 LG Hollingsworth
"I
was not a suspect," [L.G.] Hollingsworth said as his mother, Linda,
sat in on the interview. "When they [the police] talked to me I told
them I was
happy to help them all I could." [Commercial Appeal, 1/31/94]
Prosecutor Fogleman: Alright, now tell me about the box in
your car.
L.G.: No, it's Richard's car.
Fogleman: Alright, tell me about the box. [Interview, L.G.
Hollingsworth, September 2, 1993]
L.G. and the Stinky Box
This
isn't the name of a fairy tale
for dysfunctional families. Along
with Mr. Bojangles and the Tattooed Man, the "Stinky Box" became a
legend of this case.
L.G. Hollingsworth, Jr., 17 years old in
1993, was the
son of L.G. and Linda Gail Hollingsworth. He was the nephew
of Narlene Hollingsworth. His initials were not
abbreviations, but his name. He gave "L.G." another meaning:
he had
"Little Gangster" tattooed on his bicep.
He lived in the neighborhood of the
victims, nearby
the Garners on Holiday Circle, where Mark Byers said he first went to
search for Chris on the night of the disappearance. A ninth
grade dropout, he spent the day of the fifth looking for a job, finding
one at the Big Star grocery store as a bagger.
He was friends of Damien Echols.
He had
dated Liza McDaniels, described as Domini's best friend, although she
moved out of town just prior to the murders. In Damien's May
10th interview he described L.G. as weird. He had a falling
out with
L.G. after L.G. suggested they swap girlfriends [Blood of Innocents, p. 120] (although this would
have been for
his cousin, Domini).
Damien pointed at L.G. as someone who
could
have killed the children. When he saw Echols being taken into
custody, L.G. said he was the next one they were going to arrest.
L.G. was the target of
several tips, although the most incriminating could not be
confirmed. In one taken by Detective Mike Allen, the tipster
said: "She had overheard that a
Domineck and a Damion killed the
three little boys and that L.G., last name unknown, took and
laundered their clothing. Caller stated that Damien had body
parts in a
box from the children." [Blood of Innocents, page 121].
Another tip came from someone who
claimed L.G.'s aunt Dixie Hufford had said two boys and a girl
went to the laundromat on Ingram on May 5th, between 10 and 10:30 pm to
clean up. "They had mud and blood on their clothes.
Dixie was related to one of them. . . Hollingsworth."
[Tip from "Boone," May 20, 1993]
L.G. stated he borrowed the car of his
friend Richard Simpson and went to the Flash Market laundromat to get
Domini's phone number from his aunt Dixie. His aunt Dixie
confirmed he came by for Domini's number wanting to call her to talk
about a fight she had with Damien. Dixie recalled he wore a
white shirt and a tie. She said he knew Simpson's car and
L.G. had used a different one.
Another tip dated May 11th came from the
teacher of L.G.'s Mississippi cousin. The teacher stated
eight-year-old Sara Hollingsworth said she overheard that L.G. had come
home with "blood on him + clothes" and he was carrying something in a
box in his car. When the police finally followed up on this
lead in the middle of June, Sara Hollingsworth denied she had
said this. [Commercial Appeal, May 10, 1994]
His aunt Narlene said L.G. appeared in
the Lakeshore neighborhood the evening of the day the victims were
discovered. She said her family members told her, L.G. had a
box with something smelly inside and he threatened the children if they
touched the box: "Don’t touch it, don’t
step on it or I’ll hurt you." [Narlene
Hollingsworth, May 10th, 1993 interview]
Narlene:
The thing that is
bothering me is them coming down the street with that box, they claim
L. G. had and they didn’t want to open it
Detective Dabbs:
But you said smelled horrible? [ibid]
Like the incriminating tips, nothing
could be nailed down about the box. When confronted about its
contents, L.G. told Fogleman it had nothing more than test papers from
a Vo-Tech school.
