B (4:08)

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A (4:46)

From wondery i'm lindsey graham and this is american scandal in may nineteen ninety three three boys were found murdered in the in the small town of west memphis arkansas eight year olds christopher byers stevie branch and michael moore had been missing for less than twenty four hours when their bodies were discovered in a creek but detectives struggled to identify their killer they only made arrests after a local teenager named jesse misskelley confessed to the crime and identified damien echols and jason baldwin as his accomplices but just hours after the three young men were taken into custody seventeen year old misskelley recanted his confession under duress after a twelve hour interrogation he had been ready to say just about anything to the police all he'd wanted was to go home but thinking they found their killers the police had no intention of letting them go they pronounced the case was closed and scheduled a press conference for the following morning it was time to let the courts and prosecutors take over and finally secure justice for the three murdered boys this is episode two the trial of jesse misskelley foreign it's the morning of june fourth nineteen ninety three at the west memphis police station journalists pack into a cramped briefing room for a hastily arranged press conference a line of police officers stand behind a table at the front their faces are somber but there's no mistaking the gleam of satisfaction in their eyes all of their hard work has finally paid off cameras flash as chief of detectives gary gitchell takes a seat in front of a bank of microphones looking around the room he announces that their month long investigation is at an end the sadists who tortured and murdered three eight year old boys have finally been caught gitchell then confirms that the accused murderers are all local teenagers who have been under suspicion since the early days of the police investigation damien echols jason baldwin and jesse misskelley gitchell then sits back and opens up the floor to questions from journalists there's an immediate rush but to the reporter's obvious frustration the gitchell can't say much yet he won't tell them the motive of the killers if the murderers knew their victims or how echols baldwin and misskelley were finally caught but there is one question he does answer when asked how confident he is in their case on a scale of one to ten chief gitchell smiles and says eleven soon after that the press conference breaks up and word of the arrest spreads across the country but as the television news channels dissect gitchell's public statements for any clue in private the police are more forthcoming additional information is provided to the relatives of the victims and the accused including a copy of jesse misskelley's confession for the parents and loved ones of the murdered boys misskelley's account is a difficult read but it provides some closure at least now they know what happened to their children but for the families of echols baldwin and misskelley the typed confession raises more questions than it answers to the mother of jason baldwin especially the idea that he might be involved in the murders is ridiculous jason isn't a criminal and nothing the police say can convince her otherwise and even on the first reading she can see that miss kelly's account is riddled with errors and contradictions he repeatedly insisted that the murders happened early in the day either in the morning or just after noon but as baldwin's mother tries to point out to the police that simply cannot be true all three of the victims attended school that day and so did jason the timeline suggested by misskelley is impossible so either he's lying or investigators have put words into his mouth but the police don't budge pointing out that miss kelly's confession was recorded on tape and they reject any suggestion that they could or would influence his testimony and every officer in the department finds miss kelly credible detectives simply can't believe any innocent person would falsely confess to such a heinous crime but despite their show of confidence in front of the media and the families behind the scenes at west memphis police station investigators know their work is far from over the reality is that aside from miss kelly's confession the police don't have anything on baldwin and echols the blood hair and saliva samples taken from them can't be linked to the crime scene the detectives still haven't recovered the murdered weapon and they don't even have hard proof that the accused killers were actually satanists all that leaves them with is some scattered witness testimony local woman vicki hutchison swears that echols and misskelley took her to a witch's orgy and there are several local teenagers who claim they overheard eccles saying he committed the murders ordinarily those statements and the misskelley confession probably would not be enough for a conviction but this is no ordinary case and now that arrests have been made most of the public seem to have made up their minds already that's certainly true of thirty nine year old john mark byers the stepfather of one of the victims he's become the unofficial spokesperson for the grieving families and on a sunny afternoon soon after the police press conference he agrees to speak with a film crew who are making a documentary about the case the arrests in west memphis have only deepened the media's obsession with the murders and hbo has commissioned a film to chronicle the investigation and upcoming trial so accompanied by the documentary team byers trudges through the small patch of forest where the bodies