Viable suspect: James Kenny Martin

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reedus, you mind reader, you.. :D

This is exactly where I was beginning to look, before my back blew out and made it hard to concentrate and sit at the puter for extended periods (ie, doing research is hard!).

I actually was in error when I said Barb's kids went to Weaver, thanks to some ambiguous wording in the reports -- not sure about her younger son? (shudder, he was 11 or 12 IIRC, well within JMK's favourite age range..) and as far as i can tell, her older (14 yo?) twins went to school with Damien & co.

In any case, there's every chance her younger son was a point of contact, they didn't live far from there. Barb's address is actually given for the Martins in one doc, but I tend to think that's an error.

JMK was recorded as recommending a park across the way from where worked as being a good place to find kids (so clearly he was looking..)... I had a looksee on googlemaps, and there is a park not far from the Flash Market site now, dunno about back then, and it's not really across the street. Dunno about his other job at WB Davis Electric Supply, it's not there any more so if anyone can find an address/site for that I'd be grateful.

W.B.Davis Electric Supply, the week of this incident, I was on vacation, uh Wednesday, I can, Wednesday afternoon, approximately 5:00 o'clock, five or six o'clock, I am not sure, a girlfriend of mine, her name is Barbara, I know I was going to forget her last name. Barbara uh, who lives in that area, had told me that there were three boys missing. Uh, we, my wife and I watched a news report and we say that the three boys were missing. I went, my wife, I drove myself to work Wednesday night at 10:00 o'clock to Flash Market, 322, 3225 E. Broadway, I worked at Flash Market Wednesday night from 10:00PM to 6:00AM.
Click to expand...

The times are very suss, there....

But yeah, as his gf lived around the corner from the victims and he worked so nearby in the afternoons, I can see the chance he made contact at some point - he seems pretty familiar with the area of the crime scene. And note how he gets all braggy to the cops over info regarding grooming and how easy it can be, and how he'd do it -- if it was him.

I actually think he was spotted after the murders, sitting in his car near the yellow tape, and that's why he goes out of his way to say why he was there... and to insist he -never- set foot in the woods themselves... :waitasec:
 
OH -- I am actually pretty sure Flash Market was having construction done, and this might be where JKM worked while there? I am probably wrong, just a note to self to check that out for fact.

And clarity on the school issue, from jivepuppi's site:

"My friend Barbara, once told me later that I had met one of the boys, which one, I don't know, but her son was the same or close to the same age as them and went to Weaver with them... She called me that night around 6pm or so, to tell me about them missing, I was living in Marion at that time not far from Jesse's house, but I don't recall ever meeting any of them, execpt for Jesse's Dad after his arrest..." (McCafferty had a twelve year old.)"
 
Speaking of Barbara.. I'm posting links to her statements here, as comparison to the notes above and because - well, they're kinda disturbing.

Page 1: Barb gives JKM a free alibi -- which he later refutes! Since he already had a perfectly good one from his wife that conflicts with Barbara's and all..

http://callahan.8k.com/images2/barbara_m/mccafferty_notes_01.jpg

Page 2: Barb has a little meltdown and talks about her own abuse, then admits she knows JKM is a rock spider, and says she heard a scream from the direction of RHH on the night of the murders. Etc.

http://callahan.8k.com/images2/barbara_m/mccafferty_notes_01.jpg

Page 3: Barb's mum sees a white van doing laps of the neighbourhood.

http://callahan.8k.com/images2/barbara_m/mccafferty_notes_03.jpg
 
One of his sons has recently committed suicide. Martin commented that his son had tried three times, and "third times the charm."

Another of his children has come forward to talk about James Martin. Speaking from his anguish, he said, "I believe in full that James murdered the boys --- but i have no proof he did."

http://www.jivepuppi.com/jivepuppi_jkm.html
 
PF - thanks! Here's the link to page 2:

http://callahan.8k.com/images2/barbara_m/mccafferty_b_02.jpg

JKM apparently has denied that Barbara made this trip to borrow a drill on the day of the murders, and that none of it ever happened at all.

I notice, though, that both this statement -and- JKM's alibi are very focussed around the 6-6.30 time slot.

JKM would also amend his own statement later, changing the times somewhat.
 
Ausgirl said:
(I actually put the wrong page 2.. LOL: )


http://callahan.8k.com/images2/barbara_m/mccafferty_notes_02.jpg
Click to expand...

