TruthRevealed

It wasn't until Jan. 8, 1998, at Jack Walls' victim-impact hearing, that the community

of Lonoke finally learned the truth behind the murders of Joe, Barbara and Heather Stocks.

In the weeks prior to her death, Barbara Stocks came home early one afternoon

and found her son, then 20, asleep in his bed with Jack Walls, 51, his long-time Boy Scout leader and trusted family friend. In the following days, Barbara would confront Heath with what she'd seen. In a heated argument, Heath would admit to his mother and sister, without detail, a sexual relationship with Walls.

The Reverend Robert Marple testified at the impact hearing that, "On Jan. 8, 1997, Barbara Stocks came in and told me, 'we need to talk'. She came in, in total fear of what she had seen and the confrontation with Heath. We never had that talk, nine days later she was dead." Marple testified he went to the jail to visit Heath after his arrest and a second time at the state hospital in Little Rock where Heath was undergoing a psychiatric evaluation. "He didn't tell me anything about their relationship, other than the fact that when I asked him 'why?', he said, 'Jack told me to do it', on both occasions, to kill his family." Marple told the court he never came forward because he believed his conversations with Barbara and Heath were "privileged".

In more than eight hours of testimony, Heath recounted his twisted relationship with Walls, that ended only when Heath went to prison, and he told of Walls' order to kill his family. Judge Lance Hanshaw sealed the statements of the 6 boys who testified

at the hearing.

Lonoke Chief of Police Charles Peckat would finally break Heath's silence after his name kept coming up in his investigation of Jack Walls. Peckat would learn that Walls first molested Heath at the age of 10. Walls plied him with alcohol and forced him to have oral sex with him. When the incident was over, several scouts came out of the woods where they'd been watching, "welcome to the group" they said. "At first I thought, did those guys see what happened? I was so young, I just didn't get it." Heath said. "But finally I realized everything was normal, nobody was looking at me weird.

It was the opposite, something special had happened. Now I had Jack, now I was part of a group".

For years Heath was, by all accounts, Jack's favorite of the boys entrusted to his care. Heath's relationship with his father was already strained, "As a kid, I was always in trouble. I had attention deficit disorder and was on Ritalin by the time I started school. I couldn't do anything right in my daddy's eyes. He thought Scouting would help me, he didn't have a clue what was really going to happen." Within the next two years, Heath tried to quit Scouting. On more than one occasion he begged his family not to send him back. But Heath was told he was going to finish, he was going to make Eagle Scout.

As his relationship with Walls grew, so did the chasm between the Stocks family members. "I would spend five or six hours at a time talking to Jack about my problems," Heath said. "I told him about my problems with my daddy. I told Jack that

I wanted my daddy to accept me, to compliment me even if what I had done wasn't perfect but I had tried. I asked Jack how I could get my daddy's attention, especially

in the early years."

My daddy was away a lot on a truck, and when he came home, I'd always done something wrong and I would get punished because of it. He would punish me with anything he could get his hands on---a swing set chain, a belt, a switch from a weeping willow---he'd whip the hell out of me. For me, the lesson was to be petrified of my father and not trust him and know that no matter what he said, he would always be against me."

By now, family members knew something was wrong in Heath's life. "My family was trying to figure out what was wrong with me. They'd ask Jack and he'd tell them one thing and tell me the opposite. Then Jack would tell me he loved me, that he was the only one that loved me. He told me that my parents didn't understand me like he did. He did that with all us boys, especially me. After I knew he'd been talking to my parents, Jack would tell me how much my father hated me and my mother just didn't understand me. He did that for years and I believed him. And I thought they were saying it to all their friends, if they would say it to Jack."

"By the time I was 14, I think I really realized it was wrong. I wasn't a homosexual but in order to keep Jack, I knew it had to continue. It was like a scale. Jack was a friend, father, and mentor to me. I almost thought of him as a god. I loved him, he accepted me, and he gave me what no one else would, especially my own father. I called Jack 'dad', he called me 'son'. That was our relationship, I told Jack everything, there was nothing left out. What we had was special, I was more loyal to him than my own family."

