Johnny Depp's "brother" inspired "Stranger Things" season 4 character
Damien Echols
is one of them; he once remarked that after Depp's release, he felt "like a brother" toward him.
In West Memphis, Arkansas, Echols was a teenager when police charged
him and two of his friends with a horrifying triple homicide. Three children
were victims of the 1993 crime, and three teenagers were the main suspects, according to investigators.
According to some, the prosecution team built its case on the widespread
"Satanic Panic"
of the early 1990s. Investigators connected the alleged
ritualistic elements of the crime to their adolescent interests.
A court was forced by the argument to find them guilty for questionable justifications.
In 1994, they were sentenced to death row and later became known as the
West Memphis Three
.