The Commercial Appeal

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Three teens charged with murder in slayings of West Memphis boys

Arkansas youths could face the death penalty

By Bartholomew Sullivan - Memphis Commercial Appeal
Saturday, June 5, 1993

One terror-filled month after three 8-year-old boys were slain and dumped in a drainage ditch, West Memphis police Friday charged three teenagers with the killings.

Police Insp. Gary Gitchell said each suspect is charged with three counts of capital murder, which carries a possible death penalty. Although two are juveniles, Gitchell said all will be tried as adults. They are:

- Michael Wayne Echols, 18, of West Memphis.

- Jessie Lloyd Misskelley, 17, of Marion.

- Charles Jason Baldwin, 16, of Marion.

They are accused of the May 5 killings of Weaver Elementary School second- graders Steve Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore. Gitchell has said the three were hit in the head and were found with their hands and feet bound.

In West Memphis Municipal Court, Judge William P. Rainey appointed attorneys for the defendants and bound them over to Crittenden County Circuit Court for a hearing on Monday. Citing security reasons, Gitchell declined to say where the three will be held over the weekend.

The tense courtroom scene included an outburst from Steve Branch, the father of one of the victims, who lunged toward Echols.

He was led away in handcuffs, but was not arrested.

Police found the boys' bodies in a boggy, wooded area known to nearby residents as Robin Hood Park a day after they disappeared while riding their bicycles.

The area is between the Mayfair Apartments and the Blue Beacon Truck Wash, which faces an access road parallel to Interstate 40.

Although police said from the beginning that they were confident of their leads in the case, almost no details of the deaths have been released. Police have declined to comment on an Arkansas State Police broadcast report that the children had been sexually mutilated.

Gitchell said he could not comment on whether the suspects were involved in satanism or any form of cult activity.

All three defendants have prior records in Juvenile Court and have been represented by the Crittenden County public defender's office. Details of their previous records were not available Friday.

Since West Memphis is the hub of a huge interstate trucking network and is at the confluence of two interstate highways, many speculated that the killer was a psychopathic drifter and was unlikely to be found.

Many residents said Thursday's arrests provided the first relief from fear since the killings.

Some in the town of 28,000 said the case has caused them to keep a closer eye on their children when they play outdoors.

At a 9 a.m. press conference at the West Memphis City Hall, Gitchell said two of the youths arrested - Echols and Baldwin - were early suspects in the case, and that Misskelley was later identified.

Misskelley was arrested at the West Memphis Police Department at 2:44 p.m. Thursday and Echols and Baldwin were arrested at Echols's Grove Road residence at 10:32 p.m.

Misskelley's father, Jessie, said his son had been brought in for questioning by police at 9:30 a.m. Thursday.

Police seized a knife during a search of his three-bedroom trailer home Thursday night, he said.

Gitchell would not discuss the trio's motive or reveal what investigators found in searching the suspects' residences. Four search warrants were executed simultaneously Thursday, but officials would not say where or what was found.

The murders occurred on a night with a full moon and the arrests were made the day before Friday's full moon, leading to speculation and rampant rumors about satanism.

The FBI's National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime in Quantico, Va., worked on a profile of a likely killer or killers. In addition, the Arkansas State Police, the Crittenden County Sheriff's Department and the Memphis Police Department helped in the case.

Gitchell praised the determination of his colleagues and of law enforcement officials around the country who had phoned in tips or helped with leads. He

thanked residents who brought food to officers working long hours.

"Pieces gradually started fitting in place and finally made a clear picture," he said of the routine of 18-hour days and hundreds of leads investigated.

"This, I can honestly say, was the most difficult case the Police Department in West Memphis has ever had," he said.

Gitchell declined to comment on any aspect of the evidence and refused to say what led to the arrests. He said some questions would only be answered as the cases proceed to trial.

West Memphis Police, the Arkansas Second Judicial Circuit prosecutor's office and the Municipal Court refused to make public police reports or charging documents, which are typically released at the time of a defendant's first court appearance.

The Commercial Appeal is seeking the records under terms of the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act because so few details were released on Friday.

"The Commercial Appeal took legal action to open arrest and court documents that are usually available to the public but sealed in this case. We believe those records are needed to help sort out facts alleged in the case

from a growing supply of rumors," said managing editor Henry Stokes.

Friday afternoon, Circuit Court Judge Ralph Wilson Jr. held a telephone hearing with attorneys for the newspaper and the prosecutor's office. He continued the hearing until Monday afternoon in Marion.

Deputy Prosecutor John Fogleman said his office would seek to keep the records sealed until the trials are over to prevent prejudicial pretrial information from coming out and because there may be other defendants. Gitchell, however, said he believes there will be no more arrests.

A crowd of West Memphians attended the Municipal Court proceedings, which began at 10 a.m., but were postponed after Branch's courtroom scuffle.

When Misskelley was arraigned, police surrounded him so that spectators in the courtroom could barely see his cornrow hair and ponytail.

Misskelley's father told reporters as he exited the Municipal Court that his son is "a good boy" and that he did not believe the charges.

"I love my son very much," said Gail Grinnell, Baldwin's mother, as she returned home Friday afternoon. "I'm just very upset about all of this."

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Sequence of Events

Saturday, June 5, 1993

Note: This timeline was originally published June 5, 1993 based upon the information available at the time.

-- Wednesday, May 5: Weaver Elementary School second-graders Steve Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore, all 8 years old, disappear while riding bikes near the so-called Robin Hood Park, a boggy woods near Ten Mile Bayou, West Memphis's main drainage ditch.

-- Thursday, May 6: Their bodies are found submerged in a water-filled ditch near Ten Mile in their neighborhood. That evening, an Arkansas State Police broadcast indicates the boys were sexually mutilated.

-- Friday, May 7: The State Crime Lab in Little Rock gives the case top priority and completes autopsies by early afternoon. West Memphis Police Department Insp. Gary Gitchell, the lead investigator, announces that the boys were killed by multiple head blows. He does not comment on mutilation report.

