Stranger Things season 4 is arguably the best yet, largely thanks to the introduction of fan-favorite Eddie "the freak" Munson (Joseph Quinn), Hawkins High's resident metalhead and leader of the Dungeons & Dragons club, Hellfire. Eddie stole viewers' hearts back in May when he took Hellfire Club members Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) under his wing, and endeavored to help cheerleader Chrissy Cunningham (Grave Van Dien) after she became Vecna's (Jamie Campbell Bower) newest target.
But it wasn't just his kindness that drew viewers to him. Eddie's story — the misunderstood outcast falsely accused of murder — shook people to the core, earning sympathy all round. And if his fate wasn't sad enough, the true crime story behind his character is nothing short of heartbreaking.
The Duffer Brothers wear their inspirations on their sleeves with Stranger Things, and revealed in an interview Deadline that ex-death row inmate turned writer Damien Echols largely inspired Eddie's character:
"We wanted to explore the idea of “satanic panic” because we have our kids playing Dungeons & Dragons. It was just this fascinating period that seems ridiculous now looking back, but it was very serious at the time [...] When you talk about satanic panic, Damien Echols was not 80s, but we thought he was caught up in something very similar, this mass hysteria."
The author of the New York Times bestseller Life After Death, Damien Echols, is best known in the true-crime community as one of the West Memphis Three who, in 1994, were wrongfully convicted of murdering three boys in West Memphis, Arkansas. The case received nationwide attention back in the day, becoming the subject of several documentaries, including Paradise Lost and West of Memphis, which the Duffer Brothers cite as inspirations. The case continues to arouse controversy even now, 11 years after Echols and his friends were released from prison, where they spent 18 years of their lives.
The story goes as follows. On May 5, 1993, three eight-year-old boys (Christopher Byers, Michael Moore, and Stevie Branch) went on a bike ride and never returned. The following day, their bodies were found naked and hog-tied in a creek in a wooded area known as Robin Hood Hills. The boys were badly mutilated, and rumors, supported by the police, began to circulate that the murders were connected to devil worship. Almost immediately, troubled local teenager, 18-year-old Damien Echols, became a suspect. Echols had had previous (minor) run-ins with the police, but, like Eddie, his biggest crime was seemingly being a misfit.
Comparisons to the Stranger Things character are uncanny. Echols also loved Metallica, had long hair and tattoos, and came from a poverty-stricken family that lived in a trailer park. A high school dropout with a history of mental illness, Echols' interests included Stephen King novels and the occult, making him very unpopular in his Bible Belt town.
Local waitress Vicki Hutcheson was convinced that the murders were cult-related and hatched an elaborate tale, involving a witch orgy, that implicated Echols; she later claimed that the authorities coerced her into implying his involvement. Hutcheson's 17-year-old neighbur Jessie Misskelley Jr., who introduced the former to Echols, also implicated Echols and their friend 16-year-old Jason Baldwin, telling the police they committed the murders and that he himself was involved. This was the most damning piece of "evidence" in their trial — and also the most infuriating, for Misskelley Jr. withdrew his confession, that he says was coerced. Not only did he have a very low IQ of 72, marking him as borderline intellectually disabled, but his initial story was inconsistent with the actual murders, and he had the incentive of a huge monetary reward to lie. In court, Misskelley Jr. also claimed he was afraid of the officers and simply told them what they wanted to hear.
Unfortunately, the jury's prejudice was stronger than his words. The three teenagers were charged with three counts of capital murder, despite no solid evidence ever connecting them to the crime. Misskelley Jr. and Baldwin were sentenced to life imprisonment, whereas Echols — who was considered the leader — was sentenced to death by lethal injection. Echols spent almost two decades on death row before he and the rest of the West Memphis Three entered Alford pleas, in which a criminal defendant pleads guilty to an offense but still maintains their innocence. They were released in 2011.
Whilst Echols might've escaped Eddie's grisly fate, he didn't come out unscathed, as he wrote in his memoir, "My heart, soul, body, and mind all have scars that will never properly heal. Still I survived." And like the residents of Hawkins, who will never know who killed Chrissy, the real perpetrator(s) of the 1993 West Memphis murders remains a mystery.
When asked how he felt about having a character based on him, Echols only had good things to say, tweeting:
"I was tremendously honored by it. And I greatly appreciate all the new eyes and hearts it has brought to our fight. I was watching it at 3 am in the morning, and when I heard the very first chords from Master of Puppets, my heart exploded."
As for Joseph Quinn, the breakout actor loved playing Eddie, telling Esquire, "There's a parable to Eddie's story, really, that is poetic, powerful, and beautiful." Viewers agree, and despite the Duffer Brother's insistence that Eddie is well and truly dead, fans aren't ready to say goodbye yet. Many have come up with theories that have him survive, and even started petitions to see his return. With Stranger Things season 5 expected to be released sometime in 2024, they'll have their fingers crossed for a while.