Devil's Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three (43 page)

87. On matters relating to the occult, however, Ridge’s report was extensive. “When asked if the water had any type of meaning in the Wicca or black magic, Damien stated that water was a demon type symbolism and that all people have a demonic force,” Ridge wrote. “He further stated that people have control over the demonic force in them…. Damien went further to explain that in his Wicca religion, he knew that evil done comes back three times. He stated that meant that any evil done by a person would be rewarded by the person doing the deed having three times the evil done to him in revenge. Damien stated that his favorite book of the Bible was that of Revelations because of the stories in it about what was being done by the devil and the suffering done by people at the hands of the devil…. Damien stated that he likes books written by Anton LaVey, which would be Satanic in nature. He also likes Steven [
sic
] King type books…. It was noted that Damien had the tattoo of ‘E,’ ‘V,’ ‘I,’ and ‘L’ across his left knuckles, and he stated that Jason Baldwin had the same tattoo on his knuckles.”

88. From a sermon by the Reverend Fred Tinsley, the rector of Holy Cross Episcopal Church, where the Moores attended.

89. The same day that officers questioned Deanna Holcomb, they received a call from Memphis police about an inmate in the jail there. The officer in Memphis said the man had been heard discussing devil worship and human sacrifice with two other men in the jail. Memphis police sent records on all three to police in West Memphis, and these were placed in the murder case file, but there was no record of any follow-up, no indication that West Memphis detectives ever crossed the river to question any of the men.

90. She identified the friends as Randy and Susan Sanders.

91. The West Memphis police were receiving a lot of encouragement to consider the satanic theory. At the end of the first week of investigation, a patrol officer who identified himself as “the official cult and occult expert for the New York City Police Department” contacted them to offer his opinion that the murders might be “occultic in nature.” The New York patrolman volunteered that missing body parts were a key sign that the murders were “occultic.” He advised the police in West Memphis to look for signs such as a circle, candle wax, an inverted cross, a pentagram, the numerals 666, or an altar where the bodies were found. But the site where the bodies were found had already been scoured, and police had not found one of those signs. The same day, a local teenager told police that he’d heard that members being initiated into an area cult were required to do something “real bad,” such as drilling three holes into the heads of their victims and draining out the blood. Also that day, a Texas woman sent Gitchell a book about how cults that engaged in murder were proliferating in America. And two girls telephoned
America’s Most Wanted
to report that two teenagers they knew in West Memphis—neither of whom was named Damien—were “into devil worship.” The girls said that one of the boys had told “one of the caller’s boyfriend’s best friends” that he had committed the murder. Another man told police that he knew nothing about the crime, but that a friend of his felt certain that Damien was the killer.

92. Statements attributed to Bray in this chapter were drawn from an undated three-page typewritten report about his conversations with Vicki and Aaron Hutcheson that Bray provided to the West Memphis police.

93. Statements of Vicki and Aaron in this chapter were compiled from police notes and transcriptions of interviews that were conducted with the pair on May 27 and 28. and June 2, 8, and 9, 1993.

94. Statements attributed to Jessie are drawn from an author interview, conducted February 2, 2001.

95. On October 25, 1983, Jessie was administered the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children—Revised; the Peabody Picture Vocabulary; and the Bender Gestalt Test.

96. James Fitzgerald, a clinical social worker at East Arkansas Regional Mental Health Center, recorded that Jessie was seen at the center, along with his father and stepmother, Shelbia Misskelley, in the spring of 1983.

97. Quotations are from the notes of Dr. Terry B. Davis.

98. Psychological assessment by Terry B. Davis, Ph.D., March 25, 1983.

99. Assessment by Dr. Davis, October 23, 1985.

100. Psychoeducational evaluation conducted at Marion High School, April 14, 1992.

101. Jessie said, however, that he and Jason had never been close friends. Jason’s recollection was that he and Damien had “hung around” with Jessie for a couple of years, beginning in about the sixth grade, a time “when there wasn’t too many people who would associate with me.” But over time, the boys had parted ways. “Damien didn’t like Jessie,” Jason said, “and Jessie didn’t like him. I hung around with both of them until the eighth grade. Then me and Jessie fell out over a girl.”