-- Saturday, May 8: Volunteers collect $10,853 in donations at several West Memphis intersections to help the families of the boys. Meanwhile, reward funds are established.

-- Tuesday, May 11: Michael Moore is buried in Crittenden Memorial Park in Marion, Ark.

-- Wednesday, May 12: Christopher Byers is buried in Forest Hill Cemetery East in Memphis.

-- Thursday, May 13: Steve Branch is buried in Mt. Zion Cemetery in Steele, Mo. In West Memphis, a local funeral home erects a large canvas tent over the slaying site, deep inside the woods and brush, giving crime-scene technicians an enclosed, darkened place to work.

-- Friday, May 14: Police say no one is a solid suspect. Gitchell suspends daily news briefings, instead issuing a news release. America's Most Wanted, a network TV program, broadcasts a report on the killings.

-- Saturday, May 15: Police say the broadcast prompts 75 tips by fax machines and about 100 phone calls from around the country. More leads, but no suspects, say police.

-- Thursday, June 3: Police arrest three Crittenden County teenagers in the killings.

-- Friday, June 4: West Memphis Municipal Judge William P. Rainey appoints private attorneys for the defendants and orders them to appear in Crittenden County Circuit Court on Monday.

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Outburst in court by victim's dad reflects community's shock, rage

William Thomas
Saturday, June 5, 1993

"I'll chase you all the way to hell," screamed the father of one of three schoolboys slain in West Memphis as he tried desperately to attack his son's accused killer Friday.

Police wrestled the distraught parent into submission, but it was just the first in a series of explosive outbursts touched off by the arrest of three teenagers in the slayings last month of 8-year-olds Steve Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore.

As the three closely guarded suspects were led from the gray-brick municipal court building at midafternoon, a crowd of 200 angry people gathered amid shouts of "shoot him" and "burn in hell."

One of the suspects climbed into the back of a police car and curled into a ball as he was driven away to jail.

Although some West Memphians said they were relieved that there had been a break in the month-old case, the stormy reaction of the families and friends of the victims dominated a day of shock and rage.

"They're nothing but punks! punks! punks!" shouted Pam Hobbs, the mother of Steve Branch, as she stomped out of the courtroom where the families of the three young victims came face-to-face with their children's accused killers.

"I want them," she said. "I want to beat their heads up against the wall and kick them - the same stuff they did to my son."

Her husband, Terry, stood by, nodding. "I think we'd all like to get at them," he said. "These were our babies. They were just kids. I was looking for a way to climb over a bench myself. It's very hard to sit there." Steve lived with the Hobbses.

For Steve Branch Sr., who lives in Osceola, Ark., sitting there proved impossible. Rising from the back of the courtroom, he tried to fight his way through a line of police guards to get at one of the suspects, Michael Wayne 'Damien' Echols.

At the time, Echols was being arraigned in a courtroom jammed with spectators, police and reporters.

Branch, a husky man with a look of cold anger in his eyes, was subdued and led from the courtroom. A short time later, he was released. He spoke briefly with the media and then left the scene with his wife and baby. His wife stumbled and almost collapsed before they reached their car.

It wasn't the only hasty departure.

Pam Hobbs, who has moved to Blytheville since the slayings, stormed out of the courtroom after the judge ordered anyone who couldn't handle the pressure to leave.

"I'm out here because I screamed, 'punk,' and I might go on screaming it," she said, voice high, eyes wet. "These arrests have given me a little peace, but not much. I'll be mad at the West Memphis Police Department till the day I die."

She faced a crowd of reporters and cameras, saying:

"I'm mad. I was out there doing their (the Police Department's) job until they pulled my son out of the ditch. They told me to go home, go to bed, they'll take care of it. Well, my son's dead."

Hobbs was the most outspoken of the three boys' parents, who said little to one another and sat in different areas in the courtroom. However, all stared hard at the three suspects as they were brought into the coutroom one-by-one.

Friends were equally angry. Linda Darby, who worked with Hobbs at Catfish Island restaurant, studied the suspects and shook her head. "If they're guilty," she said, "they ought to be hung."

For the families of the three suspects, it was equally difficult.

"It's like getting hit with a sledgehammer," said Jessie Misskelley, a mechanic whose son was arrested and held all day Thursday. "They asked me to sign for a polygraph, and I did," said Misskelley, who claimed police had held his son 12 hours without notifying him.

Some West Memphians were quick to praise the Police Department for breaking the case. "I think this is a credit to our police force," said Guy Lowe, a retiree who lives near Weaver Elementary School where the boys were in the second grade. "It was a terrible thing, and when it happens in your own neighborhood, it makes you think. The preacher says the end of the world is at hand; he may be right."

Denise Foster, who works in a fast-food restaurant in Memphis, cried when she heard the news. "This is kids killing kids. I couldn't help feeling sorry for the parents on both sides. I have a 1-year-old. Mothers understand."

Joyce Riley, who works in a West Memphis farm store, said she's afraid it will be a long time before the community settles down. "There's a lot of anger here," she said. "As for those boys - when they're capable of killing, they're not children anymore. Nowadays, a 16-, 17- and 18-year-old boy knows what's going on in the world. They're not innocent like they were in the '50s and '60s. This is the end of innocence."

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Evil-worship debated in slayings

By Bartholomew Sullivan - Memphis Commercial Appeal
Sunday, June 6, 1993

The study and worship of evil has been suggested as an explanation for the murders of three 8-year-old West Memphis boys.

But Saturday the mother of the pregnant girlfriend of one of three teenagers charged in the slayings scoffed at the talk of devil worship and Satanism swirling around the case.

While police remain silent about a motive in the deaths of the youngsters, mental health experts said Saturday the lure of Satanism is so powerful that it can lead to violence and death.

So far, little is known about the three teenagers charged with the May 5 murders of Weaver Elementary School second-graders Steve Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore.

