The West Memphis Three

Ush1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Memphis_Three

A high profile case of youths convicted of crimes which got attention from a HBO documentary which ultimately led to them being released years later.

I'm currently reading Damien Echols' book Life After Death, but there is some part of me that still asks what if they actually did it? There was after all a detailed confession(apparently coerced).

Anybody have any thoughts on it?

kryogen

Little to no evidence against them, confession from a kid who was coerced and not all there mentally isnt much in all honesty and most of the evidence points to one of the kids stepfathers doesn't it?

Been a while since I looked into it but from memory it seemed pretty clear they didnt do it.

John Mark Byers was the guys name iirc, the knife, the teeth etc, suspicious anyway. Think another possible was Terry Hobbs but nothing concrete there either

kryogen

The wiki link you used has another one as an external link. Interesting enough case also if you were inclined to look into it

Its off topic I know

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norfolk_Four

thebannerboy

Just read the entire story of the Memphis Three, very interesting thanks. Sounds like it was Terry Hobbs id love to know what the statements his wife later said about him that night. Ex wife.

thebannerboy

New suspects

It wont let me put in the link so Il copy and paste the story



Four new possible suspects in the brutal killings of three boy scouts in Arkansas in 1993 have been named by attorneys in the case - and the stepfather of one of the boys is among them.


Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of eight-year-old victim Stevie Branch, has been named in documents released in Marian, Arkansas by the attorneys for Pam Hobbs, Stevie's mother.

The new documents claim that Hobbs and three other men killed Stevie and two of his friends after they caught the boys spying on them while they were taking drugs.


The bodies of Stevie, Michael Moore and Christopher Byers, all eight years old, were found naked, tied with their shoelaces and mutilated in a ditch in West Memphis, Arkansas in May 1993.


Three local teenagers who became known as the 'West Memphis Three', Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley Jr. and Jason Baldwin, were convicted of the murders and sentenced to death but staunchly maintained their innocence.

After the case garnered national and celebrity attention, the three were freed in 2011 after agreeing to an Alford plea, allowing them to maintain their innocence while pleading guilty.


Pam Hobbs has said she does not believe the three men who were originally convicted for the crimes were guilty of murdering her son and his friends.


On Wednesday, a hearing was held to allow her and the other parents of the victims to see the evidence of the case; during this hearing, attorneys filed a motion to name four further suspects.

On the list were Terry Hobbs and his friend David Jacoby as well as two men who would have been teenagers at the time: LG Hollingsworth and Buddy Lucas, WREG reported.


Their names have emerged after a witness stepped forward to claim that Buddy Lucas told him he had been part of the murders, years after they had taken place.

The witness said he learned that Hobbs and Jacoby invited the two teenagers to meet with them to buy drugs. When the men were smoking pot, they saw the three boys spying on them, he said.

Jacoby grabbed one of the boys and beat him while Hobbs ordered Lucas and Hollingsworth to grab and hold the other two boys, according to the affidavit.


Hobbs then killed the boys with a pocket knife and mutilated their bodies, according to the papers.


The witness said he contacted the West Memphis police to tell them what he had learned but no one ever returned his call. Lucas has been described as mentally 'slow', WREG reported.


A new documentary about the murders, West of Memphis, also homed in on Terry Hobbs, claiming that his DNA was found on rope used to tie the boys' feet.

His ex-wife's family also said that Hobbs had a fraught, almost jealous relationship with Stevie, who was fearful of his stepfather.


Attorneys also said Hobbs' nephew, Michael Hobbs Jr, told friends his uncle murdered the three boys, but the elder Hobbs has denied any involvement with the murders.


'I am content in my heart that Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley did not murder my son,' Stevie’s mother Pam Hobbs said as she pleaded for investigators to look at new evidence.


The three became the subjects of a series of documentaries called Paradise Lost which captured the attention of celebrities including Johnny Depp, who paid legal fees to free them, and Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder.


The Daily Mail. March 2013

thebannerboy

Sorry for harassing this thread but in 2007 another piece of hair, which was recovered from a tree stump at the scene was analysed. It matched 7% of the population.

It was a match with a man called David Jacoby.

David Jacoby was the man who provided the alibi for Terry Hobbs on the night of the murder.

degrassinoel

you'll be able to put the link in after your 50th post, or alternatively you can pm it to me and i'll edit your post to include it

enno99

I havent got round to reading up on this story yet
just a few snippets here and there so I cant say

found this it might be interest


Welcome West Memphis Three Facts:
If you are reading this website you have probably spent a few hours watching one or more of the five movies/documentaries about this case. You may have read one of several books about the murders. Maybe you've read some of the thousands of newspaper and magazine articles about the case. Nearly all of them are biased toward the supposed innocence of the West Memphis Three. You can read this entire website in about 30 minutes. Please take that brief time to educate yourself about the facts of this case most of the movies/books/articles leave out.


http://www.westmemphisthreefacts.com/

thebannerboy

The website calls Jason a liar based on this.

RIDGE: Okay, after that last call and you talked to Damien, did you ask him where he had been that evening?
BEARDEN: I said where did you and Jason go, and he said, uh, his Mom just took us some where, he didn't really say where, because like -
RIDGE: Who's Mom took him somewhere?
BEARDEN: Jason's

Problem is, Damien was lying. Jason’s mom could not have driven them anywhere because she told the prosecutor she was at work from 3:00pm until 11:00pm on May 5th, 1993:

FOGLEMAN: OKAY, WHAT HOURS DO YOU WORK THERE?
ANGELA: I WORK FROM 3 TO 11

---

Jason mother rang her boss that night to say her son was missing and joining in the search.

The detective simply asks her What shift she works at the company?

Yet the website is making out that he asked her what time she worked on the night in question?? Bias surely??

FOGLEMAN: OKAY, UM, NOW I UNDERSTAND THAT YOU WORK AT A TRUCKING COMPANY IS THAT RIGHT?

ANGELA: YEA

FOGLEMAN: WHAT'S THE NAME OF THAT COMPANY?

ANGELA: UM, CUSTOMIZED TRANSPORTATION

FOGLEMAN: OKAY, AND WHERE IS THAT LOCATED?

ANGELA: IN UM MEMPHIS

FOGLEMAN: OKAY, WHAT HOURS DO YOU WORK THERE?

ANGELA: I WORK FROM 3 TO 11

FOGLEMAN: AND WHAT ARE YOU DUTIES, WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO DO?

ANGELA: UM, JUST STATE A ENTRY

thebannerboy

FACT - ECHOLS FREQUENTLY WALKED AROUND WEST MEMPHIS AND WAS VERY FAMILIAR WITH THE CRIME SCENE PRIOR TO THE MURDERS:
"He began to walk the moment he got to town, in the morning, at night, when he was anxious or bored or simply awake, through the rain and later the snow.... In his heavy black leather jacket and sunglasses, he wandered all around town, quietly but purposefully, like a ghost looking for something to haunt."


Does that not sound like the same Satanic bull that spooked people in the first place?