0:00

Why would someone confess to a crime they did

0:02

not commit? It's a complicated question

0:05

when the lawmakers, psychologists and members of law

0:07

enforcement have sought to answer for years. Many

0:10

people find it impossible to believe that someone

0:12

would make a false confession, especially

0:14

when it comes to violent crimes like murder, but it

0:16

does happen, especially when the

0:18

confessor is confused, scared, manipulated,

0:21

and especially susceptible to social pressure

0:23

for cognitive or other reasons. One

0:26

of the most well-known examples of a false confession in

0:28

recent U.S. memory happened in the case

0:30

of the West Memphis Three. On

0:34

May 6, 1993, the bodies of three eight-year-old

0:36

boys were found in a pond in a

0:38

little wooded area of West Memphis, Arkansas. The

0:41

crime was extremely heinous. The

0:43

children's clothing had been removed, their hands and

0:45

feet had been bound with their own shoelaces.

0:47

One of the victim's genitals appeared to have

0:49

been savagely mutilated. The members of

0:52

West Memphis law enforcement assigned to this

0:54

investigation had never come across a shocking

0:56

crime quite like this. Three

0:58

young bound bodies and no obvious

1:01

suspects, no smoking gun. Nevertheless,

1:03

despite no evidence, they immediately zeroed

1:06

in on some suspects anyway, one

1:08

in particular. Thanks to

1:10

the wildly irresponsible paranoia of a

1:12

local juvenile parole officer named Jerry

1:14

Driver, law enforcement efforts

1:16

very quickly focused in on one

1:19

local teenager named Damien Echols. Damien

1:21

dressed in all black, listened to heavy

1:24

metal, had evil tattooed on his knuckles,

1:26

and was a follower of Wicca. And in Jerry's

1:28

mind, that all equaled to Damien

1:31

being the leader of a local satanic

1:33

cult. In 1993, a

1:35

nationwide satanic panic that had begun

1:37

in 1980 still had a

1:39

powerful grip on the minds of many in the

1:41

conservative Christian South. The follower of

1:43

any religion outside of Christianity was regarded

1:45

with a lot of suspicion, and

1:48

followers of any religion that fit under

1:50

the big umbrella of paganism were often

1:52

accused of literally worshipping the devil in

1:54

a way that actual members of the

1:56

Levayan Church of Satan or the satanic

1:58

temple would find utterly laughable. The

2:01

satanic panic is called a panic because it

2:03

was not rational. It was

2:05

entirely based in a fear of something.

2:07

There has literally never been any evidence

2:10

of its existence. A global evil network

2:12

of various interconnected demon worshipping and conjuring

2:14

cults with ties to nefarious powerful people

2:17

in high places, intent on destroying Christianity,

2:19

and turning the world into some type

2:21

of hellish, debaucherous playground where the few

2:23

Christians that remain are kept in cages,

2:26

mostly only let out to be sacrificed

2:28

or bred to produce babies to

2:30

again be sacrificed to the Dark Lord.

2:33

It's a fever dream. Of scared people,

2:35

real good employ magical thinking and real bad

2:37

at using reason and logic. And

2:39

sadly this crazy dream has led to a

2:41

lot of real world injustice. After

2:43

zeroing in on Damian, misguided law enforcement

2:46

members also targeted two of his friends.

2:48

Teams they believed to be members of his

2:50

satanic cult. Jesse Mckelly and

2:53

Jason Baldwin. Jesse, who

2:55

is developmentally disabled, was interrogated for

2:57

hours by detectives who essentially coached

2:59

him to give them the confession

3:01

they wanted. He eventually confessed

3:04

after being fed so much evidence

3:06

to parrot back to investigators that

3:09

he, Jason, and Damian did attack the

3:11

three boys and that Jason and Damian

3:13

sexually and satanically abused and then killed

3:16

them. He soon recanted his

3:18

confession, insisting that he was lying and that

3:20

they were innocent. But it was too late. The

3:22

damage was done. The wheels of injustice

3:24

had been set in motion. Despite

3:27

no real evidence tying them to the crimes outside

3:29

of Jesse's confession, all of the

3:31

three teens were convicted of murder at their later

3:33

trials. Damian Eccles, the

3:35

alleged ringleader of a cult that did

3:37

not exist, was sentenced to death.

3:41

It was truly a witch hunt. And the three young

3:43

men soon became known as the West Memphis Three.

3:45

An HBO documentary put a national spotlight on

3:48

the case and the West Memphis Three received

3:50

public support and funding from a lot of

3:52

high profile celebrities. If not, they

3:54

would still be in prison. Damian might

3:56

not be around. After 18 years, the

3:58

West Memphis Three would be released from prison

4:00

in 2011, but they were not

4:03

exonerated. They took Alfred Pleas, acknowledging

4:05

their innocence while recognizing that the state

4:07

had evidence against them and that they

4:09

may yet be convicted at another trial.

4:12

And with that plea, unless it can be reversed, the

4:14

real killer or killers will never be

4:17

investigated. The West Memphis Three have

4:19

tried to rebuild their lives and reputations in the

4:21

years since their imprisonments, but it has not been

4:23

easy. The state has never

4:25

apologized for what was done to them, never

4:28

compensated them for their false imprisonments. Currently,

4:31

Damien is fighting hard to get new DNA

4:33

evidence examined that he believes will conclusively point

4:35

to the real killer and open up a

4:37

path to a new trial that

4:39

could finally truly exonerate he, Jason,

4:41

and Jesse. Despite

4:43

living free, many still believe these guys

4:45

are child killers. Many

4:48

others believe a man named Terry Hobbs did it,

4:50

the former stepfather of one of the murder victims. I

4:53

am now one of those others. Today

4:55

we will discuss how the satanic panic influenced

4:57

the case from the very beginning, the false

4:59

confession that set everything into motion, the trials

5:01

and appeals of the West Memphis Three, and

5:04

we'll take a good hard look at Terry

5:06

Hobbs and a re-examination of evidence that paints

5:08

a very different picture of what happened to

5:10

those poor three boys than what was presented

5:12

at the original trials. All

5:15

this and more on this week's

5:17

evil satanic, why would anyone in

5:19

their right mind defend the disgusting

5:21

occult actions of the West Memphis

5:23

Three to crime to hell with

5:25

the devil edition of

5:27

TimeSuck? This is Michael McDonald and you're

5:29

listening to TimeSuck. You

5:32

are listening to TimeSuck. Happy

5:45

Monday, meat sex. Righteous

5:47

patriarchs and used bicycles rejoice. Come

5:50

on. Welcome to this installment of the

5:52

Cult of the Curious. I'm Dan Cummins, brother.

5:55

The ultimate sucker, master of the aluminum

5:57

foil cloth, which is kind of like the iron cloth,

5:59

but really. really easy to escape out of. Chili

6:02

aficionado and you are listening

6:04

to TimeSuck. Hail Nimrod, hail his tofina

6:06

praise be to good boy Bojangles. Glory be to triple

6:08

m I'm feeling a lot better today.

6:10

A little bit of cough. Still

6:12

might show up but feeling good. Real

6:14

quick before I get started, huge shout

6:16

out to Zach Root, former

6:18

Space Linger Trivia Champion for

6:21

publishing his debut graphic novel

6:23

Reptile. That's a big accomplishment and

6:26

it is awesome. Zach sent an account to Suckdungeon. I

6:28

read the whole thing. It is great. You

6:30

can order a copy physical or

6:32

digital stickers, posters at

6:35

reptilegraphicnovel.com. If enough

6:37

people buy copies of his independently produced

6:39

debut, he will keep writing the

6:42

story of Deadhead Stoner Billy's Journey

6:44

into a world of cults, conspiracies

6:46

and humanoid reptilians. Good job

6:48

Zach. I'm proud of

6:50

you. Whatever that's worth. For

6:53

the first charity donation of 2024, we'll be donating $12,900 to Truckers

6:55

Against Trafficking

6:59

while putting $1440 into the Common

7:01

Scholarship Fund. Thank you Space Lizards

7:03

for that. We are

7:05

proud to have a lot of truck

7:07

drivers in our community and as such

7:09

we have been asked on multiple occasions

7:11

to consider truckers against trafficking. We briefly

7:13

considered truckers for trafficking but

7:15

we passed. Truckers

7:18

Against Trafficking, better known as TAT, is a

7:20

501c3 that exists to

7:23

educate, equip, empower and mobilize members of

7:25

the trucking bus and energy industries to

7:27

combat human trafficking. If you

7:30

want to learn more about TAT, whether that

7:32

be donating or gaining valuable training, you can

7:34

visit truckersagainsttrafficking.org. That is truckers against

7:36

trafficking, not truckers for trafficking.get the

7:39

fuck out of here. Regarding

7:41

the scholarship, keep listening. More

7:43

info on that coming soon. Applications will

7:45

open up again in March. And

7:48

now it is time to worship the devil. I

7:50

mean share this story. Get out here. Today's

7:58

episode structure will be pretty simple. I'm gonna

8:00

lay things out exactly as my Dark Lord and

8:02

Master Satan is decreed. I sold my soul to

8:04

the devil when I denounced the reality of the

8:06

lizard illuminati in the very first episode of Time

8:09

of Suck, and I'm not gonna turn

8:11

my back. I might be jealous about Buddy now. But

8:13

for real, it's pretty straightforward. I'll

8:16

begin with an overview of how the satanic panic began

8:18

and influenced the country in the 80s and 90s, followed

8:21

by laying out today's story in a full timeline of the

8:23

case and what has happened regarding

8:25

this case in recent years. Things still moving

8:27

along actually. So now light

8:29

your candles, sit in the center of your pentagram,

8:31

raise your pitchfork towards the heavens, as if you might want to

8:34

give Jesus a little poke in the tucus, and

8:36

let us begin. oxygen.com

8:38

writes, in the early

8:40

1980s, a moral panic rippled

8:42

across the US, echoing the

8:45

supernatural hysteria of the Salem witch trials 300 years

8:47

earlier. Strangers

8:49

and neighbors alike were accused

8:51

of belonging to clandestine satanic

8:53

cults that indulged in ritualistic

8:55

sex, child abuse, and

8:57

murder. Thank

9:05

God people started accusing each other of all

9:07

that shit, those brave souls, finally kicked the

9:09

devil's ass right back down to hell, and

9:12

that's why we all get to live Satan free today. But

9:15

also, how hot was that ritualistic

9:17

80s Satan sex? Right, I've

9:19

always loved the goth suicide girl vibe, several

9:21

sexy women with black fingernail polish wearing dark

9:23

hooded robes, nothing underneath, maybe

9:26

fishnet stockings, some lingerie,

9:28

80s women with a teased up hairspray, wall

9:30

of bangs hair, who'd like to play with

9:32

ceremonial daggers, women who want to break

9:35

a bunch of sexual taboos. I mean that sounds pretty fantastic.

9:38

Forget what I said earlier about being glad that Satan got kicked

9:40

back to hell. Might have to make

9:42

some massa hats, start a

9:45

new campaign, make America a satanic again. Hey,

9:48

Elizabeth Bina, sound sad as fuck. And

9:51

I'll have to make those hats read, of course, you

9:53

know, it's not gonna confuse anybody. Actually,

9:56

when I first wrote that down in my notes, I got excited.

9:58

I'm like, maybe we should have actually make those hats,

10:01

they already exist. I thought

10:03

it might be funny to sell them as a joke, but lefthandcraft.com

10:05

beat us to it. Okay,

10:09

enough nonsense for a second. There really

10:11

was a moral satanic panic in the 80s, and then

10:13

it would extend into the 90s as well. Two

10:16

of the most infamous crime cases to come out

10:18

of the satanic panic were the West Memphis Three

10:21

and the McMartin Preschool Trials. But

10:24

there were so many other equally troubling and lesser

10:26

known cases. We mentioned the

10:28

McMartin Preschool Trial before in the

10:30

Mandela Effect episode and

10:32

the Ripper Crew episode, and I believe in

10:35

at least one other episode. It's

10:37

worth revisiting here again in a bit after

10:39

I talk about the book that lit

10:41

the fuse on the satanic panic. The

10:44

panic began with the publication of

10:46

Michelle Remembers, November 1st, 1980,

10:50

a book that truly terrified millions of people who

10:52

had grown up worrying about the dark powers of

10:54

Satan. He's everywhere, constantly trying to trick you and,

10:56

I don't know, get you to fuck a goat

10:58

or make out with somebody the same sex or

11:00

listen to Megadeth or some shit. He

11:03

works in even more mysterious ways than his creator. Michelle

11:06

Remembers terrified people who grew up hearing about all the

11:08

cults of the late 60s and 70s, like the

11:11

Manson Family, what happened with the

11:13

People's Temple in Jonestown, and who

11:15

were these cult members really worshipping? Satan.

11:18

I mean, they weren't actually devil worshippers explicitly,

11:20

but that's how Satan gets you. He tricks

11:23

you into being pagan or Buddhist or agnostic,

11:25

anything other than Christian, and then he gets your soul forever.

11:27

These cults demonstrated just how

11:30

powerful the dark one could be. This really

11:32

did worry people. Michelle Remembers

11:34

was written by the highly imaginative, extremely

11:36

melodramatic, attention starved and probably super fucking

11:38

mentally ill Michelle Smith and

11:42

her unethical as fuck

11:44

sleazy, superstitious, quack psychiatrist,

11:46

Lawrence Pazster. Can

11:48

you tell that I really hold these two geniuses in

11:50

high regard? Smith claimed she

11:52

was sexually abused by members of the Church

11:54

of Satan over a period of four years

11:56

of sessions with Dr. Pazster,

11:58

a man obsessed with you. occult who had

12:01

previously traveled to Africa and elsewhere

12:03

to witness non-Christian religious ceremonies that

12:06

he always felt were satanic. Anyway,

12:08

Michelle Smith never abused by

12:10

Satanists. 100% never happened. This

12:13

book has been debunked over and over

12:15

and over, easily debunked. And

12:17

it continues to be. An award-winning documentary about

12:19

the book called Satan Wants You just made the

12:22

film festival rounds this last year, 2023. Even

12:25

before it was debunked, it's a very stupid

12:28

book. I've tried to read it, and

12:30

it's fucking terrible. I'll

12:32

share an excerpt here soon. While

12:35

Michelle was never abused by Satanists,

12:37

she was for sure getting deep-dicked

12:40

by Dr. P. These

12:42

two devout righteous demon fighters started fucking

12:44

at some point during these sessions while they were both

12:46

married. And then

12:49

the therapy sessions continued, which is highly

12:51

unethical, massive conflict of interest. And

12:54

then these two would profit greatly together off

12:56

the content that came out of these private

12:58

therapy sessions, also, I think, unethical. Dr.

13:00

Fuckhead should have had his license revoked. Their

13:03

affair would lead to the end of

13:05

the very devout Catholic, Dr. Pazza's long-standing

13:09

marriage with the mother of his four young kids. Their

13:12

long affair would weirdly never get brought up

13:14

during the massive worldwide promotional tour these

13:16

two mortal crusading dipshits would go on. It

13:19

just didn't fit the sexy narrative of

13:21

the noble Catholic doctor uncovering this helpless

13:25

little Christian damsel in distress, having her spirit

13:27

needing to be rebuilt by her knight in

13:29

shining armor after her soul was abused

13:31

by these devil folk. Lucifina

13:33

just gagged. Journalist, author,

13:36

and heavy metal music expert Mike McPadden

13:39

said of the Satanic Panic in this book, the

13:42

actual Big Bang moment of the Satanic

13:44

Panic occurred with the publication of

13:46

Michelle Remembers. The book is

13:48

ostensibly Smith's recovered childhood memories of being

13:51

abused by a Satanic cult and

13:53

includes lurid details of children in cages

13:55

and devil worshippers feasting on dead babies.

