Abomination: Devil Worship and Deception in the West Memphis Three Murders (46 page)

MISSKELLEY: I made that up.

STIDHAM: Now you're not making anything up you're telling me about, are you?

MISSKELLEY: No, sir. My hand is still on the Bible.

STIDHAM: Do you know what devil worshiping is, Jessie?

MISSKELLEY: It's Satan.

STIDHAM: Did you believe in this stuff or were you just out there -?

MISSKELLEY: I was just out there just - just drinking and having fun.

STIDHAM: Was this older guy the leader of this thing?

MISSKELLEY: Uh-huh. (Affirmatively indicating) He always did what Damien told him to do.

STIDHAM: Damien told him what to do, or he told Damien -?

MISSKELLEY: No, he told Damien what to do - he always told Damien what to do.

STIDHAM: What did he tell Damien to do?

MISSKELLEY: He tells Damien, you know, go kill a dog, or - hurt a kid or something, and he'd do it.

STIDHAM: Did he tell Damien to go hurt these kids?

MISSKELLEY: When I was there, he didn't. He might have told, you know, after, but he didn't tell him when I was there.

STIDHAM: Can you think of his name?

MISSKELLEY: Huh-uh. (Negatively indicating)

STIDHAM: He wasn't there the day the boys got murdered, was he?

MISSKELLEY: No, he wasn’t there with us. But in that briefcase it was them three boys.

STIDHAM: Do you think he told Damien to do this?

MISSKELLEY: I think he did, because, I didn't know until after I seen a picture in the briefcase, then after the murders happened, then, then I remembered who they were. I seen them at the court meeting.

STIDHAM: What did this older guy’s name - did he drive a car, or - - ?

MISSKELLEY: He always walked, you know, out there to Lakeshore, where we was at he always walked.

STIDHAM: Have you ever seen him drive a car?

MISSKELLEY: Huh-uh. (Negatively indicating)

STIDHAM: Did he work anywhere?

MISSKELLEY: I don't know that either.

STIDHAM: Do you know what his name started with?

MISSKELLEY: Murphy - no. I can't remember. I can't think of his name.

STIDHAM: Murray?

MISSKELLEY: It started with a M.

STIDHAM: Murray Farris?

MISSKELLEY: Uh -

STIDHAM: Murray Farris doesn't have black hair.

MISSKELLEY: No, it started with a M, I don't know - I don't know his name, it started with a M.

STIDHAM: Do you know who Murray Farris is?

MISSKELLEY: Huh-uh. (Negatively indicating) I hadn't never saw - I hadn't ever heard that name.

STIDHAM: How about LaTrell. Have you ever of anybody named LaTrell?

MISSKELLEY: Huh-uh. (Negatively indicating)

STIDHAM: You think it started with a M? Michael?

MISSKELLEY: Best of my knowledge it started with an M.

STIDHAM: Keep trying to think of that name.

MISSKELLEY: The best of my knowledge, it started with a M.

STIDHAM: How old was he?

MISSKELLEY: He's - I’d say - I'm going to say he was in his mid-twenties or somewhere closer to his thirties.

STIDHAM: What would he do at the meetings? Was he in charge?

MISSKELLEY: Yes.

STIDHAM: Was he the boss or the (inaudible) honcho, or - ?

MISSKELLEY: Uh-huh. (Affirmatively indicating) Because he had a briefcase and had a - it was in a white bag, like in a sandwich bag, he had some white stuff.

STIDHAM: What was it? (inaudible) cocaine?

MISSKELLEY: (no audible response)

STIDHAM: Did the older guy ever tell Damien and Jason to do something stupid, did they do it? You said kill a dog?

MISSKELLEY: He always told Damien. He knew - he must knew Damien for a long time ‘cause he didn't ever tell none of us to do that stuff.

STIDHAM: Did you ever see him kill a dog?

MISSKELLEY: No.

STIDHAM: Did you ever kill a dog?

MISSKELLEY: When I was little, but, no.

STIDHAM: You’ve been to about three or four of these meetings?

MISSKELLEY: Uh-huh. (Affirmatively indicating)

STIDHAM: Okay. May the 5th, you get to Lakeshore about 6:30?

MISSKELLEY: Yes, sir.

STIDHAM: And you met at this park by Quinton's house?

MISSKELLEY: Uh-huh. (Affirmatively indicating)

STIDHAM: You didn't see anybody else there, nobody else was standing around that would have seen you?

MISSKELLEY: No, sir. ‘Cause I always went the back way, you know, towards Jason's house. I always went the back way, not the front way.

STIDHAM: What happened after you went to the park - now you say you were supposed to meet them there that day?