were found called robin hood hills by the locals it used to be a place where kids rode their bikes and ran around now though it's almost deserted as he approaches the gully where police recovered his stepson christopher byers pauses he runs a hand through his thinning rust colored hair before pulling his camouflage hat down tight behind him the director clears his throat and tees him up for the camera alright so can you tell us what's on your mind as you walk through these woods myers turns his gaze to the sky the word of the lord is all i'm thinking about is there a particular verse yea though i walk through the valley of death i shall fear no evil look i'm not scared of the devil thy rod and thy staff comfort me you know and i thank the lord for letting me be able to believe in that with all my heart have anything to say to the three teenagers who are accused of killing your stepson i do i hope you all really believe in your master satan the slew foot the devil himself because he's not gonna help you he's gonna laugh at you mock you and torture you he didn't need your help the devil's got all the demons he needs so you're confident the killers worship satan everybody's saying it lucifer didn't need them but he took their minds and manipulated them they prayed to the devil they had their satanic worship surfaces out here and they had all types of wild orgies too who told you that i've been told crazy things to me the place where i'm standing is hell on earth because i know that three babies were killed right where i stand i know my son was castrated and probably laid there right there on the bank just bleeding to death it's like those killers enjoyed it hey if this is too difficult we can pause for a moment no i'm not done jesse misskelley jason baldwin damian echols i hope your master the devil takes you i want you to meet him real soon and the day you die i'm gonna praise god byers pauses for a moment then looks directly into the camera i'm gonna make you a promise every year on may fifth i'm gonna come to your graveside and i'm gonna spit on you i'm gonna curse the day you were born attorney dan stidham pulls his car into a parking spot outside a jail in the small town of wayne arkansas and then cuts the engine he takes a moment wondering what he's about to get himself into he's been assigned to defend jesse misskelley who's already confessed to murder so stidham would be the first to admit that this case has him in over his head he's only twenty seven and doesn't have much experience with serious felonies and like nearly everyone else in america stidham assumes that because of the confession miss kelly must be guilty so his first meeting with his new client is a bit awkward stidham doesn't know what to say and miss kelly barely looks at him jael has not been kind to miss kelly so far he's always been a skinny kid but now there are dark hollows under his cheeks and his eyes are rimmed red with tears stidham tries to make a little small talk to cheer miss kelly up but it doesn't do much good so stidham decides to cut to the chase saying they need to make a deal with the prosecutors miss kelly's testimony is the key evidence against damien echols and jason baldwin so if they play their cards right they can use it as leverage by offering to testify against his alleged accomplices misskelley may be able to secure a favorable sentence but as stidham tries to explain this miss kelly doesn't seem to be listening he just sits hunched over with his head between his legs statham crouches down so he's eye level with miss kelly and in his most solemn and forceful tone he reminds his client that the prosecution intends to try him as an adult that would be serious he could be facing the death penalty but none of it appears to get through so stidham straightens up and sighs he tries to hide his frustration knowing that no matter what miss kelly may have done he's still only seventeen years old and must be terrified looking around the jail cell and searching for a way to engage miss kelly stidham spots a glossy piece of paper on the cot beside him it's a religious pamphlet the kind passed out by churches to warn against sinful behavior he raises an eyebrow and asks misskelley about it misskelly shrugs again and tells him he got it from a preacher in jail then he asks if stidham knows who satin is stidham shakes his head asking what misskelley means the boy replies that when the pastor came by he said miss kelly was going to hell and gave him this pamphlet telling him all about it then with some difficulty miss kelly reads part of the pamphlet out loud he says it's all about someone named satin stidham's jaw drops as he realizes what he's hearing he looks again at miss kelly and the utter sincerity of the boy's face this is who's being accused of participating in a satanic culture of being a witch of sacrificing three little boys to the devil and he doesn't even know who satan is dan stidham came to this jail assuming his new client was a vicious murderer but suddenly in a flash he's not so sure jesse misskelley may not be guilty at all american scandal is sponsored by at and t who believes hearing a voice can change everything it's why we love a good podcast or save voicemails from loved ones because we appreciate the sound of a familiar voice that's why when you need a recharge you call your best friend and when you want some comfort it's your mom or advice from dad or just the sound of family talking together at and t wants everyone to share their voice over the holidays so send a voice note leave a voicemail call someone because that conversation is a chance to say something they'll hear forever happy holidays from at and t connecting changes.

