Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
"A case file dated 6/1/92 reports that Echols “admits to having been suspended 7x this past semester for inciting fights at school, starting small fires, cussing. States in one fight he almost gouged out the victim’s eyes.” "
"Another case file dated 6/25/92 states:
Supposedly, Damien chased a younger child with an ax and attempted to set a house on fire. He denied this behavior. He reported that his girlfriend’s family reported this so that they could get him in trouble."
"I was at Lakeshore Trailer Park with Damien Echols when he killed a Black Great Dane. The dog was already sick and he hit the dog in the back of the head. He pulled the intestines out of the dog and started stomping the dog until blood came out of his mouth. He was going to come back later with battery acid so that he could burn the hair and skin off of the dog’s head. He had two cat skulls, a dog skull and a rat skull that I already knew about. "
"Damien had a camoflouge survival knife to cut the guts out of the dog with."
Not exactly an innocent or anyone you want as a next door neighbor. I can easily see why he was a suspect.
Is anything in that link true? Because if it is...how did they find this guy innocent? (this particular one not all three)
If he really acts like this, sorry but I see a serial killer in the making and maybe he killed all the boys himself.
But who is this new witness? Because a witness said all three teens were guilty too.
What happened to that?
They say the stepdad's DNA was on the rope? Where? How much of it? Where did the rope come from?
Because you could touch a rope and leave it somewhere...someone takes it, like your kid to play, or someone sinister. Then all of a sudden you are a murderer based on a witness, which has been proven in the case before not to be something to be trusted. Circumstantial evidence.
I also read that the mother since has divorced the stepdad. Is that true?
Did they ever find their clothing or the pocket knife?
the first witness who said that all three were guilty was one of the accused. he "confessed" after something like 12 hours. and he didn't even get the forensic facts right. so that can be discounted. unless one wants to deny that false confessions happen ALL the time.
the DNA from the rope was, if memory serves me, found in a place on the rope that would have been impossible if he had not been there. and there were witnesses who saw terry hobbs looking for the three boys that same afternoon, and yet terry hobbs denies this. he has ALWAYS been a good suspect, but why get a good suspect when you have some metal heads who will do just as well?
as far as the dog mutilations go, you have to understand something. in a small town like west memphis, which is very similar to the town i grew up in (maybe its even bigger than the town i grew up in in GA) people talk about those who are different. if rumor is to be believed, i was a satanist who had been seen killing animals in a graveyard, dancing around a fire. i was also, with my mother and sister, a drug dealer at a punk club in atlanta.
none of it was true. i NEVER left the house. of course i wasn't a satanist. but i DID wear black and i DID listen to music that people thought was evil- punk rock, goth rock, whatever. this was way back before nirvana. i could tell you horror stories about things that were both believed about me and things that were done to me because i wasn't LIKE them. i am almost 40 years old, but even now when i go back home i occasionally still run into someone who asks me, "so, were you really a satanist?" seriously.
even in school, some of the teachers thought i was a satanist. when a school report says "ALMOST gouged out the victims' eyes".....i mean, i would have liked to gouge out a few eyeballs of the people who spit at me, beat me up, stole my stuff too. not saying it didn't happen, but there could be a context we don't know about.
so take rumor, or even statements like those above, with a grain of salt. rumor is a vicious thing, and it grows more vicious when weirdos in a small town are involved.
and also, uh, remember that these guys were railroaded. and there is proof that they were. and there is NO PROOF AT ALL that they did these things. none. there were no scratches on any of the suspects. there was no forensic proof. there was NOTHING. and that is why they are finally freed. when the music you listen to is presented as compelling evidence that you committed a crime, reason tells us that this is not in the realm of justice.
Well, what seems to be overlooked in all of this is that SOMEONE got away with the murders of three children. That person is still out there. That's terrifying. What Arkansas did was a horrific violation of all concepts of justice but it was also a HUGE danger to the public. They screwed over those three wrongfully convicted boys, but they also put actual lives at risk by not following up on this thoroughly. That's where it becomes mind boggling - those prosecutors were SOOOO vested in maintaining the convictions of these boys that they were willing to risk the deaths of other people at the hands of the actual killer(s). Murderers who kill 3 kids in one fell swoop do not usually just hang up their spurs with that. The murderers were obviously dangerous sociopaths, but I have to say I wouldn't be surprised if the people bent on convicting and keeping those kids imprisoned also came out of a psych eval with a diagnosis of sociopathic tendencies at the very least.
