Jessie Misskelly Second Confession

[Cappuccino]

Okay. Another thing that occurred to me after I posted is that if you leave aside both Jessie's confessions and any supporters rhetoric for a second - Terry Hobbs' own account of his movements on May 5th make it hard for me to believe what Jessie says. If the crime occurred where and when Jessie said, Hobbs would have caught them in the act.

In fact, I find it hard to see how anyone could have committed that crime without Hobbs seeing or hearing something. So, logically, I have to choose between...

a) Hobbs did it himself
b) The children weren't killed in the woods. They were killed somewhere else and dumped in the woods in the early hours of May 6th after the searchers had gone home.
c) Both of the above.

Oh, and btw - someone inside the WMPD deliberately leaked Jessie's confession to the press on June 4th, so I don't buy that excuse they made about reporters.

 

[LunaticFringe]

Seriously?? Jessie can't describe the crime scene accurately, let alone the crime. He has some Blue Lagoon type setting in his imagination filled with deep, clear blue waters and absolutely no idea of the geography of the BB woods. Jessie's time line doesn't make sense either - those three would need to be super fit speed walkers to get to and from the BB woods and commit a triple murder in the time frame Jessie gives.

I'd like to throw a question back to anyone who believes Jessie was there. Why didn't the police ask him any questions which they didn't already know the answers to, and which they could then have gone and verified? Eg, what happened to the childrens' missing clothes, or what happened to Christopher Byers missing body parts?

Also, why didn't they follow standard procedure and take Jessie to the crime scene and get him to talk them through the crime?

I'm personally not convinced that the WMPD even believe Jessie was there.

Did they even ask what was the reasoning for the assault on the children?I would have asked Jessie that right away.

Jessie,why did Damien and Jason just grab the boys and start hitting them with their fists?
Jessie,why didn't you grab the knife from Jason and threaten Damien and Jason..weren't you the wrestler?The strongest of the 3?
Jessie,were candles burning?
Jessie,was there a ritual that took place?Meaning did Damien chant to Satan,Belzebub,Belial?
Jessie,is their any clothing that was taken from any of the boys?
Jessie,did any of the boys have any type of personal items with them?(backpacks,knives,etc.)

Things that should have been asked I would think.

 

[LunaticFringe]

Yes, actually, I am serious. I'm not in the habit of typing just to hear my fingers click.

Unfortunately, I don't know enough about the case to answer your question above about why the police didn't ask him questions they didn't already know. Sorry.

I believe I saw/read somewhere though, that the PD didn't take JM to the crime scene because it was crawling with reporters and they didn't want anyone to get the idea yet that they had a confession. I, personally, think this was stupid. JM should have gone to the scene of the crime and relayed exactly what he saw - if anything.

I'm in the process of reading the confession I questioned again. I just want to make sure I'm seeing (or not seeing) what you are.

My laptop doesn't click the same way my PC does.I love the clicking.It's like the tapping of Lee press on nails from my childhood... I miss that!

 

[SheBoss]

You make a valid point, Cappucino.

Did Terry Hobbs expressly say that he looked for the boys in the exact location around that time and couldn't find them?

Also, just because someone in the WMPD leaked the confession, doesn't mean it was the detectives that took the confession. They could have wanted to keep it mum, but someone else in the PD leaked it (for money, maybe?) I guess the detectives could have, but Lord knows my employees don't do everything I tell them to sometimes.

There's this:

CALVIN: But you haven't been promised anything for your testimony and you want to give it free and voluntarily.

MISSKELLEY: Yes.

CALVIN : And nobody's mistreating you?

MISSKELLEY: Nope

IF this is indeed true (and I'm not saying they didn't coerce him), they weren't offering a lesser charge at this time.

Let me just add this: He talks about Jason "swinging" the knife and blood flying off it to land in the weeds. Were the weeds luminoled at all? Again, the WM2 - if JM is to be believed, he was gone by then - would have had to clean off the weeds as well since no blood was found there. AND if the WMPD believed the confession of JM, why were they so gung ho over a hunting knife found the in lake. Jessie clearly states that it was a folding knife that Jason had. Shouldn't they be looking for a folding knife???

 

[SheBoss]

LOL, Lunatic!

