How long was jessie misskelley interrogation

In fact, it was quite crude The testicles and part of the penis were literally ripped off the victim. This has given us tremendous insight into the possible offender s.

For more specific information see Brent Turvey's Criminal Profile of this crime. In addition, after consulting with a forensic entomologist, it was learned that some of the wounds to the bodies could be the result of post mortem feeding on the bodies by insects or crayfish and not wounds inflicted by the offender s.

The entomologist, along with Mr. Turvey, also gave us interesting insight on the time of death of the victims which makes the times put forth by Misskelley in his so-called confession virtually impossible.

Turvey, in examining the autopsy photographs of the victim, Branch, discovered what he believed could be a human bite mark. Upon his advise, we consulted a forensic odontologist who testified that the semi-circled mark above the victim's right eye was a human bite mark. Most of the boys' clothes were found in the water with the bodies. The clothes were mostly inside out, not torn.

The pants were still zipped, but inside out. Two of the boys underwear briefs were not recovered; Experts say that serial killers often keep the underwear and body parts of their victims as trophies. Update: Brent Turvey's investigation and criminal profile reveals that the offender s in this case most likely knew the victims and were from the area where the victims lived.

Nothing in the facts of the case suggest that a serial type killer was responsible for this crime. Two human hairs were found on the bodies, one Caucasian, one Negroid in origin; Hairs cannot be conclusively matched. Comparisons are done to exclude suspects. One hair was "microscopically similar" to Echols, but it was also similar to another suspect and one of the victims' father, and as such, has no real evidentiary value.

What does have evidentiary value, however, is the Negroid hair, in so much as the teenagers convicted are all Caucasian. In addition, Mr. Bojangles was a black male. Several clothing fibers were found on the bodies; Fibers, like hair, cannot be matched, only labeled microscopically similar or dissimilar.

One fiber was similar to Jason's mother's housecoat, but it was also similar to one of the victims mother's sweaters.

A couple of poor quality footprints were found near the bodies in the mud, one of which was a tennis shoe; The print was not similar to any found or compared to the convicted teens. No blood at all was found at the scene. Luminol testing done at the crime scene some two weeks after the discovery of the bodies revealed the presence of possible blood at the crime scene in, and on, the ditch bank where the bodies were laid by the police after they were removed from the water.

Blood seeped from the bodies unto the soil where the bodies were laid. No follow up blood test was performed. Update: Brent Turvey's analysis reveals that most likely the boys were killed elsewhere and that they were dumped at the site where the bodies were recovered.

This explains the lack of blood found at the crime scene. See Brent Turvey's profile. No weapons were found at the scene and no artifacts or anything indicating Satanic Activity were present.

Update: Brent Turvey's investigation and proftle reveals that there are no indicators of Satanic activity whatsoever. The Autopsy reports took some time to be produced, and because there were almost no real clues, the police were eager to get the report. Bruising and abrasions of the boys mouths and ears were interpreted by the police as forced oral sex when other explanations were just as plausible.

FACT : The medical examiner testified that there was NO trauma to the boys anuses, something that would virtually have to be present during a sexual assault, especially on a young child. No semen was found in any body cavity of any of the boys at the time of the autopsies. FACT : Before the Misskelley Trial in Corning, the medical examiner told Misskelley's attorneys that the time of death was impossible to determine because the coroner had done such a poor job in supplying the necessary data.

Update: See time of death information above. The day after the bodies were discovered, the police questioned Damien Echols about the murders. Damien, although highly pressured, professed his innocence and refused to confess to the murders. He even voluntarily gave hair and blood samples to police for comparisons. Police felt that Damien had to be responsible for this crime because of the following:.

Damien told Driver a year before the murders that a cult would be forming in the area and Driver has heard that Damien liked to drink blood. Driver contacted the W. Memphis Police and told them of his belief. The West Memphis Police began receiving tips and suggestions from concerned citizens, psychics and other police organizations, because of the "America Most Wanted" segment that was aired, that if the bodies were sexually mutilated then it was the work of "Satanists" or "Devil Worshippers.

