VampCora RLE FE 2 xtremesaint's blog: "The West Memphis Three: Did Satanists Murder 3 Boys? by Fiona Steel"

Certain that they had their prime suspect, police would focus their investigation toward looking for evidence which would enable them to arrest Damien Echols. Any known associates of Damien were questioned. Both Damien and close friend Jason Baldwin received many visits from police who would often park nearby at night in the hope that such intimidation would break them. On 6 May 1993, the day the bodies were discovered, WMPD received a call from Don Bray at the Marion County Police Department to inform them that a young boy was there who claimed to know something about the murders. Aaron Hutcheson had been at the police department with his mother Vicky Hutcheson when he had told Bray that the boys had been "at the playhouse." WMPD officers told Bray that the location was near where the boys were found. However, no playhouse was found when the police took Aaron to the crime scene. Later Aaron claimed that he had actually witnessed the murders, claiming first that he had seen men in the woods dressed up and talking Spanish, then later related that he had seen John Mark Byers kill the boys. Despite the obvious inconsistencies in the boy’s many stories, police attempted to get him to identify Jason and Damien in a photo line-up but he was unable to do so. He did not actually identify any of the three adolescents until after Jessie’s confession to police in May. Jessie often babysat for Aaron and knew him well. Eventually the prosecution decided not to use Aaron’s testimony because his story changed so much and because other witnesses placed him well away from the crime scene at the time of the murders. Despite this, the media quickly learned that the police had a witness to the crimes, severely prejudicing the case. Disappointed that she would no longer be receiving any reward for Aaron’s assistance to the police, his mother Vicki Hutcheson, agreed to let the police wire her house in an attempt to tape Damien talking about the murders. She did not know Damien personally so asked Jessie to arrange for Damien to come to her home. Although Jessie claims he did not know Damien, he was able to arrange for Damien to meet with Vicki just prior to his arrest. The entire conversation was taped but no information helpful to the police was recorded. Police claim that there was nothing audible on the tape at all, although Vicki Hutcheson claims she had heard the tape at WMPD and everything could be heard clearly. The next day, Vicki Hutcheson made a statement to police that two weeks after the murders she had gone with Jessie and Damien to an Esbat (a Satanic cult meeting) in Turrell, AR. She claimed that Damien had driven his red Ford Fiesta to the empty field where the Esbat supposedly occurred. Although Damien Echols did not have a driver’s license and did not own or have access to a Ford Fiesta, and Vicki was not able to identify anyone else attending the Esbat or even find its location, Vicki Hutcheson was still used during the trial as a corroborative witness to Damien and Jessie’s Satanic involvements. After the trial Vicki admitted that she had made up the story. The police became even more convinced of Jessie’s involvement when William Winfred Jones told them that Damien, while drunk, had bragged to him about murdering the boys. Before he could testify in Jessie’s trial, however, Jones recanted his statement, telling police that he had in fact lied about these events, he had only heard rumours of Damien’s involvement. Both of these witnesses’ statements led police to Jessie Misskelley for questioning. It seems that the offer of a reward for assisting police in arresting the killers was too much for some people to resist!

The day after the boys’ bodies were discovered, Lieutenant James Sudbury, of the West Memphis Police Department, contacted Steve Jones, a Juvenile Officer for Crittenden County, Arkansas. During their conversation, Sudbury and Jones expressed their shared belief that the murders had strong overtones of a cultic sacrifice. Jones then informed Sudbury that there was one person he knew of that was involved in cult activities who could be capable of committing such a crime. He named Damien Echols. They agreed to meet at Damien Echols’s residence to interview Damien. At 12:00 p.m. on Friday 7 May 1993, Sudbury and Jones arrived at 2706 South Grove in Broadway Trailer Park in West Memphis, Arkansas, where Echols lived. They talked briefly with Damien’s mother, Pamela Hutcheson, and father, Eddie Hutcheson and gained their permission to interview Damien. They conducted this initial interview in Damien’s bedroom. At that time, Lieutenant Sudbury took a Polaroid photograph of Damien Echols and noted that he had a tattoo on his chest of a five-pointed star or pentagram and another unidentified tattoo on his shoulder or arm. Two days, later an official interview with Damien was conducted. During this interview Damien was asked whether one of the boys was more savagely attacked than the other two, to which Damien told them that he believed one of the boys had been mutilated more than the others and had his genitals cut. Police considered that this was information that would only have been known by the killer(s), but it was, in fact, common knowledge in the community. The prosecution later used this statement to support their case that Damien had prior knowledge of the crimes that was not generally available. When the interview was completed no charges were pressed and Damien was released. Damien Echols was born Michael Wayne Hutcheson on 11 December 1974. Until their divorce, Damien’s parents were constantly on the move because of his father’s work. They would only stay in an area for a short time before they would have to relocate again, usually without any notice. Damien learned to enjoy his own company, making few friends due to his transient lifestyle. When his mother re-married, Damien was adopted by her second husband Jack Echols and they moved to Echols’s home in West Memphis. When he was thirteen, and five years had passed since he had last seen his father, Damien dropped his father’s name and assumed that of his adoptive father. His new name was only the beginning of the many changes that Damien would experience over the next few years. In junior high, Damien’s once good grades began to plummet, a situation that did not improve during high school. At fifteen his relationship with his mother, which had been very close in the past, began to deteriorate with arguments becoming a daily occurrence. Damien was seen as different by his peers, a view he shared and deliberately cultivated. By this time the black clothing he wore had become his trademark and included a long black overcoat which he wore no matter what the weather. His clothing reflected his emotional state of isolation and depression which increased dramatically over the next couple of years. His search for spiritual truth and meaning, although present at an early age, became a focus of his life at this time. He had attempted for many years to find meaning in Jack Echols’s Pentecostal-style church but with no success. He explored a number of other religions including Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam before he discovered Catholicism. For a time he felt that he had found what he was looking for and was baptized and received Communion, but no matter how devoutly he studied, the emptiness continued. It was during this time that he changed his name to Damien, after Father Damien a 19th-century Catholic priest who cared for lepers on the Hawaiian island of Molokai. The rumor mill in West Memphis would report that he had named himself after Damien in the series of "Omen" movies! With his depression deepening, Damien still found no comfort in religion or girlfriends. Catholicism was soon discarded and replaced with Paganism, which he had discovered after studying Stonehenge and the Druids. Here Damien finally found something which made sense to him. The worship of nature and the belief in karma seemed logical and real to Damien, although it would not help his depressed emotional state. Between 1991 and 1993 he attempted to commit suicide a number of times by a variety of methods including hanging, an overdose and even drowning. His first contact with police came about when he was seventeen. He and his girlfriend at the time, decided to run away from home together. On their first night they broke into an abandoned house for shelter. Within an hour police were there. Damien was arrested and was subjected to a number of psychological tests. From there he was sent to Charter Hospital in Maumelle. During his stay there he was diagnosed as manic-depressive and was prescribed the anti-depressant drug Trofanil, which he continued to take until he arrived on death row. It was after this arrest that Damien first met Jerry Driver, chief Juvenile Probation Officer for Crittenden County and partner of Steve Jones. According to Damien, in a later interview, Driver had been convinced that Satanic cults were behind many criminal activities in the area and was determined to prove his theories. Damien and Driver’s paths would cross many more times in the future as Driver would investigate Damien in regard to a variety of unsolved crimes in the area, none of which he was able to pin on Damien. The first few months after his release from Charter brought with it many traumatic changes. His mother and Jack Echols divorced and she remarried Damien’s biological father, moving with him to Portland Oregon. As Damien was still on probation, his parents informed the authorities in West Memphis of the move. These changes did nothing to help Damien’s condition and he began to drink heavily. His condition deteriorated so seriously that his parents called the police when Damien locked himself in his room after he had threatened to kill himself with a knife. Again he was treated for depression and alcohol rehabilitation but was soon released when he informed doctors that there was nothing they could do to make him feel better. After his release he immediately left Portland and returned to Arkansas. Records in Portland show that the authorities were properly informed of this change and that Driver’s office was notified, however, there is no record that this information was entered in the Arkansas office. Damien was staying with an old school friend on the conditional terms that he return to school. On the day he applied to the school for re-admittance he was told to return with a letter from his parents. Driver arrested Damien as he left the school grounds. The complaint filed by Driver at the time was that Damien had violated his parole when he left his parental care in Portland and because he had threatened the lives of his parents. Damien was immediately returned to Charter Hospital where he spent two weeks. When he left, he found that his depression had greatly improved because the doctor who treated him did not allow him to dwell on his problems and insisted that he mix with other patients at the hospital. In December 1992, Damien sat for and passed his G.E.D test, fulfilling the terms of his probation. As soon as he was released from hospital, Damien moved in with his girlfriend Domini Teer in West Memphis. Some time after this, Damien’s parents returned to West Memphis. At the time of the murders Damien claims that he was dividing his time between his parent’s home and his now pregnant girlfriend, Domini’s home.