102. After reading about the case in the papers, Hutcheson explained, she “just thought how they were killed was odd, like, you know, maybe it was like a devil worshiping thing.” She said, “Jessie had told me that Damien hung out at Lakeshore, and so I went out of my way to try to go around Lakeshore. And, you know…I told Jessie I had seen Damien…and he said, ‘Well, you know, he’s kinda weird.’ I said, ‘No, I think he’s hot. I really want to go out with him. Can you fix me up with him?’ And you know, he was real surprised, but he said, ‘Yeah, if you want to go out with him, I’ll fix you up with him,’ and he did.”

103. As Hutcheson described the meeting to the police, she had first sent her children to visit their father in western Arkansas, then she’d removed their photos from her home so that Damien would not see them. She’d then placed “some Satanic books and witchcraft books” strategically around her trailer, which had the effect of prompting Damien to reveal a lot about himself. Among the startling information she reported, as a result, to Bray was that Damien’s cult was called the Dragons and one of its rituals involved the sacrifice of animal genitals.

104. The word “esbat” is not found in the
Oxford English Dictionary,
which is considered the most exhaustive lexicon of the English language.

105. While overlooking some questions that countered the satanic theory, the police sharpened their focus on reports that supported their growing suspicions. The day after Hutcheson’s alleged visit to the esbat, officers questioned two children of Narlene Hollingsworth, the woman who said she’d seen Damien and Domini on the service road near the Blue Beacon on the night the boys disappeared. Hollingsworth’s children said they’d been with their mother and confirmed her account in every detail. They said they’d clearly seen Damien and Domini—both dressed in black and both muddy.

106. No one discussed Aaron’s initial statement, about the tall black man with yellow teeth driving the maroon car who’d picked up Michael Moore after school, nor was that initial report questioned in subsequent interviews, in which Aaron gave sharply different accounts of what happened that afternoon.

107. When the West Memphis detectives questioned Aaron that day in Bray’s office, the boy told them that on at least five occasions, he and his friends had witnessed, from a distance of about five feet, five men with black-painted faces. He said the men had chanted in Spanish around a fire, smoked strange cigarettes, killed animals, talked about “bad stuff,” and done “nasty stuff.” The detectives pressed for details, but Aaron was vague. Ridge asked, at one point, “What kind of bad stuff were they talking about?” “Um, Jesus and God,” Aaron said. “I mean, the devil and God.” Aaron added, “They said they like the devil and they hate God.”

108. Misskelley’s statements drawn from an author’s interview with him, February 2. 2001, at the Varner Unit of the Arkansas Department of Correction.

109. Jessie’s friend Kevin Johnson had helped in the search.

110. Statements by Bray in this chapter are from an undated three-page typewritten report prepared by Bray for the West Memphis police.

111. Jessie had known Allen for most of his life, just as he had known Gary Gitchell. As Jessie later explained, “They knew me since 1980, when I was five years old, ’cause that’s when I first started getting in trouble with the police. I got in trouble for stealing and fighting. That’s it: stealing and fighting. I stole toys, bicycles, flags. And I got into fights. When I got older, I’d fight anything; walls, mailboxes, bottles, stop signs, window—anything. Whenever I got mad, I hit something. If it was a person, I hit them.” Since Jessie hadn’t hit anyone lately, he said, he wasn’t worried about this visit. (The times noted in this paragraph are from a report of Misskelley’s questioning written by Detective Bryn Ridge.)

112. Most of the questions put to Jessie before the polygraph focused on Damien. According to notes Allen wrote at eleven that morning, Jessie stated that he had known Damien for about a year; that Damien was “sick”; that once, when Jason had gotten a bloody nose, “Damien stuck his finger in the blood and licked it.” Jessie also reported that he’d met Hutcheson after the murders occurred; that she had, in fact, asked him about Damien; and that he had never been in Robin Hood. Ridge also jotted a report. He noted that Jessie had been picked up in the first place because “it had been previously discovered that Jessie, Damien and Jason were members of a cult-like group of youngsters who had previously had meetings in various locations in the state.” Ridge added that when he entered the room while Allen was questioning Jessie, the boy had appeared “nervous and failed to look at me in the eyes, and had the gestures that he was being deceptive.” Contrary to anything that either detective wrote in their early notes, Ridge later wrote in his typed report that, “Jessie stated that he thought that Damien had committed the murders with a friend of his being a partner in the murders. Again he was nervous throughout the interview from this point, and he appeared to be with-holding information.” It was after this, Ridge reported, that he asked if Jessie would be willing to submit to a polygraph examination.

