"Todd Willingham was a good friend of mine here who died a horrible death for a crime he did not commit."
Below is an excerpt from Hank Skinner's "Hell Hole News #17" newsletter dated October 15, 2009. Mr. Skinner (pictured left) recalls his relationship with Cameron Todd Willingham, a fellow inmate then sitting on Texas death row for the murder of his three infant daughters.Todd Willingham was executed by lethal injection in Huntsville, Texas, on February 17, 2004.
For additional information on Todd Willingham's case please refer to David Grann's piece "Trial by Fire. Did Texas execute an innocent man? " published in the September 7th edition of The New Yorker.
"In this issue I want to talk a bit about Todd Willingham (pictured below with daughter). He was a good friend of mine here who died a horrible death on 02-17-04 for a crime he did not commit. I’m sure you all have read or heard the news of the Craig Beyler report or David Grann’s New Yorker story about Todd’s innocence? Well, I’d known it since I first met Todd in late 1996. I came out on the rec yard and there’s this guy sittin’ in the lil’ corner spot I usually occupy cuz it’s got a good wind draft, away from the pryin’ pig snouts of the swine, so I can smoke a leftie and chill.
He’s sittin’ there lookin’ like a dam about to burst, tears welling up in his eyes, tryin’ to get a breath, but he just ain’t makin’ it. The tears spill. I see this man is in a profound state of distress. When the dam bursts, great heaving, wracking sobs come out of him, moans like I’ve never heard a human make, except those grieving over a just lost loved one, maybe.
I’m “Hey dude. What’s up? You o.k.?” Todd: “Yeah. I can’t talk about it. I just need to be alone, o.k.?” This swine sticks his head up to the screen of the open cellblock window and says, “Hey, Willingham! You ain’t gotta worry about your kids burning no more! They’re in pieces, takin’ a swim in the toilet! We put ‘em out cuz you couldn’t, you piece of shit! Ha/ha ha/ha ha-ha-ha!” They were in there “searching” his cell, tore up photos of his kids and flushed ‘em.
This day marked the moment I got introduced to the reasons I have come to call Texas Death Row a “hell hole”. We were at the Ellis Unit, then. There was a cabal of really sick swine there on 2nd shift, all out of Corsicana and Waxahachie, who terrorized Todd all his days at Ellis – especially on the anniversary of the deaths of his children and their birthdays. This happened because Todd’s ex-wife was sleeping with one of those officers and she manipulated him to get the others to join in. She denies it, but it’s true.
I’ve read “Judge” John Jackson’s “Guest Commentary” out of the Corsicana Daily Sun August 29th, 2009. This is the straw that finally broke the camel’s back. Not a single thing Judge Jackson says is any proof that Todd committed any crime at all.
Judge Jackson says Todd, at the funeral looking down into the casket of his oldest daughter, said, “You’re not the one who was supposed to die” and implies it was because Todd intended to kill the twins. That simply is not true.
Todd and I spent a lot of time together at Ellis. We visited together with our pen-pals, my pastor and his wife, and Todd’s parents. When they killed Todd I was on death watch with him.
Todd and I had a lot in common. He’s born the same year as my lil’ sister and we grew up in almost identical, parallel lives. He in Oklahoma, me in Virginia.
I think/feel Todd always believed his wife killed his kids and meant to kill him, too. He just wouldn’t openly voice that belief, for whatever reasons he had. I believe he thought it would amount to snitching. But as I told him, whenever someone attacks and accuses you, you have the right and a duty to defend yourself. Todd tho’, was an absolutist in many of his beliefs and, I think he still held residual love in his heart for his ex-wife; although I know he equally hated her for what she did to him, too. From what Todd told me, he believed his ex-wife intentionally left the baby’s blanket against the space heater on her way out the door to run errands, with the intent to kill both him and the children.
