A Witch Hunt or Not Today, we are exposed to many details pertaining to a time when superficial abilities/powers were thought to be real and practiced. One of these situations was known as a witch hunt. A witch hunt was commonly known to take place when there was a search for those that were supposedly witches. Once caught, these individuals were usually persecuted. As time has passed, witch hunts have evolved and are looked at differently. Witch hunts now are viewed as campaigns against a person or group holding unorthodox or unpopular views which leads to persons with any known reasons wanting to punish another sometimes even for personal gains. This leads me to my question: Were people too quick to judge and given too much freedom to decide the fate of individuals whose actions were unproven, deemed against the law, or just misunderstood? It is hard to comprehend sometimes the decisions made by people and their effects on others. When decisions/judgments are made based on nothing but assumption and emotion, they can be sickening when we think about the pure injustice on the obvious innocence of the victims. These types of situations are considered, witch hunts. Sometimes, the very officials that proved whether or not the accused were guilty or innocent, forged evidence to support their own claim. Honestly, I have a difficult time looking into these stories because of how “stupid” (in my opinion) some of these people were and how outrageous their claims also were. They also bring my memory back to “lynching” (hanging of people). Both witch hunts and lynching involve making decisions in the heat of the moments and involve emotion over reason. There are several stories that discuss the horrid way human beings acted during a time when innocence was of the utmost importance but was consistently questioned. The story, “West Memphis Three”, detailed the testimony of a “moron” dealing with the murder of three innocent children. The children were playing around, as we all do when we are young, when one night they never came home. The next day their bodies were found in a muddy ditch. Rumors spread like wildfire as to who killed them. An uneducated teen, named Jesse Misskelley, said that he saw who killed the children. He accused two other teens, Jason Baldwin and Damien Echols. The public attention and emotions were all aimed at the two accused. During questioning, Misskelley blew any chance he had of claiming innocence when he decided to share that he actually helped Baldwin and Echols with the murder. In addition, there were other suspects. Two mentioned were Christopher Morgan and Brian Holland. With abrupt departure for Oceanside, California, Morgan and Holland were given a polygraph test. Both failed when asked about the murders of the boys (The Memphis Three). Morgan and Holland were no longer suspects and were ignored (The Memphis Three). There was also another ringer in the story. There was a bloodied man that had gone into a restaurant to clean himself up, and none of the blood was his. His hair was found on the victims’ bodies, but none of this evidence brought a conviction. Mr. Byers, another suspect, was asked questions about the murder. He said he had nothing to do with the case which was proven to be untrue, and several of his statements proved to be contradictory. Also, his knife that he gave to his step son, which was one of the murdered, appeared back on his character (The Memphis Three). How it got there?
No one knows. Were Misskelley, Baldwin, and Echols guilty? Should Morgan and Holland have been convicted? What about Mr. Byers? Those are mysterious questions. When the facts were looked at closely, Baldwin and Echols could not describe the murdered children, and many of Misskelley’s reasons were wrong about the boys’ death. Unfortunately, due to his admittance that he, Baldwin, and Echols had committed the crime, the decision was already made. The verdict was decided and upheld. Misskelley, Baldwin, and Echols would be punished for a crime that they may or may not have committed based on one statement one man made. All other strong evidence pointing to other suspects was dismissed. The prosecutors used no physical evidence to convict the three teens. They used their own judgments and their freedom to make these decisions without question to decide the fate of three people. Justice wasn’t fair in this situation. There was so much evidence in other areas. Their actions weren’t proven other than by word of mouth. The boys were in prison for many years when DNA testing was finally done. There was no match to any of the three boys. After 15 years, the boys were released (West Memphis Three). Justice? As Douglas Walton stated, “A key characteristic of the witch hunt, then, is that the accused is under suspicion for having committed some type of offense that is regarded or portrayed as particularly disgusting, at a particular period and in a particular climate of opinion then popular. Hence, his or her reputation is badly damaged merely by the accusation” (394). The McCuan and Kniffen case is about molestation of a child by a grandfather and a psychotic grandmother. In this case, a grandmother from the opposite side of the family heard that the grandfather was molesting her granddaughter. The grandmother went to the parents and accused them of not taking care of the problem and protecting her granddaughter. She went to the police accusing the parents of being in on the abuse. Judgment was made that the child and another sibling be placed in the care of the grandmother. There was no proof that the parents had done anything to the child, nor that they weren’t trying to protect her. The parents were eventually arrested and taken into custody. They called their friends, the Kniffens, to try to save them. The grandmother got wind of this and brain-washed the children into lying on their parents, and their parents went to jail. Sadly, the granddaughter lied on the Kniffen family making accusations that the Kniffen’s had molested their own children too. There was no proof, but in the end, the Kniffens were also arrested. (The grandmother claimed that there were cameras, sex devices, and porn in the Kniffen’s house. The grandmother had never been in their house, so everything she said was a lie.) A whole “sex ring” started involving other members of the community. The grandmother and her granddaughter started allegations towards others, and they were arrested also. Another horrible part of this case is that the Kniffen boys were told to lie by the prosecutors (Robinson 1). They were promised they would go home. Also the report said nothing about Brian saying, “I didn’t know the dirty pictures. My mom and dad didn’t do it!” (Robinson 1) This makes me question the honesty and legitimacy of the prosecutors. Also, any defendant who stood up to help the Kniffens or McCuans was part of the sex ring. The debating went back and forth between the groups especially when both sets of parents got 200 yrs in jail with no prior criminal record which was outrageous. A very disturbing addition to this story is that the Kniffens passed the polygraph with flying colors but the results were not counted since the State Attorney General’s office didn’t give permission. Thankfully, later all charges were dropped after they had spent five years in prison. The California Court dismissed all charges (Robinson 1). Here is another case where the rights of others were dismissed and deemed unimportant in the eyes of others. There was no fairness with this case and again, decisions were based on emotions and reactions instead of facts and evidence. The grandmother was delusional and was able to create false images in her head. The sad part was that she was able to pull others into her imaginary world. Way too easy. The next situation is about a day care, children’s lies, and a lot of money. The McMartin Trial began when a woman, named Judy, somehow thought her son’s bowel movements meant he was sexually abused. Later, it was found out that Judy had schizophrenia and had delusions. Following the initial complaint to the police department, hundreds of children were interviewed at the day care. The interviews were slightly rigged and invited the children to make up stories which led to many false accusations (Linder 1). If that wasn’t enough, the questioning may have led to false memory syndrome. It is sad a questioner would make a kid think weirdly just for self gain in a rigged trial. In addition, a British psychologist, Maloney, eye witnessed it and called it “improper, coercive, directive, problematic, adult-directed in a way that forced the children to follow a rigid script” (Linder 1). This made the kids question themselves and their answers were generated by directors. It even made the kids mentally ill (Linder 1).

