The Forgotten WM3 /// Part 1 /// 386 | Forensic Files

Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, thanks for listening. I'm your host Nick and
with me as always is a man with a closet full of guns and a freezer full of meat,
but he's fresh out of toilet paper. He is the captain. No poo poo paper for you, my friend. It's good to be seen and
good to see you. Thanks for listening. Thanks for telling a friend. This week we are very very excited to be
featuring one of my favorite beers. We have featured this before, but there is great cause to bring it back. Ladies and
gentlemen, trumpets please, five out of five bottle caps for Dortmunder Gold from my friends at the Great Lakes
Brewing Company. This is an award-winning flagship logger that now, as of just this month, is available in a
beautiful 12-oz and 16-oz cans. My, how we have come a long way and today we are toasting with one of our
favorites to some of our favorites. First up, cheers to Amber in Humble, Texas. Amber says the beer
that she's buying, that she's providing to the beer fund, Captain, is for you because of your awesome takedown of
Scott Peterson. The cheating turtle, yeah. Scott the piece of [ __ ] Peterson. And a big shout to Christie in
Melbourne, Australia. Next up we have Jennifer in Salem, New Hampshire. And a big shout out to Lori in Dallas, Texas.
Next up we have Emily in Chicago and last but certainly not least a big cheers and thank you to Katherine in
Orlando, Florida. Everyone we just mentioned went to truecrimegarage.com and contributed to this week's beer fund
and for that we thank you. Yeah, we thank you and thanks for joining us. We know it's tough times.
It's tough here in the garage. Keep your distance. Keep your distance, Colonel, or I'll
sock you in the mouth and that's enough of the business. All right, everybody gather around
at a safe distance, grab a chair, grab a beer, let's talk some true crime. The murders of Stevie Branch,
Christopher Byers, and Michael Moore, all just eight-year-olds, was the genesis of a triple homicide
case that is typically known today as the West Memphis 3. However, the phrase West Memphis 3
refers to the three teenagers convicted of killing the three little boys. On May 5th, 1993,
in a town west of Memphis, and appropriately named West Memphis, Arkansas, the three 8-year-old boys were reported
missing. Initial police searches that night were limited. A more thorough search for the boys
began the next morning at 8:00 a.m. After 1:00 p.m., the boys were found, but not to a good end.
All were dead, found submerged in muddy creek water. Each boy had been stripped in what has
been commonly referred to as hog-tied each with shoelaces belonging to the boys.
The drainage ditch contained two of the children's bikes and the clothing that the boys were
wearing when last seen alive. The clothing was mostly turned inside out and twisted around sticks and stuck
in the mud below the surface water. The Frank Peretti autopsies indicated that Christopher died from multiple
injuries and possibly bled to death. And Stevie and Michael died from multiple injuries and drowning.
They were murdered. The bodies and evidence concealed in the muddy waters located in a small patch of woods known
as Robin Hood Hills. Almost 1 month later, on June 3rd, at 2:44 in the afternoon,
Detective Brian Ridge and Inspector Gary Gitchell got 17-year-old Jessie Miss Kelly to
confess to being involved in the murders. A confession filled with inconsistencies, errors, and statements
that go against some of the very basic known facts of this case. Jessie implicated 16-year-old Jason
Baldwin and 18-year-old Damien Echols as the assailants, rapists, and murderers of the three boys.
The next morning at a press conference announcing the arrest of the three teenagers,
Inspector Gitchell was asked by a reporter, "On a scale of 1 to 10, how solid do you feel your case is?"
Gitchell smiled and replied, "11." Legendary FBI profiler John Douglas later called this moment "that golden
nugget of law enforcement theater." In 1994, the three teens were convicted of the
murders. David Burnett was the presiding judge. Damien Echols was sentenced to death.
Jason Baldwin was sentenced to life imprisonment. And in a separate trial, Jessie Misskelley Jr.
was sentenced to life in prison plus two 20-year sentences. The HBO documentary Paradise Lost: The
Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills documented the case and the two trials. The now famous film, which was followed
by parts two and three, inspired justice advocates to unite and take action. An army was formed.
Men and women, some of them celebrities, some of them from far away, all united for one common cause
to free the West Memphis Three. But if the West Memphis Three were innocent, then who committed the
murders? Many, after watching the documentaries, grew suspicious regarding two of the
parents: Christopher's adoptive father, John Mark Byers, and Stevie Branch's stepfather, Terry
Hobbs. Both looked guilty for different reasons. Following a successful decision
regarding newly produced DNA evidence, the West Memphis 3 negotiated a plea bargain with prosecutors.
In August of 2011, they entered Alford pleas, which allowed them to assert their innocence while acknowledging that
the prosecutors had enough evidence to convict them. After having served 18 years and 78 days
in prison, Judge David Laser accepted the pleas and sentenced the three to time served, and they were released.
In a packed courtroom, Judge Laser spoke from the bench. Quote, "I am aware of the controversy that's
existed. I'm aware of the involvement of the people in this case. I don't think it will make the pain go
away to the victim families. I don't think it will take away a minute of the 18 years that these three young
men served in the Arkansas Department of Corrections. What I just described is tragedy on all
sides. And I commend the people in the case that have assisted toward the end of
seeing the justice is served to the best that we can do. It took nearly 20 years
to write just some of the many wrongs in this case. But somewhere along the way of this long
journey that took the valiant efforts of so many, something was lost and almost forgotten.
The three little boys that were killed and lost their lives that day, the families of these three will never
get them back. So, this is not the best we can do because there is still time to get
justice for Stevie, Christopher, and Michael, the forgotten West Memphis 3. Bob, how much did Paradise Lost 1 2 and
3 play a part into your look into the case? Was it any type of inspiration for selecting this case?
Uh take us into to the Bob Ruff world a little bit on why you chose the West Memphis 3.
Yeah, you know what's funny because Paradise Lost, the entire trilogy, did play a big role in why I selected the
case for Truth and Justice, but in a weird kind of way. Um you know, I would I I study wrongful conviction cases
because that's what I do for a living, right? So, it's um I I always go into these big famous ones and study them
just to look for, you know, patterns and things to look for cuz we get we get hundreds of cases
every month submitted to us to look at. And so, I I like to see, you know, what you know, is there a jailhouse snitch
involved? You know, there's is there not much physical evidence? Is there, you know, a potential wrongful or a false
false confession? There's a lot of little patterns that happen. So, I was just watching the documentaries just to
get an idea of what the case was about. And what inspired me actually to to cover the case on Truth and Justice
was actually the fact that after I watched the series and I was trying to talk to to Mike, my
producer and and co-host about it, I couldn't remember the names of the victims.
