But Echolss situation changed Baldwins thinking. He retired from the US Air Force, and he was the Deputy Supervisor for Polk County Supervisor of Elections. And they used that visibility to help raise funds for the defense. It's one. The consequences of that online campaign were ruinous: The person they targeted, a Mexican metal musician who worked under the name Morbid, was harassed into hiding. The knife was thrown into the lake by Baldwin's mother a year before the murders. But on the subject of Paradise Lost, he speaks emphatically: He understands how important the movies were in helping him, Echols, and Misskelley walk free 10 years ago this August. After roughly 18 months of editing, Paradise Lost debuted at Sundance in January 1996 before heading out to other festivals. Wading into the murky water, Allen unknowingly dislodged the pale, grotesquely arched form of Micheal Moore. Over two decades after the murders, what really happened to Stevie Branch, Christopher Byers, and Michael Moore on the evening of May 5, 1993, remains a mystery. Sheriff's deputies in Calhoun County say Terry Hobbs was reported missing on Saturday, April 20, 2019. Auburndale, FL - TSGT Terry Lee Hobbs, USAF, ret. The whole point of the web sleuths presented in the Cecil Hotel is that you cannot assume something is truthful just because circumstantially it seems interesting. Covered in wounds, all three showed signs of having been beaten. Now, evidence from the case of the West Memphis Three is either missing or destroyed. Then youd try to find it, and it didnt exist, because when we went out to discussion groups, no one knew about the case yet., After learning that the teens were still in prison, Bakken, Sauls, and Pashley decided to make full use of the budding technological revolution. During the final year of the two-year span, from July 2021 to July 2022, California lost about 211,000 people, according to data from the state Department of Finance. Over the years there has been lots of speculation and finger pointing as to who was responsible. Hobbs said, I still believe in my heart that Jessie, Jason, and Damion Echols are responsible for what happened to our children., He added, You look at what happened and then you wonder, what if this did not happen, where would our boys be today? The governor of the state of Arkansas who will one day pardon the West Memphis Three is probably in junior high right now, he says. The specter of the church looms over Paradise Lost, best represented by an early scene in which Mark Byers leads his congregation in prayer and song. So when I saw this tiny little article in the Times, I wasnt about to free anybody that was guilty. A graveside service will be conducted on Wednesday, March 17 at Cloverdale Memorial Park beginning at 11am.
California exodus continues as population drops by 500,000 - Los Among them was a disoriented, muddy, and bleeding African-American man who stumbled into a West Memphis Bojangles restaurant men's room less than a mile from the crime scene. The pair abruptly fled to Oceanside, Calif., four days after the murders. If the state of Arkansas has a deep and abiding belief that the West Memphis Three are child murderers and did these terrible crimes, then shame on them for letting them out after 18 and a half years because a bunch of celebrities are whining about it, Berlinger says. (Despite Misskelleys statement, the coroners examination found no injuries on the victims consistent with sexual assault.) Michelle McNamara helped crack the Golden State Killer case by poring over thousands of pages of case files while working on her book Ill Be Gone in the Dark, which was published two years after her 2016 death, while Chris Lambert and his podcast Your Own Backyard were highlighted by authorities after two arrests in April in connection with the 1996 disappearance of Cal Poly student Kristin Smart. Hobbs described what it was like the day the three walked free. Mara Leveritt, a journalist who followed the case throughout the 1990s and wrote the 2002 book Devils Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three, calls the strain of Christianity that runs through the region very literal and says that even her children faced harassment as teenagers for playing Dungeons & Dragons and listening to Ozzy Osbourne. To authorities working in West Memphisa largely Southern Baptist communitysatanic activity seemed to be the most likely cause for the killings, in part because the boys bodies were bound and appeared to have been mutilated. (Its worth noting that despite the issues raised by Lindseys work, the first season of Up and Vanished renewed interest in the case, which ultimately led to arrests, albeit of people that Lindsey hadnt previously covered on the podcast.). By the time she got done watching it, her life was forever changed.
