Free the West Memphis Three

Time is running out and the WM3 need your help!

2007-08-12T18:16:00.000-07:00

August 6, 2007

Dear Friends & Supporters:

For more than a decade, thousands of you from all over the world have spoken out about the grave injustice in West Memphis, where three men, including my husband, were wrongfully convicted of murder. You have spoken out to raise money and awareness; you have brought widespread attention to this case and refused to let people forget that three men are in prison for a crime they did not commit; and you have made a difference, through creativity, passion and sheer force of will. The families of the West Memphis Three (Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley and Jason Baldwin) can never thank you enough.

Today, I am writing to you because we urgently need your help. Whether you have supported and followed the case over the years, or you are just learning about this tragic injustice, we need you to step up today.

Over the last two years, compelling new evidence has been discovered by DNA tests, forensic pathologists and investigators. The lawyers are working to assemble what will be a dynamic appeal; one that will change forever the way this case has been perceived, and will prove-- once and for all -- the innocence of the three convicted. The filing will include new evidence that is backed up with factual, hard science; a miraculous development in this error-ridden case.

Your support over the years has enabled us to achieve unbelievable progress. We're now asking for your help to put all of this effort to work in the courts. We need the resources that will enable our experts, lawyers and investigators to work full time over the next couple of months, so the appeal can be filed as quickly as possible.

Time is running out, and we need your help.

If you have ever considered donating, the time is NOW. Cases like this take years and cost millions of dollars. We are in the final lap toward overturning these convictions and finally securing justice, but we simply cannot do it without the money it takes to bring all of the science and expertise and investigation into court so that the truth can finally come out.

I am not an expert on the law, science, the criminal justice system or the art of fundraising and organizing. What I know for sure is that these three men are innocent, and that we can prove it if we have the money it will take in the next four weeks to file the appeal that's been more than 10 years in the making. Please help us, and please know that your support has already gotten us farther than many people thought possible.

Thanks very much,

Lorri Davis and the Damien Echols Legal Team

Please make your check or money order payable to:
Damien Echols Defense Fund
PO Box 1216
Little Rock, AR 72203

Or use PAYPAL!

It's easy, free and allows you to use your credit card.
We suggest that International Supporters use this option.
Click this link to find out more.

Please use LDavis11@hotmail.com as the "recipient" address. Don't forget to include your name and address!

Free the West Memphis three

2007-03-22T18:05:00.000-07:00

Jason Baldwin transferred to Varnet Unit

2007-01-28T14:37:00.000-08:00

The Official WM3 site mentions that Jason Baldwin and other inmates are transferred to the Varnet unit as part of an investigation of staff abuses.

His wedding that was scheduled on the 24th of January will now have to be rescheduled at Varner.

If you would like to send Jason some mail, please send it to:
PO Box 600, Grady AR, 71644-0600

Interview Dan Stidham

2007-01-13T18:34:00.000-08:00

Mara Leveritt, journalist and author of Devil's Knot: The true story of the West Memphis three, has interviewed Dan Stidham who is Jessie's original trail attorney. In the interview Stidham talks about DNA tests, appeals and much more.

To read the interview click here

Ex-Misfits Singer Rocks With West Memphis 3's Echols

2006-10-09T20:00:00.000-07:00

The West Memphis 3 (Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley and James Baldwin) became a household name thanks to the "Paradise Lost" documentaries, which cast grave doubts about their conviction for murdering three young boys in 1993.

The trio's cause has also been taken up by the music industry; Henry Rollins recorded an album and launched a tour to help pay for the men's defense fund, and Pearl Jam included a song with lyrics penned by Echols, "Army Reserve," on its 2006 self-titled release. And now, ex-Misfits frontman Michale Graves is showing his support by touring to support the WM3 and collaborating on a full album with Echols.

Inspired by a viewing of the "Paradise Lost" documentaries and visit to the WM3 Web site, Graves reached out to Echols' wife via email, who then put the two men in contact. "Damien and I started writing back and forth," Graves tells Billboard.com. "I challenged him to continue writing lyrics. I said, 'You can articulate what you're hearing and what kind of mood is happening, and I would put it to music.' And that's what he did. I would kind of meditate on it, pick up my guitar, and we wrote six songs together."

According to Graves, the music promises to be a departure from the singer's usual "horror punk" style. "It's, dare I say, kind of Simon and Garfunkel-ish. It's very folkie," he says. "It's powerful stuff though, because of where it came from. Damien will definitely be on the album -- he'll say something. I don't think I can get him to sing [laughs]. But I can certainly get him to talk."

While the album is still untitled, it will include "Frost Bite," "Nothing," "Worm Wood," "A Thousand Cracks of Daylight," "Silent Partner" and "Ascension," among others. Although a label isn't in place yet, Graves plans to release the album in June of 2007, to mark the 14-year anniversary of the arrest of Echols, Misskelley, and Baldwin.

In the meantime, Graves' next solo release, "Return to Earth," is due on Halloween, and he says it reaches beyond Misfits-style punk. "I wanted to show a creative evolution -- I wanted it to be a much more mature record, both emotionally and musically," he says. "I think it's much more of a David Bowie record than it is anything else. It totally runs the gamut."

Lastly, Graves offers this update on Echols. "Damien is waiting the results of the second round of DNA testing -- it's still at a state level as far as the courts are concerned," he says. "He's awaiting the DNA results to present to a judge, which is the last part of his appeal process at the state level, before he has to go to federal courts. All his efforts have to be exhausted on the state level before he can petition a federal court."

written by: Greg Prato, N.Y.

WM3.ORG now on myspace

2006-09-17T00:58:00.000-07:00

The mother site of all WM3 sites is now on MySpace. They plan to send the messages posted there once a month to Damien, Jason and Jessie.

So if you are signed up with MySpace and want to show your support to the West Memphis three, add them to your friendslist and leave a message for Damien, Jason and Jessie.

Here's the address: www.myspace.com/wm3org

Interview with Damien Echols

2006-09-05T05:12:00.000-07:00

Interview conducted by Kenya McCullum
www.km-com.com

What is the significance of "Skeleton Key" to you?

Ever since I was a child I have adored skeleton keys. They're functional works of art, like a jeweled corset. When I was very young I believed that a skeleton key was capable of unlocking any lock and opening any door, so they had a very magickal and mysterious aura. And thats the goal of my artwork, both visual and written to open doors. Doors of perception, doors into new realms of though, doors that open on to new ways to live and see life. So much of life has become homogenized in modern times, and to me the skeleton key represents a way to transcend that. The skeleton key is handcrafted parchment in the age of computers.

How has your experiences with the justice system and prison influenced your artwork?

All of our experiences are stored within our psyche, and to some degree or another it seeps into all we do but I don't consciously attempt to bring my experiences with the judicial system into my artwork. In fact it's quite the opposite. I like to go mining for my material in deeper realms.

Has art helped you transcend those experiences? How so?

I think art (in several forms) has indeed helped me to transcend those experiences, and probably in the same way that certain forms of therapy would have done. Once most people come to prison they stop living and start surviving. My writing and visual art both have enabled me to avoid that trap. Art is a product of life and living, not just surviving.

If you had not had these experiences, do you think you would have been led to create art? If you would have been creating art, in what way do you think it would have been different but for what has happened to you?

I've engaged in one form of art of another for most of my life, usually writing of one kind or another. However, these experiences with the judicial system have brought me to a place where Ive been forced to take on a more introspective role than I would otherwise have. I think that the deeper we go into ourselves, the more amazing things we find.

Do you enjoy writing or visual art more? Do the different mediums serve different functions for you intellectually, emotionally and spiritually?

I'm tempted to say writing, just because my first love has always been poetry. I also love keeping intricate records of my own thoughts and realizations. Still, every so often a piece of visual art will give me tremendous feeling of satisfaction. For me the two usually go hand in hand. For example, the series of double sided Enoching angel paintings they're so enmeshed with my written records of the psychological experiences that it's next to impossible for me to separate one from the other.

Does the fact that a sale of your artwork is going toward your defense fund affect how and what you create? Does that factor into the process? Do you feel pressured at all because of it?

No. Not at all. I don't want to go into any endeavor while thinking of money. That would be a horrible thing to let seep into the artwork. All I can do is try to create something with what I find within some level of my own consciousness and hope that in some way it appeals to someone.

How does it feel to know that you have so many supporters out there?

It's an absolutely incredible feeling, because I'm able to compare it to what it's like to be at the other end of the spectrum, too. It's all the support that gives me hope that justice will eventually prevail. Without it, this situation would have crushed me long ago.

Life after Death

2006-09-01T22:29:00.000-07:00

The West Memphis Three were convicted of child murder, but troubling questions and a series of films have led many to doubt their guilt

~ By ANNETTE STARK ~

Photo by Deirdre O’Callaghan

Portrait of a killer? Damien Echols, now 30, says he didn’t kill the three little boys

The Robin Hood Hills child murder crime scene has grown incredibly cold in 13 years. Even the morbidly curious college students finally stopped haunting the drainage ditch behind the Blue Beacon Truck Wash in West Memphis, Arkansas, where eight-year-olds Christopher Byers, James Moore, and Steven Branch were found killed and mutilated on May 5, 1993. “We tore that old place down,” says a Blue Beacon worker. He refuses to discuss the murders and won’t give me his name. “It’s over with and I’m not allowed to talk about it. All these years later, I’m still trying to figure out if those three kids that got killed were the same kids we told not to play here that day because of the trucks.”

When I ask him if he believes they got the guys who did it, he hangs up.

The town has moved on. But questions about the murders and subsequent convictions of three West Memphis teenagers linger, many of them raised by two HBO documentaries, Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills and Paradise Lost 2: Revelations.

Paradise Lost documentarians Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky (who both also directed Metallica: Some Kind of Monster) first chronicled the 1994 Arkansas trials and subsequent convictions of three West Memphis teenagers Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley – now known as the West Memphis Three. (Baldwin and Misskelley got life. Echols got the death penalty.)

The follow-up, Revelations, revisits West Memphis for Echols’s ill-fated state appeals and also highlights the earliest efforts of a now-worldwide network of WM3 supporters, led in the beginning by three Los Angeles advocates from the film industry: Kathy Bakken, Burk Sauls, and Grove Pashley.

And interest in the case is still growing. Sinofsky and Berlinger’s Paradise Lost 3 is slated for release sometime this year and Dimension Films plans to release a film in 2007, which will be based on the book Devil’s Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three by Arkansas-based investigative journalist Mara Leveritt.

Paradise Lost turned the West Memphis Three into cult icons. Supporters say it’s impossible to watch the documentary and miss the awful sense of American justice gone wrong, that the only crime the West Memphis Three ever committed was sticking out as black-clad outsiders in 1993 in a small southern town.

“What struck me was that I kept thinking I was watching a movie with character actors,” recalls former Black Flag singer Henry Rollins. “The things the prosecution were saying, their witnesses, it was all so hopelessly stupid and sad. Justice got a black eye in those trials.”

Rollins is one of an ever-growing list of celebrity WM3 supporters that includes Johnny Depp, Eddie Vedder, Jello Biafra, Winona Ryder, Jack Black, Steve Earle, Trey Parker, and Metallica – to name a few – whose fundraising efforts include concerts, art benefits, and compilation CDs. In 2002, Rollins released Rise Above, a CD of 24 Black Flag songs performed by various artists including Tom Araya (Slayer), Lemmy (Motörhead), Nick Oliveri (Queens of the Stone Age), Corey Taylor (Slipknot), and Ice-T, with all proceeds going to the West Memphis Three defense. The support website wm3.org, which is run out of West L.A., has received more than 3,485,769 visitors as of this writing.

Today, West Memphis advertises itself as “a hometown feeling with big city attractions,” a description you can read on the town’s chamber of commerce website or just glean by counting churches and ministries that line the residential streets. But West Memphis is also a known drug hub, a shady blotch at the intersection of Interstates 40 and 55 where cops regularly seize illegal guns, pounds of marijuana, and kilos of cocaine at the West Memphis cargo inspection station, aptly described by the National Drug Intelligence Center as one of the two busiest in the nation.

“I would characterize West Memphis as a place where a lot of folks travel through,” says spokesperson Steve Frazier of the FBI in Little Rock, Arkansas. “It’s a crossroads, a highly traveled city, and sometimes that brings the criminals who travel I-40.”

Yet, in a town lousy with crooked cops, manic drug informants, dirty cash, and violent vagrants, when the bludgeoned bodies of three small children were found in a drainage ditch behind the Blue Beacon Truck Wash, local police convinced the public that three impoverished local teens were good for the killing. This was accomplished with a stunning lack of evidence, the West Memphis Three advocates say. Moreover, it was accomplished within one day.

The sign of the cross

Christopher Byers, James Moore, and Steven Branch first went missing on the evening of May 5, 1993. According to John Mark Byers, the boy’s stepfather, Christopher had misbehaved at the Weaver Elementary School and was sent home. “I spanked him three times with my belt with his pants up,” Byers recalls. And then he told the child not to leave the house. When Byers returned home at 6 p.m., Christopher was not there. Byers first told a cop that Christopher was missing at 6:30 that night and then was the first parent to report to the West Memphis Police at around 8 p.m.

The children’s bodies were discovered in the ditch sometime in the afternoon on May 6. All three were naked and had received multiple head, limb, and torso injuries; they were hog-tied with shoelaces binding their wrists to their ankles. Steven Branch had bite marks on his face. It was determined that both James Moore and Steven Branch had drowned and suggested that Christopher Byers had drowned, as well. Of the three, Christopher Byers had sustained the most violent injuries, including what appeared to be a sexual assault. He had a skull fracture at the base of his neck, stab wounds on his genitals; his penis was skinned and the killer had removed the child’s testes and scrotum.

One day later, the West Memphis Police Department had a motive – ritual child sacrifice, a profile of the killers, whom they decided were probably members of a Satanic cult – and three suspects: local teenage heavy metal fans Damien Echols (18), Jason Baldwin (16), and Jessie Misskelley (17). At noon on the following day, they visited the Broadway Trailer Park residence of 18-year-old Echols and began questioning him.

Jessie Misskelley has an IQ of 72, which is mildly retarded. On June 3, West Memphis police investigators questioned Misskelley about his role in the heinous crimes. The interrogation lasted 12 hours. Misskelley was never provided legal counsel or allowed to call his family. Only about the last hour of this was recorded, during which Misskelley confessed, implicating himself, Echols, and Baldwin in the murders.

The Misskelley statement was riddled with errors. He repeatedly got the timeline wrong. First he said the murders had occurred at 9 a.m., which would have been impossible as the children were all accounted for at school. Then he changed it to noon – also impossible.

Misskelley recanted his nonsensical statement almost immediately afterward, and his public defender, Dan Stidham, said that the only reason his client confessed was because he thought he could get the $50,000 reward. But within a day, the three teenagers were formally charged with murder.

Misskelley was tried and convicted in February 1994, but since he refused to testify against his friends, his statement was ruled inadmissible in the Baldwin/Echols trial. That commenced within the month, with Berlinger, Sinofsky, and the HBO cameras following every step of the way. “We thought we were going there to make a real-life River’s Edge and that these kids were guilty,” recalls Sinofsky. “We wanted to look into why they would commit such a heinous crime. When we realized they were innocent we went back to HBO and let them know it had gone in a different direction. We said we were kind of thinking the stepfather John Mark Byers did it. He was a fighting kind of guy and one time he even said to us, ‘Just remember boys, it all started here.’”

In March 1994, Echols and Baldwin were convicted of triple homicide. Echols was sentenced to death by lethal injection and is on death row at the Arkansas state penitentiary in Grady, where Misskelley is serving life plus 40 and Baldwin life without parole.

There was no weapon at the scene, and no blood, other than what had collected when police removed the bodies from the water and placed them on the ground, leading to speculation that the murders were committed someplace else and the bodies dragged to the ditch. The state’s evidence that Echols was a Satanist amounted to an expert witness in the occult who had a mail-order degree, and pentagrams Echols had scribbled in jail. The murder weapon was a clean knife that was found in a lake near Echols’ home, which resembled the knife that was possibly used at the crime.

