What If The West Memphis Three Are Actually GUILTY? Full Case Deep Dive

The West Memphis Three. Everyone knows the case. Or do they? What really happened in West Memphis on that tragic spring day in 1993? Three eight-year-old boys went out riding their bikes together after school and never came home. Their bodies were discovered the next afternoon and it was clear to everyone that there was evil. Living in their neighborhood. Burn, you son of a b****. Burn. Burn, go to hell. Burn. Snuff on your grave. Snuff on your grave. Burn and go to hell. The town thought that they found their monsters and put them away forever. But was it possible that these three edgy teenagers were actually victims of a modern-day Salem witch hunt? Did the devil make them do it? We're examining a brutal triple homicide. Three eight-year-olds hacked to death down in West Memphis. In this week's investigation, something I never would have expected happened. I have always been someone that very publicly supported the West Memphis Three. Fighting for their exoneration and spreading awareness of the fact that they are innocent. But now, I'm not so sure. This is the tragic murders of Stevie Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers. My name is Brianna. And I'm hot on the case. Tammy regularly hauls stuff to her kids at college. That's why she shops at BJ's Wholesale Club, saving up to 25% off grocery store prices. Beef jerky, microwave meals, laundry pods, even they can't screw up. Have you met my kids? And with BJ's gas, she gets there for less. They call me the road warrior. This is your home, road warrior mom. Home of the save. Join for just a few minutes. $20 at BJ's.com slash mesquite and save 10 cents per gallon for six months. Open soon. Limited time offer, new members only. BJ's, home of the save. This episode is brought to you by TXU Energy. For the first time ever, Texans have an energy plan that combines free nights all year with daytime summer savings. It's called Free Nights and Cool Summer. You get free nights every night, all year long. Plus a 25% bonus toward your daytime use all summer. It's a first of its kind plan, created for how Texans actually use energy. Discover how much more you could save with Free Nights and Cool Summer. TXU Energy. Energy for everything. Visit TXU.com for more information. Rep number 10004. Like always, while I'm researching for the week's investigation, I do my best to compile what I believe to be the most accurate information. But while I was doing my research for this week's episode, I found a lot of conflicting information based on what source and what side I was looking at. I did my best to compile what I believe to be the most accurate information for this week's episode while also bringing awareness to both the fact that I'm a TXU fan and I'm a TXU fan. Both sides' arguments. But if you believe that I got something wrong or maybe left something really major out, please just let me and your fellow detectives know down in the comments. May 5th, 1993. A day that changed West Memphis forever. The day that three adorable 8-year-old little boys disappeared. It started in the most innocent, childlike way that you can imagine. Three little boys, best friends, out riding their bikes way past me. The day that was the best curfew. Michael Moore, Christopher Byers, and Stevie Branch were all second graders at the same elementary school. They were all Boy Scouts and all lived in the same neighborhood. That day, all the boys went to school and then they came home. Stevie Branch was at his house when one of his best friends, Michael Moore, came over around 3 p.m. to ask Stevie to play outside with him and ride their bikes. Initially, Stevie's mother, Pam Hobbs, told the boys no. Because she was in the middle of making dinner, and she wanted Stevie to eat and be home by the time that she had to leave for work at 5 p.m. But the two little boys are just looking up at Pam, and they're pouting, and they're begging. So Pam offers little Stevie a deal. He could go out and play, but he had to be home by 4.30 sharp, a minute late, and he would be grounded for two entire weeks. Stevie and Michael ran out of the house as fast as they could before Stevie's mom could change her mind. They got on their bikes. And off they went. And right when Pamela thinks that she's got these cute little eight-year-old boys out of her hair, little Christopher Byers comes and knocks on her door to see if Stevie and Michael were there and wanted to play with him. Pamela told Christopher that he literally just missed them. They probably just ran out of the house 30 minutes or less earlier. So little Christopher Byers sat with Stevie's little four-year-old sister for just a little bit and watched the Muppets with her before he also ran out of the house. So go find his friends. He left around 4 p.m. An hour and a half later, Christopher's stepfather, who was actually his adopted father, John Mark Byers, saw Christopher about a block down from their home. He was lying on his stomach on his skateboard, just rolling down the street. And although this was adorable, John Mark Byers was not happy with his son because Christopher was not supposed to go out of the house without telling him or his mother where he was going, but he did. So John Mark brought Christopher inside and disciplined him with physical abuse. He used a belt on Christopher's bottom. He then had Christopher do some cleaning around the house as just more punishment. And Christopher did clean the house for about 30 minutes. It was around 6 p.m. And he decided that his punishment was over and he ran out the house again. Michael Moore's mom, Dana, saw the three boys together shortly after 6 p.m., all riding their bikes. Together up North 14th Street in the directions of a wooden area called Robin Hood Hills. And then shortly after 6.30 p.m. or so, a man that was driving home from work saw the three boys directly in front of the entrance of Robin Hood Hills. He said he took note of the boys and remembered them so much because Stevie Branch looked a lot like his own son. And that is the last reported sighting of Stevie Branch, Christopher Byers, and Michael Moore alive. At 8 p.m., John Mark Byers called the police to report Christopher missing. Small searches started in the neighborhood, but there were no signs of the boys at all. At 9.30 p.m., Stevie Branch's stepfather, Terry Hobbs, went to pick up Stevie's mother, Pam, at work. And that's when Pam found out that not only did Stevie Branch miss his curfew, but he still wasn't home. He never came home. And immediately, Stevie's mom, Pam, felt like, Early the next morning, extensive searches began all throughout the neighborhood, but focusing on that wooden area of Robin Hood Hills where the boys were last seen near, but still, they found nothing. A juvenile probation officer from the county named Stephen Jones heard of the three missing boys and volunteered his time to search Robin Hood Hills on his day off. He makes it to a drainage area in a small ditch by the water, and then around 1.45 that afternoon, Steve Jones finds a small, black, laceless sneaker floating in the water. He immediately calls the West Memphis Police Department, who send out Officer Mike Allen. As Officer Mike Allen is walking through the water to retrieve the sneaker, his foot gets caught on something underneath the water that makes him fall in. Mike Allen thought that maybe he got his foot caught on a log or rock that was under the water. But it wasn't. Mike Allen's foot had gotten stuck on the body of Michael Moore that was submerged under the water. And the submerged bodies of Christopher Byers and Stevie Branch were found not long later. Stevie Branch was a big brother to his four-year-old sister. He had this blonde, spiky hair that always stood up, and his mom said it reminded her of Bart Simpson. His family said that he would always get very attached and he was always very affectionate to the people he cared about most. Christopher Byers was affectionately nicknamed "Worm." Because he could never sit still, always squirming. He was full of energy and personality. He was a mischievous little guy who loved to be the center of attention. Michael Moore was more shy and responsible and wise and mature for his young age. Like his best friends, Michael was a Boy Scout, but he took his honor very, very seriously. He had just become a Wolf Scout and he was very proud and he would wear his uniform any and every chance he got. Three sweet little boys, only eight years old, and how they died was very horrific and very disturbing. The boys were all found nude and hog-tied. They were tied from their ankles to their wrists with their own shoelaces. They were all beaten. There were signs of blunt force trauma on the boys. Stevie Branch and Christopher Byers all had multiple cuts, lacerations, and stab wounds to different places all over their bodies. Eight-year-old Christopher Byers was emasculated. His member was cut off with a knife. It is believed that all three boys were still alive by the time that they were thrown into the water and drowned. What kind of a monster would do something like this? Their clothes, shoes, and bikes were also all found under the water. Their clothes were being held down by sticks and one pair of their underwear was never found. - A county coroner called to the scene two hours after Michael Moore's body was found. He ruled that the boys died between 6 30 p.m. when they were last seen and around 7 45 p.m. on the night that they disappeared. He also suspected that the boys were all sexually assaulted before they were killed but unfortunately the water washed away most of any evidence or DNA that they would have hoped to find. And the fact of whether or not the boys were assaulted has been highly debated over the years about whether or not there was any signs of assault found. This is the kind of crime that will shock and disturb a community to its core. The kind of crime that forever changes a community. Three families were left absolutely devastated. I mean I don't even know if devastated