Abomination: Devil Worship and Deception in the West Memphis Three Murders (2 page)

A sympathetic documentary, produced with the assistance of Peter Jackson, director of the internationally acclaimed
Lord of the Rings
movie trilogy titled “
West of Memphis
”, is due for release in December of 2012.

Another film based on the events is currently in production by Dimension Films. Featuring a first rate director, Atom Egoyan and a 20 million dollar budget and with an all star cast headlined by Reese Witherspoon and Colin Firth, (both internationally recognized stars awarded Oscars by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) this additional film based upon the murders is due for release in 2013.

The West Memphis Three murders and the conclusions made by all followers of the case concern broader issues of perception and reality; the difference between facts and fictions; simple truths and complex lies; about not only what we see, but what we want to see; and about believability and implausibility. What we cannot believe, we can never see. This is important, as each individual, and reader of the evidence in this book, will interpret reality from their own personal frame of reference. The ability to distort, omit and fabricate reality, by the documentary film makers, journalists and celebrities remains one of the astonishing elements of this dark saga. As mentioned above, I have attempted to address the omission and distortion of the record in a specific chapter of the book.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

I encourage the reader to objectively analyze all the evidence presented in this book and I believe that they will then come to the same conclusion that I have formed. Namely, that the three young men were not only found guilty at law, but were involved in the brutal torture, rape and murder of three innocent children. Not only have the West Memphis Three been found guilty, it is my opinion that they committed the monstrous act of violence influenced by the occult and Satanism.

In sum, my intent is to present, based upon facts and evidence publicly available, the following personal opinion:

1.
That the police and judicial system in Arkansas found guilty the individuals responsible for the murders,

2.
There was a pervasive environment of witchcraft occurring in the City of West Memphis before and up to the commission of the crime,

3.
Damien Echols, before, during, and after his release from prison, maintains a disturbing and profound interest in witchcraft and the occult.

2. THE MURDERS

Christopher

The Memphis skyline, highlighted by the Great American Pyramid, can be seen easily from the city of West Memphis, Arkansas, located on the west side of Memphis, Tennessee across the broad Mississippi River. H. L. Mencken famously called Memphis “the buckle” of the Bible Belt. Annually, tens of thousands venture to the city to see Graceland, the sparkling white house of the King, Elvis Presley. In April 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel. King had ventured to Memphis to assist with a garbage workers strike.

Crossing the mile-wide Mississippi east to west, the scenery changes. Bereft of the modern sophistication of Memphis proper, family houses and rows of trailer parks are interspersed throughout the landscape of West Memphis, whose population in 1993 was roughly 28,000. Alcoholism, drug abuse and unemployment permeate the lives of denizens of the city’s trailer parks. Many of the families receive checks from the government to survive. Broken homes and confusing family trees are common in the trailer parks---many of the parents are under the supervision of law enforcement. Eastern Arkansas reflects a darker shade of the Deep South, with defined class and racial distinctions.

William Jefferson Clinton had run the State of Arkansas as Governor from 1982 to 1992. Under his ten year leadership of the state, drug smuggler Barry Seal imported massive amounts of cocaine (3-5 Billion dollars worth) into an airfield in Mena, Arkansas. Investments into a shady real estate transaction known as Whitewater took place, which would sully Clinton’s political career. Numerous suspicious murders tied to drug smuggling blemished the State of Arkansas with a reputation of corruption. Clinton left the governorship of Arkansas in 1992 to become the 42nd President of the United States.

In this generally bleak environment, three eight year old second grade friends grew up---Christopher Byers, Michael Moore and Steven Branch. All the boys were in the same Cub Scout Troop that met weekly at the Holy Cross Episcopal Church.

On the evening of May 5th, 1993, at dusk, against the will of their parents, the three Cub Scouts rode their bicycles into an undeveloped parcel of land known to locals as Robin Hood Hills. The area represented an escape for the boys into a Peter Pan environment; a place of refuge where they could jump their bicycles over mud hills and build tree houses. Local residents heard of drug deals taking place in the secrecy of the forested area and drifters were known to sleep in improvised cardboard shacks in the overgrowth. On the north side of the wooded area, a Blue Beacon truck wash, next to a service road, provided a welcome rest stop for truckers and their 18-wheelers that barreled east and west on Interstate 40.