The
muddled timeline
Narlene gave a detailed account of her
day. She described taking L.G. to look for a job in the
morning, having an accident around noon, returning L.G. to his home
about 5 pm, encountering the victims, and then later encountering
Damien and Domini along the South Service Road. L.G. filled
in a few more details, although his description is sometimes
self-contradictory.
He described finding a job in the morning, going to a Sonic
fast food restaurant for lunch, trying to go home but needing a key
after lunch. At this time Narlene and L.G. went to his
mother's work at a Nursing Home in the south part of town but had an
accident along the way. They next went to the insurance
company, sometime after that to Narlene's place in Lakeshore.
L.G. says he then went to visit Domini's place "about one."
(This encounter would seem to have to be later considering
all that occurred. Dian Teer said he came over about 11
am.) He stayed at Lakeshore until about 5 pm, seeing Damien
there just before he left. Then Narlene took him to his house.
In notes
from his May 26th statement he said he was at Simpson's house from 5:30
to 9:30. In
undated notes it says he went to the laundromat at 10 pm. His
most extensive interview took place early in September. (In
September, L.G. was under house arrest, offense unspecified). In
this
statement, he says after Narlene took him home, he encountered his
mother and a friend of hers. They soon left together for her
friend's house.
In the same statement, he said he went home and stayed there
until his mother arrived at 7:30 or 8:30. In another
contradiction in the same statement, he said that he went to his friend
Richard
Simpson's house. Richard "was tripping out or something."
[Hollingsworth interview, September 2, 1993]
L.G. said he stayed there until he went to the Flash
Market laundry. Simpson at first confirmed L.G. was
there and then said L.G. was not there and he had asked him to lie
(more below)
Were two days being confused?
When did L.G. get his job at the Big
Star? This event helped define the day for L.G. and Narlene
Hollingsworth. They both agree they were together the rest of
the afternoon until five p.m. But, Narlene also describes
taking L.G. to and from work the next day. "Cause they were
all gathered up there and I didn’t know what was going on, so
I went on down there and L. G. was saying, get me on to work. So,
anyway I went on and got him on to work, so then later on that day, he
got off early. I know he come to my house about 2:40 or a
quarter to three and I thought that he would be working a little later
than that on Wednesday." [Narlene Hollingsworth interview,
May 10, 1993]
Anthony Hollingsworth referred
to Wednesday as though L.G. already had the job. "L.G. was
supposed to work @ Big Star that nite." [Police notes,
Anthony Hollingsworth interview, May 26, 1993]
As has been noted, both Narlene and
Anthony had problems defining the day they saw Damien and Domini, at
least in relation to when they gave their statements to the police.
Items confiscated
from LG Hollingsworth, May 10, 1993:
A knife and four
pairs of tennis shoes.
Richard
Simpson and the Hungarian Architect
One of the prime reasons L.G. aroused
suspicion in this case are the contradictory statements from him and
his alibis. Richard Simpson worked for the city of West
Memphis as a building inspector. At forty nine, he spent his
free time as a nondenominational preacher. He said he met
L.G. through his ministry. L.G. spent a lot of time with
Simpson. At the time of his September statement to police,
L.G. had moved out of his parents' house and was temporarily staying
with Simpson.
Simpson's relation with L.G. raised the
suspicions of the police. On the weekend after the murders,
they went to Memphis together with Simpson buying drinks for the
underage L.G. When Simpson was brought in to talk with the
police on May 13th, he told them L.G. was at his place on the night of
the fifth.
Shortly after that interview,
Simpson and L.G. took a trip to Princeton, Kentucky. They
rented two rooms in a motel and L.G. met up with his girlfriend who
recently moved there. His girlfriend's uncle and aunt called
the police on the underage pair. Sheriff Jim Dorrah
intervened and soon L.G. was brought back to West Memphis.
