This is the first I've heard about this manhole theory. But if they were killed in a manhole, why not just leave them there?
hobbs alibi has been that he came home from work at 2:30 or 3. pam was there. And that between when he got home and when he took pam to work at around 5, his step son never came home. He didnt see him that day. Hobbs then after dropping off his wife at work went to his friends house and played guitar. Hobbs moving the bodies from the manhole to the woods might be a way for him to change stevie out of his clothes and into new clothes, otherwise it would have been apparent stevie had stopped by the house, and seen terry, thus terry's alibi would have been seen as suspect. Theres speculation the 3 boys stopped by stevies house and asked to stay out later. I think stevie stopped by and changed clothes. Had he been found in shorts instead of the jeans he was last seen wearing, obviously terry's alibi would have been found to be the lie that it is. Terry's friend and alibi says he saw the 3 boys in the distance ride away as terry entered his friends house to play guitar. And 3 other witnesses place the boys outside terrys house as late as 530. The boys clothes, the clothes found on the bodies some of it was turned inside out. His stepsons jeans were turned inside out. Some clothes were missing. I believe several of the shoelaces that tied up the boys were used on different boys. so the shoelaces that were used to tie michael moore were stevies i think. I think this suggests the crime being committed elsewhere, clothes being changed and haphazardly and rapidly being put on again. I think this is the manner you would do that at 3am. also moving the bodies from the manhole i think got terry a chance to get rid of evidence that would have linked him to the crime. The boys were according to various sources thinking of running away that day. John mark Byers had beaten Chris, and there is evidence the boys were seen with backpacks heading towards areas where manholes were abundant. I think thats what happened. the manhole was a hiding place for their stuff, and i think they met there, with supplies. Maybe stevie stayed out too late. Maybe hobbs caught wind of the plan to run away. Maybe Stevie confronted Hobbs about the sexual and physical abuse going on in his home and said something like "I am running away", or "i hope my mom divorces you" and that set him off. Finally green stuff was found in stevies stomach. Green beans were his favorite. pam had cooked green beans that night but stevie never showed up before hobbs and his wife had to go to take her to work. The green beans in his stomach suggests after Terry drove his wife to work, stevie stopped by and had some green beans. He had to have seen his stepdad
Whatever it was, I dont think hobbs woke up that day planning on killing anyone. I think something set him off and his extreme temper did the rest.
And i think for the most part Hobbs was brilliant in covering all this up. The manhole theory is the hard work of someone on the WM3 message board, its the most likely theory, but its a theory that had this person not done the hard work, I dont think we would have ever thought of it. Hobbs refered to the fact his son was obsessed with manholes and the Teenage Mutant ninja turtles in interviews. Had he never mentioned that, we never would be talking about this.
well i think everything just worked out in hobbs' favor. The water levels rising in the manhole which washed away the blood and dna, i dont think hobbs had any idea that would happen. I think they were killed in the manhole, left there because hobbs knew people would be combing the woods that night. He lucked out that the water washed away everything, but i dont think he had any clue that would happen. And i think he was unsure if everything was washed away completely, and thats another reason why he moved the bodies. Theres reports of John Mark Byers other son and other boys in the hours after the boys were missing in the woods searching for the boys, calling their names. And they said they were scared off by twigs breaking, and splashes in the water. That could have been hobbs trying to get people away from the site. I dont think hobbs is a master murderer planner. I think he lucked out in every way possible, with the water in the manhole, with inept law enforcement, and how the crimes were thought to be satanic in nature. As i said, the knots that bound the boys I dont think there is anything satanic about it, i just think hobbs pulled the boys one by one, up from the manhole to the place where the bodies were found. Look at the way the boys are tied. Its really not constrictive.
Theres also the idea that all of them may not have been totally dead when he left them in the manhole. I think he hit one of the boys really hard, maybe, then had to incapacitate the others. But maybe not kill them. Maybe the others died as a result of the water rising in the manhole.
So I dont know. I think hobbs freaked out in every manner. And i think he worried. I think he left behind DNA at the manholes, left after he killed them, then came back as his wife was sleeping at like 3am or something, and transprted the bodies to the place where they were found. So going back and repositioning and moving the bodies was precaution, and it being 3am i dont think he really could tell or could be absolutely positive that all the DNA was gone from the manhole. I think he left hair, and DNA in that manhole. I also think the manhole theory would have been less likely to be looked at as satanic in nature. Especially considering the theory suggests that had they been found that night, they wouldnt have been tied. The bites on the bodies would have been easily explained, as bite marks not from a killer but from the snapping turtle and other things found in the manhole, and plus the bruises and scraps on the bodies would have been easily identifiable as rebar, which of course you could easily trace to the manhole. I think hobbs knew some of this and
The manhole theory also explains how he and everyone else failed to see the bodies. Nothing else really explains that as well. Hobbs, and jacoby, and a ton of other people walked right by where the bodies were eventually found, noone found anything. I find that hard to believe if the bodies were there all along, if the bodies were in the woods all along.
Interesting. I think Hobbs is the best suspect & I think they were killed somewhere else, but I guess I've thought that someone else killed them in a place that could be traced back to them - not a public place - and then moved them to the woods so they wouldn't be found in their basement or wherever. Never thought about a place like a manhole. Or I guess I just never thought of such a specific theory.
Interesting. I think Hobbs is the best suspect & I think they were killed somewhere else, but I guess I've thought that someone else killed them in a place that could be traced back to them - not a public place - and then moved them to the woods so they wouldn't be found in their basement or wherever. Never thought about a place like a manhole. Or I guess I just never thought of such a specific theory.
i hear ya. why the manhole theory for me really nails it home, is the scrapes and bruises on the bodies. no one was ever able to explain that. however, there have been pictures posted of insides of manholes in that specific area. the bruises and scrapes on the bodies are very unique. they form 3 x's, as you'd see on a rebar. they are in a grid pattern arrangement. The heads of the boys were fractured and the wounds suggest being dropped from a height onto a concrete or pavement surface. and the bruises pretty much match up completely with either the inside rebar, or conversely being scraped or causing abrasions by coming into contact with the outside of a manhole. The Wm3 board has tried to narrow it down to a specific manhole, they have several though, one very interesting looking "volcano" one. The scrapes look like road rash. But the abrations match up. And also being killed elsewhere wouldnt explain the animal bites, most likely from a snapping turtle. The manhole theory explains this, as thats the type of creature that would be found in a manhole, as well as racoons or any other type of creatures.
I dont think anything hobbs says is by chance. it has specific meaning. he himself brought up the teenage mutant ninja turtles. And that the boys liked playing in manholes. The boys had told kids that day they were going to their secret hideout. They were seen by a woman at around 630, riding their bikes towards an area with a large amount of manholes. many witnesses saw the boys at around that time frame riding into the woods.
the manhole theory also comes up with a solution to the infamous bojangles man. the black man, found bloody and covered in sawdust and acting strange at a restauraunt around the time of the murders. the theory suggests Hobbs was seen by this man in the woods, and that Hobbs fired a gun at the man, and it hit the man. this would be yet another reason why he moved the bodies from the manhole to the woods.
hobbs behavior all night was bizzare to say the least. his friend and alibi was with him off and on throughout the night, but hobbs has quite a few hours and multiple trips inside the woods before he went to bed where he was alone, no one can place him anywhere, but by his own admission he places himself in the woods. In terms of this evidence, the most damning is that he said he never saw stevie that day. His friend and alibi as i said, says he saw the 3 boys riding their bikes in the street as Hobbs entered his friends house to play guitar.
im pretty much convinced Hobbs committed the crime. Its frustrating as hell though to be knowledgeable about this and to be so powerless in this situation. The DA in WM seems unwilling to act on this knowledge. Hobbs was hinted about as the killer in the final Paradise Lost. And was outright named as the killer in West of Memphis the Peter Jackson documentary. MY understanding is that the film crew gave the DA the evidence it had collected that implicated Hobbs. Witnesses and family have come forward to say Hobbs either lied, or he outright confessed to the murders.