B (16:08)

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A (16:51)

Following his meeting with jesse misskelley defense attorney dan stidham changes strategy his original plan had been to seek a plea deal gaining misskelley a more favorable sentence in exchange for his cooperation in the case of but now stidham has decided that miss kelly should plead not guilty instead he wants to take the case to trial because the only real evidence tying miss kelly to the crime is his thirty four minute tape confession and stidham hopes to get it thrown out if he can convince a judge that the confession was coerced and should not be heard by the jury then the prosecution will have almost nothing to base their case on and recent developments have only given stidham more hope west memphis police have finally received the autopsy results weeks after the examinations were performed the reason for the delay is unclear but the findings contradict some of the investigation's major assumptions and miss kelly's confession because the victims were found nude and one was apparently castrated detectives have long believed that there was a sexual component to the crime in his confession miss kelly stated that echols and baldwin repeatedly assaulted the boys but now the autopsy reports suggest that there was no sexual assaults at all and that at least some of the mutilation to the bodies was likely caused by wild animals instead stidham believes that these latest revelations will strengthen his case and over months of pre trial motions he tries to convince the authorities to throw out miss kelly's statement but to no avail stidham's arguments are rejected and it's determined that the jurors should be the ones to decide whether the confession is valid or not it's a blow for misskelley's defense and meanwhile the prosecution is working hard to find more evidence to use against him and the other two accused they search the suspect's home and forensically test hundreds of samples everything from clothing to possible weapons eventually experts find several fibers on baldwin and eckel's clothing that are microscopically similar to those found at the scene of the crime the venates confirm that the fibers come from the mass produced clothing that can be purchased at stores across the nation and that's the only link investigators find despite the brutality of the murders there's not a single hair fingerprint or drop of blood that can tie echols miss kelly or baldwin to the case so investigators rack their brains searching for something they may have overlooked six months after the murders in november of nineteen ninety three a deputy prosecutor on the case has a sudden bolt in inspiration while driving one day he notices a lake between the baldwin and echols family trailers and it looks to him like an ideal place to get rid of evidence so a team of divers searches the pond soon an officer surfaces holding a nine inch survival knife the autopsies of the victims determine their wounds were caused by a serrated blade and this one fits the bill investigators can't definitively prove it's the murder weapon or even that it belonged to any of the accused but one of eckel's ex girlfriends says it looks similar to a knife he used to carry and as far as police and prosecutors are concerned it's another brick in their growing wall of evidence that they will first use in the case against jesse misskelley who's being tried separately from the other two suspects on january eighteenth nineteen ninety four proceedings get underway in a packed courtroom in the town of corning arkansas the presiding judge is david burnett jett a former prosecutor with a feathery crop of golden red hair the testimony the court hears over the following days is devastating three little bicycles owned by the eight year old victims are wheeled into the room to show the jury along with graphic images of the abuse they suffered at the hands of their killers throughout it all miss kelly remains hunched over his eyes downcast he never looks up even when he's directly addressed by witnesses his attorney dan stidham has advised him to sit like that he doesn't want miss kelly to seem arrogant but as the trial continues it becomes clear it's not leaving a good impression on spectators it doesn't look humble and instead miss kelly just appears guilty so it's up to stidham to turn things around the crucial witness for the prosecution is the west memphis police department's chief of detectives gary gitchell he led the interview in which miss kelly made his confession and stidham knows he has to be discredited so during cross examination he quickly homes in on the inconsistencies in miss kelly's account inspector gitchell we we all heard the tape recording of jesse's confession did you find his testimony plausible yes sir i did that's the reason why we're all here but his statement wasn't perfect was it i don't know what you mean well would you agree that not everything my client said aligns with the known fact facts of the case well no confession perfect on the tape jesse claimed the victim skipped school on the day of the murders is that accurate no sir it's not my client also stated the boys were killed around noon is that accurate no according to the forensics they weren't killed until later that night and you knew that that was incorrect when jesse told you that yes sir thank you how are the boys tied when their bodies were discovered a shoestring from the wrist like right wrist to right ankle but in jesse's statement that was played to the jury didn't he tell you that they were tied with brown rope that's correct and is there any evidence that the victims were choked to death as jesse described no is there any evidence that they were sodomized as jesse described no i don't believe so well these seem to be pretty important issues at any time when he was telling you these things that you knew were incorrect did it ever occur to you that if what he was telling you was false then