Police, faced with no real clues, and under intense pressure to solve the crime, had a deep rooted belief that Damien was responsible, and being unable to get Damien to confess, began rounding up anyone and everyone who knew Damien Echols. Damien, being foolish, and loving the attention the police and others in West Memphis were giving him, did not deny involvement to his friends.

In fact, some kids testified that he bragged about the killings, and took credit for same. In my opinion, Damien, who by Arkansas standards was really weird in relation to his dress and attitudes, and who would never be the class president or the quarterback of the football team, and who was suffering desperately for attention, liked his newfound status as a celebrity.

I don't think Damien ever stopped and considered that he might be arrested based on his own mouth, and there was really no way he could have anticipated Vicky Hutcheson or Jessie's false confession. NOTE : Two things make me believe this. First, Damien voluntarily gave hair and blood samples to police, not exactly the modus operandi of a guilty person, especially not someone as intelligent as Damien.

Secondly, Damien told Ron Lax that he wasn't mad at Jessie for giving the false statement to police, because he knew Jessie was slow, and he told Ron that if the cops were as hard on Jessie as they were on him, there was no way Jessie could have withstood the pressure. The Vicky Hutcheson connection. Background: Vicky Hutcheson had only lived in West Memphis a short time at the time of the murders.

Her son Aaron, was a playmate to the boys who were murdered. Vicky previously lived in Northwest Arkansas and basically fled to West Memphis because she had outstanding warrants for her arrest for hot checks in NW Arkansas. She left her employer in Fayetteville, a lawyer, with the impression that she had a brain tumor and was terminally ill. On the day the bodies were discovered, May 6, , Vicky was in the Marion Police Department for the purpose of taking a polygraph test because some money had come up missing from the cash register at her place of employment in West Memphis.

She took Aaron with her, and this angered the Officer who was to conduct her polygraph exam, Don Bray. Don Bray struck up a conversation with Aaron, and Aaron told him that he knew where the missing boys were at "The playhouse.

Aaron would later take Police to the scene where the playhouse was supposed to be and no playhouse was found. Aaron would later tell police that he witnessed the murders supposedly seeing men in the woods all dressed up and speaking Spanish, i.

Devil Worshippers. Each story was dramatically different than the previous version and Aaron finally told police that Mark Byers was there and killed the boys. This despite knowing Jessie very well because Jessie baby-sat for him. Prosecutors knew they couldn't use this evidence because Aaron had changed his story so often and they knew witnesses placed Aaron far from the crime scene at the time of the murders.

A press leak by a police officer led to a news story about Aaron witnessing the murders and created a media frenzy that severely hampered the three defendants ability to receive a fair trial.

In our opinion, Aaron did in fact play in the woods with the victims probably on several occasions, but he was definitely not in the woods on the date of the murders. In an effort to try to help, and at the suggestion of his mother, Aaron probably thinks he was there or dreamed he was. None of his statements accurately reflect facts of the crime scene.

Vicky definitely wanted the reward money having stated so publicly before and after the trials. She agreed to a "wire" of her home and she tried to get Damien to her house to get information out of him. She asked Jessie Misskelley to introduce her to Damien.

Jessie's reply was, "I know who he is and I can take you to his house. Vicky finally got Damien over to her house but he says nothing about the murders on the "wire.

Vicky told us after the trials were over that she had listened to the tapes herself at the WMPD, and that they were quite audible. Vicky tells police on June 2, that two weeks after the murders she, Damien and Jessie went to an "Esbat" in Turrell, AR, and that Damien drove them there.

This coupled with the statement of William Winfred Jones, who told police that he had overheard Damien, in a drunken stupor brag about killing and raping the kids, led police to center their investigation as satanic homicides and on June 3, , police picked up Jessie Misskelley for questioning.

NOTE : William Winfred Jones recanted his statement during the trial of Jessie Misskelley just hours before he was to testify, saying that he made the story up and that he had only heard that Damien had done it. Vicky was never able to lead police to the "Esbat" site or identify anybody else who was present at same. Vicky Hutcheson admitted after the trials were completed that she was so drunk the night of the so called "Esbat" that she woke up in her front yard and could have dreamed the whole "Esbat" thing.

