The Craziest False Confessions In History

Publish date: 2024-05-07

In 1993, the bodies of three young children—Stevie Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers—were found in a drainage ditch in West Memphis, Tennessee. The children had been drowned, but their bodies showed signs of mutilation. As reported by Oxygen, police centered suspicion on Damien W. Echols, a moody, black-wearing teenager who was a social outcast in town. Two friends of Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr., were also implicated and brought in.

As reported by E! Online, Misskelley, who had an IQ of 72, was questioned for 12 hours straight—most of it unrecorded—before finally confessing that he'd watched his two friends rape and castrate the children, and helped to subdue them. Because Echols was rumored to be a believer in the occult, the prosecution developed a theory that the murders had been part of a satanic ritual—a rumor the community was more than happy to believe without evidence.

Misskelley took back his confession, and there was no other evidence linking any of the three to the crime. All three were convicted, and Echols received the death penalty. Over the course of the next 18 years, activists brought increasing attention to the plight of the West Memphis Three, who had been convicted on the strength of a coerced confession and "satanic panic." In 2011, bowing to public pressure, the prosecutor's office offered them what's known as an "Alford plea" which allowed them to get out of jail—but they remain officially guilty.

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