Echols’s current attorney, noted San Francisco defense lawyer Dennis Riordan, was retained in 2004. He says: “The thing that led me to take this case was the startling sense that, in a death penalty case, there just wasn’t any credible evidence that connected him to the crime. You can read the Arkansas State Court opinion and they list everything that was offered against them, and it’s just terrifying that anyone could have been sentenced to death on any one of those six factors. A knife that was serrated? You could go into any home in Arkansas and find a serrated knife.”

According to FBI’s Frazier, who checked the old files, there was a request for an FBI profile on a probable killer – at first they were looking for a “Rambo” type – but it was not completed. “The West Memphis Police Department request for a profile was discontinued based on the fact that arrests had been made,” he says.

The devil wears Prada

Damien Echols wasn’t every teenager in America in 1993, but you could pretty much recognize the type. He dressed in black, wore skull earrings, and thought Guns N’ Roses singer Axl Rose was God. He dabbled – some say – in the occult. And he was poor – there wasn’t always enough to eat – and even less for a poverty-stricken kid to do in West Memphis, Arkansas, where he lived in a shabby trailer park with a mom that he loved and a stepfather he was ambivalent about. So he hung out with his friends, listening to heavy metal and reading Stephen King and Anne Rice. Sometimes they’d just sit by the lake all day and throw rocks at the water.

Echols was strange. Despite that, he didn’t have a history of violence; there was one brush with the law when he was 15, and he ran away with his girlfriend after her father discovered them having sex. He was then sent for treatment for a non-specific “psychotic disorder” at Charter Hospital. Echols was prescribed just the usual, run-of-the-mill antidepressants available at that time. By the time he was released, the conclusion by his doctors was that he was no longer depressed.

In his muck gray and bulletproof glass visitors’ cell on death row, Echols (now 30) considers this and says, “If I had to do it all over again, I would not have stood out.”

Death row inmates are allowed a two-hour no-contact visit with the media. So Echols speaks through a vent in the wall. When wife Lorri Davis comes on Fridays, she is allowed one extra hour and she gets to sit in the fishbowl with him.

He’s pale and anemic – he lives on a diet of Froot Loops and granola bars provided by Davis – and in his prison whites he blends into the walls. Except for his eyes, which are big brown sockets in his head. He explains that he has arthritic hips from spending 13 years in a nine-by-nine-foot concrete cell, getting fed through a slit in the door. There have been an estimated 30 executions since he got here – many of the other inmates have become so desensitized to the process they don’t even look up from the football game.

Attorneys have come and gone in 12 years – too numerous to even list here – and there have been three failed appeals. Even though several jurors now admit to considering the inadmissible Misskelley statement, the appeals court ruled that it came too late, stating: “Echols’s claim of juror misconduct has been brought over a decade after his conviction. Clearly, this is a matter which could have been brought in a motion for new trial immediately after the verdict and conviction, but the argument is now untimely.”

Echols shakes his head: “Basically they are saying, ‘You didn’t file it on time so we’re going to kill you on a technicality.’”

There is no reason to expect a different Damien Echols from the one we saw in Paradise Lost; after all, he went straight from that documentary to death row. Many of his supporters cite his intelligence, and his outspokenness, and that this is what they liked about him from day one. “I’ll tell you anything,” he says.

During his trial, his dismissive attitude and even his contemptuousness hurt him on the stand. When asked to explain the difference between Wicca and Satanism (so as to exonerate himself from charges that he worshipped the devil), his exasperated voice and facial demeanor indicated to the jury that this just wasn’t worth his time.

“I was in shock at my trial,” he explains. “When you’re innocent, you keep thinking, surely somebody’s gonna realize something’s wrong and say, ‘This has gone on long enough.’”

In the late ’90s, Echols became a Buddhist, inspired by the teachings of another Arkansas death row inmate, Jusan Frankie Parker, who was executed in August 1998. He meditates – sometimes as much as five hours a day, wrote his autobiography, Almost Home, Volume 1, and has had his poetry published in Porcupine, a literary arts magazine. He estimates he’s read a thousand books.

“A huge deal for me is not even thinking about this place. I read from the time I get up in the morning till the time I go to bed. My cell is nine-by-nine. There’s nowhere to look away.”

“Damien has done an amazing job of adapting to his environment and finding a way to deal with it,” Rollins observes. “He’s really impressive. If he could find a way to get it across, he could be a great teacher.”

So he reads catalogues and dreams about getting out – about wearing Prada ties and a nice Brooks Brothers suit, working in a bookstore, raising children, and voting in a presidential election. He dreams about the political impact he could have on this system one day.

“I was taught – and I believed – that our system worked; an innocent man couldn’t be convicted in America. I thought ‘Any moment now, I’m going home,’” says Echols.

Echols’s 11-year-old son, Seth, was born during the trial and visits once a year. He’s a fan of rapper 50 Cent. The last time Echols saw Seth he asked, “How can you like a guy who isn’t even smart enough to not get shot?”

The family that stood by Echols during the trial has scattered. His mother calls maybe once a year; his dad remarried about six years ago and has a new family. His son’s mother, Domini, was around for two years after his incarceration and then married someone else. “People don’t stick around when you’re on death row. In the beginning everyone rallies around you but you can’t expect them to put their lives on hold just because yours is.”

Waiting for the DNA

Mostly now it’s just about his wife. Pretty and wholesome – with long brown hair, bangs, and a bike rack on her car – Lorri Davis’s sweet voice and demeanor suggests she hasn’t had a tough day in her life. Originally from Morgantown, West Virginia, Davis was living in New York and working as a landscape architect when she attended a screening in 1996 of Paradise Lost. It hit her about halfway through the film: “I was so horribly upset by it, and the next morning I woke up and thought, ‘Oh my God, they didn’t do it.’ I never saw a movie and felt compelled to do something.”

She began writing Echols within a few days. One year later, she quit the New York job – “Rue the day,” she says – and moved to Little Rock, where she gets to spend three hours every Friday visiting her husband in prison. She brings him the granola bars, strokes the fundraising machine, shuttles supporters back and forth from the airport, packs Echols’s 26 boxes of books, types his manuscripts, or sends a book he picked out to a stranger who took the time to write.

One could easily conclude that Lorri Davis is crazy. Even Stidham recalls thinking as much when he learned that Davis had married Echols. “Naturally, I made that assumption,” he says. “But she’s just a decent human being. And once you meet her, you realize she’s very intelligent and sane. I admire and respect her.”

Decent, sane, and tenacious: Last year, right before she hired Dennis Riordan, she got the cell phone numbers of several noted defense attorneys. She called and begged them until they finally asked her to stop.

“When I first moved here, I would go to court hearings and sit way in the back,” she says. “I didn’t want anyone to know who I was. When we got married, I thought, ‘I’m married to this person and I’ve got this role.’”

“In the beginning, I was not convinced,” Davis’s mom, Lynn, remembers. “I said, ‘Should he get out, I wonder if he rolls over in bed and says, “Lorri, I did it. I beat the system.”’ But we met with Damien about four times, and the first time I asked him. I said, ‘Damien, did you do it?’ And he said, ‘I did not.’ And I felt it. I just knew that he couldn’t do that to those little boys. I know that every little town has its problems and they pinpointed Damien and his buddies because he was a thorn in their side.”

With nearly every state appeal exhausted, Echols hopes to be headed for federal court, but Misskelley and Baldwin still have pending state appeals. All three are waiting for the results of DNA testing. Since this is a post-conviction case, they first had to obtain the prosecution’s cooperation, which they did. (Baldwin and Misskelley declined through their attorneys to be interviewed for this article.)

Tragedy makes a reality star

John Mark Byers stands by the coffee machine in the Parkway Convenience store in Millington, Tennessee. He listens, visibly bored, to another man’s story about being wrongfully arrested for a car theft. By anyone’s standards, this isn’t the most interesting tale, but to John Mark Byers, stepfather star of two HBO documentaries, Paradise Lost and Paradise Lost 2, it’s gotta sound dull as dirt. So when the man finally works around to the part where he gets his car out of the police impound, Byers interrupts. “Do you recognize me,” he asks, impatiently.

The man shakes his head slowly. “I’ve seen you,” he says. Clearly, he has not.

“Were you in this area in ’93?” He was. “Do you remember the three eight-year-olds that were murdered in West Memphis? One of those three eight-year-olds was my son. Do you remember seeing me in the media?”

The man registers shock, but he nods politely. Uh-huh, maybe … . “That’s it,” Byers says, satisfied. “People ask me for my autograph all the time,” he tells me later. “There wouldn’t even have been a Paradise Lost 2 if it wasn’t for me.”

He repeats it a couple of times during our two-hour breakfast at the Parkway Convenience, where we chow down on eggs, bacon, biscuits, and grits. “You don’t know what these are,” he says, pointing to the plate heaped with grits. He’s gracious, but it’s a challenge: A New York liberal – which he believes me to be – doesn’t eat grits, and John Mark Byers doesn’t like New Yorkers.

A lot of people don’t understand John Mark Byers, including a lot of big city folk who – he is sure – believe the WM3 were victims of “hillbilly justice.” He reserves special venom for the producers of Paradise Lost.

“Two Jew-boys from New York City took advantage of our families in this crisis to make money,” he says, noting that he calls the HBO documentaries “joke-amentaries.”

Still, he’s gracious. His new wife, Jackie, is a lovely person. They buy me breakfast and Byers helps me off with my jacket. He’s currently working as a house painter.

Believing in the guilt of the West Memphis Three and resentful of the documentaries that stirred up questions about their innocence, the parents of James Moore and Steven Branch have mostly avoided the press, declining HBO’s offer to appear in Paradise Lost 2. “They felt we had betrayed them by making the first film,” Sinofsky says of his attempts to reach out to both families.

Byers, on the other hand, made quite an impression in Paradise Lost: In one scene he was ranting and raving about the details of the crime. In another he curses the men who killed his babies. He gave the HBO producers a knife, which turned out to have his and Christopher’s blood on it. Additionally, it turns out that Byers was working for the police as a drug informant. His antics so impressed the HBO producers that, halfway through the filming of Paradise Lost, they began to believe that he might have been the killer. Byers has a long history of drug and alcohol abuse, and was drunk throughout the making of both films.

“I wasn’t in my right mind,” he admits. “I tried to stay on medicine and marijuana, and they [Sinofsky and Berlinger] capitalized on that. They set me up to look like the fool.”

In July 1994, Byers was arrested for contributing to the delinquency of a minor for allegedly instigating a knife fight between two youngsters. That same month, he was arrested for burglary. During that summer, neighbors filed restraining orders against Byers for allegedly whipping their sons with the metal handle of a flyswatter, and firing shots at their home. Byers was on probation when he was arrested for selling Xanax to a narc in 1999. He served 18 months. His ex-wife, Melissa, who was highly visible during Paradise, had a longstanding heroin problem. She died of undetermined causes on March 29, 1996. The couple had lain down to take a nap, and when Byers awoke, she was dead.

Byers made Jackie watch the documentaries the first week they met. “I watched them and I was like, dang,” says Jackie Byers. “My major in college was psychology … . I’m a pretty good judge of character, and if I thought for one second he did something terrible in his life I wouldn’t have married him.”

WM3 supporters have tried to connect Byers to the murders, but they’ve turned up very little in the way of hard evidence. His recollections of the crime include some inaccuracies: He claims the WM3 flunked lie detector tests when there is no evidence to support this; he claims Echols had driven by his house a few months before the murders when Echols never had a driver’s license and had never driven a car. Then, there is his attitude. Some find it strange that Byers claims the HBO documentaries ruined his life, when you’d expect a parent to say that his worst trauma was losing his child.

Misskelley’s lawyer, Stidham, says the case is confused because Byers and Echols both act strange: “[Echols] was a kid and not sophisticated enough to understand how he came off. And Byers still doesn’t understand how his antics made him look guilty.”

Byers regrets that he didn’t get more money for appearing in the documentaries and swears he’s not going to do another. A few minutes later, he corrects this. He might, if he has a contract and a lawyer by his side.

“This is news to me,” Jackie Byers laughs.
“Oh, yeah. I’ve got a different aspect on it. They would pay me big money,” he says.

At the end of a four-hour interview, he asks me, “Now that you’ve met me and I’ve answered every question, do you think I’m the kind of guy who could have done such an awful thing?”

Decades of research by the FBI and hundreds of millions of dollars committed to investigating the “phenomenon” of Satanic murders has not turned up one single example of a ritual child-killing in this country by any religion – including “Satanists” – in an entire century. As of this writing, Damien Echols has been on death row 4,796 days.

source: La City Beat

Almost Home MySpace Site

2006-08-31T04:56:00.000-07:00

Please visit the Almost Home MySpace site and show your support!

Leave Damien a message, which will then be passed along to him by Anje. Damien mails Anje material to add to the site, so you'll find more poetry and other writings.

If you haven't bought Damien's book: My Life Story Vol. 1 yet, please click here for more information

Free the West Memphis Three Week

2006-08-24T19:26:00.000-07:00

Free the West Memphis Three Week (http://www.wm3.org) has been set for November 13-19, 2006. We plan on having fundraising and awareness-raising events in every major city in the world during this week.

We'd like to set up an event (or six) in your area. We need organizers, bands, volunteers, venues, and raffle/auction prizes for these events. If you would like to perform and/or help plan an event, please let me know.

Contact Tammy if you would like to take part in this special event!

Thanks!

Tammy Adin
Free the West Memphis Three Week Coordinator
tammy@mcmsys.com
573-639-9112

Sign the petition to Free the West Memphis Three

2006-08-24T01:56:00.000-07:00

To: Arkansas Judicial Courts

We the undersigned agree that a great injustice has been done to three young men, Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley by the courts of Arkansas and ask that they each receive new trials in efforts to overturn their convictions which are based on absolutely NO evidence against them. The saying is "innocent until proven guilty", but these young boys were found guilty before being given a fair chance to prove their innocence. LET THE PEOPLES VOICE BE HEARD! FREE THE WEST MEMPHIS THREE!

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE PETITION

Saving the West Memphis 3

2006-08-23T17:56:00.000-07:00

Ex-MISFITS Singer MICHALE GRAVES Speaks Out on the WEST MEMPHIS ...
Blabbermouth.net - White Plains,NY,USA
... has written a feature story in this month's issue of the Atlas Plugged webzine on the growing campaign to free the West Memphis Three â three young men ...

Saving The West Memphis Three

For 13 years, the case of The West Memphis Three has continued to inspire people from all across the globe to coordinate, network and fight to free three innocent men.

On May 5th 1993 in West Memphis, Arkansas, local police and residents alike went looking for three children who had been reported missing and last seen heading towards what was called Robin Hood Hills. The next afternoon, police found the dead bodies of Chris Byers, Steve Branch and Michael Moore. The three 8 year olds were found naked submerged in a drainage ditch, savagely beaten and stabbed repeatedly. Their hands were bound to their ankles with their own shoelaces. Chris Byers appeared to have been the focus of the attack and had been castrated.

Police began to suspect local teenagers had sacrificed the children to the Devil. Authorities eventually arrested Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley after he confessed to them. Misskelley was a mentally handicapped 17 year old, who, with no lawyer or parental consent, was subjected to 12 hours of interrogation, which finally produced a 46-minute error-filled confession that implicated 18-year-old Damien and his best friend Jason. All three were eventually found guilty and Damien was sentenced to death by lethal injection.

The police found no irregularities or incriminating evidence at the home of Damien Echols when they visited and questioned him the day after the murders. The only thing out of the ordinary according to the Police was his knowledge and belief in the Wicca religion. According to a police document, the first thing that stood out to the interviewing officer was a necklace that Damien claimed he had bought earlier that day at the mall. The necklace had a pentagram on it.