Todd and I talked a lot about this issue. When my first daughter was born she somehow bonded to me instead of her mama. When we brought her home from the hospital she wouldn’t sleep anywhere but on my chest with her face against my neck, in the crook, and her arms wrapped around my neck. Even my mama noticed that she’d really light up when I came in the room and her eyes followed my every movement. She’d start cooing, gurgling, kicking and giggling until I’d go pick her up. I taught her to crawl, to walk, to talk. Her first words were “da-da” and “patty cake” because I always played that with her.
My wife felt left out and got resentful, said I didn’t love her anymore and started acting out, did all kinds of stuff to hurt me, to get back at me because she felt I’d abandoned her. I got put in jail for fines and while there she secretly divorced me and got my parental rights terminated by declining child support. Then she left my daughter in her grandmother’s care so I couldn’t get to her and she went out partying with all my male friends, sleeping with them and throwing it up in my face, flaunting it in front of me every chance she got. I had to get away from her so I moved first to Savannah, Georgia – then to Missouri and on to Texas.
Todd had a similar situation with his wife. He became so wrapped with his kids that she felt neglected and like he didn’t want her any more. He said she accused him of that, often. He took refuge in the kids. I read a book that says this sort of dynamic develops often in people who marry young and have kids. A baby is a huge responsibility. With me, I’d helped my mama raise my little sisters, so I was well versed in Baby 101 and I became smitten with my daughter and took over. I see my mistakes very clearly now, but I was blind to them, then. I should’ve spent time with my wife and involved her more, too. But I was only 19 and just overwhelmed with being a dad for the first time. A baby’s love is total and, totally consuming, too.
Judge Jackson says Todd stomped his wife’s stomach, trying to cause a miscarriage. That was a tale his wife told, I think, but I do not believe, there was any validity to it. It’s been too long for me to remember all the specifics, but I think Todd caught her messing around on him and when she came up pregnant there was a question of paternity that led to fights.
They’re two young, wild, partying, rock-n-roll hillbilly kids. Hormones are strong at that age and it takes two to tango. Sure they fussed and fought.
Todd felt guilty over his kids deaths because he’d been drinking, he didn’t wake up soon enough; when he did, he was still groggy, half-drunk, hung over and not on top of the situation. When he tried to stand up and his hair caught fire, it scared him badly. Survival instinct took over and he ran for the door. He said when he opened the door and stepped out onto the porch, air really rushed into the house, he heard a big “whommmpp!!”and felt compression. It blew him out into the front yard. He felt he should’ve kept trying to get the kids out before he opened the door but the smoke was so thick and choking and he couldn’t hold his breath any longer. He was starting to see stars.
Incidentally, that’s why there was no smoke inhalation noted on his blood gases test – he told me the smoke was so thick, oily and black he knew if he tried to take a breath he’d die then and there.
There was no question Todd loved his kids. When his wife’s lover’s harassments got bad, from him and his friends, Todd had his mom make multiple duplicates of his photos of his kids and family, so that when they destroyed them, he’d just ask his mom to send new ones. If any of you out there had seen what I have and knew how Todd suffered all the years he was on death row, you’d know Todd Willingham did not kill his kids. No way. That man cried for those kids until the day he died and I know because I was on death watch with him!
More telling is his final statement: “The only statement I want to make is that I am an innocent man convicted of a crime I did not commit and for the last 12 years I have been persecuted for something I did not do”. That’s paraphrased from memory but I believe it’s complete and correct. Then he said something like, “From the dust of the earth I came and to dust I shall return, so the earth will become my throne. Hang in there, Road Dawg”. That last sentence was directed to Troy Kunkle, “TKO”, Todd’s #1 best friend forever here.
I’d begged Todd to tell what he knew, to save his life, up until the night before his execution. But he told me that with them claiming accelerants were used and it being his wife, their mama, a woman potentially involved, nobody would believe him. I see now, that is true. He also said it’s possible she accidentally left blankets or something too close to the heater but he believed it was knowing. After his statement and prefacing it with “The only” then cussing his wife until he died, I think it’s pretty clear what he believed.