False Confession. Background: Jessie Misskelley, Jr. According to Jessie's family, Jessie's brother was later institutionalized and Jessie Jr. Doctor's recommended that Jessie Jr. Tests conducted at our request after his arrest indicated that Jessie Misskelley, Jr. His reading level was severely retarded, and his overall IQ was in the range of 72, which indicates that he is borderline mentally retarded. Our research indicated that due to his mental handicap, Jessie was not able to understand any aspect of his "Miranda Rights," which require a sixth grade reading level to understand.

Jessie Misskelley, approximately two weeks after the murders, was hanging out with some friends near Bojangles Restaurant in West Memphis. A "bum" asked him and his friends to accompany him to his "Fort" and drink beer.

Jessie and his friends refused and called police thinking that this "bum" might be the killer of the three boys. The "bum" was picked up and questioned but released. He was the son of a Crittenden County Sheriff's deputy.

Jessie and his friends were told by Police that if they found the killer that they would get the reward money. He was taken to the police station at about a. Allen told Jessie Sr. In response to police questioning, Jessie said that he had heard that Damien and a guy named Robert Burch had killed the boys.

Jessie told police that he was roofing with Ricky Deese the day of the murders. He denied being at Turrell, AR for a devil-worshippers' meeting with Vicky and Damien, telling police that he had never even been to Turrell at all. NOTE : Jessie was questioned by police despite the fact that under Arkansas law he could only be questioned if his parents consented to a waiver of his Miranda rights in writing, since he was only 17 years.

Police believing that he was lying asked Jessie if he would submit to a polygraph test. Jessie, not knowing what a polygraph test was, told police that he would take the test. Officer Allen took Jessie to get his father's written permission for the polygraph test, but still did not discuss Jessie's Miranda Rights, or their waiver in writing.

Instead, when they found Jessie Sr. Jessie was administered the polygraph at about noon. Jessie was asked a series of ten questions. One of the questions was "do you do drugs," which Jessie answered "NO" There were several very generic questions about the murders.

Each time Jessie stated that he knew nothing about the murders. After the test was completed, Jessie was told by Officer Durham that he was "lying his ass off. NOTE : Experts tell us that when a person of limited intellect and who is very suggestible is told that they have flunked a polygraph test, they will often confess falsely as their perception of reality is changed and they see it as their only chance to avoid getting into trouble and the only way they can please their interrogators, and ultimately leave the pressure of the interrogation.

Jessie was then interrogated for two hours during which time he vehemently denied any role in the murders. He was denied the right to talk to his father, and was grilled repeatedly by Gitchell and Ridge. Finally, Officer Gitchell showed Jessie a picture of one of the boys bodies which terribly frightened Jessie.

Then Gitchell played a tape to Jessie using Aaron's voice which said "Nobody knows what happened but me. Then Gitchell showed Jessie a diagram. The diagram contained a circle with three dots in it which represented Damien, Jason and Jessie.

Gitchell then drew dozens of dots on the outside of the circle, and asked Jessie if he wanted to be on the outside with the police or on the inside with Damien and Jessie. This all frightened Jessie and he told Gitchell and Ridge he wanted out. All this finally broke Jessie's will, and his mind told him that the only way out was to tell them what they wanted to hear. After rehearsing the scenario, over and over again, he finally told them that he had seen Damien and Jason rape and murder the boys.

He unwittingly told police enough to cause himself to be an accomplice. Instead of allowing him to go home as police promised, he was locked up. The interrogation itself lasted almost twelve hours, but only about twenty minutes of audio tape exist regarding the confession. Immediately after the confession, when Jessie realized he wasn't going home, he recanted the entire confession, but it was too late. Wilkins and myself were able to get Jessie to confess to committing a robbery that never occurred.

