In Mineola, a tiny, God-fearing community in East Texas, hardly much happens. With a population of 5000, it was a close-knit community that looked after one another; residents went to church on Sundays and followed the Christian values of loving one’s neighbour.
So when word broke in the early 2000s that a paedophilia ring was operating out of Mineola’s much-maligned swingers club, the town was shocked. The lawsuit was based on the riveting testimony of four young children who detailed the atrocities they witnessed.
The account was harrowing: each kid, the oldest around eight years old and the youngest about four years old, described how they were groomed in’sex kindergarten’ by their own parents, grandparents, and acquaintances, where they were forced to view pornographic movies and touch each other. They were clothed in sexual costumes and sedated with’silly medicines’ before being transported to the swingers club and forced to dance provocatively for sick strangers while collecting ragged green dollar coins.
Texas Ranger Philip Kemp captured the harrowing testimonies, with the children’s foster mother, Margie Cantrell, standing as their rescuer and fiercest champion.
The state’s case had no tangible evidence or witnesses; rather, the children’s stories constituted the case. The heinous evidence was enough to convince a zealous prosecutor and various juries to sentence seven people to life in prison in 2008. After less than four minutes of deliberation, one defendant was pronounced guilty.
There was just one obvious flaw in the strange case of the paedophile sex ring in such a conservative area. It was non-existent. The horrors the youngsters said they witnessed never occurred.
This bizarre true crime story, which reveals unsettling attitudes towards class and credibility in conservative America, is explored in Discovery+’s new series, How to Create A Sex Scandal – an eye-opening documentary that examines the alchemy behind how a fake frenzy can be whipped up and spiral out of control.
‘This series goes to show it takes a village to create mass hysteria,’ filmmaker Julian Hobbs tells Metro.co.uk. ‘We see how these people acted in coordination.’
The youngsters, three of whom have subsequently recanted their testimony as adults, came from a very difficult home life. Shelby, seven, Hunter, six, and Carly, four, had been taken away from their mother, Shauntel, and stepfather Jamie. The children had been neglected, according to the social worker, and the people responsible for them were drug addicts.
Margie and John Cantrell took care of Shelby, Hunter, and Carly. The couple had a lot of experience as foster parents, having taken in a lot of difficult kids over the years. Margie and John were originally from California, but had relocated to bucolic Mineola for a quiet retirement, purchasing a beautiful chalet overlooking a lake. Margie missed fostering children and chose to do so again.
Margie went to a defunct swingers club, which, predictably, was not well received by the Bible-believing Mineola town. She had intended to purchase the land in order to expand the foster care facility. Margie was surprised to learn that Shelby, Hunter, and Carly were well acquainted with the location after visiting there with them.
The truth of the matter is, it didn’t happen. It never happened. They brainwashed us.
Claiming her foster kids had told her these graphic stories of maltreatment, she took them, as well as their cousin Gabby, to Philip Kemp. The documentary shows video footage of Margie sitting with each child, coaxing the evidence from them as the Texas Ranger looked on.
They recounted the terror of ‘sex kindergarten’ while Shauntel and Jamie watched, alongside their pal, Patrick ‘Booger Red’. Gabby supported the allegation, accusing her own parents: mother Sheila (who was also Shelby, Hunter, and Carly’s grandmother), father Jimmy, and their friend Dennis.
While prosecutors in Wood County opted to withdraw proceedings owing to a lack of tangible evidence, the charismatic Margie persuaded the more conservative Smith County District Attorney, Matt Bingham, to pursue.
The jury responded fast and forcefully, and the extensive negative press coverage in the neighbourhood made the seven accused hate figures.
However, something about the tale didn’t sit right with journalist Michael Hall.
He conducted some investigating as a journalist for Texas Monthly (and also as a producer on the documentary), with his series of pieces on the case laying the groundwork for How to Create A Sex Scandal.
‘I’d been doing a lot of research on other cases where groups of children had made up stories about sex abuse,’ he tells Metro.co.uk. ‘So when I heard a bunch of kids were alleging there was a child sex ring but there was zero evidence, I was like, wow, this is happening again.’
Margie was a vital component and motivating factor for the children. She was more readily believed since she was a career foster mother and a devout Christian, her commitment backed by her middle-class standing.
‘When I was investigating this story, I’d been hearing stories about Margie for weeks,’ Michael explains. ‘People spoke openly about how manipulative and charismatic she was.
‘When I managed to speak to her myself, I found myself being pulled along to her version of events against my will. She was almost like a movie star, the way she could draw people in.
‘If she could have this effect on me, it was easy to see how she could have convinced these young children that this happened to them.’
The filmmakers who interviewed Margie for the documentary were astounded at how adamant she is, despite three of the children confessing none of this happened.
