Here’s an exploration of the Misskelley connection, comprised of 14 accounts arranged chronologically from roughly Sept 1991 – May 1993, by the time period referenced within the accounts.
( 1 ) Deanna Holcomb, Damien’s former girlfriend . . . 1991-1992
Davidson: [W]hen were you going with uh – Damien?
Holcomb: During school, at uh – 1991 to ’92…[snip] The beginning of school to the end of school.
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Fogleman: Alright. Did – during the course of your uh – going with Damien uh – did he have any particular friends? Friends in particular?
Holcomb: Um – yes sir.
Fogleman: Alright, who – who were they?
Holcomb: Jason, um – Jessie, Joey Lancaster and some other people.
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Fogleman: Alright. Uh – and you said “Jason”, who are you referring to?
Holcomb: Jason Baldwin.
Fogleman: Alright. And you said “Jessie”?
Holcomb: Misskelley.
SOURCE:
http://callahan.8k.com/wm3/ebtrial/dholcomb.html
( 2 ) John Earl Perschke report . . . Jan/Feb 1992
Perschke, a teen, was alleged to have been attacked by Misskelley in presence of Echols-Baldwin-Buddy Lucas per Marion PD’s Don Bray.
http://callahan.8k.com/wm3/img/j_perschke_report.html
( 3 ) Domini Teer (Echols’ girlfriend) . . . Sept 1992
FOGLEMAN- …NOW…WHEN DAMION LIVED WITH HIS STEPFATHER, JACK…THAT WAS WHEN HIS PARENTS WERE IN OREGON, IS THAT RIGHT?
DOMINI- UH HUH.
FOGLEMAN- OKAY. NOW, DID JESSIE COME AROUND THEN, WHEN DAMION LIVED WITH HIS STEPFATHER [starting in Sept of 1992, I believe - FJW].
DOMINI- UH HUH.
FOGLEMAN- OKAY.
DOMINI- BECAUSE HE SAID THAT JESSIE SAID THAT HE HAD CAME FROM CALIFORNIA. HE JUST HAD MOVED BACK FROM CALIFORNIA.
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FOGLEMAN- AND, ….AND THEN JESSIE WAS AROUND QUITE A BIT THEN?
DOMINI- EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE, LIKE ONCE OR TWICE, YEAH, I SAW HIM.
FOGLEMAN- OKAY, AND WHEN HE WAS AROUND WHEN YOU SAW HIM, WHAT WOULD YA’LL BE DOING?
DOMINI- SITTING IN DAMION’S HOUSE.
FOGLEMAN- OKAY, JUST SIT AROUND AND TALK. WHEN YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT DAMION’S HOUSE, YOU TALKING ABOUT HIS…
DOMINI- HIS…
FOGLEMAN- JACK ECHOLS?
DOMINI- JACK ECHOL’S HOUSE.
( 4 ) Jerry Driver, Crittenden Juvenile Officer . . . Nov 1992
Driver: …Here we go uh, (inaudible) 11-15-93 or not of 93 it would be of 92. [1992, clearly - FJW] Uh, Damien, Jason, and Jessie were walking together over in Lakeshore (??) uh I don’t remember the street but we had made a traffic stop while I was over there with 619, from the sheriff’s office…
Durham: Was this the first time you were aware that Jessie Misskelley associated with Damien?
Driver: I had heard prior to that Jessie was, sometime in late summer, I started hearing Jessie’s name.
[**Note: Driver's recollection corresponds to Echols return from Oregon in Sept 1992, and Misskelley's supposed recent return from California - FJW]
Durham: But this the first time you seen Damien
Driver: This is the first time I seen them together
Durham: Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley
Driver: And Jessie Misskelley
Durham: All 3 together
Driver: Uh-huh, walking down the street all dressed in black, long black coats, Damien had. . ., had a black slouch hat on, and they all 3 had staff’s um, and . . ., and I ask them what they were doing and they told me they were going. . ., going to watch, laugh, so I kept an eye on them pretty close after that and I saw them on several other occasions uh, both at uh. . ., uh Lakeshore and at the trailer park across where Jessie lived.
Durham: Highland Trailer Park
Driver: Highland Trailer Park, uh I seen them in both locations, uh I never did see Jessie with uh with Damien, um, down at Wal-Mart. They use to go down to Wal-Mart and shoplift, he and Domini Teer and. . ., and I think Jason probably Jessie to, but I just never saw Jessie with anything at that location.