The accusations were also very bizarre, such as being taken through tunnels to be tortured which was later identified as something Charley Buckley made as “tunnels” to allow the kids to play in (Earl 1). The children also said that they saw witches fly, and one child identified Chuck Norris as an abuser (Linder 2). In addition, it was said many of the abuses happened from tunnels that weren’t there. Just very peculiar things that are obvious lies, but the examiners took it seriously. Though, there were some smart beings there that could tell people were innocent. They dismissed Virginia McMartin, Peggy Ann, Mary Jackson, Betty Raidor, and Barblette Spitler, day care workers, on accounts that the evidence had been incredibly weak and influenced (Linder 2). Unfortunately, Peggy McMartin and the Buckleys remained on trial. Eventually, after 5 yrs in jail, Ray Buckley was released without ever being convicted of any wrongdoing. The other two were also released and Peggy Buckley was even granted her teaching license back. The only thing that kept this fire burning so long was the media. They either showed the serious flaws of the case or inflamed the case by showing the children’s extreme accusations. When all was said and done, this trial had lasted seven years and cost 15 million dollars - the most expensive in US history (Earl 1). When we ask ourselves, were people too quick to judge and given too much freedom to decide the fate of individuals whose actions were unproven, deemed against the law, or just misunderstood? The answer is yes. Through the research that was done, I found that there were so many cases of situations where unfairness and lack of knowledge dictated unacceptable solutions involving innocent people. There were many cases where justice was in the eyes of the

beholders. There were instances of insanity controlling reason, self gain determining the fate of individuals, and many convictions were made through unproven accusations, misunderstandings, and controlling power to decide what was right and what was wrong and who was at fault. This, in our time, is what we call a “witch hunt”. The world is full of “witch trials” but they can be seen in different forms. Even if the name is not commonly spoken, they will always exist as long as humanity exists.

Works Cited

Earl, John. The Dark Truth About the “Dark Tunnels of McMartin”. Institute for Psychological Therapies. 1995. Web. 4 March 2015.

Linder, Doug. "The McMartin Preschool Abuse Trial: A Commentary." . 1 Jan. 2003. Web. 4 Mar. 2015. <http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mcmartin/mcmartinaccount.html>.

Robinson, B. A. The McCuan and Kniffen Investigation. Ontario Consultants. 1996. Print.

"The Memphis Three." Forget the Lies. Web. 4 Mar. 2015. <http://forgetthelies.weebly.com/alternative-suspects.html>.

Walton, Douglas. Argumentation. Kluwer Academic Publishers: 1996. Print.

"West Memphis Three." West Memphis Three Facts. Web. 3 Mar. 2015. <http://www.westmemphisthreefacts.com/>.