Well, what seems to be overlooked in all of this is that SOMEONE got away with the murders of three children. That person is still out there. That's terrifying. What Arkansas did was a horrific violation of all concepts of justice but it was also a HUGE danger to the public. They screwed over those three wrongfully convicted boys, but they also put actual lives at risk by not following up on this thoroughly. That's where it becomes mind boggling - those prosecutors were SOOOO vested in maintaining the convictions of these boys that they were willing to risk the deaths of other people at the hands of the actual killer(s). Murderers who kill 3 kids in one fell swoop do not usually just hang up their spurs with that. The murderers were obviously dangerous sociopaths, but I have to say I wouldn't be surprised if the people bent on convicting and keeping those kids imprisoned also came out of a psych eval with a diagnosis of sociopathic tendencies at the very least.
yea, that is the big big BIG overlooked gaff here. that the killer of these kids is STILL out there. those prosecutors read too many nancy drews, where all the villians are "swarthy" and scowl all the time. usually its the quiet, bookish, not-flamboyant types you have to watch out for not the kid wearing black clothes and listening to death rock.
This is one of those cases that got built up when HBO would release another doc. I saw all of them when they came out. The first was so shocking to me, not because of the three convicted but the whole town and families involved. It was so emotional and often seemed like another world the lifestyle of these people. I don't wanna voice what I beleive about who killed them but I feel like these three little boys who were tortured and killed took a backburner in the spotlight to the West Memphis three(Damian, Jason and Jessie) and gave them a huge following by many.
I honestly don't care anymore who did it, I think this will stay cold and never get really solved. All I care is those three little angels, even after many years, will rest in peace.
yea, that is the big big BIG overlooked gaff here. that the killer of these kids is STILL out there. those prosecutors read too many nancy drews, where all the villians are "swarthy" and scowl all the time. usually its the quiet, bookish, not-flamboyant types you have to watch out for not the kid wearing black clothes and listening to death rock.
I am not saying they did it, they were released, but Damian was NOT just a kid who wore black and listened to heavy metal music. He was a depressed and mentally disturbed teenager who had many troubles. He was in mental hospitals multiple times for different incidents. Did that mean he did it? No. But he was not some average teenager who just wore black and listened to heavy metal.
I am not saying they did it, they were released, but Damian was NOT just a kid who wore black and listened to heavy metal music. He was a depressed and mentally disturbed teenager who had many troubles. He was in mental hospitals multiple times for different incidents. Did that mean he did it? No. But he was not some average teenager who just wore black and listened to heavy metal.
actually, i would counter, from my experience, that MOST teenagers who wear black and listen to heavy metal or punk rock are NOT well balanced, peachy keen kids. they are usually troubled, because being a teenager in a small town where everyone hates you or suspects you SUCKS. most people grow up in some sort of dysfunction, and we get through it, but the teen years are the years where you spend alot of time assuming different personas, trying to find one that fits. and sometimes, being an outcast fits. and sometimes, being an outcast that other people are afraid of can protect you from having the living chit stomped out of you. MOST teenagers who are wanting to label themselves and push themselves away from the crowd are going to have issues. they are probably depressed or angry to some degree. and most of em, in fact the vast majority of em, never commit these kinds of crimes. they are just normally, garden-variety troubled with typical teenage angst. i know because i was one of those teenagers. they are just trying to get by. and in a podunk Barefoot Holler like Arkansas (i am a native southerner so GET OFF MY BACK, i got a right!) life is hard when you are a weirdo. it can get more "lord of the flies" than you could ever reckon. trust me.
Any confession without subsequent evidence to back it up, is garbage.
In the right circumstances, a confession can be invaluable. However, there are just too many situations of innocent people who were manipulated, threatened, or tricked into saying they committed crimes they did not. A confession needs to be approached with a great deal of caution.
Some depend entirely on the word of the investigating officer. I've had cases where that was the only evidence the confession even occurred. There was nothing on a tape recorder or on videotape.
Lavrenti Beria, who was head of the Russian Secret Police under Stalin once said: "Give me a night with someone and I'll have him confessing he is the King of England"
I just ran a Google search, and didn't really see any recent reporting.
I'm curious if people following this case feel the lack of developments in arresting alternate suspects has hurt the legacy of the 3 (?) Or is it just a dearth of physical evidence that's stalling any further progress on this case.
I just ran a Google search, and didn't really see any recent reporting.
I'm curious if people following this case feel the lack of developments in arresting alternate suspects has hurt the legacy of the 3 (?) Or is it just a dearth of physical evidence that's stalling any further progress on this case.
Unless parents pursue the boys deaths for answers, my understandings there not an ongoing investigation by LE; this case is closed.
I watched a docu filmed after Memphis 3 release in August 2011, LE stand firm in their belief convictions were correct.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
