Transcript
Speaker: Extra warning today. Our story includes graphic descriptions of violence towards children, and we wanted to make sure that you had a good solid heads up before going into this one because it is ah pretty dark. So proceed with caution.
Speaker: Welcome to Nim and Nyleen's Nightmare Cottage, where we explore history, mysteries, and other tales of the macabre. I'm Nim. And I'm Nyleen. Let the nightmare begin.
Speaker: Disturbing and mature content to follow. Into the nightmare, if you dare.
Speaker: I'm trying be an about No, that's what I'm saying. The thing, like, it's unnecessary. Oh, well. It's like I press the button and they're like, yes, alert, you have pressed the button. And just so you know, it's going to do this specific thing, just in case you didn't know what the button you pressed did. Whatever. But you you know that things like that are more for people that, I mean, they're for everybody, right? And not everybody is, some people need it to be more intuitive.
Speaker: I don't know. I do feel like a lot of the warning signs these days are just unnecessary. Yes, I agree. Well, but they're necessary for someone. Like, why do we need to have something on a wood chipper that says, like, don't get inside of it?
Speaker: You know why. You know why. Because some dumbass got inside of it and, is i you know, either lost part of themselves or all of themselves, and it was probably very messy.
Speaker: How you all ready here? I'm sorry. Your face is so pretty. Move your butt. but i like your feet Do you feel like you're in trouble?
Speaker: Good. It's working. Oh my God. Finally, the therapy is working. That's what this is. This has all been therapy. um ah can You're like, no, thank you. No, thank you. I take some cues from my nephew.
Speaker: No, thank you. No, thank you. He's so polite. He is. It's so funny, too, when he does that. Because, like, I feel like I would normally be upset that he didn't want something. But he said, no, thank you. And he's so, like, there's there is no it's not even It's not animosity. is' that There's nothing behind it. It's just like, oh, no, that's not for me. Thanks. And and it's like, oh, well, yes, you're right.
Speaker: Good job teaching that one some boundaries, man. He's a cool dude. I mean, he's only four. We still have a long way to go. Yeah. Yeah. So I heard about the most ridiculous shit this morning.
Speaker: This guy. band camp. No. This guy murdered his wife. Okay, that happens a lot. He strangled her and he was going to go dump her body in the woods. Okay.
Speaker: And in the process of dragging her to the woods, he had a heart attack and died. oh So that's how they found them. Oh my gosh. I mean, whatever. ah feel like...
Speaker: Well, like, I'm just saying, like, in, like, the whole, like, plot of things, if that were me and I had just, like, killed my significant other and I was trying to get rid of the evidence and I, like, felt myself dying in the process, I'd be like, I mean, fair enough. Like, fair play.
Speaker: You know? like Yes, I agree with that for sure. Yeah. I don't know that this guy felt the same way. They found her with her arms above her head, but like she was still being dragged, and he was curled up in the fetal position next to her. So this was, the poor woman was Jessica Folds, and the man was Daniel Robbins, and they're from Alabama.
Speaker: Well, this happened in Alabama. And I will definitely... Like, when if we ever get, like, information, motive, anything like that, there was no information like that. But was what the hell? Like, that's... Did it say that he had, like, a heart attack or whatever? Yeah, he had a heart attack. It was specifically a heart attack, yeah. how far How long after he died did they find them or anything? The truck had been left running and was still on.
Speaker: that's... So, it was at least if they had a full tank gas, I mean... Like... No more than a few hours, I assume. Okay. So, yeah, it it it didn't take long. I do wonder how long a car will run.
Speaker: On a full tank, like just sitting there idle. Yeah. Or like, well, the battery eventually like, well, anything overheat. I mean, I imagine it wouldn't because it's just sitting there. i mean, I imagine it depends on if it's like a newer car old. Like this was a truck, but that's all I know. If you happen to know and you're not ai please let us know.
Speaker: Nightmare Cottage at gmail.com.
Speaker: Are you ready for some really disturbing stuff today? as ready as I'll ever be. It's a long one today, so we're just going to start off. Are you familiar with the West Memphis Three?
Speaker: Is this not something you've mentioned before? We've probably... i've I imagine it's come up in a conversation at some point maybe before. It's something that I've known about since high school. Like I've been, i i did not follow it since high school, but I was aware of it in high school and it was important to me then. So I may have mentioned it some So if I had to guess, and I'm just going to guess because I think, you know, that sounds fun.
Speaker: If I had to guess based off the name, they're either like Western type bank robbers oh or they're like Salem witches You are actually closer with the Salem witches. Okay. I love the idea of the bank robbers, though, and I think that somebody needs to write that story. Okay. And this is about a crime that took place in ah the early 90s, and oh wow I'm just going to get into it. At 8 p.m. on May 5th, 1993.
Speaker: John Mark Byers calls the police to report his stepson, 8-year-old Christopher Byers, is missing. Christopher was last seen doing yard work at around 5.30 p.m. At 8.42 p.m., Officer Regina Meek arrived at the Byers' residence and took a statement from John Mark and Christopher's mom, Melissa.
Speaker: After taking the Byers' statements, the officer responded to another call at the Bojangles fast food restaurant. Oh, they still have those. I think they just put one of those around here. It's like fried chicken, isn't it? Oh, I don't know. i haven't one. know. I need to try it. I've heard it's really good.
