Murder

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

Widow’s Web

In Cold Blood

I got on a little real-life murder case kick reading Devil’s Knot, Widow’s Web, and In Cold Blood in quick succession.

Devil’s Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three, by Mara Leveritt

I was 11-years-old and living in Arkansas when three 8-year-old boys were found dead in the woods in West Memphis. I remember the photos of the three little boys being shown on the news very vividly and then the pictures of the three teenagers who were arrested and convicted of the murder, but I think I was too young at the time and sheltered from the story to understand what was really happening. More recently, I watched Paradise Lost and Paradise Lost 2, two HBO documentaries about the case and was simply horrified. Devil’s Knot is an extraordinary book about the case. The appeal for a new trial for Damien Echols, one of the teenagers convicted of the murder, is currently being argued before the Arkansas Supreme Court. This is a really great book that I highly recommend.

Widow’s Web: The true story of a Little Rock beauty whose deadly two murders scandalized the entire state of Arkansas, by Gene Lyons

I don’t even know how I came across this book, probably simply from searches for books pertaining to Arkansas. It only had two printings, the last of which was in 1994. I bought it for a dollar on Amazon and I’d be happy to loan it to you. This book is about Mary Lee Orsini, an infamous murderer from North Little Rock who I honestly had never heard of. Where the heck was I? Well, it was in 1981 so I hadn’t been born yet, but I’m so surprised that of all the people whose names I recognized in this book, I had never heard the story before. I won’t give too much away because the mystery is part of the fun, but Mary Lee Orsini used her womanly ways to get her husband and her lawyer’s wife killed and piled a lot of crazy everywhere. Particularly if you are from Arkansas, this is a good read.

In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote

In Cold Blood. The famous Truman Capote book about a triple murder in Kansas. Salacious. Well written. Fabulous.