Download or read book Devil s Knot written by Mara Leveritt and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-01-30 with total page 544 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on a true story, this edition of Devil's Knot will tie-in to a major motion picture starring Academy Award winners Reese Witherspoon and Colin Firth. This riveting portrait of a small Arkansas town recounts the all-too-true story of a brutal triple murder and the eighteen-year imprisonment of three innocent teenagers. For weeks in 1993, after the grisly murders of three eight-year-old boys, police in West Memphis, Arkansas, seemed stumped. Then suddenly, detectives charged three teenagers - alleged members of a satanic cult - with the killings. Despite the witch-hunt atmosphere of the trials and a case that included stunning investigative blunders, the teenagers, who became known as the West Memphis Three, were convicted. Jurors sentenced Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley to life in prison and Damien Echols, the accused ringleader, to death. The guilty verdicts were popular in their home state - even upheld on appeal - and all three remained in prison until their unprecedented release in August 2011. In Devil's Knot, award-winning investigative journalist Mara Leveritt presents the most comprehensive, insightful reporting ever done on this story - one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in American legal history. In-depth research, meticulous reconstruction of the investigation and close-up views of its key participants unravel the many tangled knots of this endlessly shocking case.

Download or read book The Blood of Innocents written by Guy Reel and published by Pinnacle Books. This book was released on 2000-03-01 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recounts the events surrounding the 1993 murders of three boys in West Memphis, Arkansas, and the trials of the three teens who were convicted of the crime.

Download or read book Abomination Devil Worship and Deception in the West Memphis Three Murders written by William Ramsey and published by William Ramsey. This book was released on 2013-12-06 with total page 476 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abomination: Devil Worship and Deception in the West Memphis Three Murders provides a detailed, time-lined analysis of the murder that shocked the nation: the heinous killing of three eight year old boys in West Memphis, Arkansas on May 5th, 1993. A wall of deception has led the American public to erroneously believe that the three men were falsely accused and convicted for the crime. Unfortunately, this is not true. William Ramsey, author of Prophet of Evil: Aleister Crowley, 9/11 and the New World Order, provides shocking insights into the lives of the convicted murderers and their involvement with witchcraft. Relying on actual court and police records, William Ramsey shows that the evidence abundantly points to the guilt of the West Memphis Three.

Download or read book West Memphis written by Michael A. Beauregard and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2014 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Once described as the "wonder city" due to its rapid growth in the early 20th century, West Memphis reached a pinnacle of economic progress during the period from the Great Depression until the postwar era. Providing a gateway to the west of the Mississippi River, the city has evolved from uncultivated hardwood forests into one of the most traveled intersections in the United States. West Memphis has also been instrumental in launching the careers of famous young musicians, including B.B. King, Johnny Cash, Howlin' Wolf, and Elvis Presley. Images of America: West Memphis features over 190 unique images covering the lifespan of the city from the years prior to its inception through the mid-1970s.

Download or read book Untying the Knot written by Greg Day and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2012-05-10 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On May 5, 1993, second-graders Christopher Byers, Stevie Branch, and Michael Moore disappeared from their West Memphis, Arkansas, homes. The following afternoon, their nude, beaten, and bound bodies were discovered in a drainage ditch less than a mile away. After a troublesome confession, three local teenagers, later dubbed the West Memphis Three, were arrested, tried, and convicted in early 1994. Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley received life sentences, while ringleader Damien Echols went to death row. Three years later, the documentary film Paradise Lost premiered on HBO, and the effect on viewers was dramatic. Many became skeptical of the verdicts and also felt one of the fathers of the victims was a better suspectJohn Mark Byers. In Untying the Knot, author Greg Day tells the true story of John Mark Byers and the about-face he made to free the men convicted of the crime. Day exposes the propaganda campaign used to convince a gullible public that Byers was complicit in the deaths of his wife and son. Based on court transcripts and hours of personal interviews, Untying the Knot explores all the case evidence while interweaving dialogues and statements. It traces the life of Byers from his roots in rural Arkansas, to his sons murder and the death of his wife, to his ultimate imprisonment in 1999. It reveals a man redeemed by prison and whose change of heart changed his life. Day has captured the essence of a towering personality engulfed by an impossible situation. John Mark Byers is an immensely complex character, and Untying the Knot pulls no punches in revealing the man in all his seeming contradictions. John Douglas, Mindhunter

