The Last Pentacle of the Sun: Writings in Support of the West Memphis 3

I read a novel recently by Brett Alexander Savory, which led me to look for previous books by this author. This is an odd one for sure. In contrast to reviewer Charles Rector I find the exact opposite is true, that the nonfiction pieces far outshine the fiction offerings on display here. As for Clive Barker's drawings, they are not to my taste especially, yet they're not bad and one comes to admire him for allowing his wokr to be published in this context. Arkansas firebrand Mara Leverett opens up a whole can of worms with her open letter to Stephen King, Anne Rice and Dean Koontz, who have not supported the West Memphis Three in any way apparently, and Leverett rips them each a new one for their policy of staying mum and rich. They could have testified at any time and yet they were too busy! I also enjoyed hearing the true life accounts of other accused of horrible crimes who it turned out, they were railroaded. Stepping back from the immediate now, author Philip Jenkins ponders on the origin of the witch cult myth in the USA, showing how a handful of pulp writers paved the way towards making Americans believe that such cults lie in our bosom. Another good essay is by Michael Oliveri, whose memoir shows us how any high school kid who's the least bit different immediately becomes a suspect in our cookie cutter society; his own addiction to rock music and flirtation with the occult would have had his butt in jail for the West Memphis killings in an instant, and yet, he was just a crazy mixed up kid and needless to say, completely innocent. Editors Savory and Anderson mix it up to a certain extent but even they will probably admit, the collection is peculiar and finally begs the question of, do any heavy-metal Satanist teens ever actually commit any crimes? No?

"The Seventh and last Pentacle of the Sun from the Key of Solomon is for freeing those unjustly imprisoned: If any be by chance imprisoned or detained in fetters of iron, at the presence of this Pentacle, which should be engraved in Gold on the day and hour of the Sun, he will be immediately delivered and set at liberty." In 1993, three eight-year-olds were found dead in the Robin Hood Hills of West Memphis, Arkansas. For months, the police had no leads, until a local "expert" decided that the murders looked similar to a Satanic ritual. Instantly, the police began to seek out suspects fitting that description. Enter Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley, Jr., the teenagers who would come to be known as the West Memphis Three. Due to their preference for black clothing, and their interests in heavy metal music, horror novels, and the occult, they were branded as Satanists. After an intense twelve-hour interrogation, Misskelley confessed to the killings and pointed the finger at Echols as the ringleader (he later recanted). No physical evidence of any kind was ever entered into evidence, or even sought, and what little physical evidence there was at the scene was destroyed. (Read Burk Sauls' "California to West Memphis in Ten Years" for full details; Sauls is a co-founder of Free the West Memphis Three.) There, but for the grace of God, go I.... In fact, almost any writer could empathize. Writing is by its nature a "weird" profession. After all, why would someone want to be alone with their own thoughts -- on purpose! -- and then presume that someone else would find those thoughts interesting enough to pay money for them? It is undoubtedly this identification -- as well as (as Anderson and Savory put it in their afterword) "the fundamental wrongness of the situation" -- that brought this particular group of writers together in support of this cause. Clive Barker, Peter Straub, Poppy Z. Brite, James Hetfield of Metallica, comedian Margaret Cho, and at least a dozen others, some of the top names in the horror genre, have donated their time and their craft to this anthology, and all of its proceeds from The Last Pentacle of the Sun go to benefit the Damien Echols Legal Defense Fund (Echols is the only one condemned to Death Row). The lyrics to the title track of Metallica's ...And Justice for All set the tone, and Barker's striking illustrations are peppered throughout, keeping that tone consistent. The introduction is by filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, who are probably the ones most repsonsible for keeping this case in the public eye with their series of documentaries (Paradise Lost: the Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, Paradise Lost 2: Revelations, and a third in the making). They are pretty straightforward and this piece is akin to a personal essay. Fiction and non-fiction are evenly distributed, with most of the non-fiction pieces being similar personal responses to the injustice of the situation. In fact, many

LAST PENTACLE is a compelling mix of fiction and non-fiction, with all money going to the West Memphis Three Defense Fund. Among the standouts were Michael Marano's "Changeling", Paul G. Tremblay's "All Sliding to One Side", Simon Logan's "You Have to Know This" and Scott Nicholson's "Carnival Knowledge". Pick this one up. Not only is it a great read, it supports a good cause.