Richard Simpson came in for a second
interview with the police. This time Simpson was polygraphed
about L.G.'s alibi. He failed the polygraph and then told
police that L.G. had asked him to lie; L.G. had not been at his home
that night. The new story was that L.G. had come over
Thursday and they were together through the weekend. [as
presented by Fogleman, L.G. Hollingsworth statement, September 2,
1993].
At the time of the murders, Richard
Simpson was hosting a visit from the Hungarian architect, Laszlo Benyo.
Benyo was in America for seven weeks as part of a Sorows
foundation program that enabled him to learn American culture and
architectural traditions. According to police notes:
When
asked about the date of Wednesday 5-5-93. He [Benyo] stated
he was
living with Richard Simpson during the time and that he is certain that
he was at home during that evening. He knows L.G. and another
young Black/Male who used to come over. He didn't remember
L.G. coming over on that Wednesday. [snip] He
stated again. . . L.G. didn't come over. . . [Det. Ridge notes,
Laszlo Benyo, 5/27/93]
As with many of the seemingly minor
characters in this story, other parts of his story had disturbing
contradictions.
He stated
he heard about the Murder on Thursday evening when he was discussing
with Richard his travelling plans and Richard brought up the murder of
the three boys. He remembered that on Friday Morning Richard
took him to the Airport for a flight he made to New Orleans.
[ibid, 5/27/93]
This contrasts with a profile of him in
the May 20th, West Memphis Evening Times.
Benyo was
out of town when he heard about the recent murder of the three youngs
boys in West Memphis. He said it made him very sad, and he
hopes it is a rare crime.
45-year-old Laszlo
Benyo, Hungarian architect
Ongoing Suspicions
On February 10th of 1994, the day after
the preliminary
hearing wherein it was
revealed Damien Echols had named L.G. as someone who
could have killed the children, the
Memphis Commercial
Appeal ran a story about him. The story, "Inquiry,
trials haunt L.G. Hollingsworth,"
described him as a target of the investigation and included some of the
allegations surrounding him. That night L.G. called Domini
to discuss this. The police taped the call. L.G.
seemed to
believe Jason was claiming he did it, but as had others, he had trouble
recalling who Jason was.
L.G.:
My name's in the paper.
Domini:
Oh really, about what?
L.G.:
What's, what's that guy uh with Damien?
Michael or
somebody. . . Jason, that's the name. . . Jason, Jason is trying to say
I killed them kids.
Domini:
What?
L.G.:
Now you know I didn't do it, don't you?
Domini:
Little Jason?
L.G.:
Mm-hmm.
Domini:
Don't worry about it. [transcription, phone call, February
10, 1994]
Again L.G. asks Domini to confirm his
innocence.
L.G.:
Now you know I didn't do it, now don't you?
Domini:
I don't know. I ain't saying nothing.I don't know who did it. I don't
have no idea what's going on or what. [ibid]
The allegations against L.G. continued.
In March 1994 with the
Echols/Baldwin trial underway L.G. sat in jail, charged with
forgery
and burglary. Fellow inmate Timothy Cotten said Hollingsworth
had confessed to him, saying Damien and LG killed the children in
retaliation against Mark Byers for a drug deal gone bad. The
police dismissed Cotten's statement, saying he was looking for a deal.
[Commercial Appeal, July 17, 1994] This is discussed further, here.
LG
Hollingsworth, Jr. died in an automobile accident on October 26, 2001
at the age of 25.
Perhaps other, more significant evidence
will appear that ties L.G. to the murders. As of this
writing, in the opinion of this author, L.G. is "Damien-lite."
The most sensational evidence against him is unsubstantiated
rumors and the overactive imagination of his aunt. This is
not to
say there is not possible troubling evidence: the jailhouse
snitch who gave a scenario very different from that of the prosecution,
the
contradictory stories
of his alibi and the unresolved question of where he was on the night
of the fifth, and his unexplained relationship with Richard
Simpson.
Hollingsworth family tree |
