Eleven Demons is a memoir, but it does not rely on memory.
The major events in this story turn on documents, court cases, police investigations,
photographs and even news articles. Aside from a few private exchanges, most conversations
involve witnesses, some conversations were documented by affidavit and signed by
witnesses, some were recorded as journal notes either during or immediately after
the conversation, and nearly all are supported by other corroborating evidence including
saved handphone text messages and letters.
Because of extensive attempts by a large number of people in Bali to deny the existence of documents
or obscure the facts of the case, I have made an effort to provide clear documentation.
A Minimal Documents list contains ten essential documents - all either official
government documents, court declarations by the boys' mother or her attorneys, or
court decisions - which even standing alone are enough to support the basic facts
presented in Eleven Demons.
Several thousand pages of background documents including all Indonesia and California court decisions
are available as PDF downloads
at DocumentsPDF.
Inevitably, two observers will come away with different memories of an event. I
have reported events and conversations to the best of my ability and recollection.
Questions in this story do not really turn on what happened, but why?