Abomination: Devil Worship and Deception in the West Memphis Three Murders (41 page)

Echols devotes the introduction to Chapter 25 of
Life After Death
to the Holy Guardian Angel ritual:

I went through the HGA prayer ritual three times today. At about 8:30 a.m., around noon, and at about 6:30 p.m. I’ve been reciting the prayer exactly as written in Abramelin and then praying the prayers again in my own words, making them as heartfelt as possible. Some of the newness is beginning to wear off and cause it to seem like actual work. However, for some reason I can’t define I feel my faith in the procedure growing.
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The intent of the HGA process, according to Crowley, is to unite the magician, (symbolized by the pentagram) with the external entity (symbolized by the hexagram), which equals Crowley’s master number eleven. As stated earlier in this book, Aleister Crowley’s HGA was Lucifer, or Satan. The Devil.
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Considering his love for Aleister Crowley and occultism, Damien Echols ends
Life After Death
with an ominous statement:

I want to make the world a more magickal place. To give magick a form that people will appreciate, and that changes their lives.
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Echols with groupie

Damien Echols Twitter feeds

Not only does Damien Echols Twitter feeds reflect his magical world view, but his idolization of Aleister Crowley continues. This snapshot shows Crowley and a twitter feed of his sayings at the top of the list. A brief list of his tweets from 2012 is included below:

People keep asking about the one in my chest. I designed it myself. It's a talisman for good luck. Also have ones for success and protection 05/08

My favorite mask. I have quite the collection. 05/08

I'll be moving up to Salem,MA. I love it up there. Every breath you take is full of Autumn and October's ghosts. It's where I belong,I know. 05/27

Today I paid a visit to Enchantments. It's one of the more well known magick and meditation supply stores in NYC. Herbs,incense,books,etc. 05/27

It makes you remember a certain magick that only exists when you're young, and the world hasn't beat you down yet. 05/28

It reminds you of the days when you talked to ghosts and made magick potions in colored glass bottles. When a kiss was still so,so powerful. 05/28

Getting to Hammarskjold Plaza was like a pilgrimage to me. In the books,it's the center of all worlds,the hub around which all magick dances. 05/28

Did you know that tarot is my passion? 05/29

The tarot is art and religion in one. It's magick and beauty. The tarot was a big part of what kept me sane in solitary confinement. 05/29

My favorite decks are the Universal Waite and the Deviant Moon. I received the Waite deck as a birthday gift when I was a still a teenager. 05/29

Tomorrow morning I head back up to Salem for a two day excursion. Can't believe it's already been a month since the last trip. 05/29

Looks like I'm doing a scene in a movie Monday night. With Genesis P. Orrridge,no less. In Little Italy. Looking forward to it. 06/02

Went to see "Snow White and the Huntsman". So,so good. So full of magick. It's how the world SHOULD look. I will be watching it again. 06/09

The wand is your fire,your drive,your ambition. It's your ability to manifest your dreams into reality. 06/09

The wand is really just a symbol. It symbolizes the mage's will - his ability to change the world around him. 06/09

Today while walking home from breakfast I found THE most perfect magick wand. Its like it was placed there just for me. 06/09

It's just too damned hot and bright to venture out today. It sucks the life out of me. There's no magick out there. 06/10

Now the days will begin growing shorter again,the nights will grow longer. Something about that is soothing to me. It's more magickal. 06/20

The next stop on the wheel of the year is Lammas- the beginning of the harvest season. I LOVE the harvest. The Equinox,Halloween,all the fun. 06/20

Not only is it the solstice,but the moon is also dark. The dark of the moon is when you can banish things no longer wanted in your life. 06/20

The sheer brutality of the sun made me feel frantic. It withered everything even remotely magickal. 06/22

It's the Solstice,folks. That hot, nasty time of year when the sun reaches it's peak. That means the Holly King is once more reborn.

I met the N.Z. Prime Minister,went para gliding,and tried a burger with beets. Had fun...except the beets! 07/22

Going to bed early so tomorrow comes more quickly. Can't wait to get back to New Zealand. Wintery magick awaits. 07/22

I leave for New Zealand tomorrow. Going to the film festival there. West Of Memphis is going to be shown 3 times. 07/22

I walked off of Death Row exactly 11 months ago today. 07/22

My favorites are the Venetian masks,that look both sensual and slightly sinister. I have a collection of them. 07/28

The Harvest season begins in about 4 more days. We're almost there,folks. We're going to be carving jack 'o lanterns before you know it. 07/28

"The common defect of all mystical systems previous to that of the Aeon whose Law is Thelema is that there has been no place for Laughter" by Aleister Crowley

Retweeted by Damien Echols 07/31

"Lift yourselves up, my brothers & sisters of the earth! Put beneath your feet all fears, all qualms, all hesitancies!" by Aleister Crowley Retweeted by Damien Echols

"The whole & sole object of all true Magical & Mystical training is to become free from every kind of limitation" by Aleister Crowley Retweeted by Damien Echols

Spontaneous standing ovation for Damien Echols after West of Memphis was an incredibly special.

