The Cooksey-Nisenbaum Murders

By delete

An inside story about the witch hunts that led to the witch hunt against the West Memphis 3. These witch hunts in Arkansas include the murders of Syble Cooksey, Ruth Nisenbaum, Ronnie and Juanita Shulths in Jonesboro, and the brutal murders of three 8-year old boys; Stevie Branch, Chris Byers and Michael Moore in West Memphis. This book brings understanding to most of those who don't understand what happened in these 7 murders, and also brings understanding about the witch hunt against the West Memphis 3 and their controversial convictions. Find out how the author became the first supporter of Damien, Jason and Jessie the day they were arrested in June 1993, long before anyone referred to them as the "West Memphis 3".

This book is a true and factual account based on and taken from documents of public record. Accuracy of fact was the #1 concern of the author.

Written by a man who was the object of 4 witch hunts from 1983-1989 just prior to the witch hunt against the West Memphis 3. The author grew up in Jonesboro,Arkansas and knows most of those involved with these highly publicized murder cases in NE Arkansas; including those involved in the arrests, investigations, prosecutions and deceit in all these cases.

Once you get started reading this intense multiple murder mystery, you will have a hard time putting it down, as some have said this book is "like a John Grisham novel".

• Language: English
• Publisher: XinXii
• Release date: Aug 7, 2012
• ISBN: 9781466337626

Book preview

The Cooksey-Nisenbaum Murders

The Witch Hunts That Led to

 the Witch Hunt Against the West Memphis 3

By

Terry Cooksey

 eBook Version

Author/Publisher Web site

www.AmericanPublishing.us

Email :

[e-mail]

All Rights Reserved – 2011 © American Publishing US

This book is dedicated to the following people :

Ronnie Shulths

Juanita Shulths

Syble Cooksey

Ruth Nisenbaum

Stevie Branch

Michael Moore

Christopher Byers

Jason Baldwin

Damien Echols

Jessie Misskelley

and my mother

Lila Mae Cooksey

The Facebook page for this book is

www.facebook.com/CookseyNisenbaum

The Cooksey-Nisenbaum Murders

The Witch Hunts That Led to the Witch Hunt Against the West Memphis 3

Table of Contents

1- Understanding What Really Happened 

2 – How I Became the Object of Four Witch Hunts

3 – Witch Hunt # 1 – Little Did I Know

4 – Witch Hunt # 2 – The Death Threats Begin

5 – Witch Hunt # 3 – I'm Coming Back As A Bright Light on Easter says Rev Carpenter

Christians insist that asking What scripture is that ? is Terrorism

6 - Witch Hunt # 4 – The Cooksey-Nisenbaum and Shulths Murders

My Trial Begins As Judge Declares the Constitution & Bill of Rights Irrelevant to what is Going on in the Court room

What About the Murders of the Shulths ?

The Cooksey-Nisenbaum Murders

The Shocking Conclusion ! Or Is It ?

7 - The Story As I Lived It As All This Happened

My Side of the Story – Never told Publicly Until Now

My Own Personal Scenarios for All These Events

The Overall Synopsis 

Is that the end of the story, or what happens next ?

8 – March on Fort God (Jonesboro)

9 - Enter......The Witch Hunt Against the West Memphis Three

The Echols – Baldwin Trial in Jonesboro (Fort God)

10 – Why christians hate the question What Scripture is that ?

11 - Cooksey's Sue Jonesboro Police and City for $15 million

12 – My FINAL WORDS

LEGAL DISCLAIMERS

Alphabetical Index (Printed version only) 

All Rights Reserved – 2011 © American Publishing US

1- Understanding What Really Happened

   I have yet to talk to or hear of anyone who understands what happened in the case of the three teenagers who became known as the West Memphis 3, WM3. But I do know of someone who understood what happened and actually correctly predicted what happened to the West Memphis 3 every step of the way. That person is me, Terry Cooksey. I understand because I was the object of 4 witch hunts in Jonesboro from 1983 through 1989. The fourth witch hunt resulted in the murder of my step-mother Syble Cooksey, Ruth Nisenbaum and Ronnie and Juanita Shulths. All these witch hunts were demanded by Pastors of christian churches in Jonesboro, and led by Brent Davis. Municipal Judge Bill Webster actually got these witch hunts going and then enlisted the help of Brent Davis and others to help continue these witch hunts, by believing all the blatant lies of their christian brothers, the Pastors and other christian church members; and racing away from the truth.

