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Originally posted within a thread already contained in this forum (Inconsistencies) and later reposted to another thread ("The Horse" in Reruns)

To provide context for the 'Byers to Nons' snips used above, I'll including the following here:

"The Horse" in Reruns
For anyone who has no idea what this is - 50Memphis (as Kizzamyazz) posted transcripts of a conversation she and some other 'nons' had with John Mark Byers. The thread was on the now deceased MSJB. I, obviously, cannot vouch for the validity of the information - or that they even truly spoke with Byers. I'm merely reposting for those who wanted a copy.

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John Mark Byers-My truck was in her daddy's garage. Her daddy was a mechanic for years and years at International Harvester. It wasn't even there. I did usually go in unless I got there early and I didn't want to sit in the heat. I'd just pull up as close as I could to the front. Usually there'd be a group of employees that would clock out and walk out at the same time. They knew me for years because I bought supplies from them. She usually got off around 5 o'clock. She punched a time card. She punch out. I left court, picked her up and came back.

I let Melissa in and made the comment well, I'm gonna go on back to court and pick Ryan up. Going down 14th towards Broadway, which was headed towards the Branchs' house, where the Hobbs live down that way, about half-way down coming towards me a little off to the middle of the street was Christopher on his skateboard. He was on his belly. Here's my child goin down the middle of street face down going down the middle of a busy street. I take him home I had a talk with him, I swatted him twice on the rear. The belt I used was a lizard skin. At the time I wore alot of Cowboy boots and belts that match, grey lizard skin belt about maybe three-fourths to an inch wide. I remember I folded it over, I had the buckle and the tongue of the belt in my hand, swatted him two times on the britches right there in front of Melissa, right there in the kitchen where he normally got his whippin and Ryan did too at the kitchen table. Talked to him again, took him outside under the carport when he wanted to go upstairs and pout in his room. I thought about a million times, why didn't I just let him go on upstairs and pout in his room. I thought that so many times. If I'd only done this or that different maybe the outcome would've been different, but I told him your gonna do some chores. You're gonna pick up some paper the trash under the carport, I'm going back to court to get Ryan, don't leave the yard.

Definitely there were no scars from the two swattings that I gave him. I never took his pants down. I spanked him the way my Daddy spanked me. I did what I thought I should do. There were many, many more times we had a heart to heart long talk where a belt was never used or a paddle. Let's face it. My size and a child's size, it doesn't take much to be an intimidating factor to make you know, you don't have to touch someone to scare someone or get a point across or be intimidating. You can look at someone and be intimidating. As far as the punishment that day it was more out of concern like, he'd been gotten onto before about riding his bicycle or skateboard in the street AND talked to, this wasn't the first time he'd done it or the first time we'd had this talk. This was like the last resort. Now, looked for you, all day you've been gone, you're supposed to come home from school, then I find him in the street, I think you deserve a spankin. We've done time out in the corner, we've done it all. We've taken TV away, we've taken the skateboard. If I had been this abusive parent school, Sunday school, church, vacation Bible school, scouts, human services I'm sure would've eventually got a call from somebody.

He was treated for hyperactivity and ADD. He had Ritalin, a yellow flat pill about 5 milligrams. Seemed like he was given one a day for a while, then towards the end his medicine increased to two a day. We sent how ever many he needed to school on Monday and the school nurse dispensed to all the children who were on medication every day. I know I read on the website, the WestMemphisThree that undoubtedly he wasn't being given his medicine that we were keeping it from him. It's just the exact opposite give it to him every day. We usually gave it later in the afternoon.

I have read on the internet and I'm gonna tell you to the best of my knowledge we did have a fire in my house that started in the fireplace. The way it started was Ryan, on I think it was a Sunday, was stroking the fire. He kept a good hot fire going. Well the chimney had undoubtedly not been cleaned for years, well it was a chimney fire. It was put out, not alot of damage at all. I did not remember Christopher setting fires any other place. It happened and Melissa knew about it. Sometimes they put one thing over on the other with the boys.

If Melissa had thought that anyone would've molested him I believe she would've come right to me or taken care of it herself and then I'd have found out just why she got arrested.

