Show Notes
In Episode 7 of Crooked Tree, Paul Day and Kristin Rich dive deep into one of the most infamous and controversial incidents in the West Memphis 3 case — the Bojangles Man.
On the same night the three boys disappeared, a disoriented Black man, bleeding from one arm and wearing a cast/brace on the other, entered the women’s restroom at the Bojangles restaurant on North Missouri Street. Covered in mud and blood, he left behind a chaotic scene of blood on the walls, soiled clothes, and discarded sunglasses. Manager Marty King called police, Officer Regina Meek responded while actively searching for the missing children, and the next evening Detectives Allen and Ridge followed up — yet critical evidence was never properly collected or analyzed.
Paul and Kristin examine the timeline, the physical evidence (and what was lost), inconsistencies in reports, the proximity to the crime scene via the Ten Mile Bayou Diversion Channel and railroad tracks, and why this lead has haunted the case for decades. Was this man connected to the murders? Why was the response so lackluster? And what does this say about the early investigation?
A must-listen for anyone following the West Memphis 3 case, the original trial evidence, or alternate suspect theories.
Listen now and join the discussion in our Facebook group.
What do you think happened at Bojangles that night?
More from Crooked Tree: A West Memphis 3 Podcast
In this Q&A episode of Crooked Tree: A West Memphis 3 Podcast, victim advocates and researchers Paul Day and Kristin Rich dig into detailed listener questions drawn from the case files surrounding the May 1993 murders of Christopher Byers, Stevie Branch, and Michael Moore.
On May 10, 1993—the day that never ends—Damien Echols leaves a grueling interrogation with Detectives Ridge and Sudbury and walks straight into a polygraph with Detective Bill Durham. What follows is a tense, unrecorded session of pretest questions, ten carefully crafted polygraph queries, and a high-pressure post-test interview that would haunt the West Memphis Three case for decades.
In this pivotal episode of Crooked Tree, forensic geologist and victim advocate Paul Day and criminologist and victim advocate Kristin Rich take a meticulous, slow-crawl look at one of the most consequential moments in the West Memphis Three investigation: the May 10, 1993, interview of Damien Echols at the West Memphis Police Department.
In this episode of Crooked Tree, hosts Kristin Rich and Paul Day turn their focus to Murray Farris, an 18-year-old West Memphis resident whose name appears on Jerry Driver’s list of possible occult-linked individuals. On the evening of May 9, 1993—hours after Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin were questioned—Farris walks into the West Memphis Police Department.
In the hours and days after the bodies of Stevie Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers are recovered, West Memphis investigators begin receiving tips steeped in the era’s widespread fears of satanic ritual abuse. A call from a Texas Child Protective Services worker about alleged ritualistic killings in Gilmer, TX sets an early tone. Lieutenant James Sudbury and juvenile officer Steve Jones quickly zero in on Damien Echols, interviewing the teenager at his family’s trailer on May 7 based on their shared belief that the crime shows “overtones of a cult sacrifice."