Creepy Wikipedia

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West Memphis Three - three teenagers received max sentences for killing three children, with no physical evidence or motive linking them to the crime, as a result of the Satanic Panic. (en.wikipedia.org)

submitted 1 month ago by Plum@lemmy.world to c/creepywikipedia@lemmy.world

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They're still trying to clear their names. More frustrating than creepy, but deserving of a read.

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[–] HelixDab2@lemm.ee 43 points 1 month ago (1 children)

IIRC one of them got out on an Alford plea, and is still trying to fight it.

People forget what this was like. Just being a weird kid and playing Dungeons & Dragons was enough to get you condemned as a devil-worshiper.

[–] nokturne213@sopuli.xyz 18 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I think they all took that plea. Maybe all three had to take it. My wife reads about them a lot, so i get her ADHD info dumps about them from time to time.

[–] HelixDab2@lemm.ee 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

The whole case is just a nightmare.

When you start looking back at Satanic Panic legal cases, it all seem so crazy. It's hard to believe that this was in my lifetime, and it's even harder to believe that people still think that was now. For a really good deep dive into some of the child sexual abuse cases that were going on at the time, check out, "Satan's Silence: Ritual Abuse and the Making of a Modern American Witch Hunt" by Debbie Nathan and Michael Snedeker. I remember some of this. And there are people that still defend the witch hunts.