SOURCE:
http://callahan.8k.com/wm3/jerry_driver_statement.html
( 5 ) Jim McNease, garage boss to the two Jessies . . . May 1993 and before
“McNease said Misskelley and the other two murder suspects, Michael Wayne Echols and Jason Baldwin, rode bicycles a lot around Marion and West Memphis.” – Commercial Appeal, June 5, 1993
( 6 ) Vicki Hutcheson . . . May 1993
VICKIE: JESSIE TOLD ME ABOUT A FRIEND OF HIS NAMED DAMIEN AND THIS FRIEND DRANK BLOOD AND STUFF HE JUST KEPT GOING ON AND ON ON ABOUT HOW WEIRD HE WAS… SO BY…[WHAT] WAS COMING OUT IN THE PAPER AND STUFF I JUST THOUGHT HOW THEY WERE KILLED WAS ODD BUT YOU KNOW MAYBE IT WAS LIKE A DEVIL WORSHIPPING THING…AND I THOUGHT THAT THIS KID DOING THIS YOU KNOW MAYBE HE KNEW SOMETHING… JESSIE HAD TOLD ME THAT DAMIEN HANG OUT AT LAKESHORE AND SO I WENT OUT OF MY WAY YOU KNOW TO TO TRY TO GO AROUND LAKESHORE … I SAID [TO JESSIE] NO I THINK [DAMIEN]’S HOT I REALLY WANT TO GO OUT WITH HIM CAN YOU FIX ME UP WITH HIM AND…HE DID.
RIDGE: OKAY. ALRIGHT YOU MEET DAMIEN
(….picking up from VH’s 1994 statement….)
Victoria Hutcheson: Yeah, I go get him over at Jason’s house, which I thought was Damien’s house… And, uh, so Jessie gets out of the truck and says [to Damien], “Here you can sit in the middle. ” [Laughs] … So, uh, we dropped some movies off at Block Buster and then went over to my house and we were going to hang out. And, uh, I tried to pump him for information like [the police] wanted me to.
SOURCES:
http://callahan.8k.com/wm3/victoriah_statement.html and
http://callahan.8k.com/wm3/vicki_h_exhibit_c.html
( 7 ) Domini Teer (Echols’ girlfriend) . . . May 1993
Domini says Jessie reappeared just after the crimes (this is in all likelihood the above-referenced meeting engineered by Vicki Hutcheson, returning videos to Blockbuster)
DOMINI- JESSIE CAME AROUND AFTER THEM KIDS WAS KILLED…[snip] OUT OF NOWHERE. I MEAN WE HADN’T SEEN JESSIE FOR MONTHS.
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DOMINI- IT WAS LIKE, TWO DAYS AFTER THE COPS WERE COMING AROUND, UM….JESSIE CAME OVER TO JASON’S HOUSE ONE DAY WHILE I WAS SITTING THERE, AND WANTING DAMION TO TAKE BLOCKBUSTER MOVIES TO BLOCKBUSTER.
FOGLEMAN- UH HUH.
DOMINI- AND THEY WENT, AND I GUESS, TOOK BLOCKBUSTER MOVIES BACK, AND THEN WOULD UP OVER AT JESSIE’S HOUSE.
SOURCE:
http://callahan.8k.com/wm3/domit.html
( 8 ) Matt Baldwin (Jason’s brother) . . . May 1993
Further to the post-crime Jessie sighting. Again, the girl in truck may well have been Vicki Hutcheson (?)… in this version, Damien doesn’t go with Jessie and her in the truck, however.
MATTHEW: THE DAY AFTER [THE CRIMES], I KNOW DAMIEN WAS OVER THAT NIGHT BECAUSE I THINK JESSIE CAME OVER THAT NIGHT, JESSIE AND SOME GIRL WERE IN A TRUCK
FOGLEMAN: UH-HUH
MATTHEW: SOME GIRL IN TRUCK WERE TRYING TO GET DAMIEN TO COME OVER THERE, BUT DAMIEN DIDN’T WANT TO COME OVER THERE
FOGLEMAN: THAT’S THE NEXT… THAT WAS THE NEXT DAY?
