Re-Release And Why It Matters

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey Jesse. Hello, Lindsay. The world is a vampire.

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Santa Dry. Okay, that's all we can say before Billy Corbin's Cor Corgan sees it.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Really? Yeah. He's that quick on us, really? I don't know. He seems like he's that kind of guy. They hold you up to the flame. I was just saying to you. We love you, Billy. Yeah, because despite all my rage, you know, I'm still just a rat in a cage, man.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

So what we're doing uh this week, we are taking a break because we will be at Welcome to Rockville, our most wonderful time of the year. And we are re-releasing our three-part on the West Memphis 3. So this is part one. We hope you enjoy it. This is a case that has injustices and crazy things that you can never imagine going on in this trilogy.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Yeah, really a rebranding, a re-release of the same thing because we want to show it. Not rebranding, re-leasing. Re-releasing, yeah. Well, yeah, all the all the things. Anyhow, so we're gonna let you guys check it all out and uh follow along. We want justice. We want to share this. Thank you. And if this is your second time checking it out, thank you again.

SPEAKER_00 1:20

Thank you for re-listening. If this is your first time, welcome. We are Jesse and Lindsay. Yeah. Uh, drinkabout something.sight. We cover true crime, we have some drinks, and we play music at the end.

SPEAKER_01 1:32

Yes, and happy, happy, happy traveling. Because I won't say Friday because this is coming out here in the middle of the week. Yes. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:42

We'll just uh let y'all see what day it comes out.

Why This Case Haunts Us

SPEAKER_01 1:45

Yeah, we don't even know. We won't even know. We're just gonna do the thing. So have a good one. Cheers, everybody. We're fixing a fire. Yay! Hey, hello everybody. How you guys doing? Happy Friday.

SPEAKER_00 2:25

Yes, it's Friday.

SPEAKER_01 2:27

Ah, it was a week for me.

SPEAKER_00 2:30

Same.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

How you doing, baby?

SPEAKER_00 2:32

I am doing okay. I am nervous as fuck. This one's a monster, but it is so, so, so important to me. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

Tell them what you got.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

This is this case is one of the main reasons why I wanted to do a podcast because it just gripped me. I don't know what rock I've been living under, but I actually had never heard of this. And if I did, I forgot until about a little over a year ago. So this is Westmith is three.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

Here we go.

SPEAKER_00 3:08

This will be a three-parter, and these will be a little bit longer than our first two episodes because this case is massive. I could do a 10-part, and it still wouldn't cover all the bullshit that has happened in this case. But we're gonna break it out in three parts, and I'm going to suggest documentaries, books, um, other podcasters, and everything that I think you should um check out as well.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

So, like disclaimer, I'm not supposed to know anything about this, but I think like you know a little bit shade to me a little bit about it.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

You watched a little bit of the Paradise Lost documentary with me because that was the one I I've I've I've became obsessed with this after I heard it, I heard about it for the first time, and uh, and I was like, I want to tell him about it, but I don't remember why we never finished watching it, and so it was great because I got a lot to fill you in on.

SPEAKER_01 4:10

Right. So to be honest, like I don't remember it. I was probably drunk.

SPEAKER_00 4:14

Yeah, most likely. We watched it on a Friday, so yeah. Yeah, I don't remember it.

SPEAKER_01 4:19

I don't know, but uh, I'm excited. Like Lindsay has been crazy geeking about this thing forever, and um, and I just you know, I've been looking at what our momentum and everything we had over this past we've had uh over 50 downloads of our podcast. I'm just like I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

Thank you guys.

SPEAKER_01 4:44

Thank you. Like, I don't understand that support already, and I just wanted to say thank you to everyone out there. It's amazing just to see like uh um our little baby growing, you know. I love it. I'm just so excited to see what's gonna happen. Uh when we're 50 50 podcast in. So I'm just thank you so much, guys. And uh Lindsay is just raring to go, but uh I figured I would talk just for a second that way uh she has to calm down.

SPEAKER_00 5:18

I do. My nerves are a mess. All right, let's get into it.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

Here we go.

The Disappearance And The Discovery

SPEAKER_00 5:24

All right, so this case will consist of three parts, and this one is like I said, it saddens my heart so much because of one, how the victims died, two, the three boys that were wrongfully convicted and what they went through. Three, the complete miscarriage of justice that happened in putting three innocent boys behind bars, and four, the fact that the real killer will never be found.

unknown 5:54

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 5:55

I have cried, I've been angry so much while listening to and watching coverage on this case, and it makes me even more sad and angry that this is not the only case out there like this. This one is just more famous, and we'll get into more about why in part three. But the horrific witch hunt in this investigation, if you can even call it an investigation, it's the trial and convictions are absolutely haunting, and there are a lot of trigger warnings. So beware in this case, including harm to three little boys.

SPEAKER_02 6:28

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 6:29

All right, so we'll start with the crime. On May 5th, 1993, three eight-year-old boys, Stevie Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers, were reported missing in West Memphis, Arkansas. And it's called West Memphis because it's literally over the bridge from Memphis. Yeah, across the river. Cross the river, right. The first report was made by John Mark Byers, Christopher Byers' adoptive father, around 7 p.m. All three boys had been at school that day and had gotten together after school to ride their bikes in an area called Robin Hood Hills. Neighbors had seen them together around 6:30 p.m. and had heard Terry Hobbs, which was Stevie Branch's stepfather, calling them to come home. Friends and neighbors had started searching that night, but the mosquitoes were so thick, and I can't even imagine this. The mosquitoes were so thick that they had to continue the search the next morning. So around 1.45 p.m. on May 6th, juvenile parole officer Steve Jones found a little boy's shoe with the laces out, which led him down to a drainage ditch where he found the bodies of all three boys. Now, they weren't just visible. He had to get down in this muddy, murky. I've seen what it looked like. It's disgusting. So they're like tucked away down into the mud. They their bodies were penned down into muddy, murky drainage ditch water. And he found all three of them. They had been stripped naked and had been hogtied with their own shoelaces. They had several ligatures and lacerations, and Christopher Byers scrotum had been mutilated. I'm gonna probably cry some in this. I'm gonna try not to. I'm gonna try to choke it back, but yeah. Their clothing was found thrust into a nearby creek. So here's a little back um information about the victims. So Stevie Edward Branch was the son of Stephen and Pamela Branch, who divorced when he was an infant. His mother was given custody and married a man named Terry Hobbs. Remember Terry Hobbs. Remember that name. We'll talk about him more in part three. Hobbs, yes. Yes. So Stevie lived with his mom, Terry, and half-sister Amanda Hobbes, who was four. And remember Amanda too.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

