Spectral Evidence: The Ramona Case: Incest, Memory, and Truth on Trial in Napa Valley

by Moira Johnston

Book Overview

Spectral Evidence is a masterful account of the Ramona family of Napa Valley, CA, whose outward appearance of success was destroyed by allegations of child sexual abuse brought by Holly, the eldest of the Ramonas three daughters, by her mother, Stephanie, and by Holly's therapists against her father, Gary.These allegations were based on memories recovered through the efforts of the therapists, who were later successfully sued by Gary for malpractice...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813335876
• ISBN13: 9780813335872
• Release Date: December 1998
• Publisher: Basic Books
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Spectral Evidence, Moira Johnston

This is a true account of a well-known Napa Valley family that is torn apart when daughter, Holly, reveals repressed memories of sexual abuse. The story covers details of the family's early years to allow the reader to understand the dynamics and the people involved later on when the accusations begin. This is a very in-depth coverage of a very dysfunctional family. I connected well with author Moira Johnston. She tells the story smoothly, in a matter-of-fact manner. This is a long read, but I was held captive right up to the end. A lot of legal facts and psychology jargon are included, but the author does well to explain and break it down for the layman. The legal issues focus on the reliability of memories, the involvement of therapists and doctors, medical malpractice, medical science, and involves the input of experts from various psychological fields. The author also brings the emotions of the family into play, as well as friends, business associates, the community, and even long-distant supporters who attended the trial. Moira Johnston writes from a neutral position, laying the facts without imposing personal influence. I enjoyed this book and I'm glad I read it.

Powerful examination of "recovered" nightmares

I first learned of this fine volume--named from an expression born during the Salem witch trials--while at a skeptic's meeting the keynote speaker for which had gone through a bogus "therapy" which ended her marriage and nearly her life. The person who told me of the book pointed out that the book's alleged victim, the one who'd "recovered" her memories--one of the turns for the worst of the victim culture--is now a therapist. Why does that not surprise me?The author, Moira Johnston, did a remarkable job of examining all dimensions of the incident. In fact, her closing chapter lists how she proceeded with the investigation. While reading the text, I felt she was clearly in favor of the alleged culprit, Gary Romano, whose life was forever changed, and nearly destroyed, by the incident. But after reading the technique Johnston employed, I had to reconsider. The case which Mr. Romano had filed against the therapists and the institutions in which the memories were "recovered" provided enough evidence to convince a jury that there had been malpractice, i.e., there was not enough evidence to convince the jury that Romano had raped his daughter Holly, the future therapist--repeatedly according to her between the time she was a toddler until she was about 16--despite her therapists' encouraging her to believe that he had. So the author at best took the same stand as the jury.The story was not atypical of recovered memory cases. A young woman suffering from her own problems, in this case bulimia, went to a therapist. Johnston provides a thorough background by showing that of the 46,000 of the type of therapist Holly was seeing, half of them were in California. (The requirements expected of that sort of therapist were comical at that time too!) They therefore, she surmises, had to develop a niche for themselves. The "recovered memory" niche was just becoming popular. One such case had convicted a father--also in California--not long before this trial of having killed his daughter's friend a couple of decades before. The ostensible evidence of this crime was memories which the daugther allegedly "recovered" while she was under the care of another therapist. (That case was later overturned. But not to get sidetracked...) Holly couldn't understand what was going on with her, and her therapist helped her "recover" memories of having been repeatedly sexually abused by her father. After Holly insisted that she partake of the "truth serum" sodium amytal, and her therapist(s) encouraged her to believe what she "remembered" while blitzed on that stuff, she confronted her father with the "facts." He was caught totally off guard and, to make a long story short, lost is wife, his job, and nearly everything as a consequence.Ramona wanted to file suit against the therapists but his attorneys insisted that (1) no such case had ever been filed by someone not directly affected by a therapist's malpractice (i.e., patient/client)and (2) Holly's therapy records, probably the

A Classic

Destined to be a "classic" of all the books on the memory wars. The author masterfully recounts a tragic case of alleged incest by a father against his daughter, and captivates and educates the reader. This book excellently reounts the family's background, the therapy and the confrontation, the science and the theories and counter-theories involved, and the court case and its aftermath. This is a must read for anyone interested in false and recovered memories, and the legal cases spawned by the same.

Johnston is obviously a double agent in the "memory wars".

Whichever side of the recovered memory debate you find yourself on, Moira Johnston's book has something to both please and enrage you. Somehow, Johnston has been able to stay fairly objective to the end of the book, addressing the fact that, when memories of child abuse are recovered by adults, *no one* really wins. Johnston has seemingly talked at length with all the major players in the memory wars: the "celebrity survivors", the compassionate clinicians, the skeptical scientists, the driven attorneys, and the friends, neighbors, and colleagues of Gary and Stephanie Ramona. Her sympathies lie with all those who were affected by this landmark case, and she tells both sides admirably. Whatever you think about recovered memories, read this book. It's got cutting-edge memory science, courtroom drama, and intense family dynamics. I read it in three days, and it was over too soon.