A year after the discovery of the grizzly sacrificial murders of 16 people in the border t

A year after the discovery of the grizzly sacrificial murders of
16 people in the border town of Matamoros, Mexico, just south of
Brownsville, Texas, four spring-breakers came back from Matamoros
with hair-raising stories of kidnapping, death threats, and
Mexican devil-worshippers.  It sounded, at first, like deja vu,
and in the all the local papers and city councils, and, no doubt,
in the barber shops and greasy spoons in the small towns that dot
the Gulf Coast near Brownsville, people once again began worrying
that the Devil Himself was again afoot, yes, in their very own
communities, trying to gain converts from the rock concerts and
the book stores and the tatoo parlors.  

In Corpus Christi, someone found sure-fire evidence of this
sentiment when police entered a home and found "Satanic symbols"
on clothing and record albums, and most damaging of all, what
appeared to be a goat's head and entrails in a garbage can.   The
"Satanic symbols", unfortunately for the seekers of
sensationalism, turned out to be Harley Davison emblems--the
occupants happened to be aficionados of that brand of motorcycle-
-and the album covers were from the mass-produced and widely
distributed albums of the Grateful Dead.  And that damning
evidence of rampant devil-worship, the goat remains, were only
the leftovers from a barbecue, a time-worn and greatly revered
tradition in Texas.

The terrifying tale told by the four students on spring break,
likewise, deflated like a faulty and worn-out hot air balloon,
falling to the ground in so many disreputable tatters and rags. 
The conclusion to the story, once told, was demoted from the
former front page, banner headline status granted the sensational
story when it broke, to a small article near the back of the
paper, wedged in between the furniture ads and news clips from
around the South Texas area.  Of course, the television media
didn't cover the conclusion at all.  

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From the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, Friday, March 23, 1990 The
Associated Press

MATAMOROS, MEXICO-- Kidnapping charges against three Mexicans
were dropped Thursday after a judge ruled that the abduction
story told by four trouble-prone Oklahomans "is not believable."

The Mexicans were jailed late last week after the Oklahoma City-
area vacationers told police that the three abducted them near an
international bridge.

Judge Manuel Ceballos Jimenez said there were too many
contradictions in the different versions of the alleged
kidnapping.

The Americans told police the abductions occurred late last
Thursday and early Friday in this border city full of students,
many of them drinking heavily, on spring break.

Nor did police in South Texas believe that George Marland
Crabtree, 25; his brother, Darren Crabtree, 19; Jeff Jones, 21;
and Kerry Ramsey, 19, were kidnapped.  The four have since had a
string of encounters with the law north of the border.

Two days after reporting the kidnapping, the same Oklahomans were
jailed at South Padre Island and paid a total of more than $500
in fines for public intoxication, disorderly conduct, and
damaging someone's car with a tire tool.

Then on Tuesday, the same four told police in South Padre Island
that 1,000 men tried to sexually molest Kerry Ramsey on the
beach, police said.

Sgt. Homer Gonzalez with the Island police department said an
investigation showed that she was not molested, but that she had
removed her swimsuit and was dancing naked on the beach.