David Pietras - Evil in a Small Town

Evil In A Small Town

David Pietras

Copyright 2015 by David Pietras

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Cover design by

David Pietras

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Prologue

I n my years as a book author writing about true crime I have never come across a case like this one. We have three little 8 year old boys that were murdered and found submerged in a drainage canal. The media jumped on the story and put their usual twists and lies into the story to sell their newspapers. Then HBO did a documentary on the case. They covered the trial of the three accused and portrayed these three poor innocent teenagers as the true victims. The documentary was called Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills and most people who have watched this have come away convinced that Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley were victims of a gross miscarriage of justice. Many then went on to read Devils Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three by Mara Leveritt, watched Paradise Lost 2 . Some have even browsed some of the hundreds of WM3 supporters websites. Even celebrities have come forward proclaiming the WM3s innocence.

Unfortunately most of these people refuse to look at any facts in this case that point to the overwhelming proof that the killers were caught and sentenced to prison. Two of which received life sentences and the third was sent to death row.

Unfortunately in 1993 all we had was the media to lead us through the maze of the legal processes of the trial. And many people decided to accept the medias version of this case as fact. They were led to believe that Misskelley, Echols and Baldwin were only arrested because of the way they looked or dressed or acted, the music they listened to or the books they read or the beliefs they had. The media never hinted to any fact that they were arrested because they did the crime. Two juries unanimously found them guilty because they were obviously guilty.

Outside of the fact that it is a known fact that Damien Echols lied about his whereabouts on the day that the three boys were murdered, and credible eye witnesses placed him in the neighborhood of the killings on the day of the crime there is also physical evidence that is so commonly overlooked by the supporters of The West Memphis Three.

But before we go any further let me take this time to say this. The purpose of this book is to show all of the evidence of the case. I want to present to you the reader all of the evidence that shows the possibility of guilt. My goal is to give you the truth and not to put any misleading spins on the information like the media does to sell papers.

I will also like to say that anything that we present here as fact was obtained from the actual police and or court files on this case. There are so many lies that have presented as fact in this case and I think that the people who accept it are not educated enough to take the time to check the statements that they read. If you read something in this book that conflict with what you have been lead to believe then I advise you to search the information to determine the truth. This is one of the most thoroughly documented criminal cases I have ever seen. And I encourage you the reader to look up the case information on this web site Callahan8k.com. It is there that you will find the truth in this case.

We will also like to note that if you see typos in the police, court or the medical reports, they are there from the original text. We did not correct any of the text to keep the integrity of the facts. We also did not alter any crime scene photos.

CHAPTER ONE

MAY 5TH 1993

From left to right: Christopher Byers, Michael Moore, and Steve Branch

A ccording to the police reports filed by the families of the three boys, they were last seen together between 5:30 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. on the evening of 5 May 1993. The three boys had finished school for the day at Weaver Elementary School at 3:00 p.m. Steven Branch went home but shortly afterwards Michael came to the house to ask if Steven could come out and play and the two of them left together at 3:30. Before they left, Stevies mother Pam Hobbs, gave Stevie strict instructions to be back home by 4:30 and told him that if he wasnt, he would be grounded for two weeks from riding his bike.

According to Pam, about 5 minutes later around 3:35, Christopher came over and asked if Stevie was home, she was surprised that he hadnt ran into them outside because they had just left a few minutes before.

Christopher Byers step-father, John Mark Byers, said that he had arrived home at 3:10 p.m. but Christopher was not there when his brother Ryan arrived home at 3:30 p.m.

John Mark Byers drove Ryan to the courthouse for a 4:00 p.m. appointment. After dropping Ryan off, he then drove to pick up his wife, Melissa Byers from work. They both arrived back at their home at around 5:20 p.m. only to find that Chris was still not at home, even though there was evidence that he had been there. Soon after bringing Melissa home, John Mark Byers had to leave once again to pick up Ryan from the courthouse, but on the way he found Christopher riding a skateboard. John Byers said that he took his son home where he gave him "two or three licks" with a belt, in the presence of his mother Melissa, as punishment for not staying at home as he had been instructed.

Before returning to the courthouse to pick up Ryan, Byers told Christopher to clean up the carport area. Byers said that this was about 5:30 and that this was the last time that he had seen Christopher. According to the West Memphis Police, Christopher had left his home and met up with his friends (James) Michael Moore and Steven Branch soon after 5:30 p.m.

At about 6:00 p.m., Diana Moore said that she had seen her son (James) Michael riding bicycles with Steven Branch and Christopher Byers. Chris had been sitting on the back of Steven's bike.