is the right word. If it's even enough to describe the kind of pain. Residents of West Memphis were terrified that their child would be next and there was definitely pressure on the investigators to catch the killer or killers as fast as possible. And on top of all this terror and this pressure the detectives also had to deal with a lot of teenagers making prank phone calls pretending to be the killer. And immediately like it happens in small towns rumors started to spread. I believe that it was investigators that first mentioned that this crime could have possibly been linked to a satanic cult and this triple homicide was like a human sacrifice satanic ritual. This was right in the midst of the satanic panic in a small southern town. Jerry Driver a juvenile probation officer for the county someone that considered themselves highly knowledgeable about the occult and satanism was called in by investigators for his expertise. Driver was asked to explain why he was so concerned about the crime. He was asked if he could think of any local criminals with connections to the occult and Jerry Driver barely even needed a second to think before telling the investigators the name Damien Eccles. Damien Eccles was an 18 year old high school dropout from a low class family that lived in the local trailer park and he was definitely an outcast. He wore all black clothing. He painted his nails black. He had long black hair. He liked dark heavy metal music. He had an unplanned baby with his girlfriend at the time who was also a teenager. He had tattoos and some of them were pretty dark like he had the word evil tattooed across his knuckles and Damien had also spent some time in a psychiatric hospital when he was a teenager treating depression. In the early 90s in this small southern town Damien Eccles definitely stood out and he was judged for it. Even before the murders there were a lot of rumors that surrounded Damien like he drank human blood and that he was a devil worshiper. And for a town hunting a satanist Damien Eccles he looked the part. He had a criminal history and although it's been reported that Damien Eccles had no history of violence when he was arrested the year before the murders it was for a burglary with his girlfriend at the time. They were planning to run away together so they needed some money hence the burglary. Damien would definitely be considered more of a loner but he did have some really close friends like 16 year old Jason Bullock. He was a very close friend of Damien Eccles and he was a very close friend of Damien Baldwin. But the two were even more than best friends. They considered themselves brothers. Hank joined BJ's Wholesale Club the day he became a father of 30. I coach football. Now Coach Hank saves up to 25% off grocery store prices, 30 pounds of pasta, three cases of protein bars, 75 sports drinks. And that's just pregame. He knows teamwork and BJ's knows savings. This is your home coach. Home of the save. Join for just $20 at bjs.com slash mesquite and save 10 cents per gallon for six months. Open soon. Limited time offer new members only. BJ's home of the save. For the first time ever Texans have an energy plan that combines free nights all year with daytime summer savings. You get free nights every night all year long plus a 25% bonus toward your daytime use all summer. It's a first-of-its-kind plan created for how Texans actually use energy. TXU Energy. Rep number 1-0-0-0-4. They would also hang out with a 17-year-old boy from their town named Jesse Miss Kelly Jr. But they definitely weren't as close with Jesse as they were with each other. Jason and Damien were definitely the duo inside the trio if you know what I mean. Investigators spoke of Damien Echols but he denied knowing anything about the murders. And since Jason was a minor his parents would have to give permission for Jason to go to the hospital. He was a minor. He was a minor. He was a minor. So they talked to the police but they refused. Jesse Miss Kelly wasn't even on the police's radar at the time until they met and started speaking with a woman named Vicky Hutchson or more specifically Vicky's son. On the exact same day that the three boys bodies were discovered Vicky was reported for credit card fraud by her job. A crime completely unrelated to the West Memphis three case but she would soon find herself connected to the infamous case of Vicky Hutchson. Vicky Hutchson was the only one who was found to be the victim of the crime. Without any babysitters available when being interrogated by police for the credit card fraud Vicky brought along her eight-year-old son Aaron. And very quickly the interrogation for this credit card fraud completely diverted and all attention was on what Vicky's eight-year-old son Aaron had to say. Aaron was also friends with Michael Morris, Stevie Branch, and Christopher Byers and they would all hang out together around Robin Hood Hills. They had a clubhouse there, Aaron told investigators. And he then went on to describe how the boys would hang out in their clubhouse and secretly watch a group of men that would gather in the woods wearing black hood and paint on their face. They would sing about the devil and have sex with each other. What? Yeah, no, you heard that right. Makes a lot of sense that the interrogators completely stopped talking about credit card fraud and started listening to this little eight-year-old boy when he's saying things like that, right? Aaron would tell the investigators that he was there in Robin Hood Hills that day, the day that his friends were killed. And he watched his friends be murdered. He was also attacked and he was also tied up, but he was able to escape. Now, some of what eight-year-old Aaron had to say might've been true, but some of it definitely wasn't. He was not there the day that his friends were murdered. He was very much accounted for, someplace else entirely, making it completely impossible that he was there that day. But they did learn that Aaron's mother, Vicky, was a neighbor to Jesse Miskelley, a friend of one of their main and only suspects at the time, Damian Echols. Vicky and Jesse lived in the same trailer park. And even though she was 30 years old and he was 17, they were kind of friends. And Jesse would even babysit Aaron for Vicky. So the investigators asked if they could cut a deal with Vicky for this credit card fraud. If she could help out in their investigation and get information out of Jesse Miskelley about Damian Echols. The plan was that Vicky would tell Jesse that she was interested in the occult, witchcraft, and satanism. And then he would introduce her to Damian Echols. Vicky used a West Memphis police officer's library card to go and check out a bunch of books on the occult. She then placed them around her trailer where Damian would be able to see them all. And she then invited Jesse and Damian over to her trailer, hoping that he would see the books and strike up a conversation with her about the occult. Well, according to Vicky, their plan went off without a hitch and that's exactly what happened. And then the very next day, Damian Echols came and picked her up and also Jesse up and then drove them out to the middle of woods outside of town. He drove them to an ispat, which Vicky said was a demonic sex driven satanic ritual of sorts. Vicky said in the middle of the woods in the middle of the night, there were a bunch of guys, had to be around 10 of them in the middle of the woods with their face covered in black paint. They all stripped naked and started fondling each other in some kind of satanic orgy. Vicky said at the sight of this, she got extremely uncomfortable and she asked Damian Echols to leave. He drove her home while Jesse Miss Kelly stayed at the devil sex party in the woods. So although investigators were not interested in Jesse Miss Kelly originally in the investigation, they were certainly interested in talking to Jesse Miss Kelly now to hear all about this satanic sex party in the woods that he attended with Damian Echols. So early in the morning on June 3rd, they arrived at his home and spoke with his father, Big Jay, who gave permission to allow the investigators to speak with his son, Jesse. Big Jay had no reason to believe that his son, Jesse, could have been involved in any satanic sex stuff and certainly not involved in any murders of children. There was also a apparently a sum of money being offered as a reward for information in the case that led to an arrest. So that might have also been a reason why Big Jay was okay with Little Jay going and talking to the police. At the station, Jesse told the investigators that he didn't know anything about the murders or satanic orgies in the woods. He was offered a polygraph test, which he failed. It was actually quoted that Jesse was lying his ass off. And then after a while, Jesse Miss Kelly confessed that him, Jason Baldwin, and Damian Echols killed Michael Moore, Christopher is when we should probably talk about false and coerced confessions. For most people, the thought of confessing something that you did not do sounds completely unbelievable. Never in a million years, no matter the circumstances, would I ever confess to killing people if I was absolutely innocent. But unfortunately, there are so many examples of this exact same thing happening. And there's usually a similar situation, or you see similar traits in people that go on to make false or coerced confessions. And when it comes to Jesse Miskelley's confession, there is a large group of people that believe without a doubt that he was backed into a corner, crumbled under the pressure, and made a coerced confession. Jesse was a minor, and he was questioned without a lawyer or a parent present. Jesse also had an IQ of 72, which qualified as an intellectual disability. It has also been said that he was interrogated by police for 12 long, exhausting hours with no breaks. And after being told that he failed a polygraph, the investigators showed this teenage boy photos of the young victim's bodies to try and break him as they're screaming in his face that he