Evidence

[Compassionate Reader]

Right! Sorry. Sometimes while I'm typing another post is made, which can lead to confusion! I guess I should be clearer.

 

[Lethalmatthew]

I think I mentioned this before, but my theory is that the three boys went swimming somewhere in the Robin Hood area (maybe Devil's Den), and that CB took off his medical bracelet before entering the water. IIRC, MM was carrying a watch on the day of the murders, and that watch was never found either. Watches and medical bracelets (when they are strung on jewelry wire) are items that should be removed before entering the water, while a friendship bracelet can stay on.

 

[Userid]

I think I mentioned this before, but my theory is that the three boys went swimming somewhere in the Robin Hood area (maybe Devil's Den), and that CB took off his medical bracelet before entering the water. IIRC, MM was carrying a watch on the day of the murders, and that watch was never found either. Watches and medical bracelets (when they are strung on jewelry wire) are items that should be removed before entering the water, while a friendship bracelet can stay on.

Good angle -- I always like to delve into whether the boys went swimming; it's very possible they did. I just don't know where. I don't believe they went swimming in the discovery culvert or the 10 Mile Bayou -- way too dirty. I always imagined them swimming in the retention pond behind Blue Beacon -- it just looks like a place where children would want to swim in. I'm not sure about the condition of the water, but I'd imagine it was cleaner than the bayou and the culvert.

If memory serves, MM's sock was stuffed in one of his shoes. This would also be indicative of the boys going swimming. I used to do this all the time in order to ensure I wouldn't lose my sock, but also in that, my friends wouldn't accidentally take one of mine when we were about to leave the pool.

This would also explain many elements that are perplexing: the lack of any blood on the clothes (indicative of the boys already being undressed before the attack began), the drowning, and the missing watch/bracelet, to name a few.

 

[Compassionate Reader]

Swimming might have occurred, but the retention pond was for waste from the BB. I'm not sure that would have been a good place to swim, either. At least two of the boys had pools at home. If they wanted to swim, why not swim there?

 

[Userid]

Swimming might have occurred, but the retention pond was for waste from the BB. I'm not sure that would have been a good place to swim, either. At least two of the boys had pools at home. If they wanted to swim, why not swim there?

Oh, was it? Yeah, then they definitely didn't swim there (at least I'd hope not). Do you remember where you heard it was waste from the Blue Beacon?

CB and SB both knew they were late, so they wouldn't want to return home, perhaps -- from fear of getting in trouble.

 

[Cher Lockhomes]

Can anyone confirm that SB got the friendship bracelett off DM ? A statement somewhere, or anyone know where the rumour has it's origin ?

 

[Cher Lockhomes]

I was reading in a local forum in Arkansas, that the Robin Hood Hills were densely covered with something called "Beggars lice" This type of grass/plant sticks to your clothes if you make contact with it. It is very difficult to remove it from your clothes, you have to pull it out one by one. This grass/plant blooms from May to August in parts of the USA. This person said he was in the Robin Hood Hills six weeks after the murders, and he was covered with these spiked things. If the boys had been in the woods, I think their clothes would also have been covered. It is not something that will wash or fall off in water, and I doubt the perp would have been able to pick these things off of all the clothing.

 

[Compassionate Reader]

Cher,

Those things are horrible! I used to get them during the summer, too. I grew up in Kentucky, which is pretty close to Arkansas. However, unless they were hiking in the real woods (as opposed to sticking to trails) they might not have encountered them or, since the murders took place in early May, the things might not have been out yet. It would depend on whether or not April was warm enough that year to bring them out.



Userid,

I've seen the BB pond referred to as a "retention" pond. So, logically speaking, it follows that it held waste water from the truck wash. I'm not sure if I can find anywhere where it is specifically stated that it contained waste, but, based on the description as a "retention" pool, I'm making what I consider to be a logical assumption.


ETA: I've verified (from someone who used to drive a truck at the time of the murders, in fact, and who used the BB truck wash) that the pond is, in fact, dirty waste water from the Blue Beacon.

 

[Cher Lockhomes]

CR, thanks for that information, it's nice to have a second opinion from a "local". Thanks also for the information that a person has to die within a year for death to be linked to the initial attack. I will have to look up how that is in Europe. I think a manslaughter charge is possible after a few years, not certain though.

I found these 2 articles:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...died-three-years-later-case-kind-Britain.html

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york...-stab-wound-endured-decades-article-1.2091030

 

[Cher Lockhomes]

As no-one can confirm anything with the friendship bracelet, here is a photo for the record. I don't know where I got it from, could be a still from one of the doc's. If you zoom in, it breaks up a bit, but could this be a friendship bracelet ? Opinions please.