Now I know there are a lot of people who call themselves christians who will want to stop reading right here. IF this wasn't a pure truth, there never would've been a witch hunt against the West Memphis 3 or any of the four witch hunts against me. It's a fact that christians refuse to even consider that their extremist christian brothers could do anything wrong, much less actually believe those facts. So that was one of the major problems in all these cases. These christian Pastors and christian government officials know their fellow christians always believe whatever they tell them, regardless of what the facts really are. When these christian bigot extremists victimize innocent non-christians they never admit it is wrong. They only work to cover their asses and never admit they said what they said or did what they really did. It's this guiding principle among Jonesboro's extremist christian community that they demonstrated to me 100% of the time. So when Brent Davis stated that Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley had murdered three young boys in a Satanic ritual, I knew the witch hunt was on against the West Memphis 3.

I based everything I said and predicted, on believing that Brent Davis would do the same exact thing to Damien, Jason and Jessie that he had already done to me repeatedly. Even when I joined a message board run by the people who established the WM3.org web site, they attacked me, scoffed at me, called me crazy, made jokes about how ridiculous what I said to them was and totally rejected any notion of the cases against the WM3 being a witch hunt or prosecutor misconduct having anything to do with what happened. It just goes to show how even those who support the WM3 were wrong about these key points. The only reason I can speak openly about this now is that when the West Memphis 3 were released in Jonesboro, many people interviewed by TV stations and the media itself often referred to what happened to the West Memphis 3 as a witch hunt. I was really shocked to see and hear so many finally saying what I said since the day these boys were arrested back in 1993. I watched all the coverage online using the streaming video from WMC channel 5 in Memphis, which was being provided to KAIT-TV's web site; since they are both owned by the same company. We even had KAIT-TV on the TV at the same time. But the only time the two video feeds contained the same video was once Scott Ellington began his press conference about the details of the deal.

My intention in this introduction is to skim over some basic important facts. Then give detailed accounts of everything in the Chapters to follow. I will tell you the details about each of the four witch hunts conducted against me from 1983-1989. I will go over the Cooksey-Nisenbaum murders and give you my account and inside story about these murders, and the events that happened leading up to these murders and the brutal murders of my good friends Ronnie and Juanita Shulths. Once you learn the details of the four witch hunts against me, you will have a pretty easy time of seeing how what Brent Davis and company did to me, was exactly what he pulled on the West Memphis 3. The major difference between the West Memphis 3 and me was that I knew I had no chance of escaping guilty verdicts in all four of my prosecutions for illegal speech. So I went right in the court room every time and exposed these Treasonous government officials and christian Pastors for what they said and did. And some of what they said in 1988 was that they were going kill me, kill my mother, kill my wife, kill my pets, rape my mother, rape my wife, burn my house down, bomb my house, beat me up and many other blatant violent threats. These christian leaders made these threats for a week or so, and then we got the phone company to put a trap on our phone and registered 169 phone calls from these christian pastors and church members making these violent threats against my family and I. This was just prior to witch hunt #3. And during witch hunt #2, Judge Bill Webster stated in open court before many witnesses, including my attorney Val Price, he guaranteed my mother that he was going to murder me.

Val Price was also Damien Echols' attorney. Val Price was my court appointed attorney for witch hunts #2, 3 and 4. I will tell you what I know about Val and his behavior and attitude about being an attorney in Jonesboro. I also grew up with Brent Davis and played sports together in neighborhood games and Little League and Babe Ruth baseball. I will give you the details of how Brent Davis went along with the christian Pastors' lies about me being crazy and a devil worshiper, a murderer, serial killer and other slanderous nonsense, when he already spent most of his life knowing me as a peaceful, passive, non-violent, highly intelligent person. But still led these christian witch hunts against me, even after their 3rd witch hunt blew up in their faces and was thrown out of court by the only honest Judge in Jonesboro, the Honorable Rice VanAusdale. Wait til you read the details of this 3rd witch hunt. The pure lies spewed from the heart and mind of Reverend Tommy Carpenter have no problem competing with the Satanic ritual nonsense in the case of the West Memphis 3 ! The first thing I said to my wife when I finally read the psychotic lies Reverend Tommy Carpenter made up about me was Damn ! I wish I had thought of all that ! That's some pretty good bullshit. Problem is, Reverend Carpenter didn't think his lies through and was exposed for this and humiliated in court so bad that he could barely talk on the witness stand at the end of witch hunt #3. I made him come back to court the next year during my 3 day trial at the end of witch hunt #4, that most refer to as the Cooksey-Nisenbaum murders.

