Murder and Mimosas Podcast
A true crime podcast with a focus on lesser known crimes and the background of those who commit these heinous acts. Each case is told with a bit of southern sass, but with tons of in depth research and respect for those lost. Join this mom and daughter duo as they sip their mimosas while diving into tragic cases. New episodes every Saturday, just in time for brunch (and a mimosa of your own)!
Murder and Mimosas Podcast
Unmasking the Satanic Panic's Real Victims
What if an entire town was swept up in a wave of hysteria that led to the wrongful conviction of three innocent boys? Uncover the final chapter of the West Memphis Three saga, as we dissect the flawed investigation, the rise of the satanic panic, and the unjust sentences handed down to Jessie, Jason, and Damien. We'll revisit the critical role of the HBO documentary "Paradise Lost" that shed international light on the case and mobilized the "Free the West Memphis Three" movement. Learn about Damien Echols' personal transformation, his struggle to connect with his son from behind bars, and the powerful support from celebrities like Metallica that fueled the fight for justice.
We take you through the shadowy events involving Terry Hobbs and David Jacoby, as detailed by unsettling witness testimonies. Hear Billy Stewart's harrowing recount of that fateful day in May 1993, and the affidavits from Benny Guy and Pam Hicks that cast further doubt on Hobbs. Understand the deep frustrations with the police's mishandled investigation and the ignored evidence that could have changed everything. We also explore the profound implications of the Alford plea that granted the West Memphis Three their freedom but left many questions unanswered. Tune in to grasp the emotional and legal toll this case has taken on everyone involved, and the enduring quest for true justice.
Sources:
https://famous-trials.com/westmemphis/2287-home
https://shakedowntitle.com/cases/west-memphis-3/
https://law.jrank.org/pages/3599/West-Memphis-Three-Trials-1994-Appeals-Fail.html
https://www.oxygen.com/the-forgotten-west-memphis-three/crime-news/victims-injuries-animal-predation-west-memphis-three-case
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DarkCast Network. Welcome to the dark side of podcasting. Welcome to Murder and Mimosas a true crime podcast brought to you by a mother and daughter duo.
Speaker 2:Bringing you murder stories with a mimosa in hand. With a mimosa in hand, murder, mimosas is a true crime podcast, meaning we talk about adult matters such as murder, sexual assaults and other horrendous crimes. Listener discretion is advised. We do tell our stories with the victims and the victims families in mind. However, some information is more verifiable than others. However, you can find all of our information linked in the show notes. Welcome back to Murder and Mimosas. I'm Danica.
Speaker 1:And I'm Shannon.
Speaker 2:This week is our final part of the three-part series about the West Memphis Three. Shannon, do you want to do a quick recap of what we talked about?
Speaker 1:last week? Sure, so last week we talked about the investigation or lack thereof, about satanic panic in regards to the media and how the mindset could have played a role, about the trials of Jesse, jason and Damien and how three boys were sentenced to life in prison without really any evidence at all.
Speaker 2:Right. So these three boys are all in prison after being convicted and sentenced. We touched a little last week about everything during the trial was being filmed by an HBO film crew and they also did interviews with the attorneys, the families of the victims, the boys that were accused and convicted, as well as others in the town and they turned it into the documentary Paradise Lost. Now this documentary came out in June of 1996. So just over three years after the three boys were murdered and just over two years after Jason, damien and Jesse were convicted.
Speaker 1:And Danica, I know you don't remember this because you weren't even two yet, but I do remember watching Paradise Lost in 96. And even then I was just in total shock that these three guys were convicted with no evidence against them at all. I just couldn't believe it. And it was a great documentary then, and still a great one now.
Speaker 2:It is and we actually used part of the documentary in our research and it brings to light like a lot about this case and it was really an important moment, a really pivotal moment for the west memphis three, because it started this entire movement. Of course, after the boys are convicted especially damien since he's on death row the appeals process can begin. The thing about appeals is it's not a fast process whatsoever, especially for damien, because you want to get out as soon as possible when you're on death row and it feels like forever because you're locked in the cell 23 out of the 40 out 24 hours of the day. Now Jesse's appeal was answered first from the Arkansas Supreme Court, but with his own coerced confession, confession against him, they ended up upholding the ruling. Now, damien and Jason's appeal took a bit longer for the Arkansas Supreme Court to rule on, as it actually had 44 points that were raised by their attorneys. Despite this numerous amount of points, the court still upheld their convictions as well. But this is just the first appeal and they of course have many more to come.
