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[catscradle77]

Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA)
December 13, 1987
Section: NATIONAL
Edition: FINAL
Page: A20


ARMY OFFICER BECOMES CRIME SUSPECT SATAN-WORSHIPING COLONEL IMPLICATED IN CHILD SEX ABUSE
Linda Goldston, Knight-Ridder News Service

He is a devil-worshiper with a doctorate, an Eagle Scout turned anti- Christ.

In the Yellow Pages, the temple he founded is listed under: Churches, Satanic.
He is Lt. Col. Michael A. Aquino, a military officer with access to top- security secrets and a suspect in the increasingly bizarre and wide-ranging case of child sexual abuse at the Army's Presidio of San Francisco.

The controversy at the Presidio, where as many as 60 children who attended its day-care center allegedly were molested, took on vast proportions last month when the Army launched an all-out review of its nearly 300 day-care centers worldwide. This year alone, the Army says, there have been nine similar child-abuse cases, and previous incidents have been reported at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in New York, at Fort Dix, N.J., and an Army day-care center in West Germany.

For Aquino, the controversy is personal and increasingly bitter, the only public black mark against him in a two-decade military record that a Pentagon spokesman called "extraordinary."

No charges have been filed against him or his wife, Lilith. He calls suspicions about them preposterous, and calls an August search of their home by San Francisco police "the raid."

It was at their home that the 3-year-old daughter of the Presidio's former assistant chaplain said the Aquinos abused her in a room with black walls and a cross on the ceiling.

A SATANIC RITUAL

In a telephone interview from St. Louis, where he is stationed, Aquino, 41, said he came to Satanism by accident. He said he had just finished his undergraduate studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara when he happened to attend the premiere of Rosemary's Baby in 1968 and became intrigued by the entourage of Anton LaVey, the founder of the Church of Satan and an adviser on the film.

Then, he went to one of LaVey's lectures.

"He seemed to be both serious and sincere in what he was doing," Aquino said. "I had expected a clown or a fraud."

Aquino left for Vietnam a few months later, serving as a psychological warfare expert, and there joined the Church of Satan. He became a high priest.

In 1975, however, when LaVey started selling priesthoods to make money, Aquino broke away and formed his own satanic church, the Temple of Set - now a private organization that has a nonprofit status with the Internal Revenue Service.

Aquino, who says he has an IQ of 155, describes his organization as a sort of Mensa occult group, a group in search of knowledge, whatever and wherever that truth may be.

Linda Blood, a former member who left the Temple of Set in 1980, said several members also belonged to Mensa, the high-IQ society.

'A LOT OF BOASTING'

"There was a lot of boasting about that," she said. "Most of these people had very middle-level jobs. There were secretaries, middle managers, computer programmers, a male nurse and a couple of ex-Jesuits."

Their concept of the devil, she said, is a "Luciferic version of Satan, a god they see as the true god in which there is no good or evil."

Although police have refused to eliminate his name as a suspect, the Army has stuck by him and his access to top-security secrets.

Aquino now works as a program analyst at the Army Reserve Personnel Center in St. Louis, handling all personnel matters for the reserve there. In 1981 he was a reserve attache to the Defense Intelligence Agency, and a year later he was a student at the Foreign Service Institute, sponsored by the State Department.

Throughout his Army career, Aquino has made no secret of his involvement with Satanism, a forthrightness that Army officials say makes him a better security risk because he is less likely to be a target of blackmail than someone with something to hide.

"Lt. Col. Aquino makes no bones about the fact that he is a priest of his church," said Maj. Greg Rixon, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon. "He makes no bones about the fact that he is a Satanist, so no pressure could be placed on him by someone trying to leverage his behavior."

Rixon would not comment on the extent of Aquino's access to top-security information, though Aquino said, "This last year, while I was at the National Defense University, I was holding a top secret compartmentalized security clearance, which is just about as high as you can get."

Presidio spokesman Bob Mahoney also defended Aquino's role in the military.

'HE DID HIS JOB'

"The fact of the matter is that he did his job," Mahoney said. "That he has religious beliefs that are contrary to what most people consider to be the norm does not disqualify anybody from military service.

