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I dont know if they were questioning it, but they werent mistreating me and telling me that what I was telling them wasnt true., While Berlinger admits that he and Sinofsky may have tilted pro-prosecution in the early days of filming, that quickly changed after witnessing how the cases came together and spending time with the three teens during pretrial jailhouse interviewsparticularly Baldwin, who Berlinger describes as sweet and studious.. Hold for Elkhart County. weaving supposedly anti-Christian and occult messages into their songs, he discovered her while Googling cold cases, funded an extensive private investigation, a November 2010 Arkansas Supreme Court ruling, biggest allies in the years before his 2020 death, acquitted of capital murder in 2018 after a 25-year legal saga. They saw the same thing you did. (WJHG) By Nikki Sheaks Published: Jul. Over the years there has been lots of speculation and finger pointing as to who was responsible. To this day, it is still unclear who is responsible for the killings. But Berlinger also believes that the sequel is important for documenting the power of citizen activism. I think I introduced my dad to it because that was not his normal genre., Three Metallica songsOrion, Welcome Home (Sanitarium), and Call of Ktuluwould play throughout the documentary. The documentarians found me in one of the worst things a person could go through, Baldwin says. 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. Not everyone believes that the West Memphis Three are innocent of the killings of Michael Moore, Stevie Branch, and Christopher Byers. But they never had any physical evidence that connected us to this crime, Echols said in 2012. After ending his first marriage, he wed Pamela Hicks Branch in 1986, when her son Stevie was almost 2 years old. With their 2007 request for a new trial rejected, time was running out for the West Memphis Three. But then the verdicts arrived: Both Baldwin and Echols were found guilty on all counts, just like Misskelley had been six weeks before them. Sign up forOxygen Insiderfor all the best true crime content. Peter Jackson, who would produce a separate documentary about the case titled West of Memphis in 2012, and his partner, Fran Walsh, funded an extensive private investigation and helped hire forensic experts to comb through evidence. Earlier this year, he told Action News 5 he welcomes new DNA testing. I don't know if the other 2 did, but even if they did polygraphs aren't admissible in court. As recounted in Mara Leveritt's book, Devil's Knot, a thorough search of Robin Hood Hills directed by Chief Inspector Gary W. Gitchell of the West Memphis Police Department commenced early on the morning of May 6, 1993. March 8, 2021, Terry Hobbs passed away on March 8, 2021 in Boise, Idaho. Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelly and Jason Baldwin were originally convicted of the killings and released from prison in 2011 after making a deal with prosecutors. That came partially through the exposure they got through this film., But perhaps the best measure of Paradise Losts impact is the work being done by Baldwin today. Its like ripping a Band-Aid off a wound. To learn more or opt-out, read our Cookie Policy. Even though they said they didnt murder the three boys, they are technically convicted killers. Berlinger contrasts this with the approach taken by Bakken, Sauls, and Co., who considered the truth sacrosanct and avoided rumor and innuendo in part because similar speculation helped convict the West Memphis Three. I wouldn't do something like that. Although blood scrapings were taken, the West Memphis police lost the evidence. Theres no smoking gun. She has since expressed her belief that her ex-husband was involved in the murders,citing the discovery of her son's favorite pocket knife in Terry Hobbs' belongings. Further down, it includes names such as Rick Dior, a sound mixer who worked on Apollo 13 and Dirty Dancing, and Bob Richman, a three-time Emmy-nominated cinematographer whose rsum also includes renowned docs like An Inconvenient Truth and Waiting for Superman. Terry Hobbs passed away in Nampa, Idaho. Echols is an author and mystic living New York with his wife, architect Lorri Davis. Although Damein Echols had a teenager's typical disdain for authority, he nevertheless trusted that the system would work in his favor. In May of that year, police discovered the bodies of Michael Moore, Stevie Branch, and Christopher Byers in the Robin Hood Hills, a small wooded area near the I-40/I-55 exchange. Filing Date : A theory held is that Terry Hobbs was the one who actually killed the three boys and had pinned it on the Memphis 3 boys. Although the bodies were discovered at 1:30 p.m., investigators didn't call the coroner until 3:58 p.m. By the time the coroner arrived, fly larvae were already present in the nostrils and eyes of the victims. I think we were the first internet sleuths, but we were not internet sleuths.. Explore. Update: I was totally wrong. 