knew that he did it. In a situation where someone makes a false or coerced confession, this person is usually a minor, or they have a lower IQ, and they're questioned without a lawyer or a parent present. They are interrogated for long stretches of time with no breaks. They start out the interrogation adamant that they're innocent, but after hours and hours and hours and hours of being told that they're guilty, they start to break. They start to create false memories, or start to not believe their own memories. Or this person will say just about anything to get out of the stressful situation that they are in. They think, okay, I'll just tell this person that I'm guilty, and I'll just tell the officers what they want to hear to make this stop, and then maybe I can just explain it all later. And with what has been reported, Jesse Miskelley fits all of these common signs of a coerced confession. In a coerced confession, since that person was not there when this crime was committed, they don't know details of the crime that the killer should know. So detectives that are questioning them will either feed them the correct information or steer them in the correct direction. And again, you will see that in Jesse Miskelley's confession. When officers ask Jesse Miskelley what time the murders took place, Jesse Miskelley tells him that it happened around noon. When the officers ask Jesse if he's sure, he says yes. And then he goes on to tell him that the eight-year-old boys all skipped school that day, which is not true. The boys all went to school that day, and they were also seen by multiple people up to 6.30 p.m. And about what time? When was it that all this was taking place? I was there about 12. About noon? Mm-hmm. Okay. Was it after school had let out? I didn't go to school. Well, these other boys? No, they skipped school. Now, did you say the boys skipped school that day? These little boys did? Mm-hmm. Are you sure? They was going somewhere, and like I said, Damien and them left before I did. I told them I made them there. So the officers ask Jesse if maybe it happened after school, and then Jesse changes his story and says, "Oh, yeah, it actually happened around 4:00 or 5:00 p.m." Which again, we know is not true, so the investigators push harder. And again, Jesse changes his story. Now the murders happened around 5:00 or 6:00. Officers then ask Jesse, since he doesn't wear a watch, if maybe he got the time wrong, and the murders actually happened around 7:00 or 8:00, and Jesse says yes. You three were in the woods, and then the little boys come up. About what time was it? 5:00 or 6:00. Aren't you telling me earlier, around 7:00 or 8:00? Which time is it? It's 7:00. What time is it right now? Right now? Yeah. Do you not wear a watch? I sit at home. So? So your time period might not be exactly right, what you're saying. Right. But it was like early in the day, but you don't know exactly what time, because I've got some real confusion with the times you're telling me. Jesse also tells the officer that the boys were all tied up with brown rope, but there was no brown rope at the scene, and they were all tied up with their shoelaces, which seems like a pretty significant detail that the killer should know. And what did they use to tie him up? A rope. Okay. Okay. Okay. What color was the rope? The violet. Jesse absolutely implicates himself in the crime, but he is adamant that he did not actually kill anyone. And that was all Jesse Baldwin and Damian Echols. He said that he was there for most of it, that he had to chase Michael Moore down when he tried to run away and bring him back, but he left before Jason and Damian killed anyone. What did he talk about? He told me he had to go to Westminster, so him and Damian went, and then I went with him. Now, were you in a car? Whose car were you on? We walked. Y'all walked? Right. We walked, and then I. Where did you go? Went up to Robin Hood. What occurred while you were there? I saw Damian hit this one boy real bad. All right. You've got in front of you a picture that was taken out of the newspaper, I believe. It's got three boys, and these are the three boys that were killed on that date in Robin Hood Woods. Which one of those three boys is it you say. Damian hit? The third picture, which will be. Michael Moore. This boy right here? Yeah. All right, that's the Byers boy. That's who you're pointing at? If you'll read the captions, the grizzly slain from left, eight-year-old Michael Moore, Stephen Branch, and Christopher Byers. Okay. So, you saw Damian strike Chris Byers in the head. Right. What did he hit him with? He hit him with his fist and bruised him all up real bad. Then Jason turned around and hit Stephen Branch and started doing the same thing. Then the other one took off. Michael Moore took off running, so I chased him and grabbed him and held him until they got there, and then I left. When did they take their clothes off? Right after they beat up all three of them and beat them up real bad. Then they took their clothes off. Then they tied them? Then they tied them up. They tied their hands up, and then I took off running. I went home, and then they called me and asked me how come I didn't stay. I told them I just couldn't. You just couldn't stay for them? I couldn't stand to see what they were doing to them. You saw somebody with a knife. Who had a knife? Jason. What did you see him cut, or who did you see him cut? I saw him cut one of the little boys. All right. Where did he cut him at? He was cutting him in the face. Cutting him in the face. All right. Another boy was cut. I understand. Where was he cut at? At the bottom. You're talking about bottom. Do you mean right here in his groin area? Okay. Which boy was that? That right there. You're talking about the buyer's boy again? Okay. Had Damien seen these boys before? Yes. I got a feeling here. You're not quite telling me everything. If you were there the whole time, then tell us you were there. Don't leave anything out. I was there until they tied him up, and then that's when I left. After they tied him up, I left. But you saw him cutting on the boys. I saw him cutting on them. So what else left is there? They laid the knife down beside them, and I saw them tying them up, and then that's when I left. He then changes his story when the officers say, "Are you sure you weren't there when anyone was killed?" And he said, "Yes, I was there when they were killed." But then he changes the story again and says, "No, I left." And then he says, "No, I left." And then he says, "No, I left." And then he says, "No, I left." He really just contradicts himself over and over and over again. I coach football. Now, Coach Hank saves up to 25% off grocery store prices, 30 pounds of pasta, three cases of protein bars, 75 sports drinks. He knows teamwork, and BJ's knows savings. This is your home, Coach, home of the save. Join for just $20 at bjs.com/mesquite and save 10 cents per gallon for six months. Open soon. It's called Free Nights in Cool Summer. You get free nights every night, all year long, plus a 25% bonus toward your daytime use all summer. Discover how much more you could save with Free Nights in Cool Summer, TXU Energy. For everything. Visit TXU.com for more information, rep number 10004. Did you see any of the boys actually killed? Yes. OK. Which one did you see killed? That right there. That's you're pointing to the buyer's boy again? Yeah. OK. And how was he actually killed? He choked him real bad. Like? What was he choking him with? Like a stick, kind of holding it over his neck. When they killed the boys you decided to kill, you went home. How long after you got home before you received the phone call? 30 minutes? An hour? An hour. So they were there for a lot longer? Mm-hmm. And then time you know. I heard Damien in the background saying, we done it, we done it, what we gonna do next, what if somebody saw us? So after Jesse's confession on June 3rd, 1993, 17-year-old Jesse Miskelley Jr., 16-year-old Jason Baldwin, and 18-year-old Damien Echols were all arrested for the murders of Michael Moore, Stevie Branch, and Christopher Byers. And like we always see in coerced confessions, Jesse Miskelley almost immediately recanted his confession. Jason Baldwin and Damien Echols have always maintained their innocence. These three teenage boys were now being charged with three murders, with absolutely no physical evidence that actually tied them to the murders. And it was here on out that these boys would forever be known as the West Memphis Three. The recording of Jesse Miskelley's confession was somehow leaked to the public, and the public was outraged. And quickly, it started making nationwide news. These three boys were on every single TV screen across America, and then across the world. In the pre-trial, the judge decided that all three of these teenagers would be tried as adults. And Jesse Miskelley would have to be tried separately from Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin because of his confession. Jesse Miskelley's confession could not be used against his friends, Jason Baldwin and Damien Echols. It could only be used against him in a court of law. Jesse was offered. He was offered a chance to testify against his friends, Jason Baldwin and Damien Echols, for a reduced sentence, which he refused. Which only seemed to confirm his innocence. If he was really guilty, why would he not testify against these people and get a lighter sentence out of it? This deal was also offered to Jason Baldwin. Testify against Damien Echols for a reduced sentence. But he also refused. Damien Echols was offered no deal. Jesse's trial began. On January 26, 1994, the prosecution's strategy was to play his confession as fact. The defense tried to argue that his confession was coerced. It was a false confession for all the reasons and more that I've already told you. They even had an expert on coerced confessions take the stand to tell the members of the jury about this phenomenon that was, at the time, not as well known as it might be today. But the judge did not allow the defense to