Terry Hobbs - Sweetwater, Texas , Cate Spencer and Trent Funeral Home The three have always maintained their innocence. The state of Arkansas continues to attempt to prevent this testing from happening., New technology and advances in science would now allow us to test DNA in amounts so small that it would have been previously impossible. It was born out of genuine admiration for the fact that these guys took the time out of their lives to dedicate, to go down to Arkansas, to build a website, to really step out of their lives, Berlinger says.
Terry Hobbs Obituary (2021) - Nampa, ID - Idaho Press Tribune - Legacy.com Investigators kept minimal notes and omitted pertinent details including criminal records. Terry Hobbs, Actor: Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers. But the lawyer quickly noticed inconsistencies in Misskelleys purported confession. 24 to Jun. He died on April 4, 2019 in Panama City Beach, Florida, USA. Main Page; So with less urgency surrounding full exoneration and no documentary cameras rolling, the question 25 years later becomes: Who is paying close enough attention to the case to pick up the fight? The nonprofits work hasnt always been easyfundraising is hard, and because hes a convicted felon, hes unable to visit clients in prison or discuss pleasbut its been essential for him as he strives to live the words by 14th-century Persian poet Hafez that he keeps as an email signature: The small man builds cages for everyone he knows / While the sage, who has to duck his head when the moon is low / Keeps dropping keys all night long for the beautiful rowdy prisoners. Baldwin says hes learned that justice isnt a computer programthat you can input all the evidence and testimony and still get the wrong results.
Evidence in West Memphis Three case missing or destroyed - Action News 5 "They said close to the crime scene because at one time I did walk near where they had found the kids with Terry Hobbs But I didn't wear hats back then, my hair could have blown around anywhere, Jacoby told Memphis NBC affiliate WMC-TV in 2013. Replacing Burnett was Circuit Court Judge David Laser. One of the prosecution's key pieces of evidence linking Jason Baldwin to the crime a survival knife with a serrated edge recovered from a lake behind his home has also come under scrutiny. But they werent just voices in the growing choir calling for the West Memphis Threes releasethey were leading the movement. Terry Castleman is a data . Rollins not only gave interviews to keep the effort alive in the press, he organized a string of benefit shows and released an album featuring Iggy Pop and Chuck D, with proceeds going to the defense. Echols tweeted, New technology and evidence in science would now allow us to test DNA in amounts so small that it would have been previously impossible. Im seeing the things I experienced, but not through my own point of view. We were mainly in it for the aesthetics of filmmaking, but the last scene of Paradise Lost, when Damien is chained up and sent away to death row, that was just heartbreaking and devastating for us, Berlinger says. That didn't make sense to me. Mojo, however, was considerably more fired up, believing the same thing many of Paradise Losts viewers did: that the movie showed an incredible miscarriage of justice, one that would surely be fixed. Pam Hobbs divorced Terry Hobbs in 2004 and has reversed her position on the West Memphis Three's guilt. Update: I was totally wrong. The footage included raw jailhouse interviews with the defendants, strategy sessions held by legal teams on both sides, and extended monologues from Mark Byers, the tall, goateed stepfather of one of the victims, who spoke as though he were reciting the Book of Revelation and who, at one point in Paradise Lost, fired a handgun at a pumpkin while reciting the names of the accused. . eyewitness evidence surfaced 16 years later. Heavy metal music, role playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, and horror movies were regarded as gateways to evil. Paradise Lost also led to a famous citizen-activist campaign championing the release of the three teens that caught on at the dawn of the Internet Age and would eventually pull in Eddie Vedder, Henry Rollins, and a whos who of the rich and famous. The idea of killer teens in the Christian South, not any greater sense of purpose, was mainly what intrigued Sheila Nevins, then the head of HBOs documentary division, when she spotted a story about the case on the inside pages of The New York Times. Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of West Memphis Three murder victim Stevie Branch, has denied any involvement in slayings of Branch and his two friends. . Terry Wayne Hobbs was born on May 21st, 1958. He graduated from Sweetwater High School in 1977. Robin Lynn Jones. I didn't even comprehend that the situation could get this serious that it can go this far. Classmates at Weaver Elementary School, the three were active in their Cub Scout troop and responsible enough to be trusted to roam their neighborhood without supervision. Produced and directed by filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, the film and its two sequels, Paradise Lost 2: Revelations and Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, gave audiences a unique and detailed look into the case, the accused, and the families of victims. As for Paradise Lost, it was the inciting incident in the two-decade chain of events that led to the release of the West Memphis Three. And the seemingly endless stream of threats against them and the frequent clashes with Mark Byers did nothing to dissuade them. In 1996, HBO released the documentary film Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills. Coverage of the latest true crime stories and famous cases explained, as well as the best TV shows, movies and podcasts in the genre.