Download or read book Where the Monsters Go written by Gary Meece and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-03-21 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is the myth of the West Memphis 3 -- innocent teenagers railroaded by malicious police and prosecutors into murder convictions because of the way they dressed and the music they listened to, there being no evidence against them except the prejudices of Southern white Christians. And then there is the reality --- three criminally inclined young thugs involved in occultism who gleefully tortured three 8-year-old boys and then brought the justice system down upon them based on multiple factors, including a series of confessions, failed lie detector tests, failed alibis, eyewitness sightings and a history of violence. The second volume in this series, following -Blood on Black, - continues to examine the evidence against Jessie Misskelley Jr., Jason Baldwin and Damien Echols in the murders of Christopher Byers, Michael Moore and Stevie Branch on May 5, 1993. Misskelley, Baldwin and Echols met up that afternoon just outside Lakeshore Estates Trailer Park, according to the multiple confessions of Misskelley. Echols and Baldwin were drinking beer. The plan was to go to West Memphis and beat up some boys. They walked about two miles into woods known as Robin Hood or Robin Hood Hills. Echols knew the woods well, having lived in the nearby Mayfair Apartments, frequently walking through the area as a shortcut between his home in West Memphis and his friends in the trailer parks and having been spotted in the woods recently by an acquaintance. Michael, Stevie and Christopher Byers, all second graders at Weaver Elementary School, lived south of the woods and visited the woods frequently to play. That afternoon they were spotted heading toward Robin Hood around 6, close to the time their killers entered from the north. When Echols heard the children approaching, he began making sounds to lure them in, while Misskelley and Baldwin hid. Then, according to the confessions of Misskelley, and indicated by the blood patterns at the scene and other evidence, the teens jumped the 8-year-olds, beat them viciously, stripped them of their clothes, mutilated Stevie's face, castrated Christopher, sexually molested them, hogtied them and dumped them in a muddy ditch, where Michael and Stevie drowned. Christopher already had bled out from his wounds. Misskelley quickly left the scene, which was scrupulously cleaned up. Echols was spotted walking along the service road near the crime scene later that evening in muddy clothes. After frantic parents sparked an extensive search for the missing children, their bodies were discovered the next afternoon by law enforcement officers. Tales of strange rituals held in the woods by mysterious strangers spread quickly among the crowd gathered near the crime scene. As detectives and other officers gathered information and talked to witnesses or potential suspects, Echols quickly drew the scrutiny of officers. Besides the talk among the boys' neighbors, the ritualistic aspects of the murder -- including the way the boys were bound, and timing possibly influenced by setting, proximity to a pagan holiday and celestial events -- furthered suggested occultism as an impetus for the killings. Local officers were familiar with Echols as a dangerous, mentally ill teenager immersed in witchcraft. Among the many tips coming into police were reports that Echols had been seen near the crime scene that night and that he was heavily involved in a cult. A series of police interviews with an all-too-knowing Echols did nothing but deepen suspicions. Echols failed a lie detector test, thereafter refusing to talk. Police heard that Echols had been telling friends about his involvement in the murders. Vicki Hutcheson, an acquaintance of Misskelley, decided to -play detective.- Soon police brought in Misskelley for routine questioning. After he, too, failed a lie detector test, he gave the first of a number of confessions. The case was solved, but the questions continue.

Download or read book Colonial Arkansas 1686 1804 written by Morris S. Arnold and published by University of Arkansas Press. This book was released on 1993-12-01 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Meticulously researched, highly readable, profusely illustrated, and broadly focused . . . unquestionably the most significant work ever written about the Arkansas Post." --Carl Brasseaux

Download or read book Unsolved No More written by Kenneth L. Mains and published by WildBlue Press. This book was released on 2017-05-24 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The life and crime solving of the renowned detective who’s “a voice for all who have been silenced” (Lt. Joe Kenda [ret], the “Homicide Hunter”). As a law enforcement officer for more than fifteen years, Detective Kenneth L. Mains has investigated thousands of crimes, including working undercover with the FBI, solving cold case homicides, investigating the Mafia, and leading one of the greatest cold case organizations ever assembled. This is his story and that of the victims for whom he speaks. “A tremendous amount of respect for his investigative insights and his integrity.” —Jim Clemente, former FBI profiler and writer for Criminal Minds Unsolved No More will take readers on a journey with a struggling kid who barely graduated high school to a teenager who joined the Marine Corps and finally a man who put himself through college to accomplish his lifelong goal of becoming a police detective. Mains, who is routinely sought out by law enforcement and victims’ families to help solve cold cases, writes about his own investigations to show readers how he goes about solving crimes others had given up on. “Kenneth Mains is a law enforcement equivalent of a surgeon of cold cases . . . he diagnoses the issues and, working with precision, dissects the cases with consummate skill and care . . . I highly recommend this wonderful book if you want to understand the cold case investigatory process or if you want to dive into some cases that are filled with twists, turns, and more than a few surprises.” —Blaine Pardoe, New York Times–bestselling author