 

[Compassionate Reader]

You mean on TH? Maybe.

 

[Lethalmatthew]

Cher, you wrote that there are rumors that SB got his friendship bracelet from DM. Is that Dana or Dawn?

 

[Cher Lockhomes]

CR, yes on TH's left arm. It has the thickness and maybe the colour, it's a pity the quality of the photo is not too good. It could just as well be a rubber band, shoestring, even an injury, but somehow I kept coming back to this pic for some reason. I'm not sure how old AH is, if it's xmas '92, or '91 maybe.

LM, the rumour is that SB got this off Dawn M. I've checked on it, and a poster on the Brown Board read it somewhere, but could only confirm hearsay. It was also stated that the bracelet was sighted in the wmpd evidence room. PH went to the wmpd, and wanted it handed out, but they refused, on the grounds that it was evidence. This bracelet bugs me.

 

[Cher Lockhomes]

Here another speculation to keep you busy. Ever since I read about the Steve Jones / Jerry Driver involvement in the search party, one thing would not leave my mind, why did Steve Jones think that the three missing boys were Black ? Steve Jones said that he received information from the search & rescue team that three boys were missing. In WOM he states that he originally thought that the three boys were Black, but did not state a reason why .
He then rang the wmpd, was told by Lucy Turner that there was indeed three boys missing, and then decided to take part in the search. He almost immediately went to the right spot and found the tennis shoe.

Speculation: Mr Bojangles was not a transient that was coincidently in the area, but was someone who either resided in the Mayfair A., or was visiting someone in the Mayfair A.

From the higher stories of the Mayfair A., it would seem that parts of the RHH were visible, including the pipe bridge. Now if Mr Bojangles saw the perp throwing the bikes in the bayou, decided to go and take a look at the area, and then saw the clothes or bodies being placed in the ditch, was injured, fled, and then the rest of the story. If Mr Bojangles or someone who knows him, rang up the CCJPD anonymously the next morning, just shortly telling what he saw, and his voice was recognised as that of a Black man, could it not be quickly assumed that the three boys were Black ? A lot of ifs as usual.

 

[Lethalmatthew]

Maybe the neighborhood where they went missing was a predominantly black neighborhood. African Americans outnumbered whites in West Memphis by more than 13% in 2000, so I don't think it's that strange that SJ thought they were black kids. I'm still on the fence about Mr Bojangles. I'm convinced that he isn't the perpetrator, but I think it's possible that he was a witness to the moving of the bodies. If he was, I do wonder why he ran to the Bojangles restaurant, instead of the Blue Beacon truck wash or Catfish Island.

 

[Compassionate Reader]

Very interesting theory as to why Mr. Bojangles went into the woods - and very plausible. My only question is why he hasn't come forward in the ensuing years. I understand why he didn't come forward at the time, but I would think that he would have done so by now - unless he's dead. As I believe I've stated before, IMO, Mr. Bojangles was a transient, maybe living in the woods, who witnessed the disposal of the bodies and was shot at (being grazed on the arm) by the killer. I've even entertained the idea that the killer returned some time after the murders to dispose of this witness, possibly placing his body in the Mississippi. I do believe Mr. Bojangles is dead, either by an accident, by violence of some type or by natural causes. So, we may never know the truth. I wonder if any black John Does were found dead in the area sometime within a month or so of the crime.

 

[Cher Lockhomes]

Lethalmatthew wrote:

Thread: Questions on JD and SJ post #28

One of those things may have been the emasculation of CB, if it was post-mortem. TH worked in a slaughter house for several years in his younger life, so I don't think he would have been too squeamish to do that. If the emasculation was ante-mortem, it's a whole different story. I agree that even TH wouldn't do that.

Can't agree with this LM. This was a violent crime, even if some of the wounds are animal predation, these three boys were beaten in a horrendous fashion. The person who killed these three boys was way over the border of mental or emotional rationality, or all rationality was distorted, to say the least. The thought that someone would be prepared to dismember post mortem, but not ante-mortem (which would also include an unconscious state), does not fit IMO.

If the emasculation occurred ante-mortem, we would possibly have a different motive, but not necessarily a different perp. A post-mortem emasculation, could point to a necrophiliac-sexual motive, where as an ante-mortem emasculation would tend more in the direction of a sadistic-sexual motive.

If the death of these three boys was an uncontrolled response, (which I don't believe it was, one boy, yes, three boys no way), the emasculation does not make sense. Would the perp have the need to do something this extreme to stage it as a sex crime ?. There would be simpler ways I think.