Damien was the town weirdo who dressed in black and wore Metallica and Slayer T-shirts. He was the kid who wore black trench coats and army boots and marched to the beat of his own heavy-metal drummer. He was the first person that juvenile officers, who were bent on proving West Memphis was in fact being infiltrated by a satanic cult, looked to whenever anything went wrong in town. He was the kid the cops messed with all of the time. He and Jason, admittedly, mostly just "hung around," which easily gave outsiders the impression that they were "shady. " In reality, they were just poor white teenagers from Arkansas doing the best they could. They loved hanging out, listening to music and trading tapes. Damiens thirst for knowledge was unquenchable and he loved reading and writing. He was endlessly curious and poured over his books. But his outward appearance to the folks of West Memphis was interpreted as evil. To some, his Iron Maiden T-shirt provided them proof.

Soon after the discovery of the slain kids, an HBO documentary team began making a film about the case. Local media ascended upon the mostly conservative Christian town and contributed fuel to the fire of gossip and rumor that was already running rampant and circulating among residents and families concerning devil worshipping cults and Damien Echols. Soon it seemed everyone had a tale to tell - none too tall to believe.

There were no positive representations of any of the accused. The sensationalism of the media coupled with the core beliefs of the religious community solidified fear and added to what is known as "Satanic Panic. " It appears to many to be the same sensationalism and panic that swept a small Massachusetts village in the 1600s, which led to the Salem witch trials. The West Memphis Three case serves as a stunning example of intolerance and corruption. A modern day witch hunt.

From the very start of the Robin Hood Hills Murder investigation there is evidence that the police began to focus on Satanic worship as the key motivation behind the murders and quickly did away with all other conclusions.

One would think it unimaginable to be convicted in this country by the things that convicted Damien, Jason and Jessie. Police found no evidence anywhere at all of anything that would lead anybody to believe that these murders were linked to a cult or had anything to do with worshipping the Devil. Police, however, did dismiss some things that seem to make much more sense considering the circumstances.

On the night of the murders, local police received a call from the manager of a fast food restaurant near Robin Hood Hills. He reported that a black man, "dazed and covered with blood and mud," had been in the womens restroom for about an hour. An officer followed up the call by driving up to the drive-through window. She never got out of her car. She never even went inside. She testified later that she had not gone inside because the restaurant was out of her ward. She also agreed that it had been near the area where the boys were last seen. Most people would agree that a disoriented bleeding man with mud on his feet might arouse suspicion, especially when there were three children who had been reported missing two hours earlier and last seen two miles from that location.

After the boys bodies were found, police followed up on this report and took blood samples from the toilets. Later an investigating officer testified the he "lost" those samples. Maybe the bleeding man covered in mud had something to do with the murders? There is an overwhelming consensus among supporters that it was Chris Byers stepfather, John Mark Byers, that killed the children. He was the last one to see Chris and admittedly disciplined Chris just before he went missing. Mr. Byers has a long history of violent behavior. He was a drug addict and convicted felon with severe psychological problems. His stepson, after all, seemed to be the focus of the attack and was also suffering from psychological problems that were causing problems at home and in school. Chris had become uncontrollable and was supposed to be taking medication.

There was a knife Mr. Byers gave to the HBO filmmakers with blood on it that matched not only his blood type but also that of his slain stepson Chris. When police questioned him, Mark Byers claimed he had never used the knife before. That is until blood was found on it. Then, contrary to what Mr. Byers stated when first questioned about the knife, he testified in court that he remembers that he trimmed his nails with it and might have cut his finger while trimming venison around the Thanksgiving holiday.

Two HBO documentaries have been made about the case of The West Memphis Three. Set against the music of Metallica, these award-winning films inspired Kathy Bakken, Burk Sauls, Grove Pashley and Lisa Fancher to coordinate and began a website called WM3.org. It remains the best place to go for all relevant up-to-date information and has launched a worldwide movement of supporters and activists. The case is also well documented in a book called, "Devils Knot" written by Mara Leveritt, who is one of the only journalists in Arkansas who really looked into the case. This book is also an exceptional resource for information.

This cause has also gained the attention of an assortment of actors, athletes, comedians, bands and celebrities. Margaret Cho, Marilyn Manson, Eddie Vedder, Henry Rollins, Jello Biafra, and Alkaline Trio all continue to support this cause. Other organizations such as Music 4 Life, The Coalition To Abolish The Death Penalty and The Innocence Project are working to free the men as well.

I began "The Almost Home Campaign" in January 2006 after learning that Damien Echols had written a book entitled "Almost Home Vol. 1." In coordination with WM3.org and Music 4 Life, I produced a 55-city tour to promote his book and raise awareness and support for The West Memphis Three. In May 2006, Damien also had his first art show in San Francisco, which helped raised money for The Legal Defense Fund.

June 3rd 2006 was designated as West Memphis Three World Awareness Day. Supporters, activists, organizations, bands and businesses all over the world staged events, rallies and concerts.

Recently a letter-writing campaign produced hundreds of handwritten letters that were delivered to and laid out on the steps of Arkansas Governor Huckabee's office.

Should an eccentric teenagers preference for music and art compounded with a belief in the Wicca religion serve as the only evidence that condemns him to death in an American court of law? Should his best friend be found simply guilty by association? Should a mentally handicapped 17 year old's confession, wrought with error and obviously coerced, confine him to life imprisonment plus 40 years?

There is just simply not enough evidence to rationally believe what the state of Arkansas says happened, much less prove it. But still they were found guilty. Members of that jury have since said that they were exposed to outside information. Some of them based their deliberations on Jessies confession, which they had heard about. The confession was not admissible because Jessie refused to testify for the prosecution.

Damien Echols awaits the results of DNA evidence as part of his appeals process. This is his last chance.

Burk Sauls articulated what I believe to be the heart of this movement when he wrote that, "the police not only betrayed the memory of Steve Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore by not investigating their deaths more effectively, they betrayed Jason Baldwin, Damien Echols and Jessie Misskelley by using them as scapegoats to take the fall for their shoddy work.

"This betrayal, the solemn photographs of those three murdered 8 year olds and the young men in prison for something they did not do, are the things that drive people toward a better understanding of the specifics surrounding this phenomenon. If we refuse to turn our backs on this case, and the forces that cause these kinds of things to happen, then maybe, if we really care about things like truth and justice, we can help to keep this type of witch hunt from happening again."

Michale Graves is the former singer for the Misfits. His first solo album, Punk Rock is Dead, was released by Horror High Records in 2005. He has also written songs with Damien Echols, to be released in 2007. In addition to his work in support of the West Memphis Three, he is frequent contributor to www.conservativepunk.com. He can be reached through his Myspace page at www.myspace.com/gravesmichale. More information on the West Memphis Three is available at www.wm3.org or www.myspace.com/almosthomevol1.

Confessions and Statements made by Jessie Misskelley

2006-08-18T04:31:00.000-07:00

Statement of Jessie L. Misskelley, Jr. 6/3/93

Date of Birth 7/10/7 5 sex/race M/Cau

RIDGE: This is Det. Bryn Ridge of the West Memphis Police Department, currently in the detective division of the West Memphis Police Department conducting an investigation of the Triple Homicide, Case File # 93-05-0666. Currently in the office with Jessie Lloyd Misskelly, Jr., DOB: 7/10/75, education: 9th grade, the place: Detective Division, todays date is 06/03/93, the time is 2:44Pm. Present in the interview is Insp. Gary Gitchell and Jessie Misskelly. Jessie, in front of me I have a rights form, and it has your signature at the bottom of it, is that your signature?
JESSIE: Yes sir

RIDGE: okay, we are informing you that we are Det. Sgt. Mike Allen, and Det. Bryn Ridge, and Det. Sgt. Mike Allen is the one that read this form to you earlier, is that correct?
JESSIE: Yes sir

RIDGE: And I was here when he read it to you.
JESSIE: Yes sir

RIDGE: Alright, we are police officers of the West Memphis Police Department, we are conducting an investigation for the offense Capitol Felony Murder, which was committed on or about 05/05/93, before we ask you any questions, you must know and understand your legal rights, therefore, we warn and advise you, that you have the right to remain silent , do you understand that?
JESSIE: Yes

RIDGE: And those are your initials on the line in front of that statement?
JESSIE: Yes

RIDGE: Okay, anything you say can be used against you in court, do you understand that,
JESSIE: Yes, I do

RIDGE: And those are your initials?
JESSIE: Yes, it is

RIDGE: Alright, you have the right to talk to a lawyer for advise before we ask you any questions, and to have him with you during questioning, do you understand that?
JESSIE: Yes, I do

RIDGE: And those are your initals?
JESSIE: Yes, it is

RIDGE: If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be appointed for you before any questions, if you wish, at no cost to you, do you understand that?
JESSIE: Yes, I do

RIDGE: And those are your initials?
JESSIE: Yes, it is

RIDGE: If you decide to answer questions now without a lawyer present you will still have the right to stop answering at any time, do you understand?
JESSIE: Yes, I do

RIDGE: Those are your initials?
JESSIE: Yes, it is

RIDGE: You're up here on your own free will, you came up here to answer some questions, and basically we've found out some information during that questioning, is that correct?
JESSIE: Yes sir, I did

RIDGE: Okay, at the bottom of the form is a Waiver of Rights, it says that I've read this statement of my rights, and I understand what my rights are, I am willing to make a statement, and answer questions, I do not want a lawyer at this time, I understand and know what I am doing. No promises or threats have been made to me, and no pressure or force has been used against me, is all of that correct?
JESSIE: Yes

RIDGE: Okay, and you signed the bottom of the form?
JESSIE: Yes, I did

RIDGE: Witnessed by Michael Wayne Allen and myself, Det. Bryn Ridge.
Okay, Jessie, let's go straight to that date, 05/05/93, Wednesday, early in the morning. You received a phone call is that correct?
JESSIE: Yes, I did

RIDGE: And who made that phone call?
JESSIE: Jason Baldwin

RIDGE: Alright, what occurred, what did he talk about?
JESSIE: He called me and asked me if I could go to West Memphis with him and I told him, no, I had to work and stuff. He told me that he had to go to West Memphis so, him and Damian with and then I went with them.

RIDGE: Alright, when?
JESSIE: Wednesday

RIDGE: Alright, when did you go with them?
JESSIE: That morning

RIDGE: 9 o'clock in the morning?
JESSIE: Yes, I did. I went with them and then

GITCHELL: Now, where you in a car? Whose car where you all in?
JESSIE: We walked

GITCHELL: You all walked?
JESSIE: Right, we walked and then uh,

RIDGE: Where did you go?
JESSIE: We went up to Robin Hood

RIDGE: You went to the Robin Hood, explain to me where those woods are.
JESSIE: By uh, Blue Beacon Truck Wash.

RIDGE: A little patch of woods
JESSIE: A little patch of woods

RIDGE: Behind Blue Beacon?
JESSIE: Behind it, right there behind it.

RIDGE: okay, what occurred while you were there?
JESSIE: When I was there, I saw Damian hit these one boy real bad, and then uh, and he started screwing them and stuff and then uh,

RIDGE: Alright, you got in front of you a picture, that was taken out of the newspaper I believe, it's got three boys and these are the three boys that were killed on that date in Robin Hood Woods, okay, which one of those three boys is it you say Damian hit? The third picture, which will be
JESSIE: Michael Moore

GITCHELL: This boy right here,
JESSIE: Yeah,

GITCHELL: Alright, that's uh the Byers boy, that's who you are pointing at?
JESSIE: Yes

RIDGE: If you read the caption, the grizzly slain from left, 8 year old Michael Moore, Steven Branch and Christopher Byers. Okay, so you saw Damian strike Chris Byers in the head.
JESSIE: Right

RIDGE: What did he hit him with?
JESSIE: He hit him with his fist and bruised him all up real bad, and then Jason turned around and hit Steve Branch

RIDGE: Okay
JESSIE: And started doing the same thing, then the other one took off, Michael Moore took off running, so I chased him and grabbed him and hold him, until they got there and then I left.

RIDGE: Alright, when you get the boys back together, where were you at from the creek?
JESSIE: I was up there by the Service Road

RIDGE: Up by the Service Road?
JESSIE: Yes

RIDGE: Okay, now when this, when he hit the first boy, where are they at when he hits him, are you in the woods, you're on the side of big bayou, you're out in the field, where were you at?
JESSIE: I was in the woods.

RIDGE: In the woods. Okay, you've been down there in those woods before, can you describe to me what in those woods, what's the location where you were?
JESSIE: Uh,

RIDGE: Is there a path that you go down?
JESSIE: Uh, down a little path

RIDGE: Alright, where does that path go too?
JESSIE: It leads out there close to the field, close to the interstate.

RIDGE: Okay
JESSIE: Close to the interstate

RIDGE: When he hits the first boy and then Jason hits another boy, and one takes off running, where does he run too?
JESSIE: That one, he runs out, out the park and I chased him and grabbed him and brought him back.

RIDGE: Which way does he go, I mean, does he go back towards where the houses are, he's going to Blue Beacon, is he going out towards the fields, where's he running too?
JESSIE: Towards the houses.

RIDGE: Towards the houses?
GITCHELL: Where the pipe is that goes across the yards?
JESSIE: Yes, he run out there and I caught him and brought him back, and I took off.

RIDGE: Okay, and when you came back a little bit later, now are all three boys are tied?
JESSIE: Yes

RIDGE: Is that right?
JESSIE: Yes, and I took off and run home.

RIDGE: Alright, have they got their clothes on when you saw them tied?
JESSIE: No, they had them off.

RIDGE: They had already gotten them off. When he first hit the boy, when Damian first hit the first boy, did they have their clothes on then?
JESSIE: Yes

RIDGE: Alright, when did they take their clothes off?
JESSIE: Right after they beat up all three of them, beat them up real bad

RIDGE: Beat them up real bad, and then they took their clothes off?
JESSIE: Yes

RIDGE: And then they tied them
JESSIE: Then they tied them up, tied their hands up, they started screwing them and stuff, cutting them and stuff, and I saw it and turned around and looked, and then I took off running, I went home, then they called me and asked me, how come I didn't stay, I told them, I just couldn't.

RIDGE: Just couldn't stay
JESSIE: I couldn't stand it to see what they were doing to them.

RIDGE: okay, now when this is going on, when this is taking place, you saw somebody with a knife., who had a knife?
JESSIE: Jason

RIDGE: Jason had a knife, what did he cut with the knife. What did you see him cut or who did you see him cut?
JESSIE: I saw him cut one of the little boys

RIDGE: Alright, where did he cut him at?
JESSIE: He was cutting him in the face.

RIDGES: Cutting him in the face. Alright, another boy was cut I understand., where was he cut at?
JESSIE: At the bottom

RIDGE: On his bottom? Was he faced down and he was cutting on him, or
JESSIE: He was
GITCHELL: Now you're talking about bottom, do you mean right here?
JESSIE: Yes

GITCHELL: In his groin area?
JESSIE: Yes
GITCHELL: Okay

RIDGE: Do you know what his penis is?
JESSIE: Yeah, that's where he was cut at.

RIDGE: That's where he was cut.
GITCHELL: Which boy was that?
JESSIE: That one right there.

GITCHELL: You're talking about the Byers boy again?
JESSIE: Yes
GITCHELL: Okay

RIDGE: Are you sure that he was the one that was cut?
JESSIE: That's the one that I seen them cutting on.

RIDGE: Alright, you know what a penis is?
JESSIE: Yeah

RIDGE: Alright, is that where he was cutting?
JESSIE: That's where I seen them going down at, and he was on his back. I seen them going down right there real close to his penis and stuff and I saw some blood and that's when I took off.

GITCHELL: Was uh, where you all close to the creek at that point?
JESSIE: Yes sir
GITCHELL: Where was the little boy actually at?
JESSIE: He was close

RIDGE: Alright, now you know where the bayou is?
JESSIE: Right

RIDGE: Alright, and you know where the little Creek is that goes out to the express way, and it doesn't have a lot of water in it, but it's got some water in it, and it's flowing through the, which side of that creek were you on, where you on the Memphis side of the creek or the Blue Beacon side of the creek?
JESSIE: Blue Beacon.

