In The Dumond Affair: How Lies and Politics Freed a Killer, first-time author D.R. Bartlette weaves a story of the political corruption and religious zealotry that gave birth to an anti-Bill Clinton conspiracy theory that led to the deaths of two women and, thirty-six years later, the birth of an insurrection.

The 1984 kidnapping and rape of a small-town cheerleader in southern Arkansas might seem like a tragic crime that was only notable because the local sheriff displayed her attacker’s severed testicles on his desk for months afterward. But when Ashley Stevens came forward to accuse Wayne Dumond, a 35-year-old murderer and serial rapist, she could never have imagined how her case would be thrust into the media spotlight.

An innocent teen, Stevens was attacked first by Dumond, and then by anti-Bill Clinton conspiracy theorists who accused her of lying for political reasons, and themselves lied to push their nefarious cause. Then former conservative Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee used his influence to push for the Dumond’s release.

Once freed, Dumond went on to rape and murder two more women. But there’s more to this story.

As Bartlette points out, the forces that came together to free Dumond eventually metastasized into a the Qanon cult that the National Security Agency labeled one of the biggest national security threats since 9/11. A movement that was at least partly responsible for the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2020.