Freak369's Full Review: Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hil...
WARNING !!! This review contains graphic depiction's of murder, rape and language. Do not read if you object to such material.
HBO's documentary "Paradise Lost - Murder at Robin Hood Hills" profiled the murder of three boys; Chris Byers, Michael Moore and Stevie Branch. All were second graders that attended Weaver Elementary School located in West Memphis, Arkansas.
May 5th, 1993 started as a normal day for the sleepy little town where everyone knew everyone. School was letting out for the day and three little boys began the trek home at approximately 2:30 p.m.
It would be less than 24 hours later that the first boys body was found. At 1:45 p.m. on May 6th the body of Michael Moore was found next to a stream in the Robin Hood Hills. According to police the bodies of Stevie Branch and Chris Byers were found shortly thereafter.
Each child was found hog tied (tied ankle to waist) with their shoe laces. Each child had been beaten and stabbed. Chris Byers had received the worst of the inflicted torture; the skin from his penis and testicles had been removed in a surgical fashion. He was sodomized. He also received over 20 bites from his killer. The bites were found on his face, arms, buttocks and genital region.
Needless to say, the murder of three innocent children shocked West Memphis. The story appeared in several newspapers both in the United States and overseas. I caught light of this when it was compared to the murder of a small boy at a train station by two other children.
Chances are most people would not be familiar with this brutal murder without the HBO award winning documentary Paradise Lost - Murder at Robin Hood Hills. There are several different versions, the original broadcast program running 2 hours and 15 minutes. There is a video tape version with extra footage that runs at 2 hours and 30 minutes. This version is "out of print" but available through different web sources. The most disturbing version runs for 3 hours and includes crime scene footage not included in the HBO broadcast copy.
Paradise Lost and the follow up Revelations show an unbiased timeline of events from the day of the murder to December 1999. In Paradise Lost you meet the three accused murders. Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, Jr.
The three teens accused had all had trouble with the police at some point in time. Jessie Misskelley had served several months for theft. Jason Baldwin and Damien Echols were both guilty of truancy.
The crime scene drew not only the police but criminal investigators, probation officers and one of the victims relatives. Oddly enough John Mark Byers, stepfather to Chris Byers, appeared at the crime scene before a phone call was placed to the Byers home. This is the first of many strange "coincidences" in regard to the murder investigation and Mr. Byers.
A modern day witch hunt began in the quest for evidence against the "West Memphis Three". Rumors of a jar filled with alcohol and Chris Byers testicles being found in Damien Echols bedroom were one of the more widely publicized. The truth is that Chris Byers testicles were found at the crime scene, they had been removed from the body. His penis however was still attached but the skin had been removed. As of this date, no physical evidence (including DNA, blood typing, finger prints, bite mark analysis and polygraph testing) has been brought forth to substantiate the accusation of murder.
I am sure that a lot of reviews have been written about Paradise Lost and are filled with all the names, facts, dates and tidbits. Therefore I won't bore you with more. What I will do is list the different discrepancies that exist between the police records, eye witness accounts and personal observations.
1. Damien Echols is accused of murder along with Jessie Misskelley and Jason Baldwin. Did they have motivation to commit such a crime?
2. How could Jason Baldwin, with a 71 IQ understand the questions police officers were asking him for 12 hours without a lawyer present?
3. It is obvious that the murders took place somewhere other than Robin Hood Hills since the amount of blood that was found was inconsistent with the amount lost from the three boys. Also, no mosquito bites were found on the boys bodies meaning that they were dead when placed at the crime scene.
4. If they were killed some place other than Robin Hood Hills then that would mean that they had to be carried there. Yes, there are three boys accused of murder and three bodies to be carried but Jason Baldwin weighs a mere 120 pounds. Could he carry a 60 - 70 pound body through thick brush?
5. The bite marks found on Chris Byers body were proven by a forensic odontologist to not match Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin or Jessie Misskelley. Other people involved in the investigation were asked to give teethe impression. Mr. Byers claimed to have lost his teeth due to a drug interaction (which was later found to be a false statement). He also claimed that his teeth were extracted three years before the murder but dental records from his oral surgeon state that the teeth were removed four years after the murders.