This was ruled inadmissible by the Court, and the jury never knew this. I often bragged that I could get Jessie to confess to killing JFK, although he wasn't even born in I am still convinced I could get him to confess to almost anything.

NOTE 2 : Police fearing our defense of false confession, searched feverishly for a way to corroborate Jessie's story. They questioned a friend of Jessie's named Buddy Lucas. Lucas told Officers Durham and Ridge that Jessie confessed to him that he had witnessed the murders the day after the murders occurred. Lucas told the officers that he and an uncle went to Jessie's on the day of the murders and took the Misskelleys some BBQ chicken. According to Lucas, Jessie Jr. Lucas then told the officers that the next day, he went over to Jessie's house and that he and Jessie got their hair cut by Stephanie Dollar.

After the hair cuts, Jessie told Buddy everything. Jessie even gave Buddy the shoes he was wearing when the boys were killed which Buddy readily handed over to police. Suddenly, the West Memphis police had the technology to video tape an interrogation, something they couldn't do with Jessie on June 3, I went to the Police Department and watched the video of Buddy's statement.

The statement seemed strange to me, a poor attempt by Mr. Lucas to give the police something to corroborate Jessie's statement. After the tape was over, Officer Ridge readily admitted to me that as soon as Buddy finished his statement, he refused to take a polygraph exam to confirm same, and even recanted everything he said on the tape.

I went to Jessie Sr. He said he Buddy and his uncle never brought him any chicken. Buddy's uncle also denied delivering any chicken, and Stephanie Dollar said she did not cut Buddy's hair on May 6, Ron Lax tracked down Buddy, and he and I took a statement from Buddy, on video tape.

Buddy said the police threatened him and told him he would go to jail if he didn't tell them about Jessie doing the murders. Buddy said he made up the story to keep from going to jail and that he "hated to have to lie on Jessie" but he was scared of the cops. Buddy said Jessie had given him some tennis shoes long before the murders ever took place, and the shoes that he gave police were not even the ones Jessie had loaned him.

When the police took the shoes, they gave Buddy a brand new pair of boots. Buddy told Ron and myself that he was glad to tell us the real story. When I asked Jessie about Buddy, he said that he hadn't seen Buddy in a long time, and that Buddy was real dumb. Jessie said Buddy was in "special education" in school. If Jessie thought he was slow then you can imagine how slow he really was. We arranged for Buddy to be represented by an attorney, and he was not hassled by the police anymore.

When prosecutors learned of his recantation, they did not call him to testify. In a very difficult decision, Greg and I chose not to put Buddy on the stand at trial because he was so nervous and wouldn't have made a good witness. Further, the jury might have believed Buddy's statement to police, which the prosecution surely would have used to impeach him, and this might have been all the jury needed to convict Jessie of Capital Murder something that could have cost him his life.

In addition, Buddy's testimony might be construed by the appellate court as corroboration, something we have submitted all along they did not have. In hindsight, I still think we made the right decision in not using Buddy at trial. Facts of Jessie's confession do not match facts of crime scene.

Jessie says boys skipped school May 5, Jessie says boys were killed at noon on May 5, FACT : Boys were in school until p. ME says time of death was TO a. Jessie worked with Ricky Deese until about p. Jessie says boys were raped sodomized. FACT : Medical examiner says no trauma to boys anuses, something that would have been there if they were raped. Jessie says Jason castrated Christopher Byers with a single swing of a knife.

FACT : Medical examiner says that the penis of Byers was methodically skinned by someone with extensive knowledge of anatomy and the process would have taken some time to complete even under laboratory conditions.

Update: The mutilation was not skillful or meticulous as Peretti said. It was crudely done. This is still quite inconsistent with Misskelley's confession. Jessie says that the boys were tied up with a brown rope. FACT : The boys were bound with their own shoestrings.

Jessie says the boys were beaten with a big ol' stick and cut with a knife. FACT : No blood was found at the scene, and ME says those injuries could not be inflicted with out a great deal of blood loss. This leads on to believe that the boys were killed elsewhere and their bodies dumped in the creek. This seems to be corroborated by the fact that search teams were combing the woods that night walked all over the spot where the bodies were recovered.