Download or read book Witches in West Memphis written by George Jared and published by . This book was released on 2016-03-19 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This might be the most unjust prosecution in U.S. legal history. If you think what happened to Steven Avery in the true crime film, Making a Murderer, was shocking you will be completely appalled by what happened to three little boys and three teens in Arkansas in 1993. Three 8-year-old boys vanished from their West Memphis neighborhood one sunny afternoon. A day later their mangled, nude bodies are found in a drainage ditch. Police and prosecutors believe the killings are related to the occult. Three teens are arrested one month later. Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley Jr. are convicted. There's only one problem. Overwhelming scientific evidence proves they're innocent and witness after witness has come forward to admit lies were told in court during the original trials. Award-winning journalist George Jared takes readers inside one of the most famous criminal cases in U.S. legal history. Witches in West Memphis gives a comprehensive insiders' view into the West Memphis Three case. No journalist has written more stories about the case than Jared. The author recounts his firsthand court coverage, interviews with witnesses, research, and other information he gathered in the case. Those interviews include a Death Row interview with Damien Echols, interviews with Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley Jr., and interviews with other suspects, including Terry Hobbs. He's been credited in numerous documentaries including the Academy Award nominated film Paradise Lost III: Purgatory and the New York Times best seller Life After Death. Witches graphically recounts how three Boy Scouts - Stephen "Stevie" Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers - rode their bikes after school on a bright afternoon. Their bodies are found in a wooded area near their homes the next day. The manner of death and the way they were bound, ankle to wrist, made authorities think Satanists might have sacrificed the children. Echols, a troubled teen with a seedy past, was immediately identified as a possible suspect. His best-friend, Jason Baldwin, and another teen known to them, Jessie Misskelley Jr., are arrested June 3, 1993, and charged with murder. No real evidence tied the teens to the crime, but an error-riddled confession by Misskelley was the proof used to seal the verdicts in the case. Read how they, referred to as the West Memphis Three, toiled in prison for years as their case stagnated in the Arkansas judicial system. As time passed, overwhelming scientific evidence surfaced. Witnesses changed their statements. New suspects rose to the surface. No author, documentary filmmaker, or journalist has had more access in this case. Witches is written in an easy to read, narrative-style form. Grab a copy today.

