Echols, who prosecutors argued was the ringleader, was sentenced to death. 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. Berlinger and Sinofsky began to take notice. 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. It's affected a lot of lives, but for some reason it keeps being brought up," said Hobbs. The knife was thrown into the lake by Baldwin's mother a year before the murders. Like Misskelley in the first trial, Baldwin received a life sentence. People have come out of the woodwork and said this and this and people have done things and a lot of them are wrong, said Hobbs. hangyermoon 2 yr. ago. To send flowers or plant a tree in memory of Terry Hobbs, visit the Tribute Store. Terry Hobbs says he is a church member, a father, and working man and in no way a killer. Wherever it was screened, Berlinger says, it was followed by intense Q&As from audience members who couldnt believe what theyd just watched. One of the keys to understanding the West Memphis Three murders is the phenomenon known as the Satanic Panic. They saw this movie and they felt like, I have to do something.. Mojo jumped up, Baldwin recalls. Beyond the black-and-white print of the newspaper, there was a movement brewing. The three have always maintained their innocence. 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. The prosecutor would later say, There was a lack of physical evidence to tie anyone or anything to the crime scene, while the lead investigatorthe same one who told the press the case was an 11 out of 10would concede, Youve got a lot of circumstantial evidence is what youve got. Hobbs says his book is 25 years in the making, adding it is called Boxful of Nightmares for a reason. Share Memories & Support the Family. 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. Bakken and Sauls say they tried to avoid offering theories about the case publicly, opting instead to try to work through official channels. 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. of Auburndale, FL passed away Monday, August 16, 2021. That was more than the people deciding the case were able to hearthe presiding judge made the expert give most of his testimony without the jury in the courtroom because he questioned its relevance. Terry Roland Hobbs September 11, 1959 ~ September 11, 2021 (age 62) Terry Roland Hobbs, 62, of Sweetwater, passed away on Saturday, September 11, 2021. There also were issues with other details he provided, including how the victims were bound and whether the boys were raped. 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. Mojo had a different idea of what might get the man he affectionately called J.B. out of prison. 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.
Terry Hobbs Obituary - Death Notice and Service Information 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. 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. This is not a smoking-gun-type case.. A source said the evidence was transferred to shipping containers where there was a fire, and some of the evidence was destroyed. The pair abruptly fled to Oceanside, Calif., four days after the murders. He says his dad and Berlinger werent seeking notorietydocumentaries certainly werent a means to get rich or famous in those days. Echols said in 2012, he will never give up his mission to exonerate himself. 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. Show more Show more What's next for West. . A month later, authorities arrested Baldwin, Echols, and Misskelleythree teenagers who lived in trailer parks near West Memphis and had previous run-ins with the law, though nothing rising to the level of murder. 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. Jesse was gonna take it anyway. 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. 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? Thursday, August 19th 2021. Also part of the plea was the provision that the three could not sue the state. 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? In 1996, HBO released the documentary film Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills. Theyve had several victories, including the case of Daniel Villegas, who was acquitted of capital murder in 2018 after a 25-year legal saga. 25, 2021. Baldwin is the co-founder of the legal advocacy organization Proclaim Justice. West Memphis is pretty much like a second Salem," Echols stated in the 1996 documentary Paradise Lost: The Murders at Robin Hood Hills. A native of Winter Haven, born December 21, 1964, Terry . Baldwins attorneys even avoided putting him on the witness stand or mounting much of a defense, believing the burden was on the state. It wasnt hard for him to imagine his teenage self ending up in Echolss situation. 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. He said Boxful of Nightmares is his memoirs unedited.
New access to evidence thought destroyed in 1993 'West Memphis - KAIT Boxful of Nightmares is the personal memoirs of Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of one of the children murdered. The obituary was featured in Idaho Press Tribune on March 13, 2021. Updated: 9:42 AM CDT June 11, 2019. To learn more, watch The Forgotten West Memphis Three on Saturday, March 28 and Sunday, March 29at 8/7c on Oxygen. Stidham, who was just 30 years old and not long out of law school when the court appointed him to be Misskelleys attorney, went in thinking he would negotiate a deal for his client, who had told police that his acquaintances Baldwin and Echols committed the crimes and that he was present and played a role as an accessory. In West Memphis, Hobbs worked as an ice cream delivery man and Hicks worked at a restaurant.
Terry Hobbs Breaks His Silence | WREG.com At the request of West Memphis authorities, the two were picked up and questioned by Oceanside police.
