The Night Birds by John Philpin
E-mail Discussion Lists
Home
DNA - Forensics
Homicide
Green River Killer
Historic Crime
Organized Crime
Hate Crimes
Sex Crimes
Juvenile Crime
Child Abuse
Domestic Violence
Unsolved Cases
Missing Persons
Victims
Mental Illness
Elder Abuse
Punishment
Law Enforcement
Drug Wars
White Collar Crime
Media & Crime
Computer Crimes

DVDs

Paradise Lost 2 - Revelations 2001 Directors Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky follow-up to their harrowing 1996 documentary, Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills . The chronicles of three young men--Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley--who were convicted of the brutal 1993 murders of three second graders. The film suggests their only crime was dressing in black and liking Metallica. To the townsp eople, this smacked of Satanism and marked them as made-to-order suspects. For those who missed the first film, this recaps the case, and charts the appeals process as well as the efforts of Internet advocates to "Free the West Memphis Three."

Broken Summers by Henry Rollins - In 1993, three young boys were murdered in West Memphis. In a witch hunt, three older boys were convicted of the killings. Ten years later, Henry Rollins is raising money for their defense fund and DNA testing. His acclaimed CD "Rise Above" and a world tour. Broken Summers details the rehearsing of Black Flag songs he hadn't played in years, dealing with arrogant managers, musicians, recording the CD, and the arduous trek from Tucson to Tokyo that included grilling by heartland shock jocks unsympathetic to his cause. The book covers 14 months of desperate lows and dramatic highs. Included are black-and-white photos of the rehearsals, recording sessions, and tour.

Blood of Innocents by Guy Reel, Marc Perrusquia.

 

  • Watch for new True Crime Books and DVDs as they are published!
  • If you enjoy discussing true crime cases with others, please join our True Crimes Discussion list.
 
Unsolved Crimes
Serial Killers

Murders
Murdered Children
Missing Persons
Missing Children

Missing Children Resources


Law Enforcement
Most Wanted
Justice & Injustice
Solving Crimes
Death Penalty

"Go tell Mankind that there are Devils and Witches; and ... those night-birds least appear where the Day-light of the Gospel comes ..."
Cotton Mather, 1689

Through the summer of 1692, twenty people were executed in Salem, Massachusetts. Nineteen were hanged, one was pressed — buried beneath large stones until dead. The twenty had been convicted of diverse crimes, but all their offenses were deemed by the court to be witchcraft. Satan inhabited them, it was said, and threatened every believer, every God-fearing and gospel-reading soul in the town.

Three-hundred years later, the devil by-passed the northeast and showed up in Arkansas. At least, that was what a lot of folks believed.

Three kids. Two bikes. An afternoon in West Memphis, Arkansas, May 5, 1993. The eight-year-old boys — Steve Branch, Christopher Byers, and Michael Moore — had miles to ride before they slept. Then something happened.

When they did not return home that evening, the boys’ parents reported them missing.

Damien Echols was strange. He was eighteen, wore black clothing, listened to Pink Floyd, read Ann Rice novels, and had an interest in the occult. A Crittenden County probation officer, Jerry Driver, was among those who thought it a matter of time until Echols was trouble. Driver had been keeping a keen eye on the teenager, questioning him about the death of a girl in a community far from West Memphis, questioning him about Satanism and cult activity in the area. In the year prior to the events of that May, whenever there was a witches’ sabbath, Driver and his crew were out in force, tracking phantom blood-drinkers, stalking night birds. For his part, Echols explained the difference between paganism and Satanism, but Driver was a pentragram-chaser and Echols had the five-pointed star tattooed on his chest.

Early on the afternoon of May 6, police found the bodies of the three young boys submerged in a drainage ditch. They were nude, hog-tied with their own shoe laces. Autopsies would later reveal that all the boys suffered blunt-force trauma to the head. Two of them drowned. Christopher Byers died from blood loss caused when a sadistic killer tortured and castrated him.

It is understandable that no one in the police department comprehended this brutal crime, and that the people of West Memphis were stirred to a fever of fear and anger. The murderer of three children was loose in their little area of the world.

Jerry Driver could think of only one person capable of what seemed to him sacrificial murders committed by a satanic cult: Damien Echols. The cops agreed. Chief Investigator Gary Gitchell would later assert his absolute certainty about how the investigation evolved. Given the lack of a crime scene, a murder weapon, a motive, evidence of any cult activity, or anything connecting Echols to the dead boys, such certainty was truly a miracle.

When repeated interrogations of Echols produced nothing, a local woman suggested to Jessie Misskelley, an intellectually-challenged teen, that he go to the police and incriminate Damien Echols. In a twelve-hour session, the seventeen-year-old Misskelley gave West Memphis investigators Echols and his friend Jason Baldwin, sixteen. Misskelley also confessed his own involvement in the triple satanic sacrifice despite having little idea what Satanism was. Will miracles never cease?

