SpikyAube

And one of the accused had previously been convicted of child sexual abuse, and another of the accused's son continued to say he had been abused even as an adult, and even as the others said they'd been lying. And people were convinced into believing it was all just lies?

save_thechildren

"Hysteria"........and it probably was all true....those poor children

Millennial_Falcon

and it probably was all true

Or not:

"Prior to the start of the Kern County child abuse cases, several local social workers had attended a training seminar that foregrounded satanic ritual abuse as a major element in child sexual abuse, and had used the now-debunked memoir Michelle Remembers as training material."

In 1982, Alvin and Debbie McCuan's two daughters, coached by their step-grandmother Mary Ann Barbour , who had custody of them, alleged they had been abused by their parents, and accused them of being part of a sex ring that included Scott and Brenda Kniffen. The Kniffens' two sons also claimed to have been abused. No physical evidence was ever found.

When 34 out of 36 convictions are overturned, I think it's likely most of them were false allegations, if not all of them.