How a true-crime story inspired the Stranger Things 4 character, Eddie Munson
On May 27, the first volume of Stranger Things 4 was released, and viewers were introduced to a new character, Eddie Munson. Soon after the release of the season, the Netflix Geek Twitter account released a post confirming that the character Eddie Munson was inspired by Damien Echols, one of the West Memphis Three.
About Stranger Things 4 (spoilers ahead)
The character of Eddie Munson is the leader of the “Hellfire Club,” a high school club where members gather to play dungeons and dragons (D&D). At the end of the first episode of the fourth season, Munson witnesses Vecna’s first kill, a high school cheerleader, Chrissy Cunningham. Eddie is left traumatized and leaves for Reefer Rick’s house to hide. When the police find the body of Chrissy, they declare Eddie Munson the prime suspect in the murder and assume he is on the run.
In the following episodes, the town of Hawkins begins to turn on Eddie Munson. The police start to believe that the “Hellfire Club” is secretly a satanic club and that Eddie is the cult leader. There was a surge of satanic panic, and the town was convinced that all the murders in Hawkins were satanic rituals done by Eddie Munson.
The Duffer Brothers wanted to bring to life the satanic panic of the 1980’s and one of the West Memphis Three, Damien Echols. Consequently, Eddie Munson was born, a misunderstood outcast. The Duffer Brothers spoke about Eddie’s character, saying, “What’s sad about his narrative is that the people who get to know him love him, and the people who don’t have judged him horribly. Just because of the way he dresses and just because of his interests.”
Matt and Ross Duffer were inspired by the documentary series Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills.
About the West Memphis Three
It was May 5, 1993, when three 8-year-old friends went missing after a bike ride in West Memphis, Arkansas. A day later, the bodies of Steven Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers were found in a ditch in Robin Hood Hills, naked and hogtied with their own shoelaces. The only distinction between the murders was that Byers’ genitals had been mutilated.
Police named Damien Echols a prime suspect because they believed the crime was connected to Satan worship.
Damien Echols was a goth kid who loved metal bands, had long hair, and was interested in the art of magick. The police considered him a troublemaker.
A month later, after a 12-hour unsupervised interrogation, police got Jessie Misskelley to confess that he had witnessed Damien Echols and Charles Jason Baldwin murder the three boys, but that he himself did not participate. As a result, Damien Echols, 18, Charles Jason Baldwin, 16, and Jessie Misskelley, 17, were arrested for the murder of the three boys.
The case against the three teenagers, who became known as the West Memphis Three, had no DNA evidence, no connections, and no consistent confession story from MissKelly. The three teens even had alibis that cleared them from being anywhere near the crime and proved their innocence. The lack of evidence was overlooked, and in 1994, the West Memphis Three trial began.
During the time of the murder and trial, there was a rise in satanic panic, particularly around the Bible Belt. The satanic panic caused the murder trial to become a mass media frenzy, since the prosecution argued that Echols, Misskelly, and Baldwin murdered the three boys as part of a satanic ritual.
The West Memphis Three were charged with murder. Charles Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley were sentenced to life in prison and Damien Echols was sentenced to death by lethal injection.
For years, the trio continued to declare their innocence, until new DNA evidence was introduced in 2007 and people began to question whether the three teenagers were actually guilty of the crime.
In 2010, a new judge decided to re-examine the case and set forth a new trial. During the retrial, witnesses renounced their testimony. One woman claimed that police threatened to take her baby away if she did not co-operate with them. Experts are also convinced that police coerced Misskelley’s confession because of his prolonged interrogation, lack of parental supervision, and learning disabilities.
Weeks before Damien Echols reached the end of his death sentence, the three men agreed to a plea deal. The three agreed to an Alford Plea, meaning they would plead guilty and admit there was enough evidence to convict them in front of a judge or jury, but they would maintain their innocence of the crime. The plea would declare the case closed to the state and allow opportunities for parole.
After agreeing to the Alford Plea, the sentences of the West Memphis Three were reduced to time served, and they were immediately released after spending 18 years in jail.
Charles Jason Baldwin went on to say in the documentary West of Memphis that the only reason he took the plea deal was because Damien Echol’s life was on the line.
Once Damien Echols was released from prison, he moved in with the writer, director, and producer of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Peter Jackson. The two would end up producing a movie together about the 1993 murder case titled West of Memphis.
At this time, Baldwin and Echols continue to fight for the release of evidence that the West Memphis Police Department has been withholding, hoping that they have evidence that will exonerate them.
Even now, Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelly, and Charles Jason Baldwin continue to maintain their innocence. Since the arrest of the West Memphis Three, there have been no arrests or convictions for the 1993 murder of the three boys.