More connections between me, the WM3 and all these witch hunts is the fact that Judge David Burnett was the Judge for the end of witch hunt #2 and also set my bond at $100,000 for my 4th prosecution for illegal speech, the same day KAIT-TV's Bruce McIntosh interviewed me in May 1989 for about 20 minutes. Sheriff Larry Emison and chief Deputy Dickie Howell, Tricky Dickie as we rightfully call him, also held those same positions while the West Memphis 3 were on trial. I grew up with Kent Arnold. Hung around with him a bit. Played pool at his house. Kent's family lived in the house across the street from the Nisenbaum's while we were kids. I have no idea when the Arnolds moved from that house, or even if they ever did. I know Kent and Gerald did though. I always liked Gerald, but Kent was way too cocky to take seriously. Kent and Brent Davis have always been pretty good friends as far as I remember. Brent was JHS Class of 74. I am the same age Kent, but one grade ahead of him. Kent was in the JHS Class of 1973, while I was JHS Class of 1972.

I called Dan Stidham, Jessie Misskelley's attorney, and asked him what one of Brent Davis' good friends was doing on the jury. But he didn't think that was important. This was after Damien and Jason's trial had already ended, and long before anyone else began to mention juror misconduct. It's already bad enough that all the jurors have already cast their votes FOR government officials. But to have them determining who they believe, their beloved christian government officials OR the non-christian defendants ?!? And then have one of the friends of the lead Prosecutor be the Jury Foreman ! Talk about the deck being stacked against you, even if Kent Arnold never talked about Jessie Misskelley's confession.

Now what I did predict about the WM3 trials and convictions is that they would all be found guilty, especially since there was no evidence against them.... uh, just like in the four witch hunts against me. I predicted that they would never win any of their appeals. I predicted they would never get out of prison. I also predicted guilty verdicts in all four of my witch hunt trials, and that my side would always be irrelevant. I also predicted there would never be Justice in any of my cases and that the real murderers of my step-mother, Mrs. Nisenbaum and the Shulths' would never be arrested. All of these predictions were perfect. Oh, wait, except one prediction, about the WM3 never getting out of jail. So how did I get this one wrong ? Well, what I actually predicted was that the christians who did this and carried out these witch hunts would never call what they did wrong, would never admit their mistakes and would die before allowing Justice to take place. So, there was no way they could ever get out. And just like divine intervention solved the Cooksey-Nisenbaum murders,(I hope you're laughing), the miracle contradiction known as an Alford plea, saves the day for everyone, uh......everyone but the West Memphis 3 and Justice.....and me and others really.

As I watched Scott Ellington's news conference the day the West Memphis 3 were set free, I remembered what Scott and I talked about the day he was at my house recording his voice over for the radio ad I was producing for his campaign, with a mutual friend of ours. I told him that with an honest man like himself as Prosecutor, maybe I wouldn't have to worry about being prosecuted for illegal speech again if he was elected. I was glad to know that Scott Ellington wouldn't just believe anything his christian brothers said, without proof, and that he would consider my side with just as much weight instead of just helping his christian brothers cover their asses. Well, I believed that.....until I watched him do little more than cover the asses of all involved, while turning a deaf ear to Justice. Ellington made a point to emphasize that Justice was never a consideration. He never considered giving up the guilty verdicts of a tainted jury.