ask their expert witness if he believed. That Jesse's confession was one that was made involuntary or not. Which was a big blow for the defense. By the end of the trial, Jesse Miskelley, who was 17 years old at the time of the murders, was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison plus 40 years. And on February 28, 1994, the trial for Jason Baldwin and Damien Echols began. The theory was that Damien Echols was the ringleader in this triple homicide. And they really pushed. This satanic cult human sacrifice ritual aspect of the crime in this trial. They had Vicki take the stand and tell the jury about her story. How Damien and Jesse took her to a devil orgy in the middle of the woods. They read sections from Damien Echols journals that sound honestly pretty bad. Like Damien Echols wrote in his journal that he sacrificed 150 children in one year. Which definitely doesn't sound good when you're on trial for murder and possible human sacrifice. But in reality, this was in reference to like a dark joke that Damien Echols was making about how many times he masturbated in one year. The prosecution called a witness to the stand named Michael Carson that was being held in the same juvenile detention with Jason while he was awaiting trial. Michael Carson testified on the stand that despite publicly claiming his innocence. Jason confessed to him while they were in juvie that he did kill the three boys along with Damien and Jesse. The prosecution also called a man named Dr. Dale Grafis to the stand who was a self-proclaimed expert on all things occult. And on the stand, Dr. Grafis stated that wearing black clothing, liking heavy metal, and having tattoos were all signs that someone could be a devil worshipper. I guess my lavender tattoo makes me a devil worshipper. He also said on the stand, since the murders took place on a full moon and also within one month of two pagan holidays. That this was all evidence of this being a satanic killing. Dr. Grafis seems to be the kind of guy that will see the devil in anything and everything. He said that the fact that this was a triple homicide. Well, three, I guess was the devil's number. I always thought the devil's number was 666. He also said that water being at the bottom. That water being at the scene was evidence of a satanic ritual. But in cross-examination, the defense completely destroyed Dr. Grafis' credibility by revealing how Dr. Grafis got his title. How were you accepted into enrollment at Columbia Pacific University? I had to fill out a considerable series of papers. Did you ever fill out a little flyer like this? No, sir. That says, call toll free for information? Call toll free for information on how to become a doctor? This is a mail order college, isn't it? What classes did you take? I told you, I answered that before, none. You did not take any classes? Between 1982 and 1984 when you became a PhD, what classes did you take? None. None. Okay. You will see it reported that Damien Echols is not a satanist. He completely denies Vicky's story, said that he never took her to some weird demon ritual meeting in the middle of the woods. And has adamantly said that no demon devil orgies ever existed. And he said any book or interest he might have had in the occult was from his interest in Wicca. And being a Wiccan is very different than being a devil worshiper. There is no sacrifices in Wicca. No human sacrifices. No animal sacrifices. Wicca is not evil. It's a nature focused religion. And any rituals in Wicca are centered around love, nature, and positive manifestation. Damien Echols said on the stand that he did not know the three boys that were killed. And that he had an alibi. During the time that these boys were killed, he was on the phone speaking with three different lady friends. Really? Yes, that's right. He said that he didn't know the three boys that were killed. He said that he did not know the three boys that were killed. And by matched, I mean that the color blue and the color red were close enough and were also both made from synthetic materials like polyester, when most clothing is made from polyester. There was also a drop of blue wax on a t-shirt that belonged to Stevie Branch that they believed came from a candle, that this was blue candle wax. There was also a book that was found in Damien Echols' home that had drops of blue wax on it. No blue candle was found in Damien Echols' home, but there was a blue candle found at his girlfriend or maybe ex-girlfriend at the Times home. So again, this potential candle wax really fed into the story of this being a satanic, ritualistic killing. But does a red fiber being found in the middle of the woods and Jason Baldwin having a red coat in his home really enough evidence to find these two guys guilty of triple homicide? Well, at the end of the trial, they were both found guilty. Jason Baldwin, who was 16 years old at the time of the murders, was sentenced to life. Damien Echols was sentenced to death. The West Memphis Three began to immediately appeal their convictions, and the appeal went all the way up to the state's Supreme Court, where it was rejected. The case had become such a media circus that the three were asked to do on-camera interviews all the time, even behind bars. Here's one with Damien Echols that was filmed in 1996. Right after he was killed. He was put on death row, talking about his mental state at the time and what he thought about being sentenced to death because he was different than the other people in his hometown. If you could go back to your life before the trial and change anything, would you? I wouldn't change anything that's ever happened in my entire life. Nothing. Everything that has happened in my life has came together to create and make me the person that I am now. And if any of those things were changed, then the person who I now am would not exist. So there's no. But the person that you are today is sitting on death row. You wouldn't want to change that? I don't think there was anything I could do to change that. What was it? I mean, become a clone? Give up my personality? Give up my identity? Just march along like everyone else? No. I'd rather die. I'd rather die. I'd rather die. I'd rather die first. Right after the West Memphis Three were arrested and all the way through the trial process, filmmakers Bruce and Joe started working on their documentary, Paradise Lost. And there has been quite a few Paradise Lost documentaries that came after this one. The documentaries were all put out through HBO, and the first one came out in 1996 right after the trio went missing. were convicted. Throughout the making of the first film, Bruce and Joe started digging into everything and came to the surprising conclusion that they believed that the West Memphis Three were actually innocent. And they were only convicted because small town police officers were just desperate to solve a crime as soon as possible. And they got tunnel vision on the easiest answer, manipulated a teenage boy with an intellectual disability into making a false confession, and then pinned these horrible murders on a group of teenage boys because they looked and acted a little different. And now two kids are serving life in prison and a third is on death row while the real killer or killers is still out there. And after the release of the first Paradise Lost documentary, this was really the first time that the public began second guessing everything they thought that they knew about the infamous West Memphis Three case. And a large group of supporters of the West Memphis Three started forming and started fighting to prove their innocence and get them out of jail. At the time in the 90s, small town Arkansas might have never seen anyone that looked like Damien Echols, but that doesn't mean that the rest of the world hadn't. This was right in the midst of the grunge era of the 90s. A lot of people looked at Damien Echols and they didn't see a devil-worshipping child killer. They saw someone that dressed in the same aesthetic as them and their friends. There was also a large group of celebrities that were really active in this support of the West Memphis Three. And because of all this celebrity support, the group of supporters just started growing and growing faster and faster. And some of these celebrities include Pearl Jams, Eddie Vedder, Johnny Depp, Wyonna Ryder, Patti Smith, Metallica, the Dixie Chicks, Lord of the Rings, the Rings director Peter Jackson, and much, much more. And again, this really stepped up the public awareness. And it got to the point where a majority of people at first 100% thought that the West Memphis Three were guilty. But by today, I bet a large majority believe that they're actually innocent. Damien Echols even ended up getting married in 1999 to one of his supporters. And I'm pretty sure that like 30 years later, they're still together today. Home of the Save. Open soon. By TXU Energy. It's a first of its kind plan created for how Texans actually use energy. TXU Energy. Rep number 10004. And then over the years, it started coming out that a lot of the evidence and information that was used in the trial to convict the boys was just lies. Michael Carson, the young man that testified that Jason Baldwin confessed to him while they were both in juvie, publicly came out and said that he lied about everything. And the same exact thing happened with Vicky Hutchson. She also came out publicly that the entire story of this satanic orgy in the woods was a complete fabrication. She lied about the entire thing. She lied because she was scared that she got caught with credit card fraud. So she lied about three teenagers committing a triple homicide. I testified to it, but I lied on the stand. So if the West Memphis Three weren't guilty, then who was? Here are the most discussed possible other suspects. Mr. Bojangles. On the night the boys went missing about five minutes away from where their boss was. Mr. Bojangles said, The manager of the local Bojangles called the police to report that a disoriented, strange acting black man came into the restaurant