INFERNO
AN INQUIRY INTO THE WILLINGHAM FIRE
Published by J Bennett Allen on Smashwords
Copyright 2011 by J Bennett Allen
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Introduction
Amber was once again drawn to the heater, to its bright flickering flame, to its warmth, to its forbidden mysteries and charms. Both Mommy and Daddy had caught her before, putting things too close to it. Daddy had even given her whuppings, but he was asleep in the other room, and Mommy was not even home.
Perhaps she wanted to move some of the fire from the heater to her Little Tykes oven sitting nearby. Perhaps she simply wanted to put something inside the heater and watch it disappear.
Maybe a piece of drawing paper. Maybe one of her socks, the one she wasn't wearing when she was pulled barely alive from the house. Maybe it was the sock that was never found.
Whatever it was, when it burned it was scarier than the fire in the heater. It burned closer and closer to her finger and her thumb as she held it at arm's length. But it was so hot. It was the hottest, scariest thing she had felt, ever, so she flung it away, and then the curtain was on fire. The curtain between the heater and her little oven was on fire. She was going to get in trouble again. She was going to get another whupping.
Fear of anger and whuppings, though, were quickly overcome by horror. The fire was growing larger and larger and scarier and scarier. She retreated as the fire climbed the wall to the ceiling. The smoke got inside her and made her cough. She could feel the heat on her skin, on her face and neck and shoulders. She had to get away, but the gate was there, blocking the doorway, keeping her from the safety of her Daddy's arms.
Her sisters too were scared. They were crawling away as fast as they could, crawling towards the far corner of the room. One of them made it underneath the crib.
Now the top of the room was on fire, and it was getting dark even though it was just morning outside. She couldn't breath and face burned, and her neck and her bare shoulders, and she wasn't even close to the fire. She didn't want to keep it a secret any more. She wanted her Daddy to save her. She screamed and screamed but he didn't come.
So she did what her sisters could not do. She climbed the child gate and ran to her Daddy's room, screaming for him.
"Daddy, Daddy!"
She couldn't see him because the smoke was there too, in his room. It was everywhere. She could hear him though. He was yelling at her to run, to go outside. But the fire was there where he wanted her to run, and she wanted him to save her. She climbed into his bed, but he wasn't there.
Instead of him saving her, she would save him. She would save him with her screams and her pleas, by awakening him, by telling him of the fire, by taking his place in the bed, by breathing in the smoke that would have filled his lungs instead of hers.
It wasn't heroism that caused Amber to take her Daddy's place. A two-year-old cannot be heroic. She can only be afraid of fire and smoke and dark. She can only be expected to seek the safety of Mommy or Daddy. Amber did everything a two-year-old could and should do. She screamed, she climbed the gate, and she ran for help. In doing so, she bought a reprieve for her father.
The fire, however, would not be denied. Disguised first as justice and then as a needle, it would eventually consume her father just as surely as it had consumed her sisters, just as surely as it consumed her.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1: Overview
Chapter 2: The House
Chapter 3: What Willingham Told His Relatives and a Friend
Chapter 4: What Willingham Told the Police
Chapter 5: What Douglas Fogg Told the Jury
Chapter 6: What James Palos Told the Jury
Chapter 7: What Manuel Vasquez Told the Jury
Chapter 8: What Manuel Vasquez Wrote in His Report
Chapter 9: What the Neighbors Saw
Chapter 10: What Today's Experts Say
Chapter 11: Defense Theory
Chapter 12: Volume Considerations
Chapter 13: The Electrical System
Chapter 14: The Space Heater
Chapter 15: The Cause of the Willingham Fire
Chapter 1: Overview
The house at 1213 West 11th Avenue in Corsicana, Texas burned on December 23, 1991.
The house was then occupied by Cameron Todd Willingham, his two-year-old daughter Amber, and his one-year-old twin daughters Kameron and Karmon. Stacy Willingham, his wife and mother of the children, was not home at the time of the fire.
Amber, Kameron and Karmon died in the fire. Cameron Todd Willingham escaped with some loss of head hair and singeing of the hair that remained; singed eyebrows, eyelashes, and chest hair; singed nasal hairs and soot in his throat; first degree burns on his face, ears, and neck; a two-inch burn on his right shoulder.
Willingham was charged, tried, convicted, and executed for setting fire to his house and thereby murdering his daughters.
Debate regarding the Willingham execution has centered around the issue of arson. The pre-eminent fire scientists of our time argue that the evidence of arson used against Willingham at his trial was based on outdated rules of thumb. They do not propose a cause of the fire, nor do they explicitly rule out arson as a possibility. They argue only that a determination of arson was not justified based on the evidence, given today's understanding of fire cause and behavior.
Those defending the conviction argue that the experts who testified at the Willingham trial made a state-of-the-art determination of arson. Though a few die-hards argue still that the evidence would support a determination of arson even today, most argue instead that Willingham's behavior before and after the fire was sufficiently indicative of guilt to justify a conviction, even in the absence of a formal arson conclusion.
Those defending the conviction argue further that the gas and electrical systems were excluded as a cause of the fire, and that no one has disputed that exclusion. They argue that arson remains the only possible cause of the fire, and Willingham the only possible arsonist.
