Untying the Knot: John Mark Byers and the West Memphis Three (25 page)

The last story—that Mark had lost his teeth before the taping—is, in fact, what happened. He had inadvertently left them at a restaurant the night before, and they had subsequently been thrown out when his table was cleared. The restaurant was closed when the limo came to pick him up for the show, so he had to do the taping without his dentures.

He ended up having to dumpster-dive for them after the show. After all that he’d been through, after all his sister had done for him, after all the controversy that had arisen regarding alleged bite marks, he damned sure wasn’t leaving Los Angeles without those teeth He eventually found them, but not before an LAPD patrol car pulled up and watched in amazement as the six-foot-six Byers, dressed in a three-piece suit and cowboy boots, climbed out of the dumpster.

“Good god, what are you doing in there?” the patrolman asked. “Where are you from?”

“Arkansas,” Mark answered, “and I’m lookin’ for my teeth.” He gave the officer the whole story, about how he’d lost his teeth, the
Leeza
taping, and the plane he had to catch. “That’s my limo waiting out front.”

The patrolman glanced skeptically toward the black Lincoln and shook his head, saying, “
Please
be gone when I get back!”

The
Leeza
show, which was supposed to air in January 1999, never did, and no one seems to know why. What is known is that the transcript from Mark Byers’s taping has been available all over the Internet for years. Since no one has come forward with the transcript of the second taping, it is easy to speculate that something happened in the studio that the network didn’t like—a legal issue, perhaps—and that it was quashed.
Leeza
went off the air sometime in 2000, and the WM3 segment was supposed to air after
Leeza
went into reruns. Attorney Dan Stidham was allegedly told by the show’s producers that the taped material was too graphic for daytime television and needed to be edited to suit its intended audience. It is also possible that the show was not as riveting as Bakken’s review would indicate and that the producers decided not to air it for quality reasons. As with so many aspects of the case, the answer may never be known.
¹¹⁹

As part of an attempt to convince
Revelations
viewers that he had no part in the murders of his wife and son, Byers volunteered for a polygraph examination, which he passed. Whether or not the producers were disappointed with the result—after all, they’d spent a considerable amount of time making him appear to be a suspect—they felt the need to qualify the exam for viewers. The following message appears on-screen:

Mark
Byers
is
taking
the
following
mood-altering
medications
during
this
test:

Xanax,
Zoloft,
Sinequan,
Halodol,
Depakote

But the filmmakers fail to inform the audience that the polygraph examiner had been made aware of which drugs Mark was taking ahead of time, and the test was interpreted accordingly. This is common practice in the industry, and it is hard to imagine that the filmmakers were ignorant of this, given that the test was conducted at their expense. Is it possible that they didn’t want anyone to think Mark Byers was telling the truth?

Bruce Sinofsky, Joe Berlinger, Mara Leveritt, Kathy Bakken, Burk Sauls, Grove Pashley, Dan Stidham, Brent Turvey—it seems that an inordinate number of people were trying to cast aspersion on one man. Was it necessary to their stated goal of advocacy? Just as Berlinger and Sinofsky postulate in the commentary, on film Dan Stidham suggests that perhaps the prosecution has gone too far to admit that they’ve made a mistake. There is nothing particularly insightful or prescient about this. What district attorney would admit reversible error, particularly in a triple
child
murder case that has withstood eighteen years of intense scrutiny by all manner of people, professional and otherwise, as well as the dismissal of multiple appeals?

A third installment of the series,
Paradise
Lost
3:
Purgatory
, was created because the state of the case demanded it. The film made the film festival circuit and finally aired on HBO on January 12, 2012. Berlinger and Sinofsky have said it’s their last. If, however, as HBO producer Shelia Nevins believes, there is a fourth documentary to make, it would be refreshing if the fourth film were to use a more factual and less theatric method of getting the filmmakers’ point across, and if they could do it without besmirching another innocent man. Given recent developments in the case, there may be a new lamb to sacrifice.

Joe Berlinger once told Chris Champion of
Telegraph
Magazine
that he denied any negative impact of his films. “I am acutely aware that [the victims’ families] were expecting a film that confirmed the guilt of these kids. I feel bad for them emotionally
that
they
believe
the
wrong
thing
. But I feel even worse when someone is put to death for a crime that they didn’t do. But I think that is the collateral damage one must accept as a journalist if you feel like there’s a greater injustice happening” [emphasis added].
¹²⁰
Collateral
damage
. In the
Paradise
Lost
films it appears as if one life is being traded for three others. Perhaps the filmmakers believed that it benefited the greater good to sacrifice the reputation of Mark Byers for the cause of liberating the West Memphis Three, and who’s to say they were wrong? But was it their decision to make? Perhaps. But they appear to be practicing a form of mob justice and trampling on the law. Berlinger’s assertion that he is a “journalist” may be valid, but is it ethical to accept “collateral damage,” particularly in a case involving three eight-year-old victims?

It is beyond question that the films of Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky had the intended effect on their audience; the rise of the Free the West Memphis Three movement is testament to that, and the most recent events would seem to vindicate their activism.

In the final scene in
Revelations
, Mark Byers is sitting alone at the kitchen table of his efficiency apartment in Jonesboro. There is a small stereo cassette player on the table, and as he presses the “play” button, he begins to semi-lip-synch the lyrics to a recording he made of himself singing a spiritual song that begins,

Amazing
Grace
will
always
be
my
song
of
praise

For
it
was
Grace
that
bought
my
liberty

I
do
not
know
just
why
He
came
to
love
me
so

He
looked
beyond
my
hope
and
saw
my
need

As Mark finishes his song, he lights up a smoke and kicks back, and one final text screen appears:

Mark
Byers
was
arrested
on
June
2,
1999
for
selling
prescription
drugs
to
an
undercover
narcotics
officer.
Sentenced
to
8
years
in
an
Arkansas
Corrections
Facility,
he
is
eligible
for
parole
in
October
2000.

According to Mark’s criminal record, he was arrested on January 9, 1999, for the sale of a controlled substance, the antianxiety drug Xanax. Mark was on probation at the time of his arrest; it was revoked on May 26, 1999, and off he went to the East Arkansas Regional Unit at Brickeys to begin serving his eight-year sentence. He was still incarcerated when
Revelations:
Paradise
Lost
2
premiered on HBO in March 2000.

Map of Robin Hood Hills and surrounding neighborhood

Christopher’s second grade class picture.

Happier times at the grill at 1400 East Barton.