10-21-09
Well….. I’d quit writing on this for a moment to deal with some other matters. Meanwhile the mail came and, lo and behold, here’s Todd’s wife in an affidavit just after his death, saying he confessed guilt. First of all, let me tell you how I know what she says in this affidavit and story 10-15-09 by Janet Jacobs in the Corsicana Daily Sun “Affidavits Dispute Claims of Innocence” is an outright fabrication and lie by the Kuykendalls.
I was out there with Todd during his visit with her. We’d discussed at length trying to get her to make an admission we could use. So I was keen on it and watching her. I listened to what he told her; as Allan Turner wrote in his story about Roy Pippin (which was a lie) I was “eavesdropping on their conversation”. Todd was intentionally talking loud enough for others to hear.
Here’s her story based on what I overheard: “She stated that after visiting him for about an hour and 45 minutes he told her he set the fire because he knew she was going to leave him in January ’92 like she said and that she was going to divorce him and he figured if he did this she would stay with him and she could get her tubes untied and they could start another family and that he wanted her to write the [parole] board a letter because he did not want to die”.
Todd (pictured left on Texas death row) was far from retarded. He had plenty enough sense to know, if he made the above sort of statement it’d seal his fate. Besides that, it doesn’t even make any sense. Why would Todd think killing his own kids would bring their mother back to him”? You know, most women look up to their men as their partner and protector. Probably, especially with this girl’s co-dependent mentality, even if she didn’t know the first thing about how it really happened she’d be resentful toward him for failing to save their children.
After reading this story and knowing what I do, I am more convinced than ever that Stacy Kuykendall is a liar, that she killed those kids and meant to kill Todd, that she was cheating on him, that she was going to leave him and that she kept close to those officers who terrorized him all those years because she had to be vigilant in case Todd ever began making waves and telling it on her. Todd did ask her to make a confession and write a letter to the parole board alright, but about her own guilt, not his. He told her she could say it was unintentional . He just wanted her to tell the truth. That’s why she came to see him, to see whether he was of a mind to tell it on her. That’s why she told that story and wrote an affidavit; she was trying to head Todd off at the pass, in case he actually made a statement on the gurney which implicated her. That’s why she wanted it in the record.
I have to admit, at the time I somewhat doubted Todd was telling me the truth. It’s just hard to believe a mother would kill her own kids. However, because of the dynamic extant in that house, she viewed them as “Todd’s kids” and was as resentful toward them as she was toward him, because she felt left out, abandoned by them.
Two other things;
One, Todd told me he moved the car off the carport for very practical reasons. It had a half tank of gas in it and would’ve blown up soon as the fire got to it. It was just common sense. Being a mechanic myself, I can easily see him thinking that way. When you’re in the shop and about to weld something or use a cutting torch, you get all flammable solvents and liquids out of the area, other combustibles, etc. When you’re welding underneath a car, on the frame, etc., you’re very conscious of the gas lines, brake lines and such. Todd was a mechanic.
Two: the refrigerator by the back door – the back door of that house was flimsy and one of the locks busted, Todd told me. He said they’d put the upright freezer against the door to keep people out, not to trap people inside as the state alleged. That was rather stupid of them to allege, anyway. Todd was the only adult in the house at the time of the fire so, he wanted to block himself in?
When Todd told me things over all those years and we discussed it for hours on end, I never imagined it would end up like this. Unbelievable."
