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Nevertheless, she told police, she had tried to ascertain whether Misskelley knew anything about the crime. “So, you know, I just kept talking with Jessie,” she said, “’cause, ah, Jessie’s—I mean, he’s not a bad kid, but you know, you don’t know who people know. So I just kept talking with Jessie about stuff, and Jessie told me about a friend of his named Damien and that this friend drank blood and stuff.”

Jessie Misskelley Jr.

For a little guy, Jessie had already developed a big reputation as a fighter. He’d been in trouble since kindergarten, and teachers had consistently recommended that he be seen by a psychologist. He was seen by several, most of whom attributed the boy’s pugnacity, at least in part, to the fact that his mother had abandoned him and the family shortly after his birth. Jessie’s father had created a sizable family through a series of marriages, presenting Jessie with nine siblings, all but three of whom were older than he. Psychologists reported that the family was loving but very rough. Jessie’s main memory of childhood was one of “fighting all the time.”94

“I had to take up for myself, to let people know they couldn’t run over me just because I was small,” he said. “I was walking around always looking for fights, because I knew they would come. I took up for a lot of people because I had a quick temper and I knew what it was like to be picked on. I’d been picked on since I was about four or five. My brothers always picked on me, and my stepsisters always picked on me. They tried to tell me what to do.” Another memory was of his father drinking beer, “like a fish, every day since I was born.” The habit, Jessie said, resulted in “some bad times—but that’s how it is when people drink.” Despite the “bad times,” Jessie was devoted to his father. He considered him “a sweet guy,” a man “who would do anything for anybody,” and his “role model” in life.

Almost as soon as Jessie entered school, his teachers identified him as “slow.” At seven, he still could not say his ABCs past the letterR. He could not count past fifteen. When Jessie scored 67 on an intelligence test, an examiner reported that he was mildly mentally retarded.95He was placed in special education classes, but his behavior was also a concern. Teachers described Jessie as sulky, disrespectful, impulsive, indifferent, stubborn, uncooperative, and prone to rage. They complained that he would “periodically lash out physically at fellow classmates” and at them. A psychologist who saw him at the age of seven recommended that Jessie’s behavioral problems were so severe that he should be treated in a hospital. But as the family didn’t have money, such treatment was never given serious consideration. The psychologist advised Big Jessie and Little Jessie’s stepmother to take him for regular counseling sessions at the county mental health center—the same one where Damien would go. The Misskelleys went for a few sessions.96

But Jessie’s fighting did not abate, and the next year, after having been suspended from school, the eight-year-old was taken to a psychologist in Memphis.97That examiner wrote that Jessie appeared to be a boy “who is non-psychotic, not retarded, [but] who feels bad about himself and his world. He sees himself as vulnerable, unable to handle the pressures which surround him and in danger of being overwhelmed.” The psychologist added, “He pulls his own hair and bites himself when agitated. He is reported to have abused animals when he rages, and has shredded his clothes while out of control. His stepmother indicates that he will ‘tear up anything at hand’ when he is angry, though both parents agree that there is little way to predict when Jessie will rage.”

The psychologist’s notes offered other glimpses into the child’s home.

Jessie’s father presents himself as a man who has a very “bad temper,” informing the interviewer of an occasion in which he fought five men and didn’t “remember anything after the first lick,” though he “won the fight.”…Jessie’s father also indicates very rough