Abomination: Devil Worship and Deception in the West Memphis Three Murders (5 page)

MAY 10th, 1993

Christopher Douglas Littrell

Police Statement

Christopher Douglas Littrell, a student in the eleventh grade at West Memphis High School and an acquaintance of Damien Echols, was asked to take a polygraph at the police department. He provided information to Detective Ridge that confirmed he was at the First Baptist Church from about 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. on the night of the murders and was removed from suspicion by the West Memphis Police.
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On May 10, West Memphis police brought Narlene Hollingsworth to the station. She and her family witnessed Damien walking near the scene of the crime on a service, or access, road. I have excerpted a portion of the interview with the police below. The actual transcript, as with other transcripts in this book, are in a separate font.

MAY 10th, 1993

Narlene Hollingsworth

Police Statement

This is Det. Dabbs and Lt. Diane Hester. This is Monday, May 10th, 1993:

NARLENE: Okay, I got ready to go, and my husband went with me and my children were too. And, on our way, coming do[wn] like you’re going to Love’s, I saw Dominic [Domini] and Damia[n] coming down the street.

DABBS: What time was this?

NARLENE: This was exactly 20 minutes til 10, exactly, cause w[e] had our watches and we knew what time it was. Okay they had dark clothing on and they were not cleaned.

DABBS: You said at one time that they were muddy all over.

NARLENE: They did have dirt on them, yes they did, now.

HESTER: Now, which way were they walking?

NARLENE: They was coming back towards Lakeshore, this way....

NARLENE: So, that I could get a good look at them, to see who they were, yes I did. And I said, that’s Dominic and Damien, no don’t look like, it is and I got a good close look and said, it sure is.

HESTER: Alright, these people are known to you, is that corre[ct].

NARLENE: Ma’am.

HESTER: These people are known to you, Dominic and Damien?

NARLENE: Yes, I see them all the time.

HESTER: How long have you known them?

NARLENE: Well, I don’t really know Damien, cause I don’t go around him from all the bad things that I hear about him, but therefore, I don’t let my children go around him and Dominic, I’ve known her all of her life. Cause I use to hold her on my hip when she was six months old baby.

DABBS: You did advise that she lives behind trailer there?

NARLENE: Yes, she does.

DABBS: At his time?

NARLENE: She lives in my sister’s trailer, Pamela Hollingsworth.

DABBS: Okay, what did you do then, right after you saw them?

NARLENE: Well, I was upset about it, for them being out that late and around that area, but you know I was wondering what they were doing out at that time of the night. My husband told me to quit worrying about it, cause they are out all the time. He said that he sees them all the time. So, he told me to quit worrying about it. So, then when I talked to Dixie Hollingsworth, I got to the laundry mat, she said that L. G. Hollingsworth had just left from there in some car. And, I said uh, that’s funny, she said that it i[s] and she never did say why, and I thought it was funny, but I thought that he had just left from there and they were coming down the street. So, then when I talked to Dixie about it, I told Dixie what I had seen and she said, yeah that is kinda odd. I said, yeah it is, I said Dixie, those little children and later on they found out that they were dead, I said Dixie that’s kinda odd for them to be out that time of night and those little kids were dead, don’t you think, she said yes I do, yes I do. I said, let me ask you something, I said since you know Damien better than me, do you think that he’s capable of anything like that and she said, yes, I do. She said because he’s in with the devil.

HESTER: Okay, so the next day, what time the next day did you find out?

NARLENE: It was late, well, when I came back over in this area, again Thursday, because I promise L.G. that I would take him to work, cause he didn’t have no way but me, okay, when I come back down the street, I seen a white car that belonged to a policeman or an undercover car, you know and they were two others out there too, and there was a crowd of people gathered around and I said, that’s unusual.

HESTER: You’re talking about right here on the corner.

NARLENE: Right down here.

HESTER: The corner of Barton and 14th.

NARLENE: I said, that something bad has happened, I just know it And uh, L. G. was in the car.

HESTER: About what time a day was this?

NARLENE: Uh, let’s see, it was uh, well, he had to be at work about 10:00 o’clock.

HESTER: 10:00 o’clock in the morning?

NARLENE: Right.

HESTER: Okay.

NARLENE: Cause they were all gathered up there and I didn’t know what was going on, so I went on down there and L. G. was saying, get me on to work. So, anyway I went on and got him on to work, so then later on that day, he got off early.

HESTER: What time?

NARLENE: I don’t know. I know he come to my house about 2:40 or a quarter to three and I thought that he would be working a little later than that on Wednesday, but anyway my kids started hollering about those kids, you know, uh.

HESTER: So, this was after school sometime?

NARLENE: Yeah, yeah it was definitely after school, cause my kids had already made it home.

HESTER: Alright.

NARLENE: Okay, and the kids said, that later on that night, he came over there in a yellow car with some boxes in them, now what was in the boxes I don’t know. The kids said that the box was about this big and some thing like this and they didn’t know what was in the box, but he said, don’t look at it, don’t touch it, don’t step on it or I’ll hurt you.

HESTER: Okay, so she showed.

DABBS: What’s his name?

HESTER: She showed about the size of a shoe box, the width of a shoe box.

NARLENE: No, I think that it’s a little wider than a shoe box.

HESTER: Okay, wider than a shoe box, okay. And the kids were in the car with L. G.?

NARLENE: No, they were out there around the car.

DABBS: Damien them.

HESTER: Okay, and what did your children tell you about the box?

NARLENE: [BLANK]

HESTER: Okay, anything else.

NARLENE: Well, I talked to my sister in law after that and she went over to their house to L. G.’s house and she said that they were whispering and shaking their heads, I said, Debra, I got a funny feeling about that field and she said , I do too.

HESTER: When was this that she was over there?

NARLENE: I don’t know, I think it was last night, she said that they were there whispering around and acting all funny.

HESTER: Alright, when she said they, who does she mean?

NARLENE: She meant the mommy, the daddy and the son, she said I don’t know what’s going on over there and she said, they are making me nervous, she’s a Christian girl, she said and I got out of there, I said yeah, I get bad feelings around them too. And, I’ll tell you something, I would take up for my kids when I’ve known that they have done something, cause ain’t no telling what they would do. I don’t know what L. G. is capable of, and I am not saying that he would do it, and I am not saying that he wouldn’t, but I know Damien. Everybody said that Damien, I know that he’s suppose to have 666 on his shoes.

HESTER: And your husband and your children saw him and Dominic [Domini] both.

NARLENE: Yes, aint no way they missed that.

HESTER: And, where is your husband now?

NARLENE: He’s at Davis’ Tire Shop.

HESTER: Davis’ Tire Shop.

DABBS: And that’s in Memphis?

NARLENE: Right.

HESTER: What’s the phone number?

NARLENE: 366-1134.

HESTER: And what’s his name?

NARLENE: Ricky Hollingsworth, and he sure is scary, he’s scared somebody is going to kill him.

DABBS: What are his working hours?

NARLENE: Uh, from 7 in the morning to 6 in the evening, cause he gets home around 7, he gets off at 6 o’clock.

DABBS: Okay.

HESTER: Is there anything else?

DABBS: Is there anything else you need to tell us while we are writing all of this?

NARLENE: Well, only one thing, the day I run into L. G. the day at the police department, he begged me to go in there and sit down with his mother and I said, I can’t do that. He said that I wasn’t ain’t no laundry mat Wednesday night, I said, yes you was, he said, no I wasn’t, go and there and tell them that I wasn’t, I said, no I won’t, I said, cause you was up there at that laundry mat, he said, naw I wasn’t, I said, yes you was, cause Ricky Hollingsworth said that I had just missed you. I said, you better stop lying or they are going to get you for murdering these children, and they are going to want to know why[to know why] you lie, he’s said, alright, I was there, I said, I know you was. And I don’t know why.

DABBS: And that was Thursday.

NARLENE: And that was today.

DABBS: Today.

NARLENE: I went there to pay my husband’s fine of $25.00 that he got in trouble, and he got a DUI, I think.

DABBS: But, that was today.

NARLENE: Today I went down there to pay on his fine, L. G. come running out of the building where the police department, he said you go in there and tell them that you are mommy and I said, no, I won’t. I said where is your mother and he said, I don’t know but she won’t come up here with me, I said, well, I said, they will ask you some questions and you answer them, I said, they will let you go. And then if you start telling a bunch of lies and they catch you in them, he said, well uh, I wasn’t over there in that area that day, I said, yes you was L. G, and then he said, I was, I said, I know you was.

NARLENE: He said, if you start saying that about Damien, you’re going to get in trouble, I said, well, the mommy is up there saying stating that he was, Damien was with her all the time. I said, well the mommy is a liar ain’t she. He said, you seen him coming down the street, I said, yes L. G. and I am not lying for him. I am not scared of that boy. He said, well don’t you put yourself in that kind of trouble well, I’m going to take care of L. G.

DABBS: Okay, alright is there anything else that you know that we may need?

NARLENE: The thing that is bothering me is them coming down the street with that box, they claim L. G. had and they didn’t want to open it,

DABBS: But you said smelled horrible?

NARLENE: The kid did, the...

DABBS: And what day was that on?

NARLENE: It was real late Thursday, it was late cause it was after the school kids had already got out of school.
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May, 11th, 1993

Frankie Knight

Investigative Report

Frankie Knight stated to police that Damien Echols could have done the murders and that he was “crazy” and “into black magic.”
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“
STONEHENGE”

An abandoned cotton gin

After analyzing the police discussion with Damien Echols, West Memphis police detectives thought it necessary to contact and interview Deanna Holcomb, the girlfriend referenced in Echol’s interview the day before.

May 11th, 1993

Deanna Holcomb

Police Interview

She said she met with Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin at “Stonehenge.” Deanna confirmed that she and Damien discussed the murder of their firstborn child. She also informed Detective Ridge that people in the occult tell inquirers that the form of magic they are involved in is “White”, knowing that what they do is “Black” Magic. She said Damien would repeat this response. She claimed she was a black witch, and that it started off as a game for the power “and stuff.” She added that Damien was a skilled manipulator of people. According to Deanna, the group would frequent the woods to take drugs. Consistent with the practices of witchcraft, she said that the month of May and the full moon phases were important to the coven. New members would be stripped (“skyclad”) for the witching hours: between 10:00PM and 1:00PM. Damien, she said, liked to play in the sewers, considered them “his special place” and would enter them through a local manhole. He told her a year before that “he had never killed anyone, but he wanted to know what it would feel like.” She let police know that Echols used to own a knife with a defined, serrated ridge and carried it in his trench coat.
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Deanna Holcomb was given a polygraph test, and when asked whether she knew who killed the boys, deception was indicated as seen below: