Welcome to the Wolves and Sheep podcast. I'm Roberta Glass, and today I'm going to be talking about the cult of Damien Eccles.

Now, Dave McGowan, who was a wonderful writer, said the West Memphis Three case has never really been about the West Memphis Three.

It's always been about Damien Eccles and what was a

relentless campaign to free him. And I think that is right. You don't see Jesse Ms. Kelly or

Jason Baldwin, especially Jesse Ms. Kelly because he's confessed so many multiple times.

But Jason Baldwin, who comes off as very well-spoken and very likable in interviews,

you do not see him getting the same kind of attention that Damien Eccles has.

And he has really been the focused, certainly Jason Baldwin

doesn't have the friendships with Johnny Depp, the staying at the house of the director of Peter Jackson.

Sorry, I'm going to say the director of Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson's

house, he does not have that cachet that the other two child murderers have with celebrities.

And let's talk about some of these celebrity supporters, shall we? You have Natalie Maines from the Dixie Chicks,

Winona Ryder, Marilyn Manson, Henry Rollins, Margaret Cho, to just name a few. And sadly,

Trey Parker, who did South Park, wore a West Memphis 3, 3, T-shirt

to an award show. So they had no shortage of celebrity supporters in their time in prison and no shortage of money.

And why was the celebrity support so important to the West Memphis 3? Well, celebrities

are what's called opinion leaders in our country.

They are used to sell products and they are used to sell cults and religions.

And if you look at Scientology who had a whole campaign and they have a whole special building,

the Celebrity Center for their celebrity followers, they're important

because people look at them and think, well, their opinions must be more valid because

they have more money, they've had more success in life than I had, and they

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