Speaker: um She spoke to the restaurant staff through the drive-thru window and learned that half an hour earlier, a disoriented and bloody black man staggered through the restaurant and into the women's restroom.
Speaker: He left on his own, but the staff found blood smeared on the walls of the restroom afterwards. Oh, my gosh. The officer took a statement and left. we we will we wait were boy Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Speaker: Who came to the drive-thru? The office of officer? The officer. They didn't even come inside. She didn't even come inside. Okay, so, like, I was under the understanding, like, that, like, the officer was just trying to, like, order their chicken dinner, and then they were like, oh, hey, by the way, officer. She was responding to the call and approached the manager at the drive-thru. That's horrible. yeah But she she had another call for criminal mischief at 9.01, so she took off. Okay.
Speaker: Okay. The next call came at 924 from just across the street from the buyer's residence. Dana Moore was reporting that she had not seen her son Michael since 6 p.m. He had been riding bikes with his friends Christopher Moore and Stephen Branch. oh no Dana had sent her daughter after them, but she hadn't been able to find them.
Speaker: Around this same time, another officer was dispatched across town to the workplace of Pamela Hobbs, who reported that no one had seen her son Stephen Branch since he left school. There's no note in the report as to who let her know he was missing or where he was supposed to be while she was working.
Speaker: But this was the early 90s and it was pretty normal for kids with working class parents. Yeah. manage themselves for large chunks of time. Yeah. You just know you're supposed to be home at whatever time. Right. There's rules. There's like there were guidelines and it worked.
Speaker: Having said that, Stephen's stepfather, Terry, had been out hanging out with his friend David Jacoby during this time. OK. OK. After word started to spread through the neighborhood that the kids were missing, some people noted that they had seen the boys riding their bikes toward the dead end of Macaulay Drive, which is kind of a busy, busy road in that residential area. But I mean, again, they're kids. They're riding their bike. yes whatever It's whatever. It's not that anything was wrong with it. It's just that they saw them. Yeah, that's where they saw them. Okay.
Speaker: Beyond the dead end that they saw them riding at is a small four acre patch of woods. Through these woods is part of a really large drainage ditch used to divert flooding into the Mississippi River. It's just yeah one of those big woods. So it's like but like basically like a big creek through this patch of woods.
Speaker: Like a big gorge. Yeah. Basically. And then it in this whole, the woods and the creek area, that separated West Memphis from like two like the busiest highways in the country. So it like kind of gives a buffer. Yeah, I used to play in those when I was a teenager.
Speaker: Glad you're still here. Look, if it got started raining, we would jump out of them as quickly as we could. All the kids in town, young and old, they all knew of this place and likely played in it or hung out in at some point. They called it Robin Hood.
Speaker: The parents polished it up a bit and called it Robin Hood Hills. And it kind of seemed like the obvious place to for the kids. Because that's, you know, that's where the kids go get up to whatever. their tree house or whatever. Exactly. um It had rained recently and the mosquitoes were extremely thick.
Speaker: Officer Meek had attempted to search the woods that night, but was driven out by the mosquitoes. Yeah. oh The other officer that responded to the missing persons call also searched through the woods for about a half an hour that night, but came up empty.
Speaker: That was the only police activity regarding this case on May fifth Okay, wait. So they went looking for kids, plural. What happened to the kid that was supposedly with the other one?
Speaker: The one that's missing? There's three of them that are missing. Oh, all three of them are missing. yeah I'm sorry. I misunderstood. i thought it was just that one. And then the police officer went to go visit them. No, no, no. they that Their parents called them and missing as well. Okay. So now they've realized the whole group is. Yes. Okay.
Speaker: Got it. Apologies. Well, that's even worse that there's three of them together. They're supposed to be safety in numbers.
Speaker: Chief Inspector Gary Gitchell led the West Memphis Police Department on a search and rescue mission. a search and rescue team from the Crittenden County Sheriff's Office joined the fray, as well as a helicopter unit from nearby Memphis, Tennessee.
Speaker: Dozens of ordinary citizens were searching as well. Farmland, abandoned buildings, and everything else were searched. But it really did seem like the woods was the place to check. At one point, they literally lined up shoulder to shoulder and walked through the wood from one side to the other. so like dragging the woods, basically. Basically, yes. At that point, it was around noon.
Speaker: Almost everyone took the search out of the woods at that point and into the rest of town. But County Juvenile Officer Steve Jones kept to it. As he was going through an offshoot tributary of the main drainage ditch, he found a black child sneaker with no laces floating in the water. No. Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no. oh He called it in.
Speaker: This was 1.30 p.m.
Speaker: Sergeant Mike Allen either slipped, if you ask some, or wondered in all curious, like if you ask others. But either way, he got into the water and started poking around. And it was that kind of like bog stuff, like if you put your foot down, it like sucks your shoe off kind of thing. So as he was getting stuck and moving his legs, the creek started to bubble and a nude, tied up child floated to the surface.
Speaker: Oh my gosh. This was 1.45 p.m. Oh, this is horrible. The officers knew this one to be Michael Moore. No. He had endured severe head injuries prior to death. Sorry.
Speaker: and And tied with shoelaces. ah Left wrist to left ankle and right to right. Horrible. Slowly, they continued to search through the muddy creek. and They began finding clothing and then two more pairs of laces and sneakers. Oh, no. These items had been pinned to the bottom of the creek with sticks.