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In an interview with Busby the next day where he said he knew Mark Byers and he'd like to think that he was a friend. Certainly he could've called me and we would help.

John Mark Byers-The newspaper stated that we were just three common families. I tried to get a hold of Sheriff Busby that night, but his wife said he visiting his mother at the hospital. I have a tape recording of the next day when I finally got him on the phone, telling him how upset I was from trying to call 3 times Wednesday evening trying to get the Sheriff's Department, Search and Rescue to HELP me and they wouldn't. On Thursday evening he called to give me his condolences and when he did I lit into him. He wanted to know how I knew where he had been the night before and I said because your wife told me. That night, when I talked to the Sheriff's Department 3 times, that's how I knew to get a hold of Denver Reed Thursday morning. The dispatcher there that night told me. Many men on that Search and Rescue told me the next day when they got out there helping, "we tried to come last night". They told Todd Moore that, Steve Branch that, Terry Hobbs that, me that, "and they wouldn't let us. We were ready to go last night. 4-wheelers, lights, boats to come out here last night."

Now, Joe and Bruce happen to know those facts because when I told them they said, Can you get that tape? I got the tape from the lawyer and mailed it to them and they listened to it. The Sheriff telling how sorry he was and how they would do this, you know, the whole conversation. There's definite proof that I was talking with the police, West Memphis and the Sheriff's Department, that I was trying to do everything I could do to get people to come look for my son and his two friends. I have that tape.
He knew what time to be home, before dark. If you're not inside, be in your yard.

Ryan
John Mark Byers-The only nightmare that I can remember was him coming in and waking Melissa up about was him telling us that in his nightmare a devil, some type of demon was in his bedroom trying to get him. Said they were gonna get him like they got his baby brother. He had some, but that is the one I remember. He said one of his biggest regrets he told me several times. During the initial start of us looking, this is when we were in the car riding around, he made the comment of "Let's just go on and eat, it'll serve him right for running off and not being home". That's just brothers, but he felt bad afterward for saying it.

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John Mark Byers-I hold the parents accountable and responsible for the biggest majority of the acts of their three children. And I base that on what I have seen, read and visibly seen with my own eyes of the way those three were raised. So, I can only say that the apple didn't fall too far from the tree. Not that we were picture perfect parents because none are.

I don't think Aaron knew they were going to be murdered. I feel like he was involved in the luring part. I feel like the three victims were given the picture of Aaron of let's go to our playhouse, some of my friends are there, a big club, we're gonna have a big time and I want to believe in mind that Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley did not premeditate let's get this three out there we're gonna murder them in this fashion.
I feel like they had planned for their little ceremony, maybe what you'd consider we're gonna initiate them and their initiation got out of hand. And I feel like there were no telling what type of drugs in their system. I do remember Christopher, maybe Michael also, stating that they had seen something strange going on out there in that Robinhood Hills area. I don't remember all the details of what they saw, but it seems like they talked about it was men, like Christopher made the comment he saw one guy bumping on the rearend of another guy.

I want to believe if he got the opportunity to get away from the scene as Michael tried to do he would've been alive. I feel like because he didn't have a bicycle, he was riding on the other two, what I think they got there to the pipe to cross, Christopher more than likely hopped off the bike as soon as it stopped and was more than likely the first one across the bridge. Misskelley's confession is Christopher was hit first. My only thought and prayer through the years have been I'm glad you was hit first and I hope it rendered him unconscious and that he never knew a thing about it. I've always hoped and prayed that. I feel like Michael Moore, that had to be the most terrible thing, to get away and come back and the defensive wounds said that he had more than anyone else, so that tells me Stevie Branch, definitely Christopher never had a chance to defend themselves or run. Christopher had no defensive wounds.

Christopher was not a fighter. He was a mild mannered, Ryan did his fighting for him. He would've run and go tell his brother. It was okay for Ryan to beat up on Christopher, but you can't. You mess with my little brother you're gonna have to take on me. And I had taught him you take care of your little brother. You take up for him, he's little.

