐待而被受害者指控。
另一个证人兼同谋——Edward Spela,简称“Ed”——的可信度受到了质疑,因为他告知一名调查者他不仅Elton John[5]与Liberace[6]有染,而且还差点参与了里根刺杀案。
然后是William McCray一个监狱线人,提供了Clifford St. Joseph有关最严重的指控[salacious allegations]。他和St. Joseph关在同一间牢房,并对其他人大声——而且频繁——讲述撒旦崇拜、神秘学,以及各种古怪的仪式。当然,他的证词得到了辩方质疑,因为他很可能是在两个人共用的牢房中读到了St. Joseph的法庭记录才知道了这些——McCray的回应是他亲自拿着装有记录的活页夹,但从没往里面看一眼。所以一切都没什么了,对吧?
然后,我们还知道McCray在向警方提供了一份供词之后就被释放了。当然,警方和McCray否认任何交易,McCray也坚持自己的原始供词。
除证词以外,案件中对Clifford St. Joseph不利的地方很少。仅有的与他犯罪有关的物证是他公寓卧室附近滴落的血液以及柜子里的一小滩血迹。两处血液都与死者血型相符,这两处血液都是在他加中进行了彻底的鲁米诺[]检测之后发现的。
但此外就没有更多物证了。没有Clifford St. Joseph杀死无名氏的过程或原因的详情,只依赖陪审团对他所谓的撒旦崇拜的恐惧。
在最后陈述时,控方将整场审判描述为:
“……深入黑暗面世界的旅程,我们不愿意承认我们的社会中存在这样的世界。”
由于无法证明清白,Clifford St. Joseph被判三项罪名全部成立。在被判处34年有期徒刑之后,法官Alfred G. Chiantelly称St. Joseph的罪行将:
“……震撼埃德加·爱伦·坡[8]或者萨德侯爵[9]的想象力。”
Clifford St. Joseph被投入Folsom州立监狱服刑,他将在那里度过整个刑期,期间他一直都在试图证明自己的清白。
QUOTE
[5]英国歌手、作曲家、钢琴家、演员、慈善家。
[6]美国艺人与钢琴家,Liberace在1987年2月时去世,换句话说Ed这堆话是在胡说八道。
[7]鲁米诺(luminol)试剂可以在遇到血红素后先出蓝绿色的荧光,因此可以鉴别擦洗或者时间经过很久的血迹。
[8]Edgar Allen Poe:美国作家,坡的部分小说中带有较为猎奇的描写,如《如何写一篇布莱克伍德式的文章》中提到的各种角色死法(虽然把坡和萨德侯爵放一起总觉得有点怪)。
[9]the Marquis de Sade:法国作家,英文“虐待狂”一词的来源。
就在被定罪几个月之后,Clifford St. Joseph的案子被列进一个电视上的特别节目,很多真正的罪案爱好者——比如我——都已经很熟悉了。
声名狼藉的电视名人Geraldo Rivera[10]——因他的小胡子和令人失望的艾尔卡彭金库开启节目[11]而知名,主持脱口秀有十二年左右。Geraldo试图靠严肃、直言不讳的报道成名,他的节目也是其他诸如Jerry Springer与Maury Povich节目的前身。
在其中一集里,Geraldo曝光了他认为一股撒旦崇拜风潮席卷全美[12]。包括了一段有关Clifford St. Joseph被定罪以及他被指控犯下罪行的片段。在其中,你不仅听到了调查人员对St. Joseph的指控,还有Ed Spela——他被指控为同伙和证人,他的证词帮助了将St. Joseph定罪,自己却没有面临任何指控。
QUOTE
[10]美国记者,脱口秀主持人与保守派政治评论员,Rivera有过多次引起争议的行为,与本文案件有关的事件会在下文会提到。
[11]之所以用“令人失望”来形容,是因为金库是空的。
[12]1988年,Rivera因在特别节目中宣称美国流行撒旦仪式而导致许多人错误认为撒旦仪式而导致的虐待事件在美国非常普遍,并导致许多人被错误指控并被判虐待儿童罪。1995年,Rivera对此事进行了公开道歉。
Clifford St. Joseph在之后的几年试图上诉,但没有成功。
21世纪初,DNA检测得到了更广泛的应用,St. Joseph请求用这项技术证明自己的清白。据我所知,这项检测从未实施,地方检察官(DA)(在当时)对一切可以推动案件的行为表现出了沉默。
现在,大多数指控了St. Joseph的证人都已经去世了。像Maurice Bork这样的其他人则还被关在监狱里……他们还犯下了很多其他罪行。
很多人甚至相信Bork本人也要承担部分罪名。毕竟,他之前曾因绑架和抢劫被定罪,并且从加拿大逃狱。他还在受害者的躯干上刻下了五角星,弹吉他,也是唯一一个招供了犯罪细节的人。而受害者遭受锋利的武器折磨,双手被吉他弦绑住,并用这种方式绑在一个人身上……嫌疑人似乎并不是主要的嫌疑人。
网上一些评论认为,Bork(在当时)承认罪名只是为了减少刑期。