Sorry to ask this here, and there may be a thread on it, but since we're on the topic of Jessie's confessions, does anyone have a pic of the Evan Williams bottle the police supposedly found just where JM said he threw it?

 

[Cappuccino]

Terry Hobbs' account of his own movements that night place him in and out of the BB woods throughout the evening from around 6 to 6.30 pm onwards, and place him there alone between 3 - 5 am on the morning of May 6th. As to which exact spot he was ever in, when and who with - your guess is as good as mine, because every alibi witness he gives contradicts him. However, the BB woods are a small patch of trees, about a quarter of an acre wide, so whichever spot he was at, how could he have failed to hear something with all this raping, mutilating and beating going on? The children weren't gagged at any stage, and Terry Hobbs isn't deaf.

Also, just because someone in the WMPD leaked the confession, doesn't mean it was the detectives that took the confession. They could have wanted to keep it mum, but someone else in the PD leaked it (for money, maybe?) I guess the detectives could have, but Lord knows my employees don't do everything I tell them to sometimes.

That's true, but the point is that the Commercial Appeal had Jessie's confession all over their front page the day after it was made. So there was no reason for the police not to take Jessie to the crime scene the next morning - the world and his wife already knew the police had a confession.

IF this is indeed true (and I'm not saying they didn't coerce him), they weren't offering a lesser charge at this time.

They weren't able to because he had already been sentenced. The only person who can offer a reduced sentence at that stage is the judge. The fact that Jessie abruptly stops confessing as soon as Burnett refuses to guarantee a deal tells its own story.

Incidentally, Jason was offered a deal by prosecutors before the trial - at which stage they were able to offer him reduced charges - and he refused to take it.

 

[Cappuccino]

LOL, Lunatic!

Sorry to ask this here, and there may be a thread on it, but since we're on the topic of Jessie's confessions, does anyone have a pic of the Evan Williams bottle the police supposedly found just where JM said he threw it?

Found just where JM said he threw it, eh? Okay. Sadly, Jessie's description of just where he threw it is as geographically challenged as all his other statements. Here's what Jessie said...

B-What did you do with your bottle?

M-I busted it.

B-Where at?

M-On the side of a like a over pass.

B-Where a bridge goes over one of the interstates?

M-Yea, like coming from I think it is Little Rock that goes under and there is a bridge goes to Memphis.

B-and that would have been Evan Williams

M-Yea

And so Stidham and co went and searched multiple overpasses which fitted that description until they found part of a broken bottle under one of them. There was no label left on it, so they took it to the nearest off licence and compared it to other bottles, and said it was consistent with the neck of an Evan Williams bottle. This all came to pass about 9 months after the crime.

But to answer your question, no afaik there is no picture of the broken neck of the bottle found under a random underpass in Feb 1994.

 

[SheBoss]

I'm going back over this confession with a fine toothed comb. I do have some questions, but I want to review the autopsy reports again and see if I can see any matches to what he's saying happened.

What I'm seeing in this confession is there was more hitting than what (I think) the autopsy reports are showing. Now, I realize it takes a little time for bruising to form, but I think I remember way more abrasions than what he's telling here. Of course, he could be leaving some things out. I noticed that he didn't say anything about Moore running away and him catching him in this confession, although he does say that he was further away from D and J which would let someone assume the child ran and JM had to catch him.

 

[SheBoss]

And so Stidham and co went and searched multiple overpasses which fitted that description until they found part of a broken bottle under one of them. There was no label left on it, so they took it to the nearest off licence and compared it to other bottles, and said it was consistent with the neck of an Evan Williams bottle. This all came to pass about 9 months after the crime.

But to answer your question, no afaik there is no picture of the broken neck of the bottle found under a random underpass in Feb 1994.

Why 9 months later I wonder? That was a concrete piece of evidence proving that MissKelley was possibly there. Why wait that long? And the WMPD didn't do the search? This was JM's own defense attorney?

 

[Cappuccino]

No, the WMPD didn't do the search. This was the Bible confession - the post conviction statement Stidham took off Jessie where he was trying to assess whether his client was fit to give evidence in return for a deal, or whether he would be suborning perjury. That's why its Stidham who is checking the details.