And and and and it bugged me a lot and I really started to think about it and I started to look, you know, to do a
little more Googling and things and I just found that all of the media attention always
focused around the West Memphis 3, you know, Damien, Jason, and Jessie. And and our
show we try to be very victim centric, you know, and and base on the victims not only
you know, to to try to give them a voice, but at the same time that is, you know, critical to any real
investigation. You should always start with a a very thorough study of victimology
to help develop a profile and it just seemed like that was never done in this case and certainly in the media, you
know, while those of documentaries were amazing and so was West of Memphis and and they accomplished an an amazing goal
of freeing the West Memphis 3 that never would have happened without them. They I didn't feel like there was enough
justice given to the victims and that's why we you know, we named our our season
5 on the podcast and the TV series The Forgotten West Memphis 3 because they seem to have gotten lost in a lot of the
shuffle. What do you think you learn by studying these three victims? Well, the biggest thing that I learned
by studying them is that my perception and the perception of I'll say casual observers of the case because there are
certainly people that have been digging into like documents for for decades now.
But but the general consensus always seemed to be that there were three boys who were just
out playing having a great afternoon and then they ended up kind of stumbling into however
they were killed. Uh you know, and of course back in the you know, the '90s they with the satanic panic they assumed
they stumbled into a satanic ritual killing. Uh but then you you know, then later it became they
stumbled into something else or they look at like the the Bojangles man or you know, maybe it was some you know,
some transient trucker or somebody. But what I found when I studied the victimology, I was shocked and we spent
I think three full hour episodes going through the 140 page door-to-door notes in the case from the the canvassing
after the bodies were found. And what I found when we started to piece all of those sightings together is
that the boys actually weren't together most of the day. First of all, you know, you
had Stevie and Michael were together for a minute for a little while and then Christopher was alone and then maybe
Christopher and Michael and Stevie was gone. There's definitely a big gap in time when Stevie was was missing in
action when I which is when I believe he actually returned to his house for a short time.
Uh you know, and then they they only became got together right before they went into
the woods. And then and then of course the revelation we find in the notes that one of Chris's friends reported that
that Chris straight told him that you know, he was upset because his daddy whipped him and that he was running
away. And so the the big I I think the the thing that I learned most was that these boys didn't stumble into
anything. They were running away from something and that dramatically changes the course of the investigation. Now,
obviously you are covering this case many, many years after the fact, but when the initial
uh documentary was planned to do the first Paradise Lost and they received permission to film or record both of the
trials that were to take place, the documentarians went in there with the idea that these three teenagers were
guilty. Like that was a juicy enough story in itself. And then once they're viewing the the trials, they start
hearing the evidence and and the uh eyewitness testimony and so on and so forth and they start going, well,
there's something that's not right here. This this doesn't appear to be the actual case and then of course Paradise
Lost turns into almost this movement to try to free the West Memphis 3. When you went into this,
and of course, we understand it was years later, but did you go into it with with the idea of, okay, these guys are
completely innocent, or maybe Mark Byers had something to do with this, or Terry
Hobbs, or I mean, did you go into this with anything uh prior thought uh of what knowledge you had of the case, or
did you not really have an opinion of it at all until you started looking into it?
Oh, I I definitely had an opinion, but I tried to yeah, I I tried to approach it from a
really unbiased perspective, because now, you both of you guys, I I know um uh definitely Captain. I don't know, Nick,
were you Were you a big fan's not the right word, but were you really interested in the case for for
years to come, or was that more just Captain's thing? Yeah, I mean, it's always been one of my
uh pet cases, I guess. It's It's one that's so easy to get sucked into. Um and actually just knowing that we were
going to talk today pulled me right back in. I mean, it's one of the most fascinating cases out
there. Right. It really is. So, when you watch, and and and I guess I'll I'll ask
you and Captain, cuz I I want to I want to know if I'm alone in this. After you watched if if if you watched
them in order, after you watched part two of the Paradise Lost series, who did you think was probably the most
likely suspect? So, that's what's so interesting to me about Paradise 1 and 2 is and I might
have had a different opinion after watching the first one than maybe most. I watched that first one on HBO when I
was a kid. I don't know how many times, and I always walked away from the first one going, "You know what? I actually
think these three teenagers did it." And then, of course, you watch Paradise Lost
2, and it looks like Mark Byers he just time and time again comes up looking guilty and more guilty and that
he was the one that did it and of course he's also this large loud imposing man.
Uh he's also an authority figure to Chris and the other boys as well. He might know the area. I mean there's
just so many reasons why you can go all right, well maybe maybe he looks good for this. Right. And and that was
exactly my experience. I was wondering Captain, do you have did you think the same after you watched part two? Well,
after I watched part one, my first thought was that I feel Jason Baldwin is very transparent. He's very believable
in everything he's saying. I I I believe 100% that he had nothing to do with the
crime. Then when you look at the confession with Jessie Misskelly it it doesn't really
line up with what the crime actually was, but I could never get over the boogeyman comment from Damien Echols.
Oh yeah, the end. At the end of part one, he's like, "Well, now I'm going to be known as like the boogeyman of West
Memphis and kids are going to say, well, maybe Damien's under my bed or he's in the closet."
And that to me didn't seem like something a innocent person would say. Oh, for sure.
I mean really kind of spot on with what you think Captain. When I watched part one, I thought maybe they're innocent.
Um definitely I felt like Baldwin was innocent, but Damien I wasn't so sure about. And then after I watched part
two, I was convinced that Mark Byers was the was the murderer. I mean 100% I I remember coming in because I watched
these late. It was 3 years ago. I remember coming to the office and telling Mike. I was like, "Dude, holy
[ __ ] That that this this guy this guy killed him. The the the adopted father killed
him. I mean he had his teeth removed and blah blah." You know, all the different
things from there. I was convinced after part two that it was that it was Mark Byers.
And that's, you know, that's kind of why I was, you know, when you asked if I had
to kind of an opinion, that swing from there, then of course after three, everybody thinks Terry
Hobbs did it, right? You know, that's that's kind of what they left you with. And then West of Memphis.
And so for me it was like, okay, I need to approach this from a completely unbiased perspective because
Joe Berlinger just just [ __ ] me up in three documentaries in a row. Because, you know, I didn't watch them as they
came out. I I watched all three of them back-to-back over the course of a week. And I watched, you know, based on the
way they were produced, I went from thinking, oh, maybe they're guilty, Jason's probably innocent, to oh my god,
it has to be Mark Byers, it's obvious, to part three was like, oh no, it has to be Terry Hobbs, it's obvious. I was
like, man, if I'm if I'm being swayed that much by the media, there's got to be a lot more to this case than the way
they're presenting it. And so that that really led me into taking a completely unbiased approach
and try to look at the investigation, which is what we did in season five, when we covered Truth and
the West Memphis Three, is to go all the way back to ground zero and just basically start a brand new
investigation and see where it leads us. Well, I became a big fan of yours when you were covering Serial.