Update: Brent Turvey's Profile of the case corroborates our belief that the boys were killed elsewhere. Jessie says Damien choked one of the boys with a big ol' stick. These are just a few of the most obvious inconsistencies. What the experts tell us. The defense retained the services of two well known experts who are recognized as being the tops in their field, Dr. Richard Ofshe and Mr. Warren Holmes.

Background on retention of experts:. Richard Ofshe:. Ron Lax told us about Dr. Richard Ofshe. An attorney friend of Ron's in California recommended Ofshe to Ron for use in Damien's trial as an expert on the occult.

Ofshe has a second area of expertise, False Confessions, and Ron suggested we talk to Dr. I called Ofshe, at the University of California in Berkeley, and explained that I thought Jessie had falsely confessed to the homicides. I further explained that I was appointed by the Court and had no money with which to pay him. This did not deter Ofshe. He asked about evidence against Jessie, independent of the confession, and I informed him there was none. The defense's second expert witness on police interrogation and the use of lie detector tests was also only allowed to give part of his prepared testimony.

The jury found Misskelley guilty of one count of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder. Despite a challenging year, 20 vital policy reforms were passed across the U.

Philip and Nathan Barnett were wrongly convicted for a murder in West Virginia. After 14 years, they have been exonerated by DNA. Press Release. Special Features. Share this story Help us advocate for the innocent by sharing the latest news from the Innocence Project. Leave a reply. Thanks for your comment. That is what, a t-shirt? Jessie: We went we was coming home one day and it was raining and he didn't have nothing else to wear so he put on one of my shoes. Jessie: On uh, as soon as you get off of Cherry Street.

Uh, Cherry Street right in front of it. Gitchell: Ok, are there any vehicles around close by that I could recognize that trailer? Jessie: It should be a green truck and a brown van and there is a basketball goal right there where the green truck is at by the basketball goal.

Jessie: About like that, the belt was about like that. Using hands to show width. Gitchell: Ok, I don't think that's quite 4 inches, but uh, probably about 3 something like that. Gitchell: Ok, so you know them by name and face, well enough to call them by name?

Gitchell: Did they do anything else other than put their hands over their mouths? How did they finally keep them from being quiet, cause the boys bound to have been hollering? Jessie: They stuck their hands over their mouths first, and then they stuck their shirts to their mouth. Gitchell: Ok, alright hold on just a minute, -pause- Let me ask you something else, Jessie, I'm sorry, I keep coming back and forth, but I got people that want me to ask you some other questions, uh talking about oral sex, did you see, you know we had talked earlier about how Jason and uh Damien do each other, have sex with each other did they, did they have oral sex on the boys?

Jessie: Yeah, they, they, one of them stuck their thang in one of the boys mouth while the other one got the other one up the butt and stuff. Gitchell: Ok, but did, did anyone go down on the boys and maybe suck theirs or something? Gitchell: Ok, did, did they pinch their penis in anyway or were rough with it or anything like that? Gitchell: How did, how did, they force these boys to have oral sex on them? How did they have a hold of them?

Jessie: One of them had holding them by the arms while the other one got behind them and stuff. Jessie: Uh, the one that was holding him up there at the front grabbing him by his headlock. Jessie: He was holding him like this by his head like this and stuff Note: was indicating the victims being held by their ears.

Jessie: I was too far away he was holding him up here by his head like this Note: showed the same as above. Gitchell: Ok, so who was one of them doing that or both of them was doing it? Was Jason? Gitchell: But they, they both Jason and Damien did it to two of the boys and they took turns? Gitchell: And they would hold, tell me again about their hands on, I mean I know you're, you're holding it up here. Mugshots of Jesse L. June 3, June 3, Allen pre-polygraph interview notes Transcribed - Images.

June 3, Ridge pre-polygraph interview notes Transcribed - Images. June 3, Polygraph report Image. June 3, Ridge post-polygraph interview notes Transcribed - Images. June 3, Photos shown to Jessie during taped statement Image.