Speaker: Oh. So this was, I mean, obviously, like, this was so incredibly intentional.
Speaker: Eventually, they found the other two boys. Stephen Branch had severe face injuries, including what might have been a bite mark. What? Christopher Byers had various wounds, but the most obvious was that his scrotum was gone and the skin around his penis had been...
Speaker: No, no, this is horrible. Some things to note here. The bodies were removed from the cool water and placed in the elements on a warm May day for two hours before the coroner was called.
Speaker: Also, there was almost no blood found. There were no ah no mosquito bites on the boys' bodies. Oh, so that means they were killed inside. Police made no comment to the hordes of gathering press as they left the scene.
Speaker: But a statement was picked up on the state police scanner by the publication Memphis Commercial Appeal and printed the next day. The department has a case of three juveniles being abducted.
Speaker: They were found with their hands tied behind their backs and their genitals have been removed with a sharp instrument. Their bodies have been dropped in a remote area. Any department with a case similar to this, please advise this department. Attention Inspector Gitchell.
Speaker: All information appreciated. End quote. Oh, my gosh. A couple of things with that. They did that and press got it, which means people are going to hear that. Yes. They're going to hear those two specific details. They're going to hear hands tied behind their backs, but that's not exactly specifically correct, is it? And then only one of them had that mutal the mutilation. So there's misinformation there and people are going to grab onto that.
Speaker: Gitchell refused to comment on the mutilation, but he did express exasperation since that whole area had been vigorously searched that morning and nothing had turned up. Yeah, and so, yeah, that that proves even more to me that it was, that was just the, ugh, dumping ground, as I hate to say it.
Speaker: Immediately, the police had three main theories. One, it was someone close to one or all of the boys. Two, it was a total stranger. or three, what's the third and most obvious thing? What do you think?
Speaker: Stranger, someone they know. i that has to be. I don't know. Well, I'll give some extra context here. This is the Bible Belt.
Speaker: And we're not, it's 1993. So we're not far removed from the tail end of the satanic panic, which really wasn't put to bed until about 1992. And that was the official FBI report, not normal people letting go of their yeah their problems with that, right?
Speaker: Their third option was that it was cult activity. ah Obviously, right? I was actually lucky enough to be immune from knowing much about the satanic panic in any real way aside from jokes in the distance. My mom loves fantasy and rock music. Like that's the stuff that you're not allowed to love in the satanic panic, you know, stuff. So no one in my family was worried about that. No interest in dark or magical things being evil or wrong.
Speaker: i was able I wore black nail polish. I listened to heavy metal. I lived in jeans and band t-shirts. I bought witchy books from the bookstore with my babysitting money. Satanic panic was just not present in my existence. Yeah. Did you have any kind of satanic panic or like you can't have this because it's the devil kind of situations?
Speaker: I would say Yes. But I don't know how hardcore it really was. More just like you shouldn't. So it was, I grew up in a very, very strict religious Hispanic family.
Speaker: So there was that. But at the same time, I do think a lot of it was more like maybe they just didn't want to deal with things. So like, it's like, no, we're not celebrating Halloween because that's celebrating Satan. I think it was more like, well, I don't want to dress you up and take you to go get candy just to have to convince you not to eat all the candy and then brush all your teeth. and So it's like the the TV being out of batteries or whatever. Yeah, that. I think it was more of that, to be completely honest, because I did i did read Harry Potter and I remember and my mom gave me a Spanish version of it too. I don't i don't think it was really that.
Speaker: um Now, obviously, there were some things that I wasn't a allowed to watch. Like, my parents aren't very big on, like, horror. So a lot of the horror that I got into was, like, that's that's me. Like, I love horror stuff. um Especially the the satanic or they the demonic possession and, like, all of that stuff. And I think it's more the curiosity because it wasn't something that was discussed. It was taboo, but not in, like...
Speaker: you're going to go to hell kind of way. Just like, hey, don't mess with that stuff. you're you're gonna You're going to catch demons in your blood kind of situation, you know? So. Got it. So we were both fairly lucky, I guess. Yeah. that respect. Yeah.
Speaker: Back to the nightmare. Oh, and then I go back to this. So several days passed with no new updates from the police. Despite this, Gitchell declined assistance from state investigators.
Speaker: I will note here that several members of the West Memphis Police Department were currently under investigation for a situation involving drugs and probable police corruption from an incident that had happened four months before these murders.
Speaker: Oh, no. So, you know, before we go any further, that a lot of what we're about to experience is due to police incompetence.
Speaker: This is horrible. This is horrible. So word is out that they're looking into possible satanic cult presence here in a modern day yet still thing archaic witch hump begins. So we're just we're just starting in the worst possible place. Got it. Okay.
Speaker: Yeah. Sorry. So the initial explanations for why they were looking at cults included the fact that it was on a full moon. Okay. One of the victims appeared to be exsanguinated, missing body part, of course. And then the time proximity to Beltane and Walpurgisnek, which both fall on May 1st and are significant to several pagan and occult religions and histories. Okay. So that's... So they think it was like a ritual-related killing. That's feeling what they're saying. Yeah. Okay. That is what they're saying.
