Site Contamination By Manhattan Tunnel Project

The parents who organized and partially financed the MTP had strong emotional links to the McMartin case. Jackie McGauley, one of the primary organizers, was hardly an objective participant. That other parents connected with the project were also emotionally charged is made clear by Hobbs:

Some of the parents I talked to, who would have probably attempted to kill him [i.e., presumably Ray Buckey] in the beginning, had rationalized over the 6 years that if they did it would be the worst thing they could do for their children. So, we started looking for the tunnels. (Hobbs stated this during the course of my interview with him.)

During the course of the MTP, Ted Gunderson, the former FBI agent who coordinated that project, had political ties to right-wing groups that espouse bizarre conspiracy theories to further their political agendas. Gunderson's credibility as an objective participant is severely diminished by a reported past history of questionable or false claims (see Conclusion). Gunderson's credibility is clouded further by an apparent conflict of interest due to a romantic association between himself and Jackie McGauley prior to and during the project.

Political and personal conflicts pose potential problems for any archeological project. Such problems can be avoided in large part by maintaining a site's integrity, i.e., keeping parties with a vested interest in the outcome of the project off the site.

It was not enough, however, that the parents of the McMartin preschool children were, in principle, prohibited from doing any actual excavation work.¹⁵⁷ For in practice this prohibition proved ineffective. The geologist who worked on the site states that there were from 1 to 8 parents on the site during the 5 to 10 times he was present. "Unquestionably, the people [i.e., parents] were emotionally deeply involved."¹⁵⁸