一些人认为此案——美国为数不多因涉及邪教活动而被定罪的案子——是撒旦恐慌的基本案件。不仅是因为不可靠的原因定罪,还是因为他是男同性恋———许多人认为这滋长了保守派陪审员的恐惧,敬畏上帝的男男女女并没有他们那样思维开放。
关于Clifford St. Joseph是否无辜,很奇怪的是——在本案建立在邪教牺牲仪式的基础上——没有据称是邪教成员的人被起诉、定罪甚至被执法部门提到名字。如果Clifford St. Joseph确实是邪教成员……就好像是某人的狂信徒。这样的话,那就不算是邪教了对吧?
迷失于这场大戏中,围绕着邪教、活人献祭以及撒旦崇拜仪式的指控……剩余的仍然是可怕的事实:一名年轻男子遭受了可怕的暴力,在他生命的最后时刻遭受了巨大的痛苦。随后他被遗弃在旧金山街头,在那里,他的名字加入了游荡在我们城市中的无数的无名者之中。
旧金山无名尸60号的身份与他的故事,仍然未知。
资料来源与拓展阅读:Geraldo Rivera - “挖掘撒旦”[注:视频已被撤下]
SF Weekly - “案件调查: Clifford St. Joseph”[注:链接失效]
https://newspaperarchive.com/santa-ana-orange-county-register-jul-08-1987-p-6/
https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=YSRhLh7jfpkC&pg=PA54&lpg=PA54&dq=clifford+st.+joseph&source=bl&ots=vh8IXpMZC_&sig=_NzPR8U8UbfuyfVFtK4byM3iA-w&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=clifford%20st.%20joseph&f=false
https://old.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/79huw7/clifford_st_joseph_the_only_convicted_satanic/
Posted by: 阿希巴尔德1 2023-12-26, 12:02
原文与著作信息(链接从略):
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In June of 1985, the body of a young man was found in San Francisco’s SoMa District. The young man - who would remain unidentified - had been horribly tortured and mutilated before his death. Three years later, a man would be convicted… but did this investigation fall prey to ‘Satanic Panic’?
On June 15th, 1985, a body was found in San Francisco.
In the South Of Market Area - often abbreviated as the SOMO District - the body of a young homeless man was found wedged underneath the tractor trailer of a semi-truck. The victim - a Caucasian man of slight build - stood around five-feet-five-inches tall, and weighed around 130 pounds. He had been wrapped inside a blanket before being left in the streets.
Alone, this would already be creepy - if not down downright terrifying - but to make matters worse, the victim had been sadistically tortured and killed. When the discovery was announced in the press, the relatively-local Santa Ana Orange County Register declared:
"Police say the man was bled to death and that he was butchered in ritualistic fashion in a type of devil-worship ceremony."