Theres a several hour interview Hobbs did in 2009 i think, when he sued Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks, she said he was the killer and he sued her for defamation. As a result of that, he was interviewed by natalies lawyers for hours. its all on video, Ive seen it, and its a doozy. He changes his story. He lies. He says things that make little sense. ive also seen the 2007 interview he did with the WMPD. Thats on youtube i think. All worth checking out.
I think his alibi and friend Jacoby is the key. I dont think Jacoby committed the crime, but i think its significant his alibi flat out disagrees completely with how things went down that night. Jacoby is the only person who places Hobbs anywhere that night, pretty much. Few sightings here and there, but by and large the only person to place Hobbs anywhere, is Jacoby. And Jacoby says things didnt happen as Hobbs said they did.
we seem to be at a standstill. WOM premiered at Sundance nearly a year ago. The prosecutor got a special screening of the film, and Jackson and Berg sent Ellington (the prosecutor) evidence, including new evidence dug up for the film or released as a result of it. Some of this evidence was statements from Hobbs family saying he admitted to the murders on multiple occasions. And also the testimony of 3 neighbors who contradict Hobbs statements since day 1, that he never saw the boys or his stepson the day of the murders. These 3 neighbors give testimony that they saw the Hobbs yelling at or for the boys in his front lawn and the boys were on bikes.
So, the film still hasnt been nationally released. its sort of trickled out, here and there. Ellington, the prosecutor, who initially said he was completely open to new evidence, has for whatever reason done abolutely nothing reguarding the case.
I think there is more than enough evidence to bring Hobbs to trial, but I think Ellington has enormous pressure from the Good Ol Boys in WM, who have alot to lose if Ellington pursues the case. Its one thing to have the WM3 out on an Alford Plea, its another thing completely for the WMPD to actively pursue the real killer. Ellingtons political career and aspirations are also I believe playing a large part in this, as he spent the better part of the last year preparing for his run for Congress, which he lost.
Ellington seems in a bind. He cant pursue the case without taking on some extremely powerful people in WM (police, judges, the entire community), and if he does nothing he's faced with the feisty and relentless network of people who supported the WM3, and demand they be exonerated.
Im curious to see how much pressure this film puts on Ellington and everyone else to actually do something. The film from what ive heard points the finger at Hobbs, which is where it should be.
we seem to be at a standstill. WOM premiered at Sundance nearly a year ago. The prosecutor got a special screening of the film, and Jackson and Berg sent Ellington (the prosecutor) evidence, including new evidence dug up for the film or released as a result of it. Some of this evidence was statements from Hobbs family saying he admitted to the murders on multiple occasions. And also the testimony of 3 neighbors who contradict Hobbs statements since day 1, that he never saw the boys or his stepson the day of the murders. These 3 neighbors give testimony that they saw the Hobbs yelling at or for the boys in his front lawn and the boys were on bikes.
So, the film still hasnt been nationally released. its sort of trickled out, here and there. Ellington, the prosecutor, who initially said he was completely open to new evidence, has for whatever reason done abolutely nothing reguarding the case.
I think there is more than enough evidence to bring Hobbs to trial, but I think Ellington has enormous pressure from the Good Ol Boys in WM, who have alot to lose if Ellington pursues the case. Its one thing to have the WM3 out on an Alford Plea, its another thing completely for the WMPD to actively pursue the real killer. Ellingtons political career and aspirations are also I believe playing a large part in this, as he spent the better part of the last year preparing for his run for Congress, which he lost.
Ellington seems in a bind. He cant pursue the case without taking on some extremely powerful people in WM (police, judges, the entire community), and if he does nothing he's faced with the feisty and relentless network of people who supported the WM3, and demand they be exonerated.
Im curious to see how much pressure this film puts on Ellington and everyone else to actually do something. The film from what ive heard points the finger at Hobbs, which is where it should be.
I'm curious to see that too (when was the release date again? I missed that). I think Ellington better man up and stop being a pussy about it and stop bending to the pressure of the good 'ol boys, or else he may not sleep easy for the rest of his life.
I wonder what Hobbs thinks of the film. :?
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy. ~ Desiderata
we seem to be at a standstill. WOM premiered at Sundance nearly a year ago. The prosecutor got a special screening of the film, and Jackson and Berg sent Ellington (the prosecutor) evidence, including new evidence dug up for the film or released as a result of it. Some of this evidence was statements from Hobbs family saying he admitted to the murders on multiple occasions. And also the testimony of 3 neighbors who contradict Hobbs statements since day 1, that he never saw the boys or his stepson the day of the murders. These 3 neighbors give testimony that they saw the Hobbs yelling at or for the boys in his front lawn and the boys were on bikes.
So, the film still hasnt been nationally released. its sort of trickled out, here and there. Ellington, the prosecutor, who initially said he was completely open to new evidence, has for whatever reason done abolutely nothing reguarding the case.
I think there is more than enough evidence to bring Hobbs to trial, but I think Ellington has enormous pressure from the Good Ol Boys in WM, who have alot to lose if Ellington pursues the case. Its one thing to have the WM3 out on an Alford Plea, its another thing completely for the WMPD to actively pursue the real killer. Ellingtons political career and aspirations are also I believe playing a large part in this, as he spent the better part of the last year preparing for his run for Congress, which he lost.
Ellington seems in a bind. He cant pursue the case without taking on some extremely powerful people in WM (police, judges, the entire community), and if he does nothing he's faced with the feisty and relentless network of people who supported the WM3, and demand they be exonerated.
Im curious to see how much pressure this film puts on Ellington and everyone else to actually do something. The film from what ive heard points the finger at Hobbs, which is where it should be.
I'm curious to see that too (when was the release date again? I missed that). I think Ellington better man up and stop being a pussy about it not bend to the pressure of the good 'ol boys, or else he may not sleep easy for the rest of his life.
I wonder what Hobbs thinks of the film. :?
I completely agree with everything you said. Premiered at Sundance in january. Its released in theaters December 28th. Since Documentary films dont typically get wide releases, and usually appear at art houses as opposed to main multi and megaplexes, I think thats probably the reason for the delay and why it hasnt been released yet.
As far as Hobbs reaction to all this, its something ive been pondering too. But I think like much of everything else, he's gotten by on pure luck and incompetence of those in power. Ive watched hours of videotape of him being interviewed and interrogated, and he never seems to falter. The stories and "facts" he presents are obvious lies and not true, but he seems able to sit inches or feet from police and lie to their face without displaying outward or physical signs of lying. He seems extremely mild mannered, and calm, and able to control himself in the videos Ive seen. Seems very soft spoken.
If I was Hobbs, and I hate to say it, but I wouldnt be worried. I think the guy is guilty as sin, and should be locked up, but he's been able to fool people for 18 years, all the while 3 innocent people were sent to prison for a crime he committed. Ellington was given the new evidence when the film premiered, and his inaction I think only strengthens the resolve of Hobbs.
