I knew I was innocent

PARADISE LOST 2: REVELATIONS (2000)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

(Originally reviewed in 2002)

The murders of three young boys who were eviscerated in West Memphis, Arkansas on May of 1993 was thrillingly captured in one of the most disturbing documentaries ever made, "Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills." Filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Synofsky were granted access to film the trial and members of the victims' families, not to mention the three alleged killers. The killers were Damien Echols, Jessie Miskelley and Jason Baldwin, both at the time in their teens who were seen as suspects for wearing black clothes, for listening to Metallica and for supposedly worshipping the Devil. Jessie may have confessed to the crime out of coercion by the police, though he only had an IQ of 72 (how reliable was his flawed account of the murders?) They are all currently in jail with Echols as the sole defendant on Death Row - the other two are serving life sentences. A crucial piece of evidence at the 1994 trial was a bloody knife owned by one of the murdered boys' fathers, Mark Byers. The knife was given to the filmmakers which was then presented to the police as evidence. For a moment, one wonders if Byers was the killer.

"Paradise Lost 2: Revelations" recapitulates most of the original documentary's events but presents little or no new evidence. We learn the bite marks on the said victims were not identical to the mouths of the three jailbirds. Also, the suspicion that Byers is involved is thrown out the window when he admits to extracting all his teeth because of a specific medication that rotted them. He says they were all extracted long before his child was murdered - it turns out they were extracted in 1997, four years after the murders. It is difficult to say if the three jailed men, now in their 20's, are responsible or if they were the scapegoats in a town looking for scapegoats. Disembowling three young boys and leaving them naked in a ditch is as horrific a crime as one can imagine. Also disturbing is that no trace of blood was found at the crime scene, which one can rightly deduce was not the actual crime scene. The bodies were mutilated elsewhere and left in a ditch, possibly an area well-known by the killer. The point, as addressed by a forensic investigator, is that these killings were not ritualistic since ritual murders are often precise - the violence was brought on by anger. Could it have been Mark Byers who has a history of drug and violence problems? Or is it Echols, Miskelley and Baldwin?

"Paradise Lost 2" has more questions than answers, but I felt uneasy watching how directors Berlinger and Synofsky filmed Mr. Byers. Byers is the star of the show, always addressing the camera with hateful rants on his innocence and calling everyone watching a devil worshipper. He also stages a mock burial of the three defendants at the very site where the three young boys were killed - a truly unsettling scene. But is Byers to be trusted? Did he kill his own wife, Melissa, whose death is still considered "undetermined"? He claims she died of natural causes. Others claim he suffocated her. He is a Bible-thumping madman who agrees to take a lie-detector test. The irony is he passes the test with flying colors. To the camera, he shouts, "I knew I was innocent." One can take that statement as indicative of a murderer who is getting away scot-free, or one can assume he is a depressed father who is growing more vengeful with each passing year - after all, he lost his son and his wife whom he called his best friend.

Most of "Paradise Lost 2" is compelling and deeply disturbing but it all feels vaguely exploitative. Byers appears too much like a madman but documentarians also have the right to tell a man to tone it down - Byers looks like an insane killer on the loose (perhaps that was the idea). The Free Memphis Three group, who support the innocence of the three defendants, remain elusive as to why they felt so compelled to go on the road and pursue the case - the original movie is powerful but not enough to draw people away from their jobs on their own vacation time (heck, I might feel they are innocent but I am not about to go on the road). Nevertheless, I would have liked more footage of Echol's mother and the other defendants' mothers thoughts (many refused to be interviewed again so I can't really blame the filmmakers). Little is said as to why the prosecutors felt the defendants were the killers, outside of a taped confession. This movie just assumes without a doubt that Byers is the killer. Maybe there is evidence to prove it, maybe not - we barely get enough of a hint beyond the bite marks and his contradictory statements. The one question avoided is how could Byers allegedly murder these three second-graders so brutally. The question remains. [NOTE: The third film in this documentary series, "Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory," is far more powerful than this sequel].