As the years passed, Walls told Heath he had special plans for him. He was training him to be an assassin. "That's what he was training me for, that's what he wanted me to be, kill people for him, for money, whoever and whenever. Jack told me he wanted me to go into the Army Delta Force or be a Navy Seal, either one would prepare me physically but he had me ready mentally. He was teaching me how not to have a conscience. He told me I couldn't have a conscience, I couldn't love anything. If I had to kill, I had to just do it and no second thoughts, just do it and it didn't mean anything, an emotionless soldier, no questions asked, protect at all costs. 'And remember,' he would say, 'you did it to help me, to protect me.' "

"But by nature, that wasn't me at all. I loved kids, loved being around kids, but I had

to cut out church and being around the kids. I knew I wasn't thinking about them sexually, but because of what was happening to me, the emptiness I had inside, I didn't know how to feel about them anymore."

Heath's grandmother, Dorothy Stocks, said, "Heath was a wonderful boy. We knew there was something troubling him for a while, but we couldn't figure out what it was. I just knew, along with our family, and including Barbara's mother, that it wasn't Heath, not the boy we knew."

"There wasn't any part of my life Jack didn't control," Heath said. "It didn't matter if it was dating matters or family matters. Jack expected me to come back to his house and give him every detail of what happened. Jack told me not to trust girls; I was always having trouble with girls in high school. My first dealings with love came when I went out with a girl I'd had a crush on since seventh grade. I thought I was in heaven when she went out with me, but she broke up with me and started dating other guys.

I was crushed and here was Jack telling me, 'Don't fall in love with a girl; you'll only get hurt. Don't trust a woman, you'll only get hurt.' And damn if that didn't happen. Jack said, 'I told you so, why didn't you listen to me? You're over here crying and upset. Why? Because you didn't do what I told you to do.'"

"Then by the time I went to college, I found a girl. She was so special and I fell in love with her. He told me to 'get rid of her', as in break up with her. She was a threat. I couldn't be attached to anything or anyone. I resisted. That's the only time I remember I ever got mad at Jack. Finally he told me to get rid of her or kill her. I broke up with her, just like he told me. Then I started going out with girls and just having sex with them. I couldn't feel anything towards anybody but Jack at that point. And, I didn't know what love was; other than sex, love was sex."

"By this time, I had severe anger problems and I couldn't understand why. I was going nuts inside. I didn't know this at the time, but apparently, my mother had seen Jack and I in bed together, at our house. I remember, on a Sunday she asked me, and Heather was there, and I told them it was true. I don't why I told them, but I did. I didn't tell them much, I just knew I wanted it to be over, but I think I knew it would never end."

"I went home the next weekend and told Jack what I had done. I know now it was a mistake. After ten years of total loyalty, I had betrayed him. He was furious when I told him. 'You were supposed to protect me, now you've betrayed me,' he said. 'You've created a problem Heath, solve the problem!' "

There was no question in Heath's mind what Walls expected him to do. He had taught Heath and the other boys for years, "If you have a problem and you can't solve it, kill it." "I couldn't handle the pressure of what Jack was telling me to do. I got so mad that night thinking about everything, I tore up the house. I was going to kill myself and that's when Heather came home, then my mom and dad. That's really all I remember until I realized what had happened, and I was terrified. I fell to my knees and begged God to bring them back, but He wouldn't. I was out of my mind, I was so scared and confused. My family didn't deserve to die, they didn't deserve what happened. If anybody had to die it should've been me, but I snapped, broke."

-- Special Prosecutor, Bettye Dickey said there is "every indication that Jack not

only told Heath to commit the murders but was there to see that it was done; if not participate in it. If we could have asked for the death penalty for Jack Walls,

we would have; that was not an option."

-- In a letter to the Governor, dated Dec. 30, 1998, Bettye Dickey says she is

"strongly convinced that Heath Stocks was not afforded a fair trial, nor adequate representation." She asked that Heath Stocks case be reviewed for possible clemency and suggested that other legal steps could be taken.

-- In a 1999 interview, then Lonoke County Sheriff Charlie Martin said he never investigated Heath's allegations, "It was Heath Stocks' word against Jack Walls. Maybe I should have, I don't know." Lonoke Chief of Police Charles Peckat said

that he could not pursue the murder investigation because the Stocks' murders happened outside city limits, out of his jurisdiction.

-- In 1999, Hubert Alexander, Jack Walls former attorney said, "He [Walls] wasn't going to plead guilty to raping Heath Stocks. But the night before Jack was going to enter pleas to the judge, he and Heath both took lie detector tests. Jack failed and Heath passed." The next day Walls pleaded "no contest" to the rape of Heath

Stocks.

-- In 1999, Cledis Hogan said, "All of this could have been prevented if authorities

had only done their jobs in 1992."