Hobbs somehow committed the perfect crime. Even those of us who knew the WM3 were innocent, didnt consider him a suspect until about 2007 or so. The PL 1 and 2 films for all the essential power they had, they clearly pointed the finger at the wrong guy. I think Hobbs committed a crime, and everything that happened after was pure coincidence and luck. He committed the crime in a town that believes satanism is real. The bite marks on the boys from animals when their bodies were in the manholes were widely believed to be human bite marks, Hobbs tying the boys with their shoelaces to transfer them from the manhole to the woods and into the water was widely believed to be another example of satanic rituals, Miskelley confessed to the crime, Judge Burnett and Gitchell were rabidly of the opinion "the wm3 did it", the fact the Wm3's reading habits, clothing, hairstyle, and music listening habits were entered into evidence, the WM3 were released but were forced to do a Alford Plea, and Ellingtons incompetence. the list goes on. Hobbs wasnt a master killer, but in terms of what happened after the murders, he couldnt have asked for a better scenario.
I dont think Hobbs had any idea people would think the murders were committed by satanists. I think everything just happened to fall into place that way though in the minds of prosecutors and investigators.
the first trailer for the film, had a clip I cant wait to see in full context. it had an interview with a figure in this case thats hugely important. David Jacoby. David and his wife Bobbi were good friends with Pam and Terry Hobbs. David and Terry worked at the same ice cream factory. Anyways, Jacoby has always been Hobbs alibi for the day and night. He dropped pam off at work, never saw the boys or his stepson, and went to jacobys house around 6 to play guitar. Jacoby in testimony said as Hobbs walked in Jacobys house, in the distance he saw the 3 boys riding away. And he also differs in what time Hobbs was at the house. Jacoby interestingly talks about stretches of time, that Hobbs would leave the house, alone and then come back to the house. Hobbs and Jacoby searched the woods all night long according to Hobbs. This could explain why Jacobys hair was found at the crime scene along with Hobbs. He was with hobbs that day, and I think Hobbs tracked that hair there accidentally.
Anyways, the clip, was of Jacoby standing in front of a mock setup of the woods, and crying and saying "for the life of me I just dont know what happened".
Jacoby is innocent. I think we can draw this conclusion because Hobbs and him differ in their accounts of that night.
Damien Echols spent 18 years facing execution after being wrongly convicted of a triple child killing. Then Lorri Davis, a woman he'd never met, began a campaign that would set him free. Emma John talks to him and introduces chilling extracts from his prison diary
Emma John
The Observer, Sunday 26 May 2013
In 1993, three eight-year-old boys – Steve Branch, Michael Moore and Christopher Byers – were murdered in West Memphis, Arkansas. "It was the subject of every newscast, on the front page of every newspaper, it was all they were talking about on the radio," Damien Echols says. "If you went to the grocery store, that's what they would be talking about in the checkout line." He remembers a sense of fear coming over the town. "You could feel it like a thunderstorm in the air."
Echols was 18 at the time, and his friend Jason Baldwin was two years younger. "There were three cops, a sort of juvenile task force, who used to harass pretty much every kid in our neighbourhood." One of them, Echols says, was convinced that Satanists were responsible for every bad thing that happened in town; he would show people Polaroid photos of roadkill – possums and raccoons run over by cars – and bizarrely claim it was evidence of animal sacrifices. "These cops had been harassing me and Jason for about two years before they finally decided they were going to pin these murders on me."
A month after the murders Echols, Baldwin and another youth, Jessie Misskelley, were arrested. Misskelley has an IQ of 68; after he had been interrogated for 12 hours, alone, he signed a confession that implicated both Echols and Baldwin. At their subsequent trial, evidence introduced by the prosecution included the fact that Echols wore Metallica T-shirts and read Stephen King novels. Echols had an alibi for the time of the murders – he was at home with his grandmother, mother and sister, not to mention that he had made phonecalls to three different people that evening. "That didn't matter to the jury," he says. "The local media had run so many stories about Satanic orgies and human sacrifices that by the time we walked into that courtroom the jury saw the trial as nothing more than a formality. It was over before we even walked in."
All three were convicted; Jason and Misskelley were sentenced to life imprisonment and Echols received three death sentences. "Even though I'd expected the verdict," says Echols, "part of me was still in denial. In the US, from the time you're old enough to speak you hear about how you're innocent until proven guilty and you have all of these rights. Part of me was still thinking that someone's going to put an end to this, someone's going to stop and do the right thing."
Over the 18 years that followed, Echols saw his mother a handful of times, his sister twice. His adopted father died while he was in prison. He also met the woman who was to become his wife – Lorri Davis, who wrote to him after seeing a documentary about the murders. Lorri took up his case, taking out personal loans to fund his defence. One day the film director Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, his partner, sent Lorri a donation to the defence fund along with a note offering any help they could. "Peter and Fran would go to work in the daytime and make films like King Kong and The Lovely Bones," explains Echols, "and then they'd come home at night and work on this case. They had to give themselves a thorough education in the American judicial system. I would be dead right now without them."
New DNA evidence couldn't exonerate the West Memphis Three, as Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley had become known. But it did throw enough doubt on their convictions to force a deal from the state prosecutors, and in 2011 they were offered an "Alford plea", which allowed them to accept a plea bargain while maintaining their innocence (so the state would not be held accountable for any miscarriage of justice). They all were released immediately.
"You don't get used to being in prison in a single day," says Echols, "and you don't get used to being out of prison in a single day. For several months I was in a state of profound shock and trauma. I'd been in solitary confinement for 10 years, so I wasn't even used to having human interaction. As time has gone by it's gotten better and better."
Last September he and Lorri moved from New York to Salem, Massachusetts, where the infamous witch trials took place. Echols had become a Buddhist in prison, and been ordained into the same Zen tradition used to train the Samurai. Last month he opened his own meditation centre.
The night I arrived on Death Row I was placed in a cell between the two most hateful old bastards on the face of the earth. One was named Jonas, the other was Albert. Both were in their late 50s and had seen better days physically. Jonas had one leg, Albert had one eye. Both were morbidly obese and had voices that sounded like they had been eating out of an ashtray. These two men hated each other beyond words, each wishing death upon the other.
I hadn't been here very long when the guy who sweeps the floor stopped to hand me a note. He was looking at me in a very odd way, as if he were going to say something, but then changed his mind. I understood his behaviour once I opened the note and began reading. It was signed "Lisa", and it detailed all the ways in which "she" would make me a wonderful girlfriend, including "her" sexual repertoire. This puzzled me, as I was incarcerated in an all-male facility. There was a small line at the bottom of the page that read, "PS Please send me a cigarette." I tossed the note in front of Albert's cell and said, "Read this and tell me if you know who it is." After less than a minute I heard a vicious explosion of cursing and swearing before Albert announced, "This is from that old whore, Jonas. That punk will do anything for a cigarette." Thus Lisa turned out to be an obese 56-year-old man with one leg.