The next day began early for John Mark Byers. At 6:30 a.m. he called Denver Reed and arranged to meet him at 8:00 a.m. In the meantime, the search resumed in the Robin Hood Hills area, with Terry Hobbs, Diana Moore, Byers and a number of others. After meeting with Reed, another search was conducted until 1:45 p.m. when Sergeant Mike Allen found the first body of the missing boys. Although his unsigned report doesn’t state the exact location of the discovery, it implies that the body was found in a creek. An hour later, the body was removed from the creek by police officers. Shortly after, the second body was found, 25 feet away to the south, by Detective Bryn Ridge, then the third a further 5 feet away. Twenty minutes after the third body was located. WMPD contacted Crittenden County Coroner, Ken Hale. He was informed that the bodies were found near the Blue Beacon Truck Wash. By the time he arrived, all three bodies had been removed from the creek (or drainage ditch) by police officers at the scene. By 4:00 p.m. Hale had pronounced all three of the boys to be dead. The official autopsy reports submitted by Dr Frank J Peretti, of the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory, and Kent Hale described the condition of the boys as they were found on the afternoon of 6 May 1993. The initial conclusion, drawn by police at the scene, was that the boys had been raped but this was not verified by the autopsy. The dilation of the anus was wrongly believed to have been evidence of anal rape, but it is, in fact, a natural occurrence at death. Although there was no evidence to suggest that all three of the boys had been sexually assaulted, Hale stated in his report that this may have been a possibility. James M. Moore, born on 27 July 1984, had died of multiple traumatic injuries to the head, torso, and extremities with drowning. He had been found in a drainage ditch and had drowned in 2 feet of water near the bodies of the two other 8-year-old male victims. He had been found completely nude, with his wrists bound to his ankles by shoelaces. There was little evidence that James had defended himself against his attacker(s) and the lack of injuries caused by the ligatures suggests that he had not struggled after he was tied up. This would suggest that he was unconscious at an early stage in the attack. There was no evidence of sexual assault. Steven Branch, born 26 November 1984, died of multiple traumatic injuries to the head, torso, and extremities with drowning. He had been found in the drainage ditch near the bodies of James Moore and Christopher Byers, in two feet of water. As with the other two victims, he was found naked, with his wrists bound to his ankles by shoelaces. There were many violent, traumatic injuries to Steven’s face and head, along with a number of superficial scratches, abrasions, and contusions over the rest of his body. While the wounds were similar to those found on James, they were much more intense. There was also a 3-inch fracture at the base of the skull. Peretti did not note the presence of extensive defensive wounds. Although there was no evidence to support this, Hale, in his report, stated that Steven may have been sexually assaulted. Christopher Byers, born 23 June 1984, received the most extensive, violent and most overtly sexual injuries of the three victims. He died of multiple traumatic injuries to the head, as well as the violent removal of his penis, the scrotal sac, and the testes, along with associated cuts and stab wounds to the genital area. He was found in the same drainage ditch as James and Steven, in 2 inches of water. He was completely naked, with his wrists bound to his ankles by shoelaces. The toxicology report also revealed non-therapeutic levels of the drug Carbamazepine in the blood. There were also a variety of healed injuries. Peretti noted that there were defensive wounds. There were also three sets of wounds on the buttocks. While this attack was sexual in nature, there is no evidence of rape, although, Hale did state that this was a possibility. Christopher Byers did not drown as he was already dead before being placed in the water. Hale’s report stated that lividity (the red discoloration in the skin caused by the pooling and settling of blood within the blood vessels after death) was present in all three victims and blanched with pressure. Lividity begins about thirty minutes after death and then fixes, after four or five hours blanching no longer occurs, depending on environmental conditions. According to this, the time of death could be placed at sometime after daybreak on 6 May 1993, although this is difficult to ascertain as the victim’s body temperatures were not taken. It was found that rigor mortis, the stiffening of the muscle tissue, which begins after death, was present in all three victims. Rigor mortis begins about two to four hours after death, and full rigor mortis is complete eight to twelve hours after death, depending on environmental conditions. According to Hale, it was difficult to determine whether rigor mortis was complete due to the manner in which the boys were tied, but Peretti stated in his report that rigor was evenly present throughout the extremities. At the scene where the boys were found there was no evidence of blood or a weapon. The boy’s bicycles and clothing were dumped in the drainage ditch with the boys, effectively removing any trace evidence which may have been present. The clothing had been held down with sticks but these were not collected by police at the time. Six months later they would find two sticks in the woods, claiming that they were the sticks found at the scene. Two pairs of the boys underwear were missing. The only signs of blood at the crime scene was where the bodies had rested on the bank after their removal from the water. An area on the bank had been deliberately cleared and one imprint of a tennis shoe was found.

