October 25, 2024 • 55 mins
A chilling revelation: polygraphs may not be as foolproof as you'd think, and the West Memphis Three case serves as a haunting reminder of this. Join us as we uncover the story of Damien Echols and his friends, who faced the crushing weight of false accusations due to societal biases and a justice system gone awry. We'll share insights into Damien's life, marked by intellectual curiosity and nonconformity, and explore how his choices, from his clothing to his music, unfairly painted a target on his back.
Amidst the gravitas of true crime, we also find solace in music. Our episode takes a lighter turn as we celebrate the unexpected connections and friendships that music fosters. From performing at Rockville to sharing stories of late-night musical escapades, we blend tales of crime with the joy of musical discovery, introducing you to exciting artists like Actus Reus. This episode is a tapestry of the heavy and the heartwarming, woven together to keep you engaged and reflective.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, Jesse.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
What's up?
Speaker 1 (00:03):
girl, what you drinking?
Speaker 2 (00:05):
So I hooked up because you were drinking White
Claws.
So I put a little White Clawwith this bullet old fashioned
mix and it's so good Like I'mloving it.
What you got going on overthere.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
So I'm using, or I made, a specialty cocktail.
I made a specialty cocktail.
It's with a witch's brewmargarita mix that I got from
Bell's Outlet yes, they sellthat kind of stuff.
It's blackberry flavored, butit's very, very sweet, even
(00:40):
though it's sugar free, and so Icut it with some Sprite, zero
tequila, of course, andBlackberry White Claw.
So I got my own witch's brewgoing on here Awesome.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
So ready Like the weather has been cool all week
long.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
It's beautiful, sweater weather, sweater weather
.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
I'll say that as many times as I possibly can.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
So, uh, it's exciting , we got a lot of cool stuff
coming up real soon for you.
It's going to be a big one.
Y'all strap on in, you guysready?
Hey, hello everybody, how youguys doing Happy Friday.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Yes, it's.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Friday Ah, it was a week for me.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Insane.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
How you doing baby.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
I am doing okay.
I am nervous as fuck.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
This is a monster, but it is so, so, so important
to me.
You've been geeking for a month.
Yeah, tell them what you got.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
This case is one of the main reasons why I wanted to
do a podcast, because it justgripped me.
I don't know what rock I'vebeen living under, but I
actually had never heard of thisand if I did, I forgot until
about a little over a year ago.
So this is West Memphis threehere we go.
(02:31):
This will be a three parter andthese will be a little bit
longer than our first twoepisodes because this case is
massive.
I could do a 10 part and itstill wouldn't cover all the
bullshit that has happened inthis case, but we're going to
break it down in three parts andI'm going to suggest
(02:53):
documentaries, books, otherpodcasters and everything that I
think you should check out aswell so like disclaimer.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
I'm not supposed to know anything about this, but I
think like you know a little bitshade to me.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
You watched a little bit of the paradise lost
documentary with me, becausethat was the one I I've I've
became obsessed with this afterI heard it.
I heard about it for the firsttime and, uh, and I was like I
want to tell them about it, butI don't remember why we never
finished watching it.
And so it was great because Igot a lot to fill you in on.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Right.
So to be honest, like I don'tremember it, I was probably
drunk.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Yeah, most likely.
We watched it on a Friday soyeah, I don't remember it I
don't remember it.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
I don't know, but I'm excited, like Lindsay has been
crazy geeking about this thingforever and I just you know I've
been looking at what ourmomentum and everything we had
over this past.
We've had over 50 downloads ofour podcast.
(04:02):
I'm just like I don't know.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Thank you guys.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Thank you.
I don't understand that supportalready and I just wanted to
say thank you to everyone outthere.
It's amazing just to see likeour little baby growing, you
know.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
I'm just so excited to see what's going to happen
when we're 50-50 podcast in, soI'm just thank you so much, guys
, and Lindsay is just raring togo, but I figured I would talk
just for a second.
That way she has to calm down.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
I do my nerves are a mess.
All right, let's get into it.
Here we go.
I do my nerves are a mess.
All right, let's get into it.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Here we go.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
All right.
So this case will consist ofthree parts and this one is like
I said.
It saddens my heart so muchbecause of one, how the victims
died.
Two, the three boys that werewrongfully convicted and what
they went through.
The three boys that werewrongfully convicted and what
(05:08):
they went through.
Three, the complete miscarriageof justice that happened in
putting three innocent boysbehind bars.
And for the fact that the realkiller will never be found.
Wow, I have cried, I've beenangry so much while listening to
and watching coverage on thiscase.
And it makes me even more sadand 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
(05:31):
why in part three, but thehorrific witch hunt in this
investigation if you can evencall it an investigation, it's.
The trial and convictions areabsolutely haunting and there
are a lot of trigger warnings.
So beware in this caseincluding harm to three little
boys.
Wow, all right, so we'll startwith the crime.
(05:53):
On May 5th 1993, threeeight-year-old boys, stevie
Branch, michael Moore andChristopher Byers, were reported
missing in West Memphis,arkansas.
Michael Moore and ChristopherByers were reported missing in
West Memphis, arkansas, and it'scalled West Memphis, because
it's literally over the bridgefrom.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Memphis.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Cross the river, cross the river Right.
The first report was made byJohn Mark Byers Christopher
Byers, adoptive father, around 7PM.
All three boys have been atschool that day and had gotten
together after school to ridetheir bikes in an area called
Robin Hood Hills.
Neighbors had seen themtogether around 6.30 pm and had
(06:32):
heard Terry Hobbs, which wasStevie Branch's stepfather,
calling them to come home.
Friends and neighbors hadstarted searching that night,
but the mosquitoes were so thickand I can't even imagine this.
The mosquitoes were so thickthat they had to continue the
search the next morning.
So around 1 45 pm on May 6th,juvenile parole officer Steve
(06:56):
Jones found a little boy's shoewith the laces out, which led
him down to a drainage ditchwhere he found the bodies of all
three boys.
Now they weren't just visible.
He had to get down in thismuddy murky.
I've seen what it looked like.
It's disgusting.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
So they're like tucked away down into the mud.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Their bodies were pinned down into muddy, murky
drainage ditch water and hefound all three of them.
They had been stripped nakedand had been hogtied with their
own shoelaces.
They had several ligatures andlacerations and Christopher
Byers' scrotum had beenmutilated.
(07:40):
I'm going to probably cry somein this.
I'm going to try not to.
I'm going to try to some inthis.
I'm going to try not to.
I'm going to try to choke itback.
But yeah, their clothing wasfound thrust into a nearby creek
.
So here's a little backinformation about the victims.
So Stevie Edward Branch was theson of Stephen and Pamela
(08:00):
Branch, who divorced when he wasan infant.
His mother was given custodyand married a man named Terry
Hobbs.
Remember Terry Hobbs?
Remember that name.
We'll talk about him more inpart three.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
So Stevie lived with his mom, terry, and half sister,
amanda Hobbs, who was four andremember Amanda too.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Amanda and Hobbs.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Yes, I mean I'll, of course remind, but yeah, just
Amanda and Hobbes.
Yes, I'm going to forget.
I mean, I'll of course remind,but yeah, just put a pin in
those.
Yeah, Christopher Mark Byerswas born to Sharon Melissa
DeFerre and Rick Murray and hisparents divorced when he was
four years old and his mothermarried John Mark Byers and he
adopted Chris.
He lived with his mom, JohnMark, and stepbrother, Sean Ryan
(08:44):
Clark.
James Michael Moore was the sonof Todd and Dana Moore.
He lived with his parents andnine-year-old sister, Dawn.
They say he was the littleleader of the pack and they were
all little boy scouts and hewas wearing his uniform when he
died.
He loved wearing it all thetime.
He loved wearing it all thetime and in the West Memphis
(09:06):
documentary or West of Memphisdocumentary, Pamela Hobbs was
holding his little uniform.
Yeah, Okay, so we're going togo to side.
So we're going to sidetrack alittle bit to Mr Bojangles.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
So it's like it's really rough.
So, all this especially whenyou have children and little
boys too.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
We've raised four together yes yeah, and we got a
little grand boy I want to be apuddle too.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
You know that.
You know it's like we feed offeach other.
We've been together forever.
Yes, it's just like if she'spuddling, I'm puddling and vice
versa.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Like so uh, yeah, yeah, this case is definitely
it's puddle time one to drinkabout, yeah so, uh, yeah, gotta
have, I'm cheers cheers cheersto that, but cheers yeah, not
cheers to that, but cheers topuddling, I guess pressing on oh
okay, we'll hot them back withlaughs.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
somehow I'll find something to say.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
All right, so this little segment is going to be Mr
Bojangles.
So John Mark Byers reportedChristopher missing around 7 pm
and around 842 pm A call wasmade to the police from workers
at a Bojangles chicken place.
We don't have a good experiencewith Bojangles, but we won't
(10:27):
talk about that.
That was in Georgia.
The one we went to was inValdosta, the one in Valdosta.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
It's close, like the two in Florida, no, the four in
Florida that I've been to, andValdosta was Don't do it, Don't
come for us Bojangles.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
I'm not trying to down him by any means Don't come
for us.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Hey, you know, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
So Bojangles was located near Robin Hood Hills
where the bodies would be found,and they stated that a mentally
disoriented black man wasinside the ladies' room, he was
bleeding and had gotten some ofthe blood on the walls.
Officer Regina Mills took thereport from the fucking
drive-through window and by thattime the man had already left.
(11:10):
The next day after the bodieswere found, the manager called
the police back, thinking therewas a connection.
The police then took samples ofthe blood on the walls, but
detective Brian Ridge testifiedthat he actually lost those
blood scrapings.
And guess what?
Later a hair belonging to ablack man was found on one of
(11:31):
the sheets wrapped around one ofthe boys oh, so it's on yeah,
oh there's.
Oh, we're just beginning, justbeginning.
So early in the investigation,the wmpd suspected two teenagers
by the name of Chris Morgan andBrian Holland.
They both had a history of drugoffenses and had suddenly took
(11:51):
off to California four daysafter the bodies were discovered
.
Morgan had known the boys fromdriving 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 polygraphtests for just a moment.
Polygraphs are not accurate oh,trust them now.
(12:14):
And nor are they admissible incourt.
You don't have to take one.
If you're ever in trouble forsomething that you have not done
, or even if you have done it,don't take one.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
They're useless, or if you got gas.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
I don't understand why they're used, but they are
nonetheless.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
A menstrual cramp would change it.
Yeah, honestly.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Yeah, I mean.
And even if I mean, if you havehigh blood pressure, if you're
just anxious about the situationyou're in, for sure it can
detect deception.
So, yeah, you're nervous.
Yeah, I mean, and who wouldn'tbe nervous?
How the hell?
All right, go ahead, I'm sorry,right?
So both morgan and holland'sresults indicated deception, and
morgan even said that becauseof his history of alcohol and
(12:55):
drug abuse, he would haveblackouts, and actually said
that he might have done it.
What, yeah?
But later this statement wasbarred from being admitted into
evidence.
Barred, yeah, okay.
So now, statistically, most ofthe time, crimes like these are
(13:17):
committed by a family member orsomeone close to the victim.
That is statistics.
That's not my opinion, that isactual facts.
But none, none of the families,were questioned or searched or
interrogated.
Wow, none of the families ofthe victims.