Amanda and Hobbes. Yes. I want to forget.

SPEAKER_00 9:02

I mean, I'll I'll of course remind, but yeah, just put a pen in those.

SPEAKER_02 9:07

Yes.

The Bojangles Lead And Lost Evidence

SPEAKER_00 9:08

Christopher Mark Byers was born to Sharon Melissa Defer and Rick Murray, and his parents divorced when he was four years old, and his mother married John Mark Byers and he adopted Chris. He lived with his mom, John Mark, and stepbrother Sean Ryan Clark. James Michael Moore was the son of Todd and Dana Moore. He lived with his parents and nine-year-old sister Dawn. They say he was the little leader of the pack, and they were all little boy scouts, and he was wearing his uniform when he died. He loved wearing it all the time. And in the West Memphis documentary, or West of Memphis documentary, Pamela Hobbs was holding his little uniform. Yeah. Oh, okay. So we're gonna go to uh side so we're gonna sidetrack a little bit to Mr. Bojangles.

SPEAKER_01 9:59

So it's like it's really rough so all this, especially when you have children and little boys too. We've raised four together. Yes. Yeah, and we got a little grandboy. I want to be a puddle too, you know that. You know, it's like we feed off each other, we've been together forever. Yes, it's just like if he's puddling, I'm puddling, and vice versa. Like so uh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:25

Yeah, this case is definitely it's puddle time one to drink about. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

So uh yeah, gotta have I'm I've cheers. Cheers. Not cheers to that, but cheers to that. Yeah, not cheers to that, but cheers to puddling, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 10:38

Pressing on.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

Oh okay. We'll hide them back with laughs somehow. I'll find something to say.

SPEAKER_00 10:45

All right, so this little segment is gonna be Mr. Bojangles. So John Mark Byers reported Christopher missing around 7 p.m. And around 8 42 p.m., a call was made to the police from workers at a Bojangles chicken place. We don't have a good experience with Bojangles, but we won't talk about that. In Florida. Everyone. That was in Georgia, the one we went to. Wasn't Valdasta?

SPEAKER_01 11:10

One in Vald Asta. It's close. It's close. Like the the two in Florida. No, the the four in Florida that I've been to, and Valdasta was just don't do it.

SPEAKER_00 11:20

Don't come for us, Bo Jangles. I'm not trying to count on bite. Don't come for us. Hey, you know, I don't know. So Bo Jangles was located near Robin Hood Hills where the bodies would be found. And they stated that a mentally disoriented black man was inside the ladies' room. He was bleeding and had gotten some of the blood on the walls. Officer Regina Mills took the report from the fucking drive-thru window. And by that time, the man had already left. The next day, after the bodies were found, the manager called the police back, thinking there was a connection. The police then took samples of the blood on the walls, but Detective Brian Ridge testified that he actually lost those blood scrapings. And guess what? Later, a hair belonging to a black man was found on one of the sheets wrapped around one of the boys.

SPEAKER_01 12:11

Oh, so it's on then.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

Yeah. Oh, there's we're just beginning. Just beginning. So early in the investigation, the uh WNPD suspected two teenagers by the name of Chris Morgan and Brian Holland. They both had a history of drug offenses and had suddenly took off to California four days after the bodies were discovered. Morgan had known the boys from driving an ice cream truck around their neighborhood. They were arrested in Oceanside, California and given polygraph tests on May 17th, 1993. Now, let's talk about polygraph tests for just a moment. Polygraphs are not accurate.

SPEAKER_02 12:51

I'll trust them now.

SPEAKER_00 12:52

And nor are they admissible in court. Yeah, never. You don't have to take one. If you're ever in trouble for something that you have not done, or even if you have done it, don't take one. They're useless.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

Or if you got gas.

SPEAKER_00 13:06

I don't understand why they are used, but they are nonetheless.

SPEAKER_01 13:09

A menstrual cramp would change it. I mean honestly.

SPEAKER_00 13:12

Yeah, I mean, and even if I mean if you have high blood pressure, if you're just anxious about the situation you're in, for sure. It can detect deception. So yeah, you're nervous.

SPEAKER_01 13:21

I mean, and who wouldn't be nervous? How the hell? All right, go ahead. I'm sorry. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 13:24

So both Morgan and Holland's results indicated deception. And Morgan even said that because of his history of alcohol and drug abuse, he would have blackouts and actually said that he might have done it. What? Yeah. But later, this statement was barred from being admitted into evidence. Barred.

unknown 13:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:50

Okay. So now, statistically, most of the time, crimes like these are committed by a family member or someone close to the victim. That is statistics. That's not my opinion. That is actual facts. Right. But none, none of the families were questioned or searched or interrogated. Wow. None of the families of the victims, anyway. Right. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 14:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:12

Now this crime was so horrific to these simple Southern folks in the Bible Belt that they couldn't even wrap their minds around it being anything but of the devil and some sort of cult ritual. God. The preacher's sermons were all about the end times, and the community speculated wildly. I mean, it was it was insane. Yes. And this was in 1993. This was 10 years after the May Martin preschool trials, and we learned nothing from that.