Speaker: So there's an astonishing amount of information on this case. I have never researched a true crime anything and had access to as much documentation of everything, videos, transcripts, audio, everything. That's how it felt with that that Corey Richens case. like It was just like there was too much information where I was just like, I don't know what to do with any of this right now. Well, and the reason because of that, I'm just going to tell everybody there is going to be a link in the show notes to the link that has all of it.
Speaker: Because of that, I am going to make that link available. So anybody who wants to comb through all of this, because yeah i think everybody should take a look if you really want to get your own good opinion, because there's a lot of different stories happening. So.
Speaker: It doesn't have any of like the case photos, right, though. You you can choose on what you're clicking on. That's horrible. It's so horrible. There's documents, photos, videos, audios that's separated by type of file. And then there's an index that has anybody's name. Like you can either if they were involved in the case or related to somebody involved in the case or if there was a case about them or somebody they knew or whatever. Like there's so much information there. Like you can piece together so much stuff.
Speaker: But I'm going to do my best to cover what I can here, but there's just way more than I'm going to be able to get to. So. From the beginning, it seemed that the police had been trying to peg this on 18-year-old Damien Echols, a kid who dressed in black and was into Wicca.
Speaker: Hmm. Now, Damien had a very rough childhood and had been in and out of mental health facilities. He wasn't a perfect person. He was a, he he had trauma and he didn't have the best methods to process it. And yes. And his name is Damien.
Speaker: Well, and he's it's kind of a chosen name too, but... So he was, um to kind of get away from all of the the otherness, he was obsessed with religion and he was, he hated like Southern religions, right? So he he's exploring. He glommed onto Catholicism because of the history and stuff like that. And he learned about this Saint Damien who cured the lepers in Hawaii. And he, and he thought that That was just really cool. He did that when he was young. He changed his name when he was young to Damien from Michael.
Speaker: And, of course, as we go through, you're going to see that people are like, you got that from the omen, right? Yeah, exactly. And, like, and it comes up all the time. Anyways, I'm sorry.
Speaker: People who already know about this case, you can already tell where I stand on this. So, yeah. He was not an angel. He had even some violent tendencies. He threatened to kill his girlfriend's parents if they wouldn't let them be together. so like, he... he um Not great. He was deeply emotionally turned to music and history and religion to find his way. I mean, that's I mean. And how old was he? He was when all of this happened, he was 18. OK, so he's still in that age. Yes.
Speaker: um But he'd been developing this reputation with the county juvenile people. Being a bad kid. Yeah. And wearing black and being into dark stuff. But you know what?
Speaker: I was friends with the people that were like this, that were extra dark and like super edgelord. And but like that means something different now. i know I know it does. But what it meant then, like the mall ninja, like the, you know, they had fantasy knives and they they like use them for their rituals and drink their own blood and did stupid weird stuff because they thought it was edgy and cool. And carried the vials around their neck. Exactly. Yeah. i knew that guy, too Like I knew these guys and I knew Where they were coming from. i know what it was. i get it.
Speaker: And it's not what anybody outside thinks it is, especially not Most of the time. 98.7% of the time. I would even make it higher than that. But fair enough. I mean, it's just it's just a form of expression. Anyways.
Speaker: Anyways. After he was super into the Catholicism, he ended up turning to Wicca in his late teens. He did always comply with the prescribed actions from his therapist. He was present and on time for his therapy sessions. He had been given probationary terms after the whole incident with his girlfriend's parents that included getting his GED, maintaining his therapy sessions, and Yeah, so he was like getting his shit together. Yeah. He's just, he had a rough patch and he's getting through it. Well, and he had rough parents too. Like there was like his his mom separated from his dad and then was with this other guy and there's this whole sexual abuse case between that guy and his sister, Damien's sister. and Yeah. And then, but now Damien's mom has come back to live with Damien's dad again.
Speaker: So just all kinds yeah not great situations. Yeah, it's just like there's a lot. I mean, this is not a typical thriving home for a young troubled child. Yeah. but So there's this juvenile officer specifically that that he encountered several times, Jerry Driver.
Speaker: He wasn't a police officer, but one of the guys who would go and check in on kids that were on probation to make sure they were on the right track. He also happened to be the, quote, local expert on the occult. So naturally, he was obsessed with this kid who read Anton LaVey and we're all black.
Speaker: Driver likely thought he was fighting evil and doing good here, but he is one of the main catalysts in our witch hunt here. This man was fully integrated into the satanic panic watchdog. He was convinced that Damien was the leader of a local satanic cult.
Speaker: What he actually was, was a lonely goth with one best friend and a girlfriend and a boatload of childhood trauma. Damien's psychiatric records, all over 500 pages of, are available on that file to view.
Speaker: They state that his biggest issues were extreme depression, suicidal ideation, and suicidal intent. It clarified his distinction between Wicca and Satanism, which Wicca is goddess nature centric and Satanism, at least LeVay's Satanism is actually atheistic, but that's a whole other episode. maybe Steve Jones, the guy who first found the shoe was Jerry Driver's assistant.
Speaker: Oh, so they campaigned and allegedly manipulated Damien into being the prime suspect when they were interviewing people. They would ask about the murders and then they would ask if they knew if Damien Eccles was the leader of a satanic cult. They were planting seeds. Yes.
