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

Author:Mara Leveritt
Language: eng
Format: mobi, azw3, epub
Tags: Jessie, Social Science, Political, Fiction, Arkansas, Murder - Arkansas - West Memphis, Juvenile Homicide - Arkansas - West Memphis, Murder, True Crime, Echols, Charles Jason, Law, Antitrust, Damien, Criminal Law, General, West Memphis, Case studies, Misskelley, Trials (Murder) - Arkansas - West Memphis, Criminology, Baldwin, Occult Crime Investigation - Arkansas - West Memphis, Juvenile Homicide
ISBN: 9780743417600
Publisher: Atria Books
Published: 2003-10-21T00:00:00+00:00

Occult, or Cult?

Having decided to pursue the cult-activity motive, the prosecutors pulled out all the stops. Fogleman asked Burnett “to consider taking judicial notice that there was a full moon on May 5, according to an almanac.” The defense objected, but Burnett said he found the request “appropriate,” and took official note of the full moon on the night of the murders.

With that established, the prosecutors called Dale Griffis, a Ph.D. “cult expert” from Tiffin, Ohio. They wanted Griffis to elaborate on Ridge’s contention that the killings had been cult related. But the defense teams objected to Griffis being qualified as an expert. With the jury dismissed yet again, this time for more than three hours, Burnett listened as Griffis was questioned by attorneys for both sides. How, the defense wanted to know, does one become an expert in something like the occult? Griffis answered that he had twenty-six years of law enforcement experience, a doctoral degree “from Columbia Pacific,” and a consulting practice relating to satanism. Because of his expertise, Griffis said, Jerry Driver had contacted him about satanic activity in West Memphis long before the murders had even occurred. The two had spoken about a half dozen times.

Jason’s lawyer asked Griffis what classes he had taken in order to obtain his Ph.D. After avoiding an answer for several rounds, Griffis finally acknowledged, “None.”

Finally, Damien’s lawyer had heard enough. “On behalf of my client,” Price told Burnett, “it’s our position that the mail-order Ph.D. in which a person doesn’t have to take classes…from a nonaccredited school doesn’t qualify as an expert in Arkansas.”

“I disagree,” Judge Burnett replied. “I’m going to allow him to testify in the area of the occult.”

Fogleman later stated that he had not realized until the hearing that Griffis’s degree was “from a correspondence school.” Years after the trial, Fogleman admitted that the revelation had “probably” been his “most embarrassing moment as a lawyer.”271But at the time, the prosecutor’s embarrassment had not been so severe as to prevent him from questioning Griffis as the expert that Judge Burnett had just ruled he was.

“What is the difference in occult or cult?” Burnett asked Griffis. “What is it? Is there any?”

“Yes,” Griffis answered. “An occult group is a group that is involved in some form of esoteric science, and they have been around prior to Christianity. A cult group usually is a group that I deal with—the ones who are breaking the law—are those who follow a particular belief style under a charismatic leader and in and among their belief style they do break the law.”

“Does the number three—three victims—have any significance?” Burnett asked.

“One of the most powerful numbers in the practice of satanic belief is six-six-six, and some believe the base root of six is three,” Griffis replied.

But when Damien’s attorney asked Griffis if he would agree the number three was “also significant in Christianity, for example, and other religions,” Griffis answered, “I cannot make that statement.”

Price asked, “Are you familiar with the Christian belief, the Trinity,

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