MISSKELLEY: Supposed to meet them in West-I mean Lakeshore.

STIDHAM: At 6:30 or just whenever you got there?

MISSKELLEY: Whenever I got - I had time.

STIDHAM: Okay.

MISSKELLEY: So, we started walking towards West Memphis -

STIDHAM: How'd you get there?

MISSKELLEY: We walked.

STIDHAM: I mean, did you walk along the interstate or? -

MISSKELLEY: No, we walked over a overpass.

STIDHAM: Overpass?

MISSKELLEY: You go - it's the overpass between Lakeshore and Wal-Mart, is the overpass. We walked over it.

STIDHAM: Did you throw anything down, or pick any thing up, or did anybody see you?

MISSKELLEY: I don't know there was a bunch of traffic going by, I don’t know.

STIDHAM: You didn't see anybody you knew or talk to anybody you knew?

MISSKELLEY: I didn't know nobody.

STIDHAM: Where did you go?

MISSKELLEY: We started walking toward West-uh, to Wal-Mart, I - I - Jason and me, you know -

STIDHAM: Kenny Watkins. Do you know that guy?

MISSKELLEY: Kenny Watkins?

STIDHAM: Watkins, that man you (inaudible)?

MISSKELLEY: Huh-uh. (Negatively indicating) I may know if I see his face, but other than that -

STIDHAM: So ya'll started over the overpass, and...

MISSKELLEY: We started walking toward Lakeshore and I asked Jason, you know, - -

STIDHAM: Were you walking from Lakeshore?

MISSKELLEY: Uh-huh. I asked Jason, you know, where we're going to find them girls at. He said we just going to walk around and look. And I said, okay. So we started walking. We went down - down Blue Beacon Road, and then by a bridge, we saw a little trail, and we went down that little trail. And we sit there and we started drinking.

STIDHAM: Okay, now did you see - I assume that you walked down from Wal-Mart right there, then walked down across from Missouri Street? Do you know where Missouri Street is in West Memphis, by McDonalds and Krystal?

MISSKELLEY: We didn’t go that far down.

STIDHAM: How far down did you go?

MISSKELLEY: We went from Wal-Mart, stayed on that road all the way down, all the way, went through the red light, over the railroad track and on down to (inaudible) then Blue Beacon and Lowe's.

STIDHAM: Okay. So is there a liquor store there by those railroad tracks that you're talking about walking over?

MISSKELLEY: Yeah. It just says Liquor.

STIDHAM: You walked down the service road then? Right?

MISSKELLEY: Yep.

STIDHAM: And it was just the three of you?

MISSKELLEY: Uh-huh. (Affirmatively indicating)

Stidham asks Misskelley detailed questions about what he was wearing the day of the crime. Then he asks what Damien Echols was wearing:

STIDHAM: What did Damien have on that day?

MISSKELLEY: Um, - like a black pants, black boots.

STIDHAM: Did he have a coat on?

MISSKELLEY: A leather jacket.

STIDHAM: Black leather jacket, a long jacket or just a regular jacket?

MISSKELLEY: It was like a biker's jacket.

STIDHAM: Did he have a hat on?

MISSKELLEY: To my knowledge, huh-uh. (Negatively indicating)

STIDHAM: Was he carrying a stick?

MISSKELLEY: He carried a stick.

STIDHAM: That day?

MISSKELLEY: Yes.

STIDHAM: What kind of stick was it?

MISSKELLEY: Part of a tree.

STIDHAM: Was it a long limb or a big stick, like a long and skinny, or big and fat? Or -

MISSKELLEY: It was - I would say it was long.

STIDHAM: Was it any of those sticks that they introduced into your trial the other day?

MISSKELLEY: Yeah.

STIDHAM: Which one was it?

MISSKELLEY: That one that you was holding up and that had the bark off of it.

STIDHAM: Had someone carved it?

MISSKELLEY: Yes.

STIDHAM: Long and skinny?

MISSKELLEY: Uh-huh. (Affirmatively indicating)

STIDHAM: That was the one Damien was carrying that day?

MISSKELLEY: Uh-huh. (Affirmatively indicating)

STIDHAM: Where did he pick it up at?

MISSKELLEY: He carried it with him. From Lakeshore.

STIDHAM: And what was Jason wearing?

MISSKELLEY: Jason was wearing light blue jeans -

STIDHAM: Was there a design on them or -?

MISSKELLEY: To my knowledge, no. Black boots. Like army boots.

STIDHAM: Was it those boots that were introduced at your trial as evidence, were those the boots he was wearing? Or do you remember?

MISSKELLEY: I didn't see them. If they’re black army boots, that's them.