Thanks so much for all of that Aus. Good stuff. Sorry I haven't been able to contribute more frequently. I know this. As a child, I was ALWAYS going to the local equivalent of 7 Eleven and getting gum. We'd walk. We'd ride our bikes. But we always went. I would bet Stevie, Chris and Michael did too. I don't know how to find it out but I'm curious if there were stores closer than JKM's. If not, I'd almost bet they'd been there, getting candy/gum/whatever while riding around.
 
He does somewhat resemble Chad's description:

Description

martin_james_c.jpg

Is that a blue and white plaid shirt? Husband described seeing a man with one

He's not the only one that I think resembles this description.
 
reedus23 said:
Thanks so much for all of that Aus. Good stuff. Sorry I haven't been able to contribute more frequently. I know this. As a child, I was ALWAYS going to the local equivalent of 7 Eleven and getting gum. We'd walk. We'd ride our bikes. But we always went. I would bet Stevie, Chris and Michael did too. I don't know how to find it out but I'm curious if there were stores closer than JKM's. If not, I'd almost bet they'd been there, getting candy/gum/whatever while riding around.
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I would LOVE to know what sort of work he had at the market.. And yeah, we did the same thing as kids, it was a good mile to the shops but we were always up there on our bikes, getting bubblegum cards and whatnot.

That JKM was very familiar with a student at Weaver, that he said he'd met one of the victims, that he worked a 6-min drive from the school and crime scene area, that his alibi was dodgy, that he was clearly (and in FRONT of the police, for goodness' sake) unrepentant regarding his crimes against kids... that he suggested the bodies being moved, and was accurate about the bindings.. omg, SO much stuff to investigate. Oh yeah, and he's a convicted pedo, to boot, with a preferred victim age range matching the boys...

Not to be a broken record about it -- but it just outrages me to the core that this man was NOT a prime suspect, and was NOT investigated with a microscope from day 1 and up to the present day.

Compare this guy to Jason Baldwin.

wtf were they thinking :confused:
 
Just a thought that popped into mind late last night -- IF JKM or any pedo buddies in the area did this crime, then the -last- people they're going to point to is themselves.

It is interesting that JKM pointed to Hobbs rather than Byers, stating that Hobbs was the only step parent (he was apparently unaware that MB was not Chris's bio dad).

Yet, aside from that one error, he seemed to know a great deal about the families, didn't he? And this is 14 days after the murders.

JKM has done his research on the victims home lives -and- possibly behavioural habits, he's been seen hanging around the crime scene and admits doing so. And offers police his 'services' in helping the killer, because - as he states - only a sicko like him can catch another sicko.

And yet, while he's giving not only the required statement, but gloating about the rapes he's already done and offering theories that include unreleased crime scene details, he is -clearly- persistent in attempting to milk the police for information on what they know.

The list of reasons to eyeball this guy is getting quite long, isn't it.
 
i've not had the time to read all of this and admittedly will have to do so in the light of day. this guy is definitely the stuff of nightmares. just hearing his name makes me feel sick. shudders.
 
An interesting find today..

http://callahan.8k.com/images2/h_king/h_king_letter_circumstances.jpg

http://callahan.8k.com/images2/h_king/h_king_letter_circumstances.jpg

While these statements were given some time -before- the murders, that they were in the WMPD files is interesting, indeed.

What this hints at to me is that this is a path of inquiry the WMPD were heading down, at -some point- prior to Jerry Driver's occult obsession taking hold of the investigation.

Just another bit of conformation that pedos who've spent time in prison are more likely to kill the children they molest, for fear of going back.

And there was a metric ton of pedos in that area at the time... just gossip, but reading comments from people who lived there, particularly in the trailer parks, I've found people saying W Memphis was a pedo's paradise, lots of unsupervised and/or neglected, vulnerable kids wandering about.

And that indeed, there were many sex offenders living there in '93, of which few people were even aware until the murders, and the police started questioning them.

I seriously wonder if the boys were not being groomed by --somebody-- in the weeks prior to their deaths. All three were acting out to various degrees, and a bit above and beyond normal 8 year old naughtiness - setting fires, pooing and throwing it in public, the allegations of Chris Byers being way too sexually aware for his age, Mark and Melissa's concerns in that regard.

And while it seems many people don't take the concept of "pedophile rings" seriously, the fact is that a good number of pedophiles -do- like to band together, to swap kids or pictures, brag about their conquests. There is NO doubt in my mind that JKM is one of them.

