NEW HELL HOLE NEWS
NOVEMBER 30, 2009
NEW HELL HOLE NEWS #20 November 30, 2009 The following is a letter Hank wrote to the editor of the Amarillo Globe News and asked that it be posted as New Hell Hole News #20. Re: Your stories “Man convicted of murdering 3 loses appeal” July 16, 2009 and “Execution Date set for killer of 3 in ‘95” November 05, 2009 by Mike Graczyk of the Associated Press and your own Janelle Stecklein, respectively. Dear Editor: I request that you print this letter or at least correct the mistakes listed below. Regarding the July 16th, 2009 story. Twila was 41 not 40, about to turn 42 in February of 1994; at that time I was 31, not 33. The story conveniently fails to mention the true fact finding contained in the 5th Circuit opinion: “Skinner presented (unrefuted) evidence that he was too intoxicated from alcohol and (poisoned by) codeine to have committed the murders. An expert testified that, based on blood alcohol levels (and codeine blood levels) Skinner should barely have been able to walk, let alone commit three murders. Skinner also argued that Robert Donnell, Twila’s uncle, was the murderer.” I would add, we presented actual evidence of that assertion, not just “argument.” Since the time of trial in 1995 we have discovered additional evidence of my innocence as recounted in the attached documents. Far from there being any evidence of my guilt, there is “ample” evidence of my innocence. Namely, the blood and hairs “clutched” in the victim’s hand are from an unknown male individual and do not match me. On the night of the murders, the medical examiner (M. E.) Elizabeth Peacock, an Amarillo Forensic Pathologist, was called to the scene to view the bodies in situ (as found). She and Detective Terry Young immediately recognized the significance of the blood and hairs caught between my girlfriend Twila’s knuckles and skin rolled up under her fingernails, indicating that she’d clawed, scratched and pulled hair out of her assailant during the assault which resulted in her death. To date, those fingernails scrapings have still never been tested! Nor has the rape kit taken from her or even purported murder weapons themselves, which the police testified at trail were covered in blood and one of which was found wrapped in a bloody cup towel inside a trash bag which contained bloody handprints that do not match me, either! Tell me, why is it your paper seems so incapable of reporting on these facts? They’re all readily available in publicly accessible court records and, on my own web domain: www.hankskinner.org. Additionally, your July 16th 2009 story ran a photo of me which does not represent the reality of my appearance at all, neither at the time of the murders nor any time from then until now. The photo which appeared in that story was taken at a book-in arrest after I’d been beaten senseless by the Pampa Police department’s Danny Lance, who at the time of September – October 1987 outweighed me by 120 lbs. To this date I still have scars and lasting debilities from that beating. That photo was taken almost six (6) full years before the murders in this case and thus it bears no relation to it at all. But your paper runs that photo repeatedly because, in that photo I look wild eyed and defiant, which your readers would interpret as “mean” and looking aggressive, to aid the imagery of me you wish to falsely portray: to make me appear as a guilty murderer when I am not. In your November 05th story your headline states…”Killer of 3 in ‘95” when actually the murders occurred on New Years’s eve 1993. I was tried and convicted two years later, in 1995. My B. A. C. (blood alcohol content) at the time of the murders was .24 not.21 and my codeine level per liter of blood was .08 not 0.44 percent. .08 is a lethal dose. I’m intolerant of codeine in any dose. I’m not a “former” paralegal - I’m a current and practicing paralegal; I have been one all the years I’ve been on death row. I am the only death sentenced prisoner who has won conditions litigation against TDCJ-CID 1
in both the Federal District Courts and in the U. S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. The statements made by now police lieutenant Stephanie Raymond are 100% false. First of all, she was not “one of the first on scene” nor on the scene at all. That would have been instead officer Morse Burroughs. I have here before me right now officer Burroughs complete testimony from both the Pretrial Habeas, trial itself and other hearings. Officer Burroughs states that he was first to respond to 801 E. Gordon where Elwin “Scooter”Caler was found unconscious on the porch of our neighbor. Burroughs then went to our house on 804 Campbell and was met there by police officer Katie Gearhardt and police detective Alan Smith. Fearing an assailant was still on scene, they backed off and called for additional assistance. They were joined by