13:58

It successfully pushed the notion of a dead

14:00

baby. network of child abuse and satanic cults

14:02

throughout North America. Pazder

14:05

first started treating Michelle Smith and

14:07

his private psychiatric practice in Victoria,

14:09

British Columbia, Canada in 1976 for

14:13

depression related to a miscarriage. And

14:15

at some point, Smith had a session where

14:17

she screamed for 25 minutes nonstop

14:20

and eventually started to speak in the voice of a five-year-old. And

14:24

that's, you know, that's pretty fucking weird.

14:27

And instead of prescribing her his dick

14:30

and encouraging her to babble more about the devil, maybe

14:32

he should have had her committed to

14:34

an inpatient psychiatric facility in

14:36

Medicaid. Just a thought. Over

14:39

the next 14 months, Pazder spent over 600

14:42

hours using hypnosis to

14:44

help Smith play satanic madlib, I

14:46

mean recover, alleged memories

14:48

of satanic ritual abuse that she said

14:51

occurred when she was five in 1954

14:53

and 1955 at the

14:55

hands of her mother Virginia and a bunch of

14:57

other Satanists, a bunch of prominent

14:59

community members, all of whom

15:01

Smith now said were members of a powerful

15:03

satanic cult in Victoria. Pazder

15:06

and Smith claimed she was abused by the Church of Satan,

15:08

which he stated based on zero evidence,

15:11

was a worldwide organization predating the Christian

15:14

church with powerful shadowy members behind, you

15:16

know, all the evil shit that happens

15:18

everywhere, genocides, mass starvation,

15:20

pestilence and plagues, you know,

15:22

the Metallica concerts, pornography, all

15:25

R-rated, most PG-13 rated movies, Hollywood and

15:27

gay-loving liberal elite doing all the pizza

15:29

gate QAnon type shit that they constantly

15:32

do. All of this

15:34

connected to an international satanic cabal that will stop

15:36

at nothing to destroy your very soul. The

15:39

first alleged ritual attended by Smith took place in

15:41

1954, she claimed, when she was just

15:43

five, when her mother gave her over to

15:45

the Satanists, and where did the ritual

15:47

abuse take place? Why in the local

15:49

cemetery, of course. I mean, I mean, where else? I

15:52

mean, I guess it could have taken place in like a bat infested cave.

15:55

That might be spooky enough. Or maybe in the

15:57

basement of an abandoned Victorian style mansion. That's

15:59

pretty spoopy. Another cool setting for

16:01

some horror cosplay, but the cemetery is

16:03

classic. Probably the most cliche. I mean

16:05

best. It all

16:07

happened inside a massive round room accessed

16:10

by entering the tomb in Victoria's Ross

16:12

Bay Cemetery. A room

16:14

that you can't find today. Because

16:17

I guess, I don't know, I guess you have to know

16:19

some Satanic code words. To open a secret door or portal

16:21

or something to enter it. Say it yells

16:23

above six times while it's spinning around six times while

16:25

holding up six fingers or some shit. Things

16:28

like that are not really given. They forgot to make

16:30

that stuff up. You should

16:32

write to demon zombie expert Chad Daybell in prison.

16:35

He probably knows how to get in. The

16:38

final ritual documented in the book

16:40

was an 81-day long satanic sacrifice

16:42

marathon. Think the old

16:44

March of Dimes, Jerry Lewis' telethon. But

16:46

instead of a bunch of like, you know,

16:48

celebrity volunteer operators taking donations calls to raise

16:50

money for muscular dystrophy, there's a

16:52

bunch of people in robes handing babies over to

16:55

Satan to be torn apart. And

16:57

if you read, Michelle remembers, you'll learn that Satan

16:59

loves tearing up babies into pieces. More

17:01

than anything. He's addicted. He's

17:03

addicted to ripping babies apart. The

17:06

final ritual went down in 1955. The

17:08

devil himself was summoned. And before it

17:10

was all over, Jesus, Virgin Mary, the

17:12

Michael the archangel would all show up and

17:14

they would remove the scars received by Smith

17:16

throughout the year of abuse and also would

17:19

remove memories of the events, quote, until the

17:21

time was right, which is pretty convenient.

17:23

That's how no one noticed. Any of this stuff happened

17:26

at the time. Interesting here. I

17:28

feel like Mary and Michael showing up are overkill. I

17:30

mean, since Jesus is God, God's all powerful, seems kind of

17:32

weird that God would need the help

17:35

of his mom and an angel to heal the

17:37

scars. During

17:39

these rites, Michelle was allegedly tortured, locked in cages, sexually

17:42

assaulted, forced to take

17:44

part in various rituals, including wild orgies. She

17:47

witnessed so many murders, was physically assaulted by none other

17:49

than Satan himself, was

17:52

forced to eat human shit, was

17:54

rubbed with the blood and body parts of richly sacrificed, murdered

17:57

babies and a few adults as well. And all that was done. That

18:00

happened, 100%. Smith would

18:02

even appear on Oprah Winfrey in 1989, along

18:05

with Laurel Rose Wilson, who wrote another

18:07

nonsense book called Satan's Underground. Both

18:10

of these women's claims never questioned by

18:12

Oprah, just like Smith's claims were

18:14

never questioned by Geraldo Rivera or the dozens

18:16

of other various news, pundits and journalists who

18:18

interviewed her. Laurel

18:20

Rose Wilson, by the way, just

18:23

to show how nonsensical all this stuff is, she

18:25

said her parents had her satanically molested and made

18:27

her fuck animals and all sorts of shit

18:30

started at the age of four, lasting until her early 20s. Her

18:33

sister and other family members would vehemently

18:36

refute these claims. Law enforcement

18:38

would never take her claim seriously because

18:40

she was batshit fucking crazy. She

18:43

will get into trouble in the late 90s for pretending

18:45

to be a Jewish Holocaust survivor, claimed

18:48

to be experimented on by none other than Dr.

18:50

Joseph Mengele. Did I imagine

18:52

she grew up in Tacoma, Washington and doesn't

18:54

even have any Jewish family members? She

18:57

spoke at some presentations alongside

18:59

actual Holocaust survivors and

19:01

even fucking stole money from

19:04

a Swiss Holocaust survivor fund. She's

19:06

a real piece of shit, a professional

19:08

liar and one of the architects of the

19:10

satanic panic. Back

19:13

to Michelle Smith, if Smith was part of an 81

19:15

day long satanic ritual that went down

19:17

in Ross Bay Cemetery, how

19:19

is it she was never absent from school

19:22

for prolonged periods during that same time?

19:25

Smith's school records were accessed by

19:27

some journalists who thought she was full of shit. No

19:31

unusual absences from the time she

19:33

was supposedly abused. She was somehow satanic

19:36

abuse for 81 straight days and

19:39

went to school the whole time. Got good grades, looked

19:41

fine. Her old teachers and classmates

19:43

interviewed, no one remembered her coming to school with

19:45

fucking marks of the beast all over her or

19:48

all this evidence of her being abused in cages

19:50

and fucking rapes and orgies and shit. Also

19:53

the Ross Bay Cemetery surrounded on

19:55

three sides by a big residential area.

19:58

No one remembers any other. unusual activity from when

20:01

this abuse supposedly occurred. There

20:03

wasn't like long lines of people in robes, chanting,

20:06

fucking going to their mausoleum and sneaking

20:08

in. The police never investigated Smith's

20:10

claims into the supposed satanic ring because her

20:12

claims were not even close to being credible.

20:16

There was no spike in murders or missing people.

20:18

A fuckload of extra babies didn't go missing

20:20

when Satan was supposedly gobbling them up left

20:22

and right. The only evidence that

20:24

anything Smith said occurred that actually did occur is

20:26

her saying it did. That's

20:29

it. Here's a little

20:31

excerpt from this crazy ass book.

20:33

Just show what they were doing. Satan

20:39

had gone back into the fire. Now

20:42

he emerged, completely changed.

20:45

For a moment he had a face, long-nosed

20:48

eyes, wide apart. It

20:51

was the face of a pig. The

20:54

worshipers had changed too. They

20:56

all were wearing white. They

20:59

were ready for the first of the

21:01

three required sacrifices. From

21:03

the dark tunnel came the noise of marching feet,

21:06

and soon a force of attendance surrounded

21:08

the outer circle. Each

21:10

was carrying what appeared at first to

21:13

Michelle to be a pole, then

21:15

was identifiable as an

21:18

un-pointed pitchfork. And

21:20

under each arm they carried that

21:22

object as necessary to the

21:24

proper performance of the black mass as

21:27

bread and wine are to the Catholic

21:30

mass, the body of

21:32

a baby. One

21:34

by one, the martyrs approached

21:37

Satan with extreme deference

21:40

and kneeling before him unloaded

21:42

the little corpses in a pile at

21:44

his feet. One

21:46

by one he snatched them up and cut

21:49

them apart, throwing the pieces

21:51

to the worshipers. Eagerly

21:53

they reached for the bloody fragment

21:55

sometimes, fighting for them, and

21:58

smeared their white robes with the gawl. The

22:00

dany them red white to

22:02

read Purity to death. It

22:05

was a basic literary decal

22:07

dynamics. I'm Satan address the

22:10

worldwide representatives of his dominion.

22:13

Or the words are nice.

22:15

Were here all the heroes

22:18

of yours are near. My

22:20

message spreads from miles to

22:22

man. My message spreads from

22:24

Lambda Two Labs. Hours

22:27

of Darkness. Powers of nice Hours

22:30

of Darkness ah was of nice

22:32

and an entire black mask are

22:34

gay since or sandwich dumb prince

22:37

doctors bullshit insane to just place

22:39

on altered friend by red circle

22:41

flames fires run up down his

22:44

body. Then. A stone the satanic

22:46

older I had or as a red

22:48

cloth appear over. It's as and enough

22:50

a monster spider walks over the clause.

22:53

That. A fucking bad shows up. Vampire

22:55

Bat specific: why not a purchase on

22:57

the older zeds? Than a

22:59

nice with a snake for a handle. With

23:01

realizes that fucking signal the bosses

23:04

that that's spiders snakes. Nelson's Tales

23:06

Usada Michelle wraps around her legs

23:08

as the worship things continues or

23:10

people are are changing. Poorly written,

23:12

cartoonish, least evil shit. Just stuff

23:15

like. To

23:17

my file Moscow Why humans

23:19

have seen. Guess we live

23:21

in die we stop bringing

23:24

forth. Bring forth the sacrifice.

23:26

Bring me the one that's

23:28

not what's wow. I

23:31

like I gave up. On trying to rhyme was less divorces.

23:33

So. Much work or them. So the same source

23:35

first carry a virgin girl who's been tied

23:37

to cross upside down. course if the rooms

23:39

are legs spread apart. Satan. Sprinkle some

23:42

kind of white power on are not powder

23:44

power. Spent. A whole what's the

23:46

why power honor didn't realize I said was up

23:48

taking a grand dragon. Then. He spouts

23:50

a more bad poetry. Then. He cuts are

23:52

hard out with a ceremonial dagger throws in a

23:54

bar. In southern half of the waist. lines

23:57

as a top half of her as lengthwise in

23:59

house Bottom half for lengthwise now

24:01

tosses all her parts into four piles

24:04

then 13 women dressed

24:07

in black now Solely approached the beast

24:09

carrying more dead babies. You can't have enough

24:11

fucking dead babies for these things Satanic

24:13

rituals are mostly about dead babies Like if you're having

24:16

if you're making a casserole and you wanted

24:18

to bring it to a satanic ritual If

24:20

it's not made up of at least 50% dead baby Well

24:22

Satan's not gonna eat it and then it

24:24

just fucking goes on and on and on and on I

24:29

Love that the fucking poetry in there that Satan is

24:31

chanting It's like it was written by a fucking nine-year-old

24:34

after Smith had seemingly recovered of memories She

24:36

and pastor consult with various church authorities. They eventually

24:38

travel all the way to the Vatican where they

24:40

get an audience And

24:43

then once the book is published, it gets a lot of press

24:45

so many people ate this shit up Just

24:48

totally accepted Michelle's coached fever dream

24:50

ramblings ramblings created through a

24:52

quack psychiatrist fucking around with hypnosis Radio

24:55

hosts politicians educators high-ranking law

24:57

enforcement members various celebrities all

25:00

kinds of church leaders prosecutors many more people

25:02

hear this and Do

25:04

not think get the fuck out of here fuck

25:07

is wrong with you that silly bullshit No, they hear

25:09

that and react with we have to

25:11

save our children from the diabolical sadness

25:15

Michelle and dr. P tour all over the

25:17

world. They appear on credible mainstream news programs

25:20

Michelle is presented to viewers as the victim of

25:22

the satanic ritual abuse like it for sure happened

25:25

Which you should have been presented as mentally ill

25:27

at best a fucking liar at worse in

25:30

the year since several published studies

25:32

Have proven that memories recovered from

25:34

hypnosis hypnosis sessions not

25:36

reliable at all memories

25:38

recovered during hypnosis sessions are about as

25:40

credible as Memories

25:42

you might have while you're tripping balls on LSD But

25:45

as reliable as the spectral evidence used during the sailing

25:48

witch trials in 1692 We

25:50

talked about that years ago Right witnesses claiming

25:53

during the sailing witch trials at the

25:55

accused had appeared to them and harm

25:57

them in their fucking dreams Or

26:00

in visions. And by visions, I just mean

26:02

daydream. And then a kangaroo court sends

26:05

people to death in Salem,

26:08

citing as evidence of their satanic

26:10

mystique dreams. Like a regular ass

26:12

dream somebody said

26:14

they had about him. They didn't, you can't even prove that.

26:17

Smith's false memories were enough to

26:19

convince millions she had been satanically

26:21

abused. They just took it at face value.

26:24

Similarly, flimsy evidence will convict the

26:26

West Memphis Three. Dr.

26:29

Pazder, due to the popularity of this book, well,

26:32

he gets hired a couple years later

26:34

as a fucking consultant for

26:36

the McMartin Preschool Investigation. Dude

26:38

was paid government money for his

26:41

expertise. So that's cool. In

26:44

1983, children at the preschool claimed all

26:46

kinds of crazy dumb shit thanks

26:48

to a bunch of satanic panic hysteria. Like

26:50

being flushed down magical toilets in

26:52

your secret rooms where they were

26:54

then sexually abused during satanic rituals, sometimes

26:57

by celebrities. How did

26:59

those claims start? It just gets better. Judy

27:03

Johnson, mother of one of the Manhattan Beach,

27:05

California preschools young students, reported to the police

27:07

that her son had been sodomized by her

27:09

estranged husband and by McMartin teacher, Ray Bucky.