RIDGE: On the Blue Beacon
JESSIE: Yes

RIDGE: So, there is like a tall bank, where were you at on that bank?
JESSIE: I was up there standing up there on the top.

RIDGE: Alright, where were they at?
JESSIE: They were at the bottom.

RIDGE: On which side?
JESSIE: Memphis side

RIDGE: They were on the Memphis side.
JESSIE: I was on

RIDGE: Alright, we're going to correct that even further, that's the east side, Memphis side is the east side and you were standing at the top of the bank on the west side, were you looking down at what was going on?
JESSIE: I was looking down, and after I seen all of that, I took off

RIDGE: Okay, and when you left, did you hear any more hollering or anything?
JESSIE: No

RIDGE: Alright, you went home and about what time was it that all of this took place?
JESSIE: About

RIDGE: I'm not saying when they called you. I'm saying what time was it that you were actually there in the park?
JESSIE: About 12

RIDGE: About noon?
JESSIE: Yes

RIDGE: Okay, was it after school had let out?
JESSIE: I didn't go to school

RIDGE: These little boys
JESSIE: They skipped school

RIDGE: They skipped school?
JESSIE: They were going to catch their bus and stuff, and they were on their bikes and so,

RIDGE: Alright, they were on their bikes, where were the bikes at?
JESSIE: They laid their bikes down when they come out to the, when they hollered for them to come out there

RIDGE: Where did they lay their bikes down at, that's what I'm asking you?
JESSIE: I don't know where they laid their bikes down at, cause I was behind Damian and nem, they were way behind them.

RIDGE: Okay
JESSIE: When they hollered, when they seen them boys

RIDGE: The little boys came on over?
JESSIE: Yes

RIDGE: Had Damian seen these boys before?
JESSIE: Yes

RIDGE: Has he done things with them before? Or had he just been watching them,
JESSIE: He had been watching them.

RIDGE: Has he ever had sex with them before?
JESSIE: No, he's been watching them

RIDGE: He's been watching them. You mentioned earlier that, one of the meetings you went to with this cult thing, they had some pictures. Describe those pictures for me.
JESSIE: They had some houses, trees and stuff

RIDGE: Okay, had somebody taken pictures of these boys?
JESSIE: Yes

RIDGE: Were they in the houses or were they in the trees when they took those pictures?
JESSIE: They were in the houses

RIDGE: At the houses? Did they take like one picture of one boy
JESSIE: They were in a group

RIDGE: All, these three
JESSIE: There was a group of pictures of all three of them.

RIDGE: All three of them would generally be together?
JESSIE: Yes

GITCHELL: How many pictures did you see, altogether?
JESSIE: I just saw one

GITCHELL: Okay, and it has these same three boys in it?
JESSIE: Yes

RIDGE: You're certain of that?
JESSIE: Yes

GITCHELL: Now, did you say that the boys skipped school that day, these little boys did?
JESSIE: Yes, they were going to catch, they were going somewhere and like I said, Damian and nem left before I did, I told them that I would meet them there and stuff, and it was early in the morning and so, they went ahead and met me, they went on up there and then I come up later on behind them.

GITCHELL: What time did you get there?
JESSIE: I got there about 9

GITCHELL: In the morning?
JESSIE: Yes

GITCHELL: Wednesday morning?
JESSIE: Yes

GITCHELL: And
RIDGE: What time is it right now?
JESSIE: Right now?

RIDGE: Yeah, you don't know what time it is?
GITCHELL: Do you not wear a watch?
JESSIE: It's at home

RIDGE: So
JESSIE: My dad woke me up this

RIDGE: so, your time period may not be exactly right in what you're saying?
JESSIE: Right

RIDGE: It was like earlier in the day, but you don't know exactly what time, okay,
cause I've gotten some real confusion with the times that you're telling me, but now, this 9 o'clock in the evening call that you got, explain that to me.
JESSIE: Well after, all of this stuff happened that night, that they done it, I went home about noon, then they called me at 9 o'clock that night, they called me.

RIDGE: And what did they tell you on the telephone?
JESSIE: They asked me how come I left so early and stuff, and I told them that I couldn't stay there and watch that stuff no more, so I had to do something to get out of there.

RIDGE: okay, who called you?
JESSIE: Jason

RIDGE: And you mentioned that you heard some voice in the background?
JESSIE: I heard some dingling

RIDGE: And what else, I think you said that he made the call from his house?
JESSIE: He made the call from his house and Damian was hollering in the background saying, we done it, we done it, what are going to do if somebody saw us, what are we going to do?

RIDGE: Okay, the knives, was it one knife, two knives, was your knife there?
JESSIE: Ugh, ugh,

RIDGE: Now did somebody take it and used your knife, do you have a knife?
JESSIE: I got one knife

RIDGE: Where is it at?
JESSIE: It's at home

RIDGE: okay, the knife that you said Jason was using, where is it?
JESSIE: Uh, I don't know what he done with it, cause after I left then they, I don't know what they done with, after I left

RIDGE: He didn't tell you that he hid it somewhere?
GITCHELL: I've got a feeling here, you're not quite telling me everything, now you know that we're recording everything, so this is very, very important to tell us the entire truth. If you were there the whole time, then tell us that you were there the whole time, don't leave anything out. This is very, very important, now just tell us the truth.
JESSIE: I was there until they tied them up and then that's when I left, after they tied them up, I left.

GITCHELL: But, you saw them cutting on the boys,
JESSIE: I saw them cutting on them, and then

GITCHELL: So, what else left is there, after that?
JESSIE: They laid the knife down beside them and I saw them tying them up and then that's when I left,

RIDGE: Were the boys conscious or were they
JESSIE: They were unconscious then

RIDGE: Unconscious
JESSIE: And after I left they done more.

RIDGE: They done more
JESSIE: They started screwing them again

RIDGE: Okay, how were they screwing them when you saw them?
JESSIE: They, Jason stuck his in one them's mouth and Damian was screwing one of them up the ass and stuff.

RIDGE: Okay, and the one that they were cutting the penis off of, did any of them are cutting the penis or whatever was being done, did they have sex with them at all?
JESSIE: No

RIDGE: Did either one of them?
JESSIE: Jason did

RIDGE: Jason did?
JESSIE: Jason was screwing him while Damian stuck his in his mouth

RIDGE: Okay, how did he have sex with that one?
JESSIE: He was holding him down like, and Jason had his legs up in the air and that little boy was kicking, saying, 'don't, no' like that.

RIDGE: Okay, he had his legs up in the air, alright, what was to keep the little boys from running off, but just their hands are tied, what's to keep them from running off?
JESSIE: They beat them up so bad so they can't hardly move, they had their hands tied down and he sit on them

RIDGE: You said that they had their hands tied up, tied down, were they hands tied in a fashion that they couldn't have run, you tell me.
JESSIE: They could run, they just had them tied, when they knocked them down and stuff, they could move their arms and stuff, and hold them down like, wake up and raise up and the other one just put his legs up.

RIDGE: Okay, so they had them under control, you were there the whole time that was taking place?
JESSIE: I was there.

RIDGE: Okay, none [note: this is not clear - it may be 'one'] of them were cut on the face real bad, is that what you said?
JESSIE: Yes

RIDGE: And one of them was being cut on his penis?
JESSIE: Yes sir

RIDGE: Alright,
GITCHELL: Did you ever use, did anyone use a stick and hit the boys with?
JESSIE: Damian had kinda of a big old stick when he hit that first one, after he hit him with his fist and knocked him down and got him a big old stick and hit him.

GITCHELL: What did the stick look like, I mean was it like a big log like that or is it a stick?
JESSIE: I would say it was about that big around, I would say about that long.

GITCHELL: Okay
RIDGE: About the size of a baseball bat, maybe just a little bit bigger round?
JESSIE: Yeah

RIDGE: That's what you're describing with your hands, right?
JESSIE: Right

RIDGE: Okay, how long was the knife that Jason was using?
JESSIE: About that long

RIDGE: Alright, you're describing a knife that would be about 6 inches long, is that right?
JESSIE: Yes

RIDGE: And, what kind of blade did it have on it?
JESSIE: Uh, like a regular knife blade

RIDGE: Was it a knife that you fold up, or was it like a hunting knife?
JESSIE: It was

RIDGE: Just one piece
JESSIE: Just a fold up knife

RIDGE: It was a folding knife?
JESSIE: Yes

RIDGE: okay, uh does Damian have a knife?
JESSIE: No

RIDGE: He doesn't have one, he didn't have one that night?
JESSIE: He didn't have one that night

RIDGE: Did he borrow yours?
JESSIE: No, he didn't borrow mine.

GITCHELL: Did they have a briefcase with them?
JESSIE: No

GITCHELL: You didn't see a briefcase?
JESSIE: I didn't see a briefcase, not unless they left it there at that day before it happened, unless they left it there then but I didn't see one that day.

GITCHELL: Have you ever seen them with a briefcase before?
JESSIE: I've seen them once that night, I seen them with it that night.

GITCHELL: Okay, what is kept inside of that briefcase?
JESSIE: They had some cocaine, and a little gun

GITCHELL: Is that when you first saw the pictures of the boys?
JESSIE: yes, out there in Lakeshore

GITCHELL: And you saw the pictures in the briefcase?
JESSIE: Yes, I think when we had that cult.

GITCHELL: okay, now you have participated in this cult, right?
JESSIE: Yes

GITCHELL: How long have you been involved in it?
JESSIE: I've been in it for about three months.

GITCHELL: Okay, what is, tell me some of the things that you all do typically in the woods, as being in this cult.
JESSIE: We go out kill dogs and stuff and then carry girls out there.

GITCHELL: What do you all do with the girls when you're out there?
JESSIE: We screw them and stuff

GITCHELL: Just everybody takes a turn
JESSIE: Everybody, and we have an orgee and stuff like that.
GITCHELL: okay

RIDGE: when you kill a dog, what do you do with that?
JESSIE: We usually skin it, then make a barn fire and eat it and stuff

RIDGE: okay, when you initiating somebody new come into a cult what actually is done to initiate that person into a cult?
JESSIE: We usually you know, kill an animals, you know, you have to know how to handle the meat and stuff, after we kill it to see if he knows, if he can't handle it, then he don't get in.

RIDGE: Okay, so he kills an animal, you mentioned earlier that he may have to eat part of that animal, what part of the animal would he eat?
JESSIE: Uh, the meat off of his leg.

RIDGE: The meat off of his leg.
JESSIE: If he can't eat it, then he don't get in.

RIDGE: Doesn't get into the cult?
JESSIE: No

RIDGE: Now these meetings, have they ever been violent, anybody gotten made and got into a fight?
JESSIE: No

RIDGE: Okay, the night you were in the woods, uh had you all been in the water?
JESSIE: Yeah, we've been in the water, we were in it that night, playing around in it.

RIDGE: You were playing around in the water, alright, what were you doing in the water?
JESSIE: Just

RIDGE: Besides just playing, the little boys, had they been in the water? Did they get into the water with you all?
JESSIE: No, they didn't get into the water with us

RIDGE: Okay, what were you doing in the water?
JESSIE: We were just sitting there, throwing stuff at each other,

RIDGE: were you all having sex?
JESSIE: No, I wasn't

RIDGE: You weren't?
JESSIE: No

RIDGE: Damian and Jason having sex?
JESSIE: They took turns going up under the water

RIDGE: Going up under the water, what were they doing up under the water?
JESSIE: They were sitting so far away, they were in the water, I would say about five to ten seconds, then come up and then the other one would go down

RIDGE: Okay, so they were just messing around in the water. They called for these boys to come over there?
JESSIE: Yeah, they seen them boys and then they hollered, Damien said, hey, the little boys come up there.

GITCHELL: Did they call them by name?
JESSIE: No, they just hollered at them, they slowed up.

GITCHELL: Where did the boys put their bikes?
JESSIE: Close to right where there before you come in and they laid them down right there, and after I left I don't know what they done with the bikes.

GITCHELL: You didn't do anything to the bikes at all?
JESSIE: No

GITCHELL: Are you sure
JESSIE: Positive

GITCHELL: You didn't touch the bikes?
JESSIE: I didn't touch them

RIDGE: You've been back to this place since that murder
JESSIE: Yes

RIDGE: Since it (unaudible) what did you do there? Be truthful.
JESSIE: I went down there and sit there, and after what they did to the boys, I just sit there

RIDGE: And did what?
JESSIE: Just thought, what happened to them real bad, just thought.

RIDGE: Okay
JESSIE: And I left and stuff, and walked home.

GITCHELL: When did you go back there?
JESSIE: Two or three days after it happened, and I left.

RIDGE: You were there by yourself?
JESSIE: I was there by myself.

RIDGE: Didn't you go there with some more boys once?
JESSIE: Me. David

RIDGE: That particular place?
JESSIE: No, not to that place

RIDGE: Are you willing to go down there with us and us having a camcorder and show us where these things took place? Would you do that?
JESSIE: Silent

RIDGE: Wouldn't have any problem with that?
JESSIE: Not that I know of, I wouldn't

RIDGE: But you would be able to point out where these things took place?
JESSIE: Yes

RIDGE: Which way the boys came from and where you all were when he hollered for the boys and stuff like that, you wouldn't have a problem with that?
JESSIE: After the murder and stuff, I would say about two or three days later after it happened, I went down there and thought about it and I haven't been down there since.

RIDGE: Okay, let me ask you something, now this is real serious and I want you to be real truthful, and I want you to think about it before you answer it, don't just say yes or no, real quick. I want you to think about it. Did you actually hit any of these boys?
JESSIE: No

GITCHELL: Now, tell us the truth
JESSIE: No

RIDGE: Did you actually rape any of these boys?
JESSIE: No
RIDGE: Did you actually kill any of these boys?
JESSIE: No

RIDGE: Did you see any of the boys actually killed?
JESSIE: Yes

RIDGE: okay, which one did you see killed?
JESSIE: That one right there.

GITCHELL: Now, you're pointing to the Byers boy again?
JESSIE: Yes

RIDGE: How was he actually killed?
JESSIE: He choked him real bad and all

RIDGE: Choking him? Okay, what was he choking him with?
JESSIE: His hands, like a stick, he had a bit old stick, kinda holding it over his neck.

RIDGE: okay, so he was choking him to the point where he actually went unconscious, so at that point, you felt like he was dead?
JESSIE: Yeah

RIDGE: Okay, did any of the other two boys, were you there when they were actually killed?
JESSIE: I don't know

RIDGE: You say that you got sick, so that's what you were saying, did you throw up or anything?
JESSIE: Yes

RIDGE: Where did you throw up at?
JESSIE: I got a little bit ways out of there and got half a mile up the road, is when I threw up, and couldn't hardly run and I just threw up.

RIDGE: When you left from there, did you leave running?
JESSIE: Yes

RIDGE: Were you hiding?
JESSIE: No, I didn't hide.

GITCHELL: Did you have some blood on your clothes?
JESSIE: I didn't have no blood, I didn't get close to them

GITCHELL: Were your clothes wet still?
JESSIE: Yes, they were damp

GITCHELL: Muddy
RIDGE: Alright, Insp. Gitchell touched on a point, real close, now what clothes were Jason wearing that day? That night?
JESSIE: He was wearing some blue jeans and boots, army boots like,

RIDGE: Army boots? And what kind of a shirt, you know everybody wears a special shirt with different things
JESSIE: He was wearing a mega death shirt

RIDGE: A mega death
JESSIE: Or maybe a metalica

RIDGE: Metalica shirt, alright, was he wearing a cap, anything like that?
JESSIE: No, he wasn't wearing anything like that

RIDGE: Alright, Damian, what was Damian wearing.
JESSIE: Damian had some black pants on, some boots and a black t-shirt.

