Episode 24: ”I’VE HEARD FROM A LOT OF PEOPLE THAT HE HAS BEEN POSSESSED” Blood on Black: The Case Against the West Memphis 3, Volume I .

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"I'VE HEARD FROM A LOT OF PEOPLE THAT HE HAS BEEN POSSESSED" Stories originating from Baldwin buddy Garrett Schwarting had almost as much credibility as the “Hobbs family secret” or the later imaginings of Aaron Hutcheson. During his many interviews with investigators, the 15-year-old Schwarting was a font of information, some of it clearly misinformation, some possibly disinformation, often not only at great odds with statements from others but with himself. While attempting to help Echols and Baldwin, Schwarting tended to confirm suspicions about them. He didn’t help out Misskelley either. For instance, he said that his sister’s best friend, Tiffany Allen, had been going out with Jessie, “and she would come to school telling me stories like he beat her and all kind of stuff like that. She had black eyes, busted lip.” Bryn Ridge, acting on a tip that Schwarting knew Echols and Baldwin and might have information on the murders, talked to Schwarting on May 19. Schwarting told Ridge that he had not seen Baldwin in over three weeks. On May 25, Schwarting told juvenile of ficer Steve Jones that Echols was not involved in the murders.
Then, on June 7, the Monday after the arrests, Schwarting ran into Jones at Barfield’s, a local store. Schwarting was looking for a copy of the Commercial Appeal so he could read about the arrests. He explained that Baldwin could not have been a part of the murders. Schwarting claimed that he had gone to the Baldwin residence on May 5 on three occasions, first at 7 p.m., then at 7:30 and finally a third time.
Schwarting had wanted to borrow a long white Ozzy Osbourne T-shirt that the Baldwins could not find at first. So Schwarting returned twice more, bringing along his friend, 13-year-old Kevin Lawrence, the final time. Schwarting claimed he stayed and played Nintendo at Baldwin’s home until 9 or 9:30, when he went to spend the night at Kevin’s.
At first Schwarting’s alibi for Baldwin seemed to have backing (sort of) from Kevin Lawrence.
Even so, Lawrence’s version raised a question about Baldwin’s school attendance that day.
Jones compiled his information from Schwarting in a handwritten report dated June 7 and filed on June 10.
On June 11, just before Ridge held an extensive interview with Schwarting, Lawrence told police that his mother had checked him out of school on May 5 at 12:45 p.m., and that Schwarting dropped by his home.
Lawrence said that around 2 p.m. they went to Jason’s home to retrieve a shirt he had loaned to Jason (over four hours earlier than Schwarting had described). After Mrs. Grinnell opened the door, Jason told them that “he couldn’t find the shirt or that he had to go get it from his friend,” according to Lawrence’s statement, handwritten by Ridge at the boy’s request.
The boys returned to Kevin’s house. About 20 minutes later Schwarting went back over to Jason’s, returned about 15 minutes later without the shirt, and left again for Jason’s about 30 minutes later. That trip took about 30 minutes. Schwarting returned again without a shirt.
Schwarting stayed at Lawrence’s until about 7 or 8, playing Nintendo, before going home, said Lawrence.
No one else had claimed that Jason and his mother were both home at around 2 p.m. that afternoon. Jason’s attendance at school was
documented. Schwarting claimed he was hanging around the Baldwin home until 9:30 while Lawrence claimed Schwarting had been at his home that evening. The timeline from Lawrence provided no alibi for Baldwin.
Ridge then questioned Schwarting, who claimed he had gotten out of school at the usual time on May 5 and that Kevin showed up around 5 or 5:30 and they had gone to Kevin’s home in Lakeshore, arriving about 6 or 6:30. Schwarting said he called his mother to get permission to spend the night with Lawrence.
He claimed he had gone to Baldwin’s home three times, at roughly 30-minute intervals, starting around 6:45, the last time staying and playing Super Nintendo with Matt, little Terry and Ken while Jason looked for the shirt. He said Ken left around 7:30 to 8:30. They began playing Street Fighter around 8.
Schwarting also told Ridge that, after Jason cut his uncle’s lawn, Jason had gone to Wal-Mart and played Street Fighter while a youth named Don Nam watched. (Nam initially gave a statement saying he had seen Baldwin at Walmart around 6 p.m. on May 5. He retracted the statement the next day.)
Schwarting —- who didn’t see Baldwin cutting grass or at Wal-Mart — said Baldwin left Wal-Mart at about 7 p.m. for home. Schwarting claimed that he had run into Nam at Wal-Mart later,. Nam told him about seeing Baldwin. Schwarting said he had learned details about Jason’s lawn mowing earlier on June 11 from the newspaper.
Ridge asked him: “… How do you know that’s the night that occurred?”
Schwarting: “It said in the paper that they came up missing May 5th.”
Ridge then asked him what else he did that afternoon. Schwarting first replied that he shot pool at the Lakeshore store. Ridge pointed out that just prior to the interview that Schwarting told him they went on a picnic. He claimed “we went to little picnic at Hernando Lake. …. somewhere in Tennessee, I think.”
Pressed about the date, Schwarting was sure of May 5.
Ridge told him: “What I’m at is that two weeks after the murders occurred you don’t remember going at Jason’s house, now here it’s a month and a half later and you remember that is the exact date and the exact times and everything exact about.”
Schwarting: “Sir … I have talked to Matthew Baldwin couple of times since then … and I know he said that I was over there that one night. Then it started to come to me slower and slower.”
Ridge pointed out that his story and Kevin’s story “are no where near alike.” Ridge added: “You made a statement a little while ago that Jason didn’t do this and that you’re going to do anything you can to get him out of it.”