Robin Hood Hills

Prior to May 5th, 1993, dark tales about the Hills circulated among the boys and other locals:

On at least two or three occasions, a playmate would later claim, the boys had hidden while strange men with painted faces sat in a circle and recited incantations in what the boys took to be Spanish. They smoked funny-smelling cigarettes and did “nasty” things with their bodies. Neighbors would later report that a satanic cult met in the patch of boggy woods. One couple whose house backed up to the woods once came home to see their water bed in tatters and their dog slaughtered on the floor.
¹

Two of the boys had begged another of their friends, Aaron Hutcheson to join them for adventuring in the Hills on the evening of May 5th. Aaron’s mother sternly rejected their offer. However, Aaron would tell investigators that he did follow the boys into the forest at dusk. He said he followed the three and climbed a tree and saw one of the boys struggling for his life in the hands of the killers.
²
One witness would testify that four children, not three, entered the woods at around 6:30 p.m.

As the sun set over Robin Hood Hills, Christopher Byers, James Michael Moore and Steven Branch rode by three troubled, local teens who were known to authorities for the wrong reasons. A rambunctious evening ride with friends on bicycles turned into a nightmare. Three eight year old children would never return home.

Police drawing of the crime scene at

Robin Hood Hills

Numbers 1, 2, and 3 are where the bodies of the children were found.

Commercial Appeal

Quoted from the
Commercial Appeal
:

Experts warned Crittenden County officials last year about a rising interest in the occult among young people, and one consultant said he found evidence of a self-styled satanic cult there.

Consultant Steve Nawojczyk said he discovered some disturbing things last year when Crittenden County officials sought his help investigating reports of animal sacrifice and satanic ritual.

Nawojczyk said he found a room in an abandoned West Memphis school that revealed evidence of bonfires and detailed artwork used in satanic rituals. The old Dabbs School later burned down last December in a fire that investigators say was suspicious. A year prior to the murders, authorities began looking into reports of ritualistic activities. Among the sites they investigated was "Stonehenge," a decaying local cotton gin decorated with satanic graffiti and strewn with animal carcasses. A friend says Misskelley visited the abandoned site.

''It was pretty eerie,'' said Nawojczyk, a Little Rock-based expert on gangs, cults and other non-traditional groups. ''It's a bizarre subculture.'' Rumors and accusations about occult activity have run rampant in the West Memphis area since three teenagers were arrested June 3 for the murders of three 8-year-old boys. One of the accused teens told police one of the boys was sexually mutilated and another was raped. He said cultic rituals in the past three months included eating dogs and participating in sex orgies.

Charged with the murders are Michael Wayne 'Damien' Echols, 18; Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr., 17; and Charles Jason Baldwin, 16. Several acquaintances say Echols customarily wore black and told them he killed cats and worshiped the devil....

...''It seemed to me there was a significant problem to be looked into,'' said Dr. Paul King, a Memphis psychiatrist and author of a book called Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll: Dealing with Today's Troubled Youth.

Jerry Driver, chief juvenile officer for Crittenden County, said he asked for help from King and Nawojczyk after seeing a marked increase in satanic- related graffiti and reports of animal sacrifice about a year ago. Driver said he visited at least five sites in the county where he found graffiti and animal carcasses....

...While many people dismiss reports of Satanism as urban myth, Nawojczyk said he has helped identify several incidents nationwide of self-styled teen Satanists. The youths often start by dabbling in the occult but later find themselves deeply involved in small, cultic groups with dangerous propensities, he said.

Researchers have difficulty documenting so-called ''generational'' Satanism in which rituals and abuse allegedly are passed from parents to children. But several cases of self-styled Satanism have been documented, said Nawojczyk, the head of N.I.S. Inc., a Little Rock consulting firm that advises police and schoolteachers nationwide.

Self-styled Satanist groups tend to have about five to seven members, usually troubled youths searching for an identity, Nawojczyk said. Often, there is an older charismatic leader who the members believe has access to Satan, he said.

The youths generally are attracted to the group by sex, drugs and power they believe Satanism gives them. Danger may come when a few hard-core believers get in too deep, especially under the manipulation of a seemingly omnipotent leader.

''The leader is a very powerful person'' who often practices mind control, he said. ''It's amazing to me how much power these people get over other people. David Koresh is a perfect example.

''The (followers) get into this fantasy role-playing stuff, and they can't turn the fantasy off,'' Nawojczyk said.

