MID-SOUTH MEMORIES
25 years ago — 1996
Who is Sheila Nevins and what is it she finds so fascinating about law and order in our backyard? Nevins is HBO’S senior vice president for documentary and family programming, and she’s got two Mid-south projects the cable network will air this summer. One deals with the trials of the teenagers convicted in the 1993 West Memphis murders of three second-grade boys. The other documentary is a close-up look at how Memphis police deal with job pressures. Nevins says “Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills” will be an unsettling documentary: “It’s about poor man’s justice . . . . I feel like justice is on trial.” HBO screened it last weekend at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah. Filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky-videotaped the entire trial of the three teenagers who were ultimately convicted of killing the West Memphis boys. Nevins said the 21⁄2-hour documentary began as one thing and ended as another. “I thought in the beginning we’d see why teenagers were into devil worship, but it turned out to be about three kids who may or may not have done this crime,” she said. She seemed certain the guilty verdicts came about because the jury was determined to convict.
50 years ago — 1971
WASHINGTON – Congress went back into business Thursday with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy surprisingly ousted from the Democratic leadership, Carl Albert routinely installed as House speaker — and hairline cracks showing in the seniority system. Kennedy — whose repeated disclaimers haven’t stopped talk of him as a 1972 presidential contender — was toppled from the post of Democratic whip, or assistant leader, by Sen. Robert C. Byrd, a West Virginia conservative. Byrd, who had done favors for many Democrats as assistant whip, garnered 31 votes to 24 for the Massachusetts senator.
75 years ago — 1946
While the government prepares to seize meat plants, Memphis will be receiving only 35 percent of its normal meat supply beginning today, according to a survey completed yesterday by the Office of Price Administration. The supply for local wholesale houses affected by the strike is expected to be exhausted today, Charles P. Jester Jr., district OPA enforcement attorney, said the report indicated. Jackson and Union City, Tenn., both considered in the 41-county OPA district survey, are in better shape than Memphis, the report indicated.
100 years ago — 1921
NASHVILLE – Like the proverbial calm which follows the storm, especially so exciting a storm as the hearing last night on the blue laws, the Legislature today settled down into a monotonous grind that finally wound up in an oversunday adjournment with little accomplished and little to talk about except the rumors and predictions that flow on eternally from the gossipy sidelines. Chief among these, of course, is the prediction that the opponents of the blue laws will launch their final drive Monday to put the bills to sleep. It is certain that the odds are against the blue laws tonight.