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. 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. What has never been definitively answered, however, is who committed the 1993 murders, and The Forgotten West Memphis Three, premiering Saturday, March 28 at 8/7c on Oxygen, reexamines the case and key theories. He was handed the phone. Misskelley initially told police that the killings happened during the day; knowing that they actually occurred some time after dusk, the officers corrected him, helping him retrofit his story to the cases few known facts. Bakken immediately showed her friends Burk Sauls and Grove Pashley, who were both equally gripped by what they had just watched. 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. 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 first being that boys were killed by someone they knew. Well, perhaps not nobody. 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. (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.) Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of Branch who was under suspicion but never charged, said he welcomes new DNA testing. 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. Make a life-giving gesture They didnt even think he would physically survive through December, Baldwin says. There are no events scheduled. Terry Wayne Hobbs was born on May 21st, 1958. Terry Hobbs, Actor: Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers. As rumors of a Satanic sacrifice swept the community, the minds of many in West Memphis were already made up. In 1994, Dr. Dale W. Griffis was a retired police officer who had embarked on a second career as a self-styled consultant on occult and cult-related crime. Blood and urine samples from both men were collected and sent to the West Memphis Police Department. That didn't make sense to me. - The West Memphis 3: Free (2012) . 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 pair abruptly fled to Oceanside, Calif., four days after the murders. Echols is correct. every single person in my class was either . He said Boxful of Nightmares is his memoirs unedited. " (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. According to Devil's Knot author Mara Leveritt, the investigation of the murders was divided along three lines. 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. It was so emotionally taxing to watch and go through it again, he says. On 04/08/2021 Terry Hobbs was filed as a Bankruptcy - Chapter 13 lawsuit. 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. To learn more or opt-out, read our Cookie Policy. 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 deeply admire that and I thought it was worthy of putting on film.. 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. Hobbs denied seeing the boys that night and questioned why eyewitness evidence surfaced 16 years later. 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. Iwould journal something and put it in the box, said Hobbs. Rather, they were fighting for something they believed in. 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? Share Memories & Support the Family. However, in 2010, a series of rapidly unfolding developments turned the tide for Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley. Bray asked her if she knew about rumored cult activity in the community. 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. 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? It's affected a lot of lives, but for some reason it keeps being brought up," said Hobbs. 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. Terry Hobbs USAF Ret. June 29 Terry Hobbs, 34, 1718 Spyglass Lane, Mishawaka, booked on a warrant from Elkhart County. We were finally winning, he says. Spotting a small, black tennis shoe in the water, Jones radioed for help. 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. The three teens were arrested after Misskelley said they committed the crime after 12 hours of interrogation. of Auburndale, FL passed away Monday, August 16, 2021. As the 20th century turned to the 21st, the movement seemed to be picking up steam. Terry Roland Hobbs, 62, of Sweetwater, passed away on Saturday, September 11, 2021. The second postulated that they had been slain by one or more strangers. Now, evidence from the case of the West Memphis Three is either missing or destroyed. It was a call about Damien Echolshe wasnt dead, but his wife, Lorri Davis, feared he might be soon. Beyond the black-and-white print of the newspaper, there was a movement brewing. Baldwins attorneys even avoided putting him on the witness stand or mounting much of a defense, believing the burden was on the state. And the seemingly endless stream of threats against them and the frequent clashes with Mark Byers did nothing to dissuade them. Its gone from a controversial legal theory to an accepted phenomenon. I couldnt not watch it at this point. 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. 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. That the slain boys were each 8 years-old was important because eight was a "witch's number." Im seeing the things I experienced, but not through my own point of view. During Misskelley's trial, Hutcheson testified that she had attended an "an occult Satanic meeting" she referred to as an "esbat." Other details that have come to light include that many wounds on the slain children, originally attributed to human bites and/or a serrated blade, were the result of animals feeding on the bodies. He died on April 4, 2019 in Panama City Beach, Florida, USA. They procured the domain WM3.org and made a website, updating it with whatever information they could track down. And that makes him hopeful that exoneration is on the horizon. Update: I was totally wrong. Case Number : 2:21-BK-21177. Terry Hobbs was born in 1958 and grew up in Northern Arkansas. He is from USA. All of those factors combined to create a tipping point, says Leveritt. 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. It hurt all over again, he said. Griffis also found the devil in nearly every number associated with the crime. View Source Suggest Edits Memorial Photos Flowers Created by: Legend Added: 11 Aug 2021 Find a Grave Memorial ID: 230642037 For Rollins, it was a moral imperative: Id find myself up at 3:30 a.m. thinking about Damien. Years of solitary confinement and the abuse he said he suffered at the hands of prison guards had taken its toll. 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. Inevitably, the West Memphis Three case always comes up. 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? This case was filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Courts, Tennessee Western Bankruptcy. On the evening of May 5, 1993, three 8-year-old boys disappeared from the streets of West Memphis, Ark. All of them were convicted after Misskelley confessed to helping Echols and Baldwin with the murders, which he later recanted. Berlinger also concedes Revelations had some ethical problems, chiefly because it raised the possibility that Mark Byers committed the killings. 