THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL
WITNESS CALLS BOYS' DEATHS THE WORK OF GROUP WITH 'TRAPPINGS' OF THE OCCULT
Date: Wednesday, March 9, 1994
Section: News
Page: A1
Illustration: photo
Source: By Bartholomew Sullivan The Commercial Appeal
Dateline:
Edition: Final
A retired policeman whose credentials as an expert were hotly
contested testified Tuesday that evidence in the slayings of three
West Memphis boys indicates an occult motive for the crime.
Dale W. Griffis of Tiffin, Ohio, testified for less than two hours after
lawyers argued for almost three hours outside the presence of the
jury about his qualifications and the basis for his opinion.
Griffis said his knowledge of the case came from Deputy Prosecutor
John N. Fogleman and a detective who handled the case.
Griffis later told the jury that he believed the crime was the work of a
group working with the "trappings" of the occult.
Much of Tuesday's sixth day of testimony took place as the jury of
eight women and four men bided their time behind the closed doors
of the jury room. Damien Wayne Echols, 19, and Charles Jason
Baldwin, 16, are charged with capital murder in the deaths of
8-year-olds Michael Moore, Christopher Byers and Steve Branch.
Before Griffis testified, prosecutors asked Circuit Judge David
Burnett to
allow the jury to see items seized by the Crittenden County sheriff's
office in May 1992 - almost a year before the murders - from
Echols's trailer home.
Among the items taken in the search were a dog's skull and a
handwritten book, decorated with a pentagram and upside-down
crosses, detailing spells and prayers to various goddesses.
Also seized from the wall of Echols's room was a framed picture of a
robed figure with a goat's head, which Griffis later testified depicted
black witchcraft. The robed figure is holding two torches over an
assembly of creatures that appear to be part man-part animal.
Defense lawyers for both Echols and Baldwin sought to discredit
Griffis, noting that his master's degree and PhD were from Columbia
Pacific University, which Baldwin's lawyer, Paul N. Ford, called a
"mail-order college." Griffis was a full-time police officer in Ohio
when he obtained the degrees from the California correspondence
school and said he has been allowed to testify in only one previous
criminal trial an an expert in the occult.
Burnett ruled over strenuous defense objections that Griffis could
testify as an expert and give his opinion to the jury about the motive
for the crime.
Griffis initially testifed during the hearing away from the jury that he
had not received all the information he needed to form an opinion on
a motive for the murders.
Later he said he developed one after Fogleman mentioned case
evidence, including testimony last week from a witness who said
Baldwin told him he sucked blood from one of the victims.
Ford, one of Baldwin's attorneys, elicited the acknowledgement that,
if that witness were lying, he woud have no basis for linking Baldwin
to the occult. In open court, Ford said Burnett had not allowed
defense lawyers to mention to jurors that the witness was
"LSD-dependent."
Echols's lawyers also asked Burnett to prevent the jury from seeing
the dog's skull, the goat-head picture and the spells book, but the
request was denied. Cittenden County sheriff's investigator John L.
Murray testified he was given permission to search Echols's bedroom
on May 21, 1992, two days after Echols's arrest on an unspecified
juvenile offense.
Burnett said the state is under no obligation to prove a motive, but
that, in a case where the evidence is largely circumstantial, he would
allow the testimony.
According to the testimony Monday by West Memphis detective
Bryn Ridge, and repeated by Echols during a recess Tuesday, Echols
is a Wiccan, or a practitioner of white witchcraft. Ridge said Echols
told him during an interview May 10 that he has a tattoo of a
pentagram on his chest and a tattoo of a cross on his hand.
Five days into testimony Monday, Fogleman announced that the
state would attempt to establish a motive for the crime in the second
trial. In co- defendant Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr.'s trial in Corning
last month, the state relied on his June 3 confession in which
Misskelley said he belonged to a cult that killed and ate dogs and
held Wednesday night orgies.
Misskelley, 18, was convicted Feb. 4 of first- and second-degree
murder and is serving a life sentence plus 40 years.
Griffis testified that several factors indicated to him that the killers
were interested in the occult, including the fact that the murders
occurred on a night with a full moon, that the victims were subjected
to "overkill," and that they appear to have been tortured. He said
May 5 was close to two dates of significance in occult circles - April
30 and May 1.