The thing that I want to make clear is that I am not trying to bring Justice in any of these cases. I am not accusing anyone of anything except to state the facts as they happened and do so as accurately as possible. This book is to bring understanding to the millions who are already interested in these cases and do not understand. Every time I meet a new person in Jonesboro, they say That name sounds awfully familiar. I always say Well, the football stadium at Jonesboro High School is named Cooksey-Johns Stadium after my brother. But a lot of times they say No, that's not what I was thinking. Then I know they're about to mention the Cooksey-Nisenbaum murders and ask me What ever happened about that ? I never did understand what happened. Once this book is finished I get to say Read my book if you want to know. People need to understand what really happened in the case of the West Memphis 3 and the Cooksey-Nisenbaum murders and the christian-led witch hunts that created and perpetuated all these events. Understanding is what you get from this book.

Now, one huge problem you will continue to have with all this is that lies are confusing. It's this confusion that has fueled Public interest in these witch hunts. People seek to understand what happened, but the media and government lies are confusing and bring no end to all the speculation, to try and fill in the blanks and make some sense of their lies and propaganda. The biggest problem I am having writing this book is figuring out how to present all these christian, media and government lies while presenting the truths and facts of these cases and events. But I promise to put forth the best effort possible to state the facts of these cases and events AND.....report all their lies and propaganda accurately. It will be up to you to decide what you choose to believe. I know the Jonesboro Sun wrote many stories about me, but never talked to me once. KAIT-TV interviewed me once, but refused to air one second of the interview. While writing this book I will be posting that interview online and give the URL web address so that you can view it online.

The Public never had any interest in the witch hunts against me until the murders of my step-mother, Mrs. Nisenbaum and the Shulths. The Public got a little more interested when Jonesboro's christian community got all angry and hateful because a Wiccan had opened a business in Jonesboro. They focused on a friend of mine named Terry Riley. It was Terry Riley who led a march FOR religious freedom, the same day Pam Hobbs led Jonesboro's extremist christian community in a march AGAINST religious freedom. This was after Jonesboro's christian community had finished their four witch hunts against me. Then they found Terry Riley and the Wiccans to demonize and slander and shout obscenities against in the witch hunt against him, and were now taking that same psychotic mentality and behavior and focusing it on the 3 people now known as the West Memphis 3. And the whole time Damien, Jason and Jessie had no idea this was what was going on. I could see by the looks on their faces that they believed all that fairy tale bullshit being spewed at them was never going to work and that they never believed they would be found guilty. They were quite overwhelmed at all the attention they were getting and that they were really having a lot of fun. And yea, all that attention was fun until the guilty verdicts came back and they were hurled into deep despair, confusion and fear. I know exactly what they were going through the whole time. I really knew that Damien, Jason and Jessie had become like brothers to me because of them being the NEXT victims of Brent Davis' psychotic sensationalist fairy tales he pretended to pass off as truth and fact.

If I had done what the West Memphis 3 did, I would be sitting on death row or already have been executed. But the West Memphis 3 went along with their attorneys and pretended to defend themselves against the witch hunt lies invented by Jonesboro's christians. The first thing I said to Bruce McIntosh in that KAIT-TV interview is You can't defend yourself against slander. How COULD you defend yourself against lies invented in the minds of psychotic people ! How could you defend yourself against something you know nothing about ! But hey, how COULD any jury return guilty verdicts against the West Memphis 3 without one shred of physical evidence tying any of them to these murders; and to do this in a crime that is the most physical crime possible !

The one thing I have always had in all of these events was understanding. In the 30 years that have gone by with these events taking place, I always understood what was going on and said so. This scared christian leaders, police officers and other government officials repeatedly. The thing that Jonesboro's christians are terrified of the most, is anyone talking about what they say and do. This is a good explanation of their motives behind all their witch hunts and chronic deceit. But I always told them If you don't want me to talk about what you say and do , then don't do it or say it where I can see or hear you do these things. But in Jonesboro, the christian community has this rigid bigoted rule that we are all to remain silent about what we see and hear christians do and say. They consider it to be a serious crime to talk about what they do and say. And have backed that up repeatedly. They are all such chronic liars that just about the only thing 30 government officials and christian Pastors had to say on the witness stand in my 1989 trial for witch hunt #4 was I can't remember. I don't remember, and Brent Davis saying I object to every question I asked. Brent Davis even objected to my questions to the jury during voir dire. During the middle of my trial I got so sick of his asshole objections that I looked over at him next to me from the podium you ask witnesses questions from and said Hey Brent. Get ready to object. You won't like this one either and laughed at him. Brent objected and I snickered at him and said See there. I told you you wouldn't like that one either. Brent was obsessed with keeping any truth or facts from coming out in court; quite the opposite of the lawful obligation he had to pursue the truth, not object to any truth or facts coming out !!!!!