Speaker 2:It would be the release of Paradise Lost, which you know we talked about was the whole documentary that sparked a huge movement, so big for these three imprisoned teenagers that you know it would end up changing their life. And you may have heard of the movement, and it's a very simple name it's just called Free the West Memphis Three. So three individuals in Los Angeles were especially shocked by the conviction that took place. They actually traveled to Arkansas just three months after Paradise Lost was released so that they could visit Damian, jason and Jesse in prison, and then they also walked the area of the crime scene. So pretty quickly they're like deep into this and they created a website which is still up today. It's WM3.org. This became a hub of like the free the West Memphis Three movement and many people, after watching the documentary, of course, are like going online to know if the boys are out, since you know they shouldn't be there anyway.
Speaker 1:Okay, just to be clear with going online. Though there still wasn't a lot of online stuff in 96, there still wasn't a ton of information, nor did any people have access to it online plus, it was dial up then, but there wasn't the same amount of information that you would find now.
Speaker 2:True but you could write, and many supporters started writing to the boys in prison and Damien ended up having correspondence with one woman whose name is Lori Davis. She was from New York and a romance began to blossom between the two.
Speaker 1:Lori ended up moving to Arkansas from New York and then, in December of 1999, the two were married at the prison in a Buddhist ceremony, which is crazy to me to get engaged, then married to a man on death row, much less up and quit my job and leave and move to a new state. But they're still married to this day. And we failed to mention about Damien's son in the previous episode. When Damien was arrested, his ex-girlfriend was four months pregnant. She had the baby boy while Damien was on trial. He did not get to hold his son until his trial and he didn't get to do the things a new dad gets to do, which is really unfortunate.
Speaker 2:And one other thing I talked about a Buddhist ceremony for their wedding While Damien was on death row. He did convert to Buddhism and in his book Life After Death, he really talks about how that came about. A lot of that was meditating, just hoping to have like this spiritual awakening on his time on death, death row. He just didn't want to be this like angry, negative person like he was trying to find his purpose, basically. So the movement began to grow as a sequel to paradise lost was made. But also, as the movement was growing, celebrities started to back the movement as well. One famous, famous group was Metallica, which was actually a band Damien had listened to a lot and, oddly enough, was used against him in court. In court claimed, like the prosecutors claimed, that metallica was a satanic band of sorts, and so since damien listened to the hymn, that just apparently also made him satanic and was trying to like push that whole thing but you know, mentioning that that makes me think like, why doesn't?
Speaker 1:why didn't the um defense be like hey, then do this back masking on this record let's hear this because it didn't exist. I mean, I don't guess we thought about that at that time, because if you said that there's hidden stuff in the music, we just believed it, but that would have been good to have on trial. Like, hey, show us where this is satanic.
Speaker 2:Well, and I think that if you really played it, the people who already felt like Metallica or bands similar to that were, you know, not of God in this very religious town would claim to, or maybe be persuaded to, hear things that aren't there. Yeah, it's subjective to coercion. Yes, like jason, like jesse was, so maybe the defense is like. We know that they're like they were fine with coercing people into saying whatever they want I mean look at vicky.
Speaker 2:look at the jailhouse and look at all these people that they got to go on the stand and lie. So the defense was probably like maybe not that I don't know if it was even an option that came up, as they were, you know, planning their defense, but I feel like that. I would be like I don't know about that. Another one was Johnny Depp and the Natalie Mains from the Dixie Chicks.
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Speaker 2:Jamaica, grand Cayman and Cozumel. We hope to see you there To book your spot on the cruise. You want to do that through salty kisses travel. The link is found in our show notes. So they was even a cd that was released called free the west Memphis 3 that had songs from multiple artists that supported these guys and trying to free them obviously.
Speaker 1:And I'm pretty sure you can still get it on Amazon Music and probably other places online as well.
Speaker 2:Yes, and the money that they raised from this went to support the boys and their attorneys money-wise. Despite all of this support, the wheels in the legal system were not moving any faster. They were still just chugging along slowly. Let's talk about some things that came to light during these appeals, though. One was the bite marks that were found on Stevie Branch and Chris Byers Branch and Chris Byers. In March of 1999, it was proclaimed that the bite marks did not match Damien, jason or Jesse. Another discovery was that the defense attorneys went years after the convictions before they ever got paid. Now, this was a big deal, because this meant that they didn't have access to the expert witnesses that they needed because they were going to have to pay for them out of pocket, and this also meant that, despite being court appointed, they had to fund their own client's defense. I know that Dan Stidham at one point said he ended up having to take like bank loans out to fund this.