It proved true that Jonas would indeed do anything for cigarettes. He was absolutely broke, with no family or friends to send him money, so he had no choice but to perform tricks in order to feed his habits. He once drank a 16-ounce bottle of urine for a single, hand-rolled cigarette. I'd be hard-pressed to say who suffered more – Jonas, or the people who had to listen to him gagging and retching as it went down. I do not wish to leave you with the impression that Albert was a gem, either. He was constantly scheming and scamming. He once wrote a letter to a talk-show host, claiming that he would reveal where he had hidden other bodies if the host would pay him $1,000. Being that he had already been sentenced to death in both Arkansas and Mississippi, he had nothing to lose. When he was finally executed, he left me his false teeth as a memento. He left someone else his glass eye.
For all the insanity that takes place inside the prison, it's still nothing compared with the things you see and hear in the yard. In 2003, all Arkansas Death Row inmates were moved to a new "super maximum security" prison in Grady, Arkansas. There really is no yard here. You're taken, shackled of course, from your cell and walked through a narrow corridor. It leads to the "outside" where, without once actually setting foot outside the prison walls, you're locked inside a tiny, filthy concrete stall, much like a miniature grain silo.
There is one panel of mesh wire about 2ft from the top of one wall that lets in the daylight, and you can tell the outdoors is beyond, but you can't actually see any of it. There's no interaction with other prisoners, and you're afraid to breathe too deeply for fear of catching a disease of some sort. I went out there one morning, and in my stall alone there were three dead and decaying pigeons, and more faeces than you could shake a stick at. When you first enter you have to fight against your gag reflex. It's a filthy business, trying to get some exercise.
In the movies it's always the other prisoners you have to watch out for. In real life, it's the guards and the administration. They go out of their way to make your life harder and more stressful than it already is, as if being on Death Row were not enough. I didn't want these people to be able to change me, to touch me inside and turn me as rotten and stagnant as they were. I tried out just about every spiritual practice and meditative exercise that might help me to stay sane over the years.
I've lost count of how many executions have taken place during my time served. It's somewhere between 25 and 30, I believe. Some of those men I knew well and was close to. Others, I couldn't stand the sight of. Still, I wasn't happy to see any of them go the way they did.
I have the shape of a dead man on the wall of my cell. It was left behind by the last occupant. He stood against the wall and traced around himself with a pencil, then shaded it in. It looks like a very faint shadow, and it's barely noticeable until you see it. It took me nearly a week to notice it for the first time, but once you see it you can't unsee it. I find myself lying on my bunk and looking at it several times a day. It just seems to draw the eyes like a magnet. God only knows what possessed him to do such a thing, but I can't bring myself to wash it off. Since they executed him, it's the only trace of him left. He's been in his grave almost five years now, yet his shadow still lingers. He was no one and nothing. All that remains of him is a handful of old rape charges and a man-shaped pencil sketch. Perhaps it's just superstition, but I can't help but feel that erasing it would be like erasing the fact that he ever existed. That may not be such a bad thing, all things considered, but I won't be the one to do it.
At one point I entertained thoughts that perhaps the living inmates weren't the only ones trapped on Death Row. After all, if places really are haunted, then wouldn't Death Row be the perfect stomping ground? At some time or another it's crossed the mind of everyone here. Some make jokes about it, like whistling to yourself as you pass the cemetery. Others don't like to speak about it at all, and it can be a touchy subject. Who wants to think about the fact that you're sleeping on the mattress that three or four executed men also claimed as their resting place?
The silence on Death Row is something that seems to unnerve guards when they first get assigned here. That's because every other barracks sounds like a madhouse. There are people screaming at the top of their lungs 24 hours a day, it never stops. Screams of anger and rage, begging, threatening, cursing — it sounds like the din of some forgotten hell. These are the "regular" prisoners. As soon as you step through the door of Death Row it stops.
Sleep deprivation is a direct result of the lights. They turn them off every night at 10.30. Then they're turned right back on at 2.30, when they start to serve breakfast. If you could fall asleep the moment the lights went out, then sleep through all the guards' activity, you would still get only four hours of uninterrupted sleep. It's not possible, though. Doors slamming, keys hitting the floor, guards yelling at one another as if they're at a family reunion – it all wakes you up. You can never sleep very deeply here anyway, because you have to stay aware of your surroundings. Bad things can come to those caught off guard.
One of the first things I learned when I arrived was how to cook on a 100-watt lightbulb. This is accomplished in one of two ways. The first is by using the bulb directly, as a heat source. To use the bulb like an oven, you first cut the top off a soda can with a disposable razor blade. You then fill the can with whatever you want to cook – coffee, or leftover beef stew, for instance. You make certain the can is completely dry, not a single drop of water on it, and then balance it on the lightbulb. After 20 or 30 minutes, whatever is in the can will be hot enough to burn your mouth. You have to be certain the can is dry, because the bulb will explode in your face if water drips on it. You can always tell when someone has made this mistake – the explosion sounds like a shotgun blast.
For a split second today I could smell home. It smelled like sunset on a dirt road. I thought my heart was going to break. The world I left behind was so close I could almost touch it. Everything in me cried out for it. It's amazing how certain shades of agony have their own beauty. I can't ever seem to make myself believe that the home I once knew doesn't even exist any more. It's still too real inside my head. I wish I had a handful of dust from back then, so that I could keep it in a bottle and always have it near.
Time has changed for me. I don't recall exactly when it happened, and I don't even remember if it was sudden or gradual. Somehow the change just crept up on me like a wolf on tiptoe. Hell, I don't even remember when I first started to notice it. What I do remember is how when I was a kid every single day seemed to last for an eternity. I swear to God that I can remember a single summer day that lasted for several months.
Now I watch while years flip by like an exhalation, and sometimes I feel panic trying to claw its way up into my throat. Time itself has become a cruel race toward an off-coloured sunset. Forever can be measured with a ruler, and eternity is no longer than a stiff breeze.
God, I miss the sound of cicadas singing. I used to sit on my front porch and listen to those invisible hordes all screaming in the trees like green lunacy. The only place I hear them now is on television. I've seen live newscasts where I could hear them screeching in the background. When I realised what it was I was hearing I nearly fell to my knees, sobbing and screaming a denial to everything I've lost, everything that's been stolen from me. It's a powerful sound – the sound home would make if it weren't a silent eternity away from me.
Hearing the cicadas is like being stabbed through the heart with blades of ice. They remind me that life has continued for the world while I've been sealed away in a concrete vault. I've been awakened on many nights by the feel of rats crawling over my body, but I've never heard summer's green singing.
A single letter would have been enough to kindle a tiny spark of hope in my heart, but I received hundreds. Every day at least one or two would arrive, sometimes as many as 10 or 20. I would lie on my bunk and flip through the letters, savouring them like a fat kid with a fistful of candy, whispering, "Thank you… Thank you," over and over again. I clutched those letters to my chest and slept with them under my head. I had never been so thankful for anything in my entire life.
I had been on Death Row for about two years when I received an odd letter, in February 1996. It was from a woman who loved movies and had recently seen the documentary about my case at a film festival in New York. Her name was Lorri Davis, and she did something no one else had ever done – she apologised for invading my privacy by seeking me out. That really struck me, because I felt like I no longer had any privacy. My entire life had been exposed for anyone and everyone to examine and poke at with a stick. I was a fly that had its wings ripped off by a malicious kid. Every day I received letters from people who did nothing but ask questions about the most intimate aspects of my life.
Here was a lady who understood courtesy. She said she felt horrible about what I'd been through and was compelled to contact me, but she didn't want to intrude. I immediately wrote back to her, and ever since we have tried to write to each other every single day. Our letters to each other now fill up an entire closet.
