Episode 30: "It was like it never even happened" Vicki Hutcheson's story with some side comments on Ryan Ferguson and Henry Lee Lucas

n a 2004 story in the Arkansas Times, Vicki Hutcheson said about the trip to the esbat: “Every word of it was a lie.”  Lie or not, her testimony played no role in the Echols/Baldwin case and was not crucial to the conviction of Misskelley.  Jurors there were largely convinced by the confession, particularly where Misskelley described chasing down Michael. Some jurors told reporters that the occult trappings were not particularly convincing and were ultimately irrelevant to reaching a guilty verdict. 

Though she later claimed coercion,  police interviews indicated Vicki was eager to play a starring role in the investigation, perhaps with hopes of collecting a reward.

As Bray described her role in his notes on a June 2, 1993, interview: “She said she was trying to play detective because she had heard Damien was involved in devil worship and she thought it might be connected to the murders.”

In 2004, Hutcheson told the Arkansas Times that she only testified as instructed by the West Memphis PD, under a threat that she would have her child taken from her and that she could be implicated in the murders.  There was no evidence of a police threat.  

She testified in 1994 that “West Memphis knew nothing” about her plan to “play detective” when she set up   meetings with Echols. “I decided that on my own. Those boys I loved, and I wanted their killers caught.” As for the $30,000 reward, “it had nothing to do with it.”

She did receive help from law enforcement in checking out occult books from the library, in an effort to impress Echols, and in setting up a recording device under her bed. Police said the resulting tapes were of such poor quality as to be of no use; she claimed to hear high-quality recordings.  

She testified she never met John Fogleman until a month or two before the trial.  

 Her statements were filled with largely unsolicited and unschooled details about interactions with Misskelley and Echols.  

 Aaron considered Michael and Christopher his best friends, dating from when he lived on East Barton.  According to his mother, “those were his only friends.”

In a May 28, 1993, interview with Ridge and Sudbury, she described picking up Aaron after school on May 5:  “I was waiting in where the teachers park on the side of Weaver Elementary, and watching for Aaron. It was approximately 15 after 3, and Michael Moore came to one side of my truck and Christopher Byers to the other and Aaron you know close to them … and they were telling me Ms. Vicki there’s a Cub Scout thing tonight, and Aaron  needs to go, and Michael’s father is their troop leader and  … Michael was really incessant upon Aaron going, and uh, they just keep saying there’s a Cub Scout thing. Ms. Vicki … he has to go, he has to go. And I said no this is Wednesday night. Cub Scouts are tomorrow Thursday night and they just kept on. Finally you know, they got it through he wasn’t going to go, because I just thought they wanted to go and play, and um, he said well then can Aaron just come to my house, and you can pick him up in two hours. Which I had done frequently so he had assumed I would do it then, and I just said no because I had some errand to ran. Aaron did not go. … I went home.”

She went to the grocery about 5:30 and stopped somewhere to eat, with Aaron in tow. “He was never alone.”  They got home “probably about eight or so.” 

Among her errands, she would tell prosecutors, was going to the liquor store to purchase two bottles of Evan Williams whiskey for Jessie Misskelley Jr. and Dennis Carter, who were both underage.

His mother’s story on May 28 contradicted any stories Aaron told about his trip to Robin Hood that afternoon. She gave a different version of Aaron’s activities for May 5 on June 2, abruptly becoming unable to account for him that afternoon while he was nominally under the care of a babysitter. The June 2 version gave Aaron time to go to the woods.  

On May 6, after discovering his friends were missing, she pulled Aaron out of school and took him over to the Moore house. She said, “Todd asked Aaron if he might know did Chris or Michael say anything  to him, to the effect where they might be. He said no, there, you know you can tell when your child is lying and it was like he knew something was up. And uh, he said after we had left the Moores coming out of their door he told me Mama let’s to go the club house. We need to go to the club house.”

She had been to the site before,  the “clubhouse” being boards nailed up in a tree.  She was not able to get there because the entry at the dead end of McCauley was cordoned off by police. 