covered in mud and blood. Blood was all over his face and his arms. Blood and mud was everywhere else. He went into the woman's bathroom and just started getting blood everywhere. Unfortunately, the man left before the police arrived, but he left behind a lot of blood in the woman's bathroom and a pair of bloody sunglasses. Reportedly, because the man lied about everything, the police called the police and said, The first officer left without taking any evidence or DNA samples, but made sure to stop by the drive-thru on her way out to get some chicken to go. By the next day, after hearing that three boys had gone missing nearby, officers returned to take samples of the blood DNA, but later admitted that they lost the evidence before it could get tested. I'll never understand how so much evidence just goes missing in these cases. I really won't. But witnesses claimed that this man had a cast on his arm, which would make it very difficult for him to control three boys at once. I've also seen it reported that the time frame when this man entered the restaurant wouldn't make sense with the time that the murders took place, considering that they were last seen at 6.30pm. But then I did a little extra digging and I saw that the call the manager made to the police came in at 8.42pm, which I think would definitely make sense with the timeline. So, up in the air about that. That one, because of the very conflicting information. I wish I had more to say about this guy, but unfortunately he has never been identified and because the blood DNA went missing. That's where this theory ends. John Mark Byers. Other than the West Memphis Three themselves, the other first big suspect that the public looked at and were 100% sure that this guy was guilty was Chris Byers' adopted father, John Mark Byers. And for good reason too, this man looked guilty. John Mark Byers seemed to love the attention that he was getting from his son being murdered and really loved being on camera while the Paradise Lost documentary was being filmed. He even went into the woods where his son and his son's two friends were all murdered and he made three fake graves in the woods for Jesse Miss Kelly, Jason Baldwin, and Damien Echols. He then danced on the grave. And then lit them on fire. "You want to worship the devil? See him. I'm going to give you a farewell party. What do you think? You ready to die? Burn, you son of a burn. Burn, go to hell, burn. Snuff on your grave. Snuff on your grave. Burn and go to hell." There were also some really big questions that John Mark Byers just could not answer or wouldn't answer. During the filming of the first Paradise Lost documentary, John Mark Byers gifted a knife to a member of the film crew as a gift that he said was brand new. This knife was never used. And since a knife was used in this triple homicide for the documentary that they were filming, this knife was immediately handed over to the police. Well, they looked at the knife and the knife had blood on it. Had human blood on it. Blood that was the exact same blood type as Chris Byers. Over the years, John Mark Byers has gone back and forth and back and forth. And then back and forth again about whether or not the knife was really brand new, never used before. And if he did use it before, how and when he used it. And how blood might have gotten on a brand new knife. He eventually landed on the story that he did use the knife once before and he nicked himself on it while he was cutting something. And to be fair, the blood type on the knife is different. The knife also matched his blood type, so who knows? I had trimmed your toenails with it, I had attempted to trim on some venison that I had. Do you remember giving the answer, "No, that knife had not been used at all. It had just been kept up, put in my dresser, and I didn't use it, and the reason why was because of the serrated edges." I don't recall giving him that exact answer. I'm sure his question wouldn't have been asked exactly like your question. All right, did you have any idea how human blood was on that knife? Well, yes, I would have an idea. I cut my thumb. On the top of page eight, do you recall being asked the question, "I have no idea, no idea how it could have any human blood on it"? Do you recall giving that answer? Yes, sir. Then do you recall stating, "I don't even remember nicking myself with it, cutting the deer meat or anything"? Is that the answer you gave? Yes, sir. And is that the truth? At the time when he was questioning me, I didn't, I mean, I might not have remembered. We were getting ready to go into a trial. But then in 1996, after the West Memphis Three were convicted, Chris Byers' mother, Melissa, suddenly died under very mysterious circumstances. At only 40 years old, she just stopped breathing while lying in bed next to her husband, John Mark Byers. She was rushed to the hospital. hospital, but died on the stretcher before she even made it there. Her cause of death was listed as undetermined. And although most people believe that she died of an accidental drug overdose, it didn't look good for her husband that was currently being looked at as a possible suspect for murder already. On the body of Stevie Branch was what looked like could possibly be a bite mark. This was right above his eyebrow on his forehead, a bite mark that didn't match the bite pattern of any of the three men convicted of his murder. Supporters of the West Memphis Three asked John Mark Byers to get a bite pattern compared, but he had dentures, so it couldn't be him. He made a statement then that he had his real teeth at the time of the murder, but then later changed the story, claiming that he had his dentures since 1993, which wasn't true. Turns out he got his dentures in April of 1997, after the boys were killed, and also right around the time that this bite mark found on one of the victims was beginning to dominate the West Memphis Three are Innocence narrative. John Mark Byers just went and had all of his teeth pulled and removed, and he would not consent to have his dental records compared to the mark found on Stevie Branch. Now, while all of this looks extremely suspicious, it really doesn't matter because John Mark Byers has a really solid alibi that has been corroborated by multiple different people, and he also passed a polygraph test. On top of that, he was the first person to call and report his son missing out of all three families, and he did that only an hour and a half after the three boys were last seen, which would not be enough time to kill three people, make it home, completely clean up before the police would have arrived, so it just doesn't make any sense. Which leaves us with probably the most believed theory today. Terry Hobbs. Terry Hobbs was the stepfather of Stevie Branch. If you were to go on his personal Facebook page today, his Facebook bio reads, getting to know me is okay. He might require such a disclaimer on his personal social media page because of how much damning information there is about him out there. Well, right away, people found it very odd that Terry Hobbs would wait until he picked up his wife from work after 9.30pm to tell her that her son was missing. Terry Hobbs was even involved searching the neighborhood in this small search that was formed of neighbors and police at 8.30pm, so it's not like he didn't know that this was a big deal. This is one of the things that has been reported differently depending on what source you look at. Where some sources say that Terry told Stevie's mom, Pam, that he never came home, right after he picked her up from work. Where other sources say that he didn't tell her at all. And it wasn't until Pam got home and saw that Stevie wasn't there that she went up to her four-year-old daughter who had to tell her that Stevie was missing. And then on the day that the three boys' bodies were found, as you can imagine, family just rushed to support Pam and Terry. Well, Pam's sister says that she saw Terry Hobbs doing a load of laundry in the middle of the night, which she thought was extremely suspicious, but honestly, that's weird considering the devastating news that the family just got. I would like to push back on that point a little bit because everyone handles grief differently, and I'm someone that whenever I'm overwhelmed with a lot of stress, I clean to get my mind off of it. So that's one thing that I will push back on in defense of Terry Hobbs. But that is the only defense I'll give Terry Hobbs because it has also been reported that he was physically abusive to Stevie Branch, and it was, so bad that Stevie had to go to his aunt and grandmother to tell them about it and how he was scared of his stepfather. It is also believed that Terry Hobbs might have been molesting Stevie Branch, and this came after his four-year-old daughter, Stevie's little sister, came out publicly and said that Terry Hobbs was sexually abusing her. Terry Hobbs claims that he has an alibi for the night that his stepchild and his two friends went missing. He was seen by members of his community driving around at 5 p.m. looking for Stevie Branch, who was now 30 minutes past his curfew. He was also seen at 8 30 for a short while participating in the searches around the neighborhood, but he said that he never found him and he never saw any of the three boys. So after searching around five o'clock and not finding his stepchild or any of his friends, Terry Hobbs said that he went back home to hang out with his friend David Jacoby for the rest of the night before going back out at 8 p.m. The two men, Terry and David, just hung out in his garage, drank some beer, and were playing guitar. But what I believe to be possibly the most suspicious evidence of all is that a neighbor of Terry Hobbs claims that around 6 30 p.m. she saw Terry speaking to the three boys outside on the sidewalk. Now Coach Hank saves up 30 pounds of pasta, three cases of protein bars, 75 sports drinks, and that's just pregame. This is your home, Coach. Home of the Save. Open soon. For the first time ever, Texans have an energy plan that combines free