In this monograph, I discuss the various theories regarding the cause of the Willingham fire. Unlike my predecessors, I dare to suggest a specific cause of the fire other than arson. I argue that the fire was caused by two-year-old Amber playing with the open-flame space heater in her room. I conclude that Willingham was factually innocent of the crime for which he was executed.
Chapter 2: The House
The house that burned was a three-bedroom, one-bath, single-floor rental house. The front of the Willingham house is shown below as it appeared soon after the fire. The image is a view looking south.
The floor plan of the Willingham house is shown below. South is at the top.
The three bedrooms were originally the three rooms located along the right side of the image. The uppermost of those three bedrooms was, at the time of the fire, being used as a utility room. The children's bedroom, now located to the left of the image, was originally located at the bottom right of the image. The Willinghams switched the children's bedroom and the living room to provide more room for the children to sleep and play. From Willingham's police interview:
Willingham: Well you see, the room where the babies was at, that used to be the living room, you know that's why it had a ceiling fan and everything in it. Well as they got a little older you know, they always played together and everything. To start with we had the twins, in this room, we had Amber in here and we was in here. Well as they got a little older, we thought well, we'll just change it around a little bit, give them one big room for them to be in, put all their toys in one room. So we moved the twins and Amber into here, you know we put a twin here and a twin, oh this is the front porch. Okay there was a twin here, a twin here and Amber was here.
There was a child gate separating the children's bedroom from the hallway. The door to the children's bedroom had been removed.
There was a Christmas tree in the living room.
There was no stove in the house. The Willinghams instead used a two-burner hot plate, a microwave, and a FryDaddy electric deep fryer.
There was no phone in the house.
The Willinghams owned a washer and a dryer. Those appliances were presumably kept in the utility room.
The floors were originally made from oak. At some point, the oak wood floor was covered by tar paper, plywood, and vinyl tile. There were throw rugs and a patch of carpet in the living room. There was a patch of carpet in each of the bedrooms. The patch of carpet in the children's bedroom was large enough to define a play area for the children.
The house was poorly insulated and was cold in the winter. Stacy sealed the back door in the kitchen to reduce the leaks.
Willingham: Well Stacy had the back door sealed off. She had uh, in that kitchen you can look on the floor, you can see gaps, like this tall some places. That house was cold, you know. That might have been why we got it so cheap, but it was cold. I know for a fact that there was no insulation in that house you know from what you could see in the attic or whatever. But every winter Stacy would always put, you know she'd take cloths and stuff and window seals and tape up all the holes and then put tin foil around the windows, you know, to keep the heat in and to you know keep it cool in the summertime and stuff. Well, every winter she would always, you know, she'd take it down in the summertime, but every winter she would, uh, tape the back door and from outside she'd put a plastic bag over the screen door then shut the screen door and then shut the back door. And when she'd shut the back door, she'd cram all the holes with towels and things to keep the weather out. And then she had a big blanket that she would hang over the door and then she'd duct tape all that up. The only reason the ice box was there was because a few months earlier our ice box was going on the fritz and so I bought this other one, the one that was against the door, I bought it for thirty dollars and was gonna, we was gonna fix it but we never got the money to have anybody put Freon in it, so this year when she did that, she pushed the ice box against the back door you know.
There were three gas-fired open-flame heaters in the house. They were located as show in the floor plan, repeated below.
The heater in the hallway is visible in the fire scene photo below. It is there along the right side of the hallway, near the center of the photo.
The heater in the children's bedroom is visible in the photo below. The area around the heater had been cleaned before the photo was taken.
Chapter 3: What Willingham Told His Relatives and a Friend
His Father
On the day of the fire, Gene Willingham, Todd's father, spoke with Todd about the fire. From Gene Willingham's police interview, we learn the following information, which may be relevant to determining the cause of the fire:
Gene Willingham: He said that he was asleep when he heard someone yell "Daddy, Daddy." He said that he assumed it was Amber. He said that when he woke up the smoke was so thick that he couldn't see. He said that he put his pants on and due to the smoke he got down on his hands and knees and upon searching for Amber he couldn't find her. He yelled "Amber, get out if you can." He said that he crawled to the babies' room and he stepped over the gate. Todd said that he was able to crawl on the floor because there was no fire on the floor. Todd said that all of the fire was above him. Once inside the babies' room he still couldn't see because of the smoke and while crawling around on the floor he still couldn't find any of the children. He said that the ceiling then started to fall down and he had to get out. He said that he made his way down the hall and out the front door which Todd said always remained unlocked because he did not have the key to lock and unlock the door. After he got a fresh breath of air he said that he tried to go back inside but he couldn't.
In her interview with the police, Stacy confirmed the issue of the front door lock.
Stacy Willingham: Okay, I know why I didn't lock the front door now. Okay, our door doesn't, it locks, but we don't have a key to it. We lost our key, that's why I didn't, well I, I, I don't know, sometimes, you know, well I used to go to work at eight in the morning and, and you know I would lock it 'cause that was too early, I knew everybody would be asleep, but you know that, I didn't lock it anymore because you know I lost the key and sometimes I would forget stuff and come back home and have to wake everybody up and so I didn't want do that and with me especially leaving at nine twenty and knowin' I'm gonna be in town, I thought well, I don't remember, I forgettin' nothin' now, but maybe I will, I don't want to wake everybody up.