RIDGE: Was anything on his shirt?
JESSIE: No

RIDGE: No kind of design or anything?
JESSIE: No, just black

RIDGE: These blue jeans that Jason was wearing, designer jeans, or were they old jeans, wore out, holes
JESSIE: They were wore out

RIDGE: What did they look like?
JESSIE: They had holes in them and the knees were cut

RIDGE: Holes in the knees. What color is Jason's hair?
JESSIE: Blonde

RIDGE: Light blonde, or like a sandy reddish type blonde, do you know the difference?
JESSIE: It's like

RIDGE: Sandy colored blonde
JESSIE: Sandy colored blonde

RIDGE: okay, wearing blue jeans, he had on a metalica shirt, now this is a shirt that's got metalica across the front of it spelled out, and a man's name, or picture, is that right? You tell me.
JESSIE: They had picture

RIDGE: A picture of somebody
JESSIE: Different shirts, different types of shirts have different pictures

RIDGE: Well, which one did he have?
JESSIE: He had that uh, like a, skull like

RIDGE: A skull?
JESSIE: Yeah

RIDGE: Okay, what were you wearing that day?
JESSIE: I was just wearing regular blue jeans, my shoes

RIDGE: What kind of shoes were you wearing?
JESSIE: My uh, Adidas

RIDGE: Adidas tenns shoes?
JESSIE: Yes

RIDGE: What kind of shirt were you wearing?
JESSIE: I was just wearing a regular old greasy up t-shirt.

RIDGE: Okay, was it a designed shirt, like this bull type shirt, or was it just a plain white, old
JESSIE: Plain white

RIDGE: Old t-shirt, where are these shoes at now?
JESSIE: A friend of mine, he borrowed them

RIDGE: Who is that?
JESSIE: Buddy Lucas

RIDGE: Buddy Lucas?
JESSIE: He borrowed them from me

RIDGE: The boots that Damian had on, are they army type boots too, or what kind of boots were they? I
JESSIE: Close like army type, not quite

RIDGE: Okay, they are black, is that right, they lace up?
JESSIE: Yes

RIDGE: Okay, and Jason's black and lace up?
JESSIE: Jason's were black up to, about knee

RIDGE: Oh, they come way up on him?
JESSIE: Yes

RIDGE: Okay, Damian's didn't come up that far?
JESSIE: No

RIDGE: Okay, they killed the boys, you decided to go, you went home, how long after you got home before you received the phone call? 30 minutes or an hour?
JESSIE: Uh, silent an hour

RIDGE: An hour after you got home, so they were there for a lot longer
JESSIE: Yes

RIDGE: When he called you on the phone, did he say that he had just got in?
JESSIE: When he first called me, he said, how come you left, and said, I couldn't stand it, I had to do something else

RIDGE: Okay, you couldn't stand it.
JESSIE: And then Damian, I heard Damian in the background saying we done it, we done it, what we gone do if somebody saw us

RIDGE: Did anybody see you leaving?
JESSIE: No

RIDGE: That you know of
JESSIE: That I know of

RIDGE: Did anybody see Damian and Jason?
JESSIE: I don't know, I left before them

RIDGE: But have you heard anybody say that they saw Damian and Jason?
JESSIE: No

RIDGE: You haven't heard anybody?
JESSIE: No

RIDGE: Okay, these initiations, you say that they eat part of the leg meat?
JESSIE: Yeah

RIDGE: Does that involve eating part of the penis of the animal?
JESSIE: No

RIDGE: Just the meat?
JESSIE: Just the meat

RIDGE: Okay, has Jason and Damian talked to you since this happened?
JESSIE: No

RIDGE: They haven't talked to you about this?
JESSIE: They hadn't said nothing around me, when I was over to my friend's house, they didn't say nothing.

RIDGE: When you've been by yourself, and I'm sure in the last three weeks you've been by yourself with them sometime
JESSIE: You know Damian keeps asking me how come I left and stuff and hadn't anybody said anything to me about it.

RIDGE: Okay, what did he say to you about it when you came to the police department, after seehng that boy in the woods? Up there behind the Goodyear place? What did he say about that?
JESSIE: He didn't know anything about that.

RIDGE: He doesn't know that
JESSIE: No

RIDGE: Okay, what about when you get with Jason by himself?
JESSIE: He keeps on asking me what are we going to do next, I told him, I can't do nothing now cause I go to work with my daddy everyday

RIDGE: So, they are scared, is that right,
JESSIE: They are scared cause after what they did, I told him that I was going to work with my daddy, I got to do something

RIDGE: So, what do you think ought to be done to them for killing these boys?
JESSIE: They need to be put away for awhile,

RIDGE: Put away for a while. Do you think they are sick or just mean?
JESSIE: I think they are sick

RIDGE: They are sick okay. Is there anything else that you want to add to this statement?
JESSIE: No

RIDGE: Why did you not come forward with this information?
JESSIE: Cause I was scared

RIDGE: Scared of Damian? or scared of the police?
JESSIE: Scared of the police

RIDGE: Are you scared of Damian now?
JESSIE: No

RIDGE: Are you scared of the police now?
JESSIE: No

RIDGE: You are not, so we've treated you well?
JESSIE: Yes

RIDGE: Alright, I am going to conclude this interview, the time is 3:18PM.

JUNE 3, 1993 INTERVIEW OF JESSIE MISSKELLEY, JR. SECOND INTERVIEW CONDUCTED TO CLARIFY PREVIOUS STATEMENTS

PRESENT DURING INTERVIEW: INSPECTOR GARY GITCHELL
JESSIE MISSKELLEY, JR

Gitchell: Jessie, uh, when when you got with the boys and with Jason Baldwin when you three were in the woods and then little boys come up, about what time was it? When the boys come up to the woods?
Jessie: I would say it was about 5 or so 5 or 6.

Gitchell: Know, did you have your watch on at the time?
Jessie: Huh uh (no)

Gitchell: You didn't have your watch on?
Jessie: Huh uh (no)

Gitchell: Uh, alright you told me earlier around 7 or 8, which time is it?
Jessie: It was 7 or 8.

Gitchell: Are you
Jessie: It was starting to get dark.

Gitchell: Ok, it
Jessie: I remember it was starting to get dark.

Gitchell: Ok, well that clears it up. I didn't know, that's what I was wondering, was it getting dark or what.
Jessie: We got up there at 6:00 and the boys come up and it was starting to get dark.

Gitchell: Ok, so you and Jason and Baldwin uh, Damien you all got there right at 6.
Jessie: About 6 yeah

Gitchell: Is that a normal time that you all meet at 6?
Jessie: Yeah.

Gitchell: Ok, when you do your cult stuff does 6 mean something, I mean is that a time you normally do meet?
Jessie: Yeah.

Gitchell: Ok, so you all met out there at 6 and then the boys come up about what time?
Jessie: About 7.

Gitchell: About 7:00, Ok. So you all were out there with the boys and all this stuff going on and until you noticed it starting getting dark. Is that correct?
Jessie: Yeah.

Gitchell: Ok, now are you sure about that?
Jessie: Yes.

Gitchell: Ok, uh, Ok, hold on just a minute. (Pause) Ok Jessie uh, I asked you about your clothing and you said that uh, what what were you wearing?
Jessie: I was wearing uh, blue jeans, and a white shirt with some kind of basketball deal on it. Some tennis shoes Adidas.

Gitchell: Alright, your shirt was it a, uh, what kind of shirt was it?
Jessie: It was a white shirt with a basketball on around it.

Gitchell: Is it a shirt like you got on now?
Jessie: Uh huh (yes).

Gitchell: What kind of shirt is it like you have on now? That is what, a t-shirt?
Jessie: Uh huh (yes).

Gitchell: Ok, so you had a white t-shirt with a basketball design on it.
Gitchell: Ok, uh, what about shoes, what kind of shoes did you have on?
Jessie: White and blue Adidas.

Gitchell: White and blue?
Jessie: uh huh (yes).

Gitchell: And who has those shoes now?
Jessie: Buddy Lucas.

Gitchell: And how old is Buddy?
Jessie: He is about 18 or 19.

Gitchell: Why does he have your shoes?
Jessie: We went we was coming home one day and it was raining and he didn't have nothing else to wear so he put on one of my shoes.

Gitchell: Ok, and where does he live at?
Jessie: In Lakeshore.

Gitchell: Is there
Jessie: By, uh the church.

Gitchell: Is there a street or anything?
Jessie: It is a street but it ain't got no names on it though.

Gitchell: What street is the church on?
Jessie: On uh, as soon as you get off of Cherry Street. Uh, Cherry Street right in front of it.

Gitchell: Off of Cherry Street?
Jessie: Uh hu (yes)

Gitchell: Ok, are there any vehicles around close by that I could recognize that trailer?
Jessie: It should be a green truck and a brown van and there is a basketball goal right there where the green truck is at by the basketball goal.

Gitchell: Alright, who tied the boys up?
Jessie: Uh, Damien.

Gitchell: Did Damien just tie them all up or did anyone help Damien or
Jessie: Jason helped him.

Gitchell: Ok, and what did they use to tie them up?
Jessie: A rope.

Gitchell: Ok, what color was the rope?
Jessie: Brown.

Gitchell: Did you ever see the boys in the water?
Jessie: Uh, yeah, down by the water.

Gitchell: Alright, how did the boys get into the water?
Jessie: They pulled them there into the water.

Gitchell: Alright, when you say they who is it that pulled them into the water?
Jessie: Jason and uh, Damien.

Gitchell: Do you wear a belt?
Jessie: Nope.

Gitchell: Does Jason where a belt?
Jessie: Unt uh (no).

Gitchell: Does Damien wear a belt?
Jessie: Yeap.

Gitchell: What kind of belt does he wear?
Jessie: A black leather belt with uh, beads uh, like little beads around it.

Gitchell: With beads around it?
Jessie: Like little beads you know stubbies with

Gitchell: Ok, about how thick is the belt?
Jessie: It's about 4 inches.

Gitchell: Now, do you know what 4 inches looks like?
Jessie: About like that, the belt was about like that. (Using hands to show width)

Gitchell: Ok, I don't think that's quite 4 inches, but uh, probably about 3 something like that.
Jessie: Uh huh.

Gitchell: Which, which boys were raped?
Jessie: Uh, Byers and the Branch.

Gitchell: Ok, so you know them by name and face, well enough to call them by name?
Jessie: Uh huh.

Gitchell: Ok, did you, did you see the Moore boy, was he raped?
Jessie: No.

Gitchell: Alright, who raped those two boys?
Jessie: Jason and Damien.

Gitchell: Do you know which one raped which boy, or how did that happen?
Jessie: Damien raped the Myers by hisself and and Jason and Damien raped uh the Branch.

Gitchell: Alright, give that to me again now.
Jessie: Damien raped uh the Myers by hisself and Jason and Damien raped uh the Branch.

Gitchell: Did anyone have oral sex with the boys?
Jessie: Yes, Damien and Jason.

Gitchell: How many of them did they do that to?
Jessie: Just two, Branch and Byers.

Gitchell: How did they keep the boys quiet?
Jessie: Put their hands over their mouths.

Gitchell: Did they do anything else other than put their hands over their mouths? How did they finally keep them from being quiet, cause the boys bound to have been hollering?
Jessie: They stuck their hands over their mouths first, and then they stuck their shirts to their mouth.

Gitchell: Ok, did they do anything else to them to make them be quiet?
Jessie: They stuck their thang in their mouth.

Gitchell: Ok, did they, were they hitting them before that or afterwards?
Jessie: Before and after, just trying to keep them off of them.

Gitchell: Just all of the time?
Jessie: Just trying to keep Jason and Damien off of them.

Gitchell: Now they put their, whose shirts did they put in their mouth?
Jessie: Damiens.

Gitchell: Ok, alright hold on just a minute, -pause- Let me ask you something else, Jessie, I'm sorry, I keep coming back and forth, but I got people that want me to ask you some other questions, uh talking about oral sex, did you see, you know we had talked earlier about how Jason and uh Damien do each other, have sex with each other did they, did they have oral sex on the boys?
Jessie: Yeah, they, they, one of them stuck their thang in one of the boys mouth while the other one got the other one up the butt and stuff.

Gitchell: Ok, but did, did anyone go down on the boys and maybe suck theirs or something?
Jessie: Not that, I didn't see nothing neither one of them do that.

Gitchell: You didn't see that?
Jessie: Uh, uh

Gitchell: Ok, did, did they pinch their penis in anyway or were rough with it or anything like that?
Jessie: I didn't see nothing like that, not rough with them, I just seen um

Gitchell: You didn't see anyone go down on the boys?
Jessie: Uh, uh.

Gitchell: Are you sure?
Jessie: Yeah.
Gitchell: Ok.

Pause Gave Jessie a Coke

Gitchell: That Coke was kind of cold huh?
Jessie: Uh huh.

Gitchell: I tell ya it tasted pretty good to me though.
Gitchell: Um, Jessie when, now the boys hands were tied up right?
Jessie: Right.

Gitchell: How did, how did, they force these boys to have oral sex on them? How did they have a hold of them?
Jessie: One of them had holding them by the arms while the other one got behind them and stuff.

Gitchell: Did he ever hold him up here or
Jessie: Uh, the one that was holding him up there at the front grabbing him by his headlock.

Gitchell: Had him in a headlock? Did he have him any other way?
Jessie: He was holding him like this by his head like this and stuff (Note: was indicating the victims being held by their ears)

Gitchell: Could he have been holding him up here like that?
Jessie: I was too far away he was holding him up here by his head like this (Note: showed the same as above)

Gitchell: So, so
Jessie: And he was pulling him.

Gitchell: Ok, so who was one of them doing that or both of them was doing it? Was Jason?
Jessie: Jason was holding him while Damien did it and then they took turns.

Gitchell: So, they both did it to all three of these boys?
Jessie: Just them two as far as I know.

Gitchell: Just the two of them?
Jessie: Yeah.

Gitchell: But they, they both Jason and Damien did it to two of the boys and they took turns?
Jessie: Uh huh.

Gitchell: And they would hold, tell me again about their hands on, I mean I know you're, you're holding it up here.
Jessie: It was up here by their heads and stuff and was just pulling and stuff.

Gitchell: Alright, so they are up here, had their hands
Jessie: By their ears and pulling them and stuff.

Gitchell: Alright, Ok, say, say that again for me now.
Jessie: Hold them by their head, by ears and pulling
Gitchell: Ok.

Time: 9:00 AM Report No. 1-6
Reporting Officer: Jon Moody
Area of Incident: Transport to ADC
Prisoner: Jessie Miskelley
Prisoner Number: N/A

Narrative:

To: Inspector Gitchell
West Memphis Police Department

From: Clay County Sheriffs Department

The following statement is a narrative as told to Deputy James Lindsey and myself. This statement is not in chronological order as it was given by Jessie but has been put in order to the best of our ability with knowledge of your case. Your department may have knowledge of this in its entirety, if not, mabey it will provide a little insight as to what took place on May 5th 1993.

Jail Incident Report

On the afternoon of Feb. 4th 1994, Deputy James Lindsey and myself were transporting Jessie Miskelley to the Arkansas Department of Corrections at Pine Bluff. Jessie was asked if there was anything he wanted to say and after being assured we could not use anything he said against him in court, he chose to talk.

Jessie advised he had received a call from Jason Baldwin asking him if he wanted to go to West Memphis to "get some girls." Jessie, Damion, and Jason met on a local road on May 5th (sometime that evening). Jessie claimed that he had been drinking Evelyn Williams whiskey that Mrs. Hutchson had bought him and Jason and Damion were drinking beer. It was also stated that they had smoked two marijuana joints that afternoon. Jessie said that he had known Jason Baldwin since the 6th Grade and did not know Damion that well but that Damion would drink human blood remembering a time when Jason was bleeding and Damion took some of the blood with his finger and licked it off. Jessie stated that Officer Callahan had lied in Court about not seeing him on May 5th, Jessie claims they had a short conversation. After all meeting on the road, the three boys walked to the woods and were sitting in the water with Jason and Damion "going under," Jessie said he could not go under because of his ear problem.

The three young boys were seen from a distance when Damion told Jessie and Jason to hide. Jessie said they were hiding behind bushes when Damion grabbed Michael Moore. The two other young boys started hitting Damion trying to help their friend and that is when Jessie and Jason jumped out and helped Damion "beat them." Jessie advised he helped hold them and beat them but had no part in raping or killing them.