Speaker 1:Right and this took up so much time. They didn't have a lot of time to do other cases because this just was so time consuming.
Speaker 2:Yes, and so you know this is like a huge burden for them but they are very passionate about this and you know dan talks about in his book and even to us that you know he made a promise to jesse that he would get him out of prison and like that was utmost, like his goal and he even talks about in the book how it kind of came between.
Speaker 2:Like him and his family was like this need to make sure that he kept this promise to jesse because he knew he was innocent. Now the final and likely the biggest thing that came out was that there is DNA in a hair found in a knot in one of the shoelaces and if you remember that each boy was bound in almost a hogtied fashion with their own shoelaces, so the ones that were used to tie up Michael Moore had the hair in it. That hair did not match jesse, did not match damien and it did not match jason, but it did match the dna of terry hobbs who, if you recall, is stevie branch's stepfather as well as 1.5 percent of the population.
Speaker 1:Yeah so transparency, not not his, not their stepfather, but not everybody's stepfather. It sounds like I'm saying that's that many people's stepfather.
Speaker 2:No, the DNA matched Carrie Hobbs as well as what she said, the 1.5% or whatever the population. So it's not an exact match but like that's a pretty significant match and we know for sure it didn't match the three people who were convicted, who had no DNA evidence against them at the scene. This is to me like a gallon of water against Terry Hobbs versus nothing. Maybe a drop of water because Jesse made the coerced confession. Nothing. Maybe a drop of water because Jesse made the coerced confession. But I mean like it's just crazy to me that they continued to keep them in jail. And then, if that's not enough, a second hair was found on a tree step near where the bodies were found, and that matched a man named David Jacoby. Do you know who David Jacoby is? He is a friend of hobbs. Yes, terry hobbs. We haven't talked about him, but he is a friend of terry hobbs. He was also terry hobbs alibi for the night that the boys went missing wait.
Speaker 1:So who even needs an alibi when your stepson is missing? Didn't he tell his wife that he was searching for stevie the whole time?
Speaker 2:yes, that is what he. Well, he told his wife he would search for stevie. But what comes up later, and what jacoby backs terry up by saying, is that they were playing guitar that night, which, um, I don't know about you, but it seems like you're really unconcerned about the whereabouts of your stepson, kind of sus. So they're that's, their alibi. They're each other's alibi, but yet both of their dna is found at the scene. Not selling you what to believe. I'm just saying Red flags.
Speaker 2:Now let's continue, because the plot thickens In 2013, affidavits of two separate people point the finger at Terry Hobbs as the killer, and I know that we haven't talked about it yet and we'll get to it in a second, but the boys are already out of prison by 2013. So they can't use these affidavits on their appeals, and I located these on famous trialscom and you can find the link in our show notes. I'm going to read it, but just know that it is a bit lengthy and there is some foul language that I will be editing just to keep it not too obscene PG-13.
Speaker 3:Can you?
Speaker 2:say PG when we're talking about hog-tying children.
Speaker 1:You're right, I don't know. I don't know PG-13, maybe I don't know Anyway so it says.
Speaker 2:In 2013, what seems likely to be close to the true story of the West Memphis murders finally emerged in separate affidavits signed by Billy Wayne Stewart and Benny Guy. The level of detail and the overall plausibility of the stories told in the affidavits make them seem highly credible. But we talk about on here that we want to be truly transparent and let you know that one of these people is an admitted drug dealer and one is a convicted felon. So we're not talking about people on the up and up but, um, this is not jailhouse confessions like we had against jason, and I'm just saying someone who's hanging out with a trip person who can commit triple homicide on three eight-year-old boys, his circle of friends, probably isn't going to be on the up and up.
Speaker 2:I'm just throwing that out there now, may 5th in 1993, the days the boys were killed, according to both stewart and guy, there were terry hobbs and David Jacoby and two teenagers from a local trailer park, lg Hollingsworth and Buddy Lucas, who showed up at Terry Hobbs' home to buy some pot. I'm sorry, showed up at Stewart's home to buy some pot, which Stewart provided. Again, he's very open with the fact that he was a drug dealer. Do you remember LG Hollingsworth?