Before his execution, Willingham conceded that he lied about one and only one portion of his story. From David Grann's New Yorker article "Trial by Fire":
Grann: Earlier, he had confessed to his parents that there was one thing about the day of the fire he had lied about. He said that he had never actually crawled into the children’s room. “I just didn’t want people to think I was a coward,” he said. [Gerald] Hurst told me, “People who have never been in a fire don’t understand why those who survive often can’t rescue the victims. They have no concept of what a fire is like.”
A Friend
On the day after Christmas, the day before the children's funeral, Willingham talked to his friend Sherry Cooley about the fire. From Cooley's police interview, we learn the following:
Sherry Cooley: He told me he had put the twins to bed on the floor to go to sleep after giving them their bottle. He said he then put Amber in the same room with the twins and then put up the child gate at the door. He said that he then went to sleep. He said that he then woke up when Amber yelled "Daddy, Daddy" but due to the smoke being so thick, he couldn't see Amber or even the bed he was laying on. Todd then said he made his way to the room where the twins were. He said that as he was stepping over the gate, he leaned against the door and it was so hot he had to jerk it back. This left a burn on his hand. Once inside the twins’ room he said that the smoke was so thick that he couldn't find the twins and even mistaken [sic] the stuffed animals for the twins. He said that the fire was so intense that he had to keep putting his hair out of fire. He said that he finally couldn't stand the smoke anymore and that he had to kick the front door open to get out of the house. When I asked him how he thought the fire started he said that due to the sparks coming out of the sockets he felt that it was electrical.
The front door opened to the inside and was apparently unlocked. It is odd, therefore, that Sherry Cooley reported that Willingham told her he had kicked the front door open to escape. Willingham's father made no such claim.
His Half-Brother
While at the children's funeral, Monte Willingham, Todd's half-brother, asked Todd what happened. From Monte's police interview, we learn the following:
Monte Willingham: He said that he woke up when Amber yelled "Daddy, Daddy." He said that he woke up and tried to find Amber but he couldn't. He said that he then went to the twins' room to look for the twins but he couldn't find them. He said that the ceiling then started to fall down and he had to go outside of the house to get some fresh air. He tried to get back inside but he couldn't because the fire was too bad.
His Step-Mother
After the children's funeral, Eugenia Williams, Todd's step-mother, met with Todd at her house in Ardmore, Texas. She asked him what had happened. From her police interview, we learn the following:
Eugenia Williams: He told me that Stacy had woke him up about 9:15 AM at which time they put the children in the twins’ room with a child gate. He said that after Stacy left he went back to sleep with the children still in the twins’ room. He then said that he woke up when Amber yelled, "Daddy, Daddy." When he woke up he found the room filled with thick black smoke. He said that he got up immediately and put his pants on. He thought that Amber had yelled that from the twins’ room so he ran to that room. He said that the fire and smoke was so bad that he couldn't stand up because his hair kept catching on fire. Due to the smoke, he got on his hands and knees and searched for the children. He said that he couldn't find them and he even [mistook] a doll for one of the children. He said that the smoke was so bad that he went out of the front door but he doesn't remember how he got out. After Todd calmed down and regained his composure he said that "Now I'm not sure if it was Amber that woke me up or not."
His Wife
On New Year's Eve, Stacy Willingham gave an extended interview to police and fire officials. The interview lasted from 11:10 to 11:30 AM. Based on that interview, we learn that Stacy arose around 7:30 or 8:00 AM. She woke the three girls, changed their diapers, dressed them, gave them each a bottle, and allowed them to play while she got ready for work. She remembers specifically that she left for work, at the Salvation Army, around 9:20 AM.
Below are discontinuous segments from her interview. Before presenting them, I want to clarify some editorial changes I have introduced.
The person who transcribed the interview apparently attempted to replicate Stacy's speech mannerisms by recording words such as hollering and crying as hollerin' and cryin'. I have returned the trailing 'g' to its proper place.
Similarly, the person who transcribed the interview usually recorded Stacy as saying 'cause rather than because, and 'em rather than them. I have replaced words having leading apostrophes with their more proper counterpart.
As will many people in a nervous state, Stacy tended to run her sentences together. I have broken many of the transcribed run-on sentences into multiple, smaller sentences.
Except as noted above, I have not otherwise changed the transcript without so indicating with brackets or ellipses.
Stacy: Todd told me that, he uh, he woke up and Amber was screaming "Daddy, Daddy" and he jumped up. He said when he jumped up, he started gagging and he couldn't see. So he went, felt for his pants and put them on, then went straight to the twins' room, or it's the kids' room, so, and was feeling down on the floor. He couldn't feel the kids and stuff and he couldn't find Amber. Said he couldn't find Amber, couldn't hear her. He kept screaming for her but she wouldn't never answer for him. And so, uh, he said he tried kicking down the door and stuff and that he got it down and, uh, went outside and caught, tried to catch his breath. Then he went around to get back in the house, but he said he couldn't get back in.
Stacy: He said the door was on fire. Said it was on fire.
