DAMIEN WAYNE ECHOLS - was born Michael Wayne Hutchison, but in an adolescent whim of reinvention, changed his name to Damien Echols. It was dark and mysterious, but it suited him well. Like so many of his generation, with little parental supervision or interest, Damien grew into a surely, moody teenager. He was slender, yet flabby. His face was handsome, yet strangely pale. His eyes were dark and penetrating. In May of 1993, he was a high school dropout with no car, no driver's license, no job, and no steady place to call home. He had recently moved back home with his parents, Pam and Joe. They were married in 1974 in New Mexico. His father was a career gas station attendant. They lived in a cluttered mobile home on West Memphis's dismal east end. His parents were of reasonable intelligence, but without a lot of formal education. He has a younger sister, Michelle, who was born several years later. Pam and Joe divorced in 1986, a few days later she married a roofer named Jack Echols. Joe moved to the west coast and had almost no contact with his children. Jack Echols would legally adopt Damien and Michelle on Halloween 1990. He then changed his name from Michael Hutchison to Damien Echols. Classmates would rumor that it came from the horror move - THE OMEN - but Damien would always say that it came from his hero, Father Damien, the nineteenth-century Belgian missionary priest who worked with the Hawaiian lepers. His family would continue to call him Michael.
He and Michelle both resented their father for abandoning them. Discipline was not very harsh in the household.

Later Jack would describe Damien as a "backward child", fairly happy, but a loner when it came to the rest of the family. He preferred to keep to himself, reading or watching television. Jack also stated that Pam openly favored Damien over Michelle. Damien had some religious background. When he was 14 years-old, he announced that he was joining a catholic church and felt called to become a priest, Jack supported him. He attended Roman Catholic classes in the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults at St. Michael's Catholic Church in West Memphis, and appeared intrigued. In September of 1990, his family - made up of Jack, Pam, and Michelle - moved in with his disabled grandmother.

In 1991, Damien started a sexual relationship with a fifteen year old girl who drew him deeply into the occult. Her family dissapproved of the relationship and made it difficult for the two teens to be together. They swore to stay together against all odds, they even made a suicide pact. On March 3, 1992, she told Damien it was over - partly because of her mother's insistance to end the relationship and partly because of Damien's increasingly moody and jealous behavior. Upset over the situation, Damien made threats towards her new boyfriend. The two resumed their relationship in defiance of her mother's wishes. On May 19, 1992 - her mother reported her daughter as a run away and believed Damien was with her. They were found partially nude from the waist down in an empty trailer at Lakeshore Estates. Damien was charged with burglary and sexual misconduct. He was ordered to the Juvenile Dentention Center at Jonesboro on May 26, 1992 as a result of the incident.

Damien had also began seeing 16 year-old girl named Domini Teer. Domini was tall with red hair and freckles, she lived with her mother Dian. Damien would ultimately make the Teer trailer his home. Domini was a temperamental girl, often jealous and sometimes hurtful. Like so many other lower-class juveniles in Crittenden County, she was already known by the police. she and her mother once got into a fight and the police was called, her mother would later say that Domini accidentally struck her aunt in the arm. On another occasion, she violated curfew in Kenanee, IL. where she had gone to stay with her father.

The Echols family would soon dissolve, Jack moved out and on May 27, 1992 their divorce was final. Out of desperation, Michelle called her father, Joe Hutchison. He came to Arkansas to investigate the situation and he was soon back in the family.

Damien was an outcast, another loser out at Lakeshore. His fingernails were long. His jet black hair was always clean and maintained. He changed his hairstyle by the week. He knew he had to look good in order for girls to notice him. He walked all of the time, by himself and with friends, he could be seen day or night. He liked to wear his black trench coat, even on the hottest of days. He smoked cigarettes, but wasn't a big drinker or drug user. He had tried pot, speed, LSD, and he had even sniffed gasoline, but it wasn't an on going thing with him. Nothing held Damien's interest for long.

He was bright, sarcastic, cynical - he encouraged people to misunderstand him. He did not trust people, by and large. He was kicked out of school for behavior unbecoming of a normal teenager, he spat on a teacher and he started a fire in the science classroom. Throughout this time he was tortured by thoughts of suicide and destruction. He turned to the dark considerations.

He did not consider himself a worshipper of the Devil, but he didn't particularly mind if others thought he was. In his world, the appearance of a menacing specter could be a good self-defense.

His interest were the fairly typical, antisocial or antiestablishment preoccupations of a teenager in the early 1990's. He did listen to main stream music such as Tom Petty or Led Zepplin. He even liked Garth Brooks and Billy Ray Cyrus. He preferred artist like Ozzy Osbourne and Metallica. Two of his favorite writters were Stephen King and Ann Rice. School work didn't interest him, but he did have a studious nature that led him first into reviews of the world's religions, then into Wicca. Wicca is the New Age religion which claims roots in the paganism of prehistory and deals in depth with nature.

Damien has been incarcerated for 7 year. The once highly misunderstood teenager is now a grown man. He loves to read, he will read anything his supporters send him. He has access to a radio, but no tapes or CD's. He listens to the local rock station, which plays todays mainstream music. He was married in December of 1999 to his long time girlfriend, Lorrie. He gets three hours per week for visitation with family and friends. He has a son, Seth, with former girlfriend Domini Teer. Damien is optimistic, yet factual in his demeanor. Even under these circumstances, he has a sense of humor. Recently he told a reporter (you can find this article on my Favorite Links page under Salon.com) that was interveiwing him about the hellish conditions at Tucker Maximum something to the effect of - I know I'm getting out of here, I may walk out, they may carry me out. The fact is, I'm getting out of here.

If you wish to write to Damien, please note that there are certain restrictions. All letters must be on plain typing paper. No photographs are allowed. If you wish to send a picture it has to be imaged onto the paper. No construction paper, post cards, etc...use plain 20# paper. You can send him books, but only through a book store such as Barnes & Nobles, Amazon, etc. It has to be sent directly from the retailer. Books about the occult, gangs, symbolic alphabet, torture, blood, and guts are not allowed. Do not send stamps. You can mail your letter with a stamp, but it will be removed my police officals upon arrival. Basically, he can't have anything. Just write him a letter telling him about yourself, where you live, what you do in your spare time, where you went on vacation. Anything escapism is a true bet. He appreciates and looks forward to all of the mail he receives. At this point, they do not wish to discuss the case, please understand what it would feel like to answer the same questions surrounding the case over an over again. Just be yourself.

DAMIEN ECHOLS
#SK931
2502 State Farm Rd.
Tucker, AR. 72168