Margie and John Cantrell had a long history of caring for foster children when they moved from California to Mineola, Texas in 2004. So getting 7-year-old Shelby, 6-year-old Hunter, and 4-year-old Carly, who were included in the system after being removed from their drug-addicted parents, was par for the course. What was not What came next was the usual thing.
While Margie was with them, the three boys admitted to the Texas Ranger that they had been forced to work X-rated at a local swing club (and a training facility referred to as a “sex kindergarten”) by their mothers and fathers. He had already drawn the ire of the inhabitants of this deeply religious hamlet. The cases that followed were front-page news, resulting in four life sentences, as well as the destruction of many families and reputations.
And such How to Create a Sex Scandal?‘ the title implies, it was all a lie.
A three-part documentary series from directors Julian P. Hobbs and Berndt Mader that premiered the newly baptized Max on May 23 (and includes commercial breaks and 44-minute runtimes that originally made his way to Discovery+) is a jaw-dropping tale of insane accusations. narrative. , fraudulent prosecutions and unfair consequences – not to mention immoral child abuse, if not of the kind originally alleged. Boasting interviews with almost everyone involved in this heinous affair, including Margie, Hunter, Carly, their cousin Gabby, and some of the parents they were forced to put behind bars, this book is a tale of manipulation and greed of sorts. Right-wing paranoia is now a common fixture in today’s conservative circles.
It resonates as a precursor to the pedophilic sex ring hysteria that pervades most of the QAnon/MAGA right (with the exception of the Pizzagate crap), How to Create a Sex Scandal? At first, she’s driven by Margie’s comment, who sweetly talks about her Christian faith and her devotion to the dozens of adopted children she and her Santa-like husband, John, have brought into their home over the years. When they moved to a beautiful lake house in Mineola, they added Shelby, Hunter and Carly to their ever-growing puppies. The three children, taken from their parents Shauntel and Jamie Mayo for narcotics-related neglect by Child Protective Services, initially found their new environment peaceful and inviting. Still, feeling the pressure of having nine children in one house, everything changed when Margie started considering buying a separate facility where her family could live more comfortably.
Patrick Kelly and his son.
Lee Phelan / Max
It turned out that the building he had chosen had recently been a swingers club, and was not welcomed with open arms by the community that trampled on this Bible. After visiting the place with Shelby, Hunter and Carly, Margie says she was stunned to hear that they knew the place intimately. What’s more, they had stories to tell – and what they told them, not just to him, but to Texas Ranger Philip Kemp. In many interrogation room videos presented by How to Create a Sex Scandal?The younger siblings, along with Margie, are persuaded to discuss how their mother, Shauntel, and father, Jamie, took them to dance and engage in sex acts that they had previously been “trained to do at a sex kindergarten.” ” is featured in the trailer for Shauntel and Jamie’s friend Patrick “Booger Red” Kelly.
This was sensational and was eventually confirmed by the children’s cousin, Gabby, who had also implicated her mother Sheila and father Jimmy in this gruesome venture. Another friend, Dennis Pittman, was also held responsible for these crimes, and Margie persuaded neighboring Smith County Attorney Matt Bingham to charge Shauntel, even though prosecutors in Wood County (where Mineola resided) decided there wasn’t enough evidence to press charges. Jamie, Patrick, Dennis, Sheila and Jimmy. For the first four, guilty verdicts came quickly, courtesy of the testimonies of Judge Jack Skeen, a pool of juries biased by the case’s negative media coverage, and children’s statements repeating their allegations to a shocked public on the podium.
based on Texas Monthly Articles written by editor-in-chief Michael Hall (visible throughout), How to Create a Sex Scandal? When the time comes to prosecute Sheila and Jimmy, she reveals that the district attorney has chosen to cut their plea bargain and release them. Soon, the convictions of Shauntel, Jamie, and Patrick were overturned on the basis of “numerous errors of evidence”, including Skeen’s biased handling of cases. Before long, the boys began to take their word back, and in Hobbs and Mader’s docu-series they (and their parents) were frank about their feelings for Margie, whom they refer to as the “monster” and “puppet master.” Faced with such incidents and accusations of physically abusing their stepchild, Margie and John returned to California. On camera though, Margie is adamant that she’s telling the truth about her pedophilic sex ring, and she claims that Shelby’s refusal to take her word backs up her story.
How to Create a Sex Scandal? He convincingly argues that class distinctions have a lot to do with Margie’s successful defamation of Shauntel, Jamie, and the company whose trailer park lives and appearances make them seem inherently inferior and therefore capable of outrageous atrocities. For the most part, however, it’s both a case study of how easy it is to manipulate kids into saying whatever you want, and religious adults eager to see demonic corruption and sin on every corner (especially when there’s a real swing club nearby). Other than the statements of children younger than 10, there was never any legitimate reason to believe that these horrors occurred because no supporting evidence was found. And after watching videos of her confessions, it’s so clear that the kids are being coached by Margie and Kemp, that the only real explanation for the grown-ups’ stories to hook, line, and buy sinkers is that you blindly have a holier agenda than you. play.
If that wasn’t discouraging enough though, How to Create a Sex Scandal? Then she tackles the question of why Margie got into all this trouble in the first place with the most depressing answer imaginable: money. This serves only as a reminder: Be careful when greed and God go together.