27:12

Ray Bucky was the grandson of school

27:14

founder Virginia McMartin and son

27:17

of administrator Peggy McMartin Bucky. Well,

27:19

Johnson started to think her son had been abused.

27:21

Why? Because he had

27:23

some painful bowel movements. He

27:25

had some trouble pooping, and she

27:27

jumped, she fucking skipped over constipation and

27:30

went right to my ex-husband must be

27:32

sodomizing him. Her paranoia –

27:35

he didn't sodomize anybody – her paranoia will lead to

27:37

the most expensive criminal trial in US history at that

27:39

time. It cost over $15 million, one that

27:42

would last all the way until 1990, when

27:45

the charges were finally dropped after numerous lives

27:47

had been permanently ruined. Once

27:49

police started listening to her, Johnson went on

27:51

to make several more accusations, including that people

27:54

of the McMartin daycare fucked various animals during

27:56

satanic orgies, where kids were also

27:58

fucked. She's been – spoke of Ray

28:00

Bucky using occult powers to literally fly through

28:03

the air like some kind of dark wizard.

28:05

She talked about witches on actual broomsticks. Self

28:09

cartoonish. Flying around, doing all kinds of shit.

28:12

And why was she saying all this? Because she

28:14

was very mentally ill. She

28:16

was an unmedicated paranoid schizophrenic

28:19

who was also a religious zealot and to add

28:21

some icing to her shit cake, she

28:23

was a hardcore alcoholic. Shortly

28:25

after making those accusations, Johnson

28:27

would be hospitalized for acute

28:30

paranoid schizophrenia in 1986, just

28:32

three years after she first talked to police, she'd be found

28:34

dead in her home from complications

28:36

of chronic alcoholism before the

28:38

preliminary hearing from the McMartin trial even concluded.

28:41

By the time she died, the satanic panic narrative,

28:44

she had begun to spread to detectives on the

28:46

case. They then used

28:48

them to ask leading questions to convince a whole

28:50

bunch of other kids and parents to ritual satanic

28:52

abuse occurred. Eventually, 360

28:56

kids will claim to have been abused. One

28:59

kid even said that Chuck Norris

29:01

stopped by the daycare to

29:03

satanically abuse him. Apparently,

29:05

that's how Chuck stayed in great shape.

29:07

Not because of Bowflex, but because of

29:09

the devil. Satan gave him fucking shredded

29:12

abs and sweet powerful roundhouse kicks. Other

29:14

kids claimed they had been transported to and from

29:17

rituals in some kind of devilish

29:19

hot air balloon. Classic

29:21

Satan. Everybody knows the devil's preferred

29:23

method of transport. When his evil

29:25

war scene is having its hooves

29:28

worked on or some shit, is to hop into

29:31

a hot air balloon. Hot air

29:33

balloon is perfect when traveling to and from the lake of fire. Still

29:36

others said they were taken to

29:38

rituals via secret underground tunnels, tunnels that

29:40

were never found because they don't

29:42

exist. There were claims of orgies

29:45

at car washes and

29:47

airports where the kids were abused. Classic

29:50

satanic orgy locations. I don't

29:52

even fucking bother going to the car wash anymore. I'm

29:54

so sick of being stuck in line waiting for

29:56

the satanic orgy to wrap up so

29:59

I can get my truck. clean and

30:02

touring for years I've missed several flights due

30:04

to being stuck in line you know behind it

30:07

for TSA waiting for the

30:09

security to break out the satanic orgy the

30:11

head of the line excuse me you guys

30:13

stop fucking that goat for like 10 seconds

30:16

I gotta make it to my gate some

30:19

interviewed children talked about a game called naked

30:21

movie star which investigators

30:24

took to believe they meant they

30:26

were forcibly photographed noon nude but

30:29

then during the trial testimony from the children stated that

30:31

naked movie star was a game just

30:33

like a rhyming taunt that they would use to

30:35

tease other children what you say is

30:37

what you are you're a naked movie star

30:40

that's it but they jump right to

30:43

so a second make a picture of these children fuck

30:46

March 22nd 1984 Virginia McMartin

30:48

Peggy McMartin Bucky Ray Bucky Ray

30:51

sister Peggy and Bucky teachers

30:53

Mary Ann Jackson Betty Rader and

30:55

Babette Spittler all charged with 115

30:57

counts of child abuse which would

30:59

later be expanded to 321 counts of child abuse involving

31:03

48 children that's what

31:05

actually went to court did I

31:08

mention that Laurel Rose Wilson

31:10

fake Holocaust survivor right Holocaust

31:12

survivor impersonator author of Satan's

31:14

underground she showed up in this trial oh

31:16

yeah she claimed to have witnessed and

31:19

stop some of the abuse she also

31:21

claimed to have been tricked into a lesbian relationship with

31:23

Virginia Martin damn you second I

31:26

thought I was having sex with my husband now

31:28

I realized I was munching on Virginia's

31:30

devil bucks she never even fucking

31:32

met Virginia but investigators oh they

31:34

still took her claim seriously by

31:36

1990 all those people will be

31:38

acquitted but by that point the damage had been done

31:41

Ray Bucky the last defendant to be acquitted when

31:43

he's finally released all the charges dropped he'd spent

31:45

over five years in prison as

31:47

a suspected satanic pedophile years

31:50

later the kids suspected of being abused confessed

31:52

as adults that they had been

31:54

strongly pressured to go along with this

31:57

satanic abuse narrative that investigators

31:59

and therapists hired by the state

32:01

were pushing. By the time the

32:03

trial was over, a few of the accused had died.

32:06

Died while their community still thought they

32:08

were satanic pedophiles. The

32:11

preschool, a family business, went bankrupt. Then

32:13

across the country, other daycare providers made

32:15

sure not to hug or touch kids

32:17

anymore, even though child experts say this contact

32:19

is needed by children, out

32:21

of fear that their actions could be interpreted as signs

32:23

of abuse. Other daycare centers

32:25

closed their doors due

32:27

to insurance companies scared of molestation

32:30

lawsuits, substantially raising

32:32

liability insurance rates. The ripple effect was

32:34

fucking terrible. And the

32:36

satanic panic ruined other lives and less publicized trials.

32:39

Dan and Francis Keller, for example, ran a daycare

32:41

center from their Oak Hill home in Austin, Texas.

32:44

That innocent couple will be sentenced to 48

32:46

years of prison

32:48

in 1992. They were convicted of

32:51

charges that they had dismembered infants for

32:53

Satan, sexually abused children in their

32:55

care, use those kids

32:57

to carry the bones of corpses exhumed

32:59

from local cemeteries and making kids do

33:01

shit like drink Kool-Aid mixed with human

33:03

blood. Their conviction is

33:05

based entirely on the

33:07

fantastical testimony of coerced children and

33:09

tenuous circumstantial physical evidence presented by

33:11

a Dr. Michael Miao, an

33:14

emergency room physician who treated one of the

33:16

girls the Kellers were alleged to have abused.

33:18

And then this Dr. Miao will

33:21

later recant his testimony. Just

33:23

got swept up in the satanic panic

33:25

light in court. Sorry about that. Oh,

33:28

gosh dang. I wish I could take it back. Paranoia

33:30

is a fucking hell of a drug. Keller

33:33

would not be finally released until 2013 after they served more

33:35

than 20 years in prison. Over

33:39

two decades of other

33:41

inmates thinking they were satanic pedophiles. And

33:43

you can find a lot of other examples of, again, lives

33:45

ruined by this hysteria. You know what you

33:47

can't find? A single fucking

33:50

example, not one, of

33:53

a bunch of kids being molested by

33:55

a giant covert organization of devil

33:57

worshippers and satanic rituals. The consistent

34:00

claim of paranoid, satanic, panic morons. A

34:02

lot of people have been arrested, but

34:05

in most cases, the accused get out

34:07

on appeals after witnesses recant, and in

34:09

a few cases, yes, people have been

34:11

molested in sacrilegious ways by people who

34:14

are severely mentally ill in almost

34:16

every single case. Never

34:19

are they proven to be members of

34:21

some big organization dedicated to satanically

34:23

molesting children. Nevertheless,

34:25

according to Mara Leveret, author of Devil's Knot,

34:27

the true story of the West Memphis Three,

34:30

one of the most famous books about this case, by

34:33

the late 1980s, interest in

34:35

the suspected prevalence of satanic ritual

34:37

abuse, or SRA, had grown so

34:39

intense in the United States that

34:41

the subject was discussed in settings as

34:43

diverse as psychological conferences, religious

34:46

tent revivals, police training seminars,

34:49

Ms. Magazine, and television talk

34:51

shows. Fantasy role-playing games

34:53

such as Dungeons and Dragons, as well as

34:55

certain kinds of rock-and-roll music, especially heavy metal,

34:58

were described as gateways to a dark world

35:00

that could lead to ritual abuse. At

35:03

worst, specialists in the new field of

35:05

SRA warned teenagers who started out innocently

35:07

playing with Ouija boards or reading books

35:09

on paganism and magic could

35:11

be drawn into rights involving the use of

35:13

dangerous symbols, and from there, into vandalism, animal

35:16

mutilations, ritualistic abuse of

35:18

children, and suicide or even murder.

35:21

1991, the FBI actually looked into national

35:23

records to determine how prevalent cults and human

35:26

sacrifice were, and a specialist concluded,

35:29

"...after all the hype and hysteria is put aside,

35:32

the realization sets in that most satanic

35:34

or occult activity involves the commission of

35:36

no crimes, and that

35:38

which does usually involves the commission

35:41

of relatively minor crimes such as

35:43

trespassing, vandalism, cruelty

35:45

to animals, or petty thievery."

35:49

Right? This fear, this intense,

35:51

highly irrational, paranoid, QAnon level

35:54

of crazy fear was

35:56

very much alive and well in West Memphis. When

35:59

the crimes of today's We took place. Juvenile.

36:01

Probation Officer local A Cold.

36:04

Expert Jerry driver was all

36:07

about the shit. Because.

36:09

Damien Echols follow the with the religion. He was

36:11

thought to be a devil worshiper. And

36:13

a murders were clearly part of an occult ritual.

36:16

Ironically. No One. Entered

36:18

a story: Worship Satan? Someone. Without.

36:21

Was treated enforced by law

36:23

enforcement, expert witnesses, fucking judge.

36:25

The prosecution. Has. Been

36:28

equivalent to Satanism. If.

36:30

People are West Memphis would be given

36:32

pitchforks and torches. Damian and his crew

36:34

would have been dead within days of

36:36

not ours. Are. Being sued. The murders.

36:39

Let. Us Now Friends isn't in

36:41

the timeline of the West Memphis

36:43

Three. Get. Ready to

36:45

be infuriated. right? After

36:47

today's first have to mid show sponsor

36:49

breaks. Thanks. To

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stick around if you don't hear as get

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the entire catalogue. Everybody Thomas spaces on pay

36:56

drown for five bucks a month. On

37:00

those soldiers were monsters out

37:03

of time, some time loss.

37:11

Damien Echols, the man portrayed as the

37:13

ringleader of the West Memphis Three, was

37:15

born West Met West Memphis, Arkansas December

37:17

Eleventh, Nineteen Seventy Four. His

37:20

father Joe Hutchinson and his mom is

37:22

Pamela. Met just have one sibling. His

37:24

sister Michelle will be born in Nineteen

37:26

Seventy Seven. His last

37:28

name will come from his stepfather Andy

37:30

Jack Nicholson. West Memphis is

37:32

the largest city in certain than county

37:35

Arkansas cities look at. right across the

37:37

Mississippi River from Memphis, Tennessee. And

37:39

twenty twenty, the population listed as twenty four thousand,

37:42

Five Hundred Point. And while the town certainly has

37:44

a rural feel to it, or least I did

37:46

back in the Ninety's. Also. Part of

37:48

the metropolitan area of Memphis which is over

37:50

one point three million people. Damien's

37:53

birth name is Michael Wayne

37:55

Hutchinson. He. changed his name to

37:57

damian when he started to the dentist I

38:00

mean, when he converted to Catholicism. According

38:03

to some sources, his stepdad will say that he adopted

38:05

Damien in 1986 when he had to

38:07

change his last name to Eccles. And while he

38:09

was doing that, he decided to change his first name to

38:12

Damien, because he was reading

38:14

about a priest named Damien who worked with people at

38:16

a leper colony for over 10 years in Hawaii before

38:18

contracting and dying of leprosy himself. His

38:21

sister, excuse me, his sister, Michelle, will recall that

38:23

he wanted to be a preacher or priest when he was young.

38:26

Damien has been fascinated with religion his entire life,

38:29

exploring different types of Christianity,

38:31

Buddhism, Wicca, and more. He

38:34

is like a lot of you,

38:36

I'm guessing. A very curious and

38:38

irreverent person. And his curiosity is

38:40

daring to be different, nearly got

38:42

him killed. Jesse Miss

38:44

Kelly Jr., the next West Memphis 3

38:46

member, born in West Memphis July 10th,

38:48

1975. His

38:51

father, Jesse Miss Kelly Sr., was a well-known

38:53

mechanic in West Memphis, nicknamed Big

38:55

Jesse, because of his strength. Jesse

38:57

Jr.'s mom was Betty Jo Barnes, who worked largely

39:00

as a cashier. Jesse will

39:02

be one of 11 kids on his dad's side and

39:04

nine on his mom's side. A lot

39:06

of fucking, very little birth control going on

39:08

in that family tree. Jason Baldwin, the third

39:11

member of the West Memphis 3, had known Jesse since they

39:13

were in elementary school. Jason said

39:15

about him as quoted by author, Mera Leverett, he

39:18

was all right. He just didn't learn quick. And

39:20

he didn't have much common sense either. He

39:22

could be funny. But maybe we were

39:24

all laughing more at him than with him. Or

39:27

Jesse had been getting in trouble since kindergarten

39:30

for fighting. His teachers consistently recommended that he

39:32

see a psychologist, which he did briefly. Several

39:35

psychologists will say that part of his behavioral

39:37

problems were caused by his mother's abandonment. She

39:39

left the family right after Jesse was born.

39:42

Jesse's family was described as loving but

39:44

very rough. Jesse recalled that one

39:46

of his childhood memories was fighting all the time. He

39:49

explained, I had to take up for myself to

39:52

let people know they couldn't run over me just because I

39:54

was small. I was walking around always

39:56

looking for fights because I knew they would come. I

39:59

took up for a I had a lot of people because I had a

40:01

quick temper and I knew what it was like to be picked on. I've

40:04

been picked on since I was about four or five. My

40:06

brothers always picked on me and my stepsisters always picked

40:08

on me. They tried to tell me what to do. He

40:12

also remembered his father drinking beer like a fish every

40:14

day since I was born. Still

40:16

loved his father and said he was a sweet guy who

40:18

would do anything for anybody. In

40:21

addition to fighting, Jesse struggled a lot in school. At

40:24

age seven, he still could not recite the alphabet past

40:26

the letter R, and he could not count

40:28

past the number 15. His IQ

40:30

was estimated to be 67. That

40:33

score on the most common IQ charts

40:35

falls into the extremely low category, the

40:37

very bottom classification. Also

40:40

classified as well below average, significantly

40:42

below average, or mildly impaired or

40:44

delayed on other charts. Clearly,

40:47

Jesse is developmentally disabled. In

40:49

docs I've watched, I've heard him refer

40:51

to as slow, special, and

40:53

some with the mind of a seven

40:55

or eight-year-old. This is important

40:58

to understand, as it will be Jesse's confession

41:00

that will lead to he and

41:02

the other two, Memphis, you know, three,

41:05

being convicted more than anything else. Jesse

41:08

was put in special education classes where

41:10

his teacher said he was sulky, disrespectful,

41:12

impulsive, indifferent, stubborn,

41:14

uncooperative, and prone to rage.