Terry Roland Hobbs Obituary - Tribute Archive Not everyone believes that the West Memphis Three are innocent of the killings of Michael Moore, Stevie Branch, and Christopher Byers. 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. 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. In the minds of many, the bizarre nature of the Robin Hood Hills murders could only have been committed by one of Satan's minions. All three had been submerged face down in the mud, stripped naked, and bound with their shoelaces. In the years since the trial, John Mark Byers, adoptive father of Christopher Byers, and Pamela Hobbs, mother of Stevie Branch, became vocal supporters of the West Memphis Three. He knew that if he ever got out, hed want to do that in a more organized way. The second is by looking at it as an act of passion and perseverance. Berlinger says that after months of filming, the parents of one of the victims raised the issue of payment. (Police questioned Byers several times during the investigation, but never considered him a suspect.) But they were saying that he was about to die.. Hes subdued when discussing the facts of the case, but he comes alive while recounting his work with the Jaycees while in prison, or buying Metallicas Black Album when it came out in 1991. Rather, they were fighting for something they believed in. I think we were the first internet sleuths, but we were not internet sleuths.. Get an all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! He is from USA. Armchair detectives of today, I think a lot of them dabble in conspiracy theory, Berlinger says. Find the obituary of Terry Hobbs (1957 - 2021) from Caldwell, ID. He graduated from Sweetwater High School in 1977. February 27, 2023 (76 years old) View obituary.
But none of that support has been able to fully exonerate the trio, something theyre still fighting for. 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. 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. Polygraph tests revealed deception in the answers of both men in regard to the crimes. Luminol tests, which reveal the hidden presence of blood, were not performed at the scene until six days later. 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. 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. Obituaries can vary in the amount of information they contain, but many of them are genealogical goldmines, including information such as: names, dates, place of birth and death, marriage information, and family relationships. He died on April 4, 2019 in Panama City Beach, Florida, USA. "Everyone has a story and this just happens to be mine," said Hobbs. His net worth has been growing significantly in 2021-2022. 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. 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. 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. Little kids will be looking under their bed 'Damien might be under there! 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. When Alex Sinofsky is asked about his fathers work on the film, he recalls the frequent trips and long hours spent editing film on a Steenbeck he kept in the house. TSGT Terry Lee Hobbs, USAF, ret. Filing Date : 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 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. (Echolswho is in better health today, though his eyesight has degenerated and he has premature arthritis from his time in solitary confinementin particular has maintained a relatively public life, through the five books hes published, performing magic for Patreon subscribers, and making TV appearances to discuss other cases he sees as similar to his.) Oxygen Insider is your all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more.
Terry Hobbs - Biography - IMDb West Memphis 3 / Terry Hobbs 2022 Update - YouTube Even today, years after his name was cleared and authorities ruled Lams death accidental, Morbid still receives threats. The idea of the average citizen becoming embroiled in a criminal investigation isn't far-fetched in 2021, . "I'd like to see this put to rest. Echols is an author and mystic living New York with his wife, architect Lorri Davis. The sneaker ligatures in which Terry Hobbs' DNA was found in," Soury said . It hurt all over again, he said. We made a promise early on that we would never pretend to be law enforcement or detectives, Sauls says. But further down, in the section for the music department, theres a curious inclusion of a consultant who never worked in film again: Alex Sinofsky, the son of Bruce who was 12 at the time of Paradise Losts release. 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. And the seemingly endless stream of threats against them and the frequent clashes with Mark Byers did nothing to dissuade them. Leave your condolences to the family on this memorial page or send flowers to show you care. All of those factors combined to create a tipping point, says Leveritt. But I had to. That there were three victims was a link to the biblical number of the beast. The Latest CD: 92 YEARS YOUNG: JAMMIN' AT THE GIBBS HOUSE. Over the years there has been lots of speculation and finger pointing as to who was responsible. Few celebrities at the time did as much as Henry Rollins, however. Hes since parlayed the popularity of the show into a booming podcast network and documentary deal with Oxygen. 21, 2021 at 1:51 PM PDT CALHOUN COUNTY, Fla.. 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. Spotting a small, black tennis shoe in the water, Jones radioed for help. Case Details. They were released after prosecutors agreed to an Alford plea, in which the men maintained their innocence but pleaded guilty. Hide Self (6 credits) 2012 48 Hours: Hard Evidence (TV Series) Self. 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? 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. This is the true story of the West Memphis Three murders. No explanation has yet been given as to why such a seemingly important lead was dropped. The causes most high-profile moment came in 2000, when Trey Parker said the slogan at the MTV Movie Awards while collecting an award for Best Musical Sequence. The third put forth the unusual theory that the killings were committed as a cult ritual. Other possible suspects includedBrian Holland and Chris Morgan, two young men from Memphis, Tenn., with a history of drug offenses. Link your TV provider to stream full episodes and live TV. The state of Arkansas continues to attempt to prevent this testing from happening. She says she is too because they believe they are hearing different stories. I don't know if the other 2 did, but even if they did polygraphs aren't admissible in court. 1.0. . Terry Hobbs was born on November 25, 1969 in Columbus, Georgia, USA. As the first in a trilogy of Paradise Lost films about the case, the 1996 movie was a stunning example of cinma vrit, as directors Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky embedded themselves with the prosecution, the defense, and the families of both the slain and the accused to put human faces on a heart-wrenching tragedy, as well as highlight the overblown worries of satanic rituals and murderous cults that proliferated throughout the 1980s and 90s. Mojo was right. Echols' disdain for authority, penchant for black clothes, and propensity to make shocking statements didn't help his plight. Everybody Id come in contact with was hostile to the truth, Baldwin says. On the morning of June 2, 1993, Jessie Misskelley Jr., a 17-year-old high school drop out with a reported IQ of 73, was taken into custody by Detective Mike Allen. So, how much is Terry Hobbs worth at the age of 50 years old? However, under pressure, leading questions, and scare tactics, Misskelley wove a contradictory story that first placed him at the crime scene as an eyewitness to the murders and then as an active participant. 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. That the slain boys were each 8 years-old was important because eight was a "witch's number." One of those shows, Truth & Justice With Bob Ruff, became the basis for an Oxygen docuseries last year titled The Forgotten West Memphis Three, which took a closer look at the three victims and tried to shine new light on the evidence. Maines won the lawsuit; police have never named Hobbs a suspect or charged him in connection with the killings.). Self. According to Griffis, black hair, black T-shirts, and black jeans were signs that a kid was in league with the devil. Inevitably, the West Memphis Three case always comes up. 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. 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. 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.. I never foresaw that they would in turn save us..
