[9], In October 2003, Vicki Hutcheson, who had played a part in the arrests of Misskelley, Echols, and Baldwin, gave an interview to the Arkansas Times in which she stated that every word she had given to the police was a fabrication. [61] As part of the plea deal, the three men cannot pursue civil action against the state for wrongful imprisonment. "We were writing each other two years before he got out. They were convicted under what can best be described as questionable . Judge David Laser then sentenced them to 18 years and 78 days, the amount of time they had served, and also levied a suspended sentence of 10 years. [9] On May 9, during a formal interview by Detective Bryn Ridge, Echols mentioned that one of the victims had wounds to the genitals; law enforcement viewed this knowledge as incriminating. JESSIE: They were sitting so far away, they were in the water, I would say about five to ten seconds, then come up and then the other one would go down. GITCHELL: And you saw the pictures in the briefcase? (Again, the hog tied postion doesnt align with the boys being on their backs. (There is no way this phone call could have taken place. In August 2011, White Light Productions announced that the West Memphis Three would be featured on their new program Wrongfully Convicted. Arrested in Oceanside on May 17, 1993, Morgan and Holland both took polygraph exams administered by California police. [96] After his release, he has worked on a number of additional media projects. On August 19, 2011, Echols, along with Baldwin and Misskelley, was released from prison after their attorneys and the judge handling the upcoming retrial agreed to a deal. During the course of his interrogation, which lasted for several hours, Jessie was given a lie detector test and the police succeeded in securing a confession from Jessie of his own part in the murders of the three boys. GITCHELL: Okay, what is, tell me some of the things that you all do typically in the woods, in being in this cult. Two other defendants await trial in Arkansas. How could Damien be in the background if he was not there? RIDGE:Scared of Damien? [9] Leveritt further noted that some of the physical evidence was stored in paper sacks obtained from a supermarket (with the supermarket's name printed on the bags) rather than in containers of known and controlled origin. JESSIE: I was just wearing regular blue jeans, my shoes. GITCHELL: How many pictures did you see, altogether? RIDGE:Okay, Damians didnt come up that far? JESSIE: Behind it, right back there behind it. (You dont have to be a doctor to know that when someone is hit child or adult it doesnt bruise them up until much later. The location was widely reported in the media in May 1993). RIDGE:Oh, they come way up on him? Im saying what time was it that you were actually there in the park? Christopher Byers had lacerations to various parts of his body and mutilation of his scrotum and penis. RIDGE:An hour after you got home? According to his mother, Christopher was a typical eight-year-old. The three were accused and convicted of a triple homicide in West Memphis, Arkansas. Police initially suspected the boys had been raped;[10] however, later expert testimony disputed this finding. JESSIE:We usually skin it, then make a bon fire and eat it and stuff. It is not yet known whether the jury had an accurate transcript that included the next, critical portion wherein Jessie is told they are correcting his statement ]]]. If he had been, there would have been clear forensic evidence of it. JESSIE: They could run, they just had them tied, when they knocked them down and stuff, they could move (hold?) [9] Misskelley was questioned for roughly 12 hours. Circuit Court Judge David Laser was selected to replace David Burnett and preside in the evidentiary hearings mandated by the successful appeal. Even if they were notinthe park at 9 a.m. it would not take three hours to walk from their homesorLakeshore, which is where, JESSIE: No . Jasons friend Ken Watkins came over to visit later. JESSIE: He made the call from his house and Damien was hollering in the background saying, we done it, we done it, what are going to do if somebody saw us, what are we going to do? Up there behind the Goodyear place? When he first hit the boy, when Damien first hit the first boy, did they have their clothes on then? [66] In 2007, Pamela Hobbs, the mother of victim Stevie Branch, joined those who have publicly questioned the verdicts, calling for a reopening of the verdicts and further investigation of the evidence. RIDGE:And one of them was being cut on his penis? RIDGE: Alright, is that where he was cutting? (Jessie just said noon, it is now beingsuggestedto him to use a new time), Above Jessie has stated they met at 9 a.m., not 12 noon. Ridges leads him into when you came back, signaling Jessie that theres more for him to say. (Hello? There has been widespread criticism of the handling of the crime scene by the police. "[90], The appellate legal team argued that Echols did not waive his assertion that he was not mentally competent before his 1994 trial because he was not competent to waive it. She claimed she had implicated Echols and Misskelley to avoid facing criminal charges, and to obtain a reward for the discovery of the murderers. In 1994, a memorial was erected for the three murder victims. Statement of Jessie L. Misskelley, Jr. 6/3/93. He is a producer, known for Devil's Knot (2013), Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996) and