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Tuesday, September 28, 2004 --
12:45 PM
The witness, who visited the set of the victim's film and had a prior
association with the victim, was
interviewed at the Yoknapatawpha County Sheriff's Office. The interview was conducted by Detectives Armstrong and Murphy and was
recorded on a portable tape recorder with the witness' knowledge and
consent.
- TA = Detective T. Armstrong
- SM = Detective S. Murphy
- DB = Dorian Butler
SM: Would you please state your name, age, address and
occupation for the record?
DB: Helen Troy. I'm 27. My address is 333 Texas St, Shreveport,
Louisiana. Until this morning, I was working on a goat farm in Holly
Springs.
TA: Now, ma'am, is Helen Troy the name your parents gave you?
DB: It's the name I use.
TA: What name did your parents give you?
DB: Dorian Butler
TA: But you don't use that name?
DB: I do sometimes.
SM: Ms. Butler, you gave an address in Shreveport, but when
was the last time you were there?
DB: Well... it's been a few months, I guess, but it's still
what you'd call my permanent address.
SM: Where have you been all the time you've been away from
there?
DB: I wanted to take some quiet time for myself, so I went to
a place I'd heard about around here called the Heartsong Collective. You
know... where you met me this morning?
TA: You heard about it, did you?
DB: Yes, I did.
TA: Where did you hear about it?
DB: I heard it was a place that was welcoming to women who
needed a place to get away and that's what I was looking for.
TA: Okay, but my question was, where did you hear about it,
not what you heard about it.
DB: I don't remember where I heard about it. I just did.
SM: Fine. Please tell us about your relationship with Corwin
Fitz.
DB: I have no relationship with Corwin Fitz.
TA: Now, we know that's not true. We know you put a lot of
effort into finding out the location of the lodge where he was filming
his movie. We know you visited that lodge to... should we call it,
audition?
DB: That was not an audition. That was just a reminder of what
he could have had. And Corwin Fitz was not there. Corwin Fitz doesn't
exist. Don't you know that?
TA: Then who was the man you went there to see? You told
Wilbur Pratt you were looking for Corwin Fitz.
DB: I told him that because he knew him as Corwin Fitz, not
Darrell Beck.
SM: Fine. Tell us about your relationship with Darrell Beck.
DB: I've known Darrell for a long time My whole life.
TA: Really? The two of you grew up together?
DB: No, that's not what I mean. I mean, in this life and all
my lives, I've always known him.
TA: Okay. Let's talk about only this life, all right? How did
you meet him?
DB: I didn't meet him. We always knew each other.
TA: Okay, fine. When did you last see him?
DB: I saw him at the lodge.
TA: The question was when did you last see him, not where.
DB: I heard you.
SM: How would you characterize your relationship with Darrell
Beck?
DB: We're soulmates. Yin and yang. Two sides of the same coin.
I am him and he is me.
TA: See now, when we talked to Robert Price, he told us that
he was you and you were him.
DB: How is Robert these days?
TA: Well, he's locked up.
DB: Yes, that's what I heard.
SM: Have you been to see him in prison?
DB: No. I don't like to go to places like that. It's too
depressing, especially when someone you care about is confined in such a
horrible place.
SM: So when was the last time you spoke to Robert Price?
DB: Oh, I don't know. It's been a few months maybe.
SM: What did you talk about then?
DB: We talked about Corwin Fitz. We often talk about Corwin
Fitz.
TA: So just who is Corwin Fitz?
DB: Corwin Fitz is no one. Corwin Fitz... is everyone. Corwin
Fitz is anybody, and anybody who wants to can be Corwin Fitz.
TA: Have you ever been Corwin Fitz?
DB: No.
TA: Who has?
DB: Darrell, obviously. And Robert. There may have been
others. I don't know.
TA: Why would someone want to be Corwin Fitz instead of who
they already are?
DB: Why does anybody want to be a different person?
SM: You know, Ms. Butler, we're not going to get very far if
you keep answering our questions with other questions.
TA: That's right. The way this works is, we ask a question and
you answer it.
DB: My answer is a question.
TA: All right, enough of this. Let's get to it. We believe you
killed Darrell Beck.
DB: Really.
TA: Yes.
DB: What makes you say that?
TA: Because the evidence tells us he was killed by someone not
in the lodge when we arrived, and that includes you.
DB: But Detective, there was a whole world of people not in
the lodge that morning. Certainly not just me.
TA: But you're the one whose bloody fingerprints are on one of
the weapons used in the murder.
DB: Not everything is what it seems to be. That's something I
learned from Darrell.
TA: Yes, we've seen some of the videos you made with Corw--
Darrell and Robert.
DB: And?
TA: That was quite a scam you three were running. That... what
do you call it? Guerilla theatre?
DB: Guerilla theatre isn't a scam. It helps people truly
experience what it means to be alive by suddenly injecting danger into
their otherwise-routine lives.
TA: Okay, so what happened to Darrell? Because he was
experiencing danger all right, but it didn't exactly help him find out
what it means to be alive, seeing as how he ended up dead.
DB: If you're looking for someone who was pulling a scam, I
suggest you look at Darrell and not at me. He was a liar and I imagine
he made any number of people want to kill him. I couldn't have been the
only one.
SM: You wanted to kill him?
DB: Of course. He could be a very frustrating, exasperating,
hurtful man.
SM: What did he do to hurt you?
DB: More things than I could ever tell you.
SM: You don't have to tell us all of them. Maybe you could
just tell us the worst thing he ever did?
DB: He wanted me to believe he was dead. Now I do.
TA: What do you mean? You thought he was dead before?
DB: I don't want to talk about this any more.
TA: You thought he was dead and when you found out he wasn't,
you killed him? Is that what happened?
DB: I said, I don't want to talk about this any more.
SM: Well, Ms. Butler, you don't have to talk to us about this
any more for right now. But we are going to arrest you for the murder of
Darrell Beck. We're going to put you in a cell and then we're going to
search the goat farm and everywhere around there. Because of you, we
have to disturb all those women who are just looking for a little peace.
But we're going to do it because you strike me as the sentimental type,
and my guess is we'll find the murder gun there. Once we have that gun,
you can join your friend Robert in that depressing prison.
DB: We all do what we have to do, Detective.
TA: Just one more thing, Dorian. I'm curious. Why did you take
the key to the editing room from Darrell? Did you get something out of
that room?
DB: If you could have the key to your soulmate's heart,
wouldn't you take it?
Interview ends -- 1:22 PM |