Hank
999143 Polunsky Unit
H. W. Hank Skinner
3872 FM 350 South
Livingston TX 77351-8580, USA
e-mail: hwskinner@yahoo.com
Source: NEW HELL HOLE NEWS #17 - OCTOBER 15, 2009
He’s sittin’ there lookin’ like a dam about to burst, tears welling up in his eyes, tryin’ to get a breath, but he just ain’t makin’ it. The tears spill. I see this man is in a profound state of distress. When the dam bursts, great heaving, wracking sobs come out of him, moans like I’ve never heard a human make, except those grieving over a just lost loved one, maybe.I’m “Hey dude. What’s up? You o.k.?” Todd: “Yeah. I can’t talk about it. I just need to be alone, o.k.?” This swine sticks his head up to the screen of the open cellblock window and says, “Hey, Willingham! You ain’t gotta worry about your kids burning no more! They’re in pieces, takin’ a swim in the toilet! We put ‘em out cuz you couldn’t, you piece of shit! Ha/ha ha/ha ha-ha-ha!” They were in there “searching” his cell, tore up photos of his kids and flushed ‘em.
This day marked the moment I got introduced to the reasons I have come to call Texas Death Row a “hell hole”. We were at the Ellis Unit, then. There was a cabal of really sick swine there on 2nd shift, all out of Corsicana and Waxahachie, who terrorized Todd all his days at Ellis – especially on the anniversary of the deaths of his children and their birthdays. This happened because Todd’s ex-wife was sleeping with one of those officers and she manipulated him to get the others to join in. She denies it, but it’s true.
I’ve read “Judge” John Jackson’s “Guest Commentary” out of the Corsicana Daily Sun August 29th, 2009. This is the straw that finally broke the camel’s back. Not a single thing Judge Jackson says is any proof that Todd committed any crime at all.
Judge Jackson says Todd, at the funeral looking down into the casket of his oldest daughter, said, “You’re not the one who was supposed to die” and implies it was because Todd intended to kill the twins. That simply is not true.
Todd and I spent a lot of time together at Ellis. We visited together with our pen-pals, my pastor and his wife, and Todd’s parents. When they killed Todd I was on death watch with him.
Todd and I had a lot in common. He’s born the same year as my lil’ sister and we grew up in almost identical, parallel lives. He in Oklahoma, me in Virginia.
I think/feel Todd always believed his wife killed his kids and meant to kill him, too. He just wouldn’t openly voice that belief, for whatever reasons he had. I believe he thought it would amount to snitching. But as I told him, whenever someone attacks and accuses you, you have the right and a duty to defend yourself. Todd tho’, was an absolutist in many of his beliefs and, I think he still held residual love in his heart for his ex-wife; although I know he equally hated her for what she did to him, too. From what Todd told me, he believed his ex-wife intentionally left the baby’s blanket against the space heater on her way out the door to run errands, with the intent to kill both him and the children.
Todd and I talked a lot about this issue. When my first daughter was born she somehow bonded to me instead of her mama. When we brought her home from the hospital she wouldn’t sleep anywhere but on my chest with her face against my neck, in the crook, and her arms wrapped around my neck. Even my mama noticed that she’d really light up when I came in the room and her eyes followed my every movement. She’d start cooing, gurgling, kicking and giggling until I’d go pick her up. I taught her to crawl, to walk, to talk. Her first words were “da-da” and “patty cake” because I always played that with her.
My wife felt left out and got resentful, said I didn’t love her anymore and started acting out, did all kinds of stuff to hurt me, to get back at me because she felt I’d abandoned her. I got put in jail for fines and while there she secretly divorced me and got my parental rights terminated by declining child support. Then she left my daughter in her grandmother’s care so I couldn’t get to her and she went out partying with all my male friends, sleeping with them and throwing it up in my face, flaunting it in front of me every chance she got. I had to get away from her so I moved first to Savannah, Georgia – then to Missouri and on to Texas.
Todd had a similar situation with his wife. He became so wrapped with his kids that she felt neglected and like he didn’t want her any more. He said she accused him of that, often. He took refuge in the kids. I read a book that says this sort of dynamic develops often in people who marry young and have kids. A baby is a huge responsibility. With me, I’d helped my mama raise my little sisters, so I was well versed in Baby 101 and I became smitten with my daughter and took over. I see my mistakes very clearly now, but I was blind to them, then. I should’ve spent time with my wife and involved her more, too. But I was only 19 and just overwhelmed with being a dad for the first time. A baby’s love is total and, totally consuming, too.