Murder among such groups is rare, but not without precedent. A 31-year-old man and two teenagers were convicted last year in Lonoke, Ark., for the ritualistic knife slaying of a 14-year-old girl in a cemetery there.

Such incidents are infrequent, but murder can be a natural progression for self-stylist Satanists who start killing cats and dogs and work their way up to horses and cows, Nawojczyk said.

The groups are called self-stylist because they form their own brand of Satanism by blending diverse practices and beliefs picked up from books, movies and music. Because they basically are kids without means, self-stylists become ''Satanists of opportunity,'' sacrificing small animals because they're readily available and holding ritual meetings where an icy cup may substitute for a silver goblet.

At such meetings, self-stylists often sacrifice cats or dogs, burn fires, drink blood, take drugs and cap off the service by having sex, Nawojczyk said.

Nawojczyk said he found a few sites in Crittenden County that appeared to be ritual meeting places, including the Dabbs School. One room in the school included a pentagram surrounded by upside-down crosses and other symbols, with evidence of fires on the cement floor.

The abandoned school at 1416 S. Avalon burned down Dec. 26. Fire inspector James Norris said the fire was arson-related, but said he received a tip that the blaze wasn't intentional. Rather, it was started by juveniles who let their fire ''get out of hand,'' he said. Norris said he didn't receive any tips the fire was connected to Satanism.

Other sites included a farmhouse that has since been destroyed and the skeleton foundation of an old cotton gin east of Marion, Ark., known to local youths as Stonehenge.

...Echols's reading habits will be important in determining the nature of his thinking and possible cult activities. Self-styled Satanists generally learn a philosophy of the ''power of evil over good'' from books they read and music they listen to, King said.

People who knew Echols said he dressed in black, called himself 'Damien,' and carried a cat's skull and at times a spell book with him.

King said such signs are common among teens who are delving deeper into satanism.

''They're identifiable because they flaunt their evil,'' King said. ''They often have pseudonyms, like 'Damien....
³

With the sun setting over West Memphis and the parents of the three boys soon realizing that their children were missing, dull panic slowly grew in their minds. John Mark Byers, stepfather to Christopher, gathered his wife Melissa and stepson Ryan into his Isuzu truck and began scouring the streets of West Memphis. At around 7:30 p.m., Byers pulled up his car up to a parked police car and asked a patrol officer for assistance in finding Christopher. At 7:48 on May 5th, the sun set over West Memphis, and the dim, silvery light from a full moon covered the city. Byers returned home and made a number of calls to both the County Sheriff’s Office and the West Memphis Police Department, again asking for police assistance in the search.

Police Officer Regina Meek appeared at the Byers home shortly thereafter to take a police report. As Mrs. Meek left with completed paperwork, Diane Moore, Michael Moore’s mother walked across the street from her home to the Byer’s home to ask if they had found Christopher, as her son was also missing. Officer Meek filled out another police report from Mrs. Moore. Michael’s mother said she last saw her son riding bicycles with Steve Branch and Christopher Byers. Another officer was dispatched to a local catfish restaurant to talk to Pamela Hobbs, who reported to police that her son Steven Edward Branch was missing as well.

Local groups promptly formed to look for the boys in the dark, including an eager posse of twelve year olds, including Brit Smith and Ryan Clark. They thought Robin Hood Hills the first place to search. Brit and Ryan, while standing at the side of a drainage ditch, shouted for Steven, Mike and Chris. They then heard a loud splash echo through the darkness of the forest. Chris thought the splashing sounded like someone wrestling in the water. Then they heard another loud splash. At the sound of a third splash, the boys turned and ran fast for the safety of their neighborhood homes.

At 8:45, the West Memphis Police Department received a call from the Bojangles fast food restaurant located one mile east of Robin Hood Hills. A middle-aged black man, covered in blood and mud, entered the restaurant, and instead of going to the men’s restroom, he instead entered the women’s bathroom. “With blood on his face and blood dripping from his arm,” said manager Marty King. A thick layer of mud covered the bottom of his shoes, and water soaked his pants up to his knees. According to witnesses, he remained in the women’s bathroom for up to an hour. The concerned manager entered the restroom to ask if he needed assistance and saw the man had smeared excrement on the floor and himself and blood was smeared on the walls. The manager called the police and the same Officer Meek (after taking police reports from Mr. Byers and Mrs. Moore) arrived too late; the African American man had already left Bojangles Restaurant. Police Officer Meek talked to the manager out of the window of her car. She never left her police cruiser and drove off after receiving another call.

