the west memphis three
Alternative suspects
Throughout the entire case there have been several suspects other than Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley, Jr. Most of them have been completely cleared of any wrong doing, but others are still under suspicion still to this day.
christopher morgan / brian holland
On May 15-16-17, 1993, police in Oceanside, California, interrogated Christopher Morgan (age 19) and Brian Holland (age 20), two Memphis residents who had driven from Tennessee to California a few days after the murders. Both Morgan and Holland repeatedly denied any involvement in or direct knowledge about the killings. Both failed polygraphs. Christopher Morgan later testified (at the Baldwin/Echols trial, with the jury absent) that his interrogation lasted 17 hours over two sessions, that Oceanside police never read him his rights, and that they kept him locked up even though he was supposedly not in custody.
During his post-polygraph interview, after 13+ hours of questioning, Christopher Morgan got angry and said, “What do you want me to do lie to you … I’m going to lie I’m going to lie. I killed them and all that other bullshit, I don’t know how he did it.” Immediately afterward, according to Morgan, “I may have told them that, ‘Are you happy?’ and he [detective] said ‘Is that the truth?’ and I said ‘No.’” Later Morgan said, “Well maybe I freaked out … then blacked out and killed the three little boys and then fucked them up the ass or something.” He asked for a hypnotist to check this “black out” possibility, but insisted “I’ve never hurt anyone intentionally.”
California police sent blood and urine samples from Morgan and Holland to the WMPD, but there is no indication WMPD investigated Morgan or Holland as suspects following their arrest in California. The relevance of Morgan's recanted statement would later be debated in trial, but was eventually barred from admission as evidence.
During his post-polygraph interview, after 13+ hours of questioning, Christopher Morgan got angry and said, “What do you want me to do lie to you … I’m going to lie I’m going to lie. I killed them and all that other bullshit, I don’t know how he did it.” Immediately afterward, according to Morgan, “I may have told them that, ‘Are you happy?’ and he [detective] said ‘Is that the truth?’ and I said ‘No.’” Later Morgan said, “Well maybe I freaked out … then blacked out and killed the three little boys and then fucked them up the ass or something.” He asked for a hypnotist to check this “black out” possibility, but insisted “I’ve never hurt anyone intentionally.”
California police sent blood and urine samples from Morgan and Holland to the WMPD, but there is no indication WMPD investigated Morgan or Holland as suspects following their arrest in California. The relevance of Morgan's recanted statement would later be debated in trial, but was eventually barred from admission as evidence.
Mr. Bojangles
On the night of May 5, 1993, as parents and police were searching for the missing boys, a strange event occurred at a nearby fast-food restaurant called Bojangles.
A black man, apparently dazed and covered in blood and mud, had staggered into the restaurant. He went into the ladies’ rest room where he stayed the better part of an hour as the evening-shift workers prepared to close down for the night. The man had blood on his face and blood dripping from his forearm, and, generally, was “disarrayed,” the youngish restaurant manager Marty King recalled. Wearing a blue nylon jogging suit and a cast on one arm, he also had thick mud caked on his shoes, “like he’d been through a field,” King said. Water was soaked into his pants up to his knees.
King grew concerned as the man stayed in the rest room about thirty to forty-five minutes. At one point, King poked his head in the door. Excrement covered the floor, and it was on the man, too. The man, propping himself up, had also smeared blood on the walls. [Blood of Innocents, page 36]
The bloody dazed man arrived at Bojangles sometime between 8:00 and 9:30 PM. Bojangles was about one mile from the woods where the missing boys were last seen and where their bodies were found the next day.
Officer Regina Meek responded to the Bojangles call, spoke to a restaurant employee at the drive-through window, searched the area for the bloody man, then left. The next night (May 6) detectives Allen and Ridge visited Bojangles, talked to Marty King and took blood scrapings from the bathroom. The bloody man had left sunglasses in the toilet, but detectives didn't bother taking them. Ridge later testified that he put the Bojangles blood sample in his desk, never sent it to the crime lab, forgot about it and eventually lost it.
