Episode 29: Aaron Hutcheson

  Disclaimer: There are two potential routes via bicycle between Highland trailer park and Robin Hood Hills. One would involve going down the eastside service road along I-55 on down from the trailer park to Missouri Street and then down the southside service road along I-55-40 and to the Blue Beacon. It's also possible and more feasible to go southbound on the service road to Alcy Road, following until it merges with Seventh Street and then onto the southside service road. I misstated about accessing the Seventh Street overpass from the service road. Sorry about that.     Episode 28: “One of the guys had a devil worshiping book and we would go by it” October 27, 2019       https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Black-Against-Memphis-Killers-ebook/dp/B06XVT2976/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=blood+on+black&qid=1559059428&s=gateway&sr=8-1 https://www.amazon.com/Where-Monsters-Go-Against-Memphis-ebook/dp/B06XVNXCJV/ref=sr_1_1?crid=XNLYB8QUIQ7F&keywords=where+the+monsters+go&qid=1559059470&s=gateway&sprefix=where+the+monsters+go%2Caps%2C167&sr=8-1 https://www.amazon.com/Case-Against-West-Memphis-Killers-ebook/dp/B07C7C4DCH/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=gary+meece&qid=1559059536&s=gateway&sr=8-3 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0753HJZ1P/?ie=UTF8&keywords=gary%20meece&qid=1559059573&ref_=sr_1_6&s=gateway&sr=8-6 https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Black-Against-Memphis-Killers-ebook/dp/B06XVT2976/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=gary+meece&qid=1559059573&s=gateway&sr=8-2   "It was like it never even happened"      The Hutchesons, Vicki and son Aaron, were key to solution of the case, offering tantalizing evidence that resulted in the confession of Jessie Misskelley and subsequent arrests of Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin. Their stories, though, never quite panned out, as  mother and son both put their imaginations to work on colorful yarns that increasingly posed problems for the prosecution.    Tall, red-haired Vicki had a sketchy past, including charges for writing hot checks.  In May 1993, she recently had separated from her husband, having moved April 19 from the West Memphis neighborhood adjacent to Weaver Elementary to Highland Trailer Park.  There the 30-year-old had befriended Jessie Misskelley Jr.  Aaron, a sturdily built, dark-haired 8-year-old,  was in the same grade as the dead boys and in the Cub Scout troop run by Michael’s father, Todd.  Aaron had played regularly with Michael and Christopher.   Aaron’s description of their friendship grew over the course of police interviews into an ever-changing narrative in which he became a witness to the killings —- and ultimately an unwilling participant. But at first he was regarded as truthful in his tales of seeing five men participate in group sex in the woods and cooking a cat near the boys’ “club house,” near where the killings occurred.    In a report on May 28, Ridge found Aaron’s claim to have seen cult activities from the “club house” to be credible. Ridge, though, was unable to find any sign of the “club house” —- apparently a tree stand that no longer existed by the time Aaron led officers into the woods. Meanwhile, his mother, drinking heavily and consuming a variety of prescribed and illegal drugs, resolved to “play detective” by getting to know Jessie’s friend Damien.  She had heard rumors that Echols was responsible for the murders. She claimed she learned that he was involved with a group known as the Dragons, who supposedly  worshipped dragons and whose meetings included a ritual in which they sacrificed genitals. Victoria Hutcheson first heard about the murders while at the Marion Police Department on May 6, as news of the discovery of the bodies spread. She had taken a lie detector test about a $200 credit overcharge at the truck stop where she worked. She was checking on the results; she passed the polygraph and was cleared of potential charges but was fired nonetheless.   She brought Aaron with her to the station, after checking him out of school when she learned the boys were missing. The