West Memphis Three - Suspects - "Mr. Bojangles"

"Mr. Bojangles"

The sighting of a black male as a possible alternate suspect was implied during the beginning of the Misskelley trial. According to local West Memphis police officers, on the evening of May 5, 1993, at 8:42 pm, workers in the Bojangles' restaurant about a mile from the crime scene in Robin Hood Hills reported seeing a black male who seemed "mentally disoriented" inside the ladies' room of the restaurant. The man was bleeding and had brushed against the walls of the restroom. Officer Regina Meeks responded to the call, taking the restaurant manager's report through the restaurant's drive-through window. By then, the man had left and police did not enter the restroom on that date.

The following day after the victims' bodies were found, Bojangles' manager Marty King, thinking there was a possible connection to the bloody man found in the bathroom, repeated the incident to police officers who then inspected the ladies room. King gave the officers a pair of sunglasses he thought the man left behind and the detectives took some blood samples from the walls. Police detective Bryn Ridge testified that he later lost those blood scrapings taken from the walls and tiles of the restroom. A hair identified as belonging to a black male was later recovered from a sheet which was used to wrap one of the victims.