Download or read book Blood on Black written by Gary Meece and published by . This book was released on 2017-03-26 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: They did it. The West Memphis 3 are guilty. They are guilty despite what the documentaries, books and news stories have said over and over. Guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr. killed three 8-year-olds, Christopher Byers, Michael Moore and Stevie Branch, on May 5, 1993, in a wooded area in West Memphis, Ark. The murders were thrill kills, according to Echols himself. But they were much more than that. Police were struck by the ritualistic aspects. Local dabblers in the occult immediately came under suspicion. Under questioning, Echols, already acknowledged as a witch, flaunted his knowledge of the occult, his theories of how the killings could have "magickal" implications and his insights into how the killer would think and feel. He demonstrated special knowledge about the case beyond the little publicly known. He gave out signals that he was a prime suspect; a series of witnesses further implicated him. A confession broke open the case. The widely accepted WM3 storyline is that inept police and prosecutors, with a howling mob of religious fanatics to placate, somewhat arbitrarily picked out three innocent boys to blame for horrific murders because Damien and his best pal Jason wore black T-shirts, listened to heavy metal music and had funny haircuts and because the third boy, Little Jessie, was practically retarded and thus easily manipulated. Almost every element in that storyline has little relation to reality. The weirdness that drew the attention of authorities stemmed from bad choices by the suspects rather than clothing, haircuts or rocking out to Megadeth. The West Memphis police did their duty in a diligent if imperfect manner. The investigation was professional and painstaking. Detectives took many statements, followed strange and unpromising leads and administered the polygraph dozens of times. All three of the teens from the trailer parks were convicted. The convictions held up on appeal. Eventually, thanks to Hollywood celebrities and misleading documentaries that left out crucial evidence, the killers who became the West Memphis 3 walked free. No exonerating evidence, despite many years of investigation and a defense fund in the millions of dollars, has been produced. None of the three has a credible alibi. The mainstream media bought into the premise that "those boys were innocent." By putting the focus on mullet-headed rednecks, drawling overweight cops and righteously angry Christians, the media played upon the most egregious stereotypes of Southern whites, while positioning a murdering sociopath as a hip kid who was just too cool for the uptight hometown idiots. The West Memphis 3 myth was made to order for the familiar narrative of the perceptive young outsider that every hipster and aspiring artist imagines himself to have been. Among the sensitive souls who found a doppelganger of their teen selves in Echols were professional outsiders - such as Johnny Depp and Henry Rollins. In Aleister Crowley's "magickal" system, which Echols embraced in his preteen years, orgasm and ecstasy are equated with death and sacrifice and the sexual fluids are often represented as blood or water. Echols felt he was in transition to a state of being a god, something other than human; he believed that drinking blood invested him with spiritual energy. Echols and "blood brother" Jason formed a pathological dyad, cultivating elaborate violent fantasies. Via the ritual torture, killing and eating of dogs, cats and other animals, they educated themselves in the curriculum of occult murder. The lurking allure of a "thrill kill" finally became irresistible when the killing time coincided with sunset, the rise of a full moon and the pagan holiday of Beltane.

Download or read book The Last Pentacle of the Sun written by Brett Alexander Savory and published by arsenal pulp press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This anthology of dark fiction is published in support of Echols, Misskelley, and Baldwin, the West Memphis 3. All proceeds will go toward legal efforts to clear the names of the three men convicted of murdering three eight-year-old boys in Arkansas in 1993.

Download or read book Boxful of Nightmares written by Vicky Edwards and published by . This book was released on 2019-04-02 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Terry Hobbs, step-father of one of three young boys brutally murdered in West Memphis, Arkansas in 1993, recounts his tragic story to Vicky Edwards.

Download or read book Dark Spell written by Mara Leveritt and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Jason's story illuminates the many ways America's justice system can go wrong and fight-often with a vengeance-to sustain that wrong. It celebrates the ordinary heroes who rose up, using art and new technology to challenge trials they saw as mockeries of justice"--P. [4] of cover.

Download or read book High Magick written by Damien Echols and published by Sounds True. This book was released on 2018-10-30 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Magick is not a path for followers; it is a path for questioners, seekers, and anyone who has trouble settling for dogma and pre-formulated answers. Magick is for those who feel the desire to peel away the surface of reality and see what lies beneath. Like various persecuted forms of mysticism, magick promotes direct contact with the source of creation.” —Damien Echols Discover a Powerful Practice for Transforming Yourself and Your Reality At age 18, Damien Echols was sentenced to death for a crime he didn’t commit. “I spent my years in prison training to be a true magician,” he recalls. “I used magick—the practice of reshaping reality through our intention and will—to stave off incredible pain, despair, and isolation. But the most amazing feat of all that practice and study was to manifest my freedom.” With High Magick, this bestselling author shares his first teaching book on the powerful spiritual techniques that helped him survive and transcend his ordeal on death row. Though our culture has consigned “magic” to fiction, stage illusions, or superstitions about dark practices, the magick Damien learned is an ancient Western tradition equal the Eastern practices of Buddhism, Taoism, and yoga in its wisdom and transformative power. Here he brings you an engaging and highly accessible guide for bringing magick into your own life, including: • What is High Magick? Damien clears away the stigma and reveals the history and core teachings of this extraordinary art. • The Four-Fold Breath—a foundational meditation practice to train your mind and body to channel subtle energies. • The Middle Pillar—how to bring divine energy into the central channel of your body for empowerment and healing. • The Qabalistic Cross—a centering technique to help you stay balanced and protected regardless of circumstances. • The Lesser Rituals of the Pentagram—powerful practices for banishing negative energies and invoking energy to manifest your goals. • Working with angelic beings and other spiritual allies to support your practice. • Creating thoughtforms to assist you in your ongoing magickal development. • Guidance for overcoming your doubts, enhancing your visualization skills, creating talismans, practicing magick ethically, and much more. “Magick is a journey,” writes Damien. “It’s a continuously unfolding path that has no end. You can study and practice magick for the rest of your life and you will still never learn everything that it has to teach you.” If you’re ready to discover your untapped potential for co-creating your reality with the energy of the divine, then join this extraordinary teacher to begin your training in High Magick.