As for why it took 9 months, well Jessie never mentioned it before, and yet again, the WMPD never asked what happened to the whiskey bottle, even though Jessie said they were all drunk on whiskey and beer during this Satanic ritual.

 

[Compassionate Reader]

To me, the biggest problem with the 2/17/94 statement and the "Bible" statement (taken on 2/8/94) is that they are both post-conviction statements and therefore anything correct in them could have easily been learned from the trial (or from the repeated "questioning" by the prosecution after the trial in a failed attempt to get Jessie to testify against Damien and Jason). To understand what happened and why Jessie would make these statements one must understand what it means to have an IQ of 72. From the day he was arrested, Jessie's mind was focused on one thing and one thing only, going home. He would say and do whatever he needed to say or was instructed to say so that he could go home.

We have no proof (other than what Stidham said that Jessie told him), but it seems that Jessie was promised a visit with his girlfriend (now his fiancee) in return for making the statement. Stidham also stated that the prosecution harassed Jessie constantly from the time he was on his way to prison (the incident on the way, which is considered by some to be yet another "confession") until they got the 2/17/94 statement. Once Burnett made it clear that Jessie would not be receiving a deal or any sort of reduced sentence, Jessie stopped making statements.

Try to look at the geography in Jessie's statement, as Cappuccino pointed out. Specifically, at one point, Stidham shows Jessie a map of the discovery ditch area drawn by the police. Jessie looked at it and said, repeatedly, "That ain't right!" IMO, this shows that Jessie was unfamiliar with the area and didn't even recognize it when shown a map!

The Evan Williams bottle is another "red herring" often dragged out of the woodwork in this case. It was found a good distance from the discovery ditch, and no fingerprints or other forensic evidence has ever been produced that links it to the crime. What is so unusual about finding a broken liquor bottle under an overpass?

How did Jessie know that it was there? Here's my guess. Jessie, being a curious young man, went to an overpass close enough to the crime scene (where all of the crime tape was strung out, etc.) to see, from an elevated position, what was happening. Standing there, he saw a broken Evan Williams bottle (or some sort of liquor bottle) and later, when desperately trying to get his lawyer to believe he was there (believing that he would be able to go home if he could convince everyone he was telling the truth) remembered the broken bottle and told Stidham about it in an effort to substantiate his story.

When looking at the 2/17/94 post conviction statement in light of what was known at the time, there are still errors. IMO, the most glaring are the ones that have already been mentioned - the total lack of knowledge about the geography and the lack of evidence to support the beatings that Jessie described. However, when the new information about animal predation is considered, the statement is even more woefully inaccurate. It simply falls apart, as do all of Jessie's statements.

 

[SheBoss]

Thank you all for your imput! I truly appreciate it! I've gone back and reread the 2nd confession (not the cop, but the one after) and these are the problems I have with it.

First - let me say that even though they are post conviction, I have a hard time believing that someone who "just wants to go home" and can't comprehend that regardless of whether or not he confesses to the murder of these boys, or to the Kennedy assination, or anything else, he's not going anywhere is the same person who can pick up on facts presented at trial (an often tedious and mundane procedure where even the most intelligent of us has a hard time focusing at times) and regurgitate them at will.

1. It took JM 3 hours to eat a "cheeseburger sandwich" and drink a couple of diet cokes? And no one said anything to him during this time? Not buying it...

DAVIS: I've turned the other recorder on for the purposes of this tape. We are at the offices of Joe Calvin attorney. It's 8:02 p.m. on February 17, 1994. Present in the room is Greg Crow.

CALVIN: Let me ask you a couple of questions before you get into it ..ah.. Jessie when you were brought here ..ah.. since you've been here with the Deputy Sheriff. I think you got here about 5:00, is that correct?

MISSKELLEY: Somewhere around 5:00.

2. He does sound extremely pissy to his lawyers. I wonder why?

3. The time frame just doesn't work:

DAVIS: Ok. And had you seen anybody in Highland Trailer Park right before you left to meet up with those two (2)?

MISSKELLEY: Yes.

DAVIS: Ok and who had you seen?