41:18

At the age of seven, a psychologist recommended

41:20

he be hospitalized for severe behavioral problems, but

41:22

his family did not have the money for that. It

41:25

took him to a few counting sessions, but it wasn't something he

41:27

did regularly because, you know, again, the family could not afford to.

41:29

They had a lot of other kids to look

41:31

after. Eight-year-old Jesse was

41:33

taken into a psychologist's cross-river in Memphis

41:35

when he continued fighting in school. That

41:38

examiner found that he was nonpsychotic. The

41:42

psychologist reported that Jesse feels bad about himself

41:44

and his world. He sees himself

41:46

as vulnerable, unable to handle the pressures which

41:48

surround him, and

41:50

in danger of being overwhelmed. He

41:52

pulls his own hair and bites himself when agitated.

41:55

He is reported to have abused animals when he rages

41:57

And has shredded his clothes while out of control. His.

42:00

Stepmother indicates that he will. Tear up

42:02

anything in hand and he's angry. Though both parents

42:04

agree that there was little way to predict when

42:07

Jesse will rage. Psychologist.

42:09

Also wrote the jesse's father had a bad temper and

42:11

play rough which se. And that included

42:13

a play Punches hard enough to send him

42:15

into wall have side of the room. Not

42:18

a psychologist or recommended residential treatment for Jesse

42:20

and family therapy. His family rejected the hospitalization

42:22

and went as and housing sessions but that

42:25

did not keep up with it. says.

42:27

He did in kindergarten for two years. Then.

42:30

Second grade for two more years. But.

42:32

Aged ten is estimated. I t was found to be

42:35

as high as seventy five would still on the very

42:37

low end of the normal range. Just.

42:39

A third grade teacher found the he did not

42:42

have adequate vocabulary and could not understand written passages.

42:44

It. Was report the hit a girl in the head, stabbed

42:47

boy with a pencil and that his hand. We points

42:49

out a car window in grade school. A

42:52

juvenile judge ordered another exam. Average.

42:54

Jesse a suspended for splattering catch up in

42:56

the lunchroom. Jesse indicated that he

42:58

wanted to drop out of school by middle school.

43:01

Or. He was sixteen years old by the time he

43:03

reached ninth grade. He. Couldn't read or write

43:05

past the fourth grade level. And. Was

43:07

in the lowest four percent of all students based on

43:09

his I Q. Does. He did

43:12

drop out of school age sixteen. His final

43:14

psychological evaluation before he dropped out found the

43:16

he had deficits in. General.

43:18

Information Abstract in concrete

43:20

reasoning, Numerical reasoning, Language

43:23

development, Word knowledge, verbal

43:25

comprehension and spatial visualization.

43:27

So. He was struggling with pretty much every

43:29

them academically. Guess he

43:32

said he dropped out because quotes. Just.

43:34

Didn't care about it no more. He

43:37

thought you become mechanic like his father was. Dream

43:39

was to become a pro wrestler. All

43:41

this info be item relevant later. I'm jessie

43:43

defense accuses the police of course and him

43:46

into making a false confession. Charles

43:49

Jason Baldwin. Of. By

43:51

Jason More on April Eleven citing Seventy

43:53

seven. Some. sources say he

43:55

was born in west memphis other say he

43:57

was born in a lake of fire Gone

44:00

by demons, the abominable product

44:02

of devil-common demon-puss. Or

44:05

he was born across the river in Memphis. Either

44:08

way, he grew up in West Memphis. He

44:11

was born just a month before I was. Strange

44:13

for me to imagine heaven suffered like he did for

44:16

just being a weird kid who liked metal music, wasn't

44:18

religious, and was a bit of a juvenile

44:20

delinquent. I was also all of

44:23

those things. He was the

44:25

first born child of Angela and Larry Baldwin. Angela

44:27

goes by Gail. Gail and

44:29

Larry would divorce when Jason was a toddler and

44:31

his mom would marry Terry Ray Grinnell when Jason

44:33

was about four. His mom would

44:36

have two other children, Larry Matthew and Terry Jr. He

44:39

was raised by Gail and Terry. In

44:41

his interview for the HBO documentary Paradise Lost,

44:43

Damien said he and Jason were best friends

44:45

and they stayed at each other's houses often.

44:48

He said they were like brothers. Their

44:50

favorite things to do were snake hunting and listening

44:52

to music. I also did

44:55

a little snake hunting and listening to a lot of

44:57

music growing up. Their

44:59

favorites were heavy metal bands like Slayer,

45:01

Metallica and Megadeth. Also

45:03

loved U2. So a bunch of

45:05

pretty tame shit really. Jason

45:07

Baldwin had no history of violence but he did have some run-ins

45:09

with the law. His criminal record included

45:11

petty crimes like breaking the glass on some old

45:14

cars stored in a shed and stealing

45:16

a bag of M&Ms from the store. He

45:18

was an average to good student and

45:20

earned certificates for punctuality and attendance. He

45:23

also had a soft side. On

45:25

April 5th, 1993, Jason and his classmates were asked

45:27

to write about a classmate who had recently died

45:29

of suicide and Jason wrote, I

45:32

didn't know the girl very well. I seen her around every now

45:34

and then, but I knew how people

45:36

that knew her feel because once my mother tried to

45:38

commit suicide and I know how I felt when that

45:40

happened. It was pretty devastating since I was

45:42

the one who found her and called 911 and kept her alive.

45:46

But I am lucky. My mother is well and happy

45:48

now and so am I. In

45:50

every single interview or courtroom of footage I've seen of

45:52

Jason, he just comes across like a good kid or

45:54

a good dude. Quiet, laid

45:56

back, Tough, kind and

45:58

loyal. Damien

46:01

struggled. Law enforcement will start ninety ninety

46:03

two. By. This point: seventy years

46:05

old and already dropped outta high school. He

46:07

lived in a Lake Shore States trailer park in

46:10

Marion. City five miles west

46:12

Memphis. Dame. Live with his

46:14

mom, stepfather, sister and grandmother and a two

46:16

bedroom trailer and trailer park. He. Was

46:18

the and fifteen year old Deanna Jane Holcomb. Kind

46:21

of. I didn't do girls. When

46:23

shit, when I'm thrilled. Forks, Ah, agendas Mom was not

46:25

a fan of him. The. As Mom

46:27

called Marion police to report the Daemon was threatening

46:30

Deanna and Ninety Ninety Two, When he spoke to

46:32

police, Deanna said the demon have been harassing her

46:34

and a male friend. She. Said

46:36

the Damien threatened to kill the other boy quote and

46:38

dump him in the front yard of her house and

46:40

then come back and take care of her and then

46:42

burn the house down. know

46:45

deadly you i was troubled youth for was er

46:47

den his family also tuesday mean of try to

46:49

get the and involved with black magic. And

46:52

because he loved John, Pentagram demons, monsters and

46:54

such. And you know what

46:56

lot of kudzu isidro as same shit.

46:58

Sometimes fascinated with what I was told

47:00

was taboo. It was Fonda sought classmates

47:02

who were scared that sit. By.

47:05

The know the about the civil that she met. Or

47:07

Damien clearly is not thinking about being a

47:09

priest anymore by ninety two, He's gone

47:12

for gas. Know is weird. Not a

47:14

lot of classmates. Social. Workers were

47:16

aware of troubles within Damien's family by now and

47:18

May fifth, Ninety Nine to a mental health worker

47:20

visit. The family include the Damien and his sister

47:22

Michelle both needed help. His.

47:24

Mom Pam was twenty years younger than her

47:27

husband and he jacked eccles. Who. Adopted

47:29

Damien Assist. Them. Until

47:31

the case worker that he broke up with Sienna

47:33

at the insistence of her parents. Within.

47:35

A month of the first incidents jen his mother called

47:38

the police report the Dm though was seen day me

47:40

to get. An. Officer now worn Damien to

47:42

stay away from her. Sixties layered. Yet

47:44

His mom called the police a third time to report that

47:46

are daughter had run away. Officers went

47:48

to legs or states. found the two

47:50

teams hide now in an uninhabited trailer.

47:53

Partially. Nude. From. The waist down and

47:55

to be both a finger being. A

47:57

felony thing being. kind of adjacent ball was

47:59

with them, Damien and Deanna acknowledged that they planned to run

48:02

away, but they didn't own a car, so they waited out

48:04

the storm in the trailer. They were charged

48:06

with burglary and sexual misconduct. Come

48:09

on, why charge it with anything? There were a couple teens

48:12

fooling around in an abandoned trailer. How

48:14

about file that under who gives a shit? That's

48:16

what teens are supposed to do. I'm sure they

48:18

would have loved to get their fuck on in their own

48:21

home, but they didn't have those things yet. They were living

48:23

with parental clock blockers. Also,

48:25

did Deanna have a problem with Damien

48:27

or did Deanna's parents have a problem with

48:30

Damien? Did they just not want their daughter dating the weird kid?

48:32

Someone from the county

48:34

juvenile office requested to search Damien's room at home

48:36

now, and they discovered notebooks with Damien's writings and

48:38

drawings, which will be later used against him in

48:40

the murder case. You know, he

48:42

wrote some spooky horror fiction. Oh no. He

48:45

scribbled down pentagrams. Who gives a shit?

48:48

Has anyone ever scribbled down some pentagrams and then everyone around

48:51

them just fucking burst into flames and died? No.

48:54

Did the weird kid who got picked on all the time

48:56

also write about wanting to kill some other kids? Yeah,

48:58

he did. And if I was him, I would

49:00

have probably done that shit too. He was venting, journaling, using

49:03

his creativity as an escape, an outlet

49:05

for his understandable anger. Of course,

49:07

he wrote about shit like that. I would hate my classmates

49:09

too if I was him and getting constantly fucked with for

49:11

being different, which he was. Deanna

49:14

was released into her parents' custody, but Damien was

49:16

now held in a juvenile detention center. Rumors

49:19

now spread around school and the neighborhoods that

49:21

he and Deanna were planning to have

49:23

a baby so they could sacrifice the baby in a

49:25

satanic ritual. Totally unfounded rumors.

49:29

At most, Damien Deanna made some dark jokes,

49:31

or people just lied and said they wanted

49:33

to do this. You know, I don't know

49:35

about your high school, but my high school

49:38

was a constant over the top rumor mill.

49:41

Kids got accused of wild shit

49:43

all the time. Crazy stuff. One

49:46

of many examples. There was this one

49:48

kid who lived ways outside of town in this

49:50

beat up trailer with no running water from what

49:52

I understood. And there was sheep on the property

49:55

and he smelled bad, smelled bad.

49:57

And he was like shy and just, I don't know, just socially,

49:59

just off. And what did kids start saying about

50:01

him? That he was in bread, and that he

50:03

fucked his sister, and that he fucked those sheep. Did

50:06

anyone ever see him fuck a sister or a

50:08

sheep? Nope. Did social

50:10

workers, to my knowledge, ever come to his house

50:12

because there was evidence of this? No. He's just

50:15

different. And he got picked on a lot. And

50:17

people lied about him a lot. They lied so much

50:20

that I hate to admit it, but I believed the

50:22

lies. I didn't even question where the

50:24

rumors came from when I was in school, right? People just

50:26

said it, and I believed it. I

50:28

legitimately thought he was some sister

50:30

and sheepfucker. Looking back,

50:32

I don't think that at all. I think his

50:34

family was just especially poor, and he

50:37

probably had a learning disability. And I think that

50:39

we were fucking assholes who didn't understand what he

50:41

was going through, and some of us

50:43

just started making up mean shit for easy laughs.

50:45

And then that mean shit became part of his

50:47

supposedly true story, which is fucking terrible. I

50:50

think with Damien, because he was different, because he liked

50:52

to shock people, because he was dealing with mental illness,

50:54

as we will learn. I think people

50:56

around me just made up all kinds of rumors about him, and

50:59

those rumors just became accepted truth. County

51:02

Juvenile Officer Jerry Driver heard some of

51:04

these satanic rumors, and then

51:07

contacted the psychiatric hospital in Little Rock. Oh,

51:10

Jerry. Jerry shows up a lot. And

51:12

the 2012 documentary produced by Lord of

51:15

the Rings director Peter Jackson and others west

51:17

of Memphis. And Jerry does not

51:19

come across as a real learned

51:21

man. He comes across as

51:23

a paranoid idiot. He

51:26

also appears to have little risks. And

51:28

Suspect, interpupillary distance. Looks like

51:31

a guy who gets dick-mogged a lot. Definitely

51:33

gets muzzle-mogged by any brads

51:35

or chads with decent pracs. Maybe

51:37

an angry insult. I don't know. Jerry was way into satanic

51:39

panic stuff. He watched videos sent

51:41

by the law enforcement members at the time about

51:44

how to identify signs of satanic ritual abuse. He

51:48

was convinced, before he even

51:50

met Damien, that bloodthirsty satanists were fucking

51:52

crawling all over west Memphis. Somebody

51:55

told me that Jerry was a big QAnon or Pizzagate guy,

51:57

Or had been part of the January 6th

51:59

interview. Directions I would not be soft. Adult.

52:03

More. Elaborate, an expert on the West

52:05

Memphis Three, and an investigative reporter focused on

52:08

Arkansas who's a member of the Arkansas Writers

52:10

Hall of Fame, wrote. Though.

52:12

The A Colts would remain a vague term. A.

52:14

Belief that a cold or say ten of

52:17

activities were dangerously of foot in the county

52:19

was already well established among some law enforcement

52:21

officials by the time the murders occurred. That.

52:24

Believe to be attributed to the efforts

52:26

of Jerry Driver, a county juvenile officer

52:28

who was seen by police as the

52:30

local expert. On how the

52:32

occult and prime converts. So.

52:34

Sad discover that an expert does. Guy

52:36

wasn't actually, you know, formally educated or

52:38

anything led to the colts. Are you

52:41

fucking dude? It. Was a lot

52:43

of but city videos and read some

52:45

poorly written books books like Michelle Remembers

52:47

and Sainz Underground and now he is

52:49

an expert. And things he actually had

52:51

no clue about. Damien. Told

52:53

driver while he wasn't you be that he believed

52:55

in wicker. And worship goddesses and that

52:57

was not a good call. Now

53:00

instead of just accepting the day mean at an interesting wake

53:02

up, who gives a shit, will drive or something close the

53:04

Demons leader. Of group dedicated to court

53:06

little active, he's a sadist. Which

53:09

is a modern day nature based pagan

53:11

religion that originated in England in the

53:13

mid twentieth century. It's influence by pre

53:15

Christian beliefs and practices is based on

53:17

traditions from Northern and Western Europe and

53:20

has not seen. I. Guess is

53:22

that enough? Nothing. To. Do was a. Wiggins.