Police said the victims received blows to the head and that their hands and feet were bound when their bodies were found in a boggy wooded area known as Robin Hood Park.

They were killed during a full moon, a day of significance to pagan cults.

The three arrested Thursday on capital murder charges - Michael Wayne Echols, 18, Jessie Lloyd Misskelley, 17, and Charles Jason Baldwin, 16 - listened to "black metal" music with suggestive lyrics about evil. They also all had had run-ins with juvenile authorities and at least one apparently sniffed gasoline as recreation.

On Saturday, Dian Teer, the mother of Echols's pregnant 16-year-old girlfriend, said the rumors about devil worship are far-fetched.

"He's different, but I didn't know that was against the law, just to be different," she said, adding she does not believe the criminal charges. "The boy's got an uncle named Damien. He's not a devil worshipper."

Baldwin's attorney, Paul N. Ford of West Memphis, said Saturday that suggestions that his client is connected to the occult, in the absense of police corroboration, is unfair.

Ford said he will "leave no stone unturned" in defending his client and has not ruled out asking a Circuit Court judge to order a mental evaluation.

People who know Echols say he called himself Damien - the name of an antichrist figure in a series of popular movies - carried a cat's skull to Marion High School and claimed to be a devil worshipper.

"Kids who get into it (Satanism) get into the power of evil," said Dr. Paul King, an assistant clincal psychiatry professor at the University of Tennessee, Memphis, and author of Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll . . . Dealing With Today's Troubled Youth.

"Good versus evil is an important part of identity development," King said. "There's an ideology of violence and evil that attracts young people who don't have strong values."

Heavy-metal music may sound like irritating noise, but its lyrics "glorify the power of evil" and the child who sits in his room brooding over the lyrics may display an unhealthy preoccupation, King said.

While all of these are elements of the psychological profile of a child vulnerable to satanic suggestion, the experts said, they are also shared by thousands of law-abiding citizens.

King said Echols should have been identified as a student in need of professional help. "That he would carry a cat's skull to school, that is definitely strange behavior," King said. "This child should have been recognized as disturbed or eccentric."

Two Marion High School guidance counselors contacted Saturday declined comment and referred questions to the school principal, who did not return phone calls.

Those who knew Misskelley and Baldwin say they had minor troubles with the juvenile justice system but were otherwise unremarkable.

A self-described pagan named Midnight said the murders in West Memphis have given her group a bad name and have forced the cancellation of a summer solstice party in Shelby Forest.

Dr. Brooks Ramsey, a marriage and family therapist in East Memphis, like King, blamed the commercial culture for helping bring out "the dark side" of human nature in impressionable youths.

"In all of us, there's this destructive potential," said Ramsey. "We all have that possibilty within us; that's why we need cultural influences that keep the lid on."

Dr. Kip Parrish, clinical co-director of Charter Lakeside Hospital's adolescent services, said he has seen teenagers turn to Satanism from feelings of inadequacy or depression.

"The satanic peer group offers acceptance and an extreme sense of power," Parrish said. "Kids who are in a fairly well-organized peer group will feel as if they have a purpose."

Satanism is "all about anti-Christian teachings," he said. "The net effect of all those teachings is . . . self-gratification instead of concern for others.

"In terms of sacrifices," he added, "the more innocent the victim, the greater is its value as a sacrifice to Satan."

Some of his cases have involved self-multilation in which razor blades were used to cut lightning bolts or pentagrams into arms or thighs. Music from groups such as The Possessed, Venom, King Diamond and Slayer all have lyrics in which "suggestions of violence are overt and specific."

Shelby County Juvenile Court Judge Kenneth Turner said it has been some years since he's had a case involving Satanism in his courtroom.

"Everytime I've ever seen anything like this, it's been a part of the lunatic fringe," he said.

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Teen describes 'cult' torture of boys

Defendant Misskelley tells police of sex mutilation

By Bartholomew Sullivan - Memphis Commercial Appeal
Monday, June 7, 1993

Two teenagers charged with killing three 8-year-olds choked their victims into unconsciousness, then sexually mutilated one and raped another as part of a cultic ritual, according to a statement given to the police by the third teenager charged in the case.

The 27-page statement by defendant Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr., 17, was obtained Sunday by The Commercial Appeal. In it, Misskelley said he watched as Michael Wayne Echols, 18, and Charles Jason Baldwin, 16, brutalized the children with a stout club and a 6-inch knife after luring them into a wooded area known to locals as Robin Hood Park.

The ritual brutality was carried out about noon on May 5 after the Weaver Elementary School second-graders had skipped school, Misskelley said. Baldwin and Echols had taken pictures of the three children - Steve Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore - that had been passed out at a previous cult meeting.

The case has inflamed passions in West Memphis, where the defendants are expected to appear in court this morning. One parent at Friday's Municipal Court arraignment lunged at Echols, shouting, "I'll chase you all the way to hell."

The defendants' whereabouts were not revealed over the weekend for security reasons, police said.

Misskelley told police he ran after and subdued one of the children who tried to escape and watched as Baldwin and Echols tied the boys' hands before raping them. He said he did not participate in the rape and mutilation.

Misskelley said he saw Byers killed before running out of the woods.

The statement is a transcript of a tape-recorded question-and-answer session between Misskelley and West Memphis Police Inspector Gary Gitchell and Detective Bryn Ridge. It was made after he waived his rights to a lawyer during questioning Thursday afternoon.

Some documents in the case were sealed Friday by West Memphis Municipal Judge William P. Rainey.

Police have declined to provide details of the case beyond stating that the boys had been hit in the head and were found with their hands and feet bound.

The Commercial Appeal has challenged the sealing of the court documents under terms of the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act. Such documents are typically made public at the time of a defendant's first appearance in court. A hearing in the newspaper's case is scheduled before Circuit Judge Ralph Wilson Jr. this afternoon.

Rumors that Echols had told others that he worshiped the devil have swirled around the case. There are no overt references to satanism in the statement but Misskelley described his participation in some cult activities.

