Johnny Depp is an American actor, producer, and musician. He has received multiple awards like the Golden Globe Award and the Screen Actors Guild Award. We have come to know that his brother, Damien Echols, has inspired the Stranger Things character – Eddie Munson. After the issue with Johnny Depp’s ex-wife, Amber Heard, Johnny Depp felt like he finally has some peace after everything, but he was also involved in removing three other people from the death sentence because he believed they did not commit the crimes. Damien Echols was one of them, and after the release of Johnny Depp, he finally felt like a brother to him.
The West Memphis case
In West Memphis, Arkansas, Echols was a teenager when he was charged along with his two friends for a horrifying triple homicide case. The victims of the 1993 crime were three children, and the main suspects were three teenagers, according to the detectives.
The prosecution case was built on the Satanic Panic of the early 1990s. The investigators connected the ritualistic elements of the crime to their teenage minds and their interest. They were found guilty because their justifications were not strong enough.
In 1994, the accused were sentenced to death row, and they came to be known as the West Memphis Three. As time gradually passed, and new methods of testing came into existence, their involvement in the crime became questionable.
The involvement of Damien Echols
Celebrities like Johnny Depp became interested in the case after watching the sensational documentary, The Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hill. The West Memphis Three spent 18 years in jail before being released in 2011. They used an Alford plea.
The story of Stranger Things was something related to this incident. The Hellfire Club, of which Eddie was a part, was based on the Satanic Panic of the 1990s. The Duffer Brothers said they wanted to involve the Satanic panic, which led them to The West Memphis Three case, which led them back to Damien Echols.
The idea of Eddie came from him, because he is a metalhead, and he is into Dungeons and Dragons, plus he is also a softie from the heart but looks otherwise from the outside.
How did Johnny Depp come to shake hands with Damien Echols?
The actor said that the injustice that took place with Echols, was something he could not just accept, and hence he got in touch with the defendant. Echols said that Johnny Depp supported every single path, and supported them from the core.
Echols also said that when the book signing event was taking place, he was there. This is not helping his career in any way but he was just there to support him.
He has been hooked on the case since the release of Echols, and he still wants to establish the innocence of Echols and his co-defendants, and gain justice for the victims. He wants to fight for them till the end.
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Source: MARCA
