Devil's Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three

Mara Leveritt

Oct 2002 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

*A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING REESE WITHERSPOON AND COLIN FIRTH*

The West Memphis Three. Accused, convicted…and set free. Do you know their story?

In 2011, one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in American legal history was set right when Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley were released after eighteen years in prison. Award-winning journalist Mara Leveritt’s The Devil’s Knot remains the most comprehensive, insightful reporting ever done on the investigation, trials, and convictions of three teenage boys who became known as the West Memphis Three.

For weeks in 1993, after the murders of three eight-year-old boys, police in West Memphis, Arkansas seemed stymied. 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 which included stunning investigative blunders, a confession riddled with errors, and an absence of physical evidence linking any of the accused to the crime, the teenagers 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.

With close-up views of its key participants, this award-winning account unravels the many tangled knots of this endlessly shocking case, one which will shape the American legal landscape for years to come.

Ratings and reviews

A really good book, but I read it around 2010 and found it very interesting. I bought the book after watching paradise lost and I truly believed they were all innocent. I really thought mark Byers was responsible, spoiler alert: I was blown away when I heard about terry Hobbs and his background, especially after what his ex-wife Pam had to say. For anybody who is really interested in this case I reccomend that you read this book.❤

Maybe if she had all the CORRECT facts, this book may hold up. Didn't even get a few pages in and she already had facts wrong. I always grew up being told they were innocent, until I decided to dig in and research it for myself. The defense failed terribly in the trials, no alibis ever showed to be true and the defendants' own families couldn't even get the stories right. I've done so much research and read the transcripts, I've heard all THREE of Jessie's confessions (NOT COERCED!!) enough to know this book is BS!!!! Those 3 did it and they know they did it!

All she proved was she is a fan of the WM3/ Damien Echols fan club. And the hack is planning a new book . On what all the time Johnny Depp and Echols can hold hands while the promise to find the real killers turns out to be a joke . The book is crap , poorly written and incorrect in so many places .

About the author

Mara Leveritt has won several awards for investigative journalism, including Arkansas's Booker Worthen Prize for her book The Boys on the Tracks. She is also author of The Mena File, Dark Spell, and Devil's Knot. A contributing editor to the Arkansas Times, she lives in Little Rock.