Update on “tipsters”
UPDATE from article below: Christian Sisk is still in prison with a scheduled release date of Jan. 30, 2016. Gott is apparently out of prison.
WM3 ‘tipsters’ doing time
Under legal cloud at time of Echols’ documentary
By Gary Meece
West Memphis Evening Times
6/18/13
The two tipsters presenting “new evidence” in last year’s “West of Memphis” documentary now are doing time in the Arkansas penitentiary system.
Baxter County residents Cody Curtis Gott and Christian Blake Sisk were former friends of Terry Hobbs’ nephew, Mike Hobbs Jr. They told about an alleged “Hobbs Family Secret” in the documentary. Mike Hobbs, Mike Hobbs Jr.’s father, says Gott and Sisk made up the whole story as a form of retaliation against his son.
Gott and Sisk claimed that Mike Hobbs Jr. told them that his uncle Terry was involved in the murders of his stepson, Stevie Branch, and two of the 8-year-old’s friends. Sisk further claimed that he and Hobbs Jr., while at the top of the stairs, eavesdropped on an incriminating conversation in the Hobbs basement between the Hobbs brothers, Mike and Terry.
Stevie Branch, Michael Moore and Christopher Byers were killed on May 5, 1993, in West Memphis; their bodies, bound and showing marks of mutilation and beating, were found in a muddy ditch near the service road the next day. Terry Hobbs has never been a suspect in the case and consistently has denied any involvement in the murders.
At the time of the movie interviews, Gott and Sisk were on probation after pleading guilty to the February 2010 burglary of Mountain Home High School. Sisk, 21, of Mountain Home was sentenced to 10 years in the Arkansas Department of Corrections on May 2 after pleading guilty to four cases pending against him, including a charge stemming from a residential burglary March 21. Sisk is in the North Central Unit at Calico Rock. He was sentenced to six years for commercial burglary, probation revocation, 10 years for commercial burglary, six years for battery in the second degree and five years for use of a communications device, to be served concurrently.
In the March burglary, a Mountain Home man told police he was dragged out of his bed and beaten during a home burglary by Sisk and another man, Jacob Edward Caple, also arrested and charged in the case.
The other Mountain Home tipster, Cody Curtis Gott, was sentenced to seven years in the Arkansas Department of Corrections on May 2 on charges of commercial burglary and probation revocation. He currently is in the Tucker unit.
Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley Jr. and Jason Baldwin, teens living in local trailer parks at the time of the killings, were convicted of the murders in 1994 and were released from prison in 2011 in a special plea deal in which they pleaded guilty and were released on suspended sentence. The case has been the subject of four movie documentaries (Echols helped produce “West of Memphis”), and the so-called West Memphis 3 have received extensive support from music and film personalities.
The walker in black (greatest hits)
NOTE: Echols has since moved to New York City.
Salem getting to know the walker in black
West Memphis, Mass. Town share notoriety
By Gary Meece
West Memphis Evening Times
6/26/13
Crittenden County residents aren’t likely to see a copy of Boston Magazine, but many would recognize the familiar sight described in the lead of a story in the magazine:
“He began to walk the moment he got to town, in the morning, at night, when he was anxious or bored or simply awake, through the rain and later the snow, when the city felt still and enchanted. Five months in, he still couldn’t believe he lived in Salem, the place he’d pined for ever since he was a kid obsessed with Halloween and falling leaves. He got a dog to walk with and named her Pumpkin. In his heavy black leather jacket and sunglasses, he wandered all around town, quietly but purposefully, like a ghost looking for something to haunt.”
Self-described West Memphis bogeyman Damien Echols doesn’t live here anymore but the obsessive habits of the weird teen who tromped everywhere while wrapped in a black trenchcoat live on.
The convicted child killer moved to Salem, Mass., notes the article by Alyssa Giacobbe, because he was fascinated with its history, most notably the witch trials of colonial days, echoing Echols’ own claims that he was the victim of a literal witchhunt.
Echols is the focus of intense community interest, some of it welcoming, in tolerant and tourism-friendly Salem. Echols and jailhouse bride Lorri Davis have made some friends, the article notes; they traded Christmas gifts with one couple — Echols and Davis getting a “box of black,” consisting of all-black household items such as black paper towels, while giving their new friends a bat skeleton mounted on black wood and framed in glass.
Some of the greetings were not so welcoming. The first posting about Echols on the well-read community Web board, Salemweb.com, was “Is a Child Murderer Living in Salem?” Indeed, Echols now has his own special moderated topic area. Go to
http://www.salemweb.com/discus/messages/44821/44821.html?1372079649
Among those most wary of Echols, who was convicted of killing three little boys and who opted to plead guilty in return for freedom rather than push for a new trial, is Michael Blatty, son of William Peter Blatty, the author of “The Exorcist.”
Blatty lives in downtown Salem and sees Echols around town, much to his chagrin.
“It would be wonderful if Salem welcomed to town an innocent guy who’d been wrongly imprisoned,” Blatty is quoted as saying, “but he is not that guy.”
