Chapter 31

The West Memphis Three and the 90’s

By the end of the 1980’s, some of Edwards’ kids were old enough to understand things were not normal. April had described a horrid childhood when Cameron spoke to her in 2010. She was the oldest daughter, born March 31, 1969. David, the oldest son, was born February 15th, 1970 and John was born September 23, 1971. All of them were conceived during the Zodiac killings in San Francisco.

The picture was taken in 1972 when Ed appeared on several television game shows touting his rehabilitation from a criminal to a family man. April would make the call 37 years later that led police to her father. By the 1990’s April had moved away.

The 1990’s brought Edwards into the digital age of media. He found a tool for more recognition. Cable TV was in its prime and murder sold 24/7. Many of his killings were the basis for books and films that had been selling for years. The Zodiac had bragged that he was waiting for a good movie to be made about him, but the movies about his murders had already been made. Nobody knew who the killer was. Edwards was supplying details to editors, ghost writers and producers, attempting to sell his stories of murder. They were well written because the killer himself provided the details.

The Satanic crimes of the 80’s and early 90’s were creating media hysteria, with Edwards making a major contribution. TV producers and the press exploited the sensationalism and it generated revenue. Geraldo and others propagated the stories. Edwards was creating ritualistic crimes of recognition. Invariably his killings mirrored others. The ultimate example occurred in 1993 when Edwards crucified three 8 year old boys in Robin Hood Hills Park in West Memphis, Arkansas. He had groomed his way into their life, lured them to the park, beating them exactly like he did to the three boys in Chicago in 1955. Edwards mimicked his murders over and over again.

Edwards’ major film debuted in 1996 as the HBO documentary “Paradise Lost, The Robin Hood Hills Murders.” The use of the Zodiac sign throughout the credits, and the arrest of three innocent teens for the crime was a red flag.

From 1993 until 2011 Hollywood promoted the HBO documentary and followed the lives of the three innocent teens incarcerated for 18 years for an Ed Edwards murder.

The details of the crime were shocking.

On May 5, 1993, on a full moon in West Memphis, Arkansas, three teens were found beaten and drowned on a ditch bank behind a local truck stop. The three 8-year-old boys were stripped naked, tied up and drowned in a canal. The skin from one of the boy’s penis had been surgically removed. Another had been beaten severely in the face. They were dumped naked, bound by black and white shoe laces by the hands and feet.

Cameron had suspected Edwards of the crime after recovering a 1993 letter sent weeks after the murder, taunting the FBI with his identity. The letter was a follow-up to a call Edwards had placed.

1993 Edwards’ Taunting FBI Letter

The similarity between the 1955 triple crucifixion in Chicago and the 1993 case were undeniable. Two triple crucifixions, 38 years apart, by the same killer.

The Chicago boys were killed in Robinson Woods Park. These boys were killed in Robin Hood Hills Park. In both of the triple child murders, the victims were Boy Scouts that had been lured out on a school night. The parents were frantic when their kids failed to return at a reasonable hour. The wounds in both cases were said to have been caused by a stick or shovel handle, leaving a strange, curved or crescent-shaped pattern.

Wounds of Christopher Byers May 5, 1993

Edwards was acting out the beatings he took as a child on his victims. After death he stamped the cross in the middle of the irregular circle on the victim’s forehead. The Zodiac circle and cross, or S.B.T.C., Signed By The Cross, just like the signature of the Zodiac and the signature left on the JonBenet ransom note, Edwards stamped his victims after they were dead and left confusing marks and signatures. This allowed for EXPERTS to come forward and claim “I know what caused the wound.” This type of testimony resulted in many wrongful convictions over Edwards’ 66 years of killing.

In the West Memphis case, Edwards groomed his way not only into the victim’s lives but also into HBO and Hand to Mouth Productions. The media outlets were doing a documentary on the case, filming a scene December 19, 1993, when Edwards conned a cameraman and got himself injected into his own murder mystery, standing over the grave of the victim while the parents wept. The chapter title of the documentary was “First Christmas.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sVsqo9Alf8

Ed Edwards, HBO Documentary, 1993

Edward Wayne Edwards, 1994

Edwards was taking his murders to the bank and was about to reap the rewards. In the film he is holding the murder weapon, the cane, and two one dollar bills displaying OSIRIS’ eye and the Egyptian Pyramid on the back of the dollar. This was three years before he killed JonBenet Ramsey on Christmas. Edwards wore a fake beard, big glasses, and a hat as a simple disguise in this film.

Cameron contacted the film producer, Joseph Berlinger and challenged him with his findings. He told him the man in the clip was a serial killer named Edward Wayne Edwards. Berlinger promised to review the clip. Cameron followed up with another phone call a few weeks later. In the phone interview, Berlinger told Cameron, “I have no idea who that man is, and more so, what that clip is even doing in my documentary! I always thought it was odd that the cameraman chose to break away from the parents who were grieving at the time.” Berlinger refused to answer any further questions from Cameron.

Douglas Cooper, of Hand-to-Mouth Productions, filmed the scene on Sunday, December 19, 1993. Cameron attempted to contact him, but Cooper chose not to respond. Cooper had received a knife purportedly from John Byers, the victim’s father on the day of the filming. He took the knife back to HBO in New York. Producers Bruce Sinofsky and Berlinger became very concerned about having possession. The knife displayed blood and Cooper insinuated that Byers had been acting suspicious. What was really going on was: Edwards was trying to set up the victim’s father.

During the trial of the three innocent teens, the defense attempted to prove Byers used the knife, shifting the blame to the parents.

Edwards’ cane would make all of the characteristics of the wounds. The half-circle wounds, the star pattern, the 1-1/4” diameter. If that cane had a Ferrell on the bottom, it would have caused the 4 pointed wound pattern on the forehead of the victim.

On Christmas of 2010, Edwards sent Neal a Christmas card with the following biblical reference.

“Truly, Truly, I say to you—he who believes has eternal life. Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” John 6:47 NASB.

Edwards had removed flesh and blood in both the West Memphis Three case and the 1955 Chicago case. This explains why there was no blood at the scene of either and their flesh was gone.

In August of 2011 all three innocent men known as The West Memphis Three were released only on the condition that they accept a guilty plea to get out of prison.