And I really liked the approach that you took there where you you had a thought process and then you
kind of try to prove yourself wrong. And I always I always like taking that approach, but to me West Memphis Three
is very similar to the Adnan Syed case where people look at the case and we are presented from these documentaries,
we're presented all this cast of characters. And people always see like you said,
are the teenage boys guilty? Yeah, or is it one of this the stepfathers? And everybody seems to
have strong opinions of the characters that are cast for us. It seems like not too many people look outside that cast
of characters. And it it seems like there's no new cast of characters in West Memphis 3
in the last 20 years. Right. Well, when you see the I know we're recording this before you see the series
and you're airing it after. But but hopefully you'll you won't have that opinion after this weekend because
we have you know, I had to you know, you're you're right in the term cast of characters. I I don't you know, it makes
it seem like it's a story, but one of the things I wanted to do was get away from the the sensational you
know, the cameras always on Damien, right? And you know, through Paradise Lost it's Damien and John Mark Byers are
our key characters. And it's because they're the most interesting, right? When you're watching
it you know, you you know, Damien is saying things like well, I'm going to be the
boogeyman under their bed and Mark Byers is blowing up [ __ ] pumpkins and and you know,
lighting bonfires at the at the discovery site. But there's there's a lot more important characters, I think
that that if you've never seen on on TV before. You've never seen it in the documentaries, you've never seen it
anywhere, you know, we have you know, I don't know how you want Do you want me to uh
mention Do you want me to spoil some of what's coming up since they're going to hear it after or no?
Well, how about we just since since it's going that route, how about we just dive
into some of the details of the case and get your opinion on some of those Okay.
question marks. And if it comes up, it comes up. If it doesn't, we'll force you into it here at the end. Um Sure. I'd
hate to spoil it too early in our discussion because we got a lot of questions, a lot of things on our mind.
It's rare for us we we think we know the case very well. We covered it on True Crime Garage a long time ago. Um we it's
way too big to cover it in in just a few episodes. We tried in three, but all we
really thought that we achieved was we pointed out a timeline that came from from very credible sources and from
police reports and and eyewitness statements and so on and so forth that seemed to indicate that it would have
been very difficult, almost impossible on the timeline for John Mark Byers to have
committed the crime especially by himself. We we found a timeline that seemed to be that he was with somebody
else and and a a whole different batch of people along the way pretty much most of that evening and night. So
um I think the first thing and this is really good for people that don't know the case very well. Um but but we're
excited to get to talk to you cuz we feel you know this case really well and that's why we want to get your opinions
on these things. But for the people that don't know the case well one thing I think the public may have trouble
grasping, but they do need to understand as it's very important to how things played out the way they did. So
I think if you could kind of talk to this a little bit, but we need to have an understanding of the level of poverty
here in regards to the three boys that were arrested for the murders and in regards to the lifestyle of the
three young victims because the the three that were arrested they were extremely poor unfortunately
and the three victims were a little more middle class. Um could you talk and expand on that a
bit? It the what's interesting really is that a little more middle class I guess is a
good way to put it. But the the entire you know Captain used the term cast of characters earlier and
if you look at it like that the entire cast of characters here they're all you know, at the poverty line or below.
The including the victim's families, you know, you so you have definitely the the three convicted, you
know, they're they're living in very uh low low-rent trailer parks, you know, and
and I've been out to these places. They haven't changed much since then. Um definitely on the lower income scale. Uh
but but even the three the three victims, you know, you had you know, the the the Byers, you know, everybody was
working. They had jobs and they were getting by. But these people definitely weren't
thriving. And you had interesting situation in just about every family, you know, you had you know, we we had on
our show we had Don Moore who's Michael Moore's sister who had never been interviewed before and she was on the
podcaster in season 5. And she gave us a whole new look into the the household of the Moores, right?
So they their issue their sense like it was alcoholism. She said it you know, both her mom and dad were alcoholics. It
was an abusive situation and so that wasn't the you know, the the the picture I had when I was studying victimology of
what that household looks like, you know, you go across the street to the Byers household and you know, again,
they're getting by but they're they they struggle a little bit financially and you have
uh you you have some drug addiction both on um Chris Byers' mother's part and his
adopted father. And then you go down to the the um Stevie Branch's household, the Hobbs
household. You know, you had you had Pam and Pam and Terry were both working. They seemed on the surface to be the
most stable but then we find out later that there's uh possibly or allegedly some abuse
that's going on there and then also maybe some some drug use down there as well. So you you had nobody was in
nobody was in good shape so to speak as far as in their household. Either they're
struggling financially, they're struggling struggling with substance substance abuse, or they're struggling
with physical abuse in in all of these different communities, but but most but definitely the three that were
convicted, uh Damien, Jason, and Jessie, they they were throwaways for sure. And when
I say that, I mean that they were as you said they were extremely poor, much more
so than the three victims. And once they were targeted by police, whether they actually believed they did
it or if they were in fact targeted, that's up for speculation, but once they were targeted there was there was nobody
there to to fight for them. They didn't have any money, they didn't have lawyers, they just, you know, they were
they were throwaways. They were people that I think the powers that be in in particularly the West Memphis Police
Department thought you know we can lock these people up, close this case, everybody's going to be happy, and
no one really cares what happens to these three kids. Well, I'm back to one of the things you were saying before
that when you're looking at the victimology like you said, it changes from here's these three boys hanging out and
they stumble upon something. As you were saying, you were getting into the idea that they're running from something. Uh