MISSKELLEY: Louie, susie, Stephanie, Pat, Boomer ..um.. Cody, Stephanie, Bobbie, you know some cop and there was some more people I couldn't tell you.

This was around 6:30 according to Charles Ashley Jr and Stephanie Dollar and several other witnesses. In this statement, he must have been talking about the woman slapping Stephanie's boy off the bike. The players are pretty much the same that were out there as the ones he named above.

DAVIS: Ok. Now, what was it as far as daylight or dark. What was it when you left the woods.

MISSKELLEY: I bout dark, close to dark. It was still light outside

DAVIS: Ok. It was getting dark?

DAVIS: And what did you do then?

MISSKELLEY: I went to my house, got my then went to Johnny's

DAVIS: went wrestling. Was it dark when you left to go wrestling ?

MISSKELLEY: Uhm.. (yes).

DAVIS: Ok.

MISSKELLEY: We usualyy leave about 8.

He states that he left about 8 to go wrestling, but Fred Revelle and a host of others have stated (under oath) that it was between 6:30 and 7 - thereby leaving MissKelley no time to run to RHH and assist in beating and killing 3 boys.

Although MissKelley goes on to say it was indeed dark when they left. Sunset was at 7:49 that night. Does that mean he was lying or his alibi's were lying, trying to keep him out of jail?

DAVIS: But on that night was it already dark when you got ready to leave?

MISSKELLEY: Uhm...(yes)

DAVIS: Ok.

MISSKELLEY: usually he say we just sit there and sit there get ready go.

4. He was drunk according to his confession. He couldn't remember what the boy he grabbed was wearing without prompting from the detectives:

MISSKELLEY: Me and Jason jump out and grabbed'm.

DAVIS: Alright. Who did you grab?

MISSKELLEY: ..um.. the one that had a, a blue boyscout.

DAVIS: Ok. Who did Jason grab, which, what did that boy looked like that Jason grabbed?

MISSKELLEY: I can't remember. I remember the one I grabbed.

DAVIS: Ok. What was that boy wearing.

MISSKELLEY: I can't remember, I was too messed up to remember that.

DAVIS: You said something about a blue or about a boyscout something. Was one of'm wearing a uniform?

MISSKELLEY: Something with the boyscouts on it.

Yet, he could still grab, beat up, and chase down a boy running for his life? He could also be drunk enough that he got sick from it:

DAVIS: You said earlier that you drank to the point that you were sick. Did you get sick that night?

MISSKELLEY: Going home.

DAVIS: Where?

---------: (back ground voices)

DAVIS: Ok. We turned the tape over at least one of the tapes over. Ah, Jessie you said that you got sick going home that night. Were you sick at your stomach?

MISSKELLEY: Uhm.. (yes).

DAVIS: Throwing up.

MISSKELLEY: Drunk till I get sick. Then he goes wrestling after that?

DAVIS: Ok. Remember where you were when you throw up ?

But still go home and then go wrestling after that? What about the man who owned the wrestling rink? The one who was so concerned about not getting sued that he had all the boys sign a waiver. He didn't mind that a kid was going to get up and wrestle drunk?

5. Leading of MissKelley, especially during the "rape" portion:

DAVIS: Ok. Now what did Jas, what did you see Jason and Damen do to the other two (2)?

MISSKELLEY: Well Damien screw one of'm.

DAVIS: When your saying he going screw him, what did you see him do? He didn’t say he was going to screw them. He said “Damien screw on of’m”.

MISSKELLEY: Well he was gonna stick his penis in that little boys behind.

DAVIS: Ok. Alright.

MISSKELLEY: As far as I am concerned he did.

DAVIS: When you say he was going to, what did you see Damien do and what happened between him and that little boy as far as that goes ?

MISSKELLEY: I don't understand what....

DAVIS: Ok. You said that he was going to screw the little or stick his penis in his behind. What did you see Damien do?

MISSKELLEY: They didn't do it, he was going to it, then they didn't

So did they or didn't they? Jessie changes his story right here 4 times.

6. I'll ask the same question as Davis: Where's the blood go?

DAVIS: Ok. Could you see, did you ever see one of the boys get cut with the knife?

MISSKELLEY: After he cut through with'm then I noticed what'd he done.

DAVIS: What did you see?