Blatty’s most recent post is “Just HOW dumb is Echols/Hyde?” and there are others such as “Damien Echols’s friend says he raped 8-year-old boys before killing…” Some have taken to heart the warning in a letter to the Salem News from Todd Moore: “In the eyes of the law, he is a child killer. It is shameful for anyone to support this monster…. I believe you have a very dangerous individual in your city. Please be cautious. He certainly shouldn’t be celebrated.” Moore is the father of Michael Moore, who was killed along with his friends Stevie Branch and Christopher Byers in a wooded area near the service road in West Memphis on May 5, 1993, by Echols, Jessie Misskelley Jr. and Jason Baldwin.
The article (http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/article/2013/06/25/damien-echols-salem/) also notes that Echols’ blatant celebration of his celebrity is offensive to Blatty. “If he had moved to Salem and I’d heard he was living quietly and avoiding press, just trying to make a new life, I’d have left the guy alone,” Blatty is quoted as saying. “But he hasn’t.”
The article says Davis is primarily occupied with managing Echols’ public relations and marketing while Echols, when he’s not giving talks at a college or talking to reporters, runs a “Hermetic Reiki” meditation business, sells T-shirts and Hermetic Reiki-infused stones online (just $22), gets tattoos and walks around town. As of May 31, Echols’ Web site notes: “The Hermetic Reiki center is now up and running, and Damien is taking appointments. You can book an hour long reiki session with Damien for $130.” For $200 and perhaps two hours of your time, Echols will hand out “an official certificate indicating that you are a Level 1 Hermetic Reiki practitioner.” Hermetic Reiki is a form of energy healing that Echols learned in prison.
Echols was collecting Social Security payments for mental illness at the time of the killings after a series of hospitalizations for violent acting out. Despite all his recent good fortune, he apparently still lives in a fragile mental state. The article quotes Davis: “He still doesn’t have the reserves that most of us have.”
Oh, by the way, they took their adopted dog back to the shelter. Apparently Pumpkin had trouble going to sleep.
Worth remembering
From Sept. 6, 2013, Evening Times blog
UCA unbending on #DamienEchols despite objections of #WM3 victim’s dad
1
By Gary Meece
Todd Moore, father of one of three West Memphis boys murdered in 1993, last month made University of Central Arkansas leaders aware of his objections to the school inviting one of his son’s killers to be an Artist in Residence.
University President Tom Courtway and John Vanderslice, an associate professor in creative writing, heard from Moore concerning the Nov. 11 appearance of Damien Echols on the campus.
Echols and his wife, Lorri Davis, are scheduled to appear jointly, with Echols reading from his book and teaching a creative writing mini-class.
Echols was one of three local teenagers convicted in 1994 of the murders of Stevie Branch, Michael Moore and Christopher Byers in a wooded area off the service road in West Memphis. The three Weaver Elementary students were all 8 years old. Echols, a high school dropout who was drawing Social Security benefits for mental illness at the time of the killings, spent 18 years in prison under a death sentence before his defense team engineered a deal with Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington that allowed Echols, Jessie Misskelley Jr. and Jason Baldwin to walk free after pleading guilty.
Echols, who styled himself as a Wiccan at the time of the trial, presently resides in Salem, Mass., where he runs a “Hermetic Reiki” “health clinic” and sells occult paraphernalia over the Internet.
The case drew the attention of music and film celebrities after a series of HBO documentaries. The fifth movie about the West Memphis 3 case, a dramatized version of the story, debuts this Sunday at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Moore, who lives in West Memphis, has issued public statements on several occasions decrying what he considers to be false media depictions of the case.
After his e-mails to UCA, Moore received this response from Courtway:
Dear Mr. Moore:
I read your e-mail a couple of times and I apologize for the delay in responding. You are entitled to a response from me concerning this matter. Before I explain it, I must say that I cannot imagine the heartache and emptiness you must feel. As the father of two sons, two step-sons and two granddaughters, I simply cannot imagine it. It is the worst thing a parent can face.
With regard to this matter, through our College of Fine Arts and Communication, we have for many years had an Artist in Residence program. Artists of all kinds are recommended by UCA faculty members for this short program, and then the dean and associate dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communication select the particular artist. In this case, Damien Echols was nominated by a member of the faculty, and after reviewing all of the recommendations, he was selected by the two officials.
Even if I do not agree with this selection, or any other invitation involving an academic matter, I do not believe that it is my role as president to intervene in what are academic decisions.
Sincerely,
Tom Courtway, President
University of Central Arkansas
Moore received this response from Dr. Vanderslice:
Dear Mr. Moore,
Thank you for your email. Mr. Echols is being invited as a writer to speak about writing to both the public (in a large group format) and to our students (in a smaller session). The idea to invite him came from a Writing Department faculty member who is familiar with Mr. Echols’s writing. I served on the committee that recommended to the Dean of the College of Fine Arts what writers to invite for this academic year, but I was not responsible for making the arrangements with Mr. Echols and his agent. For some reason, I am being identifiied as the sponsor of his visit merely because I provided the Arkansas Times with some basic information on dates and times. That said, I support our department’s decision and the College of Fine Art’s decision to bring Mr. Echols to campus. And I do not anticipate that the decision will be reversed. Our students read and hear countless writers over the course of a year, and we teach them to read and listen critically. Mr. Echols is just one of many writers they will encounter this year. You need not fear he will affect them any more deeply than any other writer they experience. Our students are mature, savvy people. And Mr. Echols certainly will not be proselytizing about witchcraft. If we suspected that was true we would never have invited him in the first place.