what evidence did you find? Could you find evidence to back that up? Yeah, well, I mean
a big part of it is the fact that we we find some weird anomalies throughout the
sightings of them throughout the day, where they're not together. They disappear. And then when you when
you we study So, let's look at it Stevie Branch in particularly. Stevie was probably the most
well-behaved of the three, based on what we see from, you know, school reports, you know, we had sounds like, you know,
what we would call today, Chris Byers and Michael Moore both suffered from from ADHD, which I can relate to. I have
a 9-year-old that has the same issue. Um tend to be a little more mischievous. But, you know, Stevie was a rule
follower, and he pretty much stayed out of trouble, and he was told that he needed to be home by you know, before
4:30, 4:45. Um and and so you had to believe that he's going to do his best to make that happen. And then the
sightings seem to indicate that that did happen. You know, they disappeared. And
then you have there's some medical evidence that Stevie has partially digested green vegetable like food in
his stomach. Well, that that can only occur for about an hour, hour and a half before it moves past that stage in the
stomach, which means somewhere along the lines he went and ate some vegetables. Which would be a good indication that he
he did go home. But then he left again. So then so then why is he he leaving? Now, we don't know, but it it seems like
and then if you take Jamie Clark Ballard's statement, which you know, I don't necessarily think is entirely
credible, but she she reports that she sees Terry yelling at him to to get back down there. And and just the fact that
Stevie leaves again after dinner and then what we learn later in his victimology study that we have there
there has been reported abuse from uh his stepdad Terry Hobbs, and that's come from some family members, but also
uh and and people that I've interviewed outside of the family uh have have have told us the same
thing. That you know, they they they were always kind of afraid for Stevie because of some beatings that he would
take from Terry. So so there's some indications with Stevie. Christopher is easier because we he literally went to
kids name is Bobby Posey's house in the door-to-door notes, and I have spoken with Bobby Posey. We hear from him in
the TV series. You know, and and he he goes to tell Bobby that his daddy had just whipped
him and that he's running away. So there's there's no we don't have to speculate about if Chris Byers was
running away because he told that told his friends that he was running away. We have other witnesses that we that we
hear from in the TV series that say that they saw them with sleeping bags heading
towards the woods. Uh and and and Michael Moore was always kind of the leader of the group. There's not so much
with him as far as was evidence other than some things his sister told us about, you know, the the situation in
the household and and some potential abuse that could have been happening in the house household. Again, that's
according to her. I don't I that's not verifiable, so I would say alleged abuse that happens in the household. So, all
that together and then with the sightings that put them in different places at different times and then kind
of coming together and then going to a place where where they know they're not supposed to be and the fact that Stevie
would go there when he really knows he's supposed to be at home at that point, it
to me is a those are all great indicators that they were running away from something. They weren't They
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was it Michael Moore that was known to be afraid of those woods? Uh Chris Byers. Chris Byers.
Yeah. Yeah, he was terrified of the woods according to his uh to Mark Byers and to his brother, who
we also hear from in the TV series. So what you're saying is it's not just one of the victims that was
quote-unquote running away, but possibly all three of them or friends trying to help their friend out.
Oh, your dad whooped you, you can't take this anymore. I'll help you out. I'll I'll run away with you. Yeah, you know,
this is kind of somewhat speculation on my part, but my theory is that it's kind of a Stand by Me type of
deal, you know, where the you know, the kids are kind of rising up against the you know, the grown-ups and taking
matters into their own hands. I think that, you know, they get this is my theory is that Chris was fed up and
running away. I think that something I I think that Stevie I'll be I'll be honest
with you. I think Stevie did go home and eat. And I think that he left and he was
scared. And I think that Michael more than likely was the one that said, "Hey, I"
cuz we have we have no in the door-to-door notes. Michael actually told a little girl that lived up near
the pipe bridge that he's going to go over to the other side of the bridge to the woods behind Mayflower to his secret
hideout. So I think I think Michael becomes the kind of the savior, the leader that says, you know, these the
other two are are they want to run away and get away from their parents. And And
Michael says, "Well, here, I can I know a spot. Let me lead the way." and takes them over there.
And John Mark Byers, he he admits that he hit Chris that day, that afternoon. Um that
he he disciplined him. Right, yeah. And then we have hold on. I'm kind of I'm kind of trying
to digest all this as we as we go through this here. So that's that's what I find very
interesting at least about the the Robin Hood Hills portion of it. Like do you believe that the boys were killed at
Robin Hood Hills? I mean, from the autopsy, it appears that two of the boys drowned. So of course two of them likely
died there, but um this is a pretty brutal attack. Do you think that from the evidence that
we see, that you've reviewed anyway, did this all take place in Robin Hood Hills?
Uh 100%. I I don't think there's any There's a million theories out there. Uh but after
the thorough studying we've done of the case and then the new team of experts we
brought in for the TV series, it seems it is a matter of fact a Rebecca Sue that was our new forensic pathologist
that came in and looked at the autopsy, you know, her her determination was that
that all three boys died of drowning. That that you know, there were there were some other injuries, a couple of
head injuries, but basically all of the brutality that we see on the boys was all postmortem animal activity. That
this was a this was not as as complicated as a crime as we think. But the another big misconception is for
people that and you know, I in one of our episodes I just mentioned it's funny that my
my perception of those woods and where the boys' bodies were found mostly came from the the the movie adaptation of
Mara Leveritt's book The Devil's Knot. When we see that I'm sure you guys have probably seen that, right? Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, it's you know what you know at the beginning when it shows them riding their bikes and they kind of they go
around the barrier and go into the woods and it shows them going through this remote forest back to this creek in the
middle of this huge forest. But that's where I thought this thing occurred that the crime occurred.
