Murder Mystery

Horseshoe Lake with his wife and three sons, and had been a fixture on the Memphis music scene since his big debut at the June 1969 Memphis Country Blues Festival with a group called Moloch. His psychedelic guitar solos were legendary. After Moloch broke up, he played in Mud Boy and the Neutrons, a band that defied labeling with their eclectic discography. He also had his own band, Lee Baker and the Agitators. On Aug. 12, 1996, a fire swept through the Baker home while the family was away. Investigators determined the cause to be arson and suspected the motive was to cover up a burglary. The Crittenden County Sheriff said a rash of burglaries had been reported in the upscale community, and Baker had accumulated and kept in the house a considerable amount of cash to use for printing and pressing his band’s new record. Besides the money, he lost an extensive memorabilia collection, including an irreplaceable guitar once owned by Furry Lewis, an early influential blues musician.

Whether it was to be their permanent new home or just temporary, the Bakers moved into a cabin about 100 yards from Sally’s. On a Tuesday morning, Baker went over to discuss business matters with her. It was one month later, almost to the day, of the fire that had destroyed his home. While he was at Sally’s, someone entered her house and set it ablaze, only this time the results were deadly. Firemen found the bodies of Sally, 75, and Baker, 53, near each other in the smoke and rubble. Autopsies revealed the victims were shot to death before the fire occurred, between 10:30 and 11 a.m. After inspection of the crime scene, officials thought burglary was the motive again. A neighbor found McKay’s red Toyota Camry, wrecked and turned over, a mile or so west of the house. The car had hit a tree and rolled into a ditch. It appeared that the driver hit his or her head on the windshield.

The killings had an unnerving effect on residents of the area. Who was the murderer, and was this person still in their midst? Everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief with the arrest of a boy named Travis Lewis on Nov. 5, 1996. Only 15 at the time of the murders, he had just turned 16 at the time of his arrest. Lewis knew both victims. His grandparents rented their home from McKay, and his mother, Gladys, was a housekeeper at Snowden House. Lewis attended Hughes High School where he was in the English class taught by Baker. When he appeared in court on a probable-cause hearing, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Lindsey Fairley told Judge Samuel Turner the police “had evidence tying [Lewis] to the scene. He was subsequently interviewed and has made a statement and confirms his presence at the scene.” Turner ordered Lewis to be held without bond. Fairley mentioned “possible additional defendants and the possibility of additional charges” but didn’t want to elaborate at the time. The Shelby County (Tennessee) Sheriff’s Office sent a dive team to assist Arkansas officials in searching for a gun in the lake near a boat dock behind McKay’s home.

Lewis had a juvenile record, including a conviction for assault. Though he was originally charged with capital murder, the McKay family did not seek vengeance but rather showed mercy toward the youth. They asked that the death penalty be taken off the table. Lewis’ lawyer convinced him to plead guilty to two counts of first-degree murder. The circuit judge was David Burnett, the same judge who blocked appeals by Damien Echols and the West Memphis Three. Burnett sentenced Lewis to 28 and a half years for the slayings and five years for burglary and theft. The additional time was to run concurrently. Lewis tried to recant his confession by saying he was not alone at the crime scene. He admitted he had been there when the murders occurred but said it was an adult who committed the killings. Officials dismissed his claim about an accomplice when he named an individual who had an airtight alibi, and no one else was ever charged.

The McKays hoped Lewis would turn his life around. Martha McKay, especially, concerned herself with Lewis’ rehabilitation and befriended him while he was in prison. Little did she know that the darkness in his heart would betray her — and he would kill again.

TO BE CONTINUED …

The Snowden House.

Islands

By Joe David Rice

Mention the word “islands” among friends and colleagues, and you’re likely to get a wide assortment of reactions: the Caribbean, Staten Island, Alcatraz, the Florida Keys, Hawaii or Manhattan. The more learned among your associates might quote poet John Donne (“No man is an island”) while some will prefer Paul Simon’s contrarian view (“I am an island”). Those occupying the other end of the intellectual spectrum might proudly reference one of the characters from Gilligan’s Island. In any event, Arkansas is unlikely to come up in the conversation.

Fact is, the Natural State is Sugar Loaf Mountain. (ADPHT) blessed with a remarkable array of these interesting geological anomalies. Dozens of islands are scattered along and hills. Now and then, however, an isolated to reach the trailhead. our east coast, more commonly known as the mountaintop stood above the encircling waters. Southwest Arkansas’ DeGray Lake features Mississippi River — and several are surprisingly One that I fondly recall is Goat Island on a small collection of islands, and one of them large. Buck Island, near Helena, for instance, Lake Norfork in north central Arkansas. Located is home to the 96-room lodge of DeGray Lake is nearly 900 acres in size. Downstream near about a quarter of a mile off Jordan Landing, it’s Resort State Park. Given that a paved causeway Arkansas City is Choctaw Island, another well-known for something not often found in now provides access to the lodge, purists may extensive tract managed for wildlife. These and the state: sandy beaches. As a child, I spent many claim it’s no longer an island by the strictest of others in the Mississippi, Arkansas and White a fine hour with my parents and sisters on Goat definitions. But I’m willing to give it benefit of rivers are natural islands formed over the centuries Island, picnicking, swimming and throwing the doubt. by meandering channels of the streams, often horseshoes. We never did spot the legendary Arkansas’ unquestioned island hopper’s appearing after major floods. And a few, among goats. paradise is Lake Ouachita, a major federal them Island No. 32 on the Mississippi River near Greers Ferry Lake, about 75 miles north impoundment a short distance west of Hot present-day Osceola, disappeared altogether as a of Little Rock, includes a handful of islands, Springs. With more than 200 islands spread result of the notorious New Madrid earthquakes the most prominent of which is Sugar Loaf among its 40,000 acres, this is the place for of 1811-1812. Mountain. Towering over the western end of anyone wanting a modern-day Robinson Crusoe

Many of Arkansas’ islands are man-made and the reservoir, Sugar Loaf’s peak can best be experience. Its crystal clears waters surrounded relatively young. During the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s, appreciated via a 2-mile-long national recreation by the Ouachita National Forest, the lake offers a the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers constructed a trail which winds its way to the top nearly 550 scenic and relaxing antidote to our 21st-century dozen or so dams across most of the state’s major feet above the lake’s surface. It’s a moderately pace. Overnight island camping is permitted, but rivers. As lake levels rose, they eventually covered strenuous climb, but the views from the bluff are here’s some advice for the wise: the best sites go tens of thousands of acres of valleys, coves worth the trouble. You’ll need a boat, of course, quickly during the summer months.

Joe David Rice, former tourism director of Arkansas Parks and Tourism, has written Arkansas Backstories, a delightful book of short stories from A through Z that introduces readers to the state's lesser-known aspects. Rice's goal is to help readers acknowledge that Arkansas is a unique and fascinating combination of land and people – one to be proud of and one certainly worth sharing.

Each month, AY will share one of the 165 distinctive essays. We hope these stories will give you a new appreciation for this geographically compact but delightfully complex place we call home. These Arkansas Backstories columns appear courtesy of the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies at the Central Arkansas Library System. The essays have been collected and published by Butler Center Books in a two-volume set, both of which are now available to purchase at Amazon and the University of Arkansas Press.