Anyway, right, okay.
Yeah, now this crime was sohorrific to these simple
(13:38):
southern folks in the bible beltthat they couldn't even wrap
their minds around it beinganything but of the devil and
some sort of cult ritual.
The preacher's sermons were allabout the end times and the
community speculated wildly.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
I mean it was yes, it was insane times, yes, and this
was in 1993.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
This was 10 years after the may martin preschool
trials and we learned nothingfrom that, raise your hand if
you were told that the end oftimes are coming oh god right
every week for most of mychildhood.
Oh yeah, every day, but likeespecially if there's like
another christian that comes upinto a conversation the case
(14:20):
became widespread and the policehad no leads.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
And so here comes the witch hunt.
Suspect number one in the witchhunt and the one who got the
worst of literally everythingwas Damien Echols, and here is
some of his story.
I have spent so much time onthis case, researching online,
listening to other podcasters,watching documentaries and also
(14:44):
listening to Damien's audio bookLife After Death.
I swear I feel like I kind ofknow him now, but it's highly
recommended.
Got to listen to that book orread it.
I have to listen because I'mbusy and I got to be productive.
She is always on the go.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
I swear to God Always and I got to be productive she
is always on the go.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
I swear to God, always.
So Damien was born MichaelWayne Hutchinson on December
11th 1974.
He's a such like you, babe.
Oh, he was born to Pam and JoeHutchinson.
His family was extremely poorand moved around quite often and
(15:25):
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 tofathom this type of poor, but I
know you've had, you have some,I have stories.
You have some connection toDamien and what he went through.
Don't puddle me early.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
I'm not going to puddle you, I'm just saying I
mean I'm not going to stop youbecause there's so much to go,
there is so much to go throughyou go.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
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 uptaking on his last name.
Jack had them first live in thechurch that they attended and
then moved them out to a farmshack.
It was literally like how do Idescribe it?
(16:18):
It was like, literally, it wasjust a shack, just on this farm,
like, and it was had.
No, it had nothing, it was justa 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 theyyeah, I don't know how they
(16:40):
lived in there.
So later on, when he moved tothe trailer park, that was
absolutely an upgrade.
Damien is extremely intelligent.
Even though he did not do wellin school and he was interested
in all kinds of religions, fromBuddhism, wicca and Catholicism,
he did not like the PentecostalChurch of God that his
(17:02):
stepfather made him go to.
He did not like the Pentecostalchurch of God that his
stepfather made him go to.
So when he really wanted to goto a Catholic church, he had to
present it to his mentally andphysically abusive stepfather.
And, like he said, when you'reapproaching someone of that
mindset, you have to tell them Ihave a calling.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
So I have a calling to go attend this church and see
a spiritual journey it's aspiritual journey.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
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 assholethat he would when he would
make them pray, and he wouldmake them do that often.
Um, there was a little.
They had a little chihuahuanamed pepper that if when it
(17:52):
jumped up on the bed, he wouldpunch it in the face.
What a chihuahua, come on man.
The catholic church is where hegot the idea for his name that
he later changed to damien umfrom saint damien who cared for
the lepers in the 1800s.
He was father damien back thenand then later got a sainthood
right.
So damien wore black clothing,listened to metal and punk,
(18:18):
shaved his head on one side andwas a skateboarder, wrote dark
poetry or dark and expressivepoetry, so he was like the
people that we hung out with in1993.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Yeah, but in West Memphis, Arkansas.
That made him a witch evil.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Yeah, cause if you're on that side of the bridge,
it's Arkansas, it's notTennessee, that's right.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Yeah, he's, it's West Memphis.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Arkansas.
Oh yeah, arkansas.
It can't be any real differencebetween there and the other
side of the bridge, but stillyeah it seems.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
I mean just uh, it's like.
It's like I've been in anotherworld listening to all this shit
over the last month.
Yeah so he loved horror moviesand his favorite article of
clothing was a long black,filthy trench coat that he had
found in a closet of one of thehomes he had lived in.
Now he did replace it later onwith the others, but this was
before trench coats were deemedas like school shooting type
(19:15):
shit.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
It was more of a duster probably, yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
And in his book he says that the trench coat made
him feel safe and wearing blackwas aesthetically pleasing to
him.
The trench coat made him feelsafe and wearing black was
aesthetically pleasing to him.
His home life was horrible andhe acted out like most kids do
in that type of situation.
He had a smart mouth, he was alittle combative asshole and he
had been in trouble for smalltime shit like shoplifting and
(19:40):
vandalism.
So Damien's first real love wasa girl named Deanna, who was a
Wiccan, even though her parentswere devout Christians, and she
taught Damien about it and heloved it because it was all
about Mother Earth and goddesses, no devil.
So their relationship was superintense and a series of events,
(20:01):
like skipping school together,would get them banned from
seeing each other by her parents.
They tried to it work, butDeanna broke up with him,
stating that it was just toohard, and this literally
destroyed Damien mentally, andespecially when she went on to
date another guy right.
According to his book, this wasthe only time he got violent
(20:21):
with anyone and he did indeedfight the boy that Deanna was
dating and he later foundcomfort in a girl named
Dominique here, who he was neverreally in love with, but
enjoyed her company.
A little while later, in on inthe school year, deanna came
back to him and they made a planto run away together at the end
of the school year when it camethat time, so he was around 17
(20:44):
at this time, but I don't reallyknow what grade he was in.
I know he was behind Um and uh,deanna was just a little bit
younger, yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Still in high school.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
Right, they were both in high school.
They were both teenagers, yeah.
So when it came time, they didjust that, along with Damien's
best friend, jason Baldwin.
Who 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 townover and found an abandoned
trailer, and Jason left themthere to go back home.
Deanna's parents called thepolice and they found them and
(21:17):
arrested them both, and eventhough they hadn't stole
anything for the trailer, theywere charged with burglary and
sexual misconduct because theywere indeed caught in the act.
So enter Jerry Driver.
This man would becomeabsolutely obsessed with Damien.
(21:38):
Jerry would become his juvenileofficer and immediately started
asking Damien about witchcraftand satanic cults.
This man considered himself tobe an expert on the subject and
was sure that West Memphis was ahotbed for this activity.
Driver, yeah, oh yeah, he was.
(21:59):
Oh God, jerry.
Driver is Jerry.
Driver is the devil.
Fuck you, jerry Driver.
All right, driver.
And his buddy, steve Jones,another juvenile officer, the
one that actually found thebodies of the boys.
They would drive around duringfull moons and try to find
satanic or witch coven activity.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
So an actual witch hunt.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
They were literally witch hunting y'all, this is not
bullshit, this isall.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
This is not bullshit, this is fact, this is absolute
fact.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
They needed so many hobbies, so much Satan going on
everywhere.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
For some reason, rumors had started that Damien
and Deanna were going to have ababy and sacrifice it to Satan,
and this landed Damien a trip toa psychiatric hospital.
Now Damien was held in jail forseveral weeks, even though the
(22:54):
breaking and entering into atrailer is a misdemeanor at most
Right but driver went aroundtown asking about him and went
to his parents' house asking tosearch his room.
This is not legal.
This is a juvenile officer.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Well, they're going to do what they want to do.
You know, they know thatthey're the devil.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
So and so when he was in the site hospital they did
diagnose him with depression andpossible bipolar disorder.
But in his book he said that hewas very depressed, his life
sucked and he missed Deanna.
I mean, yeah, and he was in.
You know he was in jail for youknow just pretty much being in
(23:34):
love and trying to be with thegirl that he loved, and you know
how teenage love is it can beintense.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Yeah so he's a teenager, he's outspoken.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
His heart's broken.
He's trying to bounce back andhe's trying to become his own
person.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Right, yeah.
So when he got out he wasreleased back to his parents,
Pam and Joe, who were now backtogether.
Pam had kicked Jack Eccles tothe curb, so they went up to
Aloha, Oregon, where Joe hadbeen staying since the divorce.
When he got there he had tomeet with another juvenile
(24:05):
officer because he was still onprobation.
This officer asserted that heshould be minimally supervised
for four months and thenreleased from the system because
what he had done was not thatserious.
But jerry driver down inarkansas did not agree.
Jerry called up there and toldthat officer that damien's
parents had called him and saidthey were afraid that he would
(24:26):
hurt himself and was put inanother psych hospital so was
jerry a race car driver, oh godhe is not cool enough to be in
the category as west or lessclaypool so let's leave less out
of this.
Every time you say, jerry driver, I know sorry, go ahead so
(24:48):
damien said he did not want tohurt himself but he was very
depressed because he missedDeanna and his best friend,
jason, and his family life wasmiserable.
So he was turning 18 and hisparents decided to send him back
to Jack Eccles because he wasin fact his legal guardian.
He had adopted him.
So when he gets back to WestMemphis, arkansas, after a bus
(25:11):
ride down, jerry, driver met himat the bus station and he
immediately threw him back injuvenile detention, saying that
he had made threats against hisfamily and that was a violation
of probation.
And then when he gets out hestays with a few friends.
He stays with Jason and therewas another friend that they had
he talks about in his book andhe would just kind of hop around
(25:32):
there.
But then Jerry insisted that hestay with Jack because Jack was
his legal guardian.
All right.
So when he was released, driversaid that he had to get a GED
and check in with him every weekand he did all of that, but it
still wasn't good enough forJerry.
Jerry continued to hone in onDamian, jason Baldwin because
they hung out together and woreband tees, and Dominique because
(25:57):
she and Damien had startedseeing each other again.
So Deanna's out of the picture,dominique's back in, she's back
, yes.
So Jason said that it wasrumored about him being satanic
because he loved Metallica, acdc, guns N' Roses and U2.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Yeah, Not Cannibal Corpse which was firing up good
at that time.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
Oh, they would have, I'm sure they, if I'm sure they
would have gotten right on intothem.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
It would have burnt the whole county down.
Yeah, cannibal Corpse Grinder,show up with a claw machine
Right.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Go ahead, yeah, cannibal Coral.
Corpse Grinder, show up with aclaw machine Right.
Go ahead, corpse.
Yeah, corpse Grinder is thesweetest human ever.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
I know I want to play claw machine.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
I know so any Jason also have one of the best
mullets that you will ever seein your entire life, like it was
Billy Ray Cyrus.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Oh, he had.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Billy Ray, I mean it was.
It was Billy Ray Cyrus.
Oh, he had Billy.
Wait, I mean it was.
It was so much better thanBilly Ray's Billy Ray.
I wish he had Jason Baldwin'smullet.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Yes, I can't wait to see pictures.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
So he?
He said that he and Damienloved the same things and they
also both hated their lives and,like his mom, damien suffered
from depression.
Now Jason was a good boy forthe most part.
His mother was actuallyschizophrenic and would leave
for days at a time, leavingJason to be a parent to take
(27:23):
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 themurders happened, damien's
parents moved back to Arkansasand he moved back in with them.
Shortly after, the police beganquestioning Damien without any
real reason other than the factthat he was the weird goth kid
(27:44):
that Jerry Driver suspected andhe was in the ear of Chief
Investigator Gary Gitchell oh,gitchell.
So the police had asked Jerryto come up with a list of
juveniles that he had in hissystem and of course Damien was
at the top of that list.
Damien was given a polygraphexam in one of these
(28:06):
questionings and it was notedthat he revealed deception in
the exam.