Best,
John Vanderslice
Associate Professor
Department of Writing
University of Central Arkansas
Moore said he considers their e-mail responses “heartless.”
Lest we forget …
Despite his criminal history
From June 26, 2013, Evening Times
By Gary Meece
While a convicted rapist’s release worksheet noted that he had eight supporters backing his release earlier this month, the two public officials who made official comments were adamantly against his release by the state Parole Board.
West Memphis 3 tipster Bennie David Guy was paroled out by the Arkansas Parole Board after serving 17 years of a 40-year sentence despite objections from Crittenden County officials.
In his note to Institutional Release Services, which was seeking recommendations concerning Guy’s potential parole, Tommy Trammel, chief deputy for the Crittenden County Sheriff’s Department at the County Jail, wrote: “object due to criminal history.”
In his response on the form, Circuit Judge Victor Hill had even stronger words concerning Guy: “I recommend that this inmate serve every minute of his sentence.”
Names of supporters were not made public. The Parole Board does not release the names of citizens (other than public officials) who comment for or against the potential parole of an inmate.
Guy now is languishing in a East Texas jail.
Guy, a former resident of Earle, went from the state prison system’s Ouachita River Correctional Unit directly to the Gregg County Jail; besides his Arkansas charges, Guy was sentenced to 40 years in Texas in July 1996 on a charge of sexual assault by a habitual offender and was serving that term concurrently while in Arkansas.
Concerning Guy’s status in Texas, “I am unable to give you any information about the above referenced case. I can confirm that he was booked into the Gregg County jail on June 11, 2013. There are no hearings set at this time,” Terri Shepherd, court administrator for the 124th District Court, said in an e-mail response to a query.
Officials at the Gregg County District Attorney’s office said Monday afternoon that they were awaiting paperwork to determine the next stage in handling Guy’s case and no paperwork had been received yet. Guy’s appeal of his case on various legal grounds to U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas was denied in 2009.
In April, Ken Swindle, an attorney representing the mother of one of the victims, presented new allegations in the 20-year-old murders of three West Memphis 8-year-olds by relying on sworn statements from Guy and another convicted Crittenden County rapist; both were then serving time in the Cummins Unit of the Arkansas prison system.
Billy Wayne Stewart and Guy alleged that Terry Hobbs, David Jacoby, L.G. Hollingsworth and Buddy Lucas killed Christopher Byers, Michael Moore and Stevie Branch on May 5, 1993, after the boys stumbled upon them getting high in the woods near the service road in West Memphis. Neither statement mentioned Stewart’s or Guy’s circumstances or extensive criminal histories.
Whatever the dispensation of his case in Texas, Guy is under supervised probation according to the Arkansas legal system until July 24, 2035.
Guy’s case came under scrutiny prior to his involvement in the West Memphis 3 case, as he had sought parole after learning that DNA collected after the rape was not a conclusive match to his DNA; the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled that the lack of DNA evidence did not exonerate him in the case.
He had gotten support from the activist group the Innocence Project but had failed in various appeals to the courts.
Terry Hobbs, stepfather to Stevie Branch, has denied the allegations made by Guy and Stewart, as has Jacoby, a friend who helped Hobbs search for the boys on May 5, 1993.
Hollingsworth died in a traffic accident in 2001.
The sworn statements by Guy and Stewart were based on alleged admissions from Buddy Lucas. Because of his friendship with Jessie Misskelley Jr., Lucas was interrogated extensively in the 1993 investigation but never has been a suspect in the case.
Misskelley, Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin, teens living in local trailer parks at the time of the killings, were convicted of the murders in 1994 and were released from prison in 2011 in a special plea deal in which they were released on suspended sentences in exchange for guilty pleas. The case has been the subject of four movie documentaries, and the so-called West Memphis 3 have received extensive support from music and film personalities. Baldwin, who lives in Seattle, has become an activist working with the Innocence Project, and has cofounded his own group, Proclaim Justice Inc., a nonprofit organization currently based in Lakeway, Texas, near Austin. Its Web site states it is “a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation dedicated to winning freedom for inmates who are factually innocent of the crimes for which they were convicted.” The organization continues to attempt to stir up public support for the WM3.
Guy, who was 53 when his allegations came to light this spring, was serving a sentence of 40 years issued on Aug. 5, 1996, for rape – habitual offender, from Crittenden County. He had pleaded guilty to the rape of an 11-year-old girl in a motel room on May 27, 1995; he had been on probation at the time of the offense. He also had been sentenced to six years in 1997 for escape, second degree, and had a prior conviction for robbery, for which he was given a two-year sentence in 1994.
Stewart, 49, continues to serve a total time of 70 years on a rape sentence handed down in 2011. He has a string of other felony convictions dating back to 1983.
Last week, the Evening Times reported that two other men making allegations against Terry Hobbs are now in prison. Tipsters Christian Blake Sisk and Cody Curtis Gott appeared in last year’s “West of Memphis,” which was produced by Damien Echols.
Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington has said he believes Echols, Misskelley and Baldwin are guilty and he has seen no evidence to convince him otherwise.