6. Understanding the grieving process of losing a child is difficult. Seeing Mr. Byers "Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde" performances in both documentaries you are left wondering which is his real face? In some scene he grieves for his wife and step son but comes off like he is acting. His constant accusation of "The West Memphis Three" is a great psychological ploy. If he had indeed murdered the three boys then this constant reinforcement of "guilt deflection" helps to keep him from remembering the crime itself. This can also be used to pass lie detector tests. Example: Through a process called "positive conditioning" you can reprogram your bodies response to certain question. If you know you are going to be asked to take a polygraph test for a job and a question that will be asked is in regard to illegal drug use you can condition yourself. If you condition yourself to believe that the drug is not illegal then your body will not react when the question is asked. The test administrator will ask the question several times using different types of sentence structures. How do I know this? Many body builders have used this method to pass tests involving anabolic steroids.
The recent evidence uncovered by the filming of the trials, interviews and undocumented police evidence has still not proven that the accused three people had any direct involvement with the murders. A police recording of Jason Baldwin confession was admitted into evidence but contained numerous and obvious errors. He stated that they committed the murders in the afternoon around 1 p.m. School records show that the boys were still in school. He also described how they killed the boys by hitting them with large rocks but no rocks were found at the crime scene. The recording contained about 45 minutes of conversations between Jason and the police however he was questioned for 12 hours. In photos taken of the interrogation room a baseball bat can be seen in the corner.
The death of Mrs. Byers has also raised many questions. Her husband claimed that she overdosed on prescription pills but three years after her death there is still no death certificate issued to confirm that statement.
Many fingers have been pointed at the police department for not preserving the crime scene. A video tape taken by an off duty officer than responded to the dispatched asking for all available officers shows several people not involved in the case walking through the crime scene moving branches and debris around the boys bodies. Almost immediately the police called this a Satanic ritual and the name Damien Echols was mentioned as the only person evil enough to commit such a crime. Accused because he wore black, listened to Metallica and Slayer and dabbled in the Wiccan religion. If this were the prerequisite for being in a cult then I know about 50 people that would qualify.
Three boys were murdered and nothing will ever bring them back. The amount of pain, suffering and humiliation they endured can never be described. The purpose of the documentaries was simple. If Damien, Jason and Jessie were not the murderers then who was to blame? Doe sit seem fair that there was no evidence to directly connect these three to the murder yet they were arrested, placed on trial and found guilty of a trial by their peers? How partial were the jurors? Too many unanswered question remain.
As it stands now Damien Echols has one last chance to overturn his verdict. If a Federal Court refuses to hear his case he could be put to death by lethal injection as early as this year.
Several web sites have sprung up in support of the West Memphis Three. The exist to raise funds for college education's
of Jason Baldwin and Damien Echols who bother received their G.E.D.'s while in prison. For a $20.00 contribution you can receive a "Free the West Memphis Three" T shirt or prison dog tags. There are also addresses listed if you would like to write any of the three. A postcard campaign has been stated to raise public awareness. The postcards will be delivered to the governor at a later date.
The bottom line is that three little boys were murdered. Regardless of how bad a child can be nothing can warrant the abuse they endured. They were raped, beaten, bitten and tortured. What was the purpose? Did one of the boys anger someone? Did they see something that they weren't supposed to? Was a fit of rage to blame? No one will know these answers until a confession is made. Even in Jason Baldwin's "confession" there was no answer as to WHY the murders were committed. Three other boys now face life in prison and one is faced with the death penalty. If they are guilty then please, show the proof. If they are guilty then they deserve to suffer the same pain as Michael, Stevie and Chris.
There are three lost souls sitting in prison and three lost souls watching from heaven. The least that can be done is to have justice served.
In 1993 three eight-year-old boys were found brutally murdered in the woods of West Memphis Arkansas. Though the evidence suggested the masterwork and...More at Family Video
Damien Echols Dresses In Black, Listens To Heavy Metal &, Dabbles In The Wicca Religion, But Does That Make Him A Killer?, A Month After The Murders O...More at HotMovieSale.com
Damien echols dresses in black, listens to heavy metal and dabbles in the wicca religion, but does that make him a killer?A month after the murders of...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.