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. Lying in the open air in near 80-degree temperatures accelerated the decomposition of the bodies. doesn't know how to teach the material and you will end up teaching yourself everything. We are sad to announce that on September 11, 2021 we had to say goodbye to Terry Hobbs of Sweetwater, Texas. 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. Feigning a romantic interest in Echols, she asked Misskelley to arrange a meeting. 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. 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. 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. Hobbs has never wavered in his conviction that justice was served the first time around. 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. Much of Cecil Hotel focuses on the amateur investigators who turned coincidences into conspiracy theories, ultimately accusing an innocent person of her death. Terry Hobbs was born in 1958 and grew up in Northern Arkansas. I kind of enjoy it because now even after I die, people are going to remember me forever. La Verne, California. (At one point, Sauls says, it landed on Yahoos list of the top 100 websites.) But its closing moments point to how the filmmakers felt: that a horrific tragedy had just been compounded by a monumental miscarriage of justice. We have estimated Terry Hobbs's net worth , money, salary, income, and assets. Baldwin remembers the dire circumstances laid out during the call. During Misskelley's trial, Hutcheson testified that she had attended an "an occult Satanic meeting" she referred to as an "esbat." The next to be found was Stevie Branch, quickly followed by Christopher Byers. He said, J.B., youre going home, man, youre going home.. Baldwins attorneys even avoided putting him on the witness stand or mounting much of a defense, believing the burden was on the state. . 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. Misskelley and Echols were 36; Baldwin was 34. 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. No charges have been brought against Jacoby, and he has never been named a suspect by the West Memphis Police Department. (Maines briefly became a part of the story when Terry Hobbs, stepfather of another . Bray asked her if she knew about rumored cult activity in the community. 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. 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. No explanation has yet been given as to why such a seemingly important lead was dropped. October 13, 2018 - Happy 94th Birthday Terry! Beyond the black-and-white print of the newspaper, there was a movement brewing. Stating that she would ask around, Hutcheson agreed to "play detective.". 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. 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. 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. Terry Hobbs, Todd Moore, and Dana Moore still maintain that Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley murdered their sons. McCaughey says her sister is very upset. Mojo was right. Main Page; But none of that support has been able to fully exonerate the trio, something theyre still fighting for. After ending his first marriage, he wed Pamela Hicks Branch in 1986, when her son Stevie was almost 2 years old. Its my perspective of what happened in 1993, 26 years ago in West Memphis, Arkansas, said Hobbs. I don't entirely think Hobbs did it, but I . This is a story of justice delayed and justice denied. As the movement to free the West Memphis Three gained traction, a number of celebrities joined the cause, bringing the case under more scrutiny. When it didnt, the praise heaped on Paradise Lost felt hollow. And the seemingly endless stream of threats against them and the frequent clashes with Mark Byers did nothing to dissuade them. Throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, defense attorneys working for the West Memphis Three filed multiple appeals on their behalf scrutinizing the lack of physical evidence against them. Yet, Judge David Burnett accepted Griffis as an expert. One person who has come up in the investigation is Terry Hobbs, although police have never named him a suspect or charged him in connection with the case. Terry Hobbs Net Worth. Investigators never found any evidence that tied him, Jason Baldwin, or Jessie Misskelley to the murders of the boys, Stevie Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers. 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. 2012 West of Memphis (Documentary) Self - Steven Branch's Stepfather. there are no assignments to cushion your grade, so either pass or fail. When the case was given the option for DNA evidence, everyone but Terry Hobbs said yes. There also were issues with other details he provided, including how the victims were bound and whether the boys were raped. 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. I never foresaw that they would in turn save us.. 