MATTHEW: I THINK SO, YEA
FOGLEMAN: OKAY, YOU REMEMBER WHAT THE GIRL IN THE TRUCK LOOK LIKE?
MATTHEW: UH-UH
FOGLEMAN: KNOW WHO SHE WAS?
MATTHEW: SHE DIDN’T COME IN, SHE STAYED IN THE TRUCK
FOGLEMAN: OKAY
MATTHEW: AND THEN JESSIE LEFT IN THE TRUCK, AND DAMIEN STAYED OVER MY HOUSE
FOGLEMAN: ALRIGHT, DID DAMIEN SPEND THE NIGHT THERE THAT NIGHT?
MATTHEW: I THINK SO, I DON’T
FOGLEMAN: OKAY,
MATTHEW: I DON’T KNOW FOR SURE
SOURCE:
http://westmemphisthreediscussion.yuku.com/topic/2657
( 9 & 10 ) Skating Rink – Holly George Statement, re: May 1993, plus Skating Rink Video
RIDGE: HOW LONG HAVE YOU KNOWN DAMIEN? BEFORE THE PHONE CALL [on May 5, 1993]?
HOLLY: BEFORE THAT PHONE CALL. ABOUT A WEEK
RIDGE: ABOUT A WEEK BEFORE THAT, OKAY, AND WHERE DID YOU MEET HIM?
HOLLY: SKATING RINK
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RIDGE: YEA, YOU MENTIONED JESSIE, DO YOU KNOW JESSIE?
HOLLY: YEAH, I DID, BUT I MEAN HE WAS NEVER REALLY ONE OF MY FRIENDS
RIDGE: OKAY, WHERE DID YOU SEE HIM?
HOLLY: SKATING RINK
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RIDGE: OK, AND WHAT WERE THEY JUST HAD THEIR OWN LITTLE GROUP OVER HERE AND JESSIE WAS IN ANOTHER GROUP OR WHAT WAS IT?
HOLLY: THEY HUNG OUT WITH THE SAME PEOPLE BUT THEY JUST NEVER REALLY LIKED JESSIE
RIDGE: OKAY, ALRIGHT, WAS THERE ANY KIND OF ARGUMENT GOING ON OR WAS IT JUST LIKE THEY WAS (ILLEGIBLE) PART OF THE SAME GROUP
HOLLY: I DON’T THINK THEY WERE PART OF THE SAME GROUP
SOURCE:
http://callahan.8k.com/wm3/hollyg1.html
Skating Rink Video – showing Misskelley playing pool and Echols(?) at a nearby table (32:50 – 33:08)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4527959120878708499
( 11 ) Gail Grinnell (Jason Baldwin’s Mom) . . . re: May 1993
“Jason, Damien, and Jessie were not all friends. At one point they had been friends, but at some point there had been some problems with t-shirts, and then Jessie had tried to steal a necklace of Jason’s. In May of 1993, Jessie was not one of Jason’s friends. He didn’t come by to our house, except once right before the murders he came to our house and said he had just come back from California.” (Rule 37 Hearing, 2009)
SOURCE:
http://callahan.8k.com/wm3/bm_rule37/bm_rule37_grinnell.html
( 12 ) Damien Echols – from Blood of the Innocents (1993/94/95?)
“Echols emphasized another point. Although he and Jason Baldwin were close friends, he had little patience for Jessie Misskelley. They seldom associated.
‘Two things that i dont have time for is stupidity and ugliness. and Jessie Misskelley had both of those qualities,’ he said coldly, then snickered.” (p.411)
( 13 ) Damien Echols – Almost Home (2005)
“I never did see Jessie a great deal, but we became familiar enough with each other to talk when we met. We’d run into him at the bowling alley and spend an hour or two playing pool, or hang out for a little while at the Lakeshore store. Jessie was no great conversationalist, but his antics could be amusing, and the odd things he did say were usually worth a chuckle. It was very apparent to anyone of even average intelligence that you weren’t dealing with the world’s brightest guy. He was a great deal like a child. He was harmless.”
( 14 ) Jason Baldwin, in 2012
“Somehow or another, they made the decision to set me and my two best friends up for the crime…”
SOURCE: Discussion with Jason Baldwin, “Juvenile Justice Matters,” April 2012 –
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/jjmatters/2012/04/19/discussion-west-memphis-3s-jason-baldwin