Terry Hobbs Obituary - Death Notice and Service Information Hide Self (6 credits) 2012 48 Hours: Hard Evidence (TV Series) Self. Theres no smoking gun. Make a life-giving gesture Earlier this year, he told Action News 5 he welcomes new DNA testing. Even though they said they didnt murder the three boys, they are technically convicted killers. She also stated that beyond the single meeting at her trailer, she had no further contact with Echols. Inconsistencies in Terry Hobbs' alibi, as well as revelations about subsequent violent acts, have also led many to believe that he may be the actual killer. Now a judgewho coincidentally works part time in the courtroom where Misskelley was convictedStidham spends time speaking to law students about the judicial system. The sheer mountain moving amount of money it cost to prove the obvious innocence of Jessie, Jason, and Damien still staggers me. The concept of citizen investigations intrigues Berlinger just as much as it did in the 1990s, though today hes often more concerned with the moral implications.
It was also revealed in 2012 that Hobbs nephew allegedly told his friends, My Uncle Terry murdered those three little boys," and that the killings were a Hobbs family secret, according to WMC-TV. As more people learned about the case from Paradise Lost and the work of people like Bakken and Sauls, the phrase Free the West Memphis Three caught on as a slogan for progressive musicians and actors in the 1990s, up there with Save the Rainforest and Free Tibet. Eddie Vedder became an early leading voice, soon followed by the likes of Peter Jackson, Johnny Depp, and Natalie Maines from the band then known as the Dixie Chicks. As detailed by The Hollywood Reporter in 2011, Jackson and Walsh helped fund key investigations for the West Memphis Three's defense during the last seven years of their incarceration. The community's worst fears were confirmed. He was handed the phone. Metallica had never licensed a song for a film before, but when they learned about the case, Berlinger says, they made an exception. I kind of enjoy it because now even after I die, people are going to remember me forever. Although blood scrapings were taken, the West Memphis police lost the evidence. The great irony of the 18-year quest to free the West Memphis Three is that it didnt begin as a crusade. Terry was born on September 11, 1959 in Sweetwater, to Jack Harvey and Marjorie. In August 2011, Jason Baldwin was pulled from his prison cell under confusing circumstances once again. That November, he says, HBO agreed to give an honorariumroughly $5,000to the families on both sides. Much of Cecil Hotel focuses on the amateur investigators who turned coincidences into conspiracy theories, ultimately accusing an innocent person of her death. It'll be sort of like I'm the West Memphis boogeyman. Well theres been a lot of things that happened over the years. Although Griffis' testimony was dramatic, it showed only a tenuous grasp of occult knowledge much of it, including a reference to a cult called "Crytos," was simply made up. It was clear that Paradise Lost was resonating. Baldwin and Misskelley were sentenced to life without parole while Echols received the death penalty. There have also been several high-profile incidents of laypeople reinvestigating decades-old cold cases in more rigorous, journalistic ways and helping bring them to a resolution. A spiritual successor to Errol Morriss The Thin Blue Line, and a forerunner of more recent documentaries like Making a Murderer, the film stands today as the most affecting examination of one of the most studied legal cases in U.S. historyone that put heavy metal lyrics and black T-shirts on trial and helped lay the groundwork for the current thinking around false confessions. It had been a long fight to clear their names, and the odds seemed better than ever.