Echols's mother, Pamela Hutchison, on Sunday denied he is involved in cult activity and said previous press speculation hurt her son's right to a fair trial.

Misskelley said in the statement he has been a member of the cult for about three months. This is how he described a night with the cult in the woods:

"We go out, kill dogs and stuff, and then carry girls out there . . . and we have an orgee (sic) and stuff like that," the statement said.

He said part of the cult's initiation rite was to kill a dog, skin it, cook it over a bonfire and eat the back leg meat. "If he can't eat it, then he don't get in," Misskelley said of the cult candidate.

In his statement, Misskelley says he witnessed one killing but did not participate beyond subduing one victim. He said that after witnessing Baldwin's mutilation of one unconscious youngster, he ran off into the woods and threw up.

Baldwin later called him at home and asked why he had left the woods early, Misskelley recalled. Echols was "hollering in the background, saying 'We done it, we done it, what . . . if somebody saw us, what are we going to do?' "

At some points in Miskelley's statement, it was unclear what happened to each victim.

Attorney Paul N. Ford of Jonesboro, representing Baldwin, said he had read Misskelley's statement and "my reading of that statement is that it's either fabricated or the answers that he gave were suggested by the police." Ford would not comment on Misskelley's description of the murders.

But he said that references to the murders occurring about noon are inconsistent with witnesses' statements that the children were seen at 5 p.m. of the day they disappeared.

If the murders took place at noon, Ford said he can prove that his client was in school at that hour.

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Excerpts from Misskelley statement

Monday, June 7, 1993

Here are excerpts from a June 3 statement given to West Memphis police by murder suspect Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr. Misskelley describes how three boys were killed in a woods after first being watched by what Misskelley called members of a cult.

DETECTIVE BRYN RIDGE: Okay, what occurred while you were there (in the woods)?

MISSKELLEY: When I was there, I saw Damien (defendant Michael Wayne Echols) hit these (sic) one boy real bad, and then, uh, and he started screwing them and stuff and then uh (Misskelley indicates the boy hit was Christopher Byers)

RIDGE: Okay, so you saw Damien strike Chris Byers in the head.

MISSKELLEY: Right.

RIDGE: What did he hit him with?

MISSKELLEY: He hit him with his fist and bruised him all up real bad and then Jason (defendant Charles Jason Baldwin) turned around and hit Steve Branch.

RIDGE: Okay.

MISSKELLEY: . . . Then the other one took off, Michael Moore took off running, so I chased him and grabbed him and hold (sic) him, until they got there and then I left (Misskelley later tells police the suspects took the boys' clothes off) . . .

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.

MISSKELLEY: 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?

MISSKELLEY: 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?

MISSKELLEY: I saw him cut one of the little boys.

RIDGE: Alright, where did he cut him at?

MISSKELLEY: He was cutting him in the face.

RIDGE: Cutting him in the face. Alright, another boy was cut I understand, where was he cut at?

MISSKELLEY: At the bottom . . .

INSPECTOR GARY GITCHELL: In his groin area?

MISSKELLEY: Yes . . .

RIDGE: Has he (Damien) ever had sex with them before?

MISSKELLEY: 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.

MISSKELLEY: They had some houses, trees and stuff.

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

MISSKELLEY: Yes.

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

MISSKELLEY: They were in the houses.

RIDGE: At the houses? Did they take like one picture of one boy?

MISSKELLEY: They were in a group . . .

GITCHELL: Now, did you say that the boys skipped school that day, these little boys did?

MISSKELLEY: Yes, they were going to catch, they were going somewhere and like I said, Damien and nem (sic) 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 . . .

(Misskelley later relates the story of a briefcase kept by Damien.)

GITCHELL: Okay, what was kept inside the briefcase?

MISSKELLEY: They had some cocaine, and a little gun.

GITCHELL: Is that when you first saw the pictures of the boys?

MISSKELLEY: Yes, out there in Lakeshore (trailer park).

GITCHELL: And you saw the pictures in the briefcase?

MISSKELLEY: Yes, I think when we had that cult.

GITCHELL: Okay, now you have participated in this cult, right?

MISSKELLEY: Yes.

GITCHELL: How long have you been in it?

MISSKELLEY: 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.

MISSKELLEY: We go out, kill dogs and stuff and then carry girls out there. . . We have an orgee (sic) and stuff like that . . .

RIDGE: When you kill a dog, what do you do with that?

MISSKELLEY: We usually skin it, then make a barn fire (sic) and eat it and stuff.

RIDGE: Okay, when you initiating (sic) somebody new, come into a cult, what actually is done to initiate that person into a cult?

MISSKELLEY: We usually, you know, kill an animals (sic), 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?

MISSKELLEY: Uh, the meat off of his leg.

RIDGE: The meat off of his leg.

MISSKELLEY: If he can't eat it then he don't get in.

RIDGE: Doesn't get into the cult?

MISSKELLEY: No.

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Relatives, lawyers dispute account by Misskelley in slayings of 3 boys

By Marc Perrusquia and Bartholomew Sullivan - Memphis Commercial Appeal
Tuesday, June 8, 1993

The three 8-year-old boys slain in West Memphis were in school on May 5 well past the hour that one accused killer told police the crimes occurred, according to a school official.

On Monday, critics worked at shooting holes in Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr.' s description of what happened to the Weaver Elementary School second- graders. A 27-page transcript of a police interview with Misskelley was obtained by The Commercial Appeal.

In it, Misskelley, 17, said he watched as Michael Wayne Echols, 18, and Charles Jason Baldwin, 16, brutalized the children with a club and a 6-inch knife after luring them into a wooded area.

Misskelley told police that co-defendants Echols and Baldwin choked their victims into unconsciousness, then sexually mutilated one and sodomized another as part of a cultic ritual.

Relatives and attorneys for the suspects said the slayings could not have taken place at the time claimed by Misskelley. Misskelley told police they took place between 9 a.m. and noon that day although there appeared to be confusion about the issue.