SPEAKER_01 14:43

Raise your hand if you were told that the end of times are coming.

SPEAKER_00 14:46

Oh God. Live right every week for most of my childhood. Oh, yeah, every day.

SPEAKER_01 14:51

But like especially if there's like another Christian that comes up into a conversation.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

The case became widespread, and the police had no leads. And so here comes the witch hunt. Suspect number one in the witch hunt, and the one who got the worst of literally everything was Damien Eccles. And here is some of his story. I have spent so much time on this case researching online, listening to other podcasters, watching documentaries, and also listening to Damien's autobook, like audiobook, Life After Death. I I swear I feel like I kind of know him now, but it is it's highly recommended. Gotta listen to that book or read it. I have to listen because I'm busy and I gotta be productive.

SPEAKER_01 15:39

She is always on the go. I swear to God.

SPEAKER_00 15:42

Always. So Damian was born Michael Wayne Hutchinson on December 11th, 1974. He's a savage like you, babe. Uh-oh. He was born to Pam and Joe Hutchinson. His family was extremely poor and moved around quite often. And he had attended eight schools, eight different schools by the age of 10. Damn. By the age of 10. I mean, it's hard for me to fathom this type of poor, but I know you've had you have some. I have stories. You have you have some connection to Damien and what he went through. Don't puddle me early. I'm not gonna puddle you. I'm just saying.

SPEAKER_01 16:24

I have I mean, I I'm not gonna stop you because there's so much to go. There is so much to go again. You go.

SPEAKER_00 16:32

So Pam and Joe divorced when he was around eight, and later when he was 13, his mother married a man named Jack Eccles, and Damien ended up taking on his last name. Jack had them first live in the church that they attended and then moved them out to a farm shack. It was literally like a I how do I describe it? It was like a literally uh it was just a shack just on this farm, like and it was had no, it had nothing. It was just a remodeled barn. Not even remodeled. There was no, there was no indoor plumbing. There was no, there was nothing. I don't know how they survived, honestly. I don't know how they, yeah, I don't know how they lived in there. I've been there. So later on, when he moved to the trailer park, that was absolutely an upgrade. Damien is extremely intelligent, even though he did not do well in school. And he was interested in all kinds of religions from Buddhism, Wicca, and Catholicism. He did not like the Pentecostal Church of God that his father made him go to. So when he really wanted to go to a Catholic church, he had to present it to his mentally and physically abusive stepfather. In uh, like he said, when you're approaching someone of that mindset, you have to tell them, I have a calling.

SPEAKER_01 18:02

Right.

SPEAKER_00 18:02

So I have a calling to go attend this church and see a spiritual journey. It's a spiritual journey. Right. That was the only way that he would expect it. Right. And it worked. Jack would take him to mass. And that was a pretty big deal because Jack was such an asshole that he would, when he would make them pray, and he would make them do that often. Um, there was a little, they had a little chihuahua named Pepper that if when it jumped up on the bed, he would punch it in the face. What? A chihuahua. Come on, man. The Catholic Church is where he got the idea for his name that he later changed to Damien from Saint Damien, who cared for the lepers in the 1800s. He was Father Damien back then, and then later got a sainthood. Right. So Damien wore black clothing, listened to metal and punk, shaved his head on one side, and was a skateboarder. Wrote dark poetry or dark and expressive poetry. So he was like the people that we hung out with in 1993.

SPEAKER_01 19:07

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 19:08

Yeah. But in West Memphis, Arkansas, that made him oh witch.

SPEAKER_01 19:13

Evil. Yeah, because if you're on that side of the bridge, it's Arkansas, it's not Tennessee. That's right. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 19:18

Yeah, he's it's West Memphis.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

Arkansas. Yeah, Arkansas. It can't be any real difference between there and the other side of the bridge, but still, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:28

It seems, I mean, just uh, it's like it's like I've been in another world listening to all this shit over the last month. Yeah. So he loved horror movies, and his favorite article of clothing was a long black, filthy trench coat that he had found in a closet of one of the homes he had lived in. Now he did replace it later on with the others, but this was before trench coats were deemed as like school shooting type shit, you know? Duster, probably. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And in his book, he says that the trench coat made him feel safe, and wearing black was aesthetically pleasing to him. His home life was horrible, and he acted out like most kids do in that type of situation. He had a smart mouth, he was a little combative asshole, and he had been in trouble for small things, small time shit like shoplifting and vandalism. So Damien's first real love was a girl named Deanna who was a Wiccan, even though her parents were devout Christians. And she taught Damien about it, and he loved it because it was all about Mother Earth and goddesses. No devil. So their relationship was super intense. And a series of events like skipping school together would get them banned from seeing each other by her parents. They tried to make it work, but Deanna broke up with him, stating that it was just too hard. And this literally destroyed Damien mentally, and especially when she went on to date another guy.

SPEAKER_02 20:54

Right.

SPEAKER_00 20:55

According to his book, this was the only time he got violent with anyone. And he did indeed fight the boy that Deanna was dating. And he later found comfort in a girl named Dominique here, who he was never really in love with, but enjoyed her company. A little while later, in on in the school year, Deanna came back to him and they made a plan to run away together at the end of the school year. When it came that time, so he was around 17 at this time. But I don't really know what grade he was in. I know he was behind. Um and uh Deanna was just a little bit younger.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

Yeah, still in high school.

