[scheduled to air January 5th, 1999, but did not for reasons unknown]

December 4th, 1998

Grove suddenly looked up at me from his plate of pasta only about two hours ago, and with an astonished look on his face as though he’d just realized what had just happened said, "What just happened?"

"What do you mean?" I asked, wondering if he’d felt an earthquake or something.

"Today... The Leeza Show. The focus of the show was so different than what we’ve seen in the past. The bite mark evidence has really changed everyone’s mind about this case! It’s like we’ve seen it go from almost hopeless to very promising."

"We’ve got the right people on our side. You can’t ignore qualified experts. People were bound to gravitate toward this case and be supportive once they saw the facts rise to the surface."

"And we watched it happen," he said, looking down the table at the six people having dinner with him.

Here’s what happened: A few weeks ago one of the producers of the Leeza Gibbons Show contacted me and told me that she’d received an unusual amount of emails requesting that Leeza do a show on the West Memphis case. So many in fact, that it was obvious to them that something was going on here. Grove and I took all of the documentation that we could gather and went through the entire case point by point with these amazingly patient people who listened to every word we said. The show’s production schedule is almost unbelievably quick, so they had the whole thing ready in a matter of weeks, and suddenly, Kathy, Grove and I were preparing to go before the cameras yet again to state our opinions about this case. None of us are particularly camera savvy, and there’s a bit of a struggle with nervousness and hoping that we’ve got all of our facts down and ready to present. Stuttering and flustered silence is not allowed, although I succumb occasionally to a nervous "Um" once in a while. At least for this show none of us had to wear those crazy ear plugs that either squeal like banshees or pop out.

The Leeza Show flew Dan Stidham, Gail (Jason’s mom) and Pam (Damien’s mom) out from Arkansas, and finallysome of the people involved with this case had an opportunity to visit our side of the continent for a change. They also flew Richard Ofshe and Brent Turvey to Los Angeles for the show. We were to appear on the show with this formidable panel of experts and moms, which would be intercut with footage shot of Mark Byers that had been taped a couple of days previous. The production staff of the Leeza Show came up with an amazingly tight show that touched on almost all of the important issues and facts that we’ve spent so long trying to get into the public eye. Seen by six million viewers, it will reach more people in one hour than our web site has in its entire existence.

Fortunately the show followed a recent trend by focusing on facts and scientific analysis of information as opposed to the hysterical superstitious nonsense about Satanic cults lurking behind every truck stop that we’ve heard over and over again on seedy talk shows like the Geraldo Show. We’ve had enough of that. We’ve grown out of fairy tales about devil worshippers - we want the real story now.

We arrived at nine thirty, and were briefed on the format and the specifics of the show by Julie and her transparent clipboard. The producers had all read the information we gave them, seen the web site and PARADISE LOST, and were up to speed on the case to an impressive degree. One of the producers, Lisa, even had our web site’s url memorized. It was clear that they were really into the case, and were approaching it with a refreshing open mindedness that has rarely been seen in news stories about this case. They didn’t take the easy way out by reporting myths and urban legends, they presented an educated and fair look at a very complicated case.

As Grove, Kathy and I sat there watching the show unfold before us, we were all amazed by how great it felt to see such professional coverage of the real issues and the things that are truly important about this case. 

About 15 supporters were there, waiting out in the chilly breeze between the sound stages at Paramount until they were herded into the studio where they were greeted by piece of candy on their seats, and an impossibly cheerful warm up guy.

Oddly enough, even the warm up guy knew more about this case than the average person seems to know. He did a commendable job of getting everyone relaxed and laughing and ready to respond and participate with the show. I really wish we’d had more time to talk with these folks, but we were being hustled around by the Leeza people and our own nutty schedules. We’ll all have to gang up and have a West Coast WM3 Supporters dinner or something like that. We were trying to guess who everyone was, but matching screen name to faces is a very difficult task to do accurately. It was a relatively hectic situation, and we hoped like crazy that the people who showed up didn’t think we were being snobs because we were hanging around with a celebrity like Leeza Gibbons and all. A few loyal supporters actually changed into their Free The West Memphis Three shirts in the audience before the show started taping, and were eagerly answering questions asked by other audience members about the case.

We were a well informed group, and I think there were a few people who were impressed by how much we all knew about the case, particularly those who started out thinking that Damien, Jason and Jessie were guilty. By the end of the show, I think the entire audience was "converted." Nobody was seen leaving the