Terry-Hobbs - InkFreeNews.com I spoke with one of the jurors, years later after the trials and convictions, and he said he had no doubt that people could throw their lot in with the devil and be commanded to do things that they wouldnt have done otherwisethat they have basically made the deal with the devil, Leveritt says. I went to a Baptist school and I got accused of being a devil worshiper because I was trying to learn how to write hieroglyphics, says Sauls, today a screenwriter and VFX designer. Echols is an author and mystic living New York with his wife, architect Lorri Davis. However, in 2010, a series of rapidly unfolding developments turned the tide for Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley. McCaughey says her sister is very upset. They couldnt have been cooler, recalls Berlinger, who would go on to direct the 2004 documentary Metallica: Some Kind of Monster alongside Bruce Sinofsky. We didnt see them grow up.. View Source Suggest Edits Memorial Photos Flowers Created by: Legend Added: 11 Aug 2021 Find a Grave Memorial ID: 230642037 However, within the first crucial hours after the bodies were discovered, mistakes were made at the crime scene that negatively impacted the investigation. The Alford plea is a seldom-invoked and somewhat confusing legal maneuver, but the basics are fairly straightforward. The judge ruled that Hobbs could not establish actual malice, and ordered Hobbs to pay Maines legal fees amounting to more than $17,000, according to the Associated Press. He began his career in the plumbing business at a very young age, workingfor his . And that is why Echols has attorneys who want to use a new DNA test called M-Vac, a wet vacuum system that can find more DNA than older tests. The second is by looking at it as an act of passion and perseverance. He was 56.
Attorneys present four suspects allegedly involved in the WM3 murders The following day revealed the unthinkable, when the bloodied and bruised bodies of the three boys were found submerged in a muddy creek in a wooded area called Robin Hood Hills. Mojo was right. The boys were so mutilated, investigators thought the murders were part of some kind of Satanic ritual. On the evening of May 5, 1993, three 8-year-old boys disappeared from the streets of West Memphis, Ark. Echols said in 2012, he will never give up his mission to exonerate himself. But we stuck with it, and every so often something would happen, and little by little, people would come around., They spread word about the website through online discussion groups and by hanging flyers in the art houses that screened Paradise Lost, and by 2000, WM3.org was getting 4,000 to 8,000 hits a day. But Berlinger also believes that the sequel is important for documenting the power of citizen activism. But its closing moments point to how the filmmakers felt: that a horrific tragedy had just been compounded by a monumental miscarriage of justice. Share Memories & Support the Family. Minutes later, Sgt. (Maines briefly became a part of the story when Terry Hobbs, stepfather of another . Terry Roland Hobbs, 62, of Sweetwater, passed away on Saturday, September 11, 2021. 21, 2021 at 1:51 PM PDT CALHOUN COUNTY, Fla.. Terry Roland Hobbs <p>Terry Roland Hobbs, 62, of Sweetwater, passed away on Saturday, September 11, 2021.</p> <p>Terry was born on September 11, 1959 in Sweetwater, to Jack Harvey and Marjorie Hobbs .Terry graduated from Sweetwater High School in 1977. He was an actor, known for Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers (1988), Fast Food (1989) and In the Heat of the Night (1988). Also part of the plea was the provision that the three could not sue the state. Knowing that the police were already focusing on Damien Echols, Hutcheson asked her neighbor, Jessie Misskelley Jr., about the brooding teen and his occult connection. The Latest CD: 92 YEARS YOUNG: JAMMIN' AT THE GIBBS HOUSE. Terry was born on September 11, 1959 in Sweetwater, to Jack Harvey and Marjorie Hobbs .Terry graduated from Sweetwater High School in 1977. Initially, Misskelley repeatedly denied having knowledge of the crime, aside from rumors that Damien Echols was involved. Sign up forOxygen Insiderfor all the best true crime content. After hours of questioning, a frustrated Morgan blurted out that he had been hospitalized for drug and alcohol abuse and might have committed the murders. The first film gave rise to a movement devoted to reopening the investigation in hopes of exonerating, and ultimately freeing, Jason Baldwin, Damien Echols, and Jessie Misskelley. It's affected a lot of lives, but for some reason it keeps being brought up," said Hobbs. She said it was one of the highest-rated pieces they had.