Speaker: The worst part is like, I could have been Damien. Like, really? Me, too. Me, too. One hundred percent. Yeah. I could have one hundred percent. Yes. Yes. I actually more specifically could have been his best friend. like the Well, I'm just saying, like, with, like, the mental health stuff and all of, like, the records with the police and the and my medical, like, well all of it. If you're Damien Echols, then I'm probably Jason Baldwin, but we'll get to that.
Speaker: As Gitchell was getting nowhere with the investigation and other directions, he decided to go all in with the satanic cult. So just really leading them into the desert.
Speaker: He made a statement that they were looking into all possibilities, including, quote, gang or cult activity. West Memphis police assigned the case number nine three zero five zero six six six Of course. Even though their conventional numbering system would have had it 93-050555. So someone so someone was like, nah. Yeah, they just wanted to go ahead and put that on there.
Speaker: And they claimed that it was just the way it happened. Mm-hmm. All right. So now enter Vicki Hutchison. Okay. This woman. Okay. So she was called into the police station to discuss a potential credit card theft from her place of work.
Speaker: When she came in for the interview, she brought her son, eight-year-old Aaron, and friends with Christopher Byers and Michael Moore. At this point, the boys were missing, but their bodies hadn't been found yet. The officer questioning Vicky got pissed because who brings a kid when they're getting questioned by the police?
Speaker: Well, Vicky then immediately goes in and on the fact that Aaron knew the boys and he had wanted to go with them yesterday, but she told him no. While she was there, the officer got the call that the boys had been found.
Speaker: He suddenly forgot all about the credit card fraud. He told her employers he found nothing, but they ended up firing her anyways. Oh, my gosh. Anyway, this chick laid it on thick for the whole investigation. Yeah. Aaron was interviewed multiple times saying he had witnessed the murders or that he had witnessed the boys at different parts of the day, saying increasingly wild things about what he saw.
Speaker: The stories were always different, but they kept interviewing him. For her part, Vicki told the police that she would do anything to help. She said she would do a little detective work to see what she could find. They asked her what she knew about cult activity, and originally she said nothing.
Speaker: Eventually, she came back saying she heard stuff around the neighborhood. Ah. A neighbor of hers, 17-year-old Jesse Miskelley Jr., that would occasionally mow her yard or babysit for her, knew this kid Damien that would apparently drink blood. Okay.
Speaker: So she offered to try to get Jesse to introduce her to Damien. She's 32 years old, by the way. Oh. Okay. After a series of bullshit, she comes back to the police with a story of Damien picking her and Jesse up from their trailer park in a Ford Escort and taking them to a satanic ritual with an orgy that she called an esbat, which is not a thing.
Speaker: What? ah Yeah. Wait, why are you following a teenager to an orgy? Because she's trying to find out information. Okay. She said she was immediately uncomfortable and had Damien take her home. Jesse denies this ever happened. And also everybody knew Damien couldn't and didn't drive.
Speaker: Oh. No one he knows has a Ford Escort. Nice. So she's a lying liar. And years later, i will say that Vicky did recant everything she said. Why? But did she give a reason as to why she did it? I will tell you why. Quick mention here. By this time, there was a $35,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the killer. Of course there was.
Speaker: Friends of Vicki later did report that she was talking about the money being errands and also talking about what she would do with the money. So the police brought Jesse Miss Kelly Jr., the one that she met Damien through. They brought him into the police station to ask him about the murders.
Speaker: Jesse was 17 years old. His parents were not with him. So that was not legal. He did not have a lawyer present. o He also has an IQ of 72 and an unspecified, at least at the time, and undiagnosed mental handicap.
Speaker: Throughout the investigation, including this scenario, lack of documentation has been a plague. oh Jesse was questioned for over 12 hours with no parents or lawyers present. That's horrible. That's so sad. Less than an hour of that 12 hours was recorded.
Speaker: And in this recording, you clearly hear the cops leading him. I'm going to quote Jesse's account real quick, and then I'm going to um talk about the interrogation. And this is quote, all this is a quote. The whole time, quote, quote, quote, quote.
Speaker: The whole time, the same questions that they already asked me. They kept asking me over and over. When Gitchell asked me what the boys looked like, I told him all the stuff I'd heard. i kept telling Gary Gitchell I wanted to go home.
Speaker: He said I could go home in a minute. Then he kept asking me the same questions over and over again. From that point, it just got rougher on down. They asked me how did I know so much about the murder if I didn't do it.
Speaker: They were presenting him. I kept telling them I didn't know who did it. I just knew of it, what my friends told me. But they kept hollering at me. They kept saying I had something to do with it because other people done told him.
Speaker: After I had told him what the boys were wearing, Gary Gitchell told me, was any of them tied up? That's when I went along with him. I repeated what he told me. I said, yes, they was tied up. He asked, what was they tied up with? I told him a rope.
Speaker: He got mad. He told me, God damn it, Jesse, don't mess with me. He said, no, they was tied up with shoestrings. I had to go through all the story again and again until I got it right. They hollered at me until I got it right.
Speaker: So whatever he was telling me, I started telling him back. But I figured something was wrong because if I'd have killed him, I'd have known had I done it. Yeah. End quote. After a while of this, they decided to finally record a statement.
Speaker: The entire transcript of that can be found in those links. But the very telling part, the blatant leading, Jesse had continuously stated in his theory that it happened in the morning until about noon.
Speaker: But the three boys were verifiably at school at this time. They kept trying to get him to change the time. Early on, he had mentioned that Jason Baldwin, Damien's best friend, I haven't mentioned him yet, I don't think, had called Jesse at 9 p.m. after the murders.