Jessie advised two of the boys were raped from behind before and after they were tied up and that Damion and Jason were taking turns with the two boys. Jessie said the boys were still alive at this time.

Jessie said the boys were kept quiet by putting hands over their mouths and that Jason and Damion had used "shirts" and that times their face was pushed down into the ground.

Jessie was asked how the boys were kept under control while being raped and not tied yet and he stated "They were like puppies, when you whoop a puppy and tell it to stay, it will." Jessie did say he had to catch Michael Moore but did not say at what point.

Jessie claims that the third boy was never raped but that he may have been the one that Damion took his penis and put it in his mouth (the young boys penis). Jessie said at one point Damion and Jason had one of the boys in a headlock with one he believed had his penis in the boys mouth while the other one had him from behind. Jessie said he did not mention the "ears" to the police, only a headlock. Jessie also mentioned that "sticks" had been used to beat the boys.

At one point, Jessie said that Jason had a "bucktype locking knife" and "cut it all off and threw it in the weeds" saying the boy was alive and tied at this point and that he was surprised blood did not get on him because blood went everywhere and he was about a "car length" away. Jessie said "they" threw him into the water and "he was still squriming around in the water" at which point he left. Jessie said he does not know what happened to the knife. Jessie said he believed the other two boys were not conscious when he left but were not in the water.

Jessie also stated that Jason called him "later" and asked him why he left and he told them he could not watch it any longer. He claims the only other contact with Jason and Damion were a couple of times at the skating rink but they were mad at him.

OTHER INFORMATION
Jessie claims his lawyers asked him if he was innocent and that he had lied to them.

Jessie said the boys had a clubhouse and that's why he thinks they were in the area.

When talking about the "meetings" they had, Jessie could remember about nine people showing up and at one particular meeting "Kent" was to bring a dog "as his treat," the dog was taken away in the woods where it was killed and skinned. The dog was brought back and cooked in something that looked like Crisco in a "washing machine type bucket." Jessie said he eat a little one time and got sick. "Kent" was to catch the dog at the trailer park and Jessie believed they had killed about four dogs altogether. Jessie said Jason and Damion would both have sex with Dominique at these meetings.

Jessie said he lied about the time and the rope to "trick the police and to see if they were lying."

Jessie says he feels the other boys tricked him into what he did.

Jessie claims he has felt sorry for what has happened and talks as if he wants to testify against the other boys so they will not go free and to help himself.

Jessie did say the photograph showed to him was a group picture of the boys "riding" their bycycles in front of a house.

STATEMENT OF JESSIE MISSKELLEY, JR.
FEBRUARY 17, 1994

DAVIS: I've turned the other recorder on for the purposes of this tape. We are at the offices of Joe Calvin attorney. It's 8:02 p.m. on February 17, 1994. Present in the room is Greg Crow.
CROW: Present

DAVIS: And Jessie Misskelley, Jr.
MISSKELLEY: Present

DAVIS: Dan Stidham.
STIDHAM: I'm here.

DAVIS: Joe Calvin.
CALVIN: Present.

DAVIS: And myself, Brent Davis. Now Jessiie before we start this would you raise your right hand. Do you swear to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you god.
MISSKELLEY: Yes, I do.

DAVIS: Ok, Now for purposes of the record I want it to reflect that number 1, Mr. Stidham and myself have talked with Judge Burnett and advised of these proceedings. And after discussing this with him he approved or said that we could take a statement with Mr. Misskelley's attorneys present.
STIDHAM: Over my objections.

DAVIS: Over Mr. Stidham's objections. Also for Mr. Misskelley's benefit this statement will be taken with a grant of use of immunity approved by the Court which means that anything in this statement cannot be used in any poroceeding against Jessie Misskelley, Jr. in the future, down the road, whatever. Ah, also for the record and ah, Mr. Stidham can add to this. But it's my understanding that any statement Mr. Misskelley gives will be against the advise of his attorney Mr. Stidham and Mr. Crow.
CROW: That's correct.

DAVIS: And for the record that they have requested of the Judge that it be delayed until the Psychiatric Evaluation could be performed. And that the Court indicated that this statement could be taken before that evaluation over the objection of Mr. Stidham.
STIDHAM: That's correct.

DAVIS: And that this statement will be tape recorded and a copy of that tape or that tape will be provided to defense councel and that at this point no promises have been made as to any deals or any benefits that will be granted to Mr. Misskelley as a result of this statement.

There has been no negotiations whatsoever primarily due to Mr. Misskelley's refusal to talk to us.

DAVIS: Now if you would will you state your name.
STIDHAM: Before you get started with that I would like to make a reference in regard to what I have and have not advised Mr. Misskelley of tonight.

DAVIS: You might need to speak up.
STIDHAM: Ok. Jessie can you hear me.
MISSKELLEY: Yes, I can hear you.

STIDHAM: I want you to listen very carefully to what I've got to tell you, ok. I told you earlier that I have some new evidence, is that correct ?
MISSKELLEY: That's what you said.

STIDHAM: And I told you that this new evidence may ..ah.. that I plan on filing a motion for a new trial and that the Court could possibly grant you a new trial based on this evidence.
MISSKELLEY: That's what you said.

STIDHAM: Ok, I also told you that giving a statement was against my advise and wishes.
MISSKELLEY: That's what you said.

STIDHAM: Ok. I am advising you that I don't think it's a good idea for you to give this statement. Do you understand that ?
MISSKELLEY: Yes, I do.

STIDHAM: OK. Do you understand that Mr. Crow is giving you the same advise ?
MISSKELLEY: Yes, I do.

STIDHAM: You need to speak up a little louder Jessie.
MISSKELLEY: Yes, I do.

_________: One second, I may have to fix this.

STIDHAM: So you understand that my advise to you is that you not say anything. Do you understand that?
MISSKELLEY: Yes.

STIDHAM: And your 18 years old and you understand that I've asked for a Mental Evaluation.
MISSKELLEY: I don't know if you did or not.

STIDHAM: I asked the Court if I could have an oppurtunity to get you the Psychiatric help that you askef for when I was down in Pine Bluff on Tuesday. Do you remember asking for that?
MISSKELLEY: Yes, I do.

STIDHAM; You asked me to get you a Psychiatrist?
MISSKELLEY: Yes, I said I need help.

STIDHAM: And that's why I asked the Judge for the opportunity to get you that evaluation before you make any statement. Do you understand that ?
MISSKELLEY: Yes.

STIDHAM: And you also understand that again it's my advise that you not talk or give any kind of statement here tonight ..ah.. until we have a chance to file a motion for a new trial and get your Psychiatric Evaluations complete. Do you understand that ?
MISSKELLEY: Yes, I do.

STIDHAM: And it is your decision to go ahead and make this statement anyway ?
MISSKELLEY: Yes.

STIDHAM: You still want to give a statement despite my advise and counsel?
MISSKELLEY: Yes, cause I want something done about it.

STIDHAM: Ok. So ..um.. is there any part of what I just told you that you don't understand ?
MISSKELLEY: No.

STIDHAM: You understand everything?
MISSKELLEY: Yes.

STIDHAM: And you want to make my statement regardless of my advise against doing so?
MISSKELLEY: Yep.

STIDHAM: Do you want to have an opportunity to talk to anyone else, father or anyone before you make a statement.
MISSKELLEY: I might need to talk to my father. But I'm not for sure.

STIDHAM: It's your decision, your 18 years old.
MISSKELLEY: Yes, I am.

STIDHAM: Do you want to talk to your father or not ?
MISSKELLEY: No I can go ahead and do it.

STIDHAM: Do you realize that once you make this statement there is no turning back?
MISSKELLEY: I know there's no turning back.

STIDHAM: Anything you want to add to that Greg.
CROW: Jessie. You realize that I don't always agree with everything that Dan says but this time I agree with him. I don't think you should say anything. Do you know that? Are you aware of the fact that I don't think you should say anything ?
MISSKELLEY: Yea, I understand what your saying.

CROW: Ok, along as you understand that. But you want to anyway, is that right ?
MISSKELLEY: Right cause I want something done.
CROW: Ok.

CALVIN: Let me ask you a couple of questions before you get into it ..ah.. Jessie when you were brought here ..ah.. since you've been here with the Deputy Sheriff. I think you got here about 5:00, is that correct?
MISSKELLEY: Somewhere around 5:00.

CALVIN: Ok, now nobody has questioned you anything about what happened is that correct?
MISSKELLEY: Nope.

CALVIN: Ok, How have we treated you ?
MISSKELLEY: Nice.

CALVIN: Ok, has anybody been rude to you or anything ?
MISSKELLEY: No.

CALVIN: Now we got you a Cheeseburger Sandwich and I asked Mr. Crow on the telephone if that was alright and he said that was perfectly alright. And I went and purchased you a Cheeseburger, is that correct ?
MISSKELLEY: Yes, sir.

CALVIN: And you had a few, I think I gave you a couple of diet Cokes. I don't know if you drank'm all but you drank those, is that correct?
MISSKELLEY: Yes

CALVIN: But you haven't been promised anything for your testimony and you want to give it free and voluntarily.
MISSKELLEY: Yes.

CALVIN : And nobody's mistreating you?
MISSKELLEY: Nope
CALVIN: Ok.

DAVIS: Would you state your name please Jessie?
MISSKELLEY: Jessie Lloyd Misskelley, Jr.

DAvIS: And Jessie, how old are you?
MISSKELLEY: 18

DAVIS: what's your birthday?
MISSKELLEY: July 10, 1975

DAVIS: Ok and where were you residing prior to the time you were arrested? Before you were arrested?
MISSKELLEY: Highland Trailer Park

DAVIS: Ok. Now I want to draw your attention back to the date the three (3) little boys were murdered. Ah.. if you would on that date did you go to Robinhood Woods?
MISSKELLEY: Yes sir I did.

DAVIS: Ok and who did you go there with?
MISSKELLEY: Damien and Jason.

DAVIS: And when you went there, what happened when you got to the woods ?
MISSKELLEY: We sit there for a while and then three (3) little boys came up.

DAVIS: Ok what was. Had you had anything to drink or had you done any drugs, anything like that prior to that time. Or during that time?
MISSKELLEY: I was drinking.

DAVIS: Ok what were you drinking ?
MISSKELLEY: Whiskey and..

DAVIS: And do you recall whether it was daylight or dark when you got to the woods?
MISSKELLEY: It was still daylight.

DAVIS: And do you know, do you have any idea what time it was about when you got to the woods ?
MISSKELLEY: No I don't

DAVIS: Ok, now where did you enter the woods from ?
MISSKELLEY: Ah.. by a bridge.

DAVIS: Ok. What kind of bridge was it?
MISSKELLEY: It was on the serv, on the service road.

DAVIS: Ok. Ah.. you entered the woods by a bridge near the service road.
MISSKELLEY: ..Uhm.. (yes)

DAVIS: Ok. When you, who was with you at that point ?
MISSKELLEY: Jason and Damien.

DAVIS: And was there anybody else with you ?
MISSKELLEY: Nope.

DAVIS: Ok. And when you entered the woods near that bridge what happened next ?
MISSKELLEY: We just sit out there and started drinking ..inaudible.., we heard some noise, me and Jason hid and ..ah.. Damien just sit there and then all of a sudden he hid and then three (3) little boys come up and we jumped'm.

DAVIS: When you say that, what, prior to the boys coming up what was Damien duing ?
MISSKELLEY: He was just getting ..inaudible.. waiting for'm?

DAVIS: Ok. Was he drinking to?
MISSKELLEY: Uhm.. (yes).

DAVIS: What was he drinking ?
MISSKELLEY: He ws drinking beer?

DAVIS: And what about Jason ?
MISSKELLEY: Same thing.

DAVIS: Ok. Did they appear to be intoxicated ?
MISSKELLEY: To me they was.

DAVIS: Ok what about you? Were you, did you drink to the point you were intoxicated?
MISSKELLEY: I drunk to a point I was sick.

DAVIS: Ok. And when you drank, drink anything with the Whiskey?
MISSKELLEY: No.

DAVIS: Ok. What brand was it?
DAVIS: Evan Williams.
DAVIS: Ok. Where did you get that from?
MISSKELLEY: Vicky Hutchison.

DAVIS: Ok. Was there anybody with you when you got that?
MISSKELLEY: No.

DAVIS: Did, were you the only one there when you got Evan Williams from her?
MISSKELLEY: Yea.

DAVIS: Ok. And how much, when did you make arrangements for her to get that.
MISSKELLEY: During that day.

DAVIS: Ok.
MISSKELLEY: I don't know what time.

DAVIS: Where had you benn right before hooking up or getting with Damien and Jason?
MISSKELLEY: Well that morning I went to W. Memphis roofing.

DAVIS: Ok. And about what time did you get through roofing?
MISSKELLEY: Well I got off at dinner time.

DAVIS: Ok. And after you got off at dinner time, where, what were you doing right before you met up with Jason and Damien, where had you been?
MISSKELLEY: Highland Trailer Park.

DAVIS: Ok. And had you seen anybody in Highland Trailer Park right before you left to meet up with those two (2)?
MISSKELLEY: Yes.

DAVIS: Ok and who had you seen?
MISSKELLEY: Louie, susie, Stephanie, Pat, Boomer ..um.. Cody, Stephanie, Bobbie, you know some cop and there was some more people I couldn't tell you.

DAVIS: Ok. So. And so it was after, was it do you have any idea what time it was when you left the Trailer Park, approximately ?
MISSKELLEY: I don't know what time it was. I didn't have my watch.

DAVIS: Ok. And where were you when, as far as between the Trailer Park and Robinhood Woods when you ran into or came across Jason and Damien.
MISSKELLEY: I went to Lakeshore.

DAVIS: Ok. Is there where you meet them?
MISSKELLEY: Uhm.. (yes)

DAVIS: Ok. Where were they when you meet them.
MISSKELLEY: By the ..um.. by the Interstate.

DAVIS: Ok. Did you know ahead of time you were going to meet'm there ?
MISSKELLEY: Yea.

DAVIS: Ok. And how did you know that?
MISSKELLEY:It well Damien, I talked to him a couple times, and he wanted me to go W. Memphis with him and Jason and find some girls. And I went.

DAVIS: Did you know what, did you know what you were going for or what was going to happen?
MISSKELLEY: No, I didn't.

DAVIS: Now, how did you get from Lakeshore to the woods? What route did you take?
MISSKELLEY: We walked by ..ah.. Walmart and went on the Service Road.

DAVIS: Ok. Do you remember what Damien was wearing ?
MISSKELLEY:

DAVIS: Ok.
CALVIN: You may need to speak up just a little bit more.
MISSKELLEY: I can't remember to this day.

DAVIS: Ok. Do you remember what Jason's wearing ?
MISSKELLEY: No I don't, I can remember what I was wearing.

DAVIS: What were you wearing ?
MISSKELLEY: I was wearing a white shirt, had a basketball, something on the front of it and I had bluejeans, greasy, and white and blue addidas.

DAVIS: Ok. Now, when you, after you got in the wood. Do you have any idea how long you were in the woods before the kids came up?
MISSKELLEY: Not very long.

DAVIS: Ok. Now, where were you in relation to the creek that runs through the woods. Do you know what I am talking about when I say there's a creek running through it?
MISSKELLEY: Yea, the creek that goes up under the bridge.

DAVIS: Ok, the one that, the creek that runs under the
MISSKELLEY: Bridge.

DAVIS: Service Road. Ok. Where were ya'll in the creek, out of the creek.
MISSKELLEY: Out of the creek.

DAVIS: Ok. Were all three (3) of ya out of the creek?
MISSKELLEY: Yea.

DAVIS: Ok. And were you, were you on the Blue Beacon side or the Memphis side of the creek?

DAVIS: Let me ask that again. The creek that runs under the Service Road and into Robinhood Woods.
MISSKELLEY: Right.

