On May 6, 1993 the bodies of three eight year old boys were found in the Robin Hood Hills Woods nearby their homes in West Memphis, Arkansas. The court trials and false conviction that occurred following this horrid act can shed light on the subjectivity of police judgement. As well, due to the impulsive, incorrect judgement of police, the true killer of these boys remains unknown and unprosecuted.

Three boys, Chris Byers, Michael Moore, and Stevie Branch set out on a bike ride in the early afternoon of May 5th, 1993. When none returned for dinnertime, their parents contacted the authorities to report them missing. The next day, the three boys were found in the woods naked with their wrists and ankles bound with shoelaces. Soon after the bodies were found hysteria spread across the city. Many pointing towards devil worshippers as the cause and Chief Inspector Gary Gitchell fueled these rumors and chaos by claiming he was investigating, “cult activity.”

Quickly eyes turned to Damien Echols, a 17 year old high school dropout with a history of mental health troubles. Echols often dressed in black, had long hair, and tattoos. He described himself as a Wiccan, a modern pagan religion, and had been admitted to psychiatric wards as well as juvenile detention centers. Given that he fit the city’s narrative of the killer, he was quickly questioned despite no physical evidence pointing towards him. Jason Baldwin, a friend of Echols, was then included in the investigation, simply due to his similar “satanic” demeanor.

Due to a complete lack of evidence, the investigation on these two should have ended there; however, waitress Vicki Hutcheson became suspicious of her neighbor Jesse Misskelley, a 17 year old with intellectual disabilities, who claimed to be friends with Echols. She crafted a story on how Echols (who never owned a car) drove her and Jesse to a satanic gathering. This along with a testimony from her 8 year old son proved enough for Misskelley to be questioned. After five hours of being harassed and accused of lying Misskelley told a version of the story that pleased Inspector Gitchell. The story goes that Misskelley, Echol, and Baldwin abused and murdered the three boys that fateful night. In order to build more of a narrative, Hutcheson’s 8 year old son, Aaron, claimed to have been alongside the other three boys and witnessed this attack and survived due to him kicking and fighting off the attackers. This absurd and extremely coerced story eventually led to the arrest and sentencing to life in prison for both Misskelley and Baldwin, and the death penalty for Echols in part due to his “lack of remorse.” The three took an Alford Plea (maintaining innocence while pleading guilty) and were released after 18 years in prison.

Suspects:

The West Memphis Three

There was no evidence connecting the three of these to the cases they simply just looked the stereotypical part; therefore, my believability rating is 0.

Terry Hobbs, David Jacoby

DNA in a hair found in one of the shoelaces found on the crime scene matched Terry Hobbs, stepfather of Branch, and a second hair matched the DNA of Hobbs’ friend David Jacoby. Hobbs had a history of abuse, and a neighbor claimed to have seen Hobbs with the three boy on the night of their death. And most substantial of all, an affidavit from Billy Wayne Stewart and Bennie Guy stating L. G. Hollingsworth and Buddy Lucas, two teenagers went to buy marijuana from Hobbs. This escalated and Hobbs and Jacoby ordered the two teenagers to engage in sexual activity along with Hobbs and Jacoby. Then, the three young boys stumbled across at the wrong place at the wrong time causing Hobbs and Jacoby to fall into a fit of rage and kill the boys.

Given that these subjects are the only ones connected with physical evidence to the case, as well as an under oath affidavit from two separate sources I give these suspect a believability rating of 7. However, I am not fully convinced since Hobbs and Jacoby spent much time alongside the boys; therefore, the hair found may not be from the night of the incident.

Sources: https://famous-trials.com/westmemphis/2287-home