THE VICTIMS AND THEIR FAMILIES Steve Branch, Sr.
Pamela Hobbs
Terry Hobbs
FATHER Broke a court-imposed gag order the day before the WM3 were released to angrily complain to the press about the plea deal that would set them free. “I want them to go back,” he told reporters. “Don’t just give them their walking papers.”
MOTHER Memorably appeared in “Paradise Lost” wearing her son’s Cub Scout neckerchief on her head. On record as a believer in the WM3’s claims of innocence, she told a Memphis TV station last week she now feels “a little bit confused” over whether the WM3 committed the crimes or not.
STEPFATHER Married at the time of Stevie Branch’s murder to Pam Hobbs (they divorced in 2004). A favorite suspect among WM3 supporters due to DNA testing which revealed that a hair found tied into a knot that bound one of the murdered boys belonged to him. Told reporters he didn’t think justice had been served following the WM3 plea deal.
Ricky Lee Murray
Sharon Melissa Byers
John Mark Byers
FATHER A resident of Indiana at the time of the murders, he was questioned in the slayings but had a sound alibi for his whereabouts.
MOTHER Famous for cursing the WM3 “and the mothers who bore them” in “Paradise Lost.” Died under mysterious circumstances on March 29, 1996, at age 40. Her cause of death is still listed as undetermined, though her body showed several hypodermic needle marks.
STEPFATHER Married to Melissa Byers at the time of Chris Byers’ murder. Another favorite suspect of WM3 supporters (he gave a knife to “Paradise Lost” directors which bore traces of human blood), Byers originally believed in the guilt of the WM3, but has since become a vocal supporter of their innocence.
Steven “Stevie” Branch, Jr. Born Nov. 26, 1984, in Blytheville, Ark.
Christopher “Chris” Byers Born June 23, 1984, in Memphis, Tenn.
James Michael Moore
PARENTS The lowest-profile of all the parents of the victims, the Moores are now divorced. Both still believe the WM3 are guilty; Todd Moore released a statement on Aug. 20 in which he called the day the WM3 were freed “the second worst day of my life.”
Born July 27, 1984, in Key West, Fla.
“The very first thing I will say to him is I love him,” she said. “He knows I’m here for him. I’ve always been here, and I always will be, and it’s time to come home.” A little while after Metcalf arrived, Steve Branch appeared. The father of 8-year-old Stevie Branch — one of the boys stripped and drowned in Ten Mile Bayou all those years ago — Branch’s anger seemed to come off him in waves as he spoke to reporters. Unlike some other family members of the victims, Branch had not been swayed by the WM3’s case for innocence. On Thursday, he’d tested a gag order imposed on family members and attorneys to register his displeasure about the plea deal. As he spoke on Friday, a radio station van running a live feed in the parking lot played back his words a half-second later, lending a strange echo effect. He said he’d tell Judge Laser that it wasn’t too late to change his mind. “I want [Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley] to go back,” he said. “If they’re released, at least let them go to another trial and let another jury find them innocent. Don’t just give them their walking papers. Don’t just set them free just because they said they killed my son.” A few minutes before the hearing, John Mark Byers arrived at the courthouse. Nobody had to ask if he was a Somebody. Byers, who once cursed the WM3 to hellfire at every opportunity, changed his tune a few years back, and has since become a vocal supporter of the WM3. Tall,
16 AUGUST 24, 2011 • ARKANSAS TIMES
UNHAPPY: Steve Branch, Sr. speaks to reporters outside the Craighead County courthouse .
bald, pale — the kind of guy who might have been cast as a gravedigger in a 1950s melodrama — Byers literally shouted into reporters’ outstretched microphones, his voice booming off the front of the courthouse. The plea deal, he said, was “bullshit.” “I want justice, and I want the three of them to be free, and I have no animosity whatsoever towards the Three,” he said. “I know they’re innocent, and I have been on their side and fighting hard for them since 2007 when I realized I was wrong. They did not kill my son, and this is wrong what the state of Arkansas is doing to cover their ass!” Something close to silence fell over the crowd once 10 a.m. rolled around, as if people were straining to listen for what was going on upstairs. The police and fire marshal came out and pushed the crowd back to clear the sidewalk. Just after noon, the word came down: The West Memphis Three were free. A cheer rose up. Grown men literally wept, and didn’t give a damn who saw them. I broke from the crowd and went down to the press conference in the basement. First, the prosecutors came in and tried to explain the pleas; to explain that, even though they thought the WM3 would likely win their freedom if retried, prosecutors still believed them to be the sole killers of the three children.
BRIAN CHILSON
Roy Todd Moore and Diana Moore
After the prosecutors were gone, Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley came in with their attorneys and supporters, looking like men just woken from long sleep. Monday morning, they had all lived with the idea that they might die in prison. They probably hadn’t had a good cheeseburger or a pizza or a milkshake in almost two decades. How long since any of them stood with his feet in running water? How long since any of them had felt the rain? How long since any of them ran as long and as far as he wanted? Now here they were, soon to ride out of Jonesboro; soon to be free to do whatever and eat whatever and love whoever they damn well pleased. Jessie Misskelley has a jailhouse tattoo on the top of his head: a clock face with no hands; a symbol of his status as a lifer, with nothing but time. It’s the tattoo a man would get if he thought he would spend the rest of his life in jail. As the WM3 settled into their chairs before the assembled press, Bruce Sinofsky from “Paradise Lost” — 18 years older than he was when he and his friend Joe first decided to make a documentary about three Satan worshippers who killed three boys — spoke up. I’ll remember what came next for the rest of my life: “Hey Jessie,” Sinofsky shouted. “What time does your clock say?” Jessie Misskelley smiled. “I dunno,” he said. “What time is it now?”