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 CNN. Case Details. By the end of Paradise Lost, you cant believe they were found guilty, Bakken says. At the time of the West Memphis Three trial, Griffis claimed to have given seminars to 38,000 police officers all over the globe. In the Bible Belt, the Satanic Panic took hold with a vengeance. Mojo jumped up, Baldwin recalls. 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. Over the years there has been lots of speculation and finger pointing as to who was responsible. Terry Hobbs Memphis 32, 14-Jun, Superior Funeral Home-Hollywood. TSGT Terry Lee Hobbs, USAF, ret. When the pair got the call from Nevins, they mobilized immediately, landing in Arkansas shortly after the arrests. 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. He was an actor, known for Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers (1988), Fast Food (1989) and In the Heat of the Night (1988). In June 1996, Paradise Lost debuted on HBO, bringing the story of the West Memphis Three to TV sets and showing the power of the camera in the courtroom. But the list of people who have looked at the facts of the case and come away believing Baldwin, Echols, and Misskelley are innocent is long. His net worth has been growing significantly in 2021-2022. The pair abruptly fled to Oceanside, Calif., four days after the murders. As the 20th century turned to the 21st, the movement seemed to be picking up steam. After new DNA evidence was discovered, the West Memphis Three were released from prison in August 2011 by agreeing to an Alford plea, which allowed him to proclaim their innocence while admitting the prosecution had enough evidence to convict him. Initially, Misskelley repeatedly denied having knowledge of the crime, aside from rumors that Damien Echols was involved. Misskelley, who had entered the West Memphis police station that morning with hopes of reward money he might use to purchase a new truck for his father found himself instead charged with murder and facing life plus 40 years in prison. By the time she got done watching it, her life was forever changed. Inevitably, the West Memphis Three case always comes up. I didnt want to stop with us being that close. 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. Get all your true crime news from Oxygen. He began his career in the plumbing business at a very young age, workingfor his . (Shortly after Villegass acquittal, Baldwin had something of a full-circle moment with his client: He took him to a Metallica show in El Paso, Texas, where they hung out backstage on the invitation of Lars Ulrich.). Terry was born on September 11, 1959 in Sweetwater, to Jack Harvey and Marjorie Hobbs .Terry graduated from Sweetwater High School in 1977. In 1996, a screener for Paradise Lost passed her desk. Terry Roland Hobbs, 62, of Sweetwater, passed away on Saturday, September 11, 2021. He is from USA. Hide Self (6 credits) 2012 48 Hours: Hard Evidence (TV Series) Self. The districts current prosecuting attorney, Keith Chrestman, did not respond to requests for comment for this article, but his predecessor Scott Ellington, whose office negotiated the deals, told The New York Times in 2011 that while new trials would have likely resulted in acquittals, We dont think that there is anybody else. The Moore family has been outspoken about the end result, vehemently protesting the 2012 Oscar nomination for the third Paradise Lost installment. Bakken immediately showed her friends Burk Sauls and Grove Pashley, who were both equally gripped by what they had just watched. He says his dad and Berlinger werent seeking notorietydocumentaries certainly werent a means to get rich or famous in those days. October 14, 2017: #26 on the JazzWeek chart! 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. So, how much is Terry Hobbs worth at the age of 50 years old? They were releasedfrom prison in 2011 on whats called an Alford plea, after new forensic evidence was presented as part of the case. 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. 25, 2021. To learn more, watch The Forgotten West Memphis Three on Saturday, March 28 and Sunday, March 29at 8/7c on Oxygen. TERRY HOBBS OBITUARY Terry Roland Hobbs, 62, of Sweetwater, passed away on Saturday, September 11, 2021. Echols, who prosecutors argued was the ringleader, was sentenced to death. 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. 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. Creator Payne Lindsey, a filmmaker with no previous experience investigating crimes, had no connection to the victim before he discovered her while Googling cold cases in hopes of finding his own version of runaway successes like Serial and Making a Murderer. Terry. It wasnt hard for him to imagine his teenage self ending up in Echolss situation. Family and friends are welcome to leave their condolences on this memorial page and share them with the family. Pam Hobbs divorced Terry Hobbs in 2004 and has reversed her position on the West Memphis Three's guilt. Get an all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! Who Killed The Forgotten West Memphis Three? I said, Im going to send some kids down there., Those kids turned out to be Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, the young documentarians who had recently completed the acclaimed Brothers Keeper, a film chronicling a death and the resulting trial in a small upstate New York village. They had a daughter together, Amanda Hobbs, who was 4 years old at the time of her brothers death. Heavy metal music, role playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, and horror movies were regarded as gateways to evil. Dec 13th, 2021. 