WITCHES IN WEST MEMPHIS-George Jared

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

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 author, documentary filmmaker, or journalist has had more access in this case. 

Jared recounts his firsthand court coverage, interviews with witnesses, research, and other information he gathered in the case. Interviews include one on Death Row 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 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. 

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. As time passed, overwhelming scientific evidence was discovered. Witnesses changed their statements. New suspects rose to the surface. WITCHES IN WEST MEMPHIS: The West Memphis Three and Another False Confession-George Jared