Turns Out Your BF Eddie’s Plot Line In Stranger Things Is Based On A Cooked True Crime Story

Did you come away from Stranger Things season four with a crush on Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn) and a renewed interest in the Satanic Panic? Well, you’re not the only one. And it turns out Eddie’s story is actually based on an incredibly sad real life case.

One of the historical events happening against the backdrop of Stranger Things, along with the Cold War, was the Satanic Panic. If you’ve never heard of the Satanic Panic, I’d highly recommend the podcast You’re Wrong About‘s episode on the whole affair.

In short, it was a moral panic centred on the belief that Satanic cults were a real and present threat in 1980s America. It largely centred a misguided belief that ‘Satanic ritual abuse’ of children was happening in places like daycare centres.

There were multiple arrests and charges based on these accusations of Satanic cults, so it had very real impacts.

One of those cases was that of the West Memphis Three, which the Stranger Things creators explained as an inspiration for Eddie’s story on the show.

Netflix tweeted that Eddie Munson’s character was partly based on Damien Echols, a member of the West Memphis Three. A documentary series called Paradise Lost was made about the group’s experiences.

Echols, along with two other teens, was sent to prison for the horrific murders of three eight-year-old. Echols was sentenced to death while the other teen boys were given life in prison with no parole.

But the evidence against them was pretty cooked.

One of the boys, Jessie Misskelley was just 16 at the time. He confessed to seeing Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin commit the crime. But he only confessed after an unsupervised, 12 hour questioning from police.

As pointed out by Digital Spy, the three teens had no connection to the murdered boys and there was no DNA evidence linking them to the murders.

The prosecution leaned on the idea that the tragic murders were the result of a Satanic cult. Echols — who was long-haired, into heavy metal and had a criminal record — was a prime suspect.

A number of celebs got behind the three boys, including Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam, Natalie Maines from The Chicks, punk rocker Henry Rollins and Lord Of The Rings director Peter Jackson. Some of the murdered boys’ parents also ultimately came to believe that Echols, Misskelley and Baldwin were innocent.

The three have always maintained their innocence. They ultimately entered an Alford Plea where someone maintains their innocence but agrees that there’s enough evidence in the case to convict them as guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and were released.

So there you have it — Eddie Munson’s character centres on the very real consequences of a devastating moral panic.

It’ll be interesting to see where they take his storyline in Stranger Things season four volume two, particularly with the Dungeons and Dragons-hating, Satanic cult-believing basketball jock Patrick McKinney (Myles Truitt) on his case.

Fingers crossed for all the Eddie stans.

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