“Life after Death” review on Amazon is aging well
1.0 out of 5 stars Mess of a memoir from a coldblooded killer, October 5, 2012
By Gary Meece
This review is from: Life After Death (Hardcover)
Despite Damien Echols’ continued attempts to whitewash the record, anyone truly familiar with the case (not the ignorant swarm of supporters who treat this monster like a pop star) will find not much new here. Eighteen years in prison didn’t rehabilitate this whining punk. “Icky” seems to have learned nothing of value, though he has honed his skills at dissembling and manipulation. No doubt that his childhood was horrible, as were his adolescence and adulthood (undoubtedly his old age will be miserable). The story that he was just a poor lovesick misunderstood alienated teenager will resonant with the 90 percent of us who were poor lovesick misunderstood teenagers, unless you know that this little weirdo believed that he could transform himself into a living god by drinking blood. His words, not mine. If the local police were out after him because he wore black and listened to heavy metal, they had no end of other suspects … even in “backward” Crittenden County, Arkansas. If it was a witch hunt, the police had other teenaged witches they could have rounded up; instead, those occultists came in, talked to the police, were thanked for their cooperation and promptly released. Mental health professionals had already pegged Echols as someone who had the potential to become “another Manson or Bundy” prior to May 5, 1993. He had means and motive, had no credible alibi, was spotted near the scene wearing muddy clothes, failed a lie detector test, was fingered by one of his cohorts and played mind games with police, prosecutors and the children’s parents from the very start. “I want to go where the monsters go,” and there he went. Unfortunately they let him out. Yes, the florid flights of fancy, the lip-smacking fascination with blood, the toxic persona, morbid sensibilities, contempt for the general run of humanity and obsessive spiritual confusion are all there in the psychiatric and court records. Nothing new here. The boy was nuts and he was mean, and three little boys died at his hands, and he was cagy enough to claim, as always, to be the victim rather than the instigator of his misery. He still sounds profoundly disturbed — surprise surprise. The final chapter in his story hasn’t been written, sad to stay. Stay tuned for the sequel of the “West Memphis Boogie Man.”
Another old movie review — “Nebraska”
“Nebraska”
From the Evening Times blog
By Gary Meece
“Nebraska” manages to confound the expectations set up for a black-and-white movie about the Midwestern winter road trip of a cantankerous old crank and his dutiful son.
Neither sentimental nor depressing, the latest film from director Alexander Payne is a true comedy in the classic sense, and it delivers some pretty good chuckles along the way.
The premise is that Woody Grant (take note of the allusion to “American Gothic” painter Grant Wood and perhaps Woody Guthrie as well) gets one of those letters in the mail announcing he has won $1 million and decides he wants to travel from home in Billings, Mont., to Lincoln, Neb., and collect his winnings.
Since Woody (played in his trademark prickly old coot style by Bruce Dern) doesn’t drive anymore, son David (Will Forte) reluctantly agrees to take some time off from his sales job at the stereo store and drive the old man to Nebraska.
Forte is best-known from his work on “Saturday Night Live,” but don’t let that scare you off. He gives a subtle performance, mostly acting as a straight man for Dern and June Squibb, who brings considerable relish to her stereotypical role as a trash-talking granny.
Along the way, dad and son drop in on a brother in the old hometown, whose residents’ small-town foibles may hit a little too close to home but are funny nonetheless. Woody’s many brothers drop in, and they don’t have much to say but they are, after all, family. Woody, an old drunk who can’t sit still for long, decides to hit some of the watering holes of long ago and soon encounters old business partner Ed Pegram, played with charming menace by Stacy Keach.
Word gets out that ol’ Woody is a millionaire, and, once again, the reactions of family, friends and old pals play out in predictable fashion.
Of course, the $1 million ticket proves to be worthless, but the quests of dad and son find a happy resolution — it’s not quite an O. Henry ending but it’s pretty darn close. Evil antagonist Ed gets his comeuppance, and no one should leave the theater disappointed by the plot, which has been a problem with some other recent movie releases seeking Oscar attention.
The acting is on target; the cinematography is beautiful (if it makes you hanker for Nebraska in winter, just drive around Crittenden County and you can find similar vistas), and viewers laugh gently and often.
“Nebraska” sneaks up on you. There’s more there than the mere recounting of the plot suggests. Much is unspoken, not coming out of the mouths of the characters but cautiously lurking somewhere behind their eyes, the kind of desperate need that Bruce Springsteen sang about 30 years ago in an album also called “Nebraska.” Woody and David, seemingly so different, are more alike than either of them would acknowledge, and it’s particularly touching to see how the son makes his peace with the old man, who needs the son to make his peace with him.
An old movie review
‘Gravity’ may be more than you can bear
A review
By Gary Meece
I’ve seen a lot of great TV lately but mostly nothing particularly exciting at the movies.
Not until “Gravity,” which takes the outer space thriller into a scorchingly hyperbolic orbit that will be hard to top.
Most of the thrill comes in the special effects, which should be experienced on a giant screen in 3-D (health warning; more about this later), but the two actors, George Clooney and Sandra Bullock, as astronauts adrift in space, give Oscar-worthy performances that resonant with a depth beyond mere reaction to their ongoing catastrophe.
The constant dilemmas follow a formula that would test the endurance of viewers in a longer film but “Gravity” zips along at a pace that leaves no one time to catch their breath. As for me, I thought I was gonna die.
