West of Memphis

I know that all of you are well aware that I have followed the ongoing saga of the Child Murders of Robin Hood Hills with great interest.

Since learning of the case from my aunt in 1993 that lived not too far where the crime had occurred and it was the big discussion at my cousin’s graduation of that year and the arrest of the trio that will always be remembered as the West Memphis 3.

A year ago I posted my review of Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, the third in a series of documentaries produced by filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky chronicling the events and the ongoing series in this travesty of justice.

Beginning with the original documentary Paradise Lost: The Child murders of Robin Hood Hills telling the story of Jessie Misskelley, Damien Echols, and Jason Baldwin who were convicted of the brutal murders based on circumstantial evidence and local prejudice based on the fact that they listened to Metallica, wore black and read Stephen King books which naturally many of us would take offence to considering that if you are reading this review you are most likely of this behavior yourself.

I was not the only one that was bothered by this as was many high profile celebrities such as Johnny Depp, Eddie Vedder, Henry Rollins, Natalie Maines as well as Peter Jackson and his wife Fran Walsh who gave their full support and fronted a whole new investigation as well as produced this new documentary in West of Memphis.

 

Directed by Amy J. Berg and produced by both Peter Jackson and Damien Echols himself among others, West of Memphis retells the case from a whole new perspective as well as focuses on the investigation and the reasons for the wrong conviction in the first place as well as the introduction of new evidence that was not even taken into consideration in the original trial in 1994.

West of Memphis features interviews with key witnesses that reveal in this documentary that they were not telling the truth in the original trial and the reasons that they chose that path as well as the guilt that they feel for making this decision.

One of the key pieces of evidence introduced in this documentary is the sound theory that many of the wounds on the children were committed post mortem by not the killer but by alligator turtles that are native and common in the area where the bodies were found.

In a truly surreal sequence a man allows one of these turtles to bite his arm to show what the bite mark will look like and it matches the wounds on the victim.

Much like Paradise Lost 3 this film focuses a great deal on a suspect  who was the step father of one of the victims and was never addressed as a suspect in the original investigation. The film follows his own alibi who himself suspects him of the murders as well as the abusive relationship between him and  his stepson the victim.

What this film definitely points out is that there is far more evidence including DNA evidence that links this man to the murder than there is that points to either any member of the WM3 or Mark Byers who is often looked at as a suspect in this case.

West of Memphis is told from the conviction all the way to their eventual release with an Alford Plea and the story is told in a way that would be suspenseful for someone that is not familiar to the case.  The conclusion is also worth watching in seeing how the WM3 react when they first obtain their freedom.

Now I have to say that the Paradise Lost Trilogy disturbed me but West of Memphis angered me.

The fact that this film revealed to me the corruption that lies within the elected officials that were in power in this flick and it was simply disturbing.

The fact that the events in this film and it’s sister films can happen in this day and age really scares me, and I have seen some scary things in my years as a movie goer.

Just as far as this “conspiracy” goes is what scares me in the fact that we don’t know how far this goes in the chain of command in the state powers and interests and I will recommend this flick to all movie goers and I will consider it to be a must see for all of you that think that this won’t happen to you.

What angers me the most is that a state can’t not just admit that they made a mistake but the depths that they will go to cover it up and that they will let a killer walk the streets because it will reveal that they screwed up.

 

Definitely check this flick out.