All three were in Scouts and that makes it "Oh, you were the Scout leader", but Todd Moore was a Scout leader too and I had the older boys that were Ryan's age. I didn't even have the seven and eight year olds, Todd did, which is no reflection any more towards him than me. But I know how they try to spin that.
Ryan's friends were Britt, Richie, the Mexican boy that had a large family I can't remember their name, the young boy named Damon. Mainly his main pal was Britt Smith and the boy he was in court with that day. That TJ wasn't no 'regular'.

If anything, if Melissa and I were in any way bad parents we were real slack. We were slack in the discipline line as far as corporal punishment, because we knew Ryan and Christopher both had problems. Ryan was dyslexic and ADD. Ryan took Ritalin too since the first grade. No one ever talks about that though and as he got older he grew out of it. When he grew out of it he quit taking it. We sent him to dyslexia school in Memphis and he went for the entire summer.

Ryan's father would come over for the summer and pick Ryan up for a week and he came by 2 or 3 times. Melissa had to push child support from him. I tried to adopt Ryan also, but Jimmy wouldn't sign the papers.
We never heard anything from Rick Murray. We sent the paperwork to the last known address, and relatives the grandmother and grandfather, we published it in the paper, we sent the paperwork. We assumed his grandparents talked to him on a regular basis, I'm sure they did. They told us they told him about the letter and forwarded it on to him. When there was no response we felt like he felt like, since I don't have to worry about child support, I don't have to worry about Melissa putting me in the jail, the day he was born he went out and got drunk. He wasn't even in the hospital the day he got born. Melissa is having a C-section and he's out getting drunk. Said I got to get a pack of cigarettes and comes back 10 hours later drunk.

Then Chrisopher stayed in LeBonheur for like a month and almost died. Got a scar on his abdomen, had to have his intestines done.

Before he had a belly button that grows out, he had not been circumcised and it kept getting infections, we had him circumcised and I think tonsils. That was with no medical insurance and we wanted him to be normal. We talked about how the other little boys kind of made fun of his weenie and it didn't look like the others and he was 6 or 7.

Christopher was very, being premature, uncoordinated. He fell alot. He was very active and rambunctious, he loved his bicycle, he loved his skateboard, he didn't want any other kid to do something he couldn't do, he always wanted to run around with Ryan and he always was coming home with scrapes and bruises all the time. Ryan lit a smoke bomb one time and held it right in his face and it almost asphyxiated him. I had to give him CPR mouth to mouth to revive him. Smelled like sulpher on the 4th of July and Ryan comes in "Christopher can't breath". Well why? The other kids go, "you held a smoke bomb in his face and gassed him".

I heard stories of when Jessie Misskelley was in the first grade and the boys were having a conversation about who had the biggest private part. Heard Jessie was bragging about he had the biggest private part and he went up to the teacher. The teacher asked what the discussion was. Heard he said, teacher I got the biggest private part and heard the teacher said yea Jessie, but you're 14.

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John Mark Byers-If say, for general discussion, if I owed someone for a big drug debt or someone that I had got busted, I could understand them maybe wanting retribution and kill my son. The other two children had nothing to do with it. If you're going to take the chance to get retaliation at someone, you're going to get that one person's family there. You don't go involve other people. And you know from history that most notorious people did not pick on children. The mafia won't even hit a family or a child. I heard all those rumors and it came out in the book that I had been an informer, but I never did anything notorious as far as taking down someone, like a Danny Owens. He was a kingpen and did Federal time.

When Bruce and Joe came to me after this happened. I was in the front yard when they pulled up with the little girl that worked for the newspaper in West Memphis that showed them where I lived. And when I walked to their car, one of my motorcycle friends that had done Angola time named Andy Taylor had been staying like a body guard was there. He was an ex-seal who was there until shortly after the funerals and stayed close until I moved. When I walked up to their car I came from behind and I stuck that .44 right over Joe and Bruce's face and said what do you want? That's how we met was looking down the barrel of my .44 cause I was real like, I didn't know what the hell was going on and I'm real schitzy and freakin because of what all has happened and here these strangers pull up. The little girl in the back seat started talking then I invited them in and they started telling me who they are and what they want. They're there for the families and we're now going to be your new best friends on the face of the earth and da da da da. If I'm not mistaken they showed up in June. It was after the arrests because they had read about it in the paper and all. Through all the first documentary and through all the second documentary of their communication to me, was those three are guilty as hell and we want to document it, show it and prove it. What was brought to me when they contacted me in the summer of '97 was we want to do a sequel and we've received over half a million pieces of email concerning just you of how people are curious. How people have said bad, terrible things about you and we want this to be an update of all six families of how they're doing, how their life is going and this will be your time, your platform, your soapbox to get up and proclaim your innocence again to the world and to all these terrible, negative things they've said about you. This is your opportunity to let them have it. And that's how the entire scene was played out.

