Anyone else here follow this when it happened? I thought these guys were goners - that they’d spend their lives in prison.
It was a witchunt from start to finish. The townspeople hated these kids because they wore black and listened to heavy metal. Idiot hick southerners and bible bashing morons. Who are the real crims here? Who are the real oddballs here?
The more they be a prayin’ the more they be a hatin’.
a) how FUCKED up the Arkansas police department fucked up EVERYTHING…from the crime scene, to the interrogations, to the evidence, to the interviews…it was a total Three Stooges-esque method of law enforcement (wikipedia the WM3 entry, it’s all there)
and
b) how crazy is their plea deal? I never heard of an Alford plea, and I acquired almost 500 credit hours in law enforcement training…it’s a weird plea but, hey, they’re out of jail.
Apparently they weren’t even THAT much into metal at all. They liked Metallica and U2.
Any of you Americans grow up in those sorts of bible bashing towns?
I did. All over, really - Georgia, Florida, Alabama, North AND South Carolina, plus Virginia briefly.
You’d be surprised how retro the ways of thinking are when it comes to anyone who doesn’t look local. It’s almost like circa year 1700 in a lot of those areas. Some of them even watch religious TV programs and nothing else, because they’re so wrapped up into Christianity, or as many know it as “evangelical Christianity”.
Being from the outside, you’d find it fascinating I’m sure (as I do, in retrospect), but growing up in it is really scary.
Eyehategod - the greatest southern hick metal sludge band in existance. Listen and be at peace.
I had “in the name of the suffering” for a long fucking time… couldn’t get into it so I sold it back to the record store, one of very few I have every released back into the wild! That Charles Manson (Can’t remember the name but they had snippets of Charlie Manson talking all crazy through out the track) track was actually not bad now that I think about it . But that was it!
Late,
grmpysmrf
That Alford plea is a bunch of shit!! they basically had to confess that they did it in order to get out.
I hope they will be able to work to have that shit taken off their record now, as well, now that they’re out. and I hope they sue that town for all 6 chickens and that lone pair of sneakers hanging from the telephone wires!!!
I remember watching a Doc about them WAAAAAAAY back when that basically suggested that the murder trail lead back to one of the boys’ father.
damn how do you live 20 years in prison for a crime you didn’t commit and then just be let out? Culture shock!!!
Late,
grmpysmrf
Apparently they weren’t even THAT much into metal at all. They liked Metallica and U2.
Any of you Americans grow up in those sorts of bible bashing towns?
At least 3 out of every 4 cities I’ve lived in have been like that. You’ll see AT LEAST 3 churches for every 1.5 miles of road. It’s ridiculous. And the “churches” are more like some grand convention hall rather than a “humble place of worship” like the Bible says it wanted to begin with.
In Australia you’d be lucky to have ONE church for each community. Very few people here go to church on a regular basis. Apart from ethnics and very old people.
I can’t imagine growing up in a community like West Memphis. I wonder what they’d do to me if I wore my Darkthrone Blaze In The Northern Sky t shirt to the supermarket.
It must behorrible to spend 17 years in jail for a murder you had nothing to do with. Did you see these kids? One of them look like a shy little doormouse that you could push over with one finger. And yet he was supposed to have brutally raped and murdered three little boys.
In Australia you’d be lucky to have ONE church for each community. Very few people here go to church on a regular basis. Apart from ethnics and very old people.
I can’t imagine growing up in a community like West Memphis. I wonder what they’d do to me if I wore my Darkthrone Blaze In The Northern Sky t shirt to the supermarket.
I can tell you exactly what would happen - you would get “the look” from everyone. Ever seen Invasion Of the Body Snatchers? That look.
And, if you’re fortunate, that’s about it. Now, some communities in Northern Georgia or Western Alabama/East Arkansas, well, you get results like the WM3.
You basically could use an alibi every day of your life in some of those towns. Everyone’s a shitkicker - and if they aren’t, they’re the brothers or cousins of one, so watch out.
It was the step father of one of the victims who’s DNA was found on the items at the scene.
DNA found at the scene matched that of John Mark Byers, step father of murder victim Christopher Byers, and that of Terry Hobbs, step father to murder victim Stevie Branch, a man described by some as a “terrifying psychopath”.
A bite mark on one of the boys matched that of John Byers (who at the time of the murders was under Federal investigation for a number of serious offences) who had an unusually shaped mouth and crooked teeth. He was also competently skilled with cutting tools from working as a jeweller for some time. It was found in the autopsy report that whoever castrated Christopher Byers could possibly have had a knowledge of such cutting implements - due to precisive nature of the cut involved.
But I guess that’s not enough. I guess they just weren’t scary enough suspects. Let’s round up some teens in black clothing instead. When something like this happens it’s always human nature to find the darkest, spookiest explanation possible rather than get to the bottom of what really happened. There has to be a boogey man. And heavy metal and its alleged links to Satanism is the perfect scapegoat for God fearing Christian bigots.
Seriously, how many teens do you know worship heavy metal? Probably lots. How many of those guys take part in satanic rituals where children are sacrificied? Probably…none.
To this day no physical evidence that links the murders to the three accused has ever been uncovered.
But I guess that’s not enough. I guess they just weren’t scary enough suspects. Let’s round up some teens in black clothing instead. When something like this happens it’s always human nature to find the darkest, spookiest explanation possible rather than get to the bottom of what really happened. There has to be a boogie man. And heavy metal and its alleged links to Satanism is the perfect scapegoat for God fearing Christian bigots.
Seriously, how many teens do you know worship heavy metal? Probably lots. How many of those guys take part in satanic rituals where children are sacrificed? Probably…none.
Don’t I know it! Been persecuted by them myself for my love of metal.
Don’t you know that listening to Gospel makes them all perfect Christians and listening to Country makes people into cowboys?