But the reality of it is this was a tiny little patch of woods about the size of
a football field. You can literally, I've done it, I've stood there and done it, stand in the backyard of a house on
the other side of the bayou and throw a rock to the place where the boys' bodies
were found. I mean this crime occurred right in the middle of there's a operating truck wash
to the west. There's a there's a major interstate to the north. To the south is the Mayfair apartments and then there's
a a row of of houses with backyards about right up to the bayou. So the idea that that this could have
occurred anywhere besides there is is really in my opinion preposterous because that means
this is where the the search efforts are focused, right? Not necessarily across the pipe, but in the Robin Hood Woods
just south of the bayou, south of the pipe. Some people were in the woods north of the pipe where the bodies were
actually found. So, the idea that if someone killed these boys or captured them somewhere
else, and they need to either a hide the bodies or go, you know, take them somewhere else to finally kill them,
that they would just that the place they would choose is this tiny little patch of woods where the only way you can get
to it is either to park on the highway and walk in, to park at the truck wash and walk in, or walk across the pipe
bridge in front of the Mayfair apartments carrying these bodies to conceal them right in the heart of the
search efforts is is is bananas. There's just no way that would have happened. I
think the only reason the boys' bodies were concealed where they were found is because that's where the crime occurred,
and once it happened, I think that the individual and I do think it was a single individual, once the boys were
dead, they knew, "I've got to get I've got to hide these bodies and I need to create distance. I've got to I've got to
I've got to make sure nobody finds these bodies at least long enough for me to get out of here and
then appear to be doing something else." That's the only reason I think the bodies were concealed where they were is
because there was no other choice. No one's going to choose that spot. It's a terrible
It couldn't be a worse place to choose to dispose of a body when that's where everybody's looking for those boys,
especially considering a mile down the road is the Mississippi River and there's a million places you could drop
those bodies and they'd never be seen again. So, you're saying, and I and I hope I got this correct, but you're
talking about that there's evidence that Stevie ate something before the crime occurred. Yeah, so in
the autopsy, there is a notation that says the other So, so the boys from their parents
reported that none of them had eaten since their meal in school, their lunch, you know, 11:00 12:00 in the afternoon
or 12:00. Well, so Christopher and Michael's stomach contents are empty, which is
what you would expect. It takes, you know, there's a there's a range of time, but for, you know, active 8-year-old
boys with healthy metabolisms, the average is like an hour and a half to 2 hours it takes for food to move, you
know, to become digested and move out of the stomach or lumen as it's as it's noted in the autopsy, into the
intestines. So, Stevie, they when they when they open up his stomach, there's there's quite a bit of what they call
partially digest green vegetables in his stomach, which means so he you know, I believe that our window of when the boys
were killed is between 6:30 and 7:30 p.m., which would mean so on the front end of that 6:30, if you go back hour
and a half to 2 hours, that means that no later than no earlier than 4:30, Stevie had to have eaten some
vegetables. And it could have been as as late as as 5:30, 6:00 even, that he ate
some vegetables. Do you think his family members are just misremembering or do you think that's more nefarious on on
stating he he never ate anything? I don't think it's nefarious on saying he never ate anything,
but they but the issue is so he he leaves at 3:30, right? With with Michael Moore
is when Michael comes down and get on their bikes and go. And so the the issue is even if Pam Hupps is or Pam Hicks now
is incorrect. She says he didn't eat any snacks, he didn't eat anything after school. Let's say she's wrong and let's
say he did, he decided to eat some broccoli as a snack after school. That still, because it's 3:30 is the
time he leaves, if he never returns home again, by 5:30, that's that food's gone
from his stomach. So, even if she's wrong about that, it still wouldn't be partially digested in his stomach. You
know what I mean? So, so at some point he had to return. So, I believe I'll say this that I'm very very
confident in in stating I I 100% believe that Stevie Branch, contrary to what's been stated by his stepfather at the
time, Terry Hobbs, I believe absolutely that he did, at some point after 5:00, return home and
eat. And then he left again. Now, I don't I do not know if Terry was there and knows that he did
that. So I'm so I'm not saying that Terry's lying in the fact that he said that he never
returned home and ate. I don't know that, but what I do know, or I feel very confident in saying, is that Stevie did
in fact return home and eat at some point and then leave again. And in fairness to the victims' families,
it's my understanding that they weren't properly interviewed. From my understanding, actually, it may
appear even in 1993, a couple of them were not sat down and you know, they didn't participate in a
thorough interview. Oh, that's 100% correct, and that's that's another part of why I decided to take the case, cuz I
feel like if we go back to the beginning and do this thing right, that maybe the
answer's been there all along. We do a proper investigation, and that's why we took it on the podcast and the TV
series. But as I mentioned, you know, that that starts with a proper investigation, starts with victimology,
and then you start with the people closest to the victims, and you work your way out in concentric circles. That
was never done in this case. So, Mark Byers was interviewed multiple times, gave recorded interviews, but that was
because he went to the police. He He's the one that that initiated that. Pam Hobbs was spoken to a couple times.
Uh you know, you have you have you have cursory conversations with with Dana Moore and Melissa Byers.
Uh Todd Moore was never interviewed by police. And Terry Hobbs was never interviewed by police at all. Not not
like a little bit at all, which it which is which is baffling that they would and
it's because they jumped to an a conclusion. They jumped to an assumption when they when they saw the
boys come out and they saw how mutilated their bodies were, which we now know was
due to animal activity, but that back then they didn't know. And they decided this was that satanic
ritual killing they knew was coming. Damien Echols is is the kid that that would do something like this and they
got such tunnel vision that they never did the basic basic steps of a proper investigation, including not just not
interviewing the family, but in the door-to-door canvassing, they never even went door-to-door in Stevie Branch's
neighborhood at all. Not his neighbors, no one around there. We know now Pat and
we know now Captain had asked earlier about uh uh evidence indicating that that they
are actually running from something. You know, we know now that that Stevie was seen by a woman named Betty Johnson on
16th Street riding his bike south that afternoon alone. That's one of the reasons we know that he went home.
It well, the only reason we know that wasn't because of the West Memphis Police Department, it was because of a
newspaper reporter that started knocking on doors in that area asking people if they'd seen the boys and she said,
"Yeah, I saw Stevie by himself on his bike riding south on 16th Street that afternoon." The police
had no idea that happened because they never asked anybody in the area. Tell me if I'm wrong about this, but
there's I've seen where there was sightings of you know, one boy, two boys, Mhm.
three boys on their bikes and possibly even four boys on their bikes. And a lot of people
think that fourth boy could have been uh Vicki Hutchinson's son. Right. I which I do I don't believe that
by the way. But did you see any reports of of four boys together? Yeah, there were there were there were a
few reports of four boys together. As a matter of fact, in our timeline that we put together based on all those
door-to-door notes, I I show that that I called him mystery boy, but there you know, one of the big sightings was when
Narlene Hollingsworth sees the boy and sees, you know, that She says she sees three boys on bikes.
And so people think, "Oh, that's the West Memphis. It's the three boys." Except for Chris didn't have a bike,
especially not that time in the afternoon. He wasn't on a bike. So, that third boy is actually a fourth
boy, and she describes describes him as being heavy-set with dark hair. Well, that doesn't describe either of
the any of the three victims. They were all thin. So, so that sighting along with a few others is who, you know, we
deemed mystery boy, and you actually hear from, you know, we figured out who that was and actually interviewed him on
the the TV series who the mystery boy was. Um and then there's another, you know,
other sightings where there's four boys going into the woods right before they're killed.
So, there's another potential uh fourth boy. But, I don't think that it's I mean, well, for example, for starters,
as I said, we we know who that fourth boy was now. Um but, I've never believed it was it
was um Aaron Hutcheson because it the the the evidence now, it's been a little while. You may know more about it
than me now cuz it's been a couple years since I studied it, but it seemed to be
pretty clear that Aaron Hutcheson went home that day after school. He wasn't in the and he didn't live in that
neighborhood. He lived out in the trailer park. So, he wasn't even around that afternoon.