According to the families of the three boys, they were last seen together between 5:30 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. on the evening of 5 May 1993. The three boys had finished school for the day at Weaver Elementary School at 3:00 p.m. Steven Branch went home but left shortly afterwards, according to his mother Pam Hobbs. Christopher Byers’s step-father, John Mark Byers, arrived home at 3:10 p.m. but Christopher was not there, his brother Ryan arrived home at 3:30 p.m. Chris did not have a key to the house and was expected to wait outside until Ryan arrived to let him in. John Mark Byers drove Ryan to the courthouse for a 4:00 p.m. appointment. After dropping Ryan he drove to pick up his wife, Melissa Byers from work. They both arrived back at their home at 5:20 p.m. to find that Chris was not at home, although there was evidence that he had been there. Soon after, John Mark Byers left home to pick up Ryan, but on the way he found Christopher riding a skateboard. He took Christopher home where Byers gave him "2 or 3 licks" with a belt, in the presence of Melissa, as punishment for not staying at home as instructed. Before returning to the courthouse to pick up Ryan, Byers instructed Christopher to clean up the carport area. He was last seen doing this at 5:30 p.m. by Byers. At 6:00 p.m., Diana Moore saw her son (James) Michael riding bicycles with Steven Branch and Christopher Byers but had been unable to stop them before they rode off. Chris had been sitting on the back of Steven’s bike. At 6:30 p.m. John Mark Byers claims that he arrived home from the courthouse with Ryan to find that Chris was again not at home. Melissa was inside on the phone to her boss and had not been aware that Chris was gone again. John, Melissa and Ryan Byers left their home at 6.30 p.m. to drive around the neighbourhood in order to find Chris. During the course of this search Byers informed a police officer of his son’s disappearance. According to Byers, he was told to wait until 8:00 p.m. before making an official report with the police. Byers explained to the officer that the reason he was so concerned was that Chris had never disappeared like this before. This statement was later contradicted by Melissa Byers, during an interview on 25 May 1993, when she told police that Christopher had disappeared on several other occasions for hours at a time. John Mark Byers called the West Memphis Police Department at 8:00 p.m. to report that his step-son Christopher was missing. In response to this report Officer Regina Meek went to the Byers' home. Fifteen minutes later, Diana Moore spoke with John Mark Byers, informing him that she had seen the three boys at 6:00 p.m. Byers stated that this was the first time he had been aware that Chris was not alone. Together with Diana Moore, Melissa Byers and Ryan Byers, John Mark Byers began to search the Robin Hood Hills area, the last known location of the boys. It was already dark by then, according to Byers. At some time between, 8:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m., Byers went home alone to change out of the shorts and thongs that he had been wearing, into a pair of overalls and boots. At the time that he left, the search party consisted of Ryan Byers, Ritchie Masters, Brett Smith and his sister, along with many others. They were soon joined by Officer Moore from the West Memphis Police Department, who continued to search with them from 10:20 until 11:00 p.m. When John Mark Byers arrived home at 11:00 p.m., he called the Sheriff to request a search and rescue team. He was told to call Denver Reed, the leader of the Crittenden County team the following morning. He and Ryan left the house again and drove to the Blue Beacon Truck Wash. Here he told the people inside that he was looking for Chris and two other boys. He then drove his vehicle around the back. For some time Byers and Ryan shouted for the boys and honked their horn. Still unable to find the boys, Byers and Ryan drove back home. They were met there by Melissa, Terry Hobbs, Steven Branch’s grandfather, and Diana Moore. After a short discussion, the group decided to make another attempt to search for the boys in the woods. At 1:30 a.m., Thursday 6 May 1993, Sergeant Ball of WMPD, drove to the Byers’s home to inform John Mark Byers and Melissa Byers that a search for the boys was being conducted in the area. After he left at about 2:00 a.m., Tony Hudson, a friend of Byers, came to the house. Byers and Hudson left soon after to search the Mid-Continent building which was being rebuilt after having been blown over. They thought that the boys may have been hiding there. When they arrived, they saw a black van nearby. It was locked and they assumed that it belonged to one of the workers at the site. They continued their search for an hour before they returned home with the intention of resuming their search in the morning.

On the afternoon of 6 May 1993, West Memphis was rocked by the news of the discovery of the mutilated bodies of three eight-year-old boys. Rumours regarding the nature of the murders spread like wildfire through the town. It was soon well known that the boys had been cut with a knife, raped and at least one of the boy’s genitals had been cut, many of these rumours were based on inaccurate police assumptions. By 12.00 p.m. the next day, police were questioning their first suspect, Damien Echols. Several weeks later Jessie Misskelley, an associate of Echols, confessed to the murders, implicating Damien Echols and another friend, Jason Baldwin. Soon after, following a confession by Misskelley, the three teenagers were arrested and charged with the murders of James M. Moore, Steven E. Branch and Christopher M. Byers. The citizens of West Memphis were relieved that the monsters that had committed these heinous crimes had been apprehended and justice would be served. There was a great deal of anger in the community directed towards these three adolescents, supposedly involved in Satanic cults, who were accused of killing three innocent boys as part of a Satanic ritual. Rumors of Satanic groups had abounded in this dominantly Baptist community for decades. Details of their exploits were well known although there was never any proof of any murders actually having been performed in the past. From the time the arrests were made until they were tried, local papers fed the community’s blood-lust, with stories of Satanic abominations appearing on a regular basis. On Wednesday 19 January 1994, Jessie Misskelley was sent to trial after an attempt to have his confession suppressed was denied. Two weeks later, he was found guilty on one count of first degree capital murder and two counts of second degree capital murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with no parole. He was seventeen years old. The trial of Jason Baldwin and Damien Echols began on Tuesday 4 February 1994. On Monday 18 April 1994, they were both found guilty on three counts of capital murder. The next day Jason, just sixteen, was sentenced to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of forty years. Eighteen-year-old Damien Echols was sentenced to death by lethal injection. More than five years after these sentences were handed down the three young men continue to proclaim their innocence and are persevering in their attempts to have new trials granted. This in itself is not unusual. There are many guilty men who have succeeded in tying up the legal system in the process of appeals for as many as fifteen years. What is unusual in this case is that they are not alone in proclaiming their innocence. Thousands of American citizens are convinced that Jessie, Jason and Damien were wrongly tried and convicted and are now lending their support to the fight for justice. Everyday this support is growing and now includes many criminal and legal experts who are throwing the weight of their knowledge and experience behind the three boys. Damien Echols claims that he was found guilty long before the trial began because he was considered weird by many in the community, having practiced the Wicca religion and listened to the music of supposedly Satanic groups such as "Metallica." Jason believes he was found guilty by association. Jessie claims that his confession was coerced, claiming he had told police whatever they had wanted him to so that they would let him go. Under question in this case is not merely whether Jessie, Jason and Damien are guilty or innocent, but whether the correct legal processes were upheld to secure their convictions. Was the basic tenet of the American legal system, the presumption of innocence, discarded in order to satisfy a community’s call for the revenge of the dreadful murders of three innocent children?