DAVIS: Ok. One side of it's the Blue Beacon side and one side of it's closer to Memphis. One side's, were ya'll on the Blue Beacon side or on the Memphis side of that creek.
MISSKELLEY: Blue Beacon.

DAVIS: Ok. And which was, where did the boys come from? Or do you know?
MISSKELLEY: I don't know.

DAVIS: When did you first know they were in the woods?
MISSKELLEY: All I know is I heard these little kids holler.

DAVIS: Ok. And what happened at that point?
MISSKELLEY: And Damien started making some noises to get their attention and they come over where we was at.

DAVIS: When you say he made noises to get their attention, what, waht'd he do?
MISSKELLEY: Holer a little bit.

DAVIS: Ok. And when they came over what happened?
MISSKELLEY: And then Ja, Damien jumped on'm. And them other two (2) started beating on Damien and me and Jason jumped on'm.

DAVIS: Do you know which was Damien jumped on?
MISSKELLEY: ..um.. one of'm had blond hair. I don't know which one.

DAVIS: Ok. Which one's were they, which two (2) was it that jumped on Damien when he jumped on the other one?
MISSKELLEY: I can't, I can't remember that.

DAVIS: What happened at that point? Damien jumps on one and the other two (2) jump on him, what happens next?
MISSKELLEY: Me and Jason jump out and grabbed'm.

DAVIS: Alright. Who did you grab?
MISSKELLEY: ..um.. the one that had a, a blue boyscout.

DAVIS: Ok. Who did Jason grab, which, what did that boy looked like that Jason grabbed?
MISSKELLEY: I can't remember. I remember the one I grabbed.

DAVIS: Ok. What was that boy wearing.
MISSKELLEY: I can't remember, I was too messed up to remember that.

DAVIS: You said something about a blue or about a boyscout something. Was one of'm wearing a uniform?
MISSKELLEY: Something with the boyscouts on it.

DAVIS: Ok. Now when you grabbed one and Jason grabbed one what happened next?
MISSKELLEY: We started hitting'm.

DAVIS: With what ?
MISSKELLEY: Fist at first.

DAVIS: Ok. Where describe to me what Ja, what you saw Jason do?
MISSKELLEY: He first he cut one of'm on a face on his left side just a little bit like a scratch. Then ..ah.. he went to the other one and got on top of him, started hitting him and then pull one of'm pants down and get on top of'm and cut'm.

DAVIS: Ok. Now you said that he first hit somebody, hit one of'm and cut him on the left side of his face. Ok was that a different person then the one he jumped on a cut with the knife.
MISSKELLEY: To my knowledge, yea, a different person.

DAVIS: What were you doing at this time?
MISSKELLEY: I was still hitting that one.

DAVIS: Ok. What were you hitting him with?
MISSKELLEY: My fist.

DAVIS: Do you know how many time you might havfe hit'm?
MISSKELLEY: ..Um..

DAVIS: Where, what part of his body were you hitting him in ?
MISSKELLEY: Face.

DAVIS: Ok.
MISSKELLEY: Head.

DAVIS: What, what was Damien doing during this time?
MISSKELLEY: Well the one that got cut on his face, he stuck his finger on his cheek and slicked the blood off of it.

DAVIS: That's what, saw Damien do. What else was he doing?
MISSKELLEY: He grabbed one of'm by the ear, I don't know which one, he grabbed on of'm by the ear trying to pull his ear off or something. He grabbed'm pretty tight. It turned kind of red.

DAVIS: Did the, were the kids, the threee (3) little boys were they saying anything, doing anything during this ?
MISSKELLEY: They were saying Stop, Stop.

DAVIS: Ok. And what about the boy that you were hitting, was he saying that?
MISSKELLEY: Yea, he was telling me stop and then I stopped and Damien told me, no, no don't stop. And I got on'm again.

DAVIS: Ok. Now did anybody, At what pooint, or at this point when your doing that did they have their clothes on?
MISSKELLEY: Even when we hitting.

DAVIS: Ok. Were they, at some point did they get hit with anything besides your fist?
MISSKELLEY: Stick.

DAVIS: Who hit'm with a stick?
MISSKELLEY: Damien, I hit, I hit one of'm with a stick and

DAVIS: Now. When you say that, do you remember what kind of stick Damien had, you saw those sticks we had in Court.
MISSKELLEY: No, I didn't look at them. I know there's a stick craved something into it or something. You know part of the bark off of it.

DAVIS: Do you know how long it was? Was it as long as a baseball bat or longer or?
MISSKELLEY: it was longer than a baseball bat.

DAVIS: Ok. Describe for me what it looked like as far as, you say it looked like someone craved on it?
MISSKELLEY: Like a piece of the bark off of it.

DAVIS: Was that at the end or middle or bottom or do you remember.
MISSKELLEY: I can't remember.

DAVIS: Now.
CALVIN: Jessie in order to make sure that picks it up you need to talk up a little.
MISSKELLEY: Oh. I can't remember.

DAVIS: Ok. Now when you were hit, when, when you say that you were hitting'm and Jason and Damien were hitting'm. Were the boys still conscious at that point? The little boys.
MISSKELLEY: Yea.

DAVIS: Ok. At what point were you, did you notice or did you ever see them when they didn't appear to be conscious? Or they appeared to be knocked out?
MISSKELLEY: No.

DAVIS: Ok. Now at any point did you, were you there the whole time while this was going on?
MISSKELLEY: ..Uhm.. (yes).

DAVIS: Ok. How far were you from Damien and Jason?
MISSKELLEY: I was pre, pretty good ways from'm.

DAVIS: Ok. So it's been a, about say 10 yards or something.
MISSKELLEY: Something like that, maybe not even that far.

DAVIS: And could you see what they were doing ?
MISSKELLEY: I didn't pay any attention to them, I just kept on hitting that one.

DAVIS: Ok. And was that, was that the boy you had, the boy with the Cub Scout uniform on.
MISSKELLEY: Uhm.. (yes)

DAVIS: Ok. Now what did Jas, what did you see Jason and Damen do to the other two (2)?
MISSKELLEY: Well Damien screw one of'm.

DAVIS: When your saying he going screw him, what did you see him do?
MISSKELLEY: Well he was gonna stick his penis in that little boys behind.

DAVIS: Ok. Alright.
MISSKELLEY: As far as I am concerned he did.

DAVIS: When you say he was going to, what did you see Damien do and what happened between him and that little boy as far as that goes ?
MISSKELLEY: I don't understand what....

DAVIS: Ok. You said that he was going to screw the little or stick his penis in his behind. What did you see Damien do?
MISSKELLEY: They didn't do it, he was going to it, then they didn't

DAVIS: Ok. What was it that Damien did that made you think he was gonna do that?
MISSKELLEY: Well I seen the boys pants down.

DAVIS: How did his pants get down?
MISSKELLEY: He pulled'm.

DAVIS: Who pulled'm?
MISSKELLEY: Damien.

DAVIS: Ok. And did the boy, wwas the boy running when that happened or was he trying to get away or what was happening ?
MISSKELLEY: Well he was kicking his feet.

DAVIS: Ok. And what else did Damien do besides pull his, the little boys pants down. That made you think that he was gonna screw him?
MISSKELLEY: What, what'd you mean?

DAVIS: What, what did you see, you said that Damien pull his pants, the little boys pants down. Did you see Damien do anything else that indicated he was gonna screw him?
MISSKELLEY: ..um..

DAVIS: Ok. Did Damien have his clothes on or did he, at that point.
MISSKELLEY: He had his pants unbuttoned.

DAVIS: Ok. And at that point, what was Jason doing at that time ?
MISSKELLEY: Yea, he pulled one of the boys pants down, got on top of'm and started swinging.

DAVIS: Ok. when you say he started swinging, what do you mean?
MISSKELLEY: He started swinging his arm.

DAVIS: Around his, can you show me what you mean by that?
MISSKELLEY: He was coming like this.

DAVIS: Like hitting'm?
MISSKELLEY: Yeah. Like, like, like a like swinging

DAVIS: Ok. Was the boy lying face down or face up?
MISSKELLEY: Face up.

DAVIS: Ok. And did Jason have anything in his hands at that point.
MISSKELLEY: He had a knife.

DAVIS: Ok. Where was, was he actually hitting'm with the knife or with his fist ?
MISSKELLEY: blade was open.

DAVIS: Ok. Could you see where he, was he cutting the boy?
MISSKELLEY: No, he was like this swinging the knife at his legs.

DAVIS: Ok. Could you see, did you ever see one of the boys get cut with the knife?
MISSKELLEY: After he cut through with'm then I noticed what'd he done.

DAVIS: What did you see?
MISSKELLEY: I saw that boy you know missing

DAVIS: If you worried when you saw that, describe to me what you saw Jason do and what you saw happened?
MISSKELLEY: Well when he was doing that I seen blood fly.

DAVIS: Ok. Well did he, where'd the blood go?
MISSKELLEY: Grass, I mean not grass but weeds, like <..inaudible> sling around.

DAVIS: What'd the boy do when that happened?
MISSKELLEY: He started hollering. And Jason put his shirt over his mouth.

DAVIS: What'd Jason do after that?
MISSKELLEY: Then he came over where I was at.

DAVIS: What'd he do then?
MISSKELLEY: He wanted to do that one I was hitting, he wanted to do him the same way and I wouldn't let'm.

DAVIS: What'd you say to'm?
MISSKELLEY: I told'm na, after I seen what happened he did to that other boy. I said naw you ain't doing this one like that.

DAVIS: What'd Jason do then?
MISSKELLEY: He looked at me real weird and showed me that knife and then just walked off.

DAVIS: Had you seen that knife before?
MISSKELLEY: Yes.

DAVIS: What, who, who's knife was it?
MISSKELLEY: Jason's.

DAVIS: What did it look like?
MISSKELLEY: I can't remember. He keeps all kinds of knifes, I can't remember. All I know is it's a lock blade.

DAVIS: When you say a lock-blade, one that folds out and locks?
MISSKELLEY: Yea.

DAVIs: And were, what happened to the boys, did you stay, after you see Jason do that and he comes to you. What happens next.
MISSKELLEY: Well, he sc, Damien was Jason went back to that one boy, started hitting him some more.

DAVIS: Now when you say the one boy, is that the one that had his penis cut.
MISSKELLEY: Uhm.. (yes).

DAVIS: So Jason goes back to him, what's he doing to him when he goes back to'm.
MISSKELLEY: He just started hitting in the face and head.

DAVIS: What are you doing at that point? You see him go back he's hitting the boy in the face what are you doing?
MISSKELLEY: I never stopped what I was doing.

DAVIS: What about the boy that you'd been hitting on. What's he doing at that point?
MISSKELLEY: Nothing. He's unconscious.

DAVIS: Unconscious. Were you still holding on to him.
MISSKELLEY: Yea.

DAVIS: What did you, how did you have him held?
MISSKELLEY: By the hands.

DAVIS: And you see Jason go back to the other boy. What's, describe to me what Damien's doing at this point.

STIDHAM: Run the end of it out here so that we know that the transcriber won't record it. That's the one that Brent made at the beginning. Ok we gonna turn the tape over here.

END OF FIRST SIDE OF TAPE

DAVIS: Ok, Jessie tole me that Jason came over to you and then went back to the boy that had been castrated and start hitting him in the face. What was Damien doing at this point?
MISSKELLEY: He was still holding that, still messing with them boys, that boys penis.

DAVIS: Ok. And you said that you had, that your b, the boy that you had was unconscious and then what happened next, what you remember happening next?
MISSKELLEY: I, I let him go, after that I let him go and Damien come and got him. So I kept on hanging on to'm and start hitting him some more.

DAVIS: The, were the other two (2) boys still conscious. You said the one you had was unconscious, were the other two (2) boys still conscious at that point?
MISSKELLEY: Well the one who got castrated he wasn't moving that much no more. I figured you know he might be dead or whatever. I really didn't know.

DAVIS: What happens next you said you, Damien's still got the other one, Jason's got one and you got one. What happens next?
MISSKELLEY: Damien was messing the one little boy's penis.

CALVIN: Jessie, you need to speak up a little bit.

DAVIS: When you say he was messing with one of the boy's penis' what do you mean? What was he doing?
MISSKELLEY: pulling on it.

DAVIS: Ok. Do you remember which boy that was?
MISSKELLEY: No

DAVIS: Ok. Now what happens next, you said that Damien was pullin on one of the boys penis'. What happens next?
MISSKELLEY: We tied'm up.

DAVIS: Ok. Now you said before when the police asked you in their statement and asked you what they were tied up with. And you said they were tied up with rope. Ah..
MISSKELLEY: I made that up.

DAVIS: Why?
MISSKELLEY: Tied to get off, you know get'm off track.

DAVIS: Who tied'm up?
MISSKELLEY: Damien and Jason.

DAVIS: Did you pull, did you pull the strings out of their shoes?
MISSKELLEY: In one, in one of'm.

DAVIS: Ok.
MISSKELLEY: But the rest I just, I just just whoever pulled'm out.

DAVIS: Were Damien and Jason taking the strings out of the shoes too or were you doing that?
MISSKELLEY: I was doing that.

DAVIS: Ok. And when you'd get the strings out you'd hand'm to the other two.
MISSKELLEY: Uhm.. (yes)

DAVIS: Ok. And did you actually tie any of the knots as far as tying any of the boys up?
MISSKELLEY: No.

DAVIS: Ok. Were they, did they have their clothes on or did they have their clothes off when they got tied up?
MISSKELLEY: The had'm off.

DAVIS: And were they conscious when they were getting tied up?
MISSKELLEY: They wasn't moving no more.

DAVIS: Ok. What about could you tell if they were. Were they saying anything or were they?
MISSKELLEY: They weren't saying nothing. Then when they threw'n in the water, I don't remember what about. One of'm was moving.

DAVIS: You say moving. Do you remember which one it was that was moving when they were thrown in the water?
MISSKELLEY: No.

DAVIS: Ok. When you say moving, what do you mean?
MISSKELLEY: Moving around.

DAVIS: Ok. Who threw'm in the water?
MISSKELLEY: Damien and Jason.

DAVIS: Ok. Now were you there when that happened?
MISSKELLEY: I was getting ready to leave.

DAVIS: Ok. Why were you getting ready to leave?
MISSKELLEY: Cause I was going to wrestling.

DAVIS: And was there any other reason you were getting ready to leave?
MISSKELLEY: Well after what I seen Jason do to that one boy, I couldn't do nothing else.

DAVIS: Now, did you all leave together?
MISSKELLEY: No, I left before them.

DAVIS: Which was did you leave? How did you get out of the woods?
MISSKELLEY: I went up there by overpass went around.

DAVIS: When you left the woods did you head towards the Interstate or back towards the other direction?
MISSKELLEY: Toward the Interstate.

DAVIS: Ok. Did, did you have any, anything with you when you left the woods? Were you still carrying...
MISSKELLEY: The Whiskey bottle.

DAVIS: Was it empty or have any in it.
MISSKELLEY: It still had some in it.

DAVIS: You said earlier that you drank to the point that you were sick. Did you get sick that night?
MISSKELLEY: Going home.

DAVIS: Where?

---------: (back ground voices)

DAVIS: Ok. We turned the tape over at least one of the tapes over. Ah, Jessie you said that you got sick going home that night. Were you sick at your stomach?
MISSKELLEY: Uhm.. (yes).

DAVIS: Throwing up.
MISSKELLEY: Drunk till I get sick.

DAVIS: Ok. Remember where you were when you throw up ?
MISSKELLEY: By the over pass.

DAVIS: Ok. What'd you do with your bottle?
MISSKELLEY: I busted it.

DAVIS: Ok. Where at?
MISSKELLEY: On the side of a ..ah.. like a slope going down over the overpass.

_______: Where you been?

DAVIS: Where goes over one of the Interstate.
MISSKELLEY: Yea, like coming from, ah.. I think its from Little Rock that goes under the, you know, there's a bridge goes toward Memphis.

DAVIS: And that would've been Evan Williams?
MISSKELLEY: Uhm.. (yes).