Writing introductions to my books is kind of difficult for me. I just hate telling little bits of things and not going into as much detail as I know. So, let's go ahead and end this introduction and get on with the meat of the knowledge I have about all of this. You probably saw that I dedicated this book to a lot of people. It is my opinion that the 3 little boys that were murdered in Robin Hood Hills May 5, 1993 can never be forgotten. They were so innocent and full of life and didn't deserve to die early on and certainly not as brutally as they were murdered. It is my intention to honor their memories and the memories of Syble Cooksey and Ruth Nisenbaum. I've wondered how much torment the Nisenbaums have suffered because of all the confusion surrounding the murder of Ruth. I know a lot of what my family has suffered; which includes my step brother and sisters through Syble's marriage to my dad Hayden, when I was 2 years old.

One of my biggest hopes is that somehow Damien, Jason and/or Jessie will find my book and they will finally understand what really happened to them at the hands of Jonesboro's christian extremists. As far as the WM3.org people..... well, what they did to me was wrong. And now what I told the WM3.org people has been proven to be true and accepted by many, and maybe some of these same people at WM3.org. They hurt themselves and hurt their own stated cause by being so belligerently opposed to what I pointed out about misconduct by Brent Davis and Kent Arnold being on the jury; as well as being completely intolerant of the case against the WM3 being a witch hunt. They totally disagreed that this witch hunt was just the next witch hunt in a long line of witch hunts carried out against innocent non-christian people.

So let's get on to the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, and do so in as much detail as I can remember. After all, it's been 18 years since the West Memphis 3 were arrested, 22 years since the Cooksey-Nisenbaum murders, and 27 years since the christians' first witch hunt against me. I have lots of documentation to help me. My wife and I saved everything we got during these events. The main reason was so that these christian Pastors and other christian extremists couldn't successfully deny what they have done and what they HAVE said. Around 1990 I got a video camera and quit trying to talk or reason with police; since all they do is lie with every breath. So I video taped them every time they came out to my house violating a court order. This way they would be stuck lying their way out of what the video tape shows. The Jonesboro Police violated this court order many times, always saying that violating court orders was their job. They sure proved that.

Now............for the whole story............................

2 – How I Became the Object of Four Witch Hunts

   Now there's a question I wish I had the answer for, long before the murders of my step-mother, Mrs. Nisenbaum and Ronnie and Juanita Shulths. I often wonder what I could have done to prevent some or all of this. Ronnie was a good friend of mine just about his entire life. He lived a block from East school. We lived a couple of blocks from East school, but NW of East school. Ronnie lived SE of East school. So we saw each other a lot of the time at East school all through school, all the way through high school. Syble Cooksey was my friend. She worked pretty hard trying to maintain the peace between my dad and me. It was hard for me seeing how he only loved money and never loved his family. When you're a child, you think you're dad won't have anything to do with you because of you. It's all my fault ! So that was hard. He did take us to the wrestling matches most Saturdays when we were kids. But my dad sat ringside, and me and my brother Ricky sat up in the bleachers. Those were the days of Sputnik Monroe, Jackie Fargo, Treacherous Phillips, Tojo Yomamoto and the beginning of the careers of WWE's Jerry The King Lawler and Bill Dundee.

My dad married Syble when I was two years old. She already had four children by her previous marriage. I think her husband was killed in an accident. They had lived in Walnut Ridge before Syble and my dad were married. Her four children became my step-sisters and step-brother. I got along with them really well. Gayle married when I was still tiny, maybe 4 or 5 years old. Nancy was married before I was born, I think. And Patty lived in my dad's house with her brother Terry Ray, until she got married a few years out of high school. She was always the sweetest of them all. Terry Ray was a very good athlete and played Quarterback for Jonesboro High School, as well as basketball and baseball. Terry got me on the Semi-Pro team he played on when I was 15 years old. We got along very well. Syble came up with the idea of calling me little Terry and calling her son, Terry Ray, big Terry. She did this to end the confusion over which Terry any of us were talking to or about. Terry Ray was voted Lowell Manning Award Winner at JHS his senior year for being the Most Outstanding Athlete of that class Year.

