He had been expecting a visitation, but was instead led to the prison chapel office, where inmates were typically brought only if someone close to them had died. The final scene Berlinger and Sinofsky filmed may have been the piece that stuck with viewers the most: the image of Baldwin and Echols being led out of the courthouse in handcuffs and bulletproof vests, now property of the state. La Verne, California. A quarter-century later, what does the documentary tell us about citizen activism, the criminal justice system, and the Satanic Panic of the 1980s and 90s? Paso Robles, California. In 2013, Jackson and Damien Echols produced a fourth documentary about the case. But Berlinger also believes that the sequel is important for documenting the power of citizen activism. This is a story of justice delayed and justice denied. I'm not stupid." I wouldn't do something like that. A native of Winter Haven, born December 21, 1964, Terry has been a lifelong resident of Auburndale. doesn't know how to teach the material and you will end up teaching yourself everything. Although blood scrapings were taken, the West Memphis police lost the evidence. Coverage of the latest true crime stories and famous cases explained, as well as the best TV shows, movies and podcasts in the genre. In this first confession, Miskelley often agreed to details suggested by the police or attributed to prior statements which he did not make. In November, Judge David Burnett, who had presided over the trial, was elected to the state senate. 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. Terry Wayne Hobbs was born on May 21st, 1958. In fact, for the better part of 1993, it was nearly impossible to find anyone who believed they were innocent. At approximately 1:30 p.m., Steve Jones, a juvenile parole officer from Crittenden County, peered over the steep bank of a water-filled ditch in the woods near the Blue Beacon truck wash. Pam Hobbs divorced Terry Hobbs in 2004 and has reversed her position on the West Memphis Three's guilt. Terry Hobbs - IMDb Years of solitary confinement and the abuse he said he suffered at the hands of prison guards had taken its toll. Dan Stidham, the original attorney for Misskelley, who would also work on Baldwins and Echols appeals, says he has the answer. Terry L. Hobbs, 63, of Caldwell, HOBBS, Terry L., passed on March 7,2021 at the age of 63. But they never had any physical evidence that connected us to this crime, Echols said in 2012. 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. 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. " Every crime, no matter what it is, gets blamed on Satanism.". 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. And they used that visibility to help raise funds for the defense. The story felt personal for all of them, but especially Sauls: He had grown up in Florida and Georgia as an outcast obsessed with art and reading some of the same books Damien Echols had. Theyve had several victories, including the case of Daniel Villegas, who was acquitted of capital murder in 2018 after a 25-year legal saga. Terry Castleman is a data . Who Killed The Forgotten West Memphis Three? I didnt want to stop with us being that close. Leave a sympathy message to the family in the guestbook on this memorial page of Terry Hobbs to show support. Spotting a small, black tennis shoe in the water, Jones radioed for help. 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. Who Is Terry Hobbs, Stepfather Of West Memphis Three Victim? | True Terry Hobbs was born in 1958 and grew up in Northern Arkansas. The case status is Pending - Other Pending. Funeral Home Services for Terry are being provi. Main Page; None of the three believed that, but Echolss healthand the possibility that even if he survived, he would still be on death row should the fight for retrials failmade it an imperative. Last year, I noticed that Terry went missing. Iwould journal something and put it in the box, said Hobbs. Terry Hobbs Obituary They asked to see a cut, and they immediately said, Not only are we going to let you use all that music, but were not going to charge you anything for it., Metallica would be the first celebrities to throw their support behind the West Memphis Three, but they were far from the last. TsGt. Terry Hobbs USAF Ret. Obituary - The Ledger Evidence in West Memphis Three case missing or destroyed - Action News 5 Baldwins attorneys even avoided putting him on the witness stand or mounting much of a defense, believing the burden was on the state. "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. Today, Berlinger calls Revelations the weakest of the three films in the trilogyadvocacy in search of a story as opposed to the in-the-moment, on-the-ground approach of the first Paradise Lost and the in-depth exploration of new evidence in 2011s Purgatory. of Auburndale, FL passed away Monday, August 