At about ten o’clock the evening of May 5th, Narlene Hollingsworth drove her car to pick up her relative, Dixie Hubbard at a local laundromat located on a service road near Robin Hood Hills. She filed her two children into the car and headed for the laundromat. As she drove to her destination, she passed two teens walking along side the road. Flashing her headlights to high beam, she recognized that one of them, dressed in his usual black, was Damien Echols. Beside him she thought she saw his current girlfriend, Domini Teer. In a statement to police, she said they were dirty and muddy. When she arrived at the laundry, Dixie Hubbard had a story to tell Narlene. Her seventeen year old nephew, LG Hollingsworth, stopped by the laundry to wash dirty clothes just before the 10 o’clock closing, having been dropped off in an unusual car. Damien and Domini were close friends with LG.

At about 10:30 p.m., Mark Byers returned to Robin Hood Hills in the moonlit night to again search for his stepson. After a fruitless circling of the area, he headed home. On his way back, he ran into West Memphis Patrol officer John Moore. Together they returned to the woods, but found nothing of interest other than two sets of bicycle tire tracks.

At midnight, Jackie Hicks, Stevie Branch’s grandfather arrived in West Memphis from Blytheville, Arkansas. Once he heard his grandson Stevie was missing, he got in his car and drove fifty miles south to help with the search. With Mark Byers by his side, Hicks searched the forested area again. Speculating that the three may have drowned in the Ten Mile Bayou, a man-made tributary of the Mississippi, they scanned the water for any sign of the boys. They searched through the night, ending exhausted at 3 a.m.

By morning, the anxious parents, with local residents, began searching anew for the lost boys. The West Memphis police, now fully mobilized, addressed the issue of the missing children at their eight o’clock morning briefing. Chief Inspector Gary Gitchell, head of the Detective division, spearheaded the discussion. He informed the assembled members of the police department that a search-and-rescue team would assist in the search. A helicopter from Memphis, Tennessee flew in to scan the area for any sign of the children. Groups gathered with flyers to hand out to locals. Search parties were organized to cover any unsorted areas within West Memphis. Local news reporters began congregating to cover the growing story.

By noon, most of the search parties assumed that the boys had gone camping far outside of the Robin Hood Hills area. However, Steve Jones, a Crittenden County juvenile officer, decided to check a shallow creek area in the Hills known as the Devil’s Den. Usually dry during most of the year, there was about eight feet of water in the gully from recent rains. Scanning the water from the bank, Jones spotted something. A young child’s black tennis shoe floated on the surface of the water. He radioed to other officers what he found. At about 1:30 P.M., Detective Mike Allen arrived at the creek to investigate. While trying to get a closer look at the shoe, Allen slipped on the slick, muddy bank and slid into the murky water. Dislodged by Allen, Michael Moore’s naked, alabaster body floated up into the view of the detectives. A cloud of blood surrounded the body when Allen gently pulled Michael Moore’s body from the water and placed it on the bank of the creek. The detectives recoiled at the sight of the young boy’s body: he had been hogtied with shoelaces in an unusual fashion---left wrist to left ankle, right wrist to right ankle. His face and head were purple and bloody from a severe beating.

Startled and shocked, Allen hurriedly left the area and immediately called Chief Investigator Gitchell. Realizing this was homicide, uniformed police officers hurried to Robin Hood Hills and hastily set up a perimeter with yellow police tape.

Investigators determined that the remainder of the ditch had to be searched. While investigating the ditch area, numerous pieces of the boys clothing were found. Two pairs of children's jeans were found inside out, with the zippers intact, as if they were ripped off their bodies. Detective Bryn Ridge volunteered to enter the dirty water and scour for the other boys. While moving through the water, Ridge discovered sticks stuck in the mud, their ends wrapped with items of clothing. Searching in the water farther down in the gully ten feet from the location of Michael Moore, the naked bodies of Stevie Branch and Christopher Byers were found submerged in the water, held down by sticks lodged deep in the mud. Branch had evidence of a beating similar to Moore, but there was something more horrifying: a deep wound on the left side of his face. It looked as if his face was bitten. Byers had endured an awful wound as well: his penis and scrotum were cut off. Deep knife wounds interspersed the area around where his genitals should have been. Both boys were bound with shoelaces like the body of Michael Moore: left wrist to left ankle, right wrist to right ankle.