Jerry Driver Targets Damien

SPEAKER_00 21:32

Right. They were both in high school, they were both teenagers. Yeah. So when it came time, they did just that, along with Damien's best friend, Jason Baldwin, who would later on be suspect number two. They made it to the next town over and found in an abandoned trailer, and Jason left them there to go back home. Deanna's parents called the police and they found them and arrested them both. And even though they hadn't stole anything for the trailer, they They were charged with burglary and sexual misconduct because they were indeed caught in the act. Uh-oh. So enter Jerry Driver. This man would become absolutely obsessed with Damien. Jerry would become his juvenile officer and immediately started asking Damien about witchcraft and satanic cults. This man considered himself to be an expert on the subject and was sure that West Memphis was a hotbed for this activity. Driver. Yeah. Oh yeah. He was. Oh God. Jerry Driver is. Jerry Driver is the devil. The devil. Fuck you, Jerry Driver. All right. Driver and his buddy Steve Jones, another juvenile officer, the one that actually found the bodies of the boys, would they drive around during full moons and try to find satanic or witching or witch coven activity? So an absolute. They were literally witch hunting, y'all. This is not bullshit. This is fact. This is absolute fact. They needed so many hobbies. So much Satan going on everywhere. For some reason, rumors had started that uh Damien and Deanna were going to have a baby and sacrifice it to Satan. And this landed Damien um a trip to um psychiatric hospital. Now, Damien was held in jail for several weeks, even though this the breaking and entering into a trailer is is a misdemeanor at most.

SPEAKER_02 23:36

Right.

SPEAKER_00 23:38

But Driver went around town asking about him and went to his parents' house asking to search his room. This is not legal. This is a juvenile officer.

SPEAKER_01 23:46

Well, they're gonna do what they want to do. You know, they know they're the they're the devil.

SPEAKER_00 23:50

So and uh so when he was in the site hospital, they did diagnose him with depression and possible bipolar disorder. But in his book, he said that he was very depressed. His life sucked, and he missed Deanna. I mean, he was in, you know, he was in jail for you know, just pretty much being in love and trying to be with the girl that he loved. And you know how teenage love is and can be intense. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:17

So he's a teenager, he's out smoking, his heart's broken, he's trying to bounce back and he's trying to become his own person.

SPEAKER_00 24:23

Right.

SPEAKER_01 24:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:24

So when he got out, he was released back to his parents, Pam and Joe, who were now back together. Pam had kicked Jack Eccles to the curb. So they went up to Aloha, Oregon, where Joe had been staying since the divorce. When he got there, he had to uh meet with another juvenile officer because he was still on probation. This officer asserted that he should be minimally supervised for four months and then released from the system because what he had done was not that serious. But Jerry Driver down in Arkansas did not agree. Jerry called up there and told that officer that Damien's parents had called him and said they were afraid that he would hurt himself and was put in another psych hospital.

SPEAKER_01 25:08

So was Jerry a race car driver? Oh God.

SPEAKER_00 25:13

He is not cool enough to be in the category as Wes or Les Claypool. So let's leave Les out of this.

SPEAKER_01 25:19

You were trying to say Jerry driver. I know. Here's the base caller. All right, sorry, go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 25:25

So Damien said he did not want to hurt himself, but he was very depressed because he missed Deanna and his best friend Jason. And his family life was miserable. So he was turning 18, and his parents decided to send him back to Jack Eccles because he was, in fact, his legal guardian. He had adopted him. So when he gets back to West Memphis, Arkansas, after uh a bus ride down, Jerry Driver met him at the bus station and he immediately threw him back in juvenile detention, saying that he had made threats against his family and that was a violation of probation.

unknown 26:00

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 26:01

And then when he gets out, he stays with a few friends. He stays with Jason. Um, and there was another friend that they had, he talks about in his book, and he would just kind of hop around there. But then Jerry insisted that he stay with Jack because Jack was his legal guardian. All right. So when he was released, Driver said that he had to get a GD and check in with him every week. And he did all of that, but it still wasn't good enough for Jerry. Jerry continued to hone in on Damien, Jason Baldwin because they hung out together and were banties, and Domini, because she and Damien had started seeing each other again. So Deanna's out of the picture. Domini's back in.

SPEAKER_02 26:39

She's back.

SPEAKER_00 26:39

Yeah. Yes. So Jason said that it was rumored about him being satanic because he loved Metallica, AT, ACDC, Guns N' Roses, and U2.

SPEAKER_01 26:55

Yeah. Not Cannibal Corpse, which was firing up good at that time.

SPEAKER_00 26:59

Oh, they would have. I'm sure they if what I'm sure they would have gotten right on into them and burnt the whole county down.

SPEAKER_01 27:08

Yeah. Cannibal Coral Corpse Grinder show up with a claw machine.

SPEAKER_00 27:12

Right?

SPEAKER_01 27:13

Oh, go ahead, sir.

SPEAKER_00 27:14

Corpse, uh, yeah, corpse grinder is the sweetest human ever.

SPEAKER_01 27:17

I know. I want to play claw machine, but I know.

SPEAKER_00 27:20

So and he Jason also had one of the best mullets that you will ever see in your entire life.

SPEAKER_01 27:27

Like it was Billy Ray Cyrus.

SPEAKER_00 27:29

Oh, yeah. He had Billy Way. I mean, it was it was so much better than Billy Ray's. Billy Ray wished he had Jason Baldwin's mullet. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 27:38

I can't wait to see pictures.