But guess what?
There is zero record of this.
The examiner just says thiswith no evidence.
So this will happen a lot overthe whole investigation.
A lot there will be lostevidence, um, basically just
taking people's word for shit.
(28:26):
I mean it's I can already tellwhere this is going so police
and other officials will justyeah, they'll just say whatever.
This is so disrespectful to me,to the victims and their
families.
I just they basically justcreate the narrative of what
they think and then manipulatepeople and the media into
(28:48):
believing their narrativewithout any real investigation.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
The good old boys can't be wrong.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Never.
They cannot be wrong.
I mean, these three preciousboys were brutally murdered,
Brutally murdered, and you justmake shit up and get everybody
to go along with it.
I mean everybody.
You have to watch thedocumentaries Paradise Lost to
see how thick the rumor mill was.
I mean it was insane.
(29:13):
So of course parents wantanswers.
Rumors have started and theinvestigators were lazy to say
the least, and, like I saidbefore, people were believing
that this had to be a satanicritual and nothing else was
looked into.
Gary Gitchell originallythought that it was a lust
murder and he actually, becauseof the way the boys were tied up
(29:36):
and the knots that were in theshoestrings.
He actually looked into Vietnamveterans because there was some
significance there with theknots, but then they threw that
shit right out the window.
When Jerry Driver startedgetting in his ear, Nothing at
the crime scene suggested thatit was a satanic ritual, Nothing
.
So on May 5th the murdershappened.
(29:58):
On May 7th it exploded onto thenews and media and that's when
Damien's questioning started,asking him about local satanic
cults and if he had ever seenone, and he had no information
on this.
Now he did lean into the weirdgoth kid persona a lot.
That was his, that was histhing, you know.
So I mean, he was probably asmart ass to him because he
(30:21):
hadn't done anything, so he didnot take them seriously at all.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
He was trying to push back.
You know he's just what thehell am I doing here?
Speaker 1 (30:29):
right.
So they asked him about hisfavorite book in the Bible and,
as a person who was made to readthe Bible her entire childhood,
I couldn't answer that questionJust saying and there are
people that I know that knownothing about the Bible, and
does that make them a devilworshiper?
Does it make them a murderer?
(30:49):
No, it does not.
But they watched him constantlyand they even took a Polaroid
picture of him.
He complied with everythingthat they asked, because they
were the police and he actuallytrusted them to do the right
thing.
But they used that photo to askpeople around town if they knew
anything about the Satanworshiper or this Satan
worshiper named Damien Eccles.
(31:10):
And through power of suggestionit worked and people were like,
yeah, I've seen him worshipSatan, and one guy even said
that Damien made him levitate.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Really yeah.
So why isn't Jesus doing that?
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Why is it when we go to?
Our music festivals andconcerts.
You know we're all kind ofgothy.
Why aren't we all levitating?
I?
Speaker 3 (31:34):
mean there are times where I'm so excited.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
I feel like I could love it.
But I don't actually do it.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
You know I will.
I will say this in a littleback history.
Real quick I'm going to take asecond.
I spent a lot of time doingNative American things in my
life and I'm very Caucasian,caucasian as fuck.
But I did a lot of time doingnative american things in my
life and I'm very caucasian,caucasian as fuck.
But, um, I did a lot of powwowsand a lot of native american
(32:00):
stuff.
I watched a drum levitate onetime, but if you think about it,
if there's like some kind ofwell, that's scientifically
possible yeah, like a g-force,like you're beating the hell out
of the top of this drum thebottom.
you know what I'm saying, but Iwatched it like stay in one spot
off the ground.
That was really cool to me, butthat's the only levitation that
(32:23):
I and I was young, so I thoughtthat you know that was a thing.
So, anyhow, that was the onlylevitation I've ever seen
spiritually.
But I mean, you know, you ain'tnever seen a human levitate,
have you?
No?
Okay, A couple of people in LasVegas, you know.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
So someone said that the police told him they found
body parts under Damien's bedand John Mark Byers, the father
of Chris Byers, said that thepolice told him that Chris's
genitals were in a jar under hisbed.
And it was just not fuckingtrue.
Like Mark Byers says this, orJohn Mark, excuse me, says this
(33:07):
in the documentaries, like it isan actual fact, because that
was what he was told, and he wasjust baffled that at this point
Damien wasn't even arrested yetand he was just baffled that he
had already heard that andnobody was in jail yet.
Now John Mark Myers is anabsolute fucking character and
he gets on my last nerve.
I'm not even going to lie, buthe is the loudest one on that
(33:30):
documentary.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
You're fired up right now.
Oh yeah, I'm loving it.
This is one on that documentary.
You're fired up right now, ohyeah I'm loving it.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
This is, this is fucked up, 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 continued toquestion damien about and accuse
him of, cult activity daily.
His grandmother sold herwedding rings to hire a lawyer.
When things appeared to startgetting serious, the police
(33:58):
would not let the lawyer intothe station while he was being
interrogated.
They would not let him in, andin his book Damien says that his
grandmother sold her weddingrings for absolutely nothing,
nothing, not a damn thing.
That's illegal.
That is illegal to not let alawyer into the station during
(34:19):
an interrogation.
Now, he was not a minor, but hewas still freshly 18.
Right, and you have the rightto have an attorney, you have
the right to not speak to anyonewithout a lawyer present.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
He was waiting on that lawyer because you know,
he's seen the rings, he's seenall the money go away and 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 knowright now, this, this kid, is in
the right.
I mean just a little punk kidthat's just trying to learn life
(34:50):
and figure out and have theshittiest childhood.
The shittiest.
I mean again with yeah, god,yeah the accused.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
They were not told about this right that they have
to have an attorney, and theydidn't understand it.
They didn't understand what wasgoing on.
They just it.
That's what just makes me sosad.
You just see the utterconfusion on all of them about
all of it.
And damien honestly believedthat they couldn't prove that he
(35:22):
did it because he didn't doanything.
And he says this in severalinterviews later on and it just
makes me so fucking mad they'rerailroading everything
everything and they're trying toget around everything for
defense because they know theyhave any.
They don't have anything one ofhis interrogations lasted eight
hours and they had to let him gobecause they had nothing on him
(35:44):
trying to beat him into sayingyeah, right, basically and he
did not comply.
He had only told them what hehad heard through media
wrong-minded, through the smalltown rumor mill, everything,
yeah.
So on June 3rd, damien, jason,baldwin and Damien's sister,
(36:05):
michelle and Dominique here wereat Damien's trailer watching
leprechaun.
Damien's parents andgrandmother were at a casino for
the evening and Jason had thenight off from babysitting his
siblings because he had donewell in school and his mom hired
a babysitter so that he couldhang out with his friends.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
Special night yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
So while they're watching Leprechaun, the police
came beating down the door.
At 10.30 at night.
Damien answers the door tothree cops with guns pointed at
his face.
They arrested Damien and Jasonand Jason was asking what was
this for and they told himcapital murder.
And he begs and pleads and saysyou have the wrong people, like
(36:49):
he actually believed they wereat the wrong house.
Once at the police station,gary Gitchell tells Damien that
his friend had already confessedand he should just come clean.
Damien was so confused becausehe knew it wasn't Jason, because
they had not done this crime.
So what the fuck were theytalking about?
So they went and tell himanything and made him stay the
(37:09):
night in jail and on June 4th at10 am he was brought into court
where Jason and a kid namedJesse Miss Kelly who Damien
barely knew, by the way werearraigned on three counts of
capital murder of Steve Branch,michael Moore and Christopher
Byers.
And that's where we'll pick upnext week for part two of the
(37:30):
West Memphis three.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
Like I'm holding my breath through most of this.
I just I'm holding my breaththrough most of this.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
I just I'm holding back tears.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
I'm already crying so many.
I'm like what is she going tosay next?
What really happened?
What are they just flinging atthese kids just because they're
a little bit different, becausethey're not the cookie cutter,
bible Belt kids?
This is railroaded.
This seems railroaded to me,but I don't know.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
It makes me nauseous.
I don't know yet.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
Honestly, I don't know yet Where's the twist.
This is a twist to begin with.
Oh my God.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
Yeah, it hurts.
It hurts my heart.
Speaker 3 (38:11):
Yeah, you're a mess.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
I have, you know, earphones in while typing this,
while I'm, you know, listeningand writing notes and typing,
and I'll just break out intotears, and Silas is like, oh my
God, what's wrong with you?
I'm like I'm OK, I'm OK Justhaving a moment, the next
paragraph.
Literally Five more minutes.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
What a puddle.
I can see why you have beengeeking about this insane,
insane.
So what do you guys think sofar?
Like there's two more of thesethat.
Oh, my goodness, I'm excited.
It's a lot, it's a lot.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
It was like okay, our first two episodes, yeah, they
were like I said, I could makethis a 10 part and it still
wouldn't cover all the bullshitit's like you haven't even got
your feet wet yet.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
Seriously, yeah, we're just still pretty much at
the beginning.
Speaker 1 (39:06):
We're still pretty much at the beginning, but I had
to give you some backs back.
You know backstory on right onthese boys.
I felt that was very importantyeah because I it.
It helps you understand whythey got to where they get to,
you're right.
So what band are you pluggingtoday?
Speaker 2 (39:24):
let me talk about this group real quick.
Hang on here.
So we were playing a show and,uh, in jacksonville we're
playing a show in jacksonville.
I think it was onyx fest thatsounds right I think it was
called onyx fest and there weresome badass bands and I think we
(39:47):
were like second or somethinglike that and, um, this band
from from atlanta came down.
They were called actus reis.
They might call it actus reis,but I think I call it actus reis
.
But, uh, they're fuckingwonderful.
They're fucking wonderful, solike they.
(40:07):
Uh, so one of the guitarplayers wears a bucket hat, and
I always wore a bucket hat, sothey had just seen me bumping
around on stage wearing a bucketand roman from ginger wears the
bucket hat.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
Yeah, he does, yeah that's, that's right.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
We're all bucket heads here, but uh so I love it.
I love the look, so yeah, he washe kind of come up and was
talking about our show, you know, and he was really digging our
band and, uh, you know, I wasjust, you know, kind of just
talking with him to just, andbefore I knew it, the whole band
was around me and we weretalking and I'm like I'm going
to buy some merch.
I don't even know what theseguys have, I haven't even heard
(40:42):
them yet.
I haven't even heard them.
And they were just so cool.
They just hung out the wholenight.
They were in and out justhanging out with us.
They bought merch off our tabletable and I'm trying to think
what we did.
So we went out back.
They had a little back spot inthe venue and we came back right
when they had fired up.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
Was that?
Speaker 2 (40:59):
1904?
Yeah, 1904 in Jacksonville.
Speaker 1 (41:04):
Not the year 1904.
The venue 1904.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
The venue 1904 in Jacksonville.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
It's really cool, it's really cute.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
I think they're kind of dying down a little bit.
Everything's going to beunderbelly, which is another
venue right next to it.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
Underbelly is great too.
We still haven't gotten to eatnone of their barbecue.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
I ate it one time, but you weren't there that time.
I had a little bit.
It was so good.
It was so good.
Anyhow, they fired off and holyto the fuck.