Right. And he gives dozens of different stories as to what he says he witnessed or saw
when he supposedly saw the kids being killed. Right, which is it's it's awful what what the police did to that poor
boy. You know, what what they put him through. And I mean, he he names different
suspects in each one of the stories, too. The the the suspects don't even remain the same. Um and then he he says
certain things took place on the victims or to the victims that we know just by the the autopsies did not did
not occur at all. Right. Regarding the timeline that you're piecing together, one thing
that's always stood out is that Pam Hobbs, uh you said now Pam uh now Pam Hicks,
her and Terry Hobbs's timeline for that night never really seemed to match up 100%.
We It's my understanding that Pam Hobbs worked that evening and that Terry drove
her to her place of employment and then picked her up at the end of her shift that evening.
With your with your movement of Stevie Branch, do we have him leaving their house, if
he fact did return to the Hobbs household, do we have him leaving before Pam goes off to work, before Terry has
to drive her to work? No, I I don't think there's any question that he hadn't returned yet
before Pam went to work. I mean, that was is pretty obvious from, you know, from
Pam's statements herself that, you know, she was upset because Stevie wasn't there, that Terry was upset when he got
home cuz Stevie wasn't home when he was supposed to be. Uh they left and then she first finds
out something had happened when Terry picked her up from work. I don't see any you know,
I'll say this, I believe her 100% that that's what happened. There's no reason for her to to lie about that. And and
sadly, we all saw Pam's reaction when she found out what happened to Stevie, you know, it was you know, it was it was
on you know, the news, it was on the Paradise Lost series. Um so, yeah, I I I don't think Stevie I
I think that was the issue. I think that personally, this is and again, I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm giving you a theory here,
but I believe that Ter- that Terry and Pam left to take Pam to work and Stevie probably ended up coming home shortly
thereafter. You know, kind of missed them. And and the question is did Terry ever come home then after he
dropped Pam off and and have some interaction or communication with Stevie or did Stevie leave again before Terry
got back? Now, when you watch these documentaries and when you study the case which
and I'll keep going with our theme of characters, which character were you most interested in and
and what did you what do you think you learn by talking to them? As a suspect or as a like a personality? Well, not a
not as a suspect, but just just anybody uh as far as the documentaries go. I mean like if I was
you know, I rewatched uh Paradise Lost 1 2 and 3 recently and I'd go if if I could talk
to anybody, I'd like to talk to uh Damien. I'd like to talk to Terry Hobbs. I'd like to talk to Mark Byers. Those
are the first three individuals I'd I'd want to interview. Right. Yeah, and I've
interviewed all Well, I haven't interviewed Terry, but um I I don't know if I can I can if I can
point one out, but I guess I can walk through a few of those like you mentioned. So,
um Damien uh I really like Damien. You know, I when I went to go meet him at first and
interview him I was I I shockingly I was or or stupidly, I guess, I was surprised to find out that
he's pretty normal guy. You know, because he's you know, his his his character that we've seen on TV and
and kind of his character we see in his social media and stuff like that. You know, he's into this ceremonial magic
stuff, which seems very mystic and and and very artsy, but you know, I've sat around talking about football with
Damien. Every anytime I'm in New York, I usually try to catch up with him and Lori and we'll go out for pizza and you
know, last time we were there we went you know, we went we went to a pizza place,
Damien's favorite place. We had pizza, that hung out for a couple hours. And then he he took me to a place called
Insomnia Cookies cuz he swore they had the best cookies in the world, and they were the best cookies in the world. Uh
and so I guess my what was what was interesting to find out with him is that he's
he's a Damien's a normal guy. Like he's he he he's interested in something that a lot of people don't necessarily
relate with, which is, you know, his uh I don't even call it a faith or religion, but his that ceremonial magic
that he's that he's into. But, you know, regardless whether you were can relate with that or not, he's
he's a very personal, very normal guy, doesn't like talking about the case, just likes just chatting about life, and
I I I enjoy Damien's company when I'm when I'm around him. Um Jason Baldwin has kind of surprised
me the other way. He seemed like very a very much a vanilla kind of character, but then when I when I went down and and
actually met with him, and and we you we went out to lunch and then interviewed in person, he's he's full of fire.
Actually, we just I don't know if you listened to it. Uh if either one of you guys did, but we just aired two-part
uh two episodes of an interview I did with Jason back in 2018 that nobody had heard before.
And and he's he's got fire in his eyes that I didn't know was there. Um He seems He seems extremely interested
in finding out who actually did this. Very much so. Of of the three where to me it feels
like Damien is more involved with his causes. Uh I think he's involved with the um the
innocent people being on death row or I don't know the name of it offhand, but um he seems to be very driven toward
that, where Baldwin seems fully vested uh invested in finding out who did this, clearing his
name. And he's one of those people that I mean, the interview is great, but, you
know, the captain and I have always kind of thought this, if Jason and Damien would have been tried separately.
And Jason would have been tried first. We find it very difficult that that they would have found him guilty. A lot of
that based off of his character and his personality. And of course that there just was no evidence. But um to hear
your interviews with him really takes his character as you said to the extreme because he does seem very
vanilla on the surface. But when he starts talking about the case or talking about
things that were going on in West Memphis at the time that they were charged with the crimes
he's one he's fascinating and two he's very dialed into what he was doing. And I found his
very detailed alibi to be incredibly one interesting and incredibly believable. Yeah, I agree on all on all
counts I agree. And especially the fact that if he wasn't tried with Damien, I think he for sure would have been
acquitted. You know, he was he was he was collateral damage really. Well, and I think that's one thing that gets lost
in the shuffle there is that we we have Jessie Misskelley who gives this this bad confession. He's offered a bit of a
reduced sentence because they want him to testify against Baldwin and Echols at trial one simply just to introduce the
confession to that trial. He says, "Look, I'm not going to testify against them basically because it's not
true." And then Baldwin gets the opportunity to testify against Echols and he turns it down as well. Where
it that shows something to the character of these still very young men, these teenagers at the time.
You know, there's a lot of meta that you see in the documentaries when that part
when the trial's happening in Paradise Lost 1 and Baldwin's reaction to when when when his attorney,
I think it was Paul Ford, asks him after Damien testified, on camera he asked Jason, "So, do you
think that he's guilty?" And if you watch that scene, that scene right there is what convinced me that
Jason Baldwin has no clue what actually happened cuz you watch you could see it in his eyes that he was thinking.
And then I think his response was, "You know, I they sure made him seem like he did."
And it was like, "Holy [ __ ] he really doesn't know. That kid does not know who
killed those boys." Yeah, he does not know and and he's thinking it through because you see his it's almost his
reaction. You can read his mind and it's like he wasn't with Damien that that evening.