April 30 is known as Walpurgisnacht, the greatest of the pagan
festivals, celebrating fertility, according to The Encyclopedia of
Witches and Witchcraft. May 1, Griffis said, is Beltane, a fire festival
in occult practice.
Griffis misspelled Walpurgisnacht for reporters and also misidentified
an organization founded by Alesiter Crowley, the Ordo Templi
Orientis, which Griffis said holds the belief that members must have
sex with children under age 9 "or lose magical power." Crowley
founded the Ordo Templi Orientis at the turn of the century as a
group devoted to sex magic.
Under questioning by Fogleman, Griffis said he has observed people
dabbling in the occult wearing black fingernails and black T-shirts
and bearing tattoos. Arkansas State Crime Lab officials who helped
in the June 3 searchs of Echols's and Baldwin's homes testified briefly
about finding 15 black T- shirts in Baldwin's trailer and the book
Never on a Broomstick, a text on witchcraft, in Echols's.
Trace evidence expert Lisa Sakevicius also testified one victim's shirt
had a spot of wax consistent with candle wax.
Under questioning by defense lawyers, Griffis acknowledged he had
no independent basis for believing Echols had more than an interest
in the occult. Ford accused him of creating "satanic panic." Both
defense teams pointed out that much of what Griffis testified should
have been at the scene of a satanic murder was not there - including
a pentagram and bodies laid out in a pattern.
An indication of how contentious the trial has become came Tuesday
afternon when Baldwin's lawyers refused to stipulate that there was a
full moon on May 5, the night the boys disappeared.
Both defense teams argued the lack of blood at the scene could as
easily be explained by the murders having taken place elsewhere,
rather than by blood drinking. Ford hinted his client's defense will
delve into the possibility the murders occurred somewhere else.
After testimony ended Tuesday, Val P. Price, Echols's lawyer, made
a motion to have the jury visit the crime scene off I-40 in West
Memphis. Fogleman said the state would not object. Burnett said he
would make a ruling later this week.
Caption:
By Robert Cohen
Retired Ohio police officer Dale W. Griffis testifies Tuesday about a
pentagram surrounded by upside-down crosses in a book found in
the home of
Damien Echols, on trial in the slaying of three Ark. boys.
WITNESS CALLS BOYS' DEATHS THE WORK OF GROUP WITH 'TRAPPINGS' OF THE OCCULT
Date: Wednesday, March 9, 1994
Section: News
Page: A1
Illustration: photo
Source: By Bartholomew Sullivan The Commercial Appeal
Dateline:
Edition: Final
A retired policeman whose credentials as an expert were hotly
contested testified Tuesday that evidence in the slayings of three
West Memphis boys indicates an occult motive for the crime.
Dale W. Griffis of Tiffin, Ohio, testified for less than two hours after
lawyers argued for almost three hours outside the presence of the
jury about his qualifications and the basis for his opinion.
Griffis said his knowledge of the case came from Deputy Prosecutor
John N. Fogleman and a detective who handled the case.
Griffis later told the jury that he believed the crime was the work of a
group working with the "trappings" of the occult.
Much of Tuesday's sixth day of testimony took place as the jury of
eight women and four men bided their time behind the closed doors
of the jury room. Damien Wayne Echols, 19, and Charles Jason
Baldwin, 16, are charged with capital murder in the deaths of
8-year-olds Michael Moore, Christopher Byers and Steve Branch.
Before Griffis testified, prosecutors asked Circuit Judge David
Burnett to
allow the jury to see items seized by the Crittenden County sheriff's
office in May 1992 - almost a year before the murders - from
Echols's trailer home.
Among the items taken in the search were a dog's skull and a
handwritten book, decorated with a pentagram and upside-down
crosses, detailing spells and prayers to various goddesses.
Also seized from the wall of Echols's room was a framed picture of a
robed figure with a goat's head, which Griffis later testified depicted
black witchcraft. The robed figure is holding two torches over an
assembly of creatures that appear to be part man-part animal.
Defense lawyers for both Echols and Baldwin sought to discredit
Griffis, noting that his master's degree and PhD were from Columbia
Pacific University, which Baldwin's lawyer, Paul N. Ford, called a
"mail-order college." Griffis was a full-time police officer in Ohio
when he obtained the degrees from the California correspondence
school and said he has been allowed to testify in only one previous
criminal trial an an expert in the occult.