53:25

Don't even recognize the concept of

53:27

Satan. The. Concept of a Christian

53:29

Dell has literally zero place in their

53:31

belief system, but we can get accused

53:34

of being said haneke all the time

53:36

by certain Christian fundamentalist groups who think

53:38

that anything pagan is fundamentally said Tech.

53:40

Or Bill Gothard focus on the

53:43

family for example the religious in

53:45

education educational institution we learned about

53:47

The Duggar absence of episode roma

53:49

use Bicycle Talk come from Ah,

53:51

here's what they say. About the

53:53

link between Wicket and Satanism in an article on

53:55

their website right now called the Hidden Traps of

53:57

With. Many. with

53:59

and that Wicca is harmless and nature-loving,

54:02

that it has nothing to do with evil,

54:04

Satanism, and dark forces. But

54:06

that is exactly what Satan wants them to believe. Intent

54:09

on deceit, Satan himself masquerades as an

54:11

angel of light, says the Apostle Paul, who does

54:14

not surprise you then, if his

54:16

servants masquerade as servants of

54:18

righteousness. Right? Just a fucking casual link

54:20

there. Oh yeah, no, you think it's harmless. No,

54:22

it's satanic. While Damon

54:24

was still in Juvy, in this juvenile facility,

54:27

Jerry Driver contacts a consultant, some

54:29

other wackadoodle, not named, who gave

54:31

lectures on crime and the occult. Well, the

54:33

consultant comes to West Memphis with photos of graffiti

54:35

and other cult paraphernalia. Driver thinks

54:37

it's similar to various symbols he's seen in the county. Jerry

54:40

believes cult-related activity is escalating now in

54:42

Crittenden County. He's heard rumors that

54:45

bad things are going to happen. This is all

54:47

paranoia. Nothing's fucking happening. No

54:50

later arrest will confirm his satanic panic suspicions,

54:53

other than the fucking misguided West Memphis 3 arrest.

54:56

Some goth kid doesn't want to worship Jesus

54:58

and draws pentagrams, and that's enough for Jeribear

55:01

to lose his shit. Some

55:03

psychiatrists at the facility who assessed Damon,

55:05

people more educated than Jerry Driver, noted

55:08

that he said he was not involved in

55:10

Satanism and was involved with witchcraft. But

55:13

Jerry wasn't, frankly, smart enough to

55:15

discern the difference between Satanism and

55:18

witchcraft. Also, most

55:20

forms of Satanism are harmless, right?

55:22

At least in the secular world they are. When it comes

55:24

to how spiritually damaging they may or may not be, well,

55:27

that's going to depend on your faith. But

55:29

in this world, in terms of real

55:31

concrete earthly actions, there's

55:33

no evidence that this belief system

55:35

predisposes you towards committing violent

55:37

crimes or killing fucking babies all

55:39

willy-nilly. It does

55:41

predispose you to riling up certain Christians and

55:44

getting a lot of shit for your beliefs

55:47

in certain places. Damien was

55:49

diagnosed with major depression in this facility. One

55:52

examiner raised the possibility of bipolar disorder.

55:55

These immediate problems were listed as extreme

55:57

physical aggression towards others, suicidal ID.

56:00

and intent, depressed mood and bizarre

56:02

and unusual thinking. Damien

56:04

will be hospitalized for three weeks until

56:06

he's no longer considered a danger to himself or others.

56:09

He's prescribed antidepressants and then he leaves

56:11

the facility. He will not

56:14

be forgotten about by Jerry Driver. Driver

56:16

worries that Nichols is a fucking time bomb. One

56:19

of Satan's minions about to do something unforgivable

56:21

to please his dark master. I

56:24

bet Jerry is a huge striper fan. Jerry

56:34

has some of their concertees in his closet. July

56:36

of 1992, Damien and his sister moved

56:38

with their mom to Aloha, Oregon, an outer

56:41

suburb of Portland. I'm sure he

56:43

thought about this many times later while he was incarcerated about

56:45

how he wanted, wished he would have stayed there. She

56:48

reunited with the kids biological father, Joe

56:50

Hutchinson. Mom and dad back together. Damien

56:52

starts working at a BP gas station managed by

56:54

his dad. Officer Jerry

56:57

Driver is so fucking worried about

56:59

Damien. He asks juvenile authorities

57:01

in Oregon to closely supervise him while

57:03

he is still on probation. You

57:05

gotta keep an eye on Satan's minion boys.

57:07

He's a level 5 demon zombie, 100%

57:10

in the league with Beelzebub. You

57:12

need to take a quick baby count. This

57:14

is a must. This is very important. You

57:16

need to know exactly how many babies live

57:18

within a 20-mile radius of Damien at all

57:20

times. Also, how many women

57:22

are pregnant and about to have babies? That's another

57:25

must. Take a few hours, go to all the

57:27

local area hospitals, and ask them to send you

57:29

a baby head count every day. You

57:31

can't not do this. Whenever you

57:33

see any babies in public, you need to

57:35

take their pictures, ask their parents for their

57:37

names, create dossiers on all the local babies.

57:40

Will it be possible to recruit any

57:42

little people? That's informants. I

57:45

can't recommend this enough. It's imperative. Hire

57:47

some little people as part of an

57:49

undercover operation where they will infiltrate local

57:51

daycares pretending to be babies. You need

57:53

to know what your local babies are

57:55

talking about. Oh, and

57:57

and virgins. My God, almost forgot. You

57:59

have to. to find out what women in

58:01

your area are virgins. That's a must. They're

58:04

not safe. Do you have the power

58:06

to conduct mandatory hymen checks on females

58:08

in your area? Can you

58:10

open up some fake women's wellness centers where

58:12

you can have officers pretend to be OBGYNs?

58:15

Have all the crypts in your cemeteries check for

58:17

portals to hell as well? That's a must. You

58:20

have to do that. Have you done that yet?

58:23

You know what? There's just too much to discuss over the

58:25

phone. I'm going to need to fly out, run

58:27

some satanic surveillance on the ground

58:29

out there. That's another must. It's

58:31

a non-negotiable. This fucking

58:33

driver idiot tells the counselor that

58:35

Damien and his associates are involved in a satanic

58:38

cult. There's no fucking evidence of that. He

58:41

just keeps telling everybody who will listen to him.

58:45

He said that Damien and his girlfriend were put in

58:47

a psychiatric hospital. Damien threatened to kill his girlfriend's parents.

58:49

Damien said he was a witch. Damien was planning to

58:51

sacrifice a child. His parents were

58:53

suspected of being involved in the same

58:55

satanic cult. The counselor

58:57

visited the family, wrote that Pam and Joe said

58:59

that they had zero problems with Damien. Not

59:02

a lot of Satan stuff going on. He was a good kid. Damien

59:05

reported that he was working at the gas

59:07

station full time. Said he didn't have any

59:09

current hobbies or interests. He denied being involved

59:11

in a satanic cult and was super

59:14

fucking annoyed about Jerry

59:16

Driver's continual accusations. He

59:19

admitted that his religious beliefs centered around witchcraft

59:21

but distinguished that or tried to to people

59:23

from Satanism. He acknowledged that he in

59:25

the past did have a suicide pact with his girlfriend.

59:28

If authorities or her parents kept trying to keep

59:30

them apart but after being hospitalized that was

59:32

over. No longer wanted to hurt himself or anyone else. He's

59:35

on his meds now. Damien is strongly denied

59:37

threatening to kill Deanna's parents. Oregon

59:39

authorities recommended minimum supervision for Damien until December

59:41

11th, 1992 when he

59:43

returned 18 which was still several months

59:45

away. Two days later

59:48

Jerry Driver, the fucking Jerry Driver sends

59:50

a letter informing Oregon officials that Damien is trying

59:52

to get in touch with Deanna which has violated

59:55

the terms of his probation and he wants him

59:57

arrested. He doesn't receive a

59:59

response. What if the Oregon

1:00:01

authorities had learned to just no longer take Driver

1:00:03

2 seriously? What is the deal with that dude?

1:00:06

Fuck and Satan this and Satan that.

1:00:09

Got some paranoid weirdos out in West Memphis. Damien,

1:00:13

however, he would be dealing with some shit

1:00:15

here within two months of turning

1:00:18

Damien's parents do call the local police on him in Oregon.

1:00:21

They report that they're afraid he's going to hurt himself or

1:00:24

them. He's having another episode. He's arrested, taken

1:00:26

to a hospital. Damien denied experiencing

1:00:28

hallucinations or delusions. Denied his parents' statement that

1:00:30

he was into Satanism or devil worship. They're

1:00:32

convinced now. Also, denies threatening to

1:00:34

cut his mother's throat. However, the physician who examines

1:00:36

him notes that he does admit he

1:00:39

had made verbal threats against his father. He's

1:00:41

admitted to a psychiatric ward and is placed

1:00:43

under suicide watch. Damien

1:00:45

gives an interview with hospital staff who conclude

1:00:47

he comes from a very troubled, very dysfunctional

1:00:50

family. Pam said that

1:00:52

she and Joe now no longer want Damien because

1:00:54

of the threats. He spends two

1:00:56

days in the hospital after that the staff no longer consider him

1:00:58

a threat, but aren't sure where to send him.

1:01:00

His family doesn't want to take him back home. Damien

1:01:02

wants to go back to Arkansas, but he's still a minor,

1:01:04

not for long, but still. His physician

1:01:07

writes that plans for his emancipation and return to

1:01:09

Arkansas seem reasonable to him and that Damien planned

1:01:11

to live with his stepfather, Jack Eccles. The

1:01:14

hospital notifies Oregon juvenile officials

1:01:16

who notify, unfortunately, fucking Jerry

1:01:18

Driver. Hipshit Driver now

1:01:20

submits an affidavit stating that Damien has violated

1:01:22

his probation by making threats moving out of

1:01:25

his parents' home and returning to Arkansas. He

1:01:28

requests that the prosecutor revoke his probation

1:01:30

and that request is granted. Oregon

1:01:33

juvenile officials will ignore his suggestion, but this

1:01:36

guy has such a fucking hard on for this kid. When

1:01:39

Damien shows back up in Arkansas, he is immediately

1:01:41

arrested upon his return and sent back to Juve.

1:01:44

Damien is very angry about this. A

1:01:47

few hours after he arrives at the detention center, he is sitting in

1:01:49

the rec area with some other teens and he has a bit of

1:01:51

a breakdown. He does do some weird shit. The

1:01:54

director's report records the following incident. One

1:01:57

of the boys who had scraped his arm a little and it

1:01:59

was bleeding them. Without warning, Damien

1:02:01

grabbed the arm that was bleeding and began to

1:02:03

suck the blood from it. The

1:02:05

boys all stated he had been saying he had not

1:02:08

taken his medication the night before, and he was

1:02:10

about to go off on them. Damien was

1:02:12

asked why he did this and he stated, I don't know.

1:02:15

He also told staff he had threatened to kill his father and

1:02:17

eat him. The director

1:02:19

concludes that Damien needs mental health treatment.

1:02:21

Yeah. He returned to the

1:02:23

psychiatric hospital for two weeks. Gets

1:02:25

more treatment, gets more meds, and then is released at

1:02:27

the end of September 1992. All

1:02:30

of this makes Jerry, of course, that much more

1:02:32

suspicious of Damien. He's very worried about

1:02:35

what Damien is going to do soon in the West

1:02:37

Memphis area. Damien now

1:02:39

moves back to Marion, just outside of West Memphis,

1:02:41

live with his stepdad. Officer driver is required to

1:02:43

come to his office, or requires him to come

1:02:46

into his office at least once a week to

1:02:48

chat. I bet Damien loved that. So

1:02:51

Damien, doing any babysitting

1:02:53

I should be aware of? How

1:02:55

many babies did you see this

1:02:57

week? Do you know anyone who is pregnant?

1:03:00

Had any chats I should know about

1:03:02

with your dark lord and master Satan,

1:03:04

or any of his demonic millions this

1:03:06

week? Damien

1:03:14

now has to follow a curfew, enroll in vocational

1:03:16

tech school, obtain his GED, and listen to Striper

1:03:18

nonstop on loop. He

1:03:20

doesn't have to listen to Striper. He has to

1:03:22

do the other stuff. By the end of December,

1:03:25

just 10 days after turning 18, Damien has his

1:03:27

GED and has satisfied the conditions of his juvenile

1:03:29

probation. They still keep the close eye on him. I'm

1:03:31

not saying he's not, you know, troubled. He is troubled. But

1:03:34

you know, that isn't a way to being a murderer. Around this

1:03:36

time, he is also starting to date

1:03:38

16 year old Dominee Tier, who lived

1:03:40

in the nearby Lakeshore Estates. He

1:03:42

did a part time job at the roofing company and went

1:03:44

to appointments at the local mental health center. Over

1:03:47

time, Damien opened up more to his therapist. Damien

1:03:49

said that the hospital, he was told

1:03:51

he could be another Charles Manson or Ted Bundy.

1:03:54

He told his therapist he hated the human race

1:03:56

and said local police were constantly harassing him because

1:03:59

they believed with some kind of satanic leader. Fucking

1:04:02

Jerry. In a session on January

1:04:04

25th, 1993, Damien tells his

1:04:06

therapist that he has obtained power by drinking the

1:04:08

blood of a sexual partner. So

1:04:10

yeah, he is into some weird shit. Some

1:04:13

Alistair Crowley sex magic type shit.

1:04:16

Now he's definitely doing insane things that, you know,

1:04:18

we're freaking a lot of people out in West

1:04:20

Memphis. But again, this is not evidence of

1:04:23

him being a brutal child killer. And

1:04:26

now before I share the details of the killings

1:04:28

time for our second mid show sponsor break. I'm

1:04:31

back. Now I'll share the fateful

1:04:34

events from May 5th, 1993. Four months later, at 6pm, May

1:04:41

5th, 1993, eight year old friends Christopher

1:04:43

Byers, Michael Moore and Stevie Branch are

1:04:46

seen riding their bikes on North 14th Street

1:04:48

in West Memphis. Christopher Mark

1:04:50

Byers born June 23rd, 1984 in

1:04:52

Memphis, Tennessee. He lived

1:04:54

with his mom, Melissa Byers and his stepdad,

1:04:57

John Mark Byers. James Michael

1:04:59

Moore born on July 27th, 1984 in Key West, Florida.

1:05:03

Lived with his parents Todd and Dana Moore. Stevie,

1:05:06

Steve Edward Branch was

1:05:08

born on November 26th, 1984

1:05:11

in Blytheville, Arkansas. Lived with

1:05:13

his mom Pamela Hobbs and his stepfather, Terry

1:05:16

Hobbs. Terry fucking Hobbs. Remember

1:05:19

his name. Gonna have a lot to

1:05:21

say about him before we wrap up. All three of

1:05:23

these boys were in the Cub Scouts together. They like

1:05:25

swimming, riding their bikes, playing in the woods together. 8pm,

1:05:28

still on May 5th, John Mark Byers now calls

1:05:30

the West Memphis police to report that his stepson

1:05:32

Christopher is missing. An officer comes to

1:05:34

interview him 10 minutes later. John

1:05:37

Mark and his wife, Melissa Byers, tell the patrol officer

1:05:39

that they last saw Chris at 5.30pm when they were

1:05:41

working in New York. Remember

1:05:43

that time they saw him. 5.30pm.