Rumors, Polygraphs, And Lawyer Games

SPEAKER_00 27:40

So he said that he and Damien loved the same things. They also both hated their lives. And like his mom, Damien suffered from depression. Now, Jason was a good boy for the most part. His mother was actually uh schizophrenic and would leave for days at a time, leaving Jason to be a parent to take care of his younger siblings. And he was good at it. Like he took good care of his siblings. Now, back to May 1993 when the murders happened. Damien's parents moved back to Arkansas and he moved back in with them. Shortly after, the police began questioning Damien without any real reason, other the fact that he was the weird golf kid that Jerry Driver suspected, and he was in the ear of chief investigator Gary Gitchell. Oh, Gitchell. So the police had asked Jerry to come up with a list of juveniles that he had in his system. And of course, Damien was at the top of that list. Damien was given a polygraph exam in one of these questionings, and it was noted that he revealed deception in the exam. But guess what? There is zero record of this. The examiner just says this with no evidence. So this will happen a lot over the whole investigation. A lot. There will be lost evidence. Um, basically just taking people's word for shit.

SPEAKER_01 29:04

I mean, it's I can already tell where this is going.

SPEAKER_00 29:08

So police and other officials will just, yeah, they'll just say whatever. This is so disrespectful to me, um, to the victims and their families. I just they basically just create the narrative of what they think and then manipulate people and the media into believing their narrative without any real investigation.

SPEAKER_01 29:29

The good old boys can't be wrong.

SPEAKER_00 29:31

Never.

SPEAKER_01 29:31

They cannot be.

SPEAKER_00 29:32

I mean, these three precious boys were brutally murdered, brutally murdered, and you just make shit up and get everybody to go along with it. I mean, everybody. I can't, you have to watch the documentaries, Paradise Lost to see how thick the rumor meal was. I mean, it was it was insane. So, of course, parents want answers. Rumors have started, and the investigators were lazy to say the least. And like I said before, people were believing that this had to be a satanic ritual and nothing else was looked into. Gary Gitchell originally thought that it was a lust murder. And um, he actually, because of the way the boys were tied up and the knots that were in the shoestrings, he actually looked into Vietnam veterans because there was some significance there with the knots. But then they threw that shit right out the window when Jerry Driver started getting in his ear. Nothing at the crime scene suggested that it was a satanic ritual. Nothing. So on May 5th, the murders happened. On May 7th, it exploded onto the news and media, and that's when Damien's questioning started, asking him about local satanic cults and if he had ever seen one. And he had no information on this. Now he did lean into the weird goth kid persona a lot. That was his that was his thing, you know. Right. So, I mean, he was probably a smart ass to him because he hadn't done anything. So he did not take them seriously at all.

SPEAKER_01 31:03

He was trying to push back, you know, he's just what the hell am I doing here?

SPEAKER_00 31:07

Right. Yeah. So they asked him about his favorite book in the Bible. And as a person who was made to read the Bible her entire childhood, I couldn't answer that question. Just saying. And there are people that I know that know nothing about the Bible. And does that make them a devil worshiper? Does it make him a murderer? No, it does not. But they watched him constantly and they even took a Polaroid picture of him. He complied with everything they asked because they were the police and he actually trusted them to do the right thing. But they used that photo to ask people around town if they knew anything about the Satan worshiper or this Satan worshiper named Damien Eccles. And through power of suggestion, it worked. And people were like, Yeah, I've seen him worship Satan. And one guy even said that Damien made him levitate. Really?

SPEAKER_01 31:59

Yeah. So I why isn't Jesus doing that?

SPEAKER_00 32:03

Why is it when we go to our music festivals and concerts, you know, we're all kind of goffy. Why aren't we all levitating? I mean, there are times where I'm so excited where I feel like I could levitate, but I don't actually do it. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 32:18

I will I will say this in um uh a little back history real quick. I'm gonna take a second. Um I spent a lot of time doing Native American things in my life, and I'm very Caucasian, Caucasian as fuck. But um I did a lot of powwows and a lot of Native American stuff. I watched a drum levitate one time, but if you think about it, if there's like some kind of scientifically possible, yeah, like a G-Force, like you're beating the hell out of the top of this drum, the bottom, you know what I'm saying? So but I watched it like stay in one spot off the ground. That was really cool to me. But uh that's the only levitation that I and I was a I was young, so I thought that you know that was a thing. So, anyhow, that was only levitation I've ever seen spiritually.

SPEAKER_00 33:10

But I mean, you know, you ain't never seen a human levitate, have you?

SPEAKER_01 33:15

Uh no. Okay. A couple people in uh Las Vegas, you know.

SPEAKER_00 33:22

So someone said that the police told him they found body parts under Damien's bed. And John Mark Byers, the father of Chris Byers, said that the police told him that Chris's genitals were in a jar under his bed, and it was just not fucking true. Like Mark Byers says this, or John Mark, excuse me, says this in the documentaries, like it is an actual fact because that was what he was told. And he was just baffled that that at this point Damien wasn't even arrested yet. And he was just baffled that he had already heard that and nobody was in jail yet. Now, John Mark Myers is an absolute fucking character, and he gets on my last nerve. I'm not even gonna lie. But um, he is the loudest one on that documentary. You're fired up right now. Oh, yeah. I'm loving it.

SPEAKER_01 34:11

I mean, this is this is fucked up.

SPEAKER_00 34:13

It is, it's it's insane. It's insane. Luckily, I know the outcome, but it's a fucking horrible journey. So the police continue to question Damien about and accuse him of cult activity daily. His grandmother sold her wedding rings to hire a lawyer when things appeared to start getting serious. The police would not let the lawyer into the station while he was being interrogated. They would not let him in. And in his book, Damien says that her his grandmother sold her wedding rings for absolutely nothing.

SPEAKER_01 34:49

Nothing, not a damn.

SPEAKER_00 34:51

That's illegal. That is illegal to not let a lawyer into the station during an interrogation. Now he was not a minor, but he was still freshly 18.

SPEAKER_01 35:01

Right.

SPEAKER_00 35:02

And you have the right to have an attorney, you have the right to not speak to anyone without a lawyer present.