Police detectives involved in the case could not be reached for comment on Monday about the discrepancies. West Memphis investigators have consistently refused to discuss a motive in the case.

Weaver principal Sarah Kirkley said 8-year-old Steve Branch was picked up by his mother at 2:45 p.m., and classmates Christopher Byers and Michael Moore left when school ended at 3 p.m. "They were all three here that day," said Kirkley.

The youngsters' presence at school would appear to contradict the statement Misskelley gave police on June 3. Misskelley said the 8-year-olds "skipped school" that day.

Marion High School principal Jerry Wood refused to release attendance records for 10th-grader Baldwin.

But Baldwin's lawyer, Paul N. Ford, said school records show his client was in school all day on May 5. He declined to make them public.

Ford said his client plans to plead not guilty to the charges.

"You can't be two places at once," he said. "It just makes the whole statement questionable."

Baldwin's great-uncle, Hubert Bartoush, said his nephew mowed his lawn between about 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. on the day of the slayings.

Neighbors told reporters last month that they last saw the youngsters riding bicycles between 5:15 and 6 p.m. on May 5. A search by police, parents and neighbors began at 7:30 p.m.

Police Insp. Gary Gitchell said the bodies were found at about 1:30 p.m. the next day.

Misskelley's father, Jessie Misskelley, 54, said he believes his son was ''threatened" into making statements to police that described his participation in a sadistic cult that mutilated and ate dogs and held sex orgies.

Misskelley's neighbor, Patricia Howe, said Friday that Misskelley had ''been in a little trouble, like sniffing gasoline."

Dr. Kevin Merigian, a toxicologist with the Regional Medical Center at Memphis, said that the effects of recreational gasoline inhalation aren't understood completely.

"It provides a mellow feeling but you don't feel so good," Merigian said. ''There's a negative feeling associated with the high."

At one point in the interview, Detective Bryn Ridge asked Misskelley about what the officer called "real confusion with the times you're telling me," according to the transcript. In answer to another question, Misskelley acknowledged that his estimate of the time of the murders might be inaccurate.

At another point, the transcript places commas in unusual places but Misskelley's statement could be taken to mean the slayings happened at night.

The transcript quotes Misskelley as saying: "Well after, all this stuff happened that night, that they done it, I went home about noon, then they (Baldwin and Echols) called me at 9 o'clock that night, they called me."

At another point in the transcript, Misskelley described a cult meeting in which pictures of the three youngsters were passed around. He said part of the cult's initiation rite was to kill a dog, skin it, cook it over a bonfire and eat the back leg meat. "If he can't eat it, then he don't get in," Misskelley said of the prospective cult candidate.

Misskelley's father said he didn't know who may have threatened his son, but said the statement to police didn't make sense.

Misskelley said he believes his son spent the whole day in the Highland Trailer Park between Marion and West Memphis, and said he is searching for witnesses to confirm that.

Comments from Misskelley's father and attorney Ford came Monday following a brief hearing in Crittenden County Circuit Court in Marion, where Judge David Goodson appointed two lawyers each to represent the three defendants.

They are:

-- Representing Echols - Craighead County chief public defender Val Price and Jonesboro lawyer Scott Davidson.

-- Representing Misskelley - Paragould lawyers Dan Stidham and Greg Crow.

-- Representing Baldwin - Ford and Jonesboro lawyer George Robin Wadley Jr.

The judge also said the state will now inform the attorneys of the whereabouts of the defendants, who had been detained at undisclosed sites over the weekend for security reasons.

Baldwin could not have done the things Misskelley claimed while traveling the 3 1/2 miles between the high school and the slaying site along Interstate 40, said Ford. "The statement clearly indicates that it took place between 9 a.m. and 12 noon, but I don't believe that to be true."

A crowd of maybe 100 people, including families of both victims and accused killers, gathered Monday morning at the white-columned county courthouse in Marion.

But if spectators came to see the three defendants, they were disappointed.

The three teens never put in an appearance, nor did police detectives.

Still, it wasn't without drama. Steve Branch Jr., father of 'Stevie' Branch and the man who lunged and shouted at defendant Echols Friday, attended the hearing a much more subdued man.

The mothers of Christopher Byers and Michael Moore embraced outside the coutroom.

Law officers took no chances, however. Everyone who entered the courtroom had to submit to an electronic search with a metal-detecting wand before being allowed inside, where the proceedings took little more than five minutes.

[rugs]

'Did not' kill 3 boys, teen writes from jail

By Marc Perrusquia and Bartholomew Sullivan - Memphis Commercial Appeal
Wednesday, June 9, 1993

One of three teenagers accused of murdering three West Memphis boys has told his parents in a letter that he "did not do it."

The letter raises further questions about the credibility of a statement

Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr., 17, gave police. He told them he witnessed one of the killings and chased and subdued one of the boys who tried to escape.

Within hours of his statement, police arrested his two co-defendants, Michael Wayne Echols, 18, and Charles Jason Baldwin, 16, and carried out four search warrants.

In a letter from the Cross County Jail in Wynne, Ark., received by the family Monday afternoon, Misskelley denied involvement in the slayings.

"I hope that y'all don't hate me because I did not do it," Misskelley wrote, saying he spent the day on a roofing job with a man named Ricky Deese.

"I can not stand (it) in here much longer. I will go crazy," the letter said at one point. "Please try to get me out. I will die in here."

The statement, obtained Sunday by The Commercial Appeal, raises questions about times and possible alibis. Attorney Paul N. Ford said he can prove his client was in school at the time Misskelley told police the slayings were taking place.

Echols's lawyer, Val P. Price of Jonesboro, Ark., said Tuesday night that he has not reviewed Misskelley's statement in detail but anticipates he will challenge what he termed "the alleged confession." Price said Echols will plead not guilty.

Misskelley told police that the murders took place between 9 a.m. and noon on May 5 although at another point he says that "all this stuff" happened at night.

