All three teens confessed to someone. One teen with previous remorseful behavior confessed multiple times even as his attorney begged him not to confess.
Only one, the one who "confessed" multiple times, actually made statements to LE, and he has an IQ of 72 and was in Special Education classes since an early age. Don't bring up the old "once his IQ was tested at 88" stuff. That was the "performance" portion of the test. It's like someone saying, "Yeah, my overall average in all my classes is 72, but once I made an 88 in PE." The other purported "confessions" were to a jailhouse snitch and a group of people at a softball game. The jailhouse statement has been refuted by an employee of the juvenile detention facility where it was said to have happened. The "confession" at the softball game was not reported by anyone directly involved in the conversation but by some tween girls who claimed to have overheard the conversation.
Because there were three victims, there was very likely more than one killer (removes possibility of the angry relative killing all three).
If the angry relative had a way of controlling the three little boys, it is very possible that one person committed these murders. When you consider that the most likely perpetrator of a murder of a child is a parent/relative or friend, it makes even more sense.
It was an impulsive event perpetrated with locally found weapons (fists, stick, stream water and a pocket knife).
This fact doesn't point exclusively to the WMFree. In fact, an angry relative would also be impulsive and likely to use available weapons, etc.
There was a poor attempt to hide the body= impulsive event and no way to dispose of the bodies farther from the crime scene (none of the boys had cars).
If the bodies were moved after the murders, as I suspect is the case, this explanation doesn't hold water, either. If a vehicle wasn't used to transport the bodies, that could be because the perpetrator was being watched too closely to allow him to use a vehicle. Again, the lack of the use of a vehicle doesn't point solely to the WMFree.
One boy experienced bizarre mutilation and the scene had sexual overtones (the boys were found naked)=sadist psychopath and not an angry relative.
That "bizarre mutilation" has since been determined by certified forensic pathologists (which the WM ME was not) to have been the result of postmortem animal predation.
The degloving of the one child’s penis and scrotal area which were never found was similar to Jeffrey Dahmer’s and Ed Geins’s actions=sadistic schizophrenic psychopath and not an angry relative.
Again, this degloving was the result of postmortem animal predation.
The killer took two pairs of the boys’ underwear =psychopath's trophy and not the behavior of an angry relative.
Since said underwear has not been found, and more specifically, was not found at any of the homes of the falsely convicted, this is rather a moot point, I'm afraid. The underwear could have been trophies, and, if it's ever found, maybe we'll know who was collecting the trophies. However, it wasn't the WMFree.
The bite mark near, but not quite on the neck area=psychopathic teenage vampyre crap or schizophrenic cannibalism.
Again, this was later determined not to be a human bite mark, but most likely the result of postmortem animal predation.
One teen documented that he was homicidal (twice).
He wrote the word "homicidal" twice on an admission form. IMO, this is hardly documentation of his homicidal proclivities but more documentation of his penchant to shock people.
All teens had very poor alibis.
The teens were with family and friends. The prosecutors were better at cross examination that the defense attorneys were at redirect. That doesn't mean the alibi witnesses were lying; it just means, as I said, that the prosecutors were better attorneys at the time.
Teens had familiarity with crime scene because Damien used to live close.
This is also true of an angry relative.
Although Jessie was drunk, he knew way too many details to not have been at the scene when it happened.
The two post-conviction statements in which he exhibited a modicum of familiarity of the crime were made after he had heard the State's theory during his trial. IMO, the prosecutors also "coached" him extensively about the details. Of course, they didn't document this coaching. They're unethical, not stupid.
Jason and Damien talked about killing a bum under the underpass just to see how it would feel=homicidal planning.
If this happened, IMO, it is just male teenaged machismo, nothing more. IMO, the person who reported this was just looking for his fifteen minutes.
Jason had his brother hide his ice pick after the murders (he knew he was going to be implicated).
However, they found the ice axe. I don't believe that the WMPD even bothered to test it. Maybe they could see visually that it was not responsible for any of the wounds. IMO, Jason didn't want his mother to know he had the ice axe, hence the attempt to hide it. I know that his mother didn't want him to have knives. So, I doubt that she would have wanted him to have an ice axe.
Jessie gave away his bloody shoes even though he was very poor and shoes would have been valuable to him.
Buddy Lucas gave the police several pairs of tennis shoes that he claimed to have been Jessie's. None of them had blood on them, and none of them were a match for the prints found near the discovery ditch. In fact, Buddy Lucas later admitted that Jessie gave him shoes in November when his own had gotten muddy and wet. Since Jessie was in custody from June 3, 1993, until August, 19, 2011, the shoes were obviously given to Buddy well before the murders.
Jessie had very remorseful behavior after the murders and this occurred before he was arrested
His step mother overheard him crying. That could easily have been because he thought that his girlfriend (now his fiancee) was moving away.
Damien's handwritten letters and psych evaluations show that he was very psychotic and full of anger.
That is your opinion. IMO, these things just show that he suffered from teen angst and/or liked to say things to shock people.
Damien wrote many time that "everyone had to pay." Damien bragged to others that he killed the children.
Again, teen angst and/or his penchant to say shocking things can easily account for these statements.