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Okay. So he was the teenager who called in a tip against Damien. He is also the cousin of the girl that Damien was dating previously his ex-girlfriend Okay the pot. And he noticed that Hobbs and Jacoby were kissing in a pickup truck across the street. Now, according to Stewart, hobbs is bisexual with a preference for young boys. Hobbs, he said, had invited his own 10-year-old son to pool parties, which Stewart insisted his son decline.
Speaker 2:Now, what happened after Stewart sold the pot on May 5th was told to Stewart by Buddy Lucas in April of 1995.
Speaker 2:So, getting back in the pickup, hobbs, jacoby and these two boys are driving around town. They're smoking pot, they're drinking whiskey and they head down a dirt road by the blue beacon like truck wash in the area. Now, at that point, according to lucas's account, terry hobbs asked the two teenagers to get out and quote wrestle while he and jacoby watched. While lucas does not specifically say, the wrestling soon turned into a sexual activity that involved him and l Hollingsworth and these two men. Stewart is pretty sure like that something happened, asserting in his affidavit that the lowered head and the shame evident on the boy's face as he told the story made it clear that there was quote more going on between the boys and the men than what Buddy had just told me. And I don't blame Buddy, like if he was in this sexually compromising ordeal he probably doesn't want to tell other people Like he may feel uncomfortable it was during this likely sexual activity, because Buddy never says it was sexual.
Speaker 2:but this wrestling that Chris Byers, michael Moore and Stevie Branch appeared on their bikes Wrong place, wrong time. Stewart says that Lucas told him that Terry Hobbs screamed get them little effers. While Jacoby beat one of the kids, hobbs ordered Buddy and LG to pull off his pants. Now, according to Stewart's affidavit, quote, mr Hobbs walked over to the boy that Mr Jacoby had beaten and repeatedly bit the boy's penis and scrotum. Then, quote cut the boy's genitals and scrotum. Then, quote cut the boys genitals unquote. Terry hobbs then announced the other two boys had to be killed because of what they'd seen. And hobbs and jacoby proceeded to do just that the boys clothes and bodies were gathered and dragged to the water and their bikes were thrown into the bayou. Which is that ditch. They just called it a bayou in the affidavit.
Speaker 2:Now Benny Guy's affidavit tells a similar story. Guy stated that while Buddy who Guy describes as quote pretty bad, slow, unquote was staying in his home in 1994, he also confessed his involvement to the killings to Benny. Now he said that in his affidavit that LG Hollingsworth also confessed to participating in the murders while both the boys were incarcerated in jail in 1995. Hollingsworth's confession added a few new details to that of what we just heard. Confession added a few new details to that of what we just heard.
Speaker 2:Terry Hobbs, according to Hollingsworth, became enraged after one of the boys began to kick him. Hobbs hit the boy in the head and shouted I'm going to teach your effing ass. Unquote. Hollingsworth said that he, buddy and the two older men all participated in beating the three eight-year-old boys, and he confirmed what we just heard before, that Hobbs ordered the two teenagers to take off the pants of the boy before cutting the genitals of one of them with this knife. In addition to Guy and Stuart, pam Hicks, who is the former wife of Terry Hobbs and is the mother of Stevie, are among those convinced that Terry murdered her son. She launched a legal effort in the March of 2013 to obtain additional evidence that might link him to the crime. Shockingly, when Billy Stewart tried to call the West Memphis Police Investigator, bill Sanders in 1995 to tell him the story that we just heard, sanders never even bothered to return his calls.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I could say that's shocking, but I'm not sure if I really want to say that's shocking.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I think for me what's shocking is I never heard about any of this until we were like doing our research. I mean, I knew that Terry Hobbs was a suspect well, not like a suspect to the West Memphis police, but like other people who had a brain. Um, I just didn't understand, like the reason behind the suspicions. So like that makes a little more sense to me now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we did see in the West of Memphis documentary that they did have the evidence of the hair samples of Jacoby and Hobbs and we did not know that it went deeper than that.
Speaker 2:Right and of course, none of this came out until Jesse and Jason and Damien were out of prison due to the Alfred plea.
Speaker 1:And we're going to allow Dan Stodman to describe the Alfred plea, as it's just a little bit confusing.