Stacy: He told me that, he, he woke up and Amber was screaming "Daddy, Daddy" and he jumped up, put his pants on. He said when he got up, when he first just jumped out of the bed, he said he couldn't, he couldn't breathe. He started gagging because he then couldn't see nothing because it was so black, the smoke was so black and that he was putting his pants on and, and, uh, he said the first thing that he thought about was the twins' room, or the kids' room, because that's where they were all sleeping. And he, uh, went in there and he was screaming for Amber to get out, you know get out the door, get out, and he was calling her
Stacy: He, he, when he, he said when he heard Amber say "Daddy, Daddy" he automatically jumped up and ran to the kids' room because that's where they were all asleep.
Stacy: He thought they were all still in the bedroom, because that's where he'd laid them down and, um, and then, um, he said he was telling Amber, calling for her name and everything and she wouldn't answer. Then he was in the kids' room, you know, feeling of the floor trying to find them and everything. And he said he couldn't find them, and he started screaming again for Amber's name and she wouldn't never answer him. He couldn't find her, so he started trying to kick down the door and stuff, and then apparently he got it down. And then he went outside to catch his breath and stuff and he started back, you know, into the house, but he says he couldn't get in because of the, you know, the flames and stuff.
Stacy: He told me the door was on fire. He said he couldn't open it or nothing, it was just on fire. … He said he kicked it down and then he just went through it.
Stacy: He could just hear her and he thought, he said, he said when he heard her. All he could, he knew he put them all three in their rooms and put them, you know, to just, to go to sleep and he said, uh, that's what he, what he thought they were all still there and when he couldn't find them, he started, you know, he was screaming for her to get out the door. And he started screaming for her again because he couldn't find her and she would never answer him.
Chapter 4: What Willingham Told the Police
On New Year's Eve, Willingham gave an extended interview to police and fire officials. The interview lasted from 11:43 AM to 1:10 PM. Below, I present excerpts from the transcript of that interview. First, however, I describe the editorial changes I have introduced.
Willingham had a propensity to use the speaking crutch "you know" extensively. He used it so frequently that the original transcription is both difficult and annoying to read. I have therefore removed each instance of "you know" from the excerpts I include below.
Willingham had a propensity to join sentences using the word "and." That usage also makes the transcription difficult and annoying to read. I have therefore replaced most such uses of the word "and" with punctuation and capitalization.
Willingham started many thoughts which he never completed. I suspect this is common in such interviews. These unfinished thoughts also add to the difficulty of understanding his statements. I have therefore removed most of them.
The person who transcribed the interview sometimes recorded Willingham as saying "because" and sometimes as saying "cause." I present all such usage as "because."
Except as noted above, I have not otherwise changed the transcript without so indicating with brackets or ellipses.
I have organized the excerpts by topic rather than sequentially as they were reported. Within a topic, the excerpts are presented in the sequence they were spoken.
Events Immediately Preceding the Fire
Willingham: I remember when I woke up it was 9:13. I sat there and [Stacy] left [for work] and everything. Then after she got out of the driveway, I heard the twins cry. So I got up and gave them a bottle. They was [on] the floor at that time. We always let them sleep in the floor there, and I gave them a bottle. Amber was in her bed, so I told her, I said "Do you wanna get up and come in there with Daddy?" She said no, so I told her "Well, lay back down there." So I went back to the bedroom and went back to sleep.
Being Awakened
Willingham: The next thing I remember is hearing "Daddy, Daddy!" When I finally woke up, when I heard that last "Daddy" and I woke up, the house was already full of smoke. It was so thick in there already, I couldn't even see where the exits was from the bedroom. It was so smoky in there already.
Willingham: I was laying on my back on the right side of the bed. When I woke up and opened my eyes and seen the smoke, I never heard her again. I heard the "Daddy, Daddy" and I clicked and opened my eyes. That was last time that I ever heard her, because I called her name over and over again. "Amber, Amber, Amber. Where you at Amber? Amber!" I never heard her again. She never answered me again.
Getting out of Bed
Willingham: When I got up and felt around on the floor for a pair of pants, and finally got a pair of pants on, the only thing I could think to say was "Oh God, Amber, get out of the house! Get out of the house!" I knew that she was in her room. When I went to bed, I knew she was in her room, so that was the first place I thought of trying to get to.
Examining the Hallway
Willingham: It was the first time in my life that I had ever been in a place that was so dark and so smoky that you had to feel your way around. You couldn't see anything. The only place you could tell, the only place you could distinctively tell in the house was the kitchen … because that was the only place that wasn't full of smoke.
Willingham: I noticed that I could still see formations and stuff in the kitchen, but as toward the front of the house, you couldn't see nothing but black.
Willingham: There wasn't as much smoke in [the kitchen]. I could tell that from standing in the hall that there wasn't as much smoke. So as you look toward the front of the house, though, it was black. Boy! You couldn't seen nothing. Because our door had three windows in the door and I couldn't even see through them. All you could see was black.
Willingham: I never thought about going to the back door, because I knew it would be too much trouble to get all that stuff undone. That's why I went ahead and went to, because that's where my babies was anyway, so that's where I was gonna be anyway, so I knew the front of the house was gonna be the easiest part.
Willingham: I got into the hallway. There was smoke and stuff. I yanked the kitchen door open. I noticed I could still see forms in the kitchen. As I looked toward the front of the house, the house was real black and lots of smoke. That's when I bent down and started making my way to their room. I just kinda of crouched down and walked kinda down the side of the wall.