***OKAY, I HAVE TO INTERJECT HERE.. WHY IN GODS NAME DID THE FIRST RESPONDING OFFICER GO THROUGH THE DRIVE-THROUGH!?! WAS THAT STANDARD PRACTICE IN HER DEPARTMENT? I MEAN... COME ON! WHAT WAS SHE THINKING? (WERE SEARCHING FOR 3 MISSING BOYS IN THE AREA, SO THIS STRANGE ACTING, BLOOD COVERED MAN WITH MUD ALL OVER, CAN'T BE IMPORTANT.) JESUS, THEN THE WMPD DIDN'T EVEN TRY TO INVESTIGATE OR RECOVER ANY EVIDENCE UNTIL THE NEXT DAY. AND THAT WAS ONLY AFTER A SECOND CALL FROM THE RESTAURANT WAS MADE. THEN THEY "MISPLACED" THOSE BLOOD SAMPLES! WOW... TO TOP IT ALL OFF, THEY HAD THE NERVE TO ACCUSE THE EMPLOYEES AND BLAME THEM FOR CONTAMINATING EVIDENCE BECAUSE THEY TRIED TO CLEAN UP AFTER THE FIRST OFFICER LEFT! WOW...I'M SORRY, I JUST CAN'T BELIEVE PEOPLE CAN BE THAT STUPID!!! NOW BY SAYING THAT, I AM IN NO WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM SAYING THE 3 ARE GUILTY OR INNOCENT. ALL I AM SAYING IS THAT IF THE WMPD SCREWED THAT UP SO MUCH,...WHAT'S TO SAY THEY DIDN'T SCREW UP SOMETHING ELSE EVEN MORE IMPORTANT.***
A black man, apparently dazed and covered in blood and mud, had staggered into the restaurant. He went into the ladies’ rest room where he stayed the better part of an hour as the evening-shift workers prepared to close down for the night. The man had blood on his face and blood dripping from his forearm, and, generally, was “disarrayed,” the youngish restaurant manager Marty King recalled. Wearing a blue nylon jogging suit and a cast on one arm, he also had thick mud caked on his shoes, “like he’d been through a field,” King said. Water was soaked into his pants up to his knees.
King grew concerned as the man stayed in the rest room about thirty to forty-five minutes. At one point, King poked his head in the door. Excrement covered the floor, and it was on the man, too. The man, propping himself up, had also smeared blood on the walls. [Blood of Innocents, page 36]
The bloody dazed man arrived at Bojangles sometime between 8:00 and 9:30 PM. Bojangles was about one mile from the woods where the missing boys were last seen and where their bodies were found the next day.
Officer Regina Meek responded to the Bojangles call, spoke to a restaurant employee at the drive-through window, searched the area for the bloody man, then left. The next night (May 6) detectives Allen and Ridge visited Bojangles, talked to Marty King and took blood scrapings from the bathroom. The bloody man had left sunglasses in the toilet, but detectives didn't bother taking them. Ridge later testified that he put the Bojangles blood sample in his desk, never sent it to the crime lab, forgot about it and eventually lost it.
***OKAY, I HAVE TO INTERJECT HERE.. WHY IN GODS NAME DID THE FIRST RESPONDING OFFICER GO THROUGH THE DRIVE-THROUGH!?! WAS THAT STANDARD PRACTICE IN HER DEPARTMENT? I MEAN... COME ON! WHAT WAS SHE THINKING? (WERE SEARCHING FOR 3 MISSING BOYS IN THE AREA, SO THIS STRANGE ACTING, BLOOD COVERED MAN WITH MUD ALL OVER, CAN'T BE IMPORTANT.) JESUS, THEN THE WMPD DIDN'T EVEN TRY TO INVESTIGATE OR RECOVER ANY EVIDENCE UNTIL THE NEXT DAY. AND THAT WAS ONLY AFTER A SECOND CALL FROM THE RESTAURANT WAS MADE. THEN THEY "MISPLACED" THOSE BLOOD SAMPLES! WOW... TO TOP IT ALL OFF, THEY HAD THE NERVE TO ACCUSE THE EMPLOYEES AND BLAME THEM FOR CONTAMINATING EVIDENCE BECAUSE THEY TRIED TO CLEAN UP AFTER THE FIRST OFFICER LEFT! WOW...I'M SORRY, I JUST CAN'T BELIEVE PEOPLE CAN BE THAT STUPID!!! NOW BY SAYING THAT, I AM IN NO WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM SAYING THE 3 ARE GUILTY OR INNOCENT. ALL I AM SAYING IS THAT IF THE WMPD SCREWED THAT UP SO MUCH,...WHAT'S TO SAY THEY DIDN'T SCREW UP SOMETHING ELSE EVEN MORE IMPORTANT.***
John Mark Byers
In November 1993, John Mark Byers was interrogated by WMPD officers after he had given a knife to a member of a film crew who were making a documentary about the case. During questioning by the police, John Mark Byers admitted that he had given the knife away. He also stated that his wife Melissa had given it to him for Christmas, two or three years previously and he had never used it. He kept it in the top drawer of a dresser in his bedroom where he was sure that neither of the boys could have gained access to it. When asked whether anyone might have cut themselves with the knife, Byers stated that he was certain that no one had. This story changed when the interviewing officer told him that blood had been found on the knife. Byers then recalled that he had used the knife to cut up some deer meat at home. When he was told that the blood found on the knife had matched Christopher's blood type, Byers continued to assert that he had no idea how Christopher's blood had come to be there.