West of Memphis (2012). Jessie Misskelley after his murder conviction. Good! RIDGE: All three of them would generally be together? RIDGE:You said that they had their hands tied up, tied down, were they hands tied in a fashion that they couldnt have run, you tell me. [77], Investigative journalist Aphrodite Jones undertook an exploration of the case on her Discovery Network show True Crime with Aphrodite Jones following the DNA discoveries. RIDGE:Okay, what were you doing in the water? JESSIE: I saw him cut one of the little boys. [90] Hospital records for his treatment in Little Rock 11 months before the killings show a history of self-mutilation and assertions to hospital staff that he gained power by drinking blood, that he had inside him the spirit of a woman who had killed her husband, and that he was having hallucinations. The bodies, he said, had been removed from the water before the coroner arrived to examine the scene and determine the state of rigor mortis, allowing the bodies to decay on the creek bank and to be exposed to sunlight and insects. [18], At the time of their arrests, Jessie Misskelley, Jr. was 17 years old, Jason Baldwin was 16 years old, and Damien Echols was 18 years old. [3][9] Misskelley specifically said he was "scared of the police" during this confession. JESSIE: After the murder and stuff, I would say about two or three days later after it happened, I went down there and thought about it and I havent been down there since. (You need to hear Jessies voice on his bottom Is a question, not a statement), RIDGE: On his bottom? (Above Jessie has stated they met at 9 a.m., not 12 noon. [21] Morgan was presumed to be at least casually familiar with all three murdered boys, having previously driven an ice cream truck route in their neighborhood. GITCHELL: Did they call them by name? Seeing a bruised up photo taken later would explain this statement; a recollection of the events as they were occurring could not). RIDGE: Alright, have they got their clothes on when you saw them tied? RIDGE: Alright, now you know where the bayou is? He is a producer, known for Devil's Knot (2013), Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996) and West of Memphis (2012). Their clothing was found in the creek, some of it twisted around sticks that had been thrust into the muddy ditch bed. RIDGE:okay, which one did you see killed? Did they get into the water with you all? Jessie Misskelley Height, Weight & Measurements At 47 years old, Jessie Misskelley height is 5' 2" (1.57 m) . Under the . RIDGE:And, what kind of blade did it have on it? [8] Initial police searches made that night were limited. JESSIE: Then they tied them up, tied their hands up, they started screwing them and stuff, cutting them and stuff, and I saw it and I turned around and looked, and then I took off running, I went home, then they called me and asked me, how come I didnt stay, I told them, I just couldnt. [9] Echols and Baldwin were close friends, and bonded over their similar tastes in music and fiction, and over their shared distaste for the prevailing cultural climate of West Memphis, situated in the Bible Belt. RIDGE:Damien and Jason having sex? He has one daughter with his ex-wife Elizabeth Baldwin, and one son with his former girlfriend Isabella Hofmann. ", On March 23, 2016, Echols gave a presentation about his art processes at the, The transcript of Echols' spoken word performance in. He is from 1975. I had been shocked that the police did not find it with Stevie when they found his body. . ????). Upon further examination, it was concluded that if these marks were bite marks, they did not match the teeth of any of the three convicted. JESSIE: I dont know, I left before them. (The crime scene was blocked off for over a month and guarded by WMPD precisely to see if the criminal would return to the scene of the crime.No reports of Jessie appearing were made.). And what did they tell you on the telephone? GITCHELL: What do you all do with the girls when youre out there? GITCHELL: Now, where you in a car? RIDGE: okay, now when its going on, when this is taking place, you under you saw somebody with a knife, who had a knife? DNA evidence at the scene was not found to include any from Echols or his co-defendants. JESSIE:They had some cocaine, and a little gun. Basically, when we went to trial the first time, they came in with ghost stories, rumors, "Arkansas Teen Found Guilty On Three Counts Of Murder,", Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime, Rise Above: 24 Black Flag Songs to Benefit the West Memphis Three, "Youth Is Convicted In Slaying of 3 Boys In an Arkansas City", "Arguments conclude in 'West Memphis Three' appeals", "How Rockers Helped Free the West Memphis Three", "Fresh DNA evidence boosts defense in 1993 Arkansas slayings", "Damien Echols asks for new trial in West Memphis 3 murder case", "Pain tells how much life 3 slain boys had", "Police see progress in Ark. Copyright 2012 WMC-TV. RIDGE: Has he ever had sex with them before? According to local West Memphis police officers, on the evening of May 5, 1993, at 8:42pm, workers in the Bojangles' restaurant located about a mile from the crime scene in Robin Hood Hills reported seeing a black male who seemed "mentally disoriented" inside the restaurant's ladies' room. Jessie's first taped confession to West Memphis Police in June, 1993. RIDGE: And who made that phone call? [citation needed], Around 1:45pm, juvenile Parole Officer Steve Jones spotted a boy's black shoe floating in a muddy creek that led to a major drainage canal in Robin Hood Hills. No way did this happen; it is a straight-up invention said to tell Ridge what he wanted to hear. RIDGE: So, there is like a tall bank, were you where were you at on that bank? RIDGE: Alright, what occurred, what did he talk about? For the former Australian rules footballer, see, DNA testing and new physical evidence (2007). JESSIE: A friend of mine, he borrowed them. A report jointly issued by the state and the defense team stated, "Although most of the genetic material recovered from the scene was attributable to the victims of the offenses, some of it cannot be attributed to either the victims or the defendants. 