I happened to be wearing a watch that checks my pulse the afternoon I went to see “Gravity.” About 10 minutes into the movie, after a thorough exercise in vertigo-inducing terror, I started feeling queasy; the sliders and cheese from the concessions stand started rolling around ominously. I lifted up my 3D glasses and checked my pulse. Up to 75 from the low 60s. 75 is not so fast. As the movie went on, I started feeling dizzy and a little shaky. Checked the pulse again. 85. I was beginning to feel like I should exit but I toughed it out. At last check as the film was still running, the pulse was 93 and I was feeling lightheaded. The pulse rate itself was not so troubling; I just felt awful.
After sitting quietly through the beginning of the credits, I walked slowly out to the lobby, got a drink refill, sat down and decided I would head to the ER if I didn’t start feeling better. My theory was that if I fell out in the lobby, someone would notice and call an ambulance. But sure enough, in 10 minutes or so, my heart rate was down, my stomach was feeling OK, I was fine.
Apparently “Gravity” hijacked my nervous system and thrilled me about half to death.
Your results may vary.
Dirty sources (greatest hits)
2 rapists latest sources on WM3: Extensive criminal records for men from Crittenden
By Gary Meece
news@theeveningtimes.com
West Memphis Evening Times
3/29/13
An attorney who presented new allegations in the almost 20-year-old murder of three West Memphis 8-year-olds relied on sworn statements from a pair of convicted rapists now serving time in the Cummins Unit of the Arkansas prison system.
Sworn statements from Billy Wayne Stewart and Bennie David Guy entered in court on Wednesday alleged that Terry Hobbs, David Jacoby, L.G. Hollingsworth and Buddy Lucas killed Christopher Byers, Michael Moore and Stevie Branch on May 5, 1993, after the boys stumbled on them getting high in woods near the service road in West Memphis. Neither statement mentions their present circumstances or extensive criminal history.
Damien Echols, Jessie Miskelley Jr. and Jason Baldwin, teens living in local trailer parks at the time of the killings, were convicted of the murders in 1994 and were released from prison in 2011 in a special plea deal. The case has been the subject of four movie documentaries, and the so-called “West Memphis 3” have received extensive support from music and film personalities.
The latest allegations were based on alleged conversations that took place almost 20 years ago with Lucas and Hollingsworth, who died in a vehicle accident in 2001.
Stewart and Guy have extensive criminal records.
Guy, 53, is serving a sentence of 40 years issued on Aug. 5, 1996, for rape — habitual offender, from Crittenden County. He pleaded guilty to the rape of an 11-year-old girl in a motel room on May 27, 1995; he was on probation at the time of the offense. He also was sentenced to six years in 1997 for escape, second degree, and had a prior conviction for robbery, for which he was given a two-year sentence in 1994. He also has a long list of additional detainers from prison authorities.
Stewart, 39, is serving a total time of 70 years on a rape sentence handed down in 2011. He also received a 12-year sentence from Crittenden County in 2004 for manufacturing controlled substances with the purpose to deliver and a five-year sentence, also from Crittenden County, in 2001 for possession of a firearm by certain persons (i.e. convicted felons). He was convicted with a drug charge in 1983, a forgery charge in 1983, a battery first degree charge in 1994 and a possession of marijuana with intent to sell charge in 2000.
This isn’t the first time recently that allegations concerning alternative suspects in the case have come from convicted felons.
Baxter County residents Cody Curtis Gott and Christian Blake Sisk were former friends of Terry Hobbs’ nephew, Mike Hobbs Jr. who told about “The Hobbs Family Secret” in the documentary “West of Memphis.”
They claimed that Mike Hobbs Jr. told them that he overheard his uncle Terry say he was involved in the murders. Gott and Sisk were on probation after pleading guilty to the February 2010 burglary of Mountain Home High School at the time of the movie interviews and have since been arrested for selling drugs. The Commercial Appeal reported last year that, according to the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office, Gott was charged in September with delivery of methamphetamines and cocaine and Sisk with delivery of a controlled substance and carrying prohibited weapons. Court records show Sisk also has been convicted of terroristic threatening, said the Memphis newspaper.
Terry Hobbs has never been a suspect in the case and has consistently denied any involvement in the murders of his stepson and the boy’s two friends.
The latest twist in the “West Memphis 3” case came Wednesday as a lawyer for Stevie Branch’s mother, Pam Hicks, alleged that her ex-husband, Terry Hobbs; his guitar-playing buddy Jacoby and teens Lucas and Hollingworth killed the three Cub Scouts in a drug-fueled frenzy with overtones of homosexual dalliance.
The allegations came in two affidavits delivered to Judge Victor Hill at the end of a hearing on access to evidence in the case, with lawyer Ken Swindle urging that the information in the 80-page packet be considered before making a ruling in the case.
The allegations were based on sworn statements given by Guy and Stewart to Swindle, based on alleged admissions from Buddy Lucas.
Guy’s statement says he visited Stewart in Lakeshore on May 5, 1993, and was working on a stock car when he saw Lucas and another teen get out of truck driven by two adults. Lucas bought some marijuana from Stewart, said Guy.
Guy said Lucas later moved in with him in Walls, Miss.
Guy stated: “In March of 1994, while working on a plow at Robertson Plantation, I asked Buddy, ‘When those people, those police come to talk to you about them boys that was supposed to got killed, did you do that?’
“Buddy dropped his head and didn’t want to look at me. He looked all sorry and upset, and he said, ‘Yeah’ and nothing else.