My brother and I played football, baseball, basketball and track, as well as bowling. My brother Ricky is the one the football stadium at Jonesboro High School is named for. Ricky and Danny Johns were killed in a head on collision with a tractor trailer rig at Payneway, AR; which is on the way to Memphis, about halfway to Memphis, 30 miles from Jonesboro. The Arkansas Legislature passed a bill to make those bridges at Payneway 4-lane divided highway to try and prevent a tragedy such as this from happening again. So good things did come out of that tragedy. We agreed to hold joint funeral services for both Ricky and Danny. So many people said they were coming that we had to have the funeral inside Hurricane Gym; which is now called Don Riggs Hurricane Gym. There were about 3000 people at the funeral. They filled the floor with folding chairs, and Hurricane Gym has room for about 2000 in the bleachers. The floor chairs were all filled. The bleachers were filled. And the crowd flowed out into the lobby. We had about a thousand flower arrangements sent to the funeral. There was such an out flowing of support over this tragedy. What made it worse was the fact that my brother and Danny led the football team to an 8-3-1 winning season, a Conference Championship and a State Championship game; which JHS doesn't have very often. The year my brother was a senior, I played on the varsity as a 10th grader because of my superior speed and quickness.

My brother was chosen middle linebacker of the Arkansas Super Team, as well as All-State and All-Conference. Ricky led the team in scoring although he never played a down of offense. He also led the Conference in punting. Ricky was privileged to be taught how to punt by one of our neighbors, Chuck Latourette, who played and punted for the St Louis Cardinals. Ricky had scholarship offers from every college and university you can think of. He kept them all in his top desk drawer. And it was half full of letters. But when LSU offered to give Danny Johns a scholarship if Ricky would go to LSU, they gave Ricky tickets to the Sugar Bowl. So Ricky and Danny set out for the Sugar Bowl early the morning of December 31,1969. It might have been around 9 am or so when the State Police showed up at my mother's office at Home Federal Savings & Loan on Main St and told us Ricky had been killed in a car wreck at Payneway. My poor mother was in shock and unbelief and stayed that way for years until she finally broke down. Me, I started crying immediately. I was just 15 at the time.

The story was on the front page of the Jonesboro Sun. And later the wreck was honored as one of the Top Ten stories of the year in Arkansas. It was tough for me that year, but got better the next year. After going 8-3-1 in football in 1969, we had a even better team the next year. Many say our team of 1970 was the best team in JHS history. No doubt ! We were the first JHS football team to be ranked #1 in the entire State. We were ranked #1 for 8 weeks and finished ranked #4 after losing the State Championship on a very controversial call by a score of 14-9. But since Hot Springs was the only team to score two touchdowns on us all year, maybe they deserved to win any way. Our defense had held our opponents scoreless in nine games, ending with a record of 10-1-1. That was the only year Coach Riggs was voted State Coach of the Year. Our Quarterback was Scott Bull, who was QB for the Arkansas Razorbacks and played with the San Francisco 49's for several seasons. I led the State in punt returns that year and ran back one punt 60 yards in 4 inches of torrential rain to beat West Memphis 7-0. I was the fastest, quickest player on the team and ran back kickoffs and punts. My Junior year I also started every game at 8 different positions, including Quarterback; since I was Bull's backup that year. I made lots of spectacular plays and was considered to be the best athlete of my time at JHS.

I told you all of this so you would know how much respect and praise was heaped on me because of sports when I was a kid growing up. Sure we were poor. But I wasn't an outcast like the West Memphis 3. The tragic death of my brother had a great impact on the people of Jonesboro. I wish so bad that Jonesboro could have kept on being a decent town. But that was to never be. It would be almost 20 years later when that all became so abundantly clear.

When I started my senior year in high school, I hurt my knee and had to have surgery after the 3rd game to have my cartilage removed. So that was the end of any chance of taking any of the scholarships I had already been offered. I even dropped out of school the last semester and graduated by taking summer school immediately following my senior year. After that I got into drugs. I didn't realize at the time I was just trying to fill that emptiness that my brother's death had inflicted me with. People didn't know much about drug problems back then. So I sold and did drugs from about age 19 through age 26. I almost overdosed several times. I gave up wanting to live and didn't care if the drugs killed me. I saw my life as being over and no hope of ever getting off drugs. I didn't like myself at all any more.