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. While Berlinger says that the work of people like Bakken and Sauls was more impressive than that of any celebrity, its undeniable that the famous and influential brought a megaphone and funding mechanism to this case that most never get. 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. Share Memories & Support the Family. It was clear that Paradise Lost was resonating. 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. 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. 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. Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of West Memphis Three murder victim Stevie Branch, has denied any involvement in slayings of Branch and his two friends. Even today, years after his name was cleared and authorities ruled Lams death accidental, Morbid still receives threats. 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? 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. Baldwin is the co-founder of the legal advocacy organization Proclaim Justice. 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. 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. 2012 West of Memphis (Documentary) Self - Steven Branch's Stepfather. (Maines briefly became a part of the story when Terry Hobbs, stepfather of another . Jason Baldwin had no idea what was happening when a fellow inmate at the supermax prison in Varner, Arkansas, woke him up early one morning in 1997. Get an all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! 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. Hobbs described what it was like the day the three walked free. Baldwin, who had been coached by his lawyers to avoid speaking to the press, says money was the only reason he agreed to the added pressure of appearing in the documentary, especially when everyone else in a position of authority seemed adversarial toward him. 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. Timeline Of The West Memphis Three Victims, Motivations For Investigating The West Memphis Case. They were releasedfrom prison in 2011 on whats called an Alford plea, after new forensic evidence was presented as part of the case. Its no surprise the juries found the prosecutions narrative compelling, Leveritt says: For them, the image of killer satanists headbanging to Metallica was more than plausible. On August 19, 2011, all three accepted the deal and were immediately released from prison. Berlinger and Sinofsky began to take notice. Quickly, however, he realized Berlinger and Sinofsky were taking a different approach. Not everyone believes that the West Memphis Three are innocent of the killings of Michael Moore, Stevie Branch, and Christopher Byers. In November, Judge David Burnett, who had presided over the trial, was elected to the state senate. 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. As part of the deal, they cannot file wrongful-conviction lawsuits, which both Berlinger and Baldwin say couldve cost the state tens of millions of dollars. I'm not stupid." 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. Jessie took a polygraph. Mike Allen arrived on the scene. WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. 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. And yet Hobbs was not interviewed at all in the months after the crimes. Here's when clocks will 'spring forward' in 2023. Terry Hobbs is absolutely terrible. Even without a smoking gun, the circumstantial evidence was enough for a conviction in a place like Crittenden County, Arkansas. By staying on this subject for the next couple of decades, they gave these men a chance and really decades of freedom afterward. February 27, 2023 (82 years old) View obituary. Stating that she would ask around, Hutcheson agreed to "play detective.". Events. Well theres been a lot of things that happened over the years. Polygraph tests revealed deception in the answers of both men in regard to the crimes. At the request of West Memphis authorities, the two were picked up and questioned by Oceanside police. Terry Hobbs stated both family and co-workers believed he was guilty from day one and continued to believe him guilty after the trial and convictions of the West Memphis Three. But inside, he was just another prisonerBaldwin didnt know who he could trust. Baldwin, the youngest member of the trio that had come to be known as the West Memphis Three, was serving a life sentence after being convicted on charges connected to the 1993 killings of three 8-year-old boys. But they never had any physical evidence that connected us to this crime, Echols said in 2012. In her recantation, Hutcheson stated that when she asked Echols directly if he had killed "those three kids," he replied, "No. Filing Date : October 13, 2018 - Happy 94th Birthday Terry! 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? One of Kathy Bakkens earliest jobs in Los Angeles allowed her a certain kind of cultural currency: She designed movie posters for an entertainment-advertising company, which meant she got to see films months before they were released. . 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. 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 . Find the obituary of Terry Hobbs (1957 - 2021) from Caldwell, ID. I don't know if the other 2 did, but even if they did polygraphs aren't admissible in court. Searching obituaries is a great place to start your family tree research. Few celebrities at the time did as much as Henry Rollins, however. Terry was born on September 11, 1959 in Sweetwater, to Jack Harvey and Marjorie. 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. Case Details Parties . Initially, Misskelley repeatedly denied having knowledge of the crime, aside from rumors that Damien Echols was involved. In 2013, Jackson and Damien Echols produced a fourth documentary about the case. Misskelley returned to life in West Memphis. In West Memphis, Hobbs worked as an ice cream delivery man and Hicks worked at a restaurant. 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. One of the keys to understanding the West Memphis Three murders is the phenomenon known as the Satanic Panic. 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, I still believe in my heart that Jessie, Jason, and Damion Echols [sic] are responsible for what happened to our children, Hobbs told Memphis ABC affiliate. With the area secured, Detective Bryn Ridge volunteered to search the ditch. To date, no DNA evidence from the crime scene can be linked to Damien Echols, Baldwin, or Jessie Misskelley. That there were three victims was a link to the biblical number of the beast.
