The West Memphis Scam

Turns out Damien Echols is a psychopath. Yep, just like every other Sisters-of-Mercy-lovin' social-liberal, I was totally duped into thinking that the WM3 were unjustly tried and convicted of a crime they did not commit. Sure, the State did a sloppy job and like every other circumstantial case, there are inconsistencies. Does that mean that those three jackals didn't do it? Fuck, no!

I spent hours(sad, I know) reading through statements, trial transcripts, mental health records, motions and judgment summaries. All of this, personally, convinced me that these guys committed those murders. I also, now, believe that there doesn't exist a home in West Memphis that couldn't be attached to a truck and rolled away, but that is another problem completely(although none the less scary). With all of the bumbling on the part of the State, I couldn't promise that I would find them guilty if I were a juror, but that doesn't mean they didn't do it.

HBO doesn't mention Damien's mental health records that clearly indicate that he is a textbook antisocial personality disorder with a history of violence. Here's a little something from some court records:

The jury did not arbitrarily refuse to find that appellant Echols had no significant history of criminal activity where Echols admitted on cross-examination in the penalty phase of the trial that he had an altercation with his father in which a knife was involved and the police were called; where he admitted that he was hospitalized that same day and that when his father came to the hospital, "I told him I would eat him alive"; where he admitted that he tried "to claw the eyes out" of a student; and where a psychologist who testified for Echols admitted that Echols had "an all-powerful God-like image of himself," that his parents were concerned with his satanism or devil worship, and that Echols's medical records included notations of statements by Echols pertaining, among other things, to his rage and the drinking of the blood of others.

Most disturbing to me was a statement made to police describing Damien brutally killing and mutilating a dog. Several other sources indicated that Damien had killed dogs and other animals. Plus, animal skulls were found in his home. So, I am convinced of the veracity of the report.

If you want to do some research, almost every actual document associated with the case can be found here: http://callahan.8k.com/
According to the site, the guys who run it are supporters of the WM3; I've found it to be unbiased in its presentation of actual facts and links to documents. You can draw your own conclusion from there.

And to think... I almost added them to my myspace page!