nights all year with daytime summer sports. Home of the Save. Home of the Save. Home of the Save. Home of the Save. Home of the Save. Home of the Save. You get free nights every night all year long, plus a 25% bonus toward your daytime use all summer. TXU Energy. Rep number 10004. Stevie Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers, which is weird because he's always been adamant that he never saw them that night. But here you have his neighbor who's very adamant that she can place Terry Hobbs with all three boys right around the exact same time that they were never ever seen again. And his alibi that he was hanging out with his friend David Jacoby also starts to crumble. David Jacoby said that while they were all hanging out, Terry Hobbs left. And there's over two hours where Terry Hobbs is completely unaccounted for. Ten years after her son Stevie Branch died in 2003, Pam Hobbs was moving some stuff around in her house. And in Terry Hobbs' nightstand, she found a locked box. Inside the locked box was her son's pocket knife. Stevie Branch carried this pocket knife with him literally everywhere he went. And his mother always found it odd that it wasn't found on him when his body was found. And then 10 years later, it shows up in her husband's nightstand. Terry Hobbs has an explanation for everything. And he said a few days before the murders, he confiscated the knife from Stevie because he thought that Stevie was too young to have a knife. But if that was true, wouldn't you think in the decades since that his wife would have mentioned how confused she was that it wasn't found with Stevie? And I don't know, give it to her? It could have been like this one last thing that she thought she would never have, never see again, that she could have from her son. But no, he just keeps it a secret locked in his nightstand for 10 years. Well, shortly after making this discovery, Pam Hobbs divorced Terry Hobbs and it gets worse. In 2007, more testing was done in the West Memphis Three case with new technology to try and prove their innocence. Whereas I've said that because of the water, very limited DNA was actually found at the scene, there were two hairs found at the scene. One was nearby and one was actually wrapped around the shoelaces that was used to tie up one of the boys. New testing proved that neither of these two hairs matched any of the three men actually convicted of the murders. But the one hair that was found on a tree stump near where their bodies were found was a match for Terry Hobbs' friend, David Jacoby. And the other one that was wrapped around a shoelace matched Terry Hobbs. Of course, you could say that this could have been transferred because Stevie Branch and Terry Hobbs lived together, but the shoelace that had this hair wrapped around it was used to bound one of Stevie Branch's friends, not him. And this might seem, like, hard-hitting evidence, but unfortunately, it's not as bulletproof as it seems. Forensic hair analysis is very finicky. And to be honest, a lot of people look at it today and call it junk science because if the hair follicle is not present, it's actually not possible to get a 100% concrete DNA match. Without the hair follicle, hair analysis can match to someone, but it can also match to a lot of other people. And in this case, the hair that was found at the scene that matched David Jacoby could match 7% of the world's population. And the hair that was found in the shoelace that matched Terry Hobbs could also match about 1.5% of the world's population. Which might seem like small numbers, but it actually means that these hairs could belong to 123 million other people and 574 million other people. Which starts to sound a lot less like a smoking gun when you spell it out. But that cannot change the fact that, forensically, David Jacoby and Terry Hobbs could be placed at the crime scene. And the West Memphis Three. absolutely cannot be terry hobbs has always maintained his innocence and his belief that the west memphis three are guilty and the same can be said for michael moore's parents but the same cannot be said for pam hobbs who has publicly supported the west memphis three or for john mark byers who has not only advocated for the west memphis three's innocence and release despite all three of these men once believing that he was actually guilty but john mark byers has also very loudly accused terry hobbs of being the real killer no alibi can't count for the crucial times from 6 30 to 8 8 30 to 9 10 to 11 15 and from 2 30 to 5 a.m that's a lot of gap in time of what were you doing mr hobbs where were you inconsistent statement he never saw any of the boys that day we know that's wrong he was seen by three witnesses that were neighbors as more and more public pressure began to grow demanding that the west memphis three be released and more and more evidence emerging that the witnesses that testified against them were straight up lying and of dna at the scene that did not match any of the men convicted the supreme court finally agreed to look at the case and on november 4th 2010 the arkansas supreme court of appeals ordered in favor of an appeal the west memphis three would go on trial again but there was a lot of reasons for the state to be absolutely terrified about going to a retrial if the west memphis three were found innocent not only would it look terrible on the state that they put two teenagers in prison for life and a third on death row for nearly two decades while the real killer or killers were out free the entire time the state was not able to help the west memphis three but do you have any idea how much money the state would have to pay the west memphis three if they were found innocent in a retrial two teenagers sentenced to death one on death row for 18 years half of their entire lives civil damages could have cost this state easily tens of millions of dollars so the state offered the west memphis three a deal a deal where the state would not have to admit to any wrongdoing and wouldn't have to pay the west memphis three a dime an alfred plea it's possible that you might have never heard of an alfred plea it's very very rare and this case is the most like well-known alfred plea that has ever been given in a true crime case but it's a way that someone can technically plead guilty to a crime while still maintaining their innocence and if the west memphis three agreed to take this deal still maintain their innocence but technically plead guilty to the murder of michael moore stevie branch and christopher byers they would all walk free but they would still be labeled killers it would be a risk to turn down the deal whereas their defense and supporters had already found evidence and witnesses in their favor the state would also have time and new technology as well as way more resources than them to find more evidence that would make them look guilty all over again and would the principle of pleading not guilty and risking going to trial really be worth it at the end of the day jesse miss kelly and damian eccles immediately accepted the alfred plea deal but jason baldwin hated it the idea from the start he wanted to keep fighting he wanted to clear his name and get the truth out there but the state was messy they made it part of the deal that all three of them were going to be guilty and that all three of them would have to take the deal or none of them could so although he didn't like it jason baldwin took the deal because he knew for his best friend damian eccles it was literally a matter of life or death this was not justice you know at the beginning we told nothing but the truth that we were innocent and they sent us to prison for the rest of our lives for it and then we had to come here and the only thing that the state would do for us was to say hey we'll let you go only if you admit guilt and that's not justice no matter how you look at it they're not out there trying to find who really murdered those boys and i did not want to take the deal from the get-go however they're trying to kill damian and sometimes you just gotta fight again to save somebody i want to publicly thank jason too just to let him know that i do acknowledge what he did that he did want to keep fighting he didn't want to take this deal in the beginning and i recognize and acknowledge that he did do it on almost entirely for me thank you mr rogers so on august 19th 2011 the west memphis three were released from prison still branded guilty men but free men this is not justice who do you believe is the real killer terry wayne hobbs i don't know how much clearer i have to make it this is not right and the people of arkansas need to stand up and raise hell because three innocent men are gonna have to claim today that they're guilty for a crime they didn't know and that's bullshit since release jesse miss kelly has stayed mostly out of the public eye report says that he got engaged to an old high school girlfriend and is either working in construction or as an auto mechanic while still living in west memphis jason baldwin co-founded proclaim justice and innocence advocacy group fighting to help people wrongfully convicted like he was but unfortunately the group closed in 2023 damian eccles has really been the most front facing in the public and media since the west memphis three were released he co-produced the 2012 documentary the west of memphis he has also published quite a few books like his new york times best-selling memoir life after death while all three men have been involved in the ongoing fight to clear their names damian eccles has certainly been the most involved being a part of the most documentaries news appearances even going on a bunch of different podcasts to spread awareness and public pressure to test old evidence with new technology to clear him and his friends names and to identify the real killer to get justice for cv branch christopher byers and michael moore most notably damian eccles has been fighting to get the knots that were made in the shoelaces used to bound the three boys retested turns out when they found the bodies of