She was from New York, college-educated, a world traveller who'd been to South America and as far away as the Middle East, and an architect who had worked on projects for people I'd heard of only from Hollywood movies.
We wrote to each other obsessively, and we spoke on the phone for the first time a month or so after that first letter. I just decided to call her one day – I was terribly nervous, knowing I'd need to improvise the conversation rather than script it ahead of time. She always laughs now when she tells anyone about the first time I called her. She picked up the phone to hear a deep, Delta accent ask, "Are you OK?" It was such a shock to her system that it took a second for her to reply. She said it nearly killed her.
Lorri came to visit me about six months later. I remember it was summer because she wasn't wearing a coat. It was a slow and gradual process, forging ahead together. I knew I was in love with Lorri when I started to wake up in the middle of the night furious and cursing her for making me feel the way she did. It was pain beyond belief. Nothing has ever hurt me that way. I tried to sleep as much as possible just to escape. I was grinding my teeth down to nubs. Now, years later, it's exactly the opposite. Now there is no pain, yet she still makes my heart explode.
For the first two years we knew each other, Lorri flew from New York to Arkansas about every other month, so, in addition to the phone bill, this was an extremely expensive relationship for her. When she came to see me, there was a sheet of glass separating us. It was maddening, and we would often blow through the screen at the bottom of the glass just to feel each other's breath.
Lorri and I weren't able to touch each other at all until December 1999, when we were married. After we were married, Lorri and I were permitted to be in the same room with each other, but every visit we had was chaperoned.
Lorri had moved to Little Rock in August 1997 to start a whole new life and to be near me. She kept and still keeps every aspect of my life – and my ongoing legal case – neatly filed and managed. During the first two years of my incarceration, not one single thing was done by anyone on my behalf. It was Lorri, and Lorri alone, who changed that. It didn't happen all at once. As Lorri became a part of my life, she began to educate herself, learning more and more about the legal process. When it became apparent that the public defender was going to get me killed, Lorri started doing research into defence attorneys. When she found someone she believed could do the job, she'd hound them until they agreed to take the case. When it was time to pay them, she begged and borrowed until it was done. She took loans from family members and friends, too.
She had to learn every single detail of the case, inside and out – names, dates, places, everything. She had to be my spokesperson, my representative. There is no one else in the world who could have done what she did, accomplished what she accomplished.
Life After Death by Damien Echols, is published by Atlantic Books on 1 June (£12.99). To order a copy for £10.39, with free UK p&p, click on the link or call 0330 333 6846
"Oscar-nominated filmmaker Bruce Sinofsky died this morning from complications of diabetes.... He was 58.... He was perhaps best known for the West Memphis Three documentary Paradise Lost and its two sequels. The West Memphis Three are three men who were tried and convicted as teenagers in 1994 of the 1993 murders of three boys in West Memphis, AK. Paradise Lost 3 earned the duo an Academy Award nomination in 2012, just months after the West Memphis Three were released from prison after 18 years of wrongful conviction that the films highlighted. The films were credited with the movement that set the West Memphis Three free."
Comments
hobbs alibi has been that he came home from work at 2:30 or 3. pam was there. And that between when he got home and when he took pam to work at around 5, his step son never came home. He didnt see him that day. Hobbs then after dropping off his wife at work went to his friends house and played guitar. Hobbs moving the bodies from the manhole to the woods might be a way for him to change stevie out of his clothes and into new clothes, otherwise it would have been apparent stevie had stopped by the house, and seen terry, thus terry's alibi would have been seen as suspect. Theres speculation the 3 boys stopped by stevies house and asked to stay out later. I think stevie stopped by and changed clothes. Had he been found in shorts instead of the jeans he was last seen wearing, obviously terry's alibi would have been found to be the lie that it is. Terry's friend and alibi says he saw the 3 boys in the distance ride away as terry entered his friends house to play guitar. And 3 other witnesses place the boys outside terrys house as late as 530. The boys clothes, the clothes found on the bodies some of it was turned inside out. His stepsons jeans were turned inside out. Some clothes were missing. I believe several of the shoelaces that tied up the boys were used on different boys. so the shoelaces that were used to tie michael moore were stevies i think. I think this suggests the crime being committed elsewhere, clothes being changed and haphazardly and rapidly being put on again. I think this is the manner you would do that at 3am. also moving the bodies from the manhole i think got terry a chance to get rid of evidence that would have linked him to the crime. The boys were according to various sources thinking of running away that day. John mark Byers had beaten Chris, and there is evidence the boys were seen with backpacks heading towards areas where manholes were abundant. I think thats what happened. the manhole was a hiding place for their stuff, and i think they met there, with supplies. Maybe stevie stayed out too late. Maybe hobbs caught wind of the plan to run away. Maybe Stevie confronted Hobbs about the sexual and physical abuse going on in his home and said something like "I am running away", or "i hope my mom divorces you" and that set him off. Finally green stuff was found in stevies stomach. Green beans were his favorite. pam had cooked green beans that night but stevie never showed up before hobbs and his wife had to go to take her to work. The green beans in his stomach suggests after Terry drove his wife to work, stevie stopped by and had some green beans. He had to have seen his stepdad
Whatever it was, I dont think hobbs woke up that day planning on killing anyone. I think something set him off and his extreme temper did the rest.
And i think for the most part Hobbs was brilliant in covering all this up. The manhole theory is the hard work of someone on the WM3 message board, its the most likely theory, but its a theory that had this person not done the hard work, I dont think we would have ever thought of it. Hobbs refered to the fact his son was obsessed with manholes and the Teenage Mutant ninja turtles in interviews. Had he never mentioned that, we never would be talking about this.
well i think everything just worked out in hobbs' favor. The water levels rising in the manhole which washed away the blood and dna, i dont think hobbs had any idea that would happen. I think they were killed in the manhole, left there because hobbs knew people would be combing the woods that night. He lucked out that the water washed away everything, but i dont think he had any clue that would happen. And i think he was unsure if everything was washed away completely, and thats another reason why he moved the bodies. Theres reports of John Mark Byers other son and other boys in the hours after the boys were missing in the woods searching for the boys, calling their names. And they said they were scared off by twigs breaking, and splashes in the water. That could have been hobbs trying to get people away from the site. I dont think hobbs is a master murderer planner. I think he lucked out in every way possible, with the water in the manhole, with inept law enforcement, and how the crimes were thought to be satanic in nature. As i said, the knots that bound the boys I dont think there is anything satanic about it, i just think hobbs pulled the boys one by one, up from the manhole to the place where the bodies were found. Look at the way the boys are tied. Its really not constrictive.
Theres also the idea that all of them may not have been totally dead when he left them in the manhole. I think he hit one of the boys really hard, maybe, then had to incapacitate the others. But maybe not kill them. Maybe the others died as a result of the water rising in the manhole.