Examining the Children's Room
Willingham: After I made my way into the hall, I was crouched down about as far as I could get without crawling, because the smoke was so bad. When I finally made it to the twins' doorway, I knew that there was fire in there. But there was so much smoke in there, I couldn't actually see fire. I could just see orange, and I knew it was already, I could feel the heat real bad already.
Willingham: God, the whole room! The fire was on top. It was in their room. The only place I could ever see fire, it was in their room. And you know, I noticed that it was around top of the walls. It seemed like it wasn't down on the floor, because it wasn't eye level, because I had to look up to see it.
Willingham: I know that I never seen no flames anywhere, except in their room. It was the only place I could have seen flames.
Willingham: The flames was in their room. That's the only place that I recognized flame … Real, very bright orange. Not, not like a campfire orange. Not like an open fire is, where you can see it, because I couldn't see it for the smoke. I could see the orange. I could see the orange glow. It was more like a light. It was more like … real bright lights. Because the smoke had kinda tempered the glare.
Willingham: [The smoke was at] the top of the roof. Around the top [of the] room, around the ceiling part. Where it joins. Where it joins the ceiling and the roof is some more where I could see it. I knew it was up higher. I know it wasn't down low, and it wasn't on the floor, not that I could see. The only place I could see flames was in the top.
Willingham: I never seen any actual flames, I never seen any actual orange flame or anything, nothing that I could relate that would be fire. Because I never seen any fire until I got to this doorway. That was the first time I seen fire.
Willingham: I think it started in their room for the simple fact that that's the only place I'd seen flames.
Entering the Children's Room
Cameron Todd Willingham claimed he entered the children's bedroom and searched futilely for the children. According to David Grann in his New Yorker article "Trial by Fire," Willingham later confessed to his parents that he lied about one portion of his behavior that day: he never entered the children's bedroom. "I just didn't want people to think I was a coward."
Gerald Hurst explained to David Grann that such behavior was not unusual. “People who have never been in a fire don’t understand why those who survive often can’t rescue the victims. They have no concept of what a fire is like.”
In his extended police interview, Willingham would describe the intensity: "And the fire is not what was singeing my hair. It was the heat, just from standing up. The heat was so great in there that, that it, it just -- Oh God! I never felt anything that hot before."
The excerpts you are about to read regarding Willingham's search in the children's room are fabrications, and obviously so. Willingham claims he stayed in the children's room for two or three minutes. He would have succumbed to the smoke. He would have suffered far more serious burns than he did. Willingham claims he felt the toy plastic slide already melting. The hot, melting plastic would have left evidence of that contact on his fingers.
Willingham: After I got into I got into their room, I stood up. As soon as I stood up, I caught my hair on fire, so I bent back down and put my hair out and just stayed down low. That's when I went to feeling around on the floor, because I knew kinda where I left them. I was feeling for them and everything, and I kept calling Amber's name, and calling her name, and trying to find the babies and stuff. I couldn't find them. I kept looking and finally I felt a baby bottle. I had just gave them a bottle not very long ago. I kept looking for them, and kept looking for them, and I never could find them. And they just wasn't nowhere. They just wasn't nowhere around right there at the time.
Willingham: Finally stuff started falling off the ceiling, I don't know what it was. I guess maybe paper or something, stuff like that. Well something had fell off. I think … something had either fell off the wall or fell off the ceiling, and that's what got my shoulder.
Willingham: I just crouched down and [proceeded] up the hall, and when I got to there I felt the door. I felt their gate. I felt their gate is what I felt. We had a gate there. As I went over the gate into their room, that is when I stood up and my hair was on fire.
Willingham: As I came into the room, I could feel the baby crib there. That's when I went straight to the middle of the room. I was feeling around the floor. I thought I found one of them once, but it was a doll. They had a big doll that was just like a real baby. I picked it up and I started feeling of it and everything. I finally could feel the hair and I knew it wasn't it. So I [threw] it down and got to feeling, and the only thing I ever found was a baby bottle.
Willingham: After I searched the room and stuff, like I said things was starting to fall off the ceiling. What it be was paper, or whatever it was, and things. I made my way back to their door.
Willingham: I knew the dresser was there. I could feel the dresser around them, and I was feeling as far as I could with my hands around in the area. I felt the slide, and the slide had already started to melt. Then I could tell that the slide had already started to decompose. Then I felt all the back here beside Amber's bed. I felt on top of Amber's bed and she wasn't there. So I thought "Well, she's gotta be in here somewhere." I kept feeling for her. I stayed in there as long as I could, but I felt myself passing out, because … I guess you can't stay in very long. I've never been through it before so I can't say. Maybe probably two, three, maybe three and a half minutes that I was actually in their room probably.
Willingham: Then I stayed crouched down the whole time. Well, I had to step over their gate. That was the one of the main reason that I stood higher up. When I got inside their room I just stood up. That's when it caught my hair on fire.
Exiting the House
Willingham: Finally I got back out of the room and went to the front door. I thought "Naw, I might, I just ought just stay in here." I remember thinking "I'll just stay in here." And I remember then that the door and stuff was already smoking. The door, you know, might already been fixing to catch fire.