Speaker: It had also been established that he had left the scene around noon and didn't watch the end of whatever happened. While recording, Gitchell asked, quote, They killed the boys. You decided to go. You went home. How long after you got home before you received the call?
Speaker: A half hour or an hour? oh my gosh. It was quite a moment as Jesse thought about it. He responded, an hour. And that is when the recording ended.
Speaker: Another recording taken a a short while later had Jesse clarifying that it was dark at the time after more leading. In the midst of the interrogation turned confession, Jesse implicated himself by saying that one of the boys tried to get away and he stopped them.
Speaker: When the interrogation was over, he was very tired and wanted to lay down. Yeah. They put him in a cell and he thought he was waiting for his dad to pick him up. Oh my gosh. He wouldn't go home for many, many years. That's so sad.
Speaker: The police arrested Damien Echols at 18 years old and Jason Baldwin, his best friend, 16 years old, for the murders of Stevie Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers. And we're running long and the trials are bonkers.
Speaker: So I'm just going to kind of brush through most of it. okay The prosecution did not have a single scrap of physical evidence. Literally all they had was Jesse's coerced confession that he did recant. The judge, David Burnett, didn't allow the defense teams to enter most of the convincing evidence they had.
Speaker: Why? Many times it was without reason. No, that's not legal. I understand. um the Did he go, like, did he do an appeal? oh yeah. We're going to definitely get there. jesse miss kelly jr jason baldwin and damien eckles all tried as adults were found 17 well just jason i didn't even talk about jason i guess i missed this jason baldwin was damien eckles 16 year old best friend they were super besties jason was not like he was super so into heavy metal and he wore the band t-shirts and the in the you know the baggy jeans and all that hey he was just a Right. But they were super besties and they did a lot of stuff together. But like because they were best friends, it was very much ah ah a guilty by association. Right. Yeah. But they did try to say a lot of bad things about Jason as well. Like he had criminal whatever the hells, but his only. He had whatever the hell. I know. The only criminal anything on his record was breaking into an old abandoned car to make a clubhouse with his friends. So, you know, criminal kid stuff. Kid stuff.
Speaker: All tried as adults were found guilty of capital murder. Jesse and Jason received life in prison. Damien was sentenced to death by lethal injection. Before I mention the appeals and where Damien, Jesse, and Jason are now, I want to talk about the other prevalent theories of the countless people who have been picking this case apart for decades.
Speaker: There's, of course, people who think that Jason, Jesse, and Damien did it. Yeah. Which, I mean, i just, i maybe I haven't looked at so And that's the thing. I will say that I learned about this trial when I was in high school. And of course, at that point, I definitely did not think they were guilty in any way, shape or form. And I maintain that now. But when I was going through this, I will say that there were some moments in there that I was like, huh, maybe. But just it falls apart. It falls apart if you look at too much of it. So I don't I can't I cannot reasonably think that these three people had anything to do with the murders of these three boys. But again, people disagree with me.
Speaker: Here are a few other theories. John Mark Byers, stepfather of Christopher Byers, was an undercover drug informant for the police because he was a drug dealer. It is also worth noting that... Like he was a drug dealer turned informant? Right. okay Well, and people don't usually go into those...
Speaker: situations willingly well i didn't know if maybe he was like a cop that was no he's not no i mean no he's he's definitely was never a cop he um was a jeweler by trade and he sold stuff at flea markets but he had been a drug dealer for a long time and wasn't an informant but he was like buddy buddy with cops but he so maybe he was selling the cops Wouldn't be. There's a lot. There's a lot about this man. um He had been arrested and convicted of terrorist threatening of his ex-wife. Oh, there's a whole shocking story there, too. But that's not what we're doing. His sentence was probation of having to pay child support and keep a job. OK, he didn't do either one of those things.
Speaker: For reasons I cannot find, Judge David Burnett, who we know from this trial that we just talked about, expunged his sentence and it is removed from his record for the purposes of not being technically a felon. Hmm.
Speaker: He did not pay child support, but somehow he purchased a two-story home with a pool. He and his wife, Melissa, Christopher's mother, had opened a jewelry store, but it closed less than a year after it started. His only reported income came from repairing jewelry and selling things at flea markets.
Speaker: Melissa was a cleaner. He was somehow, like I said, inexplicably friendly with police, like going to each other's barbecues kind of friendly. Interesting. What if he was like, what if she was stealing jewelry from people and he was like,
Speaker: fixing it and selling it and the police were like i don't know why that never crossed my mind but i would not be surprised with these sorry i've been watching a lot of dramas so and then there's also the smallest amount of evidence of a 1992 arrest in memphis where he was charged for drugs and weapons but for no reason given he was released to u.s marshals and then just released there are no records as to who gave that order there's several things about this with man but nothing's concrete Just he seems like a very suspicious dude.
Speaker: The only ah what would make us think. I mean, yes, he was saying threats against the wife, but did he ever do anything to children or to the child? I think there is some evidence of abuse. But what we do know is that charges and convictions don't stick to this man. Yes, um that's fair. And it just makes Judge Burnett just look that much more. Oh, and during the trials, I forgot about this. Byers gifted a folding knife. Oh my gosh.