Evangelical Christianity is structured, rigid, and offers The One True Way. The Gospels are the sacred texts; the churches are at center in the lives of believers. Damien Echols pondered religion. He converted to Catholicism, but soon faded from attendance at St. Michael’s Church in West Memphis. He also considered the mysteries of the universe, his place in the scheme of things, his identity in the world. He struggled with depression, was hospitalized, took his prescribed antidepressant medication, and continued to seek meaning and stability for himself. There were no absolutes for him, no comfort in having good and evil defined for him, in never having to think. When God is manifest in the trees and rocks and streams, and Man is just another of God’s animals, good and evil coexist in the natural order, and Scripture is nothing more than the literature of a time.

In the absence of evidence, one must sometimes extemporize. Stephen King novels suddenly assume devilish proportions. The lyrics of Pink Floyd become damning. Black t-shirts metamorphose into proof of guilt. At court sessions, a frenzied public hurled stones. Between hearings the locals hurled rumors. The trials were acts in a play, chapters in a poorly-written novel. There was no case. There were the three murder victims and how they died, nothing more.

Hysteria ruled. Some called this dizziness "satanic panic." Jessie Misskelley and Jason Baldwin both received sentences of life without parole. Damien Echols, considered the ringleader, was sentenced to death. The myths and madnesses of a community had infected the criminal justice system.

Damien Echols is now twenty-eight years old. He awaits death at the hands of the state. Jessie Misskelley and Jason Baldwin age in Arkansas prisons. Were there other possible suspects? Yes. Did the West Memphis police pursue them? No. Did police compromise the site where the three bodies were found? Yes. Was evidence overlooked in this case? Yes. There have been two documentary films about this case, at least two books, two benefit audio albums, and there is an active international organization dedicated to freeing the "West Memphis Three." Despite the interest and activity, the Arkansas Supreme Court has denied appeal after appeal in the matter. After a decade, time is running out for Damien Echols.

By the fall of 1692, the citizens of Salem, Massachusetts had satisfied their purgative needs. Increase Mather, Cotton’s father, urged the court to disallow "spectral evidence" at trial. The suspected witches who remained in custody were acquitted or pardoned, and quietly released. The court could not resurrect those who were provided with "due process" and executed.

Audio CDs

Free the West Memphis 3 2000 The Truth - Steve Earle; Wrong And Important - Rocket From The Crypt; Boys In Black - L7; Heavy Heart - Supersuckers; The Harder They Come - Joe Strummer/The Long Beach Dub All-Stars; Rains On Me - Tom Waits; Poor Girl - Supersuckers; Indicted - Tony Scalzo; Wrath Child - Zeke; Hostile - Kelley Deal; Hwy 5 - The John Doe Thing; Untitled Lullaby - Mark Lanegan; She - Murder City Devils; Highway To Hell - Nashville Pussy; Our Last Goodbye - Killing Joke

Rise Above: 24 Black Flag Songs to Benefit the West Memphis Three -- For the cause of fundraising for the defense of a trio of legally bound Arkansas headbangers--one of whom is currently on death row on the basis of hearsay testimony-- Henry Rollins has resurrected the sacrosanct songs of his legendary former Los Angeles hardcore band Black Flag . Much as he first joined the popular Flag by jumping on stage and grabbing the microphone, Rollins here assigns lead vocals to a bewildering array of guests, including Iggy Pop, Dean Ween, Corey Taylor of Slipknot, Tom Araya of Slayer, Queens of the Stone Age, and Ice T. The Rollins Band convincingly serves as caustic backing band throughout. Protest music godfather Chuck D. of Public Enemy appears as well, though simply to introduce the album.

 

Kari & Associates
PO Box 6166
Olympia, WA 98507

Copyright Kari Sable 1994-2006

Search Now:
In Association with Amazon.com

Support this site with your purchases!

Today's Deals

Almost Home: My Life Story (My Life Story) by Damien Echols Almost Home is a message from a 12-foot by 9-foot cell in a cinderblock building surrounded by coils of razor wire in an Arkansas dirt field, by a young man named Damien Echols. For over 10 years Damien has been on death row for a crime he did not commit. He, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley are known as The West Memphis Three. Damien diligently maintains his integrity and his sanity by writing. A few still believe Damien is a devil-worshipping child killer, but as more facts surface, it becomes clear that he is the victim of hysteria. A prolific and accomplished writer, poet, and visual artist, Echols has found unexpected inspiration in his situation. He resides on death row in Arkansas innocent of the crime for which he was convicted, Damien continues his fight for freedom.

Devil's Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three by Mara Leveritt "The next afternoon, the naked bodies of Stevie Branch, Christopher Byers, and Michael Moore were found submerged in a nearby stream. Christopher had been castrated. There was a remarkable absence of blood. Finally, detectives announced three arrests -- and a startling theory of the crime: that the children had been killed by members of a satanic cult. Detectives attributed their break in the case to a former special education student, seventeen-year-old Jessie Misskelley Jr.

The Last Pentacle of the Sun: Writings in Support of the West Memphis 3 by Brett Alexander Savory.This project is a fundraiser for the West Memphis 3 Defense Fund (wm3.org). Contributors donated their stories, and all proceeds will go toward legal efforts to ensure that this miscarriage of justice is resolved.

 

 

PLEASE CONTRIBUTE TODAY!
 
| privacy