School officials said Monday that records show the three victims - Weaver Elementary School second-graders Steve Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore - were in school until at least 2:45 p.m. that day, and witnesses saw them at 5:15 p.m.

Ford declined comment Tuesday on whether his client has an alibi if the slayings occurred at night but has said Baldwin will plead not guilty.

Ford said it appears "logical" that Misskelley's statement is the basis for his client's arrest.

Misskelley ended his statement at 3:18 p.m. on Thursday and the arrests of Baldwin and Echols occurred at 10:32 that night.

Lee Rush, Misskelley's stepmother, said the family has received death threats since a story came out in The Commercial Appeal detailing the statement he gave to police. Rush said the family can prove Misskelley was working the day of the slayings and attending a wrestling event that night, but she declined to give details.

"With . . . like that in the newspaper, you're asking for the Old West days: (People are) going to lynch this kid," Rush said. "I don't believe it."

"It's all false," said Jessie Misskelley Sr., 54, who has played host to a steady stream of reporters since news of his son's arrest broke last week. ''I think they just made it up."

Deese could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

West Memphis Police Insp. Gary Gitchell declined comment Tuesday. Gitchell said the case is still under investigation and dismissed questions aimed at the strength of the case against the three defendants.

"We just have to keep on working," he said.

The roofing work and wrestling match alibis differ from one the elder Misskelley gave reporters on Monday, when he said he believed his son spent the whole day May 5 in the Highland Trailer Park between Marion and West Memphis and was searching for witnesses to confirm it.

Dyess, Ark., Fire Chief Floyd Gilmore said the Fire Department, which has sponsored wrestling matches in town on previous occasions, did not hold a contest the night of May 5.

Dyess Mayor Edward Wooten said there hasn't been a wrestling match in Dyess for more than a year. "There were no wrestling matches that day in the town of Dyess," Wooten said.

Misskelley said in the letter that he has access to a television set and a Bible.

"My stomach has been hurting me," he said. "I watch the news last night and I cry and cry."

[Admin.]

Slain boy's Dad fears West Memphis cultists knew of plan to kill

By Bartholomew Sullivan
Thursday, June 10, 1993

The father of one of three 8-year-olds slain last month said Wednesday he and his wife are frightened that members of a Satanic cult with knowledge of the killings may be free in their community.

Mark Byers, 36, based his fears on reports that his friends have been followed since the arrests of three teenage suspects and on his belief that others may have seen the three defendants "all bloody and muddy and wet" after the murders and did not respond to a reward.

"My wife and I are scared," Byers said. "The devil is at work, and recently Satan and his demons have been at work in West Memphis."

Byers recalled a day several weeks before the slayings when his son Christopher told him that someone in dark clothing took the boy's picture in front of his home. The photographer drove off in what his son described as a green car, Byers said.

Byers and his wife, Melissa, originally dismissed the incident, believing a representative of their mortgage company was checking up on the house. But after reading Monday that a defendant in the case said cult members passed around pictures of the boys in cult meetings, he recalled the incident.

"There was a group of pictures of all three of them," defendant Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr., 17, told West Memphis police investigators on June 3, according to a transcript of the question-and-answer session. In that session, Misskelley described cult activities, including killing and eating dogs, in graphic detail.

Hours after the session, Misskelley, Michael Wayne Echols, 18, and Charles Jason Baldwin, 16, were charged with capital murder in the deaths of Christopher Byers, Steve Branch and Michael Moore.

Lawyers for the three defendants said their clients plan to plead not guilty to the charges.

Misskelley told police he subdued one of the boys who tried to escape and watched as Echols and Baldwin choked their victims into unconsciousness, then sexually mutilated one and sodomized another.

Byers said police have not revealed evidence they've gathered to the Byers family. He said he's concerned that, if there were more than three cult members passing around photographs of the victims, "there's other people who knew that these three little boys were going to be sacrificed."

Byers declined comment on whether he believes there are other suspects in the case. West Memphis police Insp. Gary Gitchell told reporters Friday that he did not expect any more arrests to be made in the case.

Byers said he intends to be careful not to disclose information that ''would jeopardize the case and help these animals get less than they deserve."

[Admin.]

Satanic 'dabblers' can become deadly disciples

Rob Johnson Sunday, June 13, 1993

They brew their own recipes for satanic ritual from the occult images they find in books, speed-metal rock and roll and among their own cluster of disturbed peers.

Self-fashioned satanists, most always teenage boys, are often called ''dabblers" by those who investigate or treat them.

The term describes the impromptu, self-taught practices of satanic ritualists, but it's an innocuous-sounding misnomer, too.

As several recent murders in this country have painfully illustrated, satanic "dabblers" can become brutal killers, experts say.

Three Arkansas teens - who, according to a suspect's statement, practiced their own brand of satanic ritual - have been charged in the murders of West Memphis 8-year-olds Michael Moore, Christopher Byers and Steve Branch.

Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr., Michael Wayne 'Damien' Echols and Charles Jason Baldwin are being held in the 8-year-olds' murders. Misskelley's descriptions of animal sacrifice, ritualistic abuse and homicide, disclosed in police statements obtained last week by The Commercial Appeal, sound all too familiar, say several researchers and law enforcement officials.

"Most of what brings this stuff on is people dabbling in the occult," said University of Denver professor Carl Raschke.

"But 'dabblers' is a misleading term because of what they can do. Things like causing pain and inflicting suffering."

And death.

Raschke, a religious studies professor, is the author of Painted Black, a 1990 book about satanic-related crimes, including several homicides in North America.

Steven Newberry of Joplin, Mo., for instance, died at the hands of Satan- worshiping high school buddies in 1987 in a case Raschke says strongly resembles the publicly known details of the West Memphis case.

Mark Kilroy, a University of Texas pre-med student never made it back from a 1989 spring break trip to the Mexican border town of Matamoros. He was killed by drug smugglers who thought sacrifices would convince Satan to protect them from the police.

In Lonoke, Ark., last year, a 31-year-old man and two teenagers were convicted in the ritualistic knife slaying of a 14-year-old girl in a cemetery there.