MISSKELLEY: I saw that boy you know missing

DAVIS: If you worried when you saw that, describe to me what you saw Jason do and what you saw happened?

MISSKELLEY: Well when he was doing that I seen blood fly.

DAVIS: Ok. Well did he, where'd the blood go?

MISSKELLEY: Grass, I mean not grass but weeds, like <..inaudible> sling around.

7. If MissKelley knew this was a locking blade and the lawyers believed him, why was the prosecution so gung ho to bring this knife behind Jason's house into trial? The one that wasn't locking or folding?

DAVIS: What, who, who's knife was it?

MISSKELLEY: Jason's.

DAVIS: What did it look like?

MISSKELLEY: I can't remember. He keeps all kinds of knifes, I can't remember. All I know is it's a lock blade.

DAVIS: When you say a lock-blade, one that folds out and locks?

MISSKELLEY: Yea.

This is just what I've come up with so far. I'm not saying I'm ready to jump on the supporter bandwagon just yet, but maybe my memory had this confession more cut and dried that it really is.

 

[I Must Break You]

Not sure who that might be, but the WM3 committed these murders. It's so obvious it hurts.

You obviously need, beyond reason, logic and common sense, these 3 murderers to be innocent.

But they aren't, and everyone who matters knows that.

See I have to disagree here gryncher... to me it's so obvious that they are innocent that it hurts. Plus I believe at least one of the biological parents (Pam) believes that the 3 are innocent and I would think she would matter to this case. Plus not all of us supporters need these 3 to be innocent for some reason, heck I believe almost every one of these so-called "wrongly convicted" people are guilty (ie Amanda Knox, Leonard Peltier, etc.). But I just call it like I see it and to me these three were railroaded.

 

[EGirl]

Jessie knew about the whiskey bottle and he also knew that the hill had been splashed down with water to remove evidence. Only someone who was there would know these things.

IMO

 

[Compassionate Reader]

Jessie knew about the whiskey bottle and he also knew that the hill had been splashed down with water to remove evidence. Only someone who was there would know these things.

IMO

The whiskey bottle was never linked to the crime in any way. I fail to see the significance of a broken whiskey bottle under an overpass that was IIRC about a mile away from the discovery ditch. As to the "slicked off" bank, remember that this statement was post-conviction so he would have heard the description of the bank during his trial.

 

[claudicici]

....plus it's highly questionable that the hill was "splashed down" with water....

 

[Compassionate Reader]

....plus it's highly questionable that the hill was "splashed down" with water....

The part in the 2/8/94 statement that really got me was when Jessie described Damien and Jason as washing the blood off of the grass with their fingers.:floorlaugh:

 

[Pensfan]

Clotted blood is very sticky. It congeals and it would have stuck to grass. (This is why when you have blood drawn, the test tube contains heparin inside it. The heparin keeps the blood from congealing, so it arrives at the laboratory and the blood is still in liquid form.)

It is very disturbing that you think it is funny that two young adults tried to wash clotted blood from three little boys off the grass.

 

[Pensfan]

Warning graphic photo of congealed blood from an animal.
http://www.gunblast.com/images/ExtremeShock/DSC00745.jpg

Congealed animal blood used in soup in Laos:
http://www.doriegreenspan.com/print...abang-tamarind-riverside-cooking-classes.html

Blood clots within 3-5 minutes.

 

[Compassionate Reader]

Clotted blood is very sticky. It congeals and it would have stuck to grass. (This is why when you have blood drawn, the test tube contains heparin inside it. The heparin keeps the blood from congealing, so it arrives at the laboratory and the blood is still in liquid form.)

It is very disturbing that you think it is funny that two young adults tried to wash clotted blood from three little boys off the grass.

What I was laughing at was the ridiculousness of being able, in the dark, to clean all of the clotted and congealing blood from the grass by rubbing with their fingers. As you said, the blood would have been very sticky, making it very hard to remove. It is totally ridiculous to believe that two semi-drunk teenagers could have removed all of the blood from this veritable slaughter without leaving any visible blood on the grass, trees or ground. Thank you for proving that to remove all of the blood from such a situation as Jessie described by rubbing the grass with their fingers is simply impossible.