It was unfortunately true. Police reports would note the following injuries to the body of the deceased: his hands had been bound behind his back with guitar string; several burn marks were noted on his neck; candle wax had been poured into his right eye; an upside-down pentagram had been carved into his chest; his chest and neck had been slashed multiple times with a knife; his genitals had been mutilated; and his lower lip had been cut open.
It would be noted, in following reports, that his lip had been purposefully split in order for the responsible party to consume the victim's blood, but... it's really hard to say whether or not that was true, or just a sign of the time's reporting, which was heavily steeped in Satanic Panic and fear of the occult.
This is the story of San Francisco's John Doe Number 60.
Roughly two years passed, in which the investigation to determine what had happened to John Doe Number 60 had struggled through a series of starts and stops. Following the discovery of John Doe's body in June of 1985, the trial went cold.
That is, until a man named Maurice Bork fell into the sights of law enforcement.
In the months after the discovery of John Doe, Bork had been accused of kidnapping and robbery. The suspect - who survived, mind you - claimed that Bork had scratched a pentagram into their chest during the commission of this kidnapping... a violent crime made all the more horrific due to the Satanic imagery it conjures up.
Maurice Bork already had a less-than-stellar reputation. He was a Canadian citizen who had prior arrests, and who had escaped from prison up in Canada and fled to the United States in the early 1980s. For some time, he had been living in the Bay Area, coasting by and living under fake identities.
He was also known to play guitar.
Bork was eventually kidnapping for the kidnapping and robbery charges, but seemed to be growing restless behind bars. In 1987 - roughly one year after his conviction - Bork contacted law enforcement to let them know that he had information about an unsolved crime. When they asked for more details, he said that he knew what had happened to John Doe Number 60... and, more importantly, he knew who was responsible.
His ex-lover, a man named Clifford St. Joseph.
Clifford St. Joseph was an openly gay man living in San Francisco, who was working as a waiter to pay the bills.
Clifford had grown up with a single mother, and the relationship between the two was tense, to say the least. Clifford decided to have himself emancipated at the age of fourteen, and he subsisted for a brief period of time by selling newspapers. Eventually, he became a waiter, which turned out to be a good gig for him.
Despite seeming to move on to bigger and better things, Clifford did have a dark side. He had a previous misdemeanor conviction for check fraud, as well as a statutory rape charge hanging over his head. When Clifford was 17, he had had sex with a 15-year old, which resulted in him getting charged and spending some time in a juvenile prison.
So, with that being said... other than the misdemeanor check fraud case from a few years later, Clifford had no real marks on his criminal record. He lived a relatively quiet life, worked as a waiter, and had a constantly-revolving group of friends.
You see, Clifford St. Joseph prided himself on opening up his home for misfits and runaways: stating that he tried to create the kind of environment that he would have appreciated as a struggling youth. In the process of opening up his home, however, he opened it up to all kinds: including the homeless. This included vagabonds like Maurice Bork - whom he met and befriended just weeks before the death of the man police would later refer to as "John Doe Number 60."
At the time, Bork was living off of the grid, having escaped from a Canadian prison and trying to gain employment in the Bay Area. St. Joseph helped arrange for him to get a fake ID, and allowed him to stay at his apartment for a brief period of time.
During that brief period, the two became lovers. There's no telling what kind of relationship the two had together, but it seems to have ended at some point.
Over the next two years, Clifford St. Joseph would continue on his regular, everyday life... while Maurice Bork had since been arrested, charged, and convicted for kidnapping and robbery.
This leads us to the fateful phone call, where Bork decided to turn in his former-roommate and lover. He claimed that St. Joseph - now middle-aged, and living by himself - had tortured and killed John Doe, and that he - Maurice Bork - had helped dispose of the victim's body and cover up the crime.
This immediately piqued the interest of investigators, who saw this as a possibility to close out an old case file of their's. They immediately got the gears moving on the stalled investigation, and began looking into Clifford St. Joseph.
Clifford St. Joseph was arrested at his home in June of 1987, charged with sodomy, false imprisonment, and murder.