18. At trial, the defense team argued that news articles from the time could have been the source for Echols' knowledge about the genital mutilation, and Echols said his knowledge was limited to what was "on TV". RIDGE: Now did somebody take it and used your knife, do you have a knife? They were known for wearing black and listening to heavy metal. RIDGE:Okay, alright did and the one that they were cutting the penis off of, did any of them are cutting the penis or whatever was being done, did they have sex with him at all? Actor Johnny Depp, a longtime supporter of the West Memphis Three and personal friend of Damien Echols, was on hand to support the film in its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2012. , money, salary, income, and assets. View popular celebrities life details, birth signs and real ages. Whose car where yall in? Only two segments, totaling 46 minutes, were recorded. GITCHELL:Were your clothes wet still? We have estimated (There wasno evidence that Christopher Byers had been strangled with a stick or anything else. Misskelley and Echols had dropped out of high school; however, Baldwin earned high grades and demonstrated a talent for drawing and sketching, and was encouraged by one of his teachers to study graphic design in college. He told me that he had to go toWest Memphisso, him and Damien with and then I went with them. He was predeceased by : his wife Kathy . He was eight years old, 4ft. 2 tall, weighed 55lbs, and had brown hair. (Jessie does not state the location of the crime scene; Ridge tells him, and Jessie repeats it. GITCHELL: Ive got a feeling here, youre not quite telling me everything, now you know that were recording everything, so this is very, very important to tell us the entire truth. Describe those pictures for me. (Gitchell plainly sounds like he knows hes talking to someone with a childs mind). GITCHELL: What time did you get there? RIDGE:Alright, youre describing a knife that would be about 6 inches long, is that right? Jessie Misskelley said in a short interview a few months ago that he is happy staying out of the limelight, as he lives and works in West Memphis. RIDGE:Alright I am going to conclude this interview, the time is 3:18PM. [22], The day after the victims' bodies were found, Bojangles' manager Marty King, thinking there was a possible connection to the bleeding man found in the bathroom, reported the incident to police officers who then inspected the ladies' room. He lived with his mother, Sharon Melissa Byers, his adoptive father, John Mark Byers, and his stepbrother, Shawn Ryan Clark, aged 13. The three boys were found brutally murdered in a shocking fashion in a wooded area called the Robin Hood Hills. Listen to the inflection in Ridges voice it is a clearinstruction, not a question and Jessie is plainly trying to give the correct answer, following it with right there behind it. Miller dismissed a suit Hobbs filed over Maines' remarks and writings implying that he was involved in killing his stepson. GITCHELL: How long have you been involved in it? RIDGE:Light blonde, or like a sandy reddish type blonde, do you know the difference? Additionally, after the Murders my sister Jo Lynn McCauhey and I found in Terry's nightstand a knife that Stevie carried with him constantly and which I had believed was with him when he died. In 2000, the biological father of Christopher Byers, Rick Murray, expressed his doubts about the guilty verdicts on the West Memphis Three website. After a reported 12 hours of interrogation by police, Misskelley, who has an IQ of 72, confessed to the murders, and implicated Baldwin and Echols. RIDGE: Is there a path that you go down? They switch the side of the creek he was on from BB toMemphis), (Jessie leaves again and again he is guided to give more details after he says he left), [[Tape omission / blank 20 seconds jumps to here]]. Misskelley was arrested in connection to the murders on June 3, 1993. On November 4, 2010, the Arkansas Supreme Court ordered a lower judge to consider whether newly analyzed DNA evidence might exonerate the three. [16] Steve Edward Branch is buried in Mount Zion Cemetery in Steele, Missouri. GITCHELL: Youre talking about the Byers boy again? JESSIE:Two or three days after it happened, and I left. GITCHELL: You didnt see a briefcase? So, how much is Jessie Misskelley worth at the age of 47 years old? (Detective Ridge testified that he was unaware on this date that Jessie had a mental handicap. The episode premiered May 5, 2011, with extensive background information included on the show's page at the Investigation Discovery site. If you were there the whole time, then tell us that you were there the whole time, dont leave anything out. (WMC-TV) - Jessie Misskelley is the lone member of the West