Untying the Knot: John Mark Byers and the West Memphis Three (53 page)

¹⁷⁰
John Douglas “Triple Homicide Analysis” as presented in Damien Echols’s October 29, 2007, second amended petition for writ of habeas corpus, exhibit “UU.”

¹⁷¹
Cathy Frye, “Reputation Is Ruined, Says Stepdad of Boy Killed in ’93,”
NWAnews.com, Arkansas Democrat Gazette Online
,
February 3, 2008.

¹⁷²
For John Douglas, that was a near-perfect scenario, the only downside being that he knew that a suspect was presently being looked at and in fact had already interviewed him twice before putting together his profile.

¹⁷³
In their
Crime Classification Manual
, 2nd ed., Douglas, Burgess, Burgess, and Ressler define victimology as “the complete history of the victim.” They ask, “Was the victim known to the killer? What were the chances of the victim becoming a target for violent crime? What risk did the offender take in perpetrating this crime?” The relationship between the offender and the victim is a critical component of the analysis of the crime and is a key aspect of solving it.

¹⁷⁴
According to Hobbs in a conversation with this author in October 2010, it was the Hobbs family who refused to talk with Douglas and Herot, not the Hickses. Both Douglas and Herot verified that Herot spoke with Hobbs’s sister, mother, and two brothers in Kokomo, Indiana, in September 2007. Either Hobbs was misinformed by his family, or he was lying. There is a third possibility, of course—that both Herot and Douglas were being untruthful.

¹⁷⁵
Beth Warren, “Top Court to Hear Damien Echols’ Plea Today for New Trial in ‘West Memphis Three’ Case,”
The Commercial Appeal
, September 30, 2010. Ms. Warren couldn’t recall the exact dates of her interview with Cindy Hobbs but was sure it was well after Herot had spoken with her.

¹⁷⁶
Cathy Frye, “Reputation Is Ruined.”

¹⁷⁷
Declaration of Pamela Marie Hobbs,
Hobbs v. Pasdar
, US District Court, Eastern District of Arkansas, Western Division, filed August 21, 2009. Pam said that Terry’s first wife’s name was Angela Timms.

¹⁷⁸
Declaration of Mildred French,
Hobbs v. Pasdar
.

¹⁷⁹
In her 2009 declaration in the matter of
Hobbs v. Pasdar
, Pam Hobbs would say that she’d seen Terry’s divorce papers and that his ex-wife had accused him of “sexually molesting” their son, Bryan.

¹⁸⁰
The so-called lake knife was a large survival knife found behind the home of Jason Baldwin in Lakeshore Trailer Park, submerged in the mud at the bottom of the lake that gives the “park” its name. Police divers recovered this knife in November 1993, six months after the murders. The knife was never linked in any way to either the suspects or the victims, with the exception of the testimony of medical examiner Dr. Frank Peretti, who said that it was “possible” that the knife had caused some of the injuries. Prosecutor John Fogleman, in his closing argument to the Echols/Baldwin jury, used a grapefruit to show jurors how cuts to the fruit by the lake knife “matched” some of the injuries to the victims. In Echols’s habeas
petition, forensic odontologist Dr. Robert Wood stated, “Grapefruit is not a recognized analog for human skin. To my knowledge it has never been used as a model for skin injury, in any court, anywhere … the difference in damage inflicted by a knife to these two substrates are as different as chalk and cheese.”

¹⁸¹
The
Memphis Commercial Appeal
, for example, printed much of the statement verbatim in a June 7, 1993, article by Bartholomew Sullivan, “Teen Describes ‘Cult’ Torture of Boys: Defendant Misskelley Tells Police of Sex Mutilation.”

¹⁸²
In between the Misskelley and Echols/Baldwin trials, prosecutors Brent Davis and John Fogleman told the families of the victims that without Misskelley’s testimony at the Echols/Baldwin trial, they would have only a “50/50” chance of obtaining convictions against the two. He apparently underestimated the jury, who convicted the defendants on all counts and sent Echols to death row.

¹⁸³
When Gary Gitchell was asked by attorney D’Leslie Davis during the
Hobbs v. Pasdar
depositions if he would make the same statement—that the case against the three teens was eleven on a scale of one to ten—Gitchell replied, “Probably not.”

¹⁸⁴
Warford was originally retained by Arnold on behalf of his brother, Gerald Arnold, who was facing allegations that he had raped his four-year-old daughter during a planned visitation. Warford pled him out.

¹⁸⁵
In 2001, Moneypenny, a privately practicing psychologist in Little Rock, signed an affidavit stating that he had been retained “solely for the purpose of determining what, if any, mitigating factors were present that could be presented at the penalty phase of his trial, if [Echols] were to be found guilty of capital murder.” He felt pressured to give the evaluation, despite a very short (two days, February 20-21, 1994) time frame, but because of his belief that all defendants are entitled to an “impartial and competent evaluation where mental health issues are relevant to the proceedings,” he gave it his best shot. Echols’s writ maintains that “trial counsel unreasonably introduced testimony from defense expert James Moneypenny concerning petitioner’s mental health history; unreasonably failed to object to cross-examination of Moneypenny concerning excerpts drawn from Echols’s mental health records; and unreasonably failed to seek a limiting instruction as to the use of the Moneypenny testimony.”

