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It is an all too common occurance that people who dress different, look different and act different to the ways prescribed from birth by society’s “norms” are treated with contempt, abuse and insult. How about put on Death Row? For the last almost two decades three men, youthes at the time, have been incarcerated in (yep, you guessed it) the US for the murder of three young boys, by the names of Steve Branch, Christopher Byers, and Michael Moore. I have been following this for many years, ever since I saw the documentary film detailing these murders; Paradise Lost; The Child Murders At Robin Hood Hills.
Ok so if you have ever been to see Pearl Jam, Henry Rollins or The Misfits over the past 15 years you may have seen one of them make reference to the case, commonly referred to as The West Memphis Three or WM3. Three boys were abducted and viciously murdered, their bodies found in the hills near a very small southern town in the USA. The children had been hog tied with their own shoelaces, stabbed, one emasculated and all beated with blunt objects, their bodies placed seemingly in a ritualistic positioning. The town, of strict Christian faith, was understandably shaken up. The sheer brutality and evil of these murders sent the town in moral outrage, commonly referred to as “Satanic Panic”, as they believed through strong media and church influences that the boys were indeed murdered as part of a Satanic Ritual.
So who to blame for these atrocious murders? In what could only be described as a latter day witch hunt, local police rounded up the local misfits, and after months of getting nowhere, arrested Damien Echols, Jesse Misskelley and Jason Baldwin, all 18 or under at the time of arrest. Echols and Baldwin were close friends, had long hair and had similar tastes in Gothic fiction, Paganism and heavy metal, dressed in black clothes and were both social outcasts due to their dislike of their home town. Misskelley was questioned for hours over the murders, and due to his very low IQ was at the time borderline metal retardation. From the recorded interview, a mere 40 minutes were submitted to the court, where he claimed to have witnessed the other two suspects capture, rape and murder the boys. He quickly recanted this confession, saying that it was the product of intimidation, coercion, fatigue, and veiled threats from police. Many parts of this confession were inconsistant with forensic evidence, for example he says he watched Echols rape one of the boys, and this was consistent with dilated anuses, however the lack of bruising, seminal fluid and the fact that dilation of the anus is a common postmortem effect contradicts this.
In court, pieces of evidence to “prove” the boys were murdered in Satanic Rituals included Pink Floyd and Metallica lyrics, black clothing, notebooks with pentagrams and inverted crosses, as well as spells. Echols openly admitted to being Wiccan, and was against Christianity as a religion. The lead prosecutor brought forth a man called Dale Griffiths, an “expert” in occult killings, however his degree was obtained by a mail order scheme now closed by court, who “proved” to the jury that these items made Echols and others Satanists. This was enough to bring forth dozens of witnesses saying that the boys were freaks, and were devil worshippers because they dressed in black and often wore long trenchcoats. True Satanic Panic ensued. All the elements were in place for a conviction, without one solid piece of evidence to place anyone convicted at the scene, on any of the bodies, no murder weapons found nor any motive for killing.
On the night of the murders, a black male was seen in the women’s restroom at a local restaurant Bojangles, covered in blood and defacating on himself and the floor. Police were called but did not enter the bathroom to take any evidence that night, only after another visit did they do that, and the blood evidence was subsequently “lost” by the officer. It was later confirmed that one of the hairs found on an item believed to wrap the bodies belonged to an African American person.

Does this sound like enough to convict someone of murder? Alleged false confessions, lost evidence and moral panic? Well it was enough for the jury to sentence all three to lifetime imprisonment, with Echols being put on Death Row.

Since the case a number of big players in the prosecution have recanted their statements, saying that police threatened or coerced answers out of them. Even one of the victim’s parents, John Mark Byers, whose behavior after the murders led many people to believe he was a suspect (a hunting knife he gave as a gift to filmmakers on the case had blood on it which matched both himself and the victim, and after it was emerged that human teeth marks were found on one of the bodies John had his teeth removed saying they were lost in a fight) now believes in their innocence.

Necromag is covering this case because in my opinion, it is a prime example of how easily lives can be taken away and destroyed by evil and ignorance. Whoever murdered these children was pure evil, teenagers who dislike Christianity are not. It is scary to think that we live in a world so under educated that music and dress style can be used as evidence in a triple murder case. Just one more example of people being singled out for being different.

One more nail in the coffin of equality.

Thankfully, this is not all a doom and gloom story. This year will hopefully bring about some justice as DNA evidence has been brought to the re trial scheduled this year. Modern technology will replace police ignorance and moral panic, and hopefully will bring about a fair trial. I believe in their innocence, and have even wrote to Damien Echols in prison. Necromag does not want in any way to influence your opinion, all we ask is that you educate yourself on the case and form your own opinions. Buy or rent the DVD Paradise Lost, as well as it’s sequel. A third movie is also being made very soon. An unbiased look at the case can be found here.

The main website for the case can be found here

Ignorance is NOT bliss.

Words; [Ox King]