To give you the lowdown on the teeth. In the Holiday Plaza Mall, right beside where my jewelry store was, there's a dentist, Dr. Scott. In his records you will find where he did, I think it was a root canal, pulled a tooth and then he was one of the first dentists to tell me I had peridontal gum disease. He asked about the medication that I had been on and he's the one that told me that either Tegretol or Dilantin's side effect was peridontal gum disease. In these doctor's reports I had taken both medications. But I had had some teeth chipped and the peridontal disease and this had gotten worse.

In Jonesboro in '97, they had gotten real bad because up in the mountains after Melissa passed away, I went nuts. I got just as wasted as I could. I went to the meanest little honky tonk bars there was up there and I got in a fight just about every night. I really was hoping someone would kill me. I had several teeth busted that were turning black. They were killing me. I even went to a dentist up there and had a couple of them removed before Melissa passed away. The only way I could get relief was drinking any type of whiskey that I could get, cause I was drinking heavily, and put it in the mouth to use it as mouthwash to numb it.

I couldn't afford dental surgery. There were a dentist and a dental surgeon in my sister's congregation that they told about my problem. They said that if you will bring him here we will do his dental surgery, we will make his dentures and it won't cost you a thing. So, the end of March first of April of '97 I stayed with my sister a couple of weeks and had the dental surgery done. I was told the 3 on the bottom were good and that a bridge is easier to work with than a bottom full plate. It'll be easier for you to get used to, so that's how it ended up.

Now when they came to me and asked about it and of course I said in a jokingly way, oh I had it done a long time before that happened. But, you know that's bullshit and you know when I had it done. I've given you the records and the paperwork and the proof of when and where I had it done. Of course that's on the cutting room floor. But they slipped up I noticed in the one time it showed in the second one when I said it was afterward, then I said it was before, so they brought the tail end of it in which makes me look to be a liar. Was it before, was it after or do you know? Well, of course I know, I'm the one that presented you with the records.

That's when they started on the courthouse steps about the dental bite and the dental impressions and I pulled them out and said, well you know, here you go. And they started that and I said you know that I had them later. I could tell they were trying to get at me, get my goat, so might as well give it back to them the best I can. Of course I was a little frustrated that noone else was there to stand up against this crap from LA selling t-shirts. Except supposedly Joe and Bruce, they're supposedly on my side, they're taking me up there and my thinking is they're on my side and the only support that I have are you two boys from New York here with me. They said the other families they just don't care anymore. You're the only one that can carry the torch now. You have to stand up to these people, give them hell! Which I lit right into them.
(As far as on the steps what made the cutting room floor?)

Of me telling them you meet me somewhere and I'll stomp your ass! Yea, I told Grover and Burk I'll put some Arkansas hillbilly stomp ass on you you'll never forget.

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John Mark Byers-I gave my knife to the cameraman because of the little pocket knife he had for splicing and tapes and boards had the blade cut off and I gave it to him as a gift because I thought he could use this and I don't use it. I feel like having to get rid of it because I don't want to hurt Melissa's feelings and let her know that I don't use it, don't really like it, cut my hand with it, here, you know. We had buddied up and kind of been, you know, become friends. Joe and Bruce are and the rest of the film crew in the kitchen and he and I were sitting in the living room. I went to the bedroom and got it.

If I had ever thought that would've blown up to something. The cops had already been through the house. The detectives had already looked at the knife and layed it back down. I didn't think anything about it. It was a gift.