Replacing Burnett was Circuit Court Judge David Laser. McCaughey says her sister is very upset. I couldnt not watch it at this point. None of the initial trio behind WM3.orgnor their friend Lisa Fancher, who later became a key part of the efforthad ever considered themselves an activist to that point. 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. But Berlinger also believes that the sequel is important for documenting the power of citizen activism. Two questions plagued the conservative, middle-class community: Why would anyone commit such a heinous act, and, more importantly, who? 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. My first thought is, I hope this dude isnt trying to pull me into some type of escape, Baldwin says nearly a quarter-century later. The test results showed that no genetic material on the crime scene evidence was a match to Echols, Baldwin or Misskelley, reported the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. (WMC) - Its a case that has captured the nation and certainly the Mid-South. Stevie Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers were best friends. The documentarians found me in one of the worst things a person could go through, Baldwin says. 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. Update: I was totally wrong.
Los Angeles Times Obituaries (1985 - 2023) - Los Angeles, CA Misskelley's coerced confession, as contradictory as it seemed to the evidence, was consistent in implicating Echols and Jason Baldwin. Lying in the open air in near 80-degree temperatures accelerated the decomposition of the bodies. Jessie took a polygraph. The attorneys representing Echols and Baldwin believed that the juries wouldnt accept the prosecutions versions of eventsthat they were too fantastical and tied to second-hand informationand that without conclusive proof, their clients would walk. But inside, he was just another prisonerBaldwin didnt know who he could trust. After ending his first marriage, he wed Pamela Hicks Branch in 1986, when her son Stevie was almost 2 years old. 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. I didn't even comprehend that the situation could get this serious that it can go this far. November 03, 2021 November 4, 2021 . 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. 34465541-95D0-45B0-BEEB-B9E0361A315A But most notably, his initial timeline of events didnt match what was known about the crimes, and every time he offered a detail that diverged from the accepted chronology, the interrogating officers seemed to steer him back in the direction of the official version. 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. The next to be found was Stevie Branch, quickly followed by Christopher Byers.
Terry Hobbs Biography, Age, Height, Wife, Net Worth, Family Here were these guysat best they were neutral. There are no events scheduled. Sheila Nevins, the HBO exec who pushed for Berlinger and Sinofsky to make that initial trip to Arkansas, is most proud of the companys willingness to let her finance three documentaries over 18 years without knowing where they would go. This is a story of justice delayed and justice denied. Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of eight-year-old victim Stevie Branch, has been named in documents released in Marian, Arkansas by the attorneys for Pam Hobbs, Stevie's mother.
Attorneys present four suspects allegedly involved in the WM3 murders When it didnt, the praise heaped on Paradise Lost felt hollow. Theres no smoking gun. "I knew from when I was real small that people were going to know who I was," Echols said in 1994. What a story it is. As the 20th century turned to the 21st, the movement seemed to be picking up steam.
Terry Hobbs - IMDb He responded proudly, 11.. 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. He had always maintained he didnt commit the crimes, and outside the Varner Units walls, a growing chorus of activists and legal observers were arguing that same thing on his behalf. 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.
New access to evidence thought destroyed in 1993 'West Memphis Three case Minutes later, Sgt. On the evening of May 5, 1993, three 8-year-old boys disappeared from the streets of West Memphis, Ark. Hobbs said, I still believe in my heart that Jessie, Jason, and Damion, 'Feels Like Home:' electrical failure from a light fixture caused December fire that killed 1, Shelby County reporting an increase in drug-related overdoses, largely due to fentanyl, Severe weather threat is over | Prepare for a sunny weekend, Daylight saving time starts soon.