Download or read book Life After Death written by Damien Echols and published by Text Publishing. This book was released on 2013-07-24 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The true story of the wrongful conviction of the infamous West Memphis Three, Life After Death is a powerful and unflinching first-person account of life on death row. In 1993 three teenagers, Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Miskelley Jr, were arrested and charged with the murders of three eight-year-old boys in West Memphis, Arkansas. The ensuing trial was rife with inconsistencies, false testimony and superstition. Echols was accused of, among other things, practising witchcraft and satanic rituals — a result of the 'satanic panic' prevalent in the media at the time. Baldwin and Miskelley were sentenced to life in prison. Echols, deemed the ringleader, was sentenced to death. He was eighteen years old. In a shocking reversal of events, all three were suddenly released in August 2011. This is Damien Echols' story in full: from abuses by prison guards and wardens, to descriptions of inmates and deplorable living conditions, to the incredible reserves of patience, spirituality, and perseverance that kept him alive and sane for nearly two decades. Echols also writes about his complicated and painful childhood. Like Dead Man Walking, Life After Death is destined to be a classic. West of Memphis, a documentary produced by Peter Jackson (director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy) and Fran Walsh, details the campaign to have their sentences overturned. The West Memphis Three are also the subject of Paradise Lost, a three-part documentary series produced by HBO.

Download or read book Few Comforts Or Surprises written by Eugene Richards and published by MIT Press (MA). This book was released on 1973 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eugene Richards first came to the southeastern part of Arkansas--the so-called Delta--in 1968 as a VISTA volunteer. After nearly two years in that organization working to set up a daycare center and recreation programs, he and some of his associates in it left to found RESPECT Inc., a private social-action program providing paralegal services, publishing a community newspaper, and distributing food and clothing in West Memphis (across the Mississippi River from Memphis, Tennessee).As he lived and became increasingly involved in the black community, Richards, a skilled photographer, began to use his camera to record what he observed--not only the poverty and suffering of these people but also their laughter, contemplation, and triumphs. His subjects range from children at play to an African-style wedding to scenes of work and home life. Death, religion, and imprisonment are major elements of Delta existence, and so of these photos.The 110 photographs collected here express the quality of life in a part of the South where 60 percent of the black families barely earn $2000 a year, and 70 percent of the dwellings are deteriorated and without plumbing. Richards' camera catches the cotton compresses, the cement mill, the broken fields and small cafes, Logan the mortician, the two blind brothers Willy and Isaiah McCowan, and the Reverend Ezra Greer at the state capitol in Little Rock, while his few but carefully chosen words complement these images. Together they hold the people and the place in a world that Richards feels "slipping by, while I merely observed its disappearance."I feared being only eyes, only a cameraman," he says, but through his camera his eyes become ours, and the power of his feelings, ours too.

Download or read book The Case Against the West Memphis 3 Killers written by Gary Meece and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-04-15 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The beaten, bound and mutilated bodies of three 8-year-olds, Christopher Byers, Michael Moore and Stevie Branch, were pulled from a muddy ditch in a wooded area in West Memphis, Ark., on May 6, 1993. The boys had gone missing the day before. Weeks of investigation led to arrests of Damien Echols, 18, Jason Baldwin, 16, and Jessie Misskelley Jr. on June 3, 1993, after the 17-year-old Misskelley confessed that he and two friends murdered the boys. All three were convicted. The convictions held up on appeal. Eventually, thanks to Hollywood celebrities and misleading documentaries, the killers walked free. They passed up the opportunity to present new evidence, taking instead guilty pleas that allowed them to claim they were innocent. No exonerating evidence, despite many years of investigation and a defense fund in the millions of dollars, was produced. They became known as the West Memphis 3. This is a combined, revised version of "Blood on Black" and "Where the Monsters Go," written by Gary Meece, a veteran Memphis Commercial Appeal journalist and the former managing editor of the West Memphis Evening Times.