Judge Jackson says Todd stomped his wife’s stomach, trying to cause a miscarriage. That was a tale his wife told, I think, but I do not believe, there was any validity to it. It’s been too long for me to remember all the specifics, but I think Todd caught her messing around on him and when she came up pregnant there was a question of paternity that led to fights.
They’re two young, wild, partying, rock-n-roll hillbilly kids. Hormones are strong at that age and it takes two to tango. Sure they fussed and fought.
Todd felt guilty over his kids deaths because he’d been drinking, he didn’t wake up soon enough; when he did, he was still groggy, half-drunk, hung over and not on top of the situation. When he tried to stand up and his hair caught fire, it scared him badly. Survival instinct took over and he ran for the door. He said when he opened the door and stepped out onto the porch, air really rushed into the house, he heard a big “whommmpp!!”and felt compression. It blew him out into the front yard. He felt he should’ve kept trying to get the kids out before he opened the door but the smoke was so thick and choking and he couldn’t hold his breath any longer. He was starting to see stars.
Incidentally, that’s why there was no smoke inhalation noted on his blood gases test – he told me the smoke was so thick, oily and black he knew if he tried to take a breath he’d die then and there.
There was no question Todd loved his kids. When his wife’s lover’s harassments got bad, from him and his friends, Todd had his mom make multiple duplicates of his photos of his kids and family, so that when they destroyed them, he’d just ask his mom to send new ones. If any of you out there had seen what I have and knew how Todd suffered all the years he was on death row, you’d know Todd Willingham did not kill his kids. No way. That man cried for those kids until the day he died and I know because I was on death watch with him!
More telling is his final statement: “The only statement I want to make is that I am an innocent man convicted of a crime I did not commit and for the last 12 years I have been persecuted for something I did not do”. That’s paraphrased from memory but I believe it’s complete and correct. Then he said something like, “From the dust of the earth I came and to dust I shall return, so the earth will become my throne. Hang in there, Road Dawg”. That last sentence was directed to Troy Kunkle, “TKO”, Todd’s #1 best friend forever here.
I’d begged Todd to tell what he knew, to save his life, up until the night before his execution. But he told me that with them claiming accelerants were used and it being his wife, their mama, a woman potentially involved, nobody would believe him. I see now, that is true. He also said it’s possible she accidentally left blankets or something too close to the heater but he believed it was knowing. After his statement and prefacing it with “The only” then cussing his wife until he died, I think it’s pretty clear what he believed.
10-21-09
Well….. I’d quit writing on this for a moment to deal with some other matters. Meanwhile the mail came and, lo and behold, here’s Todd’s wife in an affidavit just after his death, saying he confessed guilt. First of all, let me tell you how I know what she says in this affidavit and story 10-15-09 by Janet Jacobs in the Corsicana Daily Sun “Affidavits Dispute Claims of Innocence” is an outright fabrication and lie by the Kuykendalls.
I was out there with Todd during his visit with her. We’d discussed at length trying to get her to make an admission we could use. So I was keen on it and watching her. I listened to what he told her; as Allan Turner wrote in his story about Roy Pippin (which was a lie) I was “eavesdropping on their conversation”. Todd was intentionally talking loud enough for others to hear.
Here’s her story based on what I overheard: “She stated that after visiting him for about an hour and 45 minutes he told her he set the fire because he knew she was going to leave him in January ’92 like she said and that she was going to divorce him and he figured if he did this she would stay with him and she could get her tubes untied and they could start another family and that he wanted her to write the [parole] board a letter because he did not want to die”.