“ I said, “Lil’ Bud, you know you can tell me now; I ain’t gonna think no difference of you.’
“Buddy just kept looking down all sad and quiet, so I asked, “What did you do?”
“He then said, ‘Me and L G Hollingsworth and two men, we was there with them boys. We did it.’ ”
Guy describes Lucas as “pretty bad slow.”
Guy then describes how Lucas confessed in the same terms again later when he had moved in with Guy’s family briefly in Arkansas.
Guy says in April 1995 he told Stewart about the confession, that Stewart confronted Lucas, who described circumstances of the crime.
Guy describes winding up in a jail cell with Hollingsworth in July 1995.
Guy says, “When I told L G that Buddy had already told me that they had killed the boys, his whole attitude changed. L G’s face relaxed, and he looked like a boy who was proud of what he had done. He did not show any remorse, or act sorry at all.”
Guy says Hollingsworth described how they bought marijuana for Hobbs and Jacoby, drove around getting high and drinking and went into the woods. Hobbs talked the teens into wrestling each other.
After the three boys spotted the men, Hobbs ordered the others to hold them, says Guy. Jacoby injured his leg in the race. One of the boys kicked Hobbs. Guy says Hollingsworth told him that Hobbs went into a rage and began beating the boy, with the others joining in beating the others; then they pulled the boys’ pants down; Hobbs pulled out a knife and cut the scrotum and penis of a boy; then they tossed the boys into the ditch, along with their bikes and other evidence.
In his statement, Stewart describes how he and Hobbs began using the same dope dealer in the early 1990s, with Hobbs eventually buying his meth, cocaine and marijuana from Stewart.
Stewart’s account, given to an attorney representing Hobbs’ former wife, describes Hobbs as bisexual and says he witnessed Hobbs kissing Jacoby when they went to his home in Lakeshore for a marijuana buy on May 5, 1994. He describes a similar kiss in another drug sale and says Hobbs and Jacoby were holding hands at a well-known gay bar in Memphis, J-Wags, at another drug sale.
Stewart knew Lucas, whom he also called “Lil’ Bud,” and describes him as “obviously slow.”
Stewart says “In April, 1995, Bennie Guy told me that Buddy Lucas had confessed involvement in the murders at the Blue Beacon Woods.”
Stewart then says Lucas told him much the same story as Hollingsworth told Guy, with the added suggestion of sexual activity.
Stewart says: “When describing the smoking and drinking, Buddy dropped his eyes and paused as if he was ashamed. He would no longer make eye-contact.
“Buddy would not have been ashamed discussing marijuana or whiskey, which led me to understand that there was more going on between the boys and the men than what Buddy had just told me.
“At this point, Buddy’ speech slowed. Gone was the ‘Lil’Bud’ that I had grown to know and love.”
And in this description, Stewart says that Lucas told him that Hobbs bit the scrotum of one of the boys after Jacoby began beating him, then took out a knife and cut the child in the groin.
Both men say they attempted to alert authorities but were ignored.
Jacoby has denied any involvement in the murders. Lucas had an alibi for the times of the murders when questioned by police in the initial investigation. Hollingsworth was also questioned extensively in 1993.
Safety first (greatest hits)
By Gary Meece
Sept. 5 Evening Times blo
We received a press release the other day informing us that the University of Central Arkansas will observe National Campus Safety Awareness Month in September.
“UCA is a safe campus and it is important that we continue to raise awareness on relevant issues to keep it that way. National Campus Safety Awareness Month is a perfect opportunity as we start the new academic year to focus on safety and making good decisions,” said Arch Jones Jr., director of organizational and community services for the UCA Police Department.
OK, UCA, here’s a safety suggestion about a good decision: Drop your plans to have Arkansas’ most notorious child killer visit your campus in Conway as an “Artist in Residence” in November.
Yes, that’s right. The so very safety-conscious UCA officials have set up a literary event for Damien Echols on Nov. 11.
Echols, who was convicted of killing three West Memphis 8-year-olds, will giving a free public reading of his book, “Life After Death,” and teach a creative writing mini-class for UCA students. His wife, Lorri Davis, is also on the bill.
UCA creative writing professor Dr. John Vanderslice is the academic behind the plan to bring in Echols as part of the UCA Artist-in-Residence Series, which is administered through the College of Fine Arts and Communication.
Confirming the date with Echols on Wednesday, Dr. Vanderslice added: “Mr. Echols is conducting a public reading on the evening of Nov. 11. The location of that reading is yet to be determined. In the afternoon he will conduct a master class, but that is for UCA students only. No one from the public is allowed to attend the master class. Security will be present at all events.” Now that’s being safety-minded.
The UCA Web site explains its Artists in Residence thusly: “Residencies bring professional performing and visual artists, creative writers, filmmakers, and arts exhibitions to the UCA campus for one or more days for the purpose of expanding student learning experiences. They offer the general student body performances, lectures, and exhibits that enlarge awareness and appreciation of the arts, and provide students participating in the arts with workshops, masterclasses, critiques, etc. that enhance understanding and professionalism.”
The giddily gushy description about Echols states: “The book is … a deeply moving and profound account of Echols’ and Davis’ fight to prove his innocence, giving a voice to those who are persecuted for the way they look or anyone who has experienced an injustice.” Here’s a clue, UCA: Echols and Davis did not prove his innocence; he was not persecuted for the way he looked; the only injustice he experienced was the injustice of being freed when they should have been strapping him down on a gurney for his last ride. Echols and Davis will enlarge the awareness of students, all right … their awareness of the Big Lie that Damien didn’t do the crimes.
The good doctor’s e-mail address, by the way, is johnv@uca.edu.
But not to worry, for now. It’s only September. “We have a full schedule of programming and events during the month of September to enhance the safety of our campus. …,” said UCA Police Chief Larry James in the press release about safety month. “Theft prevention, active shooter survival, hazing prevention, sexual assault awareness, the dangers of alcohol and drugs; these are issues that no one likes to talk or think about but through awareness we want the UCA community to be mindful, not fearful.”
Chief Jones should be mindful that, according to the multiple confessions of fellow child killer Jessie Misskelley Jr., Echols and Jason Baldwin, who were drunk at the time, sexually assaulted two of their victims before tying them up and throwing them in a muddy ditch. Never mind the truth, O ye of the ivory tower. Echols has told that whopper about the West Memphis police being obsessed with him because he and Jason were heavy-metal lovin’ teenagers who wore black T-shirts so often that he may even believe that story, and your students, well, those young folks can really relate to Echols’ oft-told tales of angst and alienation.
The PR release on Safety Awareness Month includes contacts for these officials:
Jeff Pitchford, vice president for university and government relations, at jeffp@uca.edu or (501) 450-3185.
Fredricka Sharkey, associate director for media relations, at fsharkey@uca.edu or (501) 450 -5114.
Arch Jones, director of organizational and community services, at ajones@uca.edu or (501) 450-3111.
The UCA president is Tom Courtway (tcourtway@uca.edu; Wingo Hall 205; (501) 852-2659)
It would be appropriate to drop them a line. For safety’s sake.
***
Echols generally has avoided this region since his release but he and Davis are also scheduled to speak as part of the Northwest Missouri State lecture series at the Maryville campus on Oct. 17. The calendar on their Web site states: “Damien Echols served more than 18 years on death row for a crime of which he was innocent. He was a member of what became known as the ‘West Memphis Three,’ a group of teenagers who were wrongly convicted for the 1993 murders of three 8-year-old boys in Arkansas.” Let’s be clear about this once again: Echols wasn’t innocent by any legal standard; the three were not wrongly convicted, according to any court of law. Outright misrepresentation has been the way the WM3 case has been presented since the first documentary, and an institution of higher learning really ought to get its facts straight. Mark Hornickel is the media relations specialist at the college: mhorn@nwmissouri.edu; (660) 562-1704; fax: (660) 562-1900.
***
At the time of his release, Echols was facing a death sentence; Baldwin and Misskelley were serving life terms. They were convicted of killing Stevie Branch, Michael Moore and Christopher Byers in a wooded area off the service road in West Memphis on May 5, 1993. They were convicted by juries in 1994, and the cases had been upheld on appeal. Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington, nervous about retrying an unfamiliar and notoriously controversial case as a date for an evidentiary hearing loomed, in 2011 agreed to the defense’s proposal for an Alford plea. That somewhat unusual legal maneuver allowed the three men to plead guilty while continuing to maintain their innocence. The politically ambitious Ellington, who subsequently made an unsuccessful bid for Congress, has said he believes the three men are guilty but isn’t concerned about their present or future activities, as long as they’re not caught in a major felony.
Echols, who runs a New Age-style “Hermetic Reiki” “healing center” in Salem, Mass., and sells occult paraphernalia from his Web site, has exploited his notoriety with a number of paid appearances at college campuses over the last year, as well as appearing on a UN panel addressing wrongful convictions, though he was not wrongfully convicted.
No exonerating evidence has been presented in the case but a number of film and music celebrities have insisted that the “West Memphis 3” did not commit the crime, often based largely on viewing of the one-sided “Paradise Lost” documentaries. The case has been the subject of four film documentaries, including one produced by Echols, that ignored much of the prosecution’s case against the three teens; a fifth movie about the case, “Devil’s Knot,” which will debut at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday, again will be presenting a distorted dramatization of the events, if the film synopsis is any guide.
East of the truth (greatest hits)
“West of Memphis, east of the truth”
by Gary Meece
West Memphis Evening Times – March 12, 2013
“West of Memphis” is here.
It’s in that desolate expanse of gumbo soil between the rotting Mayflower Apartments and the service road, on a weedy knoll that used to be the infamous Robin Hood Hills.
At this point, that bleak and forbidding site will yield as many new clues as to what actually occurred here May 5, 1993, as any other contemporary source anyone is likely to come across.
But they’ll keep trying, those “supporters.”
Before there were “supporters,” there was the first “Paradise Lost” documentary, which seemed to establish that the three Metallica-loving teens were arrested by incompetent police and convicted by conniving prosecutors in the brutal murders of three West Memphis 8-year-olds, all based on the flimsiest of evidence and fueled by Satanic panic over the teens’ strange preferences for black T-shirts and long hair in a throwback, inbred community that had never been exposed to lovers of hard rock and Stephen King novels.
By the time the second “Paradise Lost” movie rolled out, shameless camera-hog John Mark Byers, adoptive father of one of the three boys, was being suggested as the likely culprit.
