“Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills” is a rarity—a documentary film with a demonstrable effect on events. The 1996 HBO special brought national awareness to the “West Memphis 3,” a trio of Arkansas teenagers convicted of murdering three second graders in an alleged Satanic ritual. The evidence sufficient to convict the teens in a local court looked more doubtful when viewed from outside a community where fear, prejudice and vengeance were scarcely restrained. As support and money poured in from the outside world, directors Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky produced sequels, “Paradise Lost 2: Revelations” (2000) and “Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory” (2011), which followed the case through the release (but not acquittal) of the West Memphis 3. All three documentaries have been packaged, along with bonus material, in a four-DVD set, “The Paradise Lost Trilogy Collectors Edition.”
“Paradise Lost” raised the possibility that public outrage over the murder of the three boys led the police to round up three teens of dubious reputation and edit the evidence to fit the charges. The authorities may well have given their own motives the benefit of the doubt, given the hothouse environment of crazy rumors and irresponsible newscasts. The case hinged on the confession of Jessie Lloyd Misskeley, a frightened kid with an IQ of 72; also arrested was the local Goth, Damien Echols, and his “normal” buddy, Jason Baldwin, whose major offense was wearing a Metallica T-shirt.
The parents of the victims were spiteful breed and the prosecution’s case would have been familiar to the 17th century court at Salem. West Memphis was in the grip of Satanic panic over heavy metal posturing, Protestant fundamentalist paranoia and credible-sounding reports of dark rituals uncovered by psychotherapists releasing “repressed memories” of alleged victims. The West Memphis 3 maintained their innocence (including Misskeley, who recanted his confession), but the authorities insisted on their guilt. The denouement turned on a curious twist of the law.