About the time I went out to Oklahoma City to live with a friend and try to make a fresh start there, another friend began talking to me about the Holy Spirit. She had lived down the street from me all through school. So I trusted her at the time. Finally, in May of 1981 I was ready to act on what she had been telling me. But when she suggested a time to get together, it just happened to be during the time I had promised Larry Donn Gillihan that I would play in his band for some gigs in Anniston, Alabama. So I went with Larry Donn for 3 days. During that trip, Larry Donn jumped me for laughing at a store clerk who said something about the rolling papers the drummer was trying to buy. He really got nasty. So I told him to just buy me a bus ticket and I would go on back to Arkansas. I was tired of all the shit, and I wanted the help my friend had been talking to me about. Larry Donn backed down, and I stayed.

Once I got home I called my friend and insisted we do what she was talking about. She told me to wait. But I told her to either help me get this done or I was going to find someone who would. She called me back and told me when we could go. Well, what happened was that someone drove demons out of me and I received the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. All those words and terms didn't mean much to me at the time. But what I did feel from all of that was great relief. In the days following that night of June 1, 1981, I kept feeling better and better. I couldn't believe how good I felt that next day, June 2nd ! About a month later, I was sitting out on my back steps at night on Buffalo St. and realized that I hadn't done any drugs the whole month, since June 1. I thought I had just gotten through Heaven's doors at the last moment and the world was about to end, be destroyed. This had nothing to do with the bible. It was just my perception of how shitty the world was at that time. Rest assured that I considered myself of the least importance and was reserved to being submissive and quiet, as those who already had the Holy Spirit pretended to love me and speak the Truth. The trouble started one night when Nancy, the girl that took me to get my demons driven out and receive the Holy Spirit, told me one night at her house that I had to do as she says. She said it was her place to convict me of my sin. I didn't mean any disrespect. But I asked her where that was in the bible ? I said the bible says the Holy Spirit and the Word is given for reproof and conviction of Sin. It was her that said I had received the Holy Spirit. So I wondered why the Holy Spirit I had received could not convict me of Sin instead of her. So I was puzzled about that and didn't know how to talk to her about that after that. I didn't say anything else.

Later on, Nancy and some others criticized me for wanting to spend time helping others instead, of spending all our time together hearing Nancy and her friends from Trinity Church tell me and my friends that we had to obey them. One of those friends was Ronnie Shulths. Ronnie was good friends with Nancy's husband Scotty Gooden. Scotty had been my best friend as long as I can remember. So me, Scotty and Ronnie were always hanging out together back then. This caused all of us to back off from Nancy and start avoiding her. This began to cause problems between Scotty and Nancy. Nancy wanted everyone to obey her, including Scotty. She was so busy trying to control Scotty that she never took time to actually love Scotty. It was sad to see that. It got so bad that Nancy pulled a bizarre stunt on me shortly after that.

Another neighbor and I had been trying to start a band, back in 1981, that played cover songs by RUSH. We went all the way to Jackson Mississippi to see RUSH that year. When we got back about 5 or 6 am the next morning, there was a letter for me. I opened it and it said Read this if the spirits will let you. Of course it was from Nancy. She had gotten Scotty to print the letter and envelope at Scotty's work place. I had seen some letters Scotty had gotten printed addresses for, and recognized the printing. Nancy denied it was her. But still kept on with her demands that we all obey her or the devil has gotten hold of us. This caused us to drift apart, and Scotty and Nancy moved to Mississippi for a few years after that. So I began to look for a church to go to where they believed the bible. And this is where all the real trouble started.

Since Nancy wouldn't give me scriptures for anything she said or did, and the fact that her and Scotty moved out of town, and the fact that Trinity Church would not tolerate the scriptures, I was on my own to find a church that believed the bible. So I got out the phone book and started calling local churches to find one that believed the bible. I figured it would be an easy task, especially since every church claims they not only believe the bible, they believe the bible is the infallible word of God. I had gone to church as a kid until I was 17 years old. So I pretty