perhaps his entire story was false as well i believe jesse was manipulating the facts to his own advantage for what advantage to minimize his own involvement in the murders that's that's just common at least in my twenty year career but these are major errors inspector it was a long day jesse simply got confused that's all so he confused day with night repeated sexual assaults with no sexual assault brown rope with black shoelaces on issue after issue there is simply no evidence to support the things he says actually there is some excuse me if i recall there was a wound on one of the boys that suggested to me that they were tied with rope at one point or another the courtroom murmurs as the jury leans in stidham tries to regain his composure well hold on now that's new information it's never been since suggested that ropes were used did you record this observation in any of your notes at the time no i don't think so you didn't is there anything in the medical examiner's findings that confirms these suspicions i'm not sure then your honor this is pure unadulterated speculation from a witness who is not qualified to render such an opinion well if you want i can draw a picture for the jury i still remember what the mark looked like dan stidham turns to the judge expecting that his objection will be upheld but instead stidham is flabbergasted when judge burnett permits inspector gitchell to sketch the wounds he claim he saw and then pass the crude diagram to the jurors this is a serious blow to stidham's case instead of highlighting the inconsistencies in miss kelly's confession gitchell's testimony has only added more evidence of guilt but there's still hope because the prosecution hasn't yet established a motive stidham watches the next witness carefully thirty year old vicki hutchison strides across the courtroom her tweed jacket flapping behind her despite not being a police officer she voluntarily went undercover to investigate damien echols supposed involvement in satanism for eight days she wrote the eighteen year old echols into a fake romance while reporting everything he supposedly told her to detective donald bray of the marion police department now after swearing her oath hutchison explains to the jury how eccles invited her to a twisted orgy in the woods and how jesse misskelley was there too throughout hutcheson's testimony dan stidham objects again and again telling the judge that the alleged cult meeting is irrelevant because hutcheson claims it occurred weeks after the killings there was nothing at the actual scene of the crime that indicated the murders were still satanic or related to any other known cult but once again stidham's objections are overruled and the prosecution is delighted hutcheson's testimony provides exactly what they were missing the reason miss kelly and the others allegedly killed the three eight year olds it was because they worshiped satan so during his cross examination stidham tries to call hutcheson's credibility into question pointing out that before she started working with detective bray she had been accused of overcharging a company credit card and was also under investigation for writing fake checks but after she went undercover those investigations suddenly disappeared stidham hints that a quid pro quo was involved that hutcheson helped the police out of a desire to escape her own legal troubles or in the hopes of claiming a reward but hutcheson insists none of that was ever on her mind stidham is sure that she's stretching the truth but he can't deny that she's an effective witness even when she told the court her over the top story about the satanic cult meeting in the woods he could see the jurors hanging on every word day by day it feels to stidham as if he's losing ground so when prosecutor brent davis takes the floor to make his final arguments stidham hopes for an opening something that might salvage their case he doesn't get one davis begins by minimizing the errors in miss kelly's statement to police saying the defense admits miss kelly is a liar when they claim he gave a false confession yet now they're asking the jury to believe the police are the ones twisting the truth quivering with emotion davis goes on saying that he finds that repugnant and when it comes to the murders themselves he focuses on the brutality of the crimes the savagery is evidence enough that the devil was at work in west memphis but thanks to vicki hutchison's compelling testimony davis argues there's plenty of reasons to believe miss kelly was part of a demonic organization and that the twelve people on the jury have the power to fight back against the devil himself to put one of his servants away where he can't harm anyone else again by the time davis is finished many in the courtroom are in tears and stidham is devastated he looks over at his client and sees jesse misskelley put his head in his hands both he and stidham know there's only one verdict the jury is going to come back with guilty american scandal is sponsored by at and t who believes that hearing a voice can change everything and if you love podcasts you get it the power of hearing someone speak is unmatched it's why we save those voicemails from our loved ones they mean something right that's why when you need a one on one holiday boost you know who to call maybe it's mom dad your older brother or younger sister that one voice that always feels like home and when you need to get hyped for something big it's your best friend their voice gives you that lift that you didn't know you needed att knows the holidays are the perfect time to share your voice too so if it's been a while since you've called someone who matters now's the time because it's more than just a conversation it's a chance to say something they'll hear forever so spread a little love with a call this season happy holidays from at and t connecting changes everything okay carrie you ready quick quick quick list three gifts you'd never give a.

