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John Mark Byers' Leeza Show Interview |
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What follows is an unedited interview with John Mark Byers conducted by Leeza Gibbons for her show about the West Memphis case. For reasons unclear to us the show was pulled from the air at the last minute. Fortunately, we had the opportunity to view the entire Byers interview and have transcribed it here. Due to the fact that Byers answered these questions without benefit of his dentures some of the words are unintelligible and are indicated as such. Leeza Gibbons: This is one of the most despicable crimes I have ever heard of. I mean, heartbreakingly sad, brutal. As you well know, the guests on this show did not want to appear with you. Do you feel the same way about them? John Mark Byers: Yes, in a way I do because it’s gonna be a real one-sided story. There’s quite a few of them, and I’m the only one standing up for the victims. I am not the villain. LG: Well there are those who feel (and I know this is not news to you) that those three teenage boys who have charged with this crime and who are incarcerated right now are innocent. That they were convicted with no material evidence and that you perhaps are the real killer. JMB: Leeza, let’s talk about material evidence, that’s a very good subject. There was a lot of material evidence: there were hair fibers (sic), there were fibers, and hair that was found and matched on (sic) the homes of the three. There was blue candle wax found on the Boy Scout shirt that Michael Moore wore, and they found a broken [unintelligible] in Damien Echols’ trailer. I think it was by Anton Levey and it had a blue candle sitting there and dripping on the book. Those two candle waxes (sic) matched exactly. LG: That is being disputed. JMB: Well, that’s what was told into the police record, that I believe candle wax was there. LG: Why do you think three teenage boys would abduct these little children and torture them? For what reason? What would be the motivation for that kind of a crime? JMB: The motivation was known a year before it happened. After the court case was over and the documents were released, there was a reporter by the name of Bartholomew Sullivan who writes for the Commercial Appeal. And of course he does like a reporter and starts digging through, and it was found where Damien had been arrested about a year before on some type of charge. And he got to talking to the police, this is on police records and everything, and he told them that there was a cult there because they were asking him about dead animals they had found burnt and sacrificed with candles and things around different places outside the community. He said that he was the leader of a cult group there in West Memphis, and they were tired of animal sacrifices and were going to start to have human sacrifices. LG: He claims he never said that! JMB: Well it’s in the police records. So the police are lying or he is. LG: The criminal profiler who was brought on to evaluate the evidence in this case said there is absolutely nothing to indicate this was a satanic ritual. He goes on to say, and I know you’re familiar with this document, “it is the opinion of this examiner that the primary reason for these killings was punitive, the victims were being punished for some real or perceived wrong.” JMB: I totally disagree with that. It’s his opinion and he’s entitled to it. LG: He’s an expert in the area. JMB: Expert to me, is a spurt to a drip of water. [unintelligible] So he can take his expert opinion and go with it. I’m the one who lost a child, not him. That’s like him trying tell me how to raise my son when he has no children. LG: It must infuriate you then as you sit here as an innocent, grieving father; it must infuriate you that fingers are pointed at you and that someone thinks that you did this. JMB: There are what I classify morons, fools and idiots and that goes across the world wide! Some of them will go to believe anything but you cannot sit there ad deny that you do not know that there are cults and satanic groups across the country. Anton Levay, a very famous man before he passed away, had written many articles on black magic, witchcraft. And Damien’s medical records that his defense lawyer (sic) entered where he had been seeing his psychiatrist and everything. He wrote in there that like he was a wolf and all the people on the face of the earth were his sheeps (sic) and he was going to kill as many of them as he could. Those were his words. LG: What about some of the words that have been attributed to you? Things such as reports that came back from the school that you and your wife had said to the teachers that you’ve been having problems and if you continued to have problems with him, you’re going to have to get rid of him. JMB: "Get rid of him" was never said. Here’s what we did for our son; he was prematurely born, 25 weeks early, -- SIX MONTHS + ONE WEEK-- he fought hard to live and he was premature. He was also diagnosed, we didn’t know ’til he was about four, that he had A.D.D and was hyperactive and he was dyslexic. LG: Did you never say you wanted to get rid of your son? JMB: Ahhh! Would you get rid of your children? LG: Well of course not! JMB: Well of course not. LG: But you never said that? JMB: Never in my life have I ever said I wanted to get rid of my son. He was my best friend, he would come home from school and work with me in my shop, and I’d let him make jewelry with me. We went hunting |
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| -Winona Ryder |