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Crime Weekly

S3 Ep119: West Memphis Three: The Right to Remain Silent (Part 5)

Crime Weekly

Audioboom Studios

True Crime, Society & Culture, News

4.89.5K Ratings

🗓️ 7 April 2023

⏱️ 164 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

West Memphis, Arkansas is located in Crittenden County and is directly across the Mississippi River from Memphis Tennessee, but in 1993, West Memphis and Memphis were worlds apart. Memphis boasted a healthy and growing population of over 620 thousand, while West Memphis had just over 28 thousand residents. But Memphis, TN struggled with high crime rates, with 1993 setting a record for the most homicides in one year, a record that wasn’t broken until 2016. West Memphis Arkansas had a more small town, laid back feel, and as cliche as it sounds, people felt safe leaving their doors unlocked and letting their young children play outside all day with no supervision. That was until May 5th, 1993, when three eight year old boys rode away on their bikes, eager to expel the energy they had built up all day while sitting in their second grade classrooms at Weaver Elementary School, but they never came home. It wouldn’t be long before the residents of West Memphis and then the world found out what happened to Stevie Branch, Michael Moore and Christopher Byers. Their battered and mutilated bodies were found the next day in a swampy wooded area known to locals as Robin Hood Hills, and the community of West Memphis felt a shockwave hit their community that they would not recover from for some time. Within a month three teenagers were arrested and charged with capital murder, and it wasn’t long before whispers of witchcraft, devil worship and occult killings rippled throught the homes and businesses of West Memphis, and those whispers eventually turned into a loud roar, a roar that might accompany an angry mob looking for someone to blame for an unimaginable tragedy, akin to the infamous witch hunts that are dotted throughout history. This is the story of six boys from West Memphis, Arkansas; three were brutally murdered and stolen from this world far before their time, the other three were marched to the proverbial gallows, guilty in the court of public opinion, and found guilty in an actual court of law. Six lives destroyed, six lives forever changed, six lives eternally tied together.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to Crime Weekly. I'm Stephanie Harlow.

0:16.0

And I'm Derek Lassar.

0:17.0

Okay. So today we're diving into part five of the West Memphis three case.

0:23.0

And I think should we just dive in because we have a lot to cover today.

0:26.0

Yeah, we just we just covered crime weekly news. We talked to that one was a long one tonight covered the add non-side update.

0:32.0

So yeah, like 40 minutes man. Yeah. So if you haven't watched that make sure you check it out.

0:36.0

But yeah, let's get right into it. Oh, you know what? I'm sorry. Let me stop that.

0:39.0

This is a big moment actually. And I usually save it for the end.

0:42.0

Positive note. Everybody stuck to my word. If you've been watching crime weekly news, you can see Stephanie is rocking the crime weekly

0:49.0

the crime weekly. The criminal coffee merch I should say. If you guys have ordered it, make sure that you're posting it online.

0:55.0

Make sure you're tagging drink criminal coffee on Instagram. We want to hear your thoughts on it.

0:59.0

We really took a lot of time with the materials with the the styles, the the actual screen printing.

1:05.0

We tried to go high end on all of it. So we want your feedback. That's the gratification we get out of it.

1:10.0

So make sure you're posting it. And like I said, man, in my word, Stephanie has her merch.

1:15.0

It didn't come on Wednesday, but that is true. I said by the next episode though.

1:20.0

I was like, he said definitely Wednesday and like it's Friday and I texted you and I'm like, just so you know, it's Friday afternoon.

1:26.0

I was not happy here. I was not happy when I saw your kids post them where it was such a relief for me. It was such a moment. I was so happy.

1:33.0

And I know I said in crime weekly news, but I bought the t-shirt and every side will not every size, but every color.

1:38.0

And then one one medium and one small. And I'm going to take the smalls and make them into crop tops for the summer.

1:45.0

So I'm really excited about that because I love a good crop top.

1:48.0

Love it. Love it. Keep pushing it. We hope you guys enjoyed it. We hope you guys like it. If you haven't already got it, go over it.

1:53.0

Check it out. That's all we got. That's all my one little plug for the night. I'm good. I'm shutting up now.

...

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