B (28:22)

Cowboy lacy bobby socks a diamond bracelet and a gift certificate to sephora oh.

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A (29:16)

Fun on february fifth nineteen ninety four jesse misskelley is found guilty of one count of first degree murder and two counts of second degree murder he's sentenced to life in prison plus forty years afterwards he's asked if he has anything to say to the court but misskelley can't bring himself to speak the unofficial spokesman for the victim's family has a lot to say though outside the court building a triumphant john mark byers tells reporters that he hopes miss kelly never sees sunlight again and now he just wants his stepson's other two killers to face justice in the same way having kept tabs on miss kelly's trial from their jail cells damien echols and jason baldwin are left shocked by the verdict up until now they have both taken their situation seriously but still believe the evidence was on their side and that they'd ultimately be exonerated now though they both face the very real prospect of life in prison or even the death penalty family it's eccles who struggles the most while behind bars his beloved grandmother has died grief and his growing anxiety make a poisonous combination he's now only getting a few hours of sleep every night and as the weeks pass he becomes erratic and even paranoid at one point he starts to believe the police are tampering with his medication drugging his prison food even pumping toxic gas through the vents but despite his fragile state of mind echel's defense team still needs his help to prepare for the trial they've hired a memphis private detective named ron lax and they need eccles to tell lax everything curled up on his cod eckles looks up as lax is shown inside hey ron hey damien how you doing i got you something lax pulls out a pack of cigarettes which eccles practically snatches from his hands lax then sits down on the cot and offers him a light so i heard about your grandmother's passing man i'm sorry for your loss probably better she won't be around to see see what them lock me away or kill me oh damien you you have to stay strong that's what my girlfriend says well she's a smart woman hey and i heard you're a father now eccles just nods so you got a lot to fight for they won't even let me me hold him well you will you keep telling yourself that you're gonna get out of here well i'm not going out like jesse that's for sure because they're gonna find you innocent no i'm saying if they don't find me innocent i'm not going to prison i'm gonna end it right there in the courtroom hey hey don't talk like that let's focus on your case all right good i know we need to talk about the witnesses again i know you said you didn't want to discuss it but we have to get everything everything out in the open prosecution had these girls who are saying that they overheard you confess to the murders at a softball game does that sound familiar to you at all maybe come on tell me they're lying or something well they are i mean i never said i did it but yeah well but maybe i made some jokes everyone was saying i was the devil and all that so i just i don't know i leaned in what'd you say i don't even remember i wasn't serious i was joking well if these girls did over overhear you do you think your jokes could be misinterpreted i don't i don't know damien come on look i'm sorry i'm sorry okay i'm sorry i wear black i'm sorry i grew my hair out i'm sorry i do anything i don't know what i said i just opened my mouth words spill out hey it's okay it's it's not illegal to make a joke and the cops still don't have any real evidence tying you to the crime well that didn't stop them from convicting jesse jesse confessed and as long as he doesn't testify they won't be allowed to use that against you and jason your case is strong but i need you to take a second i need you to take a second and think try to remember all the jokes you might have made before you got arrested and i need specifics every word people might use against you i need to know it all damien echol stares off into space the sarcastic edgy persona he spent his teenage years cultivating is now his biggest liability smoking his cigarette down to the filter echols tries to remember every off color joke he's made in the past few months about the murders about satanism about being evil these are the details lax needs and he's glad to get them privately because though damien echols and jason baldwin's trial may not have started yet almost every detail of the case has already reached the press for months reporters from all over the country have been camped out in west memphis some of them inflame the gossip about satanism others gleefully paint the town as backward and superstitious still there are some who hold a more genuine interest in getting to the bottom of the case by early nineteen ninety four the hbo documentary film crew has been in arkansas for over six months and they spend a significant amount of time with the families of both the victims and the accused john mark byers and his wife melissa had become especially close to the filmmakers and as a gift just prior to eccles and baldwin's trial byers gives a member of the documentary crew a fold out hunting knife soon after the filmmakers return to new york for a short break and while fiddling with the knife there one of them notices a dark stain at the base of the nine inch blade near the hinges they take a closer look under a bright light and at first glance it's hard to make out the stain could be anything but to someone working on a documentary