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Paradise Lost: The Child Murders |
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Continued... REVELATIONS: PARADISE LOST II PREMIERES MARCH 13th ON HBO! When a reporter asked John Byers how he had lost his teeth, he said that the medicine he takes for his brain tumor gave him a periodontal disease which made his teeth fall out. On another occasion he said that he lost them in a bar fight. He also contradicted himself as to whether he lost his teeth before or after the murders. On May 5th,1993, at 8:42 PM (a few hours after the boys were last seen alive), Marty King, the manager of a Bojangles restaurant near Robin Hood Hills reported that a dazed Afro-American male, who was apparently covered in blood, had been in the ladies room for about an hour. A cop went to the restaurant but did not leave her car. The man left. After the boys' bodies were discovered, a detective came to the restaurant and collected blood scrapings 24 HOURS LATER! These samples were lost. I'd sure like to know what (if any) relationship Marty King (who currently works for the West Memphis Police Department) had with John Byers. A few months after the killings, a similar murder of a boy took place in Missouri, about 400 miles away. The suspects in the Robin Hood Hills case were in jail at the time. John Byers gave a knife to the makers of the Paradise Lost film. It had human blood on it that matched the blood type of both John Byers and his murdered step-son Chris. A DNA test was never done. There was testimony that his knife could have made the wounds on the children because the blade was consistent with the cut pattern. It was proven in court that the boys' killer had the skill of a surgeon. John Byers was a jewel cutter as well as a drug informant for the West Memphis Police Department. In July of 1994, John Byers was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor. He had allegedly instigated a knife fight between two kids. Also during that summer, he was arrested for burglary and neighbors filed restraining orders against the Byers' for allegedly whipping a 5 year old boy and firing shots at a nearby home. OH, right, did I forget to mention this? On March 29th, 1996 Melissa Byers (mother of Chris) died in her home. Her husband John had apparently given her CPR. A Rescue Unit took her to the hospital where she was pronounced dead. An autopsy found drugs in her system, but not enough to cause death. Click here for the autopsy report. Damien Echols is on death row and appealing for a new trial on the grounds that he had ineffective counsel and that the state did not provide his attorneys with enough money to hire expert witnesses. There are so many things that are wrong with this case that I don't have the room to rant about them. The incredibly informative, altruistic West Memphis 3 website run by Kathy Bakken, Grove Pashley and Burk Sauls will provide you with everything you need to know that I neglected to mention here. Mr. Sauls was the guy they interviewed on Court TV and his sarcasm was brilliant against the two sensationalist reporters. Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky (the two filmmakers) have finished filming the sequel which if you've missed the screaming headlines on all these pages, will air on HBO March 13th, 2000. Take heed. The books you read, the clothes you wear and the music you listen to all wrapped up by the town you live in could very easily wrench your freedom right out from under you. |
Links Free the West Memphis Three |