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. The third put forth the unusual theory that the killings were committed as a cult ritual. . Although she was unable to recall the exact location or anyone who attended the alleged meeting, she claimed a drunken Echols confessed to the murders. They formed the organization Proclaim Justice, a nonprofit that reinvestigates crimes with the hopes of freeing innocent people. Im seeing the things I experienced, but not through my own point of view. Leave a sympathy message to the family in the guestbook on this memorial page of Terry Hobbs to show support. It's affected a lot of lives, but for some reason it keeps being brought up," said Hobbs. Sinofsky family connection aside, Berlinger says this was an important part of the film: The prosecutors had put heavy metal lyrics and Baldwins and Echolss Metallica fandom on trial as much as the teens themselves. February 27, 2023 (82 years old) View obituary. No knives and not weapons were used," says Jo Lynn McCaughey. Show more Show more What's next for West. Quickly, however, he realized Berlinger and Sinofsky were taking a different approach. Investigators kept minimal notes and omitted pertinent details including criminal records. In this first confession, Miskelley often agreed to details suggested by the police or attributed to prior statements which he did not make. Events. Cinemorgue Wiki. When we were driving in the car a lot, wed play a lot of the Metallica album Master of Puppets, says Alex Sinofsky, who became a doctor instead of getting behind the camera himself. 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? Damion Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley were convicted of murdering the children in 1994. All of them were convicted after Misskelley confessed to helping Echols and Baldwin with the murders, which he later recanted. Terry Hobbs, Actor: Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers. 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. Sheriff's deputies in Calhoun County say Terry Hobbs was reported missing on Saturday, April 20, 2019. So advocacy and diligence become tantamount, because most people in a similar situation to the one he was in dont have the benefit of filmmakers and musicians fighting on their behalf. Berlinger says that he counts Errol Morriss The Thin Blue Line as one of his greatest influences, not just for the innovations Morris brought to the documentary genre, but also because it helped free Randall Dale Adams from a sentence for the murder of a Texas police officer that he did not commit. The first and likely simplest gauge is continued interest in the case. 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. 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. 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 The New York Times. Id like to see this put to rest. Stevie Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers were best friends. Terry Hobbs was born on November 25, 1969 in Columbus, Georgia, USA. Even without a smoking gun, the circumstantial evidence was enough for a conviction in a place like Crittenden County, Arkansas. Metallica had never licensed a song for a film before, but when they learned about the case, Berlinger says, they made an exception. Quality. On August 19, 2011, all three accepted the deal and were immediately released from prison. ", According to Devil's Knot, a week after the discovery of the bodies, Detective Don Bray interviewed Vicki Hutcheson, a truckstop employee. Last year, I noticed that Terry went missing. Like Misskelley in the first trial, Baldwin received a life sentence. The three have always maintained their innocence. To bolster their assertions that the killings were related to occult activity despite virtually no evidence prosecutors brought in their own so-called expert on cult murders. the only grade you receive is from quizzes, exams, and the final. 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. (2 weeks at #1, on for 19 weeks!) 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. This case was filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Courts, Tennessee Western Bankruptcy. 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. Mojo had a different idea of what might get the man he affectionately called J.B. out of prison. By choosing I Accept, you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies.