Joanne Jacobs

In the Los Angeles Times Magazine, Kyle Zirpolo, who testified as a nine-year-old in the McMartin Pre-school case, confesses he lied about being molested to please his parents, who fed him rumors about the allegations, and his interrogators, who wouldn’t take “nothing happened” for an answer.

I remember them asking extremely uncomfortable questions about whether Ray (Buckey) touched me and about all the teachers and what they did — and I remember telling them nothing happened to me. I remember them almost giggling and laughing, saying, “Oh, we know these things happened to you. Why don’t you just go ahead and tell us? Use these dolls if you’re scared.”

Anytime I would give them an answer that they didn’t like, they would ask again and encourage me to give them the answer they were looking for. It was really obvious what they wanted. I know the types of language they used on me: things like I was smart, or I could help the other kids who were scared.

Zirpolo has happy memories of his time at McMartin, and wants to make amends for his lies. His mother still doesn’t believe him.

Because of the heavy pressure on children to make up stories — such as Zirpolo’s tale of being taken on a plane ride — the McMartin defendants were acquitted. The surviving defendants say they don’t need apologies from the children but they wouldn’t mind apologies from the adults involved.