John Douglas and the Release of
the West Memphis Three
In February 2013, famed FBI profiler John Douglas published Law & Disorder, a book that discusses the case of the West Memphis Three in detail. His seventh book written with Mark Olshaker, the book commits over 110 pages to the story of the West Memphis Three and recounts his own personal involvement in the West Memphis saga. The book begins with a topical discussion of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, an event referred to by the West Memphis Three as similar to the abuses they endured in their own “witch hunt.”
John Douglas first heard of the case after receiving a call from Lorri Davis, the spouse of Damien Echols, in March of 2006. He claimed to know nothing about the West Memphis Three murders before 2006. Davis told Douglas that “powerful people in Hollywood are fans of yours and believe in the work you do…Would you look at the case?”
Douglas agreed and was hired by the defense team. He received a voluminous amount of case material for review, stating he wanted to base his analysis on the facts and would “ultimately be working for the victims.”
Douglas claims to have acquainted himself with the particulars of the case. He acknowledged Echols “embrace of paganism, mysticism, and the occult…he became a Wiccan.”
Strangely, Douglas repeats the childishly simplistic “they wore black and listened to heavy metal” canard frequently used by the West Memphis Three and their supporters as the rationale for their arrest and conviction by Arkansas authorities.
Even more disturbing, throughout the over one hundred pages about the West Memphis Three, FBI profiler John Douglas (and/or his ghostwriter) refers to statements made by Damien Echols as a basis for his understanding the case. For example, Echols retells the story of his original interview with detective Sudbury and Probation Officer Jones on May 7th, 1993 to John Douglas. In that crucial interview, Echols told them that the bodies of the children were thrown in water to wash out any urine the children might have ingested. This evidence of urine was discovered by the medical investigator two weeks after the deaths after the receipt of autopsy results. Only someone at the scene of the crime would have known about the urine. But in Law & Disorder, Echols tells Douglas that it was Jones who brought up the subject:
Well, what do you think if maybe somebody urinated in the mouths and they pushed the bodies into the water to wash the urine out of them? You think maybe that’s a possibility?
Damien recollected that he was surprised by the conversation: “Okay, I’m thinking that’s some freaky stuff that you would even think to ask me that, but Okay.”
“The next thing I know, we get to trial…he told us they were pushed in the water to wash the urine out of them.”
What Echols expects Douglas (and the readers of the book) to believe is that two days after the murders, Investigator Sudbury and Probation Officer Jones (who were not present during the crime) would posit a question about the urine (which they could know nothing about) into the discussion with Echols. The police records indicate otherwise, as the information about the urine was written down by Sudbury, along with other disturbing admissions about Echols’s peculiar occult beliefs. That Douglas would repeat this statement by Echols without criticism is astonishing.
THE REALITY OF SATANIC CRIME
Douglas also claims that he could find no evidence of murders or related violence associated with Satanism. He writes:
When Anna and Alan Burgess, Robert Ressler and I were putting together the Crime Classification Manual nearly 1990s, along with a large committee of specific subject experts, we delved deeply into the idea of Satanic murder and related violence. But we didn’t find any. When we published the second addition 2006, there was no change, nor will there be any in the third edition we are currently preparing.
I find this statement to be particularly disturbing. In my book Abomination, I included voluminous amounts of evidence of specific murders (a crime) in which Satanism/occultism/witchcraft were a motivating factor. Also, Douglas and his group conveniently narrow the scope of definition of Satanic murder to “murder committed by two or more individuals who rationally plan the crime whose primary motivation is to fulfill a prescribed satanic ritual calling for the murder.” So if the murderer is a committed Satanist who believes murder is acceptable and acts on his beliefs, it would not be classified by the FBI as Satanic murder because the person did not “rationally plan” the murder to fulfill a prescribed ritual. Based upon their narrow, strained reasoning, if Richard Ramirez, a confirmed Satanist, randomly enters a house in Los Angeles, murders two people and writes a pentagram in their blood on a wall, it’s not a Satanic murder because he lacked a rational plan and/or did not include a ritual. This is so ludicrous I find it hard to believe they committed this to writing. Douglas continues:
A pentagram left at a crime scene no more made it a satanic crime than a Bible left at the scene made it a Christian. In either case, that was more an indicator of a disorganized offender with an unstable personality.