He wasn't with Echols that evening. So, he doesn't he's he's kind of clueless as
to He's not asked, "Did you and Echols do this together?" He's just asked, "Did Damien Echols do this?" And
he's going "Well, they sure made him look guilty." You almost see that he is about to say,
"Well, I don't know." And I think he was smart enough to go, "Well, they see they
sure made him look guilty." because that I don't know statement would have just been a an odd one for for the argument
against Damien anyway. Yeah, and it just to me it was like I could see you know, for me I I would see
in his mind him thinking, "Jesus Christ, did he do it? Like like maybe he did. I don't know. I
wasn't with him. You know, maybe he did do it. I don't know. They made him seem like he did. But, you know, again like
for me what I you know, what I'm looking at is not necessarily what that means for Damien, but what does it mean for
Jason?" And it was like obviously he didn't have anything to do with it. With it which again it's just one more thing
that even if that was the case, it it if it was just that Jason was innocent, it
does again tear the state's case down their entire theory down because it was supposed to be them together and
the confession had all of them together. Well, and how did his how did Baldwin's
alibi fall apart? I don't you know Because doesn't he claim that he he went with
with a different friend that's that's not really known to most of the people that have taken a a quick look at the
case. He went with a different friend to uh cut his uncle's lawn. And then I think I
And correct me if I'm wrong cuz I'm going off of memory here, but I believe that he he and the friend went and did
something afterward and Baldwin is saying, "Hey, I remember this date because I sold him a a cassette tape."
Um Mhm. that day and that, you know, as we discussed already, these kids are dirt
poor. He remembers that day because he one he probably did a chore that may have
earned him some money and if he didn't get paid from the uncle, he at he at the very least
receive some money for that cassette tape from his friend. Yeah, yeah, the the the friend that was
with him was uh Ken Watkins. Uh and I I think the issue is that alibi was and I'm working from memory, too, on
this part of it, you know, cuz when I when I did the case and we I looked at, okay, if I take this
investigation from the beginning and do it properly, where does it take us? Well, the problem with that is it never
takes you anywhere near the direction of the West Memphis 3. So, we had to kind of force that in to
go like, okay, well, let's see how they got here and why. So, I I've never really focused a whole lot on their
trial since then, but if if memory serves, it it had to do with the fact that when they questioned
Ken Watkins cuz you know, cuz Jason says tells his lawyers that, "Yeah, I I was with Ken Watkins after the lawn mowing,
Damien left with Damion." And then Ken and I went to Walmart and we played video games. And then he said, "Yeah,
you should have There was an Asian kid there, too. You should ask him." Whose whose name ended up being Don Nam uh was
the Asian kid that was there and he's like, "You These guys can verify my alibi." But then, you know, months and
months and months later when when Watkins and Namgyel interviewed uh before trial,
they they they don't confirm his alibi. They they don't remember it or they don't give the right information. I
don't remember the details exactly about it, but basically they didn't they didn't corroborate what what Jason had
said. So, I don't think they ever ended up testifying. Well, just to play a little bit of a devil's advocate here,
after I watched Paradise Lost 1, I started thinking, well, is is it as simple as
they had Damien on a list and that's it. And they just went with this and this kid uh had long black hair, listened to
heavy metal, and he's kind of a freak show, and we believe that this was done by a freak
show. Or was there is there a little bit more to it? Like you said, if you if you
investigate it properly, then you're going through the proper channels, but you're still going to have
a juvenile officer come forward and say, "Look, out of all the people in the town
that I think possibly could have done this, here here's a kid's name on the list that you might want to
look into." But you know, but the the problem with that is that like that's [ __ ] crazy. I mean, you
you know what I mean? Imagine in your town there's a murder, and the entire investigation is based on some dude's
hunch? Like, "Oh, I know a guy that would do this." You know, it's crazy. No, but I I
still I still think there that's reason to look into an individual. And then when you hear statements that
this individual also, which maybe he said it, maybe he didn't, you know, at a at a a softball game saying
that he that he killed these two boys and that he's going to kill more or two two more when before he's done.
Yeah, I I I think it's it's reasonable to believe that you should look into this individual. Yeah, I I I'll give you
that. I think that you know if someone's got this hunch or at least when that information comes forward like
the softball information, sure you look at him, but then there's a there's a there's a big chicken and egg
problem with Damien, too. In the fact like say say say that statement at the softball whether it happened or not.
Yeah, I I tend to think that maybe some version of it did happen. Uh but but it's because
I think it's because you know, he was in he was targeted. He was interviewed within hours of the boys being found. He
was harassed. The police were asking all of his friends, all of his family. They
were calling him in repeatedly to the point where this rebellious teenager is like screw these guys, you know, and and
and so I my opinion I think you know, Damien says he doesn't really remember that happening and he says he certainly
wouldn't have confessed to something he didn't do, but I don't think it's out of
the realm of possibilities if he was at a game or whatever there and you know, somebody's like, "Dude, I heard that you
did it." And he's like, "Oh, yeah, I did it. I killed them and I'm going to kill
some more." Similar to his boogeyman comment. Um but certainly once that you hear that
that you heard this guy confess to it. Yeah, you interview him. But would he ever would any of that have happened if
they weren't offering rewards to a bunch of poor people and harassing Damien and
spreading the word around town that it was Damien who did it, then would any of these statements have
ever come out? I personally don't think they ever would have. I think if they took this case and they and they and
they they waited until they had the proper medical evaluation and said, "Okay, these kids were were hit over the
head, drowned, and and buried there." Okay, so that's that every indication there is that this
is someone with a known personal relationship to the boys. The FBI was offering to help with profiling.
So, let's go interview and they should have already done so. Let's interview every single parent, every brother,
every neighbor, and let's start let's start piecing things together. And I think that if you
I I'm dancing here, but if I think that if you did that, if you start at the center
and work your way out very quickly the person or people whose alibis don't check out, that aren't where they said
they were, that have unaccounted for time and behavior would would have become very apparent
very quickly. We're in this mess we're in now 27 years later because that was never done. And if you do that, I think
that you never end up even even if some juvenile probation officer is like, "Well, I think that Damien
Echols was a Satanist." Well, if you waited for the proper evidence, you know that there was nothing about this crime
scene that indicated it was a satanic ritual whatsoever. Well, and there was what's weird about that that statement
of, "Oh, I heard Damien Echols say this at a softball game or whatever." I think it was in Mara Leveritt's book,
The Devil's Knot, where there's some some evidence to suggest that even at times maybe investigators were going
around town with a photograph of Damien Echols and they're asking individuals about the case, if they know anything
about the the murders, and they're also showing this photograph. That that's almost implying that this man, this boy
is is in somehow connected to the murders themselves. And you can almost see a situation where
because he knows he's being looked at and he's being harassed during this whole time
that that he's overheard discussing that with somebody and and they misconstrue it completely. And and you point out
something that's very very big here is the reward. The all these people are poor and now we got this money sitting
on a on a table up for grabs. If you have any information, tell us and let's put these put these devil worshipers
behind bars and and here's your your your pot of gold. That that money was never
officially paid out to anyone that we know of, right? And no one knows where it went.