1:05:46

By 8.30pm, the officer was searched in

1:05:48

a wooded area called Robin Hood Hills

1:05:51

and slash Robin Hood Woods informal name

1:05:53

where Christopher sometimes played with his friends. Robin

1:05:56

Hood Hills Woods described

1:05:58

as a mosquito infested four-inch acre woods

1:06:00

near Interstate 40 where neighborhood children

1:06:02

would sometimes play. At

1:06:04

8 40 p.m. May 5th, the West Memphis Police

1:06:07

reported, received a report that a bleeding

1:06:09

man entered the local Bojangles about

1:06:11

30 minutes earlier and went into the

1:06:13

women's restroom. Praise Bojangles, so glad

1:06:15

he was strong enough to survive a fully grown

1:06:18

man fully entering him. That's

1:06:20

the wrong Bojangles. Talking about the fast food franchise now.

1:06:23

Officer Regina Meek arrived at 8 50,

1:06:26

questioned manager Marty King to the drive-through window. King

1:06:28

said the man was black, wearing a white cap, black

1:06:30

pants, blue shirt, shoes were muddy, had

1:06:33

blood on his face and arm, and appeared to

1:06:35

be mentally disoriented. He left the

1:06:37

restaurant minutes before Officer Meek got there.

1:06:39

Excuse me, the employees then found blood smeared on the

1:06:41

wall of the women's bathroom. Officer

1:06:43

Meek left at 9 0 1 p.m. without bothering

1:06:45

to ever enter the restaurant. A

1:06:48

sample of the blood found inside will later

1:06:50

be gathered but will never be tested. Could

1:06:53

this man have been the killer? Around

1:06:55

9 24 p.m. Officer Meek responded to a call

1:06:57

from Dana Moore now, reporting her son Michael

1:06:59

was missing. Dana lived across from the

1:07:01

Byers family. She saw Michael riding

1:07:03

his bike with Stevie and Christopher but lost sight of

1:07:05

them. She sent her daughter after them but when he

1:07:07

didn't her return for dinner she

1:07:10

couldn't find them. Yeah,

1:07:12

she sent her daughter after them when he

1:07:14

didn't return for dinner but her

1:07:17

daughter couldn't find them. Later that night Pamela Hobbs

1:07:19

reported her son Stevie Branch missing. She

1:07:21

had been at work that evening. Terry

1:07:23

Hobbs, Stevie's stepdad, doesn't report

1:07:25

shit even though he'd been

1:07:27

off work for hours. Pamela

1:07:30

said she hadn't seen Stevie since he left for school

1:07:32

that morning. Between 9 30 10 p.m. woman

1:07:35

named Narlene Hollingsworth reported Damien

1:07:37

Eccles and Dominie, his girlfriend

1:07:39

who lived nearby walking near the Blue Beacon truck wash on

1:07:41

the edge of Robin Hood Hills. They

1:07:45

both had mud in their pants. Prosecutors would later argue

1:07:47

that the three boys were killed during this time frame.

1:07:50

Prosecutors will also argue that Narlene

1:07:52

must have mistaken Jason Baldwin for

1:07:54

Dominie even though the two look

1:07:57

fucking nothing like each other. Narlene and

1:07:59

various other families members will claim to see

1:08:01

the murder victims at different times, at different

1:08:03

days, at different locations. They'll claim

1:08:05

all kinds of shits that they saw when

1:08:08

they were all together that will

1:08:11

conflict, conflict massively. Narlene

1:08:13

also said she saw Jesse McKelly, Miss Kelly at

1:08:15

6.30pm the night of the murders, which is probably

1:08:17

closer to the time when they were actually killed.

1:08:20

Jesse was supposed to be with Damien and Jason when they

1:08:22

killed the kids. This kind of fucks

1:08:24

that up. I should add, where the kids are killed is

1:08:26

near this big truck stop gas station and this trailer park

1:08:29

where there were loads of kids. Damien, Jason,

1:08:31

Jesse, dozens of other kids are all around

1:08:33

this place all the time. So

1:08:36

it would be weird to see any of these people here. On

1:08:38

the night of May 5th, the officer who took the report for

1:08:40

Steve, he searched the woods for half an hour but didn't see

1:08:42

anything and that was all the

1:08:45

searching that will happen by law enforcement that night.

1:08:47

Some of the kids' family and friends will canvass

1:08:49

the area a bit, but after dark most

1:08:52

people tend to give up and they'll start again in the morning.

1:08:55

On Monday, May 6th, 1993, the bodies of Christopher

1:08:57

Byers, Stevie Branch, and Michael Moore will be found

1:08:59

in Robin Hood Hills. At

1:09:02

6am, West Memphis PD Chief Inspector Gary

1:09:04

Glitchill announced that the three boys were

1:09:06

missing and that he would lead search

1:09:08

efforts for them. By noon, most

1:09:10

of the searchers left the woods to go to

1:09:12

other places. Steve Jones,

1:09:14

a juvenile officer and the

1:09:16

assistant of Officer Jerry Fucking

1:09:18

Driver, remained in the woods. He

1:09:21

looked down at Gully, saw a black tennis shoe, floating in

1:09:23

the water of a drainage ditch. First

1:09:26

body will be found at 1.45pm. Sergeant

1:09:29

Mike Allen will get in the water first when he

1:09:31

lifts his shoe, or this shoe, the

1:09:35

muck beneath his shoe made a sucking, reluctant

1:09:37

sound, then a pale form began to rise

1:09:40

in the water. Slowly before

1:09:42

the horrified officer's eyes, a child's naked

1:09:44

body, arched grotesquely backward, rose to the

1:09:46

surface. His first victim found is Michael

1:09:48

Moore. Detective Bryn

1:09:50

Ridge found the body of Stevie Branch next, and

1:09:53

then Christopher Byers is found last. The

1:09:55

boys are naked, their hands and feet have been bound

1:09:57

with shoelaces, and they have been beaten and Chris Byers

1:09:59

is found last. This mutilation will be another

1:10:02

big focal point in the murder trial. And then years later,

1:10:04

half a dozen forensic experts, all of

1:10:06

them, way more qualified than the one who initially worked this

1:10:08

case, will

1:10:11

independently come to the same conclusion

1:10:13

that Chris was not the victim

1:10:15

of sexual mutilation. At the very least,

1:10:18

not nearly to the level that they

1:10:20

believed, not exactly, turtles. Some fucking

1:10:22

turtles snacked on his dick and balls

1:10:24

after he was dead. Seriously, I will explain that much more later.

1:10:28

But it feels important to mention now. I

1:10:30

cannot stress enough how the initial

1:10:32

investigators completely fucked their entire investigation

1:10:35

by totally misreading this crime scene. They

1:10:37

were thinking emotionally and not logically. They built a

1:10:39

story in their heads of what happened, proceeded to

1:10:41

employ a lot of cognitive dissonance to force future

1:10:43

details to corroborate to this narrative they fucking came

1:10:46

up with in their heads, and anything

1:10:48

that didn't conform to their made-up story would just

1:10:50

be ignored. The initial work of these investigators

1:10:52

should be used to teach other investigators what not to

1:10:54

do. Investigators took

1:10:56

note of these details as summarized

1:10:58

by Mara Leverett. Why

1:11:01

had one of the boys been castrated? How to account

1:11:03

for the absence of blood? Why did the banks of

1:11:05

the stream look swept clean? Well, Jerry

1:11:07

Driver, who is there right after these

1:11:09

bodies are found, immediately states that he

1:11:11

thinks they need to look into Damien

1:11:14

Eccles. He's certain this is Damien's

1:11:16

work. It has to be him. Fucking Jerry.

1:11:19

And this completely just, you know,

1:11:22

becomes the narrative now, right from the very beginning. The

1:11:24

coroner arrives at 4 p.m., pronounces all three boys dead.

1:11:28

Dr. Frank Peretti, the medical examiner, will later testify

1:11:30

that the boys were likely murdered between 1 and

1:11:32

5 a.m. on May 6th, so 1 a.m.

1:11:35

and 5 a.m. Boys

1:11:38

had, which is probably not true, boys

1:11:40

had multiple severe injuries. According to Oxygen,

1:11:42

the side of Branch's face was ripped

1:11:44

apart, and by his genitals were so

1:11:46

badly mutilated he was essentially castrated. Then

1:11:49

it scratches, bite marks, and possible stab wounds on

1:11:51

their bodies. Chris died of multiple

1:11:53

injuries. Michael and Stevie died

1:11:55

of multiple injuries with drowning. Later

1:11:57

that day, the West Memphis PD sends Detective... Burn

1:12:00

Ridge and Sergeant Mike Allen to collect

1:12:02

blood scrapings from the wall at the

1:12:05

Bojangles restaurant. But no additional

1:12:07

interviews are conducted and again these

1:12:09

scrapings will never be examined. Why would

1:12:11

they be? They knew who did it. Damien Eccles.

1:12:14

Inspector Glitchill told reporters that they were investigating the

1:12:16

possibility that the murders were connected to cult activity.

1:12:19

Rumors were already circulating that

1:12:21

the murders were committed by devil worshippers. Rumors

1:12:24

started by Jerry Driver. Here

1:12:26

we go. Jerry and the rest of this lot

1:12:28

exact same brains as members of a medieval mob

1:12:31

carrying pitchforks and torches, headed to grab some witches

1:12:33

and have them burned at the stake. Burn

1:12:35

the witch! This is truly modern day witch

1:12:37

hunts. It's begun. A literal

1:12:40

witch hunts since Damien is wicked. Next

1:12:42

day, May 7th, Damien Eccles questioned by

1:12:44

juvenile officer Steve Jones and Lieutenant James

1:12:46

Sudbury. No notes are taken.

1:12:49

Damien will be questioned three times between May 7th and

1:12:51

May 10th, twice at his home, once at the police

1:12:54

station. Told the officers he spent

1:12:56

the evening of May 5th at home with his mom and

1:12:58

spoke on the phone with two girlfriends in Memphis. One

1:13:00

of the officers wrote that Damien likes

1:13:02

to read books by Stephen King

1:13:05

and has evil across his left

1:13:08

knuckles. Oh man, he reads Stephen

1:13:10

King books? He must have done it.

1:13:13

It's fucking 1993. What kind of dorks aren't reading

1:13:15

Stephen King? May

1:13:17

8th, Detective Bill Durham and Investigator Shane

1:13:19

Griffith questioned Damien Eccles and Jason Baldwin.

1:13:22

They told the detectives they had never heard of the three boys

1:13:24

who were killed. Investigators took

1:13:26

note of the fact that Jason also

1:13:28

has the word evil tattooed on his

1:13:31

knuckles, clearly a member of

1:13:33

Damien's satanic cult. Damien

1:13:36

was interviewed by Lieutenant Sudbury and Detective Burn

1:13:38

Ridge May 10th without his lawyer presence. He

1:13:40

took a polygraph administered by Detective Bill Durham.

1:13:43

Detective Burn Ridge wrote that Durham reported

1:13:45

that Damien had been untruthful and,

1:13:47

according to the polygraph, was involved in the

1:13:49

murders. Polygraphs

1:13:51

are notoriously unreliable.

1:13:55

All that test determined was that Damien, who

1:13:57

again is mentally ill, was fucking

1:13:59

nervous. Uh, would you be

1:14:01

nervous if the police had now interviewed you three

1:14:03

times in four days because you're a

1:14:05

suspect for the murder of three boys? Police

1:14:08

who you know hate you, who

1:14:10

think you're satanic, who you

1:14:12

know want you to have done it. They

1:14:14

want to arrest you, are actively trying to

1:14:16

pin this on you. Yeah, I'd be nervous.

1:14:19

I'd be nervous as fuck. May

1:14:21

12, 1993, the police questioned Damien's mother, Pam Eccles.

1:14:24

She said Damien was at home on the night

1:14:26

of the murders. She was there. He

1:14:28

was playing video games with another kid, spoke

1:14:30

to two girls who lived in Memphis on the

1:14:32

phone. One of those girls will speak with police

1:14:34

and corroborate this alibi. The cops

1:14:36

will ignore this and will ignore all other

1:14:39

alibis from the suspects. Around

1:14:41

this time, a local waitress and volunteer detective

1:14:44

named Vicky Hutchinson will get involved in this

1:14:46

case and really fuck it up some more.

1:14:49

Vicky, 29 or 30 years old at the time,

1:14:52

she's conducting her own

1:14:54

investigation. She's not qualified to do this. Her

1:14:57

son, Aaron, was friends with the victims and

1:15:00

Vicky will now throw a lot of fuel and then Damien did a

1:15:02

fire with a bunch of lies and she will lie so,

1:15:05

so much. One of

1:15:07

Vicky's neighbors was 17-year-old Jesse Mckelly. He occasionally babysat

1:15:09

her kids and cut her grass. According to Vicky,

1:15:11

after the bodies were found, Jesse told her that

1:15:13

on the morning of the disappearance, he

1:15:15

saw some boys who fit the victim's descriptions walking

1:15:18

near the Blue Beacon truck wash, which is

1:15:20

by the little stretch of woods, like

1:15:22

right next to it. However, it couldn't

1:15:24

have been them because all three boys were

1:15:27

at school the day of the murder, so he didn't see

1:15:29

that. He's mistaken. Still, Vicky keeps talking

1:15:31

to Jesse and eventually he tells her about

1:15:33

his friend Damien who, quote, drank blood and

1:15:35

stuff. She immediately is

1:15:37

super suspicious. Who is this

1:15:39

blood drinker, right? She's already heard

1:15:42

fucking rumors about satanic involvement. This

1:15:44

kid sounds like somebody who probably sacrifices kids

1:15:47

to the devil. She

1:15:55

now thinks her connection with Jesse will give her an opportunity

1:15:57

to learn more about Damien. The

1:16:00

police, you know, well, sorry, I already said that. Vicki's

1:16:03

been told the police think the murders are cult related,

1:16:05

but she's already heard like rumor mills about this. With

1:16:08

permission from the police, Vicki asked Jessie to

1:16:10

arrange an introduction with Damien, telling Jessie she

1:16:12

thought Damien was hot, wanted to go out

1:16:14

with him. Soon,

1:16:16

Jessie brings Damien to Vicki's house and introduces the

1:16:18

two. May 27th, so she's

1:16:20

just doing her own undercover work now. May

1:16:23

27th, 1990, which is fucking weird. May

1:16:26

27th, 1993, Vicki Hutchinson speaks to police, tells

1:16:28

them about evidence that suggests Damien and Jessie

1:16:30

are involved in cult activities and the three

1:16:32

murders, based on just fucking nonsense.

1:16:35

Vicki's eight-year-old son, Aaron, told the police that

1:16:37

he often went to Robin Hood with

1:16:40

the three murdered boys and that sometimes they saw five

1:16:42

men sitting in a circle singing songs to the devil

1:16:44

and doing what men and ladies do. He

1:16:47

did not see this. His mom got him all

1:16:49

worked up. He'll really cant all of this years later. They both will. Years

1:16:52

later, Vicki will tearfully break down when

1:16:54

being interviewed for a documentary and profusely

1:16:56

apologize for lying about so much shit.

