True crime chat: The case of West Memphis Three
Details
The case of The West Memphis Three
Online via Zoom Sunday 22 May
In the coming month we will be running a trilogy of Meet-ups over Zoom to discuss a case which has spanned more than 29 years, given rise to multiple suspects, violently divided Internet communities, produced numerous films, TV shows and books and which, according to many, still remains unsolved.
Did Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelly murder three eight year old boys Michael Moore, Stevie Branch and Christopher Byers in West Memphis Arkansas in 1993?
The case came to public attention after Joe Berlinger’s film Paradise Lost was released on HBO in the 1990s. The documentary covered the trials of the three teenagers, interviewed the families of both the victims and the accused, and pondered whether those accused were actually guilty or themselves victims of injustice and a community witch hunt.
The film sketched a damning portrait of Satanic Panic in a Bible Belt town.
It also introduced us to Damien Echols, the alleged ringleader of the group.
A few years later local journalist Mara Leveritt released her book on the case, Devil’s Knot, which prompted the advocacy movement to free the three convicted boys based on a miscarriage of justice. It was contended they were failed by their legal representatives and there was no evidence to connect them to the murders of the children.
In this first meeting we talk about the history of the case, going back to the original film Paradise Lost.
We also talk about Leveritt’s controversial book Devil’s Knot and consider whether it was an objective account of the facts.
Sources:
Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (HBO)
Mara Leveritt, Devil’s Knot.
True Crime Garage podcast
https://www.stitcher.com/show/true-crime-garage/episode/west-memphis-3-part-1-40-200168891
Emma Kenny Psychologist You Tube
https://youtu.be/IHhhoJaQAnM
Discussion of new evidence development with journalist Gary Meece
https://youtu.be/NqWaEqeN13A
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82357346282
Meeting ID: 823 5734 6282
True crime chat: The case of West Memphis Three