The question persists as to whether there was a “clubhouse.” Jessie Misskelley in one confession mentioned the “clubhouse” and then corrected himself, saying he had been thinking of a clubhouse near Highland.  Aaron gave little description of the clubhouse, which he repeatedly mentioned. It may have been formed largely by imagination —- whether by the boys or just Aaron.  Boys commonly stake out territory as “clubhouses,” treehouses  and “forts”  in play. Old boards at the scene could have been part of the “clubhouse.”

“Aaron told me that um he and Michael and Chris visit their club house every day and they rode their bikes and they were spying on 5 men and ah I asked him who they were and he said I don’t know Mom who they were I just you know we just spying on em. I said why would you be spying on 5 men, you know? And he said well they were there every day so we would watch them. I said what made you interested in them. He said because they paint themselves and they have dragon shirts and they talk in Spanish. And I say, Aaron, they talk in Spanish how do you know that’s Spanish? I mean, you don’t know Spanish. He said well I don’t understand what they’re saying, and they sing bad things, and I said like what kind of bad things. My father being a preacher, Aaron has been in my church quite often, you know, and …

“He said they sing about the Devil, and, you know, that we love the Devil and um he said, I think that they love the Devil more than God, Mom. And I told him … why didn’t y’all leave why didn’t you come home, were you scared? They said no we hid. They couldn’t see us. … I said so y’all went there every day.  He said we went there every day but wouldn’t go on Friday. And I told him why how do you know Friday? And he said, well because that’s the day before the weekend, you know, the last day of school and I know that it was Friday and they didn’t come. And ah, I said okay what happened? What did they do? And he said well when they first saw them you know they sat around a fire in a circle by this tree … they did this like several times and then they’d sing a song and they’d … dance around the tree. Then he told me that these 5 men took their clothes off. And I said Aaron you know that they took their clothes off, why didn’t you leave? And he said because we were scared. And they were scared, I guess, of getting caught then and ah he said Michael kept telling him that it was an Indian thing they were supposed to do and Chris said no they’re getting ready to have sex. And I told Aaron, Aaron doesn’t know about sex and we talked about it and all the books that you’ve seen um he said that they had their peters in each other’s butts and said they watched. … And I just got into detail with him. With the sex thing. …

“I know he’s telling the truth.”

Vicki added: “Jessie Misskelley had told Aaron that um the boys killer had been found. And ah Aaron was ecstatic over it. He was very happy….

“He later found that that wasn’t true …

“… What’s really weird is that he said you know exactly that it was a Satanistic group, namely the Dragons.”

She also related that she had heard third-hand that Robert Burks — actually Robert Burch — had told a teen girl that he had killed the boys and would kill the girl if she talked.  Burch, whose name came up repeatedly in the investigation, talked to police and offered no alibi, but there was nothing but rumor and an acquaintance with Baldwin and Misskelley linking him to the case. 

Vicki also named some of Damien’s friends in the Satan worshippers:  Shawn “Spider” Webb, “Burks,” “Snake,”  “Jason, some little boy named Jason, I don’t know his name he lives in Lakeshore,” and Misskelley.  

“There’s a guy he calls Lucy but everyone else calls Lucifer. … He’s an older guy he’s, he’s probably closer to my age, thirty. … I haven’t really been real up close with him you know I’ve seen him in a car, um, he’s got brownish hair and he does have a big nose. … I believe he had glasses on.”  She said Lucifer drove an old beaten-up car “like an Impala or Caprice. … It looked like ah primer color. You know like they were gonna paint it.”

The mysterious “Lucifer” popped up again and again in descriptions of the cult in Lakeshore, with varying characteristics, though consistently described as older than the teens. 