¹⁸⁶
Corporal Joel Mullins of the state police dive team recovered the knife in the lake behind Jason Baldwin’s trailer on November 17, 1993. Mullins had been called by investigators of the WMPD to search this area. Staff writer Kathy Burt of the
West Memphis Evening Times
was on hand with her camera just in time to snap a photo of Mullins popping his head up out of the water, knife in hand. Much was made about how reporters knew to be there during the search. The easy answer is that the property owner, James T. Ellison, who consented to allow state police to cross his property, notified reporters during the “several hours” divers were searching. According to Ellison, once the knife was found, police left, saying, “We got what we want. Let’s go.”

¹⁸⁷
Indeed, Hobbs was receiving unwanted visitors at his place of business, one going so far as to come in with a camcorder, posing as a tourist from another country in order to get Hobbs on film.

¹⁸⁸
Maines was represented by D’Leslie Davis and Dan Davison with the law firm Fulbright and Jaworski. She was further represented by John Moore and Melissa Bandy. The Dixie Chicks were represented by Bob Wellenberger with Thompson, Coe, Cousins & Irons. Hobbs was represented by Cody Hiland and Ted Thomas.

¹⁸⁹
It seems odd that Ryan would have been in school that day with his little brother still missing. He himself had been out till midnight searching. For Mark’s part, with all the activity going on at the time, he says he doesn’t remember whether Ryan went to school or not.

¹⁹⁰
Most of Mark Byers’s statements were taken directly from his declaration to attorneys in the
Hobbs v. Pasdar
case.

¹⁹¹
The Serological Research Institute (SERI) in Richmond, California, did the DNA testing on the Jacoby and Hobbs samples and then cross-referenced them to the reports of Bode Laboratories, which had received evidence for testing from the Arkansas State Crime Lab. According to SERI analyst Thomas Fedor, regarding the cigarette butts taken from the front yard and ashtray at Terry Hobbs’s residence by Rachel Geiser of Inquisitor, “The person who left DNA on the cigarette butts #8 and #10 (or anyone in his/their maternal lineage) are not excluded as the source of the ligature hair [Bode #2S04-114-03a.” This was the hair recovered from the ligature that bound victim Michael Moore. The same comment was made regarding the analysis of a cigarette butt and hair sample obtained from David Jacoby as it related to Bode #2S04-114-23, “hair from tree stump.” Jacoby also could not be excluded as the source.

¹⁹²
Actually, Hobbs had already retained Memphis attorney Ross Sampson as his “entertainment lawyer.” Sampson was now pulling double duty, deflecting questions from the media related to any alleged involvement of Hobbs in the murders.

¹⁹³
Larry King Live
, December 19, 2007.

¹⁹⁴
The governor was not available. Maines delivered the letters to an assistant.

¹⁹⁵
This setup didn’t last long. Mark was soon making his own decisions about whom he would be interviewing with, once his contract with Clear Pictures had expired, and he didn’t need approval to grant interviews. He also felt that he was savvy enough at this point to handle his own publicity.

¹⁹⁶
According to Misskelley, the tattoo is a clock with no hands. He said he would have the tattoo completed with the time of his release upon being freed from prison.

¹⁹⁷
Since deceased.

¹⁹⁸
The hearings were reminiscent of scenes from
Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
These people were drawn to the hearings, and it didn’t seem like anything could keep them away. They were always peaceful, polite, and orderly. Most, but not all, were young and for the most part well informed. Their main fault was that they were perhaps overly reliant on the HBO movies for information.

¹⁹⁹
George Jared “WM3 judge says decision in case coming in
2010”
Jonesboro Sun
December 27, 2009

²⁰⁰
George Jared, “Boy’s Mother Recalls Fateful Day, Part 4,”
Jonesboro Sun
, July 6, 2010.

²⁰¹
Jon Gambrell “Arkansas Attorney General’s Office statement on recent federal court filing of Damien Echols
Associated Press
, October 30, 2007, as reprinted at
http://wm3org.typepad.com/blog/2007/11/index.html
. The spokesman’s name was Gabe Holstrom.

²⁰²
Also known as the “Bonnie and Clyde Syndrome,” this condition describes women who are attracted to men who have committed heinous crimes Though this disorder is not currently cataloged in the
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
, 4th ed.
(
DSM-IV
), it is nonetheless recognized by psychologists as a recurring paraphilia, though little is actually known about it since “sufferers” don’t normally seek treatment.

²⁰³
Reporter Stephanie Scurlock from WREG TV Memphis interviewed Davis in February 2010.

²⁰⁴
Mara Leveritt, “The Damien I Know,”
The Arkansas Times
, January 9, 2004.