16, 2021. Events. None of the early interviews with the parents were recorded. That November, he says, HBO agreed to give an honorariumroughly $5,000to the families on both sides. Show more Show more What's next for West. The boys were so mutilated, investigators thought the murders were part of some kind of Satanic ritual. Berlinger says that after months of filming, the parents of one of the victims raised the issue of payment. Murders In West Memphis::: The three teens were arrested after Misskelley said they committed the crime after 12 hours of interrogation. They were released after prosecutors agreed to an Alford plea, in which the men maintained their innocence but pleaded guilty. There also were issues with other details he provided, including how the victims were bound and whether the boys were raped. He says that while he was in the supermax prison in Varner, he would write letters trying to drum up support for not just himself, but also for other inmates he believed were wrongfully convicted. Oxygen Insider is your all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more. New access to evidence thought destroyed in 1993 'West Memphis Three case This is not a smoking-gun-type case.. Not everyone believes that the West Memphis Three are innocent of the killings of Michael Moore, Stevie Branch, and Christopher Byers. Id like to see this put to rest. 1.0. . In West Memphis, Hobbs worked as an ice cream delivery man and Hicks worked at a restaurant. October 13, 2018 - Happy 94th Birthday Terry! 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. This is before considering the 2013 dramatized movie based on the events (and Leveritts book), Stidhams plans to release the book Harvest of Innocence, and how elements of the case made their way into True Detectives third season. The third put forth the unusual theory that the killings were committed as a cult ritual. No knives and not weapons were used," says Jo Lynn McCaughey. Example video title will go here for this video. Terry Hobbs Obituary (1957 - 2021) | Caldwell, Idaho - Echovita Due to marital problems stemming from Stevies death, the couple divorced in 2004, reported CNN. Get all your true crime news from Oxygen. Hobbs denied seeing the boys that night and questioned why eyewitness evidence surfaced 16 years later. Bakken immediately showed her friends Burk Sauls and Grove Pashley, who were both equally gripped by what they had just watched. 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. Branded the, What has never been definitively answered, however, is who committed the 1993 murders, and , Due to marital problems stemming from Stevies death, the couple divorced in 2004, reported, The test results showed that no genetic material on the crime scene evidence was a match to Echols, Baldwin or Misskelley, reported the, The West Memphis Police Department interviewed Hobbs, who was dismissive of the findings, claiming the hair could have been picked up during a visit to his home since the victim "played with our little boy regularly," according to the, "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, A year after the DNA results were released, Hobbs sued Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines for defamation, claiming she implied he was a murderer on the bands website and at a 2007 rally, according to, In 2009, three witnesses filed affidavits claiming they saw Hobbs with the murdered boys the night they disappeared, contradicting Hobbs previous statements to police, according to. New access to evidence thought destroyed in 1993 'West Memphis - KAIT By staying on this subject for the next couple of decades, they gave these men a chance and really decades of freedom afterward. California exodus continues as population drops by 500,000 - Los A source said the evidence was transferred to shipping containers where there was a fire, and some of the evidence was destroyed. Misskelley's coerced confession, as contradictory as it seemed to the evidence, was consistent in implicating Echols and Jason Baldwin. Terry Hobbs's income source is mostly from being a successful Actor. While thats cooled from the days of concerts in the shadows of the Arkansas Supreme Court building, the documentaries still live on HBO Max, where they pull in new viewers to this day. Misskelley, who reportedly had an IQ of 72, changed his story several times, and only a small part of his statements was recorded. Since the West Memphis Three were released, no one else has been charged in the murders of Stevie, Christopher and Michael. Stevie Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers were best friends. That's not the same Terry Hobbs. . The Alford plea is a seldom-invoked and somewhat confusing legal maneuver, but the basics are fairly straightforward. He graduated from Sweetwater High School in 1977. Terry Hobbs at Metropolitan Community College: Maple Woods Mike Allen arrived on the scene. 