Speaker 1 (41:33):
The showmanship man yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:35):
So in big music, great stage presence, big music
disclaimer we play a lot ofheavier music here, but send us
some stuff Like if you likedifferent genres.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
We like all genres.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
I love it all Doing this podcast, like, if you have
anything that you want to bring,just send us something.
Have anything that you want tobring?
Uh, just send us, send ussomething.
So we're going to stick to thisone website that, uh, we got
going and up and running, soit's just drink about
somethingsite, that's it.
And, uh, you can find all ofour links.
(42:07):
We're we're hooking up withpretty much every streaming
platform.
I think YouTube's the onlything we're not on, so we're not
really video anyhow.
So we'll do that later on, nobig rush, but all the links, all
the contacts, drink aboutsomething, dot site.
Uh, share our stuff where we'rewe're building and we're moving
forward and growing and I'mloving it.
(42:28):
But, um, yeah, just send ussome music and we'll check it
out.
If it's good stuff and theaudio is good, I'm going to play
it.
I want to know about thesepeople.
I want to know about the bands.
I want to know about theirmusic.
Love all kinds of genres, loveit all.
Uh, one of my favorite genresis is old country music, but
Motown is probably my favorite.
(42:49):
So I just, uh, I listened tothat.
It's my thing.
Send us some stuff.
And back to Actus Reyes fromAtlanta.
I think they're like kind offrom the burbs of Atlanta-ish
I'm not sure exactly where thoseguys just slaughtered it.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
Very much so.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
Completely killed it.
Completely killed it, moving onlike.
After that I was just likethese got to 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 bein jacksonville.
The whole venue just blew up.
It was just like holy shit,what did we just see, you know?
logan's beast logan is a beast.
(43:28):
He is, he is.
And then, like you know, ondown the road, like we supported
each other so much, like wewere band besties, like even for
the when we played at Rockville, it was like they came in
second out of a contest of overtwenty five hundred bands.
I think we were like fourth andwe support each other all the
(43:51):
way up to that point and that'swhat we told each other we're
going to use.
Speaker 1 (43:55):
That was a magical.
2021 was a magical year.
Man, that was cool as shit.
That was the best Rockville.
Speaker 2 (44:01):
We were just both on board.
So, like all their love, allour love got us all the way
there and we even got to play atRockville because we were so
close to the finals.
That was amazing, and then wewent.
Then we went to, uh, anothervenue in jacksonville.
We played at one, right I thinkwe played at one in
jacksonville and left that venueand went over yeah, caught
(44:21):
their show at another venue andwe went from eclipse, eclipse to
archetype.
Archetype, yeah we went fromeclipse to art.
They were playing my batterywas dead.
Oh, as soon as I got doneplaying, I was like fucking,
actus Reels is over there, dude.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
We get in the car to leave, to go to the second venue
, and my battery was dead but wegot to jump off.
We was good.
Speaker 2 (44:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:41):
I had accidentally left on the light, looking at my
mirror.
Speaker 2 (44:43):
Yeah, but it was like rush, rush, rush.
We wanted to catch.
Speaker 1 (44:55):
My makeup was still good when we got there.
Speaker 2 (44:56):
It was like you was yosemite slam, is it yosemite
slam?
Yosemite and black?
Yosemite and black?
Why slam?
Oh, that's one of my friends onfacebook.
Hey, yosemite slam, so yosemiteand black, which is like.
He looks like a native americanguy that I used to powwow with
back in the day.
I swear I'm sure I've met himbefore and they have, uh, like a
, a little person playing.
Is that correct?
(45:16):
I think yes, a little person isplaying the bass, so like before
they played, there was anotherband and he's hanging out he was
cool as I'm like dude, we'rehanging out with him.
Then he came and rocked outwith us for the actus rea, like
there's a band before they wenton right and then he's hanging
out with us before they got onstage.
And then he got on there andgrabbed the bass.
Speaker 1 (45:35):
Oh, that's right yeah .
Speaker 2 (45:35):
He grabbed the bass guitar because he's playing
around with Silas, becausethey're about the same height.
Dude was amazing, Loved him andit was just like holy shit, is
that the same dude setting up?
Of course it is.
We all knew it.
I mean all eyes.
He grabs that bass and slaps myass down with it.
It was so amazing.
Speaker 1 (45:53):
He's slapping the bass.
Speaker 2 (45:55):
But anyhow, actus came on right there after that
Boom dude.
Speaker 1 (46:02):
The whole place went and one of them cut their hand
open.
Speaker 2 (46:04):
That's what I was wanting to bring up yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
Yeah, one of the guitar players cut himself.
Speaker 2 (46:08):
He's bleeding everywhere.
I think he dropped his pick andhe was just so into it he cut
his finger like but it was a lotof blood there was no devil
worship I had baby wipes becauseI always have baby wipes be.
Every new baby wife hit me up.
Speaker 1 (46:22):
Yeah, there was no, yeah there was no sacrificing of
animals we were sacrificing wasenergy.
Speaker 2 (46:28):
Yes, that's it.
We were having a blast Insane.
Speaker 1 (46:32):
Even though it's a wine-based bar.
Speaker 2 (46:34):
we were I mean it was insane.
So, yeah, I have an Actus Rheasong that I'm going to plug in
here and you're going to love it.
You're going to love it.
It's their newest song and I'mjust completely excited about it
.
I want to leave you with a hugethank you.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
Thank you for listening.
We're loving this.
Keep going.
Please tune in for the nextpart because y'all I have poured
my heart and soul into thiscase.
Don't let it be for nothing.
Speaker 2 (47:03):
She is in it.
She is just in it.
I'm just excited and I'm goingto keep doing this.
We're going to keep doing this.
We're going to keep kicking ass.
And I've already got part twoready to go.
I'm gonna be working on partthree this week.
Yeah, I got with actus just theother day and they're just like
dude.
We got this new song out andthey were just, they were so
(47:24):
happy, they were just like dude.
I haven't heard from you inforever and and I'm just so
happy that you got somethinggoing on.
I just I I mean other thanmusic stuff.
We have to have this creativity.
You know, it's just likethere's something that we can do
, I can build together.
You know, whether it's justsitting here talking about this
crazy history or if it's just um, I don't care what we're doing,
(47:48):
we got to do something we arefat and sassy right now, from
Chinese that's why I'm likestuffy.
I'm sitting here stuffy rightnow.
Speaker 1 (47:56):
We're stuffy and swollen from sodium I am, but it
was so good Worth it.
Fu King Chinese Restaurant inLake City, florida.
Check it out.
Yeah it's so good, it is astaple.
Speaker 2 (48:09):
It is so good, I'm full, I'm just like, and if you,
put food King together, youknow what that spells.
Speaker 1 (48:14):
And they sell t-shirts.
Speaker 2 (48:15):
So food King.
Yes, and um, here's the foodKing and Actus Rius.
Yeah, actus Rius.
Speaker 1 (48:20):
Satanic panic and the West Memphis three.
Hey, we love you guys.
Speaker 2 (48:24):
Thank you guys, so much for for tuning in and
Instagram.
Speaker 1 (48:29):
Drink about something .
Speaker 2 (48:30):
That's a quick social media thing.
Speaker 1 (48:33):
We don't have a lot of followers, yet Follow us,
follow us.
Speaker 2 (48:37):
I've been hounding everybody actually, so forgive
me for now, but y'all do thesame thing.
We'll get some more folks inhere.
Speaker 1 (48:42):
Even if you don't like True Crime or Bands and you
know us, just follow us, justbecause it'll hurt.
Speaker 2 (48:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:48):
It'll cost nothing.
It's pretty cool in here, right.
Speaker 2 (48:55):
But cool in here, yes , but um, yeah, this song is
called merciless, and it justcame out from actus ries, and
I'm excited you're gonna love it.
Speaker 1 (48:58):
You're, you're gonna absolutely love it we need to
catch another one of their showssoon yeah, yeah, we do.
Speaker 2 (49:04):
I'm gonna hook up with them, we're gonna, we're
gonna do something.
I'm gonna tell them to comeplay at my house.
Acoustic set, yes, no, mycul-de-sac would burn down.
Speaker 1 (49:18):
Honestly, though.
I mean we have hosted several.
We live in a cul-de-sac, in adecently quiet neighborhood.
We have hosted some ragers, andwe have never had the cops show
up.
Nobody has ever complained.
I don't know what it is aboutour privacy fence and our back
porch, but it's damn nearsoundproof, I guess.
Speaker 3 (49:40):
Yeah, we have a curmudgeon that does live around
us, but yeah, haven't had anyproblems out of them.
No, so thank you, there he is.
Speaker 1 (49:42):
Thank you, no, we'll be celebrating 11 years in this
house soon.
Speaker 2 (49:45):
Yeah, I love it, I love it.
Uh, anything else you want tosay to the guys, the crew, the
fam?
Speaker 1 (49:51):
just keep listening.
Check out these bands like,even if you don't actually like
that type of music, have an openmind.
Check them out anyway.
Yes, they deserve they deserverecognition for the art that
they're putting out into theworld if you like anything heavy
, you're gonna love this band ifyou love, yeah, if you like
heavy, you're definitely gonnalove them.
If you don't like heavy, justcheck it out anyway broaden your
(50:13):
horizons.
Speaker 2 (50:14):
You're gonna dig it.
Speaker 1 (50:14):
You're gonna dig it, so your palate may be more
cultured than you think it is.
Yes, you never know what's thegrooves?
Speaker 2 (50:23):
for me?
Really, that's all I care about.
Speaker 1 (50:25):
Really the grooves like the little break I didn't
know that I liked anything untilI tried it.
So so, yeah.
Speaker 2 (50:31):
Yeah, I don't like pig's feet.
Speaker 1 (50:33):
Nope, tried it.
Didn't like it.
But.
Speaker 2 (50:35):
I tried it though.
Speaker 1 (50:37):
Not a fan yeah.
But that girl, that was on thatbarbecue show we was watching
the other night.
Hers actually looked good, likeI might have tried hers yeah.
It was smoked, smoked,barbecued pig's feet.
Speaker 2 (50:47):
I was like, okay girl .
Speaker 1 (50:55):
Any.
So I'm gonna leave it with youguys.
Here's Actus Reyes.
We'll see you guys next Friday.
Yes, for part two, west Memphis3, be ready to hear me cry
again on the pod here we go.
Speaker 2 (51:01):
See you guys, bye, bye bye.
Speaker 1 (51:12):
Outro Music.
My face, I put you in anembrace.
You wanna walk on my street?
Speaker 3 (51:55):
You're gonna kiss your ass Weed.
I have a very bad feeling.
I'm a dirty, dirty dirty.
I'm a trash.
You can take my pressure.
(52:15):
Your hands will break Free,free, free, free Talking all
that shit, but you don't wannahear it.
Put your money where your mouthis on.
(53:23):
Come and fucking get it.
We'll be right back.
Outro Music.
Thank you, I'm sorry.
Nothing to doubt Sex.
People don't know what feelsright, not even ready for the
concept of time.
They've said they won't settlefor the same time.
Get up out of my face.
I'll put you in a death brace.
(53:44):
You wanna walk on my street?
You're gonna feel it.
Wait for this time to come.
Your life passes in front ofyou, your body's going numb and
(54:09):
you don't know what to do.
So at the end of days, we'lllive in your last breath.
I won't let you sing his namewhile you are praying for death,
for death.
(54:30):
I sing a tiny one for youthinking it's a sin.
