Untying the Knot: John Mark Byers and the West Memphis Three (49 page)

⁵¹
“Hometown Boy Makes Good in Jeweler Trade,”
Tri-City Tribune
, December 15, 1988.

⁵²
According to
www.pdrhealth.com
, Dilaudid (pronounced dye-LAW-did) is “a narcotic analgesic [that] is prescribed for the relief of moderate to severe pain such as that due to Biliary colic (pain caused by an obstruction in the gallbladder or bile duct), burns, cancer, heart attack, injury (soft tissue and bone), renal colic (sharp lower back and groin pain usually caused by the passage of a stone through the ureter), and surgery.” On the street, the drug is a valued opiate and sells for approximately $50 for a 4 mg tablet (called “K-4s”). At one time, if she could locate and afford it, Melissa would take up to 16 mgs intravenously per day.

⁵³
Daniel Hatchett and his partner (who was also his nephew), Dustin “Dusty” Charles Boyle, were interviewed during the investigation into the murder of Christopher Byers, Steve Branch, and Michael Moore. They were asked to provide alibis and fingerprints. Boyle was asked to submit to a polygraph examination, to which he agreed. According to examiner Bill Durham, Boyle answered all questions with no deception detected. It is unclear why only Boyle was asked to take the polygraph.

⁵⁴
Leveritt,
Devil’s Knot
.

⁵⁵
The ATF was brought in because John McFarland had convinced them that Byers was also running guns.

⁵⁶
This church was featured in the film
Paradise Lost
as the church that Damien Echols had visited once, at which time he told their youth pastor that he was “beyond saving” and had “a pact with the Devil.”

⁵⁷
Murray was down on his luck and broke during a cold winter, and his fiancée’s car was in the process of being repossessed. Murray broke into a shed and stole unspecified merchandise that he intended to sell. He was convicted of third-degree burglary and sentenced to three years’ probation. Because he was living in Indiana at the time, his probation was transferred there.

⁵⁸
This information was provided by Todd Moore in a phone conversation with the author.

⁵⁹
Not only had he never met the Hobbses, but he had also never met or even heard of the convicted killers. Only Pam Hobbs ever alleged having any contact with any of the teens. In WMPD inspector Gary Gitchell’s June 9, 1993, interview notes, he states that Pam “remembers Damien as a younger person, and hates to think that he would/could have done this to her son.”

⁶⁰
Mara Leveritt made much of this fact in
Devil’s Knot
(pp. 34-35). In order to bolster her case for police ineptitude, she points to the failure by the police to question Mark further about his not knowing where Stevie Branch lived. First, Mark thought that he
did
know where the Hobbses lived. Second, the irrelevancy of the information was obvious to police. Dana Moore had already told police that she had seen Michael and Stevie together, later joined by Christopher. Even conceding that Mark didn’t know exactly where Stevie lived, what possible difference would that have made to the investigation?

⁶¹
Neighbor Debra O’Tinger lived at 1309 Goodwin Avenue, just across the street from Robin Hood Hills. She testified at both trials that she had seen Christopher, Stevie, and Michael cut across her yard between 5:45 and 6:00 p.m. on May 5.

⁶²
Aaron Hutcheson was invited to go with the boys to Robin Hood that day, but his mother, Victoria, wouldn’t allow it, according to an article in the
Memphis
Commercial Appeal
, May 13, 1993.

⁶³
Memphis Commercial Appeal
, “Counselors Help School Deal With Its Grief” May 8, 1993.

⁶⁴
Stevie Branch’s funeral was held on May 13 at Bradshaw’s German-Aumon Funeral Home in Steele, Missouri, and presided over by Reverends Leon Brassfield and J. D. Hobbs, Terry Hobbs’s father. Michael Moore’s services were held on May 11 at the Holy Cross Episcopal Church in West Memphis, with the Reverend Fred Tinsley officiating.

⁶⁵
This is Mark Byers’s account of the incident. Joe Berlinger was contacted by this author and asked to verify this account but could not or would not do so. Berlinger initially said he was inclined to grant an interview but eventually declined.

⁶⁶
A panel discussion was hosted by the
Arkansas Times
at the Argenta Theater on June 1, 2011, following a screening of the film
Paradise Lost
. The panel consisted of Joe Berlinger,
Devil’s Knot
author Mara Leveritt, Arkansas Take Action co-founder and restaurateur Capi Peck, and the wife of Damien Echols, Lorri Davis. An audience member posed a question to Berlinger regarding the “honorarium” paid specifically to Mark Byers, and Berlinger answered that
all
six
families had received $7,500 for the first film. Only Mark Byers had been willing to participate in the second film. Berlinger then stated that he had never paid for participation in his previous films, nor would he do so in future documentary films. However, Mark Byers claims that he was paid in three installments, amounts unspecified, for granting five appearances in
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
. There are unsubstantiated rumors that Terry Hobbs was paid for his appearance in the film as well. Berlinger was asked by this author about these payments but did not respond, as was the case with all questions posed to him. Curiously, there is a disclaimer at the end of
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
to the effect that certain people—not named—were paid for their participation in the film.

⁶⁷
Melissa’s parents, Delores and Kilbourn DeFir, were not present. “Melissa said it would only upset us,” her mother said, according to an interview granted with Mara Leveritt and appearing in
Devil’s Knot
.