Gray County Sheriff officer David Wilkes and Sheriff Randy Stubblefield and police officer Fred Courtney. Those six officers were the only first responders and it was only they who then entered the residence and cleared it of suspects. Stephanie Raymond was not there, had no involvement or knowledge of it at all. Stephanie Raymond states that “she’ll never forget the look in one of Busby’s son’s eyes when she found him suffering from stab wounds on a neighbor’s porch, wrapped in an afghan blanket… The look he had in his eyes, it’s just one of those that you don’t forget. I think he knew in his mind he wasn’t going to make it.” She then says of me, not as her opinion but as a purported fact: “He’s nothing but pure evil.” These statements are 100% false and libelous in the extreme. I have the crime scene photographs of Elwin “Scooter” Caler, the victim who was found on the porch. He does not have any “look” in his eyes at all. He was unconscious when found; he never regained consciousness, never opened his eyes or uttered a single word until he was pronounced dead 45 minutes later at Coronado Community Hospital. His eyes were closed when found and remained so. The photos taken by officer Burroughs show Elvin was leaned on the porch as if he were passed out drunk or asleep ---which is exactly what officer Burroughs thought, until he saw Scooter’s wounds. In the photos Scooter’s eyes are closed; he has no expression on his face at all except one of repose. He does not appear fearful or in any pain; he just looks like he sat down and fell asleep or passed out. Stephanie Raymond is a prevaricator. But this is nothing compared to the more grandiose lies told by her fellow officers at trial which led to my false conviction and death sentence. Stephanie Raymond’s statement that I am “nothing but pure evil” is not based on any record factual showing or even her own personal knowledge. Stephanie Raymond has never been in my physical presence, she’s never uttered a single word to me nor I her; she’s never had any contact with me at all. Ever. She is thus in no position to judge me. When I was arrested and interviewed by the sheriff and district attorney investigator on January 05, 1994, I spent most of the interview alternately bawling my eyes out over the still dawning realization of the loss of my girl friend and her sons, my two best friends at the time and, constantly telling the sheriff that I didn’t commit the crime while he tried every dirty trick he could think of to convince me otherwise, from lies about evidence he didn’t have, to statements of others never made. That interview was entered into the record at trial. If I were so “evil”, I surely would not have shed a tear over it, huh. There’s not a day goes by that I don’t think of Twila, Scooter and Randy. My heart aches for them. Maybe on February 24th, 2010 I will join them. It seems that what is “evil” are some of you people out there. Like reporters who’ll ignore known and proven facts or, police officers who’ll openly lie, just to feed their own personal need to hate and condemn someone. I’ve often wondered what makes people do that. I think it is because they are shallow, maybe substanceless or needy; they want attention or some place in the public eye so badly that they’ll resort to witch huntery in order to fulfill that so-desperate-of-a-need. “Evil is who evil makes, from their souls the devil takes.” That’s from a 13th century children’s rhyme, admonishing one to not lie on others. This reporter, Janelle Stecklein, seems to have totally overlooked the facts of my case: On December 31, 1993 at 9:00 p.m., Twila called Howard Mitchell to come pick us up and take us to his 2
New Years Eve party, to watch the ball drop on t.v., in New York Times Square. Somewhere in there I accidently ingested an almost lethal dose of codeine and passed out cold after becoming very sick. When Howard arrived to pick us up, he testified that I was so out of it, I appeared comatose; my breathing was shallow, I was unable to be roused by any external stimuli. Howard said he jerked on my arm so hard that he pulled my entire torso off the couch and screamed in my face “Come on, let’s go! Get up, Hank!” several times but got no response from me at all. He said I never batted an eyelid. This was 10:30 p.m. Howard took Twila to his house. The first words everyone asked were, “Where’s Hank?” She told them I was home sick, passed out, they couldn’t get me up, thought I was in a coma, etc. Twila’s uncle, Robert “Bob” Donnell, was at that party at Howard’s. He overheard Twila tell the others I was out of it. About 3 weeks to a month before the murders Uncle Bob had assaulted Twila and tried to strangle her to death while drunk. Bob was a very mean man who bragged he’d killed people before, usually when threatening to kill one of us. The more Vodka he drank the meaner he got and, he drank