My question would be what ideas made that person unstable and disorganized? Douglas’s discounts entirely the effect the occult and Satanism have upon the actions of certain murderers, particularly the West Memphis Three. In addition, John Douglas, as well as Mara Leveritt, author of Devil’s Knot, refers to FBI agent Ken Lanning’s “groundbreaking” Investigator’s Guide to Allegations of Ritual Child Abuse, which states “that while there had always been a belief in a connection between Satanism and crime, it had no basis in fact.” Let me repeat for emphasis: while there had always been a belief in a connection between Satanism and crime, it had no basis in fact. If that is certain, then why was I able to include the following crimes influenced by Satanism in my book Abomination:
Ricky “The Acid King” Kasso,
Arroyo Grande Satanic murder of Elyse Pahler,
Fall River Satanic Cult,
Bestie di Satana, Italy
Satanic murders of Russia,
The Vampire Clan,
The Hardy Boys,
Adolfo Costanzo and the Matamoros murders,
Beast of Satan killers, Germany.
The preceding list represents only a handful of the many murders influenced by Satanism. To me, the open failure of these FBI investigators to accept a correlation between Satanist/occultist ideology and crime remains a dumbfounding mystery.
JOHN DOUGLAS: FAILURE TO READ
In Law & Disorder, John Douglas uncritically retreads almost every canard proffered by the West Memphis Three and their supporters. He covers the supposedly egregious first confession of Misskelley (and conveniently omits all the post-conviction confessions from his narrative) and misstates the facts about occult involvement. He repeats the ridiculously simplistic statement that Echols and Baldwin were selected for a witch trial because they wore black and liked heavy metal, neglecting the evidence of Echols’ extreme mental disturbance and repeated threats to kill other members of the West Memphis community before the murders.
Eventually, Douglas provided the defense with his completed analysis of the perpetrator. In my opinion, his analysis of the killer describes Echols near perfectly:
…self-centered, egocentric, narcissistic. He resents people, but he does not avoid social situations. He looks at social situations as an opportunity to manipulate and use others for his own personal gain…he prefers to perpetrate crimes in close proximity to where he resides…
Due to the brutality exhibited by the offender at the scene, it can be said with confidence that he would have the reputation from past behavioral “problems” as having an unpredictable and extremely explosive and violent personality.
Immediately after providing his profile, John Douglas then exhibits his ignorance of the West Memphis case files by stating the following:
“Damien and Jason had no indicative violence in their past.”
By making this statement, Douglas passes over the following statements made to West Memphis Police during their investigation:
Shane Divilbiss, who said Echols tried to scratch his eyes out,
Laura Maxwell, who said Echols threatened to kill her brother and her parents,
Charter Hospital, who recorded that he “has a history of extreme physical aggression toward others.”
His own mother, who told the hospital she “was most concerned about son not learning to deal with anger and rages.”
Damien Echols, who admitted to hospital workers in 1992 of a “history of violence.”
West Memphis Police, who charged him with “terroristic threatening.”
Jennifer Lynn Ball, who told police Echols went to her house and threatened to kill her.
Joe Bartoush, who saw Echols stomp to death a sick dog.
Douglas also then adds that another potential area of inquiry would be to investigate the Mayfair Apartments (near the murder scene), seemingly oblivious to the fact that Echols lived there within two years of the murders that occurred on May 5th, 1993. He finishes the chapter with stunning obtuseness:
In sum, I found not one shred of evidence and nothing in the behavioral backgrounds of Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin or Jesse Miskelley, Jr. to suggest that any were guilty of murder.
My book Abomination: Devil Worship and Deception in the West Memphis Three Murders provides ample amounts of evidence and specific facts about the behavior of the West Memphis Three contradicts the preceding account by John Douglas.
JOHN DOUGLAS AND THE MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE
IN THE WEST MEMPHIS THREE MURDERS
With his completed analysis/profile of the case pointing culpability away from the West Memphis Three, Douglas traveled to the city of West Memphis in 2007 to interview family members. Douglas met with Pamela Hobbs, mother of victim Steven Branch, and imparted to her his theory of the case. “By the time I left, Pam no longer believed the West Memphis Three were guilty of the murder of her son.”
He also spoke to John Mark Byers, stepfather of victim Christopher Byers. By the time he was done speaking with Byers, Douglas had convinced him that the West Memphis Three did not commit the crime. Douglas openly tells the reader that his involvement in the case led both Pamela Hobbs and John Mark Byers to change their opinion about the three teens convicted of the murders. By his admission, Douglas’s reputation and his involvement in the case persuaded two of the parents to change their belief of guilt to innocence.
The section about the West Memphis Three in John Douglas’s book Law & Disorder represents a startling ignorance concerning the facts of the case. It’s also surprising that a seemingly objective and seasoned investigator like Douglas would repeatedly refer to Echols as a trusted source for information. Douglas fails to acknowledge the reality of Satanically motivated crime, and in my opinion, his involvement contributed to the miscarriage of justice the release of the West Memphis Three represents. What is not disclosed in the West Memphis narrative contained in the book Law & Disorder is how much John Douglas was paid for his involvement in the case from the estimated 10 to 20 million dollar fund amassed by the supporters of the West Memphis Three.