1:17:00

Jerry Driver had spoken to her before she

1:17:02

met Damien, had fueled her satanic panic leanings,

1:17:05

and heavily pressured her to tell him and other officers what they

1:17:07

wanted to hear. I'll have more details about

1:17:09

that later. The following are

1:17:11

some key quotes from Vicki's son, Aaron, in

1:17:13

his May 27th interview. Aaron

1:17:16

talked to Detective Byrne Ridge and

1:17:18

Inspector Glitzel, and these detectives know

1:17:20

better than the detectives who interviewed

1:17:22

kids related to the McMartin Preschool

1:17:24

Bullshit investigation. Aaron said that on the day of

1:17:26

the murders, his friends asked his mom if he could come to

1:17:28

Michael's house to play at their clubhouse. He said

1:17:30

that they sometimes would go to Robin Hood's

1:17:33

together. When asked what they did

1:17:35

there, he said, we played and added, and sometimes we'd watch

1:17:37

these men. He said the men were

1:17:39

doing nasty stuff and explained that

1:17:41

it was what men and women do. He

1:17:44

claimed that they had seen the men about five times,

1:17:46

but they always hid when they saw them. Also

1:17:49

said that he had seen one of the men at the local market. Aaron

1:17:52

was asked if they were wearing any jewelry. He

1:17:54

said there was a skull commander he had on

1:17:56

a necklace of skulls, and there was a snake

1:17:58

in its eye. Okay. Vicki

1:18:00

had mentioned a pendant airing the day we left their house,

1:18:02

which was a skull with a snake through the

1:18:04

eyes. Aaron said that Chris and

1:18:06

Michael went down to watch those men on a Wednesday. He was

1:18:08

going to go with them, but his mom didn't let him go.

1:18:11

He said, I think they was watching the men like like

1:18:13

we always did. And they they got caught.

1:18:15

And they never told the men and men sort of killed them.

1:18:19

Following comes from Vicki Hutchinson statement the following day, May

1:18:21

28. I think

1:18:23

that's following day. Sorry, I can't

1:18:25

remember the date. I said a little bit ago. Doesn't

1:18:27

matter. Whatever I said it was. Vicki said that she

1:18:29

picked Aaron up from school 3pm, May 5. At

1:18:32

3 15, Michael Moore and Christopher Byers came to her vehicle

1:18:34

with Aaron and told her there was a Cub Scout thing

1:18:36

that Aaron needed to attend. Michael's father was a troop

1:18:38

leader. Michael was really incessant upon

1:18:41

Aaron going, but Vicki told them Cub Scouts was

1:18:43

on Thursdays and it was Wednesday. She thought

1:18:45

they just wanted to go out and play together. Michael

1:18:48

asked if Aaron could come over to his house, but Vicki said no

1:18:50

because she had some errands to run. She and

1:18:52

Aaron went home, then to the grocery store. They picked

1:18:54

up food, got home about 8 o'clock. She'll

1:18:56

read a news story about the missing boys following morning. She

1:18:59

then went to see Todd, Dana Moore. Dana

1:19:01

asked her if Aaron might know anything. Vicki

1:19:03

pulled Aaron out of school so he could

1:19:05

talk to him. But

1:19:07

Aaron said he didn't know where they were. Vicki

1:19:10

said she could tell that Aaron was lying about something. After

1:19:13

they left, he told her they should go to the clubhouse.

1:19:16

Vicki knew where it was because she had been there to look for Aaron when

1:19:18

he didn't come home on time. She described it as

1:19:20

some kind of abandoned deer stamped. She tried

1:19:23

to go to the clubhouse the mid afternoon, but the whole area had now

1:19:25

been taped off. She sent Aaron away to

1:19:27

stay with her sister for 8 days now to get

1:19:29

away from media attention and to free her up so

1:19:31

she can work her investigation. During

1:19:34

these 8 days, she starts talking to Jesse Miskelli. As

1:19:36

mentioned, Jesse tells her that he thought he saw

1:19:38

Chris Byers by the Blue Beacon truck wash on

1:19:41

the morning that the bodies were found. She kept

1:19:43

talking to him to see what else he knew

1:19:45

and he mentioned his friend Damian. Vicki went to

1:19:47

Lakeshore Estates to look around, told Jesse that she

1:19:49

saw Damian and thought he was hot and

1:19:52

wanted to go out with him. She asked Jesse to set

1:19:54

her up with Damian. First time she meets Damian, he

1:19:56

comes to her house. Vicki said, lots

1:20:00

of different stuff. He's not real talkative. You

1:20:03

kind of have to pull things out of him. But he

1:20:05

kept telling me about the boys murders. And

1:20:08

now he had been, he never said, questioned. He

1:20:10

always said that I was accused for eight hours.

1:20:13

I was accused of killing those three little boys. And I

1:20:15

said, you know, I just acted like it was no big

1:20:17

deal. But I didn't even know what. Vicki

1:20:20

asked him why they would question him. She

1:20:22

told the officers, and he just looked at me. I mean,

1:20:25

just really weird. And said because

1:20:27

I'm evil. She said

1:20:29

Damien did not deny killing the boys, but

1:20:31

did not admit to it either. And she's

1:20:33

lying here. He absolutely denied it. He

1:20:36

also said, never said he was evil. Again, she'll recant a lot

1:20:38

of this stuff later. Damien

1:20:40

called and said he wanted to see her again. And

1:20:42

he continued coming over to the house of Jerry Driver's

1:20:44

fucking puppet. According to Vicki,

1:20:46

while she was still communicating with the police,

1:20:48

she got some satanic books, put them out

1:20:51

where Damien could see them, told Damien she

1:20:53

was interested in witchcraft and Wicca. He

1:20:55

invited her to go to an S-bat now which

1:20:57

is Gathering of Witches. She won't

1:20:59

say this until years after he's been sent to prison, but she'll

1:21:02

admit that Damien didn't give a shit about her satanic books. Didn't

1:21:04

even comment on it. She said Damien

1:21:06

picked her up May 19 and a red

1:21:09

Ford escort. Jesse Miss Kelly was with him. It

1:21:11

was dark by the time they got to a field near

1:21:13

Marion. There was a group

1:21:15

of around 10 teenagers there. Vicki said their

1:21:17

faces and arms were painted black. She and

1:21:19

Damien stood apart from the group, watched as

1:21:21

the teenagers removed their clothes and

1:21:23

began to touch one another.

1:21:25

Hello, weird orgy. She

1:21:28

wanted to leave. So Damien agreed to take her and Jesse

1:21:30

stayed behind. Maybe get a fuck on. Following

1:21:33

day, Damien calls her, tells her that one of his

1:21:35

five girlfriends is pregnant. He's a bit of a player.

1:21:37

He said that they would have to cool

1:21:39

it and keep it down. Well,

1:21:42

this pregnancy will result in the birth of

1:21:44

Damien's son, Damien Tear, September 12, 1993.

1:21:46

Mother is his girlfriend, Dominique Tear.

1:21:49

Vicki thought that this could be would be the end of

1:21:51

it, but Damien continues to call her. Vicki claims

1:21:53

he asked her about a man in her house because

1:21:55

she had a boyfriend who came over often. She came

1:21:57

in one day, she and her boyfriend were watching a

1:21:59

movie together. around 3 30

1:22:01

a.m. or p.m. not specified but I'm guessing a.m.

1:22:04

shared a loud noise they went to the door found a board

1:22:06

that she had used as a plant stand broken in half when

1:22:09

she spoke to Damien next she asked him

1:22:11

if he came to her house and

1:22:14

he responded that he knew she was with Jim her

1:22:16

boyfriend so okay has a jealous freak after

1:22:19

discussing her alleged relationship with Damien she started

1:22:21

talking about what her son claimed he witnessed

1:22:23

in Robin Hood woods but he said Aaron

1:22:25

told me that he and Michael and

1:22:28

Chris visited their clubhouse every day and rode

1:22:30

their bikes and they were spying on five

1:22:32

men and I asked

1:22:34

him who they were and he said I don't know mom

1:22:37

I said why would you be spying on five men you know and

1:22:39

he said well they were there every day so we would watch

1:22:42

them and I said what made you interested in them

1:22:44

he said because they paint themselves and they have dragon

1:22:47

shirts and they talk in Spanish I'm

1:22:49

sorry what was that dragon space Vicki

1:22:52

question how he knew they were speaking Spanish he

1:22:54

said well I don't understand what they're saying and they think

1:22:56

bad things he said they think about

1:22:58

the devil and you know that we love the

1:23:01

devil Aaron told her that

1:23:03

when he first saw the group of men

1:23:05

they sat around a fire and sang a song and danced

1:23:07

around a tree the boys hid so men

1:23:09

couldn't see them the men took their clothes off

1:23:11

had sex with each other Vicki

1:23:13

said she believed Aaron was telling the truth

1:23:15

and that no one could have told him

1:23:17

this story what is interesting about this Aaron

1:23:20

may have seen something like what he describing

1:23:22

here on certain days might have

1:23:24

seen some dudes having sex with one another but

1:23:27

the men he might have seen could have been Terry Hobbs and

1:23:29

some of his friends not

1:23:31

Damien his friends once we get to

1:23:34

the trial I will lay out my suspicions about Terry

1:23:36

which includes some possible rendezvous in the woods here most

1:23:39

of them based on evidence presented in the West

1:23:41

Memphis West of Memphis documentary Vicki

1:23:43

takes a polygraph June 2nd her results indicate she's

1:23:46

telling the truth again these

1:23:48

tests notoriously unreliable please

1:23:50

pick up Jesse Masekeli for questioning on the morning of

1:23:52

June 3rd 1993 please tell him there's

1:23:55

a $35,000 reward for info leading to the

1:23:57

convictions of the killers Jesse

1:23:59

and initially denies participating in any Sedanic

1:24:01

rituals or the murders. But

1:24:04

Detective Bill Durham told another West Memphis officer

1:24:06

he strongly felt Jesse was quote lying his

1:24:08

ass off. After

1:24:10

hours of questioning by Inspector Gary Gitchill and

1:24:12

Detective Byrne Ridge, questioning full of

1:24:14

so many leading questions, were

1:24:17

the detectives are feeding this developmentally,

1:24:19

you know, handicapped teen tons of

1:24:21

fucking crime details and basically then

1:24:23

Eddie Wright? I mean

1:24:25

that could have happened, correct? Only

1:24:28

then does Jesse confess that he, Jason and Damien

1:24:30

committed the murders. It's an infuriating

1:24:32

confession when you listen to some of the footage. Despite

1:24:35

being fed the narrative, investigators wanted him to parrot back

1:24:37

to them. There are still a lot of problems with

1:24:39

the statement. First, he said the boys were killed

1:24:41

early in the day, but investigators believe they were

1:24:43

killed at night, strongly. Remember

1:24:46

earlier, John Mark Byers and his wife Melissa

1:24:49

said they saw their son Chris at 5.30

1:24:51

that night. There

1:24:53

will be other witnesses who saw Chris and his friends riding their bikes at

1:24:55

6.30. So they were

1:24:57

still alive by 6.30 p.m., just not killed earlier in

1:25:00

the day. Jesse also said they were tied up

1:25:02

with rope, but they were tied up

1:25:04

with shoelaces. Also these

1:25:06

investigators coached Jesse for up to five hours before they

1:25:08

started to record his confession. In

1:25:10

his recorded confession, Jesse said that he was in Robin

1:25:12

Hood Woods with Damien and Jason. He

1:25:14

saw Damien hit Chris Byers in the head, quote, with

1:25:17

his fist and bruised him all up real bad. And

1:25:20

then Jason turned around and hit Steve Branch. Then

1:25:22

the other one took off. Michael Moore took off running.

1:25:25

So I chased him and grabbed him and hold him

1:25:27

until they got there. And then I left. He

1:25:29

said when he returned minutes later, all the boys clothing was removed and

1:25:32

they were tied up. He said, then

1:25:34

they tied them up, tied their hands up. They started screwing

1:25:36

them and stuff, cutting them and stuff. And

1:25:39

I saw it and turned around and looked. And then I

1:25:41

took off running. I went home and they called me and

1:25:43

asked me, how come I didn't stay? I told them I

1:25:45

just couldn't. This doesn't

1:25:47

sound like reality. Jesse said the children were beaten with a

1:25:50

club and stabbed with a knife. He said that

1:25:52

one of the boys was raped. They were sexually

1:25:54

mutilated as part of a cult ritual. How

1:25:56

would he know that mutilation detail? Well, investigators told him

1:25:59

also. Autopsies will confirm that none of

1:26:01

the boys raped. They told him essentially

1:26:03

they wanted him You know what to say for hours

1:26:05

before they taped, you know any confession again Years

1:26:09

later Jesse will say the following about his interview with

1:26:11

Gitch Allen Ridge. I kept telling

1:26:13

inspector Gitch. Oh and detective Ridge I didn't know who

1:26:15

did it. I just knew of it

1:26:17

Well, my friend had told me but they kept

1:26:19

hollering at me They kept saying they knew I

1:26:21

had something to do with it because other people

1:26:23

had told him After I told him

1:26:25

what the three boys were wearing Gary Gitch. Oh told

1:26:27

me was any of them tied up That's when I

1:26:29

went along with him. I repeated what he

1:26:31

told me. I said yes, they were tied up He asked

1:26:33

what was they tied up with? I told

1:26:36

him a rope. He got mad. He told me

1:26:38

god damn it Jesse Don't mess with me. He

1:26:41

said no, they was tied up with shoes drinks

1:26:43

I had to go to the story again until I got it, right? They

1:26:46

hollered at me until I got it right so

1:26:48

whatever he was telling me I started telling him

1:26:50

back, but I figured something was wrong

1:26:52

because if I'd have killed him, I'd have known how

1:26:55

I done it Jesus

1:26:57

Christ Here are more

1:26:59

details from Jesse's chorus confession Jesse said that Jason had a

1:27:01

knife and cut one of the boys in the face and

1:27:03

another boy was cut at the bottom He

1:27:05

confirmed that Chris Byers was cut on his genitals and

1:27:08

his record a statement He said he was in the woods around noon and

1:27:10

that the boys and that the boys

1:27:13

skipped school But this wasn't true right

1:27:15

is verified by school attendance records and witnesses He

1:27:18

said Jason called him at 9 p.m. That evening. He

1:27:20

could hear Damien shouting in the background saying we done it

1:27:22

We done it. What are you going to do if somebody

1:27:24

saw us? What are we going to do? Fuck

1:27:27

out of here who was changing we done it. We done

1:27:29

it when talking about a recent murder Jesse

1:27:33

explained explained that the three of them were playing around

1:27:35

in the water when they saw the boys Damien called

1:27:37

out Hey, and they came over then Jesse

1:27:39

changed his story again. Now he tells

1:27:41

the detectives he saw one of the murders He

1:27:44

pointed to a picture of Chris Byers when asked how he

1:27:46

was killed. He said he choked him real bad and all

1:27:49

Jesse made another statement between 340 and 5

1:27:51

p.m. That was different than the previous statement Now he

1:27:53

claims the murders occurred around 7 or 8 at night.