113. There is a discrepancy regarding time between Ridge’s typewritten report and the forms signifying waiver of rights. Ridge reported that Durham began the polygraph exam “at about 10:30
A
.
M
.,” but the time on the waiver of rights form that Durham gave Jessie prior to the exam lists the time as eleven-thirty.

114. For Ridge, Jessie’s response to the child’s voice on the tape recording marked the turning point in the case. Here is how Ridge described the moment in his report: “Jessie told of one occasion he had gone to the scene of the murders and sat down on the ground and cried about what had happened to the boys. He had tears in his eyes at the time, telling of the incident. I felt that this was a remorseful response about the occurrence and that he had more information than what he had revealed. At about 2:20
P
.
M
., Jessie told Inspector Gitchell that he was present at the time of the murders and began crying about what had happened. Jessie seemed to be sorry for what had happened and told that he had been there when the boys were first coming into the woods and were called by Damien to come over to where they were. At this time, myself and Inspector Gitchell gave Jessie some time to compose himself and for me to compose myself, due to the emotional situation that had just began. We then prepared for the interrogation to be taped, due to this being the first indication that Jessie had actually taken a part in the murders and was present in the woods at the time.”

115. While no law requires that police interviews with citizens be recorded, police organizations in Arkansas won passage of legislation requiring that if an officer is questioned by police, that interview or interrogation must be recorded in its entirety.

116. Under the heading “Neck Injuries,” the medical examiner reported: “Situated on the left side of the neck were a few scattered abrasions. Subsequent autopsy of the neck showed no hemorrhage in the strap muscles of the neck. The hyoid bone and larynx were intact. No petechial hemorrhages were noted. No fractures were noted.”

117. After the tape recorder was shut off, according to an unsigned, undated chart in the files of the West Memphis police, “Work was started in reference to obtaining search warrants and arrest warrants.”

118. After the time chart was typed, someone wrote “incorrect” across an entry that claimed that the second recorded interview began at 3:45
P
.
M
. ( The Arkansas Supreme Court later concluded that Jessie had been questioned “off and on” for more than seven hours.) A typed transcript of the second recorded interview did not mention the word “discrepancies.” It was simply titled “Second interview conducted to clarify previous statements.”

119. Misskelley’s strange way of referring to Christopher Byers and Stevie Branch may have reflected both his confusion (calling Byers “Myers”) and a mangled version of the manner of speech he had been hearing from detectives, some of whom referred to the victims as “the Byers boy” or “the Branch boy.”

120. During the pretrial testimony of Detective Bryn Ridge, Paul Ford asked, “Judge Rainey was assisting in preparing the search warrant affidavit. Is that what you’re telling me?” Ridge said, “Yes sir.” Ford asked how Rainey had assisted. “He was informing us as to the elements that needed to go in this affidavit in order for it to be a legal document,” Ridge replied. Ford asked, “So he told you what you needed to get and you went out and came back and met with Judge Rainey?” Ridge said that that was correct. “Who was present?” Ford asked. Ridge answered, “Myself, John Fogleman, Gary Gitchell, [James] Jimbo Hale, and the court clerk.”

121. Jason’s brothers, Matt and Terry, were fourteen and ten years old.

122. Long after his arrest, Baldwin would have time to reflect on the circumstances that had brought it about. “The way I figured,” he said, “the police had been accusing me and Damien of satanism for the longest. They’d spread the rumor that the motive for the murder was satanism. At that time, they were picking up a lot of people and talking to them. And one they talked to was Jessie. Now, Jessie’s got some hate and vengeance in his heart for me because of the girl thing. And maybe he thinks, ‘I’ll get a whole bunch of money.’ Maybe they came and talked to him and he had a spur-of-the-moment idea, and went along with it, and got his foot in his mouth. He didn’t understand the seriousness.”