SPEAKER_01 35:08

He was waiting on that lawyer because he, you know, he's seen the rings, he's seen it all the money go away and the fan uh all the history and just everything, just to try to belly. He knew he was in the right, right? I mean, as far as I know, right now this this kid is in the right. I mean, just a little punk kid that's just trying to learn life and figure out and has had the shittiest childhood.

SPEAKER_00 35:32

The shittiest childhood to begin with. Yeah, God, yeah. The accused, they were not told about this right that they have to have an attorney, and they didn't understand it. They didn't understand what was going on. They just, it ugh, that's what just makes me so sad. You just see the utter confusion on all of them about all of it. And Damien honestly believed that they couldn't prove that he did it because he didn't do anything. Right. And he says this in several interviews later on, and it just makes me so fucking mad.

SPEAKER_01 36:08

They're railroading everything.

SPEAKER_00 36:09

Oh, everything.

SPEAKER_01 36:10

And they're trying to get around everything for defense because they know they have any, they don't have anything.

SPEAKER_00 36:16

One of his interrogations lasted eight hours, and they had to let him go because they had nothing on him.

SPEAKER_01 36:21

Yeah, they're trying to beat him into saying yeah, right, basically.

The Arrest And The Cliffhanger

SPEAKER_00 36:25

And he did not comply, he had only told them what he had heard through media, strong-minded, through the small town rumor mill, everything.

SPEAKER_02 36:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:37

So that's right. So on June 3rd, Damien, Jason Baldwin, and Damien's sister Michelle, and Dominique here were at Damien's trailer watching Leprechaun. Damien's parents and grandmother were at a casino for the evening, and Jason had the night off from babysitting his siblings because he had done well in school, and his mom hired a babysitter so that he could hang out with his friends.

SPEAKER_01 37:01

Special night, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:02

So while they're watching Leprechaun, the police came beating down the door at 10:30 at night. Damien answers the door to three cops with guns pointed at his face. They arrested Damien and Jason. And Jason was asking, What was this for? And they told him, capital murder. And he begs and pleased and says, You have the wrong people. Right. Like he actually believed they were at the wrong house. And once at the police station, Gary Gitchell tells Damien that his friend had already confessed and he should just come clean. And Damien was so confused because he knew it wasn't Jason because they had not done this crime. So what the fuck were they talking about? Right. So they wouldn't tell him anything and made him stay the night in jail. And on June 4th at 10 a.m., he was brought into court where Jason and a kid named Jesse Miss Kelly, who Damien barely knew, by the way, were arraigned on three counts of capital murder of Steve Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Pyers. And that's where we'll pick up next week for part two of the West Memphis 3.

SPEAKER_01 38:09

Like, I'm holding my breath through most of this.

SPEAKER_00 38:12

I just I'm holding back tears. And I've already cried so much.

SPEAKER_01 38:18

I'm like, what is she gonna say next? What really happened? Like, what are what are they just flinging at these kids just because they're a little bit different? Because they're you know they're not the cookie cutter Bible belt kids, right? You know, and oh this is railroaded. This seems railroaded to me.

SPEAKER_00 38:37

But I it makes me nauseous. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 38:39

Honestly, I don't know yet. Where's the twist? Where's there's this is a twist to begin with. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 38:46

Yeah, it hurts. It hurts my heart. Yeah, you're a man. Like I have you know, earphones in while typing this, while I'm you know listening and writing notes and typing, and I'll just break out into tears and silence. Like, oh my god, what's wrong with you? I'm like, I'm okay, I'm okay, just having a moment.

SPEAKER_01 39:05

The next paragraph. Yeah, literally, five more minutes. What a puddle. I can see why you have been geeking about this. Insane. Insane. So, what do you guys think so far? Like, there's two more of these. That oh my goodness, I'm excited. It's a lot, it's a lot.

SPEAKER_00 39:29

It was like, okay, our first two episodes, yeah, they were like I said, I could make this a 10 part and it still wouldn't cover all the bullshit.

SPEAKER_01 39:37

It's like you haven't even got your feet wet yet.

SPEAKER_00 39:40

Seriously, yeah, we're just still pretty much at the beginning. We're still pretty much at the beginning, but I had to give you some backs back, you know, backstory on these boys. I felt that was very important.

SPEAKER_01 39:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:53

Because I it it it helps you understand why they got to where they get to.

SPEAKER_01 39:57

You're ride. It's gonna be a ride.

Band Spotlight And How To Follow

SPEAKER_00 39:59

So, what band are you plugging today?

SPEAKER_01 40:01

Let me talk about this group real quick. Hang on here. So uh we were playing a show and uh in Jacksonville. We were playing a show in Jacksonville, I think it was Onyx Fest. That sounds right. I think it was called Onyx Fest, and there were some badass bands, and uh I think we were like second or something like that, and um this band from from Atlanta came down. They were called Actus Rheus. They might call it Actus Reus, but I think I call it Actus Rheus. But uh they're fucking wonderful. They're fucking wonderful. So, like they uh so one of the guitar players wears a bucket hat, and I always wore a bucket hat, so they had just seen me bumping around on stage wearing a bucket.

SPEAKER_00 40:53

And Roman from Ginger wears the bucket hat.

SPEAKER_01 40:55

Yeah, he does. Yep. That's that's right. We're all bucket heads here, but uh so I love it.

SPEAKER_00 41:00

I love the look.

SPEAKER_01 41:01

So yeah, he was he kind of come up and was talking about our show, you know, and he was really digging our band. And uh I you know, I was just you know, kind of just talking with them to just and then before I knew it, the whole band was like around me, and we were like talking, and I'm like, shh, I'm gonna buy some merch, you know. I don't even know if we have exercises. I haven't even heard them yet, haven't even heard them, you know. And uh they were just so cool. Um they just hung out like the whole night. Like they were in and out just hanging out with us. They bought merch off our table, and I'm trying to think what we did. So we went out back, they had a little back spot in the venue, and we came back right when they had fired up.