I want the same power.
I'm the same as your crown.
I'm the super-soddisfactor.
I'm coming down on your head.
So yeah, that was Actus Raduswith Merciless, and I loved it.
I really did Fucking hot, andso I used this song at the
(54:56):
beginning of our podcast.
I use Groovepad and we useBandler to mix this in Audio
Editor and big shout out to youfans.
We'll see you guys next Friday.
See you, peace.
Hey, Jesse.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
What's up?
Speaker 1 (00:03):
girl, what you drinking?
Speaker 2 (00:05):
So I hooked up because you were drinking White
Claws.
So I put a little White Clawwith this bullet old fashioned
mix and it's so good Like I'mloving it.
What you got going on overthere.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
So I'm using, or I made, a specialty cocktail.
I made a specialty cocktail.
It's with a witch's brewmargarita mix that I got from
Bell's Outlet yes, they sellthat kind of stuff.
It's blackberry flavored, butit's very, very sweet, even
(00:40):
though it's sugar free, and so Icut it with some Sprite, zero
tequila, of course, andBlackberry White Claw.
So I got my own witch's brewgoing on here Awesome.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
So ready Like the weather has been cool all week
long.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
It's beautiful, sweater weather, sweater weather
.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
I'll say that as many times as I possibly can.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
So, uh, it's exciting , we got a lot of cool stuff
coming up real soon for you.
It's going to be a big one.
Y'all strap on in, you guysready?
Hey, hello everybody, how youguys doing Happy Friday.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Yes, it's.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Friday Ah, it was a week for me.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Insane.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
How you doing baby.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
I am doing okay.
I am nervous as fuck.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
This is a monster, but it is so, so, so important
to me.
You've been geeking for a month.
Yeah, tell them what you got.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
This case is one of the main reasons why I wanted to
do a podcast, because it justgripped me.
I don't know what rock I'vebeen living under, but I
actually had never heard of thisand if I did, I forgot until
about a little over a year ago.
So this is West Memphis threehere we go.
(02:31):
This will be a three parter andthese will be a little bit
longer than our first twoepisodes because this case is
massive.
I could do a 10 part and itstill wouldn't cover all the
bullshit that has happened inthis case, but we're going to
break it down in three parts andI'm going to suggest
(02:53):
documentaries, books, otherpodcasters and everything that I
think you should check out aswell so like disclaimer.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
I'm not supposed to know anything about this, but I
think like you know a little bitshade to me.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
You watched a little bit of the paradise lost
documentary with me, becausethat was the one I I've I've
became obsessed with this afterI heard it.
I heard about it for the firsttime and, uh, and I was like I
want to tell them about it, butI don't remember why we never
finished watching it.
And so it was great because Igot a lot to fill you in on.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Right.
So to be honest, like I don'tremember it, I was probably
drunk.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Yeah, most likely.
We watched it on a Friday soyeah, I don't remember it I
don't remember it.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
I don't know, but I'm excited, like Lindsay has been
crazy geeking about this thingforever and I just you know I've
been looking at what ourmomentum and everything we had
over this past.
We've had over 50 downloads ofour podcast.
(04:02):
I'm just like I don't know.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Thank you guys.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Thank you.
I don't understand that supportalready and I just wanted to
say thank you to everyone outthere.
It's amazing just to see likeour little baby growing, you
know.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
I'm just so excited to see what's going to happen
when we're 50-50 podcast in, soI'm just thank you so much, guys
, and Lindsay is just raring togo, but I figured I would talk
just for a second.
That way she has to calm down.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
I do my nerves are a mess.
All right, let's get into it.
Here we go.
I do my nerves are a mess.
All right, let's get into it.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Here we go.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
All right.
So this case will consist ofthree parts and this one is like
I said.
It saddens my heart so muchbecause of one, how the victims
died.
Two, the three boys that werewrongfully convicted and what
they went through.
The three boys that werewrongfully convicted and what
(05:08):
they went through.
Three, the complete miscarriageof justice that happened in
putting three innocent boysbehind bars.
And for the fact that the realkiller will never be found.
Wow, I have cried, I've beenangry so much while listening to
and watching coverage on thiscase.
And it makes me even more sadand 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
(05:31):
why in part three, but thehorrific witch hunt in this
investigation if you can evencall it an investigation, it's.
The trial and convictions areabsolutely haunting and there
are a lot of trigger warnings.
So beware in this caseincluding harm to three little
boys.
Wow, all right, so we'll startwith the crime.
(05:53):
On May 5th 1993, threeeight-year-old boys, stevie
Branch, michael Moore andChristopher Byers, were reported
missing in West Memphis,arkansas.
Michael Moore and ChristopherByers were reported missing in
West Memphis, arkansas, and it'scalled West Memphis, because
it's literally over the bridgefrom.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Memphis.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Cross the river, cross the river Right.
The first report was made byJohn Mark Byers Christopher
Byers, adoptive father, around 7PM.
All three boys have been atschool that day and had gotten
together after school to ridetheir bikes in an area called
Robin Hood Hills.
Neighbors had seen themtogether around 6.30 pm and had
(06:32):
heard Terry Hobbs, which wasStevie Branch's stepfather,
calling them to come home.
Friends and neighbors hadstarted searching that night,
but the mosquitoes were so thickand I can't even imagine this.
The mosquitoes were so thickthat they had to continue the
search the next morning.
So around 1 45 pm on May 6th,juvenile parole officer Steve
(06:56):
Jones found a little boy's shoewith the laces out, which led
him down to a drainage ditchwhere he found the bodies of all
three boys.
Now they weren't just visible.
He had to get down in thismuddy murky.
I've seen what it looked like.
It's disgusting.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
So they're like tucked away down into the mud.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Their bodies were pinned down into muddy, murky
drainage ditch water and hefound all three of them.
They had been stripped nakedand had been hogtied with their
own shoelaces.
They had several ligatures andlacerations and Christopher
Byers' scrotum had beenmutilated.
(07:40):
I'm going to probably cry somein this.
I'm going to try not to.
I'm going to try to some inthis.
I'm going to try not to.
I'm going to try to choke itback.
But yeah, their clothing wasfound thrust into a nearby creek
.
So here's a little backinformation about the victims.
So Stevie Edward Branch was theson of Stephen and Pamela
(08:00):
Branch, who divorced when he wasan infant.
His mother was given custodyand married a man named Terry
Hobbs.
Remember Terry Hobbs?
Remember that name.
We'll talk about him more inpart three.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
So Stevie lived with his mom, terry, and half sister,
amanda Hobbs, who was four andremember Amanda too.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Amanda and Hobbs.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Yes, I mean I'll, of course remind, but yeah, just
Amanda and Hobbes.
Yes, I'm going to forget.
I mean, I'll of course remind,but yeah, just put a pin in
those.
Yeah, Christopher Mark Byerswas born to Sharon Melissa
DeFerre and Rick Murray and hisparents divorced when he was
four years old and his mothermarried John Mark Byers and he
adopted Chris.
He lived with his mom, JohnMark, and stepbrother, Sean Ryan
(08:44):
Clark.
James Michael Moore was the sonof Todd and Dana Moore.
He lived with his parents andnine-year-old sister, Dawn.
They say he was the littleleader of the pack and they were
all little boy scouts and hewas wearing his uniform when he
died.
He loved wearing it all thetime.
He loved wearing it all thetime and in the West Memphis
(09:06):
documentary or West of Memphisdocumentary, Pamela Hobbs was
holding his little uniform.
Yeah, Okay, so we're going togo to side.
So we're going to sidetrack alittle bit to Mr Bojangles.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
So it's like it's really rough.
So, all this especially whenyou have children and little
boys too.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
We've raised four together yes yeah, and we got a
little grand boy I want to be apuddle too.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
You know that.
You know it's like we feed offeach other.
We've been together forever.
Yes, it's just like if she'spuddling, I'm puddling and vice
versa.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Like so uh, yeah, yeah, this case is definitely
it's puddle time one to drinkabout, yeah so, uh, yeah, gotta
have, I'm cheers cheers cheersto that, but cheers yeah, not
cheers to that, but cheers topuddling, I guess pressing on oh
okay, we'll hot them back withlaughs.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
somehow I'll find something to say.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
All right, so this little segment is going to be Mr
Bojangles.
So John Mark Byers reportedChristopher missing around 7 pm
and around 842 pm A call wasmade to the police from workers
at a Bojangles chicken place.
We don't have a good experiencewith Bojangles, but we won't
(10:27):
talk about that.
That was in Georgia.
The one we went to was inValdosta, the one in Valdosta.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
It's close, like the two in Florida, no, the four in
Florida that I've been to, andValdosta was Don't do it, Don't
come for us Bojangles.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
I'm not trying to down him by any means Don't come
for us.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Hey, you know, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
So Bojangles was located near Robin Hood Hills
where the bodies would be found,and they stated that a mentally
disoriented black man wasinside the ladies' room, he was
bleeding and had gotten some ofthe blood on the walls.
Officer Regina Mills took thereport from the fucking
drive-through window and by thattime the man had already left.
(11:10):
The next day after the bodieswere found, the manager called
the police back, thinking therewas a connection.
The police then took samples ofthe blood on the walls, but
detective Brian Ridge testifiedthat he actually lost those
blood scrapings.
And guess what?
Later a hair belonging to ablack man was found on one of
(11:31):
the sheets wrapped around one ofthe boys oh, so it's on yeah,
oh there's.
Oh, we're just beginning, justbeginning.
So early in the investigation,the wmpd suspected two teenagers
by the name of Chris Morgan andBrian Holland.
They both had a history of drugoffenses and had suddenly took
(11:51):
off to California four daysafter the bodies were discovered
.
Morgan had known the boys fromdriving 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 polygraphtests for just a moment.
Polygraphs are not accurate oh,trust them now.
(12:14):
And nor are they admissible incourt.
You don't have to take one.
If you're ever in trouble forsomething that you have not done
, or even if you have done it,don't take one.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
They're useless, or if you got gas.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
I don't understand why they're used, but they are
nonetheless.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
A menstrual cramp would change it.
Yeah, honestly.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Yeah, I mean.
And even if I mean, if you havehigh blood pressure, if you're
just anxious about the situationyou're in, for sure it can
detect deception.
So, yeah, you're nervous.
Yeah, I mean, and who wouldn'tbe nervous?
How the hell?
All right, go ahead, I'm sorry,right?
So both morgan and holland'sresults indicated deception, and
morgan even said that becauseof his history of alcohol and
(12:55):
drug abuse, he would haveblackouts, and actually said
that he might have done it.
What, yeah?
But later this statement wasbarred from being admitted into
evidence.
Barred, yeah, okay.
So now, statistically, most ofthe time, crimes like these are
(13:17):
committed by a family member orsomeone close to the victim.
That is statistics.
That's not my opinion, that isactual facts.
But none, none of the families,were questioned or searched or
interrogated.
Wow, none of the families ofthe victims.
Anyway, right, okay.
Yeah, now this crime was sohorrific to these simple
(13:38):
southern folks in the bible beltthat they couldn't even wrap
their minds around it beinganything but of the devil and
some sort of cult ritual.
The preacher's sermons were allabout the end times and the
community speculated wildly.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
I mean it was yes, it was insane times, yes, and this
was in 1993.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
This was 10 years after the may martin preschool
trials and we learned nothingfrom that, raise your hand if
you were told that the end oftimes are coming oh god right
every week for most of mychildhood.