So I dont know. I think hobbs freaked out in every manner. And i think he worried. I think he left behind DNA at the manholes, left after he killed them, then came back as his wife was sleeping at like 3am or something, and transprted the bodies to the place where they were found. So going back and repositioning and moving the bodies was precaution, and it being 3am i dont think he really could tell or could be absolutely positive that all the DNA was gone from the manhole. I think he left hair, and DNA in that manhole. I also think the manhole theory would have been less likely to be looked at as satanic in nature. Especially considering the theory suggests that had they been found that night, they wouldnt have been tied. The bites on the bodies would have been easily explained, as bite marks not from a killer but from the snapping turtle and other things found in the manhole, and plus the bruises and scraps on the bodies would have been easily identifiable as rebar, which of course you could easily trace to the manhole. I think hobbs knew some of this and
The manhole theory also explains how he and everyone else failed to see the bodies. Nothing else really explains that as well. Hobbs, and jacoby, and a ton of other people walked right by where the bodies were eventually found, noone found anything. I find that hard to believe if the bodies were there all along, if the bodies were in the woods all along.
i hear ya. why the manhole theory for me really nails it home, is the scrapes and bruises on the bodies. no one was ever able to explain that. however, there have been pictures posted of insides of manholes in that specific area. the bruises and scrapes on the bodies are very unique. they form 3 x's, as you'd see on a rebar. they are in a grid pattern arrangement. The heads of the boys were fractured and the wounds suggest being dropped from a height onto a concrete or pavement surface. and the bruises pretty much match up completely with either the inside rebar, or conversely being scraped or causing abrasions by coming into contact with the outside of a manhole. The Wm3 board has tried to narrow it down to a specific manhole, they have several though, one very interesting looking "volcano" one. The scrapes look like road rash. But the abrations match up. And also being killed elsewhere wouldnt explain the animal bites, most likely from a snapping turtle. The manhole theory explains this, as thats the type of creature that would be found in a manhole, as well as racoons or any other type of creatures.
I dont think anything hobbs says is by chance. it has specific meaning. he himself brought up the teenage mutant ninja turtles. And that the boys liked playing in manholes. The boys had told kids that day they were going to their secret hideout. They were seen by a woman at around 630, riding their bikes towards an area with a large amount of manholes. many witnesses saw the boys at around that time frame riding into the woods.
the manhole theory also comes up with a solution to the infamous bojangles man. the black man, found bloody and covered in sawdust and acting strange at a restauraunt around the time of the murders. the theory suggests Hobbs was seen by this man in the woods, and that Hobbs fired a gun at the man, and it hit the man. this would be yet another reason why he moved the bodies from the manhole to the woods.
hobbs behavior all night was bizzare to say the least. his friend and alibi was with him off and on throughout the night, but hobbs has quite a few hours and multiple trips inside the woods before he went to bed where he was alone, no one can place him anywhere, but by his own admission he places himself in the woods. In terms of this evidence, the most damning is that he said he never saw stevie that day. His friend and alibi as i said, says he saw the 3 boys riding their bikes in the street as Hobbs entered his friends house to play guitar.
im pretty much convinced Hobbs committed the crime. Its frustrating as hell though to be knowledgeable about this and to be so powerless in this situation. The DA in WM seems unwilling to act on this knowledge. Hobbs was hinted about as the killer in the final Paradise Lost. And was outright named as the killer in West of Memphis the Peter Jackson documentary. MY understanding is that the film crew gave the DA the evidence it had collected that implicated Hobbs. Witnesses and family have come forward to say Hobbs either lied, or he outright confessed to the murders.
Theres a several hour interview Hobbs did in 2009 i think, when he sued Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks, she said he was the killer and he sued her for defamation. As a result of that, he was interviewed by natalies lawyers for hours. its all on video, Ive seen it, and its a doozy. He changes his story. He lies. He says things that make little sense. ive also seen the 2007 interview he did with the WMPD. Thats on youtube i think. All worth checking out.
I think his alibi and friend Jacoby is the key. I dont think Jacoby committed the crime, but i think its significant his alibi flat out disagrees completely with how things went down that night. Jacoby is the only person who places Hobbs anywhere that night, pretty much. Few sightings here and there, but by and large the only person to place Hobbs anywhere, is Jacoby. And Jacoby says things didnt happen as Hobbs said they did.
http://entertainment.msn.com/videoprevi ... 17de34132c
So, the film still hasnt been nationally released. its sort of trickled out, here and there. Ellington, the prosecutor, who initially said he was completely open to new evidence, has for whatever reason done abolutely nothing reguarding the case.
I think there is more than enough evidence to bring Hobbs to trial, but I think Ellington has enormous pressure from the Good Ol Boys in WM, who have alot to lose if Ellington pursues the case. Its one thing to have the WM3 out on an Alford Plea, its another thing completely for the WMPD to actively pursue the real killer. Ellingtons political career and aspirations are also I believe playing a large part in this, as he spent the better part of the last year preparing for his run for Congress, which he lost.
Ellington seems in a bind. He cant pursue the case without taking on some extremely powerful people in WM (police, judges, the entire community), and if he does nothing he's faced with the feisty and relentless network of people who supported the WM3, and demand they be exonerated.
Im curious to see how much pressure this film puts on Ellington and everyone else to actually do something. The film from what ive heard points the finger at Hobbs, which is where it should be.
I wonder what Hobbs thinks of the film. :?
I completely agree with everything you said. Premiered at Sundance in january. Its released in theaters December 28th. Since Documentary films dont typically get wide releases, and usually appear at art houses as opposed to main multi and megaplexes, I think thats probably the reason for the delay and why it hasnt been released yet.
As far as Hobbs reaction to all this, its something ive been pondering too. But I think like much of everything else, he's gotten by on pure luck and incompetence of those in power. Ive watched hours of videotape of him being interviewed and interrogated, and he never seems to falter. The stories and "facts" he presents are obvious lies and not true, but he seems able to sit inches or feet from police and lie to their face without displaying outward or physical signs of lying. He seems extremely mild mannered, and calm, and able to control himself in the videos Ive seen. Seems very soft spoken.
If I was Hobbs, and I hate to say it, but I wouldnt be worried. I think the guy is guilty as sin, and should be locked up, but he's been able to fool people for 18 years, all the while 3 innocent people were sent to prison for a crime he committed. Ellington was given the new evidence when the film premiered, and his inaction I think only strengthens the resolve of Hobbs.
Hobbs somehow committed the perfect crime. Even those of us who knew the WM3 were innocent, didnt consider him a suspect until about 2007 or so. The PL 1 and 2 films for all the essential power they had, they clearly pointed the finger at the wrong guy. I think Hobbs committed a crime, and everything that happened after was pure coincidence and luck. He committed the crime in a town that believes satanism is real. The bite marks on the boys from animals when their bodies were in the manholes were widely believed to be human bite marks, Hobbs tying the boys with their shoelaces to transfer them from the manhole to the woods and into the water was widely believed to be another example of satanic rituals, Miskelley confessed to the crime, Judge Burnett and Gitchell were rabidly of the opinion "the wm3 did it", the fact the Wm3's reading habits, clothing, hairstyle, and music listening habits were entered into evidence, the WM3 were released but were forced to do a Alford Plea, and Ellingtons incompetence. the list goes on. Hobbs wasnt a master killer, but in terms of what happened after the murders, he couldnt have asked for a better scenario.
I dont think Hobbs had any idea people would think the murders were committed by satanists. I think everything just happened to fall into place that way though in the minds of prosecutors and investigators.
Anyways, the clip, was of Jacoby standing in front of a mock setup of the woods, and crying and saying "for the life of me I just dont know what happened".