Retweeted by Damien Echols

On September 26th I'll be in L.A.,at a store called Book Soup for a talk and signing. 08/01

People always ask me what I want to do in the future. Really,it comes down to this: writing books and teaching the tarot. 08/03

I love the tarot. It's my passion. It kept me company when I was on death row. 08/03

Today I took a trip to see a little old herbal witch, out in the middle of nowhere. She gave me herbs for strengthening my eye sight. 08/04

Want to increase your health and intuition? Spread a blanket on the ground and bathe in the moonlight. Focus on feeling it saturate you. 08/26

Just 5 more days until the full moon. The Blue Moon. You should be thinking about the wish you want to make that night. 08/26

Don't waste your time on things with no magick in them. Life is far too short to waste on the mundane. 08/30

We're approaching the moon's dark phase - the time the ancient Greeks said was ruled over by Hecate,Queen of Night. 09/11

Hecate,ruler of the dark moon,also ruled the crossroads.09/11

It's true - haters really are like crickets. They make a lot of noise when you can't see them....but as soon as you walk by,they get quiet. 09/11

I'm already missing Salem. The quiet,the all pervasive magick,the peace,and my new home. 09/17

Tonight is the full moon,folks. It's called the Blood Moon. The Blood Moon is the full moon closest to Halloween every October. 10/28

Song of the day? Only one will do. "This is Halloween",by my dear friend Marilyn Manson. Today makes me miss him. 10/31

The energy of the night is as rich as velvet. The stars like tiny chips of glass. The only thing better is the night before Christmas. 11/21

The moon is beautiful tonight. It's looking down over Salem, reminding us that the pale blue magick of December is coming fast. 11/21

Just 6 more days until December,my little chupacabras. 11/24

The Archangel who rules over the sign of Sagittarius is Sachiel. 11/24

Tonight is the full moon, my little Chupacabras. Step outside and howl just to see your breath in the air. 11/28

Crowds gathered at a book signing to see Damien Echols

18. CONCLUSION

As this book goes to print, a documentary,
West of Memphi
s, and an untitled feature length film are due to be released about the West Memphis Three. Jason Baldwin is married and living in Washington State, where he aspires to a career in law. Jessie Misskelley, Jr. returned to West Memphis and works, like his father, as an auto mechanic. Unlike the other two, Damien Echols seems to covet his celebrity. He continues to engage in lengthy public interviews and his autobiographical book
Life After Death
is generating considerable attention and sales.

Concerning the public interviews involving the West Memphis Three, I cannot seem to find a journalist or host who has asked any of the released West Memphis Three a challenging question about the case. Actually, they seem to passively accept that the three were unjustly convicted. It is my understanding that all interviews are granted based on the use of pre-written questionnaires provided to the hosts. When asked who committed the crime, Terry Hobbs is provided as the focus of their inquiry.

As I stated in the Introduction, I included a detailed recollection and timeline of the evidence gathered to counter these statements by Misskelley, Baldwin and Echols and commonly held, public presumption that the West Memphis Three received an unjust sentence from 12 jurors, who convicted and sentenced them. West Memphis festered with occult activity for years prior to the murders---an abundance of statements verifying this fact fill the pages of this book.

The convicted had eighteen years to shape the evidence of the case for the public consumption. No one, and I mean no one, could have or did predict that this case would morph into the cause celebre’ case involving the attention and financial support of internationally recognized celebrities. This case also confirms issues about publicity and public relations in court cases. The external pressures outside of the Arkansas legal system clearly influenced the legal outcome in this case.

The West Memphis case is similar to other Satanic murders. Dark elements from both suffuse the West Memphis murders: young, aimless, impressionable teens with an interest in dark subjects become associated with occult groups. Some of them take to blood letting, blood drinking and rituals. Participants exhibit increasing levels of violence, first towards their peer group, then animals, then, and finally, with human beings. The rise in interest in magic, vampires, werewolfs in the general culture will likely ensnare similar youths in the future.

The West Memphis case is similar to the two cause celebre murders as well. Due to the publicity provided by the popular
Paradise Lost
films, Echols, Balwin and Misskelley received attention from media and the public that had no actual familiarity with the facts or evidence in the case. The vagueness of the films conclusions provided an opportunity (like Unterwager and Abbott) to deceive the intelligencia of an entire nation into thinking they were victims of the system, when in fact they vicitmized other people and abused the resources of the system.

There are a number of simple questions that point to West Memphis Three culpability: How many times did each of the three confess? To how many witnesses? Why did Jason Baldwin not appeal his sentence for ten years? Why did Echols attempt suicide in 1994? Didn’t Damien Echols say to investigators before he lawyered up: “Let me talk to my mom and I’ll tell you everything?”

Most importantly, how did Damien Echols know two days after the murders that the the children had urine in their stomachs? This fact was known to police investigators only after medical examiner Dr. Frank Peretti discovered its existence in the stomachs of the murdered boys after the autopsy results on May 16th. In my opinion, the only way Echols knew that the children were urinated on was that he was at the scene of the crime. He alleges that probation officer Jones told him that urine was in the children’s stomachs---this is an obvious lie, as Jones could not have known, and could not have been at the scene of the crime.

Satanism is a set of ideas and practices that should be considered an ideology; individuals who ascribe to Satanism behave consistently based on the knowledge they accrue from the study of the dark arts. If the information in this book provides any insight at all into the case, my solemn hope is to prove at least that the central figure, Michael Wayne Hutcheson, aka Damien Echols, was, is and continues to be, a committed occultist.

While Echols is smart enough to avoid referencing specific names in recent interviews, he refuses to distance himself from the allegations and testimony that led to his suspected involvement, arrest and imprisonmment. Echols continues to engage in discussions about magick and has referenced renowned occultists such as Crowley, Gardner, Buckland and LaVey. The prosecution found evidence that indicated Damien Echols knew of and studied the satanic teachings of the Great Beast 666, Aliester Crowley. Echols even emulated Crowley’s bogus public statement that he was actually a “white magician.” He wrote defiantly against God, that God was trying to kill him, and that even death couldn’t stop him. Unrepentant, after his death sentence he wrote:

The [abominations] have already begun to be spit forth on the earth. I have seen some of them. I will become one soon. I will be the king of freaks. I see a perfect explosion, God’s ammunition dump going up in the flames of righteousness, Satan storming heaven, his artillery captain a fiercely grinning fool with red flayed cheeks, Damien by name, never to be Michael Hutchison again.
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