The Garland County Library’s Great Arkansas Read summer reading program hosted a viewing of Paradise Lost:  The Child Murders

at Robin Hood Hills.  After the movie/documentary, Mara Leveritt, author of ‘Devil’s Knot’ spoke about the book, the Paradise Lost movies and the West Memphis Three case.  Mara, gave a brief synopsis of the case followed by question and answer session.

One thing was clear, Mara is passionate about her story and the direction it has taken.  She joked that she wrote Devil’s Knot several years ago and it had taken this long to “catch on.”  Now, almost twenty years later, her book, her child if you will, is being made into a movie with mainstream actors playing key roles.  As Mara spoke, she literally glowed with excitement.

Some of the things Mara spoke about included the Alford plea, the release of the WM3, the new lawsuit filed by Pam Hicks (Hobbs) to view the physical evidence in the case and the fact that this story was far from over.  In addition, Mara answered a variety of questions from the audience and signed books.

In 2006, I had the pleasure of meeting Mara as she worked with my husband writing an article about his mother, Linda Edwards—another story of corruption and murder.   It was exciting to meet Mara (again) and chat with her.  I am also looking forward to seeing her book in movie format and hope that it lives up the dark tragedy which has come to be known as the West Memphis Three.