You see, not only was he being charged with the murder of the unidentified man found two years prior. He was also being tried along with a separate case from just earlier that year, in 1987. He was suspected of arranging the kidnapping of a 21-year old homeless prostitute, and then torturing and gang-raping him along with a group of conspirators.
One of the conspirators, it alleged, was none other than his former-roommate and lover, Maurice Bork. The others included men in their social circle named Edward Spela, as well as St. Joseph's most recent roommate.
I know this may sound a bit confusing, because stuff like this usually doesn't happen. It's not often that multiple cases get thrown together, in a metaphorical crock-pot of allegations. Usually, both cases would be tried separately, but the prosecution argued that they should be tried together - to establish a narrative, if you will.
The most recent season of "Serial" has gone into cases like this: where prosecutors will throw everything but the kitchen sink at the defendant, in order to make them look guilty prior to any court proceedings. Thus, increasing the likelihood that they fold and accept a plea deal, easing the burden of the court and the justice system.
By merging the cases together, the prosecutor was hoping to establish that the young victim - who had allegedly been kidnapped and gang-raped - was to be the next victim of Clifford St. Joseph and his associates. Thus, by mere association, establishing them as members of some kind of Satanic cult before the trial even started.
And, per usual, the prosecution had its way. The trials were set to be merged, and Clifford St. Joseph was set to be tried for all of his charges in one trial - facing allegations from a spurned ex-lover, and a victim whose testimony police had been sitting on for months, before arresting St. Joseph for the murder of John Doe.
St. Joseph's defense attorney, Harriet Ross, later stated that the merging of both cases into one proceeding dashed their hopes before the trial was even underway:
"The joinder of the rape and murder was the damning action. It was incredibly prejudicial. I will never belief otherwise. Each one tried alone - there was a good case for an acquittal or a lesser charge. But together, they were so glaringly horrible that the jury had to be emotionally reacting to the facts."
Not surprisingly, the trial against Clifford St. Joseph became an incredibly dramatic affair.
The witnesses called by the state became a cavalcade of convicts, drug addicts, and personalities that the prosecution would normally never pin a case upon. These included Maurice Bork - an alleged co-conspirator - who was currently serving a sentence for armed robbery and kidnapping, and had been accused - by his victim - of torture.
Another witness and co-conspirator - named Edward Spela, "Ed" for short - had his credibility called into-question when it was learned that he had told an investigator that he had held sexual relationships with not only Elton John and Liberace, but that he had nearly been involved in a plot to assassinate Ronald Reagan.
Then there was William McCray, a jailhouse informant who provided some of the most salacious allegations regarding Clifford St. Joseph. He had shared a jail cell with St. Joseph, and claimed the the other man spoke loudly - and often - about Satanism, the occult, and a variety of odd rituals. Of course, his testimony was questioned by the defense when it was learned that he had likely learned all of this by going through St. Joseph's court documents in their shared cell - to which McCray responded by telling the court that he had personally held the binder containing the documents, but had never looked inside. So it was all good, right?
Then, it was also learned that soon after providing a statement to police, McCray had been released from custody. Of course, both the prosecution and McCray denied any funny business, and McCray stuck to his original statement.
Outside of witness testimony, the case against Clifford St. Joseph was very light. The only physical evidence linking him to the crime scene was a drop of blood found near his apartment bedroom and a small bloodstain on a blanket. Both of which matched the type of blood possessed by the deceased, and were found in a thorough luminol search of his home.
Other than that, though, there was no more physical evidence. No real specifics on how or why Clifford St. Joseph had killed the younger John Doe, just a reliance on the jury's fear of his alleged satanic cult.
During their final statements, the prosecutor described the entire trial as a:
"...voyage into an underworld we don't want to admit exists in our society."
Unable to convince the jury of his innocence, Clifford St. Joseph was convicted on all three charges levied against him. Following his sentencing, which gave him 34-years-to-life in a state prison, Judge Alfred G. Chiantelly stated that St. Joseph's crimes would:
"... astonish the imagination of Edgar Allen Poe or the Marquis de Sade."