SPEAKER_00 41:37

Was that 1904?

SPEAKER_01 41:38

Yeah, okay. 1904 in Jacksonville.

SPEAKER_00 41:40

So uh not the year 1904, the venue 1904. Venue 1904 in Jacksonville.

SPEAKER_01 41:46

It's really cool. It's really cute. It's kind of dying down a little bit. It's gonna be under everything's gonna be underbelly, which is another venue right next to you.

SPEAKER_00 41:53

Underbelly is great too.

SPEAKER_01 41:54

Yeah, we still haven't got to eat out of their barbecue, but I ate it one time, but you weren't there that time. Yes, I had a little bit, it was so good, it was so good. But um, so anyhow, they they fired off and holy to the fuck.

SPEAKER_00 42:11

The showmanship, man.

SPEAKER_01 42:12

There it's so in big music great stage presence big music disclaimer. We play a lot of heavier music here, but send us some stuff. Like, if if you like different different I love it all doing this podcast, like if you have anything that you want to bring, uh just send us send us something. So we're gonna stick to this one website that uh we got going and up and running. So it's just drinkaboutsomething.site. That's it. And uh you can find all of our links. We're we're hooking up with pretty much every streaming platform. I think YouTube's the only thing we're not on, so we're not really video anyhow. So we'll do that later on. No big rush. But all the links, all the contacts, drinkaboutsomething.sight. Uh share our stuff. We're we're we're building and we're moving forward and growing, and I'm loving it. But um, yeah, just uh send us some music and we'll check it out. If it's good stuff and uh the audio is good, I'm going to play it. I want to know about these people. I want to know about the bands, I want to know about their music. Love all kind of genres. Love it all. Uh one of my favorite genres is is old country music. But Motown is probably my favorite. So I just uh I listen to that. It's it's my thing. Send us some stuff. And uh back to Actus Reyes from Atlanta. I think they're like kind of from the burbs of Atlanta-ish. I'm not sure exactly where. Those guys just slaughtered it.

SPEAKER_00 43:43

Very much slaughtered.

SPEAKER_01 43:44

Completely killed it, completely killed it. Moving moving on, like after that, I was just like, these gotta be my bros, because I want to be around this talent. I want to be around these guys. They're really awesome. They were just so happy to be in Jacksonville. The whole venue just It was just like, holy shit, what do we just think, you know?

SPEAKER_00 44:03

And Logan is a beef.

SPEAKER_01 44:04

Logan is a beef. He is. He is. And then like uh, you know, on down the road, like, we supported each other so much. Like, we were in Bath is like even for the when we played at Rockville, it was like they came in second out of a contest of over 2,500 bands. I think we were like fourth. And we supported each other all the way up to that point. And that's what we told each other. We're gonna eat.

SPEAKER_00 44:32

That was a magical 2021 was a magical year, man. That was shit. That was the best Rockville.

SPEAKER_01 44:39

We were just both on board, so like all their love, all our love got us all the way there. And we even got to play at Rockville because we were so close to the finals. That was amazing. And then we went, then we went to uh another venue in Jacksonville. We played at one, right? I think we played at one in Jacksonville and left that venue and went over.

SPEAKER_00 44:59

Yeah, caught their show at another venue in Jacksonville. And we went from Eclipse to Archetype.

SPEAKER_01 45:05

Archetype, yeah. We went from Eclipse to Art. They were playing Architect.

SPEAKER_00 45:08

I was like And my battery was dead.

SPEAKER_01 45:10

Oh, as soon as I got done playing, I was like, fuck it, Actress Rias is over there, dude.

SPEAKER_00 45:14

We get in the car to leave to go to the second venue, and my battery was dead. But we gotta jump off.

SPEAKER_01 45:17

We was good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:18

I had accidentally left on the light looking at my mirror.

SPEAKER_01 45:21

Yeah, but it was like it was like rush, rush, rush. We wanted to catch the bands, you know. I was like, it was a hot day. I had to make sure my makeup was still good. When we got there, it was like was it Yosemite Slam? Is it Yosemite Slam?

SPEAKER_00 45:33

Yosemite and Black.

SPEAKER_01 45:34

Yosemite and Black. Why Slam? Oh, that's one of my friends on Facebook. Hey Yosemite Slam. So Yosemite and Black, which is like, he looks like a Native American guy that I used to powwow with back in the day. I swear. I'm sure I've met him before. And they have uh like a a little person playing. Is that correct? I think the bass. So like before they played, there was another band, and he's hanging out with the big. He was cool as I'm like, dude, we're hanging out with him. Then he came and rocked out with us for the actress reestable. Like, you know, there's a band before they went on, right? And then he's hanging out with us before they got on stage. And then he got on there and grabbed the battery. Oh, that's right, yeah. He grabbed the bass guitar because he's playing around with Silas because they're about the same height. Dude was amazing. Loved him. And it was just like, holy shit, is that the same dude setting up? Of course it is. We all we all knew it. I mean, all eyes on him, right? And he gets up there and grabs that bass and slaps my ass down with it, dude. It was so amazing.

SPEAKER_00 46:31

He'd slap it to be used.

SPEAKER_01 46:33

But anyhow, actus came on right there after that. Boom, dude. The whole place went. And one of them like cut their hand open. One to bring up. Yeah. Yeah, one of the guitar players cut himself. He's pleading everywhere. Like, it was metal. I think he dropped his pick and he was just so into it, he like kind of, you know, he just cut his finger. Like. But it was a lot of blood. There was no devil worshiping.

SPEAKER_00 46:56

I had baby wipes, because I always have baby wipes. If you ever need a baby wipes, hit me up.

SPEAKER_01 47:00

No sacrifices.