Speaker 3:Oxymoronic plea that I had nothing to do with, thank goodness. It seemed like a good thing at the time. But after having 10 years to look back on it, I realized that Jason Baldwin sacrificed himself for the benefit of Mr, miss Kelly and Mr Eccles, and that's a righteous thing to do. And my client had no objection. He was ready to go see his dad. And looking back and seeing that it wasn't a good thing, it didn't allow me to keep my promise to Jesse to get him out of prison no matter what, so that seemed like a gift from above.
Speaker 2:So let's talk a bit more in depth about the Alfred plea Now. This all came out all about because, in November of 2010, the Arkansas Supreme Court ordered the trial court to review the new DNA evidence, as well as decide if a new trial should be done. In doing this, the attorneys of the boys had a chance to essentially obliterate the evidence provided in the first trial.
Speaker 3:We all felt like we were going to get a new trial and there's no way a reasonable jury would convict these kids in today's world. Right now, we've completely obliterated the state's case. There's no such thing as a satanic ritual homicide. Number one, number two there's absolutely no physical evidence linking the west memphis three to the crimes at all. So, but there is physical.
Speaker 2:In 2011,. They decided to offer the Alfred plea, and this meant the boys could go free. Now Jesse and Damien accepted this plea right away. Damien, of course, wants off death row. Jesse just wants to go home to his dad. Jason, on the other hand, he's not super quick to just take this. He wants his chance to truly prove his innocence, so the Alfred plea does not allow him to do. The problem was that this was an all or nothing deal. Either they all took the Alford plea or none of them got it, and Jason would later say that he didn't take this plea for himself, but for Damien. They have now been free for 13 years, so let's shift a little and talk about what they've done in that time.
Speaker 1:Remember, they are not exonerated and nobody is investigating the deaths of the three eight-year-olds. They also cannot obtain any monetary anything from the time they were incarcerated due to that.
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Speaker 4:We're like a lifestyle brand. Yeah, alfred plea Now.
Speaker 2:Jesse moved back to West Memphis and essentially has stayed out of the media and to himself. I think he had one arrest for a DUI or something like that.
Speaker 1:But I mean, he was driving without insurance or license, wasn't it OK?
Speaker 2:some sort of I don't know something to do with him driving a car and it not being a good thing.
Speaker 1:I think his girlfriend was intoxicated, so he was driving that's what it was didn't have a license or insurance. I can't remember exactly that's what it was.
Speaker 2:So he was trying to do a good thing, but also it wasn't legal, so anyway, nothing major right? Jason went on to help mara leverett write a follow-up book to the devil's not called the dark spell, and he also went on to co-found Proclaim Justice in Austin, texas.
Speaker 1:And Danica and I have had the chance to meet him and he is so sweet and genuine, just like he was in the documentary.
Speaker 2:And it was wild to me because he still holds like a lot of hope and faith for the truth to come out and he just has like no ill will towards anyone Well, maybe towards West Memphis police. But, like you know, he just wants the truth and like he's not trying to take anybody down, he's not, you know, angry at the world for what happened to him at such a young age. He just wants the truth to come out. He wants people to know, like he did not do this. Now Damien Echols is currently battling with the West Memphis police and the justice system to get more items tested for DNA in hopes to find the actual killer or killers.
Speaker 2:He, along with his wife Lori, have written many books just to name a few, because there's quite a lot of them. But Life After Death is his one about sort of talked about reading. It talks about his time in prison, on death row, and it talks a lot about his childhood and then Yours for Eternity, a Love Story on Death, death row, and angels and archangels, a magician's guide, or just to name a few. They all kind of have like the same two common themes it's either like his time on death row or like in prison or magic. Unfortunately, that's kind of where our story ends and without justice for six juveniles, three who lost their lives at eight years old and three who just lost 18 years of their lives, just as they were becoming adults of their own, and you heard clips of our interview with Dan, but we got the opportunity to speak with him for over an hour and to hear that entire interview.
Speaker 1:You can become a Patreon and listen to it there, and he's very fascinating. We always recommend more bubbly and less OJ.
Speaker 2:Cheers. If you'd like to see pictures from today's episode, you can find us at murdermimosas on Instagram. You can also find us at murdermimosas on TikTok, twitter, and if you have a case you'd like us to do, you can send that to murdermimosas at gmailcom. And lastly, we are on Facebook at Murder and Mimosas Podcast, where you can interact with us there. We love any type of feedback you can give us, so please write and review us on Spotify, itunes or wherever you listen to your podcasts.