Really deep down in my heart Burk, Kathy and Grove, personally I, now I may be way off base, but I personally don't believe in their heart if they were to tell the honest to God truth if they could, that they really believe that I had anything to do with it. But I believe it's a money machine for them and their propaganda put someone on Front Street and I'm a real good candidate. I'm an easy target. I was made a loony fool and idiot of for quite some time. A hell of a red herring. I'm their scapegoat, but I truly do not think that they believe that I am anything involved in it. And I believe deep down in their mind they know the three they're trying to protect are guilty as hell. They want to make money off someone's loss.

As I said about Paul Ford or any of their other lawyers, well I'll tell you what, if they ever do get out y'all invite them to come live at your house. They'll come live with you. You can have them. But the other people, I used to be really mad about it, but I've come to a point in my life to where I accept that some people are gonna believe whatever they want to believe. It doesn't make any difference what I say or do, I'll never change their minds. Alot of people that I meet say, oh I know who you are and I tell them real quick no, you don't know who I am, you know of me.

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John Mark Byers-After we met there in Jonesboro the first time Joe and Bruce of course wanted to know if I wanted to go out to supper with them and I wasn't very hungry, but I went with them. They invited the other three along and this other girl that had a camera from Little Rock and we all went to Perkins. We sat down and we had Coke, pie, ice cream and we sat there an visited for an hour or two.

Now what they think is I was very cordial and friendly and polite to them while we were there, but you like to allude to well, when there's noone around you're friendly. Folks will say you keep your friends close and your enemies closer. At the time I'm thinking I'd like to learn more about you so if I alienate the hell out of you while we're in private I'll never learn anything. But if I kind of kiss your ass a little bit while we were talking you might, see I played a little country dumb there on them. Maybe they never realized it, but that was my motive. But yea, they wanted to make it like it was their, you remember me and we agreed to disagree. Yea, we did agree and disagree. My stand is still what it is. I understand this wagon that you're on, propaganda bullshit. You've got to do what you've got to do. I've got to do what I feel like I have to do which was acting crazy, which was being fueled by outside sources too.

Now, you're the only one that'll come up here and fight them. No one else wants to stand for what's right. You need to speak out against them giving away t-shirts. You need to be up here at the courthouse on this Rule 37. Noone else is gonna come up here and fight them. You need to stand up for your dead son.
Bruce and Joe were picking me up as I had no transportation. They had the boom mic and all whenever I'd get in a confrontation. Yes I was miked up. See, here was there deal. They wanted me, since they won't let us in to hear this Rule 37, we want you to wear this microphone under your shirt so we can hear what's going on in the courtroom. Which I did. Then, some way or another it was found out that I that I was asked, do you have any kind of a listening device on your body? Yes sir. Said you need to leave the courtroom and have it removed before you can come back in. I leave the courtroom, they take it off of me and I come back in. Yea, they wired me on Rule 37 and sent me in, thinking that I'm helping them, oh yea, they did that! Yes, that's definitely a factor! Y'all knew they knew that didn't you? Now, I have no idea how the Court was found out that I was wired, but yes I sat there the first hour or so. I felt real stupid standing there, Hey it's me! Yea Judge! I'm the one! I was just trying to help though. I didn't know any better. HA HA HA HA HA HA.

I know what they gave! We had him miked to do the, their line they gave was, Well we miked him up when we were recording outside, on the outside and forgot he had it on. THAT was put on me from Jump Street to go in there! They sent me in there like that and I didn't know I was doing anything wrong. I'm thinking, I'm helping the cause. You know, we wanna get what goes on in there so false propaganda can't be spewed out to what really happened on Rule 37. Be our inside ears.

They know I'm in financial straights. They know I'm living hand to mouth. They know this because several times I'd called and said, look, I'm behind on my rent, I don't have money to buy the medication I need, and they'd send me two or three hundred dollars. When they pitched the second movie they could only pay me $5,000 because of the budget. That's what was agreed on. Then when it came when they wanted me to do the polygraph part and I'm like, Naaahh I don't..., well I tell you what. We have found some extra money, $2,500. I'm thinking, well hell that's a pretty easy $2,500 to me, Okay. The more I thought about it the more I'm thinking you know that's bullshit. Why should I have to keep defending myself, defending myself, defending myself to them. Because of financial pressure and from them, this is what the people really want to see. You just do the polygraph and that would show them you got nothing to hide. You know, you didn't do it the first time, if you do it this time and you said outside on the courthouse that if someone else paid for it you'd do it. You know, we've got that film and if we show that and then say you backed out that's gonna make you look bad. When I signed that contract with them I should've had a guardian for my estate cause I wasn't even in my right mind. Bipolar, manic-depressive, post traumatic stress syndrome, this man's, he's "out there".