In her May 28 interview, Vicki described how, shortly after the killings, she sent Aaron out of town for eight days to stay with her sister, meanwhile talking to people about the case, including “a Little Jessie, Jessie Misskelley, lives down the street from me and you know that I was really close to him … because he was always around. He doesn’t go to school or anything.  He like help you mow the lawn and stuff and I’d gotten really close with him. He made mention after this came out that um he had saw Chris Byers over by the Beacon that morning on the morning that you know they were found and that Chris was in a pink shirt and even picked him out in the paper to me … that was odd for him to say something like that so … I just keep talking with Jessie cause ah Jessie’s I means not a bad kid but you know you don’t know who people know. So I just kept talking to Jessie about stuff and Jessie told me about a friend of his named Damien and this friend drank blood and stuff. He just keep going on and on on about how weird he was and stuff. So by the way you know the stuff that we knew the public knew that was coming out in the paper and stuff I just thought how they were killed was odd but you know maybe it was like a devil worshipping thing or you know something just hit me that might be it and I thought that this kid doing this you know maybe he knew something or  …. or maybe Jessie knew something so um Jessie had told me that Damien hang out at Lakeshore and so I went out of my way, you know, to try to go around Lakeshore and, you know, people around there and I told Jessie I had seen Damien and he asked me how did I know it was Damien? And I said that there was a little boy Adam who’s a friend of mine’s little boy … and he had …  pointed him out to me and … he said well you know he’s kinda weird. I said no, I think he’s hot. I really want to go out with him. Can you fix me up with him? And you know he was real surprised but he said yeah, if you want to go out with him I’ll fix you up with him and he did.”

So Hutcheson thought that “maybe Jessie knew something” based on strange things he had said and the fact that Misskelley was fascinated with Echols’ weird practices and beliefs, such as drinking blood. 

 Jessie fixed up Vicki and Damien.  It didn’t take much persuasion;  Misskelley drove Hutcheson’s pickup over to Baldwin’s home, told Echols that he knew a women who wanted to meet him and Echols went along for the ride.  Eventually Echols would show up at her trailer about six times, apparently never spending much time, according to Hutcheson.  She told police that she was not attracted to Echols and found him frightening.  She said they never had sex.  Based on her retraction statements years later, Echols actually showed up just once for a very brief, awkward visit. 

Hutcheson told Ridge: “He came to my house, the very first time I met him. … We talked about um lots of different stuff. He’s not real real talkative. You you kinda have to pull things out of him but he uh keep telling me about the boys murders and how he had been he said… questioned. He always said that I was accused for 8 hours I was accused of killing those 3 little boys and … I just acted like it was no big deal. … And I said well you know why would they pick you in West Memphis you know? There are bookoo’s of people. Why would they just pick you out?  And he just looked at me I mean just really weird. And said because I’m evil. …

“He called me um he told me that he would like to see me again and stuff like this and ah I said okay. So you know he just kept coming over and he never really um gave me times or when I’m coming but he would just drop in. …

“And uh in the meantime communicating with Officer Bray I had gotten some Satanic books and witch books and all this and we were sitting on my couch and I had laid them out where he could see them right close to my table. He said, you know he picked one up, and asked me what I was doing. I got out a Cosmopolitan, and in the back there was a wicka  thing that you write to, and you can become a witch or go to witch school or something like that. Anyway I told him not to worry you know this is what I’m wanting to be and he just looked at me really weird and he said you don’t have to go like that. You don’t have to go there to do that. …

“No.  It would all come in time is what he said. It’ll happen in time. …

“The next day after he finds out that I’m wanting to go do this he told me and asked me did I want to go to esbat. I didn’t know what esbat was. I looked it up in the book and found out that it was a meeting and I thought immediately yeah this is where I want to go. I want to see what’s going on. …

“Then he took me, he picked me up and he took me in a red Escort. He drove us to Turrell, and ah ….”

She said Misskelley went along for the ride to Turrell, a small poor community of about 800 residents about 12 miles north of Marion.  The Wapanocca National Wildlife Refuge, centered around Lake Wapanocca, is adjacent to the township.  The esbat location sometimes is referred to as Turrell-Twist or Twist, the name of a small farm-based community at the Crittenden-Cross county line. 

Misskelley told officers on June 3 that Damien drove a red car owned by Jack Echols. Among the many criticisms t about the esbat story are  a) Damien didn’t drive and b) Damien didn’t have access to a red car.  It seems unlikely that Misskelley mentioned the red car just to corroborate  Hutcheson's story.  