Speaker: the crew members saw something that looked a bit like maybe blood on the knife and so they sent it to law enforcement for testing the blood came back as possible match for christopher but it was largely inconclusive and there's more to that but it also doesn't pan out oh my gosh A popular theory is that it was a random truck driver that just took advantage of the location and timing. There's apparently several truck drivers that are tracked by the FBI because of the tendency to do nefarious when you're always on the move. Yeah. The Blue Beacon truck watch was right next to the spot where the boys were found.
Speaker: The last theory I'm going to bring up is the one that I kind of think might actually be true. Correct. I'm not an expert. There's people who've been studying this for years. I'm not that. So my opinion really means nothing. But this is this is the one that feels like the pieces fall together correctly for me. Yeah. There's quite a few damning bits of evidence against Stevie Branch's stepfather, Terry Hobbs. OK.
Speaker: I'm going to run through most of it quickly. History of sexual assault. Stevie's knife that he always kept with him was found in Terry's possessions. That moment where they find his knife is on a documentary and you can see his mom's face Neighbors saw him yelling at the boys the day they went missing, but he says he hadn't seen them.
Speaker: New DNA evidence uncovered with new technology in 2007 found a hair consistent with one of his and the boys' shoelaces near where the boys were found, um and then an boys shoes were found in a bog.
Speaker: Well, also ah the argument here that most make would be that transference could have happened. These kids hung out each other's house at time. So, but there was also a hair nearby that matched Terry's friend, David Jacoby near where the boys were found.
Speaker: He was a butcher by trade and much, much more. But the part that really seals it for me is the following information. There are two affidavits by two different people in 2013. And the following story was told in that.
Speaker: On the night of the murders, it is stated that LG Hollingsworth and Betty Lucas arrived at the house of Billy Wayne Stewart, one of the ones who made the affidavits, to purchase weed. Stewart said that he saw Terry Hobbs and his friend David Jacoby waiting in the truck outside and making out.
Speaker: He had heard that Terry Hobbs liked boys and he liked them young. Oh my God. He made sure to never let his kids go to the pool parties where he would host. The rest of the story was told to Stewart by Buddy Lucas in 1995. That's horrible. Stewart went to the West Memphis police with a story after the convictions, but no one did anything with it.
Speaker: Of course they didn't. Of course they didn't. and It was like right after the convictions. too That night, Hobbs, Jacoby and the two teenage boys were cruising, drinking and smoking. They eventually turned down a dirt road behind the truck wash into the woods.
Speaker: At this point, the adults asked the boys to get out of the truck and wrestle. And while Stuart says Lucas wouldn't say it turned to sex with the men, his demeanor and suggestions insinuated as much. And during this time, the kids showed up riding their bikes through the woods.
Speaker: The affidavit then goes into graphic detail about how the men killed the boys and pinned them into the mud in the water. That's horrible. Oh, my gosh. I will mention that early in the investigation, there was a rumor that LG Hollingsworth knew something about the murders, but that his mom was going to cover it up. um His mom was one that dropped the piece of evidence that they saw Damien and his girlfriend walking down a dirt road that night of the murders covered in mud.
Speaker: In 1993, homicide was the third highest cause of mortality in children ages 5 to 14. Most children that are murdered are done so by a relative, most often a parent.
Speaker: Not one of the victim's parents or step-parents was interrogated or subject to polygraph at any point. Oh, my gosh. Damien, Jason, and Jesse made several appeals as new DNA testing technology became available, many blocked by Judge Burnett, including the new technology that found the hairs that were consistent with Hobbs and Jacoby. That doesn't make sense to me. and why would Why would an appeal go through the same judge?
Speaker: That's like trying to get a second opinion. That doesn't make any sense. I don't know the rules, but it seemed like it was because he was the sitting judge. I don't i don't know the rules, but the the Arkansas Supreme Court did override one of the blocks. Finally, in 2011, they've been sitting in prison this whole time.
Speaker: Yeah, the death sentence got pushed and pushed, right? So finally in 2011, they were given the option to take an Alford plea. you know what that is? um Where they they plead no contest or something? It's very similar to no contest. It basically... No, no harm, no foul, basically, where they get out, but they don't have to. It's not a no harm, no foul, but it is. But it is very similar to no contest in that you're accepting the guilty plea while maintaining your innocence. But there is ah ah in their sentence was time served at that point. So they were able to get out.
Speaker: But there is no chance of legal exoneration and no chance. There's like so several things that they had to take off the table. Yeah, like they can't sue from. And they are technically convicted felons. Right. yeah So that's horrible. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they're walking free, but on at what?
Speaker: Oh my gosh. Yeah. So while I was researching this, I found out that the absolute last ditch chance at uncovering DNA evidence is happening right now with the results expected as early as the end of this month, July of 2026. The type of testing they're using in this case MVAC, which can test for touch DNA.
Speaker: Among other things, they're testing the shoelaces that were used to tie the boys up. They think they might find skin cells of whoever tied them up. The testing will destroy the shoelaces though. So this is really the last chance for new evidence.
Speaker: I learned about this case because I was obsessed with Metallica when I was in high school. And this was the first time they had ever allowed their music to be used in a movie. It was for a documentary called Paradise Lost. When I heard about how the investigation and trial went down, it was like a gut punch.