Clifford St. Joseph was sent to serve his sentence in Folsom State Prison, where he would serve out his entire sentence... all the way, maintaining his innocence.
Just months after his conviction, the case of Clifford St. Joseph was included in a TV special that many true crime junkies - like myself - are already familiar with.
Geraldo Rivera, the infamous TV personality that is known primarily for his mustache and his disappointing unveiling of Al Capone's safe, hosted a daytime talk show for around a decade. Despite Geraldo's attempts to be known as a serious, hard-hitting journalist, the show became most well-known as the predecessor to other shows like Jerry Springer and the Maury Povich show.
In one of his episodes, Geraldo did an expose about what he believed was an epidemic of satanic cults sweeping across the nation. Included was a snippet regarding the recent conviction of Clifford St. Joseph, and the crimes he had been convicted for. In it, you hear from not only the investigators that built the case against St. Joseph, but Ed Spela - the alleged co-conspirator and witness, whose testimony helped get St. Joseph convicted, but was facing no charges of his own.
Clifford St. Joseph has tried, unsuccessfully, to appeal his convictions in the years since.
In the early 2000's, when DNA testing had become more widespread, St. Joseph asked for it to be used to help clear him. As far as I can tell, that never happened, with the DA (at the time) having shown reticence in allowing that to move forward.
By now, most of the witnesses that testified against St. Joseph have passed away. Others, like Maurice Bork, remain locked up behind bars... guilty for a multitude of other crimes.
Some even belief that Bork himself might have been the responsible party. After all, it was he who had a prior conviction for kidnapping and robbery, and was an escaped prisoner from Canada. It was also he who scratched a pentagram into the torso of a victim, played guitar, and is the only person to confess knowing explicit details about the crime itself. When the victim was horribly tortured with a sharp weapon, had his hands bound with guitar string, and is tied to an individual in such a way... in seems suspicious that that person would not be the primary suspect.
Some online commenters have theorized that Bork only confessed to the crime believing - at the time - that it would lessen his sentence.
Some believe that case - one of the few in America to convict someone for alleged Satanic cult activities - was a primary example of Satanic Panic. Not only was the accused convicted on very shaky grounds, but he was also gay... which many believe fed right into the fears of more conservative-minded jurors, God-fearing men and women that weren't as open-minded as they should have been.
Regardless of Clifford St. Joseph's innocence or guilt, it remains odd that - in a case built around a cult sacrifice - no other members of said cult were ever charged, convicted, or even named by law enforcement. If Clifford St. Joseph was in a cult... then it seems to be a cult of one. In which case, it's not much of a cult then, is it?
Lost in all of this drama, surrounding allegations of cults, human sacrifice, and Satanic rituals... remains the horrible truth: a young man fell prey to horrible violence, suffering significantly in his final hours. He was then abandoned on a San Francisco street, where his name joined the countless, nameless thousands that haunt our cities.
The identity of San Francisco's John Doe #60 remains unknown, and his story remains unresolved.
Episode Information
Episode Information
Written, hosted, and produced by Micheal Whelan
Published on October 28th, 2018
Music Credits
ROZKOL - "The Fruit Will Rot"
Percival Pembroke - "North Atlantic Treaty Organization"
Rec008 - "Contemplation"
Sergey Cheremisinov - "Sleepwalker IV"
Other original music created and composed by Ailsa Traves
Sources and further reading
Geraldo Rivera - “Exposing Satan’s Underground”
SF Weekly - “Case Study: Clifford St. Joseph”
Santa Ana Orange County Register - “July 08, 1987 - Wednesday, page 6”
“Occult Crime: A Law Enforcement Primer” by DIANE Publishing, 1993
Reddit - “Clifford St. Joseph: The only convicted Satanic Cult murderer in America we’ve never heard of? Or another victim of Satanic Panic?” by /u/droste_EFX