STIDHAM: You say he had light blue jeans on?

MISSKELLEY: I don’t know.

STIDHAM: Light blue, blue jeans - that had holes in the knees or holes in one of them, do you remember?

MISSKELLEY: I don't remember.

STIDHAM: Is there any way anybody could have mixed Damien - I mean excuse me, Jason and Domini up? Do they look anything alike?

MISSKELLEY: Tall.

STIDHAM: She wasn't there that night?

MISSKELLEY: No.

STIDHAM: Did you ever see her that night?

MISSKELLEY: No.

STIDHAM: What kind of shirt did Jason have on?

MISSKELLEY: It was black and had “Metallica” wrote on it. And it had a - like a - like a background like a grave and it had a cross.

STIDHAM: So what happened as you were walking down the service road and you got to Blue Beacon, what happened next?

MISSKELLEY: We started walking a little bit further and then we went over a bridge, and then I seen a little trail going down, down the bank. We went down there and started drinking.

STIDHAM: Let me stop you right there. Ya'll decide to go to West Memphis to look for some girls?

MISSKELLEY: Uh-huh. (Affirmatively indicating)

STIDHAM: Did anybody talk about hurting boys, or killing boys, or doing anything to boys - doing anything to anybody?

MISSKELLEY: No. They didn't tell me nothing like that.

STIDHAM: That never came up?

MISSKELLEY: Nope. But that guy that showed Damien that picture, that's what I figure that's why Damien, he knew what he was doing, because -

STIDHAM: You think Damien knew what he was doing?

MISSKELLEY: Uh-huh. Cause, when I seen that picture at that cult meeting, I didn't know who they were, I hadn't ever seen them until, you know, after we jumped - after I jumped and started beating them, then I realized that -

STIDHAM: After you was what?

MISSKELLEY: Beating them up - beating the kids up, then it went to my mind, a picture came to me, then after that picture came to me and I looked down, that's who it was.

STIDHAM: Okay. Now let's talk about, uh, you walked down this little trail. What did you see out there, where was this at?

MISSKELLEY: I don't know where it was at.

STIDHAM: Was it on the side of the interstate where the dog track is?

MISSKELLEY: No. Opposite side.

STIDHAM: Opposite side?

MISSKELLEY: Uh-huh. (Affirmatively indicating)

STIDHAM: What's by it, what's nearby?

MISSKELLEY: Blue Beacon.

STIDHAM: That's on the same side of the interstate as -

MISSKELLEY: And the Army place.

STIDHAM: Army place?

MISSKELLEY: Or the National Guard place. Where they have army drills.

STIDHAM: What happened as ya'll walked down this little trail?

MISSKELLEY: We sit out there. We sit down and started drinking.

STIDHAM: Okay, tell me about where you were sitting, and what was there, was there anything -

MISSKELLEY: We sit by some trees. By a tree that was, that was leaned over. There was a - like a - I’m going to say like a water pipe.

STIDHAM: Water pipe. What kind of water pipe?

MISSKELLEY: That’s what I’m going to say what it is. I don't know what it was.

STIDHAM: Was the pipe going up in the air, pipe going -?

MISSKELLEY: No. Pipe going like this way, makes it a walkway or something, like a little bridge - something like that. And we started drinking. Then we started drinking and then we heard some noise. And then, uh, me and Jason hid, and Damien just sit there, and then all of a sud - he told him to hide and he did. Then these boys came up.

Stidham has Misskelley describe the area of Robin Hood Hills. Misskelley tells of the tree house in the woods, indicating he thought the three victims went there frequently to play. Then the discussion returns to the murders:

STIDHAM: Is that a big creek or a little creek?

MISSKELLEY: Pretty big.

STIDHAM: Were the bodies thrown in the big creek?

MISSKELLEY: The bodies was thrown in water. Deep. Big, I'm going to say that comes to over my head?

STIDHAM: That’s where the bodies was thrown in?

MISSKELLEY: Uh-huh. (Affirmatively indicating) I'm going to say it comes to over my head. Cause I can't get in water close to my head, ‘cause I have to hold my ears,

STIDHAM: Well, were the bodies thrown in close to that pipe?

MISSKELLEY: Close to that pipe? I’m going to say about fifteen or so, probably not even that far to the pipe.

STIDHAM: Fifteen feet?

MISSKELLEY: No, about 15 yards, probably, maybe not even that much. I could - I could tell you if I was, you know, if I was there. It was deep, but can't do it, you know, to my mind. ‘Cause I don't know, I don't know feet, yards or nothing like that. I'm going to say it was pretty close to it.

STIDHAM: Is there any ponds or lakes out there?