Oh yeah, every day, but likeespecially if there's like
another christian that comes upinto a conversation the case
(14:20):
became widespread and the policehad no leads.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
And so here comes the witch hunt.
Suspect number one in the witchhunt and the one who got the
worst of literally everythingwas Damien Echols, and here is
some of his story.
I have spent so much time onthis case, researching online,
listening to other podcasters,watching documentaries and also
(14:44):
listening to Damien's audio bookLife After Death.
I swear I feel like I kind ofknow him now, but it's highly
recommended.
Got to listen to that book orread it.
I have to listen because I'mbusy and I got to be productive.
She is always on the go.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
I swear to God Always and I got to be productive she
is always on the go.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
I swear to God, always.
So Damien was born MichaelWayne Hutchinson on December
11th 1974.
He's a such like you, babe.
Oh, he was born to Pam and JoeHutchinson.
His family was extremely poorand moved around quite often and
(15:25):
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 tofathom this type of poor, but I
know you've had, you have some,I have stories.
You have some connection toDamien and what he went through.
Don't puddle me early.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
I'm not going to puddle you, I'm just saying I
mean I'm not going to stop youbecause there's so much to go,
there is so much to go throughyou go.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
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 uptaking on his last name.
Jack had them first live in thechurch that they attended and
then moved them out to a farmshack.
It was literally like how do Idescribe it?
(16:18):
It was like, literally, it wasjust a shack, just on this farm,
like, and it was had.
No, it had nothing, it was justa 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 theyyeah, I don't know how they
(16:40):
lived in there.
So later on, when he moved tothe trailer park, that was
absolutely an upgrade.
Damien is extremely intelligent.
Even though he did not do wellin school and he was interested
in all kinds of religions, fromBuddhism, wicca and Catholicism,
he did not like the PentecostalChurch of God that his
(17:02):
stepfather made him go to.
He did not like the Pentecostalchurch of God that his
stepfather made him go to.
So when he really wanted to goto a Catholic church, he had to
present it to his mentally andphysically abusive stepfather.
And, like he said, when you'reapproaching someone of that
mindset, you have to tell them Ihave a calling.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
So I have a calling to go attend this church and see
a spiritual journey it's aspiritual journey.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
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 assholethat he would when he would
make them pray, and he wouldmake them do that often.
Um, there was a little.
They had a little chihuahuanamed pepper that if when it
(17:52):
jumped up on the bed, he wouldpunch it in the face.
What a chihuahua, come on man.
The catholic church is where hegot the idea for his name that
he later changed to damien umfrom saint damien who cared for
the lepers in the 1800s.
He was father damien back thenand then later got a sainthood
right.
So damien wore black clothing,listened to metal and punk,
(18:18):
shaved his head on one side andwas a skateboarder, wrote dark
poetry or dark and expressivepoetry, so he was like the
people that we hung out with in1993.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Yeah, but in West Memphis, Arkansas.
That made him a witch evil.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Yeah, cause if you're on that side of the bridge,
it's Arkansas, it's notTennessee, that's right.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Yeah, he's, it's West Memphis.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Arkansas.
Oh yeah, arkansas.
It can't be any real differencebetween there and the other
side of the bridge, but stillyeah it seems.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
I mean just uh, it's like.
It's like I've been in anotherworld listening to all this shit
over the last month.
Yeah so he loved horror moviesand his favorite article of
clothing was a long black,filthy trench coat that he had
found in a closet of one of thehomes he had lived in.
Now he did replace it later onwith the others, but this was
before trench coats were deemedas like school shooting type
(19:15):
shit.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
It was more of a duster probably, yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
And in his book he says that the trench coat made
him feel safe and wearing blackwas aesthetically pleasing to
him.
The trench coat made him feelsafe and wearing black was
aesthetically pleasing to him.
His home life was horrible andhe acted out like most kids do
in that type of situation.
He had a smart mouth, he was alittle combative asshole and he
had been in trouble for smalltime shit like shoplifting and
(19:40):
vandalism.
So Damien's first real love wasa girl named Deanna, who was a
Wiccan, even though her parentswere devout Christians, and she
taught Damien about it and heloved it because it was all
about Mother Earth and goddesses, no devil.
So their relationship was superintense and a series of events,
(20:01):
like skipping school together,would get them banned from
seeing each other by her parents.
They tried to it work, butDeanna broke up with him,
stating that it was just toohard, and this literally
destroyed Damien mentally, andespecially when she went on to
date another guy right.
According to his book, this wasthe only time he got violent
(20:21):
with anyone and he did indeedfight the boy that Deanna was
dating and he later foundcomfort in a girl named
Dominique here, who he was neverreally in love with, but
enjoyed her company.
A little while later, in on inthe school year, deanna came
back to him and they made a planto run away together at the end
of the school year when it camethat time, so he was around 17
(20:44):
at this time, but I don't reallyknow what grade he was in.
I know he was behind Um and uh,deanna was just a little bit
younger, yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Still in high school.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
Right, they were both in high school.
They were both teenagers, yeah.
So when it came time, they didjust that, along with Damien's
best friend, jason Baldwin.
Who 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 townover and found an abandoned
trailer, and Jason left themthere to go back home.
Deanna's parents called thepolice and they found them and
(21:17):
arrested them both, and eventhough they hadn't stole
anything for the trailer, theywere charged with burglary and
sexual misconduct because theywere indeed caught in the act.
So enter Jerry Driver.
This man would becomeabsolutely obsessed with Damien.
(21:38):
Jerry would become his juvenileofficer and immediately started
asking Damien about witchcraftand satanic cults.
This man considered himself tobe an expert on the subject and
was sure that West Memphis was ahotbed for this activity.
Driver, yeah, oh yeah, he was.
(21:59):
Oh God, jerry.
Driver is Jerry.
Driver is the devil.
Fuck you, jerry Driver.
All right, driver.
And his buddy, steve Jones,another juvenile officer, the
one that actually found thebodies of the boys.
They would drive around duringfull moons and try to find
satanic or witch coven activity.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
So an actual witch hunt.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
They were literally witch hunting y'all, this is not
bullshit, this isall.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
This is not bullshit, this is fact, this is absolute
fact.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
They needed so many hobbies, so much Satan going on
everywhere.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
For some reason, rumors had started that Damien
and Deanna were going to have ababy and sacrifice it to Satan,
and this landed Damien a trip toa psychiatric hospital.
Now Damien was held in jail forseveral weeks, even though the
(22:54):
breaking and entering into atrailer is a misdemeanor at most
Right but driver went aroundtown asking about him and went
to his parents' house asking tosearch his room.
This is not legal.
This is a juvenile officer.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Well, they're going to do what they want to do.
You know, they know thatthey're the devil.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
So and so when he was in the site hospital they did
diagnose him with depression andpossible bipolar disorder.
But in his book he said that hewas very depressed, his life
sucked and he missed Deanna.
I mean, yeah, and he was in.
You know he was in jail for youknow just pretty much being in
(23:34):
love and trying to be with thegirl that he loved, and you know
how teenage love is it can beintense.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Yeah so he's a teenager, he's outspoken.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
His heart's broken.
He's trying to bounce back andhe's trying to become his own
person.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Right, yeah.
So when he got out he wasreleased back to his parents,
Pam and Joe, who were now backtogether.
Pam had kicked Jack Eccles tothe curb, so they went up to
Aloha, Oregon, where Joe hadbeen staying since the divorce.
When he got there he had tomeet with another juvenile
(24:05):
officer because he was still onprobation.
This officer asserted that heshould be minimally supervised
for four months and thenreleased from the system because
what he had done was not thatserious.
But jerry driver down inarkansas did not agree.
Jerry called up there and toldthat officer that damien's
parents had called him and saidthey were afraid that he would
(24:26):
hurt himself and was put inanother psych hospital so was
jerry a race car driver, oh godhe is not cool enough to be in
the category as west or lessclaypool so let's leave less out
of this.
Every time you say, jerry driver, I know sorry, go ahead so
(24:48):
damien said he did not want tohurt himself but he was very
depressed because he missedDeanna and his best friend,
jason, and his family life wasmiserable.
So he was turning 18 and hisparents decided to send him back
to Jack Eccles because he wasin fact his legal guardian.
He had adopted him.
So when he gets back to WestMemphis, arkansas, after a bus
(25:11):
ride down, jerry, driver met himat the bus station and he
immediately threw him back injuvenile detention, saying that
he had made threats against hisfamily and that was a violation
of probation.
And then when he gets out hestays with a few friends.
He stays with Jason and therewas another friend that they had
he talks about in his book andhe would just kind of hop around
(25:32):
there.
But then Jerry insisted that hestay with Jack because Jack was
his legal guardian.
All right.
So when he was released, driversaid that he had to get a GED
and check in with him every weekand he did all of that, but it
still wasn't good enough forJerry.
Jerry continued to hone in onDamian, jason Baldwin because
they hung out together and woreband tees, and Dominique because
(25:57):
she and Damien had startedseeing each other again.
So Deanna's out of the picture,dominique's back in, she's back
, yes.
So Jason said that it wasrumored about him being satanic
because he loved Metallica, acdc, guns N' Roses and U2.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Yeah, Not Cannibal Corpse which was firing up good
at that time.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
Oh, they would have, I'm sure they, if I'm sure they
would have gotten right on intothem.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
It would have burnt the whole county down.
Yeah, cannibal Corpse Grinder,show up with a claw machine
Right.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Go ahead, yeah, cannibal Coral.
Corpse Grinder, show up with aclaw machine Right.
Go ahead, corpse.
Yeah, corpse Grinder is thesweetest human ever.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
I know I want to play claw machine.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
I know so any Jason also have one of the best
mullets that you will ever seein your entire life, like it was
Billy Ray Cyrus.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Oh, he had.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Billy Ray, I mean it was.
It was Billy Ray Cyrus.
Oh, he had Billy.
Wait, I mean it was.
It was so much better thanBilly Ray's Billy Ray.
I wish he had Jason Baldwin'smullet.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Yes, I can't wait to see pictures.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
So he?
He said that he and Damienloved the same things and they
also both hated their lives and,like his mom, damien suffered
from depression.
Now Jason was a good boy forthe most part.
His mother was actuallyschizophrenic and would leave
for days at a time, leavingJason to be a parent to take
(27:23):
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 themurders happened, damien's
parents moved back to Arkansasand he moved back in with them.
Shortly after, the police beganquestioning Damien without any
real reason other than the factthat he was the weird goth kid
(27:44):
that Jerry Driver suspected andhe was in the ear of Chief
Investigator Gary Gitchell oh,gitchell.
So the police had asked Jerryto come up with a list of
juveniles that he had in hissystem and of course Damien was
at the top of that list.
Damien was given a polygraphexam in one of these
(28:06):
questionings and it was notedthat he revealed deception in
the exam.
But guess what?
There is zero record of this.
The examiner just says thiswith no evidence.
So this will happen a lot overthe whole investigation.
A lot there will be lostevidence, um, basically just
taking people's word for shit.
(28:26):
I mean it's I can already tellwhere this is going so police
and other officials will justyeah, they'll just say whatever.
This is so disrespectful to me,to the victims and their
families.