Willingham: Then the front door was just right here. I made it from their door and I got to the front door and I checked to make sure whether the door handle was hot or not. And it wasn't, so I just yanked it and just ripped the door open, and went on through the screen and outside the house.
Willingham: The door knob wasn't hot, because I checked the door knob first. I checked the door knob before I went out, and the door knob wasn't hot enough to burn you. Because I remember yanking it open and it didn't burn my skin when I yanked it open.
Getting his Breath
Willingham: And after I got out the front door, and got through the screen, and got on the front yard, [I] got my breath back.
Willingham: After I got out of the house, I came down the steps. I stumbled more or less down the steps, because I guess from being in there I couldn't really focus real good yet. I stood there and got my breath back.
Willingham: I got down on the ground. I … came straight out the door and kinda fell down the steps because I couldn't see. I was still blinded from being in there.
Willingham: Right then, all I could see was really, just real bad smoke, you know, you could see the roof smoldering from smoke coming through. But see I never stopped right here really. I went straight from the door all the way out into the yard. I got completely out from under the house … the first time as I come down the steps. That's when I sit there and got my breath back.
Seeing his Neighbors Arrive
Willingham: After I got in the front yard, I seen the neighbors. I guess I kinda seen them, because I knew there was somebody over there. That's when I told them to "Call the fire department. My babies is in there and I can't get them out."
Willingham: I was breathing, trying to get my breath back. That's when I looked up and noticed that the neighbor was outside the house there. I told her to "Call the fire department. My babies is inside. Call the fire department. I can't get them out. Please call the fire department."
Breaking the Front Windows
Willingham: I got up and was gonna try go back in the house again, but it was already so bad. So there's two windows right here. Well, there was a pool stick that I had been using to prop the Cadillac hood open with. … Well I knocked the windows out with that, you know. I was gonna try and knock the windows out there and try to go back in, but as soon as I was knocking the windows out, the flames were just coming out of the windows.
Willingham: That's when I went back up on the porch. I couldn't get inside the door again. Flames and stuff was already there. That's when I went to the windows. Maybe I could get through the windows. … I busted this window out first. Flames came through it, so I busted this one out and flames came through it. I knew that I wouldn't be able to get through that one either. … The porch and stuff [had] already started catching fire real good then. So I got back off the porch.
Willingham: I went back on the porch to the left window of the house. I broke it out and flames came through the window. They came through as soon as I broke the glass. So I went to the other window and did the same thing, and flames came through there. So I knew I wouldn't be able to get back through there. The flames was coming up pretty good then, so I got off the porch.
Willingham: Well I went right to the door again … but it was too hot. … I didn't see any actual flames that I could remember. I noticed there was a lot of smoke. … I broke the windows out. That's when I seen flames come through the windows.
The Electrical System
Willingham: We had squirrels in the attic too. One night we was getting a suitcase out of the attic, or something, just a cardboard box to put things in. Well I, stupid, I left the attic door off and two squirrels they got [out of] the attic and got down inside the house that night. Well, we always kept the back of the house shut off, and Stacy woke me about 8:00 that morning and said there's squirrels in the house, there's a squirrel in the house. Well, that was Sunday. Sunday was when I killed the squirrel. I caught him in the back room and killed him and everything. Then we put the door back on the attic and we never heard any more squirrels. Naw, I take that back. It was Saturday. Saturday I did that. Saturday morning I did that, and then Sunday, and then Monday the house burned down.
Willingham: But about a week prior, we noticed that the squirrels. You could lay down at night in bed, you could hear the squirrels chewing on the rafters and stuff like that. That's when we decided we needed to get rid of them. But I didn't have to. They did it for us. They got down inside of the house where I could get a hold of them.
Willingham: You could be in the kitchen every once in a while and have stuff on and be cooking, and then put something in the microwave and hit the button on the microwave and you'd blow the fuse. I pointed at Mr. Palos. I pointed the fuse out to him. That was the only fuse we ever had that would blow on us.
Willingham: Our microwave blew up about three weeks prior to this, and the smell that the microwave made was the same smell that was in the house. All you could smell was I guess wire and stuff like that. You could smell electrical wiring and stuff. Also, I never really could see, but I was noticing like the plug ins and light switches and stuff, you could hear them popping. You could hear the light switches and stuff popping.
Willingham: From what the smell inside the house was, I figure it might have been electrical, cause of the smell. I don't know. Maybe every house smells like that. I ain't never been in a house like that before, that's burning. I've been in a house fire before, but just like when something had caught on fire, like a grease fire or something, and you put it out in the kitchen, and stuff like that.
Willingham: But the firemen got there, the firemen got there quick, real quick. When they got there, that's when the fuse box started blowing. It was just blowing fuses completely out of the fuse box. You can tell that the 220 fuse box that's up there -- Shoot!
Willingham: Also there was a live wire. There was also a live wire outside the house, because I seen the firemen messing with it … where it connected to the house, right there by the front porch. It was down in the yard and it was live, because I seen it pop two or three times.