"The truth of the matter is that satanic crimes in this country are definitely out there," Raschke said, "even though there are some people who just don't want to believe it.

"It's the evolution of teenage rebellion in the last 30 years," he said. ''It's getting so much more extreme."

Sandi Bargioni, a San Francisco police officer who has studied and investigated satanic-related crime, agrees. But, she says, it's impossible to know how many of them occur.

"In my experience, the crimes committed are very small in number. They happen sporadically.

"But watch what happens in a town after that," she said. "You'll get this incredible hysteria. It's because of our own ingrained fears. It's a core belief. For the majority of us, the devil figure is the adversary."

Investigating these groups can take law enforcement officials uncomfortably close to the First Amendment's guarantees of freedom of religion, police say.

They may legally investigate satanic-related activity only if a crime is involved.

Friday, in fact, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a municipal ban on ritual sacrifice because it violated the First Amendment's protection of religious freedom. The Hialeah, Fla., ordinance prohibited the Santeria church there from sacrificing animals.

But animal sacrifice also figures ominously in the development of some hard-core teen satanists beyond the realm of any organized religion.

"This Supreme Court ruling is going to open a whole can of worms as far as satanic occultism is concerned," Raschke predicted Friday, because animal mutilations and sacrifices can be precursors to similar acts on people.

Misskelley's police statement included accounts of cult initiations where dogs were killed, roasted and eaten. Family members and lawyers for the other accused teens have challenged the veracity of Misskelley's statements.

Dabbling or not, Satan worship alone will not cause someone to kill, most experts say.

"Would people do this if not for Satan?" Raschke said. "They already have an inclination to for many other reasons. But satanism sure can be a motivator."

[Admin.]

Arkansas teens' lawyers want to see evidence

By Bartholomew Sullivan
Tuesday, June 15, 1993

Attorneys for the teenagers accused of killing three West Memphis boys will argue today that they need to see the evidence that persuaded police to charge their clients with murder.

Attorney Val P. Price said he did not expect the three defendants to be present for today's proceedings, and attorney George Robin Wadley Jr. suggested they may take place outside the courtroom in a judge's chambers.

The hearing in Crittenden County Circuit Court in Marion will not involve whether pretrial publicity in the case will require a change of venue. Second Judicial District Prosecutor Brent Davis has said the case should be tried in Crittenden County.

Wadley, who represents Charles Jason Baldwin, 16, filed a formal three-page motion asking for the evidence. He said he has seen nothing beyond a co- defendant's alleged confession linking Baldwin to the crime.

Wadley said the statement that defendant Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr., 17, gave West Memphis detectives would be insufficient evidence to convict his client.

Baldwin's other court-appointed lawyer, Paul N. Ford, has said he can prove Baldwin was at school at the time Misskelley told police the murders occurred.

Price, who represents 18-year-old Michael Wayne 'Damien' Echols, said discovery evidence is essential in preparing a defense.

All three defendants are charged with the May 5 murders of 8-year-olds Christopher Byers, Steve Branch and Michael Moore.

[Admin.]

Burglary reports sealed in case of slain boys

By Bartholomew Sullivan
Thursday, June 17, 1993

Reports of two burglaries more than a year ago in the West Memphis neighborhood where three 8-year-old boys were found dead last month have become part of the police investigation of the killings.

In one of the burglaries, the family's Yorkshire terrier was stomped to death, its bloody body left in the master bedroom while the house was ''trashed," said Greg Harrison, 33, who lived there but has since moved.

Wednesday, when The Commercial Appeal asked to see reports of that burglary and one other, police said the records were covered by Municipal Court Judge William P. Rainey's June 4 order sealing all investigative files in the triple slaying.

Police Inspector Gary Gitchell, the lead detective on the case, said someone tipped the police to the Harrison burglaries in the month prior to the arrest of three suspects June 4.

"This whole case is just so huge," he said. "Anything to do with (it), be it significant or insignificant, we followed up on."

Harrison said that his house had been burglarized three times prior to the April 1992 incident when his dog was killed.

Harrison also said he gave police a description of three men and the car he suspected was involved in the last burglary.

Harrison's home at 1594 Goodwin backed up to the part of Robin Hood Park where the bodies were found. Harrison and his wife moved out of West Memphis after the last burglary.

Three teenagers have been charged with capital murder in the May 5 deaths of Weaver Elementary School second-graders Steve Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore.

Michael Wayne Echols, 18, Charles Jason Baldwin, 16, and Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr., 17, are being held without bond at undisclosed locations. Their court-appointed lawyers say all three plan to plead not guilty.

Deputy Prosecutor John Fogleman said that, from what Gitchell told him, the burglary reports do belong in the investigative file. "I'm not saying any crime is related. I'm saying it's part of the investigative file.

"The investigative file involves any and all tips the police received related to the murder," Fogleman said.

Jerry Driver, chief county juvenile officer, said he sought help from outside experts after an increase in satanic-related graffiti and reports of animal sacrifice about a year ago. In a statement, Misskelley described activities of a cult to which he said he belonged for the three months before his arrest.

[Admin.]

Misskelley's lawyers plan to fight DNA-sample efforts

By Bartholomew Sullivan
Wednesday, June 23, 1993

Defense lawyers representing a teenager charged in the West Memphis triple-murder case will contest the state's efforts to obtain blood, saliva and hair samples from their clients, they said Friday.

Lawyers for defendant Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr. filed a motion in Crittenden County Circuit Court on Friday, stating that compliance with the state's request would be "an unreasonable intrusion" and would violate his constitutional rights.

If blood samples were recovered, crime lab specialists could test to establish whether the samples are from the same DNA as semen found at the crime scene.

In an interview, Misskelley's lawyer Greg Crow of Paragould said he would assert his client's right to due process and privacy, but declined to elaborate.

Misskelley's other lawyer, Daniel Stidham, said this week that "logic would dictate" that the state has evidence it wants to compare with his client's samples.