I just they basically justcreate the narrative of what
they think and then manipulatepeople and the media into
(28:48):
believing their narrativewithout any real investigation.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
The good old boys can't be wrong.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Never.
They cannot be wrong.
I mean, these three preciousboys were brutally murdered,
Brutally murdered, and you justmake shit up and get everybody
to go along with it.
I mean everybody.
You have to watch thedocumentaries Paradise Lost to
see how thick the rumor mill was.
I mean it was insane.
(29:13):
So of course parents wantanswers.
Rumors have started and theinvestigators were lazy to say
the least, and, like I saidbefore, people were believing
that this had to be a satanicritual and nothing else was
looked into.
Gary Gitchell originallythought that it was a lust
murder and he actually, becauseof the way the boys were tied up
(29:36):
and the knots that were in theshoestrings.
He actually looked into Vietnamveterans because there was some
significance there with theknots, but then they threw that
shit right out the window.
When Jerry Driver startedgetting in his ear, Nothing at
the crime scene suggested thatit was a satanic ritual, Nothing
.
So on May 5th the murdershappened.
(29:58):
On May 7th it exploded onto thenews and media and that's when
Damien's questioning started,asking him about local satanic
cults and if he had ever seenone, and he had no information
on this.
Now he did lean into the weirdgoth kid persona a lot.
That was his, that was histhing, you know.
So I mean, he was probably asmart ass to him because he
(30:21):
hadn't done anything, so he didnot take them seriously at all.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
He was trying to push back.
You know he's just what thehell am I doing here?
Speaker 1 (30:29):
right.
So they asked him about hisfavorite book in the Bible and,
as a person who was made to readthe Bible her entire childhood,
I couldn't answer that questionJust saying and there are
people that I know that knownothing about the Bible, and
does that make them a devilworshiper?
Does it make them a murderer?
(30:49):
No, it does not.
But they watched him constantlyand they even took a Polaroid
picture of him.
He complied with everythingthat they asked, because they
were the police and he actuallytrusted them to do the right
thing.
But they used that photo to askpeople around town if they knew
anything about the Satanworshiper or this Satan
worshiper named Damien Eccles.
(31:10):
And through power of suggestionit worked and people were like,
yeah, I've seen him worshipSatan, and one guy even said
that Damien made him levitate.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Really yeah.
So why isn't Jesus doing that?
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Why is it when we go to?
Our music festivals andconcerts.
You know we're all kind ofgothy.
Why aren't we all levitating?
I?
Speaker 3 (31:34):
mean there are times where I'm so excited.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
I feel like I could love it.
But I don't actually do it.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
You know I will.
I will say this in a littleback history.
Real quick I'm going to take asecond.
I spent a lot of time doingNative American things in my
life and I'm very Caucasian,caucasian as fuck.
But I did a lot of time doingnative american things in my
life and I'm very caucasian,caucasian as fuck.
But, um, I did a lot of powwowsand a lot of native american
(32:00):
stuff.
I watched a drum levitate onetime, but if you think about it,
if there's like some kind ofwell, that's scientifically
possible yeah, like a g-force,like you're beating the hell out
of the top of this drum thebottom.
you know what I'm saying, but Iwatched it like stay in one spot
off the ground.
That was really cool to me, butthat's the only levitation that
(32:23):
I and I was young, so I thoughtthat you know that was a thing.
So, anyhow, that was the onlylevitation I've ever seen
spiritually.
But I mean, you know, you ain'tnever seen a human levitate,
have you?
No?
Okay, A couple of people in LasVegas, you know.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
So someone said that the police told him they found
body parts under Damien's bedand John Mark Byers, the father
of Chris Byers, said that thepolice told him that Chris's
genitals were in a jar under hisbed.
And it was just not fuckingtrue.
Like Mark Byers says this, orJohn Mark, excuse me, says this
(33:07):
in the documentaries, like it isan actual fact, because that
was what he was told, and he wasjust baffled that at this point
Damien wasn't even arrested yetand he was just baffled that he
had already heard that andnobody was in jail yet.
Now John Mark Myers is anabsolute fucking character and
he gets on my last nerve.
I'm not even going to lie, buthe is the loudest one on that
(33:30):
documentary.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
You're fired up right now.
Oh yeah, I'm loving it.
This is one on that documentary.
You're fired up right now, ohyeah I'm loving it.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
This is, this is fucked up, 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 continued toquestion damien about and accuse
him of, cult activity daily.
His grandmother sold herwedding rings to hire a lawyer.
When things appeared to startgetting serious, the police
(33:58):
would not let the lawyer intothe station while he was being
interrogated.
They would not let him in, andin his book Damien says that his
grandmother sold her weddingrings for absolutely nothing,
nothing, not a damn thing.
That's illegal.
That is illegal to not let alawyer into the station during
(34:19):
an interrogation.
Now, he was not a minor, but hewas still freshly 18.
Right, and you have the rightto have an attorney, you have
the right to not speak to anyonewithout a lawyer present.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
He was waiting on that lawyer because you know,
he's seen the rings, he's seenall the money go away and 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 knowright now, this, this kid, is in
the right.
I mean just a little punk kidthat's just trying to learn life
(34:50):
and figure out and have theshittiest childhood.
The shittiest.
I mean again with yeah, god,yeah the accused.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
They were not told about this right that they have
to have an attorney, and theydidn't understand it.
They didn't understand what wasgoing on.
They just it.
That's what just makes me sosad.
You just see the utterconfusion on all of them about
all of it.
And damien honestly believedthat they couldn't prove that he
(35:22):
did it because he didn't doanything.
And he says this in severalinterviews later on and it just
makes me so fucking mad they'rerailroading everything
everything and they're trying toget around everything for
defense because they know theyhave any.
They don't have anything one ofhis interrogations lasted eight
hours and they had to let him gobecause they had nothing on him
(35:44):
trying to beat him into sayingyeah, right, basically and he
did not comply.
He had only told them what hehad heard through media
wrong-minded, through the smalltown rumor mill, everything,
yeah.
So on June 3rd, damien, jason,baldwin and Damien's sister,
(36:05):
michelle and Dominique here wereat Damien's trailer watching
leprechaun.
Damien's parents andgrandmother were at a casino for
the evening and Jason had thenight off from babysitting his
siblings because he had donewell in school and his mom hired
a babysitter so that he couldhang out with his friends.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
Special night yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
So while they're watching Leprechaun, the police
came beating down the door.
At 10.30 at night.
Damien answers the door tothree cops with guns pointed at
his face.
They arrested Damien and Jasonand Jason was asking what was
this for and they told himcapital murder.
And he begs and pleads and saysyou have the wrong people, like
(36:49):
he actually believed they wereat the wrong house.
Once at the police station,gary Gitchell tells Damien that
his friend had already confessedand he should just come clean.
Damien was so confused becausehe knew it wasn't Jason, because
they had not done this crime.
So what the fuck were theytalking about?
So they went and tell himanything and made him stay the
(37:09):
night in jail and on June 4th at10 am he was brought into court
where Jason and a kid namedJesse Miss Kelly who Damien
barely knew, by the way werearraigned on three counts of
capital murder of Steve Branch,michael Moore and Christopher
Byers.
And that's where we'll pick upnext week for part two of the
(37:30):
West Memphis three.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
Like I'm holding my breath through most of this.
I just I'm holding my breaththrough most of this.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
I just I'm holding back tears.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
I'm already crying so many.
I'm like what is she going tosay next?
What really happened?
What are they just flinging atthese kids just because they're
a little bit different, becausethey're not the cookie cutter,
bible Belt kids?
This is railroaded.
This seems railroaded to me,but I don't know.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
It makes me nauseous.
I don't know yet.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
Honestly, I don't know yet Where's the twist.
This is a twist to begin with.
Oh my God.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
Yeah, it hurts.
It hurts my heart.
Speaker 3 (38:11):
Yeah, you're a mess.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
I have, you know, earphones in while typing this,
while I'm, you know, listeningand writing notes and typing,
and I'll just break out intotears, and Silas is like, oh my
God, what's wrong with you?
I'm like I'm OK, I'm OK Justhaving a moment, the next
paragraph.
Literally Five more minutes.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
What a puddle.
I can see why you have beengeeking about this insane,
insane.
So what do you guys think sofar?
Like there's two more of thesethat.
Oh, my goodness, I'm excited.
It's a lot, it's a lot.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
It was like okay, our first two episodes, yeah, they
were like I said, I could makethis a 10 part and it still
wouldn't cover all the bullshitit's like you haven't even got
your feet wet yet.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
Seriously, yeah, we're just still pretty much at
the beginning.
Speaker 1 (39:06):
We're still pretty much at the beginning, but I had
to give you some backs back.
You know backstory on right onthese boys.
I felt that was very importantyeah because I it.
It helps you understand whythey got to where they get to,
you're right.
So what band are you pluggingtoday?
Speaker 2 (39:24):
let me talk about this group real quick.
Hang on here.
So we were playing a show and,uh, in jacksonville we're
playing a show in jacksonville.
I think it was onyx fest thatsounds right I think it was
called onyx fest and there weresome badass bands and I think we
(39:47):
were like second or somethinglike that and, um, this band
from from atlanta came down.
They were called actus reis.
They might call it actus reis,but I think I call it actus reis
.
But, uh, they're fuckingwonderful.
They're fucking wonderful, solike they.
(40:07):
Uh, so one of the guitarplayers wears a bucket hat, and
I always wore a bucket hat, sothey had just seen me bumping
around on stage wearing a bucketand roman from ginger wears the
bucket hat.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
Yeah, he does, yeah that's, that's right.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
We're all bucket heads here, but uh so I love it.
I love the look, so yeah, he washe kind of come up and was
talking about our show, you know, and he was really digging our
band and, uh, you know, I wasjust, you know, kind of just
talking with him to just, andbefore I knew it, the whole band
was around me and we weretalking and I'm like I'm going
to buy some merch.
I don't even know what theseguys have, I haven't even heard
(40:42):
them yet.
I haven't even heard them.
And they were just so cool.
They just hung out the wholenight.
They were in and out justhanging out with us.
They bought merch off our tabletable and I'm trying to think
what we did.
So we went out back.
They had a little back spot inthe venue and we came back right
when they had fired up.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
Was that?
Speaker 2 (40:59):
1904?
Yeah, 1904 in Jacksonville.
Speaker 1 (41:04):
Not the year 1904.
The venue 1904.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
The venue 1904 in Jacksonville.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
It's really cool, it's really cute.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
I think they're kind of dying down a little bit.
Everything's going to beunderbelly, which is another
venue right next to it.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
Underbelly is great too.
We still haven't gotten to eatnone of their barbecue.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
I ate it one time, but you weren't there that time.
I had a little bit.
It was so good.
It was so good.
Anyhow, they fired off and holyto the fuck.
Speaker 1 (41:33):
The showmanship man yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:35):
So in big music, great stage presence, big music
disclaimer we play a lot ofheavier music here, but send us
some stuff Like if you likedifferent genres.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
We like all genres.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
I love it all Doing this podcast, like, if you have
anything that you want to bring,just send us something.
Have anything that you want tobring?
Uh, just send us, send ussomething.
So we're going to stick to thisone website that, uh, we got
going and up and running, soit's just drink about
somethingsite, that's it.
And, uh, you can find all ofour links.