Funny, but Byers’ whereabouts that night always have been fairly well-documented so the suggestion that he was directly involved in the brutal slayings has been and remains a “straw man” argument. It’s barely possible that he somehow could have slipped off into the woods, brutalized those boys and thrown them hogtied into the water, but it’s not credible. He was loud, though, and huge and kind of scary and had a trifling but real criminal record and liked to play around with guns, and hence was an all-too-easy target. The filmmakers didn’t let facts get in the way of a good story. The Arkansas author of the book on which the upcoming feature film about the case is based also could not resist pegging Byers as “a person of interest,” despite much evidence to the contrary.
By the third “Paradise Lost” feature and now with the fourth documentary in general release, Byers fell off the hook and the favored “culprit” has become yet another grieving dad in the case. We all have had moments we would not wish to share with the world, and Terry Hobbs, somewhat understandably given the nature of the wrongs done his family, has had more than his share of those moments, dug up for all to see. Mysterious overheard third-hand conversations about “family secrets,” allegations of a sometimes-nasty disposition from an ex-spouse and angry ex-inlaws, the discovery of a single hair that may or may not be from Hobbs (and with a perfectly reasonable explanation as to why it would be in a shoelace if it is his) make an even weaker case for prosecution than the supposedly feeble ones represented in the “Paradise Lost” epic. The ironies abundant in the latest round of accusations are absolutely lost on producers Peter Jackson and Damien Echols and their crew.
Other misrepresentations and obfuscations abound. Let’s give it this: It’s an artful look at West Memphis and environs, and we are not likely to see many such others.
“West of Memphis,” fourth movie about the case, is an advocacy documentary; it’s the movie that the aptly nicknamed “Icky,” his jailhouse bride Lorri Davis and their various movie star/rock god “supporters” wanted made. It’s been quite an effective piece of propaganda, directed by Amy J. Berg. It shamelessly exploits the memories of three little boys, Michael Moore, Stevie Branch and Christopher Byers, whose families still suffer from their loss and from the many subsequent traumas visited upon them by this remarkable case.
If you go to the rottentomatoes.com Web site and survey the comments of critics large and small around the country, you’ll discover a couple of things.
One, seemingly every newspaper and Web site in the country that bothered to review “West of Memphis” unthinkingly accepted the premise the “West Memphis 3″ were at the very least unjustly accused and convicted; many reviewers cluelessly have asserted their innocence, as if the killers were somehow exonerated by multiple convictions and by the plea-bargained guilty pleas that got them out of prison.
Two, virtually every newspaper and Web site in the country that ran a review employed the services of movie reviewers who know nothing about the case except what they’ve seen at the movies, and many of them can’t get even those details right.
Over the course of two hours and 30 minutes, “West of Memphis” supposedly demolishes the prosecution’s case against the West Memphis 3, or so bray the critics.
It largely does so by simply omitting the prosecution’s case. While far too much of the movie is taken up with Terry Hobbs’ supposed lack of an alibi, the movie suggests that the real culprits, with a real lack of alibis, have alibis that prove these teens just couldn’t have committed the crime. This is pure bunkum. Echols flat-out admitted on the stand that he and his family shaped their constantly changing and wildly divergent explanations to suit the changing circumstances. A woman who was at that time one of his 12-year-old girlfriends (not to be confused with his pregnant 15-year-old girlfriend) says she can provide an Echols alibi though she never took the stand in the 1994 trial, probably because her statements to the police offered no alibi. The Miskelley defense’s weak attempt at an alibi was demolished in the courtroom; the jury didn’t believe his witnesses provided an alibi, for a number of good reasons. Jason Baldwin’s explanation of his whereabouts was so weak that his attorney didn’t even try to present alibi testimony, and Baldwin offers none here. Where was he? What was he doing if he wasn’t brutally attacking and raping those boys? And yet we’re supposed to take his word that he has an explanation now? Sadly, many of our nation’s top film critics already have.
Like “Paradise Lost,” “West of Memphis” uses the “CSI factor” to play upon the audience’s prejudice that police investigators should be all-knowing, with all the forensics details immediately at hand to determine the truth with cool scientific ease. Real work is a lot sloppier than that, but then the West Memphis 3, their celebrity pals and many of their supporters aren’t that familiar with real work. Was the investigation perfect? Of course not. Did the prosecutors work hard to make their case and sometimes misstep? Of course they did. Did the medical examiner get some things wrong? Quite possibly, but that’s no reason why we should have to watch snapping turtles tear flesh off corpses just to make a point that would be more relevant if snapping turtles had tied up the boys, beaten them and thrown them in the water. And did Terry Hobbs slash open his stepson’s face and otherwise mutilate these children? Or was all the gore caused by snapping turtles? One supposes the filmmakers would like to have it both ways, as long as they can continue to argue for pardons.
The linchpin of the case is that Jessie Miskelley gave multiple and fairly consistent confessions before, during and after his arrest; anyone who can count can determine that the length of the interrogations has been routinely mistated. And it is misrepresented here. The police did not “sweat” the boy; he apparently wanted to talk. Unlike the other two in this case, Miskelley still had a smidgen of moral intelligence in May and June of 1993. He knew he had done wrong, and it often brought him to tears.
As for Baldwin and Echols, there are no signs yet that there is a soul in there.
Recent Comments