Jonesboro lawyer Val P. Price, representing defendant Michael Wayne Echols, said he has not decided how he will respond to the state's motion. He declined comment on the state of the physical evidence.

Lawyers for defendant Charles Jason Baldwin said they believe the state has failed to establish a connection between their client and the deaths of 8- year-olds Steve Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore.

Baldwin's lawyer, Paul N. Ford of Jonesboro, said there was not enough of a connection legally between the statement Jessie Misskelley gave police and Baldwin's alleged involvement in the crime.

Misskelley told police June 3 that he helped lure the youngsters into the heavily wooded Robin Hood Park on May 5 and watched as co-defendants Baldwin and Echols brutalized them with a stick and 6-inch knife. He said that at least one of the victims was sodomized.

Most states allow DNA comparison testing, but its admissibility as evidence in court proceedings differs by state.

Saliva is used to determine a donor's "secretor status," or whether the person tested can communicate a genetic blueprint through body fluids other than blood.

The state filed a motion last week seeking the samples, as well as fingerprints and footprints, stating the request complied with terms of Arkansas's Rules of Criminal Procedure. The law permits the state to request such information when it does not involve an unreasonable intrusion.

Prosecutor John N. Fogleman said he would have nothing to say about the defense lawyers' responses.

[Admin.]

Slaying suspects asked for samples

By Bartholomew Sullivan
Thursday, June 24, 1993

Prosecutors have told attorneys representing three teenagers charged with murdering three eight-year-old boys in West Memphis that they want samples of the suspects' blood, hair and saliva.

Paragould, Ark., attorney Daniel T. Stidham, representing defendant Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr., said he is researching his response to the request.

Also Wednesday, the lead detective in the case said police did not use the estimated $32,000 in cash and pledges sent to the Crittenden County Crimestoppers program to help generate leads in the case. West Memphis Police Inspector Gary Gitchell, program coordinator, said no one came forward with information that would make them eligible for a reward.

Prosecutors' request for the blood, hair and saliva samples from the defendants has some legal footing. Stidham acknowledged Arkansas rules of

criminal procedure allow the state access to such samples but said his client still may have a legal basis for denying the request.

Michael Wayne Echols, 18; Charles Jason Baldwin, 16; and Misskelley, 17, are charged with the May 5 murders of Steve Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore.

All three defendants are being held without bond at undisclosed locations. Their lawyers have said all three plan not guilty pleas.

Defense lawyers have 10 days to respond to the request for samples, Stidham said. Prosecutors could not be reached Wednesday.

The reward fund drew donations from 73 people and Gitchell said he was sending letters to each donor.

The largest single contributions totaled $5,000, including one from Warehouse Foods Inc., Gitchell said. The company's Little Rock parent company has asked for the money back, said manager Louie Glover.

[Admin.]

Lawyers allege illegal search of Baldwin's home

Police misled judge, murder defense says

By Bartholomew Sullivan
Tuesday, June 29, 1993

Evidence seized by police when they executed a search warrant at the home of a 16-year-old suspect in the West Memphis triple-murder case should not be available for use at trial, lawyers argued in court papers filed Monday.

Lawyers for Charles Jason Baldwin, charged June 3 with three counts of capital murder, said the police did not comply with state law when they entered Baldwin's home on the night of his arrest.

After co-defendant Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr., 17, gave police a statement that implicated Baldwin and Michael Wayne Echols, 18, in the murders, police sought a search warrant for all three defendants' mobile homes. Police told Municipal Judge William P. Rainey that the items to be seized were in imminent danger of removal. Rainey authorized the nighttime search on that basis.

Baldwin, Echols and Misskelley, charged in the May 5 deaths of 8-year-olds Steve Branch, Michael Moore and Christopher Byers, are being held without bond at undisclosed locations.

According to a brief in support of their motion to suppress the evidence, filed Monday in Crittenden County Circuit Court, Baldwin's lawyers said West Memphis police misled Rainey. They told him the evidence they were seeking was in imminent danger of being removed or destroyed, adding the alleged murderers were "friends and members of a close-knit cult group."

Baldwin's lawyers, Paul N. Ford and George Robin Wadley Jr. of Jonesboro, said that there is nothing in Misskelley's statement indicating that Baldwin was Misskelley's friend or "ever participated in occultic activities." The lawyers also said there was nothing to suggest the evidence wouldn't have been available the next morning.

Police Inspector Gary Gitchell, the lead detective on the case, declined comment on the motion to suppress the evidence seized in the search of Baldwin's home. Prosecutor John Fogleman also said he had no comment on the motion.

Ford and Wadley say that blood and hair samples taken from their client on the night of his arrest also violated state law.

State prosecutors filed a motion June 17 seeking samples of the defendants' blood, hair and saliva. That motion is pending in court.

Lawyers for Misskelley said last week that they plan to contest the state's motion. Baldwin's lawyers say that because some samples have already been obtained illegally, the state would be violating his constitutional rights if it permits taking additional samples.

Ford and Wadley contend that Misskelley's statement did not provide sufficiently detailed information for the 45-page list of items connected with the murders sought at Baldwin's home.

Their motion also states that the police asked for material generally available "in any home in Crittenden County." For example, in their motion, the lawyers stated police said they would be looking for "blue, green, red, black (or) purple fibers," and "blue, yellow, red paint or plastic."

The motion does not say what was seized from Baldwin's house because of an existing Circuit Court judge's order prohibiting disclosure of the police investigative file.

But it does say that samples of handwriting were taken from Baldwin's home.

The Fourth Amendment prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. Arkansas law goes further, requiring police to conduct searches between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. unless the circumstances in which the objects are to be seized are ''difficult to predict with accuracy" or when there is imminent danger that evidence will be removed.

The search of Baldwin's home began at 10:32 p.m. and ended at 12:59 a.m., June 4, after Rainey signed a search warrant at 9:50 p.m.

The hair and blood samples also were taken at night.

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