(42:07):
We're we're hooking up withpretty much every streaming
platform.
I think YouTube's the onlything we're not on, so we're not
really video anyhow.
So we'll do that later on, nobig rush, but all the links, all
the contacts, drink aboutsomething, dot site.
Uh, share our stuff where we'rewe're building and we're moving
forward and growing and I'mloving it.
(42:28):
But, um, yeah, just send ussome music and we'll check it
out.
If it's good stuff and theaudio is good, I'm going to play
it.
I want to know about thesepeople.
I want to know about the bands.
I want to know about theirmusic.
Love all kinds of genres, loveit all.
Uh, one of my favorite genresis is old country music, but
Motown is probably my favorite.
(42:49):
So I just, uh, I listened tothat.
It's my thing.
Send us some stuff.
And back to Actus Reyes fromAtlanta.
I think they're like kind offrom the burbs of Atlanta-ish
I'm not sure exactly where thoseguys just slaughtered it.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
Very much so.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
Completely killed it.
Completely killed it, moving onlike.
After that I was just likethese got to 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 bein jacksonville.
The whole venue just blew up.
It was just like holy shit,what did we just see, you know?
logan's beast logan is a beast.
(43:28):
He is, he is.
And then, like you know, ondown the road, like we supported
each other so much, like wewere band besties, like even for
the when we played at Rockville, it was like they came in
second out of a contest of overtwenty five hundred bands.
I think we were like fourth andwe support each other all the
(43:51):
way up to that point and that'swhat we told each other we're
going to use.
Speaker 1 (43:55):
That was a magical.
2021 was a magical year.
Man, that was cool as shit.
That was the best Rockville.
Speaker 2 (44:01):
We were just both on board.
So, like all their love, allour love got us all the way
there and we even got to play atRockville because we were so
close to the finals.
That was amazing, and then wewent.
Then we went to, uh, anothervenue in jacksonville.
We played at one, right I thinkwe played at one in
jacksonville and left that venueand went over yeah, caught
(44:21):
their show at another venue andwe went from eclipse, eclipse to
archetype.
Archetype, yeah we went fromeclipse to art.
They were playing my batterywas dead.
Oh, as soon as I got doneplaying, I was like fucking,
actus Reels is over there, dude.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
We get in the car to leave, to go to the second venue
, and my battery was dead but wegot to jump off.
We was good.
Speaker 2 (44:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:41):
I had accidentally left on the light, looking at my
mirror.
Speaker 2 (44:43):
Yeah, but it was like rush, rush, rush.
We wanted to catch.
Speaker 1 (44:55):
My makeup was still good when we got there.
Speaker 2 (44:56):
It was like you was yosemite slam, is it yosemite
slam?
Yosemite and black?
Yosemite and black?
Why slam?
Oh, that's one of my friends onfacebook.
Hey, yosemite slam, so yosemiteand black, which is like.
He looks like a native americanguy that I used to powwow with
back in the day.
I swear I'm sure I've met himbefore and they have, uh, like a
, a little person playing.
Is that correct?
(45:16):
I think yes, a little person isplaying the bass, so like before
they played, there was anotherband and he's hanging out he was
cool as I'm like dude, we'rehanging out with him.
Then he came and rocked outwith us for the actus rea, like
there's a band before they wenton right and then he's hanging
out with us before they got onstage.
And then he got on there andgrabbed the bass.
Speaker 1 (45:35):
Oh, that's right yeah .
Speaker 2 (45:35):
He grabbed the bass guitar because he's playing
around with Silas, becausethey're about the same height.
Dude was amazing, Loved him andit was just like holy shit, is
that the same dude setting up?
Of course it is.
We all knew it.
I mean all eyes.
He grabs that bass and slaps myass down with it.
It was so amazing.
Speaker 1 (45:53):
He's slapping the bass.
Speaker 2 (45:55):
But anyhow, actus came on right there after that
Boom dude.
Speaker 1 (46:02):
The whole place went and one of them cut their hand
open.
Speaker 2 (46:04):
That's what I was wanting to bring up yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
Yeah, one of the guitar players cut himself.
Speaker 2 (46:08):
He's bleeding everywhere.
I think he dropped his pick andhe was just so into it he cut
his finger like but it was a lotof blood there was no devil
worship I had baby wipes becauseI always have baby wipes be.
Every new baby wife hit me up.
Speaker 1 (46:22):
Yeah, there was no, yeah there was no sacrificing of
animals we were sacrificing wasenergy.
Speaker 2 (46:28):
Yes, that's it.
We were having a blast Insane.
Speaker 1 (46:32):
Even though it's a wine-based bar.
Speaker 2 (46:34):
we were I mean it was insane.
So, yeah, I have an Actus Rheasong that I'm going to plug in
here and you're going to love it.
You're going to love it.
It's their newest song and I'mjust completely excited about it
.
I want to leave you with a hugethank you.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
Thank you for listening.
We're loving this.
Keep going.
Please tune in for the nextpart because y'all I have poured
my heart and soul into thiscase.
Don't let it be for nothing.
Speaker 2 (47:03):
She is in it.
She is just in it.
I'm just excited and I'm goingto keep doing this.
We're going to keep doing this.
We're going to keep kicking ass.
And I've already got part twoready to go.
I'm gonna be working on partthree this week.
Yeah, I got with actus just theother day and they're just like
dude.
We got this new song out andthey were just, they were so
(47:24):
happy, they were just like dude.
I haven't heard from you inforever and and I'm just so
happy that you got somethinggoing on.
I just I I mean other thanmusic stuff.
We have to have this creativity.
You know, it's just likethere's something that we can do
, I can build together.
You know, whether it's justsitting here talking about this
crazy history or if it's just um, I don't care what we're doing,
(47:48):
we got to do something we arefat and sassy right now, from
Chinese that's why I'm likestuffy.
I'm sitting here stuffy rightnow.
Speaker 1 (47:56):
We're stuffy and swollen from sodium I am, but it
was so good Worth it.
Fu King Chinese Restaurant inLake City, florida.
Check it out.
Yeah it's so good, it is astaple.
Speaker 2 (48:09):
It is so good, I'm full, I'm just like, and if you,
put food King together, youknow what that spells.
Speaker 1 (48:14):
And they sell t-shirts.
Speaker 2 (48:15):
So food King.
Yes, and um, here's the foodKing and Actus Rius.
Yeah, actus Rius.
Speaker 1 (48:20):
Satanic panic and the West Memphis three.
Hey, we love you guys.
Speaker 2 (48:24):
Thank you guys, so much for for tuning in and
Instagram.
Speaker 1 (48:29):
Drink about something .
Speaker 2 (48:30):
That's a quick social media thing.
Speaker 1 (48:33):
We don't have a lot of followers, yet Follow us,
follow us.
Speaker 2 (48:37):
I've been hounding everybody actually, so forgive
me for now, but y'all do thesame thing.
We'll get some more folks inhere.
Speaker 1 (48:42):
Even if you don't like True Crime or Bands and you
know us, just follow us, justbecause it'll hurt.
Speaker 2 (48:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:48):
It'll cost nothing.
It's pretty cool in here, right.
Speaker 2 (48:55):
But cool in here, yes , but um, yeah, this song is
called merciless, and it justcame out from actus ries, and
I'm excited you're gonna love it.
Speaker 1 (48:58):
You're, you're gonna absolutely love it we need to
catch another one of their showssoon yeah, yeah, we do.
Speaker 2 (49:04):
I'm gonna hook up with them, we're gonna, we're
gonna do something.
I'm gonna tell them to comeplay at my house.
Acoustic set, yes, no, mycul-de-sac would burn down.
Speaker 1 (49:18):
Honestly, though.
I mean we have hosted several.
We live in a cul-de-sac, in adecently quiet neighborhood.
We have hosted some ragers, andwe have never had the cops show
up.
Nobody has ever complained.
I don't know what it is aboutour privacy fence and our back
porch, but it's damn nearsoundproof, I guess.
Speaker 3 (49:40):
Yeah, we have a curmudgeon that does live around
us, but yeah, haven't had anyproblems out of them.
No, so thank you, there he is.
Speaker 1 (49:42):
Thank you, no, we'll be celebrating 11 years in this
house soon.
Speaker 2 (49:45):
Yeah, I love it, I love it.
Uh, anything else you want tosay to the guys, the crew, the
fam?
Speaker 1 (49:51):
just keep listening.
Check out these bands like,even if you don't actually like
that type of music, have an openmind.
Check them out anyway.
Yes, they deserve they deserverecognition for the art that
they're putting out into theworld if you like anything heavy
, you're gonna love this band ifyou love, yeah, if you like
heavy, you're definitely gonnalove them.
If you don't like heavy, justcheck it out anyway broaden your
(50:13):
horizons.
Speaker 2 (50:14):
You're gonna dig it.
Speaker 1 (50:14):
You're gonna dig it, so your palate may be more
cultured than you think it is.
Yes, you never know what's thegrooves?
Speaker 2 (50:23):
for me?
Really, that's all I care about.
Speaker 1 (50:25):
Really the grooves like the little break I didn't
know that I liked anything untilI tried it.
So so, yeah.
Speaker 2 (50:31):
Yeah, I don't like pig's feet.
Speaker 1 (50:33):
Nope, tried it.
Didn't like it.
But.
Speaker 2 (50:35):
I tried it though.
Speaker 1 (50:37):
Not a fan yeah.
But that girl, that was on thatbarbecue show we was watching
the other night.
Hers actually looked good, likeI might have tried hers yeah.
It was smoked, smoked,barbecued pig's feet.
Speaker 2 (50:47):
I was like, okay girl .
Speaker 1 (50:55):
Any.
So I'm gonna leave it with youguys.
Here's Actus Reyes.
We'll see you guys next Friday.
Yes, for part two, west Memphis3, be ready to hear me cry
again on the pod here we go.
Speaker 2 (51:01):
See you guys, bye, bye bye.
Speaker 1 (51:12):
Outro Music.
My face, I put you in anembrace.
You wanna walk on my street?
Speaker 3 (51:55):
You're gonna kiss your ass Weed.
I have a very bad feeling.
I'm a dirty, dirty dirty.
I'm a trash.
You can take my pressure.
(52:15):
Your hands will break Free,free, free, free Talking all
that shit, but you don't wannahear it.
Put your money where your mouthis on.
(53:23):
Come and fucking get it.
We'll be right back.
Outro Music.
Thank you, I'm sorry.
Nothing to doubt Sex.
People don't know what feelsright, not even ready for the
concept of time.
They've said they won't settlefor the same time.
Get up out of my face.
I'll put you in a death brace.
(53:44):
You wanna walk on my street?
You're gonna feel it.
Wait for this time to come.
Your life passes in front ofyou, your body's going numb and
(54:09):
you don't know what to do.
So at the end of days, we'lllive in your last breath.
I won't let you sing his namewhile you are praying for death,
for death.
(54:30):
I sing a tiny one for youthinking it's a sin.
I want the same power.
I'm the same as your crown.
I'm the super-soddisfactor.
I'm coming down on your head.
So yeah, that was Actus Raduswith Merciless, and I loved it.
I really did Fucking hot, andso I used this song at the
(54:56):
beginning of our podcast.
I use Groovepad and we useBandler to mix this in Audio
Editor and big shout out to youfans.
We'll see you guys next Friday.
See you, peace.
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