Memphis 3, who shied away from the spotlight. Byers agreed to and passed a polygraph test about the murders during the filming of Paradise Lost 2: Revelations, but the documentary indicated that Byers was under the influence of several psychoactive prescription medications that could have affected the test results. The plea deal did not technically result in a full exoneration; some of the convictions would stand, but the men would not admit guilt. RIDGE: He didnt tell you that he hid it somewhere? [22], Police officers James Sudbury and Steve Jones felt that the crime had "cult" overtones, and that Damien Echols might be a suspect because he had an interest in occultism, and Jones felt Echols was capable of murdering children. Police detective Bryn Ridge testified that he later lost those blood scrapings. He was last seen wearing blue pants, a blue Boy Scouts of America shirt, and an orange and blue Boy Scout hat, and riding a light green bicycle. their arms and stuff, and hold them down like, where they couldnt raise up and the other one stick his legs up. Uncertainty remained due to the small amount of blood[9] and because both John Mark Byers and Chris Byers had the same HLA-DQ genotype. In an interview with Piers Morgan, he said that he would like to have a career in writing and visual arts.[95]. The man was bleeding and had brushed against the restroom walls. GITCHELL: You didnt do anything to the bikes at all? Each had achieved the rank of "Wolf" in the local Cub Scout pack and were best friends.[15]. Lawyers representing the West Memphis Three reached the plea deal that allowed the men to be released from prison. He just said no and again we ask a question designed to ignore the last answer and give another, completely different response), JESSIE:Jason was screwing him while Damien stuck his in his mouth and then they both were. RIDGE: What time is it right now? There was a small amount of blood found at the scene that was never tested. Wouldnt any reasonable questioner ask about the contradiction? RIDGE:When you left from there, did you leave running? JESSIE: He had that uh, like a, skull like. Dr. Peretti, the Medical Examiner, described half-lunar wounds that were caused by a blunt object which could have been the result of kicks or blows with something such as a flashlight, not fists. Alright, when you get the boys back together, where you at from the creek? RIDGE: Im not saying when they called you. RIDGE: Alright, you went home and about what time was it that all of this was taking place? If you will look at John Mark Byers statement of 5-19-93 he describes Todd Moore becoming confused that all boys were castrated and John finding out it was only his son; so there was dicussion between the families and possibly those who knew them. RIDGE: Okay, what did he say to you about it when you came to the police department, after seeing that boy in the woods? [6], On May 5, 1993, three eight-year-old boys (Steve Branch, Michael Moore and Christopher Byers) were reported missing in West Memphis, Arkansas. On August 19, 2011, three men, Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, who were convicted as teenagers in 1994 of the murders of three boys in Arkansas, are released from prison in. GITCHELL: But, you saw them cutting on the boys, JESSIE: I saw them cutting on them, and then. All three were released from prison that same day. [19], Baldwin and Echols had been previously arrested for vandalism and shoplifting respectively, and Misskelley had a reputation for his temper and for engaging in fistfights with other teenagers at school. [10] The clothing was mostly turned inside-out; two pairs of the boys' underwear were never recovered. RIDGE:Youve been back to this place since that murder. 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM - Roofing with Ricky Deese and Josh Darby. [9][30] The defense team objected when the prosecution attempted to question Echols about his past violent behaviors, but the defense objections were overruled.[37]. Hutcheson claimed that, at the Wiccan meeting, a drunken Echols openly bragged about killing the three boys. Damien first came into my life in 1996, when my friend and I watched a documentary called Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills. The first report to the police was made by Byers' adoptive father, John Mark Byers, around 7:00pm. RIDGE:Why did you not come forward with this information? Present in the interview will be Inspector Gary Gitchell and Jessie Misskelley. He also opted to stay out of spotlight, so he remains an enigma in many aspects. Jump to 2:46 (where the below begins). JESSIE:No, he didnt borrow mine. RIDGE: Okay. murder inquiry", "Help sought for memorial to victims in West Memphis 3 case", "3 Teen-Agers Accused in the Killings of 3 Boys", "collective paradise lost, revelations dvd", "WM3 Interview With Dan Stidham, Part 1 of 11", "Miscellaneous Essays and Interviews David Jauss", "Witnesses call boys deaths work of group with trappings of the occult", "West Memphis 3: Echols, Baldwin, Misskelley Speak", Lawyers file DNA motion in Cub Scout murder case, "KAIT: Mother of West Memphis 3 Victim Speaks About New DNA Evidence", Jury foreman in West Memphis Three trial of Damien Echols accused of misconduct, "Former lawyer supports effort for a new trial", Arkansas Blog: West Memphis 3 Press Conference, "Judge rejects request for new trial for 3 men convicted of 1993 slayings of 3 Arkansas boys", "New hearing ordered for 3 in Ark.