‘Still to this day, she believes there was a sex ring in Mineola,’ filmmaker Elli Hakami explains. ‘She wasn’t aggressive or bullying, but she is firm in her beliefs. I was struck by it.’
Julian Hobbs was similarly entranced: ‘These children literally had their identities stolen from them, their memories rewired. It’s like something out of Blade Runner,’ he says.
‘Those children sincerely believed their parents were abusing them, and performed that implanted memory in a courtroom. It showed me the fragility of a stable sense of self.’
When it came to Sheila and Jimmy, the district attorney chose to take plea bargains and let them go. The convictions of Shauntel, Jamie, and Patrick were reversed in 2011 due to ‘many evidence flaws.’
Hunter, Carly, and Gabby have now recanted their claims, and while the adults involved have no ill will towards the youngsters, they are inevitably critical of Margie, whom they refer to as a “puppet master.”
‘When I recanted, it just blurted out of my mouth,’ Gabby recalls. ‘I lied because I was scared. I was clueless. I felt better [after I recanted]. There was always a knot at the pit of my stomach, and the second I told the truth, the knot loosened.
‘The truth of the matter is, it didn’t happen. It never happened. They brainwashed us.’
For Michael, the continual ineptitude of those who pushed for the unjust conviction of those charged, combined with a passionate desire to advocate for children, led to this awful state of things.
Texas Ranger Philip Kemp had never investigated allegations of child sex abuse before, and his choice to allow Margie to sit in on the interviews with the children was highly criticised.
‘The law enforcers weren’t evil, they wanted to fight for these children, no matter how crazy this story was,’ Michael explains. ‘They thought they were fighting the good fight. There was no way they could turn around and say no, particularly after people had been prosecuted.’
Julian adds the inherent classism within American society may have also contributed.
‘The accused were dehumanised by the media and by Margie to a certain degree,’ he argues. ‘There was room for slippage. It was easy for people to make the link between a swingers club in a conservative town, to people living in trailers being paedophiles.
‘We’re in the age of conspiracy and this film shows how the alchemy of mass hysteria operates. Look at QAnon and Pizzagate – people are not held accountable, and these multiple conspiracy theories are allowed to proliferate.
‘With an upper-middle class woman like Margie being a force to say “look what’s going on”, it allows for scapegoating to go wildly unchecked.’
‘I remember seeing initial reporting in the newspapers, and the mug shots of the accused,’ agrees Michael. ‘They looked depraved. They were rednecks with bad skin and bad hair. It made them look like monsters. It was easy for people to believe they were the type of people who would do this kind of stuff.’
Margie and John had long since departed Mineola, having returned to California after being accused of abusing their foster children. They have never faced any criminal charges, however the seven convicted people still have the felony on their record. Margie remains unrepentant throughout the documentary, citing Shelby’s refusal to recant as the reason she continues to stand by her conduct.
Speaking in the documentary, Margie explains: ‘I am being demonised [by the press] through my own children.
‘Somewhere lies the truth. Shelby says this is her truth, and she stands by it until this day. That’s the end of the story.’
However, for the filmmakers behind How To Create A Sex Scandal, they’re hoping their documentary will serve as a piece of social justice for the seven wrongly accused.
‘The class structure will mean it’s unlikely those who served jail time will be able to bring any case against Margie,’ Elli Hakami explains. ‘It takes huge resources and expensive lawyers to do that, and it just seems impossible for those people.’
Michael agrees: ‘This documentary, which gives the opportunity for more people to know the truth, might be the best justice they ever get.’
How To Create A Sex Scandal is available to stream in full now on discovery+ in the UK and on MAX in the US
Other famous true crime hoaxes
The Hampstead paedophile ring: Eerily similar to the Mineola sex ring hoax, another false paedophile ring was concocted here in the UK. In 2014, two children accused their father of demonic abuse in the affluent north London suburb. The police found no evidence and the children recanted. However, the children’s claims have been shared online, and has led to a widely shared conspiracy theory that there is a Satanic paedophile ring in Hampstead, that is still believed today.
Balloon Boy: In 2009, Colorado parents Richard and Mayumi Heene claimed that their then-six-year-old son, Falcon, accidentally flew away in the sky in a homemade weather balloon. It made international news and even saw the local airspace closed down in the hunt for Falcon. However, Falcon was apparently hiding in a box in the family’s attic the whole time.
Sherri Papini: Sherri Papini made headlines across America in 2016 when she claimed she had been kidnapped at gunpoint by two Hispanic women. When she was located three weeks after vanishing, she had a chain around her waist and had wounds on her body. In April 2022, Sherri admitted that the kidnapping was a hoax. She had never been kidnapped; instead she was staying with an ex the entire time she pretended to be missing. Sherri was sentenced to 18 months in prison last year for fraud claims relating to the case.