The West Arkansas Police Department had never been trained to handle a case of this magnitude. They were very dedicated, Southern, and excellent officers of the law. But this was a triple homicide of children, and the violence and brutality of this case was something they were not used to. At the time, they did what they could, putting their bodies from the water on the land of the other side. They found that the boys jeans pulled completely inside out. It was tragic to see, the people, the parents, and reporters showing up, the scene was already closed so everyone was away from where there could be evidence. There were no suspects yet, no motive and no way to guess how this came to happen. The cops didn’t know about the bloodied man at the fast food place, none of those people came forward thinking that what they saw might be of some kind of use to the investigation. I find that really strange. If I saw a man walk in my place of business, filthy, covered with mud and blood, I’d call the cops while the guy was still there! But no one said a word until it became household news on West Memphis and the ones being held were nicknamed the “West Memphis Three”.

The West Memphis Three were three kids that lived in West Memphis and pretty much were the outsiders of every group. Their names were Damian Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Miskelley Junior. Damian was a figure in the town that was different. Black t-shirts and long black trench coat even in the summer, his dyed black hair and very white skin were odd to most, to some frightening. Jason looked like your regular high school kid, just another kid, that played video games and mowed the lawn. Jessie was thin and had a tendency to pick fights.
At first, the townspeople were so shocked of not only the by the savage brutality of such a crime, but that the “Satanic Panic”. The coroner’s report was released and now everyone knew what rumor was true: little Chris Byers had been savagely sexually mutilated. His genitals, both penis and scrotal sack had been removed with a knife. In the minds of the community, that made it a fact: Satanists were to blame for this heinous crime and someone was going to pay dearly for that.

In West Memphis, from what I understand, there is a low tolerance for “strange” behavior and a “different” type of mentality. The folks down there were God Fearing, Upstanding and hard working. There was an unspoken rule that odd people were not tolerated, poor people were ignorant and foreigners and their freakish ways uninvited. One Sunday morning one local church put on their marquee:” Pray For Our Police to Bring the Killers to Justice.” It doesn’t take much to make you look like a “freak” in Arkansas. I’m pretty sure I’d be labeled a freak and a Satanist for wearing Marilyn Manson T-shirts. The WM Police began to investigate tips from all manner of people about all manner of people that would be capable of committing a crime of this magnitude. It wasn’t long before they realized they were in over their heads.