Terry Hobbs - Biography - IMDb Berlinger and Sinofsky, the latter of whom died in 2015 at age 58, were able to gain incredible and immediate access to seemingly everyone the case had touched: the families of the victims and the accused, the judge, the lead investigator, members of the community. To date, no DNA evidence from the crime scene can be linked to Damien Echols, Baldwin, or Jessie Misskelley. They didnt even think he would physically survive through December, Baldwin says. Certain that, under what he felt were ridiculous circumstances, Echols' confidence and, on occasion, flippant attitude during the trial was often misinterpreted as evidence of his coldness toward the victims and their families. Additionally, the judge in the original trialswho under Arkansas law presided under the requests for retrials in the years following the convictionshad been elected to the state Senate that December, meaning someone new and possibly more sympathetic would oversee the case. Now, I see they can. It was a call about Damien Echolshe wasnt dead, but his wife, Lorri Davis, feared he might be soon. But I had to. For the next two hours and 29 minutes, the two inmates sat in near silence watching Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, the landmark documentary released on HBO 25 years ago this week that captured the trials of Baldwin, Jessie Misskelley Jr., and Damien Echols, the three teenagers convicted in 1994 of the crimes that ripped through the small, working-class community of West Memphis, Arkansas. Events. Echols attorneys got a letter from the custodian of records for the West Memphis police department saying some of the evidence ended up lost, or misplaced, and some destroyed by fire. Unaware of what was to come, Allen explained that he just wanted to ask him some questions. They even hired experts to examine the case, including a forensic criminal profiler who discovered what appeared to be bite marks on one of the victims that didnt match any of the convicted. When they searched online, they found little to no information about the case.
Pam Hobbs divorced Terry Hobbs in 2004 and has reversed her position on the West Memphis Three's guilt. Baldwins attorneys even avoided putting him on the witness stand or mounting much of a defense, believing the burden was on the state. He knew that if he ever got out, hed want to do that in a more organized way. That story line would make up the bulk of 2000s Paradise Lost 2: Revelations, a rare sequel for a documentary, especially before the streaming era proved that true crime series like Making a Murderer and The Staircase could maintain audience interest for years. Polygraph tests revealed deception in the answers of both men in regard to the crimes. Even without a smoking gun, the circumstantial evidence was enough for a conviction in a place like Crittenden County, Arkansas. Its affected a lot of lives, but for some reason it keeps being brought up, said Hobbs. Essentially, it allows the accused to assert their innocence while pleading guilty, conceding that the prosecution has an overwhelming amount of evidence to procure a conviction. Its gone from a controversial legal theory to an accepted phenomenon. Hobbs was Branch's stepfather. I deeply admire that and I thought it was worthy of putting on film.. Two of the West Memphis Three's most ardent supporters were director Peter Jackson, best known for The Lord of the Rings films, and his partner Fran Walsh. Reaching its apex in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Satanic Panic was a wave of paranoia rooted in the belief that Satanic cults intent on corrupting the souls of the young had infiltrated American society. To learn more, watch The Forgotten West Memphis Three on Saturday, March 28 and Sunday, March 29at 8/7c on Oxygen. Social media didnt fully exist yet, but the group managed to harness the potential of the nascent information superhighway to bring attention to their cause. It was so emotionally taxing to watch and go through it again, he says. Almost 30 years ago, three eight-year-old West Memphis boys were found murdered and three teenagers were charged in the murders. In the joint trial of Baldwin and Echols, which took place separately from Misskelleys, Berlinger and Sinofsky filmed the surreal moments that juries were actually present for: a rundown of the books Echols checked out of the library, a parade of band T-shirts worn by the pair, a copy of a Blue Oyster Cult record found in Damiens girlfriends house that became evidence because of the word cult and song titles like Dont Fear the Reaper. What the cameras couldnt capture, however, was the introduction of physical evidencethe prosecution didnt offer much of that aside from a knife that was never directly linked to the crimes and fabric threads deemed microscopically similar to items found in Baldwins and Echolss homes, an assertion that has been questioned in the years