Schwarting also gave a handwritten statement: “The night of the murders, I stayed the night with Kevin. I went to Jason’s house 3 times that night. Once at 7:00 (he said he hasn’t had time to find my shirt) again at 7:30 (he said come back in 30 min.) the third time, I brought my friend Kevin. We stayed at Jason’s house until 9:00 p.m. then left. When we was at Jason’s the last time, we played Street Fight II on
SuperNintendo. At about 8:30 Ken’s mom came to pick him up.”
Schwarting agreed to take a polygraph test.
On June 15, Schwarting changed his story: “On Wednesday, May 5th, I was at home because my mom won’t let me stay anywhere unless it’s at Kevin’s house. I didn’t stay at Kevin’s that night but the next night I did. I stayed home, watched TV, played Nintendo and went to sleep at about 10 p.m. I didn’t see Jason Baldwin at all that day or I didn’t talk to him.”
Police noted that Schwarting’s version of going to Baldwin’s home on May 5 actually occurred May 6.
So much for that alibi.
Schwarting had a wealth of other unreliable information to share.
Schwarting passed along stories that Echols allegedly told him and Murray Farris, a leader of a local Wicca coven, while they were cleaning the pool at Farris’ home in mid-May. Schwarting said he didn’t know Farris well. Echols apparently was just hanging out.
“We were trying to trick him,” said Schwarting on June 11, “not really tricking but trying to get him to confess. Just say he did it cause me and Murray both were tired of being questioned and we wanted to find out who had done it.”
Echols didn’t confess but he did boast about how he had poured gasoline on a cat, stuck a bottle rocket up its rear and lit the fuse. Echols told them he once choked a small boy with a noose until he turned blue and passed out.
Earlier, on May 25, Schwarting told Jones that Baldwin and Misskelley were involved in a Satanic cult, along with Jerry Nearns, but that Echols was not involved in any type of cult or Satanic worship.
Schwarting claimed Baldwin had once invited him to a meeting of Satan worshippers in a building behind Lakeshore. Schwarting refused Baldwin’s invitation but Schwarting told acquaintances that he was studying witchcraft.
Later, on June 7, he told Jones that Echols had a demon placed inside him by a man called Lucifier, and that Echols had lived with Lucifier prior to living with his parents. Schwarting said the demon possessing Echols must kill nine people before it becomes a God, with Baldwin being the first person to be killed (Echols would have been doing a poor job of fulfilling the demon’s commands). Schwarting told police that Lucifier was involved in the murders.
Now, he said, Echols’ former girlfriend, Deanna Holcomb, was dating Lucifier, further claiming that she was “very much involved” in Satanic worship. He claimed that “Damien broke up with Deanna and then she met Lucifier and started learning black
magic.” (Deanna had renounced her involvement in black magic and said that Echols practiced black magic).
Schwarting said that Echols was bisexual and that he and Baldwin often argued when Echols spent time with Domini (Schwarting was an “ex, ex, ex-boyfriend” of Echols’ girlfriend).
Among the weird details: Lucifier at one time had a purple streak in his blond hair.
Later, Schwarting claimed that Misskelley was afraid of Lucifier, who made Misskelley turn himself in, and that Misskelley had implicated Echols and Baldwin because he knew they were suspects.
Schwarting said he did not believe that Echols had committed the murders, and named two other possible suspects, Jerry Allen Nearns and Frankie Knight, both of whom were interrogated by police.
Then Schwarting talked further about Nearns, who had lived at Little’s Trailer Park at the same time as Schwarting. Schwarting said Nearns belonged to a cult where they were sacrificing cats and that Misskelley and Baldwin were members. Schwarting said Nearns nailed a cat to a tree with a railroad spike and would stuff cats into jars, throw them into the air and hit them with a board.
On June 11, he gave a statement to Ridge that included another mention of “Lusserfur,“ though he had no details about the alleged magickal mastermind and had never seen “Lusserfur,” helpfully adding that “Damien I’ve heard from a lot of people that he has been possessed.”
Schwarting denied his earlier assertion that Baldwin was in the cult.
Jason Frazier was a 16-year-old acquaintance of Schwarting’s who told police on June 11 that he had talked with Schwarting about two weeks after the murders. A mutual acquaintance, Laura Maxwell, who had dated Echols, said that Schwarting had told Frazier that Echols and Baldwin held their devil worshipping meetings “in that park” — Robin Hood. Schwarting supposedly had heard from Baldwin that Damien had killed the boys because they saw something they weren’t supposed to see.
Frazier told Allen and Ridge about Schwarting: “He said … I know who did it, and all of that ... He told me Jason Baldwin and Damien Echols. ....
“He said … that he was studying to be a psychic …. and him and this guy was studying it, and that … Damien and uh Jason did it, but Jessie’s names was involved, so uh they was practicing their witch craft and, he didn’t say how the boys got there, or anything, he just said, they did it and that’s where they practiced their witch, their Satan stuff.”
Frazier later in the interview gave a confused account of how Schwarting told him that Baldwin had nothing to do with the killings. Frazier said Schwarting told him “it was just Damien” but “he said that Damien didn’t do it.”
Frazier said his cousin, Jeff Hood, 15, had overheard the earlier conversation with Schwarting. Hood gave a handwritten statement June 15: “It had to been on a Saturday it was after the murders, me & my cousin Jason Fraizer were in front of the old belvedere apartments, it was in the morning time about 11 or 12 and Garrett Swarting was on a bike & he pulled up on his bike & asked for a cigeretes & started talking about White Which Craft & said the Jason Baldwin & Damien Echols did the murders. He studied which craft & said it came to him. When he told me I didn't believe him.”
If there was truth in Schwarting’s stories, it was difficult to discern.