The Crime

Overview:

Jessie Misskelley, Jr., Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin were found guilty of the assaults, rapes, mutilations and murders of three 8 year old boys, Stevie Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore in Robin Hood Hills, West Memphis, AR. Their guilt is very much in dispute. Their convictions appear to have been significantly influenced by the religious beliefs of the townspeople - particularly their misconceptions about secret, abusive Satanic cults. The police investigation was hopelessly bungled.

The murder scene:

On the afternoon of 1993-MAY-5, three adults observed the three young boys riding their bikes near Robin Hood Hills. Some boys were seen entering the Robin Hood woods. In the early evening, Christopher's step-father, John Mark Byers, phoned the police. He said that he was worried that his step-son had not come home. The police and the parents of the missing children searched the neighborhood unsuccessfully until 3 AM the next morning.

The bodies of the three 8 year-old boys were discovered in a wooded area in Robin Hood Hills on the next day, 1993-MAY-6 at 1:30 PM. They were naked; each had had both left and right hands tied to their corresponding feet with black and white shoe laces. One child, had multiple wounds apparently made by a serrated knife, and injuries of a type often seen as a result of forced oral sex. A second boy had multiple stab wounds and indications of forced oral sex. The police believe that these two boys died by drowning. The third child appeared also to have been forced into oral sex. The skin of his penis was removed and he had been castrated. He had many cuts from a knife with a serrated blade. He had bled to death. Christopher Byers had welts on his back from the buckle of a belt. These were initially interpreted by the police to have resulted from ritual abuse by Satanists. However, Christopher's step-father John Byers testified at the trial that he had beaten his step-son with a belt at 5:30 PM on the day of the murder.

The boys' bodies had been dumped in a shallow drainage ditch which parallels Interstate 40 in West Memphis, AR. The water washed away fingerprints and other traces left by the murderer(s).

The police investigation:

Since the early 1980's many police officers have attended seminars on Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA). They have been taught that an underground, evil, internationally controlled network of Satanic cults kidnap, torture, kill and sometimes eat young children in their rituals. By the mid-1990s, most police officers had concluded SRA was either non-existent or extremely rare. If it did exist, then they would have expected to discovered:

Even though evidence of SRA was missing, some police officers still believed in its existence during 1993; a few still do. The West Memphis investigators were under tremendous community pressure to quickly find the persons responsible for this terrible crime. One of the West Memphis police at the crime scene was a juvenile probation officer. He gave his opinion that the scene showed the results of a Satanic ritual. He felt that only person in the area that was capable of such a murder was Damien Echols -- a young man whose case the officer had followed for years. We suspect that the main thrust of the police investigation from that point onwards was to prove that Damien was the leader of a Satanic cult. If a jury could be convinced that the accused were devil worshipers, then a conviction would be easy -- even though there was no hard evidence linking Damien to the crime scene. A common local belief was that underground Satanic cults were widespread throughout the U.S. and that they regularly sacrificed infants and children.

Damien Echols quickly became the focus of the investigation. He was born on 1974-DEC-11 and was 18 years old at the time of the killings. Damien was considered weird by many in his very conservative community. He often dressed in black, occasionally wore T-shirts of rock bands who pretend to be Satanists, and enjoyed listening to heavy metal rock music. He has stated that he chose the name "Damien" out of respect for Father Damien, the founder of the leper colony in Hawaii. However, many local people assume that he based it on the anti-Christ character in the The Omen movies. When interviewed from prison he said: "People assumed that I was guilty and had made up their minds beforehand, simply based on my taste in clothes, music, etc. In a larger city, I would never have even been noticed but I happened to be in a small, conservative, traditional town where I was looked at as a freak.". Damien was picked up for questioning on MAY-9 and released without charges being laid.

Jessie Misskelley (D.O.B. 1975-JUL-10; 17 years old) was brought in for questioning on June 10. He was known to be an acquaintance of Damien's. He was given a lie-detector test which demonstrated fairly conclusively that he was innocent. (Lie-detector tests are generally regarded as being 85% reliable when conducted by trained investigators). He finally broke down, and confessed to witnessing the child murders. He had been interrogated for over 5 hours (some sources say 10 or 12 hours). No videotape or audiotape of the police interrogation was made. No written records survive -- only a brief recording of his confession.  He named Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin (1977-APR-11, 16 years old) as the two murderers. He said that one of the boys had tried to escape, but that he caught the boy and brought him back to the other two. He described the three teenagers as being Satan worshippers who attended cult meetings, sacrificed animals and planned the sacrifice of the boys. Jessie's initial confession was incorrect on two points: the material used to bind the boys, and the time of the killing. However he was subsequently prompted by the police to correct the latter. In his confession, he knew (or guessed) which of the victims had been castrated and that one had been cut on the face. That information had not been formally released to the public. However, many details of the crime scene had been circulating widely throughout the community as rumors. He retracted his confession afterwards, claiming that he had caved in under police pressure. All three teenagers pleaded not guilty at their trials.

The community:

Adults in this area of Arkansas are mainly Fundamentalist and other Evangelical Christians. Belief in secret, evil Satanic cults who abuse children is widespread. Many conservative Christian churches regard the Occult as a pervasive evil. They include within the Occult many unrelated activities:  Wicca (a.k.a. "white magic") and other Neo-Pagan religions, Satanism, membership in the Masonic Order, Tarot card reading, casting Runes, Dungeons and Dragons & other fantasy role playing games, astrology, listening to heavy metal rock music, etc. These are considered to be linked together and part of a Satanic conspiracy which involves human sacrifice. We estimate that the percentage of SRA believers in Arkansas would probably be similar to that in Utah - an area which has a similar conservative Christian makeup. A newspaper survey has shown that about 90% of the adults in Utah believe in abusive Satanic cults. ₁ 

In the 9 months between the murder of the three children and the trial of the three teenagers, many articles were published in the local media with a Satanic theme. Stories included blood drinking, Satanic worship, homosexual orgies and demons. Newspapers and other media often did not differentiate between Wicca, other Neo-Pagan religions, religious Satanism and imaginary evil Satanic cults. One newspaper published parts of Jessie's confession. This by itself probably prevented the teens from getting a fair trial.

Considerable anger was directed by members of the public at a variety of Neo-Pagan and other minority religions during the investigation and trial of this case. The hatred erupted into an attempted mass execution by stoning. This happened during a march which had been organized to promote religious tolerance and freedom in nearby Jonesboro AR. One or more local ministers had preached that in Bible times, they knew how to handle people of other religions - they stoned them to death. Many deaths would probably have resulted, if it were not for the prompt action of over 5 area police forces who protected the demonstrators.

Possible alternative perpetrators:

References:

1. Deseret News Archives, 1992-JAN-1, P. A1-A2.
2. Mara Leveritt, "The Strange Demise of Melissa Byers," Arkansas Times, 1997-DEC-26. Available at: http://www.arktimes.com/12-26-97_news03.htm
3. Tom Vannah, "Between the lines: Pure evil," 2000-MAR-23, Valley Advocate, Hartford MA, at:  http://www.newmassmedia.com
4. Alice Whitman Leeds, "Free the West Memphis Three," at: http://www.wm3.org/splash.php

Copyright © 1997 to 2017 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Last updated: 2017-FEB-23
Author: B.A. Robinson