it like water. Luckily Scooter and I walked in on him throttling Twila and we peeled Bob off her and, together we threw him out the door and told him he was no longer welcome, not to ever come back. Once Twila quit crying she told me that Uncle Bob had raped her twice in the past while in a drunken rage and beat her up. Howard verified this as true, as did Twila’s best friends forever Vicki Treat–Broadstreet and Sherri Baker. At the party Bob made rude sexual advances to Twila. She grew agitated and, after rebuffing Uncle Bob’s unwanted ardor, asked Howard to take her home, which he did. Five minutes after they left Howard’s, Uncle Bob left and was last seen headed to our house. To this day, his whereabouts between the hours of 11:15 p.m.and 5:00 a.m. the next morning have never been accounted for. Uncle Bob, the next morning being cursorily interviewed by the police about the deaths of his niece and great nephews and upon being informed they were dead, said without any emotion at all, simply “ok.” Soon as the police left, Bob was out in his yard with a water hose and astringent and abrasive cleansers, brushes, rags, and tools, frantically disassembling the interior of his truck completely and maniacally scrubbing every piece down to the floorboards, even removing the interior door panels. After reassembling the now spotless interior, uncle Bob sanded the entire truck by hand and painted it light blue with a paintbrush. Prior to that the truck was a professionally applied pearl white which had a dark blue nose cowl fading to the flames into the white. In other words, Bob destroyed an approximately $1,500.00 paint job just to change the color to a blasé hand brushed blue. I think there is little question that Uncle Bob was seething after Scooter and I threw him out of the house for attacking Twila and bade him never to return. Upon hearing that I was sick and semi-comatose, knowing Howard was taking Twila home where she’d soon be alone, without Howard and other partygoers to protect her, Uncle Bob saw his chance for revenge and took it. He tried to rape Twila (when her body was found her pants were unbuttoned, unzipped and pulled down on her hips; her blouse and bra were pushed up over her breasts. Beside her body was a man’s X-large 44-46 windbreaker jacket that belonged to Bob Donnell. It had medium velocity impact blood spatter all over the sleeve cuffs and fore-arms. The criminologist who viewed this evidence said that jacket was likely worn by the assailant. At the time of the murders I weighed 145 – 154 lbs and wore a medium 38- 40.) When Twila resisted him, he killed her. Scooter, hearing the commotion, came out of the back bedroom to see what was going on and walked in on Bob beating Twila; Scooter tried to intervene and Bob attacked him. Scooter fled to the back of the house and Bob pursued him. While there he killed Randy when he awoke. Scooter got the pickaxe handle Bob used to kill Twila and was about to rout Bob and run him out of the house. Bob, fleeing down the hall to the front door, got his leg tangled in the phone cord and yanked it out of the wall. Scooter eventually woke me by sprinkling water in my face. He got me up, helped me get dressed and after I fell several times and we stopped in the back room to check on his brother, we left the house together, going 3
out the back door. Reaching the alley I fell again. Scooter went on across the field to Breuer’s house and sat down on the porch and died. I went to another neighbor’s house for help, where the police later found and arrested me. Immediately after that, the lies, deceit, distortion, cover-ups, evidence tampering and falsification began. To this day it continues unabated while I am ever nearer to my own state sanctioned murder for a crime I did not commit and, which the police knew I did not commit within an hour of my arrest. After recognizing the importance of the skin rolled up under Twila’s fingernails and the hairs caught under her ring and sticking out from between her knuckles, the Medical Examiner and Detective Terry Young bagged Twila’s hand. After I was arrested, I was taken to the Pampa police department, stripped out of my clothes and photographed by police from all angles, 360° head-to-toe. I had not a scratch or scrape on me anywhere, save the cut on my palm. Enclosed for your convenience is a photo of me as I truly appear, taken July 02, 2009. In any future stories you may write about me, I would be grateful if you would use this accurate depiction of me rather than the inflammatory and grossly inaccurate photos you’ve used in the above referenced two stories. Thank you for your time. Respectfully Hank Skinner HWS/mnm 999143 Polunsky Unit H W Hank Skinner 3872 FM 350 South Livingston TX 77351-8580 http://www.hankskinner.org h.w.skinner@gmail.com hwskinner@yahoo.com
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