Todd (pictured left on Texas death row) was far from retarded. He had plenty enough sense to know, if he made the above sort of statement it’d seal his fate. Besides that, it doesn’t even make any sense. Why would Todd think killing his own kids would bring their mother back to him”? You know, most women look up to their men as their partner and protector. Probably, especially with this girl’s co-dependent mentality, even if she didn’t know the first thing about how it really happened she’d be resentful toward him for failing to save their children.After reading this story and knowing what I do, I am more convinced than ever that Stacy Kuykendall is a liar, that she killed those kids and meant to kill Todd, that she was cheating on him, that she was going to leave him and that she kept close to those officers who terrorized him all those years because she had to be vigilant in case Todd ever began making waves and telling it on her. Todd did ask her to make a confession and write a letter to the parole board alright, but about her own guilt, not his. He told her she could say it was unintentional . He just wanted her to tell the truth. That’s why she came to see him, to see whether he was of a mind to tell it on her. That’s why she told that story and wrote an affidavit; she was trying to head Todd off at the pass, in case he actually made a statement on the gurney which implicated her. That’s why she wanted it in the record.
I have to admit, at the time I somewhat doubted Todd was telling me the truth. It’s just hard to believe a mother would kill her own kids. However, because of the dynamic extant in that house, she viewed them as “Todd’s kids” and was as resentful toward them as she was toward him, because she felt left out, abandoned by them.
Two other things;
One, Todd told me he moved the car off the carport for very practical reasons. It had a half tank of gas in it and would’ve blown up soon as the fire got to it. It was just common sense. Being a mechanic myself, I can easily see him thinking that way. When you’re in the shop and about to weld something or use a cutting torch, you get all flammable solvents and liquids out of the area, other combustibles, etc. When you’re welding underneath a car, on the frame, etc., you’re very conscious of the gas lines, brake lines and such. Todd was a mechanic.
Two: the refrigerator by the back door – the back door of that house was flimsy and one of the locks busted, Todd told me. He said they’d put the upright freezer against the door to keep people out, not to trap people inside as the state alleged. That was rather stupid of them to allege, anyway. Todd was the only adult in the house at the time of the fire so, he wanted to block himself in?
When Todd told me things over all those years and we discussed it for hours on end, I never imagined it would end up like this. Unbelievable."
Hank
999143 Polunsky Unit
H. W. Hank Skinner
3872 FM 350 South
Livingston TX 77351-8580, USA
e-mail: hwskinner@yahoo.com
Source: NEW HELL HOLE NEWS #17 - OCTOBER 15, 2009
----------------
Excerpt from: NEW HELL HOLE NEWS #19 (Nov. 20, 2009)
"Hey y’all. Before I get into my usual rant I need to clarify some stuff about Todd. In New Hell Hole News #17 I accused Stacy Kuykendahl of lying about Todd along with her brother. Apparently only her brother did the lying to the Justice of the Peace. A week before Todd’s murder, as related in Steven Hill’s Chicago Tribune story October 19th and David Grann’s New Yorker article October 16th “What Stacy said.” So, I apologize to Stacy. My own commentary on it was based on what was stated in the Corsicana Daily Sun by Janet somebody – obviously that paper lacks a lot when it comes to integrity---If you doubt that, read district attorney nee Judge John Jackson’s “Guest Commentary” about how Todd is guilty. Not a single thing that man points to is evidence of murder. A while back I said that the same witch hunter used to murder Todd is being employed to try to kill me. It is. No doubt. But there, I was talking about the crazy psychologist who testified at Todd’s trial that, because he had rock-n-roll band posters displayed on his walls it meant he was a ‘”devil worshipper.” Now I have learned that “Judge” John Jackson, in a Nightline News t.v. interview has falsely alleged that the burn patterns on the floor of Todd’s house were in the shape of a pentagram --- come on! You gotta be kidding me. That’s 100% a total fabrication. A lie. This man is a Texas state district judge! Stay out of Corsicana, Texas, folks! Especially if you wear concert t-shirts and have long hair or listen to rock-n-roll music; you might be the next “devil worshipper” they kill!" - Hank Skinner
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