Reporter’s Notebook: Skillicorn and the Mexico murder

When Dennis Skillicorn was picked up by California Highway Patrol and turned over to the FBI, he was pretty fried. On the run, he’d spent weeks with little food, even less sleep, and God knows how much meth. Meth, he explained to me during our prison interview at Potosi, can turn reality into a paranoid, shape-shifting nightmare.

“It will literally have you shooting the neighbor’s cat because you think he might have a radio transmitter in his collar or something ridiculous,” Skillicorn told me. “When you first start using it, it gives you that sense of euphoria, just like cocaine. But I done a lot of cocaine, and on cocaine, the next day, you may feel like crap, but you’re somewhat back to normal. This has long-term effects on your psychosis.”

So when Skillicorn gave a statement about his life on the run to the FBI, he mentioned something that, he says now, was the product of a meth-induced fantasy.

The FBI’s report on Skillicorn’s statement, dated October 6, 1994, says that while Skillicorn and Allen Nicklasson were in Tecate, Mexico, they stopped at a roadside diner. “It was very dusty,” it reads. “NICKLASSON and SKILLICORN decided to rob the diner and NICKLASSON said, ‘You do this one.’ SKILLICORN said, ‘No problem.’ They were not sure if it was a restaurant, so they took the time to see of anyone else was in the establishment [sic]. NICKLASSON sat at a chair by a table. SKILLICORN pulled out a pistol, cocked it and pointed it at a Mexican woman standing by a counter. The woman continually asked, ‘Huevos and ham?’ SKILLICORN again yelled at her to give him pesos, but she simply asked, ‘Huevos and ham?’ NICKLASSON stood up and shot the woman dead. SKILLICORN and NICKLASSON argued with each other. SKILLICORN stated NICKLASSON used the same .22 caliber nickel plated gun. SKILLICORN had the .38 caliber ‘snubby’. Both guns had sentimental value to SKILLICORN and NICKLASSON.”