Later after test results on Melissa, Ryan and John Mark Byers were concluded, it was found that the blood stains matched in blood type with both John and Christopher Byers. No further testing was carried out which could have determined more conclusively whether it was Christopher or John Mark Byers's blood.
Another item of evidence which could have linked John Mark Byers to the murders, at least as much as any evidence brought against Damien, Jason and Jessie, was the presence of another human hair on the victim's clothing. It was a black Caucasian hair which was shown to be microscopically similar to both John Mark Byers and Damien Echols. Unfortunately, nothing more specific was determined.
During this interrogation the interviewing officer asked Byers what medication he was on to which he answered Xanax and Zorinal which he stated were anti-depressants. When he was asked whether he had any other medication he told police no, yet he had stated at other times that he was taking Tegretol which is the brand name of the drug Carbamazepine. This is the same substance which was found in non-therapeutic amounts in Christopher's blood after his death. Christopher had also been taking Tegretol according to his medical records, but Byers had stated that Chris had not taken his medication on the day that he went missing.
Later after test results on Melissa, Ryan and John Mark Byers were concluded, it was found that the blood stains matched in blood type with both John and Christopher Byers. No further testing was carried out which could have determined more conclusively whether it was Christopher or John Mark Byers's blood.
Another item of evidence which could have linked John Mark Byers to the murders, at least as much as any evidence brought against Damien, Jason and Jessie, was the presence of another human hair on the victim's clothing. It was a black Caucasian hair which was shown to be microscopically similar to both John Mark Byers and Damien Echols. Unfortunately, nothing more specific was determined.
During this interrogation the interviewing officer asked Byers what medication he was on to which he answered Xanax and Zorinal which he stated were anti-depressants. When he was asked whether he had any other medication he told police no, yet he had stated at other times that he was taking Tegretol which is the brand name of the drug Carbamazepine. This is the same substance which was found in non-therapeutic amounts in Christopher's blood after his death. Christopher had also been taking Tegretol according to his medical records, but Byers had stated that Chris had not taken his medication on the day that he went missing.
Terry Hobbs
In 2007, a new alternative suspect emerged in the killings: Terry Hobbs, stepfather of Steve Branch. The case against Hobbs rests on a hair found on one of the shoelace used to tie up Michael Moore. The Damien Echols defense team had this hair tested for DNA in 2006-2007 (seeExhibit AA). That DNA testing narrowed the possible sources of that hair to about 1.5% of the population, which included Terry Hobbs and excluded Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley.
The Echols defense tested another hair taken from a tree stump at the crime scene. That DNA test (see Exhibit BB) narrowed the possible sources of that hair to about 7% of the population, which included Hobbs’ friend David Jacoby and excluded Hobbs, Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley. The hair wasn’t on the victims’ bodies or clothing, just on a tree stump nearby.
In late 2007, Terry Hobbs filed a defamation lawsuit against Natalie Maines (real name Natalie Pasdar) of the Dixie Chicks, a staunch supporter of the WM3. Many figures in the WM3 case gave depositons for this lawsuit, which Hobbs eventually lost.
Among those casting suspicion on Terry Hobbs were his ex-wife, Pam Hobbs (mother of victim Steve Branch) and three of Pam Hobbs’ sisters. Pam Hobbs stated in her deposition(PDF; pp 61-70):
After the murders my sister Jo Lynn McCauhey and I found in Terry’s nightstand a knife that Stevie carried with him constantly and which I had believed was with him when he died. It was a pocket knife that my father had given to Stevie, and Stevie loved that knife. I had been shocked that the police did not find it with Stevie when they found his body. I had always assumed that my son’s murderer had taken the knife during the crime. I could not believe it was in Terry’s things. He had never told me that he had it.