these three boys they did not untie the knots they just cut the shoelaces off of them and those knots are still preserved exactly the way they were the day that the killer tied them so damian eccles has been fighting to have those knots untied because they're hoping that skin cells and dna are inside of the knots and very recently the supreme court has ruled in favor of damian eccles and ordered new testing be done on these knots sources claim the results of this new testing will likely come out sometime this year during my research for this week's investigation this is where a majority of retellings on this case end that the west memphis three were victims of a modern day salem convicted of murder with zero evidence all because they enjoyed heavy metal music and wearing black clothing but there's one theory that we haven't really touched on yet and that is that the west memphis three are actually guilty none of the three of them could actually ever come up with an alibi for the date and time that the three boys were murdered jason baldwin had absolutely none to show for he had multiple friends and family members try to place him in completely different places on the night of the murders but it was so unreliable that his defense attorney didn't even mention a single alibi at his trial jesse miss kelly's defense was that he was at a wrestling event that was like an hour outside of town the night that these three boys were murdered but when asked to see a ticket stub or a receipt for this wrestling event well it turns out that wrestling event took place the week before like the wednesday before the murders took place jesse miss kelly's father big j would then try to be his son's alibi stating that he was home with his son for the entire evening but it was later proven that big j was at an alcohol safety class that evening after getting a dw i and that teacher of the class said that class didn't even end until after 8 p.m and as for damian eccles people will tell you that he has a pretty strong alibi that he was at home on the phone with multiple different girls that evening at the exact same time that these boys were killed but that is just factually inaccurate for this alibi to work he would need to prove that he was on the phone from about you know 6 30 p.m to at least around 8 p.m on the night that these boys were on the night of the murders well one of his alibis a 13 year old girl named holly said that she did talk to damian on the phone that day but it was around 3 30 in the afternoon damian's girlfriend dominie said that she was with damian that day until maybe around 5 p.m and then they spoke on the phone around 10 p.m that night a girl named heather said that she spoke to dami on the phone around 10 30 p.m that night but the most damning was jennifer who said that she spoke of damian on the phone around 5 30 p.m and she said that she spoke to dami on the phone around 10 30 p.m that day while he was hanging out at jason baldwin's house this is the first time that jason and damian have been linked together on the day of the murders. Jennifer said that Damien got off the phone with her by telling her that him and Jason were going out and she should call him back at his house around 8 p.m. But then when she tried to call Damien's house at 8 p.m., his grandmother picked up and said that Damien was not home yet. Jennifer didn't end up hearing from Damien until about 9 30 that night. He got on the phone and he apologized. He said he was out doing something with Jason Baldwin and Jason's mother and he just lost track of time. But even worse than Jennifer connecting Jason and Damien together the night of the murders during the time the murders took place, it was confirmed that Jason's mother was working a shift from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. that night. So alibis for the night of the murder are just completely out the window for all three of these boys. One thing that I've seen pushed a lot online is that Jesse Miss Kelly was interrogated for 12 hours with no breaks and I don't blame anyone for reporting this because it was reported that this way in the Paradise Lost documentary that poor Jesse Miss Kelly was interrogated by police for 12 exhausting hours without breaks which led to his false confession. And I don't know if I'm just reading things differently but that doesn't match up with the official logs at all. Jesse Miss Kelly was brought into the station at 10 a.m. and then four hours later is when he started to confess. Across nearly every single retelling of this case one thing that is stated over and over and over again with really no pushback on the people covering the case is that Jesse Miss Kelly without a doubt made a false confession. They point to all the evidence that this makes sense and how he immediately recanted his confession once he was out of the manipulative grips of the detectives that broke him down until he confessed to a crime that he did not do. But the one thing that I haven't seen really anyone talk about is that Jesse Miss Kelly unrecanted his confession and then he confessed again. After being sentenced to life in prison while in the back of the police car being driven to the prison Jesse Miss Kelly started talking to the officers in the front seat telling them that him and his friends were in fact guilty. This confession was not only very similar to his original confession but included even more details than before. Jesse Miss Kelly's lawyer Dan Stidham was already in the middle of working on the appeal process when he got the news that his client was confessing again and even worse that his client wanted to sit down with the prosecution and give them all the information about the murders right before Damian Echols and Jason Baldwin were about to go to trial and Jesse Miss Kelly was willing to do this without even being offered a deal. So Dan Stidham he goes on to the prison to talk to his client before that meeting could happen and in that meeting Jesse tells his lawyer that him Jason and Damian were guilty. He tells Dan that he was hanging out with Jason and Damian they were smoking marijuana Jason and Damian were drinking beer and he was drinking whiskey. The three of them then went out to Robin Hood Hills they were hanging out in the shallows of the water that the bodies of Michael Morris Stevie Branch and Christopher Byers would be found in that very next afternoon. Jesse then explained that they saw the three boys in the distance making their way towards them. Damian instructed Jesse and Jason to hide in the bushes and then he jumped out when the boys got close enough and grabbed Michael Moore. Michael Moore's friends Stevie Branch and Christopher Byers tried their best to help their friend and fight off Damian Echols but that's when Jesse and Jason jumped out and attacked them all. Jesse explains that Jason and Damian took turns sexually assaulting Stevie Branch and Christopher Byers. Jesse also says at one point Damian masturbates and he wipes himself off on one of the victim's shirts and this does line up with a white stain that was found on a shirt belonging to Stevie Branch. It seems like each of the three teenagers were mostly focusing their attack on one of the three boys. Damian Echols was mostly attacking Stevie Branch, Jason Baldwin was mostly attacking Christopher Byers and then Damian and Jason both used a knife on Stevie and Christopher, a knife that Jason provided. And then Jesse mostly attacked Michael Moore after Michael Moore tried to run away and Jesse had to go after him. This again lines up with the evidence at the scene. Michael Moore was found more downstream than his friends and he was not cut up like Stevie and Christopher were. He was just beaten before being thrown into the water to drown. Jesse even went on to tell his lawyer that during his first confession he purposefully got details wrong about the crime like saying the murder happened at noon and the boys were tied up with rope instead of shoelaces to try and like trick the police to see if they were lying about what they knew. Even at the time of his first confession, Jesse knew details of the crime that were not released to the public at the time. He could point to Stevie Branch's photo and tell officers that he was the one that got cut with the knife on his face, which was true. He could also point to Christopher Byers' photo and tell officers that that was the boy that was emasculated. Again, this information was not publicly available at the time. Jesse goes on to tell his lawyer that it was Jason Baldwin that took out the large knife and cut off Christopher Byers' privates. Jesse even mentions that he was surprised that blood didn't even get on him because it was spraying everywhere and he was only a car's length away. And then Damien and Jason threw Christopher Byers into the water immediately after he was cut. While he was still alive. This is when Jesse claims that he got so disgusted that he just left the scene and he walked home. He told his lawyer, Dan Sidham, that as he was walking home, still drinking straight out of the Evan Williams bottle. He was just so mad and disgusted that he threw the glass whiskey bottle off an overpass on his walk home from the murder scene. Jesse even told his lawyer the exact location where he threw the bottle. This would have been an entire year earlier. So what were the chances that that broken glass bottle would have been used to find the glass bottle? Well, Dan Sidham said that if he could find that glass bottle exactly where Jesse said it was, that that would be enough for him to believe that this confession was real and his client was actually guilty. And that means that it would be enough for him to believe that all three of the West Memphis three were guilty. And what would you know? Broken glass whiskey bottle right where Jesse Miskelly told his lawyer that he would find it. Dan Sidham even took it a glass shards to a local liquor store and he would try to match them to a bottle of Evan Williams whiskey. And he put those pieces back together like it was a jigsaw puzzle. And