Jacoby is innocent. I think we can draw this conclusion because Hobbs and him differ in their accounts of that night.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/ ... -death-row
Damien Echols: how I survived death row
Damien Echols spent 18 years facing execution after being wrongly convicted of a triple child killing. Then Lorri Davis, a woman he'd never met, began a campaign that would set him free. Emma John talks to him and introduces chilling extracts from his prison diary
Emma John
The Observer, Sunday 26 May 2013
In 1993, three eight-year-old boys – Steve Branch, Michael Moore and Christopher Byers – were murdered in West Memphis, Arkansas. "It was the subject of every newscast, on the front page of every newspaper, it was all they were talking about on the radio," Damien Echols says. "If you went to the grocery store, that's what they would be talking about in the checkout line." He remembers a sense of fear coming over the town. "You could feel it like a thunderstorm in the air."
Echols was 18 at the time, and his friend Jason Baldwin was two years younger. "There were three cops, a sort of juvenile task force, who used to harass pretty much every kid in our neighbourhood." One of them, Echols says, was convinced that Satanists were responsible for every bad thing that happened in town; he would show people Polaroid photos of roadkill – possums and raccoons run over by cars – and bizarrely claim it was evidence of animal sacrifices. "These cops had been harassing me and Jason for about two years before they finally decided they were going to pin these murders on me."
A month after the murders Echols, Baldwin and another youth, Jessie Misskelley, were arrested. Misskelley has an IQ of 68; after he had been interrogated for 12 hours, alone, he signed a confession that implicated both Echols and Baldwin. At their subsequent trial, evidence introduced by the prosecution included the fact that Echols wore Metallica T-shirts and read Stephen King novels. Echols had an alibi for the time of the murders – he was at home with his grandmother, mother and sister, not to mention that he had made phonecalls to three different people that evening. "That didn't matter to the jury," he says. "The local media had run so many stories about Satanic orgies and human sacrifices that by the time we walked into that courtroom the jury saw the trial as nothing more than a formality. It was over before we even walked in."
All three were convicted; Jason and Misskelley were sentenced to life imprisonment and Echols received three death sentences. "Even though I'd expected the verdict," says Echols, "part of me was still in denial. In the US, from the time you're old enough to speak you hear about how you're innocent until proven guilty and you have all of these rights. Part of me was still thinking that someone's going to put an end to this, someone's going to stop and do the right thing."
Over the 18 years that followed, Echols saw his mother a handful of times, his sister twice. His adopted father died while he was in prison. He also met the woman who was to become his wife – Lorri Davis, who wrote to him after seeing a documentary about the murders. Lorri took up his case, taking out personal loans to fund his defence. One day the film director Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, his partner, sent Lorri a donation to the defence fund along with a note offering any help they could. "Peter and Fran would go to work in the daytime and make films like King Kong and The Lovely Bones," explains Echols, "and then they'd come home at night and work on this case. They had to give themselves a thorough education in the American judicial system. I would be dead right now without them."
New DNA evidence couldn't exonerate the West Memphis Three, as Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley had become known. But it did throw enough doubt on their convictions to force a deal from the state prosecutors, and in 2011 they were offered an "Alford plea", which allowed them to accept a plea bargain while maintaining their innocence (so the state would not be held accountable for any miscarriage of justice). They all were released immediately.
"You don't get used to being in prison in a single day," says Echols, "and you don't get used to being out of prison in a single day. For several months I was in a state of profound shock and trauma. I'd been in solitary confinement for 10 years, so I wasn't even used to having human interaction. As time has gone by it's gotten better and better."
Last September he and Lorri moved from New York to Salem, Massachusetts, where the infamous witch trials took place. Echols had become a Buddhist in prison, and been ordained into the same Zen tradition used to train the Samurai. Last month he opened his own meditation centre.
The night I arrived on Death Row I was placed in a cell between the two most hateful old bastards on the face of the earth. One was named Jonas, the other was Albert. Both were in their late 50s and had seen better days physically. Jonas had one leg, Albert had one eye. Both were morbidly obese and had voices that sounded like they had been eating out of an ashtray. These two men hated each other beyond words, each wishing death upon the other.
I hadn't been here very long when the guy who sweeps the floor stopped to hand me a note. He was looking at me in a very odd way, as if he were going to say something, but then changed his mind. I understood his behaviour once I opened the note and began reading. It was signed "Lisa", and it detailed all the ways in which "she" would make me a wonderful girlfriend, including "her" sexual repertoire. This puzzled me, as I was incarcerated in an all-male facility. There was a small line at the bottom of the page that read, "PS Please send me a cigarette." I tossed the note in front of Albert's cell and said, "Read this and tell me if you know who it is." After less than a minute I heard a vicious explosion of cursing and swearing before Albert announced, "This is from that old whore, Jonas. That punk will do anything for a cigarette." Thus Lisa turned out to be an obese 56-year-old man with one leg.
It proved true that Jonas would indeed do anything for cigarettes. He was absolutely broke, with no family or friends to send him money, so he had no choice but to perform tricks in order to feed his habits. He once drank a 16-ounce bottle of urine for a single, hand-rolled cigarette. I'd be hard-pressed to say who suffered more – Jonas, or the people who had to listen to him gagging and retching as it went down. I do not wish to leave you with the impression that Albert was a gem, either. He was constantly scheming and scamming. He once wrote a letter to a talk-show host, claiming that he would reveal where he had hidden other bodies if the host would pay him $1,000. Being that he had already been sentenced to death in both Arkansas and Mississippi, he had nothing to lose. When he was finally executed, he left me his false teeth as a memento. He left someone else his glass eye.
For all the insanity that takes place inside the prison, it's still nothing compared with the things you see and hear in the yard. In 2003, all Arkansas Death Row inmates were moved to a new "super maximum security" prison in Grady, Arkansas. There really is no yard here. You're taken, shackled of course, from your cell and walked through a narrow corridor. It leads to the "outside" where, without once actually setting foot outside the prison walls, you're locked inside a tiny, filthy concrete stall, much like a miniature grain silo.
There is one panel of mesh wire about 2ft from the top of one wall that lets in the daylight, and you can tell the outdoors is beyond, but you can't actually see any of it. There's no interaction with other prisoners, and you're afraid to breathe too deeply for fear of catching a disease of some sort. I went out there one morning, and in my stall alone there were three dead and decaying pigeons, and more faeces than you could shake a stick at. When you first enter you have to fight against your gag reflex. It's a filthy business, trying to get some exercise.
In the movies it's always the other prisoners you have to watch out for. In real life, it's the guards and the administration. They go out of their way to make your life harder and more stressful than it already is, as if being on Death Row were not enough. I didn't want these people to be able to change me, to touch me inside and turn me as rotten and stagnant as they were. I tried out just about every spiritual practice and meditative exercise that might help me to stay sane over the years.
I've lost count of how many executions have taken place during my time served. It's somewhere between 25 and 30, I believe. Some of those men I knew well and was close to. Others, I couldn't stand the sight of. Still, I wasn't happy to see any of them go the way they did.
I have the shape of a dead man on the wall of my cell. It was left behind by the last occupant. He stood against the wall and traced around himself with a pencil, then shaded it in. It looks like a very faint shadow, and it's barely noticeable until you see it. It took me nearly a week to notice it for the first time, but once you see it you can't unsee it. I find myself lying on my bunk and looking at it several times a day. It just seems to draw the eyes like a magnet. God only knows what possessed him to do such a thing, but I can't bring myself to wash it off. Since they executed him, it's the only trace of him left. He's been in his grave almost five years now, yet his shadow still lingers. He was no one and nothing. All that remains of him is a handful of old rape charges and a man-shaped pencil sketch. Perhaps it's just superstition, but I can't help but feel that erasing it would be like erasing the fact that he ever existed. That may not be such a bad thing, all things considered, but I won't be the one to do it.