Burnett ruled over strenuous defense objections that Griffis could
testify as an expert and give his opinion to the jury about the motive
for the crime.
Griffis initially testifed during the hearing away from the jury that he
had not received all the information he needed to form an opinion on
a motive for the murders.
Later he said he developed one after Fogleman mentioned case
evidence, including testimony last week from a witness who said
Baldwin told him he sucked blood from one of the victims.
Ford, one of Baldwin's attorneys, elicited the acknowledgement that,
if that witness were lying, he woud have no basis for linking Baldwin
to the occult. In open court, Ford said Burnett had not allowed
defense lawyers to mention to jurors that the witness was
"LSD-dependent."
Echols's lawyers also asked Burnett to prevent the jury from seeing
the dog's skull, the goat-head picture and the spells book, but the
request was denied. Cittenden County sheriff's investigator John L.
Murray testified he was given permission to search Echols's bedroom
on May 21, 1992, two days after Echols's arrest on an unspecified
juvenile offense.
Burnett said the state is under no obligation to prove a motive, but
that, in a case where the evidence is largely circumstantial, he would
allow the testimony.
According to the testimony Monday by West Memphis detective
Bryn Ridge, and repeated by Echols during a recess Tuesday, Echols
is a Wiccan, or a practitioner of white witchcraft. Ridge said Echols
told him during an interview May 10 that he has a tattoo of a
pentagram on his chest and a tattoo of a cross on his hand.
Five days into testimony Monday, Fogleman announced that the
state would attempt to establish a motive for the crime in the second
trial. In co- defendant Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr.'s trial in Corning
last month, the state relied on his June 3 confession in which
Misskelley said he belonged to a cult that killed and ate dogs and
held Wednesday night orgies.
Misskelley, 18, was convicted Feb. 4 of first- and second-degree
murder and is serving a life sentence plus 40 years.
Griffis testified that several factors indicated to him that the killers
were interested in the occult, including the fact that the murders
occurred on a night with a full moon, that the victims were subjected
to "overkill," and that they appear to have been tortured. He said
May 5 was close to two dates of significance in occult circles - April
30 and May 1.
April 30 is known as Walpurgisnacht, the greatest of the pagan
festivals, celebrating fertility, according to The Encyclopedia of
Witches and Witchcraft. May 1, Griffis said, is Beltane, a fire festival
in occult practice.
Griffis misspelled Walpurgisnacht for reporters and also misidentified
an organization founded by Alesiter Crowley, the Ordo Templi
Orientis, which Griffis said holds the belief that members must have
sex with children under age 9 "or lose magical power." Crowley
founded the Ordo Templi Orientis at the turn of the century as a
group devoted to sex magic.
Under questioning by Fogleman, Griffis said he has observed people
dabbling in the occult wearing black fingernails and black T-shirts
and bearing tattoos. Arkansas State Crime Lab officials who helped
in the June 3 searchs of Echols's and Baldwin's homes testified briefly
about finding 15 black T- shirts in Baldwin's trailer and the book
Never on a Broomstick, a text on witchcraft, in Echols's.
Trace evidence expert Lisa Sakevicius also testified one victim's shirt
had a spot of wax consistent with candle wax.
Under questioning by defense lawyers, Griffis acknowledged he had
no independent basis for believing Echols had more than an interest
in the occult. Ford accused him of creating "satanic panic." Both
defense teams pointed out that much of what Griffis testified should
have been at the scene of a satanic murder was not there - including
a pentagram and bodies laid out in a pattern.
An indication of how contentious the trial has become came Tuesday
afternon when Baldwin's lawyers refused to stipulate that there was a
full moon on May 5, the night the boys disappeared.
Both defense teams argued the lack of blood at the scene could as
easily be explained by the murders having taken place elsewhere,
rather than by blood drinking. Ford hinted his client's defense will
delve into the possibility the murders occurred somewhere else.
After testimony ended Tuesday, Val P. Price, Echols's lawyer, made
a motion to have the jury visit the crime scene off I-40 in West
Memphis. Fogleman said the state would not object. Burnett said he
would make a ruling later this week.
Caption:
By Robert Cohen
Retired Ohio police officer Dale W. Griffis testifies Tuesday about a
pentagram surrounded by upside-down crosses in a book found in
the home of
Damien Echols, on trial in the slaying of three Ark. boys.