There was a child molester working at the Byers house. There was a child molester working at the WMPD. Seems to me you couldn't spit without hitting a pedo in WM, in 1993. Funny how this seems to be the case, in so many unsolved child murders I've looked at..

Sorry, I realise I am just thinking out loud, here.

I can't shake the feeling though, that -something- came to a head on May 5, 1993, that had been building for a time. I also cannot help but wonder -- if the investigation had focussed on people known or rumoured to abuse children, if we wouldn't have seen an entirely different trial.
 
Not really adding anything new but just went back and read my notes from reading through all the documents on callahans and here were some of mine with regard to JKM. Mind you, this was before I read everything or discussed this case nearly as much as I now have.

* Girlfriend told him between 5-6 that 3 boys missing - way too early
* Didn't know girlfriend's name or number
* Worked at Flash Market
* Nearly walking distance
* Went to scene twice
* Said bent wrong and killed - pretty spot on description of how it could have happened.
* Said killed elsewhere a dumped there (consistent with lack of evidence at scene)
 
<respectfully snipped>

Ausgirl said:
I can't shake the feeling though, that -something- came to a head on May 5, 1993, that had been building for a time. I also cannot help but wonder -- if the investigation had focussed on people known or rumoured to abuse children, if we wouldn't have seen an entirely different trial.
Click to expand...

I totally agree that something came to a head on May 5, 1993. This crime wasn't the act of thrill killers or drunk teenagers. It certainly wasn't a Satanic sacrifice! This crime was the act of a vicious, dangerous killer (or killers) who needs to be off the street. He may have already killed again and been able to successfully escape being a suspect in that crime as well. It's just horrible that the original police investigation was so shoddy.
 
New here but like many here I have been interested in this case for some time. I find a lot of red flags with JKM myself. I think that he was dismissed to easily as a suspect. He may have not actually committed the crime against those boys, but if they looked closely he may have had led police in a different direction.

I find the audio version of his interview to be more chilling than the transcript.
http://callahan.8k.com/wm3/audio/html/j_martin_interview.html
 
I've only recently started researching this case and James Martin immediately jumps to the top of the POI pile for me. This thread has been very useful in helping me get to grips with his involvement, thank you.
Does anyone know if the hair/blood samples were ever taken from James Martin and if they were compared to the unidentified samples found a few years back? I am unclear on whether the police eliminating him as a suspect would also eliminate him from the sample pool they tested against.
 
jamesmsvas said:
I've only recently started researching this case and James Martin immediately jumps to the top of the POI pile for me. This thread has been very useful in helping me get to grips with his involvement, thank you.
Does anyone know if the hair/blood samples were ever taken from James Martin and if they were compared to the unidentified samples found a few years back? I am unclear on whether the police eliminating him as a suspect would also eliminate him from the sample pool they tested against.
Click to expand...

According to this document JKM consented to having hair and blood samples taken:
http://callahan.8k.com/wm3/img/jmartinconsent.html
As for what happened to them, and what they were compared against, I have no idea.
 
Graznik said:
According to this document JKM consented to having hair and blood samples taken:
http://callahan.8k.com/wm3/img/jmartinconsent.html
As for what happened to them, and what they were compared against, I have no idea.
Click to expand...

Maybe those samples are with the Bojangles samples:floorlaugh:

Seriously, I don't remember ever hearing of results from such testing. However, that tends to be far too common in this case. As we all know, the wmpd decided early on who was guilty and tailored the evidence to fit the suspects instead of following the evidence in order to identify the killer as competent PD's do. As to why JKM was cleared, I believe his girlfriend provided an alibi. Why her alibi was sufficient when the alibis of friends and family of Damien, Jason and Jessie weren't is simply another conundrum in this case.
 
JKM's wife provided his alibi.

So did his girlfriend, ex-wife of an WMPD officer.. though she provided a different and somewhat conflicting alibi, one which JKM says never happened, despite it being extremely detailed.

JKM's wife was the victim of domestic violence, says a charge sheet dated 6 months before the murders, when JKM beat her to a pulp. It's hard for me to believe the cops -had- that charge on record, and yet took the wife's word at face value after that hella creepy interview he gave them, and admitting hanging around the dump site.

Too damn right he should've been looked at much harder than he was - and still should be now, IMO.
 
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