Hutcheson described the trip “… He um took us to —- I’m not really familiar, I’m from Springdale, so I’m not familiar with this area even — but Turrell. I was really lost. …

“… I do know where kinda where he went you know we turned off and hit a dirt road and about by some kind of water and in woods in a field and by the time we had gotten there … it was dark. Um, it was quite a drive. …

“And we went out, got out of the car and … it was just really dark especially out you know in the woods. It was just dark and I was scared a little bit in fact but we held hands just like you would hold my hand and keep trying to comfort me. He knew I was scared. …

“… He told me it would be okay you know not to be scared, don’t worried and ah Jessie went to the crowd. Then you could see there was  a crowd of kids.”

There were about 10, none over age 18, with faces painted black.

“… What you could see of their bodies without … their clothes you know was painted their  … arms were painted, you know, they had on jeans ….

“They stood around and it seemed like they were just talking and stuff and Damien and I stood back away from them.  We never went to the crowd.”

A teen she knew, Shawn Webb, stepped away to talk with them. 

“… When he got close enough to me I could tell who he was. He talked with Damien um you know just what’s up you know just bull crap and then walked back over and then these kids took their clothes off and began touching each other and I knew what was going to happen …. 

“I looked at Damien and said I want to leave … He said okay. … Jessie stayed. …

“After he brought me home we went into my house and you know just sat there and talked and stuff and he never made comment about it or anything. It was like it never even happened. … He went, he left, and went home.”

She said this occurred on Wednesday, May 19.

“… He called me on Thursday and he told me about this girl being pregnant … and you know he’s going to have to take care of her or make her think he’s that you know he’s faithful to her. … And so ah the word has gotten out that I was seeing him because I’m a you know an older woman and … everything so he said we’re going to have to kinda cool it and keep it down … and so I kinda thought well God I’ve ruined it, you know, she’s ruined it for me and I’m not going to be able to see him anymore. I thought he’d just quit calling. …

“But he called all the time wanting me know you know what men are at my house. … And I do have a boyfriend that I see all the time and ah so he you know is there quite often. 

“… My house was really quiet … this last Wednesday. Nobody came over or anything. Jim came over after he got off work and it was about 1:30 when he got off and we just sat and talked on the couch and watched a movie. It was about 3:30 and we heard this big when I mean it sounded really horrible, it scared me to death. And ah so Jim got up, he and I both got up and went to my door and we looked out front underneath um my window where I keep plants. I have like a really thick board that’s been nailed up and has some bolts underneath it and this thing was broke completely in half. … No one was around. … I asked Damien. He called me last night. I asked him um what did you do Wednesday night, hung out. I said you didn’t come to my house did you? He said I know you were there with Jim, that’s all that matters and that’s it. That was the end of it.”

Ridge asked, “Did he say he was jealous of that?”

Vicki replied, “Are you kidding, I mean you could tell that he’s mad. … He was very calm but aggravated is what I would call it.”

In a June 2 interview, Hutcheson repeated much of her story to Bray and said someone the night before had been looking into her windows.  

She left 15-year-old roommate Christy Anderson babysitting Aaron while she went to Kroger. When she returned around 11 p.m., a 15-year-old friend visiting the trailer said she had seen someone looking into the living room window.  Aaron reported someone had been looking into his bedroom window and had pulled on a wire leading into the bedroom hard enough to pull a console from under the bed. 

Apparently no one called the police, and no suspect was found.  The incident was similar to incidents in which Echols was seen stalking children and young girls.  

The night before he was arrested,  Misskelley spent the night at the Hutcheson trailer, reportedly sleeping on the couch, because she was concerned about a prowler. 

Echols stopped talking to Vicki after May 28, when the FBI supposedly came out and took photos of his trailer.  She had planned a party for Saturday, May 29, inviting Echols, Misskelley and Robert Burch. When nobody showed up, she phoned Echols around 8 or 9 p.m.  He told her he had something important to do. When she asked if she could come along, he said no.  