SPEAKER_00 47:01

There was no, yeah, there was no sacrificing of animals for sick.

SPEAKER_01 47:04

We were sacrificing was energy. Yes, that's it. We were having a blast. Insane.

SPEAKER_00 47:10

Even though it's a wine-based bar, we were I mean, it was insane.

SPEAKER_01 47:15

So yeah, I um I have an actress Rhea song that I'm gonna plug in here, and you're got you're gonna love it. You're gonna love it. It's their newest song, and I'm just I'm completely excited about it. I want to leave you with a huge thank you.

SPEAKER_00 47:30

And thank you for listening. I'm loving this. Keep going. Please tune in for the next part because y'all, I have poured my heart and soul into this case. Don't let it be for nothing. Please.

SPEAKER_01 47:41

She is just in it. She is just in it. I'm just excited, and I'm gonna keep doing this. We're gonna keep doing this. We're gonna keep ass. And I got it.

SPEAKER_00 47:50

I've already got part two ready to go. I'm gonna be working on part three this week.

SPEAKER_01 47:54

Yeah, I got with actors just the other day, and they're just like, we got this new song now. And they were just they were so happy. They were just like, I have a her community forever, and and I'm just so happy that you got something going on. I'm just I mean, other than music stuff, uh we have to have this creativity. You know, it's just like there's something that we can do we can build together, you know, whether it's just sitting here talking about this crazy history, or if it's just um, I don't care what we're gonna do. We we gotta do something.

SPEAKER_00 48:27

And we are fat and sassy right now from Chinese. That's why I'm like stuffy.

SPEAKER_01 48:32

Um I'm sitting here stuffy right now.

SPEAKER_00 48:34

We're stuffy and swollen from sodium. I have a couple of things. But it was so good, worth it. Fu King Chinese restaurant in Lake City, Florida. Check it out.

SPEAKER_01 48:42

Yeah, so good.

SPEAKER_00 48:44

We it has been it is a staple.

SPEAKER_01 48:46

Oh, it is so good. I'm full.

SPEAKER_00 48:48

I'm just like uh And if you put Foo King together, you know what that spells, and they sell t-shirts.

SPEAKER_01 48:55

Here's the Fooking and Acus Reus.

SPEAKER_00 48:57

Yeah, actus Reus, satanic panic, and the West Memphins 3.

SPEAKER_01 49:00

Hey, we love thank you guys so much for for tuning in. And uh thank you for follow us on Instagram. Follow us on Instagram drink about something. That's a that's a quick social media thing.

SPEAKER_00 49:10

Uh there should be we don't have a lot of followers yet.

SPEAKER_01 49:13

Follow us. Follow us. I've been hounding everybody actually, so forgive me for now. But y'all do the same thing. We'll get some more folks in here.

SPEAKER_00 49:20

Even if you don't like true crime or bands and you know us, just follow us just because it'll it'll hurt. Yeah, well there's there's it'll cost nothing.

SPEAKER_01 49:28

Yeah. But um, yeah, this song's called Merciless, and it just came out from Actus Rius. Oh, I'm excited too. You're gonna love it. You're you're gonna absolutely love it.

SPEAKER_00 49:38

We need to catch another one of their shows soon.

SPEAKER_01 49:40

Yeah. Yeah, we do. I'm gonna hook up with them. We're gonna we're gonna do something. I'm gonna tell them to come play at my house. Acoustic set. Yes. No, uh my cul-de-sac would burn down if they played here.

SPEAKER_00 49:52

Honestly, though, I mean, we have hosted several. We live in a cul-de-sac in a decently quiet neighborhood. We have hosted some ragers, and ain't we have never had the cops show up. Nobody has ever complained. I don't know what it is about our privacy fence and our back porch, but it's damn near soundproof, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 50:11

Yeah, we have a curmudgeon that does live around us, but yeah, haven't had any problems out of them. Nope. So thank you. Nope.

SPEAKER_00 50:18

Oh yes, thank you. No, we'll be celebrating 11 years in this house soon. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:23

I love it. I love it. Uh anything else you want to say to the guys? The crew, the fam.

SPEAKER_00 50:29

Just keep listening. Check out these bands. Like, even if you don't actually like that type of music, have an open mind. Check them out anyway. Yeah, send them. They deserve, they deserve recognition for the art that they're putting out into the world.

SPEAKER_01 50:42

If you like anything heavy, you're gonna love this band.

SPEAKER_00 50:44

If you love, yeah, if you like heavy, you're definitely gonna love them. If you don't like heavy, just check it out anyway. Broaden your horizons. You're gonna dig it. You're gonna dig it. So uh your palette may be more cultured than you think it is. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 50:59

You never know. Well, it's the grooves for me, really. That's all I care about, really. The grooves, like the little bricks.

SPEAKER_00 51:04

It's like I didn't know that I liked anything until I tried it.

SPEAKER_01 51:07

So I don't like pigs' feet.

SPEAKER_00 51:11

Nope. Tried it, didn't like it. But I tried it though. Not a fan.

SPEAKER_01 51:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:16

But that girl that was on that barbecue show we was watching the other night, hers actually looked good. Like I might have tried hers.

SPEAKER_02 51:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:22

It was smoked, smoked barbecued pig's feet. I was like, okay, girl.

SPEAKER_01 51:26

Anyhow. So I'm gonna leave it with you guys. Uh here's Actus Reyes. We'll see you guys next Friday.

SPEAKER_00 51:32

Yes, for part two, West Memphis Three. Be ready to hear me cry again on the pod.

SPEAKER_01 51:38

Ah, here we go. See you guys. Bye-bye.

SPEAKER_00 51:40

Bye.

SPEAKER_03 51:50

Put your money with your mouth, but I'm not gonna be able to