Willingham: Like I said, about three weeks, maybe a month, I'm not real sure, we had a microwave that we used all the time. Well, Stacy was in the kitchen cooking. I was asleep and she come and woke me and said "The … microwave blew up." And I said "Do what?" And she said "The microwave blew up." So I got up out of bed, and I could smell the wires that was inside the microwave. You could turn the microwave on and it would smoke, so that's when we unplugged it and stuff. But you could smell the wires and things that had been burning in there. And I know what electrical wires smells like, because I'm a mechanic. I've seen cars catch on fire. … When Amber woke me up and I finally opened my eyes and got out of bed, that's all I could smell was the smell that that microwave had been putting off … The burnt rubber and wires and casings and stuff like that, and it was the same smell. But I don't know whether wood and wire puts off two different kinds of smoke or anything, but I know it wasn't gray. I know it was black. It was just soot black.
Willingham: The instant I jumped out of bed and smelled the smoke, the first thing I could think was microwave. I could associate it with the smell with the microwave. I would say it was the same smell. Now when you walk in the house, all you can smell is burnt wood. But at that time, with all the smoke and everything, all I could smell was that smell right there.
Willingham: I think it was electrical. Yeah. Because of the smell that was in the house, the light sockets and stuff blowing sparks, the plug-ins blowing sparks, the fuse box blowing up after I got outside the house, the fuse box just completely blowing up, even in the front of the fuse box where the little, where ... the meter that goes around. It even blowed it off. Blowed the glass off of it and everything. You can tell it's all gone. I think it was electrical. I'm not an expert. I don't know anything, just what I think from the smell that was in the house and stuff, I think that it might had been electrical. That puts me back to thinkin' about the squirrels that was in the attic. Because we had squirrels for a long time, but we just never got rid of 'em 'til a couple of days before.
The Space Heaters
Willingham: We had three heaters in the house. The whole house, the entire house just had three outlet[s]. That was it. That was the reason for the tin foil on the windows and the back door being taped up. My wife did all that because it was so cold in that house. The only place we had a heater was in the hall, the bathroom, and the twins' room. You see the twins' room used to be a living room.
Willingham: There was a space heater in this corner right, right over here. … There was never anything around it. The kids knew not to touch it. They knew. You could take one of the twins and set them down in front of that heater and lift their hand up to it, and let them go, and they would turn around and go the other way. Stacy taught them that. And I taught Amber not to play with it either. Amber knew better. Amber got whuppings every once in a while for messing with it. She wouldn't stick stuff in it, but it might be her hands, and playing with, and just stuff. She knew not to be messing with stuff like that.
Willingham: I kinda figure that if the heater would have started it, maybe that more of the house would have been burnt on that corner there or something. Because the flames was in the top of the house, right there, around the whatever you call that, between the ceiling and the wall. That's where all the flames was. I know it was hot in there because that house has got like nine foot ceilings, I would guess.
The Written Statement
After his interview with police and fire officials, Willingham provided a written statement. From that statement, we learn the following:
Willingham: On Dec. 23 at 9:20 A.M. I got up out of bed to get the twins a bottle. I gave both Karmon and Kameron a bottle and put them to sleep. Amber, my 2 year old, was in her bed. I asked her if she wanted to go to bed with Daddy. She said no. I told her to lay back down. I then went back to bed. The next thing I heard was "Daddy, Daddy." I woke up and the house was full of smoke I said "Oh God, Amber, get out of the house." I felt on the floor and found the jeans I had on the night before. I went out of the bedroom into the hall. I opened the kitchen door and there wasn't as much smoke. I looked toward the front of the house. It was worse. I got to the babies' bedroom. I stepped into the room and stood up. The heat or the fire caught my hair on fire. I put my hair out and got down low on the floor. I felt all around the room where I had left the babies asleep and around other parts of the room I couldn't find them. I felt my way around more. The flames that I could see were at the top of the room around the walls. I got to the door, felt the door knob to see if it was hot. I yanked at the door 2 or 3 times before it came free. I went through the door down the steps, stood there, got my breath back and tried to go back in the doorway. It was too hot. I went to the windows to try there. I broke the left one first and flames came out where I broke the window. I went to the next window. The same thing happened. The fire was getting worse. Then I got off the porch.
Chapter 5: What Douglas Fogg Told the Jury
Douglas Fogg was, at the time of the Willingham fire, the Assistant Fire Chief for the Corsicana Fire Department. He had been employed at the department for 22 years. He was at another structure fire when the alarm came in for the fire on West 11th street. Since there were children still in the house at West 11th, he left immediately to assist.
When he arrived, he found heavy fire and smoke at the front of the house. Willingham was screaming "My babies are in the house." Some electrical lines had broken away from the house and were still popping in the front yard.
He instructed one firefighter to attend Willingham. He relieved another of a water hose so that firefighter could don an air pack and enter the house. Fogg aimed the water from the fire hose through the front window and front door of the burning house.
Once the fire was extinguished and the bodies were removed from the house, Chief Fogg began his investigation into the origin and cause of the fire. The following quotes are from his trial testimony. Recall that north is to the bottom of the floor plan, so that the northeast bedroom is the children's bedroom.