At one point I entertained thoughts that perhaps the living inmates weren't the only ones trapped on Death Row. After all, if places really are haunted, then wouldn't Death Row be the perfect stomping ground? At some time or another it's crossed the mind of everyone here. Some make jokes about it, like whistling to yourself as you pass the cemetery. Others don't like to speak about it at all, and it can be a touchy subject. Who wants to think about the fact that you're sleeping on the mattress that three or four executed men also claimed as their resting place?
The silence on Death Row is something that seems to unnerve guards when they first get assigned here. That's because every other barracks sounds like a madhouse. There are people screaming at the top of their lungs 24 hours a day, it never stops. Screams of anger and rage, begging, threatening, cursing — it sounds like the din of some forgotten hell. These are the "regular" prisoners. As soon as you step through the door of Death Row it stops.
Sleep deprivation is a direct result of the lights. They turn them off every night at 10.30. Then they're turned right back on at 2.30, when they start to serve breakfast. If you could fall asleep the moment the lights went out, then sleep through all the guards' activity, you would still get only four hours of uninterrupted sleep. It's not possible, though. Doors slamming, keys hitting the floor, guards yelling at one another as if they're at a family reunion – it all wakes you up. You can never sleep very deeply here anyway, because you have to stay aware of your surroundings. Bad things can come to those caught off guard.
One of the first things I learned when I arrived was how to cook on a 100-watt lightbulb. This is accomplished in one of two ways. The first is by using the bulb directly, as a heat source. To use the bulb like an oven, you first cut the top off a soda can with a disposable razor blade. You then fill the can with whatever you want to cook – coffee, or leftover beef stew, for instance. You make certain the can is completely dry, not a single drop of water on it, and then balance it on the lightbulb. After 20 or 30 minutes, whatever is in the can will be hot enough to burn your mouth. You have to be certain the can is dry, because the bulb will explode in your face if water drips on it. You can always tell when someone has made this mistake – the explosion sounds like a shotgun blast.
For a split second today I could smell home. It smelled like sunset on a dirt road. I thought my heart was going to break. The world I left behind was so close I could almost touch it. Everything in me cried out for it. It's amazing how certain shades of agony have their own beauty. I can't ever seem to make myself believe that the home I once knew doesn't even exist any more. It's still too real inside my head. I wish I had a handful of dust from back then, so that I could keep it in a bottle and always have it near.
Time has changed for me. I don't recall exactly when it happened, and I don't even remember if it was sudden or gradual. Somehow the change just crept up on me like a wolf on tiptoe. Hell, I don't even remember when I first started to notice it. What I do remember is how when I was a kid every single day seemed to last for an eternity. I swear to God that I can remember a single summer day that lasted for several months.
Now I watch while years flip by like an exhalation, and sometimes I feel panic trying to claw its way up into my throat. Time itself has become a cruel race toward an off-coloured sunset. Forever can be measured with a ruler, and eternity is no longer than a stiff breeze.
God, I miss the sound of cicadas singing. I used to sit on my front porch and listen to those invisible hordes all screaming in the trees like green lunacy. The only place I hear them now is on television. I've seen live newscasts where I could hear them screeching in the background. When I realised what it was I was hearing I nearly fell to my knees, sobbing and screaming a denial to everything I've lost, everything that's been stolen from me. It's a powerful sound – the sound home would make if it weren't a silent eternity away from me.
Hearing the cicadas is like being stabbed through the heart with blades of ice. They remind me that life has continued for the world while I've been sealed away in a concrete vault. I've been awakened on many nights by the feel of rats crawling over my body, but I've never heard summer's green singing.
A single letter would have been enough to kindle a tiny spark of hope in my heart, but I received hundreds. Every day at least one or two would arrive, sometimes as many as 10 or 20. I would lie on my bunk and flip through the letters, savouring them like a fat kid with a fistful of candy, whispering, "Thank you… Thank you," over and over again. I clutched those letters to my chest and slept with them under my head. I had never been so thankful for anything in my entire life.
I had been on Death Row for about two years when I received an odd letter, in February 1996. It was from a woman who loved movies and had recently seen the documentary about my case at a film festival in New York. Her name was Lorri Davis, and she did something no one else had ever done – she apologised for invading my privacy by seeking me out. That really struck me, because I felt like I no longer had any privacy. My entire life had been exposed for anyone and everyone to examine and poke at with a stick. I was a fly that had its wings ripped off by a malicious kid. Every day I received letters from people who did nothing but ask questions about the most intimate aspects of my life.
Here was a lady who understood courtesy. She said she felt horrible about what I'd been through and was compelled to contact me, but she didn't want to intrude. I immediately wrote back to her, and ever since we have tried to write to each other every single day. Our letters to each other now fill up an entire closet.
She was from New York, college-educated, a world traveller who'd been to South America and as far away as the Middle East, and an architect who had worked on projects for people I'd heard of only from Hollywood movies.
We wrote to each other obsessively, and we spoke on the phone for the first time a month or so after that first letter. I just decided to call her one day – I was terribly nervous, knowing I'd need to improvise the conversation rather than script it ahead of time. She always laughs now when she tells anyone about the first time I called her. She picked up the phone to hear a deep, Delta accent ask, "Are you OK?" It was such a shock to her system that it took a second for her to reply. She said it nearly killed her.
Lorri came to visit me about six months later. I remember it was summer because she wasn't wearing a coat. It was a slow and gradual process, forging ahead together. I knew I was in love with Lorri when I started to wake up in the middle of the night furious and cursing her for making me feel the way she did. It was pain beyond belief. Nothing has ever hurt me that way. I tried to sleep as much as possible just to escape. I was grinding my teeth down to nubs. Now, years later, it's exactly the opposite. Now there is no pain, yet she still makes my heart explode.
For the first two years we knew each other, Lorri flew from New York to Arkansas about every other month, so, in addition to the phone bill, this was an extremely expensive relationship for her. When she came to see me, there was a sheet of glass separating us. It was maddening, and we would often blow through the screen at the bottom of the glass just to feel each other's breath.
Lorri and I weren't able to touch each other at all until December 1999, when we were married. After we were married, Lorri and I were permitted to be in the same room with each other, but every visit we had was chaperoned.
Lorri had moved to Little Rock in August 1997 to start a whole new life and to be near me. She kept and still keeps every aspect of my life – and my ongoing legal case – neatly filed and managed. During the first two years of my incarceration, not one single thing was done by anyone on my behalf. It was Lorri, and Lorri alone, who changed that. It didn't happen all at once. As Lorri became a part of my life, she began to educate herself, learning more and more about the legal process. When it became apparent that the public defender was going to get me killed, Lorri started doing research into defence attorneys. When she found someone she believed could do the job, she'd hound them until they agreed to take the case. When it was time to pay them, she begged and borrowed until it was done. She took loans from family members and friends, too.
She had to learn every single detail of the case, inside and out – names, dates, places, everything. She had to be my spokesperson, my representative. There is no one else in the world who could have done what she did, accomplished what she accomplished.
Life After Death by Damien Echols, is published by Atlantic Books on 1 June (£12.99). To order a copy for £10.39, with free UK p&p, click on the link or call 0330 333 6846
http://deadline.com/2015/02/bruce-sinofsky-dies-oscar-nominated-filmmaker-paradise-lost-1201378443/