if that's not enough to maybe convince you, then let's keep digging. Five months after the murders at Robin Hood Hills, police divers searched the lake behind Jason Baldwin's trailer and discovered a large knife. One they claimed matched the wounds that the boys suffered. The issue is, is that the knife was thrown into the lake and when it got there? Jason, his brother, his mother all have different stories about who threw the knife into the lake and when they threw it into the lake. Sometimes they'll say that his mother threw it into the lake three years before the murder. And then his brother threw it in the lake after the murder. They just go back and forth and no one seems to agree how the knife got there. And those that believe that the West Memphis three are actually guilty went on to compare the butt of this knife to the mark that was found on Stevie Branch's forehead that a lot of people thought was maybe a bite mark. And it turns out that the diameter of the butt of this knife matched up perfectly with the wound on Stevie Branch's head. Like maybe they took the butt of the knife and tried to knock him out with it. And in Jesse Miskelley's confession with his lawyer, he said that when Christopher Byers was cut and thrown into the water, Stevie Branch and Michael Moore were passed out on shore. So is it possible that this knife is the murder weapon? The same knife that Jason had in Jesse's confession story? A lot of people have a hard time looking at 16-year-old Jason Baldwin, baby face and all, and see a killer. But it has already been heavily reported that Jason Baldwin really looked up to Damien Echols, that he followed him everywhere and would have done whatever he wanted. So the more important question, can we look at Damien Echols and see a killer? Something that I've seen reported everywhere in this case in nearly every single retelling is that Damien Echols was just a misunderstood outcast who was the victim of relentless, baseless rumors who had no history of violence or criminal record other than the burglary he committed with his girlfriend when they were gearing up to run away. But a lot of these statements come from cherry picking the evidence available. When Damien was arrested on charges of burglary, but it was also on charges of sexual misconduct. And when he was arrested trying to run away with his 16-year-old girlfriend, Damien threatened the arresting officers saying that he would kill them and also kill his girlfriend's dad. And his girlfriend would later break up with him after Damien told his girlfriend that if the baby she was carrying was a girl, then he would kill their baby. In school, Damien was suspended seven times before he dropped out. And when Damien was arrested, Damien was arrested seven times before he dropped And on one of these suspensions, it was because he threatened to kill one of his classmates and actually attempted to gouge out his classmate's eyes with his own fingernails that he sharpened to a point. Damien also has a very disturbing history of preying on very, very young girls, with the youngest reported being possibly only 12 years old. On the night of the murders, he was talking on the phone with not one, but two 13-year-old girls, and in September of 1992, his parents called the police on him because he was threatening to kill his dad and slit his mom's throat. When Damien was admitted to the psychiatric hospital, it wasn't just a trait depression. It was because his parents were scared of him, scared that he might hurt himself or their other young children that they had living at home. And even though it's been heavily reported that there's no evidence of Damien Echols ever drinking human blood, and this was a no-brainer, Damien Echols another baseless rumor that was just used to prove that he was a killer and a crime that he did not commit. It has actually been very heavily documented that Damien Echols did drink human blood, and he did this on more than one occasion, and he admitted it to hospital staff and a social worker. And it was also witnessed by multiple people. The most notable were people that worked at the hospital that he was admitted to a year before the murders. When one of the other patients cut their wrists and Damien Echols tackled them to the hospital, Damien Echols was admitted to the ground to drink the blood straight from their arm. There was also another baseless rumor that was floating around town that Damien Echols tortured and killed a dog and lit it on fire. His girlfriend said that he told her this was true, and Damien's own cousin said that he witnessed this, and that a dog skull was actually found in Damien Echols' bedroom. In March 1993, three months before the murders, Damien was reported to the police for stalking and harassing a pair of 14-year-old girls. Damien Echols was found in a room with a woman, and Damien Echols was found in a room with a woman, and Damien Echols was found in a room with a woman, and Damien Echols claims that Damien took out a briefcase, and inside the briefcase were a bunch of Polaroid photos of children. And Damien Echols took out one of these Polaroids and showed it to Jesse, and it was three little boys riding on their bikes in front of a White House. Jesse said during the murders he recognized the victims as the three boys from this Polaroid photo. And this part of Jesse Miskelley's confession actually lines up with a report that Chris Byer's mom made. She said that three months before her death, Damien Echols was found in a room with a woman, and Damien Echols was found in a room with a woman, and Damien Echols was found in a room with a woman, and there was some weird guy with black hair wearing black clothes standing outside her home taking photos of her son. And then right after the three boys were murdered, Damien was at a softball match where multiple girls reported that Damien Echols was confessing to the murders and claiming that he was going to kill more people. On May 9th, 1993, just four days after the three little boys were murdered, police came and spoke with Damien and Jason to just ask them if they were going to kill them. And Damien openly gave the investigators a lot of information about what he believed the killer's motive was in these murders. He explained that he believed that this was a thrill kill and the killer killed for power, and that the number three was sacred in Wicca, and that the younger the killer killed, the more power that he would get. He also said that the killer likely knew that these three boys like to hang out in the woods, and when asked what the investigators should look for at the crime scene, Damien said that they should look for a knife, crystals, and candles. Candles. Like the blue wax that was found in his home, but also found on Stevie Branch's clothes. Damien would later claim over and over and over again, I believe he even says this in his autobiography, that he was not familiar with the Robin Hood Hills area. And then he also said that he didn't even live in West Memphis, which was completely not true, and he actually only lived two minutes away from where the boys were killed. And multiple people have said, that Damien and Jason were always hanging out in Robin Hood Hills, specifically by the water, right where the boys were killed and their bodies were dumped. And then if this didn't make Damien Echols look bad enough, apparently, according to witnesses at his murder trial, Damien Echols would blow kisses to the parents of these murdered children. But if Jesse, Miss Kelly, Jason Baldwin, and Damien Echols were really guilty, then why are the three of them, specifically Damien Echols, still demanding that DNA evidence in this case be retested? Wouldn't this prove that they were, in fact, guilty and ruin this entire facade that they've built for themselves? You would think if you were really guilty of a crime, but you somehow managed to get off of life in prison and off of death row, that you would just quietly fade into the background. But that's not what's happening in this case. Right now, right this second, there's new DNA testing being done because Damien Echols and the other two are being tested. And that's not what's happening in this case. Right now, , fought for it to happen, which doesn't sound like the actions of guilty men. In total, Jesse Miskelley has confessed six times, but he has recanted all of his confessions. Today, Jesse Miskelley, Jason Baldwin, and Damien Echols maintain their innocence. I don't know what happened on May 5th, 1993. Either three innocent teenage boys spent 18 years in prison for murders that they did not commit, or three evil killers fooled us all. But at the end of the day, no matter how you look at it, no matter what theory you believe, the killer or killers that murdered these three adorable, rambunctious eight-year-old boys are out there walking free today. Had their lives not been cut short, Stevie Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers would all be 41 years old today, and Christopher and Michael would only be a few weeks away from turning their lives into 42. They are the true West Memphis Three. So while you're in the comments theorizing and speculating, please don't let them get lost in their own case. I'm so interested to hear all your thoughts, theories, and opinions on this one. I'm gonna be honest, I don't know what I believe the most. I will have a poll on Spotify, so definitely check that out. And whether you're on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube, I'm going to be honest, I don't know what I believe the most. Please let me know all your thoughts and opinions in the comment section. Please always remember to be respectful to everyone that is involved in this case, but also be respectful to each other. If someone has a different thought, theory, or opinion than you, just be open to it. Listen to it, and you can, you know, debate back and forth, but please always do it respectfully. And that's all I have for this week's investigation, and I will see you guys all next Friday when we are hot on the case once again.