She tried to talk him again on June 1 around 7:30 p..m.  Echols’ sister Michelle told her Damien had gone to bed.  Bray noted: “Vicki says she is scared now.”

Hutcheson took a polygraph test June 2.  No deception was indicated when she said that she had not met Echols prior to three weeks before, that she had not told Aaron what to tell police, that she had no foreknowledge of the murders and that no one told her they were involved in the killings. 

A decade after the trial, on June 24, 2004,  Hutcheson gave a sworn statement to the Misskelley defense team in which she claimed that Don Bray and Jerry Driver persuaded her that Echols was guilty.  

She described her initial meeting with Echols as a fiasco, describing him as a normal teen. 

Vicki claimed that the tapes of their conversation were of good quality but worked against the case the police were hoping to build.   

She claimed Ridge suggested that, if she could not deliver evidence against Echols, she could be seen as the vital link between the killers and their victims, that she could be implicated in the homicide. “And they also told me it would be a shame if I lost Aaron over this whole thing.” 

She claimed Ridge schooled her over 12-and-a-half hours on a made-up story about the esbat trip.  “And then I just started making up stuff as I went because I didn’t know what else to do and I did.”

After their first meeting, she claimed she talked to Echols just once, when she called him and he said he was under FBI surveillance. 

On the day of her court appearance, “I was kind of high. I couldn’t even stand up. I even had somebody go get me some more pills.”

She  had taken four Prozac, at least 13 Valium and four pain pills prior to testifying.  

She had been taking Prozac, Valium and a sleeping medication, Trazodene, during May,  all from the East Arkansas Mental Health Center, as well as pain pills from Melissa Byers, Christopher’s mother, and downers from another friend. She was seeing a therapist and a psychiatrist.  She said she was bipolar, had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and had post-traumatic stress syndrome.  

At the time of the trial, her part-time job as a bartender at the Ramada Inn allowed her to drink “as much as I wanted.  I should say that when I left I felt pretty good every night.”

In 1994, after the trials were over, she told defense investigators that she drank a bottle of Wild Turkey whiskey prior to the trip to the esbat and could not recall the circumstances or who accompanied her, only that she awoke the next morning lying on her front lawn. The drinking bout was spurred by a disagreement with her boyfriend. 

She claimed Misskelley stayed overnight at her home, armed with a gun, because Mark Byers “was always bothering us.” 

Hutcheson said she became a methamphetamine addict while working at a strip club prior to going to prison around 1995.  In 2004, she said she had recently gotten off meth. 

The timeline on harassment by Byers in May 1993 seemed to make little sense as her role in the case wasn’t public knowledge then.  In 2004, she said “We kept it quiet until Ron Lax’s big mouth and he opened up that whole can of worms you know. And everybody found out they had talked to Aaron and then they found out about me and all that deal.”  

She said Byers wanted to talk with Aaron “by himself with him to McDonald’s.” She refused. She complained Byers started buying Aaron gifts and brought a Christmas tree to their house. She would see “someone,”  “a really tall, big person” hanging around her back porch. “And I just knew it was Mark. I just had a feeling it was Mark.”  At the time she was telling the story, she and her son were on board with Byers being an “alternative suspect.”

She said Misskelley was familiar with Michael through Michael’s friendship with Aaron. 

Vicki appeared  for a Baldwin Rule 37 hearing  on Aug. 14, 2009, and answered a few questions. Then the court, the prosecutors and her attorneys conferred on whether contradicting her testimony from 1994 would be perjury, finally determining that she could be open to prosecution. There was no offer of immunity. She did not testify.

While the Hutchesons provided a crucial link to the solution of the case through their friendship with Misskelley,  Vicki’s “investigation” yielded little of worth —- Echols was an acknowledged witch so she would have provided “proof” only of what was already known if she had testified. He made no self-incriminating statements to her. 

As for Aaron,  childish fantasies aside,  he provided a seemingly plausible link between the killers and their victims.  Whether there was a pre-arranged meeting between the killers and their victims remains an open question.