In this case, I would tend towards animal predation.

If the emasculation was carried out consciously by a sex offender, why not all three boys ? If someone indulges in doing this sort of thing, why miss the opportunity ?

We also have the possibility that part of the injuries to CB's genitals was done by the perp., the other part was animal predation. This would possibly explain why animal predation only occurred on CB's genitals.

TH in the slaughter house ? Could have a bearing, but doesn't have to mean a thing.
I find something else far more disturbing, and that is the slashing of PH's clothes, down to her underwear, possibly with a box cutter, motive: Jealousy.

I only know this sort of thing from serial killers, very disturbing.

In the initial case, the emasculation was pushed towards being ante-mortem, we all know why. Later, the defence team pushed it in the direction of post-mortem animal predation, which is feasible IMO, but not definite. Either way, we will probably never know. If a general motive could be found, maybe the personality of the perp would give us more of an idea if this could have occurred for a certain reason.

 

[Compassionate Reader]

Like I've said before, if TH is the killer, then he could have emasculated CB because of the "crush" CB had on AH, who TH considered to be his "toy." I'm still torn about the degloving (the proper term, since the shaft of the penis was still on the body and only the outer skin had been removed). Since recently listening to Danny Owens on a radio program, I'm willing to consider the genital injury to be from a human,or at least in part from a human. The one wound that I'm certain was animal predation is the turtle bite on SB's cheek. Also, I'm certain that the mark on the brow is a human bite mark. Dr. Cowart's work on that is, IMO, remarkable and irrefutable!

 

[Lethalmatthew]

Lethalmatthew wrote:

Thread: Questions on JD and SJ post #28




Can't agree with this LM. This was a violent crime, even if some of the wounds are animal predation, these three boys were beaten in a horrendous fashion. The person who killed these three boys was way over the border of mental or emotional rationality, or all rationality was distorted, to say the least. The thought that someone would be prepared to dismember post mortem, but not ante-mortem (which would also include an unconscious state), does not fit IMO.

If the emasculation occurred ante-mortem, we would possibly have a different motive, but not necessarily a different perp. A post-mortem emasculation, could point to a necrophiliac-sexual motive, where as an ante-mortem emasculation would tend more in the direction of a sadistic-sexual motive.

If the death of these three boys was an uncontrolled response, (which I don't believe it was, one boy, yes, three boys no way), the emasculation does not make sense. Would the perp have the need to do something this extreme to stage it as a sex crime ?. There would be simpler ways I think.

In this case, I would tend towards animal predation.

If the emasculation was carried out consciously by a sex offender, why not all three boys ? If someone indulges in doing this sort of thing, why miss the opportunity ?

We also have the possibility that part of the injuries to CB's genitals was done by the perp., the other part was animal predation. This would possibly explain why animal predation only occurred on CB's genitals.

TH in the slaughter house ? Could have a bearing, but doesn't have to mean a thing.
I find something else far more disturbing, and that is the slashing of PH's clothes, down to her underwear, possibly with a box cutter, motive: Jealousy.

I only know this sort of thing from serial killers, very disturbing.

In the initial case, the emasculation was pushed towards being ante-mortem, we all know why. Later, the defence team pushed it in the direction of post-mortem animal predation, which is feasible IMO, but not definite. Either way, we will probably never know. If a general motive could be found, maybe the personality of the perp would give us more of an idea if this could have occurred for a certain reason.

You could be right, CL. I just find it a little hard to believe that the degloving was due to animal predation. What animal would snap off just a part of the genitals? And, like Userid mentioned, there are stab wounds in the groin area. So it doesn't really add up for me. I know there are a lot of experts who say it's animal predation, but then there are other experts (like Peretti and Turvey, how reliable they may be) who say it was done by the perp. Btw, where did you read that TH cut up PH's clothes? That's new to me.

 

[Compassionate Reader]

IMO, it's more likely that someone using a knife would entirely emasculate CB than an animal that just grabbed and pulled the skin off, leaving the shaft in place. As to the stab wounds in the groin, how about this scenario? TH (who is still my #1 suspect) was tying up the boys for movement from the "hiding place" (be it manhole, drainage pipe or some other location). He has stripped the boys because he couldn't redress SB in the jeans PH mentioned in the MPR and he doesn't want SB to stand out. He sees CB, naked, and remembers the "crush" and stabs repeatedly around the groin as if to say, "That's what you get for being sweet on AH!" Maybe the shock of this final assault kills CB before he is placed into the water, stopping the blood flow. Then, he throws the body into the water. Then, turtles (or some other aquatic animal), drawn to the blood which would still be seeping out, do the rest.