Speaker: I definitely knew the basics, but I didn't know all the details. But like from where I stood, all they needed to do was live in the Bible Belt, wear black nail polish, black clothes, heavy metal band T-shirts. And they got scapegoated as murderers because they screwed up the investigation so badly that the real killer...
Speaker: just didn't get looked at or they were covering something up. It didn't seem real. I mean, this was the 90s, which of course then was so so modern. I didn't hear about this stuff until years after it happened, but it was, I mean, that was really scarring. I dressed like Jason Baldwin did at the time. Like I looked just like him. don't Really the most devastating part is that there are so many people that could have killed Stevie Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers.
Speaker: And beyond knowing that Stevie absolutely loved the Cub Scouts and that Michael and Christopher were best friends, I couldn't really find any more information about who these little guys were. So sad. ah So I will provide an update when the DNA results are announced.
Speaker: Horrible. i'm so sorry.
Speaker: I appreciate traumatizing me. I'm so sorry. Do you have any nightmare fuel to ah to to ruin up my day some more with this? Yeah, so if you want to learn more.
Speaker: so if i want to learn more. um The documentary that Metallica put their music in and that I i learned about this story from many, many years ago. It's called Paradise Lost. It's actually now three parts. It's three full length documentaries about the series.
Speaker: One was like as the trials were happening and it concludes with their sentencing. And then the next one is like after the DNA evidence came out. And then the third one was when they got out. So, but you can see this whole story. I do warn against watching the very beginning of the first one. you will see the graphic, like you will see the boys.
Speaker: I just ruined everybody's day. Yes. Horrible. I need you to bring it back. Bring us back i from hell. have some really bad news. Oh, no. um So I didn't know that you were going to talk about horrible, possible satanic pin on a murderer.
Speaker: But here we are. so this should be good. Yeah. So my my little mini story. So. This one probably i will have to do an update on at some point um because it just happened on the 22nd of June.
Speaker: So on the 22nd of June in Derbyshire, UK, there's in the United Kingdom, sorry, there's a stone circle called the Nine Ladies Stone Circle. And it's like it's an old ancient area. Think of it like a tiny little.
Speaker: Yeah. Stonehenge type situation. um But it's from the Bronze Age. It's just little stone circles. How big are those? Because a person's standing next to that. yeah I don't think they're huge.
Speaker: I mean, there's like a bunch of different like stones. So it's known for like, you know, people who come and, you know, do rituals rituals or just, you know, people coming and looking at the history of it.
Speaker: Well, the other day on June 22nd at 1.38 p.m., the body of 26-year-old man, Isaac Clare Watts, was found in one of the stone circle areas. So it was found at almost 2 p.m.
Speaker: Right after the solstice. Yes. Yes. So that's one of the things the investigator is quoted as saying, quote, I'm urgently appealing for anyone who attended the summer solstice event over the weekend to please speak to officers as soon as they can.
Speaker: A young man's life has been taken in the most brutal way. So it is vital that myself and the team build up a clear picture of the exact circumstances surrounding his death.
Speaker: Now, I will say they just recently and by recently, I mean, like maybe 12 to 14 hours before recording this. Just before that, they weren't naming who it was. So we just got his name. They've already, you know, informed his family and stuff. and But they already have two suspects. They've so far they've charged Simon Babinco, a 23 year old from London for the murder. He was also apparently arrested on a separate attempted murder charge. So I don't know. So not not brought in for questioning, but arrested. Now, it says that, but i'm it says he was charged with.
Speaker: Charged with. But I don't know because they also said that there was 41-year-old man who was also arrested on suspicion of the murder, but he was released on bail. So that to me tells me there is some suspicion there.
Speaker: Again, this is all very new, very fresh. So I'm really reading very, very current news. But so far, they don't they don't have much to go on. and They are asking for as much information as possible.
Speaker: The interesting thing about the stone stone circle where he was found, it was um part of the stone circle where it's traditionally believed it's depicted nine ladies turned to stone as a penalty for dancing on Sunday.
Speaker: um So he was found right at the end of the summer, ah right after the summer solstice. So there is some concern that there may be something ritualistic, including, you know, because of the way that his body was found, which they are again Being vague about. Yes, being very vague about.
Speaker: So more to come on this one. Officers are asking anyone who may have been in the area of the Nine Ladies Stone Circle from Friday, June 19th, 2026 to Tuesday, June 23rd, 2026 please come forward to help piece that day together.
Speaker: So if you have any information, reach out to the Derbyshire UK police. Honestly, um I will include a link because they have They have their case together and they're really, really pushing. Yeah. So it's very interesting. They're not revealing a lot, which I find very um frustrating, but good. Well, yeah, it's very different from what I what I see the U.S. way of doing it. Maybe it's just different departments. I don't know.
Speaker: That's all I got. So we got updates for all three, everything. So we need to check on the updates from if we can find out why the man who had a heart attack murdered his wife. Mm hmm. We got to find out what the DNA evidence for the West Memphis Three turns out to be and what the hell's happening with a very brand new fresh crime. Yes.
Speaker: So we'll ah keep you all posted. We might have to do another Palooza. Might have to. Well, thanks for joining us, guys. Sweet dreams. Night-night.
Speaker: If you have topic requests, book or movie recommendations, or just want to say hi, email us at nightmarecottage at gmail.com or visit our website at nightmarecottage.com. Sweet dreams.
Speaker: Bye-bye.