They've they've been able to keep that pretty pretty tight-lipped. Uh well, yeah, it might have went to Vicki
Hutchinson. Who knows? Um question for you. You said something that I find very interesting. A lot of
people that think that the West Memphis three are guilty of this crime, a lot of people will cite that well, it
this is a crime that couldn't have been done by one individual. And you you stated earlier that you believe it was
done by a single individual. What makes you believe that? There there's a there's a lot of things
that have to do with the the profiling of the crime scene. You know, we've worked with with Jim Clemente doing
crime scene reconstruction and and studying the behavior exhibited here. Um and my own analysis was the same. People
think that one You know, how would one person kill three boys? But that's that's part of why the profile indicates
that this is someone not only with a known personal relationship, but also an authority figure to these 8-year-old
boys, which is pretty much any adult, right? Uh it's very easy to see say one boy gets
punished and which results in him being unconscious. And the other boys freaking out and for
that that single figure to to yell, you know, get your butts back here or come back or I'm going to do this or whatever
and and you could literally you know, as a as a I've said this before on the podcast, you know, as a as
a grown man myself, I could easily grab three 8-year-old boys by the you know, by the napes of their neck, by the
collars of their shirts, you know, one in one hand and two in the other and grab them and hold them underwater all
three at at same time. You know, it's not you know, I've wrestled around with my with my boy and his in in his
friends. You know, it's it it's so it's it's definitely not necessary for there to be three.
The forensics in the crime scene seemed to indicate that there was one. You know, that that it's the same kind of
patterns happening on all of them. People like to cite, well, this knot was tied differently than this knot. But
they were all a series of half hitch knots basically. You know, some of them were double, triple, whatever. But it's
basically the same type of knot. The boys are all tied up in the same way. You just don't see that that happen with
three different people, right? So so the boys were tied up in a very unique way with ankles to to wrists.
So what you're stating is with the the knots the the knots were the same type of knot
knots. It's just sometimes there were multiple knots instead of just a single Yeah, so a half hitch
A half hitch knot is a basic like the first knot you tie in your shoes, you know, over under and pull it tight. And
you know, a double knot and a triple knot and a quadruple knot. They're all They're all different variations of that
knot. But what what's more important is to look at the very unique way of how the
boys were tied. Right ankle to right wrist, left ankle to right wrist. That That was done, you know, no one
would direct someone to tie them in that particular way because there's no utility in it, right? It doesn't stop
someone from running. It doesn't It doesn't keep them from being able to untie themselves. It's not hog tying
like like some would say. It's It's pretty clearly this was done postmortem or at least post you know, when
someone's unconscious. I think Michael Moore did show a little bit of bruising from one of the ligatures, which could
mean he still had some amount of heartbeat left when that was put on. But the others show none.
So, you know, if there's multiple people and you're directing them, you know, do you say, "Hey, when you tie
them up, make sure you tie right wrist to right ankle, left wrist to right ankle?"
You wouldn't do that. You know, you're just going to you're trying to tie them up. In my opinion, the reason they were
tied that way was to create a smaller package to keep them under the water. So that they didn't they didn't reveal
themselves. I think it was probably a trial and error. I think they were probably put down. It didn't work and
then they took the clothes off and tied them up that way. That's kind of really getting into the
weeds, but the point is in my opinion looking at that that crime scene, the same person tied all three of
those boys up. The same person put all three boys into the water and the clothes. Everything is too uniform
for there to have been multiple people there. And also, I mean plain and simple,
two people can't keep a secret like this for that long. It's impossible. The only way a secret like this gets
kept is if only one person knows what happened. All right. Thank you guys so much for
joining us in the garage. We know it's difficult times, weird times, strange times, and we appreciate you and we're
going to keep going with the flying garage ship. And if you want to listen to our
coverage of the West Memphis 3, download the free Stitcher app. We have all of our shows on there and you can go all
the way back to July of 2016, listen to episodes 40, 41, and 42. Those are the West Memphis 3
episodes. Also, we've talked about West Memphis 3 I don't know how many times on
our other show Off The Record available on Stitcher Premium. Go to our website and you can click on Off The Record and
get a free month of listening. Until tomorrow, be good, be kind, and don't litter.
Oh.

Source: https://www.podbean.com/eau/pb-8gfs6-d7ca53

The Forgotten WM3 /// Part 1 /// 386 Part 1 of 2 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com This week we are very excited to be joined in the Garage by friend of the show Bob Ruff! Bob is the host of the very popular Truth & Justice podcast and Executive Producer and star of Oxygen’s The Forgotten West Memphis 3. Beer of the Week - Dortmunder Gold by The Great Lakes Brewing Company Garage Grade - 5 out of 5 Bottle Caps Don’t miss out for a chance to check out the Garage sponsors and these awesome deals! www.LightStream.com/TCG - Get a low rate on a credit card consolidation loan from LightStream! www.Grove.CO/Garage - For a limited time get a FREE Five Piece set, plus FREE shipping and a FREE 60 day VIP trial! www.ThirdLove.com/Garage - Get 15% off of your first order!

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Brief Summary

The episode discusses the West Memphis 3 case, focusing on the wrongful convictions and the impact of media coverage on the victims.

Key points

The Tragic Murders of Three Boys. The case of Stevie Branch, Christopher Byers, and Michael Moore, all just eight years old, marks a heartbreaking triple homicide known as the West Memphis 3.
Confession with Inconsistencies. Jessie Miss Kelly's confession to the murders was filled with errors and contradictions, raising doubts about its validity.
The Golden Nugget of Law Enforcement Theater. Inspector Gitchell's confident claim about the case's strength became a notable moment in the investigation.
The Plea Bargain and Release. After nearly 20 years, the West Memphis Three negotiated Alford pleas, asserting their innocence while acknowledging evidence against them.
Understanding the Case. The discussion dives into the complexities of the case, highlighting the socioeconomic factors involved.
The Victims' Backgrounds. Exploring the troubled backgrounds of the victims and the accused sheds light on their circumstances.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

What I just described is tragedy on all sides.

Judge David Laser reflects on the case.

8:45WatchMar 31, 2020

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

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