The West Memphis Three Were Guilty
The West Memphis Three were guilty. That’s the truth.
On May 5, 1993, Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley (ages 18, 16 & 17 at the time) killed Michael Moore, Steve Branch and Christopher Byers (all age 8). They beat them with fists, then beat them sticks, hogtied them, sexually assaulted them, tortured Branch and Byers with a knife, cut off Byers’ genitals, then dumped their bodies in a ditch. The killers were arrested a month later and convicted in early 1994.
Thousands of people have watched Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills and come away convinced that Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley were victims of a gross miscarriage of justice. Many then readDevil’s Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three by Mara Leveritt, watched Paradise Lost 2, browsed some “Free the WM3″ websites, heard a celebrity proclaiming the WM3′s innocence, or saw a TV documentary proclaiming their innocence, and became further convinced. When I first saw Paradise Lost, I figured the three teenagers had to be innocent. Maybe you did too.
Don’t believe the hype. Paradise Lost is an outstanding piece of propaganda — turning thugs who raped, tortured and killed second-graders into beloved folk heroes is no mean feat — but it’s not an accurate account of the case. The “Free the West Memphis 3″ movement is a massive fraud. The evidence is overwhelming that Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley were guilty as charged.
The standard pro-WM3 story goes: Police couldn’t find the real killers, so they decided to frame some local weird kids. Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley were targeted because they looked different, dressed in black, listened to heavy metal music and read Stephen King novels. The cops bullied a mentally retarded kid into making a false confession. There was no evidence tying Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley to the crime. The Bible Belt community was swept up in “Satanic panic”, and the investigation and trial were a modern-day witch hunt.
That story is 100%
On May 5, 1993, Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley (ages 18, 16 & 17 at the time) killed Michael Moore, Steve Branch and Christopher Byers (all age 8). They beat them with fists, then beat them sticks, hogtied them, sexually assaulted them, tortured Branch and Byers with a knife, cut off Byers’ genitals, then dumped their bodies in a ditch. The killers were arrested a month later and convicted in early 1994.
Thousands of people have watched Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills and come away convinced that Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley were victims of a gross miscarriage of justice. Many then readDevil’s Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three by Mara Leveritt, watched Paradise Lost 2, browsed some “Free the WM3″ websites, heard a celebrity proclaiming the WM3′s innocence, or saw a TV documentary proclaiming their innocence, and became further convinced. When I first saw Paradise Lost, I figured the three teenagers had to be innocent. Maybe you did too.
Don’t believe the hype. Paradise Lost is an outstanding piece of propaganda — turning thugs who raped, tortured and killed second-graders into beloved folk heroes is no mean feat — but it’s not an accurate account of the case. The “Free the West Memphis 3″ movement is a massive fraud. The evidence is overwhelming that Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley were guilty as charged.
The standard pro-WM3 story goes: Police couldn’t find the real killers, so they decided to frame some local weird kids. Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley were targeted because they looked different, dressed in black, listened to heavy metal music and read Stephen King novels. The cops bullied a mentally retarded kid into making a false confession. There was no evidence tying Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley to the crime. The Bible Belt community was swept up in “Satanic panic”, and the investigation and trial were a modern-day witch hunt.
That story is 100%