Also, my sister Jo Lynn told me that she saw Terry wash clothes, bed linens and curtains from Stevie’s room at an odd time around the time of the murders.
John Mark Byers stated in his deposition (PDF; pp 114-122) that “I believe Terry Hobbs was involved in the murders.” This was a surprising turnaround for Byers, who had consistently voiced his belief in the WM3′s guilt for fourteen years.
Terry Hobbs did a videotaped interview with WMPD detectives and a videotaped deposition for the Pasdar lawsuit, both in 2007. He denies any involvement in the killings
In 2009, three witnesses came forward claiming that they saw Terry Hobbs with the three boys the evening of the murders. From the Jonesboro Sun:
In affidavits presented to the Arkansas Supreme Court on Monday, sisters Jamie Clark Ballard and Brandy Clark Williams and their mother, Deborah Moyer, claim to have seen Stevie Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore at 6:30 p.m. May 5, 1993.
The boys were playing in Moyer’s backyard when Branch’s stepfather, Terry Hobbs, yelled at the boys and told them to go to his house, according to court documents.
Ballard, then 13, said she spoke to Byers, telling him his older brother was looking for him. Williams, who was 11 at the time, and Ballard then left for church, documents state. Moyer said she went outside to tell the boys to get out of her yard, and she saw a man with blond hair standing down the street yelling at the boys.
The Ballard/Williams/Moyer testimony is highly suspicious. WMPD officers canvassed that neighborhood repeatedly in 1993 asking if anyone had seen the three murdered boys on May 5.
The Echols defense tested another hair taken from a tree stump at the crime scene. That DNA test (see Exhibit BB) narrowed the possible sources of that hair to about 7% of the population, which included Hobbs’ friend David Jacoby and excluded Hobbs, Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley. The hair wasn’t on the victims’ bodies or clothing, just on a tree stump nearby.
In late 2007, Terry Hobbs filed a defamation lawsuit against Natalie Maines (real name Natalie Pasdar) of the Dixie Chicks, a staunch supporter of the WM3. Many figures in the WM3 case gave depositons for this lawsuit, which Hobbs eventually lost.
Among those casting suspicion on Terry Hobbs were his ex-wife, Pam Hobbs (mother of victim Steve Branch) and three of Pam Hobbs’ sisters. Pam Hobbs stated in her deposition(PDF; pp 61-70):
After the murders my sister Jo Lynn McCauhey and I found in Terry’s nightstand a knife that Stevie carried with him constantly and which I had believed was with him when he died. It was a pocket knife that my father had given to Stevie, and Stevie loved that knife. I had been shocked that the police did not find it with Stevie when they found his body. I had always assumed that my son’s murderer had taken the knife during the crime. I could not believe it was in Terry’s things. He had never told me that he had it.
Also, my sister Jo Lynn told me that she saw Terry wash clothes, bed linens and curtains from Stevie’s room at an odd time around the time of the murders.
John Mark Byers stated in his deposition (PDF; pp 114-122) that “I believe Terry Hobbs was involved in the murders.” This was a surprising turnaround for Byers, who had consistently voiced his belief in the WM3′s guilt for fourteen years.
Terry Hobbs did a videotaped interview with WMPD detectives and a videotaped deposition for the Pasdar lawsuit, both in 2007. He denies any involvement in the killings
In 2009, three witnesses came forward claiming that they saw Terry Hobbs with the three boys the evening of the murders. From the Jonesboro Sun:
In affidavits presented to the Arkansas Supreme Court on Monday, sisters Jamie Clark Ballard and Brandy Clark Williams and their mother, Deborah Moyer, claim to have seen Stevie Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore at 6:30 p.m. May 5, 1993.
The boys were playing in Moyer’s backyard when Branch’s stepfather, Terry Hobbs, yelled at the boys and told them to go to his house, according to court documents.
Ballard, then 13, said she spoke to Byers, telling him his older brother was looking for him. Williams, who was 11 at the time, and Ballard then left for church, documents state. Moyer said she went outside to tell the boys to get out of her yard, and she saw a man with blond hair standing down the street yelling at the boys.
The Ballard/Williams/Moyer testimony is highly suspicious. WMPD officers canvassed that neighborhood repeatedly in 1993 asking if anyone had seen the three murdered boys on May 5.