Children being swallowed up by satanic cults, a coven leader called Scorpio and vicars urging youngsters to stay away from evil forces.
It might sound like the plot of a horror film, but in the late 1980s and 1990s, it was feared a dark force held the city in its clutches.
Historian Mike Covell said: "It was believed a satanic coven was operating in Hull. Some believed Hull teenagers were dabbling in matters, usually involving ouija boards and tarot cards.
"Some of the theories bordered on the bizarre, with frightened parents concerned their children were satanists because they listened to rock music."
At the centre of the scandal was a hardcore cult, headed by infamous satanist Scorpio, who was accused of abducting truant-playing children and using them in rituals, held in secret locations across the city.
Panic spread wider when horses were found mutilated in fields across Hull and the East Riding and rabbits were beheaded and hung from trees outside a Hull school.
It might sound far-fetched but, such was the concern, professional people were willing to speak out. A look through the Mail's archives suggests it could have been more than just parents overreacting to dark eyeliner and Black Sabbath.
In 1988, Humberside Education Committee member Eric Wilkinson claimed black magic cults were rife among the county's schoolchildren.
The ex-teacher said: "They were letting the power of evil into their lives. In many cases, they are terrified and I believe lives are being destroyed."
His words were echoed by Reverend Michael Vernon, a Hull vicar with first-hand experience of adults dabbling in black magic, who feared children were being lured into witchcraft.
In March 1988, he told the Mail: "They can get involved in some sorts of evil practices and the effects can be quite frightening. When dealing with evil you are dealing with a very slippery area."
In a darker layer to the already terrifying speculation, Humberside charity Childwatch founder Dianne Core believed terrified children, some as young as eight, were being lured into black magic vice rings in Hull.
A report by the charity claimed paedophiles were joining occult groups to "get their hands on children who are too terrified to talk". So powerful were the allegations, the report was even discussed in the House of Commons.
According to an article in the Mail, printed in March 1988, investigations by Childwatch revealed cases of youngsters under 12 being drugged and tied upside down on a cross before being subjected to perverted sex acts. Others were made to drink blood.
The dossier taken to Parliament included horrific details of the abuse allegedly happening in these secret covens. Three children were said to have had exorcisms performed on them by white witch Beth Gurevitch and a person "known to be introducing youngsters to occultism" was investigated by Childwatch.
By the beginning of 1990, the panic had subsided and stories of satanic worship had faded from the pages of the Mail.
Mr Covell said: "As soon as the stories appeared, they seemed to die down and within the early months of the 1990s, the stories seemed to halt."
But the relief was short-lived.
Evidence that Scorpio and his crimes were real surfaced when problematic schoolchildren, who had previously played truant, started to come forward.
"They were now claiming to have been taken to secret locations and made to take part in bizarre rituals, with one child claiming he was tied to a cross and hung upside down," said Mr Covell.
Hull was even visited by hard-nosed journalist Roger Cook, of The Cook Report, who investigated the case in his unique, take-no-prisoners style.
But by 1991, despite such widespread panic, politicians stepping forward and the case being taken to Parliament, the Mail was able to reveal there was no hard evidence to support claims such rituals had been taking place in the city.
Experts from within the police and the church were quoted, playing down the alleged "satanic panic" and the case was put down to another strange part of the city's history.
It seems hard to believe it has only been 20 years since such widespread panic gripped our city, founded mainly on rumour and outspoken figureheads. Even now, it makes for uncomfortable reading.
But it is a chapter in Hull's history that shouldn't be ignored.
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