13. Guilty of Murder
Due to the size of the town, it was rather easy to interview potential witnesses and gather up clues to who may have been behind the murder of these boys. West Memphis police soon decided that the crime had to be tied to a group of local teenagers – Jason Baldwin, 16, Jessie Misskelley Jr., 17, and Damien Echols, 18. Echols, who was assumed by authorities to be the ringleader, was a high school dropout with a taste for trashy horror books and heavy metal.
None of these interests were well received by the community members who were extremely conservative, much like the rest of the Bible belt in the 90s. Echols also had a history of psychiatric problems; he was a misfit and a rebel which perfectly matched the profile that police were looking for.
However, with so much controversy surrounding the case, it begs the question, “Is this a case of misinterpretation and a rush to judgement, or did this killer get what he deserved?