1:27:55

It was getting dark 9

1:27:57

p.m. Authorities go to a judge to request search warrants Based

1:28:00

on this confession search the homes of Jesse,

1:28:02

Damien and Jason. Then 30

1:28:04

p.m. The boys are all arrested charged with three

1:28:06

counts of capital murder despite detectives finding literally no

1:28:08

evidence Connecting these guys with the crimes other

1:28:11

than Jesse's confession, which you know, they

1:28:13

coached him to give. 9

1:28:15

a.m. June 4th, Inspector Gichill holds a press conference

1:28:18

to announce the arrests. When asked how

1:28:20

confident he felt about the case on a scale of one to

1:28:22

ten, he answered 11. 11

1:28:24

really? Even though Damien had

1:28:27

an alibi, the night of the murders, even those whereabouts between 6

1:28:29

30 when the boys were last seen alive At 9 p.m. You

1:28:32

know by which parents have been out looking for him for a while Can

1:28:35

be accounted for as confirmed by numerous witnesses,

1:28:37

you know, Jesse also may have had an

1:28:39

alibi a better one Numerous witnesses would testify

1:28:41

that the wrestling lover was at a regional

1:28:43

pro wrestling match roughly 40 miles away the

1:28:45

night of the murders Some people

1:28:48

posting on forums now seem to think this match might

1:28:50

not have been on the night of the murders But

1:28:52

a lot of Jesse's friends would continue to insist that

1:28:54

it was and That they were with

1:28:56

him at that match that night In

1:28:59

a documentary interview Jason Baldwin would

1:29:01

say the statement Jesse made to the police

1:29:03

is is a lie It's not true. You know, I don't

1:29:05

see why he would do something like that to another person

1:29:08

I can see where they might think I was in a

1:29:10

cult because I wear Metallica t-shirts and stuff like that But

1:29:13

I know I didn't do nothing like that I couldn't

1:29:15

kill an animal or a person on a worship the devil

1:29:17

or anything like that I worship God, you know, like everybody

1:29:19

every normal person is around here does June

1:29:22

7th the three teens are appointed

1:29:24

lawyers Jesse's lawyer Dan Stidham said

1:29:26

this about his client Of course

1:29:28

initially my take on the situation was that anybody

1:29:30

who would confess to such a crime obviously did

1:29:32

it It was unfathomable to me

1:29:34

that anybody would confess to a crime who had

1:29:37

not committed it I

1:29:39

figured that my client was obviously guilty And so my

1:29:41

initial thought was that my only goal was to prepare

1:29:43

him to testify against his co-defendants and hopefully to work

1:29:45

the Best possible plea bargain I could for him. We

1:29:48

were hoping simply to avoid the death penalty Stidham

1:29:51

told journalist Mara leverett

1:29:53

that he was angry with Jesse at first because

1:29:55

he continued to insist he'd been lying When

1:29:58

he made his confession whenever just Jesse's father was

1:30:00

around, he said he was innocent. But when his

1:30:02

dad would leave and he was alone with Stidham, he

1:30:05

would try to repeat the confession he

1:30:07

gave to investigators, but with major inconsistencies.

1:30:10

During a visit at the end of the summer, Stidham

1:30:12

asked Jesse whether he was there or not, and Jesse

1:30:14

said he was not. He said he

1:30:16

lied about being there because he didn't want the death penalty, which

1:30:19

doesn't even make any sense. His porcupine was so

1:30:21

confused about this. Those investigators

1:30:23

somehow made him think that if he did not confess

1:30:25

to the murders that he did not commit, he

1:30:27

would be given the death penalty, and he was scared.

1:30:31

Stidham explained that now he was on

1:30:33

Jesse's side, or that he was on Jesse's side,

1:30:35

and then Stidham recalled, and that's when

1:30:37

I began to realize that he didn't understand what

1:30:40

a lawyer was. He had no

1:30:42

idea what a defense attorney was. He

1:30:45

didn't understand the concept. He thought

1:30:47

we were detectives. This is after they'd been working

1:30:49

together for months. He didn't

1:30:51

understand that we were on his team.

1:30:55

He started to view Jesse differently now, and

1:30:57

felt like his confession was coerced. Again,

1:30:59

Jesse is very, very easily

1:31:01

confused, and he's very confused about

1:31:04

all of this. He

1:31:06

is very easily manipulated. After

1:31:09

he was arrested, Jesse was transferred to a jail in the

1:31:11

town of Wynn. He wrote a

1:31:13

letter to his parents that said, I hope that y'all

1:31:15

don't hate me because I did not do it. I

1:31:17

cannot stand in here much longer. I will go

1:31:19

crazy. Please try to get me out. I will

1:31:22

die in here. Don't fucking

1:31:24

stand. June 8, 1993,

1:31:26

Damien Eccles overdoses on his prescription

1:31:28

antidepressant. Damien saved the

1:31:30

pills that were dispensed to him on Saturday, Sunday, and

1:31:32

Monday. By Tuesday, June 8, he had a dozen pills.

1:31:35

Just like Jesse's legal team, Damien's defense attorneys are trying to

1:31:37

get to know him so they can better prepare

1:31:39

their case. Defense

1:31:42

assistant Gloria Shettles, former parole officer and

1:31:44

prosecutor's assistant, meets with Damien weekly for

1:31:46

nine months. They learn that Damien

1:31:48

sought the meaning of life through religion. He was very interested

1:31:50

in religion. Grew up Protestant, converted

1:31:52

to Catholicism, then shifted to pagan beliefs.

1:31:55

Damien told Shettles that his family moved often when he

1:31:57

was young. They were very poor. He

1:32:00

sometimes lived in shacks with dirt floors and no plumbing.

1:32:03

He talks about being bullied in school. By

1:32:05

the time he was in high school, he said he started to carry

1:32:07

around a dog's school, he found, because kids would

1:32:09

not bother him when he did. He

1:32:11

felt like being ridiculed for being weird was better than being

1:32:14

ridiculed for things he couldn't control, and it was better to

1:32:16

be mocked than it was to be beat up. He

1:32:19

said he wore mostly black clothing just because someone once told

1:32:21

him he looked good in black, and he wore

1:32:23

a trench coat because he thought it was cool. He

1:32:26

put white powder on his face and wore dark sunglasses to

1:32:28

make himself look like a vampire because he thought vampires

1:32:30

were cool. Also told

1:32:32

his defense about how he, Jason, and his girlfriend, Domini,

1:32:35

were harassed by the police for a year and a

1:32:37

half leading up to the murders. Claimed

1:32:39

that juvenile probation officer, Steve Jones, fed him information

1:32:42

about the murders and told him someone urinated in

1:32:44

the mouth of one of the victims. Then

1:32:46

when the police asked Damien what he knew about the murders,

1:32:48

he shared that detail. The West

1:32:51

Memphis police then denied that Steve Jones had that info

1:32:53

and said only someone at the crime scene would know

1:32:55

it. He felt like he was set up. It

1:32:58

did not come from the autopsy report. However,

1:33:00

two documents from early in the investigation showed

1:33:02

Inspector Gitchill and an unidentified official

1:33:05

referencing Dr. Frank Prettie's statement that

1:33:08

urine was found in the victim's

1:33:10

stomachs. June

1:33:14

9th, eight-year-old Aaron Hutchinson speaks to the police again.

1:33:16

He now tells them he witnessed the murders of

1:33:19

his three friends. During

1:33:21

his interview, he said, Tuesday, Jesse told me that something

1:33:23

was going to happen to my friends. Again,

1:33:26

he's just fucking talking shit. Inspector Gitchill asked

1:33:28

what happened after Jesse said something was going

1:33:30

to happen to the boys. And

1:33:32

Aaron said, he said, all right, about after

1:33:34

that, he ate, you get your friends and

1:33:36

I'll get mine and we go down there

1:33:39

and do something. Okay.

1:33:41

And he said that his friends asked his mom if he could go

1:33:43

with him. Vicki said no, but once he got home that evening, he

1:33:46

went to Robin Hood Hills on his bike anyway, which

1:33:48

is very different than his previous story. Michael

1:33:50

and Chris are already there. Stevie arrived late, he

1:33:52

said. Aaron said that Jesse saw Stevie

1:33:55

and caught him. And according

1:33:57

to Aaron, the other young men present saw Michael and Chris.

1:33:59

Aaron said, They took them and then they killed

1:34:01

them. Aaron continued. I ran

1:34:03

and Jesse caught me then. I

1:34:05

got away and he caught me again. And

1:34:07

he tied me up. I stayed

1:34:09

there for about 40 seconds and got untied. Okay.

1:34:13

Similar to Jesse's statement, he said his hands and feet were

1:34:15

tied with a rope. He told the

1:34:17

officers the young men didn't do anything to him

1:34:20

besides tie him up saying they couldn't hurt me

1:34:22

because I kicked everyone with foot just like this

1:34:24

tied up. This is just

1:34:26

fucking nonsensical ramblings of a confused little kid.

1:34:29

He said that Michael and Chris were stabbed in the neck. He's just

1:34:31

fucking happy that people are listening to him. Stevie

1:34:34

ran away but fell down and was stabbed in the stomach. He

1:34:37

said Stevie removed Jesse removed Stevie's clothing,

1:34:39

Jason removed Michael's clothing, and one of

1:34:41

the other men pulled off Chris's clothing.

1:34:44

He asked why the men didn't hurt him and he said

1:34:46

the men threatened to kill him if he told anyone. Fuck

1:34:49

out of here. These three

1:34:51

guys had no problem killing three local kids

1:34:54

Aaron's age, and they already had

1:34:56

Aaron tied up in one version of his story. I know he

1:34:58

said he got untied after 40 seconds, but why not just toss

1:35:00

his last in the pond? I

1:35:02

mean, stranger shit has happened, but this is not a

1:35:04

believable story. Aaron named all three

1:35:06

suspects in his interview, said he knew them because Jesse was

1:35:08

a neighbor and one of his cousins talked to Damien and

1:35:10

Jason. At one point, Inspector Gitzel

1:35:13

asked Aaron, how can I be sure you're telling me

1:35:15

the truth? Aaron said, I don't know. This

1:35:18

is a great witness. Then Gitzel

1:35:21

asked if Jesse did anything to him, and now

1:35:23

Aaron says he abused me. A

1:35:27

bit later in the interview, Aaron told Gitzel that they cut off the

1:35:29

private spot of Michael. Then

1:35:31

it was asked if they touched him and he said yes,

1:35:33

saying they would touch me on my

1:35:35

private spot. He's just fucking saying whatever he thinks

1:35:37

they want him to say. And

1:35:39

why would this kid lie, you might be thinking. Well,

1:35:42

why did the kids in the McMartin preschool case lie?

1:35:44

Literally hundreds of them. Why did

1:35:46

one of them say Chuck Norris molested him? Why

1:35:48

did they say they saw preschool teachers fucking flying around on

1:35:50

brooms? Why did they say they'd been

1:35:52

flushed down magical toilets into satanic fuck

1:35:54

dungeons where babies were being sacrificed? Kids

1:35:57

say stupid shit. All

1:36:00

the time. They lie all the time. Especially

1:36:03

if adults are real and do what they're saying. Right?

1:36:06

What? Seriously? Tell me more. And they'll say

1:36:08

all sorts of crazy shit. They

1:36:10

will say what they think the adults around them want

1:36:12

to hear or things that will capture the attention of

1:36:15

the adults around them. There's all kinds of studies. And

1:36:17

the Y kids lie more frequently than adults. Right? They're testing

1:36:19

limits. They enjoy the attention. They

1:36:21

get from lying. They're gaining approval. They

1:36:24

confuse imagination with reality. Their brains are a

1:36:26

long ways from being fully cooked. And

1:36:29

on and on and on. August

1:36:31

4th, 1993, Damien, Jason, Jesse plead not guilty

1:36:33

to capital murder at their pretrial hearing. Judge

1:36:36

David Burnett rules that Jesse should be tried

1:36:38

separately from Damien and Jason. Later,

1:36:41

he rules that the teens could be tried as adults and

1:36:43

the state could introduce Jesse's confession into evidence.

1:36:47

Damien's son, Seth, will be born September 9th, 1993.

1:36:49

It'll be months before he gets to hold him

1:36:51

for the first time. If

1:36:53

I forget to mention this later, apparently they do

1:36:55

have a relationship now. To what extent? We don't

1:36:57

know. He stays out of the limelight. His

1:37:00

son does. November 17th, 1993,

1:37:03

divers hired by the Arkansas State Police search a

1:37:05

lake behind the trailer where Jason and Damien live.

1:37:08

They discover a 9-inch serrated knife about

1:37:10

50 feet behind the trailer. This

1:37:13

knife will become a key part of the trial

1:37:15

later. This knife will be presented

1:37:17

as a murder weapon. It wasn't. It

1:37:20

will be presented as being used to genetically

1:37:22

mutilate Chris Byers. It wasn't. Soon

1:37:25

I'll be talking about the turtles. December

1:37:28

30th, 1993, defense attorney Ron Lacks interviews

1:37:30

Vicki Hudson's and his neighbors and is told that Aaron

1:37:33

was at the trailer park at the time

1:37:35

of the murders. He was

1:37:37

not in Robin Hood Hills like he had told the

1:37:39

police in one of the many versions of his constantly

1:37:41

changing story. Jury selection

1:37:43

for Jesse Mescali's murder trial starts January 18th,

1:37:46

1994. Prosecutor John Fogelman tells the jury they

1:37:48

might find errors and discrepancies in Jesse's confession,

1:37:50

but that's only because he's trying to minimize

1:37:52

his role in the murders. Jesse's

1:37:55

attorney, Dan Sittemar, argues that Jesse is being

1:37:57

prosecuted because of tremendous pressure from the police.

1:38:00

the police to make an

1:38:02

arrest and the Damien Eccles

1:38:04

tunnel vision that investigators had

1:38:06

quote from day one. Jesse

1:38:09

only confessed when the officers broke his will and

1:38:11

scared him beyond all measure he

1:38:13

had. Then Sittem suspected

1:38:15

that Christopher's stepfather John Mark Byers was involved

1:38:17

in the murders but didn't pursue

1:38:19

this theory as a defense strategy because he was afraid

1:38:21

it would anger the jury. Mara

1:38:24

Leveret writes about Byers background in

1:38:26

her book, Devil's Knot. John Mark

1:38:29

Byers was once a pawn

1:38:31

broker, jeweler, drug dealer and confidential informant for

1:38:33

the Crittenden County Drug Task Force. He

1:38:35

was born in 1957 in Mark Tree, Arkansas,

1:38:38

which is 30 miles north of West Memphis. He

1:38:41

studied to become a jeweler in Texas. By 1984, he

1:38:44

was back in Marion, Arkansas. Byers

1:38:46

had been married to Chris's mom since 1977. She had two kids,

1:38:49

Chris and a daughter both from her previous marriage.

1:38:51

Byers first wife had full custody of his kids and

1:38:54

she lived in Marion. Their

1:38:56

relationship was described as stormy. In

1:38:58

September of 1987, Byers had been arrested after

1:39:00

a caller reported a woman screaming and two

1:39:02

unattended children outside. Another resident also called to

1:39:05

report the screams. An officer reported that

1:39:07

the older child at the house said his mom and dad were

1:39:09

fighting in the home. Officer saw a man

1:39:11

pointing a black object at a crying woman. A woman

1:39:14

reported that Byers came to her house at 645 a.m.

1:39:16

demanding to take the kids. He

1:39:18

said he wanted full custody and he was going to kill her

1:39:21

and he was going to use an electric shocker on her. Byers

1:39:24