since the trials. Three teenage boys were arrested for the crimes Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr. and prosecutors argued they killed the boys as part of a Satanic ritual. Hobbs said he wrote the book so people, especially other victims of crime, could understand the tragedy he has gone through and how it impacted his life. He died on April 4, 2019 in Panama City Beach, Florida, USA. And that makes him hopeful that exoneration is on the horizon. MEMPHIS, Tenn. (localmemphis.com) - More than 25 years after the murders of three 8-year-old boys in West Memphis, a new book gives a first-person account of . In November, Judge David Burnett, who had presided over the trial, was elected to the state senate. I had a friend who was working on 20/20, and they had done a film about exorcism in one of the magazine pieces, Nevins says. La Mirada, California. In February, Netflix released Berlingers Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel, a docuseries that looked at the 2013 death of Elisa Lam, a Canadian student who died while vacationing in Los Angeles. Filming the activists work seemed like the best place for Berlinger and Sinofsky to turn their attention; what better way to show the continued plight of the West Memphis Three than to show regular people dedicating their free time to fighting for them? He said Boxful of Nightmares is his memoirs unedited. At that time, I was a little naive that what you read in the paper must have some truth to it, and all the press reports coming out of Arkansas were saying that this was like a slam dunk, an open-and-shut case with a confession that was printed in the newspaper.. Years of solitary confinement and the abuse he said he suffered at the hands of prison guards had taken its toll. While police had focused on Echols and Baldwin in the intervening weeks because of their reputation, the arrests came largely because of a confession by Misskelley, which was leaked to the largest newspaper in the area, the Memphis Commercial Appeal, and ran under the banner headline Teen describes cult torture of boys. At a press conference shortly after the arrests, the lead investigator was asked how confident he felt about the case on a scale of 1-10. The Messed Up Truth About The West Memphis Three Murders, citing the discovery of her son's favorite pocket knife, One of the prosecution's key pieces of evidence linking Jason Baldwin, With their 2007 request for a new trial rejected, Baldwin is the co-founder of the legal advocacy organization Proclaim Justice.
TsGt. Terry Hobbs USAF Ret. Obituary - The Ledger The three teens were arrested after Misskelley said they committed the crime after 12 hours of interrogation. The arrest, trial, and conviction of the three young men known as the West Memphis Three came under national scrutiny as details of the case became public. (WMC) - Not a single piece of evidence ever connected the West Memphis Three, Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley, to the 1993 murders of Steve Branch, Christopher Byers, and Michael Moore. November 03, 2021 November 4, 2021 . To this day, it is still unclear who is responsible for the killings. By the end of Paradise Lost, you cant believe they were found guilty, Bakken says. With the area secured, Detective Bryn Ridge volunteered to search the ditch. (WJHG) By Nikki Sheaks Published: Jul. The next to be found was Stevie Branch, quickly followed by Christopher Byers. Evidence in West Memphis Three case missing or destroyed, Judge sets bond for 76-year-old woman accused of killing terminally ill husband, Woman accused of driving into home, killing former pro basketball player Galen Young granted diversion, DA Mulroy says he doubts any drag shows will violate Tennessees new drag bill, MPD finds alleged chop shop operating in plain sight, Congressman Cohen announces $1 million grant for Memphis YMCA, Red hot Memphis womens basketball ready to make a run in AAC Tournament. At the time of the West Memphis Three trial, Griffis claimed to have given seminars to 38,000 police officers all over the globe. Berlinger and Sinofsky began to take notice. the only grade you receive is from quizzes, exams, and the final. Blood and urine samples from both men were collected and sent to the West Memphis Police Department. On the evening of May 5, 1993, 8-year-olds Stevie Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore went missing in West Memphis, Arkansas. To send flowers or plant a tree in memory of Terry Hobbs, visit the Tribute Store. According to Dan Stidham, the attorney for Misskelley, that money became essential for the cash-strapped defense teams, who needed to pay for expert witnesses and other expenses. Family and friends are welcome to leave their condolences on this memorial page and share them with the family. They procured the domain WM3.org and made a website, updating it with whatever information they could track down.