In an article by Douglas Linder (n.d) it talks about a famous murder that happened in West Memphis, Arkansas. On May of 1993, three eight-year old boys were found murdered in the woods of their hometown in West Memphis, Arkansas. West Memphis Police Department started receiving calls from worried parents, who couldn’t locate their sons. A search had begun around West Memphis, with the help of the community, they found the lifeless bodies of the young boys in the woods. Shortly, rumors around the community would go around stating that the murders were part of a ritual done by some devil worshipers. Damien Echols, seventeen at the time, was one of the first individuals to get interviewed due to his “goth” looks, mental illness, and troubled home. …show more content…
Police interviewed Echols many times, but he denied any involvement in the murders. They also interviewed Echols’ friend, Jason Baldwin, and he also denied his involvement, but police would not believe the pair. Another friend of Echols was Jesse Misskelley, he would babysit for his neighbor and would tell her that Echols would drink blood and that they would go to “esbat,” which is a gathering of witches. Believing that these three men were the murderers of the three little boys, the media gave them the name “West Memphis Three.” Misskelley, being partly mentally retarded, was interviewed by the police for hours and like the previous two, denied being a part of the murders and any involvement in devil worshipping. After being questioned by two detectives for several hours, Misskelley begins to tell the officers that he, Jason, and Damien committed the murders. Jesse Misskelley then stated that during his interview with the officers, he would get yelled at if he said something wrong. At one point, one of the officers asked him how the murder was done and if Misskelley described the murder wrong, the officer would yell at him until he got it right (Linder,