Fogg: Initially, we started looking in the front hallway, northeast [children's] bedroom area of the house. That was the area of most fire damage. Initially, we started looking for accidental causes of the fire. We started eliminating those in the northeast bedroom. One of the first things we looked for was the space heater. The space heater was located in the southeast corner of the bedroom. The stop along the east wall or gas outlet along the east wall was found to be in the "off" position. We eliminated that space heater. We started looking for electrical shorts from wiring which was visible in the bedroom. We found no electrical shorts in the bedroom. … There was a light switch by the front door facing. The wires were intact. No evidence of electrical short. … We even had the gas company come out and do a leak test and bar test where they punch holes, checking for gas leaks, which they found none. The electrical, you look at the electrical wiring for evidence of shorts from the outlets, from fixtures, so forth. There again, those were eliminated.
Fogg mentioned the gas company performed a leak test and a bar test. A bar hole is a small-diameter hole bored into the soil to allow insertion of a combustible gas indicator. Basically, bar testing is checking for underground leaks.
From the photo of the front of the house, presented earlier and repeated below, it looks as if the gas company did more than a leak test and a bar test. That photo was taken four days after the fire. It appears that the gas company removed the gas meter. Later pictures of the house after restoration show the gas meter installed at the front of the house, beneath the windows framed by the thin blue shutters, where one pipe protrudes from the ground and a second protrudes into the crawl space beneath the house. The gas meter seemingly fit between (and connected) those two pipes.
If the gas outlet valve along the east wall was in the "off" position at the time of the fire, if that valve prevented gas from reaching the space heater in the children's bedroom, then the fire could not have been caused by Amber playing with the space heater. Neither attorney, however, questioned Chief Fogg about the details of his examination. Neither asked Chief Fogg if he was the first firefighter to examine the heater after the fire. No one asked if the valve might have been turned to the "off" position by a firefighter securing the house against potential explosion. Chief Fogg was, after all, sufficiently concerned about gas leaks that he asked the gas company to examine the gas system and declare it safe.
Neither attorney questioned Chief Fogg about the status of the control valve on the heater itself. No one apparently found it odd that Stacy and Todd would control the heater by reaching around it to adjust the gas outlet valve. No one asked either Stacy or Todd during their police interview if they controlled the heater in such a fashion.
Below, I present for a second time a photo of the space heater in the children's bedroom. The east wall is the wall to the left. No gas outlet valve along the east wall is visible. I suspect, but do not know, that the gas line entered the house through the hole near the floor at the juncture of the east and south walls. If so, that would indicate the gas line had been removed before this photo was taken, four days after the fire.
Rather than providing details about the space heater, Chief Fogg was more interested in what he described as evidence of pour patterns, a low-burning fire, and the use of an accelerant.
Fogg: And as we started removing debris then from the floor, as we had low burn, we started finding configurations of puddling effect, pouring effect of a liquid or what we would consider a liquid being used to accelerate a fire.
Fogg: From there we started going to the deep burn or lowest burn areas that we found deepest burns, being floor level in the hallway and followed that into the bedroom, northeast bedroom where the two twins were found. We removed some of the debris. We had to punch holes in the floor to allow some of the water to drain out and. as the water drained down, more patterns -- we call them pour patterns, puddling effects were evidenced on the floor. We started removing debris from the floor and additional areas of low burn. Floor level burns were noted.
The photo below shows the patterns of which Chief Fogg spoke. The area appears to be the hallway just outside the children's bedroom. The vertical column at the top of the photo, the one closer to the center, is the doorframe. The other vertical column is a bedpost.
Fogg: Not only did we attempt to connect the low burn on the floor configurations, it actually ended up starting on the front porch, through the threshold of the front door into the hallway, very minutely linked to the bedroom. Then the patterns in the bedroom were interlinked.
Fogg: When a fire normally burns, it burns up. As heat rises flames go up. This burning characteristic had fire going under the threshold plate, which is very unusual in that it should have been protected from flame itself under that base plate. [I attribute that to] liquid being used to accelerate the fire.
Douglas Fogg concluded that the fire resulted from arson. He decided to contact the State Fire Marshal's office, specifically Manuel Vasquez, and have him conduct a formal investigation.
Fogg: Christmas day I made the decision to go ahead and call them and it was December the 26th that I actually placed the call. … Initially, upon arrival, he came down -- was here December the 27th. We visited the fire scene. I stayed back, and he walked through the fire scene. Then we got together and matched my findings to what he saw and came to the same conclusion that we had a deliberately set fire.
Chapter 6: What James Palos Told the Jury
To test for the presence of accelerants, James Palos collected samples from throughout the house. Palos collected wood, glass, metal, and carpet samples from the front door area, the hallway, and from the children's bedroom. Eventually, thirteen samples would be tested for accelerants. Palos' testimony would focus on two of those samples, the only two that tested positive for a potential accelerant. The potential accelerant in this case was light oil frequently used as lighter fluid.
Palos: My name is James Palos. … I'm the fire marshal at the Corsicana Fire Department. … My duties … include inspections on various businesses, investigation of fires and public education.
Palos: The alarm came in at 10:24 in the morning and other units responded at that time. I was tied up in another structure fire. I was gathering my information, and I arrived at the one on West 11th at approximately, say, 11:00 o'clock that morning.
During his testimony, Palos identified various items (and photos of items) as samples he collected for testing.
Palos: That is at the front door, the wooden threshold. … I obtained a sample from this area because of the unusual burn characteristics on the wood. … [T]hey cut [it out] with a saw. … I took my sample, I placed it in a container which I myself sealed; and I tagged it with an evidence tag and placed it in my van.
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