Black River Technical College will begin hosting the First Horizon Bank Lecture series on April 12, 2022. True crime author and award-winning investigative journalist, George Jared, will be the first guest lecturer in the series.

Jared will speak in the RCDC auditorium at 9:30 a.m. and 6 p.m.. The series is free and open to the public. 

Jared has written two, true-crime books, Witches in West Memphis: The West Memphis Three and Another False Confession and The Creek Side Bones: Reality is More Horrifying Than Fiction. He has written more news stories about the West Memphis Three than any journalist in the world. He was cited in the Academy Award nominated documentary about the case, “Paradise Lost Three: Purgatory” and was also cited in Damien Echols’ New York Times best-selling autobiography, Life After Death. He interviewed Echols while he was still on Arkansas’ Death Row and broke the story when he and his cohorts were released from prison in 2011.

Jared has numerous accolades, including eleven first place awards from the Associated Press Managing Editors and the Arkansas Press Association. The front cover of The Creek Side Bones: Reality is More Horrifying Than Fiction was selected in 2017 by the Central Arkansas Library System for its poster chronicling the best works produced in the state during the last year. He has been interviewed by numerous newspapers and media outlets for murder cases he’s covered through the years.

For more information about the event, contact Donna Statler, Dean for General Studies, by phone at 870-248-4000, ext. 4183, or by email at [email protected].