⁶⁸
Though this similarity was certainly pertinent—it actually caused a delay in the start of Misskelley’s trial—little use could be made of the discovery. Because there wasn’t enough blood on the knife to perform a more narrowing DNA test—the sample was only sufficient in quantity for DQ Alpha testing—it was impossible to identify exactly whose blood was really on that knife. But Leveritt seemed to believe that because the blood type was common to both Mark and Christopher, it added credibility to her insinuation that Christopher’s adoption by Mark might not be legitimate. Although early in
Devil’s Knot
, she lends credence to Ricky Murray’s claim that Mark never adopted Christopher, she later uses the DNA results to suggest that Mark might be Christopher’s
biological
father. She wrote,

“Lax and the attorneys wondered, could the DNA of two people who were not biologically related be utterly indistinguishable [by DQ Alpha testing]? Or—the thought arose—was John Mark Byers actually Christopher’s biological father? Was that why he’d always claimed to have “adopted” the boy, but not Christopher’s half-brother Ryan? Those questions would hang over the case, unresolved, for years to come.”

This was an incredibly convoluted assertion. In whose opinion would those questions “hang over the case”? If it is a question regarding Christopher’s adoption, there never was any ambiguity. Mark adopted Christopher on February 21, 1991, according to papers filed in the Crittenden County Clerk’s office, and renamed him “Christopher Mark Byers.” The filing of the petition was handled by West Memphis attorney Jan Thomas. Any interested parties had six months from the date of the temporary decree of adoption to file any objection. No such objection was received. Ricky Lee Murray, who feigned outrage by saying he had never given his permission for the adoption, was notable for his absence, a trait he had displayed often during his short marriage to Melissa. According to Mark, Melissa had told him that Murray was drunk in a bar the night Christopher was born.

⁶⁹
This information is contained in a lab report from Genetic Design in Greensboro, North Carolina, dated January 27, 1994.

⁷⁰
When Cooper was interviewed by police at a Ramada Inn in Memphis, he said that he didn’t know why Mark had given him the knife, and that he hadn’t wanted it. He also stated that Mark told him, “I want you to keep it in your car,” “we have something between us,” and “I want you to think of me if you should ever use it.” The interview with Cooper was recorded by hand on yellow lined paper and has no investigator’s name or signature on it.

⁷¹
There was initially much disagreement between Stidham and co-counsel Greg Crowe on whether Misskelley should cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for leniency in sentencing. In the end, though, they both agreed that he should remain silent, apparently to take his chances on appeal, should Echols or Baldwin prevail in their upcoming trial.

⁷²
Mark has since stated numerous times, including to this author, that he had surely cut his thumb while trimming venison with the knife, though he acknowledged that the knife wasn’t very well suited for it. Thirteen years later, the knife was sent out for more stringent testing using technology not available in 1994. As of this writing, it has been returned, but no results have been revealed.

⁷³
The issue of mosquito presence would also play a role in Damien Echols’s Rule 37 hearing, conducted between May 1998 and March 1999. There had long been concern among supporters that the absence of mosquito bites on the victims’ bodies was proof that they had been killed elsewhere and disposed of at Robin Hood Hills. Prosecution expert witnesses testified that because there is a span of time between a mosquito bite and the accompanying swelling of tissue, the victims could have died before the bites became visible. Dr. Neal Haskell, in particular, testified that tiny pinpricks could be present on a body that were indicative of mosquitoes feeding, but that the lack of blood pressure in the body would prevent them from getting food and thereby keep a typical “mosquito bite” from forming.

⁷⁴
Anyone who spends much time outdoors, however, can attest to the fact that the presence of mosquitoes ebbs and flows over the course of an evening.

⁷⁵
The Baldwin defense team was considering how to weave this “motive” into their defense. In the HBO film
Paradise Lost
, Baldwin defense attorneys Paul Ford and Robin Wadley discuss this very topic with Dr. James Rasicot, listed as the defense team psychologist. Rasicot not only believes that Mark had the means and opportunity but also offers what he thinks is proof of motive. “[Byers] has got the motive. His son, who he’s upset with—his son is the only one who is mutilated; the other two weren’t mutilated.” He adds, “All the pieces fit together.” Rasicot never gave testimony at trial.

⁷⁶
From the film
Paradise Lost

⁷⁷
At the time, Mark believed this information to be accurate, though he later found out that it was a rumor. Berlinger and Sinofsky decided to leave the scene in
Paradise Lost
anyway, presumably because it demonstrated that false allegations about the defendants were making their way around West Memphis.

⁷⁸
When police interviewed John Kingsbury on August 5, 1994, Kingsbury told Officer Dale Weaver that it was Byers who had taken him to Brenda Atwood’s house on Osage Drive; Mark says it was Kingsbury who took him.

⁷⁹
John and Donna Kingsbury had two boys, approximately ten and seven years old. The older boy, though younger than Ryan by a few years, was still old enough that the two spent some time together. According to Mark’s account, the older Kingsbury son was over in Mark’s yard with Ryan and a few other boys. The younger Kingsbury boy came over to the Byerses’ house and began throwing rocks at the other boys and generally being “belligerent,” refusing to leave when the other boys told him to. After one of the rocks struck a window on the house, Mark came to the door and told the rock-throwing boy to go home. He refused. Mark finally went over and “dusted the britches” of the boy with the plastic end of a flyswatter and sent him home crying. Shortly thereafter, John Kingsbury came storming over, shouting, “Why’d you hit my boy? Who do you think you are?” The two argued back and forth until things got ugly, at which point Mark suggested to Kingsbury that he get the hell off his property before he “beat a mudhole right in his ass.” Although many, including
KAIT TV News
in Jonesboro, as well as Mara Leveritt in
Devil’s Knot
, reported that the Kingsburys sought and were granted a restraining order against Mark Byers, they neglected to mention that there were two restraining orders granted that day; Mark also requested and was granted a restraining order against John Kingsbury, preventing him from coming onto the Byerses’ property.