about a triple murder it looks a lot like blood when byers gave them the knife he said it had never been used so seeing blood unnerves the filmmakers they're wary of publicizing the discovery and potentially pulling byers into a storm of controversy but even so there is a remote possibility it has something to do with the murders some people have pointed the finger at byers as the possible killer and this knife has a serrated edge just like the one supposedly used in the murders so troubled the filmmakers call several meetings with their producers at hbo to debate their next move in the end they decide that turning over the knife to the west memphis police is the right thing to do the authorities then send it off for testing at a lab in north carolina and a few weeks later they call john mark byers in for an interview it's west memphis chief inspector gary gitchell and detective bryn ridge who asks him the questions when they mention the knife byers claims he got it for deer hunting but then never ended up using it gitchell presses him but byers insists that he hasn't cut anything with it not even a single time gitchell leans back troubled then he asks if anyone else might have had access to the knife maybe byers wife or his teenage stepson but byers is adamant he says before he gave it to the documentary crew member he kept the knife in his chest of drawers detective ridge pipes in at this point asking byers if there was any period of time no matter how narrow when the knife was not kept in a drawer that's when byers acknowledges that there is one possibility he admits he may have trimmed his nails with a knife once that's when chief gitchell drops a bombshell he tells byers that they've got results back from a crime lab in north carolina it's confirmed that there's blood on the knife byers is surprised but he suddenly seems to remember something else telling the detectives that he actually did use the knife once to try and skin a deer but he found it wasn't as good as his other blades so he just put it up in his chest of drawers afterward gitchell tells byers that while his story may be true it doesn't explain the lab's findings because the forensics experts did not find deer blood on the blade it was human and its type matched eight year old christopher byers steps on at this point byers voice becomes shaky he claims he has no idea how human blood could have gotten on the knife and insists again that he never cut himself or anyone else using it it all seems impossible quietly and almost apologetically gitchell then asks byers if he had anything to do with the deaths of christopher and the other two little boys byers response is unequivocal no absolutely not after that the police let byers go and a few hours later they get more results from the lab there isn't enough blood on the knife to get a precise dna profile but what they have is not only consistent with christopher but also with byers himself when that information is then relayed to byers he informs the police that actually he does remember cutting himself with it once the investigators don't press him any further it seems that with the trial of damien echols and jason baldwin about to begin the last thing the police want is to reopen the case a bloody knife belonging to the stepfather of one of the victims is not the kind of evidence they're interested in all that matters is that they've found a nest of satanists and they already know the devil is guilty from wonder eat this is episode two of the west memphis three for american scandal in our next episode after jesse misskelley's conviction it's damien echols and jason baldwin's turn in court and the second trial of the west memphis three will prove even more sensational than the first if you're enjoying american scandal you can unlock exclusive seasons on wondery binge new season first and listen completely ad free when you join wondery in the wondery app apple podcasts or spotify and before you go tell us about yourself by filling out a survey at wondry dot com survey if you'd like to learn more about the west memphis three we recommend the book devil's the true story of the west memphis three by mara lebritt and the three part hbo documentary paradise lost this episode contains reenactments and dramatized details and while in most cases we can't know exactly what was said all our dramatizations are based on historical research american scandal is hosted edited and executive produced by me lindsay graham for airship audio editing by mohammed shazib sound design by gabriel gould music by thrum this episode is written and researched by terrell wells fact checking by alyssa jung perry managing producer emily burke development by stephanie jens senior producer andy beckerman executive producers are william simpson for airship and jenny lauer beckman and marshall louie for wondering.

B (39:41)

I'M indra varma and in the latest season of the spy who we open the file on oleg gordievsky the spy who outran the kgb a rising star in the heart of soviet power gordievsky is secretly feeding mi six the kremlin's deadliest secrets for eleven years he walked a razor's edge exposing kgb threats that hastened the cold war's end and helped prevent nuclear annihilation but the kgb have a mole of their own when they discover the truth gordievsky's world collapses mi six hatch a desperate high stakes plan to smuggle him out of movies moscow an escape that could rewrite history follow the spy who on the wondery app or wherever you listen to podcasts or you can binge the full season of the spy who outran the kgb early and ad free with wondery plus.