DAVIS: Ok. When you left thw woods and went back were Damien and Jason are still in the woods when you left ?
MISSKELLEY: There were still there when I left.

DAVIS: Ok. Now, what was it as far as daylight or dark. What was it when you left the woods.
MISSKELLEY: I bout dark, close to dark. It was still light outside

DAVIS: Ok. It was getting dark?
DAVIS: And what did you do then?
MISSKELLEY: I went to my house, got my then went to Johnny's

DAVIS: went wrestling. Was it dark when you left to go wrestling ?
MISSKELLEY: Uhm.. (yes).

DAVIS: Ok.
MISSKELLEY: We usualyy leave about 8.

DAVIS: But on that night was it already dark when you got ready to leave?
MISSKELLEY: Uhm...(yes)

DAVIS: Ok.
MISSKELLEY: usually he say we just sit there and sit there get ready go.

DAVIS: Is everything you told me true ?
MISSKELLEY: Yes, sir.

DAVIS: Is there parts of what happened that night that are hard for you to remember?
MISSKELLEY: Parts, what do you mean?

DAVIS: I mean are there things that happened that night it is hard or difficult for you to remember? Let me see of I can make you understand. Are there events that took place that night, things that happened that you, that it is somewhat difficult to remember
MISSKELLEY: I can't remember.

DAVIS: Were you there when the three (3) boys were killed?
MISSKELLEY: Yes, I was there.

DAVIS: I don't have any further.

CALVIN: When you turn that tape over, I'd like to ask a question if I might. Ah..when they threw them in the water were any of'm kicking or screaming or anything or were they all unconscious or do you know?
MISSKELLEY: They weren't hollering, they was just, one of'm was just moving.

CALVIN: Moving. When you say moving, how was he moving?
MISSKELLEY: He was wiggling like a worm or something like that.

CALVIN: Is this the one that was castrated or do you remember?
MISSKELLEY: I don't remember, it's just one of'm all I remember.

CALVIN: Ok. Who through them in the water?
MISSKELLEY: Damien and Jason.

CALVIN: And did they push'm down, submerge'm, you know, weight them down or just throw'm in. Or do you know?
MISSKELLEY: I don't know.

CALVIN: But you stood, standing there watching'm.
MISSKELLEY: I seen'm put them in the water but I don't know what they did after I left.

CALVIN: In other words you left before they did?
MISSKELLEY: Right.

CALVIN: And after it was over did you all have any conversations about it, the three (3) of you?
MISSKELLEY: No. When I seen Damien and Jason on the 14th. They just looked at me they didn't say nothing.

CALVIN: But you all never did have any discussions about?
MISSKELLEY: Uhn.. (no) I didn't want to say nothing else to'm when they came around and seen me.

CALVIN: And that night you say that he used a switch blade knife.
MISSKELLEY: It was a lock.

CALVIN: A lock blade, the kind that you fold up.
MISSKELLEY: Yea and it's got a little button on it at the end of it.

CALVIN: How long was it, do you know?
MISSKELLEY: Pretty long I guess.

CALVIN: Have you seen it since?
MISSKELLEY: No.

CALVIN: But you know it belonged to ..ah..
MISSKELLEY: Jason.

CALVIN: Jason. Have you seen it before?
MISSKELLEY: Yea, at his house. He's got all kinds of knifes.

STIDHAM: Jessie, listen to me. For the purpose of the tape this is Dan Stidham. Ah.. prior to making this statement you refused to talk to Mr. Crow and I is that correct?
MISSKELLEY: Yes, I did.

STIDHAM: You didn't want to talk to us?
MISSKELLEY: Nope

STIDHAM: And again we advised you not to make this statement? Is that correct?
MISSKELLEY: Yes

STIDHAM: Uhm.....For the purpose of this tape I would like to find out..inaudible..Judge Burnett and everyone else thinks it's true. Misskelley is purgering himself. Do you have an opinion Mr. Crow?

CROW: I have a very strong opinion that he is purgering himself.

STIDHAM: We feel obligated to inform the court, as officers of the court, ethically we feel that..inaudible..make that for the record of this statement. inaudible

CALVIN: ...inaudible....agreed with him.

DAVIS: Jesse I asked you earlier about what you just told me about the events that took place the night of May 5. Is that, what you told me the truth?
MISSKELLEY: Yes, sir.

DAVIS: Ok. And if I asked you to testify to that in Court, would you and could you testify truthfully to those same things?
ISSKELLEY: Yes, sir.

DAVIS: That would conclude this statement at 8:45 on February 17, 1994.

Repost from http://www.callahan.8k.com

San Francisco Art Exhibit

2006-08-17T18:40:00.000-07:00

SAN FRANCISCO ART EXHIBIT
August 15, 2006

UPDATE: Wednesday, July 12th at 6:00pm, Brad Brooks will be talking about the upcoming exhibit and his September 8th performance. Tune in at Towerpod.com.

A Skeleton Key Production:

Space Gallery
1141 Polk Street
San Francisco, CA 94109
(415) 377-3325

Gallery Hours:
Tuesday - Saturday: 7:00pm-
Wednesday: 12:00pm - 6:00pm

August 15th - September 12th

There will be live entertainment on Friday and Saturday nights (starting at 7:00pm, unless otherwise noted) for this month long exhibit. Suggested donation is $5.00, please.

Friday, August 18th
Liz Ross
Che - (Carl Horne of Zen Guerilla)
John C. (comedian)
Paul Manousos
Robert Szeles (Kiss the Girl)

Saturday, August 19th
Bret Hagen (Electric Boogie Dawgz)
Dave Dalton "the pastor" (Cell Block 5)
Mykee (Ill Gotten Gainz)
Piss Pissedoffherson (The Devils Own)

Friday, August 25th
Exoneree Speaker: Chol Soo Lee (1983)
[Thanks to deathpenalty.org]
Chol Soo Lee was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole. After suggestive procedures by police and prosecutors, which even included hypnotizing one witness, three witnesses identified Lee in a police line-up. Based on this eyewitness testimony, Lee was convicted and sentenced. In 1977, during a large prison yard brawl, Lee killed another inmate in self-defense. Because he was serving a life sentence for murder, Lee was sentenced to death. A supportive movement of Korean-Americans and other Asian Americans formed in response to publicity about the case. They filed a successful writ of habeas corpus overturning Lee’s first murder conviction. The second conviction and death sentence were then vacated. He was given time served for the 2nd murder and released in 1983 after spending ten years in prison, eight of them spent in the solitary confinement on death row. It is important to note that while Lee was in fact guilty of killing another inmate (in self-defense) while in prison, the crime could never have occurred had he not been wrongfully convicted in the first place.
Will Franken (comedian)
Lady Monster (spoken word)
Salvatore Amore (the WORLD's greatest romantic poet)
William Taylor, Jr.

Saturday, August 26th
Lady Monster (spoken word)
Will Franken (comedian)
Josh Fix
Don Miggs
Special Guest Speaker:
Lance Lindsey, Exec. Director of Death Penalty Focus

Friday, September 1st
Melinda Adams (spoken word)
Roadside Celebrity
Dave Dalton "the pastor" (Cell Block 5)
Castles In Spain
Sherilyn Connelly (spoken word)

Saturday, September 2nd
GFE
Dodo Bird (Meric Long)
Sherilyn Connelly (spoken word)

Friday, September 8th
Angela Darling
Face on Straight
Fred
Austin Willacy
Brad Brooks

Saturday, September 9th
Jeffrey Luck Lukas
Butch Berry
Dame Satan
Special Guest Speaker:
Matt Gonzalez, former San Francisco Supervisor

Other artists that will be participating (dates TBA):

Mary Lonergan
Tommy Guerrero

And more to come! I will have a calendar together soon with the dates everyone will be performing.

This exhibit is a WM3 exhibit. Damien Echols created pieces for the May 2006 SKELETON KEY exhibit which are still available. Folks will be able to purchase pieces by:

Damien Echols

Norman Reedus
As an actor, photographer, filmmaker and painter, his work encompasses many different mediums. Beginning as a fine artist, He exhibited in both solo and group shows in Los Angeles and New York before branching out into a secondary career as an actor. Accidentally discovered at a party, he was dared by friends to pursue the opportunity and was soon cast in the play "Maps for Drowners" at Los Angeles’ Tiffany Theater. Film roles in "8mm," "Mimic," "Six Ways to Sunday," and "The Boondock Saints" quickly followed. BigBaldHead is his new production company. He lives in New York City with his son, Mingus Lucien Reedus.

Mick Rock
Mick Rock is “The Man Who Shot The 70s”, the inimitable rock photographer who launched his career with an unknown David Bowie in 1972, following his rise and decent with Ziggy Stardust, collecting Iggy Pop’s Raw Power, the Ramones’ End of the Century, Lou Reed’s Transformer, Queen’s Queen II and many infamous Sex Pistols’ shots. His retrospective at Tokyo’s Metropolitan Museum of Photography in 2003 was hailed as “one of the most exciting exhibitions of pop culture imagery to ever reach these shores”. Mick has a new book, GLAM! and continues working with artists, including the yeah yeah yeahs, the Killers, Queens Of the Stone Age, Fat Joe, Jimmy Fallon and The Ravonettes.
Personal Statement: "I caught one of the documentaries awhile ago on HBO it seems to me these three guys were railroaded because they looked strange to their community...this is supposed to be the land of the free. They need help and I'm more than happy to give what I can to get the word out and Damien Echols is clearly an artist of talent."

Ioannis
Ioannis was born in Athens, Greece. He is the cover artist of such classic bands as The Allman Brothers, Deep Purple, King Crimson, Blue Oyster Cult, Styx, Bon Jovi, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Fates Warning, UFO, Biohazard, and more. In 2001 he formed Dangerous Age Graphics to market his personal artwork, exhibits, posters, prints, videos, merchandising and stage design.

Chad Robertson
Chad Robertson, LA painter and West Memphis Three supporter. “With my paintings I am attempting to show my subjects' inner intentions, emotions, and motivations. The paintings have an emotional dialogue with the painted subject and viewer stripped of the conscious and unconscious facades.”

Jayne County
“Man enough to be a woman.” Singer, songwriter, actor, playwright, artist – punk legend. Beginning as Wayne County, finding fame singing with the group Electric Chairs, Jayne continues to perform all over the world and now creates incredible pen and ink drawings. What can’t she do?

Floria Sigsmondi
Her multi-disciplinary work encompasses film, video, photography and installations. Creating a hyper-surrealism based on the figure, using images derived from hallucinatory dream states. Born in Italy, emigrating to Canada, she now works with The White Stripes, David Bowie, The Cure, Leonard Cohen, Marilyn Manson & Bjork. Her photographs, film and sculpture installations have been exhibited in New York, Paris, Toronto, Rome, Los Angeles, Mexico City, London, Italy, Germany, Sweden and Copenhagen. She has a new book of photography, IMMUNE.

Jonathan Richman (The Modern Lovers)

John Suhay
Artist in residence at Sangre de Cristo Arts and Conference Center in Pueblo, Colorado at 83, he continues photographing various scenes and landscapes in Pueblo. Freed from commercial restraints, Suhay's photographs are rough, edgy, immediate -- and powerful. He has an astonishing archive of more than 200,000 images, most created in and around Pueblo over the last half century. Some was the routine commercial work that had supported Suhay since he became a full-time photographer in 1964. Suhay has never taken a photography class or had any formal instruction. "No, I just looked at magazines ... belonged to a camera club, and listened to all that stuff -- what a bunch of bullshit!"

Grove Pashley
Grove Pashley is a Los Angeles based photographer whose work has been seen everywhere over the past decade - from the Focus On Aids Auctions in Los Angeles to the one sheet movie posters and video covers you have seen promoting countless popular films.

Grove has worked directly with many leading design firms as well as a number of major motion pictures studios including Paramount, Universal, Disney, Columbia, Miramax, MGM, Warner Bros, Fox, ABC and HBO. Grove worked on such films as Spiderman, Tomb Raider, Minority Report, Vanilla Sky, Fight Club, Run Away Bride, Mr. Deeds, October Sky, 13th Floor, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Man on the Moon to name a few as well as several Prime Time Television shows as X- Files and Temptation island.

Grove has photographed a variety of notable actors and musicians including Ozzy Osbourne and family, Thora Birch, Randy Travis, Tom Sizemore, Jenny McCarthy, Donnie Wahlberg, Jennifer Tilly, Bill Paxton, Lucas Haas, Luke Perry, Billy Barty, Henry Winkler, Linda Cardellini, Laurie Holden, Anthony LaPaglia, Rob Marrow, Doug Hutchison, Steven Bauer and Train. Many of these photos and many other celebrites can be found here on this web site.

Another stereotype that Grove is interested in dispelling has resulted in one of the most profound experiences of his life. Several years ago he became interested in a murder case which occurred in Arkansas. His interest began after having photographed Damien Echols who is now on Death Row...

Through his research, Grove has come to realize that the three young men who were imprisoned for the murders were falsely convicted. More information about this case can be found on Grove's other web site: www.wm3.org.

"Photographing these betrayed young men in prison has taken me into a place that I never expected to be. The photographs that I took on death row at Tucker Maximum Security Prison in Arkansas are definitely the most moving and disturbing work I've ever done."

ALL PROCEEDS go to the WM3 Defense Fund.

If you need more information or have any questions, please contact Anje at velaentertainment@yahoo.com.

For more news on events go to: www.wm3.org

Letter from Lorri Davis & Damien Echols

2006-08-17T06:56:00.000-07:00

Respost from www.wm3.org

Dear Friends and Supporters:

Here's sending many, many thanks to those of you reading this note. It means you are interested in this case, and that's what we're trying to do, raise interest and awareness.

It also means you may be willing to donate to the defense, which would be a huge help to us. We're currently getting important work done in the fields of pathology, forensics and investigation, thanks to many of you, but we have a lot of work to do.

Damien's is the only case being reviewed in state and federal court at present, but donated funds are going to the efforts to appeal Jason and Jessie's cases as well. All three cases benefit directly from the defense fund.

We are currently awaiting results from DNA testing, which is a lengthy process. Progress is being made, however, and defense funds will also help in completing that work.

It's amazing how much support we receive from around the world, and we are grateful. Not a day goes by that Damien and I aren't touched by someone's note of kindness, or the feeling that we aren't alone in our fight for justice.

Thanks to all of you out there, for your letters, your generosity, your thoughts - your support. We wouldn't be where we are now without your help.

Most sincerely,
Lorri Davis

Please make your check or money order payable to:

Damien Echols Defense Fund
PO Box 1216
Little Rock, AR 72203

Or use PAYPAL! It's easy, free and allows you to use your credit card. We suggest that International Supporters use this option. Click this link to find out more. Please use LDavis11@hotmail.com as the "recipient" address.

Free the West Memphis Three

2006-08-17T06:47:00.000-07:00

Repost from www.wm3.org

Shortly after three eight-year-old boys were found mutilated and murdered in West Memphis, Arkansas, local newspapers stated the killers had been caught. The police assured the public that the three teenagers in custody were definitely responsible for these horrible crimes. Evidence?

The same police officers coerced an error-filled confession from Jessie Misskelley Jr., who is mentally handicapped. They subjected him to 12 hours of questioning without counsel or parental consent, audio-taping only two fragments totaling 46 minutes. Jessie recanted it that evening, but it was too late; Misskelley, Jason Baldwin and Damien Echols were all arrested on June 3, 1993, and convicted of murder in early 1994.

Although there was no physical evidence, murder weapon, motive, or connection to the victims, the prosecution pathetically resorted to presenting black hair and clothing, heavy metal t-shirts, and Stephen King novels as proof that the boys were sacrificed in a satanic cult ritual. Unfathomably, Echols was sentenced to death, Baldwin received life without parole, and Misskelley got life plus 40.

For over 13 years, The West Memphis Three have been imprisoned for crimes they didn�t commit. Echols waits in solitary confinement for the lethal injection our tax dollars will pay for. They were all condemned by their poverty, incompetent defense, satanic panic and a rush to judgment.