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. She says she is too because they believe they are hearing different stories. La Mirada, California. The news was devastating beyond just word of his friends suffering. Explore. Except this was 1996, and home internet was still in its infancy. We were finally winning, he says. Like everyone else who was familiar with the case, they wanted to know who committed the crimes, but their main goal was advocacy, not using the opportunity to play investigators. The state of Arkansas continues to attempt to prevent this testing from happening. 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. Nevertheless, Echols made no incriminating statements. A graveside service will be conducted on Wednesday, March 17 at Cloverdale Memorial Park beginning at 11am. " (Detective Allen) told me if I knew anything, that there was a $35,000 reward, and if I could help them out, we'd get the money," said Misskelley, as quoted by Mara Leveritt in Devil's Knot. Hobbs has never wavered in his conviction that justice was served the first time around. According to Griffis, black hair, black T-shirts, and black jeans were signs that a kid was in league with the devil. 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. 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. In 1994, the FBI said there was scant evidence that violent satanic crimes had ever occurred in America outside of a few isolated incidents, but that was long after TV hosts like Geraldo, Sally Jessy Raphael, and Oprah had spread moral hysteria about musicians weaving supposedly anti-Christian and occult messages into their songs, and long after wrongful convictions were handed down in the infamous McMartin Preschool sexual assault trials. They werent connected in any direct way, Bakken says. Also, law enforcement chose not to focus on the victims' families as the starting point of the investigation as is the norm. WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. Auburndale, FL - TSGT Terry Lee Hobbs, USAF, ret. And that makes him hopeful that exoneration is on the horizon. Despite the best efforts of the police, dozens of volunteers, a search-and-rescue team, and a helicopter dispatched from nearby Memphis, Tenn., searchers came up empty handed. Self. Published by The Commercial Appeal from Jun. They formed the organization Proclaim Justice, a nonprofit that reinvestigates crimes with the hopes of freeing innocent people. So the minute youre done, you just want to know more. Terry Hobbs Obituary (1988 - 2021) - Memphis, TN - Legacy.com For Rollins, it was a moral imperative: Id find myself up at 3:30 a.m. thinking about Damien. He also lost the defamation case because of his violent past. West Memphis is in the heart of the Bible Belt: just a two-hour drive from where, legend has it, the devil tuned Robert Johnsons guitar, in a state thats 46 percent evangelical Protestant. Like Misskelley in the first trial, Baldwin received a life sentence. Terry. Terry Roland Hobbs September 11, 1959 ~ September 11, 2021 (age 62) Terry Roland Hobbs, 62, of Sweetwater, passed away on Saturday, September 11, 2021. By choosing I Accept, you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. Blood and urine samples from both men were collected and sent to the West Memphis Police Department. They were naked and hog-tied with their own shoelaces, and showed signs of blunt force trauma and mutilation, the latter of which may have been the work of wild animals, reported the, Three teenage boys were arrested for the crimes , Baldwin and Misskelley were sentenced to life without parole while Echols received the death penalty. Support came from unlikely corners: a classroom of kids who held a cookie sale that raised $30, local bands in Chicago who held a benefit show and sent $150. After 18 years in prison, the West Memphis Three were finally free, but not exonerated. The idea of the average citizen becoming embroiled in a criminal investigation isn't far-fetched in 2021, . With the guards blessings, Mojo led Baldwin to Varners visitation room, where everything had been put away aside from two chairs set up in front of a cart holding a small TV and a VCR. Filing Date : 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. Its first season ostensibly focused on the disappearance of a Georgia beauty queen, but it spent nearly as much time digging through the salacious details of the victims love life and dipping into amateur psychology as it did looking at evidence. Create your free profile and get access to exclusive content. Damien Echols (@damienechols) July 7, 2021 Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of Branch who was under suspicion but never charged, said he welcomes new DNA testing. June 29 Terry Hobbs, 34, 1718 Spyglass Lane, Mishawaka, booked on a warrant from Elkhart County. Mojo was right. The obituary was featured in Idaho Press Tribune on March 13, 2021. Unaware of what was to come, Allen explained that he just wanted to ask him some questions. 