"The military swears to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States. That includes freedom of religion."

In 1982 Aquino performed a satanic ritual in the Westphalian castle used as an occult sanctuary by Heinrich Himmler's S.S. Elite in Nazi Germany.

Aquino, in a Temple of Set newsletter, told of performing the ritual in the castle's Hall of the Dead while on a tour of NATO military installations in Europe.

But he said his interest in Nazism is academic, not adulatory.

"I'm fascinated by the lessons to be learned from the Nazi experience but not blinded by their excesses," Aquino said. "You had a small group of brutal and desperate men who ran a country by despotism and tyranny. They were quite bright in some ways, quite savage in others."

These days, Aquino said, he and his wife - a vampire priestess in his temple - feel like targets of a witch hunt.

"We're looking at a national scandal at this point, where the whole thing has gotten completely out of shape," he said of the investigation.

Aquino came under suspicion after the 3-year-old girl recognized him and his wife at the Presidio's commissary, according to a police report filed in support of a warrant to search his house.

The girl referred to them as "Mikey" and "Shamby" and told her father, ''He's a bad man, and I'm afraid."

The records also say the child accurately described some features of Aquino's home, including black walls, and was able to take investigators to the home after being driven to the street where Aquino lived.

The child said she was driven to the home by Gary Hambright - a 34-year-old Southern Baptist minister who is charged with sexually abusing 10 children at the Presidio day-care center. The girl said that she was sexually abused at Aquino's home by Hambright, Michael Aquino and Lilith Aquino.

Hambright's trial is pending, and he has pleaded not guilty.

Aquino said he has never met or seen the child or had her to his home. He said the accusations are as much an attack on his religion as on him.

And in a Temple of Set newsletter, sent to his followers last month, he laid out his response:

"When our back was turned this past August, we were indeed struck. If the lies that 'justified' that strike had been better concocted or coordinated, we might have been hurt a great deal more than we were. We are not, however, going to wait around for more convincing lies to be constructed.

"We are going to go after the source of the rot, NOW, and not rest until these twisted people have been exposed for what they actually are."

[catscradle77]

San Jose Mercury News (CA)
October 30, 1987
Section: California News
Edition: Morning Final
Page: 1G


ABUSE INVESTIGATION TURNS TO ARMY OFFICER
LINDA GOLDSTON, Mercury News Staff Writer

Despite assurances by the U.S. attorney's office that only one person was involved in molesting children at the Army day care center at the Presidio of San Francisco, a reserve Army lieutenant colonel said Thursday that he is being investigated in connection with the case.

Records show a search warrant was served at the home of Lt. Col. Michael A. Aquino in San Francisco on Aug. 14, following allegations by a 3-year-old girl that she had been molested by Aquino and his wife.
But in an interview Thursday, Aquino -- who is the founder of a satanic church called the Temple of Set -- denied the charges and termed the accusation "an utter shock."

''The grounds for the search warrant are completely and utterly falsely absurd," said Aquino from his new home in St. Louis, where he is now stationed. "Neither I nor my wife had ever met that child before, anywhere or at any time." Aquino said he was in Washington, D.C., at the time the girl said the abuse occurred.

Investigators conducted the search to look for evidence to support the girl's statements that she was molested by Aquino at his house in San Francisco some time from September to October 1986. The child said the walls were painted black and there was a cross on the ceiling.

No charges have been filed as a result of the search. The search turned up black walls in one room, according to an investigator and Aquino. No cross was evident on the ceiling.

One suspect has been arrested on charges he abused 10 children at the day care center. Police said Thursday they are now exploring the possibility that children also were molested elsewhere.

''It's an active investigation," said San Francisco police Capt. Paul Kotta. "We're investigating the possibility that children were taken off the base and molested. . . . I cannot tell you anything more than that."

Kotta refused comment when asked if Aquino were a suspect.

As many as 60 children who attended the day care center allegedly have been sexually abused. The center serves the children of military as well as civilian employees at the Presidio.

Since the investigation began last November, 94 families have brought their children to Army therapists for screening as possible victims. Most of the victims are 3 and 4 years old.

