MovieChat Forums > Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory (2012) Discussion > If Byers had continued to insist the Thr...

If Byers had continued to insist the Three were the killers ...

posted 10 years ago by jackdaly1996
14 replies | jump to latest

I think the filmmakers still would've pointed the finger at him. I still feel that he is the most compelling candidate because the evidence used to point the finger at him in Part 2 (such as why did he get his teeth removed when he didn't need to, why did he lie about the medication making it necessary, why was his son the most severely mutilated, the knife that belonged to his and Chris's blood type which he claimed was animal blood, admitting to whacking his son with the belt buckle, his wife's mysterious death, the Freudian slip about his wife's "murder", his criminal record to name just a few) is so much
more compelling than that used against
Hobbs in Part 3 ( a strand of hair whose
DNA was "not inconsistent with" the hair
on the rope, and his lack of an alibi) I think
the only reason why the filmmakers
changed their minds was because he
swung round to saying that they were
innocent (and that would be a fairly clever
thing to do if you'd done it, people would
say "well why would he support the Three
if keeping them in jail is his best bet of staying out of it" and feel guilty for going
after him if he's 'on our side') and suddenly
keeping the finger on him looks callous
and ungrateful, so know they have to find a
new No 1 suspect and along comes the
"not inconsistent" DNA ( I can't remember the percentage but wasn't it like one fifth of the general population it could've belonged to) and Terry Hobbs. I lost a lot of respect for the filmmakers after they did this, I mean good job getting the Three who are obviously innocent out of gaol but wasn't it enough proving that they were innocent without having to go in search of scapegoats, isn't that just what the population of West Memphis did to the Three? My money's still on Byers (or else a drifter who'll never be found) and the filmmakers should've stuck to pointing the finger at him or else not pointed the finger at anyone and sticking to proving the Three's innocence without looking for scapegoats, which is exactly what happened to them.

[–] nobodies666 10 years ago

why did dad have no alibi or witnesses

[–] scissorhands__emily 10 years ago

I totally agree with you, and this is one aspect I don't enjoy so much about the documentaries. I personally don't know who was guilty (I believe WM3 innocent though), but I don't feel compelled enough to point the finger at Byers or Dobbs either. I wish more investigation had been done on them originally though. Personally I think the documentary should have just focused on the WM3's innocence. It didn't need to scapegoat anyone else. Although I can see why they would focus so strongly on Byers in the 2nd film. The guy just does tons of outlandish stuff. I also find his wife's death really strange, and yes his wife's murder Freudian slip was also odd. But again I don't think the finger should be pointed at anyone else because the point of the WM3 story is how people create scapegoats. They want to pin guilt on someone so badly that they will almost pick someone at random and stand by it, even when there isn't much to back the claim up. Hobbs also has plenty of suspicion on himself though (shooting his brother in law?! clearly a violent guy already; plus his lies regarding his alibi and seeing the kids the day of the murders) but again I don't think they should be pointing fingers. Now if a new trial were to emerge and they could start looking into suspects again, that'd be another story. As it is, we will probably never know the actual truth.

[–] FaithRosco 10 years ago

I get what you are saying but showing that there are other people close to the victims with means, motive, and opportunity is part of creating reasonable doubt. Particularly that these people have inconsistencies in their stories while the accused do not.

When a child is abused or killed many times the parents are involved. That statistic skyrockets if there are step-parents in the picture. I'm not saying Hobbs or Byers did this but they should've been thoroughly investigated by the police. The fact that they weren't looked at more closely shows the wmpd's bias.

[–] PopperTheKungFu-Dragon 8 years ago

The filmmakers were biased from the very beginning. I disagree about them focusing on the WM3's innocence. They should have just focused on presenting an unbiased view of the case and proceedings.

Poorly Lived and Poorly Died, Poorly Buried and No One Cried

[–] keithgordon 10 years ago

Jackdaly1996,
Re: " I can't remember the percentage but wasn't it like one fifth of the general population it could've belonged to?"

No. One point five per cent! One fifth would be Twenty per cent! Huge difference. One in 66 chance vs. one in five.