The day that they did the blood and the hair and all, before they took the hair out and the 'we know you're it', they said, Do you have a problem taking a polygraph? I said, No I certainly do not. This was the guy from Quantico Virginia, Well are you taking anything today? Yes. What? Two ten milligram valium. Why? Duh! Go figure! My son was just murdered three days ago, hell I'm a freakin basket case! He leaves the office, comes back with, Well we're gonna do blood and hair and we might do the polygraph some other time. And that's the last, they never said anymore to me about it. I was talking to this guy downtown at the Police Station. I met this guy in person at the Police Station when they were gonna do the polygraph on me.

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John Mark Byers-I'll tell you how it went down with the knife and the gun with the boys. At the time Ryan was hanging around his friend Marty Carr. Now you can go ask Justin Copeland if this ain't the truth cause he was living over in Cherokee Village I think at the time. Marty was in the car with us and had gotten into a dispute with some other boys and they wanted to fight, but I told Marty that we're going on. Marty said he would just go after them when he got to his scooter because that's how he used to get around all the time was on his scooter and he was gonna go do it anyway no matter what I said.

I'm of the old school that whenever there's a dispute to let them settle it and get it over with because boys act tough like that sometimes. So I stopped and when I did, Marty grabbed the little knife that I had laying right there in the car and started to take off. I hollard at him DO NOT OPEN THAT KNIFE and told him to put it back where he got it. Marty said that he was only going to use it as a fistback and took off. He was outnumbered by this other group of boys that wanted to fight and they had rocks all wrapped up in their shirts and everything ready to you know, get it on.

There went Marty jumping in with them and the guy who wanted Marty got into it with him, but Marty had him down on the ground and to rights beat him to the fight. Then I get out to make sure it was all said and done and when I did is when the gun tipped out the car seat and it got all blown out of proportion. That gun didn't even work right. I had just bought it for $20 bucks down at the store and had the receipts for it and everything just ask the store owner. It was an old .22 rifle that didn't even fire cause the mechanism wasn't right, it wasn't even loaded and I was gonna take it and fix it up.

I didn't even think nothin about it so we all went on to the lake to ride around on the boat all day just enjoying ourselves you know and the next thing we know we get back to the dock and there's the officer waiting on us. That's how it went down but I can even tell you all where you can find sworn testimony about what all happened. Go on over to the Courthouse in Ash Flat and see what all Marty testified to when that boy's parents brought up a lawsuit against us both. You'll see he testified like "Mark didn't give it to me and that he hollard at me, told me NOT to open it and to put it on down".

All this wild speculation as to he gave the boy a knife and he pulled a gun on some boys is just not the way it happened.

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John Mark Byers-I was asked to do the second movie in the summer of '97. The Rule 37 deal wasn't until later '98. You three from LA are the ones that made me aware of a pentagram shadow on my head in the first place. I didn't even see it in the first one and it was a little bit late to back out at that time. I was under the assumption that it was all 6 families participating in the second movie and an update on how all were doing. It was told to me that it was my time to get up on my soapbox and tell all the people that thought I was involved in any way how wrong they were. To state the facts that I had nothing to do with it, even taking a polygraph test.

If I'm not mistaken it was you that popped off about that shadow on my forehead and then you popped off about something else and that's when I told you that had about as much truth to it as your hair being blonde. Remember that Kathy? 2 or 3 inches of dark roots. Peroxide was a definite must, about a gallon. You and dollparts and destini are a walkin talkin most pitiful excuse for a living breathing v*gina.

I didn't know I had so much power to control someone's life like that. Thank you thank you thank you.

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