gtrst7711
11-14-2007, 11:49 PM
Almost Home: My Life Story Vol 1 by Damien Echols is a book written out of a prison cell. Death row to be exact. Written by one of the West Memphis 3, this book gives the world an inside look at this controversial case. For those unfamiliar with the WM3 I'll give a brief overview:
So in 1993/4 these three eight year-old boys went missing in the town of West Memphis, Arkansas. A few days later the cops found the bodies of the boys mutilated. Not long after, the cops brought in a mentally handicapped teenager and questioned him for about 12 hours, and recorded only a total of 40 minutes of the questioning. Naturally, these 40 minutes included a confession and two accusations: Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin. Eventually the three teens were brought to trial and eventually convicted of murder. Jason and Jesse both received life sentences, while Damien was sentenced to death. The evidence presented in the trial included black t-shirts, Stephen King novels, heavy metal albums, and a knife that the cops found in the neighborhood pond that they claimed belonged to Damien. Basically, the 3 were accused of being a Satanic cult with no real evidence against them. Gotta love America's fucking judicial system.
Anyways, back to the book. It was written by Echols a few years ago. When he entered prison he was only a teenager and now he is in his 30s and still fighting for hope. This book describes exactly as the title implies: his life story. From the time that he was a kid, all the way up through his wedding that took place inside of the prison walls.
Despite the darkness lurking behind the book, it has a pretty light mood about it. Echols has a great sense of humor throughout the book so you will get quite a few laughs out of it. However, there are also parts that can be rather depressing. It is written by a man who is on a death row for a crime that many people do not think that he committed.
I definitely recommend this read, as it is on a subject that should be made more well known. My only real complaint about this is that Echols is not the most educated man, and therefore the book does have its share of grammatical errors which can cause some confusion at times. Other than that, get a hold of this book and give it a go.
More info on the West Memphis 3, by the way: www.wm3.org
So in 1993/4 these three eight year-old boys went missing in the town of West Memphis, Arkansas. A few days later the cops found the bodies of the boys mutilated. Not long after, the cops brought in a mentally handicapped teenager and questioned him for about 12 hours, and recorded only a total of 40 minutes of the questioning. Naturally, these 40 minutes included a confession and two accusations: Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin. Eventually the three teens were brought to trial and eventually convicted of murder. Jason and Jesse both received life sentences, while Damien was sentenced to death. The evidence presented in the trial included black t-shirts, Stephen King novels, heavy metal albums, and a knife that the cops found in the neighborhood pond that they claimed belonged to Damien. Basically, the 3 were accused of being a Satanic cult with no real evidence against them. Gotta love America's fucking judicial system.
Anyways, back to the book. It was written by Echols a few years ago. When he entered prison he was only a teenager and now he is in his 30s and still fighting for hope. This book describes exactly as the title implies: his life story. From the time that he was a kid, all the way up through his wedding that took place inside of the prison walls.
Despite the darkness lurking behind the book, it has a pretty light mood about it. Echols has a great sense of humor throughout the book so you will get quite a few laughs out of it. However, there are also parts that can be rather depressing. It is written by a man who is on a death row for a crime that many people do not think that he committed.
I definitely recommend this read, as it is on a subject that should be made more well known. My only real complaint about this is that Echols is not the most educated man, and therefore the book does have its share of grammatical errors which can cause some confusion at times. Other than that, get a hold of this book and give it a go.
More info on the West Memphis 3, by the way: www.wm3.org