[–] ultravio13 9 years ago

Yes I think its Byers too. We know that he was enraged at his kid earlier in the day, and beat him so brutally that the coroner said, had he lived, he would've had trouble sitting down. We also know that even after that beating, he defied JMB's orders, and went out to play anyway, something that potentially could've pushed JMB over the edge. Also his kid was the only one who was dead before being put in the water, which suggests he was the main target of rage. I could be wrong, maybe its all just circumstantial, but if I were a gambling man, I'd bet the house that Byers did it.

[–] apophianstudios 8 years ago

I can't totally rule out the WM3 though I think there was plenty of reasonable doubt, but the more likely candidates were Hobs and Byers. Byers "passed" the polygraph but then again he was on like 5 psychiatric drugs at the time which has proven to throw off polygraph results. Byers was definitely a nut. Hobbs is probably more likely as he was seen last with the victims and lied about it.

[–] PopperTheKungFu-Dragon 8 years ago

Byers also had a brain tumor which could have account for a lot of his "nutty" behavior. I don't know who was guilty and who wasn't, but I do know a lot of finger pointing was done and still no 100% proof of who actually did the killings.

Poorly Lived and Poorly Died, Poorly Buried and No One Cried

[–] PoppyTransfusion 8 years ago

I'm very puzzled at the conclusion of the three HBO documentaries. I do not have any sense as to who did it. What stays with me is that only one boy was mutilated and that was Chris Byers. To me this is a compelling feature and I want to know why him. In Paradise Lost 2 a criminal profiler says that you need to find who the murdered boys were close to and that will lead you to the killer. For me the mutilation of Chris Byers holds the key and it's not opened any lock yet. I cannot understand why Hobbs would mutilate Chris and not Steve Branch, for example.

Also, there is so much damage and trauma within all the families - victims as well as WM3 - that we get glimpses of and I find that I do not know who any of these people are to make a satisfactory judgement. I find Jason Baldwin one of the more sincere characters and believe from his closing statements that he did not murder the boys. That is as far as I can go.

In the midst of winter I found there was, within me, an invincible summer

[–] megohare 8 years ago

I'm with you. I found it striking that Chris Byers was the one mutilated. I found it striking that there appeared to be so much evidence (and weirdness) that pointed to Mark Byers, only to have it take a left turn with Hobbs. I have trouble trusting anyone involved in this story, and that includes Mark Byers, Pam Hobbs, and Terri Hobbs. Seems like all of them live very complicated lives filled with anger and violence.

I completely agree that Jason appears sincere and thoughtful. God help him, it seems like he somehow survived prison without being ruined. How that's possible, I don't know, but I hope his life goes somewhere.

I worry for Jessie. I find Damien compelling but his ease with the camera gives me the creeps.

[–] PopperTheKungFu-Dragon 8 years ago

Jason Baldwin is a very likable guy and I agree about him sounding very sincere, but sadly I don't think anyone can be 100% ruled out here. I've heard a few people who've read the case documents as opposed to just watching the biased documentaries who say that the WM3 are indeed guilty based on the facts. I'd like to believe Jason is innocent, but I'm not sure. But like you say I'm not sure about anyone. Any one of them could be guilty and for that matter all of them could be innocent.

Poorly Lived and Poorly Died, Poorly Buried and No One Cried

[–] putter_b 8 years ago

One thing that the anti-WM3 people hate to admit, is there were actually two Jason Baldwins in that area. When Jessie was talking to the police, he kept switching from one to the other. The one that was NOT arrested has a record, was called "crazy" by Damien (when questioned) and was never really investigated (the police were dumb).

[–] PopperTheKungFu-Dragon 8 years ago

Really? I didn't know this. There's no mention of this anywhere I've read about the case.

Poorly Lived and Poorly Died, Poorly Buried and No One Cried

[–] putter_b 8 years ago

The more you read into the case, it get's confusing as to who people are talking about. The "other" Jason Baldwin was the one I believe Jesse was initially talking about.

http://www.jivepuppi.com/other_baldwin.html