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. He was handed the phone. With their 2007 request for a new trial rejected, time was running out for the West Memphis Three. That type of support made observers question the verdicts perhaps more so than any rock star who shouted Echolss name into a mic because of an HBO documentary. 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. 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. TSGT Terry Lee Hobbs, USAF, ret. Boxful of Nightmares is the personal memoirs of Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of one of the children murdered. By going into the courtroom and sticking with the case for its entire duration, Berlinger and Sinofsky were able to capture what may have otherwise been lost to time or left out of transcripts. Terry Hobbs Obituary - Death Notice and Service Information (WMC) - Its a case that has captured the nation and certainly the Mid-South. It wasnt hard for him to imagine his teenage self ending up in Echolss situation. When the case was given the option for DNA evidence, everyone but Terry Hobbs said yes. Defense attorneys also pointed out that Griffis' doctorate was obtained through a notorious diploma mill and had been awarded with Griffis having never attended a single class. A benefit album was released in 2000, and the phrase made it into a Dawsons Creek episode when Pacey shouted Free the West Memphis Three over an airport intercom. Dec 13th, 2021. 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. As the 20th century turned to the 21st, the movement seemed to be picking up steam. Wading into the murky water, Allen unknowingly dislodged the pale, grotesquely arched form of Micheal Moore. "I'd like to see this put to rest. They began attending appeal hearings and visiting Baldwin, Echols, and Misskelley in prison. We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. California Obituaries - Latest Obituaries in California - Echovita How do you measure the legacy of Paradise Lost, which is one of the best reviewed documentaries of all time and considered among the most influential, but whose mission is only partly complete? So, how much is Terry Hobbs worth at the age of 50 years old? So much progress had been made in the fight for new trials, most notably a November 2010 Arkansas Supreme Court ruling that ordered a hearing on new DNA analysis and other evidence not considered in 1994. It was a call about Damien Echolshe wasnt dead, but his wife, Lorri Davis, feared he might be soon. When it didnt, the praise heaped on Paradise Lost felt hollow. 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. (Maines briefly became a part of the story when Terry Hobbs, stepfather of another . Terry Hobbs - IMDb West Memphis is pretty much like a second Salem," Echols stated in the 1996 documentary Paradise Lost: The Murders at Robin Hood Hills. He knew that if he ever got out, hed want to do that in a more organized way. https://t.co/dXOtQkmjee. Cinemorgue Wiki. 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 what was happening behind the scenes. Its evidence that Damien Echols attorneys wanted to do new DNA testing on. A native of Winter Haven, born December 21, 1964, Terry . But on that early morning in 1997, Jason Baldwin wasnt concerned with Berlinger and Sinofskys craft, or legal precedent, or crusading celebrities. 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. 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. He just didnt know it would take another 14 years to happen. Investigators kept minimal notes and omitted pertinent details including criminal records. 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. 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. 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. Under order of the Arkansas Supreme Court, there were to be new evidentiary hearings in the case. By the time she got done watching it, her life was forever changed. The idea, Berlinger says, was to tell a story of disaffected youthabout kids killing kids., There was no reason not to believe the press, Berlinger says. Jesse was gonna take it anyway. Even today, years after his name was cleared and authorities ruled Lams death accidental, Morbid still receives threats. Feigning a romantic interest in Echols, she asked Misskelley to arrange a meeting. Its like ripping a Band-Aid off a wound. 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. The idea of the average citizen becoming embroiled in a criminal investigation isnt far-fetched in 2021, decades removed from the launch of WM3.org. At the request of West Memphis authorities, the two were picked up and questioned by Oceanside police.