Gary Hambright, 34, a former Southern Baptist minister who worked at the day care center for about 18 months, was indicted by a federal grand jury Sept. 30 on charges of molesting 10 children at the center. He has pleaded innocent.

At a press conference Sept. 30, when he announced the indictment of Hambright, Joseph Russoniello, U.S. attorney for the northern district of California, said there would be no more arrests and that there were no other suspects. 

[catscradle77]

Miami Herald, The (FL)
December 24, 1988
Section: FRONT
Edition: FRST
Page: 3D


ARMY RE-OPENING PROBE OF OFFICER IN CHILD SEX CASE
LINDA GOLDSTON Knight-Ridder News Service

Six months after the U.S. attorney's office closed a child sex-abuse case at the Presidio military base, the Army has launched a new investigation of one of the original suspects -- a high-ranking officer who founded a satanic church, according to those close to the probe.
Army Lt. Col. Michael Aquino, founder and high priest of the Temple of Set, has been formally notified of the criminal investigation and has had his top security clearance suspended, according to the sources. Most of the sources would speak only on the condition that they not be named.

Neither Army officials nor Aquino would discuss the investigation, which revolves around allegations that children were sexually abused at the day-care center run by the Army at the Presidio of San Francisco.

Aquino, 42, who is now stationed in St. Louis, had branded the earlier probe of allegations against him and his wife a witch hunt, and vehemently denied any wrongdoing. No charges were filed against Aquino in the earlier investigation, and charges against another man were dropped.

Lt. Col. Greg Rixon, spokesman for the Department of the Army at the Pentagon, said, "It's still a privacy matter until charges are brought. . . . I don't know what will transpire next."

But others close to the investigation, which is being conducted by the Army's criminal investigation division in Washington, say parents involved in the original sex abuse case are being re-interviewed and told about the new probe.

"In our case, we've been told that he's under investigation for kidnapping, sodomy, and knowingly and maliciously making false charges against another officer," said Michelle Adams- Thompson, whose daughter, then 3, first accused Aquino of molestation.

Adams-Thompson and her husband, the Rev. Larry Adams- Thompson, former assistant chaplain at the Presidio, were informed of the new probe Nov. 23 by a CID investigator.

"He has officially been 'titled,' " said Larry Adams- Thompson.

According to Mary Melanson, a CID spokeswoman in Washington, being "titled" under the uniform code of military justice means "we feel there is sufficient evidence to believe a crime has been committed."

"The closest thing in civilian terms would be a grand jury indictment," Melanson said.

The new investigation is the latest move in the case, which began when one boy said he was molested in November 1986 at the day-care center, and grew to include allegations that as many as 60 children were involved.

Charges were filed and withdrawn twice by U.S. Attorney Joseph Russoniello against Gary Hambright, a Southern Baptist minister and former civilian worker at the day-care center. Russoniello decided to formally close the case in June after an 18-month investigation by the FBI and the Army.

Russoniello had said he did "everything we could to build a case," but thought prosecution would not be successful. In addition to the 60 alleged cases of sexual abuse, investigators looked into two arsons at the day-care center and confirmed that five children had contracted chlamydia, a sexually transmitted disease.

The seriousness of the new investigation is reflected in the suspension of Aquino's top security clearance, sources said. That action was not taken when Aquino was investigated by the FBI and San Francisco police in connection with the same case.

Aquino said in November 1987, "I have consistently since 1969 held either a secret or a top-secret security clearance."

Aquino first was investigated in August 1987, after the Adams-Thompsons' daughter recognized him and his wife, Lilith, at a store at the Presidio, according to a San Francisco police report.

In interviews with authorities, the girl identified Hambright from a photo lineup and said she had been driven to the Aquinos' San Francisco home by Hambright.

When she was driven to Leavenworth Street by investigators and asked to identify any of the houses she had been to before, the girl identified 2430 Leavenworth. It was the Aquinos' home. The child also accurately described some features of the home, including a room with black walls.

In statements to therapists and investigators, some children said they were abused at the day-care center; others said they were abused while on field trips to private homes away
from the center.

Twenty-two families have filed $66 million in personal injury claims against the Army. The parents allege that the Army's negligent operation of the day-care center led to the abuse of their children. The Army has refused to comment.